tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59346031848933480122024-03-14T00:31:35.925+05:30BabupaediaSudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-84580941864286696802018-05-19T21:16:00.000+05:302018-05-19T21:16:18.213+05:30Judge Loya Case: Hit-wicket of a Judgment <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for supreme court" height="640" 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" 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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Supreme Court of India</td></tr>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At eight days remove
(April 11, 2018 and April 19, 2018) the Supreme Court of India handed out two
important judgments: <i>Asok Pande case</i>
and <i>Judge Loya’s case</i>. Coincidentally
(or ironically) it was the same CJI-led 3-judge bench that passed both the
judgments. More coincidentally (or more ironically) it was Justice D.Y.
Chandrachud who authored both the judgments. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white;">The Loya judgment runs
into 114 pages. Six pages (106-111) across six paragraphs (71-76) are devoted
to <b>Public Interest Litigation</b>
issues. Since many legal commentators have critiqued the judgment incisively.</span><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="background: white;">I’ll only focus on the 6 paras alluded above. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b>Paragraph 71</b> of the
judgment deals at length on Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and the Bench has
rightly observed <i>inter alia</i> that “<i>The
essential aspect of the procedure is that the person who moves the court has no
personal interest in the outcome of the proceedings apart from a general
standing as a citizen before the court. This ensures the objectivity of those
who pursue the grievance before the court...</i> public interest litigation has become a powerful instrument
to preserve the<b> <i>rule of law</i> </b>and to ensure the<b> <i>accountability</i> </b>of and<b> <i>transparency</i>
</b>within structures of governance.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">So far so good – nothing to quibble about
the well-known spirit and efficacy of PIL. Yet, read as a whole this seems mere
foregrounding – a preamble to the real thing.
<span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">F</span>rom <b>paragraph
72</b> one senses the purpose of foregrounding as the crescendo rises. “… it
[PIL] has been realised that this jurisdiction is <i>capable of being and has been brazenly mis-utilised by persons with a
personal agenda</i>… a <i>desire to seek
publicity</i>… instituted at the <i>behest
of business or political rivals to settle scores behind the facade of a public
interest litigation</i>. The true face of the litigant behind the façade is
seldom unraveled.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">P</span></b><b>aragraph 73</b> sees more of the same banality and the
rising crescendo. “The misuse of public interest litigation is a serious matter
of concern for the judicial process. <i>Both
this court and the High Courts are flooded with litigation and are burdened by
arrears…</i> It is a travesty of justice for the resources of the legal system
to be consumed by an avalanche of misdirected petitions purportedly filed in
the public interest which, upon due scrutiny, are found to promote a personal,
business or political agenda. <i>This has
spawned an industry of vested interests in litigation….</i> Worse still, such
petitions pose a grave danger to the credibility of the judicial process…. <i>There is a danger that the judicial process
will be reduced to a charade, if disputes beyond the ken of legal parameters
occupy the judicial space”</i>. <span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">T</span></b>he
same pontification from the pulpit continues in paragraph 74. “Repeatedly,
counsel for the petitioners and intervenors have attempted to inform the court
that they have no personal agenda and that they have instituted these
proceedings to protect judicial independence… But… it has become clear that the
petition is a veiled attempt to launch a frontal attack on the independence of
the judiciary and to dilute the credibility of judicial institutions. <i>Judicial review is a potent weapon to
preserve the rule of law. However, here we have been confronted with a spate of
scurrilous allegations. Absent any tittle of proof that they are conspirators
in a murder the court must stand by the statements of the judicial officers.</i>”
<span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">P</span></b>aragraph
75 goes ballistic – against the petitioners’ and the intervenors’ counsels. “We
must in this context record what we have heard during the course of the
submissions. Mr Dave has urged that <i>(i)
he wants to cross-examine the judges; and (ii) he does not believe the judicial
officers</i>. <i>Aspersions have been cast on
the Administrative Committee of the Bombay High Court.</i> This court has been
called upon to issue a notice of contempt to the judges on the Committee at the
relevant time. <i>Ms Jaising has joined the
fray by requesting that this court to issue contempt notices to the
Administrative Committee of the Bombay High Court</i>… <i>Even the judges of this Bench hearing the present proceedings, have not
been spared from this vituperative assault on the judiciary</i>.” <span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">P</span></b>aragraph
76 is Prashant Bhushan’s preserve: “Mr. Prashant Bhushan argued that because<b> </b>two of the judges constituting the
present Bench (Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud)<b> </b>were judges of the Bombay High Court,
they may have known the judicial officers who have submitted statements or
Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice SB Shukre. If this were to be the test, it is
rather ironical that the petitioners had instituted proceedings before the
Bombay High Court each of whose judges were expected to be faced with the same
situation. <i>We informed Mr Bhushan that a
decision as to whether a judge should hear a case is a matter of conscience for
the judge. There is absolutely no ground or basis to recuse. Judges of the High
Court hear intra court appeals against orders of their own colleagues.
References are made to larger Benches when there are differences of view.
Judges of the Supreme Court hear appeals arising from judgments rendered by
judges of the High Courts in which they served...</i> We emphatically clarify
that on the well-settled parameters which hold the field, there is no reason
for any member of the present Bench to recuse from the hearing. <i>While it is simple for a judge faced with
these kinds of wanton attacks to withdraw from a case, doing so would amount to
an abdication of duty. There are higher values which guide our conduct...</i> <i>Serious attacks have been made on the
credibility of two judges of the Bombay High Court.</i> <i>The conduct of the petitioners and the intervenors scandalises the
process of the court and prima facie constitutes criminal contempt. </i><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">One wonders if this is how anger finds
expression in judgments. If Prashant Bhusan made a reference about the
possibility of the two apex court judges knowing the judges of the Bombay High
Court and in Maharashtra, the right thing is to answer them in the courtroom
and bring it to a closure. You don’t rush matters to the Supreme Court when the
cause of action is in the High Court’s jurisdiction. That the petitioners
instituted “proceedings before the Bombay High Court each of whose judges were
expected to be faced with the same situation” is facetious, to say the least.
High Courts have no choice; Supreme Court has. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Same goes for Supreme Court judges
hearing appeals arising from judgments rendered by judges of the High Courts in
which they served – it’s tautological! Even a judge’s recusal. But underpinning
these are a few universal legal axioms: justice mustn’t only be done but seen
to be done; judges must be men of integrity and impartial, and be thought to be
so; and that judges must be like Caesar’s wife – above board. <span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Nor can one appreciate the judgment’s
sermonizing: <i>“While it is simple for a
judge faced with these kinds of wanton attacks to withdraw from a case, doing
so would amount to an abdication of duty. There are higher values which guide
our conduct”. </i>How is this abdication of duty? Duty at times entails
stepping down or aside to make way for someone else placed and viewed
differently to perform duty of that station that’s more universally beyond
misgivings: justice mustn’t only be done but seen to be done! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Equally, to aver “<i>There are higher values which guide our conduct”</i> sounds hollow when
stressed, more when not warranted. Higher values are higher callings, intrinsic
to one’s conscience and need no declamation; every declamation demeans and belittles
purity of higher values, thereby trivializing its sacredness and pulling it
down in ample notches. Judgments needn’t be assertions-on-wheels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Nor can one appreciate how “<i>Serious attacks have been made on the
credibility of two judges of the Bombay High Court”.</i> My fallible memory
rushes back to the <i>Indian Express</i>
report: what prompted the two judges to speak with the reporters? Was there
anything to reiterate and add, beyond what they had said in the <i>Discreet Inquiry</i> to be made public?
Judges, like any common man, are human too, embracing same attributes and
failings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">If this judgment endeavours to ring fence
the notion that judges don’t lie, even when and especially when not performing
judicial duties, let me narrate an incident of the late-1980s. One Justice
Ranganath Misra, then a Supreme Court judge and far higher in judicial perch
than the four judges in the case, had been invited to address a function where
he said (not the exact words, but something to this effect): <i>We don’t want women to grow up… from 4 feet
to 5 feet or more… Their place is in the kitchen!</i> The news when published
created a furore. When approached to issue an apology, Justice Misra denied to
have said so. Only when confronted with the tape did he issue an apology! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">That said, how credible is the judgment’s
assertion? “<i>The conduct of the
petitioners and the intervenors scandalises the process of the court and prima
facie constitutes criminal contempt”. </i>Are then judges’ words even outside
their judicial work and when acting as a common man to be taken as gospel truth
<i>because they do not and cannot lie</i>?
If a demand is made by the petitioners/intervenors and their counsels for them
to file affidavits, does it amount to scandalizing the process of the court and
prima facie constitute criminal contempt? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Not to forget that the case was
transferred out of Bombay High Court jurisdiction despite Dushyant Dave arguing
against it. This is puzzling – even contradicts the judgment itself that says
that the Supreme Court is flooded with PILs forcing accumulation of more arrears.
Yet the court devoted 9 sittings (Mondays and Fridays at 2 pm) to hear the case
and enormous time to peruse volumes of documents and write the judgment.
Several experts have commented on its legal merits, one even calling it the
“ADM Jabalpur” moment of modern-day Supreme Court – not a pretty commentary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Nor do the counsels’ action <i>“prima facie constitutes criminal contempt”.
<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Nor even that<i> “…</i> <i>we have chosen not to
initiate proceedings by way of criminal contempt if only not to give an
impression that the litigants and the lawyers appearing for them have been
subjected to an unequal battle with the authority of law”.</i> One senses this is
not so much a threat as debunking Prashant Bhusan; then equating fairness with
catholicity, and thereafter memorializing such surges of large-heartedness in
the judgment for future referencing. This is as unfair as it can get. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">The bristling vented in the judgment doesn’t
seem <i>only</i> this case’s making. It
seems a case of accumulated angst and past grievances held against them,
accentuated now with the spate of cases (Prasad Education Trust and its
reverberations in Master of Roster et al) that have told on the apex court’s functioning
in the last 6-8 months, which both Dushyant Dave and Prashant Bhusan have highlighted.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Interestingly, this isn’t the first time
that Prashant Bhusan has been threatened with contempt. Not too far back on
November 10, 2017 when pleading before the 5-judge bench on the Master of
Roster issue, the CJI had remarked that “You (Prashant Bhusan) are beneath
contempt” (sic). What it meant and what the underlying implication was is best
left for others to fathom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">While such threats are nowhere new, it
needs recalling that<span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -.05pt;"> when
Prashant Bhusan was charged for contempt in 2010 in the corruption case</span><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> of past Chief</span><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> Justices of India, his father, Shanti
Bhushan,</span><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> in an affidavit had said those
immortal lines that he</span><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> <em>“be added as a respondent to this contempt petition so that he is
also suitably punished for this contempt. The applicant would consider it a
great honour to spend time in jail for making an effort to get for the people
of India an honest and clean judiciary.”</em></span><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Neither was the
threat of contempt carried out nor the case of corruption in the highest rung
of judiciary been heard and adjudicated yet.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Issues of corruption continue to assail
the Supreme Court, only exacerbated in the last few months and these are the
ones that Dushyant Dave and Prashant Bhusan have tried to address. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Far from them scandalising and committing
contempt of the court, they have plumped for judicial transparency and
accountability. Fali Nariman once said that “the offence of scandalising the court is a mercurial
jurisdiction in which there are no rules and no constraints.” While the
Contempt of Courts Act, 1952 carries no definition of ‘contempt,’ a definition
was introduced in the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. Yet there is “no definition
of what constitutes scandalising the court, or what prejudices, or interferes
with, the course of justice”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">How off-centre we are from the English
contempt law from whom we inherited the idea! Fittingly, let the final word on
contempt of court go to Lord
Salmon and Lord Denning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b>Lord
Denning in <i>R vs. Commissioner of
Police</i> (1968):</b>
<i>“Let me say at once that we will never
use this jurisdiction as a means to uphold our own dignity. That must rest on
surer foundations. Nor will we use it to suppress those who speak against us.
We do not fear criticism, nor do we resent it. For there is something far more
important at stake. It is no less than freedom of speech itself…</i><i><span style="background: white;">We must rely on our conduct itself to be its own vindication.</span></i><i>”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b>Lord
Salmon in <i>AG vs. BBB</i> (1981):</b> <i>“The
description ‘Contempt of Court’ no doubt has a historical basis, but it is
nonetheless misleading. Its object is not to protect the dignity of the Courts
but to protect the administration of justice.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Given this background and given the judgment’s
tone and tenor, the inevitable question is: how fair is this judgment? One may even
add the issue of application of equal standards to all petitioners/counsels. If
Dave’s and Bhusan’s conduct was deplorable, was Rohatgi’s any less? How’s that
Rohatgi who interfered repeatedly as the opposite counsels made submissions, <span style="background: white;">there is no reference, not even a whisper, to such
execrable </span>behaviour in the judgment! Nor is there any mention of the
serious conflict of interest alleged by Dave against Rohatgi, Salve and
Sisodia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">More nagging thoughts assail the mind.
How can questioning the action [transferring one CBI special judge (J.T. Utpat)
and getting another (B.H. Loya)] of the Administrative Committee of the Bombay
High Court in violation of Supreme Court direction and asking the apex court to
issue a notice of contempt, scurrilous? Even the choice of words is telltale: <i>Ms Jaising has joined the fray </i>to issue
contempt notices to the Administrative Committee.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Suspicions
raised on facts and on preponderance of probabilities have been smothered </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">–</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">that it doesn’t warrant fresh independent investigation impugns native commonsense. It’s
a hit-wicket of a judgment! Wonder if some day the judiciary will regret this self-goal. Amen!</span></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-67906065357861027022018-04-16T13:54:00.000+05:302018-04-16T19:26:59.098+05:30An Indian Citizen’s Anguish: A Judgment That Wasn’t!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ch7N1kpuqmc/WtRcfIA2u2I/AAAAAAAAEHs/OOpMAPyBaRge_1VPYopboQA6bJjP98BVACLcBGAs/s1600/Supreme%2BCourt%2BPhotos%2B%25284%2529-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="214" data-original-width="750" height="91" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ch7N1kpuqmc/WtRcfIA2u2I/AAAAAAAAEHs/OOpMAPyBaRge_1VPYopboQA6bJjP98BVACLcBGAs/s320/Supreme%2BCourt%2BPhotos%2B%25284%2529-crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Several thoughts assail a citizen’s anguished mind in the
wake of the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Asok Pande</i> case. Yet it is entirely on expected line, only worse
compounded by poor philosophical foundation of its logic. One wonders if this
quick judgment delivered inside of two days is aimed at preempting and nullifying
Shanti Bhusan’s application that has raised some fundamental questions on legal
propriety, not to speak of moral and ethical issues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">There are moral and ethical issues in this case too. For
the CJI – whose acts of allocating cases had prompted the 4 senior most judges
of the apex court to go public with their anguish – to head this bench to hear
the matter rather than recuse himself is the most fundamental. <em><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“Nemo iudex in causa sua” –</span></em> no
person shall be a judge in his own cause, goes the well-known judicial
principle of natural justice. This proves the very erroneousness of the basic
foundation of arguments adduced in the judgment to dismiss the petition. The
logic is flawed because it is invalid. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">How much this streak of folly runs through the argument
is evidenced from the fact that the arguments lasted for less than five minutes,
and far from dismissing the petition “<em><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">in
limine”</span></em>, the judgment was reserved, and delivered without any notices
issued to respondents. Public perception of suspicion of events unfolding in
the apex court shall haunt us for all times: Was the pronouncement of the
judgment made in double-quick time (within two days, after a 5-minute hearing)
aimed at forestalling Shanti Bhusan’s petition’s outcome, which though
submitted around Pande’s petition, wasn’t registered or numbered or listed and
heard till April 13, 2018? Or, will this judgment become the newest threshold
to determine Shanti Bhusan’s petition’s outcome, much as the instant judgment
leans heavily on the Supreme Court’s hurriedly ordered constitution bench’s
judgment of November 10, 2017? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Beyond impugning the basic tenets of legal juridical
foundations on “natural justice” and “conflict of interest”, the judgment per
se also bristles with fundamental weaknesses on the scaffolding that makes
democracy the best available human construct yet: separation of power, checks
and balances, rule of law. The judgment deems entrustment and vesting of powers
on the CJI as axiomatic and beyond human doubting – and tempered and wrapped with
supreme, high-falutin divinity. To wit: “The authority which is conferred upon
the Chief Justice, it must be remembered, is vested in a high constitutional
functionary. The authority is entrusted to the Chief Justice because such an
entrustment of functions is necessary for the efficient transaction of the
administrative and judicial work of the Court”. Add the following lines – “In
the allocation of cases and the constitution of benches the Chief Justice has
an exclusive prerogative. As a repository of constitutional trust, the Chief
Justice is an institution in himself” and the egregiousness of axioms are
complete. The absolutism attributed to Louis XIV of France “I am the State” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(“L’Etat, cest moi”) </i>in the late-17th
and early-18th centuries could be apocryphal, but the “absolutism” conferred
here in the 21<sup>st</sup> century by the highest court of the land is for
real!</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The coup de gràce of the judgment’s rationale comes a
touch later though. “The entrustment of functions to the Chief Justice as the
head of the institution, is with the purpose of securing the position of the
Supreme Court as an independent safeguard for the preservation of personal
liberty.” Read the next two utterly presumptuous misjudgments: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“There cannot be a presumption of mistrust”</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The oath of office demands nothing
less.”</i> Were the same true, the Supreme Court itself wouldn’t have offered
the collegium system for appointment of judges to the higher courts of the land
rather than leaving it in the hands of the Chief Justice of India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Looked at in a broader canvas, if the same spirit of oath
of office had animated and held fast for all other holders of constitutional
offices, we would be living in a paradise with no need of any oversight
countervailing bodies!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Clearly divinity with its benediction is in full play
here. Their Lordships have invoked divine benediction and blessings to take the
failings off a normal possessive individualist man to the realm of the astral,
and to posit certain select humans from time to time to be blessed with this
transcendental sheen. It is just as well to remember that it’s this innate
inexorable human nature that prompted the early man to codify a social
contract, today best exemplified in the term “Rule of Law”. Reposing blind faith
on the CJI on administrative matters when the role itself is likely to set the
tone and pattern of the justice delivery system, especially in times of demand
for accountability and clamour for transparency, and when other state organs
and public functionaries (the Prime Minister not excepted) are rightfully
hauled over the coal in their public acts, betrays a poor philosophical understanding
of India’s socio-economic and political reality. It needs no reminding that the
words of Thomas Fuller, the 17th century English churchman and historian, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Be you ever so high, the law is above you”</i>
or any of its variants is apotheosized today and is on every citizen’s lips. Today
is like no other time, especially when the social media has gained traction
thanks to the internet highway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">I guess even a George Curzon would turn in his grave and
blanch at the inadequacies of his own egotistical presumptions: “I am George
Nathaniel Curzon, a very superior person”. Sadly, aside from its innate
weaknesses of the logic and the delusion of grandeur in investing divine
certitude and omnipotence on select juridical pantheon(s), the judgment fails
to take into account the nation’s prevalent mood, and the raging groundswell for
fairness and impartiality that has surged in every citizen’s heart, and the wired
world we live in. Neither does the order take into account the fact that it concerns
the highest court of the land with no court of appeal beyond it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Silhouetting the issue against a larger canvas, one anguishes
how much Justice Robert H. Jackson’s prescient words in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">United States vs Wunderlich</i> that men are more often bribed by their
loyalties and ambitions than by money ring true in India today. Intellectual
dishonesty is insidiously debilitating and way harder to guard against. <span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">One foresees greater disquiet and turmoil in the
foreseeable future in an India that already is in ferment. We look up to the
Supreme Court to uphold our rights and liberty by strict invocation of the rule
of law and constitutional values; it is far too revered an institution to be
trifled with. Its wellness shall determine the wellness of India's governance
architecture and India's democracy. Clearly, the matter is a battle of
accountability/transparency vs. inhered feudal arrogance/opacity, of
constitutional separation of power/checks and balances/intellectual
honesty/openness vs. conflation of power/nepotism/cloying cronyism, of the
status quo-ists/hidebound conservatives vs. neo-Indian foot soldiers/passionate
proponents of existential realism. The dialectics inevitably, even inexorably,
shall play out with equal vehemence on both sides of the divide for quite
awhile in this battle of attrition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Plurality, equality, fairness, time-tested conventions,
judicial morality, transparency, rule of law are all germane to any modern
democracy in a world corralled by internet highway. If these traits are absent
or vitiated, it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shall</i> strike at the
very root and diminish democracy. Much as opacity must make way for
transparency, feudal hidebound Indian hierarchical order must give way to
logic, nous, and smarts. Sadly, this hurriedly crafted judgment delivered from
the pulpit of justice is far from ennobling and edifying – not for the present,
doubtless not for the future too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-44037343094203102812017-11-26T13:29:00.001+05:302017-11-26T13:29:52.978+05:30Tiger Reserves And Core Area Inviolability<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" class="attachment-colormag-featured-image size-colormag-featured-image wp-post-image" data-attachment-id="13132" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty</p>
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<em style="border: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This article is the final part of the <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/tiger-reserves/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Tiger Series</a> and is an exclusive extract from the author’s forthcoming memoir, </strong></em><strong style="border: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Environment Through Finance Eyes</strong><strong style="border: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">← Continued from Part-VI</a></em>]</strong></div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="wpsdc-drop-cap" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 5em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0.4em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.25em 0.05em 0.25em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I</span>n a visit to the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) in November 2014, my views on the dire need to rid the core area of human habitation was further fortified. Periyar is an entirely different reserve unlike most others, and quite similar to Sunderbans. Tigers are hard to sight. The tourists are taken around in motor boats in the two important rivers, namely Periyar and Mulla, which pass through this reserve and also form a lake – more aptly a big reservoir – caused by the Mulla-Periyar dam constructed in 1895. Travel by road in the core area is not open to the visiting public. It is a fairly large tiger reserve spread across 925 sq km with a core area of 881 sq km (95 percent) and a buffer area of 44 sq km (5 percent). The tiger reserve is full with tropical rainforests, tropical evergreen forests and moist deciduous forests.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13133" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 2650px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" class="size-full wp-image-13133" data-attachment-id="13133" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1485013225","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"100","iso":"250","shutter_speed":"0.0015625","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?fit=2650%2C1767&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/img_0211/" height="502" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?resize=800%2C533&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?w=2650&ssl=1 2650w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0211.jpg?w=2400&ssl=1 2400w" style="display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The famous <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sabarimala</em> shrine is located in one part of the tiger reserve. This has been declared as buffer zone. Pilgrims – more than twenty million in number – visit the shrine in a short span of two months every year. While the entire tiger reserve is dominated by rainforest and is protected, an area of approximately 209 hectares called <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pachakanam Estate</em> (also called <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Downton Estate</em>) is held as a private property situated in the core and critical habitat – which apart from tigers, is also home to many other wild animals like elephants, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">gaur</em>, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sambar</em>, barking deer, wild boar, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nilgiri langur</em>, lion-tailed macaque, wild dog, leopard etc. – of this tiger reserve. The area, originally an excellent patch of rainforests, has been converted into cardamom plantation. The estate is bordered by critical tiger habitat on all sides. Apart from cardamom cultivation, the area has also being converted and put to other land use. The estate management engages more than 600 local laborers. The transportation of these laborers through the 12 km stretch of roads constructed in the tiger habitat has caused severe biotic pressure and vehicular pollution. As we drove in closer to the perimeter of the Pachakanam Estate and alighted, we saw through the wired fences the hideous permanent structures in the core area of the Reserves. This seemed outrageous in the core area and completely unacceptable to a lay man, let alone the conservationists. About 100 laborers reside inside the estate in these permanent homes and at times engaged in illegal activities. Only a few years ago, five laborers were arrested for possessing illegal <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sambar</em> meat.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13134" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 2650px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/" style="border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" class="size-full wp-image-13134" data-attachment-id="13134" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1494091815","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.0015625","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?fit=2650%2C1767&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/img_0210/" height="502" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?resize=800%2C533&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?w=2650&ssl=1 2650w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0210.jpg?w=2400&ssl=1 2400w" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><h6 style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Also Read Part-I: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/" style="background-color: #fff200; border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">e-Eye Of The Tiger</a></strong></h6>
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The Periyar Tiger Reserve over the last few years had discussed the issue of transfer and acquisition of this estate from the private management by the Government. The estates management too was willing to sell the property. Though included in the annual plan of operations the past few years, it hadn’t been possible for the National Tiger Conservation Authority to mobilise funds for acquisition due to budgetary constraints under the Project Tiger’s ongoing centrally-sponsored scheme. Over time, the amount for monetary compensation had grown and in end-2014 stood at around Rs 60 crore.</div>
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“Why can’t we pay and make the area inviolate?” I asked SP. By now I was fairly aware of the imperatives of core-buffer implications. He explained the fund constraints, the lack of holistic appreciation of eco-system services that a tiger reserve offers and overall apathy to environmental concerns. In my tour report, I said that since the critical core area of tiger reserve – the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">go/no-go forest bounds</em> – had been severely affected due to human intervention as also associated problems like use of fertilisers and pesticides that run off downstream affecting the pristine ecosystem, there was an acute need to acquire the property at the earliest to make the core tiger reserve area completely inviolate.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13135" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 2650px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/22/tess-conveys-project-tiger-activities-more-aptly-than-pt/" style="border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" class="size-full wp-image-13135" data-attachment-id="13135" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1493282745","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"135","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0002","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?fit=2650%2C1767&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/img_0213/" height="502" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?resize=800%2C533&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?w=2650&ssl=1 2650w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0213.jpg?w=2400&ssl=1 2400w" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><h6 style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Also Read Part-II: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/22/tess-conveys-project-tiger-activities-more-aptly-than-pt/" style="background-color: #fff200; border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="TESS Conveys Project Tiger Activities More Aptly Than PT">TESS Conveys Project Tiger Activities More Aptly Than PT</a></strong></h6>
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I decided to plead during my discussions for the revised estimates for 2014-15 fiscal year with Ratan Watal, then Secretary (Expenditure) in the Ministry of Finance, now Principal Adviser, Niti Aayog and member of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. “It’s called Pachakanam or Downton Estate,” I said, by way of introduction. “The owners had opted to move out of the core area on payment of compensation for the land. All documents had been readied. The issue has been – still is – the funds, which over the years, had grown from a paltry few crores to sixty crore rupees now.” I made a strong pitch for the additional sum. The memory of my interactions with the field managers led by the energetic and enthusiastic John Mathew as we drove over to the patch of land where cardamom cultivation was carried out by a family engaged in business employing about six hundred workers, that had ravaged the core area came rushing back to my mind. “I’d request an additional 60 crore rupees be given to us for Periyar Tiger Reserve to make it completely inviolate,” I said, and explained why.</div>
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Watal and his team of officers heard me patiently, appreciating the need, though a few eyes rolled disappointedly at me for my senseless perseverance and pertinacity in the wake of clear government directives. True, the Ministry of Finance, hamstrung by the new government’s emphasis on increased devolution of funds to States, hadn’t had enough leeway to agree to my request. The focus was on slashing funds to reduce fiscal deficit, not how such acts would impact ongoing activities directly or in its rippling effects in months and years to come. Being myopic and purblind helps governance – the reason why I am not so sanguine about the formulaic sustainable development model bandied about incessantly. I feel underwhelmed.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13137" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 2650px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/" style="border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" class="size-full wp-image-13137" data-attachment-id="13137" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1493282682","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.00015625","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?fit=2650%2C1767&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/img_0209/" height="502" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?resize=800%2C533&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?w=2650&ssl=1 2650w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0209.jpg?w=2400&ssl=1 2400w" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><h6 style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Also Read Part-III: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/" style="background-color: #fff200; border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tigers’ Wellness Is Our Wellness Too</a></strong></h6>
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Oddly enough, tiger safari is a clear possibility in Periyar, which receives about 7-8 lakh visitors round the year, including thousands of foreign tourists. Given its landscape, the tourists are allowed to visit the Tiger Reserve only on boats. With limits placed on numbers, many tourists frustrate upon denied entry. One possible way out of this ecotourism conundrum is the making of a tiger safari in the buffer area – just a kilometre off the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kumily</em> town. The rewilded tigers (orphaned infant cubs, injured tigers, trained and rewilded to cope with the demands of wild living) as well as aging tigers that are often sent to the zoos could be relocated in the suggested safari much like the planned tiger safari in Kanha Tiger Reserve. Given human passion and thrill to sight tigers in the wild, this would also take the pressure off boat rides inside the Tiger Reserve. Also, given the craze for sighting tigers in the wild, the internal rate of return on the amount invested will be very high, and the investment can be recovered easily in 2-3 years’ time. It would also provide employment to the local population in ecotourism, where focus on eco-conservation could be the essence – to highlight through innovative and feasible modules such as solar-panel atop jeeps and buses to ferry tourists in this unique safari. It is entirely possible that this can work out as a win-win model for all stakeholders including frustrated tourists denied entry on account of carrying capacity limitation while simultaneously appealing to the tourists’ sense of thrill for sighting tigers in the wild.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13139" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 4000px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve (Image: SP Yadav)" class="size-full wp-image-13139" data-attachment-id="13139" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve (Image: SP Yadav)</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.4","credit":"","camera":"HDR-XR550E","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1307817134","copyright":"","focal_length":"38","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve (Image: SP Yadav)" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4000,3000" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/dsc00401/" height="564" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?w=4000&ssl=1 4000w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00401.jpg?w=2400&ssl=1 2400w" style="display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve (Image: SP Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
I can’t but wax eloquent on the beauty, quietude, and serenity of Periyar, especially the two spots I visited on boat: <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thanikudy</em> and <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mullakudy</em>. In my thanksgiving email to John Mathew, the passionate Assistant Director of Periyar Tiger Reserve, I wrote:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“First up I must say that your email ID is so representative of your surrounds and the (wild) environment you work in that vividly captures, more than in one way, the pristine world of Periyar Tiger Reserve. I write to thank you for being with us all the while we’re there and showing us around the good work PTR has done. I only hope you don’t forget the few ideas I gave you: recording the gurgling music of Periyar at Thanikudy as the river bounces along on its pathway and strikes a magical tune punctuated with the birds’ myriad notes that are so mellifluous to the human ears. I can well imagine how dulcet the river’s and the nature’s notes will be in the serenity of the night when the nocturnal forest creatures would be only adding to the charm of the pitter-patter of the cascading river! As I said, the effect would be soporific to the unquiet and disquiet urban minds and should put them to sleep [call it sleeping music (Sleepsic), if you will!], apart from being a lullaby to lull the babies to sleep (Lullasic!). Record all 24 hours, chip-chop it to the best notes in a CD of 2-3 hours. It should work. The other thing: capturing the forest by night and wrapping the film on a CFL bulb would be creating/dispersing a forest ecosystem on the bedroom walls as a night light. It’ll be infinitely more apt than any night light I have seen and experienced.”</em></div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13140" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 2650px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" class="size-full wp-image-13140" data-attachment-id="13140" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"4.5","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1495820042","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"640","shutter_speed":"0.002","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?fit=2650%2C1767&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/img_0202/" height="502" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?resize=800%2C533&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?w=2650&ssl=1 2650w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_0202.jpg?w=2400&ssl=1 2400w" style="display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><h6 style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Also Read Part-IV: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/05/environment-development-conservation-tiger-india-sudhansu-mohanty/" style="background-color: #fff200; border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Environment vs. Development: Who Wins?</a></strong></h6>
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When I went next to Periyar on a private visit, a year later in end-December 2015, it hadn’t been done yet. Amid our animated chatter and bonhomie, I nudged John reminding him of our past discussions and how <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">tiger-men</em> need to leverage every idea coming their way to spread environmental awareness among common people.</div>
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Before I sign off, a word on the much talked about radio-collars aimed at studying tiger behaviour in the wild. We had travelled to Kanha to change the battery of the radio-collar of a particular tiger. We followed the tiger sedulously but it kept eluding us. We saw it a couple of times on the jungle path but it walked away nonchalantly, and finally climbed up the hilly terrain and went out of our vision. We couldn’t dart to sedate it; we weren’t close enough for that. It’s the first of the requirements; it affords time and opportunity to either change the battery of the earlier radio-collar or put a new collar around its neck. The evening before, I had seen radio-collars for the first time. They are rather bulky, weighing around 2.8 kg. It’s been hard finding a smarter one with transmitters and GPS. Though a well-grown adult tiger’s body weight ranges between 180-215 kg, in an anthropocentric sense any artificial appendage is likely to cause initial uneasiness, much like we feel wearing a ring the first time around. But animals, wild and domestic, adapt themselves to such <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">accoutrements</em>. There is no scientific study yet confirming radio-collars have disturbed the courtship or other behavioral patterns of a tiger, as classically evidenced in <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Panna</em> tigers, where the reintroduced tigers were “collared” to facilitate monitoring. They are doing just fine like any others.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13136" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 960px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sudhansu Mohanty Prayag Mohanty Tiger Collar" class="size-full wp-image-13136" data-attachment-id="13136" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sudhansu Mohanty Prayag Mohanty Tiger Collar" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PrayagMohantyTigerCollar.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PrayagMohantyTigerCollar.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PrayagMohantyTigerCollar.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1" data-orig-size="960,720" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/prayagmohantytigercollar/" height="564" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PrayagMohantyTigerCollar.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PrayagMohantyTigerCollar.jpg?w=960&ssl=1 960w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PrayagMohantyTigerCollar.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PrayagMohantyTigerCollar.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w" style="display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger with radio-collar (Image: Prayag Mohanty)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><h6 style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Also Read Part-V: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/12/oxymoron-called-rewilding-tigers-sudhansu-mohanty/" style="background-color: #fff200; border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="The Oxymoron Called “Rewilding Tigers”">The Oxymoron Called “Rewilding Tigers”</a></strong></h6>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Postscript: </strong></em>On promotion, I moved over from the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Though not new to the MoD and its ways, for some strange inscrutable reason, the contrast was startling. I felt it inchmeal. As I pored over files and engaged in discussions with various stakeholders, my mind was forever ticking – my declarative and episodic memories quickly going on an overdrive. <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It was the financial outlay, stupid!</em> I told myself finally – upwards of 200 times than the ones I’d gotten used to the past few years. <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Defence sector vs. Social sector!</em> Here in the MoD with a whopping budget of three lakh forty-odd thousand crore rupees and ballooning year after year, sixty crore rupees was chicken feed. Such proposals didn’t even reach me, my joint secretaries were competent to concur in the proposals, while months before I was cadging – and failing, to get a move on. My mind, spaced-out, wasn’t quite prepared to accept the reality, refusing to take leave of our skewed developmental puzzlement. But such is the deigning today on social and environmental issues.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_13142" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 2296px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" class="size-full wp-image-13142" data-attachment-id="13142" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1492245974","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Tiger In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sourabh Bharti, Sudhansu Mohanty" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?fit=2296%2C1291&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2296,1291" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/26/tiger-reserves-core-area-inviolability-sudhansu-mohanty/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark/" height="423" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?w=2296&ssl=1 2296w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w" style="display: block; height: auto; margin: 9.20313px auto 0px; max-width: 98%; vertical-align: top;" width="753" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0.8075rem 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tiger in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 242, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Not to speak of depredations heaped on Mother Earth for sake of development. The Madhav Gadgil Committee prescriptions to declare 64 percent of the Western Ghats – the hotspots of mega-biodiversity – as an Ecologically Sensitive Area had been whittled down to a mere 37 percent by the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kasturirangan</em> Committee came floating back to my mind. How the polemics over the recommendations of the two Committee’s Reports had cleaved the environmental community? The hardcore conservationists battling the development-oriented realpolitik! Now, as hurricanes – Irma, Jose, Maria et al – pound the Caribbean and southern US with breathless regularity and wildfires engulf Napa valley in California, my small mind unbeknownst to me, creeps back naively to innocent times when human beings lived in the state of nature – no matter how solitary and poor, even nasty and brutish they all were – but in harmony with Mother Nature they revered. And, how often have I not wondered if this isn’t the time for us to get back to the same reverence? The role that Tiger Reserves play isn’t inconsiderable on Planet Earth.</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from Indus Dictum)</i></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-6175103968582935352017-11-19T19:51:00.001+05:302017-11-19T19:51:57.403+05:30The National Tiger Conservation Authority’s Moment of Glory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The estimation indicated a 30 percent increase in the tiger population over the last census of 2010, with an estimate of 2,226 tigers</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12761" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 2650px;"><img alt="Tigers in Kanha Tiger Reserve" class="size-full wp-image-12761" data-attachment-id="12761" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tigers in Kanha Tiger Reserve</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tigers in Kanha Tiger Reserve" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?fit=2650%2C1767&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty/unnamed-1/" height="480" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?w=2650&ssl=1 2650w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a></em></strong></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">This article is an exclusive extract from the author’s forthcoming memoir, </strong></em><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Environment Through Finance Eyes</strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">.</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/12/oxymoron-called-rewilding-tigers-sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">← Continued from Part-V</a></em>]</strong></div>
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Today, tigers have indeed become a hugely conservation-dependent species. The major threats to tigers are: <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">poaching</em></strong> that is driven by an illegal international demand for tiger parts and products; <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">depletion of tiger prey</em></strong> caused by illegal bush meat consumption; and <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">habitat loss</em></strong> due to the ever increasing demand for forested lands. To gauge the success of conservation efforts as well as to have a finger on the pulse of tiger population and their ecosystems, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in collaboration with the State Forest Departments, National Conservation NGOs, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) conducts a National assessment for the <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Status of Tigers, Co-predators, Prey and their Habitat</em></strong> every four years.</div>
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The methodology used for this assessment was approved by the Tiger Task Force in 2005. The first assessment was done in 2006. It had estimated 1,411 tigers (lower and upper limits being 1,165 and 1,657) and the last country level estimation of 2010 had indicated a figure of 1706 (lower and upper limits being 1,520-1,909 tigers). However, the 2010 assessment also showed a decline in tiger occupied area. This decline in tiger occupancy was recorded in areas outside of tiger reserves, indicating loss of habitat quality and extent – a crucial element essential for maintaining genetic connectivity between individual tiger populations. To address this vital conservation concern, the NTCA in collaboration with the WII had delineated the minimal tiger habitat corridors connecting tiger reserves for implementing landscape scale tiger conservation. All tiger reserves began managing their tiger populations based on a tiger conservation plan (TCP), which addresses specific prescriptions for core, buffer, and corridor habitats.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12760" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 3840px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-12760 size-full" data-attachment-id="12760" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.4","credit":"","camera":"HDR-XR550E","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1395517616","copyright":"","focal_length":"38","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="DSC00344" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?fit=780%2C439&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?fit=3840%2C2160&ssl=1" data-orig-size="3840,2160" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty/dsc00344/" height="405" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?w=3840&ssl=1 3840w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00344.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve {Image: S. P. Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Also Read: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/tiger-reserves/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">The Full Tiger Series</a> by <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></strong></h4>
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The NTCA and Project Tiger’s moment of glory came in January 2015. The third round of country level tiger status assessment had been completed in 2014, and the team had put together its findings. Now the estimation indicated a 30 percent increase in the tiger population over the last census of 2010, with an estimate of <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">2,226</strong> – the lower and upper limits being 1,945 and 2,491 respectively. Looked another way, it suggested that India now was home to around 70% of tiger population amongst the 13 tiger-range countries in the world. India’s long history of conserving the species through Project Tiger had come of age. A thrilled Prakash Javadekar who released the estimation report and wrote out the number – <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">2,226</strong> – on the white board in front of a packed audience, went on to delightfully say that India now was also prepared to export tigers to any country of the world that was interested in conserving this flagship and charismatic animal in the wild!</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12763" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 4000px;"><img alt="Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve" class="size-full wp-image-12763" data-attachment-id="12763" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.4","credit":"","camera":"HDR-XR550E","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1395518083","copyright":"","focal_length":"38","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.04","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4000,3000" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty/dsc00373/" height="539" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?w=4000&ssl=1 4000w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00373.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve {Image: S. P. Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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Every success brings with it dollops of imaginary skepticism and gobs of jealousy from fellow practitioners or those who archly pretend to be one. The intent often is malicious and sinister to trash and fluff the study, and least to do with questioning data on scientific basis. It was hence no different even in the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">tiger-land</em>. Soon a nattering group of biologists questioned the reliability of India’s recently released tiger population estimation published in a journal from Oxford. I was surprised when I first heard about it. And I wondered: Was it a case of envy and neglect or lack of visibility or all of the above that seeded this and prompted them to question the assessment? I checked with people who were in the know of things. I wasn’t far off in my surmise. The issue went on for a few months. Eventually, it was the team of two outstanding scientists of the Wildlife Institute of India, Yadvendradev Jhala and Qamar Qureshi, who nailed the lies in an article in the April 2015 issue of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sanctuary Asia</em>. I can do no better than let the duo speak in their words and explain it best.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“The reliability of India’s recent tiger population estimation has been questioned by a paper published in a scientific journal by authors from Oxford.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Since 2005, a group of biologists led by Dr. Ullas Karanth have been critical of India’s tiger status assessments. The paper published by his student from Oxford is a reiteration and synthesis of these views. Essentially, the paper criticises the very basis of sound ecological relationships using theoretical statistical models that are based on reducing the quantum of sign intensity of tigers to mere presence or absence. The paper and subsequent press releases consider the use of double sampling in estimating tiger numbers as flawed. The paper further states that the logic of presuming that there should be more tigers in areas where we find more tiger signs is not reliable, though we have demonstrated such relationships with data repeatedly.”</em></div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12764" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 4608px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-12764 size-full" data-attachment-id="12764" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"","camera":"COOLPIX P600","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1455789575","copyright":"","focal_length":"98.5","iso":"280","shutter_speed":"0.004","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="DSCN1000" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?fit=4608%2C3456&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4608,3456" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty/dscn1000/" height="539" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?w=4608&ssl=1 4608w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1000.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Deer in Kanha Tiger Reserve {Image: S. P. Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Also Read Part-I: </strong><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">e-Eye Of The Tiger </a></h4>
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Then they explain step by step, how the tiger estimation is carried out across the country; the scientific and the pragmatic rationale and the processes involved; the other option of camera trapping all areas for greater accuracy that’s financially costly and in pockets of low tiger numbers even unreliable, compared to the present scat-based DNA analysis.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“We first establish relationships of tiger abundance with tiger habitat extent and quality, prey abundance, human pressures and intensity of tiger signs from areas where we have very reliable information on tiger density through camera traps. We subsequently use this relationship to predict tiger abundance in areas where camera traps cannot be deployed, but are known to have tigers. The Oxford paper in the Journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution and press releases offer few alternatives to our approach at estimating tiger abundance at the landscape scale. The paper talks about using joint distribution modelling of covariates, without realising that this approach too is a form of double sampling – the same principle used by us and ingrained in ecological and statistical theory. Often ‘occupancy analysis’ is considered as an alternative to population estimation.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Occupancy provides estimates of where tigers are found, or more importantly, are likely to be found. We estimate tiger occupancy as a probability of a forest patch to harbour tigers. But occupancy does not tell us anything about how many tigers there are – just that tigers are likely present. Clearly, occupancy is not a solution to estimating tiger numbers.</em></div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12766" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 3840px;"><img alt="Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve {Image: S. P. Yadav)" class="size-full wp-image-12766" data-attachment-id="12766" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve {Image: S. P. Yadav)</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.4","credit":"","camera":"HDR-XR550E","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1397074083","copyright":"","focal_length":"38","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve {Image: S. P. Yadav)" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?fit=780%2C439&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?fit=3840%2C2160&ssl=1" data-orig-size="3840,2160" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty/dsc00523/" height="405" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?w=3840&ssl=1 3840w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00523.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve {Image: S. P. Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Also Read Part-III: </strong><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">Tigers’ Wellness Is Our Wellness Too</a></h4>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">All this understandably ends up confusing the public and even decision-makers. Differences of opinion are essential and can be positive to conservation. But as we see it, the only theoretical alternative that might serve the purpose even better than what we have been able to achieve for the latest tiger status assessment would be to camera trap all areas where tigers occur. This would unquestionably provide a more precise estimate, but the resources required would be too large, and in some areas that have very low tiger numbers, camera trapping itself would prove to be an unreliable data gathering tool, when compared, for instance, to scat-based DNA analysis. There is the additional problem of stolen cameras (and consequent data loss) that virtually every field biologist has come to terms with when working in human-dominated areas.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The bottom line, in our view, is that this approach may be ideal, but it is impractical. Until scientists are able to camera trap all tiger occupied areas, we cannot currently see a better option to our approach, which uses the best available science and technology to provide reliable estimates of tiger numbers in India. It should be noted that 77 percent of our estimated mid-point of 2,226 tigers came from camera trap data (1,570 individual tigers photo-captured). The remaining 23 per cent were estimated from faecal DNA, plus models based on sound ecological relationships. The actual number of tigers in India are anywhere between 1,945 and 2,491, signifying a major conservation success story.”</em></div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12765" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 2650px;"><img alt="Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve" class="size-full wp-image-12765" data-attachment-id="12765" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger in Kanha Tiger Reserve</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="ATTACHMENT DETAILS unnamed-1.jpg November 19, 2017 855 KB 2650 × 1767 Edit Image Delete Permanently URL https://indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-1.jpg" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?fit=780%2C439&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?fit=2650%2C1490&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1490" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty/unnamed-2/" height="405" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?w=2650&ssl=1 2650w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-2.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Tiger in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Also Read Part-IV: </strong><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/05/environment-development-conservation-tiger-india-sudhansu-mohanty/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">Environment vs. Development: Who Wins?</a></h4>
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Succinctly put, Jhala and Qureshi stopped short of calling it a glaring instance of intellectual dishonesty, but to the discerning it was nothing but just that. I’m fairly confident that the duo will soon enough irrevocably nail the lies peddled in a scientific journal to discredit the national tiger survey results as inaccurate and muddling the readers mind. I guess tigers in the wild not only evoke lots of thrill but also oodles of jealousy and heartburns for the also-rans, and consequentially plenitude of shenanigans. I call these aberrations <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">the tiger politics in India</em> where, like any areas of high visibility, the two-legged creatures who fall by the wayside outshone by others on merit and hard yards put in, bristle in green envy and take periodic shambolic potshots at others who strictly follow the ethics of scientific methodology and NTCA’s protocol for tiger population estimation and tiger conservation management. And if I may add in a lighter vein, notwithstanding the fact that despite their leonine persona, the tigers exhibit “secular” values, and are “democratic” in their outlook and behaviour – something truly admirable in today’s fraught times of polarised outlook!</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">… to be concluded on Sunday, Nov 26th</em>]</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>(Reproduced from Indus Dictum, 19.11.2017)</i></strong></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-40633929537146054292017-11-19T19:48:00.000+05:302017-11-19T19:48:58.591+05:30The Oxymoron Called “Rewilding Tigers”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By the time I visited the Kanha Tiger Reserve the first time in May 2014, I had dug deep into important issues of conservation & natural regeneration.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12604" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 4608px;"><img alt="Tiger Conservation Environment SP Yadav watermark" class="size-full wp-image-12604" data-attachment-id="12604" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger Conservation Environment SP Yadav</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"","camera":"COOLPIX P600","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1450083174","copyright":"","focal_length":"179.2","iso":"110","shutter_speed":"0.004","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger Conservation Environment SP Yadav watermark 2" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?fit=4608%2C3456&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4608,3456" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/05/environment-development-conservation-tiger-india-sudhansu-mohanty/tiger-conservation-environment-sp-yadav-watermark-2/" height="539" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?w=4608&ssl=1 4608w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark-2.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: S. P. Yadav</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">This article is an exclusive extract from the author’s forthcoming memoir, </strong></em><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Environment Through Finance Eyes</strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">.</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/05/environment-development-conservation-tiger-india-sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">← Continued from Part-IV</a></em>]</strong></div>
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By the time I visited the Kanha Tiger Reserve the first time in May 2014, I had dug deep into important issues of conservation and natural regeneration – the need to let nature go about its own unique way and repair the damages wrought on it. My myriad discussions with Rajesh Gopal, Himmat Negi, and SP (the first two are former Field Directors of Kanha Tiger Reserve) in the Ministry, and with the many visiting Field Directors of TRs had helped allay my misgivings.</div>
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Village relocation was another abiding issue that just refused to go away. Simply put, it meant families staying in the core areas need to be relocated outside to make the Tiger Reserves inviolate. The natural regeneration of the vacated spots – despoiled by man – lets the area to slowly lurch forward, gathering pace as it went along, and in 3-4 years it’s restored to its unsullied, pristine form. I heard this from experts but didn’t believe them wholly, though I thought it would be impolite to say anything to the contrary. But my disbelief stayed. The compensation package of Rs 10 lakh for a family was attractive enough for these people otherwise denied the benefits of modernisation, to decide and move out. The amount needed was huge, the fund allocation rather small.</div>
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It was Jasbir Singh Chauhan, the Field Director of Kanha TR who put my doubts to rest. Jasbir is an ebullient forester, a no-nonsense man and full of beans. He knew not only Kanha’s terrain and topography and the roads winding up and down the meadows and ravines like the back of his palm, but also the numerous personnel who manned the vastly sprawled out reserve. Driving under the tall imperial <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">sal</em> forests climbing into high heavens, past the ubiquitous spotted deer, barking deer, sambar, four-horned deer, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">gaur</em>, swamp deer, and the hard ground <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">barasingha</em> on either side of the road, as we reached the spot and alighted from our Gypsy, my first impression was that of a restored and rejuvenated body taking baby steps in its path to recovery during a difficult period of convalescence.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12685" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 4000px;"><img alt="Deer in the Wild (Image: S. P. Yadav)" class="wp-image-12685 size-full" data-attachment-id="12685" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Deer in the wild</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.4","credit":"","camera":"HDR-XR550E","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1307765869","copyright":"","focal_length":"38","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.0046511627906977","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Deer in the wild" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4000,3000" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/12/oxymoron-called-rewilding-tigers-sudhansu-mohanty/dsc00328/" height="539" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?w=4000&ssl=1 4000w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i0.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00328.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Deer in the Wild (Image: S. P. Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12683" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 4000px;"><img alt="Environment and Wildlife Restoration (Image by S. P. Yadav)" class="size-full wp-image-12683" data-attachment-id="12683" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Environment and Wildlife Restoration (Image by S. P. Yadav)</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.4","credit":"","camera":"HDR-XR550E","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1307814876","copyright":"","focal_length":"13.3","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.0083333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Environment and Wildlife Restoration (Image by S. P. Yadav)" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4000,3000" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/12/oxymoron-called-rewilding-tigers-sudhansu-mohanty/dsc00350/" height="539" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?w=4000&ssl=1 4000w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00350.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Environment and Wildlife Restoration (Image: S. P. Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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It still looked a medley – a legacy of human habitation where the pure is made to turn impure and the good into bad – and contrasted sharply with the grasslands that lay just beyond in eye-catching distance. But a little deeper look and it promised to be getting there. That was gratifying. There was a mass of people who had congregated in anticipation of our visit, both forest officials as well as a few evacuees. I spoke to them seeking out an evacuee to know how life’s been in the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">civilization</em> and if he had settled in to a secure life. He beamed at me and said, “Yes, it’s been good!” Looking at the motorbike he rode in on, he narrated how it was his first buy from the compensation amount he had received, and how it now carries him to places he wishes to go. Someone standing close by chipped in, “He even hired a driver in the initial days since he didn’t know how to drive, and he rode pillion!” The evacuee smiled hugely, blithely acquiescing with the statement.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12682" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 4000px;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-12682" data-attachment-id="12682" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Environment and Wildlife Restoration</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"HDR-XR550E","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1307768783","copyright":"","focal_length":"5.1","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.04","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Environment and Wildlife Restoration" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4000,3000" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/12/oxymoron-called-rewilding-tigers-sudhansu-mohanty/dsc00341/" height="539" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?w=4000&ssl=1 4000w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSC00341.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Environment and Wildlife Restoration (Image: S. P. Yadav)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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Kanha Tiger Reserve follows the National Tiger Conservation Authority protocols and the standard operating procedures to the tee. They keep records of all relocated families, keeping tabs on them, helping the evacuees to resettle and start a new life in alien surrounds. My eyes swept right, then swept left, and then swept over the entire landscape that travelled yonder, and my mind drew a photomontage of how pathetic and sore the rolling landscape would’ve looked when humans inhabited the place and (mercilessly) pillaged for a better living! My reservations were getting weaker by the minute. But doubt still lingered and stayed quite the course. Only on the drive back, I discussed this issue with Jasbir wondering how nature’s self-limiting capacity, like the human body’s, too restores and returns the land to normalcy. So vitiated our modern vision has become with contamination and adulteration, that the virgin and the pristine and the pure seem beyond our seeking!</div>
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I sought this out as gratification for my eyes on my second visit to Kanha after the rains some seven months later, in December 2014. It looked restored, almost nearly so, and at peace with the surrounds. “Three good rains do the trick!” exclaimed Jasbir, a sense of pride and satisfaction suffusing his cherubic face. “After it’s restored, the land merges with the adjoining areas and forms one whole for our conservation programme – as grassland, or as experimental plots parceled out, depending on the need, or at times receiving fire treatment including cold fire, if so needed.” I was getting my tutorials on conservation in the wild, and shrinking my personal world of abject ignorance.</div>
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Tourist pressure in core area continues with Kanha. In a way, it’s natural. If you’ve a beautiful thing to offer why grudge others wishing to partake of the yummy pie! But there are limits on the number of tourists who can visit the reserve every day and the demand seems to be billowing. No conservationist would like tourists to flood the park and ravage it. I remember vividly one evening as we sat discussing the management action plan of Kanha TR, Jasbir Chauhan picking up his throbbing mobile. “I’m sorry there’s no vacant room,” he said. “Am sorry there isn”t any available for me to spare. Am sorry,” he said, an edge of anger suffusing his voice, and called off. It was a judge of some nearby High Court calling, with a request for a room, as a State guest. Jasbir was upfront and forthright.</div>
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“Why can’t they pay instead of freeloading?” I asked.</div>
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“They’re like that!” Chauhan snapped again at the imaginary Judge, now with greater vehemence. “They want to be treated as State Guests – always!” His voice was dispirited, though tinged with sarcasm, and his face was screwed up. His grimace said it all.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12352" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 2650px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-12352 size-full" data-attachment-id="12352" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1494182055","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"1250","shutter_speed":"0.003125","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="tiger 4 watermark" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/tiger-4-watermark.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/tiger-4-watermark.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/tiger-4-watermark.jpg?fit=2650%2C1767&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/tiger-4-watermark/" height="480" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/tiger-4-watermark.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a></em></strong></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem;">A compromise to keep the tourists’ desire and TR’s needs should help. I had often thought about it every time I stepped into a reserve, and had got no answer. Till the day when shortly after a late lunch, around three in the afternoon, Jasbir drove us to what they called the </span><strong style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Rewilding Centre</em>.</strong><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem;"> The moniker itself appeared an oxymoron: what kind of </span><em style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem;">rewilding</em><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem;"> there could be, and where’s the need for all that in the midst of wilderness, where wild animals anyway romped and frolicked freely to their heart’s content, and the carnivores gorged on the ungulates and preyed limitlessly to their heart’s content? It was hot and gummy, and I was tired and deadbeat after the long winding early morning round that had gone on well beyond noon. I was also feeling enervated and sleepy, and didn’t ask Jasbir to apprise me beforehand the activities they do at the Centre. It was only when we pulled over that he started telling me the things they do there.</span></div>
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“Many years ago, infighting or death of mother-tigresses in the Kanha TR gave rise to a piquant situation: rearing orphaned tiger cubs,” Jasbir explained. “They were too precious to be left to the vagaries of the wild when they were not <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">wild</em> enough to hunt! That’s when the idea of rearing and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">rewilding</em> the orphan cubs took roots. A specially designed <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">in-situ</em>enclosure typical of a tiger habitat with water body and large enough to mimic the natural wild was built here in the Mukki range. When small, these cubs were fed on milk, egg and meshed meat, even small live goats. Later, as they grew bigger they’re released into the enclosure to run and hunt ungulates let in this arena to gorge on natural prey base. This was a period of learning and training – <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">rewilding</em> – for them.”</div>
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Soon enough the success of the facility helped to innovate some more. “Now injured ones are picked up, apart from the orphaned tigers,” Jasbir continued, “for treatment and put here. Some are restored to normal health soon enough, but the seriously injured ones take considerable time to get fit and ready to live on their own off nature. They’ve to hunt and fend for themselves in the wild and it isn’t easy unless they’re normal and on a roll. Also, long periods of food served to them during recovery make them lose their natural ability to hunt. Hence the need to <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">rewild</em> them.”</div>
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This was something I’d never heard before. My mind drooping till then suddenly awoke with a thud. We enthusiastically climbed the tall steps to view the rewilding arena where little by little the tigers are put through their paces to help revive their natural instinct and gain confidence. I rolled the thoughts in my head: Rather than offering preys on a platter as during periods of convalescence and recovery, the preys are let into the enclosure where the tigers chase and hunt to have their fill; and once they – injured or infant – regained the skill to hunt, they’re let out in the wild. This was quite intriguing for my novitiate’s mind.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12681" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 2160px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-12681 size-full" data-attachment-id="12681" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger photo Sourabh bharti" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?fit=780%2C442&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?fit=300%2C170&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?fit=2160%2C1223&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2160,1223" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/12/oxymoron-called-rewilding-tigers-sudhansu-mohanty/tiger-photo-sourabh-bharti/" height="407" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?resize=780%2C442&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?w=2160&ssl=1 2160w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?resize=300%2C170&ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?resize=768%2C435&ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?resize=1024%2C580&ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-photo-Sourabh-bharti.png?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a></em></strong></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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I didn’t know this experience would set off a <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">wild</em> thought in my head. When we met in the evening to discuss the day’s happenings, I asked SP and Jasbir – my ideas still inchoate, still in an embryonic state and still wrestling to hammer out the details in my disembodied mind – if it wasn’t possible to propose a tiger safari in the buffer or fringe areas, going by and taking a cue from what one had seen today – <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">rewilding of tigers!</em> I asked gingerly, my voice low and lacking in self-belief and conviction, not sure how my ideas would sound to wildlife experts and practitioners, but I said it nonetheless, to get it off my chest. Both responded positively, even with alacrity, with SP pitching in that the NTCA protocol provides it too! I asked him why the hell he hadn’t told me this before! I could’ve spared my dunderhead from being put through the wringer!</div>
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It was a Eureka moment. We discussed in great detail if Kanha could experiment on this. Funds were least of the problems, the National Tiger Conservation Authority could bankroll it; in any case it involved a small amount of 2-3 crore rupees, largely for the wired fencing in 4-5 hectares of land and laying out the jeep driveway. The aged tigers could be lodged in here and feed off the ungulates available naturally in the fringe forest land. The safari, preferably on solar power-driven vehicles, could be an hour long. Sighting was assured. That would satiate man’s craving. And, the return on investment fairly quick; over time, it could even supplement the Tiger Reserve’s coffers. Visualising this scenario, I was beside myself with joy.</div>
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Soon thereafter, I was delighted to learn that the Madhya Pradesh government had begun work with great fervour to get the tiger safari off the ground. It was the realisation that the global community’s passionate interest in tigers held a unique window of opportunity to educate and spread awareness that architected creation of International Tiger Center. Much effort went into its making to turn it into much more than a safari – using the charismatic tiger as a metaphor for ideal environmental engagement with tourists. But, sadly, as I write these lines now three years since, I understand there hasn’t been much progress after the initial burst of interest. Such a pity!</div>
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[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/19/national-tiger-conservation-authoritys-moment-glory-sudhansu-mohanty" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Continued in Part-VI →</a></em>]</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from Indus Dictum, 12.11.2017)</i></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-24494692331028970472017-11-05T13:27:00.000+05:302017-11-05T13:27:51.216+05:30Environment vs. Development: Who Wins?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Environment vs. Development debate is bound to surge exponentially in the years ahead.</h3>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">← Continued from Part-III</a></em>]</strong></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem;">My romance with tigers and Tiger Reserves (TR) stayed undimmed. Notwithstanding the unstinted offering of the mother-son duo at <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Ranthambhore</em> and mother-cub quadruplets at <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pench</em> and the charisma they exuded, my mind inexplicably was pinned more on the wild habitats. Long discussions with Rajesh Gopal, SP, and Himmat Negi had helped me appreciate the implications of long term ecological conservation through TRs. I read all that they offered to remove cobwebs in my woolly head. I went back to the Project Tiger (PT)’s origin, among the most ambitious conservation projects the world has seen, which in scale, size, and diversity of field operations and challenges, has no parallel.</span></div>
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It began in the early-1960s to protect tigers and its habitats. But it picked up speed under the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. An enthusiastic wildlife lover, she set up a Task Force in 1972 with Dr. Karan Singh as the Chair. On recommendations of the Task Force, 9 tiger reserves were identified and the PT had gotten under way. Today it’s grown into 50 TRs across 18 States encompassing nearly 40,340 sq. km of core and critical tiger habitat in the form of forests, meadows, mountains and scrubland. More than protecting the endangered species, it has morphed into a holistic ecosystem approach defining the core-buffer strategy, encompassing protection and development initiatives, and giving a new perspective to the concept of wildlife management in India. Today, it’s become a role model for conservationists worldwide.</div>
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In hindsight, PT was a master stroke. Indira Gandhi was clairvoyant to crystal gaze the implications of sculpting a measure of government-backed conservation of environment in the natural order of things, despite unavailability of firm data. Conservation of tiger has ecological significance transcending state and national boundaries. Tigers sit atop the ecological food-chain; their conservation cascades into overall wellness of all species of plants and animals populating the ecosystem. As territorial animals, tigers serve as barometers of forest ecosystem: a healthy tiger population suggests ecological wellness, much as an unhealthy population index is ecologically worrisome. Four decades since the launch of PT and its success, tigers continue to remain one of the world’s most endangered large predators.</div>
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Agricultural expansion and developmental priorities, revenge killings by people as sequel to man-animal conflicts, demand for tigers’ body parts and derivatives in the illegal global market make them very vulnerable. On the flip side, tiger conservation sets off several intangibles and life-supporting benefits. Forests act as carbon sinks, it grants Meso climate; the presence of continuous forest cover to a depth of ten kilometres impacts climate of nearby areas, even to a hundred kilometres – a phenomenon beneficial to both humans and crops as shield from climate extremes. There are several others too.</div>
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Problems stay, though. This is natural in a diverse country with a democratic, federal set-up. It takes time and energy to disabuse loads of transferred knowledge to deemed wisdom, when they aren’t necessarily wise or correct. One such is the belief that the traditional resource dependency of forest dwellers is benign. Not always so. Nature has over time changed from its primordial state and keeps changing, little by little, most unobtrusively, as everything else does; it is natural that all stakeholders need to calibrate their responses to these changes. Often with our human endeavor catalyzing changes, several distortions have crept in to misshape the forest dynamics itself. Demographic pressure shows as people chip away at forest’s edges. With just two percent of the world’s forest area, we support <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">17 percent</strong> of the global livestock and an equal percentage of humans. Nothing possibly is more challenging today than sustaining a system of viable protected areas in a country like India.</div>
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Developmental activities are another serious worry. It’s no one’s case that development shouldn’t happen. That’s not the issue. The point is how to ensure development without despoiling the ecosystem or if damage can’t be avoided, how about seeking appropriate by-passes to keep them virgin – pristine and viable? Sustainable development, the global much sexed-up term, like statistics, hides more than it reveals. Isn’t the dialectics of development versus environment unequal? Can an intangible environment ace the tangibles of development that you can literally hold in your hands, and even palpate? Given man’s natural impulse to improve his lot, isn’t this a David vs. Goliath dueling? How harshly things are pitted against ecosystems, I silently witnessed in one of the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Chai pe Charchas</em>. In the euphoria of government formation, Javadekar, mimicking Modi’s pre-election hype, had instituted a quotidian 9 o’clock morning meeting with Additional Secretaries/Additional DGs and above officers. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Charcha</em> (discussion) at 9 was anathema for most senior bureaucrats’ lifetime habits – it affronted their sense of dignity to show up at workplace on time!</div>
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The discussion veered around the road-widening and four-laning of NH7 between <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kanha</em>and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pench</em> TRs. Nitin Gadkari, the Road & Highways Minister had called, Javadekar said, enquiring after the status of clearance. Rajesh Gopal told Javadekar that the three suggested underpasses, each of 50 meters, are an apology for animal movement and not acceptable. Javadekar snapped, fraying: “When we can’t feed people, must we bother about wild animals!” A sepulchral silence descended on the assemblage. But Rajesh Gopal, sitting in one corner, held forth – as a true blue-blooded conservationist and India’s foremost hands-on tiger man (he’s presently Secretary General of the Global Tiger Forum, an intergovernmental international organisation, looking after all 13 tiger range countries of the world) would – unyieldingly, not letting go his emphasis on the acute need to protect the iconic tiger corridor, and belabouring the significance of the tiger gene pool.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12365" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: adelle-1, adelle-2, serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1918px;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;"><img alt="Tiger Conservation Environment sourabh bharti" class="size-full wp-image-12365" data-attachment-id="12365" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger Conservation Environment sourabh bharti</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger Conservation Environment sourabh bharti" data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-31.jpg?fit=780%2C444&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-31.jpg?fit=300%2C171&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-31.jpg?fit=1918%2C1093&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1918,1093" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3-2/" height="409" src="https://i1.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-31.jpg?resize=780%2C444&ssl=1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Related: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/29/tigers-wellness-our-wellness/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">Tigers’ Wellness Is Our Wellness Too</a> by <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">Sudhansu Mohanty</a> (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: adelle-1, adelle-2, serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: normal; height: 1px; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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The issue revolved around prioritising tiger conservation through landscape genetics and habitat linkages. The 150 km area between <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pench</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kanha</em> TRs extending eastward to <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Achanakmar</em> is most critical for tiger gene flow of its population. Camera-trappings since 2006 have yearly recorded tiger dispersing, and with presence of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">gaur, sambar</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">chital</em>affirming it as a vital tiger movement corridor. Field observers have further confirmed evidence of resident tigers. A sub-adult male tiger photo-captured in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pench</em> TR in 2006 had become the territorial breeding male in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kanha</em> TR in 2010! One study showed significant reduction in gene flow between TR pairs with degraded corridors (<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kanha–Satpura, Kanha–Melghat</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Melghat–Pench</em>), while there wasn’t any significant change among TRs connected with forest corridors (<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kanha–Pench, Satpura–Melghat</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pench–Satpura</em>). With more than 13% of sampled tigers dispersing within the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kanha–Pench</em> landscape in the last decade, developmental projects – widening of national highways and rail lines – will cleave the corridor with permanent barriers and affect connectivity big time. The corridor, an exemplar of two source tiger populations managed as one meta-population, will be dented. Environmentalists and foresters have, naturally, clamoured to ensure green infrastructure mitigation measures to keep it going.</div>
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The conversations didn’t go too well that day, but all along I was quietly mulling over the reality. By the time I trudged back to my room after the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Charcha</em> my mind was intuiting, seeking an answer. Sadly I realised that in an unequal battle between development and environment, with political parties indulging in hugger-mugger populism and optics, and least appreciating the need to equilibrate, the former shall always prevail. This makes Project Tiger all the more challenging and, paradoxically, also more relevant. The Environment vs. Development debate – exacerbating with bedevilling climate change, and manifesting in Nature’s quirky ways like serial tornados/hurricanes, rise in global temperature, wildfires, and downpour deluging deserts – is bound to surge exponentially in the years ahead.</div>
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The expansion of NH-7 on this 10 km stretch of road doubtless will impact <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pench</em> TR both in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It will destroy the corridor between two of India’s iconic TRs, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kanha</em> to <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pench</em> – the locale of Rudyard Kipling’s <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Jungle Book</em> – apart from impacting <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Navegaon-Nagzira</em> TR, comprising five protected areas (PAs): <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Nagzira, New Nagzira, Koka, Navegaon</em> <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">National Park,</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Navegaon Wildlife Sanctuary</em>. Around the time the matter was in the Courts, in March 2016 a group of 29 eminent scientists and conservationists, and many among them who had served on various statutory and expert committees, like the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), NTCA, Forest Advisory Committee, WII etc. for decades, wrote to the NTCA and the WII, flagging critical ecological, legal and policy elements of the NH7 <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">inter alia</em> strongly urging to:</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">(i)</strong> Recommend to the High Court that mitigation measures as per the WII’s original May 2012 report are absolutely necessary and non-negotiable;</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">(ii)</strong> Address the issue where there is no overlap of the proposed mitigation measures with the identified animal crossing zones;</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">(iii)</strong> Recommend that the existing road below the recommended underpasses be decommissioned and the habitat be restored to natural conditions to allow wild animals to use the corridor in an unhindered manner; and,</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">(iv)</strong> Ensure that in the future, the principle of avoidance must be followed as per the NBWL Sub-Committee’s recommendations for roads in Protected Areas.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_12605" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: adelle-1, adelle-2, serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 4608px;"><img alt="Tiger Conservation Environment SP Yadav watermark" class="size-full wp-image-12605" data-attachment-id="12605" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="<p>Tiger Conservation Environment SP Yadav</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"","camera":"COOLPIX P600","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1449935593","copyright":"","focal_length":"89.6","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.0125","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tiger Conservation Environment SP Yadav watermark" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?fit=4608%2C3456&ssl=1" data-orig-size="4608,3456" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/11/05/environment-development-conservation-tiger-india-sudhansu-mohanty/tiger-conservation-environment-sp-yadav-watermark/" height="539" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?w=4608&ssl=1 4608w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i2.wp.com/indusdictum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tiger-Conservation-Environment-SP-Yadav-watermark.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="719" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: S. P. Yadav</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: adelle-1, adelle-2, serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: normal; height: 1px; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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While work on the NH-7 was stalled by the National Green Tribunal, the Nagpur-bench of the Bombay High Court allowed road widening with the mitigating provision to construct a paltry 1.8 km of road bridges for animal movement. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court order, and in effect went against the recommendations of its own Central Empowered Committee (CEC), which had categorically said that “the ecological cost of the present project is immense and that no mitigation measures are adequate to compensate the same” since it would cause “irreparable damage to a critical wildlife habitat.” The CEC couldn’t have been more forthright. It stressed that the NH-7 work is among the exceptional cases where ecological security must take precedence over developmental concerns, even suggesting that rather than widening this critical stretch of road, the alternative route via <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Chhindwara</em> could be explored. The moot point is: Can the fidelity of invisible eco-sensitive environmental concerns that may tote up to, say, 10 times more than the cost of developmental work, triumph over return on investment, optics, grandstanding, and instant hyperboles or <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">jumla</em> of perfervid patriotism? My fingers are crossed!</div>
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The impassioned plea of environmentalists has improved mitigation measures in this stretch of NH7 road, but only just. The latest information is that the length of animal underpass has been increased to 2,205 metres on Maharashtra side and 2,100 metres in Madhya Pradesh, with the height reduced to 5 metres from the original 7. I checked with eminent animal biologists like Rajesh Gopal who, as the former Field Director Kanha Tiger Reserve and Member Secretary NTCA, knows the terrain and animal behaviour like the back of his hand. They consider it as a compromise. Here was a chance for a country with the largest wild tiger population to demonstrate its commitment to conservation and infrastructure development to go in a complementary manner, but alas the mitigation didn’t happen that way!</div>
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Ironically, one such crisis not too long ago had acted the savior for Project Tiger. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sariska</em>had lost its tigers ostensibly to poaching, circa 2004. No tigers were being sighted in the TR; more alarmingly, there was no indirect evidence of tigers’ presence through pugmarks, scats or scratch marks on trees. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sariska</em> (like <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Panna</em> TR later) mercifully was successfully repopulated, but the shock rippled out, sounding warning bells in the highest quarters. On recommendations of the National Board for Wildlife chaired by the Prime Minister on March 17, 2005, a Task Force was set up to focus on tiger conservation and suggest improvement measures. The NTCA born in 2006, aimed at ratcheting up India’s confidence in the conservation of tiger, its national animal, was granted statutory and administrative powers, and obligated to submit PT annual report to the Parliament. Despite vicissitudes, it has happily lived up to the confidence reposed on it.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>(Reproduced from the Indus Dictum)</i></strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">… to be continued on Sunday, Nov 12th</em>]</strong></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-3457713583858235722017-10-23T23:27:00.000+05:302017-10-23T23:27:18.072+05:30TESS Conveys Project Tiger Activities More Aptly Than PT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hasn’t the time then come to more aptly call it, possibly even more unreservedly, something like Tiger Eco-System Services (TESS)?</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_11328" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 2650px;"><img alt="eye of the tiger watermark 2" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-11328" data-attachment-id="11328" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1490002440","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0004","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="eye of the tiger watermark 2" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">This article is an exclusive extract from the author’s forthcoming memoir, </strong></em><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Environment Through Finance Eyes</strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">.</strong></div>
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[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">← Continued from Part-I</a></em>]</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Continuing with <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Corbett Tiger Reserve</strong> (CTR), for me, another highlight was seeing the efficacy of Lantana eradication. <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dr. C. R. Babu</strong> who joined us the morning next, showed me around the different areas in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dhikala</em> and in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Jhirna</em> where Lantana grass, a biological invader, had been successfully eradicated, thereby facilitating habitat improvement and growth of natural grassland, so essential for the herbivores, and kick-starting the cycle of optimal ecosystem services.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Put simply, </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Lantana camara,</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> the scientific name of Lantana, native to Central and South America, has invaded and wrought havoc across global tropical/sub-tropical regions. It has disrupted ecological services, affectinkng forest ecosystems benefits, and adversely shrunk wildlife habitats. The </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">wild-lifers,</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> if one may say so, have naturally strayed off their habitats, spurring frequent man-wildlife conflicts. Dr. Babu, Chairman of the Ministry’s Centre of Excellence – </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Eco-Systems (CEMDE) – </i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">and his research team, working on Lantana’s taxonomy, biology and ecology, succeeded in evolving a simple but effective management strategy to contain this eco-scourge: extirpation of Lantana through cut rootstock method; weeding out of seedlings/young plants from bird droppings under perching trees and surface run-off channels; and eco-restoration of weed-free landscapes to native grasslands/forests. This was first tried out in CTR, and with resounding success.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dr. Babu is a byword in the field of Lantana eradication. A month later, on a short visit to the ICFRE in Dehra Dun, after the official engagements, I found a couple of hours to myself. I snuck out to the Rajaji National Park. On the way the traffic slowed us down and by the time we reached the Park, it was pretty dark. In the headlights of the vehicle it was hard to see the habitat I was interested in. Instead, I settled discussing with the officers of the Park. I asked for the Annual Plan of Operations (APO) and browsed through it. Lantana removal was among the important activities in the Park, parenthetically to be carried out through the </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dr. C.R. Babu style of Lantana-eradication!</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> I was pleasantly surprised and happy. I came back and called Dr. Babu to compliment him that his Lantana-eradication technique has already been memorialised at the Rajaji National Park!</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">But staying with Lantana, I must confess that although Lantana is indeed a bio-invader and tells on habitats seriously damaging the grasslands, many wildlife experts evince widely varying sentiments. Foresters in Kanha Tiger Reserve for example seem rather paternalistic about Lantana, because as the story goes, many years ago a tiger had littered amid the Lantana weed and the sanguine sentiment has held. Similar sentiment could be found with others who temper it with obtuseness that of course Lantana, a bio-invader, cannot be allowed to overrun the park, and will need to be managed!</span></div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_11283" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 2296px;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><img alt="eye of the tiger watermark 1" class=" size-full wp-image-11283 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="11283" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1492245974","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="eye of the tiger watermark 1" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="2296,1291" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-1.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Read Part-I of the Tiger Series: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">e-Eye of the Tiger</a> by <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a> (Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a>)</strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The issue of leveraging solar energy is of much salience in Tiger Reserves as I soon realised while visiting other reserves. Nowhere was its need perhaps more than in the <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sunderbans Tiger Reserve</strong> (STR), a vast reserve spread across the humongous delta formed by several rivers flowing into the Bay of Bengal. Inscribed a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997, STR is estimated at about 4,200 sq, km. Of these, about 1,700</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">sq. km are water bodies in the form of rivers, canals and creeks, varying widely from just about a few meters to several kilometres.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The STR is intersected by a complex web of tidal waterways, mudflats</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">and small islands that are flush with mangrove forests. The interconnected network of waterways makes the mangrove forests – habitat of the eponymous Royal Bengal Tigers – mostly accessible by boats. They serve as crucial bio-protectors against floods and cyclones for inhabitants living in and around this substantial deltaic plateau. Not to forget that the national park sprawled out in this unique ecosystem acts both as lung and kidney in flushing out effluents and pollutants as the rivers drain out into the Bay. </span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Given the geography and topography of STR, the region seemed hostile in performing the arduous task of tiger protection. The four protection camps I visited – </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kendo, Haldibari, Neti-Dhupani,</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> and </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dobanki – </i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">were way far out in the Bay where Forest Guards and Watchers live and work. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kendo</em> is the last protection camp closest to the Bay of Bengal, about 90 kilometres (two hours by speedboat) away from <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sajnekhali</em>, which acts as the gateway to the Sunderbans National Park. Fairly inaccessible and with no population around, the protection camp had just about enough solar PV panels to illuminate the building with a few lights, but not enough to power a few fans.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The place in the midst of water is rather humid except during the winter months; the rest of the year the weather challenges them to their bones. The need to improve the living condition of the people manning these outposts was paramount. This is where solar power can help in a big way. I was pleasantly surprised that despite the inhospitable and challenging conditions, these people live and work day-in and day-out – their spirit was upbeat and their morale high. The Field Director, Soumitra Dasgupta, an Indian Forest Service officer of 1989 batch, </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">[presently IG (Wildlife) in</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> the</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change – </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">just the perfect fit to revamp the Wildlife Division</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">],</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">ever gung-ho, </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">led by example and helped buoy their spirit – his passion and good cheer rubbing off on his officers and staff, and spurring them on. </span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">I came away with the feeling that since these are non-family stations, to mitigate the problems of these personnel, we could consider granting them ration (as done for the police, the armed forces and the Special Tiger Protection Force) and separation/hardship allowances from the project funds. To boost the morale of these personnel, it would help if the possibility of even getting their families over to these places for short durations could be explored. Such inexpensive appliances like <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Mitti-cool</em>, a refrigerator made of clay, that needs no electricity, could as well be considered to provide cool drinking water to people working in adverse and hostile environment. I am glad that we worked out the details and sanctioned ration allowance within a couple of months.</span></div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_11335" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 2650px;"><img alt="eye of the tiger watermark 3" class=" size-full wp-image-11335 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="11335" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1495778594","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.0015625","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="eye of the tiger watermark 3" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">There was need, too, for a few more Floating Patrolling Camps in this waterscape, where water seemed the defining image in this vast landscape. With rain falling in buckets a good 6-7 months of the year, the difficulties of patrolling the national park seemed a big challenge. Quick and ready access to this remote and inaccessible topography, especially during the monsoon months, posed challenge to patrolling. We discussed this issue at length, almost at every patrol station we visited. Thinking aloud, I even suggested providing financial support for chopper service for monitoring, surveillance, and rescue operations on contractual basis from the PT funds, as and when the need arose. </span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kaziranga National Park</strong> (KNP) is yet another unique national park formed by a river – Brahmaputra -when it spills over its banks during monsoon and inundates the park. The receding river water leaves behind in its trail umpteen mudflats. KNP is home to a mega-biodiversity that includes the putative one-horned rhinos and tigers. Unfortunately, the rhinos are poached upon with the intent to harvest their horns that command astronomical prices in the international black market, purportedly for its aphrodisiac property. They are poached on all sides of the park. E-surveillance, the kind started in the Corbett Tiger Reserve to keep vigil 24×7, seems the only way forward here.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Of all the tiger reserves and national parks that I visited, Kaziranga is non-pareil. Standing on a watch tower, I surveyed hundreds upon hundreds of wild animals – rhinos, swamp deers, Hoolock Gibbons, elephants, pangolins, and a score of others I can’t put a name to – on the flat mudflats, as though served on a platter by an unstinting host! It was the closest to any wildlife African safari that any tiger reserve or national park in India could offer and was a feast for the eyes. Only the tiger was missing! And that’s what makes it so elusive and the reason why human beings hanker after it.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">My visits to Kaziranga and Sundarbans, preceded by my earlier visit to Corbett, and coupled with my interface with sundry files that came to me in steady, timely schedule and the numerous discussions with the </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">tiger-men</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> helped me appreciate that tiger conservation encompassed a host of benefits not ordinarily known to the common man: clean air, clean water, more fish catch with higher fertility and productivity, employment and poverty alleviation to local population, and forest protection; also, that tiger conservation subsumes conservation of other flagship species like rhinoceros, elephants, and barasingha.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">As I wound down my visit to Kaziranga and on the drive back to Guwahati, still rolling and processing my newly-acquired empirical experiences and the teeny-weeny bit I knew about Nature’s <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">requite</em> instinct, for no particular reason that I could figure out, I felt a faint disembodied thought of inadequacy colonising my mind. Hasn’t something inscrutable gone missing somewhere? I tried hard, but couldn’t. And then unbidden, quite serendipitously, it pitter-pattered in my mind; it wasn’t the inscrutability of the wild, but something more earthy and mundane: Ain’t calling our Centrally-Sponsored Scheme (CSS) by the eponymous rubric, Project Tiger, rather inadequate, diminishing the full import of the range of activities done under PT? Was that it? I asked myself. Yes, indeed. Hasn’t the time then come to more aptly call it, possibly even more unreservedly, something like Tiger Eco-System Services (TESS) that faithfully and fulsomely captures the range of activities done under the PT scheme to keep the forest eco-systems alive and uptick? I couldn’t help mutter my thoughts, and also said it in my tour note. I left it to the experts in Project Tiger to reflect over the suggestion.</span></div>
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[<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">… to be continued on Sunday, Oct 29th</em>]</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from the Indus Dictum)</i></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-54548439806148614162017-10-15T15:31:00.000+05:302017-10-15T15:31:26.062+05:30e-Eye Of The Tiger <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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E-surveillance was an innovative idea where 10 watch towers kept a 24/7 vigil over the area within their range through thermal and infra-red cameras.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">This article is an exclusive extract from the author’s forthcoming memoir, </strong></em><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Environment Through Finance Eyes</strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">.</strong></div>
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Amid the farrago of lacklustre activities that informed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change’s various divisions, with most things trundling along without a goal, there were a few bright spots that lifted my periodic blues. Among the brightest was the <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Project Tiger</strong> under the <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">National Tiger Conservation Authority</strong> (NTCA), which continued quietly to do the good work it had been tasked to do the past many years. It was led by <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Rajesh Gopal</em>, the Additional Director General and the Member Secretary of NTCA, an inspirational leader ably supported by a band of dedicated officers like <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Satya Prakash Yadav</em>, DIG, and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Himmat Singh Negi</em>, IG, at the NTCA headquarters, apart from a string of passionate wildlife forest officers in the field spread across the country in the 50 Tiger Reserves.</div>
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Not many people in the Ministry understood what Project Tiger was doing. “Why do we place such an enormous amount of 180-odd crore rupees to care for the tigers?” one senior officer once asked me, out of wide-eyed curiosity and to improve his knowledge on the rationale of governmental spends on plan schemes. What he meant was why must we waste such huge sums feeding tigers – who at times also turn into man-eaters! – when possibly the same money could be better spent on other schemes for the impoverished.</div>
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To be fair, he didn’t say exactly that. But I got the drift of his question. I explained to him whatever little I knew. That the tiger is an umbrella species, and as top carnivores they play a crucial role in ordering and preserving landscapes in pristine form in its natural pecking order – thereby maintaining biodiversity. Once you care for the tiger population, other species, including co-predators and preys like smaller carnivores and the varying conglomerate of herbivores in the hierarchy, are taken care of, even down to the habitat and grasslands that herbivores feed off. Tigers in the wild sit atop the food chain, ensuring a bio-eco-balance that sets off a natural cascade among other <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">carnivores</strong> (such as leopards), <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">herbivores</strong> (like deer, antelopes, wild buffalo) and <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">omnivores</strong> (like wild boars), and conserve healthy grassland; it is an evocative symbol of forest protection. Since tigers live in the deep wild, a healthy population of this territorial animal also ensures healthy forests that act as carbon sinks for all living beings on earth.</div>
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My words, telescoping vast landscapes with their natural offerings and efficacy on fauna and flora and the planet’s ecosystem to a few bald sentences, would naturally have sounded rather confusing to his disbelieving ears. He veered our conversation off to a different tangent. I wasn’t surprised.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_media-26" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 2650px;"><img alt="eye of the tiger watermark 2.jpg" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11328" data-attachment-id="11328" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1490002440","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0004","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="eye of the tiger watermark 2" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-2.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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The first time I ventured out to explore and understand Project Tiger in October 2013, I chose the <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Corbett Tiger Reserve</em></strong> (CTR) in Uttarakhand. It was close to Delhi and I could see the variety it offered to understand what <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dr. C. R. Babu</em>, Chairman of the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Eco-Systems – one of the Ministry’s Centres of Excellence – had earlier retailed to me: his success story in eradicating Lantana grass in Corbett. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Satya Prakash Yadav</em> (‘SP’ to me; ‘SPY’ to his batchmates!) accompanied me.</div>
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The Corbett Reserve is spread across 1,300 sq. km with the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Ramganga</em> River and two of its tributaries – <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sonanadi</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Pallain – </em>flowing through it. Arriving at <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kalagarh</em>, we took the boat to reach <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dhikala</em>. During the monsoon, with this area pounded by incessant rain, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dhikala</em> is completely cut off; the only way to get there from <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kalagarh</em> is the waterway. It highlighted the perils for the forest staff during the rainy season – these foot soldiers whose commitment and passion makes the difference in the cause of tiger conservation. Little do <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">babus</em> sitting in air conditioned chambers at New Delhi ever appreciate the efforts put in by these unsung frontline personnel when they seek a visit to the tiger reserves for a couple days to de-stress their minds.</div>
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A few things stand out in my memory from this visit. One was visiting the <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">E-Surveillance Control Room</em></strong> at Kalagarh. E-surveillance was an innovative idea where 10 watch towers kept a 24/7 vigil over the area within their range through thermal and infra-red cameras. The pilot project, in its first year, seemed to be bearing fruits from the point of view of surveillance and anti-poaching activities. The Corbett Reserve was the designated field site for this pilot project. The southern boundary of the reserve – between <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kalagarh</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dhela</em>– abutting agricultural fields and human habitations, was highly porous. Unauthorised human ingress into these areas, as also of elephants and tigers entering human habitations and farmlands, often led to conflicts.</div>
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Once the broad parameters of the project were agreed upon, the Binomial team set upon designing the hardware and software. Detailed field surveys and discussions led to further refinements in system requirements and design. Finally, in 2012, <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">e-Eye</em></strong> was born. The system comprised of a series of <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">short range infra-red night vision</strong> and <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">long range thermal camera stations,</strong> mounted on high towers. The cameras were connected to a central Control Room using <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">WiMAX</strong> and remotely operated by authorised personnel. They had powerful zoom capabilities, panning and tilting and working even in adverse weather conditions. Power requirements were met with solar panels deployed at each tower location.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_media-18" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 2650px;"><img alt="eye of the tiger watermark 3.jpg" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11335" data-attachment-id="11335" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"Sourabh Bharti","camera":"NIKON D500","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1495778594","copyright":"@SOURABH BHARTI","focal_length":"200","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.0015625","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="eye of the tiger watermark 3" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="2650,1767" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/15/e-eye-of-the-tiger/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/eye-of-the-tiger-watermark-3.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Image: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sourabhbhartiphotography/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sourabh Bharti</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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When the system finally went online, Corbett managers were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The network of cameras covered an area of about 300 sq. km, tracking movements of any object over 20 kg body weight, and thus capable of detecting human movements as well as that of wild animals. Any kind of suspicious movement generated alerts, which were forwarded to field stations in the Reserve for appropriate action.</div>
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E-Eye also generated some fantastic images of various wild animals doing their own things but, more importantly, helped generate several alerts about human activity. Each of these alerts was responded to at the field level by Rapid Response Teams and periodically verified by senior officials, making sure that the integrity of such information was maintained. This was a direct deterrent on criminal activity. People illegally entering the forests could expect a team of field staff to swoop in on them shortly; it served as a huge psychological barrier for criminals. They were jittery of being tracked down and dealt with. This also boosted the confidence of the field staff. And, soon enough, a criminal with a proven track record in the Reserve area tried to damage one of the camera towers! He was caught on camera vandalising, quickly arrested and dealt with.</div>
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With an estimated initial cost of around Rs 3.5 crore, though, E-Eye didn’t come cheap. The hardware also needed periodic maintenance and upgrading, even the software required regular upgrades. This involved additional costs. The results though were very satisfactory, encouraging the NTCA to introduce it in <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Kaziranga Tiger Reserve</strong> where rhino poaching is a daily challenge. E-Eye is an excellent example of how scientific tools can be leveraged to strengthen field level protection. True, it is no substitute for traditional foot patrolling but surely can complement it. The fact that cameras keep a 24/7 vigil, regardless of weather conditions, helped monitor larger areas and deploy scarce human resource more strategically. Further, the system had huge potential for exploitation given the high volume of data it generated. It could monitor potential human-wildlife conflict, as also when elephants and tigers moved outside the reserve, alerting villagers of such movements, and with the Rapid Response teams averting any untoward incidents. E-Eye has opened up possibilities; with its unwavering eye, tigers, elephants, rhinos and other endangered animals can now breathe easy and have a run of their habitat!</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from the <b>Indus Dictum</b>, where it was first published)</i></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-16188334668734905272017-10-03T19:54:00.000+05:302017-10-03T20:31:48.823+05:30Not Republic Of Fifth Column But Culture Of Transparency<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"Will leveraging contemporary technology to bring citizens face to face with governance help?"</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">By <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/01/openness-in-judicial-and-corporate-governance/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></em></strong></h6>
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<img alt="public governance series watermark part 3 cover" class=" size-full wp-image-10410 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="10410" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="public governance series watermark part 3 cover" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="1608,1080" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/02/not-republic-of-fifth-column-but-culture-of-transparency/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-part-3-cover.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">This article is the final installment in a 3-part series about <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/ethics-in-public-governance/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Ethics in Public Governance</a> by the author, <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a>.</strong></em></div>
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[<a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/01/openness-in-judicial-and-corporate-governance/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">← continued from Part-II</em></a>]</div>
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Pause and run the proposed PPP model through a patient’s/caregiver’s lens. The usual gripe against private hospitals holds: all-round over-invoicing, billowing especially during ICU stays when patients are out-of-bounds for caregivers; blood drawn many times over at the same time, expensive medicines administered on the same day/time that impugns maximum prescribed doses; generic drug not administered even when available and branded ones used instead; wanton diagnostic tests, and a plethora of other glaring incongruence that breaches every known medical ethics and moral vocabulary. Hospitals claiming to touch people’s lives indulge in every possible shenanigan and skullduggery to maximise profit. The list is endless. Healthcare today is a smart industry and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">health-tourism</em> is the buzzword. “Practice two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient” – a part of the Hippocratic Oath – has evanesced, long forgotten. I feel queasy.</div>
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Cut to the chase for poor patients. “There will be no reserved beds or no quota of beds for free services,” says the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Niti Aayog</em>. “The State Government can refer as many patients as it can up to the capacity available in the Project facility.” How on earth is that going to happen without funds in the government kitty? In effect, the patients fall back on the PHC – now rendered more decrepit before the other PPP-half – for lesser mortals. Two treatment standards, we’re back to square one – <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">India</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bharat!</em></div>
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Interestingly, on the issue of coronary stents brought out in <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/01/openness-in-judicial-and-corporate-governance/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Part-II</a> of this <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/ethics-in-public-governance/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">series</a>yesterday, with companies manufacturing coronary stents in India reportedly creating an artificial shortage in market/hospitals in the wake of price capping in February 2017, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has, in its order of September 27, 2017, invoked Section 3 (i) of DPCO, 2013 that empowers the Government to “achieve adequate availability and to regulate the distribution of drugs, in case of emergency or in circumstances of urgency or in case of non-commercial use in public interest, direct any manufacturer of any active pharmaceutical ingredient or bulk drug or formulation to increase the production and to sell such active pharmaceutical ingredient or bulk drug to such other manufacturer(s) of formulations and to direct formulators to sell the formulations to institutions, hospitals or any agency as the case may be.”</div>
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The DoP has directed the companies manufacturing coronary stents in India to:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: inherit;">Maintain production/import/supply of the coronary stents;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;">Submit a weekly report on coronary stents produced and distributed. They will also submit a weekly production plan for the next week to NPPA and DCGI.</li>
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The DoP has also empowered NPPA and DCGI to extend these directions to any other producers of coronary stents in India during this three-month period. This order will be valid for three months (except for Absorb Classic BVS and Absorb GT I BVS stents of Abbott Healthcare) and NPPA and DCGI will recommend withdrawal or extension as the case may be, two weeks before the expiry of the period.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_10372" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1608px;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/01/openness-in-judicial-and-corporate-governance/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><img alt="public governance series watermark 2 cover" class=" size-full wp-image-10372 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="10372" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="public governance series watermark 2 cover" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="1608,1080" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/01/openness-in-judicial-and-corporate-governance/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/public-governance-series-watermark-2-cover.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Related: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/10/01/openness-in-judicial-and-corporate-governance/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Openness In Judicial And Corporate Governance</a> by <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><br />
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Abbott’s (one of the global behemoths in healthcare) <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Absorb and Absorb Gt1 Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS)</em> is another dodgy saga with safety concerns and issues of clinical trial red-flagged by drug regulators across the world, among them the <a href="https://goo.gl/K1nive" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">US</a>, EU, <a href="https://goo.gl/UjSqME" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Denmark</a>, Japan and <a href="https://goo.gl/5TNSn3" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Australia</a>, as widely reported in the media. Adding to this in India was their reluctance to comply with NPPA’s price cap order. To quote a <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Times of India</em> report of early-September 2017: “A few cardiologists in India, closely identified with promoting these stents, had opposed price control of bioresorbable stents, which sold at about Rs 1.9 lakh before the Rs 31,000 cap imposed by the drug pricing authority. In the US, the price was about $1,500 or about Rs 1 lakh and in Europe it was even lower at about 900 Euros. The use of bioresorbable stents in India was more than five times as high as in developed countries, but there has been no investigation into the safety of patients implanted with these devices.”</div>
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Two other different, but related, issues suck. Recall the substantial increase in the Mediclaim premium this year over last year’s rate. So, either the citizen pays directly or the government pays courtesy citizen’s taxes. Add the draft pharmaceutical policy by the department of pharmaceuticals now in the works, with focus not on <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">controlling</em>but on <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">regulating</em> drug prices – quite in line with the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Aayog’s</em> proposal to delink the Drug Price Control Order from the National List of Essential Medicines – and you’ll wonder if World Bank’s unseen hand isn’t on an overdrive. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sylvia Karpagam </em>in a recent piece in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Wire </em>has shown the abysmal failure of the PPP model in <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Rajiv Gandhi Super-Speciality Hospital</em></strong> for tertiary care in Karnataka’s Raichur district and the<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Karuna Trust </em></strong>for 80 primary healthcare centres across eight States. Intuitively, our Indian healthcare and compassion – a baffling mix of the sublime, the profane and the gratuitous (avarice) – in times of madcap upward material mobility in a consumerist era trumps doctors’ nobility towards patients. Hippocratic Oath is out the window!</div>
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My much-harried friend and batch-mate, a Chief District Medical Officer and a subject specialist, works round-the-clock and earns salary that is less than my government pension. Little wonder the rampant absenteeism of government doctors lies in poor remuneration and the urge to indulge in private practice at sufferance of their job responsibility. Couple this with bureaucratic supremacist spirit – a colonial legacy that epitomises our feudal mindset – which belittles their human dignity, and you’ll appreciate their callousness.</div>
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The way to go is to incentivise them “commensurate with existing market conditions” (<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Aayog’s</em> words, not mine!) and create facilities that private entities would with PPP-pinned funds, rid the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">chalta hai</em> attitude, invoke an arm’s length system to transparently and measurably monitor, and hold them accountable, and watch the changes. I see no reason why, in the same district locale, they’ll bite WB-Aayog’s PPP bait, not the socially-inclined and socially-respectable governments. With doctor’s commissions for diagnostic tests/procedures de-incentivised, the patients will likely be spared the fleecing that many corporate hospitals indulge in today. And compassion will likely coalesce with healthcare; doctors will <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">heal</em> patients – those God’s children on a worldly visit!</div>
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This is yet far from complete. For, unsurprisingly, we have lately added another, a fifth estate to our democratic construct not limited to the putative fifth column of immorality and post-truth – beyond the bought-out press, paid news, fake news, advertorial news – that Gauri Lankesh’s death has driven home: ELIMINATION! No need for hyperventilation in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">entrepôts</em> of raucous cacophony in select TV studios; extirpate the root, so that the voices of such humans are shushed for good. And all this in times of smart histrionics, of bluff and bluster spoken in high octaves! Goebbels sure will be turning and blanching in his grave for his lack of innate smarts! Are we now living in a new <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Republic of the Fifth Column!</em> Pity the protagonists do not realise ideas are bullet-proof, amenable to traversing time, space and distance – there for keeps!</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_10329" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1608px;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/30/propriety-is-key-to-citizens-quality-of-life/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><img alt="public governance series watermark part 1 cover" class=" size-full wp-image-10329 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="10329" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="public governance series watermark part 1 cover" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="1608,1080" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/30/propriety-is-key-to-citizens-quality-of-life/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Related: </strong></em><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/30/propriety-is-key-to-citizens-quality-of-life/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Propriety Is Key To Citizen’s Quality Of Life</em></a> <em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">by </strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><br />
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Academic plagiarism has assumed menacing proportions. The cases are galore – with the list bearing names of many eminences conferred with <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Padma</em> awards and more. Modesty forbids me from spelling out the names and their tales. But I must state what I, as a member of the UGC-appointed Committee, recently witnessed firsthand: how plagiarism by the former VC of Pondicherry University (subsequently dismissed) has wrought irreparable damage on a university. The malaise is all over. One wonders how much with growing awareness and vigil, plagiarism detection tools like <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Turnitin</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Copyscapes</em> et al, can fix this malaise.</div>
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I am inclined to believe (now more or less convinced) that perhaps the deterrence to such potential recklessness lies in tightening governance’s value system. Maybe, an arm’s-length system and an Ombudsman to oversee operations coupled with zero-tolerance to dishonesty and corruption are necessary to bring about ethics in public governance. Yet, given extant obfuscation and opacity, will it be enough to stymie unholy impulses? Will leveraging contemporary technology to bring citizens face to face with governance help? Will such an interface, not <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">ex-ante</em> but <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">ex-post</em> ‘oversight’ governance, aid stakeholders to see for themselves the processes and rationale of decision-making that is already available under Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005, as proactive disclosure. Never mind the Delhi High Court’s ruling keeping the Attorney General out of the RTI’s purview and the Supreme Court remaining implacably opposed to render itself transparent on personal details of public interest, as evidenced in smothering CIC’s order to part with information under the RTI Act.</div>
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Is transparency, then, the answer? Will it help to offer on a platter official document in public domain post-decisions for citizen ombudsman? Will the fear of exposé – disciplinary action and social disapproval for “wrongful acts” – deter unsavory impulses? Possibly, yes; no one likes to be proceeded against; we live on self-respect and dignity amid a 24/7 media. We’ve the technology and we’ve the besetting issue of dishonesty that refuses to die. Sunlight, it seems, is the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">best</em> and maybe the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">only</em>disinfectant for public acts.</div>
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At the cost of sounding presumptuous, I would say <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">en passant</em> that when I took over as the Controller General of Defence Accounts to helm the Department looking after the financial management and internal audit of the entire Government of India defense budget outlay of approx Rs 3.4 lakh crore, I invoked transparency. All relevant official documents, all pesky issues of officers’ placement and spends from taxpayers’ money were uploaded. It was bloodless; but it had a magical effect. Disaffection with placements was eliminated, with the networkers exposed and running for cover; unnecessary, wasteful expenditures were arrested, with everyone privy to ways of the corrupt and the nepotistic; and with each checkmating the other. Alas, once I moved over to the Ministry of Defence, transparency was given a royal heave-ho and opacity granted its pride of honour!</div>
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Leveraging technology to invoke openness and transparency is an option – a culture of transparency seems the viable answer to curb corruption in public life. But it is nuanced, multilayered. It’ll need tempering through accountability, an effective check and balance mechanism, an arm’s length system not open to tweaking by any public functionary, not to forget public discussions to rework and re-engineer the entire architecture of governance processes to introduce the moral vocabulary sorely missing in public governance. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Be you ever so high, the law is above you,</em> as the 17th century English church man and historian Thomas Fuller would say. It’ll take time but a beginning must be made. Political will is the key. But will that be forthcoming? And I wonder how relevant our experiential existential formula is today: <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Experience = CL (Capacity to Learn) x DL (Desire to Learn) x No. of years of service!</em></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>(Reproduced from Indus Dictum)</i></span></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-90953923818114127342017-10-01T22:02:00.000+05:302017-10-01T22:02:34.014+05:30Openness In Judicial And Corporate Governance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"Eminent Indian lawyers view that video recording of the Supreme Court proceedings will help the common man to view justice delivered live, giving full expression to their fundamental right."</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">By <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></strong></em></h6>
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[… <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">continued from <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/30/propriety-is-key-to-citizens-quality-of-life/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Part-I</a></em>]</div>
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Developments in the last few days though have been very disturbing. Justice Jayant Patel, the senior-most puisne judge of the Karnataka High Court, who ordered CBI probe in the Ishrat Jahan case, has put in his papers in the wake of his transfer to the Allahabad High Court, ostensibly for overlooking him for appointment as Chief Justice of a High Court despite his seniority. Justice Jayant Patel has done the most honorable thing by putting in his papers. A High Court judge for close to 16 years – appointed in December 2001 – the treatment meted out to him is unfortunate. After having acted as the officiating Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court for 7 months from August 2015 to February 2016, it would have been appropriate to appoint him as a Chief Justice of a High Court. Instead, first he was transferred to the Karnataka High Court in February 2016; and now after being a judge for 17 months in Karnataka High Court and just 10 months away from retirement, he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court. His is quite similar to 1973 and 1977 cases of supersession of Supreme Court judges in the wake of judgments in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Keshavananda Bharati</em> (1973) and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">ADM Jabalpur</em>(1976) cases respectively – the only difference being that the Ishrat Jahan case is not as recent as the earlier two cases <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">vis-à-vis</em> the supersession dates. But memory is long and it pays not to forget! This shall doubtless go down as yet another sad day for the Indian judiciary.</div>
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But the appointment procedures were different in the 1970s, when it was entirely in the hands of the executive. Things changed with the introduction of the collegium system. The apex court asserted its primacy in the NJAC case. But to what effect? This one unquestionably is a complete failure of the Supreme Court collegium; it has failed to assert its independence by completely surrendering to the rampaging executive! Can one read any meaning to this? He had directed CBI investigation in the Ishrat Jahan case, and had also monitored it for 6 months and is there anything one can infer? This is more a failure of the higher judiciary (compared to earlier occasions in the 1970s) than as a triumph of the executive. The judiciary buckled, thereby ensuring executive’s supremacy! Rather ominous for the nation and the rule of law.</div>
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It is just as well that Dushyant Dave, the respected Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court has come out strongly against the failure of the collegium in the following words:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“Justice Patel’s resignation is a reflection on the vindictiveness of PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah. It is a sad reflection on the so-called independence of the Collegium which failed him and the judiciary by compromising with the Executive and agreeing to bypass him with juniors being elevated. The conduct of Collegium shows that their words in NJAC judgment are totally hollow.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Justice Patel has come out like a shining star while those who participated in his ouster have come out as small men. I salute Patel J. and extend my warmest wishes for happiness that he deserves which he can only find according to him, outside judiciary. Hope this raises a real debate on functioning of collegium and the injustices perpetrated by it.”</em></div>
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More than 200 lawyers of the Karnataka High Court have signed an open letter to the Chief Justice of India against the transfer and supersession of Justice Patel. They have also decided to strike work on October 4, 2017. Even the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association has passed a resolution to file a petition in Supreme Court challenging the transfer of Justice Patel from the Karnataka High Court to the Allahabad High Court. But what’s going to come off it? Your guess is as good as mine.</div>
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In the US, the President nominates and the Senate recommends after elaborate scrutiny by the Senate Judiciary Committee composed of lawmakers from both parties. It’ll be worth emulating the US practice with appropriate changes, which will likely inject transparency in higher judicial appointment. The same method could as well be followed for other constitutional and statutory offices, like CIC/ICs, C&AG, CEC/ECs etc.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_10329" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1608px;"><img alt="public governance series watermark part 1 cover" class=" size-full wp-image-10329 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="10329" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="public governance series watermark part 1 cover" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="1608,1080" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/30/propriety-is-key-to-citizens-quality-of-life/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Related: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/30/propriety-is-key-to-citizens-quality-of-life/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Propriety Is Key To Citizen’s Quality Of Life</a> by <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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Move over to another aspect: <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Live Streaming of Court proceedings</em>. Strange as it may sound, it is the US Supreme Court Justices who have opposed cameras in the courtrooms. Eminent Indian lawyers though view that video recording of the Supreme Court proceedings will help the common man to view justice delivered live, giving full expression to their fundamental right as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a). Justice delivered in real-time from the judges’ mouth and not from <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Twitter!</em> We are a mature democracy. Regardless of whichever part of the “globalville” we live in today, live-streaming will educate an information-hungry nation on issues that affect them intimately. It would mean doorstep delivery of justice, apart from being user-friendly, as we witness history being made in front of our eyes. It would also promote transparency and accountability in the administration of justice and inspire confidence in the judiciary. The cliché of “justice must not only be done but also seen to be done” will ring truer.</div>
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Several eminent lawyers opine that “other than criminal cases and family law where the privacy of an accused is compromised or a family dispute is required to be protected by privacy”, all other cases of constitutional importance could be live-streamed. Imagine viewing live the hearings in the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Triple Talaq </em>and the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Right to Privacy </em>cases. All the more reason since the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha proceedings are streamed live. Recall the much-loved, much-WhatsApped <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Caught in Providence</em> Chief Judge Frank Caprio, in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">An Honest Boy: I love this Judge</em>. Imagine the good that tiny clip can do to society. Much like tele-medicine benefiting patients in far-off places, live-streaming of court proceedings will, too.</div>
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Look around the corporate world and take one recent issue pertaining to reduction of price of stent in private hospitals. In February 2017, the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority </em>(NPPA) had capped the price of bare metal stents at Rs 7,260 per piece, and of drug-eluting and biodegradable stents at Rs 29,600 each. It was slightly increased to Rs 7,400 and Rs 30,180 respectively in March, after adjusting with the latest wholesale price index (WPI). Seven months after the government capped the price of coronary stents, leading to a cut in their price by about Rs 1 lakh, the hospitals are yet to reduce the package cost of an angioplasty – a procedure in which a stent is used to open a narrowed or blocked artery to improve blood flow. Insurance companies say that the expenditure for the procedure hasn’t seen a corresponding drop. Though the overall cost of an angioplasty is said to be cut by Rs 30,000-40,000, in reality the cutback in stent costs has been offset by an increase in the cost of other components for the procedure. How ethical is that? Doubtless, the hospitals need to be more transparent. Hospitals should make a profit, not a king’s ransom. Fair pricing, transparency is the need of the day.</div>
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Another correlated issue sucks: Niti Aayog’s recent <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20 </em>on <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Access to Medicines. </em>To say the least, it is disturbing. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“A balanced approach towards regulation is needed for achieving the twin objectives of access to effective medicines and a strong pharmaceutical industry,”</em> so says the Agenda document. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“There is a trade-off between lower prices on the one hand and quality medicine and discovery of breakthrough drugs on the other. It is therefore recommended that the Drug Price Control Order may be delinked from the National List of Essential Medicines.”</em></div>
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The Prime Minister and the Health Minister speak in one voice to reduce cost of medicines and plugging for generic drugs as the Niti Aayog speaks in another nuanced voice! Essential medicines, says the WHO are “those drugs that satisfy the healthcare needs of the majority of the population; they should therefore be available at all times in adequate amounts and in appropriate dosage forms, at a price the community can afford”. While the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) is a list of essential medicines in India prepared by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the Drug Price Control Orders (DPCO) are issued by the Government under section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, to enable the Government to put a ceiling price for such essential life saving medicines and ensure that these medicines are available at a reasonable price to the general public.</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_4776" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1920px;"><img alt="supremem court landscape watermark" class=" size-full wp-image-4776 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="4776" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="supremem court landscape watermark" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=780" data-orig-size="1920,984" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/03/oblong-arm-of-the-law/supremem-court-landscape-watermark-3/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark2.png?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Related: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/03/oblong-arm-of-the-law/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Oblong Arm of the Law</a> </strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">by</strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"> <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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That said, it might sound paradoxical to say that while generic drugs should be the order of the day, in today’s India few generic drugs pass the quality test. The 1980s and 1990s was a time of the generic drug “robber barons” thanks to poor laws and populist aspirations of the then governments bent on low drug prices sans quality of drugs. Little wonder India, though placed 4th in global generic drug market, has earned the ignominy of manufacturing 75 percent of world’s counterfeit generic drugs, soaring high above Egypt with 7 percent and China with 6 percent.</div>
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To be fair, the government indeed has, in April 2017, made changes to the Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1940, making it mandatory for genetic drug manufacturers to submit Bioequivalence (BE)/Bioavailability (BA) study reports for approval as against the earlier practice of merely submitting the BE/BA reports for genetics of patented drugs in the first 4 years of introduction. Nothing more is asked of them, thus making it a field day for genetic drugs to flood the market. Once in an indigo moon the finished drug was submitted for testing at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). Little wonder barely that 0.01% of the genetic drugs in the Indian market are tested for its potency and efficacy. So the amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (1940) is a welcome development. But the issue now is one of regulation and implementation. Anyone who has worked in the government knows its innards. The system is so apathetic and opaque that a complaint of poor/inadequate potency will keep meandering about in the corridors of government Bhavans; the callousness of our Brother Babus is phenomenal!</div>
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There can be no two views that the need is to increase the number of test labs all over the country in government medical colleges, increase the number of pharmacists/pharmacologists, put a strict testing process in place, and go transparent with test results by uploading them in public domain. Any complaint from a consumer must be attended to with a sense of immediacy and the same too put out on the website. But will the government bite such “dangerous” transparency that will jeopardise big pharma companies’ interest? I doubt if this will happen. To expect the government to seed a billion Lokpals to oversee is a pipedream! We are then back to square one despite the recent amendment to the Drug and Cosmetics Act.</div>
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Large pharmaceutical companies invest huge money in developing a new drug; the amount could be more than US$ 2-3 billion. Naturally they will like to get return on investment – through patent and royalty. India too seeks big bang R&D in drugs, and Indian firms are interested. Perhaps that explains why the government is speaking with a forked tongue: while the PM and his Ministers speak about mandating generics, the Niti Aayog suggests “<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">a trade-off”!</em></div>
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The Niti Aayog’s recent proposal to introduce the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Private-Public Partnership</em> model in select district hospitals only fortifies this suspicion. Some commentators view it “as ill-designed, driven by ideology more than welfare and a strange hybrid that has no precedent anywhere in the world, calling it strategic, bizarre or hare-brained”. The Aayog justifies space to private hospitals in “select district hospitals to private players through a transparent, competitive PPP framework for the treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by harping on failings of our publicly provided health services”, pointing at Gorakhpur tragedy. Rampant absenteeism of doctors – varying from 28 percent to 68 percent across different states – the Aayog cites copiously to show that government doctors contribute less effort <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">vis-à-vis</em> their private counterparts and they prefer to pontificate: Long-term measures to restructure the MCI are on anvil (Pray, who will? Remember Ketan Desai!); and observe that District hospitals will provide basic services for diagnosis and treatment of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">NCDs </em>“at affordable rates or free of cost for those patients for whom the government chooses to cover” through <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">insurance</em> or <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">budgetary grants</em>. The public exchequer will pick up the insurance and reimbursement tab. How generous!</div>
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[…<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">to be continued</em>]</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from the Indus Dictum)</i></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-20044908750165236522017-09-30T21:05:00.001+05:302017-09-30T21:05:56.922+05:30Propriety Is Key To Citizen’s Quality Of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"Serious governance deficit in Indian public policy is now a byword."</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">By</em> <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sudhansu Mohanty</em></a></h6>
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<img alt="public governance series watermark part 1 cover" class=" size-full wp-image-10329 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="10329" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="public governance series watermark part 1 cover" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="1608,1080" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/30/propriety-is-key-to-citizens-quality-of-life/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/public-governance-series-watermark-part-1-cover.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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Today perhaps we live in the most vexing time since independence – in a societal mindset where nothing seems to work normally; where ordinary activities that <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">should</em>be done <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">ordinarily</em> as a matter of routine, never get done. So seldom are such occurrences of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">ordinary</em> work that when they do actually happen on those chance occasions, they truly appear extraordinary – even surreal! So rare is the issue of honesty in public life that even when we come across an honest (but inept and inefficient) government official, we applaud him for his honesty. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“He’s but an honest man!”</em> we chime incredulously. As though he’s not supposed to be honest! As though that’s what the Conduct Rules prescribe for public servants! Such, sadly, is the depth and conviction of our collective social moral depravity!</div>
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As a democracy governed by the Constitution, the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">rule of law</em> with <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">separation of power</em>and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">checks and balances</em> and with four columns: <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">executive, legislature, judiciary, and the media,</em> each with its assigned role, as also to checkmate abuse of power and transgression of bounds by other columns, the dynamic action should have held to maintain social equilibrium while ensuring change and progress. What then has gone wrong?</div>
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Peel off the epidermis and see the hypodermis. The so-called dynamic action has morphed to dynamic<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> inaction</em>. James Boren, tongue-in-cheek once said: “<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder. A good bureaucrat is one who cuts the red tape length-wise!”</em> To it, add <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Robert Klitgaard’s</em> formulaic solution to corruption:<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> C(orruption) = M(onopoly) + D(iscretion) – A(ccountability)</em>. Let me wrap my ideas around these two formulae.</div>
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Serious governance deficit in Indian public policy is now a byword. Lack of transparency, age-old Indian tradition of promoting family/clan/sub-national loyalty, culture of materialism that’s gotten more pronounced with economic liberalisation in a globalised world, and the urge to get-rich-fast, are the ingrained basis for all distorted priorities. Ethics is at the heart of the problem.</div>
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A peek at the psychology and compulsions of the early man, and it’ll tell us that the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">raison d’être</em> of the social compact has been smothered – in the schematic social contract versus individual aspirations construct – and individual aspirations have triumphed. True, human aspirations and ingenuity have, from time to time, trumped compacts/contracts/rules; in short, regulations have failed the smothering primordial human urge to self-aggrandise. Are there lessons to learn here?</div>
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I wouldn’t know. The world has seriously changed with the internet highway and information technology, but I clearly see the vestiges of the past still colonising, even perpetuating most public acts. If I can’t still get over the shock of what, in my bureaucratic diapers in 1982, I’d seen – of how white ants ate away roadrollers or how cyclones were “manufactured” in the trans-Himalayan belt to score off inventories! – today I see variants of the same syndrome in new-fangled avatars. It’s as though we’re twiddling contemporary technologies with feudal habits!</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_7983" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1608px;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/26/push-for-national-integration/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><img alt="ambassador government delhi watermark" class=" size-full wp-image-7983 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="7983" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="ambassador government delhi watermark" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="1608,1080" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/26/push-for-national-integration/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ambassador-government-delhi-watermark.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: underline;">Related</span>: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/26/push-for-national-integration/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Push For National Integration?</a> by <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/tuktuk-ghosh/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Tuktuk Ghosh</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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Corruption, though, is not mere financial. As damaging as financial malfeasance is intellectual dishonesty, manifested in policy-making shrouded in official records. While financial misgivings are palpable, intellectual dishonesty – covert and subterranean – haemorrhages soundlessly till fixed; it skews and wrinkles public morality. The damage is incalculable. The clutch of scams and mega-scams that struck India circa 2008-12 evanesced citizen’s monk-like forbearance. Loss of taxpayers’ money apart, it showed how scams billowed to skew developmental agenda.</div>
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Propriety – financial and intellectual – is a key determinant of citizen’s quality of life. It encompasses legislation, governance, healthcare, education, commerce and business, agriculture and rural development, the justice system etc. Yet, the architecture of rule of law designed to fasten the order, often fails squelching unholy human impulses. Human nature – possessive, hedonistic, self-interested – has often trumped regulations. With the dishonest networked across professions, the countervailing institutions have failed, swaying to interest groups’ agenda. The people’s movement against corruption in 2011 for creation of Lokpal turned out a false dawn. Was it because the four pillars of democracy – executive, legislature, judiciary, and media – didn’t wish to disturb the applecart? How does such mindset affect governance?</div>
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Even 26 years post-liberalisation, the Indian rural folks still look up to government intervention for poverty alleviation. Governments hold the fund and welfare entities for the poor. For a feudal society with traditional bespoke mindset, state patronage remains the Holy Grail for majority aspirations. Nor are most men in the four organs of governance immune to quid pro quo: bought-out press and paid news; post-retirement sinecures; rewards and gratifications, are just a few examples. Socio-financial iniquities have burgeoned; unrest – born off a growing educated young middle class finding it hard to navigate opaque archaic government procedures and a corrupt officialdom in day-to-day living – leveraging technology and social media bristles asking moral questions: <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Doesn’t</em> it diminish human beings? <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Doesn’t</em> it breach basic human dignity?</div>
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The malaise is all-pervasive. In a way it’s natural, for regardless of profession, men are cut from the same societal cloth with symptoms of the same ecosystem. Look at the role of legislature and judiciary: Haven’t they been hubristic and for the highbrow as is often alleged, granting preferential treatment to the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">networked</em> and the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">connected</em>? How has the Supreme Court played its part in dispensing justice? Have judges transcended society’s feudal mindset? A host of recent cases come to mind: highway liquor ban, contempt notice to a former Supreme Court judge, national anthem case, judges seeking post-retirement employ, the delayed hearing in the Aadhaar case, to cite a few.</div>
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Restraint, rather <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">self</i>-restraint, is the authentic signifier of a mature institution. Absence of restraint even in the face of palpable injustice or manifest illegalities can corrode public confidence. The judiciary will do well to realise this. The rippling effect it creates in terms of revenue loss or employment as in the highway liquor ban case is simply beyond their ken to evaluate. The hubris of power to grant <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">complete justice</em> isn’t par for the course. Else, the very fabric of separation of power, one of the basic tenets of the Constitution, will be cast aside. For the protector of the Constitution, it is tantamount to the fence eating the crop!</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_8810" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1584px;"><img alt="bureacracy watermark" class=" size-full wp-image-8810 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="8810" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="bureacracy watermark" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=780" data-orig-size="1584,1056" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/11/ridding-bureaucracy-of-deadwood/bureacracy-watermark/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/bureacracy-watermark.jpg?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: underline;">Related</span>: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/09/11/ridding-bureaucracy-of-deadwood/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Ridding Bureaucracy Of Deadwood</a> by <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/julio-ribeiro/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Julio Ribeiro</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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As one columnist wrote,<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> “The judge’s role</em>,<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> in any version of constitutional democracy, is to be a gatekeeper of constitutional boundaries, an ever-vigilant defender of rights, not to author more restrictions on civil liberties… If this is the role judges seek for themselves, then they must make themselves accountable under judicial review. The immunity from judicial review under <a href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1643138/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Article 13</strong></a></em><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </em><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">is to reserve the interpretive authority of the court, given the inevitability of disagreement emerging over its interpretations, not to shield episodes of absurd judicial law-making.” </em>Have they then been the Caesar’s wife? How does the judiciary morally explain its dueling with the executive on appointment of judges through an opaque “collegiate system” when the Constitution consciously divvies responsibility between the two to avoid monopoly of either and grant fairness to selection? How fair is that? Does it pass muster of disinterested observers and provide oxygen to public faith?</div>
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In an interesting piece in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The New Yorker, </em>Evan Osnos refers to an article <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“On the intersection of health and politics”</em> published in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Brain</em>, the British medical journal in February, 2009, titled <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Hubris Syndrome: An Acquired Personality Disorder?</em> One of the authors was David Owen, former British Foreign Secretary, also a physician-neuroscientist; the authors propose creation of a psychiatric disorder for leaders who exhibited <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“impetuosity, a refusal to listen to or take advice and a particular form of incompetence when impulsivity, recklessness and frequent inattention to detail predominate.”</em>This seems to hold good across professions, across nations.</div>
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Historically, the United States has relied greatly on <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">checks and balances</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">freedom of expression</em> including <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">dissent</em>. Senator John McCain, the Republican who ran for president against Barack Obama in 2008, reinforced this tradition when he wrote in the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Washington Post</em>:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">“We must respect [President Donald Trump’s] authority and constitutional responsibilities. We must, where we can, cooperate with him. But we are not his subordinates. We don’t answer to him. We answer to the American people. We must be diligent in discharging our responsibility to serve as a check on his power. And we should value our identity as members of Congress more than our partisan affiliation.”</em></div>
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Sardar Vallabhai Patel once said: “Today my secretary can write a note opposed to my views. I have given that freedom to all my secretaries. I have told them: ‘If you do not give your honest opinion, then please you had better go’.” True protocol prescribes hierarchies, and offices carry authority. Yet the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">separation of powers</em>, the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">rule of law</em>, and the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">equal value of human beings</em> are fundamental principles of the Indian state, notwithstanding what we often run into in real life. This makes it important when officers and judges demonstrate loyalty to the Constitution and respect for the citizen’s fundamental rights! Justice H. R. Khanna perhaps is more well-known today for his dissent in the<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> ADM Jabalpur </em>case than any of his contemporaneous CJIs!</div>
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<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_4774" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px auto 2.188em; max-width: 100%; width: 1920px;"><a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/03/oblong-arm-of-the-law/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><img alt="supremem court landscape watermark" class=" size-full wp-image-4774 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="4774" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="supremem court landscape watermark" data-large-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=780?w=780" data-medium-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=780?w=300" data-orig-file="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=780" data-orig-size="1920,984" data-permalink="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/03/oblong-arm-of-the-law/supremem-court-landscape-watermark-2/" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" src="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=780" srcset="https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=780 780w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=1560 1560w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=150 150w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=300 300w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=768 768w, https://indusdictum.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/supremem-court-landscape-watermark1.png?w=1024 1024w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.8075em 0px; text-align: center;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: underline;">Related</span>: <a href="https://indusdictum.com/2017/08/03/oblong-arm-of-the-law/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Oblong Arm of the Law</a> </strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">by</strong><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"> <a href="https://indusdictum.com/tag/sudhansu-mohanty/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #e91e63; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudhansu Mohanty</a></strong></em></figcaption></figure><hr style="background-color: #e5e5e5; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.875em;" />
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Move over and see the mode of appointment of judges in higher judiciary, which has been the subject of much debate, not to forget the NJAC case. Not too well-known though is Justice Chelameswar’s letter to the earlier CJI put out in public domain in end-August 2017 – of how successive CJIs had “treated members of the collegium as supplicants” and how ‘informal meeting’ has transformed into a collegium meeting to nominate judges to the higher courts. To wit: “It is the law of this land that no meeting can be convened without a proper notice and an agenda, be it a meeting of a panchayat board or a cooperative society or a company or other bodies, statutory or constitutional. If you (Justice Khehar) believed these collegium meetings are beyond all principles of law propounded by their court, God save this country.</div>
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“If these discussions across the coffee table are to be treated by you as meetings of collegium where important decisions in discharge of the obligations arising from the Constitution are to be taken, I feel sad for this country. But I am of the view that such a procedure falls short of the legal requirements of a meeting. I believe collegium meetings are too solemn events to be conducted so casually.”</div>
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He inter alia writes in his 12-page letter that members of the collegium “are not participants in the decision making process but supplicants” making requests to the Chief Justice. “With great respect, I must tell you that it is not so. The judgment in the second judges’ case is the law declared by this court even today. It obliges the CJI to consult his collegium, either two or four, as the case may be depending upon the purpose of the consultation. Each participant is entitled to make suggestion and objection to the proposals. It is only after an appropriate discussion any final decision could be taken – not on personal requests of members of collegium and grace of the CJI… It is this understanding of the successive CJIs that the puisne judges (senior-most judges) who are members of the collegium (for that matter even others) are lesser mortals which creates all those problems which we are going through. Chief Justice is nothing more than first among equals. The other consulate judges, whether they are members of the collegium or beyond the collegium, are equal participants in the decision-making process, entitled to make suggestions and ask for information.”</div>
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Also responding to the CJI’s veiled threat to remove him from the collegium, Justice Chelameswar was categorical that the CJI wasn’t constitutionally empowered to do so. “I do not have to cite any authority for that. The second judges’ case not only obliges the CJI to consult the members of the collegium, it also obliges the CJI to consult in certain circumstances those judges of this court who are outside the collegium but well versed with the affairs of a particular HC as and when any decision regarding that HC is to be taken.” And, on the ex-CJI’s threat to expand the collegium, he wrote, “Membership of the collegium is fixed by a constitution bench of nine judges of this court and clarified by the third judges’ case. I am astounded to know that the CJI believes that such a position could be altered by a mere administrative decision. Such an authority was denied even to Parliament by the judgment of this court in NJAC case (a five-judge bench headed by Justice Khehar had by majority struck down NJAC).” Further that if any recommendations were forwarded by the collegium without his comments and if the government acted on it, “they would be utterly unconstitutional.”</div>
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[…<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">to be continued</em>]</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from Indus Dictum where it was published on Sept 30, 2017)</i> </div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-16319316999391025852017-09-19T17:52:00.000+05:302017-09-19T17:53:59.088+05:30Defence is an Important Ecosystem Amongst Many Others<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I must confess upfront that I was bemused to read
Arun Prakash’s piece (</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Agenda for the
Raksha Mantri,</i> <i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">IE/Sept 13, 2017)</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.
As a retired IDAS officer and a former controller general of defence accounts
(CGDA) and a former financial adviser defence services (FADS) in the MoD who
demitted office last year, let me put things in perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Democracy all over the world functions through a
universal principle of <i>separation of
power</i> and a system of <i>checks and
balances</i> to uphold the <i>rule of law</i>,
where no organ is omniscient and omnipotent. In India, we have four columns:
executive, legislature, judiciary and the fourth estate (media) – each with an
assigned role to play within its legitimate bounds to checkmate the other. Embedded
in each column, there's a system of <i>checks
and balances</i>. Finance is one such. Its role is integrated but putatively adversarial
(not my words but of eminent commentators), but a necessary one to carry out
due diligence of taxpayers’ money. Yet, despite all such sanguine architecture
to checkmate unholy impulses, we still have plenty scams, most notably the
AgustaWestland helicopter scam, where one former Air Chief Tyagi was jailed and
charge-sheeted. The middlemen are galore in MoD; doubtless they function with
insiders’ connivance and help. Keeping procurement clean is every stakeholder’s
job; and a system of checks and balances is dire. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prakash is right on the issue of lack of
expertise and domain knowledge on the part of most bureaucrats in the MoD and
this doubtless is an area that needs addressing. Bureaucrats with no idea of
the vast defence ecosystem must have a first stint at Deputy Secretary/Director
level – not as Joint Secretary, where work pressure is too high to leave room
to learn and acquaint. Training in Defence Services Staff College and National
Defence College too will help.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background: white;">But his vision is blinkered on the role of </span>IDAS officers' functioning
as “Integrated Financial Advisers” in<b> </b>the
MoD. Their role, as per finance ministry’s order of June 1, 2006 goes much
beyond assisting in “budgetary planning” and in “expediting financial
decision-making”.<b> </b>Their
role as rep of ministry of finance in the administrative ministry entails
examining issues from financial angle to ensure <i>value for money</i> and
improve <i>quality of expenditure</i>. It’s akin to a Chief Financial Officer’s
in a corporate structure: to ensure <i>fiscal prudence and sound financial
management</i> and to accord <i>priority to macro management in achieving the
outcomes</i> set by ministries as goals. They’re crucial for the successful
planning and implementation of various schemes/projects and to ensure <i>budgetary
integrity</i>. This needs to be understood. I concede many IFAs fail to fully
comprehend their role, failing to play their role – acting more as auditors.
They need to be a part of the issue/solution, not a part of the problem. But it
isn’t wise to deride their role and throw the baby with the bathwater. The need
to place right IFAs on merit by <span style="background: white;">invocation of a transparent arm’s length system
can’t be over-emphasized.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The
“advise” hasn’t been abandoned. No, not yet! Even at the cost of sounding
presumptuous, I’ll add that MoD (Finance) shoulders an outsized responsibility
in the ministry of all four departments, all the three Services and the many
inter-services organizations. It simply can’t abandon its responsibility; it’s
their credo of relevance, their bounden duty. This has nothing to do with <i>lying </i><i>in ambush as
“auditors” and waiting for someone to make a mistake before pouncing. </i>These are harsh, sweeping
generalizations, stemming from a complete ignorance of extant orders. Audit is quite
a distinct function, including internal audit that the IDAS officers and the defence
accounts department do as an aid to defence management, and is <i>always</i> done <i>ex-post</i>; it can’t be done <i>ex-ante</i>,
because it’ll be an anachronism. While it’s essential for bureaucrats to understand
the defence ecosystem, it’s equally imperative for the services to acquaint
themselves and appreciate government orders and civilian bureaucracy’s
ecosystem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nor is Prakash right in
saying that there is <i>an acute lack of
military expertise in the MoD and an absence of collegiate consultation between
civilians and Service HQ.</i><b> </b>The
contrary is the truth. From my own experience, I can say <i>ex cathedra</i> that at every stage including budget-making and
delegation of financial powers, there are discussions and dialogues galore,
apart from the structured collegiate decision-making in the contract
negotiating committee (CNC) for procurement of capital and revenue items. The
delay, when it happens, hence has to be shared by all –not the MoD alone. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let truth be said. There
are vast areas, which aren’t just cases of differing perceptions between the
civil and defence bureaucracies. There are many glaring cases of abuse of
personal entitlements (leave travel concessions/official tours and disability
pension) on the part of senior service officers pointed out by the MoD in the
recent past where actions by the services headquarters haven’t exactly measured
up to the impeccable standards they pretend to have set. These personal cases,
I guess, have festered over time and have become sore points now. And given the
visibility the ex-servicemen command in the media, little wonder these rants
spew out often in the public domain. Modesty forbids me though from
articulating and putting them out in the open. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As a mature society, it’s rather we accept it doesn’t pay to stridently
point fingers at each other – the MoD and the Services’ Hqrs. In a parliamentary
form of democracy, both work together under the direction and superintendence
of the political leadership, the people’s representatives. It’ll help to view
India holistically as one whole rather than in segmented parts, since the
responsibility of governing the nation is the PM’s and his council of
ministers, and they carry with them the whole burden of nation’s concerns in
other sectors (health, sanitation, agriculture, environment, HRD to name just a
few) that are just as important as any other like defence, home or external
relations. We need to live like one, rather than as an Indian twin-nation – <i>India</i> and <i>Bharat</i> – co-living in stark disparate pockets and differing stages
of human development. Living and thinking apart is far from ennobling – and
certainly not very edifying.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(</i>A redacted version of this piece titled<i> In Defence of the Bureaucrats </i>was carried in<i> The Indian Express, </i>September 19, 2017<i>)</i></span></span></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-83478736392477700132017-09-06T18:37:00.001+05:302017-09-06T18:37:41.628+05:30What Nirmala Sitharaman Can Do to Revamp the Opaque Defence Ministry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Lato, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22.6869px;">An overview of all defence scams and scandals can be traced to opacity and secrecy. Within the confines of confidentiality and secrecy, there is a need to inject transparency through disclosure and deterrence.</span></div>
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A new full-time defence minister – Nirmala Sitharaman – has been given charge at a time when the government has decided to implement several of the recommendations of the <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/arun-jaitley-clears-major-military-reforms-proposal/story-kiCT2DE958MhulJPRM8pGP.html" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Shekhatkar Committee">Shekhatkar Committee</a>. I will not touch upon them since I haven’t gone through the report (it is not available yet in the public domain), and it would be presumptuous on my part to comment on it. Instead, I’ll list issues I’m familiar with that are often missed by committees as either insignificant or plain uncomfortable, or for going beyond the terms of reference.</div>
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An overview of all scams and scandals in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would suggest that their origin can be traced to opacity and secrecy, shrouded in an obfuscating mix of technicalities and procedures. Opacity, born of secrecy, breeds manipulations. Much hullaballoo is made in the name of secrecy in today’s time, when the world, thanks to technology, knows what other nations (especially their perceived enemies) are acquiring. The services qualitative requirements (SQRs), field evaluation trials (FETs) and the porous system we have in place where selective (but crucial) information is conveniently leaked while officially remaining a secret can be largely redressed through a process of transparency. How the move towards growing openness and transparency can be calibrated and determined, and when and what can be uploaded, shall be a challenge that will need meticulous working out, including elaborate discussion within the MoD. But transparency is doubtless the answer to getting rid of scams and scandals in defence procurement.</div>
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This is not to say that all issues can – and should – be put on the Internet. But the possibility of sharing information among important stakeholders in the services intranet could be explored. Sunlight is the best disinfectant available and must be leveraged. Even <em>ex post</em> scrutiny of performance will put the fear of punitive action in public servants’ minds, perhaps leading them to desist from going through with their questionable ideas. Yet, within the confines of confidentiality and secrecy, there is a need to inject transparency through disclosure and deterrence. Given that most revenue non-salary procurements need to be done through e-procurement, as per subject orders, it is imperative that supply orders or contract agreements are generated in auto mode on a real-time basis and access to the same is made available to all stakeholders – such as a higher competent financial authority and an internal audit team. In such a scenario, the internal audit team will be enabled to do concurrent audits, facilitating payouts as soon as goods materialise and invoices are preferred to the paying authority.</div>
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Incurring expenditure on capital items through revenue procedure <span style="color: black;">(CBRP)</span>, which has been going on for about a decade, is a very questionable – even reprehensible – practice and must be stopped. The comptroller and auditor general has already flagged this issue. To me, the ideal thing is to merge the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) and the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) into one procedure, the DPP, and with the need for trial for established capital/revenue procurement items eliminated. It will put in place the same rigour for revenue items as for capital acquisition – something completely missing on CBRP items.</div>
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<strong>Leakage of government revenue</strong></div>
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Putting in place a mechanism to ensure that revenue generated through the commercial utilisation of defence land or buildings is credited to the government and to stopping the leakage of government revenue often escapes attention of the ministry. Given the size and resources of the organisations, the revenue is huge. Sadly, the bulk of the revenue generated through commercial utilisation of defence land is siphoned off to non-public/regimental funds, with a pittance credited to government accounts. What galls is the ingenious ways adopted: splitting the license fee into two – administrative charges (rebate) and license fee – the bulk (rebate) going to the non-public fund/regimental fund and a minuscule percentage (license fee) to the public exchequer. The Public Accounts Committee’s scathing observations on the loss of government revenue in 2013-14, directing the ministry to formulate policy within six months to realise government dues from the commercial utilisation of defence land, seem to have had no effect yet, even after four years. A rough estimate would point toward diversion of thousands of crore in the last few decades – possibly more, if indexed to present money value.</div>
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There is nothing wrong with considering rents and the lease of defence land, wherever there is an excess, for semi-defence/government/community use like technology parks, industrial areas etc., with appropriate earnings through user charges or lease rent. The prospect of categorising cantonments and making them cost-neutral centres, and also enabling them to become smart cantonments, must also be considered. Further, there is a need to mandate the use of alternate sources of non-conventional energy (including solar energy) as an alternative to the conventional energy consumption within the armed forces. The need for an energy audit wing in the services to review and suggest ways for lower consumption of energy cannot be overstated. Considering the vast availability of defence land, the use of solar energy in a large way would help align with government commitments towards efforts to reduce climate change.</div>
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With heavy capital expenditure being incurred by the ministry in the last ten years, the burden of maintenance for the systems acquired is going to weigh heavily on the finances of the ministry in the years to come. There a doubtless need to articulate a proactive policy for maintenance of inducted weapon systems, both Indian and foreign, keeping in view the Make in India policy initiated by the government. In this regard, there is a need to look at measures to streamline the process with respect to policies for maintenance (through Indian-deemed original equipment manufacturers or through foreign manufacturers or government-nominated agencies); develop a benchmark for cost of maintenance; and agree on escalation percentages with foreign vendors to bring down the repair and maintenance costs, as these vendors clearly seem to be taking advantage of monopolistic situations. An analysis could also be made to explore possibilities of opening these monopolistic items to Indian industry with an assured order to kick-start indigenous production of spares. The escalation percentage for annual maintenance cost of repair in dollar/rouble terms would need revisiting depending on the ratio of indigenous/foreign components and the dollar/rupee exchange rate, in view of the changed geopolitical dynamics.</div>
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In view of the increasing use of technology and higher life expectancy, there is a need to review possibilities of enhancing the retirement age at various levels to increase utilisation of manpower for a greater number of years. Considering the low age of retirement for <em>jawans</em> and officers, increasing the age by 2-4 years would be a great saving in the form of delayed payment of retirement benefits. Exploitation of trained and disciplined human resources discharged from the services early and rehabilitating them to utilise their competence in appropriate positions in civilian employ in the MoD for mutual benefits is one of the salient challenges confronting the services today. It will not only reduce the burden on pension liabilities but would also help in placement of personnel in a familiar ecosystem. Also, given the burgeoning pension burden that has already touched about 24% of the total defence budget in FY 2017-18, there is a need for the armed forces to join the National Pension Scheme (NPS) that has already been introduced for all civilian employees from January 2004. A separate NPS for the armed forces can be worked out, taking into account all elements of entitlements peculiar to the services. While on this subject of enhancement of retirement age, I must flag that it is rather surprising that the prime minister’s directive issued 14 months ago under Rule 12 of the Transaction of Business Rules, 1961 to increase the retirement age from 60 to 65 for CHS doctors hasn’t been invoked for Armed Force Medical Services doctors yet.</div>
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<strong>Ordnance factory and DRDO orders</strong></div>
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On DPSUs and ordnance factories<em>,</em> it is wise to tackle the root problems and address concerns. This is what needs to be done: tighten the standard estimates in DPSUs and ordnance factories, which is the matrix and an important cost determinant to set the tone for efficiency in a production organisation; timely revision of percentage of unavoidable authorised rejections as and when technological advancements happen on shop floors, to move towards greater efficiency and timely production; e-procurement; and backward integration with vendors through trust and open examination of vendors’ cost sheets to ensure quality of product(s), timely delivery, economy of expenditure and creating necessary synergy for harnessing future technology. Before apportioning the blame on ordnance factories for less production or delayed materialisation of items, it’s only fair and important to threadbare examine the reasons for the delay – year after year, in the last many years/decades – in the placement of indent, especially in its processing and approval in the MoD. Often indents are placed months after the production year has begun leaving no time for the ordnance factories to materialise the raw material required for production of the items, let alone produce them. This is not to overlook the frequent changes made by the services. These issues need serious and immediate attention.</div>
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The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) development processes and services’ requirements need syncing through joint ownership and accountability from the very beginning and till the goal/mission fructifies to create a convivial ecosystem for seamless jointness. Realistic project development costs (PDCs) need working out much as the flip side of time and cost overruns have to be capped through strict monitoring and adequate deterrence (financial and technical) to emphasise the importance of timely completion of tasks undertaken. Every instance of a delay in PDC needs to be owned conjointly and explained, deliberated by the DRDO and the concerned service. While the role of the DRDO ought to be exploited to the fullest by the services to achieve objectives of translating ‘Make-in-India’ into a reality, it is also absolutely essential for the DRDO to focus on critical core areas by ridding its deadweight avoirdupois that has procreated 50-odd labs/centres/institutes to fatten itself over the past decades. In the spirit of earning bang for tax-payers’ buck, the need to shun conspicuous consumption, to embed accountability by hugging Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management principles to ensure transparent fiscal management in revenue items like travel and office contingencies, better coordination between them and the three services/other departments of the MoD, cannot be over emphasised.</div>
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There is a need to delegate more and more powers to cut down on time without any value addition and make every layer responsible for their decisions. While the DFPDS-2016 has set the tone with higher delegation, it has also suggested <em>greater accountability through more transparency</em> by leveraging technology, duly aided by concurrent audit that will, throw up instances of bad/poor decision-making to act as deterrence on malfeasance/misfeasance and consequential mismanagement of public funds. Going forward, more innovative and non-intrusive ways of Internal Control Risk Management (ICRM) framework and oversight mechanism will need to be injected into this dynamic equilibrium/system.</div>
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And this is where the role of the Defence Accounts Department (DAD) assumes greater significance. Far from the public gaze and little known outside the ken of defence ministry, the DAD quietly audits defence services’ ledgers in the nature of internal check on defence receipts and expenditure. Helmed by the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), a Secretary-rank officer, it carries out internal audit of expenditure of army, navy, air force, ordnance factories, border roads, coast guard, CSD, and the DRDO, through a crisscrossing network of offices spread across the country.</div>
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Speaking from personal experience, more than 35 years ago, it was this mechanism that provided me insight into how cyclones are “manufactured” in trans-Himalayan belt or how road-rollers are “eaten away by white ants” and many such others, each as incredulous as the other. Yet, today internal audit remains fuzzy and wrapped-in – an everyman-for-himself and Devil-take-the-hindmost audit-auditee game – rather galling in times of transparency and legislative focus on outputs and outcomes. Doubtless there is a need to shift paradigm, to converge financial propriety, computerised accounting techniques, administrative mandate for good governance, and to refine skill-sets to make it a pulsating tool for concurrent corrective mechanism done transparently.</div>
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Yet beyond this audit function, the DAD is an important cog in the defence financial advisory system. The more the delegation, the more pivotal their role gets, and more the need for transparency. Sadly, all efforts made towards transparency have been flagrantly given a go-by. With no transfer policy in place for IDAS officers despite it being in the works the past two years, networking and nepotism are rife. This is indeed portentous especially in times of higher delegation and devolution of financial powers, when wrong selection of personnel manning these posts of integrated financial advisors can play havoc with the system and become the nurseries of future scams. Needless to say, invocation of an arm’s length system, long overdue, is extremely dire.</div>
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Budgetary outlays being an estimate of the likely expenditure for the financial years, there is always the likelihood that as the year rolls out, certain needs for spending funds on certain items budgeted for, are either less or found not necessary. The focus hence should be on the <em>quality of expenditure</em> through diligent scrutiny and not on the need to expend the funds on grounds that the budgetary outlays have to be spent since non-spending leads to lapse of funds – a sure sign of management failure, as is the common perception. Care has also to be taken to move out of the colonial mindset and the many relics of the past to make the organisations pulsating realistic set-ups, which, while reposing faith on incumbents to act in national interest as public servants, abhors invasion of market economy values into a regimental order. In short, outcome-oriented qualitative expenditure with clear deliverables (tangible and non-tangible) ought to take centre-stage rather than the quantitative utilization of budgetary outlays.</div>
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I’m aware that I’ll be accused of dissimulation if I do not highlight one other serious weakness of the MoD (as with other ministries): often there is much to be desired in the selection of the right personnel for senior posts. Defence is an extremely vast and an entirely different ecosystem with mixed and varied personnel drawn from very diverse services and backgrounds, and with (to just highlight a few) protocols and shibboleth exclusively its own vis-à-vis other ministries. This, by no means, is to understate the importance of and diminish the role and importance of other ecosystems. The first, even foremost, (naturally) is the familiarity with the subject of defence with all that it entails, and necessarily first-hand experience with the men and material. Unlike other ministries, technicalities are aplenty, the acronyms befuddling, and the vocabularies used arcane (or exotic depending on your familiarity) and nuanced for a novitiate. Dealing with huge public funds (about 17-18% of the union government’s budgetary outlay) as it were, also calls for integrity well beyond the financial – intellectual – because of the humongous spends on modernisation of services’ equipment/platforms spread over years, with likelihood of multiple cascades and with potential to ripple around.</div>
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While it would be invidious on my part to point fingers at the questionable acts of any personnel or organisation as an important stakeholder in the procurement process, I would merely allegorically allude to the fact that the distribution of opportunity has typically become an insider trade. Or how else can one explain the egregious “wrongs” perpetrated in the AgustaWestland procurement case when the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by the RM and with the three services chiefs, defence secretary, financial advisor defence services, DG (acquisition) and CISC as members, blundered through in their judgment – especially in the face of finance ministry’s serious reservations – to recommend the case for cabinet approval? Warped motivations and a sleight of hand of and the grime of corruption is all over the place – haemorrhaging quietly for years on end. Therein lies the nub.</div>
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Initiating reforms as suggested above could be done individually at the department/services level (bottom-up approach) or as a complete programme through a formal empowered mandate of the government (top-down approach). Given our national ethos and proclivity, even at the cost of sounding banal, I’ll like to stress that the quantum/levels of discretion must be highlighted to the implementers to minimise distortions. It would necessitate creating favourable conditions on the demand side (awareness, trainings, competence-building) as well as on supply side (e-recordkeeping, openness and transparency) to discourage abuse of discretion. The idea is to harness the ‘power’ of discretion by controlling and channelizing it in the direction the MoD intends taking with emphasis on Make in India, more indigenisation, need for innovation through strategic partnership, and holistic and ingenious recalibration of financial resources tempered with transparency. That would lend balance and pragmatism; it will require going into these aspects as also other co-related issues that are likely to surface on deeper scrutiny and analysis.</div>
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<em><a href="https://thewire.in/author/smohanty123/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Sudhansu Mohanty">Sudhansu Mohanty</a> worked as Controller General of Defence Accounts and then as Financial Adviser, Defence Services before retiring on May 31, 2016.</em></div>
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(Reproduced from <i>The Wire</i>)</div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-7235779104545219902017-08-20T00:54:00.000+05:302017-08-20T00:54:07.173+05:30Silence in Defence: Defence Ministry is haemorrhaging its own human resources<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All specialist and super-specialist human resources
are precious, yet internal dynamics seem more precious for the Ministry of
Defence (MoD). It has been more than 14-months since the Prime Minister ordered
to enhance the superannuation age of Non-teaching, Public Health Specialists
and General Duty Medical Officers sub-cadres of Central Health Service (CHS) to
65-years with effect from May 31, 2016, but this has had no effect on the MoD.
This is puzzling. The PM’s order issued under Rule 12 of the Transaction of
Business Rules, 1961, is rarely invoked as Departure from Rules. The urgency
can be seen from the Cabinet Secretariat most immediate ID dated May 31, 2016,
which, while conveying enhancement of superannuation age with immediate effect,
directed the Department of Health and Family Welfare (DoHFW) to seek ex-post
facto approval of the Cabinet. The DoHFW implemented the PM’s directive
immediately on May 31, 2016, as did the Ministry of Railways. Among other
ministries, Ministry of Home Affairs with a sizeable number of doctors working
in the Central police forces</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, NDRF-India, NSG, and SSB</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">too
implemented the same from June 30, 2016. Bafflingly, the MoD
hasn’t, yet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today Lieutenant Colonels (and equivalent in Air
Force/Navy) in the AFMS retire at 56, Colonels (and equivalent) at 58,
Brigadiers (and equivalent) at 59, Major Generals (and equivalent) at 60,
Lieutenant Generals (and equivalent) at 61 (with 2-year tenure) and the
Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) at 62 (with 3-year
tenure). Note the pensioning of the Lieutenant Colonels of
specialist/super-specialist non-combatant at 56! And 99.5 per cent of AFMS
doctors retire at the age of 59 or below</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">six years before their civilian counterparts! There
is an acute shortage of doctors</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">12–15 per cent</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in the AFMS. The recruitment scenario is gloomy
going by recent figures: of 2000 candidates who applied for 675 vacancies, 800
appeared in interviews, 300 were selected, and 175 joined</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">less than 26
per cent of the vacancies. Such is the dismal picture, yet such is MoD’s burden
of silence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Doctors are a rare human resource. Youngsters loathe
joining medicine due to long gestation period and delayed employment, apart
from the hard life it entails. Compare the medical graduates’ tuition fee with
engineering and the 4x higher fee for the former over the latter will exemplify
why doctors don’t fancy joining the AFMS. Not to speak of specialisation courses
(MD/MS) or the super-specialisation courses (DM/MCh), which today costs a bomb,
plus the 3+3 years consumed. The AFMS doctors can undertake the PG courses
after 4 years of service, the time they serve in field areas. Medical science
is stochastic; patients today bid fair to see specialists for their limbic and
neural issues. The Internet and smart phones have wizened them. Given their
regimented thinking, I can see the services headquarters sensing unease. How
doctors serving under them, work beyond their</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">including service chiefs’</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">superannuation
age? This is old paradigm, long atrophied</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">passé today. It stems from the hoary perception that
taking order from a junior in age, rank notwithstanding is improper. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The perception is invalid. Today in the services,
younger officers of higher ranks supervise elders lower in pecking order, due
to differentiated promotional timelines. It is endemic in organisations
encompassing multifarious expertise. Levelled field is a mirage. The services’
retirement age had always varied with doctors retiring at a higher age
vis-à-vis others. When services chiefs retired at 56, AFMS doctors retired at
60</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">since 1936. The retirement age of Major/Lieutenant Generals in army and
their equivalents in navy/air force has over the past years gone up to 60 with
the three chiefs presently retiring at 62. In the AFMS, the retirement age at
these two ranks has gone up from 60 to 61 with only the DGAFMS retiring at 62.
The issue goes far beyond this disquiet over perception. AFMS is a specialised
service</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">more healthcare than armed discipline. True, they’re part of the services
set-up and important support arms, crucial for the Services wellness. But they
belong to a different world</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of patient care, empathy, curing, healing. This
world demands different competencies/prescriptions, reason why the government
has given them an extended run. With similar job profile, what’s applicable to
the CHS is applicable to AFMS. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the
gander! There can’t</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and shouldn’t –be two different standards across
ministries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To retire AFMS officers at an age that’s lot younger
than their civilian counterparts is both discriminatory and a cumulative loss;
it inexorably haemorrhages precious resources. During a recent visit to two
central universities as member of the UGC-appointed team, I was bemused to
learn the vast difference in tuition fee (for all four-and-half-years) of a
government-funded MBBS course and a private one. While the government-funded
hugely subsidised course was Rs 1.5 lakh, the private institute’s was Rs 80
lakh. No mismatch for any professional course is more glaring than this. Not to
say of specialist/super-specialist courses, where the mismatch is equally
humongous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Transfer to the pension establishment earlier than
their counterparts paid from the same kitty is an irreparable loss of
government spends for making them graduates/specialists/super-specialists; it
tantamount to lateral brain drain of precious taxpayers’ human resources. Walk
into corporate hospitals and you’ll likely bump into former AFMS doctors
remunerated far higher than what they received in government. Public’s loss is
corporate gain, feeding the latter’s billowing profit off taxpayers’
money. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I recall the lack of appreciation of AFMS doctors’
role even inside MoD conveyed in a letter from Rear Admiral A. A. Pawar, then
Commandant, INHS Asvini, Mumbai. This was in 2015 when I was the Controller
General of Defence Accounts. The new delegation of power had caused serious
disquiet. His tone was one of exasperated injured pride. It was late evening
when I read this letter. As a cancer survivor who had spent months in hospitals
undergoing surgery after surgeries and associated treatments over an
excruciating five-year period, I was scorched. I put myself in the patient’s
shoes, visualising his pain and despair, and the rooted helplessness of
treating doctors. I’m happy we rid these anomalies in the revised delegation of
financial powers, 2016. Today’s issue too has the same ring of similarity: the
lack of appreciation of AFMS doctors’ role, typecasting them under the armed
forces overarching canopy and their cachet of regimentation. It’s time for
course correction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Services must appreciate the changed</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and
ever-changing</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dynamics of the specialised world we live in today,
and introspect to change their perception; and the MoD must mull over the issue
in a holistic vein and act</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to stanch soundless, even relentless, haemorrhaging
of rich human resource for the wellness of the armed forces and veterans who
look up to the AFMS for medical succour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(The writer
is former Controller General of Defence Accounts and former Financial Advisor
to Defence Services in the MoD. Views are strictly personal.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></i>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">(Reproduced from Millennium Post)</span></i></div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-91860466825890031092017-08-06T20:18:00.001+05:302017-08-06T20:18:55.260+05:30When Differential Approach and Differentiated Treatment Converge!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QUyNCd0B4tI/WYcqTKIDftI/AAAAAAAABJU/bQPztwd5cXsCpKXJgvpvXRuxpPpk00t7wCEwYBhgL/s1600/narendra-modi2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QUyNCd0B4tI/WYcqTKIDftI/AAAAAAAABJU/bQPztwd5cXsCpKXJgvpvXRuxpPpk00t7wCEwYBhgL/s320/narendra-modi2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--figure" id="9ae5" name="9ae5" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.157; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.018em; line-height: 1.22; margin: 39px 0px 0px -1.5px;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;">The allegation
against Justice Dipak Misra for illegally acquiring lease of land meant for <span style="color: #222222;">the landless poor</span> through <i>“misrepresentation” </i>and<i> “fraud”</i>
<span style="color: #222222;">has shocked the nation. One fervently hopes that
this doesn’t join the endless saga of corruption, but instead acts as a shining
beacon of hope that such misdemeanor and fraud shall no more be tolerated in
India.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
</h4>
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Let me begin with a <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Whatsapp</em> forward I’ve received recently titled <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">A New Zealander’s view on reason for corruption in India:</em><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"> </span>(Incidentally, New Zealand is one of the least corrupt nations in the world and there are plenty things for us to emulate.)</div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Indians are Hobbesian (Culture of self interest). Corruption in India is a cultural aspect. Indians seem to think nothing peculiar about corruption. It is everywhere. Indians tolerate corrupt individuals rather than correct them.</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">To know why Indians are corrupt, look at their patterns and practices.</em></div>
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<span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Firstly: </em></span><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Religion is transactional in India. Indians give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward. Such a plea acknowledges that favours are needed for the undeserving. In the world outside the temple walls, such a transaction is named “bribe”. A wealthy Indian gives not cash to temples, but gold crowns and such baubles. His gifts cannot feed the poor. His pay-off is for God. He thinks it will be wasted if it goes to a needy man. Indians believe that if God accepts money for his favours, then nothing is wrong in doing the same thing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible. Indian culture accommodates such transaction.</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Morally, there is no real stigma. An utterly corrupt Jayalalita can make a comeback, just unthinkable in the West.</em></div>
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<span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Secondly: </em></span><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Indian moral ambiguity towards corruption is visible in its history. Indian history tells of the capture of cities and kingdoms after guards were paid off to open the gates, and commanders paid off to surrender. This is unique to India. Indians’ corrupt nature has meant limited warfare on the subcontinent. It is striking how little Indians have actually fought compared to ancient Greece and modern Europe. The Turk’s battles with Nadir Shah were vicious and fought to the finish. In India fighting wasn’t needed, bribing was enough to see off armies. Any invader willing to spend cash could brush aside India’s kings, no matter how many tens of thousands soldiers were in their infantry. Little resistance was given by the Indians at the “Battle” of Plassey. Clive paid off Mir Jaffar and all of Bengal folded to an army of 3,000. There was always a financial exchange to taking Indian forts. Golconda was captured in 1687 after the secret back door was left open. Mughals vanquished Marathas and Rajputs with nothing but bribes. The Raja of Srinagar gave up Dara Shikoh’s son Sulaiman to Aurangzeb after receiving a bribe. There are many cases where Indians participated on a large scale in treason due to bribery.</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Question is: Why Indians have a transactional culture while other ‘civilized’ nations don’t?</em></div>
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<span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Thirdly: </em></span><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Indians do not believe in the theory that they all can rise if each of them behaves morally, because that is not the message of their faith. Their caste system separates them. They don’t believe that all men are equal. This resulted in their division and migration to other religions. Many Hindus started their own faith like Sikh, Jain, Buddha and many converted to Christianity and Islam. The result is that Indians don’t trust one another. There are no Indians in India, there are Hindus, Christians, Muslims and what not. Indians forget that 1400 years ago they all belonged to one faith. This division evolved an unhealthy culture. The inequality has resulted in a corrupt society, in India everyone is thus against everyone else, except God and even he must be bribed.</em></div>
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See the recent issue concerning appointment of the new CJI through the prism of these observations and ask if <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Differential Approach</em> and <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Differentiated Treatment </em>aren’t emblematic of all problems concerning our country today. Does it not vindicate the foreigner’s observation that Indians<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> don’t believe that all men are equal? </em>And hasn’t this <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">inequality resulted in a corrupt society in India </em>where<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> everyone is against everyone else, except God and even he must be bribed? </em>Why should one organ of democracy be accorded separate and special treatment? Any overriding justifications? Doubtless none. <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Differential Approach</em> for judges of the High/Supreme Court<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">,</em> as senior advocate Shanti Bhushan says, owes its origin to the<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> </em>Supreme Court, which while violating the statutory provision in the CrPC<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> </em>gave<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> “direction in its Constitution bench judgement in the Veeraswamy case of 1991 that no FIR would be registered against any judge without the permission of the Chief Justice of India. In not a single case has any such permission ever been granted for the registration of an FIR against any judge after that judgement.”</em></div>
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In effect, it upholds one of the two things: either all members of the higher judiciary were/are squeaky clean or there have been cases deserving of filing of FIRs but the CJI didn’t accord his approval. “<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? </em>Or in English:<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> “Who will guard the guards themselves?”</em> The guards themselves? Doesn’t it then give rise to institutional conflict of interest? Does it resemble elements of any modern democratic state based on cardinal principles of <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">separation of power</em> and <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">checks and balances</em> and believes in <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">equality</em> and <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">rule of law?</em></div>
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“The filing of that affidavit by Justice Misra is… a very serious matter” and cries out for an answer. This brings me to my next paradigm that is a besetting narrative of India: Did any <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Differentiated Treatment </em>spawned off<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> nepotism and venality </em>brooking no rules or unassailable principles for privileged people — well-heeled, well-oiled, and well-connected, well-networked — kick in when antecedent verification and police reports were done before his elevation to the High Court bench? I guess the same check too must have been exercised prior to his elevation as Chief Justice of a High Court and then the Supreme Court. How serious offence of<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"> “misrepresentation of facts”</em> and <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“fraud”</em> detected and indicted upon that led to cancellation of land allotment was overlooked not once but many times over, when the offence antedated every stage of police check? These are disturbing issues for our society and our governance apparatus. They speak volumes of our loose and porous governance ecosystem. Not to speak of the nepotistic spread and sway it commands like a potentate that sadly has reduced public service into one of private service and private interest. The lack of an arm’s length system and culture surely has helped such aberrations.</div>
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While it may be presumptuous on my part to draw inferences here in the case of Justice Misra, the ineluctable question that crops up and needs answering is this: How could a person, who, as per information available in public domain, made a false statement in a declaration, “which is by law receivable as evidence, and using as true such declaration knowing it to be false, are serious offences under Section 199 and Section 200 of the IPC, punishable with up to seven years of imprisonment and a fine” could be appointed as a High Court judge? What sort of antecedent check was carried out by the earlier collegiums and by the then government through their statutory investigating agencies when the CBI had recorded its conclusive findings against Justice Misra and the case had attained finality by nullifying allotment of the land leased to him? Of relevance here is the fact that in the recent past, the present government has rightly refused to agree with the recommendations of the SC collegium based on adverse intelligence reports against few of the names proposed by the latter. There obviously cannot be different standards and approaches. Now that adverse information against Justice Misra have come to light and put out in the public domain, the government must take note of these facts and information, and “right” the string of glaring past “wrongs” of (i) blatant shrouding of facts and details post-cancellation of land leased to Justice Misra; (ii) willful non-cognizance of information available on government records/documents against Justice Misra; and (iii) letting a “wrong” getting perpetuated time and time again over the past two decades and more. Agreeing with the CJI’s recommendation on the part of the present government will sadly tantamount to perpetuating the past “wrongs” with yet another egregious “wrong” added to it — only made worse many times over, in the wake of adverse information against the concerned judge already available and assiduously debated about in the public sphere. That will be extremely unfortunate and it shall obscure a chronic malaise that may be timelier to smother now than we would like to think.</div>
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The saga of Justice Misra career progression despite grievous wrongs amounting to <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">fraud </em>makes for a perfect case-study in law schools in India and abroad. It is now for the government and the Prime Minister to pluck the high-hanging fruit to “right” the “wrongs” committed thus far for institutions to emulate, so that the fear of an overarching check and balance architecture that’s inviolate bounces across the nation vociferously and unequivocally. Let me wind down by quoting the words of wisdom of Justice (as he then was) Khehar from the NJAC judgment: “The judiciary has to be manned by people of unimpeachable integrity, who can discharge their responsibility without fear or favour.” In his action the CJI may not have lived up to his own words, but as citizens we cannot but emphasize that <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;">people of unimpeachable integrity </span>must man the judiciary and without a shadow of doubt the man who helms it — the Chief Justice of India.</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from medium.com)</i></div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-19216868654621962392017-08-04T22:18:00.000+05:302017-08-04T22:20:56.514+05:30Land and Property as Distillate of Human Conscience<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">How much land does a man need?</em> Leo Tolstoy’s story of human avarice written more than 131 years ago in 1886 comes back to one’s mind now. Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed! Yes, that was exactly the area that Pahom’s servant dug to make a grave for him, as he lay on the hillock dead, blood spouting from his mouth out of sheer exhaustion in trying to acquire as much land as he could before the sun dipped into the horizon. It was our first year in Ravenshaw College in Cuttack we read this, a story told so unobtrusively in sibilant tone, yet said with such unmistakable telling effect that it remains a tinnitus in my head, conveying a universal message: love and greed for land — add buildings/apartments for good measure — have been man’s nemesis, and, I’m afraid, shall always remain that way. That’s human greed — emblematic of man’s epicurean self.</div>
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Travel no further back than 2010–11 and recall the Adarsh land scam details. How a housing society meant for Kargil war widows in Colaba, Mumbai was shamelessly appropriated by influential people — politicians, senior armed forces officials and bureaucrats! The <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptroller_and_Auditor_General_of_India" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptroller_and_Auditor_General_of_India" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="Comptroller and Auditor General of India">Comptroller and Auditor General of India</a>(CAG) in its Report had remarked that “The episode of Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society reveals how a group of select officials, placed in key posts, could subvert rules and regulations in order to grab prime government land — a public property — for personal benefit.” Ashok Chavan, the then Maharashtra chief minister lost his job, some bureaucrats were suspended and jailed for a few months, few service officers were charge-sheeted and proceeded against, but despite all the hullaballoo, the memory and lesson learnt from the scam (as with other scams) has fast faded away from public memory.</div>
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Around the same time, recall the events that were brewing around Justice Dinakaran’s case when he almost made it to the Supreme Court. The Chennai-based Forum for Judicial Accountability, in September 2009 had raised its voice against the then Chief Justice Dinakaran of Madras High Court. The issue again was illegal acquisition of land and it remained on the boil for good two years before he finally resigned from the post of chief justice of Sikkim high court on 29 July 2011 after the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha had admitted a motion for his removal. Interestingly, it was only after this that the Supreme Court collegium dropped Justice Dinakaran’s name for elevation.</div>
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Little before it was the turn of another judge of Calcutta High Court, Justice Soumitra Sen who quit when he found an impeachment motion staring him in his face. As a court-appointed receiver, he had kept the amount of about Rs 33 lakh in his personal account. With the benefit of hindsight, one can say that Justice Soumitra Sen’s act, unacceptable and unbecoming, was far less serious than what has now come to light concerning Justice Dipak Misra.</div>
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Let me briefly recapitulate Justice Misra’s case that dates back to 1979 when he was an advocate in the Orissa High Court. In order to provide succour to the poor and landless, the government of Orissa had come out with a policy of leasing land to them based on certain criteria. In the government notification, a landless person was defined as “…one who and his family members do not hold land more than two acres and who have no profitable means of livelihood other than agriculture…” To make himself eligible as a recipient for the leased land meant for the landless, Justice Dipak Misra in his affidavit tried subverting the rule to subserve his personal interest by testifying that: <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“…</em><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">the extent of landed property held by me including all the members of my family is nil</em></span><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">.” </em>This <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Nil</em></span> landed property was later found to be false; he had in another affidavit to the government of Orissa had sworn that his family owned 10 acres of land. Consequently, the lease granted for a “fodder farm” as reported, was cancelled on February 11, 1985, in proceedings under the Orissa Government Land Settlement Act, 1962 with the additional district magistrate of Cuttack indicting unequivocally that “…I am satisfied that the lessee has obtained lease by <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">misrepresentation</em></span> and <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">fraud</em></span>.”</div>
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This indeed is serious indictment — because the intent to mislead and circumvent the rule is unmistakable, as can be seen from the <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;">CBI’s closure Report of May 30, 2013</span>. Shanti Bhushan, senior advocate and former union law minister, is forthright in his observations: “A false statement made in declaration, which is by law receivable as evidence, and using as true such declaration knowing it to be false, are <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;">serious offences under Section 199 and Section 200 of the IPC, punishable with up to seven years of imprisonment and a fine.</span> The filing of that affidavit by Justice Misra is thus a very serious matter.” Despite all this, how he was considered for a judgeship where police verification and antecedent checks are crucial and mandatory speaks volumes of the system we have in place.</div>
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Against this background, it would be clear that it was imperative for the CJI to set up an in-house inquiry committee to investigate the case for, paradoxical as it may sound, this is where we enter into an exclusive and sequestered territory. The Supreme Court has directed in its Constitution bench judgment in the Veeraswamy case of 1991 that no FIR would be registered against any judge without the permission of the CJI. In a case as egregious as this, with the CJI not instituting an in-house inquiry and instead recommending him as his successor, coupled with no limitations placed by the Constitution (or any SC judgments) or the Memorandum of Procedures, it’ll naturally be incumbent upon the elected sovereign government to set things right to ensure judicial rectitude, as enjoined upon in the Constitution and its values, which they have been sworn to uphold.</div>
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Perhaps it is all the more imperative — and let me say this in parenthesis — because should one look at the issue of false affidavit through a psychologist’s eyes, one will discern that the tendency to mislead with the intent to circumvent the rule/procedures to make personal gains is doubtless a part of a person’s DNA and make-up that shall refuse to go away and always stay with him, surfacing as and when opportunities present themselves. Land and property are indeed the distillate of human conscience. Human beings by nature are obsessive, possessive individualists. The lack of transparency and professionalism in India, coupled with the age-old Indian tradition of promoting sub-national/clan/family loyalty — the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">sub-culture of biradiri</em> in the larger template of the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">culture of materialism</em> that’s gotten more pronounced with economic liberalization in today’s globalized world to get-rich-fast — have sadly distorted our priorities. Ethics is at the heart of the issue, more for a judge, still more for a Supreme Court judge — and doubtless many times over for the CJI. Ethics and morality are attributes that can neither be compromised nor wished away in public service, as the Supreme Court itself had rightly observed in the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Second Judges case</em> (1993) that “…persons of unimpeachable integrity alone are appointed to these high offices and no doubtful persons gain entry.”</div>
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Must then the President, and the council of ministers headed by the Prime Minister to aid and advise him, not scrupulously follow the extant SC order in the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Second Judges case</em> (1993) and ensure that the Supreme Court lives up to its own judgment so that its image of being unimpeachably fair and transparent shines through as a exemplar for other democratic institutions in the country to emulate?</div>
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<span style="font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.063px;"><i>(Reproduced from medium.com)</i></span></span></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-63225399286716111432017-07-31T22:11:00.000+05:302017-07-31T22:15:21.684+05:30An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India: Let Transparency and Openness Prevail<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Respected and Hon’ble Prime Minister,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Let me at the outset most humbly say that there is
nothing personal and <i>ad hominem</i> about
the issue raised in this letter. Also a DISCLOSURE upfront: <i>I know none of the eminent people referred
here; neither have I ever met – even seen – them, personally or in a gathering
– social or official or in the courtroom.</i> The issue discussed concerns
institutional integrity and rectitude of a revered institution as the Supreme
Court of India that we citizens of this country look up to and repose boundless
faith in to uphold public ethics and the rule of law. Hence this open letter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">I must
admit it is with a</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">sense of great disquiet
and dismay that I write to you, consequent to the CJI Justice J.S. Khehar’s
recommendation of Justice Dipak Misra’s name as his successor. It is both
surprising and intriguing, because as has been reported</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">in the media, there is an ongoing case against
Justice Misra for fraudulently and through misrepresentation of facts acquiring
land in 1979 when he was an advocate. The DNA newspaper only a few days ago on
July 17, 2017 had broken this news on its front page and reported that “A three-member
committee of judges, constituted by the Supreme Court to conduct an in-house
inquiry against two sitting judges of the Orissa High Court, has halted its
proceedings after the name of a senior Supreme Court Justice cropped up during
the course of the probe,” and that “The panel, headed by Punjab and Haryana
High Court Chief Justice SJ Vazifdar, has now written to the Chief Justice of
India for guidance and directions.” Soon thereafter the news was picked up by
other newspapers and magazines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The charges violate the high judicial ethics and
values that judges are expected to follow. Shortly after the CJI had sent his
recommendation to the government, the <i>CatchNews</i>
reported that there is a <i>“Cloud over Dipak Misra as Chief Justice: ICJ
claims he is tainted”</i> and “there
is a roadblock that must first be passed before such an appointment is made…
The obstacle in Misra's path is the International Council of Jurists (ICJ),
which has sought a probe against alleged irregularities during his career. ICJ
also plans to approach the Centre to oppose his appointment. ICJ had submitted
a petition urging Justice Khehar to appoint an in-house committee consisting of
Supreme Court judges to look into allegations of Justice Misra’s alleged
involvement in a land scam in Orissa while he was an advocate.” The news portal
<i>The Wire</i> has also in an article
titled <i>“</i></span><i><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Old Land Allotment Case Casts Shadow on Justice Dipak Misra’s
Nomination as CJI”</span></i><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">published on July 31, 2017, brought out the facts of this case.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It is not for me to go into the details of the alleged
land scam involving illegal transfer of large tracts of government land which
Justice Misra is alleged to have acquired with false declarations. Nor the CBI
report placed before the Orissa High Court which allegedly had indicted him for
“fraudulently” acquiring the plot of land in Cuttack. Nor the fact that, as
alleged, he wrongly held on to the land till 2013, even after his elevation to
the Supreme Court and even after the CBI had indicted him, and only “quickly
gave up the possession of the land to save himself.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">What’s troubling is that the Supreme Court as an
institution seems to be following different standards in matters of appointment
– one for the oligarchy of the robes, and one for all other institutions. Let
me elaborate. In March 2011, a Bench headed by the then Chief Justice S.H.
Kapadia and two other judges set aside the appointment of P.J. Thomas as CVC on
the ground that “</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">eligible persons should
be without any blemish whatsoever and they should not be appointed merely
because they were eligible to be considered for the post.”</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> This was despite
the fact that Thomas had been appointed as per recommendation of a high power
committee (HPC) of three, headed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Justice
Kapadia, who wrote the judgment, held the HPC's decision invalid and the
Supreme Court had also inter alia directed that:</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">i.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">All… persons empanelled should be outstanding… <b>persons of impeccable integrity</b>.</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">ii.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The empanelment should be… <b>on the basis of rational criteria, which has to be reflected by
recording of reasons and/or noting akin to reasons by the empanelling authority</b>.</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">iii.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The empanelling authority, while forwarding the names
of the empanelled …persons, should <b>enclose
complete information, material and data of the concerned officer/person,
whether favourable or adverse. Nothing relevant material should be withheld
from the Selection Committee.</b></span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">iv.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The Selection
Committee may adopt a <b>fair and
transparent process</b> of consideration of the empanelled officers.</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The
Court had further observed that it was <i>concerned
with the <b>institution and its integrity</b>
including institutional competence and functioning and not the desirability of
the candidate alone who is going to be the Central Vigilance Commissioner,
though personal integrity was also held to be an important quality. It
reiterated that the independence and impartiality of the institution like CVC
which had to be maintained and preserved in larger interest of the rule of law
[Vineet Narain case].</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The
decision of the Supreme Court to inject transparency in appointment to high
public offices was indeed praiseworthy. The conditions it laid down for
empanelment too was unimpeachable and beyond reproach. Those were for a
statutory post of CVC. Here though the concern is for the constitutional high
office of Chief Justice of India. If CVC is an extremely important office for
monitoring propriety in public office, the office of the CJI, encompassing as
it does today almost all aspects of citizens’ life, is an office like no other.
Interestingly, the Constitution is silent on the processes to be followed in
appointment of the CJI. Conventionally though the retiring CJI recommends the
name of the senior-most judge for appointment by the President of India as
his successor. This too has been incorporated in the Memorandum of Procedure –
all the more reason why the SC’s directions in the CVC appointment case becomes
binding on the CJI. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Today,
“We, the people of India…” look up to the Supreme Court with awe and respect.
This unqualified and abiding faith puts an onus on the Supreme Court as an
institution and especially on the CJI as a person holding this high office. Given
this backdrop, one wonders if the CJI has followed the spirit and directions of
this very august court he helms today, in recommending the name of his
successor to the government. This assails a citizen’s mind today, as brought
out below.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">i.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">In
the light of the DNA’s news of July 17, 2017 about the Supreme Court-appointed
3-member in-house panel headed by Chief Justice Vazifdar seeking the CJI’s
guidance, how has the CJI established that all the above conditions have been
fulfilled? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">ii.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Placing reliance on non-availability of
information in the public domain, </span></em><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">about directions provided to the in-house panel headed
by Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Vazifdar and more importantly
even before the issue concerning Justice Misra has been probed by a Supreme
Court committee and found to be without any basis, doesn’t the CJI’s recommendation
become <i>non-est in law,</i> as the bench
of Chief Justice Kapadia had held in the case of appointment of P.J. Thomas as
CVC? Ironically, the power to grant permission to proceed against any judge of
the Supreme Court/High Court lies on the CJI. Recall how the Supreme Court has
dealt with the statutory provision in the CrPC, which while making corruption a
cognizable offence requires that whenever an FIR is filed, it is the statutory
duty of the police to investigate the offence, collect evidence against the
accused, and charge-sheet him in a competent court and, if found guilty, deal
with it appropriately. To recall Shanti Bhushan, the respected senior
advocate’s words:<i> “The Supreme Court has
however by violating this statutory provision in the CrPC given a direction in
its Constitution bench judgment in the Veeraswamy case of 1991 that no FIR
would be registered against any judge without the permission of the Chief
Justice of India. In not a single case has any such permission ever been
granted for the registration of an FIR against any judge after that judgment.” </i>This
is closeted and <i>“cloistered justice”</i>
at its very best that is not open to <i>“suffer
the scrutiny and outspoken comments of ordinary men”</i> and institutions. That’s
the nub of the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">iii.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Since
the issue raised by Justice Vazifdar panel seeking guidance hasn’t been
addressed yet by the CJI, does the latter’s recommendation of his successor’s
name not tantamount, by implication, to brush aside the concerns expressed by
the panel, and bringing a closure to the case? Sadly his action echoes the
concerns articulated by Shanti Bhushan, who in his 2010 affidavit had</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> publicly stated that out of the last
16 Chief Justices of India, eight of them were definitely corrupt:<i> “…that the
judiciary has adopted the policy of sweeping all allegations of judicial
corruption under the carpet in the belief that such allegations might tarnish
the image of the judiciary. It does not realize that this policy has played a
big role in increasing judicial corruption.”</i> Are we institutionalizing this
practice?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">iv.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">How
has the Supreme Court’s prescription in their 2011 CVC judgment <i>with regard to institutional integrity and
institutional competence and functioning, apart from personal integrity,</i>
been addressed? This too is unclear and hence very disturbing.<i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">v.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">While
it will be presumptuous on one’s part to second guess the content of his letter
recommending his successor, one can safely conclude that the CJI hasn’t yet set
up any in-house enquiry committee to examine the issues. Nor has he possibly
given any direction to the Justice Vazifdar panel. Must we then, in the absence
of information available in public domain, conclude that there are two
standards for appointments to high public offices in vogue: one for the
judiciary, the other for other institutions? If it’s so, isn’t that unfair and
inequitable?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">vi.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">My
mind, disquiet and far from stilled, travels back to <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Justice C.K. Prasad’s judgment, which in 2014 had created a nationwide
controversy. As reported, he pulled out the 35-hectare Cidco prime land
allotment case of public land originally listed before a three-judge SC bench,
and on an oral plea, decided within a couple of minutes a 12-year-long battle,
at a throwaway price of Rs 33 crore in favour of the winning bidder. The market
value of the 35-hectare land was said to be about 100 times more – so glaring
was the case that it prompted senior lawyer Dushyant Dave to question the
bench's judicial propriety. It is this aspect of institutional integrity that
Justice Kapadia had laid emphasis on in his March 3, 2011 CVC judgment. The CJI
is much more than the primus inter pares vis-a-vis other SC judges. He
exercises administrative powers, assigns cases to other SC judges and thus
plays an extremely important role in the nation’s judicial life. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now, it’s for you, Hon’ble Prime Minister, as the head of the
government, to act and do the appropriate course correction. Para 2 of the Memorandum
of Procedure amply makes it clear that it is for the government to decide and own
responsibility for the CJI’s appointment. Let
Transparency and Openness prevail in public governance. We fervently
hope you will ensure that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">With kind regards,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yours sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sudhansu Mohanty</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>(Reproduced from medium.com)</i></span></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-37690514073001213762017-07-24T07:27:00.000+05:302017-07-24T07:27:46.000+05:30An Open Letter to the Chief Justice of India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qcPgTBz72KA/WXTqxyAuRAI/AAAAAAAABFg/yvQUH9b5wBkYMXKnPzjvKDEZuV-PRWBSQCLcBGAs/s1600/SC_CJI%2B%2528703x459%2529%2B%2528703x459%2529%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="703" height="208" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qcPgTBz72KA/WXTqxyAuRAI/AAAAAAAABFg/yvQUH9b5wBkYMXKnPzjvKDEZuV-PRWBSQCLcBGAs/s320/SC_CJI%2B%2528703x459%2529%2B%2528703x459%2529%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Respected and Hon’ble CJI Justice Khehar,</div>
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As a concerned senior citizen who is a former civil servant and retired last year at the apex level of bureaucracy, I write this letter with great anguish and with a stab of pain in my heart. All my life I have fought against corruption and dishonesty, including the not-so-visible and not-so-palpable part of intellectual dishonesty in public life. Frankly, it wasn’t one bit easy for me, but I persevered nonetheless and regardless of my professional career. Hence I thought I must share my thoughts that disturbs me no end and, which, you, as the CJI, are in a position to address.</div>
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The DNA newspaper on July 17, 2017 broke the news on its front page that “A three-member committee of judges, constituted by the Supreme Court to conduct an in-house inquiry against two sitting judges of the Odisha High Court, has halted its proceedings after the name of a senior Supreme Court Justice cropped up during the course of the probe.” And that “The panel, headed by Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice SJ Vazifdar, has now written to the Chief Justice of India for guidance and directions.” Soon thereafter the reputed legal news magazine <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Bar and Bench </em>picked up the story and inter alia reported that “Flummoxed at this development, the three member panel of high court judges, headed by Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice S.J. Vazifdar has written to CJI Justice Khehar seeking his guidance. The panel has stated that despite allegations of the Supreme Court judge’s proximity to these two judges, it is unable to proceed because its mandate excluded probing charges against a sitting Supreme Court judge.” On 18.07.2017 the Times of India also carried the same news item under the caption <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Graft probe against HC judges has panel in a fix</em>.</div>
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You will agree that of the four putative pillars of democracy, in India the one institution that cries out for immediate reform, perhaps more than the other three — executive, legislature and media — is doubtless the judiciary. Because today judiciary has become ubiquitous — omnipotent in its sweep, omniscience in its wisdom and prescience, omnipresent in every walk of life that affects a common citizen. Open any newspaper or surf any TV channel or browse the net and you will get to read or hear the erudite words of learned judges of the Supreme Court or one of the High Courts. The faith in judiciary and especially the apex court is, as is supposed to be, unflinching, full and absolute. We ordinary citizens look up to the Supreme Court with great faith and respect, something not ordinarily accorded to other organs of governance.</div>
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Appropriately, therefore, this blind, undying faith puts an onerous responsibility on the Supreme Court as an institution and especially on you who helms the same as the CJI. But recent developments, even the developments in the past few decades, do not fortify the citizen’s faith. I can do no better than bring to your attention a few of the averments <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">(given below in italics)</em> made in an affidavit by Mr. Shanti Bhushan, the respected senior lawyer — who in 2010 while impleading himself in the case publicly stated that out of the last sixteen Chief Justices of India, eight of them were definitely corrupt — when he wrote those immortal lines on the need to enforce judicial rectitude, and pleaded that he <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“be added as a respondent to this contempt petition so that he is also suitably punished for this contempt. The applicant would consider it a great honour to spend time in jail for making an effort to get for the people of India an honest and clean judiciary.”</em> I have no idea what came of the case. Since nothing is available in public domain, I assume perhaps no corrective action has been taken by the apex court yet.</div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“…that the judiciary has adopted the policy of sweeping all allegations of judicial corruption under the carpet in the belief that such allegations might tarnish the image of the judiciary. It does not realize that this policy has played a big role in increasing judicial corruption.”</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“That the Constitution prescribed removal by impeachment as the only way of removing judges who commit misconduct since it was believed at the time of the framing of the Constitution that misconduct by judges of the higher judiciary would be very rare. However those expectations have been belied as is apparent from the surfacing of a series of judicial scandals in the recent past. The case of Justice V. Ramaswami and subsequent attempts to impeach other judges have shown that this is an impractical and difficult process to deal with corrupt judges. The practical effect of this has been to instill a feeling of impunity among judges who feel that they cannot be touched even if they misconduct.”</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“That corruption by judges is a cognizable offence. The Code of Criminal Procedure requires that whenever an FIR is filed with respect to a cognizable offence, it is the statutory duty of the police to investigate the offence. The police has to collect evidence against the accused and charge-sheet him in a competent court. He would then be tried and punished by being sent to jail. The Supreme Court has however by violating this statutory provision in the CrPC given a direction in its Constitution bench judgement in the Veeraswamy case of 1991 that no FIR would be registered against any judge without the permission of the Chief Justice of India. In not a single case has any such permission ever been granted for the registration of an FIR against any judge after that judgement.”</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“That the result of this direction has been that a total immunity has been given to corrupt judges against their prosecution. No wonder that judicial corruption has increased by leaps and bounds.”</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“That an honest judiciary enjoying public confidence is an imperative for the functioning of a democracy, and it is the duty of every right thinking person to strive to achieve this end.”</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“That unless the level of corruption in the judiciary is exposed and brought in the public domain, the institutions of governance cannot be activated to take effective measures to eliminate this evil.”</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">“That it is the common perception that whenever such efforts are made by anyone, the judiciary tries to target him by the use of the power of contempt. It is the reputation of the judge which is his shield against any malicious and false allegations against him. He doesn’t need the power of contempt to protect his reputation and credibility.”</em></div>
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Today citizens of this country know that the malaise runs deep. An advocate indulging in crass shenanigans gets elevated through the collegium system, a system which doubtless was established with all good intent, but quickly degenerated to one of give-and-take so much so that the author of the collegium system, the revered Justice J.S. Verma had regrets about its efficacy. Imagine there are no records of collegium meetings available! Recall how not too long ago, Justice Chelameswar, one of the collegium members, had dissented and raised his voice against the prevalent practice and demurred to attend meetings of the collegium; and instead wanted views to be recorded on files. Never in my fallible memory of government past, working in the much maligned Indian bureaucracy, did I ever see any decision of value, let alone important decisions, not recorded or views not expressed and controverted, even dissented openly. The sad thing is everyone knows what goes on in judiciary. Almost everyone talks about it in high-pitched exasperating decibels in private confabulations but stops short of saying so even in whispered tone in public — lest they crossed the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">lakshman rekha</em> and breached the contempt law. Because there is no appeal beyond the apex court — no matter how right or wrong such orders are. Ask the honest, no-nonsense, upright and knowledgeable former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju!</div>
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This calls for extreme caution and self-restrain. You know better than I do Lord Atkin’s immortal lines, “Justice is not a cloistered virtue. It must suffer the scrutiny and outspoken comments of ordinary men”. Especially in today’s time when the clamor for transparency in public life is surging ahead.</div>
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Look at the sorry state of judiciary’s functioning. The judges refuse to bring the Supreme Court Registry under the RTI purview; Justice A.P. Shah, a rare independent and conscientious judge of unimpeachable integrity is not elevated to the apex court because he was perceived as too independent, too impartial, and too honest for anyone’s comfort. Whither are we bound? Judiciary is mandated to uphold the rule of law, to speak the moral vocabulary with its internal moral compass perennially ticking to dispense justice; what happens when the upholder of the law starts eating the crop!</div>
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If my memory serves me right, some six-eight months ago, the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Economic Times</em>had carried news about a Supreme Court judge acquiring land in a fraudulent manner or by misrepresentation of facts and continued to hold the same even much after his elevation. I don’t even know if the present case concerns him. I didn’t know till moments ago the name of the judge, but I have wised up now, but given the sensitivity and that the charges are yet to be looked into, I do not wish to commit solecism by disclosing the name. But all these past months I didn’t hear anything in the media. Nor, if the matter was at all inquired into by the Supreme Court to get to the bottom of the complaint. This is what citizens of this country would expect from public officials, more so from a judge of the apex court. We aren’t a banana republic after all!</div>
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Your Lordship, as the CJI the ball is in your court now. Given that, as things stand today, no FIR can be registered against any judge without the permission of the Chief Justice of India, I would urge and plead with you to appoint a Committee comprising of a few senior judges of the Supreme Court with the direction to carry out an immediate in-house inquiry to find out the truth. It has to be immediate — Justice delayed is justice denied! — and your decision in the matter put out in the public domain to restore citizens’ faith in the judiciary. I will humbly like to nudge you to remember the first and the last codes of <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;">RESTATEMENT OF VALUES OF JUDICIAL LIFE, as adopted by Full Bench of Supreme Court on May 7, 1997.</span></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Justice must not merely be done but it must also be seen to be done. The behaviour and conduct of members of the higher judiciary must reaffirm the people’s faith in the impartiality of the judiciary. Accordingly any act of the judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court, whether in official or personal capacity, which erodes the credibility of this perception, has to be avoided.</em></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">Every Judge must at all times be conscious that he is under the public gaze and there should be no act or omission by him which is unbecoming of the high office he occupies and the public esteem in which that office is held.</em></div>
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If the alleged judge is innocent the public must know; if found guilty, he should be dealt with the severest punishment that can be sanctioned against a public official and a Supreme Court judge at that, so that the exemplary punitive action meted out rings down the corridor of Indian nation and democracy that prides in its rule of law. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. After all, judges, given the important role they play in a nation’s life, are expected to follow the punctilio of a higher code and, as the saying goes, judges must like Caesar’s wife be absolutely and always above board. And all along, we as citizens and you occupying one of the highest offices in this nation need to stay ineffably humble regardless of the position we hold and the perch we speak and act from, and chant the prescient words of Thomas Fuller, the 17th century English churchman: “Be you ever so high the law is above you”!</div>
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Your Lordship, as I said before, it is now your turn to act and make the right move. We wait with bated breath the transparent outcome of your action.</div>
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With regards,</div>
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Yours sincerely,</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p graf--trailing" id="9b19" name="9b19" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.179; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">
Sudhansu Mohanty</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from Medium.com)</i></div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-59076720968209993122017-07-22T13:15:00.000+05:302017-07-22T13:44:54.193+05:30Audit Ain’t the Demon you think it is, if you haven’t Strayed!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRm9yUusfXFzLui1Sf2k7aFEPKpKGyUUapA9s4h9Bc95uNLc0p1LQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for justice balance image" border="0" height="242" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRm9yUusfXFzLui1Sf2k7aFEPKpKGyUUapA9s4h9Bc95uNLc0p1LQ" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In our
genteel government ecosystem, audit is reviled, punned, demonized – and rarely
welcomed. There are many humours that keep bobbing up from time to time to
subtly soften the brutalities of its findings. Some are malicious, some humorous
to a T; but for me, the one that takes the cake concerns the four-legged
animals. The orders on the subject prescribed that when an animal died, the hide
and skin of the dead must be accounted for in the ledger. Some animals had
strayed, enquiry was conducted, and their loss was duly noted. But the auditor
was horrified. Enquiry was fine, but what about the hides and skins that
remained unaccounted for. Livid, he shot off his observations. Riled, the
executive officer otherwise known for congenital analgesia with no innate pain
sensors exhaled a small laugh and sprung into action: “I’m sorry the animals’ hides
and skins couldn’t be accounted for in the ledgers, for the poor dears didn’t
leave them behind when they strayed!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But, now on to the sombre part. Audit
indeed is serious business, as much for the auditor as for the auditee. Not too
long along, the audit findings of the CAG on Commonwealth Games, 2G, Coalgate
and a string of others that followed in close succession brought to the fore
the shenanigans that otherwise would not have been put out in the public domain.
Notwithstanding the laughable “zero-loss” statement of Kapil Sibal, it is well
to remember that in a democratic set-up, along with executive and legislative
separation of powers, there are conscious in-built institutionalized checks and
balances in the form of constitutional audit and judicial review, not to speak
of the media oversight. Each role while being separate and distinct with
boundaries drawn is subject to and relies on the other to keep the wheel of
accountability well-oiled and ticking. It calls for respecting others’ role in
fulfillment of their assigned mandate; and with the judiciary playing the
umpire overseeing transgressions and interference, if any, by any of the
institutions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, when judiciary, the
constitutional umpire of matters just and transparent, refuses to audit itself
and recuses to be the Caesar’s wife, there indeed is a cause for concern. It is
like the fence eating the crop! </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The recent Jharkhand High
court’s order of June 20 recalling its earlier order directing the Principal
Accountant General to audit the accounts of three judicial institutions is puzzling;
it ex facie smacks of shielding the Jharkhand Legal Services Authority
(JHALSA), the Jharkhand Judicial Academy (JJA), and the National University of
Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi from seeming mis-and-malfeasance. This,
naturally, has evoked sharp criticism from lawyers and the Jharkhand high court
advocates’ association has submitted a petition, signed by 50 practicing
lawyers, to the state bar council seeking its intervention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Worse
still that this was done against the background that not too far ago, NUSRL
students had launched protest demanding complete administrative overhaul,
audit and publication of financial records. This makes it hugely troubling. “It
is well established that review jurisdiction,” as the legal magazine <i>Bar and Bench </i>said, “should be exercised
by courts sparingly. The Supreme Court, in <em>S</em></span><a href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1626241/"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ow Chandra Kanta And
Another vs Sheik Habib</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> had held: ‘<em>A review of a judgment is a serious step and
reluctant resort to it is proper only where a glaring omission or patent
mistake or like grave error has crept in earlier by judicial fallibility’. </em>In
this case, it seems that the High Court has protected these institutions from
scrutiny.” </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Regularity and propriety audit are
diagnostic tools aimed at looking at innards of an institution, much as medical
equipments help sight the body’s health, with its warts and all – zeroing on
how much the cancer has metastasized. How wrong the order is can be seen metaphorically
just by boxing the risible lines of an English court cited in the judgment:
“Even God himself did not pass sentence upon Adam before he was called upon to
make his defence,” with “Caesar’s wife should always be above suspicion!” The
surmise is telltale. As is said, not only must you be honest but you’ve to be <i>seen</i> to be so. The audit directed by the
earlier bench headed by the Chief Justice – who ex officio is the Patron of the
</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jharkhand
Legal Services Authority (JHALSA) and of the Jharkhand Judicial Academy (JJA),
and the Chancellor of the National University of Study and Research in Law
(NUSRL), Ranchi – was a step in the right direction to set the house in order. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There
is no better institution to audit than the constitutional auditor. In any case,
as per extant subject orders, any organization receiving full or partial
funding from the government of India (read public funds) is subject to audit by
the Comptroller and Auditor General or by offices under his charge. As the
Chief Justice’s order of June 7, 2017 said in directing the audit, it was to
ensure “transparency in the administration” and in the “interest of justice”. Whoever
can complain of transparency and/or justice in public spending? Regularity and
propriety audit can thrown up and bring to light all instances of wrong doings,
if they are any.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
recall of this order by another bench in such unholy haste – within 10 days of
retirement of the Chief Justice who passed the order – to say the least, is
reprehensible: not only does it negates transparency and impugns justice but very
likely shrouds the goings-on in the three institutions by shielding them from
audit and foisting summary opacity. It seeds the suspicion that there possibly <i>are</i> things to hide from audit. Any honest
Chief Executive of an organization welcomes audit to beware of the ground under
his feet. No head of an organization shies away from getting to know the
quicksand it stands on. No one blanches from audit if there is nothing to hide
– audit ain’t the demon for the upright and the straitlaced. Far from <em><span style="background: white;">eroding “public confidence in
these Institutions” and not being in the “public interest” as the second order of
June 20 says, the truth is just the contrary: sunlight is the best
disinfectant, and audit sunshine can only enhance the “reputation” of these
three institutions, and not detract from it. </span></em>The simple inference one
is apt to draw is that perhaps the institutions have strayed and indeed have things
to hide! Rectitude and internal moral compass do not seem to be their ethical vocabulary.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It
is about time for the Supreme Court to take note of such transgressions and zero
in on the fallacies and flaws of the Jharkhand High Court judgment of June 20,
2017, issues strictures and directs a special audit. Such desecrations of
budgetary outlays from the Consolidated Funds of India cannot – and shouldn’t –
be allowed to go on with impunity. It needs no stressing that the taxpayer must
get to know how his own precious money is spent by the judicial archbishop of
the nation. In the wake of Justice Karnan’s case when judicial reputation has
taken a severe beating, it shall doubtless help restore greater credibility –
even bring laurels – to the apex Court, on whom ordinary citizens of this
country repose such unremitting faith and respect.</span></div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-30460152527351892042017-07-18T17:32:00.000+05:302017-07-18T17:32:23.976+05:30India Desperately Needs a Full-Time Defence Minister<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Lato, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22.6869px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1667; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 0px;">
The defence ministry is far too big and complex to be managed part-time as an additional charge by another minister, no matter how competent and cerebral he may be.</h3>
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<a href="https://i2.wp.com/thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/arun-jaitley_reuters.jpg?ssl=1" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;"><img alt="Finance minister Arun Jaitley. Credit: Reuters" class="size-full wp-image-158818" data-attachment-id="158818" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="arun-jaitley_reuters" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/arun-jaitley_reuters.jpg?fit=800%2C480&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/arun-jaitley_reuters.jpg?fit=300%2C180&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i2.wp.com/thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/arun-jaitley_reuters.jpg?fit=800%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="800,480" data-permalink="https://thewire.in/158699/india-defence-minister-jaitley/arun-jaitley_reuters/" height="480" scale="1.100000023841858" src-orig="https://i2.wp.com/thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/arun-jaitley_reuters.jpg?resize=800%2C480&ssl=1" src="https://i2.wp.com/thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/arun-jaitley_reuters.jpg?zoom=1.100000023841858&resize=800%2C480&ssl=1" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/arun-jaitley_reuters.jpg?zoom=1.100000023841858&resize=800%2C480&ssl=1" style="border: 0px; float: none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="800" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: grey; font-size: 0.8em; padding: 0px;">
Finance minister Arun Jaitley. Credit: Reuters</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Noto Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 16.5px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
Amongst India’s ministries, defence, finance, home and external affairs occupy a particularly special place. They are housed in the imperial and imposing North and South Blocks – finance and home in the North and defence and external affairs, along with the all-powerful PMO, in the South.</div>
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The state of these ministries – in particular defence – are an indicator of how well the nation is being served and consequently exude the state of India’s overall wellness.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Noto Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 16.5px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
Sadly, of the 38 months that the present government has been in power, it has been without a full-time <i>raksha mantri</i> (defence minister) for close to ten months – more than 25% of its tenancy. Surreal, but that’s how it has been. The government started its innings without a full-time defence minister in May 2014. The finance minister at the time held the additional charge for the first five-and-a-half months, and now continues to hold charge for more than four months <a href="https://thewire.in/116317/manohar-parrikar-leaves-behind-doesnt-indias-raksha-mantri/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="since March">since March</a>. The clock keeps ticking and is likely to tick some more.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Noto Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 16.5px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
<strong>Changing face of Indian defence establishment </strong></div>
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This is rather unfortunate. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is among the larger ministries of the Indian government, both in terms of manpower and budgetary outlay. Historically, it goes back to the military department of the East India Company at Kolkata created in 1776. Through the <a href="https://www.thecho.in/files/hrishikesh-brahmma.pdf" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Charter Act of 1833">Charter Act of 1833</a> to the unification of Bengal, Bombay and Madras presidencies in 1895, to creation of two separate departments (army department and military supply department) in 1906 and to the subsequent merging of the two into one army department in 1909, the face of the Indian defence establishment has changed over time.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Noto Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 16.5px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
The army department <a href="http://mod.nic.in/about--ministry" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="was rechristened">was rechristened</a> as the defence department in 1938 and became the MoD in August 1947, with each service placed under its own commander-in-chief, topped by a cabinet minister. Sardar Baldev Singh was the first defence minister of independent India. The government of India is responsible for ensuring the defence of India through the cabinet. The defence minister heads the defence ministry; and the president is the supreme commander of the armed forces.</div>
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This is one ministry that is truly gargantuan in size, literally and metaphorically sprawled across the country’s territorial soil, air and water. It is responsible for framing government policy on defence and security issues for effective implementation of these programmes by the services headquarters, inter-service organisations, production units and defence research within the allocated budgetary outlay.</div>
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<strong>Scope of defence ministry</strong></div>
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The sheer range of responsibility can be appreciated from the fact that the integrated defence staff, the three services (of more than 1.5 million strong) and various inter-service organisations, the defence budget (FY 2017-18: Rs 3.6 lakh crore), establishment matters, defence policy, defence co-operation with foreign countries, defence production activities of ordnance factories and defence PSUs come within the ministry’s mandate, as do issues of welfare, resettlement and pension of ex-servicemen.</div>
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While the range of activities, impressive in its reach and spread is one thing, so too are its personnel. The civilian bureaucracy and the services headquarters (with their panoply of commanders, in the level of secretary) make this ministry singularly top-heavy.</div>
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Not just that. Truth be said, there is an unspoken but palpable undercurrent of difference in approach and perception between the civil and defence bureaucracy. Often the dialectics are resolved by the political master. These two, naturally, meet courtesy the raksha mantri.</div>
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There are many such areas in this brick-and-mortar ministry where the raksha mantri remains the lynchpin of all governmental actions and activities.</div>
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<strong>Ministry’s fund requirement</strong></div>
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On budget, setting aside committed expenditure on salary, pension and maintenance of the forces and of the support departments/organisations, what essentially remains is the modernisation budget – the current fiscal year outlay of Rs 86,488 crore rupees. This is the area of high visibility, and loud debates, within the ministry and without. How futile and atmospheric the issue of outlay is can be gauged from a simple example of a roll-on plan.</div>
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The parliamentary standing committees have over the years, beginning April 2003, been impressing upon the defence ministry to set up a non-lapsable <a href="http://www.idsa.in/idsacomments/would-non-lapsable-defence-modernisation-fund-work_acowshish_100217" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="defence modernisation fund">defence modernisation fund</a> or a roll-on plan to take care of the inevitable fund lapse on capital acquisition at the end of every fiscal. Even the finance minister <a href="http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2004-05(I)/bs/speecha.htm" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="in the interim budget speech of 2004-05">in the interim budget speech of 2004-05</a> went ahead and announced creation of the non-lapsable defence modernisation fund with a corpus of Rs 25,000 crore. Someone seemed to have wisened up and gotten real thereafter and the general <a href="http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2004-05/bh/bh1.pdf" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="budget of 2004-05">budget of 2004-05</a>carried no provision for the same. Yet, committee after committee, year after year, has persisted to buzz with this bee in its bonnet. Last year in April 2016, when the parliamentary standing committee got too insanely persistent for inadequate funds on modernisation, I could hold myself no further. I explained that notwithstanding the general impression of paucity of funds available for modernisation, the truth is just the contrary: the MoD isn’t in a position to spend the funds allocated.</div>
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The revised estimate for 2015-16 had been reduced in the wake of <a href="https://thewire.in/68202/rafale-deal-emblematic-modi-trying-fix-indias-defence-industry/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="non-materialisation of contract for Rafale aircrafts">non-materialisation of contract for Rafale aircrafts</a>. This frankly wasn’t a new trend but the reality – the way it had panned out over the past many years. So where was the need to create a non-lapsable modernisation fund keeping a certain quantum of funds aside, especially when we resort to deficit budgeting and borrow some more at a far too higher rate to keep the roll-on plan going? But no, they persisted: the fund must be in place. I remember getting back and exasperatingly briefing former defence minister Manohar Parrikar about the whole raft of logic adduced to persevere with the idea. He smiled, exhaled a snort of laughter and said he rather expatiate on capital acquisition in the parliament. And he did in great detail the nuts and bolts and nuances of defence capital acquisition.</div>
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Interestingly – and this hasn’t been highlighted in the media for lack of appreciation for what it entails – shortly before <a href="https://thewire.in/117425/manohar-parrikar-could-have-been-a-great-defence-minister/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Parrikar resigned and moved back to Goa">Parrikar resigned and moved back to Goa</a>, the financial powers of the raksha mantri <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/manohar-parrikar-defence-minister-financial-powers-enhanced/1/879260.html" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="were enhanced">were enhanced</a> in February from Rs 500 crore to Rs 2000 crore for services capital annual acquisition plan proposals, and corresponding raise in the financial power of the finance minister from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore. Contracts above Rs 3,000 crore are to be approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). On a personal note, I must confess I was stupefied that the proposal was agreed to by the ministry of finance before seeking cabinet approval when under the extant delegation more than 88% of cases of capital acquisition were within the MoD’s delegated power.</div>
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The reality is processing of cases in finance ministry had not only instilled greater diligence and discipline but also benefited the MoD in every which way of procurement. In my vision, I saw apparitions of the exacting standards diluted in seeking exemption from the purview of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for such huge sums up to Rs 2000 crore on individual cases – more than the entire budget of most civil ministries.</div>
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The ministry of defence had always been rooting for higher powers on capital procurement – power that is untrammelled, and without scrutiny and due diligence of any external body like the MoF or the CCS. The rationale and refrain for such a dispensation was the due diligence exercised by MoD (finance), headed by a secretary-level financial advisor, as part of the integrated financial adviser system.</div>
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Acquisition proposals are but based on future cash liabilities, much beyond the current fiscal year’s sanctioned budget and often going into many future years. To suggest architecture without examination of an independent body as the MoF on financial issues or on the likely budgetary support is hard to commend. In the space department, while the Space Commission includes cabinet secretary, principal secretary to the prime minister and the expenditure secretary amongst others as members of the commission, it does not approve cases of capital nature beyond Rs 1,000 crore. Similar too in the Atomic Energy Commission, projects beyond Rs 1,000 crore are submitted to the CCS despite the member finance of the commission being a secretary-level officer like the financial adviser of defence services.</div>
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It also militates against the very basis of checks and balances that is the hallmark of an arm’s length system and is the bedrock for due diligence in cases of humongous expenditure from the consolidated fund of India, that is often fraught with the risk of abuse and the scandal of corruption. The quality and fidelity of processes ought to be the gold standard for expenditure from public funds rather than mere speed in according approval on unceasing operational demands drummed up unremittingly by the services; it may likely turn out to be worse than the disease it seeks to cure, and will be hard to reverse in future.</div>
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Again does it not also preempt cross-pollination and cross-fertilisation of ideas and approaches from other sectors and lead to inbreeding of practices/processes in MoD, which doubtless will impact on openness and transparency? In effect, the onus today is greater than ever before on the defence minister on issues of capital acquisition. </div>
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<strong>Unfinished business</strong></div>
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Another important concern, as onerous as the one before, is to see through <a href="https://thewire.in/100943/scaling-defence-budget-not-make-india-combat-ready/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="the implementation">the implementation</a> of the Shekatkar committee’s recommendations that have been accepted by the government: reviewing training, administrative and logistics to optimise defence forces manpower and increase ‘teeth to tail’ ratio; suggesting “redeployment, repositioning and restructuring of manpower and resources” to improve combat capability; suggesting integration of civil infrastructure and resources into the logistic system of the defence forces in war and peace to “avoid duplication and reduce expenditure” and suggesting measures to “correct the bias of defence budget towards revenue expenditure”.</div>
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There are many suggestions that are implementable: optimal use and integration of manpower and resources by re-deploying ex-servicemen including retired officers and JCOs in various organisations; increased financial powers to all three service chiefs; restructuring and downsizing of ongoing expenditure by trimming the existing manpower and even closing down certain organisations under the MoD; a joint services war college running a one-year combined course for the three forces to impart jointness; creation of a tri-service intelligence training establishment and a four-star chief of defence staff as the chief single-point adviser to the defence minister on matters military, and generating saving of Rs 25,000 crore annually to fund modernisation. </div>
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No less significant is the strategic partnership issue – recently approved by the Union cabinet permitting domestic private companies to form joint ventures with foreign defence equipment manufacturers – on the defence minister’s table waiting to take shape and flight. If it pans out the way it is envisaged, it will open up the hugely lucrative defence industry business to Indian private sector and shoot up India’s self-reliance index in defence procurement. If carried through successfully and transparently, it’ll help whittling down MoD’s fund requirement.</div>
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But it’s a big “if” that stares MoD on its face, given that in the past, the ‘make’ and ‘buy and make (Indian)’ template hasn’t really taken off. Though the selection of strategic partnerships is initially confined to four segments – fighter aircraft, helicopters, submarines and armoured fighting vehicles/main battle tanks – it has the potential to change the grammar and syntax of Indian as well as global defence equipment industry. But it requires pigeon eyes to discern deficits, plug weaknesses and close monitoring, to ensure that the trajectory’s path lain with countless imponderables is not shambolic.</div>
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That said, it would be apt to say that the MoD is on the cusp of a paradigm shift and inevitable action. One wonders how all these important issues are to be handled without a full-time defence minister. The MoD is far too big and complex a ministry to be managed part-time as an additional charge by another minister, no matter how competent and cerebral he is.</div>
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With all due regard to the criticisms and reservations articulated by defence experts and commentators on Parrikar’s efficacy as the defence minister, it must be granted that he tried cleaning up the Augean stables and triggered many moves that have fructified or will likely fructify in the foreseeable future. Effacing a legacy of complete inaction isn’t easy, and reinvigorating the sundry cogs is truly an unenviable task. </div>
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Today, we live in difficult times: heightened militancy in Kashmir, terrorism and infiltration from across the border, the much hyped and trumped-up “<a href="https://thewire.in/73816/rss-teaching-may-core-pok-raid-decision/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="surgical strikes">surgical strikes</a>”, accusation of human rights violation <a href="https://thewire.in/125029/bjp-modi-afspa-manipur-kashmir/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="in Manipur">in Manipur</a> and <a href="https://thewire.in/157722/jammu-and-kashmir-human-rights-violation-afspa-states/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Jammu and Kashmir">Jammu and Kashmir</a> under AFSPA and “the <a href="https://thewire.in/142901/general-dyer-indian-army-kashmir/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="General Dyer moment">General Dyer moment</a>”. The services are a very proud organisation, very obsessed and finicky with their tradition and legacy that they value dearly, and wouldn’t like to forsake. Ironically, even wrong practices that hegemonised during colonial rule and should’ve been long discarded in independent India sadly continue to persist and haemorrhage. But that’s another story and for another day.</div>
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<strong>Conflict of interest</strong></div>
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Yet, more than anything put out here, what’s troubling is that India’s finance minister <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/arun-jaitley-gets-additional-charge-of-defence-ministry-after-parrikar-resigns/story-1lny09Gz9N42NENaskptmN.html" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="is holding">is holding</a> additional charge of defence. In effect, he who approves as administrative head accords concurrence of a higher order. For the finance minister to double up as the defence minister <em>ex facie</em> impugns the very concept of checks and balances, not to speak of the in-built institutional conflict of interest in according financial concurrence and according due diligence for the CCS. In fact, a 2006 finance ministry order invokes an arm’s length system in processing of cases and captures the essence of the principle of check and balance.</div>
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To wit, financial advisers will in no case be assigned any routine administrative functions of the ministry. It is pretty much an incongruity that the finance minister, whose mandate, as per the <a href="http://cabsec.nic.in/writereaddata/aobarchieve/english/1_Upload_915.pdf" rel="external nofollow" style="color: #c0392b; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Allocation of Business Rules">Allocation of Business Rules</a>, is to appraise and approve plan investment/expenditure of central ministries/CPUs has been mandated to grant administrative and financial approval up to Rs 2,000 crore on capital acquisition qua defence minister, while at the same time he accords enhanced financial approval up to Rs 3000 crore qua finance minister. </div>
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And yet, 292 (167+125) out of a total of 1,148 days of the BJP government without a full-time raksha mantri – that is 25.43% of its time in power – isn’t surely what we Indians and the armed forces deserve as a nation.</div>
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<i>(Reproduced from The Wire)</i></div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-4528713252839500802017-07-18T17:25:00.000+05:302017-07-18T17:27:45.694+05:30Humanities in the time of profiteering pursuits<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">The Noble Savage is dead, or dying! Humongous
changes have occurred in the last two decades the world over, yet the course
curricula on humanities in most universities haven’t changed sufficiently
enough; when carried out, they don’t seem to have been thought-out.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">The rapacity for
profiteering and longing for a good balance sheet, and senseless competition
among corporate firms have cast long shadows on educationists. The emphasis has
shifted from the finer aspects of life to profit-making — skewing systems of
education and discarding skills that are inviolate and inviolable to keep human
beings humane.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">The humanities and
the arts — I consciously use humanity and art here as embracing everything that
do not directly contribute to profit-making in business and commerce – have
been given short shrift, in primary, secondary and tertiary education.
Decision-makers see these as “useless frills” because they aren’t monetisable –
they seem abstract and distant, at a time when cutting out these so-called
“non-profiteering elements” that do not value-add to business to stay
competitive and cost-effective in the marketplace is considered kosher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">Losing relevance</span></b><b><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">Consequently, they seem to be rapidly losing
their relevance in course curricula and in the minds and hearts of parents and
children. Indeed, the humanistic aspects of humanities, art and social sciences
— the imaginative, creative dimensions not bound by crazy objectives of
consumerism and possessive individualism – are getting buried and left asunder
in our pursuit of short-term profit-making.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">The result is that
the impact of humanities and liberal arts on human action and day-to-day
activities seems to be distinctly on the wane. Traditional and conventional
approaches of teaching coupled with stasis that makes them traverse the same
beaten path of course curricula isn’t helping society see the relevance of
humanities and social science in a technology-driven, changing world. The
approach inevitably will be nuanced and there will be a need to tweak the
course content and fine-tune it to come up with newer products to stay relevant
and act as a facilitator to business and industry.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">Much as critical
thinking can’t be wished away, so too imagination that brings in soft human
skills and elements to focus on products to re-humanise humans amid the surfeit
of technological practices and innovations inexorably hegemonising his mind and
life today: compassion and empathy that’s fast becoming an endangered quality;
the skewed work-life balance not conducive for children and family; the eternal
human values such as decency and courtesy that seem to be under threat of
extinction.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">Course content,
say in subjects of Empathy and Professional Ethics or Decency and Civility in
Public Life or An ideal Work-Life Balance or Learning from the Past and
Present, with their universal application at all times in all climes and in all
professions amid the increasing complexity of the world we live and work in
could be developed drawing lessons, say from history, politics, psychology,
philosophy, literature(s), sociology and social work <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px !important;">et al</em>.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">An example</span></b><b><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">The Harvard Professor-philosopher Michael
Sandel’s course, Justice, which for a decade and a half has been a success with
more than a thousand students joining the course and with his lectures placed online
as open source, and turned into an eponymous bestselling book, comes to mind.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">Be it in the
medical profession or on the factory shop floor or in the litigating legal
world, compassion and empathy indeed have — and will always have — a place for
humankind. That needs to be kept alive because the package of life is much more
than mere<em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px !important;"> moolah</em> and
profit-making; these softer attributes that humanities offer are crucial to
retaining the humaneness of human beings that far outstrip the craze for
material goods, mindless consumerism and upward social mobility.</span><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">The same would
hold good for the few illustrative cases suggested above. A case study method
adopted with the study content drawn from life’s variegated experiences will
help involve and sensitise students to simulate, internalise and imbibe lessons
drawn from myriad disciplines and build architecture in their heads that will
trigger their thinking in their primary areas of work. It will mainstream the
humanities disciplines and make teachers and students feel relevant and
connected, and prompt them to trigger thinking to conflate their ideas with the
changing dynamics of the world today, and view their own specialties in a new
light.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #282828; font-size: 11.5pt;">A need triggered
by the globalising times concerns development of communication skills, verbal
and written. This will not be the preserve and concern of language teaching
departments alone, who though will need to get into the disciplines they are
working on to understand, familiarise and internalise the latter’s contents and
needs, and thereafter offer inter-disciplinary electives in collaboration with
various disciplines. English having become a universal language of transaction
and commerce, the English language teaching department will have an important
role to play. These soft skills development should become an important part of
the curricula of a good finishing school university.</span><i style="color: #282828; font-family: TundraWeb, serif; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"> </span>(Reproduced from The Hindu)</i></span></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-16306414048420299992017-06-12T19:44:00.001+05:302017-06-12T19:46:00.038+05:30Civil Service Reforms: Few 'Innovations' By NITI Aayog, If One Can Call Them So<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">As civil service reforms
go, the Niti Aayog’s Three Year Action Agenda: 2017-18 to 2019-2020, released
recently, contains little that is new or innovative. The idea that policy
making is a specialized activity and needs lateral entrant of specialists on fixed-term
contracts to bring in competition into established career bureaucracy has been
talked about for years and is a tautology today. The same goes for making the
goals and progress available publicly to incentivize delivery and measure
performance objectively, with high performance rewarded and poor performance
reprimanded. Likewise, E-governance is no new beer, as is outsourcing of
services; they’re old wine in new bottles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The only innovation, if
one can call it so, seems the plea for longer tenure of Secretaries. It creates
two important inefficiencies. One, with a time horizon shorter than two years,
the officer is hesitant to take any major initiatives. Two, and more importantly,
to the extent that any misstep may become the cause for charges of favouritism
or corruption post retirement, the officer hesitates to take decisions on any
major project. This causes an inordinate amount of delay in decision-making.
The inefficiencies are two-fold: (a) hesitation to take any major initiative;
and (b) fear of misstep to take decisions on any major project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It’s bemusing how these
two inefficiencies can be overcome with longer tenures. For one, empirically,
officers with tenures of more than 2 and going up to 3/4 years haven’t fared
any better than the ones with shorter tenures. Lack of foresight and initiative
aside, to be fair, they have been moved around to more than 2-3
departments/ministries, thereby not granting them the time needed to settle
down and make salutary contributions. But it’s not fair to blame the system
entirely for there are departments/ministries that are low/high in the
mandarin’s perception/weight indices and with the long window available to
them, there is the human urge for upward pecking mobility. Lobbying, jostling,
networking (see the work-hours wasted here!), nepotism, and favouring the
powers-that-be through subtle sleight of hand are rife. One has with growing
frustration seen how people with no little knowledge/experience, but with the
right “connect” and “networking”, go up and up the proverbial totem pole only
because the new post figures high in the perception-cum-weighty index and is a
better springboard for post-retirement sinecures. This is the nub.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Like statistics, the
Niti Aayog’s eggheads conceal more than what they reveal; its platitudinous
recipe is less relevant than what it shrouds: post-retirement sinecures. The
heart of the problem is that no bureaucrat (apart from one-odd outliers) ever
wants to retire. In a feudal mindset, retirement sucks: identity-loss after a
lifetime of humongous ego-trips and condescension, vanishing into the woodwork
is the hardest ask; retirement is sudden cold-blooded cremation. Hence exists
the the intense urge to stay on somehow. It is also the reason why senior
officers close to R-Days take calculated and “desperate” gambles to “oblige”
political masters at the cost of their much vaunted “professional ethics”. In
effect, the two “inefficiencies” stay. One wishes the Niti Aayog had provided
answer to this endemic nettlesome syndrome that defeats every sanguine public
motivation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">One wonders how
practical and efficacious Niti Aayog’s suggestion for specialization and
induction of lateral recruits for a fixed tenure is. No questions are asked on
the need for specialists and domain experts in public policy, but the issue is:
Given the bureaucratic construct, will this behemoth of bureaucracy easily
admit and acknowledge the role and contribution of the newbie, especially when
their own unimaginative low-performance and lassitude hitherto unquestioned
will (inevitably) be shown in poor light in comparison. Though a fixed tenure
might help shielding the laterals from being junked midway, will frustration
not creep into their day-to-day efficiency, thereby nullifying the
cross-pollination and cross-fertilization of their ideas? Will they be accorded
their due for the contribution made to improve public policy and the same acted
upon without bureaucratic machinations and legerdemain? Or will the ear of
political masters earned by mandarins negate any such noble impulses making it
a zero-sum game?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Rather than shooting the
breeze, I wish the Niti Aayog had drawn an earthy roadmap. A host of issues
glibly prescribed will amount to nothing if they are not implementable. To be
fair, E-office, long overdue, is the way to go; when I was holding additional
charge as Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor of the Ministry of Civil
Aviation more than 2 years ago, it had gained currency. It was liberating to
retrieve data in a jiffy; it granted flexibility. I could work in my parent
Ministry of Environment and Forests in Indira Paryavaran Bhavan rather than
getting the files over or going over to the civil aviation ministry located in
the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan. Not to forget that electronic transactions don’t lie
on such (seemingly) small matters as date/time of disposal. The embedded system
and escalation facilities can show stark delays, apart from alerting the higher
ups of such delays. E-governance needs implementation within a tight timeframe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The larger issue is of
efficiency: will e-office for all its good, engage the citizen through the
electronic medium and make governance effective? Only early last year several
directions of finance ministry to upload fairly innocuous information in the
website went unheeded lest it attract public ire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Public policy issues are
roiled – apart from the much-maligned and putative red-tape-worm – in time-worn
vested interest, personal advancement, colonial baggage and mindset.
Holistically, the answer is in tightening governance’s value system. Financial
malfeasance is bad, but worse is intellectual dishonesty, subtly crafted under
the guise of amnesic mnemonics, poor data analysis and obfuscating interstitial
interpretation kept under wraps in grimy official records. Financial misgivings
no matter how convoluted they are, still palpate; intellectual dishonesty
covertly hemorrhages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">For a feudal society
with a bespoke traditional mindset of grand reparative gestures to espouse and
promote the</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <i>biradiri</i> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">cause and where the state is seen as omnipotent and where few
realize power is but abuse of power, it is imperative to have an arm’s-length
system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">But is that enough?
Maybe not. There could be a need to actualize implication of Robert Klitgaard’s
formula on dishonesty: Corruption = Monopoly + Discretion – Accountability
(C=M+D-A). Even that too may not be enough. Proactive disclosure provided under
Section 4 of the RTI Act 2005 will need to be sculpted into the e-governance
platform. In this our Indian Gilded Age, the atmosphere is agog with ideas and
impulses despite the consistent stonewalling of the established order. Citizen
rants against diminishing public value are getting louder by the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">True, in today’s battle
of dialectics opacity wins, but then for how long? Over time and amid battling
dialectics, society’s voice will inexorably tilt in transparency’s favour. The
USA too went through the Gilded Age and the trauma of the robber barons. They
came out of it triumphant through laws crafted in the teeth of opposition. For
us the battle may be long and hard too but it’s time we had better see the
future. I wish the Niti Aayog had the vision to sense a Eureka moment here and
suggested measures to move in that direction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><i>(Reproduced from Outlookindia.com)</i></span></span></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-37326207447001433962017-05-31T08:45:00.000+05:302017-05-31T08:56:42.106+05:30Tightening Governance’s Value System<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As a former bureaucrat, who, for years was a part of India’s policy making
and overseeing implementation, I sensed, as did many others, serious governance
deficit in Indian public policy. Lack of transparency, age-old Indian tradition
of promoting family/clan/sub-national loyalty, culture of materialism that’s
gotten more pronounced with economic liberalization in a globalized world, and
the urge to get-rich-fast, have distorted priorities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ethics, in the broadest sense, is at the heart of these problems. Looking
at the psychology and compulsions of the early man, it would
seem that the <span class="oneclick-link"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">raison</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> </span></span><span class="oneclick-link"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">d'être</span></span> of the social compact has been
defeated; in the schematic social contract versus individualist aspirations
construct, individual aspirations have triumphed. Human aspirations and ingenuity have, from
time to time, trumped regulations/contracts/rules; regulations have failed to
smother this primordial human urge to self-aggrandize. Are there lessons to
learn here? I still can’t get over the shock
when, in my bureaucratic diapers in 1982, I saw a file how white ants had eaten
away road rollers! Same too where cyclones had been “manufactured” in the
trans-Himalayan belt to score off inventories. It seemed something was
egregiously and unacceptably wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Corruption
though is not mere financial. As damaging as financial malfeasance is
intellectual dishonesty, manifested in policy-making kept under wraps in
official records. While financial misgivings are palpable, intellectual
dishonesty – covert and subterranean – hemorrhages soundlessly till fixed; <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">it skews and wrinkles public morality.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span> The damage is incalculable.
The clutch of scams and mega-scams that struck India circa 2008-12
extinguished citizen’s <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">monk-like patience</span>. Apart from the financial loss of taxpayers’ money, it showed how
corruption had squeezed money out of the system creating a skewed developmental
agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Propriety
– financial and intellectual – is a key determinant of citizen’s quality of
life. It encompasses legislation, governance, healthcare, education, commerce,
business, justice system etc. Yet, the architecture of rule of law designed to
hold the order, often fails to squelch wrong human impulses. Human nature – possessive,
hedonistic, self-interested – trumped regulations. With the dishonest networked
across professions, the countervailing institutions have often failed, swaying
to interest groups’ agenda. The people’s movement against corruption in 2011
for creation of Lokpal turned out a false dawn. Was it because the four pillars
of democracy – executive, legislature, judiciary, media – supposed to checkmate
one another didn’t wish to disturb the applecart? How does such mindset affect governance?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even 26
years post-liberalization, the Indian rural population still looks up to
government intervention for poverty alleviation. Governments hold the fund and
welfare entities for the poor. For a feudal society with traditional bespoke
mindset, state patronage remains the Holy Grail for majority aspirations. Nor
are most men in the four organs of governance immune to quid pro qua:
bought-out press and paid news; post-retirement sinecures for most who have
been in government employ; rewards and gratifications, are just a few examples.
Socio-financial iniquity has burgeoned; unrest – born off a growing educated
young middle class finding it hard to navigate opaque archaic government
procedures and a corrupt officialdom in day to day living – leveraging
technology and social media bristles asking moral questions: Does it <i>not</i> diminish human beings? Does it <i>not</i> impugn basic human dignity? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The malaise is all-pervasive. In a way it’s natural, for regardless of
profession, men are cut from the same societal cloth with symptoms of the same
ecosystem. Look at the role of legislature and judiciary: Haven’t they been
hubristic and for the highbrow as is often alleged, granting preferential
treatment to the “well-networked” and the “connected”? How’s the Supreme Court
played its part in dispensing justice? Have judges transcended the society’s
feudal mindset? A host of recent cases come to mind: highway liquor ban,
contempt of a former Supreme Court judge, national anthem case, judges seeking
post-retirement employ, the delayed hearing in the Aadhaar case (still
on-going) just to cite a few. </span>Restraint,
rather self-restraint, is the authentic signifier of a mature institution.
Absence of restraint even in the face of palpable injustice or manifest
illegalities can only corrode public confidence. The judiciary will do well to
realize this. The rippling effect it creates in terms of revenue loss or
employment as in the highway liquor ban case is simply beyond their ken to
evaluate. The fact is it is not their remit; hubris of power to grant complete
justice isn’t in order. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Else, the
very fabric of separate of power, one of the basic tenets of the Constitution,
will be cast aside. Coming from the protector of the Constitution, it amounts
to the fence eating the crop!<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> <i>“The judge’s role”, </i>as one columnist
wrote,<i> “in any version of constitutional democracy,
is to be a gatekeeper of constitutional boundaries, an ever-vigilant
defender of rights, not to author more restrictions on civil liberties... If
this is the role judges seek for themselves, then they must make themselves
accountable under judicial review. The immunity from judicial review under<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span><a href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1643138/" target="_blank" title="Article 13"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;">Article
13</span></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">is to preserve the interpretive authority of the court, given
the inevitability of disagreement emerging over its interpretations, not to
shield episodes of absurd judicial law-making.” </span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Have they then been the
Caesar’s wife? How does the judiciary morally explain its dueling with the
executive on appointment of judges through an opaque “collegiate system” when
the Constitution consciously divvies responsibility between the two to avoid
monopoly of either and grant fairness to selection? How fair is it? Does it
pass muster of disinterested observers and provide oxygen to public faith? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In an
interesting piece in <i>The New Yorker, </i>Evan
Osnos refers to an article “on the intersection of health and politics” published in <i>Brain</i>, the British medical journal<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in February, 2009,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>titled <i>Hubris Syndrome: An Acquired Personality Disorder?</i> One of the
authors was David Owen, former British Foreign Secretary, also a
physician-neuroscientist where the authors propose creation of a psychiatric
disorder for leaders who exhibited “impetuosity, a refusal to listen to or take
advice and a particular form of incompetence when impulsivity, recklessness and
frequent inattention to detail predominate.” This seems to hold good across professions for
people in high perches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The deterrence
to such potential recklessness lies in tightening governance’s value system.
Maybe, an arm’s-length system and an Ombudsman to oversee operations are
necessary. Yet, given extant obfuscation and opacity, will it be enough to
stymie unholy impulses? Will leveraging contemporary technology to bring
citizens face to face with governance help? Will such interface, an <i>ex post</i> ‘oversight’ governance, aid
stakeholders see for themselves – <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">proactive
disclosure</span> is already available <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">under
Section 4 of the RTI Act</span> 2005, never mind the Delhi High Court’s ruling
keeping the Attorney General out of the RTI’s purview – the processes and
rationale of decision-making? More, especially when the Supreme Court is implacably
opposed to render itself transparent on personal details of public interest, as
evidenced in smothering CIC’s order to part with information under the RTI Act,
2005. Is transparency, then, the answer? Will it help to offer on a platter
official document in public domain post-decisions for citizen ombudsman? Will
the fear of <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">exposé –</span>
disciplinary action and social disapproval for “wrongful acts” – deter unsavory
impulses? Possibly, yes; no one likes proceeded against; we live on
self-respect and dignity amid a 24/7 media. We’ve the technology and we’ve the
besetting issue of dishonesty that refuses to die. Sunlight, it seems, is the <i>best</i> and maybe the <i>only</i> disinfectant for public acts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the
cost of sounding presumptuous, I would say <i>en
passant</i> that when I took over as the Controller General of Defence Accounts
to helm the Department looking after the financial management of the entire
Government of India defense budget outlay of approx US$ 50 Billion, I invoked
transparency. All relevant official documents, all pesky issues of officers’
placement and spends from taxpayers’ money were uploaded. It was bloodless; but
it had a magical effect. Disaffection with placements was eliminated, with the
networkers exposed and running for cover; unnecessary, wasteful expenditure
were arrested, with everyone privy to ways of the corrupt and the nepotistic;
and with each checkmating the other. Alas, once I moved over to the Ministry of
Defence, transparency was given a royal heave-ho and opacity granted its pride
of honor!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">Leveraging
technology to invoke openness and transparency is an option; a culture of
transparency seems the viable answer to curb corruption in public life. </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">But it’s nuanced, multilayered.
</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">It’ll need tempering through accountability, an effective
check and balance mechanism, an arm’s length system not open to tweaking by any
public functionary, not to forget public discussions to rework and re-engineer
the entire architecture of governance processes to introduce the moral
vocabulary sorely missing in public governance. It will take time but a
beginning must be made. Political will is the key.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
</div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-28643259952319943802017-05-27T01:15:00.000+05:302017-05-27T01:15:04.969+05:30Drugging India to Pay More on Healthcare<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The recent Niti Aayog’s <i>Three
Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20 </i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">on <i>Access
to Medicines</i> (pages 144-145) is rather disturbing. <i>“A balanced
approach towards regulation is needed for achieving the twin objectives of
access to effective medicines and a strong pharmaceutical industry,”</i> so
says the Agenda document. <i>“There is a trade-off between lower prices on
the one hand and quality medicine and discovery of breakthrough drugs on the
other. It is therefore recommended that the Drug Price Control Order may be
delinked from the National List of Essential Medicines.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is this is one among the many instances of the government’s
double-and-multi-speak? The Prime Minister and his Minister of Health and
Family Welfare speaking in one voice and the Niti Aayog in another! Was the PM
trigger-happy in his muscular tweets (as given below), thrice inside 5 minutes,
conveying his concern for the poor, the wretched of the earth? Or was he being
plain naïve and didn’t (and still doesn’t) know the issues behind it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The poor must have access to quality and affordable
healthcare: PM @narendramodi in Surat<br />
10:45 AM – 17 Apr 2017</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After assuming office, mechanisms were put to bring down
prices of medicines even if that meant pharma companies are unhappy with us: PM
10:47 AM – 17 Apr 2017</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are powerful people who are unhappy with me. But, my
commitment is to provide affordable healthcare for poor and the middle class:
PM 10:50 AM – 17 Apr 2017</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The PM seems to have jumped the gun to carry out this – to
use one of today’s plenty “Modi-ism” – “surgical operation” on branded
medicines. Discerning citizens even with a nodding acquaintance with
politicians’ utterances take such loud protestations with a pinch of salt; in
every welfare activity, we are wont not to be taken in by the government's
pro-people motivations. Peel off the epidermis and the hypodermis will reveal
the true intent! Mostly people's welfare is shambolic, it makes for good
sloganeering, loud and majestic in its decibel, and to win brownie points at
the hustings where voters unthinkingly swallow whatever is dished out. Frankly,
no government (least the present one) can afford to ignore the big business
houses in our emerging economy's electoral processes. Political pragmatism
tells them that their acts must be craftily done with the sheen to help the
poor. In the cacophony the common man suffers – or lives in a fool’s paradise
till he loses the visions of this “paradise” – while the big pharma companies,
druggists and hospitals remain as unfazed and unflustered as ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That said, it might sound paradoxical to say that while
generic drugs should be the order of the day, in today’s India few generic
drugs pass the quality test. The 1980s and 1990s was a time of the generic drug
“robber barons” thanks to poor laws and populist aspirations of the then
governments bent on low drug prices sans quality of drugs. Little wonder India though
placed 4th in global generic drug market, has earned the ignominy of
manufacturing 75% of world’s counterfeit generic drugs, soaring high above
Egypt with 7% and China with 6%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To be fair to the government, it has in April 2017 made changes
to the Drug and Cosmetics Act (1940) making it mandatory for genetic drug
manufacturers to submit Bioequivalence (BE)/Bioavailability (BA) study reports
for approval as against the earlier practice of submitting the BE/BA reports
for genetics of patented drugs in the first 4 years of introduction. Nothing
more is asked of them, thus making it a field day for genetic drugs to flood
the market. Once in an indigo moon the finished drug was submitted for testing
at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). No wonder barely 0.01%
of the genetic drugs in the Indian market are tested for its potency and
efficacy. In effect, the amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (1940) is a
welcome development. But the issue now is one of regulation and implementation.
Anyone who has worked in the government knows its innards. The system is so
apathetic and opaque and convoluted that a complaint of poor/inadequate potency
will keep meandering about in the corridors of government Bhavans; the
callousness of our Brother Babus is phenomenal! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There doubtless is the need to increase the number of test
labs all over the country in government medical colleges, increase the number
of pharmacists/pharmacologists, put a strict testing process in place, and go
fully transparent with test results by uploading them in public domain. Any
complaint from a consumer must be attended with a sense of immediacy and the
same too put out on the website. But will the government bite such “dangerous”
transparency that will jeopardize big pharma companies’ interest? I doubt if
this will ever happen, given this government’s poor track record in refusing to
appoint a Lokpal three years after coming to power! And to expect the
government to seed a billion Lokpals to oversee is a pipedream! We are then
back to square one despite the recent amendment to the Drug and Cosmetics Act
(1940). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Large pharmaceutical companies invest huge money in
developing a new drug; the amount could be more than US$ 2-3 billion. Naturally
they will like to get return on investment – through patent and royalty. India
too seeks big bang R&D in drugs and Indian firms are interested. This
explains why the government is speaking with a forked tongue: while the PM and
his Ministers speak about mandating generics, the Niti Aayog suggests “<i>a
trade-off between lower prices on the one hand and quality medicine and discovery
of breakthrough drugs on the other”. And recommends that “the Drug Price
Control Order may be delinked from the National List of Essential Medicines”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Essential medicines, says the World Health Organization
(WHO) are “those drugs that satisfy the health care needs of the majority of
the population; they should therefore be available at all times in adequate amounts
and in appropriate dosage forms, at a price the community can afford”. While
National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) is a list of essential medicines in
India prepared by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare,the Drug Price
Control Orders (DPCO) are issued by the Government under section 3 of the
Essential Commodities Act, 1955, to enable the Government to put a ceiling
price for such essential and life saving medicines and ensure that these
medicines are available at a reasonable price to the general public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What’s puzzling is the furtive effort of Niti Aayog to
defeat the PM’s noble intentions by equating (in effect) lower prices of drugs
under NLEM (and hence under DPCO) with poor quality. The digital magazine <i>The
Wire </i>in a well-researched piece has shown how there has been an effort
on the part of the PMO with Niti Aayog, Ministry of Health & Family
Welfare, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, and Department of
Pharmaceuticals on board to scupper efforts at popularizing generic drugs and
instead hold a brief for multinational pharma firms. Their move to “trade-off”
is to delink DPCO from the NLEM will result in soaring of prices of essential
drugs. It also runs counter to the government’s affidavit in the Supreme Court
and the Minister of Health and Family Welfare’s reply in the Rajya Sabha. The
move is blasphemous and highly condemnable. But such are the ways how
intellectual dishonesty is sown in Indian system!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934603184893348012.post-78344936015218945582017-03-20T21:20:00.000+05:302017-03-20T21:20:06.511+05:30Manohar Parrikar Could Have Been a Great Defence Minister<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The BJP’s gain in the recent electoral battle has, in a way,
been the nation’s loss. <a href="https://thewire.in/?s=arun+jaitley+" target="_blank" title="Arun Jaitley"><span style="color: #c0392b;">Arun Jaitley</span></a> has
been given the additional charge of the defence ministry but it isn’t the same
as having a regular <i>raksha mantri</i> and, in particular, with a <a href="https://thewire.in/?s=Manohar+Parrikar" target="_blank" title="Manohar Parrikar"><span style="color: #c0392b;">Manohar Parrikar</span></a> at
its helm. I’m not aware of the games that are played on the political
chessboard – in this case, the BJP’s – but looking from the confines of the
defence ministry, sadly I can’t think of anyone in the ruling party who can
remotely match Parrikar’s intellectual brilliance and penetrating insight into
the vastly complex issues that confront the ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Parrikar was new to the national scenario when he, much
against his wishes, was <a href="https://thewire.in/116317/manohar-parrikar-leaves-behind-doesnt-indias-raksha-mantri/" target="_blank" title="made the defence minister"><span style="color: #c0392b;">made
the defence minister</span></a> in November, 2014. He was new to the
Union government, to the murky world of Delhi’s politics and to the even
murkier world of defence deals. The defence ministry is vast and humongous. The
issues at stake are complex and roiled in tangles of rules and procedures.
Decision-making is layered and at the same time labyrinthine. Each of the
services has its very own shibboleth and reading a few sentences on a file will
make clear the so-called minefield of lingo that one is likely to trample
upon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But Parrikar acquitted himself well – and rather quickly.
About six months into his term when, as the controller general of defence
accounts, I met him for the first time to discuss the pesky and complex issue
of <a href="https://thewire.in/?s=OROP" target="_blank" title="OROP"><span style="color: #c0392b;">OROP</span></a>, I discerned his clear understanding of
the subject. All the three services chiefs were present at the meeting, as
were senior bureaucrats of the ministry. Parrikar seemed to have all
the facts of the case, intricate as they are, at his fingertips. He gave
everyone a patient hearing, probing the issue deeper, thinking along as he
hammered out the necessary calculations almost concurrently.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Soon after, when I moved over to the defence ministry, I saw
more of the same on any issues I discussed with him in his chamber or in the
many meetings he chaired. He was a hands-on minister like no other. He was
quick, but behind his quick decision-making lay a mind that had reflected long
and hard on crucial aspects of the issue. He was a brainiac who would dissect
procurement cases, and expatiate at length on the pros and cons in the Defence
Acquisition Council (DAC) meetings as if he was slowly peeling off layers
of an onion. But he granted every official their right of say, no matter how
much he disagreed with them. He knew his every move was under media scanner and
the ubiquitous defence lobby, but he was firm and open in his conviction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DPP planning</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But more than anything that I saw during my tenure was when
the new defence procurement procedure (DPP) was a work-in-progress. Of the many
discussions we had in meetings, including in the DAC, the meeting of
eight-ten senior officers of the ministry and services headquarters that
Parrikar called for us to hammer out the DPP clauses is etched in my
memory. The meeting went on for a good six hours. What to my mind still rings
loud is the new concept of evaluation that he brought to play on the ‘essential
and enhanced’ parameters in the services qualitative requirements granting
nuances to the progressive, pragmatic way for single vendor situations in the
DPP. “Essential Parameters – A and Essential Parameters – B (if applicable) are
non-negotiable requirements to be met by the vendor, prior to commencement of
equipment delivery. Essential Parameters – B to be used only when required,
with DAC’s approval and not to be used when two or more vendors claim to
possess the same at the RFI stage and not to be included in ab-initio single
vendor cases. Essential Parameters – B may also be incorporated in the SoC, for
provision of partial quantities of the items being procured, to meet
different/higher specifications for specific operational requirements.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is no place to elaborate on other issues he wished to
institutionalise in India’s protracted and scam-laden defence procurement
procedure, like the concept of reverse LD to fast track cases in the ministry,
but I can’t help alluding to his ability to see and weigh both sides of the
coin and provide a transparent level-playing field to all. He certainly played
a crucial role in pushing the government machinery to move faster than it
has in decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Flip-flops and delays</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not that we didn’t have our share of disagreements on
various issues and his dilly-dallying (the Indian Ministerial filibustering; I
called it Parrikaring!) on many others. As a politician he flip-flopped at
times; but given our societal value system and cohort pressures, and the times
and ethos we live in, plus that he was a relative newbie in the arcane world of
the government of India, graduating as he was from the corporation (coined from
a friend) of Goa, I’m prepared to grant him the benefit of flip-flops. Cases
that have haemorrhaged public funds for years and continue to do so, which
he understood very well, readily come to my mind and with immense sadness. But
notwithstanding that, I’ll always admire his cerebral sparkle and the hard
yards he put in, his focus on <a href="https://thewire.in/?s=make+in+india" target="_blank" title="Make-in-India"><span style="color: #c0392b;">Make-in-India</span></a> that
put LCA on centre-stage and the encouragement that he unstintingly provided to
Aeronautical Development Agency and the DRDO.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Critics <a href="https://thewire.in/116317/manohar-parrikar-leaves-behind-doesnt-indias-raksha-mantri/" target="_blank" title="often complained"><span style="color: #c0392b;">often
complained</span></a> that the Make-in-India project in the defence sector
had failed to take-off. Sadly they fail to grasp, given our ecosystem, how
tough it can get, how protracted the procurement of arms and weapons/platform
are, and how long it takes to show results. The same goes with the recent
criticism of the parliamentary standing committee on inadequate defence
budgetary outlay. The expectations are immense but so are the imponderables,
not to say anything on the need to appreciate the nation’s budgetary outlay in
a holistic vein. Anyone who has dealt with issues knows the periodic pitfalls
of achieving milestones and the payouts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Commentators are also often wont to rile against the lower
budgetary allocation towards the defence sector. To me though the reference to
percentage of GDP is so misplaced that I find this betrays a complete lack of
appreciation of the algorithm of a nation’s growth model. To cite a simple
example: if a human body requires ‘x’ calories for an optimal life, must
greater prosperity mean a greater/higher calorific intake? Common sense says no
– it’ll be asking for trouble. The same too goes for the nation and its
insurance mechanism. This is not even taking into account the available pool of
resources that funds all areas of national development and sustenance. Frankly,
I can see no correlation between the defence budgetary outlay and the GDP
unless of course we wish to get carried away by the western world’s paradigm of
comparative national defence outlays that SIPRI, among others, does.
Incidentally, even SIPRI includes pensionary outlay as a part of defence
outlay, which the learned commentators disavow and, instead, hammer out their
insular architecture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Parrikar learnt and inhered these issues rather well. He
treaded cautiously, as a sensible man would, on issues of strategic partnership
that carries in its womb plenitude of ramifications, both for the present and
the future. This heaped infinite frustrations on the industry and the
industry-driven media ever keen to swoop down on the slightest flaw. The only
flaw I can discern here is Parrikar’s penchant to shoot his mouth off on such
issues rather than holding back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But how “correct” was it for Parrikar to leave the ministry
and go back to his home turf? It is not for me to go into political
calculations, but that he upped and left suddenly after doing the hardest part
– understanding the DNA of the ministry that takes years to fructify and show
results; the machinations and vacillations in its everyday functioning; the
many flawed past trajectories; the many countervailing dynamics and interplay
of personnel/middlemen/defence and civil bureaucracy et al – is unfortunate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He left when he ought to have stayed put.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Columnists have opined that unlike other politicians he
wasn’t fond of money, but he loved power in an architecture where he was the
numero uno. Far from the general public perception of his ineffable
ordinariness and beneath his plebeian visage, he was hubristic and won’t let go
a chance to so adumbrate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Also, coming to Delhi after years of helming the
tiny city-state, the overwhelming world of Delhi may have
underwhelmed his overweening psychology and worldview. He tried creating his
own world almost wholly made up of people drawn from Goa but Lutyen’s Delhi had
its own inexorable ways of breaching his citadel from time to time. His
periodic, resuscitative visits to Goa didn’t exactly help his cause to carve
out a niche in India’s capital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">He longed to get back to Goa. I sensed his heart
was in Goa but his head was in Delhi – so well he had understood the defence
ecosystem to lead from the front. Notwithstanding these foibles and his many
gaffes, which likely would’ve ironed themselves out, he had it in him to be
among India’s distinguished raksha mantris. While his party’s political
calculations and internal dynamics are theirs, India doubtless needed him more
than Goa did.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i>(Reproduced from The Wire)</i></span></div>
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Sudhansu Mohantyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15501211338293210148noreply@blogger.com0