AAP dharna: The unstated critical issues the country failed to see through

V Mahalingam
30 January 2014, 01:15 PM IST

This article is not about Arvind Kejriwal, his party members, ministerial colleagues or about the incidents involving Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti at Khiki Extension or Rakhi Birla demanding that the Police arrest suspects involved in setting a woman ablaze elsewhere in the capital. It is about the larger issues which the agitation had brought to the fore consciously or otherwise. It is about the security of the people, police functioning, its reactions to situations and people's involvement in the maintenance of law and order in a large city like Delhi. It is about the heightened terrorist threat which India and Delhi in particular is likely to witness after the US pull out from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

Consider a situation - a citizen of the locality notices a group of men moving in to live with one of the residents of the locality. They are found moving in and out of the house at odd times looking different from the locals and speaking strange language amongst themselves with an odd accent. He suspects some shady activities going on in or from the house. He has doubts that the group may be militants who may carry out a strike somewhere in the city. If he rings up the police emergency number or contacts one of those PCR vans standing at the corner of the next street and informs them of his observation, what is the police expected to do or what can one assume the police would do? Wait to obtain a search warrant? Wait for the day break since they will be entering a house in which a family stays including a few ladies and children? Expect the person to come to the police station and file an FIR?

It is possible that the informant may be totally wrong in his assessment, he may not educated or well to do and he may not have the contact number of the Delhi Police commissioner to contact him directly. Should he wait for things to happen and then tell the police what he had thought about the men and help police draw the sketch of the culprits? Can the police afford to wait? We need answers to these issues so that we don't keep blaming one or the other when lives are lost as a result of delay.

The laws of the land as at present may not be permitting the police to enter the house at night and they may be hounded subsequently for their actions. They may be accused of colluding with some political party or an influential person to harass the occupants of the house. What is the answer? The people have a right to know how the police are expected to react to such complaints.

It is alleged that written complaints about the in laws setting fire to a lady has been made to the people at right quarters. What happened to those complaints? If the police had initiated some actions on the complaints, shouldn't the police inform the parents of the victim what they are doing to calm them? Shouldn't they act swiftly to prevent evidences being obliterated? Why do we not want to change for the better? Is the present methods and procedures the best that an Indian mind can configure? 

Times of India reported that 7 Africans were caught without documents in Chhatarpur, Delhi.  Where did they descend from? A Tanzanian woman was reported to have informed the police that she was being forced into prostitution by her Nigerian friend who lives there. Obviously these devious activities are going on in our cities. Are the police or the immigration authorities unaware of these activities? If it was the case, it speaks volumes for the inefficiency of the agency concerned. Reports of illegal migrants from Bangladesh flooding Assam and further shifting to metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai in search of jobs has been in the news for quite some time. Pakistan based militants had come across the border to carryout strikes in places like Kaluchak (May 2012) and Samba (Sep 2013). Either they had entered the city sufficiently in advance to carry out their reconnaissance to be able to carry out the strike or some locals had helped them. Isn't there a need to evolve necessary methodologies to act on such activities with speed which costs lives besides adversely affecting the peace and security of the people?

As per National Crime Records Bureau up to 15 Oct, a total of 1330 rape, 2844 molestation, 793 eve teasing, 2906 kidnapping and abduction and 123 dowry death cases have been reported in the National Capital Region in the year 2013. Between Jan and Jun 2013, 7400 vehicles have been stolen of which 60 % were cars. This amounts to almost 41 vehicles a day!! The fact is the vehicles are being stolen by someone, transported to some place, suitably camouflaged to avoid detection, probably documents prepared and sold to someone!! Are these crimes not a matter of serious concern? Are the police doing its job? Is this the best that the government can offer to its citizens?

Our leaders and police have been telling people whenever there is a terrorist attack, a gang rape, murder, major theft cases or automobile theft that the police force is inadequate to keep a watch on every nook and corner of the city and there is a need to seek the help of resident welfare associations and integrate them in the crime prevention mechanism. Here are cases where, may be inadvertently, the AAP has been able to successfully rope in the common man in keeping a vigil and alerting the law enforcement agencies about possible crimes. Instead of acknowledging the active participation of the people in crime prevention and giving them a sense that their actions are being appreciated, are we not discouraging them by our unending criticism of the events in which AAP ministers were involved? Even if the people were wrong, was it not the duty of the government and the political parties to educate the people about the right methods rather than taking political advantage of the situation to criticize one or the other?

Whatever anyone may say about AAP but no one can deny the fact that this party has been able to garner the common man's support and participation in community issues which we have not witnessed in the country till today.

The central government had been under different political parties with different home ministers and home secretaries exercising control over the Delhi police. Every chief minister of Delhi has been crying hoarse that the Delhi police should come under the Delhi government by appealing to the central government and to the home ministers concerned. Have the so called non agitational methods yielded any results? Home ministry has far too many serious and not so serious issues to deal with includes terrorism, J&K, bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, implementation of official language etc.

Does anyone think that it has the time to exercise supervision and control over the police in Delhi? Law and order is a part of governance. Haven't good governance been one of the main reasons why smaller states are created? What makes the central government feel that an elected Delhi government will not be able to do at least what it is managing to do now in the matter of dealing with the law and order situation in Delhi?

No less than the Supreme Court of India had decreed the government way back in 2006 to bring about police reforms based on a case filed by two very senior and a respectable police officers Prakash Singh and NK Singh. Have the so called peaceful means brought about the change? Are eight years not sufficient enough time to bring about the change? If this is the respect that the Indian government gives to the highest court of the land, what other peaceful means will work? Aren't we as a society becoming status quoists? As of today the requirements of reforms and policing methods have gone much beyond those envisaged in 2006. We are yet to wake up.

The situation created by AAP could have been utilized to highlight the deficiencies in the system along with the criticism which the political parties and the media chose to heap on AAP. An opportunity has been lost. If the chaos that one witnessed in Mumbai during 26/ 11 is anything to go by, it gives sufficient insight into the capabilities of our planners to stage manage a situation of that nature leave alone preventing it.

In the present scenario, the very sequence of police response to complaints need rethink. If there is a need for a magistrate, common citizens or camera teams to accompany the police for verifying critical information relating to crime, we may need to include these personnel in the Quick Response Teams (QRT). May be we may have to give magisterial powers to eminent civil society members.  If there is a need, we may have to be amend the laws.

Given the facts that the Al-Qaeda leader and Osama bin Laden's successor Ayman al-Zawahiri has issued his first guidelines to the militant outfit in which he has endorsed the right of militants to fight the Indians in Kashmir for jihad and that after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 the country is likely to witness enhanced levels of terrorism related incidents, we need to focus on law and order issues now before it is too late. It is time the much awaited NCTC and a body to coordinate internal security issues within the country takes shape. The Special Forces need to come under a single authority like a Special Forces Command rather than each force reporting to a different ministry and the ministry being in a state not knowing when, where and how to employ these forces.

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Restaurant review: BusaGo (Asian multi-cuisine)

Rashmi Uday Singh
30 January 2014, 04:07 PM IST

Bandra buzzes. Before leaving for Spain, I popped into Busaba's baby sibling BusaGo and as you can see from the photo I shot, I ate almost everything on the short menu. 

DECOR
Cheery. Stamp-sized.  Crammed with five tables, open kitchen. Asian multicuisine menu and specials chalked onto the blackboard. A small alfresco area too.

FOOD
Please notice the three bottles of "Chibs multipurpose sauces" in the photo. Turn up the spice levels of your food and buy them (Red chilly is the best at  Rs 68) to take them home too. The star of Nikhil Chibs menu (the first to introduce it to Mumbai), is the velvety, coconutty Burmese Kaukswe, ladled on to either noodles or rice and sprinkled with crispy crunchy condiments and twist of lime.

Go for the meals in a bowl. Ask for the moist steamed crunchy Vegetarian Momos and Prawn Momos. The special of the day, the Bekti steamed fish sparkled with lemon is worth trying, as is the succulent, robustly spiced Korean Bulgogi. Go for the freshly squeezed "Make your own juice",  Nespresso coffee (served in a paper cup, Alas) too. Though not authentic the Bánh mì sandwich is tasty, filling and inexpensive.

MINUS POINTS
Bland Thai curry, Madras curry powder-laden Cambodian curry are avoidable as is the Coconut nimbu pani  laced with ginger and honey. Lacklustre Kungpao with peanuts. Hard crusted, oversweet Banoffee Pie. No alcohol.

MY POINT
Open through the day, VFM (average meal for 2, Rs 500. Home delivery too). Though some of the dishes are patchy the Kaukswe and Momos are worth trying. A welcome addition to buzzing Bandra.

Times Food Guide

BusaGo
Gaspar Enclave, Shop No 11, Pali Naka, Bandra West, 400050
Tel: 6127 8897
Open: 11:30am to 11:30pm

Rating: * Food: 3.5 * Service: 3.5 * Décor: 3

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Christies Impressionist and Modern Sale: Picasso, Giacometti and Juan Gris

Uma Nair
30 January 2014, 04:27 PM IST

Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London on February 4, 2014 sets the bar for rare and important works from distinguished sources to be offered at auction this season. Presenting discerning, informed and passionate international collectors with 48 lots spanning almost a century, the sale is led by Femme au costume turc dans un fauteuil, 1955 by Pablo Picasso, which comes to the market for the first time in over 55 years (estimate: £15-20 million).

It also features works from exceptional collections including: Modern Masters: Works from an Important Private Swiss Collection, an historic group led by a magnificent still life by Juan Gris, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux, 1915 (estimate: £12-18 million) and Piet Mondrian's iconic Composition No. 2 with Blue and Yellow, 1930 (estimate: £8-12 million), please click here for a separate release on the collection; Trois homes qui marchent I, one of Alberto Giacometti's famous multi-figure compositions, dating to the height of his oeuvre, from The Property of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sold to Benefit the Acquisitions Fund (estimate: £6.2-8 million); Les cylindres colorés, 1918, by Fernand Léger, formerly in the collection of Louis Carré, the celebrated art dealer who was closely associated with the artist (estimate: £5-7 million); and Property from the Estate of Ayala Zacks Abramov, featuring Henry Moore's Mother and Child with Apple (estimate: £2.5-3.5 million). The enduring appeal of the Impressionist era is exemplified by L'Eglise de Varengeville; soleil couchant, 1882, by Claude Monet (estimate: £4-7 million). Estimates range from £150,000 to £20 million, with a pre-sale estimate of £94,150,000 to£134,900,000. Christie's evening auctions of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Art on 4 February have a total pre-sale estimate of £137.1 million to £199.5 million).

Says Jay Vincze, International Director and Head of The Impressionist and Modern Art Department, Christie's London: "This stellar sale presents international collectors and institutions with rare opportunities to acquire exceptional works with illustrious provenance by key impressionist and modern masters. The global market for this category continues to expand and deepen year on year, underpinned by passion for the beauty of the period and an increasingly far reaching appreciation and understanding of the importance of late 19th century and early 20th century art movements. We are very privileged to be offering the distinguished private Swiss collection which includes a magnificent still life by Juan Gris as well as some of the most important examples of De Stijl works ever to be seen on the market, many of which were acquired directly from the artists, with whom the collectors had significant relationships. We are also very honoured to be offering Picasso's powerful portrait of his great love Jacqueline Roque, which comes to auction for the first time in over 55 years. Such a major work from this important series has not been seen at auction since 'Femme accroupie au costume turc, Jacqueline' was sold at Christie's New York for $30.8 million in November 2007."

FEMME AU COSTUME TURC DANS UN FAUTEUIL

Pablo Picasso painted Femme au costume turc dans un fauteuil on 20 November 1955. This picture is one of a small group of portraits showing Jacqueline Roque in the costume of an 'odalisque', a woman of the harem. The identification of the model is clear from comparison with other works from the selected series, and also with portraits that Picasso had created of her during the course of 1954 and 1955; indeed, a little over a year before he painted Femme au costume turc dans un fauteuil, he had drawn an intimate image of Jacqueline's face showing the nose, as here, facing to the right while the rest appeared predominantly orientated towards the left. That had been one of Picasso's early depictions of Jacqueline: while they had met in 1952, when she was assisting Suzanne Ramié in the workshop in Vallauris where Picasso made his ceramics, it was only later in 1953 that she had become established as the artist's partner, especially following the final rupture with Françoise Gilot in September that year. Femme au costume turc dans un fauteuil therefore dates from relatively early in this relationship and is a colourful, tender celebration of Jacqueline, whom Picasso would marry six years later and who would become one of the most important muses of the artist's entire life.

Giacometti

'In the street people astound and interest me more than any sculpture or painting. Every second the people stream together and go apart, then they approach each other to get closer to one another. They unceasingly form and re-form living compositions in unbelievable complexity' (Giacometti, quoted in R. Hohl, 'Form and Vision: The Work of Alberto Giacometti', pp. 13-46, Alberto Giacometti: A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., New York, 1974, p. 31).

Trois hommes qui marchent I is an early lifetime cast of one of Alberto Giacometti's famous multi-figure compositions, showing three men passing each other as though in a street. This work was conceived around 1948 and cast by 1951. It therefore dates from what is considered to be the height of Giacometti's creative powers, a window of several years during which he honed the iconic vision for which he is now famed - his elongated, stick-thin figures - and produced a string of masterpieces tapping into this new artistic solution. It is a reflection of the importance of Trois hommes qui marchent I that casts of it are held by several museums, as are casts of many of the related works from the era. Of all of Giacometti's subjects, it is perhaps the striding man that is most recognised; its fame has been increased because it is so emblematic of Giacometti himself, who often wandered around Paris' streets, a twentieth-centuryflâneur. Here, the three figures are weaving their way past each other, connected yet isolated, the perfect embodiment of city life and the human condition during the post-war years of existentialism. 

JUAN GRIS

Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux (The checked tablecloth) is a large-scale landmark painting by Juan Gris dating from 1915, a watershed year in which he shifted further from his earlier Analytical Cubism to the more lyrical Synthetic Cubism. The importance of this picture is reflected in the fact that it has featured in a number of significant collections since its execution, including that of one of the greatest patrons of Cubism, Dr G.F. Reber of Lausanne. Gris' move away from Analytical Cubism is demonstrated in the sheer exuberant energy of Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux, which features an explosion of objects, seemingly radiating from a point in the lower centre of the composition. There is a sense of dynamism to this composition, accentuated by its sheer size, which is at odds with the more static still life works that he often created; this was a characteristic that marked out his pictures of 1915 in particular. Indeed, it was making specific reference to Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux and another work from the same year that Gris' friend, dealer and biographer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler later wrote: 'Apparently Gris' ideal of architectural grandeur can only be realised with a static subject. But during the summer of 1915 he produced a series of pictures which are full of movement' (D.H. Kahnweiler, Juan Gris: His Life and Work, trans. D. Cooper, London, 1969, p. 126). 

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Should a successful chief minister be an economist?

Arun Jaitley
29 January 2014, 03:24 PM IST

The finance minister Mr P Chidambaram has commented that the amount of economics that Mr Narendra Modi knows can be written on the backside of a postal stamp. This statement comes from a keen student of economics who can be credited with pushing India's GDP growth to below 5%.

Mr Chidambaram believes that he is a principal repository of all economic wisdom. It is a different matter that he along with the other members of the UPA's dream team to manage the economy, have presented to the country not a dream but a nightmare. Political administrators who manage the economy are not known by their academic attributes. They are known by the footprints of performance they leave behind.

Mr PV Narasimha Rao and Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee had no claim to high levels of scholarship in economics. Experts are always available for special assignments in a government. It's a different matter that the Congress party chooses to make them finance ministers. Political leaders are expected to provide the leadership and decisiveness required for the management of the economy. They need to have a broad idea of the management of political economy. They are required to build consensus on economic issues. If consensus is not forthcoming they must assert themselves and overrule the critics. It is this quality that both Mr Rao and Mr Vajpayee had. It is for this reason that they find a special mention in history.

Mr Narendra Modi does not claim to be an economist. The manner in which he has administered Gujarat for the past 12 years has demonstrated his decisiveness and ability. Gujarat is an industrial hub of India. It is a manufacturing state. Its agricultural economy has grown in double digits. Its growth figures are higher than those of the rest of the country. Unlike Mr Modi, Mr Chidambaram and his prime minister did not have the ability to overrule their critics. They caved in even when obsolete suggestions were made by their party leadership. Observers today do not share Mr Chidambaram's opinion about Mr Modi. In fact, the revival of the investment cycle is being linked to a change in government where Dr Singh and Mr Chidambaram go out and Mr Modi comes in.

Mr Modi has demonstrated his clarity and effectiveness in generating and expediting economic activity in Gujarat. His ability does not require certification of Mr Chidambaram. But will Mr Chidambaram with his customary wisdom educate us on the extent of economic knowledge and understanding his de facto prime ministerial candidate Mr Rahul Gandhi possesses?

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A tattoo for Dhoni: Fail again, fail better

John Cheeran
29 January 2014, 10:05 AM IST

That there was no doubt about the outcome of India's fourth ODI against New Zealand, even Mahendra Singh Dhoni agrees. For, India on Tuesday was playing against itself, not against the Kiwis. And they did not do badly, either. They only lost one more ODI match, but Dhoni still have the satisfaction of calling the toss right for the fourth time on the trot.

An ordinary but revealing moment in the final stage of the match said it all. With New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum charging into play his own part in an awesome series win against world champions, both Ravindra Jadeja and Ambadi Rayudu rushed to close in on a skier that was coming down. What could have been an easy dismissal turned out to be a dropped opportunity. But not costly, considering that India had given up the match many overs ago.

Earlier, Dhoni had dropped Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina from the XI, an example of trying too hard to turn the tide. But the changes did not yield the desired result with Virat Kohli failing in his opener's role.  You cannot expect a cricketer to come good in every match. That, essentially, is the difference between sport and art. Only one guy came close to resemble Rajinikanth on cricket pitch. But even Sachin Tendulkar failed in such adventures.

It is important that Dhoni and, mostly, we, should get used to Kohli and his ilk failing more often. A team's strength is in all its men, so it is heartening that Rohit Sharma, Dhoni and Jadea all got runs today. That it was not enough is quite another truth.

Look at the Kiwis. They had a different hero for the day in Ross Taylor who slammed the door shut on India firmly with a coruscating century (112 from 127balls). Taylor and Kane Williamson did not give Indian bowlers any chance after New Zealand lost its openers in quick succession.

It was evident that India went into the match with its spirits drooping despite the exciting tie in Auckland. Losing two wickets early then made even Rohit Sharma sober---in the first 20 overs, India could log only 60 runs. The takeaway for India from Hamilton should be the unbeaten sixth wicket partnership for 127 runs between Dhoni and Jadeja. They are still at it.

May be Dhoni and rest of the Indian team should take a look at the tattoo the new Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka carries on his left forearm. The Samuel Beckett quotation reads "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

There cannot be a better read for a team that is on a losing streak.

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Rahul Gandhi interview: More his team’s shortcoming than his

Rajesh Kalra
29 January 2014, 02:51 PM IST

It's a bit late in the day, but after resisting for a day, couldn't hold back from commenting on the most eagerly awaited political interview in the country in a while, where my colleague Arnab Goswami took on the scion of the oldest and largest political party of India, Congress. As was expected, the reactions to the interview are polarised – It was great to it was lacking in content; it was well handled to it was the massacre of the innocent; from none had the guts to sit through such intense grilling to he could take questions, for he couldn't understand them.

There probably is a bit of truth in all these assessments. The Congress party can perhaps take some heart from the fact that although Rahul Gandhi has made a habit of taking on the very establishment over which he has lorded over for years, he still did not come across as a put on. There was sincerity. Even the mumbles and disjointed responses made him look human, that perhaps some of his own partymen, who have placed him on a pedestal, refuse to see.

But while not letting him off the hook for some pretty obvious flaws, there is a lot else that those who are his advisors and mentors need to do. My reference is especially to those who need to hide behind his powerful surname to maintain their own relevance in politics, those who need to ensure that Rahul Gandhi is always held up as a uniting force, so that their own home is not shattered.

A very senior journalist friend, whose dad was close to Indira Gandhi, had this to say after seeing the interview: Rahul Gandhi's interview with Arnab Goswami reminded me how intensively and comprehensively Indira Gandhi used to prepare for her TV interviews, in stark contrast to her grandson. He should know. His dad was one of the key persons in the team that used to brief her.

The point is, did Rahul Gandhi's team brief him the way he should have been? For, although it did seem he had prepared himself when it came to issues that are supposedly dear to him – systems, women empowerment and also his government's 'achievements' over the past ten years, he seemed ill-prepared when it came to some of the pointed questions and also the unrelated answers that he gave.

More importantly, knowing the kind of grilling that Arnab is now known for, his team should have gone through the possible counter-questions that came his way. As was seen, where Rahul Gandhi fumbled, some say floundered, the most was on issues such as taking on Narendra Modi for PM or the 1984 anti-Sikh riots vis a vis the Godhara riots..

It is these fumbles that gave ammo to his detractors, for an unprepared for such cross-questioning Rahul was forced to admit that "some Congress men were probably involved" in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

Clearly, these were not the questions that could be deflected with a single line or counter questioning by Rahul himself about the superficiality in the issues Arnab was raising while not discussing more important issues like women empowerment etc. It was made worse when Arnab told him pointedly that the interview's objective was to raise and get his response to issues that wouldn't be discussed otherwise, for the things that Rahul wants to raise can be heard in his speeches, anyway.

And this was not all. There was a lot else that he seemed unprepared for. The most obvious one was about his assertion that "I am absolutely against the concept of Dynasty, anybody who knows me knows that and understands that." Now, even if he really meant it, he perhaps could have handled it better, for, people in this country now increasingly believe what they see, not what they are told, thankfully.

The other one that comes to mind is his response to the questions on scams and his response: My position was that I report to the Prime Minister. Whatever I felt I had conversations with the Prime Minister. Whatever I felt about the issues I made it abundantly clear to the Prime Minister. I was involved in the legislation, RTI legislation. And now I have helped pass the Lokpal Bill.

Seemed like a smart answer, but immediately made it look as if it was the Prime Minister who was to blame for any inaction or delay on the government's part, whereas anything good that happened was solely due to his efforts. Perhaps true, but it didn't come across the way it could have.

In a nutshell, kudos to Rahul to agree to an interview when most others shy away, but his team has a lot of brushing up to do. Given that he was speaking in English and the audience was different, these fumbles did more harm than good and allowed him to become a butt of jokes on the social media. An opportunity like this does not come easily and was wasted. For them the advise is: It is simply not good enough to hide behind his name and yet not do the hard work that is necessary to ensure the name is not tarnished.

Also read: Full text of Rahul Gandhi's interview

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Lost wilderness

Jug Suraiya
28 January 2014, 02:13 PM IST

"Oh, he's so beautiful," said Bunny, from elephant-back.

I wouldn't have described him as beautiful. He looked proto-historic, a refugee from before the dawn of time; a huge grey rock come to life, with stubby legs; slender, flicking ears; and deep-set eyes covered  with long lashes. He was a full-grown male rhino, the first we'd ever met outside a zoo.

We were in the Kaziranga national park, in Assam. Kaziranga was part of the series I was doing for The Paper on wildlife sanctuaries.

A couple of weeks previously, we'd been in Jaldapara, in North Bengal. We'd stayed in a wooden cabin in the heart of the jungle.

The forest officer at Jaldapara had invited us to dinner at his cottage, some four kilometres away.

"I'll send my elephant to pick you up at seven," he'd said. It had made a quotable quote for the story I'd written.

Tragically, it was a story too much of which was written in blood. Poaching was already a full-fledged growth industry. At the park office in Kaziranga a forest ranger opened a locked safe and took out a bundle wrapped in jute sacking stained a rusty red. The ranger opened the sacking and revealed a triangular lump of flesh and compacted hair, jagged at the base where it had been hacked off from where it had originally grown: it was the horn of a rhinoceros, prized for its supposedly aphrodisiac qualities.

"They chopped the horn while it was still living. It bled to death. For once, we managed to catch the people who did it," said the ranger.

This was the other, unromanticised side of India's fast-disappearing wilderness and wildlife. The conflict was not just between a rapidly expanding human population – with its increasing need for cultivable land – and wildlife habitats; the real conflict was between two world views: conservation and progress, or what was seen as progress. It was an asymmetrical conflict. Despite champions like Billy Arjan Singh, conservation – even then – didn't stand much of a chance. Progress – or what passed by the name of progress – was an unstoppable juggernaut, cutting down forests, swallowing up grasslands, leaving its smouldering footprint on scorched earth.

The hacked-off horn of the rhino I saw in Kaziranga wasn't just a pathetic exhibit in a case of poaching. It was a memento of a much larger, more tragic despoliation. I thought of the thumb of Eklavya, cut off by himself as guru dakshina to Dronacharya who feared that the tribal would outdo the high-caste Arjuna in archery.

In the rhino's horn, I saw what is often called progress as civilisation's revenge on all those, human and animal, who inhabit the forests that were humankind's first home.

That losing war still continues, 30 years later. As this is written, a mobile service provider reminds us that there are only 1,411 tigers left in the country. A beach resort has been started on an island in the Andamans where the stone-age Jarawa live; there are only some three hundred of the tribe left, and it is feared that contact with outsiders might lead to their physical and cultural extinction.

Tough luck for the Jarawa. For Eklavya. For the rhino.

"He's so beautiful," Bunny had said, on elephant-back.

jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com

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Lisa and Jane got married

Shreya Sen Handley
28 January 2014, 05:45 PM IST

I have resolutely held off making resolutions for the New Year. The echoes of resolutions shattering across Sherwood Forest in this, first month of the year, prove me right. Everyone's off their diet already. The gyms have stopped resembling funfairs and the pubs are heaving once more.  As I nibble at my dark chocolate biscuit (I'm on MY diet still), I wish we were as yielding, as flexible when it comes to the freedom we allow our growing children.  Instead we become men of steel, iron ladies, as starkly forbidding as the forest of Sherwood in the winter, as vengeful and underhand as King John, and as harsh and punitive as the Sheriff of Nottingham with the outlaws. And like them, when we don't like the choices our children make (especially sexual ones; in which we should have very little say), when we can't control who they are, we make them outlaws in their own homes. 

It's a tale as old as time but in 2013, the bigoted seemed to have worked extra hard at turning the clock back.  The Russian government passed a law banning the "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations". With subsequent veiled threats from Putin of a pogrom against Russian homosexuals and a concomitant rise in harassment, the Sochi Winter Olympics are all set to become the iciest of global gatherings in a while. Not to be left behind, at the fag end of last year, the Indian Supreme Court recriminalized homosexuality. These wise men reversed the progressive 2009 Delhi High Court ruling legalising consensual, adult gay sex because, in essence, they agreed with its hidebound challengers that homosexuality was "illegal, immoral and against Indian culture". Yesterday, by rejecting the strongly-felt petition to review their decision to make homosexuality a criminal offence again, they reiterated their atavistic stand. 

But I'm NOT on my sturdy Sherwood oak soapbox today to point out that penalising almost 20% of the global LGBT community does us all harm. Oh yeah, that's how un-Indian it is; nearly one fifth of the world's gay population is Desi. And if you'd rather not believe that, then even the most conservative estimate puts "them" at 20 million strong ("And they walk amongst us. Bachao!" did I hear you say?). For a country so pernickety about its image, victimising a responsible, hard-working, often hugely creative community of non-criminals don't look so good, y'know? With last December's doings, we've rediscovered our hallowed position, high on that list of nations that know diddly-squat about biology, history, humanity and good sense (the ILGA blacklist). 

Nor am I here to tell you that the whole concept of oppressing people for their sexual orientation is so archaic it boggles the post-Neanderthal mind. Ironically, while it's ridiculously old fashioned to be anti-gay, being gay is a very old fashion indeed; there's plenty of proof it's always existed in humans, it's become equally clear that animals can be homosexual too (oh dear, haven't you heard? Which cave have you been hiding in?).  Or that it's morally wrong. It kinda follows that if it's natural and practised responsibly (the only kind of sex, gay or straight, that I support), it can't be criminal and to persecute people for it puts us in the wrong. But you've heard it all before and it hasn't changed your mind, so I won't go over that again. And anyway, plenty of you don't need coaxing out of caves.  You're already there, basking in the light of reason. But stick with me even if you do agree, and put your two paise in at the end; we can move mountains when we shout together.  Mountains of tosh. Straight into the Indian Ocean.  

I'm here for a parent to parent-in-denial chat. I am a mom of two little ones. I can't change the minds of lawmakers, politicians and those natural leaders of our society, the patriarchs, who know best about everything.  But I can try, just try, to persuade a parent or two to think before they react (badly) when their just-turned-adult offspring reveal they're gay. The overturning of the progressive, humanitarian 2009 Delhi HC verdict worries me because far from the courts, the police and the baying fundamentalists, in the quiet of homes across India, this new ruling validates the mistreatment that young people, gingerly stepping out of the closet for the first time, receive. Of course, this ruling affects gay people of all ages but I do believe it harms the young more. Older people have survival strategies in place and what society thinks of them matters less. The threat of jail for something categorically NOT criminal is terrible.  If, as sometimes claimed, it's more often used to extract bribes than to detain, it is still unpardonable. Worse even than that is the deep, wounding disapproval, the ridiculous and hurtful attempts to "cure", and the severing of ties that many young, gay Indians experience.  

What this ruling does is say to the purveyors of prejudice in their own homes - carry on, carry on stifling, punishing and banishing your children rather than admit there are many different ways of being good human beings, even "good Indians"- carry on. And that tone with which the SC judges told us they did it for our own good, wasn't that disturbingly familiar? It's employed in thousands of Indian homes when the older generation finally realise their children are never going to fit the rigid and suffocating mould they'd been trying to stuff them into from the moment they were born. You know the patter don't you?  We know best, we are being cruel to be kind, we have YOUR best interests at heart.  They insist you listen. They raise their voice. That makes it louder but not true. Most parents have convinced themselves they always act in their children's interest. With loving parents, it's usually true but not always. When I scold my little boy or girl for talking too loudly in a "nice" restaurant, am I really doing it to improve their manners or because I don't want fellow diners casting looks-that-kill our way? How often is it about our own "values"; received wisdom we've never sense-checked? How often about saving face when our kids don't quite fit in? 

If the sticks and stones you fear society will throw at your gay offspring is your reason for trying to change them, then consider this; they are just as likely to be discriminated against for their gender, disability, dark skin or some other trait that isn't someone's idea of perfect. You could, of course, take against your child for coming into the world dark or female. There are bleaching agents that damage skin (and self-esteem) for life or wells to throw your baby daughter into. You could do that. Or you could decide to love the most precious thing the world will ever give you. Whether they live up to your dizzyingly "high standards" or not. Got a mirror in your home? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  I can see you staring at the mirror aghast, wondering if I just said you might be gay too. Well, you might, but that's not what I meant. Your child is so like you. Their sexuality is as natural as yours, just a touch different. Like my son has green eyes while the rest of our family have brown. Your gay child is not a rotten apple. Just yellow-orange while you are red. 

Filmmaker Chitra Palekar said: "My daughter told me - Amma, I'm a lesbian. I wasn't shocked. I was just taken aback. My only knowledge about homosexuality was through films and literature. But I immediately accepted her. Because she was the same person she was two minutes ago. Nothing about her had changed for me." Like that Cole Porter song…"Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it, let's do it, let's fall in love"...with our children. When they tell you they are homosexual, embrace them. Tell them you'll fight the world for them, and you might find you don't have to. You've given them the strength to take on all-comers. Far from loving my children less for having the chutzpah to be themselves openly, I would love them more. I would support them in asserting that right. Sadly, not everyone feels that way. We've all heard the horror stories of beatings, forced marriages, and "remedies" that parents subject their children to. We strenuously deny these things happen in our circles. Maybe not, but exile does. Some boys I knew in school had to choose between living a lie and leaving home. They left. And though fortunate to find and openly love a partner of their choice, they never really found another place that felt like home. Does it have to be a choice between love and home for the Indian homosexual, can't they have both? 

We can pat ourselves on the back that unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Nigeria the punishment isn't harsher. You could be executed for homosexuality in many Middle Eastern states. It's illegal to be gay in 36 out of 54 African nations. You could get life imprisonment for expressing desire, as Cameroonian Roger Mbede did. He had texted "I'm very much in love with you" to another man. The violent ill-treatment he received in prison led to his death this month. But I can't help feel that the vilification, rejection and withholding of medical treatment by his family, after his release, hastened his end, like nothing else could.  

In the West, you won't be executed, imprisoned or face as much disapproval at home for being gay. Not these days. But there are enough instances of discrimination, bullying and random jackbooted attacks to suggest homophobia is alive and well.  Then there's David Silvester. This far right United Kingdom Independent Party councillor has made the entertaining claim that England's recent floods are divine retribution for the legalisation of gay marriages in 2013: "The scriptures make it abundantly clear that Christian nations acting contrary to the Gospel will be beset by natural disasters. Large swathes of Britain have been afflicted by storms and floods because no man can mess with Almighty God and get away with it". Even the UKIP found this hard to swallow, and Silvester was suspended.  But which bit of a legal, life-long commitment, for which gay couples have fought long and hard, is immoral or irreligious? Two people in love who want to spend their lives together; a thing of beauty, surely? If like poop-head Putin, you believe paedophilia goes hand in hand with homosexuality (it SO doesn't), or if, like the former head of the Indian Psychiatric Society, Indira Sharma, you think the LGBT community are promiscuous, sex-obsessed exhibitionists who make out with anyone (just as long as they're the "wrong" sex), constantly and just anywhere, then the fact that so many of them want to settle down with each other is good, right? At the very least, it will stop the 24/7 canoodling on the kerbside, in the bushes, atop restaurant tables.  But it won't stop the floods. 

If we, and the generations before us, had grown up seeing the similarities (and the love!) amongst people rather than the differences, if we'd been encouraged to do so by our parents, then we wouldn't have the strife-torn world we live in now. If our inalienable right to individual choice and the happy acceptance of those of others' were taught at home, then parochial politicians and moth-eaten men in wigs wouldn't be a worry anymore, as they too would've been taught the right things at home.  Because there's no place like home to start changing the world (I know, I know, I've said it before but it IS worth saying again).  Here, in the woods, our babes have seen relatives in happy relationships with same sex partners. To them it's as natural as Daddy and Mommy being together.  Coming home shaken when a schoolmate insisted "girls can't marry girls", they asked if that could be true. Sitting them down with bickies and milk, I reminded them of Aunties Lisa and Jane. I told them how happy Lisa and Jane were after a decade together. How completely at ease in a world that only half-accepted them. How keen to live a good life and do the right thing by society. And though the wintry wind lashed mercilessly at our kitchen window, my children glowed with pleasure at the thought of their loving, lesbian aunts.   "I remember when Aunties Lisa and Jane got married", my son beamed. "What a wonderful day that was!" my little girl finished for him.

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Hasee Toh Phasee

Meeta Kabra
28 January 2014, 02:21 PM IST

We have another round of romcoms on our cards in the coming few weeks. Starting with One by Two, to be followed by next week's release Hasee Toh Phasee. As most other romcoms appear in their trailers, this one too looks fresh and out there with its craziness.

Parineeti Chopra seems perfect for the completely zany character she is playing. But, my worry is the same that I have for all films which have hilarious dialogue in the promos - that is all there is. The movie will just be sewing those moments together. Hopefully, it won't happen here.

There is hope at the hands of vinil Matthew, because I've loved some of the ads that he has directed. Hasee Toh Phasee does have a very similar texture. Hope it has the same slight hand in the writing too.

On the other hand, given Parineeti Chopra's character, I don't quite get what the title of the film is all about. She doesn't remotely look like a person who can't look through a guy's intentions. I hope the title will be the only quibble I have against the film.

Music Reviews:
Bollyspice - "2/5"
Bollywood Hungama - "2.5/5"
glamsham - "3/5"
IBN Live, IANS - "4/5"
Milliblog - "Vishal-Shekhar open their 2014 account on a promising note!"
Music Aloud - "7/10"

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Wawrinka's backhand slap to robot tennis

Amit Karmarkar
27 January 2014, 12:16 PM IST

Alas, Nadal has managed to convey the impression for the umpteenth time in his career that if he is 100 per cent fit, he cannot lose a match.

Sounds weird that a mortal can lose only if he is unfit. But that's what Rafa's ardent fans believe. If that is really the case, it isn't too surprising. For, robots generally mafunction only when hit by the virus or their code turns awry.  

Stanislas Wawrinka's triumph is a significant, well-deserved achievement. Not just because he defeated Federer's conqueror Nadal; but also for his single-handed backhand. Wawrinka getting the better of Djoko after 14 failed attempts may inspire his countryman Federer to do a Waw against Rafa.

Federer's fans would hope that the legend will try and learn a few tricks from his countryman and Olympic gold team-mate on how to dismantle and crush Rafa on all counts: physically, psychologically and on pure tennis terms too.  

Since Gaston Gaudio won the French Open in 2004, among the grand slam winners only Roger Federer owns a single-handed backhand. Others - Safin, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Del Potro - all employ the double-handed backhand barring exceptional circumstances.

With due respect to their skills, the double-hander has this intrinsic curse of being ugly. I have yet to come across an out-and-out beautiful double-hander. Yes, the 'double' can take your breath away for its power, precision and execution. But it doesn't exhale fragrance.

Of course, two hands give a greater control and strength to the shot. But it can never match the beauty part. Apart from Federer, see Pete Sampras' single-handed backhand. Justin Henin's is (even more) poetry in motion.

But the single-handed backhand is fraught with danger. And that's why very few play it these days unless they have a crazy dream of winning 'multiple' Wimbledon titles. Federer has been losing to Nadal largely because of this single-handed backhand. Of course, Nadal's nous about the game, his team's ability to exploit the opposition weakness and his 'retrieval attack' is legendary. Apart from pinning Federer's backhand, he mixes things up and has unparallalled brutal skills. But clearly, his high ball to Federer's backhand with heavy spin or loop is cumbersome to Federer; and takes the cake for the Spaniard.

Perhaps, Monica Seles' (leftie like Nadal) success against Frauelin Forehand (Steffi Graf) was based on a similar principle. Since Gunther Parche ended that rivalry abruptly, we would never know if Graf swas capable to find ways to beat Seles had the 1993 Hamburg avoided.

Finally, what are the odds on Federer beating Nadal at Wimbledon (on grass) or the year-end championship (indoors) if they meet? Can't be entirely ruled out.

If Chang was Federer's coach, he would have perhaps advised him to serve under-arm and upset Rafa. And if Sunil Gavaskar was his mentor, he could have asked him to switch to double-handed backhand or play left-handed to negate Rafa's advantage. Remember SMG batted left-handed to negate Karnataka's Raghuram Bhat.

Of course, both are unpractical ideas but ideas nevertheless.

For the time being, let's celebrate this rare breed (Wawrinka) of single-handed backhand exponent winning a major title. If he can add another one, he will not only double Gaudio's major tally, but could also make tennis more enjoyable and less one-dimensional.

PS: Shooter Karoly Takacs was denied participation in the 1936 Olympics due to army rules for the Hungarian citizens at the time. His right hand was injured in the subsequent grenade explosion. But he learnt to shoot with the left hand and won two successive Olympic golds in 1948 and 1952. Of course, such a switch could well be impossible in tennis and for Federer. But once in a while, it's good to recall the inspirational story of Takacs.

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The re-arranged marriage

Ira Trivedi
27 January 2014, 03:56 PM IST

When Sheena met Vinay, sparks flew with an alarming and unexpected velocity. After all they had only exchanged pleasant emails, and had two uncomfortable conversations on the phone before they met. 

Sheena, at 32, was on the verge of throwing up her last marital hopes, and in a last-ditch effort had posted an ad on a matrimonial website. Vinay, at 32, had only met Sheena under the insistence of his mother, who was keen on getting her only son married. Her biggest fear, the nightmare that plagued her sleep, was that her handsome son would be "hooked" by a foreign girl in Nairobi, where he had recently moved for work.

Sheena and Vinay met in Bombay, over drinks at a trendy bar when Vinay was in town on a business trip. They immediately "clicked." Vinay liked Sheena's attractive personality, her independent spirit and her looks. Sheena, an executive at a Bombay corporate found Vinay charming.

She pictured them fitting-in perfectly in the universe of her coupled friends. Sheena and Vinay spent the next three days together. They kissed on day two, and had sex on day three. For Sheena part of the vetting process included testing for sexual compatibility, and Vinay had passed with flying colors.

On day 4, they called their parents informing them that they had decided to marry, and both sets of thrilled parents agreed to meet in Bombay.

For most people who have been involved in, or witnesses to the arranged marriage process (and this would be most of us) Sheena's and Vinay's matrimonial trajectory may seem like an anomaly, but today, in 2013, it is far from. Their story brings to light many facets of this new India with its constantly evolving relationship landscape.

Sheena and Vinay had an "arranged cum love marriage." They met through the Internet on the behest of their parents, but then took matrimonial matters in their own hands. Sex too was an important part of the equation, and traditional factors like the boy's salary were not as important because Sheena had a successful career of her own.

Sheena and Vinay's story does not end here. A year after they got married, they filed for divorce. Sheena moved to Nairobi and was unable to find a job. She quickly discovered that Vinay's sales job was not half as glamorous as he had made it out to be, and it became difficult for her and Vinay to live the lives they were used to with just one earning member. This led to disputes, which then catapulted into bigger fights and problems. 

When Sheena discovered Vinay's secret affair with a co-worker, she immediately moved back to India and filed for divorce. In Sheena and Vinay's story, there are some interesting revelations.

As Indian marriage goes through a metamorphosis, even the age-old formula for arranged marred marriage is changing, as are ways of finding a match. In an earlier simpler time, the formula was simple– Marriage, sex and then if you were lucky, then love. Today, this is all changing and there are many permutations and combinations of this formulas. 

Perhaps the biggest change in arranged marriage is the role of the to-be wedded in their own marriage, and the diminished role of the parents. Like in the case of Sheena and Vinay, prospective partners often go on 'arranged' dates before they decide and commonly now, there is an extended period of dating before a formal agreement to the marriage.

Sex too has an increasingly important role, before, and in the course of the marriage, as women become more uninhibited in their sexual behavior and expression of it. Divorce rates have skyrocketed in the past decade, as women and men find it difficult to "adjust" to each other. Everyone expects a steady dose of love in their marriage, and if it doesn't follow, the young are impatient, and quick to find a fire escape.

Sheena and Vinay's story is common in India's transforming marital landscape. Technically they had an arranged marriage, but only when they saw the potential for romantic love. When love did not come, they were quick to call it quits, simply because they could, and they both knew that there would be other options.

In this new India, everyone is looking for love. Romantic love has become the defining trait of the new generation, with a close to 30 per cent of the urban middle-class saying they marry for love. The main question we have to ask – that if romantic love is the basis/fundamental of relationships, what happens when this sometimes volatile and often nebulous quality fades away, sometimes as swiftly as it arrived. What then is the future of marriage?

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The loneliness of the long-distance walker

R Edwin Sudhir
27 January 2014, 05:53 PM IST

It has been over a week, and I still can't quite believe I actually walked from Jayanagar to MG Road in Bangalore. For those not familiar with these areas, they're about 7km apart and usually, I'd take some other means of getting across. Definitely, not walk. 

But last Sunday evening, I walked. But don't ever walk with me, simply because I'm no fun to walk with. I'm too busy keeping an eye on the pathetic pavements, choc-a-block traffic and choking pollution. If I'm busy walking with eyes and ears on high alert just to ensure I don't get run over by speeding vehicles or fall through gaps in the slabs. I won't be able to indulge in conversation of any sort. 

There's no romance anymore in walking through the city.

And don't even think of looking up -- you may see interesting things and some familiar things differently, but the price you pay could be slipping on garbage or twisting your ankle after stepping on uneven pavements. A website recently invited its readers to look up in their cities and photograph what they saw. Quite understandably, not many Bangaloreans had contributed any pics when I last checked. 

Here's where non-Bangaloreans can skip right to the last paragraph, if they so wish because they may not quite get the references to local sights and sounds.

So, last Sunday evening, when the Sun had slid down over the horizon and a winter chill gradually enveloped the city, I started from the Jayanagar Shopping Complex and gingerly headed out towards Ashoka Pillar. There was a quick pit-stop to stock up on peanuts which were at once tangy and reinvigorating.  

I took the road parallel to the T Mariappa Road as the traffic was thin and naturally, I could breathe a little easier. I hadn't walked long distances for a while, and wondered when I'd have to call off this attempt of due diligence of bad pavements. A seller of roasted peanuts, at five rupees a twist, brought back memories of other long walks and that revived my spirits.

So I walked around the Lalbagh wall, where the pavement is a bit of an obstacle course with fallen tree guards and uprooted stone slabs. The cars whizzed past, and autorickshaw drivers slowed down hopefully but when they saw my grim determination not to hail them, sped away in some anger.

As I crossed the Hosur Road and headed down a leafy cross road along a pleasant park, my enthusiasm for this exercise was swiftly waning and it took all my will power to stay on course. That's when I realized I'd made the cardinal mistake of long walks -- I didn't have a bottle of water.  I ducked into a basement general store in Wilson Garden, treated myself to a generous swig of cool water and resumed my journey.

The next big point on the walk was the KH Road, better known as the Double Road, and the  lean traffic was a welcome change from the roaring rush every day. Under the flyover, and past the spanking new Ritz Carlton opposite the old Bangalore Club. I was in the Old Cantonment area and with waning energy, I'd half a mind to abandon it all and head home. When I realised I was less than a kilometre from MG Road. That got my spirits up and the prospects of a cool, refreshing drink at Koshy's kept me going. The St Mark's Road stretch is a pleasure to negotiate. The old British influence lingers and the last mile was over before I knew it was done.

So, what's the take-away from the long walk? Aching legs, confirmation that the pavements are indeed bad, but there's nothing like walking to know a city. Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote about it more eloquently but more about that some other time.  

Nevertheless, I may walk some more in other areas. You should try it too.

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Soldiers voting through postal ballots meaningless

V Mahalingam
25 January 2014, 12:16 PM IST

Indian democracy has failed to provide the uniformed community the right to vote in a meaningful manner unlike in the case of a common man. The 1.4 million Defence Services personnel, 0.9 million Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel and approximately one million family members of those uniformed community who choose to live with their offspring and husbands in peace stations are the exceptions.  The postal ballot and proxy voting invented by the Election Commission is an insincere exercise meant only to prevent a soldier from participating in the democratic process in a purposeful manner and experiencing the fruits of democracy, a right which every other citizen enjoys. The system fails to recognize that the spirit of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act 1950 (RP Act) requires definite connect between the represented and the representative failing which the Government in a parliamentary democracy will cease to be of the people, by the people or for the people.   

The Constitutional position
Article 326 of the Constitution and the RP Act does not discriminate between the soldier and the ordinary citizen. The procedures for incorporating them in the voters' list are the same – either through house to house enumeration or the Form 6 route. Despite various amendments to the Constitution and the RP Act since their original enactment, the soldiers have not been debarred in any way from enlisting themselves as 'Ordinary Residents' at their place of posting.

Based on this provision, in 1969, 12 Assam Rifles, a unit posted in Nagaland (Wokha) approached the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and after much discussion got their soldiers registered as voters at their place of posting. One of the candidates who lost the election went to the court under the plea that the ERO had no jurisdiction to register the personnel of 12 Assam Rifles as voters at their place of posting, as, with 'Service Qualification' they were entitled to vote only at their native place.  In a path breaking verdict, the Court ruled that the statutory fiction is intended to confer the right to be registered as electors at their home town or village. But the fiction cannot take away the right of persons possessing service qualification to get themselves registered at a constituency in which they are ordinarily residing though such place happens to be their place of service. The Supreme Court (SC) dismissed the appeal with costs. As respondents, the Election Commission (EC) on its part stoutly defended registering the soldiers as voters at their place of posting.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the system has not crafted any unswerving provisions for registering Service personnel as voters at their place of posting. This is the respect accorded to the Constitution, the laws and the highest court of the land by the institutions of democracy and the Government in India!!

Despite the 1971 verdict, the Army issued a Special Army Order in 1972, probably based on instructions form the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that Army personnel are entitled to vote only through the postal ballot, yet another charade to block soldiers from voting at their place of posting.  

Another significant SC ruling is relevant in this context. AIR 1984 SC 921had ruled that the EC cannot over rule RP Act and Rules. The EC having been tied down by the rule book issued a letter in Mar 1995 accepting the right of the soldier to vote at their place of posting as confirmed by the SC. It pronounced that the soldiers can get registered at their place of posting during enumeration if they do not wish to avail of the option to vote at their native place. Yet again this assertion was subverted as the subsequent events would unfold.

The iniquitous design
Based on this, an Army Order was issued in 1995. It lays down two conditions for enrolling oneself as a voter namely, the need for staying at the place of posting for 'sufficient span of time' and 'with their families.'

What it meant by 'sufficient span of time' is anybody's guess!! When a soldier moves on posting either with the unit or individually, considering that the tenure at a place of posting in never more than three to three and a half years, is there any way he will be eligible to vote at the next station? Isn't the system denying him the right to vote at his place of posting by design?
The bureaucracy ought to have known that the authorisation of family accommodation to an infantry battalion is 35 % and generally in a peace station not more than 180 and 210 houses are allotted to the Battalion. So, the system wants the rest of the 600 soldiers to forsake their vote for the fault of not staying with their families!!

Do such restrictions exist in the case of a civilian voter? Why this special treatment for a soldier? Is it because he made the mistake of joining the Defence Services? Is it because he is disciplined and sacrifices even the basic minimum comforts by agreeing to live in difficult terrain under adverse conditions with inherent risks attached? Or is it because he agrees to sacrifice his life for the nation when called upon to do so knowing fully well that his death will put an end to every hope and aspiration of his young wife, children and dependent parents?

Take a breath - there is more to come. Though the EC has acknowledged the right of the soldier to vote at their place of posting, (Chapter X para 2), in the Hand Book for EROs issued in 2008, in Para 4 it has directed its EROs thus "A person having service qualifications should not to be enumerated as general electors during intensive revision for inclusion in the preliminary (draft) roll alongside their other eligible family members" and have thus gone back on their basic contention on the  right of the soldier to vote at their place of posting. The revised Hand Book for EROs issued in 2012 merely repeats the wordings in the 2008 edition. Para 1read in conjunction with para 4 of the Chapter X of the Hand Book will prove the point. The conditions of 'are ordinarily residing with their family with a sufficient span of time' have again been brought up in the 2012 edition of the Hand Book. Clear cases of double speak.    
A soldier's perspective
A soldier leaves his native place between the age of 18 and 21 and returns after 15 to 40 years depending upon the age at which he enrolled himself and the rank which he attains in his service. Knowing that the entire area will undergo drastic changes by the time he returns, routine development of the area has no meaning to him. During the service career, a soldier has no knowledge of the political parties or the contestants contesting the elections at his native place nor does he have the time to acquire any knowledge about them. Being so far away, he is oblivious to their agenda, election manifesto, past performances, criminal records etc. When a soldier approaches his elected representative at his native place with his problems at his place of posting or those related to his career and service conditions, he is brusquely told to approach his elected representative at his place posting. The political party or the candidates do not even appeal to a soldier on postal ballot to vote for him or to the party or canvass in any manner to get the vote of this section of the society. The vote of a soldier obviously has no worth!!  Lack of any connects between the soldier and his elected representative at his native place is explicit. How can such a contestant represent him in the State Assembly or the Parliament?

At his place of posting, a soldier has a number of local problems and services related issues to contend with. His local issues include power supply, water supply and timings, law and order situation in the civil areas where some of the soldiers' families reside, street lighting, road conditions, land acquisition for training infrastructure such as ranges, environment clearances etc. are just a few examples. On the career side, his problems relating to promotion prospects, service conditions such as pay and allowances, prejudiced government edicts on issues such as pay commission reports and order of precedence; civil military relations etc. need resolution.

In the olden days the Service Chiefs used to attend to a soldier's service issues but today the Service Chiefs are mere heads with practically no say in the decision making process. His voice is drowned by the bureaucracy. Remember the uproar when the Air Chief wrote to his units informing them of the delay in finalizing the 6th Pay Commission Report which he is duty bound to do as their commander? With the Service Chiefs being rendered defunct the only option available to the soldier is to take his problems to the people's court – the Parliament through his elected representative. It is at his place of posting that a soldier can maintain contact with his elected representative through his Commanding Officer and Formation Commanders. Incidentally, every soldier will tell you that during his service career one rarely received his postal ballot papers in time to be of any meaning in the election process.  

The reality is, when you are not a vote bank, no one cares for you. The administration and even local police ignores you and most of the time humiliates you. The time for a soldier to be treated as a foot mat is over and it is time he is empowered to demand his rights and dues.

Positive developments
In the recently concluded Dec 2014 assembly elections in Delhi, about 40000 state Government employees including police personnel, Government staff and drivers were given the ballot papers well before the elections and were made to cast their vote in sealed boxes kept at Facilitation Centers. Their votes were counted along with those of the Delhi's citizens.

It has been reported in the media that Defence voters belonging to other places but residing in Delhi due to official postings have been registered as voters in the Delhi Cantonment to woo the participation of the defence personnel during elections.

If these could be done in Delhi Cantonment, there is no reason why it can't be done at other places for soldiers under similar circumstances.

The way forward
Amend the Hand Book for EROs in a manner that its contents are unambiguous. EC should issue clear instructions to all EROs and the Service Headquarters to enroll soldiers as voters at their place of posting. If a time stipulation for being eligible to be enrolled as a voter in the electoral roll is to be imposed, it should in no way be different from those applicable to ordinary citizens.  

The rules and the procedure adopted for enumerating the soldiers at their place of posting, establishing polling booths, their security and counting should not differ in any way from that of the civilians in the area. If the EC wishes to seek the assistance of the Defence authorities in the matter, they may do so at their discretion and assistance may be provided by the services if it is feasible, within the rules and is not likely to be viewed as influencing the elections in any manner.

Soldiers' families should be permitted to vote at their place of residence irrespective of where they are as in the case of ordinary citizens.

Troops in the border posts and on duty within the units should be permitted to vote in the manner in which Delhi Government employees did during 2014 assembly elections. The reminder personnel of the unit must follow the procedure adopted for the ordinary residents of the area.

Till such time Article 370 of the Constitution is in force, personnel posted in J & K may be permitted to vote at the constituency of their Regimental Centers through postal ballots as the institution is considered the second home of the soldier and contact with the elected representative can be maintained through the Regimental Center Commandants guided by their respective Colonel Commandants / Colonels of the Regiment. Arrangements will have to be made to have their votes counted wherever it could be done conveniently and the numbers included in the final tally before the election results are announced.

Conclusion  
The right granted by the Constitution of India and the RP Act to a soldier adequately elucidated by the Supreme Court of India cannot be snatched away by anyone. The institutions, namely, EC, the Service Headquarters and the Government are only the implementing agencies of the provisions of these sacred documents and not the documents themselves.

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National Voters’ Day: A clarion call for voter registration

Narendra Modi
25 January 2014, 03:18 PM IST

My heartfelt greetings to all of you on National Voters' Day!

I convey my greetings to the Election Commission of India, which came into existence on this day. I congratulate the EC of India for having steadfastly stood as a guardian and protector of the most important democratic process in India – elections, for over 6 decades. 

Electioneering in India has come a long way since the first-ever General Elections in 1952. From ballot papers we have moved to EVMs; earlier, if counting of votes could even extend beyond a day, it is now a matter of hours for the picture to become clear. Earlier, elections could turn extremely violent. Booth capturing prevailed in some parts but now violence and other electoral malpractices have reduced substantially.

Yes, things have truly changed! Yet, some issues merit our attention.

If there is one important issue even today, it is to further increase voter registration. The past several elections across India have seen record turnouts. This is a positive sign but there remain several people, particularly youngsters who despite being eligible are not registered as voters. The Election Commission has been extremely proactive in increasing registration but with more help from citizens, we can go even further.

We need to think about strengthening voter facilitation through innovative means such as mobile registration kiosks.

The duration between the time one submits the voter registration form and the time when he or she gets the voter card is long. It would be great if that duration is shortened and the citizens are updated on the status of their application.

Similarly, we must ensure that proper voting facilities are made available to our brave army personnel who are tirelessly serving India, especially those posted on the border areas. Some work has been done in this regard but we still have a very long way to go.

It is also the need of the hour to infuse our election processes with even more technology, innovation and look towards the future. We need to explore a more user friendly on line voter registration system. Further, we need to use mobile technology for voter registration, information dissemination about polling booths etc. It is also time we start discussing the possibilities of online voting, though admittedly it has its inherent challenges. 

Last year the Honourable Supreme Court gave a historic verdict, giving voters the option to vote 'None of the Above.' The verdict was a step in the right direction but its true essence will come out when we are able to successfully institutionalize a near universal voting for our citizens through facilitation for voter registration and voting. Every citizen must rise to the occasion and contribute to the strengthening of our democracy.

Friends, never underestimate the value of your vote!

A vote is the most effective tool in the hands of the people to express themselves and make their voice heard. Even the 'strongest' of leaders are mere pygmies in front of the ballot box. The best example is the 1977 Lok Sabha elections. Intoxicated with power, overconfidence and authoritarianism, the ruling party and the Prime Minster declared elections. Censorship was near complete and dissenting voices were silenced but when the people spoke they spoke louder than everything else. This is the power of your vote.

At home, let us pledge to become proactive and ensure that we register maximum friends and family members as voters and then ensure that they participate in every single election from the local body to Lok Sabha elections.

Getting a voter card does not mean you are a voter! Do remember to check your names on the voter list and if your name is not there or you have shifted residence, please complete the required formalities to get the list updated. Eligible voters with voting cards being turned away from the polling booth because their names are not there is deeply unfortunate and you only can ensure this does not happen to you. 

My special message to my NRI friends is to ensure eligible NRI voters are registered and eligible NRI voters come to India and cast their vote on the day of polling.

Making Mission272+ a success… 

One of our several endeavours to make Mision272+ a success is to reach out to as many voters be it new, registered and eligible but unregistered and connect with them.

I urge all our Party Karyakartas and volunteers to identify those voters that are not registered and assist them towards registering as voters. Help them fill form 6 and help them submit it to the BLO. www.India272.com can also help you in voter registration and meaningful engagement with voters.

I urge you all to show your support to Mission272+ by SMS-ing your EPIC/ Election Voter ID to 0 78200 78200. Do the same with family members and friends.

On National Voters' Day, let us take a pledge to make our democracy stronger and more participative in the years to come! Our nation is at a very crucial crossroads- now is the time to free our country from the shackles of poverty, corruption, votebank politics, misgovernance and use our vote to create a progressive and vibrant nation. This time, 'Let us Vote for India!'

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Pakeezah - An Ode to a Bygone Era

Abhijit Bhaduri
25 January 2014, 03:26 PM IST

Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai, Baron Desai is an Indian-born British economist and Labour politician. He unsuccessfully stood for the Speaker in the British House of Lords in 2011, the first ever non-UK born candidate to do so. He is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and a member of the House of Lords. He is the author of twenty books on most of which are on Economics. It is amusing to think of him also as passionate analyst of Bollywood movies. 

Why would someone be interested in knowing about Pakeezah – a film that was released forty-two years back? The author responds:

"If there has been a film which has captured the Muslim culture of a certain period albeit with contemporary resonance, it has to be Kamal Amrohi's Pakeezah."

The defining element of this film is the time that it took to make the movie. How many things would have changed during the fifteen years it took to make the movie? To put it in perspective, it was started before Mughal-e-Azam was released and got released just before Sholay. Pakeezah opened to a rather lukewarm response from the audience in February 1972.

One may argue that it became a hit because Meena Kumari, passed away a month later on 31^st March, 1972. This was a film that was started in 1956-57, just after she had married Kamal Amrohi, who wrote and directed the film. He was known for his perfectionism. He was known to wait for weeks to film the perfect sunset. This was also the film that saw the disintegration of Meena Kumari's marriage to Kamal Amrohi. She is said to have charged one rupee to act in a double-role in the film that remains what she is best remembered by the masses.

Pakeezah was the film that will be remembered for some memorable dance sequences that were shot over seven years from 1957-'64. Whether it was Kaifi Azmi's lyrics for Chalte Chalte, Yunhi Koi Mil Gaya Thha or Majrooh Sultanpuri's poetry in Thade Rahiyo that remains watchable even today. Remember how the train's whistle in Thade Rahiyo reminds the tawaif of a stranger who admired her feet and told her never to step on the ground, lest they dirty her feet.

It is not the trivia about the film that makes this book a good read. It is the chapter that analyzes the film at different levels where the author impresses. He describes Pakeezah as a fine example of a "Muslim Social", to be compared with say films like Chaudhvin ka Chand by Guru Dutt and not "Muslim Historicals" such as Mughal e Azam (1960).

Pakeezah depicts the nawabi culture complete with its elaborate tehzeeb (etiquette) and the way relationships are handled in this very woman-centric film. Despite this being a film about a courtesan (tawaif), the woman in Pakeezah is always unattainable. It is a film that shows the women creating their own space in a patriarchal society.

It is this analysis that makes you want to see Pakeezah again. This time, with a new pair of eyes.

-----------

My review of the biography of Meena Kumari <click here>

Follow me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduri

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Jai Ho

Meeta Kabra
24 January 2014, 04:23 PM IST

A Salman Khan film is a Salman Khan film is a Salman Khan film, right?

Update: Read this author's review of Jai Ho here.

There are barely any other way for Salman Khan film to be. Of course, I cannot deny that Tabu's inclusion, that too as his sister, has piqued my interest ever-so slightly. But only, by so much.

Sigh. We'll go, we'll watch, and we'll sigh.

Music Reviews:
Bollyspice - "1/5"
glamsham - "3/5"
IBN Live, IANS - "2/5"
Milliblog - "Bhai ka fillum hai! Gaanon ko sunne ka nahi; screen pe dekhna ka hai, kya?"

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Pope Francis is #winning

Kim Arora
24 January 2014, 05:01 PM IST

Self-professed internet "evangelists" can safely hang up their boots. They now have among them an evangelist they can't possibly compete with – the Pope himself. In a message from the Vatican on Thursday, Pope Francis gave the Internet and social media the papal approval. Talking about how communication and dialogue can unite humanity, he said, "The internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity. This is something truly good, a gift from God."

And it did not just end with a vanilla endorsement. The 76-year-old Argentine had some pious tips for digital communication as well. "Those who communicate, in effect, become neighbours. The Good Samaritan not only draws nearer to the man he finds half dead on the side of the road; he takes responsibility for him. Jesus shifts our understanding: it is not just about seeing the other as someone like myself, but of the ability to make myself like the other. Communication is really about realizing that we are all human beings, children of God. I like seeing this power of communication as 'neighbourliness'," he said, while also advocating the need to step back once in a while from the speed of modern digital communication, and reflect on one's actions.

It should come as little surprise that the Pope should talk about the internet so. Already being lauded for his engagement with the youth and a modern worldview, Pope Francis is no stranger to viral fame. His selfie from August last year - the "first ever Papal selfie" as it was called - made international headlines. More recently, a picture of him embracing and blessing a man afflicted with leprosy went viral. His statement on homosexuality ( "Who am I to judge?" ) has been widely shared online as an image macro. A video of a child walking up to the Pope mid-speech, and then proceeding to park himself on his chair after hugging him, has received the less than three rating that really means a ten -- internet love in the form of a "<3".

This isn't a recent phenomenon. His appointment itself was followed keenly on social media channels such as Twitter. An account called @PapalConclave kept its followers posted of the developments with its cheeky, irreverent and humorous updates. In this age of Twitter resignations, the Pope announced his arrival with a tweet from his official account @pontifex - an all caps, "HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM". Yesterday's statement on online behaviours perfectly befits him and cements his place among his followers – on Twitter or otherwise.

The weight of a hipster vote (contrary to popular belief, it doesn't weigh an Instagram) goes a long way. Just a few years ago, on fora such as Reddit, pedophilia jokes dominated any conversation about the church or the papal office. Atheism was touted as the more desirable option. After having charmed and captured a young audience, his consistent positive and progressive messages of social good have shifted the conversation completely. There is now an AMA (Ask Me Anything) request for the Pope on Reddit with other threads comparing his performance (more than favourably) to his predecessor, Pope Benedict.

Whatever the terms of engagement, it's clear from his statement that the Pope has not lost sight of his goal. He hopes to use the communications revolution "to share with others the beauty of God."

#Amen.

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India needs a law against community crime

Nandita Sengupta
24 January 2014, 06:55 PM IST

The Birbhum gang rape was waiting to happen. That the village elders made it a spectacle of fear rattles me in faraway Delhi. This is the same village where a girl named Sunita Murmu was stripped, chased, groped and abandoned four years ago. The government of India gave Murmu a bravery award for "braving" the assault, identifying some of the men who attacked her. The only thing she was sure of is that she didn't want to return to that horrible village. And she had only been speaking to a boy from a different caste. Did those who gave the order to strip her receive any punishment? No.

Is it any wonder then that the village elders are allowed to use sexual assault as 'punishment'? Repeatedly? Till it's a case worse than hell? What does it take to jolt a nation? By not punishing these monsters, we let them get away with worse than murder. Revisiting the call for a law against community crime, reproduced below is my blog post dated April 22, 2011.

Act against community crime

The Supreme Court's latest missive on khaps must be sweet music to the self-styled village councils. The apex court has reportedly said that District Magistrates will be held liable if they fail to rein in village councils — such as Haryana's khaps and Tamil Nadu's kattas — from acting like kangaroo courts. Khaps will be happy. What more can a bunch of men with mob-mentality want than for someone else to be punished for their crime? Further, the Court's faith in the police is touching.

Reports say that the apex court has also said that State machinery should institute criminal charges against khap members if they've harmed a couple. But khap panchayats have always said they do not issue directives to harm couples, let alone kill them. After the murder of a couple, khaps have invariably, and naturally so, distanced themselves from the two families involved. The men who have killed, mostly family members, are trotted off to jail. At best, a couple of men are sentenced for a murder an entire village kept quiet on. If a case makes it to the newspapers, the police come in only to maintain 'peace', buy silence, lament the state of affairs and certainly their helplessness.

The absurdly termed 'honour killings' are not like other murders. Murders of couples are only one end of a spectrum of crimes that communities inflict on their own. Community crime flourishes across India in a hundred different shades, all dark and scary — 'honour killings' only one extreme.

The focus cannot be on punishing a few individuals. The village must feel some pain. The focus must be on penalizing the village. Villagers must be made 'stakeholders' in crimes committed with the sanction of all of them. Holding DMs liable isn't the issue really. The problem isn't with law enforcement alone; the problem is in the absence of an applicable law for community crime, which is what honour killings are.

Community crimes make it to the news almost every day. If one day it is a woman in Indore made to walk with burning coal in her hands to prove she is not a thief, the next day it is villagers near Delhi threatening to kidnap all the girls of an enemy village. Yesterday it was two widows killed for having an "affair". Recall the anganwadi worker who had her arms chopped off for defying child marriage. Or the visuals of the gruesome dragging of villagers tied to motorbikes. The blame of allowing the atrocities lies as much with the bystanders as with the actual culprits.

There's nothing to stop the economic and social sanctions that villagers impose either. In Haryana, a khap barred shops from selling any item, including cattle fodder, to the mother-sister duo of killed couple Manoj-Babli. Chandrapati was feted for having the guts to continue fighting for justice despite being isolated in her own village. But even after the court convicted the killers, the community continued to isolate Chandrapati. Her younger son keeps his identity hidden. The stories are dime-a-dozen. In UP's Kinanagar, near Meerut, stunned labourer-fathers of a teenage boy and girl killed with cutlasses by the girl's brothers (arrested) were tersely told by their khap not to grieve as it was 'meant to be'. Stealing of property by village councils, throwing out of entire families are fodder for full-page features in newspapers and that's it.

None of these crimes, all committed by community sanction, can be punished. At a public meeting, Brinda Karat said she visited the village threatened with the kidnap of its girls. This was in retaliation to a resident's elopement with a girl of the bully-village. The attention had the police register a case of 'thuggery'. Karat was stumped. In the Indore case, a couple of policemen were suspended. There's no closure and there's no stopping such behaviour. There's no law under which such crimes can be suitably dealt with.

To bring home how skewed our take on community crime is, take the example of Sunita Murmu. Her case throws into eerily sharp focus the strange workings of the nation's mind. Sixteen-year-old Murmu from West Bengal is among the 23 children who won the 2010 National Bravery Awards for Children. Murmu even got a special mention.

Murmu was attacked when she was caught talking to a boy outside her community in their Santhal village. She was stripped, paraded naked and molested by her own tribesmen. She reportedly raced through fields across three or four villages, where no man or woman or official intervened to protect her; however, she was easy prey and was molested repeatedly. Some recorded the attacks and the MMS spread. NGOs spotted it, and police were pressured to step in. Murmu's bravery, we are told, lies in her daring to identify some of the attackers. And so we impose upon her a cold bravery award. And India plumbs its own sorry depths of insensitivity.

Murmu is certainly not the first child-woman to be stripped and paraded naked. Neither is she the first to have identified some of the molesters. But importantly, it's not enough to nab a few out of tens or hundreds of men and women who jeered at her, mocked her, who didn't step in to either stop the molesters or drag her to protection. Arrests are part of the deal only to appease the Other India. Molesters, attackers pooh-pooh their way out. Remorse, regret, guilt are alien sentiments.

Those who were asked to look at the possibilities of a law for 'honour killing' believe too that the community must face some penalty. They are thus mooting for a community crime law that brings into its ambit a range of such attacks. The idea is that the law must focus on protecting an individual's right and penalize those individuals and community organisations such as khaps who obstruct the exercise of that right. At the most basic level, that includes a person's freedom to speak to or marry of their choice. Such a law will also strengthen the voices within the community that do want to speak out but remain muted in the absence of any form of support. Into any such law must also be woven some form of sanctions on the villagers/ the community: stop funds perhaps.

In Murmu's case, what will stop her community from repeating such an attack on another 15-year-old? In twisted logic, the village might celebrate the chances of winning another bravery award. Surely, awarding punishment on the villages that have so cruelly forced a 'past' into young Murmu's life would have served the child, and the nation, better. If only there were a law to punish her tormentors. To that end, the Supreme Court's attempt at tackling the so-called 'honour killings' via DMs is more an exercise in arm wringing.

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Aam Aadmi Method

Aarti Tikoo Singh
22 January 2014, 06:15 PM IST

The possibility of a minister conducting vigilante night raids in residential areas should scare anyone who believes in individual freedom, privacy and segregated and defined roles for the legislature and the executive in Indian democracy. Yet, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chose to defend the indefensible. It endorsed its law minister who went on a midnight raid and forced police to go along with him to arrest foreign nationals accused of prostitution and drug trafficking, in absolute disregard for his limitations as a minister.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal alienated some sections of media and the intellectual class of New Delhi by refusing to acknowledge him as an embarrassment to his party and government. The AAP also remained stuck in superficiality of incidents and failed to articulate the underlying administrative challenges that its Delhi ministers encountered. As a result, the real agenda of centre-state relations and corruption of an institution under a highly centralized system remained overshadowed by every trivial mistake of the AAP and more importantly, the method it employed to raise the issue.

First, the method. The Delhi government and the AAP were accused of indulging in disruptive and anarchic politics. Why? Because those in power should not protest on the streets; they should change the system from within and through legislative and judicial means and tools, perhaps old-style political tricks and gimmickry too. Since Delhi is not a full state and has limited legislative powers, the Kejriwal government could pursue the judicial option but at the huge risk of Indian intellectuals accusing it of handing over courts the power of judicial overreach and the power to take decisions that Parliament should. So in the absence of these two fundamental choices, we must ask if the recourse to protests was anarchy and outside the purview of the rights of states in the union.

Apart from the fact that the freedom to peaceful agitation is a constitutional right of every Indian citizen, India, since the 1950s, has allowed protests by even regional governments and ruling political parties and rightly so. Compared to the Delhi government protests the demands of which were modest, most of the post-independence protests in various states aimed bigger goals such as reorganization of states on linguistic and ethnic lines. From the protest movements for the creation of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand etc. to the movements both for and against creation of Telangana, the state of India has allowed the idea of democratic protestation and even conceded to most of the demands made through these protests.

Therefore, protests by ruling political parties is not something that cannot be accommodated in Indian democracy. The AAP protests in Delhi, from a historical point of view, were completely legitimate. Though the elected chief minister and ministers could have joined the protests before and after their office hours, but working simultaneously from the protest site made their participation completely justified. It is to AAP's credit that it did not succumb to the comforts and luxuries of their offices and power and chose to come to the streets in harsh winter. Also, it is important to be inventive in nonviolent political methodology when mainstream methods fail. It is all the more necessary to be unorthodox in thinking and political method when issues are as grave as decadence of institutions.

Delhi police under the control of the central government is notoriously known for its brazen corruption, nexus with the union ministers and politicians and every crime syndicate functional in the capital city. It is therefore not surprising that the national capital region crime rates remain high and all chief ministers of Delhi including Sheila Dixit have demanded that Delhi police be made accountable to Delhi government and residents. In the last two decades, however, no political convention has helped to free Delhi police out of union home ministry's clutches. So when a chief minister along with his ministers come to the streets, public opinion is instantly mobilized and political pressure generated.

If the AAP did not have misplaced priorities, the government's protest could have yielded something more substantive than what was granted at the end of the protest. The AAP should have continued with the protest and not given up the opportunity to have a larger debate on police corruption and centre-state relations. In the union of India, power has been highly centralized. States have always remained subservient to the centre for their dues guaranteed by the constitution. As long as the territorial integrity of the union is not challenged, the constitution of India has provided a huge scope for decentralization. But it is precisely because of an over centralized structure and departure from federalism, that India has seen rise and growth of regional and identity politics and secessionist and violent movements. At the heart of the Delhi government protests too, was the issue of decentralization- greater autonomy for Delhi to make its institutions effective, transparent and accountable. 

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