Despite finding a new ‘client’ in Italy, other European nations such as France and Germany are not convinced about Beijing’s bonafide interest. On January 28, 1964, The New York Times reported: “General de Gaulle’s Government broke today with the United States (US) policy of isolating communist China and announced the establishment of diplomatic relations with Peking.” The US newspaper added: “France’s recognition of the communist regime was the first by any major power since the Korean War began nearly 14 years ago.” The US deeply regretted the French move at a time the Chinese communists were “promoting aggression and subversion.” So as French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron received the Chinese presidential couple for an intimate dinner at Beaulieu-sur-Mer, a resort on the Riviera, the stakes have changed. China now has the upper hand.
In 1964, former French President Charles de Gaulle had affirmed: “La Chine est un grand pays” (China is a big country) but today it has become power No 2 on the planet after the US and Xi Jinping plans to dethrone America with his own dream. Fifty-five years later, the same New York Times reported the arrival of the Chinese President: “The Promenade des Anglais [in Nice] — the palm-lined beachside avenue that is the city’s premier attraction — was closed to traffic all weekend.” This never happened before.
In March last year, Xi made news when he was given a life-long term as President of China. The international Press then mainly noted the Emperor-for-life aspect, forgetting that Xi wanted to transform China into the No 1 world power. A year later, partly due to Twitter attacks from US President Donald Trump, Xi is not so self-assured and an economic crisis, looming large over China, has weakened the Middle Kingdom. Officially, its growth was only 6.5 per cent in 2018, the slowest pace since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009. Bloomberg noted: “Tariffs on Chinese exports to the US imposed by President Trump are starting to pinch the country’s factories.”
Xiang Songzuo, a professor at the Renmin University School of Finance, wrote that China’s GDP growth would only be 1.67 per cent and not 6.5 per cent in 2018. According to the website Chinascope, Xiang also warned that “nowadays, Chinese have become addicted to playing with debt and high leverage financing. This is actually a mirage and will collapse soon.”
L’Affaire Huawei has been a turning point for the Western views on the Middle Kingdom; the telecom equipment company has been at the centre of media attention for the wrong reasons; US officials charged the company with stealing technology from T-Mobile, one of its business partners and wanting to impose its own standards for the 5G, the latest generation of cellular mobile communications. This is the background of Xi’s visit to Italy, Monaco and France.
Chinese strategists were aware that Italy is the weakest link in the Europe Union (EU) and while more and more countries realise that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), so dear to Xi, is not offering free meals but often plunges the beneficiary nations into deep debts, Beijing managed to find a European “client.”
On March 23, Xinhua reported that Xi and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte jointly “elevated the China-Italy relations into a new era”. A Memorandum of Understanding to advance the construction of the Belt and Road was signed. In a diplomatic jargon, the Chinese news agency said that “the two countries have continuously deepened their communication and cooperation in various fields, which helped each other’s social and economic development.”
Xi urged the two sides to accelerate negotiations on a China-EU investment agreement, enhance synergy of the BRI and the EU’s development strategies. Conte answered the Chinese President: “Italy is glad to seize the historic opportunity in joining the Belt and Road construction.”
Other European countries were not amused, though Xi assured Italy that the BRI would be a two-way road for investment and trade. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “In a world with giants like China, Russia or our partners in the US, we can only survive if we are united as the EU …and if some countries believe that they can do clever business with the Chinese, then they will be surprised when they wake up and find themselves dependent.”
The EU’s German budget commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, told the Funke newspaper group that Europe should ensure it retains its autonomy and sovereignty when dealing with China.
French President Macron forcefully asserted that the time of European naivety over China was over: “For many years, we had an uncoordinated approach and China took advantage of our divisions,” he said. He called for stricter rules on Chinese investments in the EU; German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed similar views.
French Finance Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian remarked that “Silk Road cooperation must go in both directions”.
The French Press quoted the Sri Lankan experience as “the dark side of the new Silk Road.” It mentioned the port of Hambantota and how in the mid-2000s Colombo agreed “to entrust Beijing with the construction of an ex-nihilo port in the town of Hambantota, in the south of the island. It is not yet a question of the Silk Road …but all the ingredients were there.”
Like for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Chinese funds, engineers and workers would build the infrastructure in partnership, supposedly becoming a ‘win-win’ venture. But Sri Lanka, like Malaysia and many other countries, has now discovered that it was in fact a lose-lose operation, with the new assets becoming Chinese as soon as the client state is unable to refund the ‘loans’.
Xi probably did not convince Macron, Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (the latter two joined Macron in Paris to meet the Chinese President) of Beijing’s bonafide, despite the Chinese President’s enigmatic words: “In politics, we should not only build a strong ‘dam’ of mutual trust, but also a ‘lighthouse’ of ideal.”
However, at the end of his visit, Xi left a small present for the European firm Airbus, a $35 billion jet deal, which included 290 A320-series narrow-body planes and 10 A350 wide-bodies. President Macron observed that Xi’s official visit was an “excellent signal” of the strength and reliability of relations between China and France. He added that the two countries are ready to build a “strong Euro-Chinese partnership, based on clear, strict and ambitious rules” …minus naivety. Will it work?
(The writer is an expert on India-China relations)
Courtesy: Pioneer
Writer: Claude Arpi
Recalling an unforgettable view of history’s moving procession that resulted in the crumbling of the old order and gave birth to a new nation
If I remember rightly, it was Thursday, March 25, 1971, and my MA (History) final exam was round the corner. We in India then had the audible, omnipresent, omniscient and ubiquitous All India Radio but no electronic visuals. Hence, hearing the evening radio news and reading the morning newspaper were my childhood addictions, exam or no exam. My father — an extraordinary scholar of income tax law, English, Bengali and Sanskrit languages, Astrology (including charting a horoscope) and Economics, and a celebrity senior civil servant of the federal Government of India, who was originally born in and hailed from 2 Toynbee Circular Road, Tikatuli, Dhaka, (then East Pakistan) — was not the type to disturb his son for radio news during exam season. That day I, too, seemed to have something else in mind for emperor Ashoka and Buddhism as a possible question for my paper.
Nevertheless, there suddenly came a stentorian voice from our C-II 17 Wellesley Road, New Delhi — 110003 ‘radio room’. “Come immediately” was the two-word command. Usually serene, serious yet ever-smiling, my father suddenly lit upon hearing the All India Radio news that the charismatic Bengali leader, widely respected and revered as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had given a clarion call to the people of (then) East Pakistan, firing the first salvo at the West Pakistani Punjabi-speaking military junta from Dhaka’s Ramna Maidan: “Aamago share shaat koti zanagan re tomra dabayya raakhte parbaanaa (You oppressive rulers, you will never be able to suppress we seven-and-a-half crore Bengali people).” We instantly felt the electrifying effect and potential tremor, almost after 24 years of Partition days, in the ‘radio room’ of the Hindu Bengali refugee in Lutyen’s zone of New Delhi.
Thereafter, things moved at a high speed. Owing to his professionalism, probity and spotless past, my father was one of the two Bengali-speaking senior civil servants, whose residence was identified by the Government of India as an ‘informal meeting point’, should the need have arisen. My MA exam ended on Saturday, May 15, 1971, and results were out on Monday, July 05, 1971. I was happy with my result but was happier owing to the fast unfolding scenario of a possible emancipation of an enlightened and inherently simple Bengali-speaking people with whom we were so close in heart, mind and thought and shared history, geography, culture, language and tradition.
Soon, however, came Wednesday, August 18, 1971, the appointed date for an ‘informal meeting’, closely coordinated by Shri Ashok Ray, the then Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, and other organisations of the State. Commencing at 5.30 pm and ending at around midnight, it was a party; a reunion of sorts, high on feeling and emotion, love, tears of joy, passion, fraternity and feasting. It was a gathering of 150 people of whom at least 80 were from the land of Bangabandhu, including Janab Tajudin Ahmed. Half of them had escaped, God only knew how. At least two families had driven down in their ‘Made in Japan’ Nissan and Toyota cars, which were a rare commodity in India of 1971.
The outcome of the meeting was essentially a commitment to do everything necessary. The Government and the people of India were one with the Bengalis under Bangabandhu. All present in the meeting had the same goal, in different ways, irrespective of their nationality and ethnicity. I vividly recall one spontaneous and repeated slogan, ‘Joy Bangla’, reverberating through the hot, humid night of that August day in 1971.
Two more meetings subsequently took place in two different places in Delhi, which I could not attend owing to my preparation for competitive exams. As things were heating up, I travelled to spend the winter with my maternal aunts in Asansol and Calcutta (as it was known then). My stay in Asansol lasted for five days as war broke out on Friday, December 3, 1971. I took a train the next day, December 4, 1971, for Calcutta. The three-hour journey was an experience by itself as the train moved with all lights off in the chair car. Howrah station was pitch dark but packed with passengers, police and Railway personnel. Home guards were extra vigilant, navigating all and sundry and the half-an-hour road to Alipore residence of my aunt took two hours like a Delhi-Calcutta flight as I reached at 11 pm.
The following day dawned with my frantic attempt to catch up with Major General Bishwa Nath Sirkar (whom I had known before) in Fort William, Headquarters of the Eastern Army Command. Maj General Sirkar, a Second World War veteran, who saw action on several fronts, was an armoured corps officer par excellence (belonging to Central India Horse). Being a strict disciplinarian, with frugal habits and exemplary probity, he never sought publicity and was never flashy. The Major General was handpicked overnight (rather plucked) by Army Chief Sam Manekshaw and transferred from the post of Military Secretary to a newly-created post in the Eastern Command Calcutta, exclusively for cooperation with the Mukti Bahini.
Consequently, whereas the world today knows who did what in 1971, hardly anyone can either remember or recall his invaluable contribution to/in the liberation movement of Bengalis in the East and the role he played in the actual combat of the 14-day war. After the 1971 war, Sirkar became Lieutenant General but resigned after a serious difference of opinion with the then Defence Minister of India. He had several years of service left at the time of his premature departure.
I remain eternally grateful to that great soldier and noble soul for helping me to “see the front” for two days after Sunday, December 12, 1971, when the writings were already on the wall. After a resounding firing to deter me from “seeing is believing”, the gentleman in the General relented and “put me on” to Corps II, operating from Krishnanagar.
The rest, as they say, is history. At the age of 23, I had a remarkable, unforgettable side view of the moving procession of history, resulting in the crumbling of the old (dis)order and the birth of a new nation, not in the distant horizon but in our vicinity. Between 1947 and 1971 came alive two nations: The first under bondage; the second as an un-caged bird with the unrestricted horizon of thought and action as its domain.
(The writer is a former college lecturer and civil servant. Now a researcher, columnist, alumnus of National Defence College of India, advocate, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court and author)
Writer: Abhijit Bhattacharyya
Courtesy: The Pioneer
The home turfs of the Indian National Congress, Rae Bareli and Amethi have remained high on the priorities for political parties that continue to field heavyweight candidates in the regions but to no avail
Undoubtedly, there are many well-known dynastic bastions in our country but the electoral turf of Rae Bareli and Amethi have remained the centre of attraction for politically conscious people and the common man alike. Since the State of Uttar Pradesh has been electing a maximum of 80 MPs to the Lower House of Parliament, ie Lok Sabha, the State is being considered of paramount importance. So are the two above stated parliamentary constituencies.
Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency has been a stronghold of the Congress, which won 16 out of the 19 elections here, including two bypolls since 1952, the first general election in the country. The constituency came into limelight as Congress candidate Feroze Gandhi, husband of Indira Gandhi and son-in-law of the first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, emerged victorious twice in 1952 and 1958. In due course, he came to be known as the best parliamentarian. He passed away on September 8, 1960, but the constituency remained with the Congress till the 1971 general election and thereafter, too, with a few breaks.
Feroze’s wife and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi selected this constituency to become an elected member of Lok Sabha after her elevation to the highest executive post of the country. She first contested in 1967 and then in 1971. By opting for this constituency, she converted it to a prized bastion which continues to be the same. Indira’s relatives Arun Nehru and Sheila Kaul won the seat, both twice, a confidante and family friend Satish Sharma once and daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi triumphed four times in 2004, 2006 bypoll, 2009 and the 2014 general election. This performance sheet, of course, suffices to substantiate the constituency as a proven dynastic bastion.
It is known to most politically conscious people that socialist leader Raj Narain locked horns with Indira Gandhi in Rae Bareli constituency in 1971 and 1977 but the real surprising candidate was Gwalior’s Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia, who challenged Indira Gandhi from this constituency in the 1980 general election. As the Janata Party nominee, she was defeated by a margin of 1,73,654 votes. This was the only loss faced by the Rajmata whereas she won all elections of Lok Sabha and Assembly in her State of Madhya Pradesh as a Jana Sangh and earlier a Congress candidate. People in Rae Bareli believed that the Rajmata was prompted to contest against Indira Gandhi to take revenge of the ill-treatment meted out to her in jail during Emergency.
Raj Narain was fielded as the candidate of the then grand alliance of Jana Sangh, Lok Dal, Congress Organisation and Samyukat Socialist Party to engage Indira Gandhi in her comfort zone and create a difficult situation for her. Raj Narain lost with a margin of 1,12,810 votes in 1971 and challenged her election in the Allahabad High Court, accusing her of misuse of official machinery. Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha unseated Indira Gandhi and barred her from holding any post and contest any election for a period of six years on June 24, 1975, which resulted in the imposition of internal emergency in the country on June 26, 1975 and a crackdown against almost all Opposition leaders, who were put behind bars.
This so-called unprecedented Constitutional misuse brought all Opposition leaders on a single platform. After the Emergency by Indira Gandhi was lifted on March 21, 1977, the general elections were a contest between the Congress, led by Indira Gandhi and the newly-formed amalgamation of all parties, Janata Party, headed by Morarji Desai and inspired by Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan. The results brought a new regime at the Centre. The Janata Party secured an absolute majority to unseat the Indira-led Congress, embarrassing her as it got the minimum ever seats in the Lok Sabha.
Raj Narain defeated her with a margin of 55,202 votes and he became the Union Health Minister though the Government could not last long due to factionalism and differences. The 1977 general election results highlighted the division of the regional narrative, the Janata Party dominant in the north, the Congress winning seats in the south. Of course, the chunky votepie in the north led to the formation of the first non-Congress Government at the Centre.
Another surprising candidate, fielded by the Lok Dal in 1984 in this constituency, was the widow of Bhimrao Ambedkar, his second wife Savita, a Saraswat Brahmin. She had completed her MBBS in 1937 and married Ambedkar on April 15, 1948. Both Ambedkar and Savita converted to Buddhism at Nagpur on April 14, 1956. The couple lived in Delhi at Alipur Road. She used to take care of the ailing Ambedkar, who expired on December 6, 1956. After his death, Savita, known as Maisahab, had been feeling lonely, hence she shifted to a farmhouse in Mehrauli.
The Congress was keen to send her to Rajya Sabha but it is learned that she declined the offer. She, however, accepted Bharat Ratna on behalf of her late husband on April 14, 1990, from President R Venkatraman. It is yet to be understood how and why she agreed to contest an election from Rae Bareli as she had earlier declined an offer for Rajya Sabha membership. But Savita Ambedkar was defeated by Arun Nehru with a margin of 2,57,553 votes.
As for the Amethi parliamentary constituency, close to Rai Bareli, it came into existence in 1967 and remained a stronghold of the Congress as the party emerged victorious in 13 parliamentary elections out of 15, including two bypolls since 1967. It is still known as a pocketborough of the party nurtured by the Gandhis. It has been represented by Sanjay Gandhi once, Rajiv Gandhi four times, Sonia Gandhi once, Satish Sharma, a family friend of Rajiv Gandhi, twice and Rahul Gandhi thrice whereas Janata Dal nominee Ravinder Pratap Singh wrested this seat in 1977 and Sanjay Singh, coming from royal family and a BJP nominee, won from this seat in 1998 though he is at present with the Congress. Hence, this constituency is also a dynastic bastion.
In this constituency, two surprising candidates contested against Congress nominees in the 1984 and 1989 Lok Sabha elections. Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law, Maneka Gandhi, contested as an Independent candidate against the oldest son of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. During election campaign, she was targetted for being a Sikh and a number of slogans were coined with vicious intention. She lost with a margin of 3,08,878 votes. She was never defeated again in her electoral ventures and has been chosen seven times to the Lok Sabha from Pilibhit and Aonla as an Independent, Janata Dal and BJP candidate from 1989 to the 2014 parliamentary elections. Maneka continued to be a Minister in the Cabinet of three Prime Ministers. She formed Sanjay Vichar Manch immediately after the accidental death of her husband Sanjay Gandhi, which secured victories in Andhra Pradesh.
Another surprising candidate, Raj Mohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagoplalchari and son of Devidas Gandhi, was fielded by the then Prime Minister VP Singh as Janata Dal candidate against Rajiv Gandhi in this constituency in 1989. Raj Mohan Gandhi is an intellectual, well-educated and a well-known scholar. It is beyond anybody’s imagination why a person like him was made a scapegoat. He lost with a margin of 2, 02,132 votes. After 15 years, he was once again offered a ticket by the Aam Aadmi Party to contest from the East Delhi parliamentary constituency in 2014 against BJP nominee Maheish Girri. He lost with a margin of 1,90,463 votes.
Nobody was sure whether he was a surprising or willing candidate. The only consolation for Raj Mohan Gandhi in politics has been that he served as a Rajya Sabha member during 1990-1992 when VP Singh ruled the country. Despite party affiliations, Rajmohan Gandhi, who had been long associated with the Hindustan Times, would have contributed in the interest of the nation had he been given another chance to enter the Rajya Sabha. In the end, men and women of stature were compromised for just a poster value.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
Writer: Sat pal
Courtesy: The Pioneer
While the extradition of Nirav Modi will take time, real justice is possible only when his protectors and bankers are brought to book
With just a couple of weeks to go before the general election, the arrest of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, the key accused in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank scam, in London seems convenient for the ruling BJP and has given an edge to its “MainBhiChowkidar” campaign. It is a different matter though that had it taken up its policing responsibilities seriously early on and not at the fag end of its term, the likes of Nirav and his uncle Mehul Choksi wouldn’t have easily fled the country in the first place. Now with liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s extradition closer to reality, the BJP wants to play up Nirav’s arrest as an example of its intent to clean up society when fact of the matter is the businessman’s cover was blown by a UK daily and not by our government. This despite the fact that he was blatantly roaming free, had started a business, procured an insurance number, paid taxes to his area council and even planned plastic surgery to acquire a new identity as a UK resident. So no matter how much the BJP tries to appropriate the credit or the Opposition parties might say “I told you so”, the reality is his repatriation will take some time coming. In the end, his stay at an overcrowded jail during Holi is minuscule dispensation of justice considering the long road ahead to extradition. The economic offences against Nirav are, of course, stronger than they were in Mallya’s case but the documents are humongous. Even assuming that the London courts speed up the process, though they are in no way going to play by the political imperatives of India, it would take no less than a year to conclude matters.
Despite an extradition treaty with the UK, we have got back only one out of 28 most wanted in the last decade. The extradition process is so intricately complex and painstakingly time-consuming that most offenders abuse it to seek refuge in that country. There are layers and layers of inquiry and cross-checks of the veracity of the claims for extradition there, no matter how serious the offence may appear to us. Besides, an appeal for asylum, which would but naturally imply a threat perception of the fugitive in his home country, is vetted very seriously there. Then there’s the issue of human rights and political witch hunt. Mallya claimed immunity, citing a biased media trial back home that could impair a fair inquiry, a government-controlled, motivated probe and our poor prison conditions, which compared to UK, will always appear short. Article 9 of the Extradition Treaty between India and the UK recognises unjust and oppressive proceedings as a ground to deny requests of the home country. Nirav Modi is expected to appeal on similar lines. But the biggest question that hovers over us is once the agencies bring him back and get him to spill the names of bank officials and politicians who helped him in the entire fraud, will there be an unsparing crackdown on the latter irrespective of whoever is elected in May? The diamond merchant not only fraudulently got LoUs (letters of undertaking) issued and FLCs (foreign letters of credit) enhanced but sold faulty diamonds at high prices, converted crores of black money during demonetisation into white and travelled on a revoked passport. Nirav Modi is a byproduct of a corrupt system, and till the flag bearers of that system are brought to book, justice wouldn’t be fair.
Writer & Courtesy: The Pioneer
During the last few years, the Indian media is engaged in a game called ‘survival of the fittest’, leading to misleading, hyped and insensitive coverage. The state of affairs must change
Last week, while flicking past some news channels, I chanced upon a broadcaster. There were animations of fire and bluster splashed across the screen and close to 15 panelists were debating some issue — all speaking at the same time. The news ticker kept moving along with all the noise and colour. It was commendable that the news broadcaster also managed to fit in a weather, time and pollution check. In this week’s column, I would talk about the growing crisis of the Indian media and how it is imperative for to arrest its sharp decline.
Media plays a unique and critical role in the development of any modern society. Therefore, it is unsurprising to find figures that inspire awe, both in fact and fiction. An example of Edward Murrow will stand out here. One of the most legendary figures of broadcast journalism, Murrow, earned his corn as a war correspondent during the Second World War but what actually brought him fame, and more significantly respect, was the manner in which he took on McCarthyism.
In the 1950s, McCarthyism was the practice followed in the US, of categorising acts or persons as treasonous without any due regard for evidence. While McCarthyism was a creature of the 1950s, many would say that its fundamental tenets exist even today in many countries. I will not disagree. In fiction, too, there are heroes of journalism that have been inspired by figures like Murrow. These creatures of fiction, too, attempt to imbibe values that we would want to see in our journalists: Courage, integrity and approachability. It is a tragedy then that many in today’s media are often found wanting in these respects. Journalists, who display courage and integrity, are crucial in aiding the process of nation-building. The corollary, however, is just as true: Journalists, who are pliable and publish information without any independent thought, accelerate a country’s decline.
What’s the nature of the problem? The fundamental issue with the Indian media today is that it has come in the category of ‘infotainment’, a combination of some information with an unhealthy dose of ‘entertainment’. This is precisely the reason why people say that they get their news from comedians and comedy from the news. A good reason for this change is the upsurge in digital media. Media outlets nowadays compete primarily to gain screen time and boost their advertisement revenue rather than through subscriptions. Since news channels compete for advertisements, facts are often compromised in favour of being the first to a piece of news. This was evident during the episode of doctored tapes of students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University that were broadcast on a few news channels without they having conducted any basic verification. It once again became evident during the recent India-Pakistan standoff where certain media outlets contributed to the panic and hysteria. In an environment that required calm heads, some news anchors were, unfortunately, screaming their heads off.
Another problem with the Indian media is that social media and the internet has made anybody and everybody a broadcaster. They even allow everyone to claim their own facts. This makes it all the more difficult for everyday people to distinguish between ‘verifiable news’ and ‘fake news’. This is the ‘WhatsApp’ school of journalism where people appear to get information from photoshopped pictures or videos rather than a reliable source.
To put things into context, a news channel immediately manages to reach out to millions of Indians when they publish a piece of information; whereas WhatsApp now has limited the forwarding of any information to 25 people from 250. Therefore, while WhatsApp, which essentially has nothing to do with the news, has taken the initiative to stem the flow of false information, there are many in the media who have not.
Is there a solution? In my article, I have been critical of some sections of the news media. I do understand that it is survival of the fittest in the media and, therefore, there isn’t much room for leeway that journalists have while reporting news. I appreciate these concerns. However, I believe that some steps could prove useful in regaining some of the credibility that the media has lost:
(i) Adherence to a code of conduct: While the Press Council of India does prescribe the “norms of journalistic conduct”, as per the code itself, “the sanction behind the code of ethics is moral.” This isn’t enough. I don’t mean to propose creating legal sanctions for violation of these norms but one suggestion is that media houses are audited for violation of norms that have been detailed in the code of conduct. In the case of companies, it is important for stakeholders, who do not participate in the day-to-day affairs of the company, to have some method to gauge whether the firm is being run in an ethical way. News channels, too, must be subject to audits by an independent agency that examines the manner in which they are being run. The audit reports should be published and freely available so that the veracity of information by such outlets can be examined.
(ii) Demanding better from ourselves: A large part of the blame does lie with the media firms that refuse to speak truth to power but instead act as ‘his master’s voice’. Whether it is the question of jobs or about the actual speed of Indian trains, there are sections in the media who have been found severely wanting. In times like these, then, it becomes imperative for consumers of such information to be more discerning and at the very least compare different pieces of information. We can ask tough questions from the ones who provide information to us by asking them hard questions even if they don’t ask the powers that be the same types of questions.
So, the only way forward is if all parties concerned put their best foot forward. In this context, the words of Murrow are appropriate. While speaking about fear-mongering and false propaganda around him, Murrow, in one of his most famous broadcasts, reminded his fellow countrymen of their better nature. He said, “We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.” It is important for those in the media to remember these lines. If they don’t and we don’t, the realm of inspiring journalists in the future will only be in the realm of fiction rather than fact.
(The writer is Jharkhand PCC president, former MP and IPS officer. Views are personal)
Writer: Ajoy Kumar
Courtesy: The Pioneer
While LK Advani is out from the poll race, the respect he has garnered cannot be taken away
Ironies are an integral part of political power play. And none should know this more closely than Lal Krishna Advani, doyen of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for decades and later Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India. His unceremonious ouster from the BJP’s 2019 list of Lok Sabha nominees from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, the seat he represented in Parliament, is a transparent signal that the party he built with his own hands no longer needs his guidance and for its new monitors, Mr Advani is perhaps more of a burden than a source of inspiration. This is indeed ironic for it was Mr Advani who rebuilt it block-by-block, at least from 1984, when it had collapsed to an abysmal tally of two seats in the Lok Sabha and brought it to its unassailable position in 2014. Arguably, he was past his prime in terms of age, although physically and mentally he demonstrated no sense of illness or fatigue. His ouster from Parliament, therefore, probably has little to do with age and more with the generation gap that was visibly widening between him and the current crop of party leaders who have been ill at ease with his towering stature.
The bigger irony is that almost every BJP leader today is a handpicked protégé of Mr Advani but have behaved like impatient children, straining at the leash to cut off their filial bond with the parent. This is truly tragic and flies in the face of India’s much-vaunted cultural tradition which emphasises reverence towards family elders. But in this case, it is not just a question of family bonds. LK Advani led the BJP through a succession of adversities and ignominy to make it India’s foremost political outfit. His innovative usage of the motorised Rath Yatra to mobilise people for the construction of a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya may remain controversial but was undoubtedly the turning point in the country’s contemporary history. In fact, it set India’s political agenda since the early 1990s and continues to dominate the political discourse even today. Despite being bestowed with the epithet of “Iron Man”, his ability to cobble together coalitions was unmatched and he enjoyed a rapport with other political leaders, enabling the Jana Sangh and its successor to carve out a dominant position in the political firmament. A Parliamentarian par excellence, Mr Advani’s erudite contributions to debates in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha won him applause from all sections of the two Houses. Despite age not being on his side, his intellectual sharpness, vivid memory and remarkable knowledge of history and politics dwarfed most contemporaries. Somehow, he was viewed by most as a man who would never retire from politics and never cease to contribute to the national discourse.
Whatever the BJP leadership’s compulsion in sidelining him from the benches of Parliament, India will be poorer for his absence from the esteemed Houses. Together with his life-long friend and comrade Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away only last year, Mr Advani signified a glorious era in Indian politics and even if he is no longer a Member of Parliament (MP), will undoubtedly continue to contribute to national debates. Few people have the natural talent for building organisations and also guiding the nation at the same time. Mr Advani’s role may have now been cut to size but the respect he will enjoy till the very end of his life can never be taken away. The termination of his role as MP, therefore, is only a punctuation mark, not a full stop to a remarkable political career.
Writer & Courtesy: The Pioneer
The Election Commission should assess the plea to declare Bengal a super-sensitive State based on merit rather than bias
Is the whole of Bengal a conflict zone or disturbed area? Is it like militancy-hit Kashmir or a Naxal-infested Chhattisgarh where democratic processes have been undermined and elections have posed a consistent challenge? Has there been a breakdown of the law and order machinery? Or is it the only State in the country where election-related violence has been reported? Considering there are no clear answers to the above, the BJP’s plea to the Election Commission (EC), urging it to declare West Bengal a “super sensitive state” to ensure Lok Sabha polls are conducted in a free and fair manner, is not only presumptuous but facile. In other words, what the BJP essentially wants is that special Central security be provided at all polling booths and specific observers be posted there to ensure there is no wrongdoing, coercion or violence. It even wants local police off the roster, alleging they are in sympathy with the State Government. In other words, ensure a mini emergency situation under Central vigilance of some sort and hold a controlled election, which it believes will otherwise slip away from its grasp and go to the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The BJP’s angst is understandable, considering it is desperately trying to add up the numbers for a Lok Sabha victory and zeroing in on new States, particularly those belonging to the Opposition, to make good the deficit. But Bengal is the last vanguard against its politics and turf of the chief architect of the Opposition front, Mamata Banerjee. And she has steadfastly halted the party from either polarising or consolidating the votebase. Besides, while the BJP has made inroads in the Northeast and even busted the Left citadel of the other Bengali-dominated State of Tripura, it is still hard-pressed in Bengal and despite being the party with the second highest voteshare, is finding it difficult to convert it to seats. So this petition to the EC clearly reeks of political vendetta and is tantamount to abusing its Central authority to control the verdict, one that has returned Banerjee convincingly and not narrowly. The BJP has also sought the EC’s strictures in Kerala, particularly in the politically volatile Kannur and Pathanamthitta seats, given the backdrop of the Sabarimala controversy, one that the party hopes to use as an electoral plank. And the EC has already taken a policy decision to assign special observers here. This trend is worrying, therefore.
Coercion, violence or booth management, which the Left parties in Bengal had perfected into what is called “scientific rigging,” became part of a machinery that no party in Bengal has been immune to but that in no way could affect a tidal change. One must remember that Banerjee uprooted the Left giants operating within that hostile system. Of course, critics may argue that the panchayat polls in May last year were violent but the TMC’s tally proved that it had the grassroots support and most importantly an organisational strength. Besides, would that imply that all booths are compromised in Bengal? Or the heartland states, where booth-capturing proliferated down the years, have had a sudden change of heart? Or is it that the BJP doesn’t want to touch friendly States? In fact, going by counter-complaints, the BJP itself has allegedly got in men from Bihar and Jharkhand into Bengal for “electoral management.” Booth capturing took place way back in 1957 in Bihar’s Begusarai district, when some goons belonging to one political party blocked supporters from a rival party to cast their votes. Subsequently, politicians hired criminals to do the job for a fee or with the assurance of immunity from police action. They grew in stature and contested elections on their own that led to the dreaded criminalisation of politics. Compared to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the malaise affected Bengal much later. But the EC has steadfastly worked over the years towards overcoming challenges and retaining the integrity of the democratic process. It is important that no ground arises to doubt its credibility or its ability to provide a level-playing field.
Writer & Courtesy: The Pioneer
Audiology and speech pathology are fields of allied health sciences. While being equipped with special training, education, skills and experience, the practitioners are not called physicians but speech pathologists and audiologists who work with people with speech disorders caused by problems such as cleft palate or other medical conditions.
The job involves examining and cleaning the ear canal, fitting hearing aids, counseling on adjusting to hearing loss and training on the use of hearing instruments. To practice one need to have Bachelors/Masters degree in Audiology and be registered with Indian Speech and Hearing Association or Rehabilitation Council of India. A few more colleges to study:
Christian Medical College, Vellore. Course: Bachelor in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology
Samvad College of Speech and Hearing, Bengaluru. Course: Bachelor in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology
KMCT College of Allied Health Science, Kozhikode. Course: Bachelor in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology
Bharati Vidyapeeth Audiology and speech language Pathology at Medical College, Pune. Course: Bachelor in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology
JM Institute of Speech and Hearing, Patna. Course: Bachelor in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology Language and Speech
Writer & Courtesy: Pioneer
The IIT JEE exam may not be a walk in the park, but it also not as tough as it is commonly perceived to be. The aspirants need to rightly channelize their energy and make optimal utilization of their resources, says Partha Halder
The IIT-JEE as an exam is not tough as it is commonly perceived by the aspirants. It is in fact different and highly competitive. In order to perform a high degree of accuracy is desired along with minimal margin of error. Technology can play a very important role to ensure both the aspects are attained by helping students to optimise their skills and resources; channelise their energy in the right direction; monitor progress and raise a red flag whenever there is a deviation from the desired path; quantify the gap between an aspirants’s chosen goal and their present status. Let us now understand each of these aspects:
The IIT-JEE assesses a student’s conceptual clarity along with their logical and analytical thinking ability. Deep thinking and imaginative skills help enormously while solving a question. A student can achieve perfection in these aspects if their basic concepts are clear. The question arises: How would a student know that s/he has achieved the desired level of conceptual clarity?
That’s where technology can help to pinpoint through online chapter and topic based assignments. While solving an online MCQ assignment, if a student marks a particular answer option, whether it is correct or incorrect answer option, the algorithm of the software will assess and predict the problem solving steps that the child would have adopted which led to that answer option; post which it will create a report and recommend corrective actions. Based on mistakes committed in few months/papers, technology can track the type of mistake that a student is doing frequently i.e the pattern of mistake. Usually students keep committing the same mistake due to ignorance. Fixing these learning gaps helps to strengthen conceptual understanding.
Depending upon the goal of a student (preferred branch of engineering and/or college) tech enabled tools help the students to decide and prepare their study and revision plan. They will know exactly what to study; how much to study; when to study; at what pace to study; when to revise; prepare milestones; concepts that are weak and needs more attention.
A student should solve online practice test after they have completed certain portion of the syllabus. These are essentially MCQ based tests, administered on web or mobile platform anda great way to assess a student’s retention capability with the increase in syllabus volume. An unexpected outcome in the test will raise a red flag thus enabling them to discover the reason for it so that they can be cautious the next time.
Mock Test (in simulated environment): As JEE Advanced, JEE Main, BITSAT, KVPY and few others are Computer Based Test (CBT), a student should solve mock tests which are administered in CBT mode;conducted nationwide in a simulated environment (i.e. conducted on the same day, at the same time, at all the cities just like an actual exam). By doing so, a student would be able to :
Develop test taking strategy, speed, accuracy, mind-eye-hand coordination etc.
Acclimatise with test environment, software & test interface
Gain insight to the time taken to solve a question, an extremely important insight. If students discover that they have taken unusually long time to solve a particular question and depending upon whether they finally got it right or wrong, they will be able to take remedial steps
Right answer but took long time: It could be due to concept related issue or lack of practice or lack of revision before the exam, hence long took time.
Wrong answer but took long time: It could be due to, did not study or lack of judgment to leave the question or concepts studied long back but did not practice in the recent past etc.
Detailed performance report/analysis: Using tech based test platforms, marks can be calculated and reports can be generated quickly. The feedback can be instantaneously shared and students can immediately implement the corrective steps.
Key stakeholders in the journey of an engineering aspirant are their parents and subject teachers. With tech-based platforms, both teachers and parents get feedback and status updates on the progress, current and future challenges, help and support that they might need.
They also get to know if a student is doing their task/revision/homework on time; overall test report in pictorial form, attendance report, all on their own mobile device on the go.
The writer is Centre Head, FIITJEE, Punjabi Bagh
Writer: PARTH HALDER
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Measuring skill development indicators is essential to accurately measure where the Indian society stands, says Dr Narendra Shyamsukha
With a labour force participation rate of 52.5% and a working age population of 63.4% in 2013, India still had over 40 crore unemployed individuals. This number may include those in disguised, seasonal and structural unemployment or underemployment. The latest report by the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy claimed that the unemployment rate at the end of February, 2018 was 6.1% or about 3.1 crore in absolute terms. Skill development programmes have managed to bring to par a significant number of unemployed youth in terms of training and skill. However, those numbers still remain a minuscule proportion of the actual number of unemployed persons.
Agrarian distress is driving greater number of domestic migrants to urban centres in search of work. This continuously adds to stress on unemployment numbers. Manufacturing, which is often touted as the sector with the most potential to create sustainable employment, is witnessing jobless growth despite buoyant Make in India initiatives. It is estimated that the Indian economy would have to generate at least 10 lakh jobs every year if it is to successfully reap the much talked about demographic dividend.
Skill India mission is pledged to facilitate the entry of 104.62 million new employees into industry by 2022. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, the National Skill Development Council was expected to train 2.4 million youth in 2015 in various short-term skill courses.
To meet the targets of the Skill India mission and alleviate the gap between skills and labour supply, a more holistic approach encompassing longer-term skills and combinations with career-spanning competencies are needed. The NITI Aayog has correctly pointed out that a way to measure skill development indicators is required to accurately gauge where society stands today.
The Government hopes to build vast banks of employable workers rapidly and in a standard manner by strengthening institutions and infrastructure, exploring synergies between the government and industry and roping in overseas stakeholders and facilitators. The same policies also envision re-skilling 400 million people by 2022. However, it has also been underlined by various surveys conducted among the youth for whom the programme was meant that certifications and skills do not match their aspirations or their aptitudes. To resolve this dilemma, it has been suggested, that employability skills and attitudes be inculcated in school-going children.
It is to be noted that policy disruptions to business such as the rapid deployment of the GST and demonetisation, have presented bottlenecks to the growth of MSMEs. The silver lining is that hiring proportions from the ITI and polytechnic bases have increased in 2019 from 2018 according to the India Skill Report 2019 conducted by CII and Wheelbox.
The top hirers last fiscal have been the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector and software/hardware employers. These two sectors are largely fed by those who hold short to medium term skill certifications. School and college graduates could also find early starting points in the workforce from which to launch their career.
Writer: The Pioneer
Courtesy: Dr Narendra Shyamsukha
On Leaders and Icons: From Jinnah to Modi, a book by Kuldip Nayar on the leaders of pre and post-independent India has some startling revelations
Declining to release Kuldip Nayar’s posthumously published book, On Leaders and Icons: From Jinnah to Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informed the veteran journalist’s wife that on perusing the book, “I found a reference on page 172 that during my prime ministership, Government files would go to Sonia Gandhi’s house. This statement is not true and Kuldip did not check with me about its truth. In this background, I would find it embarrassing to attend the book release function on February 8, 2019.” Raconteur par excellence, Nayar wrote that Singh’s lack of a popular base helped his political career. Selected as Prime Minister, for 10 years, he served as a “convenient front man for Sonia Gandhi and her dynasty.” Government files would go to her residence where senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel guided her in day-to-day Government affairs.
This is hardly news for most Indians. What is startling is the revelation that when former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suffered a stroke in January 1964, Indira Gandhi ruled the country in the name of her ailing father. Lal Bahadur Shastri, as Minister without portfolio, “began quietly dealing with the files marked to Nehru. Indira Gandhi did not like this. She would insist on seeing important files herself before sending them to Shastri. The latter learnt of this but did not protest”.
Nehru’s ambition to make Indira Gandhi his successor was visible to all. In 1959, UN Dhebar stepped down as Congress president and aware of Nehru’s desire, proposed Indira Gandhi as next president. Aghast, Home Minister Govind Ballabh Pant protested that her frail health would hinder the extensive travels required of a Congress president. But Nehru raised his voice: “she is healthier than both of us — and could put in longer hours of work.” With that, Indira Gandhi was unanimously elected and cleared the first hurdle to prime ministership.
Indira Gandhi’s name came up after Nehru died but Morarji Desai’s ambition thwarted a consensus and the mantle fell on Shastri, who died of a heart attack less than two years later in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Nayar, who was in the media delegation, recounts that Shastri retired slightly agitated as the accompanying Indian media had badgered him about the return of Haji Pir and Tithwal to Pakistan after the 1965 war. Angered over the concession, his wife, Lalita, had refused to speak to him over the telephone.
At the dacha, Swaran Singh asked Nayar, “Who do you think the next Prime Minister will be?” Nayar repeated what Shastri had told him a few months earlier: “If I die in the next two years, my successor will be Indira Gandhi. If I survive, it will be YB Chavan (then Defence Minister)”. In Delhi, he recalls, Lalita Shastri asked him, “Where were you? Can’t you see he has been poisoned, his whole body is blue?”
There was distressing politics over the cremation. Indira Gandhi wanted Shastri cremated in his hometown, Allahabad, away from Raj Ghat where Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru had samadhis. She had already (though Nayar omits to mention it) denied him the Prime Minister’s residence at Teen Murti by turning it into a memorial. An enraged Lalita trounced Indira Gandhi by threatening a fast-unto-death. Indira Gandhi then opposed inscribing Shastri’s famous slogan, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” on his samadhi at Vijay Ghat; Lalita threatened self-immolation. Later, searching for an appropriate prime ministerial bungalow, Indira Gandhi inspected the Shastri home, sneered at his “middle class living” and left the place to the family.
Despite his gargantuan memory, Nayar states that Jinnah joined the Indian National Conference in 1906. Actually, the Conference had merged with the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1886; Jinnah joined INC in 1906. He recalls Jinnah’s first speech as President of Pakistan, wherein he admits the intractable problem of minorities in both countries: “…All the same, in this division it was impossible to avoid the question of minorities being in one Dominion or the other.” Clearly, Jinnah knew the problem he was creating but went ahead. More tellingly, the Quaid-e-Azam’s speech was not broadcast by Radio Pakistan: A reality byte regarding his power in the country he created.
Interestingly, Nayar recounts that when he met Louis Mountbatten near London on October 1, 1971, the latter recalled a conversation with Jinnah at the Viceroy House in Delhi on April 9, 1947: “I told Jinnah that his moth-eaten Pakistan would not last more than 25 years.” Mountbatten claimed he told Jinnah that East Pakistan would become an independent country in 25-30 years. However, his former Press adviser, Alan Campbell-Johnson, told Nayar, “Mountbatten’s memory probably fails him. I should have known if he had made such a remark.” Cyril Radcliffe, who delineated the border, concurred with Campbell-Johnson: “You are the first person to tell me this. I had never heard it before.”
One wonders why Mountbatten, who presided over the bloody Partition and decapitation of India’s northern frontier to serve the West in the emerging Cold War, embellished the truth. Speaking to Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre in 1972, Mountbatten claimed, “I was always convinced East Pakistan would never work. The whole concept of two different peoples being held together over all those miles by the same religion was absolute nonsense. But West Pakistan was something else, I wanted it to work…. I wanted Kashmir with them, I did not muck up my own creation…” (Mountbatten and Independent India, Vikas: 1998: 56)
Nayar says Jinnah sowed the seeds of separation when, during his first official visit to East Pakistan, he insisted that Bengalis would have to learn Urdu, Pakistan’s national language. Yet, in India, Nehru allowed Sheikh Abdullah to impose Urdu on Jammu & Kashmir, when Kashmiri has a rich literary tradition.
Nayar reveals that Nehru had said, “Even if Kashmir were to be handed over to Pakistan on a platter, Pakistan would think of some other way to keep its quarrel with India alive, because Kashmir is only a symptom of a disease and that disease is hatred of India.” Surely Nehru realised that the object of hatred was India’s Hindu majority. Though he does not say so overtly, Nayar places the burden of maintaining plurality solely on the Hindu community. His ode to Noor Jehan should have queried why famous artistes in cosmopolitan Mumbai went to Pakistan. Why, when Maharaja Hari Singh ran a secular Government, did his court artist, Malika Pukhraj, go to Pakistan? Above all, why did Saadat Hasan Manto?
(The writer is Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library; the views expressed are personal)
Writer: Sandhya Jain
Courtesy: The Pioneer
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