A notion worth dispelling is that Scotch whiskies are costlier to produce; it is 50 per cent more expensive to produce it in India than in Scotland
In wake of the Indo-UK trade discussions, many 'experts' argue for reduction in tariff, particularly slashing custom tariffs on imported Scotch and on 'Intermediate' products which they say are nothing but high-strength, potable, undenatured ethyl alcohol used for bottling and blending in India.
They argue on three main grounds. One, that India has a large trade surplus in the category and can afford greater imports; two, customs duty reduction on intermediate products will encourage 'Make in India'; and three, even if tariff is reduced the bulk of consumption will remain locally produced whiskies -- so why bother.
This industry contributes nearly Rs 250,000 crore in taxes and for most states it constitutes 15-30 per cent of revenue. Customs duty is not even Rs 5000 crore in comparison. Second, this industry uses agricultural products as primary raw material and nearly 50 lakh farmers depend on it. It provides employment to 20 lakh people. Any disruption will have widespread ramifications for the government, farmers and labour market.
The problem with the first argument is that it hides the true balance of trade on alcoholic beverages using a wider head of 'Food and Drinks'. If one separates alcoholic beverages/products for human consumption from the wider clubbing of Food and Drinks, a very different picture emerges.
As per DGFT data for 2018-19, India exports only Rs 5 crore worth of alcoholic products/beverages to the UK, against import of Rs 1300 crore. Clubbing alcohol under a much bigger Food & Drink category to claim favourable balance of trade is highly misleading.
The second argument is also a misconception. Scotch whisky goes through two major stages of productions -- distillation and bottling. The 'Intermediate' Scotch whisky is actually the output of the first stage, it has been produced and matured in Scotland. What happens in India is only bottling. Therefore, while incentivising Intermediate products through reduced or zero duty will lead to an increase of usage of bottling plants in India, which will be a big loss for Indian farmers and manufacturers.
The third argumentmisses out on three vital points. One, in product categories with multiple price segments like whisky, consumers seamlessly shift to the next category up or down depending on affordability.
So, when a Scotch whisky is sold at a lower price it takes away consumers from products in the price segment, starting a domino effect that makes the domestic industry the net loser. Two, introduction of Scotch whisky at lower price attacks the profit driving end of portfolio of Indian companies, thus jeopardising their viability.Third, Indian premium whiskies like Amrut, Paul John or Rampur are now regarded amongst the best in the world but are unable to make the same headway in the domestic market due to an unsupportive regime and reducing customs duty further just will not help.
Another notion worth dispelling is that Scotch whiskies are costlier to produce. Rather, it costs at least 50 per cent more to produce a whisky of similar quality in India than in Scotland. This is primarily on account of a higher cost of capital and higher taxes in India, interstate restrictions and higher evaporation losses.
Also, many states offer concessionary taxes on imported products, but reduction in customs tariffs cannot be done without removing compensatory state-based concessions as otherwise it will create a hugely discriminatory tax regime against Indian products.
If we talk about reciprocal duty concessions, the problem is that barriers put up by the UK are not tariff based but non-tariff ones. India, being a sugar producing country, has evolved whisky recipes based on spirit distilled from molasses. The UK does not accept this as it is not "recipe standards". The result of these non-tariff barriers is that of the 70 lakh cases of whisky exported from India every year, the whole of the EU including the UK accounts for less than 30,000!
Indian industry is not against reducing customs duty on alcohol, but it should be in a phased manner and up to a point where it creates a level playing field.
Accordingly, it has put forward its recommendation to reduce import taxes, aggregate of customs duty and AIDC, from 150% to 100% now and to 75% in five years' time. It has also recommended a threshold import price for taxation at $5 per bottle, and reciprocal concessions from the UK allowing whiskies from India to be allowed in the UK market as 'Indian Whisky' without minimum maturity conditions.
(The author is Director General of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies. The views expressed are personal.)
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Disrupted ecology invites virulent viruses; India must cut dependence on scant natural resources
As a result of rapid industrialization, theever-hungry industrial nations consumed natural resources at an alarming rate. The collateral damage became evident through adverse impacts on environment - air and water pollution of air and water to the global problem of climate change. Today every nation is suffering contamination of ecology due to anthropogenic intervention. Issues like dwindling groundwater or soil erosion apart, the world faces serious consequences of 'development' virulent viruses such as the novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 for example.
Covid-19 has unleashed unimaginable fury on people's lives and livelihoods. The Scientific Reports (Nature research) Journal said an astounding 20,507,518 life years have been lost worldwide including India due to the pandemic. Statista Data figures show that the world lost over $4 trillion in economic output. These consequences are a direct result of overzealous human activities that have disrupted normal ecological conditions causing rare virus strains to surface. Sixty per cent of the world's ailments stem from animals, of which 72 per cent is from wild animals. Usually referred to as the 'reservoir' species they do not infect humans directly; the infection happens through an 'intermediary animal' or the 'carrier animal' because the virus in the latter undergoes mutation and becomes contagious. Virus mutations are normal processes in the evolution of a virus and occur at gene level and, therefore, cannot be avoided.
Various studies point out that intact ecosystems and biodiverse nature hotspots are supremely successful in drawing the crucial line of separation between humans and animals. But insatiable human hunger for natural resources-driven economic prosperity means that mankind is crossing the invisible line and driving into the 'prohibited' sphere of the wild plant and animal world that are replete with hitherto unknown viruses that quickly latch on to the 'human hosts'. This trespass into nature's domain has its own set of penalties and associated costs.
The breakage of ecosystem integrity usually occurs when deforestation, change in land use and mining sort of activities abound. These activities triggered by human intervention have an irreversible impact of the ecosystem biodiversity as they forever alter the indigenous specie population and density. This helps viruses to spill over, mutate and multiply finally leading to more toxic and contagious phenotypes against which humanity has no known remedy or protection available.
Given these conditions, it is easy to comprehend that restoration of lost ecosystems and ensuring preservation of existing ones is a primary priority for mankind. India must understand that the biodiversity of the ecology is irreplaceable and that the disruption of the same means inviting certain death and destruction. Towards that end, India must take immediate measures to preserve the sanctity of its ecology by first gently encouraging the population to adopt environmentally friendly lifestyles which are less and less dependent on precious natural resources.
A resource-exploitative lifestyle that is intensely dependent on harvesting precious natural assets of the environment is also unable to develop and retain natural immunity against common infections and viruses. This is due to over dependence on medicine regimes. An eco-friendly lifestyle will ensure resurrection of biodiversity which in turn will help revive the natural immunity that humans are born with.
(The author is an environmental journalist. The views expressed are personal.)
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Imagine if all of Rs 2100,000 crore under Atmanirbhar package had been distributed among 40 crore workers in the informal sector; it would have boosted demand
The Corona pandemic may have brought about sharp deceleration in India's economic growth - the sharpest ever during the lastfour decades or so - but has yielded a bonanza for the investors.
The wealth of investors in the stock market as represented by the market capitalization of Indian equities (market value of shares multiplied by their number) almost doubled from around Rs 113 trillion (a trillion equals 100,000 crore) as on March 31, 2020 to Rs 226 trillion as on March 31, 2021. In contrast, India's GDP at current prices declined from Rs 203 trillion during 2019-20 to Rs 197 trillion during 2020-21. As a result, the market capitalization to GDP ratio almost doubled from 56 per cent during 2019-20to 115 per cent during 2020-21.
Gross Domestic Product(GDP) of a country is the total value of goods and services produced during a specific time frame say a quarter or a year. Used worldwide, it is the most crucial economic indicator for reflecting on the economic health of a country. For developing countries such as India, a high year-on-year GDP growth should result in increasing prosperity for its people and vice versa.
During 2020-21, when the Corona pandemic destroyed economic activity on a mammoth scale, annihilated millions of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), took away jobs of tens of millions and severely impacted earnings of others, one section that went unscathed was the corporate sector in particular, the investors who made huge gains from their shareholdings in corporate entities across all categories such as large-caps, mid-caps, small-caps etc. So, what explains this anomalous situation?
The market value of a share depends on the demand or investors' interest which in turn, is a function of the company's current profitability and their assessment of how this is expected to be in the years to come.
During the year, profitability of majority of the listed firms increased despite decline in revenue. This was made possible due to higher prices of their products on the one hand and reduction in expenditure (that included expenses on wages and salaries, other fixed costs, interest outgo, etc.) on the other. As regards expectation for the future, investors including foreign investors have confidence in the fundamentals of firms and their ability to deliver good returns in the medium to long-term. This is vindicated by a record FPI (foreign portfolio investment) of about US$37 billion during 2020-21.
Even the measures announced by the Union Government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) purportedly to revive growth, boost aggregate demandand promote 'inclusive' development with emphasis on reinvigorating MSMEs ended up adding to the fortunes of the corporate sector.
The steep reduction in the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent for new enterprises set up after October 1, 2019 and to 22 per cent for existing entities (subject to their foregoing exemption and deductions available under existing dispensation)meant leaving an additional about Rs 150,000 crore in the hands of corporate in a full year. The corporate entities also benefitted from the reduction in the policy rate (interest rate at which RBI lends money to commercial banks) by 1.15 per cent during 2020 over and above a total cut of 1.35 per cent delivered during 2019.
Of the much trumpeted special package of Rs 2100,000 crore announced by the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman (May, 2020) under the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', a mere about Rs 200,000 crore was spent on catering to food and other bare basic needs such as higher subsidy on LPG, hike in wages under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), financialassistance to farmers under PM-KISAN, ex-gratia to Jan Dhan (JD) accountholder etc. under PM Garib Kalyan Yojna (PM - GKY).
The rest Rs 1900,000 crore was given as(i) liquidity support by RBI (measures announcedby Governor, Shashikant Dason March 27 and April 17, 2020injected close to Rs 500,000 crore followed by another Rs 300,000 crore on May 22); (ii) increasing resources of banks and other financial institutions (FIs) to enable them on-lend; (iii) releasing pending dues to agencies tasked with implementation of welfare schemes of theUnion Government. A big slice of these fundseither landed with corporate entities or remained un-utilized.
For instance, out of the Rs 100,000 crore auction of targeted long-term repo operations (TLTRO - 1) of three-year tenor bythe RBI, Rs 75,000 crore went to the big corporate. The apex bank tried to rectify this anomaly when under the TLTRO 2.0 (April 17, 2020) it reserved 50 per cent of additional liquidity injection Rs 50,000 crore for small and mid-sized non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs). One wonders whether this reserved quota of Rs 25,000 crore actually went to small players.
Consider Rs 300,000 crore meant for MSMEs or identified stressed sectors under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). As against a target of eight million MSMEs beneficiaries, only four million got loan aggregating to Rs 150,000 crore. Even today, the money available under the scheme remains un-utilized; this has prompted the Government to extend the scheme till September 30 and even relaxed the conditions to allowfirms with outstanding up to Rs 50 crore (up from existing Rs 25 crore) avail of the facility.
Look at the payment of Rs 65,000 crore to fertilizer manufacturers (in additionto Rs 71,000 crore allocated in the budget for 2020-21) towards subsidy dues being carry forward from previous years. These payments went towards bolstering their bottom-line. Likewise, Rs 90,000 crore given to power distribution companies (PDCs) (amount since raised to Rs 130,000 crore) eventually landed with power generation companies being former's pending dues to the latter. As for food subsidy, the Government paid to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) Rs 350,000 crore (as per RE) over and above the budget provision of Rs 116,000 crore for 2020-21. A good chunk of this was used by the FCI for clearing dues to its creditors/companies.
Thus, contrary to the stated intent of the Atmanirbhar package to provide succor to MSMEs and millions of workers in informal sector etc., on ground zero, the money was given mostly by way of tax cuts, reduction in interest rate, loans, liquidity support and clearance of dues which contributed to enrichment of those (read: corporate) who were already well-off. The latter also gained a lot from the reckless spending by governments in developed countries (a gargantuan US$9 trillion was pumped in) even as a lot of that money found its way to emerging market economies including India.
To sum up, the highly inequitable outcome during 2020-21 was due the Government relying too much on monetary supportwhich was availed mostly by corporate entities and too little fiscal support (free food, subsidized LPG, PM-KISAN etc) which barely helped tens of millions low-income earners keep their head above water. In contrast, imagine if all of the Rs 2100,000 crore under the Atmanirbharpackage were to be distributed among 40 crore workers in the informal sector. This would have given the much-needed boost to demand across all sectors and resultant fillip to inclusive growth, but that was not to be.
Even as the pandemic continues to bite during the current year as well (though, to a lesser extent), will the Government give a big fiscal push directed at these most vulnerable people? Going by Finance Minister's stance thus far, it seems unlikely.
(The author is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.)
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The world froze in prayers for a good half hour when Christian Eriksen collapsed during a UEFA match
The past weekend had barely tiptoed into infancy when the entire world suddenly went numb and stood still. Apart from praying lips, the only other thing that moved were zillions of nimble, and concerned, fingers on Twitter and other social media sites. No, it wasn’t because of a hallucination-inducing party drug but because Denmark’s ace attacking midfielder Christian Eriksen had suddenly gone down. For no apparent reason. Inexplicably. Right there on the field, near the touchline, just four minutes before the referee would have blown his whistle to indicate half time. The boisterous Copenhagen stadium suddenly went into mute mode; not only the home crowd but even the visiting Finnish spectators were taken aback by the sudden turn of events as millions of pairs of palm after palm pierced through the evening air in its hurry to clasp the unbelieving eyes and quivering lips. The palpitation in the hearts is an altogether different story. In sadness, in wonderment, in care, in concern, in poignancy, it was an emotional union of the two rivals and their spectator fans in the face of the fear of the unknown. As a dark hush fell down upon the stadium, clamorous as hell only a few seconds ago with the hosts dominating the on-field proceedings and the Finland natives egging their team on to put some spirit into the game, the Finnish fans also fell quiet with discernible distress.
For their part, the Finland players — who had been getting the short shrift in the exchange of affairs thus far — also now stood as heroes, shoulder to shoulder with their Danish counterparts to shield Eriksen from the view of the public and roving television cameras so that he could receive immediate medical attention in relative peace and privacy. It reminds one of several similar incidents where competing players and the spectators immediately forged into one entity, a solid mass of humanity, in the face of unanticipated adversity; the most notable being in the 1982 FIFA World Cup when West German goalie Toni Schumacher deliberately thudded into French player Patrick Battiston and knocked him down unconscious. But Saturday night’s scene was a tad more touching, perhaps a reminder as it were in these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic that whatever our nationality, religion, gender or belief, we are one race, one people: Humans, first of all and after everything else!
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The Government is quite right in deciding to declassify details of all of India’s wars
The Government has taken a welcome step in deciding to declassify, on a case-to-case basis, details of the wars fought by India. The new policy for archiving, declassifying, compiling and publishing such records is going to be put in place. The modalities for taking up declassification one by one are being worked out. For a country that has fought as many as six wars since Independence but has managed to declassify the operations of just the 1948 Jammu and Kashmir operations, this is a giant step in transparency. The new policy says records should ordinarily be declassified in 25 years and transferred to the National Archives of India once the war or operations histories have been compiled. The policy statement alone should mean that the official records of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 conflicts, Operation Pawar of the IPKF in Sri Lanka (1987-1990) be declassified right away. The Kargil affair still has over a couple of years of secrecy left. There are two issues with this policy. First, the implications of opening secret details of the past. In a country like India where political leaders and their actions are assessed not in terms of their times but by current political standards, the declassification can become a Pandora’s box. Take the Henderson-Brooks-Bhagat report on the 1962 India-China war, for instance. Technically, the report is yet to be made public though a foreign journalist did just that with part of the report he accessed. That section of the report has some startling revelations about India’s Forward Policy adopted by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
One can well imagine the implications of judging Nehru’s thinking at that time by today’s standards. The BJP, which till early 2014 was demanding release of the report, made a U-turn once it came to power. If much of any war report is to be kept hidden either on ground of military relevance or political sensitivity, the purpose of the new policy will be lost. Two, there is a clear case for the bull being taken by the horns and past war records being declassified at once. A Defence Ministry official rightly said: “Timely publication of war histories would give people an accurate account of the events, provide authentic material for academic research and counter unfounded rumours.” Even though the United States faced condemnation for its reasons for the war on Iraq, it did declassify records in 2013 to mark the 10th anniversary. The documents showed how ineptly it caused and handled the war, but the country did not hide the secrets from the American public. Secrecy is also redundant because it has no place today when technology has turned war into an algorithm and where every military moment can be recorded live and strategies assessed and analysed in real time. At best, old files can muddy the records of individuals — political or military — who made controversial decisions. Unclassified records can at best keep the past hurts buried.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The fund allocated to all MPs for local area development is hardly utilised for above-board projects that would really benefit the locals
Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, or MPLADS, which allots Rs 5 crore annually to every MP, was suspended for 2020-21 and 2021-22, and for good reason. But several MPs feel the scheme should be revived. There are 543 Lok Sabha and 250 Rajya Sabha MPs, a total of 793. Each was last entitled to Rs 5 crore for this purpose. If fully utilised by every member, the Government of India would spend Rs 19,825 crore over five years (the Rajya Sabha’s term is six years but let us ignore the sixth year for the time being). Over five years, the Government’s outlay would total up to Rs 99,125 crore or nearly Rs 1 lakh crore on account of MPLADS.
Individual MPs are not accountable to anyone regarding what they have done with their Rs 25 crore during their terms. There is no audit at all. At its most practical, it is money for jam. At its inaction, it remains unspent. It was introduced by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, in my view, to keep the MPs happy as his Congress Government was some 50 MPs short of a majority. The figure then was Rs 2 crore annually; Manmohan Singh increased the figure to Rs 5 crore, again to keep the MPs happier. In both cases, this scheme was a baksheesh to every MP in exchange of support, present or future, to the Government — as cynical as that.
Rather than comment, let me give my own experience of the Rs 4 crore allocable to me for my two-year membership. My party allocated to me Vadodara, the city as well as the district. We are talking of the period towards the end of 2000. The party held a meeting of local workers, of whom some 30 persons turned up. They warmly applauded my coming and garlanded me. I had never before been so honoured. In my brief speech, I thanked them but asked jocularly whether their warmth was out of regard for me or in expectation of our spending Rs 4 crore. The audience laughed, which eloquently meant the latter. I said we would meet again to decide what development works we should do and where.
The next day I went to see the District Collector, who was warm and friendly. My request to him was to help me implement this scheme as I had no machinery. I went on to say that I did not wish to mix it up with my business. His advice was that I should set up an NGO and get the scheme implemented through it.
Another wise man I consulted advised me to get my party MLAs together and a few active workers, and then verbally distribute the total fund amongst them. That meant that if an MLA was to get Rs 20 lakh, up to this figure, whatever work he recommended in his constituency, I would sign on. He would do the rest and I would ask no questions, except go to inaugurate his work if he invited me. The wise man went on to say: “Then you see how these people work for you at election time in case you contest for the Lok Sabha next time.”
Meanwhile, someone non-political suggested that I should build as many Sulabh Shauchalayas as possible on Vadodara’s streets. The common people, especially the women, would bless you. This suggestion not only gave me confidence but also a reliable, known and professional implementer.
It took two odd years to get all the piece of land too for 10 bus stops in the city. In the rural sector, 88 brick and mortar bus stops were built, fortunately obliged by the same agency. Medical equipment for Ahmedabad’s public hospital Sheth Vadilal Sarabhai, a computer system in a school in Vadodara city and several anganwadis in a few villages were also set up. Imagine the amount of work that could be done with a mere Rs 4 crore!
In many cases, the MP finds it difficult to implement projects. In my time, no particular item could entail more than Rs 10 lakh. This meant that I had to spend my total grant on at least 40 small projects. Therefore, some MPs have a go at a few projects and leave the remaining funds unspent. Some distribute the money among local MLAs and others. Others use their own NGOs. The whole scheme is so clumsy that it is wasteful. It was comprehensively useful if the purpose was only to distribute perquisites to the MPs.
In spite of these shortcomings, if there be a parliamentary consensus for resuming the grants to MPs, be it so. But a change in procedure is necessary; let a keen MP apply to the Finance Minister giving what s/he proposes to do and how, within how much time. If an earmarked joint secretary finds the proposal viable and useful for the particular area, an approval could be given but subject to audit by a licensed auditor empanelled for MPLADS. The result would be beneficial to the area’s people, executed economically and with a degree of uprightness.
(The writer is a well-known columnist and an author. The views expressed are personal.)
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Lucknow, June 13 (IANS) The Congress in Uttar Pradesh is turning Left with a vengeance but its leaders, one after another, are moving towards the Right. The party is getting increasingly isolated in the state that was once its bastion.
The party, its own leaders claim, is being taken over by young leaders from the Left-wing outfits. "The new leadership that is being imposed in the party is left-oriented and the party high command thinks that they can revive the Congress.
"The fact, however, is that these leaders do not even understand the ideology and culture of the party. And it is this that is making other leaders quit Congress," said former Congress leader Nadeem Ashraf Jaisi, who quit the party to join the Aam Aadmi Party, a year ago.
As leader after leader walks out of the Congress, a key member of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's team -- also from a left outfit -- says, albeit on condition of anonymity: "In Uttar Pradesh, party organisation and leadership is undergoing a revolutionary change. But it does not mean that old and established faces are being ignored.
"Jitin Prasada, or for that matter any other stalwart, needs to understand that politics cannot be a static affair. Leadership and responsibilities change with time." In November 2019, the UP Congress had expelled 10 senior leaders: two of them former ministers for anti-party activities.
The anti-party activities' were that they had met at the residence of one of the leaders on Nehru Jayanti to discuss the state of affairs in the party. "The biggest problem with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh - and also at the Centre -- is that our leaders do not wish to listen and discuss.
"Since the past two years, we have been seeking an appointment with Sonia Gandhi but have failed. If a party worker cannot meet his leader, how can you expect a party to survive?" said Haji Siraj Mehndi, a former MLC and one of the 10 expelled leaders.
Almost every Congress man in the state who has been in the party for a decade, has the same grouse -- there are too many leaders from the left ideology who have been imposed on the party organization. Suddenly one finds key posts occupied by imports from Left outfits like All India Students' Association (AISA) and Rihai Manch.
Starting from Sandeep Singh, Priyanka Gandhi's personal assistant, who is from AISA, there is an influx of young leaders from Left outfits handling key positions like administration head and social media in-charge.
Sandeep Singh was a former AISA president at JNU. Mohit Pandey, another former AISA functionary, is the social media head of UPCC. Shahnawaz Husain, formerly with Rihai Manch which is known for its advocacy of terror suspects, is now head of UPCC's minority cell.
A former UPCC spokesman said: "I have stopped coming to the party office because this is not the culture that I have lived with. You have leaders wearing shoes and putting their feet up on the table. They move around with cigarettes in their hands and do not think twice before using abusive language. They have not yet grown out of student politics and do not know the dignity that a politician should maintain."
As the Congress increasingly depends on its left-wing leaders, its own leaders have turned Right towards the BJP with Jitin Prasada being the latest example. In the past few months, the Congress has lost a number of senior leaders to the BJP.
Former UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi was among the first to switch over to the Right before the assembly elections in 2017. Congress MLC Dinesh Singh left the Congress in 2018 to join the BJP. In 2019, former MPs Ratna Singh and Sanjay Singh walked into the BJP, followed by former MLA Ameeta Singh.
Talking to IANS, one of the erstwhile Congress leaders who has joined BJP, said: "The problem with the Congress leadership is that they just do not seem to care. I did not wish to leave the Congress but when I found that my leaders were not even responding to what I wanted to say, I decided to walk out. After all, I am in politics and cannot afford to sit at home till my leaders begin smelling the coffee." He admitted that he would not have left the Congress if the leadership had given him an appointment to air his grievances.
Haji Siraj Mehndi said: "As people from AISA and Rihai Manch have become the pivot of the party, staunch Gandhi loyalists who bore the brunt of the crackdown of anti-Congress regimes and stood by the party through thick and thin have been bundled out by none other than Indira's granddaughter Priyanka."
Most of the former UPCC presidents and senior leaders have withdrawn from the state party unit. They do not visit the party office and neither are they welcomed. It is noteworthy that the Uttar Pradesh Congress has been in trouble since the nineties when Mandal' politics propped up the caste politics and, almost simultaneously, the Ayodhya movement fueled communal politics.
The Congress was gradually left out of the playing field. The party made a sincere effort to revive itself before the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh when Sheila Dixit was projected as a chief ministerial candidate and Raj Babbar was state chief.
With the slogan, "27 Saal, UP Behaal", the Congress built up a momentum and Rahul Gandhi began emerging as a politician to watch out for. However, midway through the campaign, the Congress high command decided to ally with the Samajwadi Party which they had been targeting in their campaign. The party lost credibility and workers their enthusiasm.
The Congress in Uttar Pradesh now gasps for survival, not revival. The seven-member legislature party has been reduced to five after two MLAs -- both from Rae Bareli -- have turned rebels.
One of the party MLAs, said: "It is time that the Congress leadership woke up to reality. If they are not willing to listen, talk and discuss, how can they expect people to remain with them?"
Jaipur, June 8 (IANS) The Congress high command's stoic silence over the growing signs of discord within the Gehlot government has raised many questions; is this silence deliberate or else the high command is quiet aiming at certain goals?
Whatever the truth, the reality is that it has not led to a resolution of differences between different factions simmering in the Congress camp and the fortunes of the party as well as the party workers hang in the balance.
Six-time MLA Hemaram Choudhary resigned from the Congress government on May 22 and he seems reluctant to withdraw his resignation. Another MLA, Ved Prakash Solanki, has threatened to resign. Both are aligned to former state Congress chief and ex deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot's group.
Meanwhile, the Gehlot camp is seen to be busy poaching MLAs from his arch-rival Pilot's camp. Inderaj Gujar and PR Meena are two such MLAs from the Pilot camp who recently praised Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's work at a time when other Pilot followers were questioning the government's work.
The story of discord doesn't end here as two ministers considered to be very close to Gehlot had also reportedly had an altercation during a recent cabinet meeting.
In a sense, differences are no longer between Gehlot and his former deputy. This is an internecine war -- a fight among the Gehlot camp followers who look like competitors, not colleagues.
The state unit of the Congress, the Pradesh Congress Committee, appears weak on the ground, working with a 39-member team since July last year as all local Congress committees were dissolved following Pilot's open rebellion against the state leadership. Partymen, anxious on the phone tapping front, are aggrieved that they did not get their share as award for victory -- while what were deemed to be political appointments were going to retired former top bureaucrats.
There are questions partymen are asking: Why has Kumar Vishwas's wife been given a political appointment in Rajasthan -- considering Vishwas had contested against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi? Why had he been rewarded? Why were retired bureaucrats being appointed to key political posts while party workers who had worked hard for the party were yet to be rewarded?
A minister explained that political appointments are being delayed for fear of another rebellion. "If we give 10 workers a position, the remaining 90 will throw tantrums and there can be another rebellion which we can't handle now amid the pandemic," he said.
The rival camp in the Congress does not agree. "Post the rebellion in the party, we were asked to compromise on the leadership issue and we followed all rules of the game. We did not say anything against the party. But now, it has been 11 months since a committee was formed to look into our issues and this committee has failed to bring in results. Don't you think the committee should be dissolved? Why isn't the high command looking into the issue," said a Pilot camp follower.
In July last year, a three-member committee was formed with veteran leaders Ahmed Patel, K.C. Venugopal and Ajay Maken to look into the grievances of the Pilot camp. Patel passed away, but the other two members of the committee have not been proactive in resolving workers' grievances, said another worker.
"If any committee is formed with the aim of fulfilling certain exceptions and commitments and if nothing comes out of it even after 11 months and no one is ready to look into it, it is clear that you are asking for trouble," said the party worker.
Meanwhile, state PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasara told IANS that the party is committed to giving political appointments once matters settle down post the second wave of Covid.
Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken had confirmed announcing political appointments earlier in December last year and then in March, but it could not be implemented.
Pilot says there is no reason for delay in appointments and cabinet expansion as of now.
Meanwhile, all eyes are set ito see f the High Command pitches in to address these issues or else new factions appearing in the party each year are ringing alarm bells for the Congress which is facing testing times in other states like Punjab too!
Amid the COVID scare, will it be a good idea to go ahead with the Amarnath Yatra this year?
As the Shaivites and other devotees of Lord Shiva keep their fingers crossed regarding the Government’s nod to the Amarnath Yatra this year, scheduled to begin on June 28, the signals emerging from the administration are not too encouraging. It appears that the pilgrimage, organised annually by the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, will not fructify this year after having been cancelled last year, too, on the shoulders of the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic. Though the authorities are still busy weighing the pros and cons before making any announcement, no harm would be done if it is cancelled another year. Under the prevailing circumstances, and especially having had the unsavoury experience of the second wave unleashing due to the carelessness and negligence of the common populace, it would actually be a good decision to err on the side of caution. Already, we have seen how the insouciance of the general public at large — eager to step out of their premises after staying cooped inside for months on end, but without observing the necessary COVID-appropriate protocol such as wearing masks properly, washing hands and using sanitiser frequently and maintaining social distancing — has taken a severe toll.
Then there were other, totally avoidable events like the Assembly election rallies and the Mahakumbh congregation that have served as nothing short of super-spreaders and brought upon us untold miseries, loss of employment and revenue and even the tragic loss of the lives of our loved ones. Besides, no God is so inadequate or selfish that He would mind the absence of teeming crowds at his place of worship. If anything, He would be empathetic and proud of the wisdom of his disciples. There already are several voices of sanity emerging from various social and religious bodies in Jammu that say that the final decision on the matter should be taken keeping the ongoing COVID-19 situation in mind. In a related development that also exhibits a sense of maturity, the Odisha Government has already announced that the annual Puri Rath Yatra, dedicated to Lord Jagannath, will be held while following the COVID-19 guidelines of the Supreme Court. However, this year’s Yatra will be held without the participation of devotees from the public; only those servitors who have a COVID-19 negative report or are fully vaccinated will be allowed to take part in the Yatra.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
USFDA rejects Covaxin’s application for emergency use approval, putting it under pressure
Covaxin, the anti-COVID vaccine made by Bharat Biotech and already administered to 2.9 crore Indians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has failed to get emergency use approval (EUA) in the US. The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cited lack of required data as the reason. It has since closed the doors for re-application for EUA, asking Ocugen, Bharat Biotech’s American partner for Covaxin’s supply in the US, to take the full-fledged approval route in the future. The FDA has recently issued a new guideline that it will no longer grant EUA to new applications. The FDA has asked Ocugen to conduct a new, local trial of Covaxin on the basis of which it will re-evaluate the vaccine. If Covaxin gets approval based on a local trial, it will become eligible for full approval. The development puts Bharat Biotech under tremendous pressure to seek international approval. It has invited criticism at home for not making public details of the phase three clinical trial. It had received EUA in India without any phase three trial data, owing to which it faced vaccine hesitancy. Covaxin is India’s milestone indigenous vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in association with Indian Council of Medical Research. It is a whole-virus inactivated vaccine. The company has placed requests for approval also with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is said to have submitted at least 90 per cent of the required documents.
For international recognition of a vaccine, it has to receive approval either from WHO, European Union or foreign health regulators like the FDA. The fate of the WHO application in face of rejection by FDA is yet to be known. Bharat Biotech’s case floundered at the beginning itself when the health regulator of Brazil refused to issue a “good manufacturing practices” certificate to the Indian company’s facilities and said it would not allow Covaxin’s import into Brazil and the case was resolved only after Bharat Biotech agreed to strict conditions for its import. Brazil, however, reduced the number of doses from the original 20 million to just four million. Eleven countries have given regulatory approval for Covaxin so far. They are Iran, the Philippines, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Guyana, Zimbabwe and Paraguay, besides India. But approvals from the international bigwigs matter most. The FDA rejection puts millions of Indians who took the dose in a spot. The company and the Government have the immediate task to remove doubts from the minds of people about Covaxin’s efficacy. Indian virologists are saying that from emerging data it looks like inactivated vaccines give less protection, but that does not mean Covaxin will not protect because it has a different adjuvant. The Government should immediately go in for independent vaccine effectiveness studies to rule out all misgivings. It should ask Bharat Biotech the reason for non-release of the trial data. The vagueness surrounding Covaxin has the potential to undermine public confidence further, particularly after the FDA fiasco.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
New Delhi must consider what it can do to prevent the Taliban from coming to power because that would be to the advantage of Pakistan
With the complete withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan scheduled to happen by September 11, India needs to seriously ponder the consequences, particularly that of the Taliban coming to rule that country. This, of course, will happen only if they defeat the democratically elected Afghan Government’s forces militarily. The question arises whether they can do so and, if they can, what would that mean for this country.
Militarily, the Afghan National Army, the ground-war arm of the Afghan National Security and Defence Forces (ANSDF), has, despite serious problems of desertions and unwillingness to enlist, become a battle-hardened force capable of confronting the Taliban and other terrorist organisations. Its commando units and special forces have been especially impressive. Further, 80 to 90 per cent of the air support, which has played a critical part in the ANA’s operations against the Taliban, is now provided by the fledgling Afghan Air Force (AAF).
The Taliban have doubtless established their sway over much of countryside and some cities, besides inflicting a number of severe defeats on Government troops. But at least some of the defeats at the beginning of 2020 were due to operational constraints — such as going on the defensive — the Trump administration imposed on them in the interest of its peace negotiations with the Taliban. It had also arm-twisted the Afghan Government into conceding the Taliban’s demand of releasing 5,000 of its fighters from Afghan jails as a pre-condition for talks. Many of these fighters have taken up arms again despite the Taliban’s promise to the contrary.
Simply put, India must consider what it can do to prevent the Taliban from coming to power. The Taliban, fundamentalist Islamists who hate India pathologically, have close ties with terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen. Recall its complete support to the hijackers of the IC-814 on December 24, 1999, which was eventually taken to Kandahar. Without that, the hijackers would not have been able to extract the release of Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh— before releasing the hijacked aircraft and its passengers. Pakistan’s Directorate-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which was also deeply involved, established the Jaish-e-Mohammad in 2000 with Masood Azhar as its chief.
Trying to reach out to the Taliban will be futile. Even if they want to respond to Indian overtures — which is highly unlikely — Pakistan, which controls them, will stop them. Besides its pathological obsession with avenging the rout it suffered at New Delhi’s hands in the 1971 war, Islamabad is loath to permit any Indian influence over Afghanistan because it believes that control over the latter is essential to its securing a “strategic depth” against this country.
The concept of “strategic depth” has become a fixation with Pakistan. Its origin is traceable to Aslam Siddiqi’s book, Pakistan Seeks Security which states that fusion with Iran and Afghanistan could lend depth to Pakistan’s defence against India. A press release published in Pakistan’s Daily Times on July 4, 2017, headlined “General Beg explains his view of strategic depth doctrine,” cites an article by Raza Rumi in the same paper of July 3, which quotes the former Pakistani top brass, Mirza Afzal Beg, as saying that it was unthinkable for him to articulate a defeatist concept of withdrawal to “Afghanistan for territorial depth against Indian military ingress”. According to him, addressing officers at the army’s GHQ on August 25, 1988, as Chief of Army Staff, he had spoken of three countries — Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan — as moving towards a common destiny and forming the strategic depth of the Muslim world.
Pakistan’s search for strategic depth has meant a no-holds-barred effort to keep India out of Afghanistan and establishing the Taliban in power there. It will not stop doing it, particularly when it can use Afghanistan as a launching pad for terror strikes against India. All this is besides the fact that India will lose the huge investments it has made in that country if Islamabad has its way.
Hence, as said at the beginning, India must do its best to foil Pakistan’s bid and prevent the Taliban from capturing power in Afghanistan. The question is: What can it do? In the short run, it can enhance the capabilities of the ANSDF by helping in the maintenance of the AAF’s planes and helicopters — the foreign contractors doing it now will depart with the US forces — and providing such armaments as they might need. It must also impose heavy costs on Pakistan by economic and other means to hamper its support to the Taliban. Simultaneously, it must spearhead an international campaign against the Taliban’s regressive ideology, repressive attitude towards women, and the fact that under them Afghanistan would once again become a base for terror strikes against the West. The US, with the history of 9/11 behind it, and European countries which have suffered significantly from terrorist attacks, must be strenuously reminded of what can happen. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, this must be a priority with the Government.
(The author is Consulting Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal.)
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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