Over 6,500 migrants, including 2,711 Indians, have died working on Qatar’s World Cup-related projects
It’s called “The beautiful game”. The loftiest event of the sport, known as the World Cup, garners the maximum number of viewers in any discipline of any sporting contest across the globe. The “greatest spectacle on Earth” involves glamour, charisma, passion, superhuman athleticism, national pride and, certainly not the least, zillions of dollars for the host country as well as for the Zurich-headquartered Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) in television broadcast and other rights. The FIFA World Cup taxes the host nation a lot in terms of manpower, infrastructure and other facilities, but the monetary returns far outweigh the cost input and the moolah raked in is a purse bigger than what you’d see from any other event, even the Olympics. And Qatar is the proud host of the next edition of the World Cup in November 2022. But behind all the glitz and razzmatazz of the shiny stadia and the spruced setup in the Persian Gulf nation, is a sordid tale of hardships, torture and human rights abuse, ending in death. According to The Guardian, thousands of migrant workers have died in Qatar since it was unexpectedly chosen as the host for the extravaganza in December 2010.
More than 6,500 migrant labourers from five South Asian countries — India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died, on an average of 12 deaths each week, according to the British daily. While 2,711 of those who died hailed from India, Nepali workers accounted for 1,641 deaths, followed by Bangladesh at more than 1,000 and Pakistan 824. With inconsistent and imprecise records, it is difficult to assess the exact causes for the deaths but official records range from “blunt trauma” to “asphyxia” and “hanging”, though the most common is “natural death”. The actual toll is likely to be significantly higher given that the analysis did not include deaths from other countries known to send large numbers of workers to Qatar, such as Kenya and the Philippines. It is likely that a significant number of the total deaths occurred on projects related to the World Cup as Qatar has undertaken a massive construction programme to prepare for the tournament, including building seven stadiums, a new airport as well as broad additions to its public transportation network. It’s time for the Indian Government, as well as the United Nations Human Rights Council, to finally take cognisance of the pitiable working and dwelling conditions of migrant workers in Qatar and censure it severely.
There has been a major change in people’s thinking ahead of State poll; even the most secular of them fear that Bengal might become another Bangladesh
As lucidly brought out by Timur Kuran, a Turkish American economist who teaches at the Duke University, the practice of Islam inhibits business growth and, therefore, does not enable economic progress or development. The prohibition of usury is an example. This explains why Islamic societies have not been economically productive. Therefore, they had to become adept at the conquest of other lands in search of resources.
Bangladesh has an added handicap. For centuries, the Bengali elite was more land-owning than business-running. The Bangladeshi culture took its cue from the Bengali elite. Islam is a comprehensive prescription for living, including politics, with the Quran as the ultimate reference point. No Muslim ruler could deviate from that path. Ideally, jamhuriyat (consensus) was the solution. Monarchy, autocracy and oligarchy were the only alternatives, which left democracy no space.
Sheikh Hasina Wazed somehow fights elections. She has won four terms in all, is relatively secular and grateful to India for the freedom of Bangladesh. Her predecessor, Begum Khaleda Zia, was not. Khaleda’s husband Ziaur Rahman was almost pro-Pakistani, being a Muslim ashraf (a descendant of Prophet Muhammad). But what after Hasina Wazed retires or relinquishes power? Would not there be a change in the country’s foreign policy, especially vis-à-vis India?
It is uncanny that the Bengali Hindu elite founded a Hindu political ideology. Raj Narain Bose is reputed to have coined the term “Hindutva”, or at least used it for the first time in 1863. He was the grandfather of Yogi Aurobindo Ghosh. The Hindu Anushilan Samiti was founded and functioned only in Bengal, with even the great poet Rabindranath Tagore being its leading light. The movement against the partition of Bengal in 1905 was largely led by Yogi Aurobindo and actively supported by Tagore. The Bengal Renaissance was a Hindu phenomenon.
With the annulment of the partition of Bengal by Emperor George V in 1911 at the Delhi Durbar, the Hindu punch softened with the idea of having Hindu-Muslim cordiality. That was the inauguration of so-called secularism in Bengal. The Bengali elite began regretting their conduct towards Muslims. Say, inviting a Muslim co-villager to a wedding dinner, making him sit separately to eat and then expecting him to carry his thali to clean. This is just one example.
With the rise of Netaji Subhas, the Hindu-Muslim cordiality tended towards friendship. A moderate leader, Fazlur Rahman of the Krishak Party, became the Premier of Bengal; this secular trend continued. By early 1947, Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Bose, Fazlur Rahman and Sir Abdul Rahim were discussing the prospects of a third dominion, namely, undivided Bengal in addition to Hindustan and Pakistan.
After Independence, the Nehruvian ethos and the appeasement of Muslims for their votes inflated this trend. The Partition, which displaced many Hindus, did not lead to any real antagonism against Muslims in Bengal in its immediate aftermath as well as later. So much so that being associated with the RSS, the Hindu Mahasabha or the Jana Sangh became infra dig. The Hindu political movement could not throw up a popular leader after Syama Prasad Mookerjee died mysteriously in Kashmir. Jana Sangh leader Haripada Bharati was respected but without mass appeal. The secular show persisted and infiltrators from Bangladesh were encouraged for their votes.
Yet, the Islamist penny dropped at last in the Bengali Hindu’s mind. Clearly a revolutionary change is taking place that may well have a reaction across the border in Bangladesh. There has been a cataclysmic change in the thinking of people in West Bengal with the approaching Assembly elections. It is truly a metamorphosis because, for decades, West Bengal has both resisted the domination of what the bhadralok would call a “Hindi heartland party” and has prided itself on its avowedly secular outlook; the Bengali identity has been preponderant over the religious one.
However, the incessant mollycoddling of the religious minority and even the most radical jihadist elements has slowly but surely brought on an about-turn in the Bengali mind. To the extent that even the most secular among them have begun to fear that their State might become another Bangladesh. The first major sign of West Bengal’s changing political mood was the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which the BJP won 18 out of 42 parliamentary seats. The rapidly shifting scenario with the approach of the 2021 Assembly election is the beginning of a new chapter in West Bengal’s political journey, one that will have implications beyond the State.
West Bengal is very much in the news, especially because of the impending Assembly elections. The country is witnessing an acrimonious tussle where the ruling Trinamool Congress’ incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is fighting to save her Government in the face of a determined assault by the BJP. The remarkable drama of the West Bengal elections is the by-now-discernible wave of discontent against Mamata — sitting Ministers and political heavyweights do not otherwise quit on poll eve to join the Opposition. But more significant is the change taking place in the Bengali psyche. There is growing willingness to be more integrally an arm of Bharat.
(The writer is a well-known columnist and an author. The views expressed are personal.)
Despite the existence of regulatory mechanisms, we have not been able to effectively handle online safety challenges owing to the lack of proper implementation
The internet has evolved as an indispensable tool for transforming our society and culture. Women, especially those living in rural India, have been empowered to speak about their diverse realities, discuss common concerns and organise for change. However, the challenges of censorship and overregulation emanating from actions like blocking of LGBTQ+ sites or silencing of female voices on social media through misogynistic hate speech and trolling, make it essential to find sustainable solutions to these concerns that are threatening the online safety of vulnerable communities. After all, with the internet becoming the ultimate manifestation of our social reality, attaining online equality is paramount for ensuring the same offline.
The feminist landscape of online hate: The last decade has witnessed instances of cyberstalking, rape threats and other forms of gendered violence increase at an alarming rate on the internet. In stark contrast to claims that “cyberhate” is predominantly innocuous, there are a range of academic studies which prove the widespread suffering caused, owing to the consequent social, psychological and economic harm inflicted upon women due to this challenge. The problem of gendered cyberhate has become far more prevalent since the advent of web 2.0, which was marked by the shift towards a greater amount of user-generated content, collaboration, interactivity and information sharing over the web. This facilitated online antagonists to get easier access to their targets in a manner that was never possible before. According to a 2015 report by the United Nations, 73 per cent of women have experienced some form of online violence. An analysis conducted by a leading daily revealed that out of every 10 writers who receive abusive comments online, eight were women.
Types of online hate: Online abuse can be placed on a wide spectrum of violence, ranging from mildly irritating (cyberstalking) at one end to unequivocally criminal (revenge pornography) at the other. One peculiar characteristic of this challenge as seen in India and many other developing economies, is the dimension of domestic violence which is increasingly being observed as a major component of most of the cases of online harassment. Some of the most prominent forms of gendered cyberhate faced by women online include cyberbullying, a challenge whose primary target is mainly school and college girls. Then there is cyberstalking, which includes the perpetrator making unwarranted attempts to contact the target by installing a spyware on her phone or hacking her email/social media accounts. Plus there is denial of service, wherein, the online platforms disables the person to voice herself, often due to her unconventional views. Other major forms of online harm are doxing, which involves publication of personally identifiable information about a person that enables online antagonists to find their targets offline, and the most critically dangerous of all including revenge pornography (publishing sexually explicit content, often of a former partner without their consent) and sextortion (hacking webcameras, installing malwares or impersonating as someone’s romantic interest to obtain intimate information and images).
Implications of the harm on users: Extensive evidence exists to show that gendered cyberhate inflicts significant psychological, social, reputational and economic distress and harm upon women. This includes putting limitations on their ability to engage in meaningful activism to respond to the challenge of gendered cyberhate itself. This leads to serious concerns of violation of both rights guaranteed under international human rights laws and the Constitution of India, including their right to free speech, right to informational privacy, right to bodily integrity and right to reputation, to name a few. As another major concern, it is seen that women who depend on the internet to earn their livelihood are more prone to receiving online hate. This causes serious repercussions for them to find and keep access to their jobs and socially and professionally network themselves — causing blatant breach of their right to livelihood and gender equality.
Understanding and solving the problem: We must not forget that India has not only bagged one of the top ranks for having the highest number of internet users, but it is also the country that tops the statistics of global sexual harassment. The harassment faced by women in the physical world is mirrored by the image harassment faced by them in the online world. A survey conducted by Feminism in India underscored that 50 per cent of women in major cities of India have faced online abuse. However, women are not the only victims of such abuse. There is concurrently rampant online harassment of individuals from marginalised genders and sexualities as well. A truly intersectional view of the issue demands that it is specifically addressed through policy and law, as it is evident that the laws at present that were created with the purpose of protecting women are failing at their task to create a safe place online. Cyberhate, specifically, is a growing issue in the Indian online space. With a charged society polarised by religion and politics, the instances of hateful, violating, or mean comments that occur in the comment sections, forums and on other websites or social media have multiplied. In the case of cyberhate not all violations may be explicitly against the law, they are still serious and unacceptable as a part of online presence, as much as it would be in the physical society. It is important to recognise that to truly tackle the issue of cyberhate, our society, platforms and institutions including the Government must come together. Cyberhate must be dealt with at a societal level through awareness and change in mindsets while institutions must provide for zero tolerance and also grievance redressal. It must exist at all levels. For example, employers must show a responsibility and obligation towards staff to provide them with tools or resources to deal with the cyberhate that they might face as a consequence of the work they are required to do online. Also, legal measures and institutional methods against hate speech are unlikely to be able to tackle the sheer volume of online publications. A complete solution would be to work together with ISPs and platforms i.e. intermediaries to develop comprehensive codes of conduct or community guidelines based on which removal of offensive content takes place. Platforms have the ability to use their technology to detect such content and thereby filter/flag or even remove it. It is equally important to enhance their responsibility in these scenarios to be able to complement the efforts of law enforcement.
The way forward: With the IPC, IT Act and the POCSO rules in place we have adequate laws to tackle cyberhate. The challenge is to effectively implement these laws to ensure safe online space. The Draft Intermediary Guidelines, 2018, envisaged under the IT Act received extant criticism owing to its deleterious impact on free speech and privacy of users. If implemented, it would pierce the encryption-enabled anonymity enjoyed by women and marginalised groups. This anonymity is crucial to tackle trolls with counterspeech and ensure online safety. A recent study explains how the mandate of proactive monitoring under the Draft Guidelines by using automated tools and introducing traceability, by breaking encryption, would undermine the safety of users.
Despite the existence of regulatory mechanisms, we have not been able to effectively handle online safety challenges owing to the lack of proper implementation. The onus of reform cannot be entirely placed on regulation and also lies on the participants in the ecosystem who have a major role in ensuring that progressive laws and policies are rightly implemented and followed. It is the duty of the State to effectively prosecute perpetrators of online hate.
Shreya is Policy Research Assistant and Mehta is Strategic Engagement and Research Coordinator, The Dialogue. The views expressed are personal.
Climate change doesn’t care whether you believe init or not. And it may get worse
It’s not funny when people die of the cold but there was some innocent amusement to be had from the indignation of Texans unable to boil their drinking water during the ‘Big Freeze’ because the power was still out. Things like that are not supposed to happen in a modern, developed country like the US of A. How dare they? Others, aware that Texas has cut every corner in public services that it’s possible to cut, were unsurprised by the five-day mini-disaster that struck the country’s second-biggest State. One blogger wrote philosophically: “Occasionally, something will happen in Texas to remind the people who live here that we live in a failed State.” A winter temperature 25°C colder than usual for the time of year is rare, but this is not the first time it has snowed in Texas. The electricity failed, triggering a cascade of other disasters, mainly because of a long-standing refusal to connect the State power grid with the two main national ones. (This was done to avoid federal supervision on prices and standards). Others have cold snaps too. Germany, Russia, Canada, even northern China get much colder than Texas, but they don’t end up freezing in the dark because they are prepared for it.
Texas could have been prepared for it, too, but somebody in power would have had to read science journals for that. Since they almost all got elected with donations from fossil fuel producers, that was never very likely. The “explainers” in the media talk about a rogue ‘Arctic vortex’, but what’s really happening is much simpler.
It’s just what global warming has done to the northern hemisphere’s ‘jet stream.’ The northern jet stream is a high-speed, high-altitude atmospheric “river” that flows from the West to the East all the way around the planet. It marks the boundary between the Polar air mass, sometimes called the ‘Polar Vortex’, and the warmer air masses of the mid-latitudes. East-bound airliners crossing the North Atlantic and the North Pacific often hitch a ride on the jet stream, saving up to an hour. The energy that drives the jet stream comes from the temperature difference between the two air masses it divides. However, the Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the world, so that difference is shrinking and, with less energy the jet stream is slowing down. It used to blast straight East but even then it occasionally developed long S-shaped kinks called ‘Rossby waves.’ These are big loops extending far North and South of its usual track. As it has slowed down (the average speed is now 150-225 kmph), the Rossby waves have grown more frequent and bigger. They are often now great loops deviating from the straight track and bring with them cold Polar air rarely seen so far South, or warm air not seen previously so far North. That’s what happened to Texas last week: One of those Rossby waves brought cold Arctic air all the way South. This pattern will recur and Texans will have to live with it.
Climate change doesn’t care whether you believe in it or not. And it may get worse. In June-July 2018 record-breaking heatwaves hit western US, Western Europe and the Caucasus-Caspian Sea region, while there was extreme rainfall and flash flooding on the US east coast, in eastern Europe and Japan. It was all happening in big Rossby loops that had taken over the jet stream. All the loops, containing hot dry air or cool moist air, were stuck for over two weeks. By last year, researchers had found that over the last 20 years the same pattern of seven stalled peaks and lows over the same regions has lasted seven times for more than two weeks. In the previous 20 years (1980-2000), that had not happened even once. This suggests that the pattern is getting stronger. And, since the latitudes where the loops are stalling include most of the major “breadbasket” regions of the northern hemisphere, the crop-killing droughts and heatwaves they bring could cause a big loss in world food production. It’s the unknowns that do the worst damage.
(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy and Work.’ The views expressed are personal.)
EV technology is the future of mobility but dithering Government measures mean that this amazing technology is still stuck in neutral
Rising fuel prices, a nascent electric vehicle (EV) support infrastructure and the recently-announced vehicle scrappage policy amid worrying pollution levels, are creating an unprecedented crisis of sorts for Indians as far as commuting is concerned. These conditions are exacerbated by a creaking public transport system that is bursting at the seams. The seemingly unstoppable rally of fuel price hikes is undoubtedly the most disturbing development so far for a nation that is battling a pandemic-induced economic downturn and dwindling income levels.
In view of a divided and weak Opposition, that repeatedly fails to take up key issues that affect the common man, the Government has mustered enough confidence to dish out 21 fuel hikes in the first two months of the new year, if media reports are to be believed. For many of us, the rise in pollution levels and fuel prices has come as an indication to shift towards EVs or public transport, but in these times of Coronavirus-induced social distancing, jostling in a crowded public conveyance does not seem to be a natural choice.
The finality of making an alternative choice for commuting has been further strengthened by the announcement of the vehicle scrappage policy which makes owning an old vehicle in Delhi-NCR impossible and very costly elsewhere in the country. Though this policy has delighted auto manufacturers as new vehicle demand is expected to soar, the citizens whose budgets have been severely hit by the pandemic may not share the same enthusiasm, as many of their perfectly maintained vehicles will end up in scrapyards. In the midst of this chaos, the EV industry is emerging as the apt solution for all the existent problems, but the Indian EV sector is anything but fully ready to meet the challenge.
The auto sector, which was experiencing a slowdown even before the virus’ outbreak, came to its knees as the full impact of the COVID-19 contagion was unleashed. The Union Budget addressed the sector’s concerns by focusing on reliefs such as tax holidays for EV startups. The setting aside of Rs 2,217 crore for ‘Clean Air’, for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population is also a good move that can spread awareness about the environmental benefits of EVs.
Similarly, the Government’s plan for strengthening the public transport sector under the Public–Private-Partnership model with an outlay of Rs 18,000 crore for operating 20,000 buses is encouraging for the EV industry.
The scheme can help fight air pollution effectively. But inexplicably, this is where the Government’s vision gets blurry as the Budget does not mention any EV-focused initiative or policy, including Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME).
Other expectations, including the ramping up of EV charging infrastructure, enablement of retail financing for EVs and moderation of the inverted Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure along with lowering of taxes on EV input components, including battery, were also not addressed.
The EV manufacturers were hopeful of a firmer policy commitment from the Government, especially in the duty structure pertaining to batteries. The Budget platform could have been used to fix the inverted duty structure for components such as batteries from 18 per cent to five per cent and for charging/swapping infrastructure services, too, from 18 per cent to five per cent. For instance, a lithium-ion battery fitted in an EV attracts 12 per cent GST but it is 18 per cent GST when sold separately. Correction of such issues would have lent enormous confidence to EV manufacturers and provided a much-needed push to the sector. Similarly, lowering of import duties on automotive parts instead of raising them would have had the same positive impact on the spirit of the industry, besides lowering the critical costs of production.
The absence of an aggressive push from the Government for the indigenous EV industry has raised concerns for its future. World leading EV manufacturers such as Tesla are already eyeing the huge potential of the Indian market. In fact, Tesla has already registered itself as an entity in India in Bengaluru, with the intention of manufacturing EV cars. Hyundai’s Kona and Morris Garages’ ZS EV, are already making inroads in the Indian market as we speak. With competition already getting hot, Indian EV manufacturers need more support from the Government in the form of sops, tax holidays for four-wheel EV makers, better GST structures and lower import duties besides robust financing options for the consumers. These measures combined with superior nation-wide charging infrastructure can render fossil fuel cars obsolete, paving the way for their phase-out.
EV technology is the future of mobility but dithering Government measures mean that this amazing technology is still stuck in neutral in the country.
The writer is an environmental journalist. The views expressed are personal.
While democracy is the most sought after means of governance, it becomes a farce when core values are compromised, like in the case of Myanmar
The long-awaited goal of democracy in Myanmar was achieved in 2011 after a five-decade struggle led by civil society, international actors and agencies against an autocratic military in the country. However, the recent coup d’état by the national Army has once again led Myanmar to uncertain times. The coup surprised the world and it shall be seen as the outcome of a compromised leadership by Aung San Suu Kyi. Despite registering a mammoth victory in the November 2020 elections, the Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) was accused by the Army and Opposition of poll irregularities, corruption and unethical means in “stealing” the victory; hence, the coup.
While the Union Election Commission has refuted all claims of poll irregularities by the NLD, it was in no way possible that the Army would not act to assert its political victory, considering an uneasy ride with the NLD Government in the last six years.
Amid mounting international pressure, the military junta was forced to pave the way for the entry of democratic forces in 2010. The political prisoners were released, including Suu Kyi, but the NLD boycotted the elections over alleged irregularities by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. However, over the next five years, the NLD gained popular support which was reflected in the 2015 general elections. The NLD won 168 of the 224 seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw (House of Nationalities), with 25 per cent seats going to the Army without any contest. It indicated more space for pro-democracy leadership and restoration of the multiparty parliamentary system. In 2011, President U Thein Sein had carried out significant political and economic reforms though these were in sync with the needs and demands of the military.
For the current fiasco, one needs to look at the 2008 Constitution of the Myanmar Army as one of the root causes. The Constitution had strengthened the Army’s role in the parliamentary system on the legal front. Considering the popularity of Suu Kyi in the new political order, the Army had especially added that a President should have a military background and none of his/her spouses be subjects of a foreign power or citizen of a foreign country to limit her chances of holding the President’s office as her two sons are British citizens. The Home and the Defence portfolios can be held only by the Army, and the 25 per cent reservation was to keep the military in full control. The emergency powers have further strengthened the Army’s position.
In the course of a popular public movement demanding to reinstate a democratic order, Suu Kyi’s rise became synonymous to democracy. Yet she failed to condemn and control the gross human rights violations of Rohingyas in the Rakhine State. The refugee Rohingyas moved en masse to neighbouring Bangladesh. While the world was looking at Suu Kyi to emerge as a messiah for ethnic Rohingyas, she chose to rescue her own party. More surprisingly, she was seen labelling Rohingyas as “illegal migrants” who were already tagged as “Islamic terrorists” by the Army. While Amnesty International stripped away her honours, there were calls to take back even the Nobel Peace Prize.
Suu Kyi may have been vocal for democracy in Myanmar but she failed to stand for it while in power. She condemned neither a State-sponsored ethnic cleansing by the Army nor the Buddhist lobby that was reportedly instrumental in the alleged brutalities. Therefore, while the world is condemning the coup, international actors are cautious in defending Suu Kyi. It is an open secret that the NLD co-existed with the Army, but the compulsions of democracy had kept them on different paths. In reality, the Generals never gave up on their political aspirations and failure through the electoral route made the coup evitable.
India has aired its voice in favour of democracy and normalcy in Myanmar. At the same time, New Delhi has opted not to slap any sanctions unlike the US, UK and the EU. As a champion of democracy, India’s appeal for its restoration remains the common element across the volatile political surfaces globally. It helps New Delhi to convey the message of peace and democracy more actively. India’s COVID-19 vaccine gift to Myanmar is proof of its commitment to peaceful humanitarian causes.
Meanwhile, as an important country in India’s Act East policy, New Delhi needs to look at the Myanmar border with utmost caution. India’s challenge will not be limited to tackling an increasing bonhomie between China and the Myanmar Army; the looming political crisis in Bangladesh will double India’s Eastern challenge.
The recent exposé — ‘All the Prime Minister’s Men’ by Al Jazeera, revealing an alleged criminal nexus between the Bangladesh Army chief, his brothers and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party — has caused an uproar. While the Bangladesh Government has backed the Army, the alleged claims in the exposé are of grave concerns. Therefore, the Act East policy needs to include emergency strategies of diplomatic, intelligence, security and political nature.
(The author is an ICSSR Doctoral Fellow at the JNU, New Delhi, and Senior Fellow at the AIDIA, Kathmandu. The views expressed are personal.)
Nepal’s top court revokes PM Oli’s Parliament dissolution decision, forcing him to face trust vote
In a major blow to Nepal’s Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli, their Supreme Court has ruled that the Himalayan nation’s Parliament, which was dissolved by Oli in December 2020, must be reconvened. The court has given Oli two weeks to reinstate the legislature, which was dissolved following protracted internal disputes within his ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). In what is being seen as a major slap on the wrist for Oli, the top court ruled that the PM had overstepped his powers and the dissolution of the House was an unconstitutional act. The apex court’s verdict means that Oli will face a no-confidence motion when the legislators reconvene because he had dissolved Parliament about two years before its mandated five-year term was to end, to head off a no-trust motion by the rival leaders in his party. Now that he has nowhere to hide, Nepal has been pushed into another round of political instability. As of now, all indications are that Oli will respect the court’s verdict and, if his advisors are to be believed, he won’t consider any undemocratic move like imposing an emergency. However, both India and China will be watching the developments very closely as Oli had been re-elected in 2017 on the promise of forging stronger ties with China, a promise he kept all too well! India, which was once viewed as “big brother” to the Himalayan nation, had to play second fiddle to China as Oli danced to the tunes of Beijing and Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi and initiated several major development projects as part of Chinese efforts to boost trade and transit links in the region.
Not only did this end India’s monopoly in Nepal, it also led to increased tension between the neighbours as Oli issued many unsavoury and unwarranted remarks against India. The relations soured further as Beijing’s influence in Nepal and its meddling in Oli’s party grew. The last straw was Nepal coming out with a new political map in May 2020 claiming several areas in Uttarakhand to be part of its territory. However, to India’s credit, it kept its cool with its long-time ally and made all-out efforts to mend fences. In the end, Oli did come around to better ties with India, particularly after it became clear to him that China was indifferent to his continuation in the Government if it helped avoid a split in the NCP. The shift in Oli’s approach could be attributed to an attempt to reclaim the nationalist agenda that was the mainstay of his campaign that resulted in the NCP’s win in 2018. That China lately appeared indifferent to his continuation in the Government is also believed to have contributed to Oli’s stand. Now India and China, both jockeying for influence in Nepal, will keep a sharp eye on the political developments there. Where India is concerned, a weak coalition Government could be more supportive of New Delhi than hawkish Oli, who is seen as more interested in remaining in power in whatever way he can.
COVID-19 cases on the rise again, many States make negative RT-PCR test mandatory
It’s happened so frequently in the recent history of public health in India that it’s almost become a case of “so near and yet so far”. Every time the authorities, the healthcare workers and the good Samaritans show due diligence and together bring COVID-19 cases under control, either a new strain is detected reaching our country or people — especially those living away from the metros and tier-I cities — ignore the standard protocols and become victims and carriers of the accursed virus. Now the latest news coming in is that the COVID-19 caseload across the country has shown a northward trend for the ninth successive day, crossing 13,000 on Tuesday, which is the longest such rolling average since infections peaked in September last year. In more worrying news, the Union Health Ministry has said that two new strains of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, have been detected in India. These new strains — N440K and E484K — have been detected in Kerala and Maharashtra. However, there is currently no evidence to show that the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in parts of these two States is due to these new variants.
Meanwhile, negative COVID-19 test report (negative RT-PCR test) has been made mandatory for entering several States: Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, J&K, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Ladakh and Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, with the recent spurt in Coronavirus cases in five States, Delhi will make it essential for those arriving from these States to carry a negative COVID test report. People travelling to Delhi from Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab by flights, trains or buses will have to show a negative RT-PCR test from Saturday till March 15. But all’s not bleak; there is some good news, too. The Union Cabinet has decided to provide the vaccines for free to certain sections, with Union Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeting that beginning March 1 “people over 60 years of age or over 45 with comorbidities will be able to get vaccinated at 10,000 Government facilities and many private hospitals”. As of last week, there has globally been a “strong decline” in Coronavirus infections in the US and the UK since January. Inversely, however, it is very likely that such reports are offering a false sense of security to people to take it easy, which shouldn’t be the case. If we let our guard down now, India with its population may find it nigh impossible to break free from the clutches of this virus. It’s now or never!
Naturopathy is a preventive model of holistic care that addresses the root cause of various diseases rather than merely treating the symptoms
In India, there are a little over one million allopathic doctors to treat a population of about 1.39 billion, with one State-run hospital for about 90,343 people and a single Government hospital bed for nearly 2,046 people. It depicts a grim scenario with an overburdened healthcare system.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been devastating for the already fragmented healthcare system. The outbreak clearly highlighted the lack of resources, facilities and infrastructure and so on. It showed that the Indian public healthcare system required an integrated approach which should be a combination of allopathic clinical or curative services and preventive services like naturopathy. This is because, an alternative system of medicine like naturopathy, with its preventive approach, can help reduce the burden of diseases and lessen the healthcare costs and the growing burden on healthcare facilities across the country.
According to a 2018 study published by ‘Lancet Global Health’, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are growing in India. The study mentions that from the year 1990 to 2016, ischemic heart disease and stroke made the largest contribution, that is 28.1 per cent of the total mortality rate in India, while chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma made the second-largest contribution to the total mortality burden in the nation, at 10·9 per cent.
Also, the ratio of cardiovascular diseases in causing deaths increased by 34·3 per cent from 1990 to 2016, the study revealed. These figures represent some of the world’s largest health losses, with enormous policy ramifications.
Furthermore, the lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure is a big problem for the healthcare system, resulting in overcrowding in hospitals. Many major metropolitan cities reported an alarming shortage of beds in hospital Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and general wards during the pandemic.
Despite the poor state of facilities and due to the difficulty in accessing them, out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure for healthcare in our country continues to be among the leading causes of poverty for many households. The British Medical Journal published a study in 2018 stating that 55 million Indians fell below the poverty line because of high OOP expenditure in 2011-2012. In a country with low per capita public spending on healthcare, a preventive method of treatment can certainly make a big difference in the lives of the citizens.
In such a situation, the big question is how can naturopathy help? Naturopathy is a preventive model of holistic care that addresses the root cause of various diseases rather than merely treating the symptoms.
Naturopathy is more integrated, where everything is taken into consideration, like the patient’s physical, mental, and emotional health and all the social and environmental factors. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), NCD’s result in the deaths of over 41 million people annually, with 15 million people dying between the ages of 30 and 69 years. With the increasing threat of NCDs, behavioural and lifestyle changes are reckoned as the way forward.
Naturopathy, with its holistic approach, educates and makes people more responsible for their health. The combination of yoga therapy and naturopathy can successfully treat patients and spread knowledge and awareness about health and disease among the public.
Unlike conventional medicine, the naturopathic treatment method usually involves diet therapy, lifestyle changes, yoga and various therapies that are often less expensive. Since naturopathy’s primary focus is to improve the body’s immunity system to boost physical and mental health, the need for expensive, repeated, and sometimes ineffective treatment is eliminated.
A major advantage of naturopathy is its ability to eliminate the associated healthcare costs that come with adverse reactions to prescription drugs. According to a Harvard University study published in 2014, about 3,28,000 patients in the US and Europe die from adverse reactions to prescription drugs each year.
The naturopathic treatment method uses therapies that are gentle, non-invasive, effective and do not have adverse side effects.
Often, economically vulnerable sections of the society fail to get the treatment they need from public health facilities as they are mostly overcrowded and understaffed. Even if they manage to get evaluated, it is cursory and incomplete on account of the time constraint under which most physicians operate. As a result, the health outcomes of the patients suffer. In such a scenario, naturopathy’s modality can be an immense support to the Government’s dream of universal health coverage, provided the standardisation of the practice happens soon.
The writer is Senior Chairman, Jindal Naturecure Institute. The views expressed are personal.
Those who were supposed to uphold the Constitution and protect people’s rights, have become subservient
On March 23 the German Parliament, the Reichstag, passed the Enabling Act (named euphemistically as ‘An Act to remedy the distress of the people and the State’), which enabled the German Government to issue decrees deviating from the Weimar Constitution and the law. Although no such Enabling Act has been passed formally in India, and specifically by our Parliament, yet an undeclared Enabling Act has been in operation for many years in our country. The Constitution, with its fundamental rights, including the rights of freedom of speech, liberty, equality, religious freedom, and so on, as well as the laws, are flouted openly and with impunity by various governments, the police and others, while those with authority, like the judiciary, the bureaucrats and the police top brass look the other way. For instance, people like Akhlaq Khan, Pehlu Khan, Tabrez Ansari and so on were lynched and atrocities were committed on people from the minority community with impunity. One Union Minister even garlanded the lynchers and there was a hue and cry over it in the media. Despite Article 25 of the Constitution which grants religious freedom and despite the criminal laws in India against murder and other atrocities, not much was done to those who flout the law.
In Delhi, many citizens were attacked and killed during the recent unrest over the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rally, with the police remaining silent spectators. Kafeel Khan, Safoora Zargar and others protesting against the CAA were arrested and kept in jail for long periods. In Uttarakhand, some legislators of the ruling party said during the COVID period that no one should buy vegetables and fruits from sellers of a particular community, which is a crime under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code.
Religious polarisation and incitement to hatred has risen on an exponential level in the nation yet, no action is taken against the perpetrators. Freedom of speech, “guaranteed” by Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution, has largely been suppressed by various means e.g. arresting and chargesheeting those who speak against the authorities. As regards freedom of the media, which too was “guaranteed” by the Constitution, it too has been largely suppressed, by arrests or intimidation of journalists who are perceived as being anti-establishment and encouragement to the “godi media.”
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees individual liberty. But despite this provision, liberty exists largely on paper as the arrest and long detention of social activists like the Bhima Koregaon accused, the protestors against the CAA, the Kashmiri leaders after revocation of Article 370, and those who speak against the establishment shows. During the ongoing farmers’ agitation the farmers were attacked with water cannons, batons and tear gas, though they were only exercising their Constitutional right of peaceful assembly and demonstration which all democracies enjoy. How is it that the authorities can so brazenly and flagrantly flout the Constitution and the country’s laws? It is because those who were supposed to uphold the Constitution and the laws, and protect the rights of the people, have largely become accomplices and subservient to the establishment, although they were meant to be independent and neutral. An Enabling Act is in full force in India, even if covertly.
(The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. The views expressed are personal.)
It is high time that policymakers critically observe the amendment in the fee structure of India’s premier management institutions of national interest
Unlike other nations, education in India is considered a costly affair. Historically, Government spending in education has been low, with less than four per cent of the GDP spent per annum. This lack of budgetary support coupled with an increasing population has resulted in the cost of education becoming inflated in the country. However, in India, where a majority of the population finds it hard to make ends meet, parents and students consider a good education from a reputed institute a dream worth chasing. Inevitably, a good education, be it primary, secondary, higher or professional, has made its place in the list of fundamental needs of individuals. Considering this, the Government has, time and again, intervened to regulate and formulate policies for promoting quality education across the country.
Timely financial support and policy measures become enablers for not only educational institutions but students, too. They collectively promote quality education in order to deliver a skilled human capital that, in turn, takes the economy on a higher and sustainable growth trajectory. Of late, there have been a slew of reforms in higher and professional education, which institutions have responded to in different ways. This article examines one such reform, its consequences and impact on the country’s education scene.
The concept of Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) was initiated by Jawaharlal Nehru on the recommendation of the Planning Commission in 1960. Subsequently, IIM-Calcutta and IIM-Ahmedabad were established in 1961 with the support of the Ford Foundation, India Inc. and the Harvard Business School. This followed the emergence of other IIMs, and today there are 20 in number, including six legacy IIMs and 14 new ones set up after 2007.
The establishment of IIMs aimed to produce a skilled workforce equipped with managerial and decision-making skills required for growing industrialisation in the country. The need for such managerial skills was felt, especially post-1991, when investment and privatisation buttressed the emergence of corporate giants in the liberalised Indian economy. Given their role in nation-building, IIMs were declared “institutions of national importance” by the Ministry of Education after the passage of the IIM Act, 2017. The Act also awarded autonomy to the IIMs for fee regulations apart from selection and removal of the chairperson and director, student intake and institute expansion. The Government and bureaucracy cannot intervene in the day-to-day and strategic operations of IIMs.
Exercising this autonomy last year, about half of the IIMs increased their already exorbitant fees for the two-year full-time MBA course. This included IIMs from Lucknow, Calcutta, Bangalore, Jammu, Tiruchirappalli, Sirmaur, Nagpur, Udaipur and Rohtak. The fees increase ranged between three per cent (Rohtak) and 36 per cent (Lucknow), averaging at 13 per cent. There already exists a difference in the fee structure of old and new IIMs, which was further widened by the current hike. With the fee hike in 2020 for the academic year 2020-2022, the average fee in old IIMs is Rs 20.7 lakh, whereas that in new IIMs is Rs 13.7 lakh. The managements of these premier institutions attribute this hike to inflation and the associated cost of faculty and infrastructure. However, as such, no quantitative assessment is provided to justify this argument. Lack of accountability due to the absence of Government intervention leads to more questions than answers.
On the other hand, the management institutions under the ambit of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), are restricted from increasing their fees. In its notification dated May 1, 2020, the AICTE had asked the B-schools offering AICTE-approved Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) programmes not to increase either admission or tuition fee for the academic session 2020-21 for existing as well as new students. These two contrasting stories — fee hike in unregulated IIMs and no fee hike in regulated institutions — make one think. Did autonomy play a significant role in incentivising the IIMs to hike fees?
Fee hike in premier management institutions becomes a hurdle for eligible aspirants to acquire managerial skills. This problem was aggravated by the fee hike coinciding with the economic recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. When the contagion has taken a toll on lives, livelihoods and incomes, an increase in management education fees has made it impossible for most aspirants to achieve their dream of studying at these premier institutions. Collectively, the current scenario compromises the very fundamental objective of education in the nation that aims to provide affordable education to the prospective and existing workforce in nation-building.
It is well-known that premier management institutions invite heavyweight offer letters from corporate giants. These huge placement packages are the primary catalyst for fierce competition among management study aspirants and even professionals to get into premier IIMs. The bigger the package offered for a particular IIM, the fiercer the competition to get into the institute. Does this higher demand for a particular IIM translate into higher fee following the fundamental principles of economics?
In other words, it was worth investigating the relationship between placement packages from India Inc. and the fees of IIMs. To this end, we collated the average package and fees of all 20 IIMs for 2020 and performed a linear regression analysis due to which we discovered a significant cyclical relationship between an IIM’s fees and the packages offered during placements. This implied that an IIM attracting a higher salary with a lucrative job opportunity was likely to charge more than other IIMs.
In the empirical analysis, top IIMs (as per the National Institutional Ranking Framework) like IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore and IIM Calcutta attract extremely high packages (average Rs 26.8 lakh per annum) and they charge inordinately high fees (average Rs 23 lakh) as compared to other IIMs, particularly the new ones.
This resembles the typical pricing structure of a market commodity wherein the supply-demand dynamic in the market decides the product price. Education is not a market commodity meant to meet an individual’s demand. Therefore, it cannot be left unregulated, especially in terms of pricing or fees structure. Education serves a larger purpose of social uplift and nation-building by generating a well-trained and equipped human capital.
An inflated fee in premier management institutions leaves most eligible aspirants with the only option of an education loan to fund their dreams. An education loan poses a demonic challenge of repayment. This burden is carried by the students during the course of their study and afterwards too. The managerially-trained brains coming out with the burden of liabilities experience constrained freedom and lack of creative thinking. This thwarts productivity and overall value addition to the economy. It is high time that policymakers critically observe the amendment in the fee structure of India’s premier management institutions of national interest. Policymakers must curtail unregulated fee hike in premier institutions, keeping in mind the following question: How can the objective of strengthening the human capital with managerial skills and its affordability marry each other?
Soni and Kalyanasundaram are senior research fellows at the Department of Management Studies of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The views expressed are personal.
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