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8 EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2018
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The Hadiya caution sionmaking to fester for far longer than it should have. Indeed, the entire case from its inception had been marked by a sense of tragedy. The tale it tells is depressing: that the courts, designed under our de mocratic scheme to act as a bas tion of fundamental rights, are just as capable as the other wings of government in enforcing the most wrenching forms of paternalism. It was in January 2016 when Mr. Asokan first approached the Kera la High Court. His grievance was that his daughter, who was born a Hindu, with the given name Akhi la, and who had later converted to Islam, taking the name Hadiya, was being illegally detained against her wishes. But the court initially rejected these claims. Ms. Hadiya, it held, was staying at a hostel run by the “Markazul Hi daya Sathyasarani Educational & Charitable Trust” entirely of her own volition. However, in August that year, Mr. Asokan once again went to the High Court, this time on an appa rent apprehension that Ms. Hadiya was likely to be “transported out of the country”. When the petition was still being heard, in Decem ber, she married Shafin Jahan. Just months later though, on May 24, 2017, the High Court granted Mr. Asokan her custody, and, what’s more, annulled her marriage with Mr. Jahan altogether. At play here was an inexplicable show of moralism. “A girl aged 24 years is weak and vulnerable, cap able of being exploited in many ways,” the Bench wrote. “This Court exercising parens patriae ju risdiction is concerned with the welfare of a girl of her age. The du ty cast on this Court to ensure the safety of at least the girls who are brought before it can be dis charged only by ensuring that Ms. Akhila is in safe hands.” Even intuitively there are two clear problems with this judg
Under scrutiny
T
here is little surprise in the Law Commission of India recommendation that the Board of Control for Cricket in India be brought under the purview of the Right to Information Act. Over the years, the pop ular expectation that India’s cashrich and commercial ly successful apex cricket body will have to make itself more transparent and accountable has been rising. While the BCCI is a private body that needs no financial help from the government, it is being increasingly re cognised that it performs significant public functions. Even though a fivejudge Bench of the Supreme Court in 2005 held by a 32 majority that the BCCI could not be termed an instrumentality of the ‘State’ under Article 12 of the Constitution, subsequent developments have en sured that the public character of its functioning is widely recognised. In recent years, especially against the backdrop of the betting scandal that hit the Indian Premier League tournament a few years ago, the view that the cricket board is functioning in an opaque man ner and not entirely in the game’s interest has gained ground. The Supreme Court’s intervention led to the constitution of the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee, which recommended sweeping reforms in the board’s structure and the rules governing its administration. Many believe that implementing these reforms at both national and State levels would impart greater transpa rency in its functioning and lead to an overhaul of crick et administration in the country. The apex court also reaffirmed the public character of the BCCI’s functions. The Lodha Committee recommended that the board be treated as a public authority under the RTI Act, and the Supreme Court wanted the Law Commission to exa mine this suggestion. The Central Information Commis sion favoured the idea. The Union government has on different occasions maintained that the BCCI is a ‘na tional sports federation’ and, therefore, an entity that falls under the RTI Act’s ambit. However, the BCCI is not one of the national federations listed on the website of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Summing up its reasoning, the Law Commission has taken into ac count “the monopolistic nature of the power exercised by BCCI, the de facto recognition afforded by the Go vernment, the impact of the Board’s actions/decisions on the fundamental rights of the players, umpires and the citizenry in general” to argue that the BCCI’s func tions are public in nature. The board gets no financial help directly, but the commission has argued that the tax and duty exemptions and land concessions it got would amount to indirect financing by the state. A rele vant question may be whether its autonomy would suff er as a result of being brought under the RTI. It is un likely: other national federations are under the RTI and there is no reason to believe it would be any different for the BCCI. In fact, as a complement to the structural revamp, it may redound to the game’s interest.
Defensive shuffle On Kathua, the BJP is presenting one narrative to Jammu, another to the rest of India
I
n its reaction to the rape and murder of an eight yearold girl in Kathua, the BJP seems motivated by a need to strike a balance between protecting its polit ical constituency in Jammu and addressing the public outrage countrywide. Two of its Ministers in the Meh booba Mufti government — Lal Singh and Chander Pra kash Ganga — had participated in a rally organised by the Hindu Ekta Manch in support of the accused in the case, but the BJP was slow to act against them. Under pressure from Ms. Mufti, they were asked to submit their resignations, but the BJP made it seem to be part of a larger exercise of a shuffle in the Cabinet. Even when their continuance in the Cabinet became untena ble, the BJP was intent on protecting the two from any shadow of guilt. Soon after the two Ministers handed in their resignations, the party asked all its nine Ministers to step down, apparently to bring in new faces. Clearly, the BJP is hoping to present one narrative to the Jammu region, and quite another to Kashmir and the rest of In dia. While promising justice to the rape victims, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had nothing to say about his own party’s attempts to obstruct the course of justice in Kathua. The resignations ensured the continuance of the government, but the episode has cast harsh, unflat tering light on the utter incongruity of the alliance. Neither the Peoples Democratic Party nor the BJP wants to end their coalition over this issue; however, the two parties serve very different political constituen cies, both demographically and geographically. What brought them together was not some shared political objectives, but the PDP’s interest in keeping the Nation al Conference out, and the BJP’s in keeping the Con gress out. The alliance was born of shortterm electoral expediency rather than any longterm political strategy. After the death of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in January 2016, the alliance came under new strains with Ms. Mufti attempting to adopt a more independent line, one that was in consonance with feedback from the cadre. But just as the two parties cannot fight the elections on the same electoral plank, they cannot afford to let go of their stakes in this government, for fear of conceding political space to their principal rivals. Closer to the next Assembly election in 2020, the alliance is likely to come under greater strain as the benefits of continuing in government will be outweighed by the risks of ap proaching an election together. Another similarly con tentious issue closer to 2020 might not see the PDP and the BJP so eager to reach a compromise. CM YK
Suhrith Parthasarathy
O
ne of the sorriest episodes in India’s judicial history was finally brought to an end in March with the Supreme Court judgment in Shafin Jahan v. Asokan K.M., or the Hadiya case as we’ve come to know it. Through two separate but concurring opi nions, one written by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, for him self and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, and the other by Justice D.Y. Chan drachud, the court has reversed a most reprehensible ruling by the Kerala High Court. Yet, a collective reading of these opinions, re leased in a detailed order last week, tells us only a part of the story. The judgment aims to speak in stirring language. It focuses atten tion on the centrality of individual freedom and autonomy under In dia’s constitutional scheme. “It is obligatory to state here that ex pression of choice in accord with law is acceptance of individual identity,” the CJI writes, in his cha racteristically fustian style. “Cur tailment of that expression and the ultimate action emanating the refrom on the conceptual structu ralism of obeisance to the societal will destroy the individualistic en tity of a person. The social values and morals have their space but they are not above the constitu tionally guaranteed freedom.” No apology But this bombast veils the Su preme Court’s own conduct in the case. The opinions do not offer anything resembling an apology for the court having allowed a sav agely degrading process of deci
ment: one, Ms. Hadiya wasn’t a girl, but was an adult woman mak ing her own choices on how she wanted to lead her life; two, Kera la, unlike some other States that have dangerously draconian anti conversion laws, does not prevent an adult from converting to a diffe rent religion, or from marrying a person of different faith. A slow process Astoundingly, though, when Mr. Jahan approached the Supreme Court against this verdict, the court didn’t quite deem it neces sary to grant Ms. Hadiya the bare dignity of a hearing, to ask her what she might have wanted. To the Supreme Court, much like it was to the Kerala High Court, she was only a girl; she simply couldn’t be trusted to do the right thing. When the appeal first came up for hearing, the court also didn’t so much as venture to wonder how the Kerala High Court could get things so badly wrong, how it could have annulled a marriage in a proceeding for habeas corpus. It should have been obvious to the court that when judges introduce their own set of restrictions on li berty, not only do they impinge on principles of separation of powers, but they also violate their pledge to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution. Instead, the Supreme Court Bench, presided at the time by CJI
J.S. Khehar, unleashed the might of the National Investigation Agen cy (NIA) on the parties, directing the authority to probe into the case. The order, though, was silent on what the scope of this inquiry might be, in the process effectively granting the NIA a carte blanche, allowing it to wander where it pleased, well beyond its statutory limitations. Eventually, it was only in late October last year — when the bench was headed by Chief Justice Misra — that the court finally called for a hearing from Ms. Hadiya. When it listened to her, it became clear to the court that she’d made her own choices, making the judg ment that has now followed essen tially unexceptionable. After all, it oughtn’t to have required much in the way of analysis to see that the Kerala High Court’s verdict was not only flawed, but that it had re sulted in a flagrant miscarriage of justice. Reaffirming principles Habeas corpus has its origins in British common law, predating even Magna Carta. The idea be hind the writ is to direct a detai nee’s presence in court so as to help the court understand if there was any legal justification for the person’s imprisonment. The court’s role, therefore, when a pe tition for habeas corpus is filed is narrow. It is only, as Chief Justice Misra writes, “to see that the dete nue is produced before it, find out about his/her independent choice and see to it that the person is re leased from illegal restraint.” When exercising this power, the court, the CJI holds, has to remem ber that an individual’s decisions must be respected. If it becomes clear that a person isn’t being held against her wishes, “the enquiry and determination have to come to an end.” But as routine as this verdict has
ultimately proved to be, perhaps given the times that we live in, it was important that the court reaf firmed certain principles that lie at the heart of the Constitution: that, for instance, an adult person, pos sessing the ability to act out of her own will, should be allowed res ponsibility for her own life. After all, the Constitution affords pro tection to individual autonomy, to the intimate decisions that a per son might make, whether they re late to speech, sex, marriage, pro creation or religion. The state, which includes the judiciary, can not interfere in these matters of personal foundation in a bid to en force a collective ethical judg ment. Individuals must be left to decide for themselves how they each want to lead their lives. A judge’s holy writ cannot be used as a means to finagle the imposition of a coercive and majoritarian vision. Or, as Justice Chandrachud puts it: “In deciding whether Shafin Ja han is a fit person for Hadiya to marry, the High Court has entered into prohibited terrain. Our choic es are respected because they are ours. Social approval for intimate personal decisions is not the basis for recognising them. Indeed, the Constitution protects personal li berty from disapproving audiences.” These words, read in isolation, are no doubt rousing. But ulti mately this was a case of the Su preme Court correcting errors of the judiciary’s own making. The lessons to take away from it are many. Foremost among them is this: we must recognise that our courts too can be propelled by im pulses entirely opposed to the Constitution, that the glory of jud icial review, prized by us all, stands on fragile ground. Suhrith Parthasarathy is an advocate practising at the Madras High Court
Marginalised from school The Centre must review the implementation of the Right to Education Act across the country langana) have not even issued not ifications regarding admissions under the RTE. As readers will re call, Section 12(1)(c) of the Act mandates private unaided schools to reserve 25% of seats for children from economically weaker sec tions (EWS), in the age bracket of six to 14 years. This enabled eco nomically marginalised communi ties to access high quality private schools, at the expense of the State. While Telangana may be ex cused due to its recent formation, it is unjustifiable that the other States have failed to undertake the most basic steps to implement Sec tion 12(1)(c) of an Act passed eight years ago. States have to notify perchild costs to pay the private schools, on behalf of the children admitted un der this provision. However, out of 29 States and seven Union Territo ries, only 14 have notified their perchild costs. The provision does not apply to Jammu and Kashmir and there are no private schools in Lakshadweep; there fore, as per the data provided, a shocking 20 States/UTs have still not notified the perchild costs, a blatant violation of the letter and spirit of the RTE. It is also shocking to note that in 201718, of the 15 States which sub mitted their reimbursement claims to the Central government, only six were approved. Many of the claims of the States were not
Shashi Tharoor
A
lthough the recent Budget session of Parliament was appallingly disrupted by the ruling party’s surrogates and Question Hour did not function most of the time, some things did work, almost on autopilot. Written questions submitted by MPs were indeed answered in writing – I got 26 of my questions admitted and answered — and while the more prestigious “starred questions” could not get asked, these “un starred” ones have given us an in structive insight into some crucial aspects of government policy. On education My questions to the Minister of Hu man Resource Development in the Lok Sabha on the implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE), almost a decade after its enactment, are a case in point. The answers I received are alarm ing, and definitely warrant an emergency review of the imple mentation of the Act. It emerges from the Minister’s replies to me that five States (Goa, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Te
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Loya case The Supreme Court ruling on CBI judge B.H. Loya’s death is a victory for the BJP and its president Amit Shah (”SC throws out pleas for probe, rules Judge Loya died of natural causes”, April 19, online edition). The ruling will also discourage frivolous PILs from now on.
This ruling does not explain why Judge Loya’s family had said he had been offered a bribe of ₹100 crore, why there were unexplained injuries on his body, and why all the data were erased from his phone when the instrument was returned to his family three days after his death, according to reports. Given
provided funds by the Centre, as they had not notified the perchild costs. In response to my query re garding the number of children admitted, per State, under the Sec tion 12(1)(c) in the last three years, 18 States have claimed that the question is not applicable to them, without giving any reason for this response. This could mean that in 18 States, poor children are not even benefiting under this Act. If there are no data to record the number of students being admit ted, it begs the question as to how States are reimbursing private schools. The respective State go vernments and the Centre should clarify this specific point. Many gaps to fill According to Indus Action, an or ganisation which works in 10 States specifically on this provi sion, while there are higher order issues like the methodology used by States to calculate the perchild
cost and lack of coverage of ancil lary costs in the reimbursements, the absence of a streamlined dis bursement framework both at the Central and State levels is one of the biggest reasons that reimbur sements are not processed. If the States are not provided sufficient funds, private schools would be forced to bear the costs of the chil dren. Civil society activists have in formed me of instances of schools refusing to admit children under the RTE provision, citing nonpay ment of dues by State governments. The data regarding the number of children admitted under Sec tion 12(1)(c) of the Act, in States which provided the figures, are al so distressing. The number of chil dren studying under this provision increased by 6,12,053 from 2014 2015 to 201516, but by 5,02,880 from 201516 to 201617. The State of the Nation 2015 report by IIM Ahmedabad, based on official data obtained from the District Infor mation System for Education, puts the total number of seats under this provision as 1.6 crore over the next eight years. This means that 20 lakh seats should be available annually for EWS children in priv ate schools under the Act; howev er, according to the answer of the Minister, only 56 lakh seats are be ing filled on an annual basis. The Preamble to the Constitu tion states that the democratic Re
public of India shall secure social, economic and political justice. Education is undoubtedly the most important element in the movement to secure this end. Although the Directive Principles of State Policy mandate the state to provide children the right to ac cess education, and the 86th con stitutional amendment and the RTE dictate its implementation, it will only be fulfilled if sincere ef forts are made by the States under the guidance and prodding of a committed Centre. The executive is responsible for the implementation of RTE and the legislature has the duty to hold the executive accountable. Neither – judging by the evidence – has done its job properly. As the malaise regarding the nonimplementation of the RTE is spread across the country, the Central government should imme diately convene a meeting with all the State education ministers and review the implementation of the law. The RTE aimed to provide a framework for private schools to supplement the efforts of the state to uplift disadvantaged sections of society through the means of edu cation. We need to act immediate ly to address the gaps in the imple mentation of the law. The future of our children depends on it. Shashi Tharoor belongs to the Congress party and is a member of the Lok Sabha
Letters emailed to
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the unexpected acquittal of all the accused in the Mecca Masjid case, which casts aspersions on the neutrality of the justice delivery system, the dismissal of pleas by the court in the Loya case could be seen by some as reluctance to bring out the truth. C. Chandrasekran, Madurai
B. Veerakumaran, Thiruvananthapuram
GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK PHOTO
The proposal to bring the BCCI under the RTI reflects rising public expectation
E.LAKSHMI NARAYANAN
The case showed us how courts too can be propelled by impulses entirely opposed to the Constitution
Even though this has brought closure to the issue, the controversy is not likely to die down any time soon, especially as this was the case that caused four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court to hold an unprecedented press conference on this and other issues. e must accept the highest court’s verdict, but one still wonders why the Maharashtra
government opposed pleas seeking an independent investigation into Judge Loya’s death if the death was only natural, as claimed.
societal problem, the President has failed to take this opportunity to point out how law and order needs to be improved across States.
S.K. Choudhury,
J. Eden Alexander,
Bengaluru
Thanjavur
Condemning rape The President’s belated condemnation of the Kathua rape as “barbaric” speaks volumes about the gravity of the offence (“Kathua incident barbaric: Kovind”, April 19). As President, Ram Nath Kovind ought to have passed strictures on the Central and State governments which allow such heinous acts to go on all the time despite huge amounts being spent on lawenforcement agencies. By only speaking of this as a
Faith in the judiciary The editorial “A credibility crisis” (April 19), which states that the National Investigation Agency did a poor job of handling the case, reminds me of one of India’s most eminent judges, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer. Justice Iyer was the vacation judge in the Supreme Court when he got a call from the then Union Law Minister, H.R. Gokhale, who was also a close friend. The Minister wanted to visit Justice Iyer regarding the verdict in the Indira Gandhi
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case. Justice Iyer refused to meet him and advised him to file an appeal and seek an early hearing. At a time when one is losing faith in the judiciary, with the NIA judge resigning after his judgment, one wishes we had more people like Justice Krishna Iyer around. Shefa Rafi, Coimbatore
Avoid plastic It is too early to call the discoveries of plasticeating enzymes as big victories. One can’t help but feel cynical about all this, given how plastic pollution remains the same despite earlier discoveries of this nature (“Researchers engineer plasticeating enzyme”, April 17). For instance, in 2014, there was a report that three strains
of bacteria that can degrade plastic materials such as polythene had been discovered on the coast of Gujarat. Then, in 2016, a group of Japanese scientists said that bacteria called Ideonella sakaiensis could eat plastic bottles. These discoveries were heartening, but they haven’t been put to use yet and it may be long before they are put to use. The solution is not to keep waiting for discoveries which will give us an excuse to keep using plastic, but to avoid using plastic and instead adopt biodegradable alternatives. But being consumerist, we are unable to do so. C.V. Krishna Manoj, Hyderabad
more letters online: www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/
A ND-NDE
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THE HINDU
OPED 9
NOIDA/DELHI
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2018
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YES, NO, IT’S COMPLICATED
Should military spending be increased? India risks its national security with low allocations to defence spending
YES
Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd.) was military secretary of the Indian Army
For a developing country that is committed to enhancing the quali ty of life of its citizens, defence is usually the last thing on the nation’s mind. Yet, no government that is committed to such a cause can ig nore the existing physical and psychological security threats. These threats are more than just or dinary in India, a country located in a dangerous neighbourhood and facing both internal and external threats. Comprehensive national security helps a nation attain its as pirations, and robust security is a subset of that. India has a robust
military machine. However, the lack of a national security strategy, a national strategic culture and a transformational approach towards its military capability prevent it from obtaining optimum benefit from its defence expenditure. Resource allotment The defence budget is increasingly looked at as a means to provide in cremental resources to other sec tors, since procedural delays pre vent its optimum and timely expenditure. Does this mean that the resource allotment is sufficient
A budget reduction will jolt the military out of its sense of entitlement and intellectual laziness
NO
Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is a senior fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies
IT'S COMPLICATED
Lt. General Deependra Singh Hooda (retd.) is a former General Officer Commanding inChief of the Indian Army’s Northern Command
The West’s “alarm” over emerging Chinese and Russian systems is pure drama for the sake of getting bigger budgets. The reality is that the U.S. with over 325 million peo ple and a per capita GDP of more than $57,000, and Europe with ov er 510 million people and a per cap ita GDP of $436,000, are a bigger pool of scientifically trained talent at much higher levels of human va lue addition than China and Russia combined. They also produce far superior technology. While the ma nufacturing age required strong
centralised governments, the infor mation age requires heavy decen tralisation and personal freedoms. This is why Russian and Chinese weapons remain kineticindustrial showpieces, not the heavy informa tion agedriven force multipliers. A fossilised mindset Once denied access to such equip ment, India now has virtually unfet tered access to this market and can achieve a lot more spread over few er systems, which significantly re duced life cycle and maintenance
Funds appear necessary, but the military first needs to review its organisational philosophy The issue of military spending in In dia has been the subject of much debate ever since the announce ment of the smallest allocation since 1962 to defence in terms of GDP. The Army’s frustration was apparent in the Vice Chief of Army Staff ’s remarks to the Parliamen tary Panel on Defence that the “budget has dashed our hopes” and that modernisation will be se riously impacted. Two arguments India faces serious external and in ternal security challenges. Insur
gencies in the Northeast and Kash mir continue to tie down a large number of Army units. Hostility with Pakistan has sharpened, and in the absence of diplomacy, there is talk of greater reliance on the mil itary option to deter the Pakistan Army from continuing support to terror activities. The first step in China’s rise as a global power is the achievement of regional hegemony in Asia. The ma nifestation of this is already visible and this will lead to a heightened strategic competition between In dia and China. In the absence of
for India’s defence spending and only mis management is respon sible for the lack of opti misation? Far from it. In February, the Ar my transparently de posed before the Parlia mentary Standing Committee on Defence and stated two pertinent things: one, 68% of its equipment was in the vintage category, and two, with the new budget allocation of 1.47% of GDP, the sustenance of at least 24 capital projects is in jeo pardy. The Army received ₹268.2 billion for modernisation as against its demand for ₹445.7 billion. With the Doklam crisis and the necessity of mobilising the Siliguribased
Corps, along with other priority resources from many other sectors to make up existing defi ciencies and optimise the Corps’ capability, the Ar my expended almost its entire allocation of the transportation budget. In January, it had no money to even hire vehi cles. The revenue budget amounts to a little over 80%, leaving little for capital expenditure through which modernisation is to be executed. Drawdown of a manpowerinten sive Army that consumes the reve nue cannot be done overnight. Thus, even as this drawdown is se riously executed, we cannot allow modernisation to languish.
Military security involves the de velopment of such capability to de ter potential adversaries from un dertaking inimical activities that may result in forms of adventurism or even proxy interference in a na tion’s affairs. The result may never translate into immediate tangible gains. Since understanding of na tional security at the bureaucratic and decisionmaking levels remains abysmal, the focus on modernisa tion has suffered. With huge bu reaucratic controls, and a Defence Ministry with no military presence, the comprehension of priorities it self remains suspect. This can only be overcome if decisions are timely and procedures for acquisition are fasttracked. Also, financial support
should be sufficient with systems which do not call for a lapse of fi nancial resources, once allotted. Without higher allocation, the armed forces may be unable to reach even the first level of transfor mation they seek.
costs. Sadly, India still procures based on out dated preinformation age, kinetic paradigms, which means that it will always attempt to em phasise quantity over quality and fail misera bly on both counts. In short, it is not obsolete equipment that is the problem, it is a fossilised mindset. One of the ways the West forced its militaries to break this ossifica tion was by imposing vicious bud get cuts that forced the military to shed flab and impose fiscal and planning discipline. This produced remarkable achievements. For ex ample, Sweden, with a paltry bud
get of $6 billion per year, feels confident enough to stare down Russia which spends $70 billion a year on defence and whose navy regularly sinks U.S. aircraft carriers during war games. India’s mix andmatch procurement was smart when it was a poor, disliked and heavily sanctioned country. In the information age, though, this stra tegy is a disaster, imposing heavy logistical and training duplication/ wastage, while vastly reducing the efficiency of equipment. In simple terms, think how well an iPhone, an iPad, and an iMac in teract with each other. In fact, an
iPad interaction with android, though passable, will be subopti mal but well. Now try mating an iPhone with the Chinese and Rus sian native software developed for their domestic markets and you have a disaster. This doesn’t take in to account the enormous wastage in the military on running officers messes, golf courses, abusing the sahayak system, etc. These make the military twothree times more expensive to run, and reduce its ef fectiveness by 6080%. An independent think weapon However, what we need to under stand is that exploiting Western technology needs highly trained in
dividuals, basic human value addi tion. You cannot have cannon fod der (which is what Indian soldiers are), conditioned to die without us ing high technology that enables each of them to become an inde pendent, think weapon. Smart mil itaries require smart people to run smart equipment. India needs to in vest more heavily in fewer soldiers — not in movingtalking target prac tice dummies. If India rationalises its suppliers, thinking, and human resources, it can achieve a lot more in the resources provided. Howev er, a budget reduction will be an im portant first step into jolting the military out of its sense of entitle ment and intellectual laziness.
strong Indian military power, this competition will be a no contest. Therefore, there is no option but to enhance the defence budget, say many experts. Others argue that In dia has the fifth largest defence budget in the world and any in crease will only come at great cost to an already stressed population. Both sides have merit in their ar guments but what is clear is that there is a complete mismatch bet ween budget allocation and the ex isting structure of the military. If this continues, it will lead to a debil itated military – oversized, poorly equipped and lacking the infras
tructure for effective ap plication of power. If we are to avoid this state, both the government and the military have to play their part.
counter these challenges. This plan will include the future require ments of weapon systems as well as infrastructure. The allocation of funds to the military, whatever the percentage of GDP, must be based on this plan and not the current ad hoc yearly allocations. The military also needs to look at its organisational structures. The focus must shift from quantity to quality and capability. It is estimat ed that in World War II, it took 108 aircraft to destroy a single target. In the 2001 campaign in Afghanistan, 38 aircraft were able to hit 159 tar gets on the first night of bombing. There is a similar exponential tech nology change in the equipment of the Army and the Navy. Yet we in
sist on replacing one MiG21 with one Rafale, one 105mm artillery gun firing a 17 kg shell with one 155 mm gun firing a 45 kg shell. The military is in danger of be coming a technologically second rate force with no focus on robot ics, unmanned systems, Artificial Intelligence, etc. There is no organ isation within the military to tackle cyber threats. It is worrying that 68% of the Army’s equipment is vintage, but perhaps this also pro vides an opportunity to invest in new technology and ideas. Infusion of additional funds appears neces sary, but this will have little impact unless the military reviews its or ganisational philosophy to empha sise capability over numbers.
Challenges The nature of civilmilitary rela tions in India has resulted in an ab sence of regular consultations on strategic matters. Despite serious shortfalls in the military, political leaders brush aside concerns with remarks like “resources are adeq uate”. The government must squarely address this issue by con ducting a comprehensive national security review to understand threats and then prepare a plan to
Managing expenditure Not just higher allocation, manage ment of expenditure also needs a complete revamp. Amid the focus on prevention of potential corrup tion, the larger picture of timely and optimum capability develop ment has been ignored. Arguably, limited leakages could still be ac ceptable if timeliness of delivery is achieved even as more efficient procedures are implemented.
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Musician and intellectual
FIFTY YEARS AGO APRIL 20, 1968
Rioting & arson in Mangalore
Indian classical music can be a spiritual experience but there is also a tradition of thought and artistic pursuit
Twentyeight persons including a SubInspector and seven pol icemen were injured in a clash between two groups in Kudroli area of Mangalore town this morning [April 19]. The clash, it is stated, is a sequel to a petty quarrel between two persons be longing to two communities a few days back. Police made re peated lathicharges and fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd which indulged in throwing stones and brickbats. Four buildings, a mosque, a fuel depot, and a provision store in the area were set on fire by the crowd. A car and a few cycles were also set ablaze. The Taluk Magistrate has promulgated prohib itory orders under Section 144 Cr.P.C. in the area for a week. Mobile police are patrolling the area. Besides, police pickets have been posted at different points.
Kunal Ray
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Recently, a revered practitioner and guru of Indian classical music said that all such music is spiritual or en meshed in spirituality. His comment left me baffled and mildly irritated. But of course, he is not the first to make such a proclamation. While the need for musicians to embrace spirituality is unknown to me, it seems an easy es cape route lest they be required to discuss performance, composition and musical philosophy. The myth of spiritual ity impedes conversations about form, origin and the pre sentation of performance. This creates a pliant audience that is expected to feel devotion and merely receive and exit rather than question their experience. The performance be comes a blindfold, not an enabling experience for the au dience. The listening to and reception of this music could be a spiritual experience for some but Indian classical music is an evolved form of artistry. This evolution is largely credited to several practitioners and their significant interventions which demonstrate a tradition of thought and artistic pursuit. The term ‘soch’ is thrown around in discussions on Indian classical music. If soch is a critical element of classical mus ic, how could it be devoid of intellect? The same raga after all has been rendered differently by musicians hailing from one gharana. Indian classical musicians are simultaneously thinkers, philosophers, rulebenders and creators. Our con versations about intellectuals are largely dominated by poets, writers, painters, and filmmakers. Why are musicians seldom acknowledged in this category? Kumar Gandharva perhaps got a fair deal — and rightly so — given his epochal music that so many were drawn to. Malli karjun Mansur was adored for similar reasons. Nikhil Baner jee has a committed fan base amongst the intelligentsia. I know several scientists who are besotted by Malini Rajurkar. The avantgarde filmmaker Mani Kaul learnt Dhrupad and made a film on the subject. Kumar Shahani made Khayal Gatha (1989), which traces the history of Khayal singing. I still remember Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar (1958) for Begum Ak htar, and Govind Nihalani’s Drishti (1990) for its music com posed by Kishori Amonkar featuring the lilting melody, “Megha Jhar Jhar Barasat Re.” I wonder whether spirituality had any role to play in all of this. It was the sheer intellect of a group of artists who com pelled attention to their art form and fostered new engage ments. What is Ali Akbar’s Chandranandan if not the evi dence of a great mind at work? Only a perceptive mind could interpret poetic texts that way. Singing is also a way of enunciating your reading and interpretation of texts. At a recent concert in Pune, I heard the most sublime yet esoteric Marwa by the great sitarist Budhaditya Mukherjee. My friend exclaimed at the concert: “This is sheer intellect.” I couldn’t have said it better. Kunal Ray teaches literary and cultural studies at FLAME University, Pune and writes on art and culture
CM YK
ARCHIVES
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO APRIL 20, 1918.
Bombay Co-operative Conference. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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CONCEPTUAL
ACT ONE
Selfdomestication
Reviewing the Contempt of Courts Act
Biology
This refers to the process by which a wild animal adapts itself to human be ings without any deliber ate intervention on behalf of people to domesticate it. Scientists speculate that the prevalence of self domestication could be at tributed to the increased chances of survival en joyed by organisms that are amiable to human be ings. For instance, wolves that are not aggressive to wards human beings around them can have bet ter access to food and oth er resources found in hu man colonies when compared to wolves that remain wild. This can im prove their chances of sur vival. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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Watch: Hummingbirds ‘sing’ and ‘dive’ to find love http://bit.ly/HumSingDive
The Law Commission on why the Act should remain as it is Krishnadas Rajagopal
The Contempt of Courts Act of 1971 is one of the most powerful statutes in the country. It gives the constitutional courts wide powers to restrict an indi vidual’s fundamental right to personal liberty for “scandalising the court” or for “wilful disobe dience” of any judgment, writ, direction or order. The offence of “scanda lising the court” continues in India even though it was abolished as an of fence in England and Wales long ago. On March 8, 2018, the Department of Justice wrote to the Law Commis sion of India, asking it to examine an amendment to the Act to nix “scanda lising the court” as a ground for contempt and restrict contempt to only “wilful disobedience” of directions/judgments of the court. The Supreme Court re cently published a report that noted that 568 crimi
nal contempt cases and 96,310 civil contempt cas es were found pending in the High Courts. In the Su preme Court, as of April 10, 683 civil contempt cas es and 15 criminal con tempt cases have been shown as pending. But the Law Commis sion has submitted a re port stating that there is no point “tinkering” with the 1971 Act. The statute, it said, only lays down the procedure in contempt cases. “The powers of contempt of the Supreme Court and High Courts are independent of the Act 1971,” the report of the Commission said. The contempt powers of the higher courts are drawn from the Constitution itself. The Commission said that “to delete the provi sion relating to ‘criminal contempt’ inter alia ‘scan dalising of courts’ will have no impact on the power of the Superior Courts to punish for con tempt (including criminal
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contempt) in view of their inherent constitutional powers, as these powers are independent of statu tory provisions”. Addi tionally, Article 142(2) ena bles the Supreme Court to investigate and punish any person for its contempt. The Law Commission informed the government that the 1971 Act was a good influence. In fact, the statute, by laying down procedure, restricts the vast authority of the courts in wielding con tempt powers, it said. The 1971 Act contains “adequate safeguards to exclude instances which may not amount to crimi nal contempt” as defined under Section 2(c) of the Act 1971. The Commission said the statute has stood the test of judicial scrutiny for about five decades. It empowers the High Court to act if someone is in con tempt of the subordinate courts. Diluting the Act would expose the subordi nate judiciary to acts of contempt of court.
The Bombay Cooperative Conference met today [April 19] under the Chairmanship of the Hon’ble Mr. Lallubhai Samal das at Vanithavisram Hall. There was quite a representative gathering of cooperative credit society, men and general pu blic at the Conference. Mr. Lallubhai delivered a lengthy and interesting presidential address, in the course of which he sur veyed in detail the cooperative movement in the Presidency. He maintained that a correct solution of the large problem no political reform would mainly depend on the growth of coop erative movement. It was essential that those who were keenly interested in the growth of this movement should not only dis seminate the knowledge of cooperation far and wide but should also educate their representative in the principles of cooperation and its advantages. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
DATA POINT
A ND-NDE
