Month: January 2016

Magsaysay Awardee Pandey Purged from BHU on ‘Anti-National’ Charge

Banaras Hindu University has prematurely terminated the well-known Gandhian Sandeep Pandey’s teaching contract

Banaras Hindu University has prematurely terminated the well-known Gandhian Sandeep Pandey’s teaching contract

Sandeep Pandey. Credit: Two Circles

Sandeep Pandey. Credit: Two Circles

The teaching contract of well-known educationist, social activist and Gandhian, Sandeep Pandey, at Banaras Hindu University’s Indian Institute of Technology has been terminated prematurely on charges of his being “involved in anti-national activities and a Naxalite” and for allegedly “showing the banned documentary on the Nirbhaya case, ‘India’s Daughter’” to his students.

Pandey, who won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award – considered the ‘Asian Nobel’ – in the ’emergent leadership’ category in 2002, said, “I was informed of the decision taken at a meeting of the Board of Governors (BoG) by Rajeev Sangal, the director of IIT-BHU, on January 1, though I am yet to receive an official letter conveying it.”

The contract of Pandey, who has been a visiting professor at the Development Studies wing of IIT-BHU for the last two and a half years, was to get over in July this year.

Says Pandey, “In a recent board meeting, the vice chancellor of BHU, who was made chairman of the IIT BoG by the Union HRD minister bypassing the panel of five names recommended by a resolution of the board, Prof. G.C. Tripathi, and dean of faculty affairs, IIT, BHU, Prof. Dhananjay Pandey – both gentlemen associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – primarily forced the decision. The charges against me are that I am a Naxalite, showed a banned documentary on the Nirbhaya case and am involved in anti-national activities.”

Reportedly, both Tripathi and Pandey took the decision on the basis of a news report published in a Hindi newspaper accusing Pandey of being anti-national.

States Lucknow-based Pandey, “I wish to clarify that I am not a Naxalite. The ideology that I would consider myself closest to is Gandhian. But I do identify with the causes taken up by Naxalites even though I may not agree with their methods. I also think that it requires a lot of courage and sacrifice to be a Naxalite and I certainly don’t have that kind of resolve.”

In 1991, Pandey co-founded Asha for Education, a not-for-profit organisation to provide education to underprivileged children which now has its presence in almost all states of the country. He also co-founded the well-known grassroots organisation National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM).

Pandey said the banned documentary on the Nirbhaya case was to be screened in his Development Studies class during a semester of the academic year 2014-15 but the decision was withdrawn after the intervention of the chief proctor of BHU and the SHO of Lanka Police Station just before the class was to begin. “However, a discussion on the issue of violence against women in our society was conducted after screening a different documentary,” he added.

The one-of-a-kind Pandey, who doesn’t wear ironed clothes, avoids milk (he feels cows produce milk for their young ones) and who led an India-Pakistan peace march to Multan in 2005, reiterates, “I don’t believe in the idea of a nation or national boundaries, which I think are responsible for artificial divisions among human beings similar to ones on the basis of caste or religion. Hence, I cannot be anti or pro-nation. I am pro-people. I am not a nationalist but a universalist.” He says he has no regret about the BoG’s decision “as it was not taken based on my academic performance.”

Allegations against Pandey of supporting Naxalites are not new. In 2002, he, along with some well-known activists, was dragged into a controversy for attending the inaugural function of a leftist outfit where the kin of some Naxalites killed in a police action in Bihar were honoured. In 2010, his visit to the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh – where the Maoists are active – for a public hearing of NAPM against the local administration met with opposition from some people, which his NAPM colleague and well-known anti-dam activist Medha Patkar later accused of being “stage managed”.

The Wire couldn’t get a confirmation of Pandey’s removal from the BHU administration as all attempts to contact IIT-BHU director Rajeev Sangal and also VC Tripathi’s office met with no response.

Pathankot Attack Shows the Lessons of the Past Have Not Been Learnt

India has not been able to create a strong security shield or work out standard operating procedures that can be deployed during a terror attack

Pathankot: An armored vehicle moves near the Indian Air Force base that was attacked by militants in Pathankot, Punjab on Saturday. PTI Photo (PTI1_2_2016_000051B)

Pathankot: An armored vehicle moves near the Indian Air Force base that was attacked by militants in Pathankot, Punjab on Saturday. PTI Photo

Predictably, the long-drawn out militant attack on the Pathankot airbase has generated waves of criticism across the country with some finding fault with the government’s handling of the issue, and others questioning the entire rationale of Modi’s Pakistan strategy and focusing on the conduct of operations in Pathankot.

Let us get one thing out of the way first. Despite the headlines, the Pathankot event was nowhere near as deadly as the Mumbai attack of 2008, or, in terms of symbolism, the Parliament attack of 2001. And so, the failures and missteps should not be exaggerated, though we need to draw operational and tactical lessons from the handling of the event.

Importantly,  seven lives were lost, at least five of them due to what Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said was, “bad luck”. A better way of putting it would be to say “bad operational procedures and tactics.” The government has taken great pride in declaring that no strategic asset was lost. Actually there were no “strategic” assets there. Some old Mig-21s and Mi-35s can hardly be given that category. Their loss would have been embarrassing, but hardly catastrophic. The most important achievement was  that in a place where some 3,000 civilian families live, not a single civilian life was lost.

In conducting a post-mortem of the Pathankot episode, it is important to keep three levels in mind—the strategic, the operational and the tactical. Contrary to popular perceptions, India does have a doctrine in place in dealing with Pakistan. This has, like all doctrines, been shaped by experience, circumstances and geography. Essentially, as practiced by successive prime ministers since Rajiv Gandhi, it involves engaging Pakistan in a process through which  a “normal” Pakistan will emerge,  even while withstanding the blows that Pakistan rains on us. In this process we are not alone, indeed, the entire world community is looking for this transformation because all of them are affected by Pakistan’s use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Our policy is not some version of Gandhigiri, but one born out of prudence and practical experience, and one that has, in the years that it has been in place, led to the successive weakening of Pakistani belligerence, and a strengthening of India’s global stature. It has also seen — and many hawkish commentators seem to be unwilling to see this — a steady decline of violence originating in Pakistan.

The South Asia Terrorism Portal (satp.org) shows that in relation to J&K, civilians killed peaked in 1994-1996 period  when it was above 1,000 per annum, then after a decline, it went above 1067 in 2001, 534 in 2004, 621 in 2005, 69 in 2008 (this does not include Mumbai killings or the bomb blasts in various cities) 16 in 2012, 20 in 2013, 32 in 2014 and 20 in 2015. Thus, to say engagement has not gotten us any dividends is factually incorrect.

Hawks want India to adopt an offensive counter-terror doctrine a la Israel or the US. But all you have to do is to take an honest look at what the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) has wrought in Iraq and Afghanistan. As for Israel, despite using multiple sledgehammers to kill the Palestinian flies, Israel has not managed to secure itself. 

The Indian “doctrine” may not have been as “sexy” as that of the Americans and the Israelis, but it is seductive enough for some Indians who do not realise that were India to adopt a a tit-for-tat  covert war on Pakistan, it could well tip it over the edge, just as the Americans and Europeans tipped Iraq, Libya and Syria to perdition. A strong Pakistan is not in our interest, but nor is a Pakistan that has come apart and which is our nuclear-armed neighbour. 

Key lesson

So, the key lesson here for us is that despite years of experience we have not been able to fabricate a sturdy shield, which is so vital for our policy of engagement. This is borne out best by this region itself where in since September 2013, there have been five similar instances of penetration by groups of militants who are usually dressed in combat fatigues and who hijack passing vehicles and attack military or police targets. This is unforgiveable and successive governments are responsible for this. The shield plays a key role in our Pakistan strategy, and minus it we are condemned to suffer multiple incidents of the type we are witnessing.

The second issue is the operational level handling of the event. Even now, it is not clear who was in charge of the Pathankot counter-terror operation—NSA Ajit Doval in Delhi , Western Air Command chief S.B. Deo who has been despatched to Pathankot on the evening of Friday, the base commander, Air Commodore, J S Dhamoon who actually should have been in-charge, or the NSG officer Maj-Gen Dushyant Singh, who, too, had parachuted in from Delhi. Was it the Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, whose briefing to the media was pathetic, to say the least, or Defence Minister Parrikar who finally landed in Pathankot on the fourth day accompanied by the Army and Air Force chiefs? As for the Punjab Police, who should have been in the forefront, they have neither been seen or heard, but for the hapless Salwinder Singh, SP of Gurdaspur.

Not all terrorist strikes can be handled in this way. While we do need operational flexibility in handling such events, there is need for clear lines of managerial authority. In this case, the following is obvious:  the base is Union government property, the surrounding country-side belongs to Punjab state and the border, again, is managed by the Union government’s border guarding forces. Surely by now we should have has standard operating procedures in place to ensure that these forces could have operated in concert. This is also very close to an operationally important part of the border which has seen war in 1965 and 1971, surely there must be some procedures that kick in when hostilities begin. Could they have been replicated?

But that wasn’t the case. According to reports, a high-quality intelligence input was received some time at the end of December indicating the possibility of such an operation. An alert was issued to various institutions, but it does not seem as though the BSF on the border, or the Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab Police, were up to scratch. Considering this is the fifth similar attack in this area since September 2013, the most recent being the Dinanagar attack of July 2015, it is inexplicable as to why the gaps in the fencing and surveillance systems had not been addressed, and in this case, why there was no aggressive patrolling of the hinterland following the intelligence tip off.

Why send in NSG from Delhi?

The actual conduct of the counter-militant operation has brought out its own set of problems. For example, why did the Union government send in the National Security Guards from Delhi, when this is one of the most densely defended areas opposite the Punjab border with troops, experienced in counter-insurgency, all over the place. The NSG have been trained in counter-hijack and hostage rescue operations, but according to Mehrishi’s press conference, the  encounter with the main group of militants took place in serrated terrain covered with jungle and scrub where our Army would have been in its element. There is, though, an intriguing Mail Today  report claiming that a unit of the J&K Rifles is the one that gunned down three of the four militants and that the other two were killed after an Army BMP was used to blow up the building they were sheltering in. 

Even now it is not clear as to when the  NSG was actually employed. Though it had arrived on Friday evening, there is a report which says that they were only deployed after the militant unit was located. With the availability of the NSG and the Army, it was unconscionable of the local commanders not to get the DSC out of harm’s way. “Bad luck” is no explanation for their deaths, which were really because of poor tactical appreciation.

This poor appreciation also seems to have tripped up the local commanders, the NSG chief and his Inspector General, into declaring all clear on Saturday evening. Because unbeknownst to them, two more militants were in the compound and had sufficient arms and ammunition to cause mayhem.

All this suggests that there is need for a commission of inquiry into the event and its handling. This should be more by way of learning lessons, rather than apportioning blame. To repeat, the incident is not in the category on the Mumbai attack. And in this case, there has been no torrent of denials from Pakistan. Indeed, the Sharif call and the statements of the Pakistan foreign office have calmed the atmosphere a great deal.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this should be that once our policy lines are set — and Modi seems to have set those lines when he said “We are engaging Pakistan to change the course of history” at a meeting of the Combined Commanders of the Indian military on December 15 —  episodic events should not be allowed to derail them. Pakistan is our neighbour, a large nation with a huge army and armed with nuclear weapons. You can neither coerce Pakistan, nor ignore it because whether it fails or succeeds it impacts on India. The only option is engagement, but at the same time, don’t forget that shield. 

Manoj Joshi is a Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation

[Updated] North Korea Claims to Have Carried Out First Fusion Bomb Test

“There took place a world startling event to be specially recorded in the national history spanning 5 000 years in the exciting period.”

The North Korean leadership has announced that its “first hydrogen bomb test has been a complete success.”

Location of the January 6, 2016, earthquake's location (in blue), 19 km ENE of the town of Sungjibaegam. Source: USGS

Location of the January 6, 2016, earthquake’s location (in blue), 19 km ENE of the town of Sungjibaegam. Source: USGS

Updated, 3.01 pm: India’s Ministry of External Affairs has issued a statement –

We have seen reports that DPRK has conducted a nuclear test today. We are assessing the available information, including claims that this was a thermonuclear test. It is a matter of deep concern that DPRK has again acted in violation of its international commitments in this regard. We call upon DPRK to refrain from such actions which adversely impact on peace and stability in the region. Our concerns about proliferation links between North East Asia and our neighbourhood are well-known.

Updated, 10.57 am: Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, said in an official statement that, “If confirmed as a nuclear test, this act constitutes a breach of the universally accepted norm against nuclear testing”, as enshrined by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and held by its 183 signatories. He also called upon the North Korean leadership to sign the treaty and for the international community to make it a legally binding instrument to outlaw all nuclear testing – for which it needs nine more states to sign on.

Also read: Putting Humpty Dumpty together again – an account of the CTBT

Updated, 9.56 am: There is already some doubt over the veracity of North Korea’s claim as a typical fusion bomb, technically called a thermonuclear weapon, should have had a greater yield and have resulted in tremors stronger than the 2013 test – which isn’t the case.

Update, 9.39 am: The USGS has revised the Punggye-ri quake depth to 0 km (on the surface) from 10 km.

Also read: How do you know when a nuclear weapon test has happened?

Update, 9.32 am: Full text of North Korea’s statement –

There took place a world startling event to be specially recorded in the national history spanning 5 000 years in the exciting period when all service personnel and people of the DPRK are making a giant stride, performing eye-catching miracles and exploits day by day after turning out as one in the all-out charge to bring earlier the final victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche, true to the militant appeal of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

The first H-bomb was successfully conducted in the DPRK at 10:00 on Wednesday, Juche 105 (2016), pursuant to the strategic determination of the WPK.

Through the test conducted with indigenous wisdom, technology and efforts the DPRK fully proved that the technological specifications of the newly developed H-bomb for the purpose of test were accurate and scientifically verified the power of smaller H-bomb.

It was confirmed that the H-bomb test conducted in a safe and perfect manner had no adverse impact on the ecological environment.

The test means a higher stage of the DPRL’s development of nuclear force.

By succeeding in the H-bomb test in the most perfect manner to be specially recorded in history the DPRK proudly joined the advanced ranks of nuclear weapons states possessed of even H-bomb and the Korean people came to demonstrate the spirit of the dignified national equipped with the most powerful nuclear deterrent.

Update, 9.14 am: A DPRK news presenter announced that a “miniaturised” H-bomb had been successfully detonated near the North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site at 1.30 UTC on January 6, 2016. Earlier, on December 10, 2016, the capability to produce such weapons had been announced by the country’s dictatorial leader Kim Jong-un. But analysts continue to remain sceptical because the ability to make working H-bombs takes awhile to master. Alternatively, they’ve speculated that Pyongyang could really be in possession of boosted fissile weapons, which use weaker fusion reactions to boost the yield of a fissile weapon.

At the same time, foreign assistance hasn’t been ruled out either.

Update, 9.06 am: Has North Korean mastered its first hydrogen-bomb (as these weapons are usually called)? Such a bomb involves the fusion of two lighter nuclei, typically of hydrogen, to form a helium nucleus. However, the helium nucleus is lighter than two hydrogen nuclei combined and the remaining mass is converted to energy and lost. This reaction is harder to master than the more common fission weapon, which involves the splitting of a heavier nucleus into multiple lighter ones.

Update, 8.19 am: Chinese earthquake monitors as well as US Geological Survey sensors picked up a magnitude 5 earthquake in North Korea that observers speculate could have been the result of a nuclear test. The first giveaway was the quake’s timing – precisely at 1.30.02 UTC – and the second was its epicentre’s proximity to the February 2013 nuclear-test site. While American, Chinese and South Korean geologists work on checking the possible cause of the quake, the North Korean government has said it will make a special announcement later today.

According to Yonhap, the South Korean defence ministry has convened an emergency meeting while Japan was putting together a task-force to address what the cabinet chief secretary Yoshihide Suga believes to be a nuclear test based on the historical record.

The USGS has placed the epicentre 10 km below the surface, considered a shallow depth, and 19 km ENE from Sungjibaem, very close to the Punggye-ri site where North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests: in 2006, 2009 and 2013. The 2013 quake had also triggered a magnitude 5 quake. The record leaves it the sole country to have conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century, and in the face of widespread condemnation and calls for shutting down its nuclear programme.

However, regular demonstrations of its nuclear weapons capabilities have continued: in part to rankle already heightened tensions in North Korea’s neighbourhood, which to its detriment have provoked frustration from China, its once-staunch ally, and in part to project Kim Jong-un’s authority “in a country where the leadership culture demands a powerful leader, one capable of achieving great accomplishments”, as defence analyst Bruce Bennett wrote on CNN last month.

List of nuclear tests conducted by country, 1945-2013. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5

Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5

A Disease That Could Render the Oral Polio Vaccine Ineffective

A tough-to detect and alarmingly common intestinal disease may have a lot to do with India’s stunted children and their susceptibility to polio and rotavirus infections.

A tough-to detect and alarmingly common intestinal disease may have a lot to do with India’s stunted children and their susceptibility to polio and rotavirus infections.

An infant receiving an oral polio vaccine. Credit: cdcglobal/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

An infant receiving an oral polio vaccine. Credit: cdcglobal/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

In 2011, a team of scientists from the USA, the Netherlands and Bangladesh began a study to answer one mystery: More than 95% of children who contract paralytic polio in India have received more than 3 doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine. In Bangladesh, the oral rotavirus vaccine has shown to be effective only 43% of the time compared to 95% in Europe. What could be causing this vaccine inefficacy?

One hypothesis claims that oral polio vaccines and rotavirus vaccines are less likely to work in children suffering from a type of intestinal damage called environmental enteropathy (EE), thought to be common in developing nations. The group built a strategy to test this.

Characterised by inflamed small intestines, resulting in faulty nutrient absorption, EE is believed to result out of repeated exposure to harmful pathogens. In low-income countries, where sanitation is often inadequate, EE is thought to be pretty common, but being a subclinical disease, it does not always show symptoms and hence has proved difficult to study.

The only foolproof way to identify EE patients would be via a biopsy, but since invasive techniques are not an option for large-scale studies on young subjects, the investigators made do with what they felt was the next best thing. The scientists of the Performance of Rotavirus and Oral Polio Vaccines in Developing Countries (PROVIDE) study diagnosed EE based on whether certain compounds were present in the subjects’ stool samples. These compounds, or biomarkers, have shown to be indicative of intestinal inflammation.

The scientists chose 700 infants in a Bangladeshi slum and tracked them from birth until one year of age. Their results, published in October 2015 in the journal EBioMedicine, showed that by the time the babies were 12 weeks old, over 80% of them were suffering from EE and 28.6% were malnourished.

Oral polio vaccine and oral rotavirus vaccine failed in 20.2% and 68.5% of the infants. In contrast, injected vaccines like those against tetanus and measles were almost always effective. These numbers indicated that EE could be predictive of oral vaccine failure as well as nutrition, and the team makes a case for interventions against malnutrition to be designed keeping this in mind.

Battered and bruised

The poliovirus and rotavirus are enteric pathogens: they enter orally or faecally and infects intestines. They spread chiefly through contact with contaminated water and faeces and so are directly associated with hygiene. EE patients’ intestinal linings have been battered by continuous infections and inflammations. “We suspect this prevents the replication of the live viruses that are part of the oral polio and rotavirus vaccines,” said William Petri from University of Virginia, one of the authors of the study. Injected vaccines, on the other hand, are unlikely to be affected by inflamed guts.

No longer able to absorb nutrients as well, the damaged gut of an EE patient does not respond to nutrient-based interventions, resulting in malnutrition.

There is enough reason to suspect that prevalence of EE is similarly high among Indians. The PROVIDE team is currently evaluating the results of a similar study they conducted in Kolkata in collaboration with the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Disease (NICED, part of the Indian Council of Medical Research).

India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had announced in November 2014 that they would soon be launching a policy to counter EE, but there has been no update since. Rakesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, who had made the announcement, did not reply to requests for the status of the proposed policy.

Meanwhile, two reports released in December 2015 revealed India’s mediocre performance as far as eradicating malnutrition is concerned. The Global Nutrition Report showed that 39% of India’s under-five population are stunted. The global average is 24%.

Better combat strategy needed

The PROVIDE study may be the most recent but it’s not the first to emphasise the dangers of enteric diseases. The ‘Interactions of Malnutrition & Enteric Infections: Consequences for Child Health and Development’ (MAL-ED) project investigated this across 8 countries – Peru, Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Tanzania, South Africa and Nepal.

Nevertheless, the PROVIDE study was more extensive, according to Petri. “The strength of PROVIDE was that vaccine responses were thoroughly measured and biomarkers of gut health, systemic inflammation and maternal health were comprehensively measured.”

The implications appear unanimous. Petri says that EE can be ameliorated by improvements in maternal health, improvements in sanitation to prevent the constant enteric infections, specific treatment or vaccination for certain infections that are more likely to cause EE, and nutritional supplementation for affected infants.

Gagandeep Kang from the Christian Medical College, Vellore, who was part of the MAL-ED project, also reiterated the importance of sanitation, hygiene and better feeding, but she expressed cautiousness as well, in an email. “The existence of a programme is insufficient. Implementation requires monitoring for quality. That rarely happens.”

No Recognition for the New Generation of Digital Rights

The outcome document produced of the 10-year review of the World Summit on Information Society has some glaring omissions

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Plenty of Loose Ends. Credit: Pascal Charest/Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The international community’s attempt to shape a new agenda for the Information Society by taking forward the Declaration of Principles and the Tunis Agenda adopted over a decade ago has produced a mixed bag that disappoints more than it pleases. 

The WSIS was a two-phase summit which was initiated in 2003 at Geneva and had its second phase in 2005 at Tunis. The summit was a reaction to the growing importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in development and a recognition of the crucial role the Internet played in shaping the landscape of the information society. The first phase in Geneva focused on a wide range of issues affecting the information society including human rights, and ICTs for development. The Tunis Agenda in 2005 was focused on developing financing mechanisms for ICT for development and governance of the Internet. The Tunis Agenda was also the first time a globally negotiated instrument articulated a definition of Internet governance and incorporated the notion of multistakeholder governance. However, it was a negotiated outcome in the debate between multilateral and multistakeholder models in global governance. This resulted in the inclusion of the ambiguous concept of  ‘Enhanced Cooperation’ which was conceived as a device to discuss unresolved contentions.

The ten-year review in 2015 was meant to take stock of the changes in the information society since Tunis and create a new agenda for the next decade. The conclusion of the high level meeting with an agreed outcome document means the negotiations were completed successfully. But the outcome itself is a qualified success at best.

Outcome document

The review process has revealed that while there are new concerns that have emerged from the evolution of the Internet and its uses, the underlying debates still remain the same. For instance, human rights and cybersecurity were both issues that were covered by the Tunis Agenda. But the fact that they have their own sections in 2015 highlights the increased importance of both these issues. Internet governance, on the other hand is an issue that has not moved in the last 10 years.

World leaders at WSIS 2003, Geneva, where the original Declaration of Principles were adopted. Credit: Jean-Marc Ferré

World leaders at WSIS 2003, Geneva, where the original Declaration of Principles were adopted. Credit: Jean-Marc Ferré

The inclusion of a separate section on human rights has received praise from all quarters. It is also a testament to the increasing importance of human rights in the information society. The acknowledgement of human rights resolutions from other fora like the Human Rights Council and human rights instruments like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is encouraging. This means that nations have an additional mandate to respect human rights obligations while dealing with the Internet and ICT issues. At the same time, it must be noted that no reference was made to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which is especially pertinent for countries from the Global South.  

It is also disappointing that the document fails to recognise a new generation of ‘digital rights’ that have increased in importance over the last decade. There is only a passing reference to privacy and there is no mention of network neutrality at all. It appears from the statements at the General Assembly that countries like the US and UK were not very keen on privacy and network neutrality. On the other hand, many European countries, notably the Netherlands, were pushing for stronger language on these issues. The outcome text is a negotiated compromise on many issues and the human rights language is the best example of this. But the fact that it ignores widespread public sentiment on issues that will be at the forefront over the next decade is worrying.

On Internet governance, the outcome text calls for immediate, concrete action on Enhanced Cooperation and greater participation in Internet governance institutions. But if this section of the outcome document is compared with the Tunis Agenda, it would seem like nothing has changed in the last decade. The outcome document is an attempt to update many foundational concepts in Internet governance such as Enhanced Cooperation and multistakeholderism. India for its part, reiterated support for a multistakeholder model but also drew attention to the importance of greater representation and participation of actors from the developing world in multistakeholder platforms.  One such platform is the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), whose mandate was extended for another 10 years. Unfortunately the conditionalities of the extension, including showing tangible outcomes on issues like accountability and representation, were diluted during the final negotiations. The outcome document thus failed to adequately address many pressing issues like the need for greater accountability and meaningful participation on Internet governance platforms.

Increasing threats to cybersecurity and the difficulty in dealing with cybersecurity is a concern that all countries were alive to. For developing countries, the capacity to deal with such threats heightened the importance of this issue. The outcome document reflects this position with a separate section on cybersecurity. It recognises the central role of states in dealing with cybersecurity issues, but also acknowledges the role other stakeholders have to play. The role that cybersecurity measures have to play in securing development projects through ICTs and the Internet has also been highlighted. However, the cybersecurity language fails to acknowledge the need to create a safe and secure Internet ecosystem for all users. As it stands, this section takes a securitised view of the Internet. This is unfortunate given that an earlier version of the document circulated last week took a more nuanced approach that focussed on the cyberspace as a safe platform whereas the outcome document takes a protectionist approach . However, like the human rights text, it appears that this was a casualty of negotiated compromise.

India’s Role

India played a critical role in negotiations, and contributed to an international agreement around the idea that all stakeholders, and not just governments, need to be a part of conversations about Internet governance. Speaking at the high level meeting of the 10-year review of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), the Indian delegation emphasised the role the Internet and ICTs have played in the country’s remarkable growth story over the last decade. India, along with other developing nation delegations were also quick to point out there is still a lot of work to be done in connecting the four billion people worldwide who have no access to the Internet.

Broadly speaking, India played a crucial role in these negotiations as a key swing state. On many contentious issues, the country played a facilitative role. On issues where the stated government policy aligned with the middle ground, like multistakeholderism and human rights, India took strong positions that helped achieve consensus. This was evident from its statement at the General Assembly supporting multistakeholderism but calling for greater representation. Similarly, India supported the outcome document on many issues like Internet governance, access and development but highlighted its own priorities in the process.

India’s role in bringing the WSIS negotiations to a successful conclusion has not gone unnoticed. Its unequivocal positions on contentious issues have come in for praise in the international community. However, the most difficult part of the process lies ahead in realising the WSIS vision and achieving the SDGs (sustainable development goals) over the next decade. India certainly has a big role to play in fulfilling both these international mandates and domestic development goals. It remains to be seen if it can rise to the challenge.

Puneeth Nagaraj and Gangesh Varma are Senior Fellows at the Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi

Watch: The OccupyUGC Protest Has Just Put Out the Coolest Video Ever

New Delhi: A protest is taking place in the heart of the capital to save what students believe is the future of higher education in the country. Their vigil in front of the University Grants Commission office has lasted more than two months but has received little media attention, except when the Delhi Police brought down lathis and water cannons on the protesting students.

Faced with media indifference and public disinterest, a group calling itself The Media Collective has created a video explaining the manner in which India’s higher education system is on the verge of dramatic change, and why the issues raised by the OccupyUGC movement are of great importance.

On January 4, the protest entered its 75th day. The vigil outside the UGC started was started by students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Ambedkar University against the UGC’s decision to roll back the stipend due to all Central university MPhil and PhD scholars. The widespread indignation and angry protests led the HRD ministry to step in and stop the roll-back.

However, the ministry also decided to set up a review committee to give these scholarships only to scholars with merit, ignoring their already established worth that comes with getting through a tough admission process. But as the The Media Collective argues, this ‘review’ process is the tip of the iceberg. Rather than a fundamental right or even ‘social service’, education has become a commodity for sale, its quantity, quality and value decided by trade negotiators at the World Trade Organisation. The students involved in OccupyUGC oppose the fallout of these talks, which they say could result in the withdrawal of all government support to Central universities, and financial assistance which is a lifeline for thousands of scholars. Since slogans  filled with acronym – WTO, GATS, etc. – made little impact on anyone listening, the Collective has made this video as a crash course in the issues at stake.

Pollution Soars, Odd-Even Not Enough for Delhi

Opinion on social media was mixed, with some reporting positive experiences while driving because of fewer cars on the road while others complained that public transport was more crowded than usual.

Traffic near Jama Masjid, New Delhi. Credit: ryanready/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Traffic near Jama Masjid, New Delhi. Credit: ryanready/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Delhi had one of its worst air-pollution days of the season on day four of the odd-even programme, indicating that the government will have to do much more to clean up the air of the world’s most polluted city.

The additional measures–promised by the Aam Aadmi Party government but not yet implemented – including curbs on two-wheelers, ensuring fuel for vehicles is five times cleaner than it is now, re-routing trucks, controlling construction dust and shutting or cleaning up power plants.

Although traffic was light, all but one of IndiaSpend’s 17 sensors across the National Capital Region recorded “severe”, or the worst-possible level of air pollution, with some sensors registering record highs.

Packed trains, light traffic and formidable challenges ahead

Monday was seen as a litmus test for the odd-even plan, with people returning to work for the first time in the new year with registration restrictions in place.

The scheme allows only vehicles with registration numbers ending in odd-numbered digits to run on odd-numbered dates and vice versa. Opinion towards the odd-even plan on social media was mixed, with some reporting positive experiences while driving because of fewer cars on the road.

Others complained that public transport was much more crowded than before, especially the 190-km Delhi Metro network. Some commentators even declared the Odd-Even plan a success.

Some tried to sound a note of caution.

Why is pollution still high? Getting vehicles off road not enough

Sensor readings from #breathe, IndiaSpend’s air-quality monitoring network, provide an indications of the challenges ahead. For instance, our sensor at Connaught Place, New Delhi, at 6 pm on Monday January 4, 2015, reported an hourly air quality index (AQI) of 529. This qualifies as ‘severe’, meaning that it could result in respiratory illnesses on prolonged exposure.

The Connaught Place sensor at 6 pm reported an hourly average Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 concentration of 315 micrograms per cubic metre while PM10 concentration was at 533 micrograms per cubic metre. (Particulate matter is the collective term for particles found in the air. PM2.5 are particles with a diameter under 2.5 microns, while PM10 are particles with a diameter under 10 microns.)

Pollution levels in Delhi on January 4, 2015.

So what’s behind the pollution in Delhi? Different studies put the blame on different factors, as this report in The Economic Times pointed out. Vehicles did not figure in the top three, according to a three-year (2007-2010) study from the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), which said the major source of air pollution was road dust (52%), followed by industry (22%) and burning garbage (18%). Road dust was similarly the leading cause of PM2.5 levels (38%), according to a 2013 Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur) study submitted to the Supreme Court and quoted in thisMint report. Vehicles contributed 20% to PM2.5 pollution, while industrial sources were third with 11%.

Fuel needs to be five times cleaner, power plants shut down

Given the varied sources of pollution in Delhi, the AAP government will have to kickstart its other proposals. Here they are:

  • Close the Badarpur and Rajghat thermal power plants, as well as move an application in the National Green Tribunal for closing the Dadri power plant near Greater Noida.
  • Implement Euro-VI emission norms by January 1, 2017, years before the cut-off date set for the rest of the country.
  • Vacuum clean dust from roads in Delhi. Target start date set for April 1, 2016.
  • Undertake horticulture works to ensure areas such as kuccha parts of the road and other open spaces are greened and do not contribute to dust.
  • Allow goods trucks to move on Delhi roads only after 10 PM so that that they won’t slow down or disrupt traffic. Also check if trucks meet emission norms and impose fines if they don’t.

None of these will be easy.

Consider shutting the Badarpur and Rajghat thermal power stations. The Badarpur plant is more than 40 years old and one India’s least efficient, according to this column in Business Standard. The government sent notices in December for the plants to be shut down but apparently they haven’t yet, and they won’t be shut down soon enough to have an effect during the odd-even period.

The AAP government has also made it mandatory for vehicles to meet Euro VI or the equivalent BS VI (Bharat Stage VI) emission standards by 2017, which means they must run on fuel that is five times cleaner than it is now. But union environment minister Prakash Javdekar said that might not be possible over the next two years.

Oil refineries need an upgrade to supply fuel to BS VI vehicles, which might only happen by2020. Currently, the fuel available in major cities complies with BS IV standards, which has 50 parts per million or ppm of sulphur, as Mint reported. BS VI fuel has only 10 ppm of sulphur.

Other measures proposed include vacuum-cleaning of roads by April 1, 2016, as well as a plantation drive along roads to control dust. The odd-even plan clearly won’t be enough unless these other, less-publicised plans of the government kick in. Meanwhile, litmus tests for the odd-even plan continue.

IndiaSpend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit.

 

Forget Odd and Even, Delhi Needs a Total Disruption of its Transport Model

The present attempt to reduce the number of cars on the road is well-intentioned but misguided in the long-run unless there is the political will to adopt a wider set of restrictions.

The present attempt to reduce the number of cars on the road is well-intentioned but misguided in the long-run unless there is the political will to adopt a wider set of restrictions

Delhi Traffic Police issue a ticket to a motorist on the Delhi Gurgaon expressway for violating the Odd- Even scheme on Monday. Credit: PTI

Delhi Traffic Police issue a ticket to a motorist on the Delhi Gurgaon expressway for violating the Odd- Even scheme on Monday. Credit: PTI

The Aam Aadmi Party government’s odd/even formula to manage Delhi’s traffic and curb pollution has been met with extreme opinions and impulsive reactions. Some have applauded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s attempt to tackle these two seemingly intractable problems, while others, mostly those inconvenienced by the regulation, or by his style of politics, have been quick to criticise the plan.

The question, however, is not whether the odd/even formula will be complied with fully or will be spectacularly successful. Similar strategies have failed in other mega cities and have had modest success in some. More crucial is whether this new rule can serve as a catalyst for disrupting what has become the ‘’Delhi transport normal”.

What is the Delhi “normal”? Simply put, it is an archaic 20th century notion of urban transportation being played out in the 21st century. Vehicle ownership has become associated with class, wealth and prestige in Delhi. The appearance of status is more important than functionality, efficiency and the environment. Ironically, Delhi’s car obsession is actually far removed from the reality of those cities it is trying to emulate. Can the new rule change this paradigm?

The odd/even formula’s attempt to reduce the number of cars on the road is well-intentioned but misguided in the long-run unless there is the political will to adopt a wider set of restrictions. As in Beijing, the rule may result in car owners simply buying more cars to circumvent it. Rather than trying to target the number of cars on the road, then, the government would be wise to target the time vehicles spend on the road. Stagnant traffic has a greater causal relationship with environmental degradation and economic inefficiency than freely moving larger numbers. Can this be achieved under this new regime? May be not.

The odd/even rule’s other objective of improving air quality in the city may not be realistic either. In a recent study, it was shown that only 9% of Delhi’s bad air quality and environmental deterioration was caused by private vehicles. Given that two wheelers and certain commercial vehicles – that form the majority of automobiles on the road – have been exempted, the rule cannot be expected to improve air quality dramatically. A slight decrease in pollution levels has been noted since January 1 (data points are too small to draw any conclusions), but for the government to meet its own environmental goals, it will gradually have to bring other vehicles into the ambit of the odd/even formula. Will it have the stomach to do that?

What is clear is that to meet these ambitious goals, the odd/even rule is not enough. If Delhi traffic is to be managed, both regulatory and behavioural changes are required.

A question of disincentives, and social justice

First, the ruling must be supplemented by other initiatives. Car ownership has to be disincentivised. Measures can include car owners paying punitive taxes on each additional car, the imposition of a congestion charge on usage of arterial routes and making ownership of a vehicle difficult.

Global examples of such strategies include additional registration taxes on a second car in the same family; London, where congestion charges are imposed on certain zones to limit heavy traffic; and Singapore, whose Vehicle Quota System (VQS)makes vehicle prices nearly 3-5 times the actual cost. In Singapore, it is in fact more expensive to buy the right to purchase a car, then to buy the car itself. The 41% ad valorem custom duty on all cars does not make it cheaper either. But each of these cities were in the first instance able to create public transport infrastructure. It could be argued that perhaps Delhi is the best suited amongst Indian cities to embark on moving the middle class to public transport.

But for this, besides enacting rules and regulations, a behavioural shift among NCR residents is urgently required. The aim of the city’s government must be to catalyse the preference of the growing middle class towards a “new normal”. This attitudinal change, evident in global cities like New York, London, Singapore, Tokyo and others is rooted on the usage of public transportation rather than private car ownership. It is absolutely respectable for a CEO to use the subway or an office worker to ride the bus; and carpooling is in fact encouraged, with lanes of roads dedicated to those who carpool.

Another behaviour change that must be favourably considered is to dispel the notion that people must work in offices. In an age so intertwined with technology, it is unimaginable that physical presence in offices is still a requirement. To reduce the number of cars, this notion must be challenged and provisions to facilitate telecommuting, especially for non-essential personnel, by offering broadband charges as part of an employee’s income, as against a fuel allowance or conveyance costs, must become an attractive option.

Finally, Delhi must realise the social injustice embedded within the phenomenon of car ownership. Each car occupies real estate in a city that lacks space. Car owners are effectively squatters, occupying high value land – which they don’t own and which they don’t pay for – to park their vehicles, to ride across the city, to conduct personal and official engagements. This same land is denied to countless others in their pursuit of a basic livelihood. Hawkers and vendors are often turned away from setting up stalls in the pursuit of ample parking space. The right to luxury and leisure has eclipsed the right to a livelihood and if Delhi is to be a global city, it must address this imbalance immediately.

The jury’s out on the Delhi government’s ambitious experiment. But there is no denying the urban landscape will become unmanageable if corrective measures, at a structural, regulatory and behavioural level are not initiated. The “Delhi normal” should reflect a modern, sustainable ideology of urban governance that is rooted in social justice, propelled by new technologies and embraced by new attitudes. Otherwise, this city will remain stuck in the 20th century, no matter what regulation any government adopts.

Samir Saran is Vice President, Observer Research Foundation and Prashant Kumar is Associate Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi

Not a Great Year for Free Speech

Leslee Udwin, director of India's Daughter, addresses a press conference. Credit: PTI

Leslee Udwin, director of India’s Daughter, addresses a press conference. Credit: PTI

New Delhi: Questions concerning free speech have been central to public discussion in 2015. The Hoot’s annual free speech report, Free Speech in India 2015, provides a detailed calendar of all events relevant to the freedom of speech in a year when numerous political, legal and technological changes shaped constant debates around the issue. These are also reflected in the summary of cases of censorship of different media, hate speech, sedition, defamation, threats, attacks, deaths, arrests and surveillance – all of which bring home just how central questions concerning free speech have been in the past year.

Impact on journalists

Journalists have been one of the most vulnerable groups in this entire debate, with a peak in killings, attacks, and defamation cases against them. In what The Hoot calls a ‘grim year for free speech in India’, eight journalists were killed or died on the job in different parts of the country, including Akshay Singh who was covering the Vyapam scam, Sandeep Kothari, looking into illegal mining activities in Madhya Pradesh and Jagendra Singh, writing extensively on alleged corruption and illegal mining practices of a minister in Uttar Pradesh. In addition, 27 attacks and 15 threat cases have been recorded.

Several cases of media censorship have also come up during the last year. In addition to the 21 cases of film censorship after the controversies in the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) at the beginning of the year, there have been cases of censorship of broadcast media (4), print media (3) and cyber media (13). Blocking of internet services was used by authorities in several different states to check information flows or as a precautionary security measure in the face of public tensions.

Role of government, political class

The government has played an active role in censorship and policing, both at the Central and state levels. At the Centre, the CBFC and the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry have perhaps been the most active in censoring what can enter the public domain. The large number of films censored by the CBFC already mentioned includes the blocking of films on the assassins of General A.S. Vaidya and PM Narendra Modi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s 2014 electoral battle in Varanasi. Over and above this, the I&B Ministry banned a documentary on beef eating practices and the screening of ‘India’s Daughter’, a documentary on the Jyoti SIngh rape case by Leslee Udwin. The Ministry of Home Affairs has also played its part in policing in the last year by denying a visa to a Pakistani author. State governments have also kept a tight reign on what can be said . The varying cases mentioned in the report include the removal of renowned British sculptor Anish Kapoor, a critic of Prime Minister Modi, from a cultural panel in Rajasthan.

The political class as a whole contributed greatly to the number of free speech violations in the country, according to the report. This can mainly be attributed to the high number of defamation cases politicians have filed against each other as well as against the media, and instances of hate speech. In a record for recent times, Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalitha has filed a total of 190 defamation charges across the country. Even the Supreme Court has questioned the number of defamation cases coming from the state. While this example stands out in terms the numbers, numerous politicians across the country have filed defamation charges against their retractors.

Judicial developments

2015 saw a number of legal developments in the treatment of free speech. Perhaps the most remarkable of these was the Supreme Court striking down Section 66a of the IT act (which criminalised annoying, menacing and offensive speech) and Section 118d of the Kerala Police Act (criminalising annoying speech) on March 24 for going against the fundamental constitutional right to free speech.

Of the several cases of sedition and defamation against media persons and artists that went to the apex court this year, most rulings were in support of the free speech of the accused. But the apex court also invented a new category of restriction on the constitutional right to free speech by banning the mocking of “historically respectable personalities.”

Cyberspace

With the rapid expansion of the domain of the internet, questions of free speech and privacy in cyberspace are increasingly important. The report lists recent developments and events in this sphere, including different companies (social media, messaging apps, email providers and search engines) and their policies on user privacy and content blocking. Facebook, for instance, has blocked certain articles in the past year, though some were unblocked upon questioning.

As highlighted by the report and its detailed listing of events, 2015 has been a turbulent year for free speech. While judicial rulings have often supported the right, threats and attacks upon those using their right are clearly visible. It is against these threats to free speech and perceived growing sense of intolerance in the country that numerous eminent authors, artists, filmmakers and poets have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards in the past year, while others have come out with their dissatisfaction in different forms.

The Hoot annual free speech report for 2015 provides a context for understanding such protests through its comprehensive take on the state of the freedom of speech in India.

Manipur is Finding Out the Elements Can be Merciless to the Careless

Imphal: People gather near a collapsed building after a massive earthquake in Imphal on Monday morning. PTI Photo (PTI1_4_2016_000179A) *** Local Caption ***

People gather near a collapsed building after a massive earthquake in Imphal on Monday morning. Credit: PTI

Imphal: Six unnatural deaths, 70 injured on a single day is by all means a tragedy. This despite the desensitisation to violent deaths that insurgency torn places like Manipur has undergone. But the fact is the casualty figure from Monday’s tremblor could have been much worse, if at all this is a consolation.

An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale, the biggest in 59 years in the state, is something to be scared of, as those of us in Manipur who experienced it early Monday morning, and all who have lived through similar nightmares everywhere in the world, would vouch. It is not just about the terror of sensing the subterranean violence in the manner the ground shakes, but also the low rumbling from below your feet, combined with the nerve racking sounds of window panes shattering, pictures falling to the ground, the scared barking of dogs, and then people rushing out into the open in panic.

Thankfully, the damage was not as extensive as what we saw recently in Nepal. Certainly, there was little to compare with the pictures of horror from there. Although schools were officially declared shut for a week immediately, and a general holiday declared on January 5 and 6 to meet the eventuality of probable killer aftershocks, for most, life returned to normal within a few hours of daybreak. All traces of panic disappeared and the streets in Imphal were as busy as ever, even as people began taking stock of the damage in their neighbourhoods.

There were plenty of partially damaged buildings and some completely damaged ones everywhere in the state, but nothing resembling the disaster-flattened landscape that visuals on TV channels gave the impression of, showing as they usually do only the worst scenes and screening out the normal. Indeed, the number of buildings still standing vastly outnumbered those flattened in Imphal and most other townships.

Interestingly, most of the visibly damaged concrete structures in Imphal were offices and institutions built by the government and its accredited contractors. Hardly any large private house, most of which belong to government functionaries, suffered as much, again exposing the stark difference in the execution of construction work by government officials and the way they look after their private needs. As did the devastating floods in the state a few months ago, when a total of six dams and bridges were washed away by flood waters, this earthquake catastrophe too has once again exposed the corruption so deeply ingrained into the core of the Manipur officialdom.

Of course, private homes too were damaged, but most of these belonged to owners who have had to cut corners while constructing them. Noteworthy again is that communities such as the Nepalis in Sadar Hills, were badly hit, and this probably had to do with house construction styles. Many of the traditional homes of the Nepali community for instance are built of stone blocks or bricks, without any steel reinforcement, and sometimes plastered not with cement but mud.

There are plenty of lessons to learn from this tragedy and these lessons are important, for Manipur like the rest of the northeast, falls in a very seismically prone zone, and today’s earthquake is unlikely to be the last it sees.

The most important of these lessons is that the elements can be merciless to those who are careless. A positive way of looking at today’s tragedy then is to treat is as a wakeup call that all in Manipur and the northeast should be more careful and sensitive to the knowledge that earthquakes will remain a part of their destiny, at least until the tension generated by the collision of the Asian geo-tectonic plate with the Eurasian plate is totally spent, probably a couple of million years from now.

The Manipur government in the meantime has swung into action, as is expected of any administration. It has opened a central control room to receive quake related emergency calls. Control rooms have also been set up in every district headquarters. The telephone numbers of the rapid response medical team of every district have been notified. Essential medicines have been procured and despatched to the districts. Hospitals, both government as well as privately run ones, have been instructed to reserve beds for possible quake victims. School buildings have been kept aside to double up as emergency hospitals if the need arises.

These are emergency measures and are indeed absolutely necessary. However, the government needs to also begin thinking of long term measures, including what to do about corruption. Among the various precautionary measures being planned, let it also think of ways to control the siphoning off of money from public infrastructure construction projects for this amounts to endangering the lives of ordinary people. Let Manipur’s ministers, bureaucrats and technocrats also begin being a little more outwards looking and attend to their responsibility to the public they are supposed to be servants of, and not be so selfishly self-centred, accumulating wealth at the cost of less privileged citizens.

Pradip Phanjoubam is editor of Imphal Free Press