Month: February 2018

‘Jan Gan Man Ki Baat’ Episode 203: Karti Chidambaram, Uri Sector and Amit Shah

Vinod Dua discusses the arrest of Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media case, use of artillery in Uri sector and Amit Shah’s confrontation with angry farmers in Karnataka.

Why BJP’s Aggressive Campaigning for MP and Odisha By-Polls Didn’t Pay Off

What should have been a usual by-poll transformed into a high-pitched battle in which BJD in Odisha and Congress in Madhya Pradesh left no stone unturned to counter the BJP.

What should have been a usual by-poll transformed into a high-pitched battle in which BJD in Odisha and Congress in Madhya Pradesh left no stone unturned to counter the BJP.

Credit: PTI

New Delhi: Days after the BJP was routed in the recent Rajasthan by-polls, the saffron party on Wednesday faced yet another defeat at the hands of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Biju Janata Dal in Odisha.

Three assembly seats – Kolaras and Mungaoli in Madhya Pradesh and Bijepur in Odisha – had gone to polls on 10 February. However, what should have been a usual by-poll transformed into a high-pitched battle in which BJD in Odisha and Congress in MP left no stone unturned to counter BJP’s aggressive campaign.

Bijepur saw top leaders of the BJP aggressively campaigning for the party’s candidate in an attempt to make inroads into the state where assembly polls are scheduled simultaneously with the 2019 general elections. Similarly, BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had turned the by-polls in Madhya Pradesh into a prestige battle to prove his mettle to lead the party for the fourth straight term. Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh are scheduled later this year and for Chouhan it was a apt opportunity to show his strength to party’s central leadership.

Kolaras and Mungaoli

Congress retained the Mungaoli seat by a narrow margin. Its candidate, Brijendra Singh Yadav, defeated his BJP rival, Baisaab Yadav, by 2124 votes in a tightly-fought election. The party’s candidate, Mahendra Singh Yadav, won the Kolaras seat against BJP’s Devendra Jain by over 8,000 votes.

Both the assembly seats fall in Congress leader’s Jyotiraditya Scindia turf, Guna, which he represents in Lok Sabha. The seats were vacated by untimely death of its Congress representatives. BJP had put in all its efforts to unsettle Scindia, who not only commands great support in the region but is also being seen as one of the frontrunners for Congress’ chief ministerial candidate along with the old hat Kamal Nath, who belongs to Chhindwara in MP.

Congress, which has been plagued by multiple factions in the state buried its internal differences and canvassed as an united front. Both Scindia and Nath were seen together in a road show in the run-up to the poll even as regional leaders invested their energies in getting all the factions together.

To match this unity, BJP’s Chouhan too camped in the two seats and had openly challenged Scindia. He blamed Scindia for region’s apparent backwardness and announced Rs 1000 monthly assistance scheme for Saharia tribe members to tackle malnourishment, which has remained a great concern in the community since many years. The tribe’s population is substantial in Kolaras and Mungaoli.  

The BJP went a step ahead and fielded union sports and youth welfare minister, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, and cabinet minister in Chouhan’s cabinet, Maya Singh, from the Scindia royal family, as their star campaigners to challenge Jyotiraditya star power. However, none of these tactics worked eventually as Congress retained both the seats even as the victories cemented Jyotiraditya’s supremacy in the region.   

After BJP’s defeat in Chitrakoot by-poll last year by more than 14000 votes, the losses in Kolaras and Mungaoli clearly reflect a brooding anti-incumbency sentiment against the Chouhan government. On the other hand, the faction-ridden Congress should receive the much-needed buoyancy after posting three successive victories in state by-polls.

Bijepur

That BJD won with a margin of 41,933 votes over the BJP – the Congress finished a distant third – is a clear signal that the state’s ruling party still holds its own in the face of BJP’s aggressive campaign. The Hindu nationalist party’s claim that it will win 120 of the 147 seats in next year’s assembly elections has been drawing much attention in the media.

Bijepur, in the quiet Bargarh district of Odisha, thus had shot to limelight because of the political attention it received in the last few days. In the run-up to the poll, it saw union ministers, Dharmendra Pradhan, also touted to be BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, and Jual Oram camping in the area. The saffron party roped in filmstars and prominent parliamentarians like Smriti Irani and Santosh Gangwar to campaign for the party’s candidate, Ashok Panigrahy, a former BJD MLA who defected to the BJP after he was denied a ticket.

The seat was vacated by three-time Congress MLA Subal Sahu. However, soon after his death, chief minister Naveen Patnaik moved swiftly to field his wife, Rita Sahu, as BJD’s candidate from the seat. Since the new entrant Rita Sahu was taking on a well-established Panigrahy, the battle had become one of prestige for the ruling BJD and a show of the new-found strength for the BJP.

The contest came to be seen as a direct contest between Patnaik and Pradhan, given their direct involvement. For political observers, the fight was also one which could indicate voters’ mood ahead of next year’s elections. The BJP had performed surprisingly well in the local government’s polls last year. In Bargarh, it had won 25 of the 34 Zila Parishad zones and 2 of the 3 zones in Bijepur, the Economic Times reported.

At the moment, however, the BJD has surged ahead in the optical game by winning the seat by a massive margin. With the Congress consistently losing ground in the state, it is almost clear that the next year’s assembly poll will be a direct face-off between the BJP and BJD. Currently, the BJD has 117 members and 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. For the BJP, which has only 10 seats in the current assembly, the leap to become the main opposition is quite an achievement in itself.

What is however a more noteworthy outcome of Wednesday’s by-poll results is that the opposition parties appear to have suddenly found a new energy. Not only they outmaneuvered the BJP in both tactical and optical games that the saffron party seems to have mastered in recent times, they also foregrounded themselves as formidable organisational forces.   

Are the non-NDA parties, which have been outwitted at every front by the saffron party in the last few years, springing back? Political developments over the next few months leading up to crucial assembly elections later this year and finally the 2019 general elections will make that clearer.

Jammu University Takes Casteism to Higher Degree, Identifies Faculty as ‘SC’ on Invites

Even as the VC of the university blamed the situation on ‘human error’, a faculty member said that this isn’t the first time such ‘tricks’ have been employed.

Jammu: Much like the travails endured by B.R. Ambedkar, who spoke of how he was kept ‘slightly apart‘ in his school, the University of Jammu, which is holding its 17th convocation on March 4 this year, has identified its Dalit faculty members by their caste while issuing invitations to them.

Images (see below) accessed by The Wire show how invites sent to faculty members who belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community clearly notes their caste in brackets next to their names.

Apparently, around 30 such faculty members received these invitation cards. Of these, 12 have confirmed that they received invites which spell out their caste.

The convocation, to which Union finance minister Arun Jaitley has been invited as chief guest, will also be attended by Jammu and Kashmir governor N.N. Vohra, chancellor of the university, and chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Of around 30 faculty members who belong to the SC community, 12 have confirmed that they received invites which spell out their caste. Credit: Bivek Mathur

‘Not a new problem’

According to some faculty members, such as Virender Kundal– a professor in the department of economics who has published many papers in reputed journals on the underprivileged sections of society – the invitation he received did not surprise him as this isn’t the first time faculty members have had to face such embarrassment over their caste.

“I can’t recollect the exact years it happened, but the varsity has more than twice humiliated professors from the SC community by mentioning their caste on invitation cards. We ignored such tricks but now we’re fed up,” said Kundal.

“If we do not speak up this time, it will become routine and the possibilities are there that in the future, they (the administration) will tag us as Schedule Caste 1st, Schedule Caste 2nd and so on. We have to protest this hegemony,” he said.

“In all of my [academic] papers, I’ve always applauded Jammu and Kashmir for being the only state in the country where untouchability has almost been abolished. But after noticing this sick mentality prevailing within its highest centre of learning, I am very disturbed.”

“Our late maharaja Hari Singh would worship girls from the Dalit community to try end the culture of untouchability and I hold him in high esteem. Even he would not be happy in heaven to see the attempts of some ‘sick minds’ to discriminate against people on the basis of their caste,” added Kundal.

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Among the other professors to have gotten such invites are Rakesh Kumar Atri from the department of environmental sciences; Ashwani Kumar Kalsi from the department of chemistry, Madhulika Bhagat from the department of biotechnology, Somnath Kundal from the department of geology and Sandeep Arya from the department of physics, among others.

Atri, an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, suspects that there is some “deep-routed conspiracy” behind the casteist invitation cards and that it isn’t a single man behind it, but the “entire varsity administration”. “Time and again, the SC faculty members have been humiliated,” he said.

‘Human error’

When The Wire reached out to Prof. Ramji Dass Sharma, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, he blamed the whole sordid episode on “human error”.

“It was a human error and I have personally talked to most of my concerned colleagues and tendered [an] apology for the same and also assured them that it will not be repeated in future,” he told The Wire.

A screenshot of a Facebook chat a student had with the VC. Credit: The Wire

His response is similar to the one he gave to a political science student at Jammu University who wrote to him via the Facebook chat app. “Sir it [is] very disturbing and [I felt] sorry when I got this image through social media. [The] University of Jammu should work to abolish [the] caste system in our Indian society rather than making such practices so glaring. The above invitation is [a] clear manifestation of disseminating discrimination as well as oppression. I, being a student of political science, condemn this act…” the student wrote.

To this, the VC replied, “Just human error, as list prepared for the other purpose was taken out by mistake. I am extremely sorry for this unintentional lapse.”

In a message to The Wire, Meenakshi Kilam, the university’s registrar, also apologised for the invitation cards.

“On behalf of the committee that finalised the guest list and prepared name slips and the University of Jammu, I tender a deep and sincere apology for the inappropriate labels on the invitation cards. The convener and co-convener of the committee have been asked to immediately replace the cards. The inconvenience and hurt caused is deeply regretted,” she said.

Bivek Mathur is a journalist based in Jammu. He tweets at @89Jammu.

71 Transfers in 34 Years: Retired Haryana IAS Officer Blames Govt for Succumbing to Vested Interests

Though the BJP came to power in the state with the promise of transparency, it transferred Pradeep Kasni to a defunct department for his last posting and did not pay him a salary for six months.

Though the BJP came to power in the state with the promise of transparency, it transferred Pradeep Kasni to a defunct department for his last posting and did not pay him a salary for six months.

M.L. Khattar and retired IAS officer Pradeep Kasni. Credit: PTI/Twitter

New Delhi: Another senior public servant in Haryana has now accused the Manohar Lal Khattar government of succumbing before the same vested interests which were targeted by the BJP ahead of the last assembly elections. The accusations of not doing enough to promote transparency and fight corruption have this time come from Indian Administrative Service officer Pradeep Kasni, who retired today after serving in the state for 34 years during which he was transferred a record 71 times. Of these transfers, over a dozen took place in Khattar’s rule, including three in the month of September 2016 alone.

Prior to Kasni, whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka had also accused the BJP government in the state of not acting on its promises of fighting graft. He had also written a letter in which he had cast doubts on whether there was a quid pro quo in Vadra land deal probe for DLF in return for its deal with the then Congress president’s son-in-law? The Khattar government had maintained silence on the issue just as it had on Khemka’s earlier suggestion that all material facts regarding this deal uncovered by him be placed before the Supreme Court.

Another whistleblower Haryana cadre officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who had unravelled the Haryana forestry scam during the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had also submitted before Central Administrative Tribunal and in court proceedings that the Haryana government had not played its part in proceeding with the scam probe. Queries filed under the Right to Information Act by him had also revealed that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had chosen to adopt the same stance taken by Manmohan Singh’s government in denying a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Haryana forestry scam.

Following the damning and damaging accusations of these two officers, now Kasni’s charges are bound to cause some unease to the Khattar regime, particularly so because it has sought to carefully nurture the image of a clean government thus far.

Posted to defunct department, not paid a salary for six months

Questions have already been asked about why six months ago Kasni was posted to a defunct department for which no budget had been earmarked. As a consequence, he has also not been paid his salary for the last six months. In fact, already many have asked why Kasni has been transferred over a dozen times in the three year rule of Khattar.

In his last posting, Kasni was posted as officer on special duty (OSD) in the Haryana Land Use Board which had been disbanded a few years ago. It was an RTI application filed by him which revealed how he had been punished with this posting. The Haryana government admitted that the Board had been disbanded in 2008. Kasni has since complained to the Central Administrative Tribunal and it would hear the matter on March 8.

A 1984-batch Haryana Civil Services officer who was later promoted to IAS, Kasni had told the media following his retirement that the Khattar government had assured that officers will not be transferred before two years. “The officers are responsible for their work and if there is any dereliction then disciplinary action can be taken against them. Still if there was a need to transfer officers before two years, then civil services board were to be constituted and only on their recommendation were such transfers to take place. These boards were also supposed to tell whey the transfers were necessary.”

But, having been transferred umpteen number of times, he said “the government never told him why he was being transferred”. “In the Hooda government they wanted to make some appointments related to my department. I said if the Governor is the appointing authority and he has not issued some instructions then I cannot assume it to be there. But the governments do not believe in truth but power and it was seen as an affront,” he said.

Though the Khattar government swore by transparency and being averse to corruption, Kasni said it also ended up working on the same model. “In some matters all the governments are the same,” he chuckled.

Stating that “sometimes you know how a government or a minister would want a file to be treated. And when people like me act differently, the result is a transfer order in the evening,” Kasni said.

‘Vested interests took over in Khattar regime as well’

On the issue of transparency and corruption, he said “it had been clearly spelt out by the Khattar government that there would be no favouritism. But soon vested interests took over and it soon became clear that they would not act against the corrupt.”

In the last assembly polls, the corruption in Hooda government was an issue and actions against Khemka and Kasni were raised by the BJP to build an atmosphere against the Congress. But following Kasni’s disclosures the party could have some explaining to do in the next assembly elections as people would judge the performance of the present government on how it acted on its promises.

Kasni said though he has been offered a compliment by state cabinet minister Anil Vij, under whom he has served as Director General of Archives and also Education, he said he had not intention of joining any political party. “All I want is that the system should be more responsive towards the needs of the people.”

In Letter to Modi, Sikh Forum Denounces ‘Deliberate’ Khalistan Spin to Trudeau’s Visit

The letter also noted that by not keeping its promises about releasing documents on Operation Bluestar and punishing the 1984 pogrom accused, the NDA governments have merely performed ‘lip service’.

The letter also noted that by not keeping its promises about releasing documents on Operation Bluestar and punishing the 1984 pogrom accused, the NDA governments have merely performed ‘lip service’.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire, daughter Ella Grace and son Xavier pose for photographers during their visit to the Golden temple in Amritsar on February 21. Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi

New Delhi: In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Sikh Forum, an apolitical body of community intellectuals based in Delhi, has expressed serious concern at the manner in which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent visit was allegedly “used to tarnish the image of Sikhs by both the officialdom and the media”.

Stating that it was distressed at the “attempts to cast aspersions on the community as ‘anti-national’”, when in reality “the sacred and secular fabric of our country is sought to be torn apart by elements of irresponsible leadership at various levels in India itself”, the Forum said it was in complete support of the joint statement issued by India and Canada on February 23 reaffirming that the relations between the two nations were based on “fundamental principle of respect for sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the two countries”.

However, the Forum said, “the ‘bogey’ of Sikh separatism had overshadowed what could have been an extremely positive visit by the Canadian Prime Minister” considering that a large number of Indians, including Sikhs, have achieved great success in Canada.

But, the Forum said “instead of expressing pride and offering cooperation for mutual advantage, a communal divide has been accentuated by irresponsible reporting in the media. The group said it was agitated at the manner in which the Jaspal Atwal matter was handled. “If amnesty and visa was given to this Canadian national, why then was this issue allowed to create a public spectacle and cast aspersions on the entire Sikh community?” the Forum asked.

Noting that while there may be a problem with some Sikhs in Canada, there is no issue of Khalistan remaining in India or in the state of Punjab, the Forum president Pushpinder Singh Chopra and secretary general Partap Singh said though successive NDA governments have promised to bring to justice the culprits of the 1984 pogrom “apart from paying lip service on the issue, little of substance have been done”.

Likewise, stating that the documents pertaining to Operation Bluestar have also not been made public, the group said what has instead been raised is the issue of Khalistan through which aspersions have been cast on the entire community. This, the Forum said, was “completely unacceptable”.

In Five Years, 98.87 Lakh Tonne Minerals Were Illegally Mined in Five Rajasthan Districts: CAG

A scrutiny of records in Alwar, Jaipur, Sikar, Rajsamand and Udaipur revealed registration of 4,072 cases of illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals, as well as violation of SC orders pertaining to the Aravalli hills.

The Aravalli range in Rajasthan. Credit: State Govt Website

JAIPUR: A whopping 98.87 lakh tonnes of minerals were illegally excavated in a period of five years in five Rajasthan districts, says a latest Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which highlights rampant unlawful mining and gross violations in the desert state, including flouting of Supreme Court orders pertaining to the Aravalli hills.

The CAG report, tabled in the state Assembly on Tuesday, claims that the apex court directions regarding Aravalli hills were not followed by the state’s department of mines as mining leases falling within the mountain range area were granted and renewed. Even the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) granted clearance for mining leases despite the area falling under the Aravali hill range, it adds.

“We noticed serious violations of the orders of the Supreme Court of India as mining leases falling in the Aravalli mountain range were granted, renewed and extended. Besides, the MoEF also granted environmental clearances for mining lease despite the area falling in Aravalli hills,” the auditor said.

Rajasthan has a rich reserve of copper, lead, zinc, rock phosphate, soapstone, silica sand, limestone, marble and gypsum, and most of these minerals are found in the Aravalli mountain ranges, the auditor said.

The audit also castigated authorities claiming there was inadequate follow up of illegal mining cases, lack of deterrence due to delay in issuing of notices and non-implementation of policy measures.

According to the report, a scrutiny of the records of nine superintending mining engineers or mining engineers in five districts – Alwar, Jaipur, Sikar, Rajsamand and Udaipur –revealed that these offices registered 4,072 cases of illegal mining, transportation and storage of mineral during 2011-12 to 2016-17.

“Around 98.87 lakh metric tonnes of minerals were found to have been illegally excavated (during 2011-12 to 2016-17). The department, however, could recover only Rs 25.57 crore against the recoverable amount of Rs 204.50 crore,” the CAG report on the economic sector for the financial year ended March 31, 2017 said.

Another finding of the audit was that the state government had levied an environment and health cess in 2008 on selected major mineral proceeds which was to be utilised for the protection of environment and health and maintenance of ecological balance, especially in the mining areas.

But the funds were sanctioned for activities which did not meet the objectives the cess was actually collected for, the CAG report said.

Mining without a licence, mining outside lease area, raising of minerals without paying royalty are illegal mining activities which not only put immense pressure on environment as they do not comply with any regulations or environmental conditions but they also have serious consequences on natural resources like forests, rivers, flora and fauna and public health, the report said.

Bhupen Hazarika Setu and the Politics of Infrastructure

Celebrations around the Bhupen Hazarika Setu, connecting Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, are nothing but a thin veil to cover the uncertain future of a remote place called Sadiya.

Celebrations around the Bhupen Hazarika Setu, connecting Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, are nothing but a thin veil to cover the uncertain future of a remote place called Sadiya.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the Bhupen Hazarika Setu. Credit: narendramodi.in

Infrastructures are intriguing things. They always represent more than they actually are. Histories of infrastructures are replete with such examples. While integral to nation-building processes, they also represent flows of capital and resources. In doing so, they carry a ‘developmentalist’ or ‘people-centric’ cover. A recent example of this is the bridge named Bhupen Hazarika Setu, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Constructed over the Lohit river, the bridge is supposed to give impetus to the people of Sadiya, a sub-division of Tinsukia district, and neighbouring areas of Arunachal Pradesh. It also aims to boost the country’s economy, hydropower and defence. It is ironic that until a decade ago there was immense anxiety and fear about the downstream impact in Sadiya by the mega dams proposed to be built on multiple rivers of Arunachal Pradesh. The inauguration of the bridge, however, ignited hope of mobility. Consequently, it also doubly increased the risk of further downstream impact on Sadiya, for the main purpose of the bridge lay elsewhere.

The politics of a bridge

Anthropologist Brian Larkin argues that rather than seeing infrastructures as neutral objects out there, one needs to understand the epistemological and political commitments that go into making of infrastructure. The hype created around the bridge is an interesting case of this politics. Before the inauguration, the transport ministry of the central government released a video of the bridge with deliberate misinformation of its location and purpose. While, the video depicts the bridge across Brahmaputra, it is in fact located on river Lohit. It is situated upstream to the point where the rivers Lohit, Siang and Dibang join to become the Brahmaputra, and it is due to its location that the bridge is also known as the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge. Additionally, even though this bridge has been hailed as an infrastructural marvel, it is not the first of its kind on the river Lohit.

On January 10 last year, the 2.9 kilometre long Alubari bridge on the same river was inaugurated in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. Constructed by the Navayuga Engineering Company – which also undertook the construction of the Bhupen Hazarika Setu – the Alubari bridge involved laying out a new five kilometre-long approach road. The construction of this bridge went almost unreported. Yet another reinforced concrete bridge is being constructed over the river Sissri, a tributary of Dibang, which will connect Roing to Pasighat via Aohali-Dambuk road in eastern Arunachal Pradesh. In terms of connectivity within Arunachal Pradesh, more than the Bhupen Hazarika Setu, these two bridges hold more significance for the people of the state. This was reiterated in the words of the state’s chief minister, late Kalikho Pul: “The bridge is extremely important as it will connect rest of the eastern part of the state with the state capital… During summer, the entire Lower Dibang belt gets cut off and also frequent bandhs in Assam adds to the communication woes.”

The Bhupen Hazarika Setu. Credit: narendramodi.in

Feeding hydro-projects

Along with increasing connectivity, giving strategic benefit to the Indian army has been cited as a major advantage of constructing Bhupen Hazarika Setu, giving them access to remote areas along the Indo-China border. Given the continuous tensions between India and China over Arunachal, this may seem temporarily plausible, but questions do arise. If connectivity through this bridge was so important for internal security, why was its construction taken up only in 2011? Besides, even after crossing this bridge, one has to cross hazardous terrains and fast flowing rivers before reaching areas bordering China.

The construction of such massive infrastructure, in such a short time, can be more closely associated with the development of large hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh. The purpose of constructing this bridge in the second decade of the 21st century is spelt out more clearly in the press release issued by the transport ministry when it was inaugurated.

It stated: “…besides facilitating numerous hydro power projects coming up in the state, as it is the most sought after route for various power project developers.” The argument that this bridge drastically reduces the distance between Dibang valley districts of Arunachal Pradesh (Upper and Lower Dibang valley) and Assam, needs to be understood in the context of the 18 large hydropower projects that are proposed to be constructed on the Dibang river basin with a projected capacity of nearly 10,000 megawatts. These hydropower projects also include the 2,880 megawatt Dibang Multipurpose Project, which is one of India’s largest multi-purpose dam projects.

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The uncertain future of a remote place called Sadiya

Ever since the inauguration of the bridge, Sadiya, otherwise unknown to most Indians, has attracted a lot of attention. But this newfound fame may be shortlived. The New Ganga Bridge on river Ganga in Bihar, with a length of 9.18 kilometres, upon its completion, will soon overtake this bridge to become India’s longest bridge.

However, it is the downstream impact of the proposed hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh that poses greater threats to the material existence of Sadiya. Sadiya falls in the downstream region of two of the largest dams on Dibang and Lohit rivers – the 2,880 megawatt Dibang Multipurpose and 1,750 megawatt Demwe Lower Project. Incidentally, the probable impact of peaking power operations of these two dams along with the 2,700 megawatt Lower Siang Project on Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, an area downstream of Sadiya, had forced the Ministry of Environment and Forests to conduct an individual impact assessment study. Peaking power operation of a hydropower project implies running the project turbines during those hours of the day when electricity demand is high. Such peaking operations lead to extreme variation in the flows of a river on a daily basis.

There has, however, been a collective silence in the case of the likely downstream impacts of dams on Sadiya. According to the Dibang Basin study, if the Dibang multipurpose project is constructed, Sadiya will witness floods on an everyday basis in winter. The report says that against an average natural flow of 477 cumec in the winter season, due to peaking power operations of Dibang Multipurpose project, there will be only 114 cumec of water for 16-18 hours a day, while for the rest of the time the river will be flooded with 1,282 cumec of water.

Contrary to popular narratives in the national and state media, the bridge solves neither the existing problems of Sadiya, nor of the dwellers in the adjacent districts of Arunachal Pradesh. During the months of torrential rain, flood causes havoc and submerges the whole of Sadiya. After the flood water recedes, the silt, at times, covers up half of the bamboo and mud houses, and even entire tubewells, in places like Panch-mile, a village very close to where the bridge meets in Sadiya.

That apart, the inauguration of the bridge has led to a flow of tourists from the other side of Assam and northeast. Tourists often cross over to experience nature and most of them carry back cheap alcohol from Arunachal, as it is tax free. The majority of these tourists belong to the middle class who own four-wheelers. The Centre argues that the bridge will help in opening up economies, not only in Sadiya, but also in Arunachal. However,  in the backdrop of the complex socio-ethnic setup in the area and the contested resource usage, the bridge might open up certain historic binary relations between the hills and plains, its antagonisms and absences.

Apart from radio news broadcasts in Bangla from BBC Dhaka, and the reporting of the Sadiya massacre, the national media has remained apathetic towards the people of Sadiya and the nearby districts of Arunachal. (In 2000, 28 ‘non-Assamese’ people were gunned down by United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) near the Assam-Arunachal border in Sadiya which came to be popularly known as the Sadiya Massacre. The national print media like Hindustan Times dated December 9, 2000, reported of 28 people being killed, but the total numbers touched 40 plus.) The media’s recent vigour to report does raise questions about why and how such an out of the way place has become so intrinsic to the narrative of nation-building. There are several ways to answer this. For us, the people of Assam, the politics of infrastructure stands out as the most prominent one and we believe that celebrations around the Bhupen Hazarika Setu is nothing but a thin veil to cover the uncertain future of a place called Sadiya.

Parag Jyoti Saikia teaches at Asian University for Women, Chittagong. Suraj Gogoi is a doctoral student in Sociology, National University of Singapore and runs pangsau.com.

India’s GDP Growth Rises to 7.2% in Third Quarter of 2017

The last time India had a faster growth rate was in the final three months of 2016.

The last time India had a faster growth rate was in the final three months of 2016.

A worker cuts metal inside a workshop manufacturing metal pipes in Mumbai, India August 11, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Shailesh Andrade

New Delhi: India’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 7.2% in the October-December 2017 quarter, showing a sustained pick-up in growth recovery in an economy that was hit hard by issues related to the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and lingering impact of demonetisation.

However, exploding bad loan crisis of the banking sector could scare investors off and throw a wrench in this growth recovery, economists have warned.

“Foreign investors would like to know how India is going to address its non-performing asset (NPA) crisis before they invest,” NR Bhanumurthy, former director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), told The Wire. As a consequence, appetite for large-sized projects could suffer.

Bhanumurthy said banks could turn cautious about financing large-sized projects and tighten their loan appraisal norms. Corporates too could become risk averse.

Flagging upside potential, he added that agriculture and construction sector could surprise with higher than expected growth.  The NIPFP professor said that the economic recovery was broad-based.

The economic growth plunged to 5.7% in April-June quarter, the lowest in three years, but recovered to 6.5% in July-September period.

As per national income data released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) on Wednesday,  the Indian economy will grow by 6.6% in the fiscal 2017-18, down from 7.1% in the 2016-17.

Earlier, the CSO had estimated GDP growth for 2017-18 at 6.5% in the first estimate. Gross value added (GVA) may grow by 6.4% in 2017- 18, lower than 7.1% in 2016-17.

During the quarter under review, GVA for manufacturing grew at 8.9%, up from  6.9% in the previous quarter. Similarly, the farm sector GVA grew at 4.1% as against 2.7% in the previous quarter. The construction sector recorded a robust growth of 6.8%, higher than 2.8% in previous quarter. The services segment including financial services grew at rate of 6.7%, higher than 6.4% in previous quarter.

A 12.0% growth in fixed capital formation pulled up GDP growth, said Devendra Pant, chief economist, India Ratings and Research.

How we can nurture this budding investment revival with conducive policies is the question, he added. Pant also expressed concern over the decline in private consumption during the quarter under review.

“An area of concern is decline in private consumption growth to 5.6% in 3Q FY’18 from 6.6% in 2Q’FY18,” he said.

From supply side, some of the sectors that standout are agriculture, construction and manufacturing. Construction and manufacturing sector GVA growth is in line with IIP and core infrastructure industries growth, the India Rating chief economist said.

Monetary policy

Wednesday’s growth figure will not change expectations for monetary policy, however. Most analysts still anticipate the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is balancing concern with inflation and support for growth, to hold interest rates at its next policy meeting on April 5.

“RBI has to balance between growth and inflation. The recently released minutes of the MPC’s last policy meeting showed growing concerns of embers over continued inflationary risks arising from high food and crude prices,” Gandhi said.

The GDP data could help Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who faces criticism over mounting bad loans at state banks and a $1.77-billion fraud at state lender Punjab National Bank, the biggest in the country’s banking history.

Last week, Modi told industrialists that his government, which has a “twin balance sheet” problem resulting from bad debt in banks and many businesses, was determined to put the economy back on a higher growth trajectory.

Modi is trying to accelerate growth through higher state spending, including 2.1 trillion rupees ($32.36 billion) for recapitalisation of state banks, which are beset with mounting bad loans of nearly $148 billion.

He has stepped up spending on infrastructure and welfare projects to boost growth ahead of national elections in 2019.

This has widened the fiscal deficit for the current fiscal year, ending in March, to 3.5 percent of GDP, instead of the figure of 3.2 percent projected earlier.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Watch: Jignesh Mevani on His Life as an MLA, Dalit-Muslim Unity and Modi

On the sidelines of Mevani’s Meerut visit, reporter Adnan Bhat speaks to the first time MLA about his plans for his constituency, adjusting to his new role as a legislator, his views on the Modi government and more.

On the sidelines of Mevani’s Meerut visit, reporter Adnan Bhat speaks to the first time MLA about his plans for his constituency, adjusting to his new role as a legislator, his views on the Modi government and more.

Adnan Bhat is an independent journalist who travels between Kashmir and Delhi. 

Why Is the NRA Boycott Working So Fast?

The lightning-quick corporate response to demands for a boycott against the NRA shows that companies can’t escape politics in an age saturated with social media.

The lightning-quick corporate response to demands for a boycott against the NRA shows that companies can’t escape politics in an age saturated with social media.

Students who walked out of school protest against gun violence in front of the White House. Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

The boycott of the National Rifle Association following its response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, came fast and furious.

Car rental companies, airlines, trucking businesses, tech firms, insurers and a bank that issued an NRA-branded credit card all severed their relationships with the gun advocacy group within days of the shooting that left 17 dead.

Predictably, companies that cut ties – such as Atlanta-based Delta – faced their own backlash from NRA loyalists. In particular, the lieutenant governor of Georgia (and candidate for governor) threatened to “kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA.”

Once again, companies are finding themselves caught in the middle of political conflicts that they might have preferred to avoid.

There is nothing new about consumer boycotts – Americans boycotted British goods in response to the Stamp Act in the years before the Revolution. But as I’ve learned in my research on corporate activism, two things are different now. First, businesses are being targeted not just for their own actions but for the company they keep – in this case, relationships with the wrong kinds of customers. Second, the speed of the response is unprecedented.

Delta found itself in a tricky situation after it said it would stop giving discounts to NRA members. Credit: Facebook

Trouble in the supply chain

Activists have targeted corporations for generations based on their business practices.

One of the most famous corporate boycotts was launched against Nestle in 1977 because of the Swiss food giant’s marketing of infant formula in low-income countries – a practice which arguably continues today. The legendary boycott lasted seven years, until Nestle agreed to abide by global best practices. You can even read about it on the company’s own website.

In the 1990s, activists started to target companies not just for what went on within their own corporate boundaries but further back in the supply chain. When the labour practices of Nike’s contract suppliers brought activist scrutiny, according to a company official, the “initial attitude was, ‘Hey, we don’t own the factories. We don’t control what goes on there.’”

But the first of many boycotts against Nike was followed by corporate efforts at reform, and the company now has a history of holding suppliers to account and cutting off those that don’t measure up.

Today corporations like Nike take for granted that they will be held accountable for the actions of their suppliers and even for the policies of governments of countries where they do business. As corporations increasingly rely on contractors for core parts of their business, they are held responsible by ethically minded consumers for actions further back in the supply chain – even the provenance of the mineral tantalum in their electronic devices like smartphones.

And today, 40 years after its first major boycott, Nestle knows better than to disclaim responsibility when activists uncovered slave labour in their cat food supply chain.

Know thy customers

With the threatened anti-NRA boycott, corporate responsibility is extending in the other direction, to customers. Businesses can be held accountable not just for how their products are created but the character of the people or groups who use them.

Corporations routinely negotiate discounts for groups such as AAA, AARP, alumni clubs and others. Now these routine business decisions will be subject to an additional level of scrutiny: What does who we serve say about us?

Still, the speed and comprehensiveness of the anti-NRA actions were startling.

Within two days of a target list being posted on ThinkProgess, a number of major national corporations had dropped the NRA as a “partner.” And the site keeps a running tally of companies cutting ties with the NRA.

Compared with the seven-year time scale of the Nestle boycott, or the multiyear boycotts of corporations operating in South Africa during the 1980s, this was something new. Social media previously enabled the rapid mobilisation of street protests, including the Arab Spring and the Women’s March on Washington. Now even the threat of mobilisation on social media can lead companies to change quickly.

First National Bank in Omaha, Nebraska, said it will not renew its contract to issue the group’s NRA Visa card. Credit: Facebook

With us or against us

Corporate action is increasingly transparent: Whether a company cuts or maintains ties with the NRA, the world will know it via social media. To paraphrase George W. Bush, either you’re with us or against us, and it takes only moments to find out which.

The NRA boycott demonstrates that in an age saturated in social media and political polarisation, politics will be inescapable for the corporate sector.

Moreover, what counts as “political” is encompassing an ever greater group of activities, ranging from which websites a company’s ads pop up on to who its customers are.

The ConversationIn this new era, companies will be forced to choose their friends wisely.

Jerry Davis, Professor of Management and Sociology, University of Michigan

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.