Tag: space travel

Fahmida Riaz Has Left Behind ‘A World of Possibilities’ 

Her last unpublished poem is a beautiful ode to the link between the Creator and His creation, and is indispensable to understanding Riaz’s work.

This article was originally published on July 28, 2019 and is being republished on July 28, 2020.

July 28, 2020, marks the 74th birth anniversary of Pakistan’s arch-feminist poetess and activist Fahmida Riaz, who left us rather too soon in November 2018. But even in death, she gave us two remarkable books as going-away presents, rather Parthian shots: one, her last collection of poetry Tum Kabeer and the other, a fictional rendition of the life and times of the first-ever socialist Mazdak, the scourge of Zoroastrian Persia, a novella titled Qila-e-Faramoshi.

As her sister Najma Manzoor informs us, she also left us her last unpublished poem Daftar-e-Imkaan (A World of Possibility) written from her sickbed in Karachi, just days before moving to her beloved daughter’s home in Lahore in 2018, and as it turned out, sadly on her final journey to literary immortality.

Also read | Fahmida Riaz, Our New Aqleema

This poem, which does not need much explanation, is a beautiful ode to the link between the Creator and His creation, and is indispensable to understanding Riaz’s work. The poem’s original English translation is being presented below:

The room in which I do reside
A window this room does provide
Should I wake up in the night
I turn to keep it within my sight
Then I see as clear as light
The moon in the window shining bright
I smile slowly
And I feel
As if the moon too smiled
Then with my eyes filed
I sleep gradually
Then I come across a thought
Alone in this world I am not
This universe and these stars
The vistas of the moon and sun
Car sounds with all their might
Unknown wings in flight
These are made from the same jewel
Which is mine and yours too
Belongs to this too and that
Alone in this world I am not

Raza Naeem is a Pakistani social scientist, book critic and award-winning translator and dramatic reader currently based in Lahore, where he is also the President of the Progressive Writers Association. He has written on, and translated the selected work of Ismat Chughtai, Fahmida Riaz, Zehra Nigah and Razia Sajjad Zaheer. He can be reached at: razanaeem@hotmail.com.

In India, Privacy Policies of Fintech Companies Pay Lip Service to User Rights

A study of the privacy policies of 48 fintech companies that operate in India shows that none comply with even the basic requirements of the IT Rules, 2011.

Earlier this month, an investigation revealed that a Hyderabad-based fintech company called CreditVidya was sneakily collecting user data through their devotional and music apps to assess people’s creditworthiness. 

This should be unsurprising as the privacy policies of most Indian fintech companies do not specify who they will be sharing the information with. Instead, they employ vague terminology to identify sharing arrangements such as ‘third-party’, ‘affiliates’ etc. 

This is one of the many findings that we came across while analysing the privacy policies of 48 fintech companies that operate in India.

The study looked at how the privacy policies complied with the requirements of the existing data protection regime in India – the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011.

The IT Rules, among other things, require that privacy policies specify the type of data being used, the purpose of collection, the third parties the data will be shared with, the option to withdraw consent and the grievance redressal mechanism. 

The rules also require the privacy policy to be easily accessible as well as easy to understand. The problem is that they are not as comprehensive and specific as, say, the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, which is awaiting passage through parliament, and hence require the companies to do much less than privacy and data protection practices emerging globally. 

Nevertheless, despite the limited requirements, none of the companies in our sample of 48 were fully compliant with the parameters set by the IT Rules.

Also read | How Can India Get Better Data Processing Laws?

While 95% of the companies did fulfil the basic requirement of actually formulating and having a privacy policy, two major players stood out as defaulters: Airtel Payments Bank and Bhim UPI, for which we were not able to locate a privacy policy. 

Though a majority of the privacy policies contained the statement “we take your privacy and security seriously”, 43% of the companies did not provide adequate details of the reasonable security practices and procedures followed.

The requirement in which most companies did not provide information for was regarding a grievance redressal mechanism, where only 10% of the companies comply.

While 31% of the companies provided the contact of a grievance redressal officer (some without even mentioning the redressal mechanism), 37% of the companies provided contact details of a representative but did not specify if this person could be contacted in case of any grievance. 

Throughout the study, it was noted that the wording of the IT Rules allowed companies to use ambiguous terms to ensure compliance without exposing their actual data practices. For example, Rule 5 (7) requires a fintech company to provide an option to withdraw consent. Twenty three percent of the companies allowed the user to opt out or withdraw from certain services such as mailing list, direct marketing and in app public forums but they did not allow the user to withdraw their consent completely. While several of 17 companies did provide the option to withdraw consent, they did not clarify whether the withdrawal also meant that the user’s data was no processed or shared.

However, when it came to data retention, most of the 27 companies that provided some degree of  information about the retention policy stated that some data would be stored for perpetuity either for analytics or for complying with law enforcement. The remaining 21 companies say nothing about their data retention policy. 

In local languages

The issue of ambiguity most clearly arises when the user is actually able to cross the first hurdle – reading an app’s privacy policy.

With fintech often projected as one of the drivers of greater financial inclusion in India, it is telling that only one company (PhonePe) had the option to read the privacy policy in a language other than English. With respect to readability, we noted that the privacy policies were difficult to follow not just because of legalese and length, but also because of fonts and formatting – smaller and lighter texts, no distinction between paragraphs etc. added to the disincentive to read the privacy policy. 

Privacy policies act as a notice to individuals about the terms on which their data will be treated by the entity collecting data. However, they are a monologue in terms of consent where the user only has the option to either agree to it or decline and not avail the services. Moreover, even the notice function is not served when the user is unable to read the privacy policy. 

Also read | Old Isn’t Always Gold: FaceApp and Its Privacy Policies

They, thus, serve as mere symbols of compliance, where they are drafted to ensure bare minimum conformity to legal requirements. However, the responsibility of these companies lies in giving the user the autonomy to provide an informed consent as well as to be notified in case of any change in how the data is being handled (this could be when and whom the data is being shared with, if there has been a breach etc).

With the growth of fintech companies and the promise of financial inclusion, it is imperative that the people using these services make informed decisions about their data. The draft Personal Data Protection Bill – in its current form – would encumber companies processing sensitive personal data with greater responsibility and accountability than before. However, the Bill, similar to the IT Rules, endorses the view of blanket consent, where the requirement for change in data processing is only of periodic notice (Section 30 (2)), a lesson that needs to be learnt from the CreditVidya story. 

In addition to blanket consent, the SPD/I Rules and well as the PDP Bill does not require the user to be notified in all cases of a breach. While the information that is provided to data subjects is necessary to be designed keeping the user in mind, neither the SPD/I Rules, nor the PDP Bill take into account the manner in which data flows operate in the context of ‘disruptive’ business models that are a hallmark of the ‘fintech revolution’.

Shweta Mohandas is a policy officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru.

Rajasthan: Minor Gangraped in Alwar, Three Arrested

Three of the four accused have been arrested so far.

Jaipur: Rape cases are making headlines almost every week in Rajasthan, the most recent being the harrowing tale of a 14-year-old girl allegedly being gangraped by neighbours in Alwar.

In an FIR lodged on Saturday in the Barodameo police station in Alwar district, the mother of the girl has accused two men of raping her daughter and circulating her photographs.

The incident took place on July 18 in Sheetal village when a woman staying in their neighbourhood took the girl to her house where her husband and another man raped her. The husband also recorded the crime against the minor, the girl’s mother has alleged.

The police says that a few days after this incident, another man blackmailed the girl into meeting him in private on the threat that he would circulate her photographs.

Also read | Dalit Woman Gangraped in Alwar, Police Allegedly Kept Her Waiting Until After Polls

“An FIR is lodged under Section 376D (gangrape), relevant section of the POSCO Act and the IT Act on Saturday after the mother of the minor informed the police,” Surendra Malik, sub-inspector at the Barodameo police station in Alwar told The Wire. 

Three out of the four accused in the case, including the first two men who allegedly raped her, have been arrested. The woman has been charged with abetting gangrape.

Speaking to The Wire, Alwar superintendent of police Paris Deshmukh said, “Soon after the FIR was lodged, police officers from the Aravali Vihar, Barodameo, Laxmangarh and Kathumar police stations reached Allahabad to nab one of the men. He is being brought to Rajasthan. The husband and wife who were also absconding have been arrested.”

The fourth suspect is still at large.

A few months ago, a woman in Alwar was gangraped in front of her husband. After widespread outrage, the Congress government offered the post of police constable to the woman.

The Path-Breaking Women in Canadian Publishing

Irene Clarke, Claire Pratt, Anna Porter and Bella Pomer were among the women who changed the face of Canadian publishing.

As you indulge in summer reading, consider this fact. If not for the path-breaking women in Canadian publishing, some of Canada’s best-known writers might not have made it: Margaret Laurence, Farley Mowat, Carol Shields.

Although it’s known that women have always participated in Canadian publishing, the lasting influence they’ve had on the industry remains largely unacknowledged. It’s time we honoured Irene Clarke, Claire Pratt, Anna Porter and Bella Pomer – Canada’s own Diana Athills, the famous British editor – whose contributions count alongside those of men like Jack McClelland, a name that still dominates the history of Canadian publishing.

My research focuses on Canadian authors and their publishers, editors and literary agents. It has led to many happy hours immersed in archival collections in Canada, the US and the UK, where I’ve uncovered the record of women’s labour in mainstream Canadian publishing. In making a place for themselves in the mainstream press, these women helped lead the way for the feminists who established their own imprints, such as Press Gang Publishers (1970-2002) and Sister Vision Press (1985-2000).

Some women worked in mainstream presses and others started independent houses like Toronto’s Sister Vision co-founded in 1985 by Makeda Silvera and Stephanie Martin – pictured here in 1997. Photo: Alvaro Goveia/Library and Archives Canada

Who were these trailblazing figures?

Irene Clarke, publisher

Irene Clarke (1903-1986) was Canada’s first woman publisher of English-language books. In 1930, she co-founded Clarke, Irwin.

At the time, with the world economy in collapse and the country in the grip of the Depression, the decision to launch a publishing company might have seemed foolish. By the late 1940s, however, under Clarke’s leadership, Clarke, Irwin had become one of the country’s five largest educational and trade publishers.

In 1941, Clarke took another bold step and published Emily Carr’s first book, Klee Wyck, under the Oxford University Press Canada imprint. At the time, in an unusual arrangement, Clarke, Irwin shared staff and premises with Oxford.

Carr’s book of sketches, which had been rejected by other publishers, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction and helped generate new recognition for her paintings.

Emily Carr
Klee Wyck
Oxford University Press, Toronto (1941)

A close bond formed between Irene Clarke and Emily Carr, two women who broke historic ground, one as a publisher, and the other as a writer and a painter. Clarke not only launched Carr’s literary career. She went on to publish and acquire the copyright to all of Carr’s writing, which now endures alongside her more celebrated paintings.

§

Claire Pratt, editor

From 1956 to 1965, Claire Pratt (1921-1995) was senior editor at McClelland & Stewart, where she worked closely with individual writers.

Pratt came to know Margaret Laurence through her fiction set in Africa and recommended the novel This Side Jordan (1960) and The Tomorrow-Tamer and Other Stories (1963) for publication.

When she read the draft of The Stone Angel (1964), the first novel in Laurence’s Manawaka series, the editor was deeply moved. Pratt’s appreciation won the author’s trust and she remained a touchstone figure in Laurence’s life.

Pratt was most vivacious with the spirited poet Irving Layton. Pratt worked with Layton on four volumes issued by McClelland & Stewart, the first of which was the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning A Red Carpet for the Sun (1959).

Layton sought Pratt’s opinion of his poetry. He tested her patience by continually revising a manuscript until the moment it was forwarded to the printers. He bartered constantly: if he were to remove one poem from a collection, might he replace it with another? He also enriched Pratt’s professional life and offered some of the most heartfelt expressions of thanks she received over the course of her career, even an ode glorifying “Saint Claire.”

§

Anna Porter, publisher

Following a similar path taken decades earlier by Irene Clarke, Anna Porter (born in 1943) became the first woman to head a Canadian publishing company devoted to English-language non-fiction trade books. In 1979, she co-founded Key Porter Books, and then in 1982 assumed the lead as publisher of the firm.

Today, non-fiction is a popular and steadily growing genre that appeals to a wide audience. When Porter established her company, however, she broke new ground by rejecting fiction in favour of the expanding category of non-fiction.

Porter pursued journalist Allan Fotheringham, whose Malice in Blunderland or, How the Grits Stole Christmas (1982) was Key Porter’s first best-selling title and the first of Fotheringham’s six books to be issued by the press.

The crusty Farley Mowat was one of Key Porter’s more outspoken and popular authors. Mowat and Porter shared a long and fruitful connection characterised by impassioned and vigorous debate and reconciliation.

§

Bella Pomer, literary agent

Bella Pomer (born in 1926) established her own literary agency in 1978. One of Canada’s first agents, she was undaunted by the prospect of entering a burgeoning field that soon was dominated by a cluster of women based in Toronto.

Bella Pomer at a party celebrating her achievements, June 2015. Photo: Peter Rehak/Facebook

Pomer’s most prominent client was Carol Shields. Their agency agreement lasted 20 years, from 1982 to 2002. Pomer’s vision and tenacity helped shape Shields’s career.

When Pomer placed The Stone Diaries with Random House of Canada in 1993 – after 11 lean years of representing Shields – the response was immediate. Critics and readers alike were intrigued by the novel’s structure and captivated by its elusive protagonist, Daisy Goodwill. It was short-listed for the Booker Prize and went on to win the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Soon, Pomer was handling the countless administrative details that increased exponentially in the wake of The Stone Diaries. She orchestrated US, British and foreign publication of all of Shields’s books, ensuring that each edition received individual attention. She negotiated with publishers and sub-agents to secure handsome royalty advances for Shields’s subsequent books.

As a top agent, Pomer was more than a professional who shared in Shields’s triumph. She was also an attentive listener, an ally and a strong defender of Shields.

Pomer’s business approach to her many book deals was a boon to writers. With understanding and skill, she brokered better terms and royalty advances for her clients and sold their work outside of Canada. Such intervention succeeded in altering Canadian publishers’ negative perception of agents. More importantly, it helped reform dated practices that favoured publishers over authors.

Clarke, Pratt, Porter and Pomer were among the women who changed the face of Canadian publishing. Their achievements, which resonate in today’s highly charged publishing environment, deserve our attention.

Ruth Panofsky, professor, Department of English, Ryerson University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Trinamool Must Check Its Own Intolerance to Counter the Rise of BJP in Bengal

Only if democracy is restored in Bengal can all healthy secular parties fight communalism as a joint campaign. 

I have no love lost for any of the four major political parties that I have interacted with in Bengal in the last half-century. I joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1975 during the Emergency, and I have seen at close quarters how democracy was trampled by the Congress in Bengal – with the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, arbitrary arrests and detentions by the police and widespread clampdown on free speech and political rights.

I worked under the Left Front for 23 of its 34 years and witnessed firsthand the growth of a one-party state and how the opposition was ostracised and hounded at every level.

Our initial enthusiasm for the land reforms introduced by the Left for establishing socioeconomic justice dampened when we saw the devastating effects of their depredations at the village level. Every opponent was crushed by ruthless party cadres on motorbikes and the emerging mafias. Their extra-cosy relation with dubious businessmen was an open secret.

I was in Delhi when the tragedies at Nandigram and Singur happened and Mamata Banerjee swept the polls in 2011, but I kept very close track of my home state and its happenings. By the time I returned to Kolkata in 2016, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had been in power for over five years and already a veritable terror. It had not only mastered the art of crushing all opposition from the Leftists, but had even bettered all in this game. Naturally, my conscience did not permit me to join their government in any advisory position in spite of hints and offers.

Also read | Repressed Histories Shed Light on the Right-Wing’s Growth in Bengal

I say all this because I fear for my state and my country more now than ever before. Has Bengal really and decisively voted for communalism like the rest of India, except perhaps Kerala and Punjab? Has it finally succumbed to the lure of Hindutva and right-wing intimidation?

The rise of BJP

Many have been trying to understand what really happened in the Lok Sabha polls of April-May 2019, where the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, going up from its 2014 performance of just two seats. This gave the TMC chills, as its seat count went down drastically from 34 to 22. Had it not managed to claw an additional 3.5% vote share this time (its earlier share was 40.3%), the BJP may have overtaken it. After all, the BJP caught up with the TMC’s vote share, going up from its 22.2% of 2014 to 40.2% this time around.

The Left was wiped out, losing both the seats it held in 2014. Its vote share went down to a miserable 6.3%. The Congress lost two of its earlier seats but managed to win two. 

However, before we declare that the BJP is surely going to drive Banerjee out in the next assembly polls two years from now – if not earlier – we need to understand that it is not a Hindu communal wave that is sweeping Bengal at present, as the yes-sir media is making it out to be. The BJP is winning not solely because of the Modi factor but because of some terrible mistakes that Banerjee has made.

In Bengal, the BJP is now, in fact, a conglomerate of desperate Leftists, Congress and even ex-Trinamool supporters who have regrouped under its protection, on the comfort of immunity that they figure they will get because of the party controlling the Central government and the para-military forces. TMC’s hitherto-unchallenged muscle power everywhere is facing an equally violent challenge – for the first time.

The sheer belligerence of the sword-wielding goons on motorbikes carrying saffron flags and fearsome blood-red tilaks on their forehead may gladden many, because finally, some group is giving the ruffians of the Trinamool Congress a run for their money. But we must also realise the long-term implications.

Devotees and supporters of BJP participate in a procession to celebrate Ram Navami festival in Kolkata. Photo: PTI

TMC versus BJP

How on earth can Banerjee blame the Congress of dynastic politics when she herself foists her own nephew as her successor and the most powerful man in Bengal? She is single and lives in humble circumstances, making the poor man’s hawai chappal her trademark, but if half the stories one hears about the other person are true, well, he sure lives it up.

Her government is certainly no less autocratic than Modi’s, so many voters prefer one over the other. At least the BJP puts up an attitude of zero tolerance to corruption. The TMC, however, has no such pretensions. The Saradha and Rose Valley scandals are just two glaring examples, and the timely exposé by some Machiavelli’s Narada channel sting operation revealed that the TMC leaders who were caught on camera took raw cash quite nonchalantly. Instead of taking action against them – many of them have been sent to jail thanks to the unrelenting pursuit of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate – Mamata defended them tooth and nail. They win elections anyway, but the party’s image is bruised.

The BJP also manages its funding with more finesse and does not make a fetish of picking up petty lakhs from shady businessmen, because the real big fat cats come to it, laden with booty. It was recently reported that the BJP received nearly Rs 600 crore in six years from DLF, a controversial realty behemoth (derogatorily called a ‘promoter’ in Bengal), and a Bharti-backed trust of the Airtel-Mittals.

Other RTI-based reports indicate that nearly 95% of the highly opaque donations under the controversial electoral bonds scheme went to the BJP from 2016 onwards, and the remaining crumbs were thrown at all other parties put together. A fresh report by the Association for Democratic Reforms suggests that in the last two years, the BJP has received a maximum donation of Rs 915.6 crore, which forms 94% of the total donations to political parties in the last two financial years.

TMC’s high-handedness

One can have absolutely no objection to a democratic rightist government like Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s, but it is frightening to see how dangerous communal forces are actually being propelled to power in Bengal by the TMC’s high-handedness. In spite of all odds, my first submission is that there is still hope left for a tolerant, secular state. But tolerance must first come from the ruling party as, on the one hand, it professes this where religious communities are concerned and practices complete intolerance where democratic politics is concerned.

The manner in which the ruling party hounded every political worker from the opposition parties over the last eight years is quite unparalleled. We must remember that while the Congress’s excesses brought in the Left and the Left’s ‘terror’ brought in the TMC, all of them were – or are – steadfast believers in pluralism and secularism.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress head Mamata Banerjee. Photo: PTI

It is a different matter altogether that the cult of political violence never seems to leave this state, once bombs and pistols were taken up by nationalist radicals called the ‘Bengal Terrorists,’ and then against the British – more than a century ago. All said and done, none of the three secular parties has ever threatened to split this nation down the middle – with swords and trishuls – as the BJP-RSS combine does, and drive us to a permanent state of emergency and terror.

Also read | As BJP and Trinamool Fight It Out, Who Will Save Bengal from Political Violence?

The four decades that my generation of administrators worked for the nation were those that began with Naga and Mizo insurgencies, which are quite fearsome to recall; through the upheavals when Assam and Punjab were determined to secede from India (we faced “Indian dogs, get out!” in both states), while Kashmir and Naxalite areas were always on the boil – but state repression was less.

We had to tackle many other threats to the Indian union, in our own different ways. Quite a few in my batch of IAS officers died in service, mainly from stress and suicide, while some paid the price with other breakdowns. This happens with other civil servants and more with policemen as well, especially those who follow the constitution and their conscience. It is now incumbent on us to hold India together.

How TMC is digging its own grave

The TMC has to realise it is digging its grave with its political intolerance. The same police that currently does its every bidding – including filing false cases against opponents – will be the first one to hound them if the government changes. Only an immediate relief from concocted police cases to its political opponents, including the BJP, would allow thousands of Left and Congress workers to return home.

Trinamool Congress workers take part in an election campaign. Credit: PTI

Trinamool Congress workers take part in an election campaign. Photo: PTI

Many political workers who left their own parties to take shelter under the BJP banner may even return to their natural political inclinations. Unless the secular parties reach some sort of understanding, the saffron wave looks unstoppable. And no one will heed Banerjee’s appeal to the non-BJP parties to come together unless she gives up her policy to exterminate all opposition, including parties wedded to secularism long before she arrived.

The chief minister must also stop going overboard in her attempt to appear pro-Muslim as this is being misunderstood by the majority Hindu community. The BJP pounces on her as being anti-Hindu and this impression is being systematically encouraged and amplified by a ruthless social media and whisper campaign. As the last election proved, and she is almost powerless against this new tsunami.

Many a time, her party and government have been accused of sheltering Muslim terrorists and extremists – which is unforgivable, if true. Some news items reported that even Bangladesh had asked India to investigate links between the Muslim radical Jamaat-e-Islami and the Trinamool Congress.

Also watch | Is the 2019 Election Proof That the Bengal Renaissance Has Failed?

In the greater interest of Muslims and all others, she must stop being so tolerant of the ‘excesses’ and criminal activities of a handful of Muslims, who find no support in their own community and only give the TMC a bad name. This powerful charge against her is damaging the cause of secularism in Bengal and will ultimately harm the same Muslims she walks that extra mile to protect. She may also like to cut down on her optics of wearing a ‘hijab’ and plastering this visual everywhere, as no one is challenging her secularism. Only this will save the Muslims of Bengal from sure doom. Other visible measures like covering beef and pork meat that are openly on sale from public view may actually help the state retain its sanity.

TMC’s fragmented structure

Besides, the TMC is badly, and perhaps deliberately, fragmented into dangerous rival camps. At the level of an assembly constituency or the Panchayat Samiti (erstwhile block), the party has at least eight to ten rival leaders and camps that are at daggers drawn position. It is only the ‘high command’ that is holding the peace and it allocates to each warlord which section of voters’ support they must procure during different elections, or quit. 

Many feel that the chief reason for making a dreadful mockery of the panchayat elections last year was the TMC’s fear of losing even a single grassroots vote bank, because that would mean that money from schemes and muscle-power would move away. Banerjee has to find a way out of this and she appears to have taken the first step with her ‘cut money’ announcement. She has recently directed her supporters to return the ‘cut money’ that they squeezed from beneficiaries of the welfare schemes, which is, indeed a bold but desperate step.

But this may take care of only a part of the problem. Political observers say that the very political structure of the TMC depends on local satraps, many of who extort money from businessmen and even common citizens, while her party’s panchayat leaders defraud her much-publicised government schemes.

Unlike the Congress, the Trinamool (as its name ‘grassroots’ suggests) could build up grassroots support through local clubs and by procuring the backing of most organisers of community pujas – to challenge the all-powerful ‘local committees’ of the Left Front. This helped her finally remove the invincible Marxists who ruled Bengal for 34 long years.

Also read | While Bengal Is in Turmoil, Men Explain Marxism to Me

She had to encourage some puja or the other every month so that these clubs and the various factions of her local base could raise ‘donations’ and please their voters with gala evenings of songs and feasting. Though she pampered these clubs with more than Rs 600 crores of doles and permitted their excesses, this solid support base may switch to the Hindu party if they enrich and empower them more. While she extended her single-party rule more and more every month, with assured grassroots support of the party and police.

The BJP in Bengal is basically a conglomerate of all disgruntled political leaders. Credit: Reuters

When I go to villages, I am told of well-organised rackets of siphoning money from the NREGA scheme that ensures a hundred days’ employment to the poorest, through false or dubious ‘job cards’ of beneficiaries. Many spoke of corruption in possibly all anti-poverty schemes. The illegal mining of coal in western Bengal and sand from river beds everywhere is done in broad daylight. Officers look the other way, as they have no choice – no one wants to be a ‘martyr’ by standing up to the government. Many are wondering how to get out of this mess, as this habit of making money appears to be unstoppable.

The richest party in the history of India is adding fuel to the fire by throwing money all around in this do-or-die battle in Bengal. It is common knowledge that local businessmen and those from the ‘up-country states’ sponsor Ram-Hanuman pujas and will do anything for the Hindu cause. There is proof of more electoral bonds being sold in Kolkata than elsewhere, obviously to finance this operation in Bengal.

Even so, Banerjee has to give up her recent temptation to arouse Bengali nationalism to counter the BJP’ Hindu-Hindi image. Bengal is one of the very few states where parochial movements were never encouraged or popular, and the respect that its people have for plurality and secularism should remain unsullied and non-negotiable.

The BJP in Bengal is basically a conglomerate of all disgruntled political leaders, workers and local toughs of all shades who are against the TMC for their own reasons – rife with internal tensions and quarrels. The only way to tackle the terror and counter-terror that rocks the state every day is to realise what is the ‘primary contradiction’ and what is really secondary.

Only if democracy is restored in Bengal can all healthy secular parties fight communalism as a joint campaign. That campaign must be won, to save Bengal and India.

Jawhar Sircar is a retired civil servant.

Ghana’s Constitution Is Meant to Protect the Media, But Does It?

The state in Ghana still justifies taking steps that amount to suppression of the media.

Between 1957 – the year Ghana won independence from British – and 1992 the country had three civilian heads of state interspersed with several military rulers. But that year it finally embraced democratic rule and adopted a constitution.

One of the areas of protection the new constitution offered was the independence of the media and of expression. But are these enforced? And has the media felt their positive impact?

In my PhD thesis published four years ago, I explored whether Ghana’s constitution had lived up to the promise set out in Chapter 12, Articles 162 and 163 in relation to media freedom. I concluded that though the Ghanaian constitution had made some positive impacts, there were still some shortfalls. These included the media’s lack of a right to information.

I also observed that archaic laws still existed in the statute books and that the courts were imposing huge court fines which were crippling media outlets.

Two years ago, I published a study that showed that the constitution had indeed marked a turning point for media liberalisation. It led to increased private ownership participation and broke the “culture of silence” around particular subjects.

The issue of media freedom, and the ability of journalists to be able to do their jobs without fear, has been in the headlines again recently following the arrest of two journalists by members of the national security forces. Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and Emmanuel Britwum, who work for ModernGhana, were accused of hacking competitor emails as well as writing articles deemed offensive to the minister of national security.

Kwaku Addi, the Publisher of private newspaper, Today Ghana News recently expressed concern about recent attacks – including this one – on the media. He listed the fact that journalists had been assaulted, kidnapped, beaten and lynched. He also mentioned the fact that many media houses had been closed down. He wrote:

135 critical media houses have been closed down, including Radio Gold and Radio XZY, two journalists killed (Ahmed Suale and a lady in Ahafo Region), one investigative journalist (Manasseh Azzure Awuni) has been forced into exile, and one reporter in Upper West region (Emmanuel Adati) is in hiding to save his life.

These trends show that the 1992 constitution had good intentions. Yet the state continues to capitalise on what it calls the “national interest” and “national security” to justify taking steps that amount to suppression of the media.

The constitution

Prior to the passing of the 1992 constitution, none of the country’s laws guaranteed media freedom in such extensive terms. This freedom covers all Ghanaian and gives the legal basis to challenge efforts to curtail media freedom. The constitution also led to dramatic changes in the landscape.

Prior to its passing, Ghana media had been dominated by well-established state-owned media houses. The constitution enabled growth in the private media sector as the newspaper licensing law was repealed, opening up the newspaper space. Private radio stations and television stations also sprung up. This in turn opened the door to much more critical coverage and debates.

Also read: Journalism and the Media’s Crisis of Credibility in an Age of Strident Nationalism

The private media sector gradually began to make its presence felt.

Local radio stations and newspapers with national coverage rapidly sprang up and were accessible to almost every district of Ghana. This meant that front-page news exposing corruption in Ghana became common. And journalists began to ensure that the public was fed information about government, businesses and other state interests in a way that opened these sectors to scrutiny.

The phasing out of government monopolies ushered in a new era of free expression. Ghana’s informal environment began to expand due to press liberalisation in ways that previously were unimaginable.

These developments confirm the assertion that a symbiotic relationship between media freedom and democratisation does exist.

But the paradox of the country’s constitution is that Ghana continues to have laws that can be used to curtain media freedom. One example was the Criminal Libel Law which remained in place for nine years before its abrogation after fierce protests.

A another example is that it took until this year for the country to pass a right to information law . This will only come into effect in 2020.

This goes to show that media freedom was granted with unwilling undertones.

Other archaic laws remain on the statute books. These include the Official Secrets Acts, Emergency Powers Acts 472 and the Criminal Code 1960. These laws allow the judiciary and other state agencies – like the police – to hinder a true expression of press freedom.

Another thorny and unresolved issue is the role of National Media Commission. One of its functions is to promote and ensure the freedom and independence of the media. Even though it’s existed since 1993, it has been incapacitated by a weak enforcement framework.

This leaves open the question of who fights for the fourth estate in Ghana.The Conversation

Jacob Nyarko, Lecturer of Communication Studies, University of Cape Coast

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Remembering Arun Kumar Roy, a True Leader of Workers and Peasants

Former Lok Sabha MP and founder of Marxist Coordination Committee, A.K. Roy was well-known for his simplicity and humility, and for consistently fighting for his staunchly socialist ideals.

Arun Roy, who passed away on July 20, 2019, was the noblest person among all my contemporary friends in India and abroad. He was born on June 15, 1935, in Rajshahi district. Both his parents were involved in the independence movement. Arun was my classmate in the Intermediate Science class in Belur Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira during 1951-52. I had heard that he had gone home in February 1952 and had been jailed for a few days for taking part in the Language Movement.

We came to know each other better when we both took part in the strike against the raising of seat rents in college hostels. After that, I was more or less forced to leave college. I returned to Presidency College but Arun stayed on. Later, I heard that he had passed MSc in Applied Chemistry –the equivalent of chemical engineering – and joined the Planning and Development (P&D) division of the Fertiliser Corporation of India at Sindhri.

I learnt from two sources that he had become involved in the trade union movement. One was a newspaper report, and the other was from Kshitish Ranjan Chakrabarty, the former director of P&D division who had become my colleague in the State Planning Board of West Bengal government. The latter told me that Arun was a good scientist and a sincere worker. However, when Arun became highly involved in the trade union movement, Chakrabarty advised him to leave his job and take up politics full time – which he did.

The next time I saw Arun was when I went to give a talk at the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research in Dhanbad. When I went to meet Arun in his small office through a narrow lane, I found the entire lane watching me and my guide – because the people of the locality knew that Arun was a target of the coal mafia, whom he had partly neutralised.

The next time I met him was at the Kolkata Book Fair at the beginning of 1992 for a memorial meeting for Shankar Guha Niyogi, who had been assassinated by the mining and liquor mafia of the Dhalli Rajhara region on September 28, 1991. During the meeting, it began to rain. Somebody gave me an umbrella, but every time I tried to hold it on Arun’s head, he pushed it away. After the meeting, I took him home for a talk. He then said that he had told his comrades in the Marxist Coordination Committee – which he founded after being expelled from the CPI (M), mainly for writing in Samar Sen’s Frontier – that the people they worked for had to work under the sun and in the rain without an umbrella. He also complained that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, of which he was a co-founder, had turned into an utterly corrupt party under Shibu Soren.

I met him again in the early 2000s in his brother’s house in Kasba, Kolkata for medical treatment because his blood sugar had climbed to 800. He complained that the CPI (M), in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, had opposed the candidature of Guru Das Chatterjee, who, in spite of that, was elected to the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, but was murdered by the coal mafia soon after.

His 90-year-old mother and I pleaded with him that as a scientist, he should regard his body to be properly looked after. Arun thus lived until this year, although he had been suffering from ill health for the last two years.

The next time I heard about him was in January 2014, when I saw a report in Hindustan Times saying that the three-time MP from Dhanbad, A. K. Roy, who was living in the house of a comrade, had been rendered a pauper, because he was robbed of his only possession, an HMT watch and his savings of Rs 2,600. When asked by the HT reporter about Arun’s reaction, he said with a grin: ‘They [the robbers] were perhaps more needy”.

When my wife, Jasodhara read the report, she asked me to send him some money. My reply was: “How dare I send money to somebody who always sends his MP pension – his only income – to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund”.

I now turn to the evidence of three others who have written about or interviewed him. One is Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, who interviewed Arun when he was already an MP. She had expected him to alight from a car, instead, Arun got down from a rickshaw. Mukhopadhyay described him as a catalyst, not a commander.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta interviewed him and included the interview in a video of the Dhanbad Coal belt, perhaps in the 1990s. What I remember from that video is his relentless fight for the rights of the coal miners and the Adivasis of that area, and the fact that he lived in a thatched cottage without a fan – because the people he worked for did not have fans.

Now, I turn to the evidence of Ajit Roy, a Marxist who was an employee of the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta:

“…if at all there is any evolving overall presence of the Marxist or leftist traditions here in this district, the subsequent chapter of this after the conclusion of the previous chapter in Purulia in the fifties, must have taken shape in Dhanbad in the mid-sixties, through the sole enterprise of the patriarchal, diligent, virtuous, fearless and dauntless leader of Marxist Coordination Committee Arun Kumar Roy.

Roy Babu’s endeavours in and around the rural and mining belts of Dhanbad was largely peaceful but he was not averse to armed struggles when needed, to organize the peasants and the serf, empowering these have-nots with the owner ship of farmland and cattles and to fulfil the rightful demands of the workers. His popularity and influence kept swelling in the villages, agricultural farms, factories and mills and coalfields because of his honesty, uprightness, undying efforts, organisational skill and indominable spirit.

A true leader of workers and peasants was emerging fast which roiled the collective psyche of Dusadhs, Chamars, Telis, Kurmis, Rajwars, Ghatwals, Santhals, Mundas, tribals, even the Bengalis of Hirapur. Dhanbad had never had a leader of such stature. One by one rising leaders like Binod Bihari Mahato, Anand Mahato, Shibu Soren, Nirmal Mahato, Kripa Shankar Chatterjee, Gurudas Chatterjee etc. assembled under his banner, most of whom later on left their signature amongst people as acclaimed leaders. Spectre of the huge popularity of communism and the growing stature of A K Roy haunted even Indira Gandhi into desperation. Her ‘line’ was unmistakably defined.

She had directed Chief Minister Gafur in a confidential memo to imprison the rioting communists and anti-Congress elements enmesh but leave alone the tribal or Jharkhandi activists of the mining areas. A U Sharma, the then DC of Dhanbad was a personal friend of Roy Babu, he read Indira’s letter to him and alerted him that he was under constant surveillance. During Emergency, Roy Babu was jailed very often and for about 6 years he was relegated into inaction. Shibu Soren also was imprisoned during the period but was released shortly.

He went into an alliance with Congress. However, the alliance proved to be a red herring, neither Shibu, nor Congress could reap any benefit from it. Roy Babu won the Parliamentary Election of 1977 with a huge margin with the support of Jai Prakash Narayan and the Janata Party. He won the election of 1980 also. Uptil now, Roy Babu had commanded the support of different Jharkhandi, left and Janata alliance in the electoral frays. He continually won three Assembly and two Parliamentary elections.”

Finally, I will try to provide some idea of Arun’s perspective on the world, with the help of two articles in Frontier. The first was published on December 18, 1969, and is titled ‘Communists – simple, Marxist and revolutionary’. It is a clinical analysis of the views of the CPI, CPI(M) and the newly-formed CPI (ML). To quote Arun:

“According to the CPI, the State power in India is essentially concentrated in the hands of the national bourgeoisie – may be represented by Indira Gandhi – who are under increasing pressure from the big bourgeoisi – may be represented so far by Morarji Desai – who are in turn progressively collaborating with foreign imperialists. So the CPI advocates ‘National Democracy’ in which it would share power with the ‘first’ by displacing the ‘second’.So yesterday, there was the Gandhi-Desai government, next would come a Dange-Gandhi government, and then a pure Dange government…. As the national bourgeoisie have the State power, there is bourgeois democratic freedom in the country, and the scope of parliamentary politics negates any need for extra-parliamentary methods and underground activities.

The CPI(M) holds that the State power essentially rests with the big bourgeoisie and their junior partner – landlords – who are in the process of surrendering to the imperialists. The national bourgeoisie, if any, are only of subsidiary importance.. That means that Desai and Gandhi are only the two containers of the same content. So the struggle will be not for sharing power but for wresting power but for wresting power from the present ruling class and for putting the workers not as a partner but at the leadership as conceived in ‘People’s Democracy’…. So the obvious course of action would be a cautious mixture of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary methods with the latter steadily increasing.

The CPI (ML) differs with the CPI(M) intensely, but only in tense. There can be no two opinions that the big bourgeoisie are firmly saddled in the country but the process of surrendering has reached its end and they have in essence a comprador bourgeoisie. There is no independent bourgeoisie: so there is no bourgeois democratic freedom. And so election is treason: parliament a farce. …The line of action should be only extra-parliamentary. The organisation should be built only underground….”

Arun concludes:

“Apart from possibilities of mutual adjustment in the communist movement , which may come because of the sharp political polarisation, the correctness of individual lines can only be tested with the coming events. If the bourgeoisie will have the power to yield concessions, the present show of limping democracy will continue, the CPI(M) will come close to CPI in its actions. If the owning class does not have the means, it would steadily start disintegrating and the political crisis would deepen, taking a fascist turn with all its consequences.The CPI would be caught napping, the CPI(M) will have to underground and the difference with the Naxalites would be lessened. But if the country is already in the neo-colonial stage, then at any time the present balance would go and the CPI completely and the major part of the CPI (M) would be eliminated and only the underground Naxalites would surface to direct the communist movement in India”.

What is interesting about this analysis is its undogmatic and contingent nature. He only considers the possibilities of political development and draws out the consequences. In his other piece in Frontier, titled ‘Vote and Revolution’ published on March 6, 1971, Arun makes clear his stance on the subject of elections. He opens with the statement:

“Universal suffrage, supposed to be no mean achievement for a newly independent country like India, has become answerable, as is clear from the weariness writ large on the faces of the people during the election campaign. Increased percentage of polling does not indicate the victory of the politics of polling but only greater consciousness narrowing the zone of the non=political. The vote means no revolution: this is the bomb Naxalites have thrown in the politics of India.”

Arun concludes by writing:

“The only slogan that can put this vote to the cause of revolution is the call to the people to reject the Constitution based on the right to property as the fundamental right and to substitute it by one based the right to work as the fundamental right. This will bring forth a revolutionary polarisation: on the one side people with property, and on the other people without work. … As the Naxalites have divided Indian politics into two – Vote or Revolution – the issue of private property would divide the political parties into two – Vote for Revolution or Vote for Reform – and turn the election into referendum.”

In fact, Arun went to jail several times in pursuit of his staunchly socialist ideals, and at the same time, fighting elections successfully several times.

Amiya Kumar Bagchi is a distinguished economist whose books include The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, Private Investment in India 1900-1939 and Colonialism and the Indian Economy.

What Should India Take Away From the ‘Mauritius Leaks’? 

Despite tax treaties and attempts at plugging loopholes, the idyllic island nation continues to play a major role in contributing towards the global illicit economy.

A new investigation called the ‘Mauritius Leaks’ was released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) earlier this week.

Based on 2,00,000 confidential records obtained from the Mauritius office of the Bermuda-based offshore law firm Conyers Dill & Pearman, the leaks reveal how the island nation’s sophisticated financial and legal systems facilitate tax abuse by diverting tax revenue from developing African, Arab and Asian countries to line the pockets of powerful multinational corporations and oligarchs – while simultaneously benefitting Mauritius. 

The Mauritius Leaks come at a time when there is an outcry against the inherent rot in the global financial system that affords a tight lid of secrecy to multinational corporations and the elite as they sidestep their social responsibility to avoid taxes and violate regulations and norms. Secrecy jurisdictions like Mauritius commodify the reach of their own national sovereignty to undermine and diminish the sovereignty of other nations. 

In India, the Vodafone tax avoidance case threw up the role played by some of the world’s most devious tax havens, including Mauritius, in helping companies avoid taxes payable to the Indian state. Moreover, Mauritius’s significant role in serving as a key jurisdiction for routing foreign direct investment (FDI), as well as round-tripping Indian funds back into India, to mask their origin is well documented too. 

About 22% of the total entities – after adjusting data for defunct entities – disclosed by the Mauritius Leaks have India as their only or one of the countries of activity.

This includes high-profile names like GMR Holdings, Apollo Hospitals, Jindal Steel and Power and Kolte-Patil Developers. In statements put out on Wednesday, the companies have pointed out that all their corporate structuring was done in compliance with Indian law and regulation.

Making the offshore leap 

From being an idyllic island nation, Mauritius made a concerted decision to follow in the footsteps of numerous British Crown Dependencies and transformed itself into an offshore financial centre starting in 1989. Seeking to diversify its largely agrarian economy, Mauritius positioned itself as a jurisdiction of choice for multinational corporations and investors looking to invest in Africa.

Through the enactment of the Mauritius Offshore Business Activity Act (1992) to govern the country’s offshore financial services sector, it paved the way for foreign companies to incorporate subsidiaries with the limited public disclosure, extremely low tax rates and a high degree of secrecy and asset protection. 

Also read: The Myth of the Mauritian ‘Miracle’

By creating an intricate network of bilateral investment, tax and trade treaties with mostly developing countries, Mauritius proceeded to build one of the most aggressive offshore regimes in Africa, thus monopolising investment flows into the continent. 

Along with offering low taxes, the network of Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (IPPAs), commonly known as Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), essentially protects and allows foreign-owned holding companies to become Mauritian resident companies. This incentivises businesses and investors to invest in other regions, mainly Africa and Asia, while operating under the garb of the Mauritian flag. 

Often detailing taxing rights, these treaties constrict the taxing rights of developing countries, as profits are shifted to low-tax jurisdictions such as Mauritius – thus depriving developing countries of the revenue they rightfully deserve. The IPPA network provides measures against any efforts towards expropriation and nationalisation by partner countries. Due to the very nature of IPPAs, countries often end up losing money by way of litigation, penalties and compensation if the investors are unable to recover the investment made. 

Despite evidence that double taxation agreements (DTAs) cause considerable and unnecessary loss of revenue from developing countries, resource-strapped low-income countries are especially forced into entering unfair and unjust treaties to attract FDI in the absence of any alternatives. 

Because of how tax agreements are generally negotiated, residence country (usually a developed country) ends up receiving a larger chunk of taxing profits against the country where economic value is actually created (usually a developing country). It is common for multinational corporations to indulge in treaty shopping to avoid their tax liabilities, as is showcased in the leaks too.

Challenging the broken system

In mid-2018, the Indian capital markets regulator, SEBI curated a list of 25 high-risk jurisdictions which included Mauritius. Invoking an immediate reaction from the government of Mauritius, SEBI had to issue a statement reassuring the Mauritian government that no such list has been made.

For over 30 years, firms have been able to avoid paying capital gains taxes on sale using the Mauritius-India DTAA signed in 1982 as proven by the leaks. In 2016, India revised this 33-year old DTAA with Mauritius, which effectively saw a 55% decline in FDI inflows in 2018 compared from 2017. Even though India began the renegotiation process of BITs with a new model, older treaties that are yet to reach their expiry can still be revoked by investors for claims.

For furthering accountability on part of foreign investors and combatting anti-money laundering activities, India should expand its ‘significant beneficial interest’ disclosure at 10% and KYC norms to entities like limited liability partnerships, trusts, foundations, cooperative societies and associations too especially for investments routed through high-risk jurisdictions. Lobbying groups have vehemently opposed this measure.

For the first time in history, there is global momentum to crackdown on nefarious activities that enable financial secrecy and tax abuse. Mauritius has been under immense international pressure to reinvent its image as a “treaty-centric” jurisdiction, since being implicated in various leaks over the years and being targeted in tax haven lists.

However, offshore trusts in Mauritius for example, are still not mandated to disclose annual financial reports which are a major instrument used for obscuring ownership, dodging taxes and hiding undisclosed wealth. 

What we can see clearly is that it continues to play a major role in contributing toward the global illicit economy despite claims of being a transparent regime. This is corroborated not only by the secrecy score of 72.3 out of 100 it received in the Financial Secrecy Index of 2018 but the Corporate Tax Haven Index of 2019 also ranked Mauritius at 14 out of 64 jurisdictions which ranks world’s most important tax havens. 

While the leaks are of particular importance because of their targeted and disproportionate impact on developing countries in Africa, Arab and Asia, singling out Mauritius is not the answer to challenging this broken financial system. 

The loss of revenue through illicit activities has serious implications for developing countries and cannot be achieved without a fair and transparent system that works for everyone. It is, therefore, imperative to level this uneven playing field with an intergovernmental tax commission where developing countries are able to negotiate, inform and operate rules on international tax on an equal footing.

Sakshi Rai and Neeti Biyani work with Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), New Delhi on issues of tax justice, financial secrecy and illicit financial flows. They can be reached at sakshi@cbgaindia.org and neeti@cbgaindia.org respectively.

With inputs from Suraj Jaiswal who also works with CBGA, New Delhi.

‘RTI Bill Shrouded in Secrecy, How Will it Enhance Transparency?’ Ask Former CICs

Former commissioners urged citizens to oppose the amendments tooth and nail as they would impact people’s right to know.

New Delhi: A number of former information commissioners came forward on Wednesday to criticise the attempts by the Narendra Modi government to rush the RTI Amendment Bill, 2019, through the parliament without following a proper consultation process. They also cautioned that, if passed, the amendment would weaken the transparency law – rated the second-best in the world – by diminishing the stature of the information commissioners who perform the important role of directing the bureaucracy to reveal the information sought by citizens.

The former information commissioners aired their views a day after the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP enjoys a complete majority, and on a day when the party was forced to rethink its introduction in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill was not moved in the Upper House in the wake of Biju Janata Dal and Telangana Rashtra Samiti – which together have 13 members – deciding to oppose it. The NDA has 116 members in the Rajya Sabha, still five short of a majority.

In a categorical appeal, the former commissioners urged citizens to oppose the amendments tooth and nail as they would impact their right to know.

Bill pushed in an opaque manner

At the conference organised by RTI activists, Anjali Bhardwaj of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information said 15 political parties have thus far opposed the Bill through which the Centre seeks to control the salaries and tenures of the information commissioners in both the central and state information commissions.

She accused the Centre of pushing the amendment in an opaque manner. “There is no information in the public domain about the amendments.”

Bhardwaj said, “People file RTI applications to seek information about all sorts of issues ranging from rations to foreign travels of PMO to big-ticket corruption.” The amendments, she claimed, “were a clear attempt to undermine the autonomy of the commissions.”

She said while the minister stated that the government is not going to downgrade the salaries or tenures, “there is nothing in law for preventing them from doing so”.

‘Modi talks of fighting corruption, but weakening institution doing that’

The first chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah questioned the necessity for this amendment. “Have the information commissioners failed to deliver or not exercised their authority? I think they should be given more authority.”

“Modi speaks about fighting corruption. Here is a commission which has been doing just that by helping people get information from various government departments. But instead of strengthening the information commissions, the Centre is bent upon undermining their powers,” he said.

Also read: Amending the RTI Act Is About Cutting Troublesome Citizens Down to Size

He said there was a defect in the amendment which has been brought and claimed that the minister of state in PMP, Jitendra Singh, who introduced it in the Lok Sabha, was “very weak on facts”. Habibullah said the draft is not in keeping with the norm and presented an “absurd argument” to say that the Central Information Commission is not a constitutional body.

‘Like EC, CIC also performing constitutional duty of providing information’

“The Election Commission is a constitutional authority because elections are a constitutional right. Similarly, the right to information has been held in various rulings by the Supreme Court to be a fundamental right, and so the CIC is also a constitutional authority in that sense,” he said, while explaining how the amendment was flawed in seeking to discriminate between the EC and CIC by saying that the latter was only a statutory authority.

On the plea taken by the BJP that CIC’s rulings can be challenged in the Supreme Court, Habibullah explained: “You cannot appeal against orders of the CIC but can only move for judicial review”. He also cautioned that the amendment bill simply downgrades the status of information commissioners by seeking to reduce their salaries.

Habibullah also noted that if the Centre would control the salaries and tenures of information commissioners, it could impact their independent functioning. “If they are beholden to the government for salaries and tenures, they would certainly have second thoughts while dealing with the cases.”

‘More power, status was accorded to CIC to perform better’

Former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who was credited with disposing of a record number of cases in his tenure, said “no plausible reason has been given by the government for amending the RTI Act. It is one of the most powerful Acts for transparency and it is changing the nature of the country.”

He said it was wrong on the part of the Centre to say that the EC and CIC should not be at par when it came to salaries since the standing committee constituted to look into the RTI Act, 2005 had itself recommended giving more power to information commissioners so that they may be able to do their duties better.

Former central information commissioner, Deepak Sandhu said she feels proud that the RTI movement continues and the “RTI Act is alive and in the hands of the people.” However, she expressed concern at the manner in which the amendment bill was moved secretly “without any pre-legislative consultation at all – even though it is mandatory.”

‘Why government has different yardstick for CIC?’

Sandhu also spoke about how the Modi government, which had in 2017 rationalised and harmonised the salaries and post-retirement benefits of 19 statutory bodies – making their heads equivalent to the chief election commissioners – has adopted a different yardstick for the CIC.

“Why is it that the CIC is being identified and treated differently? Only two of these bodies deal with fundamental rights and the RTI is also a fundamental right. Therefore, the CIC should be allowed to remain independent as per the 2005 legislation,” she demanded.

Another former CIC, Yashovardhan Azad, said: “The RTI regime had been running for the last 15 years without any issues – but the government now wants to fix the salaries and tenures of the information commissioners. There has been no issue to trigger this. The government has not given any reason – fixing does not mean salaries and tenures would be increased, so they would be decreased.”

Also, he wondered, if different information commissioner would have different salaries and tenures if the Centre would fix these.

Azad also said while the CIC may not be a constitutional authority like the CEC, “both enforce a constitutional obligation under Article 19 (1)(a) of the constitution.”

Former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah addressing a press conference in the presence of former central information commissioners Yashovardhan Azad, Deepak Sandhu and M.M. Ansari. Photo: The Wire

‘Move violates spirit of federalism’

Azad also raided the issue of the amendment Bill going against the federal structure. “If the Bill is passed, it means that in the states they would be paying the salaries of their IC – which does not come out of the consolidated fund – but the Centra will fix it. Will the states allow this?”

Azad also spoke about how the RTI Act empowers lakhs of poor who file applications to know about issues pertaining to municipality, ration, power bills, housing and the like. “If the powers of the commissions are curbed and people are not able to get information, they would feel further victimised,” he said.

Azad said since information commissions seek to get information for the poor, it is important that they remain powerful so that the government officials listen to them. “Else, a message will go out that these commissions are not powerful enough.”

He said when Modi has to appeal to people to give suggestion for his Independence Day speech, he should also ensure that this amendment is debated properly before any action.

Also read: Opposition, Activists Join Hands in Protest Against RTI Amendment Bill

‘Autonomy of all constitutional bodies getting eroded’

Another CIC, M.M., Ansari, charged that there has been an erosion of autonomy of all constitutional bodies under the Modi rule. “Be it members of the judiciary, CBI or now the CIC, they have all been speaking about this.”

On the issue of parity between the CECs and CICs, he said: “One needs to look at the genesis as it was acknowledged by parliament that while the EC monitors the people’s right to vote, which is a constitutional right, the CIC would monitor their right to information, which is also a fundamental right.”

DD has stopped airing programme on Right to Information

Unfortunately, Ansari said, the Modi government has been trying to curb people’s right to seek information. He said the government departments have also not been disclosing information that should come under mandatory disclosure. “The government has even stopped a programme on Doordarshan, ‘Jannay ka Haq’, that made people aware of how to use the RTI Act.

‘Government empowers CVC, discriminates against and downgrades CIC’

Another former CIC, Annapurna Dixit said a few years ago, the Modi government equated the chief vigilance commissioner with the chairman of the Union Public Service Commission. She said CVC was recognised as an institution that upholds governance and exposes corruption.

But, she added, that while “the CIC also performs the same functions as the CVC, it is being discriminated against. Unlike CVC, which has only recommendatory powers, the CIC has greater powers and can even penalise the bureaucracy. So I feel that there is some kind of discrimination against the RTI Act as far as the Centre is concerned.”

Dixit said at a time when the Supreme Court has upheld the right to information as a constitutional right, the Modi government clearly wants to keep information behind closed doors. “It does not want the information to come out.”

‘Freedom of speech and expression under threat’

Former CIC Sridhar Acharyulu, who during his tenure gave some landmark rulings including on transparency around demonetisation and Modi’s degree, charged that “Not only the RTI, but freedom of speech and expression is also under threat.”

He said while the CIC is upholding the right to information, which is a constitutional right, the government wants to curtail its powers. “I want every citizen to oppose this Bill, it has to be abolished. It attacks the best legislation in the world, which is the RTI Act, and if it is passed, then the institution would be destroyed.”

Acharyulu said while the government’s argument is that the CIC is not a constitutional body, the fact is: “Whichever body enforces a constitutional right is a constitutional body”. He said more powers were provided to the CIC at the time of passage of RTI Act as it was felt that “unless you give it a high status – it would not be possible for information commissioners to direct senior bureaucrats to reveal information.”

He said the test of being a constitutional body does not lie in a writ being filed against its order in a court. “Independence lies in difficulty in removal of information commissioners. We could survive only because of that rule.”

‘How will Bill shrouded in secrecy enhance transparency?’

Acharyulu also noted that the phrase “as may be prescribed by the Centre” – that pertains to its powers to control salaries and tenures – was “a very dangerous expression”. “It is an executive order by which the Centre wants to control salaries and tenures of even state information commissioners,” he noted.

Finally, Acharyulu said that when any new policy is brought, it has to be explained to the people. “But no information about the RTI Amendment Bill was provided to anybody. It was kept as a top-secret. How do we expect such an amendment to help in providing information tomorrow?” he questioned.

How Many Indian Users Can Netflix Really Scoop up With Its Small Screen Discount? 

Netflix wants 100 million paying subscribers in India. It’s nowhere near that goal.

First, the problem. Last week, Netflix gave its investors a scare after reporting that it had lost subscribers in the US – its first net decline in its home market since 2011 – while signing up less than half the number of international users it had targeted for the quarter ended June 2019.

The company’s stock plunged 10% the day after its results were announced and has continued to fall since then, causing the streaming service to shed more than $24 billion in value over the course of just six days.

Enter, a hopeful solution. This week, in a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, Netflix formally announced that it would roll out a new subscription package for its Indian consumers that would cost just Rs 199 per month. This new price-point is almost Rs 300 less than its currently cheapest offering in India, a Rs 499 package that allows you to stream only in standard definition (SD) and watch only on a single screen.

The only catch? If you subscribe to the Rs 199 package, you can only watch Netflix on a small screen. This includes mobile phones and tablets – no laptop, desktop or television screens are allowed. The ability to ‘screencast’ the streaming service onto a TV through various devices is also not allowed under the new cheap package.

Who is this aimed at? Netflix wants 100 million paying subscribers in India. It’s nowhere near that goal. The introduction of a cheap, mobile-only package tells us that Netflix views its potential Indian customer base as three broad categories.

The first, ‘Category 1’ are users who watch Netflix only on large screens (laptops, desktop screens and on the TV). The second, ‘Category 2’ are people who watch on both large and small screens. These users primarily watch on a large screen, but in certain scenarios, watch on their smartphones too (while commuting or while in bed or in the bathroom).

The final group of customers, ‘Category 3’ are those users who only watch Netflix on their smartphones or tablets.

In the eyes of the company, users who belong to the first two categories are more likely to be people with higher disposable incomes but are not as numerous. ‘Category 3’ customers are users at the bottom of the pyramid, who consume a lot of online video content only through a smartphone. The problem is that most customers in this category either can’t afford Netflix’s existing price points, don’t see the value in paying for it or simply can’t make payments through debit or credit cards.  

There are important caveats to this segmentation, of course – younger people across income levels, for instance, are more likely to access a streaming service only through a smartphone. And there are, obviously, higher-income category adult users who prefer to watch Netflix on small screens and may want to take advantage of a cheaper offering. 

The introduction of a cheap, mobile-only package tells us that Netflix views its potential Indian customer base as three broad categories. Photo: Reuters

The potential impact of these exceptions, and how these users will react to the new plan, is unclear. Teenagers and college students who belong to higher-income households – and more often than not share a Rs 800-per-month plan with their immediate family – are unlikely to be the company’s target audience here.

Netflix’s internal math should have also accounted for higher-income Indian adults who want to watch on smartphones only. It would be bizarre for the company to introduce something new, only to see its existing customers downgrade from a Rs 650 or Rs 800-per-month package (which allows simultaneous usage of multiple screens) to a newer Rs 199-per-month, mobile-only offering. 

The real goal

In the three years that it has been in India so far, Netflix has managed to scrape together anywhere between 1.2-1.5 million subscribers. This isn’t all that bad, even when compared to Amazon Prime’s user base in India. But it’s still peanuts compared to the company’s global subscriber count, or what the number of total Indian internet users may otherwise imply.

What Netflix really wants is to try and bite off a piece of those hundreds of millions of monthly active Hotstar users who are helped by telecom bundling and the company’s free, advertising-supported version.

This number is only set to get bigger: the Boston Consulting Group estimates that India’s video-on-demand market could grow to $5 billion by 2023 from $500 million last year, while users of ad-supported streaming could reach 600 million in number in the next four years.

A Rs 199, mobile-only package is the first step in reaching out to people who don’t believe a Netflix subscription is worth Rs 499 a month or simply can’t afford it. The problem is that this still may not be cheap enough, and potential users may not want to pay through a debit or credit card.

Nevertheless, if it does hook new users in, the obvious next step is to try and upsell by convincing them that it’s worth spending Rs 300 or Rs 600 more to view Netflix in high-definition and on a bigger screen. 

The theory behind this being an upsell strategy seems iffy though, primarily because it’s hard to claim that Netflix is offering a truly better product in higher price categories. People who watch on smartphones or tablets may not care about using the service on a larger screen like a TV and could be happy with viewing online content in standard definition (480p).

Different strokes

Netflix’s pricing is often measured against Amazon’s Prime Video and Hotstar Premium, and for good reason. They all function in the same market, often bid for the digital streaming rights of the same movies and generally compete in terms of trying to occupy a user’s attention and time. 

The problem is that each company walks a different road in getting to the customer.

For instance, Amazon’s pricing strategy for its streaming service (a cheap Rs 999 per year) is so deeply tied into the other business verticals of Jeff Bezos’s empire that it’s a bit like trying to compare apples and oranges. 

Hotstar’s paid subscription service (also Rs 999 per year), on the other hand, is based primarily on delivering two specific types of content: live cricket and American TV and movies that are often otherwise inaccessible in India (think: HBO’s Game of Thrones). 

Netflix’s pricing is often measured against Amazon’s Prime Video and Hotstar Premium. Photo: Reuters

In fact, Star India is trying to further differentiate between these two customer bases with the launch of its ‘VIP’ service earlier this year, which offers only sports content but no Hollywood movies or TV shows. Hotstar, however, is happy to give the rest of its content, roughly 80% of its library, away for free and support it through an advertisement model.

Netflix’s positioning has always been a premium play. It didn’t bother matching Amazon or Hotstar’s prices when it first entered India in 2016. Three years and a new price package later, it’s closed the gap somewhat, but not completely. 

Its Apple-like strategy has worked well for its bottom-line in India: it reported profits in its first year of operations here, and obviously earns a lot more per subscriber than Hotstar.

In markets like the US and UK, it has preferred to raise prices to help cope with its rising costs, instead of deciding to bite the advertising bullet.

While Netflix hasn’t shied away from local content, it has, since the day it began its global expansion, insisted that its original content has appeal worldwide and that is what sets it apart from its competition. That shows like Narcos, House of Cards, The Crown and Stranger Things resonate with viewers around the world, from Seoul to San Francisco, from London to Ludhiana. 

The company has put its money where its mouth is too: last week, it reported its 20th quarter of negative free cash flow and continues to handsomely outspend Amazon in producing original content.

The success of Rs 199, mobile-only package, therefore, is not only a test of pricing but also whether Netflix’s original content has appeal beyond a million urban middle-class Indians. Will rural India eagerly take to a German-language show like Dark, which is popular across Europe and the US, using Hindi subtitles? Will the Spielberg-inspired, 1980s-midtown America setting of Stranger Things have broad appeal across the country, just because a Netflix subscription is cheaper?

Barring a few honourable exceptions, its original Indian content has been more hit than miss, although this applies equally to Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video.

The final question, therefore, is how low will Netflix go? Does it make sense to abandon its ‘premium’ tag in India and if so, for how long? Can it afford to shed its ‘premium’ tag, and if so, how many takers will it have in India?