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TheIndian EXPRESS
www.indianexpress.com

l MONDAY l SEPTEMBER 10 l 2012

The Indian EXPRESS

BECAUSE THE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL

XTERNAL Affairs Minister S.M. Krishnas visit to Pakistan over the weekend underlined the slow but certain advance in bilateral ties since the two sides resumed talks two years ago. But it also highlighted Islamabads inability to meet Indias expectations on combatting cross-border terrorism. This, in turn, accentuates Delhis dilemma on whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should embark on his long overdue visit to Pakistan. Krishna did not carrymuchconvictioninIslamabad when he denied that India is imposing any preconditions for the PMs visit. He was only reflecting Delhis ambivalence on the linkage between cross-border terrorism and the peace process with Islamabad. India suspended the dialogue with Pakistan following the terror attacks on Mumbai at the end of November 2008. After Singh was re-elected as prime minister in the summer of 2009, he tried to revive the talks but had to back off amidst domestic political resistance. In early 2010, the PM chose to go ahead, despite the lack of progress in Pakistan on bringing the plotters of the Mumbai attack to justice. The PMs two-pronged strategy involved pressing Pakistan on terror while making progress wherever possible. As a result, there has been big movement on liberalising

It must press Pakistan on terror. But is it wise to link PMs Pak visit to justice in Mumbai case?
bilateral trade relations and promoting people-to-people contact. Pakistan is on track to begin normal trading relations with India by the end of this year. Krishnas visit saw the easing of travel restrictions across the border for the first time in four decades. The two sides also agreed on additional confidencebuilding measures to expand commerce and contact on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistans current civilian leadership, led by Asif Ali Zardari, has broken many domestic political taboostodeepentieswithIndia.But there is no denying that Zardari, who has no control over Pakistans national security policy, cant address Indias concerns on terrorism. Delhis policy, then, of linking the PMs visit to Pakistan with justice in the Mumbai case, is designed for failure. It may also antagonise the friendliest civilian government in Islamabad that India has seen in a very long time. Singh and the Congress leadership must remember that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in his sixyear tenure as PM, travelled to Pakistantwice,despitetheawfulstateof bilateral relations. The possibility that Singh might not go to Pakistan at all after nearly a decade in power could point to the gap between the Congress partys liberal postures and its lack of political courage in seizing the initiative.

Delhis dilemma

Return of the repressed

DDRESSING a conference of senior police officers, the prime minister spoke of the disturbing return of communal tension in many parts of India. He spoke of how social media can present new dilemmas for law enforcement, as recently experienced with the dangerous rumours that brewed after the Assam conflict and were circulated around the country at a speed that could not be matched by the police and administration. He flagged five states in particular as having developed an uncomfortable communal dynamic Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. These are not states with a common social composition or political regime.Andyet,thedeteriorationof social ties is visible in each, with the competition between communities having taken on a menacing edge. The PM offered some caution to those who have been lulled into thinking that the better angels of our nature have triumphed. It is true, of course, that a politics of aspiration has tempered the kind of communal relations that previously exploded in violence. Since Gujarat 2002, we have not witnessed large-scale devastation of

PM sounds a note of caution: communal tensions simmer close to the surface in many states

HE shutdown in Parliament despite the passage of a few bills amid the din has sent out many signals. It has emphasised that the Congress, despite being the only political party in two decades to secure more than 200 seats at the Centre, is unable to fix its political compass and demonstrate that it is in charge or even to get its own house in order. It also signals the growing desperation of the BJP to occupy as much of the opposition space as it can as loudly as possible. Because of the significant and large others, the challenge for the BJP now is to play it right, as and when circumstances arise. For the first time since 1998, neither the Congress nor the BJP is in control of its side of the court. The BJP has, no doubt, started its stopwatch for 2014. A party that taunted the Congress with Atal versus ? in the early 2000s now thinks it best to move away from a strategy centred on a PM-in-waiting and exploit the question mark as a tactic to keep the flock together. Acutely conscious that it has not even been a year since a deeply anti-political and telegenic movement of anger got TRPs by disparaging Parliament, the BJP in its wisdom has decided to take a leaf out of that book and bring Parliament to a standstill a little bit of Anna within the House to keep its support base charged. The BJP knows that if a debate on the CAG report on coal takes place in the House, it would necessarily introduce some nuance that would complicate matters and damage the binary of pro- and anti-corruption that works so well for it outside Parliament. Most importantly, the BJP is in power in two crucial states that

Canary in a coalmine
BJP harangues on corruption, Congress fails to set agenda: is stage set for 2014?
SEEMA CHISHTI
will be going to polls in the next few months Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. So it is not an entirely bad idea to play the enraged opposition and deflect attention from any localantiincumbency sentiment. The BJPs only hope is to subsume everything into a righteous national debate with a corrupt Centre. Coal mining is a good issue to target the PM with, as it is mining that has also hurt the BJP in Karnataka. By from its high horse of hum vipaksh mein baithne ko tayyar hain (we are ready to sit in opposition), and appears worried as the information age, with all its fire power, novelties, difficulties and risks, presents a new set of challenges. As it scrambles to shore up its defences, one gets the feeling that it is more worried about responding to Washington Post writers than on getting its core functions right. After all, why blame the BJP for not allow-

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The BJPs only hope is to subsume everything into a righteous national debate with a corrupt Centre. Coal mining is a good issue to target the PM with, as it is mining that has also hurt the BJP in Karnataka. By making it difficult to enact any legislation, not only does the BJP manage to get away with not taking a stand on tricky issues like the land and food bills, but it also makes the UPA appear to be at a standstill.
making it difficult to enact any legislation, not only does the BJP manage to get away with not taking a stand on tricky issues like the land and food bills, but it also makes the UPA appear to be at a standstill. It may help the BJP to create a noise on as many issues as it can, away from its core Hindutva/ Modi-related matters, especially as its index of coalitionability is lower than that of the Congress even now. The Congress, meanwhile, seems to have climbed down ing the government to pass legislation, when it has to sort out its complex political message on the land, food and FDI bills, which its own ministers cite as crucial? The party has only about four sessions of Parliament left to get its act and bills together. For the others, the going is a little more interesting as they sit back and watch the Congress and the BJP spar. Parties supporting the UPA and the NDA enjoy the advantages of the small and the fleet-footed they are prompt

in getting their messages clearly across to their respective constituents. They are keen not to be seen as pushovers, but they are eager to maximise gains over the next two years. The Samajwadi Party is a weather vane for the others, as it walks the thin line with great skill it appears to keep all options open but is careful not to topple UPA 2; it realises that geniality towards the Congress has helped it in the polls and that to be seen as a destabilising factor is unlikely to yield any electoral bonus. The SP template is followed almost faithfully by parties like the TMC and even the JD(U). For instance, Nitish Kumars forte, it seems, is to make comments on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, while staying in the alliance with the BJP in the state, as it yields benefits and keeps him relevant to the big picture. The election of the president and the vice-president, in fact even of the deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha, was expected to redraw political equations nationally. But as the UPA was able to muster support and get all its candidates elected, this proved to be an anti-climax for those in the opposition who were looking to pick up straws on how the 2014 coalitions could be built. Now, by using coal as a symbol, the BJP hopes to use corruption as an all-encompassing slogan to rally support in 2014. Whether it will be able to sustain the pitch and how the rest of the opposition will carve its space will be interesting. Still, what we have witnessed may be a pointer to the election campaign for 2014. For the ruling coalition, it may just be the canary in the coalmine.
seema.chishti@expressindia.com

Letters to the

EDITOR

THE Sivakasi fire shows that the authorities have learnt nothing from the accidents of previous years (50 killed in Sivakasi firecracker unit fire, IE, September 6).The incident is also tragic proof that fire safety norms are flouted with impunity. Just a day before the incident, the safety regulator had cancelled the licence given to Om Sakthi Fireworks, the factory where the fire broke out. Nevertheless, work went on as usual. It remains to be asked why the unit was not closed down immediately. Ganapathi Bhat Akola

Playing with fire

life and property. Communal tensions are more likely to be played out in terms of a subtle discrimination and denial of opportunity. But the PMs words are a reminder that such tensions can still be stoked into a spectre in our supposedly mixed-up towns as the exodus of frightened northeastern Indians from Bangalore, Pune etc proved. The PM exhorted the police to stay on high alert, and seek active cooperation from the community. There needs to be a more sensitive and proactive monitoring of potential conflict, starting with a vigilant force of beat constables. Itmustberememberedthatvirtually no actual violence took place in these places, but a sense of threat and vulnerability was made manifest. Mutual interdependence between communities moderates religious extremism and violence, and theimperativeistofocusonawebof civic associations and economic exchanges that can make all the difference for state officials trying to maintain the calm. Tackling communal conflict demands that both state and society focus on defusing threats. The larger project, then, is about breaking cycles of suspicion and hostility between communities.

AMAR JESANI

To succeed, public-private partnerships in health care need strong regulators

the chief minister has ordered an inquiry into the matter. Directorates of health services, used to running government facilities, are ill-equipped to regulate the quality and ethical standards of private hospitals and doctors working there. Schemes like the RSBY were launched without building regulatory capacities. Ever since the government launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and public-private partnerships for the delivery of healthcare, activists in the task forces and working groups of the NRHM and the Planning Commission have argued that the governland, tax holidays, subsidies and other largesse to help it dispense healthcare to those who cannot afford it, government funds have been fleeced in the absence of stringent regulations and community monitoring. In our country, most of the states do not have effective laws for the registration of private hospitals, neither do they have periodic medical and financial audits by independent regulators. Doctors and hospitals associations have grown so strong that any attempt to impose regulations has been countered by threats and strikes. Despite the noise made by the politicians and by bureaua case for a robust regulatory regime, such reports would only lead to a few cosmetic punishments that would be forgotten soon. The unnecessary hysterectomies also point to the neglect of reproductive health and reproductive rights in our public and private health services. Much has been said about the unethical conduct of doctors who generated a supplier-induced-demand women agreed to get rid of a uterus that was giving them trouble after the doctors scared them with talk of the potential development of cancer and other diseases. Supply side regulations to prevent irrational and unnecessary medical care ought to be combined with provi sions to cater to the reproductive needs of women in rural areas. For that, primary care in rural areas and urban slums must be equipped to look after the reproductive health for women. This should be combined with changes in social traditions and greater awareness about reproductive health problems. In the present set-up of primary healthcare, reproductive health is neglected. Yet when women travel to private hospitals for care, their bodies are deprived of a vital organ, causing longterm damage to their physical and immune systems. Jesani is editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Mumbai
express@expressindia.com

A private operation

EENAGERS and heads of state dont often conduct relationships in the same way. But last week, when Hungarys prime minister, Viktor Orban, rejected the International Monetary Funds allegedly tough loan conditions, he used Facebook to do it. Orban updated his Facebook page with a video message that stated that Hungary would not accept pension cuts and fewer public employees, among other conditions, in return for an $18.9 billion loan. His decision to unfriend the IMF on the social network took markets and analystsbysurprise,asjustadayearlier he had indicated that negotiations with the agency were going fine. Emails, instant messaging and Skype offer new ways to keep in touch, build new relationships and end them. And now, social networks, particularly Facebook, are becoming the arbiter of relationship status. After all, a person isnt

Hungarys PM unfriends IMF, a first for diplomacy via social media

really committed until she updates her status to reflect that she is no longer single. A friendship hasnt truly ended until one party unfriends the other, making it official. So perhaps it shouldnt come as a surprise that politicians are embracing the opportunity to communicate their displeasure via Facebook, which offers them another space to connect to their publics. Traditional forms of diplomacy are being modified for a networked public and society. The US State Departmentemploysateamofbloggers to counter online extremism, particularly in the Arab world. In the past, governmentsandofficialshaveused theinternet,particularlyTwitterand other social networks, for public diplomacy. They have sought to explain policies and canvass support viasocialmedia.OrbansuseofFacebookasatooltoconductforeignpolicy could just be a pointer to the shape of things to come.

Breaking up

ECENTLY, it came to light that over 16,000 hysterectomies, most of them deemed unnecessary, had been conducted on women from below poverty line (BPL) families in private hospitals in Bihar. Not long before that, private hospitals in Chhattisgarh had come under scrutiny for the same reason. The operations were allegedly conducted to fleece insurance funds available under the governments Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY). The epidemic of unnecessary hysterectomies had already hit many sections of urban women. With public money easily available under the RSBY, it has now made inroads into rural and remote areas as well. Whats more, such hysterectomies may only be the tip of the iceberg there are rampant irregularities in the provision of healthcare by the private sector, using public money. It brings into focus serious flaws in the government policy of providing money to the private sector instead of investing it to strengthen and expand public health services. To begin with, government regulators do not seem up to the task of unearthing such scams and taking action against the perpetrators. According to the reports on Chhattisgarh, the director of health services, under public pressure, appointed a fact-finding team and suspended doctors involved in 22 known cases, although thousands were reported. In Bihar,

THIS refers to the editorial End of the PC (IE, September 7). The browser wars of the last decade ended with no clear winner. Perhaps it is not yet time to declare the end of the PC era. The PC is constantly being reshaped by new software. It would seem that Nokia chose an alliance with Microsoft primarily to avoid getting embroiled in costly patent wars. But present day mobile operating systems are dumbed down to allow only applications to thrive, making them practically useless for serious work. Although RIMs demise has been written about many times over, its upcoming product could be a game changer. Abhishek Puri Chandigarh

Buzzing network

The phenomenon of unnecessary hysterectomies has made inroads into rural and remote areas as well. Whats more, such hysterectomies may only be the tip of the iceberg.
ment first needed to put in place strong regulatory agencies that would oversee registration, medical standards, patient protection and rights. They also urged for community monitoring of private healthcare. Policymakers tackled the process upside down, pumping money into the private healthcare sector without strengthening public services, and without setting up a transparent and accountable governance system. Yet, the practice of partnering with the private sector to deliver public healthcare services is several decades old. In any country where the private sector has been provided funds or crats of health directorates about taking action against the doctors and hospitals, very little is expected in terms of bringing the culprits to book. While it may seem easy to crack down on those who claimed insurance money without doing the surgeries, it is more difficult to prove fraud where allegations of unnecessary surgery are involved. Unless the regulator has the power to take full medical and financial audits, and has protocols for the treatment of various ailments covered under the insurance scheme, reports submitted by investigators will turn out to be ambiguous. Instead of making

IN Why Pakistani TV matters to India (IE, August 31), Reema Abbasi has argued that both India and Pakistan should be allowed to view each others entertainment channels. Such a step would certainly go a long way in reviving cultural and emotional ties. It could help thaw the coldness and distrust that has built up over the decades. It will open the minds of viewers to the culture and ethos of another country. Television broadcasters in both the countries should urge their respective governments to let them air their channels across the border. Brij B. Goyal Ludhiana

Now showing

Banking on the weakest

N Thursday afternoon the fate of the entire 17-member eurozone rested on the shoulders of one man: Mario Draghi. That such an assertion can be made without the umistakable smack of hyperbole surely shows what trouble the euro project is now in. Because no matter how innovative or bold Draghis response and it was undoubtedly both the success or failure of a currency, a single market, and a political project should never be in the gift of an unelected central banker and his equally unelected colleagues. Yet throughout the panic and denial and firefighting of the past couple of years, two major trends in European policy-making are observable: first, economic power in the continent has shifted away from national governments and towards the European Central Bank; second, and this is surely related, European politicians and policy-

Has the eurozone become an elite project?

PRINTLINE

WORDLY WISE Its easy to get distracted by the vaudevillian aspects of the healthcare debate. Carl Hiaasen

makers have omitted to make the case for why the euro should exist at all... The result is that what has to be a grand, cross-national political project if it is to survive at all is no such thing; it is becoming ever more an elite project that is only able to endure at the costs of those lower down in society, especially in southern Europe. For those at the top: officially granted liquidity. For those at the bottom: unnegotiable austerity. The announcement by Draghi fits neatly into this pattern. The new plan to rescue the euro sounds complicated, but it really boils down to one thing: a guarantee that nations struggling to raise funds from financial markets will be helped out by the ECB. From a leader in The Guardian, London

THIS refers to Modi malnutrition remarks insult to Gujarat women, says Congress (IE, August 31). As a doctor who has headed a large government hospital, I have reliable researchbased data that gives a disheartening account of the level of malnutrition in India. Ignoring this reality, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said that malnutrition levels in his state were high because its middle class was more beauty conscious than health conscious. Of course, the Congress did not lose an opportunity to criticise the leader and score a point. But I wish I could share my data with both parties. It would come as news for the Congress, while Modi could perhaps draw consolation from the fact that it is not just Gujarat where malnutrition levels are high. Avtar Narain Chopra Kurukshetra

Food for thought