Communal poison

I
t is shocking to learn that over
30 lives have been lost in
communal clashes in
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh.
The violence is a culmination of
undercurrents that have swept the
State for about two decades. A
spark that could have been
extinguished well in time by the
local administration was allowed
to develop into a wild re. There is
complete failure of law and order
in the State, which is why a
handful of rumour mongers could
spread communal poison and
escalate the situation.
The embers of communal
clashes are fanned by vested
interests which use destruction to
reap electoral benets. The
greatest irony is that people who
live side by side, meet and greet
one another, and share the same
schools, hospitals, public
transport and neighbourhood get
infected with communalism
spread by the enemies of
humanity.
Anand Ji Jha,
New Delhi
A
lthough there is no denying
that the Muzaffarnagar
violence had a political angle to it,
it is a governments supreme
responsibility to anticipate and
control riots. Despite being
warned about possible unrest in
the September 7 mahapanchayat,
the Akhilesh Yadav government
allowed a large assembly of
villagers to gather from
neighbouring States.
The initial sparks were not
doused in time, and the re of
hatred spread fast to claim
precious lives. Excessive political
interference in the functioning of
the police has taken a toll. One
wonders why rumours were
allowed to spread thick and fast,
and why the circulation of the
inammatory video clip was not
stopped in time.
Ganapathi Bhat,
Akola
V
ested interests have
manipulated the emotions of
Muzaffarnagar residents
Muslimand Hindu and whipped
up unrest using some video clips
and inammatory text messages.
The average Indian is more
preoccupied with his livelihood
and is least interested in killing
members of other communities.
Invariably, rogue elements get
involved in such horric instances
and, unfortunately, ordinary
people allow themselves to be led
into a quagmire of violence.
While a ag march by the
security forces may seemto instil
condence among residents, the
fact remains that such incidents
should not have occurred in the
rst place. Also, it is interesting to
note that the Army is called in at
the slightest provocation when the
police are equally capable of
handling such disturbances.
Anuradha Rajan,
Bangalore
T
he violence points to the
complete failure of the
system. In a truly equal nation, a
murder is investigated, the truth
found out and the guilty punished.
But in India people have no faith
in the system. They know that the
police are on the side of those who
have money and political
inuence. Moreover, the judicial
process is very slow.
This leads to people taking the
law into their own hands. They
mobilise in large groups, mostly on
the basis of caste or religion. What
follows is communal/caste
tension.
Faheem Mohammed
Konnakkodan,
Chennai
T
he Muzaffarnagar clashes have
raised a lot of questions on
fraternity and secularism,
guaranteed by our Constitution.
Unfortunately, some political
parties based on communal
ideology are instigating violence
with an eye on the 2014 election,
and disturbing peace and progress.
This is not different fromthe
British policy of divide and rule.
Shaikh Jamir Munir,
New Delhi
W
estern Uttar Pradesh is
notorious for atrocities
against women. The latest
communal disturbances are also
the result of an eve-teasing
incident. Women are seen in the
region as symbols of honour. But,
ironically, people do not consider
harassment of women belonging
to other communities wrong.
When it happens to their women,
they are ready to even kill the
culprits.
Many girls of the region have
quit their studies because of eve-
teasing and other related
incidents. Many more do not tell
their family of what they undergo
due to fear of discontinuation of
their education. The August 27
incident escalated because the
victimbelonged to a dominant
caste.
Rajnish Singh,
Haridwar
I
amdeeply fazed, wondering
whether we are indeed living in
the 21st century. We are all
answerable for such horric
incidents as we have become
dogmatic enough to prefer religion
over sense and righteousness.
Tolerance and the need to ignore
inammatory speeches and those
spreading rumours are the
imperative need of the hour.
Aakash Sinha,
Warangal
T
he rise in communal activities
Kishtwar, Chaurasi Kosh
Parikrama Yatra and, now,
Muzaffarnagar show that our
political parties are exploiting the
communal card to the hilt for the
2014 Lok Sabha election. We
should understand that democracy
based on religion, caste and
language cannot provide food,
education, employment and health
care.
Puneet Jain,
Agra
Born to rule
T
he tradition of naming a
successor fromwithin the
family to head a party/government
is prevalent in most States. In
Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and
Karnataka, for instance, dynastic
politics has played a big role with
sons, daughters and relatives being
elevated in the party and the
government. Devoted party
workers, who take part in
agitations, protests, bandhs, and
land in jails, get nothing. They are
indeed born to serve (Sept. 9)
while our political families are
born to rule.
A.S. Raghavan,
Hyderabad
P
rime Minister Manmohan
Singh has gracefully chosen
Rahul Gandhi as the Congress
most suitable prime ministerial
candidate for the 2014 election,
knowing well that the chances of
the party returning to power are
remote.
If Rahul is indeed the ideal
candidate, one wonders why the
wisdomdid not dawn on Dr. Singh
all these years.
V.R. Ravikumar,
Chennai
B
y accepting Rahul as his
leader, Dr. Singh has not only
prodded Rahul to spell out his
options but also cautioned those
wanting to vote for the Congress.
While Tendulkar was wise in
proposing Dhonis name, Dr. Singh
proposed Rahuls name only to
appease his colleagues in the
party. The dearth of leadership in
the more-than-a-century old party
is appalling.
A. Subbalakshmi,
Bangalore
Juvenile offenders
A
person should be declared a
minor or adult based on his
mental growth and tendency to
commit a crime, not age
(Balancing the juvenile act, Sept.
9).
Ageing is a gradual process; one
does not go to bed as a child and
wake up as an adult. Psychological
tests must be done on young
offenders to determine their
predisposition to crime.
D. Harikrishnan,
Thiruvananthapuram
T
he basic ideology of our penal
systemis reformation. While
pronouncing judgments, courts
take into account the gravity of
crime, the circumstances and the
living conditions of the accused. A
juvenile is not called a criminal; he
is called a Juvenile in Conict
with Law (JICWL).
Unlike adult criminals, a JICWL
lacks maturity and his character is
not developed. Trial by regular
courts and exposure to hardened
criminals will obstruct his
rehabilitation. While appreciating
the nature of the crime in the
Nirbhaya case, which of course
was grave and brutal, we should
also understand that there is an
urgent need to rehabilitate the
juvenile offender.
Abhishek Kutty,
Thiruvananthapuram
T
he comparison between India
and the West is incorrect. The
emotional and social development
of children in the West is far
different fromthat of our children.
If we reduce the age limit for
juveniles to 16 following the
Nirbhaya case, will we reduce it
further if another crime occurs
where the age of the accused is less
than 16?
S. Naveen Kumar,
New Delhi
A
17-year-old and a 45-year-old
cannot be treated equally for
the same offence. A juveniles
crime is not his mistake but that of
society. Juvenile offenders are
products of our society.
M. Sendhur,
Kollidam
Letters
to the
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YK
ND-ND
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013
10 THE HINDU I NOIDA/DELHI, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 EDITORIAL
U
ttar Pradesh has always been vulnerable to
communal and caste tensions because of the
sizeable presence in the State of three crit-
ical demographic segments Muslims, Da-
lits and caste Hindus. It takes but a small incident to
start a skirmish, which, depending on the extent of
political support, either sputters to a swift end or turns
into a full-blown conagration. Prima facie, the mob
frenzy in Muzaffarnagar, which has already claimed
over two dozen lives and left hundreds homeless, ap-
pears to be a textbook case of engineered violence. The
pattern is familiar. Ground reports suggest that the
current disturbance has its roots in an August 27 Jat-
Muslim clash in Kawal village over a spate of killings
involving both communities. This spark developed into
a re, thanks to police inaction, political manipulation
and a poisonous video calculatedly pressed into circu-
lation by suspected Hindutva elements. Predictably
enough, large-scale violence erupted. And equally pre-
dictably, the video turned out to be fake: what was
circulated as the actual clip of the August 27 killings
was most probably footage shot in Pakistan.
But this is exactly how vested interests, and some-
times even mainstream parties, operate. A hate-lled
VCD had formed part of the BJPs official campaign
material ahead of the 2007 Assembly election. The disc,
which portrayed Muslims as nation-breakers, and im-
plored Hindus to vote the BJP or nd themselves
sporting beards and wearing burqas, was withdrawn
following an FIR registered by the Election Commis-
sion. That election was saved by the ECIs hawk-like
watch over communal and caste miscreants, leading to
the formation of the rst majority government in 16
years by the Bahujan Samaj Party. It is not without
signicance that peace prevailed until the next election
ve years later. For all of Mayawatis faults she ran an
efficient administration that acted at the rst sign of
communal trouble. In the February 2012 Assembly
election, fresh hope came in the form of Akhilesh Yadav
who seemed sincere enough with his promise to prac-
tise principled politics. The promise stands betrayed as
can be seen from the Samajwadi Party governments
admission to at least 27 communal incidents since
March 2012. The SP is the mirror opposite of the BJP
and its larger parivar. For every cynical action of one,
there tends to be an equal and opposite reaction from
the other, with the competition getting ercer closer to
an election, as is obviously the case now. As 2014 nears,
rival political efforts to fuel and play on the insecurity
and fears of Muslims and Hindus are likely to be in-
tensied. The good sense of Uttar Pradeshs people will
be severely tested in the months ahead.
Playing
with re
T
okyo won its bid to host the 2020 Olympic
Games, its second in 56 years, by a whopping
margin of 24 votes at the International Olym-
pic Committee session in Buenos Aires on
Saturday. The Japanese capital was the front-runner in
a three-way contest, though serious doubts remained
because of the situation at the crippled Fukushima
nuclear reactor. A last-ditch assurance from Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to allay fears about the
radioactive water leak from Fukushima apparently
succeeded. The IOC members have opted for Japanese
efficiency, nancial health and technical competence
over the perceived risks associated with bids from
Istanbul and Madrid. It was also a way of showing
solidarity with a nation recovering from the 2011 dev-
astating tsunami. In a way, the IOC took the least
troublesome course in voting for Tokyo, steering clear
of the political turmoil in Turkey, and the economic
crisis in Spain. Japans clean image in matters of
doping compared to the mess in Turkey with as many
as 31 suspensions of athletes in recent weeks might
also have mattered in the nal round of voting. That
IOC members ignored the cost factor, in preferring the
$9.80 billion Tokyo budget to the $5.04 billion budget
of Madrid, should, however, come as a surprise given
the Olympic bodys avowed keenness to avoid gigan-
tism, especially in the backdrop of the $12 billion eco-
nomic disaster that the 2004 Athens Games proved to
be for Greece.
The Buenos Aires meeting also saw wrestling staging
a comeback an expected one into the Olympic
sports programme after having been stunningly
knocked out by the IOC Executive Board last February.
In yet another three-cornered contest involving a com-
bined baseball-softball bid, apart from one in squash,
wrestling took just one round of voting to get back into
the 2020 and 2024 Games. It is already part of the 2016
Games. Given its popularity around the world and its
legacy from the ancient Olympics, it was clear that the
sport would get the nod. International wrestling feder-
ation president Nenad Lalovic deserves to be compli-
mented for his efforts in revamping the structure,
changing the format to make the sport more appealing,
giving more representation to women both in the fed-
eration and in the Olympic competition, and galvanis-
ing world opinion. The sport had the backing of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, among other lead-
ers. India, which has won three medals in wrestling in
the last two editions of the Olympics, as well as several
other Asian countries, should be pleased with its return
to the Games just as they would be in Asia gaining the
privilege to host the Games 12 years after Beijing.
Thumbs up for
Tokyo, wrestling
CARTOONSCAPE
P
oliticians worldwide are
dream merchants. They
sell dreams. Indian poli-
ticians are, of course, sec-
ond to none in this
business and have indeed
perfected this art form.
Their success in selling
pipe dreams is perhaps a measure of the
depth of our despair as a nation. Can any
Indian, my age, forget the euphoria that the
dream of Garibi Hatao created in the
1970s? Some 40 plus years later, the same
Congress party is telling the nation that 70
per cent of people now need food subsidy to
survive. Of course, its minions in the Plan-
ning Commission are running out of newly
sharpened pencils convincing the nation
that poverty has reduced signicantly. They
see no contradiction between the claimed
lowering of poverty and the proposed food
security bill that has its foundation in the
fact that 70 per cent of Indians cannot even
buy sufficient food to survive today.
Rangarajan formula
Veerappa Moily, an old Congress satrap, is
a highly decorated warrior of many election
battles. As an experienced dreammerchant,
he is selling the Rangarajan formula for pric-
ing gas as the panacea to Indias energy secu-
rity woes. No one has answered any of the
direct questions that I have asked in my four
articles in The Hindu since the Rangarajan
Committee report surfaced. However, de-
ceptive claims have kept appearing in the
press about the wisdom of pricing natural
gas as proposed by Dr. Rangarajan. And since
no one was buying their arguments, the pow-
ers-that-be took out their most lethal weap-
on the pen of the Honourable Minister
himself to destroy non-believers like myself.
Unfortunately, some of the statements in
Mr. Moilys op-ed of August 7, 2013 in the
Times of India come straight out of a recent
Annual Report of Reliance.
My issue is with our dreammerchants and
not with Reliance for it, like any private
enterprise, responds efficiently and effec-
tively to shape the prevailing environment
and maximise prots. So let me cut short the
song and dance and pose some straight ques-
tions to the Honourable Minister.
1. Can the Honourable Minister list the
$100 billion that Indian companies have in-
vested or committed to date for oil and gas
assets overseas? The actual investment to
date is under $25 billion and I honestly wish
it was four times higher as claimed by the
Honourable Minister. Although there are
huge cans of worms under some of the over-
seas acquisitions we have made, the truth is
that for every dollar invested overseas we
have accrued more oil and gas reserves than
for the same dollar invested in the Indian
sedimentary basin. Large and serious global
investors in oil and gas go where the pro-
spects are the best. I amproud that despite a
few questionable deals, the Indian public
sector (primarily OVL) took the lead in this
while the domestic private sector concen-
trated on India an environment it could
efficiently and effectively manage for much
higher monetary gains (not resource
accretion).
2. Can the Honourable Minister name any
country in the world that offered investors
from India or elsewhere a formula such as
that proposed by the Rangarajan Committee
or, for that matter, a formula such as the one
currently in use in India to lure exploration
and production investments in conventional
natural gas or oil?
3. Despite the price reforms in Brazil and
China cited by the Honourable Minister, do
either of these countries or for that matter
any country in the world provide the kind of
guaranteed well head price for conventional
natural gas that we have been paying under
the current formula or promising to pay un-
der the Rangarajanformula fromApril 2014?
Can the Honourable Minister name a single
well head in the world that is currently re-
ceiving $8.40/MMBTUor anywhere close to
it for conventional natural gas?
Doubtful claims
4. The Honourable Minister gives several
numbers about potentially higher domestic
productions that could have beenrealised by
end-2013 and by 2014-15 from KG-D6 and
the likely savings in LNG imports. The Hon-
ourable Minster blames his owngovernment
for failure to give timely approvals to Re-
liance to achieve these outputs. The validity
of these claims, especially the basis for esti-
mating avoided LNG imports, remains in
doubt but, more importantly, is the Hon-
ourable Minister trashing the various nd-
ings of the CAG and the Parliamentary
Committee on KG-D6? Is the Honourable
Minister trashing the ndings of his prede-
cessor and the reports of his own Ministry
and the DGH?
5. The Honourable Minister promises an
additional production of 40 MMSCMD of
gas annually starting 2016-17 and savings
of $65 billioninLNG imports. This outcome,
the Honourable Minister informs, is the di-
rect result of the changes he has instituted in
the way his Ministry had been operating and
the use of the Rangarajanformula for pricing
conventional natural gas at the well head.
Again, leaving aside the dubiousness of the
estimated savings on LNG imports, let me
ask the Honourable Minster if he can guar-
antee the promised additional output. Will
this additional output come from the exist-
ing elds or new elds with new invest-
ments? Will the additional output result
from RIL belatedly fullling its long unmet
commitments under the addendum to the
agreed initial development plan as detailed
by the CAG? Finally, will this additional pro-
duction come fromacreage that should have
been relinquished years ago as pointed out
by the CAG?
In closing, the Honourable Minister lets
y a conservative pipe dream of 100 tcf of
gas unlocking $1 trillion in value never
mind the details or the basis. At IIM-Ah-
medabad, one of my very famous professors
always said that a policymaker must have
her/his head in the clouds but the feet must
remain rmly on the ground. Since my in-
fancy, my mother always told me that
thieves have no feet. Neither that famous
professor nor my illiterate mother is alive
today for me to ask themif dreammerchants
with heads in the clouds too have no feet!
(The writer, formerly Principal Adviser,
Power & Energy, Government of India, is
Adjunct Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy, National University of
Singapore)
Selling the dream for a song
Surya P. Sethi
The government has spared no effort to convince the public that its gas pricing formula, skewed in favour of
Reliance, will be the solution to India's energy needs