📰 US suspends over $1.1 bn security assistance to Pakistan
The freezing of all security assistance to Pakistan comes days after President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of providing “safe haven” to terrorists.
•The United States has suspended more than $1.15 billion security assistance to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of harbouring terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network within its border and showing unwillingness to take “decisive actions” against them.
•The freezing of all security assistance to Pakistan comes days after President Donald Trump, in a new year tweet, accused Pakistan of giving nothing to the U.S. but “lies and deceit” and providing “safe haven” to terrorists in return for $33 billion aid over the last 15 years.
•Prominent among the suspended amount include $255 million in Foreign Military Funding (FMF) for the fiscal year 2016 as mandated by the Congress.
•In addition, the Department of Defense has suspended the entire $900 million of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) money to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2017.
•“Today we can confirm that we are suspending national security assistance only, to Pakistan at this time until the Pakistani government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network. We consider them to be destabilising the region and also targeting U.S. personnel. The U.S. will suspend that kind of security assistance to Pakistan,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters.
•The U.S., she said, will not be delivering military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan unless it is required by law.
•Referring to the new South Asia Policy announced by Trump in August, Nauert said despite a sustained high-level engagement by this administration with the government of Pakistan, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network continue to find sanctuary inside Pakistan as they plot to destabilise Afghanistan and also attack the US and allied personnel.
Funds suspended
•Department of Defense Spokesperson Lt Col Mike Andrews told PTI that National Defense Authorisation Act 2017 provides up to $900 million for Pakistan in CSF.
•Of these funds, $400 million can only be released if the Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis certifies that the Pakistan government has taken specific actions against the Haqqani Network.
•“At this stage all Fiscal Year 17 CSF have been suspended, so that’s the entire amount of $900 million,” Andrews said.
•During an interaction with Pentagon reporters, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis did not respond to question if he was in favour of cutting off the aid to Pakistan.
•“I prefer not to address that right now because it’s obviously still being formulated as policy. But I’ll give my advice on it to the President. I also agree on some confidentiality there,” he said.
•According to a senior State Department official, no decision has been taken on the fate of $255 million security assistance to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2017.
•The deadline for that is September 30 this year.
•Mattis along with the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have travelled to Pakistan in recent months to deliver tough message to their leadership. So, this action should not come as a surprise to them, Nauert said.
•“They may say it’s a surprise, but what is no surprise is that the President has expressed his concerns, Secretary Tillerson has expressed his concerns, as has Secretary Mattis, and I imagine many other government officials having those conversations with Pakistan,” Nauert said.
•Now, the money that has been suspended at this time does not mean that it will be suspended forever, she said.
•“Pakistan has the ability to get this money back, in the future, but they have to take decisive action. They have to take decisive steps,” she added. “People have long asked, why don’t you do more about Pakistan, and I think this sort of answers that question. Obviously, Pakistan is important, an important relationship to the U.S., because together we can work hard to combat terrorism. Perhaps no other country has suffered more from terrorism than Pakistan and many other countries in that part of the region,” she said.
•“They understand that, but still they aren’t taking the steps that they need to take in order to fight terrorism,” she said.
•In an interaction with reporters, two senior state department officials asserted that such a move is not a punishment, but to provide an incentive to Pakistan to take more action against terrorist groups.
•“We have not done anything that’s irreversible here. All this funding is available to Pakistan, if they undertake to take the measures that we’ve asked of them,” a senior administration official said in response to a question.
•Noting that a country is going to react very differently to an irreversible step, the official hoped Pakistan would react differently that they would react to something which is reversible.
•“Pakistanis have repeatedly said we don’t care about this money. What matters I think to the Pakistani’s is that it is the symbolism of doing this that it represents a deterioration of our relationship that they care about a great deal,” the official said.
•“So we were hoping that this is an incentive that they don’t want to see this relationship deteriorate any further and that they’re going to commit to working with us to try to find a way to put it on a more solid footing,” the official added.
•According to another senior administration official, as part of the latest decision, the U.S. will now not deliver military equipment or transfer security related funds to Pakistan unless required by law.
•“Exceptions may be made on a case by case basis if they’re determined to be critical for national security interests,” the official said, adding that this suspension is not a permanent cut off at this time.
•“Security assistance funding and pending deliveries will be frozen but not cancelled as we continue to hope Pakistan will take the decisive action against terrorists the militant groups that we seek,” the official said, adding that the U.S. does not intend to reprogram any funds at this time.
•This suspension includes FMF 2016 ($255 million) as well as prior year FMF that has not yet been spent or delivered.
•Final figures are still being calculated, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
•Suspension also includes coalition support funds for Pakistan.
Not at an impasse, says administration
•However, the suspension does not include US civilian assistance programs in Pakistan.
•“Pakistan remains an important country in the region and in the world and has historically been a vital partner for the US,” the official said.
•The State Department official defended the decision not to suspend civilian assistance.
•“We all have no reason to believe that civilian assistance represents any form of leverage. The elements of the Pakistani government that needs to take the steps that we’re talking about are not touched by civilian assistance. So, it wouldn’t make any sense to tie civilian assistance to those steps that we’re asking for,” the official said.
•U.S. has been holding regular talks with Pakistan, the official said, adding that they do not believe that talks are an impasse as reported in some section of the media.
•“We are having conversations on a weekly basis at senior levels with the Pakistanis. Our hope is not that they will see this as the end of the road,” the official said.
•“Our hope is that they will see this as a further indication of this administration’s immense frustration with the trajectory of our relationship and that they need to be serious about taking the steps we asked in order to put it on a more solid footing,” the State Department Official said.
📰 North Korea agrees to hold talks with South
U.S., South Korea delay military drills
•North Korea agreed on Friday to hold official talks with the South next week, the first in more than two years, hours after the United States and South Koreadelayed a military exercise. South Korea said the North had sent its consent for the talks to be held on Tuesday. The last time the two Koreas engaged in official talks was in December 2015.
•The meeting will take place at the border truce village of Panmunjom where officials from both sides are expected to discuss the Winter Olympics, to be held in the South next month, and other inter-Korean relations, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters.
•North Korea asked for further negotiations about the meeting to be carried out via documented exchanges, Mr. Baik said.
•North Korean leader Kim Jong-un opened the way for talks with South Korea in a New Year’s Day speech in which he called for reduced tensions and flagged the North’s possible participation in the Winter Olympics.
•U.S. President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in announced on Thursday that annual large-scale military drills would now take place after the Olympics.
•Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang welcomed North and South Korea “taking positive steps to improve ties”, and said the postponement of the military exercises was “without doubt a good thing".
•Earlier this week, Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, said Washington had heard reports that Pyongyang might be preparing to fire another missile.
📰 Game for talks: on the resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas
•The prospect of a thaw in relations between North and South Korea, which resume talks after two years, holds out the hope of denuclearisation on the Peninsula. Lending the move diplomatic heft is the U.S.’s consent to South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s proposal to delay the controversial joint military exercises between the two allies. These annual operations have traditionally caused consternation in Pyongyang. The significance of the U.S. decision can also be seen in the context of Beijing’s suggestion for a freeze on joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul in exchange for a halt to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. The demand acquired added impetus ever since Seoul launched the U.S.-backed Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system, raising fears that its radars could snoop on Chinese security infrastructure. But the idea never received serious consideration from the U.S., as forcing Kim Jong-un, the North Korean autocrat, to completely give up the programme was the singular focus of President Donald Trump’s approach. As for Mr. Kim, he sees recognition of his country as a nuclear power as a vantage point from where he could negotiate a roll-back of crippling international sanctions and a possible reconciliation with Washington.
•The immediate trigger to the revival of dialogue is the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in South Korea next month. North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launches and nuclear explosions have raised global alarm over the region’s safety for travel and tourism, not to mention security during the Games. Memories of the downing by North Korea of a civilian aircraft ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics have prompted understandable caution by the host nation. Seoul has apparently determined that the most effective means of allaying those apprehensions is to confirm the participation of North Korean athletes. The deferment of the joint military exercises with the U.S. lends further credibility to Mr. Moon’s overtures to the North, as much as it assuages Chinese concerns. Beijing had imposed an unofficial blockade on South Korean trade, tourism and entertainment following the THAAD missile installation last year. But it was quick to appreciate the needless economic and diplomatic cost of that approach, even if it did not alter its stance on the missile programme. Cumulatively, these developments should boost public patronage in the entire region for the Winter Olympics. Mr. Moon, a former human rights lawyer, has been a staunch advocate of a negotiated resolution of the North Korean nuclear stand-off. A votary of reunification on the Peninsula, he may be expected to seize the momentum generated by these events to foster cooperation with the North. There will no doubt be many obstacles on that ambitious path. But a détente between neighbours is a possibility few leaders can ignore.
📰 Channels with Pakistan open: Centre
For talks to be meaningful there must be an end to cross-border terror, govt. tells MPs panel
•The government is in regular contact with Pakistan, but any meaningful dialogue would depend on an end to terrorism and cross-border violence, the Ministry of External Affairs told the Parliamentary standing committee on External Affairs, according to a report released on Friday.
•“The government has maintained the channels of communications open with Pakistan, including through respective diplomatic missions, and regular contacts between the border guarding forces on both sides,” said a reply from the Ministry quoted in the action-taken report by the government on the committee’s 16th report on “Indo-Pak Relations”.
•“At the same time, it has been made clear to Pakistan that a meaningful structured Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue would be possible only in an environment free from terror and violence,” the report added.
•The term “including” is significant, as the reply came amid news reports in Delhi and Islamabad that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart, Gen. (Retd.) Nasir Janjua, in Bangkok on December 26. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior Pakistani official confirmed to The Hinduthat the meeting had occurred, while the government in New Delhi had not yet denied reports.
•The channel of communications between the two NSAs was set up during a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-PM of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif when they met on the sidelines of the Paris climate change summit, and the NSAs had subsequently met at Bangkok’s Novotel Hotel in December 2015. Although the Pathankot attack in January 2015 had derailed dialogue between India and Pakistan, the NSAs are understood to have been in touch over the telephone regularly, and frequently through the High Commissioners in Delhi and Islamabad, especially on issues relating to the spike in ceasefire violations, the Pathankot attack investigation and the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav.
Challenges to ties
•While no mention was made on Mr. Jadhav or the treatment his mother and wife received in the 82-page report, it contains several references to the challenges to better ties between India and Pakistan, including the rise in firing at the LoC and International Border, infiltration, and support to terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen.
•The Ministry said the government had been successful in ensuring that the groups had been condemned in statements by the BRICS, the U.S. in its South Asia policy statement and the EU and Japan in joint statements with India.
•The government made special mention of the UN terror finance watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force where Pakistan was pulled up in November 2017 for allowing the LeT and affiliates like Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniyat to access funds. The report, including replies from the Ministry was tabled in the Rajya Sabha and presented in the Lok Sabha on Friday. It was prepared by Congress MP and Chairman of the Committee Shashi Tharoor.
📰 Memory, myth and memorial: on the Bhima-Koregaon battle
The battle over Bhima-Koregaon is not just one of history, it is a battle for identity and equality
•The late Kannada writer U.R. Ananthamurthy once told me a story. His PhD guide and he were discussing an Ingmar Bergman film. Ananthamurthy said when the West needs to access the past, it seems to enter a historical archive. In India we just walk across town because an Indian always lives in simultaneous time periods whereby Copernicus and Einstein share a neighbourhood. One wishes URA had written a story around this idea because he seemed to suggest that India does not need science fiction given what we do to history.
•One also wishes URA was here to watch the recent battle between Mahars, a Dalit caste, and Marathas. The linearity of history does not quite capture the subtlety of storytelling.
The memorial
•It all began with a pillar, a little war memorial commemorating what history books antiseptically called the third Anglo-Maratha war. The British had established it in Bhima-Koregaon village to commemorate the British East India Company soldiers who fell in the battle of January 1, 1818. Along with a few British soldiers, many Mahar soldiers also died.
•The event can be read Rashomon-like in many ways. But Indians do what Akira Kurosawa did in a more surrealistic way. For the Marathas and for our history textbooks, the narrative was a battle between imperialism and nationalism. But the Mahars read this narrative differently. The history inscribed in textbooks did not take their memories seriously. The Mahars recollect how during the reign of Baji Rao II, they had offered their services as soldiers. The Peshwa spurned them, and this pushed the Mahars to seek out the British in the next war.
•The Battle of Bhima-Koregaon is thus read differently. It is not seen as a battle in which the British with 834 infantry men, of which over 500 were Mahar, defeated a numerically stronger Peshwa army. It marked not the continuity of the British but the end of Peshwa rule. For Mahar memory, the presence of the British shrinks and it becomes a story of Mahar courage and valour, a testimony to Mahar martial values in their struggle for equality against the Peshwas. The Koregaon Ranstambh (victory pillar) represents a different kind of memory and a different kind of solidarity. It is now part of a new genealogy, not part of a battle between Indians and the British, but a struggle for equality.
A new memory
•In January 1927, Babasaheb Ambedkar visited the site and gave it this new legitimacy. This new memory triggered the formation of new communities. The Bhima-Koregaon Ranstambh Seva Sangh was formed to commemorate the battle of the Dalits for self-respect and equality. Over time this parallel memory acquired power as members of the Mahar regiment visited it to pay homage to Mahar militarism and valour. What was a local source of pilgrimage soon expanded to cover other States such as Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Maratha history competed with Mahar memory over the interpretation of the Stambh.
•One has to remember what Ananthamurthy said of past, present and future being enacted simultaneously. An Indian storyteller has to capture the magic of simultaneous time. A friend of mine suggested helpfully that one should imagine that one is watching three TV sets tuned to the past, the present and the future. While the Mahars are enacting their memorial to history reasserting their sense of identity and equality in a now immortalised village, the dominant castes are feeling unease with what they sense as re-appropriation of history. Tune to TV-2.
•For the Brahmins and Marathas watching these rituals, life seemed surreal. Suddenly, violence spreads across Maharashtra as pitched battles take place between Mahars and Marathas, each guarding their identity as if it were a piece of intellectual property. The battle now is not just one of memory, it is a battle for identity and equality. As violence spreads and Maharashtra comes to a standstill, as the metro, the sign of modern civic regularity, threatens to stop, normal life comes to a standstill in Pune, Nagpur, Thane and Kolhapur. The call for the urban shutdown has been given jointly by Dalit and Maratha groups. Both groups in turn see the villainy of the third as they protest against the march of Hindutva by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Hindutva, they feel, has turned this into a casteist controversy.
Other narratives
•Hindutva forces, Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar felt, were trying to poison society along caste lines. Dalit scholars point to Vadhu Budruk, a village close to Bhima-Koregaon and the controversy around Sambhaji, the eldest son of Shivaji. Legend has it that Sambhaji’s body was mutilated and then thrown into the river. Legend adds to it that Govind Mahar, a Dalit, gathered the body and stitched it together. It was the Mahars who arranged for Sambhaji’s memorial and, when Govind Mahar died, they constructed a tomb for him in the same village. Upper caste Marathas object to this narrative and a battle is being fought over it.
•It is time to switch on TV-3. The BJP has over the years forged an anti-Muslim meta-narrative around these struggles. Hindutva organisations invoke past Maratha glory to keep the caste within their fold. The recent attempt to link Hindutva battles as a neo-Peshwa enterprise is disturbing to the BJP’s electoral campaign as the party under its national president Amit Shah has been wooing Dalits into its fold. When other Hindutva organisations evoke Maratha glory, Dalit alienation and unease is obvious. Dalit organisations in response have organised a huge conference at what was once the dominant seat of the Peshwas. A caste split now threatens the huge electoral wooing of Dalits as future vote banks. The BJP attempt to consolidate the electoral future is coming apart, ironically through the same caste wars it encouraged before it sought to consolidate an electoral future. What one sees are the scenarios that might change 2019 as an idea of the electoral future. The BJP fear of another Jignesh Mevani appearing and disrupting its carefully quilted electoral strategy is quite obvious. What was a caste war is being secularised into a law and order problem. Cyber elks are warning against any attempt to create caste divides.
Beyond containment
•As I researched the archives of newspapers trying to make sense of the Bhima-Koregaon incident, I realised that the narrative cannot be contained or encapsulated in terms of one narrative. It is not a historical controversy alone, it cannot be restricted to a caste war, it is not a battle for identity, it is also a search for equality. It is also an attempt by politicians to go beyond all these fragments and create a more united future. One suddenly senses the many octaves in which politics in India occurs. Suddenly one senses the Proustian quality of such narratives where time redefines the nature of a problem. One realises that memory is a strange, protean, alchemical force in India where linearity does not work, and past, present and future struggle to simultaneously control narratives in India. It’s a reminder of philosopher Ian Hacking’s reading of our time. He claimed politics in the 18th century was about control of the body, in the 19th about the control of populations, and in the 20th about the control of memory. The only thing he forgot to mention is how complex memory in our age has become as it combines myth, memory, history. One trembles as one thinks how easily a fragment of the past can rewrite the future of a democracy, or the dreams of identity and justice.
📰 Constitution Bench to decide validity of criminalising adultery
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said it was time to reconsider its past decisions and consistent view from 1954 onwards that the penal provision was necessary to uphold family ties.
•The Supreme Court on Friday referred to a Constitution Bench a petition to decide if the pre-Independence provision of adultery in the Indian Penal Code treats a married woman as a commodity owned by her husband and violates the constitutional concepts of gender equality and sensitivity.
•The petition wants Section 497 (adultery) IPC to be dropped as a criminal offence from the penal code.
•Terming the penal provision as archaic, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said it was time to reconsider its past decisions and consistent view from 1954 onwards that the penal provision was necessary to uphold family ties.
•In the Yusuf Abdul Aziz case judgment of 1954, the Supreme Court, while answering the question why a wife cannot be prosecuted as an abettor to adultery, said the protection from prosecution given to women under Section 497 was in tune with Article 15 (3) of the Constitution, which allows the legislature to make “special provisions” which are “beneficial” for women and children.
•Section 497 of the Code mandates that if a man has sexual intercourse with another’s wife without the husband’s “consent or connivance”, he is “guilty of the offence of adultery and shall be punished.”
•In the 1985 decision in the Sowmithri Vishnu case, the apex court had concluded that “a man seducing the wife of another” was the most seen and felt evil in society. It had rejected arguments that while Section 497 gave the husband the exclusive right to prosecute his wife’s lover, a similar right was not conferred on a wife to prosecute the woman with whom her husband has committed adultery.
•Secondly, the provision does not confer any right on the wife to prosecute her husband for adultery.
•Further, the law does not take into account cases where the husband has sexual relations with an unmarried woman.
•The court had issued notice on December 8, 2017 on a petition filed by Joseph Shine, represented by advocates Kaleeswaram Raj and Suvidutt M.S.
•A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed in the order that the provision raised a question mark on social progress, outlook, gender equality and gender sensitivity. It was time to bring to the forefront a different view with focus on the rights of women, Chief Justice Misra observed.
•The Constitution Bench would likely consider whether Section 497 would treat the man as the adulterer and the married woman as always a victim.
•The larger Bench may also examine why the offence of adultery ceases the moment it is established that the husband connived or consented to the adulterous act. So, is a married woman the “property” of her husband or a passive object without a mind of her own?
•In 1988, a two-judge Supreme Court Bench, in the V. Revathi versus Union of India case, had denied there is gender discrimination in the fact that only the adulterer-man is punished and not the wife who consensually entered into the adulterous relationship.
📰 West Bengal gets a State emblem, designed by Mamata
Chief Minister unveils the emblem at the State Secretariat.
•The official emblem of West Bengal was unveiled by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on January 5. The emblem designed by Ms. Banerjee features the Ashoka Pillar.
•“We had to do this (create the State emblem) 70 years after Independence because it has never been thought of before. No one here thought that every State should have its individuality,” the Chief Minister said during the ceremony to unveil emblem at the State Secretariat Nabanna. She also said that the West Bengal government received the Centre’s approval for the emblem on January 3.
•Describing the occasion as “historic”, the Chief Minister said that henceforth the State emblem can be used in all the official work and documents of the State government. “We will use the emblem in all the official documents and work of the State government after issuing notification from today. But executing the process in all the departments will take some time,” Ms. Banerjee said.
•“Some States have their own emblem and some don’t. When it came to our notice, an expert committee was set up and the design was sent to the Centre for approval. It took quiet sometime but better late than never,” said Ms. Banerjee. The design was sent for Central approval in May 2017.
•As for changing the name of the State, the Chief Minister said that it will be announced as soon as the Centre approves it. “We have also sent a request to the Centre about changing the name of the State. Discussions are being held and as soon as we get the official approval we will announce it,” she said. Her Cabinet decided in September 2017 that the State’s name will be Bangla in all the languages.
📰 West Bengal gets a State emblem, designed by Mamata
Chief Minister unveils the emblem at the State Secretariat.
•The official emblem of West Bengal was unveiled by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on January 5. The emblem designed by Ms. Banerjee features the Ashoka Pillar.
•“We had to do this (create the State emblem) 70 years after Independence because it has never been thought of before. No one here thought that every State should have its individuality,” the Chief Minister said during the ceremony to unveil emblem at the State Secretariat Nabanna. She also said that the West Bengal government received the Centre’s approval for the emblem on January 3.
•Describing the occasion as “historic”, the Chief Minister said that henceforth the State emblem can be used in all the official work and documents of the State government. “We will use the emblem in all the official documents and work of the State government after issuing notification from today. But executing the process in all the departments will take some time,” Ms. Banerjee said.
•“Some States have their own emblem and some don’t. When it came to our notice, an expert committee was set up and the design was sent to the Centre for approval. It took quiet sometime but better late than never,” said Ms. Banerjee. The design was sent for Central approval in May 2017.
•As for changing the name of the State, the Chief Minister said that it will be announced as soon as the Centre approves it. “We have also sent a request to the Centre about changing the name of the State. Discussions are being held and as soon as we get the official approval we will announce it,” she said. Her Cabinet decided in September 2017 that the State’s name will be Bangla in all the languages.
📰 Enabling a law: rights of the disabled
Supreme Court’s timeline to ensure full access for the disabled to public facilities is welcome
•The Supreme Court has struck a blow for the rights of the disabled, with a direction to the Central and State governments to provide full access to public facilities, such as buildings and transport, within stipulated deadlines. People with a disability form 2.21% of India’s population according to the 2011 Census. They have had a law for two decades to enable their full participation in society, but successive governments have done little to realise those guarantees. Now, in response to a public interest petition filed by a visually handicapped activist, the court has issued a series of orders: that all government buildings should be made accessible by June 2019; half of all government buildings in the capital cities should meet accessibility norms by December this year; the Railways should present a report in three months from December 15 on implementing station facilities; 10% of government public transport must be fully accessible by March 2018; and advisory boards should be formed by the States and Union Territories in three months. The court’s directions should be welcomed by the government and service providers as an opportunity to steer policy and practice towards a universal and humane system. For too long, planners and designers have built infrastructure for use only by able-bodied individuals, ignoring the aspirations of those with disabilities, and the letter of the law.
•A transformation requires governments to also harness the power of newer technologies. Geolocation is one, and it enables targeted provision of services. It is eminently feasible, for instance, to aggregate the travel requirements of disabled people with the help of information technology and smartphones, and provide affordable shared transport using accessible vehicles. Given the emphasis on smart cities and upgraded urban facilities, such schemes should be given the highest priority and start-up ideas roped in. Railway stations and access to train carriages continue to pose hurdles for not just the disabled, but even elderly travellers. The Railways should embark on an urgent programme to retrofit all stations, and try simple solutions such as portable step ladders to help board and exit trains, since level boarding is not possible in most places. Cost is not the barrier to improving facilities; what is in short supply is the political will to change the design of public facilities and stick to professional codes. The Supreme Court said in a 1998 order on a petition seeking air travel concession, that while cost was a consideration, the true spirit and purpose of the law could not be ignored. Today India, which is richer than it was then, and has passed a new law in 2016 to strengthen the rights of the disabled, should demonstrate the will to implement it.
📰 This too is a right: the right to sexual privacy
The right to sexual privacy makes the law on adultery open to constitutional scrutiny
•Joseph Shine v. Union of India, the petition challenging the constitutional validity of the criminal prohibition on adultery under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, has now been referred to the Constitution Bench by the Supreme Court. The petition was admitted by the court with the preliminary observation that the provision attacks the independent identity of the woman and is archaic in its nature. As widely argued, on the intuitive grounds of both directly discriminating against men and indirectly discriminating against women, there are overwhelming reasons why the apex court should strike down this provision. However, there is much less discussion on another significant aspect of adultery law: the right to sexual privacy.
•Generally speaking, in a marital bond based on love and trust, it is true that the spouse will have a necessary grievance against the adulterous partner. It is in view of this breach of fidelity that the civil laws in the country provide for adultery as a ground for divorce. It is important to clarify that the adultery laws having consequences such as divorce might well be in the legitimate state interest. It does seem quite unfair to compel an individual to remain with an unfaithful partner.
•The problem, however, is with the fact that adultery is made a penal offence. Adultery covers sexual intercourse between consenting adults. What is under challenge is a punitive provision that existed since 1860, which crystallised Victorian notions of sexuality. To prescribe a criminal penalty for a voluntary sexual activity is strikingly disproportionate.
State’s flawed approach
•The right to privacy is valued and cherished for it involves the most intimate decisions and choices. The individual is absolutely autonomous in her territory. She is free to err, resolve and experiment. She is informed and independent to make her own decisions. Privacy is freedom giving as well as empowering in this sense.
•The right to engage in sexual intercourse is an intrinsic part of the right to privacy. Privacy has to invariably contain the right to bodily integrity, self-determination and sexual autonomy. By criminalising adultery, the state is in fact showing a paternalistic attitude by telling individuals how to lead their lives and what behaviour to adopt. It carries moralistic undertones of imposing what living an ideal life means for the state. Such an approach seriously undermines the underlying values of personal liberty.
•In fact, in the celebrated privacy judgment in K.S. Puttaswamy (2017), exercising the police power of the state in matters of private choices was repelled by the apex court. Justice J. Chelameswar in clear terms held, “I do not think that anybody would like to be told by the state as to what they should eat or how they should dress or whom they should be associated with either in their personal, social or political life.” Likewise, it seems to follow that individuals must be free from the interference of the state in matters of their sexual choices, or even in choosing their sexual partner.
Foreign jurisprudence
•It is pertinent to note that none of the European countries has criminalised adultery. In most of South America, adultery is no longer a crime. Many States in the U.S. have either repealed adultery laws or put them to disuse. Following this global trend, in 2012, a working group of the United Nations called upon countries to do away with laws penalising adultery.
•The right to sexual privacy is increasingly recognised in jurisprudence around the world. In the U.S in particular, the courts have enthusiastically located a constitutional right to sexual privacy. In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the U.S. Supreme Court was cautious to highlight the importance of privacy in the peculiar sphere of marital bedrooms in the context of birth control. In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), when confronted with the question of the legality of certain sexual conduct between persons of the same sex, the court held that no “majoritarian sexual morality” could override legitimate privacy interests.
•On the other hand, the approach of the Supreme Court of India towards the right to sexual privacy has been, at best, ambivalent. The judgment in Suresh Kumar Koushal (2013) upholding the criminalisation of voluntary sexual intercourse between those of the same sex remains a serious blow to the right to sexual freedom. However, subsequently, in NALSA v. Union of India (2014), the Court said that the value of privacy is fundamental to those of the transgender community.
•The present challenge to the law on adultery is significant for various reasons. One of them certainly is that it is perhaps the first occasion where the privacy judgment in Puttaswamy is going to be doctrinally and forensically tested. It is also equally crucial that the right to sexual privacy forms a distinct and independent ground which makes the law on adultery further vulnerable to constitutional scrutiny.
📰 GDP growth seen slowing to 4-year low of 6.5% in 2017-18
GVA rate for agriculture is expected to slow sharply to 2.1%, says statistics office
•The Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Friday forecast that GDP growth in the current financial year ending March 31 will slow to a four-year low of 6.5%, from the provisional 7.1% pace seen in 2016-17, dragged down by deceleration in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
•Gross Value Added (GVA) was also projected to expand by 6.1% in 2017-18, slowing from 6.6% in the preceding fiscal year, according to the first advance estimates of national income for 2017-18, released by the CSO.
•Within this, the GVA growth rate for ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ is expected to slow sharply to 2.1%, compared with the previous year’s 4.9% pace. Manufacturing sector growth has been forecast at 4.6% in 2017-18, compared with the 7.9% expansion provisionally estimated for 2016-17.
•“In agriculture, what we are seeing is a base effect because last year saw a very high growth rate because it followed two years of drought,” Statistics and Programme Implementation Secretary and Chief Statistician of India TCA Anant said at a press conference in the national capital. “In terms of production, the total production would probably be the second highest in a very long time. It is not unusual growth in agriculture in a good year.”
•The CSO’s GVA full-year growth estimate of 6.1%, compares with a 6.7% pace that the Reserve Bank of India had forecast at its December policy meeting.
•The central bank had at the time flagged rising oil prices and “shortfalls in kharif production and rabi sowing” as posing downside risks to the outlook for GVA growth.
•“These numbers have a bearing on the fiscal deficit numbers for this year and next year as well,” said D.K. Srivastava, chief policy advisor at EY India. “For this year, the nominal growth is expected to be far lower than what was estimated in the Budget, so the fiscal deficit number will have to be adjusted if the 3.2% of GDP target is to be maintained. And, for next year, the base is now lower, so that year’s fiscal deficit figure will also have to be adjusted.”
•Other economists cited the latest PMI survey showing an uptick in manufacturing and said the economy had regained momentum in recent quarters, signalling growth would rebound in the next fiscal year.
•“Economic activity has been picking up over the last three quarters and can be expected to strengthen in the coming period with the manufacturing PMI [Purchasing Managers’ Index] now reading at a five-year high of 54, and FMCG demand picking up briskly,” Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar said in a written statement. “Hence, the GDP growth will become more robust in 2018-19.”
•While the latest CSO estimates project private final consumption expenditure, a proxy for household spending, growing by 6.3% in 2017-18, down from 8.7% in the previous year, gross fixed capital formation — a key investment metric — is expected to accelerate to 4.5%, from 2.4% in 2016-17.
•“The advanced estimates for annual growth of 6.5% can be achieved if we have an average of 7% growth in the last two quarters of this fiscal,” said Ranen Banerjee, Partner - Public Finance and Economy at PwC India. “Given the momentum seen in the core sector growth, PMI indices and developed world economies, the optimism may not be belied.”
•“Further wearing off of the demonetisation related residual effects as well as progressively stabilising the transitionary effects of GST is likely to support the higher growth rate estimates for the last two quarters,” Mr. Banerjee added.
•The CSO’s estimates project the mining and quarrying, and construction sectors to grow faster in 2017-18 than they did in the previous year. While mining and quarrying is estimated to expand by 2.9%, compared with 1.8% growth in 2016-17, the construction sector is expected to grow by 3.6%, versus1.7% in the prior period.
•“The growth in construction is reflective of the cement and steel consumption figures recently released by DIPP as part of the core sector figures,” Mr. Anant said. The core sector data for November, the latest release so far, showed the steel and cement sectors registering strong double-digit growth.
•Growth in the trade, hotels, transport and communication and services related to broadcasting is estimated at 8.7%, quickening from 7.8% in the previous year. Similarly, the financial, insurance, real estate and professional services sector is estimated to expand faster at 7.3% in 2017-18, from 2016-17’s 5.7% pace.
•However, the public administration and defence and other services category is expected to grow at 9.4% in 2017-18 compared with 11.3% in 2016-17.
📰 Come July, label mandatory for food certified as ‘organic’
Companies not sticking to standards can be prosecuted, according to FSSAI
•Come July, it would be illegal to sell organic food that was not appropriately labelled so.
•The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued regulations that required food companies selling organic produce to get certified with one of the two authorities — National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) or the Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India). Companies could also get a voluntary logo from the FSSAI that marked its produce as ‘organic.’
•Though NPOP and PGS-India had been in the certification business for some years, it was mostly a voluntary exercise. “From July, any company that claims to sell organic food and not sticking to standards can be prosecuted,” Pawan Aggrawal, CEO, FSSAI told The Hindu.
•“..Labelling on the package of organic food shall convey full and accurate information on the organic status of the product. Such product may carry a certification or quality assurance mark of one of the systems mentioned… in addition to the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India’s organic logo,” said a FSSAI notification on January 2 and published in the Gazette. These rules were finalised after almost a year of being sent out as a draft for public comments.
Third party certification
•For nearly two decades now, organic farming certification had been done through a process of third party certification under the NPOP. It was run by the Ministry of Commerce and was used for certifying general exports. Nearly 24 agencies were authorised by the NPOP to verify farms, storages and processing units and successful ones got a special ‘India Organic’ logo.
•The PGS-India programme, in contrast, had been around for only two years and — unlike the top-down approach of the NPOP — involves a peer-review approach. Here, farmers played a role in certifying whether the farms in their vicinity adhered to organic-cultivation practices. This programme was implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture through the National Centre of Organic Farming.
📰 ‘Public stockholding of grains to stay’
Protected by 2014 negotiation: Prabhu
•India’s ongoing public stockholding programmes would remain unaffected and continue, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The minister’s assurance comes in the wake of the recent Eleventh Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization failing to reach a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes.
•In a statement, Mr. Prabhu said the conference had agreed to extend an existing moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmission in exchange for another moratorium preventing the evergreening of patents in the pharmaceuticals sector.
•Regarding the permanent solution to the public stockholding issue, Mr. Prabhu said: “Quite logically, in addition to fulfilling the obligation placed by the Bali/Nairobi mandate, India viewed this as an opportunity for achieving an outcome that would be an improvement over the existing interim solution through less onerous transparency and disclosure conditions, no additional safeguards in respect of programmes already covered by the interim solution and greater legal certainty.”
•However, some developed countries sought explicit language on existing safeguards, according to Mr. Prabhu, and the U.S. said it could not agree to a permanent solution.
•“Our public stockholding programmes, however, continue to be protected due to the interim solution that the government negotiated in 2014, which is available in perpetuity,” he said. “An existing moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmission was extended for two years in exchange for another moratorium on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights non-violation complaint, which, inter alia, prevents ‘evergreening’ of patents in the pharmaceutical sector, thereby ensuring accessibility and affordability of generic medicines.”
•“The above decisions are in line with India’s position in the matter,” Mr. Prabhu added. “This is a major achievement for India.”
Ministerial declaration
•Mr. Prabhu said that members could not arrive at an agreement regarding a ministerial declaration following the conference.
•“Ministers could not arrive at an agreed ministerial declaration at the end of the conference on the basis of a draft brought forward from Geneva,” the minister said.
•“As the revised draft ministerial declaration subsequently proposed by the chairperson excluded or failed to adequately include important issues such as multilateralism, the Doha Development Agenda and special and differential treatment of developing countries, India could not support it,” he added.
📰 Rural BPO scheme: women form 40% of added headcount
10,968 hired under Centre’s BPO promotion scheme; 1.45 lakh jobs envisaged
•The government’s India BPO promotion scheme, which aims to popularise the industry beyond metros, has so far provided employment to almost 11,000 people across the country, of which 40% are women.
•The scheme, under the Digital India Programme, was introduced in April 2016 to incentivise BPO firms to extend operations to tier-2 and tier-3 cities in the country. With an outlay of about ₹500 crore, it aims to incentivise establishment of 48,300 seats, providing about 1.45 lakh jobs, under a three-shift strategy.
•“Under the scheme, there are special incentives for employing women and differently-abled persons, and generating employment beyond target,” an official from Ministry of Electronics and IT said. “Till now, out of the reported employment of 10,968 persons under the scheme, approximately 40% are women,” the official added. A Nasscom report had said that more than 34% employees working in the $155-billion IT industry are women. Under the scheme, about 18,160 seats were allocated by the Centre after four rounds of bidding, while close to 14,000 seats have been shortlisted after the fifth round and are likely to be allotted soon.
‘66% of target’
•“This will take the total number of seats allocated under the scheme to nearly 32,000, or 66% of the targeted number,” the official said.
•The seat allocation has been led by states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir. The uptake has been on the slower side in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal and almost Union Territories expect for Chandigarh and Puducherry, the official said.
•Under the scheme, 109 units have been approved, through which about 40 firms such as Amazon Development Centre India and AGS Health, will be providing voice and non-voice services in about 16 languages.These will include English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Oriya, Marathi, Arabic, Urdu and Spanish.
•A total of 61 cities in 21 states and Union Territories have been already covered by the scheme.
