📰 India-U.K. to ink MoU on illegal migrants
•India will sign a pact with the United Kingdom for a return of illegal Indian migrants within a month of their being detected by authorities.
•The U.K. has consistently raised the issue of return of illegal migrants — said to number in thousands — with India. The memorandum of understanding comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit in March.
•During her visit to India in 2016, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the U.K. would consider an improved visa deal, “if, at the same time, we can step up the speed and volume of returns of Indians with no right to remain in the U.K.”
•Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju will lead a delegation to the U.K. this week. The team is expected to ask Westminster to “spell out” its position in court on businessman Vijay Mallya’s extradition. Mr. Modi’s visit to the U.K. coincides with the hearing in Mr. Mallya’s case when the court takes up the “admissibility of evidence.”
•A senior Home Ministry official said, “Till now U.K has assured us of all possible help in the extradition requests placed by India, but we would like to know the stand they are going to take in court in Mallya’s case.”
•A senior official said the MoU will streamline the return of illegal migrants to India. “The process was not streamlined yet. The British authorities will first identify the illegal migrant, the Indian authorities will be informed and then the verification will be done by police agencies back home. If the claims of the British authorities are found to be correct, then travel documents will be readied and the person deported by the U.K. authorities. This process will have a timeline of one month,” said the official.
•While U.K. claims that number of illegal migrants was in thousands, Indian agencies found only 2,000 Indians overstaying.
•The MoU on sharing of criminal records is in line with a similar agreement signed with the U.S., an official said.
•Mr. Rijiju is also expected to convey New Delhi’s concerns on the continuing anti-India propaganda carried out by Sikh and Kashmiri extremist groups based in the U.K.that bear “serious repercussions on India’s sovereignty.”
•An official said British authorities have assured India that despite the Cabinet reshuffle in London, the two MoUs would be signed as scheduled. Minister of State for Immigration Brandon Lewis who was to sign the MoUs has been appointed as chairman of the ruling Conservative Party.
📰 The Iranian crisis is not yet over
The largest public display of discontent since 2009, the current protests signal a new period of uncertainty
•When revolutionary regimes stagnate, confusion and chaos reign, and both are palpably true of the Islamic Republic of Iran today. Amid a deep economic, political and now social crisis, many on the ground in Iran and even more observing from abroad don’t know what to think or to do. The recent protests which spread around Iran in the waning days of 2017 and early 2018 represented the largest public display of discontent in Iran since the 2009 Green Movement.
Beyond Tehran
•Unlike the 2009 Green Movement, which was largely a product of the urban middle class youth in Tehran, the recent unrest in Iran seems to reflect the economic grievances of the lower and working classes, alienated from institutional politics and suffering heavily from the consequences of an unjust and unequal management of the Iranian economy. As a result, these protests have been largely driven by disaffected young people in rural areas, towns and small cities who seized a pretext to express their frustrations with economic woes that are caused by Iran’s foreign policy, as the country has been largely involved in both the Syrian conflict and turmoil in Yemen.
•However, more than two weeks ago, the hard-liners who encouraged the rioters to direct their economic frustrations against the reformist government of President Hassan Rouhani had no idea that a small regional expression of dissent would take on a life of its own and turn into a general uprising. The protests, therefore, turned not only into a reaction over rampant inflation, continuous corruption and rising prices, but also focused on the crisis of legitimacy of the Islamic regime in Iran, totally misunderstood by a generation of Iranians who were too young to remember the revolution of 1979.
•The growing generational gap between the Islamic state and the Iranian youth, particularly young women, has never been wider. In the ‘last 25 years Iran has been on a course of major political and societal evolution, as the increasingly young population has become more educated, secular and rebellious’.
•An ‘explosive mix of a growing population — which led to a youth bulge — combined with urbanisation, an increasing unemployment rate and the rapid expansion of university education, produced new sociological actors in Iran who were essentially young and educated (and mostly women, in fact) but with no political, economic or social future. As a result, a generational gap divided Iranian society between moneymaking and powerful conservatives and young rebels without a cause. Iran became a society divided between rich supporters of the regime and poor rebels with no ideology and no political leaders. On one side are those who use power to make money, and on the other side are those who disobey the social and political order’.
Political fragmentation
•A large segment of the youth in Iran have access to ‘satellite television and the Internet and see how their counterparts in the rest of the world, particularly in the West, are living, and they long for the same lifestyle’. Recent events indicate the impact of a long-term demographic problem which has no short term remedies and which foretells certain unavoidable truths for the Iranian regime — that undeniably, a young and restless population can only be contained and repressed for so long. For the past 40 years the Islamic regime has continuously searched for an ‘appropriate approach to cope with the challenge of governance while contending with a perpetual struggle for power between competing tendencies and grave regional and international challenges’. Political fragmentation within Iran has never been more evident, and the clerical elite have never been challenged more clearly, both at the domestic and international level.
•As recent riots in cities around Iran reveal, despite the subjects having been systematically arrested or killed by the authorities, the tension between discontented youth and the regime will continue. It happens that Iranians remain unsurprisingly unreconciled to theocracy. Moreover, even when protests in Iran start over economic issues, as in the past few weeks, it seems that people are not just ‘demonstrating for better working conditions or pay, but insisting on wholesale rejection of the system itself’. The widespread waves of protests that have swept Iran practically every ten years suggest the gradual meltdown of the theocratic ideology in Iran.
•Let us not forget that ‘Iran’s recent violent protests surged among the nation’s poor, presumed bedrock supporters of the regime’, who have been disappointed by the limited economic and social improvements of the nation. The Iranian government’s promises to revitalise the Iranian economy after the re-election of Mr. Rouhani as President must be seen against the rise of youth unemployment which stands today at more than 40%. Also, those young Iranians who supported the nuclear deal of 2015 between the Rouhani cabinet and the Obama administration considered it as an ‘opportunity for Iranian civic actors to enable and empower Iran’s civil society space’.
•Almost ten years ago, what was known as the Green Movement of 2009 ‘changed the destiny of the Iranian civil society. The unprecedented protests that followed the presidential elections presented serious challenges to the moral status of the theological sovereignty and its legitimacy in the world. The public anger and the ensuing infighting among the founding architects of the revolution presented the most serious challenge to Iran’s clerical regime since it replaced the Shah in 1979. Those among the reformists who believed that the system allowed scope for reform found themselves face-to-face with a theological-political structure that used extreme violence to ensure its legitimacy’.
The reformists’ silence
•Strangely, the reformists were totally absent in leading or participating in the recent unrest in Iran. Iranian reformists, like former President Mohammad Khatami, could have provided leadership but decided to stay out of the action. Some have attributed the reformists’ reluctance to their fear of Iran turning into a new Syria, in other words, a war-torn country heading for “failed state” status and threatening the region’s fragile stability. This is certainly not what Saudi Arabia, Israel and Donald Trump’s America are looking for.
•As a result, while the recent protests engulfed Iranian cities of all sizes and the country’s lower class population, the reaction among political leaders around the globe has been far from united. While Mr. Trump endorsed the protests in Iran, advocating change, the European leaders along with Russia’s Vladimir Putin took a more cautious tone, pointing to the “unpredictable outcome” of the Arab Spring. Even Saudi Arabia, Iran’s arch-enemy in the region, stayed unusually quiet.
•One way or another, both inside and outside Iran, observers are worried about the future. All this as Iran might be leading to a new period of political repression and economic hardship, while its population continues to grow, with few new jobs, and more international isolation. It looks like the Iranian crisis is not yet over.
📰 Trump has weakened the U.S., taken us in the wrong direction: Nicholas Burns
The former U.S. diplomat on Donald Trump’s first year in the White House, and what it means for India
•Nicholas Burns has served in the U.S. government for 27 years and worked closely with several Presidents, Republican as well as Democratic. As Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008, he led negotiations on the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Agreement. Currently a Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, he travels to India often, keenly follows developments and India-U.S. relations. As Donald Trump completes one year as President, he talks about the entire gamut of India-U.S. ties in the context of changing American priorities and how India is viewed by friends in America. Excerpts:
President Trump will complete his first year in office later this month. Has this first year been different from that of previous presidencies?
•I think President Trump’s America First policy is a fundamental departure from 70 years of American foreign policy under both Republican and Democratic Presidents. It is a very negative departure. President Trump has weakened the U.S. and has taken us in the wrong direction. He is diminishing our commitment to some of our alliances. He has disavowed America’s traditional support for the World Trade Organisation, for big multilateral agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He has also turned his back on the existential basis of American society, which is that we are an immigrant nation. He wants to severely curtail immigration…. he has refused to take even a single Syrian refugee. He has put a travel ban on several countries, mainly Muslim. On these three structural areas — alliances, trade and immigration — he has turned his back on what Republicans and Democrats have supported for years. Besides, we have withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement, and we are the only country that is out of it now, and we are the second largest carbon emitter. Most importantly, the President appears to not see himself — as every American President since Franklin D. Roosevelt has seen himself — as the leader of the West, leader of a democratic alliance of countries, a supporter of democracy.
On alliances, the President has given conflicting signals though. He has said that the U.S. remains committed to its allies. So what do we take from this?
•He has not been consistent. Every time he speaks up for South Korea or Japan… we have to remember that not long ago, he accused the South Korean government of appeasement of the North Korean government, in wanting to talk to them. Words matter. When you are the President of the U.S., you have to be consistent in conveying what you believe in. This President has not been consistent. He sees the world almost solely through the prism of trade and investment, and ignores the value of democracy and other strategic issues. This to me is a fundamental departure.
But in his speech in Poland last year he portrayed the U.S.-Europe partnership as a civilisational alliance. So he does have a view, albeit different from his predecessors, on the foundations of that relationship?
•There is a crisis in Europe — the crisis is the rise of right wing populism. People like Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, some of the right-wing leaders in Poland are fundamentally anti-democratic leaders. They don’t believe in the kind of democracy that we believe in, or you in India believe in. What the President did in Warsaw last summer was to praise a government that is flirting with anti-democratic factions. It was misguided. This is the time when the American President must be standing with the truly democratic leaders. The President failed to convey what we stand for, what American values are.
The President also says that friends of America fooled all his predecessors…
•I think it’s arrogant to say, as he repeatedly does, that all of his predecessors failed. I worked for every administration from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush, … I can say, they did their best. They were all good men. They all believed in our country. All of them made mistakes, we all do. But they advanced American interests significantly. To say that all that we did about alliances, refugees, trade treaties so far is wrong, ahistorical. It is grossly unfair for him to make that judgment.
•But the President has done some things that are positive. I think he has been able to strengthen our relationship with some of the moderate Sunni Arab regimes in the Middle East. He certainly strengthened our relationship with Israel. His policy on North Korea, of trying to increase pressure on it, is good. The problem with this President is that even when he is correct, the verbal excess that comes with it is unconscionably offensive [in] that it erodes whatever good he is doing in policy.
The Trump administration is clear that its objective is to enhance hard power and it sees soft power as a waste of money. How is this impacting the State Department? How does this impact American standing in the world?
•For countries like the U.S., India, Japan or France, soft power is very important. What makes India and the U.S. uniquely important in the world is our support for democracy, religious tolerance, human rights. This is what distinguishes us from China or Russia. As a leader you have to pay attention to both aspects of your power, hard and soft. The State Department is facing a threat of budget cuts, and to see the President and Secretary [of State] Rex Tillerson firing some of our senior career diplomats, not listening to them… it has been a painful year.
•What is heartening to see is that both parties in Congress are standing up to the President and Secretary Tillerson in support of diplomats and diplomacy. Mr. Tillerson has not shown faith in our career diplomats. He has not shown support for them.
How do you see India’s role in the changing priorities of the U.S.?
•Under President Trump India remains a significant priority for U.S. foreign policy. I think President Trump is continuing the policy of Presidents Bush and Obama. We all believe that the rise of India as a global power is in the interest of America. President Trump has appointed a very capable ambassador to India, and I have known Ken Juster for many years. I admire Ken, and he is a true expert on India. His going to India as ambassador is a very positive signal, and India is one of the success stories of the Trump administration. The continuation of our policy of close economic cooperation and much closer strategic partnership is good news. The strategic convergence between India and America that is underway for some time continues under President Trump. If you look at President Trump’s policies worldwide, one of the brightest spots has been his policy towards India.
What about his Pakistan policy?
•There is a challenge with regards to Pakistan. He is right in calling out Pakistan for its support of terrorists. Realistically, we will also have to try and maintain a relationship with Pakistan. This is a very difficult balance to maintain. There is value in being clear to Pakistan publicly. I don’t think it is wise to drive that to a point where we don’t have the ability to have a continuous line of communication with Pakistan. India has the same interest. The situation in South Asia will be better if India and Pakistan are talking.
President Trump is an advocate of bilateral deals. Given that, how confident can India be in his ability to understand the Indo-Pacific as a strategic theatre?
•The policy of any country must be consistent with its long-term interests. I think the policy of the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific is not going to change radically in the next several decades.
•Our interest in the Indo-Pacific is to ensure that we are a power there, as you are (India), as Japan is, as China is… to maintain regional peace, to maintain free trade, to protect the rise of smaller countries. Aggressive Chinese military actions are a threat to this. Our interest is in aligning ourselves with India, Japan, Australia, Singapore. There are very few topics on which the Democrats and Republicans agree with each other, but one of them is relations with India.
India has been named very favourably by President Trump several times, but also very unfavourably many times in the past year, particularly in matters related to trade. How do we make sense of this?
•Trade has been a difficult issue in India-U.S. relations for decades. It has been a difficult issue for President Bush, and I know that as I served as Under Secretary of State for him. It was very difficult for President Obama. The fact is that the U.S. sees some of India’s trade policies as very protectionist. That has not changed under this administration, and it is a commonly held view by the U.S. Congress and the last three U.S. administrations. The potential for conflict in the trade area is greater under this administration because President Trump’s views are much more aggressive, towards countries with which we have difficulties in trade, and much more aggressive on the issue of H-1B visas. It is important for us to watch the specific policy proposals related to these issues in 2018, and to deal with them constructively. We are fortunate that we have Ken Juster as ambassador in New Delhi, who understands these issues very well.
How do you assess the Modi government in India, which will be completing four years in office this year?
•Mr. Modi has been a dynamic leader internationally. He has been successful in continuing with the fine work of his predecessors Manmohan Singh and A.B. Vajpayee. Looking at the growth of investment, efforts in improving infrastructure, efforts to fight corruption, there is much to admire about Mr. Modi. I am quite well aware that there are many problems in India; there are economic problems as there are successes. I will say this as a friend of India, as an admirer of India, one of the greatest strengths of India has been its religious tolerance and the fact that religious minorities in India, particularly Muslims, have full rights and full opportunities. There are aspects of Hindu nationalism that we have seen under this government that give many of India’s friends a concern. Particularly after 9/11 it was so remarkable that India’s Muslim community continued to succeed in business, politics, and there has been a relatively peaceful coexistence of the Hindu and Muslim communities. We have a similar problem in the U.S. by the way — under President Trump race relations have worsened. We are struggling to sustain the progress we made in race relations over 50 years. One of President Trump’s greatest mistakes has been to be a divisive leader on race. Friends of India want it to remain a country where people of all faiths can succeed.
What do you think Mr. Modi can do to ensure that is the case?
•Obviously, in a democratic country, the role of the leader — the Prime Minister of India or the President of the U.S. — in trying to achieve social stability on historically difficult issues like race in the U.S. or Hindu-Muslim relations in India is critical. In a democracy we need leadership that heals social, racial and religious divisions. All societies need that leadership from the top.
📰 H-1B visa extensions to continue: U.S.
Reports had emerged that the Trump administration was considering tightening the H-1B visa rules that could lead to deportation of 7,50,000 Indians.
•Washington: The United States has no plans under consideration to discontinue the extension of H-1B visas beyond six years, when beneficiaries wait for permanent residency, or green card, authorities clarified on Monday. A flurry of speculative reporting on the issue over the last 10 days that said lakhs of people will be forced to self-deport from the U.S. as a result of this move had caused panic among Indian Americans who comprise a significant portion of green card applicants. Actual numbers are not available.
•A spokesperson of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the Department of Homeland Security that administers the non-immigrant, temporary worker visa programme said in a statement: “….USCIS is not considering a regulatory change that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the United States by changing our interpretation of section 104(c) of AC-21, which provides for H-1B extensions beyond the 6 year limit.” AC-21 or the American Competitiveness in the Twenty First Century Act is the law passed by the U.S Congress in 2000, which also governs the extension of H-1B visas.
•“Even if it were [considering changes to section 104-c], such a change would not likely result in these H-1B visa holders having to leave the United States because employers could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)-(b) of AC - 21 instead,” Jonathan Withington, chief of media relations for USCIS, told The Hindu.
•The section on three-year extensions uses the word ‘may’ which could allow some discretion by the executive but there is a separate section in the same Act that allows one-year extensions in which the executive has no discretion. It uses the expression that the administration ‘shall’ grant such extensions. The Hindu had clarified this factual situation last week. So, even if the USCIS were to reinterpret the meaning of the word ‘may,’ the question of self-deportation didn’t arise.
tightening the H-1B visa rules
•The agency said as much on Monday, but also added that there has not been a move at all to reinterpret the clause related to three-year extensions. “…any suggestion that USCIS changed its position because of pressure is absolutely false,” Mr. Withington said adding that no changes were under consideration, connected to it.
•The reports on possible discontinuation of extensions had prompted industry bodies, immigrant associations, and even U.S. lawmakers to protest against it even as the administration remained silent until Monday. Indian officials had brought the panic among the Indian Americans to the attention of the White House last week, suggesting a clarification to quell it.
•The USCIS is reviewing the H-1B visa programme, and will come up with changes later this year. “The agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the President’s Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, including a thorough review of employment based visa programmes,” Mr. Withington said. But the Trump administration can change through executive action only those aspects of the H-1B programme that were effected through executive actions. The work permit for spouses of H-1B visa holders and the lottery system that selects beneficiaries of the programme every year are governed by executive decisions. The administration could suggest changes for Congress to consider and legislate, as part of its review.
📰 China says Gwadar naval base report is speculation
Foreign Ministry spokesperson asks ‘outside world’ not to make too much guesses in this regard
•China on Tuesday counselled the “outside world” not to speculate on Beijing’s reported intent to open a naval base in Gwadar, the starting point of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
•“I am not aware of what you mentioned,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said, when asked to comment on reports that Chinawould establish a naval base in Gwadar, to supplement its already existing Indian Ocean facility at Djibouti.
•“As you know the building of CPEC is an important part of the Belt and Road initiative, and China and Pakistan are also making efforts to build the CPEC, which is in the common interest of the countries along the route,” Mr. Lu observed.
•He added: “So, I don’t think it is necessary for the outside world to make too much guesses in this regard.”
‘No Pakistan-China discussion’
•In Pakistan, the daily, Pakistan Today said that Beijing and Islamabad had no plans to build a Chinese naval base in coastal areas of Pakistan, and the matter had never been discussed between the two countries.
•Pakistan Today quoted a senior official at the Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that neither the Chinese government had made any such request (of building a naval base) to the government of Pakistan nor was there any plan being discussed between the two governments.
•“It looks that such rumours are being spread just to sabotage the successful completion of early harvest projects under the game-changing CPEC. But, Islamabad and Beijing are well aware of the enemy designs, and we will not let anyone sabotage the project’s success,” the official was quoted as saying.
•The official mentioned that the security of the Chinese nationals working on the CPEC projects, as well as the Chinese shipments going into the Arabian Sea, would solely be a responsibility of Pakistani law enforcing agencies, and, for the same purpose, a designated division — Strategic Security Division — had been raised.
•“Pakistan Navy is well-equipped to handle the security of Chinese shipments, and we will manage the security of the shipments effectively,” the source said, adding that this was the reason that the capacity-building process of Pakistan Navy was being given a priority.
📰 North, South Korea begin talks as Winter Olympics helps break the ice
First inter-Korean dialogue since December 2015; family reunions, easing military tension may also be on table
•North and South Korea kicked off their first formal talks in more than two years on Tuesday, with both sides expressing optimism ahead of discussions on how the North’s athletes can attend the Winter Olympics in the South despite tensions.
•Regardless of its narrow, primarily sporting agenda, the meeting is being closely watched by world leaders eager for any sign of a reduction in tensions on the Korean peninsula amid rising fears over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
•“We came to this meeting today with the thought of giving our brethren, who have high hopes for this dialogue, invaluable results as the first present of the year...,” said head of North Korea’s delegation Ri Son Gwon.
•North Korea entered the talks with a “serious and sincere stance,” said Mr. Ri, chairman of the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.
•His counterpart, South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, also expressed optimism.
•“Our talks began after North and South Korea were severed for a long time, but I believe the first step is half the trip,” said Mr. Cho. “It would be good for us to make that ‘good present’ you mentioned earlier.”
•The two sides are discussing North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the Paralympics as well as the improvement of inter-Korean relations.
Resumption of reunion of family members
•Mr. Cho has said his delegation is also preparing to discuss resuming reunion of family members separated by the Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire and technically left the two Koreas still at war.
•Some South Korean officials are hoping the two Koreas may even march under a single flag at the Winter Games, which would be the first time in more than a decade that the two Koreas united under one flag at a sporting event opening.
•Pointing to his briefcase before departing for the border, Mr. Cho smiled and said, “I have a bit of luggage,” adding, “Everything feels slightly new as we have not had talks in a while.”
•Just before the delegation drove into the demilitarised zone, some 20 South Koreans were seen waving a banner reading: “We wish the success of the high-ranking inter-Korean talks.” One man was spotted waving a flag with a unified Korean peninsula.
•Five senior officials from each side met at the three-storey Peace House on the South Korean side of the Panmunjom truce village from 10 a.m. (0100 GMT).
•The North Korean delegation walked over the border inside the joint security area (JSA) to the Peace House around 0030 GMT, a Unification Ministry official told reporters.
•Cameras and microphones are usually placed in the room to ensure that officials from both sides can monitor the talks.
•The United States, which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, initially responded coolly to the idea of inter-Korean meetings.
“A good thing,” says Trump
•The State Department had said Pyongyang “might be trying to drive a wedge” between Washington and Seoul and weaken a U.S.-led campaign to force North Korea to give up its development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States.
•U.S. President Donald Trump spent much of the past year deriding negotiations as useless and lobbing insults at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but recently Mr. Trump called the new talks “a good thing” and said they were prompted by his “firm, strong” stance.
•Mr. Trump has said he would like to see talks go beyond the Olympics and added: “At the appropriate time, we’ll get involved.”
•A spokeswoman for the State Department, Katina Adams, did not respond directly when asked about suggestions from some South Korean officials that the two Koreas could march under a single flag at the Olympic opening ceremony and even compete as a single nation in some events, but said: “We are in close contact with the Republic of Korea about our unified response to North Korea, including need to maintain pressure to achieve a denuclearised Korean Peninsula.
•“Diplomatic options remain viable and open and the United States remains committed to finding a peaceful path to denuclearising the Korean Peninsula,” she said.
•At the same time, Ms. Adams said Washington remained “clear-eyed about [North Korea’s] track record when it comes to negotiations” and added, “Time will tell if this is a genuine gesture.”
•U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reiterated last week that any future talks between the U.S. and North Korea must be aimed at denuclearisation, and warned that diplomatic efforts were backed by a strong military option if necessary.
•U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis and Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera spoke by the phone on Monday and discussed “the importance of maximising pressure” on North Korea to abandons its nuclear and missile programs, the Pentagon said in a statement.
U.S., Seoul agree to delay military exercises
•South Korea and the U.S. have agreed to delay joint military exercises until after the Olympics in a bid to reduce tensions and possibly create room for diplomacy.
•The talks come after North Korea’s Kim used his New Year’s Day speech to announce he was open to sending a delegation to the Olympics as well as reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula, while vowing to never give up his nuclear weapons programme.
•Mr. Ri, committee chairman who was promoted to his current position in June 2016, is a seasoned negotiator for inter-Korean talks although his previous experience has mostly been military-related due to his career in the armed forces.
📰 Delhi, Male set to reboot bilateral ties
Maldivian Foreign Minister’s visit signals possible thaw in ties strained over FTA with China
•In a sign of a possible thaw in India-Maldives ties, Maldivian Foreign Minister Mohamed Asim will arrive in Delhi on Wednesday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday. The visit was announced by the External Affairs Ministry and the Maldives government on Tuesday.
•“This is part of an effort to increase the visibility in bilateral ties,” Maldives’ High Commissioner to India Ahmed Mohamed told The Hindu.
•“While there is no specific agenda for the visit, we expect close bilateral consultations,” he said adding that there would be discussions on the MoUs that were signed during President Abdulla Yameen’s visit to Delhi in April 2016.
•Mr. Asim’s visit is the first high-level visit between the two countries in nearly a year, since Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar visited in February 2017, and the first since the Maldives and China signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in November 2017.
•Shortly thereafter, India had indicated its displeasure at the speed with which the FTA was passed in the Maldivian parliament, followed by President Yameen’s state visit to Beijing. “It is our expectation that as a close and friendly neighbour, Maldives will be sensitive to our concerns, in keeping with its India First policy,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said at the time.
Modi visit?
•Mr. Asim will also officiate as President Yameen’s special envoy, according to the Ministry, raising speculation that he would formally invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Maldives.
•Male is the only SAARC capital Mr. Modi has not visited since he took office, having cancelled a planned visit in March 2015 over the Yameen government’s crackdown on political protests, putting a strain on bilateral ties.
•Meanwhile, an official invitation last year by New Delhi to former President Mohammed Nasheed, who faces a jail term in the Maldives, had further widened the perceived rift.
•However, High Commissioner Mohamed declined to comment on whether Mr. Modi was likely to travel to the Maldives in the near future. He also denied reports of any strain in ties, saying that other bilateral engagements continued, including consular talks between the two countries in October last year. Counter-terrorism exercises between armed forces called “EKUVERIN” had been held in Karnataka in December.
FTA dialogue
•On the issue of the Free Trade Agreement negotiations, Mr. Mohamed admitted that “no serious negotiations” had taken place between India and the Maldives yet, but that his government “would like to have an FTA in place” at the earliest.
•The FTA was only one of a series of issues between New Delhi and the Maldives in the past few months, however. In December, the Yameen government passed strictures against local councillors, who met High Commissioner of India Akhilesh Mishra, and restricted local officials from meeting diplomats.
•An editorial in a government-friendly newspaper, the Vaguthu, criticising the Modi government’s “pro-Hindutva” policies had also caused concern in New Delhi. The editorial, which was condemned by the Opposition, was subsequently withdrawn, but Mr. Nasheed had also alleged that President Yameen’s actions were spoiling ties with India.
•“President Yameen’s reckless foreign policy is destroying our relationship with India. The Maldives must be sensitive to India’s security and safety,” he said in a tweet last month.
📰 12-member panel to take a call on playing of national anthem in cinema halls
The committee, which was set up on December 5, will have officers of the rank of Joint Secretary from various Ministries.
•The Union Home Ministry has appointed a 12-member inter-ministerial committee to take a call on the playing of the national anthem in cinema halls and public places.
•The committee, led by Additional Secretary B.R. Sharma, will recommend changes, if needed, in the existing laws. Its first meeting will be held on January 19. The panel, which was set up on December 5 last, will have officers of the rank of Joint Secretary, an official of the Home Ministry said. It would submit a report within six months.
•The committee will have representations from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Defence, External Affairs, Women and Child Development, Human Resource Development, Culture, Parliamentary Affairs, Law, Minority Affairs and Information and Broadcasting, and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
•The decision follows the Supreme Court's observation in October last that people “cannot be forced to carry patriotism on their sleeves” and it could not be assumed that if a person did not stand up for the national anthem, he or she was “less patriotic.”
•The committee would make recommendations on the regulations for playing/singing of the national anthem and suggest changes in the Acts and orders relating to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, the official said.
📰 PIOs make a ‘mini-world Parliament’
We have a mini-world Parliament in front of us today, says Modi
•India on Tuesday reached out to lawmakers of Indian origin spread across the world seeking support for its emerging status as a global power.
•Speaking at the “First PIO Parliamentarian Conference”, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj urged the legislators and political figures to consider what kind of contribution they could make for India’s global ambition.
•“This conference will be a mix of two dimensions on your present situation and past struggle, and what you can do to promote the emerging India in the global scene,” she said.
•Introducing the theme of the event, Ms. Swaraj reminded the guests of the contribution of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in starting the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, and appreciated the political awareness of the people of Indian origin in various countries.
•“141 lawmakers confirmed their attendance and 134 leaders have made to this event today despite massive weather disturbance [in the West],” Ms. Swaraj said.
•The PIO Parliamentarian forum was planned last year during a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to connect the lawmakers of Indian origin with their ancestral land, the Minister said.
•Inaugurating the conference and highlighting the cultural link with the diaspora, Mr. Modi said, “Your ancestors had to leave India under various circumstances and that is why when you return to an Indian airport, you are reminded of your ties with this country. You have a desire to return to India and I understand your feelings very well. On the one hand, you have preserved Indian culture. On the other hand your people have excelled in sports, arts, cinema in the global platforms and have contributed to your adopted country’s welfare,” Mr. Modi said in Hindi.
•He mentioned the presence of former Guyanese President Bharat Jagdeo, and noted that from Mauritius to Guyana, there were several Indian-origin individuals who had become leaders of their countries. “We have a mini-world Parliament in front of us today,” Mr. Modi said.
•“For enhancing our pride and dignity, you all deserve our appreciation,” he said noting that India was experiencing aspirational and societal changes. He noted that there was an “irreversible change” sweeping India, and urged the leaders to come forward to join hands.
•Ms. Swaraj made special mention of the Indian community in Mauritius which had emerged as the leading player in the island nation. “Gandhiji inspired people in Mauritius to get education and increase political awareness and that is why after a few generations, they have achieved political leadership,” she said congratulating the “girmitiyas” living abroad for their success.
📰 No viable alternative to hanging, Centre tells court
Supreme Court has sought less painful means of execution
•There is no viable method at present other than hanging to execute condemned prisoners. Lethal injections are unworkable and often fail, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
•The government was responding to a query from the court on alternative modes of execution.
•The court had previously said a condemned convict should die in peace and not in pain. A human being is entitled to dignity even in death.
•Issuing notice, the court had asked the government to consider the the “dynamic progress” made in modern science to adopt painless methods of causing death.
•Additional Solicitor-General Pinky Anand, while seeking more time to file a detailed affidavit, orally submitted that “today, there is no viable method other than hanging.”
•Petitioner-in-person and advocate Rishi Malhotra countered that death by lethal injection is practised in several States in the U.S. and even the Law Commission of India had recommended lethal injection.
•The court gave the government four weeks to file the affidavit.
Death penalty unquestioned
•The court has already clarified that it is not questioning the constitutionality of death penalty, which has been well-settled by the apex court, including in Deena versus Union of India and earlier in the Bachan Singh case reported in 1980. Section 354 (5), which mandates death by hanging, of the Code of Criminal Procedure has already been upheld.
•However, the Bench had, in an earlier hearing, favoured a re-look at the practice of hanging to death as “the Constitution of India is an organic and compassionate document which recognises the sanctity of flexibility of law as situations change with the flux of time”.
•The court is hearing a writ petition filed by Delhi High Court lawyer Rishi Malhotra, who sought the court’s intervention to reduce the suffering of condemned prisoners at the time of death. Mr. Malhotra said a convict should not be compelled to suffer at the time of termination of his or her life.
•“When a man is hanged to death, his dignity is destroyed,” Mr. Malhotra submitted.
📰 On Section 377: Question of equality
The Supreme Court has an opportunity to reconsider its 2013 order criminalising gay sex
•The time has come to undo the judicial wrong done to homosexual individuals in 2013, when the Supreme Court upheld the validity of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises gay sex. A reconsideration of the flawed verdict in Suresh Kumar Koushal is now in prospect. A three-judge Bench has opened up an opportunity to reconsider that verdict, which came to the disturbing conclusion that the LGBT community was just a “minuscule fraction” of the population and also ruled that those having sexual intercourse “against the order of nature” constituted a separate class on which the law could validly impose penal sanctions. Although the matter is already before a Constitution Bench by way of a curative petition against the earlier judgment, the latest order is on a fresh petition challenging Section 377. It draws from the observations in the nine-judge Bench judgment in the ‘right to privacy’ case. The majority observed in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India that “equality demands that the sexual orientation of each individual in society must be protected on an even platform. The right to privacy and the protection of sexual orientation lie at the core of the fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.” The Bench has rightly observed that social morality changes from age to age, that “the morality that public perceives, the Constitution may not conceive of,” and that what is “natural to one may not be natural to another”.
•Thus, there is fresh hope that the Delhi High Court judgment of 2009, which read down Section 377 to decriminalise consensual sex between adults, may be restored. Ever since the court, in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014), concerning the rights of transgender persons, questioned the Koushal reasoning, there has been a body of jurisprudence that sees gender identity and sexual orientation as an aspect of privacy, personal freedom and dignity. It is not yet clear if the present petition and the curative petition will be heard together. A curative petition is normally allowed only on the limited grounds of violation of principles of natural justice and circumstances suggesting possible bias on the part of judges. In contrast, the latest petition has paved the way for a comprehensive hearing on all dimensions of the right of individuals to affirm their sexual orientation. In this, the court must not confine itself to the issue of privacy, but also address the discrimination inherent in Section 377 on the basis of sexual orientation. The formulation in Koushal that constitutional protection is not available to a tiny fraction of the population can be overturned only on the touchstone of Article 14, which protects the right to equality.
📰 Agriculture needs a reforms package
Only an overhaul resembling the industrial liberalisation of 1991 will work
•With rural economic anxieties acquiring a political voice, the expectation is that the Budget will focus on agriculture. For some time, the country has been in denial over the extent of the mess in the sector.
•Farm incomes are unattractive for a variety of reasons; the absurdity of policies features among them. The overriding objective of price stability, over time, has tilted farm policy in favour of the consumer, the numerically larger vote bank. Trade and price controls are highly restrictive, and mostly anti-farmer. Protection afforded to the inefficient fertilizer industry ensures that input costs are high. The farmer is forced to sell in the domestic market where prices tend to be lower than global agricultural prices. Research papers have quantified the degree of anti-agriculture bias in the system. Farmers’ economic viability is rarely the primary consideration, although political rhetoric would suggest otherwise. Increasingly though, incompetence and politics have ensured that policies are failing to serve even consumers.
•Agri-markets are not free. Governments seek to influence prices, to smoothen them out. In the absence of state intervention, prices soar in bad weather years and plunge in good weather years, hurting consumers and farmers. The levers in governments’ hands are import and export controls, buffer stocks management and minimum support prices (MSPs).
About MSPs
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under pressure to deliver on the 2014 poll promise of higher MSPs. The centrality of MSPs in vote-bank politics is well-known, but the economics of it is not sufficiently appreciated. The MSP, the price at which the government offers to procure from farmers, is an economic policy tool which requires technical acumen.
•A sensible policy would be to buy from farmers when market prices are depressed and sell stocks in the open market when prices are elevated. In the first scenario, if the MSP is pegged higher than the market price, the procurement will raise the market price, boosting farm incomes. In the latter, by offloading its stocks at a price lower than the market price, government can cushion consumers against excessive inflation. The buyers of the subsidised sales (an efficient Public Distribution System) are directly benefitted, but as the sales also lead to lower prices in the open market, all consumers gain.
•Procurement works effectively only if trade controls and stocks management are aligned with it. How these tools tend to be deployed in a counterproductive manner was evident in the example of pulses in 2016-17. Despite a bumper harvest, after a steep MSP hike and good rains, export controls and stocking limits for private traders were retained and a record volume of imports allowed to be shipped in. The resulting glut sent the market price down, below the MSPs, rendering it pointless. The looming losses set off farmer protests seeking even higher MSPs.
•The United Progressive Alliance government’s MSP policy was blamed for the food prices inflation, from 2009 to 2013. The culprit, though, was poor management of food stocks. The government had been raising MSPs to reduce the gap between low domestic and high global agricultural prices. The launch of the National Food Security Mission and a global food prices crisis necessitated hikes more aggressive than were originally planned. The high MSP ensured that the increase in food grain production in the four-year period, 42 million metric tonnes, was more than double of what had been targeted. But the high MSP also edged out private traders, forcing a scale-up in procurement. Wheat and rice stocks surged but were not used to dampen market prices.
•Former Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu has written about the mindset behind the reluctance to release stocks to cool rising prices. The argument was that selling at a price lower than the purchase price (MSP plus carrying costs) would inflict losses on the exchequer and add to the fiscal deficit. Since procurement spending is a sunk cost, not selling implied even higher fiscal losses. International wheat prices were 30% lower than in India, yet consumers were forced to pay more.
A bias
•Agricultural economist Ashok Gulati’s calculations show that even after four years of systematically aggressive hikes, Indian MSPs of rice and wheat are less than support prices in China and other Asian countries, betraying India’s bias in favour of consumers.
•This bias explains the deepening economic divide between the farm-dependent and the rest of the population, reflected in insecurities of even traditionally land-owning people.
•The narrative is that the bulk of agriculture is not sufficiently productive to be able to gainfully engage young rural Indians and so policy attention must be on building industry. China’s experience challenges such notions. The Chinese economic reforms were kicked off in 1978 with an overhaul of agriculture. As farm prices were decontrolled, real per capita incomes began rising and, in just six years Chinese poverty levels halved, from 33% in 1978 to 15% in 1984. In contrast, India’s 1991 reforms bypassed agriculture altogether and instead focussed completely on industrial liberalisation. Indian poverty halved in 18 years from 45% in 1993 to 22% in 2011.
•The Budget presents an opportunity to revisit strategic choices. Nothing short of an overhaul of agriculture, resembling the industrial liberalisation of 1991, will work.
📰 New industrial policy in a few months, says Suresh Prabhu
August draft envisaged attracting $100 billion in annual FDI
•The new industrial policy, which seeks to promote emerging sectors, will be released within a few months, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Tuesday.
•“The new industrial policy should be [released] in the next few months,” he told reporters. The proposed policy, a draft of which has been prepared by the Ministry, will completely revamp the Industrial Policy of 1991. Among other things, it would endeavour to reduce regulations and widen the purview to new industries currently in focus.
•In August, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had floated a draft industrial policy whose aim is to create jobs over the next two decades, promote foreign technology transfer and attract $100 billion in FDI annually.
AI task force
•Mr. Prabhu also said that on Tuesday, he had chaired a meeting of the task force on artificial intelligence. The 18-member panel was constituted to explore possibilities to leverage artificial intelligence for economic transformation.
•The Ministry said in a statement that the members drafted preliminary proposals that were discussed at the meeting. Mr. Prabhu said WTO’s mini-ministerial meet to be organised by India would be held in March.
📰 Army satisfied with Akash missile
Looks for performance enhancement of indigenously developed system
•The Army is fully satisfied with the performance of the indigenously developed Akash short-range surface-to-air missile (SR SAM) system and is looking for further performance enhancements in future, Lt. Gen. Parminder Singh S Jaggi, Director-General, Army Air Defence (AAD), said here on Tuesday.
•Last month, the Army carried out the first user trial of the missile system.
Biggest advantage
•“We are happy with the Akash system. It is a watershed as far as indigenous systems are concerned. The biggest advantage is it is a home grown system,” Lt. Gen. Jaggi said.
•The Army’s AAD celebrated its 25th year of raising on Wednesday.
•The Army currently has two Akash regiments which it began inducting in 2015. Last year, the Defence Ministry cancelled a global tender for additional SR SAMs and approved procurement of two more regiments. Each regiment consists of six launchers with each launcher having three missiles. Officials say Akash has an indigenous content of 96%.
•“The first user trial by AAD crew was fully successful. Akash has been validated as it has been conceptualised,” Lt. Gen. Jaggi said.
25-km range
•Akash has a range of 25 km and can simultaneously engage multiple targets in all weather conditions and has a large operational envelope from a low altitude of 30 metres to a maximum of up to 20 km.
•The Army is likely to order more Akash regiments as it is in the process of replacing its legacy systems in service.
•Lt. Gen. Jaggi said as more regiments were ordered, there would be additional enhancements in the system as well in performance.
•He noted that as AAD celebrated its silver jubilee, there had beeb a major modernisation drive under way with the induction of a medium-range surface-to-air missile for which contracts had been signed and other deals in progress.
•Akash was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme initiated in 1984 and is manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL).
📰 On death of tiger in Bor reserve: Avoiding roadkill
Roads must be kept out of wildlife corridors to protect tigers and other animals
•The tragic death of Bajirao, one of India’s breeding tigers from the Bor reserve in Maharashtra, on a highway is a reminder that building unsuitable roads through wildlife habitats has a terrible cost. Losing a charismatic tiger in its prime to a hit-and-run accident is an irony, given that it is one of the most protected species. Successive Prime Ministers have personally monitored its status. Yet, the fate of the big cat, and that of so many other animals such as leopards, bears, deer, snakes, amphibians, butterflies and birds that end up as roadkill, highlights the contradictions in development policy. It is inevitable that new roads are built, but good scientific advice to keep them out of wildlife corridors is mostly ignored. The sensible response to the growing number of roadkills should be to stop road construction in wildlife habitat and reassess the impact. After all, protected areas are just 4% of the land. India is committed to such an approach under Article 14 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Centre and the National Highways Authority of India have been repeatedly advised by the National Board for Wildlife, as well as independent researchers, to realign or modify sensitive roads. They should heed their sound advice.
•An assessment by the Wildlife Institute of India states that tigers in at least 26 reserves face the destructive impact of roads and traffic. The National Tiger Conservation Authority should insist on modification of existing roads to provide crossings for animals at locations identified in various studies. A more robust approach would be to realign the roads away from all such landscapes. Users can be asked to pay a small price for the protection of vital environmental features, and more areas for nature tourism can also raise revenues. This would ensure that tigers and other animals are not isolated, and can disperse strong genetic traits to other populations. In one well-studied case of two populations of breeding tigers in the Kanha-Pench corridor, which also forms part of the sensitive central Indian belt, scientists commissioned by the Environment Ministry found that a national highway could block flow of genes between regions. The remedy suggested for NH7 was a combination of realignment and creation of long underpasses for animal movement. That is the sustainable way forward, and the Centre should order the modifications without delay wherever they are needed. It would be consistent with the Wildlife Action Plan 2002-2016 announced by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister. Also, curbs should be imposed on traffic on existing roads passing through sanctuaries. This can be done using speed restraints and by allowing only escorted convoys, with a ban on private vehicular movement at night. Restrictions should be applicable to religious tourism as well. Without a determined effort, roadkill will severely diminish India’s conservation achievements.
📰 Goa bird festival to offer pelagic avian tour
Naturalists, guides and other resource persons to host workshops at Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary
•The second edition of the Goa Bird Festival will be held from January 12 to 14 at Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Canacona.
•The State Forest department is organising the event with the support of Goa Tourism, the Goa Bird Conservation Network (GBCN) and Birderpics.com, said Ajai Saxena, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. Oceanic bird tours would be on offer.
•Goa is said to have over 440 species of birds out of over 1,200 in the country. Some of the birds are endemic to the region as the State offers a unique confluence of two diverse ecosystems — tropical forests and marine, said Mr. Saxena.
•The festival will host some of the country’s top naturalists, photographers and artists as resource persons.
•Bird walks are being planned with experts and guides in Cotigao and the adjoining Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary.
•The oceanic birds tour will be on the Arabian Sea.
•Vibhu Prakash, scientist, Bombay Natural History Society will deliver the keynote address on conservation of vultures.
Vibrant discussion
•Some of the other lectures are: “Recording Bird Calls” by Pratap Singh; “Bird Calls and Songs” by Sharad Apte; “Science behind Superstitions” by Satish Pande and “Pelagic Birds of Western Coast and Birds of Western Ghats” by Shiv Shankar.
•Rohan Chakraborty from Nagpur will conduct a session on “Drawing of Birds” while Karthikeyan from Jungle Lodges and Resorts, Karnataka, will hold a discussion on “Organising Nature Camps – the JLR experience.”
•An origami workshop by Coralie D’ Lima from WWF, a talk on green humour by Rohan Chakraborty, guided walks by the Goa Bird Conservation Network and film shows on nature are also on the agenda.
•A special edition of Indian Birds with articles on the birds of Goa will be released. The findings of the long-term bird survey and monitoring in Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, undertaken by the Forest Department and GBCN, will also be released.
📰 ISRO mulls launching 65 satellites for a slew of uses
They are planned to be realised over the period from 2017 to 2021
•The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set itself an ambitious to-do list of making and launching around 65 satellites for a slew of uses. They are planned to be realised over the period from 2017 to 2021, according to a top official.
•This post-12th Five-Year Plan pace is stupendous as the number of satellites made in India over the last 40-odd years hit a century only a few days ago.
•The last three, including two small ones, were rolled out of its Bengaluru centre in late December and are slated to be launched this month.
Jump in output
•M. Annadurai, Director of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), where spacecraft are assembled, told The Hindu that the new goal puts ISAC’s annual asking rate at around 18 satellites a year: ISAC would now need to come out with three satellites every two months.
•Since ISAC was set up in 1972 and until a few years ago, this used to be its average yearly output.
•Dr. Annadurai said ISAC’s 45-year tally peaked in 2017 with a record 12 spacecraft. “We rolled out Cartosat-2F, Microsat and INS-1C on December 20 [and shipped them out to Sriharikota for launch.] With these three satellites, we have made the maiden century of rolling out spacecraft from this centre,” he said in a New Year’s Day address to ISAC employees. “We can be counted in the league of Tendulkars and Virat Kohlis,” he said.
•ISAC’s spacecraft are meant for communication, navigation and Earth observation (EO), for both general and strategic purposes, while new emerging applications are getting added. In the four-year list, ISAC counts 26 for communication, 28 for EO and seven for navigation besides the scientific missions Aditya-L1 and XPoSat, apart from a few small experimental satellites.
Awaiting approval
•A few proposals made during 2017 are awaiting approval. A satellite launch costs ₹200-₹300 crore depending on its size and the level of technology.
•Dr. Annadurai said the centre was ready to rise to the challenge; its staff was routinely working almost 24/7. Last year, ISAC started to outsource some of the large and critical activities of satellite assembly and testing to Indian industry. The second such project for the ninth navigation satellite, IRNSS-1I, is under way at an ISAC campus.
•He said ISRO expected industry to give them the additional six satellites a year beyond the 12 that they would build.
📰 Kamala Mills fire: Ribeiro moves HC seeking probe
PIL seeks fire safety audit of all eateries, bars, a judicial probe into mishap
•Mumbai: Former city Commissioner of Police Julio F. Riberio moved the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, seeking a comprehensive fire safety audit, a special investigation team (SIT) and a judicial commission to fix accountability for the loss of 14 lives in the recent fire at two restaurants in Kamala Mills.
•Mr. Ribeiro, 89, has also served as the Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force. He is the founding trustee of NGO Public Concern for Governance Trust. His PIL claims the “BMC was in complete knowledge of the illegalities and flouting of norms by the licensee and licensor at – 1Above and Mojo’s Bistro.”
•It mentions how the “BMC chief has frankly admitted that there was immense pressure from the powerful persons to ‘not take action against certain officials’, and that there were people who were insistent that no action should be taken against them”. The PIL points out that neither restaurant had fire safety equipment.
•Among other requests, Mr. Riberio has sought a direction from the court to the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) to conduct a comprehensive fire safety audit of all eateries, lounges, bas and pubs. He wants the Urban Development Department to depute an officer in all civic wards to aid the CFO in conducting a comprehensive ward-wise fire safety audit, and report a submit to court in a time-bound manner.
•Mr. Riberio, who was also the Indian Ambassador to Romania, sought alternate relief through a judicial commission that will fix accountability of public officers and private individuals, which will submit a report to the court. The PIL also sought the constitution of an SIT comprising IPS officers not below the rank of Additional CP (Crime) to continue with the investigation into the Kamala Mills fire. All FIRs in the incident have been registered at NM Marg police station.
•Mr. Ribeiro said, “I really hope a proper investigation takes place, and those punished should not only be the owners, but also erring municipal corporation officers.”
•A Division Bench comprising Justices R.M. Borde and R.G. Ketkar said when authorities permit commercial establishments, they should also put regulations in place, and ensure fire tenders have sufficient access. The matter will be heard on January 15.
•On December 29, a fire broke out after midnight at restaurant 1Above and Mojo’s Bistro next to it. Dozens of patrons were trapped in them as smoke filled the narrow entrances. While most made it safel;y to the lanes outside, 14 people lost their lives, sparking widespread outrage over alleged violation of fire safety norms by the eatiers. A probe by the city fire brigade has said the fire started at Mojo’s
