Think of a global smart city and most will come up with the obvious names – London, New York, Mexico City and Singapore (though the latter is a country). However, when the International Community Forum (ICF), a New York-based think tank, announced its 2015 list of seven finalists, it didn’t include the above-mentioned large urban conglomerates. Apart from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the others were smaller. Unknown ones like Columbus (US), Ipswich (Australia) and New Taipei City (Taiwan).
In November this year, when Venkaiah Naidu, the minister for urban development, selects the first list of 20 cities, out of 98, which will initially become ‘intelligent’, it may spring a few surprises. What if the initial list comprises names like Namchi (Sikkim) with a population of just over 12,000, Kavaratti (Lakshadweep) with just over 11,000 people, and Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh) with a population of nearly 25,000? It will finally boil down to the ‘Smart City Plan’ that the selected consultants design and devise for the various shortlisted cities.
Herein lies the problem. In the hurry to implement the proposal, Naidu shortcircuited the process. The definition, vision and scope of a smart city was left vague as well as all-encompassing. The time required to achieve the objectives was squeezed to unreasonably short periods. As one of the consultancy firms, which refused to participate in the project, says, “The final outputs, in terms of city-specific blueprints and plans, may turn out to be a cut-and-paste job borrowed from global examples. There may be little or no innovations in it.”
NOT-SO-SMART VISION
To be fair to the government, it admitted that there was no “universally-accepted definition” of a smart city. On its website, www.smartcities.gov.in, it added that the concept would vary from city to city, country to country, and depend both on the policymakers and citizens. Clearly, a smart city in Europe or the US would be different from that in India; even in this country, different cities would require different plans. One-size-fits-all strategy cannot work. This is sheer common sense that stems from our own experiences of cities and towns.
Unfortunately, the urban development ministry insisted that the focus of its smart-cities vision was on “sustainable and inclusive development and the idea to look at compact areas and create a replicable model which will act like light house to other aspiring cities.” The ministry note added that the idea was to replicate the models even within the smart cities and catalyse the “creation of smart cities in various regions and parts of the country.” Clearly, there are inherent contradictions in the underlying philosophy of the overall plan.
The ministry has, in its ‘strategy’ document, included the concept of ‘pan-city development’. It envisages the “application of selected smart solutions to the existing city-wide infrastructure.” Pancity is an additional feature that needs to be a part of any proposal. The idea: “Since smart city is taking a compact area approach, it is necessary that all the city residents feel there is something in it for them also.” Thus, there has to be at least one, or ideally several, smart solutions to make the schemes seem ‘inclusive’.
Over the next few years, the idea of pan-city solution(s) may create several problems. One, in a bid to achieve the objective, the agencies that implement it may take a few shortcuts. It may lead to incomplete execution. Two, some of these agencies may resort to corrupt practices to cajole the municipal bodies to officially confirm that the solutions pan across the cities. Finally, the external planners may incorporate easy solutions in their plans, rather than think out-of-the-box.
SCOOP THE SCOPE
If one analyses the various government documents related to smart cities, one finds that scope of the work is both vague and all-encompassing. For example, its core infrastructure elements include adadequate water supply, assured electricity, efficient public transport, affordable housing, robust it connectivity, good egovernance, sustainable development and public safety. Municipal bodies cannot deliver such results. Even state governments cannot, unless there is an unheard of coordination between its various ministries and departments.
Among the specifics mentioned in the ‘essential features’ of any smart city plan are quantitative features for assured electricity supply, 10 percent of the energy requirements should be solar. Efficient public transport has to incorporate ‘encouragement to non-motorised transport’, like walking and cycling. In case of greenfield projects, as opposed to retrofit and redevelopment ones, 80 percent of the buildings have to be green and energy-efficient. These are mere figures that will obviously be twisted and tweaked by the implementing agencies.
Most of the global smart cities are more focused and have a single overriding target. In the case of Arlington Country (US), which featured in the ICF list of seven cities, the aim was to “reduce its vulnerability to Federal decision-making”, as explained in a Forbes article. Being close to the US capital, Washington, this city is home to the Pentagon and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It designed ‘The Arlington Way’ strategy after the US Department of Defense decided to vacate 3.2 million square feet of land and export 13,000 jobs out of the city.
New Taipei City’s focus was mainly on broadband. In the past five years, the city increased the internet penetration rate to 91 percent, with most on 100 Mbps service. According to the Forbes article, it also “connected more than 300 schools, put tablets and computers into classrooms and has facilitated the installation of more than 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in convenient stores”. The broadband advances were joined with a ‘Knowledge-bridge’ project to drive collaborations between the industry and universities to improve skills and create jobs.
SMART CITY, STUPID PEOPLE
A consultant observes that “an inherent condition to make a city smart is to have smart citizens.” Minus the latter, what a smart-city plan will finally achieve is the creation of infrastructure that becomes redundant or inadequate within a short period of time. Past experiences in Delhi and Mumbai prove this conclusively. In the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, India’s capital constructed a string of infrastructure: the same flyovers, widened roads, subways and overhead bridges. All of them are either jampacked or under-used.
Therefore, what is needed along with smart cities is a communications strategy to make the citizens smart. Although nda-2 has launched nationwide ad campaigns for its schemes such as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Selfies with Daughter, experts feel that they may not yield results. The reason: research has proved that what is required in India is a ‘participatory’ and ‘localised’ messaging to cater to the specific needs of the local communities. The same needs to be devised to make the locals understand the scope and canvas of a smart city.
Cool Idea, Sloppy Plans
Luck, Myth or Governance?
A few months ago, in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly election, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claimed that the state clocked an average 10 percent growth under his decade-long stewardship. He hinted that one of the foremost reasons for the growth was the “remarkable improvement in the law and order situation” in the state.
“We have established the rule of law in Bihar. Fear has vanished from the minds of citizens…they can go anywhere, anytime as per their needs,” he added rather arrogantly. The implication of these statements: growth jumped as the business community felt confident to invest in the state.
This socio-politico-economic connection between governance, safety, investment and growth was articulated by economists in 2010, soon after the end of Nitish’s first tenure as the chief minister. The logic was simple — before 2005, there was a ‘jungle raj’ in Bihar, wealthy people were scared of kidnappings, extortions and murders and, therefore, either pulled out their money or put it in safe custody in banks. Resultantly, a negative investment climate pulled down growth.
In February 2010, Swaminathan Aiyar wrote in one of his columns, “The old cloud of fear has been replaced by peace and confidence. Safety has allowed small businesses to burst into activity.” In the same piece, he added, “In Lalu’s time, anybody building a house or booking a car promptly got a ransom note. Today, home construction and car sales are booming. Traffic jams have replaced deserted streets.”
However, is Nitish’s assertion enough to explain the decade-long economic miracle in Bihar? Are there additional factors, as important as public safety, which propelled the boom in Bihar? Is there more to this phenomenal narrative than meets the eye?
Statistics: true or false
A few experts believe that there may be statistical massaging to show higher growth rates. After all, it is the states that provide the data to the Central Statistical Organisation, which collates and presents the final figures. Thus, some of the figures related to specific sectors may be fudged by the state’s politicians, who wish to project Nitish’s positive image. This allegation becomes important because Bihar’s sector-wise numbers have wildly fluctuated over the past 15 years.
As per Bihar’s 2014-15 Economic Survey, the figures for the primary sector, which includes agriculture and mining, jumped from a negative 0.4 percent between 2000-01 and 2004-05 to 4.4 percent over the next five years (2005- 06 to 2009-10). But they slumped to 3.8 percent over the next four years (2010- 11 to 2013-14). This also happened with the secondary sector, which includes manufacturing, construction and public utilities. The growth, which stood at 5.8 percent in the pre-Nitish period, jumped to 16.7 percent during his first rule and fell to 4.7 percent during his second tenure.
There were huge swings in the case of specific sectors too. The figures for railways were a negative 5.8 percent, 7.6 percent and 0.2 percent respectively, for the three periods. In communications, they were 13.8 percent, 24.7 percent and 16.4 percent respectively. Only a few sectors, such as banking and insurance and real estate and trade (hotels and restaurants) showed higher growth rates consistently over the three five-year periods.
What’s more important is that several other states grew faster than Bihar over the past 10 years. An article on Statisticstimes, a data collection website, showed that the state ranked seventh in terms of average growth rates during the 2005-14 period. Some experts contend that Nitish Nitish was a lucky chief minister, like many others, as several states witnessed resurgence in growth over the past decade or so. During the 2004-15 period, 14 states and union territories showed an average growth rate of over 9 percent; another 18 grew by over 8 percent.
Yet another factor that needs to be considered is that the original state of Bihar was bifurcated in November 2000, when a separate state of Jharkhand was carved out of it. Instantly, Bihar lost huge chunks of natural resources, especially in mining, to the new state. Obviously, its economy slumped as it lost out on a huge portion of income that contributed to its gdp. At the time, the local business community tried hard to seek other alternatives to raise their revenues.
The construction conundrum
Two of the biggest booms that followed after Nitish’s handling of the ‘law and order’ situation were in construction and manufacturing. The logic was that heightened public safety and security instantly translated into huge investments in these two sectors. Contractors felt safe to work even in remote areas and businessmen felt comfortable to both show their wealth off and expand business. Automatically, this led to a consumption boom as people were not scared to flash their latest cars and other materialistic acquisitions.
A look at the figures proves that this was indeed true during the first five years of Nitish’s rule. The growth rate in construction was 19.8 percent between 2005- 06 and 2009-10 and for manufacturing, the figure stood at 13.3 percent. However, the scenario changed dramatically over the next four years — construction grew by 6.6 percent and manufacturing dipped by 1.1 percent. If one links governance and safety with growth, this can mean two things: either the public felt less safe during Nitish’s second term or other reasons were responsible for the booms in his first term.
At arm’s length
Whatever he may claim, N Srinivasan, the former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and current chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), is still inherently connected with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Hence, he has not adhered to the letter and spirit of the past Supreme Court (SC) order. The judgment stated that to avoid any conflict of interest, he had to give up CSK’s ownership if he wished to be a part of the BCCI administration.
Over the past few weeks, fresh controversies erupted on the issues related to Srinivasan and CSK. First, the BCCI asked the apex court to rule if the former BCCI head could attend the Board’s meetings and stand for its elections. Then, Srinivasan filed a perjury case against Anurag Thakur, BCCI secretary. Finally, the SC ruled that its previous order on conflict of interest was quite specific, and the BCCI should take its own call on it and not approach the court for clarifications on whether Srinivasan still had any ownership links with CSK.
The fact is that CSK, which was suspended for two years, was one of the eight franchisees in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is owned, run and managed by the BCCI. Obviously, a cricket administrator cannot and should not own an IPL team. Thus, the SC said that Srinivasan should remain at arm’s length from CSK if he wished to hold a key post in the BCCI. In fact, the court added that no one who has commercial cricket interests shall be eligible for any BCCI posts.
In its January 2015 order, the apex court said, “No one who has any commercial interest including N Srinivasan shall be eligible for any post in the BCCI and this disqualification on ground of commercial interest shall continue till such commercial interest exists.” It added, “Amendment in the BCCI rules allowing Srinivasan to own IPL team is bad as conflict of interest leads to great confusion.” A few years ago, the BCCI had allowed administrators to have commercial interests in IPL.
As of now, Srinivasan and his family still have strong links with CSK. Experts contend that he hopes to wriggle out of the SC ban through complex corporate manoeuvres, which are extremely technical in nature. What the former BCCI head plans to do is to create a complex ownership structure, which may technically distance him from the IPL franchise but allow him to influence its decisions. He still is apprehensive to let CSK go out of his business empire. Therein lies the crux of the matter.
It’s also about India Cements
What most people don’t realise is that when the SC barred Srinivasan from the BCCI, the former insisted that even India Cements, which is promoted by Srinivasan and his family, shouldn’t have any connections with the IPL franchise. The apex court ruled that Srinivasan can’t take the plea that India Cements, a listed company that owns CSK, was owned by thousands of shareholders and not by him and his family. There was no distinction between Srinivasan and India Cements.
The SC felt that being the main promoter of India Cements and with a substantial stake held by him and his family Srinivasan practically owned CSK, which was then a division of the company. Most of the decisions were taken by the board of directors, except a few crucial ones for which shareholders’ assent was required. The board itself was influenced by Srinivasan and other directors, who were family members. Thus, there was an inherent conflict of interest.
Such an observation implied that India Cements had to delink itself from CSK. This hasn’t happened till now. As of now, the CSK franchise is owned by a new company, Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd (CSKCL), which became a 100 percent subsidiary of India Cements. The 50,000 shares owned by India Cements in CSKCL were transferred to a trust, India Cements Shareholders Trust (ICST). However, as can be assumed by the name of the trust, it is still related to India Cements.
In addition, as revealed by India Cements’ mandatory disclosures, Srinivasan still calls the shots at ICST. In its advertisement to declare quarterly results (ended June 2015), India Cements admitted that three of the independent directors of the company are the trustees of the trust (ICST). Clearly, members of India Cements’ board legally control ICST. Hence, Srinivasan, the promoter of India Cements and head of its board, hasn’t severed his links with CSK.
It is because of such complexities that the BCCI approached the SC to get clarity on Srinivasan’s links with CSK. The BCCI told the court that its former head was still linked with CSK because his name appeared as one of the trustees of ICST. Thakur, in whose name the petition was filed, had to retract this when he found that the N Srinivasan, named as the trustee, was a chartered accountant and a different person from N Srinivasan, the promoter of India Cements.
A miffed Srinivasan filed a perjury sportcase against Thakur, who has battled the former BCCI head for several years. The current BCCI secretary had hinted that the BCCI will not allow Srinivasan to continue as the ICC chairman for a second one-year term. Only when Shashank Manohar recently became the new BCCI president for the second time that he urged Srinivasan to withdraw his case against Thakur. Manohar has criticised Srinivasan in the past two years.
Tainted Leader, Tense Ties
Twenty years ago, a well known bar hotelier and civil works contractor, Vellappally Natesan, was roped in by some of the priests of the Sivagiri Mutt, the spiritual centre for the Ezhava community, including the then prominent Swami Saswathikananda, to stop the BJP’s attempts to enter into the ranks of the spiritual centre. Since then, Natesan has come to be the unquestionable leader of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP), an organisation which currently represents the interests of the Ezhava community.
In his tenure as the SNDP leader, Natesan used his power to silence dissenting voices and came to harbour political interests. He recently got into an electoral understanding with the BJP for the upcoming local body elections in the state. But, Natesan’s controversial actions and the several allegations against him have caused much unease for the possible BJP-SNDP alliance.
Mired in Allegations
The first allegation of corruption against Natesan was made by CPM leader V S Achuthanandan. He alleged that Natesan has taken close to Rs 100 crore in the last five years for appointments in colleges run by the SNDP. Achuthanandan has also alleged that the SNDP leader has misused the organisation’s micro-finance scheme. This allegation has also been backed by the SNDP’s breakaway group, the Sree Narayana Dharma Vedi.
The most serious allegation has come from businessman and bar hotelier Biju Ramesh who has said that Natesan and his son Thushar planned the murder of Swami Saswathikananda, the former head of the Sivagiri Mutt, in 2002. The swami had died 13 years ago while taking bath in the Periyar River in the town of Alwaye. Ramesh has also said that Thushar had once attacked the swami while they were visiting Dubai together. “The swami had to cut the trip short for this reason and return to India. He was very disappointed,” says Ramesh.
Demands for Reinvestigation
After the murder allegation against Natesan, the opposition has called for a re-investigation of the case with the swami’s relatives also coming forward to demand a CBI probe into the matter. Even the current priest of the Mutt, Swami Prakashananda, is backing the probe.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has already entrusted Assistant Deputy General of Police (ADGP) S Ananthakrishnan to look into the possibilities of reopening the case.
All these allegations against Natesan have upset the BJP. The party has gone on a defensive with BJP state president V Muraleedharan saying that his party had forged an electoral understanding with the SNDP for the upcoming local body elections only and has not entered in any state-wide alliance with the Yogam. Such a statement has given clear hints that the SNDP leader has to face the charges levelled against him all alone. Furthermore, BJP leader Sreedharan Pillai has backed the demand for reopening the investigation. Pillai’s demand clearly reveals the panic that has spread in the BJP state camp regarding the issue.
However, it has been learnt that the central leadership of the BJP has given clear instruction to the state leadership to throw its weight behind Natesan and fight the ‘politically motivated’ allegations. This decision has come at the displeasure of a section of BJP leaders in the state. Muraleedharan was not in the favour of allying with Natesan since the very beginning. Moreover, the news of the central leadership of the BJP projecting Natesan as a chief ministerial candidate had irked the state leadership and this displeasure was evident during a press meet by Muraleedharan.
In response to the allegations, Natesan has said that police had already probed the death of Swami Saswathikanand and concluded that it was a clear case of drowning. “The allegation against me is raised with vested interest and is of a political nature. I am willing to face any probe,” says Natesan.
adarsh@tehelka.com
Shock Waves from Dadri reach Kerala
The news of the horror of the Dadri lynching has travelled far and wide and stirred up many debates in the media across the country. Such was not the case when the NDA-led government criminalised everything to do with beef across north Indian states. This criminalisation is being called by many, as the root cause of the murder of 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq by a communally charged mob in Bisada village in Dadri. How does one protest when a government criminalises the staple diet of a people?
How does one protest when a mob kills a family, suspect of eating the food of their choice? Far away from Dadri, college students in Kerala have protested against Akhlaq’s murder by holding beef festivals in college campuses. The state of Kerala has no regulation on cow-slaughter and the consumption of beef; so ideally, there should have been no problem in conducting the festivals. However, in the last week, there has been a series of attacks from right-wing groups upon students involved in conducting the festivals.
On 1 October, the Student’s federation of India (SFI) unit of the Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, a government aided institute, conducted a beef festival on campus. On the day of the festival, students of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) entered the venue and openly opposed the festival. This led to a clash between the two political parties from the campus. Several students were injured in the violence and had to be admitted to different hospitals in Thrissur. The situation got more out of hand when someone set the college union office on fire the next day. The SFI has blamed the ABVP for the incident.
The college authorities too, have opposed the festival. Soon after the incident, six students, all SFI members, were suspended from the college based on the findings of the college disciplinary committee. According to the management, the students were suspended for violating college rules. On being asked about the incident, the first thing that CM Latha, Principal of the Kerala Varma College, tells Tehelka is that non-vegetarian food is not allowed inside college premises. She cites the presence of an Ayyappa temple in the campus for the ban on non-veg food.
“College authorities are not against the students’ right to protest,” says Latha. “However, since the time when the Kochi Maharaja handed the college to the Cochin Devaswom Board in 1947, the latter has been particular that vegetarianism be maintained in the college. Therefore, the management is particular about not allowing non-vegetarian food inside the campus.” A senior college student is amused after hearing her principal’s words. According to her, “Students have always brought non-vegetarian food inside the campus. We have had beef and other non-veg items in many programmes earlier.”
According to KS Rosselraj, SFI district secretary, Thrissur, these new excuses that the college authorities have come up with are clear indicators that they are afraid of the BJP and the RSS. “The Ayyapa temple explanation is also just an excuse. Up till three years ago, it was only a small space where students would light a lamp during the annual pilgrim season.” He adds that the SFI will continue to conduct more such festivals in order to fight against the fascist attitude of the ABVP and the RSS inside the campus.
TEACHER TARGETED
It is not only the students who have been targeted for their cultural campaign by the college authorities. Faculty member Deepa Nisanth, a Malayalam lecturer, has had to face the heat for a post she made on Facebook regarding the issue. Rossel alleges that the college management was forced to target the lecturer by the ABVP and the RSS. In her post, Nisanth, a writer and social media activist, had expressed solidarity with the protesting students. Her post reads as follows: “I strongly disagree with the opinion that educational institutions should be like temples. I saw many demanding that action should be taken against teachers supporting the beef fest. I wish my name would be right on top of the list of people to be ousted. I support strikes that are necessary for the times.”
The Sacred And The Profane
Though the early morning rain has stopped hours ago, the huge Pala trees with intertwining crowns spread like an umbrella over the whole compound have not stopped dripping water. Pallom, a small village in Perumbavur, Ernakulam district, is a sleepy backwater where nature seems to suggest tranquillity is a state of being.
Aasiya stands for a while near the naagathara (snake temple) holding both hands up in the air, chanting Arabic sermons. “The naagathara has a long history dating back 200 years,” she says proudly.
For the past 17 years, this elderly Muslim couple — Asiya and Abu Bakar — has been taking care of a Hindu snake temple they inherited with their property. Five years ago, the Mahallu Commitee — the governing body of the local mosque which they belong— subjected them to a social boycott, saying the family had offended the beliefs of residents by practising a non-Muslim ritual.
The couple tells Tehelka that the mere act of upholding the beliefs of the Hindus who hold this grove sacred has been anathema to the narrow-minded keepers of the community’s conscience.
For Asiya and Abu Bakar, the sudden change in the attitude of the people living in close proximity has been difficult to understand. In old age, when the help of neighbours would be a source of support and solace, they are living a life of isolation.
“We came to know about the existence of this naagathara when we inherited the property some 50 years ago,” says Asiya, 65, mother of five. “Mesmerised by the divine aura of the temple, we started worshipping it. We believe that all religions and beliefs should be given due respect. I have not found any difference in other religions: All teach us to love and respect each other.”
She says they feel highly indebted to the blessings of the serpent god in their lives. They say it was the deity who helped them miraculously escape a stampede at Mecca where they had gone for Haj in 2004.
The couple has not only maintained the naagathara well, but has ensured that the temple remains fully functional. They had also sought the help of a local Hindu priest for this. It is upon his advice, that Asiya lights a traditional lamp every day at the temple and says prayers in Arabic. The couple have also been conducting an annual ritual for the last 17 years in the honour of the snake deity.
Though the couple tried to keep this practice secret, their daughter-inlaw made it public a few years ago. “In many Muslim households here, there is a practice of lighting a traditional lamp and worshipping serpent gods,” she reveals. “But many keep it a hush affair, so the public is unaware of it. Our rituals were also performed furtively but she (daughter-in-law) made it public and warned us to stop the practice,” says Asiya. The daughter-in-law subsequently abandoned the family a few years ago and got a divorce from her husband over the issue.
After the issue was made public four years ago, the members of the Mahallu Commitee pulled down the naagathara. The couple, who were then living on a meagre income from a small teashop they run, took pains to rebuild it. The committee destroyed it again, attacked the couple and even threatened to kill them. They also vandalised their property and culled the hens and ducks Aasiya was rearing.
Soon after that, the attacks escalated. People started knocking at their door and making shrieking sounds at night. The couple approached the local police but met with reluctance to lodge a complaint. Later, they approached the Kerala High Court seeking police protection to rebuild the temple.
The temple they rebuilt with the help of police two years ago, is still intact. But the couple has been banned from using the local mosque for prayers and continue to face resistance from locals.
“After the temple was rebuilt two years ago, the local mosque people got together to work against us,” says 75-yearold Abu Bakar. “The neighbours have lodged many complaints against us that we are not letting them live a peaceful life. They even started taunting us over the way we worship the serpent god.”
In Mission Mode
Four months have passed since the massive twin earthquakes rattled Nepal, leaving behind a trial of devastation. The country that once took pride in its monumental architecture and rich traditions was reduced to a heap of debris within a span of seconds. Around 9,000 people lost their lives, 22,000 were seriously injured, 6,00,000 homes were razed to the ground and 8,00,000 left homeless in the aftermath. Today, Nepal continues to mourn for its people and is reeling under shortage of food, clean water and adequate shelter. Though Indian rescue and relief efforts at the time of calamity made headlines, little is known about the ongoing relief efforts in Nepal.
Even after 120 days of the quake, nearly three million survivors, many stranded in mountainous areas, are in need of urgent help. At a time when a majority of non-governmental organisations have stopped their relief efforts, Believers Church, an independent church with its headquarters in Thiruvalla, Kerala continues in its efforts to resurrect the distraught country.
At the forefront of rescue and relief missions since 27 April, the fateful day when the earthquakes struck the country, it is the first church from India to initiate action for rescuing thousands of stranded Nepalese. Headed by Metropolitan KP Yohannan, the Believers Church has 400 churches and 20 schools under its ‘Bridge of Hope’ mission in Nepal. It has also deployed around 500 volunteers in rescue efforts. Under the mission, church volunteers help earthquake victims by reconstructing houses and providing food, medicine and clean water.
The rescue missions are being carried out under the leadership of Dr Narayana Sarma, the Kathmandu Diocese Bishop Gopal Chethri, the Pokhara Diocese Bishop and Vicar Generals like Father Hem Sharma and Father TB Tamang, along with volunteers from ‘Sisters of Compassion’. Believers Church has so far spent 3 crore for its relief mission. Various dioceses of the Church have also pitched in. The Diocese of Lucknow situated in Siliguri, for instance, has helped with food, clothes and medicines and has sent out several volunteers to Nepal.
According to Believers Church volunteers in Nepal, the relief work is progressing well. However, bad weather and inaccessible locations pose a big challenge to their work which is mainly concentrated in Gorkha and Sindhupalchok— areas worst affected by the quake.
“Life in these areas has not returned to normal, and without any external help, the local population is finding it difficult to rebuild their lives. We are continuing our mission, and hope to rebuild their lives within a short time,” said Father Sijo, the spokesperson of Believers Church.
Father Sijo stays regularly in touch with the volunteers in Nepal to keep track of the progress of relief work. “There are still aftershocks, and one of the volunteers just sent a message saying that the region they are camping in, got jolts for a few seconds,” he tells Tehelka. “Continuous tremors are making people worry about the possibility of another major quake in the future.”
Soon after the earthquakes, many foreign countries came forward to help Nepal but their reach remained limited to urban areas. As a result, the worst hit rural areas were overlooked. Seeking to reach these villages, the Church sought a helicopter from the Nepal government. The volunteers were apprehensive to ask the Nepal military for the required permits as the country had made its objections about foreign relief efforts known quite vocally. “But the military agreed to the demands and provided the church with a chopper, enabling us to speed up the relief mission,” says Father Sijo.
The Nepal government has in fact lauded the relief operations carried out by volunteers of the Believers Church. Former Prime Minister of Nepal, Madhav Kumar, officials of the Nepal military and government officials have also joined the church volunteers in distributing relief supplies. “Till date, we have distributed food supplies, water, medicines, blankets and plastic sheets to make tents, which have helped tens of thousands of people,” Father Sijo tells Tehelka. “We have also accommodated over 400 families in a Diocese of Kathmandu church compound and provided for their basic needs.” The Church is planning more such coordinated efforts to speed up relief operations.
Experts are of the opinion that it would take a decade or more to reinstate Nepal to its former glory. They agree that elaborate plans need to be devised for the reconstruction the country. In furtherance of their intention to extend more aid, Metropolitan KP Yohannan plans to meet the Prime Minister of Nepal soon.
adarsh.onnatt@tehelka.com
BLACK IS IN
Recently, Ram Jethmalani, an eminent lawyer, alleged that former Finance Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, was the “friend, father and philosopher of black money”. The ‘legal eagle’ said that some of Chidambaram’s “greatest contributions… are his brilliant pioneering initiatives for changing the colour of money from black to white.” While one may not wish to take Jethmalani’s charge at face value, the fact is that most FMs are unable to tackle the menace of the black economy. Ironically, either deliberately or otherwise, their policies boost the quantum of illegal money.
Sadly, this is even true of the current Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, who, along with his Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has waged a public and no-holds-barred war against those who own ‘black’ assets, either in India or abroad. To be fair, Jaitley’s decisions are not the only culprits. Some of the most exciting pronouncements by Modi, and scathing judgements by the judiciary and regulators may aid the black marketers. What is unfortunate is that the core philosophy behind these actions was to curb the menace and, if possible, eradicate it from the Indian economy.
Jaitley’s strong law against illegal foreign assets, the one-time amnesty given to declare assets held abroad, court orders against the Sahara Group and its founder, Subrata Roy and Modi’s redefinition of private, public and personal sectors, may help the black economy. All these measures and acts are laden with great intentions. But their impact can be the opposite. Those who generate black money may actually be happy with them. This is the unfortunate and bitter truth about policy-making; what it aims to achieve and what happens in reality can be poles apart.
PERSONALISED SECTOR
On his recent US visit, the Prime Minister said that while all the nations focussed on either the private or public sectors, he wished to create a new one – personal sector. According to a press release issued by his office, Modi’s vision about this new sector was to lay emphasis on individual start-ups and entrepreneurs with a new slogan, Start-up India, Stand-Up India’. In a meeting with Modi, Wall Street CEOs expressed serious interest to fund such opportunities. There are two problems with this form of personalising business. The first is that there is no distinction between the personal and private sectors. All businesses that are private in nature are started by individuals, either as proprietors, partners or stockholders. This is also true with start-ups, which are generally corporate entities with a few shareholders. Later, start-ups go public and woo hundreds of thousands of new investors. To differentiate a corporate entity with a start-up, which is also a corporate entity, is a case of splitting hairs in order to create a new economic rhetoric.
Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the bible of capitalism and private enterprise, talks about individual’s economic motivation that is inherently related to his or her self interests. One of his most oft-quoted lines is: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” In effect, the core of Smith’s arguments equated individuals with private enterprises.
In his book, A History of Economics: the past as the present, John Kenneth Galbraith takes the logic forward. “The person concerned with self-enrichment had hitherto been an object of doubt, suspicion and mistrust, feelings that went back through the Middle Ages to biblical times and the Holy Scripture itself. Now, because of his self-interest (and Smith’s book), he had become a public benefactor,” wrote Galbraith. Observe how he too associates people with the private sector.
The second issue with Modi’s new categorisation is that most of the ‘real’ startups in India are in the unorganised sector, ie they are not part of the mainstream economy. These generally include the self-employed entrepreneurs, who offer services and can be seen in every residential locality, local markets, and commercial centers. While the prime minister is keen to encourage legal start-ups, which offer value-added services, he may inadvertently push the case for the illegals, who deal in cash, hide their incomes (sometimes entirely), and don’t pay any of the legitimate taxes.
A 2012 Report of the Committee on Unorganised Sector Statistics explained the importance of the unorganised private sector in the country. “More than 90 percent of the workforce and 50 percent of the national product are accounted by the informal sector…. The high levels of growth of the Indian economy during the past two decades is accompanied by increasing informalisation,” it said. Obviously, high economic growth in most nations goes hand-in-hand with the size of the unorganised sector. And when the country’s prime minister talks about a booster to ‘personal’ sector, the owners of the informal businesses may view him as their moral champion.
HOARD ASSETS ABROAD
Jaitley’s two major initiatives to bring back the black money stashed abroad came in the form of a carrot and a stick. The blow was the almost-draconian law. Under the new ‘The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act’, a person or entity that wilfully fails to declare the foreign income or assets held abroad may face a maximum punishment of ten years. The sweetener was a one-time amnesty, although Jaitley dubbed it as a “compliance window”.
The cup that doesn’t cheer tea workers
Jailakshmi, a 34-year-old tea plantation worker, has a smile on her face when Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan announces that there is a solution for the women workers’ demands. It is 13 September, the ninth day of protests by the 5,000-plus tea pickers working on the plantations of Kanan Devan Hills Plantation Company (KDHP), an associate of Tata Global Beverages Ltd in Munnar.
At this famous hill station in Kerala, women braved the scorching sun and heavy downpours to stage a sit-in protest in front of the company office to highlight their demands. That too without a leader.
Soon after truce is declared around 8.30 pm, the crowd of women is jubilant. Crackers are burnt, male workers lift police officers in big bearhugs. The beaming women workers thank mediapersons and the people of Munnar for standing by them and making the protest a success.
The women’s strike is resolved before it goes into its tenth day, with the state government mediating talks with the KDHP. It is agreed that the workers would get 20 percent bonus. While 8.33 percent of the total would be paid upfront, the other 11.67 percent would be ex gratia. Their demand for a salary hike would be taken up by the Plantation Labour Committee to be convened on 26 September. The amount announced is to be paid to workers on or before 21 September, the chief minister announces after the meeting.
Achuthanadan joined the protestors on Sunday morning, announcing that he will sit with them until a solution is found. It was then that the discussions gathered momentum. In fact, in the first three days, the protesters booed away politicians of both LDF and UDF who came to show solidarity with the strikers.
Jailakshmi tells TEHELKA she is happy that at last a solution has been found for the dire situation they had been facing for the last few years. “We hope that now our lives will improve. We are thankful for the support of police officers and the media.”
The strike came as a blot on the face of KDHP, claiming to be the largest tea corporation in south India, covering an area of 23,788 hectares in Munnar alone. KDHP owns 70 percent of the tea estates in Munnar and has 11,000 workers on its rolls.
Ironically, in an effort to make the company more worker friendly, Tata Tea had handed over a major share of the company to employees and managers of the estate a decade ago. Though a director is appointed on the board as a workers’ representative, Tata Tea holds 18 percent share. KDHP holds 68 percent of the shares, while a trust and others hold the remaining 14 percent. Tata Global Beverages also retains the Kanan Devan brand.
Despite the best intentions, however, things came to such a pass that women workers, mostly from Tamil Nadu, went on the warpath demanding a salary hike and 20 percent bonus. They blocked the national highway that leads to the hill town. They even debarred men from the venue.
The trade union leaders who are usually an integral part of workers’ strikes were conspicuous by their absence, shooed away after the women workers found they had ‘connived’ with the company to get their bonus slashed from 19 percent last year to 10 percent this year. On top of that, on 5 September, the trade unions had put up a notice asking workers not to go on strike. Groups of women barged into the trade union offices demanding an explanation. None was forthcoming, so they started their sit-in that same evening with less than 50 participants.
When TEHELKA visited Munnar on the sixth day of the agitation, Jailakshmi was among the workers shouting slogans. Her rhythmic, booming voice had spectators wondering where she amassed so much energy. Hundreds repeated the slogans with folded fists punching the air.
“Penpillai orumai zindabad” (Long live women’s unity) “Paniyedupathu naangalu, Kollayadippathu neengalu” (We work and you loot) “Panakkutta ammukkutha ningalu” (We pluck tea leaves and you pilfer our money).
She paused, took a deep breath and resumed the slogans. When this reporter met her after a few hours, she seemed exhausted after standing long hours in the sun. She was reluctant to talk, doubting our credentials. “Since the start of the strike we have been faced with allegations that we are getting support from Maoists and Tamil extremist groups. We have lost faith in men,” she said.
She was referring to the allegation by local MLA S Rajendran in a TV discussion: that the strike could have been orchestrated by external forces. Rajendran was booed away on Friday when he came to address the strikers. Later, he staged a hunger strike in solidarity, which was largely ignored by the protestors.
Asked to give its side of the story, a note released by KDHP states that they were ‘deeply saddened’ by the strike. A sudden dip in profit led to the company slashing bonus. “Tea plantations in Kerala are going through a very difficult time. For the fiscal ended on 31 March, 2015, profit was Rs 5.02 crore as against Rs 15.55 crores in the previous year. The sharp drop in tea prices in the international market has led to such a situation,” said the note.
From cash to crude
Did you know that the Islamic State, with its roots in Iraq and presence in Syria, Jordan, Libya and Lebanon, among other nations, is the wealthiest terror organisation in the world? Its annual earnings are estimated to be $350-700 million, or 12-24 times higher than the al-Qaeda’s yearly income at the latter’s peak. Islamic State’s annual profits are $100-200 million, after covering all its costs. US experts contend that the terror outfit owns assets worth $1-2 billion.
Compare this to what the world’s wealthiest nation, America, spends every year to fight the various wars against global terror. The country’s budget on ‘Overseas Contingency Operations’, or what it spends on external wars, for the fiscal year 2016 was almost $51 billion. This amount includes the expenditure on the war in Afghanistan, training and equipment for Iraqi and Syrian opposition forces to fight the Islamic State, support to NATO, and responses to other terrorist threats.
Clearly, despite the financial upper hand that the US has in the fight against terror, its initiatives have been unsuccessful, especially in its bid to curb the rise and spread of Islamic State. A terror outfit that earns $1-2 million a day has boldly and brazenly taken on a country, whose war expenses are almost $140 million a day. Even if one considers that America spends more in Afghanistan than in Iraq and Syria, its budget for the West Asian operations is 20-40 times that of the Islamic State.
However, experts feel that it is not the money that matters. What is crucial is to realise that the means to finance global terror have changed over the past 15 years. In 2000-01, just before the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon in September 2001, al-Qaeda’s (AQ’s) finances peaked. However, Osama bin Laden’s sources of funds were drastically different from those of the Islamic State. In fact, these differences are critical to plans for a successful global war against the Islamic State.
SCALE OF THE MONEY
According to the staff report, which was presented to the US’ 9/11 Commission that went into the 2001 attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon, AQ’s annual earnings were $30 million. Of this, bin Laden spent $10-20 million to appease the Taliban, which then ruled Afghanistan and provided him a safe haven. The remaining amount was used by the AQ to maintain a small but loyal cadre, finance its own operations, and aid other jihadists across the globe.
Still, the intelligence community was unclear about AQ’s financial state. In April 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency said that bin Laden’s “financial assets are difficult to track because he uses a wide variety of mechanisms to move and raise money”. It added that “gaps in our understanding contribute to the difficulty we have in pursuing the bin Laden financial target.” The Commission’s staff report said: “Understanding al-Qaeda’s money flows… present ongoing challenges because of the speed, diversity and complexity of the means and methods for raising money.”
In contrast, the extent of the Islamic State’s financial empire seems to be welldocumented. As mentioned above, its annual income is several times that of AQ. Terrorism experts Patrick B Johnston and Benjamin Bahney feel that the is has a “sophisticated and strategicallydriven financial scheme” that will make it tough for the US to fight the outfit. The Islamic State’s earnings are on the increase, when compared to AQ. The latter’s fund flow was squeezed after 9/11 due to global initiatives against it, more so after the 2003 attacks in Riyadh, when Saudi Arabia clamped down on several of its money sources.
COLOUR OF THE MONEY
After 9/11, there were several myths about bin Laden’s money. One of them was that he used his family inheritance, which was estimated at $300 million, and proceeds from the sale of his businesses in Sudan, where he lived from 1992 to 1996. Neither of this was true. The Commission’s staff report said that he received $1 million a year from his family between 1973 and 1993-94, which added up to a “significant sum” but was nowhere in the range of a “$300 million fortune”.
Although it was believed that bin Laden owned 35 companies in Sudan, the staff report concluded that “some may never have actually been owned by him and others were small or not economically viable. Bin Laden’s investments may well have been designed to gain influence with the Sudanese government rather than be a revenue source. When bin Laden was pressured to leave Sudan… the Sudanese government apparently expropriated his assets and seized his accounts.”
The second belief was that after he shifted his base to Afghanistan, AQ, along with the Taliban, used illegal incomes from smuggling of opium and heroin to finance their joint and respective activities. This turned out to be false when it was revealed that bin Laden was against the narcotics trade, and asked his loyalists and other terrorist groups to stay away from it. However, the Taliban had no such compulsions, and engaged freely in the large-scale illicit business.
So, where did AQ’s funds come from? The staff report concluded that the organisation depended on fund-raising to support itself; such funds comprised 70 percent of its annual funds. “It appears that al-Qaeda relied heavily on a score of financial facilitators who raised money from a variety of donors and other fund-raisers. Those donors were primarily in the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia. Some donors knew of the ultimate destination of their donations, and others did not… The financial facilitators also appeared to rely heavily on imams in mosques, who diverted zakat donations… al-Qaeda fund-raising was largely cyclical, with the bulk of the money coming in during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan (when zakat is paid by most Muslims as a mandatory contribution).”
