Shubham Mukherjee

Delhi govt decides to shift millenium bus depot

Every passing day, I feel more and more how no other government comes anywhere close. Yes, they have their shortcomings. Yes, they have made some mistakes.

The most important factor, though, is their willingness to learn. Its their intent. Administration can be learnt. Intention cannot.

articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi party government today decided to shift to a new location the DTC millennium bus depot built on the Yamuna river bed at a cost of Rs 60 crore ahead of the Commonwealth...

Why I picked Amethi: AAP's Kumar Vishwas

7:08 PM

Rise of AAP is bad news for Modi, BJP? Think again

11:31 AM

Is the rise of the Aam Admi Party bad news for the Bharatiya Janata Party or good? There are two ways of looking at this, and it isn't clear which one will prevail in April-May's general election. The first is to see the AAP as a party of anger that collects votes against the establishment and cuts into the votes of the opposition. The establishment is the Congress and the votes taken away are those of the BJP. This is what happened in Delhi, where AAP dethroned the Congress and ate into enough of the BJP's votes to deny them victory. It is important to note here that the BJP in Delhi actually won a plurality of both the votes and the seats, though it could not win a majority. But should this pattern repeat across India's large and mid-sized cities, it is possible that the BJP will be denied nationally in the same manner it was in Delhi. AFP. The other way of looking at it is to see the underlying sentiment that has propelled the rise of the AAP. What the party has achieved is quite remarkable, the first victory by a party completely independent of a caste base, in north India. What were the issues on which it won votes? It is thought that these were such things as corruption in public life and inefficient government. Let us assume this is the case, even though there are other views on this. For instance, Union minister for agriculture Sharad Pawar thinks the AAP's supporters were also those who voted in favour of corruption (by responding to promises of 'regularising' their illegal colonies), and undermining the state's efficiency and finances (by responding to promises of free power and free water). It is difficult to accept, certainly for those outside Delhi, that the AAP is seen as by most Indians as some sort of silver bullet to kill corruption and slipshod governance. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is the man who attracts much and probably most of this vote. The AAP wants its voters to see him in the same way as the Congress, and they keep saying that the Congress and the BJP are "two sides of the same coin". However that's not how it was seen in Delhi, where the BJP voteshare dropped just under two per cent. It is the anti-Congress votes the party was expecting that were taken away from it. Is AAP placed to take these away in other places? Delhi may not be a one-off for the AAP, but it does not have the time to get its act together on hundreds of Lok Sabha seats across two and a half dozen states. Its great lessons in Delhi may well be replicable, especially those for fund-raising and selecting candidates. But putting out a national campaign will need more resources and certainly more time than this brave little party has. The other thing is - how many seats does it need to cheat the BJP of a win? Or how much of the vote does it need to draw away to produce the same result even without winning many seats? The Congress won just under 12 crore votes in 2009, while the BJP won 7.84 crore. That was about half the total vote (Congress got over 28 per cent and BJP over 18 per cent). Both parties, in particular the BJP, are missing from some major states, like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. To put this in perspective, the AAP got 25 lakh votes in the Delhi elections. This is admirable and, as I have accepted, quite unprecedented, but it also shows how gigantic the task is. My view is that the BJP's presence in major states and its superior organisational capacity should be able to easily convert those attracted to the siren call of Modi. And that the AAP will trouble the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections much less than it did in Delhi.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/rise-of-aap-is-bad-news-for-modi-bjp-think-again-1335517.html?utm_source=ref_article

Will AAP turn out to be the party pooper in UP?

5:33 PM

By: A K Verma

The resurgence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), leading to government formation in Delhi, has added one more variable to politics in Uttar Pradesh, especially as some of its top leaders are contemplating challenging Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi from Raebareilly and Amethi. AAP damaged the Congress. It also hurt the BJP that failed to get majority in Delhi.

That must worry Narendra Modi and BJP as many voters in UP, who would have otherwise v ..

This must worry BJP as many voters in UP, who would have otherwise voted for the BJP, may now contemplate giving AAP a role in national politics too.

This must worry BJP as many voters in UP, who would have otherwise voted for the BJP, may now contemplate giving AAP a role in national politics too.

Googlization of Indian Election Process and Legal Challenges

5:28 PM

Public domain reports that Internet giant Google made a formal presentation to the Election Commission proposing a tie-up with it for voter facilitation services ahead of Lok Sabha elections. It has been reported that in its presentation before the EC, Google proposed providing its search engines free of cost to Indian voters during the 2014 general elections, as also proposed free online voter registration besides making available vital details of Voter EPIC card numbers and polling station location.

Given this significant development, it becomes pertinent to examine the legal challenges facing the potential Googlization Of Indian Election Process.

Tying up with a foreign intermediary like Google has legal ramifications on India’s security, integrity and sovereignty as also its cyber security.

Post Snowden, this kind of proposed tie-up assumes tremendous significance as this tie-up suddenly could makes India’s online voter registration data amenable to jurisdiction of US authorities including NSA. One report suggests that NSA has taken more than 6.2 billion bits of data from India in one month unauthorizedly. The proposed tieup could throw up a scenario where Indian electoral data is going to be allowed to leave territorial boundaries of India and be resident on servers of a company, that is known to be data driven company that has no respect for any privacy and whose Chief Evangelist Vint Cerf himself stated that privacy may be more of an anomaly.

The Election Commission of India is a statutory authority appointed under the Indian Constitution. It has duty bound to uphold the principles of the Constitution. It also has to do all things not just to protect and serve the ideals of the Indian Constitution but also to ensure that the Indian Constitution is not in any way subverted.

The Indian Constitution has granted fundamental rights to its citizens including the right to life. The right to life includes the right to live life with human dignity. The right of your election registration data not to be revealed to another person is part of the implicit right detailed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India under the fundamental right of life and privacy. Any kind of action which leads to unauthorized disclosure or dissemination of voter registration information would be in gross violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

Another important thing to consider is, whether Google as an intermediary has complied with the Indian Information Technology Act, 2000 as also rules and regulations made thereunder, including the Information Technology Rules, 2011.

The Election Commission of India has to recognize its own capacity as an intermediary under the Information Technology Act, 2000. That being so, EC is itself mandated to exercise due diligence while discharging its obligations under the Indian cyberlaw.

Google has made a mammoth empire based on data. This kind of election registration data could be extremely significant for a variety of data analytics and related activities which could also then be monetized for strategic, commercial and other reasons.

Given the proposed tieup, the focus of attention has to be on what kinds of safeguards need to be taken as to ensure that the abuse or unauthorized access to such voter registration data of Indian voters for General Elections 2014 does not take place.

Seen from another perspective, Election Commission of India today is dealing with large amount of electoral data in the electronic form. This electoral data of the Election Commission of India is part of India’s Critical Information Infrastructure, which need to be appropriately protected.

With the coming of the Indian National Cyber Security Policy, it becomes imperative that constitutional authorities like the Election Commission of India comply with its objective and principles. All constitutional authorities in India are under obligation to ensure that they do not do any activity in the electronic and digital ecosystem which could have an impact upon India’s sovereignty, integrity and security.

India as a nation has to realize that one of the most effective ways of weakening India as a nation could be to target Indian democracy. Only in being duly diligent, being secure and constantly alert about various ramifications does the path lie for India to protect its sovereign interests in cyberspace.

The author Pavan Duggal is Asia’s and India’s leading Cyberlaw expert and authority and a practicing Advocate, Supreme Court of India. He can be contacted at his email addresses pduggal@vsnl.com and pavanduggal@yahoo.com.

Stop wasting government money

9:38 AM

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National Interest: AAP ki adalat

2:43 PM

Shekhar GuptaThe Indian Express Group

Shekhar Gupta-

Verdict so far: they brilliantly disrupt old politics but yet to figure out their own.

At the heady peak of the Anna Hazare movement in 2011, the question we were often asked was, so why are you so against this anti-corruption movement that will send thieving netas to jail? In condemnatory Twitter precis, it was usually worded more pithily: You are pro-corruption.

This is a useful time to list our arguments against the Anna movement. First, that while corruption was a terrible problem, its solution was not the creation of an omnipotent Lokpal answerable to none and a police state. Also that the Jan Lokpal Bill, in that form, was unconstitutional and undemocratic and would never pass. The larger solution to corruption was governance reform and reducing areas of friction between the ordinary citizen and the sarkar. Second, that the movement was so apolitical, so bereft of political energy, that it was bound to lose momentum as ideology (not just idealism) is the fuel of popular movements in democracy. Third, that its "mera neta chor hai" approach to India's problems, thereby condemning Indian politics, was flawed. That while there was a lot that was rotten with the system, you couldn't cleanse it from the outside. You had to come inside the larger democratic — and political — tent and force the traditional politician to compete with you on ideas and ideologies. And fourth, that politics is never simply black or white. It is even more complex than mere shades of grey. It is inclusive, accommodative, negotiatory, unforgiving and merciless. So don't just condemn your politics. Join the fray and rout the "bad guys".

Two years hence, we can report with journalistic satisfaction that each one of these arguments is won. The Jan Lokpal Bill is now history. Anna's movement is finished and those that glowed in his giant halo are now fighting with him like schoolchildren, with Anna pretty much accusing them of stealing his trademarks. Anna's children, led by the most favourite and impressive of them all, Arvind Kejriwal, have now become a regular political party with caps, slogans and an election symbol. And finally, though some could still argue that the jury is out on this one, they are realising the complexities of our politics and governance.

conti....

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Job for votes: Food for thought

10:04 AM

When Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav visited the riot affected areas in Muzzafarnagar yesterday, he reportedly promised jobs. Similarly, when someone dies in the service of the nation, their families too are offered jobs by the government. It’s a currency which most grief-stricken people quickly identify with despite their loss.

Strangely no head of state ever offers them food. Yet when it comes to deciding on the future of its citizen’s the government feels it’s actually food security, which will solve their problems.

Wrong timing of populism:

In reality, the food security bill is designed to solve their own problems – that of votes - as the impending general elections draw closer. On the face of it though there is nothing wrong with the policy considering it’s designed to further inclusiveness and make available food to the poorest (200 million plus stay under the poverty line) at a fraction of its cost. It’s actually the timing that is all wrong. The country is going through one of its worst economic crises since 1991 when it had to go through the embarrassment of pawning gold to pay for imports. It’s a shade better now since we have enough forex reserves to pay for around seven months of imports, more specifically fuel. The twin deficits – current account and fiscal deficit – is a huge threat, coupled with lower prospects of growth, high inflation, currency depreciation and finally the threat of a sovereign downgrade.

All populist policies like farm loan waiver, NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and food security schemes, which have their basis in inclusive growth, actually add to higher subsidies and defeats attempts towards fiscal consolidation. In short it burdens the economy. Estimates suggest that subsidies now account for 42% of gross fiscal deficit. Analysts believe the food security scheme will add to the deficit burden substantially at a time when it can ill afford. Why? That’s because it could lead to a sovereign downgrade. And this would take the country from its lowest investment grade to a junk status, and would lead to a mandatory exodus of several foreign funds from the country. That’s not all. There are laws in some countries which do not allow these funds to invest back even after the ratings are upgraded (which usually takes at least two years) as rules there specify mandatory waiting period of several months to be able to re-enter that country.

So knowing very well that jobs are the biggest currency for urban and rural folks alike, the UPA government would have done better to sound its political bugle by announcing a new policy around jobs. After all, it’s seen the political benefits of NREGA.

Fewer jobs:

Data from AICTE, which regulates technical education in India, suggests there were 1,511 engineering colleges across India, which had 550,000 students graduating in 2006-07. Both have doubled since then. The number is much larger when graduates of all streams are taken into account. It’s still another thing that a substantial number are unemployable. But when it comes to the number of jobs, there would be fewer opportunities this year given the slowdown, which translates into more disgruntled voters and the possibility of a demographic dividend transforming into a potential time bomb.

A smart strategy would therefore have been to include the aspirations of the youth - roughly 150 million first time voters (aged 18 to 23) in their political math. The youth is keenly looking at the job market. Unfortunately for them, jobs have now reduced. The IT industry for instance, which hires over 50 % of the new engineering graduates alone, is expected to hire 50,000 less people. For the Indian economy which added 14 million jobs to the workforce in the two years ended 2011-12, (12 million join the labour force every year) the outlook now looks bleak.

Why are jobs reducing?

The reason jobs are fewer is because companies are not expanding and not taking up new projects either because they are not being able to get land, clearances, or because high interest rates have rendered their projects unviable.

What’s going to hit them harder now is the new land acquisition bill. Again a bold move, which will empower farmers and give them the right price for their land, while making land acquisition so difficult for certain companies that projects would have to be shelved or inordinately delayed. Instead, the government should have brought in safeguards to ensure that the farmers get their price but a project is not delayed. That’s because in simple terms no project equals to no jobs and more pain.

More youth from the rural areas are migrating to cities in search of jobs despite the fact that NREGA created more avenues of engagement within rural areas. NSSO data suggests that the share of agriculture for rural males in employment, which accounts for the biggest source of jobs, dropped almost 10 % to 59 % in the last couple of years. So, instead of letting them stay illegally in the city footpaths – again for votes – it’s better to build more cities which can offer them an opportunity. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, which would create many new cities along with industrial hubs and jobs are models of infrastructure development that the government should encourage and perhaps even subsidise as this is what would create long term jobs and well being for its people.

Delay is good

9:47 PM

Obama buys time and space on Syria. He must use it to explore diplomatic options

In delaying the air strikes on Syria until the US Congress approves them, President Barack Obama has evidently sought to limit some of the political risks associated with dragging America into yet another war in the Middle East. With the Congress currently in recess, Obama gains some time before embarking on a no-win military venture in Syria. Obama's surprising decision on Saturday came hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry made a strong case for the bombing of Syria and signalled its imminence. In opting for a deliberate delay, Obama is acknowledging the deep divisions at home and abroad on the question of using military force in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

On the international front, the UN Security Council is unwilling to lend legitimacy to the American bombing of Syria. China has cautioned against it and Russia is actively opposed. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the charge of Syrian chemical weapon use as "nonsense". While few in Washington expected support from Beijing and Moscow, the British Parliament's rejection of Prime Minister David Cameron's call to join the US military campaign in Syria last week is a big surprise. For long the loyal shooting buddy of Washington, London no longer seems to have the appetite for wars in the Muslim world. Many of the Sunni Arab regimes would like to see America punish Assad, but are unwilling to provide strong public endorsement of US military actions.

After the prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is little popular enthusiasm in America for bearing additional military burdens in the Middle East. Although vocal sections of Washington's foreign policy elite are baying for Assad's blood, opinion polls suggest a significant majority of the American public is against the use of military force. This is reflected in the US Congress, where many members from both the parties, Democratic and Republican, are speaking up against US air strikes on Syria. In turning to the Congress, Obama has created space for an extended debate at home on Syria that will make the Republicans complicit in the eventual choices made. Meanwhile, Obama has a small opportunity to explore diplomatic options on Syria when he meets the world leaders on the margins of the G-20 summit in Russia this week.

Rupee crisis: Blame game begins as plunge continues

7:41 PM

It seems to be a season of passing the buck. Just about anyone who is someone seems to be playing the blame game this week whenever it comes to the question of ‘Whodunnit”. The Rupee is in tatters, markets have been pounded and the 4.4 % growth posted for the first quarter - the lowest in four years - points to a significant slowdown, lower than several previous estimates. Add to that the persistently high inflation and we all know what’s slowing down consumer demand and worrying industry.

P Chidambaram:
So, the first salvo was fired by finance minister P Chidambaram when he pinned the blame of the economic ills on former finance minister and current Indian president Pranab Mukherjee. Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Chidambaram attributed the current woes not just on external factors but because of the twin deficits (current account and fiscal deficit) and decisions taken between 2009 and 2011, a period when Mukherjee was FM. A few weeks back he had put the blame on the CAG.

D Subbarao:

Two days later, it was Chidambaram who found himself at the receiving end. The RBI governor, Dhuvuri Subbarao, who has been pilloried by the government in the past for not doing enough to reduce rates and promote growth in the economy, squarely put the entire blame of the economic ills on the government, reserving special mention for the finance minister himself. The fact that both the finance minister and the RBI governor were at loggerheads on monetary policy is well known but the extent of the differences came out in the open only at a lecture that Subbarao delivered in the financial capital on Thursday evening. Now the RBI governor, who assumed office at a critical time around the Lehman collapse when the global markets were in turmoil, may have done a good job but his record too would not place him amongst the best governors of the central bank. All the same Subbarao was caustic when he blamed the travails of the currency on domestic structural factors. Defending himself, he said the loose fiscal policy of the government between 2009 and 2012 had constrained RBI’s options. Tearing into both the government and Chidambaram for misreading the economy, he made a frontal attack on the finance minister and said that “I do hope Chidambaram will one day say I am often frustrated by RBI, so frustrated that I want to go for a walk even if I have to walk alone. But thank god the RBI exists.” That’s as direct as it gets.

Asaram Bapu:

It’s just not the economy stupid. On Thursday, self-styled controversial godman Asaram Bapu, tried to deflect allegations of sexual assault on a teenage girl by putting the blame on a possible political controversy against him. “I’m told madam and her son is behind the conspiracy to nail me”, he said indirectly targeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. As they say, anything to go scot free.

Manmohan Singh:

Perhaps that’s also something that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the original architect of the liberalization process, resorted to on Friday when he blamed global and domestic factors for the sharp depreciation in the Rupee. “The Rupee has been especially hit because of our large CAD (current account deficit) and some other domestic factors…,” Singh said. The deterioration in CAD, he said was because of huge import of gold, crude oil imports and most recently coal. Speaking of coal, he also washed his hands off the missing coal files related to the coalgate scam. Besides, he also blamed the state governments for increase in onion prices and the opposition for obstructing Parliament.

It’s a long list but in certain cases, the prime minister is not far from the truth but by blaming it all on extraneous factors, it won’t extricate the government for its lack of vision on several accounts. More so because it has done very little to clear stuck projects, treat policy paralysis, champion reforms to aid manufacturing and growth in the past, save for the recent adrenaline rush. But leadership is the big issue. It was a result of the able leadership of Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh which got the country out of a situation of potential default and led to the growth we have seen during the last 20 years.

Usually the buck stops with the leader and in this case it’s our prime minister. There is a very short window before the elections and if he wants to continue to enjoy the legacy of the original architect of the industrial liberalization process, he has to sit on that driving seat one more time. And while he takes the wheel, the opposition too has to provide support. But it’s the top leadership which has to quickly ensure that a sneeze in Syria or cough by the US Fed doesn’t put the economy on the hospital bed. The buck passing has to stop. Now!!

Shubham Mukherjee

Shubham Mukherjee is the National Business Editor with The Times of India, with close to 20 years in journalism across cities such as New Delhi, Ahmedabad and now Mumbai. An avid sportsman and traveler, he scrutinises India Inc, tracks the business of consumption, chases the business life buzz and seeks to close the gap between the superficial and the profound.

Twitter: @Shubhm

Why is the BJP always so rude?

7:33 PM

The one other word that rightly describes the BJP’s conduct in Parliament, apart from obstructionism, is “rudeness”. Whether it is senior leaders of the party or ordinary spokespeople, the common trait that all of them possess is uncouth aggression, calling others names, disallowing them from speaking, disrupting proceedings, booing ministers….The only thing left now for the party to descend to the bottommost pits is getting physical.

The BJP may want to keep two consequences of this style in mind. First, and most important I would imagine, it does not win them additional voters. All that it does is make those already supporting it swing further in support. Lay people – most of whom are not as aggressive – watch with disgust and anger when senior leaders call the PM “chor”. That too, thisparticular PM who is the most decent and humble PM India has ever had. Such aggression is seen as bullying tactics, the belief that whoever has more muscles is stronger, and whoever has a louder voice is more correct. Indians – trained to respect elders and the humble – don’t take kindly to it. The second fall-out of this aggressive style is that it doesn’t win the party any more allies. But that’s an old story. No one wants to align with the BJP, especially after the most aggressive of them, Narendra Modi, has been anointed as the campaign chief.

I don’t know if it is some sort of a heady smell of power that affects them all, but every BJP spokesperson – including the ladies, Smriti Irani and Meenakshi Lekhi – speak such guttural language that watching them on TV becomes a challenge. But then why blame them? They look up to their leaders for inspiration. When they see the normally dignified Arun Jaitley interrupt the PM with unproven accusations of cash-for-votes (no matter how untenable that charge; I wrote about this on Sept 6, 2011:http://prashant-therealtruth.blogspot.in/2011/09/cash-for-votes-scam-more-likely-bjp-is.html), what inspiration do they get? When they see their PM-in-waiting call the PM names, that inspiration gets re-inforced. Yashwant Sinha, Ravi Shankar Prasad and even the usually more dignified Nirmala Seetharaman are hyper-aggressive by normal standards.

BJP leaders are even more abusive and uncouth on twitter. This is what Meenakshi Lekhi tweeted: #PMOChorHai NAHIN yeh Sarkar choro ki barat hai, hunger, inflation, scams & devaluation of Re, 157 files missing, corrupt/helpless/puppet PM???. I wonder what a lay person feels when he reads this tweet. Now I know that everyone believes the digital world is like the wild west, but data suggests otherwise. Tech expert Vijay Mukhi writes this lovely post on this: http://www.mxmindia.com/2013/08/why-the-bjp-is-wrong-in-wanting-to-be-aggressive-on-the-social-web/.

The only other person/party that follows an equally abusive style is the Aam Aadmi Party. Some of the posters they have put up in Delhi are truly pathetic. But what about a national party like the BJP? I think that with the older brigade yielding to the younger one, the BJP is morphing. I have never heard Vajpayee or Advani use such language. Clearly, they are no longer inspirational.

Regional parties are typically the ones one would expect to engage in such language. But even regional parties adopt a much better tone and manner when they come onto the central stage. I have heard spokespeople of SP, BSP, JD(U), all on TV, and none of them come anywhere close to the BJP. The Congress is particularly careful on this front. I have never seen their spokespeople or leaders use abusive language againt BJP’s leaders. The BJP is in a permanently attacking mode, no matter what the issue. And since the party does have gifted speakers, it packs in a punch. But what does that punch deliver for the party? In my humble opinion, it only takes away potential voters. Maybe that’s why the latest India Today poll gives the NDA lesser seats in 2014 than it did six months back.

It’s the same with our TV channels. Hindi news channels have always been loud and sensationalist. That’s probably why they get such poor viewership. In terms of GRPs (Gross Rating Points – aggregation of viewership over a week), Hindi news channels collectively garner just around 120 GRPs a week. Contrast that with the GECs (General Entertainment Channels like Star, Sony, Colors, Zee) which get 10 times more at 1300 odd. Even Hindi movie channels get 5 times more at 600 odd GRPs. Even the more niche music channels manage 100 GRPs. Why do Hindi channels fare so poorly? Is it because of what they have done to their language? Is this also why newspaper, far more careful with their language, keep growing in India while they are dropping elsewhere in the world?

But what is even more shocking is the way the English news channels have gone in the last two years or so, since their language became even foul (since the CWG scam days really). As their presentation became dirtier, their GRPs crashed. Today, the top three English news channels garner a total of just 1.5 GRPs a week. This is a quarter of what it was two years back. Just think about this. Even English movies manage 20 times more at 30 GRPs a week.

The real truth is that BJP leaders/their followers/media owners all need to think about whether rude language is helping them at all. In my humble opinion, and the data justifies my viewpoint, no….

Autor:Prashant Panday

View author profile: http://www.blogger.com/profile/05179662957363875423

A case for fewer heros

9:39 PM

With our flawed justice system, how can you blame Italian marines?

6:01 PM

One of India’s most infamous men hangs himself in jail, another is hanged without due process only days before that, and we are angry two Italians are refusing to come back to face trial.

Why are we even surprised? If I were the Italians I wouldn’t come back either and I think it’s understandable if their government lied.

Nobody trusts our justice system, including most Indians, and the only people who say they do are the accused who have no option.
Our record is atrocious and open for scrutiny. Almost any case you take, even one as crucial as Abu Salem’s, will be messed up in monumental fashion. I’m not going to bring up Amit Shah, Gujarat’s former home minister, who is himself on bail and facing serious charges while in office. Who will trust this justice system?

How can you blame the Italian Marines? PTI
My friend Yug Chaudhary, who campaigns against the death penalty in courts across India, will tell you stories about law in India that will make your hair stand on end. I could tell you a few too. You need to have credibility if the world will send you its citizens for trial. India has none. We should accept that and clean up our act rather than blame the world.

To come to the case of Ram Singh, the man accused of murder and rape who hanged himself despite being unable to use one arm. How did he do this?

I’m interested because my beat as a newspaper reporter was sessions court and I have spent some time inside jails.

Prisons don’t have fans inside the cell (or shouldn’t). The only way to ‘hang’ yourself is to slip a rope or thin strip of fabric over the horizontal bars of the cell wall, and then sit down and allow your body to choke itself through gravity in a noose.

This is difficult and requires determination. I’ve not known of many cases where this is successful.

In an orthodox hanging, where a stool or chair is kicked out from under you or you plunge into the gallows like Saddam, death comes from the snapping of your neck. Not from slow strangulation, which is how it would happen in a jail cell death.

What did Ram Singh do? We have no idea. According to Hindustan Times “he hanged himself from a rod in the ceiling of his cell in Jail No 3 using his clothes”. The paper added that “another version had it that he hanged himself from the ventilator grill.” Zee News had a third version, that he had “used a part of bed linen.”

The whole thing had been delayed by a day and Times of India said, incredibly, that “the postmortem could not be conducted as Delhi Police could not submit the required papers to the hospital on time.”

One of the cruel things about being in an Indian jail is the lack of privacy. There is always someone around you. Not just the police but other prisoners (one report said Ram Singh shared the cell with three people). Solitary confinement here doesn’t mean what it does in the west.

There are also closed circuit cameras observing inmates, especially those in solitary. How did he evade all this?

And then the material is not easy to fashion. Just cutting the clothes you have into straight strips and knotting them properly requires skill and application. A man with one dodgy arm would find it more difficult. Where did he get the tools from?
Making a noose isn’t easy (try it). It requires for the knot to be of high quality, such as a slip knot, and placed in a particular way opposed to the carotid artery.

Nothing about this case should give us confidence in ourselves. Our record is poor and a humiliating and a very public demonstration of it is on view every other day. We have all of us seen police do unlawful things like thrashing offenders, even children, rather than proceed per law.

The police in India in such a case as Ram Singh’s is guilty unless proven innocent.

This is unfortunate, but their record makes it true. And if we accept that, we should not insist that those poor Italians martyr themselves to our incompetence.

Author:

Aakar Patel

(Aakar Patel is a writer and columnist. He is a former newspaper editor, having worked with the Bhaskar Group and Mid Day Multimedia Ltd.)

What’s wrong with Indian democracy? The Indian media!

6:51 PM