individ-While one aspect of the equation is recognition of the need of safety measures by industries, the other equally important facet is generating adequate and appropriate awareness a
Trang 1March 11, 2019 Rs 60www.outlookindia.com
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Trang 2The sex ratio in some districts was quite low but it has been steadily improving after Beti Bachao Beti Padhao We are proud that the ratio reached 900 in
2016 and 914 in 2018 I am confident that it will cross 925 soon.
Trang 3Within four years of the national-level Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme
being launched, Haryana has been making rapid strides—improving its sex
ratio in the worst-affected districts and getting rewarded both for its overall
management of the scheme and for district-level achievements.
In order to address the decline in
child sex ratio and promote women’s
empowerment, the national-level
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme
was launched on January 22, 2015,
in Panipat, Haryana The state has
been a front-ranking performer:
within three years, the Sex Ratio
at Birth in Haryana had risen to
914 girls.
Haryana has won
four awa rds, including
a state-level and
three district-level awards, for
its successful implementation
of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao
programme The state-level award
child education and Kuruksh etra for having enforced the PCPNDT Act effectively.
The third anniversary of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was celebrated in Jhunjhunu district
of Rajasthan On the occasion,
10 districts were selected for performing exemplary work Sonipat district was awarded by the honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for implementing the PCPNDT Act effectively
A total of 32 women police stations were set up in the state to ensure safe and secure environment for women
Women and Child deVeloPment
was given in the category of ‘overall support, guidance and mon itoring’
While Karnal district was awarded for effective community engagement, Jhajjar was chosen for enabling girl
11 March 2019 OutlOOk 03
Trang 4Every district headquarter has one
women police station and women
help desks have been established
at the subdivisional level, manned
entirely by female officers.
Under the Criminal Law Bill-2018,
rape of a child under the age of 12
years will invite death penalty.
In order to check crime against
women and girls in the state, 30
units of Durga Shakti Rapid Action
Force along with 50 patrolling
vehicles have been constituted.
To boost the safety of women,
the Durga Shakti app was
introduced on July 12, 2018, under
the ‘Ek aur Sudhaar’ programme
Any woman can download this
mobile app, register and use the
SOS button during any emergency
for help So far, 1,03,727 people have
downloaded this app.
The government has given orders
to complete investigation of rape cases in one month and eve-teasing cases within 15 days.
Out of the 49 government women colleges opened under the present government, as many as 34 are meant specially for women.
Under the path-breaking Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana launched in May 2016, a grant of
Rs 1,600 is provided to women of underprivileged families to avail LPG connections
Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, 6,34,407 LPG connections were provided to the underprivileged and poor: 1,77,691 connections have been provided from the state fund, plus 8,474 connections to Khaki ration-card holders, bringing the total number of connections to 8, 20,572.
Haryana is the first state in India
to be awarded the title of “Kerosene Free” state.
In the Panchayati Raj elections held on January, 2016, 42% women representatives were chosen against the 33% reserved seats for women The limit of free travel facility for girl students of universities has
The Durga Shakti mobile app has been launched to boost women’s safety Over
a lakh people have already downloaded the app so far.
04 OutlOOk 11 March 2019
Trang 5been increased from 60 km to 150
km Special bus services were also
launched on 151 routes for girl
students and women
International woman wrestler
Geeta Phogat from Charkhi Dadri
district has been elevated to DCP.
First time in the state government
women employees started getting a
monthly child care allowance of Rs
1,500 from May 2018.
The first phase of Mission
Indradhanush—meant for the
imm-unisation of children and pregnant
women who have either not
been vaccinated at all or partially
vaccinated—was launched on
Dece-mber 25, 2014 In Haryana, it started
on April 7, 2015 And till January 2019,
a total of 3,06,328 pregnant women
and 1,107,632 children have been
immunised in all districts of the state.
The Sukanya Samridh Khata
Yojana was started on January 22,
2015, in Panipat, under which bank
accounts can be opened for girl
children up to 10 years The rates of
interest are the highest under this
scheme and until now, a total of
ComParatiVe stUdY of CUrrent and PreVioUs goVernment
name of sCheme
Ladies’ Bus Service Free Travel Services
Female Police Station
Female Representatives in Panchayat Raj Elections
Govt Women College Sex Ratio For Female Students
No service available Till 60 kms
2 36%
29 879
On 151 routes Till 150 kms
32 42%
63 914
PreVioUs goVernment (2014)
CUrrent goVernment (2019)
11 March 2019 OutlOOk 05
Trang 64,81,271 accounts have been opened
in post offices.
Under the Aapki Beti Hamari
Beti scheme, the first girl child in
Scheduled Caste and underprivileged
families will get a grant of Rs 21,000
Whereas for other families, on the
birth of their second and third girl
child, an amount of Rs 21,000 will
be given as a lumpsum within one
year of birth through the Bharatiya
Jeevan Bima Nigam in the name of
the child After attaining 18 years of
age (unmarried), a lumpsum amount
of Rs 1 lakh will be transferred to their
account Approximately, 1,49,107
people have already benefited from
this scheme.
Under the Prime Minister Shagun
Yojana, Rs 51,000 will be given to the
widows living below the poverty line
for the marriage of their daughters
People living below the poverty line belonging to Scheduled Caste communities or denotified and/or nomadic tribes will get Rs 51,000 for the marriage of their daughters from January 25, 2019.
Widows, divorcees, homeless women, orphans and destitute children whose earning is less than
Rs 1 lakh a year, will be given
Rs 51,000 for their marriage.
Sakshi Malik, who won the bronze medal in the 2016-17 Rio Olympics in wrestling, was awarded Rs 2.5 crore and Deepa Malik, who won a silver medal in shotput in the 2016 Rio Para Olympics, was awarded Rs 4 crore as
an honour by the government.
The Haryana Kanya Kosh was launched for the progress and development of women in the state ‘One-Stop centres’ have been set up in Karnal, Rewari, Faridabad, Gurugram, Bhiwani, Hissar and Narnaul to help women who are victims of violence Fifteen centres were established in 2018-19.
The first modern anganwadi centre, ‘NandGhar’, was inaugurated
at Hasanpur village in Sonipat
Sakshi Malik, who won
a bronze at the Rio Olympics, was awarded
Rs 2.5 crore, and Deepa Malik, who got a silver in shotput in the Rio Para Olympics, was awarded
Rs 4 crore.
06 OutlOOk 11 March 2019
Trang 7A total of 672 FIRs have been
registered against the violators of
the PNDT the M.T.P Act.
On January 2016, honourable
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi
in his “Mann ki Baat” appreciated the
Haryana government for curbing
female foeticide and for the success
of the “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”
initiative
The state government awarded
the district administrations of
Narnaul, Bhiwani and Jhajjar for
their efforts in improving the sex
ratio in 2015-16 Rohtak, Rewari,
Jind and Ambala were conferred
awards in 2016-17 and Kurukshetra,
Yamunanagar, and Jhajjar districts
were awarded in 2017-18.
To honour women on the
occasion of women’s day, Indira
Gandhi Mahila Shakti Puraskar,
Kalpana Chawla Shourya Puraskar, Behen Shanno Devi Panchayati Raj puraskar, Lifetime Achievement puraskar, Khel Puraskar for special achievements, Sarkari va Samajik Seva Puraskar were given away.
District administrations of Panchkula, Jind, Narnaul and Mewat were given the ‘District-level Poshan
In nearly four years of Mission Indradhanush being launched, over
11 lakh children and over three lakh pregnant women have been immunised.
Puraskar’ in 2015-16 for improving the malnutrition level in children under the age of 6 years Kaithal, Mewat and Gurugram were awarded in 2016-17 and Jind, Panipat, and Yamunanagar
in 2017-18.
To encourage education for girls in the rural areas, the prize money given under the Gramin Kishori Balikao ko Puraskar Yojana has been increased Girl students scoring the first, second and third position under the Haryana School Education Board in the matriculation exam are awarded with a prize money of Rs 8,000, Rs 6,000 and Rs 4,000 respectively.
Girls achieving the first, second and third place in the higher secondary exam in the block level are awarded with a prize money of Rs 12,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 8,000 respectively
11 March 2019 OutlOOk 07
Trang 8The awards for the Rural Women
Sports Competitions at the Block
level, the awards for the first,
second and third positions, have
been increased from 500, 300 and
200 rupees to 2,100, 1,100 and 750
rupees respectively.
At the district level, the rewards
for the first, second and third
positions have been increased from
1,000, 750 and 500 rupees to 4,100,
3,100 and 2,100 rupees respectively.
At the State level, the rewards for
the first, second and third positions
have been increased from 3,100,
2,100 and 1,100 rupees to 11,000,
8100 and 4,100 rupees respectively.
Under the Sarvashreshtha
Mata Award Scheme, the amount
rewarded for the first, second and
third positions at the Circular level
have been increased from 500, 300
and 200 rupees to 2,000, 1,200 and
800 rupees respectively At the block
level, the amount rewarded for the
first, second and third positions have
been increased from 1,000, 750 and
500 rupees to 4,000, 3,000 and 2,000 rupees respectively.
To acknowledge the work done towards improving the sex ratio, the state was awarded the Kangi Devi Award on March 8, 2016.
On the eve of National Girls’ Day, Yamunagar district was honoured with the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao award It was chosen among 100 districts in the first phase of the
programme organised by the Central Government on January 24,
2017 This became another moment
of pride for a state that has been moving from a very distressing record to scale new heights.
The allowance for anganwadi workers, anganwadi helpers and mini Anganwadi workers, including the ones with more than 10 years’ of experience and 10 years’ experience, has been kept at Rs 11,429 and Rs 10,286 respectively from February
2018 The mini anganwadi workers’ allowance is also kept at Rs 10,286 while the anganwadi helpers’ allowance is kept at Rs 5,715 This has benefited 25,962 anganwadi workers and 25,450 anganwadi helpers throughout the state.
The Pradhan Mantri Vandana Yojna was launched on January, 1, 2017 Under this scheme, Rs 5,000 would be given to pregnant and breastfeeding women in three instalments Till now, the scheme has covered 2,14,572 women across Haryana.
As many as 4.8 lakh accounts have been opened for girls under age 10, earning the highest interest rates, under the Sukanya Samridh Khata Yojana.
08 OutlOOk 11 March 2019
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Volume LIX, No 9
EDITOR Ruben Banerjee
MANAGING EDITOR Sunil Menon
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Satish Padmanabhan
FOREIGN EDITOR Pranay Sharma
POLITICAL EDITOR Bhavna Vij-Aurora
BUSINESS EDITOR Arindam Mukherjee
SENIOR EDITOR Giridhar Jha
CHIEF ART DIRECTOR Deepak Sharma
WRITERS Lola Nayar, Qaiser Mohammad Ali
(Senior Associate Editors), G.C Shekhar
(Associate Editor), Jeevan Prakash Sharma
(Senior Assistant Editor), Prachi
Pinglay-Plumber, Ushinor Majumdar, Ajay Sukumaran,
Probir Pramanik (Assistant Editors), Naseer
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Nair, Neel Shah (Special Correspondents),
Salik Ahmad, Siddhartha Mishra (Senior
Correspondents), Arshia Dhar (Correspondent)
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What to make of the SC order that deprives lakhs of tribals land rights across central India
38 Been There, Flung That
Recently, pilots had to eject after two planes collided in Bangalore while practising aerobatics A former air chief marshal recounts a similar incident from many years ago.
44 Making Fuel of Fire
The air is rife with war rhetoric with India’s latest airstrikes in Pakistan after the
JeM-scripted Pulwama attack And there’s an election coming
68 Trending Talk Boxes
Over the years, the podcast has emerged as a phenomena that has brought
long, thoughtful conversations back for audiences
92 The Algorithm Years
Facebook might have started a ‘10 year challenge’ for some on-the-sly data mining but it has, nonetheless, been a most interesting decade What all have changed since 2009?
COUNTER STRIKER The IAF used the Mirage 2000 in its recent air strikes
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Trang 12PUNE Ranjit Sinha: Refer to Laws
Unto Their Own (Feb 25) We need to
introduce some good laws for the sake
of impartial administration During
the British regime, the sedition laws
were used to contain the freedom
movement With this power, the
administration could keep anybody
under custody for a longer period
without any trial Sadly enough, the
present National Security Act has
been clamped on agitating university
students time and again Alongside,
another law has been curtailing
citizen freedom in a few Indian
states—AFSPA, which gives the sec
urity forces unusual powers This has
infuriated the people and the result is
widespread agitation and discontent
Since the security forces are protected
under AFSPA, no action can be taken
against them when atrocities happen
The National Security Act should not
be used the way it is being used right
now It is a serious act and should be
only applied in the most exceptional
circumstances Otherwise, it will not
be taken seriously and will be seen as
just another vindictive tool of the State
to oppress the dissenting public
BANGALORE Rangarajan T.S.: The
nation in one voice condemns anybody
being subjected to harsh punishment
for voicing their opinion against the
government However, what the JNU
students did at an event on February 9,
2016, was not right Judging from news
reports, they spoke against the nation
and supported antinationals The
socalled secular parties sided with
the disgruntled students, ignoring the
sentiments of a common man like me
They did this out of sheer hatred for
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
There have been excesses and
innocent lives have been lost in J&K
as well as in the Northeast during the
regimes of UPA as well as NDA It is alright for me as a citizen to criticise the government but I should not do it
on foreign soil, especially in a country like Pakistan (disclaimer: I have never been to Pakistan)
LUCKNOW M.C Joshi: Politicians elected by the people through elections become our lawmakers They make laws for everyone else but are
a law unto themselves They expect people to follow laws in letter and spirit but break the laws themselves with impunity When in power, they apply laws according to their political need, be it NSA, sedition or any other oppressive rule Applying the sedition law for alleged assault on a
TV news channel crew or applying the NSA on the victims in cases of cowrelated lynching exhibits the limit of lawlessness in governance
Fortunately, we have a powerful and impartial judiciary which keeps under check such abuse of law by the
executive Now, it is time the courts revisited the sedition law
BANGALORE H.N Ramakrishna: Laws like the sedition law were enacted during the colonial days to protect the interests of the ruling British For them, contrarian views were unwelcome and considered treasonable We were living under colonisation then Such antiquated laws have no place in a modern democracy For many who value liberal
or progressive ideals, these are laws that limit democracy We need strong, solid institutions, people committed
to putting the interest of their fellow citizens above party and personal interests and following the rules and laws of the land The way democracy is currently practiced in India is flawed
It is unfortunate that the oncefree press is in chains today Disparaging comments are made against them by the government Journalism is one
of the guardrails of our democracy and without it, we will slide into authoritarianism Democracy, unfortunately, is no more what Abr aham Lincoln described it as: by the people, for the people, and of the people It is now ‘buy’ the people ‘off’ the people and ‘for’ the lawmakers.Short-term Kicks
NEW DELHI Amandeep Singh:
This refers to Formula Erotica, the
article on newer internet TV channels showing erotic themes in abundance
to capture the countryside markets (Feb 25) These platforms are out
of the framework of TV and theatre censorship, so, it’s only natural that they have gone for the theme that sells best in the visual medium—sex
I have watched a few of the shows mentioned in your story Almost all of them are thin on content and market
Trang 14themselves on quick titillation in
their trailers They may have an initial
good run, as the download numbers
mentioned in your story suggest, but
will fade away in the long run when
people will start identifying the blunt
formula on which they are made Even
the provocative acts will lose their
sheen as they will get normalised
This is of course not a concern for the
producers of such shows, Ekta Kapoor
being at the helm even in this space
They operate from a strictly business
point of view and will juice out the
revenues from this new trend
NEW DELHI Rajeev Sinha: The
story reminds me of the suggestive
crimesex novels and magazines
found at the railway stations across
the country They’re no good
contentwise, and everyone knows
that, but they are still a hit among
passengers as these publications
come with a promise of cheap and
quick entertainment, enough for a
journey Afterwards, their use value
is greatly reduced I can’t remember
the last time I placed a copy of those
novels amid my book collection Yes,
I’ve brought a few and dumped most
of them after the safar Courtesy
of this parallel I’ve just drawn, I’ll
be checking out some of the shows
mentioned in your story for my metro
rides Thanks for the info Outlook
Down Turn
BANGALORE J Akshay: This refers
to your story from Karnataka (Playlist
of the Besieged, Feb 25) The BJP wants
to bring down the CongressJD(S)
government because it wants to prove
that this coalition experiment, which
carries within it the idea of a coalition
government at the Centre after the
Lok Sabha election, is inherently
uns table The party has no qualms in
influencing other party members to
def ect, and this can’t happen without
offers of material benefit While one
can charge the BJP with attempting
a coup in Karnataka to expose the
faultlines of the CongressJD(S)
alliance, can the Congress really afford
to be swept up by the poachers and
risk getting an image of an auctionable
party? The Congress must realise
it would lose all credibility and be
considered an opportunist if it lets the
H.D Kumaraswamy government sink
The JD(S), seen as a victim, would then be open to other partners If the Congress cannot even keep its MLAs together and ends up destabilising the government, then it can give up any hope of progressing in the state where
a strong Vokkaliga backlash could grind it to the dust
Frosted Tropical Lenses SHIMLA Gaurav Negi: Refer to
Annual Lifeline Choke (Feb 25) It’s
good to see some snow woes making it
to a nati onal magazine Since, for some reas ons, our mainstream institutions function from mainland India, I think
I can venture to make the assessment that we have a very ‘tropical’ outlook
as a nation In fact, there are a good
many regions that see snow—Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand the Himalayan countryside It hailed so hard a few weeks back in some areas
of DelhiNCR that it felt like it had snowed after You’d have noticed life coming to a standstill even in those five selfietaking minutes just after the hard downpour Now prolong that to days, with more layers of hail, enough
to bury the car tyres Welcome to Himalayan country
Bureau of TusslesBANGALORE K.S Jayatheertha:
It looks like a teaser of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was being played out in Calcutta The CBI’s investigation into the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams has snowballed into an allout slugfest between the Centre
and Mamata Banerjee (Centre Stage Esplanade, Feb 18) Of course, if Modi’s
apparent decision to send the CBI after Mamata’s government at this juncture couldn’t have been more wrong, the Bengal CM’s decision to put up a fight couldn’t have been more right However, ordinary voters well know that Mamata is all shrillness and reckless protests on this count, as she knows her party’s involvement in ponzi schemes, which defrauded poor people to the tune of Rs 32,000 crore, cannot be a pollwinner Seven years
IN ROAD PM Modi in Hubli, Karnataka
The Deep Rot
ON E-MAIL Chandra Kumar Das:
Refer to Summons Versus Summons,
your story on the political games played though the CBI and the state police After the Calcutta police’s clash with the CBI, this locallevel skirmish between the central investigation agency and the state police points to disturbing trends within India’s polity It is clear that the CBI, the country’s top investigative agency, has been compromised The CBI controversy that became national news late last year gave strong hints of this compromise, and it was made clear in the way the CBI has behaved in both Bengal and Odisha now The agency has become the Centre’s lapdog, intervening on the central government’s behalf even
in statespecific issues The idea of federalism too appears skewed with state governments making use of their police force to fight back against the CBI’s interventions The country’s courts have sadly been distanced from these processes All this only shows that party politics has managed to penetrate deep within the psyche of our lawmaintaining institutions Have
we changed into an improv democracy, where political puppeteers pull the strings of institutions that should ideally operate independently? Can we afford our netas giving instructions to democratic bodies of law?
INBOXED
letters
14 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
Trang 15Best Property
Trang 16back, Mamata knew former Calcutta
Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar
as an agent of the Left Front reg ime
Now, he is one of her most trusted
officers He was also the brains behind
the secret operation to get Maoist
leader Kishenji killed, which got rid of
a burgeoning crisis for Mamata
ON E-MAIL Vishwanath Dhotre:
The story about the Bengal CM
Mamata Banerjee and her socalled
grand alliance with party leaders from
across the spectrum can’t be taken
seriously (Centre Stage Esplanade,
Feb 18 ) It’s more show than
substance, with leaders putting up
camerafriendly smiles behind which
their vested interests lurk But that’s
politics, innit? It’s Modi’s intimidating
image and the lack of a formidable
panIndia opposition leader that
has made these politicians line up
alongside Mamata, perhaps because
she’s the most fearless of the lot But
Mamata has her hands tied in chit fund
controversies, as evidenced by her
reaction to the CBI raid in Calcutta
The public should remember that
leaders only look for their own future,
not the wellbeing of the nation
Mines Hurt
PUNE Lt Col (retd) R Sinha: This
is in response to an Outlook Spotlight
feature about how the Goa Mining
Peoples Front want mining res tored
in the state (Say Yes To Mining, Feb
18) It’s true that people previously
employed in the mining sector are
greatly distressed by the closing
down of many mining operations
But the Supreme Court directive
to curb mining is equally necessary
and justifiable, as it’s without a doubt that mining does pollute the env ironment, and pollutes heavily at that The issue has to be addressed
by the government, leaseholders to mines should act accordingly and a strict check implemented Meanwhile, outstanding dues of employees have to
be settled forthwith
Facebook law CHANDIGARH Rohin Gautam:
This is with reference to your story on the Manipuri journalist languishing
in jail after mere Facebook posts (A Journalist As Breaking News, Feb18)
I suggest that state governments approach the central government on a workbook of laws that should govern people’s activities on Facebook It will make things simpler and citizens will know exactly what kind of post can land them in jail and for how long The government can post the workbook
on Facebook itself and tag all Indian facebookers in one giant post Had this already been done, Kishorechandra Wangkhem would know when the Manipur government could release him The poor guy is clueless as of now
Also, the first section of the Facebook law workbook should educate us on what all cannot be said about PM Modi But try not to make that list too long if possible
Made By The USA HYDERABAD Rajkumar: I refer
to The Spirit Unleashed Since 1979
(Feb 18) The article is concise yet comprehensive in its study of the series
of events that changed world politics forever Every time the tale is told, it
is impossible to not wonder at how skewed everything we speak about today is—terrorism, fundamentalism and the ‘wars’ on terror America was
a main facilitator of the original global jehad! As the author says, “The jihad, funded by the US and the Kingdom (referring to Saudi Arabia) was led by the charismatic scion of a leading Saudi merchant family, Osama Bin Laden.”
The rest is history
Surgical Jobs BANGALORE Yasir Imran: Refer
to Empty Naukri Fair (Feb 18)
Remember Surgical Strike—we didn’t see it happening, but it happened
Employment is a bit like that—you may not be able to see the jobs, but jobs are being created by the government
If some people still persist with their pessimism, hear it as the honourable petroleum and natural gas minister bluntly put it: ‘Only the frustrated don’t see the jobs.’
Sibling MoveVARANASI Jaideep Mittra: This refers to your story on Priyanka
Gandhi (The Face for the Other Side
of UP, Feb 11).The formal entry of
the suave Priyanka into politics may have caused some understandable commotion in the NDA, forcing them
to react rather fiercely, but it has also unsettled the fragile stability achieved
by the two likeminded parties of the Opposition who have tied up The timing appears wellstrategised
to rev italise the sagging morale of Congress leaders and workers in
UP, following the prepoll alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the BSP that left the Congress out The dec ision to induct her as general secretary in charge of UP has certainly emboldened groundlevel workers to int ensify their efforts to reg ain lost ground The strategy to strengthen the organisational structure to sort out its existential crisis in UP could be a political compulsion for the Congress
at this juncture But how far this step, which has the potential to cause division of votes and favour the BJP, will prove strategically correct in light of the united mission of the Opposition
to dislodge the ruling party at the Centre is what the grand old party of India needs to critically assess
Southern Jitters DEHRADUN Rakesh Agrawal: BJP’s desperation to win the southern states is forcing them to turn Kerala’s Sabarimala into a southern Ayodhya, but, mark my words, they’ll have
egg on their face (BJP’s Southern Discomfort Feb 11).
Correction
In the interview titled ‘Any Criticism
Is Wormwood’, from the issue dated February 25, the name of Sahitya
Akademy awardee Assamese litt erateur Hiren Gohain was misspelt as Hiren Gogoi The error is regretted.POINTED POWER Bengal CM Mamata
letters
16 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
Trang 18BEST PORTA-POTTY
AN irritable bowel, or an
overfull bladder, is the pressing
reminder of the Mumbai lowlife—
the dream city’s unstoppable traffic
jams, layovers of nearly an hour
at bus-stops, and the absence of
public toilets That explains the
stinky, yellowish wet walls by the
sidewalks The Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation has a
solution, which is more like a
prescription pill that blocks the
causes of the discomfort but never really is the cure The BMC has proposed converting at least 10 old BEST buses—those red icons of a hot, bumpy, crowded, noisy ride—
into mobile loos and station them at snarl hotspots The plan, the BMC hopes, will bring money to the cash-strapped BEST, save a few retiring buses from the boneyard and, more than anything in the world, stop the commuter from soiling the walls or holding their pee
THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU
I N & A R O U N D
SHEER SAREE PORN
SANAI Mahbub is a social media celebrity in the Kim Kardashian mould, with slobbering admirers upvoting the plastic in her chest The problem is this eyeball-chasing clickbait starlet is from Bangladesh, a conservative nation where risqué is risky business—even if she is fully-clothed in her selfies and livestreams The saree is too sheer, madam, and the pose too suggestive And so, the first Bangladeshi celeb to own up
to surgically enhanced breasts was summoned to a Dhaka police station for ‘counselling’
She was told to remove the
‘vulgar’ content What has the boorish bureaucracy to say about this? Well, some of the 21-year-old’s images could be
‘illegal’ under pornography laws
in a country that has launched a crackdown on Internet porn.
BRING BACK THE BLING
IN a city where the anthem is
money, money, money, the Sensex
and Bollywood belong to the same
stock and sing the same sacred song
It came as no surprise that Apna
time aayega (our time will come)—
the title tune of Ranbir Singh’s Gully
BLACK MAGIC MLA
THAT politicians keep their
supporters spell-bound is old rag, but when a lawmaker is accused of casting a voodoo spell
on voters, it is news And that piece
of news springs from a sequestered non-newsy place—Longding, in Arunachal Pradesh, whose legislator Thangwang Wangham is facing hard questions from members
of his Wancho tribe They allege that Wangham had placed hoodoo amulets to charm voters and win the 2014 assembly elections The MLA dismisses the allegations
as political conspiracy, but black magic is a serious charge among this animist tribe from the Naga stock that practises shamanic rituals to appease forest spirits and who were headhunters until 1991
Illustrations by MANJUL; Text by ALKA GUPTA
Boy—is now being sung more lustily
and with brass-necked hope as the
Sensex kept tumbling for almost a
fortnight, the longest losing streak
for eight years More than an
ant-hem, the song has become the
dis-tress call of Mumbai stock market
players, particularly the hardest-hit
smaller companies, investors and
brokers And they sing with the
firm belief that this hope-harbinger
will not meet the fate of another
national anthem that busted the
charts some years ago It was titled
Achchey Din.
18 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
Trang 19PRECIOUS CANNONBALL HISTORY
H ISTORY, they say, has to be dug up and
displayed in a thick shell of hardened
truth In Machilipatnam’s Bandarkota, the past
is shooting up periodically in people’s
backya-rds as solid-metal cannonballs These are
une arthed in the town’s old parts, excavated for
new housing, and are probably from the Dutch
war inventory when they had a military station
in Andhra centuries ago Floods, pestilence
and British peskiness drove the Dutch out; the
earth entombed their shots Now, the reality:
most families have not disclosed their find,
fearing the ASI would confiscate the ‘treasure’.
THE Nepal government
proposed buying a
presidential helicopter
Hardscrabble citizens
shouted a collective ‘no’
The PM fired back: Do you
expect the president to ride
a bullock cart? The sarcasm
wasn’t lost As the
cart and copter
occupied the
in a blaze of chintzy irony, the pop take on corruption was withdrawn abruptly from YouTube What next?
PM Oli has an ox-cartload
of protests to haul He can turn
to India for some advice We know how to fly out such turbulences
IT’S hard to tell if
Mum-bai’s sex crimes dipped,
men became more
resp-ectful towards women, or
maniacs lost their libido
in six years since the city’s
civic agency outlawed
shop mannequins in
lin-gerie on the insistence of a
counsellor who swore that
such displays ‘aroused’
the procreative instincts
of male Homo Sapiens It
took some hard knocks for
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to acknowl-edge the monkey in the underpants and take a step towards undoing the ban recently It said Mumbai
is an international city where beauty pageants and swimwear shows are par for the course and, hence, lingerie manne-quins aren’t indecent But where did the perverts go?
To Ajanta and Ellora?
PERVEZ Musharraf, according to keen observers of Pakistan, was very good in tactics but always poor
in strategy Going by the set of excuses his advisors are putting forward to justify his delay in returning to Pakistan, one may find his detractors’ assessment about him not to be totally off the mark
The former army ruler, wanted in Pakistan for treason, has been in self-exile since March 2016 He had been charged with abrogation of the constitution (while dismissing an ele cted government and grabbing power through a military coup) The Supreme Court of Pakistan wants to try him for the charges It had issued several notices to the general, seeking his personal appearance before the court However, Musharraf has so far failed to oblige the honourable justices Sitting in Dubai, Musharraf, who is also the chief of the All Pakistan Muslim League, told newsmen that he sees the “political environment” in Pakistan “favourable” for his return However, he ruled out any
immediate plans of returning
to the country.
Musharraf’s breezy confidence about the political atmosphere comes from the fact that nearly
50 per cent of the people in Imran Khan’s cabinet were his associates But it will be very unusual for him to expect the government to plead on his behalf
to the apex court.
“Half of the ministers in the government are mine The law minister and the attorney-general were my lawyers,” Musharraf claimed.
He pointed out: “Pakistan is my country My roots are there My relatives and friends are there I will definitely
go there.” But he will not jump like a fool and rush into what might be a perilous sojourn It had to be planned under a proper strategy, he confided to the media.
Interestingly, a few weeks back, Musharraf’s lawyer had arg ued that he was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease that deposits broken protein in various organs of the body and makes it difficult for the person to stand and walk The former army ruler was being treated in London and was therefore unable to return to Pakistan, he said However, it seemed a little strange that Musharraf could travel to all the way to the UK from the UAE but not to Pakistan.
His comments, however, have left many to wonder if he was planning to return to politics in the near future.
“Gen Musharraf has been out of power for 11 years but it seems he is still intoxicated with power,” said former Paki- stani foreign minister Khawaja Asif.
Strategic Absence
Wanted by the supreme court
to stand trial for treason, Gen Pervez Musharraf cools his heels
in Dubai He claims he’ll return to face his fate soon
MUMBAI’S MONKEY IN LINGERIE
OLI-COPTER DOWNDRAUGHT
11 March 2019 OUTLOOK 19
Trang 2020 OutlOOk 11 March 2019
Life today is faster than we have ever
known it to be Fast paced progress in every walk of life, and each individ-ual sphere of business, makes it a rush to reach the top Newer technologies, nimbler personnel engaged to carry out each dis-tinctive task, refined processes, improved engagements between man and machine, and wieldier tools; all in a bid to optimize processes and augment productivity, meas-ures that ultimately translate to better pro-duce in terms of goods or services on offer
There are innumerable aspects of ness that need, and get, apt and timely at-tention Matters like costs, infrastructure, merchandising, marketing, shipping, etc
busi-directly relate to the productivity and profitability, and hence call for undivided considerations and dedicated resources, whereas softer aspects like skills, hygiene, safety etc get somewhat side- lined at times, leading to a rising concern of physical as well as mental well- being of involved per-sonnel With a vast array of industries and businesses in operation today and the im-mensely varying challenges they each pose,
it becomes imperative to identify control measures for each industry, devise pro-cesses, and build- in safety checks to deter unwarranted mishaps
Diversity of industries makes ual processes, tools and personnel require-ment highly specific, and therein lies the challenge to successfully instill or execute fail-safes at every identifiable step Personnel being the most important asset to any business or operation, it is intrinsically critical to safeguard human life in all its forms This makes the very basis, as well as substantiates the need, of installing appro-priate safety procedures that take indus-tries, their related risks, and ever- evolving technological advancements into consider-ation, and develop measures to protect all those involved in operationalizing tools of the trade
individ-While one aspect of the equation is recognition of the need of safety measures
by industries, the other equally important facet is generating adequate and appropriate awareness among personnel involved in the industry’s workings, to create a well-
Productivity, stems from safety:
Putting the national safety week
private labels and is
one of the key players
in the Indian market
under its own brand
Trang 2111 March 2019 OutlOOk 21
balanced equilibrium, and establish a safer
work environment Over the years of India’s
independence and subsequent rise in
stature as a booming economy, various
industries have had a pivotal role to play,
contributing to a thriving national
productivity Workers have been an
undeniably important part of this progress
Safety and security of these workers is,
therefore, inherently crucial to a sustained
growth path being realized from all quarters
of the economy With this central thought,
tremendous efforts have been made over the
past few decades to raise the levels of
awareness and promote industrial safety
among the working gentry across industries
Towards this end, National Safety Council
of India, a self- governing body (a non-
profit and non- governmental body instated
for public service) was established on 4th of
March in 1966 under the Societies Act in
Mumbai with over 8,000 members in its
folds It is to commemorate the
establishment of this Council that national
safety week campaign is celebrated every
year, starting 4th of March, with the sole
aim of enhancement of safety awareness
among India’s working population In a
broader perspective, the campaign includes
preventing and lessening the loss of life, and
various other pertinent issues, such as
financial loss etc., by affording them safety,
health and environmental support services,
among others A nation- wide campaign on
workplace safety and related topics during
the national safety week serve to ensure
dissemination of ample information
through public activities like seminars and
debates on the prevalent issues, exhibitions,
distribution of topic materials through
various modes like banners, slogans etc.,
workshops, training programs, and
Mr Ajay Kumar Mall
Managing Director, Mallcom India Limited
Q &
A
As a token of its ceaseless dedication to the cause of safety, Mallcom infallibly practices what it preaches A brief conversation with Mr Ajay Kumar Mall, Managing Director, Mallcom India Limited., helps understand how the organization is imbibing safety in its very culture Excerpts of the exchange follow:
We have been dedicated to the cause since the very inception of Mallcom National Safety Week as a concept took root in 2008, coinciding with the launch of our domestic brand Progressing from there, we have evolved it into a national phenomenon from the organization’s perspective since 2013
Our intent is simple, to increase awareness of incumbent risks among everyone associated with our workplaces, to pave way for knowledge on avoiding such hazards,
to promote use of PPEs, establish importance of safety measures, and instill value for revered life, and to encourage participation from personnels to make the workplace safer for all
Come Safety Week, we aim recognition for our biggest stakeholders and assets, our personnel We have initiated the # MoreThanANumber campaign, dedicated to acknowledging and highlighting the contribution each member of the working staff makes to the organization’s standing This will be put to action through a mass outreach program we have designed
year to celebrate the Nation Safety Week?
For the past 6 years, Mallcom has celebrated the week- long commemoration with a specific theme For instance, we dedicated the national safety week campaign last year generating awareness about road accidents both inside and outside the workplace with the theme ‘Accidents Hurt, Safety Doesn’t’ This year, we intend to go in line with the National theme, ‘Cultivate And Sustain A Safety Culture For Building The Nation.’
We have invested more than 3 decades to the cause of occupational safety, and have seen audience’s mindset evolving immensely along the way To me, desired level of awareness is still the biggest summit to scale India still has a long way to match up to the standards of advanced economies in this context, and this is where I see immense scope of development Market is showing tremendous potential, and an accelerated phase of growth, we fully intend to make the best use of opportunities afforded along the way to take occupational safety to every industry and every individual involved
MallcoM:
a culture evincing responsibility
Trang 2222 OutlOOk 11 March 2019
through all of these varied activities,
ascertain public participation in the cause
of safe working environments for the
millions of industrial workers across the
geographic expanse of the country
National Safety week, in all its diversity
and gusto, serves to play some extremely
crucial roles,
including-− Increase in safety related awareness
among people, including health,
occupational as well environmental
concerns
− Enhancement of public participation
in the safety movement, making it a
nation- wide phenomenon
− Ensuring participative approach
among upper echelons as well as
working personnel of various
industries
− Establishment and demonstration of
preventive measures pertinent to
individual industries, in order to
ensure a safer workplace environment
− Generation and distribution of
adequate literature reflecting status
and relevance of SHE (safety, health
and environmental) issues
− Highlighting and reinforcing legal
responsibilities of employers and
employees alike, in the interest of work
place safety
− Integration of safety and health
concerns in the very fibre of lifestyle
− Bolstering commitment from
employees towards the cause of safety
− Instilling societal benefits, by
inculcating a preventive culture and
culturing a scientific approach to
safety and security of one and all
All of these responsibilities form an integral part of the aims intended to be achieved by commemorating the safety week annually In the words of Dr Avneesh Singh, Director General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes, Ministry of Labour and Employment, “In the recent past, Government of India has taken many new steps in order to improve the Occupational Safety and Health of the workers Collaborative efforts are being made with the other stakeholders such as DGUV, Germany, ESIC, Indian Association
of Occupational Health and Gujarat Maritime Board to address the different Occupational Safety and Health issues in order to develop positive safety culture leading to the higher well-being of the work force This has manifested in the form of a discernible downtrend in the number of accidents and occupational diseases.”
Through a veritable mix of activities, importance of safety in every walk of life is established to effectively prevent any mis-haps and accidents leading to loss of life or productivity, arising out of negligence or lack of awareness
Industrial Safety-A bird’s eye view
It is an established fact that industrial gress is central to development of a nation’s economy Products and services from vari-ous industries combine in order to create a sustainable economy, and drive its growth over the years It is, therefore, extremely important to safeguard the biggest stake-holders in this economic progress, i.e., the workers manning the industrial wagon
pro-Even with the tremendous boom in ogy, there is still a massive part of the
technol-working class engaged with machinery on a daily basis, operationalizing, and maintain-ing the tools of the trade Involvement of mechanical tools means there is always a scope for calibration errors, and resultant mishaps to creep in, thus endangering lives
are just some of examples where heavy machinery plays an indispensable role, making mishaps a real consideration and
a potent threat to the safety of personnel involved in different processes integral to the final output of the industry, each with
a specialized set of equipment to man, and diversely perilous working conditions, and chances of exposure to hazardous materi-als or residue This very diversity calls for unique measures to be stringently followed
in order to ensure safety at all times.Considering the substantial threats that the work environment of each of these in-dustries poses, situation calls for dedicated security apparatus and personal protective equipment (PPE, as it is called in the trade language) for each individual need This, in turn, translates to the need of a deep-seated understanding of processes and tools in-volved in each industry, and devising safety gear accordingly; in short, it calls for a master of all trades
There are several organizations facturing safety equipment across a spec-trum of industrial needs, some specializing
manu-in a handful of spheres, whereas some others offering a variety of solutions to fit varied needs across assorted industries One such organization of immense repute and stat-ure, is Mallcom (India) Limited Being known for providing holistic solutions for head to toe protection makes it the preferred safety partner for numerous industrial establishments
Founded in 1983, Mallcom has been active in trade since more than 3 decades,
Trang 2311 March 2019 OutlOOk 23
and brings substantial experience and
ex-pertise to the table With footprints in more
than 50 countries across 6 continents,
Mallcom enjoys the stature of a leading
solution provider of head to toe protection
for industrial requirements Strategic
in-vestments in technology and rigorous
ad-herence to safety concerns has enabled
Mallcom to tread ahead of others, and
as-sume the status of an industry pioneer
of-fering customized products and innovate to
stay ahead of the curve
Mallcom, with its advanced
technolog-ical capabilities and stringent quality
con-trols, has dedicated years of unidirectional
research to developing and perfecting
per-sonal protection equipment Employing an
ingrained perspective acquired through
exhaustive studies carried out across
indus-tries and understanding their specialized
requirements, Mallcom delivers safety
solutions to stand the test of time A product
line that boasts of a wide array of protective
equipment to serve a veritable assortment
of requirements, classified by industry
being serviced, hazard being neutralized
and protection being offered forms the basis
of Mallcom’s expertise With a vision to
become the most trusted brand for all PPE
across the globe, the organization has
ap-portioned its considerable resources to
discerning, and providing for industry-
specific safety supplies
Creating a bond, for a cause
In context of the National Safety Week,
Mallcom has dedicated years of unrelenting
efforts to pursuing safety for industrial
personnel A forerunner in the protective
gear arena, Mallcom practices its
commit-ment to industrial safety by observing the
Safety Week on a national scale involving
personnel across its manufacturing units
throughout the length and width of the
country, an endeavour in proportion with
its stature
Integration of its substantial efforts to
coincide with celebration of the national
safety week affords Mallcom an underlying
opportunity to cement its commitment to
safety and protection of all industrial
workers, including its own Sizeable and
meaningful efforts directed at establishing awareness, promoting the use of protective gear and highlighting the avenues of indus-trial hazards and their prevention underline the extent and substance of the organiza-tion’s endeavours as well as their intent In addition to ensuring enhanced security and safety of personnel, such an endeavour also serves to establish the importance of indus-trial workers in each walk of life, and strengthens their standing as one of the most important cogs in the wheel of econ-omy A singular and exceptional step in the form of a genuine effort towards recogniz-ing workers’ contribution and developing a bond with the audience is evident in the attempts made towards empowering them, and promoting their safety as dearly as any other aspect of business
Mallcom has always been known for its unique approach and commendable execu-tion when it comes to the national safety week, and this has helped them achieve tremendous traction for the annual cam-paign Assuming the mettle of a true indus-try leader, Mallcom has defined the very path others now tread when it comes to as-signing importance to industrial security and the national safety week campaign
While their traditional approach involved furthering information related
to industrial safety through conventional means, like printed material, workshops, seminars etc., this year Mallcom has upped the bar, devising a mass reach program involving branded vehicles carrying the message of safety in more colourful ways, markedly increasing both the reach and engagement quotient This year, Mallcom envisions reaching out to personnel from more than 300 organizations across the national geography, to generate awareness and inculcate passion for the safety of industrial personnel Through tenacious efforts designed to inspire recognition for the role workers play in the larger scheme
of things, Mallcom aims at reaching unprecedented levels of engagement through the very thoughtfully designed
#MoreThanANumber campaign, in turn
caring for and empowering workers in a
manner rarely witnessed across industries.India’s perspective towards its work-ing personnel has been changing over the course of the past few decades, and the consideration of industrial safety is visibly
on the rise Every aspect of security is being given its due weightage, and genu-inely concerned efforts towards enhancing recognition of industrial hazards and af-fecting their prevention are at an all- time high At a time when the entire nation is witnessing an economic transformation,
it becomes all the more crucial to dedicate persistent efforts to one of its most impor-tant assets, its sizeable working popula-tion Endeavours like the safety week put such efforts into perspective, and ensure a workplace environment that is as safe as it
is productive That the thought of trial safety is gaining traction can easily
indus-be substantiated by the fact that since the year 2010, market for personal protective equipment has grown with a CAGR of 19%, and is predicted to achieve CAGR of over 14% over 2015-2020, which in itself paints an encouraging picture Add to this the proposed amendments by labour ministry to the outdated, out-of-perspec-tive labour laws framed between 1948 and
1966, and the horizons appear even brighter from an industry outlook The National Safety Week, regular seminars, dissemination of pertinent information, workshops etc., all point towards prioriti-zation of occupational safety, health and working conditions in workplaces across the expanse of the nation, and an upcom-ing reform concerning safety norms in the country More and more research into industrial processes, their refinement in the interest of safety procedures, increas-ing sense of responsibility among organi-zations, technical symposiums, with new and refreshing ideas to be implemented in order to avoid industrial mishaps; all are promising signs for the future of indus-tries and working personnel, all tasked with taking the nation’s economic pro-gress to the next reassuring level
In the words of Mr Ajay Kumar Mall,
“India has started valuing safety, and Mallcom intends to be a forerunner in that thought.” It takes an enlightened and determined thought like this is all that helps shape the future Valuing human life and safeguarding its appropriation in all dedication is what it will take to sustain industrial progress, and through it, lead the nation along a path of sustained economic advancement
Trang 24IDENTITY POLITICS
by Abdul Gani in Guwahati
FOR days, Itanagar burned as mobs
went on the rampage in the capital
of Arunachal Pradesh last week
against the state government’s
decision to grant permanent
resi-dent status to six non-tribal
communi-ties Those who suffered included
musicians and artistes gathered for a
film festival, which was called off The
worst was, however, yet to come as
mobs thronged the streets with greater
fury after hours of relative calm This
time, the target was deputy chief
min-ister Chowna Mein’s residence, which
was set on fire Then there was mass
looting from a well-known department
store At least three people were killed
in police firing to control the
rampag-ing protesters When the fire was
fina-lly doused, the state was left with its
image in tatters and the ego of the
gov-ernment badly bruised Chief minister
Pema Khandu was forced to issue a
statement saying that his government
will not pursue the issue “ever again”
The permanent resident certificate
(PRC) is an official document which helps
the holder to seek government jobs or admission in education institutes The six communities, concentrated in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang and Namsai dis-tricts, have been seeking residency certif-icate for decades But the state’s residents fear that such a move could rob the origi-nal inhabitants of rare job opportunities—
another layer in Northeast’s age-old
“local versus outsider” divide But beyond the obvious, there is another story to the violence in Arunachal Pradesh, one that encompasses the entire region
“The BJP seems to be utterly disengaged from ground realities in the Northeast
The party seems to be more interested in pushing their agendas, with disastrous consequences,” Itanagar-based journalist
Tongam Rina tells Outlook “The party is
not sympathetic to the sentiments of the
Fire Rises in the East
Arunachal joins the list of Northeast states singed by BJP
people, which has led to embarrassing situations for it.” The BJP is in power in six states in the region, whether on its own or in alliance with other parties Rina was, of course, referring to a series of set-backs for the party in the Northeast in recent times, the most notable being the widespread anger over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 “It is very rare for N-E parties to oppose the party in power at the Centre But Naga-land, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Aruna chal and Manipur said no to CAB Before CAB was tabled (in Parliament), were the state governments even consulted?” Rina asks The bill endorses citizenship to non- Muslim migrants from Afgha nistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India till December 31, 2014
Critics allege that the BJP rushed the bill to make amends after facing opposi-tion from a section of its supporters, espe-cially in Barak Valley, over the process to update the controversy-ridden National Register of Citizens (NRC), which aims to determine the original Indian citizens in Assam But due to widespread opposition across the region, the Centre didn’t table the bill in the Rajya Sabha
Political commentator Sushanta Talukdar says the BJP’s approach of looking at different issues from the nar-row perspective of electoral gain or loss appears to have blurred the vision of New Delhi on larger questions of internal secu-rity, demography change, identity and ill egal migration that beset the border region “The prevailing situation is only a manifestation of BJP’s approach of exc-luding voices of dissent and listening only
to its supporters while taking critical policy decisions,” Talukdar adds
The BJP blames the Congress for ning the violence in Arunachal “On February 22, Pema Khandu made it pub-lic that the PRC thing is over But in spite
fan-of that, protests escalated Apart from that, the mobs targeted only BJP leaders’ private property and offices,” says state BJP president Tapir Gao The BJP had earlier also blamed the Congress for pol-iticising the NRC and CAB issues But many say that the BJP may have emerged
as its own biggest enemy with these opular decisions “At the rate BJP is going
unp-in the region, it needs no opposition to destroy the party,” adds Rina O
MOB FURY An Itanagar building on fire; the Dy CM’s house faced it too
24 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
PTI
Permanent residency was an old demand from the six non-tribal groups settled in Arunachal
Original inhabitants see
it as an infringement.
Trang 26STICKY NOTE
by Probir Pramanik in Calcutta
TRINAMOOL Congress supremo
Mamata Banerjee, ever the
out-spoken crusader against
injus-tice, fiercely defended former
Calcutta police chief Rajeev
Ku-mar when the CBI wanted to
ques-tion him Now, a retired Indian Police
Service officer who served the state
government has accused the West
Bengal chief minister of being
‘vin-dictive’ in his suicide note
According to news reports, former
inspector general of police Gaurav Dutt,
who took his own life on February 19,
alleged mistreatment by the Trinamool
Congress government and held Mamata
responsible for his death in a startlingly
damning, direct letter
A 1986 batch officer, Dutt took volun
tary retirement early last year and had
applied for the release of his pension
papers and other retirement dues, incl
uding provident fund, gratuity and
monthly pension amounting to over
Rs 72 lakh, which he wrote was denied
“The vindictiveness of this chief minis
ter is unparalleled My honest hard
earned savings have been blocked,”
Dutt, who was suspended in 2010, wrote
Ruing the lack of solidarity among IPS
officers, Dutt alleged that he had spoken
about his grievances to former IPS off
icers and colleagues once close to him,
but who did not stand by him for fear of
state reprisal “The IPS fraternity is such
that if the government detests you…, all
officers…will treat you like a pariah street
dog,” he wrote In the letter, he says it was
tough to “face one’s fam
ily and explain why one
IPS officer is being sin
gled out or targeted …by a
gargantuan, sinister, evil,
predatory gov e rnment”
Political analyst Sukh a
ranjan Sengupta knew
Dutt’s father, Gopal Dutt,
a 1939 batch IPS offi cer
who rose to bec ome the
chief security officer of
former PM Indira Gandhi
in the late ’60s and was
one of the first officers to
be recruited for RAW
“Gaurav came from a very
illustrious family of IPS
officers and was one of
the most sincere and
Heads Change, Cops Roll
An ex-IPS officer damns the Bengal CM in his suicide note
Gaurav Dutt fell afoul of the TMC during the Keshpur massacre in 2000
upri ght officer in the state His death is a heinous incident… As the superinten
dent of pol ice in border districts of Malda and Murshidabad, Gaurav had thorough kno wledge of Islamist radical activities from across the border in Bangladesh
Besides, he was instrumental in the state
offensive to wipe(out) the Maoists in the state He was misused by the ruling party when it suited it and was a victim of the CM’s vindictiveness,” he says
Calls to the deputy commissioner’s head
quarters, Bidhannagar police commissionarate
as well as the officer in
charge of Bidhannagar North police station, under which Dutt’s house is located, went unanswered When this correspondent visited the police station, he was told by an offi cial that the officerincharge had
gone out and that no one was authorised to speak about the suicide
Though the state and city police top brass did not respond, a serving IPS officer does admit that officials have to toe the line of the government to be in their good books As in any regime change, officials known to have been close to the previous regime have been at the receiving end, he says
“Gaurav was depressed and felt that many of his fellow IPS officers had bet rayed him by not standing with him in his fight against the state government,” a former colleague of Dutt says “The government’s vendetta against Dutt has its roots in the previous Left Front reg ime in 19992000, when Gaurav was SP of undivided Midnapore, when the Keshpur political massacre took place,” he says “In the violence, many Trina mool workers were allegedly killed by Left Front workers [scores of CPI(M) workers also lost their lives in the political turf war] After the TMC came to power, Gaurav’s troubles started.” Sengupta says that Dutt may also have known “a lot about the alleged ‘good relations’ between the ruling party in Bengal and radical Islamists from neighbouring Bangladesh”
Dutt, who was known to be close to top Left leaders during the previous regime, referred in the note to two departmental proceedings started against him by the police after Trinamool came
to power Though the state government hasn’t commented, the opposition BJP has demanded a CBI inquiry “The chief minister should be booked for pushing the former officer to death,” says former Trinamool leader Mukul Roy, who is now with the BJP
Calls to Dutt’s wife, Sreyashi, who left for Delhi accompanied by Mukul Roy to approach the Supreme Court with a demand for a CBI inquiry, went unanswered So were calls to top Trinamool leaders, including party spokesperson Derek O’Brien
Mamata has just about managed to sweep her recent tussle with the CBI under the carpet Soon after she gave a call to Trinamool workers to aim to win all 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, she has
a new fire to fight O
Dutt was at the forefront of wiping Maoism off in Bengal He accused Mamata
of driving him to end his life.
26 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
Trang 28THEY DREAMT THEY DARED SO CAN YOU
Trang 29THEY DREAMT THEY DARED SO CAN YOU
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Trang 30COURTING DISASTER
by Preetha Nair in Delhi,
Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar
and ankit Mishra in Raipur
OVER a decade after he applied
for land under the Forest
Rights Act (FRA), Achyut Puj
ari (50) is yet to receive an offi
cial word on the fate of his app
lication Nor has he heard about the
February 13 Supreme Court order
asking state governments to evict
those whose claims under the FRA
have been rejected Blissfully oblivi
ous of what is happening in govern
ment offices and courts far away
from the remote place he lives in,
Pujari has continued to plough his
small, 1.5acre piece of land, growing
paddy, moong and urad
The Gond tribal in Jamjharan village
of Odisha’s poverty stricken Kalahandi
district is shattered when the news
about the apex court order is broken to
him by Outlook But he doesn’t grope
for an answer even for a second when
asked what he would do if forced to
vac ate the land “What can we do? We
will all commit suicide,” he says
Achyut is a father of three His eldest
child, a daughter, is already married
while he lives with younger daughter
Tikemani (15) and son Girishankar (12)
and wife Mangala He says he has no
livelihood option other than the land he
cultivates since there is no work
availa-ble in the area
Under the top court’s orders—which
came on a decade-old petition
challeng-ing the constitutional validity of the
Forest Rights Act, 2006—more than
one million families of Adivasis and
other forest-dwellers are facing
evic-tion from forestlands across 16 states
The act, which enables communities
the right to live and sustain their
liveli-hood in forests and protect and manage
their traditional land, has been a sore
point for long
Elsewhere in Kalahandi, Kantha Jal
doesn’t know what he would do in case
he is evicted Like Achyut, this
non-tribal classified as ‘other traditional
forest dweller’ (OTFD), had also filed
Home is where the hearth is
but more than million people face eviction from forest land after a Supreme Court order
his application in 2008 for rights over the five acres of land his family has been
in possession of for centuries under FRA He doesn’t even know the grounds
on which his claim was rejected
A village ‘vaidya’ (traditional healer)
by vocation, this 62-year old from Kanakpur village protects the local forest along with other members of the gram sabha He is unable to reconcile with the fact that he would be evicted from the place his family has been liv-ing in for centuries and is hoping for some miracle that would save his
dwelling place
There are nearly 1.5 lakh people like Achyut and Kantha in Odisha Given that a 6.12 lakh people had had applied for land in the state under FRA, it means that one in every four applica-tion was rejected This doesn’t speak very highly of a state government that never tires of boasting that it is the ‘best performing’ state when it comes to imp lementation of FRA With this background, the ST/SC development minister Ramesh Majhi’s assurance that “we would take necessary meas-
Activists are dismayed that the central
government failed to defend FRA in the
Supreme Court effectively.
Activists describe the SC order as unconstitutional, as it ignores the centrality of the gram sabha.
With elections around, the issue is generating political heat with most of the parties are jumping into the bandwagon
30 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
TRIBHUVAN TIWARI
Trang 32COURTING DISASTER
ures to protect the interests of the
trib-als” sounds rather hollow
Pravat Kumar Mishra from the
Regional Centre for Development
Cooperation (RCDC), an NGO working
for forest rights, says organisations are
now in the process of weighing various
options, including filing a review
peti-tion in the Supreme Court But he is
distraught that all the hard work done
by RCDC and other organisations over
the years in facilitating the processing
of thousands of applications has gone
down the drain “The wheel has been
turned back Worse still, it would deter
potential and rightful claimants from
filing claims for land under
FRA In effect, this order
would sound the death
knell of the historic FRA,”
he says
Activists are also
dis-mayed that the central
government failed to
def-end FRA in the court
effectively Shankar
Gopalakrishnan, secretary
of the Campaign for
Survival and Dignity, a
nat-ional platform of forest
dwellers groups, says that
the government opted not
to open its mouth for the
hearing in the SC “Our
lawyers were present on
court that day for the
hear-ings What was the central
govern-ment’s reply when the claims were
rejected?,” he says, adding that tribal
affairs ministry, nodal agency for
imple-menting FRA, can’t absolve itself from
the responsibility of defending the law
in the court
ARGUING that the matter is in
the purview of states, ministry
of tribal affairs secretary Deepak
Khandekar says the allegations
are baseless “The SC did not ask
any-thing from the central government It
wanted to see the affidavits filed by
various state governments,” he says
Activists also describe the SC order
as unconstitutional, as it ignores the
centrality of gram sabha and its
con-stitutional agency in matters of forest
rights recognition, including
rejec-tion of claims They argue that Rule
12(A) of the law states that “no
com-mittee except the gram sabha or the
Forest Rights Committee shall be empowered to receive claims or rej-ect, modify, or decide any claim on forest rights”
Prafulla Samantra, who led the Dongria Kondh tribe in Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills to win a 12-year-long legal battle, says that it’s the FRA that protected the tribes from losing their livelihood to a mining project of mul-tinational bauxite giant Vedanta
Samantra later won the Goldman vironmental prize for his efforts “The Niyamgiri mining was stopped be-cause of FRA and the gram sabha,”
en-says Samantra “The Dongria Kondh
tribe is prepared to fight the battle this time too”
Ashok Choudhary of the All India Union of Forest Working People says that as the implementation of FRA on the ground is slow in most states, the order will only derail it further “Our worry is that in the process of claiming and reclaiming, the forest right law bec-omes dysfunctional The whole thing of FRA implantation will be disturbed by this order No governments are inter-ested in implementing the law because
it doesn’t give any power to them,” says Choudhary, adding that the number of
evictions may cross 20 lakhs, once all the state governments submit their claims
Activists claim that the largescale reje ction of land ownership applica-tion claims are taking place in the int-erests of corporate houses and development projects Lippa village in Himachal Pradesh, which has been fighting against a hydel power project for the last 10 years, saw rejection of 47 claims The rejections were made on untenable grounds, claims Manshi Asher, activist with Himdhara “The state government has been trying to get exemption from gram sabha for the
NOC clause The land has been leased out to a com-pany without an NOC while a case is pending in the high court,” says Asher.With general elections round the corner, the issue
is generating political heat and most of the parties are jumping into the band-wagon Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Bagel has announced that all the cancelled claims will be re-examined after Congress president Rahul Gandhi asked the govern-ment to do so BJP presi-dent Amit Shah also promised that BJP-led states will look into the matter
Gangaram Paikra, a tribal rights ist in Surguja region of North Chhattisgarh, says that the order could have negative impact on Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of the state “A majority of PVTGs like Pahadi Korva, Birhor, Abujmadiya and others who are among most backward tribes have not applied for land under the FRA,” he said
activ-Citing major flaws in the execution
of FRA, Gautam Ban dopadh yay, vener of Nadi Ghati Morcha, says the most unsettling part is that the highest number of claims were made only in those regions where tribal leaders or NGOs were active “Tribes actually living in interior parts of the state who should be benefited through FRA have been left out in large numbers The last government had not played a pro-active role in getting the forms filled, he said O
con-“The wheel has been turned back this order would sound the death knell of the historic FRA,” says Pravat Kumar Mishra, activist.
32 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
JITENDER GUPTA
Trang 36FARM PLAN
by Lola Nayar
THE timing of the Pradhan Mantri
Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme just
ahead of the general elections
req uires no smart guesswork to
be decoded But will this scheme,
which aims to give Rs 6,000 annually
or Rs 500 per month to farmers
hold-ing less than five acres of land, address
their needs and win back their
sup-port? Many opp osition leaders have
decried the “miserable” dole to
farm-ers, which in most states is less than
two days’ wages paid for farm labour
Prabhakar Kelkar, general secretary of
the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh,
defends the move, calling it a “middle
path” adopted by the BJP as it waits for its
policy moves to deliver on the promise of
doubling the income of farmers
“For small farmers who grow just enough
to meet their family needs and have no
surplus to sell and make money from, this
is a big help, a bonus The percentage of
farmers in this category is very large The
fact that the government has indicated
that this amount may be increased in the
future is seen as a very
positive development by
farmers,” says Kelkar, who
has been interacting with
farmers for feedback “It’s
a rebuttal to the pressure
being exerted for a farm
loan waiver by showing
that there are alternative
ways of boosting farmers
inc o me,” states Kelkar
Farmer activist Sudhir
Panwar, however, desc
ri-bes the government move
as an admission of its farm policy failure
“The government appears to have ted that after three years of record food production, it has to provide dole to farm-ers Further, the farm policies implemen-ted in the last four years have failed such that they are providing Rs 500 per month per family, though the amount is hardly of any benefit taking into account the rise in input costs.” Panwar, who is the president
accep-of the Kisan Jagriti Manch, states that the relief amount to be given to farmers will not even be enough to cover the inflation
in the cost of seeds, fertilisers, diesel and electricity, among other factors
Panjab Singh, president, National demy of Agricultural Sci ences, feels the new scheme should help farmers who have only 2-3 acres of land But he is not
Aca-so sure about whether it will make any impact on making agriculture more sus-tainable “This is, in a way, better than farm loan waivers, as it would benefit them provided they use it for agriculture
How ever, we (agriculture experts) always say all this money should be inv ested in
agriculture infrastructure
so that it can help farmers onto a sustainable produc-tion system,” says Singh
Abhijit Sen, a former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission, des cribes it as an “ill thought out scheme” Sen says that as the scheme is entirely based on land rec-ords, it would make the rollout complicated and extre mely difficult as titles
to most farm lands in most states are not properly recorded Further, as the amount is small, it is not going to make many people actually happy “In effect, it
is messy, it doesn’t pay too much and is bound to displease many Secondly, it does little to remove distortions else-where as the argument for cash transfer
is that once it is implemented, it will help the government to do away with subsidies and that would remove distortions This scheme is not going to achieve any of those objectives Instead, it could create a backlash for the government,” says Sen
An overlooked scenario is the tural and administrative problems the scheme is going to create for the agricul-ture ministry, which is to implement the scheme “What is not spelt out is that the new scheme will eat into the agriculture ministry’s budget leaving very little funds for its core traditional function of improving agriculture productivity and helping farmers,” warns Sen
architec-Kelkar, however, says states too have the responsibility to help far mers when necessary as =has been done by Telangana The Centre’s decision to invest Rs 75,000 crore for rural development through this scheme is bound to bring rich dividends,
he says, adding that the move holds ential to boost market sentiments, en-courage rural spending and thereby boost economic growth
pot-In move to win over farmers for political gains, has the Modi government yet again taken on more than it can deliver? Doles are fine, but they surely cannot deliver on the huge gaps in policy measures to make agriculture more remunerative O
“The relief amount to be given to farmers will not even be enough to cover the inflation in the cost
of seeds and fertilisers.”
PTI
36 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
Is the government’s new
dole scheme another mirage
or will the farmer benefit?
Trang 38by Ajay Sukumaran in Bangalore
AT a time of aerial skirmishes
across the Loc, as claims and
den ials rend the air, it’s relevant
to look at a hazardous
eventual-ity that the professio nal combat
pilot may face An aviator like
Aman Nautiyal, for ins tance When
seven failures hit Nautiyal in a single
sortie, within a matter of two minutes
and forty seconds, his brain did not get
cluttered “It actually started working
more efficiently,” says the former
Indi-an Air Force fighter pilot, “ensuring
that I took the requi red act ions
cor-rectly.” At that speed, those couple of
minutes were long—Nautiyal says he
absorbed so much of what was going on
inside the cockpit that he could
de-scribe it for hours later
But fire is a different proposition gether A quick glance at the rear-view and he saw that the entire aircraft was on fire, just a metre behind the cockpit
alto-“Eject! Eject! Eject! came as naturally to
me as a fish takes to water, with an ent desire to curl up in the pre-birth
inher-womb posture,” Nautiyal tells Outlook,
recalling an experience that took place more than a decade ago on a routine
training sortie, but whose vivid, tal details are imprinted deep within his mind It’s what every fighter pilot is pre-pared for each time he climbs into his aircraft but it is, fortunately, something most of them don’t encounter in their entire flying career “The back must stay ram-rod straight during ejection so that the vertebrae don’t say hello to each other Survival instinct, coupled with training, ensured that I took the correct posture.” The aircraft was by now in a spin With a smooth pull on the ejection handle bet-ween his legs the cartridge under the seat fired, propelling Nautiyal at high speed into the twilight of a breaking dawn 15,000 feet above ground
elemen-The explosive-charged pilot ejection seat is nearly 80 years old Yet, the intri-cate details of an escape from an aircraft
The perils, and process, of ejecting from a failing aircraft, as the g-force tears
at a pilot’s body and the minus temperature plunges its icy talons into him
Cheating The Reaper
At the crash site of an aircraft
of the IAF’s Surya Kiran team
No two ejections are alike and pulling the ejection handle is the last resort, when a series of automated sequences kick in
38 OUTLOOK 11 March 2019
LAST RESORT
PTI
Trang 40ABANDON SHIP
Ejection from a crippled plane involves several complex steps, working seamlessly in a few seconds
1 Ejection Activated
When the ejection handle is
pulled, it initiates a
sequence of automatic
events The canopy jettisons
(or shatters, depending on
the design)
2 Rocket-powered releaseThe charge located below the seat is triggered, and
a rocket motor fires, propelling the seat clear over the aircraft tail fin
3 Clear of all binds
A barostatic unit in the seat activates the release of straps holding the pilot down; the seat falls off;
a second unit releases a small ‘drogue’ parachute
4 Two parachutes open upSoon after the drogue parachute stabilises the free-falling pilot, the main parachute opens up, bearing the pilot down to safety
spinning out of control are strikingly
dif-ferent Cut to 2019, and some recent
events—all unrelated Last week, one
image that stood out was that of a college
student in Bangalore holding the hand of
a Surya Kiran acrobatic team pilot lying
on the ground, minutes after a mid-air
collision, till medical help arrived The
pilot’s parachute had landed in a
residen-tial locality and a few residents were the
first to reach him even as the crashed
aircraft set off fires on the ground In early
February, a Mirage 2000 aircraft crashed
during a test flight in Bangalore Though
both pilots had ejected, they died of
inju-ries A few weeks prior to that, a Jaguar pilot had ejected safely in Uttar Pradesh
As professionals who plough the ens at uncommonly high speeds will tell you, pulling the ejection handle is the last resort and no two ejections are alike
heav-But what exactly happens when that handle is pulled? A series of automated sequences kick in, all taking place in
milliseconds (see box).
“There could be a lot of situations where you have to get out of the crippled aircraft because you have no other option That is how it is,” says Air Chief Marshal (retd) Arup Raha, whose encounter with high
g-force came early in his career, even bef ore he was commissioned as an officer into the IAF A cadet in training at the Air Force Academy in the early 1970s, Raha’s first sortie on an HJT-16 trainer aircraft turned out to be unforgettable—his instr-uctor N.M Gupte and he had to eject when the engine failed When the canopy flew off, a wind-blast and the jolt from the seat flying off hurled the young pilot into
a tunnel of nothingness—a blackout.Pilots deal with gravitational force all the time when up in the air Even under normal 3-4g, it could be difficult for peo-ple to move their hands and head, an IAF