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Delhi, wednesday, february 10, 2016

Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad, Malappuram and Mumbai

www.thehindu.in Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 6 No. 34 CITY EDITION 22 Pages Rs. 8.00

NEW DELHI: Inaugurating a two-day conference of Governors atRashtrapati Bhavan here onTuesday, President PranabMukherjee said those holdingconstitutional posts shouldmaintain the sanctity of theConstitution.

Crediting the nations stridessince Independence to adher-ence to the values of the statu-te, Mr. Mukherjee said: It isprimarily due to our steadfastadherence to the principles en-

shrined in our Constitution. Itis an enduring document thatreflects our aspirations and theavenues to achieve them, in aninclusive manner. It is incum-bent on us all who hold consti-tutional positions to maintainthe sanctity of this sacred text.This advice to the Governorscomes at a time when manyhave questioned the role ofArunachal Pradesh GovernorJ.P. Rajkhowa.

Maintain Constitutionssanctity, says Pranab NATIONAL BUREAU

PEACEFUL DIALOGUE THEWAY OUT| PAGE 12

NEW DELHI: The United States hasprovided the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) with the details andspecifications of a mobile phonehandset belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David ColemanHeadley, which was used by him to

videograph key targets, a fewmonths before the 26/11 Mumbaiterror attacks.

The same phone was used to filmkey targets when Headley againvisited India in March 2009, barelythree months after the attacks. The

details would help the NIA build itscase against Headley and others inthe Mumbai attacks case. Even aftera Mumbai court accepted Headleysplea to become an approver in thecase being investigated by theMumbai Police, he remains anaccused in the NIAs case.

US shares phone details with NIAVIJAITA SINGH

HANDSET BY HANDLER PAGE 12

EXCLUSIVE

NEW DELHI: A day after it took atough stance on discriminatorypricing for data services,effectively blocking FacebooksFree Basics from India, thetelecom regulator on Tuesdayhinted that technology-drivenconnectivity ventures beingpursued by Google andFacebook would be acceptableonly if they followed an opensource framework.

NET NEUTRALITY

TRAI firm on open source

NEWS | PAGE 13

NEW DELHI: Lance Naik Hanu-manthappa Koppad, who mi-raculously survived six daysunder several feet of snow inthe Siachen glacier, was in acritical condition at the ArmyResearch & Referral Hospitalhere on Tuesday evening.

The soldier of 19 Madras Re-giment was rescued on Mondaynight, six days after their campwas struck by a massive ava-lanche that killed nine of hiscolleagues, and four days afterthe leaders, including thePrime Minister and the De-fence Minister, mourned hisdeath.

He has been placed on ven-tilator to protect his airway andlungs in view of his comatose

state. He remains extremelycritical and is expected to havea stormy course in the next 24to 48 hours due to the compli-cations caused by re-warmingand establishment of bloodflow to the cold parts of thebody, said a health bulletin is-sued by the hospital author-

ities. The bulletin said he haspneumonia, and liver and kid-ney dysfunction.

Fortunately there was nocold exposure related frost biteor bone injuries to him, it said.

Mahadevi, wife of Hanumanthappa Koppad (inset), celebrates the good

news with her daughter Netravati in Betadur village.

Siachen survivor battles for life at Army hospitalDINAKAR PERI

MODI LAUDS KOPPADSINDOMITABLE SPIRIT | PAGE 13

Govinda offers Rs 5lakh as compensationafter slapping a fan

Page 9

Former Nepal PrimeMinister SushilKoirala passes away

Page 14

10 dead, 100 injured inGermany as trainscollide head on

Page 14

Rijijus helicoptermakes emergencylanding near Delhi

Page 12

DAY TWO OF DEPOSITION BRIEFLY

MUMBAI: The Pakistani-Ameri-can terrorist David Headley, de-posing for the second day onTuesday, told the special courthere that he was not given anymoney either by Pakistans In-ter-Services Intelligence (ISI)or by the terrorist outfit Lash-kar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Headley, currently lodged ina U.S. prison, has been deposingas an approver through a videolink in the November 2008 ter-ror attacks case. He told thecourt that he completed five orsix leadership courses oferedby the LeT, at which Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Mumbai attacksmastermind Hafiz Saeed andZaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi werealso present.

He told special Judge G.A. Sa-nap about his meetings with hishandlers Muzammil, Sajid Mir(Headleys key contact in theLeT) and Abu Khafa to plan the26/11 attacks. The first meetingtook place in the spring of 2006to choose among Delhi, Mum-bai and Bangalore to launch theattack. He was then sent toMumbai to set up an oice andtake videos and photographs ofthe city. The major work as-signed to him was reconnais-sance of Taj Hotel, especiallythe convention centre on thesecond floor. A meeting of Indi-

an defence scientists had beenplanned there, but it wascancelled.

Headley said they met againin November 2007 to plan theattack after going through the

information he had gathered.Muzammil was not present atthis meeting. The final plan waschalked out keeping in mind theentrance and exit of Taj Hoteland the convention centre. He

surveyed the CST railway sta-tion, Oberoi Hotel, the policeheadquarters and the entirelane in Colaba, including Leo-pold Caf.

Major workassigned to himwas recce of Taj Hotel

Not paid by ISI or LeT: Headley

SONAM SAIGAL

MORE REPORTS ON PAGE 12 MIRPUR: In a remarkable displayof cohesive performance, Indiadefeated Sri Lanka by 97 runs inthe semifinal of the ICCUnder-19 World Cup here onTuesday. Powered byAnmolpreet Singhs 72 andSarfaraz Khans 59, the Indiancolts posted 267 for nine in 50overs.

UNDER-19 WORLD CUP India storms into final

SPORT | PAGE 17

EMPOWER Page 7

NEW DELHI: Indian fonts may bemandatory for mobile phonessold in the country as per thenew standards for handsetsbeing finalised by thegovernment, TRAI Chairman R.S.Sharma said on Tuesday.

NEW STANDARDS Indian fonts to becomemandatory for phones

BUSINESS | PAGE 15

NEW DELHI: The Congress onTuesday released a sting appar-ently showing AAP MinisterImran Hussains brother and anemployee asking for bribes.

At a press conference here,Delhi Congress chief Ajay Ma-ken played a video of one Ha-mad, who identified himself asworking in the oice of theMinister for Food and CivilSupplies, asking a businessmanto pay up Rs.30 lakh for con-struction.

AAP Minister inthe soup overbribe chargeDAMININATH

DETAILS ON PAGE 2

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Like sacked predecessor Asim Ahmed Khan, charges of corruption now levelled against Imran Hussain on Tuesday

AAP hit by another sting operation

Hamad: He is asking for Rs.30 lakh. ..For Rs.30 akh....

Hamad: The expenditure is Rs.5-7 crore Hamad: Iman bhai is very angry.

Hamad: For taking the Ministry..

orruption charges were levelledagainst Aam Aadmi Party MinisterImran Hussain on Tuesday by theCongress, which released a sting ap-parently showing the MLAs brotherand an employee asking for bribes.

At a press conference here, DelhiPradesh Congress Committee presi-dent Ajay Maken played a video ofone Hamad, who identified himselfas working in the oice of the DelhiMinister for Environment and Foodand Civil Supplies, asking a busi-nessman to pay up Rs.30 lakh for a

construction. The complainant,

Mohammad Qasim, is aresident of Mr. Hus-sains Ballimaran con-stituency.

Mr. Hussain, on hispart, said that if his in-volvement was proved,he would quit politicsand the AAP.

If the Congress canprove that I have a rolein it, I will quit. And ifmy brother and oicestaf are involved in thisand it is proved, I willtake them to the policemyself, said Mr. Hus-sain.

The video, filmed byMr. Qasim in his oiceon December 28, 2015,shows Hamad tellingthe complainant thatImran bhai was veryangry.

The complainant saysthat the amount of Rs.30lakh for a plot of 60 to 65

square yards was too much. Hamad then tries to placate the

complainant by saying that they maybe asking for Rs.30 lakh, but at leastthey would get the work done.

Hamad goes on to explain thatelections cost a lot, Rs.5-7 crore forthis ward, and that all the seats inDelhi wouldnt have the kind of ex-penditure that Imran has.

The complainant tries to con-vince Hamad that the amount is toomuch. The complainant countersthat by saying that the amount islighter than what they would askothers.

He goes on to remind the complai-nant that he knows how much mon-ey he [Mr. Hussain] had to spend forthe Ministry.

The conversation goes back and

forth, with Hamad settling for Rs.25lakh and Mr. Qasim not going overRs.5 lakh, which was the amount abuilder had to pay for a previousconstruction in the area. The con-versation ends with Hamad tellingMr. Qasim to speak to Mr.Hussainsbrother Furqan to sort out the prob-lem.

Apart from this video, the Con-gress also released clips of allegedphone calls between Mr. Qasim andMr. Furqan Hussain as well betweenthe complainant and the area juniorengineer, Rakesh Yadav.

The man, the Congress says is Mr.Furqan Hussainm asks the complai-nant about the stuf in one of thecalls, and sets up meeting to take de-livery of it in the second call.

In the call with the Junior Engi-neer of the local municipality, thecomplainant and a friend, Zameer,are reminded that complaintsabout the construction have beensent by the Minister and the areaDeputy Commissioner, and thatMr.Qasim needed to sort out the is-sue.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Qasimsaid he did not pay up anything anddecided to go public with his experi-ence.

He said supporters of the Ministerhad stopped the work on his houseas soon as it began in early Decem-ber 2015. The house already has fourfloors, and an additional fifth wasbeing constructed.

The Congress said that these clipsshowed that there was a nexus in-volving the MLA and the corpora-tions.

We demand that Mr. Hussain beremoved from his post immediatelyand an inquiry by the Central Bu-reau of Investigation be set up, saidMr. Maken.

He added that he would be send-ing the clips to Chief Minister Ar-vind Kejriwal, asking him to sack theMinister and call for a CBI inquiry aswell.

The Ministers employee talks ofmoney being spent on getting theticket and the post. If that is the case,then how can Mr. Kejriwal evade re-sponsibility, asked Mr. Maken.

(with inputs from Maria Akram)

Video released by Congressshows Ministers brother,employee asking for bribe DAMININATH Imran Hussain, on his

part, said that if hisinvolvement was proved,he would quit politics andthe AAP

C Hamad: He has put in so much money

NEW DELHI: The Old Delhibusinessman who has ac-cused Aam Aadmi PartyMinister Imran Hussainand his associates of cor-ruption said on Tuesdaythat he was afraid for hislife.

Mohammad Qasim, whoruns a hardware business,said that he felt threatenedafter publicly alleging thatMr. Hussian, the MLA fromBallimaran, through hisbrother Furqan and an em-ployee Hamad had askedfor first Rs.30 lakh, thenRs.25 lakh for a construc-tion.

Im scared for not onlymy life, but those of myfriends and family. Thesepeople are criminals, Mr.Qasim told The Hindu afterthe recordings he madewere released at a pressconference here on Tues-day.

Mr. Qasim said that hisfamily had been staying atthe house in Ballimaran forabout 15 years. The housealready had four floors, anda new fifth floor was beingconstructed in Decemberlast year. He alleged thatpeople close to Mr. Hussainhad had the work stopped

and were demanding mon-ey for allowing the con-struction to start again.

The way things are now,I may need police protec-tion. But, I am ready to fightthis case till its logical con-clusion. I refused to payeven a rupee, said Mr. Qa-sim.

Im scared for my life,says complainant DAMININATH

File photo of campaigning for Imran Hussain ahead of theDelhi Assembly elections.

NEW DELHI: The Aam Admi Partygovernment rubbished theCongress allegations againstMinister Imran Hussain, hisbrother and oice staf of theirinvolvement in demandingbribe from a local builder.

I dont even know the per-son who is in the video. If AjayMaken can prove any of mystaf or family member is in-volved in the sting, I will leavepolitics, Mr. Hussain said.

He said that he will take hisbrother and oice staf to thepolice if proven guilty. TheOpposition has paid the com-plainant and the video must goto the Central Bureau of Inves-tigation for verification. Letthe truth come out, he added.

Backing their Minister, AAPgovernment maintained thatthe video doesnt prove any-thing. A close aide of Delhi

Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal, said that even the Congressparty and its leader, Ajay Ma-ken, are not taking ownershipof the sting video.

When our MLA Dinesh Mo-haniya conducted a sting onBJP leader Sher Singh Dagar(September 2014), he tookownership of the sting. Is Mr.Maken willing to take the own-ership? Secondly, did Congressbefore holding a press confer-ence verify the authenticity ofthe video?

Mr. Hussain took charge asEnvironment and Food andSupply Minister in October lastafter his predecessor, Asim

Ahmed Khan, was sacked byMr. Kejriwal over corruptioncharges.

An audio of Asim AhmedKhan had also surfaced and in aswift action the governmenthad removed him after verify-ing the authenticity of the tape.

Asims case was diferentand it will be wrong to comparethe two. There is no evidenceagainst Hussain and he (him-self) is asking for CBI probe,said sources in the government.

When Mr. Khan was sacked,he had held a press conferenceand had then said: I have beenframed in order to be replacedby someone who already hasseveral criminal cases to hisname, in a veiled reference toMr. Hussain. However, partyleaders refrained from reactingto the sting video as it isdoesnt even qualify to be asting, said party spokesper-son.

Allegations are rubbish: AAPSTAFF REPORTER The Minister said

he will take hisbrother and officestaff to the police ifproven guilty

NEW DELHI: The State unit ofthe BJP on Tuesday soughtthe resignation of Chief Min-ister Arvind Kejriwal over al-legations of corruptionagainst the oice of Food andCivil Supplies Minister Im-ran Hussain following theemergence of a sting oper-ation.

The broadcast of a video-audio sting by a TV channelhas exposed his (Mr. Hus-sain's) corruption, said Del-hi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay.The AAP government, hesaid, has no moral right tostay in power as one after an-other of his Ministers isfound to be involved in cor-ruption and fraud

Leader of Opposition inDelhi Assembly, VijenderGupta, also demanded thatMr. Kejriwal dismiss Mr.Hussain. Mr. Kejriwal

should immediately dismissthe Minister in the light of thesting operation made publictoday, he said, while seekingaCBI inquiry in to the matter.

In a video released onTuesday by Delhi Congresschief Ajay Maken, a man ispurportedly show seekingmoney from one Qasim. Mr.Maken claimed the man wasHamad, a stafer at Mr. Hus-sains oice. The man was al-so heard saying that they hadto give money to get an AAPticket in the Assembly polls.

Ironically, Mr. Hussain hadbeen elevated to the DelhiCabinet after his predecessorAsim Ahmed Khan wasfound embroiled in a similarcontroversy. An audio sting,in which Mr. Khan was alleg-edly negotiating over a cashbribe by a local builder, hademerged following which hewas sacked on live televisionby Mr. Kejriwal in mid-2015.

CM should resign: BJPSTAFF REPORTER

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| 3THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016NOIDA/DELHI

CITY

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D E L H I

Feb 10, Wed Feb 11, Thu Feb 12, Fri

RISE 07 04 SET 18 07 RISE 07 04 SET 18 08 RISE 07 03 SET 18 09

RISE 08 06 SET 20 07 RISE 08 50 SET 21 12 RISE 09 33 SET 22 16

NEW DELHI: Four members of afamily, including a seven-year-old boy, were killed in afire which broke out at theirDDA flat in North-East Del-his Dilshad Garden in theearly hours of Tuesday.

Two others had a narrowescape, thanks to a brave au-to-rickshaw driver who him-self sustained burns and hadto be hospitalised.

The victims have beenidentified as 59-year-old Pra-deep Jaiswal, his son Rajan,daughter-in-law Anuja andgrandson Anshul.

The family, which also in-cludes Pradeeps wife Sarojand 15-year-old daughter Se-jal, was in the process ofshifting to its under-con-struction house, located afew steps away. The house-warming ceremony wasfixed for February 24 to coin-cide with Anshuls seventhbirthday, said Mukesh Seh-gal, Pradeepsbrother-in-law.

While Pradeep was em-ployed with the DTC and setto retire in five months, hisfamily had a dry cleaningbusiness. Of the three drycleaning outlets owned by

them, one operated out ofthe flat.

The flames were noticedby an auto-rickshaw driveraround 5.30 a.m. He realisedthey needed to be woken upand began hurling stones atthe windows of the house.

He then focused on alert-ing the neighbours for help.It was the driver who riskedhis life to help me and mydaughter escape, said Sarojwho sufered no burns.

With the fire departmentbeing informed late and thefire fighters arriving afterthe damage was done, it wasthe locals who switched onthe submersible motor in thepublic park and used the wa-ter pipe to douse the flames.

We used ropes to forceopen the shutter in the frontpart of the house in our at-tempt to create an exit route.Others used hammers andstones to create other open-

ings, said Mukesh, aneighbour.

A senior fire oicer saidthat a huge stock of clothesstored at the dry cleaningstore helped the flamesspread quickly. But, except-ing for Pradeep whose bodycharred, the others appar-ently died of asphyxiation.

Prima facie, the fire is sus-pected to have originatedfrom a short circuit, but thepolice are probing all angles.

Brave auto driver puts his life at risk to save others; prima facie, fire suspected to have been caused by a short circuit

The police and experts at the charred flat in Dilshad Garden. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Four of family killed in fire, two rescuedSHIV SUNNY

NEW DELHI: The love for his petLabrador (Teddy) cost PradeepJaiswal his life. Having adoptedthe seven-year-old canine whilehe was just a week old, Pradeepunsuccessfully tried to set himfree before escaping the fire.

Pradeep had almost steppedout when he rememberedTeddy was tied in an innerroom. Though much of thehouse was already up in flames,Pradeep thought that Teddywould be able to find his way tosafety if he was at leastunchained. Having seen his wifeand daughter to safety, herushed inside only to have hislegs entangled in some wires.

Since the fire led to a powerfailure in the house, he waspossibly unable to untanglehimself. The rescuers heard himbegging for water momentsbefore his cries died down,said Pradeeps brother-in-lawRajkumar Jaiswal. His charredbody was found next to Teddyssometime later.

The bodies of Pradeeps

daughter-in-law Anuja andgrandson Anshul wererecovered from the bathroom oftheir house. Pradeeps sonRajan was found dead rightoutside the bathroom.

According to the survivors,seven-year-old Anshul hadrushed into the bathroom toescape the dense smoke thathad engulfed the house. Hismother Anuja chased him tobring him back even as Rajansaw off his parents and sister tosafety.

By the time Rajan returnedto his wife and son, they hadpossibly already passed out dueto asphyxiation. The givencircumstances indicate Rajanwas almost immediatelytrapped by the smoke and hecollapsed. Meanwhile,Pradeeps teenage daughterSejal, a class 10 student, hasher board exams approachingnext month.

She usually wakes up at 4a.m. everyday. However, shehad decided not to attendschool on Tuesday because shehad fever.

Love for pet Labradorcost him his lifeSHIV SUNNY

NEW DELHI: Underlining the se-riousness of recent inci-dents of death of two chil-dren after they fell intotanks on their school cam-pus, the Delhi High Courton Tuesday asked the PoliceCommissioner to submit adetailed status report of in-vestigation in the cases aswell as the post-mortem re-ports of the deceased stu-dents before February 25.

Five-year-old Ankit diedin a South Delhi Municipal

Corporation-run school inKapashera after he fell intoan open septic tank on Janu-ary 27, while six-year-old Di-vyansh lost his life after fall-ing in a tank in Ryan Schoolin Vasant Kunj on January30. A Division Bench com-prising Chief Justice G. Ro-hini and Justice Jayant Nath,which had earlier issued no-tices in the matter on a pub-lic interest litigation, saidthe matter should be treatedseriously and steps taken toprevent such incidents inthe future.

High Court seeks status report

MOHAMMED IQBAL

NEW DELHI: Accusing the NorthWest district police of unlaw-fully trying to save accused inthe kidnapping and murdercase of DU student ArzooSingh, her family has demand-ed an independent probe. In aletter submitted to Delhi PoliceCommissioner B.S. Bassi onTuesday, her father has re-quested to transfer the case toeither the Central Bureau of In-vestigation (CBI) or the DelhiPolices Crime Branch.

The police have arrested Na-veen Khatri, boyfriend of thevictim, and have thus far notnamed anyone else. But, in theletter, Arzoos family hasclaimed that the act was com-mitted by his family jointly butthe local police are trying tosave the others. Further claim-ing that this would allow theother family members to tam-per with the evidence, the fam-ily requested to take the probeout of the Model Town policestation.

Talking to The Hindu, Mr.Bassi said there was no need totransfer the probe and that itwas being carried out in a pro-fessional manner.

Family wantsCBI probe STAFF REPORTER

Exhibition: Quest - Inner Self - asolo art show by Ella Prakash at Vi-sual Arts Gallery, IHC, 11 am-7 pm

Exhibition: Glimpses - paintingsby Srividya G.S. at All India Fine Arts& Craft Society, 11 am-6 pm

Exhibition: Satish Gujrals own pri-vate collection of artworks and pho-tographs at Twin Art Gallery, IndiraGandhi National Centre for the Arts(IGNCA), 1, Central Vista (CV) Mess,Janpath, 10 am-5:30 pm

Music: Duo recital by Anirudh Var-ma (Digital piano) and Ritesh Prasan-na (Flute) at IHC, 7:30 pm

Discussion: Discussion on Vasu-deva Sharan Agrawala: A Selectioncompiled and edited by Kapila Vat-syayan. Discussants: M.N.P. Tiwari,B.M. Pande, Harish Trivedi and Sha-shiprabha Kumar at Conference Hall,Sahitya Akademi, 4 pm

Talk: Save Energy, Save Money -panel discussion as part of SmartConsumer Series. Panelists: HWadhwa, Technical Adviser, VoiceSociety, Akanksha Rai Sharma, stu-dent, Maharaja Surajmal Institute ofTechnology, GGSIPU, Dr. Roopa Vaj-peyi, Academic & Consumer Activist,Dr. Jayashree Gupta, President, Con-sumers India at IHC, 7 pm

(Mail your listings for this columnat cityeditordelhi@thehindu.co.in)

DELHI TODAY

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court onTuesday extended the policeremand of three alleged IS sym-pathisers for 10 more days.

They were deported fromthe UAE last month. On Janu-ary 30, the court had sent themto the National InvestigationAgencys (NIA) custody for 10days. The investigating agencyalleged that the accused Ad-nan Hussain, Mohammad Far-han and Sheikh Azhar Al Islam,hailing from Karnataka, Maha-

rashtra and Jammu and Kash-mir respectively were alleg-edly on a mission to carry outterror attacks in India and someother countries.

Earlier, the NIA producedthe accused persons before thecourt on expiry of their policeremand. Seeking extension oftheir police remand, counselfor NIA submitted that theywere required to be subjectedto sustained interrogation tounearth a larger conspiracy ofthe Jihadi group in India andabroad.

Court extends NIA remandNIRNIMESH KUMAR

NEW DELHI: The sudden death of a 30-year-old labourer under myste-rious circumstances in North Del-his Sarai Rohila on Tuesday led toa police probe.

Even though prima facie medi-cal report has confirmed that Man-ish, an alcoholic, died due to liverpsychosis, the initial call made byhis sister reported the incident asof one of murder. She accused

Manishs wife of murdering him byslashing his throat.

A senior police oicer, however,said that when they reached thespot, no external injuries werefound on the body. But, given thedeath was unnatural, they movedthe body to a hospital.

As of now, the police are carry-ing out enquiries under Section 174of the Criminal Procedure Codeand no clean chit has been given tothe wife either.

Sudden death leads to police probe

STAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: A 25-year-old man has beenarrested for cheating people of theirmoney by skimming or cloning theircredit and debit cards before transfer-ring the stolen money to Dubai in theform of bitcoins, a payment mode notauthorised in India. Pankaj Bhardwajwas nabbed near the India Gate onMonday in a joint operation by the Del-hi Polices crime branch and theirMumbai counterparts.

Police said members of this racketare spread across Dubai, Delhi, Mum-bai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and otherStates. The gang members would alleg-edly withdraw money from the ac-counts of unsuspecting people beforetransferring the money to one SumairSheikh in Dubai via hawala channels.Staf Reporter

1 held for card cloning

NEW DELHI: A woman and her paramourhave been arrested by the Outer Districtpolice for allegedly bludgeoning herfour-year-old son and throwing hisbody out of a moving train in Jammu andKashmir.

The childs body was recovered fromthe railway tracks near Katra in Jammuand Kashmir on February 2.

Since a co-passenger had confirmedthat he had seen the woman GurmeetKaur with the child and the train washeaded to Delhi, the Govt. Railway Po-lice (GRP) alerted the cops in Delhiabout the incident.

Woman kills sonSTAFF REPORTER

CMYK

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n his first interviewsince assumingcharge, SurenderSingh Yadav, a 1997-batch IPS oicer

credited with efectivelytackling insurgency in theNortheast before beinghand-picked by ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal tohead the Anti-CorruptionBranch (ACB) as itsadditional commissioner,speaks to Jatin Anand on histumultuous maiden year inoice:

How would you summariseyour experience ofconfronting graft within the Delhi government?

It would be wrong to say

that corruption did not existin the government and itsvarious departments when Itook over or that it does notexist now a year later butthere are markedchanges...I've experiencedtremendous faith shown bythe citizens of Delhi, whichthey continue to exhibit, inthe ACB what with between1,500 to 2,000 calls logged onthe anti-corruption helpline1031 on a daily basis.

At least one fresh FIR isfiled every week and morepeople have been arrestedfor corruption in just fourmonths than in the last fiveyears.

Investigation in the CNGfitness scam is on track -- thefirst chargesheet in the case

has already been filed inaddition to others...severalsystemic changes in the ACBper se also took place andmore are in the pipeline.

What are these systemicchanges?

The Delhi governmentgave in-principle approvalfor significant increases inthe sanctioned strength ofpersonnel as well as vehiclesat my suggestion.

While details about theincrease in manpower arealready well documented, letme tell you that eforts areunderway to push thenumber of four wheelersfrom just five to as many as25 and two-wheelers from

none to as many as 20 so thatanti-graft oicials can have aphysical presence acrossgovernment installations inDelhi not to mention moreautonomy for the chief of theACB.

Didn't the political tug-of-war over the ACB betweenthe Delhi government andthe Centre especially theBJP government's allegedinterference in the affairs ofyour unit affect yourperformance?

I would like to refrainfrom commenting on thedispute between the Delhigovernment and the Centresince the matter is sub-judice but, that being said,

there is tremendous supportthat I, as an oicialappointed to confront graft,received from everyone

starting from the generalpublic to the Prime Minister.The past year was a blessingfor any government oicialappointed to fightcorruption in Delhi, whichhad both a Prime Ministerwho gave the slogan nakhaunga na khaane doonga,to a Chief Minister whoseanti-graft credentials arelegendary. I am a truebeliever in the vision of both.

Didn't interference by theCentre render the autonomyyou sought utterly useless?What if matters hadn't cometo such a pass?

I would just reiterate that Iam a believer in the vision ofboth governments which

have clear-cut directions toshow no mercy to thecorrupt no matter who theyhappen to be. If matterhadn't come to such a pass,suice it to say, give me eightmonths to a year and I canfinish of corruption fromthe Delhi government.

Let me put it differently forthe sake of clarity: what isyour take on theappointment of a certainjoint commissioner of policeas your boss in an arbitrarymanner by the Centre?

Again, the matter is sub-judice so I cannot commenton it...he is a senior oicerand I am his subordinate; hehas his role and I have mine

both of which are well-defined by the Constitutionof India in addition to theCentral and Stategovernments which we, inour respective capacities,serve as oicials of theAGMUT cadre.

Are you two on differentsides of a cold war with nocommunicationwhatsoever?

We have a formal workingrelationship and of coursewe communicate even if it ismostly on paper; like I saidearlier: we both have ourrespective roles and lawsthat govern our conductwhich must be, and are,followed.

Give me eight months and I can rout out corruption from the Delhi govtEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

More arrested for graft inpast four months than in pastfive years: additionalcommissioner (ACB) S.S.Yadav. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

I

n February 14, 2015, exactlyone year after he had steppeddown as Chief Minister for'not being allowed' to intro-duce the Delhi Jan Lokpal Billat the conclusion of his pre-mature stint at the helm of theDelhi government, ArvindKejriwal found himself at thesame political crossroads.

The very reason behind theevolution of the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) symbolisedby a broom that primarilysought to clean up Delhisdirty politics, deliver graft-free governance and was cho-sen as item number one onhis partys 70-point manifesto was Mr. Kejriwal's intend-ed crusade against corrup-tion through the Delhi JanLokpal Bill.

The liegislation, accordingto popular public opinion, iscredited with triggering anelectoral tidal wave thatwould bestow upon him a

never-beforehistoricalmandate of 67out of total 70seats that con-stitute Delhislegislature.

Promisingto work 24hours to enactthe (Jan Lok-pal) Bill, Mr.

Kejriwal, being sworn in asthe eighth Chief Minister ofDelhi at a public spectaclesans the usual VIP bandobastat north Delhi's Ramlila Mai-dan, would reiterate his ambi-tion to make Delhi Indiasfirst corruption-free city infive years.

But, as fate would have it,the road to delivering on themost significant of his prom-ises the Delhi Jan LokpalBill was passed by the As-sembly in November and theanti-corruption mechanismboth within and beyond gov-ernment departments has, ar-guably, been strengthenedamong the seeming elimina-tion of 'avenues of corrup-tion' was destined to be aturbulent one for Mr. Kejri-wal as events over the follow-ing 12 months would amplyillustrate.

Battleground ACB

The newly sworn-in ChiefMinister's first directivesconsisted of resurrecting1031 the anti-corruptionhelpline which was admitted-ly his pet project from his 49-day stint in power, brain-storming aimed at addingmore teeth to the internal vig-ilance mechanism at govern-ment departments and efortsto procure manpower for aseparate wing of the bureau-cracy to be dedicated tocracking down on graft.

It was in line with this thatone of the first communica-tions bearing his signature asChief Minister would aim atseeking the transfer of recentMagsaysay awardee and Indi-an Forest Service (IFS) oi-cial Sanjeev Chaturvedi as anOicer on Special Duty(OSD) for the Delhi govern-ment's Directorate of Vigi-lance (DoV).

Necessary clearances fromthe BJP-led Centre are yet tobe procured close to a yearlater.

The following month, the

AAP government would, dur-ing one of its maiden As-sembly sessions, pass a reso-lution to 'take over the ACB'through a resolution against aMinistry of Home Afairs(MHA) notification curtail-ing the operational jurisdic-tion of the unit to Delhi gov-ernment employees back inJuly, 2014.

The resolution, followedby re-opened investigationsin the CNG Fitness Scam of2002, would trigger an all-outwar between the Centre andthe State for months to come.

Even as the AAP govern-ment would present its 100-day report card to the generalpublic in the heart of the Cap-ital, a notification issued byLieutenant Governor NajeebJung declared the appoint-

ment of joint commissionerof police Mukesh KumarMeena over Surender SinghYadav, an additional commis-sioner of police heading theACB. The two would comeclose to physical confronta-tion within a fortnight ofbrushing shoulders at thecommon oicial premises.

When the AAP couldnt save its helpline

In late July, just days beforethe physical confrontationbetween the ACBs twinchiefs, helpline number 1031was abruptly scrapped and,efectively, so was its capabil-ity of logging 1,500 to 2,000graft complaints on a dailybasis of which, its is claimed,at least one fresh case of cor-ruption would emerge perweek.

As a result, according tostatistics, the ACB, which reg-istered over two dozen casesbetween April 20 and June 23alone, would lodge just 10more cases from July to De-cember, 2015. After the ACBand the helpline were, efec-

tively, 'snatched away' from it,the DoV now records com-plaints on its own and claimsto have taken action against40 to 45 of its own oicials be-tween June and early Januarythis year.

AAP's own bad eggs

A Law Minister followedby his cabinet colleague incharge of Environment, a se-nior bureaucrat and, finally,his own right-hand man andconfidant Mr. Kejriwalspurportedly relentless anti-graft credentials ensuredstrict action against insidersaccused of graft, too.

Beginning from sacking hisLaw Minister Jitendra SinghTomar who was accused ofholding a fake law degree torecommending a Central Bu-reau of Investigation (CBI)probe against Asim AhmedKhan for allegedly acceptinga bribe from a builder: theChief Minister went to townwith exemplary actionagainst his own as and whenaccusations of wrong-doingagainst them came to light.

Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill yet to sweep out dirty politicsThe AAP, born out of the Jan Lokpal movement, is completing one year in office; Jatin Anand reviews the initiatives by the party to make Delhi 'corruption-free'

ANTI-CORRUPTION

O

The CM's firstorder was toresurrect the 1031helpline, which wasabruptly scrappedmonths later n spite of the various contro-

versies that it courted andthe Centre's 'interference'which it decried on subse-quent occasions, the AAP

dispensation claims to have, more orless, delivered on the most signifi-cant of its anti-graft promises at theconclusion of its maiden year inoice.

From finally passing the Delhi JanLokpal Bill to appointing the Capi-tals first lady Lokayukta a post ly-ing vacant since 2013 those associ-ated with its vigilance mechanismcontend that much has beenachieved through the simple stream-lining of basic internal processeswhich have been made more trans-parent. Systemic changes such asthe e-district project which cutsthrough bureaucratic red-tape, Citi-zens Charters in each departmentand doing away with unnecessary af-fidavits and paper-work have nowmade convoluted procedures sim-pler and nipped possibilities of graftin the bud, said Gopal Mohan, an IITalumnus who managed Mr. Kejri-wal's poll campaign before the for-mation of his government and cur-rently functions as advisor onvigilance matters to the ChiefMinister.

Not just these, improvements indepartmental hierarchies have beenmade with a view to giving more au-tonomy to oicials in-charge of vigi-lance. Oicials at posts such as Di-rectors or Deputy Directors nolonger have additional administra-tive responsibilities and function ex-clusively to check graft, Mr. Mohansaid, adding that close to 45 Delhigovernment oicials had faced themusic despite helpline 1031 havingbeen 'snatched away' from the AAPjust months after coming to power.

On the heels of resurrecting theDelhi Jan Lokpal Bill, the AAP gov-ernment, on October 20, in accord-ance with a unanimous decision tak-en by an unlikely panel, paved theway for the appointment of a formerlady judge of the Delhi High Court atthe helm of the State's anti-graftombudsman.

Justice (Retd.) Reva Khetrapal wasnamed the Delhi Lokayukta in aunanimous decision taken by a panelconsisting of Mr. Kejriwal, Lieuten-ant Governor Najeeb Jung, Leader ofOpposition in the Delhi AssemblyVijender Gupta and the Chief Justiceof the Delhi High Court G. Rohiniwithin minutes of the commence-ment of proceedings.

A notification announcing Ms.Khetrapal's appointment as Lokay-ukta a post which had remainedempty for two years after being va-cated by Manmohan Sarin in Novem-ber 2013 was issued after a go-aheadfrom the oice of President PranabMukherjee days later.

Meanwhile, at a time when the op-position and even the citizens of theCapital least expected it, the AAPCabinet tabled a 'more potent ver-sion' of the Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill inthe Assembly in mid-November.

Passed by a thumping majority atthe AAP-dominated Delhi VidhanSabha two days later, the Bill wouldsee 'some opposition' from nationalanti-graft crusader-cum-Kejriwal-mentor Anna Hazare before his sug-gestions would be incorporated asamendments to the original Delhi JanLopal Bill (2015).

If we get hold of the ACB again,the government, as per the vision ofthe CM, aims to evolve a mechanismthat will ensure prison terms for oc-cupants of public oice found guiltyof corruption, Mr. Mohan said.

Much has been done, but

much still needs to be done

I

The Aam Aadmi Party has its origins in the India Against Corruption movement organised by Anna Hazare. Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and other social activists had been involvedwith Team Anna, a strand of the anti-corruption movement for a Jan Lokpal Bill. FILE PHOTO

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NEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt on Tuesday dismissed awrit petition moved by formercricketers Kirti Azad and Bish-an Singh Bedi and others seek-ing a court-monitored investi-gation into the allegedirregularities and corruptionin the Delhi and District Crick-et Association (DDCA). Thecourt observed that the pleawas premature.

Hearing the petition, theBench of Justice Manmohansaid the Central Bureau of In-vestigation had already starteda preliminary enquiry in thematter from October 23, 2015,and the agency needs to be giv-en time to complete its probe.

The petition had stated thatthe CBI would not be able toconduct a free and fair probe,since Arun Jaitley duringwhose tenure as presidentmost of the irregularities hadtaken place, was now a seniorUnion Minister.

However, the Bench observ-ed that a court-monitoredprobe or setting up of a SpecialInvestigation Team was onlydone in rarest of the rare casesand not because a UnionMinister is said to beinvolved.

T20 application

The DDCA on Tuesdaywithdrew its application fromDelhi High Court seeking di-rections to the South DelhiMunicipal Corporation to is-sue it occupancy certificatefor the upcoming T20 WorldCup at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadi-um here, after the municipalbody spelt out its conditions.

Following the court's orderpassed on Monday, the SDMCinformed a Division Benchthat it had passed a resolutionasking the DDCA to pay Rs.50lakh as security amount andcomply with all the normswithin 20 days for getting aprovisional certificate.

The Bench, comprising Jus-tice S. Muralidhar and JusticeVibhu Bakhru, accepted therequest for withdrawal of ap-plication, while making itclear that it did not want anyfurther litigation on the issue.

Plea for probe into DDCA dismissedMOHAMMED IQBAL

NEW DELHI: Delhiites got aslight breather on Tuesday asa section of the municipalsanitation staf that has beenon strike since January 27 re-turned to work and clearedgarbage from the streets ofNorth and East Delhi.

Some of the unions repre-senting the protesting work-ers had agreed on Monday tosuspend their strike for twodays, till the High Court gaveits decision on their de-mands. The workers of theNorth and East corporations,which are financially crip-pled, had not been paid forthree months when theylaunched an indefinite strikeon January 27.

With workers under theUnited Front of MCD Em-ployees, which represents 26smaller unions, returning towork on Tuesday after a fort-night, oicials said about8,000 metric tonnes of gar-bage was cleared from North

and East Delhi. A senior North Delhi Mu-

nicipal Corporation oicialsaid that authorities at thezonal level had been instruct-ed to clear trash from theroads, where it had accumu-lated over the past twoweeks. However, sanitationservices were not back tonormal as a large group ofworkers continued theirstrike. The Swatantra Maz-

door Vikas Sanyukt Morcha,which includes membersfrom 38 unions, carried onthe strike. A group of workerseven protested outside theresidence of AAP MinisterKapil Mishra in Yamuna Vi-har. The workers who hadsuspended the strike saidthey would decide the futurecourse of action after theHigh Court hearing onWednesday.

Only some sanitation workers got back to work on Tuesday

Workers seen clearing garbage in New Delhi. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

City gets a little respitefrom stinking garbage

STAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: This winter, February is incred-ibly turning out to be foggier than Decem-ber, usually the peak time of the fogseason.

The Capital witnessed five and a halfhours of dense fog on Tuesday morning,with one of the main runways of the Indi-ra Gandhi International Airport (IGIA)getting badly afected. Flight operations,however, were not much afected as an-other runway remained operational.

This winter is already the third worst inthe last 20 years when it comes to total foghours witnessed.

Dense fog was observed today morn-ing during 4 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. with visi-bility hovering between zero to 100metres when runway 29 had CAT-IIIA/CAT-IIIB operations while runway 28 hadsome improved fog of CAT-I/II with run-way visual range of 400-600 metres, saidDr. R.K. Jenamani, Director-in-Charge,IGIA met unit.

While flight operations werent muchafected on Tuesday, at least 14 Delhi-bound trains were delayed and seventrains were cancelled due to dense fog.

Its a foggy February STAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: A cultural programme at Jawahar-lal Nehru University (JNU) to mark thedeath anniversary of Parliament convict Af-zal Guru was on Tuesday disallowed by theuniversity authorities.

Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9,2013, inside Tihar jail, where he was lodgedin the Parliament attack case. A group of stu-dents had organised a cultural protest tomark his death anniversary but the BJPbacked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishadopposed the event. The matter was broughtto the knowledge of the Vice-Chancellor,through a written communication. Weheard there was some cultural programmebut later came to know its not a programmebut a protest. We came to know about itthrough posters and no permission wassought by anyone. Thus, to keep calm andmaintain peace in the campus, we cancelledit, JNU Vice-Chancellor Prof Jagadesh Ku-mar said. The V-C, however, did not confirmwho wrote to him. The programme called Acountry without a post oice against thejudicial killing of Afzal Guru and MaqboolBhatt, was supposed to showcase the pro-test through poetry, art and music.

JNU cancels programme STAFF REPORTER

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| 7THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016NOIDA/DELHI

Even as there has been an in-crease in leadership pro-gramme spending across

the world in 2015, including inIndia, the overall capabilitygap has grown in companies,according to a report.

Deloittes 2015 Global Hu-man Capital Trends report re-vealed that many companiestreat leadership sporadically,confining development to a se-

lect few employees, failing tomake long-term investmentsin leadership and neglect tobuild a robust pipeline at alllevels.

Organisations around theworld are struggling to streng-then their leadership pipe-lines, yet over the past year,businesses fell further behind,particularly in their ability todevelop millennial leaders.

Building leadership re-mains paramount, ranking asthe number two issue in 2015.Yet despite the fact that nearly9 out of 10 respondents sur-veyed cite the issue as impor-tant or very important, the dataalso suggest that organisationshave made little or no progresssince last year, the reportfound.

The study involved surveys

and interviews more than3,300 business and HR leadersfrom 106 countries.

Indian companies have alsoranked learning and develop-ment as a long-term challenge.Companies rating learningand development as very im-portant tripled since 2014, itsaid.

But even as the importanceof this issue rose, the readiness

to address it went down. Only40 per cent of respondentsrated their organisations asready or very ready in learningand development in 2015, com-pared to 75 per cent in 2014, itadded. Culture and engage-ment is another area that isconsidered a long-term chal-lenge by companies in India. Inan era of heightened corporatetransparency, greater work-

force mobility, and severeskills shortages, culture, en-gagement and retention haveemerged as top issues for busi-ness leaders, the report stated.

These issues are not simplyan HR problem. Culture andengagement is the most impor-tant issue companies facearound the world.

About 87 per cent of organi-sations cite culture and en-

gagement as one of their topchallenges, and 50 per cent callthe problem very important, itsaid.

Organisations that create aculture defined by meaningfulwork, deep employee engage-ment, job and organisationalfit, and strong leadership areoutperforming their peers andwill likely beat their competi-tion in attracting top talent, itadded. The report also saidthat the Human Resource in-dustry in India is highly com-

plex, unorganised and frag-mented and is dominated byrecruitment, followed by re-search and outsourcing. Firmsproviding HR consulting, lead-ership development and learn-ing services are usually global,dominating the homegrownones. Few home-grown firmsdo sell global products underlicenses but the one-size-fits-all module often does not helpas Indian market is very difer-ent from global ones, it added.

PTI

Strengthening leadership pipelines a challenge to companies globally

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8 | THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016NOIDA/DELHINATIONSOLAR SCAM

HYDERABAD: The shooting inci-dent involving doctors at Hi-mayatnagar here took a newturn on Tuesday with Dr.Shashi Kumar who disap-peared after shooting at andinjuring Dr. RachokondaUday on Monday commit-ting suicide at a farmhousein Moinabad.

On Monday, Dr. Shashi hadescaped after shooting at hisbusiness partner Dr. Udayfollowing an argument.

After injuring Dr. Uday,Dr. Shashi went to his friendChandrakalas house andasked her to drop him at herfarmhouse. The woman tookhim to her farmhouse and re-turned.

Around 10.30 p.m., she gotto know about the incidentthrough television and in-formed the police. When wereached the farmhousearound midnight, we foundhim dead in a pool of blood.The bullet pierced through

the left side of his temple andexited through the right sideof the head. We found a li-quor bottle and a note pur-portedly written by him, In-spector Moinabad G.Srinivas said.

In the note, Dr. Shashi saidhe did not shoot at Dr. Uday.It was another doctor, Sai Ku-mar, who had done so.

The police on Tuesdayquestioned Dr. Sai Kumar,who said he fled the scene assoon as Dr. Shashi shot at Dr.Uday. A medical bulletinfrom Apollo Hospitals saidDr. Uday was in a criticalcondition.

Doctor kills self after

shooting, injuring partnerASIF YAR KHAN

Dr. Shashi Kumar whoallegedly committed suicide

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala As-sembly proceedings were ad-journed on Tuesday following astand-of between the rulingUnited Democratic Front gov-ernment and the Oppositionover the solar scam.

Proceedings were suspendedat 11 a.m. following an alterca-tion between the UDF and Op-position Left Democratic Front(LDF) members over Leader ofthe Opposition V.S. Achutha-nandans observation aboutChief Minister Oommen Chan-dy while addressing the House.This was before a walkout fordenying leave for an adjourn-ment motion moved by DeputyLeader of the Opposition Kodi-yeri Balakrishnan.

Mr. Kodiyeri sought the re-signation of Power MinisterAryadan Mohammed and Mr.Chandy who, he alleged, misledthe House on the solar issue.Mr. Achuthanandan stoppedhis speech following the din.

Speaker N. Sakthans parleyswith party leaders did not bear

fruit. On resuming business at11.45 a.m., the Opposition in-sisted on discussing the mo-tion, but Mr. Sakthan turneddown the demand. The Oppo-sition then squatted in the wellof the House and shouted slo-gans. Mr. Sakthan completedthe days business in haste andadjourned the House for theday.

Earlier, replying to the no-tice, Home Minister Ramesh

Chennithala said when thescam erupted, the governmentappointed a commission. Thecommission was functioning ina dispassionate manner andwould submit its report onApril 27. The Oppositionshould wait till the submissionof the report.

Mr. Balakrishnan alleged thatno Chief Minister had to facesuch graft charges earlier. Mr.Chandy had misled the Houseby making contrary statementsregarding his meeting with Sa-ritha S. Nair and industrialistSreedharan Nair before thecommission.

Mr. Chandy said that the Op-position was relying on an in-complete statement of Sarithafor moving the notice. He wasexamined for 12 hours, but nei-ther Sarithas lawyer nor any-one else raised any such ques-tions at the commission. Hehad been a member of theHouse for 46 years.

Mr. Mohammed too deniedthe charges and said that theaccused had not got any benefitfrom him.

Oommen Chandy said theOpposition was relying on anincomplete statement ofSaritha S. Nair for moving theadjournment motion. FILE PHOTO: H. VIBHU

Storm in Kerala AssemblySPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A 12-year-old studentof a private boarding schoolin West Bengals Murshida-bad district was allegedlybeaten to death by a head-master and a warden of theschool. The two accusedwere arrested on Tuesday,police said.

The incident allegedlytook place on Monday at theAl-Islamia Mission underRatanpur Police Station lim-its. Shamin Malik (12) was as-saulted by headmaster HanifSeikh and warden LitonSeikh after the student re-portedly met his parents out-side the school without per-mission from the authorities.He was rushed to a local hos-pital, where he later died.

Hanif Seikh and LitonSeikh have been arrested andare being interrogated, Su-perintendent of Police, Mur-shidabad, C. Sudhakar said.

The family members of thestudent have accused theschool authorities of tryingto hush up the incident.They alleged that initially theschool authorities informedthem that Shamin Malik hadfallen ill.

The teachers informedme that my son was hospital-ised only after his conditiondeteriorated, said JullhasMalik, father of the student.

The incident sparked pub-lic outrage as locals stagedprotests and blocked roads,demanding punishment forthe accused. Hanif Seikh andLiton Seikh were producedbefore a local court and re-manded in police custody.

Student beaten todeath by schooloicials in BengalSTAFF REPORTER The headmaster

and warden of theprivate boardinginstitutionhave been arrested

NEW DELHI: Indian women areno longer passive recipientsof the states welfare schemes,but active agents of change.Real development is only pos-sible with their economic em-powerment, the SupremeCourt has observed in ajudgment.

In a 38-page verdict high-lighting how women haveprogressed from being theprotected to becoming theprotector, a Bench of JusticesA.K. Sikri and A.M. Sapre saidthey had become dynamic

promoters of social transfor-mation that can alter the livesof both women and men.

The judgment came in acase of a woman police oi-cer, Richa Mishra, who wasdenied selection as DeputySuperintendent of Police onthe ground that she was over-age. The apex court directedthe Chhattisgarh governmentto appoint her in the seniorrank after agreeing with hercontention that there was a10-year relaxation in age limitfor women candidates underthe service rules that wassolely meant to encourage

women like her.As India promotes Beti Ba-

chao, Beti Padhao (Educationfor girls) scheme, empower-ment of women is the need ofthe hour, the Supreme Courtsaid. Women in this world,and particularly in India,faced various kinds of con-straints and discrimination.

esteem, to enable them toface any situation and partici-pate in developmentactivities.

Quoting Nobel Prize win-ning economist Amartya Sen,the Supreme Court observedthat economic developmentand womens empowermenthad a symbiotic relationship.One cannot do without theother. The court said the termwomens empowermentmeant womens ability to ac-cess the constituents of de-velopment, in particularhealth, education, earningopportunities, rights, and po-

litical participation.Poverty and lack of oppor-

tunity had bred inequality be-tween men and women, theapex court said. It called forfurther policy action forwomen empowerment in or-der to stimulate economicdevelopment.

Policy action is still neces-sary to achieve equality be-tween genders. Such policyaction would be unambigu-ously justified if empower-ment of women also stimu-lates further development,starting a virtual cycle, thecourt said.

This was notwithstanding thefact that under the Constitu-tion, women enjoyed a statusof equality with men. In real-ity, however, they have a longway to go to achieve this con-stitutional status, Justice Sik-ri, who wrote the verdict forthe Bench, observed in ajudgment dated February 8released on Tuesday.

The apex court said the fo-cus was slowly shifting frommere better treatment orwell-being of women toempowering them to be eco-nomically independent andself-reliant, with a positive

Women are agents of change, says Supreme CourtKRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL Real development is

only possible withwomens economicempowerment,notes Bench

BARABANKI: Months after theMaggi storm, the Uttar Pradeshfood safety department hasfound samples of some otherinstant noodle brands sub-standard with ash content inthe tastemaker exceeding theprescribed limits.

The samples of Knorr Sou-py Noodles, Horlicks FoodlesNoodles and Chings Hot GarlicInstant Noodles were picked upfrom a mall in the city in Maylast year for testing and its re-port was received about a fort-night ago, the Food Safety Oi-cer of Barabanki district, SanjaySingh, said.

The samples were sent to thegovernment Food Analysis Labin Lucknow where it was foundthat total ash of the tastemakerexceeds the maximum pre-scribed limits ... hence the sam-ples are sub-standard, Mr.Singh said.

Against the prescribed limitof 1 per cent, ash content wasfound to be 1.83 per cent inChings noodles, while in Foo-dles it was 2.37 per cent and inSoupy noodles it was 1.89 percent, he claimed. PTI

Now, U.P. finds ash in noodles

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NATION

NEW DELHI: For the last sixmonths, research scholars as-sociated with the Centre ofSocial Sciences and Humani-ties at the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Delhi (IIT-D),watched films, a routineevent on weekends at 5 p.m.,which was followed inevita-bly by discussions, some-times in the presence of thedirector.

A process, the faculty andstudents looked forward to.On January 29, when the FilmSociety, brainchild of the cen-tre, screened Ifat FatimasKhoon Diy Baarav (On aTrail of Vanished Blood), afilm on Kashmir, not onlywere the proceedings dis-rupted, the viewers wereasked to explain whether thescreening was tantamount tobeing anti-national.

When the film wasscreened on January 29, acouple of students from theApplied Mechanics depart-ment sought to disrupt thescreening, calling it anti-na-tional.

These students wrote tothe oiciating director, Pro-fessor K. Thyagarajan, whohas forwarded the mail to thecentre, seeking a detailed dis-cussion from the departmentfor screening the film.

Even as attempts were

made to downplay the ex-change of mails between theauthorities in the IIT, whathas upset the centre is the re-action the film has evoked insome students who were notpresent for the screening andtheir attempt to disrupt it.

There was a heated ex-change between those whowatched and those who pro-tested the screening, saidthose who watched the film.The Film Society was meantto encourage students en-gagement with meaningfulcinema. The head of the cen-tre, Ravinder Kaur, said: Weshould have the freedom todiscuss a whole range ofopinions, and centres such asIITs, should retain the right todiscuss sensitive issues thatcinema often raises in its au-dience.

Ms. Kaur said she washopeful the centre would

continue to show films to itsstudents. It is also learnt thatthe centre will be discussingthe matter with Mr. Thyaga-rajan on Wednesday.

While sources in the de-partment said those studentswho disrupted the screeninghad complained to the direc-tor, and not those whoseviewing was marred by theact, the behaviour of the dis-ruptive students wasunacceptable.

The society which is six-months-old, showcases con-temporary, meaningful cine-ma often resulting in lengthydiscussions. Mr. Thyagarajanwas unavailable for com-ments though an email wassent to him.

IIT Delhi has been in thenews for high-profile visits ofBaba Ramdev, Sri Sri RaviShankar and the Brahmaku-maris in the recent past.

Students disrupt Iffat Fatimas Khoon Diy Baarav, calling it anti-national

Indian Institute of Technology,New Delhi. FILE PHOTO

Screening of film on Kashmir triggers row in IIT-DelhiANURADHA RAMAN

NEW DELHI: Actor Govinda onTuesday conveyed to the Su-preme Court his willingnessto ofer an unconditionalapology and compensation toa youth he is shown slappingin a video shot seven yearsago.

However, a Bench of Justic-es V. Gopala Gowda and U.U.Lalit sought the actors re-sponse to a submission by thevictims lawyer that Govindadid not personally apologiseto his client. What did we tellyou at the last hearing? Wehad asked you to meet himand sort it out. Whatever youwant to ofer, tell him person-ally and dont give it to us, theBench told Govindas lawyersin court.

The Supreme Court, in No-vember last year, had advisedthe former politician and Bol-lywood star to let bygones bebygones and settle with theman who accused the star ofslapping him in 2008.

The apex court said itwould not tolerate the actorslapping anybody in public.The actor need not replicatein real life his action scenes inthe movies, it said.

Willing toapologise toyouth: Govinda

The actor was seen slapping ayoung man in a video shotseven years ago. FILE PHOTO

LEGAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra gov-ernment on Tuesday backedthe entry of women in the Ha-ji Ali Dargah, and told theBombay High Court thatequality must rule over tradi-tion and customs. It said un-less the Dargah Trust is ableto prove that the ban is part ofits religious practice with ref-erence to Koran, womenshould be allowed to enterthe sanctum sanctorum.

Appearing for the State, ad-vocate general ShreehariAney told a division bench ofJustice V.M. Kanade and Jus-tice Revati Mohite-Dere thatany claims to right to practiseones religion must beweighed against the funda-mental Right to Equality.

The court is hearing a PILplea filed by Bharatiya Mus-lim Mahila Andolan that

states women have alwaysbeen allowed at the Dargah,but in June 2012, the trust re-stricted their entry into thesanctum sanctorum.

Mr. Aney said the onlyquestion to be consideredwas whether the ban was in-

tegral to Islam or just a pe-ripheral religious practice.

The advocate for the Trustjustified the ban and said ev-en polling booths had sepa-rate queues for men andwomen to maintain tranqui-llity. He said the ban was in-tegral to Islam and womencould not be permitted totouch the tombs of malesaints.

In the last hearing, the HChad asked the State govern-ment to give its opinion onthe PIL plea challenging thedecision of the Haji Ali Trustto ban the entry of women inthe sanctum sanctorum of thehistoric Dargah.

The court had also said itwould wait for the SupremeCourt to decide on allowingwomen to enter the sanctumsanctorum of the 1,500-year-old Sabrimala temple inKerala.

Equality must rule over tradition and customs, it tells Bombay HC

Bharatiya Muslim MahilaAndolan and other groupsprotesting at Azad Maidan,Mumbai, demanding entry inHaji Ali Dargah. FILE PHOTO:VIVEK BENDRE

Maharashtra bats for womensentry in Haji Ali Dargah

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI/VELLORE: In the wake oftwo suspected meteoritefalls in Vellore district in thelast fortnight, the GeologicalSurvey of India (GSI) haswritten to the State govern-ment seeking a direction toall District Collectors thatany such cases be reportedto GSI and any finds handedover, as it was the only nodalagency authorised to pos-sess and carry out researchon meteorites in thecountry.

We came across media

reports about the two inci-dents one on January 26and another on February 6.Though it is oicially not es-

tablished whether they werecases of meteorites falling,we are not aware who is inpossession of the items now.As the GSI is the nodal agen-cy in the country, the respec-tive district administrationshould alert and hand it overto us, GSIs Deputy Direc-tor-General S. Raju tolTheHindu. He said suspectedmeteorite cases have beenreported mostly in Velloreand Dharmapuri districts.

In 2008, a 105-kg meteo-rite fall was reported in Sula-giri near Krishnagiri; thepiece is in the GSI gallery inKolkata now.

The stone-like object that wasrecovered from BharathidasanEngineering College,Natrampalli

DENNIS S. JESUDASAN &SERENA JOSEPHINE M.

GSI says it is sole agency toresearch meteorite finds

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Pan-chayati Raj Minister KailashYadav passed away at the Me-danta Hospital in Gurgaon onTuesday.

The Jangipur MLA sufereda stroke while he sitting onthe lawn at his residencewhen he fainted. He wasrushed to the Medanta Hospi-tal in an air-ambulance.

Born in 1951 in a village inGhazipur district, Mr. Yadavstarted his political careerfrom a rural background,holding the post of a grampradhan, before becoming amember of the U.P. Assemblythrice. He was a Minister ofState for Revenue and Indus-trial Development under theMulayam Singh regime.

U.P. Ministerpasses away OMAR RASHID

BENGALURU: In the run-up to thebypolls to three Assemblysegments and the zilla and ta-luk panchayat elections inKarnataka, everyone appearsto be looking at Chief Minis-ter Siddaramaiahs wrist. Aguessing game on the worthof his watch is making morenoise than issues afectingpeople.

It all began with Janata Dal(Secular) leader and formerChief Minister H.D. Kumaras-wamy saying in an election

rally that Mr. Siddaramaiah,who boasts of his socialistcredentials and his govern-ments pro-poor policies, waswearing a watch worth over

Rs. 50 lakh and sunglassesvalued at Rs. 2 lakh.

While the Chief Ministerdismissed this by saying hewas ready to sell the watch toanyone for Rs. 10 lakh and of-fered it to Mr. Kumaraswamyhimself, the issue has refusedto die down with the latter onTuesday saying that he wasnot a trader in second-handgoods.

He claimed in Bidar onTuesday that he had contact-ed the company that sold theparticular brand of watch andit was very costly.

All eyes on Siddaramaiahs watch SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Karnataka Opposition hasclaimed that the watch isworth over Rs. 50 lakh.

NEW DELHI: Expediting theprobe into the money-laun-dering case against Pune-based race horse owner Ha-san Ali Khan, the Enforce-ment Directorate onTuesday conducted searcheson the premises of the ac-cused and his accomplices insix cities.

The agency had registeredthe case under the Preven-tion of Money LaunderingAct in 2011 and Hasan Aliwas arrested soon after. Hewas in judicial custody tillAugust last year when theBombay High Court grantedhim bail.

In 2011, the ED also arrest-ed Kashinath Tapuriah, aKolkata-based businessman

and Alis alleged accomplice.The case tops the list of

cases being monitored bythe Special InvestigationTeam on Black Money thatwas set up by the Centralgovernment in 2014 pursu-ant to a Supreme Court di-rective.

Hasan Alis name figuresin the SITs terms of refer-ences.

ED conducts searches in Hasan Ali caseDEVESH K. PANDEY

10 | THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016NOIDA/DELHI

CMYK

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

wednesday, february 10, 2016

CARTOONSCAPE

The regulations issued by theTelecom Regulatory Author-ity of India (TRAI) barring dif-ferential pricing of data basedon content have created aglobal impact. A friend, whoruns a major internationalsoftware company, called it themost important victory for the

people in the tech space in the last 20 years.India has joined a select few countries thathave protected net neutrality and barred ze-ro-rating services.What makes this victory even more sur-prising was the complete asymmetry of thetwo sides involved. On one side was Face-book, a company whose market cap is greaterthan the GDPs of 144 countries, allied with abunch of big telecom companies (telcos).They had already won easy victories fortheir platform in a number of countries, andfelt India would be no exception. They had anad campaign that estimates put at Rs.400crore. On the other side was a motley groupof free software and Internet activists, withunlikely allies such as comedy group AIB, abunch of start-ups, and some political figuresand formations.The argument that Facebook was using ap-peared simple. Why should anybody deny thepoor getting some access to the Internet even if this was limited? Isnt something bet-ter than nothing? Mark Zuckerberg not onlywrote articles terming his opponents NetNeutrality fundamentalists, but also ap-peared in advertorials in the electronic mediato push Free Basics. Some commentatorswrote plugs for Facebook in the guise of opin-ion pieces, all more or less posing diferentvariations of the broad theme that Zucker-bergs heart beats for the Indian poor.To beat back such an ofensive, backed by thefull power of Facebooks media blitz, was noordinary event. So why did Facebooks cam-paign fail?

Peoples campaign prevails

First is, of course, the energy and the creativ-ity of the groups fighting Free Basics. Theynot only ran an innovative and creative cam-paign, but were also able to bring tech activ-

ists on to the streets. What surprised eventhem was the response of the people.I am convinced that Facebook and their adagencies completely underestimated the In-dian public. Even if all of them do not use theInternet, they understand the diference be-tween having access to the full Internet, withnearly a billion websites, and the so-calledFree Basics platform that provides Facebookand a few other sites. They are sophisticatedenough to know that Free Basics would notofer them any of the things they really wantto access. No search, no email, no access tovarious services; no pictures or video clipsfor entertainment either. No access to therich diversity of views and material on the In-

ternet. Only a sterile walled garden where, atbest, you can see what your friends are doing.

A level playing field

What is the flip side of such a platform? Otherpeople who want to have the full Internetcould still access it, so why is Facebooks FreeBasics harmful?TRAI has correctly pointed out that the tarifprinciple at play is whether we can have dif-ferential pricing of data based on the contentwe see. If we accept this principle, what thenprevents telcos from charging various web-sites and Internet services for accessing theirsubscribers? Accepting that one form of pricediscrimination is okay opens the door to all

other forms of discrimination as well.This is where Net Neutrality comes in. Themost important characteristic of the Internetis whether it is the richest corporation in theworld or an individual writing a blog, both aretreated identically on the Internet. If the blog-ger had to negotiate with the Internet serviceproviders (ISPs) in todays world the telcos to reach the telco subscribers, she wouldhave to negotiate with thousands of suchISPs. Telcos would then be the gatekeepers ofthe Internet. Only the biggest corporationscould then survive on the Net. This is how thecable TV model works; for their channels tobe carried, the TV channels have to negotiatewith all the platforms such as Dish TV, Tata

Sky, etc. If we accept that telcos can act asgatekeepers, we would then lose what hasgiven the Internet its unique power, the abili-ty for us not only to be consumers but alsocreators of content.In its nascent phase, the big telco monopoliestried to levy a tax on all Internet contentproviders. The Internet companies were thenthe new kids on the block. They and the Inter-net user community fought back such at-tempts. This was the first net neutrality war,and it established the principle of non-dis-crimination on the Internet between difer-ent types of content or sites.The scenario has changed dramatically today.We have the emergence of powerful Internet

monopolies that are much bigger than the tel-cos. Not surprisingly, these companies nowsee the virtues of monopoly. They would liketo combine with telcos to create monopoliesfor their platforms, ensuring that they controlthe future of the Internet and freeze theircompetition out.Today, we have nearly a billion websites onthe Internet and 3.5 billion users. This meansthat nearly one out of three users is both acontent provider as well as content consum-er. What the Internet monopolies want is thatwe should be passive consumers of their con-tent, or at best generate captive content onlyfor their platforms. This is why they havejoined hands with telcos to ofer variousforms of zero-rating services.

Future-proofing policies

The two most common forms of zero ratingused by telcos are (a) no data charges for a se-lect set of sites, e.g. Facebooks Free Basics,and (b) a few content providers such as Net-flix not being subjected to data caps by telcos.The TRAI order bars both these forms.The other issue that TRAI dealt with iswhether regulatory policies should be craftedto prevent harm (ex ante) or be applied only

after harm has been established. The argu-ment of the telcos has been, prove there hasbeen harm, otherwise we should be allowedto do as we please. TRAI has again correctlypointed out that not crafting the right policiesfor the Internet would distort the basic char-acter of the Internet itself. It would then helpthe well heeled, who would be able to take ad-vantage of a lack of policy. The TRAI order al-so points out that without the right policies,each tarif proposal would have to be ana-lysed on a case-by-case basis, imposing highregulatory overheads.The last issue we need to examine is how apowerful monopoly can bend policy by vir-tue of its control over its users. Facebook notonly launched a media blitz but also ran acompletely misleading campaign on Free Ba-sics to its 130 million Indian subscribers.Through its various pop-ups and user inter-face, it pressured its users to send TRAI a boi-lerplate statement of support for Free Basics.It even painted this as providing basic Inter-net to the poor, without informing its usersthat Facebook was the sole arbiter of whatconstitutes a basic Internet.The question is, can a platform monopoly of the type Facebook, Google are use thismonopoly to run a campaign on a countryspolicy? Facebook is a foreign entity and hasargued before Indian courts that it is not ac-countable to Indian laws. Should such enti-ties have such power over our peoples lives?A media company is supposed to diferen-tiate between advertisements and news.Facebook did not identify its plug for its FreeBasics platform on Facebook as opinion butpresented it as truth. How should onlinemedia conduct itself in the future on suchissues?TRAI had rebuked Facebook on its attempt toconvert TRAIs consultation on diferentialpricing to a numbers game. TRAI wantedclear answers to the questions they hadposed, not boilerplate emails saying how peo-ple loved Free Basics. But it still leaves unan-swered the question of what are the rightsand duties of such platform monopolies to-wards their users. With Google and Facebookemerging bigger than many nation states, thisis the key question for the Internet in thefuture.

(Prabir Purkayastha is Chairperson,Knowledge Commons, and Vice-President,

Free Software Movement of India.)

TRAIs vigorous endorsement of net neutralitysafeguards the Internet against platformmonopolies, retaining the ability for users notonly to be consumers but also creators of content

Even if all Indians do not use the Internet,

they understand the difference between having access

to the full Internet, with nearly a billion websites, and the

so-called Free Basics platform, a sterile walled garden where,

at best, you can see what your friends are doing.

Internet power to the people

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) has to be commended for batting un-ambiguously for net neutrality, the principle ofnon-discrimination that is vital for the Internet

to remain an open platform. Its decision was made clearon Monday when it prohibited telecom providers fromcharging diferential rates for data services. The regula-tors stance is commendable for two other reasons as well.One, it had to face enormous pressures to tinker with theway the Internet is governed. And, two, net neutrality,with its numerous interpretations, is a complex concept.The latest ruling could no doubt set the tone for regula-tors across the globe, especially those of countries thathave socio-economic features akin to Indias. More im-portant, it would ensure that generations of Indians arenot forced to be satisfied with services that pretend to bethe Internet itself, robbing them of the real benefits of themedium. TRAIs decision would bring relief and cheer tothe millions of Indians as also some voluntary groups thatadmirably campaigned for months together for this re-sult, worried as they were that the regulator would giveup on net neutrality. The danger had seemed that real. Inthe last year or so, there have been more than a few at-tempts by the big players to ofer Internet services that in-trinsically seemed to violate this principle. The public de-bate on net neutrality began during late 2014 when Indiastop telecom carrier Bharti Airtel decided to charge usersextra for the use of applications with which they can makefree calls over the Internet.

But the most prominent and persistent among the com-panies has to be Facebook, which spent a lot of time inpitching its Free Basics initiative as an altruistic efort thatwould help millions of Indias Internet have-nots. Itsfounder, Mark Zuckerberg, took a personal interest in thecampaign. Facebooks global rebranding of its interne-t.org initiative as a platform open for all but adhering toFacebooks standards, which ofered free and basic ser-vices, was arguably the consequence of the debate overnet neutrality in the country. The point about providing atleast some access to millions of new users for free, whootherwise cannot aford it, must have been diicult forTRAI to ignore. And that is why it is important to recog-nise that a no to Free Basics does not imply a failure onthe part of TRAI to recognise the importance of cateringto the Internet have-nots. In fact, the regulator has notedthat it is not against the provision of limited free data thatallows a user to explore the Internet. Simply put, it findsthis route palatable because the choice is with the user.This is also a route that Free Basics could explore in theimmediate future in order to stay alive in India. The regu-lators problem with a price-based diferentiation hasmore to do with the fact that in a market such as India itwould distort consumer choice and have consequencesthat wouldnt be understood easily. The ruling also sug-gests that while TRAI recognises the need for India tobridge the digital divide, it realises that compromising thebasic ideals of the Internet is not the way to do it.

Adhering to basics and freedom

The Finance Ministrys decision to withdrawcustoms duty exemptions for 76 life-savingdrugs will at once make them more expensiveand impact patients who are already paying a

high price for such medical treatment. It is important tokeep in mind that a majority of Indians meet health carecosts through out-of-pocket expenditure, and any in-crease is bound to adversely afect them. It is true that thecustoms duty waiver is an interim measure, and that thelist has to be revised periodically. Certain drugs now re-moved from the list are either no longer used by patientsor are being manufactured in India at a lower cost thanthe imported ones, and therefore should be removedfrom it anyway. However, it is not clear what public in-terest is served by removing certain essential medicinesthat are either not manufactured in India or whose de-mand currently exceeds local manufacturing capacity.While the government has been enthusiastic about with-drawing the exemption for 76 drugs, it has failed to in-clude certain life-saving or essential drugs that have beenlaunched recently and are under patent protection. Thisindicates that consultations have not been broad-based;this has to be corrected as the patients interest should bethe priority. Unlike in the case of other commoditieswhere the consumer is the decision-maker, doctors pre-scription preferences, sometimes based on partisan con-siderations, dictate whether a patient ends up buying im-ported drugs even when locally manufactured optionsare available at a lower price. It is for this reason that thewithdrawal of 22 per cent customs duty exemption onimported drugs could have an impact on a patients bud-get; imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)will also increase the cost of generics made locally.

Since the late 1990s, India has lost out to China in theAPI market. Active as well as enabling support from thegovernment in various forms helped the Chinese indus-try flood the Indian market with cheap APIs. While theproduct patent regime that came into full force since2005 and the flooding of the market with Chinese APIsmay appear to be genuine reasons for giving the Indianindustry cover to catch up, any protection cannot belong-lasting. The only way for the Indian drug industry togrow is by investing in research and development and inproducing novel drugs that enjoy patent protection. In-dia is the pharmacy of the South, but that dominance isrestricted to generics. This has to change, and the gov-ernment has to extend support in larger measure. As isthe case in the U.S., many drugs that go on to becomecommercially profitable have their origins in academicand government institutions. Unfortunately, the recentdecision to cut research funding will not help the indus-try. The earlier the government realises this and changesits priorities, the better it would be for the country.

Time for pharmacourse correction

Headleys deposition

David Coleman Headley seems tohave spilled the beans about theinvolvement of the Pakistan Army,the ISI as well as terroristorganisations in the planning andexecution of the 2008 Mumbaiattacks (Mumbai attackers madetwo earlier attempts: Headley andHafiz speech motivated me, saysHeadley in deposition, both Feb.9).He seems to have fully corroboratedAjmal Kasabs account on theseaspects. If this is not acceptable,what else can be more credible?Pakistans Prime Minister, who hadpromised not to give protection toany terrorist element and enable thepeace process to move forward,should now enter the picture andtake efective action.

S.V. Venkatakrishnan,Bengaluru

The actions of the U.S. as well asother undisclosed pieces ofinformation, presumably forsecurity reasons, insinuateHeadleys role as a double agent(U.S. claims not convincing,Feb.9). After reading the crucialdetails, it can be quite safe toconclude that he worked for a largerconspiracy. In all this, it is the role ofthe U.S. that needs to be highlighted.Even though there is mountingevidence to show that Pakistan hasunleashed a wave of terror on us, andwill continue to do so, the U.S. isunlikely to reverse its stand of beinglenient towards Islamabad.

N. Visveswaran,Chennai

We are only wasting our time bygiving evidence to Pakistan. No onein Pakistan will dare act against theperpetrators. If Mr. Nawaz Sharifdecides to act, he can be sure that thearmy will be waiting to take controlciting law and order problems.

Gopalan Natarajan Iyer,Chennai

There is nothing to be surprisedabout in Headleys deposition. Indiaalready has a mountain of evidence.

Of course, Pakistan will be in a denialmode as the civilian government is atthe mercy of the army and the ISI.How long will India remain atoothless giant?

S.P. Sharma,Mumbai

The deposition has removed allscepticism about Pakistans role inthe 26/11 attacks. That Headleyvisited India on a fake passport andwas in Mumbai seven times beforethe attack clearly reveals a majorlapse on the part of the Indiansecurity establishment. On the otherhand, this confession willdefinitely come in handy for India asit will strengthen the dossier againstPakistan and help world leaders getto see Pakistans true colours. Theneed of the hour for India is toexpose Pakistan on the internationalplatform, chalk out a global strategyto tackle terrorism emanating fromthere and exert relentless pressureon Pakistan to stop fosteringterrorism.

Shubham Goel,Hapur, Uttar Pradesh

Heavy cost of Siachen

Stephen P. Cohen, a senior fellow atthe Brookings Institution, equatedthe Siachen conflict between Indiaand Pakistan to two bald menfighting for a comb. The fact thatover 800 soldiers have lost theirprecious lives for nothing shouldmake both countries shed their egoand try and rebuild trust (Editorial,Feb.9). A call by peace activists ofboth the countries to declare theglacier as a peace park has thepotential to stop the senseless loss oflives forever.

Kamal Laddha,Bengaluru

Soldiers who are posted in Siachenare said to tell their families not toexpect them to return. The onlysolution is for India and Pakistan toform a panel that will go into themodalities of demilitarisation of thisdangerous area.

L.V. Vasudevan,Chennai

Quite unlike the terrestrial border of8,891 km between the U.S. andCanada, which is called the worldslargest undefended border, therewill always be deep suspicionbetween India and Pakistan aboutcross-border insurgency andterrorist activities. So, when our2,900-km border with Pakistan, saidto be one of the most dangerous inthe world, is always on high alert,how can a demilitarised zone be cutout of this? Proponents of peace andeditorial writers should eitherendorse the highly militarisedenvironment, as a result of securityconcerns, or propose that the entirelength of the India-Pakistan borderbe demilitarised.

Balasubramaniam S.,Chennai

GAIL pipeline and farming

The management of the GasAuthority of India Ltd. (GAIL)seems adamant about layingpipelines across seven districts inTamil Nadu (TN moves SC, seeksGAIL review order, Feb.9). Strongopposition by farmers in Kerala andKarnataka changed GAILs plans tospare farmland for this projectwhich runs through Kerala,Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Theauthorities should have consultedagriculture experts andenvironmentalists as the areasearmarked in Tamil Nadu haveprime and very fertile land, andallayed the genuine fears of farmers.

Ragavan Malayappan,Tirupur

It is one thing to address the fears ofthe ignorant and quite another toinstil fear in the minds of theignorant in an attempt to try andmake political mileage from thesituation. The project is in nationalinterest. GAIL is not a privatecommercial institution orcorporation but a public sectorundertaking well aware of itscommitments. It has people who arequalified to decide whether thelaying of pipes will harm the qualityof farm soil or the quantity of cropyield. Consciously not

acknowledging these factors,politicians of all hues are now cryingfoul. We must also learn to respect aconsidered court verdict.

M. Meenakshisundaram,Tiruchi

Public health concerns

The article When research goes ofthe rails (Weekend-Being, Feb.7)is applicable to the state of publichealth in India, which is one of mostweak and highly underperformingsectors ever. Except for a fewinstitutions of national importanceand reputed State governmenttertiary care centres, one haspractically next to nothing at thedistrict cluster and primary levels.Epidemiological forecast is anotherarea where we are fail miserably. Weappear to grossly underreport thecase load, maintain poor statisticsand do not have qualityepidemiological surveillance. Werarely think of establishing aninstitution o