Political Diary

New Delhi, 26 December 2023

Wrestling With Power

TIME FOR RADICAL MAKEOVER

By Poonam I Kaushish 

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us, said Francis Bacon. This comes to mind over our wrestlers grappling with power. Indeed, it was a sad day for wrestling when Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik announced that she was quitting the sport last week and another medalist Bajrang Punia gave up his Padma Shri award until justice was given to his “sisters and daughters” fighting against sexual harassment and their perpetrators.

The cause célèbre? Five-time BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh accused of sexually harassing and exploiting female wrestlers and against whom pugilists have been agitating for nearly a year, acolyte Sanjay Singh winning elections to the Wrestling Federation President’s post.

True, a politician or his aide winning an election to an administrative post in a sports body is par for the cours given sport is riddled with proliferation of netagan seeking to soak in the popularity of sport and sportswomen. Of course, the hold of leaders on the electoral processes of sports federations cannot be legally challenged. Example: Bhushan was running WFI from his official residence.

Also true, if Bhushan had not been a bahubali with a huge following among Rajputs and who holds the key in reportedly, 10 seats in Gonda UP, he may have been counting bars as a Pocso case is registered against him. However, such is his political clout that any action against him could affect BJP’s prospects in the State.

Consequently, he remains not only free while courts take their time over cases registered against him, but also is much feted as a leader with an outsize influence on wrestling till he became ineligible. So what if he is not a saint having around 40 cases against him? The UP bahubali has admitted to committing a murder and gone to jail.

Undeniably, wrestling is not the first sport to witness allegations of sexual exploitation of young athletes of both sexes. Look at Haryana Sports Minister and ex-hockey captain Sandeep Singh who too has been accused of sexual abuse by a junior coach. He remains a Minister. However, the allegation against Bhushan is an extreme case that athletes ran into a political brick wall despite top wrestlers throwing their all into opposing him since January. 

Happily, amid huge outcry over Singh’s election, the Sports Ministry suspended WFI for its “hasty announcement” of organising U-15 and U-20 nationals “without following due procedure and not giving sufficient notice to wrestlers” for preparations. Asking Indian Olympic Association to form an ad-hoc panel to manage and execute WFI’s roles and function.

In sync, Bhushan announced his resignation from wrestling after meeting BJP President Nadda. Even as aide Singh states he will talk to Prime Minister Modi, Centre and Ministry to prove no rules were violated. Sic.

Nevertheless, the Government’s action is only quick fix. The malaise in WFI runs deep and the sight of elite wrestlers hitting streets, sparring with authorities, being evicted from Delhi’s  Jantar Mantar, quitting the sport and returning national honours does not do justice to the country’s aspiration of becoming a sporting power. Given the United World Wrestling not only expressed its unhappiness with the sordid saga but also suspended WFI.

Besides, with seven medals, wrestling is India’s most successful individual sport at Olympics and for many girls specially in Haryana it is an aspirational game which provides social acceptance.

Privately, a senior sports administrator avers, Government’s action was a face-saver without openly acknowledging a mistake in handling la affair Bhushan.

Alas, over the years power structures in sports federations often overlap political power whereby politicians have usurped positions of control and operate them as their private fiefdom. Thereby, creating conditions that enable abuse of authority.

A sad commentary on society that our rulers should hold such sway and have their way even in sports administration. Perhaps it has something to do with our patriarchal lineage and misogynistic culture. Whereby, we show utter disregard and disrespect for women.... rape, marital rapes, sexual assault and systemic harassment et al.

Clearly, in a society which lives with the regressive mindset that freedom and equality for women tantamount to promiscuity, we swing between two extremes. One where a girl child is bad news and nurtured on “conform” paranoia: Not to rock the boat, be fearful of what lies around the corner and subjecting them to countless restrictions in the name of women’s protection. Whereby fathers make the rules, husbands enforce them and male bosses reiterate them, speaking out against someone’s wrong doing is tough.

Notwithstanding the #Me Too campaign, in a culture where the national narrative conditions people to think that sexual harassment has no consequences; where sex crimes are dismissed as result of an imbalanced sex ratio; and where women have little or no cultural respect, it is going to be a steep uphill to change what is just ‘normal’.

Where does one go from here? Given that this oppressive atrocity against sportswomen will get worse, not better. All eyes are on what happens in this case. Clearly our leaders need to pay heed and address this seriously. Undeniable it is a wake-up call for change. Change our approach to sexual harassment. One option is radical feminism to make a social impact and safety of women an important article of faith with people, society and Government.

Our leaders need to pay heed and address this seriously. Underscoring, the urgent need to create a safe space for athletes, especially women. Laws should be tightened which would deter men to think thousand times before they commit crime, along-with transparency, accountability and good governance. Only then can India truly become a sporting powerhouse and fulfil the aspirations of its talented athletes.

One hopes the Government’s latest action is more than just image management and it uses the opportunity to clean-up WFI governance, carry structural changes, addresses wrestlers concerns and creates a sport and a federation worthy of sports. Alongside quickly finish investigation and prosecution of Bhushan which was set in motion by wrestlers charges of sexual harassment against him and a chargesheet filed by Delhi police over six months back if justice is to be done and WFI run in spirit of rules established.

Towards that end, the National Sports Development Code 2011, a legally binding framework to ensure that sports federations which have a monopoly and receive public funding are made accountable should ensure wrestlers kushtee with power get justice. As merely mouthing platitudes of impartiality and fairness will no longer work.

However either which way, our pugilists have identified their predators and they will determine what happens next. Surely lies have no legs but truth is the best defense. We need cry a halt to women being playthings of voyeuristic men. Will we break new ground and unshackle women?  One hopes this will have a knock-out effect on other federations and trigger greater accountability. What gives? ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Economic Highlights

 New Delhi, 25 December 2023 

Cybercrimes Burst Stocks!

SEBI BOOKS 150 AGENTS

By Shivaji Sarkar 

The stock market behaves awry again, acting like replica of the 1992 Harshad Mehta boom-bust syndrome. It zooms and goes for “course correction”, a phenomenon the Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI) repeatedly failed to check despite its warnings.Anonymous operations on the digital and social media siphon off substantial gains, may be billions, a day. The cybercrime engulfs the stock trading and SEBI has warned people to keep off Telegram and other platforms.  

The BSE Sensex rise to 72000 before a sharp sell off on December 20 looks like myth. It calls for investigations for nabbing the people, who fled with profits and dumping Rs 9 lakh crore losses on poor mutual fund type investors. Most pension, provident and other similar funds bear the brunt. Detailed probe of the banks getting hit would bare how the country’s working class suffer. Despite some recovery next day, the overall trend is considered “subdued”. May be the market suspects some opaque operations. 

Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) sold Rs 1322 crore shares and domestic investors Rs 4754 crore, implying retail investors would have sold more. The market is likely to continue its fall for the next many weeks. 

The tanking of Nifty by 1.4 percent and Sensex by 1.3 percent is being dumped on the Singapore circulated JN.1 virus mask mandate. It may not be so. The virus threat in China has been there before the 26 rallying began on October 25, almost synchronising with the five states’ election campaigning and continued after the December 3 results. The broader markets saw a bigger fall, with the Nifty Midcap 150 and Nifty Smallcap 250 tanking 3 percent each. 

Kotak AMC Managing Director Nilesh Shah tries to lighten the bust saying that anecdotally, after a rally as long as the latest leg, markets have tended to correct. “The past 30 years have shown us that the market tends to correct after a seven-week-long rally”. A profound statement. The market players know how the bubble forms and hit various mutual type funds for scooping out profits out of poor investors’ pockets. 

The big-ticket companies such as Coal India, Tata Steel, Adani Ports and Adani Enterprises lost around 6 percent. The worst hit among the small and mid-caps are most banking-related companies - Indian Overseas Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, UCO Bank, IRFC, Yes Bank, Indus Towers, Piramal enterprises Indus Towers and Ratan India Enterprises - lost 7.5 percent to 10 percent. 

Some experts in the disinvestment ministry possibly could have smelt the market methods and advised the government to reduce the divestment target. No big-ticket sales are planned. It has put off stake sells in IDBI Bank, Shipping Corporation of India, BEML and Container Corporation of India. Even BPCL sales that could have fetched around Rs 60000 crore have been put off. Thaw is likely for other divestments for 2024-25 stake sales of RashtriyaIspat Nigam, Air India (AI) Assets Holding Ltd as well. Last year, Central Electronics Limited divestment was also scrapped. Some minor divestments fetched about Rs 10,050 crore against 2022-23 targeted Rs 65000 crore revised to Rs 51000 crore in the current budgetary investments. 

Still the department of investment (Dipam) is exploring possibilities of 14 transactions, Minister of State for B KishanraoKarad recently told the Rajya Sabha.The government caution perhaps followed SEBI action against manipulating agents and rising cyberattacks on the Bombay Stock Exchange, including a malware attack. SEBI Chairperson Madhavi Puri Buch says cyber risks are rising. In June 2016 it busted an alleged Pakistani-based attack on the bourse. It has acted against 46 YouTubers for manipulating stock prices in 2022. 

The system is complicated. In June 2023, the SEBI barred 135 market manipulators through an interim order. They were told to pay penalty of Rs 126 crore for making wrongful gains from stock manipulation of crore of small-cap companies. 

They manipulators engineered a mechanism that was a kind of an insider trading though technically cannot be termed so. Different share trading companies formed a cartel for selling shares of some listed companies among themselves. They jacked up the scrip prices. Together through social media and other campaigns for their chosen scrip showering ‘bonanza’. The SEBI found that these entities were manipulating shares of five listed companies -- Mauria Udyog, 7NR Retail, Darjeeling Ropeaway, GBL Industries and Vishal Fabrics. 

The SEBI says that the tricks pushed up stock prices by trading among themselves and followed it by sending purchase recommendations to the public through holding ‘online workshops’, text messages and websites. Methodology created an atmosphere of ‘mock’ education on share market and giving specific suggestions on which low-selling shares people should invest. 

There is a suspicion on the operations of various social media platforms, including Facebook conniving with the stock operators. The platforms allow linking up different systems, anonymous functioning and loot of billions. The supposed “tutors” teaching the investors never share their names, identities, address of themselves or the companies they are working for. Many agents have phone numbers of UK, South Africa and other countries. 

One wonders how Facebook type platforms keep these operations in shrouds linking up WhatsApp-Telegram and protect anonymous activities without any know-your-customer system being implemented. They work anonymously using fake sims against all rules set by the RBI and vanish suddenly. Fake job advertisements are used to lure people to their platforms. The Facebook has created a system of linking up operations on different platforms so that the perpetrators could escape police and other security nets. 

The SEBI cracked the whip on some other stock recommendations as well. In April, it barred six individuals from the securities market for one to three years for passing false tips on Telegram. 

Cyber crimes are making deep inroads and expanding to different areas rocking the economy. They have high concentration in the national capital territory of Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, Nuh, and neighbouring Delhi areas. Their complex operations need difficult coordination among different states, central police, information technology and other agencies to insulate the banking, financial, stocks and various other activities. 

The situation may be worse than the Harshad Mehta scam as opacity is high. It needs crash action to bust the national and international syndicates as also to pay compensation to victims. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 23 December 2023

Five Soldiers Killed

JAMMU, CAUSE FOR CONCERN

By Insaf 

Alarm bells ring in the Jammu region of J&K. Developments in its districts and the city itself are turning out be of serious concern for North Block. On Thursday last, five Army personnel were killed and two injured after terrorists ambushed two Army vehicles in Poonch district. It is said the terrorists, perhaps three or four, took their position on hill tops and chose a blind curve to target the Army vehicles. Worse, they reportedly ‘mutilated the bodies of at least two soldiers and took weapons of some of them’. While the security forces have launched a massive cordon and search operation in the forest area, the incident is the second in last two months. This ambush comes weeks after a major gunfight in Bajimaal forest area in nearby Rajouri district that left five Army personnel, including two captains, dead. Clearly, the rising number of terror attacks in Rajouri-Poonch region suggests that terrorists are getting emboldened, there is need to strengthen intelligence and security setup in the region and time the focus shifts from Kashmir.

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This apart, a crackdown of a different kind is taking place in J&K. Not against terrorists or those harbouring militants, but against Rohingyas, who have taken shelter in Jammu following persecution in Myanmar. Tuesday last, Jammu police led a day-long drive to arrest/detain people ‘harbouring Rohingya immigrants and facilitating their stay with illegal papers’. Action’s been taken against over 50 people and dozen-odd FIRs registered ‘posing potential threats to national security and socio-economic fabric of the UT.’ Some elements, said IGP, ‘have been involved in facilitating illegal settlement of Rohingyas, and other than security concerns, these have potential to strain local resources.’ The locals in 30-odd settlements, he added ‘have provided their plots of land to settle the outside immigrants. We are checking and identifying these facilitators, also availing government benefits for them…They have taken it as a business.’ So far number of documents like Aadhaar cards, ration cards, voter ID cards, revenue records, rent deeds and passbooks besides mobile phones and SIM cards have been recovered. Hope innocent people, as in the past, are not wrongly targeted. And that Jammu’s security concerns are promptly addressed holistically.     

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Delhi Boo To ED

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said a big boo to the ED and stuck to his schedule of meditation instead. Summoned (second time) for questioning on Thursday last in the excise policy case, he said it was ‘not based upon any objective or rational yardstick but purely as a propaganda’ and to ‘create sensational news in the final few months of much-awaited parliamentary elections.’ In his reply to ED, he wondered about the timing-- on eve of his departure for a 10-day Vipassana session, (he’s attending annually for past 25 years), which was ‘widely published and largely circulated’ in media and officially announced’. Worse, he asked who was being summoned: “a witness or a suspect” or as “chief minister, Delhi or AAP national convener”? The summons must be ‘revoked, withdrawn, and recalled,’ for these he alleged were at ‘behest of political rivals who wish to silence the opposition’s voice’ against the Centre. Importantly, AAP has claimed these ‘were not in consonance with law’ and it would take ‘legally correct’ steps. Nagging suspense alright?

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Coordination Amiss In TN 

The infamous Governor-Chief Minister row sees no let-up even amid unprecedented rains causing havoc in southern Tamil Nadu. Efforts from defence, national/state disaster response forces are underway, but sadly there’s lack of coordination between Governor Ravi and Chief Minister Stalin, with both holding separate meetings for rescue and relief works. The region has come to a standstill, 10 people died and families and trainload of people stranded for days. While government listed relief works undertaken, it blamed the IMD for ‘wrong’ forecast and not ‘sufficiently forewarning of what was coming’; asked Centre for maximum choppers and Stalin went to Delhi instead to seek more aid. Governor Ravi on other hand held a meeting at Raj Bhavan, wherein it was said that agencies ‘have no clear idea’ about the exact resource requirements and priorities in deployment, due to lack of coordination and a ‘lack of appreciation’ of overall situation. Ravi asked agencies to mobilise additional resources and assured he would facilitate more resources from Central agencies. Regrettably, government representatives skipped the meeting! When will this storm settle down?

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Maha Time Schedule

The New Year should see Maharashtra settle some nagging issues. On Wednesday last, Speaker Narwekar said he sees no hurdle in issuing an order by 10 January (set by Supreme Court), on petitions filed by rival factions of Shiv Sena on disqualification of each other’s MLAs, as hearings have finally concluded. Both SS sides led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray’s SS-UBT have been heard, but only after a rap by SC over the long delay. Likewise, Shinde informed the Assembly that a special session shall be held in February, if necessary, to provide reservation to Maratha community after reviewing a report of Backward Class Commission. The government, he assured ‘will establish’ the community is socially and educationally backward, deserves quota. But Maratha activist Manoj Jarange warned they won’t wait till then and shall hold protests if quota is not granted before December 24. A big question mark hangs though on the how the government will settle controversial Dharavi’s redevelopment plan. The residents of one of the world’s largest slums are protesting the project and no work has begun these past six months! Guess, the phrase ‘time is of the essence,’ is not in government’s dictionary as the three cases reveal.   

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MP Portrait Row

Madhya Pradesh Assembly does both ‘right and wrong’, triggering a controversy. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s portrait has been replaced with father of the Constitution BR Ambedkar’s. Predictably, Congress has charged ruling BJP of disrespecting the ‘nation builder’. While it welcomed Ambedkar’s portrait in the House, starting its 1^st session, removing Nehru’s it was wrong. At same time, it failed to notice the replacement, which happened in last session, in July. Then Speaker had directed replacement of Nehru’s and Gandhi’s portraits as these ‘were getting worn out and be restored.’ But as Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary was being observed, he directed to put it in Nehru’s place and Nehru’s portrait be kept ‘in a respectful manner in the library’s Gandhi-Nehru section.’ An X post of Congress read: “If BJP had honest intentions, it could have placed Nehru’s photo along with Gandhi and Ambedkar. But it’s BJP culture to disrespect freedom fighters and the nation-builder and therefore, it has removed the photo of Nehru.” The big picture alright! ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Round The World

New Delhi, 22 December 2023

The New Kashmir

AN INTERNATIONAL IMPERATIVE

By Prof. (Dr.) D.K. Giri

(Secretary General, Assn for Democratic Socialism) 

A day-long conference with an instructive theme “Strengthening international investment in Kashmir”, was held on 19 December New Delhi. It was co-hosted by Indian Economic Trade Organisation (IETO) and Kashmir Central. There were two major panel discussions; one on the political conditions prevailing in the state after abrogation of Article 370 and the second was rebuilding the economy by “strengthening international investments”. The latter which I happened to chair is the focus of this piece. 

A couple of words about the organisers, IETO is a private entrepreneurial agency in promoting Indian trade abroad and facilitating international investment into India from across the world. It is indeed a dynamic and vibrant organisation engaged in almost all the economic zones of the world – South Asia, Africa, Latin America, West Asia, Europe and the Pacific. It has taken up the cause of Kashmir in terms of raising awareness of the business community in India and abroad in the immense potential of the state in absorbing huge investment in multiple sectors. 

Kashmir Central is a weekly magazine from the Valley which has been working for laying out a genuine and authentic narrative in the state. In the recently published book, “Kashmir: The War of Narratives” the author, who is the editor of the journal talks about how false narratives have harmed the people in the Valley and India as a country. 

The conference sought to eliminate the mismatch between politics and economy in India’s foreign policy. I have talked about it for years since it came out glaringly in my research on the European Union in India 30 years ago. The research has resulted in a book titled ‘The European Union and India: A Study in North-South Relations’. India’s trade deficit was more than 60 per cent with the European Union, yet India did not have a robust policy towards Europe. India’s foreign policy was centred on Pakistan, Soviet Union (Russia) and China, all because of a tenuous security situation in Kashmir. 

Quite a few Kashmiris also suffered from an overriding mindset of confusion over its affiliation to India or Pakistan, at the heavy cost of their economic growth and development. Let me illustrate it with an anecdote. A few years ago, I escorted a delegation of companies led by Scandinavian consulting agency called Rud Pedersen Public Affairs Company. It is fairly a big agency which has just employed the former Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loven as its consultant. 

At the end of the Kashmir visit, a press-meet was organised in the Press Club in Srinagar. As the head of the delegation, Morten Pedersen was sharing his ideas of possible investment by the companies in the state. A journalist stood up to ask about the opinion of Pedersen on Kashmir’s geographical location, whether it should be a part of India or Pakistan! As it was an irrelevant question to an inappropriate person, Pedersen hesitated to answer. I stepped in to snub the journalist, “the delegation is here to explore investment and job creation etc, the status of Kashmir was not their concern”. The journalist should stop harping on the political issue which had to be settled by the Indian state. 

That said, the conference in its two sessions on politics and economy sought to solve the dichotomy by addressing both the sectors. In the politics session addressed by eminent and experienced panellists, the overwhelming opinion was that Parliament endorsed by the Supreme Court has completed the process of integration of Kashmir into India. Any doubt on its belongingness was laid to rest forever. The Kashmiris, even those with a separatist mindset, have reconciled to the reality. Now it was time to build a new narrative in the country and abroad. 

The ruling BJP’s narrative is that Kashmir was ruled by three families – Indira Gandhi’s, Sheikh Abdullah’s and Mufti’s. These families used Kashmir for their own vested interests. Internationally, the ‘Islam in danger’ narrative and Pakistan-Turkey connivance fed the mindset of militants, Mullahs and extremist Islamists subscribing to revivalism. It was also recalled that the Kashmir issue had weighed heavily on India’s foreign policy because of its geo-political and religious importance. 

The economy of the state was discussed in great depth by speakers from the bureaucracy, business, academia and civil society. The focus was on building infrastructure for IT, tourism and other traditional sectors of economy. Tourism, as is well known has the greatest potential. A tourism expert as well as a practitioner from Nepal presented a new tourist map connecting the beautiful spots in the Himalaya corridor spreading from Nepal to Ladakh and Sikkim and Srinagar, and emphasised that tourism creates grassroots economy by catering to all sections of society from the state bodies down to the grassroots like Tongawalla and street shopkeepers. 

On innovative tourism, he quoted Dr. Karan Singh, the scion of the royal family that was at the helm when Kashmir acceded to India. The Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament that in 2022, 1 crore 80 lakh tourists visited the Valley. On law and order, the violence has conspicuously reduced. A stable law and order is a pre-condition for any big investment. 

On global investment in Kashmir, Indian foreign policy should make it a top priority. It has so far dealt with Kashmir as a security issue. Now that the dust has settled in, it should promote Kashmir as an economic imperative. The Valley has immense potential. Foreign companies would like to invest in the state for its cold climate, natural beauty and a large segment of youth population. Kashmiris are good with their hands. If resources and infrastructure are made available, they would create wonders. 

From the security point of view, presence of foreign companies in the Valley should also draw in international support for the stability of the state. The investing countries would naturally protect their business interests. Trouble-mongering countries like Pakistan would not dare sponsor terrorism anymore. Let us not forget that Pakistan was using military resources provided by other countries against India. 

Kashmir is a perfect case for blending security with the economy, trade and diplomacy, and for shifting the focus from politics to economy. At the end of the day, as James Carivilley, the strategist of Bill Clinton said in 1992, which has become universally popular on the critical importance of economic strength, “It is the economy, stupid”. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)