REWILDING INDIA (II)- WE CAN'T RELY ON GOVERNMENTS ALONE.

   As I have stressed in my last blog (Part-I), the job of rewilding is too big and innovative  for governments to handle. Globally, the responsibility is being taken up by individuals, retired corporates and environmentalists wishing to return to nature in some measure what they have extracted from it. There are various models which are being followed in the USA, Europe and Latin America. It would be illustrative to share a few examples with the reader.

  Perhaps the best known and most successful instance is that of Kristine Tompkins and her husband, both ex-corporate honchos. With their own money they have purchased 15 million acres of barren, degraded wildlands in Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) and manage them in PPP mode in coordination with the Wildlife wings of these countries and the cooperation of local natives in matters such as restrictions on grazing of livestock and felling of trees. Photographs show that these lands have been successfully restored to their former status, wildlife species which had disappeared have returned in ever increasing numbers; they include peccaries, swamp deer, the highly endangered green Macaws and jaguar. Out of these millions of acres 13 new National Parks have been established: the Tompkins have also promoted marine reserves. One Eoghans Daltun has purchased 73 acres of barren land in Cork, Ireland and rewilded it, hoping to make it a tourist attraction too.

                                    

                                           [ Colours of Pin valley in HP. Photo by author.]

There are a couple of notable examples in India too, by socially responsible citizens. Perhaps the best known is Jabarkhet Nature Reserve, just outside Mussoorie, established by environmentalist and ex-Programme Director of WWF for Nature, India, Dr. Sejal Worah and businessman J.P.Jain who is the owner of the land. Extending over 950 acres this private forest had gone to seed, overgrown with invasive plants, filled with trash, trees felled by local villagers, damaged by regular forest fires, devoid of any wildlife. It has now been restored with sustainable forest management practices: new planting, coopting locals into banning felling/lopping, removal of more than three tonnes of garbage, measures against forest fires, laying out of fire breaks and walking trails. All this has paid off big time, the forest has regenerated itself and all kinds of wildlife have returned: leopard, bear, red fox, ghoral, sambhar, jungle cat, and 140 species of birds. To make it financially sustainable, its owners have launched a membership drive, made it an ecotourism destination on a payment basis: it broke even in its third year itself!

Tiger expert Aditya "Dicky" Singh has bought 50 acres of wildland just outside Ranthambore National Park and restored its natural habitats and green cover, to the extent that the water table in his rewilded area is at 50 feet, whereas outside it lies at 500 feet. Naturally enough, wild animals including tigers, are regular visitors to his private forest and its brimming waterholes.

  A more humble example is in Majuli, Assam, at 550 hectares the world's biggest riverine island. Subject to biotic pressures and rampant tree felling, Majuli has lost half its area to erosion by the mighty Brahmaputra since 1917. One resident, Jadav Payeng (named the "Forest Man of India" by former President APJ Abdul Kalam), has taken it upon himself to replant the island and give it back to nature. He has been doing so, quietly and anonymously, since 1979, when he was just 16 years old, and has so far planted an area larger than the size of Central Park in NYC- an astounding 340 hectares! Native animals- rhino. elephant, tiger- have all started residing in Payeng's forest. Which makes one wonder- if one ordinary villager can do all this on his own, why can't our vaunted 140 billionaires, 150000 HNIs and $4.33 trillion stock market companies not do so too? 

  India's rapidly degrading eco-systems are in dire need of rewilding, especially in niche areas like the north-east, the Himalayan states and the Western Ghats. The root cause, of course, are the mindless "development" projects, in the teeth of opposition by local people and tribals, and the only beneficiary is Big Capital. The failure of govts, both central and state, to rewild nature is evident in the steady reduction of primary forests and increase in scrub and open forests. Corporates, rich individuals and socially minded citizens owe it to our country to step in and intervene.

                                          

                                    [ Puranikoti landscape. Photo by Geetika Khanna]

Of course, it is not easy to replicate the marvellous feat of the Tompkins in a place like India. Our forest departments and laws suffer from a colonial mind-set- that only the govts. can be trusted to manage forests and wildlife. The Forest Act, Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife Protection Act and various rules are so restrictive as to rule out the entry of any private player or organisation in this area. A prime example is ecotourism. Himachal was perhaps the first state in the country which developed an ecotourism policy in 2006 or 2007 and proposed to lease out forest areas to private entrepreneurs, under strict conditions and regulations, for the development of camping sites. This was shot down by the MOEF on the grounds that forest areas could not be used for non-forest activities! The Ministry has acknowledged its stupidity since then and this activity is now allowed, but we had lost precious years and confidence of the market by then. Another example: farmers who grow plantations on their own land (like "khair") have to struggle against a regressive forest bureaucracy to obtain permission for harvesting them.

  For the concept of rewilding to succeed this mindset has to change. Laws and rules have to be amended, the dog in the manger attitude will no longer work. Private players should be allowed-indeed, encouraged- to buy degraded wild lands, unfarmed farm lands and to rewild them; they should be allowed to mange them under strict rules and guidelines; they should be encouraged to develop their own Working Plans for these forests, reintroduce native wildlife species, and to make these ventures financially viable by setting up ecotourism projects in them. The role of the forest departments should be one of mentoring rather than intrusive and officious regulating.

  CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds can play a huge role in making rewilding possible, and this should be included in the CSR rules specifically as a permissible activity. More than Rs.15000 crore (almost US$ 2 billion) is spent annually under CSR: if even 5% of that went into rewilding it would be a huge step forward. And the icing on the cake would be if our 140 dollar billionaires spent just 1 million dollars every year in this sector, instead of just donating to political parties!

  Incidentally, rewilding should not be confused with the central govt's recently launched "Green Credit" scheme, which is a pure business investment, whereas rewilding is motivated by "wildlands philanthropy". Under the GC scheme, companies pay money to the state govts for greening of barren scrub lands (belonging to the govts) and in return get green credits which are set off against any payments they may be required to make for use of forest lands for their industry/ business purposes. Not only is this hare-brained scheme old wine in a not very new bottle (it is simply Compensatory Afforestation under a new label) like most of Mr. Modi's programmes, not only does it suffer from the same inefficiencies as the CA and CAT Plan schemes, not only have such schemes been discredited world wide, but it also does not conform to the voluntary and philanthropic nature of rewilding. Rewilding is an acceptance of the serial rape of nature by industry and the super privileged, an atonement and reparation for the wrongs inflicted by them on this planet. It cannot be a thinly disguised sop for industry. It cannot be a plea bargain. 

REWILDING INDIA - IS "VANTARA" THE FIRST BABY STEP ? [PART I]

   Amidst the extravagant obscenity of the Ambani pre-wedding in Jamnagar last month, there was, for me, one bright spot of hope. It was news of the establishment of Vantara, the "world's largest private zoo", spread over 1000 acres in which more than ten million trees have been planted, in Jamnagar, Gujarat. According to a very well researched article by Ayaskant Das and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in Newsclick [An Amazing Zoo Story, 29.2.24] the facility is a personal venture of one of the Ambani scions, Anant Ambani, and contains 1461 endangered and 3889 non- endangered species of animals, some of them imported. Vantara has a long history of litigation, objections and questions raised by animal activists. There are issues like: Is it (as it claims) an elephant rescue and rehab centre under the Wildlife Protection Act? Have wild elephants been shifted to the zoo in violation of the Act and rules? Have the rules been tweaked to accommodate the Ambanis? Are private zoos permissible at all?

  These questions will no doubt wend their way through our tortuous judicial system, and I am not commenting on them because they are not the focus of this piece. What I find welcome is that, perhaps for the first time in India, a prominent corporate entity has taken an interest in a matter relating to the natural environment, and in rehabilitating essentially wild species of animals. Even more heartening is the fact that this initiative is being partly funded by CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds which are otherwise disbursed more on political grounds than anything else. This may be the first baby steps towards the conservation and rewilding of our diminishing natural eco-systems, including their wild life.

  Rewilding is a concept and initiative which is gaining traction in many parts of the world, though it is yet to arrive in India in any meaningful way. What it seeks to do is to revive degraded habitats and their indigenous biodiversity which is being destroyed by mindless "development" (in India, think Andaman and Nicobar mega container/tourism/power/township project, the 20000 acre solar plant in Ladakh, Aarey forest in Mumbai, four lane highways through National Parks and tiger habitats, continued decimation of the green cover in the Western Ghats, just for starters). Restoring these areas is no favour to Nature, it is in our own interest. For wildlands provide four essential ecosystem services that sustain all life on this planet: provisioning (timber, food, medicinal plants), regulatory (climate moderation, water flows, carbon capture), cultural (sacred groves, tourism) and supporting ( nutrient cycles, pollination).

                                    

                                                

                                        [ No architect can replicate the beauty of this canopy ]

 There is an urgency to the "wildlands philantrophy" because forests and bio-diversity are disappearing at an alarming rate. Globally, 10 million hectares of forests are lost every year, about the size of Portugal. 30% of the Amazon rain forests are gone. India has lost 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since 2000 [Global Forest Watch]. 500 animal species have become extinct, and animal populations have plummeted by 70%, in the last 50 years. It is estimated that one million species of all life forms are staring at extinction, primarily due to anthropogenic interventions, including climate change. Rewilding could be a means to reverse these trends.

                                

  The job is too big for governments to do, even if they had the political will or aptitude to do it, which they don't. In India, particularly, our colonial minded forest departments, badly funded and poorly led, are ill equipped to meet this challenge. Just to provide an example, take our flagship conservation programme, Project Tiger: the NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority), which oversees 52 Tiger Reserves, has an annual budget of Rs. 50 crores, as compared to the Delhi Horticulture Deptt. which is provided Rs. 125 crores every year! Ranthambore National Park has just about one fifth of the number of Forest Guards it actually needs. It is no different in other countries, which is why the initiative for rewilding globally is being adopted and pushed by individuals and corporate entities. 

  There are many dimensions to, and models for, rewilding, including creation of National Parks, Wildlife sanctuaries and marine sanctuaries; removal of dams and allowing the rivers to flow freely again leading to revival of fish populations and restoring livelihoods of people who have traditionally depended on them(European countries have removed almost 700 dams in the last two years, according to figures compiled by Dam Removal Europe; the USA has removed 2119 dams since 2012); creating nature habitats in urban areas as more and more natural and farming habitats are taken over by sprawling urbanisation. Needless to say, India is an outlier and laggard in all these initiatives, except perhaps the first. Our governments are content to trot out fudged figures of forest cover and tiger populations, and to maintain that our forest area is increasing every year. Whereas the truth is that dense forests have been declining at an alarming rate and what has increased is open forests and scrub land, according to the Forest Survey of India reports. To maintain this statistical charade the definition of "forest" is being regularly diluted: the current one defines any area of 2.50 acres with a tree cover of 10% as Forest! As pointed out by conservationist Aditya 'Dickie' Singh, that would mean that both the Bombay Gymkhana and Delhi Golf Club are forests! (With the mandatory watering holes, of course, to cater to the wildlife which gathers there).

                                                    [Continued in Part II next week]

 

THE VANPRASTHA MOMENT IS ARRIVING, FOLKS !

 

  Notwithstanding that the BJP is not my favourite political party, my family has some connections with it. I myself served with Mr. J.P.Nadda, the BJP President, for three years in Himachal, he was my Minister in the Forest Department, a thorough gentleman and polished politician. My "mausa" was a highly respected RSS Pracharak for many years in Kanpur, till his death. My entire immediate family has been voting for the BJP ever since Mr. Modi opened his tea shop in a Gujarat station that didn't even exist at the time. On voting day I am not served any meals because I vote otherwise. My wife of many years and tears, Neerja, thinks the arrival of Modi is the Second Coming. My mother-in-law  chants the Narendra Chalisa every day. Even my Indie dog (named Brutus in a momentary mis-assessment of his personality), of stout Haryanvi lineage, is a strong votary of the "ghar me ghus ke marna" brand of diplomacy: if he sees an open door in any flat in our society he is wont to rush in and eliminate a few of the neighbours, without bothering to out source it. 

  Comprende, amigo? No, you don't, because you're wondering why I'm telling you all this, and where this is heading. So here's a clue: I'm approaching the age of 74 with the speed of a mythical Bullet train and soon will have reached the mile-stone of 75. That, friends, is the Marg Darshak age in the BJP sub-culture, and seeing that that culture has seeped into the Shukla family, it has grave implications for me.

  The Marg Darshak phase of a politician's life is a modern adaptation by the BJP of the Vanprastha stage in the Hindu Vedic system of life. Just as the BJP is the Congress plus a cow (in the unforgettable words of Arun Shourie) and Mamata Banerjee is Modi with a saree, so Vanprastha can be better understood as Marg Darshak without the Bharat Ratna. It is the third stage of the four stages of Chaturasrama, the first two being Brahmacharya and Grihasta and the final fourth one being Sanyasa. Its literal meaning is "way to the forest" or "retiring to a forest", and its practical meaning is the giving up of worldly possessions and responsibilities, concentrating on moksha or spiritual liberation, and taking up an advisory role. See the connection now between Vanprastha and Marg Darshak? Think Mr. Advani (without the advisory role, of course) and you've got it! The stripping of any Prime Ministerial ambitions or the possession of leadership of the BJP from him in 2014 was, therefore, in the best traditions of Hinduism and Vanprastha, and Mr. Modi can certainly not be faulted for adopting it.

  Actually, Vanprastha is a pretty benign and benevolent concept if you consider what happens to the old critters in other parts of the world. In ancient Egypt they were shoved into hastily constructed pyramids with all their finery and walled up; in Japan they are left in abandoned villages to fend for themselves; in the USA the old fogeys are dispatched to dismal old age homes to watch TV and play canasta; in certain parts of Africa they are left in the bush to provide the main course for the hyenas' night out festivities. Vanprastha, by comparison, does none of this, it simply asks you to take a chill pill, step aside, divest yourself of all responsibilities and properties, and concentrate on moksha. Too bad if you like your Grihasta role just fine and wish to continue being an active RWA Uncle.

  Which is why yours truly is beginning to get worried. Methinks my family, all staunch Modi acolytes, are thinking of persuading me (the gentle, ED brand of persuasion) to go into Vanprastha mode the moment I turn 75. They have the support of most of my friends, various IAS groups, the ungrateful pooch, and the RWA. Not only have my blogs become a nuisance, I continue to refuse to buy a bulldozer to demonstrate my support for the new Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita. The other day I found my son scrolling on the Make My Trip website  looking for reasonably priced caves to book near Amarnath. I don't mind giving up my responsibilities, since the responsibility for everything that goes wrong in the house is laid at my door: it would be a relief to be unburdened of that weight! But I certainly don't want to give up my single malt, or the collection of Bill Bryson books, or the framed photograph of Sunny Leone fully dressed in an enchanting smile, or the award I received in 1958 for my role as the seventh dwarf in the school play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I'm sure a cave would have no place for all these memorabilia.

  But hold on!- maybe I won't have to be put in moth balls, come the 4th of June. You see, there are only two possibilities then- either Mr. Modi loses or he wins. If the former, then he will pack his capacious "jhola" and proceed (without cameras, hopefully) to that cave in Kedarnath he likes so much and hopefully disappear into the fog of history. In that case the 75 year sub-rule shall become 'non est' and get automatically repealed and Marg Darshak/Vanprastha shall be consigned to history. If, on the other hand, he wins, then he will want to savour the loaves of office for another five years (as commanded by God) and continue to, well, bond with his cronies. In which case he will have to amend the Vedas along with the Constitution to expunge Vanprastha along with secularism, federalism, fundamental rights, socialism etc. etc. A win-win for me (and all 75ers), don't you think? As for those who are already in the Marg Darshak phase, they will get a double promotion and transit directly to the Sanyasa stage. I'll worry about that when I turn ninety- the way things are going, I'll probably wish I were dead by then anyway! 

THE SOONER SARKARI ECONOMISTS BECOME EXTINCT THE BETTER.

   In my 55 years of adult life (not adultery, as Spellcheck tried to insinuate, though I wish that was true) I have been trying to understand economists and have consistently failed. In my student days I briefly considered doing Economics, till the chowkidar at the gates of Delhi School of Economics pointed out that I had failed every Maths exam I had taken in my life. He advised me not to bother applying, and I, bowing to superior wisdom, took his advice. I tried English at St. Stephens: apparently, all chowkidars are made of the same timber, because this chap wouldn't even let me enter the hallowed portals, saying the gate was meant to keep gentlemen in and vagabonds out! Hindu College was more broad minded and so I joined there, but let us return to economists.

  Economists have to be a yet-to-fully-evolve sub-set of homo sapiens, with DNA inherited from the dinosaurs, and it would not be a bad thing if their sarkari version at least becomes extinct soon. No two economists can ever agree on any thing, and there are more schools of thought in economics than there are schools in Bihar. Put ten economists in a room and there will be eleven opinions- and all of them will be wrong. Their entire collective wisdom is contained in gems like: you can pull on a piece of string but you cannot push on it. Give me a break, guys, even my Gurgaon born Indie doggie knows this, and he never went to DSE!

  Why is this guy so bugged with economists, you may well ask? Well, they have almost destroyed the planet with their focus on just consumption and GDP,  they consider India's projected fall in TFR (Total Fertility Rate) to 1.29 by 2051 (the latest issue of The Lancet) an unmitigated disaster even though we have 1400 million already, the largest number of poor in the world, cannot provide jobs, food or health care to most of them. And these wise men still want our population to grow? Just so that more "productive labour" is available for their icon capitalists? And now, to further confirm that this discipline should be disbanded, we have three outrageous statements by some of our own, home grown, made-in-India, saffron hued economists.

  Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal, a historian and alleged economist who is a member of the PM's Economic Advisory Council, recently stated that sitting for the UPSC civil service exams was a waste of time, that it betrays a lack of aspirational qualities, that the bureaucracy is boring and offers no excitement or challenges, that the youth should aspire to be entrepreneurs instead ; he spouted some more of the same drivel but I hope you have got the flavour of his wisdom. He has been effectively countered by Sanjeev Chopra, author and retired IAS officer, in a recent article in the THE PRINT , but I need to add my two-bit too.

  With all due respect Mr. Sanyal should stick to history, where he cannot do much damage. People like him in critical policy making bodies, with their ignorance of ground realities, can do immense harm to the country and they are probably the reason why 83% of our educated youth are unemployed, why the state has to provide free food to 800 million persons, why India is the most unequal nation in the world even though we have the fifth largest economy in the world. Sensible policies cannot emerge from brains that think like Mr. Sanyal's does. He understands neither the psyche of the aspirational classes nor the civil services.

  Mr. Sanyal's number- crunching and graph-gazing  job may be as exciting as a romp in the bed with a nymphomaniac, but he has no idea at all about the nature of jobs like the IAS, IPS or even the IFS. No civil service in the world has the kind of diversity and challenges which the All India Services do- from law and order to development programmes, from handling politicians to holding elections, from building infrastructure to providing relief at times of natural disasters. They have kept the country together through 75 years of the most difficult challenges, notwithstanding all their own deficiencies and the disastrous policies of economists of Mr. Sanyal's ilk. There is reason enough for the youth of this country to aspire for these services, something which Mr. Sanyal should commend, and not pour contempt on. Take a chill pill, sir.

  Alarmingly, this gentleman is not alone !One Mr. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India, at a function on the 27th of March said that it is not the govt's responsibility to create jobs, and that the govt. cannot solve the unemployment problem. (83% of the educated youth in India are unemployed, and the more educated you are the more likely you are to be unemployed). To me this sounds very much like Mr. Amit Shah's "selling pakoras on the road is also employment" revelation, and betrays the same arrogance of ex-BJP Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's " government ne naukri dene ka theka nahi liya hai." I have a couple of questions for Mr. Nageswaran: Is it the govt's job only to create billionaires, to ensure that 77% of the country's wealth is owned by the top 10% of its population? [OXFAM report]. Who, pray, will mandate the conditions for job creation if not the govt. of the day?

  Wait! There's more of this hogwash. Another economist, Mr. Arvind Panagariya who is the Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission , has made an even more bizarre pronouncement: that income inequality is a necessary side effect of wealth generation, that those who worry about it are "inequality alarmists". The World Inequality Report ranks India as among the most unequal countries in the world in income parity, another report says that income inequality is now worse than in the colonial era, a billionaire spends on his son's pre-wedding celebrations as much money as 100,000 Indians earn in a year, and Mr. Panagariya says we are being alarmist? The irony, of course, is that he heads a body which is constitutionally mandated to REDUCE inter state disparities and ensure a fair deal for all!

  I shudder to think what kind of advice these gentlemen are giving the political executive on a daily basis. All these eminence grises are of a distinct saffron hue, which is why they probably occupy the positions they do; such statements are necessary, I suppose, to ensure that the colour does not fade, with disastrous consequences for their cushy sinecures. But the fact is that they continue to wallow in  archaic economic ideas which have been discredited long ago by a world now more concerned about rights than privileges. Which is why, like the tyrannosaurus, it is time for them to go. 

KANGANA IN MANDI ; RUNOUT IN HIMACHAL ?

   Seismologists have been predicting an earthquake in the Hindukush Himalayas for quite some time now, and it happened earlier this week. Ms Kangana Ranaut, eminent historian and chronicler of India's independence, has been given the ticket by BJP to contest the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal. This will cause quite a few fault lines and post-quake tremblors in the coming days. The sitting MP from here is  another lady, Rani Pratibha Singh, widow of the late six- time Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh. She, being better informed than the Chief Minister and his Intelligence sleuths, had read the writing on the wall and had announced last week that she would not be contesting. This election, therefore, promises to be a dame-changer.

  We in Himachal. who keep our ears close to the ground to detect tectonic shifts and tremors in the Himalayas, had been expecting this for some time. Ms Ranaut, of course, had in 2021 denied this eventuality, saying Himachal was not "complex" enough for her special talents and therefore lacked challenges: there was no poverty there, and no crime either- both essential prerequisites for winning elections in India. Presumably, the state is now complex, poor and crime ridden enough and its apples ripe for the plucking, what with electoral bonds having introduced it to defections, cross-voting, resort politics and retaliatory disqualifications, all sine- qua- nons of our own version of democracy. And so, in a departure from the Biblical fable, the apple has been offered to Eve, and boy! has she jumped at it!

  Make no mistake- Ms Ranaut would be a formidable candidate. She has proved time and again that she is the only man in Bollywood, she has strong opinions and expresses them in even stronger language, she does not let history, logic, common sense or the truth stand in her imperious way. This is one Ranaut who will be difficult to run out; it will take a hit-wicket to send her back to her Pali Hill house in Mumbai. She needs nothing more than her oomph to win, she is her own man-ifesto. She already has a head start in the race: 50% of Himachal's oxygen starved voters- the men- are already in her Gucci bag: any testosterone deprived male who has the temerity to vote against her will be strung up by the nearest lamp-post, or, since Mandi has no lamp-posts, the nearest deodar tree. As for the remaining 50% females and hussifs, opposing her will be a dicey proposition for them too- their husbands are not likely to be amused, and triple talaqs and quadruple dirty looks would be in order.

  The voter does not yet know what the Rani of Jhansa stands for, other than her theory that India owes its independence to Mr. Modi, not to Nehru, Patel, Mahatma Gandhi et al; never mind that Mr. Modi was not even born when that event happened. On the larger canvas of history, what are a couple of years here and there. after all? We shall, no doubt, learn more history during the course of her campaigning. Which is another cause of concern for me. You see, her constituency includes the high mountains of Mandi, Manali and Lahaul-Spiti, with their glaciers and snow-fields already subject to climate change and warming. My worry is that Ms Ranaut's oomph, in such close proximity to them, might hasten their melting. I am thinking of writing a letter to the Election Commission, asking that she be directed to stay at least 5 kms from any glacier or ice field, in the interest of preserving the ecology of the state. Especially as its rationality will go for a six the moment the lady files her nomination. 

  I whole-heartedly welcome the glamour and straight-talking her entry brings to politics in Himachal, which had become a staid, boring contestation between green caps and maroon ones; it will never be the same again, thank God! But I deplore and roundly condemn the trolling Ms Ranaut has been subjected to: why is it, I wonder, that attractive, outspoken, independent women bring out the worst in the Indian male? I suspect that, patriarchal ignoranuses that we are, we feel threatened by such ladies. The only cure for such troglodytes is to have more women in politics and public life. Not, mind you, that Ms Ranaut herself is blameless in such matters, or that she has not disrespected women publicly: we still recollect her describing Urmila Matondkar as a "soft porn star", and saying that the anti-CAA protesting women at Shahin Bagh had been purchased for Rs. 100 each. Her language can match that of any meat seller in the Murgi Mandi in East Delhi, she is no respecter of women (or anyone for that matter), and needs to do a Betadine gargle before she speaks. But none of that justifies social media abuse of a woman, period.

  That being said, this is also a moment of reckoning for me personally- how can I continue to rail against the BJP if the Manikarnika lady waltzes into my cottage and asks for my support with that Barbie-girl pahari accent, that wide-eyed, limpid look piercing one's heart like an AK47 bullet and lobotomising the frontal lobe of the brain instantaneously? A mouse fixed by the stare of a cobra would have more freedom of action than I would in such circumstances. A man, folks, has to be a man when the chips are down, even though he may be knocking on Mr. Parkinson's door or Mr. Alzheimer's study. Methinks I'll take myself off to Mr. J.P. Nadda's office for some badly needed advice- I'm told it's now pro-bono and does not need the prior purchase of any electoral bonds.

G.N.SAIBABA AND THE BIG HOLE IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM- THE NEED FOR REPARATIONS

 

         LAW NEEDED TO COMPENSATE VICTIMS OF WRONGFUL ARRESTS.

 

Earlier this month the Delhi University Professor, G.N Saibaba, who suffers from a 90% disability, was acquitted by the High Court of charges under the UAPA. He had been in detention for more than nine years, during which time his already fragile health has deteriorated and he has been terminated from his job. The Supreme Court has rightly refused to stay his exoneration and release. Some years ago Dr. Kafeel Khan, of the Gorakhpur hospital tragedy fame who tried to save infant lives by buying oxygen cylinders out of his own pocket and was jailed by the UP govt. for it, had been freed by the Allahabad High Court which found no evidence against him. He was kept in various prisons for eight months without legal justification. Dr. Khan, however, was one of the lucky ones.

This govt. has been in an overdrive these last ten years to lock up anyone who can think independently of its propaganda machinery, or express himself in opposition to its anchors and spokespersons- academists, activists, the rare journalist, students, NGOs. One of its main instruments in this pogrom is the deadly legacy bequeathed it by the Congress, the UAPA ( Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) now suitably amended by the BJP to fit its image. NCRB data shows that 5023 cases had been registered under UAPA between 2018 and 2022, and 701 under sedition sections. During the period 2014-2020, 10522 persons were arrested. Tellingly, however, according to information furnished by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Rajya Sabha in 2021, the conviction rate of arrested persons under this Act is less than 3%! In other words, 97 out of 100 arrested persons are ultimately acquitted. And this is only at the trial court stage; after the appeals process the convicted figure would come down even further. And this exposes the government’s game: the idea is not to convict since the charges are usually trumped up and without any evidence, the intention is to harass, teach “them” a lesson, intimidate and take them out of circulation for as long as possible. The govt. has nothing to fear if its cases fail in court, for there is no accountability and no penalties.                                                                                                        But in the process tens of thousands of innocent persons have been locked up for months and years without reason. Anjum Zamarud Habib was in prison for 5 years,  Mohammad Amir Khan for 14 years, the Akshardham temple blast accused for much longer before being exonerated of terrorism charges. That is why Kafeel Khan was lucky, and why this is as good an inflection point as any to consider the endemic problem of malicious prosecution and wrongful arrests in this country, and whether or not the state should provide reparation to these victims of deliberate state excesses.                                                                                                                                  The guarantee that no citizen shall be deprived of his personal liberty without reasonable evidence against him is the bedrock of human rights, and the corner stone of an equitable system of justice.  As the criminal justice system heads towards total collapse and the govt. compensates by legislating more and more draconian laws stipulating arrests without any inquiry and/ or no provision of bail, such detentions shall surely increase. It is time to address the issue rationally.

     Citizens in India are being confined illegally on a colossal scale, either in police lock-ups or in judicial custody. Our prison population is in excess of five lakhs, of which 70% are undertrials who have not yet been convicted of any offence. The majority of them are not likely to be convicted either. According to NCRB data again the national conviction rate for IPC offences is just 45%; in other words, of the 3.50 lakh undertrials in jail 55% or 2..45 lakhs will be found innocent for want of evidence ! A further 25% of them will get off on appeal. But they would have spent years behind bars, deprived of their liberty and natural rights, their future blighted by the stigma of imprisonment, unemployment and broken families. Why were they arrested in the first place ? Why did the courts send them to judicial custody if there was no prima facie evidence against them ?

    The answer is nothing short of an indictment of our criminal justice system: callous apathy, venality and incompetence of the police, failure and lack of due diligence on the part of our lower courts , and complete indifference of the policy makers. To begin with, many of our laws themselves are defective to the point of being blood thirsty- laws relating to dowry deaths,  suicide, rape, domestic violence, atrocities on scheduled castes, sedition, terrorism are so crafted that the " accused" can be arrested straightaway without the need for any corroborating evidence. This is grist to the police mill which in any case is more interested in " closing" a case by arresting someone than in ensuring that actual justice is done by catching the real culprits . Quite often public/ political/ media pressure is so intense that an arrest-any arrest- is the only way to get them off their backs. Thereafter shoddy investigation, external influences, lengthy trial delays, witness intimidation, frequent transfers and lack of any accountability ensure that at least 55 of 100 cases will inevitably end in acquittal, either at the trial stage itself or in appeal(s). Meanwhile, of course, those arrested will languish in jail.

    The same bizarre process applies to convictions after trial. In the Akshardham Temple blast case of 2002, six accused were convicted by the trial court and High Court: three were sentenced to death and three others to imprisonment ranging from 10 years to life. All six were acquitted by the Supreme Court on 16th May 2014 . But by then their lives had been destroyed as they had spent the intervening ten years in jail. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of such cases playing out every year. It boggles the mind how two judges, on the same set of facts and evidence, can come to such polar opposite decisions- life sentence by one, and acquittal by the other. The other question is: should the nation not compensate them for the miscarriage of justice, at least financially, even though no reparation could possibly bring back the years lost, the reputations tarnished, the families torn apart?

   There are many types of wrongful confinement: False Arrest (detaining a person without lawful authority), Wrongful Arrest (taking someone into custody without prima facie evidence), Wrongful Imprisonment (confining someone without just cause or without using legal channels), and Wrongful Conviction (imprisoning someone on grounds/ evidence subsequently found to be inadequate). The first three are blatant violations and transgressions of the law; only the last type is a consequence of a (defective) legal process, but it is nonetheless no solace to the victim. All four are rampant in India.

   The  really genuine and accountable democracies have accepted that victims of a necessarily imperfect criminal justice system are entitled to reparation from the state, and have devised mechanisms for it. In the USA 29 states have legislated Wrongful Conviction Compensation statutes which provide compensation ranging from US$ 50,000 to US$100,000 for every year of wrongful imprisonment. A typical case is that of one Marty Tankleff who was wrongly convicted for the murder of his parents and had to spend 17 years in incarceration before he was acquitted in 2007. He was awarded compensation of US$ 3.4 million dollars . In the UK , Canada, New Zealand, Germany too systems exist for the state to be sued in such cases. It is next to impossible to do so in India because both, specific legislation or a general law,  are missing. We have failed to enact a law on reparations even though India is a signatory to the International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights.

The framework for having such a law exists, however. Articles 32 and 26 of the Constitution allow the Supreme Court and the High Courts, respectively, to pass orders and provide relief in such matters, and it is the constitutional right of a citizen to approach the courts. There is also a wealth of jurisprudence and case law to mandate that the state pay compensation for wrongful confinement. The relevant landmark judgments by the Supreme Court are in Bhim Singh vs State of Jammu and Kashmir, and in Rudul Sah vs State of Bihar ( 1983); in the latter case the SC laid down the legal responsibility of the State in no uncertain terms:

“ The State must repair the damage done by its officers to the petitioner’s rights. It may have recourse against its officers.”

Over the years both the Supreme Court and various High Courts( MP, Jharkhand, Kerala, Bihar, Assam, Madras) have also awarded compensation to petitioners in their writ jurisdiction, the most notable and recent one being the Rs. 13 million reparation paid to the ISRO scientist Nambi Narayan by the Kerala govt. for arresting and hounding him for 26 years on false spying charges.

But this sporadic, discretionary, pick and choose approach is certainly not adequate. Let us not forget that most of the undertrials and victims of police high handedness and judicial apathy come from the weakest sections of society (economically and socially) and do not have the resources to file writ petitions and engage expensive lawyers. Nor do they have the social eminence of a Nambi Narayan to motivate the media to take up their case. There should be a simple, specific legislation that can be accessed at the level of a district court or even a statutory authority like the District Magistrate. The law should, among other aspects, lay down the compensation to be paid for both pecuniary and non pecuniary damage caused to the petitioner by his illegal confinement, and the scale of reparation should be based on that. There should also be a provision for recovery of the amount from the salaries of the officials involved. This is necessary to curb the growing enthusiasm of the police to carry out any illegal order of their political bosses, or even to indulge their own brutish instincts. 

  The standard argument of governments has been that the state cannot afford the financial burden. Yes, there would be a cost ; a back of the envelope calculation shows that if even 50% of undertrials are ultimately released and compensated by Rs. 50000 for every year of wrongful incarceration, and assuming that (a) each of them has to be given compensation for five years and (b) that one fifth of the undertrials would be released/need to be compensated each year, the annual payout would be Rs 1250 crores. To put that in perspective, that is just 15% of what the Prime Minister's special planes cost,  or 30% of what the Statue of Unity cost the exchequer, or less than 25% of what the PM spent on his publicity last year. Surely a vaunted five trillion dollar economy can bear this cost of destroying hundreds of lives? 

  And this figure shall come down drastically over time once the positive spin-offs of this reparatory policy kick in. These will include:

* Better investigation of cases and collection of evidence, leading to fewer unwarranted arrests and reduction in the number of undertrials over time. 

* Fewer adjournments in courts, with more accused being released on bail.

* With financial accountability now being fixed, the police shall be more circumspect in detaining people and in framing them to manufacture "results".

* The govts, both states and central, will be more careful and discerning in filing appeals against acquittals (an invariable practice currently) since now there may be a further cost attached if the appeals are not successful.

* The case load in the courts at all levels shall come down, making the whole justice system more efficient, even generating financial savings in the administration of justice ecology. 

   Wrongful confinement of any type by any agency of the state is a violation of human rights, and when it occurs on the scale that it does in our country it amounts to a negation of an equitable justice system. The prevailing concept of "arrest first, gather evidence later" is abhorrent to the spirit of jurisprudence. One can understand the indifference of the government and the parliamentarians, but what is inexplicable is the silence of the judiciary and the bar. Is it because the former is equally guilty through its casual approach, and the latter because this infringement of fundamental rights is good for business? Whatever the reason may be, it is high time laws are put in place to compensate the victims of wrongful arrests/ convictions and to punish the perpetrators. At the least, this would have a salutary effect on the way our police conduct investigations and the judges examine evidence. The people have voluntarily given the state enormous power over their lives in order to live in a just and lawful society; when the state errs in the exercise of this power it must offer reparation to its victims. Not doing so would be breaking a covenant that is the bedrock of a democracy.

 

 

 

DINOSAURS IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER.

 

  Now that Woman's Day has been commemorated suitably - by Ms Ambani coiling the GDP of Pakistan around her shapely neck at Jamnagar, and the Didi from West Bengal staging another march to honour the rape victims of Sandeshkhali instead of promptly arresting the rapists, and our Prime Minister gifting housewives a one hundred rupee cut in LPG prices after raising them by five hundred rupees, and Ms Hema Malini being given another ticket for the Lok Sabha elections in recognition of her outstanding record in Parliament - perhaps we can now get back to the real business of showing women who's the boss in the land of the Manusmriti. Just in case they haven't got the message yet even after the thrashing of Olympic women champions near Parliament, or the chicanery of using the census to deny women reservations in Parliament, or persisting with legalised rape by refusing to recognise marital rape as a crime or removing the abhorrent provision of "restoration of conjugal rights". For, tokenism is what our governments and society are best at, and in the matter of treating women as equals in India, the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

  Madhu Bhaduri, retired diplomat and writer, in her book LIVED STORIES, makes a startling disclosure of a fact which perhaps most people are/ were not aware of (I certainly wasn't even after 35 years in government service and 13 more years in the pasture). It appears that till the late 1970s women officers in the IFS needed prior permission to marry, and that even then they risked losing their promotions and even their jobs as their "domestic commitments is likely to come in the way of the efficient discharge of duties." No such stigma was attached to their male colleagues. This was not just gender bias, this was outright gender contempt. The matter was fortunately laid to rest by Justice Krishna Iyer in the early 80s on a petition by the IFS's first lady officer. The judge struck down the offending Rule 8(2) of the IFS (Conduct and Discipline) Rules 1961 as being violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. 

  That was almost 50 years ago, and much water, muck and money has flowed down the Yamuna since then. Actually, the water and money has, but much of the muck is still stuck in New Delhi's testosterone-filled corridors of power, at least where gender discrimination is concerned. One such odorous piece surfaced just last month.

  NDTV/ Business Standard/ Hindu have reported on the mystifying issue of a notification by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to the effect that if a married woman wishes to revert to her maiden name she will have to either produce a decree of divorce or furnish an NOC from her husband! Apart from undoing decades of gender affirmative action by the courts, this order also establishes that dinosaurs are still alive and thriving, thank you, in South and North Block. For what it does is reinforce the hoary tradition of women being chattel, the property of the husband, without an independent identity or any freedom of action to make her own decisions.

  The order has been challenged, of course, in the Delhi High Court and will no doubt be quashed (with the concerned Secretary being sent for a mandatory course on gender equality, hopefully) but it does remind me of the occasion in 2007 when I applied for a second LPG connection for my newly constructed cottage in Mashobra. I was informed by the company that, since I already had a connection in my name in Shimla, I was not entitled for a second one. But since I was one of the four pillars of the government then (one Chief Secretary and three Addl. Chief Secretaries, of which I was one), an exception could be made in my case: a second connection could be issued in my wife's maiden (not married!) name, provided she submitted an affidavit stating that she was divorcing me! Neerja and I did a quick cost-benefit analysis and decided that, though the idea had occurred to her independent of the LPG connection, it was now too much of a hassle to revert to her maiden name and start looking for her ex-beaus. So we stayed married, but it was a close call, folks. (I did finally secure that second connection, but claim the Fifth Amendment to refuse to disclose how).