THE FOURTH OF JUNE - AND THE DAY AFTER.

   I sincerely hope the Hon'ble Lordships who dismissed the petitions for mandatory counting of VVPAT slips (with wholly unwarranted aspersions on the petitioner, the Association for Democratic Reforms) are able to sleep soundly these days. I also hope they have by now realised how misplaced their touching faith in the current Election Commissioners was.  For every round of polling brings fresh disturbing news of malfunctioning of EVMs, of only the BJP symbol being displayed no matter which key one presses, of EVMs being "captured" by ruling party goons with the connivance of the police, of Muslim voters not being allowed to vote, of a BJP candidate (who has no business being inside a polling booth except to cast her vote) forcibly lifting the burkhas of Muslim women to verify their ID, of CCTV cameras in strong-rooms being rendered ineffective by electricity "failure", of en mass deletion of names of voters of a particular community. All accompanied by the sepulchral silence of the Election Commission.

  In one of the laziest judgments delivered in recent times, the Hon'ble judges premised their order on a complete faith in the Election Commission and its impartiality. How wrong they were is being proved on a daily basis. For the present Election Commission is the most deplorable, partisan and incompetent one we have had since 1947. It is as transparent as a block of granite, as communicative as a trappist monk with a vow of silence, and as straight as a corkscrew. It takes no action on hate speeches, allows a communal video to be shown for four days before taking it down just hours before polling, it is petrified of even taking the Prime Minister's name, let alone calling him out for persistent anti-Muslim baiting, its "notices" are targeted mainly at the Opposition parties, it changes, without any explanation, the practice of revealing polling numbers instead of just percentages: it takes days to reveal even this information in the age of "digital India"! And, in order to leave no doubt as to which corner of the ring it is in, it castigates the President of the country's largest opposition party for raising just this issue in a letter! The credibility of this Commission has hit rock bottom but it continues to dig deeper every day. All of us knew this, but apparently the Hon'ble judges did not.

  I fear the nation may pay a huge price for this indefensible misjudgment of the Commission's character and intentions. The real mischief will happen on counting day.

*                                          *                                           *                                    *                                  *

  It appears that some of Mr. Modi's divinity has rubbed off on me too: these days, perched in my mountain home at 7000 feet, I feel like Moses on Mount Sinai, surveying the frenetic goings-on far below with cynical disapproval. Things haven't changed much since the days of Moses either- what he beheld was worship of the golden calf, what I see now is hysteria about the saffron cow (speaking metaphorically, of course). To provide a non-Abrahamic analogy, I feel a bit like Jamlu Devta of Malana village on the heights of Chandrakhani Pass, observing  the other inferior devtas of Kullu conducting their road shows (it IS election time, after all!), each trying to impress the voter- sorry, devotee- to be declared the numero uno. ( Incidentally, Jamlu Devta is not to be confused with Jumla Devta, the other reigning deity in Delhi).

  And what I see is that, notwithstanding the indulgence (if not worse) of the Election Commission, the misuse of the official apparatus and the thousands of crores of bribes as electoral bonds being allowed to be retained, the BJP is going to fall short of a simple majority by at least 30-40 seats. The rag-tag NDA allies may garner another 30 or so seats, but it is unlikely that they will bail the BJP out: as Parakala Prabhakar explained to Karan Thapar in a recent interview, these parties are "contextual" not "ideological" allies of the BJP, and when the context changes they will jump ship like the proverbial rats. And that is when the fun begins, or the shit hits the ceiling. It is something we all should be discussing and worrying about, because this moment will put to the test every single institution, conventions and laws we have so painstakingly created over the years.

  Mr. Modi has been in power continuously for the last 22 years, and has made no secret of the fact that he loves it so much that he is not likely to hand it over to any one else, election or no election. He has, after all, been ordained to rule by God himself. Moreover, he has much to lose and fear if he has to relinquish power. His atrocities and excesses have made him many enemies; having lived by the sword he can expect no quarter from them. His imperious decisions will be called into question and investigated- Rafael, demonetisation, PM Cares fund, Electoral bonds, Pegasus, the Panama and Pandora papers, the Hindenberg expose on Adani, the award of contracts, ports, airports, mines, railways to cronies. Cadavers from the past will be exhumed to point their gory fingers at him- the Gujarat riots of 2002, the NE Delhi riots of 2021, Judge Loya, the Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi encounters, the killings in Manipur, the imprisonment of Sanjiv Bhat and human rights activists: many more may emerge once the repressive lid is lifted off a citizenry and media muzzled for the last ten years.

  He will not, however, be without powerful allies who have been his accomplices in his megalomaniac excesses- bureaucrats, the police and defense forces, institutions like the Election Commission, Reserve Bank of India, Banks, SEBI and other regulatory bodies, even the judiciary. Just about every organ of government has, in the last ten years, been infiltrated by right wing sympathisers if not outright "bhakts", and for all of them this will be a moment that will endanger not only the continuance of Mr. Modi but  their own survival. They will provide the pushback to, and try to prevent, any change of regime, and, since they will continue to occupy positions of power in the system, they will constitute a potent challenge.

  With the kind of resources he will still have, and the strength of the backing from within the governmental structure, Mr. Modi can be expected to move heaven and earth to stay on in power. There will be no repeat of 1977 when Mrs. Gandhi handed over power peacefully, and for good reasons: our institutions and systems of checks and balances have been thoroughly eroded over the last decade, an independent media no longer exists, the character of our politicians has plumbed unimagined depths, and the very fabric of society has been torn and shredded. The engineering of large scale violence on the pattern of the January 6th violence in Washington cannot be ruled out, giving the present regime the perfect excuse to declare an Emergency, suspend all rights and call out the uniformed forces who have shown that they are not at all adverse to a touch of high handedness and have their own take on how best to preserve the "sovereignty of the nation". The fate of the nation will then depend on the President and the Supreme Court; somehow, however, I cannot muster up much confidence or hope in either.

  If, in spite of the election results (or because of manipulated results), Mr. Modi and the BJP/NDA  manage to retain power for the next five years, India will cease to exist as a genuine democracy. But then, as Satan said, for some it is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven.

WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE ARE MANY WAYS

   April is the cruelest month, and not only for the reasons given by T.S.Eliot: it is also that dreaded month when we have to turn our minds to filing our income tax returns for the benefit of the lady-who-doesn't- have-money- to- fight-elections but, like Oliver Twist, is always asking for more. But this year April has been harsher than usual because of the introduction of two surprise imponderables: Inheritance tax and Covishield. The two, my CA tells me, should induce all of us to do a bit of "estate planning" and think of life after death.

  It is now undeniable that AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine had very serious side effects, and that they were actually bedside effects, i.e. they laid you out flat on your bed, never to rise again, not even in Jerusalem or Golgotha. After the emergence of damning evidence in a London court, it has been reported on the 7th of March that the vaccine has been withdrawn globally. That is cold comfort to the millions who might now be living under a death sentence. The possibility of an Inheritance tax has now been mooted by an emigre but influential Congressman, and Mr. Modi himself has explained it in his usual simple, crass language-namely, that if you have two buffaloes the Congress will take one away. He has not, however, explained what will happen if you have two wives. My well- informed CA tells me that that will depend on whether wives are regarded as assets or liabilities.

  Be that as it may, these developments have led me to seriously consider executing my will, since the afore mentioned bedside effect can come into play at any time and fell me in one fell swoop (I had taken two of the ruddy shots). Mr. Modi, I'm told, has already disappeared from the digital vaccination certificates and may soon disappear also from 7, Lok Kalyan Marg; as the poet said: If Modi goes, can Shukla be far behind? Which is why I'm now seriously considering the redistribution of my poverty (in the absence of any wealth), among my progeny and Neerja.

 The first obstacle you run up against when registering a Will is to prove that you are of "sound mind". The magistrate, having read some of my blogs, had serious reservations about that in my case. I patiently explained to him that soundness of my mind is a relative thing, has its ups and downs (as the Duke told the Duchess one unsuccessful night), and has to be seen in its context. I referred him to Mr. Modi's speeches about buffaloes and mangalsutras, Mr. Amit Shah's statement about a five trillion tonne economy, Surjit Bhalla's claim that the Modi govt. has ushered in true secularism, Jaishankar's boast that India was the leader of the global south-and then slipped in the knife: if these jokers could be considered sane enough to decide the fate of the nation, was I not sane enough to decide what to do with the accumulated fruits of my labours? His Honour, being of sound mind himself, immediately agreed and signed off with an RO+AC.

  For the record, I don't really have much to bequeath to my next-of-kin. The bank deposits and FDs will disappear soon at the current rate of inflation and taxation; whatever little is left will probably go to cyber fraudsters. The cottage in Purani Koti will probably have to be sold to pay off the inheritance tax. The car belongs to Mr. Gadkari anyway, what with fuel prices, the highway robbery legalised as toll fees, and the rule that requires it to be scrapped after ten years. But to be honest, I don't give a shit, as the honey badger confided to his mate: my family will probably live a better life without me lurking in the shadows. And, in any case, I would like to believe that these baubles do not constitute my real wealth and legacy.

  For, of all my possessions the ones I am most proud of, and which give me most happiness, are the trees I've planted on my land in Purani Koti, near Mashobra. I, along with my sister-in-law Anjali, had bought about 6 bighas (little more than an acre) of land there in the early 2000's and I decided to convert it into a little green oasis before the village was taken over by hotels and guest houses. The latter has happened but so has the oasis! I had the full backing of Anjali, who was keen to compensate for her otherwise Delhi based (carbon) footprint, which is slightly bigger than Godzilla's footprint.

                                            

                                                            [ A grove of robinia trees]

                                                                  [ Weeping willows]

  I did an enumeration of the trees on our lands yesterday and counted a total of 209 trees, of both the forest and fruit varieties. An examination of old photographs reveals that there were only about 15 fruit trees when we acquired the land, so we have added almost 200 trees, and they are all doing well, the fruit trees are all organic. The forest varieties comprise deodar, blue pine, robinia, horse chestnut, oak, weeping willows and chinar; the fruit variety are apple, pear (nashpati), cherry, plum. I have no sense of guilt in admitting that I have begged, bought, borrowed and stolen to get these plants from all corners of the state !- from the Jalori pass, Tirthan valley, Manali. The greenery is now a haven for birds of more species than I can recognize, and we even have visiting species like parakeets, swallows, Himalayan magpies, pheasants and barbets at different times of the year. The bulbuls are permanent residents and have bed-tea with Neerja and I on our terrace every morning (see photo).

                                                                   [ Horse chestnut ]

                                                   [ Our regular morning tea companion]

                                                               [ Cheer pheasant chicks]

                                                               [All photos by the author]

  This then is the possession I really value, my own creation without any embedded advantage of birth, education or inherited wealth, something I can be proud of. I would like to consider this my real legacy, not only for my family but for mother earth. It feels good to leave one tiny part of this planet a better place than one found it. And it needs no Will- just a dream!

THIS IS NOT JOURNALISM, Ms. SHARMA, IT'S COMPLICITY.

   I don't know what brain supplement Palki Sharma has been taking of late, some kind of Patanjali churan probably, but I would advise her to discontinue it immediately. It is detaching her from reality, causing her to hallucinate and making her colour blind to all hues except saffron. Till now, I had regarded her as an articulate journalist and presenter, who did immaculate research on her subjects, and made her points convincingly. No more, not after her sacerdotal (to the Supreme Leader) speech at the Oxford Union debate. With this one speech she has brought herself down to the level of those despicable prime time anchors of Republic TV, Times Now, Aaj Tak and News 18.

  In the year old video which has surfaced again and made to go viral, she proclaims that she is proud of being an Indian in Modi's India, recounted his "achievements" on the economy, defense, social cohesion, federalism, freedom of speech, religion, dissent, independence of institutions and the press etc., and was duly applauded by the Prime Minister himself, who usually reserves such plaudits for lynch mobs, rapists, bigots, and other assorted scoundrels. I hope she is comfortable in such company, because I would certainly not be. All that she said was a leaf from Mr. Amit Malviya's Book of Lies, and it is tragic that someone like her was taken in so easily by these untruths and half truths.

  No, Ms Palki Sharma, I am not proud to be an Indian in Modi's India. Of my 73 years the first 63 were spent holding my head high as an Indian because, for all our poverty and other shortcomings, we were at least one united nation. We revelled in our diversity (notwithstanding the occasional riot or two) and our Ganga-Jamuna "tehzeeb"; we held fast to our principles and values, we respected the values and aspirations enshrined in our constitution, and we did make steady progress up the economic ladder. We were a nation respected globally, not because we were just a big market or a counter-point to China, but because we were a genuine democracy which provided a moral compass and hope to the rest of the world. The last ten years of Mr. Modi have undone all this good, painstaking work, just because a vain, semi-literate, narcissistic demagogue thinks he is bigger than all his predecessors put together; indeed, bigger than the nation. I have reason enough not to be proud of being an Indian these days. Because the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, and Ms Palki Sharma's pudding is nauseating and poisonous.

  It is difficult, if not impossible, to be proud of a Prime Minister whose bat-like vision does not extend beyond hate for minorities, contempt for science and reason, malice towards the opposition, and whose only goal in life is to stay in office. One cannot be proud of a man utterly lacking in compassion, whose every second word is a lie, who makes a virtue of his profound ignorance and, in the best traditions of all fake God-men with which this country abounds, considers himself a messenger of God. The summum bonum of his life is contained in just one letter- M: Muslim, Mutton, Macchli and Mangalsutra. His language has plumbed depths never seen before of any leader, let alone a Prime Minister. Any civilized society would be ashamed of having a leader like him.

  Our economy too, which Palki Sharma extols to high heavens, is nothing to be proud of. Sure, it's growing, but what else would you expect of the most populous nation on earth? Even if our entire population was starving at two dollars a day (like our 220 million BPL families) we would still be a one trillion dollar economy. Every figure released by the govt. regarding the GDP is fudged, surveys which would say otherwise are either not conducted or kept under wraps. The real state of our economy is reflected, not in the GDP or even per capita income, but in other indicators: that 800 million people have to be given free rations, that 83% of our youth are unemployed, that even IITs and IIMs are unable to place 50% of their graduates, that bank deposits are falling and personal loans/debts have shown an increase of 66% since 2021, that more than 250000 MSMEs have had to shut down, that almost 240000 rich and educated Indians have surrendered their citizenship in the last eight years alone, that private investment has been falling every year, that 60 million people have had to return to agriculture because there are no jobs for them, that the share of manufacturing in the economy has declined to an all time low of 13% of GDP, that 1% of the population own 40% of the country's wealth and 10% own 70%, leaving only 6% for the bottom 50%, making India one of the most inequitable countries in the world. In the words of Parakala Prabhakar, Mr. Modi's economic ideology is a simple one: give five kgs of free rice to the people and five airports to his favoured cronies.

  GDP growth under Modi, which most respected economists put at about 6.2% and not the 7.4% touted by the govt., continues to lag behind the achievement of both UPA I and UPA II, and is driven, not by the private sector, but by massive state expenditure on infrastructure and capital intensive projects. This too has been on the back of unsustainable borrowings- our external debt has now crossed 150 lakh crores, three times what it was in 2014. The only beneficiaries of this model of economics have been the billionaires and millionaires whose tribe continues to multiply manifold. There is little to be proud of here.

  It is no surprise that, in her cloying veneration for the Modi era, Ms Sharma fails to notice the state of our institutions, their steady degeneration to camp followers of the ruling regime. They have become instrumentalities, not of the state, but of the BJP. One had never expected to see the three monkeys of the Mahatma resurrected in this modern era, but they have been reborn again: the CAG is blind to the loot of the exchequer going on all around him, the Election Commission never speaks, the judiciary is deaf to the entreaties of civil society and citizens. One can list out the instances where their silence, biases and helpful interpretations of the law have contributed to the hollowing out of our democracy, but that would require a whole book by itself. As Kapil Sibal has pointed out, history will judge them some day, but by then it may be too late.

  The lady is at her absurd best (worst?) when she claims that India is the leader of the global south even as we are completely isolated on the issue of Palestine-Israel conflict; that the world comes to us for advice whereas the fact is that we are a perpetual fence-sitter at the United Nations, never committing our selves to any principles or position; that we have forged close ties with our neighbours, even as in the Modi years we have lost Nepal. Srilanka, the Maldives and now even Bhutan to China; that Kashmir has never been so peaceful as after the abrogation of Article 370, whereas militant related deaths (of citizens, security forces and terrorists) have GONE UP since then. Even our strategic "friends"- the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany- have now begun to have doubts over both the internal repression in India and our gun-for-hire foreign policy. But Palki Sharma will not tell her audience about these uncomfortable home truths.

  Every single encomium handed out by her to the Modi govt. is contradicted by global surveys and indexes- Hunger Index, Press Freedom Index, Religious Freedom Index, Inequality Index, Environment Protection Index, Gender Equality Index, Electoral Democracy Index, Human Capital Index; and in all of them we have slid down the rankings since 2014. But Ms Sharma deliberately ignores them in a speech which is more a propaganda handout by the BJP's IT Cell than an address by a hitherto respected journalist. 

  I doubt if any advice would make Palki Sharma change her mind, but she would do well to remember, in the slightly adapted words of George Orwell, that journalists who support politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims...but accomplices. They too shall be judged one day. 

 

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).

THE GANGS OF FATEHPUR

 

THE GANGS OF FATEHPUR.

   Ensconced in my tiny village near Mashobra in the Shimla hills in the summers, I feel like Raja Hari Singh Katoch of Kangra when he was besieged in the Kangra fort by Jahangir in 1620.  Worse, actually, because the stalwart Raja had to put up with the inconvenience for only fourteen months whereas I have had to endure it every year for the last 14 years. And it's not the Mughal army I have to contend with but the Khan Market and Lutyen's gangs of Delhi.

   Come April every year and members of these gangs, in their tens of thousands, clamber up the mountain landscape and take over our roads, markets, forests and every bed in every homestead. Like locusts they devour everything and leave behind in their wake tonnes of plastic, bottles, empty packets of chips, cigarettes and condoms. Like Jahangir, they lay claim to our lawns, apple trees and parking places; the women have been spared so far, but that's only because we hide them with the cattle. We huddle in our houses, waiting for the pestilence- called tourists in modern parlance- to pass.

   I have given the origins of this annual invasion a lot of thought, and have come to the conclusion that it occurs primarily because we no longer visit our grandparents, and instead prefer to go on vacation to the hills! Think about it. The internet, competitive consumerism and the breakdown of familial relationships drive us to constantly seek " new experiences" and new vistas. If the Junejas can do it, we reason, so can we. Even if it means being stuck for eight hours on the Rohtang pass, being ripped off by taxi drivers in Dharamshala or abused by the pony wallahs in Kufri. It was different when we were growing up in the fifties and sixties.

  My grandfather, a patriarch no one messed with, stayed in a village of Fatehpur district in UP called Husainganj (unless the good Yogi has now changed its name). He had built himself a huge haveli there from the proceeds of his book shops in Calcutta, and inscribed one golden rule in its stones: all his children and 17 grandkids had to visit him every summer: he even paid for the rail tickets. So I never even saw a mountain( or sea, or desert) till I was 25: the only mountain I had seen was the stupendous landfill in Ghazipur, which, like the Himalayas continues to grow each year. Every summer vacation my Dad would pack the family into a second class coach of the Kalka mail at Calcutta (or Hazaribagh or Asansol or wherever he happened to be posted at the time) for the 24 hour journey to Fatehpur- annual migrations one looks back on with fond nostalgia mixed with a regret that my own sons (part of the KM gang) have never seen this facet of the Old India. For today train travel is all about getting to the destination as quickly as possible, it's never about the pleasures of the journey itself. I recently travelled by Shatabdi to Kanpur and found that of the 62 passengers, 60 of them had buried their persona and noses into their smart phones. The 61st was a seven eight year old kid (who should have been smothered at birth) who was sliding the door open and shut, letting in the flies and letting out the cold air. I was the 62nd, observing it all and weeping like Alexander the Great for I had now seen it all.

   For us the journey was itself a delight. There were no AC coaches or electric traction back then. We would stick our heads out of the open windows, breathing in the soot and smoke from the massive Bullet engines, jump out at every station to buy comics from the AH Wheeler stalls (where have they all disappeared?), grab the local station food from the vendors- "jhalmoori" at Asansol, aloo tikkis at Dhanbad, samosas at Mughalsarai, puri-aloo at Benaras, the delicious pedas at Allahabad. All extremely unhygienic, swarming with e-colis no doubt, but Michelin star stuff which built up the immunity which in later years has enabled us to tackle the tasteless swill IRCTC serves on trains nowadays. But the "piece de resistance" for which we all used to wait, came at Fatehpur, which arrived at the opportune time for breakfast and where we deboarded with great excitement. Its generally deserted restaurant served the best buttered toast and omelette on the Grand Trunk line, on round tables covered with spotless linen and cutlery.  (The only railway restaurant that comes even close to its ambience and service is the Barog station on the Kalka- Shimla line). We left the restaurant only when they ran out of eggs, for the next two weeks in Husainganj were to be a vegetarian existence, without even onions and garlic.

   There was only a dirt track between Fatehpur and Husainganj, a distance of about ten kms; there were no buses, only the occasional horse carriage on a sharing basis. But my grandfather had the biggest haveli in the village and there was no way his grand brats would travel in a "tonga"; for us he sent his personal bullock cart, drawn by two of his finest oxen: a magnificent, snow white pair standing almost five feet high at the shoulders, bedecked with colourful ribbons and tinkling bells, their regal horns sheathed in copper. The bullock cart itself was a caparisoned wonder, with sun shades, carpeted with Mirzapuri rugs and stocked with sugarcane stalks, peanuts and nimboo-pani.  We flew down the dirt track like Ben-Hur in the last lap of his famous race , giving the term " cattle class" an entirely new meaning. It set the tone for the next month, a controlled chaos of joint family living, over which my grandfather proudly presided: a patriarch who held his large family together with stern dictats, superb logistic skills and well placed inducements.

   He is gone now, of course, and so is the world we grew up in: the haveli is in ruins, the bullock cart is now a symbol of penury, not of status, the omelette is now a leathery strip served with sarkari reluctance, the station food vendors replaced by catering franchisees hawking packaged rubbish, most trains do not even stop at Fatehpur. Why should they? Nobody goes there for everyone is now headed for the mountains, the seaside resorts or the casinos of Goa. In this world of OYO rooms, Make My Trip.com, Airbnb and cashbacks, visiting grandfathers is such a waste of time. But I do wish the millennial generation would start visiting the old critters again: it would make them happy, it would lift my siege and might even save the mountains from further depredation. I speak, of course, as a grandfather-in-waiting.

DISAPPEARING DEMOCRACY-- DISMANTLING OF A NATION

                                          

                            

This is my latest book, published by Author's Upfront/ Paranjoy on 24th Feb.2024. Available on AMAZON, in paperback and Kindle versions. An international edition is also available.

DISAPPEARING DEMOCRACY is, in a way, a continuation of my earlier book, THE WASTED YEARS (published in 2021), and takes off from where the latter had ended. It covers the period from June 2021 to November 2023, and is a collection of my articles, blogs and opinion pieces on various subjects of current interest.

The pieces in this book are my take on political, legal, economic and societal issues engaging the attention of the nation at the time. I write, not as a domain expert or as an investigative journalist, but as an averagely well informed (I hope!) citizen alarmed at the cataclysmic changes that have been taking place to the country's painstakingly carved structure, something we all had taken for granted but now find is all too fragile. To quote Lord Byron from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: 

"A thousand years scarce serve to form a state,                                                                                              An hour may lay it in the dust."

It is that hour I speak about.

Our nation state is being dismantled before our eyes, its nuts and bolts being taken apart-the judiciary, civil services, constitutional bodies, media, NGOs, armed forces, even our history and culture- to serve the interests of an exclusionary ideology. What is perhaps most disturbing, however, is the dismantling of our once tolerant, proudly diverse and joyously inclusive society. It has now become dangerously brutalised, indifferent to wrongs and excesses, it has lost its voice and conscience. All other components of a state can be repaired and fixed when an enlightened leadership replaces an old one, but there is no anti-venom for a poisoned society. It can only perish, taking with it thousands of years of civilisation. If there is one lesson that history teaches us, it is this.

This book is an attempt to record these developments, in real time and not in hindsight: the date of each of the 47 chapters in the book is indicated to provide it context for a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding it. But if there is one paramount message I wish to convey, it is that the future of a nation is too important to be left to politicians, bureaucrats, so-called experts, Big Capital and the media. The ordinary citizen- you and I- have to get involved and to take centre-stage and speak out. For when public conscience and opinion die, so does democracy.