British Council keen on India projects
It is working towards strengthening both school-to-school ties and links between universities. Its vision for India includes facilitating greater artistic and cultural exchange
“India remains our largest and most important country operation,” said Martin Davidson, chief executive, British Council, who is in the city as part of his tour of the region.
Mr. Davidson, who oversees the functioning of 110 offices across the world, spoke about British Council’s vision for India for the next five years, their strategy to look beyond the metro cities, remaining committed to their nine libraries in India and facilitating greater artistic and cultural exchange.
Though the British Council’s annual report for 2012-13 mentioned that by 2015, their government grant would have fallen to less than 20 per cent of their annual turnover, Mr. Davidson said it would not translate into cuts for their India initiatives.
The four focus areas were operating at greater scale across the whole country, catering to demand for learning English in India, improving education links, and introducing digital programmes.
“We are very conscious of the demand for English language here in India and not as a replacement to the national languages, but as an addition to them,” he said.
In another key area — education — they were working towards strengthening both school-to-school ties and links between universities, he said. However, he said he would like to see more young British people study and engage with India. The relationship between India and Britain was no longer the old-fashioned ‘aid and development relationship,’ he said.
“It should be looked at as a relationship of equals, a relationship which requires young people in Britain to understand India better, to engage with India and to see India as part of their future,” he said. Calling Tamil Nadu a very forward-looking State in the area of education, he said it would be a good State for them to bring British students. “It was the first State in India where we started working on our English language programme for teachers, for example” he said.
Earlier in the day, he inaugurated ‘English on Mobile’ and ‘English Strokes’, two English-language digital programmes the British Council launched in partnership with Applied Mobile Labs and AA Edutech.
“English Strokes involves teaching English using cricket. And, that is a great example of how we can use the digital and online capacity here in India to reach many more people,” he said.
Though going digital will be important, “I don’t think we should see this as only digital,” he said. “I think there is a big opportunity to expand the physical presence,” he said about venturing outside the metros, a strategy they plan to build over the next three years.
On World Toilet Day, a push for basic sanitation
In a bid to create awareness on sanitation and eradicate open defecation, several awareness campaigns were organised in the city on Tuesday, World Toilet Day.
The programmes reinforced the State government’s thrust to eradicate open defecation.
At Pallavaram, Commissioner of Municipal Administration Chandrakant B. Kamble interacted with school students and also inspected a few toilets at Rengasamy Street and GST Road.
He told reporters that they were attending to repairs in public toilets in municipalities and corporations across the State.
However, despite availability of water supply, people continued to stay away from sanitary complexes in a few localities.
In the city’s southern suburbs, Tambaram Municipality is among the urban local bodies where a complete toilet survey has been done.
A recent survey revealed that among 10,597 households in slum areas, less than 8,000 had access to toilets.
Families living around seven water bodies in Irumbuliyur, Selaiyur, Pulikuradu and Kadaperi openly defecate as there are no toilets.
Ajay Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Municipal Administration, flagged off an awareness rally at Poonamallee Municipality.
Poonamallee municipal commissioner B.V. Surendra Sha said that the existing four toilet complexes were repaired. “We have also surveyed the areas that are in dire need of sanitary complexes. In the first phase, we have chosen five locations to provide solar sensor-based ‘Namma toilet’ units worth Rs. 80.50 lakh,” he said.
The ‘Namma toilets’ will come up in places, including Ambedkar Nagar and Keelma Nagar shortly.
Bus owners, drivers to be booked for violating norms
The Transport Department is contemplating framing of criminal charges against bus owners and drivers for violating road safety rules following the recent bus mishaps. Stating that most bus owners were violating rules like not having two drivers for journeys exceeding more than five hours, Transport Commissioner Anantha Ramu warned that criminal cases would be filed against such persons.
Refresher courses
Addressing a one-day workshop on ‘Road safety management in APSRTC and accident prevention’, he said efforts were on to make drivers of transport vehicles undergo refresher courses from recognised driving schools at least once a year.
The Union government was also approached to conduct a study on the suitability of high-end buses to Indian road conditions and also recommend any suitable modifications, if necessary. A similar suggestion was made to Volvo bus representatives during a meeting with the department authorities last week, he said.
150 participants
Over 150 supervisors, drivers and engineers of APSRTC attended the workshop addressed by experts from Volvo, Ashok Leyland and other bus manufacturers.
Suggestions sought
APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director A. K. Khan sought suggestions from his staff on measures to increase passenger safety with regard to parameters such as defects in the bus design, automatic door opening system, diesel tank position, air conditioning etc.
No more defective buses
The RTC would desist from purchasing defective buses if the staff detected any glaring defects, he said.
Drivers would also be trained in tackling emergencies and also help create awareness among passengers on safety issues, he added.
Tampering of locks
Bus manufacturers -- Ashok Leyland, Volvo and others observed that tampering with speed locks for more speed and electric wiring could lead to fires. The representatives of these companies advised bus drivers to take a break after every 200 km of journey.
Brijesh, a Volvo service engineer from Bangalore, said a two-minute video about the provision of hammers and fire extinguishers in the bus would be shown hereafter. His company would also submit a report to the government about the reasons behind the recent accidents.
Guntur floods: Decayed crops greet Central team
Members of a Central team, constituted to assess loss due to heavy rains, visited flood-ravaged villages in Guntur district on Tuesday.
Team members – Joint Secretary (NE) Shambhu Singh, Joint Director, Directorate of Pulses Development, R.P. Singh and SE Krishna and Coordination Circle M. Ramesh Kumar – accompanied by Joint Collector Vivek Yadav and other officials witnessed the extent of damage caused due to heavy rains that battered the district in the last week of October.
Officials from Agriculture, Horticulture and Revenue Departments arranged photo exhibitions of marooned villages in Guntur and apprised the team of the losses in different mandals in the district. According to the district officials, agriculture crops in about 1.44 lakh hectares and horticulture crops in an extent of 22,000 hectares were damaged due to floods.
ROTTEN CROPS
Decayed crops greeted the team members at Penumaka village on the banks of Krishna river in Tadepalli mandal. Farmers explained that Kondaveedu Vaagu had overflowed and caused extensive breaches damaging crops in some thousands of acres in the mandal. “We raised onion, banana and other vegetable crops in Penumaka, Rayapudi and other villages by investing Rs.20,000 to Rs.50,000 per acre. But the entire crop was damaged as floodwater was stagnated in the fields for over a month,” said an onion farmer Rama Rao who displayed the withered crop before the team.
Telugu Desam MLA Dhullipalla Narendra submitted a memorandum demanding the government to pay compensation to the farmers and the flood victims immediately.
Speaking at a meeting with heads of various departments, Mr. Shambhu Singh said the crop loss was heavy in the district, and a detailed report would be submitted to the government on the calamity.
Correspondent: A two-member Central team, deputed to assess the loss due to heavy rains, visited some remote villages and interacted with farmers and public representatives on the first day of a two-day tour in the district on Tuesday evening.
K. Ramavarma, Secretary, Rural Development and A. Chandrashekar, Research Officer, Planning Commission accompanied by Joint Collector L. Sharman and other officials visited Mannevari Pally, Marlepadu tanda.
Farmers briefed the team about their loss and urged the officials to provide financial assistance soon.
MP from Nagarkurnool M. Jagannath, Achempet MLA P. Ramulu, Wanaparthy MLA R. Chandrashekar Reddy and other leaders apprised the Central team about farmers’ loss in Achampet, Nagarkurnool and Kollapur Assembly segments in the district.
FARMERS OBSTRUCT ASSESSMENT
Staff Reporter adds: Farmers of Tadakamalla village obstructed the tour of the Central team deputed to assess loss to farmers due to heavy rains. According to schedule, the two-member Central team comprising Chandrasekhar (Planning Commission) and K. Srirama Varma (Rural Development) first visited Ravulapenta village of Vemulapally mandal commencing their tour.
The team, accompanied by Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer S. Venkat Rao, was to leave to Peddadevulapally village when about 20 farmers intercepted them with a request to visit their village which had suffered huge losses. However, the members of the team and CEO managed to convince them saying that they were running out of time and promised that they would get suitable compensation for their loss.
The team visited Tripuraram, Nidamanoor, Peddavura and Dindi mandals in the district.
NDRF gears up to tackle cyclone ‘Helen’
Six teams of National Disaster Response Force are being deployed in four coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh as cyclonic storm ‘Helen’ is expected to cross the Bay of Bengal coast near Kavali Thursday evening.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall up to 25 cms is expected in Nellore and Prakasam districts while heavy rainfall is likely in Guntur and Krishna districts of south coastal Andhra Pradesh, according to state Disaster Management Commissioner C. Parthasarathy.
“The deep depression in Bay of Bengal last evening turned into a cyclonic storm this morning. It is expected to cross the coast near Kavali between Sriharikota and Ongole tomorrow evening. Under the impact, heavy rains are likely from this evening,” Mr. Parthasarathy told reporters on Wednesday.
The impact would be mainly in Nellore and Prakasam districts while adjoining Guntur and Krishna too would experience heavy rainfall.
While wind speed would range between 55 and 65 kmph today, it may increase to 100 and 120 kmph tomorrow, the Commissioner said.
“We are deploying two NDRF teams each in Nellore and Prakasam districts and one each in Guntur and Krishna to handle rescue and relief operations. We are also deploying fire services personnel in Nellore and Prakasam to assist police and other departments. Our target is to ensure zero casualties and also prevent destruction of properties,” he added.
Fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea.
Joint Collectors of the four districts have been directed to camp in vulnerable coastal villages and closely monitor the situation.
Chief Secretary P.K. Mohanty spoke to Collectors of the four coastal districts and asked them to remain alert, the Commissioner said.
Cyclone Helen may hit coast on Thursday near Kavali
Prakasam district is bracing itself to face the cyclonic storm, Helen, which is set to cross the coast between Chennai and Ongole on Thursday night.
The storm is brewing in the Bay of Bengal even as a three-member central team is touring on Wednesday areas in the district affected by last month's torrential rains on Wednesday.
According to the Met Department, the cyclone is expected to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm during the next 24 hours and cross the coast near Kavali in neighbouring Nellore district on Thursday night.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected at a few places in Guntur, Krishna, Nellore and Prakasam districts with strong winds ranging between 70-80 kmph, gusting to 100 kmph, from November 21 evening.
Revenue officials have asked the fishermen not to venture into the sea, which was expected to be rough.
Tehsildars and Special officers in the 11 coastal mandals were placed on alert and asked to store essential commodities, safe drinking water and medicines in the villages in their jurisdiction in advance.
Mars Orbiter tests have shown our ability to predict: ISRO chairman
After the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25) put India’s Mars Orbiter into a perfect earth-bound orbit on November 5, it has been a smooth journey so far for the spacecraft. The Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) boosted the Mars Orbiter’s apogee in six complex manoeuvres executed between November 7 and 16. ISRO did this by giving commands from the ground to the spacecraft’s propulsion system, called 440 Newton engine, to fire. A crucial event of the trans-Mars injection of the spacecraft will take place on December 1 by a prolonged firing of the 440 Newton engine.
In this context, The Hindu met K. Radhakrishnan, ISRO Chairman, on November 18 in his office at ISRO headquarters, Bangalore, for his assessment of what has been achieved so far in India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, what lies ahead, the complexity of the mission, the spacecraft’s autonomy to take decisions on its own when there is an emergency etc.. Excerpts from the interview with Dr. Radhakrishnan, who is also Chairman, Space Commission and Secretary, Department of Space:
How do you assess what has been achieved so far in ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission?
After the launch of the PSLV-C25 on November 5, the separation of the Mars Orbiter from the launch vehicle was smooth and the injection of the spacecraft into the earth-bound orbit was precise. During the last few days, we have been raising the spacecraft’s orbit, specifically its apogee in steps. The first orbit-raising manoeuvre was done in the early hours of November 7. Till now, we have completed six manoeuvres including a supplementary one. Currently, the spacecraft’s apogee is 1,92,915 km.
In the early hours of December 1, around 00.36 hours, we have the trans-Mars injection of our Mars spacecraft. On that day, we are going to use the 440 Newton liquid engine again to impart a delta-v, that is, an incremental velocity of nearly 648 metres a second to the spacecraft and the engine will burn for 1,351 seconds. It is crucial in the sense that we need to give the exact velocity required to take the spacecraft from the earth-orbit, passing through the sphere of influence of the earth which extends up to 9.25 lakh km from the earth, cruise through the long helio-centric phase, then get into the sphere of influence of Mars, and on its arrival near Mars on September 24, 2014, it has to be put into 376 km plus or minus 50 km above Mars at that point of time. On the same day, the next crucial operation of the spacecraft’s Mars orbit insertion has to take place.
When this running of the 440 Newton liquid engine takes place on December 1, we also have eight numbers of 22 Newton control thrusters firing.
What will these control thrusters do?
There are two tasks for them. One is the spacecraft’s attitude control. Secondly, if it is required, they will aid the 440 Newton thrusters to augment its thrust-level. Both the functions will be performed and the Mars spacecraft will then be moving towards the helio-centric orbit. Then on December 11, we plan to have one small firing for mid-course correction of the spacecraft. There may be one more mid-course correction during the helio-centric phase, and subsequently, a fortnight before the spacecraft’s arrival near Mars, there will be one more mid-course correction. So there will be three mid-course corrections between December 1, 2013 and September 24, 2014.
What is the purpose of these mid-course corrections of the Mars spacecraft’s trajectory?
With the velocity imparted to the spacecraft on December 1, 2013, we will have an estimate of its expected position on September 24, 2014. We will be continuously tracking the spacecraft and if there are deviations vis-à-vis the end goal, we will make the corrections. So December 1 will be a crucial operation. The spacecraft’s propulsion system, i.e., the 440 Newton liquid engine, will complete its first phase of operations on December 1. It has to be re-started for its operation on September 24. There is thus a long gap.
How confident are you that you can re-start the 440 Newton engine after it has hibernated in deep space for about 300 days during the spacecraft’s voyage?
We have been using the 440 Newton engine for our Geo-synchronous Satellite - GSAT- missions where the spacecraft’s orbit has to be raised about a week after its launch. In the case of Chandrayaan-1, we had to restart the operation after a fortnight. For that, we had qualified the liquid engine in 2008 to restart after one month.
During the last two years, considering the specific requirements of our Mars Orbiter Mission for re-starting the spacecraft’s 440 Newton engine after it has idled for about 300 days, we had done these two actions. One is we have provided a set of parallel circuits for the propellants’ flow-lines and also provided redundancy in the form of a latch-valve. So what essentially happens is that one portion of the fluid circuit will be closed after December 1. The parallel path will be energised for the operation in September 2014.
Secondly, we had fired the liquid engine in a special test facility established at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, for its performance after the re-start. It has been found to be within the specifications. The performance degradation of the engine to restart after such a prolonged period has been only around two per cent and it is well within limits. In the spacecraft’s orbit-raising manoeuvres, during its trans-Mars injection and its insertion into the Martian orbit, the firing of the liquid engine is done in a closed loop mode. Here, a precision accelerometer is used to estimate the incremental velocity added as the liquid engine burns and when the accelerometer gives a feedback that the required incremental velocity added to the spacecraft has been achieved, the burning of the liquid engine is automatically terminated. So, minor variations in the performance of the liquid engine will not matter because we are cutting off its burning based on the delta-v that is achieved. That is why we call it closed loop of firing.
In the absence of such an arrangement, the liquid engine would have been commanded to fire for a given period and any variation in its performance would have resulted in a variation [in the incremental velocity]. But here, what you have to achieve is the incremental velocity. When the programmed incremental velocity is achieved, the engine is cut off.
So what I am trying to convey here is that minor variations in the performance of the liquid engine is not going to affect the mission. If the engine has to work for a few seconds more or a few seconds less, it will be decided by the computer.
In the PSLV itself, we have the closed loop guidance system where the rocket’s fourth stage burning is terminated, based on the conditions achieved. That arrangement is there in the Mars Orbiter’s propulsion system.
Up to 9.25 lakh km from the Earth, the spacecraft will be in the sphere of influence of the Earth. Subsequently, it will be moving into the helio-centric phase of its flight. It is a long one, where you have to look at the influence of other planets and the Moon and then the solar radiation pressure acting on the spacecraft. That pressure varies with respect to time because the geometry of the sun and the spacecraft matters here. This is something we have not done so far and this helio-centric phase of the flight is new to us.
In Chandrayaan-1, we had travelled up to four lakh km, which was well within the sphere of influence of the Earth. But here for the first time, we are moving out of the sphere of influence of the earth. So how the spacecraft will behave during the helio-centric flight of 680 million km along the arc is new to us. Then the spacecraft gets into the sphere of influence of Mars which is nearly six lakh km from Mars.
From our understanding of the Mars gravity model, the influence of the atmosphere of Mars, the influence of the two satellites of Mars and the solar radiation pressure there on the spacecraft are very important. This is also a new thing that we are attempting.
So the navigation of the Mars spacecraft from the orbit of the Earth to the orbit of Mars, passing through all these three phases, is a new knowledge that we are acquiring and validating during the next 300 and odd days.
You have stressed that the centrepiece of our Mars Orbiter is its autonomy. Can you explain how it can take decisions on its own when there are emergencies?
Since long distances are involved in this mission, there will be a delay in the signal from the ground reaching the spacecraft and vice versa. This delay could be of the order of six minutes to 20 minutes one way. In the spacecraft, we have provided redundancies for the critical components and sub-systems. In a normal situation, the ground controllers assess the performance of its systems and give commands from the ground for the switch-over from the primary system to the redundant system [if there is an emergency]. In this particular case, the spacecraft itself has to assess the performance of its systems and this is called Fault Detection, Isolation and Reconfiguration - FDIR.
Secondly, when we need to operate a scientific instrument on board the spacecraft, a chain of commands has to be sent to the spacecraft for reconfiguring it both in terms of its orientation and selection of its various sub-systems and components for the specific payload operation.
Normally, these are sent from the ground. But in the case of the Mars spacecraft, due to the long communication delay, such chains of commands are stored in the spacecraft and they are triggered based on the command from an on-board sequencer. Such commands are, therefore, based on the time-tagged commands sent through the on-board sequencer. You load them well in advance and give the command that at this particular instant, it has to start. If a firing or an operation has to take place at a particular point T, you load the commands well in advance and say that it has to start at this instant.
This is what is provided for in this mission.
The third level of autonomy is to enable the spacecraft to put itself in a “safe mode” in the event of a major anomaly and wait for the commands to be received from the ground. When we say that it has to be put in the “safe-mode”, its antenna should be pointing towards the earth and the solar panels should be in a position to receive the energy from the sun. That means the spacecraft is safe and you can send commands to it. These three levels of autonomy are provided in the spacecraft.
During the orbit-raising manoeuvres which started on November 7 and which went on till the morning of November 16, ISRO has been testing the performance of these redundant systems on the spacecraft and exercising the option of bringing them into operation.
The gyroscopes, accelerometers, star-sensors, and attitude and orbit-control electronics, attitude control thrusters, the FDIR and the thrust augmentation logic, which enables the augmentation of the thrust of the 440 Newton liquid engine by eight numbers of 22 Newton control thrusters during the critical phases of operation, were tested. The termination of the burn of the 440 Newton engine, based on the feedback from the accelerometer, was tested. The on-board sequencer, which is used to store and initiate time-tagged command, was also tested.
All these tests took place during the nine days from November 7 to November 16?
All these were tested during the orbit-raising manoeuvres. The expected orbital parameters have been achieved closely. It shows our ability to predict and we have seen that happen. Currently, the Mars Orbiter is in a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee of 1,92,915 km.
Regarding our preparedness for the spacecraft’s trans-Mars injection on December 1, as on today, we have raised the spacecraft’s apogee to the required 1.9 lakh km. We have raised its orbital inclination and other parameters to the required level. We have tested the spacecraft’s sub-systems and the provision for autonomous operations when required.
During the next ten days, we will be exercising the orbiter’s high-gain antenna and the medium-gain antenna which are required to be used when the spacecraft is far away from the Earth. During the orbiter’s Earth-phase in the coming ten days, we will be energising its scientific instruments to check their health.
What are the preparations under way for the lift-off of the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) in December this year? It was to put GSAT-14 into orbit in August last. The lift-off was aborted then because of the leak of liquid propellants from the rocket’s second stage.
The GSLV-D5 was slated for launch in August. An hour and 15 minutes before the scheduled lift-off, we found a leak in the fuel tank of the rocket’s second stage. The leak was detected in time and ISRO quickly decided to call off the launch and to restore the vehicle. We had the entire restoration process done under the guidance of K. Narayana, former Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The GSAT-14 communication satellite, which was encapsulated in the heat-shield, had been preserved and tested periodically. The cryogenic upper stage was preserved and tested periodically. The rocket’s second stage has been re-done with a new propellant tank made of aluminium alloy 2219. We had to re-furbish the strap-on booster motors. All the components and parts which had come in contact with the leaked liquid propellant have been replaced. The electronic packages residing in the strap-on stages had to be replaced. The rocket’s first stage, which uses solid propellants, has been replaced.
The vehicle’s assembly began in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on October 18. The rocket’s first stage has been assembled completely. The four strap-on stages are ready to be assembled and they will be done this week from November 20 to 23. The second stage is also ready at Sriharikota and soon after the completion of the assembly of the four strap-on stages, we will be taking up the integration of the second stage. On December 3, we have the Mission Readiness Review (MRR) meeting. Subsequently, the assembly of the indigenous cryogenic stage will begin, followed by the assembly of the electronic bay, the spacecraft and the heat-shield. So the launch of the GSLV-D5 with the indigenous cryogenic stage is scheduled for December-end.
Kasturirangan report will spell disaster, warn ecologists
‘Report has permitted uncontrolled quarrying in most parts of ghats’
The Kasturirangan report has thrown open the ecologically sensitive areas of Western Ghats to mindless exploitation which would seriously hazard ecology, according to its critics.
According to member of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) V.S. Vijayan: the report has in a way permitted uncontrolled quarrying in most parts of the ghats regions of the State. Those protesting against the report in Kerala were indirectly demanding quarrying rights in 123 villages too, which were earmarked as ecologically sensitive areas.
While the WGEEP report wanted illegal mining and quarrying to be stopped immediately in the ghats, the Kasturirangan Committee permitted mining and quarrying in 63 per cent area. It was estimated that around 17,000 mines, including the reportedly illegal ones, were operating in the ghats region of the State, he said.
The Shah Commission, which inquired into the operation of mines in Goa, revealed that the State government had lost Rs. 35,000 crore to illegal mining. It was high time that a commission was appointed in Kerala too, to evaluate the functioning of mines in the State, said Dr. Vijayan who is engaged in the process of bringing out a comparative study on the two reports.
The Kasturirangan-led High-Level Working Group on Western Ghats had prepared a pro-mining report neglecting the livelihood options of thousands of farmers. The report had no mention on farmers and their sustainable livelihood options. It permitted construction of mammoth buildings in as many as 2 lakh sq ft in ecologically sensitive areas. There was no restriction on the number of such buildings too. However, the WGEEP had suggested building codes for constructions, he said.
If the panel report was accepted, even the protected areas of the ghats would be open for development. There are also provisions in the report for diverting forest land for non-forest activities. Of the 1, 64,280 sq km of the hill ranges, around 60,000 sq km would only come under the conservation regime. The area set apart for conservation includes National Parks, Sanctuaries, Reserve Forests and other protected areas, which were covered by some protection mechanism, he said.
When it comes to Kerala, only 15 per cent of the ghats area was eligible for conservation under the Kasturirangan report, leaving out large tracts of areas of high ecological sensitivity. The opening up of the sector would destroy the remaining water storing areas of the Ghats leading to acute water shortage in Kerala, he said.
According to an another ecologist, the high biodiversity areas of State like sacred groves would be left out of the conservation regime due to the faulty assessment of the ecological sensitiveness. The panel recommendations even went against the decentralisation of power, which was introduced in the country through a constitutional amendment. While the WGEEP suggested periodic review of the ecologically sensitive zones, the Kasturirangan report never gave room for any such interventions, he criticised.
Rs.1.56 crore to save Edakkad rivulet from imminent death
The rivulet in Kozhikode city has turned into a rubbish dump
The State government has sanctioned Rs.1.56 crore to clean the Edakkad rivulet, a major biodiversity spot in the City Corporation limits that has been reduced to a rubbish dump.
A Government Order issued by the Water Resources Department has sanctioned the amount to deepen and widen the rivulet, a part of the arterial Canoly Canal which flows into the Korapuzha, a perennial river and major source of water for the district. The GO, issued on November 8, had revised the original estimate of the work from Rs.78.5 lakh to Rs.1.56 crore.
The 11.2-km Canoly canal, connecting the Kallai river and the Korapuzha, is also a victim of the growing garbage menace and flow of untreated waste water from private hospitals in the city. Moreover, destruction of its sidewalls and growth of wild vegetation have also taken a toll on the century-old canal. The Edakkad rivulet is one of the last stops for the canal before it merges with Korapuzha.
In August this year, the government had sanctioned Rs.2.41 crore to de-silt and deepen the Canoly canal from Elathur to Kallai as part of a National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)-assisted project to revive the inland waterway. The project, estimated at Rs.4.6 crore, was approved by the Shipping and Navigation Department. However, no apparent change in the state of the canal is visible till date.
“Ten years ago, the water was clean. This rivulet was a major freshwater fishing hub in the city. There was a large fishing community living along this rivulet, fish stalls used to be set up in the evenings to sell the day’s catch. Now, with the water polluted, there is no fish, no fishermen here,” S.K. Sivarajan, secretary, Jwala Residents Association, said.
Residents say the rivulet was once supported by paddy fields on both sides. Kaipurathupalam chaali(pond), which supports a km of mangroves, is slowly being encroached upon by small hollow-brick making units.
“The paddy fields have been filled and the rivulet has more or less dried up as a result. Instead, the water is filled with plastic garbage and waste water from the city’s hospitals,” T.V. Praveen, a resident, said.
Locals are also suspicious of a government plan to dispose off treated water from the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital to the Canoly Canal via Mavoor Road. They have doubts about its efficacy and believe that it will ultimately lead to further pollution of the canal waters.
“The waste that you see in the rivulet is flowing from parts of the canal near Mavoor Road. For years, the water and garbage from the medical college hospital has destroyed the ecology in that area, now it will reach us too,” Mr. Sivarajan said.
Edakkad Corporation Councillor K.V. Baburaj said that two years ago there was an effort on the side of the Irrigation Department to clean the water and strengthen the side walls along the rivulet. “But things went back to the same,” he said.
The importance of being Indonesia
Indonesia can talk from a position of confidence to everyone, from its ASEAN cousins to western powers, and also countries such as Egypt and Tunisia
In a continent dominated by behemoths like China and India, the archipelago of Indonesia can sometimes find itself in the shade. But increasingly, this populous, Muslim-majority democracy is feeling confident enough to assert its presence on the international stage — and with good cause.
It is South-East Asia’s largest economy and has been averaging a brisk growth of 6 per cent in recent years. With a youthful population of over 240 million people and a burgeoning middle class, the country’s transition from military dictatorship to vibrant democracy has put paid to notions that Islam and democratic values cannot coexist. Moreover, while size gives it clout, Indonesia does not have direct stakes in the rivalries that roil the region. It is therefore a natural choice for the crucial role of mediator in a neighbourhood increasingly shaped and squeezed by China’s rise on the one hand, and the United States’ “pivot” to the region, on the other.
At the high table
Indonesia’s new international stature was on display in October when, in a two week-period, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono played host to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South Korean President Park Geun-hye, in between hosting leaders from Russia to Japan at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum held in Bali. Mr. Yudhoyono’s foreign policy formulation of “a thousand friends and zero enemies” suddenly appeared to be more than overheated rhetoric.
The APEC summit was immediately followed by more summitry in Brunei as the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Plus Three meetings got under way. The issue du jour at all of these meets was the one where Indonesia’s bridge-building skills are most needed and have been most obviously on display: the South China Sea.
With fierce disputes breaking out between an ascendant China and many of ASEAN’s 10 members, notably Vietnam and the Philippines, it is Indonesia that has emerged as the soother of ruffled feathers. It nods understandingly at the concerns of all parties, while nudging them towards dialogue.
Last year, tensions within ASEAN reached a high when for the first time in the group’s history, a meeting of Foreign Ministers failed to yield a joint communiqué. The issue behind the split was China’s actions in the South China Sea. Those members with disputes in the waters themselves — Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, supported by Singapore and Thailand — rooted for the voicing of serious concerns over Beijing’s “belligerence” in enforcing its claims over the Spratly, Paracel and other islands and atolls. However, non-claimants, mainly Cambodia supported by Laos, were loath to alienate China and refused to countenance any measures that Beijing would object to.
With ASEAN in crisis, the Indonesian Foreign Minister began flying from regional capital to capital, to mend the rift. Eventually, all ASEAN members were persuaded to agree that the best course of action would be the formulation of a code of conduct (CoC) between ASEAN and China, on how to manage disputes in the waters, a position backed by the United States.
Even more impressively, Indonesia was able to persuade Beijing to somewhat modify its traditional stance that any CoC be negotiated bilaterally, rather than multilaterally with ASEAN. China has agreed to consider the possibility of multilateral talks. It is a vague commitment, but one that has served to tamp down tensions — which was Indonesia’s main goal.
As Dr. Evi Fitriani, head of the International Relations department, University of Indonesia, says, “We are aware that we cannot solve the dispute, but we can help manage it.” With no obvious dog in the fight, Jakarta has ably exploited its unique position, persuading everyone from China, and other ASEAN members, to the U.S., to heed its efforts as an honest broker.
In Myanmar
Indonesia’s foreign policy USP (unique selling point) is low-profile diplomacy that seeks to nudge rather than demand. And it prefers the back door to the limelight. She cites other examples of this “quiet diplomacy.” Jakarta played a crucial role in easing tensions between Cambodia and Thailand in their border dispute over the area surrounding the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple. It eventually sent in a team of observers to monitor the territory.
Again, Indonesia has played a quiet, advisory role to Myanmar as the latter attempts a democratic transition from military dictatorship to democracy, which in many ways mirrors Indonesia’s own transformation 15 years ago. “We don’t carry a megaphone about it, but both state and non-state actors from Indonesia and Myanmar have been in close contact,” says Dr. Fitriani.
Experiences
Indonesia derives its diplomatic strength from its own experiences. As a Muslim-majority country that has made a successful, if difficult, transition to democracy it can talk and make suggestions, from a position of confidence, to everyone. These range from its ASEAN cousins to western powers like the U.S., and even countries like Egypt and Tunisia as they struggle in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Since 2008, Indonesia has held the Bali Democracy Forum, an annual meeting that seeks to strengthen democracy in Asia. This kind of preaching is more often undertaken by prescriptive actors like the European Union. But since it comes from another Asian country, participants, even the less-democratically inclined among them, tend to be more open to listening than might be imagined. “We share the same culture and problems as other Asian countries which makes our opinion more relevant to them, than lectures from European countries who have a completely different context,” agrees Dr. Fitriani.
As a result, Indonesia has calibrated, without breaching the principle of non-interference in the affairs of other countries, usually a red line in this part of the world. It has emerged as the country that talks most forthrightly about issues like human rights. It was instrumental in pushing through the 2012 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, although the final outcome was weaker than many hoped for.
Challenges
Compared to Asia’s largest powers, China and India, Indonesia’s foreign policy is subtle. China is widely perceived to be nationalistic and aggressive, a goliath with a club in one hand and contracts for lucrative trade deals in the other. This is a strategy that might win it some accomplices but few lasting friends. India’s arrogance and inflated sense of its self makes it a reluctant and less-than-effective actor in multilateral fora. Indonesia, however, seeks strength in alliances and valorises mediation away from the spotlight.
Of course the country is not without its challenges. It is difficult to be everyone’s friend in a polarised world. Were conflict to break out in the South China Sea, for example, Indonesia’s policy of equidistance would no longer work. Moreover, a worsening domestic track record, with the economy in a slump, and accusations of growing intolerance against minorities, will rob it of the hard-won moral authority it has gained over the last decade. Testing times lie ahead for the region’s quiet diplomat.
Radicalism as a challenge to Ethiopia
Sporadic outbursts of violence across Ethiopia show how state intervention in religion has alienated sections of Muslim youth and generated the kind of anti-regime sentiments the government had hoped to defuse
A knock on the door well after midnight. Mohammed Hassan Abdalla opens the door to find that a posse of policemen have come for his elder brother, Sheikh Abdulsalam Abdalla, a preacher in the local mosque in this rural settlement of Wabe, 300 km southwest of the Ethiopian capital, of Addis Ababa.
The sheikh is away, so the police arrest Mohammed and Abdul Qadir Turah, a disciple staying in the house, and take them to Sheikh Abdalla’s paternal home where they arrest his wife. As dawn breaks over the low hills surrounding Wabe, residents returning from the first morning prayer spot the police and their captives.
An agitated crowd gathered, an eyewitness recalled: “We chanted, ‘release our children, what was their crime’?” The crowd threw stones, the police opened fire, and two young men in the crowd, Habib Wabe and Jamal Adam, fell to the asphalt highway and bled to death from their bullet wounds.
By four in the afternoon, the confrontation between the crowd and the police had moved to the neighbouring town of Kofele; four more civilians died and 62 were arrested before order was restored.
Radicalism & alienation
Sheikh Abdalla is in hiding, as are three other senior clerics from Kofele: Mohammed Gamadi, Haji Qasim Mereso, and Tabesso Gamachu. Residents say little of their absence, except that their sheikhs have been persecuted for resisting the government’s attempt to alter the beliefs of Ethiopia’s approximately 30 million Muslims.
Government officials maintain that the men are wanted for calling for a violent jihad against the Ethiopian state.
The violence in Wabe and Kofele “was ignited by Sunni Muslim jihadist groups probably linked with al-Qaeda and world number one terrorist groups,” says Desta Bukulu, Kofele’s most senior administrator. “These conservative groups have been working for a long time in this area.”
The recent attack on a mall in Kenya by al-Qaeda-affiliated militants has East African governments worried that the battle between African Union forces and the hardline Islamist Somali militia, Al Shabab, could radicalise Muslim youth in neighbouring countries.
Yet, sporadic outbursts of violence across Ethiopia illustrate how state intervention in the realm of religion has alienated sections of the Muslim youth and, analysts say, produced the kind of anti-regime sentiments the government had hoped to defuse.
In the summer of 2011, a delegation of Lebanese clerics headed by Samir Qadi, vice-president of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (AICP), addressed a conference of nearly 1,300 participants in Harar, a historic centre of Islamic learning in eastern Ethiopia, on “religious extremism.” The AICP, commonly known as Al Ahbash or “The Ethiopians,” was established by Sheikh Abdallah Muhammad al-Hariri, an Ethiopian imam who left Harar for Lebanon in the 1940s after he fell foul of Emperor Haile Selassie.
Al Ahbash promotes a controversial form of Islam that draws from both Shia and Sunni theology, urges its followers to steer clear of politics, and emphasises Sufi practices such as shrine worship. The sect is also devoted to combating what it claims are “extremist” sects like the Wahhabis, the Salafis, prominent across Ethiopia, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
After the meeting, Muslim clerics said, the government began to actively promote Al Ahbash ideology in mosques across the country by organising “training sessions” for imams and sheikhs. “The police, government officials, zone administrators, were all present at the training,” said an imam in attendance. The teacher, he said, was an Al Ahbash instructor who described the teachings of his sect.
In earlier meetings, officials told imams they were free to leave if they didn’t agree with the teachings. In subsequent sessions, policemen stopped the attendees from leaving, fearing poor attendance. Soon, Al Ahbash became a major talking point at mosques across the region. The government and officials have denied all knowledge of Al Ahbash. They agree that training sessions for clerics were organised, but insist that the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, not Al Ahbash, addressed the imams.
By most accounts, Sheikh Soudi Ahmed was not a violent man. He learnt the Koran in his teens and became an itinerant preacher in his twenties before a mysterious illness laid him low for seven years. When he recovered, his brother Qadir Ahmed said, Sheikh Soudi turned irritable and sometimes spoke to himself. “We thought he might have been possessed.” At the close of prayers one Friday last year, Sheikh Soudi stood up at his local mosque in Asasa, not far from Kofele, and addressed the gathering. “He said, ‘Al Habash is here, so we must organise a demonstration to ask the government’,” Mr. Ahmed said.
“He said: ‘why are the Muslims silent?’ and the people rose up with him,” said an eyewitness. “‘You have to start jihad because the government has brought a new religion called Al Ahbash’,” said Adam Hussein, head of Administration and Security at Asasa, “[Earlier] he said, the time for jihad has begun, you have to prepare for jihad.”
If what Sheikh Soudi said is open to debate, what followed wasn’t. The police arrested him outside the mosque, a crowd gathered and destroyed part of the police station and a post office. The police opened fire, killing at least one person, though Asasa residents say the toll was much higher. “One militia man was killed and 16 police officers were injured,” said Mr. Hussein.
Sheikh Soudi was charged under the controversial anti-terrorism proclamation of 2007, and sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison. Forty-three protesters were handed down sentences ranging from one to 11 years, Mr. Hussein said. Government officials said they had no evidence to prove that Sheikh Soudi and the four clerics of Kofele were terrorists.
“We do not have such information,” said Mr. Desta, the Kofele administrator, “But what they did was mobilisation to make a religious government in this country. Mobilisation against the Constitution is a crime.”
Policy backfires
Yet, arresting prominent and respected figures in the Muslim community is proving counterproductive. Government support for the allegedly “non-political” and “moderate” Al Ahbash sect had actually resulted in the politicisation of large sections of the Muslim youth, explained Dr. Terje Østebø, a Professor of religion at Florida University.
The move to promote Al Ahbash, according to Dr. Østebø, reveals a shift from a policy of “containment” in the 1990s, when the government restricted Muslim political expression, to “governmentalism”, where the regime tinkered with Islamic practices and beliefs in Ethiopia. The policy seems to have backfired.
His research reveals a complex history of resistance in Asasa that spans questions of religion, ethnicity, land, and a collective memory of battles ranging back to expansion of the Imperial Christian kingdom in the mid-19th century. “When you have Al Ahbash coming in and the government is heavy-handed and arrests people, all these underlying grievances and memories become activated,” he said.
Of late, Al Ahbash training sessions have stopped, suggesting that the government has acknowledged its missteps. The community is now focussed on the plight of sheikhs like Sheikh Soudi and Sheikh Abdallah and the many imprisoned young Muslims. Activists are also demanding that the madrasa at the Awoliya mosque in Addis Ababa, closed by the government in 2012, be reopened.
“When people raise the cases of those arrested, the officials don’t listen,” said an imam from nearby Shashamane, “They say, it is the law that imprisons them and the law that shall frees them.”
The government denies it is targeting Muslim leaders. “These are not Muslim leaders, they are leaders of their own extremist groups,” said Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, “I think you should appreciate the government’s stand of fighting extremism and terrorism.”
Back in Asasa, local officials claim to have resolved all outstanding problems with their constituents. Mr. Hussein said the government had organised a public meeting on the violence around the arrest of Sheikh Soudi. “Now people know that the problem is not with the government,” he said.
From Sri Lanka, questions about wars
The real question in the debate over India’s Sri Lanka policy isn’t whether it is pragmatic or ethical. It goes, instead, to the heart of the ethics of the wars our country fights, and will fight in years to come
Florence-on-the-Elbe, they used to call the historic German city of Dresden, before it began to turn to ash that evening in February 1945. Inside of days, the United Kingdom and the United States bomber command dropped some 3,900 tonnes of ordnance over the city, creating an inferno which would claim an estimated 25,000 lives.
The military utility of the slaughter is still debated by historians: proponents claim it destroyed key Nazi communication hubs, and broke the will of Germans to resist; opponents say it was vengeance, plain and simple.
“There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre,” wrote Kurt Vonnegut, who watched the destruction of Dresden from a prisoner of war camp, in his classic Slaughterhouse Five.
Perhaps Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would agree: neither he, nor anyone else in the Indian government, has attempted to explain his controversial decision to stay away from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka. That leaves supporters of the choice to contend it was driven by high principle, and opponents to claim low politics triumphed over pragmatic foreign policy.
It is time New Delhi thought of something intelligent to say on the issue, because it goes far deeper than India’s interests in Sri Lanka. Instead, the issue is enmeshed with how India fought the wars it believed were necessary to survive as a nation — and how it will fight the wars it is fighting today, and the ones yet to come.
Making sense of the killing that unfolded in Sri Lanka in the last days of the Eelam War isn’t easy: we don’t know how many lives it claimed or, indeed, whether a genocide took place at all. Estimates for civilian fatalities, produced by the United Nations and human rights groups, range all the way from 20,000 to 1,47,000. There is no expert consensus on whether civilians were targeted on purpose, and, if so, when. There are indeed several well-documented cases of extrajudicial executions, but these are not the same as a genocide.
The numbers
It is important to understand why so many different numbers exist, what they mean, and what they imply.
The methodology behind these figures was first proposed by the University Teachers for Human Rights, a Jaffna-based human rights group. In essence, the UTHR proposed deducting the number of civilians who arrived at the government’s refugee camps from those known to be living in the so-called no-fire zone. This gave a number for people who could be presumed to have been killed.
However, no one knows how many people were actually living in the no-fire zone to start with. The government agent in Mullaithivu district, K. Parthipan, estimated the population to be around 330,000 in February 2009. Mr. Parthipan, though, had no way of conducting a census in the no-fire zone; he relied instead on reports from local headmen. He did not have any tools to distinguish civilians from LTTE conscripts and irregulars. He had no way of accounting for people who fled the zone to safety as the Sri Lankan forces closed in.
Mr. Parthipan’s numbers weren’t supported by the United Nations Panel of Expert’s analysis of satellite images, which suggested a population of 2,67,618. The U.N. experts then attempted a rule-of-thumb calculation of 1:2 or 1:3 civilian dead for every person known to be injured, which suggested 15,000 to 22,500 fatalities — much lower than the estimates that have now become commonplace. Finally, the panel plumped for an estimate of 40,000, based on Mr. Parthipan’s numbers.
Notably, the panel did not distinguish between civilians and the LTTE cadre — a fact noted by the U.S. State Department’s December 2009 report to Congress. The LTTE’s regular forces, estimated by experts at around 30,000, were backed by irregulars, the makkal padai, as well as press-ganged conscripts.
Deliberate killing?
It isn’t unequivocally clear, either, that disproportionate or indiscriminate force was used to eliminate these forces. Satellite imaging shows that right up to May 17, the Sri Lankan Army was facing fire from the LTTE’s 130 mm, 140 mm and 152 mm artillery. The Sri Lankan Army claims to have been losing over 40 soldiers a day during the last phases of the war. The former U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, sent a confidential cable to Washington, DC, on January 26, 2009, saying that the Sri Lankan Army “has a generally good track record of taking care to minimise civilian casualties during its advances.”
Jacques de Maio, head of operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross, concurred: on July 9, 2009 he told a U.S. diplomat that Sri Lanka “actually could have won the military battle faster with higher civilian casualties, yet chose a slower approach which led to a greater number of Sri Lankan military deaths.”
It is worth noting, too, that the U.N. panel acknowledged that the LTTE put some of those civilians in harm’s way. The report found “patterns of conduct whereby the LTTE deliberately located or used mortar pieces or other light artillery, military vehicles, mortar pits, and trenches in proximity to civilian areas.”
D.B.S. Jeyaraj has graphically described how the LTTE forced civilians into the Karaichikkudiyiruppu area to defeat an offensive by the Sri Lankan Army’s 55 division and 59 division. Photographs taken by a cameraman for The Times of London on May 24, 2009, for example, show what appear to be pits for siting mortar, an arms trailer and a bunker, in the midst of a civilian location in the no-fire zone.
None of this, of course, settles things one way or the other — and that’s the point. There is very little doubt that the Sri Lankan forces did commit crimes. They worked with savage paramilitaries who were out to settle scores with the LTTE. It doesn’t follow from this, though, that Sri Lanka’s campaign against the LTTE was genocide. And this brings us to the larger question.
The language of war
The real question is a simple one: when, and how much, is it ethical to kill in war? Through the history of modern warfare, commanders have confronted the same dilemmas that Sri Lanka faced in 2009, or Winston Churchill confronted in 1945. Iraq, the University of Washington’s Amy Hagopian and 11 co-authors have estimated, lost 461,000 lives, either directly or indirectly, because of the U.S. invasion.
In April 2004, up to 800 civilians were reported killed when the U.S. tried to clear insurgents from the Iraqi city of Fallujah — a cost so high that embarrassed commanders were forced to call off the campaign. Iraq continues to see abnormally high rates of birth defects, which some researchers attribute to depleted-uranium munitions used.
The second battle of Grozny in 1999-2000, when Russian troops backed by armour and air-power battled Chechen insurgents, saw the city reduced to what the U.N. later called “the most destroyed city on earth”.
For decades, India has propagated the comforting fiction that its counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations are conducted within the framework of everyday criminal law. Leaders and lawmakers have, at once, countenanced extra-judicial executions, torture, and collective reprisals against civilians. This hypocrisy is corrosive to the armed forces, and to India’s polity.
This isn’t reason to countenance sanctimony. The laws of war, as we know them, were written in the wake of 1945 — driven by a particular historical experience of war. They continue to evolve mainly in Europe and the U.S., where nation-states have no lived experience in generations of the hideous consequences — and costs — of existence-threatening insurgencies.
In India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, though, there has been next to no first-principles discussion of the ethics and law. We have lost our ability to talk honestly about war, and what it entails — and that won’t do.
“The language of war is killing,” 9/11 bomber Khalid Sheikh Mohammad told his interrogators, perhaps unconsciously borrowing words from the great strategist, Carl von Clausewitz. He was right. How to speak it is something we must learn to honestly discuss. Sri Lanka is as good a place to begin as any.
Crippling deadlock
Bangladesh’s political impasse appears all set to worsen in the coming weeks unless the two main political parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, demonstrate maturity of a high order. The BNP has opposed the “all party government” formed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to oversee national elections due in January 2014 and threatened to take to the streets. As a result, only parties in the Awami League-led ruling coalition are represented in the set-up. The roots of the present crisis go back to 2011, when the Hasina government amended the Constitution to abolish the caretaker system of government, which had been introduced in the mid-1990s to provide a non-partisan overseer for elections. The decision to do away with it was born out of first-hand experience of the perils of the caretaker system when a government of technocrats appointed for three months in 2006 stayed on for over two years with military backing. The abolition was opposed by the BNP, which also boycotted the vote on the amendment in Parliament, seeing it as a self-serving move by the Awami League. Since then, the country has moved from crisis to crisis, each segueing into the other, including massive violence that attended the trials to punish those who had cooperated with the Pakistan Army against the liberation of Bangladesh. Through all this, if BNP leader Khaleda Zia has been confrontationist, Prime Minister Hasina has hardly been reconciliatory. The ban imposed earlier this year on the Jamaat-e-Islami, a crucial ally of the BNP, did nothing to enhance the Awami League leadership’s democratic credentials, coming as it did shortly after the opposition combine convincingly won a clutch of municipal elections in the midst of the war crimes trials.
What is required now is for both parties to acknowledge that they need to engage with each other constructively to ensure a peaceful democratic transition. An election boycott by the BNP, as the party has threatened, is no solution. As for the Awami League, victory in an election that is not contested by the main opposition party would be hollow. It will set the country on a fresh path of political confrontation. With the security situation in the entire region uncertain, several countries are now engaged in efforts to break the political deadlock in Dhaka. Already seen as pro-Hasina, New Delhi must do nothing that appears partial to any party. It is true that Sheikh Hasina has been a good friend of India, but New Delhi’s inability to reciprocate with a settlement on the Teesta river water dispute or on the land boundary issue has given the BNP a stick to beat the government with. It is in India’s interests to encourage the two main parties to find a way out of this impasse themselves, without taking sides.
Rationales for separation
Telangana is almost a fait accompli now, but both pro-Telangana activists and anti-bifurcation protesters know there is still a lot to fight for: the status of Hyderabad, the demarcation of boundaries, the sharing of water resources, and the reallocation of government personnel. With the Group of Ministers looking into issues relating to the bifurcation completing its consultations on Monday, the focus is now on the details of the bifurcation, and not the creation of Telangana itself. The violent agitations leading to and following the Cabinet approval for Telangana were in part engendered by the indecisiveness of the government at the Centre, and the absence of any structured dialogue among the various stakeholders on the bifurcation. The Centre heard views from all sides, but could not force anyone to consider compromises or scale down from maximalist positions. The discussions so far have been random exercises held in the hope that a consensus would magically emerge. But now that these efforts have predictably failed, they are shown up as justification for a hurried, unilateral approach by the Centre. No resolution on the Telangana issue was introduced in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. While this is not mandated by the Constitution, the bypassing of the Assembly is certainly a departure from the precedents in the bifurcation of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh in 2000. Of course, in these instances the creation of the new States — Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh — were not as contentious as the carving out of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh is. Telangana remains an instance of how not to go about creating new States.
Almost inevitably, the Cabinet approval for Telangana has revived demands for new states in eastern India, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Clearly, the Telangana tangle has reinforced the need for setting up another States Reorganisation Commission to examine various demands for new states and lay down broad principles and guidelines in deciding new boundaries. At present, many of the demands are based on loose, largely imagined, identities. The struggle for Telangana was based on its political past, and not linguistic or ethnic identity. Without some rational, practical basis for the creation of new states, statehood demands would be conceded as the Centre seems politically expedient. Governance issues and administrative convenience should also be among the decisive factors in the creation of new states. Otherwise, statehood demands would be sustained by narrow, sectarian agendas that ignore the larger interests of the community. The end result of such demands can only be internal displacement of people.
