Round The States 

New Delhi, 15 April 2010

States To Centre

TALK LESS, WORKMORE

By Insaf

 Naxalism and the Dantewada disaster continue to dominate thethinking across the country, not only in the Maoists-infested Statesbut elsewhere too. The States now count upon the Centre to be less bossy and bemore cooperative and understanding. Bihar’sChief Minister Nitish Kumar reflected their thinking as he pithily commented thatUnion Home Minister P Chidambaram needs to talk less and work more. Essentially,the Dantewada disaster is not just the failure of Chidambaram and his“intellectual arrogance” but is essentially a failure of the Union HomeMinistry, Intelligence and other various wings. These Chief Ministers areagreed that the decision of Chidambaram’s resignation should be regarded as a closedchapter but the rest of the matter calls for honest introspection.  

More so as Chidambaram has also come in for a scathingattack from within his own Party. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh andCongress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, recently in an article slammed theHome Minister for adopting "a narrow sectarian view”. According to Singh, Naxalismcould not be treated as a “law and order” problem and that there was “need fora holistic strategy which included pro-poor policies to win over the locals.” Clearly,the Centre needs to identify the causes of failure of the Dantewada massacre inwhich 76 CRPF personnel were butchered and the measures required to deal withthe growing Maoist threat, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described asthe biggest internal threat to the country.  

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UP Turf War Hots Up

Uttar Pradesh appears to be fast moving towards totalwarfare between the Congress and BSP supremo and Chief Minister Mayawati. The Congress’young General Secretary Rahul Gandhi flagged off his party’s “chetna yatras” fromAmbedkarnagar on Wednesday last. In all there will be 10 yatras spread out over103 days and each will last 90 days! Indeed, the most ambitious exercise undertakenby the party to regain power in the country’s largest State. Though the launch coincidedwith the Congress’ 125^th year celebrations, its timing—the birthanniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar and the place assume significance. Not only isit a direct challenge to Mayawati but is also being seen as a kick off forRahul’s campaign for the UP elections in 2012. The yatras, said Rahul promise“politics of youth, politics of empowerment, politics of development,” whichthe BSP government has failed to provide. While it’s anyone’s guess howMayawati will tackle the challenge, for starters her party ensured that Rahuldid not garland Ambedkar’s statue, by putting pandals all around it. Instead,he had to garland a photo of Ambedkar along with one of Mahatama Gandhi on thestage!   

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Revival Of TN UpperHouse

The DMK government in Tamil Nadu is finally going to fulfillits promise made in the late 80s. It is all set to revive the LegislativeCouncil, abolished on 1 November 1986, by the then AIADMK government under MG Ramachandran.On Monday last, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi got his resolution in favour ofthe Council passed by 155 votes against 61 in the Legislative Assembly. TheCouncil had its roots in the Madras Legislative Council of the pre-Independencedays when it was a presidency. It functioned as an Upper House for decades andeven had Congress’ C Rajagopalachari and DMK’s CN Annadurai as members, whenthey were sworn in as CMs. The decision to abolish the Council was taken by MGRand ratified by the Assembly on 14 May 1986 after he failed to send a partysympathizer, film and TV artiste, A B Shanthi as its member. Though the DMKmade various attempts to revive the Council, it failed to secure the requisitemajority. Now that Karunanidhi has fulfilled his promise of reviving theCouncil, he must be serious about its composition and ensure it is trulyrepresentative of the Elders. It should not be a House to distribute patronageor to bring in daughters, son-in-laws, nieces, et al.

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Khap PanchayatsUltimatum 

The khap panchayats of four States are all set to take onthe Centre and the law courts. Its members have threatened a protest march to Delhi if the HinduMarriage Act was not amended to ban the same gotra (sub-caste) marriages. OnTuesday last, a Maha Khap Panchayat,claiming representation of 36 khap panchayats spread across Haryana and partsof Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhiwas held in Kurukshetra. It condemned the landmark judgement of a Karnal court,which had sentenced five persons to death for the murder of a young couple formarrying in the same gotra. Additionally, it decided to challenge the verdictin the High court. This apart, the panchayats resolved to make it compulsoryfor parents of youth getting married, as well as the sarpanch to be witness toweddings and demanded a Lok Adalat status for themselves. A 51-member committeesaid it would soon announce the date for its protest to Delhi. Many may have reason to agree with thekhap panchayats as the Parsi community is slowly but surely disappearing.Nothing can save it but marrying outside the gotra.   

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The Gurjars in Rajasthan are on the warpath again. They havedecided to step up pressure on the Ashok Gehlot Congress government to fulfilltheir long-pending demand of five per cent reservation in State jobs. On Mondaylast, the Gurjars led by Kirorisingh Bainsala and his Gurjar Aarakshan Samitiembarked on their plan to lay a siege on the State capital, Jaipur. Forstarters they organized a mahapadav(sit in) in Hinduan, Karauli district, about 150 km from Jaipur. The stepwas taken as the first round of talks with Gehlot before starting the agitationhad ended in a stalemate. The Samiti is now hell-bent on “cutting off allaccess to the capital.” However, the government is trying to calm tempers downand has assured the Samiti that it would hold off five per cent of thegovernment recruitment, till the High Court stay on the law granting Gurjarsreservation was vacated. The question is will it suffice, as the previousBJP-government was unable to keep its word.

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Deaths OnRise

Custodial deaths are on a disturbing rise. The number ofdeaths has increased by 41.66 per cent since the UPA government came to powerin 2004. This includes 70.72 per cent increase in deaths in prison custody and12.69 per cent increase in deaths in police custody. The State which heads thelist is the country’s financial capital, Maharashtra with the highest number ofcustodial deaths—246 in 2009 followed by Uttar Pradesh (165), Gujarat (139), West Bengal (112) and Andhra Pradesh. These startlingrevelations were released in a report “Torture in India 2010” by the AsianCentre for Human rights (ACHR) released on Tuesday last.  Importantly, the report notes that if anAmerican journalist Joel Elliot could be tortured by the Delhi police in October 2009, “what wouldhappen to the aam aadmi?” Will the Centreand State governments please pay heed? ---INFA

 (Copyright,India News & Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 21 April 2010

Bareilly To Hyderabad

…AND THE RIOTS PERSIST

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

Communal riots have become part and parcel of the Indiansocial life. The birth pangs of the country were on the throes of communalriots. The history of the last sixty years or so to a section of the society,who has been on the receiving end of communal riots, is nothing but a historyof wanton destruction of lives and properties.

The irony is, the psyche of the countrymen has become immuneto such development that there is little effort either from the government ofthe day or the civil groups to stop such well-planned and well-orchestratedcommunal mayhem in the nation that swears by the word peace, unity indiversity, peaceful coexistence and such blah, blah…. 

The year 2010 so far has witnessed two communal riots, onein Bareilly a small city in Uttar Pradesh, theother in Hyderabad,the capital of Andhra Pradesh. While the incidence of communal violence in Bareilly is rare, Hyderabadremains on the seismic zone of communal flare-ups.

The genesis of the Bareillyriot was the Bara-wafaat procession taken out by the Muslims on the occasion ofthe birthday of Prophet Mohammad. This was on 2 March when a small group ofMuslim boys not more than 30, were going to join the main procession and theypassed through a Hindu locality. They were challenged and hot words wereexchanged and this followed a volley of bricks making the boys bleedprofusely.  The fact that the bricks insuch huge quantity were kept on roof tops suggests that some planning must havebeen done before the flash point

However, the group of boys somehow made it to the mainprocession, which characteristically was not a procession where some thousands gathered,but of much smaller in numbers who after seeing their co-religionist bleeding retaliatedby burning shops which was indiscriminate. Unlike the popular belief that it wereonly the Hindu shops which were torched, the fact remains that there were manyMuslim shops too which were completely burned down. 

This resulted in the clamping down of curfew, and after sixdays when every one thought it would finally be lifted, the administrationarrested the powerful Sunni Muslim cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, theNational president of powerful Ittehad e Millat (IMC) on charges of incitingtrouble. 

Bareilly is a great seat of Barellvi sect ofthe Sunni Muslim Schooland the Maulana is no baby sheep. The arrest made the supporters of Maulana tosit on dharna, demanding his unconditional release. This time the numbers were around30, 000 and these kept increasing with each passing moment. In spite of suchlarge numbers the supporters displayed remarkable discipline and none reportedto have done anything negative, except peacefully sitting in Satyagrah for over 30 hours.

In was after three days that Maulana Tauqeer was releasedfrom jail on March 11. His supporters after hearing the news of the release starteddispersing peacefully to their homes. However, at this moment the goons of the BajrangDal and the BJP reportedly started attacking the unarmed returning Muslims in whichtwo sustained severe cut injuries by sword.  At the same time the belligerent mob got busyvandalizing, looting and burning Muslim-owned shops and property.

This continued unabated for two days and the police andparamilitary forces had a tough time containing them.  It was only by March 15, when the curfew waslifted after two weeks that the city limped back to normalcy.

On the other hand, the riots in Hyderabad city are a basket case of communal clashes.It is once again the same old story where the State apparatus has failed topreempt the situation and only bolted the doors when the horses had fled!  

The riot in Hyderabadhad its origin in the rabble rousing speeches at the Vishwa Hindu Parishadconference on 24 March. This led to the filing of cases against those provokingviolence against the minority community.  And, it happened three days before thebreakout of actual violence that took place on Hanuman Jayanti day on 30 March.

Hanuman Jayanti, a festival that was hitherto celebratedwith relative simplicity in Hyderabadcity saw an unprecedented mobilization of crowds by the Hindu extremistorganizations that blanketed the entire city with Saffron flags. Thebelligerence of the Saffron brigade was at the height when they provocativelyplanted Saffron flags and other Hindu religious symbols on Mosques, Churchesand similar other religious sites.   

The provocation was enough for retaliation from the fearfulcommunity and according to reports it was a free-for-all where three lives werelost and 90 people left injured. The police arrested 272 two suspects, most ofthem Muslims, imposing curfew within the jurisdiction of 25 police stations ofthe city. It took several days for the situation to come back to normal andpeace restored.

In both the cases, Bareillyand Hyderbad, the role of the State administration was clearly dubious. It isunfortunate that both the State governments allowed the riots to unsettle thestate of communal harmony and did little to pre-empt the situation. In both thecases, the Hindutva groups were reportedly the main culprits and agentprovocateurs in destabilizing communal harmony and provoking religiousviolence.

The general public had begun to sense the communal tension butnot the administration that has intelligence gathering apparatus. It seems thepolice intelligence agency were either oblivious to the fact or deliberately remainedsilent.  

Importantly, these copy book cases of communal riots in thecountry have been recurring in pauses each year for the last 60 years or so. Nota single year passes when there are no communal riots in India. On arough estimate there could be an average three to five riots each year. Stillno one in this country gives a damn about it. Everyone forgets about it whenthings get normal after some fire fighting exercises, till it recurs again.This sounds bizarre but it is true.  

Ask those who have been reeling under violence, terror andcurfew. Imagine living under the looming shadow of uncertainty, danger and thethreat of violence and the State imposed restrictions under curfew. What kindof wound it may inflict on the minds of the sufferers? 

Clearly, it leaves on wondering how long this madness willbe allowed to perpetrate by the collusion of the State and Central governments.Are they not responsible for producing Jihadis in this country? It’s a murkygame where one first produces the Jihadis, and then goes after them.

The irony is that each one of us gets carried away by thesymptoms and none cares of thinking of the ways and means to control thedisease. The biggest, stakeholder in this, the State, seems to be wavering inits commitment to uphold the secular credentials that’s guaranteed in our Constitution.  

At the end, a mere regular investigation is ordered to probethese riots and what it would come up with. Another step may be a judicialprobe of these incidents. But is that sufficient to get to the real storybehind the riots? Even if we are able to get one, will that avoid further lossof life in yet another riot on yet another pretext?  Your guess is as good as mine! ---INFA

(Copyright,India News and Feature Alliance)

Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 16 April 2010

Extended Warranty

BE WARY, DON’T GET DUPED

By Shivaji Sarkar

Extendedwarranty is a cause for happiness. The only catch is it brings a smile to the manufacturersbut bleeds the consumers. The automobile and electronics industry is estimatedto earn trillions of dollars across the world this way. And so does the Indianindustry, a couple of thousands of crores. However, it never comes out with astatement.

Thecompanies make stupendous profit on selling of extended warranties as a verysmall percentage of consumers really need to make such claims. The companypockets the money supposed to have been spent on labour and spare parts. Theconsumer is lured to have an extended warranty on a product telling him that itwould save him future cost of repairs and some replacement if they break undernormal use after the initial manufacturer’s warranty has expired. Accidentaldamages are not covered by it. The terms of this extension may be different,often more expensive, than original warranties.

This is sometimes also called aservice contract. Price on extended warranties, especially for appliancesvaries between 10 to 30 per cent of the purchase price. Reading the detailsabout what is covered may help the consumer decide if he could afford one, oractually need it. Some extended warranties may not cover enough to really makethem worthwhile. Even promised replacements often would not cost more than thewarranty cost.

The companies also cheat thecustomer by starting the warranty even before the actual delivery of a car or anyother product to the consumer. They have made it a policy to start a warrantyeven before the customer has laid his hands on the product. Almost all carmanufacturers do it in this country. This way the companies save a minimum offour days in warranty time – in economic terms it amounts to several croresworth.

The companies resort to deviousmethods to dupe the customer. In some cases, despite realising the full amountthey do not give the warranty book as a car purchaser, Sudarshan Goswami of Meerut, found. He wasreportedly given the warranty book only after forcing him to pay an additionalpayment of Rs 3,200.

The refrigerator and washing machinemanufacturers lure the consumers with “many additional” features and tempt themto settle for a bigger sized fridge, though he may not require it. The biggera product, the higher would be the so-called warranty cost. Besides, each feature adds to the base price.Most of the features cost the company a minimum, in many cases may not costeven a hundred rupees. But the consumer is charged 10 to 30 times of that. Overand above this he is saddled with an “extended” warranty of two years, which hewould possibly never use, for Rs 2500.

The companies aver that it satisfiesthe customer and creates a strong bond with the customer. Why not? The company’sservice man would charge only Rs 250 to attend a complaint. This means aconsumer would be able to recover the warranty amount if his refrigerator breaksdown ten times in two years. If it is that “good” a product, the consumershould rue it. In actuality, that does not happen and the company has all thereasons to smile at the cost of the consumer.

According to a recent US consumerreport study not more than eight per cent of refrigerators require repairs inthe first three years, a washing machine not more than 22 per cent and amicrowave 12 per cent and a mobile phone 5 per cent.

Even for cars there are not manyoccasions when one could claim the warranty. Many complaints are routine andattended during the periodical servicing. Some years back, car companies weretempting the buyers to go for a plastic coating of the engine and some parts ofthe body. For an average car the cost was Rs 6,000 to 10,000. The buyersrealized that certain wear and tear was routine and the coating was a mere giftto the dealers or manufacturers.

The best US and European adage isthat if the manufacturers has not given some facility or protection then thevehicle does not require it. The consumer would be happier without it. But mostbuyers feel insecure without the “perceived security” added to the product. Thesellers induce this sense of insecurity and exploit.

Similarly, there is not much savingsin the so-called Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) stars. It has only turnedout to be a money guzzler for the manufacturers. The cost of a five-star ratedair conditioner is almost Rs 2000 more than a four-star one. The consumers,however, do not realize that this also compromises on its wattage and affectsits output. A 5-star air conditioner has 1.72 KW and a four-star 1.78 KW.  

The 5-star AC on an average use of1200 hours a year would consume 2064KW/hour and four star 2136 KW/hour. Ifelectricity cost is taken at Rs 4 a unit, the total power cost for the 5-starAC would be Rs 8256 and the 4-star Rs 8544 – a difference of Rs 288 a year. Itwould take seven years to recover the extra amount. If the buyer pays for anadditional warranty, he would be losing at least another Rs 2,500 at the least.As against this, the seller earns an additional Rs 5500 for virtually giving noextra benefit.

How much do these pseudo promises tothe consumers earn the manufacturers? It is only a wild guess. If a car makersells one lakh car a year, it earns, assuming it charges extra on an average ofRs 3000 per car, Rs 30 crore on which it has no liability. If the interestearned on it is added, even at a modest 8 per cent, it raises the profit byanother Rs 2.4 crore. If various other companies’ earnings on this score arecalculated, even at a modest scale it would add to a minimum of Rs 1000 crorein company profits in India.

The time has come to educate theconsumer in a systematic way to say no to most “perceived benefits” and“additional features”. It is now also incumbent on the Ministry for Consumer Affairsto draft a suitable Bill to end this fleecing. --- INFA

(Copyright,India News and Feature Alliance)

Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 10 April 2010

US, China Policies

INDIA MUST GUARD AGAINST ONSLAUGHT

By Shivaji Sarkar

India needs to be cautious in its dealingswith the US on the one sideand Chinaon the other. More so when it is time for the country to provide a global model.However, it has little to cheer from the visits of US Treasury SecretaryTimothy Geithner or External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s visit to China.

Washington is eyeing for a $ 600 billion investment in India’sinfrastructure, as the returns are very high. Closer ties with China saddles India with a massive trade deficitof $ 15.8 billion. It is no better for the US,which has a trade deficit of $ 227 billion as it imports $ 296 billion worth ofitems from Chinaand exports only $ 69 billion products. This happens as Beijing keeps its currency, the Yuanartificially low.

AsNew Delhi accepts large investments from the US ininfrastructure, it suffers on two counts – cost of infrastructure developmentgoes up and the country’s manufacturing sector continues to remain weak. However,Beijing has cleverly taken this advantage fromthe US.The major merchandise export to the USfrom Chinais from the manufacturing sector that produces at extremely, often artificial,low costs. It is hitting the USeconomy hard and if Indiadoes not learn the lessons from the US, then it would hit its economy harder.

TheUShas primarily suffered because it ignored the growth of the Chinesemanufacturing sector, which was being fuelled by US imports. China simultaneously took the economic andfinancial initiative to create a safety net for itself so that the US could notsuddenly withdraw from its market. It invested heavily to create a dollarreserve. In November 2009, China owned$789 billion in the US Treasuries, 33 per cent of the total $2.4 trillionoutstanding. This makes it the largest owner. Many are concerned that it gives China politicalleverage over US’ fiscal policy.

Thehigh trade volume China haswith the US also provides itthe base for low-priced manufactured product exports to India, which has not learnt from the woes of theUS.America’s trade deficit with Chinameans that the UScompanies that can't compete with cheap Chinese goods must either lower theircosts or go out of business.

It has already happened to many sectors in India, includingelectrical, electronics and toys. Many Indian companies either have gone out ofbusiness or have become houses that trade in Chinese goods. Either way it leadsto losing of jobs and the edge that manufacturing sector gives to a country.

TheUShas learnt it the hard way. Indiais not in that kind of a tight spot but still it has not taken any step toavoid getting into the Chinese quagmire. It is indeed surprising that New Delhi should woo China for closer trade ties. Nobody knows why India supplies iron ore to China atridiculous export duty of one per cent. It is virtually subsidizing the Chinesemanufacturing sector, which is wrecking havoc with the Indian economy. India has no obligation to supply iron ore to China, which it uses also for building arms andother strategic weapons, which are deployed on India’s borders and facilitatesmovement to the Tibetan plateau.

India has permission for exporting onlythree of the agreed list of 17 fruits and vegetables. Such exports hardly addany value but Commerce Minister Anand Sharma has apparently cowed down and almostbegged Chinato increase that basket recently. However, Beijing has refused entry to aviation andentertainment sectors as well from where returns could be high.

Alow cost Yuan is detrimental to the Indian economy. Worse, India has notsought any revision of the value of the Yuan against the Rupee. It has neithertaken any trade or diplomatic initiative to contain China. And, larger trade with China mayfurther stymie growth of the Indian manufacturing sector.

Additionally,the way it is gleeful over the US’moves to invest in Indiais yet another danger. The policy makers in New Delhioverlook the recent announcements of US President Barack Obama of encouragingthree emerging economies – India,China and Brazil – to buy more goods from the US to doubleexports in five years. US Commerce Under-Secretary for International Trade,Francisco Sanchez said this week: “That's where the money is and that's wherewe need to focus”, noting that 95 per cent of the world's consumers liveoutside the US.

TheUS with high unemployment rate of 10 per cent needs that strategy. There hasbeen minor increase in jobs in the private sector as the US has decided to pushits $1.4 trillion budget deficit. It is also pushing its economy with virtualzero interest rates. High deficits not only in the US but also by all majorEuropean countries threaten an uneven global competition. It would force Indiato hedge against artificial values of most global currencies and price itsgoods uneconomically.

Indiahas not protested at the high budget deficit trends of these countries. It haspushed up crude prices to $ 85 a barrel from $ 65 to 69 a week ago as such deficitscreate false hope of a US recovery, which is just not happening. It certainlyhelps the oil companies, most of which are based in the US, rake in hugeprofits. In other words, India and other countries would be subsidizing USbudget deficits.

TheUS has recently stated that it is borrowing less form the rest of the world. Infact, it has honed up its strategy in such a way that it does not need toborrow and the rest of the world would subsidise its economy as it adoptsdevious techniques. Importantly, India needs to be aware of this and mustsharpen its policies to guard against such subtle onslaughts. More so when despitea thaw in the downtrend, job prospects in India have not brightened up. That isthe key to a recovery.

IfIndia falls prey to the policies of the US and China, the prospect of its ownrecovery and consequent growth might get muted. The policy makers need to standup firmly and chalk out an aggressive strategy to shield the country againstsuch evil maneuvers. The country does not need to succumb to the temptation ofincreasing low-cost exports just to shore up statistical presentations. – INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)