an unequal platter - winmeen · them, from hapur in uttar pra desh this month, shows a vigilante...

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NOIDA/DELHI THE HINDU

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 20188EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

CMYK

A ND-NDE

EDITORIAL

Development is about expanding the capabilities ofthe disadvantaged, thereby

improving their overall quality oflife. Based on this understanding,Maharashtra, one of India’s richestStates, is a classic case of a lack ofdevelopment which is seen in itsunacceptably high level of malnutrition among children in the tribalbelts. While the State’s per capitaincome has doubled since 2004(the result of sustained high economic growth), its nutritional status has not made commensurateprogress.

A comparisonA comparison of nutrition indicators for children under fi��ve years,using the third and fourth roundsof the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015–2016 and 200506, shows this: though stuntinghas declined from 46.3% to 34.4%,wasting rates have increased from16.5% to 25.6%. Further, the un

derweight rate (36%) has remained static in the last 10 years.This is worse than in some of theworld’s poorest countries — Bangladesh (33%), Afghanistan (25%)or Mozambique (15%). This level ofpoor nutrition security disproportionately aff��ects the poorest segment of the population.

According to NFHS 201516, every second tribal child suff��ersfrom growth restricting malnutrition due to chronic hunger. In2005, child malnutrition claimedas many as 718 lives in Maharashtra’s Palghar district alone. Evenafter a decade of double digit economic growth (200405 to 201415), Palghar’s malnutrition statushas barely improved.

Results from a surveyIn September 2016, the NationalHuman Rights Commission issuednotice to the Maharashtra government over reports of 600 childrendying due to malnutrition inPalghar. The government responded, promising to properly implement schemes such as Jaccha Baccha and Integrated ChildDevelopment Services to checkmalnutrition. Our independentsurvey conducted in Vikramgadblock of the district last year foundthat 57%, 21% and 53% of childrenin this block were stunted, wasted

and underweight, respectively;27% were severely stunted. Ourdata challenges what Maharashtra’s Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde saidin the Legislative Council in March— that “malnutrition in Palgharhad come down in the past fewmonths, owing to various interventions made by the government.”

Scant diet diversityStunting is caused by an insuffi��cient intake of macro and micronutrients. It is generally acceptedthat recovery from growth retardation after two years is only possible if the aff��ected child is put on adiet that is adequate in nutrient requirements. A critical aspect of nutrient adequacy is diet diversity,calculated by diff��erent groupingsof foods consumed with the refe

rence period ranging from one to15 days. We calculated a 24hourdietary diversity score by countingthe number of food groups thechild received in the last 24 hours.

The eight food groups include:cereals, roots and tubers; legumesand nuts; dairy products; fl��eshfoods; eggs; fi��sh; dark green leafyvegetables; and other fruits andvegetables. And 26% and 57% ofthe children (83% put together)had a dietary diversity score oftwo and three, respectively, implying that they had had food fromonly two/three of the eight foodgroups.

In most households it was riceand dal which was cooked most often and eaten thrice a day. Thesewere even served at teatime to thechildren if they felt hungry. Therewas no milk, milk product or fruitin their daily diets. Even the adultsdrank black tea as milk was unaffordable. Only 17% of the childrenachieved a minimum level of dietdiversity — they received four ormore of the eight food groups.This low dietary diversity is aproxy indicator for the household’s food security too as the children ate the same food cooked foradult members.

Such acute food insecurity intribal households is due to a loss oftheir traditional dependence on

forest livelihood and the State’sdeepening agrarian crisis. Besidesthese, systemic issues and a weakening of public nutrition programmes have aggravated the problem. For example, 20% of tribalfamilies did not receive rations(public distribution system) in Vikramgad (in Palghar) as they did nothave a card.

Analysis of the State’s Budgetshows that the nutrition expenditure as a percentage of the StateBudget has drastically declinedfrom 1.68% in 201213 to 0.94% in201819, a pointer to the government’s falling commitment to nutrition. It is no wonder then thatour survey data show that nutrition schemes are not having thedesired impact.

It is time the government looksat the root cause of the issue andfi��nds a sustainable solution fortackling malnutrition. This is possible only when the state focusseson inclusive development bycreating employment opportunities for the marginalised whichwould improve their purchasingpower and, in turn, reduce malnutrition.

Soumitra Ghosh teaches at the School of

Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of

Social Sciences, Mumbai. Sarika Varekar

is a student at the same university

An unequal platterIt is time the government fi��nds a sustainable solution to the malnutrition crisis

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Soumitra Ghosh &

Sarika Varekar

more letters online:

www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/

This is about footage and photographs of two events, liketwo strips of memory; cut

tings from everydayness. One ofthem, from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh this month, shows a vigilantegroup hunting for alleged cowslaughterers and smugglers. It is ablood sport. The mob picks up Sameyddin, a 65yearold man, andforces him to confess. It then dragsa 45yearold, Qasim, like a sackbefore it lynches him. He begs forwater as he is being beaten up, butthe mob refuses.

What is even more terrifyingthan the violence is the indiff��erence of the policemen in front ofthe crowd. They don’t seem tocare, barely registering the event.An apology from the authorities isan ironic addition to the unbelievable tableau.

The second incident occurredin May, at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand’s Nainital district. A Hinduwoman and a Muslim man get isolated in a temple. The mob dragsthe man out, hitting him at random. A policeman stands up to themob, protecting the victim withhis body. The crowd around waitsin anticipation. All that stands between them and their target is theSikh policeman.

Chronicling violenceTwo videos, two fragments, twovignettes of violence. How doesone react to the chronicler of violence? Every interpretation is anact of risk, and a mediation on violence demands nothing less.

Marshall McLuhan, the philosopher of communication once

claimed pithily that ‘the mediumis the message’. McLuhan’s comments may have become textbookclichés but even now the originalpower of the insight seepsthrough. We realise more andmore that how we communicatedetermines what we communicate. We sense this as we watch thevideo.

Violence in India today is alwayscommunicated as a video strip; apiece of gossip fl��oating in digitaltime. Today we feel that the videoas a fragment embodies us best.The video presents voyeurismcombined with the open bleakness of an anatomy class. The irony is that an instrument that recorded family marriages has nowbecome the archive for the collective violence of the time. Betweenvideo and selfi��e, we write today’shistory. Mob violence is the newserial of our time.

We have to theorise a littleabout the video before we analysethe two fragments more specifi��cally. It is not merely that the video/photograph captures every act ofpublic violence, it also makes theprivate public. The image linksviolence as an act of productionwith violence as consumption. It isalmost as if it attempts to create anew idea of the social. The oldidea of the social around the family or state sounds tired and empty,even stale. The new social is quick

to form and quick to dispense. It isrepresented by the mob. Todaythe social, or the sense of the collective, is constituted around themob and its violence.

Understanding the mobThree terms then become critical:the mob, the spectacle and thespectator. It is as if the mob has taken over history and myth, combining the worst of nature and culture. There is no equivalent of thehero in history, as in the warrior orthe satyagrahi. There is no concept like class or state, just themob waiting for a random trigger.The mob’s double is the crowd.There is little to choose from — oneplays the perpetrator and the other the spectator. Both are hungryfor the spectacle. The only reminder that we live in a society subjectto constitutional rules is the policeman. The policeman too canmerge into the background andplay the spectator indiff��erent tospectacle. His indiff��erence, his boredom have an edge as he sits as ifwaiting for his favourite serial. Thevictim, by the very label Dalit,Muslim or woman, is the only social category; the scapegoatmarked for violence. The indiff��erence of the police in the video appears both surreal and slapstick. Itspooks justice, the concept of duty, the Constitution as they let theviolence go on. Of course, it all oc

curs in U.P. but U.P. could be anyplace on earth. The lynch mob hasnot only overtaken law and orderbut also overwhelmed history andcivics. The only humanity mightbe with the victim, in his vulnerability, in his desperation to communicate, in his scream, in his powerlessness, protests againstbrute force and against the factthat law, morals, language, rules,prayer are all helpless. A godmight listen out of pity or even habit, but not a mob. Depraved human behaviour makes savage animal behaviour look tame. Animalsrarely demand excess, but excessis the fi��rst signal of the mob.

Violence today lacks a sense ofmyth or even metaphor. There isno sense of the epic to the events —banality literally dogs them. It is asif it is in the Hobbesian world thatthe digital domain fi��nds expression. The history of man with themob in control is ‘nasty, brutishand short’. The body is devoid ofany sense of sacrament. It is dispensable. The Indian cosmos islike a butcher’s shop, and it is nolonger Picasso or Goya who are relevant. One remembers the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Hispainting, ‘The Scream’, is more relevant as it captures violence andsheer primordiality of pain. It captures the brutality, the sheer barbarism of man against man.

Making sense of itThe two events in a way create afable, an Indian version of TheGood Samaritan. The Good Samaritan as a story does not only belong to the Bible. Like all great religious tales, it is universal,producing vernacular variationseverywhere.

The fable asks, who is the stranger, the other? It answers, the other is an extension of the self. Society, it argues, cannot be made ofsimilarity and uniformity but it

crucially needs diff��erence and thecelebration of diff��erence to keepsociety alive. As the South Africanphilosopher A.C. Jordan advised,“One needs to reinvent the stranger constantly to keep societyalive.” Gagandeep Singh, the policeman at Ramnagar, plays thegood Samaritan. At a time whenpolice brutality is at its prime as inThoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, the policeman and the citizen become“others” to each other. To this weadd the distance between a fundamentalist mob and its victim.When a policeman like GagandeepSingh rescues a victim, the fable ofthe Good Samaritan is enactedonce again.

The fi��rst picture, from Hapur,displays the standard indiff��erenceof society to its other. Citizenshipand authority come alive when theother becomes part of the creativeself. Society in this fable is bornwhen one creates civility. Gagandeep Singh’s act shows that society has to care to continue. The twopictures become ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of one narrative. It isup to us as seekers of meaning toread it. One exemplary act showswhat is possible with a bit of courage and a touch of patience. Thepoliceman protects the victim butdoes nothing to imitate the crowd.It is also a reminder that a socialcontract does not come alive because of formal rules. It comesalive when someone is ready to sacrifi��ce for it.

We need a new testament forour society to keep exemplaryevents alive beyond constitutionalclichés. Our law and order historymust capture it in a more memorable way. This is the ethical and narrative challenge of our time.

Shiv Visvanathan is an academic

associated with the Compost Heap, a

group in pursuit of alternative ideas and

imagination

At the crossroadsTwo images frame our choice today, police standing by indiff��erently or rescuing the victim and thereby the mob

Shiv Visvanathan

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On the rolls?India is such a vast countrythat it has absorbed,unknowingly, millions ofoutsiders as its owncitizens, many a timesupported by vestedinterests to prop up theirvote banks (“NRC omissionsraise fear in Assam”, June25). The citizenship issuehas been handled in such acasual manner over thedecades that we now havestrange situations of suchpersons holdingconstitutional posts or evenbeing in possession of newidentifi��cation documentswhich are the preserve ofonly Indian citizens. Any attempt to get at theroot of the problem ispainted with a communalcolour or seen as regionalbias, rendering the wholeexercise open to explosivereprisals. Restricting the exerciseonly to Assam while illegalcitizens are spread acrossthe length and breadth ofthe country is alsodebatable. Given the waysuch sensitive issues have

been handled in the past,getting a fi��nal list of legalcitizens would in allprobability remain a pipedreamV. Subramanian,

Chennai

Tree felling in Delhi The plan to fell thousandsof trees in Delhi is bizarreand will only add to themisery of the residents ofDelhi already battlingchronic air pollution. Evenif saplings are planted, itwould take almost a decadefor the trees to grow. Therehas to be a pragmatic viewand selfi��sh desiresdropped. Why create acatastrophe?Deepshikha Majumdar,

Kota, Rajasthan

Saplings as dowryReports that around 17,000trees could be felled inDelhi because ofdevelopment havedepressed many. But thatdespair has given rise tosome optimism on readingthe report, “In Odisha, agroom demands a growing

‘dowry’” ( June 25). Giventhat the word “dowry” hasa negative connotation, hisdemand was a pleasantsurprise. The groom hasexemplifi��ed that for anycrucial movement such asaff��orestation, it is thecommon man who shouldbe the driving force.R. Sridharan,

Chennai

No more plasticThe ban on plastic useseems to be a kneejerkreaction. It may be lookedat as an ecofriendlymeasure, but are weprepared and ready for thechange? What impact willthe ban have on daytodaylife which is heavilydependent on plastics? Thewhirligig of time seems tohave taken a full circle andwe have to get back to thedays of using glass bottles,stainless steel glasses,containers and cloth bags.Having been encouragedand supported bygovernments, the plasticindustry has witnessedgargantuan growth. How do

we propose to dispose ofthe huge stocks of plasticproducts, leave alonemanage the collapse of theindustry in which lakhs ofpeople work? Would itprove to be anotherdemonetisation drive? Such a drastic and lifechanging move should havebeen taken through instages and after ensuringthat there are viableproduct substitutes andalternative jobs for those inthe industry (“They keepcalm and try greenalternatives in maximumcity”, June 25). S.V. Venkatakrishnan,

San Jose, California, U.S.

Governor’s warningThe warning issued by theoffi��ce of the Governor ofTamil Nadu of legal actionbeing initiated against anyattempt to lay siege to RajBhavan in the context ofpolitical opposition to theGovernor’s visits to variousdistricts in the State isnothing but blatantintimidation. As aconstitutional functionary,

readers who overreact tooccasional changes in theformat need a reality checkon their perceptions of theethical ecosystems in whichnewspapers function andthe ways in whichcompetitive pressures ofthe market forcenewspaper managementsto dilute longpractisedvalues. V.N. Mukundarajan,

Thiruvananthapuram

Rise of the underdogsAt the FIFA World Cup thebig teams are fl��ounderingand unable to stamp theirhegemony despite havingillustrious names in theirranks. The way in whichthe smaller teams areposing a threat to them hascertainly raised the bar forWorld Cup football as awhole, thanks to theincreasing signifi��cance ofclub football which hashelped players to burnishtheir talent.Adwaith Kerala Varma,

Kozhikode, Kerala

the Governor has to respectthe boundaries laid downby the Constitution.Arguments advanced by thepolitical class cannot bebrushed aside asunwarranted (“Raj Bhavanwarns against laying siegeto its campus”, June 25).M. Jeyaram,

Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

The front pageOne has seen billboardlikeadvertisements on the frontpage of The Hindu before,but it was a startling sight tobe greeted with the‘classifi��ed’ front page ( June25). Readers are aware thatadvertisement revenue is abottomline booster fornewspapers. At the sametime, the front page, withsome exceptions, appealsto most readers when it issplashed with news morethan the display ofadvertisements of assortedbusiness activities scatteredacross in disparate chunks.There was more shockawaiting the reader whofl��ipped the page to fi��nd abarelyclad model. Perhaps

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğ��an’s reelection as President ofTurkey comes as no surprise. With this, his authoritarian grip will be further consolidated; in the

new term, he will acquire the sweeping executive powers given to the presidency through last year’s referendum. With Mr. Erdoğ��an’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its allies also winning the parliamentaryelection, his control over the government is untrammelled. The elections were held in a state of emergency, imposed in July 2016 following a coup attempt. Onepresidential candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş� of the proKurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), contestedfrom prison. The outcome, which was expected, is a bigsetback to the secularist Republican People’s Party, themain Opposition. Its candidate, Muharrem İ�nce, whoended up with 30.7% of the vote compared to Mr. Erdoğ��an’s 52.6%, had promised to bring back a system ofchecks and balances over presidential power by strengthening civil liberties and restoring a constitutional democratic order. Mr. İ�nce had attempted a new compactbetween Turkey’s secular vote bank and religious conservatives, in an attempt to overcome the distrust between the statistsecularists and Islamic parties that haspolarised Turkish politics since the days of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The rise of the neoIslamist AKP and theconsolidation of Mr. Erdoğ��an’s power drew from thebacklash against the statistsecularists and the economic growth in the fi��rst decade of AKP rule.

A faltering economy, characterised by plunging foreign direct investment, high infl��ation and a depreciating lira, had given the Opposition some hope of takingthe fi��ght to Mr. Erdoğ��an. But the President’s polarisingpersonality and his party’s wide organisational reach,coupled with the perception that he was the right person to revive economic growth, helped him retain power. His electoral victory will embolden his regime tocontinue its authoritarian policies against critics, agreater worry now in the face of his newly acquiredpowers. His victory is likely to see Turkey continuingwith its belligerent role in the West Asian neighbourhood. For minorities such as the Kurds, the silver liningis the fact that Mr. Demirtaş�’s liberaldemocratic HDPmanaged to win more than 10% of the vote to secure entry into Parliament. In contrast to Mr. Erdoğ��an’s triumphalism as the results trickled in, Mr. İ�nce was gracefulin defeat and promised to work as an Opposition forcefor a more democratic Turkey. A stable, democratic andpluralist Turkey is essential in a neighbourhood thatcontinues to be blighted by ethnically driven civil wars.As things stand, Mr. Erdoğ��an’s victory signals anotherhypernationalist, authoritarian turn.

Erdoğ��an’s dayTurkey’s President breezes through the

election and will now wield enhanced powers

Maharashtra’s ban on several consumer articlesmade of plastic, introduced after a threemonth notice period to industry and users, is

an extreme measure. It is naturally disruptive, andMumbai, famed for its resilience in the face of urbanchallenges, is trying to adapt quickly. Today, stemmingthe plastic tide is a national imperative. India hostedthis year’s World Environment Day and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi made a highprofi��le pledge, to international acclaim, that it would do away with all singleuseplastics by 2022. This goal is not yet backed by an actionplan so that State governments and local bodies can bein sync. Worldwide, the problem has got out of hand,with only 9% of about nine billion tonnes of plastic produced getting recycled. India has an uninspiring recordwhen it comes to handling waste. It has patchy data onvolumes, and even less on what it recycles. This lackadaisical approach is at odds with its ambitious goals.Quite simply, if the Centre and the States had got downto dealing with the existing regulations on plastic wastemanagement and municipal solid waste, a ban wouldnot even have become necessary. Specifi��cations for therecycling of diff��erent types of plastics were issued twodecades ago by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

To address the global concern that the bulk of India’splastic waste — estimated offi��cially at 26,000 tonnes aday — is being dumped in the oceans, there has to be aneff��ort on a war footing to segregate it at source. The Urban Development Secretary in each State, who headsthe monitoring committee under the rules, should bemandated to produce a monthly report on how muchplastic waste is collected, including details of the typesof chemicals involved, and the disposal methods. Suchcompulsory disclosure norms will maintain publicpressure on the authorities, including the State Pollution Control Boards. But segregation at source has nottaken off��, as there is little awareness, offi��cial support orinfrastructure. Even bulk generators such as shoppingmalls, hotels and offi��ces do not abide by the law. Priority, therefore, should be given to stop the generation ofmixed waste, which prevents recovery of plastics. Companies covered by extended producer responsibilityprovisions must be required to take back their waste. Inparallel, incentives to reduce the use of plastic carrybags, singleuse cups, plates and cutlery must be inplace. Retailers must be required to switch to paperbags. Potentially, carry bag production using cloth cancreate more jobs than machines using plastic pellets.What needs to be underscored is that plastics becamepopular because they are inexpensive, can be easilyproduced and off��er great convenience. But, as the UNEnvironment Programme notes, their wild popularityhas turned them into a scourge. Consumers will be ready to make the switch, but they need good alternatives.

Reduce, segregateWe need substitutes for plastic, incentives

to reuse, and better waste disposal

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CMYK

A ND-NDE

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THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

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DATA POINT

The Bihar United Front Government fell today [ June 25] asthe Chief Minister Mr. Bhola Paswan Sastri submitted his resignation to the Governor. The resignation was announced in theAssembly by the Finance Minister, Mr. Krishnakant Singh. Mr.Sastri said in his letter to the Governor that “the position of myGovernment has become unstable as one of our constituentparties had put forth impossible conditions which are unacceptable in the interests of the State. I have, therefore, decidedto resign in order to have a stable Government. I advise thatthe Assembly may be dissolved and midterm poll ordered.”

FIFTY YEARS AGO JUNE 26, 1968

Bihar U.F. Govt quits

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FROM ARCHIVES

The mysterious wave of fever and backache that was reportedin Spain a few weeks ago seems to have come to Bombay: ahuge number of people are down with these symptoms here.Yesterday [ June 24] it was reported that six hundred men wereaway from the Government dockyard on account of them.Three or four hundred were away from their work at the mint.The biggest newspaper offi��ce here had over three hundred absentees and the tale is the same in all parts of the town. TheMunicipal Health Department say the epidemics is only an unusually general epidemic of the infl��uenza that generally comeshere about August. Presumably the fever god had thought ourmonsoon was approaching its concluding stages that he mightbe excused for doing so for the weather we have had duringthe last six weeks had been the limit of everything nasty.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO JUNE 26, 1918.

Curious Fever Epidemic in Bombay.

Gaia hypothesisEcology

This refers to a scientifi��chypothesis which statesthat the earth is a complexliving entity, with the sustenance of life dependenton the selfregulating interactions among organismsand their inorganic surroundings. For instance,climatic conditions depend on the interactionsamong living organismslike human beings andtheir nonliving atmosphere, all of which regulateeach other constantly. TheGaia hypothesis is namedafter the mythical Greekgoddess Gaia who personifi��es the earth. It was fi��rstproposed by British scientist James Lovelock in his1972 paper “Gaia as seenthrough the atmosphere”.

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CONCEPTUAL

Video: what’s unique

about the ‘Madurai Malli’

http://bit.ly/MaduraiMalliGI

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MORE ON

THE WEB 3

The FIFA World Cup is the most popular sporting competition in theworld. Football is not just a game buta social ritual practised in every corner of the world. It is not only thenew secular religion of fans aroundthe world but also a matter of life anddeath for many individuals and nations.

Let us not forget that the famous100 Hour War, fought between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969, followed the World Cup qualifi��ermatches between the two countries.Honduras and El Salvador had simmering disputes even before theWorld Cup, but the matches provedto be the tipping point. There wasdisturbance after the fi��rst match,which Honduras won, and the situation deteriorated after the second.Before the third match, which El Salvador won to secure a place in theWorld Cup, Honduras broke off�� diplomatic relations with its neighbour. El Salvador then invaded Honduras and thousands lost their livesin the war. Peace was restored ahundred hours after, but a ceasefi��rewas signed only years later, in 1980.

Football has also been the cause ofhooliganism among frenzied fans inEurope and other continents. For instance, on May 29, 1985, at the HeyselStadium in Brussels, fans, mostly ofJuventus, were pressed against a collapsing wall while escaping from abreach by Liverpool fans, an incidentthat left 39 dead.

Football and philosophyThese are unfortunate incidents butfootball mostly has the opposite effect — of creating a sense of belonging to a community. Jamaican artistBob Marley used to say football isfreedom. Football played such an important role in Marley’s life that hesurrounded himself with people likeAllan Cole, Jamaica’s most celebrated player at the time. On one occasion, Marley told a journalist whowanted to interview him: “If youwant to get to know me, you will have

to play football against me.” Marleysaw in football the same empathyand solidarity that existed for him inmusic. Albert Camus thought thesame when he said rather superciliously: “All that I know most surelyabout morality and obligations I oweto football.” What the Nobel Prizewinning French novelist and philosopher meant by this was that henever felt more FrenchAlgerian thanwhen playing as a goalkeeper for hisschool team, the Racing Universitaired’Alger. Standing alone at the goalpost, Camus had plenty of time to refl��ect on the nature of philosophy. Inphilosophy, as in football, greatnessis a rare virtue. Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche,Heidegger and Wittgenstein are notproduced everyday in the same waythat football players like Pele, Eusebio, Maradona, Ronaldo and Salahare rare. Yet, what is a problem today, both in philosophy and football,is that we are the fi��rst people in history for whom the celebrity culture hasreplaced the art of greatness.

To be sure, both philosophy andfootball lack the virtue of resistingagainst mediocrity. The mass maniaof football can be associated with aform of thoughtlessness which doesnot honour the critical life of the

mind. In this case, it is often impossible to separate the fan culture in football from the nature of the game itself, which is a reminder of theRoman ‘bread and circuses’ (panemet circenses). The expression captures a certain critical view that themasses can be kept happy and awayfrom a sense of reality with food andentertainment. There is truth to theview that people can be kept passiveas long as you fi��ll their stomach andgive them popular and fascinatingspectacles. Maybe that is why JorgeLuis Borges, the Argentinian poet,once declared: “Soccer is popularbecause stupidity is popular.” Borges’ criticism of football was indicative of his distaste of fanaticism andnationalist dogmatism. But he approached the game in terms of athoughtless spectacle rather than asa form of sport where teams can becreative and where individuals candistinguish themselves.

Moral excellenceHowever, for the ancient Greeks, theart of excellence and exemplaritywas inscribed in the essence of allsport, especially a globally populargame as football. In ancient Greece,the emphasis was on individual athletic achievement related to the

Greek ideal of excellence. Those whoattained this ideal through their outstanding deeds won glory and fame.As a result, those who competed formoney feared public shame and disgrace. As Herodotus noted in Histories, “When the Persian military offi��cer Tigranes heard that the prizewas not money but a crown [ofolive], he could not hold his peace,but cried, ‘Good heavens, Mardonius, what kind of men are these thatyou have pitted us against? It is notfor money they contend but for gloryof achievement!’” As such, in ancientGreece, the truly great sportsmenwere those who displayed moral excellence and were explicitly guidedby a philosophy of life.

Money-making phenomenonPhilosophy as an art of thinking andsport as an ideal of excellence sharean origin in ancient Greece. Modernsport, including football, have dramatically transformed in spirit andsignifi��cance. Football, a manifestation of popular culture, is a mirror toour contemporary societies, but ithas also grown in political, economicand social signifi��cance. It has become a truly moneymaking phenomenon. It is, therefore, no coincidence that every four years the eyesof the world turn to the FootballWorld Cup. Imagine an ancientGreek Olympian being transportedthrough time to the present FIFAWorld Cup in Russia. He would beshocked by the number of advertisements surrounding the football stadiums and alarmed by the absence ofmoral excellence practised by thefans and the players. But assuredly,one thing would make him happyand that is the individual integrityand creative action of some footballplayers like Ronaldo, Messi and Salah. With their art of football as theironly banner, these players are able toachieve things which are not theneeds, opinions or wishes of thefans, but are the glory of football itself. Maybe it’s time to think of football no more as a game for gentlemenplayed by hooligans but as a game ofpoor people played by those menand women who are in search of adream.

Ramin Jahanbegloo is Director, Mahatma

Gandhi Centre for Peace, Jindal Global

University, Sonipat

It’s time to think of football as a game played by men and women in search of a dream

“With their art of football as their only banner, players like Mohamed Salah areable to achieve things which constitute the glory of football itself.” Salahscores Egypt’s fi��rst goal during the Group A match between Saudia Arabia andEgypt at the Volgograd Arena in Volgograd, Russia * GETTY IMAGES

All eyes on Russia

Ramin Jahanbegloo

The 15th Finance Commission (FC) is in theprocess of fi��guring out a fair formula for thedistribution of net tax proceeds between theUnion and the States, and among States.

The 14th FC had adopted a formulabasedtax devolution approach, apart from grantsinaid for local bodies, disaster relief, andpostdevolution revenue defi��cit grants. Theshare of devolution to the States was enhanced to 42% from 32%, which gave theStates considerable fl��exibility. However, itdispensed with sectoral grants for elementary education, the forest sector and renewable energy sector, among others. No Statespecifi��c grants were recommended. The assumption was that a higher level ofdevolution would off��set other requirements.

The devolution formula, therefore, is central to the approach of resource transfers.The 14th FC accorded 27.5% weight to thepopulation (of which 17.5% was of the 1971population), 15% to area, 7.5% to forest coverand 50% to income distance. Larger Stateswith larger populations have a greater requirement of resources. Income distancewas adopted as a proxy for fi��scal capacity,and forest cover was given weightage for thefi��rst time, underscoring ecological benefi��ts.

A distinct entityThe Northeast represents a distinct entity fordevelopmental planning and has a specialcategory status. Low levels of human development indices, a low resource base, andpoor connectivity and infrastructure pose adiff��erent challenge which must be taken intoaccount in the devolution formula.

Central Ministries earmark 10% of their allocations for the Northeast. By the same logic, 10% of tax proceeds could be earmarkedfor vertical devolution to the region. A number of centrally sponsored schemes havebeen rolled out where the obligation of Stateshare is huge, adding to revenue expenditure. Sometimes the real burden (as in thecase of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) is far morethan the mandated 10%. Many centrallysponsored schemes are discontinued midway, and the burden of employee salariesfalls on the States. Maintenance of assets,such as rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, require huge expenditure, especially in hilly States. A 20% costdisability was allowed by the 13th FC whileallocating grants for road maintenance.

The 13th FC acknowledged the diff��erentposition of the Northeast while arriving atthe formula for horizontal devolution. Itstwin guiding principles were equity and effi��ciency. It accorded 47.5% weight to fi��scal capacity distance. Per capita GSDP was takenas a proxy for fi��scal capacity, but States weredivided into two groups, general and specialcategory States, given that the average tax toGSDP ratio was higher for the former. Threeyear per capita GSDP was computed separately in these two groups, weighted meansof tax to GSDP ratio obtained, and per capitatax revenue was assessed for each State. Fiscal distance was thereafter calculated on estimated per capita revenue with reference tothe highest State, which was then multipliedby the 1971 populations to arrive at the shareof each State. There was much merit in thisapproach, which was in contrast to the 14thFC which used per capita GSDP as an indicator of fi��scal capacity uniformly for all States.

The revision of the base year to 201112 bythe Central Statistics Offi��ce from 200405 also created complications. Arunachal Pradesh, for instance, saw a sudden spike in percapita GSDP. This was primarily on accountof the fact that 73% of the GSDP was calculated on the allocation method as compared to34% earlier. This saw a jump in gross valueadded in mining, construction, electricity,etc., even with a negligible industrial base.

Comparing apples with applesThe Northeast also bears a disproportionateburden of natural disasters every year on account of rainfall. The 14th FC disaster reliefgrants bore no correlation with vulnerabilitybut were ad hoc extrapolations of previousallocations. The Energy and Resources Institute has computed an index of vulnerabilityof all States. The disaster vulnerability indexis highest for the Northeast; this needs to befactored in while allocating grants. The region also has the highest forest cover and represents the largest carbon sink nationally.Allocating 10% for forest cover would encourage States to preserve the forests.

The Terms of Reference of the 15th FC alsomention performancebased incentivesbased on improvements in GST collection,Direct Benefi��t Transfer rollout, etc. Thiswould defi��nitely infuse a spirit of competition. However, the performance of theNortheastern States must be benchmarkedwith other Northeastern States so that apples are not compared with oranges. Thechallenge for the Commission, as one member said, is “to strike a balance betweenthose who need and those who perform”.

Ashish Kundra is an IAS offi��cer posted with theGovernment of Mizoram. Views are personal

Uniquely placed The Finance Commission must heed the Northeast’s challenges

Ashish Kundra

Nigeria has announced that DemocracyDay will henceforth be celebrated onJune 12, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the annulled 1993 electionsand rededicate itself to the ideals ofMoshood Kashimawo Abiola.

The Social Democratic Party candidate was the presumed winner in that poll, an outcome thatIbrahim Babangida, the dictator since 1985, was never goingto honour. The latter promised fresh elections withinmonths, only to bar the rival candidates of the earlier contest. On the fi��rst anniversary of the 1993 franchise, a defi��antAbiola declared himself as the rightful President. But General Sani Abacha, an accomplice in previous coups, had himincarcerated almost until Abiola’s very end.

Banning political parties, breaking labour union strikes inthe oil industry and curtailing press freedom were routineunder Abacha’s repressive regime. But the 1995 execution ofnine human rights activists, including the reputed poet KenSaroWiwa, was arguably among the darker chapters inpostcolonial Nigeria. The episode shone a light on the international response led by the U.S., high on righteous condemnation while safeguarding its oil imports from Abuja.

When Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999, after 16years of military rule, a former general, Olusegun Obasanjo,commenced a diffi��cult transition. His record was stained bythe military’s killings of hundreds of civilians in southernand central Nigeria. His seeming rationalisation of thedeaths and his overall approach to governance stoked controversy, leading to a threat of impeachment.

The 2007 polls, marred by violence and fraud, raised concerns over the fragility of the electoral process. But the legislature’s 2006 decision vetoing a constitutional amendmenton a third presidential term, and a judicial verdict lifting thebar on the vicepresident from the contest are important examples of the evolution of transparent institutions in thecountry. The confi��rmation of Jonathan Goodluck’s presidency in 2011 and the subsequent regional and religious tensions climaxed in the Islamist Boko Haram’s 2014 kidnapping of 200 children. Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, WoleSoyinka, described the 2015 elections as the most “viciousand violent” that he had seen, and hailed Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate, as a “bornagain democrat”. The verdict marked the fi��rst victory for the oppositionAll Progressives Congress against the People’s DemocraticParty in the 16 years of unbroken civilian government.

Ironically, the decadelong army rule, which the 1993 ballot was meant to end, commenced in a coup engineered byGen. Buhari. President Buhari’s motives in honouring Abiola with the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic havebeen questioned by critics, who recall the former General’srepressive rule in the ’80s and role in the tumultuous yearsthereafter. Mr. Soyinka has welcomed the recent symbolicstep as marking a belated closure to the collective denial of anation’s sacrifi��ce.

The writer is a Deputy Editor at The Hindu in Chennai

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A date with democracyWhy the Nigerian President’sannouncement of a new DemocracyDay is being criticised Garimella Subramaniam

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threatening sideeff��ect inpatients taking insulin. Given the patentfree statusof BCG, the study promises a safe and inexpensivetreatment for type1 diabetes, if replicated in larger clinical trials.

Even though the BCGvaccine doesn’t work verywell against childhood TB,it protects against leprosy,sepsis among babies, andleishmaniasis. It is also thefi��rst approved immunotherapy against bladder cancer. In a previous phase 1trial, Faustman and hercolleagues gave the BCGvaccine to three patients,fi��nding that the patientsproduced more pancreatic insulin. Also, they hadmore of a type of immunecell called Regulatory Tcells (Tregs), which protect against autoimmunediseases. Type1 diabetesis an autoimmune illnessin which insulinsecretingpancreatic cells are destroyed by the body’s ownimmune system. But although BCG seemed to haveregenerated the pancreas

The centuryold tuberculosis vaccine called BCG(Bacillus Calmette–Guérin) might lower blood sugar in diabetes patientsseveral years after they getthe shot, a small but pathbreaking study, publishedin npj Vaccines, suggests.

In the study, “Longterm reduction in hyperglycemia in advanced type1 diabetes”, three patientswith type1 diabetes received two jabs of the BCGvaccine. Three years later,another six patients received the same treatment. When the trial investigators, led byimmunologist Denise L.Faustman from Massachusetts General Hospital inthe U.S. followed these patients for fi��ve years afterthat, they found a sustained drop in a markerfor highblood sugarcalled HbA1c. Also, noneof the patients experienced hypoglycaemia,or dangerously low bloodsugar, a potentially life

in the phase 1 trial, theteam found little improvement in their patients’HbA1C levels.

This is why they continued the trial, hoping thevaccine would impactblood sugar over a longerperiod. The npj Vaccinestudy shows that the vaccine can lower blood sugar over a fi��ve to eightyear period.

While the researchersdon’t know why the vaccine takes so long to impact HbA1c, they have anidea about how it does so.Using mice, the researchers showed that the vaccine changed how glucosewas metabolised in the body, from a process calledoxidative phosphorylationto another called aerobicglycolysis. Plus, BCG alsoincreased the numbers ofTregs. While Tregs helptype1 patients a little, it isthe switch to glycolysiswhich extracts more sugarfrom the bloodstream,which seems to be behindthe improvement inHbA1c.

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ABSTRACT

A TB vaccine for diabetics?

A study that promises safe treatment for type-1 diabetes

Priyanka Pulla

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16 hindustantimes HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHITUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

reflectsinIndia’spoliciestoo:Oursocialandpoliticalrightsarebasedontheassumptionthatpeoplearesedentary.Forexample,peo-ple’srationcardsareinvalidintheirdestina-tions ofwork. So amigrant familywill loseoutontheirrationsintheirnewhomes,andwillhavetodependeitherontheiremployeror labour contractor for food provisions orpurchase food in theopenmarket.This sig-nificantly increases their cost of living andreduces theadditionalearnings theymighthope to remit to their families. Amigrant’sfamily may also lose out on schooling andhealthdoles.Theonlysocialsupportmigrant families

possess is the compensation offered by thestate in the case of death at work. “This isbecause migrant workers are mostly ininformalemploymentanddottedacrosssev-eral sectors and industries, theyhave littleorganisedspacetovoicetheirgrievancesorarticulate complaints,” says Indrajit Roy,lecturer, Global Development Politics,DepartmentofPolitics,University ofYork.Despite these obstacles, statistics show

that India is on themove. The last round ofEconomicSurveypointedtoaspikeininter-nalmigration:between2011and2016,closetoninemillionpeoplemigratedbetweenstatesannually,up fromabout3.3millionaccord-ingtosuccessivecensuses.Indiaisprojectedtoadd404millionpeopletoitsurbanpopula-tionbetween2014and2050.Some states have already taken cogni-

sance of thismovement: Kerala is the onlystateinIndiathathasaschemewhichtreatsmigrantwelfareasthe“dutyof thestate”. Itoffersfinancialsupportforthemedicaltreat-mentofmigrants,grantsfortheirchildren’seducation in the state and also providesretirementbenefits to thosewhohavecom-pleted five years under the scheme. Theschemealsohasprovisionsforcompensationtotheenrolledworkersintheeventofinjuryor disability, compensation to survivorsuponthedeathofaworker,andallowancesforrepatriationofthebody.Theotherdevel-opedsouthernstate,Karnataka,ensuresthatallmigrantpregnantwomen,lactatingmoth-ersandyoungchildrengetnutritionbenefitsundertheMathruPoornascheme.TheCen-tremustnowtakenoteofmobilityandmakesocial and political rights portable, whichmeanspeopleshouldnotlosetherightstheyhave in their localities of originwhen theymove;andshareinthesamebundleofrightsasheldbyothers in theirdestinationareas.

n [email protected]

Indians are on themove,but their rights are staticThe State must ensure that migrants should not lose thedoles they get in their localities of origin when they move

n The last Economic Survey pointed to a spike in internal migration: between 2011 and 2016,close to nine million people migrated between states annually HINDUSTAN TIMES

This latest insultcompoundstheUnitedKingdomgovernment’smistakes, suchasfailing to offer two-year multiple entryvisas at a reduced price of £85 to Indianbusiness visitors and tourists, despitethosebeingavailable toChinesevisitors.Theprice for India remains £388.India is the fastestgrowingmajorecon-

omy in the world, overtaking the UnitedKingdom’s economy in termsof size, andalsohasoneof thefastestgrowinginterna-tionalstudentmarkets,withhalf thepopu-lationunder the age of 25.Furthermore, thedemandforstudying

abroad from countries like India isincreasingat 8%ayear.Butby includinginternational students in net migrationcalculations in theUnitedKingdom, andclassifying them as immigrants, it sendsout a hostilemessage to thosewishing tocomehere to study.The government must undo this. It

wouldsendtheworld,particularly India,a positivemessage that the United King-dom isopen to talented foreign students.This hostile approach leads to the

UnitedKingdom losing out on the globalrace to attract international students tocompetitors such as the United States ofAmerica,CanadaandAustraliaandotherEuropean countries.While the number of Indian students

hasmore thanhalved in thepastsixyearsto 16,000 in the United Kingdom, Canadahas now reached the 100,000 mark, andFrancehasa target to attractmore inter-national students from India.Inorder to trulycompete, itmustre-in-

troduce the two-year post-study workvisa, enabling international students toworkintheUnitedKingdomaftergraduat-ing,earnmoneytopayfortheireducation,make lifelongconnectionsandcontributeto the exchequer.Thegovernmentalsoneeds todomuch

more to change the perception of theUnitedKingdomamongprospective inter-national students. Indian students in theUnitedKingdommakeasignificantcontri-bution to lifeatBritishuniversities,withinternational studentscontributingover£25billiontothecountry’seconomyannu-ally. Itmust extend thesenewTier 4Visaapplication rules to Indian students.India has always been one of Britain’s

closest allies, and I have faith in the newhomesecretary,SajidJavid,changingourapproachto immigrationtobemorecom-pliant, despite having inherited hostileimmigration policies from Amber Ruddandherpredecessor,TheresaMay.Hehasalreadymadepositivestepsbyseekinganindependent review into the ShortageOccupation List, to allow more Indianinformation technologyworkers into theUnitedKingdom.It is a shame that the inauguralUnited

Kingdom-IndiaWeekhasbeenmarredbyyetanothereconomically-illiteratemoveby the British government that rendersthepictureof futureUnitedKingdom-In-dia relations even cloudier thanbefore.

Lord Bilimoria is founder and chairman of CobraBeer and president of the UK Council for

International StudentsThe views expressed are personal.

established in 1924§ §

Turkey’sPresidentRecepTayyipErdogan’sright-wing coalition has won another parliamentarymajority,renewinghispresidentialmandate.Buttheresults,combinedwithareferendumhewonlast year,will lead to anewgovernmental struc-ture inwhich the prime

ministership will be abolished, thepresidentwillhavepoweroverjudicialappointmentsandextraordinarypowers to rulebydecree.Hisvictory isnotgoodnewseither forhis countryor for theworld.WhenMrErdoganfirstcametopower,hewasacclaimedforsyn-thesisinganewpoliticalnarrativemergingconservativeIslam-ismwithasecularconstitution.Hisforeignpolicysoughta“zeroproblems”relationshipwithhisneighbours.Turkey’swasseenasamong thebrightest starsof theemergingeconomies.Today,hisvisionisadarkanddangerousmirrorimageofthis

earlierpromise.WhentheArabSpringtoppledregimesaroundthe Levant, Mr Erdogan formed an alliance with many of therebel groups,whether inEgyptorSyria.Hepickeda fightwithIsraeltoenhancehisstandingwiththeArabstreet.Atonepoint,his“neo-Ottoman”allianceincludedEgypt,Gazaanditseemed,Syria. These dreams of empire eventually foundered in SyriawhereTurkey’splans failed tomaterialise. In therunup to theelections,MrErdoganportrayedhimself as defendingTurkeyfrom external enemies. His zero-problemneighbourhoodwasnowazero-friendneighbourhood,andlargelybecauseofhisownmachinations. Itseconomyisnowheadingoffacliffwiththecur-rencydepreciatingandabalanceofpayments crisis looming.Fortunately,Turkeyis nowfar lessable tocausemischief in

itsregionthanbefore.However,muchdamagehasalreadybeendone.TurkeyhasbeenreducedtoasubsidiaryoftheRussia-Iranaxis thatdominates theLevantandMesopotamia.MrErdoganhascentralised somuchpower insideTurkey thathemayrulethecountry foranotherdecade. Inhisvictoryspeech,hespokeof Turkey being an example to the rest of the world. That wastrueoveradecadeago.Now,Turkeyisawarningof theperilsofpersonalhubris andoverweeningnational ambition.

Erdogan’swin isnotgoodnewsTurkeyisnowjustasubsidiary

of theRussia-Iranaxis

Twodays after a ban on plastic came into effect inMaha-rashtra,Mumbais facingwaterlogging, thanksto inces-sant rains since Sunday. Rains choke the city almost

every year for the past decade, and one of themain culprits isplastic,whichnotonlyclogsthecity’sstormwaterdrainagesys-tembutalsodestroysnaturalwatersinkssuchasmarshlands,wetlands, lakes and rivers, and contributes heavily tomarinepollutionaroundMumbai.This linkbetweenfloodingandplas-ticswillhopefullynotbelostonthecitizens,especiallytheretailbusinesscommunityprotestingthebanonthemanufacture,saleand use of plastic bags, disposable plastic spoons, forks, cups,glasses, containers,PETbottlesand thermocol.The Maharashtra government had enough reasons to ban

plastic: thestategenerates1,200tonnesofplasticwasteeverydayandMumbaialonegenerates500metrictonnes,whichaccountsfornearly10%of its totalwaste. Incontrast, Indiancitiesgener-ate 15,000 tonnesof plasticwasteperday, ofwhich9,000 tonnesarecollectedandprocessed/recycled,whiletheremaining6,000tonnesgointodrains,streetsoraredumpedinlandfills,accord-ing toa2015 report of theCentralPollutionControlBoard.However, just banning plastics will not solve the problem.

First, implementationof thelawwillbecritical,andMaharash-trawoulddowelltolearnfromtheexperienceofthe17statesthathavewalkeddownthisroute.Second,peoplewouldnotmindgiv-ing up plastic if cheaper alternatives are available. Third, toensurealternatives,encourageinnovationsandestablishfacili-tiesthatcanprovidealternatives.Takeplasticstrawandcutlery,for example. Instead of plastic, bamboo can be used and suchproductsarealreadyavailable,butatpresent theyare farmorecostlythantheirplasticequivalents.Thisneedstochange.Last,but not the least, big business groups must show initiative tochange their packaging.Doing thiswill be a costly affair, but ithastobedoneforthewell-beingofcitizensandtheenvironment.

Implementing thebanonplasticwon’tbeeasyPeoplewillonlygiveitupifcheaperalternativesareavailableinthemarket

ourtake

comment

facilitiesforwarpurposes,giftingthreefast-track patrol boats, and even agreeing toallowingthesefacilitiesforusebythirdcoun-try.ThisrevisedtextwasfinallyclinchedinJanuaryandsawJaishankarspendhis lastworking days in Victoria. But the fact thatthecurrentforeignsecretary,VijayGokhale,had to rush to Seychelles again lastmonthindicated how even nownot all waswell inIndia-Seychelles relations.On June 5 , President Faure announced

howhewillnotbeplacingthisagreementforparliamentary ratification and that thisissuewill alsonot be onagenda for any fur-ther discussion during his coming visit toIndia.Thismayhavedented India’s endur-ingdefencecooperationwithSeychellesyetIndiacannotaffordtogiveupasitstill trains

70%of theirmilitary forcesandaccountingforoverhalf of theirdefenceequipment.So, to rescue this relationship and espe-

ciallythis$550millionprojectforrevivinganoldairstripandajettyandhousingforCoastGuardsonAssumption Island, India is gift-ingtwomoreDornieraircraft toSeychelles.ReportsofSeychellesandFranceexploringto replace India ismaking the country pro-poseatrilateralIndia-France-Seychellesfor-mulation. March this year had seen presi-dentEmmanuelMacron’sIndiavisitresult-ing in14pacts.But India also needs to understand the

country’s domestic dynamics where com-bined opposition and environmentalistshaveaccusedPresidentFaure of a ‘sell out’and of exposing their 93,000 population toChina-India rivalry and to environmentaldisasters.LeaderofOpposition,WavellJohnCharlesRamkalavan,whoisofIndianorigin,hadearlieragreedtosupporttheagreementonthedevelopmentofAssumptionIslandbuthassincerenegedon it.This makes them vulnerable to China’s

overtures.Apart fromassuagingtheir fearsaboutbreachofsovereigntyorenvironment,India will need to strongly advertise otheradvantages toSeychelles, especiallyhow itwill enable Seychelles tokeepawatchoverits 1.3million squarekilometerEEZacrosssouthernIndianOceanwhichis infestedbyillegal fishing and drug running and nega-tively impacting theirdevelopment.HavingbeenassuredbyFaure about the

developmentofnaval facilitiesonAssump-tion Island, India must now cultivate Sey-chelles’ domestic constituencies to ensurethis is ratifiedby the nationalassembly.Swaran Singh is professor of international relations,

Jawaharlal Nehru University, NewDelhiThe views expressed are personal

China’shigh-speedmega-infrastruc-ture projects are luring India’sneighbourhood adrift at India’speril.AfterrevivingitstraditionalaxiswithPakistanandcementing

partnershipswithSriLanka,NepalandtheMaldives, it’s beginning to show impact onSeychelles-India relations.Since the early 2000s, China was seen

building Seychelles Supreme Court, otherlawcourts, itsnationalassembly,polytech-nic institutions,housingcoloniesandsoon.Thetwohadsignedadefencepactin2004andtherewerereportssince2011ofChinanegoti-atingforanaval facilityaswell. Itwasover-lookedbyUPAasamerereplenishingfacilityforChina’santi-piracyoperationsas India-Chinanavieswerebuildingtheir jointmen-ship for fightingpiracy inGulf ofAden.PresidentXiJinping’spolicieshavesince

accelerated the pace of China curryingfavours with India’s neighbours. DeputyChiefoftheJointStaffDepartmentofChina,GeneralWangGuanzhou’sNovember 2016visittoSeychellesandChina’sopeningupitsfirst naval base inDjibouti lastAugust hadagain fired up speculations about ChinabuildinganavalfacilityinSeychellesaswell.

It is in thisbackdropthatPrimeMinisterNarendraModi’s ‘NeighbourhoodFirst’pol-icy, driven by the strategy of counteringGwadarwithChabahar,sawhisMarch2015visit to theMaldivesandSeychellesherald-ing his vision of SAGAR (Security andGrowthforAll intheRegion)asbothrespec-tivelyagreedtoIndiadevelopingnavalfacili-tiesattheirAgalegaandAssumptionIslands.Since then, while China has inauguratedGwadarandHambantotaports inPakistanandSriLankaandopenednavalbase inDji-bouti, Indiahas got increasingly entangledwithlocaloppositiontoIndia’sprojects. Thisispartlyseenas ignitedbyChina’sgrowingindulgencewith thesenations.During President DannyFaure’s visit to

Indiathisweek, thetwocountriesagreedtowork on the stalled Assumption IslandProject keeping each other’s interests inmind. But it is still to be ratified by hisnationalparliamentdominatedbytheOppo-sition.LastOctoberhadwitnessedpoliticalturmoilfollowinggeneralelectionsresultinginoppositioncoalitionLinyonDemokratiktakingcontrolofSeychellesparliament.ThishadtriggeredpublicprotestsoverPresidentJamesMichael’s failuretoredresseconomicdisparities making him resign, and Faurewassworn inaspresident.Thethenforeignsecretary,SJaishankar,

had to rushmid-October 2016 toVictoria torenegotiate India’sMarch 2015 agreement.IndiahassinceagreedtograntaccesstolocalCoastGuardforces,settingupCoastalRadarSurveillancesystem,limitingIndia’saccessto20yearterm,promisingnevertousethese

After the naval base agreement, New Delhi mustcultivate the neighbour’s domestic constituencies

Indianeeds towooSeychellesback

n PMNarendra Modi with SeychellesPresident Danny Faure, June 25 PTI

SWARANSINGH

UK must scrap its standon tough visa norms forIndian studentsThe nation will lose out in the global race to attractforeign students if it persists with this hostile approach

As a former international studentintheUnitedKingdom,Iwelcomeanymove towardsgreateropen-nessconcerningbright students

hopingtofindopportunitythroughhighereducationintheUnitedKingdom.But lastweek, theUnitedKingdomgovernment’smoved tomake it easier forstudents from11 countries — not including India — tostudy in the country.As the Founding Chairman of the UK

India Business Council, which createsjobs and growth in both countries, I wasshockedbythedecisionofPrimeMinisterTheresaMay’s government.By inviting students from other coun-

tries far more readily than those fromIndia, the British government sends aclear message that they do not valueIndian students. The timing of thisannouncementbytheBritishgovernmentandtheHomeOffice isunfortunate,giventhat it isUnitedKingdom-IndiaWeek.TheUnitedKingdom-Indiapartnership

is of enormous value, particularly if theUnitedKingdomis leaving theEuropeanUnion — its closest trading partneraccounting for over 50% of its trade, andaround20%ofUnitedKingdomtradecov-eredbyFreeTradeAgreementsbecauseofthe United Kingdom’s membership of intheEuropeanUnion.SupportersofBrexitshouldthinkcarefullyaboutthesepercep-tions among countries like India.Yet, Liam Fox, secretary of state for

international trade, said that thedecisionbehindthevisachangeneedstobeconsid-ered in termsof thewiderpoliciesaroundimmigrationandtrade,andthebiggerpic-ture. He said, “Not everything is aboutBrexit. SomeIndianstudentsoverstayedtheir welcome.” This is astonishing andinsulting.Let’s take a look at the bigger picture.

Currently, theUnitedKingdomdoesmoretrade with Sweden than India, the fifthlargest economyin theworld.By tighten-ing restrictions around Tier 2 visas forbusinesstouristsandskilledworkers,andnowexcludingIndiafromthefirstpositivesteps towards increasing internationalstudentsinyears,aFreeTradeAgreementwith India is a pie in the sky.

INDIA HASALWAYSBEENONEOFBRITAIN’S CLOSESTALLIES, AND IHAVE FAITH IN THENEWHOMESECRETARY, SAJID JAVID,CHANGINGOURAPPROACHTOIMMIGRATION TOBEMORECOMPLIANT, DESPITEHAVINGINHERITEDHOSTILEIMMIGRATIONPOLICIES FROMAMBERRUDDANDTHERESAMAY

KARANBILIMORIA

United States President DonaldTrump doesn’t mince words. Lastweek,evenasvideosofrefugeechil-dren being held at a Texas facility

did the rounds, Trump said: “The UnitedStates will not be amigrant camp…And itwill not be a refugee-holding facility — itwon’tbe.”Althoughtwodayslater,hesignedan executive order to end the separation oftherefugeefamilies,Trump’soriginalviewsonmigrantsmay not have changedmuch.His statement was similar to what India’sadditionalsolicitorgeneral,TusharMehta,toldtheSupremeCourt,whichwashearingacaseontheRohingyarefugees, inJanuary:“WedonotwantIndiatobecometherefugeecapital of theworld.”It’s not just refugees who often face the

wrathofahostState;eveninternalmigrants,especiallythepoor, facesimilarroadblocksintheirowncountrieseventhoughtheyarelegitimate citizens. For example, China’shukou system limits where a person isallowedtolive.Ifoneisborninaruralhukou,itcanbechallengingtomovetoanurbanone.SouthAfrica’sapartheidstatewasasmuchaboutracialsegregationasitwasaboutcon-trolling, regulating and restricting blacklabourers fromsettlinginwhitetownships.Indiamaynot have a hukou or an apart-

heid system, but here, too, migrants don’thave it easy. For example, a former Delhichiefministeronceblamedmigrantsforput-ting enormous pressure on the infrastruc-ture of the city. TheShivSena’sBalThack-erayoncesaidoneBiharibroughtwithhima hundred headaches. These unwarrantedcommentsprobablymirrorapopularbeliefthatmigrantscreateproblemsandareabur-den on a host state. But in reality, labourmobilityisnotjustgoodforthoseonthemovebut it also has a positive effect on the econ-omy because they are engaged in the con-structionindustry,domesticwork, textiles,brick-kilns,minesandquarries,agriculture,foodprocessingandthehotelandrestaurantbusiness.Let’snot forget that thebackboneoftheGreenRevolutioninPunjabwasactu-allymigrant labour.The negative feeling about migrants

KUMKUMDASGUPTA

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an unequal platter - winmeen · them, from hapur in uttar pra desh this month, shows a vigilante...

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