‍New Governor For Telangana Likely Yediyurappa To Take Charge Soon!

The most valid reports coming from Delhi sources are to be believed, Telangana is likely to get new Governor in a week or two in place of existing Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.

According to these reports, Tamilisai, who has been holding additional responsibility of holding the gubernatorial post for Pondicherry, reportedly requested the Centre during her recent visit to New Delhi that she be relieved from Telangana.

Apparently, Tamilisai told the Centre that she would be more comfortable in Pondicherry, which is the neighbouring state of her native place Tamil Nadu. 
The Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry, which is a state-cum-Union Territory, is more powerful than the Governor of any other state.

Right now, Tamilisai is spending more time in Pondicherry, where there is a coalition government comprising NR Congress and the BJP, is in place. 
The Centre is looking for a full time Lt Governor for Pondicherry and Tamilisai is lobbying for the same.

Sources said the Centre has agreed to Tamilisai’s request and is likely to appoint her as full-time Lt Governor of Pondicherry by August end or September first week. 

In that event, the Centre has to appoint a new Governor for Telangana.
According to sources, in all probability, the Centre might appoint former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa as the new Governor of Telangana. 

Yediyurappa recently stepped down as the chief minister of Karnataka to make way for Basavaraj Bommai.

At the time of relinquishing the chief minister post, the BJP high command reportedly assured to give a respectable post to Yediyurappa. 

“In all probability, he would be made the Governor of Telangana. Since it is a neighbouring state of Karnataka, Yediyurappa can still have a say in Karnataka politics, albeit indirectly,” sources said. #KhabarLive #hydnews

'MISSING MINING MONEY' IS KEY TO KARNATAKA POLLS

By CJ Khaja Pasha in Bangalore

The 2013 and 2008 Karnataka assembly elections differ in one big way: the missing mining money of Bellary's Reddy brothers. Riding on the commodity boom of the early 2000s, the brothers, who virtually ran an independent republic in the mining town, greased the BJP's successful campaign of 2008 with their huge and almost unlimited fund supply.

The Reddy brothers were able to not only take care of Bellary's BJP candidates, but also ensured that the party's contestants in adjoining Raichur, Koppal, Gadag and Haveri could win. But this time, with the powerful Janardhana Reddy in prison, the other two brothers are keeping a low profile.

New Initiative: Humble Jackfruit Eyes Haute Cuisine Status

By Swetha Reddy / INN Bureau

Of the abundant quantities of jackfruit grown in India annually, an estimated 70 per cent rots away, due to lack of awareness and difficulties of usage. Now, a joint initiative by an academic institute and a farmers' group seeks to change that. Sixty seven-year-old Prema Bhat Thottethodi, a farmer woman, was restless. Leaning on a walking stick, she was busy running around in the massive kitchen. Age and her knee-ache couldn’t deter her spirit. Later in the day, she stole the show by demonstrating many ‘unknown’ preparations.

How India’s Cigarette Makers Got Their Butts Kicked For Resisting Graphic Warnings On Packets?

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

A heads-up for smokers in India: your cigarette packet will soon be wrapped in a bigger, more graphic, health warning, especially if you are partial to those made by ITC.

After a month of back and forth, India’s largest cigarette maker has fallen in line with a health ministry notification that requires 85% of cigarette packets to be covered with pictorial health warnings. The Indian government is pushing for tighter regulations on sale of tobacco products, which cause over a million deaths in the country every year.

CONG HEADING FOR BIG WIN IN KARNATAKA: SURVEY

By M H Ahssan / Bangalore

The writing has been there on the wall for the BJP in Karnataka for quite sometime. Now it’s time for reality check. The party, struggling to find its feet ever since BS Yeddyurappa left it with a difficult legacy of corruption, misgovernance and instability, and minus the crucial Lingayat vote bank, might sink below its 1999 seat tally of 44 in the assembly elections.

The results of the recently held urban local body polls offered a broad hint of things to expect in the May elections, the latest pre-poll survey by Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) for INN puts numbers in place to confirm the plummeting prospects of the party. Interestingly, it’s the BJP which appears to have inflicted the maximum damage on itself, not its political rivals, especially the Congress which looks set for a big victory. Neither the Congress nor the JD(S) has done enough to win over voters.

Growing Up In Indian Prisons: Children Of Undertrials And A Case Of Widespread Neglect

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

While a debate is raging on trying juveniles as adults in serious crimes, there are hundreds of children who spend years in prison for no fault of their own.

As the lone tap fills the cracked cement tank, green algae float to the surface of the water. Munna (name changed to protect identity) splashes around in the tank, while women gather to fill small jugs with water that will later be used for both washing and drinking. Munna is three years old, and his life revolves around the sludgy water games and women in the enclosure of the Belgaum Central Prison in Karnataka.

Cash-For-Votes Scams Are Here To Stay – And The Election Commission Seems Unable To Deal

By RADHAKRISHNA | INNLIVE

The Rajya Sabha polls have put the focus back on the urgent need for electoral reforms.

The alleged horse trading in Karnataka, exposed by a sting operation in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha polls has once against brought the focus on whether the Election Commission, despite its best intentions, has the power to take any effective steps to curb the abuse of money power during elections.

Special Report: 'Who Cries When A Mothers Die?'

The probability of an Indian mother dying during childbirth is roughly 10 times that of her Chinese counterpart. Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters in 10 years is now a Millennium Development Goal. Why is MMR in India so high and how far are we from the goal? INNLIVE unravels the many challenges to saving mothers' lives.

Lhamu, a mother of twelve, lives in a remote village in Western Tibet. Three of her children died within a month of birth and the four year old strapped to her back looked as small as a one year old. She gave birth all alone, at home, all twelve times.

Political Vultures, Real Estate Sharks And Criminals Ganged Up To Ruin Bengaluru

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

India's tech capital Bengaluru is falling apart - well, almost. A city, whose infrastructure can support just about 30 to 40 lakh people, is now home for more than double that number. In the first of a two-part series, INNLIVE traces the origins of Bengaluru's destruction which began even before the city was swamped by IT professionals.

Another Critique Of Modi Growth Model Goes Nowhere

An important project for intellectuals in India these days is debunking the Gujarat growth story. Since many “secularists” dislike Narendra Modi, it has become important to deny him what he claims as one of his achievements: the state’s fast-paced growth.

While it is nobody’s case that every achievement of Gujarat should be attributed to Modi’s leadership or even his tenure, the efforts by many to punch holes in his story are sometimes pathetic. You don’t improve your case against what Modi may have done wrong in 2002 by rubbishing what he may have done right at other times.

More often than not, the holes punched in the Gujarat story are bizarre because they are forced. They are also illogical: if Gujarat’s growth is not the result of Modi’s work, which is what his critics want to claim, you can’t in all fairness attribute all of Gujarat’s failures to Modi either. The argument cuts both ways.

Another debunking of the “Modi miracle” has been attempted by Arvind Subramanian in Business Standard. He says the Modi model fails on a key governance standard: the metric of the state’s own tax revenues (OTR) as a share of state GDP.

Quoting research by Utsav Kumar of the Asian Development Bank, the author says that Modi’s Gujarat does not pass the “smell test” of high or stable OTR-to-state GDP. While traditionally well-governed states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have maintained stable or rising OTR-to-GDP ratios, the average figure for Gujarat has declined, from 7.84 percent to 6.65 percent of GDP between 1990-99 and 2006-11.

The drop is large, but predates Modi. During Modi’s tenure, the drop has been from 6.93 percent to 6.65 percent.  If anything, he may have arrested the rate of fall in the second half of his tenure.

In contrast, the comparative figures for Karnataka (8.98 percent to 9.57 percent), Tamil Nadu (8.93 percent to 8.54 percent), and Andhra Pradesh (6.78 percent to 7.73 percent) were either stable or better over the two decades.

While Karnataka and Andhra show a rise, Tamil Nadu was stable in the 1990s, but reported a drop that was more or less similar to Gujarat’s during the last decade (8.8 percent to 8.54 percent – a drop of 0.26 percent from 2000-2005 to 2006-11 against Gujarat’s 0.28 percent).

Subramanian also notes that states which have recently been mentioned in the same breath as Gujarat on growth and improved governance – Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh – have managed to improve significantly on this ratio. Bihar’s figures are 4.30 percent and 4.61 percent (hardly earth-shattering); Chhattisgarh’s 7.32 percent is excellent (the earlier figures were not available); and Odisha’s improvement significant (4.65 percent and 5.63 percent).

What ties these three states’ OTR performance together is political stability.

That’s the answer to Subramanian when he asks: “In the tax collection data, why can one see a Raman Singh effect, a Nitish Kumar effect, a Naveen Patnaik effect, but not a Narendra Modi effect?”

Gujarat, on the other hand, saw a degree of political instability in the late 1990s and early 2000s – remember the Keshubhai-Vaghela political fight – till Modi came to power.

To assess Subramanian’s criticism, we have to examine his assumption that over the long term one would expect taxes as a share of GDP to rise as incomes and growth rise. However, this assumption can be flawed depending on the circumstances of each state, and also the development model adopted.

If you have adopted a private sector-led growth model, where the big investments are in infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing (as in the case of Gujarat), taxes may not rise in proportion to state GDP. Infrastructure investments (in ports, new cities, roads, power and rural water bodies) are typically long-gestation projects which may boost growth well ahead of tax revenues. For example, Gujarat’s investments in infrastructure will start paying off once the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor takes off, but the failures relate to slow progress upstream and downstream of Gujarat – in Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Agriculture, where Gujarat has seen a major spike, pays no taxes. Infrastructure such as ports will yield higher customs revenues as trade increases, but these go to the centre and do not accrue directly to the state (so, little rise in own tax revenues). The big investors in the state – Reliance, Essar and the automobile companies – have been lured in with huge tax incentives. The assumption is that they will generate more business and jobs than revenues for the exchequer in the initial stages. They will yield revenues only after their tax-free status ends.

Given this model of development, one would expect growth to precede revenue growth in Gujarat. And this is what may be happening. But we will have to suspend judgment on this for a few more years to check if it really does happen.

In contrast, Chhattisgarh’s revenues depend on mining, while the growth of states such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has been led as much by services such as software as manufacturing and agriculture.  One should thus expect a different revenue-to-GDP skew in such cases. Services are, by definition, highly profitable, unlike infrastructure. Highly profitable service industries employing lakhs create local spends that boost OTR.

The real fallacy of the analysis lies in the fundamental assumption itself: that states should be judged not by growth or other parameters, but by revenues. While over the long term the correlation between economic activity and tax revenues may be positive, it may not be so if a state consciously seeks to give itself a more recessed role, by remaining more an enabler than a spender.

The downside of excess state spending can be seen at the centre today, where high fiscal and current account deficits have together brought growth itself down.

Another state that fares equally badly as Gujarat is Kerala – which is supposed to excel on human development indicators. Between 1990-99 and 2006-11, Kerala’s OTR-to-GDP ratio fell from 8.86 to 7.83 percent, a sharp one-percent drop, despite high growth rates driven by private spending.

Subramanian conveniently forgets to make this comparison, since Kerala-Gujarat comparisons are often otherwise made on social indicators to show Gujarat in bad light.

Both Kerala and Gujarat, for reasons that may be peculiar to them, have seen GDP growth but not high tax revenues shares in GDP.

More important is this truism: a ratio rises or falls not only on the basis of the numerator (taxes), but the denominator (GDP). If GDP is growing fine, the ratio will fall even if tax revenues are rising, but more slowly. As a metric, more is not necessarily better when it comes to taxes. What matters is the outcome – growth and equity. In fact, one can invert the OTR-GDP ratio to GDP-OTR to prove that Gujarat is growing faster on a lower government spend, and thus government is more efficient.

Perhaps worried that he may have made too big a point about tax revenues, Subramanian debunks his own argument partially and admits that “this might be a very misleading, even unfair, assessment,” since “Modi could argue – consistent with his right-of-centre ideology – that …he should be celebrated for delivering dream outcomes…”. These outcomes being small government and efficient government.

That is precisely the point. Modi’s critic has effectively demolished his own argument.

Sunday Interview: 'Confident To Expand MIM's National Footprint To Become A 'National Party': Asaduddin Owaisi

All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen chief insists that he isn't a 'coolie of secularism' either.

As the leader of a small Hyderabad-based party, Asaduddin Owaisi has been punching above his weight. He is the sole representative in the Lok Sabha of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen, better known as MIM, but that hasn't stopped him from presuming to speak on behalf of Indian Muslims both within and outside Parliament.

Over the last year, Owaisi has risen in prominence, partly due to his combative opposition to Hindutva rhetoric, but also because of electoral victories in Maharashtra.

Media Watch: 'Every Move She Makes, They’ll Be Watching'

By Anand Sharma / Hyderabad

Rising hemlines lead to rising TRPs. INN examines a commercial news industry committed to sleaze, to lechery and to shaming young women. There’s something rotten in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. And it seems the Kannada and Telugu news channels have identified the problem — girls gone wild, fuelled by alcohol. On 14 May, Karnataka’s leading regional news channel, TV9 Kannada, ran a programme, Olage Serideru Gundu (literally, ‘once alcohol is inside’), a fine assortment of video nasties from across the country, showing the great evils of girls drinking — the ruckus on the street, clothes askew, clashes with cops.

For some years now, the disapproving cultural policing of a class of girls — ones who can afford to go out to drink — has become a staple on regional news in both states. There is massive viewership, particularly of sleazy ‘true crime’ reports, and so editors and programming heads encourage reporters to follow women and young couples, to stake out pubs, nightclubs and make-out spots. A cursory search on YouTube reveals the many news reports with such eye-catching titles as ‘Drunk women causing hulchul’, ‘Drunk women causing hungama’, or ‘How to ban rave parties to save the youth’.

Four Ways To Portray Muslims As India's Biggest Threat

These four separate incidents in two states - Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh - were driven by just one motive: sparking communal disharmony through false information.

1. Abdul Khan, the fictitious ISIS Bangalore bomber: Until a day ago, the Twitter handle @LatestAbdul that ran tweets claiming responsibility for the Church Street blast in Bangalore, was speculated to belong to one of the radicalised Indian Muslim cadres of the ISIS. Now it turns out that the person behind the terror threats is a 17-year-old and reportedly not a Muslim.

Rajnath Singh – Best Man For The Parivar?

In 2009, he led the BJP to a bitter defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. Four years later, the party’s new chief has a tougher task at hand.

Both friends and foes of Rajnath Singh are astonished at his fortune. For someone who so believes in destiny that his closest political assistant is also his astrologer, the stars have certainly proved auspicious. On 23 January, Rajnath came back to the presidency of the BJP that he had lost following the defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. As the opposition to Nitin Gadkari proved too much for the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, to stave off, Rajnath was the beneficiary — the candidate the Sangh and the political dissidents within the BJP could agree on.

To those who know Rajnath, a former lecturer of physics from Gorakhpur University who served as agriculture minister under prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was the BJP’s last chief minister in Uttar Pradesh between 2000 and 2002, the events of 22-23 January may not have seemed as much of a surprise.

As HNN has tracked in its stories Rajnath had been diligently working towards a comeback in recent months. This was a culmination of a process of silent trading with leaders across the RSS and the BJP.

In 2009, when Rajnath relinquished office, he seemed to have burnt bridges with just about every senior BJP leader — including LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. Yet, if he is back today, it is precisely because these players, as well as the RSS, neutralised each other enough to ensure no one person or faction — and there are at least three major factions in the BJP — would win the internal battle and manage to impose its choice as party president.

As the war intensified through the winter, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi used his proxies to campaign against a second term for Gadkari, with Ram Jethmalani adding to the pressure. The Advani camp saw Sushma, M Venkaiah Naidu and HN Ananth Kumar prodding Yashwant Sinha to file his nomination against Gadkari. If RSS sources are to be believed, Advani proposed Sushma as an alternative but her name was shot down and she stepped back, realising the Sangh wasn’t with her. Advani then suggested Naidu, who seemed set to file his nomination papers. At this point, Jaitley and Balbir Punj — both part of the Modi group — came in the way.

Meanwhile, Gadkari, who till the morning of 22 January was convinced of a second term — having had a chat with RSS leaders, including general secretary Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi, in Mumbai — was in for a shock. News of income tax raids and surveys against him and his companies went viral. A desperate Bhaiyyaji Joshi called Advani to convince him to back Gadkari but found the patriarch unmoved.

The ball was in the Sangh’s court. It had to find a candidate who would toe its line as well as find acceptance among BJP leaders. Gadkari himself suggested Rajnath, having seen him as an ally and mentor in his stint in Delhi. This is where Rajnath’s years of hard work and cultivation came of use. The man shunted out of the presidency in a manner little different from Gadkari’s removal this time — and accused of allowing the RSS to micromanage BJP affairs in his term — was in the saddle again.

At the official election of Rajnath, the BJP put up a show of togetherness. Advani made a few ambiguous remarks about the need to guard against corruption and about Gadkari working nights while the rest of the party leadership worked days, but otherwise everybody praised each other. Rajnath acknowledged his predecessor generously.

Asked about the entire episode, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar insisted, “Everyone wanted Gadkari to continue, but he was reluctant from day one and said since the Congress is targeting me and putting false charges against me, I will fight it out as I have nothing to hide.” Javadekar also called the income tax investigations against the Purti Group, which Gadkari founded, an example of “Congress vendetta politics”: “It was not even a raid. There were searches carried out without any basis. It was done for photo-ops.”

Nevertheless, the fact is party insiders were worried Gadkari’s re-election — the Purti Group faces accusations of funding and equity ownership by dubious shell companies — would cripple the anti-corruption campaign against the UPA government. Speaking on television, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh had welcomed Gadkari’s possible second term and implied it would give his party lots to talk about. By exiting the arena, the political-businessman from Nagpur has denied the Congress that opportunity.

What does Rajnath bring to the table? In a party that is still largely urban in its profile, he is the standout rural face, having projected himself as a politician who understands concerns of farmers. As Shahnawaz Husain, the BJP MP from Bhagalpur (Bihar), put it, “Rajnathji is well recognised in rural areas by farmers. Apart from being the leader of the party, he is also the leader of farmers … We would get the benefit of that.”

Unlike Gadkari, Rajnath has experience of grassroots electoral politics. He took a big gamble in 2009 when he contested Lok Sabha elections from Ghaziabad. It was a tough seat but he worked hard and won. This won him respect and has given him an advantage over peers in the BJP who have thus far shied away from direct elections or preferred safe, Sangh-nurtured constituencies.

Yet, Rajnath’s previous term saw intense factionalism and infighting peak. His proximity to controversial businessman Sudhanshu Mittal, particularly before the Haryana state elections of 2009, when the BJP mysteriously decided to go it alone and eschew alliances, has raised eyebrows. When Rajanth appointed Mittal in charge of BJP state units in the Northeast, Jaitley began boycotting meetings to which Mittal was invited.

Rajnath has also presided over the BJP’s decline in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier this week, he was instrumental in welcoming Kalyan Singh back into the party and there was some irony to this. It was Kalyan’s removal as chief minister in 1999, as part of a campaign Rajnath orchestrated, that began the BJP’s slide in the state. In 2007, when Rajnath was party president, the BJP collapsed to 51 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly of 403 members, its worst performance in two decades. In 2012, it did even more poorly.

A good performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha election is contingent upon Uttar Pradesh delivering seats to the BJP. This will be Rajnath’s principal challenge, as he is the party’s top leader from the heartland state. There are those who argue that not only will Rajanth bring his fellow Rajputs into the BJP fold but that he will work with his friend Kalraj Mishra, senior BJP politician in Uttar Pradesh, to weld together the different groups in the local party unit.

For the BJP, the road to New Delhi lies through not just Uttar Pradesh but a clutch of other states. At least two of these will pose questions to Rajnath, albeit in different ways. He has work to do in both Karnataka and Gujarat. In the former, the BJP government, the first the party formed in southern India, is in danger of being unseated following the rebellion of BS Yeddyurappa.

Even as Rajnath was settling into his new job, trouble was brewing in Bengaluru. Two ministers in the Karnataka government — Public Works Minister CM Udasi and Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje — and 11 MLAs announced their decision to resign from the Assembly. This group of 13 is loyal to Yeddyurappa. Their departure would seem to have reduced the government of Jagadish Shettar — the BJP’s third chief minister in its 4.5 years in office — to a minority.

“The MLAs have no confidence in this government,” said Dhananjay Kumar, publicity head of Yeddyurappa’s newly formed Karnataka Janata Paksha, “it is all the BJP’s doing. This government cannot last. They ousted our leader who the people trusted …” Just how deep the wound goes is apparent from the fact that Dhananjay is a BJP and RSS veteran who was a minister in Vajpayee’s 13-day government in 1996, the first time the BJP tasted power in the national capital.

There are rumours that at least two other MLAs and one more minister may resign in the coming days. On 23 January, events acquired some hilarity as the breakaway legislators went around Bengaluru looking for Assembly Speaker KG Bopaiah. Only he was authorised to accept their resignation letters.

While Karandlaje had informed the Speaker in advance about the likelihood of resignations, Bopaiah simply disappeared, obviously to win time for the Shettar government. There were claims that Bopaiah was in his native village in the Coorg region or in Nepal or, as it appears, in Dubai. He is expected to return on 29 January. In that sense, Rajnath’s first crisis management operation has begun.

The new BJP president has some experience of Karnataka. Gadkari had used him and Jaitley as trouble-shooters when the corruption charges against Yeddyurappa had become untenable and the two emissaries from New Delhi had been tasked with getting the Karnataka strongman to quit as chief minister. Now, of course, the distance with Yeddyurappa may prove too wide to bridge.

The other state strongman who will have implications on Rajnath’s second term is Modi, just re-elected as chief minister of Gujarat. Rajnath had his differences with Modi in his earlier tenure but has mended ties of late. In 2012, he flagged off Modi’s Vivekananda Yatra. While Rajnath is now running the party organisation and commands the bureaucracy at 11 Ashoka Road, the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, Modi is expected to head the campaign committee for the 2014 polls and emerge as the face of the election.

The dynamic between the two — with the RSS banking on Rajnath to present a united front but also keep Modi’s personality and individualism within the framework of group identity — could determine the BJP’s prospects in the general election. That apart, Rajnath is expected to sort out differences in Rajasthan between Vasundhara Raje, the former chief minister, and a cabal of Sangh loyalists who do not want her to be nominated chief ministerial candidate in the run up to the November state election. How he resolves this, along with the composition of his team of officebearers, will give an early indication of his plans.

Rajnath Singh will be mindful that this is his last chance as well. As party president, he led the party to defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. He wasn’t to blame on his own. That verdict was in large measure a rejection of Advani, the BJP’s prime ministerial nominee. Even so, Rajnath would not want to carry the can for a second successive defeat in 2014. That remains his greatest fear. It could also become his greatest motivation.

INDIA'S RICHEST POLITICIANS

Editor Speaks: There’s an old saying that money is the mother’s milk of politics. In the Indian context, it’s more a question of milking the state. We have reached a level of cohabitation where money, corruption and unethical deal-making occupy the same bed. Increasingly, people are joining politics to make money or stay out of jail. Money power is the dominant factor in today’s electoral politics.

Back in the mid-90s when HNN was launched, I remember meeting politicians who were struggling to make ends meet. When we featured them next, they had become overnight millionaires. The point is not that we can’t have wealthy politicians but the question of how they earned their wealth. I am sure there are many legitimately rich politicians but politics increasingly resembles a profitable business rather than a public service today.

It wasn’t always so. Money power has played a positive role in politics: Industrialist G.D. Birla bankrolled Gandhi’s campaigns and along with other businessmen entered politics inspired by the freedom movement. It was in the late ’60s, when ‘Aya Ram Gaya Ram’ entered the political vocabulary, that money became a major factor. Since then the situation has only worsened with the dawn of coalition governments in the late ’80s.

With the likelihood of not being returned for the next term, they make hay while the sun shines and quite blatantly. No wonder many of these governments have been termed as ‘cash and carry’ ones. These days, it’s almost impossible to find a poor politician except among the Left parties. Adding to the scenario is the fact that a large number of businessmen have joined politics in recent years, either elected or nominated by various parties.

So who are India’s richest politicians? Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 2002, the filing of assets data is mandatory by anyone contesting an election. In order to establish exactly who are India’s rich politicians, we undertook a study along with EmpoweringIndia, an initiative of the Liberty Institute led by Barun Mitra. It took three months of exhaustive research at the Election Commission and Rajya Sabha Secretariat by staffers Swati Reddy and Kajol Singh under the supervision of Editor in Chief M H Ahssan to list the richest politicians whose submissions are open to debate.

The filing of assets data is mandatory but not verified. Some legislators have shown an increase in wealth of over 500 per cent in four years. Yet, the statistics are revealing. Of the 215 Rajya Sabha members for which we have data, 105 are crorepatis. Of the 522 Lok Sabha members, 135 are crorepatis.

Members of legislative assemblies seem wealthier than many of the MPs. The top five MLAs across the 30 states are worth Rs 2,042 crore. Uttar Pradesh has the richest chief minister and 113 crorepati MLAs. One indication of how this money has been accumulated is that of 150 wealthiest MLAs, 59 don’t even have a PAN card! Our cover story looks at India’s richest politicians across various categories. A handful are legitimate businessmen, the rest only serve to reinforce the dubious nexus between power and money.

Richest politicians
A lean bare man on the banks of a river near Champaran, his eyes moist with sadness, letting go of his shawl for a poor woman downstream to cover herself and her child. This poignant moment from Richard Attenborough’s biopic on Gandhi is perhaps the most eloquent image of selfless politics.

The gentle giant—loved as Bapu and revered as the Mahatma—epitomised the philosophy of public service as one who gave up everything to be one among the huddled millions. Nearly a century later there is little evidence—in reel or real life—of the high moral ground once straddled by that generation.

The brazen parade of the Prada Prado set zipping across cities in cavalcades, appropriating security funded by public money is evidence that politics has since morphed into a largely self-serving enterprise. The pretense of khadi and Gandhian values went out of vogue with the Gandhi cap long before the Gucci generation stormed the political arena in the 1980s.

The transition is best described by Rajiv Gandhi who said at the Congress Centenary in Mumbai in 1985 that politics has been reduced to “brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert mass movement into feudal oligarchy”. Yes there are those who enter politics to serve the public cause but they are exceptions rather than the rule. Entering public life is now an investment of time and effort for dividends to be earned from political entrepreneurship. A joint study by HNN and EmpoweringIndia (an initiative of the Liberty Institute) of the reported assets of our elected representatives reveals a startling contrast between the rulers and the ruled.

In a country where over 77 per cent of the populace, or an estimated 836 million people, earn an income of Rs 20 per day and over 300 million are living below the poverty line, nearly half the Rajya Sabha members and nearly a third of those from the Lok Sabha are worth a crore and more. Just the top ten Rajya Sabha members and the top ten Lok Sabha members have reported a cumulative net asset worth Rs 1,500 crore. The 10 top losers in the last Lok Sabha polls—including Nyimthungo of Nagaland who reported total assets of Rs 9,005 crore —is Rs 9,329 crore. Members of legislative assemblies seem wealthier than many MPs. The top five MLAs across the 30 states are worth Rs 2,042 crore. Of these 150 crorepati MLAs, 59 don’t even have a PAN card.

And don’t look for a correlation between the state of the state and the wealth of the legislators. Uttar Pradesh boasts of the largest number of people—59 million or over a third of its population—living below the poverty line. Not only is Mayawati the richest chief minister in 30 states, the state also boasts of 113 crorepati MLAs. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh which has over 25 million of the 60 million people living below the poverty line boasts of 80 crorepati MLAs. The Marxists are the stark exception in this study too. The CPI(M) has 301 MLAs across 10 states but has only two MLAs with declared assets of over Rs 1 crore. Of the 537 candidates who contested on a CPI(M) ticket, only seven had assets of over Rs 1 crore, of which five lost in the elections.

As the old maxim goes, power begets power and money attracts riches. Clearly, it pays to be in power. Take the last round of Assembly elections which afforded the study an opportunity to compare the increase in wealth. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where the BJP was in power, the average assets of candidates increased by five times.

In Karnataka too where the Congress ruled in rotation with Deve Gowda’s JD(S), Congress candidates reported a fivefold rise in their assets. Mercifully, wealth doesn’t always ensure success. In all, 365 crorepatis contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004; 88 lost their deposits, and 114 came second.

Last December in Delhi the Congress learnt this important lesson again when they found that Congress candidates who lost in Delhi were on an average richer than those who won. But wealth clearly does matter, all other things being constant.

The caveat emptor here, as with all matters concerning transparency in public life, is that we are going by what the political class has chosen to declare. After all, the statement of assets filed by candidates is at best a confession of sorts mandated by two Supreme Court judgements of May 2002 and March 2003.

There are several gaps in the information available. Of the 542 Lok Sabha members, details of assets are available for only 522. Similarly in the Rajya Sabha, only 215 members have filed details of assets.

There is no institutional mechanism to cross-check facts, nor is there a requirement for candidates to declare the source of wealth, or the increase in wealth of candidates in subsequent declarations. In Mizoram for instance, none of the 10 top candidates have reported possessing a PAN card even though their wealth is in excess of Rs 1 crore.

What is worse is that although MPs who are ministers file annual statements of their assets, the information is not available to the public. This virtually negates the concept of scrutiny that would prevent misuse of position of power and enrichment. Indeed, what should be openly available is denied even under the Right to Information Act.

It is tragic that the Office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—who has been described as integrity personified—has been made party to this decision to deny the information. Again, while Central ministers are required to file a statement of assets, there is no such requirement for ministers in states.

The adulterous cohabitation of power and pelf is conspicuous across the political spectrum. The chasm between the declared and perceived reality is all too obvious to be missed. Contrast the wealth reported and wealthy lifestyles of those elected to high office.

Clearly the tip of the benami iceberg has not even been touched. In a country with a stark asymmetry in opportunities and ability, political power enables bending and twisting of policy, converting politics into the elevator politicians ride to reach the pot of gold. Living room conversations in middle and upper middle class homes are dotted with whose son, daughter or son-in-law is raking it in using the benami route to accumulate property and assets.

Television footage of currency notes being waved in Parliament during the last trust vote, the airborne campaigns witnessed during the polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, money spent in fielding dummy candidates, funding of party offices, travel in Toyota SUVs costing over Rs 75 lakh each and private charters that politicians avail of to fly within the country are all pointers that are hard to ignore.

Bankers and brokers talk in not so hushed tones about the role of politicians in corporate scams. There is also speculation about the real beneficiary and benami ownership of at least two airlines, several real estate ventures, pharmaceutical units and infrastructure companies. The corporate concept of ‘sleeping partner’ has a whole new connotation in the political world. As long as the real incomes, wealth and funding of politicians remain opaque, governance will continue to suffer and democracy will be rendered more often on the liability side in the balance sheet of development.

Television footage of currency notes being waved in Parliament during the last trust vote, the airborne campaigns witnessed during the polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, money spent in fielding dummy candidates, funding of party offices, travel in Toyota SUVs costing over Rs 75 lakh each and private charters that politicians avail of to fly within the country are all pointers that are hard to ignore.

Bankers and brokers talk in not so hushed tones about the role of politicians in corporate scams. There is also speculation about the real beneficiary and benami ownership of at least two airlines, several real estate ventures, pharmaceutical units and infrastructure companies. The corporate concept of ‘sleeping partner’ has a whole new connotation in the political world. As long as the real incomes, wealth and funding of politicians remain opaque, governance will continue to suffer and democracy will be rendered more often on the liability side in the balance sheet of development.

Wealth leadership
1. T. Subbarami Reddy
Indian National Congress
Rajya Sabha, Andhra Pradesh
Total Assets: Rs 239.6 cr

2. Jaya Bachchan
Samajwadi Party
Rajya Sabha, Uttar Pradesh
Total Assets: Rs 214.3 cr

3. Rahul Bajaj
Independent
Rajya Sabha, Maharashtra
Total Assets: Rs 190. 6 cr

4. Anil H. Lad
Indian National Congress
Rajya Sabha, Karnataka
Total Assets: Rs 175 cr

5. M. Krishnappa
Indian National Congress
MLA, Vijay Nagar, Karnataka
Total Assets: Rs 136 cr

6. MAM Ramaswamy
Janata Dal (Secular)
Rajya Sabha, Karnataka
Total Assets Rs 107.7 cr

7. Anand Singh
BJP
MLA, Vijayanagara, Karnataka
Total Assets: Rs 239 cr

8. Anil V. Salgaocar
Independent
MLA, Sanvordem, Goa
Total Assets: Rs 91.4 cr

9. N.A. Haris
Indian National Congress
MLA, Shanti Nagar, Karnataka
Total Assets: Rs 85.3 cr

10. Mahendra Mohan
Samajwadi Party
Rajya Sabha, Uttar Pradesh
Total Assets: Rs 85 cr

Agri-Innovation: The Wonder Climber For Areca Nut Trees

By Srikrishna D / Bangalore

A new mechanical device that makes areca nut harvesting less labour-intensive and hence affordable could solve one of the major problems faced by farmers of the crop. 

In recent years, labour scarcity has emerged as one of the foremost challenges in farming. One crop that has been most affected by this is the supari, or areca nut. Areca nut trees attain a height of about 60-70 feet. It is mandatory to climb the trees a minimum of five times a year for a successful harvest - twice for the preventive spray against fungal disease, and thrice to harvest the areca bunches. The spraying is done in monsoon, while harvest time is typically in summer.

Only skilled labourers can carry out these farming operations. They have to climb the trees using muscle power. In an acre that has 550 trees, a labourer has to climb a minimum of 100 to 150 trees.

India: Terror Trails To Saudi Arabia – Analysis

Over the past decades, an elaborate web of Islamist extremist terrorism, backed by Pakistan, has thrived under the benign neglect of the state on Saudi Arabian soil. Much of this terrorism has been directed against India, as extremist groupings used the Islamic kingdom as safe haven, recruiting ground and source of generous funding, even as a regime of official denial and collusion with Pakistan stonewalled Indian efforts to bring fugitives to justice and restrain terrorists operating from the security of Saudi soil.
 
There are tentative suggestions that this may now be changing – though the trends are far from dramatic. The absolute impunity with which Pakistan-backed Islamist terrorists operated against India from Saudi Arabia has now been diluted by the arrest and deportation to India, of a number of prominent terrorists, albeit under sustained pressure and with a number of hiccups. The most recent and significant of these developments was the deportation of Fasih Mohammad, an Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative, and his subsequent arrest at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on October 22, 2012. Mohammad, a Computer Engineer who lived in Dammam (Saudi Arabia), is a suspect in the April 17, 2010, Chinnaswamy Stadium blast case in Bangalore and the September 19, 2010, Jama Masjid shooting case in Delhi.
 
Fasih was the third terrorist to be deported from Saudi Arabia over the past five months. On June 21, 2012, the 26/11 (November 26, 2008) Mumbai (Maharashtra) terrorist attacks handler, Abu Hamza alias Sayeed Zabi ud Deen alias Zabi Ansari alias Riyasat Ali alias Abu Jundal, was arrested in Delhi after being extradited from Saudi Arabia. This was followed by the deportation and arrest of LeT terrorist A. Rayees on October 6, 2012. Rayees was named as the third accused in the case of the seizure of explosives in Malayalamkunnu under Chakkarakkal (Kannur District of Kerala) Police limits in 2009.
 
Another five terrorist fugitives, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) ‘commander’ Fayyaz Kagzi, accused in the Aurangabad arms haul case of May 9, 2006, are still holed up in the country. Fayyaz Kagzi had also given bomb-making training to February 13, 2010, German Bakery (Pune, Maharashtra) blast accused Mirza Himayat Baig in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, in 2008.
 
Saudi Arabia’s nexus with Pakistan controlled LeT and IM has also been verified in a number of arrests within India, including the arrest of five IM militants accused of the August 1, 2012, Pune (Maharashtra) serial blasts. On September 26, 2012, Asad Khan and Imran Khan were arrested by Delhi Police from Pul Prahladpur in Delhi. This was followed by the arrest of Sayed Feroz on October 1, from the Nizamuddin Railway Station in Delhi, and Langde Irfan, on October 10, from Jaipur in Rajasthan. According to Delhi Police, Feroz, Imran Khan and Asad Khan had gone to Saudi Arabia several times to meet Fayyaz Kagzi. Asad Khan had made several phone calls to Saudi Arabia and sent emails to Kagzi prior to these visits.Delhi Police arrested another suspected IM terrorist, identified as Sayed Maqbool alias Zuber, from Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) on October 23.
 
Between August 29 and September 2, 2012, 18 persons were arrested across Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, exposing further trails to terrorist activities from Saudi Arabia. Subsequent interrogations revealed that terrorist modules in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra had been working on instructions of handlers located in Saudi Arabia and linked to LeT and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). Bangalore city Police Commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji confirmed, “Those arrested have links with Saudi Arabia-based LeT and HuJI and it is suspected that they have more supporters in other (Indian) States. The arrested were taking orders from their handlers in Saudi Arabia”.
 
These recent arrests and revelations are not in isolation and only reconfirm Saudi Arabia’s role as a terror hub, with a Saudi connection traced back from several other terrorist incidents in India, and with the accused in many cases still absconding in Saudi Arabia, though authorities in the Kingdom have inclined to a pretence of ignorance regarding these many linkages.
 
A case in point is that of C.A.M. Basheer, the ‘president’ of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in the 1980s, hailing from Aluva in the Ernakulam District of Kerala, and an accused in the March 13, 2003, Mulund (Mumbai) blast. Basheer takes the Saudi terror connection nearly two decades back, and has reportedly been coordinating his activities from the Kingdom.
 
Again, Abu Abdel Aziz, who spent a considerable length of time in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in the early 1990s, and made an appearance at an LeT conference in Muridke in Pakistan’s Punjab Province in November 1994, was introduced there as an Indian Muslim living in Saudi Arabia, who was helping Muslims to fight in Bosnia and Kashmir. The case of Aziz is still unresolved.
 
Further, on August 29, 2003, Police in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, arrested five terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and LeT in connection with Akshardham Temple attack case of September 24, 2002. Interrogations confirmed by the then Ahmedabad Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), P.P. Pandey revealed, “The temple attack was a joint operation conducted by several modules of JeM and LeT having their network from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh [UP], Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and other cities”.
 
An accused in the December 2, 2002, Ghatkopar (Mumbai) blast, identified as Taufiq alias Abdullah, was arrested from Morna in Noida in UP on November 22, 2011, by a team of the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Tamil Nadu Special Investigation Team (SIT) and Noida Police. Western UP ATS Chief Rajeev Narayan Misra said that Taufiq had travelled and stayed in Saudi Arabia as well as in Bangladesh, to avert arrest. Taufiq disclosed that he was earlier associated with LeT and the Muslim Defence Force (MDF).
 
Investigations into the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train blast case also exposed a Saudi connection. The then Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy stated, on September 30, 2006, that one of the main accused, Faizal Sheikh, had received large consignments of funds through Rizwan Devra, an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operative based in Saudi Arabia, to organize the attack. Police also recovered 26,000 Riyals from Faizal’s house in Bandra, Mumbai.
 
Reports also indicate that Shahid Bilal, the key conspirator in the twin blasts in Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat, on August 25, 2007, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, had also stayed in Saudi Arabia during 2002-2003 and recruited several Hyderabadi expatriate youth there. Significantly, within a week of the blast, Shahid was reportedly shot dead in Karachi in Pakistan, in a turf war with rival Rasool Khan Parti.
 
A Saudi link was also established in the December 7, 2010, Varanasi (UP) blasts. One of the terrorists involved, Asadullah Akthar, was believed to have taken shelter in Saudi Arabia.
 
The Saudi-Pak nexus is not a new phenomenon. Pakistan backed terrorist outfits receive detailed briefing for operations from their mentors in Saudi Arabia. The modus operandi allows Pakistani agents to brief their terrorist proxies, who then return to India without a Pakistani visa on their passports to avoid suspicion. Indians have also been facilitated by Pakistan to travel to Saudi Arabia under new identities and passports provided by Pakistani authorities. This was the case with Abu Jundal, who went to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan, on a Pakistani passport in the name of Riyasat Ali, a purported resident of Muridke. An October 24, 2012, report indicates that intelligence agencies believe that IM operatives Iqbal and Riyaz Bhatkal are also on the run and travel between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia under false identities, with Pakistani passports.
 
Terror masterminds located in Saudi Arabia also control their ‘foot soldiers’ in India through cyberspace, and intelligence agencies find it difficult to keep a track on the numerous channels used. A senior Intelligence Bureau (IB) official commented, “It’s a big headache for the intelligence agencies to detect the communications between them. It is impossible to monitor all the activities in the cyberspace”.
 
The arrest of Abu Jundal exposed many of these dimensions. Jundal revealed that he had been tasked to move to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan in 2010, and was given the responsibility to recruit youth and take care of the India operations. Jundal further disclosed that he had recruited 50 persons during his nearly two-year stay in Saudi Arabia and was also instrumental in hawala (illegal money transfers) funding, through his contacts in Riyadh and Dubai, to LeT’s sleeper cells in the Indian states of Kerala and Maharashtra.
 
Saudi Arabia is also a principal source of terrorist funding, both to groups based and operating out of Pakistan and the prominent ‘indigenous’ groupings within India. Steady funding from Saudi Arabia for SIMI and IM contributed directly to the growth of these groups. Most of the money lands in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and is later distributed to SIMI-IM units elsewhere. According to security agencies, IM is worth an estimated INR 500 million, and its major donors are rich Sheikhs of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Regarding August 1, 2012 blasts, ATS is zeroing-in on hawala operations. For instance, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S.N. Srivastava, on October 18, 2012, observed, “He [Langde Irfan] received his ideological training in Saudi Arabia… Irfan was in touch with IM, founder member, Riyaz Bhatkal and also received and transported hawala transactions (sic)…” As reported on October 18, 2012 Irfan Mustafa, along with an accomplice went to Saudi Arabia to meet Kagzi and subsequently formed an “advance team”.
 
Apart from hawala network, Saudi institutions have also used the cover of educational, welfare and religious funding to back terrorist activities. A November 2008 dispatch by Bryan Hunt, the then principal officer at the US consulate in Lahore (Pakistan), noted that Saudi Arabia was seen as funding some of Pakistan’s hardline religious seminaries, or madrassas, which churn out young men eager for “holy war”, posing a threat to the stability of the South Asian region. Further, US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks in December 2010 revealed that “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide” and that “Riyadh has taken only limited action” to interrupt the flow of money to Taliban and LeT linked outfits, which have launched attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
 
Other countries in the Gulf are, of course, also involved in providing support and shelter to terrorists. Sarfaraz Nawaz, who financed the July 25, 2008, Bangalore (Karnataka) blasts, was later deported from Oman in 2009. During investigations, Nawaz revealed that a simultaneous bombing planned for Chennai (Tamil Nadu) was called off due to unforeseen contingencies. ATS sleuths are also on the lookout for Muzzafar Kola, the alleged financer of the 13/7 (July 13, 2011) blasts of Mumbai (Maharashtra), who currently resides in Bhatkal town in Karnataka, and his associates in Dubai. Kola and his associates, according to ATS, financed the 13/7 blasts through the hawala route using his firm Muzaffar Kola Enterprises LLC in Dubai as the front. In its chargesheet filed in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on May 25, 2012, the Maharashtra ATS identified Kola as ‘Wanted Accused Four’ in 13/7 bombing, though he is yet to be chargesheeted. Police officers are said to have visited Kola’s hometown in Bhatkal in June, but failed to find him at home.
 
Noticeably, Pakistan has taken a two way strategy of recruiting youth from Indian hinterland and then brainwashing them in extra-regional territories to neutralize any genuine international pressure to end the export of terror to India. Saudi Arabia, infamous for exporting its puritan Wahhabism to other regions of the world, including South Asia, has been particularly susceptible to cooption in this strategy. However, Saudi Arabia has, over the past years, also experienced repeated terrorist strikes on its own soil, including the suicide bombing targeting the then crown prince and interior minister, Muhammad bin Nayef, on August 27, 2009, in Jeddah. With the rising threat of Islamist extremist terrorism on their own soil, Saudi authorities appear to be diluting their hitherto unreserved and unqualified support to Pakistan’s misadventures in the region, resulting in the recent deportations of terror accused to India.
 
Such ‘cooperation’ with Indian authorities, however, is still far from automatic or enthusiastic. Indeed, the deportation of Fasih Mohammad, as well as those who preceded him, came only after a number of obstacles had been overcome. India secured an Interpol Red Corner notice on May 31, 2012, against Fasih, but the Saudi Government demanded more evidence regarding his involvement in terrorism, and delayed his deportation. Moreover, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier taken the stance that those who were wanted in criminal cases in India could not be deported if no offence had been committed by them within the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This had been disclosed to the Kerala High Court on July 16, 2012, by Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) P. Parameswaran Nair, based on a written communication from Faiz Ahabad Kidwaid, India’s Consul General in Jeddah.
 
Nevertheless, the recent developments give grounds for some optimism and, crucially, would undermine the complete impunity with which Pakistan backed Islamist terrorists had been using Saudi soil to mount their campaigns in India.

Exclusive: LAWS FAIL THE ACID TEST AS ATTACKS RISE

By M H Ahssan

Every year, many women are killed, maimed, blinded or scarred for life by acid attacks. But the country has no laws to regulate the sale of the deadly substance.

As 2008 drew to a close, so did 22-year-old Swapnika’s life. A spurned lover had thrown acid at her as the final-year engineering student returned home from college in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. She died on December 31. Blinded and burnt, her 21-day ordeal ended in hospital.

Swapnika is one of many. Each year, a number of women are killed, maimed, blinded or scarred for life in acid attacks across the country. But they don't even become a national statistic to mourn. The National Crime Records Bureau doesn't collect data on acid attack victims. But piece the picture together from newspaper reports and the gravity of the problem is clear. Just days after the attack that disfigured Swapnika and eventually took her life, acid was thrown at a girl in Delhi as she stepped out of a metro station. She escaped with minor burns but not everyone is so lucky. In August, a 20-year-old Kolkata tailor threw acid at teenaged sisters because their mother had refused to let him marry the younger one. Both girls were fearfully disfigured.

Activists who work with survivors of acid attacks lament the lack of laws to regulate the sale of concentrated acid. “A 10-year-old can walk into a shop and buy a litre of highly concentrated acid over the counter for less than 20 rupees,” says Sheila Ramanathan who heads the Human Rights Law Network in Bangalore. Ramanthan points out that Bangladesh has an Acid Control Act, which regulates the sale of acid and also the way it is produced, stored and transported. But in India, acid is carelessly allowed to become a deadly weapon.

“Prevention is the only way to stop these attacks. There is no other quick-fix as the scars that are left behind are permanent,” says Sanjana, who works with the Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW). A Bangalorebased coalition, CSAAW has compiled a list of 65 cases in Karnataka alone between 1999 and 2008. “These are just the victims we have met. There are scores of others and not just in Karnataka,” says Sanjana, who has made a documentary film on the subject called ‘Suttaru Sollapavadaru’ (Burnt, but not defeated).

It’s a myth that women are attacked with acid only after they reject sexual advances. Sanjana says “it’s a form of gender violence and often women who exercise their independence are targeted. When we talked to survivors, we found that women of all castes, classes and religions were being attacked by husbands, lovers, employers, jealous colleagues and even landlords.”

The CSAAAW famously helped Hasina Hussain get justice after her former boss Joseph Rodrigues poured 1.5 litres of sulphuric acid on her when she quit her job in his financially unstable firm in 1999. The acid melted her face, fused her shoulder and neck, burnt a hole in her head, merged her fingers and blinded her for life. In 2006, the Karnataka high court sentenced Rodrigues to life imprisonment.

It was a landmark case, now the source of hope to many who survive acid attacks. But experts say the existing laws are sorely inadequate. In the absence of a specific law, acid attacks come under the purview of Section 326 of the IPC, which deals with voluntarily inflicting grievous physical injuries with a weapon. But it is a bailable law and carries a maximum punishment of seven years in prison. Consequently, the victim is left to face life scarred and disfigured forever but her attacker is granted bail and can hope for a trial delayed for decades.

But that could change. The National Commission for Women (NCW) has prepared a draft of the Prevention of Offences (by Acids) Act, 2008. The Bill, which has been sent for approval to the Union ministry of women and child development, specifically deals with acid attacks. It includes schemes to treat and rehabilitate victims. “The NCW’s proposed amendments to the IPC will make acid attacks a cognizable, non-bailable offence, which will attract a prison term of not less than 10 years,” says Samarender Chatterjee, member-secretary, NCW.

Activists welcome the proposed law but say the focus should be controlling the sale of acid rather than punishing the perpetrators. “It is a band-aid solution. For an acid attack victim, no amount of money for plastic surgery or punishment for the accused can wipe the pain and trauma away,” says Sanjana.

Telangana Jolts Congress, Loses Ground In South India

By Aniket Sharma | INN Live

ELECTION SCENARIO: It is largely going to be a flop show for the Congress in the south. Barring Karnataka, the grand old party is unlikely to win significant number of seats in any southern state, the latest 'Mood of the Nation' opinion poll findings suggest.

Karnataka: Where the Congress snatched power from the BJP owing to its infighting, might give the ruling party 12 seats out of the 28 if the general elections were held in January 2014. The number is double the Congress tally in the current Lok Sabha.

KARNATAKA SETBACK MAY HASTEN MODI PROJECTION

By Vijaya Srikant / Bangalore

A jubilant Congress may have celebrated its decisive victory in Karnataka by saying that the outcome’s exposed the claim about Narendra Modi being the biggest vote-getter but the saffron debacle may only escalate the clamour within the BJP for projection of the Gujarat CM. 
    
Many in the BJP see the party’s fall from grace in its only southern stronghold as validation of beliefs that “politics-as-usual” won’t work anymore and that the party must rally behind Modi to benefit from popular resentment against Congress. 
    
Sources involved with the party’s Karnataka campaign said the outcome could’ve been worse but for Modi whose appeal worked in Bangalore and Hubli-Belgaum regions. “He revived spirits of the cadre,” said a functionary.