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TheIndian EXPRESS
www.indianexpress.com

l SATURDAY l SEPTEMBER 8 l 2012

The Indian EXPRESS

BECAUSE THE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL

HE strongest rally in two months by the Indian stock markets on Friday is part of the cheerful reaction in Asian markets to the European Central Banks announcement of an unlimited buyout of bonds of struggling European economies. The rupee too moved up against the US dollar, mirroring the upbeat expectations in Asia about the impact on trade with Europe. The hope, all around, is that this plan will work. It needs to. Without naming Germany, ECB President Mario Draghi said it had opposed writing cheques for the unlimited bailout the only one among member nations to have done so. Draghi, of course, is banking on the expectation that the Outright Monetary Transactions programme, as it is called, will calm the bond markets and stop traders betting against the Spanish bonds. At present, Madrid has to pay a very high interest rate on the bonds it issues, which makes it impossible for Spain to float more papers and difficult to get finance to restart the economy. The ECB backstop potentially reduces the rates. But the extent to which it can do so will remain a question for the bond markets. That and Draghis affirmation that there will be conditions for the

India can profit from the rally because of ECB move, but domestic cues are still absent
backstop could be a problem for all the PIIGS economies. They have argued that there can be no more cutbacks on government expenditure for social support. The ECB conditions could make matters worse, especially as an internal forecast by the bank of the GDP growth rate for the continent has again slipped back to minus 0.4 per cent. At this juncture, if the Indian government were to push through a decision to raise domestic diesel prices, it will provide the direction the markets need. Else, they will have to wait for cues from the index of industrial production due on Wednesday. Yet, as the ECB cobbles a semblance of fiscal union and accords to itself the role of the lender of last resort for a fractious Europe, the prospects certainly seem better than they have at any time this year. Allied with the US decision not to kick off another quantitative loosening any time soon, reiterated this week by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Thursdays outcome makes this weekend possibly one of the best that the global financial order has seen for some time. Monday will be a time for reckoning again, but for now, there is a sense of disaster averted.

Bailing out euro

The foreign hand-writing

National Interest
There is nothing like this. Government should worry, not whine
SHEKHAR GUPTA
assassination, happened, leaving the rest to stringers. That balance of power has now shifted, as the bigger story has moved there. That is why the recent commotion, over the Western medias criticism of the government, particularly the prime minister, is surprising. Even more intriguing is the coverage given to these stories and views by us, in the Indian media, particularly on TV. It is anachronistic to see istani establishment besides, indeed, their own powerful embassies. A critical story, or a significant expos, is analysed also in terms of mysterious motives and conspiracy theories. Places like Kabul, Baghdad and Cairo, of course, are in a different category altogether, given how much more important the Western capitals perceptions are to them. But India of 2012? At least I am astounded to see the 1970s conspiracy theories
Tom Friedman has done more to build the India story globally than many scores of Indian diplomats over these years. Until the other day, when asked why they couldnt see any fault with Manmohan Singh and India, many prominent foreign journalists used to say, because everybody wants India to succeed, nobody wants India to fail. Are we responsible for leaving the same people so disappointed? The honest answer is, yes. The prime minister himself is an honest, self-effacing man and an intellectual. If he reflects on the two adjectives used in the latest Washington Post report, silent and tragic, he would probably admit to one and worry about the other. He has been silent, even more so in his second term than in the first, and following the leader, others have gone into the trenches as well. Nothing has hurt the India story more substantively than the silence of the reformer. So he has to change, rather than complain. And tragic? How would he himself describe his own legacy if the Indian reform story, which he launched, is now dismantled under his own watch? That is why he should be worried more than complaining.

Letters to the

EDITOR Letter of the

S the wasted monsoon session drew to an end, the BJP tried to deflect blame for the loss of parliamentary time, in terms of precious hours lost, as well as the larger cost of withholding critical legislation. It claimed that this stand would be vindicated when its protest over coal allocation results in tangible gain, and that it will now take the campaign to the streets. The BJP has every right to attack and oppose the government when it has a genuine contention but Parliament is the primary arena for this combat. Instead of bringing the matter of coal block allocations for debate in the House and exposing the governments allegedly suspect decision-making, the BJP emphatically shunned that route it held up legislative functioning, shouted down any attempt at communication. It wanted nothing less than the prime ministers resignation. It asks for the de-allocation of all coal blocks recently assigned an untenable proposition, because of the industrial projects that depend on the decision and the uncertainty it would induce, not to mention the arbitrariness of choosing a cut-off date for these allotments and penalising above-

BJP errs in thinking it can get by with providing fireworks on corruption, instead of answers
board firms. The BJP knows that this is the maximalist version of recompense to seek, but refuses to dilute its demands. It claims that only relentless pressure yields results, pointing to the 2G scandal as an example. And yet, there were at least three sustained parliamentary discussions on 2G, which helped bring into the public domain a more fine-grained understanding of what dodgy decisions were taken, and who benefited. In this case, the BJP has simply raised a furore without providing any proof or argument in the House. It has refused to engage. And now, it threatens to extend this campaign to the streets, carried aloft by a presumed popular rage against corruption. The BJP may be miscalculating here. Yes, corruption is one of the most resonant issues now in a nation sick of seeing crony networks blunt the promise of reform. However, the BJP has not offered any real solutions towards cleaner, more transparent economic decisions. Like the Anna Hazare movement is discovering, merely giving voice to the peoples anger may not be enough for long-lasting political gains. The BJP is merely providing fireworks, not answers.

High on fumes

OW many of you know who Mark Tully is? I always ask the audience of senior officers at both our civil and military institutions, when invited to speak on the role of the media in our democracy. Almost all hands go up if the audience consists of officers with upwards of 20 years in service. They speak of Tully, for long the BBCs legendary bureau chief in New Delhi, in admiration, even reverence. Then I ask the follow-up question: Who is the BBCs chief of bureau in New Delhi now? I have never, in the past 10 years, had anybody answer that, even make a guess. In fact, nobody can name any of the senior, competent and successful professionals who stepped into Tullys oversized floaters. But this is not merely meant to be a compliment to Tully, a brilliant colleague and fellow traveller in Indias newsiest decades. When my mother wouldnt believe Dhaka had fallen in 1971 and Rajiv Gandhi wouldnt believe his mother had been assassinated until each had heard it on the BBC. Nor is this meant to be an unflattering comment on Tullys successors. It is just to make the point that the growth of Indias own journalism, particularly in the electronic media, has liberated us from our dependence on foreign media. We never needed any foreign journalist to tell us, for example, what was going on in Kargil, even in the first few weeks when the news looked all bad and baffling. This is the real story. As democracies grow, evolve, deepen and mature, their reliance on the international media for news about themselves declines. It follows that the clout of the foreign press corps in their capitals also declines accordingly. That is exactly what has happened in New Delhi through two decades of reform. The political class, the bureaucracy and even Indian journalists no longer hold in awe the bureau chiefs of the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, Time, The Guardian, even The Washington Post. They are fellow journalists covering our country, rather than superpowerful and super-connected foreign journalists who set the agenda for us. Of course, this was was also helped along by better salaries, easier foreign travel and availability of legal Scotch and wine, which narrowed the gap between the native and the expat. This change was further hardened by the fact that over these two decades, the focus of the world media shifted to what is now called Af-Pak. In the glory days of the Western media in New Delhi, all South Asia bureau chiefs lived in the city and travelled to the region, including Pakistan, when something really major, like a coup or an

WEEK

Goodbye growth?

economy and Indias GDP growth rates slowing down to 5-6 per cent, the government cannot afford to take steps that could damage investor sentiments further. The last budgets proposals on GAAR did just that, contributing to the perception that the Indian tax regime is arbitrary and unpredictable. The government is reluctant to be seen as aligned with big business. Policy paralysis and this perceived antibusiness climate have slowed down foreign investment inflows and stunted the growth of infrastructure. Bold reforms are urgently needed. Or else, India can bid goodbye to its growth story. Manish Kumar Patna

WITH a troubled global

The growth of Indias own journalism, particularly in the electronic media, has liberated us from our dependence on foreign media. As democracies grow, evolve, deepen and mature, their reliance on international media on news about themselves declines. It follows that the clout of the foreign press corps in their capitals also declines accordingly. That is exactly what has happened in New Delhi through two decades of reform.
Time and The Washington Post hitting the national headlines for calling the prime minister an underachiever, or a silent and tragic figure. Why have we the government as well as the media become so thin-skinned? Has the foreign press corps in New Delhi somehow regained its old powers? Or, have we, as a nation, or rather our national political and intellectual elites, lost some of the confidence two decades of reform and growth have brought us? It is a truism that the weaker resurface, particularly one on a Hindi channel that suggested the recent attacks by the American media were just a payback for our warming up to Iran, particularly the Manmohan Singh-Ahmadinejad meeting. And, of course, that the attacks were at the behest of the American government.

APROPOS Arguing with mirrors (IE, September 6), it is unfortunate that the government is overreacting to the article in The Washington Post , which said nothing that had not been said earlier about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Congress as a whole should take responsibility for the countrys current plight. Instead, it is mostly Singh who takes all the brickbats. It is sad that even though our government is headed by an economist, the economic slump persists. The Congress and the government would like to pin the blame on global factors, over which they have little control. Whatever the state of the global economy, the government should not be seen as paralysed. UPA 2 is filled with ministers who lack purpose and are hampered by destructive party politics. The prime minister should make a strong defence for himself in public, or else history will remember him as a great economic reformer but a weak PM. Amit Bhandari New Delhi

Speak out

UT why should we journalists self-flagellate when the prickliness of our political establishment is what sets the trend anyway? For

The prime minister himself is an honest, self-effacing man and an intellectual. If he reflects on the two adjectives used in the Washington Post report, silent and tragic, he would probably admit to one and worry about the other. Nothing has hurt the India story more substantively than the silence of the reformer. And tragic? How would he himself describe his legacy if the Indian reform story, which he launched, is now dismantled under his own watch?
and more crisis-ridden a nation, the more seriously it takes the foreign press. Pakistan is a very good example. Foreign correspondents, particularly those who do their business in English, are rock stars there. Their stories are prolifically reproduced, followed up and discussed in the Pakistani media. Many enjoy enormous access within the Pakmore than a decade now, this establishment has glowed under constant, unquestioning and even breathless praise from the Western media. With the odd exception of an Arundhati Roy or a Pankaj Mishra and indeed the entire Guardian, the Western media has been nothing but flattering about the post-reform India story. The New York Timess

Postscript: Intrigued by a picture of Rajiv Gandhi on the cover of Penthouse as I browsed in a Washington bookshop in mid-1987, I picked up a copy. It had a full-length interview with Rajiv Gandhi, conducted by the famous Russell Warren Howe, a formidable foreign correspondent and former World War II Spitfire pilot who made his fame with a biography of Mata Hari and some infamy as someone who routinely talked statesmen and heads of state into giving him interviews that he promptly sold to Penthouse. I was then on a sabbatical of sorts, but it looked too juicy a story to pass up. So I promptly filed for India Today, where I worked. As expected, it unleashed a storm, with much name-calling within the PMO as to who was responsible for getting Rajiv caught in such an embarrassing mess. Protests were lodged with Penthouse and Howe, and both dismissed them gleefully, as you would expect. Within days, I got my comeuppance, though. Rajiv had come visiting Washington and I was introduced to him at the embassys reception. I was too junior for prime ministers to know me, but as my name and affiliation were mentioned, there was a flicker of amused recognition in his eyes. What are you doing here? he asked me. I said I had taken a year off and was researching some strategic issues. You have started well, with Penthouse, he said, and turned to the next guest.
sg@expressindia.com

Low blow

THE scuffle in Parliament

Michelle and Bill were a great help, but now the hard slog begins for Obama
GOP swipes at his rhetorical flourish, was professional and somewhat pedestrian, missing the passion and failing to peak at what, in 2008, would have been opportune moments. He avoided risks and came rather late to the specifics of Romneys vulnerabilities, as in foreign policy, skirting, in the process, his own healthcare headache. But the DNCs You did it acknowledgment of the ordinary American was precision-made for the RNCs We built it message earlier. Obamas circumstances have changed. As president, he couldnt ask the electorate to ride the audacious hope of 2008. Thats why, as advertisements for Obama, this DNC would be remembered for Michelle Obamas warm and intelligently sculpted speech and Joe Bidens uncharacteristically fiery rousing of the audience, to say nothing of Clinton. What lies ahead is a hard campaign, minus the party in Tampa or Charlotte. Then there will be the economy to fix again.

After the party

ANAGHA SARPOTDAR
OR 15 years now, government agencies and womens groups have consistently pressed for a law on sexual harassment. This urgent need for a law was finally recognised when the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2010, was passed in the Lok Sabha on September 3. However, several sections of the bill must be revisited before it can be turned into an effective law. It is a known fact that sexual harassment in the workplace occurs in a hostile work environment. Yet the definition of sexual harassment in the bill does not factor this in. Implied or overt promises of either preferential or detrimental treatment, which interfere with work or create a hostile work environment, should have been part of the definition. Legislators should also consider excluding Section 14 from the bill, which seeks action against complainants for false and malicious charges. This could unnerve women trying to gather the courage to raise their voice against harassment by seniors and colleagues at work. It is also possi-

HE Democratic and Republican National Conventions are less news events, more marketing campaigns. Yet, it is unusual for a candidate, and a White House incumbent at that, to be overshadowed, overwhelmingly, by a predecessor. What George W. Bush didnt do for Mitt Romney, Bill Clinton did for Barack Obama. Its debatable if Bush Jr would have been an asset. But Clinton had both his own credentials and Obamas tangible record not an untested hopefuls vaguely uttered agenda to his advantage. He used the former brilliantly to defend the latter, delivering a point-by-point rebuttal of Republican arguments and spelling out the case for Obamas re-election because of the economy, not despite it. Coming from one of Americas most successful presidents with the economy, this was the defence Democrats were dreaming of. The presidents own speech, perhaps in response to four-year-long

Sexual harassment bill should enable, not daunt, women wanting to press charges
ble that this section will be misused by the accused employer to discredit the victim. Any complaint that cannot be proved, for whatever reason, would then be put down as false or malicious. Moreover, the internal complaints committee in the workplace cannot be given the prerogative to categorise complaints as genuine or false. It is important to note here that no other law has provisions to penalise the complainant if her accusations are not proved. Provisions for compensation and the redressal of grievances also need to be revised. Section 15 of the bill, for instance, should delineate the procedure and fix responsibility for compensation. The fine of Rs 50,000, mentioned in Section 26, is too paltry. The amount fined must be commensurate with the net worth of the company. A new section should be added to the bill to ensure that employers cover damages if the complainant has lost her job or been denied promotion because of harassment. The bill should also ensure that the complainant is not pressured into conciliation with the employers and forced to withdraw charges. However, cases of sexual harassment reported to the complaints committee at the workplace may be addressed through non-formal means, such as warnings to the accused or discussions between complainant and harasser. The scope of the bill, in terms of the workplaces it covers, should also be discussed further. While the demand for the inclusion of domestic workers has been accepted, the bill leaves out agricultural workers, who form a large part of the unorganised sector. Women working in fisheries and forests as well as those employed in construction sites, stations and trains must be brought within the purview of the bill. Women employees in the armed forces should also be covered. There are other flaws. For instance, Section 9 (1) says that the complaint must be made within three months of the offence. But research reveals that the social stigma faced by victims of sexual harassment and the fear of negative repercussions on their jobs make women hesitant to complain. If and when they do manage to pluck up the courage to complain, the stipulated time period might already be over. The bill should also have a section to protect women from the possible repercussions of making a complaint. After all, it is not uncommon for an employer to retaliate by terminating the complainants contract, effecting a forced transfer or denying promotion. Finally, Section 16 of the bill prohibits revealing the identity of the accused, even if he is found guilty of sexual harassment. This is warped logic, and appears to be an attempt to shield the men who are guilty of harassment in the workplace. Much remains to be done to achieve justice for women affected by sexual harassment, and to prevent the offence in the first place. The Supreme Courts Vishaka judgment of 1997, and other judgments following it, have laid a strong foundation for prosecuting the offence. However, change must start at the individual level gender equality and human rights must be respected by each one of us. The writer is a research scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences
express@expressindia.com

Breaking her silence

between the Bahujan Samaj Partys Avtar Singh Karimpuri and the Samajwadi Partys Naresh Agrawal was most unseemly (Scuffle degrades Parliament: SP BSP MPs , come to blows over quota bill in Rajya Sabha, IE, September 5). The two MPs, who were fighting over the bill to allow the SC/ST quota in promotions, point to why our parliamentarians are criticised so often these days. It is often hard to distinguish between a politician and a hooligan. Bidyut K. Chatterjee Faridabad
AN EMPLOYEE is promoted so that his or her experience and skills can be better utilised for the efficient running of an organisation (Cabinet clears SC, ST quota in promotions, Bill in RS today, IE, September 5). Questions of caste should not be brought into the process. Such a promotion policy is bound to create resentment among those employees who belong to the general category. This could vitiate the work environment. However, there is no doubt that equality should prevail. Those who are underprivileged should be given adequate help at the outset so that they can compete on an equal footing with the rest. Sham Lal New Delhi

Promote equality

WORDLY WISE
Wes Nisker

If you dont like the news, go out and make some of your own.