PSM 01-01-14

PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA
Vol. 01 Issue. 17 | JANUARY 01, 2014 | PAGES 08 | PRICE ` 3/- | www.publicservicemedia.net
KAR/ENG/04492 | ENGLISH DAILY Editor Mr. N. Venkatesh MAG/(2)/CR/PRB/71/13-14
CONTRAPUNTO
Write it on heart that
every day is the best day
in the year .
Ralph waldo emerson
68% IAS officers have avg stint of 18 months or less
Ashok Khemka has become famous as
a much-transferred IAS officer, but he is
far from being the only one to have been
shunted ever so often. An analysis of the
executive record (ER) sheets of thousands
of IAS officers currently in service reveals
that frequent transfers are depressingly
common.
It shows that 68% (over twothirds of
the officers have had average tenures of
18 months or less. The analysis used ER
sheets of all 2,139 officers now in service
who were selected through the UPSC’s civil
services exam and had completed 10 years
or more of service on Nov 13, 2013, the date
on which this analysis was undertaken.
Among these officers, Vineet Chaudhary,
a 1982 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre
officer, has been transferred 52 times, the
highest in the country. Similarly, Assam-
Meghalaya cadre officer Winston Mark
Simon Pariat has been transferred 50 times
in his 36-year career.
Kusumjit Sidhu of the Punjab cadre
witnessed 46 transfers in a career which
spanned over three decades and like his
famous colleague Khemka, Haryana cadre
officer Keshni Anand Arora is also serving
her 45th posting.
There are 13 officers who have undergone
40 or more transfers in their career.
Interestingly, seven of these are from
the Haryana cadre alone. Himachal and
Jharkhand have two such officers each
while Assam-Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh
account for one IAS officer each with 40
or more transfers. Khemka among most
often shifted
The number of transfers alone doesn’t
explain the difficulties of the prestigious
job. It is the frequency which is more alarming.
On this count too, Haryana emerges
as the worst state for an IAS officer to be
posted in. Five of the country’s 10 most
frequently transferred officers are from
Haryana; two from Jharkhand and one
each from Chhattisgarh, UP and Assam-
Meghalaya.
Mohammed Shayin and Khemka —
both Haryana cadre — are India’s most
frequently transferred IAS officers, their
average frequency being more than once
in six months. Similarly, the average time
spent between two postings for M Ariz
Ahammed, Shahla Nigar, Satyaprakash TL,
Pankaj Yadav, Ritu Maheshwari and Rakesh
Gupta has been less than seven months.
Kailash Kumar Khandelwal and Sunil Kumar
Barnwal, who also make it to the list of the
country’s 10 most frequently transferred
officers, have been transferred within seven

2 January 01, 2014 PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA
SMSs from cops fail to reach all
Private company employee Sarah (name
changed) was attacked by a suspected
stalker in broad daylight in her house in
the city. She lodged a police complaint and
ever since has been making rounds of the
police station to inquire about the status
of the probe. But all she has in hand is an
acknowledgement slip.
Tired of this ordeal, Sarah asked why
she wasn’t getting any SMS alert on the
status of her complaint. “I was told stalking
doesn’t come under SMS alert system,” she
says, wondering why should there
be a system at all when it has failed to
deliver.
Sarah’s plight is shared by thousands
of complainants and others seeking police
services like document verifications. Police
officers admit that the SMS gateway system,
introduced in 2012 to enhance transparency
and efficiency of service delivery, hasn’t
been able to serve its purpose. It envisaged
sending SMS alerts to complainants and
those requesting other services.
According to official statistics, 2,500-
3,000 SMSs are generated daily under the
system across the state. Police believe the
project has a capacity to generate 10,000
SMSs.
Explaining the huge deficit, Praven
Sood, ADGP, who also holds the additional
charge of police computer wing, says, “In
some cases, we are lethargic, and sometimes
people are unaware of the system.”
He claims that in many cases people are
reluctant to share their mobile numbers
with police.
According to Sood, around 1.5 lakh
FIRs are registered across the state every
year, and they get at least 20 lakh service
requests.
Given that every FIR should be converted
into a chargesheet within two months,
at least three lakh SMSs should be generated
every year, taking the total number to
23 l a k h SMSs a ye a r, translating into over
6,500 SMSs daily.
DECODING THE SYSTEM
With the digitization of police records,
every time a case is registered with the cops
or any service request application such as
job or passport verification is filed, a unique
15-digit code is generated. This can be used
to track the status of the case or service
request.
In case of a complaint, the complainant
will get an SMS update at every stage of the
FIR lifecycle. The first SMS is generated on
filing a complaint, second for action taken
and final one, when the case is closed. The
facility also covers 21 services provided by
police like issuance and renewal of arms
licences, report of missing person, mobile
theft and so on.
IN A NUTSHELL
• 1.5 lakh complaints filed with police
every year
• 20 lakh service requests made
• 23 lakh should be the minimum number
of SMSs generated as 1.5 lakh plaints
should result in at least a chargesheet each
within 90 days
• 6,500 SMSs need to be generated if all
these complaints and service requests are
considered
• 2,500-3000 SMSs are being generated
every day Police dept will digitally transfer
files to high court
Afirst-of-its-kind programme initiated
by the Karnataka high court and state
police is set to reduce dependency on
the postal system. The new system will do
away with personnel physically requiring to
transfer documents, thus minimizing delay
in communication.
The initiative, a pilot project, will see
the high court and police servers synced
to share real-time data, resulting in all FIRs
and charge-sheets automatically being
uploaded on the HC server. Eventually,
information received by the HC server will
be transferred to jurisdictional courts,
expediting the trial process and ensuring
speedy delivery of justice.
To be rolled out in January 2014, the
system is expected to reduce the burden
on the already understaffed police. The
second phase, expected to be implement-
WHETER
01-01-2014| Maximum: 26.6 C Minimum:
15.7 C , Rainfall: Nil , Humidity: 88%

January 01, 2014 PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIAper 3
BBMP corporators give
Python demo a miss
Bangalore: The war to fix potholes on
city roads that frequently proved fatal to
motorists is as much about infrastructure
logistics as about mindsets.
A demonstration of a pothole-filling
machine witnessed apathy from corporators
here on Tuesday. About 30 councilors
had demanded the demonstration but only
a handful turned up for it.
On Monday, several corporators had
demanded at the BBMP council meeting
that the contract of pothole-filler Python
5,000 – a machine given by American Road
Technology and Solutions Private Limited
(ARTS) – be scrapped as it was incapable of
doing the job efficiently and the contract
cost of Rs 17 crore was too high.
The machine arrived at Nrupathunga
Road in the morning and was there till
noon but only five councilors came to
watch the demonstration. BBMP officials
informed ARTS that councilors would view
the demonstration near Hudson Circle at
2pm. The machine was moved to the new
venue but no corporator showed up for
the demo.
As a result, the machine, which can fix
about 50 potholes a day, lay idle for most
of the day. Moreover, officials had to keep
boiling bitumen mix ready through the
day for the demonstration that never happened.
M G Mohan Kumar, director of ARTS,
said the machine can fill potholes within a
short time and can be operated by one or
two personnel. Filling a pothole manually
requires at least five men and consumes a
lot of time, he pointed out. Mayor B S Sathyanarayana
said the councilors couldn’t
make it to the demo on Tuesday but would
witness the demonstration another day.
ABOUT PYTHON 5,000
• It fills a pothole with a hot bitumen mix
within three to 10 minutes
• The cost of this machine is Rs 2.7 crore
• Till date, it has filled more than 2,000 potholes
in the city
• It was inaugurated by chief minister Siddaramaiah
on November 16
• As per the contract entrusted to ARTS by
BBMP, the machine has to fill all potholes on
1,940-km city roads within a year
Siddu to induct DKS,
Baig today
Bangalore:Chief minister SiddaramaiahwillinductDK
Shiva Kumar and R Roshan
Baig into his ministry. The two MLAs were
denied berths on various grounds when
the Congress formed a government in May.
The mini cabinet expansion, seen as
an exercise to strengthen Siddaramaiah’s
ministry ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,
has stoked dissent in the Congress.
The unhappiness is about the induction
of Shiva Kumar,whofacescasesof illegal
mining, soon after the axing of Santosh
Lad from the cabinet over illegal mining.
Weigheddown by this, Siddaramaiah
kept postponing the expansion. But pressure
from the party and the aspirants was
intense. During his visit to New Delhi last
week, sources said, the chief minister was
sounded out; on Tuesday, he was clearly
told to induct Shiva Kumar and Baig.
Two senior Congress MLAs – K B Koliwad
and Basavaraja Rayaraddi – are upset over
their non-induction. Koliwad, representing
Ranebennur in Haveri district, says he
is a senior legislator who has qualities to
become a minister. Rayaraddi, a sixtime
MLA from Yelburga in Koppal district, says
the Congress should give representation
toHyderabad-Karnataka by inducting him.
“I don’t want any of the perks that ministers
are entitled to. I am efficient,’’ he told
reporters.
Having missed the bus in first round of
cabinet expansion, both Shiva Kumar and
Baig lobbied hard with the high command.
Shiva Kumar’s name, which was in the
list of probable ministers in May 2013, was
dropped at the last minute on instructions
from the high command. The party leadership
wanted more clarity on charges of his
alleged involvementin illegal mining and
being a beneficiary of 4 acres of denotified
land in Bangalore.
Governor H R Bhardwaj will administer
the oath of office and secrecy at 5.15pm
on Wednesday. After their induction, three
ministerial slots will remain to be filled.
But it’s not a happy moment for Shiva
Kumar because his father, Kempegowda,
passed away on Tuesday.
Soon after news of Shiva Kumar and
Baig’s imminent induction spread, SamajParivarthana
Samudaya founderpresident
S R Hiremath accused the former of causing
a huge loss to state-owned Mysore Minerals
Ltd by “looting” high-quality iron ore.
Agonizing wait ends,
all bodies handed
over to kin
Bangalore: Bodies of all 26 victims of Saturday’s
Bangalore-Nanded Express fire
accident have been handed over to their
relatives.
On Tuesday, 12 bodies which had been
kept in the Victoria Hospital mortuary
pending DNA test reports were handed
over to the bereaved family members.
“Eighteen of the 26 bodies were subjected
to the DNA test, while six were
handed over after family members identified
them,” sources from Victoria Hospital
told TOI.
“We have taken an undertaking from the
families that they have identified the body
with the help of DNA analysis. Earlier, we
had asked the families of six of the dead
to bury the bodies as they had taken them
before the DNA test results were out. Now
the families can go ahead with their rituals
and cremate them if they want to,” hospital
sources said.
The 12 bodies that were collected by the
relatives on Tuesday were of 61-year-old
twin sisters Padmini Bai from Kengeri and
Lalitha Bai from RR Nagar; N Rahul (28) of
Gurmitkal; Ibrahim (31), Dr Asra (29) and
their threeyear-old son Mohammed from
Raichur; Srinivas (28) andhiswifeLatha
(26);Balbir Kaur (62) and her niece Preethi
Kaur (24), both from Bannerghatta Road,
Bangalore; and Eshwar Nagare (70) andhiswifeKavitha
(61)from Aurangabad.
Carnatic singers and veena artistes Padmini
and Lalitha wereheading toRaichur for
a recital at the time of the accident. Padmini’s
husband Prof (retd) H L Narahari Rao
of Bangalore University who was accompanying
the sisters managed to survive but
suffered burns in the process.
Ibrahim, Asra and their son Mohammed
were returning to their home town Raichur
after visiting Asra’s sister in Bangalore. All
the three bodies were charred beyond
recognition as it was with Aurangabad
couple Eshwar and Kavitha. Their 10-yearold
grandson Jui’s body was identified and
handed over to the boy’s father on Monday.
The mothers of newlywed techies, Srinivas
and Latha, were inconsolable as their
three-day wait in front of the mortuary
ended with the bodies of the couple being
handed over to them.

4 January 01, 2014 PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA
Google, EC in alliance for voter registration
New Delhi: While political alliances are yet to firm up for 2014 polls, the Election Commission
(EC) has already entered a key partnership with US-based internet giant, Google, to
help it manage online voter registration and facilitation services ahead of the democratic
exercise. Over the next six months, Google will offer EC its resources, including its search
engine, to enable voters to check their enrolment status online and locate their polling
station, complete with directions using Google Maps.
The “arrangement” between EC and Google is learnt to have been clinched late this
month, and is expected to be “operational” by the second week of January. As part of the
partnership, Google will put its worldwide network and resources at the commission’s
disposal until June 2014 to help it manage online registration of new voters and allow
the enrolled ones to check the address at which they are registered, and get directions to
the polling station. With the new rolls with reference to January 1, 2014, slated to be out
by January 6, the voters’ queries on the commission’s website are likely to be managed
by Google starting from the second week of January.
Google will not charge the EC for these services, estimated to cost $50,000 (over Rs
30 lakh), and fund the same from its corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget.
“The EC is going ahead with the use of hi-tech and professional expertise to manage
online enrolment of voters and search a voter’s name in electoral rolls along with the
polling station. “So, all that one needs to do now is to type his name/ EPIC number and
address on the Google Search engine, which will promptly generate results matching the
voters’ name with his assembly/Lok Sabha constituency, and pinpointing the location of
his polling station… in fact, Google Maps will give exact directions to the voter on how
to get to the correct polling station on the polling day,” explained a senior EC official.
Google is offering similar services across 100 countries as part of its CSR obligations.
The American firm had approached the EC some time ago to offer its expertise for better
management of online services on the commission’s website, particularly voter enrolment
and facilitation.
Google, EC in alliance for voter registration
New Delhi: While political alliances are yet to firm up for 2014 polls, the Election Commission
(EC) has already entered a key partnership with US-based internet giant, Google, to
help it manage online voter registration and facilitation services ahead of the democratic
exercise. Over the next six months, Google will offer EC its resources, including its search
engine, to enable voters to check their enrolment status online and locate their polling
station, complete with directions using Google Maps.
The “arrangement” between EC and Google is learnt to have been clinched late this
month, and is expected to be “operational” by the second week of January. As part of the
partnership, Google will put its worldwide network and resources at the commission’s
disposal until June 2014 to help it manage online registration of new voters and allow
the enrolled ones to check the address at which they are registered, and get directions to
the polling station. With the new rolls with reference to January 1, 2014, slated to be out
by January 6, the voters’ queries on the commission’s website are likely to be managed
by Google starting from the second week of January.
Google will not charge the EC for these services, estimated to cost $50,000 (over Rs
30 lakh), and fund the same from its corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget.
“The EC is going ahead with the use of hi-tech and professional expertise to manage
online enrolment of voters and search a voter’s name in electoral rolls along with the
polling station. “So, all that one needs to do now is to type his name/ EPIC number and
address on the Google Search engine, which will promptly generate results matching the
voters’ name with his assembly/Lok Sabha constituency, and pinpointing the location of
68% IAS officers have avg stint of 18 months or
Ashok Khemka has become famous as a much-transferred IAS officer, but he is far from
being the only one to have been shunted ever so often. An analysis of the executive record
(ER) sheets of thousands of IAS officers currently in service reveals that frequent transfers
are depressingly common.
It shows that 68% (over twothirds of the officers have had average tenures of 18
months or less. The analysis used ER sheets of all 2,139 officers now in service who were
selected through the UPSC’s civil services exam and had completed 10 years or more of
service on Nov 13, 2013, the date on which this analysis was undertaken.
Among these officers, Vineet Chaudhary, a 1982 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre officer,
has been transferred 52 times, the highest in the country. Similarly, Assam-Meghalaya
cadre officer Winston Mark Simon Pariat has been transferred 50 times in his 36-year career.
Kusumjit Sidhu of the Punjab cadre witnessed 46 transfers in a career which spanned
over three decades and like his famous colleague Khemka, Haryana cadre officer Keshni
Anand Arora is also serving her 45th posting.
There are 13 officers who have undergone 40 or more transfers in their career. Interestingly,
seven of these are from the Haryana cadre alone. Himachal and Jharkhand have two
such officers each while Assam-Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh account for one IAS officer
each with 40 or more transfers. Khemka among most often shifted
The number of transfers alone doesn’t explain the difficulties of the prestigious job. It
is the frequency which is more alarming. On this count too, Haryana emerges as the worst
state for an IAS officer to be posted in. Five of the country’s 10 most frequently transferred
officers are from Haryana; two from Jharkhand and one each from Chhattisgarh, UP and
Assam-Meghalaya.
Mohammed Shayin and Khemka — both Haryana cadre — are India’s most frequently
transferred IAS officers, their average frequency being more than once in six months.
Similarly, the average time spent between two postings for M Ariz Ahammed, Shahla
Nigar, Satyaprakash TL, Pankaj Yadav, Ritu Maheshwari and Rakesh Gupta has been less
than seven months. Kailash Kumar Khandelwal and Sunil Kumar Barnwal, who also make
it to the list of the country’s 10 most frequently transferred officers, have been transferred
within seven months and seven days of posting, on an average.
Secretary of the Central IAS association, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, said, “Honest officers
are not liked by some unscrupulous political masters, especially in the states, who are
hand-ingloves with the vested interests and try to weaken the organizational systems.”
Times View I f senior officers are routinely transferred within months of getting a posting,
it is bound to have an adverse impact on their ability to do their job. In turn, this is
bound to affect the quality of governance. This is exactly why both administrative reforms
commissions and the Supreme Court have suggested fixed tenures for bureaucrats and

January 01, 2014 PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIAper 5
Kejriwal halves power tariff by raising subsidy
New Delhi: Moving at a feverish pace to
fulfill the second most important of his poll
promises, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal
gave 80% of the capital’s electricity consumers
cause to ring in the New Year with
much cheer. They will be paying half of
what they had to pay so far, with the tariff
for consumption up to 400 units a month
slashed by 50%, thanks to an increase in
subsidy.
This will apply from Jan 1 to March 31,
2014, and reviewed once CAG audits the
three private discoms, ordered on Tuesday
by government. That will lead to a genuine
reduction in tariff, hopes the government.
Months of speculation about how Kejriwal
would deliver on his promise ended when
the CM, after a cabinet meeting, made the
surprise announcement of increasing the
subsidy. “We met the CAG chief and are
trying for an audit... But, as per provisions
of law, the three firms have been given the
opportunity of filing their objections till
Wednesday. The government is of the view
the audit... can be done,’’ he said. ‘Stopgap
move before CAG audit’
But, having said that he was working on
a timeline of 48 hours because he wasn’t
sure if his government would survive, Kejriwal
announced the subsidy. “Till the audit
report is done, in order to provide relief to
middle-class consumers, the government
will give a subsidy for reducing the tariff by
50% in the slabs of 0-200 units and 201-400
units. We are confident that once the CAG
report is submitted, the subsidy will not
be required.’’
The CM said that on paper, the subsidy will
cost the government about Rs 200 crore
for the quarter ending March 31, but in
reality the government would bear only Rs
61 crore of the cost which would be paid
to Tata Power Delhi. The remaining Rs 139
crore will be adjusted against the Rs 4,000cr
plus which the BSES discoms owe to Delhi
government’s generation and transmission
companies. He said the discoms would be
directed to bill consumers according to
the government decision with effect from
January 1, 2014, onwards.
He claimed the government will achieve
two objectives – lowering of tariff as well as
securing the pending dues of IPGCL/PPCL
and Delhi Transco. It was a winwin situation
for both consumers as well as Delhi government,
he said.
Industry expertsargue that the entire
subsidy cost to be borne by the government
would be about Rs 1,400 crore a year.
“Delhi government is already paying Rs 570
crore a year for the current subsidy against
the 0-200 and 200-400 units slabs. The
additional subsidy would amount to Rs 800
crore a year. The BSES discoms have said
in the past that they are not in a position
to pay their outstanding dues to Transco,
IPGCL or PPCL. In effect, the government is
taking the taxpayers’ money in the form of
a subsidy and giving it to the BSES discoms
to help clear their dues,’’ said an expert.
CAG to fast track audit of three discoms T
he Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
of India would put in place special teams
on a priority basis to audit the national
Capital’s electricity distribution companies.
“We would take it up on a priority basis,”
CAG Shashi Kant Sharma told TOI, after his
meeting with Delhi chief minister Arvind
Kejriwal, on Tuesday. The CAG said his officers
are awaiting a formal reference from
Delhi lieutenant-
governor (LG) Najeeb Jung to begin the
audit process. The LG’s reference, based
on Kejriwal government’s recommendation,
would contain the objectives and
timeframe of the proposed audit. “Once
the reference reach we would send a team
of officials to assess the volume of work,”
a senior CAG official said. TNN Dhir is AAP
nominee for speaker’s post E nding the
suspense, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on
Tuesday named M S Dhir as its candidate for
the post of speaker in the Delhi assembly.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal made
the announcement to the media outside
his residence here even as the BJP and
Congress have been reticent about disclosing
their strategy. The speaker’s election
is scheduled to take place on January 3,
a day after the government seeks a trust
vote in the assembly whose first session
starts on Wednesday. In the 70-member
assembly, the AAP has 28 MLAs, eight short
of a majority required to get its nominee
elected. The AAP has the support of eight
MLAs of Congress, which will take it safely
across the halfway mark. PTI

6 January 01, 2014 PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA
AAP Reaches For The Sky
It wants to go national, but achieving this
will not be easy
Neerja Chowdhury
As we enter 2014 the Narendra Modi
versus Rahul Gandhi debate, which dominated
all of last year, has given way to a
different formulation. Can Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP) stop the Modi juggernaut in
the coming elections, as it did in Delhi?
It goes without saying that AAP is
a Delhi phenomenon for the moment,
though it has decided to go national and
may have set up units in 309 districts.
Arvind Kejriwal had a year to prepare for
Delhi, which was fertile land readied by
the Anna movement. He may not have that
advantage in the rest of the country, and
has only less than four months left for the
general elections.
BJP has a presence in large parts of India,
a well-oiled machinery, an RSS cadre working
for it. And it has just won convincingly
in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The party has also projected its prime
ministerial candidate who is leading a
campaign to replace Manmohan Singh.
His non-corrupt, workaholic, tough leader,
no-family-topromote, social media savvy
image has caught the imagination of many
who say, “Let’s try him this time”.
In addition to his pitch for development,
Modi has subdued his Hindutva message
with nationalistic overtones to widen
his appeal and dilute his 2002 image. This
is epitomised by steps like the construction
of Sardar Patel’s ‘unity’ statue instead of the
more divisive Ram Mandir, and mantras
like ‘Vote for India’ – although there is also
a ‘Muzaffarnagar’ happening side by side,
with Jats in western UP now talking about
being Hindus first and Jats later. Aware that
UP and Bihar will determine its fate, BJP is
wooing OBCs, projecting the possibility of
one of them becoming PM – Modi is an
OBC.
But this is a conventional way of looking
at politics, which is changing rapidly.
We are living in extraordinary times. Three
months ago, few believed that the oneyear-old
AAP would be leading the government
in Delhi. When winds of change blow, what
was unimaginable begins to happen. In
post-emergency 1977, we saw the newlyformed
Janata Party sweep north India with
less than three months’ time to prepare for
elections.
AAP has made a flying start. Kejriwal’s
coronation electrified people in Delhi and
made the rest of the country sit up and
take notice. He dealt a blow to the politics
of ‘jagirdari’ and aggrandisement when he
and his ministerial colleagues travelled to
their swearing-in ceremony by metro, and
shunned official bungalows and ‘lal battis’.
Tackling systemic corruption is going to
be a long haul. But Delhi’s new CM put the
fear of God in many when in one swift – and
brilliant – stroke,
he urged people to get in touch with the
government on a number to be released
soon, promising immediate response
against bribe seekers.
BJP has reason to worry on another
count. As a Hindu and a believer Kejriwal
publicly thanked God, “Parampita Parmeshwar,
Parmatma, Ishwar, Allah and Wahe
Guru”, in a heartfelt way for the miracle
of his success. Some of the Hindus who
react negatively to polarising politics of the
Digvijay Singh or Mulayam Singh variety, or
to the nonreligious doctrinaire secularism
of Left parties, and thereby turn to BJP –
could be drawn to AAP.
With its ‘bhaichara’ message, AAP is
throwing its net beyond the urban middle
class. Dalits in Delhi supported it and BSP’s
popular vote share slumped. Many more
Muslims may go for it in the Lok Sabha elections
knowing, as they do now, that their
vote may not get ‘wasted’.
Many in the country are watching closely
to see how the AAP team performs in
coming days. Lakhs of people in different
states of India are already flocking to it.
Leaders in established parties, feeling suffocated,
are in touch with AAP to explore
the possibility of joining it. Many of them
would come with baggage. All this requires
the announcement of a programme,
beyond Delhi, on what the party stands
for. Otherwise it would only be a medley
of people joining it, leading to incoherence
in the party.
Clearly, AAP will have to go for the jugular
and make a pitch for Raisina Hill to be
taken seriously as a national player. From
all accounts, it is already considering the
possibility of projecting a prime minister

January 01, 2014 PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIAper 7
From Editor DESK
India In The World
The global economy is showing signs of an uptick. Many European economies are out
of recession. The US has started tapering its vast quantitative easing programme because
it’s now on course for faster growth. In Japan, Abenomics may be jolting a moribund
economy to life. The outlook on China is optimistic too, on the back of reforms and a rise
in consumer spending. All this is reason for India to cheer going into 2014. Global recovery
strengthens the odds of a domestic bounce-back.
There is good news on the energy horizon as well where high prices of imports have
been sitting heavy on the rupee. Even discounting recent Australian discoveries estimated
to rival the quantum of black gold in Saudi Arabia, the US shale gas revolution has redrawn
the energy map. This will have startling geopolitical consequences, as are already being
suggested by historic nuclear talks with Iran. More immediately from India’s point of
view, these energetic rearrangements indicate that the price outlook on energy imports
is tending towards sensible rather than scary.
Can India’s policy environment make the best of encouraging global tailwinds? In our
immediate neighbourhood, signs are worrying. We have not delivered on commitments
to Bangladesh, neither have we been able to play an effective mediating role as political
instability grips the country and large-scale clashes between rival factions grow. Hamid
Karzai in Afghanistan found he can’t depend on us either, to help him with weapons
against the great unknown that looms upon US withdrawal. While the bottom’s falling
out of both India’s growth story as well as its foreign policy, Devyani Khobragade’s arrest
and strip-search shows how indifferent the US has grown to Indian interests and voices,
‘strategic partnership’ notwithstanding.
Whichever government assumes power later this year, rejuvenating this moribund
policy environment must be a priority. Only a robust foreign policy can make the best of
global trends to pump up domestic growth and expand India’s space to manoeuvre. As
an example, rising wages in China offer India a great opportunity to become an alternative
centre for global manufacturing. Similarly, India’s IT industry needs to face up to the
impact of GenZ apps. As one expert says, chasing disappearing outsourcing deals instead
of higher-margin business is like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Let’s become swimming
maestros instead, and make up for a lost decade of foreign policy.
Foreign to policy
After the Devyani fiasco, we should disband the MEA and our missions abroad
Jug Suraiya
Does India have a foreign policy? Or is any kind of policy foreign to it when it comes to
dealing with the international community?
In the wake of the Devyani Khobragade fiasco, these questions might well be raised
yet again. What might literally be called a domestic tiff – the domestic being the Indian
diplomat’s maid, Sangeeta Richards – overnight turned into a full-blown, noholds-barred
row between Washington and New Delhi, who till the other day had been slapping each
other on the back and exchanging mutual congratulations on their blossoming romance
which began with the signing of the historic nuclear deal under the aegis of UPA-I and
the Bush administration.
How did smiles overnight turn into snarls? The humiliating treatment meted out to
the diplomat was certainly offensive. But surely the matter could have been dealt without
turning it into a barroom brawl with no punches pulled?
A minor – though offensive – incident was allowed by both sides to be blown up
out of all proportions. The US is only too well known for its reputation as the big bully
on the global scene. Equally, India is equally well known for its tendency alternatively to
shake hands with and shake fists at other countries, be it the US, Pakistan, China or its
Saarc neighbours.
New Delhi seems to have very little, if any, coherent long-term policy which dictates
its relations and responses to other countries. The result is that India appears to react to
situations in an ad hoc, kneejerk manner, rather than pursuing predetermined and clearly
perceived goals.
When it comes to foreign affairs, India tends to behave like an emotionally unstable
teenager who switches from buddy-buddy bonhomie to temper tantrums in a trice.
President Obama throws a Diwali party in the White House, or his wife wears a sari, and
India feels so puffed up with national pride that it’s ready to burst. Then some Indian VIP
is strip-searched, or suffers some other real or imagined indignity in the US, and effigies
of Uncle Sam are burnt in public bonfires.
Our yo-yo responses – up one moment, down the next – are not restricted to our
relations with America. They are even more marked in the case of Pakistan, the country
we most love to hate. One day we’re loudly and vehemently denouncing Pak-sponsored
terrorism from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and the day after we’re in raptures about Lahore’s
famous Food Street and the large-hearted hospitality that it extends to Indian visitors.
In the absence of a clear-cut foreign policy, what purpose do our overseas diplomatic
missions serve? Much the same purpose which that other expensive white elephant Air
India serves: providing freebies to junketing netas, babus and their families. The national
carrier gives them free flights, and our embassies and consulates give them free boarding
and lodging.
If we were to disband the ministry of external affairs and our foreign missions then
we’d save enough money to wipe out the fiscal deficit. Who’d look after our foreign affairs?
Who else but the most neutral and well-regarded country in the world: Switzerland. How
would we pay Switzerland for this service? By telling it to take all the money that Indians
have stashed in Swiss bank accounts. How else?

8 January 01, 2014 PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA
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