India legal 31 october 2014

Vishal Bhardwaj’s
craftsmanship
I
50 LEGAL 24 78
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STORIES THAT COUNT
Supreme Court refuses to stay a court
ruling that the barbaric ritual of animal
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INDERJIT BADHWAR
LIVE AND LET LIVE
received in the press. The decision—although specifi-cally
addressing spectacular public slaughter cere-monies
and ritual killings during Hindu religious cer-emonies
in Himachal Pradesh—is actually a clarion
call to the rest of India, where thousands and thou-sands
of animals are subjected to brutish torture, cut-ting
across religions and beliefs.
What is truly courageous and luminous about this
nearly 200-page judgment is its unflinching uphold-ing
of human and humane values above every count-er-
argument based on freedom of religion and wor-ship,
the right to eat meat, religious personal laws,
ritualistic non-vegetarianism, ancient traditions,
scriptural edicts, verses from religious texts and inter-national
cases. With the wisdom of A Daniel Come to
Judgment, the judges take the arguments of their
detractors head-on with scholarly research matching
argument for argument, separating fact from fiction,
myth and superstition from reality and common
sense, and argue their case for moral core values that
are essential spiritual beacons to guide a nation and a
people into the radiance of knowledge.
Readers of this column would do well to read
this judgment (High Court of Himachal
Pradesh, CWP No. 9257 of 2011 along with
CWP No.4499/2012 and CWP No.5076/2012) in full,
not only because of the light it sheds on religion and
religious practices, but also because it is a transforma-tive
experience. I will quote from it at length.
For starters, the petitioners (People for Animals,
led by rights activist Sonali Purewal) relied heavily on
the rarely invoked Fundamental Duties of the
Constitution – Article 51-A (h) — exhorting citizens of
India to “develop the scientific temper, humanism,
and the spirit of inquiry and reform,” against Article
25 — the Right to Freedom of Religion and the “right
to freely profess, practice and propagate religion.”
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
UDGES must often have to rush in where
angels have feared to tread. Especially in
dealing with matters of immense social, reli-gious,
ethnic, cultural sensitivity. When legis-lators
and administrators, fearing a popular
J
backlash, a violent repercussion or a political recoil
back off from making tough decisions or enacting
laws that will be politically unpopular, the courts have
the obligation to step in to advance society’s move-ment
towards achieving goals which the march of civ-ilization
has come to accept as self-evident, universal
truths—kindness, fair play, equal rights, the right to
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
These ethical compulsions, our cultural evolution
as a species—propelled by religious and spiritual doc-trines,
revelations, philosophical treatises, reasoned
discourse, the voices of peripatetic preachers—mark
what is often referred to as the Ascent of Man.
It is an obstacle course in which the impediments
—religious sanction, superstition, bigotry, racial rage,
violent conquest—are removed, sometimes by the ter-rible
weapons of war, sometimes by non-violent, pas-sive
resistance, preachers, movements, the ballot, leg-islation,
the courts. And we move on.
Last fortnight, India took a great step in moving
on when Justices Rajiv Sharma and Sureshwar
Thakur gaveled a new prohibition: The high court
banned the sacrifice of animals in temples, saying
they “cannot be permitted to be killed in a barbaric
manner to appease Gods.”
The judges decreed: “No person throughout the
state shall sacrifice any animal in any place of public
religious worship, including all land and buildings
near such places of religious worship which are ordi-narily
connected to religious purposes.”
This massive judicial blow to openly sanctioned
and wantonly celebrated spectacles of public cruelty
deserves far more than the casual mention it has so far
INDIA LEGAL October 31, 2014 3

But does this “freedom” grant anyone, no
matter what his religion, the right to practice licen-tious,
profligate public cruelty? Do animals enjoy
human rights? Maybe not in the technical sense of
fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution.
But the constitution is a creature of the highest polit-ical,
ethical and moral values which our founding
fathers thought fit to enshrine in the guiding docu-ment
for the Indian Republic. This ethical value sys-tem
was articulated by none other than Mahatma
Gandhi, who said: “The moral progress and strength
of a nation can be judged by the care and compassion
it shows towards its animals.”
The petitioners rubbished the wishy-washy stand
of the state that animal sacrifice has been a continu-ous
practice since time immemorial and is a deep-rooted
cultural trait. There is no justification for its
continuation, they said, “because it contravenes the
very spirit of the constitution of India and the basic
principles of a progressive and civilized society. The
issue of vegetarians and non-vegetarians is irrelevant
to the present context. The petitioner is not opposed
to non-vegetarianism and meat-eating, but the ethos
behind sacrificing animals before a deity is embedded
in superstition and contravenes the constitutional
spirit of a scientific temper.”
They added: “The rituals attached to animal sacri-fice
reflect only cruelty, superstition, fear and bar-barism
and have nothing to do with either religion or
culture. Practices like Sati, female feticide, child mar-riage,
untouchability, etc., were continuing since gen-erations
and were deeply ingrained in the social
milieu, but have been almost eradicated with the
education and reformation movements as well as
judicial intervention.”
Referring to an affidavit filed by an eyewitness,
Bhajanand Sharma, the court observed that the ritual
is a “cruel and barbaric practice and is far from the
spirit of worship and reverence as the deponent has
seen many a time goats, sheep and rams suffering in
agony and crying out in pain during the performance
of a sacrifice. The animals are sacrificed in the pres-
4 October 31, 2014
Getty Images

ence of other animals. It fills them with fear and dread
and becomes a very depressing and painful sight to
watch. Many villagers of the area avoid going to the
temple premises. At such times, it is full of blood and
corpses of sacrificed animals that becomes a very
pathetic sight to encounter.”
Other eyewitness descriptions from the case
file: “Lying around in pain and suffering after
receiving blows on their necks which usually
does not kill them in first go. Sometimes, the animal
tries to escape in a fatally wounded condition, which
is very painful. Goats, sheep and rams are held by four
people and then the head is attempted to be cut off by
one other person, which is not always successful in the
first attempt as there is no check on the sharpness of
the weapon/equipment being used for the sacrifice,
which may be blunt. At times, inexperienced people
try and participate in the ritual killing and it is abom-inable
to see that sometimes it may take up to 15
blows to kill the sacrificial animal that keeps strug-gling
in a brutally injured and bleeding condition.”
There was repeated testimony that animals are
beaten up mercilessly and dragged up to mountain
slopes to meet their death. The scenic beauty of the
religious places is not maintained. According to the
witnesses, it takes 25 minutes to kill a buffalo bull. At
times, the buffalo runs amuck to save itself. The ani-mals
are mercilessly beaten up and chilies are thrown
into their eyes.
The court noted the “insensitivity” of the state’s
authorities to petitioners’ repeated requests to pre-vent
animal sacrifice under Section 28 of the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960. It noted
that “the larger beneficiaries of which are priests and
the Mandir Committee, animal breeders and desig-nated
butchers.”
Nand Lal, a former practitioner of animal sacrifice,
said in an affidavit that the sacrifice practiced is so
horrific and cruel that most of the people do not even
dare to watch, what to speak of accepting the flesh of
the sacrificed animal as prasad. The court noted that
“the rope is fastened behind the legs of the goat or
sheep as well as to its horns, after which the animal’s
body is cruelly stretched way beyond its normal limit
and is tied up both at the front as well as at the back.
After a person gives blows with a weapon to the ani-mal,
(Nand Lal) was horrified to say that many times,
because of an inexperienced person giving the blow or
because of the bluntness of the weapon, it takes as
many as 15-20 blows to kill the sheep or goats in
which the animal cries away in pain and the whole
The court order
“ACCORDINGLY, we allow the writ petition CWP No. 5076/2012 and
issue the following mandatory directions, prohibiting/banning
animal/bird sacrifice in the temples and public places as under:
“No person throughout the State of Himachal Pradesh shall
sacrifice any animal or bird in any place of religious worship,
adoration or precincts or any congregation or procession connected
with religious worship, on any public street, way or place, whether a
thoroughfare or not, to which the public are granted access to or over
which they have a right to pass; No person shall officiate or offer to
officiate at, or perform or offer to perform, or serve, assist or
participate, or offer to serve, assist, or participate, in any sacrifice in
any place of public religious worship or adoration or its precincts or
in any congregation or procession, including all lands, buildings near
such places which are ordinarily used for the purposes connected
with religious or adoration, or in any congregation or procession
connected with any religious worship in a public street...
“No person shall knowingly allow any sacrifice to be performed at
any place which is situated within any place of public religious
worship, or adoration, or is in his possession or under his control;
The State Government is directed to publish and circulate pamphlets
henceforth to create awareness among the people, to exhibit boards,
placards in and around places of worship banning the sacrifice of
animals and birds.
“The State Government is further directed to give due publicity
about the prohibition and sacrifice in media, both audio and visual,
electronic and in all the newspapers; and all the duty holders in the
State of Himachal Pradesh are directed to punctually and faithfully
comply with the judgment.
“It is made clear that the Deputy Commissioners and
Superintendents of Police of all the Districts shall personally be
responsible to prevent, prohibit animal/bird sacrifices throughout the
State of Himachal Pradesh.
Live and let live.”

IN the case of AS Narayana Deekshitulu
vs. State of AP and others, reported in
(1996) 9 SCC 548, the judges held that
the only integral or essential part of the
religion is (constitutionally) protected.
Non-integral or non-essential part of
religion, being secular in character, can be
regulated by legislation. The essential or
integral part of religion to be ascertained
from the doctrine of that religion itself
according to its tenets, historical
background and change in
evolved process.
While performance of religious service
is an integral part of religion, priest or
archaka performing such service is not so.
The judges have further held that religion is
not merely an opinion, doctrine or belief. It
has outward expression in acts as well. It is
not every aspect of religion that has been
safeguarded by Articles 25 and 26, nor has
the constitution provided that every
religious activity cannot be interfered with.
Every religion must believe in a conscience
and ethical and moral precepts.
“From that perspective, this Court is
concerned with the concept of Hindu
religion and dharma... Very often, one can
discern and sense political and economic
motives for maintaining status quo in
relation to religious forms masquerading as
religious faith and rituals bereft of
substantial religious experience. As such,
philosophers do not regard this as religion
at all. They do not hesitate to say that this
is politics or economics masquerading as
religion. A very careful distinction, therefore,
is required to be drawn between real and
unreal religion at any stage in the
development and preservation of religion
as protected by the constitution. Within
religion, there is an interpretation of reality
and unreality, which is a completely
different experience. It is the process in
which the ideal is made rule. Thus,
perfection of religious experience can
take place only when free autonomy is
afforded to an individual and worship of the
infinite is made simpler, direct communion,
the cornerstone of human system. Religion
is personal to the individual. Greater the
law bringing an individual closer to this
freedom, the higher is its laudable and
idealistic purpose. Therefore, in order that
religion becomes mature internally with the
human personality it is essential that
mature self must be combined with
conscious knowledge. Religious symbols
can be contra-distinguished from the
scientific symbols and both are as old as
man himself. Through scientific symbols
there can be repetition of dogmatism and
conviction of ignorance.
It thus follows that to one who is
devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, the
observance of rituals is of no use since
the observance of rituals and the devotion
of knowledge cannot co-exist. There is
considerable incompatibility between
knowledge and rituals inasmuch as their
natures are entirely antithetical. It is only he
who regards himself as the agent of action
that can perform the rituals; but the nature
of knowledge is altogether different and it
dispels all such ideas. All the wrong ideas
beginning with the identification of Self with
the physical body etc., are eradicated by
knowledge, while they are reinforced by
action. Ignorance of Atman is at the root of
action, but the knowledge of Atman
destroys both. How is it possible for one to
perform the prescribed rituals while
engaged in the pursuit of knowledge
inasmuch as they are incompatible! It is as
much impossible as the co-existence of
light and darkness. One cannot keep one’s
eyes open and closed at the same time. It
is equally impossible to combine
knowledge and rituals. Can one who is
looking westward look eastward?
“Religion, therefore, be construed in the
context of Articles 25 and 26 in its strict
and etymological sense. Every religion
must believe in a conscience and ethical
and moral precepts…. There is nothing
which a man can do, whether in the way of
wearing clothes or food or drink, which is
not considered a religious activity. Every
mundane or human activity was not
intended to be protected by the
constitution under the guise of religion.
The approach to construe the protection of
religion or matters of religion or religious
practices guaranteed by Articles 25 and 26
must be viewed with pragmatism since by
the very nature of things, it would be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
define the expression religion of matters or
religion or religious belief or practice. The
religious freedom guaranteed by Articles 25
and 26, therefore, is intended to be a guide
to a community-life and ordain every
religion to act according to its cultural and
social demands to establish an egalitarian
social order. Articles 25 and 26, therefore,
strike a balance between the rigidity of right
to religious belief and faith and their
intrinsic restrictions in matters of religion,
religious beliefs and religious practices and
guaranteed freedom of conscience to
commune with his Cosmos, Creator and
realize his spiritual self.”
The creation
and the created
6 October 31, 2014

premises is covered with blood. Many times, the per-son
sacrificing the animal also drinks the blood,
which is a horrific sight and sends shivers down one’s
spine about the kind of barbarism that is being prac-ticed
under the garb of religion. Animal sacrifice is
not a form of worship but is in essence, a social evil
that is based on superstition and violence against the
helpless that goes against the spirit of Hinduism
which preaches the spirit of Ahimsa”.
The Himachal court opined that Articles 25 and
26 of the constitution of India protect religious
beliefs, opinions and practices but not super-stitions.
“A religion has to be seen as a whole and
thereafter, it can be seen whether a particular practice
is core/central to the religion. It can be a hybrid also.
In the instant case, offerings in the temples can be
made by offering flowers, fruits, coconut, etc. Accor-ding
to us, there are compelling reasons and grounds
to prohibit this practice. A democratic polity is requ-ired
to be preferred to a system in which each one’s
conscience is a law unto itself. The State has also the
obligation under constitutional mandate to promote
the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens
and animals.
“The stand of the State Government in the reply is
that this practice is prevalent from time immemorial
and the people have a deep-rooted faith and belief in
animal sacrifice. The Court has directed the State
Government to propose a regulation to arrest this evil.
The State Government instead of filing an affidavit
giving therein measures required to curb this practice
has chosen to file the reply (citing the Vedas, and
Upanishadas and Puranas)… Society has advanced.
We are in a modern era. The rituals, which may be
prevalent in the early period of civilization have lost
their relevance and the old rituals are required to be
substituted by new rituals which are based on reason-ing
and scientific temper. Superstitions have no faith
in the modern era of reasoning.
“These practices have outlived and have no place
in the 21st century. The animal sacrifice of any
species, may be a goat or sheep or a buffalo, cannot be,
in our considered view, treated as integral/central the-me
and essential part of religion. It may be religion’s
practice but definitely not an essential and integral
part of religion. Hindu Religion, in no manner, would
be affected if the animal sacrifice is taken out from it.
“We have to progress... The essentials of any reli-gion
are eternal. The non-essentials are relevant for
some time. The animal/bird sacrifice cannot be treat-ed
as eternal. We should experience religion. We have
to stand up against the social evils, with which the
Animal bill of rights
The United Kingdom Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) has
expanded five freedoms for animals as under:
Freedom from hunger and thirst—by ready access to fresh water and
a diet designed to maintain full health and vigour.
Freedom from discomfort—by the provision of an appropriate
environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
Freedom from pain, injury or disease—by prevention or through rapid
diagnosis and treatment.
Freedom to express normal behaviour—by the provision of sufficient
space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
Freedom from fear and distress—by the assurance of conditions that
avoid mental suffering.
society at times is beset with. Social reforms are
required to be made... The new Mantra is salvation of
the people, by the people. Hindus have to fulfill the
Vedantic ideas but by substituting old rituals by new
rituals based on reasoning.
“The animals have basic rights and we have to rec-ognize
and protect them. The animals and birds bre-athe
like us. They are also a creation of God. They
have also a right to live in harmony with human
beings and nature. No deity and Devta would ever ask
for the blood.
“All Devtas and deities are kind-hearted and bless
the humanity to prosper and live in harmony with
each other. The practice of animal/bird sacrifice is
abhorrent and dastardly. The welfare of animals and
birds is a part of moral development of humanity.
Animals/birds also require suitable environment, diet
and protection from pain, sufferings, injury and dis-ease.
It is man’s special responsibility towards the ani-mals
and birds being fellow creatures. We must
respect the animals. They should be protected from
the danger of unnecessary stress and strains.”
editor@indialegalonline.com

OCTOBER 31, 2014
03
Live and let live
A landmark judgment putting a stop to animal sacrifice in the name of religion
delves deep into faith and rituals and questions the basis of brutality against all
living beings. INDERJIT BADHWAR commends the brave judicial stand
Chidambarams face CBI heat
Former Home and Finance Minister Chidambaram is under the
investigative agency’s scanner for his role in the 2G scam, as his wife faces a
probe for her role in the Saradha scandal. VISHWAS KUMAR reports
FOCUS
Three decades of agonizing wait
Justice eludes victims of the 1984 gas leak from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal
30 years on. SHASHIKUMAR VELATH and NIKHIL EAPEN write how the corporate,
in connivance with the Indian government, has dodged accountability.
A sniff of trouble
Children are increasingly getting hooked to cheap and available intoxicants.
SHADAB AHMAD MOIZEE finds out the reasons behind the habit
34
HUMAN INTEREST
24
EDIT
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8 October 31, 2014
20
LEAD

GLOBAL TRENDS
An anathema 60
called IS
British Muslims say NO to the hate propaganda of
Islamic State and other radical groups and want
the UK government to fight the extremists.
SAJEDA MOMIN says this is a far cry from their
opposition to the war on Iraq in 2003
50
NATIONAL SECURITY
Manhattan mania
BIKRAM VOHRA describes why Narendra Modi
was lapped up by the NRIs and PIOs in the US,
and why a similar visit to the Middle East would not
be hyped up by the media
Was the mission
accomplished?
ANITA KATYAL assesses whether the US
visit of Modi achieved concrete results
54
Wooing the 56
eastern powers
In attempting to improve relations with China
and Japan, Modi will have to do the fine
balancing act of not annoying either of the
two. An analysis by COL R HARIHARAN
TRENDS
At crossroads 74
Insight into ISI
psyche
A 2008 paper written by the new ISI chief Lt Gen
Rizwan Akhtar reveals how paranoid the Pakistan
establishment is about growing proximity between
India and the US. VISHWAS KUMAR analyzes
this document in the light of Modi’s US visit and
the current tension along the JK border
DIPLOMACY
A L S O
Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE
38
REGUL ARS
Letters…............................................................................................10
Ringside..........................… ..............................................................12
Quote-Unquote...............… ..............................................................14
Supreme Court..................................................................................16
Courts................................................................................................18
Briefs .................................................................................................77
Is That Legal?....................................................................................80
Wordly-wise .......................................................................................81
People ...............................................................................................82
Photograph of animal sacrifice: GETTY IMAGES
What are the
career options
available to legal
graduates? JUI
MUKHERJEE
talks to some of
them to learn
about the path
they have charted
for themselves
Boat clinics in Assam
reach out to
far-flung areas...............36
Why Kerala basks in
hartal culture.................42
Need for ethical
hackers to ensure
IT security ....................46
How oil companies
rig wages .........…........64
The suffering of
immigrant labor.............67
Indian contingent’s
performance in the
Asian Games................70
An ode to Shakespeare
in the backdrop of
Kashmir trouble............78

Feeling the vacuum
Refer to the book review Harvesting Hatred.
Looking at the political situation in
Maharashtra today, I am reminded of the
immense contribution of Bal Thackeray in
stitching a deal with the BJP and making
Shiv Sena-BJP a potent force in the state.
Now that they have split, and with the BJP
going into the state elections with all guns
blazing, the Sena’s future looks bleak.
Rajesh Kumar, Ghaziabad
Learn from Scotland
I am glad that Scotland chose to stay with
England (Scotched!, October 15, 2014). If
the results would have been the other way
round, the ramifications could have been
far-reaching on world politics. Pakistan
would have raked up the issue to seek
referendum on Kashmir. Scotland has
shown the world that separation is not the
answer to identity issues.
Partha Dey, Kolkata
Please email your letters to:
editor@indialegalonline.com
Or write to us at:
India Legal, ENC Network,
A-9, Sector 68, Gautam Buddh
Nagar, Noida (UP) - 201309
Distorting facts
The story, Leave Cupid Alone (October 15, 2014
issue) made interesting reading. The BJP’s bluff
was called in the assembly by-elections in Uttar
Pradesh as far as propagating love jehad is
concerned. It was a futile attempt to communalize
polity in India. Has the Modi team run out of ideas?
Yes, there could be stray instances of Muslims
wooing Hindu women, marrying them and later
forcing them to convert. But these are only
abberations in a general climate of peace
and amity.
Gyaneshwar Dayal, Lucknow
LETTERS
www.facebook.com/indialegalmagazine
www.twitter.com/indialegalmag
Quintessentially legal
I am happy to see that India Legal is
picking up steam as a legal magazine.
There is a lot of legal material in the
magazine now. I enjoyed reading the
October 15 issue. The subjects covered
were broad, whether it is the Smriti Irani
issue, the apex court guidelines on
police killings, DNA profiling or stem cell
therapy. Keep up the good work.
Arun Swarup, Delhi
A good attempt
Indian Super League is a good concept
to improve football standards in India
(It’s Kick-off Time, October 15, 2014).
Unlike cricket, there is no football
culture in India. Only West Bengal, Goa,
Punjab, and northeastern states are
besotted with the game.
The youth needs to be drawn into
playing football and taking it up as a
career option. It has taken years for
cricket to blossom into a sport, with the
promise of money, fame and adulation.
As a football fan, I look forward to
the tournament.
Sudeep Dey, Mumbai
10 October 31, 2014
Errata
On the cover page and the story Leave
Cupid Alone (October 15, 2014 issue), the
pictures of Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna
Pathak Shah were credited to Reuters,
whereas the pictures belong to Getty
Images. The error is regretted.
—Editor

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the
indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of
justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
— Haile Selassie
VERDICT
12 October 31, 2014
Aruna

“He (Narendra Modi) answers
questions brilliantly and is very
focused on
improving India.
So, we are thrilled
to be working
with him.
—Indira Nooyi,
Pepsico India,
CEO.
The Times
of India
“Indian Muslims will live for
India. They will die for India.
They will not want anything
bad for India.”
—Narendra Modi to CNN’s
Fareed Zakaria
“I am happy England gave us the
game of cricket, which they can’t
play very well, and the English
language, which I can’t speak
very well.”
— Kapil Dev, former Indian cricket captain,
upon being honoured with the Lifetime
Achievement Award at the House of Lords.
The Indian Express
When the Prime Minister was
enjoying a swing with the
Chinese President,
thousands of their soldiers
were occupying our land
in Ladakh.”
— Congress Vice-President
Rahul Gandhi on Modi’s foreign
policy. India Today.in
“Manufacturing has to
become the next big wave
for us. This ‘Make in India’
campaign is a clarion call
that will galvanize India’s
economy to reach greater
heights.”
—Industrialist Kumar Mangalam
Birla, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi,
where the campaign was launched.
QUOTE-UNQUOTE
“We do not speak against
Muslim fundamentalism as
strongly as we should. We have
to attack Hindu and Muslim
fundamentalism in the same
manner.”
—Congress General
Secretary Digvijay
Singh, on the Congress’
need to redefine its
stand on secularism.
Daily Bhaskar
“Muslim boys good in studies
are sent to public schools by
their parents. But
those who are
weak, get
admitted in
madrasas.”
—BJP MP Swami
Sakshi Maharaj.
Mail Today
“I've left my one-year-old son at home
to compete here and it took just one
minute for the judges to spoil
everything for me.”
— Boxer Sarita Devi, on the
alleged unfair decision of the judges in
the semi-final Asian Games match. Mint
14 October 31, 2014

SUPREME COURT
A rap on
UGC’s knuckles
Is it possible to fairly judge the level of infrastructure
and teaching faculty of a deemed university, merely
based on photographs and video footage, and
doing away with physical verification altogether? The
University Grants Commission (UGC) believes it can.
However, it was pulled up by the Supreme Court
for adopting such a sham procedure to seal the fate
of as many as 41 institutions and derecognize them.
The center had already received a report from the
UGC panel in this regard.
While junking the report, a two-judge bench orde-red
UGC to conduct a fresh inspection of these uni-versities
within 12 weeks, make the universities
aware of their deficiencies, if any, give them consid-erable
time to address the pitfalls, and then submit
the final report to the center and the court. It decided
to take up the matter again on January 8, 2015.
The bench also demanded an explanation from the
UGC as to why physical inspection was bypassed
when there was an explicit mandatory rule for doing
so in UGC Regulations 2010. It observed that things
must have changed a lot after the UGC physically
crosschecked the facilities in these universities, way
back in November 2009.
Strictures on
publicity
The Supreme Court’s intention to curb rampant
advertising in the media by the government for polit-ical
mileage at the cost of public money might take
concrete shape soon. A committee set up by the apex court
for guidelines on the issue submitted its report recently.
The committee has suggested that such publicity mate-rial
should not have names and pictures of political parties
and people holding posts in them. It has also pointed out
that only names and photographs of the president, prime
minister, governor and chief ministers should be allowed.
The Election Commission’s contention that strict regu-lations
must be clamped on these advertisements six
months before elections has received vociferous support
from the panel, which has called for arming the poll body
with enough powers for implementing the guidelines.
The panel feels that in case of birth and death anniver-saries
of public figures, there should be a single advertise-ment
from the information and broadcasting ministry. It has
advocated for a budgetary allocation from all ministries and
PSUs for advertisements, and stressed that the likely
expenditure must be vetted by the CAG.
16 October 31, 2014
Illustrations: Aruna

Memon to get
another hearing The Yakub Abdul Razak Memon case
Questioning
procedures
It seems this was an opportunity that
the Supreme Court was waiting for.
Criticized for lack of transparency in
its collegium system, it was now the
apex court’s turn to get back at the cen-ter
on the issue of appointing central
vigilance commissioners (CVCs).
A three-judge bench asked the center
why it was adopting opaque procedures
to appoint a CVC through an “in-house”
panel, thereby leaving immense scope
for nepotism at the cost of talented
people. It pointed out that if transpa-rency
was an issue for all institutions
and systems, why didn’t the same prin-ciple
apply to the center. Was it not time
that the government cleaned its own
Augean Stables?
The court was hearing a PIL that had
raised doubts on the entire selection
process followed by the government.
The center, while assuring the court that
will now be reviewed in an open
court by the apex court. Memon was
sentenced to death for his involvement in
the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, in which
257 people were killed. The court, while
hearing a plea from Memon, stayed his
execution, thereby “extending” its June 2,
2014, order. The three-judge bench also
asked the Maharashtra government to
respond to his request.
A constitution bench of the Supreme
Court had recently ruled that those sen-tenced
to death could seek a review of the
order from a three-judge bench in an open
court, where they would be heard for 30
minutes. Memon is the third death-row
convict to get a reprieve from the apex
court after Surinder Koli, accused in the
Nithari case and Sonu Sardar, a convict
from Chhattisgarh.
Jaya verdict, a cue
from apex court
THE Supreme Court’s strong stand
against corruption became a reference
point for the Karnataka High Court while
rejecting the bail and quashing-of-sen-tence
plea of former Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister J Jayalalithaa in the dispropor-tionate
assets case.
The bench drew inspiration from
recent apex court verdicts wherein it
had observed that corruption was a vio-lation
of human rights and adversely
impacted the health of the polity and
thwarted national progress.
The bench also took into account
the Supreme Court’s viewpoint that a
person once held corrupt by a lower
court, is liable to be labeled so by the
higher judiciary when it hears an appeal
against the judgment.
Divorced for
denying sex
COUPLES normally part ways on
grounds like cruelty, dowry harass-ment,
mental incompatibility, inability
to have kids, etc, but now, denying
sex for a considerable period of time
after marriage could also become the
basis for divorce.
While taking up a case in which a
man wanted divorce because his wife
was not interested in having sex ever
since their marriage in 2005, a
two-judge bench of the apex court
observed that denial of sexual inter-course
by any partner without a valid
reason is nothing but “mental cruel-ty”.
The bench upheld the Madras
High Court verdict, in the same case,
which ruled that the couple be grant-ed
divorce.
The high court had rejected the
wife’s contention that she denied him
sex as he wanted children after two
years, saying there were many ways
to avoid pregnancy. The wife had then
appealed to the Supreme Court.
transparent and fair procedures were
being followed at the shortlisting
stage, stated that the CVC will only be
selected after the court took a final
decision on the matter.
The court fixed the next hearing for
October 14, and said that if it found
the shortlisting process wanting, it
would scrap the entire list.

COURTS
Fast-track cells
for tainted
lawmakers
The law ministry is preparing a blue-print to
revamp the criminal justice system with
special emphasis on quick disposal of cri-minal
cases against MPs and MLAs. One of the
main proposals will be the formation of a special
cell in each of the 24 high courts to deal with
criminal cases against lawmakers. A missive on
this issue will soon be sent to chief ministers
and chief justices of each state. Under the new
guidelines, district judges may be vested with
powers to arrest accused politicians in case
they are found to be influencing the investigation
or take action against the superintendent of
police for failing to complete the probe within
three months of the FIR being filed.
18 October 31, 2014
Ignoring ill husband cause
for divorce
Not looking after one’s husband
when he is ill could be a valid
ground for seeking divorce. The
Bombay High Court has ruled in favor
of a husband who is seeking divorce on
the grounds that his wife failed to take
care of him when he had chickenpox.
“Criminalize marital rape”
An additional sessions court judge in Delhi has made
scathing comments against the lack of laws
to deal with marital rape while hear-ing
the bail plea of a man accused of
forcing his wife into unnatural sex.
Dismissing the husband’s bail
plea, the court observed that
keeping marital sexual vio-lence
within the domain of
domestic violence laws and
keeping it out of the purview
of rape laws reeks of “double
standards and hypocrisy in
law”. The court criticized the
lopsided argument that the
non-recognition of marital rape in
India is “set upon the bedrock of
equality”. The court said that the failure
to recognize sexual violence within
marriage as rape is the root cause of
subjugation of women and it’s high time
that the issue is addressed.
The wife insisted on staying separately
while her husband was recovering from
the disease. A bench of Justices Abhay
Oka and AS Chandurkar ruled that the
agony of the suffering husband cannot
be ignored and upheld the divorce
sought by him.
1,000 obsolete laws to be discarded
The coming Winter Session of parliament will see the
repealing of 287 outdated laws. Union Law Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that the government
would introduce a bill in this regard. He has already sought
urgent feedback from various depar tments concerned under
whose jurisdictions these laws continue to exist. In addition,
the gover nment is looking at repealing Appropriation Acts.
Every parliament passes around 12 appropriation laws each
year to be used whenever the gover nment decides to with-draw
money from the Consolidated Fund of India. Af ter the
withdrawal, that par ticular appropriation law is rendered
obsolete. Their annulments would lead to the removal of 700
such acts from statute books, taking the total count of dis-carded
laws to around 1,000.
Illustrations: Amitava Sen

NO
HOLDS
BARRED
I Film courtrooms:
Reel vakils
ZZZLQGLDOHJDORQOLQHFRP The courts step in to
NDIA L EGAL
September 30, 2014 C100
STORIES THAT COUNT
control rampant misuse
of the much-needed
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weapons of vindictive
persecution
Kerala liquor law:
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Violating ethics?
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51,1R83(1* 3RVWDO5HJG1R83*%'
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VICTIMS?
CBI MESS:
Director’s directories
SHANTI BHUSHAN:
Facing the heat
SEX WORKERS:
Green light ahead
Lions and the law:
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*
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HOW WILL
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ITS OWN
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Will JK see a
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26 36 60
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In cold blood
NDIA L E EGAL STORIES THAT COUNT
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The putrefying Ganges is India’s national disgrace. Can Modi deliver on his
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51,1R83(1* 3RVWDO5HJG1R83*%'
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LEAD/ chidambarams
Double
this power couple’s name has cropped up in two major scams. the
fall-out could be serious
By Vishwas Kumar
Anil Shakya
20 October 31, 2014

IN THE DOCK
(Facing page) Former FM
Chidambaram and his
wife, Nalini, will need
to explain charges
against them
(Below) Dayanidhi Maran
misused his authority as
telecom minister and was
reportedly helped by
Chidambaram
Trouble
amount” for the Aircel-Maxis deal.
The CBI also chargesheeted Dayanidhi’s
brother, Kalanithi, along with Krishnan,
Malaysian national Augustus Ralph Marshall
and four firms. These firms were Sun Direct
TV Pvt Ltd, Maxis Communication Berhad,
South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd and
Astro All Asia Network PLC in the Aircel-
Maxis case. The case has now gone for trial in
the 2G Special Court of OP Saini.
FORTUNES often change when
regimes change. This holds true
for former finance minister P
Chidambaram and his wife,
Nalini Chidambaram, both
highly successful lawyers, who are under the
CBI’s scanner for their alleged roles in two
separate multi-crore scams.
While Chidambaram’s links with brothers
Dayanidhi and Kalanithi Maran, both accu-sed
in the Aircel-Maxis deal, are under the
scanner, in the case of Nalini, it is her associ-ation
with Sudipta Sen, prime accused in the
Saradha chit fund scam, that is the focus.
VESTED INTERESTS?
It is no coincidence that though these allega-tions
against the couple came to light in the
last two years of UPA-II’s regime, the CBI
kept dragging its feet over them. But with a
change in government, it has started a pre-liminary
investigation into these matters.
In 2012, the CBI hinted at Chidam-baram’s
role when it was probing the 2G
scam and ferreting out information on the
Maran brothers and their Aircel-Maxis deal.
This controversial deal took place when
Dayanidhi and Chidambaram headed the
telecom and finance ministries, respectively,
during UPA-I’s tenure between 2005-2006.
According to the CBI chargesheet,
Dayanidhi misused his authority as telecom
minister—from May 26, 2004, to May 13,
2007—to force businessman C Sivasankaran
to sell off his telecom company, Aircel, to
T Ananda Krishnan, a Malaysia-based busi-ness
tycoon. Krishnan was a close business
partner and family friend of the Marans.
Soon after the deal, Krishnan’s companies
invested around `600 crore in Marans’ com-panies.
The CBI alleged it was a “bribe
The then Finance Minister, P Chidambaram,
who headed FIPB, cleared the `3,500-crore,
Aircel-Maxis deal. But he had the power to clear
deals only up to `600 crore.

Since the Aircel-Maxis deal involved sell-ing
off stakes to foreign companies, it
required the approval of the Foreign
Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). This
board was headed by finance minister
Chidambaram, who cleared the deal.
LIMITED MANDATE
The CBI recently informed the 2G court that
the FIPB’s approval was a “mistake”, and was
investigating “why Chidambaram had
cleared the nearly `3,500 crore deal in 2006
when he was competent to give approval for
deals only up to `600 crore.”
CBI prosecutor KK Goel recently told
Judge Saini: “Your (judge) query was on
FIPB approval. We are showing documents
which show the power of the then finance
minister. Power was vested in the then
finance minister to give FIPB approval of up
to `600 crore.
“For investment of over `600 crore, the
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
(CCEA) is the competent authority to give
approval. This is under investigation and we
have not concluded the probe on this aspect
yet.” Incidentally, the CCEA, then, was head-ed
by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Chidambaram, however, denied allegations
made by the CBI.
Meanwhile, the then Janata Party chief,
Subramanian Swamy (now a BJP member),
wrote a letter to CBI director AP Singh on
April 20, 2012, requesting that the role of
Chidambaram and his son, Karti P Chidam-baram,
in the Aircel-Maxis case be probed.
He hinted at a “quid pro quo” between both
parties. The letter urged Singh to look into
details of money flow in various companies.
These were the questions he had raised:
* Have you noticed the irregularities and
huge money trail during the period from
2005 in certain companies like Ausbridge
Holdings and Investments Private Ltd. and
AF Mentor Consulting Private Ltd., where
Karti P Chidambaram has majority shares?
* Have you noticed Ausbridge Holdings
and Investments Pvt Ltd., in turn, has major-ity
shares in Kaiser Surya Samudra Resorts
Private Ltd and Advantage Strategic
Consulting Private Ltd. and there have been
huge money flows and purchase of properties
by these companies?
* Have you noticed that during the Aircel-
Maxis deal period, Karti P Chidambaram-controlled
Advantage Strategic Consulting
Private Ltd had several money transactions
with Aircel Televentures Ltd.controlled by
C Sivasankaran?
SHADY LINKS
Coming to Nalini Chidambaram, the CBI
questioned her for several hours on
September 22 for her links with Saradha
CMD Sudipta Sen. She was questioned about
her alleged role in a television channel deal
between him and journalist Manoranjana
Sinh, estranged wife of Congress leader
Matang Singh. Manoranjana and Nalini are
close friends.
Nalini’s role first come to light after Sen’s
explosive letter to CBI director AP Singh,
where he divulged the names of his scam
beneficiaries, and it was leaked to the media.
The letter dated April 2013, alleged that
two people had damaged him hugely. He
mentioned Manoranjana Sinh and Matang
Sinh. He alleged: “Mrs Manoranjana Sinh
LEAD/ chidambarams
DOUBTFUL
CREDENTIALS
The CBI also
chargesheeted
Dayanidhi’s brother,
Kalanithi Maran, in the
Aircel-Maxis deal
22 October 31, 2014

contacted us for selling her Positive Groups
and took me to Chennai to the chamber of
Mrs Nalini Chidambaram as her advocate.
Madam Chidambaram requested me to help
her (Manoranjana) set up a channel in
Guwahati and support her by extending `42
crore to her company.
“Madam Chidambaram herself prepared
the agreement, wherein she is the sole arbi-trator
if at all any dispute arises…. She fixed
her consultancy and during a period of one-and-
a-half years, more than `1 (one) crore
has been given to her.”
Sen further alleged that whenever she vis-ited
Calcutta with Manoranjana Sinh, her
airfare and hotel bills at the Taj were paid by
him. Manoranjana Sinh, he said, assured him
that Nalini was the wife of P Chidambaram,
the then home minister.
“Without assessing my financial strength,
she (Nalini) has also pressurized me for sup-porting
her (Manoranjana) by investing `42
crore. So far, I remember that I have already
paid `25 crore to Mrs Manoranjana Sinh in
the name of GNN India Pvt Ltd and NK
Gupta, her father, who is also whole-time
director of GNN India Pvt Ltd.
“For her travelling purposes and hotel
accommodation in various places in India,
not less than `3 crore have been spent,” he
further alleged.
However, Nalini in a statement to the
media said: “The CBI did not question me.
CBI officers wanted to know whether Ms
Manoranjana Sinh had consulted me profes-sionally.
I told them yes, I was consulted.”
It waits to be seen how things will unfold
for this power couple now.
“Mrs Manoranjana
Sinh…took me to
Chennai to the
chamber of
Mrs Nalini
Chidambaram…
where she
requested me to help
her (Manoranjana)
set up a channel in
Guwahati and
support her by
extending `42 crore
to her company.”
Sudipta Sen,
Saradha CMD
DUBIOUS DUO
(From left) Manoranjana
Sinh, who has been
named as one of the
beneficiaries by
Sudipta Sen
IL

FOCUS/bhopal gas leak case
Still living
the death
yes, 30 years on, that’s what the world’s
worst industrial disaster has become for its
tragic victims. does the new government
have the stomach to carry on this fight?
By Shashikumar Velath and Nikhil Eapen
FOR 30 years, a US corpo-ration
has been dodging its
responsibility and accoun-tability
to the people of
India. Dow Chemicals, one
of the biggest chemical
corporations in the world,
is liable for one of the most devastating indus-trial
disasters in history.
This year will mark the 30th anniversary
of this chilling incident—when methyl isocy-nate
(MIC) fumes from the Union Carbide
India Limited (UCIL) swept through densely
populated slums in Bhopal, killing close to
10,000 people in the first three days. Over the
next 25 years, the accident was responsible for
the deaths of close to 15,000 people.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
The Bhopal gas disaster and the experiences
of survivors have raised fundamental ques-tions
about corporate and government
responsibility for industrial accidents that
devastate the lives of people and the environ-ments
they inhabit.
On August 4, 2014, the chief judicial mag-istrate
(CJM) of Bhopal issued the third crim-inal
summons to the US-based Dow, which
took over Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)
in 2001, to explain the failure of its wholly-owned
subsidiary Union Carbide Company
(UCC) before the court and account for the
criminal charges against it. The company has
been called to appear on November 12, 2014.
The summons claim that as a 100 percent
owner, Dow has a responsibility to ensure that
UCC faces these charges.
Despite its dominant position over UCC,
Dow failed to ensure that it appears before
the criminal court to face charges or to
address pending liabilities connected to
Bhopal. No state officials have been held
24 October 31, 2014

In the
immediate
aftermath of
the incident,
company
officials from
UCC and
UCIL
downplayed
the toxic
nature of
MIC, assuring
reporters that
the gas leak
was only
an irritant.
UNENDING WAIT
Women survivors of the
gas leak demand justice
for their sufferings;
(facing page) the iconic
photograph of a child
who died in the tragedy,
by Pablo Bartholomew

accountable for their own failures related to
the gas leak or site contamination. But ever
since Dow Chemicals bought UCC, its stand
has remained firm—I did not own UCC at the
time, and therefore, I will not bear any
responsibility for those affected by it.
However, Dow’s claim that it did not own
UCC in 1984 is not relevant because when it
bought UCC, it integrated and consolidated
its corporate identity, assets and liabilities.
Meanwhile, UCC is, and was in 2001
(when the merger took place), a proclaimed
absconder, ie, a company that did not pay
damages proportionate to the harm caused by
the gas leak, and a company that divested its
interests in India without fulfilling its respon-sibility
to make the Bhopal plant safe.
UNETHICAL DOW
In 2008, the Ministry of Law of India clarified
that “if there was any liability for Bhopal, it
would have to be borne by Dow”, and this was
“irrespective of the manner in which UCC has
merged or had been acquired by Dow
Chemicals.”
But Dow has been able to effectively side-step
its responsibilities.
When the CJM of Bhopal issued the first
summons in 2005, the legal counsel for Dow’s
subsidiary in India was able to sway the court
to grant a stay order that lasted close to eight
years before it was removed on the grounds
that Dow and UCC were separate legal enti-ties.
Ironically, while Dow was able to sway
the court on the one hand, on the other, it
directed court action against numerous sur-vivors
and activists.
Dow Chemicals International Private
Limited (DCIPL)—Dow’s India office—has
recently applied for leave to sue numerous
Bhopal survivors and activists for `25 million
with respect to an April 2013 protest. Since
2001, it has brought four legal actions against
them, seeking restraining orders that prohibit
them from protesting within 100-200 meters
of the company premises.
Dow has also tried to interfere with the
judicial process to avoid being involved in
court proceedings. In a 2005 communication,
revealed an RTI request, Dow lobbied the
MONUMENT TO FOLLY
Containers in the Union
Carbide plant, from
which the gas leaked
26 October 31, 2014

Indian government to “implement a consis-tent,
government-wide position that does not
promote continued government of India liti-gation
efforts against non-Indian companies
over the Bhopal tragedy”. Consequently, the
haunting legacy of Bhopal has been the fail-ure
of a company, as also the failures of the
Indian government and the judicial machin-ery,
to grant justice.
STANDARDS FOR REMEDY
Principally, a victim’s access to remedy and
justice are firmly founded in the Indian con-stitution
and in international human rights
law (see box International provisions).
While UN rules are more formally estab-lished
for countries, there is significant inter-national
consensus that companies must also
respect all human rights. The UN special rep-resentative
of the secretary-general on busi-ness
and human rights further emphasized
the importance of both states and companies
acting in a manner that is supportive of judi-cial
integrity and independence, and of courts
being able to act independently of any politi-cal
or economic pressures.
Indian courts have, on occasion, held com-panies
to account for harm to health and
environment. Courts have ordered polluting
businesses to pay exemplary fines to serve as a
deterrent to other enterprises. In 1987, in the
MC Mehta v Union of India case involving the
leak of oleum gas from a chemical plant, the
Supreme Court held: “…[any] enterprise
which is engaged in a hazardous or inherently
dangerous industry which poses a potential
threat to the health and safety of persons
working in the factory and residing in the
surrounding areas, owes an absolute and non-derogable
duty to the community to ensure
that no harm results to anyone on account of
[its activities].”
INDIA’S FAILURE
In 1968, UCIL, a company majority-owned by
the US-based UCC, built a plant in Bhopal,
Madhya Pradesh (MP), to manufacture pesti-cides
such as Sevin, using poisonous MIC and
other chemicals. UCC had 50.9 percent stake
and the Indian government controlled 22
percent. The rest was owned by thousands of
Indian investors.
International provisions
The UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
provides for general rights of individuals for an effective remedy. Article 2(3)
states that each state party to the present covenant has to:
Ensure that any person whose
rights or freedoms are violated
shall have an effective remedy,
notwithstanding that the violation
has been committed by persons
acting in an official capacity
Ensure that any person claiming
such a remedy shall have his right
thereto determined by competent
judicial, administrative or legislative
authorities, or by any other
competent authority provided for by
the legal system of the state, and
to develop the possibilities of
judicial remedy
Ensure that the competent
authorities shall enforce such
remedies when granted
WHEN TIME FROZE
A statue epitomizing
the grief of Bhopal
gas victims

The central and state government were
aware that the Bhopal plant involved haz-ardous
substances and processes. There is
also undeniable evidence that UCC was able
to influence administrators to violate indus-trial
and environmental laws and standards
during its operations in India. Under India’s
Industrial Development and Regulation Act,
1951, the production of pesticides was reser-ved
for small Indian companies, a provision
that UCC was able to get a waiver for. In 1975,
when MP ordered the relocation of the UCIL
plant, the order was reportedly opposed by
Union Carbide and a section of the state
administration. Later that year, UCIL obtai-ned
permission from India’s central govern-ment
to produce and store MIC in the area.
The flouting of laws is evident from this
1985 excerpt from a report of the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research. It said:
“The Sevin unit could process MIC to the
order of three to four tonnes per day. The
inventory of MIC in the storage tank was of
the order of 90 tonnes, equivalent to nearly
30 days production… It was entirely unnece-ssary
to provide facilities for storage of such
large amounts of MIC in tanks. The quanti-ties
stored were quite disproportionate to the
capacity of further conversion of MIC down-stream
unit. This permitted the MIC to be
stored for months together without apprecia-tion
of potential hazards.”
Ironically, UCIL did not meet internal
company standards that it had set up for itself
in countries such as the US. In May 1982,
when an operational safety survey of the
Bhopal plant was carried out by a team of
UCC technicians from the US, numerous
lapses in safety regulations were found.
Others too raised concerns about the safety of
the plant. Despite these warnings, a series of
cost-cutting measures was implemented at
POWER WITHOUT
RESPONSIBILITY
(Below) Industrialist
Keshub Mahindra, who
was chairman of UCIL;
(facing page) Warren
Anderson, chairman of
UCC at the time
of the tragedy
Ever since Dow Chemicals bought UCC, its
stand has remained firm—I did not own
UCC at the time, and I will not bear any
responsibility for those affected by it.
28 October 31, 2014

the plant from the beginning of 1983 and in
the months leading to the disaster.
During the factory design stage, UCIL had
preferred to store MIC in small individual
containers for reasons of both economy and
safety. However, UCC disagreed, and bulk
storage tanks for MIC were installed at the
Bhopal plant, similar to those at the UCC
plant in West Virginia, US. The crucial differ-ence
was that the West Virginia plant worked
round the clock, processing large quantities of
MIC for production of pesticides or for sale as
a chemical. In Bhopal, the processing capacity
was so low that it resulted in large quantities
of MIC being stored for weeks. UCC also
failed to set up any comprehensive emergency
plan or system in Bhopal to warn local com-munities
about leaks, even though it had such
a plan in place in the US.
HELLISH NIGHT
On the night of December 2, 1984, silently
and insidiously, MIC fumes from a leaking
tank at UCIL swept through the densely pop-ulated
slums that surrounded the plant.
Hundreds died in their sleep, and many more
as they ran choking from their meager homes.
Survivors said it felt like breathing fumes
when chilies are burnt. People began cough-ing
violently, and some vomited. The next
morning, bodies were littered on the streets of
Bhopal. By the time the sun set there on
December 3, graves were fast filling and
funeral pyres were burning bright.
The Illustrated Weekly of India said:
“Each symptom was dealt with separately,
eye-drops for the eyes, antibiotics to prevent
infections, antacids for the stomach. There
was no attempt to purge the blood of the
toxin, which continued to ravage the organ-ism
from within.” Till date, more than a lakh
people continue to suffer from health prob-lems.
Efforts to provide rehabilitation have
fallen far short of what is needed.
In the immediate aftermath of the inci-dent,
company officials from UCC and UCIL
downplayed the toxic nature of MIC, assuring
reporters that the gas leak was only an irritant
and not fatal. Yet, UCC’s internal company
documents mention the extremely toxic,
volatile and reactive nature of MIC.
Less than 24 hours after the gas leak, state
authorities launched criminal proceedings.
Nine individuals and three corporations were
accused of several criminal offences under the
IPC, including “culpable homicide not
amounting to murder”. The individuals
accused included: Warren Anderson, a US
national and chairman of UCC since 1982;
Keshub Mahindra, an Indian national and
chairman of UCIL; and VP Gokhale, an Ind-ian
national and managing director of UCIL.
The corporations accused were UCC, UCIL
and UCE.
Anderson, Mahindra and Gokhale were
arrested four days after the gas leak on
December 7, 1984, but Anderson was released
on bail the same day, following intervention
by the US embassy in India, and left the coun-try
two days later.
In November 1988, the CJM issued a war-rant
for the arrest of Anderson. However,
negotiations between the government of
India and the companies resulted in an out-of-
court settlement. In February 1989, the
Supreme Court (SC) ratified it. Even the
extradition of Anderson was delayed and it
was not until 2003 that India formally
Blighted lives
“… All of a sudden my
husband started coughing
and in the meantime, he
heard screams coming from
outside. As soon as he
opened the door, all we
could see was smoke
entering our house. Then,
everyone in my family started
coughing and my kids
started complaining of their
eyes burning. Then we heard
someone saying that we
should all run because some
gas pipe has exploded in the
Union Carbide factory. We all
started running and
eventually, I got separated
from my family. I just
remember not being able to
locate my family and after
that, I lost consciousness.”
—Puna Bhai, a survivor
who lived across the Bhopal
factory when the accident
happened
“The gas ruined our lives
so badly that neither my
husband or I could do any
work….My first son
developed TB at the age
of 8 or 10, and the first
daughter he had was born
with a disability….The people
who struggle are mainly the
poor and women.”
—Hazra Bee, a survivor
“In the court, we were treated
with no respect. Judges,
officers and others treated
us badly, even dacoits are
treated with more respect in
courts than us gas victims.”
— Hameeda Bi, a survivor

IL
asked the US to extradite him. The US reject-ed
this request in June 2004. According to
news reports, on July 31, 2009, the CJM reis-sued
an arrest warrant for Anderson and
ordered India to press on with extradition. In
August 2009, the CBI said that the matter
was with the Ministry of External Affairs.
TRANSFER OF SHARES
In February 1994, the SC allowed the sale of
shares held by UCC in UCIL. Advocates
working on behalf of survivors filed applica-tions
to halt the transfer, but these were
adjourned on five occasions. By the time the
applications were heard, on October 20,
1994, the shares had already been sold. This
transfer would later give grounds for UCC’s
legal counsel to argue that Indian courts had
no jurisdiction over UCC because the compa-ny
had disposed off all its inter-ests
in India. On September 13,
1996, the SC downgraded the
charges from “culpable homi-cide
(not amounting to mur-der)”
to “causing death by negli-gence”
(the charges on the for-eign
accused remained un-changed).
Twenty-six years after the
Bhopal disaster, the CJM finally
convicted UCIL and seven
accused individuals for causing
death by negligence under
Section 304A of the IPC. UCIL
was ordered to pay a fine of
`5,00,000, while all the indi-viduals
were sentenced to a
maximum prison sentence of
two years and a fine of around
`1,00,000. This light punish-ment
sparked outrage in India
and elsewhere.
In August 2010, the CBI
filed a curative petition (crimi-nal)
seeking to recall the SC’s
1996 order downgrading the charges. On May
11, 2011, the SC dismissed the petition, saying
the CBI approached the court after a long
period of 14 years and that there were not suf-ficient
grounds to recall their 1996 order.
Bhopal is a human rights’ travesty today.
The tragedy led to some positive legal
reforms, though the Bhopal victims have been
unable to benefit from them, as many are still
waiting for adequate compensation. Efforts
by survivors’ organizations to see justice done
and gain adequate redress have so far been
unsuccessful.
For the new Indian government, taking
effective steps to hold Dow accountable is a
momentous opportunity to restore faith
among the people of India. Tending to the
wounds of Bhopal would mean sending a
clear message to the world that in India,
industry and business are stable because they
respect international standards and guide-lines
for environment, transparency and
human rights.
Shashikumar Velath is deputy CEO,
Amnesty International India, while Nikhil
Eapen is a researcher there
A CELLULOID
SOLUTION
The Yes Men Fix The
World was a biting satire
on Dow’s stand in the
Bhopal gas tragedy
UCIL did not meet safety standards that it
had set up for itself in countries such as the
US. A series of cost-cutting measures was
30 October 31, 2014
implemented at the plant.

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The

FOCUS/bhopal gas tragedy / experience
LOOK, how decrepit I look.
Look at my son Shoab. He is
mentally deranged, a veritable
skeleton with swollen veins on
his legs looking like curled
snakes desperately clinging to two dried-up
logs. Doctors have diagnosed this disease,
but I don’t remember the name. Both of us
are the only surviving members in the family
and are maimed forever.
I couldn’t educate my son and he has
become wayward. Last week, I had to cough
up `5,000 as bribe to drunken policemen,
who barged into my home in the dead of
night with my son. They said he was a crimi-nal.
How would I know?
My sickness barely permits me to go to my
college, where I am a clerk. I am bed-ridden
most of the time. My chronic breathing prob-lem
aggravates so often that it is safe to be at
home. At least half-a-dozen times every year,
when breathing becomes acutely difficult, I
“I am living on
have to be admitted to gas relief hospitals.
Doctors say my damaged lungs are bey-ond
repair. I am living on borrowed time.
Life is miserable and the future, bleak. Shoab
is 33 and of marriageable age, but no offer
has come for him. One offer came, but with a
condition: transfer your home to your son’s
name. How can I do that? What is the guar-antee
that his future wife will not grab the
house and chase me away?
Remembering the past saddens me, as my
happiness lasted barely three years into my
marriage. I was a 23-year-old happy-go-lucky
graduate in Kanpur when my parents
married me off in 1979 to Ashraf Mohammad
Khan alias Ashraf Lala, a fitter in the Union
Carbide factory in Bhopal. For a young girl,
who had never worn a burqa, my in-laws’
conservatism came as a shock. Although they
were largely hostile to me, my husband was
caring. That was a great solace to me. Soon,
we had two children—Arshad and Shoab.
Those were happy days.
My husband, who was a union leader in
the Union Carbide factory, would often tell
me about the lethal gases his factory pro-duced.
I had not imagined that within five
years of marriage, these gases would kill my
husband and elder son.
In 1981, three years before the gas disas-ter,
Ashraf was working in the factory when a
valve malfunctioned and he was splashed
with liquid phosgene. He was dead within 72
hours. The Union Carbide management
concealed his postmortem report. My in-laws
proved unwitting co-conspirators with the
management. They would not let me come
near my ailing husband’s bed in the hospital.
However, I was paid `50,000 compensation.
Soon after the death, my in-laws deserted
me. I was devastated. Succor came from SH
Khan, a co-worker of my husband. I subsist-ed
with my two children, aged 18 months and
seven months, by doing tuition and sewing.
Those were difficult days, but life somehow
moved on. Little did I know that more misery
was in store for us, three years ahead.
On December 2, 1984, I boarded the
Gorakhpur-Bombay train with my
children from Kanpur, where my
parents lived. Ironically, I had delayed the
journey due to the advice of my Hindu neigh-bours
to start off on an auspicious day. When
the train approached Bhopal station at 1.30
this is the story of SAJIDA BANO, a
58-year-old Bhopal gas victim. she
lost her elder son to the leak and
has suffered physically as well as
financially. she recounts the horror
of that night to Rakesh Dixit
32 October 31, 2014

pm, a ghostly silence pervaded the place. At
the platform, I saw coolies running around
desperately, fear writ large on their faces.
Suddenly, we started coughing and chok-ing
as some pungent gas assailed our nostrils.
Not realizing what had happened, I dragged
my sons to the waiting room. The scene there
jahan-nam
was chaotic and dreadful. It was like (hell). Women were wailing over dead
bodies and I heard somebody shrieking that
poisonous gas had leaked from the Union
Carbide factory. Everybody was coughing
violently, their eyes bloodshot with irritation
and tears. Arshad and Shoab collapsed on the
ground, coughing and vomiting.
Confused and terrified, I ran to Khan’s
place. Mercifully, they had not fled. When
Khan asked about the children, I told them
that they were in the waiting room. Khan
despaired, saying I had left them to die. I
panicked and ran back to the station. The
road was littered with the dead—humans as
borrowed time”
well as cattle. When I reached the waiting
room, I found Arshad, my four-and-a-half-year-
old son, dead. Shoab had survived, I was
told, because he had soiled his pants and, as
a result, the gas he had inhaled had passed
off. That was not the end of my miseries. The
ordeal had only begun.
With my three-year-old ailing son in
my lap, I had nowhere to go. My
in-laws had already disowned me.
The disaster made them even more cruel. My
husband’s elder brother got himself pho-tographed
with Shoab, posing as his father,
to claim the `10,000 ex-gratia offered by the
state government. Somehow, I learnt about it
and reclaimed the compensation. Khan once
again stood by me.
With his help, I managed to get accom-modation
in a hostel, where I lived for 10
years. In 1987, I got a job in a woman poly-technic
college on compassionate grounds.
My economic condition has improved, but
my health continues to deteriorate.
After a while, I moved into a rented house
in a predominantly Muslim locality in the
walled city. All attempts to get my ailing son
educated, failed. I tried to find solace in the
fact that thousands of women were suffering
the same trauma as me.
Compensation arrived almost a decade
after the disaster, when we were given a flat
amount of `35,000 each. But medicines con-sumed
the bulk of that money.
Thanks to proactive help from bhai
(Abdul Jabbar, the convener of the Bhopal
Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangthan), I have
managed to get periodic treatments in hospi-tals.
Otherwise, I would have died long ago
like lakhs of other gas victims.
The compensation of `8 lakh I got in lieu
of my elder son’s death helped me build this
small house. Let us see, how long I manage to
live in it.
A HELL ON EARTH
Sajida Bano lost her
husband and elder son
to the gas leak and now
has chronic breathing
problems
IL

HUMAN INTEREST/ drug abuse
A SNIFF OF
TROUBLE
a recent study has shockingly found that 34 percent of children
use cheap inhalants to get a high. little do they know the
perils of such behavior
By Shadab Ahmad Moizee
34 October 31, 2014
Anil Shakya

privileged children, scrap dealers provide them
cheap inhalants, forcing them into the habit.
Chetna did a survey in Delhi and found that the
sale of whitener there was up to `67 lakh a day,”
says Gupta.
Stationary shop owners admit that sales of
whiteners have indeed gone up. Madan, a
shopkeeper in Malviya Nagar, says that sales
had never peaked like they have in recent days.
Now, many school children, including girls
from good families, are using whiteners on a
daily basis. “Let’s for a moment assume that
they are using it to erase errors. But on a daily
basis? Something is definitely wrong,” he
emphasizes.
IL
REHABILITATE THEM
Shaiju Varghese, a program coor-dinator
with Childline India
Foundation, an NGO that oper-ates
a helpline called Childline,
says drug abuse among children is
rising day-by-day and there is no
proper rehabilitation of them.
Dr K Zaman, consultant psy-chiatrist
at Delhi-based Alshifa
Hospital, says that most children
use intoxicants due to anti-social
tendencies, peer pressure or fami-ly
fights. Cheap intoxicants, he
says, are a tool to escape reality.
They provide temporary comfort,
but can cause serious illnesses, such as heart
disease and liver failure. He further adds: “It’s
like a trend among school children and adoles-cents.
Parents need to be watchful. If they smell
chemical odors in their children’s breath or
clothes or see stains on their faces and hands,
they must question them. After using drugs, a
child becomes irritable, lethargic, inattentive
and a loner who needs to be coaxed to talk.
Counseling and meditation can help, but it’s
important to keep the child away from intoxi-cants
and wrongdoers.”
But on asking children why they used
whiteners on such a scale, the answer this
reporter got was far from the truth. “Masterji
kaam hi aisa dete hain ki galti ho jati hai, isliye
whitener se hum wo galti thik kar lete hain
(Teachers give us such work that we end up
making mistakes. We correct these by using
a whitener).”
It’s obvious they need urgent guidance.
RAJAN (name changed)
has bloodshot eyes. Still
in his adolescence,
Rajan craves for whiten-er
or correction fluid. He
has no errors to conceal
except a habit he wishes
nobody knows about. Rajan sniffs whitener
fluid and says it helps him get rid of examina-tion
pressure in school. Somehow, he manages
to get `30 and buys the whitener. He drops
some of it on a piece of cloth and sniffs it so
strongly that it knocks him down. This high is
his life.
Rajan is among a growing number of chil-dren
who use cheap and easily available intoxi-cants.
A study conducted by National Drug
Dependence Treatment Centre and the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences for the
National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights reveals that 34.7 percent of children
have used inhalants, be they whiteners,
diluters, glue, petrol, nail polish or nail polish
remover. Acrid diluter, for example, not only
wipes out mistakes on paper, but weakens the
memory of those inhaling it.
TRIPURA LEADS
The survey was conducted all over India
among nearly 4,000 children in 135 sites
across 27 states and two union territories. It
found that Tripura had the highest proportion
of inhalant users—a worrisome 68.3 percent.
Many of these children have started early.
Take Rajan. He started sniffing whitener and
diluter at 13. He says: “My father was a rich
businessman and used to drink alcohol. I also
wanted to be rich like him so I started drinking
alcohol. Since it was expensive and I had a hard
time purchasing beer from a liquor shop, one of
my friends told me about diluter and whitener.
It was cheap and easily available at stationary
shops near my house.” Before he knew it, he
was hooked.
Sanjay Gupta, executive director of Chetna,
an NGO working for the empowerment of
street and working children, says: “While the
government has rules and a policy for the sale
of liquor and tobacco products, it has none for
substances like whiteners. One can buy these
from any stationary or general store.” Often, it
is peer influence that encourages school chil-dren
to use inhalants. “But in the case of under-
A survey among
nearly 4,000 children
across in 135 cities,
27 states and two
union territories
found that 34.7
percent of children
used various types
of inhalants.

A rowing success
some 4.5 lakh impoverished people
in the state are reaping the benefits of
the compulsory rural stint for doctors
By Rashme Sehgal
SPOTLIHT/boat clinics /assam
Arural posting is often
shunned by India’s six
lakh doctors. But Assam
has decreed that MBBS
doctors need to put in
one year of rural service
before they can apply for
an MD degree. The official order has come as
a godsend to rural communities there, ravaged
by disease and hunger. And two young doctors
in Assam have shown how their posting has
energized these communities and improved
their health.
Dr Bhumidhar Barman and Dr Nabakanta
Das work with impoverished farming commu-nities
living in islands off the Brahmaputra,
the world’s second largest river stretching
from China to Bangladesh. During the mon-soon
season, the river, along with its tributar-ies,
becomes so swollen that entire villages are
known to have been washed away in a day.
ON THE MOVE
In order to help those marooned in these
islands, the Centre for North East Studies and
Policy Research (C-NES) has helped set up 15
boat clinics, operating in 13 districts. These
carry teams of doctors, pharmacists, lab tech-nicians
and auxiliary nurses, along with vac-cines
and medicines to the island villages.
Both Barman and Das have, over the last six
months, ridden over these turbulent waters
daily in their attempt to alleviate the suffering
of people. India Legal recently joined the team
to gauge the selfless work done by them.
“The first time I had to travel on one of
these boat clinics, I was very uncomfortable. I
could have never imagined a doctor’s job
meant going by boat to treat patients living far
away. Travelling to all these distant, inaccessi-ble
villages is an arduous task,” Barman told
this correspondent.
One morning, the boat clinic travelled from
Mukulmura Ghat, 60 kilometers from
36 October 31, 2014

To help the marooned in the islands off the
Brahmaputra, the Centre for North East
Studies and Policy Research has helped set up
15 boat clinics operating in 13 districts.
IL
Guwahati, to Balachar village in a remote
island, 50 kilometers downstream. The village
is mainly inhabited by an illiterate farming
community, which grows rice and jute. Girls
continue to be married off by the age of 13-14
and are plagued by malnutrition and anaemia.
Fever and skin infections are the other com-mon
health problems.
Reaching this remote village was an adven-ture
in itself. After a boat ride of 90 minutes,
the clinic personnel walked in the hot sun
through jute fields to reach a rivulet. Then, in
a wobbly, leaky boat, they disembarked at
Balachar. Another long walk led the team to
the village center, where they set up a
makeshift clinic under the shade of two tower-ing
jamuna trees. And, then, began the actual
job of healing the sick.
EFFECTIVE TREATMENT
There was already a serpentine queue of 200
people waiting patiently for the clinic to begin.
Women in assorted cotton saris, most hag-gard,
waited with a motley group of bedrag-gled
children. As an auxiliary nurse and a
medic immunized the younger children, the
doctors checked the adults.
“We deal with 180 to 250 patients every
day, providing them with drugs for basic ail-ments.
We also have a simple kit to test HIV,
plasmodium falciparum (for malaria), blood
groups, urine and hemoglobin levels,” infor-med
Barman.
Begum Tahira, a mother of five, is deli-ghted
to see the doctor. “I have been suffering
from an eye ailment for the last eight days. My
husband works as a daily wager and recently
got a job in distant Dibrugarh,” she said.
Most of the patients clamored for “liquid”
medicines rather than capsules. The reason is
that the village quacks had been giving them
syrups in colored bottles and they believe that
medicines come out of these bottles.
The doctors battle against all odds. Besides
the difficulty of reaching remote locations,
they also have to ensure that the vaccines are
kept at the right temperature, given that there
is no electricity in these villages. They have
managed to recently solve this problem at
Balachar by installing a refrigerator run on
solar power.
Their work has paid off. The boat clinics
have already reached out to 4.5 lakh people,
said Parvez Ahmed, head of C-NES in Nalbari
district under which Balachar falls. Some 98
percent of children between 0-5 years in
Nalbari have been immunized. The district
with a population of eight lakh also has a high
birth rate of 1,200 live births every year.
However, Assam has among the highest
maternal mortality figures, with 480 deaths
per 1,00,000 live births. One of the main rea-sons
is that around three million people live in
socially and geographically isolated villages
along the Brahmaputra.
As for Barman and Das, working with
these farming communities has been a trans-forming
experience. “For one, we have under-stood
how a small intervention like ours can
make a difference of life and death in these vil-lage
communities,” said Das.
It is time for the return journey to
Mukulmura Ghat. Another adventure awaited
us. This time, weeds got caught in the pro-peller,
bringing the boat to a halt twice.
Removing them was simple.
Nonetheless, there was a sigh of relief when
everyone finally disembarked.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
(Facing page) A boat
clinic on its way to one
of the islands off the
Brahmaputra
(Above) Boat clinics have
brought succor to rural
communities in Assam hit
by disease and hunger

NATIONAL SECURITY/indo-us-pak ties
SPYMASTER THE
as a new isi chief takes in over in pakistan, a
2008 paper written by him tells us that india’s
growing ties with the united states has
deepened insecurity in his country
By Vishwas Kumar
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi’s
38 October 31, 2014
highly publicized US visit must have
unnerved the Pakistan military
establishment, especially since it led
to a joint agreement with US Presi-dent
Barack Obama on terrorism.
Both the leaders committed “themselves to joint
and concerted efforts to disrupt all financial and
tactical support to Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Haqqani network
and the D-company”.
This would have had a disquieting effect on the
ISI (Inter Service Intelligence), which has, suppos-edly,
been nurturing and financing these organiza-tions
to fight proxy wars with India and Afgha-nistan.
But with a new ISI chief, Lieutenant
General Rizwan Akhtar, at the helm now, how will
matters play out between India and Pakistan?
Akhtar, a professional soldier, has been credited
with leading the battle against terrorists on the
Afghan-Pakistan border. He is known as a no-non-sense,
hard taskmaster, who has cracked down on
criminal and terror networks in Karachi.
PREOCCUPIED WITH INDIA
However, it is his views on Pakistan’s relationship
with the US and India that need careful under-

1960s, the Afghan jehad (in the 1980s) and
the war on terrorism (post-2001).
KASHMIR CONUNDRUM
And like all Pakistani leaders, Kashmir is a
major preoccupation with Akhtar. He
echoed Pakistan military’s rhetoric by stating
that the armed forces were unable to fully
commit to counter-terrorism activities due to
the pre-occupation with India over the “dis-puted”
Kashmir issue. He further said that if
the US was to “intervene” in the bilateral dis-pute
to resolve the Kashmir issue, the Pak-istan
army could start a full-fledged war on
“home-grown” terror groups, which now not
only attack India and Afghanistan, but also
the US and Western nations.”
“The resolution of the Kashmir issue and
LIFE ON THE EDGE
(Facing page) India will
have to closely monitor
ISI chief Lt Gen Rizwan
Akhtar’s moves, given his
radical views on
Pakistan’s relationships
with India and the US
(Above) Pakistan’s recent
shelling has not even
spared civilians in the
Jammu sector. Kashmir,
as expected, is a
major preoccupation
with Akhtar
securing a lasting peace with India is vital to
the stability of Pakistan and the region. This
could free up significant Pakistani military
forces for potential employment in other
troubled areas for operations against the
“The resolution of the Kashmir issue…is vital
to the stability of Pakistan and the region.
This could free up significant Pakistani
military forces for…operations against the
Taliban and Al-Qaeda.”
—Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar, the new ISI chief
standing. This can be gleaned from a 2008
paper Akhtar wrote when he was a brigadier
attending a one-year course at the US Army
War College. The 6,313-word paper, titled
“US-Pakistan trust deficit and the war on ter-ror”,
says that the growing US ties with India
are the main cause of increasing trust deficit
between Pakistan and the US. “A key factor in
the current and future US-Pakistan relations
is US interactions with India and how they
are couched within regional and Indian-Pak-istani
contexts,” he wrote.
In the context of the Indo-US nuclear
deal, which was signed in 2008-09, he wrote:
“Pakistan, however, is concerned about the
recent US-Indian nuclear agreement, and
also aspires for one itself, and is willing to
accept all the associated safeguards and
inspections that follow. How this will play
out within the region and between the two
nuclear-armed antagonists is still uncertain.
What is certain is that US-Indian activity has
a profound effect on the Pakistani populace
and Pakistan’s perceived security, which can
disrupt or derail an otherwise positive
US-Pakistani relationship.”
It is a common knowledge that Pakistan
stoutly opposed the deal and later, demanded
that it too should get one like it. The US gov-ernment,
however, rejected this and pointed
out that India had an excellent track-record
when it came to nuclear safety standards and
proliferation, whereas Pakistan’s chief atomic
head, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had already con-fessed
to selling nuclear secrets to several
countries and even to terror organizations
like the LeT.
Akhtar further advocated that US policy
“towards Pakistan has to be integrated with
broader regional policies, as the relationship
between regional actors and the global role of
South Asia undergoes rapid changes.” He
feels the US is obliged to take care of
Pakistan’s interests because it has been an old
ally and several of the challenges like “radi-calization”
and “terrorism” faced by it are due
to this tie-up.
He wrote that Pakistan-US ties were sha-ped
during three distinct phases, starting
with the Cold War era of the 1950s and
UNI

Taliban and Al-Qaeda,” he wrote. Akhtar also
said that a stable and secure Pakistan was
more likely to focus on its economic well-being
and eventually, serve as an example of
a successful and democratic Islamic country.
Akhtar also advocated peace during the
Kargil conflict. “The on-going dispute bet-ween
India and Pakistan has continued to be
a source of both regional instability and
international concern. On a positive note, the
US strongly encourages an ongoing Pakistan-
India peace initiative. Additionally, several
recent confidence-building measures have
eased tensions to a level that makes another
war unlikely. The US’s proactive mediation
has helped diffuse the Kargil incident.”
ACCUSATIONS GALORE
Akhtar was also critical of the Afghan gov-ernment
and NATO allies of the US, who
accused the Pakistan army of allegedly help-ing
terrorist groups in the Afghan-Pakistan
border. This is significant, as he will now be
dealing with such issues and the new Afghan
government there. According to him, such an
accusation is not healthy for US-Pakistan ties
and causes trust deficit. “The constant bar-rage
of accusations hurled against Pakistan
by mainly Afghan leaders and certain coali-tion
force participants that criticize Pakistani
efforts to eliminate militant safe-havens and
cross-border operations do little to improve
relationships….Both the US and Pakistan
need to better communicate and coordinate
their respective strategies and avoid passing
judgment on the efficacy of each. There also
needs to be an increased recognition (and
assigned culpability) for the many external
influences undermining Pakistan operations
within the Waziristan Agency, including
those emanating from Afghanistan,” he
opined. “From the Pakistani perspective,
building credibility and legitimacy within the
closed and insulated tribal regions requires
patience and time.”
Incidentally, Akhtar belongs to the
Frontier Force Regiment and was commis-sioned
in September 1982. He was general
officer commanding in South Waziristan
from 2010 to 2012. His postings in Karachi
and South Waziristan provide him a good
background in counter-terrorism. Therefore,
his differences with the US on conducting
operations against terror groups among
fiercely-independent tribal populations are
significant. He says the US believes in “quick
solutions” to the problem, while the Pakistan
military thinks in terms of long-term strategy
without disturbing the local social fabric.
“The Pakistani government understands
the importance of building close ties with
tribal chiefs for the long-term strategic suc-cess
against the Al-Qaeda and Taliban radi-cals.
Conversely, US interests focus more on
short-term kinetic operations against the
immediate threat….While some of these
operations achieve immediate successes, they
often times alienate the tribals and result in
increased tribal support for the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda,” he claimed, without explaining in
the first place why these terror organizations
were provided shelter.
He further said that US’s attempt to
achieve a quick victory and withdraw rem-ains
a contentious issue that can disrupt
long-term US-Pakistan relationship. With
Indo-US ties growing, Akhtar faces difficult
challenges, even as US-Pakistan ties slip fur-ther.
And with increasing border skirmishes
with India, it is a moot question whether
Pakistan is acting out on the insecurities
voiced by the current ISI chief.
NATIONAL SECURITY/ indo-us-pak ties
IL
CHALLENGE AT HAND
It remains to be seen
how Akhtar deals with
issues on the
Afghan-Pak border
UNI
40 October 31, 2014

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