The Executive versus Judiciary

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

 The Executive versus Judiciary

 Independence of the judiciary means that the judiciary as an organ of the government should be free from influence and control of the other two organs i.e. the executive and the legislature of government. The doctrine of Separation of Powers provides for a responsibility to the judiciary to act as a watchdog.

Our constitution  just talks of the independence of the judiciary but it is no where defined what actually is the independence of the judiciary. Art. 50ays down that the state shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the state, but how exactly is unstated.

The independence of the judiciary, raises concern about the latent dangers of the judicial independence and there arises the importance of “Judicial Accountability”. Law Commission had recommended for the inclusion of a whistleblower provision, aimed at protecting those making complaints against judges, also dealing with the removal of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts. Judicial Accountability and Judicial Independence have to work hand in hand to ensure the real purpose of setting up of the institution of judiciary.

Accountability of judiciary also evokes the question of supremacy. Only one that is supreme to the other can enforce accountability. Who is supreme, out of the commonly mentioned: the Constitution, the Parliament, or the Judiciary? The answer is none. The real power is that of the people who are therefor the supreme.The Constitution is a creature of the people. In fact the preamble of the Constitution starts with the words; " We the people of India" have resolved to have this Constitution. .".

People are, in a democracy represented by the  elected members of the Parliament and not by the selected members of the judiciary. It is because of this overriding factor that Arun Jaitley characterized the recent judgement overturning the National Judicial Appointments Commission as unconstitutional, as " tyranny of the unelected"

The Constitution of India,  makes a distinction between statutory law and constitutional law and prescribes a special procedure for amending the latter as incorporated in Article 368. The Supreme Court held ( in Keshavananda Bharati v. the State of Kerala ) that Article 368 does not enable Parliament to alter the ‘basic structure’ or framework of the Constitution. The term basic structure is a vague and general term and the Judges themselves did not offer a common agreed meaning.
    Some included Fundamental Rights and federation in the concept of basic structure while others saw no limit to the amending power of Parliament. The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, provided that Parliament had full power to amend the Constitution and no amendment made under Article 368 could be questioned in any Court on any ground. However the latest position is that the validity of the Forty-second Amend­ment was questioned and in May 1980, and the Supreme Court struck it down. There are many who see this as judicial activism

Together with the independence of the judiciary, there must also be accountability and restrictions   In order to ensure smooth functioning of the system there must be a right blend of the two. There has to be  a more explicit definition of what is basic structure of Constitution, in the light of which the latter judgement needs to be reviewed.

The 'Cold Start' and the Stupid Start

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

 The 'Cold Start' and the Stupid Start

 

 India has adopted dangerous military doctrines. This will compel Pakistan to take several counter measures to preserve credible deterrence, says Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

What this means ,or portends for India, can be seen in the statement of a senior Pakistani official earlier in the build up to Obama- Sharif meeting,  according to which Pakistan’s battlefield tactical nuclear weapons were aimed at offsetting India’s “cold start” military doctrine of lightning fast, all-in offensive using its overwhelming conventional warfare advantage. That was the context of  Sharif’s reference to “credible deterrence.

Whether this, together with his warning of real possible escalation of hostility by India, was an overshot or crying-wolf antic, to push Obama in to mediation between the two countries, India cannot dismiss the mindset of Pakistani establishment which can air such a threat.

We have to constantly remind ourselves of the jihadic growth and spread of Islam and the culture of violence as a means of reacting to situations not to that faith's liking, or for achieving its thoughtless aspirations that are driven by sheer bigotry. A good chunk of the heartland of Arab world is engulfed in internecine and civil wars. If such a calamitous situation has not yet befallen Pakistan,  but it merely remains the epicenter of terrorism of kinds good to them, but bad for India, and bad to them and all the rest, the reason lies in Pakistan's original Indian ethos that in its  dna,  to a considerable extent. Due to centuries of cohabitation with the Hindus  and the derivation of the bulk of Muslim population from conversions of ethnic Hindus, the Islam jihadic temperament, and violence that also deflects in to fissiparous internecine and civil wars have been tempered. Tempered but not conquered, leaving the core susceptible to mutation back to the original bizarre. To the original single pointed blind violence, unheeding of consequences, of the soldier of Allah kind.

A Semitic theocratic state by implication is autocratic, and in the case of Islamic one, driven by Sharia law which is despotism by the clergy. Modern principles of statehood become subservient to Sharia, leading to lopsided  and dangerous policies. That, it might have the seeds of self-destruction never enters in to reckoning so long as it is seen as bidden duty dictated by faith. That is the ominous foreboding plausibility that lurks in such utterances. This mindset has to be factored in to India's counter strategy.

The bottom line is that we have to keep our powder dry, more explicitly
, our atoms alert. Pakistan by reliable accounts is the fastest growing atomic weapon power and is headed to the 5th position in the world. The Indian government over the years has never taken the people in to confidence on this issue. It is time that they do that to a great extent.

China Bans Islam.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


 China Bans Islam

China, all of a sudden is getting a bitter taste of renewed terrorism. Its Xinjiang and Quinghai provinces in the west are  the hotbeds of rising Islamist fundamentalism manifesting in intolerance of ethnic habits and practices. The fundamentalists  try to impose the Sharia driven agenda on the public. In Qinghai province on Friday, an angry crowd of Muslims smashed windows of a supposedly halal store in Xining city, after pork sausages and ham were found in a delivery van. The sharia based prohibition of alcohol and smoking and insistence on halal food were sought to be imposed on the local people and commercial establishments through such vandalism and force. Many local shopkeepers had stopped selling alcohol and cigarettes since 2012 because they feared public scorn, while many locals had decided to abstain from drinking and smoking as a result of Sharia pushers.

Earlier there was relatively normal religious freedom for the Islamic way in China even though it is a communist country. Muslims were allowed to pray, fast, and go to the mosques with the restriction that they do not preach towards non-Islamic villages.  Chinese imams were allowed to lead congregational prayers and there was  room for Muslims to gather, break their fast together, and pray. And then the jihadists came.

The modus operandy of the jihadists every where is the same. Before a community gets into jihad mode, the first thing they do is call on all Muslims to repent from alcohol, pork and tobacco. It is this spark which begins the process rolling, as small groups of Muslims begin to push that agenda on Muslim communities by using peer-pressure. When this happens, it is a sign that trouble is ahead. Pretty soon they begin to demand a change in laws in order to force the mainstream to acquiesce to their demands. The ball gets rolling and clamor for giving more religious freedom grows, but soon Islam’s ethics begin to come into  conflict with the majority community. The conflict arises because, first, Islam focuses on the outward forms of holiness: Hijabs, beards, no drinking, no pork and no smoking. Secondly, Islam’s concept of ‘peace is different. It is the Muslim understanding of 'justice' and can occur only when Sharia reigns supreme. China understands that spreading Islam starts by peer pressure for observing outward manifestations of religious identity and public scorn towards its violators.

With the spurt in Sharia induced violence and trouble, the reaction by the Chinese government was swift, specific and measured. In China, unlike in India or the west they get it. In the case of alcohol and smoking,  it ordered the freedom and also insisted for the shopkeepers to carry cigarettes and alcohol which gives them the excuse to tell the Sharia mafia ‘sorry’ but that it is a government mandate to allow smoking. The Chinese authorities launched a series of “strike hard” campaigns to weaken the hold of the drug of Islam in China’s western region. Not only  they ordered Muslim shopkeepers and restaurant owners in its troubled Xinjiang region to sell alcohol and cigarettes, but also to  even promote them in “eye-catching displays,”  Alcohol and tobacco, while it is a problem, to the Chinese is the lesser of the two evils. So now establishments that failed to comply were swiftly dealt with and were threatened with closure and their owners with prosecution. So while some might think that China is imposing on freedoms, Chinese government is only  thwarting the jihadist's attempts of imposing their Sharia driven agenda on the public

Muslim government employees and children are also barred from attending mosques and are even prohibited from observing the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. By that China is telling jihadists that if you want to fast Ramadan, it is fine, but if you want to push your revolution, then a Ramadan-ban is added as a bonus punishment. And in many places, women have been barred from wearing Hijabs and the men are discouraged from growing long beards. China has added several bonus-punishments. In addition to the ban on fasting, China has ordered restaurants to stay open all day during Ramadan . Even wearing the hijab in public, including on public transportation and when getting married in a religious ceremony, was banned in 2014, with fines of about $353 for wearing a hijab in public. In reality, China is cracking down on jihadists who apply peer pressure, and public scorn towards Muslims who decided to smoke or drink alcohol, in order  to promote Islamic revolution.This sends a message, you push your Islamic revolution on us and we will push back to say no Islam altogether. Wherever there is a Muslim revolution, there is a ban on Islam. It does not give a darn to  all the cry babies who complain.

The Naga Peace Accord

As characteristic of the people, the Naga insurgency had also been a very hardy and perseverant problem which had meandered through a tortuous route of successive negotiations, ever since the  first sign of Naga resistance was seen in the formation of the Naga Club in 1918   The landmark peace accord signed on Monday last  by the government and the NSCN-IM, the dominant rebel group in Nagaland, is a “framework agreement” that will pave the way for a final and lasting solution to one of the longest running insurgencies in Asia 

The Naga hills became part of British India in 1881. In 1946 came the Naga National Council (NNC), which, under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo, declared Nagaland an independent state on August 14, 1947. Challenged by the central government Phizo went underground in 1952, forming the underground Naga Federal Government (NFG) and the Naga Federal Army (NFA). The Government of India sent in the Army to crush the insurgency and, in 1958, enacted the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. The Naga Hills, till then  a district of Assam, was upgraded to a state in 1963, by also adding the Tuensang Tract that was then part of North East Frontier Agency(NEFA).

In 1975 came an important breakthrough when the government got a section of NNC leaders to sign the Shillong Accord, under which one section of NNC and NFG agreed to give up arms. However a group of about 140 members led by Thuingaleng Muivah, who were at that time in China, refused to accept the Shillong Accord, and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland in 1980. But in 1988, the NSCN split into NSCN (IM) and NSCN (K). The NSCN (IM) came to be seen as the “mother of all insurgencies” in the region   

 What did the NSCN (IM) want?A “Greater Nagalim” comprising “all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas”, along with Nagaland. That included several districts of Assam, Arunachal and Manipur, as also a large tract of Myanmar. The map of “Greater Nagalim” has about 1,20,000 sq km, while the state of Nagaland consists of 16,527 sq km. The Nagaland Assembly has endorsed the ‘Greater Nagalim’ demand — “Integration of all Naga-inhabited contiguous areas under one administrative umbrella” — as many as five times: in December 1964, August 1970, September 1994, December 2003 and as recently as on July 27, 2015. The claims have always kept Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh wary of a peace settlement that might affect their territories.

Insurgency continued and Muivah, Swu and other top NSCN (IM) leaders escaped to Thailand in the early 1990s. Indian leaders, a succession of them,  however kept up the negotiations abroad,  The Government of India signed a ceasefire agreement with NSCN (IM) on July 25, 1997, which came into effect on August 1, 1997. Beginning with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who met them in Paris on September 30, 1998, over 80 rounds of talks between the two sides were held subsequently.

For the NSCN (IM), the Modi government continues from where Vajpayee left. The RSS’s Northeast veteran P B Acharya is currently Nagaland Governor, and Joint Intelligence Committee chairman R N Ravi, with his IB background, is an old Northeast hand. The state’s political scenario has changed, with T R Zeliang’s Naga People’s Front, an NDA ally, persuading all groups in the Assembly, including the Congress, to become partners in an all-party government.

Leaders cutting across party lines have preferred to wait and watch. Nobody in these three states would allow even an inch of their land to be added to a ‘Greater Nagalim’, Not much details have emerged abot the accord. it is called a “framework agreement” that will pave the way for a final and lasting solution It is however given out that NSCN-IM’s most contentious demand – the creation of Nagalim or Greater Nagaland comprising all Naga-inhabited areas of the northeast – had been “set aside for now”. The accord will be “confined to Nagaland”, Within this framework agreement, details and execution plan will be released shortly.

   Before the NSCN-IM agreed to ink the accord, Muivah met top “kilonsers” or ministers of the rebel group at the group’s Camp Hebron in Nagaland on July 27. At the meeting, the NSCN-IM leadership vetted and approved the draft of the accord. In that context  both sides described the signing of the accord on Monday as a key breakthrough in efforts to end the insurgency and unrest in Nagaland and to make the NSCN-IM part of the mainstream.

The Jihafrica

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

 

The Jihafrica

 The biggest threat to African peace and prosperity comes from a dangerous idea, the African jihad or Jihafrica.

THE descent from tourist destination to no-man’s land has been a short one on Kenya’s coast. The only foreign visitors of interest on the beach in recent months are Somali jihadists At this rate the coast may come to resemble northern Nigeria. One Nairobi-based ambassador frets about the “birth of a Kenyan Boko Haram” (a reference to Nigeria’s most brutal group of Islamist).

It seems more likely that the jihadist superbug will turn south. The Sahel, an arid belt on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, has already caught the virus from Algeria and Libya. 
 
Ever more places in sub-Saharan Africa are no-go zones, including parts of Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger. Northern Mali has been off-limits to outsiders (and especially Westerners) since an Islamist-backed uprising in 2012. Recent attacks by Boko Haram have killed hundreds in Nigeria and Chad, prompting Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, to dismiss his military chiefs. 
 
On the continent’s eastern side, violent Islamism has crossed south of the equator, spreading as far as Tanzania More than a dozen sub-Saharan countries are now dealing with jihadism at home (see map). They include Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Jihadist attacks in many places are a daily or weekly occurrence Sudan is a crossroads through which many extremists groups combine or swap men, material and know-how 

 

The two major brands of violent jihadism, IS and al-Qaeda, compete for the allegiance of various groups of African jihadists. The cancer of jihadism in sub-Saharan Africa will probably spread outward from conflicts now underway involving groups in Libya and Nigeria; their members are likely to flee into the sandy expanse that covers much of Africa above the equator,

Although the extremist groups are backed by well-financed elites, they could not survive without popular support. Every one of them taps into well-known local grievances. From Mali and Nigeria to Kenya and Tanzania the story is the same: extremists emerge from and woo Muslim populations on the national periphery who are fed up with decades of neglect, discrimination and mistreatment by their rulers. Jihadists are able to exploit existing religious tensions and latch on to disgruntled Muslim communities.
Increasingly what drives African extremism is not just opportunity or firepower but ideology.

A distinct flavor of poisonous thinking has spread across thousands of miles. Islamism is the continent’s new ideology of protest. Only genuine political competition could change this dynamic. Yet most ethnic and tribal leaders have little interest in upsetting their own hold on power. African and Western governments are thus left to counter jihadism by force of arms

Such brawn has little chance of succeeding alone.
   

         [Reduced from The Economist]

Greece's Financial Meltdown

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup



 Greece's Financial Meltdown

European policymakers would have done well to pay attention in 1997 when free-market political economist Milton Friedman predicted that the euro would be a disaster. Eighteen years later, with Greece on the verge of a financial meltdown, his analysis looks prophetic. European common market conditions are unfavorable for a common currency. The separate nations of different languages, customs, and  nationalism have not yet developed the idea of 'Europe'.  Despite being a free trade area, goods move less freely among them, regulation of industrial and employment practices differs far more from country to country, and as a result, wages and prices in Europe are more rigid, and labor less mobile.

It appears Friedman concluded rightly that "  The drive for the Euro has been motivated by politics not economics. The aim has been to link Germany and France so closely as to make a future European war impossible, and to set the stage for a federal United States of Europe. I believe that adoption of the Euro would have the opposite effect. It would exacerbate political tensions by converting divergent shocks that could have been readily accommodated by exchange rate changes into divisive political issues. Political unity can pave the way for monetary unity. Monetary unity imposed under unfavorable conditions will prove a barrier to the achievement of political unity".

The Greek government-debt crisis has its origin in the Greek Depression that started in late 2009, first of the four in the Eurozone. The root cause is said to be "a combination of structural weaknesses in the Greek economy along with a decade-long pre-existence of overly high structural deficits and debt-to-GDP levels of public accounts ". Fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations, confounded  by the revelation that the government had hidden the actual data on government debt levels and deficits from public domain. In 2012, Greece's government had the largest sovereign debt default in history. Greece became the first developed country to fail to make an IMF €1.6 billion loan repayment on June 30, 2015. At that time, Greece's government had debts of €323bn. The resultant crisis of confidence had a cascading effect on worsening the financial predicament.

Now the time has run out for Greece, which is dealing with an economy in a protracted recession, with high unemployment and banks dangerously low on capital. The international bailout — under which it received nearly 240 billion euros in rescue loans — expired last week, on the same day Greece defaulted on an IMF repayment, becoming the first developed nation to do so. Of critical importance will be whether the European Central Bank (ECB) decides to maintain its lifeline to Greece in the form of emergency liquidity assistance, or ELA. The assistance, now at around 90 billion euros, has been maintained but not increased in past days, leaving the country's financial system in a stranglehold

Greece's debt crisis had taken a dramatic turn after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras suddenly called a crunch  referendum on bailout conditions (to implement austerity measures in exchange for a bail out ) early last Saturday knowing well that a 'no' vote  could determine its financial future and even its place in the eurozone and  could also make or break the radical-left government  In answer to the fears Tsipras says the vote is needed to force creditors to finally accept his key demand of another round of debt relief to save Greece from financial meltdown and possibly crashing out of the euro.

Tsipras's gambit sparked consternation among his country's international creditors, and led to the breaking off of talks on the rescue plan just days before the country was due to repay 1.5 billion euros to the IMF. With nothing left in the state's coffers, Greece defaulted on its IMF debt, and was forced on Monday to impose capital controls and close banks to halt a haemorrhage of cash as anxious Greeks rushed to withdraw money.

Nevertheless, Tsipras got a rock-star welcome at an Athens rally late Friday as he sought to revive support for the 'No' vote in a referendum called to strengthen his hand in talks with international creditors.

A pensioner crying before a bank

 Sunday's vote was held after a week of capital controls imposed to halt a bank run, with Greeks restricted to a daily cash withdrawal maximum of 60 euros ($67). Long lines have formed at ATMs, while pensioners without bank cards have thronged the few bank branches opened to allow them access to a maximum 120 euros for the week. Queues at ATMs swelled again as the initial results of the referendum, a thumping 'No' came in.

People celebrating a 'no' verdict

  The ECB operates on rules according to which it can only continue ELA funding if Greece is in a bailout. Without an increase, it is unclear how much longer people will be allowed to withdraw 60 euros per day.Some analysts say Greece is so starved of cash that it could be forced to start issuing its own currency. No country has ever left the 19-member eurozone, established in 1999.

While EU leaders  warned that a 'No' victory could cause Greece to crash out of the Eurozone and rival raliies of 'yes' supporters  shouted pro-European slogans and voiced fears of a so-called "Grexit" from the eurozone and a return to Greece's former currency, the drachma,  Tsipras got his way. The margin of victory was far wider than expected, which led the opposition leader to resign. This victory for the 'no' camp will unfortunately embolden the government, but is likely to do little to convince the creditors that Tsipras is a trustworthy negotiating partner who has any ability to implement a deal.

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Testing The Waters.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


 Testing The Waters.

  Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) veteran and margadarshak, Lal Krishna Advaniji has emphasized the need for probity on the part of political parties, citing his own resignation in the face of hawala accusation in the past, which becomes rather spiked and striking in a literal sense, in the current context of the chorus for resignations of the three BJP women ministers, Swaraj, Scindia, and Munde.

The statement on the face of it sounds.like an ethical pronouncement, but in fact can be viewed as a bit sanctimonious. Given the real facts and vacuous hysteria of a largely hostile scruple less media, the advice or suggestion seems to be a little loaded with tentative opportunism.

It is gullible to believe that Advaniji was not wiser to the possibility, nay, certainty of his statement providing heavier caliber ammunition to the excited Congress and the BJP- basher section of the media.  Put together with yesterday's sarcastic comment of another old guard, Yeshwant Sinha, that the present leadership of BJP considers those above 75 in age as "brain-dead", and Advaniji's own earlier observation affirming the possibility of a second emergency in the country, it appears that the old relegated leadership finds an opportunity however tenuous, to stage a come back or at least to regain their lost voice.

But how much of an opportunity is the current controversy about the culpability of BJP ministers? Congress is painting the town red with accusations after accusations either dug out by themselves or hoisted by the media. Barring another desperado party like the Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP,),  themselves facing dooms day scenario of impotency, confounded by criminality of their key members, dissidence and schism, the other opposition parties stay aloof.

The matter that hurts the Congress much to their discomfiture, is the singular absence of scams in the new governance. Like the uncouth horn bill bird said to be yearning for the rain from above to fall on its beak as otherwise it cannot drink normally with its huge bill, it has been wishing its heart out for a full sized scam or at least for a fraction of a scam to fall and settle on the govt. A fraction or just a semblance will do; it can always be blown up, with an ever conspiring, confabulating, rating -thirsty media at its side.

But what got thrown at them or in the arena was a mischievous onion by that mercurial Lalit Modi. Any one who tries to peel its layers and layers ends up with nothing but unexpected tears, whether it is Sushma, Raje, Chidambaram, Priyanka-Vadra, or Sonia.  And Rahul doesn't care two sneeze about it so long as it gives another opportunity to meditate on the Jupiter's velocity, or perhaps women empowerment in Thailand. 

  Advaniji's testing the water to find it is warm enough or not for taking another splash, not withstanding age, may raise the question: - should resignation be the norm at the accusation stage.