views on news 07 december 2015

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Governance Section

WILL THE PARIS CLIMATE SUMMIT CLEAN UP THE AIR?

GOVERNMENT FUMBLES AS PUNJAB BURNS

VIEWS ON NEWS

By Papia Samajdar 38

By Vipin Pubby 50

www.viewsonnewsonline.com

THE CRITICAL EYE

DECEMBER 07, 2015 `50

MODI’S FOREIGN VISITS

STILL PAYING DIVIDENDS? Rajshri Rai’s on the spot analysis of the PM’s first visit to the UK 12

PMs Narendra Modi and David Cameron at 10 Downing Street

AJITH PILLAI Exit Bihar polls 16

PRASOON PARIJAT Prashant Kishor, India’s buzzman 24

SHAILAJA PARAMATHMA Javed Akhtar’s poetry show 30

EDITOR’S NOTE

CLIMATE CHANGE IN WINTER’S PARLIAMENT Will there be a climate change during this winter assembly of parliament? Will it be another monsoon session wipeout that saw important bills drowned in the flood waters of obdurate obstruction? The prime minister looks confident and rejuvenated after his recent visit to 10 Downing Street and Wembley Stadium where he attracted the commendation and adulation of thousands of expat fans. His barrel of a chest seemed to double with pride when the British premier actually repeated Modi’s achhey din slogan in a Brit-Hindi accent.

With another trip planned for South-east Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be telling India and the world that the loss in Bihar was a temporary political aberration that is no more than a blip of a dip in his steady graph of success and popularity.

The first proof of the pudding will be in the eating of the parliamentary pie. The winter session will be of extraordinary importance. It will test, before the whole nation, Modi’s ability to carry with him the majority of India’s elected leaders in fashioning his vision of achhey din based on a broad platform of tax reform, GST and the lifting of stifling bureaucratic regulations which make India one

4 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

of the most difficult countries with which to do business.

No matter what the promises made by world leaders to Modi regarding investment in India, international and business confidence in India’s economy remains abysmally low. Foreign leaders and Indian investors may see a new Modi but they see alongside of him an old India, unwilling to take any steps much beyond the reforms initiated in 1991 by Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

The disconnect between the rosy official pronouncements and the realities on the ground are creating a huge credibility gap between the government and the people. Bank non-performing assets (NPAs) are at an all-time high. The largest industrial houses are groaning under debts which are being restructured to give them a more palatable coloring.

The gold monetization scheme has so far produced a duck’s egg. The government has been unable to take advantage of falling oil prices.

Among other economic indicators, consider this quote from Mint: “India’s factory output expansion surprisingly slowed in September ahead of the festive season as growth in the production of consumer goods declined, raising a question mark on the consistency of economic recovery, and inflation accelerated in October, led by a sharp increase in prices of pulses.”

The index of industrial production (IIP) coupled with inflation, the eminent journal noted, “point to rural distress”. This is serious stuff. Right now, world leaders are taking Modi seriously and Indians abroad are cheering him wildly because, in a declining world economy, India appeared to show

signs of stability, growth and investment opportunities. Take these away and you detract from Modi’s attractiveness in the international arena.

That is why this session of parliament is crucial for the BJP. Some of the economic reforms that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wants to push may certainly help remove some of the sluggishness from the economy and promote growth at a later stage.

But will he succeed? To push GST, the BJP needs a constitutional amendment which will require a majority which the BJP, despite its Lok Sabha majority, lacks in the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP is trying friendly persuasion with the opposition such as all-party meetings and Jaitley’s personal invitations to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to attend his daughter’s wedding. These measures may have worked earlier. But will they in today’s heavily charged divisive atmosphere?

After Delhi and Bihar, Modi has been a sitting duck for his detractors. The aura of his invincibility has evanesced. His having stayed out of the country for nearly three months of his 18-month tenure has left party management and dealing with the opposition largely in the hands of Jaitley who is already overburdened. Modi has the capability of taking the country and even the opposition along with him. He demonstrated this during his election. But has he devoted enough time to silence the strident voices

TIME TO WALK THE TALK (Above) The winter session will be most important in the wake of Modi’s visits abroad; (left) Arun Jaitley must deliver

in his party and to play the role of a leader devoted to pacifying inflamed passions in order to assure a more sympathetic attitude towards him in parliament?

But today his economic agenda, attractive as it may sound, may not find resonance in parliament because it has been sidelined by divisive social agendas which have collectively been labeled “Intolerance”. Adding fuel to the fire, the raking up of Rahul Gandhi’s passport issue and his aggressive defense of his position and the half-finished agendas of Dadri and the Lalit Modi controversy are not going to die down.

There is much to be admired in what Modi wants to do in parliament. His success or failure will have karmic consequences.

International and business confidence in India’s economy remains abysmally low.

Foreign leaders and Indian investors may see a new Modi but they see alongside of him an old India.

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December 7, 2015 5

VOLUME. IX

ISSUE. 05

Editor Rajshri Rai Managing Editor Ramesh Menon Deputy Managing Editor Shobha John Executive Editor Ajith Pillai Associate Editors Meha Mathur, Sucheta Dasgupta Deputy Editor Prabir Biswas Art Director Anthony Lawrence Deputy Art Editor Amitava Sen Graphic Designer Lalit Khitoliya Photographer Anil Shakya News Coordinator/Photo Researcher Kh Manglembi Devi Production Pawan Kumar Chief Editorial Advisor Inderjit Badhwar

C O N T E N T S LEDE

London calling

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Javed unplugged

How APN got it 21 correct As most channels misread Bihar’s mood, this channel projected the right result, says PRASOON PARIJAT

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SHAILAJA PARAMATHMA reviews a program where Javed Akhtar in his inimitable style explains shayari and dohas so that the younger generation can fall in love with them

Modi’s UK visit soon after the defeat in the Bihar polls is significant.

He attempted to project himself as a world leader pushing for India’s interests, reports RAJSHRI RAI

CFO Anand Raj Singh VP (HR & General Administration) Lokesh C Sharma Circulation Manager RS Tiwari

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ANCHOR REVIEW

FOCUS

Wrong call

On November 8, many TV channels got the Bihar results wrong. Why were they so off the mark and how did they get egg on their faces?

AJITH PILLAI examines broadcasting’s Black Sunday

SOCIAL MEDIA

Man with the Midas touch

DESIGN

Going futuristic ANTHONY LAWRENCE comments on cover designs, installations and much more, which fuse utility and beauty

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Social media was used to the hilt during the Bihar polls by Prashant Kishor and his cyber brigade. It is obvious that this e-tool can make or break elections, says PRASOON PARIJAT

Governance

Climate change?

38

Will the climate summit in Paris yield any concrete results, with the developed and developing blocks sticking to their guns?

PAPIA SAMAJDAR analyzes

All smoke and fire

44

Getting Punjab farmers to practise conservation agriculture has many challenges. But it will reduce North India’s air pollution, says VIVIAN FERNANDES

Badals under siege

50

Protests in Punjab against the family’s alleged misgovernance intensify, reports VIPIN PUBBY

R E G U L A R S Edit..................................................04 Quotes.......................................08 Grapevine........................................10 Media-Go-Round............................15 As the World Turns.........................28 Breaking News...............................36 Web-Crawler....................................43 Vonderful-English............................49 Cover design: Anthony Lawrence

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December 7, 2015 7

U O T E S

First, it is required to remove Modi, otherwise talks will not move forward. We'll have to wait for four years. These people are very optimistic about Modi, they think that talks will move forward with Modi's presence. But I don't think so.

—Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Indo-Pak relations, to Duniya TV

Shekhar Gupta editorial adviser India Today Group Singapore built a mini city on land reclaimed from sea. We’re afraid to take 150 metres for a coastal road in Mumbai.

Tavleen Singh columnist

Zero communal tension, no loose statements. When we want to send out a strong message, we should do it in a sober way; AB Vajpayee also used to speak strongly, but in a sober way.

History, is of course, a great place to look for wrongs. If history is your guide, there can be no peace in the world. The Chinese must fight the Japanese, the Russians cannot have peace with the French and Germans, the British must finish off the French and the whole world must stamp out the Mongols.

—Manoj Joshi, senior journalist, on the Tipu Sultan controversy, in The Wire

—BJP national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, on how the BJP can do a course correction after the Bihar debacle, in Outlook

I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of subtruths and very harmful and mercurial stories. I am here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive.

—Charlie Sheen, star of US television comedy Two and A Half Men, admitting to be HIV+ on NBC's Today show

Now more than ever, we need to talk to each other.

When cultures are being questioned and prejudices against communities are dividing the world.

—Actor Amitabh Bachchan, in his inaugural speech at the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival

8 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

Mahesh Bhatt filmmaker The last thing the world needs at this point is for us to find new ways to be horrible to one another.

Ashok Malik columnist

Terrific to be at a conference in Goa where there isn't a leftie or award-returning liberal in miles!

Sumitra Mahajan met Sonia, Sushma met Vice-Pres and now Jaitley met Rahul.

Govt is reaching out before Parliament session. Sensible approach.

Shashi Tharoor Congress leader

Shobhaa De columnist

It isn’t raining in 90% of India. But @BCCI has an uncanny knack for scheduling Tests in the other 10%.

How does the Indian Censor Board define “excessive kissing length”? Spectre of moral policing strikes James Bond.

Grapevine Hit by the Bihar Boomerang

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he Bihar elections are done and dusted, the cows and dogs have settled down, and the BJP’s loss blamed on “social arithmetic” of the Grand Alliance (whatever that means!), but the inside blame game is still on. RSS chief ’s Mohan Bhagwat’s “untimely” statement, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya’s salvo on Shah Rukh

Seized by the Travel Bug

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ere is an update on our prime minister’s foreign jaunts. After his trip to Britain and Turkey, his next port of call was Malaysia from November 21-23, and then to Singapore from November 23-25. Modi will return home for a brief stopover, and then flies on November 30 on a trip to France. After that, it’s time for Russia and Timbuktu.

Should he not be spending more time in his own country, where his favourite tur dal is selling at `210 per kg?

King-sized Mistake

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Tipu’s Curse

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he great warrior Tipu Sultan keeps surfacing every now and then. Sanjay Khan, the famous film actor/producer/director suffered major burns while filming the serial, Tipu Sultan.

Beer baron Vijay Mallya could not retain the title of “King of good times” once he bought the “sword of Tipu Sultan”. And now Karnataka Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah better tread cautiously. There have been demands for the CM’s resignation following the death of two people in the violence that broke out over Tipu Sultan’s birth anniversary celebrations.

10 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

hile the underworld don Chhota Rajan was the talk of the town and breaking news across TV channels, NDTV India splashed a photo of Rajan to accompany the reporter’s voiceover. In a bizarre goof-up, the picture turned out to be not that of Chhota Rajan but of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan! The financial world

went on a tizzy before the root of the confusion was detected and the photo was changed.

Not a very Chhota mistake this!

Sticky Noodles

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ven as Baba Ramdev’s atta noodles have started doing good business, Patanjali finds itself in a soup over not having an FSSAI permit. Meanwhile, Nestle has been preparing for an emotional comeback, but the Maharashtra government has decided to challenge Nestle in the apex court. The center is backing Maharashtra’s decision.

Khan and later the unsavoury reference to dogs, along with periodic anti-party comments by actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, MP RK Singh, and disgruntled leader Arun Shourie, there indeed has been a lot of noise. What is to be noted, however, is that the PM and the party president have been above blame.

Next Stop Assam

Who Let the Dogs Out?

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I

reparations for the Assam elections have started in full earnest. ULFA leader Anup Chetia’s custody was one feather in the cap for the CBI, and put the focus on Assam. Then came the announcement of the South Asian Games to be held in Guwahati in February 2016. The event will be attended by the president, prime minister and other VVIPs; in short, it shall be a good opportunity for a show of sorts by Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonawal, who is positioning himself as the next CM of Assam. Strategies are being worked out in Shastri Bhavan corridors to maximise the gains.

What better opportunity to utilize the government machinery for a good cause?

Pranabda Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai?

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resident Pranab Mukherjee is an angry man these days.

For the third time in less than a month, he has spoken out against rising intolerance, asserting that India has thrived despite all its diversities because of “assimilation and tolerance.” However, he is angry about other matters as well.

According to protocol, after every major foreign visit, the prime minister has to brief the president about his visit. This has not been happening.

This is the reason of the president’s ire now.

t’s literally a dog’s day for the canine class. When he was the CM of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s use of a puppy analogy while referring to the deaths in his state in the 2002 riots triggered a storm. “Even if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not?” he stated. Using a similar analogy recently following the murder of two Dalit children in Haryana, minister VK Singh stated: “If someone throws stones at a dog, the government is not responsible”. In the wake of Bihar polls, BJP vicepresident Kailash Vijayvargiya took pot-shots against MP Shatrughan Sinha: “A dog runs after a car and thinks the car is moving because of him”. Sinha promptly retorted: “Haathi chale Bihar, ….(Kutte) bhaunken hazaar (when the elephant moves, a thousand dogs bark).”

—Compiled by Roshni Seth Illustrations: UdayShankar VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 11

Lede Modi in the UK

Modi strengthe ns Indo-UK ties Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United Kingdom after defeat in the Bihar polls is significant. He positioned himself as a world leader pushing for India’s interests

BY RAJSHRI RAI IN LONDON

EXPAT EXPECTATION (Left) Narendra Modi greeting people after delivering his address at Wembley Stadium (Below) Modi at the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Solihull, UK

F A BOND TO ENDURE (Right) Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets British Prime Minister David Cameron at Wembley Stadium in London

12 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

AR away from the cameras of Indian news channels and domestic critics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to the United Kingdom (UK) managed to reshape the contours of India-UK partnership. He received a warm “Namaste” from Britain, be it lunch with the Queen or a good reception at Wembley Stadium.

While his UK visit was an important moment for bilateral relations between both countries, it also sparked a debate on social media from those who love and loathe him in equal measure.

Though the media was more than keen to highlight the controversies surrounding Modi, he VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 13

EDIA-GO-ROUND

Lede Modi in the UK

THE MAN IN CHARGE National Security Advisor Ajit Doval worked out the strategy of Modi’s UK visit with close advisors

managed to redefine the relationship between India and the UK. Core strategists of this visit, National Security advisor Ajit Doval, and UK ambassador Ranjan Mathai, exclusively shared with VON that this visit was truly a historic one for the prime minister and the results would show soon. Both Modi and UK Prime Minister David Cameron outdid each other in praise. While Modi insisted that this was “a huge moment for our two nations”, Cameron announced that 2017 would be a UK-India Year of Culture and claimed that “the great partnership between India and the UK extends beyond economic ties to the boards of the Bard and the beaches of Bollywood.” That was fulsome, indeed. However, the Indian media in the UK was

14 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

rather lost as they couldn’t get access to Modi and his team.

No doubt for the Indian diaspora in the UK, Modi is seen as quite distinct from the incompetent and corrupt governments that have gone before him. He is also viewed as a modern leader, focused on growth and business interests. Incidentally, Modi also met senior Sikh leaders there and gave them a patient hearing for almost one hour. This threw some of his planned programmes out of gear.

Earlier in the year, Modi made a similar visit to the US to improve trade and political relations there. But after suffering a humiliating electoral defeat in Bihar, this visit was important for sending out a positive message to critics. Understanding the situation, Modi and his team planned the strategy accordingly on this visit.

When I asked Indians at Wembley why his visit was so hyped, their standard response was that Modi was popular with British Indians as they saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see an Indian prime minister, especially since he was so popular.

Modi has managed to connect with young British Indians in a way that no other Indian prime minister had. His use of social media, makes him seem modern. Many Indians, especially Gujaratis of all age groups, were keen to see a Gujarati prime minister visiting the UK. However, critics said that while the image of a relationship cemented by cricket, Shakespeare, Madame Tussauds and a liking for curry is not entirely false, it was misleading. Nonetheless, despite all the naysayers, the truth of the matter was that the trip was not only ideal for investments and deals but for bilateral ties too.

Modi’s globe-trotting over the past 18 months to woo the 35-million-strong Indian diaspora has paid dividends. He has got their support, attracted investment and skills back to India and got enough assurance from Cameron who like many of us hope that acche din zaroor ayenge.

Demand for Nihalani’s ouster T he Film and Television Institute of India (FITI) Students’ Association has sought the resignation of the Central Board of Film Certification of India’s chief Pahlaj Nihalani for his “plan” to make a film showing them as “anti-national”, reports PTI. The students have urged Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore to seek Nihalani’s ouster.

The students’ body also demanded the

Awards for journos

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he Press Council of India has announced the winners of its national awards for 2015. The winners were decided by a jury comprising the council’s convener, Ravindra Kumar, along with members Uttam Chandra Sharma, SN Sinha, Prakash Dubey, Rajeev Ranjan Nag, Dr Suman Gupta and Sudhir Tailang. Shahbaz Khan (PTI) won in the “single news picture” category; Tashi Tobgyal (The Indian Express) bagged the honor in the “photo feature” category; Sharad Vyas (Mid-Day) won the “investigative journalism” category; Vinoy Mathew (Matrubhumi) and Sujit Chakraborty (IANS) won in the “developmental reporting” category. CR Sasikumar (The Indian Express) won for the “best newspaper art”.

removal of Nihalani from FTII Society, along with chairman, actor Gajendra Chauhan. Just 21 days ago, it called off a 139-day strike to oppose Chauhan’s appointment. The centre has nominated film and TV actor Satish Shah, film critic Bhawana Somaaya and TV producer Bijendra Pal Singh as members of the society. The trio will replace filmmakers Santosh Sivan and Jahnu Barua, and actress Pallavi Joshi, who quit in July.

Nagaland media in a tizzy T

he media in Nagaland is in an unprecedented situation vis-à-vis reporting on the banned outfit National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) following a warning by Assam Rifles to editors, says The Hoot.

NSCN-K issued a statement declaring it would undertake “selective obliteration of elements daring to effect demise” of the struggle of the Naga people at the behest of the government. This was duly reported by local newspapers. On October 24, a colonel in

Assam Rifles sent a warning mail to the editors of Nagaland Post, Nagaland Page, Morung Express, Eastern Mirror and Capi, saying that since the NSCN-K is a banned outfit, publishing its statements could be “construed as providing support to an unlawful association”.

Press Council for more teeth P

itching for an increase in its legislative and financial powers, Press Council of India chairperson Justice (retired) CK Prasad (left) has said that the media watchdog was facing constraints, The Times of India reports. Speaking on National Press Day, Prasad said the Council was best placed as a regulator not just for print media but also for TV and internet. The PCI chief suggested reduction in government funding and an increase in funding by stakeholders to ensure independence.

Applications for media

T (L to R) President Pranab Mukherjee, Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore and Tashi Tobgyal of The Indian Express

he National Foundation for India (NFI) has invited applications for its media awards from young, mid-career journalists.

The awards let them take time off from their routine beats to research and publish articles and photo essays on issues concerning the less privileged.

awards

Topics cover a wide range of issues of importance to ordinary Indians, their battle for a better life and development-related subjects such as community health, education, social justice and livelihood security. The age-limit for applicants is 40 years. Applications must reach by December 30, 2015.

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December 7, 2015 15

Focus TV Channels Bihar Results

The Bihar Bungle

For almost an hour on November 8, several TV channels got the outcome of the Bihar polls horribly wrong.

Why were projections based on early leads off the mark and why did some channels jump the gun?

BY AJITH PILLAI

FALSE NOTE

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OVEMBER 8, 2015 will go down in broadcast history as Black Sunday for TV news channels, political pundits and opinion pollsters alike.

They will remember it with regret as the fateful day when the results of the Bihar assembly elections delivered a sucker punch. Pre-poll predictions fell by the wayside and exit polls were proven to be wide off the mark. More importantly, for the first time, seat projections made between 8 am and 10.15 am by newscasters when

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NDTV-head Prannoy Roy had declared that the NDA victory was inevitable after an hour of counting

first leads came in, went horribly wrong. What was declared hastily as a resounding win for the BJP-led NDA turned out to be its ignominious defeat and the so-called losers—the Mahagathbandan or grand alliance—won handsomely.

Many were left with egg on their faces.

How does one explain the two-hour fiasco on Counting Day? According to insiders in TV channels, things went wrong because several of them were relying on a common feed routed through the News Broadcasters Association’s (NBA) Noida office. The NBA, funded by member networks, represents the interests of 56 lead-

PERFECT ANALYSIS (Left) CNN-IBN (Below) APN News

Two channels which got the poll results right were CNN-IBN and APN News. They relied on independent sources and not on the News Broadcasters Association or agency feed for results. ing news and current affairs channels across the country. On November 8, it was disseminating information collated from counting booths by the marketing and research agency, Nielsen. The projections were made on the basis of this data.

MISLEADING RESULTS Umesh Jha, director, Nielsen India, has defended his agency and said that the information it gave was purely based on inputs provided by returning officers of the Election Commission. He reportedly said that the information it fed was accurate, although it was possible that the initial results trickling in indicated an NDA victory. This, he said, was perhaps misleading, but added that TV channels were also getting their own feedback and collating information.

According to those in the know, the established first stage of counting is that of postal bal-

lots. These are votes cast by those serving outside Bihar in the government and armed forces. A substantial number of such voters is known to vote for the party in power at the center—in this instance the NDA. That is perhaps why the initial leads showed a BJP-NDA surge.

But results are never extrapolated with any ring of finality from postal ballots as they constitute only a miniscule fraction (one percent or less) of the total votes in a constituency. But why was this done during the Bihar results? Was VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 17

Focus TV Channels Bihar Results

The `6,000 crore moolah The people who were laughing all the way to the bank because of the two hours of misinformation on Counting Day were punters in satta markets across the country. A day after the results, Tehseen Poonawala writing in the DailyO, the online platform of the India Today group, pointed out that many in satta bazaars made a killing on November 8.

VON’s independent feedback from punters in Mumbai revealed the following: Even before November 8, the satta bazaar was predicting a victory for the NDA. The odds were favouring the BJP-led NDA forming the government. On November 1, the Mumbai satta bazaar gave NDA 138-150 seats, the Mahagathbandhan (MGB) 70-90 seats. Jaipur and Kolkata bazaars gave the NDA 130 and MGB less than 100. Delhi and Indore punters put the NDA tally at 130-136 and the MGB around 100 seats.

Unofficial estimates put the satta market transactions during the Bihar assembly polls at `6,000 crore.

Amit Shah’s breakdown of the five phases of polling and how the BJP would fare well led to odds favoring a BJP victory. The BJP’s internal survey which indicated that the NDA would get a big push in the fourth and fifth phases of the assembly polls further boosted this perception.

In the one hour that the NDA victory was projected by TV channels, those with inside information placed their money on the MGB winning. They made a killing because this was seen as a distinct impossibility. The returns were between 200 percent and 300 percent on every rupee put on the MGB. Many punters who had earlier betted on an NDA victory would have lost money but they made a sharp recovery by placing fresh bets on the MGB. There is no clarity on whether the initial leads fed to channels after postal ballots were counted was done at the behest of punters. But it certainly did help them rake in the moolah.

someone in the information delivery chain providing misleading inputs to serve vested interests (see box)? Or did the channels in a bid to get “clear trends” out before the competition, throw caution to the winds?

NDTV FIASCO Whatever the reasons, several news channels did get it wrong, although the one whose credibility took the biggest hit was NDTV. It had over the years built a reputation of being the most accurate

“The prize for Most Irresistible Comeuppance belonged to Shekhar Gupta, former editor of The Indian Express.... On Sunday morning, he surpassed himself.”

— Mukul Kesavan (right), writer and commentator, in The Telegraph 18 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

when it comes to covering results. So many believed it when, within an hour of counting at 9 am, it declared that the BJP-led NDA was forming the next government in Bihar. In fact, Prannoy Roy, who heads NDTV, even declared that the NDA would be comfortably home with 145-149 seats.

Other networks like Times Now and India Today also made similar projections of the NDA being ahead till 9.30 am, although none of them were committing themselves as categorically as Roy. He and the experts on the NDTV panel kept harping on the fact that leads were coming in from all regions of Bihar and that an NDA victory was inevitable. Nitish, Lalu and the Mahagathbandhan had no choice but to bite the dust.

Writer and commentator Mukul Kesavan, who was surfing channels on Result Day, described how political pundits and psephologists had to eat their words. To quote from his column in The Telegraph: “The prize for Most Irresistible Comeuppance belonged to Shekhar Gupta, once editor

NDTV was not alone in misreading the initial trends. Others were guilty too. However, channels like Times Now and India Today did a course correction after 9.30 am indicating that the Mahagathbandhan was fast gaining ground. of The Indian Express. Gupta’s commentary (on NDTV) is a blend of insider knowingness and vatic generalization. On Sunday morning, he surpassed himself. When the NDA had won the election (that is, before 10 am), Gupta in his usual forensic way, cut to the heart of the matter. Nitish Kumar had been humiliated (on the strength of the leads in the first half hour) on account of his arrogance in his second term. He had humiliated Jitan Ram Manjhi and alienated the Mahadalit vote. He had his head turned by provincial success and began to dream of Delhi. He began to pander to Delhi’s drawing-rooms and lost touch with the Nitish Kumar of old, the grassroots political worker. Dreaming all-India dreams, he lost Bihar. This was a fine, fluent explanation; the trouble was, Nitish won.”

To be fair, NDTV was not alone in misreading the initial trends. Others were guilty too. However, channels like Times Now and India Today did a course correction after 9.30 am indicating that the Mahagathbandhan was fast gaining ground. This move allowed them to later claim that “they had got it right”. On the other hand, NDTV persisted with its NDA-the-winner line till 10.15 am when it saw the writing on the wall.

CARRIED AWAY But why did this happen? A senior NDTV staffer gave VON this explanation: “TV channels get carried away when their poll predictions prove right

when actual results come in. We had invested much in our exit poll which had a massive 76,000 respondent base and had predicted an NDA win.

So when the leads came in, there was much excitement in the newsroom. It seemed we had got the results right.”

According to him, an NDA victory was also the conclusion arrived at by Prannoy Roy and a team of experts who toured Bihar extensively during the elections. “The early trends came as a confirmation of what they were saying over the last few days,” he added.

NDTV had to later apologize to viewers for what happened. Roy came on air and said: “On

FAR FROM REALITY (From top) Times Now and India Today telecasting the Bihar poll results

VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 19

Focus TV Channels

Focus Bihar

Bihar Results

APN Election Analysis

Prannoy Roy, head of NDTV, said that the last time he had got the results wrong was 32 years ago when NT Rama Rao (right) won with a landslide in Andhra Pradesh. “Since then we’ve never made such a big mistake....” every Counting Day, like today, all news channels get data from one agency. Again, a very globally respected agency. This morning, the first data that came in to all news channels was completely wrong.

Our trend analysis was based on this data like it has been for 35 years—it’s never been wrong so far.” He said that the last time he had got the results wrong was 32 years ago when NT Rama Rao won with a landslide in Andhra Pradesh. “Since then we’ve never made such a big mistake—we've made errors—but not as big as this one.”

Two channels which did get it right were CNNIBN and APN News. Both relied on independent sources and not on the NBA or any agency feed to get its results.

CNN-IBN’s statement spelt this out: “What went in our favour was Network18’s extensive network of reporters all over Bihar. ETV reporters were at every counting station and each assembly seat had a dedicated correspondent tracking the counting trends. They were faster and accurate than the rest. This enabled us to beat all our competing channels.”

However, the channel was guilty of not using an exit poll it commissioned Axis Media Ltd to conduct. The agency had accurately predicted between 169-183 seats for the Mahagathbandhan.

But the poll was withheld by the channel because 20 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

First off the Block This magazine’s TV arm, APN, has proved that as far as election projections go, it gets it right. The Bihar elections proved that once again

BY PRASOON PARIJAT

I

the powers that be in CNN-IBN were “not convinced” by the results.

The other poll that created a buzz was the exit poll conducted by Today’s Chanakya for News24.

It predicted a clear win for the NDA with anywhere over 155 seats. After the results proved it wrong, it sent out an astounding email explaining why it erred: “A simple computer template coding marking the alliances got interchanged at our end. Due to this our seat numbers remained the same but respective alliances got interchanged.”

In the final analysis, many lessons have to be learnt from the Bihar elections. Foremost among them is to exercise caution before one makes tall predictions. Blessed indeed were those who kept their wits about them and admitted that they don’t know so they can’t say....

T is not easy for TV news channels to project the outcome of polls.

This was especially true during the Bihar polls when several channels got egg on their faces for jumping the gun and projecting wrong trends. However, the channel which got it right from the very beginning was our own one, APN. While this is not an attempt at thumping our own backs, we felt the need to set the record straight when so many channels falsely claimed that they were the first to project the results, including ETV. Testimonials which our channel got in the form of calls and WhatsApp messages before the Bihar polls were heartening. There was Pankaj Singh, a landlord from Kursaila, North Bihar, who said: “I was surfing through several channels and was tired of seeing pompous anchors and loud panelists and their endless debates till I chanced upon APN. It was so much clearer and clutter-free and right in its projections.” Jitendra Singh Bhasin, a Supreme Court lawyer, said: “While everyone was claiming that the NDA coalition would win, APN was the only channel showing a clear lead for the JDU-RJD combine. And the best part of the coverage was the legal angle.” Similarly, political analyst Manisha Priyam from the London School of Economics and Political Science, who is frequently seen on channels, asked how APN had taken such a huge

BINGO! In the early hours of November 8, many news channels showed NDA leading over the RJD-JDU combine, except APN (top)

risk in projecting a clear majority for the JDU-RJD even when initial results showed the NDA was winning.

So the big question is: How did APN get it right before other channels? Was it a gamble by APN’s top team? No, it was sheer hard work, experience-driven insight and, above all, a will not to succumb to any hidden agendas.

While other channels continued their high-decibel claims of being right when others were not, APN kept quiet and let their work do the talking.

VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 21

EVERY FORTNIGHT VIEWS ON NEWS WILL BRING YOU TELL-ALL NEWS, ANALYSES AND OPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST INCISIVE MINDS IN THE NATION

Focus Bihar APN Election Analysis

Views On News (VON) is India’s premier fortnightly magazine that covers the wide spectrum of modern communication loosely known as “the media�. Its racy, news and analysis oriented story-telling encompasses current global and Indian developments, trends, future projections encompassing policy and business drifts, the latest from inside the print and electronic newsrooms, the exciting developments in ever-expanding digital space, trending matters in the social media, advertising, entertainment and books.

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APN’s research team had been monitoring the top 20 channels on a 24/7 basis in the run-up to the elections. They were data mining to produce unmatched facts and figures on constituencies.

HONESTY PAYS (Above L-R) Excellent groundwork and a will not to succumb to hidden agendas helped the channel correctly call the elections

APN teams arrived for work on November 8, the day of vote counting in Bihar, at 3 am. Each person was assigned a task that they had been preparing for months.

APN’s 50-strong research team had been continuously monitoring the top 20 channels on a 24/7 basis in the runup to these elections. They were data mining to produce unmatched facts and figures on constituencies, candidates’ profiles, their criminal records and past election trends to showcase on the channel. The social media team of APN, headed by this writer, too tracked details about top leaders and their aides. They used analytics to check out trending topics on various platforms, feeding detailed reports to the editorial team and the anchors. The studios, anchors, experts and news feed from other studios showed the mammoth effort that was under way.

The editor-in-chief and the chief anchor were ready for the big day: to take an honest stand that was free from political or business biases and take a stance that was very different from other national channels. APN was ready to stake its claim: To be the first and fastest.

22 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

The razor-sharp analysis was backed by a high-caliber editorial team headed by veteran journalist Inderjit Badhwar who has covered every election that had been contested in India from 1986 onwards, and the presidential elections in the US before that. He was backed by senior journalists Ramesh Menon and Ajith Pillai.

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hroughout the day, the team quoted and analyzed the first tweets and interpreted those of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi and saw their body language while they wished BJP veteran LK Advani on his birthday. From the very beginning, Badhwar informed viewers that things were not hunky-dory for the BJP camp. Interestingly, APN coined #Ek Bar Phir, Nitish Kumar, even as Twitter and Facebook showed the trends in Bihar. What also set APN apart was its coverage of the legal angles related to electioneering in India, including PILs filed during pre- and post-elections.

But was being first and fastest a flash in the pan for APN? No. Even before the swearing-in of Nitish Kumar as CM, APN had announced that senior leader Shyam Rajak would be denied a cabinet berth. Similarly in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, this channel had predicted the results accurately much before others. This shows that sound editorial and journalistic contacts in the right places, honest insights and in-depth research can make any channel a winner.

Seeing is believing, after all.

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Social Media Elections

voter’s mind. Those leaders who were able to connect with the masses with the right message at the right time and in the right social context generally won their voters’ faith.

of Bihar Polls

The importance of social media was apparent during the Bihar polls when a cyber brigade propelled Nitish Kumar into the CM’s chair. With more polls in the offing, social media could well turn the tide

BY PRASOON PARIJAT

T

HE man with the Midas touch did it again. For the last six months, 7, Circular Road, Patna, the residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, had been witnessing an unusual scene. Several young men, who didn’t resemble party workers in their attire or body language, had been continuously hooked to their laptops. The contribution of this cyber brigade was fully realized only after the sound of celebratory crackers had subsided in the Bihar elections. They were led by a

24 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

SOCIAL BUZZ The use of social media for elections started with US President Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign in 2008. It included an intensive voter reach-out program with campaigns aimed at issues that mattered to each segment specifically. Using high technology and mining different channels of social media were the buzzwords. This was replicated by Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and interestingly, the same team did it in Bihar for the Nitish-Lalu grand alliance.

High-tech software can be used to scan social media to bring up local issues. This is based on data-analysis of a complex matrix of gender, interest groups, age, education and socio-economic profiles of prospective voters. These are based on conversations on social media like Facebook.

After the analysis, these are dovetailed into the messages sent out by leaders and are also used in outdoor campaigns, hoardings, posters and audiovisual materials.

Good data analysis also gives feedback about political opponents and their moves. Platforms like Twitter are used to create followers and establish direct contact and dialogue between the leader and

voters. Whatsapp is also used to reach out to close-knit focus groups.

Social media played three roles in Nitish’s campaign. They gave him a set of local issues to talk about as compared to the tall claims of Modi, gave him continuous insight into people’s moods and their reactions to Modi’s statements and kept him in touch with the electorate.

And the importance of social media in Nitish’s campaign was evident on November 8 when the Bihar results were announced. Among the first pictures to appear on social media and the press were of Nitish hugging Prashant Kishor. Nitish had made it a point to showcase to the world how much he valued the contributions of this backroom strategist and manager who led the Mahagath-

POINT-COUNTERPOINT (Clockwise from below) A vehicle carrying Nitish-Lalu messages to the rural voters; Nitish Ka Nishchay message as against Modi’s Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas

fair and bespectacled man in blue denims and Tshirt—Prashant Kishor. He was the man who had orchestrated the high decibel, high-octane battle for Bihar, leading to the crushing defeat of the BJP. This team showed the success of social media in elections as they mined the digital world, gauged the real mood of voters, finalized local issues, influenced the undecided voter and countered the BJP’s online army.

These buzz-igars had quietly stolen the thunder from Modi’s high-pitch campaign. The Bihar elections showed how important it was to decode the VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 25

Social Media Elections

The next step was how to deliver tangible results on the ground. Radio and LED-mounted trucks were used to reach out to voters in rural areas, unlike the ad-blitz campaign of the BJP in newspapers.

In order to target the youth, an online search engine was used to reach out to those websites frequented by young Bihari voters.

MASTER OF THE GAME Nitish with social media wizard Prashant Kishor

Social media played three roles in Nitish’s campaign. It gave him a set of local issues to talk about, gave him insight into people’s moods and kept him in touch with the electorate through outbound messages.

bandhan poll campaign. This has signaled a new page in Indian politics and its reach will be obvious in upcoming elections in Bengal, Punjab and UP. SMART MOVE Prashant Kishor has shown how social media can make or break an election. A search on the net for him springs up more than six-lakh results. According to online media reports, much like Ramayana’s Vibhishan, he switched sides from the Modi camp to Nitish’s due to a clash of his vision and ambition with that of senior BJP leaders.

There is also a theory that he wanted Amit Shah, the chief strategist of Modi, to bite the dust. Whatever the truth, it was a masterstroke on Nitish’s part to get Prashant, a person who knows exactly how Modi thinks and acts to his side.

The core social media team was picked up from premier institutions like IIT and IIMs. The only criteria was that potential team members should have had no history of political affiliations to any party. So how did this K-team steal the thunder from Modi’s massive campaign, which was backed by the might of the Sangh, money power and the clout of a serving prime minister? The brief to them was clear: refute and respond to the tall claims made by Modi. Outsmart him at every step. Stay ahead of the BJP in every situation.

COUNTER-ATTACK Similarly, the famous “Chai Pe Charcha� of Modi was countered by “Parcha Pe Charcha� that was a recall of Nitish’s “Sushashan� (good governance) image pitted against Modi’s “Achhe Din� claim.

Also, “Nitish Ka Nischchay, Vikas Ki Guarantee� messages were carried to rural constituencies to counter the “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas� call of Modi. “Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi� was matched by “Ghar Ghar Dastak� of Nitish’s campaign. Even a comic series called “Munna Se Nitish� was launched as a response to “Bal Narendra� of Modi.

Campaign managers also handled Nitish’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and posted well-researched information that made holes in Modi’s claims. The team forced Modi to react to issues raised by Nitish such as the special package for the people of Bihar, which was actually an old package.

This was backed by a slogan: “Jhanse Me Na Ayein, Nitish Ko Jitayein�.

Mohul Ghosh, convergence manager of APN News, which correctly predicted the Bihar elections, says: “Nitish was better connected with the people and knew their pulse through social media.�

Even the first congratulatory message from Modi was on social media which he tweeted. Nitish too has been acknowledging all the messages he received on Twitter.

With more assembly polls round the corner, there are no prizes for guessing who called Prashant next: Mamata Banerjee. This was followed by a meeting with Rahul Gandhi.

The master buzz-igar is indeed the man of the moment.

ONLY THE STORIES THAT COUNT EVERY FORTNIGHT INDIA LEGAL WILL BRING YOU NEWS, ANALYSES AND OPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST INCISIVE LEGAL MINDS IN THE NATION ON MATTERS THAT MATTER TO YOU Interpretation of Sedition

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S THE WORLD TURNS

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at Charlie Hebdo

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rench satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has prompted outrage in Russia by publishing a cartoon on its new cover that likens the crash of the Russian Metrojet liner in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to a sex act, reports Al Jazeera.

The latest issue landed on newsstands with a cover cartoon showing what appears to be the

Getting away with murder

T

he Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published its annual Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go unpunished. It examined murders taking place between September 1, 2005, and August 31, 2015. Nations with five or more unsolved cases are included and, this year, 14 met the criteria.

For the first time since CPJ began compiling the index in 2008, Iraq did not claim the title of the worst offender as Somalia figured in that slot. Under siege

by ISIS, Syria rose in the index from number five to number three. Pakistan was 9th on the index and Nigeria, 13th.

The Philippines, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and India also made it to the list.

Emote, don’t say OXFORD Dictionaries has chosen the emoji “face with tears of joy” as the Word of the Year.

The choice reflects how internet and mobile phones have influenced the development of language in recent years. Casper Grathwohl, president, Oxford Dictionaries, said: “Emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders.”

28 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

reads “The crash in Sinai: Finally the sex tape.”

The magazine, which often prints controversial depictions of current events, also published cartoons of the crash, which killed 224 people, in its issue last week. The cartoons were received with great offense in Russia. The Kremlin branded them “sacrilege” while members of the parliament in Russia labeled the artists “scumbags”.

Tony Warren to receive media award T

he creator of Coronation Street, Tony Warren, has received the inaugural Nations and Regions Media Achievement Award at this year’s Salford International Media Festival.

The award recognizes his outstanding contribution to, and impact on, the development of media in the UK. Tony Warren established the world’s longest running TV soap opera in production, Coronation Street.

He is still a consultant to the show. The Royal Television Society has labelled the show as “the most successful television programme in British history”.

The Salford International Media Festival was organized at the University of Salford from November 16 to November 19.

EU wants Turkey to lift media curbs T he European Commission, in an annual report of countries keen to join the grouping of 28 nations, has strongly criticized Turkey for curtailing freedom of expression and undermining the independence of its judiciary, reported Reuters.

The decision-making body of EU points in particular to the “ongoing and new criminal cases against journalists, writers or social media users, intimidation of journalists and media outlets as well as the authorities’ actions curtailing freedom of media”. “Changes to the internet law are a significant step back from European standards,” it declares.

Ankara has been seeking EU membership since 1987, but the negotiations have been hit mostly because of Franco-German opposition and tensions with Cyprus. The EU has often criticized Turkey for its questionable human rights record.

VIEWS ON NEWS THE CRITICAL EYE

EVERY FORTNIGHT VIEWS ON NEWS WILL BRING YOU TELL-ALL NEWS, ANALYSES AND OPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST INCISIVE MINDS IN THE NATION Views On News (VON) is India’s premier fortnightly magazine that covers the wide spectrum of modern communication loosely known as “the media”. Its racy, news and analysis oriented story-telling encompasses current global and Indian developments, trends, future projections encompassing policy and business drifts, the latest from inside the print and electronic newsrooms, the exciting developments in ever-expanding digital space, trending matters in the social media, advertising, entertainment and books.

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Anchor Review Actve Javed Akhtar

Poetry with Passion

A Tata Sky program has the gifted Javed Akhtar interpreting poetry of a bygone era for the younger generation and igniting in them a love for it

BY SHAILAJA PARAMATHMA

W POETRY MADE EASY A grab from the program Actve Javed Akhtar on Tata Sky

HEN a program on shayari and doha hosted by poet, script-writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar opens with lines by philosopher and author Albert Camus, the francophone in me sits up and takes notice. As if on cue, Akhtar laughs and says: “I am honored that I am chosen to decipher the doha and poetry to a generation I am also writing songs for.

Let’s not be overwhelmed by the names. Shayari, people think, is only for intellectuals and poets.

No, it isn’t. It is written keeping in mind the situations, the emotions and the moods one comes

30 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

across. Love is one such emotion. But to be in love and read poetry, one need not be a sick lover who is always drunk.”

The program hosted by Akhtar is on Tata Sky and is titled, Actve Javed Akhtar. It is an interactive platform, where he describes the true essence of some of the most beautifully penned shers and dohas of yesteryears, reminding us of their relevance and definition even today. And citing Kabir’s doha or Mir’s shayari comes naturally for the gifted Akhtar.

The program flows like a conversation and I am soon transported to my childhood when, during vacations, I would sit with my cousins

around the elders of the family and listen to their experiences, anecdotes and life’s lessons. Akhtar, being the consummate poet, is totally immersed in it and moves from one reference to another deftly and effortlessly without breaking the rhythm of the program.

UNIQUE STYLE Akhtar’s words of wisdom find a chord in the audience. For example, Rahim’s “Rahiman dhaga prem ka matt todo chhitkay, toote se phir na jure, jure ganth padh jaaye” is interpreted by Akhtar in an easy and convincing manner. He says: “Rahim is not advising to not break away from every relationship that you ever found yourself entwined in. He is advising to do it with compassion.” I smile and marvel at the beauty of the words.

This program is aimed at tapping the minds and hearts of the younger generation and reigniting a bygone literary era. Akhtar feels that shayari and doha interpreted in the modern-day context can help navigate the stresses and strains of life and relationships.

Akhtar’s program which provides a soulful and romantic experience is followed by a musical performance of sher by contemporary artists such as Tochi Raina, Roop Kumar Rathod, Shweta Pandit, Akriti Kakar and Abhijit Pohankar. Apart from the video format, the interactive service also allows viewers to learn the meaning of various Urdu and Sanskrit words used with the help of a built-in on-demand option. This innovative service gives Tata Sky subscribers an opportunity to experience our rich poetic culture with an unconventional and modern approach.

SUBLIME INFERENCES For those who aren’t too familiar with Urdu poetry, Akhtar draws comparisons with English poets. When he compares Majaz Lucknawi to John Keats, whose poetry is characterized by sensual imagery, and with Shelley, both of whom

are called Romantic Poets for their extremes of joy and the depths of their brooding despair, the viewer is left admiring the wealth of Akhtar’s knowledge. When he reads out lines from Majaz’s sher: “Raaste mein ruk ke dam le lu, meri aadat nahi. Laut kar wapas chala jaun, meri fitrat nahi; aur koi humnawa mil jaye, ye kismet nahi”, you cannot but agree with the comparisons made earlier.

He says in an interview: “I am pleased to collaborate with Tata Sky in its endeavor to bring back the essence of our literature. This is a project which is very close to my heart as it resonates my love for the subject. The service revolves around the golden shayari and doha of Ghalib, Mir, Kabir, Rahim and many more, which will continue to appeal to people regardless of the constant changes that take place in today's world. Emotions are universal and everyone will identify with the selected works of the ancient poets.” How true.

The lines: “Ye sard raat, ye awaregi, ye neend ka bojh. Hum apne shehar mein hote, toh ghar gaye hote”, make one recall the human exodus taking place in Europe as people flee their homes in war-torn Syria. They would have understood the depth and despair in those words.

ODE TO THE MASTERS (From L-R) The program revolves around the shayari and dohas of Kabir, Ghalib and others

“This is a project which is very close to my heart as it resonates my love for the subject….

Emotions are universal and everyone will identify with the selected works of the ancient poets.”

—Javed Akhtar

VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 31

Media Monitoring Festivals TMM Survey

Overall coverage of festivals on channels, in number of hours 45

This graph makes it obvious how lopsided the coverage of festivals is, even if it’s on account of larger number of Hindu festivals. Christian festivals come next, and Jain festivals get minimum coverage, despite the community’s growing political and economic clout.

40 35 30 25 20

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Total coverage on Urdu channel

Total coverage of regional festivals on national Hindi channels, in number of hours

Reporting Faith Coverage between December 2014 and November 2015 As one festival season culminates with Diwali, the country gears up to celebrate Guru Nanak Jayanti and Christmas. How does our media highlight these festivals? Is it, for all its clamor for secularism, fair in its coverage of festivals of all faiths? Does it give due importance to all regional festivals or is its attention also dictated by numbers, like our politicians? TMM scans some leading Indian channels to know the pattern 32 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

While channels take into account certain regional sentiments and give a fair coverage to Ganesh Chaturthi, Rath Yatra and Chhath Puja, certain other festivals like the Tea Festival of Assam or Hornbill Festival of Nagaland or Ningol Chakouba (Bhai Dooj) of Manipur are completely ignored.

5

5 4 3 2

3.5

3.1 2.5

2 2

6

11.13

5 7.21 6.07

3

3 3

2

2

2

4.04

3.02 2.73 3.16

3.71

4.21

5.03

5.29 4.27

1

1 0

If national media gives disproportionate coverage to certain festivals, where do festivals of other faiths get fair coverage? An indicator is Urdu channels, which give fair coverage to Muslim festivals. This is the unfortunate reality, of Urdu largely being identified with one religion.

4

4.2

3.7

Zee News

0 Zee Salam AajTak

ABP News

Chhath Puja

Zee News

Rath Yatra

IBN7

Ganesh Chaurthi

Eid-ul-Fitr Muhharam

Peace TV Urdu

ETV Urdu

Eid-ul-Adha Ramzan VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 33

Design

DESIGNS THAT MADE IMAGINATIVE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS, FONTS, COLOR AND WHITE SPACES TO LEAVE AN IMPRESSION

Would you care to live in this structure? Not if you knew that it’s titled “Untitled (Fungus)”. This is Polish artist Krystian Truth Czaplicki’s idea of reality and abstraction being fused together. High on experimentation, yes, but whatever happened to aesthetics?

By ANTHONY LAWRENCE

The bone of contention in Indian politics today— meat and beef ban—simply depicted on Time magazine’s cover.

Body painting entails not just creativity, but is also about patience. In this artwork at the United Nations memorial in Busan, South Korea, the model’s poise is commendable as he sits still as part of the whole artwork.

Ropeway to art. Orly Genger has created an art installation at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in New York with wave after wave of colored nylon ropes.

An uncharacteristically friendly Putin is inviting Obama to join the geo-strategic muck, and an all-too-obliging Obama is already rolling up his sleeves. If only this fantasy of Obama-Putin chemistry could be actualized!

34 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

Newsweek depicts a hawk’s eyeview of the world, where less is more.

VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 35

DATE 7/11/15

NEWS

NEWS

CHANNEL TIME

Underworld Don Chhota Rajan appears before magistrate; taken to CBI office.

7/11/15

9/11/15

9/11/15

9/11/15

9/11/15

10/11/15

10/11/15

Shatrughan Sinha reaches out to Nitish Kumar, congratulates him on stupendous victory.

Modi to arrive at the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting shortly; action against those criticizing the party on anvil.

BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya compares Shatrughn Sinha to a dog; says a dog runs after a car and thinks the car runs because of him.

BJP parliamentary Board meet concludes.

Arun Jaitley addresses press conference; says the party respects Bihar poll verdict; Bihar defeat discussed at the meet.

Nitish Kumar to be sworn in on November 20; to address the state from Gandhi Maidan.

1.50 PM

1.51 PM

12/11/15 10.12 AM

10.13 AM

10.14 AM

10.15 AM

14/11/15 1.18 PM

1.19 PM

1.19 PM

1.20 PM

15/11/15 4.15 PM

4.16 PM

1.17 PM

1.17 PM

15/11/15 5.19 PM

5.20 PM

5.21 PM

5.22 PM

16/11/15 5.46 PM

5.47 PM

5.47 PM

5.48 PM

17/11/15 9.00 AM

9.01AM

9.02 AM

9.03 AM

18/11/15 12.00 PM

12.01 PM

12.02 PM

NEWS

12.03 PM

CHANNEL TIME

NEWS

Modi to celebrate Diwali today with jawans guarding nation’s borders.

1.52 PM

Nitish decides on five MLAs as ministers in his cabinet.

36 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

DATE 11/11/15

1.49 PM

March of film fraternity in support of government and to oppose those returning awards. Madhur Bhandarkar and Anupam Kher to participate.

Here are some of the major news items aired on television channels, recorded by our unique 24x7 dedicated media monitoring unit that scrutinizes more than 130 TV channels in different Indian languages and looks at who breaks the news first.

10.32 AM

10.33 AM

10.34 AM

10.35 AM

Modi leaves for London; to address British Parliament today and tomorrow; to press for greater economic collaboration between India, Britain.

8.45 AM

8.46 AM

8.47 AM

8.48 AM

Paris reels under terror attack; 150 people confirmed dead; emergency declared.

10.00 AM

10.00 AM

10.01 AM

10.01 AM

Terrorist involved in French attacks identified as Paris resident Umar Ismail; terror squad included a French citizen also.

11:00 AM

11:05 AM

11:05 AM

11:06 AM

Four police personnel injured in suicide attack in southern Turkey; the country is hosting G20 Summit.

1:55 PM

1:55 PM

1:55 PM

1:56 PM

Major lapse in security on Wagah border; a car breaches two gates to reach Line Zero.

11:06 AM

11:06 AM

11:06 AM

ACP Amit Singh shoots himself, wife attempts suicide. The couple lived in NOIDA Sector 100.

10.10 AM

10.11 AM

Paris-bound flights diverted following news of repeat firings in Paris; police continue search operation for terrorists.

10:00 AM

10:00 AM

10.15 AM

10:01 AM

11:07 AM

10.11 AM

10:02 AM

VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015 37

Governance

Environment Climate Change Paris Meet

How Green is F my World?

A UN climate meet starts on November 30 and countries will work towards a treaty to check greenhouse gases. As for India, it’s trying to reduce emissions and should mobilize its own funds to do so

BY PAPIA SAMAJDAR

ROM November 30 to December 11, this year, world leaders will congregate in Paris at the Conference of Parties (CoP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They will discuss the way towards a legally binding treaty for checking global emissions of greenhouse gases.

The stage for this was set in 2014 at the Lima CoP, where 190 negotiators had met and charted a way to formulate a mutually agreeable, legally binding treaty in 2015. They had also agreed to a procedure for submitting voluntary contributions towards emissions control, mitigation and adaption.

Referred to as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), these have been negotiated at Bonn, in Germany, this year and will be further discussed in Paris. INDCs, incidentally, are

RAGING INFERNO (Left) Forest fires around the world have increased as a result of global warming and are more intense than ever (Below) Members of an NGO dressed as tigers and penguins participating at the People’s Climate March on September 20, 2014 in New Delhi

supposed to be the foundation for climate action post-2020, and which is what the Paris CoP will try to achieve.

NATURE’S CURSE Climate change may lead to increase in frequency of rains and flash floods

38 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

TEMPERATURE RISE October 1, 2015, was the deadline for submitting these national contributions; the deadline was met by 147 countries. Till date, all developed countries and 104 developing members of the UNFCCC have made public their plans to cut down emissions. Though the attempt is to cap temperature rise by 2 degrees Celsius, an analysis of INDCs by scientists and civil societies has pegged a rise of almost 3 degrees Celsius by 2030 and more than 3 degrees Celsius by the turn of the century.

The synthesis report recently released by UNFCCC is an aggregate of the climate action plans which the world has voluntarily agreed in order to curb growing temperatures. However, the action plans will not be able to arrest the temperature hike at 2 degrees Celsius. According to the Center for Science and Environment, a leading

environmental think-tank in Delhi, global emissions may not peak by 2030 as anticipated, and the world may finish 75 percent of the remaining carbon budget by then. Considering these scenarios, the world is set on a path of more than 3 degrees Celsius temperature hike by 2100.

In its 5thAssessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 39

Governance

Environment Climate Change Paris Meet

GLOBAL ISSUE

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission 2009 aims to achieve 20 GW of installed solar capacity by 2022. In 2015, the NDA govt pledged for 100 GW by 2022.

(Right) US President Barack Obama talking about climate change in Kotzebue, Alaska, on September 2, 2015

India’s National Clean Environment Fund had a total collection of $2.7 billion (2014-15) from imposing a $2 per ton of coal tax. This is used to fund clean energy projects worth $2.6 billion domestically. coined the term “emissions budget”, indicating the amount of CO2 the world should emit to maintain the 2 degrees Celsius temperature hike from preindustrial levels. The estimated amount was 2,900 billion tons of CO2 from all sources, or 1 trillion tons of carbon. The world has already spent 52 percent of this budget, and if emissions continue unabated, the entire budget will get over by 2045, says the World Resources Institute.

CARBON BUDGET So far, India has emitted approximately 2.8 percent of the world’s total emissions (1850-2011). If it manages to achieve the pledges made in its INDC, the country will use up around 8 percent of the remaining carbon budget between 2012 and 2030.

Though India is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, its per capita emissions in 2030 will re40 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

main one-third that of China and the US, and will be comparable to that of the least developed countries. However, India seems to be keen to play an important role in fighting climate change as is evident by its ambitious INDC. The country has pledged the following: Reduce emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35 percent by 2030 at 2005 levels.

Increase the share of non-fossil fuel-based electricity to 40 percent in installed capacity by 2030.

Increase carbon sequestration by increasing and improving its forest cover from 24 percent to 33 percent in the long term, which will absorb 2.5-3 billion tons of CO2 by 2030 In 2009, after the Copenhagen Accord, the then UPA government had made voluntary pledges under the Prime Minister’s National Climate Action Plan. It had eight missions under it, along with a slew of policy measures to achieve the Indian contribution to combat climate change.

India had voluntarily pledged to reduce its emissions intensity by 20-25 percent over the 2005 limits by the year 2020 despite having no binding mitigation obligations. In fact, India has already decreased 12 percent of its GDP between 2005 and 2010. A number of studies suggest that India could

reduce its emission intensity by much more than what has been pledged.

Emission intensity is the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of economic activity, usually measured at the national level as GDP. Carbon intensity is known as the amount of carbon released by weight per unit of energy consumed.

Though population and GDP are the major determinants of a country’s emissions, the level of greenhouse gases emitted is dependent on the country’s energy efficiency, including the carbon content of goods imported and exported.

AMBITIOUS TARGETS India has also pledged to reduce its carbon intensity following a low carbon development trajectory— unlike developed countries. However, this would be dependent on technology and its financing.

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission of 2009 aims to achieve 20 gigawatt (GW) of installed solar capacity by 2022. In 2015, the NDA government under Narendra Modi revised the solar mission, pledging to achieve 100 GW installed capacity by 2022. This has been divided into rooftop and large and medium scale grid-connected solar projects. To achieve the ambitious tar-

get, large corporates, independent power generators and state governments will have to contribute.

The solar policy, however, is yet to effectively address the domestic manufacturing sector, to convince home manufacturers to contribute, instead of using Chinese- and US-manufactured parts. It also needs to address the fact that 300 million Indians still do not have access to electricity, and off-grid solar energy could be an answer. The solar policy falls a little short of this development vision.

The Green India Mission is one of the eight missions—it is targeted to improve the quality of five million hectares of degraded forests and bring another five million hectares of non-forest area under plantation in the next 10 years. The INDC pledges to absorb 2.5-3 billion tons of CO2 by carbon sequestration by forests, which is expected to be contributed by the Green India Mission by 5060 percent. However, the Mission itself raises the question of land availability. India also needs to make transparent policies on how it plans to achieve the rest of the target. The implementation and achievement of the goals are—again—hugely dependent on the availability of funds.

But where is the money? How does India plan to fund its pledges? Climate Policy Initiative

FOR ALTERNATE POWER (Above) A solar plant set up at Deoghar, about 400 km from Ranchi

VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 41

Governance

Environment Climate Change

Web Crawler What Went Viral

Paris Meet

According to Ashok Lavasa (right), secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, India hopes for a good agreement at the Paris Conference of Parties under UNFCCC.

estimates the total available funds to combat climate change is around $331 billion annually in public and private investments. CarbonBrief (UKbased website) analysis shows that developing countries would need a total of $3,535 billion to implement their INDCs —$81 billion from domestic sources, $407 billion from international sources and the rest has not been specified.

Achieving the ambitious goals is an expensive affair. An estimated $2.5 trillion (2014-15 prices) is required to achieve the pledges announced by India, which is partly shared by the international community and partly raised domestically. India continues to suffer due to climate-induced extreme weather events and it is estimated that it will continue to lose approximately 1.8 percent of its GDP annually by 2050.

COMMITTED FUNDS The government of India has set up dedicated funds and taken specific initiatives to meet the domestic financial components—the National Clean Environment Fund, collected from the cess on coal to fund green technologies, had been set up in 2010. The total collection of $2.7 billion (2014-15) from imposing a $2 per ton of coal tax

42 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

is being used to fund clean energy projects worth $2.6 billion domestically.

The national adaptation fund with an initial allocation of $55.6 million is set up for adaptation initiatives in agriculture, water forestry, etc. India has also cut its fossil fuel subsidies and increased taxes on both petroleum and diesel.

Though there is a semblance of movement towards climate change combat, further policies are required to achieve the INDCs. India maintains that the achievement of its INDCs would be contingent on international support. But, the extent of its dependence on international funds and support remains ambiguous.

The developed community continues to shirk its responsibility of historical actions, and the politics of the negotiations is increasingly trying to delink action to be taken by the developing world and support by the developed world.

Another factor that stands in India’s way of claiming international monetary support is that the funds are limited and claims by least developed countries and island countries would be taken up on a priority bases. The Green Fund set up by the Copenhagen Accord in 2009 which pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 is estimated to stand at $30 billion by the World Bank (2014) and 60 billion by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

It’s plain to see there is a huge differential in the financial requirement to achieve India’s INDC pledges and the supply. India needs to prioritize and demarcate climate contributions by mobilizing funds domestically instead of leaving the implementation of its action plans on uncertain international funds. For that, it has to make strict policies and make sure to implement them.

According to Ashok Lavasa, secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, India hopes for a good agreement at the Paris CoP, an agreement which would capture the interest of most developing parties and does not deviate from the principle of the UNFCCC.

“Peace for Paris” symbol

M

ilitant attacks on innocents elicit an array of responses from people. French graphic artist, Jean Jullien (right), who lives in London, took to his craft to send a message.

As news about terror attacks in Paris reached him, Jullien created a “Peace for Paris” symbol, combining the city’s iconic Eiffel Tower with the peace sign of the 1960s. He posted it on Instagram and Twitter.

And it went viral with people using the image as a mark of solidarity for

French citizens.

“My first reaction was to draw something and share it. It was spontaneous. I wanted to do something that could be useful for people. Given the scale of the violence, the peace-and-love symbol was essential. It was then quite an easy thing to combine it with the Eiffel Tower, the symbol of Paris,” Julian told ABC. The peace-and-love motif was used by anti-war and “counter-culture” militants in the 1960s.

Hubby’s tribute to Paris victim

A

Mother deprived of son’s vote

A

spiring politicians can bank on the votes of family members during elections. But this did not happen for a woman hoping to win a seat in the panchayat elections in the Alleppey district of Kerala. Her son chose to support the opposition. He even explained the reasons in a Facebook post, shared thousands of times.

Rajesh Kumar (above), a police constable in Kerala, wrote that he would not let his motherly love “stop my duty towards the nation”. His mother, Jagadamma, was a candidate for the ruling BJP. And her son's support could have been crucial as she lost by only seven votes.

Rajesh Kumar wrote: “My mother was a teacher in my school, but when she forgot the national pledge she taught me, I decided to post this to remind people like my mother about that pledge.” He went on to criticize the BJP’s follow-up on its policies, such as PM Modi's campaign to eliminate public defecation.

ntoine Leiris lost his wife Helene in the Bataclan theatre in Paris, where terrorists struck. His Facebook tribute to his wife and his challenge to her killers has been shared thousands of times. Leiris read out the letter to BBC News in Paris, which posted it on Facebook. It has since garnered over 21 million views.

“I do not know you and do not want to know you—you are dead souls. If the God for whom you kill so blindly made us in His image, each bullet in my wife's body would have been a wound in His heart.

Therefore, I will not give you the gift of hating you,” Leiris is seen telling the 13/11 terrorists. Incidentally, he has a 17-yearold son to look after.

Sikh man’s tweet goes viral

A

midst universal shock and outrage after the heinous attacks in Paris, netizens across the globe took a proactive approach on Twitter with the hashtag#PorteOuverte, meaning “open door” in French. People using the hashtag were offering shelter to those stranded after the heinous killings.

One such tweet came from a Sikh

man, Rohan Singh Kalsi (bottom). It said: “Anybody who’s stranded in Paris and needs shelter and somewhere safe, any Sikh Gurdwara (temple) will be happy to accommodate #PorteOuverte.”

It was retweeted over 14,000 times, and got a huge positive response.

Touched by the gratitude his tweet had garnered, Kalsi later tweeted that there was no need as “Sikhs are here to serve humanity at all times.”

—Compiled by Anuj Raina VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 43

Governance Punjab

Environment

In the Line of Fire A

N October 30 satellite grab of Punjab on the website of NASA’s Earth Observatory shows hundreds of tiny red dots as if deposited by a spraying device.

They “indicate hot spots where the sensor detected unusually warm surface temperature generally associated with fires,” the caption said. “Thick plumes of smoke drifted from the hot spots.”

In order to understand these fires, one should first know Punjab’s crop patterns. The state grows rice on 2.85 million hectares (ha), wheat on about 3.5 million ha and a third crop like short-duration

Increased pollution in North India is due to Punjab farmers burning rice straw. This can be prevented by proactive governance and ploughing the straw back into the field

BY VIVIAN FERNANDES 60-day green gram (moong bean). Punjab’s Economic Survey says 10,000 ha was under gram (chana) cultivation and 38,000 ha under other pulses, including green gram.

In the case of wheat, it has to be sown within a window of two-three weeks after cutting paddy so that it can make the most of the winter to bulk up and avoid terminal heat. The straw from the wheat is chopped and fed to animals. Though not very nutritious, it acts as a filler and gives them a feeling of satiety. The fodder is also sold to neighboring Jammu, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

However, ordinary rice is combine-harvested.

The machines leave trails of raked hay about 12 ft

BURNING ISSUE A farmer burning the straw on his field after harvest

wide and a foot high, called windrows. Unlike wheat straw, ordinary rice straw is high in silica and is not preferred fodder in north-western parts of India and that is why it is burnt. Incidentally, in central, eastern, western and southern parts of India, it is used as fodder.

Straw from both wheat and rice can be used to fire boilers in power plants and Punjab has set up about half a dozen of them. It can be used in brick kilns as well. Some of it goes into making of paper and board, packaging for sanitary ware and for cultivation of mushrooms.

However, most farmers do not find the price justifiable enough to bear the cost of collection and transportation. So they end up burning it. And this is what has been picked up by satellites.

India produces 500-650 million tons of crop waste every year, says Raj Gupta, a scientist at Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA). This is a joint venture of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and CIMMYT, the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, which played a seminal role in India’s Green Revolution. Forty-eight percent of crop waste is rice straw. Most of it is produced in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, where the use of combines is most prevalent.

Punjab, with the highest rice productivity in the country, uses double the quantity of water to produce one unit, compared to West Bengal. Rice cultivation has depleted groundwater in the state.

According to Gupta, a ton of rice straw emits three kg of particulate matter, 60 kg of carbon monoxide, 1,460 kg of carbon dioxide, nearly 200 kg of ash and two kg of sulphur dioxide. While quoting a study by researchers at the National Physical Laboratory, he says that when North Indian farmers burn 63 million tons of straw, it releases 0.14 million tons of nitrous oxides, close to one lakh tons of particulate matter, 3.4 million tons of carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases equivalent to 4.8 million tons of carbon dioxide.

INCREASING HAZE North India reels under haze as a result of burning of straw on the fields of Punjab

FIELDS DAMAGED The numbers are hard to register. Those breathing the smoggy air will suffer from stinging eyes, sore throats and impaired lungs. These are telltale signs of the damage being done to fields. They lose nutrients when crop waste is repeatedly burned in them. A Punjab government note says a ton of VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 45

Governance Punjab

Agriculture

tration has become lax because of the problems the state government is in. It is on the defensive following the outbreak of whitefly which has destroyed the state’s cotton crop, the fall in prices of basmati below that of ordinary rice, the potato price crash at the beginning of the year and discontent over the desecration of the Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. “More people are burning straw,” he says.

A ton of rice straw emits three kg of particulate matter, 60 kg of carbon monoxide, 1,460 kg of carbon dioxide, nearly 200 kg of ash and two kg of sulphur dioxide.

MAPPING DISASTER A map showing extensive heat generated by fire on the fields in the state, and a smoke screen over Delhi and adjoining areas

paddy straw burnt means the loss of 5.5 kg of nitrogen, 2.3 kg of phosphorus, 25 kg of potassium, 1.2 kg of sulphur, besides organic carbon. Soil loses moisture and useful microbes are killed.

“I burnt the straw,” admits 52-year-old Ajit Singh Mann of Bheen village in Punjab’s Nawanshahr tehsil. “I did it out of necessity,” he says. He had to get the fields ready for potatoes. Mann grows a variety of crops on 70 acres, much of which is leased. An environmentally-aware farmer, Mann has reduced the area under paddy cultivation because of its impact on ground water.

Straw burning is banned in Punjab but the law is not being enforced. Mann believes the adminis-

46 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

MANY HURDLES Balwant Singh, 50, of Kaljharani, which is next to Chief Minister Parkash Singh’s Badal village in Bhatinda district, acknowledges that those who grow paddy in his village are burning it. One incentive, according to him, is that straw sells for `150 a quintal and there is a power plant in nearby Channo which buys it. But the village’s cooperative society does not have a baler, a machine which makes compressed bundles of straw. “Sarkar saath nahin de rahi hai (the government does not give support),” he adds. “The government must punish those who burn straw,” he says. As for Singh, he did not grow paddy this year.

However, farmers could take a lesson out of Pawanjot Singh’s book. This Jalandhar-based farmer has been a farmer since 17 years. Singh is an innovative farmer, keen on adopting new technology and scientific practices. He has about 180 acres, both owned and leased. He grows certified seed potatoes for the governments of Odisha, West Bengal and Assam, besides cereals and vegetables. He chops up the straw and ploughs it into soil. This, he says, has had a “positive” impact on the potato output. According to him, most potato farmers in the area have adopted this practice.

One of them is Jugraj Singh Bansi of Jalandhar’s Madar village. A young non-resident Indian, who

quit a post office job in San Jose, California, to pursue farming with his father, Bansi has deployed a shredder with a reversible plough, both operated by tractors. He hires one for `1,200 and the other for `1,000 an acre. “There is no burning of straws in my area,” he says.

However, there are lacunae here too. A shredder costs about `2.5 lakh, but government subsidy is not available through the year. Bansi’s cooperative society, which hires out agricultural machinery and equipment, could not buy it for this reason, he says.

CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE BISA, which has research stations in Ludhiana, Jabalpur and Samastipur, prescribes conservation agriculture as a neat way out of the current situation. For the plains of North-west India, this means laser-levelling the fields for quick and even spread of irrigation water. The pores formed by roots that keep the soil soft are not destroyed and straw is put on the surface to conserve moisture, increase organic carbon and suppress weeds. Leguminous crops like moong bean are also grown to enrich the soil with atmospheric nitrogen.

However, conservation agriculture is not possible without special machines. Combines have to be

fitted with a device that spreads rice straw evenly in the fields. The sowing is done by parting the straw with a ‘Happy’ seeder. This kind of agriculture requires herbicides. The molecules/herbicides currently available are surgical in operation and do not linger. These have to be applied before sowing to prevent growth of weeds, and some days after germination to knock off those that still do.

Harminder Singh Sidhu, who is in charge of BISA’s Ludhiana station, says that what attracts farmers to conservation agriculture is the costs saved in ploughing and weed removal. This year, his team is demonstrating the technique in 400

CONSERVATION IS KEY (Below) Use of shredders can help spread the straw on fields, which would also provide moisture to soil and prevent growth of weeds (Bottom) Farmers in Punjab are open to innovation, provided the government lends a helping hand

VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 47

Governance Punjab

Agriculture

English is one of modern India’s 22 official languages, and is widely learned as the second language in most countries. Enjoy it and avoid falling into some common error traps. BY MAHESH TRIVEDI

15 WAYS TO SAY ‘NO’

SMARTEN YOUR TALK

Bump that

No way

About time, too!...........It’s almost too late!

Go jump in the lake

Nope

Hell’s bells!..........(said when you are surprised/annoyed)

Like hell

Not a chance

Get a wiggle on!.............Hurry up!

N.O.

Not on your Nellie

Bite your tongue!...........Take back what you said!

Negative

Not on your life

How ya living?.............How you are doing?

No dice

Nothing doing

Do I have to draw a picture?............You don’t understand yet?

No go

Over my dead body

It’s been a slice!............It’s been good!

SAY IT RIGHT

DID YOU KNOW? Wheat and rice straw can be used to fire boilers in power plants, and in brick kilns as well. But most farmers do not find the price justifiable enough to bear the cost of collection and transportation.

FODDER FOR DISCONTENT Congress leaders in Punjab with a memorandum on farmers’ plight to Governor Shivraj Patil at Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh

acres of fields —four times more than last year.

Punjab Agricultural University is also propagating this technique, says Baldev Singh Dhillon, its vice-chancellor. He admits to challenges. The seeder is slow; it sows about eight acres a day. It needs high horsepower tractors for traction. Optically, crop growing through paddy stubble and straw does not initially look good. In the first year, there may also be a decline in yield. Farmers need to be disciplined in the application of herbicides. Urea fertilizer must be drilled into the soil and not scattered on the straw-covered fields.

MAIZE CULTIVATION Getting farmers to grow maize instead of rice will also reduce straw burning. Punjab, which has the highest rice productivity in the country, uses double

48 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

the quantity of water to produce one unit, compared to West Bengal. Rice cultivation has depleted groundwater in many blocks of the state. It has a plan to shift half of the rice acreage to maize, which needs much less water. Progress has been slow because maize is not as remunerative and there is no assured government buyback as with rice.

On the basis of his travels across the state, Dhillon sees a decline in straw burning, but not to the point of comfort. He says the government is encouraging straw- and stalk-fired power plants and incentivizing people about the purchase of seeders, shredders and balers.

BISA’s Gupta says farmers should be rewarded with credits for practising conservation agriculture and sequestering carbon. They could trade these credits with polluting industries. .

Incentives are necessary to encourage good behaviour, but the polluter-pays principle must be enforced. Smoke from Punjab’s fields has raised pollution to dangerous levels in Delhi. But urgency in government action is missing.

Good at, NOT good in

Related to, NOT related with

Full of, NOT full with

Deprived of, NOT deprived

Congratulate on, NOT congratulate for Anxious about, NOT anxious for Fail in, NOT fail at Popular with, NOT popular among Benefit from, NOT benefit by

from Opposite to, NOT opposite from Conform to, NOT conform with Die of, NOT die for Different from, NOT different to or than

WORDY EXPRESSIONS Guard against these repetitive, wordy expressions with redundant words: Absolutely essential Connect up with Cooperate together Consensus of opinions Audible to the ear Individual person Descend down Loquacious talker Each and every one Meet up with Bisect in two Revert back to Choose up Rise up Combine together Small in size Final end Round in form Completely unanimous Most unkindest Four-cornered square Talented genius

Grab a good dictionary and check whether you have been correctly pronouncing these words: Suite

Monk

Subtle

Police

Spinach

Gauge

Dengue

Genre

Dessert

Hyperbole

Bowl

Cache

COMPARISONS FOR EVERYDAY USE Drink like a fish (hey, you are drinking like a fish!)

Eat like a horse Fight like cat and dog Fit like a glove Work like the devil Sing like a bird Sleep like a log/top Smoke like a chimney Spend money like water Run like the wind Swim like a fish Multiply like rabbits Has memory like a sieve

—Vivian Fernandes is consulting editor to www.smartindianagriculture.in VIEWS ON NEWS

December 7, 2015 49

Governance

Punjab Clashes

Bungling Badals The Badal government is under siege as swirling protests take a hold of Punjab over this family’s misgovernance and police atrocities. What started as a row over desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib has now gone beyond control

BY VIPIN PUBBY

T

HE border state of Punjab, which remained peaceful for over two decades after going through some 15 years of bloodshed, is on the boil again. What started as a protest against some motivated instances of desecration of the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, has snowballed into a major agitation, with Sikhs venting their anger against the government of Parkash Singh Badal.

The tense situation has led to road blockades, rail roko agitation, state-wide bandh and clashes between the protesting Sikhs and the police. It even led to police firing, causing the death of two and injuries to many others.

Though the movement is largely headless, there are over a dozen Sikh organizations working in tandem. A call given to observe Black Di-

50 VIEWS ON NEWS December 7, 2015

wali and continuation of protests across the state received good response from a large section of Sikhs even though a sizeable number later coldshouldered attempts by radicals to hijack the agenda at a Sarbat Khalsa (congregation of Sikh community) on November 10 (see box).

SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE While in the initial days, there was clear support for the government from radical groups and the Sikh diaspora, misgovernance and the actions of the state police have fuelled the fire. The agitation, which was restricted to a few areas, later spread all across Punjab and transformed into a popular upsurge against the government and particularly the Badal family, which had established hegemony over Akali politics and the religious affairs of Sikhs in the recent past.

Thus, while Parkash Singh Badal is the chief

STOKING FIRE (Left) Members of the SGPC take out a protest march against desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot (Below) Is Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal responsible for the present mess?

Radicals hijack agenda

A

conglomerate of Sikh organizations, including radicals, called for a Sarbat Khalsa (a traditional congregation of the Sikh community to discuss and decide on important issues facing the community) on November 10. It was primarily called to protest the incidents of sacrilege and to condemn the decision taken by the Sikh clergy to pardon the Dera Sacha Sauda chief. However, the radicals, backed by a section of Sikh diaspora, clearly dictated the resolutions. This included the removal of three of the five high priests, striping the honour of “Fakhare-quam” (pride of community) title given to CM Badal and ex-communicating former DGP KPS Gill and Lt Gen KS Brar (retd).

What shocked many, including those who had volunteered to be part of protest, was the “appointment” of a convict and mastermind of the Beant Singh assassination case, Jagtar Singh Hawara, as the head priest of the highest temporal authority of the Sikhs, the Akal Takht.

The calling of the Sarbat Khalsa is itself under question as the SGPC says it can be called only by the head priest of Akal Takht. Even though it may not have sanctity, it has its ramifications as the radicals are trying to hijack the popular upsurge against the ruling Badal clan.

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Punjab Clashes

to the fringes, their nuisance value can’t be ignored.

The trigger for the current tense situation is the sudden and unexpected pardon granted by the Sikh clergy to the head of Dera Sacha Sauda, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, obviously at the bidding of the Badals. Sikhs had been generally wary of the Dera as they believe that it has been weaning away a section of their community. Also, while the Dera has a living guru, for other Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib is the guru.

There has been a history of tension between Sikhs and followers of the Dera, but the crunch came in 2007 when newspapers published photographs of Rahim attired in a dress which, Sikhs claim, was worn by Guru Gobind Singh. They also felt that he was trying to imitate the guru by administering amrit (nectar) to his followers in the manner in which Guru Gobind Singh gave amrit to his followers. The incident led to high

ALL IN THE FAMILY Parkash Singh Badal’s son Sukhbir Singh Badal (right) is the deputy chief minister, home minister and SAD president, while daughterin-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal (left) got a berth in the NDA government as Union minister of food processing

minister (CM), his son Sukhbir Singh Badal is the deputy CM, the home minister and president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) too. His wife, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, bypassed several senior leaders to be the party’s nominee for a berth in the NDA government in which the SAD is a coalition partner. Her brother is the state information and public relations minister and is considered the third-most powerful minister in the SAD-BJP government.

No just that, another brother-in-law of Sukhbir is in the state cabinet, while his first cousin, Manpreet Singh Badal, who was the finance minister, has now parted ways and floated his own party.

As president of the SAD, Sukhbir Singh Badal controls the mini parliament of Sikhs, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), as a majority of its elected members have the backing of the SAD. The SGPC, in turn, appoints the head priests of the five takhts (or holy seats)

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of the Sikhs. Together they constitute the Sikh clergy and are mandated to take all decisions on behalf of the Sikh community. With both wings, political and religious, under their control, the Badals were having a field day. They have been in power for the last nine years and were looking for a third term in office when all hell broke loose in the state, mainly due to their own doing.

RISE OF MILITANCY To compare the current situation with what was prevailing in the 80s and early 90s would be highly exaggerated, but there are uncanny similarities between the earlier build-up to militancy and the current situation.

It is believed that militancy originated in the tension and clash between orthodox Sikhs and followers of Sant Nirankari Baba in 1978, where 13 Sikhs and three Nirankaris were killed.

Though much water has flowed down Punjab’s rivers since then and radicals have been reduced

The trigger for the current situation is the pardon granted by the Sikh clergy to the politically valuable head of Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, ostensibly at the bidding of the Badals. tension and clashes, while the Sikh clergy excommunicated the Dera chief for blasphemy through a hukamnama.

Incidentally, all this happened shortly after the 2007 assembly elections, which brought the SADBJP to power. It was clear that the influential Dera had not favoured SAD’s candidates because the rival Congress had done very well in the constituencies which had a considerable number of Dera followers.

The SAD made overtures to the Dera in the next assembly elections in 2012 and it was no coincidence that a police case against the Dera was dropped two days before voting was to take place. The party obviously benefited from the move and was able to retain power in the state.

DERA VOTE BANK The Dera, which claims membership running into lakhs, openly declared its support for the BJP in the assembly elections in Haryana last year and it paid off, with the party emerging as a winner for the first time in the state’s history. This is what appears to have motivated the Punjab unit of the BJP to nudge the SAD for a compromise with the Dera for

POLITICS OF RELIGION Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim has got a pardon for his supposed ability to swing election results

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Punjab Clashes

from gatherings.The police said that it had arrested eight persons, all baptized Sikhs, for the desecration and even pointed at a foreign hand behind funding of the agitation. Ordinary people are, however, not willing to believe this version.

HEADS ROLL In the wake of protests, DGP Sumedh Singh Saini has been replaced for his alleged violation of human rights

The SAD made overtures to the Dera in the assembly elections in 2012 and it was no coincidence that a police case against the Dera was dropped two days before voting was to take place.

elections in early 2017. It is obvious that the SAD, which controls the SGPC and the jathedars, prompted the Sikh clergy to grant pardon to the Dera chief with a view to garner his support for the next elections.

This is what has opened the can of worms for the SAD. There was deep resentment in the community, and particularly among the radicals and a section of the diaspora, against the decision and the manner in which it was taken. Almost simultaneously, reports of desecration of the holy book started coming from various parts of the state. As anger and resentment grew, hordes of villagers, including women and children, joined the protests across the state.

Inept handling by the government, which remained smug in the belief that there was no alternative leadership, led to the situation deteriorating and protesters eventually venting their anger against the SAD MLAs and leaders. They were not allowed to enter gurdwaras and were chased away

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CLERGY’S ROLE In fast-paced events, there was also pressure on the Sikh clergy to annul its decision to pardon the Dera chief. Evidently seized of the mood of the people, the clergy in an unprecedented move annulled its decision. Not satisfied with the response, and blaming the clergy for becoming a tool in the hands of the Badals, the community demanded action against the jathedars. Again, in a sudden and unprecedented move, the panj pyaras (the five loved ones) summoned the five jathedars for an explanation of their conduct in pardoning the Dera chief.

The institution of panj pyaras is as old as the 10th guru of the Sikhs. He is said to have bowed before the panj pyaras established by him and had also taken instructions from them. Ironically, the panj pyaras now are also appointed by the SGPC, which also appoints the jathedars. In a retaliatory move, the SGPC suspended the panj pyaras and ordered their transfer for summoning the jathedars. Then, in another roll-back, it revoked their suspension after a hue and cry was raised.

CM Badal has been appealing for peace and has replaced the controversial state DGP Sumedh Singh Saini who was a target of radical Sikhs for his alleged violation of human rights. Sukhbir, meanwhile, is maintaining a low profile. The CM will have to use all his political acumen to tackle the sensitive situation and in the long run, the party, as well as the family, shall have to introspect on what went wrong and to take sincere steps to restore people’s confidence for their political survival. It is no consolation for them that their political rivals, the Congress as well as the AAP, are also in a mess even as the next assembly elections are scheduled in a little more than a year.