Sunday Column: The Week That Was

In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the right of a citizen to seek sanction for prosecution of a public servant for corruption as it deemed it a constitutional right of a citizen. While upholding the right, the Supreme Court also set a four-month deadline for the government to decide on the plea. Furthermore, it said that sanction would be deemed granted in case the designated authority does not a take a decision within the stipulated time. 

Subramanian Swamy's plea to make Chidambaram a co-accused was dismissed by the Special Court on Saturday. While it appeared that Swamy had lost momentum, he clearly denied it, adding that on many previous occasions, the lower court hadn't given the right judgement, which he eventually obtained from the higher courts after he sought them. 

Swamy said to a gathering in Mumbai: "Prima facie, I established a case against Chidambaram and even the court agreed. I wanted the court to summon him to establish his criminality and cross-examine him as to why he agreed to the 2001 pricing and share dilution of companies." 

The controversial deal between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, and Devas Multimedia was probed by a committee - a five-member team - which was chaired by former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Pratyush Sinha. They concluded that there had been "serious lapses of judgment on the part of various officials, and in some cases the actions verged on the point of breach of public trust," as noted by The Times of India. It concluded that the former chairman of the space agency, G. Madhavan Nair, and three other scientists were responsible for the contract. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) estimated the loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs. 2 lakh crore because of the deal, which was later scrapped by the center. 

The five-year long search for a fighter culminated in the purchase of the French jet Rafale, which was chosen over the Eurofighter Typhoon for the nearly $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) programme to supply 126 fighters to the Indian Air Force. This was perhaps the largest 'open-tender' military aviation deal in the world. The first 18 jets will come in a "fly-away condition" from mid-2015 and the remaining 108 fighters will be manufactured in India over six years after a transfer of technology (ToT) to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). 

In yet another "worst place" in the world, India was officially shown, by data, to be granted the status in terms of girl-child mortality. An Indian girl child aged 1-5 years was 75% more likely to die than an Indian boy, which proves how dangerous it is for baby girls in our country. Whereas most of the world is experiencing a decline in female infant and child mortality than in male, the most populous nations - India and China - have gone against the trend. The data was released by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) which accounted for 150 countries over 40 years.   

Sunday Column: The Week That Was

If the first week of this post showed some really interesting turn of events, the second has invariably turned out to be better... Just read on...

India faced another crushing defeat Down Under, and were left mercilessly gasping for breath, after the scoreline read 4-0. It was the eighth straight loss and the second consecutive whitewash. The recent Indian performances cry out loud for hard, concrete changes in the way Indian cricket is played.

The Jaipur Literature Festival went about smoothly and without obstruction. The days were magnificent, as professed by many a men and women who spent valuable time engaging with few of the most established wordsmiths of our time. It is a very proud moment for Indians since the festival is now clearly established on the global scene.

Salman Rushdie couldn't make it even through the wide networks that could have given him a virtual presence at the Festival, but the opposition to it stayed strong, thanks to the usual suspects.

The case of Vodafone v. Government of India resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that declared no jurisdiction for the India tax authorities over Vodafone's purchase of Hutchinson's interest in its joint venture in India with Essar. It was a landmark case to which the implications are clear - to rewrite the Indian tax laws in accordance with changing times.

It was an incredible moment for the Bhattacharya couple when it was declared that their children will be returned back to their uncle in India. The government was successful in holding talks with the Norwegian authorities that ensured the children's safe return.

Army Chief general V.K Singh went to the supreme court on his controversy his birth date which was wrongly printed in the official army records due to which he has to retire earlier than the actual age in question where he termed the issue as a "question of integrity" and embarrassed the government over it.

Sunday column - The week that was

Team OpEd is introducing a new feature starting this Sunday, that aims to put forth the news, analysis and opinions that were essential, and will continue to do so, in the hope that you, the reader, will have an overview, or sum-up if you like, of all essential news that transpired in the past one week. We, as a team, are committed towards keeping readers, and ourselves, abreast with the current-affairs in our country and elsewhere, and hope the Sunday Weekly column will further our cause. 

In the past week,

General V. K.Singh challenged the government by dragging it to the Supreme Court. While it was interesting to note if the government, as it does more often than not, would adopt the method of appeasement to settle the issue, it sprung up a surprise by toughening its stand, and refusing to deal in niceties. The 'age row' can most certainly pave a way ahead by ensuring a more robust framework in the future towards military-civil relationships.

The basis for collecting political brownie points for the upcoming U. P. Elections was stunning. On the one hand, the Congress government dealt in severe obscurantism and obfuscation. They never for once took a stand on the matter and, much to everyone's expectation, succumbed to the small group of fanatics who, can easily be said, held hostage an entire nation that likes to boast of a liberal tradition. However, the more interesting development came through from S. P. which, apparently without a knowledge of the Indian constitution, declared a provision of 19% reservation. The aspect of that kinds of reservation they didn't expect was that an amendment will have to be passed in order to provide 19% reservation! To add to all the absurd political drama, BJP minister Yashwant Sinha claims "BJP is 70% pure." The basis for the number is as muddled as his belief that purity is the only answer to winning elections.

After having put FDI-in-retail under hibernation, the move to liberalise FDI in domestic airlines is welcome. While most argue that it stems from the pathetic fiscal status of many an airlines in our country, it is still to be seen whether investors will garner sufficient confidence to invest in the domestic airline market.

China's Supreme Councillor and special representative Dai Bingguo made a recent visit to India in order to pursue the 15th round of border talks. The most heartening aspect to see during the talks was a probable shift in China's attitude towards creating peace and stability along the borders separating the Asian neighbours. With fears looming large over the weakening dollar, which China thinks might be a deliberate action by the U.S. to prevent China's rise, it thinks a more fruitful option would be to mend relations with India and find common ground.

The Gujarat High Court upheld the Governor's appointment of a Lokayukta; a position that has remained headless since 2003. Justice V. M. Sahai ruled in favour of the governor because, according to her, the chief minister and the council of ministers have put democracy at stake by obstructing the appointment of the Lokayukta. The Gujarat government has moved the Supreme Court against the judgement.

The two draft laws, SOPA and PIPA, emerged a tremendous outcry against their acceptance from major global Internet companies like Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Google, so on and so forth. The laws were looked upon as a means to gag the free and open Internet, and to jeopardise on the freedom to innovate and use Internet as a way of business and commerce, in effect throttling the freedom of speech.

The U. S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, made a pitch for an international code of conduct for all space-related activities. The move will be welcomed by many since there are copious dangers that threaten to harm satellite-based communication which forms the basis of satellite imagery, navigation, media, weather forecasting, remote-sensing, space observation, and many such activities of national and international importance. It comes at a juncture where we don't yet have any legal mechanism to address issues like space-debris and the use of Earth-based weapons, which it hopes to arrest through international obligation.

The finance ministry decided to include an entire chapter on financing measures to mitigate climate change in the next annual Economic Survey. Although filled with challenges, the move, if implemented, can work wonders for mitigating climate change as there exists a direct relationship between the economy and climate change. It holds true more so for India, where such activities like Agriculture are highly dependent on the climate.