On the road to Liberty

Why does the India media blow hot and cold over China, every now and then? I look at this phenomenon in " Breaking news: TV battles China ", published in the Financial Express, on 25 Sept 2009. Apart from any geopolitical factors, there are two plausible explanations for the current focus on the China-India border, particularly on a few TV news channels in India. We are being daily fed with reports of Chinese incursions, China’s aggressive postures, China’s military buildup, China painting rocks red, and then the media is blowing hot and cold over whether the Indian military is capable or ill prepared to deal with any situation that may arise. Indian government has repeated that there is nothing unusual happening on the border. Indian military has said there has been nothing unusual on the border. But of course the media knows better. I know very little about the Chinese response to the war being waged in Indian drawing rooms. One report in Indian papers quoted Chinese offic...

The new bilateral free-trade agreement between South Korea and India is not all it's cracked up to be: there are plenty of exceptions and the package will take 10 years to implement. Chung-Ho Kim of South Korean, and I argue here that fully free trade is the best possible way of recovering from the global slump, in this article titled " When free trade means so little ", published in the Mint on Aug 6 2009. India and South Korea are due to sign an agreement on Friday 7 August that they say will cut barriers and boost trade between our two important economies. But behind the political rhetoric, the reality of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is in the fine print. By signing a freetrade agreement that does not actually free trade, our governments are denying us the best tools to fight the global recession. They admit as much by saying it will pave the way for removing more barriers to commerce in the future, even though this agreement has been in th...

Repealing IPC 377: Recognising diversity and dissent Delhi High Court has passed a landmark judgment that severely restricts the scope of the section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The decision noted, “Respect for human rights requires that certain basic rights of individuals should not be capable in any circumstances of being overridden by the majority, even if they think that the public interest so requires. Other rights should be capable of being overridden only in very restricted circumstances. These are rights which belong to individuals simply by virtue of their humanity, independently of any utilitarian calculation.” In this article titled, " Recognising diversity and dissent " , published in Pragati: The National Interest magazine, in August 2009, I discuss the significance of decriminalising Section 377 of the penal code in the wider political and constitutional context. The Delhi High Court’s ruling decriminalising consensual adult homosexual acts has not only ena...

The tiger is facing extinction. If the present trend continues, there will be no tiger left in the wild. There is no inherent conflict between commerce and conservation. In India, wildlife is nationalised and is not within the marketplace. The restriction of supply has raised prices and increased profitability of illegal sales. The opportunity to profit will increase supply and eliminate all threats of extinction. My article titled "India's Big Cats" was published in The Asia Magazine on 24th April 2009. It is generally said that the demand for tiger parts is the cause of the tiger’s plight. Consequently, trade in tiger parts has been banned, and hunting prohibited. But prohibition only increases profitability. When trade is outlawed, only outlaws undertake trade. Not surprisingly, over a quarter century of prohibition has failed to secure the future of the tiger. Clearly, it is time to ask whether commerce and conservation are inherently incompatible, or whether c...

Months before the general election to the 15th Lok Sabha, there has been a sustained effort by sections of citizens for the 'None of the Above' option in the ballot. At a time, when citizens are to assess the candidates in their own constituencies, and make their choice, this call for the "no vote" seems to be directed at negating the whole democratic process. In this article, " Vote! Because ‘No Vote’ is no solution " published in Pragoti: The National Interest , the monthly magazine in April 2009, I give my reasons against this "No Vote". In the aftermath of the terrorist strike in Mumbai in November 2008, many people expressed their anger and frustration at the political leadership. An idea that has gained new currency has been the decade-old proposal to introduce a negative option in the ballot – “None of the Above”, or simply the ‘No Vote’, to express lack of confidence in politicians as such. Even the Supreme Court has called for a larger b...

The WHO is trying to fight the huge international trade in counterfeits but faces opposition from India and others, driven by a strange coalition ranging from the far Left to business organisations: this author blows away some of the straw men these people have built up. Barun Mitra says robust trademark protection will give Indian companies a stake in quality and give Indian, and worldwide, patients the guarantees that they need. My article titled India: Urgent steps are needed to ensure quality medicines was published in The Pioneer on March 31, 2009 Indian pharmaceutical companies are supplying sub-standard drugs in Maharashtra. While the home-grown nature of the problem at least means that a solution lies in our own hands, the Government is sending a worrying signal by blocking the World Health Organisation's efforts to improve drug quality around the world. Maharashtra's Medical, Education and Drugs Secretary Bhushan Gagrani said that 547 samples of Indian-produced sub-st...

The anti-defection law is suppressing dissent and has only raised the price of switching loyalties. We need to dispassionately understand the real cost of driving political negotiations underground, I write in this article " A law endangering democracy ", published in the Mint, on 21 August 2008. Many were outraged at the display of cash in Parliament, during the trust vote, last month. But far worse was that the Prime Minister could not make his concluding statement, and that even if he had, it would have made no impact. Our anti-defection law has made parliamentary debates pointless, as in the process of substantive debate, if members of Parliament, or MPs, change their mind and defy their party whip, they face disqualification. With debates being defunct, inducements in cash or kind become the necessary tools to sway legislators. In a parliamentary democracy, numbers are important, but democracy is much more than just a numbers game. Democracy is not just about today’s ma...