‘Development is intrinsic to a secular project’
Rajeev Bhargava, senior fellow and former director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, in an exclusive interview talks about what secularism is in India.
Model of Indian secularism
Indian secularism advocates a particularly distinct stance of separation between state and religion, which Dr. Bhargava dubs the model of principled distance. This is most unlike the absolute two-way separation practised in the U.S., or one-sided state interference in religious matters, as it obtains in France. The Indian Constitution, on the other hand,
Indian secularism advocates a particularly distinct stance of separation between state and religion, which Dr. Bhargava dubs the model of principled distance. This is most unlike the absolute two-way separation practised in the U.S., or one-sided state interference in religious matters, as it obtains in France. The Indian Constitution, on the other hand,
- authorises active state intervention to protect the freedom of religion for all and to eliminate caste and gender inequalities sanctioned by religion, as well as
- complete non-interference in religious affairs.
In a scrupulous adherence to the principled-distance model lies the future of secularism in a multi-religious society such as India. Embracing this model would enable western democracies to better reconcile religious pluralism, given that inter-religious diversity is a more recent, post-world-war phenomenon in those countries, he asserts.
The author of The Promise of India’s Secular Democracy (2010), is categorical that “In any democracy, on the basis of any interest or identity, people can start a political movement and also form a political party. So, the mere fact that a party says that it stands for Hindu or Muslim interests and takes part in democratic politics does not make such a party communal.” Indian secularism is violated only when religious identity is politicised in a manner that causes injustice to other communities.
These are communitarian parties, says Dr. Bhargava. However, “a party becomes communal if it does not observe the constraints imposed by the secular part of the Constitution. Indian secularism, within the Constitution, does not encourage any public expression, or any pursuit of interest of any community which is necessarily at the expense of another community; which articulates its interests in a way which deliberately causes harm to another community; which offends another community in a serious way which will be upheld by the judges of the courts and so on.”
Dr. Bhargava offers a strong rebuttal of the secularism versus development binary that has come to dominate the current electoral debates. “Development is intrinsic to the secular project in a religiously diverse society, to caste in a caste-ridden society and to class in a class-divided society,” he affirmed. “If some communities have been denied the benefits of development on grounds of religion, then we should say that this development is anti-secular.”
The implications of this position are obvious enough, considering how often governments and political parties trumpet claims of development or inclusive growth, largely without evidence in terms of community disaggregated data. A high proportion of Muslims are engaged in the informal sector of the economy, according to the report of the 2005 High Level Committee under Justice Rajinder Sachar. The implications of this scenario are especially acute, given India’s abysmally low provision of social protection for the general population.
IMA to ask doctors not to over-prescribe antibiotics
On Sunday, the Association launched a nation-wide campaign which will include workshops, talks and a pledge ‘on rational use of antibiotics’ being put up on the Association’s website that can be downloaded by doctors.
IMA office-bearer Dr. Narendra Saini said:
“The programme is aimed specifically at telling the doctors to not over-prescribe antibiotics, to ensure that patients aren’t encouraged to self-medicate and that patients are told about the dangers of popping antibiotics indiscriminately.”
Robots search sea bed for MH370
A possible signal detected on Thursday by Australian air force planes was ruled not to have been a fifth ping — diminishing hopes that the black boxes from the missing Boeing 777 were still signalling, beyond the cusp of their expected 30-day battery life. The joint agency co-ordination centre said a 46,713 square kilometre area of the Indian Ocean was still being searched for the plane, which went missing with 239 people aboard on March 8.
When transmissions from the underwater locator beacons cease, that search will become harder, but not impossible. But every ping detected allows search teams to triangulate further, rapidly narrowing the possible location.
The next likely stage, according to Prof Ian Wright, director of science and technology at the National Oceanography Centre, would be a coarse mapping of the sea floor using ships’ sonar. This would provide a base map for underwater robots. The same autonomous underwater vehicles found the AF447 wreckage at 3,900m. The ocean floor now being searched is 600m deeper still — a depth at which, in an apt analogy supplied by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the crushing weight of water is the equivalent of one person carrying 50 jumbo jets. This is at the limits of the Bluefin-21 robot, a 5.3 metre yellow torpedo-shaped machine which can create a high-resolution map of the seabed through sonar pulses.
Despite the greater depth, the comparatively flat Indian Ocean floor could be easier to search than the area around the mid-Atlantic ridge where AF447 was eventually found. In the current search, the echo sounding systems should be much more effective in detecting anything unusual and providing a high resolution image.
The Remora, which can function at 6,000 metres, was used in the salvage of AF447 and other crashed planes, as well as the inspection of the Titanic . Its two hydraulic arms could either tie debris to a winch or place things in a sample basket, ideally including the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
India to conduct complex interceptor missile test
In another fortnight, India will be conducting one of the most complex interceptor missile tests. For the first time a state-of-the-art interceptor missile at supersonic speed will seek to engage and destroy an incoming target missile at a very high altitude of 120-140 km over the Bay of Bengal.
Entirely new interceptor and target missiles have been developed by scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the upcoming engagement, to be conducted in exo-atmosphere (altitude above 40-50 km) on April 27 or 28. The test was originally planned to be conducted in November, 2013 but had been delayed since then.
For the first time, the interceptor missile (PDV) would be seeking to destroy the separating payload of the target missile (a modified PAD) after discriminating between the booster and the payload.
Describing it as a “big challenge,” they said the interceptor’s “kill vehicle,” equipped with a dual seeker, would attack the payload (warhead portion) as it descends towards its intended target. The advantage of intercepting an incoming missile at such a high altitude was that the debris would not fall on the ground and there would be no collateral damage.
After some more trials, India plans to deploy a two-tiered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system to protect important cities from external threats. In the first phase, incoming enemy missiles of 2,000-km range are envisaged to be waylaid and destroyed, while those with about 5,000-km range would be tackled by the interceptors in the second phase.
So far, six of the seven interceptor missile tests, carried out by the DRDO, have been successful. While two interceptions were conducted in exo-atmopshere (altitudes between 47 and 80 km) the rest were in endo-atmosphere (below 40 km altitude).
Court order puts NIA, Delhi Police in a spot
A recent Delhi High Court directive requiring personal appearance of the Union Home Secretary to explain which of the two agencies, Delhi Police or National Investigation Agency (NIA), is probing the “larger conspiracy” of Indian Mujahideen of fomenting terrorism, has triggered heated discussions in the corridors of the North Block.
The High Court, in its latest order, has recorded the NIA submission that pursuant to an order in June 2012, it had registered a case against some terror suspects. A month later, the Delhi Police Special Cell registered a separate case on similar facts, after which the NIA wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) requesting merger of both the cases and transfer of probe to the NIA. The Ministry finally decided in favour of a merger and directed the Special Cell to hand over papers to the NIA. Despite repeated reminders, no case files were transferred.
why the process of issuing private bank licences has taken so long?
The last private bank licences were awarded ten years ago in 2004. Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank came into being. At the start of the reform era, several licences were given to private players to set up “new generation private banks”. These were expected to be very different from the already existing private banks, in terms of technology, capitalisation and so on.
However, in the reform context, it is easy to see that these new banks were licensed specifically to be a model for the public sector banks, which continue to be the dominant force till date.
It is difficult to generalise but the performance of the new private banks as a class did not match the expectations of them. More significantly, only a few of them have survived, the others being gobbled up by stronger private banks. One high-flier, Global Trust Bank, had to be rescued by the government-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce. And the CRB fiasco, when a totally undeserving non-banking finance company was given an in-principle clearance to start a bank, is still fresh in our minds.
One message from the more successful ones is that their model has not been inclusive. Using technology and starting with a clean slate they have created a new paradigm essentially for the well heeled. How far their success in niche areas is relevant to bank licensing today —with its emphasis on financial inclusion — is to be seen.
Interestingly, the more successful banks set up in the 1990s and thereafter are those with good pedigree.
All the above provide an explanation as to why the process of issuing private bank licences has taken so long. The RBI has, for very valid reasons, been conservative. Bank licensing is a sensitive subject always. More so when private players, including corporates, were to be considered. In fact, the suggestion to include corporates among those who can bid has been the most controversial. The RBI itself was opposed to it and most of the responses to the discussion papers were not in favour.
How the process started?
- It was in 2010 that the then Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, first mooted the proposal to issue a few private bank licences in his budget speech.
- The RBI circulated discussion papers and elicited responses from a wide range of people. Guidelines were framed after that. After two of them withdrew, 25 were considered.
- The first round of scrutiny was done at RBI.
- To further vet the applicants who meet the eligibility criteria and also to avoid any bias, the RBI appointed a High Level Advisory Committee (HLAC) headed by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan. It is on the basis of this committee’s recommendations that the first two licences were awarded.
No comments:
Post a Comment