India Legal 31 July 2017

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Also:JewarAirport—theNewHorizon
J&K: The Big Bang
of Soft Power
Lateral Induction:
Out with the Babus?

HE NITI Aayog (read Modi Administration)
recommendation to employ persons from the
private sector at all levels of the government
—including secretary and joint secretary
postings—could have massive political and
organisational ramifications for the government as
Indians have known it to function since Independence.
The mainstream media has paid scant attention to
what could be a step as significant as demonetisation
and the implementation of the GST regime and it is
going largely undebated. It could alter irrevocably
the philosophy and vision which have allowed the
Indian state to withstand political shocks and periods
of instability.
However much we may curse babus and babudom,
there is no gainsaying that in a Westminster-style par-
liamentary democracy, the Indian Administrative
Service (IAS) and allied organisations provide conti-
nuity, law and order, and prevent any precipitous
plunge into fiscal or administrative anarchy
because of the powers of delegated legislation. It
is for that reason that these services are known
as the “steel frame” of governance. It is on this
infrastructure of orderliness that indispensa-
ble arms of the government—the military,
courts, essential services like transport—
function.
Career civil servants, in fact, are
sworn to function within the Rule
of Law. Their oath of office is to
the Constitution of India and
not to any political master.
They are, in fact, given pro-
tection from having to obey
illegal orders. That they are
transferred, harassed, hounded,
exiled to bureaucratic Gulags for
daring to question the authority of
political “bosses” who are, as
Narendra Modi has stated, sevaks
(servants) of the people—the real sov-
ereigns—who elect them, is part of
the real world. But there are enough
of them who stand up and say No Minister, or leave a
paper trail behind, which is an act of subtle whistle-
blowing on a wayward minister who thinks he is king.
According to recent statistics given to parliament,
there are 4,926 IAS officers as against their total
authorised strength of 6,396. There is a shortage of
over 1,400 IAS, 900 Indian Police Service (IPS) and
560 Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers in the country,
according to Union minister Jitendra Singh. “The
government has increased annual intake of IAS offi-
cers to 180 during last four years. The annual intake of
IFS officers has been increased to 110 and of IPS offi-
cers to 150 from 2015 and 2009 examination respec-
tively,” he said in a written statement. They form the
creamy layer of India’s vast 3.3 million central govern-
ment workers.
But is this sufficient ground to open the floodgates
to lateral induction of outsiders in the middle rung of
ministries that deal with economy and infrastructure?
According to a news report, “instructions have come
from the Prime Minister’s Office to prepare a broad
outline of modalities for selecting private individuals
for appointment in the ranks of deputy secretary,
director and joint secretary”.
T
he lateral induction of experts from outside the
career civil service is not prohibited by law. In
fact, the Appointments Committee of the
Cabinet, chaired by the prime minister, is authorised
to do so. Some notable persons of eminence who have
joined the government through this route include for-
mer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, head of the
RBI Urjit Patel; Sam Pitroda, the father of India’s tele-
com revolution who was a private corporate head in
the US; economic wizard Montek Singh Ahluwalia of
the World Bank who became finance secretary and
then deputy chairman of the Planning Commission
holding a cabinet rank; Vijay Kelkar, GST architect;
Nandan Nilekani from Infosys; former Tata
Consultancy Services vice-chairman S Ramadorai;
Arun Maira from the Boston Consulting Group;
Mahindra Land Systems CEO Raghu Raman; Rohini
Malkani from CITI; former RBI chief Raghuram
LATERAL INDUCTION:
CAPTURING THE BABUS?
Inderjit Badhwar
Letter from the Editor
T
| INDIA LEGAL | July 31, 2017 3

Letter from the Editor
Rajan from Chicago and Rakesh Mohan, former eco-
nomic advisor, commerce secretary and deputy gover-
nor of the RBI. Few could argue with their domain
expertise or standing in the world community. And
they were not easy to find, and once found, used selec-
tively and with great caution so as not to alter or inter-
fere with the basic functioning of the civil service.
Most of them were a-political. Rakesh Mohan, a Yale
graduate, and an admirer of Manmohan Singh, was
inducted by Prime Minister Vajpayee. Yet some were
made targets by the career bureaucracy: Pitroda,
genius that he is, was hindered in his functioning and
even made the target of investigations by Telecom
Minister KP Unnikrishnan and his senior bureaucrats,
and later by the BJP in his post as technical advisor to
the Odisha government.
The clash between political appointees and career
civil servants is an old story. Some of it has to do with
sheer politics, much of it with the subject of good gov-
ernance. While there is no gainsaying that domain ex-
pertise and leadership from outside the “system” is de-
sirable in many cases, the wholesale induction of out-
siders blocks the career path of deserving babus. It
also leads to the evils of the spoils system, patronage,
corruption, and destruction of the continuity of good
policies when there is an exodus of political appointees
following the defeat of a government after an election.
Even under the American presidential system,
there are safeguards. Because of the separation of
powers and the right of a directly elected president to
form his own team to run the government, he has the
right to choose his top bureaucrats from anywhere
along with their confidential assistants without any
competitive procedures. But there are limits and
checks and balances in which the career civil servants
predominate and are safeguarded from arbitrary
dismissals and adverse actions from political
appointees. In fact, political appointees cannot, willy
nilly, occupy positions traditionally served by career
federal employees.
T
here are 1,212 senior leaders, chosen by the
President, including cabinet secretaries and
their deputies, heads of most independent
agencies and ambassadors, who must be confirmed by
the Senate. A “Schedule C” is a type of political
appointment in the United States who serves in confi-
dential or policy roles immediately subordinate to
other appointees. As of 2016, there were 1,403
“Schedule C” appointees. This category does not need
Senate confirmation.
According to a Brookings Institution report, politi-
cal appointees constitute only a tiny fraction of the
federal work force, numbering slightly over 3,000 gov-
ernment-wide. By contrast, there are approximately 2.l
million civilian career employees in the Executive
Branch departments and agencies (excluding the
semi-autonomous United States Postal Service).
Career employees work under "merit system" rules,
through which vacancies are filled by competitive pro-
cedures. Formal qualifications—including educational
requirements and both general and specialized work
experience—are established for every position and
grade. Promotions beyond pre-determined "career lad-
ders" are also subject to competition. The agency
responsible for monitoring and implementing the civil
4 July 31, 2017

service system is the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM), America’s version of India’s Union Public
Service Commission (UPSC).
As government expert and analyst David Cohen
puts it, OPM’s objective is to safeguard fair and open
competition and protect against political influence in
the hiring for career Federal jobs. With this in mind,
the two most common reasons for OPM not to
approve a proposed selection are 1) when the career
job appears to have been created or tailored solely for
the benefit of the current or former political appointee
or, 2) when competition for the career job has been
limited inappropriately.
He observes: “While the 3,000 political appointees
at the top cannot be blamed for all the ills of the feder-
al government, they are a large part of the problem.
They make the job of the career civil servant harder,
draining his energy and dampening his creativity and
initiative. They comprise whole layers of unnecessary
bureaucracy and impede communications and work
flow. They often have fish other than their manage-
ment duties to fry, and some of those fish have a bad
smell. They also cost us a lot of money.”
There are similarities with India. According to
Swarajya: “The opposition to lateral entry comes from
the apprehension that such appointments will not be
made by merit. Currently, top bureaucracy is inducted
into the civil services through a fiercely competitive
and largely fair examination conducted by the Union
Public Service Commission (UPSC) which deservedly
prides itself on being the watchdog of the merit system
in India. Lateral appointments will be made at the
sweet will of the political masters and will mostly
induct loyalists, hampering the neutrality of the civil
services. It will lead to nepotism. Further, career
bureaucrats know the government machinery inside-
out and, therefore, are more efficient at producing
results with limited resources.”
And Insights IAS, a website devoted exclusively to
UPSC and civil service matters, notes that there is
discontent among India’s government servants.
“Large-scale lateral induction would, in fact, amount
to a vote of no-confidence in the government person-
nel management system, rather than in the highly
dedicated, motivated and talented officers who have
chosen to join the civil services. For this, the remedy
lies not through lateral induction but through more
rigorous performance appraisal and improved person-
nel management.”
It concludes that while India’s civil services need
reform, “internal reforms—such as insulation from
political pressure and career paths linked to specialisa-
tion—and external reforms such as lateral entry are
complementary, addressing the same deficiencies from
different angles. Thus, lateral entry cannot be a pana-
cea for everything. It has been an exception in the In-
dian civil service system and should continue to be so”.
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater in order
to mould a civil service to carry out political objectives
and an ideological agenda, instead of delivering justice
and services, is not in the national interest.
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
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Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
OUTSIDERS WITHIN
(L-R) Manmohan Singh;
Raghuram Rajan;
S Ramadorai; Arun Maira;
Montek Singh Ahluwalia; Sam
Pitroda; and Nandan Nilekani

ContentsVOLUME. X ISSUE. 37
JULY31,2017
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Technical Executive Anubhav Tyagi
6 July 31, 2017
Poised to Take Off
Jewar airport has got the green signal from the government, but questions remain about
who will get to build it and the transparency of the land acquisition process
20
Raking It in
CAG reports and related documents reveal improprieties and favouritism in the award of
contracts and land to DIAL-GMR which runs IGI airport
14
LEAD
The First Citizen
There have been many illustrious occupants of Rashtrapati Bhavan who have refused to be
rubber stamps. Will President Ram Nath Kovind continue this tradition?
24
SPOTLIGHT

REGULARS
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Contact:editor@indialegallive.com
Ringside............................8
Delhi Durbar......................9
Courts.............................10
National Briefs .........12, 33
Media Watch ..................45
International Briefs..........50
Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE
Flagging off a Row
Karnataka’s order constituting a committee to study the feasibility
of a separate flag for it may sow the seeds of regionalism
34
COLUMN
The Power of
Nostalgia
Recent polling suggests that 30 percent
of Americans support Donald Trump
because they resist change and cling to a
glorified view of the past
49
Fooling
the System
There have been several
cases where court orders
have been forged by
charlatans. Can authorities
check the authenticity of all
the orders they get?
36
FOCUS
Luxury Behind Bars
Karnataka DIG Roopa Divakar is not the first bureaucrat to be shunted aside for
being a whistle-blower, there have been others before her
JAILS
MYSPACE
Soft Power in J&K
The centre can learn lessons from PV Narasimha Rao’s
diplomacy which won the confidence of Kashmiris in the 1990s
28
42
The Height of Incompetence
The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench says many standing
counsels of the UP government are clueless about legal matters
40
COURTS
Cast Aside Prejudice
Maharashtra becomes the first state to enact the progressive Protection of People
from Social Boycott Act that will help stem discrimination
ACTS&BILLS
46
Manipur’s Killing Fields
The CBI has been asked to form a special investigating team to
probe fake encounters by the armed forces in this state
27
STATES

8 July 31, 2017
“
RINGSIDE
India does not need Gopalkrishna Gandhi as
vice-president and Gopalkrishna Gandhi is
perfectly happy to not be in any public office. But
India needs an Indian citizen to be elected to that
office who will make the vice-presidency what its
first incumbent Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan made
it: a flagstaff for the Republic’s ethos, the
Constitution’s values and the aspirations of
India’s 36 states and Union territories.
—Vice-President candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in
The Times of India
There is a need to show
strength and unity as a
country and that starts
around the cabinet
table. No backbiting, no
carping. The choice is
me or Jeremy Corbyn—
and no one wants him.
—UK Prime Minister
Theresa May, speaking
to her ministers
Aadhaar is not a secret
number like your password
or PIN, which can material-
ly affect your life tomorrow
if it is leaked without your
knowledge. It is not like
your Aadhaar number is
leaked and your bank
account gets emptied out.
—Chief executive officer of
the Unique Identification
Authority of India Ajay
Bhushan Pandey, in
Scroll.com
If my average look is
my USP today, it is
because I have linked
it to my work. But we
waste too much time
over these things. Who
is anyone to decide if I
am ugly or handsome?
Everyone is good look-
ing in their own way.
—Actor Nawazuddin
Siddiqui, in Mail
Today
I don’t know how
much longer it's going
to last... But I have
just got to always
remind myself that
health comes first at
this point. If I do
that, maybe things are
actually possible whi-
ch I didn’t think were.
— Tennis star Roger
Federer, following his
8th Wimbledon win, to
Reuters
A lot of my founder col-
leagues told me not to
leave Infosys in 2014....
Generally, I find that I
am a very emotional
person. A lot of my
decisions are based on
idealism and probably
I should have listened
to them.
—Infosys co-founder NR
Narayana Murthy, in an
interview to CNBC TV18
Modi speaks eloquently,
but he speaks to him-
self. Reactions against
Modi are building up in
the country, and within
BJP and the Sangh
parivar…. Modi is one
person in whom the
element of self-delusion
is very high. He is
working himself up
into a belligerent mood.
—Former Union
Minister S Jaipal
Reddy, in The Wire

State governments were recently surprised
by the advisory from the PMO requesting
that the PM should be gifted “a book or a
khadi handkerchief and not bouquets” dur-
ing his visits and at functions. According to
sources, it was a speech given by Modi in
Kerala last month during which he elaborat-
ed on the joys of reading and the gift of
knowledge that books bring that inspired
the circular. The officious note from the
PMO typically stated: "It has been desired
by the competent authority that no bouquet
may be presented to the Prime Minister dur-
ing his tours within India. At best, one flower
along with a khadi handkerchief or a book
may be presented to welcome the digni-
tary.” Meanwhile, railway minister Suresh Pr-
abhu, perhaps taking a leaf out of the PM’s
notebook, has requested that he should not
be felicitated with bouquets at functions or-
ganised by his ministry. In fact, he has gone
a step further and banned flowers outright.
An inside track on
happenings in Lutyen’s Delhi
Delhi
Durbar
TRUMP: THE USP
The media wing of the Congress
already has a dozen plus young
men and women. But party
sources say Congress President
Sonia Gandhi is not quite
impressed either by their PR strat-
egy or their interactions with the
press. So, she has gone in for the
time tested old is gold approach
and has appointed a few wise men
over their heads. They have been
appropriately called the communi-
cation strategy group and com-
prise of seasoned warhorses Mani
Shankar Aiyar, Jairam Ramesh,
and Anand Sharma at the top.
The trio will be assisted by a slight-
ly younger but well-informed lot—
Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajeev
Gowda and Sushmita Dev. The
new team will apparently develop
themes which the younger
spokespersons can then elaborate
upon. The news of the media
team’s expansion has been the
subject of a few jokes at the party
headquarters, including the one
about the team soon having more
numbers than the Congress in the
Lok Sabha.
OLD IS GOLD
The aviation ministry is buzzing with news
of the Air India Maharaja being slowly dive-
sted of its glory. While there are reports of
the Tatas and IndiGo showing interest in
buying, it will, indeed, be a brave outfit whi-
ch will be ready to shoulder the over
`50,000 crore debt plaguing the national
carrier. While there are reports of the gov-
ernment likely to waive off `25,000 crore of
this debt, another option could be selling
off its subsidiaries. These include Hotel Co-
rporation of India Limited, Air India Expr-
ess, Airline Allied Services Limited, Air In-
dia Engineering Services Ltd and Air
India Transport Services Limited.
There is also the profitable JV with
Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS
Ltd) called AISATS.
As for the eventual buyer, there is spec-
ulation that SpiceJet’s Ajay Singh is the
man. He has denied it. But he could be the
dark horse considering his proximity to the
BJP. After all, he was a
member of the party’s
2014 election cam-
paign and coined the
slogan, Ab Ki Baar,
Modi Sarkar. So, will the
new Air India catch
phrase be “Chalo
Maharaj, Let’s
Spice It Up.”
THE SPICE BUZZ
NO BOUQUETS PLEASE
The Trump name sells. It’s not
just the recent renaming of Mal-
ad village in Jhunjhunu, Rajas-
than, as Trump Sulabh Village, by
Bindeshwar Pathak’s Sulabh
Intenational which promotes san-
itation. India has at least five real-
ty projects going on at the
moment, branded after the US
President. The 75-storey, 300-
apartment Trump Towers coming
up in Lower Parel, Mumbai, is
being developed by the Lodha
Group post a deal signed in
2013. Then there is the twin tow-
er project of 23 storeys each, in
Pune’s Kalyan Nagar, being built
by Panchshil Realty. That deal
was inked in 2014. The Trump
Organisation has also licensed
the use of his name for a high-
end office building on Gurgaon's
Golf Course Extension Road, to
be constructed by IREO, and has
reportedly tied up with M3M India
to build a residential tower in the
city. In Kolkata, Unimark Group
will raise a 38-storey project on
the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Jairam Ramesh, and Anand Sharma

On consecutive days in the week, a
nine-judge bench of the Supreme
Court heard views on Aadhaar and its
relation to privacy as a fundamental right
of Indians.
On July 19, the bench itself observed
that privacy was an amor-
phous concept and it can-
not be an absolute right.
On the second day, the
bench heard some persua-
sive arguments from legal
eagles, who showed how
India had been a signatory
to several international
treaties which spell out pri-
vacy as an essential com-
ponent of the basic rights
of a human being. Senior
advocates Anand Grover
and Sajan Poovayya
appearing for the petitioners argued that
as a result, it was obligatory for the gov-
ernment to include right to privacy in its
domestic laws. Their contention was that
if India had acquiesced to this at several
international forums, how could it deny its
own citizens similar rights?
Poovayya also put forward the argu-
ment that the right to privacy was categor-
ically mentioned in the RTI Act (Section 8)
and the Indian Post Office Act 1898.
The arguments will continue in the
apex court on July 25.
The oversight committee to monitor the
functioning of the Medical Council of
India (MCI) was approved by the Supreme
Court recently. The names of the doctors
for the panel were selected by the centre.
Observing that there were major flaws
in the functioning of the MCI—which vio-
lated rules and regulations with impuni-
ty—the apex court had set up an over-
sight committee in May last year. The
committee was to function for a year till
another sustainable and strict system was
put in place by the centre. As that was not
done, the Court had asked the centre to
form another panel.
The five-judge bench looking into the
matter acknowledged that the doctors
selected were indeed reputed. They are:
Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New
Delhi; Dr VK Paul, Professor & Head,
Paediatrics, AIIMS; Dr Jagat Ram,
Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh; Dr BN
Gangadharan, Director, NIMHANS,
Bengaluru; and Dr Nikhil Tandon, Profe-
ssor & Head, Endocrinology, AIIMS.
The Court ordered that the committee
start functioning with immediate effect.
Considering that members may not
spare time for MCI, the Court ruled that
the centre may “seek substitution of the
names” if the need arises. The centre was
also given the go-ahead to decide who
will be the chairman.
Policy decision
on GM Mustard
Courts
10 July 31, 2017
In response to a petition alleg-
ing that the centre had already
started commercial cultivation
of genetically-modified (GM)
mustard seeds, the Supreme
Court asked the government
not to start cultivation if it
hadn’t decided on the commer-
cial release of GM mustard.
The centre, represented by
Additional Solicitor General
Tushar Mehta, assured the
Court that the policy decision,
once taken, will be conveyed to
the Court before it was imple-
mented. All angles of the issue
were still being looked into at
present, he informed the Court.
He will apprise the Court about
the centre’s plans on July 24,
the next date of hearing.
The bench dealing with the
case observed that the issue
was critical and a “well-infor-
med” stand must be arrived at
before a final call is taken by
the centre. Once implemented,
the process can’t be rolled
back, it commented. The peti-
tioners had expressed concern
that the issue of GM seeds
affecting domestic varieties of
Mustard must be weighed on
legal parameters. The Court
agreed with their stand.
The top court had in Octo-
ber last year ruled that the stay
on the commercial roll-out of
GM Mustard crops be further
extended till further orders.
MCI oversight panel
approved
SC hears
arguments
on Aadhaar

Essar Steel’s petition before the Gujarat
High Court against the RBI directive to
banks to start insolvency proceedings
against it did not find favour with the
Court. While dismissing the plea, the
Court observed that the RBI was abso-
lutely right in issuing the directive and the
banks could recover debts legally.
Essar Steel owes banks more than
`45,000 crore. As per the RBI order and
the court ruling, the banks can now pro-
ceed against the company in the National
Company Law Tribunal under the Insol-
vency and Bankruptcy Code.
Essar objected to its name being inc-
luded along with 12 defaulter companies
in the RBI directive on the ground that it
was done arbitrarily and without taking
into account the restructuring proposal
that was passed by the company’s board.
Financial and operational strides made by
the company since March 2016 were also
not considered, the steel major pleaded.
Insolvencyproceedings
againstEssar
Chief Justice of India JS Khehar refe-
rred a petition questioning the consti-
tutional validity of Article 35A before a
three-judge bench. The PIL was filed by
a Delhi-based NGO, We the Citizens.
Article 35A grants special status to
residents of J&K and restricts Indians
belonging to other parts of India from
buying immovable property in the state
or getting state government jobs. They
also can’t reap benefits of welfare sche-
mes launched by the state, settle in any
part of J&K or vote there.
The centre wanted the issue to be
debated extensively instead of filing a
response to the two-year-old PIL. It
requested the CJI to refer the matter to a
larger bench for final hearing. The matter
will come up before the new bench after
six weeks.
Article 35A referred to larger bench
Delhi Police was asked by the Delhi
High Court to submit its latest report
on investigations into the death of Sun-
anda Pushkar. The Court gave three days
to file the report. It was responding to a
plea filed by Subramanian Swamy. The
BJP leader had sought a multi-agency pr-
obe under the CBI monitored by the Court
into the matter. The Delhi Police pleaded
that Swamy had made strong allegations
against it, so the Court must give it time
to clear the air. The probe was at the con-
cluding stage, it said. The Court, asking
the police to provide the report to MHA
and CBI, fixed the matter for August 31.
SunandaPushkarcase
— Compiled by Prabir Biswas
Adistrict court in
Chandigarh did not
allow a 10-year-old rape
survivor to undergo abor-
tion on the ground that
the pregnancy was con-
firmed after the fetus was
26 weeks old. As per the
current law, medical ter-
mination of pregnancy is
not allowed beyond 20
weeks. In case of abor-
tion sought after 20 wee-
ks, the Supreme Court
needs to be approached
and the reason should be
convincing enough for the
Court to consider the
plea. The apex court has
granted MTP in several
cases as an exception in
the last one year.
As per to reports, the
child had been raped
multiple times, allegedly
by her uncle. Doctors say
pregnancy at her age
could be life threatening.
Chandigarh
court rejects
abortion
There was relief for the parents of a
Manipuri youth, Irom Roger, who was
the victim of road rage in 2011. He was
killed by Ajay Meitei, son of Manipur CM
Biren Singh. The Supreme Court last
week asked the CRPF to provide
them security. It also allowed protec-
tion to the social activist supporting
the couple and the advocate who had
taken up their case.
The Court also transferred the
case from the Manipur High Court to
Gauhati High Court. The parents had
alleged that the CM was threatening
them using his influence so that they
withdraw the case for a tougher pun-
ishment for his son in the Manipur High
Court. They even pleaded that their life
was in danger in Manipur. The district
and sessions judge of Imphal had awar-
ded a five-year jail term to Ajay. The par-
ents had also alleged that no lawyer was
willing to take up the case in Manipur.
Parents of Manipuri
youth to get security
Manipur CM
Biren Singh

Briefs
The Prevention of Destru-
ction of Public Property
Amendment Bill is being
reworked by the union home
ministry to exclude political
leaders from its ambit. This is
even though it had in 2015
argued for measures to hold
leaders of political parties acc-
ountable for damage caused
during bandhs, protests and
demonstrations and sought
that the outfits pay for them.
Insiders believe the move
comes after consultations with
states wherein law enforce-
ment agencies felt that such a
law may be misused against
opposition leaders. However,
changes will be made to the
bill’s language asking leaders
to exercise “due diligence”
while engaging in protests.
The Bill is supposed to
come up for discussion in
the monsoon session and it
also proposes to make such
offences non-bailable unless
there is enough evidence
to believe that the accused is
not guilty.
Changes favouring
politicians in bill
—Compiled by Sucheta Dasgupta
and Lilly Paul
An emotional Venkaiah Naidu
bid goodbye to his urban
development and information
and broadcasting ministries
when he was picked by the prime
minister, Narendra Modi, and
the BJP president, Amit Shah, as
the NDA’s vice-presidential
choice. The vice-presidential
polls are slated for August 5.
Textiles minister Smriti Irani
and Gwalior MP Narendra
Tomar were given the charge of
I&B and urban development,
respectively. However, a cabinet
reshuffle may be imminent at the
end of the monsoon session,
which finishes on August 11.
The Central Bureau of
Investigation has sum-
moned Karti Chidambaram,
son of former finance minister
P Chidambaram, to appear be-
fore it on July 21 for question-
ing. The matter relates to
alleged irregularities in Foreign
Investment Promotion Board
clearance which was given to
INX Media group while his
father was finance minister.
Karti allegedly received money
from the firm. This is the sec-
ond time he is being sum-
moned as he failed to turn up
when summoned earlier. He
had moved the Madras High
Court against the summons.
The central govern-
ment has refused
any further exchange of
old `500 and `1,000
notes. It stated that this
would defeat the very
purpose of demonetisa-
tion and elimination of
black money seeing as
people with SBNs (speci-
fied bank notes) would
have enough time and
opportunity to plan rea-
sons for not depositing
the notes within the per-
mitted period that ended
December 30, 2016.
The finance ministry’s
refusal came in response
to the apex court’s sug-
gestion to consider giv-
ing an opportunity to
people who couldn’t
exchange their notes.
The government also
said that possession of
demonetised currency
notes is an offence and
that it is not legally
bound to grant another
chance to deposit the
scrapped notes.
Govt refuses window for
depositing old notes
VenkaiahNaiduforVP
12 July 31, 2017
Two days after Shurhozeilie
Liezietsu failed to turn up for
trust vote, Nagaland Chief Minister
TR Zeliang has won it. On July 19,
Zeliang was sworn in as the
19th CM of the state. He has
the support of 47 MLAs.
Zeliang was reappointed
to the post even after being report-
edly expelled from Nagaland Peoples
Front. After Zeliang’s claim of hav-
ing the requisite numbers and the
government’s directive asking for a
floor test, Liezietsu had moved the
Gauhati High Court calling it
unconstitutional.
TR Zeliang wins trust vote, is new Nagaland CM
CBI summons Karti
Chidambaram

NO HOLDS BARRED
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PEDKI DEVI,
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EXCLUSIVE

Lead/ Aviation/ GMR Group
IRPORT privatisation has
many plusses, including
plusher and swankier air-
ports offering services and
facilities which measure
up to international stan-
dards. But behind the glitter, there is
also a downside. This has nothing to do
with the concept of privatisation per se.
It has more to do with the manner in
which public-private partnerships are
forged and executed and how some
players are unduly favoured in the
process. In fact, in aviation circles it is
an open secret that private players who
operate airports in India are covertly
allowed to indulge in questionable
accounting practices by vested interests
and strike deals to maximise profits.
This has resulted in loss of revenue to
the public exchequer running into thou-
sands of crores.
The harsh realities thrown up by
auditors since 2012 of the state of affairs
at Indira Gandhi International (IGI)
Airport is an affirmation of this. CAG’s
(Comptroller and Auditor General) 2016
draft revenue audit, accessed by India
Legal, pegs the revenue loss for the gov-
ernment from non-aeronautical services
at this one airport in the last six years at
`2,396.88 crore. If the land given away
at rock bottom prices and the conces-
sions are also added up, then the
amount will be well over `25,000 crore.
And if the notional revenue generated
from land given for commercial exploi-
tation over a period of 57 years is com-
puted, it works out to a mind-boggling
`1,63,557 crore.
COMMITMENT NOT HONOURED
The private player mainly responsible
for causing this loss and giving privati-
A
Allegationsof
suspectaccountingpractices
andlanddealshavegivenDelhi
airport’sprivatisationabad
name.Withanewmegaport
plannedatJewar,
willfavouritismrulethe
roostagain?
By India Legal Bureau
14 July 31, 2017
PRIVATE BLUES: Audit of
Indira Gandhi International
Airport reveals unfair practices
in the name of privatisation
Lift-off on

public partnership. But CAG’s draft
revenue audit shows that this commit-
ment was not honoured all these years
in letter and spirit.
Not just that. There were other bene-
fits showered on DIAL by the civil avia-
tion ministry with the approval of the
UPA government at the centre. Thus, in
violation of all rules and conditions agr-
eed upon, the company was allowed to
charge Airport Development Fees (ADF)
from passengers vide ministry of civil
aviation order No. AV 24011/002/2008-
AD dated February 9, 2009. The money
collected, amounting to `3523 crore,
was used to cover the project cost of the
upgradation of the airport. Thus, 27.72
percent of the capital expenditure of
`12,857 crore for the project came from
development fees paid by passengers.
This money should have been raised
by DIAL through loans or from its eq-
uity partners.
The 2016 audit observations read in
conjunction with the CAG report of
2012 which was sharply critical of
DIAL-GMR and the Ministry of Civil
Aviation (MoCA) for the privatisation of
IGI airport is of great relevance, with
the union government giving the go-
ahead last month for the construction of
a second international airport for Delhi
at Jewar, Uttar Pradesh.
Ever since this formal announce-
ment, the buzz in aviation circles is that
GMR-DIAL may well bag the contract
(see accompanying story). It is widely
believed that it has the edge as it already
runs Delhi’s IGI Airport and privatisa-
tion rules are explicit that the first right
of refusal goes to the company which
runs an airport within 150 km of the
proposed new facility. This effectively
means that even if another bidder quot-
ed up to 10 percent higher than GMR, it
has the right to match the bid and cor-
ner the contract.
AIRPORT DUOPOLY
Airport privatisation, ever since its int-
roduction in 2006, has been the virtual
monopoly of two infrastructure con-
glomerates—GVK and GMR. Between
sation a bad name is Delhi International
Airport Pvt. Ltd (DIAL)—a company in
which the infrastructure conglomerate
GMR has a majority stake. Under the
PPP contract, DIAL had agreed to share
45.99 percent of its revenue with
Airports Authority of India (AAI), the
nodal government agency in the private-
TheCAG’srevenueauditpegs
therevenuelossforthe
governmentfromnon-aeronauti-
calservicesatIGIairportinthe
lastsixyearsat`2,396.88cr.
Rajeev Tyagi
Deals

them they have carved out airports that
service over 60 percent of traffic in the
country. This duopoly is maintained by
an unwritten code which dictates that
one allows the other to pip past the post
at the final stages of bidding.
In its May 22, 2017 issue, India Legal
had revealed how the `16,000 crore
contract for building and operating the
new Navi Mumbai International airport
was sealed in favour of the GVK group
after all other bidders mysteriously bac-
ked out. Finally, the two contenders left
were GVK and the GMR. The latter
offered 10.44 percent of its revenue
share to the nodal agency appointed by
the Maharashtra government to execute
the project—the City Industrial Deve-
lopment Corporation (CIDCO). GVK
offered 12.6 percent and walked away
with the contract. There were allega-
tions that the bidding process was
“manipulated” to ensure that GVK wins.
This group operates international
airports in Mumbai, Bangalore and is
setting up the Navi Mumbai airport.
GMR operates in Delhi and Hyderabad,
and has bagged the contract for Goa
allegedly with help from GVK which
pulled out at the last minute. Going by
this trend, the speculation is that the
new airport in Delhi, at Jewar, will be
one more facility under GMR’s control.
REVENUE SHARING
But what does CAG’s draft revenue audit
report of 2016 reveal of DIAL’s style of
operations? For one, it sharply pulls up
DIAL-GMR for floating separate joint
ventures (JVs) for non-aeronautical
services at IGI Airport which impacted
the revenue share due to AAI. According
to the revenue audit, this loss amounted
to `2,396.88 crore from 2010-11 to
2015-16. Non-aeronautical services
include duty free shops, food stalls,
parking services, cargo handling and
fuelling facilities.
There is nothing illegal in the private
operator sub-letting work. In fact,
Article 2.1.2 (iv) of the Operation
Management Development Agreement
(OMDA) recognises DIAL’s right to con-
tract or sub-contract its functions. But
the agreement does not permit the oper-
ator to be in a JV with the firms to
All pre-bid conditions must be
declared upfront and monetized
value of all concessions, including
assets transferred, should be arrived
at before bids are invited. Any post-
bid concessions, which are not con-
templated earlier, amount to undue
favour to the concessionaire.
Revenue earned by the govern-
ment must be commensurate with
the public asset transferred to the
private entity. In case of revenue-
sharing agreements, adequate care
should be taken to clearly list out the
items to be included as shareable
revenue. Its quantification and its
verification by all the interested par-
ties need to be clearly defined.
All public-private partnerships
(PPP) must be linked to basic trig-
gers like traffic volume, tariff, return
on investment, break-even period. A
long concession period without any
trigger may lead to undue financial
benefit to the concessionaire.
Clauses such as Right of First
Refusal should not be designed to
thwart competition and create a
monopolistic situation.
In bid evaluation, weightage allo-
cation to higher non-aeronautical
revenue share needs to be revisited
for future bids.
As land is a major input of govern-
ment share for PPP infrastructure
projects, due care must be taken to
monetise the value in public interest.
A proper survey through a govern-
ment-approved surveyor/valuer
should be conducted to find the
exact area of airport land, hospitality
area, etc. AAI should obtain clear
title deeds in respect of total area
handed over to private airport opera-
tors to avoid future disputes.
Seven-Foldpath
In its report, CAG had seven
recommendations which could
serve as a marker for future air-
port privatization initiatives:
16 July 31, 2017
DifferencesbetweenOMDA,the
StateSupportAgreementandthe
AirportEconomicRegulatory
AuthorityActwereexploitedto
maximiseprofitsforDIAL-GMR.

only 32 percent. It is of this 32 percent
that the company gives 45.99 per cent to
AAI. So, for every `100 worth of sales,
AAI got only `14.72 when it should be
getting `45.99. The loss thus accrued by
AAI from duty-free shops was `561
crore. From other JV entities (see chart),
it varied from `292.444 crore to `158.70
crore. The audit report notes that the
loss of revenue to AAI added up to
`2,396.88 crore.
Article 8.57.7 (d) of OMDA states
SUCCESSFUL TAKE OFF
(Top) Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi
International Airport in Delhi before its
inauguration in 2010;
(right) a view of the tarmac
which it sub-lets work. DIAL outsour-
ced services from 11 companies with
which it had JVs and had equity partici-
pation in them ranging from 26 to 50
percent. It also collected `503 crore
from these ventures as security deposit
shown in the books as unsecured loans.
According to the draft revenue audit,
the “OMDA permitted revenue sharing
arrangement between AAI and the JVC
(DIAL) only and therefore, outsour-
cing/sub-contracting its functions on
revenue sharing basis to its JVs by
DIAL was against the provisions of the
OMDA”. The draft audit also noted that
the JVs were formed to dilute the 45.99
percent revenue share to be paid to AAI.
To quote the audit report: “While
DIAL was able to benefit by transferring
its cost of operations in respect of out-
sourced non-aeronautical services to
these JVs, AAI suffered revenue loss as
AAI’s share was restricted to 45.99 per
cent of the revenue share of DIAL obtai-
ned from these JV’s as per their respec-
tive agreements. Thus, the effective rev-
enue share from DIAL, due to the for-
mation of these JVs ranged from 4.60 to
25.29 percent instead of 45.99 per cent.”
AAI’S MONUMENTAL LOSS
In simple terms, the money that DIAL
shares with AAI depends on the deal the
former has cut with individual compa-
nies providing non-aeronautical servi-
ces. Thus, in Delhi Duty Free Services
Pvt Ltd, DIAL has 49.90 percent equity
and has agreed on a revenue share of
Anil Shakya

that every such contract for non-aero-
nautical services shall be on “an arms-
length basis”. An arms-length transac-
tion is defined by the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
as “transaction between parties that do
not have a particular or special relation-
ship that makes prices of transactions
uncharacteristic of market conditions.
The transaction is presumed to be
between unrelated parties each acting
independently.” Equity participation
of DIAL in the companies it sub-let
services to does not make them arms-
length deals. CAG had red-flagged these
contracts in its 2012 report but the
practice continues.
In fact, five years ago, CAG had made
this significant observation: “DIAL
can outsource both aeronautical and
non-aeronautical services, though so
far it has outsourced only non-aeronau-
tical services. Outsourcing of all the ser-
vices in future cannot be overruled at
this stage which would significantly
affect the revenue share adversely in the
long run.”
The 2012 CAG report on IGI Airport
had detailed how differences between
OMDA, the State Support Agreement
(SSA) and the Airport Economic
Regulatory Authority Act (AERA Act)
were exploited or twisted to maximise
profits for DIAL-GMR. Such loopholes,
it was recommended, must be plugged.
But that apparently has not been done.
LAND ALLOTMENT
The privatisation programme was
kicked off in 2006 in Delhi with the
Airports Authority of India—the nodal
government agency—setting up a sub-
sidiary company, the Delhi International
Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL). It subsequently
sold 74 percent of shares in the compa-
ny to the GMR consortium which was
awarded the airport contract. The GMR
Group is the majority stakeholder with
50.1 percent stake; AAI has 26 percent;
Fraport AG and Malaysia Airports, 10
percent each and India Development
Fund, 3.9 percent.
According to the CAG report, there
were problems with the entire process,
starting with the allotment of land. The
total land area initially leased out to
DIAL for development of the airport
was 4,608.9 acres. A further 190.19
acres was demanded by the company
which was duly awarded for a one-time
fee of `6.19 crore. Then the entire land,
adding up to 4,799.09 acres, was leased
out for 58 years at a throwaway price.
The CAG report explains why it came to
that conclusion.
Article 2.2.4 of OMDA permitted
DIAL to utilise 5 percent of the total
land area of 4,799.09 acres for commer-
cial purposes. This worked out to 239.95
acres. This land for business exploita-
tion was estimated to be worth `24,000
crore by the Airport Economic Regu-
latory Authority (AERA). It was given
away along with the rest of the airport
land for 58 years on a down payment of
`31 lakh and a lease of `100 per annum!
Neither the AAI nor the civil aviation
ministry thought it a fit case for negoti-
ating separately for the land being put
to commercial use.
DUBIOUS DEALS
To quote the CAG report: “Audit is con-
strained to observe that against the
aforementioned calculations, the
Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) allo-
wed DIAL to use 239.95 acres of land
for commercial exploitation at a consid-
eration for one-time payment of `31
lakh and an annual payment of ‘One
hundred only.’” The CAG report also
underlined that AAI had leased out 7.60
acres of land to the Director General of
LosstoAAIduetoJVsbyDIAL
Name of the JV
Revenue share
due to AAI
Revenue actually
paid to AAI
Loss
Delhi Duty Free Services
Pvt. Ltd.
1754.57 561.46 1193.11
Celebi Delhi Cargo
Terminal Pvt. Ltd
812.31 292.44 519.87
TIM Delhi Airport
Advertising Pvt. Ltd
374.61 206.03 168.58
Delhi Cargo Services
Pvt. Ltd
142.18 34.13 108.05
Travel Foods Services
(Delhi Terminal 3) Pvt. Ltd.
143.86 29.01 114.85
(Amount in Rs Crore)
18 July 31, 2017

Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Avia-
tion Security at a license fee of `2.41
crore per annum.
The CAG report observed: “The (civil
aviation) Ministry has not been able to
provide a convincing reply as to why a
private operator should be levied a fee
which is much lower than that fixed by
Government as payable by its own
departments.”
According to the CAG report, the
“projected earning capacity of this land
(239.95 acres) in terms of license fee
over the concession period of 58 years
was indicated by DIAL itself as `681.63
crore per-acre in a letter to the Joint
Secretary, MoCA (Ministry of Civil
Aviation). Thus, for the entire area of
239.95 acres, the potential earning from
the land, according to the calculations
worked out by DIAL itself, amounts to
`1,63,557 crore. The audit would like to
draw attention to the fact that this area
is part of the entire area of land that has
been handed over to DIAL at the lease
rent of `100 per annum.”
There are many lessons to be learnt
from the IGI Airport experience. The
CAG report was never critical of privati-
sation. In fact, it observed that “PPPs
are an appropriate way for airport devel-
opment and modernisation.” However, it
expressed displeasure at the way con-
tracts were drawn up to favour the pri-
vate player.
To quote: “More rigour was neces-
sary in drafting of the transaction docu-
ments as it was noticed in audit that
many of the provisions were more ske-
wed in favour of the concessionaire. It
was also noticed that the Ministry of
Civil Aviation and the AAI, on some
occasions, violated the provisions of
these transaction documents in the
interest of the concessionaire.”
As and when the bidding process
begins for the new airport at Jewar, the
CAG report of 2012 and the draft rev-
enue audit report needs to be revisited.
That exercise may ensure that past mis-
takes are not repeated and the bidding
process is truly competitive and minus
the Right of First Refusal (ROFR)
clause. Crucially, CAG had observed that
this right which rests with DIAL for the
second airport at Delhi was an unfair
advantage. “This provision thwarts com-
petition and provides DIAL with a natu-
ral advantage on the second airport,” it
said. The government would do well to
scrap the ROFR when bids are invited
for Jewar. That will save it from the
embarrassment that happened at Navi
Mumbai.
Let us hope the best company wins
the bid.
“Morerigourwasnecessaryindrafting
ofthetransactiondocumentsasitwas
noticedinauditthatmanyofthe
provisionsweremoreskewedinfavour
oftheconcessionaire.”
—CAGreportonDelhi
internationalairport.
FAULTY BEGINNINGS: (L-R) Privatisation of
airports has been plagued with problems
since 2006; former PM Manmohan Singh,
Sonia Gandhi, Minister for Civil Aviation, Praful
Patel, Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit and GM Rao,
founder chairman of GMR at the inauguration
PIB

Lead/ Aviation/ Jewar Airport
20 July 31, 2017
ITH the government
giving the nod for a
greenfield airport at
Jewar in Greater
Noida, UP, the enor-
mous strain on IGI
Airport in Delhi will lessen. However,
considerable groundwork—starting
from acquiring land, inviting bids,
short-listing suitable bidders and awar-
ding contracts without favouring any
contenders—will have to be completed
before the project moves forward. The
preparatory work before bidding begins
could itself take at least five years, acc-
ording to a source linked to one of the
interested bidders. But the good news is
that the first step has been taken. The
project had faced many ups and downs
with the plan being conceived in 2001
by the Rajnath Singh-BJP government
W
BOON FOR
THE REGION
A representative
image of a future
flight to Greater
Noida
Cleared for
Take OffThegovernment’sgreenlightforanairportinGreater
Noidaiswelcomebutquestionsremainaboutwhowill
gettobuilditandthetransparencyandfairnessofthe
landacquisitionprocess
By Shobha John
wikimedia.org

in UP. Then the Mayawati and SP gov-
ernments tried to revive the project but
faced hurdles.
TAKING LOAD OFF
This Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
will be undertaken by Yamuna Express-
way Industrial Development Authority
and is some 72 km from IGI. It is
expected to handle 30-50 million pas-
sengers per year and will take the load
off IGI airport which currently handles
nearly 62 million passengers every year.
This is expected to go up to 109.33 mil-
lion passengers by 2024. Therefore,
another airport close by will come as a
breather. It will also give a fillip to Pri-
me Minister Modi government’s Udan
scheme of regional connectivity. With
domestic air traffic growing at around
20 percent (from January 2016 till
February 2017) as compared to growth
after 2011 which was 9 percent, aviation
in India looks bright. Already, May saw
domestic passengers crossing the one
crore mark.
The Jewar project has set some uni-
que precedents. A document on “Policy
on Airport Infrastructure” brought out
by the government in August 2011 clear-
ly says: “No Greenfield airport will nor-
mally be allowed within an aerial dis-
tance of 150 kilometers of an existing
airport”. The document, strangely, has a
provision for projects which violate that
clause. It says: “A greenfield airport may
be permitted where an existing airport
is unable to meet the projected require-
ments of traffic or a new focal point of
traffic emerges with sufficient viability.
It can be allowed both as a replacement
for an existing airport or for simultane-
ous operation.” The document also spec-
ifies that: “Where it is allowed as a sec-
ond airport in the same city or close
vicinity, the parameters for distribution
of traffic between the two airports will
be clearly spelt out.”
RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL
This naturally begs the question: Who
will build this international airport?
Former Minister of State for Civil Avi-
ation Mahesh Sharma had once said
that the GMR Group, which operates
IGI Airport in Delhi, would be preferred
for developing the proposed airport.
GROWING PRESSURE
IGI Airport in Delhi handles 62 million
passengers every year, and the new
airport will take off much of the load
UNI

Lead/ Aviation/ Jewar Airport
22 July 31, 2017
He said GMR Group—the majority
stakeholder in the venture that operates
the Delhi International Airport—is pro-
posed to be accorded the Right of First
Refusal with regard to the new project.
According to the “State Support
Agreement in relation to the Moder-
nisation and Restructuring of the Delhi
Airport” between The President of India
on behalf of the Government of India
and Delhi International Airport Private
Ltd. on April 26, 2006, Section 3.4 deal-
ing with Right of First Refusal says:
“The Right of First Refusal (ROFR)
with regard to a second airport within a
150 km radius of the Airport will be
given to the JVC by following a competi-
tive bidding process, in which the JVC
can also participate if it wishes to exer-
cise its ROFR”.
This effectively means that GMR is
likely to bid for this airport too, leaving
other contenders by the wayside. Con-
sidering that GMR already runs Delhi
and Hyderabad airports while GVK
manages Mumbai and Navi Mumbai
airports, it means that these two con-
glomerates have virtually a stranglehold
on the sector.
DUOPOLISTIC MOVES
As a senior aviation source points out:
“Why should there be a Right-of-First-
Refusal clause in the first place? No one
is in this business for charity and these
companies have made enough and more
money from non-aeronautical sources
such as a shops and hotels near the air-
port. If I was a bidder, I would join
hands with other bidders and we would
quote a price lower than GMR’s. How
can the government then give the con-
tract to GMR or GVK?”
In the context of Jewar, the Yamuna
Expressway Industrial Development
Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of
land for the international airport. Out of
this, 1,000 hectares will be acquired
under the first phase which could take
5-6 years and cost `10,000 crore.
The entire project is expected to cost
`15,000 crore to `20,000 crore. There
will be one runway in the first phase and
three more runways will be developed
subsequently.
LESSONS FROM COCHIN
One of the major hurdles to be over-
come is land acquisition (see box). In
the first phase, land will be procured
from some nine villages at an estimated
cost of `6,000 crore. The villages ear-
marked for it include Mukeempur, Kish-
orepur, Banwaripur, Siwara and Rohi.
Authorities could take some acquisi-
tion lessons from Cochin airport, which
was India’s first PPP airport. India Legal
spoke to VJ Kurian, the managing direc-
tor of Cochin International Airport Ltd
(CIAL) and the person who conceived
this model in India. In 1995, moves
were made to start an international air-
port in the sylvan surroundings of
Nedumbassery, 25 km from Cochin,
which then had an airport which
SETTING A PRECEDENT
Cochin Airport was India’s first
airport in PPP mode, for which
1,300 acres was acquired
apaoindia.com
T
he process of acquiring land
for Jewar airport has begun in
earnest with reports of
Yamuna Expressway Industrial
Development Authority chairman
Prabhat Kumar saying he would
request the UP government give
about `200 crore for expediting the
process.
“Once we have the funds, we
will be able to start the land acqui-
sition process, which is a lengthy
procedure. We have already start-
ed the process of changing the
land use in the Master Plan-2031,
he reportedly said. He also sought
a dedicated team to complete the
task of buying the land and reset-
tling farmers.
Though there were reports that
land had already been acquired for
the project when Mayawati was the
UP CM (2007-2012), the next SP
government scrapped the project.
UP’s industrial development com-
missioner Anil Kumar Gupta had
then said that no work had been
done on Jewar airport except the
identification of land. “At Jewar we
had not acquired land. The govern-
ment had reserved it,” he had said.
Though there have been official
statements that GMR may be the
operator to build Jewar, a top offi-
cial told India Legal that the con-
glomerate had not acquired any
land there.
LandAcquisition
atJewar

belonged to the Navy. Kurian and his
dedicated team managed to acquire
1,300 acres from 3,000 land-
owners with funding from nearly
10,000 NRIs in 30 countries. There
were 822 people staying there then.
Kurian said that the acquisition
process for CIAL took three years and
many sops were thrown in the rehabili-
tation package for those evicted from
the land acquired for the project. “We
went in for a negotiated settlement and
gave the owners three times the market
value of their land. Six cents (435.6
sq.ft. and enough to build a small house)
of land was given free of cost to each
family which had lost its house, irre-
spective of the land acquired. The valua-
tion was made without deducting any
depreciation.”
The process included other incen-
tives. For instance, those evicted could
dismantle the house and take away
doors, window frames and steel for re-
use. They were also provided with all
civic amenities—bituminised roads,
street lighting, electricity, drainage and
water connections.
Preference was given to these people
for unskilled jobs at the airport. Also,
those who couldn’t be accommodated in
jobs were given taxi permits and allowed
to ply from the airport. Today, says
Kurian, they earn up to `40,000 a
month and it is a permanent job.
While there have been other PPP air-
ports after Cochin such as Bengaluru,
Hyderabad, Kannur and Durgapur, said
Kurian, most have been on government
land and so acquisition was not a prob-
lem. Despite Kurian’s best efforts and
his dedicated team of 31, of which 5-6
were solely involved with the strategies
of the acquisition process, some 2,000
cases were filed against CIAL. After
some 36 rounds of discussions and
much persuasion, matters were settled
and the airport finally took off in 1999.
Kurian said that in the course of this
airport project, he had to work under
three chief ministers—Congress’ K
Karunakaran and AK Anthony and
Left’s EK Nayanar. He admits that the
full backing of a CM like Karunakaran
saw this PPP airport project taking off.
“It was a crazy idea then as it hadn’t
ever been done before, but he backed
me fully.”
AN AEROTROPOLIS?
In that sense, Jewar should be an easier
airport to build as the political dispensa-
tion both in UP and the centre—BJP—is
the same. The coming up of this airport
so close to Greater Noida will also give a
fillip to many industries, especially in
electronics and real estate. It is believed
that significant investments are already
coming in from major players like
Samsung. The airport is also expected
to boost tourism to places such as
Mathura, Vrindavan and Agra. The
metro service in Noida is also expected
to be extended up to Jewar in order to
improve connectivity.
What’s more, this airport is expected
to act as an aerotropolis where the air-
port is in the center with cities growing
around them, quite like Stockholm’s
Arlanda, Amsterdam’s Schiphol and
London’s Heathrow. So Jewar airport
could be the epicenter for major cities in
western UP such as Noida, Agra,
Mathura, Meerut, Vrindavan, Meerut,
Moradabad and Bulandshahr.
Private air operators are already
gung-ho about it. Rajan Mehra, COO of
Club One Air, a major charter operator,
told India Legal that it was becoming
increasingly difficult to obtain parking
slots in Delhi airport. Mehra said:
“General aviation, therefore, welcomes
the new airport at Jewar. Its close vicini-
ty to Delhi would make it an ideal loca-
tion for private jets to land and park. We
expect the new airport operators to
associate more closely with private oper-
ators. We could consider bidding for
FBO (a fixed-base operator is granted
the right by an airport to provide aero-
nautical services such as fueling, aircraft
rental, aircraft maintenance, etc) there.
With the huge land base available at the
new site, we expect the airport operator
to encourage MRO activity and permit
companies like ours to build and oper-
ate hangers for parking and mainte-
nance of our planes.”
Mehra added that UP was becoming
an important state for businesses and
several corporate houses were now tar-
geting smaller cities there for manufac-
turing and selling goods. “We have a
large data base of clients who regu-
larly travel to towns there such as Mora-
dabad, Bareilly, Meerut, Agra, Saifai,
Etawah, Kanpur, Varanasi, Ghazipur,
Faizabad and Azamgarh. With Agra
being closer, tourist charters would also
increase,” Mehra said
Such optimism, however, still rests
on there being no setbacks in land
acquisition and the bidding process
which could extend the five-year
deadline. In any event, a second air-
port for Delhi is an idea whose time
has come.
VJKurian,MD
ofCochin
International
AirportLtd,said
theygavethe
ownersthree
timesthemar-
ketvalueoftheir
landduringland
acquisition.
RajanMehra,
COOofClubOne
Air,amajorchar-
teroperator,
saidJewar’s
closevicinityto
Delhimakesit
anideallocation
forparkingof
privatejets.

Spotlight/ Office of President
24 July 31, 2017
INALLY, the constitutional
battle between the govern-
ment and the Opposition for
the election of the President
has come to an end and Ram
Nath Kovind, the second
Dalit President, has emerged as the 14th
President of India. He will be entitled to
an official residence free of cost, a salary
of `1.5 lakh free of taxes and enjoy all
constitutional privileges. But the path to
the election of a President is not easy.
The procedure for electing the
President is laid down in Article 55 of
the constitution. It is unique and origi-
nal in the sense that no other constitu-
tion in the world has this procedure.
FHailtothe
ChiefThehighestofficeinthecountryhasoftenhadincumbents
withanindependentwayofthinking.WillRamNathKovind
kowtowtothepresentgovernmentorstrikeoutonhisown?
By Vinay Vats
PIB

The President is the first citizen of
India and this post is considered the
highest in the country. Although India
is one of the largest democracies in the
world, interestingly, this first citizen is
not elected directly by the people.
Constitution makers were in great
dilemma as to whether the President
should be elected directly by the people.
Ultimately, they resorted to indirect
election so that the real power resides
with the minsters and not the President
as such. There was a fear that a directly
elected President may emerge as a cen-
tre of power in future.
ELECTION PROCESS
He is elected by an electoral college
consisting of all the elected members of
both the Houses of Parliament and
elected members of the legislative
assemblies of states. Article 53(3) of the
constitution lays down that the election
shall be done in accordance with the
system of proportional representation
by means of single transferable votes by
secret ballot.
Votes casted by the members of the
Electoral College are not of equal value
and it is apportioned amongst them
according to two principles:
*Article 55(2)(a) lays down the for-
mula for achieving uniformity in the
scale of representation of different states
in the presidential election. For exam-
ple, in state assemblies, each legislative
member’s vote is calculated as follows:
the population of the state is divided by
the number of elected members of that
assembly and then divided by 1,000.
And if the remainder in this division is
500 or more, then it will be counted as 1
and each member’s vote will be
increased by 1.
For example, if the population of
Bihar is 42,126,236, according to the
1971 Census, and total number of elect-
ed members of the Bihar legislative
assembly is 243, then the number of
votes which every member of the legisla-
tive assembly is entitled to will be
42,126,236 divided by 243 and then fur-
ther divided by 1,000 to come to 173
(The actual number is 173.358 but the
.358 is discarded as it is less than 500).
Hence, the total votes casted by this
assembly will be 173 × 243 = 42,039.
*Now to achieve parity of votes
among elected members of the parlia-
ment and members of state assemblies,
the following formula is laid down in
Article 55(2)(c). The total number of
votes assigned to members of state leg-
islative assemblies is divided by the total
elected members of both Houses of par-
liament. Suppose the collective number
of votes of legislative assemblies of all
states is 5,49,495 and total elected
members of both the houses is 776, then
the value of vote of each MP will be
5,49,495 divided by 776, which is 708.
Hence, the total value of votes of all
MPs is 776 × 708 = 5,49,408. The total
value of votes for the presidential elec-
tion in 2017 was total value of MLA
votes plus total value of MP votes which
came to 5,49,495. This was added to
5,49,408 to come to 10,98,903.
At the time of voting, each voter gets
a ballot paper with the names of the
candidates. MLAs get a pink ballot
paper and MPs, green. Voters mark
preferences for each candidate. The
winning candidate has to acquire one
vote more than 50 percent of the total
votes cast.
INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTS
India has a parliamentary form of gov-
ernment. This means that the head of
the state is the constitutional head, ie,
the President. Though the executive
powers are bestowed with the President,
the same is exercised by the President
on the aid and advice of the council of
ministers.
However, there have been cases
where the President has exercised his
powers and not been bound by the
council of ministers. Soon after the elec-
tion of Dr Rajendra Prasad as the first
President of India, it was evident that he
was not bound by the aid and advice of
the council of ministers. At the inaugu-
ration ceremony of the Indian Law
Institute on November 28, 1960, he
said a President is not bound by the
APJAbdulKalam
WasthefirstbachelorPresidentandaMuslim.Heassertedhisrightsbynotonly
refusingtosigntheOfficeofProfitBillbutsendingitbacktothePM.

Spotlight/ Office of President
26 July 31, 2017
advice of the council of ministers. This
kindled many debates.
The same practice was followed by
Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. On many
occasions, he had criticised the working
of the government but acted as a strong
pillar during the war with China in 1962
and Pakistan in 1965. He even criticised
Nehru’s China policy.
It will not be wrong to say that the
first decline in the powers of the post of
the President came in 1969 with Indira
Gandhi selecting VV Giri as a presiden-
tial candidate. Against all opposition,
she kept supporting Giri who was an
independent candidate, instead of
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy because he was
the choice of the Syndicate (a rebel
Congress grouping). The only purpose
was to establish her sole authority with-
in the Congress. This led to President
Giri’s high loyalty towards the PM.
The impact of the influence of the
PM on a President was also evident
when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
signed the Emergency order in 1975. By
this time, the discretionary powers of
the President were curtailed almost
completely by the 42nd and 44th
Amendment of the constitution.
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy’s election as
President in 1977 was a landmark as he
is the only president elected unopposed.
His relation with PM Morarji Desai
soured as he opposed benefits being
given to offspring of politicians. He also
formulated the appointment of PM with
the condition that in case of any doubt
about the PM’s power to enjoy majority,
he would be asked to prove it.
However, if the President is a well-
educated and scholarly person and is
independent, this office can achieve a
different dimension. During the tenure
of KR Narayanan, the first Dalit presi-
dent, he used his discretionary powers
to innovate and improvise and twice
returned for reconsideration question-
able cabinet decisions. In other words,
he was never a “rubber stamp” figure.
During the communal riots of Gujarat
in March 2002, he said with anguish
that it was a “grave crisis of society and
the nation”.
President APJ Abdul Kalam, a
Muslim and the first bachelor President,
also known as the people’s President,
too asserted his rights. He not only
refused to sign the Office of Profit Bill
but sent it back to the PM, Speaker of
the Lok Sabha and chairman of the
Rajya Sabha.
Another chapter has begun with
President Kovind’s appointment. It will
be interesting to see if he will represent
all those “sweating it out (for) their
evening meals”.
—The writer is an advocate.
Duringthecommunalriotsof
GujaratinMarch2002,President
KRNarayanansaidwithanguish
thatitwasa“gravecrisisof
societyandthenation”.
VV Giri
Itwillnotbewrongtosaythatthe
firstdeclineinthepowersofthe
postofthePresidentcamewith
IndiraGandhiselectingVVGiriin
1969.ThisledtothePresident’s
highloyaltytowardsthePM.
NeelamSanjivaReddy
Hiselectionin1977wasalandmark
asheistheonlypresidenttobe
electedunopposed.Hisrelations
withPMMorarjiDesaisouredashe
opposedbenefitsbeinggivento
offspringofpoliticians.
KR Narayanan
HewasthefirstDalitpresident.
Heusedhisdiscretionary
powerstoinnovateand
improviseandtwicereturnedfor
reconsiderationquestionable
cabinetdecisions.

States/ Manipur
Supreme Court bench com-
prising of Justices Madan
B Lokur and UU Lalit has
directed the CBI to register
FIRs and constitute a spe-
cial investigating team (SIT) of five of its
officers to probe extra-judicial killings
and fake encounters by the Army,
Assam Rifles and the police in insur-
gency-hit Manipur.
The apex court directive was part
of its July 14 judgment on a petition
filed by the Extra-Judicial Execution
Victims’ Families Association (EVAM)
on alleged killings in fake encounters
by security forces in Manipur. The peti-
tioners included the wives and mothers
of victims. The bench took note of
submissions in the Amicus Curiae re-
port prepared by Menaka Guruswamy
which suggested that only an independ-
ent investigation by an SIT will lend
credibility to any probe into the extra
judicial killings.
The bench, making a strong case for
a trial by a special court constituted by
the SC, made this observation: “We have
perused the tabular statement given
with regard to cases with written com-
plaints, oral complaints and eye-witness
accounts as well as family claimed cases
but find that apart from a simple allega-
tion being made, no substantive steps
appear to have been taken by either
lodging a First Information Report
(FIR) or by filing a writ petition in the
concerned High Court or making a com-
plaint to the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC)”.
The apex court directed the CBI
director to nominate the SIT within
two weeks, which will lodge the neces-
sary FIRs and complete the investiga-
tion into the fake encounters by
December 31.
Calling upon states to adhere to the
National Human Rights Commission
guidelines, the bench said: “It is not as
if the dignity of only living persons
needs to be respected, even the dignity
of the dead must be given due respect”.
The Court further said: “Having consi-
dered the issues in their entirety, we
are of opinion that it would be appro-
priate if the Central Bureau of Investi-
gation is required to look into these fake
encounters or use of excessive or retalia-
tory force.”
The bench relied on an earlier SC
order of July 8, 2016 and the views of a
Constitution Bench in Naga People’s
Movement of Human Rights v. Union
of India, in which it had held that an
allegation of use of excessive force or
retaliatory force by uniformed person-
nel resulting in the death of any person
necessitates a thorough enquiry into
the incident.
The court directed the centre and
Manipur to extend full cooperation and
assistance to the SIT without any
“unnecessary hindrances or obstacles.”
The Court further gave directions that
the petitions be listed for the second
week of January, 2018 to ensure compli-
ance by the CBI.
SIT to
Probe
Killings
Theapexcourthasordered
aninvestigationintofake
encounters
By Rajesh Kumar
A
TheBenchsaid:“Itisnotas
ifthedignityofonlyliving
personsneedstoberespected,
eventhedignityofthedeadmust
begivenduerespect.”
CHECK THE ARMY
Manipuri people stage a dharna against
the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
in Imphal
UNI

HE holding of elections
to three parliamentary
seats from JK in 1996,
followed by state assem-
bly polls in September-
October were both con-
sidered a political master-
stroke in bringing normalcy back into
the militancy hit state.
Barely six years earlier, a parliamen-
tary delegation that visited JK for
assessing the security and political situa-
tion there, came to the conclusion that
India had lost the state to gun-wielding
separatists. The sea change that occu-
rred was not due to any witchcraft but
adroit statecraft and a calibrated three-
year-long quiet internal diplomacy. The
Chanakya behind this transformation
was none other than the so-called
“indecisive” prime minister, PV Nara-
simha Rao.
The PM faced several setbacks but he
persevered. For example, when he was
to make a critical broadcast announce-
ment over AIR and Doordarshan laying
down the government’s approach to
restoring autonomy to JK, the officials
goofed up. This broadcast on November
4, 1995, now famously referred to as
“sky is the limit (for JK autonomy)
but within the Indian constitution”, had
to be made from Burkina Faso in Africa
which Rao was visiting. The TV camera-
States/ Govt’s Kashmir Policy
T
EvenasthecentregropesforacoherentpolicytotackleexplodingKashmir,itcanlearnlessons
fromformerPMNarasimhaRao’sdiplomacywhichwontheconfidenceofKashmirisandkept
thedialoguegoingwithPakistan
By S Narendra
28 July 31, 2017
When Soft Power
Was the Bullet...
bp.blogspot.com

After the meeting, he confided to
some of us that he was keen to revive
the democratic activity in the state, He
directed me to work towards reviving
the state media outlets that had come
under both government and militant
pressure.
An important signal went out when
he carved out of the home ministry a
department of Kashmir Affairs that was
made to work directly under the PMO.
Former home and cabinet secretary
Naresh Chandra was drafted as his per-
sonal adviser on JK. Another close
confident, Rajesh Pilot, was made MoS
in charge of this new set-up. Pilot was
that the centre and the JK government
should spare no effort in ensuring ade-
quate supplies of essential items like
fuel and food to people during the com-
ing winter months. He also signalled
that development works should not be
stalled by budgetary constraints or by
militant activity.
MULTI-PRONGED
APPROACH
(Left) Rao met
Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif on
several occasions
despite Pakistan's
effort to sabotage
chances of peace in
the Valley
(Below) Rao’s close
confidante Rajesh
Pilot opened new
channels of
communication with
political parties and
common people in
the Valley
man who recorded the broadcast had
forgotten to insert the recording tape!
Then, in early 1995, terrorists occu-
pied the Charar-e-Sharif holy shrine sit-
uated in a crowded neighbourhood of
Srinagar. There was a two-month-long
stand-off between the well-armed ter-
rorists and the Indian security forces.
On May 10, the terrorists set fire to the
shrine, compelling the security forces to
counter-attack. They succeeded in whip-
ping up anti-India protests and revers-
ing a normalising situation. A similar
terrorist attempt had been made in 1993
by destroying the shopping mall in the
capital’s Lal Chowk.
Strategically, Pak-supported terror-
ists were targeting state political institu-
tions and leaders in order to scare the
latter from participating in reviving the
democratic political process preceding
any election. During a parliamentary
debate on the incident in May 1995,
almost all parties opposed the conduct
of assembly elections.
The PM’s response to this opposition
was measured, conciliatory and filled
with humility. But he reaffirmed his
commitment to ending President’s Rule
sooner but through the process of demo-
cratic dialogue. For sending an unequiv-
ocal message to separatists and their
patrons everywhere, Rao engineered the
introduction of a parliamentary resolu-
tion by the opposition declaring JK as
an integral part of India.
Not many remember the “weak PVN”
declaring in parliament that India had
not forgotten its “unfinished business”
in JK, a reference to India’s claim for
Pak-occupied Kashmir. This was a
riposte to statements from Islamabad
that it would wage 1,000 years of war
for wresting JK.
Surprisingly, Narasimha Rao began
his moves for dealing with the JK
problem when he was in the political
dog house weeks after the Babri Masjid
demolition on December 6, 1992. A rou-
tine political affairs committee meeting
had ended late in the evening around
the end of the year. Among other things,
the PM directed the concerned officials
InRao’sopinion,theprolonging
ofPresident’sRuleinJKwas
provingcounter-productive.It
couldhelpPakistanreviveits
caseforaplebiscite.
M. Shylla
jkpolice.gov.in

I
t was a holiday. I had attended a meet-
ing in the PM’s house reviewing the sit-
uation created by the takeover of the
holy shrine of Charar-e-Sharif by terrorists.
Almost in every situation review meeting,
the government’s directive to the security
agency chiefs was to avoid storming of
the shrine as well as prevent civilian
causalities. The strategy was to wear out
the terrorists and not provoke them to
destroy the shrine.
What was unsaid was that there
should not be a repeat of Operation Blue
Star of 1984.
I was watching BBC news late in the
afternoon. To my shock, BBC announced
that Indian security forces had stormed
Charar-e-Sharif. The BBC corres-pondent,
an Indian, in a voice-over described the
attack on the shrine and compared it to
the storming of the Golden Temple in
Amritsar during Ope-ration Blue Star. I
immediately contacted the home min-
istry’s control room but the officer there
had no such information. BSF forces
deployed in the outer perimeter of the
BBCand
Charar-e-Sharif
given the freedom to open new channels
of communication with anyone in JK
who was willing to talk to the govern-
ment. Previously, only the intelligence
wings were communicating with the
agitating Kashmiris.
The MoS in the PMO, Bhuvanesh
Chaturvedi and the PM’s secretary, KR
Venugopal were entrusted with the task
of undertaking frequent visits to the
state (accompanied by secretaries of
development departments) for nudging
the state officials to implement key
development works. Both the minister
and Venugopal were free to meet not
Plans were also initiated for opening
new routes for bypassing Banihal tun-
nel, prone to blockage by snow and new
railway lines to the state.
T
he low-profile, step-by-step ini-
tiatives were never in the lime-
light, yet probed many fronts for
opening doors there and closing it for
Pakistan and its proxies. In Rao’s opin-
ion, the prolonging of President’s Rule
in JK was proving counter-productive.
Besides undermining India’s democratic
credentials, it could help Pakistan to
revive its case for a plebiscite.
In early 1993, restriction on foreign
media from visiting the Valley for
reporting was relaxed. Expectedly, the
initial flood of reporting was critical but
soon, such reporting also focused on the
prevailing violence and disruption of
ordinary people’s lives.
The opening of the locked-down
state to media was followed by permit-
ting foreign diplomats to visit the state.
The militants had not only silenced the
state media but the entry of outside
newspapers had also been blocked. A
special effort was made to make avail-
able such newspapers to opinion-makers
and others in the state.
The prime minister was active in
soliciting the assistance of opposition
leaders and parties’ in reviving the polit-
ical process in the state. His own
TESTING HOUR
A big challenge to Rao’s JK policy came in
1995 when militants took over the Charar-e-
Sharif shrine in Srinagar
only officials but also ordinary people in
different parts of the state and hear the-
ir grievances and demands.
During some of the meetings, people
openly complained about corruption in
the bureaucracy and their use of mili-
tancy as an excuse not to deliver devel-
opment. It was extraordinary to hear
people suggesting that the government
should look at providing solar power to
isolated habitats and their willingness to
work for building roads to their villages.
While the government had given
clear instructions to avoid
storming the shrine, the media
house reported otherwise
Notmanyrememberthe“weak
PVN”declaringinparliamentthat
Indiahadnotforgottenits“unfin-
ishedbusiness”inJK,arefer-
encetoIndia’sclaimforPoK.
30 July 31, 2017
UNI

shrine had not moved an inch, accord-
ing to the BSF chief.
My calls to the BBC office in Delhi
were not answered. As the spokesper-
son of the government, I directly con-
tacted BBC London. On my insistence,
a senior official came on line. I told him
that the BBC news was not only incor-
rect but could lead to riots and untold
violence across India causing loss of
lives, and India would hold BBC respon-
sible for the untoward happenings. I
demanded that BBC immediately carry
my denial, if necessary by breaking into
their normal programme. I also told him
that India would be forced to take this
up at the diplomatic level.
After dithering a bit, the official asked
me to give him a few minutes and prom-
ised to call me back. Within minutes, the
head of BBC India, Andrew Whitehead,
called me from an STD booth in Agra.
He had married a few days earlier and
was on his honeymoon. Profusely apolo-
gising, Andrew asked me whether I was
officially denying the story. When I con-
firmed my denial of BBC’s story, he
promised to get the story out as soon as
possible.
As I put down the phone, BBC
London called me to assure me that
they would immediately correct the
story. And within minutes, BBC put out
my denial.
Three days later, the terrorists who
had captured the shrine started a big
fire inside the shrine and also started fir-
ing at the security forces cordoning it in
order to create a diversion and their
leader, Gul Mast, escaped. Security for-
ces were thus compelled to return the
fire. The wooden structure of the shrine
was burnt down and the cross-firing
claimed innocent lives and damaged
civilian property. According to most reli-
able versions, the Indian security forces
had exercised maximum restraint and
had not stormed the shine.
Congress party office was locked. Rao
wanted his state party chief (Rasool
Kar) to lead the process, but he was
mortally scared of becoming a target of
militants. In several rounds of meeting
with the opposition, the latter advised
against holding assembly elections until
the return of normalcy in the state. It
was obvious that political leaders were
unprepared to risk their own or their
party workers lives. Many even argued
that even if elections were eventually
held, there could be very low voter
turnout. Rao’s poser to such apprehen-
sions was whether no poll was a better
option than low poll. He offered top-
level security protection to any leader
wanting to tour the state.
Both the militants and Pakistan had
succeeded in enlisting the support of
international human rights organisa-
tions. But they tended to focus only on
the alleged abuse of human rights by
Indians forces, ignoring the violence
perpetrated by militants on ordinary
people. Amnesty International was in
the forefront of this campaign.
The prime minister took the oppor-
tunity of a Delhi conference for setting
in motion efforts to set up the Indian
Human Rights Commission. This came
into being through a Presidential Ordi-
nance in October 1993. Headed by a
retired chief justice of India, the Com-
mission proactively began to address
CUTTING
ACROSS PARTY
LINES
(Left) Rao also
enlisted the help
of BJP leader Atal
Bihari Vajpayee in
dealing with the
Kashmir issue
(Below) Lal
Chowk in Srinagar
came under
terrorist attack in
1993, when they
destroyed a
shopping mall
here
clickittefaq.com
UNI

complaints of human
rights abuse. In
a brilliant diplomatic
move, the prime minister
persuaded then opposi-
tion leader, Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, to lead a delega-
tion (that included Natio-
nal Conference leader
Farooq Abdullah) to the
UN Human Rights
Commission’s 50th ses-
sion in Geneva. Here, Pakistan, with the
support of the US, was debating human
rights issues, including their alleged
abuse in JK. The delegation presented
a united front and succeeded in beating
back Pakistan’s efforts to corner India.
Encouraging opposition leaders to
engage in parleys with the Valley’s sepa-
ratist leaders and receiving their feed-
back for tweaking his approach added to
Rao’s strength. The leaders of separatist
movement were released in batches for
facilitating their dialogue with opposi-
tion leaders and other go-betweens.
AS Dulat, who served in JK as the sen-
ior representative of the Intelligence
Bureau, in his book Kashmir: The Vaj-
payee Years records that Rao was not
perturbed by Valley leaders visiting the
Pakistan High Commission in the capi-
tal. According to him, Rao had said “if
they want to go there (Pakistan High
Commission), let them. It’s no big deal”.
Often people talk about confidence-
building measures (CBMs) for bringing
separatists to the conference table. Here
was an example of how to use CBMs
without much ado and anticipating
demands for CBMs by people feeling
alienated.
T
he prime minister’s internal dip-
lomacy was matched by his
external outreach. Despite con-
tinuous hostile acts and noises coming
from Pakistan, Rao did not let go of
oppor-tunities to meet Pakistan Prime
Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif at international
meets such as the UN General Assembly
(UNGA). In fact, the two prime minis-
ters met six times. After the last such
one-on one meeting in 1995, Rao told
some of us that his counterpart had
hinted to him that he was unable to
deliver on of any of the mutually agr-
eed key points (India had presented
“non-papers”).
Rao’s willingness to keep the dia-
logue door open with Pakistan despite
its attempts to sabotage the revival of
the political process in the Valley had
conveyed a positive message to the
Kashmiris. According to the prime min-
ister, the then US ambassador to India,
Frank Wisner, who visited JK in early
1996, had told him that the Valley peo-
ple were fed up of militancy and given a
chance, they would come out to cast
their ballots. He had also conveyed that
ordinary people were not inclined
towards Pakistan.
I was a member of the prime minis-
ter’s delegation to the UNGA (its 50th
anniversary) in November 1995. On the
plane returning to India, he sent for me.
Among other things, he brought up the
subject of preparing for JK assembly
elections as well as the general elections.
In a musing mood, the prime minister
remarked: “It is time my party and oth-
ers think of bringing fresh leaders in the
state. It is going to be a long haul.”
When eventually the assembly elec-
tions were held in September, Rao was
succeeded by HD Deve Gowda. The
National Conference under Farooq
Abdullah, which had boycotted the par-
liamentary polls held earlier, now par-
ticipated in the state poll only after the
new PM reiterated Rao’s pledge to
accord maximum autonomy.
—The writer was former Principal
Information Officer and served as
Information Adviser to the PM
WhenRaocarvedoutof
thehomeministrya
departmentofKashmir
Affairs,directlyunder
thePMO,formerhome
andcabinetsecretary
NareshChandrawas
draftedashispersonal
adviseronJK.
ASDulat,whoserved
inJKasthesenior
representativeofthe
IntelligenceBureau,
saidthatRaowasnot
perturbedbyValleylead-
ersvisitingthePakistan
HighCommissionin
thecapital.
VALLEY OF DESPAIR
The last one year has seen a
new surge of unrest
32 July 31, 2017
UNI

Briefs
The government has launched a pen-
sion scheme for senior citizens, aged
60 years and above, that would provide
an annual assured return of eight percent,
payable monthly for 10 years. The Pra-
dhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana can
be purchased offline as well as online th-
rough the state-run Life Insurance Corpo-
ration of India.
The scheme is exempt from the Goods
Services Tax. Under the scheme, one
can avail of a loan up to 75 percent of
the purchase price after three years of the
policy. Interest on the loan will be recov-
ered from the pension installments, and
the loan from the claim proceeds. It also
allows for premature exit for the treat-
ment of any critical illness of the pension-
er or spouse, during which 98 percent of
the purchase price will be refunded.
The scheme started from May 4, 2017,
and closes on May 3, 2018.
—Compiled by Usha Rani Das and Lilly Paul
Pensionwith
assured8%
return
AAP, NITI Aayog and the health
ministry, along with the technical
partnership of World Bank, have pro-
posed a public-private partnership
(PPP) model to provide diagnosis and
treatment for non-communicable dis-
eases. The diagnosis would be available
in non-metro cities in three fields,
namely cardiac sciences, oncology and
pulmonary sciences.
Under this model, the centres would
run in district hospitals based in Tier 2
or 3 cities. The patients would be divid-
ed into two categories—those who are
capable of paying for their own treat-
ment and others who would be paid by
the government under various schemes.
PPP model for healthcare
The Indian Council for Medical
Research and the department of
biotechnology have drafted guidelines on
who can conduct research in the sphere of
stem cells. The step has been taken given
the stem cell clinics that have popped up
across the country claiming to cure any
medical condition from diabetes to
autism. The council, on its three-page list,
has mentioned the medical conditions for
which stem cell therapy can be offered,
excluding conditions such as motor neu-
ron disease, mental retardation and mus-
cular dystrophy. The draft makes it clear
that doctors have to stick to their respec-
tive areas of specialisation.
Guidelines for stem
cell research
The Delhi High Court has issued a
notice to the finance ministry and
the GST Council on a petition filed
against the 12 percent GST being levied
on sanitary napkins, asking it to be either
dropped or reduced. The bench has
sought a response from the ministry and
the Council by November 15.
The petition stated the government’s
decision to group sanitary napkins with
toys, leather goods, etc., was shocking. It
termed the levying of high tax on sanitary
napkins as illegal and unconstitutional.
The petition also stated that contracep-
tives and goods like sindur and bindi
have been exempted from tax but sani-
tary napkins, which are essential for
women’s health, have been taxed.
The government has in-principle
approved the sale of Hindustan
Petroleum (HPCL) to explorer Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in or-
der to create an integrated oil company.
The Union cabinet approved 51 per-
cent equity of HPCL to ONGC while
denying an open offer to the minority
shareholders of the company. After the
acquisition, ONGC will become the
third largest refiner in the country, pre-
ceded by Indian Oil and Reliance
Industries Ltd. The transaction would
finish by the current fiscal year.
A committee headed by Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising of
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and
Road and Transport Minister Nitin
Gadkari will chalk out the process of the
deal. The Department of Investment
Public Asset Management has invited
proposals from interested parties.
Delhi HC seeks response on
taxation of sanitary napkins
Govt approves sale of
HPCL to ONGC

India Legal 31 July 2017

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India Legal 31 July 2017