In a significant first step at ending the obnoxious VIP culture in the country, the Narendra Modi government has decided to end the practice of cars displaying the ‘Lal Batti‘ from May 1.  The move has been welcomed widely with the Prime Minister himself alluding to being the ‘servant of the the people’.  

This is unlikely to reduce the sense of entitlement as the system itself needs radical reforms. Henceforth the enforcement agencies and ambulances requiring to speed up can use the flashing blue lights for clearing the way. 

The swanky cars of VIPs with the red beacon amounted to conferring power to these busy bodies smacking of colonial supremacy. More than the red beacon’s status symbol there was a tendency to misuse the facility.  

A lot more needs to be done beyond mere symbolism. If this is aimed at asserting democratic equality, the Centre will have to come down heavily on a lot of other irritating aspects particularly stopping traffic on key roads for interminably long periods during VVIP movements. 

This has inevitably delayed seriously ill patients reaching hospital on time because of which precious lives have been lost. What is a shame is the cops blindly following orders without even listening to the entreaties of the people that a seriously ill patient or a pregnant woman who is in labour needing immediate medical attention has invariably fallen on deaf ears. 

It is time that this country puts an end to the VIP culture of privilege and entitlement. However, commitment has been lacking. When an MLA suggested in Madhya Pradesh that the VIP culture should be abolished, he was mocked at. 

Recently there was the Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad taking pride and justifying hitting an Air India employee with his shoe. 

It was shameful that Parliament failed to disown Gaikwad. This abuse of power was let off with an apology. When the constitutional guarantee of special treatment or protection is misused, ways have to be found to stop it. Amid all this the average citizen suffers as he is not on a par with an MLA, an MP or a minister in enjoying equality before law. 

Thanks to Modi the country’s VIP culture is being shaken up. This puts the brakes on the central and state governments nominating dignitaries who could use the red beacon. Accordingly, the Central Motor Vehicles Rules of 1989 are being amended symbolising an assault on India’s over reaching VIP culture. 

At the same time over the last three years the governments in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab having different political governments had limited the use of red beacons.

It was not surprising that Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh welcomed the move while Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik promptly removed the red beacon no sooner than he head the union cabinet’s decision on April 19. 

Simultaneously, the call for a review of other VIP privileges at the tax payers money is gaining ground. The big bungalows in Lutyens Delhi in which ministers, MPs and senior bureaucrats reside with acres of land available to them must be replaced with functionally efficient accommodation which is decent and functional. 

There are several other perks and privileges that the MPs enjoy. Several years ago the MPs demanded a red beacon for their cars as well. It is also questionable why the salaries of ministers and MPs is tax free. 

It is heartening that the Modi government has taken the bold step of doing away with the “lal batti” VIP culture which is what ambitious MPs desired at the Centre some years back. The quest of legislators in the states has always been the ‘Lal Batti’ as a stepping stone to pelf and power.      

(T R Ramachandran is senior journalist and commentator. Views are personal.)

The manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is positioning himself as the messiah of the poor much to the chagrin of the Congress along with gaining in strength is paving the way for storming the next general elections two years later in 2019. 
That is the signal emerging from the two-day National Executive of the BJP held in Bhubaneshwar last week end. They now want to make inroads in Eastern India. The Lotus party is keen to make a beginning from Odissa by dislodging chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD in the next assembly elections to be held along with the general elections. 
The Congress is the main opposition in that state and is in a shambles. It has now been relegated to the third spot. On the other hand the saffron brigade has been emboldened by the surprise outcome in the panchayat elections held two months back in February. 
Naveen has been the chief minister since 2000 and is in his fourth consecutive term. He is also gearing up against the BJP and began by paying respects to his late father, the indomitable Biju Patnaik on the occasion of his death anniversary. 
West Bengal is also on BJP’s radar but the competition there with TMC supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the helm of affairs is not going to be easy. The credit goes to her for sending the Left Front packing in the state after it had ruled unchanged in Kolkata for more than three decades. 
With assembly elections round the corner in Himachal Pradesh and in Modi’s home state of Gujarat at the end of this year in December is bound to be a prestigious one for him. It is in this context that his 48 hour visit to the Patidar stronghold of Surat straight from Bhabaneshwar after the conclusion of the BJP National Executive assumes importance. 
The messages that emerged from the BJP National Executive were clear. Modi’s concern for the poor and the backward found various expressions. The most noticeable was the decision to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Other Backward Classes. The OBC category which includes the backward segments of the minority community received special attention from the Prime Minister indicative of his focus on development being inclusive. 
BJP president Amit Shah emphasised that the party’s success was rooted in this ideal of development as people no longer voted on the basis of religion or caste but only for progress. The demographic change in the BJP’s traditional vote bank has given the Lotus party the confidence to address the ‘triple talaq’ issue directly which Modi called an “evil custom” underlining the need to be addressed for the sake of justice to “Muslim sisters” without recourse to violence. 
Shah, a confidant of the Prime Minister, went on to say that the golden age of the BJP will come only when it has  a chief minister in every state and makes its presence felt from the “Panchayat to Parliament”. He specifically wanted Kerala, Odisha and West Bengal to be part of the BJP’s golden age. 
Modi came out with his own two mantras – P2 for pro-people and G-2 for good governance. He had no doubt that the Commission for the OBCs, which has been referred to a Select Committee in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP-led NDA is in a minority, is a step towards ensuring greater social justice across the board. 
He has urged the party cadres to reach out to the backward Muslims so that they are reassured of their safety. BJP’s gambit in the recent assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh of taking up the cause of non-Yadav OBCs facilitated a landslide win. 
With Modi staying put in his constituency of Benaras for three days at a crucial stage, a surge in favour of the saffron brigade was evident. Considering the complex caste considerations, the BJP also joined hands with small regional groups confined to specific areas which proved to be advantageous. 
While the two resolutions adopted at the BJP’s National Executive touched upon the pro-poor initiatives of the Modi government, it refrained from commenting on the problem of slow job creation. If a positive change is not brought about in the disappointing situation prevailing on the job creation front as well as uplifting a slow economy, it could hurt the Modi government. 
(T R Ramachandran is senior journalist and commentator. Views are personal.)

After the arrest of RBI’s one of the top ten defaulters and absconded business man Vijay Mallya, much has been anticipated about his extradition and deportation to India. Soon after his arrest by the Scotland Yard, the Westminster Magistrate Court released him on strict bail conditions after he deposited a bond worth 6,50,000 pounds (5 crore 38 Lakhs Rupees). Now it is the prerogative of the Indian government to follow the due process of Mallya’s extradition, which will be a cumbersome exercise on India’s part.
What is Extradition? India and UK have signed the Extradition Treaty dated back in 1992 and enforced in 1993. The country requesting an offender extradite have to appeal in the UK court with the valid evidence in the complete paperwork form. Indian government is positive to extradite Vijay Mallya, as per the UK’s Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). After Mallya’s deportation, he is bound to face proceedings under the Indian Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). 
Early Extradition Cases and India’s success rate:
The only extradition in the last 24 years has been done of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, a wanted in 2002 post-Godhra, Gujarat riots case. That time the Indian authorities issued a Red Corner Notice against him. He faced serious charges to burn 23 muslims alive in Gujarat state. Other-profile cases have not been successful include those of Lalit Modi ;IPL ideologue, music director Nadeem Saifi ;accused and acquitted in the famous singer Gulshan Kumar murder case, Ravi Sankaran; accused in the Indian Navy war-room leak case, Tiger Hanif; wanted in connection with two bomb blasts in Gujarat in 1993 and some Khalistan movement individuals. India is also seeking the extradition of UK citizen, Raymond Varley, who is accused of child abuse in Goa. One British national of Indian origin, Shrien Dewani, who was tried by South African court for the murder of his wife, Anni, in 2010, was extradited to UK. Last year, he was found hanged in his house. 
Where India falls short in the process of extradition?
The India Saga has learned that a poor paperwork and lack of evidence are the key reasons of past setback in the UK Westminster Magistrate Court. On the contrary, the diplomatic procedures and formalities against Vijay Mallya case have been done with more care. CBI and Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) have done the formalities in more paperwork taking a lesson from the past.
Why UK a safe heaven to refuge?
UK legislature has stringent human right laws that benefit an absconder if there is a possibility of him to be tortured and sentenced to death in the deporting country. 
The well-known Scottish reformer Samuel Smiles called London “the world’s asylum, the refuge of the persecuted of all lands”. Fugitives with considerable wealth enjoy safe passage and asylum in UK. They can park their assets there under the provisions of UK legislature. Many fugitives from Russia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan are granted asylum in London. 
One reason is the role European Union, the EU. The person facing charges of extradition has rights to appeal in the European Court of Human Rights. According to the article 8 of European Conventions of Human Rights, several extradition cases have been refused on humanitarian grounds. We must learn that Britain is not completely out of the EU. So the chances for Vijay Mallya to appeal further is still there. 
UK legislature Extradition Process in Category-2, where India falls:
–  Arrest under certified warrant-  The extradition hearing-  Secretary of state functions-  Appeals (Against, Court’s appeal under section 26, 28, 32, appeal in Supreme Court)-  Time for extradition and asylum claim-  Withdraw extradition request-  Competing extradition request-  Consent to extradition-  Post extradition matters-  Cost-  Interpretations.
UK Courts’ orders to Vijay Mallya
Vijay Mallya’s former lawyer Harish Salve said it will take 4-6 months to extradite him. “He will exhaust all his legal option there in UK. There will be argument and arguments on whether he should be extradited or not,” said Salve. 
After the hearing at Westminster Magistrate Court, Mallya is bound to follow legal implications. He has to be accessible all time until the proceedings. As he is traveling to UK on a diplomatic visa and owns no valid passport, he can’t flee to any other country till the hearing is completed.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today presented awards and addressed civil servants on the occasion of the eleventh Civil Services Day. Describing this day as one of “rededication,” the Prime Minister said that civil servants are well aware of their strengths and capabilities, challenges and responsibilities. 
While addressing at Civil Services Day the Prime Minister said that earlier, Government was almost the sole provider of goods and services, which left a lot of scope for ignoring one’s shortcomings. However, now, very often, people perceive that the private sector offers better services than Government. PM said that with alternatives now being available in several areas, the responsibilities of Government officers have increased. 
PM emphasized on the importance of competition, which brings qualitative change. He said that the sooner the attitude of Government can change from regulator to enabler, the faster this challenge of competition will become an opportunity. 
He said that anonymity is one of the greatest strengths of the civil services. PM cautioned officers that the use of social media should not lead to a decline in this strength, even as social media and mobile governance are leveraged for connecting people to benefits and government schemes. 
“Reform, Perform and Transform”, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that political will is needed for reform, but the “perform” part of this formulation must come from civil servants, while transformation is enabled by people’s participation. 

NEW DELHI: India joined the club of select few nations as the Navy today successfully fired the BrahMos Land attack supersonic cruise missile from a ship. 
This variant of Long Range BrahMos missile was fired from Indian Naval Ship Teg, a Guided Missile Frigate, on a target on land, according to a spokesperson of the Navy. With this, the Navy has acquired the capability of precisely attacking a target on the land from any of its frigates in the sea. 
This successful maiden firing of BrahMos Land Attack Supersonic Cruise Missile has significantly enhances the prowess of Indian Navy.  
BrahMos Missile has been jointly developed by India and Russia, and its Anti-Ship variant has already been inducted into Indian Navy. Majority of the frontline ships of Indian Navy, like the Kolkata, Ranvir and Teg classes of ships, are capable of firing this missile. 
Land Attack variant of BrahMos Missile provides Indian Naval Ships the capability to precisely neutralise selected targets deep inland, far away from coast, from stand-off ranges at sea.
According to officials of the Indo-Russian BrahMos corporation, the missile met all flight parameters during the test where it selected the designated target among the group of targets, hitting it precisely and destroying the target with its tremendous kinetic energy. The firing took place somewhere in the Bay of Bengal. 

NEW DELHI- National Green Tribunal on Thursday came down heavily on the Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for his controversial statement blaming the Centre and the green panel for damage to the Yamuna floodplains where his organisation had organised a massive gathering last year.
Describing the statement as ‘shocking’, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said, Art of Living founder has no sense of responsibility. 
The Art of Living founder had blamed the government and the NGT for permitting his NGO to hold the World Culture Festival on the floodplains of river Yamuna. 
The counsel appearing for the Art of Living, however, contested the findings of the expert panel and sought quashing of the report that they have certain objections with regard to the findings of the expert committee and sought setting aside of the report.

Revisiting the traumatic partition of India and Pakistan in August 1947 author, journalist and expert on South Asian, Central Asian and Middle Eastern Affairs Dilip Hiro evaluates afresh the intractable relationship between the two nuclear neighbours. 

Tensions between the majority Hindus and minority Muslims caused the split in the Indian subcontinent. There were 250 million Hindus and 90 million Muslims in the subcontinent on the eve of partition. 

Hiro chronicles the historically fraught Indo-Pak dispute over Kashmir. His narrative is insightful describing the wars, assassinations, human rights violations coupled with the shared mania for cricket and films.

 Coincidentally there were two lawyers from Gujarat — Father of the nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Gujarati speaking Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah — who rose to become titanic public figures in the country’s landscape. Kashmir remains the world’s longest running and most intractable conflict. 

Hiro and his family hailed from the Larkana in Sindh like the Bhuttos. They were refugees from West Pakistan and travelled by ship from Karachi to Okha in Gujarat. He pursued higher education and became an engineer before going on to become a self taught professional writer in London. 

The protracted Kashmir tangle has its roots in the tensions between India and Pakistan dating back eight centuries. The subjugation of the Indian subcontinent by Britain in 1807 gave rise to Indian nationalism within a century. 

Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India in 1915 from South Africa sowed the seed in national politics that would grow into a tree covering much political space. His rivalry with Jinnah would come to dominate subcontinental politics for three decades. 

Gandhi made an alliance with the Muslim leaders of the Khilafat movement which was committed to the caliphate based in Istanbul that had come under threat after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire by the Allied Powers in 1918. Jinnah returned from London to take up the leadership of the Muslim League and his articulation of the two nation theory. 

Though the league performed poorly in the 1937 elections, the policies of the Congress ministries, composed almost wholly of Hindus, gave a preview of the insensitivity of Congress officials towards the beliefs and mores of Muslims. In the 1945-46 elections, the League won 73 per cent of the Muslim votes, a giant leap from the previous five per cent. 

Britain’s decision to quit India after World War II intensified the rivalry between the Congress and the League: the former wished to inherit a united India from the British, and the latter resolved to establish a homeland for Muslims by partitioning the subcontinent. 

On August 14-15, 1947 the communal bloodbath which engulfed India and Pakistan subsided after a few months. The dispute over Kashmir broke soon thereafter and has continued to vitiate relations between the two neighbours. Indeed the subsequent chronology has been peppered with so many challenges, crises, proxy wars, ongoing attempts to covertly exploit ethnic and other fault lines in their respective societies, hot wars and threats of nuclear strikes that as a historian Hiro encapsulates Indo-Pak relations as “the longest August”. 

Democracy based on multi-party system and universal suffrage took hold in India. By contrast political life deteriorated in Pakistan to the extent that General Mohammad Ayub Khan imposed military rule in 1958. His efforts to seek a satisfactory solution to the Kashmir problem in consultation with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru got nowhere. As China had occupied a part of Jammu and Kashmir, Nehru had to deal with the Chinese government which independently disputed the border delineating northeastern India from the Tibet region of China. 

When Nehru tried to assert India’s claim by making military moves, war broke out between India and China in October 1962. It ended a month later with China having proved its military superiority declaring a unilateral ceasefire and withdrawing its forces to prewar positions. 

Overall Nehru’s inflexible stance on Kashmir for 17 years stoked frustration among Pakistani leaders. When they failed they tried to change the status quo through force. Given India’s military superiority these attempts failed. The setbacks in Kashmir changed Pakistan’s history radically. 

Nehru was suffused with self-righteousness. This attitude had its merits in sticking to progressive concepts as secularism and democracy in India. But it was ill suited to diplomacy where give and take is the universally accepted currency. This became apparent in his dealings with Pakistan on Kashmir and then with China on the border issue. 

The war that Pakistan had started in Jammu and Kashmir (Indian held Kashmir as Hiro says) in September 1965 failed to deliver what the neighbour had hoped: destruction of the status quo in Kashmir. Its failure in the war led to the toppling of Ayub Khan and then to the secession of East Pakistan. 

The week long Bangladesh war in 1971 led to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi slewing the two nation theory of Jinnah. 

This showed that ethnicity overrides religion which was also a setback for Muslim separatists in J and K. 

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto salvaged West Pakistan. Even though he held weak cards in his negotiations with Gandhi in Shimla in June 1972, he managed to deprive her in bringing the Kashmir issue to an official closure. 

Following the rigged elections in Pakistan in March 1977, Bhutto faced huge protests. Islamist Army chief Muhammad Zia ul Haq overthrew the government and returned Pakistan to military administration. It lasted till August 1988 when Zia Islamised the state moving Pakistan away from a secular India. The Soviet Union’s military involvement in Afghanistan turned Pakistan into a frontline state in the cold war helping Zia ul Haq accelerate the nuclear weapons programme in which China provided Pakistan with vital assistance. In 1984 it tested an atom bomb assembled in Pakistan. 

Rajiv Gandhi’s succession following his mother Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her bodyguards in October 1984 was smooth. He found a congenial political partner in Benazir Bhutto, a daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, after her election as Prime Minister of Pakistan in December 1988. 

The bonhomie dissipated as separatist insurgency in Kashmir intensified from 1989 onwards. During the Prime Ministership of P V Narasima Rao after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991, the international scene changed radically. The disintegration of the Soviet Union in December 1991 signalled the victory of the United States in the Cold War. 

New Delhi strengthened its links with Washington. Rao accelerated India’s nuclear arms programme but his plan to test three nuclear devices in late 1995 was thwarted by U S President Bill Clinton. 

In a bid to consolidate his thin majority in Parliament, Atal Behari Vajpayee, leader of the Hindu Nationalist BJP, ordered the testing of nuclear bombs in May 1999. Two weeks later Pakistan followed suit. With that Pakistan acquired parity with India in its power of military deterrence thus offsetting its military inferiority in the conventional sphere. 

A reassured Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif welcomed Vajpayee in Lahore in February 1999. Three months later Pakistan army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf tried to capture Kargil region of J and K by stealth. He failed. But his surreptitious unveiling of nuclear tipped missiles was detected by Clinton who then intervened. 

With Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assuming office in 2004, he and Musharraf set up backchannel parleys to reach an accord on Kashmir. Their personal envoys forged a plan which Musharraf unveiled in 2006. 

Musharraf had to step down as President in 2008 to avoid being impeached by Parliament. As though the Kashmir deadlock was not enough, the rivalry between Pakistan and India for dominant influence in Afghanistan intensified as the US led Nato forces prepared to leave that country by December 2014. 

The book is a must read to understand the predilections of the Hindu leaders in India and their Muslim counterparts in Pakistan which has deepened the trust deficit leading to a deadens. Or has it!!! 

NEW DELHI: In a bid to usher in a new culture of governance and put an end to VIP culture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to ban red flashing lights on the cars of of ministers, chief ministers, officials and judges. 

Come May 1, even Prime Minister Modi and other ministers will not use beacons or “lal battis” anymore. Only emergency vehicles will be permitted to use blue beacons. As a step to show the way, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari removed the “lal batti” from his own car and told reporters that the Modi government “is a government of common masses and has decided to abolish VIP culture of sirens and beacon lights” 

Later, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that no one at the Centre or in states can announce any exceptions to the new rule.  “Blue lights, used often for the escort car preceding VIPs, will be allowed only for emergency vehicles,” he said. 

Mr. Gadkari said the government was of the view that beacons had been perceived by the people as being symbols of VIP culture and have not place in a healthy democratic set up in the country. 

However, vehicles like ambulances, fire service, relief and emergency services will be allowed to have beacons. A detailed notification in this regard will be issued soon by the government. 

Recently, Prime Minister Modi had driven down to the Delhi airport to receive Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and his restricted convoy moved in “normal traffic” with no restrictions throughout the route from his 7 Lok Kalyan Marg residence to the airport. As per provisions of the Blue Book on VVIP security, police puts up barricades and block route that the top dignitaries take. Often common people have to wait for a long time for normality to be restored on the roads. Many a times ambulances and children rushing to their examination centres have been put to inconvenience. Social media videos of such incidents have evoked anger and resentment from the people.

The Cabinet has given its nod to Election Commission’s proposal for procurement of new 16 lakh 15 thousand new Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while briefing media said, the machines, if ordered in this month can be supplied by the manufacturers by September 2018. He said, through this voter will come to know whether his or her vote has been registered correctly or not.

Mr Jaitley said, the total estimated cost would be three thousand one hundred seventy three crore rupees excluding taxes and freight. The decision will enable use of VVPAT units in all polling booths in General Election of 2019. The Supreme Court had in October 2013 said every voter has a right to know whether his vote has been registered correctly.

VVPAT will prove as an additional layer of transparency for the satisfaction of voters and allay any apprehension in the minds of voters regarding non-temperability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Machines will be purchased during the current fiscal and next financial year from Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Cooperation of India.

The demand for VVPAT has been made vociferously by several opposition parties after recent Assembly polls. The opposition had blamed that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were manipulated in the elections. The Election Commission had recently once again written to the Law Commission for procurement of VVPAT machines.

Congress has welcomed the government’s decision to allot money to procure paper trail machines (VVPATs) for their use during future elections. In a tweet, senior party leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram said, it is a clear victory for the Congress, other opposition parties and democracy as a whole.

Senior BJP leaders LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharti will face trial in the Ayodhya disputed structure case as the Supreme Court today allowed the CBI plea and restored criminal conspiracy charges against them. The court also clubbed the trial in the matter pending against the leaders and karsevaks and said the proceedings should be completed in two years.
A bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and RF Nariman noted that Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh enjoys Constitutional immunity and can be tried only after he ceases to hold the office. Kalyan Singh was the chief minister of UP in 1992. More from our correspondent: 
Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara, Satish Pradhan, Champat Rai Bansal and Late Giriraj Kishore are among others who will face criminal conspiracy in the case. The court also gave significant directions including that separate trials being conducted in trial courts at Raebareli and Lucknow will be clubbed and conducted in the Lucknow only. It also said that the trial judge of Lucknow shall not be transferred till conclusion and delivery of judgment in the sensational case. 
The court further said that no party shall be granted adjournment without the sessions judge being satisfied of the reasons for it and conduct day-to-day trial. It also directed CBI to ensure that prosecution witnesses appear on each and every date for recording of evidence in the case and the trial court should start the proceedings within four weeks from today.
It, however, clarified that there would be no fresh trial in the matter. The bench also directed that its order should be followed in letter and spirit and granted liberty to the parties to approach it if its directions are not followed. 
There were two sets of cases relating to the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992. The first involved unnamed ‘karsevaks’, the trial of which is taking place in a Lucknow court, while the second set of cases relate to the leaders is in a Raebareli court.