the hindu imp. news feb. 20th 2012

8/3/2019 The Hindu Imp. News Feb. 20th 2012

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A goal is a dream with a deadline.

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THE HINDU

Imp. News

Feb.20th

2012

FRONT PAGE

Two Italian Marines arrested:

After hectic negotiations, the Kerala police on Sunday arrested two Marines suspected to have

fired the shots from an Italian oil tanker that killed two Indian fishermen offKerala on February

15. The police boarded the ship to bring the two persons and also captain o f the tanker Enrica

Lexie Umberto Vitelli for questioning. Though Captain Vitelli has not been held culpable of

murder at present, his role is being probed. He is absolved from the operational matters

involving the Marines deputed for security of the vessel as per an agreement between the

company that owns the ship and the Italian government. However, his civil liabilities as captain whether he strictly followed the procedures after a suspected pirate attack on the vessel

would be investigated, police sources said. The suspects are expected to be trans ferred to

Neendakara in Kollam as the case has been registered by the Neendakara coastal police.

Cash-rich BCCI owes Rs. 371 crore as income tax:

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which is no longer considered a charitable

organisation for assessing income, owes over Rs.371 crore as tax to the government. And this

figure could be even higher as the Income Tax Department is yet to assess the income ofone of

world's richest sporting bodiesfor the last two

fiscal. For assessment year 2009-10, the BCCI'sincome stood at over Rs.964 crore on which the IT Department demanded a tax ofover Rs.413

crore.

Notably, the BCCI used to get income tax exemption as a charitable organisation but now the

government has withdrawn this exemption and the cricketing body's earnings now come under

the head business income.

The assessee (BCCI) used to claim exemption under Section 11 ofthe I-T Act 1961, available for

charitable organisations. The department has withdrawn registration under Section 12 ofthe IT

Act 1961 and rejected assessee's claim for exemption under Section 11 ofthe I-T Act 1961.


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EDITORIAL

New game on West Asian chessboard:

The international community is determined to topple Bashar Al Assad's regime, and there is

heavy and undisguised involvement of external forces, with active encouragement andassistance including financing and arming ofanti-regime elements. There are reports of Libyan

fighters having been brought to join the dissidents in Syria. The Al Assad regime the father

and the son has been a thorn in the side of some countries, especially Israel and hence

America because of its alliance with Iran and resultant backing of the Hezbollah, its alleged

role in the assassination ofpro-West Prime Minister ofLebanon Rafiq Hariri in 2005. When the

United States, major European countries and nearly all Arab states, the largest repositories of

crude oil, combine against him, what chance does Bashar have? How long can he hold out? The

Russians and Chinese can perhaps help in preventing sanctions being imposed on Syria in the

Security Council, and Russia can give Assad more weapons because they have their own

interests in the Middle East, not least being the Syrian port of Tartous on the Mediterranean.

But once the dissidents in Syria manage to seize control over some territory anywhere in the

country, the external involvement will become decisive in tilting the scales against Bashar, as

happened in Libya. In addition to acquiring a foothold in some parts of Syria, the opposition

would also need to put together a coalition of their own so that foreign aid can be channelled

to them again on the lines ofwhat happened in Libya.

Support for Assad

There are a few factors working for Bashar Al Assad also. He continues to enjoy popular support

in the country. Forty per cent ofSyria's population consists ofminorities ofdifferent kinds, all of

whom are united in not wanting a hard-line Sunni establishment taking over power in thecountry. The army, which is largely Sunni though the officer corps consists mainly ofAlawites, is

by and large, still loyal to the regime. The number ofdefectors is most likely exaggerated in the

western media. And then there is diplomatic and limited military support from Russia. He can

also count on the strong support of Iran which itselfhas a huge stake in Bashar's survival, but it

is not clear how helpful Iran's support means in practical terms. He can also perhaps enlist the

Hezbollah on his side to make life a bit difficult for Israel, but the same may not be true of

Hamas whose leadership is making its own calculations on the advisability of continuing to put

all its eggs in the Assad basket. Bashar also presumably continues to have enough leverage to

destabilise Lebanon, and not only through the Hezbollah. On the whole, however, the odds are

stacked against Bashar. His capacity to fight the combined onslaught is not unlimited; his

finances are dwindling just as those of his opponents are increasing and will increase even

more, and his diplomatic supporters might not stand by his side for too long depending on what

other pieces come into play on the international chess board.

Russia's last ditch effort to bring all Syrians parties together around a negotiating table reminds

one of the desperate attempt to stall the first GulfWar in 1991 when Primakov, a former Prime

Minister and the best Soviet expert on Arab affairs and a friend of Saddam, tried,


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unsuccessfully, to persuade Saddam Hussein to make some compromise gesture. The present

effort also is not likely to succeed, first because the opposition is divided and second because

the opposition has much more to gain by not cooperating with Russia and remaining on the

side of the U.S. and the rich Gulfstates. What can Russia offer to the dissidents? The other side

can offer a great deal. Further, Bashar has made it difficult for those who might wish to help

him for their own reasons by failing to carry out reforms which he has had ample time toimplement since succeeding his father a decade ago. Since the principal though indirect target

ofthe anti-Assad movement is Iran, there is almost no chance ofthe Russian effort succeeding.

The Arab Spring

The brief history of the phenomenon which goes by the dubious name of Arab Spring has

established a clear trend. Every successive country involved in this development has witnessed

increasing levels ofviolence. Tunisia's was the least violent revolution. Egypt has suffered many

more casualties than Tunisia. In Libya, hundreds and possibly thousands have died, in Yemen

even more. The Syrian revolution, if it can be called that, has cost thousands of lives on both

sides it is essential to emphasise this point, the number of dead on the government side is

not much smaller than on the opposition side and will surely claim thousands more.

Muslim Brotherhood is the only party, besides the official Ba'ath party, with a reasonable base

in Syria and will almost certainly be the largest beneficiary should the Assad government fall at

some time. It is reported to be receiving large-scale help from some affluent Sunni

governments. This ought to be a cause for concern for Israel, Jordan, Iraq and the West in

general.

India might have to practise a new form of non-alignment or dual alignment between Saudi

Arabia and Iran. The time for this has come. Continued instability in Syria might make theregion unstable, affecting the production and export ofoil, and, most importantly, the situation

of the six-million Indian diaspora working in the region. India's vote in favour of the resolution

which was vetoed by Russia and China on February 4 should not be seen as no longer sitting

on the fence; rather, it was, one likes to think, a demonstration of our readiness to adapt our

positions to changed circumstances. Consistency is not a virtue in international relations. It is

quite possible that future challenges might produce yet different responses.

Spies shouldn't police us:

In September, 1970, J. Edgar Hoover wrote a secret memo which pithily explained the

difference between criminal investigators and spies: the purpose of counter-intelligence

action, it stated, is to disrupt, and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the

charge. Four decades on, as Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram prepares to give teeth to

India's new National Counter-Terrorism Centre, the words of the Federal Bureau of

Investigation's legendary and paranoiac founding director should help Indians understand

why the idea is profoundly misguided. For years now, India's intelligence services have

complained sometimes with justification that State governments have been reluctant to


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act on credible intelligence of counter-terrorism value. Political motives, they point out, have

led governments as disparate as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar not to arrest

figures involved with Hindutva, Islamist or Maoist groups. India's Constitution, Mr.

Chidambaram has pointed out, makes it incumbent on the Central government to maintain

internal security. The Ministry of Home Affairs' proposal to arm the NCTC with the power to

conduct searches and make arrests derives, he argues, from this obligation.

Mr. Chidambaram may be right about the Constitution but there are three sound reasons why

the mounting concerns over the NCTC must be taken seriously. First, the Intelligence Bureau is

not an organisation that is, or ought to be, concerned with criminal justice. Like other

intelligence services across the world, its task is to gather information that the police can use to

guide and inform the course ofa criminal investigation, not to make judgments on whether that

intelligence has value as evidence. Blurring the distinction between intelligence-gathering and

policing will open up the possibility of abuses abuses for which Hoover's FBI became

notorious. The Union government already has an investigative service with a nationwide

mandate, the National Investigation Agency. This makes it even less clear why the NCTC needs

the same powers. In India, secondly, the concerns are amplified because the IB has historically

taken an expansive view of national security notably, by devoting extensive resources to

political surveillance. Handing it the power to arrest will expand the possibility of political

misuse. Thirdly, as experts have pointed out, India's counter-terrorism efforts have floundered

because State police forces lack the training, resources and manpower needed to conduct

effective investigations. Arming the NCTC with the power to arrest will not solve this core

problem. Like other intelligence-related reforms, the NCTC's powers ought to have been subject

to an informed and vigorous debate in Parliament. It still isn't too late to conduct one.

Make the pact workable:

For Mamata Banerjee to lay at the doors of the Central government the whole blame for the

delay in implementation of the July 2011 agreement for the formation of an autonomous

administrative set-up for the Darjeeling hills is less than charitable. Having gone ahead and

claimed a breakthrough on the long-simmering issue rather prematurely, she doubtless needs

to save face as the prospect of fresh trouble looms. But the fact remains that the manner in

which the tripartite agreement was signed without figuring out ways to address all the

substantive questions, involved essentially a tactic of political one-upmanship vis--vis the

preceding Left Front government that really had not spared any effort to solve the issue in a

sensible manner. The Shyamal Sen Committee, tasked with looking into the question of

identification of additional areas in Siliguri, Terai and Dooars that may be transferred to the

new Body, is still at work. The territorial issue is a crucial component of the formula set out,

and if presidential assent for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill that was passed by

the State Assembly in September is not yet forthcoming, it is not a mystery why.

The liberal financial package that the Central government offered for the development of the

region as an incentive for peace, and the Chief Minister's emphasis on the development of the

north Bengal region, are both commendable. But for the restive region, this is not enough. It


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seems fair to say that as things stand, unless the GJM adopts a more pragmatic approach on its

territorial claims, ifnecessary by agreeing to renegotiate the terms of the pact while managing

the feelings of its constituency, a real and workable solution would remain elusive. Meanwhile,

the ChiefMinister should give up the politically expedient blame game and stop running with

the hares and hunting with the hounds.

Going green, with a large side order of mercury:

Steady release of mercury into the air, soil and water poses a significant health risk. But, it

appears, not for policymakers in India. Annually, a large amount of this toxic, complex metal is

simply dumped into municipal landfills or released into the air from a green source the

millions offluorescent lamps that are at the forefront of efforts to reduce power demand and

carbon emissions.

Yearly, India's domestic production of fluorescent tube lights (FTL) and compact fluorescent

lamps (CFL) involves the use of about eight tonnes of mercury, and imported CFLs, another

three tonnes. The Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests (MoEF) agrees that despite the growing

popularity ofthese lamps, little has been done to safely dispose ofthe toxic waste.

The Ministry decided to look into the issue and appointed a Task Force on Environmentally

Sound Management of Mercury in the Fluorescent Lamp sector five years ago. The report of

this panel is clear. The lamp disposal problem is confirmed by the Ministry's Task Force when it

says a part of the mercury from discarded units is released into the air, and the rest goes into

the soil, contaminating surface and sub-soil water. The problem is acute in large cities, which

absorb a large portion ofabout 400 million CFLs and 250 million FTLs that come to market. the

lamps made in India have a higher mercury content than those in the developed world, a point

made by independent researchers and the Ministry's Task Force.

INTERNATIONAL

Waheed defends Gayoom's daughter's induction:

Even as the former President, Mohamed Nasheed, and most of his party, the Maldivian

Democratic Party, continued to press for elections, President Waheed Hassan Manik appointed

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's daughter Dhunya Maumoon to Cabinet on Sunday.

Mr. Gayoom, who ruled for about three decades, was ousted from power by Mr. Nasheed in

the first democratic multi-party elections. Ms. Maumoon had earlier served in the Gayoom

Ministry. While that in itself is not a disqualification, the fact that someone from the family that

ruled Maldives with an iron fist is in the Ministry has caused a lot of heartburn. Critics,

especially those from the MDP, claimed that the plan had been laid bare: that Dr. Waheed was

nothing but a puppet propped by Mr. Gayoom.


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Myanmar monk faces legal action:

A dissident monk who helped lead an anti-government uprising is facing new legal action, in

part for breaking into monasteries sealed by the former military junta after the mass street

protests five years ago, state media reported on Sunday. The 33-year-old monk was one of the

leaders ofthe Saffron Revolution, a 2007 uprising led by Buddhist monks against the then-rulingmilitary junta that saw the streets of the main city, Yangon, swell with some 100,000

demonstrators.

Somali deal for government structure:

Somalia's disparate leaders have agreed on the basic structure of a new Parliament and

government to replace the fragile transitional body that has failed to bring peace to the war-

torn country. Constant infighting, rampant corruption and bloody attacks by Islamist al-Shebaab

insurgents undermined the unelected Transitional Federal Government (TFG), whose Western-

backed mandate ends in August.

A 225-member Lower House at least 30 per cent women will be nominated by traditional

elders assisted by prominent civil society members, reads the agreement, released late on

Saturday after a three-day meeting. An Upper House of 54 members will also be nominated,

drawn from the different regions and clans of the fragmented country. The agreement is the

latest among more than a dozen attempts to resolve Somalia's more than two decade-old civil

war, with the country split between rival factions and pirate gangs who hijack ships far across

the Indian Ocean.

Al-Qaeda allied Shebaab fighters, who control large parts of central and southern Somalia

where they are battling African Union-backed government forces as well as Kenyan andEthiopian troops, condemned the deal.

Iran spreading terror: U.K.-

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Sunday seized on last week's attacks on Israeli

diplomats in New Delhi, Bangkok and Georgia to accuse Iran of spreading terrorism. The British

Foreign Secretarywarned that if Iran developed nuclear weapons it could provoke an attack on

it possibly leading to a war alluding to Israeli threats to attack Iran. However, he said Britain had

not been shown any plans by Israel for an attack on Iran and had not been asked to be involved

in any such attack.

Latvians script their own future:

Latvia's voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to make Russian the second official language

widening the rift with the Russian-speaking minority in the former Soviet Baltic state. Almost 75

per cent of voters in a national referendum held in Latvia on Saturday said they were against

giving Russian equal status with Latvian. Despite their defeat, campaigners for the Russian


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language were encouraged by the fact that 25 per cent, or more than 260,000, supported the

proposal. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the referendum results failed to adequately reflect

the situation in Latvia because 319,000 Russian non-citizens were denied the right to vote.

Russian is native language for 44 per cent of Latvia's population of 2.1 million, but it has no

official status and is treated as any other foreign language. The main pro-Russian partyHarmony Centre won the most votes during parliamentary elections last September, but a

coalition ofright-wing parties locked it out ofpower. At the end of last year Latvian nationalists,

who want to drive Russian occupiers out, launched a campaign to close Russian schools, but

failed to gather enough signatures to put the issue to a referendum. Latvia, like neighbouring

Estonia, has a language inspectorate, called language inquisition for its draconian powers to

fine companies and sack employees who are found to lack insufficient Latvian language skills.

Russian politicians said Latvia was shooting itself in the foot by discriminating against the

Russian language. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian was not only part o f Latvia's

culture and history, but offered additional job opportunities for Latvian citizens. In contrast to

Latvia and Estonia, Finland is debating a proposal to give its schoolchildren a choice ofstudying

Russian instead ofSwedish to make them more competitive on the job market.

BUSINESS

Too early for comfort:

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation dropped to 6.55 per cent last month from 7.47

per cent in December last year. The decline in the headline inflation rate to its lowest level in 26

months in January has evoked a wide range ofreactions.

Rating agency Crisil in a recent incisive report points out that core inflation (non-foodmanufacturing) has now declined for the second consecutive month. This means that the

impact of past rate hikes on demand slowdown has begun to reflect in overall inflation.

Forecasting WPI inflation for 2012-13 at 5.8 per cent, Crisil says that the lower inflation vis-a-vis

2011-12 is mainly due to a high base and low pricing power of corporates (due to sluggish

domestic demand). Indeed, a favourable base effect' is behind the recent fall in inflation. It will

reverse from February onwards.

A recent RBI survey points out a majority of households expect inflation towards the end of

2012 to be higher than a year ago. The fact that inflation expectations remain high despite the

decline in January shows that most of those surveyed think that its fall is temporary, a one-off

affair. Expectations will come down only when inflation stabilises at lower levels.

Taking trade route to prosperity:

Be the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry or the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and

Industry or our very own Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) or

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) all are on the common platform that trade between the


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two countries should get priority over politics and that political tensions should not be allowed

to create obstacles in the economic development. The fruits of prosperity should be shared

between the two neighbours rather than letting any third economy take advantage ofit.

The issue ofmobile connectivity is something that the two countries seriously need to work on

as majority of the Pakistan's population resent about mobile phones of both countries notworking in each other's territories. We both have the technology but we require political will

to make a new beginning at least in trade. The people ofPakistan are just waiting for the border

to open up and you will find that a huge population is waiting to cross over and meet their

Indian counterparts. They want to explore India and I am sure the same sentiment must be

prevailing in India,' Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo, Chief Executive of Al-Riaz Agencies, said in

Karachi.

SPORT

Kruger cruises to maiden European Tour title:

Excitement was at a premium in the final round of the 1.8-million Avantha Masters golf as

overnight leader Jbe Kruger got it right when it mattered for a two-stroke victory at the DLF

Golfand Country Club here on Sunday.

Kruger never trailed through his card of three-under 69 and posted a winning tally of14-under

274. In fact, Kruger and the 2010 champion Australia's Andrew Dodt posted similar winning

scores for their maiden titles on the European Tour. Playing his 38th European Tour event, the

25-year-old South African collected the glittering winner's trophy and 300,000 the biggest

of his five-season old professional career. Two-time winner on the Tour Jose Manuel Lara and

Marcus Fraser were fourth at 11-under. Lara, who shared the lead after taking the turn at 32,bogeyed the final hole after finding water to slip for one last time. Shamim Khan turned out to

be the best Indian on view after taking the 22nd spot, following a 71 for a tally offive-under

283.

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DRDO to develop advanced seekers for tactical missiles:

Imagine a war scenario in which miniaturised missiles equipped with Precision-Guided

Munitions (PGMs) are unleashed from a mother missile to take out select enemy targets like an

ammunition depot while avoiding collateral damage. A mother missile acts as a force

multiplier and to achieve the desired result, each miniaturised missile will have a seeker to

ensure its independent motion, irrespective of the mother missile's motion. In a bid to conduct

trials without using the mother missile, a Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV) has been imported to

be used as a Technology Demonstrator for the project. A flight trial was conducted at the

Integrated Test Range using the RPV along with a recoverable tow body by providing the vehicle

the same velocity ofa mother missile.


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EPFO may fix minimum pension at Rs.1,000 per month:

Retirement fund body EPFO (Employees' Provident Fund of India) may take a final decision on

fixing the minimum pension for its subscribers at Rs.1,000 per month, at a meeting of the

Central Board of Trustees (CBT) scheduled on February 22. The EPFO's apex decision-making

body the CBT could fix minimum pension at Rs.1,000 per month for its subscribers, at a meetingthis month, All India Trade India Congress Secretary D.L. Sachdev told PTI.

Additional Info

What is Pulitzer Prizes?

Pulitzer Prizes, the highest awards in American journalism.

In the latter years ofthe 19th century, Joseph Pulitzer stood out as the very embodiment of

American journalism. Hungarian-born, an intense indomitable figure, Pulitzer was the most

skillful ofnewspaper publishers, a passionate crusader against dishonest government, a fierce,

hawk-like competitor who did not shrink from sensationalism in circulation struggles, and a

visionary who richly endowed his profession.

His innovative New York Worldand St. Louis Post-Dispatch reshaped newspaper journalism.

Pulitzer was the first to call for the training of journalists at the university level in a school of

journalism. And certainly, the lasting influence ofthe Pulitzer Prizes on journalism, literature,

music, and drama is to be attributed to his visionary acumen.

the hindu imp. news feb. 20th 2012

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