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TheIndian EXPRESS
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NEW DELHI l TUESDAY l JULY 24 l 2012

The Indian EXPRESS

BECAUSE THE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL

HE rate of accidents per 1,000 coal miners began improving since the nationalisation of coal mines in the 1970s, but statistics show that the pace of improvement plateaued by 200304. As a report in this paper showed, in 2008-11 there were 399 accidents that led to 322 deaths and 55 workers being injured in mines operated by state-owned Coal India Ltd, Neyveli Lignite Corporation and Singareni Collieries. The major causes for the high rate of accidents in coal mines include roof and side falls in underground mine; mishaps during surface transport by dumpers, trucks and other heavy earth-moving machinery in opencast mines; and leaks of gases like methane. But the underlying reasons were two-fold the easy improvements that were possible had already been exhausted by then and the technological solutions that were now needed to make coal mining safer demanded more money. The period of stagnation in improvement in mine safety also coincided with what observers have described as the period of lull in the modernisation of the technology of public sector-led coal extraction in India. Yet, in the same period, Coal India has built up a cash reserve of over

Accident rate in coal mines shows that the inefficiencies that hit production undermine safety
Rs 45,000 crore. But CIL didnt bother to invest the money in bringing in new technology. Essentially, the tapering off of the improvement in mine-safety processes and procedures is due to a combination of the same factors that typically make government-run companies inefficient. The levels of red tape stymie decision-making, relegating even a straightforward imperative like worker welfare. The fact that at the same time as accidents were increasing, Coal India and its subsidiaries were ineffectual in raising production to meet the growing demand from the power sector, is no coincidence. Countries like the US and Australia have better safety records for coal mines than India in the same period. Australia, incidentally, is a global leader in this respect even though more of its mining is underground while a good percentage of the work in India is open-cast. In 2010, Coal India had sent a team to learn from some of these experiences but, by all accounts, the results are yet to show. In the context of the current denationalisation debate on coal, however, this much is clear: an improvement of the safety record is inextricable from and coterminus with the rise in productivity.

Lessons from mines

A continuing scandal
HE story of the 28 plots allotted in Uttar Pradesh in 2005 by the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav appears to be another textbook case of how state governments use their discretionary powers in land allotment to give great deals on prime property to politicians and government officials, and their cronies and families. As this paper has reported, the allottees included current Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadavs father-inlaw, the state revenue ministers wife, the CMs secretary and several IAS and IPS officers. The specific details of the UP allotments in 2005 may differ from those in the Adarsh controversy that erupted in Maharashtra in 2010, but the two cases frame the same enduring problem. Indeed, be it in Maharashtra, UP or Andhra Pradesh, recurring land allotment scams point to a fundamental malaise. Real estate continues to be the most discretion-laden sector, and the latitude enjoyed by state governments distorts the level-playing field and ensures that it is tilted to benefit insiders and the favoured few. The problem is aggravated by the fact that land deals are

Government exercises discretionary powers in land allotment to benefit a favoured few

a prime source of income for ruling parties, which is why they resist making the land allocation regime more transparent. These discretionary powers, which have drawn sharp disapproval from the apex court, had allowed former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to de-notify plots near Bangalore, allegedly for the benefit of his family members. When the controversy broke into public view last year, Yeddyurappas defence was essentially that every-CM-does-it, while his party president made the hair-splitting argument that the action was immoral, but not illegal. Now, the UP government has told the SC that all rules and regulations were followed in 2005. After Adarsh, Maharashtra has made moves to pare down the CMs discretionary powers in land allotment. Andhra Pradesh, rapped by the CAG in March on allotments to individuals and companies with grave irregularities, has now decided to come out with a new land allotment policy. The discretionary powers of government over land must be whittled down drastically if this continuing scandal is to be addressed.

S THE Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria heads for the bitter but probably inevitable end, the many traditional assumptions in Indias political discourse on the Middle East are becoming unsustainable. For example, secularists versus Islamists has long been an important framing device in Indias policy debates on the Middle East. Delhis political classes were far more comfortable with the Arab nationalists, who shared Indias vocabulary on modernisation and anti-colonialism, than either the conservative monarchies or the radical Islamic republics. Iraqs Saddam Hussein, Syrias Assad and Egypts Hosni Mubarak did not view relations with Delhi through the prism of Islamist internationalism, make provocative noises on Jammu and Kashmir, or acquiesce to Pakistans anti-India propaganda in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. No wonder India has been so reluctant to see them go. The Indian establishment was among those sceptical of the Arab Spring and concerned about the rise of Islamist parties to power. But Hussein and Mubarak are gone; and Assads future is on the line. Iraq is now run by a newly empowered Shia majority; the Muslim Brotherhood has won the presidential elections in Egypt and moderate Islamists have come to power in Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began last year. In Syria too, after Assads fall, it is likely that Islamists of one kind or another might gain much political ground. Proving right, of course, does not make Delhis challenges in dealing with the changing Middle East any better. Nor does the clear hindsight that it is the secular but autocratic rulers who have prepared the ground for the Islamist resurgence in the region. Second, the crisis in Syria also complicates Indias identification

Revisiting Damascus
As the Middle East is reshaped, Delhi must engage with the trends coming to the fore
C. RAJA MOHAN
of the Arab-Israeli conflict as the principal political faultline in the region. While the disputes between the two sides are real and important, they have taken a back seat amidst the current turbulence in the region. While Syria is one of the Arab frontline states against Israel, the internal conflict in Syria today is being accentuated by an intraArab dynamic. It is the Arab League, led by Saudi Arabia, that was the first to call for a regime change in Syria earlier this year. This week, the Arab League has offered safe passage to Assad if he is willing to resign and leave. lam versus the West and Islam versus Israel. The Syrian crisis is in part a struggle between the disempowered Sunni majority and the ruling minority led by the Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam. The Alawites know that retribution is inevitable if they cede power to the majority and therefore have every incentive to fight to the bitter end. The Syrian conflict is further complicated by the competition between regional powers for greater influence. Shia Iran has long been a staunch ally of Damascus and has much to lose if Assad is ousted from power.

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The tensions rising out of the shifting regional balance of power have become far more important than Indias traditional focus on great power interventions in the Middle East. Yet our policy debates on the region hold on to the tropes of anticolonial and anti-imperialist rhetoric.
When Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria last February, the Saudis pulled all the stops to get a similar resolution approved with an overwhelming majority in the General Assembly. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are said to be the principal financial supporters of those battling the Assad regime in Syria. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia issued a call over the weekend for a massive donation campaign across the kingdom to support the Syrian rebels. Beyond the schisms in the Arab world that have come to the surface, the Syrian crisis also highlights a deepening sectarian divide within the region that transcends the old divides IsTurkey, whose clout is rapidly growing, was until recently empathetic to both Syria and Iran. But as the crisis in Syria has unfolded, Sunni Turkey has become increasingly hostile to the Alawite rulers in Damascus. Third, the tensions rising out of the shifting regional balance of power have become far more important than Indias traditional focus on great power interventions in the Middle East. Yet our policy debates on the region hold on to the tropes of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist rhetoric. For all the tough talk from the West on Syria during the last many months, neither the United States nor its European allies are willing to risk a direct military in-

tervention in Syria. The reluctance is rooted in the recognition that Syria is not Libya. Unlike Muammar Gaddafi, Assad has a large, loyal and well-equipped armed force. While there are calls for intervention from the left and right of the political spectrum in the US, Obama, the realist, has been unwilling to plunge Washington into another shooting war in the Middle East. Finally, the Syrian crisis has also thrown into bold relief some of Indias concerns about territorial sovereignty and intervention. Since the end of the Cold War, India has been reluctant to support the international communitys tendency to intervene in the internal affairs of other states. The deepening divisions between the Western powers on one hand and China and Russia on the other, are making international military interventions endorsed by the UNSC less likely. That does not mean interventions will not take place. The Western powers will adopt indirect interventions and the regional powers are already deeply involved in the Syrian crisis. Indias old formulaic discourse is no longer capable of dealing with the multiple tragedies and manifold transformations playing out in the Middle East. India will have to approach the Middle East on the basis of its own internal dynamics rather than preconceived ideas and preferences. India now has every reason to engage with, in an intense and uninhibited manner, the many Islamist trends that are coming to the fore in the Middle East. With a relentless focus on Indias interests, Delhi must find ways to contribute to the emergence of a stable regional balance of power over the longer term. The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Delhi
express@expressindia.com

EDITOR
APROPOS EC rejects Mulayams President vote (IE, July 21), this presidential election will be remembered for numerous reasons. The president is elected through a secret ballot and political parties should not pressure legislators to vote one way or the other. Mulayam Singh has played an erratic role in these elections, first opposing Pranab Mukherjees candidature, then agreeing to support it and finally voting for P .A. Sangma by mistake. It is not often that the vote of a top party leader is declared invalid by the Election Commission. M.C. Joshi Lucknow

Letters to the

Memorable time

Presidential writ

ABHIMANYU DAS
AST weeks shootings in Colorado have brought to the forefront a particular aspect of the Batman stories: their politics. Various social critics are hysterically advancing explanations for the massacre based on perceived political undercurrents in the Bat-mythos. Everything from the characters implicit condoning of vigilante violence to his fascist (a few say radical left or libertarian) tendencies is being thrown at the speculation mill, grinding out a homogeneous mush of alarmist finger-pointing and reductionism. As early as 2005, Batman Begins the first of the trilogy inspired rumblings of political discussion. This was pre-recession, but its Gotham City was a poverty-stricken place, much of the crime stemming from the desperation of have-not Gothamites. Enter a billionaire whose approach was to replace his parents philanthropy with fists and sharp objects. These rumblings became an outright avalanche with the 2008 release of The Dark Knight. Some read its third act deus ex machina of Batman locating the Joker via mass invasion of privacy as an apologia for Bush-era policies. Others interpreted Batman and Lucius Foxs destruction of that device as well as Jokers electrifying hospital monologue (nobody panics as long as things go according to plan) as a criticism of those very policies. Even before the tragic events in Aurora, the array of contemporary hot buttons pushed in The Dark Knight Rises helped the

Knight in political armour

Batman, the film, is a Rorschach test we read ourselves in it
This is not to say that its all an amorphous aesthetic grab to put the dark in Dark Knight. Nolan has stated that one of his thematic inspirations was Dickenss A Tale of Two Cities, a book that remains firmly on the side of the ostensible 99 per cent. But beyond that, he evinces a lack of faith in social movements on any part of the political spectrum. Too much is being made of the connection between The Dark Knight Rises and the Occupy movement the screenplay was finished long before the movement gained visibility but the film is prescient. Anne Hathaways Selina Kyle warns Bruce Wayne that the lifestyle of the avalanche attain apocalyptic proportions. The fallibility of financial institutions, class warfare, renewable energy all this and more is woven into the films narrative tapestry. Primary antagonist Bane leads the unwashed 99 per cent into a class conflict that violently disrupts the lives of the hapless 1 per cent. Knee-jerk conservative politics, surely? A closer look at the film reveals that the reality of Nolans approach is not quite so straightforward. An intelligent, ambitious pop artist like Nolan is unlikely to take thuddingly one-sided stances on anything. Instead, he appears to be strip-mining contemporary society to provide a edly dishonest elevation of a martyr and the withholding of due process, actions that do not pass un-critiqued. To those describing this as a film for the 1 per cent, I say that if theres any singular POV in this ensemble picture, it is that of working class cop John Blake. In an oddly heartening fashion, the film is almost about him the common man trapped in the sturm und drang of clashing ideologies and self-serving agendas. Ultimately, the film asks many big questions and refrains from presenting either right or left as the answer. If anything, it warns of the dangers inherent in drawing those lines in the first place. Beyond the specific cinematic signifiers, I would argue that Batman is actually the great democratiser. A figure commanding such fierce affection and loyalty in so many corners of the globe regardless of political affiliation or social status, filling theatres in Kolkata and Colorado alike, could hardly be anything less. This is undoubtedly an embarrassingly sentimental view but in light of recent events worth pointing out. Rather than making a Batman film claiming to represent any one group, Nolan has made what amounts to a Rorschach test. Left or right, we claim the character for ourselves. It would be a shame if one low-life mass murderer were to change that. The writer is a fellow at New York University
express@expressindia.com

Pranab (IE, July 23). Perhaps there should not be so much emphasis on the post of president. Over the last six decades, there was at least one momentous occasion when the president needed to exercise his discretion. This was when former prime minister Indira Gandhi proclaimed the Emergency. The president did not withhold his assent to it. Alok Asthana Mumbai
HAVING lost the presidential elections to Pranab Mukherjee, P Sangma should have .A. responded with more grace. Mukherjees win seemed imminent even before the elections, given the support he got across parties. Instead of congratulating him, Sangma now alleges foul play and vents his ire on chief ministers in the Northeast. This is in bad taste. Moreover, it is unlikely that parties like the Shiv Sena and the CPM were offered inducement packages in return for their support of the Congresss presidential candidate. Amit Bhandari New Delhi

THIS refers to Its President

No saving grace

Pawar hungry

ELIKKAKATHU Sankaran Achuthanandan and Shripad Amrit Dange had a fraught relationship. Back in 1964, Achuthanandan was one of the 32 members who walked out of the CPI National Council, protesting against the politics of Chairman Dange, to form the CPM. Over a quarter century later, VS found reason to invoke Dange again. In stinging remarks in May, he compared CPMs Kerala secretary Pinarayi Vijayan to the old comrade. VS said Vijayan could meet the same fate as Dange, who was later expelled by his own party. Such public vehemence against the leadership is not tolerated by the CPM as a matter of course. After assessing this damaging turn in the protracted Vijayan vs VS battle, the party gave VS just a gentle rap on his knuckles. General Secretary Prakash Karat said VS had been publicly censured, a rather grandiose description for the veteran being pulled up by fellow comrades behind closed doors.

CPM must ask itself why its dissenting leader has a greater groundswell of public support
This mild disciplinary action does not reflect a newfound tolerance for dissent. It frames a different issue for the party: the CPMs inability to punish the dissenter and protect the official leadership here stems from the real and perceived groundswell of public support for the former rather than the latter. More than VSs vitriol, the party should engage itself with this question of why it is not seen to be on the right side of political and ideological battles. This is a troubled time for the Kerala CPM, especially after the murder of a dissident comrade, for which several partymen have been implicated. It also brought out in greater relief the wedge between VS and Pinarayi and the incriminating comment. The party, which almost beat anti-incumbency in the assembly polls, has to ask itself why the leadership is unable to arrest the growing dissipation of goodwill in Kerala. After the erosion in Bengal, this could prove disastrous for the party.

Party vs VS

If theres any singular POV in this ensemble picture, it is that of working class cop John Blake the common man trapped in the sturm und drang of clashing ideologies.
weighty backdrop for his collection of character arcs, giving the outlandish events a real-world frisson. It would be facetious to assert that these films are not politicised. However, they are still mostly about individuals or communities at this particular crossroads of time and space. The politics remain a metaphor for these primary concerns and, in The Dark Knight Rises, there is a semi-articulated and almost catch-all feel to them. This scatter-shot quality hardly reads like a considered defence of one side or the other. Instead, it has the feel of current events cherrypicked to add fuel to the slowburn dread and charged atmosphere of these films. rich is unsustainable youre all going to wonder how you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us. Indeed, Banes working-class army pillages wealthy neighbourhoods, but this less-than-flattering depiction of the proletariat is coupled with an equally cynical portrayal of the rich. Banes plan is set in motion partly by corporate bigwigs, and every wealthy character aside from Batman is a sleazebag. Even Banes hippie ubersocialism turns out to be a cover; ever heard of an Occupy plan that involved blowing up the 99 per cent? Commissioner Gordons forces of capitalist order draw their power from the point-

to deal firmly with Sharad Pawar (PM, Sonia fail to sway NCP; Pawar, Patel to skip office, IE, July 21).It is true that the NCP leader has years of experience in politics, but his tenure as agriculture minister casts doubts on his expertise as an administrator. The plight of farmers and of agriculture in the country bears poor testimony to his skills. Moroever, Pawars party colleague Praful Patel was less than exemplary as aviation minister. Sonia Gandhis knack of converting pressures to her advantage will be tested once again with Pawar. Ganapathi Bhat Akola
IT IS sad to see a veteran like Sharad Pawar use such pressure tactics just to secure the No. 2 position in cabinet. After his initial antipathy to Sonia Gandhi, because of her foreign origins, he made peace with the Congress and consolidated his position at the Centre and in his state, Maharashtra. He has now been short-changed by the Congress. The party, especially Congress president Sonia Gandhi, knows she can rein him in. Unfortunately, Pawar cannot afford to antagonise the Congress beyond a point. Arun Chandra Mumbai

IT IS time for the Congress

WORDLY WISE
Jodi Picoult

Superheroes were born in the minds of people desperate to be rescued.

hough many trillions of dollars in financial obligations from serve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke pointed out in congressional testiadjustable-rate mortgages to complex derivative contracts mony last week, Libor is structurally flawed. It aggregates bankers hinge on Libor, the potential impact of the banks alself-reported estimates of the rates they would have to pay leged misbehaviour on economic growth, both in the United for loans, as opposed to the rates that they actually paid. FiStates and globally, was probably negligible. The essence of nancial markets have stuck with Libor mostly out of inertia, the scandal is the misappropriation and misallocation of despite the obvious potential for abuse and despite the exiswealth, not its destruction... Meanwhile, global financial au- PRINTLINE tence of possibly better benchmarks. On September 9, the thorities need to get busy on a project thats been on their worlds central bankers will meet to consider new ideas. back burner since well before the behaviour at issue in the Barclays settlement: coming up with an alternative to Libor. As Federal ReFrom a leader in The Washington Post

Financial markets have stuck with it mostly out of inertia

Get rid of Libor