A goal is a dream with a deadline.

THE HINDU Imp. News Feb.8th 2012 Page-1 Maldives President Nasheed quits as protests swell: In a day of dramatic developments that captured both the fragility of democracy in the Maldives and also the maturity of its political institutions, President Mohammed Nasheed resigned in the face of a mutiny by policemen that he said he did not want to put down by force, handing over the reins of power to his Vice-President, Dr. Waheed. If the morning started with the coup word being bandied about by observers, by evening the entire transition appeared orderly with Parliament endorsing the changeover and the streets of the capital city, Male, appearing calm even if vigorously policed. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillai, in her speech at The Majlis, termed flogging barbaric and espoused the cause of women's rights. Again, the Opposition flocked to Male. Male held on because Mr. Nasheed's support base was mainly in the two cities the capital and Addu. Also, Mr. Nasheed and his team have been at pains to explain that the Opposition's charges were baseless. Apart from speaking to people, the team went on a slander campaign against the opposition. The better equipped Opposition was up to the challenge. It responded with a series of charges and behindthe-scenes moves, including re-activating its people within the government machinery. Union Budget on March 16: The Union Budget for 2012-13 will be presented on March 16. Traditionally, the budget is unveiled by the Finance Minister on the last day of February. However, this year, the budget session of Parliament has been delayed by the Assembly elections in five States. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) on Tuesday decided to recommend to President Pratibha Patil the convening of the session on March 12. On the opening day, the President would address a joint session listing the achievements of the government in the current financial year and outlining its plans for 2012-13. As per the CCPA's proposal, the Railway budget will be presented on March 14 and the Economic Survey will be tabled on March 15. After the customary adoption of the motion of thanks by the two Houses to the President's address, Parliament will have a general discussion on the budget and adopt a vote-on-account. Later it will adjourn for a recess on March 30. Minister caught watching porn in Karnataka Assembly: In a major political embarrassment to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Karnataka Minister for Cooperation Lakshman Savadi was caught watching pornography on his mobile phone while the Assembly was in session on Tuesday. The footage showing Mr. Savadi watching the stuff was
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shot by television cameramen perched behind in the elevated media gallery. Mr. Savadi was sitting in the front row on the ground floor. Less than an hour after the session concluded, television channels beamed the uncensored visuals, each claiming the footage to be exclusive. EDITORIAL When Annie Besant came to court: Annie Besant was involved in two famous cases decided by the Madras High Court. One related to the guardianship and custody of two minors and another related to the freedom of the press. While in the custody dispute Annie Besant took exception to the role played by the press, she herself had to fight state oppression of the media in the next case. In July 1914, Annie Besant purchased a printing press from where a newspaper, Madras Standard , was being published. She changed its name to New India and started publishing it from August 1914. As required under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, Annie Besant filed a declaration in December 1914 before the Chief Presidency Magistrate. He accepted it without demanding any security. But, after more than a year, the Chief Presidency Magistrate suo motu passed an order, dated May 22, 1916, demanding that she deposit Rs.2,000 as security. The order was complied with. A series of articles came to be published in New India in June 1916. Some of these criticised the bureaucracy, some related to the unlawful reservation of compartments in certain trains for Europeans and Eurasians. One was a reproduction of an article published in The Herald , London, under the headline, The price of liberty. Another was by Bipin Chandra Pal about the assassination of Superintendent of Police Basanth Kumar Chatterjee of Calcutta. One criticised the demand made on Bal Gangadhar Tilak for a security bond of Rs.40,000 on charges of sedition, when he was about to go abroad to prosecute his suit against Sir Valentine Chirole. Annie Besant moved two motions, one against the order of the Chief Presidency Magistrate, dated May 22, 1916, demanding security, and another challenging the government order directing forfeiture of the security deposit and copies of the newspaper. In the former, C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar appeared for Annie Besant. In the latter, she appeared in person and made a passionate plea for the freedom of the press before a Special Bench of the Madras High Court. But the Bench dismissed the petitions; the Privy Council upheld the decision. Trouble in paradise: The abrupt change of guard in the Maldives on Tuesday marks the culmination of a series of events in the Indian Ocean nation in which Mohammed Nasheed, who resigned as President, emerges as a well-intentioned politician with strong democratic convictions but one who was unable to make properly the transition from activist to leader of a country. Mr. Nasheed's campaign to bring democracy to the Maldives is a story of extraordinary courage that included
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long spells in prison and exile. As head of the Maldivian Democratic Party, he can take the credit for overseeing the end of the three-decade reign of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom the strongman forced by his relentless campaign to hold the country's first democratic election in 2008. Anni , as Mr. Nasheed is known in the Maldives, trounced Mr. Gayoom in that presidential election. The law of life: The Supreme Court last week ruled as unconstitutional the mandatory imposition of the death penalty under the Arms Act in view of the absence of judicial review. The verdict is a reiteration of current jurisprudence that for criminal offences, life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence the exception. The impugned section 27 (3) of the Arms Act stipulates capital punishment for offences that may result in the loss of life. Accordingly, even where death was a consequence of accidental or unintended use of arms, the ultimate sentence was the only penalty available under this provision a clear violation of the Constitutional rights to equality and life, as the court observed. In addition, the provision also violates Article 13(2) of the Constitution, which bars Parliament from enacting laws that may abridge fundamental rights. The provision quashed by the ruling was incorporated through a 1988 ordinance that enhanced penalties for Arms Act offences in the backdrop of the Punjab militancy. The arbitrariness question will be tested when the court considers this month the final appeal of two men on death row Mahendra Nath Dass and Devendar Pal Singh Bhullar both of whom have fittingly cited lengthy, unexplained delays in the disposal of their mercy petitions as grounds for commutation of their sentence to life. OP ED In the Maldives, a resignation that keeps democracy afloat: Rather than allowing events to drift towards a political or even military showdown, Maldivian President Mohammed Anni Nasheed has shown great fidelity to democratic principles in a country where none existed before him by stepping down from office with grace and poise. The alternative to his sudden and yet unsurprising resignation when pushed by circumstances, often of his making or that of his aides and followers could have been political instability at best, and possible street violence at worst. Under the U.S. executive presidency model, Nasheed has been succeeded by Vice-President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik, Maldives' first PhD-holder and an international civil servant in U.N. agencies across the world. Again, as in the U.S. model, Dr. Manik, who was the running-mate of President Nasheed, will complete the five-year term for which he was elected, ensuring that there would be no instability of any kind at the top. That democracy has taken deep-roots in the Indian Ocean archipelago was proved even in the hours immediately following President Nasheed's resignation, when the People's Majlis , or Parliament, met to pass the necessary resolutions to declare the succession.

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A goal is a dream with a deadline.

The new President and his two predecessors can play a concurrent and contributory role to make a Maldives of their collective dreams Dr. Waheed, heading the relatively minor Gaumee Iththihaad Party does not have any parliamentary representation, and must depend on Gayoom and Nasheed, as well as the Dhivehi Rayathunge Party (DRP), the parent party of Gayoom's more recent Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), among others, to get government business through the legislature. Dr. Waheed can be expected to take the lead in this matter. INTERNATIONAL Significant headway in Syria, says Russia: Russia has said it has made significant headway in defusing the crisis in Syria following the air dash to Damascus by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad that could end bloodshed following an externally supervised internal dialogue. In response to Mr. Lavrov's assertions, the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) signalled that it was, at this moment, not opposed to the Russian initiative. Russian media is quoting George Sabra, a senior SNC member as saying, Considering the good relations between the Russian and Syrian nations, Russia has a good chance of playing this part. Ahead of the Russian Minister's visit, British Foreign Secretary condemned the Syrian regime as murderous and doomed, while, the Americans citing security considerations, closed down their embassy in Damascus. Seemingly aware that the Russians, by casting a veto had thrown them a lifeline, Syrian authorities earlier on Tuesday gave Mr. Lavrov a rousing welcome as he arrived in Damascus. Thousands of government supporters, waving Syrian and Russian flags lined the highway along which passed the motorcade of the visiting delegation, which, besides Mr. Lavrov included the Russian foreign intelligence chief, Mikhail Fradkov. After security review, Indian Embassy in Beijing to be inaugurated today: The opening of the Indian Embassy's $10 million compound, which will be formally presided over by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna here on Wednesday evening, was delayed by over a year on account of concerns over security, people familiar with the project told The Hindu . The building, which was scheduled to open in 2010, had to undergo a half- year-long security review in the wake of concerns expressed by some officials over inadequate security arrangements following the 2009 attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The building's exteriors were subsequently redesigned, with its walls and gates bolstered to provide greater protection after security officials from New Delhi spent weeks reviewing the structure and combing the compound in several visits to Beijing last year. Concerns over security have cast a shadow over the expansive new embassy compound. Indian officials have also taken precautions to ensure greater information security, amid growing concerns over cyber intrusions by China-based hackers and repeated hacking attacks faced by diplomats in the old Ritan Park embassy compound.

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A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Indus Valley civilisation seal found in Pakistan: Punjab University archaeologists claim to have unearthed a seal of Indus Valley Civilisation vintage from the Cholistan desert of South Punjab that borders Rajasthan. According to a report in The Dawn newspaper, the seal in steatite material with the carved figure of ibex and two pictographs was discovered during a survey of different sites near the Derawar Fort along the ancient bed of the Hakra river. The seal is more or less square-shaped and slightly broken from the right side but the image of the ibex is intact. The seal is said to date back to 2500-2000 B.C. and, according to the chairman of Punjab University's Archaeology Department, Farzand Masih, is different from Harappan seals. This, according to him, could be reflective of a regional influence and possibly even a separate identity in the Harappan domain. The seal was discovered during the Sui-Vihar Excavations and Archaeological Reconnaissance of Southern Punjab a project funded by UNESCO to explore sites along the Hakra river. The project aimed at learning more about Buddhist influence in this region which has its own distinctive features as opposed to the Gandhara school of art further north. The team also conducted excavations at Sui-Vihar which is billed as the only existing example of Sankhya doctrines in Pakistan. BUSINESS GDP growth scaled down to 6.9 % India Inc.'s apprehensions over a marked slowdown in GDP (gross domestic product) growth to sub-7 per cent this fiscal have come true. The advance estimates of national income 2011-12 released here by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the main factors responsible for the anticipated pull-down in GDP growth are a marked slowdown in agriculture, a dismal performance by the manufacturing sector owing to a slide in industrial and investment growth and the mining sector straying into negative territory. As per the official data, while the agriculture and allied sectors are expected to grow by a mere 2.5 per cent in 2011-12 as compared to a healthy 7 per cent in the previous fiscal, growth in manufacturing has also been pegged markedly lower at 3.9 per cent as compared to 7.6 per cent achieved a year ago. The drop in growth projection for the current fiscal is reminiscent of the global meltdown aftermath. Having posted above 9 per cent expansion prior to the global crisis in 2008, the Indian economy witnessed a slump to grow at a lower rate of 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 but recovered soon after to clock a healthy 8.4 per cent in the next two fiscal years. Enthused by the bounce-back, the government had initially projected a higher growth rate at 9 per cent for 2011-12. Reservation for small holders in share buy-back: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) defined small shareholders, for the purpose of buy back of shares by companies, as one who hold shares whose market value, on the basis of closing price of shares as on record date, is not more than Rs.2 lakh. It has also been decided to reserve 15 per cent of the number of securities which the company proposes to buy back or number of securities entitled as per their shareholding, whichever is higher, for small
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shareholders. These amendments in SEBI (Buy-Back of Securities) Regulations, 1998, have been announced through an official Gazette notification on Tuesday, which would be known as SEBI (Buy-Back of Securities) (Amendment) Regulations, 2012. Iran agrees for part payment in rupees for crude oil sale: Iran has agreed to accept 45 per cent of the payment for its crude imports in rupees through three Indian banks to beat the effect of western sanctions. Assuring against any cut in crude supplies, Iranian Ambassador Syed Mahdi Nabizadeh told newspersons here on Tuesday that despite frequent U.S. roadblocks and pressure on European financial institutions through which India has been routing payments, both countries were determined to resolve the issue of payments for India's crude imports. The two countries had had agreed on part payment in rupees as gold was not a suitable option. Fortunately, a suitable mechanism has been found by the two countries. Officials of both countries met last week and both the Central Bank of Iran and the Reserve Bank of India are happy with this arrangement. This mechanism is agreeable to both countries,'' he said. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Indian Oil hold 80 per cent stake in the block and Oil India the remaining 20 per cent. India had reluctantly gone for the talks after Iran said it was planning to shift the project to an Iranian consortium and offered only a 30 per cent stake to the ONGC. Page 4 CAT reserves orders on IAS officer's plea: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here has reserved orders on an application by a senior IAS officer of Tamil Nadu challenging the government's rejection of his request for voluntary retirement. In his petition, Ashok Vardhan Shetty, said he belonged to the 1983 batch of IAS (regular recruit) and had put in 28 years of service. During his service, he had an unimpeachable reputation for outstanding work and integrity.

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