Open Letter to the new Prime Minister
To
Shri Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
Government of India
New Delhi
Date: May 21, 2014
Subject-Few things the new government must do
Dear Shri Narendra Modiji,
I wish to congratulate you on your appointment as the Prime Minister
of India by the President of India.
While fellow citizens await the event of President administering the
Oath of Office and Secrecy to you on May 26, 2014 at Rashtrapati
Bhavan, kindly allow me to suggest the following few things that the
new government ought to do to chart a new course discarding the beaten
track:-
1. Adopt the Contesting Election on Government Expenses Bill, 2012
which is pending in the Rajya Sabha to combat black money. This Bill
has been long due for putting a check on increasing use of black money
in elections and political activities to facilitate State funding of
elections. This six page long Bill introduced by Prabhat Jha, Member
of Parliament from BJP merits the attention of Narendra Modi, the
Prime Minister of the country. This Private Members' Bill reiterates
what several Parliamentary Committees have recommended.
One used to hear that Asif Ali Zardari was called Mr 10 % during
Benazir Bhutto's regime in Pakistan. Radia tapes revealed that there
was a Mr 10 % in Indian National Congress led Government too.
I submit that if corporate donation directly to political parties is
justified then why are they stopping at 7.5 % (through Companies Act,
2013), how about having a 50-50 partnership!
I submit that by shaping not only the strategies, rational choice but
also their goals, political parties as institutions structure
political situations and leave their own imprint on political
outcomes. This significance underlines the inference that parties
cannot be left at the mercy of non-state actors. As long as these
actors shape the outcome no matter who wins in electoral battles,
democracy is not a winner because our deformed political system is
turning legislatures into a forum for legalized bribery.
The way out could be to ensure corporate donations are pooled into an
electoral fund which can be used for state funding of elections.
2. Adopt the 20 page Bill titled "The Intelligence Services (Powers
and Regulation) Bill, 2011" that was introduced in the Lok Sabha by
Manish Tewari, "to regulate the manner of the functioning and exercise
of powers of Indian Intelligence Agencies within and beyond the
territory of India and to provide for the coordination, control and
oversight of such agencies…”
The Bills' Statement of Objects and Reasons reads: "Intelligence
agencies are responsible for maintaining internal security and
combating external threats to the sovereignty and integrity of the
nation. These responsibilities range from counter-terrorism measures
tackling separatist movements to critical infrastructure protection.
These agencies are operating without an appropriate statutory basis
delineating their functioning and operations. This tends to, among
other things, compromise operational efficiency and weakens the
professional fabric of these agencies. It also results in intelligence
officers not having due protection when performing their duties.
Assessments and gathering of information by intelligence agencies are
catalysts for law enforcement units to act, necessitating that these
be reliable, accurate and in accordance with law. This kind of
efficiency has been hindered by obscured responsibilities that have
plagued the functioning of the agencies."
This Private Members' Bill further reads: "Article 21 of the
Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of his life and
personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law.
The Supreme Court of India has carved a right to privacy from the
right to life and personal liberty. Such rights to privacy are
compromised when agencies undertake surveillance operations. In Re:
Peoples Union of Civil Liberties v/s Union of India, the Supreme Court
issued detailed guidelines regarding telephone tapping. A proper legal
framework is required to regulate surveillance of the forms, using
different technologies, as well. There is an urgent need to balance
the demands of security and privacy of individuals, by ensuring
safeguards against the misuse of surveillance powers of intelligence
agencies. Therefore, legislation is imperative to regulate the
possible infringement of privacy of citizens, while giving credence to
security concerns." This Bill was introduced by Manish Tewari, a MP of
Congress party.
It states, "In view of the reasons stated, the Bill seeks to enact a
legislation pursuant to Entry 8 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of
the Constitution of India to provide:
a) A legislative and regulatory framework for the Intelligence Bureau,
the Research and Analysis Wing and the National Technical Research
Organisation;
(b) Designated Authority regarding authorization procedure and system
of warrants for operations by these agencies;
(c) A National Intelligence Tribunal for the investigation of
complaints against these agencies;
(d) A National Intelligence and Security Oversight Committee for an
effective oversight mechanism of these agencies; and
(e) An Intelligence Ombudsman for efficient functioning of the
agencies and for matters connected therewith. The Bill seeks to
achieve the aforesaid objectives."
I submit that this Bill merits your attention. It needs to be examined
by a High Powered Parliamentary Committee whose recommendations are
mandatory. There is a need for a law and a Commission for
Parliamentary Scrutiny and Audit of Intelligence Operations.
3. Under your regime India must support a UN treaty to regulate corporations.
It is indeed a sad commentary on the state of affairs in India that
Congress led Government of did not express its support for the
Ecuadorian declaration regarding "Transnational Corporations and Human
Rights" before the UN Human Rights Council session in September 2013.
This action of the Ecuadorian government has been ratified in Geneva
at the 2nd Forum on Business and Human Rights on 3-4 December 2013.
The declaration has received wide support from UN member-countries,
such as the African Group, the Arabic Group, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru. Although
India used to be at the forefront of initiatives like Code of Conduct
for TNCs, its silence with regard to September 2013 declaration is
inconsistent with India's past stance on the issue and is contrary to
the interest of present and future generation of Indians.
In view of its significance, one of the first few tasks the new
government must to do is to publicly endorse the declaration ahead of
the 26th Human Rights Council Session scheduled to be held in Geneva
from 10 to 26 of June 2014 to discuss a proposed legally binding
international instrument on business and human rights to be included
within the UN system.
I submit that voluntary and self regulatory frameworks have failed
consistently to regulate corporations. There is an urgent need for a
legally binding treaty is adopted to regulate admittedly undemocratic
organisations like corporations which have become bigger and more
powerful than democratic governments.
4. End the Congress culture of tribunalization of judiciary and ensure
mandatory translation of all court orders in Hindi and other
vernacular languages in High Court, Supreme Court. Official
transcripts of arguments in the courts like the proceedings of the
parliament must be put in public domain.
I submit that delivering the fifth V.M. Tarkunde memorial lecture,
former Supreme Court judge Ruma Pal described the increasing
tribunalisation (the executive decision to set up specialised
tribunals) as a serious encroachment on the judiciary’s independence.
The judiciary, she said, had been “timorous” in not fighting these
tribunals that force it to share its adjudicating powers with the
executive.
I submit that how can it be forgotten that ‘Tribunals’ are established
under Article 323A or Article 323B of the Constitution, which were
inserted in 1976 via the 42nd Constitutional Amendment, which was
enacted during the Emergency imposed on the country by Indira Gandhi’s
Parliament. She was annoyed with ‘independent’ Judiciary which had
been bold enough to strike down her policies for being illegal and
unconstitutional. The idea of tribunals was to transfer some
substantial powers of the Judiciary to these tribunals. They do not
have the same safeguards for judicial independence that High Courts
and Civil Courts did. In a revenge of sort against High Courts because
one of them, the Allahabad High Court had declared her election to the
Lok Sabha void on grounds of electoral malpractice on 12 June 1975. To
shield herself from rulings of likes of Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha who
had given the verdict, these tribunals were exempted from review by
High Courts. These amendments expressly kept reviews out of the
jurisdiction of High Courts. As envisaged by her the Companies Act
2013 gives only limited rights of review to the Supreme Court under
its discretionary powers mentioned in Article 136.
I submit that Congress led Government asked us to believe that what 24
High Courts and over 600 District Courts and thousands of magistrates
in remote parts of the country could not do, Tribunal like one
envisaged under the Companies Act can do it. Only the gullible, the
beneficiary and the vested interests will believe it. Likes of Justice
Jagmohanlal Sinha and Justice Ruma Pal have underlined the emergence
of collusion, complicity, connivance and incestous institutions in
myriad ways.
I wish to take the opportunity to suggest that the new government must
ensure that the minutes of the deliberations and arguments in the
courts across the country are documented and published. Unless the
transcripts of arguments in the courts like the proceedings of the
parliament are made available, the ongoing erosion of faith in
judiciary cannot be reversed.
I submit that Indians who continue to be compelled to surrender their
self-respect before a colonial language, culture and dress. What is
the rationale of wearing black gowns-the colonial leftovers-in hot
summer in Indian courts? The sweat soaked black gown is an insult to
common sense of Indians. Is there any justification for such ongoing
foolishness?
I submit that a significant step can be taken through mandatory
translation of all the orders of all the courts in Hindi and other
vernacular languages. The can immediately be started in the High Court
and Supreme Court as a first step.
5. Impose a moratorium on use of internet communications networks by
government agencies in the light of report of the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Cyber Security at least till the time
communications between government agencies is secured.
This is required given the fact that Government of USA and Government
of UK and their intelligence allies are undertaking “Collection
directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft,
Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple” as per
document of National Security Agency revealed by Edward Snowden to
ensure that all the computers used in all sensitive government offices
are de-linked from internet and webcam in the wake of leakages and
secessions from key intelligence agencies. All the government
officials and ministers who used the account of these private
companies (including other private agencies) for official work must be
asked to surrender their email accounts with passwords for a thorough
cyber probe.
I submit that Prof Nicholas Negroponte, the author of Being Digital
revealed in 1995 that the Internet was conceived and designed by a man
named Larry Roberts in 1963. Larry was invited to Washington by Ivan
Sutherland, the then head of Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA)’s computer research. Internet was called ARPA network (ARPAnet)
then and was designed to be a fail-safe messaging system that
packetized information. The military was funding ARPAnet at a time
when the cold war was almost at its peak. Some countries including
United States, want to make sure that there is some means for them to
listen into messages, like wiretapping.
I submit that the new government will have to devise a method to
secure the interest of Indians from IT companies that have the
potential to turn into Trojan horses at strategic moments on signals
from their home countries.
The new Prime Minister should pay heed to the statement of Julian
Assange of Wikileaks, who may have to stay in Eucadorian Embassy until
2022 saying, “Who arrogates the power to spy on the entire earth-every
single of us-and when he is caught red handed, explains to us that
“we’re going to have to make a choice. Who is that person? Let’s be
careful about who we call “traitor”. Edward Snowden is one of us.
Bradley Manning is one of us. They are young, technically minded
people from the generation Barack Obama betrayed. They are the
generation that grew up on the internet, and were shaped by it.” India
must explicitly or implicitly take a position on the revelations made
about Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance and surveillance on head of
States that has come to light thanks to the efforts of Assange and
Snowden.
A High Powered Committee needs to be given the task of analyzing and
verifying the revelations made by Wikileaks and Snowden in a rigorous
manner. India’s foreign policy and other related policies need to be
guided in the light of these disclosures and should not remain caught
in a time warp.
I submit that likes of Shri P Chidambram, Shri Nandan Nilekani, Shri
Sam Pitroda and Shri C Chandramouli have been advocating national
identity cards as if “everyday forms of identity surveillance” is
natural and rational. How is it that when heads of states are put
under round the clock surveillance by colonial and imperial powers it
is deemed an assault on national sovereignty but when a national
government undertakes the same over their masters, the citizens, it
becomes natural and rational.
The democratic mandate is against electronic and biometric
identification exercises like aadhaar and national population register
and Bihar’s E-shakti card project, the new government should retrieve
data collected by foreign intelligence companies like Mongo DB, Safran
Group, Accenture, Ernst & Young and others and fix accountability now
that Shri Nilekani stands exposed and defeated.
I submit that the new government must take a position on cloud
computing especially in the aftermath of disclosures by whistleblowers
like Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, Snowden and the recent report of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Information Technology on
Cyber Crime, Cyber Security and Right to Privacy reveals how Aadhaar
number and NPR number compromise both national security and citizens’
sovereignty for good. The database of these numbers is being stored on
cloud which is beyond India’s jurisdiction.
The servility of the previous regime towards agencies like NSA and
their infantile reactions recorded in the report of the PSC in the
face of evidence that the entire union cabinet was under NSA's
surveillance must be remembered as one of the dark chapters of Indian
history. In their abject meekness Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) did
not hide even an iota of information from the NSA but it has been
reluctant to share its correspondence with Nilekani under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act.
6. Abandon ILR project, the trials for GMOs, examine the desirability
of nuclear projects in view of disasters and accidents, impose ban on
trade in hazardous wastes in myriad disguises and ban lung cancer
causing white chrysotile asbestos and waste incinerators that emit war
chemicals like Dioxins
Paying heed to the pearls of wisdom from Mahabharata that describes
the Divine Being saying, “The mountains are his bones. The earth is
his fat and flesh. The oceans are his blood. Space is his stomach. The
Wind is his breath. Fire is his energy. The rivers are his arteries
and veins. Agni and Soma, otherwise called the Sun and the Moon, are
called his eyes. The firmament above is his head. The earth is his two
feet. The cardinal and subsidiary points of the horizon are his arms,”
the new government should reject the idea of “inter-linking of rivers
based on feasibility”. This is narrated by Bhishma in conversation
with Yudhishthira by referring to the reply of Rishi Bhrigu to sage
Bharadwaja. This verse occurs in the Shanti Parva of Mahabharata.
I submit that interlinking of rivers entails mutilation of the veins
and arteries of the divine nature. Rivers shape the terrain and lives
of people by its waters which are always in a dynamic state. Breaking
this dynamic would unleash forces of uncontrolled change and invite
the ‘law of unintended consequences’. Let’s remember the terrible Aral
Sea disaster caused by the mistakes of Soviet Union in which two
Siberian rivers were diverted. If water scarcity is the perennial
question, there better answers like the groundwater recharge master
plan available with the government. Water can be made to “Reach to All
Homes, Farms and Factories” by adopting this plan as well at a minimal
cost.
I submit that whenever there is conflict between financial gains and
rivers, the latter must get priority over monetary benefits because by
any yard stick economic value of a free flowing river is bigger than
dammed and mutilated rivers. The capitalist, communist and colonial
legacy of treating rivers as material flow that flow through pipelines
must be abandoned and rivers must be treated as living beings that
nourished our civilization for centuries and can nourish all the
coming generations if cannibalistic tendency of diverting waters in
bottles, dams and banks is stopped.
With regard to pollution in rivers, if the new Prime Minister can
demonstrate the political will to stop all the effluents and sewage
from entering into river streams through a single executive decision,
he would have done an exemplary act of arresting ecological collapse
and for safeguarding the quality of blood flowing in veins and
arteries of the present and future generations.
I submit that the new government ought to abandon field trials of
Genetically Modified (GM) crops and organism in the country. Some
100-odd GM food crops in the pipeline for field trials. These include
rice, wheat, okra, onion, groundnut, bamboo, tomato, apple, cucumber,
sugarcane, cabbage, cauliflower, tea, coffee, corn, ginger, ragi, yam,
castor, sunflower, mustard, black pepper, pea, soybean, papaya,
cardamom, carrot, banana, tobacco, orange, pearl millet, potato and
pulses. Bt Brinjal was stopped following massive public protest.
I submit that among the many sins committed by Dr Manmohan Singh, his
sin to disregard a precautionary principle-based approach towards any
open release of GMOs at the behest of Shri Sharad Pawar led
Agriculture Ministry is the most unpardonable. Shri Veerappa Moily was
brought in place of Smt Jayanti Natarajan who resigned from the post
of Union Minister of Environment & Forest after her recommendation for
a precautionary principle-based approach was vetoed by the Prime
Minister himself.
I submit that the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on
Agriculture in their 59th report has reiterated their earlier
recommendation on stopping all kinds of environmental releases of GM
crops including for field trials. The PSC noted that contrary to its
recommendations in the 37th Report, Moily as the Minister for
Environment and Forests has decided to allow field trials of
transgenics and has strongly deprecated it. Notably, the approach of
the PSC is similar to the majority report of the independent experts
of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court
on the matter of open air field trials.
I submit that the government should note that France has stopped all
GM field trials. A Mexican Court has suspended GMO field trials. A
Brazilian Court has ruled against a GM crop. China has rejected GM
corn imports. Russia has put in place a policy against transgenics. It
refers to GMO producers as “terrorists”. India should follow the
example of France, Russia, Mexco and Brazil and safeguard food chain
from poisoning through GMOs.
The new Prime Minister should set up a commission to examine nuclear
projects being undertaken in the aftermath of Chernobyl disaster of
the Soviet era in Ukraine, the Fukushima disaster in Japan and Three
Mile Island accident in USA.
I submit that there is no sane justification for continuing with the
Congress’s legacy of allowing free trade in hazardous wastes by
indulging in linguistic corruption under the influence of
international recyclers?
Our country generates about 7.90 million tonnes of hazardous wastes
per annum. The seven states (Maharashtra (22.84%), Gujarat (22.68%),
Andhra Pradesh (13.75%), Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh) together are generating about 82% of the country’s total
hazardous wastes. In a situation where we have failed to manage our
own hazardous waste, why is hazardous waste from foreign countries is
being dumped in India with policy support from Ministry of Commerce
and meek obedience by ministry of environment & forests? The Ministry
of Commerce must be made to stop such practices that turns India into
a dust bin of industrialized countries and belittles India’s stature
among the comity of nations.
I submit that Manmohan Singh Government let down the country when
India’s delegation to the sixth meeting of the UN’s Rotterdam
Conference on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain
Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade in Geneva,
Switzerland took an untenable, inconsistent and unscientific position
with regard to white chrysotile asbestos being non-hazardous substance
contrary to domestic laws such as Factories Act, 1948 and India’s
Inventory of Hazardous Chemicals Import in India that lists ‘asbestos’
at serial no. 26 as one of the 180 hazardous chemicals in
international trade which is imported in India. This inventory was
prepared by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), under Union
Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India. India opposed the
listing of chrysotile asbestos under Annex III of the Rotterdam
Convention during the meeting held from 28 April to 10 May 2013 based
on an irrelevant, flawed and conflict of interest ridden study by the
National Institute of Occupational Health, (NIOH), Ahmedabad. Its
listing has been recommended by Rotterdam Convention’s Chemical Review
Committee.
The Indian delegation was misled by Ministry of Chemicals. It has
made India’s position quite self-contradictory because how can some
substance be designated as hazardous under national law and
non-hazardous under an international law. The new government must
rectify this grave error and support listing of white asbestos in the
PIC list of hazardous substances at the earliest before the Seventh
meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention
which is scheduled to be held back‐to‐back with the meetings of the
conferences of the UN’s parties to the Basel and Stockholm conventions
in May 2015.
The continued use of lung cancer causing white chrysotile asbestos is
a legacy of the Soviet era has been promoted by companies close to the
Congress party. There are established substitutes of these killer
fibers of asbestos which need to be adopted to prevent incurable
diseases but preventable deaths. In keeping with the recommendations
of World Health Organisation, International Labour Organisation and
our Supreme Court, India too should prohibit use of asbestos based
products like more than 50 countries of the world.
Dr Manmohan Singh government unleashed environmental lawlessness by
permitting waste incinerator based waste to electricity plant amidst
Okhla’s residential colonies and bird sanctuary and exposing local
population to chemical emission that have been used in wars. It has
set a very bad precedent. This must be undone because every rule in
the rule book has been violated in the heart of the national capital.
7. Make India a sustainable public transport democracy instead of
promoting myopic car owning democracy. To begin with one day in the
week should be declared as a car free day as has been done in many
countries.
8. Encourage village and agriculture and artisan centric economic
activity which has been India’s strength for centuries before
colonization instead of blind urbanization and industrialization for
myopic monetization at any human and natural cost.
9. Set up a commission to prepare a blue print for Indian economy so
that country’s share in world trade reaches a target of 25 percent and
to examine the contribution of companies in increase or decrease of
India’s share in world’s wealth between 1750 and 2014.
10. Bring a White Paper of land acquisitions undertaken by East India
Company, British Government and government of independent India so far
in the name of public purpose and reject the recommendations of Dr
Vijay Kelkar committee’s report which recommended sale of government
owned lands which has been acquired for ‘public purpose’ since 1894.
This report was accepted by Shri Chidambram in his 2013 budget speech.
The Kelkar committee had submitted its report on September 3, 2012.
The committee recommended that over the next two-three years the
government should raise resources by selling unutilised and
under-utilised land of the PSUs, port trusts, and the railways, to
fund the infrastructure sector. Such stance with regard to government
owned land for public purpose is totally immoral and erodes peoples’
trust in government.
11. Stop contractualization of Secretariats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
Parliamentary function has been softened by giving post retirement
contracts to former IAS officers who have been made Secretary Generals
of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha by sidelining officials of the
Parliament.
It was only recently that the impropriety of having T.K. Viswanathan,
a retired IAS officer as the Secretary General of the 15th Lok Sabha
been rectified. Prior to that P D T Achary too was a retired IAS
officer who held the position of Secretary General of the 14th Lok
Sabha and 15th Lok Sabha from 2005 to 2010. The post of Secretary
General is of the rank of the Cabinet Secretary in the Government of
India, who is the senior most civil servant to the Indian Government.
Till the time of G C Malhotra who relinquished the office of
Secretary-General of Lok Sabha on July 31, 2005, the officers of Lok
Sabha Secretariat held this position who were well versed with
parliamentary conventions and rules. This was discontinued during 14th
and 15th Lok Sabha and in a bizarre act of flouting parliamentary
norms Secretary Generals were hired on contract. When the writing
became clear on wall that the Speaker is going to lose the
parliamentary election, P. Sreedharan from Loka Sabha cadre was
appointed as the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha with effect from
March 1, 2014. The question is that when officials of Lok Sabha were
available why they were ignored by Speaker to favour retired IAS
officers. Why were officers of executive appointed as officers of
legislature? An inquiry must be order by the 17th Lok Sabha to undo
the damages done due to such unhealthy corrupt practices.
But as far as Rajya Sabha is concerned it is yet to rectify its
mistakes. Shumsher K. Sheriff who is the current Secretary-General of
Rajya Sabha since October 2012 onwards is a retired IAS officer with
does not come from the cadre of those in the service of the
Parliament. Prior to this Dr V K Agnihotri who was the Secretary
General from 29 October 2007 onwards too was a retired IAS officer.
Dr Yogendra Naraian, the Scretary General who preceded Dr Agnihotri
was also a retired IAS officer. This system of ignoring Rajya Sabha
cadre and hiring retired officials of executive on contract must
change.
Besides rectifying these anomalies, the parliament building needs to
be debugged after undertaking a thorough examination of surveillance
gadgets that may have been planted. The newly elected members may
consider having a security force directly under the command of
Secretariats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha so that the security forces
of the executive does exercise even an iota of impact on the
legislative functions. The incident that happened during the passage
of Telengana Bill creates a logical compulsion for such measures.
12. Initiate efforts to ensure regulation of technology companies
whose affairs have gone beyond democratic control of governments
13. After the passage of Bhopal Gas Disaster (Processing of Claims)
Act, 1985, Government of India is the guardian of the victims. The
new government should seek the extradition of Warren Anderson from USA
who was allowed to leave the country despite having been arrested for
the industrial genocide that happened during the Congress regime in
the chemical pesticide plant of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC),
currently owned by Dow Chemicals Company. It should ensure that Dow
bears the liability of Bhopal disaster, the way it is bearing the
UCC’s liability for asbestos related diseases and deaths by allocating
2.2 billion dollars.
14. In the light of the fact that in the previous government there
were many ministers and cabinet minister ranking officials who seem to
have violated the oath of office and secrecy, I wish to request you to
constitute a judicial commission to examine whether oath of office and
secrecy has been adhered to by the ministers in the previous
governments.
15. There are Indians who are prisoners in foreign countries about
which the previous governments’ feigned ignorance. The new government
should declare the list of Indian prisoners in the jails of China,
Pakistan and all the other foreign countries. Indians everywhere must
be made to feel that their government is aware of their plight and is
making efforts to bring them back to their homeland. The condition of
under trials in the prisons of India and the need to decongest the
jails in general through creative interventions also merits attention.
It has been said that by 2025, India could become a $5 trillion
economy, and among the top five in the world. If India does become a
$5 trillion economy but get all its rivers polluted, food chain
poisoned and genetic pool depleted and biometric database of Indians
sold or stolen at the behest of commercial czars, will it not be a
pyrrhic victory?
Our new Prime Minister and his advisers must ponder over such a
scenario before following the path that has been paved by the previous
governments’ policies and programs and consider reversing them.
Warm Regards
Gopal Krishna
ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)
Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660
E-mail:gopalkrishna1715@gmail.com
Web: www.toxicswatch.org
Shri Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
Government of India
New Delhi
Date: May 21, 2014
Subject-Few things the new government must do
Dear Shri Narendra Modiji,
I wish to congratulate you on your appointment as the Prime Minister
of India by the President of India.
While fellow citizens await the event of President administering the
Oath of Office and Secrecy to you on May 26, 2014 at Rashtrapati
Bhavan, kindly allow me to suggest the following few things that the
new government ought to do to chart a new course discarding the beaten
track:-
1. Adopt the Contesting Election on Government Expenses Bill, 2012
which is pending in the Rajya Sabha to combat black money. This Bill
has been long due for putting a check on increasing use of black money
in elections and political activities to facilitate State funding of
elections. This six page long Bill introduced by Prabhat Jha, Member
of Parliament from BJP merits the attention of Narendra Modi, the
Prime Minister of the country. This Private Members' Bill reiterates
what several Parliamentary Committees have recommended.
One used to hear that Asif Ali Zardari was called Mr 10 % during
Benazir Bhutto's regime in Pakistan. Radia tapes revealed that there
was a Mr 10 % in Indian National Congress led Government too.
I submit that if corporate donation directly to political parties is
justified then why are they stopping at 7.5 % (through Companies Act,
2013), how about having a 50-50 partnership!
I submit that by shaping not only the strategies, rational choice but
also their goals, political parties as institutions structure
political situations and leave their own imprint on political
outcomes. This significance underlines the inference that parties
cannot be left at the mercy of non-state actors. As long as these
actors shape the outcome no matter who wins in electoral battles,
democracy is not a winner because our deformed political system is
turning legislatures into a forum for legalized bribery.
The way out could be to ensure corporate donations are pooled into an
electoral fund which can be used for state funding of elections.
2. Adopt the 20 page Bill titled "The Intelligence Services (Powers
and Regulation) Bill, 2011" that was introduced in the Lok Sabha by
Manish Tewari, "to regulate the manner of the functioning and exercise
of powers of Indian Intelligence Agencies within and beyond the
territory of India and to provide for the coordination, control and
oversight of such agencies…”
The Bills' Statement of Objects and Reasons reads: "Intelligence
agencies are responsible for maintaining internal security and
combating external threats to the sovereignty and integrity of the
nation. These responsibilities range from counter-terrorism measures
tackling separatist movements to critical infrastructure protection.
These agencies are operating without an appropriate statutory basis
delineating their functioning and operations. This tends to, among
other things, compromise operational efficiency and weakens the
professional fabric of these agencies. It also results in intelligence
officers not having due protection when performing their duties.
Assessments and gathering of information by intelligence agencies are
catalysts for law enforcement units to act, necessitating that these
be reliable, accurate and in accordance with law. This kind of
efficiency has been hindered by obscured responsibilities that have
plagued the functioning of the agencies."
This Private Members' Bill further reads: "Article 21 of the
Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of his life and
personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law.
The Supreme Court of India has carved a right to privacy from the
right to life and personal liberty. Such rights to privacy are
compromised when agencies undertake surveillance operations. In Re:
Peoples Union of Civil Liberties v/s Union of India, the Supreme Court
issued detailed guidelines regarding telephone tapping. A proper legal
framework is required to regulate surveillance of the forms, using
different technologies, as well. There is an urgent need to balance
the demands of security and privacy of individuals, by ensuring
safeguards against the misuse of surveillance powers of intelligence
agencies. Therefore, legislation is imperative to regulate the
possible infringement of privacy of citizens, while giving credence to
security concerns." This Bill was introduced by Manish Tewari, a MP of
Congress party.
It states, "In view of the reasons stated, the Bill seeks to enact a
legislation pursuant to Entry 8 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of
the Constitution of India to provide:
a) A legislative and regulatory framework for the Intelligence Bureau,
the Research and Analysis Wing and the National Technical Research
Organisation;
(b) Designated Authority regarding authorization procedure and system
of warrants for operations by these agencies;
(c) A National Intelligence Tribunal for the investigation of
complaints against these agencies;
(d) A National Intelligence and Security Oversight Committee for an
effective oversight mechanism of these agencies; and
(e) An Intelligence Ombudsman for efficient functioning of the
agencies and for matters connected therewith. The Bill seeks to
achieve the aforesaid objectives."
I submit that this Bill merits your attention. It needs to be examined
by a High Powered Parliamentary Committee whose recommendations are
mandatory. There is a need for a law and a Commission for
Parliamentary Scrutiny and Audit of Intelligence Operations.
3. Under your regime India must support a UN treaty to regulate corporations.
It is indeed a sad commentary on the state of affairs in India that
Congress led Government of did not express its support for the
Ecuadorian declaration regarding "Transnational Corporations and Human
Rights" before the UN Human Rights Council session in September 2013.
This action of the Ecuadorian government has been ratified in Geneva
at the 2nd Forum on Business and Human Rights on 3-4 December 2013.
The declaration has received wide support from UN member-countries,
such as the African Group, the Arabic Group, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru. Although
India used to be at the forefront of initiatives like Code of Conduct
for TNCs, its silence with regard to September 2013 declaration is
inconsistent with India's past stance on the issue and is contrary to
the interest of present and future generation of Indians.
In view of its significance, one of the first few tasks the new
government must to do is to publicly endorse the declaration ahead of
the 26th Human Rights Council Session scheduled to be held in Geneva
from 10 to 26 of June 2014 to discuss a proposed legally binding
international instrument on business and human rights to be included
within the UN system.
I submit that voluntary and self regulatory frameworks have failed
consistently to regulate corporations. There is an urgent need for a
legally binding treaty is adopted to regulate admittedly undemocratic
organisations like corporations which have become bigger and more
powerful than democratic governments.
4. End the Congress culture of tribunalization of judiciary and ensure
mandatory translation of all court orders in Hindi and other
vernacular languages in High Court, Supreme Court. Official
transcripts of arguments in the courts like the proceedings of the
parliament must be put in public domain.
I submit that delivering the fifth V.M. Tarkunde memorial lecture,
former Supreme Court judge Ruma Pal described the increasing
tribunalisation (the executive decision to set up specialised
tribunals) as a serious encroachment on the judiciary’s independence.
The judiciary, she said, had been “timorous” in not fighting these
tribunals that force it to share its adjudicating powers with the
executive.
I submit that how can it be forgotten that ‘Tribunals’ are established
under Article 323A or Article 323B of the Constitution, which were
inserted in 1976 via the 42nd Constitutional Amendment, which was
enacted during the Emergency imposed on the country by Indira Gandhi’s
Parliament. She was annoyed with ‘independent’ Judiciary which had
been bold enough to strike down her policies for being illegal and
unconstitutional. The idea of tribunals was to transfer some
substantial powers of the Judiciary to these tribunals. They do not
have the same safeguards for judicial independence that High Courts
and Civil Courts did. In a revenge of sort against High Courts because
one of them, the Allahabad High Court had declared her election to the
Lok Sabha void on grounds of electoral malpractice on 12 June 1975. To
shield herself from rulings of likes of Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha who
had given the verdict, these tribunals were exempted from review by
High Courts. These amendments expressly kept reviews out of the
jurisdiction of High Courts. As envisaged by her the Companies Act
2013 gives only limited rights of review to the Supreme Court under
its discretionary powers mentioned in Article 136.
I submit that Congress led Government asked us to believe that what 24
High Courts and over 600 District Courts and thousands of magistrates
in remote parts of the country could not do, Tribunal like one
envisaged under the Companies Act can do it. Only the gullible, the
beneficiary and the vested interests will believe it. Likes of Justice
Jagmohanlal Sinha and Justice Ruma Pal have underlined the emergence
of collusion, complicity, connivance and incestous institutions in
myriad ways.
I wish to take the opportunity to suggest that the new government must
ensure that the minutes of the deliberations and arguments in the
courts across the country are documented and published. Unless the
transcripts of arguments in the courts like the proceedings of the
parliament are made available, the ongoing erosion of faith in
judiciary cannot be reversed.
I submit that Indians who continue to be compelled to surrender their
self-respect before a colonial language, culture and dress. What is
the rationale of wearing black gowns-the colonial leftovers-in hot
summer in Indian courts? The sweat soaked black gown is an insult to
common sense of Indians. Is there any justification for such ongoing
foolishness?
I submit that a significant step can be taken through mandatory
translation of all the orders of all the courts in Hindi and other
vernacular languages. The can immediately be started in the High Court
and Supreme Court as a first step.
5. Impose a moratorium on use of internet communications networks by
government agencies in the light of report of the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Cyber Security at least till the time
communications between government agencies is secured.
This is required given the fact that Government of USA and Government
of UK and their intelligence allies are undertaking “Collection
directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft,
Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple” as per
document of National Security Agency revealed by Edward Snowden to
ensure that all the computers used in all sensitive government offices
are de-linked from internet and webcam in the wake of leakages and
secessions from key intelligence agencies. All the government
officials and ministers who used the account of these private
companies (including other private agencies) for official work must be
asked to surrender their email accounts with passwords for a thorough
cyber probe.
I submit that Prof Nicholas Negroponte, the author of Being Digital
revealed in 1995 that the Internet was conceived and designed by a man
named Larry Roberts in 1963. Larry was invited to Washington by Ivan
Sutherland, the then head of Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA)’s computer research. Internet was called ARPA network (ARPAnet)
then and was designed to be a fail-safe messaging system that
packetized information. The military was funding ARPAnet at a time
when the cold war was almost at its peak. Some countries including
United States, want to make sure that there is some means for them to
listen into messages, like wiretapping.
I submit that the new government will have to devise a method to
secure the interest of Indians from IT companies that have the
potential to turn into Trojan horses at strategic moments on signals
from their home countries.
The new Prime Minister should pay heed to the statement of Julian
Assange of Wikileaks, who may have to stay in Eucadorian Embassy until
2022 saying, “Who arrogates the power to spy on the entire earth-every
single of us-and when he is caught red handed, explains to us that
“we’re going to have to make a choice. Who is that person? Let’s be
careful about who we call “traitor”. Edward Snowden is one of us.
Bradley Manning is one of us. They are young, technically minded
people from the generation Barack Obama betrayed. They are the
generation that grew up on the internet, and were shaped by it.” India
must explicitly or implicitly take a position on the revelations made
about Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance and surveillance on head of
States that has come to light thanks to the efforts of Assange and
Snowden.
A High Powered Committee needs to be given the task of analyzing and
verifying the revelations made by Wikileaks and Snowden in a rigorous
manner. India’s foreign policy and other related policies need to be
guided in the light of these disclosures and should not remain caught
in a time warp.
I submit that likes of Shri P Chidambram, Shri Nandan Nilekani, Shri
Sam Pitroda and Shri C Chandramouli have been advocating national
identity cards as if “everyday forms of identity surveillance” is
natural and rational. How is it that when heads of states are put
under round the clock surveillance by colonial and imperial powers it
is deemed an assault on national sovereignty but when a national
government undertakes the same over their masters, the citizens, it
becomes natural and rational.
The democratic mandate is against electronic and biometric
identification exercises like aadhaar and national population register
and Bihar’s E-shakti card project, the new government should retrieve
data collected by foreign intelligence companies like Mongo DB, Safran
Group, Accenture, Ernst & Young and others and fix accountability now
that Shri Nilekani stands exposed and defeated.
I submit that the new government must take a position on cloud
computing especially in the aftermath of disclosures by whistleblowers
like Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, Snowden and the recent report of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Information Technology on
Cyber Crime, Cyber Security and Right to Privacy reveals how Aadhaar
number and NPR number compromise both national security and citizens’
sovereignty for good. The database of these numbers is being stored on
cloud which is beyond India’s jurisdiction.
The servility of the previous regime towards agencies like NSA and
their infantile reactions recorded in the report of the PSC in the
face of evidence that the entire union cabinet was under NSA's
surveillance must be remembered as one of the dark chapters of Indian
history. In their abject meekness Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) did
not hide even an iota of information from the NSA but it has been
reluctant to share its correspondence with Nilekani under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act.
6. Abandon ILR project, the trials for GMOs, examine the desirability
of nuclear projects in view of disasters and accidents, impose ban on
trade in hazardous wastes in myriad disguises and ban lung cancer
causing white chrysotile asbestos and waste incinerators that emit war
chemicals like Dioxins
Paying heed to the pearls of wisdom from Mahabharata that describes
the Divine Being saying, “The mountains are his bones. The earth is
his fat and flesh. The oceans are his blood. Space is his stomach. The
Wind is his breath. Fire is his energy. The rivers are his arteries
and veins. Agni and Soma, otherwise called the Sun and the Moon, are
called his eyes. The firmament above is his head. The earth is his two
feet. The cardinal and subsidiary points of the horizon are his arms,”
the new government should reject the idea of “inter-linking of rivers
based on feasibility”. This is narrated by Bhishma in conversation
with Yudhishthira by referring to the reply of Rishi Bhrigu to sage
Bharadwaja. This verse occurs in the Shanti Parva of Mahabharata.
I submit that interlinking of rivers entails mutilation of the veins
and arteries of the divine nature. Rivers shape the terrain and lives
of people by its waters which are always in a dynamic state. Breaking
this dynamic would unleash forces of uncontrolled change and invite
the ‘law of unintended consequences’. Let’s remember the terrible Aral
Sea disaster caused by the mistakes of Soviet Union in which two
Siberian rivers were diverted. If water scarcity is the perennial
question, there better answers like the groundwater recharge master
plan available with the government. Water can be made to “Reach to All
Homes, Farms and Factories” by adopting this plan as well at a minimal
cost.
I submit that whenever there is conflict between financial gains and
rivers, the latter must get priority over monetary benefits because by
any yard stick economic value of a free flowing river is bigger than
dammed and mutilated rivers. The capitalist, communist and colonial
legacy of treating rivers as material flow that flow through pipelines
must be abandoned and rivers must be treated as living beings that
nourished our civilization for centuries and can nourish all the
coming generations if cannibalistic tendency of diverting waters in
bottles, dams and banks is stopped.
With regard to pollution in rivers, if the new Prime Minister can
demonstrate the political will to stop all the effluents and sewage
from entering into river streams through a single executive decision,
he would have done an exemplary act of arresting ecological collapse
and for safeguarding the quality of blood flowing in veins and
arteries of the present and future generations.
I submit that the new government ought to abandon field trials of
Genetically Modified (GM) crops and organism in the country. Some
100-odd GM food crops in the pipeline for field trials. These include
rice, wheat, okra, onion, groundnut, bamboo, tomato, apple, cucumber,
sugarcane, cabbage, cauliflower, tea, coffee, corn, ginger, ragi, yam,
castor, sunflower, mustard, black pepper, pea, soybean, papaya,
cardamom, carrot, banana, tobacco, orange, pearl millet, potato and
pulses. Bt Brinjal was stopped following massive public protest.
I submit that among the many sins committed by Dr Manmohan Singh, his
sin to disregard a precautionary principle-based approach towards any
open release of GMOs at the behest of Shri Sharad Pawar led
Agriculture Ministry is the most unpardonable. Shri Veerappa Moily was
brought in place of Smt Jayanti Natarajan who resigned from the post
of Union Minister of Environment & Forest after her recommendation for
a precautionary principle-based approach was vetoed by the Prime
Minister himself.
I submit that the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on
Agriculture in their 59th report has reiterated their earlier
recommendation on stopping all kinds of environmental releases of GM
crops including for field trials. The PSC noted that contrary to its
recommendations in the 37th Report, Moily as the Minister for
Environment and Forests has decided to allow field trials of
transgenics and has strongly deprecated it. Notably, the approach of
the PSC is similar to the majority report of the independent experts
of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court
on the matter of open air field trials.
I submit that the government should note that France has stopped all
GM field trials. A Mexican Court has suspended GMO field trials. A
Brazilian Court has ruled against a GM crop. China has rejected GM
corn imports. Russia has put in place a policy against transgenics. It
refers to GMO producers as “terrorists”. India should follow the
example of France, Russia, Mexco and Brazil and safeguard food chain
from poisoning through GMOs.
The new Prime Minister should set up a commission to examine nuclear
projects being undertaken in the aftermath of Chernobyl disaster of
the Soviet era in Ukraine, the Fukushima disaster in Japan and Three
Mile Island accident in USA.
I submit that there is no sane justification for continuing with the
Congress’s legacy of allowing free trade in hazardous wastes by
indulging in linguistic corruption under the influence of
international recyclers?
Our country generates about 7.90 million tonnes of hazardous wastes
per annum. The seven states (Maharashtra (22.84%), Gujarat (22.68%),
Andhra Pradesh (13.75%), Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh) together are generating about 82% of the country’s total
hazardous wastes. In a situation where we have failed to manage our
own hazardous waste, why is hazardous waste from foreign countries is
being dumped in India with policy support from Ministry of Commerce
and meek obedience by ministry of environment & forests? The Ministry
of Commerce must be made to stop such practices that turns India into
a dust bin of industrialized countries and belittles India’s stature
among the comity of nations.
I submit that Manmohan Singh Government let down the country when
India’s delegation to the sixth meeting of the UN’s Rotterdam
Conference on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain
Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade in Geneva,
Switzerland took an untenable, inconsistent and unscientific position
with regard to white chrysotile asbestos being non-hazardous substance
contrary to domestic laws such as Factories Act, 1948 and India’s
Inventory of Hazardous Chemicals Import in India that lists ‘asbestos’
at serial no. 26 as one of the 180 hazardous chemicals in
international trade which is imported in India. This inventory was
prepared by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), under Union
Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India. India opposed the
listing of chrysotile asbestos under Annex III of the Rotterdam
Convention during the meeting held from 28 April to 10 May 2013 based
on an irrelevant, flawed and conflict of interest ridden study by the
National Institute of Occupational Health, (NIOH), Ahmedabad. Its
listing has been recommended by Rotterdam Convention’s Chemical Review
Committee.
The Indian delegation was misled by Ministry of Chemicals. It has
made India’s position quite self-contradictory because how can some
substance be designated as hazardous under national law and
non-hazardous under an international law. The new government must
rectify this grave error and support listing of white asbestos in the
PIC list of hazardous substances at the earliest before the Seventh
meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention
which is scheduled to be held back‐to‐back with the meetings of the
conferences of the UN’s parties to the Basel and Stockholm conventions
in May 2015.
The continued use of lung cancer causing white chrysotile asbestos is
a legacy of the Soviet era has been promoted by companies close to the
Congress party. There are established substitutes of these killer
fibers of asbestos which need to be adopted to prevent incurable
diseases but preventable deaths. In keeping with the recommendations
of World Health Organisation, International Labour Organisation and
our Supreme Court, India too should prohibit use of asbestos based
products like more than 50 countries of the world.
Dr Manmohan Singh government unleashed environmental lawlessness by
permitting waste incinerator based waste to electricity plant amidst
Okhla’s residential colonies and bird sanctuary and exposing local
population to chemical emission that have been used in wars. It has
set a very bad precedent. This must be undone because every rule in
the rule book has been violated in the heart of the national capital.
7. Make India a sustainable public transport democracy instead of
promoting myopic car owning democracy. To begin with one day in the
week should be declared as a car free day as has been done in many
countries.
8. Encourage village and agriculture and artisan centric economic
activity which has been India’s strength for centuries before
colonization instead of blind urbanization and industrialization for
myopic monetization at any human and natural cost.
9. Set up a commission to prepare a blue print for Indian economy so
that country’s share in world trade reaches a target of 25 percent and
to examine the contribution of companies in increase or decrease of
India’s share in world’s wealth between 1750 and 2014.
10. Bring a White Paper of land acquisitions undertaken by East India
Company, British Government and government of independent India so far
in the name of public purpose and reject the recommendations of Dr
Vijay Kelkar committee’s report which recommended sale of government
owned lands which has been acquired for ‘public purpose’ since 1894.
This report was accepted by Shri Chidambram in his 2013 budget speech.
The Kelkar committee had submitted its report on September 3, 2012.
The committee recommended that over the next two-three years the
government should raise resources by selling unutilised and
under-utilised land of the PSUs, port trusts, and the railways, to
fund the infrastructure sector. Such stance with regard to government
owned land for public purpose is totally immoral and erodes peoples’
trust in government.
11. Stop contractualization of Secretariats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
Parliamentary function has been softened by giving post retirement
contracts to former IAS officers who have been made Secretary Generals
of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha by sidelining officials of the
Parliament.
It was only recently that the impropriety of having T.K. Viswanathan,
a retired IAS officer as the Secretary General of the 15th Lok Sabha
been rectified. Prior to that P D T Achary too was a retired IAS
officer who held the position of Secretary General of the 14th Lok
Sabha and 15th Lok Sabha from 2005 to 2010. The post of Secretary
General is of the rank of the Cabinet Secretary in the Government of
India, who is the senior most civil servant to the Indian Government.
Till the time of G C Malhotra who relinquished the office of
Secretary-General of Lok Sabha on July 31, 2005, the officers of Lok
Sabha Secretariat held this position who were well versed with
parliamentary conventions and rules. This was discontinued during 14th
and 15th Lok Sabha and in a bizarre act of flouting parliamentary
norms Secretary Generals were hired on contract. When the writing
became clear on wall that the Speaker is going to lose the
parliamentary election, P. Sreedharan from Loka Sabha cadre was
appointed as the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha with effect from
March 1, 2014. The question is that when officials of Lok Sabha were
available why they were ignored by Speaker to favour retired IAS
officers. Why were officers of executive appointed as officers of
legislature? An inquiry must be order by the 17th Lok Sabha to undo
the damages done due to such unhealthy corrupt practices.
But as far as Rajya Sabha is concerned it is yet to rectify its
mistakes. Shumsher K. Sheriff who is the current Secretary-General of
Rajya Sabha since October 2012 onwards is a retired IAS officer with
does not come from the cadre of those in the service of the
Parliament. Prior to this Dr V K Agnihotri who was the Secretary
General from 29 October 2007 onwards too was a retired IAS officer.
Dr Yogendra Naraian, the Scretary General who preceded Dr Agnihotri
was also a retired IAS officer. This system of ignoring Rajya Sabha
cadre and hiring retired officials of executive on contract must
change.
Besides rectifying these anomalies, the parliament building needs to
be debugged after undertaking a thorough examination of surveillance
gadgets that may have been planted. The newly elected members may
consider having a security force directly under the command of
Secretariats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha so that the security forces
of the executive does exercise even an iota of impact on the
legislative functions. The incident that happened during the passage
of Telengana Bill creates a logical compulsion for such measures.
12. Initiate efforts to ensure regulation of technology companies
whose affairs have gone beyond democratic control of governments
13. After the passage of Bhopal Gas Disaster (Processing of Claims)
Act, 1985, Government of India is the guardian of the victims. The
new government should seek the extradition of Warren Anderson from USA
who was allowed to leave the country despite having been arrested for
the industrial genocide that happened during the Congress regime in
the chemical pesticide plant of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC),
currently owned by Dow Chemicals Company. It should ensure that Dow
bears the liability of Bhopal disaster, the way it is bearing the
UCC’s liability for asbestos related diseases and deaths by allocating
2.2 billion dollars.
14. In the light of the fact that in the previous government there
were many ministers and cabinet minister ranking officials who seem to
have violated the oath of office and secrecy, I wish to request you to
constitute a judicial commission to examine whether oath of office and
secrecy has been adhered to by the ministers in the previous
governments.
15. There are Indians who are prisoners in foreign countries about
which the previous governments’ feigned ignorance. The new government
should declare the list of Indian prisoners in the jails of China,
Pakistan and all the other foreign countries. Indians everywhere must
be made to feel that their government is aware of their plight and is
making efforts to bring them back to their homeland. The condition of
under trials in the prisons of India and the need to decongest the
jails in general through creative interventions also merits attention.
It has been said that by 2025, India could become a $5 trillion
economy, and among the top five in the world. If India does become a
$5 trillion economy but get all its rivers polluted, food chain
poisoned and genetic pool depleted and biometric database of Indians
sold or stolen at the behest of commercial czars, will it not be a
pyrrhic victory?
Our new Prime Minister and his advisers must ponder over such a
scenario before following the path that has been paved by the previous
governments’ policies and programs and consider reversing them.
Warm Regards
Gopal Krishna
ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)
Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660
E-mail:gopalkrishna1715@gmail.com
Web: www.toxicswatch.org
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