POST INDEPENDENT INDIAN POLITY

? Partition and Refugee problemThe partition of the country posed a big

challenge to the new born nation. Communalriots broke out and continued with increasingintensity and ferocity in the Punjab, Sind andDelhi. Millions of men, women and childrenhad to flee from one Dominion to the otherleaving behind all their possessions. More than5 million Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India.The problem of resettling the refugees andrehabilitating them occupied the attention ofthe Government in the first year ofindependence. Prompt measures were takento afford relief to the sufferers, but murder,rape and arson continued unceasingly forseveral months. Mahatma Gandhi during thisperiod of unprecedented crisis went about asthe apostle of peace and non-violence in theareas worst affected by communal frenzy inKolkata and other parts of Bengal.

? Martyrdom of Mahatma GandhiMahatma Gandhi was unhappy about the

partition of the country and the communalriots that broke out following the partition.He went about as the apostle of peace andbrotherhood of man. The magic presence ofMahatma Gandhi avoided bloodshed andestablished peace wherever he went. OnIndependence Day he was far away fromDelhi, in Kolkata. When blood-stream flowedeverywhere else, Kolkata remainedcomparatively calm. Mahatma Gandhireturned to Delhi when riots broke out there.In protest against the bloodshed MahatmaGandhi started a fast on 13 January 1948. On

18th January the fast was brought to a closeby the effort of the peace committee of Delhi.Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts led to a gradualimprovement in the situation, and Muslimsfound it possible to move about without fear.This infuriated some Hindu communalists whothought that Mahatma Gandhi was protectingthe Muslims in India while in Pakistan Hindusand Sikhs were being killed or forced to fleethe country. Attempts were made on theMahatma’s life, but he did not care. On 30thJanuary 1948 a young man, Nathu RamVinayaka Godse, fired three shots at MahatmaGandhi as he was going to his prayer meetingin the Birla House, and was killed. The longand fruitful Gandhian era (1919-1948) cameto an end. Gandhi’s supreme sacrifice forcommunal amity, however, was not in vain.His martyrdom strengthened the forces thatstood for communal harmony in India.

? Integration of StatesThe Indian Independence Act of 1947 put

an end to the paramountcy of the BritishCrown over the Native States. The lapse ofparamountcy made the rulers of the Nativestates technically independent. They were nowquite free to decide their own future. Theycould accede either to India or to Pakistanand could even remain independent, if theyso desired. This was, perhaps, the mostdifficult problem confronted by free India. Thecredit of solving the problem goes entirely toSardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was in chargeof the Ministry of States and V.P. Menon, theSeretary of the Ministry. Sardar Patel drafted

an Instrument of Accession. According to theInstrument, the Union Government was tocontrol only defence, foreign policy andcommunication of the acceding State until theconstitution of India was adopted. Itguaranteed that it would not interfere in thedomestic affairs of the States. He appealed tothe sense of patriotissm of the Indian princesand requested them to accede to the IndianUnion. As a result of the ceaseless efforts ofSardar Patel, all the States except Junagadh,Hyderabad, and Kashmir signed theInstrument of Accession. The Nawab ofJunagadh, a small state on the coast ofKathiawar, wanted to accede to Pakistan. Buthis subject compelled him to hand over theState to the Government of India. Its mergerto the Indian Union was ratified by a plebiscite.The Nizam of Hyderabad who declaredhimself independent was forced to accede toIndia as a result of an internal revolt and timelypolice action taken by Sardar Patel. TheMaharaja of Kashmir who also delayedaccession to India acceded to India in October1947 when the Pathans and irregular forcesof Pakistan invaded the State.

When the difficult task of accession of theIndian princely States was accomplished,there started the more difficult task of theirintegration with the territories of the IndianUnion. Most of them were too small to beadministered as separate units. So they weremerged with the adjoining provinces with theconsent of their rulers. Many other Stateswere grouped together to form unions ofStates like Patiala and East Punjab States Union(PEPSU) and Travancore=Kochin.

In response to the demand for thereorganisation of the States on linguistic basis,the Government constituted the StatesReorganization Commission consisting of FazlAli, Hridayanath Kunzru and Sardar K.M.Panikkar. On the basis of the Report of theCommission, the states were reorganized.

Indian Union was reorganized into 14 Statesof equal status and 6 territories under Centraladministration. The foreign pockets were alsomerged with the Indian Union in due course.In 1954, the French Government agreed tothe defacto merger of the French settlementsof Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yenaminto the Indian Union. The integration ofChandranagar, another French Settlement, intoWest Bengal had taken place earlier. Thesemergers had been effected through a friendlynegotiated settlement. However, theintegration of Portuguese pockets in India hadto be effected differently as the Portugueseresisted all attempts to settle the issuepeacefully. Dadra village was liberated byvolunteers in 1954. Goa, Daman, Dui andNagar Haveli continued under the Portuguese.When peaceful marches by Indian volunteerswere brutally encountered, Indian army movedinto Goa, Daman and Dui in 1961 and liberatedthem thus wiping away the last vestiges ofimperialism in India. The subsequent periodsaw further reorganisation making the numberof States 28 and that of Union Territories 6.

? Panchsheel AgreementUnder the Sino-Indian Agreement of 1954,

otherwise known as the Panchsheel, or the“Five Principles” agreement, India gave up allthe extra-territorial rights and privileges itenjoyed in Tibet, which it had inherited fromthe British colonial legacy, formally recognisingTibet to be a region of China. The five pointsagreed upon were1. Mutual respect for each other’s territorial

integrity and sovereignty.2. Mutual non-aggression3. Mutual non-interference in each other’s

internal affairs.4. Equal and mutual benefit working

relationship.5. Peaceful co-existence.

By the agreement, it was recognized thatsix passes (Shipki La, Mana, Niti,Kungribinri, Darma and Lipu Lekh) wereborder passes and “traders and pilgrimsof both countries” could travel by them.China’s success in promoting theseprinciples at the 1955 Bandung Conferencehelped China emerge from diplomaticisolation. Unfortunately, by the end of the1950s. China’s foreign policy stancebecame more militant, and the Chinesewent back on this treaty within threemonths of its signing.

? Indo-China WarThe 1962 Chinese invasion was termed by

the Chinese as a “Self-defence counter attack”and justification for their behaviour wasprovided on the basis of the disputed areasbeing their own territory. The territorial disputeconcerns the Aksai Chin area, which at thattime was thought by India to be a part of itsterritory due to the delineation by theMcMahon line. China, however, does notrecognize the Sino-Indian border as havingbeen delineated by the McMahon line and thusbelieves that it has claim to territory thatsurpasses the McMahon line, namely the AksaiChin area.

The 1962 Border War was clearly won bythe Chinese, but they gained none of theterritories they had so strongly claimed. Chinacurrently occupies the western sector of theAksai Chin area and India controls the easternsector but it is unlikely that either side willsimply agree to give up the disputed areas thatit now holds. China claims that the war wasfought only to “demonstratively assert itsterritorial claims”. India, on the other hand,accuses China of an “ungrateful betrayal”. Thecauses of the 1962 Sino-India war differdepending upon which side one looks at. Onthe Indian side, the belief is that India’s reactionto the Tibetan revolt, and more specifically

granting asylum to the Dalai Lama is whatangered the Chinese and thus caused them tomake territorial claims to the Aksai Chin areaas retaliation. However, the Chinese feel thatwhile India’s response to the Tibetan revoltwas a catalyst to the war, the primary anddirect cause of the war was the border dispute.Regardless of which view is correct, one thingwill always hold true and that is that India’sresponse to the Tibetan revolt and itssubsequent granting of asylum to the DalaiLama was definitely a contributing factor inprompting the war.

? Indo-Pakistan War of 1965In September 1965 Pakistan unleashed a

war against India presumably to establish heralleged rights over Kashmir. This war lastedonly for 22 days and came to a close whenthe United Nations on 23rd Septemberintervened in the quarrel to mediate betweenthe two powers on the Indian subcontinent.Later, on the requests of Kosygen, the SovietPrime Minister. Pakistan President Ayub Khanand Indian PM Lal Bahadur Sastri met atTashkent and signed an agreement on 10thAugust 1966 containing proposals for thepeaceful settlement of the problems thatstrained the relations between India andPakistan.

? Indo-Pakistan War of 1971The situation created by the patriotic

upheavel in East Bengal under the leadershipof Sheik Mujibur Rahman against Pakistanimilitary dictatorship in March 1971 and thecivil war that followed led to the influx of tenmillion refugees into India. America and Chinagave active help to President Yahya Khan ofPakistan to crush the rebellion of the Bengalis.India was now forced to give support to theBengalis in her own self-interest. TheGovernment of India also entered into a treatyof mutual friendship and assistance with theSoviet Union on 9th August 1971 in a bold

move to meet the Pakistani-Chinese threat toIndia’s internal security.

On 3rd December 1971, the Pakistani armylaunched large-scale air attacks on the airfieldsand cantonments of North India. This led tothe outbreak of a full-fledged war betweenIndia and Pakistan. The Indian army advancedinto the Pakistani territory in Sind. West Punjaband occupied Kashmir and captured more than5600 square miles of Pakistan territory.Simultaniously, the Indian forces marched intoEast Bengal and inflicted a crushing defeat onthe Pakistan soldiers fighting there. The IndianAir force and Indian Navy lent full support tothe army in its campaigns. The fall of Daccaon 16th December 1971 marked the climaxof the war in East Pakistan and the PakistanArmy there formally surrendered to the jointcommand of the Indian army and theBangladesh militia (Mukti Bahani) on the sameday.

Even when the war commenced, India hadrecognised Bangladesh as a free sovereignstate. With the formal surrender of thePakistani army Dacca emerged as the freecapital of a free country. The defeat of thePakistan in the east led to the demoralisationof Pakistani soldiers in the western sector also.As India had achieved her objective in theeastern sector and was not interested inprolonging the conflict any further, Indiaannounced a unilateral cease-fire on 17thDecember 1971. Pakistan also stopped fightingsoon after. Thus the 14-day war ended in aspectacular military victory for India. Withinthree months of the liberation of Bangladesh,the Indian army completely withdrew fromthat country.

? The Shimla AgreementIn December 1971, following defeat at the

hands of the Indian army, Yahya Khan, themilitary dictator of Pakistan, had fallen frompower and a new civilian government with

Z.A. Bhutto as President came to power atIslamabad. President Bhutto and PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi, following summit talksheld at Shimla, signed an agreement betweenthe two countries on 3rd July 1972. Accordingto the Shimla Agreement the two countriesdecided to put an end to the conflict andconfrontation that had hitherto marred theirmutual relations and work for the promotionof peace on the subcontinent. India andPakistan agreed to withdraw their respectiveforces to their side of the international borderexcept in Jammu and Kashmir where the lineof control resulting from the cease-fire of 17thDecember 1971 was to be respected.

The question of repatriation of the Pakistaniprisoners of war held in India was leftunsettled by the agreement pending therecognition of Bangladesh by Pakistan. At theDelhi Conference of August 1973 therepresentatives of India and Pakistan came toa broad agreement on the question of therepatriation of war prisoners. However, therefusal of Pakistan to recognize Bangladeshas a free country delayed the process ofreconciliation. Pakistan and Bangladeshrecognized each other only in February 1974.In February 1978, Atal Behari Vajpayee, theExternal Affairs Minister of the Governmentof India, visited Pakistan. This was the firstvisit by an Indian Minister to that country aftera lapse of twelve years. The visit was only agoodwill mission. Agreement had beenreached in principle on wider economicrelations and on greater and freer exchangeof citizens and ideas. This represented a majorstep forward in political normalization.However, relations between the two countriescontinue to be strained.

? Write notes on Kargil WarKargil War was an armed conflict between

India and Pakistan that took place betweenMay and July 1999 in the Kargil district of

Kashmir. This is also known as OperationVijay. The cause of the war was the infiltrationof Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militantsinto Indian line of control. The Indian Army,later on supported by the Indian Air Force,recaptured a majority of the positions infiltratedby the Pakistani troops and militants. Withinternational diplomatic opposition, thePakistani forces withdrew from the remainingIndian positions. This was only the seconddirect ground war between any two countriesafter they had developed nuclear weapons. Atthe time of the war Atal Bihari Vajpayee wasthe PM of India and Parvez Musharaf wasthe President of Pakistan.

Soon after the war the Atal Behari Vajpayeegovernment set up an inquiry into its causesand to analyze perceived Indian intelligencefailures. The high-powered committee waschaired by eminent strategic affairs analystK. Subrahmanyam. The committee's final re-port led to a large-scale restructuring of In-dian Intelligence. Casualties for both sides wereheavy.

? Siachen ConflictThe Siachen Conflict, sometimes referred

to as the Siachen War, is a military conflictbetween India and Pakistan over the disputedSiachen Glacier region in Kashmir. Theconflict began in 1984 with India's successfulOperation Meghdoot during which it wrestedcontrol of the Siachen Glacier from Pakistanand forced the Pakistanis to retreat west ofthe Saltoro Ridge. India has established controlover all of the 70 kilometres (43 mi) longSiachen Glacier and all of its tributary glaciers,as well as the three main passes of the SaltoroRidge immediately west of the glacier—SiaLa, Bilafond La, and Gyong La. Pakistancontrols the glacial valleys immediately westof the Saltoro Ridge. According to TIMEmagazine, India gained more than 1,000square miles (3,000 km2) of territory becauseof its military operations in Siachen.

The Siachen glacier is the highestbattleground on earth, where India andPakistan have fought intermittently since April13, 1984. Both countries maintain permanentmilitary presence in the region at a height ofover 6,000 metres (20,000 ft).

Since September 2007, India haswelcomed mountaineering and trekkingexpeditions to the forbidding glacialheights.The line between where Indian andPakistani troops are presently holding onto theirrespective posts is being increasingly referredto as the Actual Ground Position Line. A ceasefire went into effect in 2003. Even before then,every year more soldiers were killed becauseof severe weather than enemy firing.

? General Elections and GovernmentThe first general elections under the new

Constitution were held in 1952, the second in1957, third in 1962, the fourth in 1967, thefifth in 1971, the sixth in 1977, the seventh in1980, the eighth in 1985, the ninth in 1989,tenth in 1991, the eleventh in 1996 and thetwelfth in 1999, 13th in 1999, 14th in 2004and 18th in 2009.

In both the first and second generalelections the Congress Party was voted topower in the Centre and the majority of States,Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected President ofIndia and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan was electedVice-President after the first general elections.They were re-elected to those posts in 1957after the second general elections. PanditJawaharlal Nehru who was the leader of theCongress Party became the first PrimeMinister of the Republic after the generalelections of 1951-52 and continued as PrimeMinister of India after second general electionsalso. In the third general elections held in 1962,the Congress Party was again voted to power.While Jawaharlal Nehru continued as PrimeMinister. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan becamePresident and Dr. Zakir Hussain, the Vice

President. On the death of Jawaharlal Nehruon 27th May 1964, a caretaker Ministry underGulzarilal Nanda assumed office. Meanwhile,the Congress Party elected Lal Bahadur Sastrias its new leader and Sastri was sworn in asPrime Minister on 9th June 1964. Lal BahadurSastri passed away at Tashkent on 11th January1966. Gulzarilal Nanda became caretakerPrime Minister again until the Congress Partyelected Smt. Indira Gandhi as leader and sheassumed office as Prime Minister on 24thJanuary 1966. The fourth general electionswere held in 1967. The ruling Congress Partyreturned to power with a reduced majority.Indira Gandhi continued as Prime Ministerwhile Dr. Zakir Hussain and V.V. Giri becamePresident and Vice-President respectively. V.V.Giri was elected defeating the official candidateof the party, N. Sanjiva Reddi. This becamepossible only because Mrs. Gandhi declaredsupport to Mr. Giri. This led to a split in theCongress Party. In the wake of the split in theParty, Mrs. Gandhi dissolved the Lok Sabhaand appealed to the electorate for a freshmandate for the implementation of her policiesand programmes. In the fifth general electionsheld in February-March 1971, the CongressParty under the leadership of Mrs. Gandhiobtained a clear two-thirds majority. A newgovernment was formed with Mrs. Gandhias Prime Minister. In August 1974 FakhruddinAli Ahmed and B.D. Jatti were elected andsworn in as President and Vice-Presidentrespectively.

On 25th June 1975, on the advice of PrimeMinister Mrs. Gandhi, the President declareda state of emergency in the country.Fundamental rights were suspended andcomplete press censorship was introduced.All important leaders of opposition, includingJayaprakash Narayan and Morarji Desai, werearrested and detained. Agitations anddemonstrations against the Government wereput down by force. Strikes were banned in

industries. Discontent with the Government,however, increased although it could not beexpressed as even peaceful protests wereprohibited. In January 1977, Mrs. Gandhiannounced that fresh general elections wouldbe held to Parliament. The Congress (O),Swatantra Party, Jan Sangh, Bharatiya LokDal and the Socialist Party united and formeda new party called the Janata Party andopposed the Congress under Indira Gandhi.In the elections held in March 1977 the newparty gained a majority in the Lok Sabha andformed a government headed by Morarji Desaias Prime Minister. In the fresh election heldto the office of the President, N. Sanjiva Reddisponsored by the Janata Party was elected inJuly 1977. The emergency has been revokedand civil liberties restored to the people. MorarjiDesai resigned as Prime Minister on 15th Julyand Charan Singh became Prime Minister.

In the general elections held in 1980Congress Party headed by Indira Gandhi gottwo-thirds majority and she was sworn in asPrime Minister on 14th January 1980.On thetermination of the term of N. Sanjiva Reddy,Giani Zail Singh was elected President. IndiraGandhi was assassinated by two of her ownsecurity guards at her residence in Delhi on31st October 1984 and on the same day RajivGandhi, General Secretary of the Congress(I) Party, was sworn in as Prime Minister. Inthe elections for the Lok Sabha held in 1985,Congress (I) swept the polls and Rajiv Gandhiwas again sworn in as Prime Minister. In July1987, R. Venketa Raman was elected asPresident. In the elections held for Lok Sabhain 1989 the Congress Party lost its majorityand V.P. Singh, leader of Janata Dal, becamePrime Minister (10th November 1990-6thMarch 1991) and thereafter Mr. ChandraSekhar took over as Prime Minister. However,in the mid term poll held in June 1991 theCongress party came out as the largest partyin the Lok Sabha. Rajiv Gandhi, President of

the Congress Party, was assassinated duringthe course of the election campaign. Mr. P.V.Narasimha Rao was sworn in as PrimeMinister on 21st June 1991. One 25th July1992, Dr. Sankar Dayal Sharma was swornin as the ninth President of India when Dr. R.Venkata Raman completed his term as theeighth President and on 19th August 1992,K.R. Narayanan was elected as the ninth VicePresident of India. In the General electionsheld in April-May 1996, no party havingobtained a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha,the President invited Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leaderof the party with the largest number of seats,to form the Government. Atal Bihari Vajpayeewas sworn in as the Prime Minister on 16thMay 1996. He resigned on 28 May 1996before a vote of confidence was taken inParliament knowing that he did not enjoy thesupport of the majority.

Following this, Deve Gowda was swornin as Prime Minister on 1st June 1996. After aperiod of 11 months Mr. Gowda tendered hisresignation having been defeated in a vote ofconfidence taken on 21st April 1997.Following this Inder Kumar Gujral who wasthe Minister for External Affairs in the DeveGowda ministry was sworn in as the PrimeMinister of India on 21st April 1997. On 25thJuly 1997, K.R. Narayanan assumed officeas the tenth President of India. Krishna Kantassumed office as the tenth Vice-President ofIndia on 21st August 1997. Inder Kumar Gujralcontinued as PM until 18 March 1998 and on19 March 1998 Atal Bihari Vajpayee took overas Prime Minister of India.

On April 17, 1999, Vajpayee lost aconfidence vote in the Lok Sabha andresigned. The main opposition party, thecongress could not muster enough supportto form a majority government with regionaland left wing groups. On April 26, the thenPresident of India K.R. Narayanan dissolvedthe Lok Sabha and called for early elections.

The BJP continued to rule as an intermadministration until the polling. In the generalelection BJP led NDA (National DemocraticAlliance) won the majority seat and Vajpayeewas sworn in as the Prime Minister onOctober 13. On July 2002, Dr. A.P.J. AbdulKalam was sworn in as the President. TheBJP led NDA Government, headed by PM AtalBihari Vajpayee completed five years of its rulein 2004 and the elections for the 14th LokSabha was held in four phases between April20 and May 10, 2004. Congress led UPAgovernment won the majority and Dr. ManMohan Singh became the new Prime Minister.Pratibha Patil was sworn in as the 12thPresident of India on July 25, 2007. Oncompletion of five years general election forthe 15th Lok Sabha was held in 2009.Congress led UPA government won themajority and Mrs. Meira Kumar became thespeaker and Manmohan Singh was re-electedthe Prime Minister of India.

? Official language of Indian UnionThe official language of the Indian Union

is Hindi with English as a secondary officiallanguage. States specify their own officiallanguage(s) through legislation. The sectionof the Constitution of India dealing withofficial languages deal not just with thelanguages used for the official purposes ofthe union, but also with the languages that areto be used for the official purposes of eachstate and union territory in the country, andthe languages that are to be used forcommunication between the union and thestates inter se. During the British Raj, Englishwas used for most official purposes both atthe federal level and in the various states.English continues to be used today, incombination with Hindi (at the central leveland in some states) and other languages (atthe state level).The legal framework governing the use of lan-

guages for official purpose currently includesthe Constitution, the Official Languages Act,1963, Official Languages (Use for OfficialPurpose of the Union) Rules, 1976, and vari-ous state laws, as well as rules and regula-tions made by the central government and thestates.

The Indian constitution, in 1950, declaredHindi in Devanagari script to be the officiallanguage of the union.Unless Parliament de-cided otherwise, the use of English for offi-cial purposes was to cease 15 years after theconstitution came into effect, i.e., on 26 Janu-ary 1965. Parliament enacted the Official Lan-guages Act, 1963, which provided for thecontinued use of English for official purposesalong with Hindi, even after 1965.

Parliamentary business, according to theConstitution, may be conducted in either Hindior English.

The constitution provides that all proceed-ings in the Supreme Court of India, thecountry's highest court and the High Courts,shall be in English. Parliament has the powerto alter this by law, but has not done so.

The Indian constitution does not specifythe official languages to be used by the statesfor the conduct of their official functions, andleaves each state free to, through itslegislature,adopt Hindior any lan-guage usedin its terri-tory as itsofficial lan-guage or lan-guages. Thelanguage neednot be one ofthose listed inthe EighthSchedule, and

several states have adopted official languageswhich are not so listed. Examples includeKokborok in Tripura; Mizo in Mizoram; Khasi,Garo, and Jaintia in Meghalaya; and Frenchin Puducherry.

The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Consti-tution contains a list of 22 scheduled lan-guages. At the time the constitution was en-acted, inclusion in this list meant that the lan-guage was entitled to representation on theOfficial Languages Commission, and that thelanguage would be one of the bases that wouldbe drawn upon to enrich Hindi, the officiallanguage of the Union.

? The State Reorganisation Act of 1956The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 was

a major reform of the boundaries andgovernance of India's states and territories.The act reorganised the boundaries of India'sstates along linguistic lines, and amended theIndian Constitution to replace the three typesof states, known as Parts A, B, and C states,with a single type of state.

Part A states, which were the former gov-ernors' provinces of British India, were ruledby an elected governor and state legislature.The nine Part A states

National Bird of India

The Peacock, Pavo cristatus (Linnaeus), is the national bird of India. In

1963, the peacock was declared the National Bird of India because of its rich

religious and legendary involvement in Indian traditions. The criteria for this

choice were many. The bird must be well-distributed within the country so it

could be truly 'national'. It’s a symbol of beauty, joy, grace and love. While

Hindus believe that the Peacock is the vehicle of Lord Kumara Swamy, brother

of Lord Ganesha, its figure is also painted in many Islamic religious buildings as

according to them, Tawsi Melak, the “Peacock Angel” and the “Peacock King”

is the most import diety of Yezidis, and in Christianity, the Peacock is known as

the symbol of ‘Resurrection’.

were Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Bombay,Madhya Pradesh (formerly Central Provincesand Bihar), Madras, Orissa, Punjab, and UttarPradesh (formerly United Provinces).

The eight Part B states were former princelystates or groups of princely states, governedby a rajpramukh, who was often a formerprince, and an elected legislature. Therajpramukh was appointed by the Presidentof India. The Part B states were Hyderabad,Saurashtra, Mysore, Travancore-Cochin,Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, Patiala andEast Punjab States Union (PEPSU), andRajasthan.

The ten Part C states included both theformer chief commissioners' provinces andprincely states, and were governed by a chiefcommissioner. The chief commissioner wasappointed by the President of India. The PartC states included Delhi, Kutch, HimachalPradesh, Bilaspur, Coorg, Bhopal, Manipur,Ajmer-Merwara, and Tripura.

Jammu and Kashmir had special statusuntil 1957. The Andaman and Nicobar Islandswas established as a union territory, ruled bya lieutenant governor appointed by the centralgovernment.

In December 1953, Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru appointed the StatesReorganisation Commission to prepare for thecreation of states on linguistic lines. This washeaded by Justice Fazal Ali and the commis-sion itself was also known as the Fazal AliCommission and also consist of KavalamMadhava Panikkar, and H.N. Kunzru.

The efforts of this commission were over-seen by Govind Ballabh Pant, who served asHome Minister from December 1954. Thecommission created a report in 1955 recom-mending the reorganisation of India's states.

The States Reorganisation Act of 1956,which went into effect on 1 November, elimi-nated the distinction between part A, B, and C

states. It also reorganised the state boundariesand created or dissolved states and union ter-ritories.

On 1 November 1956, India was dividedinto the following states and union territories:Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay State,Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Madras State (The state was renamed TamilNadu in 1969.), Mysore State (The state wasrenamed Karnataka in 1973 ), Orissa, Punjab,Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Unionterritories – Andaman and Nicobar Islands,Lakshadweep, Pondicherry, Delhi.

? Dar CommissionLanguage created a great problem in post-

independent era and continues to be one ofthe heavy weights on country’s politicalsystem. But when Constituent Assemblydiscussed the problem of national languagefor India, it found that the task was not easy.

A Linguistic Provinces Commission wasset up under the Government. In its reportsubmitted in 1948, the Commission reportedimmediate formation of linguistic states wasnot desirable. In its opinion country was facedwith such serious problems as economicinstability and foreign aggression, etc. It alsopointed out that even princely states have notbeen properly integrated and that the countrywas faced with many other serious problemsthan this one. The Commission also was ofthe view that for the country it will be difficultto bear economic and administrative cost ofthe new provinces.

? Official Language CommissionThe Constitution had provided for the

establishment of Official LanguageCommission, five years after thecommencement of the constitution.Accordingly a 21 member commission headedby B.G. Kher was set up in 1956. It submittedits report in 1956 which was made public in1957.

PROCEDURE FOR CREATION OF NEW STATES• Parliament can form new States, alter the area, boundaries or name of the existing States by a

law passed by a simple majority.• No Bills for the formation of new States or alteration of the boundaries or names of the existing

States shall be introduced in either House of the Parliament, except on the recommendation ofthe President.

• The President, before introducing the Bill in the Parliament, shall refer it to the concerned StateLegislature for its opinion within a specified time limit.

• If the State Legislature does not give its opinion within the specified time limit, the time limitmay be extended.

• The Bill may be introduced even if the opinion has not come.• The Parliament is not bound to accept or act upon the views of the State legislature.• It is not necessary to make fresh reference to the State Legislature every time on an amendment

to the bill, proposed and accepted.

THE NEW STATES CREATED AFTER 1950• Andhra Pradesh: Created by the State of Andhra Pradesh Act, 1953 by carving out some areas

from the State of Madras.• Gujarat and Maharashtra : The State of Bombay was divided into two States i.e., Maharashtra

and Gujarat by the Bombay (Reorganisation) Act, 1960.• Kerala: Created by the State Reorganisation Act, 1956. It comprised Travancore and Cochin areas.• Karnataka: Created from the Princely State of Mysore by the State Reorganisation Act, 1956. It

has been renamed Karnataka in 1973.• Nagaland: It was carved out from the State of Assam by the state of Nagaland Act, 1962.• Haryana: It was carved out from the State of Punjab by the Punjab (Reorganisation) Act, 1966.• Himachal Pradesh: The Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh was elevated to the status of State

by the State of Himachal Pradesh Act, 1970.• Meghalaya: First carved out as a sub-State within the State of Assam by 23rd Constitution Amend-

ment, 1969. Later, in 1971, it received the status of a full-fledged State by the North-Eastern Areas(Reorganisation) Act, 1971.

• Manipur and Tripura: Both these States were elevated from the status of Union Territories by theNorth-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971.

• Sikkim: Sikkim was given first the status of Associate State by the 35th Constitutional AmendmentAct, 1974. It got the status of a full State in 1975 by the 36th Amendment Act, 1975.

• Mizoram: It was elevated to the status of a full State by the State of Mizoram act, 1986.• Arunachal Pradesh: It received the status of a full State by the State of Arunachal Pradesh Act,

1986.• Goa: Goa was separated from the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu and was made a full-

fledged State by the Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act, 1987. But Daman and Diu remainedas Union Territory.

• Chhattisgarh: Formed by the Constitutional Amendment Act 2000 by dividing Madhya Pradesh onNovember 1, 2000.

• Uttaranchal: Formed by the Constitutional Amendment Act 2000 by dividing Uttar Pradesh onNovember 9, 2000.

• Jharkhand: Formed by the Constitutional Amendment Act 2000 by dividing Bihar on November15, 2000.

The Commission recommended that Hindishould be increasingly used for officialpurposes in place of English, but felt that itshould not be possible to say whether thislanguage shall be in a position to replaceEnglish by 1965, as provided in theconstitution. The Commission was of the viewthat in future English should be taught insecondary schools principally as a languageof comprehension and not as a literarylanguage, except where it was takenvoluntarily. Its other recommendations were.i English should be continued as an alternate

medium for competitive examinations forAll India Services and in the courts of law.

ii Hindi should be made compulsory forrecruitment to All India Services.

iii At the time of change over entire StatuteBook of the country should be in Hindi.

iv Regional language may be retained forjudicial and administrative purposes in thestate. But in inter-state communications thechannel should be in Hindi.

v Primary education should be in a languageof the region, but at the secondary stageinstruction in Hindi should be madecompulsory.

vi A National Academy of Language shouldbe set up, perferably at Hyderabad for thedevelopment of 14 languages of India, asspecified in the constitution.

? Creation of Andhra PradeshThe Constitution has provided for the

promotion of languages but from the verybeginning language began to put pressure onpolitics. In several states, almost from the verybeginning agitation started that states shouldbe created on lingual basis. In 1952, Sriramulawent on fast unto death for pressing hisdemand for the creation of a separate state ofAndhra where Telugu speaking people could

develop their own language and culture. Thegovernment accepted the demand and createdAndhra Pradesh. But this was beginning ofthe pressure of language on the politics andthis heavy weight began to exert more andmore pressures on Indian politics.

? Formation of Chhattisgarh StateDemand for recognition of Chhattisgarh

as a separate state was first raised in the earlytwenties by the Raipur Congress unit in 1924,at the meeting of the Raipur district Congress.A similar demand was brought up afterindependence, in the Nagpur Assembly of thestate, which was then called Madhya Bharat.All these events fuelled the movement for anew state in the history of Chhattisgarh. AState Reorganization Committee was set upin 1954. A demand for a separate state ofChhattisgarh was also brought up in thiscommittee. But the demand was later rejectedby the commission.

The first institutional and governmental ini-tiative for the formation of Chhattisgarh wastaken by the Congress Government of theregion, in 1994. Both the Congress and theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made unified andconstructive efforts for the formation of aseparate state. In 1998, the Union Govern-ment led by BJP, drafted a bill for the forma-tion of Chhattisgarh, constituting the sixteendistricts of Madhya Pradesh. This bill was sentto the Madhya Pradesh assembly for approvaland was eventually approved with certain al-terations. Then Union Government fell andafter elections, the National Democratic Alli-ance redrafted the Separate Chhattisgarh Bill,which was eventually sent to the MadhyaPradesh legislative assembly for approval.

After a unanimous approval there, the billwas tabled in and approved by the Lok Sabhaand the Rajya Sabha. The then President ofIndia gave his approval to the Madhya PradeshReorganization Act 2000 on 25th August 2000.

1st November 2000 was the historical daywhen Chhattisgarh was carved out fromMadhya Pradesh.

Chhattisgarh is generally perceived as atribal dominated state. Chattisgarh state con-sists of 18 districts. Chhattisgarh is primarilya rural state with only 20% of population re-siding in urban areas.

? Formation of Uttarakhand StateThe first ever agitation for the hill state

was organized in 1957 under the leadershipof erstwhile ruler of Tehri Manvendra Shahbut it took almost 14 years to assume shapeof a common cause of the people of theregion. Uttarakhand Rajya Parishad, formedin 1973 took up the cause and became aplatform for struggle. The movementproduced a political party, namely UttarakhandKranti Dal in July 1979 under the chairmanshipof former vice-chancellor of KumaunUniversity.

As far the state assembly was concerned,it passed a government-sponsored motion de-manding Uttarakhand state, on 12th August1991, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam SinghYadav government came up with a resolutionto the same effect, and the state assemblyadopted it on 24th August 1994. Three yearslater, on 24th April 1997 the state assemblypassed yet another government motion urg-ing the center to do the needful for creating ahill state. The central government headed bythe BJP, came up with a constitutional amend-ment bill, in 1994 and through the Presidentof India, urged the state assembly to give itsopinion on various provisions of the bill. Thestate assembly, in turn, passed a resolutionoffering as many as 26 amendments to thecentral draft bill including the one to barHaridwar becoming part of the new state andalmost usurping a number of proprietarilyrights over the irrigation and power projectsand major natural resources.

In 2000, the government headed by AtalBehari Vajpayee once again sent the UttarPradesh reformation bill-2000 for the forma-tion of Uttaranchal. The Central Governmentpresented the bill in the Lok Sabha on 27thJuly 2000, the bill was passed in the Lok Sabhaon the 1st August 2000 and on 10th August2000 in the Rajya Sabha. On 28th August2000 it received the sanction of the President.

In January 2007, the name of the state wasofficially changed from Uttaranchal, its interimname, to Uttarakhand.

Uttaranchal emerged as the 27th state ofIndia on 9th November 2000. Surjeet SinghBarnala was appointed as the Governor of thenewly formed state comprising of 13 Dis-tricts, while Mr. Nityanand Swami was ap-pointed as the First Chief Minister of the state.

? Formation of Jharkhand StateThe demand for Jharkhand was put forth

as early as 1928. When their repeated requestswere not heeded by the Government of Indiain 1988, they organised massive rallies andalso economic blockade in Jharkhand areas.They even prevented the outward movementof commodities. Due to the repeated agitationsand demand, Jharkhand state was formed on15th November 2000 as the 28th state.Jharkhand state was formed by carving out18 districts of Bihar, but the dream of GreaterJharkhand still remain unfulfilled. Tribaldominated districts of Mayarbhanj, Keonjhar,Sundargarh and Deogarh of Orissa state andPurulia, Bankura, and Midnapore districts ofWest Bengal and the districts of Jashpur,Surguja, Koriya of Chhattisgarh state are stillnot part of Jharkhand. Jharkhand has 24districts. Jharkhand is the leading producerof mineral wealth in the country. BabulalMarandi of BJP was sworn in as its first ChiefMinister. Jharkhand is one of the thirteen statesin which the Naxalite rebels have considerable

influence. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is a statepolitical party in Jharkhand.

? Kaveri River Water DisputeThe sharing of waters of the river Kaveri

had been the bone of contention of a seriousconflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.There were two controversial agreementsregarding the sharing of Kaveri river waterone signed in 1892 and another in 1924,between the Madras Presidency and thePrincely State of Mysore.

Disputes have occurred since 1807, butBritish influence mediated tensions for sev-eral decades. An agreement was arrived at in1924 and a couple of minor agreements werealso signed in 1929 and 1933. The 1924 agree-ment was set to lapse after a run of 50 years.By the late 1960s, both states and the Centralgovernment began to realize the gravity of thesituation as the 50 year run of the 1924 agree-ment was soon coming to an end. Negotia-tions were started in right earnest and discus-sions continued for almost 10 years.

In 1976, after a series of discussions be-tween the two states and the Central govern-ment chaired by Jagjeevan Ram, the then Ir-rigation Minister, a final draft was prepared.This draft was accepted by all states and theGovernment also made an announcement tothat effect in Parliament. The Tamil Nadu gov-ernment now rejected the draft agreement andstarted insisting that the 1924 agreement hadonly provided for an extension and not a re-view. It began insisting that status quo be re-stored and everyone go back to the agree-ments of 1892 and 1924. Later Tamil Naduwithdrew its case demanding the constitutionof a tribunal and the two states started nego-tiating again. The Supreme Court then directedthe government headed by Prime Minister V.P. Singh to constitute a tribunal and refer alldisputes to it. A three man tribunal was thusconstituted on 2 June 1990. The Tribunal

passed an interim Order on June 25, 1991.But this was not acceptable by Karnataka andseveral problems arose in both states. As aresult in 1996, the Government of India ap-pointed three member expert team headed byJawaharlal Nehru University Vice ChancellorProf. Y.K. Alagh, to visit both the states andgave his report. Prime Minister P.V. NarasimhaRao, after holding talks with both the ChiefMinister gave his verdict.

The Kauveri Water Disputes Tribunal an-nounced its final verdict on 5 February 2007.In its verdict, the tribunal allocated 419 billionft³ (12 km³) of water annually to Tamil Naduand 270 billion ft³ (7.6 km³) to Karnataka; 30billion ft³ (0.8 km³) of Kaveri river water toKerala and 7 billion ft³ (0.2 km³) toPuducherry. The dispute however, seems farfrom over with all four states deciding to filereview petitions seeking clarifications andpossible renegotiation of the order.

? Krishna River Water DisputeTribunal

Disputes arose between the states ofKarnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradeshover sharing of the water of Krishna river.The Government of India constituted theKrishna Waters Disputes Tribunal in 1969under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of1956. This was headed by R. S Bachawat aformer judge of the Supreme Court.

The Bachawat commission went over thematter in detail and gave its final award in1973. The government took another threeyears to publish the award. While the Tribu-nal had in its earlier report detailed twoschemes, Scheme A and Scheme B, the finalaward only included Scheme A and SchemeB was left out. Scheme A pertained to the di-vision of the available waters based on 75%dependability, while Scheme B recommendedways to share the surplus waters. The KWDTin its Scheme A award outlined the exact share

of each state - Maharashtra (560 TMC),Karnataka (700 TMC), Andhra Pradesh (800TMC).

The tribunal in its report, under SchemeB, has determined that the surplus water avail-able in the river basin totaled 330 TMC. Itwas decided that this would be divided amongthe riparian states of Maharashtra, Karnatakaand Andhra Pradesh in the ratio of 25%, 50%and 25% respectively.

The KWDT provided for a review of itsaward after 31 May, 2000. However no suchreview was taken up for more than 3 yearsafter that.

In Sep 2003, the second KWDT, KWDT-II was constituted by the Govt of India fol-lowing requests by all three states. This tri-bunal has started its proceedings from 2007.

The second Krishna Water Dispute Tribu-nal gave its verdict on December 31st,2010.The allocation of available water was doneaccording to 65% dependability, consideringthe records of flow of water for past 47 years.According to KWDT II, Andhra Pradesh got1001 TMC ft of water, Karnataka 911 andMaharashtra 666. It also imposed certain re-strictions on each state in keeping with thedependable flows of the rivers on which theallocations have been made.

? Mullaperiyar Dam DisputeMullaperiyar Dam is constructed over the

headwaters of the Periyar River in Kerala. Itis operated by the Government of Tamil Naduaccording to a 999-year lease agreement madeduring erstwhile British colonial rule.

On 29 October 1886 a lease indenture for999 years was made between Maharaja ofTravancore and Secretary of State for Indiafor Periyar irrigation works. By another agree-ment in 1970, Tamil Nadu was also permittedto generate power.

The pact was revalidated in 1970 by Keralaand Tamil Nadu. The government of Tamil

Nadu has proposed an increase in the storagelevel of the dam from the currently maintained136 feet (41 m) to 142 feet (43 m). The Keralagovernment has opposed this move, citingsafety concerns for the more than hundredyear old bridge and especially for the thicklypopulated districts downstream.

In 1979, safety concerns were raised byKerala Government after a minor earthquake,after which a few leaks were detected in theMullaperiyar dam. A state agency had reportedthat the structure would not withstand an earth-quake above magnitude 6 on the Richter scale.The then Tamil Nadu government lowered thestorage level to the current 136 feet (from142.2 feet) at the request of the Kerala Gov-ernment to carry out safety repairs.

In 2006, the Supreme Court of India hasallowed for the storage level to be raised to142 feet (43 m). However, the Kerala Gov-ernment promulgated a new "Dam Safety Act"against increasing the storage level of the dam,which has not been objected by the SupremeCourt. Tamil Nadu challenged it on variousgrounds. The Court advised the States to settlethe matter amicably. the Supreme Court con-stituted a Constitution bench to hear the caseconsidering its wide ramifications.

Kerala did not object giving water to TamilNadu. Their main cause of objection is thedams safety as it is as old as 110 years. Nomasonry dam may survive for 999 years so anew dam may replace the existing one in nearfuture. In September 2009, the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests of Government ofIndia granted environmental clearance toKerala for conducting survey for new damdownstream. Tamil Nadu approached Su-preme court for a stay order against the clear-ance; however, the plea was rejected. Conse-quently, the survey was started in October,2009.

On 18 February 2010, the Supreme Court

decided to constitute a five-member empow-ered committee to study all the issues ofMullaperiyar Dam and seek a report from itwithin six months. The Bench in its draft or-der said Tamil Nadu and Kerala would havethe option to nominate a member each, whocould be either a retired judge or a technicalexpert. The five-member committee will beheaded by former Chief Justice of India A. S.Anand to go into all issues relating to the dam'ssafety and the storage level. On 8 March 2010,in a fresh twist to the Mullaperiyar Dam row,Tamil Nadu told the Supreme Court that it wasnot interested in adjudicating the dispute withKerala before the special “empowered” com-mittee appointed by the apex court for set-tling the inter-State issue. Supreme Court re-fused to accept Tamil Nadu's request. SC alsocriticized the Union Government on its reluc-tance in funding the empowered committee.

? Political parties in IndiaA political party may conveniently be

defined as a body of men who have unitedfor promoting by their collective efforts, uponsome principles to which they have all agreed.

Political party system in India has its ownbackground. The origin of the system can betraced back to 1885 when Indian NationalCongress was founded. It discussed nationalpolitical and economic issues though at theinitial stages its aim was not to capture politicalpower. Its aim was to get certain politicalreforms from foreign masters. In Indiapolitical parties can be placed under variouscategories.i. All India political parties or NationalParties

All India political parties have beenofficially defined as those national parties withbroad-based national support and able to winatleast six percent of valid votes polled in anyfour or more States at the general elections tothe Lok Sabha or to the Legislative Assembly

and in addition win at least four seats in theLok Sabha from any State or States.ii. Regional Parties

The second group consists of regionalparties, which clearly represent sub-regionalnationalism based upon the common language,culture and history of a region. These partiestry to aggregate regional interests regardlessof the caste and religious affiliations of theirmembers. Their power base and votingstrength are confined to a particulargeographic area. The following are the bestknown regional parties: DMK and ADMK(Tamil Nadu); Telugu Desam (AndhraPradesh), the National Conference (Jammu& Kashmir), and Assam Gana Parishad(Assam).iii. Commercial Parties

The third group includes those parties andorganisations that are exclusive in theirmembership; that is, they accept as membersonly those inhabitants of a particular religiousor ethnic community. The following partiesfall into this category : Muslim League (Kerala)and Akali Dal (Punjab).Ad hoc Parties

The last group of parties consists of thoseorganised around powerful persons or localand state issues. Such parties may not survivevery long; some may appear only for a shortperiod and then disappear completely or mergeinto other parties. The Bangla Congress, TheKerala, Congress; the BKD of Charan Singhare some examples of such ad hoc parties.

? Coalition politics in India“Coalition, as employed in political sense,

commonly denotes a co-operative arrangementunder which distinct poitical parties, or at allevents members of such parties unite to forma government or Ministry”.

But it does not mean that once the partiesform a coalition they completely merge theiridentity. All the Parties continue to maintain

their identity. As soon as any of the coalitionpartner finds it difficult to pull on well withother partner(s) that leaves the coalition.

The first coalition was formed on March24, 1977 – March 28.Second Coalition - January 14, 1980Third coalition government - December 2,1989 - November 10, 1990).Fourth – November 11, 1990 - July 21, 1991.Fifth – June 1, 1996 - April 20, 1997Sixth – April 21, 1997 - March 19, 1998.Seventh - March 19, 1998 - Oct.10, 1999Eighth - October 11, 1999 to 2000 was formedon July 28, 1979. The Ninth Congress ledcoalition was formed in May 2004 for the 14thLok Sabha elections between Congress andLeft Front, DMK and other non-NDA parties.

? Role of Opposition PartiesThe party or alliance of parties who get

majority seats in election shall come intopower. That party or alliance of parties whofail to attain majority of seats in the electionare destined to perform the role of opposition.

The important duties and responsibilitiesof the opposition are• To oppose the

despotic tendenciesof the ruling party.

• To criticise thedrawbacks in administration and express them before thepublic.

• To oppose themisdeeds of the rulersand generate publicopinion against them.

• To evolve substitutepoliticies and strategiesin the real of governance.

• To impart political enlightment to thepublic.

• To offer constructive criticism.• To support policies and programmes

which are beneficial to the public.In a democracy the role of opposition

party equally important and responsible asthat of ruling party. Opposition can contributemuch to the efficient and successful workingof democracy.

? Bhoodan MovementThe Bhoodan Movement was a voluntary

land reform movement in India started byAcharya Vinoba Bhave in 1951. It was startedat Pochampally village of Andhra Pradesh.Vinobha Bhave organised an all-Indiafederation of constructive workers, theSarvodaya Samaj, which was to take up thetask of a non-violent social transformation inthe country. He and his followers walked onfoot from village to village to persuade thelarger landowners to donate atleast one-sixthof their lands as bhoodan or ‘land-gift’ for

National Party and State Party

According to the amendments made in the order by the

Election Commission, national political party is defined as per

the constitutional protocol.

• Secure at least 6% of the valid votes in favour of more states

in Lok Sabha or Assembly elections.

• Also it has to win atleast four seats in the Lok Sabha from one

or more states.

• 2% of seats in Lok Sabha who are elected from atleast three

different states.

State Party

• Polls 6% of valid vote in the state; or

• Win one assembly seat for every 30 seats in the state; or

• One Lok Sabha seat of every 25 seats in the state.

distribution among the landless. JayaprakashNarayan foremost leaders in politics withdrewfrom active politics to join the BhoodanMovement in 1953. Vinoba received the firstdonation of land on 18th April 1951 in thevillage of Pochampalli in the Telangana regionof Andhra Pradesh. In less than three monthshe had covered about 200 villages and received12,200 acres as donation. In the initial yearsthe movement achieved a considerable degreeof success, receiving over four million acresof land as donation by March 1956. After thisthe movement lost momentum and very littlenew land was received as donation.

Meanwhile, towards the end of 1955; themovement took a new form, that of ‘Gramdan’or ‘donation of village’, The first village tocome under gramdan was Mangroth inHamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh. It tookmore than three years to get another village ingift. The second and third gramdans tookplace in Orissa and the movement startedspreading the emphasis on securing villagesin gift. By the end of 1960, there were morethan four and half thousand Gramdan villages.This was indeed a very remarkableachievement for a constructive workmovement. The Gramdan idea did not provepopular in the non-tribal areas. By the sixtiesthe enthusiasm for the movement began towane. The programme however appeared todrag on indefinitely, essentially forgotten.

? Emergency in IndiaThe President can declare three types of

emergencies: National emergency, Stateemergency, Financial emergency.There were three periods during which astate of emergency was deemed to haveexisted in independent India.1. Emergency was declared between 26th

October 1962 to 10 January 1968 duringthe India-China war.

2. Emergency was originally proclaimedduring the Indo Pakistan war, and laterextended along with the thirdproclamation between 3rd December1971 to 1977 – "the security of India"having been declared "threatened byexternal aggression".

3. Emergency was declared undercontroversial circumstances of politicalinstability under the Indira Gandhi's primeministership between 26th June 1975 to21st March 1977 — "the security ofIndia" having been declared "threatenedby internal disturbances".Third emergency prolonged for 21

months from 1975 to 1977. Indian PresidentFakhruddin Ali Ahmed, declared a state ofemergency upon advice by Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi, under Article 352 of theConstitution of India. It is one of the mostcontroversial times in the history ofindependent India.

Raj Narain, who had been defeated inparliamentary election by Indira Gandhi,lodged cases of election fraud and use ofstate machinery for election purposes againstMrs. Indira Gandhi in the Allahabad HighCourt. On 12 June 1975, Allahabad HighCourt found the Prime Minister guilty on thecharge of misuse of government machineryfor her election campaign. The courtdeclared her election null and void andunseated her from her seat in the Lok Sabha.The court also banned her from contestingany election for an additional six years.Demand was made by opposition partiesabout her resignation. Serious law and ordersituation was created.

The Gandhian socialist JayaprakashNarayan had been agitating in Bihar for achange in provincial government, andincreasingly sought to direct popular action

against the Central Government throughsatyagrahas. Narayan and his supporterssought to unify students, peasants, and labourorganisations on a common platform.Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the West Bengalchief minister, proposed to Mrs Gandhi toimpose internal emergency. As theconstitution requires, President approvedthe continuation of Emergency over everysix-month period until Indira Gandhi’sdecision to hold elections in 1977. Electionsfor the Parliament and state governmentswere postponed. Invoking article 352 of theIndian Constitution, Indira granted herselfextraordinary powers and launched amassive crackdown on civil liberties andpolitical opposition.

The Government used police forcesacross the country to arrest thousands ofprotestors and strike leaders. J.P. Narayan,Raj Narain, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh,Jivatram Kripalani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee,Satyendra Narayan Sinha and other protestleaders were immediately arrested.Organizations such as the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh, along with someopposition political parties were banned.Numerous Communist leaders were arrestedalong with many others involved with theparty.According to Amnesty International, 140,000people had been arrested without trial duringthe twenty months of Indira Gandhi'sEmergency. Of them, 40,000 had come fromIndia's two percent Sikh minority.

On January 23, 1977, Indira Gandhi calledfresh elections for March and released allpolitical prisoners. The Emergency officiallyended on March 23, 1977. In the Lok Sabhaelections, held in February, Indira and Sanjayboth lost their Lok Sabha seats, as did mostof their loyal followers. The Congress wasreduced to just 153 seats, 92 of which were

from four of the southern states. The JanataParty's 295 seats (of a total 542) gave it onlya slim majority. Morarji Desai became thefirst non-Congress Prime Minister of India.

? Agrarian Struggles sinceIndependence

The years since independence have seenagrarian struggles of enormous variety,ranging from the legendary Telangana peasantmovement and the PEPSU tenants’ movementwhich continued from the pre-independenceyears, to the Naxalite or Maoist movement inthe late sixties and the ‘new farmers’movements of the eighties. In anticipation ofindependence and the accompanying changesin agrarian relations, the period between theend 1945-47 witnessed a sharp increase inagrarian struggles all over the country.Telangana Peasant struggleThe peasants in the Telangana region ofHyderabad state suffered extreme feudaloppression at the hands of the Jagirdars andDeshmukhs. The peasants organisedthemselves against this. This was the basisof Telangana peasant struggle. By 1947-48they could establish a firm base in theNalgonda, Warangal and Khammam districts.Landlords fled to the towns, leaving their fieldfree.The lands seized from landlords and thebarren lands of the government weredistributed to the peasants . This led to anencounter between the peasants and Indianarmy.

The government was quick to respond tothe issues raised by the movement. TheJagirdari Abolition Regulation was laid downin 1949 itself, and the Hyderabad Tenancyand Agricultural Lands Act was passed in1950. Over 6,00,000 tenants covering overone-quarter of the cultivated area weredeclared ‘protected’ tenants with a right topurchase the land on easy terms. Landceilings were also introduced in the mid-fifties.

It was also found that land reforms weremuch better implemented due to the high levelof political consciousness of the peasants.Landlords who returned after the movementcollapsed were not able to go back to old ways.They often agreed to sell land at low rates,were subject to pressure for higher wages,did not try very hard to recover peasants’ ownlands or waste lands, but only the ‘surplus’lands. The movement had broken the back oflandlordism in Telangana.Patiala Muzara MovementAt the time of India’s independence thepeasants of Patiala, the largest princely statein Punjab were in the midst of a struggle.After independence Patiala joined the IndianUnion. Even after that there was no progressin the condition of peasants. The land lordsorganized armed gangs against them. Thepeasants also organized their own armed wingto counter this move. Finally this led to clasheswith the police.

An Agrarian Reforms Enquiry Committeewas set up to make recommendations and,till such time as the legislation could beenacted, the PEPSU (Patiala and East PunjabStates Union) Tenancy (Temporary Provision)Act was promulgated in January 1952 whichprotected tenants against eviction.

The President issued the PEPSUOccupancy Tenants (Vesting of ProprietaryRights) Act 1953. Under this act, occupancytenants could become owners of their landby paying compensation amounting totwelve times the land revenue, an amountwhich was none to large. This legislation wasobviously found acceptable by the tenants,and no further resistance was reported.Naxalbari peasant uprising

Naxalbari became famous for being the siteof a left-wing poor peasants uprising in 1967,which began with the "land to tiller" slogan.

The "Naxalbari" incident was triggered on

25 May 1967 at Bengai Jote village inNaxalbari when the police opened fire on agroup of villagers who were demanding theirright to the crops at a particular piece of land.

The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari,a small village in West Bengal, where a sec-tion of the Communist Party of India (Marx-ist) (CPM) led by Charu Majumdar, KanuSanyal and Jangal Santhal initiated a violentuprising in 1967.

On May 18, 1967, the Siliguri KishanSabha, of which Jangal was the president,declared their readiness to adopt armedstruggle to redistribute land to the landless.On May 24, when a police team arrived toarrest the peasant leaders, it was ambushedby a group of tribals led by Jangal Santhal,and a police inspector was killed in a hail ofarrows.

This event encouraged many Santhal tribalsand other poor people to join the movementand to start attacking local landlords. CharuMajumdar, inspired by the doctrines of MaoZedong, provided ideological leadership for theNaxalbari movement, advocating that Indianpeasants and lower class tribals overthrow thegovernment and upper classes by force. Dur-ing the 1970s, the movement was fragmentedinto disputing factions. By 1980, the peasantmovement was over and most of its activistsand leaders including Jangal Santhal were inJail.

SrikakulamSrikakulam is situated in the north-eastern

Andhra Pradesh.The girijan population of theSrikakulam district was subjected to variousforms of brutal exploitation.

The girijans rose in revolts on may occa-sions against this exploitation and violence bythe landlords and their henchmen. Theyorganised movements called Girijan Sanghamsand Mahila Sanghams. These Movements se-

cured many gains, including restoration ofland illegally taken over by non-tribal moneylenders and landlords, wage increase, betterprices for forest produce, reduction of debtsand free access to forests for timber for con-struction of houses and other daily needs.

They also prevented the sahukars takingthe foodgrains outside. The movement as-sumed the character of mass upsurge. Thelandlords got alarmed. On 31st October 1967while the Taluk girijan conference was beingheld in the village Levidi, the landlords andtheir hired goons attacked the delegates in-juring many of them including women. Asthe local people rushed to the rescue of thedelegates the landlords opened firing killingKoranna and Manganna and severely injuringmany others. The martyrdom of these tworaised the anti-feudal struggle of the girijanpeople to a new height.

By the mid 1970s the Srikakulam upris-ing had moved up the Godavari valley intothe plains of Telangana .

Peasant struggles were organized underthe leadership of radical left and ‘Rytu cooliesanghams’ (peasant and agricultural labourorganisations) struggled against social oppres-sion and feudal practices, for a hike in wagesand for land. ‘Social boycott’ against the land-lords was the popular form of struggle.

A massive police operation was launchedin which 1400 were arrested. On 10th July1970, V. Satyanarayana and AdibhatlaKailasam, the two major leaders were killedand that brought the movement to an end.The revolutionary movement of Srikakulamgirijans is a saga of heroic struggle and selfsacrifice against feudal exploitation.

New Farmers MovementThe New Farmers Movement has

developed during last twenty years. It has beenfighting for freeing the economy of all state

interventions. The movement is againststatism.

Freeing the economy will not only take careof farmers themselves but ensure prosperityfor the Nation. New farmers movement aroseafter 1980 in various states almost simulta-neously.

The basic understanding on which themovements rested is that the governmentmaintains agricultural prices at an artificiallylow level in order to provide cheap food andraw materials to urban areas, and the conse-quent disparity in prices results in farmerspaying high prices for industrial goods neededas inputs into agriculture and receiving lowreturns for their produce. As a result, farm-ers are exploited by urban interests, and arevictims of internal colonialism. They need notpay back loans or charges for infrastructurecosts as they have already paid too much andare in fact net creditors.

These ‘new farmers’ movements espe-cially in the eighties, have focused mainly ondemanding remunerative prices for agricul-tural produce, and lowering or elimination ofgovernment dues such as canal water charges,electricity charges, interest rates and princi-pal of loans, etc.

The movement touched a vital chordamong peasants by drawing attention to theneglect and backwardness of rural areas.

? Notes on Non-Alignment MovementNon-Alignment is the main principle of

India’s foreign policy. It is a policy of notaligning with any state or group of states, butbeing friendly and just to everyone. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is anintergovernmental organization founded inBelgrade in 1961

It was largely the brainchild of Yugoslavia'sPresident, Josip Broz Tito, India's first PrimeMinister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's secondPresident, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana's first

president Kwame Nkrumah, and Indonesia'sfirst President, Sukarno. The purpose of theorganisation is to ensure "the nationalindependence, sovereignty, territorial integrityand security of non-aligned countries" in their"struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreignaggression, occupation, domination,interference or hegemony as well as againstgreat power and bloc politics." They representnearly two-thirds of the United Nations'smembers and 55% of the world population,particularly countries considered to bedeveloping or part of the Third World.

A significant milestone in the developmentof the Non-Aligned Movement was the 1955Bandung Conference, a conference of Asianand African states hosted by Indonesianpresident Sukarno, who gave a significantcontribution to promote this movement

Since the end of the Cold War and theformal end of colonialism, the Non-AlignedMovement has been forced to redefine itselfand reinvent its purpose in the current worldsystem. The movement continues to see a rolefor itself, as in its view, the world’s poorestnations remain exploited and marginalised, nolonger by opposing superpowers, but ratherin a uni-polar world, and it is Westernhegemony and neo-colonialism that themovement has really re-aligned itself against.

? Write notes on BodolandBodoland is an area in the north bank of

Brahmaputra river in the State of Assam bythe foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradeshand inhabited predominantly by Bodo languagespeaking ethnic group.

Bodos are also ethnocentric or nationalistsociety. Cultural assimilation with Assamesewas not productive. In brief, before the BritishRaj, Bodo-kachari Kingdom may haveincluded a vast area extending far and beyondAssam, a small province in the North-East

India. Following Indian independence, theBodos were given opportunity to takeadvantage of scheduled tribe (ST) status.

Tribal belts and blocks were graduallybeing acquired by rich landlords or newimmigrants through illegal means. Moreover,Bodos had little or no access to economic aidthat were given by the central government.There were hardly any roads that connectedBodo dominated area to the main cities ofAssam.

Since Independence, there have beenregular demand for seperate Bodoland byseveral organisations in which somedemanded seperate Statehood within theIndian Union while other demand sovereinBodoland for the Bodo People in Assam.

The official Bodoland Movement for anindependent state of Bodoland started onMarch 2, 1987 under the leadership of AllBodo Students' Union (ABSU).

The National Democratic Front ofBodoland (NDFB) was one such organisation.Bodoland Territorial Council under the SixthSchedule of the constitution was establishedon February 10, 2003 after the conclusion ofMemo-randum of Settlement with BodoLiberation Tiger Force (BLTF) which laiddown their weapons on December 6, 2003and its chief Hagrama Mohilary was swornin as the Chief Executive Member of theInterim BTC on December 7, 2003. Extensionof Sixth Schedule provision to Bodoland wasthe first instance of covering non-hilly tribalarea under it.

? Land reforms after IndependenceDuring colonialism, India’s traditional land-

use and landownership patterns were changedto ease the acquisition of land at low pricesby British entrepreneurs for mines,plantations, and other enterprises. theintroduction of the land tax under the

Permanent Settlement Act 1793, the Britishpopularized the zamindari system. India atindependence inherited a semifeudal agrariansystem. The ownership and control of landwas highly concentrated in the hands of asmall group of landlords and intermediaries,whose main intention was to extractmaximum rent, either in cash or in kind, fromtenants. Agricultural productivity suffered,and the oppression of tenants resulted in aprogressive deterioration of their well-being.

Land policy in India has undergone broadlyfour phases since Independence.

1. The first and longest phase (1950 - 72)consisted of land reforms that includedthree major efforts: abolition of the inter-mediaries, tenancy reform, and the redis-tribution of land using land ceilings. Theabolition of intermediaries was relativelysuccessful, but tenancy reform and landceilings met with less success.

2. The second phase (1972 - 85) shifted at-tention to bringing uncultivated land un-der cultivation.

3. The third phase (1985 - 95) increased at-tention towards water and soil conserva-tion through the Watershed Development,Drought-Prone Area Development (DPAP)and Desert-Area DevelopmentProgrammes (DADP). A central govern-ment Waste land Development Agencywas established to focus on wasteland anddegraded land. Some of the land policyfrom this phase continued beyond its fi-nal year.

4. The fourth and current phase of policy(1995 onwards) centres on debates aboutthe necessity to continue with land legis-lation and efforts to improve land revenueadministration and, in particular, clarity inland records.Within a year or two of independence

Zamindar abolition bills or land tenure legisla-

tion were introduced in a number of prov-inces. the zamindars in various parts of thecountry challenged the constitutionality of thelaw permitting zamindari abolition.

The Government responded to this by get-ting constitutional amendments passed. The1st Amendment in 1951 and the 4th Amend-ment in 1955 were aimed at further. strength-ening the hands of the state legislatures forimplementing zamindari abolition, making thequestion of violation of any fundamental rightor insufficiency of compensation not permis-sible in the courts. A major difficulty in imple-menting the zamindari abolition acts, passedin most provinces by 1956, was the absenceof adequate land records. Nevertheles by theend of the fifties the process of land reforminvolving abolition of intermediaries can besaid to have been completed. The abolition ofzamindari meant that about twenty million erst-while tenants now became landowners.

The second major plank of the land re-forms was concerned with tenancy legisla-tion. The political and economic conditions indifferent parts of India were so varied thatthe nature of tenancy legislation passed by thedifferent states and the manner of their imple-mentation also varied a great deal.

Tenancy reforms had three basic objec-tives. First, to guarantee security of tenure totenants who had cultivated a piece of landcontinuously for a fixed number of years.Second, to seek the reduction of rents paidby tenants to a fair level. The third objectivewas that the tenant gain the right to acquireownership of the lands he cultivated subjectto certain restrictions.

The first objective of tenancy legislationin India, that of providing security of tenureto all tenants met with only limited success.There were large number of tenants who re-mained unprotected. The second major ob-jective of tenancy legislation that of reducing

rents to a fair level was almost impossible toachieve. The third objective of tenancy legis-lation in India, i.e., the acquisition of owner-ship rights to tenants was also achieved onlypartially.

Land is subject to state control in Indiaand the relationship between production andland tenure varies from state to state, the na-tional policy recommendations resulted in dif-fering tenancy reform laws in each state.Tenancy is completely prohibited in somestates but completely free in others. Punjaband Haryana have not prohibited tenancywhereas Karnataka has a nearcomplete banon tenancy. Some states, such as Maharashtraand Orissa, chose to provide different ten-ancy reform regimes for different areas withinthe state.

Land CeilingsA major plank of the land reform effort inIndia was the imposition of ceilings on thesize of the landholdings, with the objectiveof making land distribution more equitable. Acommittee ‘the Congress Agrarian ReformCommittee chaired by J.C. Kumarappa wasformed. The committee submitted its reportin July 1949. It recommended a ceiling onland holding which was to be three times thesize of an economic holding. (An economyholding being defined as that which wouldgive a reasonable standard of living to thecultivator and provide full employment to afamily of normal size and at least to a pair ofbullocks). Despite the early statements of in-tentions and recommendations, not muchprogress on the question of ceilings occuredin the initial years after independence. In themeantime, opposition to ceilings was build-ing up in large parts of the country. In theNagpur Congress held in January 1959 a reso-lution was passed stating that in order to re-move uncertainity regarding land reforms andgive stability to the farmer, ceilings should be

fixed on existing and future holdings and leg-islation to this effect should be completed inall states by the end of 1959 and the land de-clared above ceiling limits was to vests in thepanchayats. It was the state which had toformulate and implement the ceilings legisla-tion. The state legislatures showed no hastein implementing the Nagpur Resolution. Theceilings issue thus dragged on and most statespassed the legislation only by the end of 1961.

The ceiling laws in most states had cer-tain major shortcomings. First, in a situationwhere more than 70% of land holdings inIndia were under five acres, the ceiling fixedon existing holdings by the states were veryhigh. Second a large number of exemptionsof the ceiling limits were permitted by moststates following the second plan recommen-dations that certain categories of land couldbe exempted from ceilings. These were tea,coffee and rubber plantations, orchards, spe-cialized farms engaged in cattle breeding,dairying, wool raising etc. However the ex-emptions were often carried to absurd limitsin many states.

Finally the long delay in bringing in ceilinglegislation to a large extent defeated its pur-pose. The large landowners had enough timeto either sell their excess lands, or makemalafide transfers in the name of relatives andeven make benami transfers. Further, thelandowners also resorted to mass eviction oftenants, resuming their lands atleast upto theceiling limit, and claiming, often falsely, tohave shifted to progressive farming undertheir direct supervision. Thus by the time theceiling legislations were in place, there werebarely and holdings left above the ceiling andconsequently little surplus land became avail-able for redistribution.

Mid sixties saw a widespread ‘land grab’movement by landless in many parts of thecountry under the leadership of the Commu-

nist and Socialist parties. The total amountof land seized was not very significant andmost of it was government wasteland, butnot distributed. The movement was not asuccess. But on the whole, the movement hada significant symbolic effect. The nation’sattention was drawn dramatically to the agrar-ian question.

It was in this context that the Land Re-form Implementation Committee of the Na-tional Development Council met in June 1964and made sustained efforts to put pressureon the chief ministers to plug the loopholesin the land reform legislations and implementthem effectively. In August 1971, the com-mittee made a series of recommendations in-cluding a substantial reduction in the ceilinglimits, and withdrawn of exemptions.

In July 1972, new guidelines were formed.In order to avoid the resistance of the ceilinglaws, the government passed in Parliamentthe 34th Amendment in August 1974, gettingmost of the revised ceiling laws included inthe Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. Sothat they could not be challenged on consti-tutional grounds. Thus, there was a distinctimprovement after 1972. Yet, the total areadeclared surplus that could be distributedamong the landless constituted only about 2%of the cultivated area.

An important impact of the ceiling laws,and perhaps in the long run the most criticalone, was that it killed the land market andprevented an increasing concentration in landholdings through de-peasantisation. Also,though the opportunity to acquire large areasof surplus lands for redistribution was missedbecause of defective and delayed ceiling laws,in the long run the high population growthand the rapid subdivision of large holdingsover several generations led automatically tolittle land remaining over the ceiling limits.

LAND REFORMSTwo centrally sponsored schemes viz;i. Computerisation of land records (CLR)ii. Strengthening of Revenue Administration

and Updating of Land Records (SRA &ULR) are administered by Land ReformsDivision in the Department of Land Re-sources.

Computerisation of land reformsThe Centrally Sponsored Scheme onComputerisation of Land Records (CLR) wasstarted in 1988-89 with 100% financial as-sistance on a pilot project basis in eight dis-tricts viz. Rangareddy (AP), Sonitpur(Assam), Singhbhum (Jharkhand),Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Morena (MP),Wardha (Maharashtra), Mayurbhang (Orissa)and Dungarpur (Rajasthan) to remove theproblems inherent in the manual systems ofmaintenance and updating of land records andto meet the requirements of various groupsof users. It was decided that efforts shouldbe made to computerise CORE DATA con-tained in land records, so as to assist devel-opment planning and to make records acces-sible to peoples/planners and administrators.

A decision has been taken during 1997-98for operation of the Scheme at the tehsil/taluklevel for facilitating delivery of computerisedland records to users and public at large.Under this programme, funds are released tothe State Government for data entry work,setting up of computer centres at tehsil level,sub-division level. District Land Records DataCentre and Monitoring Cell at state headquar-ters and imparting training to revenue offi-cials on application software and computertechnology.

Strengthening of Revenue Administration andUpdating of Land Records

With a view to assisting States/UTs in thetask of updating of land records, a Centrally

Sponsored Scheme for Strengthening of Rev-enue Administration and Updating of LandRecords (SRA & ULR) was started in 1987.Initially, the Scheme was approved for theStates of Bihar and Orissa in 1987-88 andextended to other States/UTs, during 1989-90. The Scheme is being implemented by stategovernments through their revenue/land re-forms departments. It is financed by the Cen-tre and the State on 50:50 funds sharing ba-sis. However, union Territories are providedfull central assistance.

Under this scheme, financial assistance isgiven for purchase of modern survey equip-ment like Global Positioning System (GPS),EDM, Total stations, Theodolites, Work Sta-tions, Aerial Survey, Office equipment likephotocopiers, laminating machines, bindingmachines etc.

It has been proposed to integrate and en-hance the two centrally sponsored schemes,namely, Computerisation of Land Records(CLR), and Strengthening of Revenue Admin-istration and Updating of Land Records(SRA&ULR), in the shape of the NationalLand Records Modernization Programme(NLRMP). The NLRMP is concerned notmerely with computerization, updating andmaintenance of land records and validationof titles, but also a programme that will addvalue and provide a comprehensive tool fordevelopment planning wherever location-spe-cific information is required. Ushering in thesystem of conclusive titles in the country shallbe the ultimate goal of the programme, forwhich all the required activities shall be un-dertaken in a systematic, ladder-like manner,and the primary activities shall converge inthe district, and all districts in th country areproposed to be covered under the programmeby the 12th plan period, beginning with1-2district per State/UT this year.

? Mandal CommissionThe Mandal Commission in India was

established in 1979 by the Janata Partygovernment under Prime Minister MorarjiDesai. It was headed by Bindheshwari PrasadMandal to consider the question of seatreservations and quotas for people to redresscaste discrimination, and used eleven social,economic, and educational indicators todetermine "backwardness." In 1980, thecommission recommended that OtherBackward.Classes and Scheduled Castes andTribes should be given exclusive access to acertain portion of government jobs and slotsin public universities, and recommendedchanges to these quotas, increasing them by27% to 49.5%.

All the recommendations of the report arenot yet implemented. The recommendation ofreservations for OBC's in government ser-vices was implemented in 1993. The recom-mendation of reservations in Higher educa-tional institutes was implemented in 2008.

Prime Minister V.P. Singh in 1990 decidedto implement the recommendations of theMandal Commission. This decision led towidespread protests in the country especiallyNorth India.

? Ayodhya IssueThe Ayodhya dispute is centred on a plot

of land in the city of Ayodhya, located inFaizabad district, Uttar Pradesh. The mainissues revolve around access to a sitetraditionally regarded as the birthplace of theHindu God Rama, the history and location ofthe Babri Mosque at the site, and whether aprevious Hindu temple was demolished ormodified to create the mosque. The BabriMosque was destroyed by hardline Hinduactivists which turned into a riot on December6, 1992. On 16 December 1992, the LiberhanCommission was set up by the Government

Right to InformationThe Right to Information Act, 2005 has been enacted with a view to empower

the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government,contain corruption and make the democracy work for people in real sense.

The Act gives all the citizens the right to seek information held by any authorityor body or institution of self government established or constituted by or under theConstitution; or by any other law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature; or bynotification issued or order made by the Central Government or a State Government.Bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed by the Central Government or a StateGovernment and non-Government organisations substantially financed by the CentralGovernment or a State Government also fall within the definition of public authority.

The right includes inspection of work, documents and records; taking notes;extracts or certified copies of documents or records; Taking certified samples of materialheld by the public authority or held under the control of the public authority. It alsoincludes information relating to any private body which can be accessed by the publicauthority under any law for the time being in force. There are some categories ofinformation which each public authority is required to publish suo moto.

The procedure for seeking information under the Act is very simple. Whoeverwants any information from any office of the Government has to simply make a requestto the Public Information Officer of the office. The request has to merely indicate theinformation sought and the address at which the information is required. The request canbe sent either by post or submitted in person. It can be made in Hindi or English or in theofficial language of the area and can also be sent through e-mail. If the applicant does notget the information within 30 days or the applicant is not satisfied with the reply given tohim, he can make an appeal within 30 days to the appellate authority appointed by theauthority who is an officer superior to the Public Information Officer. The appellateauthority has to decide the appeal within 30 days of the receipt of appeal. If the applicantis not satisfied even with the decision of the appellate authority, he can file a secondappeal with the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission,as the case may be within 90 days. The Central Information Commission entertains appealsin respect of offices, financial institutions, public sector undertakings, etc. under theCentral Government and the Union Territories and a State Information Commission dealswith the appeals pertaining to offices, financial institutions, public sector undertakings,etc under the concerned State Government.

The Right to Information Act has converted the prevailing culture of secrecyinto culture of openness and transparency in the working of the Government. It will go along way in strengthening our democratic institutions, empowering the public, removingcorruption and greater involvement of citizens in the development of the nation.

of India to probe the circumstances that ledto the demolition of the Babri Mosque. TheLiberhan Commission submitted its reportalmost 17 years after it began its inquiry. Itscontents were not made public.

A subsequent land title case was lodged inthe Allahabad High Court, the verdict of whichwas pronounced on September 30, 2010. Inthe landmark hearing, the three judges of TheAllahabad High Court ruled that the 2.77 acres(1.12 ha) of Ayodhya land be divided into 3parts, with 1/3 going to the Ram Lalla or In-fant Lord Rama represented by the HinduMaha Sabha for the construction of the Ramtemple, 1/3 going to the Islamic Sunni WaqfBoard and the remaining 1/3 going to a Hindureligious denomination Nirmohi Akhara.

While the three-judge bench was not unani-mous that the disputed structure was con-structed after demolition of a temple, it didagree that a temple or a temple structure pre-dated the mosque at the same site. The exca-vations by the Archaeological Survey of Indiawere heavily used as evidence by the courtthat the predating structure was a massiveHindu religious building.

The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha andSunni Wakf Board moved to the SupremeCourt of India, challenging Allahabad HighCourt’s verdict.

? Mumbai attack (26/11)The 2008 Mumbai attacks (26/11) were

more than 10 co-ordinated shooting andbombing attacks across Mumbai, by Islamicterrorists who invaded from Pakistaniseawaters. According to investigations, theattackers traveled by sea from Karachi,Pakistan, across the Arabian Sea, hijacked theIndian fishing trawler 'Kuber', killing the crewof four, and then forced the captain to sail toMumbai. After killing the captain, the attackersentered Mumbai on a rubber dinghy. Theattack took place on 26 November 2008 and

lasted until 29 November, killing 164 peopleand wounding at least 308.

Eight of the attacks occurred in SouthMumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, theOberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower,Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital (a women andchildren's hospital), Nariman House, the MetroCinema, and a lane behind the Times of Indiabuilding and St. Xavier's College. There wasalso an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai'sport area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle.

Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who wascaptured alive, disclosed that the attackerswere members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Paki-stan-based militant organisation. Pakistan's In-formation Minister Sherry Rehman officiallyaccepted Ajmal Kasab's nationality as Paki-stani.

15 policemen and two NSG commandoswere killed, including the following officers -Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief HemantKarkare, Additional Commissioner of Police:Ashok Kamte, Encounter specialist: VijaySalaskar, Senior inspector Shashank Shinde,NSG Commando, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Hawaldar Gajendra Singh. A trialcourt on 6 May 2010 sentenced Ajmal Kasabto death on five counts.

? Tehelka ScamOn 13 March 2001, Operation Westend, a

sting operation conducted by a team ofjournalists from the investigative journalTehelka, exposed the corruption within thethen ruling coalition, the National DemocraticAlliance, headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Tehelka’s reporters infiltrated the Indiangovernment, bribed army officers, gave moneyto the president of the ruling party and thedefence minister’s close colleague right in thedefence minister’s residence. The scandalcaused uproar all over India and GeorgeFernandes was forced to resign from his post

as a Defence Minister. Operation Westendwas a sting operation aimed at sensationaliz-ing the corruption underlying India's largedefence contracts.

He was subsequently cleared by the oneman commission headed by retired JusticePhukan. He was reinstated later. Tehelka wasaccused of fabricating allegations and carry-ing out a biased and motivated campaign car-ried out at the behest of the political foes ofGeorge Fernandes.

? Punjab, Golden Temple IssueOperation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was

an Indian military operation, ordered byIndira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India,for removing Sikh separatists from theGolden Temple in Amritsar. The activists, ledby Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, wereaccused of amassing weapons in the Sikhtemple. The military assault led to an uproaramongst Sikhs worldwide and the increasedtension following the action led to assaultson members of the Sikh community within

India. The army withdrew from the GoldenTemple later in 1984 under pressure fromSikh demands.

Four months after the operation, on 31October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassi-nated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in whatis viewed as an act of vengeance. Follow-ing her assassination, more than 5000 Sikhswere killed in anti-Sikh pogroms.

The first Operation Black Thunder tookplace on 30 April 1986. About 300 NationalSecurity Guards commandos stormed theGolden Temple along with 700 Border Se-curity Force troops and captured about 300separatists. Operation Black Thunder II(sometimes just referred to as OperationBlack Thunder) began on 9 May 1988 inAmritsar and ended with the surrender ofthe militants on 18 May. This operation wasdescribed as a severe setback to theKhalistan movement. The goal of theKhalistan movement is to create a Sikh home-land.

2G Spectrum ScamThe 2G spectrum scam involved allegations of underpricing of 2G spectrum Telecom

Ministry of India, resulting in loss to the exchequer and illegal manipulation of the spectrumallocation process to favour a few select companies. According to a report submitted by theComptroller and Auditor General based on money collected from 3G licenses, the loss to theexchequer due to underpricing of 2G spectrum was 176,379 crore (US$39.16 billion).

The issuing of the 2G licenses occurred in 2008, but the scam came to public noticewhen the Supreme Court of India took Subramaniam Swamy's complaints on record. On 27November 2010 Subramanian Swamy filed a case before the Special Court for Corruption Casesin connection with the charges of irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation.

A. Raja (Telecommunication Minister), Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (Rajyasabha MP), P.J.Thomas, Anil Ambani, Vinod Goenka, Rathan Tata, Nira Radia etc were involved in this scam. NiraRadia, a former airline entrepreneur turned corporate lobbyist whose conversations with politi-cians and corporate entities were recorded by the government authorities. The contents were laterleaked by unknown parties creating the Nira Radia tapes controversy.

On November 14, 2010, A. Raja, Minister for Telecommunication resigned from his cabi-net post, over the 2G spectrum allocation scandal. Later Raja was arrested by CBI.

? Operation Cocoon'Operation Cocoon' ended with the killing

of India’s most wanted criminal Veerappanand three others in the forests nearDharmapuri.

India's most notorious fugitive, Veerappan,carried a $33,000 reward on his head and waswanted by the police in connection with 120murders. Veerappan began his career in crimeas an ivory poacher and killed his first elephantwhen he was only 14. Since then, popularlegend says he has killed about 2,000 el-ephants. From elephant poaching, Veerappangraduated to sandalwood smuggling, kidnap-ping and murder. He operated mainly in theforests bordering the southern states ofKarnataka and Tamil Nadu. His victims in-cluded senior forest and police officials, a min-ister and many villagers, who he suspectedof being informers.

He kidnapped ministers and film stars andbusinessmen for huge ransoms. There wereat least a few thousand policemen and para-military forces after him. He eluded them for20 years to be finally killed on October 18,2004.

? Notes on Anti Defection BillThe Constitution (97th Amendment) is also

known as an amendment to Anti-DefectionLaw. This amendment added the TenthSchedule to the constitution which containedthe provisions regarding the disqualificationof members of the parliament or statelegislatures in the event of defection. TenthSchedule, also known as the Anti-DefectionAct was included in the Constitution in 1985by the Rajiv Gandhi ministry and sets theprovisions for disqualification of electedmembers on the grounds of defection toanother political party. Further Constitution(Ninety First Amendment) act of 2003 broughtcertain changes in the 1985 Anti-defectionLaw.

This amendment deleted paragraph 3 ofthe Tenth Schedule. Deleting this paragraphallowed one-third of the legislature party tosplit without attracting provisions of theexisting ant defection law. The Constitution(Ninety First Amendment) debarred thedefectors from holding any public office as aminister or any other remunerative post tillthe end of the current term or till freshelections are held. At the same time, theConstitution (Ninety First Amendment) 2003also sought to check defection by restrictingthe size of Council of Ministers 15% of theLok Sabha & Assembly members.

The 97th amendment bill sought to reducethe size of the ministerial council to 10% ofthe members. In other words, after thisamendment, the size of the Council ofMinisters cannot be more than 10 per cent ofrespective strengths of Parliament and Statelegislatures.

This amendment was carried out duringNDA Government's regime and based uponrecommendations made by Dinesh GoswamiCommittee, Law Commission of India and theNational Commission to Review the Workingof the Constitution (NCRWC).

? Write notes on Bofors ScamThe Bofors scandal was a major corruption

scandal in India in the 1980s; the then PrimeMinister Rajiv Gandhi and several others wereaccused of receiving kickbacks from BoforsAB for winning a bid to supply India's 155mm field howitzer. This directly led to thedefeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian NationalCongress party in the November 1989 generalelections.

It has been speculated that the scale of thescandal was to the tune of Rs. 400 million.The case came to light during VishwanathPratap Singh's tenure as defence minister. Thename of the middleman associated with the

scandal was Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italianbusinessman who represented thepetrochemicals firm Snamprogetti.Quattrocchi was reportedly close to the familyof Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and emergedas a powerful broker in the 1980s betweenbig businesses and the Indian government.

In 1997, the Swiss banks released some500 documents after years of legal battle andthe Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) fileda case against Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, alsonaming Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretaryS. K. Bhatnagar and a number of others. Whilethe case was being investigated, Rajiv Gandhiwas assassinated on May 21, 1991.

A Delhi court discharged Quattrocchi fromthe case, as there was no credible evidenceagainst him, on 4 March 2011.

? Write notes on Assam AccordOn Aug. 15, the Rajiv Govt: signed an

accord with the leaders of All Assam StudentsUnion (AASU) and the Assam Gana SangramParishad AGSP or Assam People’s StruggleCouncil. The main provision were :-

1. All those foreigners who entered Assambetween 1951 and 1961 were to be givenfull citizenship including the right to vote.

2. Those who had done so after 1971 wereto be deported.

3. The entrants between 1961 and 1971 wereto be denied voting rights for ten yearsbut would enjoy all other rights ofcitizenship.

• Plus an economic package including asecond oil refinery, a paper mill and aninstitute of technology.

• Dissolved the existing Assam Assembly ;fresh election were held in Dec. 1985. TheAssam Gana Parishad headed by PrafullaMahanta, an AASU leader, formed a Govt.and he became the youngest chief Ministerin India, at the age of 33.

? Write notes on Sarkaria CommissionOn March 24, the Central Govt. appointed“Sarkaria Commission” to examine theCentre - State relations. The Commission willexamine and review the working of theexisting arrangements between the Union andStates in regard to powers, functions andresponsibilities in all spheres and recommendsuch changes or other measures as may beappropriate.

The Commission was headed by JusticeRajinder Singh Sarkaria, a retired judge of theSupreme Court of India. The other twomembers of the committee were ShriB.Sivaraman and Dr.S.R.Sen.

The Commission submitted its final 1600-page report in 1988. The final report contained247 specific recommendations.

? The Shah Bano CaseThe Supreme Court, in the Civil action,

had sanctioned a maintenance payment to adivorced Muslim woman, Shah Banoo,beyond the period specified by Muslim Law.Court decided to award the 62 year old divorcea sum of 500 rupees a month from her formerhusband. The case created considerable debateand controversy about the extent of havingdifferent civil codes for different religions,especially for Muslims in India.

This one projected the creation of acommon civil code. Rajiv Gandhi, afterconsultation with prominent Muslim leaders,backed the Muslim women (Protection ofRights on Divorce) Bill to exclude Muslimwomen from the provision of Indian Lawunder which Shah Bhanoo award had beenmade.

In Feb. 1986, the Govt. adopted this afterintroducing it as a private member’s bill. TheShah Bano case generated tremendous debatein India.

? Accession of Kashmir to India - 1947The Instrument of Accession is a legal

document executed by Maharaja Hari Singh,ruler of the princely state of Jammu andKashmir, on 26 October 1947. By executingthis document under the provisions of theIndian Independence Act, 1947, Maharaja HariSingh agreed to accede to the Dominion ofIndia on condition that the state retain its ownconstitution and autonomy in all mattersexcept defence, currency and foreign affairs.As a consequence of this conditionalaccession, Article 370 was incorporated intothe Constitution of India, to grant special

autonomous status to the state of Jammu andKashmir. Governor-General of India, LordMountbatten accepted the accession with aremark, “it is my Government's wish that assoon as law and order have been restored inKashmir and her soil cleared of the invaderthe question of the State's accession shouldbe settled by a reference to the people.”

Lord Mountbatten’s remark and the offermade by the Government of India to conducta plebiscite or referendum to determine thefuture status of Kashmir led to a disputebetween India and Pakistan regarding thelegality of the accession of Kashmir to India.

Jan Lokpall Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill)The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by

prominent civil society activists. Itv seeks the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent bodythat would investigate corruption cases. The investigation must be completed within a year andenvisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year.

It was drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayuktaof Karnataka), Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyers) and Arvind Kejriwal(RTI activist), former chief election commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh. The draft Bill envisages asystem where a corrupt person found guilty would go to jail within two years of the complaintbeing made and his ill-gotten wealth being confiscated. It also seeks power to the Jan Lokpal toprosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission.

The first Lokpal Bill was passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969 but failed in the Rajya Sabha.Subsequent Lokpal bills were introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and2008 but all failed to pass. Following the four day Anna Hazare fasting struggle, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh stated that the Lokpal Bill would be introduced in the 2011 monsoon session ofparliament.

Anna Hazare is an Indian social activist hailing from Maharashtra. In the early 2000s Hazareled a movement in Maharashtra state which forced the state government to pass a strongerMaharashtra Right to Information Act. This Act was later considered as the base document for theRight to Information Act 2005 (RTI), enacted by the Union Government. On 5 April 2011 Hazareinitiated a movement for passing a stronger anti-corruption Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the IndianParliament. Hazare began a fast unto death from 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press forthe demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civilsociety to draft a new bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the Lokpal andLokayuktas. On 8 April 2011 the Government of India accepted all demands of the movement.Pranab Mukherjee will be the Chairman of the draft committee while Shanti Bhushan will be the co-chairman. On the morning of 9 April 2011 Hazare ended his 98-hour hunger strike.

India claims that the accession is unconditionaland final. This event is celebrated on AccessionDay, which is held annually on October 26.

? Liberation of Goa - 1961The 1961 Indian annexation of Goa or

Liberation of Goa was an action by India'sarmed forces that ended Portuguese rule inits Indian enclaves in 1961. This action knownas Operation Vijay ending 451 years ofPortuguese colonial rule in Goa.

In India, the action was seen as a liberationof historically Indian territory. At the time ofBritish India's independence in 1947,Portuguese India included a number ofenclaves on India's western coast, includingGoa proper, as well as the coastal enclaves ofDaman (Port: Damão) and Diu, and theenclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.. Theterritories of Portuguese India were sometimesreferred to collectively as Goa. Portugal lostthe last two enclaves in 1954, and finally theremaining three in December 1961, when theywere occupied by India (although Portugalonly recognized the annexation in 1975, afterthe Carnation Revolution and the fall of theEstado Novo regime).

? Pokhran Nuclear TestOn 18 May 1974 India exploded its first

nuclear device code named Smiling Buddha.After the 1974 test, India decided to stop itstesting as a temporary measure.

In 1995, Prime Minister P.V. NarasimhaRao decided to carry out further tests. Butthe plans were halted. On Buddha Jayanti, 11May 1998, Operation Shakti was carried out.Shakti was the codename for Pokhran-II. AtalBihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister at thattime.

Pokharan-II refers to test explosions of fivenuclear devices, three on 11 May and two on13 May 1998, conducted by India at thePokhran test range. These nuclear tests

resulted in a variety of sanctions against Indiaby a number of major states. At the same time,Pakistan conducted two nuclear test underthe codename Chagai-I on May 28th andChagai-II on May 30.

The Scientific Adviser to the PM Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam (Later President) and R.Chidambaram (Head of the Dept. of AtomicEnergy) were the project chief co-ordinatorsfor this operation.

? The Securities Scam - 1992In April 1992, there was a shortfall in the

Government Securities held by the State Bankof India. In almost a month, investigationsfind out involving misappropriation of fundsto the tune of over Rs. 3500 crores. The scamengulfed top executives of large nationalizedbanks, foreign banks and financial institutions,brokers, bureaucrats and politicians. Thefunctioning of the money market and the stockmarket was thrown in disarray. The taintedshares were worthless as they could not besold. This created a panic among investorsand brokers and led to a prolonged closure ofthe stock exchanges along with a precipitousdrop in the price of shares. In less than 2months following the discovery of the scam,the stock prices dropped by over 40%, wipingout market value to the tune of Rs. 100,000crores. The scam was in essence a diversionof funds from the banking system to brokersfor financing their operations in the stockmarket.

The Indian Stock Broker Harshad ShantilalMehta is alleged to have engineered the risein the BSE stock exchange in 1992. Exploitingseveral loopholes in the banking system,Metha and his associates bought sharesheavily , triggering a rise in the Sensex. Whenthe scheme was exposed, banks starteddemanding their money back, causing thecollapse. He was later charged with 72criminal offenses, and more than 600 civil

action suits were filed against him. Mehta diedin 2002 with many litigations still pendingagainst him.

The cost of finance in the informal moneymarket which finances stock marketoperations was about twice that of the formalmarket in which banks lend to each otheragainst government securities. The differencein the cost of finance in the two markets couldnot be attributed to the difference in the levelof risk. The phenomenon of high interest ratesin badla finance was mainly due to artificialsegmentation of the markets.Therefore therewere enormous profits to be had for anybodywho could find a way of breaching the artificialwall separating the two markets and arbitragebetween them. That in essence was what thescam was all about.

? Militant Attack on Indian Parliament -2001

The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was ahigh-profile attack by terrorist against theParliament of India in New Delhi. The attackled to the death of a dozen people (5 terrorists,6 police and 1 civilian) and this increasedtensions between India and Pakistan and the2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff. The2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff was amilitary standoff between India and Pakistanthat resulted in the massing of troops on eitherside of the International Border (IB) and alongthe Line of Control (LoC) in the region ofKashmir.

On 13 December 2001, five gunmeninfiltrated the Parliament House in a car. Whileboth the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha had beenadjourned forty minutes prior to the incident,many Members of Parliament andgovernment officials such as Home MinisterLK Advani and Minister of State (Defence)Harin Pathak were believed to have still beenin the building at the time of the attack.

Indian Government initially accusedLashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed tobe involved in this attack. In December 2002,four JeM members were caught by Indianauthorities and put on trial. All four were foundguilty of playing various roles in the incident,although the fourth, Afsan Guru/NavjotSandhu, wife of Shaukat Hussain Guru (oneof the accused) was found guilty of a minorcharge of concealing knowledge ofconspiracy. Mohammad Afzal Guru, alsoknown as Afzal Guru, was the only accusedto be awarded the death penalty for theincident.

? U.S.-India Civil Nuclear AgreementThe 123 Agreement signed between the

United States of America and the Republic ofIndia is known as the U.S.-India Civil NuclearCooperation or Indo-US nuclear deal. Theframework for this agreement was made byIndian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh andthen U.S. President George W. Bush in July18, 2005. India agreed to separate its civil andmilitary nuclear facilities and to place all itscivil nuclear facilities under InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguardsand, in exchange, the United States agreed towork toward full civil nuclear cooperationwith India.

On August 1, 2008, the IAEA approvedthe safeguards agreement with India, afterwhich the United States approached theNuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to grant awaiver to India to commence civilian nucleartrade. The 45-nation NSG granted the waiverto India on September 6, 2008 allowing it toaccess civilian nuclear technology and fuelfrom other countries. The implementation ofthis waiver made India the only knowncountry with nuclear weapons which is not aparty to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)but is still allowed to carry out nuclearcommerce with the rest of the world.

The US House of Representatives passedthe bill on 28 September 2008. Two days later,India and France inked a similar nuclear pactmaking France the first country to have suchan agreement with India. On October 1, 2008the US Senate also approved the civilian nuclearagreement allowing India to purchase nuclearfuel and technology from the United States.U.S. President, George W. Bush, signed thelegislation on the Indo-US nuclear deal,approved by the U.S. Congress, into law, nowcalled the United States-India NuclearCooperation Approval and Non-proliferationEnhancement Act, on October 8, 2008. Theagreement was signed by then Indian ExternalAffairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and hiscounterpart then Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, on 10 October.

The Indo-US civilian nuclear agreementwas met with stiff opposition by some politicalparties. The Indian Government survived a

vote of confidence by 275-256 after the LeftFront withdrew their support to thegovernment over this dispute.

? Terrorism in IndiaSince its independence in 1947, India has

been facing the problem of insurgency andterrorism in different parts of the country.terrorism has been taken to mean an armedviolent movement directed against governmentas well as non-government targets, involvingpre-meditated attacks with arms, ammunitionand explosives against civilians, and resortingto intimidation tactics such as hostage-takingand hijacking, but not seeking territorialcontrol.

India has faced exclusively terroristmovements in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmirbordering Pakistan, and part insurgent-terrorist movements in the northeast,bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh; in Bihar,bordering Nepal; and in certain interior states

Women's Reservation BillThe Women's Reservation Bill has been a political raw nerve for nearly a decade now. It has

always triggered heated debates in Parliament and outside.The proposed legislation to reserve 33.3 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for

women was drafted first by the H D Deve Gowda-led United Front government. The Bill wasintroduced in the Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996. Though it has been introduced in Parliamentseveral times since then, the Bill could not be passed because of lack of political consensus.

If the Bill is passed, one-third of the total available seats would be reserved for women innational, state, or local governments. It would lead to gender equality in Parliament, resulting inthe empowerment of women as a whole. Increased political participation of women will help themfight the abuse, discrimination, and inequality they suffer from. 33.3 per cent seats in panchayatelections have been reserved for women already. The experience of women's reservation at thepanchayat level has been very encouraging. A million women are being elected to the panchayats inthe country every five years. This is the largest mobilisation of women in public life in the world.

The Bill had been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, andPersonnel, which gave its report in December 2009. The central government cleared the Bill onFebruary 25, 2010. For such a bill to pass, the Constitution has laid out an elaborate procedure. Itwas passed in the Rajya Sabha. So, even if the Rajya Sabha passed the bill its real impact will be feltonly when it passes through the Lok Sabha.

like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh andOrissa that do not have international borders.

The causes for the various insurgent/terrorist movements includePolitical causes: This is seen essentially inAssam and Tripura. The political factors thatled to insurgency-cum-terrorism included thefailure of the government to control large-scaleillegal immigration of Muslims fromBangladesh, to fulfil the demand of economicbenefits for the sons and daughters of the soil,etc.Economic causes: Andhra Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Orissa and Bihar are prime examples.The economic factors include the absence ofland reforms, rural unemployment, exploitationof landless labourers by land owners, etc.Ethnic causes: Mainly seen in Nagaland,Mizoram and Manipur due to feelings of ethnicseparateness.Religious causes: Punjab before 1995 andin J&K since 1989.

India has also faced terrorism of anephemeral nature, which sprang suddenly duereligious anger against either the governmentor the majority Hindu community or both andpetered out subsequently. Examples of thiswould be the simultaneous explosions inMumbai on March 12, 1993, which killedabout 250 civilians, and the simultaneousexplosions in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, inFebruary 1998. Tamil Nadu has also facedthe fallout of terrorism promoted by theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lankain the form of attacks by LTTE elements onits political rivals living in the state and in theassassination of former prime minister RajivGandhi in May 1991.

In Punjab, some Sikh elements belongingto different organisations took to terrorism todemand the creation of an independent statecalled Khalistan for the Sikhs. In J&K,

Muslims belonging to different organisationstook to terrorism for conflicting objectives.Some, such as the Jammu & KashmirLiberation Front, want independence for thestate, including all the territory presently partof India, Pakistan and China. Others, such asthe Hizbul Mujahideen, want India's J&K stateto be merged with Pakistan.

There have also been sporadic acts ofreligious terrorism in other parts of India. Themaximum number of terrorist incidents anddeaths of innocent civilians have occurred dueto religious terrorism.

Religious terrorist organisations have theirmain external sanctuaries in Pakistan andBangladesh, while non-religious terroristorganisations look to Nepal, Bhutan andMyanmar.

? Commonwealth ScamThe Central Vigilance Commission,

involved in probing the alleged corruption invarious Commonwealth Games 2010 -relatedprojects, has found discrepancies in tendersand alleged misappropriation amounting toabout Rs 8,000 crore. Several discrepanciesin tenders for Games-related projects:• Large sums of money have allegedly been

paid to non-existent parties.• The execution of many contracts has been

deliberately delayed.• The money paid for many Games related

projects are abnormally high.• It has also detected widespread bungling

in the purchase of equipment for theGames.The day after the conclusion of the

Commonwealth Games, the IndianGovernment announced the formation of aspecial committee to probe the allegations ofcorruption and mismanagement against theOrganizing Committee. The probe committee

led by former Comptroller and Auditor Generalof India VK Shungloo. This probe will be inaddition to the Central Bureau of Investigation,Enforcement Directorate, and CentralVigilance Commission investigations alreadyunderway.

Suresh Kalmadi, MP, ex-Union ministerand controversial chief of the OrganisingCommittee (OC) of Commonwealth Games,was arrested on charges of corruption andcriminal conspiracy by CBI on 26th April 2011.A day after his arrest on corruption charges,Suresh Kalmadi's 15-year tenure as the IndianOlympic Association president came to anabrupt end after he was sacked from the post.

? Adarsh Housing Society scamThe Adarsh Housing Society is a

cooperative society for the war widows andveterans of the Kargil War. The Adarsh societyhigh-rise was constructed in the posh Colabalocality of Mumbai, which is considered asensitive coastal area by the Indian Defenceforces and houses of various Indian Defenseestablishments.

The allegation was that the apartments inthe building were allocated to bureaucrats,politicians and army personnel who hadnothing to do with Kargil War.

The society is also alleged to have violatedthe Indian environment ministry rules.

It had led to resignation of the then ChiefMinister, Ashok Chavan.

Several inquiries have been ordered by thearmy and the Government to probe into theirregularities.

? Satyam ScandalSatyam Systems, a global IT company

based in India, was added to a notorious listof companies involved in fraudulent financialactivities. Satyam's CEO, Ramalingam Raju,took responsibility for broad accountingimproprieties that overstated the company'srevenues and profits and reported a cashholding of approximately $1.04 billion thatsimply did not exist.

Satyam Computer Services Limited wasfounded in 1987 which is one of the top 10industrial firms based in India.

National Litigation PolicyThe Centre has formulated a National Litigation Policy to reduce the cases pending in various

courts in India under the National Legal Mission to reduce average pendency time from 15 yearsto 3 years. The National Litigation Policy is based on the recognition that Government and itsvarious agencies are the pre-dominant litigants in courts and Tribunals in the country. Its aim isto transform Government into an efficient and responsible litigant. This policy is also based onthe recognition that it is the responsibility of the Government to protect the rights of citizens, torespect fundamental rights and those in charge of the conduct of Government litigation shouldnever forget this basic principle.

The purpose underlying this policy is also to reduce Government litigation in courts so thatvaluable court time would be spent in resolving other pending cases. There will be EmpoweredCommittees to monitor the implementation of this Policy and accountability. The EmpoweredCommittee at the National level shall be chaired by the Attorney General for India and such othermembers not exceeding six in number as may be nominated by the Ministry of Law with anAdditional Secretary to be the Member Secretary.

The Satyam Computer Services scandalwas publicly announced on 7 January 2009,when Chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed thatSatyam's accounts had been falsified.

Satyam's shares fell to 11.50 rupees on 10January 2009, their lowest level since March1998, compared to a high of 544 rupees in2008.

Founder of Satyam Computers RamalingaRaju resigned from the Satyam board afteradmitting to cheating six million shareholders.He was arrested on charges includingcheating, embezzlement and insider trading.

On 5 February 2009, the six-member boardappointed by the Government of India namedA. S. Murthy as the new CEO of the firmwith immediate effect.

On 13th April 2009, via a formal publicauction process, a 46% stake in Satyam waspurchased by Mahindra & Mahindra ownedcompany Tech Mahindra. Satyam Computerswas renamed as "Mahindra Satyam".

? Administrative Reforms in IndiaThe Administrative Reforms Commission

or ARC is the committee appointed by theGovernment of India for giving recommendations for reviewing the public administrationsystem of India. The first ARC was establishedon 5 January 1966. The first AdministrativeReforms Commission was Chaired by MorarjiDesai, and later on by K.Hanumanthaiah. TheSecond Administrative Reforms Commission(ARC) was constituted on 31.08,2005, as aCommission of Inquiry, under theChairmanship of Veerappa Moily.

The Commission was instituted forensuring the highest standards of efficiencyand integrity in the public services, and formaking public administration a fit instrumentfor carrying out the social and economicpolicies of the Government and achievingsocial and economic goals of development.

The Commission excluded the administration of defence, railways, external affairs,security and intelligence work,and educationaladministration.

Recommendations of the ARC-1 wasplaced before the parliament in November1977. The first ARC recommended for thesetting up of lokpal in 1966.

The Second ARC was setup as a committeeof inquiry to prepare a detailed blueprint forrevamping the public administration system.The second Administrative ReformsCommission was Chaired by Veerappa Moileywho later resigned in April 2009. V.Ramachandran is the present chairman. TheCommission was given the mandate to suggestmeasures to achieve a proactive, responsive,accountable, sustainable and efficientadministration for the country at all levels ofthe government.

The Commission was asked to, inter alia,consider the following : (i) Organisationalstructure of the Government of India (ii)Ethics in governance (iii) Refurbishing ofPersonnel Administration (iv) Strengtheningof Financial Management Systems (v) Stepsto ensure effective administration at the Statelevel (vi) Steps to ensure effective DistrictAdministration (vii) Local Self-Government/Panchayati Raj Institutions (viii) Social Capital,Trust and Participative public service delivery(ix) Citizen-centric administration (x)Promoting e-governance (xi) Issues ofFederal Polity (xii) Crisis Management (xiii)Public Order.

The Commission excluded the detailedexamination of administration of defence,railways, external affairs, security andintelligence, Centre-state relations, judicialreforms etc.

The commission has presented thefollowing 15 Reports to the Government forconsideration. The Government constituted a

Group of Ministers (GoM) on 30 March 2007under the Chairmanship of the then ExternalAffairs Minister to consider therecommendations of the Second A.R.C. andto review the pace of implementation of therecommendations as well as to provideguidance to the concerned Ministries/Departments in implementing the decisions.

? Finance Commission of IndiaThe Finance Commission of India came

into existence in 1951. It was establishedunder Article 280 of the Indian Constitutionof India by the President of India. It wasformed to define the financial relationsbetween the centre and the state. The FinanceCommission Act of 1951 states the terms ofqualification, appointment and disqualification,the term, eligibility and powers of the FinanceCommission. As per the Constitution, thecommission is appointed every five years andconsists of a chairman and four othermembers.

Functions of the Finance Commission canbe explicitly stated as:

• Distribution of net proceeds of taxesbetween Centre and the States, to bedivided as per their respectivecontributions to the taxes.

• Determine factors governing Grants-in Aidto the states and the magnitude of the same.

• Work with the State Finance Commissionsand suggest measures to augment theConsolidated Fund of the States so as toprovide additional resources to Panchayatsand Municipalities in the state.The 13th Finance Commission Report tablein Parliament on 25th February, 2010.Present chairman of 13th FinanceCommission is Dr Vijay Kelkar.

? Kalelkar CommissionAdhering to Article 340, the First Backward

Classes Commission was set up by apresidential order on January 29, 1953. Thisis the First Backward Classes Commissionunder the chairmanship of Kaka Kalelkar.

The commission submitted its report on30 March 1955. It had prepared a list of 2,399backward castes or communities for the entire

Delimitation CommissionDelimitation commission or Boundary commission of India is a Commission established by

Government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act. The main task ofthe commission is to redraw the boundaries of the various assembly and Lok Sabha constituenciesbased on a recent census. However, the number of SC and ST seats in a state are changed inaccordance with the census.

The Commission is a powerful body whose orders cannot be challenged in a court of law.The orders are laid before the Lok Sabha and the respective State Legislative Assemblies. However,modifications are not permitted. Delimitation commissions have been set up four times in the past- In 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002 under Delimitation Commission acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and2002.

The recent delimitation commission was set up on 12 July 2002 after the 2001 census withJustice Kuldeep Singh, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India as its Chairperson. Therecommendations of the delimitation commission was approved by the President, Pratibha Patil on19 February 2008. The assembly elections in Karnataka which were conducted in three phases inMay 2008 is the first one to use the new boundaries as drawn by the 2002 delimitation commission.

country and of which 837 had been classifiedas the ‘most backward’.

But this report was partly rejected by theCentral Government on the ground that it hadnot applied any objective tests for identifyingthe Backward Class. Thus there was a needof second backward classes Commission.

? Khosla CommissionA one-man commission headed by Justice

G.D. Khosla established in July 1970 to re-investigate the circumstances surrounding thesupposed death of Subhas Chandra Bose. Thecommission reached the same conclusions asShah Nawaz Committee. The commission satfor four years and submitted Report.However, the conclusions of these two reportshave since been criticised as incorrect andquestionable.

? National Knowledge CommissionOn 13 June, 2005 , the Prime Minister of

India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, constituted theNational Knowledge Commission, as a think-tank charged with considering possible policythat might sharpen India's comparativeadvantage in the knowledge-intensive servicesectors. The Commission was to recommendreform of the education sector, research labs,and intellectual property legislation; as well asconsider whether the Government could itselfupgrade its use of the latest techniques to makeits workings more transparent.

? National Human Rights CommissionThe National Human Rights Commission

(NHRC) of India is an autonomous statutorybody established on 12 October 1993, underthe provisions of The Protection of HumanRights Act, 1993. NHRC performs thefollowing functions:• proactively or reactively inquire into

violations of human rights or negligencein the prevention of such violation by apublic servant

• visit any jail or other institution under thecontrol of the State Government, wherepersons are detained or lodged forpurposes of treatment, reformation orprotection, for the study of the livingconditions of the inmates and makerecommendations

• review the safeguards provided by or underthe Constitution or any law for the timebeing in force for the protection of humanrights and recommend measures for theireffective implementation

• review the factors, including acts ofterrorism that inhibit the enjoyment ofhuman rights and recommend appropriateremedial measures

• study treaties and other internationalinstruments on human rights and makerecommendations for their effectiveimplementation

• undertake and promote research in thefield of human rights

• spread literacy among various sections ofsociety and promote awareness of thesafeguards available for the protection ofthese rights through publications, themedia, seminars and other available means

• encourage the efforts of NGOs andinstitutions working in the field of humanrights

• such other function as it may consider itnecessary for the protection of humanrights.

• take suo motto action, if required in a caseif the victim is not in a position to access acourt.The Chairperson and members of theNHRC are appointed by the President ofIndia. The NHRC consists of aChairperson who has been a Chief Justiceof the Supreme Court of India.

• One Member who is, or has been, a Judgeof the Supreme Court of India

• One Member who is, or has been, the ChiefJustice of a High Court

• Two Members to be appointed fromamong persons having knowledge of, orpractical experience in, matters relating tohuman rights.

In addition to this, the Chairpersons of theNational Commission for Minorities, theNational Commission for the ScheduledCastes and Scheduled Tribes, and theNational Commission for Women, serveas ex officio members.

? National Commission for WomenThe National Commission for Women

(NCW) is a statutory body for womenestablished in 1992 by Government of India,as defined in the 1990 National Commissionfor Women Act.

National Commission for Women is theapex national level organization of India withthe mandate of protecting and promoting theinterests of women.

The objective of the NCW is to representthe rights of women in India. The subjects oftheir campaigns have included dowry, politics,religion, equal representation for women injobs, and the exploitation of women for labor,police abuses against women etc.Functions of NCW:• review the Constitutional and Legal

safeguards for women ;• recommend remedial legislative measures;• facilitate redressal of grievances and• advise the Government on all policy matters

affecting women.It took up the issue of child marriage,sponsored legal awareness programmes,Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats and reviewedlaws such as Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961,PNDT Act 1994, Indian Penal Code 1860 andthe National Commission for Women Act, 1990to make them more stringent and effective.

It organized workshops/consultations,constituted expert committees on economicempowerment of women, conductedworkshops/seminars for gender awarenessand took up publicity campaign against femalefoeticide, violence against women, etc. inorder to generate awareness in the societyagainst these social evils.

? Central Vigilance CommissionCentral Vigilance Commission (CVC) is an

apex Indian governmental body created in1964 to address governmental corruption. Itwas set up by the Government of India onthe recommendations of the Committee onPrevention of Corruption, headed by Shri K.Santhanam. Nittoor Srinivasa Rau was the firstChief Vigilance Commissioner of India.

The CVC is not an investigating agency,and it either gets the investigation done throughthe CBI or through the Departmental ChiefVigilance Officers. The only investigationcarried out by the CVC is that of examiningCivil Works of the Government which is donethrough the Chief Technical Officer.

The objective of CVC is to monitor allvigilance activity under the CentralGovernment of India, and advising variousauthorities in central Governmentorganizations in planning, executing, reviewingand reforming their vigilance work.

? Telangana movementThe politicians of the Telangana region of

Andhra Pradesh have been demanding thecreation of Telangana state by bifurcating thestate of Andhra Pradesh. Telangana’s KChandrasekhar Rao fought general electionsof 2004 in Andhra Pradesh alongwith theCongress and extended co-operation to it onthe condition that Telangana State would beformed. But the promise of the Congress couldnot be fulfilled owing to several factors.Eventually K Chandra Sekhar Rao quit the

Union Cabinet in protest against theCongress’s attitude for the formation ofTelangana. Even Several months after the 2009election no step was taken in the direction ofthe formation of Telangana. This forced theTelangana Rashtra Samiti Chief KChandrasekhar Rao to resort to prolongedhunger strike. When the condition of Mr. Raobegan to deteriorate the Congress issued astatement on December 9, 2009, expressingits willingness to set in motion the process offormation of Telangana State. Mr. Rao brokehis fast.

Agitations were sparked off in the coastalAndhra and Rayalseema regions in favour ofa united Andhra Pradesh. A spate ofresignations of MLA’s and MP’s followed.There was violence all over Andhra Pradeshtill a meeting of the representatives of AndhraPradesh was called in New Delhi to sort outthe issue. The opposition against bifurcationof the state of Andhra Pradesh being mostpowerful and stringent, the Home Minister PChidamabaram issued a statement onDecember 23 for holding wide rangingconsultations on statehood.

This statement put the issue of theformation of Telangana in deep freeze. Thismade the Telangana into political turmoil. OnDecember 24 itself 63 MLA’s belonging todifferent parties submitted their resignationsto the Speaker and 13 MPs threatened to quit.The Telangana Joint Action Committee cameinto action observing bandh and other violentactivities.

As a result a committee headed by JusticeB.N. Srikrishna was formed on February 3,2010 to look into the demand of statehoodfor Telangana. The Srikrishna Committee hadsubmitted its report to Union Home MinisterMr. P. Chidamabaram in New Delhi onDecember 30, 2010. Six solutions presented

by Srikrishna Committee are as follows:1. Status quo2. Bifurcation of the State into Seemandhra

and Telangana, with Hyderabad as a UnionTerritory, and the two states developingtheir own capitals in due course. The com-mittee found this option not practicable.

3. Bifurcation of State into Rayala-Telanganaand coastal Andhra regions, withHyderabad being an integral part of Rayala-Telangana. The committee believes that thisoption may not offer a resolution whichwould be acceptable to people of all threeregions.

4. Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh intoSeemandhra and Telangana, with an en-larged Hyderabad Metropolis as a separateUnion Territory. This Union Territorywould have geographical linkage and con-tiguity via Nalgonda district in the south-east to district Guntur in coastal Andhraand via Mahboobnagar district in the southto Kurnool district in Rayalaseema. Whilethere are some positives to this option, thecommittee felt it may be difficult to reacha political consensus in making this solu-tion acceptable to all.

5. Bifurcation of the State into Telangana andSeemandhra as per existing boundaries,with Hyderabad as the capital of Telanganaand Seemandhra to have a new capital. TheCommittee felt that this is the second bestoption. The Committee is of the view thatgiven the long history of the demand for aseparate Telangana, the highly-chargedemotions, and the likelihood of continuedagitation if the demand is not met, consid-eration has to be given to this option. Thecommittee felt that the continuing demandfor a separate Telangana has some meritand is not entirely unjustified. Separationis recommended only in case it is unavoid-able and if this decision can be reachedamicably amongst all the three regions.

6. Keeping the State united by simultaneouslyproviding certain definite constitutional andstatutory measures for socio-economicdevelopment and political empowermentof Telangana region through the creationof a statutorily-empowered Telangana Re-gional Council. The Committee considersthat unity is in the best interest of all threeregions of the state as internal partitionswould not be conducive to providing sus-tainable solutions to the issues at hand.

? Economic liberalisation in IndiaThe economic liberalisation in India refers

to ongoing economic reforms in India thatstarted in 1991. Till 1991 India had a importprotection policy wherein trade with the restof the world was limited to exports. Foreigninvestment was very difficult to come intoIndia due to a bureaucratic framework. Afterthe start of the economic liberalization, Indiastarted getting huge capital inflows and it hasemerged as the 2nd fastest growing countryin the world.

After Independence in 1947, India adheredto socialist policies. In the 1980s, PrimeMinister Rajiv Gandhi initiated some reforms.In 1991, after India sold 67 tons of gold tothe International Monetary Fund (IMF), thegovernment of P. V. Narasimha Rao and hisfinance minister Manmohan Singh startedbreakthrough reforms.

India started having balance of paymentsproblems since 1985, and by the end of 1990,it was in a serious economic crisis. The gov-ernment was close to default, its central bankhad refused new credit and foreign exchangereserves had reduced to the point that Indiacould barely finance three weeks’ worth ofimports. A Balance of Payments crisis in1991 pushed the country to near bankruptcy.The caretaker government in India headed byPrime Minister Chandra Shekhar, and FinanceMinister Yashwant Sinha’s immediate response

was to secure an emergency loan of $2.2 bil-lion from the International Monetary Fund bypledging 67 tons of India's gold reserves ascollateral. National sentiments were outragedand there was public outcry when its waslearned that the government had pledged thecountry's entire gold reserves against the loan.The Rupee devalued and economic reformswere forced upon India.

P.V. Narasimha Rao took over as PrimeMinister in June and Man Mohan Singh be-came the Finance Minister. The NarasimhaRao government ushered in several reformsthat are collectively termed as liberalisation inthe Indian media. Controls started to be dis-mantled, tariffs, duties and taxes progressivelylowered, state monopolies broken, theeconomy was opened to trade and investment,private sector enterprise and competition wereencouraged and globalisation was slowly em-braced.

The new neo-liberal policies included open-ing for international trade and investment, de-regulation, initiation of privatization, tax re-forms, and inflation-controlling measures.The main objective of the government was totransform the economic system from social-ism to capitalism so as to achieve high eco-nomic growth and industrialize the nation forthe well-being of Indian citizens.

The impact of these reforms may begauged from the fact that total foreign invest-ment (including foreign direct investment,portfolio investment, and investment raised oninternational capital markets) in India grew.

As of 2009, about 300 million people—equivalent to the entire population of the UnitedStates—have escaped extreme poverty. Thefruits of liberalisation reached their peak in2007, when India recorded its highest GDPgrowth rate of 9%.With this, India becamethe second fastest growing major economyin the world, next only to China.