August 31, 2015 IN

90 Pages·2015·8.73 MB·English

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COVER STORY
FOR TEAM MODI NOW OR NEVER
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MODI TO WALK OROP TALK
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FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Independence Day. 7.30 a.m. Narendra Modi delivers a 90-minute extempore
speech, the longest by any prime minister in recent times. The next day, he
www.indiatoday.in
leaves for a punishing two-day trip to the UAE. After returning late at night,
he flies to Bihar the next morning to address two poll rallies. Just a sample of
Editor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie his work life. Modi is among the hardest-working prime ministers we’ve had.
Group Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga
Group Editorial Director: Raj Chengappa With this kind of commitment and dedication, one would expect that the nation
Assistant Executive Editor: Y.P. Rajesh would be happy with him and his government.
Senior Writers/Deputy Editors: Prachi Bhuchar, Damayanti Datta,
Jyoti Malhotra, Kunal Pradhan, S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan Well, it’s a mixed bag for him. According to the India Today Group-Cicero
MUMBAI: M.G. Arun Mood of the Nation Poll, India still has faith in Modi but not that much in his
Senior Editors: Shantanu Datta, Abdus Salam
AHMEDABAD: Uday Mahurkar CHANDIGARH: Asit Jolly government. He is still considered the most suitable to be prime minister. In
HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon MUMBAI: Gayatri Jayaraman
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Charmy Harikrishnan fact, that number is one percentage point up from our last survey in April to 37
Associate Editors: Kaushik Deka, Shweta Punj
per cent. However, 34 per cent feel his image is being tarnished by his minis-
JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar MUMBAI: Suhani Singh PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava
Assistant Editors: Archana Pande PUNE: Aditi S. Pai ters. As for his government, if the elections were held today, the BJP would slip
Senior Correspondent: Maroosha Muzaffar
Correspondent: BEIJING: Ananth Krishnan to 243 seats in the Lok Sabha—down from 255 in our April findings and 282 in
Copy Desk: Sanghamitra Baruah, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The NDA coalition, too, would be down to 288
Ipsita Bhattacharya, (Chief Copy Editors),
Kritika Banerjee (Assistant Copy Editor) from 299 in our last survey—still enough to form the government but far from
Photo Department: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor),
Chandradeep Kumar, Yasbant Negi, Rajwant Rawat, M. Zhazo the giddying heights of 335 achieved in last year’s election.
AHMEDABAD: Shailesh Raval KOLKATA: Subir Halder India is not an easy country to change. Although Modi has changed the per-
MUMBAI: Mandar Deodhar
Photo Researchers: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher), ception of a paralytic scam-ridden government, many of the results are yet to
Shubhrojit Brahma, Satish Kaushik
Infographics and Illustrations: Saurabh Singh (Chief of Graphics) be seen on the ground. Sterling projects such as Swachh Bharat, Make in India,
Art Department: Jyoti K. Singh (Art Director), Clean Ganga, Skill India and Digital India need to be pushed harder, consider-
Prem Singh Giri, Sachin Ruhil, Naorem Sanjoy Singh, Vikas Verma
Production Department: Harish Aggarwal (Chief of Production), ing his reputation as the Great Implementer which he earned as Gujarat’s chief
Naveen Gupta, Vijay Sharma
Group Business Head : Manoj Sharma minister. I believe, a reason for the tepid performance of the government is
Associate Publisher: Anil Fernandes (Impact) a mixture of hubris, diversion into irrelevancies, lack of Parliamentary state-
IMPACT TEAM
Senior General Manager: Jitendra Lad (West) craft, and poor bench-strength. To get the fizz back, the government needs to
General Managers: Upendra Singh (Bangalore),
Velu Balasubramaniam (Chennai) do some signature acts which show it is serious about structural reforms. It
Deputy General Manager: Kaushiky Chakraborty (East) is significant that the most mentioned word in his Independence Day speech
Sales and Operations: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager
Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (National Sales) was “gareeb”—42 times. Nothing wrong in that as we are a poor country, but
Vipin Bagga, Deputy General Manager (Operations)
Manish Kumar Srivastava, Regional Sales Manager (North) where will the money for welfare come from if the economy does not grow?
Joydeep Roy, Regional Sales Manager (East)
Rajeev Gandhi, Regional Sales Manager (West) There was no mention of his much-vaunted Make in India campaign which
Arokia Raj L., Regional Sales Manager (South)
was going to provide the one million jobs per month that India urgently needs.
Incidentally, the survey shows that the number of people who think Modi is pro-
rich has increased from the last survey. It stands at almost three times his pro-
poor number. Is Modi losing his nerve for modernisation?
India is in desperate need for fundamental policy changes in major sectors
such as banking, land, labour, railways, education, and the public sector. We are
still waiting for policies that will herald BJP’s ‘minimum government, maximum
governance’ promise. That, to me, was the most important promise. It started
well with the abolition of the Planning Commission, a Soviet-style Nehruvian
Volume XL Number 35; For the week
hangover. But the Niti Aayog is today caught in the same bureaucratic web as
August 25-31, 2015, published on every Friday
its predecessor. Maybe this epitomises the sad tale of this government.
● Editorial Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex,
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from Rest of India (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.); Fax: [phone]; five years as compared to our April findings, showing that the Opposition too
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Limited, B-45, Sector 57, Noida-201301 (UP) I believe, a successful leader works within a conceptual framework which
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●M Iilmlsp),a Sc.tB O. fMficaersg:, 1L2o0w1e,r 1 P2athre Fl l(oWore,s Tt)o, wMeurm 2b Aa,i -O4n0e0 0In1d3i;a Pbhuollnse C: e6n6t0r6e,3 (3J5u5p;i t er he and his team truly believe in. Margaret Thatcher was one such leader with a
DFaexlh: i6 ●6 0G6u3n2a2 6C o●m Ep-1le, xG,r 5otuhn Fd lFolooro, rM, Vaiidne Bocuoinld Tinogw, eNrso,. 4Jh4a3n, dAenwnaal aSna lEaxi,t n, New clear vision and followed it. She transformed Britain by taking on vested inter-
Chennai-600018; Phone: [phone] ● 201-204 Richmond Towers, 2nd Floor,
12, Richmond Road, Bangalore-560025; Phones: 22212448, 22213037, 22218343; ests. If you shy away from battling those which come in the way of your ideas,
Fax: [phone]; ● 52, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, 4th Floor, Kolkata-700071;
Phones: 22825398; F ax: 22827254; ● 6-3-885/7/B, S omajiguda, Hyderabad-500082; you will be just another politician. When Candidate Modi said, “Government
Phone: [phone]; Fax:
23403484 ● 39/1045, Karakkatt Road, Kochi 682016; Phones: 2377057, 2377058 ; has no business being in business,” did he mean it? If he did, what does he have
Fax: [phone] ● 2/C, “Suryarath Bldg”, 2nd Floor, B ehind White House, Panchwati,
Office C.G. Road, Ahmedabad-380006; Phone: [phone]; Fax: to show for it 15 months later? Minimum Government means less bureaucracy.
26565293 ● Copyright Living Media India Ltd. All rights reserved througho ut the
world. Reproduction in any m anner is prohibited. Except for some procedural changes I don’t see much evidence of any substan-
Editor: Aroon Purie. Printed and published by Ashish Bagga on behalf
of Living Media India Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd., 18-35 Milestone, tial change here either. I still believe he is the only one in Indian politics who
Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana) and at A-9, Ind ustrial Complex,
Maraimalai N agar, district Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at can convert these catchy slogans into reality. To enable this, he has to show the
K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001.
● IN DIA TODAY does not take the re sponsibility for returning unsolicited same audacity in his governance as he did in his campaigning.
publication material.
All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of com-
petent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only
(Aroon Purie)
AUGUST 31, 2015 ◆ INDIA TODAY 10
INSIDE
RELIGION
RADHE MAA
48 Radha on the
Trance Floor
Is she a godwoman, a baby doll,
a simple housewife, a scheming
fraud or a power-hungry psycho?
As allegations mount, Radhe Maa
keeps all guessing.
PROFILE
NAWAZUDDIN SIDDIQUI
52 Mean
Street Star
Fifteen-plus years into a career
marked by searing portrayals and
unalloyed dedication to his craft,
Nawazuddin Siddiqui comes into his
own as Bollywood’s hero next door.
COVER STORY The big message for
MOOD OF THE NATION Narendra Modi is that his
government needs to deliver,
For Team Modi,
not just on signature schemes
12
but also economic growth
Now or Never
and employment.
CONTROVERSY
LALIT MODI
Why Lalit Modi 6 UPFRONT
36 Is Still on the
7 GLASS HOUSE
Front Foot
60 GLOSSARY
Even as investigators close in with
warrants and notices, the former
IPL boss knows that securing his 62 EYECATCHERS
extradition from Britain will not be easy.
Page: 66-67
NATION
OROP
EMERGING UNIVERSITIES
26 Modi to Walk 40 Future-ready
OROP Talk Universities
After a nasty impasse between the Shorn of the shackles of government-aided
defence and finance ministry and the institutions, privately run universities are
ugly spectacle of veterans on hunger steadily stealing a march over them. Cover by ROHIT CHAWLA
strike, the One Rank, One Pension DIGITAL IMAGING BY AMARJEET SINGH NAGI
issue is now back in the PM’s court.
02 INDIA TODAY ◆ AUGUST 31, 2015
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takes it quite literally 138
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MAIL
Asaram’s Murky
Rs 10,000 Crore Empire
AUGUST 17, 2015
Investigators unearth dubious land deals and a massive
money-lending racket run by the godman and his associates
People like Asaram desecrate the
sanctity of titles—sadhu, maa, bapu—
bestowed upon them. They deserve
harshest punishment possible.
KRISHAN KALRA, via email
Saint or Sinner?
men such as Asaram Bapu
India will always remain a India’s when those at fault are
happy hunting ground for the people who blindly
Asaram Bapu and com- Concerns follow them with the hope
pany (Asaram’s Empire Remain that these godmen can
of Deceit, August 17). The help them get rid of all
likes of him can always fall With General Raheel Sharif their problems. They
back on political patronage taking over policy deci- should know that godmen
and our tardy justice sys- sions, mainly foreign only take advantage of
tem to escape the long arm affairs, after the continuing gullible bhakts and exploit
of the law. Add to that the success of Operation Zarb- their emotions.
gullibility of our masses, e-Azb, it will be very diffi- HENA PRASUN, Ahmedabad
cult for India to strike any
and self-proclaimed saints
deal with Pakistani Prime
such as Asaram will Given the growing number
Minister Nawaz Sharif un-
flourish against all odds. of self-styled godmen get-
less the latter has solid
AVINASH GODBOLEY, Dewas backing from his Army ting mired in alleged illegal
chief (General’s Bloodless economic activities, the
Asaram Bapu’s success Coup, August 17). While it is government should make
shows how deep supersti- heartening to hear that the Pakistan Army will not torpedo attempts to it mandatory to scrutinise
tions run in our country. buy peace, it is not clear if the terms of peace will be maintained only their source of funds and
Our flawed education sys- until the time Operation Zarb-e-Azb continues. The article could have books of account. The
highlighted the general’s stance on terror outfits such as Lashkar-e-
tem is to blame. How else ashrams should be told
Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad and their anti-India activities.
do you explain the pres- to accept donations above
AKSHAY VISWANATHAN, Thiruvananthapuram
ence of Asaram Bapu as a certain amount only
a saint with a list of other through cheque.
personalities such K.R. NAMBIAR, Navi Mumbai
as Swami Vivekananda www.indiatoday. There is no point in pinning hope on
intoday.in Rahul. He is perhaps the only leader who Cheers and Jeers
and Mother Teresa in a
ASARAM’S EMPIRE at the age of 40 has achieved nothing.
moral science textbook OF DECEIT Ramesh Rahul Gandhi’s emergence
for Class III students in The disciples of self-styled godman CLEARING THE OROP LOGJAM as a strong leader is good
Asaram, who allegedly accumulated wealth The commitment made to the
Jodhpur schools. news for the country. A
through illegal means, should disown him. ex-servicemen must be fulfilled.
PADMINI RAGHAVENDRA, Sanjiv Gupta K.R. Jayarama strong leader of opposition
Secunderabad RAHUL LEARNS THE LONG ROPES If our PM can promise packages worth is necessary for a robust
The Congress is not short of talent. They crores of rupees to Bihar and Bangladesh, democracy. The BJP’s rule
need to look beyond Rahul Gandhi. why can’t he find the money for OROP.
I think it’s wrong to direct V.K. PCC Nambiar has so far been uninspiring
anger at self-styled god- and its strategy of pushing
MAIL FROM THE
ARCHIVES
every bill through ordi- ise the party cadre which Winning Formula
nance, muzzling the voices seems to be limping to-
On a February morning, hun-
of dissent, needs to be wards elusive electoral
dreds of college teachers, un-
countered by a strong triumphs.
der the banner of the Bihar
leader who can unite PIYUSH SINHA, Hyderabad
Buddhijivi Mitra Mandali
the opposition.
(Bihar Intellectuals’ Friends’
INDU SHANKAR, Varanasi A Punishment
Circle), from across the state,
Well-Deserved
trooped into the Patna resi-
Rahul Gandhi is slowly
dence of Ranjan Yadav, the
coming into his own as a Honour Thy Word When the speaker has
chairman of the Janata Dal
political leader. The reluc- gone by the rule book and
The inability to deliver on Parliamentary Board.
tance in his demeanour suspended 25 Congress
the one rank, one pension A week later, they return-
has now been replaced by MPs for five days for
(OROP) promise has start-
ed clutching files, handed
an earnestness to bring ed taking the sheen off the wilfully obstructing the
them to Yadav and left again.
the Congress back on carefully-constructed image House, Sonia Gandhi term-
This time, Yadav, Lalu Prasad
track. His willingness to of Narendra Modi as a leader ing it as “black day for de-
Yadav’s one-man think tank,
learn and reach out to who stays true to his word mocracy” belies logic
set up a core group of Janata
senior party leaders as (Clearing the OROP Logjam, (Bipartisan Brinkmanship,
Dal workers to examine the
well as workers in the August 17). The ex-service- August 17). The tit-for-tat
grassroots is a healthy men had pinned high hopes strategy adopted by the
sign for the party. on Modi to see their dec- Congress to stall Parlia-
ANAND S. MALHOTRA, Delhi ades-long wait end. Modi is ment will not win it admir-
now learning the hard way ers. Rather by allowing the
After a 56-day sabbatical, that converting election House to run smoothly, the
Rahul Gandhi has become promises into reality is a dif- Congress can prove that
ferent ball game. The OROP
extremely vocal but he it is a mark above other
is not just about money, but
must realise that India has parties in conduct.
LALU EMBRACES NTR AT
about the “debt’’ the Union
moved beyond rhetoric. K.R. SRINIVASAN, Secunderabad HIS SWEARING-IN
government must honour
His body language lacks
and pay to war veterans. files. Each file had a detailed
depth and sincerity. He Parliament had been a wit-
assessment of the party’s
M.M.GURBAXANI, Bengaluru
appears more like a young ness to scenes of chaos in
prospects in each constitu-
student than a mature the past too, but suspen-
The article lucidly presents ency in the state and a list of
statesman. The politics sion of 25 MPs was un-
all the details on the OROP recommendations. All the
of opposition, within heard of. The women’s
scheme and the roadblocks recommendations were fol-
Parliament and outside it, it is facing. OROP is a perfect reservation bill saw dra- lowed up by action. Repeated
must be constructive or example of how political will matic protests but the surveys were conducted and
else the Gandhi scion will gets swamped by the secre- members were not sus- even before the vote was cast,
rapidly lose the little pub- tariat culture, thus delaying pended. But then, the Yadav had prepared the tally:
lic sympathy left for him. the implementation of a Congress MPs had it com- “165, give or take 10”.
BHARAT TRIVEDI, Ahmedabad long-pending demand of ing. Behaving worse than While Yadav’s men laid
the armed forces. Despite street urchins, they held
the groundwork for the
The article on Rahul making a budgetary allo- the House to ransom from
Janata Dal’s victory, Lalu
Gandhi doesn’t tell the cation for the scheme, the the day it opened for the
went straight to his Muslim,
readers clearly about the finance minister’s flip-flop Monsoon session. Their
Dalit and OBC voters. With
road map ahead or steps on OROP is unfathomable. suspension was belated
the Muslims constituting 15
the Congress vice presi- S.S. RAMACHANDRAN, but absolutely necessary.
per cent of the population,
dent should take to revital- via email K.S.JAYATHEERTHA, Bengaluru the Dalits 14 and the Yadavs
11, among the OBCs, Lalu
tapped into 40 per cent of the
Readers are recommended to make appropriate enquiries before sending E-MAIL YOUR LETTERS TO: state’s vote-bank by holding a
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UPFRONT USHA THORAT
FEARS OVER YUAN EXAGGERATED
The phrases being used—push towards export-led has set off the reaction is that it was so unexpected
model, beginning of currency war—to describe and has triggered worries of global recession on
what has been a fairly small correction in the ex- account of the impact of a significant slowing down of
change rate of the yuan, seem quite exaggerated. the Chinese economy. On the other hand, if it is the
Clearly, the Chinese authorities have shown an attempt case that the Chinese did not want to intervene as
to allow the yuan to fall (by not intervening despite mas- FIIs exited the stock market, the impact could be merely
sive reserves) as the stock market fall resulted in net short-term. Hence, the question on top of everyone’s
forex outflows. The decision not to intervene is being mind is: what is the real extent of the slowdown in
interpreted as the authorities’ efforts to stem the slow- China and how much worse can it get? Even a
down in the economy and an opportunistic demonstra- small slowdown would have a huge impact on the global
tion of the commitment to allow a “market determined demand and lead to global recession. Thus, much
rate”, presumably to get the status of a reserve currency depends on how the Chinese continue to act and
and get included in the special drawing rights (SDR). the response of other countries which are close compet-
From India’s perspective, we have to examine itors of China.
the impact on both the trade account and on capital What could be the impact on India? Taking into
flows by way of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and account the recent improvement in the macro-eco-
foreign direct investment (FDI). The REER (real effec- nomic indicators for India and the growth rate potential,
tive exchange rate) is a useful measure to understand there is every reason to believe that the country could
the impact on the trade sector. The REER is a summary attract more—both FDI and FIIs. Correction in the
indicator of movements in the exchange rate of the REER would help competitiveness and exports. Also, we
home currency against a basket of currencies of trade have always been a domestic market-oriented economy
partner countries, adjusted for inflation—usually con- and this stands us in good stead. Those having large
sumer price index (CPI)—in the home countries. It is an dollar liabilities would have presumably hedged them-
indicator of price competitiveness and the purchasing selves, but there could be a challenge for those who
power of the currency. A higher REER indicates over- have remained largely unhedged. Overall, the impact
valuation and loss of competitiveness while a lower could be positive for India but much would depend on
REER shows undervaluation. how the global markets are viewing this event and what
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) pub- their responses are.
lishes REER indices for all major countries (see table). So, what should India do? We should not try to de-
An extract of these for 1995, 2005 and 2015 for select fend the rupee that is already quite overvalued, but only
countries is in the table, which smoothen extreme volatility as is
shows that from being a highly the stated policy. We should keep
undervalued currency even in MONEY'S WORTH a tight grip on inflation, as it is on
2005, the yuan is today overval- The yuan is overvalued today account of inflation that the
ued. On the other hand, rupee has become overvalued.
iufbotafyn cs d2htth e5oterhw v peRas e BlltruahI e tecsed hesI notna wtdRs. i sEaTw noEhev Rcelelu r,p rrveuwraeablhunsleioacsnnythi oeaiinndss CHINA 7195840512615 INDIA 13195109057815 US 87951070511315 Bcrfsouorarewinetaaekxsbrs insl lei sga h wbctohioiultevihltideir en sbleaa xenra ptgncsoea.ds ru Weurlfaenuhy hlet oeriden dob gwoiaenrlnd---
that for all other countries, the 8 ready exposed, banks will have
ifsnoardle eI xnp driisica eb, aiints deisde x bo a(nWs eCPdPI )Io., nHw ewhnehcroeel,ae is-t UK 9512115 EURO AREA 8410294 JAPAN 968874 tacoug ratarineknset cp pyr.o oWsasecib tsilvheeo i mustlpdeap fcost ct fuoa spl lor inont ttehhceet
95 05 15 95 05 15 9505 15
would be better to go by the RBI real sector issues which attract
fboivogetuhTrrv ehtahsul eufso yeriudt I a nwcndu oairaunr.led dn tchaiepe spr ueapanred e t ahthraeet ANJOY SINGH BRAZIL 1549564056715 INDONESIA 38295106057515 MALAYSIA 1209591059415 FpvoeneDsn Its dmtaiatenulnldrete d c d laipomnrmdoae jteeismc taticpsn ,rd ocG aavocepot i qtdtahusle i ca ekinnxldy--
fscamalnla lstleh eecn oC rchraeinnce tisboeen .ac coItnnios nind eobr ee wdda eay- OREM S 559 AFRICA 9 ND Slaenrdv iacceq uTiasixti o(nG eStTc)., subsidies,
sbacnoru iebrx eppdoo laricts-y da ro irbv eeagn gm amoro-vtedh eytlo-.n wWeaighrdhas-t NA Graphic by RUSSIA 95114056315 SOUTH 1895127056615 THAILA 11795890510615 Usha Tghoovrearnt oisr fooBfr atmhneekr Ro dfe eIsnpeudrvtiaye
Source: BIS REER index (http://www.bis.org/statistics/eer)