| | | Good morning! | | It’s customary to review the Chief Justice of India’s term when it ends. It’s usual to do so on the basis of what the CJI did — but sometimes, it might be more illuminating to do so on the basis of what the CJI did not do. Despite the frenetic legal activity in the last week of Justice NV Ramana’s tenure, his 16-month stint as the country’s top judge is perhaps a candidate for the latter. The generous view, which the CJI himself likely believes in — as evident in his speech on August 15, when he bemoaned the fact that the top court had managed to physically convene on only 55 days over the previous 16 months on account of Covid-19 — is that this was a function of the pandemic. The not-so-generous view is that the CJI, for whatever reason, did not want to take up pressing issues — such as challenges to the abrogation of Article 370, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, electoral bonds, and Karnataka’s hijab ban in schools. My colleague and Hindustan Times’s national legal editor Utkarsh Anand has a considered view on Justice Ramana’s term. But Ramana’s departure was pushed to the background by another exit — that of Ghulam Nabi Azad. In a five-page letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in which he resigned from all positions in the party and also from its primary membership, Azad launched a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi, whom he sees as embodying the problems plaguing India’s grand old party. The letter refers to Rahul Gandhi’s “immaturity” and “childish” behaviour; his demolition of the “consultative mechanism” that existed before he took over as party vice-president in 2013; the sidelining of “experienced leaders” and the takeover of the party by “a coterie of inexperienced sycophants” (with all “important decisions” being taken by Rahul Gandhi or “worse, his security guards and PAs)”; the attack on the G-23 when they wrote to Gandhi to “flag the abysmal drift in the party”; and “proxies being propped up to take the leadership” now in an “organisational election process” that is a “farce and a sham”. The letter is explosive. Most political analysts and journalists — including those who cover the Congress — will admit that everything it says is true. And they will also admit that Azad’s letter is likely to change nothing. | | THINK  Credit: ANI On the CJI’s last day in office, his bench weighed in on the issue of freebies. It chose not to set up an expert panel on the issue, and decided to have a three-judge bench look at a 2013 judgement of a two-judge bench of the court that said it would not interfere in schemes under which gold, TVs, laptops, mixer-grinders, electric fans, and goats were promised to voters in Tamil Nadu on the grounds that their distribution was directly related to directive principles of state policy. Since I do not want to repeat myself (but because some of you, Constant Readers, may have missed it), I am reproducing the bit from an earlier newsletter: “The issue is a complex one. As HT explained, there are five questions that need to be answered: What is a freebie? Do states have the fiscal capacity to meet their electoral promises of freebies? Why has there been a freebie rush in recent years? Has politics created the incentives for the freebie culture? And, how does the larger issue of fiscal federalism fit in?” HT’s fortnightly column Chanakya weighed in on the five questions in July itself . And in May, Roshan Kishore’s column dealt with the same issue. But anyone who wants to truly understand what’s happening should read Chanakya’s April column on fiscal federalism. As that column said: “The Centre and states need to work out a model that doesn’t let political competition lead to economic recklessness.” | | THINK MORE While on the subject of freebies, India on Thursday decided to ban the export of wheat flour. In May, it banned the export of wheat, but the government noticed that with demand for wheat continuing to increase in global markets, the ban resulted in a surge in wheat flour exports. Both bans are prompted by India’s own food security needs, and while the country does have adequate stocks of wheat, the fall in production in 2021-22 is a matter of concern. The government estimates that the decline is only 2.5%, although analysts believe the actual number could be as high as 10%. With global wheat demand likely to lead supply at least till 2024 according to most analysts, and with inflation clearly having peaked, the bans reflect India’s emphasis on managing its wheat stocks — at a time when large global grain firms are making a killing. The lower production of wheat last year was on account of unseasonal heat, and with rice planting in the ongoing monsoon season lagging (on account of deficient rains), India would do well to keep a close eye on both staples. | | KNOW For the record, I should clarify that I do not consider food handouts freebies; nor the provision of free health care services. India’s attempts to provide timely, affordable, and quality health care services have traditionally been hobbled by issues related to infrastructure, both hard and soft. Some of these are being addressed, although the country continues to stare at a huge shortage of doctors and nurses (especially the latter, who easily find jobs outside India). Nursing colleges have mushroomed across the country in response, and, over the week, in a series of investigative reports, my colleague Shruti Tomar highlighted the fraud that is happening in Madhya Pradesh where many nursing colleges are Potemkin ones that exist merely to provide diplomas, function without attached hospitals and share teachers, even principals, who often do not know that they are teaching in these colleges. | | LEARN With the Asia Cup around the corner, it is time to revisit Indian cricket’s biggest puzzle: Virat Kohli’s bad form. HT’s national sports editor Ashish Magotra did so in a fine analysis that asked a question I’ve rarely seen asked before: “What does bad form look like in the mind of a cricketer?”. | | | | READ MORE A first look at the Vikrant India considers EU-like laws to rein in Big Tech To charge or not to charge UPI The Sena court battle may resolve larger Tenth Schedule issues | | OUTSIDE  Credit: quantamagazine.org Over the past few years, the concept of biological age has gained currency as a way to measure wellness and fitness. There has also been talk of how this can be reversed. The latest issue of Quanta magazine has a wonderful explanatory article on the use of epigenetic clocks to measure biological age. Epigenetics is the study of how diets, pollutants, the environment, and behaviour can affect the way genes work — without changing the underlying DNA structure. Epigenetic clocks use statistical algorithms that look at these gene markers to measure biological age (especially because we know chronological age is such an imperfect measurement). | | WHAT I'M READING In May 2021, Rohini Nilekani wrote an article in HT’s op-ed page headlined “A quest to balance state, society and market.” In it, she wrote about the views of (then) recently deceased civil society activist Prem Kumar Varma on how communities (society) were “slowly replaced by the power of the state and then the power of the market”. She added that she was “convinced that the work of this century is to restore the balance between samaaj (society), bazaar (market) and sarkaar (government)”, and that she “dedicated her philanthropy to keep active citizens and society at the centre, so that markets and the State are more accountable to the larger public interest”. I am now reading Samaaj, Sarkaar, and Bazaar by Nilekani, a book that builds on that theme, through a collection of her columns, interviews, and speeches. As Nilekani asks in her introduction: “Can Samaaj now take the lead to redress the imbalances within itself first, and then between itself and the state and markets?” Aptly, the book is published under a Creative Commons licence, which is why you can download it for free here. | | WHAT I’M LISTENING TO The first album by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Revelator, which is also their best (and features their best line-up). The band, formed by singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi and her husband, slide-guitar prodigy Derek Trucks, was already a known name on the jam-band circuit when this album came out. Featuring nine other musicians, Revelator features music that has come to characterise the band — a mix of blues, soul, gospel, and funk, highlighted by Trucks’s slide-guitar wizardry and Tedeschi’s vocals. In an album of high points, my personal favourite is Ball and Chain. | Please share your feedback with us What do you think about this newsletter? | | Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | | | | | Get the Hindustan Times app and read premium stories | | | | | | View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Contact us You received this email because you signed up for HT Newsletters or because it is included in your subscription. Copyright © HT Digital Streams. All Rights Reserved | | | | |
