Dec/04/2011

Legendary Bollywood actor Dev Anand passes away

‘Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya' went the timeless melody from the movie Hum Dono. Nonchalantly puffing a cigarette and wandering through the woods with gay abandon, Hindi cinema's legendary hero Dev Anand embodied the spirit of this ode to life on screen and in personal life.

When he passed away on Saturday night in London, he was living it up till the last moment. Dev Anand, 88, breathed his last after a cardiac arrest while on a holiday in London.

Many accolades

Ruling the roost in Hindi cinema for decades, Dev Anand won the Filmfare Best Actor Awards for his role in Kala Pani in 1958 and for the cult film, Guide, in 1966. He also won the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

In 2001, he was bestowed Padma Bhushan, the country's third highest civilian honour. A year later, he won the Dadasaheb Phalke award for cinematic excellence.

Dev Anand turned to direction later in his career. His movie Chargesheet was recently released under the banner of Navketan International Films, a production company he launched in 1949.

His inimitable style, active lifestyle and never-say-die spirit earned him the title ‘Evergreen.'

Condolence in Mumbai

“He had left for London two weeks ago with his son. He died in the hotel room at 10 p.m. London time. His son Sunil was with him at that time,” Dev Anand's manager Mohan Churiwala told The Hindu on the phone on Sunday.

“His wife Kalpana Kartik, daughter Devina and granddaughter Gina are flying to London. His sister Boney lives there. Since the entire family is going to be there, he will most likely be cremated in London itself. The condolence will be held in Mumbai,” Mr. Churiwala said.

Dev Anand's health was fine and he was not suffering from any particular ailment. His body was taken to the morgue, but it is not known if a post-mortem would be conducted.

“Since it is a Sunday, we will only know by tomorrow [Monday],” Mr. Churiwala said. “He was perfectly fine. He was awake. He had just had dinner, after which he passed away.”

Dev Anand recently celebrated his 88th birthday in Mumbai by throwing a party.

INA to host sailing regatta and Navy Queen contest

The Indian Naval Academy (INA) will host the second edition of its International Sailing Regatta for trainees of naval academies of friendly nations and Navy Queen's contest this month.

The second edition of the Admiral's Cup Sailing Regatta will be held at the INA from December 9 to 12. The Indian Navy instituted the Admiral's Cup as a 'fleet race' in laser class of sail boats which are single crew Olympic class boats.

Naval academies of friendly countries had been invited to participate in the event, a press release issued by the INA here on Sunday said. Twelve countries had already confirmed their participation. They included Brazil, Italy, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka, the release said.

The number of participating countries was expected to go up to 15 by the time of commencement of the event, it said. The inaugural sailing regatta held in December last year was a big success with a total of 12 teams participating, which included teams from nine foreign countries.

The races would be conducted at the Ettikulam Bay at the INA. A total of eight races were scheduled in the men and women categories to be run over three days. Two boats a country would comprise the team and they would compete for the prestigious Admiral's Cup trophy, which would be awarded to the best team based on their combined performance. In addition, individual medals would be awarded in the men and women categories.

The INA would host the Navy Queen contest in connection with Navy Week celebrations on December 10. The Navy Ball and Navy Queen contest had traditionally been the signature events of the Navy Week celebrations, the release said. Such events showcasing naval customs and traditions helped to attract talented young men and women to choose Navy as a career.

The Navy Queen Pageant is a national-level beauty pageant, which has been a launch pad for prospective contestants. Participants will be put through two rounds of screening and the grooming sessions will provide them an exposure on the Indian Navy as well as the role of the INA in the training of Naval and Coast Guard officers.

Preliminary screening will be held at the INA on December 7 and the final will be held during the Navy Ball on December 10. Interested participants can contact the INA by e-mail on navyqueen.ina@gmail.com and more details can be obtained on dialing Ph: 9447788448, 9387066099, 04985 224144.

The registration for the contest and submission of completed applications to the INA will be open until 10.30 p.m. on December 7.

Free speech and Indian Dionysius'

Though the Indian Constitution reflects the classical rationales of free speech, the state has time and again punished thought and suppressed ideas.

Plutarch's Life of Dion contains an interesting anecdote of Dionysius, an avowed and established tyrant, killing his captain, Marsyas. Marsyas had dreamt of cutting Dionysius's throat, and Dionysius killed Marsyas on account of his dream. He based his decision on the assumption that Marsyas would not have dreamt of such a thing by night if he had not thought of it by day.

In his seminal work The Spirit of Laws, Montesquieu picks up this story to reason that Dionysius's was a most tyrannical action; for, though cutting Dionysius's throat had been the subject of Marsyas's thoughts, he had made no attempt towards it. “The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts. The thought must be joined with some sort of action”, concluded Montesquieu.

It can safely be said that Montesquieu's words are completely lost on the Indian state, and it has time and again assumed the character of a present-day Dionysius by punishing mere thoughts. The latest Dionysius is the Tamil Nadu State government, which has banned the screening of the movie Dam 999 in the State.

Dam 999 is apparently a love story set against the backdrop of the Mullaperiyar dam controversy. The Tamil Nadu government has banned the screening of the movie on the ground that it might lead to public order problems in the State. This amounts to suppression of ideas that supposedly pose a threat to public order.

It must be emphasised that there is a difference between goading people to resort to violence and expressing a view on the dam controversy. The former is an overt act the government can rightfully prohibit. The latter is the communication of an idea, which the government must not proscribe. The common view in India is that any communication having a tendency to lead to violence can be suppressed. This in turn enables the government to suppress any idea.

Indeed, the history of independent India is replete with examples of the government curbing free speech: We were the first country to ban Salman Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses; Rohinton Mistry's Such A Long Journeywas dropped by the Mumbai University from its syllabus; Delhi University did the same with A.K. Ramanujan's essay Three Hundred Ramayanas; makers of the movie Rockstar were forced to blur the Tibetan flag in the “Sadda Haq” song; and movies like Deshdrohi, Bandit Queen, Da Vinci Code, Fire and many others have been banned by State governments. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are numerous other instances where the government has chilled speech in the country.

Why is this so? One major reason is that governments act without an understanding of the underlying rationale of free speech. They act without knowing why a country like India needs to grant effective protection to freedom of speech.

Broadly speaking, there are three main rationales for protection of freedom of speech, which are also reflected in the vision with which our Constitution was drafted.

The first is the self government rationale, which provides that it is indispensable to protect free speech for a robust democratic process. Protection of free speech is essential for people to communicate on political matters, which in turn enables them to fully participate in democratic affairs. This rationale, though identified with the work of Alexander Meiklejohn, was first enunciated by Justice Brandeis of the U.S. Supreme Court in Whitney v. California.

The second rationale is fashioned on laissez faire in the economic realm and conceives that, in a marketplace of ideas, the better ideas eventually prevail through competition. Under this marketplace of ideas rationale, all kinds of speech are permitted on the understanding that ruinous speech will fail the market assessment test, and will eventually be discarded. This justification for free speech is that it is essential in a society's search for truth, which will ultimately emerge after a competition of all ideas in the marketplace. In the words of Justice Holmes of the U.S. Supreme Court, “the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market” (Abrams v. United States).

The last rationale treats freedom of speech as promotion of every individual'sself-fulfillment and autonomy. This rationale posits that protection of free speech is essential for human identity. To be fully human, it is essential to protect thoughts.

Fascinatingly, the classical rationales for free speech are also reflected in the theoretical underpinnings of the Indian Constitution. Glanville Austin, in his exposition on the Indian Constitution (Working A Democratic Constitution, The Indian Experience), indicates that the core vision of the Indian Constitution can be summed up as having the following foundational strands: (i) protecting national unity and establishing the institutions and spirit of democracy; and (ii) fostering a social revolution to better the lot of Indians.

The spirit of democracy can be strengthened if citizens are able to fully participate in democratic affairs (self government rationale). Similarly, for fostering a social revolution and to improve the lot of Indians, it is necessary that the society engages itself in the pursuit of truth, and all citizens be given every opportunity to realise their potential (self-fulfillment and autonomy). These rationales for free speech thus represent an important resource in our constitutional tradition — a resource that the Indian state keeps ignoring at its own peril.

Thus, if India has to evolve, a better understanding of our constitutional traditions is a must. And if anti-speech acts persist, it reflects nothing but the Dionysius nature of the Indian state.

(Karan Singh Tyagi is an associate attorney with an international law firm in Paris and graduate of the LL.M. programme at Harvard Law School.)

Glimmer of hope at Durban

Four days into the climate change meet, things yet to pick up momentum

There is now every sign that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban is turning out to be a victim of low expectations. Four days into the otherwise high-profile conference, in which invited delegates alone number 15,000, the event is yet to pick up momentum and show some clear direction. The Euro zone economic crisis and the political uncertainties around other parts of the world are casting their shadow over the meet, held in the seaside city in the Western Cape of South Africa.

The situation was the other way round two years back in Copenhagen when overwhelming enthusiasm and high expectations had killed the cat. If then, each delegate had to wait for hours in the queue to get registered, this time around, regular participants testify, it took less than five minutes in the queue. The previous year's meet at Cancun too was a “low expectation” round though it had more turnout than the present one.

This time, but for the disparate group of protesters trying to enact a Wall Street occupation in front of the conference venue on the Walnut Street here behind the towering Hilton Hotel and some voices against “dirty energy,” despair has seemingly taken over the spirits of the dissenters as well.

Zuma optimistic

Inaugurating the conference formally on November 28, South African President Jacob Zuma had expressed the hope that the governments the world over would see the urgency of the situation arising out of the increasing temperature levels and the worst ever so far year (2010) of carbon emission. “Durban must take many steps forward towards a solution that saves tomorrow today,” he said.

Not many among the officials of the representing countries are talking much about the Kyoto Protocol, ratified in 1997 but the hope is over the Green Climate Fund (GCF), agreed upon during the Cancun summit. The fate of Kyoto Protocol, which is to expire in 2012, if not ratified this time, is uncertain as the general mood seemingly is to allow it to die a natural death.

The developed countries term it “too demanding” in financial terms. The United States has taken a stand that the present financial situation is such that it cannot make any such commitments at the global level. Yet at the inauguration, U.N.'s top climate change official Christiana Figueres, who is also the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, mentioned the “central task of the Durban meet” as finding an answer to the very important question of the “future of the Kyoto Protocol.”

“At the same time the governments need to agree on how they want to pursue a broader framework to reduce greenhouse gases under the Climate Change Convention,” she noted.

The developing nations, including India, find less in the Kyoto Protocol as it now involved less than one fourth of the global GHG emissions than at the outset with 65 per cent — as the U.S., and the developing nations, including India and China, remain excluded from its provisions. And nobody is seemingly concerned as the issue remains punted around as the other's business. This is happening when the rise in global temperatures can range from 3.5 degree Celsius to 4.5 degree Celsius by the end of the century. At Cancun, 193 members of the UNFCCC had committed to limit the rise in temperature below 2 degrees Celsius limit.

“The expectations and optimism within the civil society are giving way to despair. Nothing concrete has emerged in the past three years at the global level. In the case of India, even when the efforts it made suo motu to control emissions in the past are laudable, it should be pointed out that the government did not take the political parties into confidence on the issue. There has also been no discussion — barring one on December 3, 2009 in Parliament prior to the Copenhagen meet, both the Houses of Parliament chose almost to overlook the issue,” points out Sharad Joshi, Secretary, Center for Community Economics and Development Consultants (CECOEDECON), who is leading a group of civil society people, including members of Parliament and two retired High Court judges, to the conference.

Amid the overtones of despair in this land of undying spirit which fought Apartheid and political hegemony the glimmer of hope in Durban lies in the possible consensus among the nations on the GCF, to be set up in 2012. Other good news could be a stronger commitment from both the developed and the developing nations to cut down on their carbon emission substantially. Both India and China have already shown the way in this regard taking concrete steps to reduce rate of emissions.

This Correspondent's visit to UNFCCC, Durban was sponsored by Delhi-based advocacy group, PAIRVI (Public Advocacy Initiative for Rights and Values in India).

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Former Brazil captain Socrates dies

A hospital in Brazil said former Brazil captain Socrates has died. He was 57.

The Albert Einsten hospital in Sao Paulo said in a statement that Socrates died of septic shock early Sunday.

He had been in an intensive care unit since Saturday because of an intestinal infection.

The former playmaker captained Brazil in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups and is a popular columnist and television commentator in the South American country.