Labour Minister Remains Silent on A National Minimum Wage 


The Union Labour & Employment Minister, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge while answering a question on inter-state variation in minimum wages in the Rajya Sabha remained non-committal on a National Minimum Wage.

While the Minister appraised the House of the recommendations of the Conference Committee of the recently concluded 44th Indian Labour Conference which includes a call for national minimum wages, he did not explicitly endorse the demand.   

Delinking Poverty Line and Entitlements to State Programmes: A Disingenuous Explanation

A joint statement by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and the Minister for Rural Development has clarified that the official poverty estimates of the Planning Commission (based on the criteria stated in the recent affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in the matter of PUCL v Union of India) will not be used to identify the households considered eligible for entitlements under various central government programmes. 

The statement further stated that the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), 2011 (steered by the Union Ministry of Rural Development and the Office of the Registrar General of India), that seeks to survey all rural households in the country and collect information on multiple socio-economic indicators, would be the basis for identifying beneficiaries for government programmes.

While this statement may have lowered the heat on the government for a while, it does not really address the key questions raised by the critics of the new estimates. First of all, given that the SECC 2011 is restricted only to rural households, the Central Government may again be compelled to use the Planning Commission estimates for identifying the urban poor. Unless of course, the Government's case is that there is no poor in urban India.

Secondly, the Supreme Court had called for revision of the poverty line estimates not as a mere academic exercise but in the context of ensuring effective food grain security for vulnerable sections of the society through a robust public delivery system. In this context, the explanation that these revised estimates would not be used as a means of identification seems rather disingenuous. If the revised poverty line of the Planning Commission is not meant to cap the number of beneficiaries, then why have them in the first place.  

Delhi Court Strikes a Blow for Refugee Protection 

In an affirmation of the doctrine of non-refoulement, Arul Verma, Metropolitan Magistrate, Court-II, Dwaraka Courts, dismissed Centre's plea to deport a Tamil Refugee on the ground of probable prosecution. says The Hindu.

The said judgment stands out for its call for differentiation between persons who leave their home country in search for better economic opportunities and those move to another country out of sheer compulsion or duress. This is in stark contrast to the legislative conflation of refugees with other foreigners under the Foreigners Act, 1946.      

Further in what is a courageous call for legislative change by a subordinate court, Judge Verma also alluded to the need for "a comprehensive legislation to deal exclusively with the problems of refugees."

A Step Towards Judicial Review of Official Poverty Benchmarks?

Upendra Baxi in his Introduction to Law and Poverty: Critical Essays had written:

"Poverty lines are scientifically determined arbitrary systems of signs through which state and society is to be persuaded to distinguish the 'poor' from the 'not-poor'...it should interest law persons including justices, were we to pose the problem in terms of the mandates of rationality under Article 14 of the Constitution of India...is the evolving constitutional jurisprudence of the right to equality, now construed as immunity from arbitrary and discriminative public decisions, totally irrelevant to these agonizings? Can it be said that the identification and measurement of poverty violates this command of the Constitution?"

More than two decades after Baxi raised this question, Supreme Court has taken a tentative step towards subjecting poverty lines to judicial scrutiny. In its Order (dated May 14) in the Right to Food matter (PUCL v Union of India), the Supreme Court, apart from issuing detailed directions on distribution of food grains, referred to Suresh Tendulkar Committee's observation that the Planning Commission's poverty line of per capita per day income of Rs 15 for rural areas and Rs 20 for urban is not sufficient and it is impossible to consume 2100 (2400 for rural area) calories (the prescribed minimum calorific needs for subsistence) with such paltry sum. Having referred to this, the Court observed that "the Planning Commission may revise norms of per capita amount looking to the price index of May 2011 or any other subsequent dates".

While this directive does not contain any exposition on the scope and legitimacy of judicial review of official poverty-line, it certainly signals a willingness on the part of the judiciary to heed to Baxi's call for subjecting the official benchmarks of poverty to the rationality of Article 14.

It is a cruel joke though that the new poverty line (as suggested by the Planning Commission in response to Court's exhortation) has been pegged at a ridiculously low Rs 26 for rural areas and Rs 32 for urban areas.

Dope Hearings Caught in Red-Tapes

National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) prescribed hearings of doping charges against Indian athletes are being prolonged by repeated adjournments and procedural delays, thereby prolonging the suspension of the accused athletes, says K.P. Mohan in The Hindu.

Such delays contravene the stipulations of the NADA Anti-Doping Rules and may undermine the entire credibility of this young anti-doping watchdog.

IAEA Safeguards: Promises Belied and Suspicions Vindicated

The text of the Draft Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA has incensed experts as it falls short of the grand assertions of the Prime Minister and fails to answer any of the apprehensions raised.

Professor Brahma Chellaney deconstructs the Agreement here.

The Great Indian Nuclear Hoax: UPA Government Goes to the IAEA

Exposing the UPA Government's doublespeak over the proposed Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and the appurtenant Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the atomic enwergy watchdog revealed yesterday, in a terse release, that its Secretariat had, on specific request of the Indian Government, circulated to Members of the IAEA Board of Governors for their consideration the draft of an Agreement with the Government of India for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities.

After several public pronouncements about its apparent confidentiality, the Governmental of India was embarrassed into revealing the text of the Draft Agreement after it was put up online by several American non-proliferation think tanks.

You can find a copy here.

Paisa Phek, Tamasha Dekh! - A Fortnight into IPL

Glenn Mcgrath bowling to Adam Gilchrist; Sangakkara trying to read Murali's doosras yet again, but this time with a bat in has hands and Ishant Sarma tying to bounce out his national team captain, Dhoni.

IPL has been nothing short of a cricket buff's fantasy. The fours and sixes, despite their frequency, have been exhilarating. The fielding has been exceptional and contrary to what the soothsayers have been saying, the bowlers too are slowly joining the party. And the gutsy performances of hitherto unknown youngsters like A Nayar, Manpreet Gony Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan have been the icing on the cake. The cricket has been top grade and has transformed many a skeptic like me into a keen spectator, if not a believer as yet. And for the more testosterone driven people, we have also had the jives of the lissome cheerleaders and the jabs of an unrepentant Bhajji.

But all this glitz and hype cannot drown out the more fundamental problems lurking beneath the surface and waiting to strike once the Championship loses its shield of novelty.

A Tribute to Monopoly Capital

While IPL is being celebrated as the long overdue arrival of free market economy in cricket (in the manner of club football in soccer), interestingly the entire edifice of this league is built around restrictive monopolies. Unlike in club football where a city may house as many club as possible as long as they meet the registration norms, each of the franchise has been granted monopoly in their restrictive cities. Apart from the philosophical compromise of free market principles, such monopolies also snuff out from this nascent league, the possibility of local derbies – where historical and class identities often intertwine to create fierce rivalries.

More importantly, such monopolies highlight how the BCCI has undersold the rights to cricket that it holds in trust while privatizing Indian cricketing structure through IPL. "In addition to guaranteed revenue streams and monopoly control of markets, the private owners enjoy the right to exploit a variety of public assets at little cost", writes Mike Marqusee. Whereas each club has its own stadium and training facilities in football, the State associations are facilitating the IPL by providing stadia and players. Strangely, it's been made clear that the usual rights of members and affiliated associations will not apply to IPL games. This is in complete contrast to examples of AC Milan and Internazionale Milan which pay rent to the local government of Milan for using the San Siro Stadium for their home games.

Gazing through the Crystal Ball

So what does the future hold for IPL? Will it retain its pomp and splendour season after season or will it fall prey to second season blues and go down in the history as yet another one hit wonder?

Most spectator sports acquire a pre-eminence through creation of a firm, but almost mystical connection between the teams and their fans and it is not facile to say that such enduring bonds cannot be formed through franchise-driven bollywoodisation of cricket. Cheerleaders, Sharukh Khan's steroid morphed moon face and Preity Zinta' dimples may currently be attracting fair weather fans in hordes. But the mandarins of IPL should remember that the devotion of these fans will last only till the next coolest thing hits the market. What will survive the deadwood of time is the loyalty of fans who cannot ever have enough of cricket.

In this context, the prominence accorded to Bollywood stars in the IPL set up is indeed troubling. Bollywood and marketing glitz cannot ever be short cuts to sustained success. World over, professional leagues have co-existed with or have relied upon an extensive network of inter-school, inter-college and junior competitions that have served as feeder of talents. Most European football clubs have a large part of their budgets dedicated exclusively to their academies. Reserve/Junior Teams are mandatory for each and very club in few national leagues.

Therefore, it is a cause for concern that the IPL seems to have no vision on creating a network for feeding talent into the main league. The much publicized norm of every team having a specified number of U-22 and U-19 players from the catchment areas is already being observed more in breach. Except for Rajasthan Royals, no other franchise has even made any perfunctory statement on setting up training centres for youngsters in the long run.

Thus, it is a sweet coincidence indeed that just as I write this, Rajasthan Royals have reached the very top of the points table with a resounding win over the big spending Chennai Superkings