The recent debate over the performance of Stand in Comedian, Vir Das at the Kennedy Centre in the United States as well as the observations of film actress Kangana Ranaut regarding our freedom struggle and Mahatma Gandhi, only indicate how intolerant we as a nation have become. While I do not find any need to endorse the views of either of them, there is no requirement to go in for slapping criminal cases against them and putting further burden on an already overburdened judiciary. Vir Das has tried to put his viewpoint across on the treatment meted out to women and some other matters by exaggerating his narration in order to bring out the satire and contradictions in our society. There has been a debate on two Indias multiple times earlier as well. The face-off has been about whether it is about the Haves and Have Nots or concerns India versus Bharat. Every individual is entitled to his beliefs even if they appear to be unacceptable. The charge against Vir Das is that he said what he said on foreign soil and thus insulted the country. In this digital world that has no borders and frontiers, how would it matter whether he said something at the Kennedy Centre or in any place in India? The video has gone viral and has become the subject matter of discussion globally not because of the venue but because of the content. There can be many arguments that can be made against Vir’s presentation and the proper way of countering it would be to present counter ideas to this satire instead of trying to punish him under the legal system, which amounts to harassment. Had this video not been forwarded millions of times on social media, no one would have even taken notice of its contents but since it is in the public domain, everyone is talking about it, with many describing it as blasphemous.

The contradictions highlighted in the act have not gone down well with a large number of people, many of whom are supporters of the ruling dispensation. This has nothing to do with politics and is just an expression of free speech, even if there is a total disagreement. In Kangana’s case, she is an attention seeker, who has done these kinds of things on past occasions also. If for her Indian Independence commenced in 2014, so be it. Even Narendra Modi must have been surprised to learn that he is the first Indian Prime Minister after Independence. This may go against all recorded accounts of her history but then she is entitled to her views. She has been very harsh on the Father of the Nation as well and this has attracted the wrath of so many people.

Gandhiji does not need any certification from either Kangana or anybody else, for the world to appreciate his immense contribution to mankind. Kangana’s opinion is hers and let it be hers. She should not be dragged into any court of law for this, even if this is in variance with what we all know. Kangana cannot upturn history and if she wants to bring in Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and freedom fighters in this debate, it is no reason for anyone to file criminal suits against her. The charge against her is that she has insulted freedom fighters. Those who sacrificed their lives to ensure our freedom were made of very stern stuff and would not have been ruffled by the views of the actress. There is also another debate going on about the offering of Namaaz by devout Muslims in many places, particularly Haryana. The Sikh community has been very gracious and accommodating by allowing the Muslims to offer their Friday prayers from the premises of Gurdwaras in Gurgaon and elsewhere. That is the spirit of maintaining harmony in this divisive world. The short point is that to see India march forward to attain a status of a superpower, we have to be broad-minded and flexible in our approach. We should not be offended by views and opinions. These are parts of life and our journey towards greater achievement. Yes, of course, it also entails that those who make hurtful statements should try to use self-restraint. But the theme is tolerance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Purvanchal Expressway on November 16, 2021, with a stellar airshow on the 3.2 km long airstrip, constructed on the Expressway in Sultanpur district. The foundation stone of Purvanchal Expressway was laid on July 14, 2018, a little over three years ago. The Purvanchal Expressway, which has been constructed at a cost of about Rs 22,500 crore, starts from Chandsarai village, located near the existing Lucknow-Sultanpur Road (NH-731), in Lucknow district. It ends at Haidaria village on National Highway 31 in Ghazipur, 18 km from the UP-Bihar border, in Ghazipur district. This expressway connects the State capital Lucknow to the eastern region, via Azamgarh. With the development of this expressway, the eastern region of the State would not only be connected to Lucknow, but also to the National Capital through Agra-Lucknow and Yamuna Expressways. The districts falling on this greenfield expressway are Lucknow, Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. The Purvanchal Expressway is going to boost the economic development of the eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, like never before.

The Purvanchal Expressway will have 22 flyovers, 7 railway-over-bridges (ROB), 7 major bridges, 114 minor bridges, 6 toll plazas, 45 vehicular-underpasses (VUP), 87 pedestrian underpass and 525 box culverts. The new expressway will have CNG stations, electric recharge stations for vehicles and will be connected with the defence corridor through the Agra and Bundelkhand expressways. The Purvanchal expressway has been designed for the movement of vehicles at a speed of 120km per hour, but the speed has been fixed at 100kmph. The expressway is among those that will provide future-ready road connectivity to all corners of the State. They include the already open Delhi-Meerut Link Expressway (96km), Bundelkhand Expressway (296km), Gorakhpur Link Expressway (92km), Ganga Expressway (600km), Lucknow Kanpur Elevated National Expressway (63km).

This expressway will lead to a better future at a faster pace— this expressway is for Uttar Pradesh’s development and for building a new UP, which is a reflection of modern facilities and is also a proof of accomplishments by the double engine sarkaar of Modi and Yogi that has always delivered. Uttar Pradesh was once called a BIMARU State but today with a GSDP in excess of Rs 17 lakh crore, it is ranked second in ease of doing business (EODB). When the Yogi government took charge in 2017, only one and a half airports were functional. Today, five international airports in Varanasi, Lucknow, Kushinagar, Noida and Ayodhya are either operational or close to being completed. Speaking of the 341 km long Purvanchal Expressway, this 6 lane expressway is expandable to an 8 lane one and the per kilometre cost of construction works out to roughly Rs 11 crore. This makes it a highly cost-effective proposition, because the usual per kilometre cost of a 6 lane expressway would be anywhere between Rs 14-16 crore, if not more.

The emergency landing provision for fighter jets makes the Purvanchal Expressway unique in every sense of the word. Those criticising the Modi government for the spectacular air show which had the likes of a Mirage 2000 landing on the expressway, is that very lot, which ignored the defence infrastructure in the country for decades. Who can forget how many power cuts used to happen in UP earlier, under the inept regimes of Congress, Samajwadi Party and the BSP? Who can forget what the abysmal law and order condition in UP was, before 2017 and who can forget what the condition of medical facilities in UP was? The less said, the better. The harsh truth is that, both Delhi and Lucknow were dominated by incompetent political dynasties for decades together. For years and years, this partnership of family members, kept crushing the aspirations of UP. All that changed however, after PM Modi took charge in 2014 and Yogi Adityanath became the CM in 2017.

In sharp contrast, in the last four and a half years in UP, whether in the East or the West, thousands of villages have been connected by new roads and thousands of kilometers of new roads have been built. The scale and speed under which the Modi and Yogi governments have dramatically upscaled infrastructure landscape in Uttar Pradesh is the stuff that folklores are made of. The dream of a developed UP is now visible. New medical colleges are being built, AIIMS is coming up, modern educational institutions are being built in UP. Just a few weeks ago the international airport in Kushinagar was inaugurated. Parts of a vast State like UP were earlier cut off from each other to a great extent. People used to reluctantly travel to different parts of the State, as they were troubled by the lack of connectivity. For the people of East Uttar Pradesh, even reaching Lucknow was quite a task. For previous Chief Ministers, development was limited to where they had their homes. In the case of Akhilesh Yadav, things were much worse–even his own constituency of Azamgarh was kept away from the fruits of development. But today, the demands of Eastern UP or Purvanchal are given just as much importance, as the demands of Western UP. Balanced growth is something that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fully committed to.

Very soon new industries will start coming up around Purvanchal Expressway. In the coming days, in the cities situated along these expressways, work on products related to food processing, milk, cold storage, storage of fruits and vegetables, cereal, animal husbandry and other agricultural products are going to increase rapidly. Skilled manpower is essential to the industrialization of UP. So work has also been started to train the requisite manpower. ITI and other training institutes and medical institutes will also be established in these cities. The Defence Corridor being built in UP is also going to bring new employment opportunities here.

When Yogi Adityanath came to power in 2017,UP had two functional expressways, the 165 kilometres long Yamuna Expressway, which links Agra with the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Lucknow-Agra E-way, stretching to a length of 302 km. In ten years between 2007 and 2017, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government and the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) government had completed just one expressway each. But nearly five years since it took charge, the Yogi Adityanath government has completed the Purvanchal Expressway and work on three other E-ways has also started, with two,namely the 296 kilometre long Bundelkhand Expressway and the 91 kilometre long Gorakhpur Link E-way, in an advanced stage of construction. Land acquisition for the State’s sixth and longest, the 594-km-long Ganga E-way, is nearing completion and the PM is likely to lay the foundation for its construction in December.

Under the four E-ways projects that it is currently working on, UP is constructing an expressway network of over 1350 km. When all these expressways are complete, almost every second district of the State will have an expressway passing through it. Uttar Pradesh will become the first State to have an expressway stretching across its entire length. Using the three expressways, the 1000 kilometre distance between Delhi and the eastern border of UP can now be covered under 12 hours. On the northern side (of the Purvanchal expressway) is Gorakhpur, on the southern side is Prayagraj. Reaching Azamgarh from Lucknow took at least four to five hours earlier, now, within two and a half hours one can go to Azamgarh from Lucknow. That will be a major advantage of the expressway.

The Purvanchal E-way has been completed in a record time of barely 40 months, despite two Covid waves. Originating in Gorakhpur, the Gorakhpur Link Expressway will pass through two districts — Kabir Nagar and Ambedkar Nagar, and join the Purvanchal Expressway in Azamgarh. More than 30% of work on the expressway has already been completed. The Purvanchal E-way is also being extended to the Ballia district, the easternmost part of UP, with a 30-km-long link. The 296-km-long Bundelkhand E-way, currently under construction, will be an expressway, right from the border of Madhya Pradesh, passing through Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah and linking the region to Delhi.

The Bundelkhand E-way joins the Lucknow-Agra Expressway in Etawah, linking the semi-arid and drought-prone region to the National Capital Region (NCR), through the Lucknow-Agra and Yamuna expressways. This E-way is critical for the success of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor, as a large part of the Corridor, including two nodes in Jhansi and Chitrakoot, lie in the Bundelkhand region. Construction of the expressway began in early 2020. Around 75% cent of the work on the expressway has been completed. The Ganga E-way, the State’s longest, was first proposed in the late 2000s under the Mayawati govt. However, the Allahabad High Court canceled the project’s environment clearance in 2009. The proposed alignment of the expressway, it argued, was too close to the Ganga river’s channel and could damage the flood plains of the river. This ambitious project has been revived by the Yogi government. Now, the road has been kept at a safe distance away from the river bank because any eco-sensitive zone will require a lot of approvals. The road is now closer to district headquarters. This is a better model. If the road is closer to the district headquarters, it will make connectivity better. In record time, despite the second wave of Covid-19, 94% of the land acquisition is already done and the tendering process is going on.

Coming back to Purvanchal Expressway, with 36% attendance in the 17th Lok Sabha, Akhilesh Yadav was amongst the the worst performing MPs from Uttar Pradesh. He rarely visits his constituency Azamgarh and what’s making Akhilesh Yadav nervous is the fact that it is the double engine, Modi-Yogi sarkaar, which is connecting his constituency with a high-speed expressway. Purvanchal Expressway was merely an idea on paper during the Akhilesh regime.In fact, the detailed project report (DPR) of the Purvanchal Express of Akhilesh Yadav’s time was faulty and was completely re-worked upon by the Yogi government. The route alignment was optimized, saving almost Rs 3000 crore of taxpayers’ money in the process. Akhilesh Yadav issued a tender for the Purvanchal Expressway when even 25% of the land was not acquired. Even to issue a tender for such a large EPC contract, the said government has to acquire at least 90% of the land before issuing a tender. Hence the entire process of tendering started from scratch after Yogi Adityanath took charge.

Median of Purvanchal Expressway has a provision of a W-beam crash barrier for the safety of vehicles on both sides and the anti-glare screen has also been made for the turns of radius less than 4000 meters. The standards of riding quality maintained for Purvanchal Expressway is 1800 mm,per km, per lane, as per the norms of the Indian Road Congress (IRC). This has already been tested extensively by the third-party technical evaluators using laser profile meters.

In his desperate bid to take credit,Akhilesh Yadav alleged that there is no service lane on the Purvanchal Expressway,to connect the nearby towns and villages.The reality is, across the 341 kilometre length of Purvanchal Expressway, there is a provision of 397 kilometres of service lanes. Additionally, Purvanchal Expressway has the provision for 16 amenity centres across the length of 341 kms – 8 large public convenience centres, with refreshment centres and toilet blocks and 8 smaller ones. Agra-Lucknow Expressway was started in a hurry by Akhilesh,without any fuel station. In Purvanchal Expressway fuel stations, at 8 places are already being allocated to oil companies. The other allegation by Akhilesh that BJP government selected inexperienced players to build the Purvanchal Expressway, is absolutely false.The work of different segments (packages) of Purvanchal Expressway was allocated to well-reputed contractors, based on the fair and transparent E-tendering process. These are Gayatri Projects, APCO Infratech, GR Infra Projects, PNC Infratech and Oriental Structural Engineers,etc. All of these are very reputed infrastructure companies and have executed multiple,high-value, high-quality projects across the nation. In fact, some of these contractors executed projects for some projects in the Akhilesh government also.

Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated the Agra-Lucknow Expressway hurriedly in 2016 when it was only 80% complete. It is evident that the Agra-Lucknow expressway was made in haste, compromising the construction quality by the erstwhile Akhilesh regime. Within just one year of its hasty inauguration, an SUV Car plunged 15-20 feet, after a road caved on a crack in the Agra-Lucknow expressway. Many incomplete works of Agra-Lucknow Expressway were completed after the Yogi government took charge in 2017. List of unfinished works on Agra-Lucknow Expressway is long, which were completed by the Yogi government – 800 metre long Bituminous Concrete, one long bridge, four Interchange bridges, 22.2 km long crash barrier, 37.5 Kms of road marking, 200 Kms of road signage, 289 Kms of medium fencing and 178 Kms of ROW. In any debate on UP infrastructure, BSP talks about 165 Km Greater Noida-Agra Expressway, built in their times and SP flaunts 302 Kms of Agra-Lucknow Expressway built in their times. The hard truth is,in the last 15 years of SP+BSP rule, only 467 Kms of expressways, that too limited only to western UP,were built . In contrast, with Purvanchal Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway – the double engine sarkaar of Modi and Yogi is adding a whopping 641 Kms to the expressways’ road infrastructure in the State of UP. And this 641 Kms will be achieved in five years versus the 467 Kms achieved over a long period of 15 years. With 91 Kms Gorakhpur Link Expressway and 600 Kms of Ganga Expressway, UP will enter a different league of high quality road networks, across the State.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightfully said, even if a person builds a house, he first worries about the roads, examines the soil and considers other aspects. But in UP, we saw a long period of such governments who promised flaky dreams of industrialization, without worrying about connectivity. The result was that due to lack of necessary facilities, many factories located here were locked. It was unfortunate that both Delhi and Lucknow were dominated by political dynasties for decades. For years and years, this partnership of family members kept crushing the aspirations of UP. Today however,the Central,Modi government and BJP led State government of Yogi, is working in tandem, for the all-round development of Uttar Pradesh. Along with connectivity, top priority is also being given to basic amenities, in UP. In just the last 2 years, piped drinking water connection has been given to over 30 lakh rural families. From BIMARU under previous regimes, to becoming a vibrant State today, Uttar Pradesh has certainly come a long way.

We all have heard about India being a developing country and on the verge of being a developed country. You may also have wondered that you have been hearing this for quite some time now and yet we never seem to transition from a developing country status to that of a developed one. Several hindrances still exist in our way— low growth of socio-economic infrastructure being one of them. For example, the 2018 Logistics performance Index of the World Bank ranked India 44th among all countries in the world. According to India’s own Economic Survey, lack of infrastructure is becoming a ‘binding constraint’ to our economic growth, India needs to spend $1.4 trillion on infrastructure in the next few years. With a step in this direction, a new project has been started by increasing capital expenditure for infrastructure growth.

On the 75th Independence Day of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the Gati Shakti Master Plan. About Rs 100 lakh crore has been announced for this initiative, which is an indicator that, unlike other programmes that are routinely launched by various governments, this is one is unique and noteworthy. It is a national infrastructure master plan, aiming at easier interconnectivity between road, rail, air, and waterways. It will enable a paradigm shift in decision-making by enabling synchronization of efforts of various departments instead of a fragmented approach that is currently being followed. Individual projects of the different departments will now be examined and sanctioned within the parameters of the Gati Shakti Master plan.

For example, on projects like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, multiple agencies at the Centre, state and local self-government levels play important roles in its implementation and. Especially the last mile infrastructure like water and power utilities come under both the local self-government bodies and state governments. With the Gati Shakti Master Plan, the Geographical Information system (GIS) will be used and connected to a digital platform. Every government department and agency can track the progress of various projects, upload their master plans and align various projects to be in sync with each other. For example, airport construction in a Tier II city has begun and is set to be completed in 9 months. The state and local administration can plan the support infrastructure like feeder road connectivity, other basic amenities. By tracking the progress of the airport construction, the other government agencies can chart their work to be completed in line with the completion of airport construction and thus aid faster opening up of the infrastructure. The Gati Shakti Master Plan is extremely significant and holds promise for many reasons, and some of them are as follows:

There’s a potential to enhance supply chain efficiency and reduce logistics cost (currently, logistics cost takes up to ~13% of GDP, which is a huge dent for our growth).

The project will enable good governance by ensuring transparency and accountability while cutting down on red-tapism and enabling faster decision-making.

It will boost investor confidence and attract foreign direct investment (FDI).

It has the potential to increase Indian trade and boost exports due to improvement in supply chain infrastructure

The project is a step towards the effective use of data for policymaking. (The GIS-enabled system would provide much-needed topographical and mapping data.)

It aims for the overall economic boost and job creation, especially in the private sector.

The project thus has great scope and is a much-needed step to boost India’s lacunae in infrastructure development. However, several challenges need to be addressed for the success of the programme. The most important one is digitizing data for government agencies and building capacities towards the same.

Boost in Infrastructure development has been a key highlight of the growth stories of most large economies of the world. Be it, Post World War II Japan, South Korea from the 1970s, China post-1980s, a multi-modal transport network has been a key part of their transformation—especially by reducing the cost of logistics and boosting exports. One can also see the push for One Belt One Road (OBOR) by China where it seeks to expand on its infrastructure connectivity to the international level.

Thus, for India, it is crucial to provide an urgent push for boosting infrastructure development that is both integrated and data-centric. The Gati Shakti programme is one which if implemented quickly and efficiently has the potential to create a world-class, seamless multi-modal transport network, on the back of which India will be transformed.

The writer is an alumnus of UCLA and CISL. He is a communications professional currently associated with Bihar Young Thinkers Forum. Views expressed are the writer’s personal.

Developed countries enjoy giving sermons on human rights to the rest of the world. But their words don’t always match their actions. Many of their actions hurt humanity and the poorest of the world.

The crisis of vaccines ‘intellectual property’ waiver is the latest example of the rich world putting profits ahead of purpose.

At a time when the primary objective of global leaders should be to vaccinate every single person, the west is quibbling over waiving intellectual property rights (IPR) which gives monopoly to pharmaceutical companies.

The irony is stark. A developing country like India is ready to give up its IPR so the world benefits. India is also the biggest producer of vaccines, and one would expect India to protect the IPR of its companies to ensure the highest earnings. However, it has taken the position that all global vaccine makers should waive IPR so that Covid-19 vaccines can be affordable and available to all.

This then is the paradox of the world in a pandemic. Instead of sharing and collaborating, developed countries are hoarding and profiteering with vaccines.

India is producing vaccines not just for its 1.3 billion people, but also for the rest of the world. But India is ready to give up its IPR on vaccines so that it can be readily spread across the world to give access to poorer countries.

More than seven companies are making vaccines in India. While some like Serum Institute are manufacturing under a license from Astra Zeneca, others like Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila have developed their vaccines and own the IPR.

India is not a recipient, but a giver of vaccines. Still, it is supporting a waiver of TRIPS on vaccines for the larger good. However, the UK and European Union are fighting to protect their IPR. Strangely, there are some countries like Norway which don’t produce vaccines at all but are fighting to protect the IPR of big pharma.

UNICEF has taken note of the study by science analytics company Airfinity which has exposed the greed of rich countries. “The G7 and EU will have 1 billion more vaccines than they need by the end of 2021, 10 per cent of these are expected to expire this year,” an Airfinity report has assessed. G7 countries include UK and Canada.

This, while poor countries in Africa and other parts of the world struggle to get their supplies.

Is this happening at the behest of big pharma companies that are looking to profiteer from vaccine sales? Are Such countries and their leadership undermining vaccine equity to protect the interest of large companies? Can they morally justify their behavior?

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been losing its relevance since it has always leaned towards protecting the interests of the developed world. This is the occasion for the upcoming WTO Ministerial to support the interest of the poorest.

India and South Africa have been leading the charge on IPR waiver on vaccines. The World Health Organisation had hoped that 10% of the population of every country will be fully vaccinated by September 2021. However, more than 55 countries have missed the target. Most of these countries are among the poorest in the world.

There is no doubt that the global pharmaceutical industry has made a terrific effort to develop vaccines to fight Covid 19. While it took a decade or more to develop a vaccine earlier, Covid 19 vaccines were developed within 18 months.

Further efforts on creating nasal or oral drops for Covid are underway. Governments are funding and supporting manufacturers. So why is this urge to still profiteer by holding on to IPR and forcing poor countries to buy at expensive prices?

The vaccine business can’t be a sellers’ market. Even in normal years, the big pharma companies have faced criticism over their monopolistic behavior. They have been rightly accused of evergreening their patents to ensure that generic manufacturers do not sell their products at affordable prices.

However, in times of pandemic, they have to rise above bottom-line concerns. And it is not as if they are not being paid. Most governments have pre-ordered vaccines and for the pharma companies, there is no dearth of funds.

The stock prices of global pharma companies are zooming up. Investors are betting big on the pharma and healthcare sector by investing billions more.

Wouldn’t it be better for their reputation and the world’s health that IPR laws are waived during the pandemic? This could allow hundreds of new companies in many new countries to begin manufacturing locally.

There is also the carbon footprint issue. If such vaccines are manufactured locally in every country, the logistics cost and therefore the carbon footprint of delivery will be much lower. Vaccines have to be delivered across countries on flights and in highly refrigerated containers. If the physical distance between consumption and production can be reduced, there would fewer flights and shorter drives by refrigerated trucks. Surely the resulting carbon footprint will be lower.Think also about the impact it will have on the local economy of the countries. It could boost regional pharma manufacturing ecosystems. Global investors would have many more options to invest in. The African continent alone has over 1 billion people who are in great need of affordable medicines and healthcare. When a ready market meets locally available affordable vaccines and medicines, it is a winning situation for every stakeholder. A healthy population is more productive and will contribute to the economy. A rise in health consumers will create demand across many product and service categories.

IPR waiver is not only about vaccine equity, but it is also about the growth and transformation of regional economies. It is time that governments and industry leaders look at IP waiver with a holistic view and not from the narrow view of profits being lost.

In sum, there are moral, ecological, and economic reasons for IP waiver of vaccines. Waive the IPR and let a thousand vaccine makers produce.

Pranjal Sharma is an author and economic analyst. Views expressed are his personal.

More than seven companies are making vaccines in India. While some like Serum Institute are manufacturing under a license from Astra Zeneca, others like Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila have developed their vaccines and own the IPR.

India is not a recipient, but a giver of vaccines. Still, it is supporting a waiver of TRIPS on vaccines for the larger good. However, the UK and European Union are fighting to protect their IPR. Strangely, there are some countries like Norway which don’t produce vaccines at all but are fighting to protect the IPR of big pharma.

The consensus about this week’s meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping is that nothing much was achieved, which is largely true. In fact, no one was expecting any breakthrough, but it was definitely problematic that Joe Biden could not read the riot act to Xi Jinping for the latter’s many misadventures, including a most aggressive expansionist policy. At least there is no such mention in the readouts issued by the two countries post the meeting, for example on the question of Taiwan. What we have instead is assertion by Xi Jinping that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and whoever tries to change that or tries “to use Taiwan to contain China” “will get burnt”; and that while the “sons and daughters of the Chinese nation” wanted a peaceful reunification, if China’s hands were forced or its red line was crossed, China “will be compelled to take resolute measures”—all of which amounts to an explicit threat. Biden’s language was much more measured where he reiterated that the “United States remains committed to the ‘one China’ policy…and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”. In other words, notwithstanding Biden’s conciliatory tone, Xi Jinping’s belligerence knew no bounds, in spite of all his declarations about the need to have “mutual respect”, “peaceful coexistence” and “win-win cooperation”.

Lest we forget, it was Biden who wanted to have the meeting with Xi Jinping, and started off with a good-natured wave at Xi along with a broad smile. But there was no reciprocal bonhomie, with Xi taking a few seconds to absorb the gesture before waving back, and forcing himself to smile. The body languages of the respective leaders would have set the tone and tenor of the meeting, which continued for nearly four hours. From Xi Jinping’s “vantage point” it was the US that was responsible for the frostiness that had crept into US-China relations and so it was President Biden’s responsibility to “demonstrate political leadership and steer America’s China policy back on the track of reason and pragmatism”. What he actually meant was, after Donald Trump made life difficult for him, it was time for Biden to be a bystander, while he and his wolf warriors went on a rampage dominating the world; that it was time for Biden to behave the way Barack Obama did, going to the extent of not moving a finger while China grabbed the Scarborough Shoal in 2012, a territory claimed by Philippines.

The obvious question now uppermost on everyone’s mind is, how far will Biden go down the Obama path?

The way China has interpreted the meeting finds a reflection in a tweet by the Global Times: “@JoeBiden made three promises, not seeking to change China’s system, not seeking an alliance to oppose China & no intention to have clash with China, while President Xi expressed hope for US to fulfill its remarks on not having a new cold war. #XiBidenVirtualMeeting.” Hence, the onus of peace is with the US and not with China. This is typical Chinese tactics, where it is either the victim of aggression or always in the clear, and it’s always the other side that is to be blamed. Hence, it is India’s fault that Galwan took place and that the two militaries are locked in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation in the icy Himalayas. It is never China’s fault.

It takes some gall to issue a readout where Xi claimed, “Aggression or hegemony is not in the blood of the Chinese nation. Since the founding of the People’s Republic, China has never started a single war or conflict, and has never taken one inch of land from other countries.” The sheer mendacity of the statement would leave anyone reeling. This amounts to concocting history. How is it possible to have a civilized relationship with such a country?

China is clear, it does not want conflict, but any attempts to contain it may end in conflict, as expressed by Global Times in a very telling tweet about an article it has published: “If the US continues to contain China as it did in the past following #XiBidenVirtualMeeting, the world will not be convinced that the guardrails advocated by Biden can ensure that competition does not veer into conflict…”

To cut a long story short, smiling and waving at Xi Jinping has not brought the world any closer to peace. It has just exposed the nature of the beast that Communist China is, once again. President Biden and the civilized world should be very worried.

What comes from Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve is not news for anyone. It is a true narrative of the ignorance and casualness with which MOEFCC has been looking at forest and wildlife crimes notwithstanding chest beating at COP26 which has just ended with revived understanding about how these forests can be a gold mine of trade in carbon credits. The tiger reserves (TR) of India are increasing in numbers from 9 in 1973 to 52 today as Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve (RVTR) in Bundi district of Rajasthan joins the list this year. A rising number of reserves do not adequately reflect upon ‘business as usual’ attitude of Central or State administration towards conservation of wild life and their habitat. Those grave management concerns including wildlife crimes which were expected to be seriously addressed, continue to pose immense threat to forest ecosystems. A defensive Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has avoided taking a tough position against real culprits and the ground based forest officials remain unsupported as they always were. All mafias with dilettante operations within reserves continue to be insulated from legal action. Despite the Supreme Court and the High Court issuing directives for survey and investigation of illegalities taking place inside Corbett reserve, its implementation is bogged down in technicalities expressed by the State government including questioning the very legitimacy of appointment of Sanjiv Chaturvedi as the investigation officer by the PCCF.

India has come a long way from an era when wild life crimes were taking place with impunity at the heart of Delhi including a power packed Chanakyapuri that provoked PM Indira Gandhi to take up this issue with special concern. The credit of looking towards these mauled reserves unquestionably goes to Indira Gandhi, who immediately after becoming the Prime Minister in 1966 kickstarted activities for environmental and wildlife conservation. The IUCN (International Conservation Union) was hosted in India for the first time before setting up a Task Force to Draft the Wildlife (Protection) Act (WLA) and then getting Parliamentary clearance to the Act in 1972. With a base framework of management in place, nine Tiger reserves were constituted which were governed by Project Tiger Conservation Programme. The WLA was amended in 2006 to provide for the enforcement of Project Tiger through the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) which was established in December 2005 on recommendation of Tiger Task Force.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was constituted under section 38 L (1) of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The NTCA is headed by the Environment Minister as its Chairperson and the Environment Minister of State (MoS) as Vice Chairperson under section 38 L(2). NTCA also has three members of Parliament, the Secretary of Environment Ministry and other members which are drawn from an expert professional domain and from departments of Law & Social Justice, Tribal Affairs, National Commission for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Panchayati Raj, Forest and Wildlife Conservation Departments. The NTCA’s inclusive and transdisciplinary constitution in itself is a reflection of maturity and partnerships aimed at appropriate enforcement of Rules in tiger conservation and management of Reserves on India. The authority derives its power from section 38 O (1) of WLPA, 1972 and functions under the guidance of Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other members.

Powers and functions of the NTCA are prescribed under section 38 O (1) and (2) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006 but section 38 O(7) and 38 O(2) hold value regarding this controversy. The former section ensures that the tiger reserves and areas linking protected areas and tiger reserve are not diverted for ecologically unsustainable uses and the latter suggests that, the NTCA may, in the exercise of its powers and performance issue directions in writing to any person, officer or authority for the protection of tiger or tiger reserves and such person, officer or authority shall be bound to comply with the directions.

Such controversies as earlier stated have marred most reserves. Last year in Tamil Nadu’s Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve an illegal road building and subsequent construction in the Core area of the reserve was undertaken. Roads cut through the circulatory system of reserves and gradually lead to its extinction. The Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve maintained a vital forest contiguity between the Periyar Tiger reserve in Kerala and the Kanyakumari forests down below to the other southern rim. Reserves have a sacrosanct Core area that prohibits even a cosmetic entry of even a benign activity in it. The manner in which Stalin’s government has been stuck before the NTCA for deciding to proscribe and issue an injunction against illegal sanctions granted by the previous AIADMK government has put the government’s political position to a litmus test. Government that sanctioned crores for metal roads inside the reserve had blatantly ignored a crucial fact in managing reserves which lies in sustaining its contiguity for a spill-over buffer of wild populations with neighbourhood reserves and forests. On receiving the petition from environmentalists the Forest Department directed the Wildlife Warden to inspect the area. It is blatant violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 in which NTCA and Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee approvals were required by law. This concern also goes beyond wildlife concerns alone, as the dense evergreen forests which are destroyed through illegal constructions have also been sources of water channels of Vaigai river in Tamil Nadu and the Mullayar river in Kerala.

A similar controversy arose in the Balangir Reserve Forest in Odisha. In Jan 2019, more than a thousand trees were chopped off to make helipad for Prime Minister’s prospective visit. The Khurd-Balangir railway line was to be flagged off. Little did the forest department think how this activity would permanently damage the Reserve ecosystem. Also, permission to cut down trees was again not taken as reported by the Balangir Divisional Forest officer Sameer Satpathy.

Drawing from the above cases, Corbett controversy is in line with the state of Reserves in India. The Uttarakhand Forest Minister Harak Singh Rawat’s rejection of Investigating Officer on grounds of his appointment by PCCF Rajiv Bhartari instead of Chief Wildlife Warden J.S.Suhag has derailed appropriate investigations demanded by the Court. The complaint filed by Gaurav Bansal before the National Tiger Conservation Authority demanded the NTCA and the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to verify the felling of ten thousand trees when permission was given only for 163 trees by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) in its meeting held on 21st September 2020. (Seeking permission under Section 2 of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for non-forestry use of forest land is a prior condition for any activity inside Reserves). The DIG of CZA and the Director Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) issued notices to the PCCF and to the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the State on allegations of tree felling in the Kalagarh division of the CTR for the PM’s Gujjar Sot , Pakhrau Tiger Safari. The petitioners clearly established that the activities permitted inside the CTR was contempt of the Supreme Court order in a Writ Petition (Civil) No. 47 of 1998 of Navin M Raheja Vs. Union of India and Others wherein it was observed that ‘no tree whatsoever shall be felled in the Corbett Tiger Reserve by the State or anyone else’. Technically two major issues needed investigation, first; felling of ten thousand trees and second; illegal constructions inside the reserve. While it may appear to be a case of tiger conservation but it involves a host of questions to be raised in a forest ecosystem conservation.The NTCA had conducted a field visit of the Pakhro and Morghatti zones of Kalagarh forest division which falls in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve and found in its Report of 22nd Oct. that illegal construction of buildings, bridges and water bodies had been carried out there without the prior sanction of authorities or financial sanctions and many “illegal” construction of buildings without statutory approvals or sanctions were found on Kandi road, Morghatti road, Pakhrau forest rest house and also near water body near Pakhrau forest rest house. The Survey also referred to the possibility that forest officers may have forged government records to allow such illegal constructions and therefore recommended immediate demolition of illegal constructions followed by ascertaining an accurate number of trees felled through remote sensing at the National Remote Sensing Centre.

In February this year even the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian had come heavily on the State authorities and issued notices to the MOEFCC, State Ministry of Environment, NTCA, National Board of Wildlife (NBW) and officials of CTR for their violations of Section 38 (O) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, which provides that Tiger Reserves shall not be diverted for ecologically unsustainable uses, and in case it is required, than it is mandatory for the State to take prior approval from NBW and NTCA. The Uttarakhand High Court ordered the MoEFCC and also the state’s top forest and wildlife officials to inspect the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) and submit its action-taken report by November 9 on complaints about illegal constructions and felling of trees in the tiger reserve. The order found that these works were in violation of Indian Forest Act 1927, Wildlife (Protection) Act 1971, and Forest (Conservation) Act 1980.

Now looking into the controversy which erupts on Sanjiv Chaturvedi’s appointment by the PCCF and not Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) as the latter being legally authorized to appoint Investigation Officer. Chaturvedi is the Chief Conservator of Forest (research) based in Haldwani, a Magsaysay awardee with a spotless reputation of honesty and impartiality but that doesn’t seem to be of much importance before Rawat who suggests that the IO should be selected by the CWW. Lets do a status check on whois authorized by law?

In State government the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) is the Head of Forest Force in the Apex Scale of Pay Level 17.There is another PCCF who is not the Head of Forest Force and falls in the HAG+ Scale of Pay Level 16. The position of Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) comes only below the Additional PCCF which is at HAG Pay level 15. So legally and administratively the PCCF is the right authority to appoint an IO for any forest area within the state. Mr. Rawat’s objection may appear obvious on segmented reading of the Wild Life Conservation Rules that, ‘The Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) is the statutory authority, under the Wildlife Protection Act, who heads the Wildlife Wing of the department and exercises complete administrative control over Protected Areas (PAs) within a state’ but prior to this the Rules clearly establish that, ‘The State Forest Department is vested with the task of administration and management of forests, including wildlife reserves. State Forest Departments are headed by Principal Chief Conservators of Forests (PCCF) who are officers of the Indian Forest Service (IFS)’. These Rules further say that, “The Forest Department is charged with the tasks of protection and law enforcement within forest areas through the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of all forest and wildlife offences.  Officers over a certain rank are also vested with quasi-judicial powers to deal with cases of encroachment, seizures of illegal wildlife produce, and other notified forest offences.” This section should leave no one in doubt that there is no discrepancy in the appointment of IO by the PCCF as PCCF is the right authority with quasi-judicial powers to deal with investigations on encroachments, wildlife crimes or tree felling inside Reserves.

The current crisis of Corbett Reserve is not a new one but the speed and volume in which these surreptitious illegal construction and tree felling has been pushed with impunity has threatened environmentalists which includes wildlife conservationists as well. Forest is an ecosystem intertwined with varieties of identifiable and not so identifiable lives which inhabit the terrain. Depends who is seeing it. Judiciary is expected to take a firm stand on any illegality inside forest habitats and help change administrative attitudes of ‘business as usual’ so that the government could honestly progress on its commitment to COP26 made in Glasgow recently.

The author is president, NDRG, and former Professor of Administrative Reforms and Emergency Governance at JNU. The views expressed are personal.