SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS BY ARUN SHOURIE 123 Agreement Where have all the general’s cheerleaders gone?

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Special to the Express
123 Agreement: Mind the gap between the PM’s assurances and the text of the deal

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Special to the Express
Is the political class ready for reform? In his new book, The Parliamentary System: What we have made of it, what we can make of it, Arun Shourie makes a strong case for empowering the executive. Restructuring the system so that the president is elected by the electorate and is empowered to select his/her own ministers, he argues, will improve governance. Exclusive extracts from the book:

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Special to the Express
Even as the people and Parliament are being fed routine platitudes on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the government has swallowed whole all the conditions that the US Congress has set out in the final Act. There is going to be nothing in the 123 Agreement which is not already known

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Special to the Express
What had the prime minister drawn as the contours beyond which India would not budge on the Indo-US nuclear deal? Do the provisions of the bill as finally passed by the Senate fall within those contours? If they do not, how can the country now be made to swallow the deal?

Special to the Express
India’s growth story must generate confidence, not complacence. We must learn from China the ability to move on from momentary success or failure, keep the focus on reforms, take a decision and execute it.

Special to the Express
The cost of squandering resources on populist schemes will be paid not just in missed advantages but also in the resulting social unrest

Special to the Express
In a two-part analysis of national security, focusing on Naxalites and the Kashmir issue, Arun Shourie deals with increasing Naxalite terrorism across India and the Centre’s inadequate response

Special to the Express
The courts have also been loath to transgress into matters that fall within the province of the Executive and the Legislature. Whenever they have stepped forth to direct that the government do such and thus they have done so because the Executive has grossly failed to do its duty

Special to the Express
The courts have also been loath to transgress into matters that fall within the province of the Executive and the Legislature. Whenever they have stepped forth to direct that the government do such and thus they have done so because the Executive has grossly failed to do its duty

Special to the Express
The draft of the PAC’s report on the Delhi Vidyut Board privatisation not only reveals shocking facts but also gives a frightening glimpse of how officials and their patrons spin their webs

Special to the Express
The draft of the PAC’s report on the Delhi Vidyut Board privatisation not only reveals shocking facts but also gives a frightening glimpse of how officials and their patrons spin their webs

Write Back: CAG versus CAG
Continuing the debate on the Delhi Vidyut Board, Arun Shourie responds to Jagdish Sagar’s articles of last week...

CAG versus CAG
The allegation of corruption in the sale of Centaur Hotels is based on two arguments: • It has been said that the numbers used in doing the valuation of Centaur hotels were too high • There were single bidders for the hotels to whom the sales were made But were the same “irregularities” made in the sale of Delhi Vidyut Board? CAG does not even bother to find out what the discount rate was at which the valuation was made

Centre Vs Centaur: Courts’ biddings
Two years had gone by since the order was passed to auction the property. The sole bidder had continued to occupy the property — paying the old rent. The SC recorded: ‘‘Pursuant to the issuance of the sale notice of the property in question (No. 3 Aurangzeb Road), only one bid for a sum of Rupees twenty-five crores and one lakh is received from... In spite of the sufficient publicity and passage of time, no other bid is received. Under the circumstances and having regard to the various factors, we think it just and appropriate to accept this bid. Accordingly, the bid given by... is accepted...’’

The Centre and the Centaur
The CAG report on the privatisation of the two Centaur hotels in Mumbai has led to an inquiry. In the politically-inspired cacophony, it is not being understood how hard the government worked to ensure there was a bidder, that his guarantees were examined, that he was held to his bid and every paisa paid to the government, says former disinvestment minister and BJP MP Arun Shourie

‘Arch enemy’ or ‘naya dil’
With the spotlight firmly on the peace process, President Musharraf travelled to New Delhi last month to announce that he had had a change of heart. But former Union Minister Arun Shourie is not so sure. In his new book Will the iron fence save a tree hollowed by termites?, Shourie spots many similarities between five years of Musharraf and Pakistan under Zia, even in their empowerment of the clergy to stifle secular, civilian opposition at home and provide for jihads beyond Pakistan. While keeping in mind the operating principle of US policy and the role of China, India must think of what it can do and not simply rely on a ‘‘changed heart’’. The Indian Express brings to you extracts from Shourie’s new book.

Pre-requisites of freedom
When an arrogant government moves to curtail individual freedoms, crusaders of courage rise to save the day. Nani A Palkhivala, constitutional lawyer, was one such Indian. In case after case Palkhivala used his eloquence to beat back the government and safeguard the spirit of democracy. In his Nani Palkhivala memorial lecture, Arun Shourie, former disinvestment minister, shows how freedom has been served through the decades and how individual character can stand up to the mighty powers of the state. We reproduce the lecture in four parts.

India under threat
India's national security is gravely threatened and we are being governed by a wilfully blind government. Tough laws are being scrapped at a time when borders are becoming outrageously porous. And, because of the compulsions of vote-banks and Left-wing ideology, the government brands anyone who spells out this truth as ‘communal’, says BJP MP Arun Shourie in a four-part series.

The Silent Demographic Invasion
A slow demographic transformation is occurring in the sensitive and poverty-stricken districts that border Bangladesh. T V Rajeswar, current Uttar Pradesh Governor and former governor of West Bengal, repeatedly drew attention to the strategic implications of this area becoming predominantly Islamic and vulnerable to competing political vote banks. In a four-part series, former disinvestment minister and BJP MP Arun Shourie provides evidence of this demographic change and argues that the Indian State can ignore it only at its own peril.

A Public Scandal
The received wisdom on PSUs is that these units must remain in the public sector as this keeps them accountable and lets them work for the social good. It is only government holdings in these units that keeps them within the glare of ‘watchdogs’ like CAG and CVC. However, in reality, PSUs in West Bengal are a public scandal. Units waste crores, submit no statement of accounts and function as despotic islands inspite of damning reports by none other than the Comptroller and Auditor General. In a three-part series Arun Shourie, former Union Minister for Disinvestment, shows how PSUs are eating away taxpayers’ money and giving nothing back to society in return beyond satisfying the Left’s need for ideological symbols.

The PSU virus
In his Budget speech, Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced measures to make PSUs profitable, much to the table-thumping approval of the Left. However, the restructuring of PSUs remains a distant dream. Their losses keep growing, their work culture remains stagnant and except for one or two, PSUs remain mired in red-tape, political vested interests and bureaucratic paralysis. In this three-part series, former Disinvestment Minister and BJP MP Arun Shourie shows how PSUs are hopelessly immune to reform, yet remain symbols of the Left’s political ambitions.

Behind the Budget
P C Chidambaram’s budget has been hailed for focusing on the poor, agriculture and social sectors. In a three-part series, Arun Shourie goes into each of the promises made by the new government and points out that most were already covered under old schemes, and that the increase in allocation for what the UPA calls ‘‘issues dear to its heart’’ is minimal, if at all.

This is not Mr Advani speaking
Recently, the Congress-led UPA Government summarily removed four State Governors supposedly ‘‘loyal’’ to the Sangh Parivar and appointed four new supposedly ‘‘non-partisan’’ incumbents. But only a few years ago, the newly-appointed UP Governor, T V Rajeswar, had written about the rise of a ‘‘third Islamic state in the sub-continent’’, pointed to the violent dangers of Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants to North Bengal and Assam and forecast Muslim demographic aggression. In an exclusive article to The Indian Express, former NDA minister and BJP MP Arun Shourie provides evidence of Rajeswar’s ‘‘ideology’’ and how the fear of the rise of Islamic activism obviously cuts across party lines.

PSUs are kind and gentle, they play a social role. Go tell that to unpaid workers
From Laloo’s ‘social justice’ Bihar to Communist ‘pro-poor’ Bengal, PSU workers wait for dues unpaid for years. State govts raise crores and crores for development, then mysteriously spend only a fraction. When they can no longer borrow, they get corporations under them to borrow and then gulp the money down

WHICH ONE OF THESE WILL THEY SELL OR CLOSE?
The government says ‘‘chronically loss-making companies will either be sold off, or closed...’’ Former disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie says: ‘’How many years of losses, and what magnitude of losses make a company ‘chronically loss-making?’’

OUR BRAVE NEW INDUSTRY
In this three part series, Union Minister Arun Shourie examines the radical changes in industry and identifies the Govt’s role in this shifting environment

FILING THE STATE AWAY
In this three part series on governance, Union Minister Arun Shourie argues that it’s not simply a question of streamlining procedures but transforming the nature of the State itself.

ENABLING IDEAS
In his four-part series, the Union Minister for Disinvestment, Communication and Information Technology, Arun Shourie, writes about the innumerable low-cost innovations, environment-protection schemes and inventions that are flowering all over India.

THE REFORMS MANDATE
In his four-part series, the Union Minister for Disinvestment, Communication and Information Technology, Arun Shourie, points to the need to create a reform environment.

ENSURING IT REMAINS INDIAN TERRITORY
In a four-part series exclusive to The Indian Express, IT & Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie answers these questions. And raises other ones, critical to navigating the future—for both the industry and the government.

A four-part series based on IT & Telecom Minister Arun Shourie's lecture at a TDSAT function.

EARLIER SERIES: INDEPENDENCE DAY
In a 3-part provocative series, Arun Shourie tells us why we need to listen and why we need to act — before it’s too late.