KOTHARI INSTITUTE DATE-16Jan2014 NATIONAL NEWS 1. SC notice to ex-judge on sexual harassment 2. AAP to contest over 400 seats 3. RAW chief consulted MI6 in build-up to Operation Bluestar 4. US to expand rules limiting use of profiling by federal agents 5. Party with Kiran Reddy's touch in the offing Business 1. Tilaiya project of RPower gets Cabinet clearance Sports 1. Sachin was my idol and role-model INTERNATIONAL NEWS 1. Myanmar steps into global role 2. Cuban students to open rare study visit to Miami EDITORIAL The judges dilemma Dear students here are the news from THE HINDU and TIMES OF INDIA
NATIONAL NEWS NEW DELHI, January 16, 2014 SC notice to ex-judge on sexual harassment J. VENKATESAN The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre and Justice Swatanter Kumar on a writ petition filed by a law intern alleging sexual harassment by him. The apex court also said it was inclined to consider a mechanism to deal with allegations made against retired judges and judicial officers. The notice to Justice Kumar came even as the former judge moved the Delhi High Court, seeking a direction to gag the media on reporting the allegations made by the law intern. His lawyer, however, did not seek a blanket ban, submitting that the media could report court orders. The High Court will pass an order on Thursday. In the apex court, Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam, after hearing senior counsel Harish Salve appearing for the intern, decided to examine the issue and appointed senior advocates Fali Nariman and P.P. Rao as amicus curiae. In its order, the Bench said as there is no mechanism to inquire into complaints of sexual harassment against all judicial officers, sitting or retired judges, whether while holding office or not, the court was inclined to consider these aspects. The court later issued notices to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court, Justice Kumar, currently Chairman of the National Green Tribunal, and the Centre.
The Bench said: In view of the importance of the issues raised and to formulate a permanent mechanism, we seek the assistance of Mr. Fali S. Nariman and Mr. P.P. Rao, senior members of the Bar, to act as amicus curiae. It is made clear that at this moment, we are not expressing any opinion on the averments/allegations made by the petitioner. The Bench initially questioned Mr. Salve about the intern s delay in filing the complaint and pointed out that the alleged harassment took place in May 2011. The Bench said the intern was a law graduate and reported the incident to her parents and teachers the same day. What is the explanation for the delay? it asked Mr. Salve. NEW DELHI, January 16, 2014 AAP to contest over 400 seats GARGI PARSAI With its membership exceeding 20 lakh, including 12 lakh new members in the last five days, the Aam Aadmi Party has now scaled up its national ambitions. AAP leaders have said that the party could contest 400 seats or more in the general election if they get the right candidates. Of the thousands of applications the party has received so far for AAP ticket, 182 have been found valid. The party has set a target of enrolling one crore members by January 26. For the AAP to be recognised as a national party it needs to have recognition in at least four States. Despite BSP leader Mayawati s attack on the AAP at her Lucknow rally on Wednesday and Congress leader Salman Khurshid dubbing it anarchist, the membership drive has infused new confidence in the party. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has declared that the 2014 Lok Sabha election will be fought between the AAP and the BJP. National executive member Gopal Rai said the party was receiving enthusiastic response in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and even in southern States. Within four days of the launch of the Main bhi aam aadmi campaign, over 10 lakh people joined the party. In south India, a large number of people from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala had become members, he said. Any member of the AAP can apply for ticket by filling a form available on the party s website. The form, besides seeking details of the applicant, will have to be endorsed by 100 people from each Assembly segment in the parliamentary constituency. This not only gives an idea about the candidate, but also gets the party more supporters. On Tuesday, the party got a big boost when Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar declared in Mumbai that the NBA as well as the National Alliance of Peoples
Movement would back the AAP in the general election. Mr. Rai said among the new members was former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri s son Adarsh Shastri. Fight will be between AAP and BJP, says Kejriwal NEW DELHI, January 16, 2014 RAW chief consulted MI6 in build-up to Operation Bluestar PRAVEEN SWAMI Former Research and Analysis Wing chief Girish Saxena initiated a series of meetings with the United Kingdom s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, in the build-up to Operation Bluestar, highly-placed intelligence sources have told The Hindu. The intelligence-sharing meetings, the sources said, were authorised by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and included at least one visit by a mid-ranking officer of the élite Special Air Service commando unit to frame an assault plan which would minimise civilian casualties. The sources were responding to revelations that India and the U.K. cooperated on Operation Bluestar, which have led to a snowballing controversy in both countries. Mr. Saxena, who served as chief of RAW from 1983 to 1986, and then as security adviser to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, now lives in retirement in New Delhi. He remained unavailable for comment despite repeated efforts by The Hindu. However, another RAW chief familiar with the period, Amarjit Singh Dulat, said the consultations may have formed part of regular India-U.K. consultations on Khalistan terrorism. In those days, said former RAW chief Amarjit Singh Dulat, there was very close cooperation with the U.K. on the Khalistan issue. Key leads emanated from MI6 monitoring of Khalistan leaders based in the United Kingdom. I do not recall any specific cooperation on Bluestar, though and I think it is probably stretching the evidence to suggest that the United Kingdom had any role to play in the actual execution of the operation itself. Declassified revelations Earlier this week, declassified United Kingdom government documents, first posted online by the Stop Deportations blog, stopdeportations.wordpress.com, revealed that India had consulted the United Kingdom on its decision to storm the Golden Temple in 1984.
In a February 23, 1984 letter, B.J.P. Fall, private secretary to British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, wrote that Indian authorities recently sought British advice over a plan to remove Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Foreign Secretary decided to respond favourably to the Indian request and, with the Prime Minister s agreement, an SAD [SAS] officer has visited India and drawn up a plan which has been approved by Mrs. Gandhi. The Foreign Secretary believes that the Indian Government may put the plan into operation shortly, the letter states. F.E.R. Butler, at Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher s office, the documents reveal, wrote to the Defence Ministry and Cabinet Office on February 6, 1983, conveying her instructions to the Foreign Secretary to proceed with the SAS adviser s request. Limited consultations RAW sources said the consultations were limited to seeking expert opinion on whether revanchist Sikh preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale could be removed from the Golden Temple without killing pilgrims thronging the faith s most venerated institution. Bhindranwale, under pressure from a rival pro-khalistan group, the Babbar Khalsa, had fled rooms on the periphery of the complex, taking up residence in the Akal Takht, the sanctum sanctorum. Prime Minister Gandhi had contemplated military action against Bhindranwale since at least April, 1983, when a hit-squad he dispatched killed senior police officer A.S. Atwal. She however held back, fearing large-scale civilian killings. However, violence continued to escalate. K.P.S. Gill, Punjab s former police chief, has said that Bhindrawale s hit-squads killed 298 people between January 1, 1984 and June 3, 1984. The SAS plan, the sources said, was rejected because Mr. Saxena was unconvinced it would work. Prime Minister Gandhi eventually handed charge of the operation to the Indian Army. The only plans we had were drawn up on the fly, said Brigadier Israr Khan, who led the attack under the command of Lieutenant-General Kuldip Singh Brar. Major Jasbir Singh Raina, one of my officers, infiltrated the temple dressed as a pilgrim, scouting out hardened defences inside the temple on June 2, just one day before operations to clear the complex began. Later, Brigadier Khan said, his troops broke open the shutters on stores near the Golden Temple, taking photographs and posters meant for pilgrims in order to develop crude operations maps.
THE TIMES OF INDIA US to expand rules limiting use of profiling by federal agents Matt Apuzzo,NYT News Service Jan 16, 2014, 12.46 PM IST The Bush administration banned profiling in 2003, but with two caveats: It did not apply to national security cases, and it covered only race, not religion, ancestry or other factors. The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said on Wednesday. The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims incounterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations. The Bush administration banned profiling in 2003, but with two caveats: It did not apply to national security cases, and it covered only race, not religion, ancestry or other factors. Since taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been under pressure from Democrats in Congress to eliminate those provisions. "These exceptions are a license to profile American Muslims and Hispanic-Americans," Senator Richard J Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in 2012. President George W Bush said in 2001 that racial profiling was wrong and promised "to end it in America." But that was before the terrorist attacks of September 11. After those attacks, federal agents arrested and detained dozens of Muslim men who had no ties to terrorism. The government also began a program known as special registration, which required tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim men to register with the authorities
because of their nationalities. "Putting an end to this practice not only comports with the Constitution, it would put real teeth to the FBI's claims that it wants better relationships with religious minorities," said Hina Shamsi, a national security lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. It is not clear whether Holder also intends to make the rules apply to national security investigations, which would further respond to complaints from Muslim groups. "Adding religion and national origin is huge," said Linda Sarsour, advocacy director for the National Network for Arab American Communities. "But if they don't close the national security loophole, then it's really irrelevant." Sarsour said she also hoped that Holder would declare that surveillance, not just traffic stops and arrests, was prohibited based on religion. The Justice Department has been reviewing the rules for several years and has not publicly signaled how it might change them. Holder disclosed his plans in a meeting on Wednesday with Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, according to an official briefed on the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversation was private. de Blasio was elected in November after running a campaign in which he heavily criticized the Police Department's stop-and-frisk tactic, which overwhelmingly targets minorities and which a federal judge declared unconstitutional. The mayor and attorney general did not discuss when the rule change would be announced, the official said. A senior Democratic congressional aide, however, said the Obama administration had indicated an announcement was "imminent." The Justice Department would not confirm the new rules on Wednesday night but released a short statement saying that the mayor and the attorney general discussed "preventing crime while protecting civil rights and civil liberties." In the past, Holder has spoken out forcefully against profiling. "Racial profiling is wrong," he said in a 2010 speech. "It can leave a lasting scar on communities and individuals. And it is, quite simply, bad policing whatever city, whatever state." Officials in the Bush administration made similar statements, however, which is why civil rights groups have eagerly waited to hear not just Holder's opinion, but also the rules he plans to enact. For example, narcotics investigators may not increase traffic stops in minority
neighborhoods on the belief that some minorities are more likely to sell drugs. They can, however, rely on information from witnesses who use race in their descriptions of suspects. The rules cover federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. They do not cover local or state police departments. That is significant because Muslim groups have sued the New York Police Department over surveillance programs that mapped Muslim neighborhoods, photographed their businesses and built files on where they eat, shop and pray. Holder's comments about the new racial profiling rules came up in a conversation about that topic, the official said. William J Bratton, the city's new police commissioner, has said he will review those practices. While the rules directly control only federal law enforcement activities, their indirect effect is much broader, said Fahd Ahmed, the legal director of the Queens-based South Asian immigrant advocacy group Desis Rising Up and Moving. For instance, he said, immigration bills in Congress have copied the Justice Department profiling language. And civil rights groups can use the rules to pressure state and local agencies to change their policies. "Federal guidelines definitely have an impact," Ahmed said. "Local organizers can say, 'These policies are not in line with what's coming from the federal level.' "
Party with Kiran Reddy's touch in the offing TNN Jan 16, 2014, 06.02 AM IST Pointing to Kiran Kumar Reddy, the flexi banners and posters say Samaikyandhra Mana Vidanam, Jai Samaikyandhra Mana Ninadam (United Andhra Is Our Policy, Jai Samaikyandhra Is Our Slogan). HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: ASamaikyandhra political party is taking shape and has Kiran Kumar Reddy written all over it. Flexi banners and posters have sprung up overnight across the 13 districts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, including cities such as Vijayawada, heralding the arrival of the political outfit. Over the next few days, 15 lakh youth wearing T-shirts proclaiming 'Jai Samaikyandhra' are scheduled to spring up and the entire Seemandhra region is to witness a simultaneously orchestrated 'Run' for keeping the state united in the first week of February. The final step to the birth of the new party will be Kiran parting ways with the Congress and leading the Jai Samaikyandhra campaign. Pointing to Kiran Kumar Reddy, the flexi banners and posters say 'Samaikyandhra Mana Vidanam, Jai Samaikyandhra Mana Ninadam' (United Andhra Is Our Policy, Jai Samaikyandhra Is Our Slogan). The CM had uttered these very words while intervening
in the debate on the draft Telangana Bill in the assembly last Friday. The banners and posters also have images of Burgula Ramakrishna Rao (last chief minister of Hyderabad state who had signed on the merger agreement), Potti Sriramulu (who sacrificed his life seeking the formation of a separate Andhra state) and Telugu Talli. All of these were splashed in saffron, yellow and green colours in the backdrop of a map of Andhra Pradesh. Sources said orders have been placed for 15 lakh T-shirts with a garment unit on the outskirts of Vijayawada and that wall posters on a massive scale are being churned out from a printing press in Rajahmundry. Local Congress leaders were agog with speculation that the flexi banners and posters are the handiwork of Vijayawada Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal. When asked about the new political party, Lagadapati told TOI: "I cannot speak on the subject. CM Kiran Kumar Reddy is the right person to elaborate on it." The MP is presently busy performing the last rites of his father. The erection of flexi boards and posters is said to be the first step in the formation of the Samaikyandhra political party and is to be followed by many programmes. About 800 campaign vehicles have been pressed into service to criss-cross the Seemandhra region and distribute campaign literature to the people. "A United Andhra Pradesh Run is being planned in the first week of February. It will be held at the same time in all the 13 districts and the date for the event will be announced after January 23," a source in the thick of things told TOI. Noted gazal singer Gazal Srinivas, an associate of the Vijayawada MP, is to lead the dozens of cultural troupes that will propagate the idea of the new party. "The whirlwind campaign across the Seemandhra region will go on till the Telangana Bill is introduced in Parliament in mid-february," a source revealed. According to sources in the CM camp, the campaign will culminate in the announcement of the new party by Kiran on the day or the day after Parliament passes the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Bill-2013 in February. "As speculated earlier, Kiran will not do anything drastic after January 23, the deadline given to the assembly to return the Bill to the Centre. Kiran will seek an extension of the deadline by writing a letter to the President. If rejected, that too will be used to create a feeling of injustice to the people of Seemandhra," they said. Along with Lagadapati, his MP colleagues Vundavalli Arunkumar, G V Harshakumar, TG Venkatesh and Rayapati Samabasiva Rao, state minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Kiran's family members are also deeply involved in the campaign to launch the party. "A committee to coordinate the activities will be set up in each mandal. This will become the party committee once the chief minister announces the party," the sources said.
It's party time Pointing to CM, flexi banners that have come up all over Seemandhra say United Andhra Is Our Policy, Jai Samaikyandhra Is Our Slogan. Kiran had uttered the same words in the assembly last Friday Orders have been placed for 15 lakh T-shirts with the slogan 'Jai Samaikyandhra' A simultaneous united AP run is being planned in the first week of Feb across Seemandhra Gazal singer Srinivas is being roped in to lead cultural troupes to propagate the idea of the new party BUSINESS NEW DELHI, January 16, 2014 Tilaiya project of RPower gets Cabinet clearance SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MoEF advised to treat it on a par with PSU project The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) has cleared Reliance Power s 4,000-MW ultra-mega power project (UMPP) at Tilaiya in Jharkhand. It has advised the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to take necessary steps to treat it on a par with Central Government undertaking project for the purpose of rules for compensatory afforestation. Under the clearance given by CCI, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Reliance Power may not have to provide non-forest land to compensate for the loss of forest land acquired for the proposed plant. The plant will now be on a par with the other public sector projects and, therefore, would be exempted from providing compensatory
afforestation for the loss of forest land. At present, only central government or public sector undertakings have exemption from the obligation to provide non-forest land. The CCI has asked the MoEF to issue necessary clarification immediately to the Forest Department of Jharkhand that Tilaiya UMPP and related mines for use of 19.44 metric tonnes per annum as indicated in the project information report may be treated on a par with Central Government project so that balance land for the power plant could be transferred immediately to the developer. The Cabinet note states that the developer, in addition to cost of compensatory afforestation on double the diverted forest land, be also asked to deposit the cost of land required for the above compensatory afforestation. Tilaiya UMPP is to be executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Jharkhand Integrated Power Ltd., which was handed over to Reliance Power in January 2009 by Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for UMPPs. Tilaiya would be the fourth UMPP to be awarded to a developer after Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Mundra UMPP in Gujarat. SPORT January 16, 2014 Sachin was my idol and role-model VIRAT KOHLI
SOMETHING SPECIAL:Sachin Tendulkar used to hit a lot of drives, most of which went straight over the bowlers heads. FILE PHOTO I was just over a year old when Sachin Tendulkar made his Test debut. As a child growing up in the 1990s, my first memory of him is watching him play in the 1996 World Cup. The way he dominated the bowlers was simply brilliant, and that s when I decided to make him my idol. When playing cricket as kids, we all pretend to be a particular player. I always wanted to be Sachin. I wanted to bat like him, so I tried to copy the shots he played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them. He was the one player that always made me think: I want to bat like him. I still remember the first time I met him. I was part of the Under-19 team that was to tour New Zealand in early 2007. The team was in Mumbai in January when Lalchand Rajput, our coach, asked Sachin if he d like to have a word with us and tell us about the conditions we could expect in New Zealand since he had obviously played a lot of cricket there. As soon as we saw Sachin enter the stadium, we got goose bumps since none of us had met him before. He walked towards the area where we were practicing, and he spoke to us about the conditions. I just stood there looking at him. I didn t even blink my eyes because I couldn t quite believe it. It was something truly special.
After that, it was another two years before I had a one-on-one interaction with him, because I didn t have the guts to go up to him and talk to him. We finally spoke during the Champions Trophy in South Africa in 2009. That was the first chat I had with him about technique and my batting. He advised me to make some adjustments. He pointed out areas in which I could improve, and he actually wanted to help me out. I remember thinking that was a really good gesture on his part. When I was making to the national team, there were so many shots that Sachin hit which made me think, Wow, I wish I could play that shot. He used to hit a lot of off drives and straight drives, and I don t think anyone at that point in time was able to hit fast bowlers the way he did. He would hit those shots that went straight over the bowlers heads. That was something amazing, I was totally blown away watching those strokes. The straight drive is something special. Learning experience Sharing a dressing room with Sachin has been a huge learning experience for me. One of the things I ve learned is to have total dedication and passion for the sport. Sachin has always been a great professional. He understands what it means to be on the field, he never compromises on professionalism. His work ethic and hard work are amazing, and a lesson for everyone. It s certainly something I picked up while playing alongside him. I had the honour of having a few partnerships with him over the last few years. The one that has stayed in my mind is the one that we had against Pakistan in the 2012 Asia Cup. That was something really special because the match was a big one for us. That innings is special for me because I got 183, but to have a century partnership with Sachin (133 in 19.1 overs) in the last one-dayer he ever played made it even more memorable. To watch him bat the way he did was amazing. It was an honour. The way he motivated me during that innings completed that experience for me. After the World Cup final in 2011, I was part of a group that carried him around the ground. He had been carrying the country on his shoulders for 21 years, and I felt it was time that some of us carried him. Sachin has done so much for cricket, and we all knew it was a special win for him. He s always carried such a burden, all the time, so it was most fitting. I m glad I had the opportunity to do something like that. When I walked out to bat after Sachin lost his wicket in the final, the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium was completely silent. It was definitely one of the most nervous moments in my career. The memory of it will always stay with me because it was a such an important match for all of us.
I could sense that everyone had lost a bit of hope when Sachin got out. I couldn t believe that I was going to bat after him, and knowing that it was probably his last chance to win the World Cup, I was pretty nervous. Later that year, I was selected in the Test side to play West Indies, and I scored fifties in both innings in the third and final match of the series. This was a very important game for me because I was then selected in the squad for the subsequent tour of Australia. I was pretty nervous, so I decided to speak to Sachin about it. When I told him what I felt, he told me not to think too much about it, that it was important to just back myself and play my game. He told me I should stick to my strengths and not try to do something completely different. That was one chat I will always remember. Later on, in Perth, I remember I was batting on 69 going into lunch. He walked past me and told me to get a big one. I was the last wicket to fall after having scored 75, but that is something that has stayed with me and has motivated me always. (This is an abridged version of an article published in Wisden India Almanack 2014).
INTERNATIONAL NAYPYIDAW, January 16, 2014 Myanmar steps into global role Myanmar begins its first international political role in decades this week as host of Southeast Asia's regional bloc, with experts warning against over-inflated expectations as the group grapples with territorial disputes and ambitious economic integration plans. The country will host foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for an informal meeting on Friday in the ancient capital Bagan -- the first major gathering of the group under Myanmar's debut year-long stewardship. The long-isolated country has won international praise and the removal of most Western sanctions for wide-ranging reforms since the end of junta rule nearly three years ago, raising the promise of an investment boom. The country has freed political prisoners, welcomed opposition parties into parliament and launched economic reforms. Fresh from hosting the World Economic Forum on East Asia and Southeast Asian Games in the sprawling remote capital Naypyidaw last year, the country is confident that it can meet the diplomatic and logistical challenge of hosting the regional bloc, despite its creaking infrastructure. Myanmar is ready for the ASEAN chairmanship, said Than Htut, a senior official at the national planning ministry. ASEAN is a rising star in the world's politics and economy. We hope that our chairmanship will support that, he said, adding that businesses had donated a fleet of BMW cars and limousines to ferry delegates to meetings. Sean Turnell, associate professor at Australia's Macquarie University, said that while Myanmar has previously been seen as a drain on the bloc, it now promises to make a positive contribution. The biggest danger to Myanmar in being ASEAN chair might be over-inflated expectations, he told AFP, adding that the country's successful management of the Southeast Asian Games could raise unrealistic hopes of its ability to tackle strategically substantive challenges. The international community didn't expect much from (previous chairs) Laos, Cambodia etc, so these countries quite easily exceeded expectations. This might not be the case for Myanmar, he said.
In 2006, Myanmar was forced to renounce the ASEAN rotating presidency in the face of criticism of its rights record and the then-ruling junta's failure to shift to democracy. AFP MIAMI, January 16, 2014 Cuban students to open rare study visit to Miami A group of students from Cuba is opening the communist country s first academic trip in more than five decades to the largest public college in Miami, unofficial capital of the exile community. Fifteen Cuban students have arrived and two more are expected soon at Miami Dade College, the institution s provost, Rolando Montoya, announced recently. The students range from 18 to 37 and will be taking courses in sociology, computing, business and other subjects. The visit marks the first time Miami Dade College will provide classes to students still living in Cuba, Montoya said. The college has long been one of the first stops for Cuban and other immigrants in Miami seeking an education and to establish themselves in the U.S. We always say we are a single people, if we are over there or here, Mr. Montoya said. We are here with our arms wide open. U.S. students are permitted to travel to Cuba for academic study under the people-topeople exchanges re-established by the Obama administration in 2011. But the exchanges are largely one sided, with Cuban students rarely travelling to the U.S. for similar study. Two Cuban medical students travelled to the U.S. in 2010 to speak at universities about life on the island. And Cuban graduate students and professors have visited occasionally to teach or attend conferences. But few could recall any group of undergraduate students spending a semester in the U.S. I m sure there s been some, but I think they have been an exceptional, one-shot deal, said Ted Henken, a professor at Baruch College in New York and president of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy. Miami is home to the largest population of Cubans outside the island. In the past many have resisted travel by musicians, artists and others still living on the island. But strong opposition has declined as younger generations and new arrivals have been more open to a relationship with Cubans on the island. Mr. Montoya said changes in Cuba s travel laws made the visit possible- Thousands of Cubans have recently been permitted to travel after the government eliminated the
much-detested white card needed to leave. The number of Cubans receiving U.S. nonimmigrant visas jumped by 82 percent from October 2012 to July 2013 compared to the same period a year before, according to the U.S. State Department. I think this is consistent with that trend in which students are looking outside the country more than before, he said. Among the arriving students are musicians, artists, attorneys and others; more than half are women. They were granted J-1 visas traditionally given to visiting students, teachers, doctors and others. Few such visas had been granted prior to the change in Cuba travel policy that went into effect last year. In 2012, just eight such visas were granted. Figures for 2013 weren t available. The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba approached Miami Dade College about hosting the students, Montoya said. That non-profit organization works to promote democracy and human rights on the island. They offered to recruit the students, while Miami Dade College helped with visas and enrollment paperwork. The foundation is paying the student s tuition, housing, meal and transportation costs, Montoya said. A message left at the foundation by The Associated Press was not immediately returned. The students will take courses in English, sociology, computer, psychology, business and English. The classes include Principles of Business and Organizational Management. I think we picked an academic content that will really help them once they go back, Montoya said. Mr. Montoya said the trip wasn t announced until Monday because of student privacy issues and politics. AP
EDITORIAL January 16, 2014 Updated: January 16, 2014 01:17 IST The judges dilemma The Supreme Court faces an extraordinary dilemma. By ordering an internal probe into the allegations made by a former law intern against Justice (retd.) A.K. Ganguly, it had shown alacrity in protecting the image of the judiciary and responsiveness towards the plight of an aggrieved woman. The disclosure of the preliminary finding of a three-judge panel, that the former judge had indulged in an act of unwelcome behaviour towards the intern, led to Mr. Ganguly s resignation from the post of Chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission. The court now has to contend with yet another challenge to its image and credibility in the form of a complaint by another former intern who has alleged she suffered an unsavoury experience at the hands of Justice Swatanter Kumar, when he was a Supreme Court judge. Mr. Kumar, who is now Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal, has denied the allegations. The former intern has now approached the court with a petition seeking a permanent mechanism to deal with sexual harassment in judicial bodies. She has also challenged the December 5, 2013, resolution of the Full Court that no more representations against former judges would be entertained. There can be no doubt that had a proper institutional mechanism been put in place a few years ago, both the aggrieved interns would have been better placed to seek redress. In its absence, the systemic imbalance of power between a judge and an intern deterred them from doing so. In August 2013, the Supreme Court notified its regulations on gender sensitisation and sexual harassment of women on its precincts, and in November, its composition. A question that arises now is whether this mechanism is enough to adjudicate complaints of harassment and whether it can cover former judges. One dilemma for the judiciary is whether it should leave complaints against members of the superior judiciary to routine judicial processes such as a criminal complaint, or render a finding by its own judicial or administrative mechanism. There is a moral dilemma created by complaints that can be described as belated, going by the lapse of time, or timely, if one considers the present atmosphere as one that is more conducive to ensuring gender justice. It is whether the court is inadvertently creating a mode of removing or disabling or at least disparaging judges and heads of tribunals by encouraging such complaints. The question also arises if, going by the legal maxim that a crime never dies, it should not pursue the truth regardless of when it took place and where it leads to. There cannot be a perfect answer to the multiple dilemmas, but the court will hopefully put in place a mechanism that is seen as credible and fair while averting damage to the judiciary.