Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, popularly known as M.S. Swaminathan, the legendary agricultural scientist and a key architect of the country’s ‘Green Revolution,’ passed away at his residence in Chennai on September 28, 2023 at 11.20 am, following age-related issues. He was 98.
He is survived by three daughters — Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist, World Health Organisation; Madhura Swaminathan, professor, economic analysis unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru and former chairperson, MSSRF, and Nitya Rao, director, NISD, University of East Anglia, UK. His wife, Mina Swaminathan, who was Distinguished Chair, Gender and Development, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), died in March 2022.
Born in Kumbakonam on August 7, 1925 to M.K. Sambasivan, a surgeon, and Parvati Thangammal, Swaminathan had his schooling there. His keen interest in agricultural science coupled with his father’s participation in the freedom movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s influence inspired him to pursue higher studies in the subject.
Otherwise, he would have become a police officer, for which he qualified in the late 1940s. By then, he had obtained two undergraduate degrees, including one from the AgriculturalCollege, Coimbatore (now, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University).
Violent protests rock Imphal; DC office vandalised; two vehicles torched
“Violent protests over the death of two youths in Manipur continued till the early hours of Thursday (September 28) with a mob vandalising the deputy commissioner’s office in Imphal West and torching two four-wheelers,” officials said.
A fresh bout of violence, this time led by students, broke out in the State capital on Tuesday after photos of the bodies of two youths who went missing in July went viral on social media. “Last night, the protesters clashed with security personnel in Uripok, Yaiskul, Sagolband and Tera areas, prompting the forces to fire several rounds of tear gas shells to control the situation,” officials said.
“The protesters blocked roads with burning tyres, boulders and iron pipes to prevent the security forces from entering residential areas,” they said. “A mob also vandalised the DC office and torched two four-wheelers. CRPF personnel brought the situation under control,” they added.
Curfew was re-imposed in the two districts — Imphal East and West — as the security forces confronted the violent protests, which saw 65 demonstrators being injured since Tuesday. “Meanwhile, a BJP office at Khongjam in Thoubal district was set on fire,” police said.
In a statement, the Manipur Police said that a mob targeted a police vehicle and burnt it, while assaulting a policeman and snatching his weapon. Stern action will be taken against those indulging in such crimes, it said, adding that a search operation was under way for the recovery of the snatched arms and the arrest of the accused.
The Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights, meanwhile, urged the security forces not to use lathi charge, tear gas shells and rubber bullets “arbitrarily and abruptly” against teenagers. More than 180 people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
Meiteis account for about 53% of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal valley, while tribals, including Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40% and reside mostly in the hill districts.
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Decoding the govt’s Bill on appointment of Election Commissioners
The government introduced a new Bill in the Rajya Sabha in August – the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023. It repeals the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991.
This Bill was initially listed for discussion in the special session of Parliament this month, before being held back. But it has sparked a big debate about the implications of this Bill, especially the provisions that removed the Supreme Court Chief Justice from the selection panel, and altered the status of the Election Commissioner – from being equivalent to a Supreme Court judge, to that of a Cabinet Secretary.
Lok Sabha Speaker refers complaints against BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri to Privileges Committee
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has referred the complaints against BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, for using abusive language against BSP MP Danish Ali during the Special Session of the Parliament, to the Privileges Committee. Bidhuri made his remarks in the lower house on the last day of the Special Session on September 21.
In a synchronised move, the member parties of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance had submitted independent complaints to the Speaker against Bidhuri. They also urged him to refer the complaints to the Privileges Committee for investigation. The tranche of complaints over the issue also includes the one made by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey against Ali, for allegedly making provocative remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he claimed incited Bidhuri to react.
Dubey in a post on X (formerly Twitter) thanked Birla for the move. “It was possible because the BJP has a majority in Lok Sabha,” he said, listing out several previous incidents to assert that no committee was formed to probe such issues and nor was anyone punished. He cited the 2006 episode when RJD, JD(U), and Congress members were engaged in a fight and shoes flew across the floor of the House.
The committee is headed by BJP MP Sunil Kumar Singh.
Abysmally low recovery rates in MGNREGA corruption cases flagged by auditors
An oft-repeated criticism against the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme is its alleged high rate of corruption. But the scheme’s inbuilt mechanism to combat it -- the social audit units meant to detect any cases of malpractice -- haven’t been supported by effective mechanisms for recovery of embezzled funds.
As per the statistics available with the Union Rural Development Ministry in the ongoing financial year, less than 14% of the amount flagged by the auditors has been recovered so far. The figures for the previous financial years are equally dismal.
In the ongoing financial year, the social audit units have flagged misappropriation to the tune of ₹27.5 crore. After action was taken in some of these cases, the amount came down to ₹9.5 crore out of which only ₹1.31 crore has been recovered so far, merely 13.8% of the total.
The financial year 2022-23 has a similar story; after taking rectifying measures, the recoverable amount was pegged at ₹86.2 crore but the recovery amounted to only ₹18 crore, just 20.8% of the total. In 2021-22, one of the social audit units flagged one of the highest amounts of misappropriation at ₹171 crore but only ₹26 crore, 15% of the total, was recovered.
Section 17 of the Act governing the scheme says that the gram sabha “shall monitor the execution of works”. Each State has social audit units which are supposed to work independent of the implementing authorities.
To take stock of the situation, the Ministry held a day-long seminar on Tuesday inviting the social audit units from States, MGNREGA commissioners, civil society, and other stakeholders.
A bleak picture emerged at the seminar, of fund-starved social audit units, working without training or adequate personnel. The social audit unit’s sole responsibility is to flag cases of malpractice. Recovering the money, and reprimanding the officials responsible, is up to the State governments.
A dismal recovery rate threatens the credibility of the audit process, since it makes the entire exercise futile, said Rakshita Swamy from the Social Accountability Forum for Action and Research (SAFAR), who attended the seminar.
“The Union government has weaponised the lack of social audits to withhold funds for MGNREGA for the States. But the Ministry, which directly funds the social audit units so that they are able to maintain their independence from the States, is not getting funds to them in time. For example, units in Karnataka and Bihar have not got funds for nearly two years now,” Swamy added.
Over the last three years, there has been a consistent trend of the same States reporting “zero number of cases” and making “zero recoveries”. The BJP-ruled States of Gujarat and Goa, the northeastern State of Meghalaya, and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Ladakh have been on this list for all the three years.
There are other States such as Telangana, where an active social audit unit has flagged several cases, but the recovery rate remains low. For example, in the ongoing financial year, ₹6.6 crore was flagged by the auditors to be recovered; so far, only a measly ₹2,087 has actually been recovered.
“We welcome the vigilance by the Centre and their pressure on the States to recover the misappropriated money. But the States that identify several cases of misappropriation are taken to task for not making the recovery. Worse than these States are those that show no cases at all. Which clearly means, there is no monitoring here,” said Nikhil Dey, founder member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, who also attended the seminar.
Modi government crushed hopes of youth, leading to suicides: Congress
Days after the Narendra Modi government held a rozgar mela to give away appointment letters for government jobs, the Congress on Thursday attacked it over the issue of unemployment. The party alleged that the Modi government had crushed the hopes and dreams of India’s youth and that was leading to increasing cases of suicides.
In a statement, party general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh alleged that the Modi government might want to “manipulate” the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data to hide information on suicides.
“Instead of dealing with the crisis of demographic dividend turning into a demographic disaster, we should not be surprised if the Modi government’s next move is to manipulate the NCRB data due for 2022 to hide the alarming suicide rate among the youth,” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader cited the recent interactions of Rahul Gandhi with railway porters at the Anand Vihar terminal where Gandhi noted that large numbers of educated youth, including those with engineering degrees, were unable to find formal employment and were forced into precarious informal jobs such as porters.
Ramesh said unemployment as well as the hidden under-employment remained a severe problem in India. The Congress leader claimed that data from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for 2021-22 showed formal sector employment was 5.3% lower than it was in 2019-20. The number of formal employers also declined by a 10.5% between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
According to a report from Azim Premji University, Ramesh said, 42% of graduates under 25 were unemployed in 2021-22. Jobs in manufacturing dropped 31% between 2016-17 and March 2023, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data.
Quoting the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for January-March 2023, Ramesh said even in urban areas, less than 50% of workers were salaried. “Instead, self-employment and casual employment have risen. These numbers show that the unplanned lockdown, in combination with disastrous economic policies and the cronyism of the Modi government, have actually shrunk formal employment opportunities for educated youth,” the Congress leader said.
Ramesh alleged that the Prime Minister personally holds rozgar melas, making a “complete mockery” of routine government functioning, to cover up its failures in providing employment.
The Congress’ latest attack on the Modi government comes just days after Gandhi, as part of his Bharat Jodo Yatra outreach, met with railway coolies to understand their problems. On Thursday as well, the former Congress chief visited a furniture market in Kirti Nagar area of west Delhi and interacted with carpenters and other workmen.
In Brief:
Police have taken into a custody an autorickshaw driver in connection with the rape of a girl, who was found bleeding on a street in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain city, and five others are also being questioned in the case, a senior official said on Thursday. The police have also found some blood stains on the passenger seat of the autorickshaw of the detained man, he said. According to Ujjain police, a counsellor interacted with the minor rape victim, and found that the latter belongs to Satna district. However, police in Satna said whether she is the same girl about whom a missing person’s report was filed will be confirmed after her family identifies her.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
