FOR S

ALE I

N IND

IA AN

D NE

PAL O

NLY

RNI N

O. 28

587/

75RE

GISTER

ED NO

. DL(N

D)-11

/606

8/12

-14; U

(C)-88

/12-1

4; TEC

H/HR

/05/

FBD/

11-13

: TN/

CH(C)

/257

/12-1

4 TN/

PMG(C

CR)/W

PP-51

9/12

-14 L

ICENS

ED TO

POST

WITH

OUT P

REPA

YMEN

T

www.indiatoday.in

9 7 7 0 2 5 4 8 3 9 9 0 9

Politicians run for cover as India Against Corruption threatens to undermine pillars of the establishment

KHURSHIDUNDER SIEGE

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD OF HARYANA KHAPS

ARVIND KEJRIWAL

OCTOBER 29, 2012 35

SPECIAL

INDIA’S BESTBUSINESS SCHOOLS

From the editor-in-chief

It has been a tumultuous October for the political class. Corruption hasreplaced economic reforms as the top of the mind issue for India. In thevanguard of the battle against corruption is Arvind Kejriwal, who until not

so long ago was Anna Hazare’s chief strategist. On October 2, Kejriwalannounced that he would launch a political party on November 26. In the days that followed, he unleashed his fury on the political establishment.

Kejriwal’s first target was Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra. On livetelevision, he accused Vadra of building a real estate empire disproportionateto his known sources of income courtesy his marital status. With that single actof taking the corruption battle to India’s most powerful political family, Kejriwalshowed that he was not scared of taking on anyone in the business of politics.His fearlessness won him several admirers. It struck fear into the heart ofIndia’s political elite. The Congress’s clumsy defence of Vadra was evidence of aparty that had been caught off guard. Less than two weeks later, as a display ofhis political neutrality, Kejriwal targeted BJP president Nitin Gadkari, thoughwith less success. It was clear his campaign would not be simply anti-Congress,it would be anti- establishment. He has also inspired other whistleblowers andcontinues to act as a catalyst for the popular rage against corruption.

Our cover story, written by Deputy Editor Dhiraj Nayyar, analyses the man and his vision. Beyond exposing corruption, hisfuture political party will have an agenda that seeks to radically alter India’s polity and economy. Whether he succeeds in that or not is a moot point but he hasdefinitely hit a raw nerve with a people disillusionedwith a discredited political class.

A few days after the Vadra revelations, Kejriwaltook on the Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid,when a detailed investigative story by Aaj Tak, theHindi news channel owned by the India Today Group, found several irregularities in a trust thatworks for the disabled, chaired by Khurshid and run by his wife Louise. Thetrust had taken Central Government grants and, according to internal gov-ernment communications, had been using forged government documents tovalidate the disbursement of its funds.

In a theatrical press conference, the law minister fulminated against the India Today Group and me personally. He demanded my resignation from the group and challenged me to a public debate. These are all diversion-ary tactics to confuse the real issues. I am not a minister of a government nor have I or any of my companies taken government grants, let alone being charged with any wrongdoing. However, anything involving use ofGovernment funds and a minister is of public interest. The story is based onmaterial that became available to our team which had spent over two monthsof investigating the story. Ethical journalistic practice was followed in pre-senting the material to the Khurshids and asking them to come on record andplace their version. Mrs Khurshid did present some documents but they hadno material bearing and, in fact, the main affidavit they sent in their defenceturned out to be forged. It is surprising to me that the normally suave LawMinister should resort to personal abuse and barely veiled threats of violencerather than refute the facts with evidence.

I have been in journalism for the last 37 years and always strived to upholdthe highest standards of the profession without fear or favour. We as a mediagroup hold no personal agendas or support any political parties. Our commit-ment is to excellence in journalism. One of the best definitions of journalism is:The truth well told. And that’s what we did.

OCTOBER 29, 2012 ◆ INDIA TODAY 10

(Aroon Purie)

OUR JUNE 2011 COVER

Editor-in-Chief: Aroon PurieChief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga

Editorial Director: M.J. Akbar

Editor: Kaveree Bamzai

Managing Editor: S. Prasannarajan

Deputy Editors: Damayanti Datta, Dhiraj Nayyar,Sandeep Unnithan

Senior Editors: Prachi Bhuchar, S. Sahaya Ranjit,Priya Sahgal, Devesh Kumar, Bhavna Vij-AuroraAHMEDABAD: Uday Mahurkar HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon

Photo Editor: T. Narayan

Associate Editors: Abdus Salam

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: M.G. Radhakrishnan

Assistant Editors: Monalisa S. Arthur

BANGALORE: Sowmya Aji CHANDIGARH: Asit Jolly

MUMBAI: Kiran Tare GUWAHATI: Kaushik Deka

JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava

Principal Correspondent: Nishat Bari

CHENNAI: Lakshmi Kumaraswami

Senior Correspondent: Shravya Jain

Copy Desk: Archana Pande, Bodhisattwa Maity (Copy Editors)

Photo Department: Reuben Singh (Deputy Photo Editor),

Subir Halder, Yasbant Negi, Vikram Sharma

AHMEDABAD: Shailesh Raval CHENNAI: H.K. Rajashekar

MUMBAI: Mandar Deodhar, Bhaskar Paul

Infographics and Illustrations: Saurabh Singh (Chief of Graphics)

Art Department: Ajit Bajaj (Senior Art Director) Madhu Bhaskar (Art Director), Vandana Nayar, Jyoti K. Singh(Deputy Art Directors), Vipin Gupta, Pushvinder Kaur

Production Department: Surinder Hastu (Chief of Production),Harish Aggarwal, Naveen Gupta

Chief of Information Bureau: Rajesh Sharma

Group Business Head : Manoj SharmaAssociate Publisher: Anil Fernandes (Impact)

IMPACT TEAMSenior General Managers: Kaustav Chatterjee (East),V. Somasundaram (Chennai), Jitendra Lad (West),Head (North): Dipayan Chowdhary

Consumer Marketing Services: Poonam Sangha, Head - Consumer Services

Sales and Operations: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General ManagerVinod Das, Senior General Manager (National)Manish Shrivastava, Senior Manager (North)Joydeep Roy, Senior Manager (East)Rajesh Menon, General Manager (West) Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (South) Rakesh Sharma, General Manager (Operations)

All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of com-petent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only

Volume XXXVII Number 44; For the week October 23-29, 2012, released on October 22

● Editorial Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex, FC-8, Sector-16A, Film City, Noida - 201301; Phones: 0120-4807100/7200/7300 ● Subscriptions: For assistance contact Customer Care India Today Group, A-61,Sector-57, Noida (UP)-201301; Phones: Toll-free number: 1800 1800 100 (fromBSNL/MTNL lines); (95120) 2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad; (0120) 2479900from Rest of India (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.); Fax: (0120) 4078080; e-mail: wecare@intoday.com; Mumbai: 022-24444423-6, Fax: 24444358 ● Sales: Direct all trade enquiries to General Manager (Sales), Living Media IndiaLimited, B-45, Sector 57, Noida-201301 (UP) ● Regd. Office: K-9 Connaught Circus, New Delhi 110001 ● Impact Offices: 1201, 12th Floor, Tower 2 A, One Indiabulls Centre, (JupiterMills), S.B. Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai-400013; Phone: 66063355; Fax: 66063226 ● E-1, Ground Floor, Videocon Towers, Jhandewalan Extn, NewDelhi ● Guna Complex, 5th Floor, Main Building, No.443, Anna Salai, Chennai-600018; Phone: 2847 8525 ● 201-204 Richmond Towers, 2nd Floor, 12,Richmond Road, Bangalore-560025; Phones: 22212448, 22213037, 22218343;Fax: 22218335; ● 52, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, 4th Floor, Kolkata-700071;Phones: 22825398; Fax: 22827254; ● 6-3-885/7/B, Somajiguda, Hyderabad-500082; Phone: 23401657, 23400479, 23410100, 23402481, 23410982,23411498; Fax: 23403484 ● 39/1045, Karakkatt Road, Kochi 682016; Phones:2377057, 2377058 ; Fax: 2377059 ● 2/C, “Suryarath Bldg”, 2nd Floor,Behind White House, Panchwati, Office C.G. Road, Ahmedabad-380006; Phone:26560393, 26560929; Fax: 26565293 ● Copyright Living Media India Ltd. Allrights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Editor: Kaveree Bamzai. Printed and published by Ashish Bagga on behalf of Living Media India Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd., 18-35 Milestone,Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana) and at A-9, IndustrialComplex, Maraimalai Nagar, district Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu).Published at K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001.● INDIA TODAY does not take the responsibility for returning unsolicited publication material.

www.indiatoday.in

04 INDIA TODAY ◆ OCTOBER 29, 2012

Inside

The Officer Who Dared

S P EC I A L R E P O RTASHOK KHEMKA

It takes a lot to get to the top butmore to stay there. Business schoolsin India must focus on producingglobal leaders, not degree-holders.

Politicians run for cover asthe middle class’mostfavourite crusader threatensto undermine pillars of the establishment.18

Why Everyone IsAfraid of Kejriwal

COV E R STO RYARVIND KEJRIWAL

An upright civil servant pays the price for exposing the Vadra-DLF link, and suffers the consequences: His 43rd transfer in 21 years.

Quality,NotQuantity48

BT- N I E LS E N SU RV EYB-SCHOOLS SPECIAL 7 B Y W O R D

12 U P F R O N T

14 G L A S S H O U S E

80 N E I G H B O U R S

94 G L O S S A R Y

ReformedLalu PlotsComeback

Buoyed by the massiveresponse to his roadshow,the RJD chief has declared waron Bihar’s Chief Minister.

33

N AT I O NBIHAR

TheMedievalWorld ofKhaps

With an anti-woman mindset,the men who run the castecouncils believe invokinghonour can defeat modernity.

82

SO C I E T YHARYANA

DefiantKhurshid onthe Warpath

The law minister takes refuge in bluster, sidestepping overwhelming evidence ofwrongdoing by his Trust.

28

T H E B I G STO RYSALMAN KHURSHID

Cover concept by: DEV KABIR MALIKCover photo by: GETTY IMAGES

25

Mail

O C T O B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 2

FOR SUBSCRIPTION ASSISTANCE, CONTACT: Customer Care, India Today Group, A-61, Sector-57, Noida (Uttar Pradesh)-201301.Phones: 2479900 from Noida, 95120-2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad, and 0120-2479900 from Rest of India.

Toll Free No.: 1800 1800 100. Fax: 0120-4078080. E-mail: wecare@intoday.com

OCTOBER 29, 2012 ◆ INDIA TODAY 90

Green HurdlesYour cover story (“GreenTerror”, October 15) is atimely caution for the Gov-ernment that if environ-mental clearances are notgiven on time, its reformistzeal may not bear fruit.And time is running out.Firstly, strict action shouldbe taken against firms thatdon’t adhere to environ-mental laws. Secondly, it isessential that the Govern-ment rehabilitates or ade-quately compensates thosefrom whom land is takenaway for development.Environmental laws shouldbe transparent and holistic.To end the curse of corrup-tion, the Government needsto put all such clearancesunder one window withtransparent procedures.JACOB S., Thiruvananthapuram

Jairam Ramesh and Jay-anthi Natarajan are India’sgreen terrorists. Nobody

objects to a clean environ-ment, but anything over-done that is an impedimentto progress shouldn’t betolerated. Every project,from power to coal blocks,building of bridges androads to irrigation dams,that has been objected toby the environment min-istry will have disastrousconsequences on India’sgrowth and progress.A. SRIKANTAIAH, Bangalore

The environment ministrymust adop a positive ap-proach and not obstruct in-dustry. It should punishviolators of green laws in-stead. Infrastructureacross India has to be im-proved at all cost to facili-tate fast-paced growth. VIRENDRA T., Dehradun

The Forest (Conservation)Act, 1980, and the Envi-ronment (Protection) Act,1986, are not ‘archaic’ as

Green Terror

‘‘V I R E N D R A T. , Dehradun

‘‘Outdated environmental laws and inflexible ministers strangle India’s economy

The Ministry of Environment and Forestsmust take a positive approach and not stall industry clearances. It should punish those who break green laws.

ACut Above the RestNarendra Modi is truly BJP’S prime ministerial frontrun-ner (“Rise of the Saffron Satraps”, October 15). He mayhave competition from the likes of Shivraj Singh Chou-han, Vasundhara Raje et al, but were BJP to form a con-sensus on the issue, Modi would get maximum supportfrom across the country. He can lead India to greaterheights with his positive and constructive approach.V.K. TANGRI, Dehradun

That BJP has more than one candidate fit for the top jobshould give them confidence in the run-up to the nextGeneral Elections. Rather than worry over possiblesquabbles, which BJP should solve internally, its problemof plenty would convey the message of health to the pop-ulace, at a time when other parties are in rigor mortis.A.K. TIWARI, Kanpur

ANIL DAYAL

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was invited by the Youth Congress to address

its national executive in Srinagar. Also invitedto speak at the event were Information andBroadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, DelhiChief Minister Sheila Dikshit and HaryanaChief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. ButGogoi wasn’t as lucky as the rest. He had toleave a day before Rahul Gandhi arrived inthe state, and missed his Rahul moment.

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi attended a meeting of the parliamentary

standing committee on finance last week ofwhich he is a member.The committee wasdeciding the agenda for 2013. For a change,Rahul was first to speak. He said that therewas a need to look at long-term strategicplanning as well as a need to focus on core is-sues.The young Congress leader didn’t elab-orate what these core issues were but thatdidn’t stop every Congressman who spokeafter him from reiterating that the commit-tee’s focus should be on “core issues”.

Maverick Congress MLA P. Shankar Rao, who filed

a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Andhra Pradesh HighCourt that led to the CBI probeinto the assets of Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy has gone intohiding. On October 12, theAndhra Pradesh High Court vacated a stay on a warrant forhis arrest in a land encroach-ment case. S. Chandrasekhar, amember of the Green FieldsPlot Owners’ Association, hadsubmitted a petition in the highcourt alleging that Rao, a five-time MLA and two-term minis-ter, forged documents to grab72 acres of land in Kanajigudavillage in the northern suburbsof Hyderabad. Rao’s claim isthat the land belonged to hisfather. From crusader to ac-cused, in the blink of an eye?

What’s with the Congress andits sudden obsession with

Rekha? While wishing AmitabhBachchan,Congress GeneralSecretary Digvijaya Singhtweeted that “on 10thOctober Rekha’s birthday.On 11th OctoberAmitabh’s.Coincidence?”Later when Congressspokesperson RenukaChowdhury was askedto comment onBachchan’s birth-day,she retorted,“Rekha’s birthdaywas on October10 but no oneasked me for a comment onthat. Isn’t that gender bias!”

GETTY IMAGES

GOGOI

RAHUL

YASHBANT NEGI/www.indiatodayimages.com

by PRIYA SAHGALGLASS HOUSE

JAGAN’S ACCUSERIN THE DOCK

THE CONGRESSREKHA

TOUGH LUCK FOR GOGOI

RAHUL’S CORE CONSTITUENCY

Union Rural Development MinisterJairam Ramesh managed to bro-

ker peace with the Jan Satyagrahiswho marched to Delhi from Madhya

Pradesh on October 11. Sweepingback his mane of hair, he addressedthe satyagrahis in Agra, saying,“Andolan ka shor democracy kasangeet hai (The noise of agitation is

music in a democracy).” So far so good. Then, as usual, he gotcarried away and exclaimed,

“andolan is like liq-uid oxygen.

Oxygen willkeep the san-gathan (organi-sation) alive andliquid won’t letthe andolandie”. If heoutspeaks his

usefulness as a Cabinet min-ister, there isalwaysBollywood.

NEXT STOP, BOLLYWOOD

REKHA

MANEESH AGNIHOTRI/www.indiatodayimages.com

SAURABH SINGH / www.indiatodayimages.com

14 INDIA TODAY ◆ OCTOBER 29, 2012

OCTOBER 29, 2012 ◆ INDIA TODAY 17

DEMOCRACY 24/7

DHIRAJ NAYYARSignatureB O T T O M L I N E

AWARDED Union Minister for New and RenewableEnergy, Farooq Abdullah,

with ‘GreatCross of Civil Merit’,the highesthonour ac-corded by theSpanish gov-

ernment to individuals for service to their communities.

DROPPED Sedition chargesagainst cartoonist AseemTrivedi, by the Maharashtragovernment. He was ar-rested in September forinsulting national emblemsand the onstitution.

BANNED Twenty-five doctors for three to fiveyears from medical prac-tice, by the Medical Councilof India, for showing them-selves as full-time teachersin medical colleges in orderto get clearance when theyaren’t part of the faculty.

AWARDED Membership of the

Order ofAustralia tocricketerSachinTendulkar.The iconiccricketer will become thefirst Indian sportsperson tobe conferred with the hon-our that is rarely bestowed on non-Australians.

TENDULKAR

S I GNPOSTS

It is a common fallacy to equate democracyand elections. Our politicians do it all thetime. Of course, periodic elections are a

necessary condition for democracy. They arenot sufficient. Accountability cannot, andshould not, be confined to a once-in-five-yeartime frame. Government must be held ac-countable for every decision it makes on eachday of its term in office. In theory, this is whatParliament is supposed to do. In practice, itsrecord is rather dismal. That is in part the nature of a Westminster-style system of gov-ernment where the government of the day al-ways has a majority in Parliament and theruling coalition has a majority on almostevery parliamentary committee, includingthe investigative joint parliamentary commit-tees. The system is built to protect rather thanexpose the government.

At any rate, democracy is too precious tobe left exclusively to politicians. From time totime, the people of India, whether throughcivil society or media, must ask tough ques-tions and demand accountability from theirrulers. Whatever you might think of ArvindKejriwal as a politician, he has done a greatservice to democracy by asking difficult ques-tions to people in power. The questions haverattled the powerful. Robert Vadra indictedhis own by calling India a Banana Republic,a term usually used to describe a country withundemocratic rulers and rampant crony cap-italism. Salman Khurshid did worse when hesaid he would not take questions from “peo-ple on the street”, the very people who electedhim to the powerful office he occupies.

If the Congress and its leaders are irri-tated with the litany of allegations they facefrom Kejriwal and civil society, they have onlythemselves to blame. UPA has run a rampantly

corrupt, and an incredibly incompetent,Government. In the circumstances, even friv-olous allegations stick. Then, UPA has runroughshod over every institution within thesystem of government that is charged withenforcing accountability. It made a mockeryof its chief anti-corruption body, the CentralVigilance Commission, by appointing atainted candidate for the top job. TheGovernment denigrated its own auditor, theComptroller and Auditor General, and ac-cused the constitutional body of producingmotivated reports. Its main investigatingagency, CBI, has no independence. Even thesupposedly independent Public AccountsCommittee of Parliament was reduced by UPA

to a partisan farce over 2G. Those agitated bycorruption had no forum left in the ‘system’which could discipline an errant UPA. Thatgave Kejriwal an opening. He is exploiting it.

Public agitation over corruption and mis-governance cannot be just wished away. Thepower of communications technology, as theArab Spring showed, is fatal for despoticregimes. The same technology can be lethalfor democratic regimes which turn unrespon-sive to their citizens. India is finally demand-ing a 24/7 democracy. That is, of course, badnews for politicians who like to operateopaquely behind closed doors. It is worse forpoliticians who think that it is enough to cam-paign in the run-up to elections and then dis-appear to foreign lands to recuperate from theexertion. And it is terrible news for thosepoliticians who have seceded from the “peo-ple on the street” lulled into a false sense of exclusiveness in their Lutyens’ Delhi bunga-lows and red-light Ambassadors.

India is engaged. It is for politicians to re-spond, sensibly. ■

ABDULLAH

SAURABH SINGH / www.indiatodayimages.com

THE POWER OFCOMMUNICATIONSTECHNOLOGY, AS THE ARAB SPRINGSHOWED, IS FATAL FORDESPOTIC REGIMES.THE SAME TECHNO-LOGY CAN BE LETHALFOR DEMOCRATIC REGIMES WHICH TURN UNRESPONSIVE TOTHEIR CITIZENS.