ERR_INTERNET_DISCONNECTED

Sitting in our metro cities it is difficult to imagine a world of alternate realities. The internet and our access to it, is perhaps one such world. One where screens suddenly blank out and you end up with a digi-dinosaur hopping over cactus.

At a panel discussion organised by the Indian Express yesterday, a group of experts sat on the stage to discuss what seemed like a rather vague and tenuous topic - "Is Internet Shutdown a New Order for Law and Order"? The fact that this event - IE Thinc - was sponsored by Facebook made me all the more skeptical about its relevance. 

The panel had an interesting mix:  a young bureaucrat responsible for an internet shutdown at Ranchi; a representative from the Intenet Freedom Foundation, one from the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), and an economist. Except for the last one, who seemed long winded and disconnected like most economists, the other three made sense. 

I was surprised to know that the Government of India is very secretive about sharing data on internet shutdowns. Data accessed from other sources (mainly UN) indicate that there have been at least 254 shutdowns in 19 states during the period 2012-2018. 

While the initial intent of many had been to prevent riots and loss of lives from the the rumours spread on Facebook, Whatsapp etc., internet shutdowns were now being implemented for reasons that could only be described as flippant and irresponsible. In the most recent case, in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the internet was shut down for a few days to prevent cheating in a government recruitment exam!

Considering how internet shutdowns affected the lives of millions of citizens - loss of business, access to basic services, education, payments and so on - what was the legal basis for such disruptions? Here are some of the laws/rules enumerated:

• Article 19(2) - places "Reasonable restrictions" on freedom
• Section 144 CPC - "Unlawful Assembly" -- used against freedom fighters during freedom struggle to confiscate Gandhi Caps, now used to shut down the net.
• Rules for Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services, 2017 -- just requires an SP+ officer to issue order
• Section 95 CPC - banning of books
• Section 6.2 of Telegraph Act - used for phone/network tapping

I am glad I decided to attend this event. If not anything else, it was a sobering reminder that it takes very little to turn the smartphone in our hands into a useless lump of plastic and metal.

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LINKS:

- Rules for suspension of telecom services, 2017 - http://www.dot.gov.in/circulars/temporary-suspension-telecom-services-public-emergency-or-public-safety-rules-2017
- Internet Freedom Foundation - https://internetfreedom.in/
- Report on IE event -7 Sept., 2018 - https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/iethinc-debates-implications-of-internet-shutdowns/1305181/

On Dogs Lovers and Power Illiteracy

Stray dogs protecting their turf (Pic source: DNA 14Dec17)

I have always found it difficult to understand the dynamics and the power of "Noble Intentions". How is it that when two sets of well meaning people, both trying in their own way to create a better society, end up making it more dysfunctonal?

Let me illustrate this with an example: stray dogs in our cities. 

Most people are wary of stray dogs, and see them as a threat, and a health hazard, while there is another set of folks, the 'Dog Lovers' who see nothing wrong in having stray dogs share our roads, parks and public spaces. If anybody gets bitten it is because they 'provoked' the dog, and therefore deserved what they got. 

Does their love for dogs extend to other animals as well? Not quite. Nobody would raise a finger, let alone filing a police case, if a harmless rat snake was beaten to pulp, or if pigs drowned in the sewers. But dogs? They are a 'man's best friend', and therefore, special.

Quite unlike the folks who get bitten on the streets, the Dog Lovers are superbly networked, and well organised. They are loud and vocal; they have the ready attention of not only the local newsreporters but also the sympathies of the Supreme Court. So when they take up cudgels on behalf of the strays, filing police reports against those who are violent towards stray dogs, naming and shaming people, all that the opposition can do is to roll over, and play dead.

How did the Dog Lovers come to weild so much power and influence? Why does our overstretched police force take on the unikely role of protecting stray dogs? The answer is simple: the law requires them to do so. 

As per Indian law, street dogs cannot be beaten, killed or driven away or displaced or dislocated. Under the Animal Birth Control (ABC Dogs) Rules, 2001  enacted under Section 38 of the Indian Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 (A Central Act), stray dogs can only be sterilized, vaccinated, and then returned back to their original locations. 

What happens when the state ABC department does not have the capacity (funds, personnel, infrastructure) to deal with an explosion in the population of stray dogs? Nobody seems to know, or care.

In NOIDA along there are an estimated 13,600 stray dogs. A few months ago, a child got severely mauled by a pack of stray dogs . When alarmed citizens got together to drive away strays and ended by beating a stray dog to death, police cases were promptly filed against them. So, at present, the very thought of messing with the Indian legal system, with its backlog of cases, is enough to deter any sensible citizen from messing with stray dogs. It is better to get bitten than to get stuck in the Indian courts.

How did a small band of Dog Lovers manage have such a disproportionate influence on the law of the land? A part of the answer lies in what has been articulated so well in Eric Liu's TED Talk - "Why Ordinary People Need to Understand Power". 

Liu rightly points out that power illiteracy all pervasive and that citizens have depressingly low levels of civic knowledge, civic engagement, participation, and awareness. They are naive about all the forms of power that are at play: money, people, ideas, information, misinformation, the threat of force, the force of norms.

Those few who do understand how power operates in civic life, those who understand how a bill becomes a law, how a friendship becomes a subsidy, or how a bias becomes a policy, or how a slogan becomes a movement, the people who understand those things wield disproportionate influence.

Clearly, Dog Lovers in India belong to the power literate elite who weild a disproportionate influence in our cities. In many ways they themselves are like the proverbial dog in the manger - they will not ease the burden on state ABC departments, nor will they stop barking at those who act against stray dogs.

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BTW

Kerala, seems to be among the few states where stray dogs do not enjoy a special status. It has citizens groups that actively participate in anti-stray dog campaigns and support the culling of strays. Across India, only the High Courts of Kerala and Karnataka have taken the position that local municipal laws prevail over the PCA Act. It is not a state of affairs that pleases the stray-dog lovers.

Thanks to this awkward state of semi-rebellion the state sees a lot of parodies centered around the helplessness of the civil society. In this one, a local alpha stray-dog, "Tiger Sabu" is being interviewed by a nervous TV news anchor, a few days after demonetization: 



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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Jaagruti - Indian street dogs and their rights - https://jaagruti.org/information-to-empower-you/indian-street-dogs-and-their-rights/
* Noida - child mauled by stray dogs - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/child-mauled-by-stray-dogs-in-greater-noida/articleshow/59198467.cms
* Animal Welfare Board of India - https://awbi.org/
* (4 Jan 2018) Hindu: Stray dog victim still in ICU - http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/stray-dog-attack-victim-still-in-icu/article22362867.ece
* (1 Apr 2018) ToI: Noida: Residents, security guards booked for thrashing stray dog to death- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/noida-residents-guards-booked-for-thrashing-stray-dog-to-death/articleshow/63565399.cms
* http://www.dnaindia.com/delhi/report-plaints-on-noida-s-stray-dog-menace-fall-on-deaf-ears-2567534
* Eric Liu's TED Talk - "Why Ordinary People Need to Understand Power" -  https://www.ted.com/talks/eric_liu_why_ordinary_people_need_to_understand_power

Countervailing Buying Power

In India, the Competition Act, 2002, was amended in 2007 to create two new agencies: the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT). CCI is expected to promote, regulate and sustain competition in the market while CAT is to help resolve any disputes.

Article 19 (4) of the Act states that CCI shall, while 'inquiring whether an enterprise enjoys a dominant position'...have due regard to a number of criteria, one of which is  "countervailing buying power".

What is Countervailing Buying Power?

Buying Power is "the ability of a buyer to influence the terms and conditions on which it purchases goods”. This is fairly straightforward. Large supermarkets like Walmart are in a position to drive a hard bargain from its suppliers. In exchange for large volumes and access to developed markets, manufacturers (eg., Knitwear from Tirupur) are forced to strip down their margins to the bare minimum, and this, is supposed to help the supermarkets offer sharp discounts to their customers.

The word 'Countervailing' is a little more complicated. It is most often used in the context of international trade, as in Countervailing Duties (CVD), which are taxes imposed by a government to prevent cheaper imports from running the domestic manufacturers out of business. In India, CVD is additional duty of customs is levied to offset the disadvantage to like Indian goods due to high excise duty on their inputs.

So Countervailing Buying Power is something that helps bring down the cost of a product when manufacturers (sellers) seeks shelf-space in a supermarket. It is often used as a defense in merger cases, to paint a picture of powerful buyers rising up to seller power. For instance, Walmart and Ikea often proclaim that they are able to supply relatively cheaper groceries or furniture because they are able to able to drive a hard bargain with their suppliers.

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REFERENCES / LINKS

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/countervailingduties.asp
http://business.gov.in/doing_business/customs_duty.php
Central Excise Act, 1944 -- http://business.gov.in/outerwin.php?id=http://www.cbec.gov.in/excise/cx-act/cx-act-idx.htm
Why is Countervailing Duty Important? (MoneyControl) - http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/advertising/why-levycountervailing-duty-is-important_822635.html

Lipsius, Grotius & International Law

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Today evening, I was walking down the 3K corridor for a cup of coffee when I heard the words "East India Company" and "International Law" from one of the classrooms. Prof. Klienschimdt was halfway through one of his sessions, and I wondered if I could just drop in... The lecture sounded really interesting, so I slowly sneaked in (nothing ventured, nothing gained!) and settled on one of the  rear seats.

On the boards, there was ample evidence that the session had been on for a while. On one side there was a list of trading stations along the coast of Africa, South Asia (Goa, Daman, Diu) and East Asia (Malacca), and, on the other, names of European kings of the late 1500s and early 1600s - Philip-II of Spain (aka Philip-I of Portugal), the House of Orange (Holland) and Elizabeth-I of England. The discussion had now reached an interesting juncture: how did little Holland manage to win the trade wars against the big boys - Spain & Portugal?

A part of the answer, apparantly, lay in the University of Lieden (est.1575!). Here, a professor named Justus Lispius (1547-1606) wrote two best-sellers that were to form the bedrock of Dutch pragmatism, as well as International Law and the Modern State. The two books - On Constancy and Politics - put forth, for the first time, a set of guiding principles that was not based on religious texts. These guiding principles (Natural Law) essentially said that any action should be such that its rationale is self-evident, without the need for enforcement by external agents.

The practical outcome of this was that while Spain and Portugal looked up to the Church for legitimacy, approval and guidance, the Dutch were driven purely by profits. Any trade venture that yielded less than 400% profit was not worth the trouble.

So, when the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan imposed a simple condition on the European traders ("don't mix trade and religion"), the Spanish and Portuguese opted out while the Dutch landed a monoply for the next 100 years! The Dutch quietly raked in the profits by following the rules set by the Shogunate, but while their ships were on the open seas, they followed the "Free Seas" (Mare Liberum) principle of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) and stoutly attacked any Spanish blockade.

Both these principles continue to be at the foundation of International Law, in its present form....Now that is someting to think about - over a cup of coffee! :)

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LINKS

• Lipsius - Book of Constancy (I) - http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/lipsius1.htm
• Lipsius - Book of Constancy (II) - http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/lipsius2.htm
• Philip-II of Spain / Portugal
• Stoicism