WhatsApp No. 88986-30000...2020/08/25 · Twenty-three senior leaders of the Congress, including...

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1. Congress in turmoil: Past occasions and what’s different now Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; Polity & Governance Twenty-three senior leaders of the Congress, including five former Chief Ministers, several members of the Congress Working Committee, sitting MPs, and former Union Ministers, have written to party chief Sonia Gandhi, calling for sweeping changes at every level. The letter has acknowledged that the youth of the country have unequivocally chosen Narendra Modi over the Congress, and underlined that the erosion of the party’s support base, and the loss of the confidence of the youth are matters of serious concern. The letter, which is believed to have been sent a fortnight ago, amounts in effect, to a stinging indictment of the party’s current leadership. How significant is the letter written by the 23 leaders? Beyond the contents themselves, what does the letter convey? While the five-page letter has been interpreted in multiple ways, it is no doubt rare in the Congress that a group of leaders as diverse at this one – both geographically and demographically – should put in writing a call for a change or a shake-up in the way the party is being run now. Congress leaders across the divide accept that the sentiment of the workers – as also those of fellow travellers and sympathisers – is that the party, following two humiliating back-to-back defeats in Lok Sabha elections and a string of defeats in the states, cannot move forward with a business-as-usual mindset. The letter is in many ways a pushback – and criticism of the present leadership. Leaders, both young and old, have flagged their concerns over a range of issues – from the uncertainty over the leadership and drift in the party to the delay in organisational appointments and the absence of free and frank discussions within the organisation. Congress leaders said the letter is in many ways a call for putting in place better systems in the party. Many of these leaders also said that it was about time that someone belled the cat. How did matters come to such a pass? The Congress has not seen such coordinated dissent in its recent history, at least not since Sonia Gandhi established her grip firmly on the leadership in the beginning of 2000. However, the party was also in power for 10 years from 2004 to 2014, which disincentivised dissent.

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Since 2014, however, tension has been simmering in the party. There have long been murmurs against Rahul Gandhi, but the disconnect between him and other senior leaders has now reached a point where it had to come out in the open in some way or the other. The tensions boiled over towards the end of last month too, when a routine meeting of party MPs convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi turned stormy after senior leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal – one of the signatories to the letter – called for introspection and honest discussion to zero in on the reasons for the party’s slide. Senior leader P Chidambaram too, had argued that the party should reach out to the people to understand their disenchantment with the Congress. However, there was loyalist blowback – young MP Rajeev Satav launched a counterattack saying that the introspection should begin from the UPA 2 period. “Introspect by all means… but how we came to 44… that should also be looked into. We were 200-plus in 2009. Why and how we came to 44…, that should also be introspected… You are all saying this now. You were all Ministers then. Frankly, it should also be looked into where you failed. You have to introspect from the UPA 2 period,” Satav said. That exchange firmed up the resolve of the leaders to write to Sonia Gandhi, although a plan to convey their feelings and disenchantment over the way things are being run have been on their minds for some time. Is this show of dissent unprecedented in the Congress? No, it isn’t. The Congress is not new to turmoil, dissent and splits. But the difference this time is that the party has now been out of power at the national level for more than six years – the second longest period in its history. The longest period was between 1996 and 2004. There was a major crisis then too – in 1998. But the difference was that a non-Gandhi – Sitaram Kesri – was heading the party then. And that the rebellion was against him – and it was orchestrated by the Delhi lobby to install Sonia as the president. Before that, there was a rebellion in the early 1990s – that too, was against a non-Gandhi. The rebellion – against Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao – resulted in N D Tiwari and Arjun Singh breaking away and launching a new party. But this time, a Gandhi is at the helm. Even in 1969 or 1977, when the party faced a split, it was a Gandhi leading the rebellion, and not at the receiving end.








In 1969, the tussle between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the old guard known as the ‘Syndicate’ came to a head when she threw her weight behind independent candidate V V Giri in the Presidential election. The party’s official candidate, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, lost and the party split after then Congress president S Nijalingappa expelled Indira Gandhi. In 1977, the Congress’s post-Emergency defeat triggered a crisis when then party president K Brahmananda Reddy and Y B Chavan, its leader in Parliament, turned against Indira. The party split once again, with Indira engineering it. In fact, the party had suffered a split even before the elections with Jagjivan Ram and others like H N Bahuguna forming a new party, Congress for Democracy. In 1987, however, the party was in power when it faced a crisis. V P Singh, who as Finance Minister and later as Defence Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government raised questions about corruption, was ousted first from the Cabinet, and then from the party. V P Singh then launched the Jan Morcha with several other disillusioned Congress leaders. And, did Sonia Gandhi face no challenges at all? The only challenge Sonia faced was in her initial years, soon after she took over as Congress president in 1998. Just before the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar raised the banner of revolt. They were expelled, and a new offshoot of the Congress – the NCP – was born. In 2001, before Sonia could consolidate her position, Jitendra Prasada threw a challenge to her leadership when he contested against her for the post of Congress president. He could not do much, and Sonia won easily. That was the last time elections were held for the post of Congress president. Is it possible that this latest letter will be brushed under the carpet? The signatories to the letter had reached out a cross section of Congress leaders before sending it to the Congress president. And even those who did not sign say they agree with the sentiments expressed in the letter. With the letter coming out in the open, battlelines have been clearly drawn. Brushing it under the carpet may not be possible, as more and more people could join the group of rebels. The signals that are emanating from the Congress, on the eve of the CWC meeting, is that the leadership may be amenable to talking things out. Source: The Indian Express








2. Why TCS has to pay $140 million in damages to Epic Systems Corp Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; IOBR A US appeals court on Friday (August 21) upheld compensatory damages of $140 million against Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in an intellectual property lawsuit filed by Epic Systems Corp. The Verona, Wisconsin-based company had claimed that TCS employees had stolen trade secrets belonging to the company while working on a project for them. What was the case against TCS? In 2014, TCS and its subsidiary Tata America International Corporation were hired by Epic to help set up its systems at a medical facility in Portland, Oregon, United States. In October of that year, Epic alleged that TCS employees who were working on site at the hospital had unlawfully gained knowledge of trade secrets and intellectual properties of the former. Based on the information allegedly stolen by TCS employees, TCS had built another software which was a “rip-off” of the original software, Epic alleged. The company also filed a lawsuit against TCS for allegedly stealing its intellectual property. In April 2016, a Wisconsin jury found TCS guilty, and awarded $240 million in compensatory damages to Epic, and another $700 million in punitive damages. Subsequently, a judge in Wisconsin brought the costs imposed on TCS down from $940 million to $420 million, including $140 million in compensatory damages and $280 million in punitive damages. On Friday, the US Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, Chicago, upheld the award of compensatory damages of $140 million, but asked the lower court to reconsider the punitive damages of $280 million imposed on TCS. What are intellectual property rights in the US? The US Department of State has its own intellectual property (IP) enforcement agency which ensures that the IP rights of US-based companies are protected across the world. The agency seeks to deter access to counterfeit and pirated goods that can harm consumers, ensure that the interests of American IP rights holders are protected abroad, and promote IP protection and enforcement as vital conditions for economic development. Apart from this, the United States Patents and Trademarks Office protects the intellectual property rights of individuals and companies, as well as the trade secrets of firms. The agency defines a trade secret as “a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique or process”, which can give a company an “opportunity to obtain an economic advantage over competitors who do not know or use it”.








Any violation of either IP rights or trade secrets of American companies can result in the awarding of punitive damages, as well as the seizure of properties of the company that is accused of stealing those rights or secrets. All such materials, whether physical or software, seized by the agencies then remain in the custody of the court until the matter is decided. What does TCS have to say in this? TCS has maintained that the case filed against it has no material proof, and that it did not “misuse or derive any benefit from downloaded documents from Epic Systems”. However, this is not the only case of its kind involving TCS. In 2019, another software company, Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) took TCS and its US subsidiary to court for stealing trademarks and other intellectual property software. In a statement released at the time, CSC had said that rather than investing time and resources to develop software which could under the complex insurance system of the US, TCS was “accessing and using CSC’s software source code and documentation and its confidential, proprietary and trade secret information”. What happens next for TCS? TCS can still appeal its case before higher courts in the US, and present its claim on why its software is not similar to that of Epic Systems’. The company has in the past said that it respects the intellectual property rights of the clients and partners it works with, and has no tolerance for any infringement. However, if the higher courts also rule against TCS, the company may face problems with its projects in the US going forward. Source: The Indian Express

3. Srisailam power plant accident fire Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper III; Disaster Management A fire in a hydroelectric station located close to unlimited quantities of water would seem to be a contradiction, but as the deadly blaze in the Srisailam power plant shows, the risk is very real. Nine people, including five engineers, perished in the facility on the Telangana-Andhra Pradesh border. At 900 MW capacity, the plant on the left bank canal of the Krishna is one of the biggest contributors to the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation; another branch serves Andhra Pradesh. What makes the accident more disturbing is that it comes as another shock in a season of disasters. Industries and power plants in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have been wracked by accidents during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Srisailam, the fire appears to have started in a control panel during








maintenance. The victims were unable to make an exit through an escape tunnel and were overwhelmed by smoke, while others at a different level could flee in time. Going by official accounts, the smoke made it difficult even for rescue personnel to enter the four-storeyed structure. Moreover, videos made by staff present a spectacle of a small fire rapidly engulfing the working area, trapping the personnel and leaving little room for manoeuvre. Telangana has instituted a CID inquiry, apart from the plant operator’s own probe. But an external technical audit with no conflicts of interest could better serve the objective, identifying lacunae to stop a future catastrophe. It can determine why the victims could not make a safe exit, as per standard procedure. Large hydroelectric power plants are usually built well below surface level, where generation, control and transmission equipment are located. Handling a fire becomes complicated in such circumstances, and safety features have to be extremely reliable. IEEE standards for substation fire protection, issued a quarter century ago, lay down norms for fixed and portable ventilation systems that can remove heavy smoke — as seen in Srisailam. Use of fire-retardant materials in construction, dual exits, easy vertical escape routes using staircases and alarm systems are all part of safety codes. Whether these features were available in the Telangana power plant, and if they were, why the personnel could not use them to quickly escape the inferno should be investigated. The dam fire is primarily the State government’s responsibility, but the Centre should take the opportunity to review safety in places such as Jharkhand, where extensive underground coal field fires have affected remote communities. India loses many lives to fires each year: at 12,748 accidental deaths in 2018, nearly double the number caused by forces of nature, according to NCRB data. Only a rigorous adherence to safety codes can reduce this shocking toll. Source: The Hindu





WhatsApp No. 88986-30000...2020/08/25 · Twenty-three senior leaders of the Congress, including...

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