Writ in Supreme court against nuclear energy
Prospects of nuclear energy renaissance post Indo-US nuclear deal now faced with unexpected hurdle of judicial activism in the form of public interest litigation(PIL). Common Cause , the delhi based NGO, an old hand at PILs through its lawyer Prashant Bhushan filed a writ petition no. 464/2011 in the supreme court that came up for hearing on 14th November 2011.
The petitioners are mostly former bureaucrats led by former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian. An assortment of retired IAS officers having occupied sensitive top positions in government and at one or other time might have been party to decision processes leading to Indo-US nuclear deal. Also included are some former Magsasay ward winners like retired Admiral L Ramdas. The Magsasy award sponsored by Ford Foundation has recently been in news in anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare when one of demand in the controversial Jan Lokpal bill wanted the Magsasy awardees in the penal to select Lokpal. The lawyer of the petitioners is none other than the irrepressible Prashant Bhushan of Team Anna.
That apart, the writ among other challenges the constitutional validity of nuclear liability act passed by the parliament last year, seeks a safety assessment of all nuclear plants in India, and a comprehensive long term cost- benefit analysis of nuclear power. It aggressively seeks to put an end to construction and proposal of any more nuclear power plants pending safety review. It alleges that governments solitary motive in pushing for nuclear power is at the behest of multi-billion dollar global nuclear industry. The proposed French company Areva supplied nuclear plants in Jaitapur have come for special crititcism for its poor, unsafe and outdated technology from the anti-nuclear energy activists in the petition. Building heavily on public fears post Fukuyama, the petition also calls for establishing an independent regulatory authority to oversee nuclear power sector. , The current regulator, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board( AERB) they argue, is loaded with former atomic energy scientists hence can’t be relied to exercise their authority impartially.
The writ petition came up for hearing on 14th November in the court of Hon’ble Chief Justice of India. The court bluntly informed the lawyer of the petitioners that the issues raised on safety were more based on hearsay, stray newspaper reports rather than hard and unbiased factual analysis. Besides, the court was not an expert on nuclear safety matters. It rightly advised them to approach the concerned of the government i.e deptt of atomic energy. Court was hardly persuaded by Prashant Bhushan’s repeated pleas to intervene on regulatory issue when he learnt that court would not entertain any points concerning safety issues with complex technical implications. It further opined that if issue involved safety of any particular reactor or general safety norms, they could issue notice to the atomic energy department and seek information to alley their apprehension. In case government was not found to be sensitive to the safety aspects, courts were at liberty to intervene in public interest at any time.
The petitioners often referred to proposed Areva reactors in Jaitapur to drive home the point that French firm’s technology was old and unsafe and India was a dumping ground from what had now become prohibitively costly and outdated technology. Besides they were at pains to point out that india was expanding its civilian nuclear program much against prevailing global trend of phasing out nuclear power. Examples of Austria, Germany were pointed out. Dr Gopal Krishnan, a former retired DAE chairman’s articles and statements in media were made rallying points against the Indian nuclear program by Prahsant Bhushan. The learned judges didn’t fail to notice petitioners reference to a particular foreign supplier and hinted at the anomaly in lawyer activists views despite his lack of any competence of nuclear safety issues and comparative economic cost-benefit analysis of nuclear power. The argument clearly had shades of market access battle between operators.
In the prevailing mood of resistance largely led by anti-nuclear activists, it is likely that nuclear program will face renewed resistance at local level. Even though these trends are somewhat global and not localized strictly, nuclear industry is much to blame for the current state of affairs. The safety technologies have leapfrogged since Chernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents happened. Fukushima was hardly about robustness and reliability of safety technologies but more about a freak natural calamity that had lowest odds of disabling a reactor. Yet it happened because there is nothing like hundred percent safe technology anywhere. Nuclear industry due to sensitive proliferation concerns has failed to educate the public about safety standards in latest generation reactors. It needs to build a balanced and careful approach to improve transparency in safety operations without endangering security issues inherent in operation of nuclear power plants.
The blog will follow the development in this court battle when it is resumed and will inform readers as debate progresses.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Sabarmati to Ralegan Sidhi; A Travellers Short Tale
On the day Anna wound up his fast at Ram lila maidan, our ground zero of anti-corrruption crusade, it was flattering to witness history in making. The euphoric air of truimph blew harder with Kejriwal's 'mission accomplished' speech. Many I talked to said they no more felt the abscence of 'living presence' of Gandhi whom they were content to know through school text books or see in rupee bills. (Yes. The rupee bill whose mysterious catwalk is at the heart of the dispute.) They had now a 'real one' standing on the dias before them. A very redemptive moment for a long suffering people.
An enduring mystery of our culture , so providential, that it produces at every hinge point a great man who matches the moment. Or is it merely wish fulfillemnt of a civilization steeped in mythology of Mahabharata where Lord Krishna counsels Arjun to not despair as he is ever re-incarnate in any epoch that sees a decline of 'Dharma'. (Yeda, yeda hi dharmashya glanirbhavati bharat..)? Whatever that was. Anna gave wings to myths and whole nation looked up into the sky with thanksgiving gaze.
This is just the beginning. If Gandhi shifted his earthly office from Sabarmati to Ralegan sidhi, then he will have appoint his new Nehru's, Patels et al, to complete the mission. A 'Team' is ready to fill that vacuous imagination of our history while antagonists are ready to introduce their Jinnahs and juveniles .
If artistic defficiencies of this narrative has trumped your thoughts and you haven't seen the unfolding face of future, then read on...
An enduring mystery of our culture , so providential, that it produces at every hinge point a great man who matches the moment. Or is it merely wish fulfillemnt of a civilization steeped in mythology of Mahabharata where Lord Krishna counsels Arjun to not despair as he is ever re-incarnate in any epoch that sees a decline of 'Dharma'. (Yeda, yeda hi dharmashya glanirbhavati bharat..)? Whatever that was. Anna gave wings to myths and whole nation looked up into the sky with thanksgiving gaze.
This is just the beginning. If Gandhi shifted his earthly office from Sabarmati to Ralegan sidhi, then he will have appoint his new Nehru's, Patels et al, to complete the mission. A 'Team' is ready to fill that vacuous imagination of our history while antagonists are ready to introduce their Jinnahs and juveniles .
If artistic defficiencies of this narrative has trumped your thoughts and you haven't seen the unfolding face of future, then read on...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Kurt Godel and Anna Hazare: Logic of checks and balances
The connection looks so distant and incomprehensible that I begin by fixing some background to it.
Godel was the one of greatest logician who made immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in 20th century. His incompleteness theorems in mathematics helped us understand the foundations of mathematics (logic in particular) and paved way in early twentieth century for development of computing machines that have nearly a century later taken over every aspect of human life. The finer nuances of Godels work are best left to mathematicians but its wider implications can be subject of great interest to us today. The implications for politics are topical considering the developments we see today led by Anna Hazare against corruption.
Constitutional democracies are product of deep political understanding evolving from logic of power and legitimacy in ordering of societies. Their architecture draws sustenance and stability from concept of ‘checks and balances’ necessary for exercise of modern statecraft. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupt absolutely. If so is the wisdom of man concerning the political power then answer lies in distributing it among agents of state in a way that their functions act as a checks on each other’s behavior and the resultant outcome is a balance of power that seeks to further larger public good. Though such arrangements seems to function and democratic societies always swear by their faith in them. However their logical foundations have been rarely questioned. Implicitly constitutional democracies abhor the idea of empowering individuals and build institutions that honour the maxim of ‘checks and balances’. Therefore restoring balance of institutional power becomes a logical remedy against malfunctions.
Then what explains the crisis in our polity today raised by Anna Hazare? And how is Godel, a mathematician with little association and interest in politics relevant to the crisis at hand? The answer lies at understanding of the logical structure of our political institutions that are comprehensible to common citizen merely as a dogma rather that an instrument designed with intelligence to serve his needs. The dogma which Godel demolished in realm of logic and forever altered man’s intellectual and philosophical landscape. What did Godel say? Godel said for mathematical systems that rules of a system can not be understood with the available resources in that system alone. One must transit to higher set to understand the lower set of rules. Though hard and difficult to map this for a political process, a rough effort should interpret its consequences this way: the logic of ‘checks and balances’ in designing systems of governance will appear as dogma to elements in that system whose credibility has been consistently eroded . Hence the desire to over through it even swearing by the same rules will appear as face of resistance to it. That’s the most covert and seditious enemy of rule based systems.
Anna’s movement is a consequence of this political dogma that preached ‘checks and balances’ as the necessary cornerstone of a constitutional democracy. Partly because the beneficiaries of that system perpetuated that dogma and prevented efforts to probe its infirm logical foundation. Which translated else way would mean they never demonstrated the logical honesty in playing by those rules. The result was a vast segment of that society, that we see lined up behind Anna today, lost all faith in even limited efficacy of logic and hence this putsch. An anti-constitutional putsch that seeks to bring revolution through legislation and ,paradoxically, swears by those very axioms of ‘checks and balances’.
We now know that Jan Lok pal bill doesn’t supplement Indian constitution but seeks to supplant it. And Ann’a people are least to blame for it. It stands against an entirely compromised political establishment. That also explains the uncertainty of outcome associated with any dialogue. The positions are deeply fundamental and profoundly ideological, now arbitrated by lack of reason on both sides. UPAs fall now seems to be the easiest way out of this illogical impasse unless it manages an inspirational jump to summon a higher level of political imagination to restore sanity in polity.
In detailed biography of Kurt Gödel, it is mentioned that he had found a loophole in the American Constitution which could allow a Fascist type government to legally take power in some special set of circumstances. During his U.S. citizenship examination, sponsored by Einstein as a witness, the judge inquired about his German passport (given to him after Austria was taken over by Nazi Germany), and said that by coming to the U.S. he would be safe from the likes of Hitler. Gödel replied that such was not entirely the case, and that he could explain how a fascist dictator could come to power in the U.S.
Has anyone an idea of what Gödel had found in the U.S. constitution that would make him think in this manner ? Before proceeding for his citizenship oath, he is said to have discussed this possibility with Einstein who dissuaded him from discussing that with the judge if ever discussions came to that. Einstien feared that judge may reject Kurt Godel’s citizenship application.
Logical systems like constitutional democracies will continue to face assault from elements of those systems that continually test her limits. That’s what gives it an organic and evolutionary character. Those moments also test the leadership and imagination of the actors in that theatre. Anna’s movement can be regarded one such moment, bizarre , unsuspecting and spontaneous it may look today, it will test the deeper strands of our faith in constitutional democracy. Where it will end is today anybody’s guess. But by politicizing the vast middle class of India which has till date willingly or otherwise remained a dormant and withdrawn actor in Indian polity, it may have restored the sapping spirit of constitutionalism and thereby , paradoxically once again, saved it from its shaking logical foundations.
Godel was the one of greatest logician who made immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in 20th century. His incompleteness theorems in mathematics helped us understand the foundations of mathematics (logic in particular) and paved way in early twentieth century for development of computing machines that have nearly a century later taken over every aspect of human life. The finer nuances of Godels work are best left to mathematicians but its wider implications can be subject of great interest to us today. The implications for politics are topical considering the developments we see today led by Anna Hazare against corruption.
Constitutional democracies are product of deep political understanding evolving from logic of power and legitimacy in ordering of societies. Their architecture draws sustenance and stability from concept of ‘checks and balances’ necessary for exercise of modern statecraft. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupt absolutely. If so is the wisdom of man concerning the political power then answer lies in distributing it among agents of state in a way that their functions act as a checks on each other’s behavior and the resultant outcome is a balance of power that seeks to further larger public good. Though such arrangements seems to function and democratic societies always swear by their faith in them. However their logical foundations have been rarely questioned. Implicitly constitutional democracies abhor the idea of empowering individuals and build institutions that honour the maxim of ‘checks and balances’. Therefore restoring balance of institutional power becomes a logical remedy against malfunctions.
Then what explains the crisis in our polity today raised by Anna Hazare? And how is Godel, a mathematician with little association and interest in politics relevant to the crisis at hand? The answer lies at understanding of the logical structure of our political institutions that are comprehensible to common citizen merely as a dogma rather that an instrument designed with intelligence to serve his needs. The dogma which Godel demolished in realm of logic and forever altered man’s intellectual and philosophical landscape. What did Godel say? Godel said for mathematical systems that rules of a system can not be understood with the available resources in that system alone. One must transit to higher set to understand the lower set of rules. Though hard and difficult to map this for a political process, a rough effort should interpret its consequences this way: the logic of ‘checks and balances’ in designing systems of governance will appear as dogma to elements in that system whose credibility has been consistently eroded . Hence the desire to over through it even swearing by the same rules will appear as face of resistance to it. That’s the most covert and seditious enemy of rule based systems.
Anna’s movement is a consequence of this political dogma that preached ‘checks and balances’ as the necessary cornerstone of a constitutional democracy. Partly because the beneficiaries of that system perpetuated that dogma and prevented efforts to probe its infirm logical foundation. Which translated else way would mean they never demonstrated the logical honesty in playing by those rules. The result was a vast segment of that society, that we see lined up behind Anna today, lost all faith in even limited efficacy of logic and hence this putsch. An anti-constitutional putsch that seeks to bring revolution through legislation and ,paradoxically, swears by those very axioms of ‘checks and balances’.
We now know that Jan Lok pal bill doesn’t supplement Indian constitution but seeks to supplant it. And Ann’a people are least to blame for it. It stands against an entirely compromised political establishment. That also explains the uncertainty of outcome associated with any dialogue. The positions are deeply fundamental and profoundly ideological, now arbitrated by lack of reason on both sides. UPAs fall now seems to be the easiest way out of this illogical impasse unless it manages an inspirational jump to summon a higher level of political imagination to restore sanity in polity.
In detailed biography of Kurt Gödel, it is mentioned that he had found a loophole in the American Constitution which could allow a Fascist type government to legally take power in some special set of circumstances. During his U.S. citizenship examination, sponsored by Einstein as a witness, the judge inquired about his German passport (given to him after Austria was taken over by Nazi Germany), and said that by coming to the U.S. he would be safe from the likes of Hitler. Gödel replied that such was not entirely the case, and that he could explain how a fascist dictator could come to power in the U.S.
Has anyone an idea of what Gödel had found in the U.S. constitution that would make him think in this manner ? Before proceeding for his citizenship oath, he is said to have discussed this possibility with Einstein who dissuaded him from discussing that with the judge if ever discussions came to that. Einstien feared that judge may reject Kurt Godel’s citizenship application.
Logical systems like constitutional democracies will continue to face assault from elements of those systems that continually test her limits. That’s what gives it an organic and evolutionary character. Those moments also test the leadership and imagination of the actors in that theatre. Anna’s movement can be regarded one such moment, bizarre , unsuspecting and spontaneous it may look today, it will test the deeper strands of our faith in constitutional democracy. Where it will end is today anybody’s guess. But by politicizing the vast middle class of India which has till date willingly or otherwise remained a dormant and withdrawn actor in Indian polity, it may have restored the sapping spirit of constitutionalism and thereby , paradoxically once again, saved it from its shaking logical foundations.
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