The Hindu -Bali talks of WTO

The trade agreement reached in Bali last weekend has provided much-needed oxygen to a moribund World Trade Organisation. The WTO, founded in 1995, was fast fading into irrelevance what with countries forging bilateral trade pacts and powerful regional trade agreements, especially in the developed world. In the event, the first-ever trade agreement between the 159 member-countries of the WTO is a shot in the arm for multilateralism even as it keeps the agenda of the Doha Round alive. “We have put the world back into the WTO,” declared Roberto Azevedo, Director-General, and he could not have put it more eloquently. The agreement is designed to simplify customs procedures and lower trade barriers between countries. The International Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the Bali deal will cut trade costs by 10-15 per cent even as it adds an estimated $1 trillion to global trade. How realistic these numbers are will only be proved in the years ahead, but there is little doubt that global trade will get a significant boost from the Bali agreement. In a sense, the emergence of regional trade blocs which was seen as a threat to the WTO eventually proved to be its saviour as those countries left out from them, mainly emerging economies such as India, Brazil, South Africa and Russia, realised the WTO was critical to their interests.

The unyielding stance of India on protecting its farm subsidies which are set to increase following the enactment of the Food Security Act did cause some disquiet amongst the member-countries and at one stage seemed set to hold up an eventual agreement. The interim mechanism devised as a via media will allow India to continue with its agricultural support price programme undisturbed until a final solution is negotiated. A phase of tough and tricky negotiations is ahead for the country as it seeks to get its farm subsidy programme into the WTO framework; support from other developing countries with similar programmes is crucial here. Indeed, from a larger perspective, the agreement at Bali is just the beginning. A lot of hard work lies ahead for the WTO, and Mr. Azevedo has acknowledged this. Trade negotiators need to carry forward the positive momentum built up at Bali as they seek to push through the Doha Round agenda. This will not be easy though, as negotiators will have to contend with regional groupings such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which involves the U.S., Japan and ten other Pacific Rim countries, and the powerful trans-Atlantic alliance between the U.S. and the European Union, negotiations for which are now on. Bali may have infused life into the WTO but its biggest battles lie ahead.

The Hindu - political unrest in Thailand

The political unrest in Thailand against a popularly elected government is a clear sign that democracy is yet to fully take root in that country. Protestors, mainly belonging to the opposition Democrat Party, have besieged Bangkok for days demanding that the government resign. They are not willing to countenance Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra or her government even in a caretaker role until a mid-term election that she has announced for February 2014 in a desperate bid to quell the protests. In a sense, this is a continuation of a crisis that preceded the 2011 election. That election was held after a series of protests in 2010 against the royalist Democrat Party government by supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, brother of the Prime Minister, who headed the government until 2006 when he was sent packing by the military. Ms. Yingluck led the Pheu Thai Party to a convincing victory in the election, winning well over half the seats in the 500-seat Parliament. The present bout of unrest began when the government tried to introduce an amnesty arrangement that would allow Mr. Thaksin, who fled the country to escape being tried on corruption charges, to return without fear of prosecution. Though the proposal was dropped, the leader of the present protests, Suthep Thaugsuban, Deputy Prime Minister in the previous Democrat Party government, has vowed to continue until power is handed over to non-elected councils. He resigned as an Opposition member of Parliament to lead the protests. Other parliamentarians of the party have since resigned to join the protests. Clearly the DP wants to avenge its electoral defeat, in a manner not in keeping with its name. Indeed, with its supporters mainly Bangkok’s elites, its chances of winning are slim, while the PTP, whose supporters are drawn mainly from rural Thailand and among the urban poor, may triumph again.

Notwithstanding the criticism that she is her brother’s proxy, Ms. Yingluck has emerged as a leader in her own right in the last two years. While her government has made its share of mistakes, in the present crisis she has appeared in better light than the protestors. Despite its stormy relationship with the PTP, the military has kept away from this new edition of Thailand’s political tug-of-war so far — even though the protestors openly sought its intervention, storming the Army headquarters demanding support. In a country where the military has carried out coups 18 times since the end of monarchical rule in 1938 and, as in Pakistan, has played a backroom role even in civilian dispensations, it cannot be ruled out as a player. If the impasse persists, it might still be called upon to play the arbiter. There will be no knowing then, where its role will end.

NYT - Sn 377 reinstated by Supreme Court of India

NEW DELHI — The Indian Supreme Court reinstated on Wednesday a colonial-era law banning gay sex, ruling that it had been struck down improperly by a lower court.

Related in Opinion

• Editorial: India’s Reversal on Gay Rights (December 12, 2013)

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The 1861 law, which imposes a 10-year sentence for “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal,” was ruled unconstitutional in a 2009 decision. But the Supreme Court held that only Parliament had the power to change that law.

There is almost no chance that Parliament will act where the Supreme Court did not, advocates and opponents of the law agreed. With the Bharatiya Janata Party, a conservative Hindu nationalist group, appearing in ascendancy before national elections in the spring, the prospect of any legislative change in the next few years is highly unlikely, analysts said.

Anjali Gopalan, founder of a charity that sued to overturn the 1861 law, said she was shocked by the ruling.

“This is taking many, many steps back,” Ms. Gopalan said. “The Supreme Court has not just let down the L.G.B.T. community, but the Constitution of India.”

S. Q. R. Ilyas, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which filed a petition in support of the reversal, praised Wednesday’s ruling.

“These relationships are unethical as well as unnatural,” he said. “They create problems in society, both moral and social. This is a sin as far as Islam is concerned.”

India has a rich history of eunuchs and transgender people who serve critical roles in important social functions and whose blessings are eagerly sought. Transgender people often approach cars sitting at traffic lights here and ask for money, and many Indians — fearing a powerful curse if they refuse — hand over small bills.

Despite this history, Indians are in the main deeply conservative about issues of sexuality and personal morality. National surveys show that Indians widely disapprove of homosexuality and, on average, have few sexual partners throughout their lives.

The pressure to marry, have children and conform to traditional notions of family and caste can be overwhelming in many communities. Indian weddings are famously raucous and communal affairs. So gay men and women are often forced to live double lives.

Asian nations typically take a more restrictive view of homosexuality than Western countries. In China, gay sex is not explicitly outlawed, but people can be arrested under ill-defined laws like licentiousness.

The law banning homosexuality is rarely enforced in India, but the police sometimes use it to bully and intimidate gay men and women. In rare cases, health charities that hand out condoms to gays to help prevent the spread of H.I.V. and AIDS have had their work interrupted because such efforts are technically illegal under the law.

But inspired by gay rights efforts elsewhere, activists in India have in recent years sought to assert their rights, holding gay rights marches and pushing for greater legal rights and recognition.

As part of this effort, the Naz Foundation, a gay rights advocacy group, filed suit in 2001 challenging the 1861 law, known here as Section 377. After years of wrangling, the group won a remarkable victory in 2009, when the Delhi High Court ruled that the law violated constitutional guarantees for equality, privacy and freedom of expression.

India’s judges have sweeping powers and a long history of judicial activism that would be all but unimaginable in the United States. In recent years, judges required Delhi’s auto-rickshaws to convert to natural gas to help cut down on pollution, closed much of the country’s iron-ore-mining industry to cut down on corruption and ruled that politicians facing criminal charges could not seek re-election.

Indeed, India’s Supreme Court and Parliament have openly battled for decades, with Parliament passing multiple constitutional amendments to respond to various Supreme Court rulings.

But legalizing gay sex was one step too far for India’s top judges, and in a rare instance of judicial modesty they deferred to India’s legislators.

India’s central government had offered conflicting arguments during the many years of wrangling around the case. But Indira Jaising, an assistant solicitor general of India, said in a televised interview that she was surprised that the court had decided to punt on the underlying legal case.

“They have never been deterred by the argument that the government, the legislature or the executive has not done this or that on other policy matters,” she said.