HONG KONG: Southeast Asian nations are swallowing an outflow of money from India, as foreign investors lose patience with its policy paralysis and slowing growth and aim instead for more promising emerging markets such as Indonesia.
Corruption scandals and high inflation have added to India’s woes, which have seen growth slow to a three-year low while the fiscal deficit widened to 5.9 per cent of GDP in the last financial year.
“India was sold on the promise of high growth which simply hasn’t panned out over the past four years,” said Gautam Prakash, founder of US based hedge fund Monsoon Capital.
Foreign investors pulled a net $540 million out from India in March and April, compared with $13 billion in inflows in January-February.Foreign portfolio flows into Indian stocks have dropped 99 percent to just 5.17 billion rupees since a March budget that largely disappointed investors, compared with 427.36 billion rupees in 2012 before the budget.
Among the most significant developments from the shift has been the direction in which money is headed – with a big chunk flowing to Jakarta and other Southeast Asian capitals.
Two provisions put forward in the budget to tax indirect investments and combat tax evasion were the last straw for some global mutual funds, prompting an acceleration of money leaving India.
While the provisions were later put on ice, the prospect that such a tax could be proposed in India was enough for some investors to send their Asia-allocated money further east.
“You’re seeing a situation where the ‘I’ in BRIC is being replaced by Indonesia,” said Tim Condon, head of research and strategy for Asia at ING.
Left out
An emerging market brochure distributed by Franklin Templeton last month had data on India missing from a world map. From a global leader in emerging market investing, led by omnipresent guru Mark Mobius, that omission was telling.
India exposure in Asia’s biggest equity fund, the $18 billion Templeton Asian Growth fund, dropped to 16 percent of its assets at the end of March from nearly 20 percent a year ago, while exposure to Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries rose to 35 percent from 31 percent during the period.
An ASEAN-focused equity fund launched by Daiwa Asset Management started with about $366 million in February and has since grown to manage about $430 million, while Fidelity Funds-ASEAN has seen a net inflow of nearly $250 million in the last year.
The bigger ASEAN markets do not necessarily offer a compelling case on valuation grounds.
“Generally we are more negative on India than we are positive on the alternatives, such as Indonesia and the Philippines where we feel the markets have perhaps run ahead of themselves,” said David Baran, co-founder of Tokyo-based hedge fund Symphony Financial Partners.
“However, the ASEAN alternatives do have more positives and less negatives than India and we think that foreign investment outflows from India into the ASEAN alternatives are highly likely to increase if anything.”
Indian shares trade at price to book value of 1.9 times, higher than 1.4 times for Asia Pacific shares as a whole but less than 3.1 times for Indonesia, 2.2 times for Thailand and 2.5 times for Philippines, according to data from Thomson Reuters StarMine.
The trend, nonetheless, is clear as money managers shift away from India, at least for the short-term, towards markets that offer the same favourable demographics and growth potential that had previously drawn investors to Delhi and Mumbai.
Betting on ASEAN
Funds from firms such as Aberdeen, Matthews and T.Rowe with mandates to bet in Asia invested a smaller percentage of their assets in India at the end of March compared with the year-ago period and more in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries than they did a year ago.
Part of the drop is due to a fall in the value of holdings, but fund flow data tracked by Lipper shows mutual fund clients are responding as well, giving more ammunition to funds betting on Southeast Asia and less to those investing in India.
Investors pulled out nearly $480 million from offshore India dedicated funds in April, increasing the 12-month cumulative net outflows to about $4.1 billion, according to data from Lipper.
By comparison, funds investing in Southeast Asia have seen net inflows of about $900 million in the year ending April.
The gap between the total assets under offshore India funds and that of Southeast Asia fell to a three-year low of about $13.5 billion in April, indicating investors were buying into a region that is home to nearly 600 million people.
Indonesia focused bond funds are in favour too, with eight such funds collecting a cumulative $355 million in the year ending April. HSBC Indonesia Bond Open received $200 million alone.
“We are definitely seeing more interest in ASEAN,” said Matt Pecot, head of Credit Suisse’s prime broking unit in the Asia Pacific.
Net exposure to India in Asia-focused hedge fund portfolios fell to 18.7 percent in April from 32.5 percent in January 2011, according to data compiled by Credit Suisse based on their client portfolios. The same measure for Indonesia surged to 51.8 percent in April from 24.7 percent in January 2011.
Net exposure refers to the difference between a hedge fund’s long positions and short positions. A higher net exposure means funds are expecting the stock market to rise.
BRIC hits wall
Ten years ago, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Jim O’Neill, then the bank’s chief economist, combined the emerging market growth stories of Brazil, Russia, India and China to coin the famous “BRIC” moniker. O’Neill recently called India the “biggest disappointment” of the BRIC nations.
“India was a 9 to 10 percent growth economy when the BRICs were put together and now it’s slowing. Indonesia was a 4 to 5 percent growth economy and it’s moving in the other direction,” ING’s Condon said.
The top-three BRIC mutual funds by assets invested a smaller percentage of their assets into India at the end of March than they did a year back, according to data from Lipper. They are also underweight compared with their benchmark, meaning they do not expect India to contribute to portfolio outperformance.
Templeton BRIC fund had 11.7 percent of its assets in India, its lowest since June 2009.
“India is getting trapped in that high fiscal deficit, high current account deficit situation and there is no easy way out of that unless it takes the tough steps,” said Binay Chandgothia, portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors.
Indonesia and the Philippines, meanwhile, have neither current account nor significant budget deficits to worry about, although they do share some of India’s problems such as their own fuel and food subsidies, Symphony Financial Partners’ Baran said.
With combined GDP of $2 trillion, 10-member ASEAN is angling for foreign investment. Ranging from resource-rich Indonesia to impoverished Laos and financial centre Singapore, ASEAN is planning a union by 2015 to allow for free flow of goods, capital, services and labour.
“As far as stock prices go, foreigners own approximately 40 percent of the free float of the Indian market,” Baran said.
“It will not take much of an exodus for this to have a significant impact on the market and there are clearly plenty of alternatives in ASEAN.”
Article source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/As-funds-flee-Indias-pain-is-Southeast-Asias-gain/articleshow/13317960.cms
Kolkata, May 20 — Mamata Banerjee’s car still stops at all traffic signals, she still lives in a single-storey house in a dingy lane, and wears her trademark cotton saris and rubber slippers. But professors get arrested for circulating her cartoons and for supporting slum dwellers, she loses her cool over uncomfortable questions and sees a conspiracy if there is any criticism of her.
West Bengal’s maverick chief minister, who completed one year in office Sunday, is a study in contrast.
Emotional and instinctive, egoist and impulsive, the ‘didi’ (elder sister) of Bengal has established – within a brief period – a personality cult, far surpassing West Bengal’s colossal chief ministers Bidhan Chandra Roy and Jyoti Basu.
She is both the pole and the equator in the Trinamool Congress and the state government, where even the smallest of steps are taken only after her nod.
Ministers dare not talk to the media without her permission.
A minister gave details of a project to IANS but then panicked. “No, no, please don’t write anything. Didi will take offence. She will announce the project when she feels right. At least don’t quote me.”
However, Banerjee’s virtual one (wo)man show has also yielded dividends. She is not only the public face of the government but also the driving force.
After her sudden visits, government hospitals now look cleaner. A revamped and expanded chief minister’s office functions like a well-oiled grievance redressal unit; ministers and bureaucrats desperately try to stick to deadlines set by the chief minister to save their job and avoid public tongue lashings from Banerjee.
“She has led with a fair amount of determination to speed up development,” leading businessman Harsh Neotia, who heads the Ambuja Realty Group, told IANS.
At the same time, there is not even a whiff of corruption charge against the chief minister. Her residence still draws hundreds of people daily. She leads a simple life and is a small eater, muri (puffed rice) with telebhaja (deep fried vegetables) being her favourite.
“Her integrity is beyond doubt. She is free from corruption,” Press Council of India chairman Markandeya Katju said.
But Banerjee’s almost headmistress-like behaviour has drawn cynicism.
“There is only one post (chief minister), all others are lamp posts,” quipped Surjya Kanta Mishra, the Marxist leader of the opposition in the state assembly.
Pradesh Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharya is also critical.
“People have not seen any visible development. And she shouldn’t try to do everything herself. Rather she should distribute the workload for better governance,” Bhattacharya told IANS.
For a leader known for her long struggle – often single-handed – to unseat the formidable Communists, Banerjee even now retains the rebel tag.
She constantly battles the central government on issues like foreign equity in retail and National Counter Terrorism Centre Bill, succeeding in putting both in cold storage.
She uses her clout as the second largest partner of the ruling United Progressive Alliance to demand protection of the states’ rights and an economic package to tide over a financial crisis, even while refusing to raise taxes to mop up internal resources.
“The switching over from opposition to a ruler is not yet complete,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Mohammad Salim told IANS.
The arrest of Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for online circulation of some cartoons which the authorities considered defamatory of the chief minister was denounced by civil society and the public.
Her dealings with the media also bear out her intolerance of criticism.
In the initial days in office, Banerjee would be seen mostly giving exclusive bytes to one Bengali news channel on all important issues . So close was Banerjee to the channel that many referred to her in jest as its special correspondent.
But when the same channel aired some news critical of her government, she called it a “CPI-M agent” and asked the people not to watch it.
Similarly, the arrest of a renowned scientist Partho Sarothi Roy for taking part in protests against eviction of slum dwellers in South East Kolkata has been roundly condemned.
“There are lots of differences between the old Mamata and the chief minister Mamata,” said Asim Chattopadhay, a writer and a former Maoist.
(Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)
IANS
This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.
Original article © IANS / Daily News 2012
Article source: http://india.nydailynews.com/article/f2760bd41b3a747bfc9ab98bbc6cf50b/mamata-banerjee-a-study-in-contrast-one-year-of-mamata
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Through its strong presence worldwide, Zee entertains over 500 million viewers across 167 countries, including USA, Canada, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Pioneer of television entertainment industry in India, Zee…s well known brands include Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action+, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Khana Khazana, Zee Salaam, Zee Jagran, Zing, ETC Music and ETC Punjabi. The company also has a strong offering in the regional language domain with channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Talkies and Zee Cinemalu.
The Zee stable owns an integrated range of businesses. All of these in singularity adhere to the content-to-consumer value chain model of media and entertainment business. Zee is a pioneer in every aspect of content aggregation and distribution through traditional media like satellite and cable and new media like the internet, in India.
Article source: http://www.cricketcountry.com/Cricket-Video-Article/IPL-is-full-of-black-money-says-Baba-Ramdev/551
0
By Nishant Kumar
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Southeast Asian nations are swallowing an outflow of money from India, as foreign investors lose patience with its policy paralysis and slowing growth and aim instead for more promising emerging markets such as Indonesia.
Corruption scandals and high inflation have added to India’s woes, which have seen growth slow to a three-year low while the fiscal deficit widened to 5.9 percent of GDP in the last financial year.
“India was sold on the promise of high growth which simply hasn’t panned out over the past four years,” said Gautam Prakash, founder of U.S. based hedge fund Monsoon Capital.
Foreign investors pulled a net $540 million out from India in March and April, compared with $13 billion in inflows in January-February.
Foreign portfolio flows into Indian stocks have dropped 99 percent to just 5.17 billion rupees since a March budget that largely disappointed investors, compared with 427.36 billion rupees in 2012 before the budget.
Among the most significant developments from the shift has been the direction in which money is headed – with a big chunk flowing to Jakarta and other Southeast Asian capitals.
India SE Asia funds’ assets: http://r.reuters.com/syr28s
Valuation: India vs Southeast Asia http://r.reuters.com/tyr28s
Two provisions put forward in the budget to tax indirect investments and combat tax evasion were the last straw for some global mutual funds, prompting an acceleration of money leaving India.
While the provisions were later put on ice, the prospect that such a tax could be proposed in India was enough for some investors to send their Asia-allocated money further east.
“You’re seeing a situation where the ‘I’ in BRIC is being replaced by Indonesia,” said Tim Condon, head of research and strategy for Asia at ING.
LEFT OUT
An emerging market brochure distributed by Franklin Templeton last month had data on India missing from a world map. From a global leader in emerging market investing, led by omnipresent guru Mark Mobius, that omission was telling.
India exposure in Asia’s biggest equity fund, the $18 billion Templeton Asian Growth fund, dropped to 16 percent of its assets at the end of March from nearly 20 percent a year ago, while exposure to Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries rose to 35 percent from 31 percent during the period.
An ASEAN-focused equity fund launched by Daiwa Asset Management started with about $366 million in February and has since grown to manage about $430 million, while Fidelity Funds-ASEAN has seen a net inflow of nearly $250 million in the last year.
The bigger ASEAN markets do not necessarily offer a compelling case on valuation grounds.
“Generally we are more negative on India than we are positive on the alternatives, such as Indonesia and the Philippines where we feel the markets have perhaps run ahead of themselves,” said David Baran, co-founder of Tokyo-based hedge fund Symphony Financial Partners.
“However, the ASEAN alternatives do have more positives and less negatives than India and we think that foreign investment outflows from India into the ASEAN alternatives are highly likely to increase if anything.”
Indian shares trade at price to book value of 1.9 times, higher than 1.4 times for Asia Pacific shares as a whole but less than 3.1 times for Indonesia, 2.2 times for Thailand and 2.5 times for Philippines, according to data from Thomson Reuters StarMine.
The trend, nonetheless, is clear as money managers shift away from India, at least for the short-term, towards markets that offer the same favourable demographics and growth potential that had previously drawn investors to Delhi and Mumbai.
BETTING ON ASEAN
Funds from firms such as Aberdeen, Matthews and T.Rowe with mandates to bet in Asia invested a smaller percentage of their assets in India at the end of March compared with the year-ago period and more in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries than they did a year ago.
Part of the drop is due to a fall in the value of holdings, but fund flow data tracked by Lipper shows mutual fund clients are responding as well, giving more ammunition to funds betting on Southeast Asia and less to those investing in India.
Investors pulled out nearly $480 million from offshore India dedicated funds in April, increasing the 12-month cumulative net outflows to about $4.1 billion, according to data from Lipper.
By comparison, funds investing in Southeast Asia have seen net inflows of about $900 million in the year ending April.
The gap between the total assets under offshore India funds and that of Southeast Asia fell to a three-year low of about $13.5 billion in April, indicating investors were buying into a region that is home to nearly 600 million people.
Indonesia focused bond funds are in favour too, with eight such funds collecting a cumulative $355 million in the year ending April. HSBC Indonesia Bond Open received $200 million alone.
“We are definitely seeing more interest in ASEAN,” said Matt Pecot, head of Credit Suisse’s prime broking unit in the Asia Pacific.
Net exposure to India in Asia-focused hedge fund portfolios fell to 18.7 percent in April from 32.5 percent in January 2011, according to data compiled by Credit Suisse based on their client portfolios. The same measure for Indonesia surged to 51.8 percent in April from 24.7 percent in January 2011.
Net exposure refers to the difference between a hedge fund’s long positions and short positions. A higher net exposure means funds are expecting the stock market to rise.
BRIC HITS WALL
Ten years ago, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Jim O’Neill, then the bank’s chief economist, combined the emerging market growth stories of Brazil, Russia, India and China to coin the famous “BRIC” moniker. O’Neill recently called India the “biggest disappointment” of the BRIC nations.
“India was a 9 to 10 percent growth economy when the BRICs were put together and now it’s slowing. Indonesia was a 4 to 5 percent growth economy and it’s moving in the other direction,” ING’s Condon said.
The top-three BRIC mutual funds by assets invested a smaller percentage of their assets into India at the end of March than they did a year back, according to data from Lipper. They are also underweight compared with their benchmark, meaning they do not expect India to contribute to portfolio outperformance.
Templeton BRIC fund had 11.7 percent of its assets in India, its lowest since June 2009.
“India is getting trapped in that high fiscal deficit, high current account deficit situation and there is no easy way out of that unless it takes the tough steps,” said Binay Chandgothia, portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors.
Indonesia and the Philippines, meanwhile, have neither current account nor significant budget deficits to worry about, although they do share some of India’s problems such as their own fuel and food subsidies, Symphony Financial Partners’ Baran said.
With combined GDP of $2 trillion, 10-member ASEAN is angling for foreign investment. Ranging from resource-rich Indonesia to impoverished Laos and financial centre Singapore, ASEAN is planning a union by 2015 to allow for free flow of goods, capital, services and labour.
“As far as stock prices go, foreigners own approximately 40 percent of the free float of the Indian market,” Baran said.
“It will not take much of an exodus for this to have a significant impact on the market and there are clearly plenty of alternatives in ASEAN.”
(Additional reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi in MUMBAI; Editing by Michael Flaherty and Alex Richardson)
Article source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/as-funds-flee-indias-pain-is-southeast-asias-gain_706908.html
REMEMBERING A PIECE OF HISTORY AT A TIME OF
JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
Caption: S.H. Kapadia, Yeddyurappa, Kalmadi, Kanimozhi, Raja, Hastings, Impey
Indian governance is steeped in corruption. It is all pervasive, both in civil and military administration. Never in my life have I heard the depth, volume and ramification of corruption of the kind that it is today, though there has always been corruption in government administration. But it was always within the comprehensible level of my mathematical knowledge in few hundreds, thousands, lakhs and rarely in crores of rupees. But since 2010, I have begun to hear of the government losing in lakhs of crores of rupees because of corruption in high places. Take Common Wealth Games, 2G spectrum, Adarsh Housing Society, mining, denotification, defence purchase etc., etc., etc. ad infinitum!
Surprisingly, the UPA government does not seem to be even apologetic about the large scale corruption by its Ministers and officials. Worse it was attempting to whitewash the venality unabashedly and was about to succeed (what with an equally corrupt opposition) when, like a divine intervention, Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia stepped in with what is now known as ‘Judicial Activism.’ Imagine what would have happened to these scams if judiciary too had acquiesced with the corrupt! Perish the thought.
Country’s prime investigating agency CBI, under the jurisdiction and control of the Prime Minister’s office (PMO), is entrusted with the sacred duty of investigating such major crimes. Thus, CBI will investigate and file FIR but the way its master has directed. In a manner of speaking, CBI is the sword arm of the Union Government. It can weaken the case or strengthen the case. It can delay the investigation inordinately or complete it dramatically with a ‘raid’ or ‘search’ of the residential premises and offices of the accused persons and also of his friends and relatives as in the case of B.S. Yeddyurappa. It can take into custody the accused for investigation and keep him as long as it wants and file the FIR in court, ask for judicial custody for long without bail.
Depending upon the political expediency, this exercise will continue till the bail is granted. Thereupon, the CBI will, for the same reason, ensure that the accused gets an acquittal or a conviction as instructed by the government. Former Telecom Minister Sukh Ram’s trial lasting many years is an example. I do not think there is any other country in the world (except Banana Republics) where this can happen. Under our existing law, unless one is convicted, one is not guilty. Therefore, one can have all the rights and privileges even if one is facing a criminal case in the court.
Look at the accused persons in the recent multi-crore scams Kalmadi, Kanimozhi and Raja. They are free birds now with all the rights of a free citizen and MPs attending the Parliament. When this preposterous and paradoxical legal position was questioned by a member of a TV panel discussion, one lawyer on the panel simply dismissed the concern of that member saying, “Sorry, but that is the law. Under the present law an accused on bail can attend the Parliament or even rejoin the office”. The member, an anti-corruption crusader, retorted, “then change the law”. The lawyer, tongue-in-the-cheek, with a smirk on his rotund visage said, “Well, that’s not the business of the accused.” He is right. It is the business of the MPs. But which MP would want a self-incriminating law? Law that will make him lose his rights and privileges in situations where accused persons like Raja, Kanimozhi and Kalmadi are now ?
Yes, that crusader is right. Change the law providing for quick trial in cases involving our politicians. If they are innocent, they can come clean quickly instead of continuing in politics carrying the burden of a stigma of a pending case like Pappu Yadav of UP or our Home Minister P. Chidambaram against whom an election case is pending. At the present speed of the case it will continue even after his 5-year term ends making it infructuous. But even here the fear of conviction will prevent MPs from passing such a law for quick trial. For the record there are 162 MPs facing criminal cases as on January 2012.
A PIL is also pending in the Supreme Court seeking fast-track trials of these cases. In British India an important case of Raja Nanda Kumar was decided by the Supreme Court in flat six days and the convict executed. This is the piece of history I am now going to share with you.
History, it is said, revisits us first as farce, then as tragedy. I think we are once again being revisited by our own history of East India Company, beginning with the first Governor General Warren Hastings appointed in 1773, with Head Quarters in Calcutta. His power was balanced by the establishment of a “Calcutta Council” with four members which had the authority to veto his decision. Like our Union Cabinet. When it was found Warren Hastings was bulldozing the ‘Calcutta Council’ and was accused of being blatantly corrupt, the British government dissolved the ‘Calcutta Council’ and established a more powerful ‘Board of Control’ to control its Governor General!
This is the piece of history I am now going to share with my readers:
Raja Nanda Kumar, a Hindu Brahmin, was a big Zamindar and a very influential person of Bengal. He was a titled member of Mughal aristocracy, Faujdar of Hugli and Diwan of Nawab Mir Jafar. He was loyal to the English Company ever since the days of Clive and was popularly known as “Black Colonel” by the company.
Three out of four members of the ‘Calcutta Council’ were opponents of Warren Hastings, the Governor General. Thus, the Council consisted of two distinct rival groups, the majority group being opposed to Hastings as he was known to be very corrupt.
The majority group comprising Francis, Clavering and Monson instigated Nanda Kumar to bring certain charges of bribery and corruption against Warren Hastings before the Council. Whereupon, Nanda Kumar, in March 1775, gave a letter to Francis, one of the members of the Council, complaining that in 1772, Hastings accepted from him bribery of more than Rs. one lakh for appointing his son Gurudas, as Diwan. The letter also contained an allegation against Hastings that he accepted Rs. 2.5 lakh from Munni Begum as bribe for appointing her as the guardian of the minor Nawab Mubarak-ud-Daulah.
Francis placed his letter before the Council in its meeting and other supporter, Monson, moved a motion that Nanda Kumar should be summoned to appear before the Council.
Warren Hastings, who was presiding over the meeting in the capacity of Governor-General, opposed Monsons motion on the ground that he shall not sit in the meeting to hear accusations against himself nor shall he acknowledge the members of his Council to be his judges. Barwell, the lone supporter member of Hastings, put forth a suggestion that Nanda Kumar should file his complaint in the Supreme Court because it was the Court and not the Council, which was competent to hear the case. But Monson’s motion was supported by the majority, hence Hastings dissolved the meeting.
Thereupon, majority of the members objected to this action of Hastings and elected Clavering to preside over the meeting in place of Hastings. Nanda Kumar was called before the Council to prove his charges against Hastings. The majority members of the Council examined Nanda Kumar briefly and declared that the charges leveled against Hastings were proved and directed Hastings to deposit an amount of Rs. 3,54,105 in the treasury of the company, which he had accepted as bribe from Nanda Kumar and Munni Begum. I wish this happens in our free country in the cases related to all the corruption scams. Our country could be much richer for that. Let it be.
Hastings genuinely believed that the Council had no authority to inquire into Nanda Kumars charges against him. This event made Hastings a bitter enemy of Nanda Kumar and he looked for an opportunity to show him down. Poor Nanda Kumar did not realise that he was playing with fire the most powerful person in India at that time.
Soon after, Hastings, out of spite for Nanda Kumar, had been on the look out for an opportunity to inflict on the “native vermin” (Nand Kumar) a punishment that would silence him. As I write this I remember Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi of our present day. Let me revert to Raja Nanda Kumar.
At the instance of Hastings and the Council member Barwell, who was backing Hastings, Nanda Kumar was charged and arrested for conspiracy against the East India Company. In order to bring further disgrace to Raja Nand Kumar, Hastings manipulated another case of forgery against him by getting one Mohan Prasad to file a case in the Supreme Court.
To cut a long story short, the trial continued just for eight days without any adjournments before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Sir Elijah Impey and three other puisne judges.
It is important to mention here three significant points. One: Sir Elijah Impey was Hastings’ school friend and naturally wanted to help his friend by eliminating his enemy. Two: The Supreme Court of Calcutta was established with the avowed object of protecting the Indians against the oppressive activities of the servants of East India Company. However, the intended sublime purpose was defeated considering its powers, the (English) law that it applied and language (English) that were all foreign. Three: Before the trial of Raja Nanda Kumar for forgery (the other charge of conspiracy by now was put on the backburner), the Supreme Court had, in another case of forgery, tried a man and passed a death sentence on him as per British law (not as per Bengali or Indian law which did not invite death penalty for forgery). The man, however, was later acquitted on the ground that forgery was not a capital offence under the Indian laws and that the accused was not a British subject. This bein
g a precedent for acquittal of Raja Nanda Kumar, the precedent was not followed in his case. Raja Nanda Kumar’s three white friends in the Council, who had in fact instigated him to complain against Warren Hastings, did not come to his defence which was difficult to divine! He was found guilty and hanged on 6th May, 1775. No rational man can doubt that Chief Justice Impey took this decision in order to gratify the Governor General. It also convinced Indians that it was dangerous to attack the Governor General. Do we see a parallel in our today’s democracy? Call this “Judicial Murder”, “King’s Justice” or whatever. It only shows that at the end of the day in a court of law, no matter we call it temple of justice, there is always a Sir Elijah Impey in every judge with Impey’s “venal mind, partiality, baseness and dishonesty.” It manifests only when the judge decides. Rare exceptions exempted.
Epilogue
In 1785, after 12 years as Governor General, Warren Hastings returned to England under the impending threat of being impeached for allegedly “stealing the wealth from India” and other eleven specific charges. They included various subjects like war [one with Hyder Ali of Mysore in 1780], corruption, treatment of the Raja of Benares and most importantly the execution of Raja Nanda Kumar, in connivance with Chief Justice of Supreme Court Sir Elijah Impey, which has gone down in history as ‘Judicial Murder’.
The impeachment moves were made in 1786, he was arrested in 1787, granted bail and the trial began in 1788. After a prolonged trial, lucky Hastings was found NOT guilty in 1795.
PS: There are two kinds of ‘Judicial Activism’. One negative, Elijah Impey-kind and another positive, S.H. Kapadia-kind.
e-mail: kbg@starofmysore.com
Article source: http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=abracadabra&item=2513
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