Video: Healers or Predators? Healthcare Corruption in India Audio : 02:11:24 Minutes Healers or Predators? Healthcare Corruption in India.mp3 Healthcare expenses can be lowered by eliminating corruption, say experts. Former Union Health Secretary Keshav Desiraju said on Monday that the designers of the Ayushman Bharat scheme have not done anything to prevention corruption from taking place. “It’s a fairly-well conceived programme. However, the way in which it is structured does nothing towards addressing the specific points at which corruption has been known to occur,” he said. Mr. Desiraju was speaking at a discussion organised by The Hindu Centre and the Oxford University Press at The Music Academy. The discussion was moderated by N. Ram, chairman of The Hindu Publishing Group; Mr. Desiraju spoke on Healers or Predators? Healthcare Corruption in India , a book he edited with Samiran Nundy. “We still have a system where everything depends on a limited number of people providing a scarce resource. All the corruption that we see in healthcare comes from the fact that a limited number of people need to provide an essential service to a vast population. As long as this imbalance continues, that corruption situation will continue,” said Mr. Desiraju. Nephrologist and Padma Bhushan awardee M.K. Mani, a contributor to the book, was critical of the various insurance programmes started by State and Central governments. He said that government-run facilities would improve if those who avail of government funds are forced to use only government hospitals. “The government has abdicated its responsibility to maintain a centre of excellence for looking after the care of people. Maybe the All India Institute [of Medical Sciences] is an exception, but I can tell you definitely, that as far as this State [Tamil Nadu] is concerned, the government hospitals are no longer the leaders,” he said. Dr. Nundy, emeritus consultant at New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and one of the editors of the book, said 25% of healthcare expenses can be lowered by eliminating corruption. “For instance, the MRI person on PUSA Road near Ganga Ram Hospital, where I work, gives a ₹3,000 kickback to doctors who refer patients,” he said. Dr. George Thomas of the St. Isabel’s Hospital in Chennai, who contributed to the book, said that Indian society had failed to protect doctors in the public sector. “Corruption is inset when you have two systems: a private system for the well-off and a public one for the poor. The poor doctors who look after the poor will be treated poorly, will be looked down upon and every doctor will try to be in Apollo,” he said. While summarising the book’s arguments for his audience, Mr. Ram said that its title provoked thought. “The question is whether corruption in the healthcare system has been normalised or whether it is a pathological condition. The book tends to lean to the view that it has become normalised and that it has become the rule rather than the exception,” he said. Source: The Hindu , October 2, 2018 .
Video: Private Advice, Public Interest: Democracy and India's Permanent Executive Audio : 01:38:34 Minutes Private Advice, Public Interest Democracy and India’s Permanent Executive.MP3 Congress leader criticises the idea of simultaneous elections Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh on Friday slammed the Tamil Nadu government for not holding local body elections. Mr. Ramesh said it was a violation of Article 243 of the Constitution. “I was surprised. All States, including Bihar and UP and other States, which are poor, have elections once in five years. Which is what the Constitution provides for. But Tamil Nadu is the only State where elections to panchayats and nagar palikas have not been held for seven years. This is unacceptable in a democracy,” he said. The former Union Minister of Rural Development was in conversation with former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at the Kasturi Srinivasan Hall of the Music Academy. Their discussion was on ‘Private Advice, Public Interest: Democracy and India’s Permanent Executive’ and Mr. Ramesh's latest book, ‘Intertwined Lives: P.N. Haksar and Indira Gandhi’. The event was organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy. Pointing out that elections were the only way for the citizens to make themselves heard in India, Mr. Ramesh, a senior visiting fellow at The Hindu Centre, also objected to holding simultaneous elections. “By supporting one election, one nation, you are denying yourself the ability to enforce some accountability on the executive. It is the debacle in successive elections in the last 12 months that made the current Prime Minister more aware of the concerns of farmers, the unemployed, the rural landless labour. If you had had one nation, one election to elect somebody, then you have no opportunity whatsoever of making your voice heard for the next five years,” he said. Mr. Ramesh said that a Congress government would never roll back bank nationalisation, spearheaded by Indira Gandhi and her principal secretary P.N. Haksar. Bank denationalisation “Never. Bank denationalisation, the Congress party will never do.....It should not do. The denationalisation of banks is a recipe for economic disaster,” he said. “We have to find a way to depoliticise appointment to banks. We must make the boards of public sector banks more professional and accountable. However, the experience with ICICI Bank shows that they are subject to the same pressures. So, this public-private sector debate in banks is a non-issue, as far as I am concerned,” Mr. Ramesh added. In his opening remarks, Mr. Gandhi said the running theme of the book was loyalty: Mr. Haksar’s allegiance to the Prime Minister's position as well as Mrs. Gandhi. “Monarchs everywhere have had the boon of counsellors and the bane of courtiers....Counsellors are needed leaders who do not acknowledge their need. If counsellors give good advice, leaders may take it; sometimes not. They would not appear to be taking it; they would like to appear that they do not need any counsel,” said Mr. Gandhi. N. Ravi, publisher of The Hindu , quoted extensively from the book to talk about Mr. Haksar's many qualities. “The book is a celebration of the life and times of P.K. Haksar. It also raises questions that are very relevant to our present day. One question that arises is how a civil servant gained such power, influence and standing even if it were all for the good.....Is it at all possible for another super-civil servant to emerge? Is it even desirable? For, when civil servants have their codes and service rules, they lack a measure of democratic accountability,” said Mr. Ravi. Source: The Hindu , July 14, 2018 .
Aruna Roy says legislation is being subverted 'by using rules'
The video, audio, and full text of the lecture, Cooperative and Competitive Federalism to Foster Reform: The Case of the Power Sector, deilvered by th
Audio: Green Policies and the Legacy of Indira Gandhi Video: Green Policies and the Legacy of Indira Gandhi ‘She made the environment matter, while balancing her responsibilities as PM’ Indira Gandhi was a “reluctant politician”, unhappily stuck in politics, a chakravyuh that one could choose to enter but could not get out of.This was the verdict given by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on the life of the former Prime Minister, whose birth centenary falls this year. The former Environment Minister spoke about Mrs. Gandhi’s environmental legacy as part of a discussion organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy here, on Thursday. Moderated by environmentalist Nanditha Krishna, currently a professor at the University of Madras, the discussion was based on Mr. Ramesh’s recently released biography, Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature . Mr. Ramesh said most biographies on Mrs. Gandhi’s life fell into one of the two camps — one that tended to see her as Goddess Durga in the political arena, taking on vicious and powerful male leaders such as Richard Nixon, or the one that vilified her as the authoritarian leader who imposed the Emergency and violated civil rights. “Neither of the two camps bothered to ask who the real Indira Gandhi is. It was clear to me when I became Environment Minister that the entire legacy of environmental governance in India today is owed to her,” the author said. Tactical politics Given the politics over cow slaughter raging in present-day India, Mr. Ramesh gave an example of how Mrs. Gandhi prolonged politically tricky matters by setting up committees and commissioning studies. In 1966, when an anti-cow slaughter agitation aimed at the Congress went out of hand, Mrs. Gandhi set up a high-powered committee to contemplate on a national law on cow slaughter, which included M.S. Golwalkar of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a member. “The committee met for 12 years and submitted no report, and the matter died a natural death when Morarji Desai as PM disbanded it finally,” Mr. Ramesh said. He also challenged the popular view that Mrs. Gandhi was authoritarian by referring to how Congress Ministers she had hand-picked herself resisted her dictum, and several Congress CMs such as V.P. Naik, resisted her authority. N. Ram, Chairman of Kasturi and Sons Ltd., and N. Ravi, Director of Kasturi & Sons Ltd., participated. Also Read : Indira Gandhi, the environmentalist Source: The Hindu Related Link: Ramesh, J. 2020 . Lecture: A Prime Minister and a Naturalist , The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, March 5.
Chennai, September 21, 2017 : The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy and UNICEF, Chennai, organised a Round Table consultation of experts, practitioners, policy makers, journalists, and NGOs, on “Public Policy and the Child in Tamil Nadu”. The aim of the Round Table consultations was to discuss and deliberate on how to further state interventions to ensure that Tamil Nadu remains a national leader in providing opportunities for the child, while continuously benchmarking itself against global standards. The deliberations pointed to the way ahead, conceptually and operationally, and called for updating policies relevant for the child, periodic reviews of status and progress vis-à-vis global benchmarks. It also indicated areas where new policies will enable the State to better cater to the needs of every child, including the vulnerable. Specific gaps were identified, new steps recommended, and policy suggestions made, based on commissioned papers that were presented and discussed at the Round Table held in early September (September 2, 2017). Social Spaces for the Child in Tamil Nadu The Round Table proposed the introduction of the concept of “Social Spaces for the Child” in Tamil Nadu’s policy discourse. Social space has a geographical, a cultural, and a relational dimension, the key determinants being age, sex, caste, and class. Though personal and influenced by psycho-social factors, social spaces can be directed by policy, planning, and good governance. In managing the exponential urbanisation, including promoting “smart cities”, governments and local bodies can draw upon and customise available guidelines to ensure child-friendly urban areas, infrastructure, and institutions, in consultation with civil society and citizen groups, including children. The role of the family, beyond providing food and shelter, needs attention in terms of the physical and psychological protection for the child. Alcoholism, aggression, physical and psychological abuse, and neglect often trigger emotional and mental health problems, low self-esteem, and lack of confidence among children. All families do not have all necessary long-term strengths to ensure provisioning of holistic positive development of children. The State and its policies should play their role in supporting families and help them rise above negative coping strategies. Priority Areas Tamil Nadu maintains a leading position in India in social sector expenditure, which is above all comparable States. With competition and growing demands for allocation from other sub-sectors, the proportionate share of expenditure on health and education sub-sectors recorded a decline over the past three decades. There has been a plateauing of some key metrics in the recent past. Tamil Nadu’s demographic dividend is an important justification to prioritise spending on children. A note of caution was also raised on dependency ratio, indicating that Tamil Nadu, as in the case of some European countries, would have to address issues relating to a greying population. With regard to fiscal space, while the share of resources devolved from the Union Government to Tamil Nadu has been steadily coming down, the State currently devolves 10 per cent of its own revenues to its local bodies, which is among the highest in India. The constraint was more in the nature of functioning than in funding. The functional constraints were also identified as those that arise from hierarchical issues: village panchayats, social structures, school management committees, parent teacher associations, and similar groupings. It was also noted that there was a direct coincidence if not causation between schools that were in demand and well-functioning State-run schools. There are gaps in maintaining the quality of education and the related infrastructure provisions to schools and hostels run by the various departments such as School Education, Adi-Dravidar Welfare, the Backward Classes Welfare, and the Forest Department. On children in informal housing (slum), coastal areas, and migrant pockets, the discussion identified some lacunae in the policy-making process, inconsistencies in documentation, and the knowledge gaps that are impediments to successful policy interventions. The overarching constraint with regard to the disabled child, which is equally applicable to other segments, was the non-availability of child-specific data for the State. In addition, the People with Disabilities Act calls upon the State to provide transport to the disabled child to travel to school. Proactive provision of transport to school for children with disabilities would improve general access as well through a reverse inclusion process. Child labour is a last-mile issue in Tamil Nadu but needs attention. Presently, almost all children go to school but some also work during non-school hours. This considerably reduces time for leisure and play for such children. The recent amendment to the Child Labour Act permitting work in family businesses after school-hours is regressive as it opens up possibilities of the law being circumvented by creating a grey area, and thereby tacitly allowing child employment in the unorganised and home-based sectors. Child labour is also a second-generation issue in Tamil Nadu and increasing number of children who are secondary school dropouts (late adolescent children in 15-18 age group) are joining the work force without adequate legal protection and social security that needs to be addressed. Key Policy-related Recommendations There was consensus on the following points to support the Tamil Nadu government’s efforts in policy articulation: I. The State Government should expedite the process of formulation of a multi-dimensional Child Policy for Tamil Nadu, addressing the several deprivations that confront the child in manifest and subtle forms. II. Appropriate agencies in the Government of Tamil Nadu should undertake a systematic and critical review of key existing schemes from a child’s lens for recalibration, bringing in innovations that can improve quality of delivery and efficiency of expenditure and further introduce new initiatives where necessary, that expand the range of child development. III. As policies, schemes and initiatives impacting a child’s welfare and development are cross-Departmental responsibilities, an appropriate State-level platform, headed at a suitably high level to provide visible political and administrative leadership for regular monitoring and direction, needs to be established. IV. Wherever feasible, platforms could be facilitated for children to express their views on policies that have a bearing on them. V. Tamil Nadu should take the lead in creating social spaces for the child, addressing both public and private spaces. It should not be restricted to maintenance of child-friendly public places, but ensure the creation of spaces where every child is able to learn, play, grow, and develop to maximum potential in an uninhibited manner. VI. The non-homogenous nature of children should be recognised and need-specific policies should be drawn to address the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, and the marginalised child. VII. Social sector expenditure should be reprioritised to provide for greater allocative and operational efficiency in areas that have a direct bearing on shaping a child’s survival, development, protection, and participation. Read: The Hindu , 2017 . " Create social space for children, say experts ", September 23. Background Note on " Public Policy and the Child in Tamil Nadu: Papers presented at a Round Table Discussion " can be accessed here .
The Video Recording of the Panel Discussion on Free Speech and Sedition in a Democracy can be accessed here.To suggest an alternative form of government is not to bring hatred or contempt against the current one”, said Justice K. Chandru, retired judge of the Madras High Court, while speaking on a panel discussion on Free Speech and Sedition in a Democracy, held at Kasturi Srinivasan Hall, The Music Academy in Chennai on March 24, 2016.The other speakers on the panel were A.X. Alexander, former Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, and Sriram Panchu, Senior Advocate, Madras High Court. N. Ravi, Director, Kasturi and Sons Limited (KSL) and former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, moderated the panel discussion, organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy.The public event was organised against the backdrop of a spate of university-centric protests spurred by the use of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code to arrest students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi in February.Initiating the discussion, Ravi highlighted the issues of whether a colonial era law like sedition was still required in a constitutional democracy and republic, and asked if it would be possible for the sovereignty and security of the state to be protected by other less draconian laws. In addition, he observed that the Indian public found itself before a false dilemma where they are asked to decide between free speech and the perceived threats to the nation’s security. “When confronted with this choice free speech is less likely to win,” Ravi said.Chandru took the discussion forward by pointing out that the current wave of saffronisation started in 2015 when a notice from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) was brought before the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M). He said that if someone bans a study circle linked to Dr. Ambedkar, one must look for a political agenda behind that move. He said that the protests at JNU, IIT Madras, and the University of Hyderabad need to be looked at on a continuum. “Section 124A is being used to attack JNU, it is not about the students. JNU is one of the best liberal institutions of India,” he said.Chandru also pointed to a dangerous trend in the judiciary where in a bail order for Kanhaiya Kumar, the student body president of JNU, the sitting judge had to defend her decision to give interim bail in the order itself. He said this pointed to a judiciary, which was cautious about its own legal decisions.Alexander took a contrary view, calling for the retention of the Section. He said the police are a nationalist force by training. Whenever they see a threat to public order, they act. Sometimes they book people under 124A. “A controversial statement leaves ripples and reverberations. Some of these ripples and reverberations could trigger large scale violence,” he said. He also pointed out that the policeman responds to his training, by filing a First Information Report based on his reading of the bare act, and does not look into the nuances of what constitutes sedition and what does not, on a level similar with what the courts do. “There are inbuilt mechanisms in place to stop misuse”, he said. Ending his presentation, Mr. Alexander said that given the number of security threats to India, the sedition law should stay on the statute book. He added, “Free speech cannot be very free”.Sriram Panchu, on the other hand, said that the business of free speech and the business of dissent is to bring into discontent, the government. Highlighting the legal history behind 124A, he said that India had made two mistakes with respect to the law of sedition. The first was in 1951 when Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister, was upset about the courts not taking a case against the publication Organiser. He then introduced “public order” under Art 19. Second, during the Keshvanand Bharti case “involving a farmer who said that capitalists, landlords and, for good measure, some Congress leaders, needed to be overthrown” in 1962, there was a unique opportunity to strike the law off the book. In this particular case, he noted, the Allahabad High Court had said that for a case to be one of sedition there needs to be a clear threat to law and order. On the basis of this ruling, the Supreme Court could have thrown out the law. Its application in the case of student meetings in JNU, he said, was a “ham-handed use of the law of sedition”. He added, “Nowadays you are convicted on the 9 O’clock news. This news is about curbing dissent.”The Senior Advocate wanted changes to the IPC in which the understanding of the word “sedition” could be restricted to violence and direct incitement to violence. He noted that retired police officer, Kiren Bedi, had also pointed out that the Supreme Court had limited the offence of sedition to violence. He noted that both the U.S. and the U.K. (which has taken the law of sedition out) were using the Brandenburg Test to think about acts that could be construed as sedition. In Brandenburg v. Ohio , the U.S. Supreme Court maintained that the government cannot constitutionally punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is likely to incite or directly incites ‘imminent lawless action’. So the intent of the speech, the likelihood of the speech causing disorder and the imminence of such disorder are necessary for such speech to be termed seditious. The panellists also responded to questions from the audience. An audience member suggested that the sedition section should be rewritten by replacing “government” with “nation. Chandru said that this move would cause more damage. In replying to an a question about the role of the police in the on-going student agitations in Hyderabad and New Delhi, Alexander said that the police use force as a last resort, they observe a situation, try mediation and when all else fails, then use the lathi,The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy held the event against the backdrop of recent spate of cases involving the use of 124A of the Indian Penal Code against various academics and students. The concerns raised by the panellists covered all aspects of the law of sedition and included both points of view. Seiji Baba, Japanese Consul-General in Chennai, retired Justice Prabha Sridevan, Vasanthi Devi, former Vice Chancellor, Manonmaniam Subramaniam University, Thirunelveli, N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Limited (KSL), and former Editor-in-Chief,¸ The Hindu , and Group publications, N. Murali, Co-chairman, KSL, A.S. Panneerselvan, Readers Editor, The Hindu , writers, lawyers, and students were among those who attended the Panel Discussion held at Kasturi Srinivasan Hall, The Music Academy. The Hindu Centre’s Background Note on Free Speech and Sedition in a Democracy. Audio link: Panel Discussion on “Free Speech and Sedition in a Democracy”, can be accessed here .
Seven winners of the #MyClimateMyFuture essay and photo competition were felicitated in a ceremony held today at New Delhi. The winners 'voiced out' t
Video: Colloquium on The Future of Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India “All major migrations are a great human tragedy,” said M.K. Narayanan, former Governor of West Bengal, former National Security Advisor to the Indian government and erstwhile director of the Intelligence Bureau, at a public conversation on the ‘Future of Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India’, held at the Music Academy in Chennai on November 4. Recalling his days in Calcutta (now Kolkata) when Mujib Nagar (the provisional government of Bangladesh during its liberation struggle) was being run from there, he said that he was privy to the great human crisis of over a million refugees coming in and living in abysmal conditions. “Fortunately, there was a change in government and it was possible for them to go back very soon thereafter. The problem or the tragedy of the Sri Lankan refugees is that they have now been refugees – at least many of them have been refugees – for 30 years,” he said. While most of them would like to go back provided they have security, a few problems could arise on the question of providing across the border citizenship to those who would want to stay back. He said that there were people in many countries who wanted to be Indian citizens. It was not easy but in the case of the Sri Lankan Tamils, “it should be possible to think of this”. This event, organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, a policy resource centre from the publishers of The Hindu, was held to glean greater insights into the state of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees currently residing in India and what lies ahead for them. The speakers at the event included S.C. Chandrahasan, Chief Functionary of the Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation (OfERR), N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., and R.K. Radhakrishnan, Senior Deputy Editor of Frontline. In a research presentation, Mr. Radhakrishnan, who has been investigating the plight of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India for a long time, highlighted that there were 1,02,055 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees currently in Tamil Nadu residing in camps, outside camps as legal refugees and in “special camps”, where only former Tamil militants are held. There are 109 refugees camps evenly spread across Tamil Nadu, he maintained, and added that the living conditions in these camps leave a lot to be desired. They included very small cell-like rooms that have not been maintained or refurbished for a few decades. Across the Palk Strait, in Sri Lanka's northern Mannar district, for which data on returnees from 2009 is available, facilitites remain grossly inadequate. While sanitation provisions exceeded the requirement, other basic amenities like drinking water and power were in short supply. Besides, regular employment for the refugees was also among issues that needed to be addressed. He said camps that were located in urban areas tended to be slightly better than those in rural areas, where finding employment was a huge obstacle for the refugees. Adding to the discussion Mr. Ram said, “The subject of Tamil refugees is a major foreign policy, humanitarian and political issue for India. This is a post-1983 development with a 32-year-old history.” He also added, “Indian journalists have covered the refugee issue but it has not been sustained coverage.” Addressing the biggest question of the event about the right of return for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, Mr. Chandrahasan maintained that most refugees wanted to return to Sri Lanka but, for a long time, their safety on their home territory was questionable. He said that children born to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India automatically became stateless, as they didn’t belong to the country they were born in and could neither return to the home country. He said, “In 1983, when we came to India, the Sri Lankan Tamils had left the country for the first time after the pogrom. Before that, they had only moved from safe house to safe house. But the poorest of the poor had to cross the straits and come to India. Many perished in the process.” He added that the world had to re-think their approach to refugees and that the current refugee crisis emanating from the conflict in Syria and the reaction of Western governments was not something to be proud of. He asserted that refugees should not be seen as competitors to the local population but as a group that could complement it. Sri Lankan Tamil refugees came to India and were organised enough to ask for certain conditions to be met. Mr. Chandrahasan talked about how they had approached the Tamil Nadu government to spread the refugees throughout the State and not ghettoise them in a few camps. Mr. Chandrahasan said that India had treated the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees as “honoured guests” and had gone way beyond the traditional script of “accommodating” refugees. He added that there was 100 per cent literacy amongst Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, a statistic of which the community was very proud. Addressing the need for solutions, Mr. Chandrahasan placed a few alternatives before the audience. First, refugees could return with some assistance from the Indian government. Second, they could apply for Indian citizenship, and finally, they could petition for third-party asylum. He said that the durable solution was to return and that the Indo-Sri Lanka accord of 1987 was a good example of how a process of return could be initiated and supported. Mr. Narayanan said that he hoped that the current government would endorse the 13th Amendment Plus program. He said, “There is a great deal of churn for the last few years within the government about what should be done about people who want citizenship and come to India in certain conditions.” He added, “Irrespective of whatever government is in power, there is an inexorable pace with which change is taking place in the government.” Representatives of diplomatic missions in Chennai, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and South Korea, attended the event. Also present in the audience were retired diplomat M. Ganapathy, retired professor of South and Southeast Asian Studies in University of Madras, former Director General of Police of Tamil Nadu A.X. Alexander and a member of the Tamil National Alliance in Sri Lanka, Poongodai Chandrahasan. In a sudden incident that shocked the audience, Mr. Narayanan was attacked by a member of the audience when the dignitary got off the dais at the end of the event and was interacting with other invitees. The man had gained entry into the secure auditorium after falsely registering as Raghavan, a freelance writer from Aranthangi in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu. He attacked Mr. Narayanan with a slipper and raised slogans against the former National Security Advisor. He was quickly overpowered by Mr. Alexander and Mr. Narayanan’s personal security guard with the help of policemen present inside the hall. He was whisked away to Royapettah Police Station. Upon interrogation, police said that he identified himself as Prabhakaran, a Sri Lankan Tamil whose family moved to Tamil Nadu in the 1970s. He reportedly belongs to the May 17 Movement, a group that came into existence in 2009 after the fall of the LTTE. Subsequently, he was booked under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 355 (assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour person) and 507(i) [criminal intimidation] of the Indian Penal Code. He was remanded to judicial custody for 15 days. The Hindu Centre had received prior threats of disruption by the May 17 Movement following which the Tamil Nadu police had provided elaborate security at the auditorium. A few metres away from the venue, about 50 members of the May 17 Movement were picked up by the police when they attempted to stage a protest and march to the venue. A scrutiny of footage of the event revealed that the assailant occupied an aisle seat in the middle rows. He moved down the aisle towards the dais when Mr. Narayanan was interacting with other invitees near the front rows. Once Mr. Narayanan came close, the assailant hurled a slipper at him which glanced the back of his head and ended up being caught by Mr. Ram, who was right behind. He then handed it over to the police. *This article was corrected on November 9, 2015, to make a distinction between refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and the resettlement facilities available in Sri Lanka. Click here to download Power Point Presentation by RK. Radhakrishnan .