Columns

political-turmoil-in-uk-is-keir-starmer-the-next-to-be-booted-out

Sat May 23 16:14:49 IST 2026

In Shakespearean England, the most popular pastime was bear-baiting. Dogs were unleashed to bite and torment the bear chained to a stake. Crowds roared, cheered and betted as the animals growled and howled, mauling, clawing, tearing in the blood-soaked pit. The bloodsport was banned in 1835, but it seems to have taken a modern twist.

The bear is replaced by the prime minister, the “Beargarden” by British politics. The UK has had four prime ministers in three years, all baited, battered and booted out. Says journalist Polly Toynbee, “This country is becoming almost ungovernable. It is a terrible job, and whoever gets the job will be torn down.”

The current bear-at-the-stake is Keir Starmer, the beleaguered fifth prime minister in five years. For two relentless months, he has been besieged and bludgeoned with calls for resignations over revelations involving his ambassador’s links with Jeffrey Epstein, policy reversals, mistakes… but, above all, for his Labour party’s devastating defeat in the recent local elections—its worst in a century. Starmer apologised, accepted responsibility. Then what? Then nothing. The spine he showed in refusing to join Donald Trump’s Iran war stiffened further. Despite opposition howls and his own partymen’s growls, he refused to resign—vowing to “fight on for Britain’s sake”.

Starmer remains at the stake because the stakes are high. He faces danger not from the opposition, but from the bloodletting in his own party. His 2024 euphoric parliamentary victory now lies in ruins. Labour challengers aspire to replace him. The front-runner is Andy Burnham, the popular, thrice-elected mayor of Greater Manchester. From the ring, British tabloids screamed “Starmageddon!” “Keir today, gone tomorrow”, “Slash and Burnham”, “Game of Burns”.

Burnham’s formula for growth is implementing business-friendly policies and coopting Manchester’s administrative networks to integrate services, thus reducing prices. He is seen as Labour’s answer to fighting inflation and quelling the rising far-right Reform party led by Brexit champion Nigel Farage. Labour identifies Reform as the biggest threat to Britain.

Only parliamentarians can challenge the prime minister, so Burnham tried to become an MP in February. Starmer’s faction thwarted him, but the blocking boomeranged. In the recent local elections, Reform routed Labour. Emboldened by Starmer’s election debacle, Burnham declared his intent to contest parliament again. This time, he received vocal support. Says Labour MP Lucy Powell, “We have got to take the fight to Reform. We are at real risk of Farage walking up Downing Street in a few years’ time. We can’t let that happen.”

But the Reform dark horse may have already galloped ahead. It is now more popular than Labour in many Labour strongholds. But even a Burnham defeat ends neither Starmer’s woes nor Labour’s civil war. There are sitting MPs keen to challenge Starmer—“smooth communicator” Wes Streeting, “gawky” former deputy PM Angela Rayner, “geeky” Ed Miliband who, after leading Labour into its 2015 election defeat, said that experience “inoculated” him against future ambitions. With time, political ambitions unsurprisingly become immune to inoculations.

Politicians, pundits and public clamour for Starmer’s blood. Unlike some predecessors, his missteps are serious, but not egregious. They were not sufficient to oust him, but cumulatively they eroded his authority.

In politics, the biggest loser is the loser of votes. That is Starmer’s tragedy. In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth says, “They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly; But bear-like, I must fight the course.” So does this battered and bruised prime minister. Despite the hounding and pounding, the baying and booing, Starmer clings to the stake. For now.

Pratap is an author and journalist.

kaiser-wilhelm-ii-and-trump-a-tale-of-reckless-diplomacy-and-failed-brinkmanship

Sat May 09 11:21:37 IST 2026

starmers-week-from-hell-defence-economy-and-epstein-scandal

Sat Apr 25 10:45:48 IST 2026

how-has-iran-survived-so-far

Sat Apr 11 11:10:12 IST 2026

how-medieval-war-cries-resurface-in-pete-hegseths-political-discourse

Sat Mar 28 16:28:14 IST 2026

geopolitical-chess-decoding-the-five-potential-futures-for-iran

Sat Mar 14 15:05:24 IST 2026

anita-pratap-power-without-maturity-why-analysts-are-likening-trump-to-nero

Sat Feb 28 14:26:19 IST 2026

epstein-and-the-princess-of-norway-by-anita-pratap

Sat Feb 14 11:19:04 IST 2026

psychology-of-power-narcissism-fear-and-the-mind-of-a-dictator

Sat Jan 17 11:28:36 IST 2026

russophobia-is-raging-across-europe

Sat Jan 03 15:41:41 IST 2026

what-is-the-trump-doctrine-trumps-national-security-strategy-explained

Sat Dec 20 11:21:11 IST 2025

what-is-moral-architecture-and-can-it-fix-our-digital-world

Sat Dec 06 11:05:40 IST 2025

art-adversity-and-the-strength-of-the-human-spirit

Sat Nov 22 17:46:25 IST 2025

nvidias-5-trillion-leap-how-ai-is-reshaping-global-economy

Sat Nov 08 11:32:01 IST 2025

weaponising-justice-how-trump-targets-his-political-enemies

Sat Oct 25 13:25:49 IST 2025

how-autocrats-and-billionaires-are-reshaping-the-world

Sat Oct 11 11:01:48 IST 2025

global-uncertainty-trump-tactics-psychology-of-trump

Sat Sep 27 11:06:25 IST 2025

broken-windows-theory-explained-crime-perception-community-policing

Sat Sep 13 12:52:44 IST 2025

norway-oil-wealth-paradox

Sat Aug 30 13:00:51 IST 2025

ukraine-zelensky-protests-corruption-law

Sat Aug 02 10:55:31 IST 2025

trumps-tariffs-political-weapons-of-mass-destruction-unveiled

Fri Jul 18 15:58:00 IST 2025

russian-gerbera-drones-ukraine

Sat Jul 05 10:58:55 IST 2025

war-is-an-endemic

Sat Jun 21 11:49:45 IST 2025

ethics-out-of-the-window

Fri Jun 06 17:33:45 IST 2025

donald-trump-the-most-powerful-man-in-the-world-and-the-least-original

Sat May 24 11:10:42 IST 2025

in-15-years-british-wages-have-grown-only-2-2-per-cent-still-want-to-migrate-to-the-uk

Sat Apr 26 11:20:57 IST 2025

wobbly-willie-and-donald-trump

Sat Apr 12 10:40:06 IST 2025

norwegians-are-cancelling-vacation-trips-to-the-us

Sat Mar 29 11:07:35 IST 2025

the-artificial-general-intelligence-dilemma

Sat Mar 15 11:09:11 IST 2025

no-freedom-in-appeasement

Sat Mar 01 10:42:21 IST 2025

donald-trump-the-annoying-orange

Sat Feb 15 10:44:57 IST 2025

howdy-rowdies-donald-trump-and-elon-musk

Fri Jan 17 15:21:16 IST 2025

get-ready-for-trump-bump-january-20-is-coming

Sat Jan 04 11:08:52 IST 2025

seeking-middle-ground-in-middle-east

Sat Dec 21 11:20:33 IST 2024

from-sunak-to-badenoch

Sat Nov 09 11:14:45 IST 2024

the-us-is-today-armed-and-polarised

Sat Oct 26 10:54:03 IST 2024

leadership-targeting-and-ai

Fri Oct 11 16:12:25 IST 2024

chained-to-dollar-chains

Sat Sep 28 11:03:13 IST 2024

shadow-of-russia-on-germany

Sat Sep 14 16:14:07 IST 2024

ukraine-knows-it-will-be-pressured-into-a-peace-deal

Sat Aug 31 11:01:38 IST 2024

joe-bidens-debate-debacle-a-morality-tale

Sat Jul 06 10:36:29 IST 2024

the-heat-is-on-elon-musk

Sat Jun 22 12:26:05 IST 2024

what-if-donald-trump-returns

Sat Jun 08 10:50:47 IST 2024

in-britain-boring-is-good-and-that-could-help-keir-starmer-become-next-pm

Sat May 25 11:04:05 IST 2024

western-art-pushes-ahead-with-gritty-current-issues

Sat May 11 11:51:25 IST 2024

has-rishi-sunak-s-lustre-dimmed

Sat Apr 27 10:38:12 IST 2024

addictive-nature-of-social-media-a-problem

Fri Apr 12 11:33:46 IST 2024

motives-behind-foreign-phobia-reflect-multiple-reasons

Sat Mar 30 11:23:29 IST 2024

musk-trump-partnership-can-inflate-the-trumpian-world

Sat Mar 16 11:17:04 IST 2024

democracies-turned-upside-down

Sat Mar 02 11:03:55 IST 2024

when-manmohan-singh-engaged-pervez-musharraf

Sat Jan 11 11:00:28 IST 2025

No prime minister of India made a more constructive contribution towards establishing an equilibrium between India and Pakistan than Dr Manmohan Singh. Building on the Islamabad Declaration of January 2004, proclaimed jointly by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and president Pervez Musharraf, Singh initiated with his counterpart a process of sustained dialogue which yielded the most positive results, specifically with regard to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir that, but for the perversity of destiny, might have opened the path to lasting peace and harmony.

In initiating the process, Singh fully recognised that finding a via media to the vexed question of J&K would be the optimal way of settling other issues. It was further agreed that a quiet backchannel was essential to a result-oriented dialogue. Second, the interlocutors chosen by both leaders were not chosen because of their position in the bureaucratic hierarchy but because of the immense trust Musharraf had in a friend, Tariq Aziz, and Singh had in a retired former high commissioner to Pakistan, Satinder Kumar Lambah. They reported only to their respective principals.

Foreign ministers and others were kept in the loop on a “need-to-know” basis at the discretion of the two leaders, but directions on how to proceed came only from the respective heads. Over a period of about a thousand days, meeting at various locations outside the subcontinent, the two special envoys hammered out an agreement that built on two key bipartisan statements by Vajpayee and Singh: “insaniyat, kashmiriyat, jamhuriyat” (humanity, the Kashmiri way of life, and democracy) by Vajpayee, and bringing about a situation “where one could have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Islamabad, and dinner in Kabul” by Singh.

Although Musharraf summarised the agreement as a “four-point” programme, foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri’s detailed account of the negotiations (see his tome, Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove, backed in all relevant specifics by Lambah’s In Pursuit of Peace: India-Pakistan Relations Under Six Prime Ministers) shows that the number of points on which agreement was reached was close to 16 after taking the fine print into account.

The essence of what both sides accepted was that there would be no exchange of people or territories but that the Line of Control would be rendered “irrelevant” by freely allowing Kashmiris to cross the LoC in both directions to foster family relations, encourage fraternal friendships, promote trade and investment, and set up an inter-governmental mechanism to try to ensure similar levels of prosperity and democratic freedoms for all Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC. This was undergirded by the common understanding that there could be no independent, sovereign Kashmir.

This draft agreement, except for one issue to be ironed out by the two heads—whether to describe it as a “joint management” or “joint cooperative” mechanism—was readied to be signed when Singh visited Islamabad at the end of February 2007.

However, the Pakistan president got involved in a fracas over domestic issues with the chief justice of Pakistan (nothing to do with India or the draft), leading to the bar in all Pakistani courts striking in support of the chief justice who had embarked on a country-wide protest tour. This resulted in Singh’s visit being postponed by a month and then dropped indefinitely.

But signed or not, the backchannel agreement definitively established that sincere, sustained dialogue, even with a Pakistani military government, could generate positive outcomes—which surgical strikes and armed attacks deep into Pakistani territory never could achieve.

Instead of building on this enlightened initiative, Singh’s successor has shown how unenlightened he is by failing for over a decade to summon the wisdom and the courage to engage with Pakistan.

As this is his last column, the author thanks his readers for their patronage over a decade and more, and wishes them all a happy new year.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

has-narendra-modis-india-abandoned-the-sri-lankan-tamils

Sat Dec 28 10:43:01 IST 2024

Anura Kumara Dissanayake has made New Delhi his first stop abroad after being sworn in as the president of Sri Lanka in October 2024 and winning a two-thirds majority for the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance in November’s parliamentary elections. But before you start cheering, pause for a moment and ask yourself: who is this leader who has successfully overthrown 75 years of rule by a handful of families that have held the nation in their iron grip since the independence of Sri Lanka?

While heading the NPP coalition, Dissanayake represents the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)—People’s Liberation Front—that took to vicious violence and conducted two major insurrections. As the most prominent youth leader of the JVP, he was an active participant in terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, including Sri Lankan Tamils.

While recalling this less than savoury past, we have to note that Dissanayake has apologised for past violence and, in consequence, his candidates won all but one district in the Tamil-majority north and east provinces. His two-thirds majority is the result—in his own words—of his country-wide support from “north, east, west and south”.

The JVP was earlier opposed to any devolution to the Tamil-majority areas and it has refused to entertain the long-standing Tamil demand for a federal set-up and the inclusion of Tamil among Sri Lanka’s official languages. In the recent elections, however, the Tamils abandoned their own traditional Tamil leaders and supported Dissanayake despite his reputation as a violent hardcore Sinhala-Buddhist extremist.

But, for all that, there is one major lacuna that is crying to be filled: the final place of the Tamil minority in Sinhala-majority Sri Lanka. To settle this key question, the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution was negotiated by former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi with former Sri Lankan president Junius Jayewardene in 1987. It explicitly assured the merged north-eastern province, where the Tamils are in a majority, of a place of equality and honour in Sri Lanka where, on all important issues, including land and law and order, the Tamil majority would be able to rule itself without the fetters of the central government in a unitary state. That fell short of both federation and separation advocated by most Tamil political and militant groups but was reluctantly endorsed by the Sri Lankan government as the only alternative to the disintegration of their nation-state.

But neither then nor now has the JVP acknowledged the validity or even legitimacy of the 1987 accord, which they hold was imposed on Sri Lanka by India through the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution. The JVP stand reflected the anger of the naval rating who almost killed Rajiv Gandhi with the butt of his rifle at the farewell parade for the departing prime minister.

So, notwithstanding the 34 paragraphs of the joint communique that sets the course for the future of India-Sri Lanka relations, the key question of the future for Tamils in Sri Lanka remains unanswered: if not the 13th amendment, then what?

Has Narendra Modi’s India abandoned the Sri Lankan Tamils, with dangerous implications for New Delhi-Chennai relations and thus the unity and integrity of India? Or has Dissanayake taken the Modi establishment into confidence about what he has in mind? Above all, has the JVP leopard changed its spots? Or is the Dissanayake dispensation on the road to the same kind of minority-bashing, as is the Modi government?

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

why-are-we-hindutvising-foreign-policy

Sat Dec 14 12:21:16 IST 2024

As if it were not bad enough that India’s domestic polity has been poisoned by communalism as never before, increasingly, foreign policy, too, is being given a communal twist. This is most evident in relation to Bangladesh. The enormous gains of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War are being frittered away in a vengeful attack by the Narendra Modi government and its ‘godi’ media, in the name of protecting the Hindu minority, on the consequences of the Monsoon Revolution that overthrew our much-favoured Sheikh Hasina as prime minister of Bangladesh. In view of continuing atrocities against India’s Muslims, such chutzpah quite takes one’s breath away.

We did not bring Hasina to power in Dhaka. It was the people of Bangladesh who elected her in 1996 and again in 2009. It is they who overthrew her on August 5, 2024. Our government refuses to accept the self-evident truth that Hasina had compromised her moral right to the premiership by rigging the elections of 2014 and 2019 and forfeited it completely by the time the people’s frustration at this perversion of democracy spilled on to the streets.

Bangladesh is not a province of India. It is a foreign country. Yet, when it comes to Bangladesh (as, indeed, when it comes to any neighbour smaller than us) we assume the right to settle their matters to our liking (although we rarely succeed). Yes, Hasina was good for us. But even as we reserve the right to elect or dethrone any prime minister of our country, so also do the Bangladeshis in theirs. That is their sovereign right.

True, Hasina was driven from office not in an election but by the army refusing to follow her orders to shoot. At this, she felt she had to flee. She flew to India. We welcomed her. I certainly applaud our giving her refuge and refusing to extradite her. But having done our duty, should we not give the interim authorities in Dhaka the opportunity to settle down and hold elections when they are ready—elections that Hasina’s Awami League may win if an adequate majority of Bangladeshis so decide. That is for them, not us, to determine.

Faced with this impasse, the Modi establishment and their collaborators in the media have charged Bangladeshis with being anti-Hindu. Mahfuz Anam, a leading Bangladeshi journalist and editor and publisher of The Daily Star, deplores “the venom that is being spewed, the hatred that is being spread, and the demeaning stereotype that is being portrayed about us (which) seems to be geared towards generating a hatred for Bangladeshis among the Indian people”.

Recalling that it was student power that opposed Muhammad Ali Jinnah when he sought to make Urdu the sole national language of Pakistan and student agitations that brought down the Ayub Khan regime and brought in Mujib as the liberator, and has now outed his daughter, Anam points to student agitations having been the traditional medium for political expression when other means of communication are strangled.

The validity of this assertion will be tested when elections are held. Meanwhile, in answer to charges of widespread anti-Hindu violence and rioting, Anam’s own newspaper and journalist investigators from Bangladesh’s premier Bengali newspaper, Prothom Alo, have visited every district and sub-district of the country to check on the truth of these allegations. In a majority of cases, they have found that Hindus have been attacked not because of their religion but because of their affiliation to the Awami League and involvement in atrocities inflicted on their local political opponents during the previous regime.

One hopes Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will ascertain the truth (or otherwise) of this view when he was in Dhaka for foreign office-level consultations rather than demonising in advance the people of Bangladesh as anti-Hindu.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

detaching-morality-from-economic-policy

Sat Nov 30 10:53:28 IST 2024

Is the Adani imbroglio an episodic, one-off incident—or does it reflect a major systemic lacuna in our conception of development and democracy?

Mahatma Gandhi had said the national objective must be “to wipe every tear from every eye” and earlier answered a question about his “dream for India” by saying he would “work for an India in which the poorest shall feel it is their country” in the making of which it is their voice that shall prevail. It was this vision that provided the crucial ethical dimension to the national goal of securing development through democracy—for, clearly, the voice of the most disadvantaged would count only in a democratic polity.

After much cogitation and debate, this approach of prioritising the uplift of the poor, as distinct from incentivising the rich to become richer, led to the enunciation of a “socialistic pattern of society” as the objective of equitable democratic development. This cumbersome expression was often reduced to the single word “socialism”.

This form of “socialism” was later incorporated in the Preamble to our Constitution. Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna has underlined that “the way we understand socialism in India is very different from the way other academics might understand [it]. In our context, socialism means welfare state…in which the State must ensure… that there is equality of opportunity”.

This ethical dimension has been underplayed ever since the country, in the name of economic reforms, has been bewitched with “GDP” and “per capita income” as the chief criteria for measuring development, pushing aside other Constitutional criteria such as “equality” and “equal opportunity”. In the pursuit of this model of private sector driven development, growing inequalities of income have transformed into humongous inequalities of wealth and the domination (even capture) of key levers of governance by giant business entities that are “too large to fail”. Where in the Nehruvian era, the public sector was given the primary role to promote governance objectives, in Modi’s “New India” it is the private sector, specifically a handful of private sector giants, that are being entrusted with promoting national goals such as a massive switchover from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Thus, we are saddled with a public sector Solar Energy Corporation of India that produces no solar power itself but is the channel through which state electricity distribution companies are compelled to purchase renewable solar energy from a monopolistic private entity, claimed to be the “largest” in the world, however burdensome the tariffs might be on state budgetary resources. Adani’s indictment in a US court alleges that he bribed state government “officials” (a term used in the US for even elected representatives) who were baulking at purchasing excessively expensive renewable energy from Adani Green through SECI. The indictment also carries the implication that despite evidence of violations under the (Indian) Prevention of Corruption Act, the Indian regulator, the Securities Exchange Board of India, had failed to carry out its regulatory duties vis-à-vis Narendra Modi’s flagship private entity, the Adani group.

Economies which relied on private enterprise, such as the US “robber barons” of the 19th and early 20th century whose shenanigans brought on the Depression and led to Franklin Roosevelt’s anti-trust legislation, have found reflection in the Japanese ‘zaibatsu’ leading to Japanese armed invasions of its neighbours in the 1930s and 1940s in quest of an Asian “co-prosperity sphere”, and the rise of Hitler on the corporate shoulders of ThyssenKrupp. So too, Boris Yeltsin’s transmogrification of the Soviet socialist economy into the notorious ‘oligarchs’ of Russia.

Equally, Korea’s ‘chaebols’. In China, too, Dengonomics has been characterised by massive corruption.

The Adani imbroglio is thus not the outcome of one business giant’s dodgy ways but symptomatic of our dismantling ethics from economic policy.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

olympics-2036-host-and-ghosts

Sat Nov 16 14:49:35 IST 2024

The Indian Olympics Association (IOA) has sent the International Olympics Committee (IOC) its ‘letter of intent’ to host the Olympics in 2036—appositely enough the centenary of the very year, 1936, when Adolf Hitler hosted the Games in Berlin!

The letter, reportedly drafted in consultation with the Indian government, might have been written by Jawaharlal Nehru, the bête noire of the BJP. For it invokes not “1,200 dark years of slavery” as claimed by Narendra Modi, but the “vast cultural diversity” of the country, shaped “by thousands of years of history”, as the raison d’être for our bid.

Repudiating the known ideological view of the sangh parivar, the letter proudly proclaims that “our society is a mosaic of religions, including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism, each contributing to our rich heritage and society”.

The government must think the rest of the world are fools who do not know the 100-year record of hindutva from Savarkar through Golwalkar to Modi which excoriates our minorities and treats all encounters with “outsiders” as having had the most deleterious consequences for Hindus. Or the many nasty things their ideological mentors have had to say about Buddhism, its message of non-violence and compassion, and the contempt in which they hold emperor Asoka for having deprived the Hindu of his ‘masculinity’.

The letter shows our government thinks the diplomatic missions in our national capital were asleep at their desks when, in the campaign speeches of the prime minister and his cohort, the Muslim minority was publicly targeted. They might hide, but the world knows the hideous record of the brutal killings by their supporters of innocent Muslims suspected of consuming or transporting cow’s meat, most of which have turned out to be false allegations, but only after the victims were tortured, bullied and finally put to death.

We can fully expect our competitors (who include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Indonesia) to pass on this open secret to the IOC in case someone there missed it. We might also expect one of these countries (or, possibly, Canada) to inform the IOC executive board of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that pointedly excludes Muslims from the ambit of refugees seeking shelter in our land. This despite the Rohingya Muslims being the largest cohort of displaced persons in our immediate neighbourhood.

And many would whisper, if not shout out, the carnage of Gujarat 2002, particularly in Ahmedabad, which is apparently intended as the host city. Why not Imphal in Manipur, a sports-mad state, where internecine tribal conflict would best diminish in the international spotlight?

Our sports priorities are wholly misplaced. We wish to host glittering international sports events but, unlike previous Asian hosts, we are hopeless at Olympic sports. In demographic terms, we have virtually the lowest per capita haul of Olympic medals. Even in hockey, in which Dhyan Chand first demonstrated our prowess before Hitler in Berlin, we have since slipped down the international scale. The only sport in which we have occasionally excelled is cricket, which is confined to a dozen Commonwealth countries.

We need to become a sporting nation, not a sports-hosting nation. For that we need a scheme that brings sports, sports training, talent search and nutritious nurturing to the doorstep of every Indian child in every rural or tribal backwater and urban slum. That is where our sporting talent lies. Assiduously searching out and nurturing that talent is not, alas, our national priority. And the world knows it. As Union sports minister (2006-08), I fostered just such a scheme that, unfortunately, has since withered on the vine. Which is why I think the IOA’s ‘letter of intent’ will remain the last will and testament of the Modi government.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

india-china-back-to-basics

Sun Nov 03 09:44:27 IST 2024

The Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping handshake in Kazan provides the right opportunity to ask the most basic question: what is our long-term perspective on India-China relations?

The question was, in fact, raised and settled back in 1950. In a famed letter to Jawaharlal Nehru, deputy prime minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel set out his concerns over China’s increasing belligerence towards any kind of pretence to independence by Tibet.

Nehru decided to take the issue to cabinet instead of leaving it as a bilateral difference of opinion between himself and his deputy. He had every reason to believe that Sardar Patel would be present at the cabinet meeting. Tragically, the Sardar remained bedridden and died within three weeks of Nehru detailing his counter-argument to all members of the cabinet through his note of November 18, 1950.

Urging that “we should be clear in our minds as to what we are aiming at, not only in the immediate future but from a long-term view”, Nehru’s starting point, obvious as it is, bears reiteration: communist China “is going to be our close neighbour for a long time to come”. It cannot be wished away. No power on earth can either replace it—as, at the time, the American establishment hawks were pressing their government to do—nor could we “save Tibet” from a Chinese takeover, as several Indian establishment hawks were urging him to do. He significantly added that “we might be able to help Tibet retain a large measure of autonomy”. That was eventually written into the Panchsheel agreement of 1954, but violated by the Chinese before the ink ran dry on the signatures of the two sides.

Communism and a feudal theocracy could not really be accommodated in a single package, especially, as Nehru reminded his cabinet colleagues, Tibetan independence was only “40 years” old compared to centuries of kowtowing to Peking (now Beijing). Moreover, the new rulers were atheists, unlike their imperial predecessors, with no need of spiritual guidance from the Dalai Lama. That was the reality with which we had to come to terms. And under these terms, China might “formally grant Tibet autonomy” but that autonomy “can obviously not be anything like the autonomy verging on independence that Tibet had enjoyed” over the previous four decades. Prescient!

Pointing to the “tremendously long frontier” between China and India, Nehru awoke both countries to the need to reaffirm the ground reality by mutual agreement. But China was unprepared to talk to him about the border for close to a decade and that then became the bone of contention leading to the conflict of 1962. While expressing the view that he did not anticipate a “major attack”, Nehru conceded that “there are certainly chances of a gradual infiltration” and even of the Chinese taking “possession of disputed territory” (emphasis added) but underlined that to make “full provision for a feared attack” would be to “cast an intolerable burden” on us. However, we must “take all necessary precautions to prevent” the “infiltration” and unwarranted claims to “disputed territory”.

Nehru, thus, concluded that “if China and India are inveterately hostile to each other”, there will be “repeated wars bringing destruction to both”. But if “India and China (are) at peace… it would make a vast difference”.

Our larger strategic aim should be to ensure that “India and China (are) at peace”. In this context, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has evoked “the power of engaging in continuous dialogue because, sooner or later, solutions will emerge”. Should that not apply to Pakistan?

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

kashmir-kashmiris-need-delhis-trust

Sat Oct 19 11:09:41 IST 2024

Of the 49 seats in the Kashmir valley, the National Conference won 42; the Congress, six; the CPI(M), one; the BJP, zero; the Jamaat-e-Islami, zero. It was a clean sweep for INDIA.

It is not that the Central government’s representatives since August 5, 2019, have done nothing. It is appreciated that ‘normalcy’ of a kind has been restored—even if at the point of the AK-47. It is appreciated that schools and colleges are open, that hospitals and primary health centres are working, that Central welfare schemes are being implemented, that new development schemes have been undertaken, that the economy has been re-geared, that fresh private investment is being sought, that transport is running smoothly.

There is no doubt of the tourist boom and of the planeloads of curious visitors and pilgrims, particularly Hindus, from all over the country, being flown in. It is also evident that free and fair elections have been held, notwithstanding some gerrymandering to increase Jammu seats. And, yet, the BJP could garner only 5 per cent of the vote in the valley. Why? Because ‘Man does not live by bread alone’.

More because of its poetic cadence than because of any deep philosophical insight, Atal Bihari Vajpayee hit the right note when he formulated the essence of a lasting solution to the valley’s alienation as lying in, “Kashmiriyat, jamhooriyat, insaaniyat” (Kashmir’s inclusive culture, democracy, and common humanity). Protest against the denial of these three vital requirements has been registered right across the valley.

The forced integration through the reading down of articles 370 and 35A, the bifurcation of the state, and its downgrading to a Union territory, are a denial of the Kashmiri identity to force a people proud of their composite credentials into the straitjacket of ‘uniformity’ that lies at the core of the hindutva project. Kashmir chose India in preference to Pakistan because its leaders recognised that Kashmiriyat would be safer in secularism than in Islamic Pakistan, for exclusion and Kashmir’s traditions of inclusion are incompatible. However, Kashmir could only be Indian if it were encouraged to remain Kashmiri—the same deal that led to the Dravidian movement abandoning separatism in favour of being Tamil in India, provided always they would remain Tamil in India.

Self-respect, dignity, and the preservation of identity, require self-rule. In our freedom movement, we were prepared to remain within the empire provided, like other dominions, we could rule ourselves through our own elected representatives and a government based on majorities in the state and central legislatures. It is only after that demand found no takers in Westminster that on January 26, 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru, as Congress president, was authorised to declare purna swaraj (complete or unfettered independence). Something similar is being demanded in Kashmir: their right to full statehood as applicable to other states of the Union of India—failing which aazaadi (complete or unfettered independence—purna swaraj). Until that is understood, until Delhi recognises that what unites J&K is the common demand of the Hindu majority in Jammu and the Muslim majority in Kashmir for full-fledged democracy (jamhooriyat) in full-fledged statehood. This is clear from the Lokniti-CSDS survey which shows 80 per cent Kashmiris and over 43 per cent Jammu-ites seeking the restoration of statehood without delay.

Above all is the need for insaaniyat (humanity), that is law and order that are self-ordained and not enforced by dictate from above through a panoply of weapons and tens of thousands of soldiers, paramilitary and security forces. There is no insaaniyat in a soldier cradling his weapon at every street-corner. Nor is there any insaaniyat in treating every Kashmiri as a terrorist—kinetic or potential. What is needed and must be made evident is trust—in the Kashmiri, in Kashmiriyat, in jamhooriyat and in insaaniyat. Omar Abdullah has his work cut out.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

our-government-neither-applauds-nor-boos-it-just-steps-aside

Sat Oct 05 11:27:21 IST 2024

When I read about India’s abstention on the UN resolution regarding the International Court of Justice’s decision to start hearings on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, I was shamed as an Indian. But when I read India’s cringeworthy Explanation of Vote [EoV], I felt humiliated as a human being.

I doubt that there has been a more mealy-mouthed opening sentence in any EoV that matches that of our permanent representative (PR). After the world (and ICJ) have witnessed nearly a year of the inhuman massacre of some 40,000 non-combatant Palestinians (and the revenge killing of a handful of Hamas militants), and the brutal repeated displacement of close to a million civilians being driven under fire from one part of the tiny Gaza Strip to another, while being denied food and water and health services on so horrific a scale of inhumanity that the usually sober, restrained ICJ has found itself with no alternative but to investigate whether Israel is in violation of the Geneva convention on genocide, all our PR is permitted by the Modi government to say is—I quote, “Today’s voting takes place in the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Gaza”!

No, mate, it takes place in the background of the ICJ determination to investigate genocide by Israel. One hundred and twenty-four member-states applaud the decision; 43 don’t. India does not know whether to annoy Modi’s role model, Benjamin Netanyahu, or abandon the Palestinian cause we have supported since Mahatma Gandhi’s time. And so, having lost our moral compass, we dither. Our government neither applauds nor boos. It just steps aside. That is the tragic point to which the Modi cohort has brought Jawaharlal Nehru’s independent foreign policy, a policy that, till Modi’s arrival, constituted a national consensus. Nonalignment is now neutrality.

Our PR’s EoV goes on with the revelation that the “conflict”—as if we are talking of one of those incidents that brings in Yogi Adityanath’s bulldozers—has been going on “for more than eleven months”. Really, eleven months, counted to the last decimal point by Aryabhata’s descendants? Yes, eleven months during which we have been adding to Israel’s firepower while dishing out cliches to the Palestinians. Our PR is not to say ”genocide”; so, he restricts himself to “humanitarian crisis”. What, however, is being voted on is the question of ‘Genocide’.

Forty-three countries have the guts to say they will not accept an investigation into genocide whatever the ICJ may say. They comprise mainly the European countries who mercilessly committed outrage after outrage on the Jewish people for millennia, ending in the Holocaust. No Arab nation was involved in the Holocaust. Indeed, it was only when Muslims ruled Andalusia (modern Iberia) for 781 years (711-1492 CE) that the Jews lived in peace and honour. ‘Holocaust’ is a European disease extending from the Atlantic to the Urals. And the poor Palestinians are being made to pay the price of giving the opening to Europe to rid itself of its Jews.

The PR ended the oration written for him in Delhi with the ringing words, “Our efforts should be directed to bringing the two sides closer, not drive them further apart”. Wah! Wah! Mashallah. The viswaguru-cum-mitra is going to bring the butcher and the animal for slaughter closer by cowering on the knife’s edge. Abstention? Faugh!

Meanwhile, on the ground, Israel, strengthened by the negative western vote and the pusillanimity of the Indian position, has resorted to what one commentator has characterised as “the violent choreography of incremental escalation”. With pagers and walkie-talkies exploding in crowded places, killing hundreds of Lebanese (and a handful of Hezbollah militants), West Asia and Iran are being dragged by the rogue state of Israel into a frightening apocalypse. Yahweh alone can save us.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

how-modi-learnt-to-love-the-bomb

Sat Sep 21 10:46:34 IST 2024

Narendra Modi is the first Indian prime minister ever to not be on record on nuclear disarmament. His attention has been devoted to building our nuclear capabilities and delivery systems without mentioning universal disarmament. The authoritative International Panel on Fissile Materials has estimated, mainly on the basis of Indian government data, that we now have approximately 680kg (plus/minus 160kg) of weapons-grade plutonium in addition to highly enriched uranium to make 130-210 nuclear warheads, although our capacity to launch them is limited to an estimated 172. We are, however, rapidly developing missile delivery systems. Agni-V is in the final stages of operationalisation. Its unique feature is that it can be stored in canisters to enable pre-mating of missiles and warheads, besides perhaps taking our range to 6,000km (from Prithvi-II’s 350km). Next in line is the medium-range Agni-P, which replaces the first three Agni missiles. It can be equipped with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles or variations thereof to match Pakistan’s medium-range Ababeel, which is armed with MIRVs. Long-range Agni-VI, an inter-continental ballistic missile, follows. This arguably presages the “decoupling” of our nuclear strategy for deterring China, which involves long-range missiles, from deterring Pakistan with highly sophisticated short-range ballistic missiles. We are well and truly into a nuclear arms race, precisely of the kind we used to deplore when the US and the Soviet Union were playing catch-up.

Meanwhile, the second side of the triad—air—has been bolstered with Rafale, the upgrading of Mirage 2000-H to Mirage 2000-5, the upgrading also of Jaguar with DARIN-III precision attack and avionics (despite the decision to retire the Jaguar soon). We must also note the proposed establishment of maintenance, repair, overhaul facilities near Jewar airport in Noida. We are also strengthening the third side of the triad—naval—by the commissioning of a second nuclear submarine, INS Arighaat, on August 29, 2024, and a large naval base at Rambilli.

These are all pointers to the Modi establishment surreptitiously drifting away from the two pillars of the nuclear weapons policy formulated by the Vajpayee government in the aftermath of Pokhran-II: ‘Minimum Nuclear Deterrence’ and ‘No First Use’. We are now switching to the same nuclear deterrence theories of Mutually Assured Destruction and a never-ending nuclear arms race that we used to warn against from Mahatma Gandhi onwards. To cite Rajiv Gandhi: “There can be no iron-clad guarantee against the use of weapons of mass destruction… the insane logic of mutually assured destruction will ensure that nothing survives”.

With the highest density of population in the world in Indian cities, our vulnerability to nuclear attack is arguably the highest in the world. We would become an uninhabitable wasteland. ‘Bombing Bombay’, a 1999 paper by M.V. Ramana of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimated, on 1991 census figures, that “a 15-kiloton explosion” in Bombay would result in “1,60,000 to 8,66,000 (instantaneous) deaths”, followed by “hundreds of thousands” of “injuries or burns” leading to the painful death of most, besides “genetic mutations” that would last for generations. Population density in Bombay stood at 16,461 per sqkm in 1991. North-east Delhi in 2001 had a density of 29,397 persons. The higher the density, the higher the instantaneous loss of life.

That is why we consistently advocated universal nuclear disarmament even as we became a nuclear weapon state. It is Modi’s failure to continue that advocacy of disarmament that is the single biggest threat to the continuation of our existence.

(Views expressed are personal.)

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

honest-peace-broker-nehru-vs-master-of-hugs-modi

Sat Sep 07 10:56:55 IST 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed that while earlier we were distanced from everybody, under him we are now friends with everybody. Since Modi has been in charge of foreign policy for 10 years, let us compare his 10 years with Jawaharlal Nehru’s first 10 years.

Nehru set out on uncharted territory. The world was divided into two warring camps and every other country had joined one or the other. We were the first colony to emerge from imperial bondage. Hence, while “we look(ed) upon the world with clear and friendly eyes”, our foreign policy had to be as independent as our newly won domestic independence. Moreover, it had to be based on the values that had informed our unique freedom struggle: fierce opposition to all forms of domination but through non-violence. An early manifestation of independent thought and action was our voting against the partition of Palestine despite being neither Arab nor Muslim, for partition solves nothing, it only aggravates hatred and bitterness.

Both camps initially looked on our independent stand with suspicion but shortly came to realise that without an honest peace-broker nothing could be resolved. And India became that peace-broker, whether by chairing the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission in 1953 that led to armistice in the Korean peninsula or by being trusted by all belligerents to conclude the Geneva Accords in 1954 without even being a formal participant in the talks. Nehru’s envoy, V.K. Krishna Menon, managed it simply by making himself available for mediation and ironing out misunderstandings between the contending parties. It led to Nehru’s India helming all three International Commissions of Control and Supervision in Indochina. Nehru, thus, emerged as the world’s much-needed man of peace and the world turned to India to lead UN peace-keeping forces in Gaza after the Suez war of 1956, in Cyprus, and in Congo.

So convinced were the sceptics in both camps about India’s indispensability in a divided world that when Nehru went to the US in 1949, he was received with great warmth and honour. And when he visited China in 1954 and the Soviet Union in 1955, millions lined the streets to greet him. India’s profile in the world had, and has, never been greater.

Meanwhile, Nehru’s India took the lead in vigorously advocating and diligently promoting global decolonisation. Virtually every emerging nation of Asia, Africa and Latin America, even Yugoslavia in Europe, followed the Nehruvian lead in proclaiming non-alignment as the core of their foreign policy. Where we started out all alone, two-thirds of the UN member-states followed in our wake. And Modi claims we were distanced from everybody?

What is Modi’s ten-year record in foreign policy? He has wrecked our relationships in the neighbourhood, putting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in deep freeze, aggravating hostility with Pakistan, overplaying the Sheikh Hasina card in Bangladesh, and alienating Nepal by grossly, but unsuccessfully, interfering in their internal affairs, especially during their delicate process of Constitution-making. He ended 35 years of peace and tranquillity with China by whispering one thing in Xi Jinping’s ear and quite another in the US president’s. Palestinians just don’t trust us anymore and Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Modi expressed “total solidarity”, faces charges of genocide in Gaza.

On the war in Ukraine, Modi has reduced foreign policy to a bearhug with Vladimir Putin without mentioning the U word and another bearhug to Volodymyr Zelensky without mentioning the R word. Because we now lack the courage to make our stand clear, Zelensky slams India the minute Modi flies out of Kyiv. Foreign policy does not mean being everything to everybody. It means having the courage to stand up for the choice you have made. Modi lacks that courage and thinks he can make up for it by engineering overseas Indians to rally to his personality cult.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

lesson-from-bangladesh

Fri Aug 23 15:20:55 IST 2024

The ‘Monsoon Revolution’ of August 5, 2024, was not about Bangladesh’s relations with India but about the relationship of Bangladesh with Bangladeshis. Understanding this fundamental distinction will not only help us put issues arising out of the toppling of Sheikh Hasina in perspective but also learn important lessons from these dramatic developments.

Hasina’s 16 years in power were marked by rapid economic growth that belied Henry Kissinger’s description of the country at birth as a “basket case”. Per capita GDP rose to equal that of India’s. The garments sector saw Bangladesh, as a Least Developed Country (LDC), taking full advantage of duty-free access to become a major global player in the sector. It also ensured massive women’s participation in the work force. Remittances from overseas workers spiralled to dizzy levels. At the same time, the strong emphasis on education, health and women’s empowerment, raised Bangladesh on the Human Development Index to a point that overtook India.

Meanwhile, micro-finance, especially through the Grameen Bank, based on the twin perception that poor women are prudent savers and investors, as well as culturally and economically to be trusted to service and return small loans to continue accessing such finance, promoted participatory grassroots development. The private sector flourished, albeit in an atmosphere of oligarchs and “endemic corruption”. Nevertheless, the economic miracle appeared to guarantee political stability.

Since literally the minute that Generals Arora and Niazi signed the surrender documents on December 16, 1971, I have been involved with Bangladesh. So, the Kolkata Telegraph sent me on a week-long visit to Bangladesh in December 2021 to take a close look at the country on the 50th anniversary of its liberation. My friends arranged for me to meet a wide range of people, among whom was one of Sheikh Hasina’s closest advisers. He bluntly admitted, in confidence, that in sharp contrast to the “free and fair elections” that had brought her to power in 2009, there followed an uncontested “walkover” in 2014, and blatant, if unnecessary, rigging in 2019 (“unnecessary” because she would have won anyway). There was a two-fold consequence of this: first, a complete absence of “legitimacy in the eyes of the people” for her government and, second, “some 70 per cent of MPs being businessmen and the cabinet packed with tycoons”. Authoritarianism had spawned, said others, “sham elections, arbitrary government and a corrupt, overweening bureaucracy”.

There was massive popular dissatisfaction, said some, with electoral authoritarianism that had led to a “climate of fear” and the “weakening of institutions”, particularly, the “completely politicised judiciary” which resulted in “gross abuses of human rights going un-investigated” and even “judicial financial corruption at the highest level”. Another said, “We are barely a democracy,” pointing to “forced disappearances” of political opponents, secret prisons, and “extra-judicial killings”. There was muzzling of the media through the denial of government ads to critical newspapers and TV outlets, the Digital Security Act that sounded the “death knell of investigative journalism”, and the “sedition law which hangs like a sword of Damocles over our citizens”. As the “denial of democracy leads to the denial of justice”, the only answer lies, said the key Hasina adviser, in free and fair elections in 2024. That did not happen. Hence, the ‘Monsoon Revolution’.

The BJP says they have nothing to learn from all this. But almost every sentence of what I wrote about Bangladesh three years ago can be transposed to Narendra Modi’s India. The elections of 2024, which cut him down to size, were the consequence of his government being as flawed as Hasina’s and for much the same reasons. Although his agenda remains unchanged, his survival depends on his alliance partners. Should they get miffed, as they are already indicating, Modi, like Hasina, could become history.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

niti-aayog-not-transforming-india

Sat Aug 10 11:52:47 IST 2024

Is the NITI Aayog an “institute” or a “commission”? With his childish penchant for converting Hindi words into English acronyms, Narendra Modi has expanded NITI—“sound advice”—to “National Institute for Transforming India”, and then added “Aayog”, Hindi for “commission”. So, NITI Aayog remains mystified over its role. The erstwhile Planning Commission had hard financial clout. The NITI Aayog’s role is at best “advisory”, moreover, the NITI Aayog’s attempt to position itself as the principal think-tank of the government has failed because there is endless overlap between “advice” tendered by NITI and the quite separate counsels, often on the same set of subjects, by the prime minister’s economic advisory council and the chief economic advisor sitting in the finance ministry (and oftentimes the Reserve Bank of India), not to mention the private think-tanks of saffron tendency such as the India Foundation and the Vivekananda Foundation, and earlier world-renowned independent think-tanks like the Centre for Policy Research that the saffron forces are attempting to sabotage and infiltrate. Worse, these various bodies outdo each other to act as echo chambers for what the prime minister wishes to hear—for if they did not, they would soon be out on their ear.

No wonder then that the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has called for the “NITI Aayog to be scrapped” and demanded that the Planning Commission be brought back. Seven INDIA alliance-led state governments boycotted the NITI governing council session and three other chief ministers found it not worth their time to attend. Not one CM ever stayed away from consultative meetings with the Planning Commission because it was not just a talk shop but a hard bargaining counter where states, irrespective of the political colour of their governments, were afforded a bilateral forum to negotiate their way to a mutually acceptable conclusion on “rupees, annas and pies” to undertake the development and welfare activities entrusted to them by the Constitution.

Then, the Modi government invented the “double engine” to back states governed by the BJP to the detriment of the equitable formulae that the Planning Commission used to promote fair distribution without regard to political colouring. So, instead of “cooperative federalism”, we have “authoritarian federalism”, threatening the unity and integrity of India. The non-attendance by ten CMs of the NITI governing council is an early warning signal that to save our nation we must reverse gear.

The Constitution was written under the shadow of a possible Balkanisation of the country. To prevent that from happening, authority was loaded in favour of the Centre. So, instead of declaring India a federal Republic, we became a Union of states. One deleterious consequence of this, which has become apparent only after we got Central and state governments of different hues, is that while the seventh schedule clearly divides responsibilities between Centre and states such that much of grassroots economic and human development have been entrusted to states and panchayat raj institutions, the raising and distribution of financial resources is principally the Union’s responsibility. Therefore, the Constitution established an independent finance commission to determine the states’ share of divisible national resources, but as most remunerative taxes are reserved for the Centre, states stand with a begging bowl to get their due share, resulting in centrally sponsored schemes to bridge the gap between states’ duties and the funds required to discharge them. This aggravates central domination. That is the principal reason for our abject failure in attaining “inclusive growth”, that is, spreading the fruits of development to those most in need.

Modi aims at attaining Viksit Bharat 2047 through a clutch of oligopolists. That is the wrong way of making India prosperous—for it leaves ordinary Indians lagging behind. Gandhiji weeps.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

the-ugly-indian-in-nepal

Sat Jul 27 11:11:00 IST 2024

Narendra Modi is faced in Nepal with a failure of policy as Kathmandu looks increasingly to China and turns more and more resentful of India. Indeed, the political mood in Nepal is such that it is the current state of India-Nepal relations that is the principal reason behind Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli’s return to office as prime minister in coalition with a party that had hitherto been regarded as our most reliable friend, the Nepali Congress led by the veteran Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Reports from Kathmandu indicate that this churning in Nepal is principally on account of the supine way in which Oli’s immediate predecessor, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, had surrendered to the virtually imperial demands made by the Modi government on Prachanda’s official visit to Delhi in June 2023. On that visit, Prachanda eschewed the opportunity to pursue Nepal’s principal concerns with Modi saying that it would have “ruin(ed) the atmosphere”. His opponents, both within the alliance he had forged to become PM and among the commentariat and opposition in parliament, deplored such appeasement of a bullying ‘big brother’.

Among the fierce reactions, the sharpest retort came from a former minister who described Prachanda and his cohort as lampasarbadis—spineless cowards, crawling when they were only asked to bend! Others said India had reduced Nepal’s sovereignty to the “third stratum”, below even the “provincial establishments” in India. Indeed, Modi’s hauteur and ill-treatment of Nepalese leaders, going back to the Modi sarkar’s economic boycott of Nepal in 2015 because they had dared proclaim a constitution for Nepal without incorporating the amendments Delhi had suggested, has led even to our staunchest friend in that country, the Nepali Congress, joining in the chorus against Prachanda’s pusillanimous failure to advance Nepal’s interests against an India that seems determined to unilaterally and even whimsically trample on them. Finally, the Nepalese are not unaware of the BJP desire to see the Republic of Nepal revert to a monarchy that had proclaimed a Hindu Rashtra in Nepal and has had intimate ancestral links with Yogi Adityanath’s ashram in Gorakhpur. Muddying the waters further is the sangh parivar’s angry rejection of Oli’s assertion that the Ayodhya of Lord Ram lies in Nepal and not India!

Principal among Nepal’s current grievances is the Modi government’s refusal to cooperate with Nepal in operationalising their Chinese-built international airports at Bhairahawa and Pokhara on the sole ground that China had helped build them. There is also burgeoning anger at India refusing to buy power from Chinese-assisted hydroelectric plants, despite China winning the contracts in international bidding.

“Hypocrisy” is what Nepalese commentators describe these prohibitions as, given the massive and growing imports and investments that India makes from China to keep its own economy chugging. There is also the simmering issue of whether the Lipulk-Limpiyadhura-Kalapani triangle belongs to India or Nepal. Moreover, the Modi government refuses to release the report of the joint India-Nepal Eminent Persons Group that reviewed the gamut of India-Nepal relations at the behest of both governments, only because the constructive recommendations made by the group in the common interest of the two countries are not in accord with the Modi government’s colonial approach to Nepal. Nepal also resents India forcing into cold storage the multilateral SAARC initiative for bilateral Indo-Pak reasons. That is a formidable agenda which requires attention at the highest level, and not, as Prachanda had done, to be kept off the table for New Delhi to feel ‘comfortable’ as he put it with Kathmandu.

It was the image of the “Ugly American” that fundamentally caused the undoing of the US in Vietnam. We should never forget that Nepali sovereignty deserves respect as it occupies the central sector of the Himalayan chain that separates both countries from China.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

are-the-brits-racist-or-are-we

Sat Jul 13 17:24:02 IST 2024

While an Indian-origin UK PM has lost his premiership, in the emerging line-up for his succession as leader of the Tory party are two ladies of Indian origin—Suella Braverman and Priti Patel—and two contenders of African heritage, James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch. There appears to be only one aspirant of indubitably British origin, Tom Tugendhat.

Moreover, the House of Commons now has—hold your breath—28 elected members of Indian origin, 12 of them Sikhs and two Muslims, and 15 of Pakistan origin, including at least six Indian and six Pakistani-origin women. As many as 13 per cent of the members are from ethnic minorities. It should shame us in India where the 14 per cent Muslim minority constitute less than four per cent of our Lok Sabha and Modi’s new council of ministers—for the first time ever—contains no Muslim.

It should shame us even more when we contrast the UK’s smooth transition to multi-coloured diversity in contrast to Sushma Swaraj’s threatened tonsure of her abundant hair if we had an Italian-born PM.

Readers of my generation would recall Enoch Powell’s infamous speech in Birmingham on April 20, 1968, when he predicted that “rivers of blood” would flow in the UK if immigrants from the former Empire, now the “New Commonwealth”, and particularly from South Asia, were to flow without impediment into the “green and pleasant land” of Great Britain, especially in view of the non-discrimination clauses of the Race Relations Act. Even more alarmingly, polls showed that three quarters of all Britons agreed with him. Yet, the Conservative party dismissed Powell within 24 hours from his high-profile position as the shadow defence secretary. Rivers of blood have indeed flowed in India and Pakistan, and in East and West Africa, from where a large segment of Britain’s immigrants come, but no river of blood has flown in the UK itself.

In his 1968 speech, Powell quoted one of his constituents as saying, “In this country, in 15 or 20 years’ time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.” Now, nearly 60 years have passed since that dire prediction and the British electorate have voluntarily handed political representation to an impressive number of non-whites, ironically many from precisely the area in the Midlands that once elected Powell. He had gone on to say, “We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation” to be encouraging such an influx. It amounts, he said to “watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre”. (Powell, who had strong India connections, didn’t seem to remember that in England, unlike India, the natives bury their dead and don’t burn them!) He went on to claim that Britons were being made “strangers in their own country”.

I have lived only a year-and-a-half in England as a university student. That was just a few years before the Powell speech. Far from being racist, my fellow-students and dons were uniformly kind and helpful. So were the general public. Years later, on a panel I shared with the renowned London-based lawyer, Sarosh Zaiwalla, he was asked whether in all his many years in England he had experienced any racist prejudice. He replied, “Never”. For while the British in colonial India did indeed include racist “white trash”, many were deeply committed to discovering our own much-neglected heritage to reveal “The Wonder That Was India”. It was imperialism that brought out the worst in them. At home, they were more gentle, more accommodating, electing Dadabhai Naoroji, Mancherjee Bhownaggree and Shapurji Saklatvala to the Commons when India was still in their grip—and now many, many more. They deserve our humble tribute.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

modi-s-chutzpah-is-his-nemesis

Sat Jun 29 18:45:38 IST 2024

When the actual election results turned the exit poll predictions topsy-turvy, we had a week of euphoria in which we thought “We, the People” had rescued democracy; curtailed authoritarianism; reined in a potential dictator; saved our Constitution; revived the institutions of democracy; finished with the misuse of investigative and enforcement agencies; ended the age of the ‘godi’ media; shown up Islamophobic communalism for the inhuman menace it is; and restored the country to fundamental decency as expressed in our fundamental rights. An emeritus professor of philosophy drew attention to the parallel between the Modi hubris and Aeschylus’ play, ‘The Persians’, which depicts the Persian emperor Xerxes “combining foolishness with arrogance” to invade Greece and finding when he is beaten back that his people “no longer curb their tongue” for “a strong yoke has been removed”.

The past fortnight has shown that Modi does not see the results that way. For him, nothing has changed. He has sworn in virtually every previous ministerial colleague, including the dreaded Amit Shah. He distributes minor portfolios to his major coalition partners and resists their requests for the position of speaker. Clearly, he has no intention to loosen his iron grip on the running of the house and the longevity of elected MPs. He gives no recognition to the plain fact that he now has to contend with a revivified opposition that is snapping at his heels in a house where his majority is “very fragile” after the “tectonic shift” caused by the elections where “space has been blown open”, as Rahul Gandhi has said.

On the ground, Kejriwal is granted bail only to have it set aside almost immediately. Despite winning his seat from jail, after eight years of continuing incarceration, Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid does not yet know whether he will be released on bail to take his oath of office and whether he will have to do his duties as the MP for North Kashmir from prison or as a free man. Monstrously, Arundhati Roy is charged under the draconian UAPA and threatened with imprisonment without bail for a speech made more than a decade ago. Two French journalists are “forced to leave the country” and their Overseas Citizen of India status withdrawn despite both being long married to Indian spouses. The three new criminal procedure codes, endowed with highly Sanskritised names to remove the stain of the “colonial mindset” while retaining colonial times oppression, such as “sedition”, are to be implemented without giving Parliament an opportunity to review them. The re-inducted Union Minister Giriraj Singh is not pulled up for saying he too will do nothing for his Muslim constituents because, by not voting for him, they have “weakened Sanatan (Hinduism) to bring Ghazwa-e-Hind to Bharat”. All this in just the last fortnight! Like the Bourbon monarchs, Modi has “learned nothing and forgotten nothing”.

That will spell Modi’s doom. What happens to national unity when delimitation issues loom following the 2026 census? Does Modi have the dexterity to accommodate stern southern warnings? Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu will stick to him as long as he serves their purpose, but their purpose is milking the Centre and retaining the loyalty of their minorities. So, what happens to fiscal devolution, cooperative federalism, and the Uniform Civil Code? No ‘One Nation, One Election’, no ‘caste census’? Will the RSS acquiesce in the abandonment of their core demands? And how will Modi deflect an attack from the rear from the RSS, for which Mohan Bhagwat has already sounded the bugle? Will there be an RSS-sponsored Gadkari take-over?

Modi once warned me in Parliament that I would soon be dumped in the bin of the bhoole-bisre (the forgotten and abandoned). Modi will soon be joining me there.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

will-modi-third-run-its-full-term

Sat Jun 15 11:11:02 IST 2024

The Narendra Modi government has a wafer-thin majority. Either of Modi’s partners, the JD(U) with 12 seats or the TDP with 16, can upset the apple cart. That was the condition of V.P. Singh’s government. It lasted 11 months. That too was the condition of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s first government in 1996. That lasted 13 days. The plug can be pulled at any time.

In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Modi is offering a “consensual” government. Implicitly, this acknowledges that his previous governments were authoritarian and built around a personality cult. Both defining characteristics were integral to Modi’s personality and political past. They are also the defining characteristics of the hindutva ideology he espouses. How then, short of a lobotomy, can his protestations of running a third government opposite to his previous two be taken seriously?

First, what becomes of hindutva? Shaheen Bagh has triumphed. The Preamble to the Constitution, symbol of the Muslim women’s protest, has won. “Love jihad”, “land jihad”, now even “vote jihad” thrown out of the window. No to “bulldozer” politics. No more lynching for votes; no more riots for votes; no more genocide for votes. No more demanding that secularists “go to Pakistan” (and, in my case, “take your daughters with you!”) No more appeasement of the majority. No more vote banking by demonising religious minorities. Dog whistling and innuendo out. Hate speech denounced. Hate actions even more so. What then remains of hindutva?

On the very eve of its centenary, hindutva has been stopped in its tracks. After 10 years of power-drunk majoritarianism, will Nagpur accept that the Ram Mandir is all that remains of hindutva? Will the saffron cadre acknowledge that the dismantling of democratic institutions has to stop? That the weaponisation of governance agencies can no longer be fostered? Will they quiescently accept being shorn of their wolf’s clothing?

Will the electorate further tolerate a fawning judiciary denying the principle of “bail, not jail” that has made “the process the punishment” and converted Kashmir into “an open prison”? And a complaisant Election Commission? The voter cannot hold the courts or EC to account; so, will he/she turn on the government?

Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu are not offering their indispensable support for free. They know—and Modi knows—that one tantrum and it is curtains for Modi 3.0. Theirs is a case of ‘Dil maange more’. Does Modi have the wherewithal to meet their incessant demands?

The capture of mainstream media by favoured barons has already led to viewers drifting away, and even media celebrities have. We are in the age of podcasts and YouTubers. They can’t be taken over by moneybags. They are a standing monument to fear denied. Freedom of expression has been reaffirmed. Can Modi reverse that?

And what of Modi himself? The truth is now out: Modi is a biological being. He is no instrument of divinity, as he imagines himself. His attempt to combine the roles of the prime minister and the chief priest has been mocked. His claim to being the sole source of every welfare scheme and every government initiative has been laughed out of court. His mugshot on every hoarding, every poster, every ad, every document, even Covid inoculation certificates, has been seen for what it is: narcissism and megalomania. His making this election a popularity contest on himself has been punctured. He is alone in asking, “Mirror, mirror on the wall/tell me who is fairest of them all.” Can Modi so drastically transmogrify himself? Only a psychiatrist can tell.

Which is why I foresee only two years at most for the next Lok Sabha election.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

why-bjp-is-not-contesting-in-kashmir

Fri May 31 17:40:00 IST 2024

Union Home Minister Amit Shah claims “there is no greater testament to the removal of Article 370” than the high polling percentages in the Kashmir valley. Then why is the BJP not contesting any of the three seats in the valley?

The fact is that the reading down of Article 370—the principal boast of the BJP—is the key issue in all three constituencies where the main contenders—the National Conference (NC) of the Abdullahs and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of the Muftis—are fighting it out. Article 370 is seen as the symbol of the “identity“ and “dignity” of the Valley inhabitants, as the feisty daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija, who is making her political debut, keeps emphasising. It is also seen as the guarantor of the “rights” of the Kashmiri people. Most importantly, it is seen by Kashmir’s mainstream nationalist parties as their principal shield against the separatists. The National Conference’s candidate for Srinagar, Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, a prominent Shia cleric, affirms, “For us… Article 370 was a pro-mainstream and pro-democracy argument.” That is why all candidates of the principal parties contesting, irrespective of their other differences, are committed to advocating the restoration of Article 370, however hollowed out it had become. But the BJP, for all the empty boasts of the lieutenant governor, the home minister, and the prime minister about “restoring normalcy” by diminishing insurgency and street protests, bringing in lakhs of tourists, and undertaking massive infrastructure works, is hiding behind the skirts of their “proxies”: Sajjad Lone’s People’s Conference, Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party, and Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party, at least the latter two of which are set to lose their deposits.

The problem with the BJP is that it does not understand at all the psyche of the people of Kashmir and Ladakh and not even of the people of Jammu. Their focus is on hindutva and what they choose to call “development”, but they do not recognise that “man does not live by bread alone”.

In any case, long before the outrage on August 5, 2019, J&K was far ahead of most states, especially the bastions of the BJP—Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh—on every indicator of economic and human development (such as education and health), and Central budgetary support to the state. Such largesse had not “bought” the Kashmiris either before 2019 or after, because while they are all, of course, seeking peace and personal security and getting better-off, like human beings everywhere, they also seek, like human beings everywhere, honour and respect, and value above all else their “identity”, “dignity” and “rights”. Instead of bringing balm to such wounds, the BJP has turned J&K into “an open-air prison” to instill an atmosphere of fear.

.They have also resorted to the colonial practice of “divide and rule”, most nakedly evidenced in their delimitation commission irrationally joining Anantnag, the fortress of the Mufti family, to Poonch-Rajouri in Jammu over the formidable Pir Panjal range. In my view, this violates the principle of “geographic continuity” which is enshrined in clause 3 of the Delimitation Act. But, worse, the BJP have “deepened the ethnic divide” of Pahari from Gujjar and Bakerwal by granting Paharis ST status on the very eve of the election in the face of strident Gujjar-Bakerwal protests. The National Conference have retaliated by naming Mian Altaf Ahmed, a spiritual leader revered by the Gujjars, who has thrice been an MLA and whose father and grandfather have both been elected to the state assembly, as the candidate to oppose Mehbooba. She has deplored such “peer-mureed” politics, but can she successfully oppose it?

Again, the BJP is nowhere in the picture, the final proof of their politics in J&K over Article 370 having failed.

modi-divides-and-rules

Sat May 18 11:43:48 IST 2024

As the final phases of the general elections draw to a close, an increasingly panicky Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started upping the ante on the question of reservations for Muslims, once again attempting to rebuild his majority by forcing a Hindu-Muslim divide.

If, as the BJP has long been stressing, and Modi has been underlining, religion is nowhere mentioned in the First Amendment of 1951, which brought in reservations for Other Backward Classes, it is also necessary to underline that “caste” is also nowhere mentioned in this connection. The operative word is “classes”—a point stressed by Jawaharlal Nehru moving the legislation to give effect to the recommendations of the select committee set up by Parliament. “Classes”, of course, include both castes and communities. That is why Nehru, moving the amendment on May 29, 1951, described our aim as being “to realise an egalitarian society”, given the indisputable fact and social reality that, “infinite divisions have grown up in our… social structure”. He, specifically, described these infinite divisions as relating to “the caste system or religious divisions”. The use of the words “Other Backward Classes” (OBCs) was clearly designed to address all backward groups whether of castes, or occupations, or religion.

Therefore, the Mandal Commission included a number of Muslim castes in their OBC list, as well as occupations common to Hindus and Muslims, such as butchers and barbers. Thus, right from the start, certain Muslim castes have been considered backward, the term not being regarded as exclusive to Hindu society. The issue has never been, as Modi seems to think, of whether or not Islamic theology recognises caste: Indian Muslims have always been categorised on caste lines (arzal, as the lowest). Modi implicitly recognises this when he hoots what he claims he is doing for ‘Pasmanda Muslims’. Why not reservations for them, especially as the Justices Rajindar Sachar and Ranganath Mishra commissions found that the Muslim community as a whole was almost as backward as SCs and STs and “more backward” than non-Muslim OBCs, excluding Muslims who fall in the ‘creamy layer’, as for everyone else?

The problem of including Muslim castes among OBCs has always come up against the barrier of 50 per cent being the maximum share of reservations laid down by the Supreme Court. This has proliferated the practice by states, especially the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka, of providing Muslim sub-quotas within existing OBC quotas, thereby bringing a religion dimension into the quite different question of treating OBC reservations for backward classes of Muslims as “an extension of equality” and not an “exception to the principles of equality and non-discrimination”, as explained by Faizan Mustafa, vice-chancellor, Chanakya National Law University. This has been further confirmed in a series of Supreme Court judgments such as in Balaji (1962), Royappa (1973), and State of Kerala v/s N.M. Thomas (1975), besides the more renowned case of Indra Sawhney (1992).

To overcome the 50 per cent barrier, the Congress manifesto lays down a strategy to achieve the objective, beginning with a “caste survey” to move from “estimates” to facts on the ground. This will be the necessary preliminary to moving legislation to dismantle the 50 per cent barrier and giving OBCs of all religious persuasions a level ground to work towards removing their present educational and social backwardness, while otherwise tackling economic issues of rampant poverty and unemployment.

This is the logical way forward. Modi seeks to give this a communal colour. That may have succeeded in the past elections, but the electorate are waking up to the reality that it is not the Indian Muslim or Pakistan that is the bugbear. It is their economic and social condition after a decade of the Modi sarkar that is making them wonder whether Modi’s promised “achche din” (good days) have really arrived.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

modi-s-muslim-love-hate-hugs-and-kisses-for-sultans-contempt-for-ordinary-folks

Sat May 04 11:45:45 IST 2024

I have long been intrigued by the prime minister’s desire to hug every passing sheikh and sultan and his contrasting contempt for the ordinary Indian Muslim. The contempt becomes particularly evident at election time when the audience are invited to identify the transgressors by their dress (libhaz), the numbers of their children, or as infiltrators and traitors (ghuspait/gaddaar). Where any other party leader would immediately be pulled up, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) does not appear to apply, in the eyes of the Election Commission of India as presently constituted, to the prime minister. Secular fundamentalists like me are outraged but clearly the general electorate, especially in the Hindi heartland, are only amused by these sly innuendos. Muslims—at any rate, Indian Muslims, it seems, are fair game—but woe betide any opposition candidate or leader who dares step on what passes for “Hindu sentiment”. Then the knives are drawn (in some cases, literally) and “appeasement”-bashing comes into its own. Reinforcing this contempt for the Indian Muslim is the portrayal of Pakistani Muslims as secessionists-turned-terrorists. Thus are the Indian and Pakistani Muslim linked together in the sangh parivar imagination as the “enemy”.

And, thus, is carried forward the Savarkar-Hedgewar-Golwalkar thesis that the Muslim and the Christian can never be true Indians because while they may by birth and ancestry belong to the “pitra bhoomi’ (the fatherland) of Bharat, this land can never be their “punya bhoomi” (sacred or holy land) because their land of worship is located to the distant west of the sub-continent. Regarding Muslims as essentially invaders from outside, the race theories of Hitler and his ilk held a special appeal for the leaders of the RSS. To imported Nazi notions of “race purity”, they added the fascination for violence that B.S. Moonje brought to Nagpur from a visit to Mussolini’s fascist Italy. It gave organisational structure to Savarkar’s belief that the “Hindu discovers himself only in violence” (cf. Vinayak Chaturvedi’s defining study of hindutva).

In the eyes of hindutva bhakts, it is the ineluctable presence of a 200-million strong Muslim community in Bharat that comes in the way of the realisation of a Hindu rashtra, while the slightly larger number of Muslims in breakaway Pakistan makes impossible the realisation of a Hindu rashtra in ‘Akhand Bharat’. On the other hand, the Muslims of the Gulf region, and West Asia and North Africa in general, are in their own punya bhoomi and hence of no concern to the Hindu rashtra that the sangh parivar aims at securing in the pitra-cum-punya bhoomi of Bharat.  Hence, hugs and kisses on the cheek for the rulers of Muslim lands but subversion of identity for the Indian Muslim; demonisation as “tushtikaran” (appeasement) of measures of compassion for a wretchedly deprived minority, economically, socially and educationally, as revealed by the Justice Rajinder Sachar Commission; fierce opposition to the hijab and a personal civil code for the minorities; perversion of history leading to the avenging of real and imagined happenings in the mediaeval past; rejection of our composite culture and the syncretic heritage of our great civilisation to which all communities have contributed, more often than not in creative partnership, in language, literature, poetry, music and song, dance, painting and architecture; threats to the security of life and limb for Muslims; the bulldozer for their humble dwellings; harassment and discrimination in their everyday existence; sneers for their clothing and way of life; obstacles in their places of worship and burial grounds; all of this leading to lynching, cow-protection related vigilante violence, rape and mass murder.

So, it is not Islam or the Muslim ummah to which the BJP objects. It is just to them being here!

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

bjp-cant-scale-dravidian-wall

Sat Apr 20 11:24:24 IST 2024

Days before several states went to the polls on April 19, Prashant Kishor, the nation’s leading soothsayer, forecast that the BJP, a rookie in Tamil Nadu politics, is going to stun the nation by carrying off at least 16 of the 40 seats in TN (including one in Puducherry). On the other hand, Dayanidhi Maran, speaking for the DMK, has sneered at this suggestion, describing the BJP in TN as “a keyboard warrior” that thinks elections can be won on social media platforms and the internet without feet on the ground.

The BJP has additionally invested heavily in Narendra Modi, believing that his numerous visits to TN will more than make up for the near absence of any interest in the BJP in the past. There is also hope in the local leadership of the TN BJP president, K. Annamalai, a 40-year-old former IPS officer who is the new kid on the block. Third, there is the BJP’s alliance with the PMK, a party that claims to represent the extremely backward community of the Vanniyar, whose numbers are quite significant in the north of the state but electorally not significant. Fourth, flogging Katchatheevu, an issue resolved half a century ago. And fifth, thinking the sengol, placed by the speaker’s chair, will kindle Tamil pride. It doesn’t. It is a symbol of Brahmin domination.

How does this face up to the ruling DMK whose alliance won 38 of the 39 seats in the state (plus Puducherry) in the 2019 Lok Sabha election? “Very poorly” would be the common sense response to that question. It is astonishing that any political commentator, however eminent, could believe differently now. For one thing, while the Dravidian movement took indigenous roots since more than a century ago when the Justice Party was formed, hindutva is an alien political philosophy with little or no resonance in the state. The Justice Party challenged the domination of the Congress in the 1920s. But by the 1930s, the Dravidian movement was radicalised by Thanthai Periyar E.V. Ramasamy Naicker and taken to the streets to demand “equality” in a society dominated by a tiny percentage of Brahmins, basing themselves on religion. Logically, therefore, the movement also became atheistic. While EVR’s refusal to participate in the narrower political field enabled Rajaji to form a Congress government in 1937, once the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha received the Rajaji provincial government’s backing, EVR undertook a long march from Trichy to Madras that sparked the Dravidian refusal to accept the imposition of Hindi on the state. This also sparked a parallel movement to return to the chen Tamizh (classical Tamil) of a rich cultural past, which added to the momentum of alienation from the Sanskritic and vedic propagation of an India that excluded the Dravidian Tamils, who were also racially distinct from the Aryans of the north. How can the BJP, representing the quintessence of everything the Dravidian movement rejects, turn the tables on this bastion of Dravidian assertion?

There is also the pent-up anger at other forms of BJP imposition, such as NEET and the forthcoming delimitation, which might reduce TN seats for dramatically regulating its population growth while rewarding UP, the worst performer in family planning, by increasing its seats from 80 to 140.

Moreover, atavistic vengeance on our mediaeval history, which is at the core of hindutva, is so absent from Tamil sentiment that the Dravidian movement has no bias against Muslims. As Dayanidhi says, “DMK is 100 per cent for secularism”. The minorities are “born here. They are part of India. Hence, the Ram Mandir issue has little traction”. And as for the Gujarat model and the UP “double engine”, Dayanidhi pertinently asks if these are so successful, “Why are people from UP and Gujarat coming to Chennai to work?” Good question! Round One to INDIA.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

inequality-in-todays-india

Sat Apr 06 15:12:55 IST 2024

I happened to be a Union cabinet minister when Dr Manmohan Singh had his most spectacular achievement: GDP grew at 9.4 per cent, the highest rate ever and unbeaten since then. While the prime minister and Indian public opinion (particularly big business) were congratulating themselves on having broken the shackles of four decades of the so-called “licence-permit raj” and were eagerly anticipating double digit GDP growth to give China a run for its money, I got myself into deep trouble with the PM and the party by remarking at a meeting that 9.4 per cent GDP growth meant only that 94 per cent of Indians had grown at 0.94 per cent, while the fat cats who constitute 0.94 per cent of our population had grown by 9,400 per cent! It was clearly something of an off-colour joke at what I thought was a confidential get-together to discuss corporate linkages with panchayats, the portfolio I was handling. My remarks were leaked a few days later to the press and inevitably there was a huge rumpus leading to my being reprimanded at the highest levels in no uncertain terms.

I am, therefore, relieved (if deeply disturbed) that the World Inequality Database has revealed that three decades of liberalisation have humongously increased inequality. Between the regimes of Jawaharlal Nehru and P.V. Narasimha Rao, the share in national income of the “top 1 per cent”, which in colonial times had peaked at 21 per cent, shrank by the early 1980s to just 6 per cent. At the start of the reforms, the gap in national income share between the “top 10 per cent” and the “bottom 50 per cent” was 11 per cent (down from 16 per cent in 1951). Post reforms, it soared to 42.7 per cent in 2022, with the top 10 per cent claiming nearly 58 per cent of national income. Reforms also helped the “top 1 per cent” to more than double their national income share to nearly 23 per cent. The bottom 50 per cent now gets only 15 per cent of the pie. This is clearly in violation of the preambular pledge in the Constitution to “equality, of status and opportunity” and “justice, social, economic and political”, besides the Directive Principle in Article 38(2): “The State shall, in particular, strive to minimise the inequalities in income.” The Narendra Modi government, desperate for a Uniform Civil Code, is in blatant violation of the far more relevant Directive Principle relating to income inequality by endeavouring to maximise, not “minimise inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities”.

We may have attained the global fifth position in overall national income but are floundering at virtually the bottom on global indices that measure levels of justice in the distribution of the wealth of the nation. It was not for Adani and Ambani and others of the “suit-boot” gang that we won our freedom. Yet, in complete contrast with the goals of our Independence struggle and our constitutional injunctions, “India,” under the Modi dispensation says JNU emeritus professor, Aditya Mukherjee, “is witnessing obscene levels of inequality”, with the top 0.1 per cent capturing 9.6 per cent of national income—almost to the last decimal point what I had foretold as a minister.

While the incomes of the richie-rich have risen to stratospheric levels, there is the parallel tragedy of “stagnancy in income growth among the majority of the population” (World Inequality Database). Add to this the rampant unemployment among “casual labour”, the most deprived segment of our society, which plummeted from a share of employment of 28 per cent among men and women in 2011-12 to a dismal 23 per cent for men and a woeful 17 per cent for women in 2022-23.

In consequence, a clear nexus emerges between wealth and political power, symbolised by Ambani securing from the government the conversion of a defence airport into an international airport for 10 days to facilitate a celebrity family event. Would this ever have happened for any other Indian (other, of course, than Adani)? So long as money makes the mare go round, there can be no elimination of “inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities” which was the solemn constitution duty laid down by our founding fathers.

All of which explains why I remain an unreconstructed Nehruvian socialist.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

caa-thin-end-of-the-wedge

Sat Mar 23 14:33:06 IST 2024

With the announcement of dates for the coming general elections, the ruling establishment has suddenly found the courage to notify rules for the implementation of the nearly five-year old Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 [CAA], which had drawn the ire of the women of Shaheen Bagh and led to months-long demonstrations in Delhi, replicated all over the country, forcing the Modi government to back off from implementing it. By notifying the CAA rules on election eve, Amit Shah’s ministry has sought to overcome the setback they suffered in the winter of 2019/2020 when through prolonged day-and-night-long demonstrations in the bitter cold by poor, neglected, non-political Muslim women anchored themselves to the Preamble of the Constitution (and not the Holy Quran or the sharia) to point to the incompatibility of the CAA with India’s constitutional order. It was a brilliant strategic move that left the home ministry gasping as it challenged the standard construct of the demonstration as an Islamic movement with sectarian religious overtones. It was only the outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March 2020 that gave Shah’s ministry the opportunity to catch their breath.

The CAA was immediately contested in the Supreme Court which, after a long wait of close to half a decade on a crucial constitutional matter, has at last indicated its readiness to take up over 200 petitions that have been filed before it. And even as the issue becomes sub judice, the Modi government has notified the rules in flagrant disregard of constitutional propriety. In one reckoning, by breaking the nexus between the CAA and the National Register for Citizens (NRC) the government has negatived the apprehension of the minorities that the CAA is but a preliminary step to bringing religious compartmentalisation into our constitutional jurisprudence by explicitly excluding Muslim refugees from our neighbouring countries in an Indian law to open the constitutional path to rendering Indian Muslims as second-class citizens of our country. I do not think the independent women protestors of Shaheen Bagh are so naïve as to imagine that notifying the CAA rules before operationalising NRC amounts to removing the Indian Muslim minority from the crosshairs of this government. The overarching saffron goal remains to render Muslims as frightened hordes living on sufferance and dominated by the Hindu majority.

This is not an issue that concerns only Indian Muslims. It concerns all of us as the CAA is the first breach in a constitutional order guaranteeing “Equality”—the pledge in the Preamble—to all irrespective of religion, and the guarantee of “equal protection before the law” to “all persons” (not only “citizens”) residing “within the territory of India” (Article 14: Part III, Fundamental Rights).

Ironically, the principal contemporary humanitarian problem in our region is not the persecution of non-Muslims by the Muslim regimes of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh (the three countries covered by the CAA) but of Muslims in their own countries at the hands of both non-Islamic and Islamic regimes. The most looming of these issues are the Rohingya Muslims suffering genocidal murder and mayhem at the hands of Myanmar’s Buddhist rulers; Muslim minorities (Shia, Hazara, Ahmadiyya) battling jihadi Sunni Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan; and Uighur Muslims threatened with cultural genocide in avowedly atheistic communist China. Besides, Sri Lankan Tamils (Hindu, Christian, Muslim) facing Buddhist racio-religious extremism in confrontation with dominant elements of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority. If the CAA were really being driven by the humanitarian call of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, it would have addressed itself to these persecuted minorities.

Instead, the CAA picks on a virtual non-issue only to propagate its hindutva political agenda and add to its hindutva vote-bank in an election year. What cynical, opportunistic hypocrisy!

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

north-south-divide-is-growing

Sat Mar 09 11:24:28 IST 2024

The prime minister reminds me of the Tamil parable of the man who pinched the baby to make it cry, and then rocked the cradle to calm it down. He first creates a north-south divide by putting in place fiscal structures that favour the north and discriminate against the south, then denounces the opposition in Parliament for dividing north from south. He then sets out on a tour of southern Indian states to mollify the outraged people and has the gall to claim in Tamil Nadu, where his party is a non-entity, that the state is on “the cusp of a historical political change” that will bring it into the BJP net.

We would have long ago become the fifth largest global economy if the north had matched the south’s rates of economic growth. And our per capita income levels would be much higher than the global low at which we stagnate if the north had controlled its population growth and undertaken human resource development as effectively as the south, particularly Tamil Nadu, has done. The expatriate community of little Kerala contributes a disproportionately high share of remittances that have raised our nation’s foreign exchange reserves to over $600 billion. And it is the IT crowd from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh that dominates the Indian contribution to this fast-growing premier sector in the US and Europe, reflected in remittances to their home states. And, of course, the capital of Karnataka, Bengaluru, is the shining hub of our pioneering position in information technology and the export of services which drives our impressive foreign exchange earnings, while Tamil Nadu is the manufacturing hub besides being the nation’s granary.

Yet, it is principally these states of the south that are being severely discriminated against when it comes to raising national tax revenues and then distributing their share of the divisible pool to the states. Praveen Chakravarty, the top data analyst of the Congress, has shown that the taxpayer in states like TN and Kerala averages Rs20,000 yearly in contributing to the national tax kitty, but the average contribution of the Bihar taxpayer is a measly Rs4,500. And while “the average person in Bihar, UP or Madhya Pradesh gets back Rs260 for every Rs100 paid in taxes, the average Kannadiga gets back only Rs40”.

Is this fair? Does it not amount to fiscal punishment for outstanding economic performance? Does it surprise you that virtually the entire Karnataka cabinet fetched up in Delhi for an unprecedented demonstration to protest such discrimination? Or the statements emanating almost daily from other southern chief ministers?

It is the Modi government that has created this lop-sided fiscal structure. In 2014, it came into office just when the 14th Finance Commission submitted its report recommending that the states’ share of “the divisible pool” be raised from 32 per cent to a whopping 41 per cent. It presaged, everyone thought, the onset of genuine “cooperative federalism” in fiscal relations between the Centre and the states. But then, as pointed out by K.M. Chandrasekhar, Dr Manmohan Singh’s cabinet secretary, the Modi government perverted the process by resorting to “cesses and surcharges that do not have to be shared with the states”. They also ensured that two-thirds of the increase in states’ share came from adding, for the first time ever, plan expenditure to non-plan expenditure in measuring the states’ share. And sharply increasing the states’ share of financing centrally sponsored schemes. It is this trompe l’oeil (illusory trick) that has been passed off as implementing the 14th FC’s revolutionary recommendation.

“Cooperative federalism” has thus been rendered a farce, played out at the cost of all states but particularly the faster growing, better performing southern states, none of which is run by a “double engine sarkar”!

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

pak-army-defeated-again

Sat Feb 24 10:56:57 IST 2024

It is a given among our Pakistan experts that elections or no elections, the only winner is the Pakistan army for even a democratically elected civilian government is soon brought to heel by the faujis. And so, the conventional wisdom goes, should a political government go out of line, the army will bring it down. It will even hang the incumbent civilian prime minister as witness the extra-judicial murder of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

I always doubted the logic of this argument. Which is why five years ago I attributed Imran Khan’s massive win at least as much to his immense personal popularity as to the alleged backing he received from the Pakistan army. It seemed to me more as if the army were riding his wave than getting their puppet elected over the will of the people. That the army believed the Pak election of five years ago was their doing, I have no doubt. After all their media (and, to the extent it matters, our own) were proclaiming the generals as the real power behind Imran’s spectacular win. For a year or two into Imran’s regime, it seemed the standard view of Pakistan’s democracy as a farce enacted by their armed forces might indeed be true, but as the Americans moved out of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s role as a strategic American asset diminished before disappearing altogether, Imran started hewing his own path without orders from, or consultation with, the medal wearers. Differences reached such a point that Imran’s supporters actually attacked the home of the corps commander in Rawalpindi. The army moved in swiftly and had Imran’s government not only dismissed but Imran himself put in prison. His principal political opponent, Nawaz Shariff, was encouraged to return to Pakistan with immunity from further prosecution despite having been driven into forced exile on these very grounds by the same forces now welcoming him back. It seemed the army playbook was again open, and Imran would suffer persecution at the hands of those who had been pleased to back his electoral bid five years ago.

While Imran was imprisoned, effectively for life with the judiciary doing the army’s bidding, his party was dissolved, his symbol—the cricket bat which he had carried to victory for Pakistan so often—was taken away from him, and none of his supporters were permitted to stand in the February 2024 general elections except as independent candidates with individual election symbols that differed from seat to seat. They were also deprived of the time required to familiarise the electorate with their new symbols and could claim no title in their individual campaigns to their party’s name. The army sat back smugly to view the outcome of their exertions.

I happened to be in Lahore on polling day. Peace and tranquility reigned. Patient queues formed at polling booths. There were virtually no incidents of violence. It was generally believed that the populace was resigned to its traditional place as the silent spectators of manoeuvres in high places to deny them their true voice. Results were expected to flow in within hours of the closing of the polls. Instead, to everyone’s astonishment, counting went on through the night giving trends that betrayed the army’s expectations. Independents in their hordes were surging forward. The moral victory was the people’s voice. Imran-backed independents scored a century. Nawaz was left trailing at 30 per cent less seats; Zardari-Bhutto got less than half Imran’s score. The real loser was the army.

A government without Imran’s party may indeed be formed, but February 8, 2024, will be chalked up as the historic day on which the people of Pakistan defeated their army.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

isnt-the-ram-temple-in-ayodhya-a-victory-for-jinnah

Fri Feb 09 14:39:08 IST 2024

Who is the big winner from the inauguration of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya on January 22? The hindutvist PM, of course. Yet, is not the bigger winner Muhammad Ali Jinnah? For we are now an avowed ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and Jinnah always maintained that whatever its pretensions to secularism, independent India was in fact a ‘Hindu Raj’.

Gandhi sought to counter such a thesis by making Hindu-Muslim unity the fulcrum around which an independent Indian nation-state would be spun. In spiritual terms, this emphasis on Hindu-Muslim unity was expressed in the ineluctable belief that different religions are but different paths that lead to the same Truth. In political terms, Gandhi made Hindu-Muslim unity the leitmotif of the freedom movement, beginning with merging the demand for the restoration of the Khilafat with his non-violent civil disobedience satyagraha. In his personal life, his close associates included the Ali brothers, Dr M.A. Ansari, Dr Zakir Hussain and, above all, Maulana Azad. On the Dandi March, he stayed the last night before picking up a fistful of salt with a Muslim host and nominated Abbas Tyabji to lead the satyagraha in the event of his arrest. Above all, it was his designating Jawaharlal Nehru as his true successor that demonstrated his unwavering conviction that independent India, whether partitioned or not, could only be true to itself and its heritage by refusing to be a sectarian state. To this, Nehru added the coda that the state would have no religion. Now we have a prime minister who has displaced the four Shankaracharyas to emerge as the chief Hindu priest.

Nehru distilled the essential truth of the evolution of Indic civilisation as being inscribed on “ancient palimpsests” that are placed one upon the other without quite obscuring previous texts. From that arose a process of absorption, assimilation and synthesis that transformed military conquests into a composite heritage that drew the best from every source, victor or vanquished.

Moreover, it was precisely over the period of the Delhi sultanate (1192-1526) that the Bhakti movement (and its Muslim counterpart, Sufism) got under way. It was over six centuries of Sultanate and Mughal rule (1526-1858) that Ramanujacharya and Swami Ramanand, Sant Tukaram and Krishna Chaitanya, Sankardev and Ravi Das, Kabir and Surdas and Mira, and then the ten gurus of Sikhism defined bhakti as the most popular form of religion. Indeed, Acharya Goswami Tulsidas began his famed “Ramcharitmanas” in 1574 in Ayodhya in the very shadow of the Babri Masjid built in 1528, without once mentioning the destruction of any Ram temple. Now we have the vice president informing the JNU convocation that the “pain of 500 years has ended” with the inauguration of the Ram Temple. Yet, the biggest Ram bhakt of them all, Mahatma Gandhi, never felt that “pain”. He never mentioned the Babri Masjid and unlike the hindutvists celebrating what the Supreme Court has described as the “egregious violation of the law” in violently bringing down the masjid, actually ensured that all mosques and shrines of the Muslim community in Delhi were returned to the Muslims when, at partition, Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan started occupying them. Hence, argued Nehru, while Pakistan could become an “Islamic nation” if it wished, India would not follow suit by becoming a “Hindu nation”. It would remain “secular”. B.R. Ambedkar agreed and the nation concurred. At least till 2014.

What, after all, is “secularism”? At its most basic, it is the right of Indian Muslims to remain Muslim with the same constitutional and legal rights as Indians of other faiths. Now, under the assault of Hindutva authoritarianism and majoritarianism, that national consensus on a secular India is being radically transformed—in the direction that Jinnah had affirmed it would.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

what-makes-mohamed-muizzu-so-angry

Sat Jan 27 11:09:46 IST 2024

On November 3, 1988, a group of well-armed mercenaries recruited by dissident Maldivian expatriates disembarked in Male, capital of the Maldives, and within a few hours succeeded in capturing most government buildings, including the presidential palace, and holding hundreds of civilians and one government minister hostage. The president, Abdul Gayoom, escaped their clutches and appealed to India for help. Rajiv Gandhi immediately sent in Air Force planes to undertake reconnaissance and thereafter landed Army personnel who quickly took control of the situation and restored the Maldives to its elected president who had won his third term with a majority of 95 per cent. Gayoom expressed his “deep gratitude” to India for bringing the Maldives back to freedom and democracy. Rajiv Gandhi informed the leaders of the opposition of the action taken and next day made a statement in the Lok Sabha explaining our policy and announcing that the withdrawal of Indian troops would begin the same day, leaving behind only a small contingent for “mopping up” operations. He emphasised that the Indian armed forces had been called in only at the instance of the Maldives itself whom he described as “one of our closest and friendliest neighbours”, to whose rescue we came because of “our commitment to peace and stability in our region” and to demonstrate “our belief that the countries of the region can resolve their problems in a spirit of friendship and cooperation, free of outside influence”. India was seen as a benevolent and friendly presence in South Asia.

With the advent of the Modi government, all that has changed. India is now seen as an interfering bully. And Muizzu has been elected as president on his campaign slogan, “India Out”! He has demanded the removal by March 15 of the 77 [Indian] Army personnel and 12 military medical officers as well as the return of the helicopters and Dornier aircraft we have loaned the Maldives in the name of surveillance and undertaking hydrological surveys. He has also visited China and forged a “strategic” partnership with them. It is India out and China in, with Pakistan slavering on the sidelines. What has transformed the India-Maldives relationship since the Modi-Jaishankar team came to office?

Several factors, foremost among them the discrimination against, and hounding of, the Muslim community that ‘Hindu Rashtra’ is inflicting on our largest minority. The Maldives is 100 per cent Muslim. Second, India’s blocking of SAARC which the Maldivians (and much of South Asia) regard as the sole instrument for binding South Asia closer together. Third, India blindly opposing the Chinese Belt & Road Initiative which the Maldives see as their economic lifeline. Fourth, the attempts by the sangh parivar’s drumbeaters to promote Lakshadweep as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives, little realising that tourism which separates the bikini from the burkha in tourist atolls is the basic reason for the Maldives far outwitting Lakshadweep as an international high-end tourism spot. Fifth, the contrary efforts by a BJP-appointed administrator, Praful Patel, to impose Hindu cultural and dietary values on Lakshadweep-Minicoy whose inhabitants are as one hundred per cent Islamic as the Maldives. Sixth, insensitivity toward the linguistic bonds between Minicoy and the Maldives where the common language is Divehi. While Rajiv Gandhi carried schoolbooks in Divehi as his gifts to the Maldivian people, the Modi-Jaishankar duo have nothing to offer but arrogance. Indeed, it is the policy of projecting the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ of Bharat as the hegemonic South Asian power by right and India as the world’s Vishwaguru that has caused the apple cart to tumble over. Abh samjhe ki Muizzu ko gussa kyon aata hai [Now you understand why Muizzu gets angry]?

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

when-the-rebuilt-somnath-temple-was-inaugurated

Sat Jan 13 11:04:11 IST 2024

As the leaders of the INDIA alliance mull over the invitations they have received to the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, this column makes bold to remind them of a similar occasion in 1951 when the rebuilt Somnath Temple was inaugurated.

The story begins with the integration of Junagadh state with the Indian Union in November 1947. It was immediately announced on the spot that the temple at Somnath, located within the state, which had been destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in the early eleventh century, would be rebuilt. The Union cabinet was seized of the issue in December 1947 and the minutes recorded that it had been agreed that the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple would be undertaken at state expense. When Nehru was informed of this, he was furious. Denying that any such decision had been taken, he had the minutes altered accordingly and ordered K.M. Munshi, his minister of works and housing and the most determined proponent of the project, that a secular country could not possibly undertake such an act of historical revenge funded by the treasury. Asked whether, in that case, there would be any objection to finding the means to do so from private sources, Nehru agreed that so long as the state was not involved, there could be no objection to such a private initiative.

Munshi, backed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, then set about raising funds through crowd funding and massive donations from some industrialists. By 1950, enough had been collected to begin the reconstruction of the temple. This too was completed by 1951 and the organisers were all set for a grand inauguration when a further complication arose. They wanted the president, Dr Rajendra Prasad, to be present. Prasad was keen to go. Nehru, totally alarmed at this wanton display of state patronage to a private religious function, convened a cabinet meeting that passed a resolution requesting the president not to go as this would be violative of the fundamental principle of our constitutional democracy that the state has no religion.

When the president insisted on going, the cabinet again advised him, in the interests of preserving a strict line between personal religion and state action, not to go. This stymied the president as the Constitution specified that the president could return for reconsideration any decision of the cabinet but not if it were reiterated.

Prasad then enquired whether he could go in his personal capacity. Nehru’s view was that he was free to do what he wished as a private citizen but not as one holding the highest constitutional position in the land. Which meant that neither protocol nor security could be provided to Prasad at Somnath. At this point, Morarji Desai, home minister in Bombay, came up with an alternative. The Bombay Province Fairs and Melas Act provided that it was the state‘s responsibility to ensure law and order at fairs. As such, this act could be tweaked to provide the president, albeit in his personal capacity, with the protection he needed. The organisers would look after protocol. Thus, the separation of the state from religion was preserved but could not be portrayed as anything but vengeance on history and holding our largest minority responsible for whatever their co-religionists might have done a millennia ago. This to Nehru was anathema.

On emerging from the challenge to his secularism from within, Nehru, on Gandhi Jayanti, 1951, gave the nation his understanding of secular activism: “If anyone raises his hand against another in the name of religion, I will fight him till the last breath of my life, whether from within the government or outside.” Thus, was laid the foundations of secular India.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

restoring-dignity-to-parliamentary-proceedings

Fri Dec 29 14:47:22 IST 2023

While accepting from the Rashtrapati the outstanding parliamentarian award for 2006, I publicly pledged never again to participate in the disruption of parliamentary proceedings. Through approximately my first decade in the Lok Sabha (1991-2001, with some interruptions) I had served in a house where debate was the norm and disruption the exception. In the period of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s premiership (1999-2004), when the Congress was in opposition, dignity, decorum and discussion began giving way to frequent disruption of proceedings. Our then chief whip, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, was the guiding light for such unparliamentary behaviour but he was backed to the hilt by opposition MPs. Entering the well of the house, carrying placards into Parliament to catch TV’s eye, and demonstrating at the foot of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue gradually displaced sober debate as the preferred mode of protesting government’s policies, thought and action. This brought no public opprobrium on the Congress as we succeeded in winning the 2004 general elections and becoming the ruling party for all of a decade (2004-2014).

The lesson the BJP, in opposition during that decade, seems to have learned is that demonstration, and not discussion, is the way back to power. During the decade of UPA rule, the BJP outclassed the previous Congress record of expressing dissent through demonstration. Both Somnath Chatterjee, presiding over the lower house, and Hamid Ansari, presiding over the upper house, begged, scolded, and reprimanded parliamentarians for boorish behaviour designed to close down proceedings.

With both halves of the house eschewing debate in favour of disruption, India, that is Bharat, has rapidly descended to the nadir now reached. Is there a way out? I commend the suggestion proposed by Chakshu Roy of PRS Legislative Research in a newspaper: instead of the day’s agenda being set by the government for the entire week, bar the two-and-a-half hours set aside on Friday afternoons for private members‘ business, specific days of the sitting be reserved for opposition business. I would add that the house then sit for at least 180 days in the year to give both sides adequate space and opportunity to voice their concerns. That might, just might, render Parliament less dysfunctional.

Notwithstanding such a systemic response to the current establishment view of treating “disruptions as a disciplinary problem” that has led to the suspension of virtually all opposition MPs, it seems to me that the fundamental problem remains of few MPs being given adequate time to express their views whereas demonstrations give all concerned MPs the opportunity to participate in the proceedings on an equal footing. Also, while a good speech requires careful preparation, disruption requires no preparation at all! How does one tackle that psychological issue? Only by restoring dignity to parliamentary proceedings.

In the earliest Lok Sabhas and Rajya Sabhas, coinciding with Jawaharlal Nehru’s premiership, parliamentary proceedings went smoothly, with the press carefully reporting summaries of the main arguments made, so that notorious disrupters like Mani Ram Bagri were decried. This was essentially because Nehru made a point of frequently attending Parliament, particularly when he and his government were under attack.

Indeed, on my first visit to Parliament in 1960, I watched bewitched as Comrade Dange lit into Nehru for dismissing the communist government in Kerala. The house and the prime minister heard him out without any interruption. The current prime minister devalues Parliament by almost never being in the house and then leaning on presiding officers to be particularly harsh on the opposition and restrained on his own MPs. That is the current crux of the problem.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

whats-similar-between-hindutva-and-zionism

Fri Dec 15 18:11:42 IST 2023

Attending a conference in Johannesburg on solidarity with Palestine, I said, “Let me begin by clarifying that I am not here on behalf of my government….” Thunderous applause greeted that opening line. It reflected the extent to which the “Arab street” has been grievously alienated by Narendra Modi’s declaration of “total solidarity” with Israel, a 180-degree turn from our rock-solid stand with the Palestinians for most of the past century.

To understand the Arab shock, we need to go back to the view that Mahatma Gandhi expressed in 1938 even as the question of Jewish settlement in Palestinian lands began to assume proportions that threatened the very lives and livelihood of the indigenous Palestinian people and even their existence in their traditional homeland. Gandhiji wrote in his magazine Harijan (November 26, 1938) with reference to the racial and religious discrimination the Jews had faced for millennia and the vicious pogroms in Europe, east and west, climaxed by Hitler’s “final solution”—the liquidation of the entire community—that, “My sympathies are all with the Jews, but my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me….They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart. The same God rules the Arab heart who rules the Jewish heart.” He formulated his basic position in a famous aphorism: “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense as England to the English and France to the French.”

Unsurprisingly, therefore, India, under Jawaharlal Nehru, still suffering the pain of the partition, should have been one of the few countries to vote in the UN in November 1947 against the partition of Palestine. Notwithstanding the onset of the Cold War, the proposal to partition Palestine had brought the Soviet bloc together with the US-led bloc of white Christian nations to atone for their centuries of sins against the Jews by pushing the Jewish issue out their domain and into the Arab heartland. Given that the Jews in Europe had been safe and privileged only during the 700 years (711-1492 CE) of Muslim rule in Andalusia—present-day Spain and Portugal—Gandhi’s advice was the only one that could have led to the Jews and Arabs living together in harmony in a joint homeland. Echoing this view were the two Jewish rabbis attending the Johannesburg conference on behalf of “Jews against Zionism”.

The “one-state” solution was championed by Gandhi’s favourite disciple, Nehru, as prime minister. When this was not accepted, the UN proposed an alternative “two-state” solution in 1967. It has been on the table for the last half-century, but Israel is adamant on ridding themselves of, or subordinating to second-class citizenship, the Arab residents of Palestine.

Modi has reversed the long-held Indian position principally because hindutva is premised on same parameters as Zionism: hostility to Islam. Zionism is not Judaism even as hindutva is not Hinduism. Modi, as an avid hindutvist, and Benjamin Netanyahu, as an avid Zionist, are as similar as two peas in a pod because, as Christophe Jaffrelot points out, “Hindu nationalism and Zionism are rooted in a long history of hindutva’s admiration of Zionist ethno-nationalism.” Jaffrelot adds that this is “possibly because both have found a common enemy in their country’s largest religious minority.” I would only change “possibly” to “certainly”. For, as V.D. Savarkar had written from a diametrically opposite angle to Gandhi’s, “If Palestine becomes a Jewish state, it will gladden us almost as much as our Jewish friends.” Little wonder then that Modi stands in solidarity with Netanyahu.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

india-alliance-should-get-its-act-together

Sat Dec 02 11:44:49 IST 2023

As the results of the five assembly elections taking place will be available to the reader at just about the same time as this column, it makes little sense to speculate on the outcome.

The fact is that time and again, especially since 2003, it has been shown that these five assembly elections, always held on the eve of the general elections, are not the heats for the final to be run a few months hence. No one learned this lesson more bitterly than Atal Bihari Vajpayee who, on the basis of these elections won handsomely by the BJP in 2003, decided to advance the Lok Sabha poll by six months—and suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a Congress-led opposition that came together by circumstance more than design at virtually the last moment. Apart from a determination to oust the BJP from the Centre, there was little or nothing by way of seat-sharing and no single manifesto. The common minimum programme came after, not before, the post-election formation of the United Progressive Alliance.

This shows that for all the handwringing over the INDIA alliance not having faced this round of assembly elections with any element of joint purpose, there is still plenty of time for the alliance to show its composite face. However, it would be best to not attempt a repeat of the 2004 jugaad but embark on defeating the BJP in a more scientific manner.

The fundamentals are already clear. In 2014 and even more so in 2019, the BJP won a formidable victory, not because a majority voted them in but because the majority vote (of around 69 per cent in 2014 and about 63 per cent in 2019) was hopelessly fractionated.

This shows that “getting their act together” is the principal task before the INDIA alliance. With Sonia Gandhi present in Mumbai (she was not there in Patna), they were able to give themselves a name and set up committees to prepare for one-on-one contests in as many seats as possible, as well as to outline an agenda to present to the voter. This was not for the assembly elections but only for the national elections as they did not have in the five state assemblies the common stake they definitely have in the outcome of the next general elections. As such, with the assembly elections out of the way, the time has come to give teeth to the alliance.

“Giving teeth” is an exercise in both arithmetic and chemistry. The arithmetic lies in coming to mutual agreement on which seats are going to be allotted to which member of the INDIA alliance to forge the largest possible number of one-on-one contests with the BJP in as many seats as possible. This definitely does not mean maximal agreement. Even 300 seats in states where the BJP either won marginally or won preponderantly—essentially the Hindi-speaking Gangetic basin from Gangotri to the Sunderbans—will place on its head the arithmetic of the BJP’s overwhelming victory in the two previous national polls. But, in and of itself, arithmetic alone won’t do. The favourable maths should also spark a chemical reaction that will alter voter perceptions of the prospects for themselves and the INDIA grouping over the next five years. Some of the elements of such a promising joint outlook have already become clear in the present round of polls. There are pointers, too, to what might hold even greater appeal in the near future. Putting all these together is INDIA’s next task—and please pardon the pun, for it is also Bharat’s next task.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

just-as-yuval-noah-harari-had-envisioned

Sat Nov 18 11:13:36 IST 2023

Yuval Noah Harari has emerged as one of the 21st century’s most recognised public intellectuals. In the midst of the Israel-Palestine war in Gaza, it is useful to revisit his 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, published in 2018.

He writes that ‘terrorism’ is a “strategy almost always adopted by very weak parties who cannot inflict much material damage on their enemies”. They resort to terror because spreading “fear is their main story”. Most important of all, “There is an astounding disproportion between the actual strength of the terrorists and the fear they manage to inspire.” He goes on to say that terrorists calculate that when the “enraged enemy uses his massive strength against them, he will raise a much more violent military and political storm than the terrorists themselves could ever create”. He further underlines, “Provoking the enemy to action without eliminating any of his weapons or options is an act of desperation taken only when there is no option.”

Although in 2018, when the book was published, Harari, like most Israelis, took virtually no note of Hamas (there is only one passing mention of Hamas at p.173), as he, like most Israelis, was totally complacent that Israel’s military and intelligence had the Palestinians completely cowed, his extraordinarily accurate perception of “desperation” leaving the oppressed with “little choice” but resort to foredoomed violence is that “since they are very weak, and have no other military option, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain”. That is why Hamas unleashed its limited stock of missiles in virtually one go, then broke through the Israeli barricades to capture about 200 hostages to bargain for the release of their own men and women—some 2,000 of them locked in Israeli jails.

They knew, of course, that Israel would retaliate—and retaliate inhumanely, viciously, and disproportionately. As Harari had predicted, “Fear and confusion will cause the enemy to misuse his intact strength and overreact.” So that, “Mistakes are made, atrocities are committed, public opinion wavers, neutrals change their stance and the balance of power changes.” For, again as Harari says, “Terrorism is a military strategy that hopes to change the political situation by spreading fear rather than by causing material damage.”

There can be no peace without justice. And it is justice of which the Palestinians have been deprived. For 75 years, Israel has been driving Palestinians out of their millennial homeland. To do this, it was Israel that introduced terrorism to West Asia. Organs like Irgun, Palmach and the Stern Gang secured independent Israel. At least two of their leading men became PMs of Israel: Yigal Allon and Menachem Begin.

Yasser Arafat, in retaliation, set up the Palestine Liberation Organization, but, after violence failed, sent his team for secret negotiations in Oslo. It led to the accord that brought Arafat back from Tunis to Gaza City but instead of a Palestinian state got only panchayati raj in the Gaza Strip, solving nothing. In consequence, Hamas won a free and fair election over the PLO. Ironically, it was Israel that funded Hamas to divide the Palestinian resistance. Now Hamas has shown its true mettle to morally defeat Benjamin Netanyahu, exactly in the manner predicted by Harari. Harari even foresees this when he links “Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi and Netanyahu” (p. 179) as peas sprouting from the same pod.

Hamas will fight and Israel will retaliate until and unless the Palestinian resistance turns Gandhian and shakes the world’s conscience as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela did by basing their liberation movements on relentless, determined non-violent resistance.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

our-sporting-icons-are-found-by-chance

Sat Nov 04 11:05:43 IST 2023

As a former Union minister of sports (2006-08), I am deeply distressed to hear of India’s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games. I witnessed with my own eyes the ghastly corruption that the much smaller Commonwealth Games engendered; the false promises and outright lies that made it possible for the Games to be awarded to India; the humungous expenditure, estimated at Rs60,000 crore by well-informed observers; the giddy egotism of those running the organising committee; the mess they made of it; the ill-repute that India won internationally from all the shenanigans; and the consequential termination of the outstanding political career of the chief minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit and the less regrettable ending of the career of the principal heavyweight, Suresh Kalmadi. It was also the Commonwealth Games that signalled the beginning of the end of the Manmohan Singh government. Fortunately, for me, I opted out by begging to be relieved of this ministerial post before irretrievably staining my reputation.

I feared this bid was in the offing when the prime minister, congratulating the 100 or so medal winners in the Asian Games, announced that this showed India had become “a sporting nation”. It has not. As one of our most impressive international gold medal winners, the champ shooter Abhinav Bindra, put it, “If we as a nation are going to embrace sport”, we cannot look at it through “just one prism: winning medals”. We need, above all, to devise ways and means of enabling our children and youth to have easy and affordable access to sports facilities in every panchayat and every mohalla of our vast country. The Tamil Nadu government, back in Karunanidhi’s day, had demonstrated how as many as seven different games and sports can be taught and played in a single acre of land. That will never happen countrywide so long as the Union government prioritises the meretricious hosting of international games events over spending even a fraction of the munificent amounts involved in starting playgrounds and appointing coaches in every one of our 2.6 lakh village panchayats and uncounted lakhs of urban bastis and mohallas. That is where the sporting talent of India lies hidden. What talent we are now finding is almost accidental. Our sporting icons are found by chance, not by systematic scientific search for talent over a wide spectrum of sports in every nook and corner of our country, and then assiduously training and investing in them till they emerge as world champions.

If we invest enormous resources in becoming a “sports-hosting” nation, the ones who suffer the most would be our children and youth who could well use that humungous expenditure to truly use “the power of sports to take it to communities and build character through the medium of sports,” as Bindra so tellingly puts it.

PM Modi does not seem to have seen the irony of his hosting the Olympics on the very centenary of Adolf Hitler having hosted the Berlin Olympics in 1936. American journalist William Shirer said, “No previous games had seen such a spectacular organisation nor such a lavish display of entertainment… Goring, Ribbentrop and Goebbels gave dazzling parties for the foreign visitors…(the) “Italian Night” gathered more than a thousand guests in a scene that resembled the Arabian Nights”. You can bet that is the PM’s aim. British historian Alan Bullock said, “Germany’s new masters entertained with a splendour that rivalled the displays of the tsars of Russia”. To go by the sheer ostentation of G20, we can be sure our government will match the tsars display for display. That is the object of the bid. We, as a nation, would be foolish to fall for it.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

no-peace-possible-without-justice-to-persecuted-palestinians

Sat Oct 21 13:14:32 IST 2023

As Benyamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi are cut from the same majoritarian-authoritarian cloth, it is hardly surprising that Modi has overturned decades of India’s Palestine policy to affirm total solidarity with Israel in the face of Hamas reviving the Palestinian resistance. And it has taken the ministry of external affairs nearly a week to restore a faint measure of balance by issuing an anodyne statement aimed at appeasing outraged Arab sentiment.

Our Palestine policy has been fundamentally founded on Mahatma Gandhi’s famous observation in 1938: “Palestine belongs to the Arabs as England belongs to the English and France to the French.” While Britain dilly-dallied over relinquishing its League of Nations mandate over Palestine, the Zionists, through a host of organisations—Haganah, Lehi, and above all, Irgun—introduced terrorism to Palestine, laying mines and sparking explosions; shooting dead numerous British policemen and army personnel; assassinating the UN mediator, Count Bernadotte; blowing up the King David hotel in Jerusalem, and mercilessly murdering countless Palestinians. How ironic that the Israelis now complain of Arab “terrorism”.

The principal plank of Zionist policy has been to drive out the Palestinians from their homesteads and relentlessly implement state discrimination against those who remain. Horrified at the treatment being meted out to the Palestinians, a leading Zionist philosopher, Martin Buber, as far back as 1950, condemned Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. To understand the import of Buber’s condemnation, readers need to be reminded that he was the Rabindranath Tagore of the Zionist movement and had been expressly sent to India in the late 1930s to persuade Mahatma Gandhiji to view the Zionist cause more favourably. Gandhi, however, stuck to his position that while indeed the Jews were an admirable people who had suffered centuries of persecution at Christian hands in Europe, Europe could not compensate them for their terrible misfortunes at Hitler’s hands by taking away from Arabs the land that indubitably belonged to the Palestinians. The Zionists retorted that there were no such people as the Palestinians and that, therefore, “a people without land were entitled to a land without people”. Thus did Zionism seek to efface millennia of existential Arab reality. No wonder the Palestinians refer to the creation of Israel as Al Nakba, the Catastrophe.

There can be no peace between Israel and Palestine without justice to the persecuted Palestinian people. There was a flicker of hope when the UN in 1967 adopted the “land for peace” resolution that envisaged a “two-state” solution—Israel and a Palestine state living next to each other in harmony. But Israel has consistently refused to countenance a sovereign state for the poor Palestinians. It never even sincerely implemented the Oslo Accord with Yasser Arafat, or the White House Rose Garden understanding brokered in 1993 by US President Bill Clinton. Indeed, Israel, particularly under Netanyahu, has gone further and created heavily fortified (and illegal) Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The resistance has, therefore, shifted to the Gaza Strip where Hamas has secured total dominance and continues to defy Israel in sharp contrast to the bullied and cowed down Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the West Bank.

India took all this into account in determining its Palestine policy. Now, Modi has upset the apple cart, leaving a bewildered MEA to somehow pick up the pieces. Perhaps they should first begin by getting our leading West Asia expert, Talmiz Ahmed, ex-IFS, to tutor our prime minister in the rudiments of the region’s history in, perhaps, the vain hope that it will kindle a little compassion in Modi’s stony heart.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

learnings-from-nam-1983

Sat Oct 07 10:56:23 IST 2023

Readers might recall Rudyard Kipling’s famed poem Recessional that he wrote for Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee celebrations: “The tumult and the shouting dies/the captains and the kings depart/still stands thine ancient sacrifice/a humble and a contrite heart.”

Now that “the tumult and the shouting” over the G20 summit has “died” down, and “the captains and the kings” have departed Delhi, it is time for the Modi government to show some signs of being “humble” and “contrite”. Yet, all we have seen is empty boasting and vain arrogance. I cannot but contrast the NAM summit of March 1983 and the G20 summit 40 years later.

Six months before the seventh non-aligned summit was due to be held in Baghdad, NAM member-countries decided against going to Baghdad and requested Delhi to host the summit. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi agreed. Natwar Singh was designated secretary-general and I was named the conference spokesman. Thus, I had a ringside seat to both the horrendous logistical problems to overcome in a mere 180 days, besides familiarising myself with all the controversies—particularly the Kampuchea question, which were dividing the movement—to conduct press briefings.

Whereas India that is Bharat had years and years to prepare for the G20 Summit, we had only six months for NAM in 1983. Moreover, against about 40 delegations who came in September 2023, arrangements had to be made 40 years ago within an extremely narrow time frame to accommodate and cater to the security and other requirements of 99 heads of state/government, and 40 guests and observers. And whereas the Modi summit cost the nation over an estimated Rs4,000 crore, Hamid Ansari, as chief of protocol, spent a tenth of that amount looking after 100 more delegations and was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his outstanding performance. And as all of us know, went on to serve in two successive terms as vice-president of India (that is Bharat). And he got both distinctions without having to hide the shame of our poverty behind green draping. None of Modi’s guests were fooled.

As to the outcome, Ukraine was to the G20 summit what Kampuchea was to the NAM summit. And where Indira Gandhi secured the highest common factor for the conference consensus on Kampuchea, Modi only got way with the lowest common denominator on Ukraine. For whereas the Kampuchea paragraphs (112 and 113) in the final documents of the seventh NAM summit, set out all the main elements that eventually brought Cambodia back to civilisation from the barbarity of the worst genocide known to history (Pol Pot, backed by the US, massacred a third of the country’s population in his ‘killing fields’), the Modi-engineered consensus only left everything as it was with no setting out of any basis for an eventual pacific settlement of the war in Ukraine.

Consider that the NAM summit listed all the elements of the final Cambodia settlement: “reaffirmed their support for the principles of non-interference” and “inadmissibility of the use of force”; “a comprehensive solution” to provide for “the withdrawal of all foreign forces… thus ensuring full respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states in the region” and sought a “process of negotiations and mutual understanding” for the “people of Kampuchea” to “determine their own destiny”. That is exactly what came to pass and if Cambodia is one of the most peaceful countries in the world today, it is because the seventh NAM summit showed the way.

In contrast, the Modi ‘consensus’ on Ukraine (para 8) merely reiterates “national positions and resolutions” and does nothing to signal how the war may be ended.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

difference-between-islamisation-and-hindutva

Sat Sep 23 11:30:50 IST 2023

As I have described in my recently released Memoirs of a Maverick, I reached Karachi just a few weeks before President Zia ul-Haq declared the Nizam-e-Mustafa, the rule of the Prophet—the first step in what came to be called “Islamisation”. So, Karan Thapar, interviewing me on my Pakistan chapter, asked me against whom Islamisation was targeted. “The impious Muslim,” I replied. “Not,” I was asked, “against the Pakistani Hindu?” On reflection, I said the blasphemy laws have been used against Pakistan’s main minority, the Christians. But Hindus? No.

Later, thinking about this exchange, I wondered against whom hindutva was targeted. Clearly the Indian Muslim. On further reflection, I have come to the conclusion that hindutva has nothing against Islam per se nor against the global Muslim community. That is why Modi wanders the world hugging every passing Muslim leader—sheikhs, sultans and their ilk. Interestingly, he does not do the same with Indian Muslims. Why?

The answer perhaps lies in the contestation that took place about a century ago, in the 1920s and 1930s, between Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists who virulently disagreed on everything but ardently agreed on one thing—that Hindus and Muslims belonged not to two religions within a common nation but constituted two incompatible nations. While this curious agreement-cum-disagreement had its roots in the post-1857 intellectual ferment, it did not acquire political traction till after the first elections held in 1937 under the British-sponsored Government of India Act, 1935, which provided for separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims.

The 1937 elections were a disaster for Jinnah’s Muslim League, which secured only 5 per cent of the Muslim vote in Muslim separate electorates. But in his role as the Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah succeeded in fuelling a separatist sentiment among his Muslim followers that, with British blessings, left a vivisected subcontinent as the last colonial legacy. That final contest was essentially led by Mahatma Gandhi, fighting for a united India, and Jinnah fighting for a separate nation.

It was an intriguing contest for Jinnah was so ignorant of Muslim ritual that he could not even say his namaz, while Gandhi was so steeped in religious discourse that readings from the Holy Quran and the Bible were integral to his daily prayer meetings: “Ishwar Allah tero naam, sabko sanmati de bhagwan.” In contrast, the advocates of hindutva from Savarkar to Modi know nothing about Islam and care little for it. This is not because hindutva has anything theological against Islam or against Muslims outside Bharat. It is because the presence of a 200-million strong Muslim minority in Bharat dilutes the exclusively Hindu identity of this country.

Thus, the key difference between the Islamisation of Pakistan by Zia and the ongoing project of hindutvising our country is not that of making better Hindus of 1.4 billion Indians but of showing the minorities their place in Hindu Bharat. As a truly believing Muslim, Zia was the most pious Muslim (arguably the only pious Muslim) that Islamic Pakistan has ever had at its head. Zia wanted to fashion his country, conceived and born in the name of Islam, into a truly Islamic nation (according to his lights) notwithstanding the country’s elite who wanted to dilute strict Islam with a few drops of the waters of Scotland and winking at Friday namaz and the rigours of fasting from dawn to dusk during Ramzan. Hindutva, on the other hand, has no agenda of further Hinduising Hindus but concentrates on diluting the Muslim presence in what they believe should be a pak (that is, pure) Hindu nation. That is the crux of the conundrum.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

modi-government-is-a-gross-failure-in-confronting-chinpak

Sat Sep 09 11:09:48 IST 2023

The Narendra Modi government’s gross failure in foreign policy is best illustrated by our being at loggerheads with our two biggest neighbours—China and Pakistan. They have actually merged into one ‘enemy’, Chinpak, for the Chinese are no longer behind the Himalayas but poised inside Pakistan on the banks of the Sindhu (Indus) river just about where Alexander was in 326 B.C.

How far we have drifted from the halcyon days of December, 1988, when, in quick succession and within the same month, Rajiv Gandhi became the first Indian prime minister to visit China and Pakistan in 32 and 28 years, respectively, to open new doors to good neighbourly relations with both. It may be contrasted with the continuing logjam in China-India relations and the total absence of any meaningful engagement with Pakistan since 2014.

Let us take China first. What Xi Jinping is showing his Indian counterpart is that you can’t hunt with the hounds and run with the hare at the same time. Do we believe with the Americans that China is a dangerous enemy whom we must confront in coalition with like-minded countries? And is that why we are so eagerly in the Quad? Or are we seeking a settlement of the border to resume cordial relations with our great civilisational neighbour? While nominally sharing a swing in Ahmedabad and photo-ops in gorgeous Xian and Wuhan, and swallowing idlis together in Mahabalipuram, Xi wanted to gauge whether what Modi was whispering to Xi squared with what he was vouchsafing Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. For with the US presidents, Modi was signalling his readiness to play footsie with an international ganging-up against China, while pretending to Xi that the days of renewed ‘Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai’ were just around the corner. Xi was having none of this and moved his troops further forward along our northern border.

The foreign minister claims this is in line with our traditional non-alignment. It is not. For non-alignment was about not aligning with either. Our present stance, in contrast, is a saga of confusion, akin to a young woman alternately pulling out the petals of a flower asking, “Will he?”/“Won’t he?”. It would seem Modi wants to remain a “natural ally” of a west that is hostile to China while talking to China at the highest level even if they are in occupation of what we consider our own. What other explanation can we give for the Indian government spokesman describing as “pleasantries” what video clearly showed was Modi in Bali initiating, apparently without success, a conversation with Xi? And then in Johannesburg last month claiming through the foreign secretary that Modi and Xi had held an “informal conversation” during which both “had underlined that the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas” required “observing and respecting the LAC” as “essential for the normalisation of the India-China relationship.” Egg was all over the Indian face when the Chinese spokesman riposted that Xi had only met Modi because India had asked for it while turning down a Chinese request for “a more structured dialogue”. The Chinese then rubbed it in saying “both sides should bear in mind the overall interests” of ties and “handle properly” the border issue.

As for Pakistan, the government has declared times without number that “talks and terror can’t go together”. Well, it has been nine years and if there is now no “terror”, then why can’t talks start? And if, despite this rhetoric, there is still “terror”, then is it not time to rethink this tired old cliche?

If “no dialogue” is the policy vis-a-vis Pakistan and “no structured dialogue” is the policy vis-a-vis China, then are you surprised at China roosting on the Indus?

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

nation-needs-more-compassion-and-less-hypocrisy

Sat Aug 26 11:25:18 IST 2023

The prime minister has done it again. Misusing the platform provided to him, he converted the grand celebratory occasion of Independence Day into an opportunity to score cheap political points against those banding together against him in the name of I.N.D.I.A. This column will restrict itself to challenging him on his charge of “tushtikaran”, which the sangh parivar translates into their English as “appeasement”.

In his renowned biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion: Alone, 1932-1940, the author, William Manchester at p.101 gives the dictionary meaning of appeasement as “to buy off (an aggressor) by concessions, usually at the sacrifice of principles” and cites F.E. Smith Lord Birkenhead as first using the expression in the House of Lords to condemn conciliatory tactics towards advocates of Indian independence, calling those who did so “appeasers of Gandhi”. The term was seized upon by Churchill to derogate the British policy of conciliating Hitler by forgiving him his successive invasions of the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. “Appeasement” reverberated in the English language political vocabulary during Chamberlain’s handling of Hitler.

In other words, “appeasement” is used with respect to enemies. Are our Muslims “enemies”? Then what does it mean to accuse political opponents of tushtikaran? Does that not show that for all his citing diversity, the inflexible assumption of Modi’s policies is to regard non-Hindu minorities, especially Muslims, as “enemies” whose ancestors brought upon us “1,200 years of slavery”?

This is the proposition that has been peddled by Hindu extremists from the end of Mughal rule in India, and then through the writings and propaganda of V.D. Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar, and constitute the core of the sangh parivar’s view of Indian’s nationhood. That is principally what hindutva is about. Hence the dog whistle “appeasement” to hint at the essential enemy—the poor, wretched Indian Muslim. From the allegation of tushtikaran spring ‘love jihad’, lynching, the ‘hijab’, azaan, and namaz controversies, the ‘bulldozer’ mentality, bullying non-Hindu victims to repeat ‘Jai, Shri Ram’ till they pass out, the fiddling with textbooks, the passing of laws with an evident communal bias, and all other acts of viciousness with which the history of the past nine years is littered.

The civility of a nation is measured by its treatment of its minorities. Gandhiji embodied this principle. So did Nehru. That is why the Mahatma insisted on the return of all occupied Islamic places of worship to Muslims at the time of Partition. And “appeasement” is indeed the rationale presented by Nathuram Godse for assassinating the father of the nation. Therefore, when the ‘Vishwaguru’ describes kindness and consideration to our minorities as “appeasement”, that is, “conciliation of the enemy”, it makes an enemy of our minorities. It derogates from our civilisational heritage. It also derogates from the constitutional duty to regard all sections of our composite nation as equal.

Do Muslims of India require special treatment? Yes, for their share in Parliament has fallen under the present dispensation to an abysmal 4 per cent, while they were assured of equitable representation through the goodwill of the majority in the constituent assembly. Do they need special privileges for their educational progress and economic emancipation? The Sachar committee returned a resounding verdict of “yes” to this question. And, yet, this is called tushtikaran even as Modi seeks a vote bank among poor Muslims (the ‘pasmanda’) by dividing the Muslim community. The nation needs more compassion and less hypocrisy.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

lies-damned-lies-and-statistics

Sat Aug 12 11:07:38 IST 2023

First things first. This column owes its all to two explanatory articles by Udit Mishra of The Indian Express published sequentially in the wake of Prime Minister Modi’s assertion before the US Congress that India was already at position five in the size of its GDP, and then after Modi assured the nation at the inauguration of the Bharat Mandapam in July that “during the third term of our government, India will be among the top three economies of the world”. Fair enough, even the IMF says so.

But what has been hidden by Modi is that the growth rate in India has dropped by one hundred percentage points between 2004-2014 and the nine years that Modi has been PM. For we grew under Dr Manmohan Singh by 183 per cent in the UPA decade and that decennial growth rate has fallen by exactly 100 percentage points to 83 per cent in the Modi years. Had the Manmohan rate of growth been maintained, we would have overtaken Germany and Japan, the current two and three, many years ago. Our present ranking is thus much more the contribution of Manmohanomics than Modinomics.

Second, it is not so much because India is growing but because of virtual stagnation or low growth rates in most of the other top 10, after the global financial crisis of 2008-09, that we have forged ahead in relative terms. But the gap between the top two and us is so wide, while the gap between each of the remaining eight is so narrow, that all eight of us are “also-rans” as compared with the US and China. We eight are overtaking each other not to get to the top but only to not be declared last!

Third, we may be fifth, and might even become third in GDP by 2027, but the gap in GDP between no.1 (the US) and no.2 (China) and India is at present so wide as to be nearly eight times lower than the US and nearly five times lower than China. We are bunched way below the two giants with a group of countries ranked three to ten whose combined GDP is US dollars two trillion less than the US, and fifth to tenth is three trillion lower than China.

It gets worse when we look at per capita figures. For the US per capita income at $80,000 is some 38 times higher than India’s ($2,600) and China at $13,700 is some six times higher than India. Indeed, Germany and Japan, who we will be overtaking shortly in absolute size, are, in per capita terms, 26 times and 17 times higher than India. What boots it to come third in overall production when Indians languish at below 100 in per capita ranking and continue to lie in the 130s on the UN’s human development index? While Modi’s business friends scale international heights in terms of their personal wealth and make India rich on the PM’s metric, PM seems to forget that Indians on every other metric are poor.

PM’s boast is also in derogation of our Constitution which clearly lays down in Article 39 (c) that “the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing… that the operation of the economic system does not result in concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment” and in Article 39 (b) that “the ownership and control of the material resources of the country are so distributed as best to subserve the common good”.

It was another prime minister, [Benjamin] Disraeli, who denounced “lies, damned lies—and statistics”. Modi might want to lend him an ear.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

uniform-civil-code-and-the-rajiv-gandhi-precedent

Sat Jul 29 11:43:47 IST 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the highly controversial issue of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is obviously a dog whistle aimed at rallying the faithful to his standard divisive agenda on the eve of the general elections scheduled for 2024, when the INDIA alliance threatens to derail his long run of electoral victories.

In doing this, he brings to mind the precedent of the Supreme Court in the Shah Bano case (1985), placing UCC in Article 44 of the directive principles of state policy on a higher level of imperative action than all other articles in the same part of the Constitution. Thus, while Article 39(c) directs that the state shall ensure that there is no “concentration of wealth”, Adani and Ambani have risen to the highest global levels on personal wealth scales while all indices indicate an obscene widening of income inequalities in India.

Faced with the fury of the minorities at the prospect of their personal laws being abrogated by a parliament in which they are woefully under-represented, Rajiv Gandhi found an ingenious way out of the conundrum. He reconciled the directive in Article 44 to “endeavour” to work towards a UCC and the requirement in Article 39 (a) to treat “men and women equally” with the continuation of community-based personal laws.

This was the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. The constitutional validity of the act was challenged by Danial Latifi, a highly respected jurist, through a writ petition filed in September 1986. A constitutional bench held, in a judgement delivered in November 2001, that far from “reversing” the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano judgement, the impugned act had actually “codified” that judgement. How?

Instead of denouncing Muslim divorce practice as seventh-century Arab “barbarism“, Rajiv Gandhi and his law minister, Ashoke Sen, actually took the trouble to carefully listen to and meticulously study what the shariat said on the subject. It was clear that Muslim personal law on divorce was actually highly enlightened in that provisions for monetary settlement were strictly laid down to ensure due compensation for divorce, and maintenance thereafter for the divorcee and her children was guaranteed by the male members of her family of birth, failing which the waqf was charged with taking care of the woman and her children. Complementing this was Muslim social practice that not only permitted but actually encouraged remarriage. (In consequence, a 2019 study by Abu Saleh and others found that 78 per cent of divorced Muslim women find another husband within two years of divorce).

The problem was the reactionary mullahs (clerics) who enforced the shariat in personal matters. To rectify this, Rajiv Gandhi’s 1986 act upheld the right of Muslims to their own personal law but brought its enforcement within the ambit of secular civil law by empowering magistrates to “order” state waqf boards to provide adequate maintenance to divorced Muslim women and their offspring, failing which the waqf authorities would be hauled before the magistrate.

For the past two decades, all Muslim divorce disputes are consolidated before the highest court of the land and even-handed justice dispensed to Muslim women who might otherwise have faced the most terrible gender discrimination. This shows the way forward. For instead of attacking the roots of ‘unity in diversity’ by calling out others as barbaric, which is what Modi’s dog whistle is all about, let our many different religious communities have their own personal laws but bring enforcement of gender equality within the civil jurisdiction of the courts.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

does-modi-really-care-for-pasmanda-muslims

Sat Jul 15 15:55:09 IST 2023

Since July 2022, PM Modi has been attempting to drive a wedge between the Muslim community by underlining that 85 per cent of Muslims are lowly “pasmanda” and only 15% are elite “ashrafs” whom earlier governments appeased.

Back in 1973, Prof Imtiaz Ahmed of JNU edited his monumental magnum opus, Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India (expanded second edition in 1978), where he and his co-authors pointed out that caste “exists and functions among Muslims” and there is a “hierarchy among the Muslims” based on “deference structures, emphasising inequality of social status” despite the strong Koranic injunction to treat all human beings as equal. They highlighted the ‘Lal Begi’ scavengers as the bottom of the Muslim social ladder, and also found that “higher Muslim castes refuse to eat” with or marry the lower orders. They also emphasised “regional variations” (as with Hindu caste practice). The persistence of caste among Muslim converts, was attributed by Imtiaz Ahmed to the “acculturative influence of Hinduism”.

Yet, because the Gandhi-Ambedkar pact was limited to retaining scheduled castes in the Hindu fold, the Presidential Order of 1950 listed only Hindus among the scheduled castes. Muslim SC remain excluded to this day. Later, after Mandal, when salami-slicing of the OBCs led to a long list of OBC castes, largely based on traditional occupations, Muslims in the same “polluting” occupations were excluded from OBC categorisation—the most egregious example of which is Gujarati Muslim Modis who do not enjoy the categorisation of ‘teli’ (oil-pressers).

These anomalies were emphasised by the Sachar Commission which made more widely known the Muslim social stratification of Ashraf, Ajlaf and Arzal (the latter two jointly called pasmanda). In consequence, Dr Manmohan Singh’s second UPA government prepared an ordinance that would have included a pasmanda Muslim sub-quota in the OBC list, but this was stayed by the Supreme Court. If PM Modi is really so concerned with pasmanda Muslims, why has his government not sought a vacation of the stay in the last nine years or amended the SC list to include Muslim SC?

Moreover, it is almost entirely Muslim pasmanda who are the victims of lynching, 97 per cent of which have taken place after the Modi became PM. Why are sangh parivar goons encouraged to shout slogans like “Jab mulle kate jayenge, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chillayaenge” (when the mullahs are slaughtered, they’ll scream Jai Shri Ram)? With, as the PM emphasises, 85 per cent Muslims being pasmanda, it is this 85 per cent that has been targeted (along with the much-excoriated 15 per cent) by sangh parivar-inspired jibes to “go to Pakistan”; controversies on hijab, aazaan, love jihad and namaz in public places; brutal crimes in the name of cow protection; bulldozer politics; razing of mosques; economic boycotts; films like The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story; and the “exponential rise in hate speech” (Ziya us Salam in The Hindu of June 30).

The five main problems of the Muslim minority, including the 85 per cent pasmanda, are related to ‘identity’, ‘dignity, ‘security’, ‘agency’ and ‘representation’. There are only about 4 per cent Muslim Lok Sabha MPs now as against 8.3 per cent at Indira Gandhi’s second coming. Whatever the BJP may have done in fielding 61 Muslim candidates (out of thousands) in UP’s recent municipal elections, there is not a single Muslim Cabinet minister at the centre, no Muslim among the BJP’s 395 MPs in both Houses, and not a single Muslim candidate was even fielded by the BJP in recent state assembly elections to the 1,109 seats in UP, Gujarat and Karnataka! That is why Zia Us Salam decries the “invisibilisation of Muslims”, 85 per cent of whom are pasmanda.

Modi is ideologically opposed to recognising this despite the fact that he gives away gas cylinders for free without discrimination (while charging $1,195 for gas per cylinder—also without discrimination)!

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

kashmiris-want-elections

Sat Jul 01 12:53:10 IST 2023

I took one of the 41 daily flights to Srinagar, joining the 1.4 crore annual visitors to Jammu and Kashmir, which is the single most significant proof proffered by the Union government to proclaim the restoration of “normalcy” to the erstwhile state, now transformed into a Union Territory. There I met many Kashmiris, including sarpanches and activist politicians, teachers and students, sheep- and cattle-herders. The trip took me to the Daksum sanctuary, then over the snow-covered Margan Top at 14,000 feet, and across the breadth of the Warwan Valley that lies in the Chenab basin approximating the line that divides Jammu from Kashmir. The scenery was spectacular, but I was there also to gauge the general mood.

There was widespread agreement that there was peace in the air, the administration was functioning more smoothly than in the past, that government servants were much more regular in attendance instead of busying themselves with their private businesses, that teachers were coming to school on time and actually teaching, that development and infrastructure projects were being implemented, and that corruption was significantly reduced. Much like in Mussolini’s Italy where “the trains ran on time” but democracy was eschewed.

The single most important demand was that elections be held so that the UT is restored to statehood, and a representative state assembly could work towards the “restoration” of Articles 370 and 35A. When I retorted that this would also mean the restoration of past misgovernance, it was accepted with little demur that there would be several downsides to popular government but that they accepted, indeed desired this ardently, as the government would then be their government, not one imposed from Delhi; that government servants would not be Hindi-speaking outsiders but would be administering in their language and in accordance with their culture; that they would not be humiliated by being under alien domination; and that they would be equal citizens instead of being denied their democratic rights only because they were Kashmiri.

On being asked who would win the elections in view of the gerrymandering of constituencies that has been resorted to blatantly, none seemed to doubt that it would be the National Conference of Sheikh Abdullah and his current descendants. When asked whether the “good governance” provided by the lieutenant governor’s administration would not trump mere sentiment, the unanimous response was that it was only because the National Conference would be the big winner that the Union home ministry was dragging its feet on elections. No matter, they said, whenever the elections are held Kashmir will be restored to Kashmiris, our abject humiliation will end and we will be masters of our own house, whatever the faults of our governance and our politicians and leaders. “We do not want this beggars’ prosperity. We are quite capable of promoting our own welfare and prosperity. After all, even before Article 370 was abruptly removed without our consent, we ranked higher than most states in GDP growth and per capita income, and in health and education.” But what did the hollowed-out Article 370 contain for you personally? The answer invariably was: “Article 370 was the badge of our special identity. And it was from 370 that 35A flowed. It was our guarantee that prosperity in Kashmir would be for Kashmiris and not outsiders”.

As for Pakistan, they were all aware of conditions there and the growing gap between a flourishing India and its fast-collapsing neighbour. In any case, they said, the best guarantee against both accession to Pakistan and ‘azadi’ was the National Conference. And why was dissatisfaction not turning to ‘intifada’? Only because we don’t want to give any excuse to the Indian government to further postpone elections.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

narendra-modi-s-saarc-ploy

Sat Jun 17 11:16:17 IST 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has done more than anyone else to destroy the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), chose his invitation to the Hiroshima G7 meeting to air his views on south Asian unity. The setting was somewhat appropriate because just as the atom bomb destroyed the city of Hiroshima, his statement has nuked the idea of a south Asian union.

SAARC was first proposed in 1979 and initially received with considerable skepticism. Yet, by patient negotiation, the parameters were put together over the next five years for SAARC to be launched in Dhaka in December 1985. Although its achievements were modest, it provided a useful forum for SAARC leaders to get together for regular bilateral talks on the sidelines.

The main Indian reservation about SAARC was that it could provide a hostile platform for attacks on India, not only by Pakistan but even by monarchical Nepal and a Sri Lanka over-run with internal ethnic insurrections. The geographical asymmetry was duly noted: that India alone had common land or sea boundaries with the other members, none of the others having contiguous frontiers with each other. Therefore, the most fundamental parameter laid down was that bilateral issues, especially political differences, would not be on the multilateral table, where the focus would be on issues of regional development cooperation, especially where complementarities could be availed of for mutual benefit. Infrastructure and common public health issues were kept in the forefront and the cultural diversity of the association was highlighted and celebrated.
While sensitive bilateral political issues were off the SAARC agenda, the multiple days’ presence of the leaders afforded them opportunities for bilateral interaction, such as Modi’s own secret interaction with Nawaz Shariff organised at the Kathmandu summit in 2015 by a business intermediary (after Modi had publicly snubbed the Pakistan prime minister).

Having sabotaged SAARC by his refusal to attend the Islamabad summit, Modi, in Hiroshima, brought up a concept of a South Asian Democratic Union. “Democratic” effectively expels Taliban Afghanistan from the earlier SAARC grouping and provides the window through which the proposed new grouping could eliminate Pakistan. To be a grouping of “democracies” members would be subject to invasive external judgements on whether or not they complied with “democratic” norms. Indeed, authoritarian India, under the present regime, which has seen the country tumbling on all accepted international indices of democratic governance, would be under the microscope. SAARC had carefully excluded such unwarranted interference from near and far.

Worse, much worse than this, is Modi’s premise that the proposed South Asian Union must be among those who share a “common history and culture”. This is clearly designed to exclude Islamic countries, like Pakistan and Afghanistan, and even the Maldives, who proclaim the religious character of their states in their constitution and would hotly contest the suggestion that they share a “common” history and culture with India. Bangladesh would find itself in a pickle because although it is described as “secular” in its (amended) constitution, it is clearly Islamic in its overall nature. Modi’s formulation also unwittingly excludes Buddhist states like Sri Lanka and Bhutan who would reject the notion that their history or culture is indistinguishable from India’s. Perhaps when Nepal was a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, under the now deposed monarchy, it might have accepted the idea of a shared history and culture, but today’s fiercely independent, nationalistic and secular Nepal would certainly ferociously object to its history and culture being subordinated to India’s.

For that matter, does an India that is at war with itself over “Aurangzeb ki aulad”, have a common history or culture? We are united as a nation only because of our “unity in diversity”. That alone can be the basis of south Asian unity.

double-engine-sarkar-has-wreaked-havoc-in-manipur

Fri Jun 02 17:29:32 IST 2023

While Manipur is no stranger to violence and ethnic clashes, the communal rioting seen this year is essentially the consequence of the majoritarian authoritarianism that characterises the BJP’s approach to “forced assimilation”.

The largely Hindu Meitei population of the valley has lived in relative accord with their largely Christian tribal neighbours of the hill areas, owing to deep sensitivity to each other’s separate identity, reinforced by constitutional arrangements for a degree of autonomy through district councils and hill administration councils under Article 371 C, and political accommodation through reservations for ST in the assembly and including tribal representatives in the cabinet.

But ever since the BJP stole its way to power to overturn the outcome of the 2017 election, a strident majoritarianism has pitted the Vaishnavite Hindus of the valley against the Christian tribals of the hills leading to the present outbreak that has been simmering over the six years that N. Biren Singh has been chief minister.

A dissident Kuki MLA of the BJP, Paolienlal Haokip, has described the Biren Singh administration as “the best example of inept handling of everything”. Ineptness is evident in the BJP government’s drive against the cultivation of poppies, cannabis, and marijuana, launched in February this year, to clear reserved forest lands that, it was claimed, had been “encroached” upon by tribals in general and particularly by “illegal immigrants” from Myanmar across the border. This is a good illustration of the “double engine sarkar” at work, for it is the Central government that has looked askance at the Muslim Rohingya and Zo tribals fleeing Burmese junta persecution by refusing to grant them ‘refugee’ status and the local Manipuri BJP that has attempted to cow down the tribal minority instead of working towards their gradual emotional integration into a composite Manipuri identity.

While the origins of the problem may be traced to the British having been “insensitive to kinship ties” across the Manipur-Burma border, the current aggravation arises from the inhuman outlook of the Manipur government that has condemned the Zo tribals fleeing genocide as “illegal immigrants”; sought an NRC, as in Assam, to identify “foreigners” in the Kuki-dominated districts; and roughly handled delicate issues of land rights and cultural identity. Large swathes of Kuki-Zomi-Hmar lands have been declared reserved forests or otherwise put out of bounds to the locals without following “established procedures”, leading to severe economic disruption as the unyielding hills are more easily cultivated by slash-and-burn methods known as “subsistence swidden farming” than back-breaking terracing for settled farming.

As underlined by Kuki public intellectuals of repute, the police have been “deeply communalised”; the authorities, as a whole, have been “biased” rather than “equidistant”; and civil society organisations have been incentivised to “propagate a more radical brand of Meitei nationalism”. In consequence, a vicious spiral of mutual violence has been spun. The inbuilt majority of Meiteis in the assembly (39 of 60) has in March 2023 withdrawn the suspension of operations agreement with two major Kuki and Zomi armed entities. And into this cauldron, the Manipur High Court has directed the government to prepare the ground to declare Meiteis as Scheduled Tribes, thus removing the last safeguard of the existing hill ST. Such has been the loss of confidence in the fairness of the Biren Singh government that almost all BJP Kuki MLAs and opinion-makers of the Kuki and other minority tribal groupings have demanded a “separate administration” by placing the hills under the sixth schedule, as in neighbouring Mizoram.

Such is the outcome of substituting “unity in diversity” with BJP-style “unity through uniformity”. Manipur in microcosm is the fate awaiting the Indian Union if saffron rule is continued in 2024.

we-cannot-wish-pakistan-away-and-we-should-not

Sat May 20 11:19:51 IST 2023

The Germans have a word for it: schadenfreude, that is, delighting in another’s troubles. In India, there is considerable schadenfreude over the mess in Pakistan, where everything—politically, economically and in foreign policy—seems to have gone wrong at the same time. The civil polity is hopelessly divided, with the army threatening to bring back order once again through the barrel of a gun. The economy is in the doldrums. Pakistan has ceased to be the springboard for determining the outcome in Afghanistan. The world has lost interest in Afghanistan but not the Taliban in wanting to dismantle the Durand Line. And India merely scoffs at Pakistan’s increasingly frenetic rhetoric that seeks to refocus world attention on Kashmir. The world is not listening. And might the Chinese (“the all-weather friend”) turn Gwadar into a Hambantota, effectively snatching the strategic port away from Pakistani sovereignty to get themselves reimbursed for their humongous investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor?

At just this juncture, our foreign minister has chosen to be rude to the point of crudeness to his Pakistani counterpart in the latest instalment of a personal quarrel that Jaishankar sparked in New York and got back as good as he gave. Is this in our long-term interest? What do we gain from Pakistan’s collapse? More, to the point, is Pakistan collapsing?

Pakistan came into being because the Muslim elite, in large measure, did not wish to become a minority in someone else’s dispensation. That sentiment constitutes the bonding adhesive of their nationhood. It makes Pakistanis more patriotic in times of crisis than when the going is good. In normal times, they enjoy mocking their leadership. But when the unity or integrity of their nation is threatened, they band together. We need to understand this.

We have seen in India, particularly in the ghastly era through which we are currently transiting, how “hurt religious sentiment” can be transmuted into political gain. Religion, the raison d’etre of the birth of Pakistan, can quickly and effectively be invoked if India is seen as taking advantage of Pakistan’s woes. The reaction in Pakistan to Jaishankar’s snarl at Bilawal in Goa only proves that the higher the level of India’s schadenfreude, the greater Pakistan is incentivised to come together. Of course, Jaishankar’s primary goal was to please his boss and establish his credentials as a true saffronite; but if he thought his huffing and his puffing is going to blow the Pakistan house down, his hopes will be belied for his rhetoric only solidifies Pakistan’s desire not to revert to being India. This in turn means that a turbulent Pakistan remains a neighbour of India and an indivisible part of our shared subcontinent. We cannot wish them way—and, therefore, should not.

Moreover, while Pakistan is no longer a key ally of the US and is being increasingly displaced by Joe Biden’s outreach to Modi, it is difficult to imagine the US looking away when the eighth largest country in the global community—Pakistan—is being dismantled against the will of Pakistanis. So, as in the past, so in the future, the Americans will grudgingly bail out their former partner, if only to stop China from becoming their sole benefactor. Hence, Pakistan will be helped to weather out this crisis.

Given that Pakistan is here to stay and has the potential to restore its broken polity and economy, what we have to decide is whether to continue our nearly decade-old disengagement with Pakistan. It is clear that if Modi wins in 2024, this disengagement will continue, but given the imperative necessity of uniting the opposition to forestall that outcome, at the appropriate time Pakistan policy has to be inserted consensually into the joint opposition agenda.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

diminishing-the-mughal-period

Fri May 05 16:46:12 IST 2023

The National Council of Educational Research and Training claims to have “balanced” the burden on 12th class school children by substantially reducing their learning and understanding of the Mughal legacy. In fact, they are only playing ‘Their Master’s Voice’ by carrying through the ideological obfuscation of the ruling saffron establishment. They claim to have given the vacated “space” to regional histories of Hindu dynasties but have, in fact, only added a few pages about the Vijayanagar Empire, leaving out any substantial additions to the Pallava, the Chola, the Pandya, the Chera, the Rashtrakuta, the Chalukya, the Sena, the Pala, the Ahom, and a host of others.

There was a reason the earlier texts gave more pages to the Mughals. These reasons were basically the same that covered the findings of the pre-Aryan Harappan heritage, the Vedic Age, the Buddha and Mahavira, the Asokan Empire, the Guptas and Adi Sankara, namely, that these were more nation-wide and had a longer cultural and civilisational impact on the nation’s memory of itself. But the Mughals have been downgraded precisely because their empire stretched all the way to the deep south and the east/north-east. The Mughal empire in the north extended to Kashmir and northwest to Pakistan, and even most of Afghanistan. This cannot be said of any of the regional kingdoms. I could, therefore, have understood a separate paper on our regional kingdoms, which are taught in colleges, but the pretence that the Mughals are given too much prominence is a political prejudice that should have no place in the formation of young minds.

Indeed, the cultural contribution of the Mughal period to our syncretic civilisation is far more significant than its political boundaries. For, it was during the rule of the Delhi Sultanate (1192-1526), predecessors to the Mughals (1526-1858), that the Hindawi language was developed (largely by Amir Khusrow in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Auliya) and has now become the Hindi of our times. It was also during the late Mughal period that Urdu arose and became one of the constitutionally recognised languages of independent India. Music and dance, painting, sculpture and poetry became at the time, under royal patronage, a precious national treasure rather than a sectional legacy. The architectural inheritance remains a proud part of our national pride. It was also during the Mughal period that the Ramayan and the Mahabharat, the Upanishads and the other masterpieces were translated into Persian for wider acquaintance to the non-Hindu minorities of India. It was a period of intense inter-religious interaction, for the Sufi and Bhakti movement, which underly almost all of contemporary Hindu belief and practice, unfolded during these centuries of Mughal rule in all their syncretic brilliance. Indeed, the origins of Bhakti movement may be dated from Saint Ramanuja who reigned spiritually from the Tamil country, synthesising the bitterly opposed Saivite and Vaishnavite traditions, when the Tughlaqs were on their thrones in far-away Delhi, but really flourished when Swami Ramanand, Tukaram, Chaitanya, Sankardev, Ravidas, Kabir and Mirabai spread their universal message of divine love under the benevolent gaze of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal emperors. It is indeed little recalled that Tulsidas wrote his Ramayan even as the Babri Masjid loomed over Ayodhya. And the apogee of the Bhakti movement under the ten Sikh Gurus came to final bloom when there were Muslim rulers on the Delhi throne.

While there might be merit in strengthening text book passages that highlight the civilisational consequences of Sultanate and Mughal rule, at the expense of political and military history, there is none in making little Jinnahs of our children by filling their minds with tendentious two-nation theories.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

can-a-govt-appointed-fact-check-body-be-effective

Sat Apr 22 20:51:05 IST 2023

Union IT minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar must consider the Indian public to be most gullible if he thinks his argument for a governmental fact-finding body will wash. He argues that a wholly government-appointed fact-finding body without any countervailing authority to check its actions before it takes them within minutes in real time, is justified because government is the target of “most misinformation attacks” and “only the government has access to government data and so it is impossible for any non-government entity to effectively fact check content about the government”. And, so, he wishes to put in place a system where the government becomes the judge in its own cause! And the way is thus opened to removing all checks and balances on government evaluations and actions since in every case government would be entitled to claim that it alone is capable of determining what is what as it alone has all the required “facts”.

We are treading dangerous constitutional ground here, threatening the very basis of our Constitution where justice is open and transparent, and no one, not even the government, is allowed to hide from the court’s stern view of all the germane facts and alternative perspectives on these facts. For, after all “Facts are sacred; opinion is free” as the famous Guardian editor, C.P. Scott, remarked and raised to the basic credo of frank, free, and fearless journalism.

The press note issued along with the minister’s decision claims it seeks an “open, safe and trusted and accountable Internet”. It does nothing of the sort. It just seeks to control public access to significant facts and governmental interpretation of these since, according to Chandrashekhar, government is “the target” of “most misinformation operations”. But what of situations, increasingly frequent, of others being the target of government-inspired “misinformation” and “no information”—such as the genuineness of the prime minister’s educational qualifications, as declared to the Election Commission of India at the time of his filing his nomination papers, and the refusal of the prime minister to answer or clarify any of the questions raised by the (former) leader of the opposition on the floor of the house regarding his relationship with the discredited business baron, Gautam Adani? Not to mention scores of other issues pending under the Right to Information Act and the manifest illegality of detentions in J&K? When innocents are as much the target of government “misinformation”, how on earth can it be assumed that the government is the only ‘target’ in need of protection? Why not rely instead on the courts that are open to all citizens as much as to government departments and personalities and the existing mechanisms of “a grievance office” and “GAC framework appellate” that the honourable minister invokes?

He claims that government actions in this regard will always faithfully take account of the fundamental rights prescribed in the Constitution, but surely it is not for government to determine whether its own actions are ultra vires the “basic structure” and fundamental rights of individuals. Misinformation is best tackled in the open, not by hiding behind governmental access to “facts”.

There are facts that governments hide and facts that are revealed only to the benefit of governments. The job of a free media (including social media) is to wheedle out “facts” inconvenient to the government in an atmosphere free of hatred, fear, and bile. And for government to respond, transparently and openly, if it has in its possession other facts or considerations on which it determines its approach.

It is this freedom to offer an alternative view that enabled the BJP to access two terms in power. It now seems to think its predominance is final. That is the kind of hubris that overtakes most authoritarians.

its-uk-indian-origin-pm-versus-scotlands-pak-origin-leader-mani-shankar-aiyar

Sun Apr 09 07:33:15 IST 2023

There is a delightful irony to Humza Haroon Yousaf, the 37-year-old son of Pakistani immigrants, having been elected the head of the Scottish National Party, and thus emerging as first minister of Scotland. For he now comes in direct confrontation with the Indian-origin PM of the United Kingdom in determining whether the UK will remain a united kingdom or split into two sovereign countries: Britain and Scotland. Partition was the price the Brits gouged out of us to grant us our independence. Now an ethnic Pakistani and an ethnic Indian will determine whether the United Kingdom of England and Scotland, twins joined at the hip in 1707, will remain twinned or be severed from one another. And even as the princely states hoped the departing Britons would succeed in carving out for them a separate Princestan, Wales and Northern Ireland also wait with bated breath to see whether the country to which they belong will be Balkanised, as India almost was, or survive as the rump Great Britain.

Yousaf’s clarion call has been “Stronger for Scotland”, and he has reiterated that his “would be the generation that delivers independence for Scotland”. To this end, he has declared that he seeks a second referendum to retest the outcome of the last referendum in 2014 that delivered a marginal verdict in favour of Scotland remaining in the UK. Yousaf insists that he is not looking for a marginal but decisive victory in a second referendum. Rishi Sunak has countered that a referendum would “distract” from “delivering on the things that are top of the priority list for people across Scotland”.

But the hard fact is that it is “independence” that is at the top of Scotland’s priority list. For in the Brexit referendum, Scotland voted to remain in the European Union while the UK as a whole marginally voted in favour of leaving. What Scotland now seeks is not only the dissolution of the Act of Union of 1707 but also the opportunity of rejoining the European Union from which, in the Scottish perception, Scotland gained a lot, reflecting Ireland’s view that EU membership grants a net reaping of benefits. Thus, a second referendum would be held in an overall scenario that is radically different to 2014.

On the other hand, polls suggest that support for secession from the UK has dropped in Scotland to 39 per cent, well below the 44.7 per cent who voted to quit the United Kingdom in 2014. Yet, the situation remains volatile as 58 per cent polled in favour of separating when Scotland’s pandemic performance proved far superior to England’s. Significantly, Yousaf was the celebrated Scottish minister who engineered Scotland’s impressive Covid-19 response.

Thus, for all his brave words, the Punjabi Indian British PM has his work cut out in his forthcoming battle with the Punjabi Pakistani first minister of Scotland. The last card up Sunak’s sleeve is that even a decisive referendum in favour of vivisecting the UK would not be the end of the matter. Westminster, where the UK parliament sits, has, according to the law, the final word. Unless the House of Commons accepts the outcome of any Scottish referendum, the partition of the UK cannot legally take place. Therefore, the ultimate irony would be if the British government were to set up a Cabinet Mission to negotiate their way out of the tangled mess that would be created by a successful Scottish referendum. It would parallel the imbroglio caused by the Indian elections in 1945-46 that required the despatch of the Cabinet Mission, whose leader, Pethick Lawrence came to be called “Pathetic Lawrence”!

the-three-women-who-helped-mrs-chatterjee

Sat Mar 25 11:33:46 IST 2023

The Rani Mukerji starrer Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway was released throughout India and worldwide on March 17. In Norway itself, tickets were sold out four days before the first screening. This shows that the issues raised by the film are not of concern only to Indians but also to Norwegians who suffer the heavy hand of the Barnevernet, the Norwegian Child Protection Service (CPS). The CPS has been empowered by a draconian law to protect child rights but, on the ground, acts without adequate institutional checks or balances, thus causing needless and sometimes endless suffering to parents who are deprived of their infants and children without any discoverable reason. Reasons are not discoverable because the right to privacy of the abducted child is heavily protected in the law itself, leaving the victim parents often quite bewildered as to why their children are being taken from them. While CPS is free to enter what evidence it wishes in Norwegian courts of law, defendants are simply not allowed to examine much of this “evidence” kept under wraps. Inevitably, the judge is obliged to list in the direction of the prosecution. And there is virtually no recourse to the executive because, it is claimed, the Norwegian system does not permit intervention by any ministry or minister.

This confers such arbitrary powers of immunity and impunity on CPS that the moot question is whether in protecting the child’s right to privacy the human rights of the deprived parent and the child are not being brutally violated.

The film is based on the real-life story of a young Indian woman, Sagarika Chakraborty Bhattacharjee, whose infants were snatched from her.

Among the allegations made against her was the accusation that she fed her children with her hand; that she smeared her daughter’s forehead; that the kids slept in the same bed as the parents. The social worker assigned to them was a young English woman, who mocked Sagarika that Indians were “running around naked” until the British “civilised” them, and that she knew how Indian parents brought up their children because she had seen Slumdog Millionaire! Sagarika was also charged with mental illness and instability for having fiercely resisted the attempt to take away her children. Besides, foster parents are so handsomely compensated that exploitation of child protection laws for pecuniary gain is an ever-present threat.

While the children were eventually repatriated to India through the intervention of foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj—at the instance of Brinda Karat, the fiery CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP at the time—it was only the dogged persistence of a pro bono Indian lawyer, my daughter Suranya Aiyar, that eventually reunited Sagarika with her children. They are both growing up happy and normal in the loving care of their mother who has had the grit to train herself in software engineering and give her children a good living by working in a multi-national company. The current state of the mother and children is the best proof that in stealing away her infants the Barnevernet had gravely erred. It also showed that if the Norwegian government puts its mind to it, successful executive intervention is possible, whatever the theology of the law.

What lesson does all this hold for India? Only one. That with millions of NRIs travelling abroad and facing the rigours of child protection laws in all of the western world, MEA must become pro-active in helping Indian parents deal with such cases that are rife in the western world. To this end, perhaps a law needs to be enacted by Parliament to secure a binding commitment from the government to do so through its diplomatic and consular offices abroad.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

why-we-secularists-must-fight-on-mani-shankar-aiyar

Fri Mar 10 15:08:30 IST 2023

The basic structure of our nation is the source of the basic structure of our Constitution. So, in protecting the basic structure of our Constitution, the Supreme Court is protecting the very basis of our nationhood, which is “unity in diversity”. Delivering their judgement, rejecting a petition moved by a hindutivist, Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice B.V. Nagarathna have stamped their judicial imprimatur on the idea of India that for the past nine years has been under its most serious challenge ever. As the honourable justices aver, “There is no space for bigotry in Hinduism.”

Yet, the forces who do not represent the Hindu religion but a political perversion of it, are symbols of bigotry seeking to lump all non-Hindus, especially Muslims, as “barbaric invaders”. The court rightly asserts the “golden principle of fraternity”, which is “enshrined in the Preamble”. The petitioner who decried “foreign invaders” as “looters” was rhetorically asked, “Can you wish away invasions from history? What are you trying to achieve?” It was unambiguously affirmed, “India that is Bharat is a secular country… wedded to the rule of law, secularism, constitutionalism of which Article 14 stands out as the grand guarantee of both equality and fairness in state action.” No politician has put it more clearly than that.

Underlining that, “India is a secular state, this is a secular forum,” Justice Nagarathna pleaded, “let us not break society with such kinds of petitions, please have the country in mind, not any religion.” And Justice Joseph added, “I am a Christian, but I can say I am equally fond of Hinduism… Try and understand its greatness.” Saying that, “History cannot haunt present and future generations,” the bench warned against our becoming “prisoners of the past” and underlined that “this court should not become an instrument to create havoc”. And Justice Joseph concluded, “We have to understand our own greatness. Our greatness should lead us to be magnanimous.”

In addressing these words to the petitioner, the bench had much more than the petitioner in mind. The audience Justice Joseph and Justice Nagarathna were addressing was much wider extending to the nation as a whole and including all those who have been undermining our fraternity as a nation. The audience would include the ruling dispensation. While Rahul Gandhi’s plea to “open in the bazaar of hatred the store of love” might be construed as a partisan political jibe, when a similar view is expressed by a bench of the highest court in the land, it is imperative that the powers-that-be absorb the judicial message.

There is no place in our nationhood for the targeting of minorities with lynchings or ‘love jihad’, or bulldozing the very modest homes of blameless Muslims, or holding them to be “Babar ki aulad”―expressions that are freely bruited about without a word of reprimand from their leaders, indeed with encouragement of one minister demanding “goli maro saalon ko”. It is, thus, that the ground is prepared for calls to genocide that go unpunished. The nation has been brought to a very dangerous place. The court has rightly warned against invoking history “selectively” to “create schisms in society”. Yet, this is the precise stock-in-trade of those who have risen on the ladder of the pogrom in 2002 and abuse of the civic and human rights of a section of our society. In the words of an earlier judgment of the Supreme Court, the “egregious violence” that went into the brick-by-brick demolition of the Babri Masjid is to be deplored.

The court is, in effect, warning against the stoking of religious vengeance-seeking. It is for the sangh parivar in both its avatars as the RSS and the BJP to heed the call of the court. I have no expectation they will. Which is why we secularists must fight on, confident that the Supreme Court is behind us.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

why-congress-should-stoop-to-conquer-mani-shankar-aiyar

Thu Mar 02 14:45:11 IST 2023

When the Bharat Jodo Yatra climaxed at Lal Chowk, Srinagar, with Rahul Gandhi raising the national flag at this historic spot, I remarked to some newspersons who had gathered around me that this was the “inflexion point” at which a moral crusade would turn into a political campaign. Having roused the conscience of the nation against the hatred being spewed, and having galvanised the party through the length of the country, the moment had arrived when our thoughts would have to seriously turn to defeating the source of the divisiveness that has overtaken us as a people. That opportunity would come at the general elections scheduled for a year hence.

By the time this column is in your hands, a giant step towards that end would have been taken at the plenary session of the All India Congress Committee in Raipur over the weekend of February 25-26. This is being written in anticipation of that event. What must the Congress do now to politically capitalise on Rahul Gandhi’s long march?

The agenda would be complex, and there are many issues to tackle. But attention would be focused on the grand strategy for the general elections. Would the Congress be going it alone as the only party in the opposition with a national presence? Or will it do so in alliance with only those regional parties who concede in advance the premier position to the Congress? Or taking on board all regional parties in recognition of their regional hold while leaving it till after the elections to determine who will lead the coalition government if the grand alliance prevails at the polls?

I think the party should hark back to the Chintan Shivir at Pachmarhi in 1998 where the consensus was that the Congress should go it alone. Then the Congress mind should turn to how events actually played out. After reverses in 1999, the Congress started seeing merit in allying with at least some regional parties to take on the formidable Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004. Vajpayee, for his part, was so convinced of his invincibility that he brought forward the 2004 elections by almost six months. As we now know, that proved to be misplaced confidence, and, instead of the BJP, it was the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that took the reins of government for 10 long years.

What is often forgotten is that the UPA did not exist before the elections. The UPA coalition was put together and named as such after the results were out, not before. Who would be prime minister was also determined after, and not before, the election outcome. Later, when the Left parties baulked at Dr Manmohan Singh’s civil nuclear cooperation deal with the US and the Samajwadi Party stepped into the breach to secure parliamentary endorsement of the agreement, SP became part of the UPA.

It is this history that suggests itself as the answer for 2024. The Congress on its own cannot take on the saffron forces. But it need not be on its own. Most meaningful opposition parties, including Akhilesh Yadav and Nitish Kumar in the two most populous states of the Union, are as dedicated to the principle of ridding India of the last decade of hindutva rule as any Congressman or woman. Therefore, it would be advisable for the Congress to “stoop to conquer” by not asserting its primacy as a national party so as to facilitate a gravitation towards a mahagathbandhan. The election results would then show, as they did in 2004, which of the parties of the alliance has how many seats. And, accordingly, the question of leadership can be evolved by consensus.

Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.

tale-of-two-public-addresses-in-maharashtra-on-vijayadashami

Sun Sep 25 14:14:31 IST 2022

For the last five decades, two public addresses made in Maharashtra on Vijayadashami day have always attracted national attention. Every single word uttered by the RSS chief in Nagpur and by the Thackerays in Mumbai have been followed closely by politicians, analysts and the media.

This year, the speech space is likely to get even more crowded with the Shiv Sena split into two factions. Both groups are determined to hold big rallies in Mumbai, although the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has not yet revealed whether it would sanction a rally at Shivaji Park, where Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray roared every year with his own brand of hindutva and Marathi pride till his death in 2012. The factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde have applied for the venue, with Uddhav making the first move. Shinde has already received permission to hold the rally at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) ground. He is, however, keen on Shivaji Park because of its historic status. Shinde is being egged on by big brother BJP, which wants to deny any legitimacy to Uddhav as Balasaheb’s successor. Both Shinde and the BJP accuse Uddhav of ditching the hindutva ideology in favour of the chief minister’s chair.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, on the other hand, faces no such challenge and his address will be telecast live by national broadcaster Doordarshan. The speech is a tradition started by RSS founder K.B. Hedgewar in the 1930s. All his five successors in the 97-year-old organisation have addressed the faithful on Vijayadashami, although the last two editions were delivered online because of Covid-19 restrictions.

Ever since the Ram Janmabhoomi struggle was launched in the 1980s by RSS affiliate Vishva Hindu Parishad–later taken up by BJP president L.K. Advani through his rath yatra–speeches by RSS chiefs Balasaheb Deoras, Rajendra Singh, K.S. Sudarshan and Bhagwat have been followed even more closely, with each and every word scrutinised for its meaning as well as its intended target. With the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in power with a thumping majority since 2014, the Union government has implemented many of the core demands of the RSS, including a judicial solution to the Ayodhya dispute and the construction of a grand Ram temple, the removal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special privileges, the dilution of the provisions of personal laws of minorities which could eventually lead to a uniform civil code and a new education policy incorporating cultural nationalism and the primacy of Indian languages.

Bhagwat, however, has also been floating a few ideas in his speeches which are more difficult for the Union government to implement, like a vigorous policy to limit population growth and more equality in opportunities, which is seen as a long time RSS agenda for scrapping reservations for the socially backward classes. But the RSS, which has waited patiently for its affiliates to take charge in Delhi, is more than pleased with the present situation, and it is expected that Bhagwat, in his latest speech, would call for more social and economic decisions in tune with some other elements of the RSS vision. While he will address an audience of discipline and attention in Nagpur, Mumbai could witness heated exchanges and even some fisticuffs because of the nasty feud between the two Sena factions.

sachi@theweek.in

will-autorickshaw-drivers-in-gujarat-accept-or-reject-kejriwal

Sat Sep 17 10:35:24 IST 2022

Arvind Kejriwal’s standard practice of visiting the house of an autorickshaw driver in poll-bound states had a twist in Gujarat. The state police, which was providing security for the Delhi chief minister, objected. Kejriwal’s well-scripted plan went awry as the police could not provide security at short notice around the poor wage-earner’s house. But, Kejriwal, who is on frequent forays to the state pitching for the Aam Aadmi Party would not budge. Finally, Kejriwal, accompanied by hefty policemen, travelled to the autorickshaw driver’s home in his three-wheeler. The AAP said the BJP, which rules Gujarat, was scared of Kejriwal’s popularity among the poor. The state countered it was acting out of security reasons.

But it is the targeting of autorickshaw drivers—who are in large numbers in every big city and also found in tiny towns—which shows the importance of this vote bank. The AAP had won over the autorickshaw and cycle rickshaw drivers as well as pavement vendors to capture Delhi in successive elections. The drivers and their families form a chunk of dependable voters, especially as the AAP promises to protect them from police harassment.

Going for a meal with a poor family has also been a familiar electoral tactic for the BJP, as its heavyweights like Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda descend on selected dalit and tribal families, with cameramen in attendance. In Karnataka, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his ministers stay the night at a villager’s home to show they are closer to the grassroots. The Janata Dal (Secular), however, insists it was H.D. Kumaraswamy who popularised the practice of village stay during his first tenure as chief minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has focused on women voters by targeting his programmes of food and fuel subsidy to women in urban chawls and villages. Statistics show that in the last elections Modi got a higher percentage of votes from women.

The identification with rickshaw drivers, who provide affordable transport to the common man, began with Tamil Nadu actor-turned politician M.G. Ramachandran. He made a successful film Rickshawkaran, where he played a poor but self-assured cycle rickshaw driver who overcomes troubles to emerge victorious. When MGR went campaigning, the highlight would be the procession of thousands of cycle rickshaws. It earned an entire vote bank for MGR. Later, several actors in other languages drove autorickshaws to win them over as cities expanded.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde proudly recalls his early days as an autorickshaw driver in Thane, and how he got involved in politics by mobilising drivers for the Shiv Sena. Though he is criticised as the state’s wealthiest ex-autorickshaw driver, Shinde attributes his electoral success and the clout he wields in urban areas near Mumbai to his base among autorickshaw drivers and other low income groups.

Kejriwal, today, finds autorickshaw drivers useful for propaganda. Impressed with his penchant for families of autorickshaw drivers, many agree to display the AAP’s posters or slogans on their vehicles. As they crisscross thickly populated areas, the posters attract wide attention.

In Gujarat, the resistance to policemen, too, is being added to the legends around the Delhi chief minister, who, in his activist days, had climbed electricity poles amid protests against disconnected power supply. Now, it is for the autorickshaw drivers in Gujarat to endorse or reject him.

sachi@theweek.in

is-the-bjps-stance-on-corruption-contradictory-asks-sachidananda-murthy

Sat Sep 10 10:51:25 IST 2022

Many political parties have disciplinary action committees to deal with complaints against members, including office-bearers and ministers. Barring the CPI(M), which has an active control commission, the mechanism in other parties either moves at a snail’s pace or is at a standstill.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has been vocal about its government’s zero-tolerance policy against corruption. The government, which declared a war on black money when Narendra Modi first took oath in 2014, has pursued cases against opposition leaders, including chief ministers and ministers, through the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. Several investigations are based on corruption charges by the BJP, as its leaders have made documents and sting audiotapes on alleged corruption in West Bengal, Delhi and Maharashtra.

But the opposition has been crying that the government and the ruling party have been deliberately blind to the corruption scandals involving nominees of the Central government and ministers of BJP-ruled states. In the last few weeks, multiple charges have emerged against BJP ministers, functionaries and nominees. The latest is the ‘charge-sheet’ submitted by the Assam unit of the Congress against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has been a minister for long. He is accused of amassing wealth through family members. Opposition leaders have filed a complaint with the CBI director. Sarma, an aggressive politician who was earlier with the Congress, has vehemently denied the charges that were earlier also made by the Aam Aadmi Party. He has now threatened legal action.

In Delhi, the AAP has fired a salvo against BJP nominee V.K. Saxena, the new lieutenant governor, alleging that he had indulged in corruption during his six-year tenure as chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Commission. He has been accused of favouring his daughter for the redesign of the Khadi lounge. But Saxena, who has fired off a legal notice, has said that his daughter did the consultancy as she had the experience and did not charge even a rupee. He has said that the AAP has heaped charges on him because he ordered a CBI inquiry against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the liquor policy scam.

Recently, the Madhya Pradesh accountant general found huge irregularities in the state nutrition programme. It was found that registration numbers of scooters were given as those of trucks carrying foodgrains and other material, which later vanished.

In Karnataka, the contractors association has been repeatedly alleging that the BJP regime of Basavaraj Bommai is a “40 per cent commission government”. A contractor committed suicide, claiming he had paid a huge bribe to K.S. Eshwarappa, who was in charge of rural development. Eshwarappa was forced to resign, but the Karnataka police closed the case for lack of evidence. Eshwarappa has been demanding reinstatement as minister, but the high command has not given the green signal so far.

Interestingly, none of these complaints have been taken seriously by the party nor referred to its disciplinary action committee. The corruption charges have been denied by the functionaries or the state units, with the high command maintaining the charges as fabricated by the opposition. In fact, the issues before the committee are regarding objectionable remarks made publicly by leaders like Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel and Telangana MLA T. Raja Singh. But the complaint against Kateel has been pending before the committee for two years. Singh, meanwhile, was suspended from the party, pending further inquiry.

sachi@theweek.in

why-k-chandrashekar-raos-move-to-unseat-modi-is-not-working

Sat Sep 03 10:52:57 IST 2022

K. Chandrashekar Rao is an incorrigible optimist. The Telangana chief minister has made it a mission to forge a non-BJP, non-Congress national front for the last three years, though it has not had the desired outcome. Soon after the big flip-flop by Nitish Kumar, who dumped the BJP and tied up with the RJD and its minor allies in Bihar, Rao decided to meet Nitish to pursue his national agenda. He hopes that Nitish, a master in political gamesmanship, would agree to persuade other major regional parties to form an informal alliance to ‘Stop Modi in 2024’. Also, the assembly elections in Telangana could be held with the Lok Sabha elections, and the BJP is making an aggressive push in the state, which has been ruled by Rao since 2004.

Earlier, Rao had been hopping from one state to another to meet regional party leaders, including Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, M.K. Stalin of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and H.D. Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka. He has been in touch with Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Hemant Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Pinarayi Vijayan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala. Rao’s calculation is that these regional parties have a collective strength in nearly 300 Lok Sabha seats. He has, however, avoided the parties of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh—Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress and Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party—as both were opposed to carving out a separate Telangana. Any understanding with them would affect Rao’s support base, which has a visceral dislike for the duo. He has also not seriously pursued Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal, who keeps aloof from any political discussion with other parties.

There are other weaknesses that hamper Rao’s outreach for a national regional alternative. As he comes from a comparatively smaller state with just 17 Lok Sabha seats, he is not in a position to influence voter preference in both larger and smaller states where regional parties are an important factor. Thus, many leaders approached by Rao have been nice to him personally, but have been noncommittal in giving any undertaking of even a post-poll alignment, let alone adjustments before elections. For instance, Mamata Banerjee had not taken Rao seriously when he had approached her ahead of the 2019 assembly polls in West Bengal. He wanted her in the forefront for her considerable experience, both in regional and national politics, and better acceptability in the fight against BJP.

Rao’s second flaw is his insistence on keeping the Congress out of the calculation, because it is a political rival in Telangana. Thus, any approach to the Congress would help the BJP in projecting itself as the only alternative force in the state. Even the state Congress is not keen on a tie-up with Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

But some of the parties approached by Rao have the Congress as a junior partner. It is part of the alliance with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, a long-term ally of the DMK in Tamil Nadu and of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and, now Nitish, in Bihar and the JMM in Jharkhand. Rao’s desire to fight or at least ignore the Congress may not work with these parties, which benefit from whatever base the Congress has in the respective states. The CPI(M), too, has its own different perception of the Congress in states other than Kerala.

But Rao, who succeeded against all odds after decades of agitation to create Telangana, is an optimist, driven by his antipathy to Modi. But political reality makes his permutations and combinations feasible only if, in two years, people vote for a hung parliament, handing a drubbing to the BJP.

sachi@theweek.in

palanivel-thiaga-rajan-the-new-poster-boy-of-fiscal-federalism

Sat Aug 27 10:50:45 IST 2022

Palanivel Thiaga Rajan has struck a strong blow for rights of state governments on policies and budgets. But the language used by the Tamil Nadu finance minister against the prime minister is perhaps unwarranted, when Narendra Modi did not name the southern state while attacking the freebie culture. Neither Chief Minister M.K. Stalin nor father M. Karunanidhi would have referred to Modi as just the “Varanasi MP”. Thiaga Rajan questioned the economic track record of Modi, who handled finance as Gujarat chief minister. But he has rightly argued that free services and essential goods given to the state’s population is well within its domain, as long as it follows the Constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

The debate began with Modi being furious with Arvind Kejriwal offering free electricity to consumers in Gujarat if voted to power, as AAP governments have done in Delhi and Punjab. Modi’s attack on freebies has been taken up by BJP leaders in states where the party is in the opposition. But BJP chief ministers have been largely silent.

Finance ministers of non-BJP and non-Congress governments have long been assertive on fiscal federalism. When M.G. Ramachandran was attacked for introducing mid-day meal schemes in Tamil Nadu, his finance minister V.R. Neduncheziyan strongly argued that the state was promoting education through the scheme and asserted that the state would find funds. Over time, the scheme became pan-India. Similarly, when another actor-chief minister N.T. Rama Rao offered rice at 02 per kg, there was criticism. Now, Modi government says it gave free ration to over 80 crore people during the pandemic.

Apart from the Tamil Nadu contingent, which included an assertive chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, the vocal set of state finance ministers have been from West Bengal, both from the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress. Economist Ashok Mitra articulated the Jyoti Basu government’s demands for fiscal autonomy. His successor for a record 24 years, economist Asim Dasgupta was both a confrontationist and collaborator in Central-state financial relations. Dasgupta headed the empowered group of state finance ministers, which worked with NDA and UPA governments on value-added tax (VAT). He was also involved with the initial work on the Goods and Services Tax (GST). After the Trinamool came to power, another economist Amit Mitra carried the baton.

Unlike the GST, which was rolled out simultaneously in all states, VAT saw delayed implementation in two big states. Under strong chief ministers Jayalalithaa and Mulayam Singh Yadav, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh did not roll out VAT with other states in 2005.

Another state finance minister who batted hard for fiscal independence of states was Kerala’s Thomas Isaac. The Marxist found his option of raising funds limited under the eye of the Centre, the Reserve Bank and the provisions of the Finance Commission. He devised a government-run agency, entrusted with raising capital through loans for big infrastructure projects, taking them out of the budget ambit. These loans, nicknamed masala bonds, drew the ire of the Centre, which brought them under the state debt limitations. Additionally, Isaac, who opted out of government owing to CPI(M)’s rotation policy, was furious with the Enforcement Directorate for asking whether there was any money laundering for loans borrowed for the state’s infrastructure projects!

Many chief ministers keep the finance portfolio either because they have handled it before or to keep control on their colleagues. One such chief minister was Karnataka’s Ramakrishna Hegde, who organised conclaves of non-Congress chief ministers to demand an end to the Centre’s fiscal domination.

Now, Thiaga Rajan is carrying the baton aggressively.

sachi@theweek.in

behind-modis-criticism-of-dynasts-is-an-electoral-factor

Sat Aug 20 10:58:53 IST 2022

Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech has been viewed through many prisms. His emphasis on India reaching a decisive phase in the fight against corruption is seen as a message to all political rivals—that the central investigative agencies would intensify investigations against those suspected of amassing wealth illegally.

The agencies have already questioned the Congress’s top leadership. There are indications that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee may be questioned about the allegations against former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee. But there is silence in BJP circles over the inaction of investigating agencies regarding corruption allegations against some BJP leaders, especially in Karnataka, where the contractors have alleged that they had to pay 40 per cent commission to politicians for every project.

The second prong of the prime minister’s attack was on dynastic politics—a familiar theme in the BJP’s campaign against the Congress and some regional parties. The subject has become all the more relevant after the political coup in Bihar, where the BJP lost power as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar jumped the fence to join the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, both of which are controlled by dynasts.

Critics were quick to point out that the BJP had chief ministers, Union ministers and office bearers who were dynasts. Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh described the BJP as a washing machine that laundered the dynastic history of Congress turncoats. Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jyotiraditya Scindia come from political families. There are also BJP families where more than one member occupy key positions. Former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who is an MLA now, has said that his younger son B.Y. Vijayendra would be his political heir. Vijayendra is vice president of the party’s state unit; another of Yediyurappa’s sons, B.Y. Raghavendra, is a Lok Sabha member.

But Modi’s defence is that he has inherited legacy issues within the party, one of which is the practice of dynasts actively working for the party. His supporters point out that he did not allow family members of prominent leaders like L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar to replace them in Parliament.

But the pointed focus of his attack is on dynasts who completely control a political party, especially those sons and daughters who control even the second and third positions in a party. The Congress is tightly controlled by Sonia Gandhi and her two children; Lalu Prasad and his wife and children occupy the first to fifth rungs in the RJD; K. Chandrashekar Rao and his son, daughter and nephew control the Telangana Rashtra Samithi; H.D. Deve Gowda and his sons, daughters-in-law and grandsons control the Janata Dal (Secular) from head to toe.

Exceptions are the communist parties, the Janata Dal (United), the Aam Aadmi Party, the AIADMK, and the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, where Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, whose father was also chief minister, has no relatives in control of the party. Women leaders such as Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati have nephews in key roles in the Trinamool Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party, respectively.

Come 2024 elections, and the BJP would have to face dynastic parties, including estranged allies such as the Shiromani Akali Dal run by the Badal family, in about 400 Lok Sabha seats. If the BJP were to lose seats in the Hindi heartland, as well as in Maharashtra and Karnataka, it would need seats in eastern and southern states, where regional parties are dominant.

Modi’s speech from the Red Fort not just framed this national issue, but also acted as a bugle call for BJP leaders and campaigners.

sachi@theweek.in

nothing-simple-about-party-symbol

Sat Aug 13 11:26:07 IST 2022

Power in Maharashtra was easily snatched by the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena from Uddhav Thackeray, but the arrow has been elusive. The Supreme Court’s observation that the manner of the split in June has raised new questions means the Sena’s election symbol remains with Thackeray. The outgoing chief justice-led bench also noted that the dispute for the symbol may go to a larger group of judges and it could take months, if not years, to decide who would ultimately possess the arrow. While a majority of state MLAs and Lok Sabha members support Shinde, thanks to big brother BJP, most of the organisation is still with Thackeray. Also, the court has to decide whether only a parliamentary revolt amounts to a split or should it be organically within the party. However, the speakers of Lok Sabha and state assemblies only look at the parliamentary numbers as per the anti-defection law.

Former vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu had recognised a split in the Telugu Desam Party only by its Rajya Sabha strength. Similarly, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla recognised a split in the Lok Janshakti Party based on the majority being with Pashupati Paras. Both decisions helped to bolster NDA numbers in Parliament. Both rebel groups did not vie for the symbol of the original party.

But under electoral laws, it is the Election Commission’s responsibility to recognise political parties, allot or cancel symbols and decide on claims of splits and mergers. This has been happening since the first general elections in 1952. The commission’s record rooms are bulging with case files of major splits—the Communist Party (1964); the Socialist Party (1965); the Congress (1969 and 1978); the DMK (1972)—as well as a merger of four parties to form the Janata Party (1977).

The smallest party that has become multiple smaller parties is the Republican Party of India, founded by B.R. Ambedkar. There are half a dozen RPIs, including one headed by Union Minister Ramdas Athavale and another headed by Prakash Ambedkar. The state-level byproducts of the once mighty Janata Party include the Biju Janata Dal (Odisha), the JD(United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (Bihar), the Samajwadi Party (Uttar Pradesh), the JD(Secular) (Karnataka) as well as the Jannayak Janata Party and the Indian National Lok Dal (Haryana).

When the AIADMK was riven with fissures after supremo J. Jayalalithaa’s death, the factions had approached the commission for the two leaves symbol, which was first frozen before the dispute. Now again the party has had a division, though bulk of the organisation and MLAs are with former chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami. But the lone Lok Sabha member, who happens to be the son of rebel O. Panneerselvam, has stayed with his father.

Since 1980, the Congress has not had a major split at the national level where there was dispute over its hand symbol. But there were rebellions against Rajiv Gandhi, led by V.P. Singh; against P.V. Narasimha Rao by Arjun Singh-N.D. Tiwari and Madhavrao Scindia groups and finally against Sonia Gandhi by the Sharad Pawar group. All the rebels formed their own political outfits, but V.P. Singh merged his Jan Morcha into the Janata Dal; the Tiwari Congress and Scindia’s Madhya Pradesh Vikas Party returned to the Congress. Only Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party is going strong in Maharashtra, though in alliance with Sonia Gandhi.

The BJP was formed in 1980 after de-merging from the Janata Party. It has not had a national level revolt, though regional chieftains—Kalyan Singh (Uttar Pradesh), B.S. Yediyurappa (Karnataka) and Babulal Marandi (Jharkhand)—formed their own parties, did electoral damage to the BJP and were then welcomed back.

The apex court’s verdict in the Sena symbol dispute would be of immense interest to all political parties.

sachi@theweek.in

why-war-of-placards-in-parliament-may-not-end-soon

Fri Aug 05 15:56:44 IST 2022

Don’t bring placards into Parliament complex.” Parliament officials called it a routine circular, but the Congress saw it as a challenge. Young MPs, especially from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, told the leadership that it is the right of MPs to bring placards displaying their demands on burning issues, as they were sure the BJP’s larger shouting power would deny their right to speak.

But the reaction of the Speaker, Om Birla, was equally swift. He warned members not to bring placards, as it violated the discipline of the Lok Sabha. But the Congress MPs insisted on their right, and the government moved a resolution suspending four vocal MPs for rest of the monsoon session.

There was similar crackdown in the Rajya Sabha by the Chairman, Venkaiah Naidu, and the government, so more members were suspended. It plunged Parliament into chaos ahead of the 75th anniversary celebrations of India’s independence.

Though the Speaker revoked the suspension a week later, he told the members he would not tolerate if they brought placards. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi went a step further, asking for an apology and commitment from the Congress leadership that the members would be disciplined. The Congress would not budge.

Placards matter a lot to the opposition for several reasons. As the BJP has overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha, it is an uneven match in terms of numbers and lung power. The BJP shouts down any demand to raise issues. The Speaker would not allow zero hour to be a free hour, unlike during the time of minority and coalition governments.

Opposition MPs also realise that live telecast of parliamentary proceedings, as well as YouTube and social media uploads, gives them tremendous exposure. When speech is drowned in noise, a well-written placard grabs camera attention. MPs across party lines are known to get their speeches or actions narrated in subtitles in their own languages.

They argue that the rules were made at a time when telecasting and social media did not exist and only speeches were reported in print media.

But every strong ruling party uses rules to its advantage, while in the opposition it argues the reverse. It is true for the BJP also. Congress members cite how BJP members, when in opposition, brought placards in Parliament and state assemblies.

In almost all parliaments, members bring placards, especially relating to their constituency or special interest demands. The US Congress even allows members to use a stand where large cards, highlighting the case being argued by the member, are displayed by rotation, so that the member can use the telecast selections for his/her constituents. There are also instances, in the South Korean parliament, of both sides bringing contrarian placards and having a placard fight.

The general understanding in Indian Parliament earlier was that while placards were not unwelcome, members should not bring placards attached to steel or wood frames and sticks. These could be used as weapons when tempers run high. It was more welcome to bring slogans written on paper, which if needed can be snatched and torn, like a House of Cards.

No list of banned substances can be complete. Long ago, a member claimed he could bring a revolver to show how lax the security in the complex was. In 2008, BJP members brought bundles of currency and placed them on the table of the Lok Sabha alleging that the Congress was trying to buy some members so that the Manmohan Singh government could win the confidence vote, after Left parties withdrew their support. On television, the cash in the house was more impressive than the speeches.

Members alleging police assaults on them have brought blood-soaked clothes to visually demonstrate their suffering. Members also make statements with the clothes they wear, and sometimes wave scarves of particular colour and signage. Members also use shouting of slogans to make a point in a collective voice. BJP members since 1992 have been saying Jai Shree Ram in Parliament, while communists would often shout Inquilab Zindabad or AIADMK members would raise slogans in Tamil praising their leader J. Jayalalithaa.

The war of placards may not end soon, as the Congress thinks the placards are more provocative, while the BJP is determined not to allow placarding to be a new parliamentary convention.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-the-right-way-to-play-the-diversity-card

Sat Jul 30 11:38:08 IST 2022

The BJP is claiming the high ground for bringing diversity in national politics through the presidential nomination of Droupadi Murmu. Party leaders are celebrating how Narendra Modi put the focus on the 8 per cent tribal population of the country by selecting the first tribal president. Some followers also say that among the last five presidents, the three nominated by the National Democratic Alliance were a Muslim (A.P.J. Abdul Kalam), a dalit (Ram Nath Kovind) and a tribal (Murmu). The indication is that among the two nominees of the Congress between Kalam and Kovind, only Pratibha Patil fit the diversity nomenclature, being the first woman to be in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, while Pranab Mukherjee was from the upper class.

But Congress supporters argue that if the longer history of the presidency is considered, it is the Congress that chose two Muslims (Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed), a Sikh (Giani Zail Singh), a dalit (K.R. Narayanan) and a woman (Patil) as president much before the BJP jumped on the diversity bandwagon. Also, a Sikh (Manmohan Singh) was made prime minister for two terms by the Congress, they say.

However, there is frustration among dalit and tribal leaders in the Congress, who say the party seems to have deliberate amnesia about its leaders from the backward sections who were given high positions. They argue that the longest-serving tribal chief minister outside the northeast was from the Congress—Vasantrao Naik, who was chief minister of Maharashtra for 11 years (late 1963 to early 1975). He belonged to the Banjara community, a nomadic tribe that is spread across seven states. While the community has OBC (other backward classes) status in Maharashtra, it is a scheduled tribe in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Naik’s home province—Vidarbha—was part of the Madhya Pradesh state, and was later added to Bombay state that became Maharashtra. He was a legislator and minister in the three states. In 1963, Maharashtra strongman Y.B. Chavan, who had moved to the Centre after the India-China war, had backed Naik for the top post against powerful upper-caste contenders. Naik showed his mettle as an administrator and troubleshooter, and was credited with the success of industrialisation and green revolution in the state. But Naik and his tenure is not remembered much by the Congress high command, as the leftists who dominated Indira Gandhi’s second term argued that he let the Shiv Sena grow to curb communist-dominated trade unions in Mumbai.

Similarly, there is a feeling that the party has not done much to celebrate the long tenure of Jagjivan Ram as cabinet minister and Congress president, despite the dalit leader having the reputation of being one of the best defence and agriculture ministers of India. The BJP accuses the Congress of ignoring its stalwarts because of its Gandhi family obsession.

A crucial difference between the Congress and the BJP is that the ruling party’s leaders, including rejected contenders, publicly accept any decision made by Modi and his core team. There have been exceptions though, like in Tripura, Uttarakhand and Karnataka.

The situation in the Congress is different. Even while declaring that the decision of the Gandhis is final, voices of dissent are loud. This was evident in Punjab last year when the party forced Amarinder Singh out as chief minister and went through a tortuous process to replace him with Charanjit Singh Channi. As a dalit Sikh, Channi was the best example of diversity, but the decision was not even accepted by state party president Navjot Singh Sidhu and his predecessor Sunil Jakhar. That showed Channi could never deliver, and the party plunged to a big defeat.

The Congress may have to learn a lesson or two from the BJP on how to milk the maximum from the diversity agenda.

sachi@theweek.in

how-apples-might-upset-bjps-applecart-in-j-k-and-himachal

Sat Jul 23 11:10:56 IST 2022

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was noted for his patience as he dealt with angry farmers during long rounds of negotiations over the three controversial farm laws last year. Ultimately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the eve of assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, announced that he was withdrawing the laws.

Months later, Tomar now has to deal with a lot of tears as there is distress in the Himalayan paradise known for giving the country its luscious apples. Growers in orchards of the Kashmir valley, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are sending their representatives to Tomar, pleading for urgent steps to help the apple crop that will hit the markets from August.

Though India produces just 2 per cent of the world’s apples, the domestic varieties are known for their taste and nutritional value. Yet, imported apples are flooding markets across the country, and have caused price crashes in the past three years. Unlike the mango, which is not threatened much by foreign varieties, the Indian apple, which once dominated the market in all states, now faces competition from apples from China, the US, Europe and Iran.

The annual apple production is estimated at around 24 lakh tonnes, of which Jammu and Kashmir contributes 17 lakh, Himachal six lakh, Uttarakhand and some northeastern states a total of one lakh. The only non-hilly state that produces apples, a small quantity, is Telangana.

If those with bumper crops in Himachal were affected by the low prices, growers in Kashmir were hit more by premature snow, rain and heavy wind, which damaged the fruit-laden trees in the past three years. After the withdrawal of Article 370 and conversion of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union territory, the agriculture ministry had announced a scheme to procure the bulk of the apples produced in the valley. However, it did not make much headway.

Farmers had to depend on networks of wholesalers and agents to dispose of the bulk of their production and prices were depressed. The wholesalers blamed the lack of demand during the pandemic restrictions for the low off-take, and now argue that the demand would be robust this year as markets have opened across the country, and there has been good sale of summer fruits. However, the recent hike in GST rates for wooden packing material—the standard size is 20kg of apple per box—has added to the rising input costs.

Though NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India), which reports to Tomar, had come up with a scheme offering fixed prices for three grades of apples in the hill states, its expectation that the three state governments should cover half the procurement expense has made the scheme come a cropper. The states enthusiastically say yes, but they have budgetary constraints.

Also, NAFED does not have its own extensive distribution chain, which means the movement of the procured apples from the orchard to the table is not as seamless as the private networks. There is also less demand in the country for processed apple products compared with other fruits.

Himachal will go to the polls this year, and Jammu and Kashmir might, too. The orchardists have threatened to make the apple an electoral issue. Tomar may come up with solutions, especially as the BJP faces a strong opposition in Himachal’s apple belt, while it hopes to open its score in the rural Kashmir valley.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-why-naidu-was-not-at-the-national-emblem-inauguration

Sun Jul 17 18:26:43 IST 2022

The inauguration of the 6.5m-tall bronze national emblem atop the new Parliament house by the prime minister was a big event in the project to redefine the mega buildings of the capital area. There have been questions on whether the installation, in which the lions have their mouths open, is a replica of the emblem or a variation.

But, Rajya Sabha members were surprised that only the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla was by Narendra Modi’s side, apart from Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, whose ministry is executing the new complex and other mega government buildings on the Central Vista. Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu was conspicuous by his absence.

Parliament officials had two explanations. Even when the foundation stone was laid by the prime minister, the vice president was not there, as the construction and maintenance of buildings in the Parliament complex are under the control of the speaker. However, the Rajya Sabha chairman has control over the upper house chamber, lobbies, corridors and rooms allotted for offices and parties in the Rajya Sabha. Though there are two secretariats, they coordinate on the use of common areas like the central hall, conference rooms and committee offices in the old Parliament house, and houses for members.

But, the formal control is with the speaker. (When the Rajya Sabha launched its own television channel a decade ago, it did not get space in the Parliament complex, but had to rent space in government buildings.) Thus, the speaker was present at the inauguration of the national emblem as the functional head of Parliament.

Secondly, the officials point out that under the order of precedence for ceremonial occasions, Naidu occupies the position between President Ram Nath Kovind and Modi. Hence, the presence of Naidu would have meant he would be the chief guest. But, both the speaker and the administrative department wanted the prime minister to launch the emblem as he was the initiator of the new Parliament house project. So, it was decided that only Birla and Puri would be present with Modi atop the complex, along with priests.

But, the order of precedence changes for specific occasions, like when the president arrives to open the joint sitting of Parliament—at the beginning of the new Lok Sabha term and during the budget session every year. He is escorted by the vice president and the speaker to the high podium, where the seat of the president is taller than that of the presiding officers. The prime minister, who is part of the procession, sits in the front row of the central hall.

When a new president is sworn in, the procession includes the outgoing president, the incoming president, the vice president, the Lok Sabha speaker and the chief justice of India who administers the oath of office. The Rajya Sabha chairman and the speaker are both included because the president is one of the three components of Parliament along with the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. In 1997, the vice president’s post was vacant because of the death of Krishan Kant. Therefore, the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptulla, sat on the dais at the swearing-in ceremony of K.R. Narayanan, while prime minister I.K. Gujral was in the front row.

However, when other functions are held in Parliament house, the prime minister shares the dais with the president and vice president. In state functions, like swearing-in of prime ministers and ministers, or presentation of national honours, the president is seated alone, while the vice president, the prime minister and other dignitaries are in the front row. When it came to the launch of the GST at a midnight function in the central hall, president Pranab Mukherjee waived protocol to state that the revolutionary tax scheme would be jointly inaugurated by himself and Modi.

sachi@theweek.in

beware-of-the-subsidy-honeytrap

Fri Jul 08 10:54:33 IST 2022

In February, the Union government almost decided not to continue with the prime minister’s free ration scheme. It was introduced in March 2020 to help the poor, including migrants, affected by loss of livelihood due to Covid-19 and economic meltdown. The finance ministry said Covid-19 was under control and India’s economy was bouncing back. Two years of support had ensured there was no privation in villages and cities. But, there was a dramatic public appeal by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was about to face re-election. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to continue the scheme as the after-effects of the crisis were still being felt in the state. Modi agreed with Yogi and the government allotted 080,000 crore to extend the scheme till September. The BJP romped to victory in UP and Uttarakhand, where the scheme had high demand from beneficiaries.

Now, the department of expenditure has again told the ministry of food that the scheme should not get another extension as the food subsidy bill is mounting. However, assembly elections are due in BJP-ruled states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where the Aam Aadmi Party is promising subsidies. Arvind Kejriwal’s government in Delhi has followed the Union government in extending the free ration of five kilograms of foodgrain till September. But the consumption patterns studied by the ministries of food and finance show that the off-take of free grains is not heavy in Gujarat as it is in the Hindi belt. The food ministry is working on finding a golden solution where the scheme would be continued either in specific regions of the country or with a moderation in the quantum, so that there will not be heavy burden on the fiscal balance. The war on subsidies is not confined to foodgrains alone.

In Gujarat, the AAP is making a serious pitch to reintroduce a free electricity scheme, which was discontinued by Modi when he ruled the state. Modi, back then, succeeded in persuading the farmers that what they needed was assured supply of power, and not the promise of free power, which was supplied erratically. Modi had revamped the power distribution, separating the power feeders for domestic and agricultural consumption. While domestic power was available round-the-clock, the supply for agriculture pumpsets flowed only in the night, so that farmers had enough water during the day. The scheme bucked the trend of most states offering free power supply to farmers, leading to a lot of diversion and misuse, resulting in very poor supplies in most states. Kejriwal says he would give free power to 80 per cent of Gujarat’s population, matching with the scheme running in Delhi, and now introduced in the new AAP stronghold of Punjab. He taunted the “big leader” from Gujarat and said if farmers get power only in the night, even ministers and bureaucrats must get electricity only in the night; he conveniently ignored that the night restriction is only for pumpsets and not for homes of farmers.

The demand for subsidies has also begun in Karnataka as opposition leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah is accusing the Basavaraj Bommai government of trimming the subsidies introduced by Siddaramaiah during 2013-18, and has promised to give more milk and eggs, apart from foodgrains. Bommai struck back and said his government was generating more jobs and giving higher welfare doles. The competition over government freebies is only intensifying, and will reach a fever pitch by the time of the Lok Sabha elections in May 2024.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-how-india-is-prepping-to-host-g20-leadership-summit-2023

Sat Jul 02 16:49:46 IST 2022

Before he leaves for foreign capitals, diplomat Harsh Shringla, who is coordinator for hosting the G20 leadership summit and the ministerial-level meetings of 19 major economies and the European Union next year, is now on a Bharat yatra. He has been entrusted with the mission to implement Narendra Modi’s vision to make 2023 a very special year by hosting the biggest congregation of world leaders in the country in this century. A bigger summit of non-aligned movement (NAM) leaders was hosted by Indira Gandhi in 1983, where 97 countries and two pro-independence organisations participated. There are only four countries common to the two summits—India, Argentina, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

But G20 is a different grouping than NAM, which was against aligning with the capitalist and communist blocs of that time. G20, which includes the highly industrialised countries and emerging economies, has been the most powerful bloc as it controls 80 per cent of global trade and 90 per cent of global GDP. Since the global economic crisis of 2008, India has been an active participant in the 16 leadership summits held so far, represented by only two prime ministers—Manmohan Singh for six years and Modi for eight years.

India will take over the leadership of G20 at its summit in Bali this year. Ignoring the recent trend of not holding the summit in a capital city, Modi has opted for New Delhi as the venue for the leadership summit. New Delhi is undergoing massive construction, with old edifices in the Pragati Maidan complex giving way to a mega modern conference venue. New Parliament and secretariat buildings are being readied, and the Central Vista from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate is being transformed.

Modi, however, does not want everything concentrated in New Delhi. Therefore, the ministerial-level meetings, which precede the main summit in the winter of 2023, are to be held in as many states as possible. Indonesia, the current year’s host, is having three ministerial-level summits—finance, foreign affairs and employment—and 10 engagement group meetings. During the last 14 years, ministerial summits on trade, agriculture and tourism have been held occasionally. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is India’s sherpa for building the main summit agenda. But India now wants more ministerial summits to be held during its presidency, so that senior ministers of every G20 country would be involved. In addition are 10 engagement groups of government and private experts, meeting at different venues, which will give wide inputs to the leadership summit in New Delhi. That is the reason for Shringla’s national tour. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stunned Shringla when he said that Karnataka was ready to host 10 meetings! But Shringla has more pitstops before the schedule is decided at a high-level meeting presided by Modi.

Vladimir Putin will be in focus at the summit, with the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and western European countries putting pressure on Indonesia not to invite him to Bali as punishment for invading Ukraine. But India, China, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey do not believe in exclusion of a major economy even by majority. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said he will invite Putin, thus putting pressure back on the anti-Russian lobby on whether it should boycott only Putin or the summit. It is not the first time that Russia finds itself in the crosshairs. In 2014, Australia, as host of the Brisbane summit, wanted to keep Russia out, but BRICS countries issued a statement that no member could take a unilateral decision on another member.

Whatever be the political controversies, India wants to put its best performance as a global host in 2023.

sachi@theweek.in

how-governments-union-and-states-are-handling-the-travelling

Fri Jun 24 11:08:46 IST 2022

The Union government may want to trim its travel budget due to ballooning deficit caused by inflation and increased expenses. As lakhs of government employees travel for work across the country, they have been advised to plan their travel in advance to avail cheaper air-tickets. Department heads have been told to end the practice of giving tour approvals at the last moment, and to prioritise travel programmes of their team members. The finance ministry found that travel expenses surged for physical meetings and inspections across ministries during the post-pandemic period.

If the government is being cautious on the travel spree of its employees, there is a sudden spurt of vacation travel during the summer months across the country. Roads leading to popular tourist destinations are getting jammed with luggage-laden cars and buses. Srinagar and Leh are witnessing huge demand for air tickets, forcing airline companies to add more schedules, and stretching the limited infrastructure at the two airports—in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Despite the rise in civilian killings in J&K, tour operators are aggressively selling Kashmir. Union Tourism Minister G. Kishan Reddy is thrilled that domestic tourism has been on the upswing, including visits to religious shrines, many of which had either closed down or limited the number of worshippers.

But, then, Reddy is concerned that international tourist arrivals have not been at pre-2020 levels due to hesitancy among tourists from many countries. Similarly, Indians who are keen to travel abroad are in a spot—processing of visas in majority of embassies in India are taking time due to higher demand. The Schengen visa, which gives access to most of the European countries, is particularly delayed due to the backlog. The embassies of Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, which issue the maximum number of these multi-country valid visas, are loaded with transferred work of their embassies in South Asian countries. They are also catering to travel documents of refugees from Afghanistan and other distressed countries. Thousands of Indians working in the US are weary of travelling to India due to the long waiting period at the embassy and consulate for stamping of visas. The US, the UK, Canada and Australia are prioritising visa requirements of Indian students who want to go to these countries for higher studies. Such prioritisation would mean that regular visas for tourism and family visits do not get the priority.

Now, the external affairs ministry has undertaken an exercise to interact with governments of countries popular with Indians. Recently, Thailand announced that it was opening its borders fully for Indian citizens; Singapore is also in a relaxing mode. These two countries receive a huge number of Indian tourists every year. The ministry has also asked its embassies to speed up the process of issuing visas to foreign tourists who want to visit India. There is consensus among health, home and civil aviation ministries for relaxation of pre-flight safety measures for travellers coming from abroad, including Covid tests and filling details on Air Suvidha portal as the pandemic situation is under control. With more and more airports seeing new air services, it has made state governments push hard for tourism during the monsoon season, which normally sees a slump in domestic travel due to the reopening of schools as well as state of waterlogged cities.

sachi@theweek.in

when-democracy-is-under-trial

Sat Jun 18 11:00:23 IST 2022

There was a flutter in political circles when courts in Maharashtra denied a day’s bail to jailed ministers Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections on June 10. In a tight race between the ruling alliance and the opposition BJP for the last seat, the BJP candidate won, defeating the Shiv Sena nominee, thanks to the support of independent MLAs. The courts relied on electoral laws, which say that prisoners do not have the right to vote. However, every prisoner, except those who are convicted for a term of two years or more for specific offences, can contest elections.

The courts, meanwhile, are more careful dealing with applications of imprisoned MPs and MLAs when it comes to their right to vote in Parliament or state assemblies. Article 105 of the Constitution gives MPs the absolute freedom to speak and vote in Parliament and its committees, while MLAs are extended this privilege under Article 194. But since jailed members cannot be released for daily sessions, which would make a mockery of the order of judicial custody, the courts follow a golden rule. A day’s bail is granted in exceptional circumstances if a member has to vote in a confidence motion where the survival of the government is at stake. In 2008, when prime minister Manmohan Singh faced a vote of no-confidence, six MPs, including two sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, were released for two days.

Such a crisis can also force political parties to bring to the house even those MPs who are on the sickbed as it happened during the vote faced by Singh. The BJP told speaker Somnath Chatterjee that it wanted to bring former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to vote. Chatterjee said Vajpayee could vote in the Parliament lobby where a full medical team had assembled. Finally, the BJP chose not to disturb Vajpayee as it realised that Singh had mustered enough numbers.

But a ticklish question arises when a large number of opposition MPs and MLAs are arrested by vindictive Central and state governments, accusing them of committing non-bailable offences. The opposition has been complaining that Central agencies are working overtime to put hostile lawmakers in jail. Such arrests could distort results of key elections. The Constitution says MPs and MLAs will vote to elect the president, while MPs alone choose the vice president. Similarly, it is the right of the MLAs to choose Rajya Sabha members from their states. In states with bicameral legislatures, MLAs also elect one-third of the members of the legislative council.

What if Central agencies and state governments conspire to send a number of elected representatives to jail before the presidential elections in July? The courts, faced with strong arguments from the prosecution, may wash their hands of the matter, saying that voting in a presidential election is not a fundamental right for the MPs and MLAs. Their hope then lies with the Election Commission which is expected to conduct free and fair elections.

Though the EC cannot permit voting by those in jail, it has the right to cancel or postpone elections. It has earlier cancelled elections in an entire state or in a particular constituency because its ground reports said voters would not be able to exercise their choice freely. But it is for the EC alone to determine what is the tipping point to make such an important decision.

sachi@theweek.in

modi-and-shah-are-on-a-mission-to-enfeeble-the-congress-writes-sachidananda-murthy

Fri Jun 10 10:53:33 IST 2022

These days, some junior functionaries of the media department at the BJP’s national headquarters in Delhi ask a question before the day’s work ends: “Which state will it be tomorrow?”. It is not about party affairs in a particular state, but about where the next big defector to the BJP is coming from. The answer is known when party president J.P. Nadda or one of the general secretaries lets out the name of the newcomer just before the official announcement at a media briefing. The team, however, knows early if the briefing is scheduled in a state office, as the new entrant would be from that region. These days, though, the answer is more often than not Gujarat.

Ahead of state elections later in the year, the party is in war mode in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Both leaders have been frequenting the state to ensure that the party is in shipshape to fight the elections. They are inaugurating a slew of programmes aimed at specific sections of the electorate and closing gaps in the social coalition of the party, even as the new chief minister, Bhupendra Patel, is working on a clear script with his team of first-time ministers.

Apart from projecting development and expanding the BJP’s social base, Modi and Shah are on a mission to enfeeble the Congress, which has been the principal opposition in the state during the BJP’s uninterrupted rule of more than 25 years. The duo had planned and won elections as chief minister and senior state leader before moving to Delhi in 2014. But in 2017, the party, under Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, got a big jolt when the Congress threatened to end the reign—the BJP won 99 of 182 seats, barely winning a majority.

Compared with Modi’s triumphs in 2002, 2007 and 2012, this was poor. The prime minister was shocked to see that, just three years after he left the state, the party machinery had become wobbly under two chief ministers—Anandiben Patel and Rupani. The latter was retained as chief minister, and Gujarat became a priority.

That the party won all 26 seats in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was not consolation enough. The BJP high command worked with a single zeal to weaken the Congress; several of the latter’s MLAs were persuaded to resign and win byelections on the lotus symbol. The BJP also worked on persuading big community leaders like Hardik Patel at the state level and others at the district level.

Another setback for the Congress, though temporary, is the decision of veteran leader Bharatsinh Solanki to take a short break from active politics because of a family crisis. He has, however, promised to be back to mobilise votes for the party during the elections. The trickle of Congress defectors has become a stream in the past few weeks, and could become a torrent if Operation Lotus finds more success.

As politics abhors a vacuum, there are speculations that other forces may fill the space a weakened Congress might vacate. After some success in municipal elections, the Aam Aadmi Party is already fluttering its wings in Gujarat. There is also talk of the emergence of strong independents in some districts.

sachi@theweek.in

gyanvapi-sachidananda-murthy-writes-on-the-prospect-of-religious-bench-in-courts

Fri Jun 03 11:29:59 IST 2022

The clogged lower courts in India are going to be even more choked as activists are planning to file petitions seeking to enforce their right to worship in disputed shrines in many parts of the country. The suit filed in a local court in Varanasi for conducting a survey in the Gyanvapi mosque, alleged to have been built after razing a temple, has already attracted a trail of petitions. This case, which travelled like a rocket to the Supreme Court, was sent back to the Varanasi district court.

Now, there is a similar petition in a Delhi court that seeks to restore Hindu and Jain temples inside the Qutub Minar complex, built by Qutb-ud-din-Aibak.

The Archaeological Survey of India, which manages the complex that includes an iron pillar, a mosque and other halls, has said that the monument has been protected since 1914, and that nobody had the right to worship at the complex. But the petitioners have been demanding a survey by court commissioners, as was done in Gyanvapi.

In several states, district courts are getting suits seeking to enforce the right of worship by litigants who claim either to be “friend of the deity”, or wanting to fulfil their right to worship in a shrine of their choice. Such suits are multiplying, showing a mirror to the contested history of the last ten centuries, despite the existence of law that prescribes status quo as in 1947 for all places of worship except Ayodhya.

Since the Allahabad High Court—and later the constitution bench of the Supreme Court—upheld that the deity in a temple has an interest in the ownership and title of the temple, the gates have been opened for petitioners seeking justice on behalf of deities whose temples were forcibly converted into mosques. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is also organising lawyers’ collectives to guide these petitions in many districts of the country, as they have local jurisdiction and context.

But, in one way, these are public interest petitions also, which can be filed only before the Supreme Court and high courts under Article 32 of the Constitution—as the “right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”.

In Article 25, this right can be enforced. But those who are aiming for using the judicial route to prove that a particular mosque was once a temple are more comfortable testing the waters in local courts. They are filing the suits that can enforce individual rights, while the Supreme Court has said a public interest litigation should have a bona fide interest cause, vindicate the cause of justice, and that the petitioner should not be a “mere busybody or interloper”. The locus standi of the devotee would be easier to establish in a lower court than the loftily defined qualifications when the petition is filed in the constitutional courts.

But as local petitions are heavily contested by mosque committees, and also those who pray in these mosques, most of the cases would travel up the judicial ladder to the high courts and Supreme Court. Perhaps the number of appeals may be such that the chief justices may have to constitute a separate “religious” bench, similar to the green bench (for environmental matters), taxation bench (for taxation disputes) or the social bench (for enforcement of social rights).

sachi@theweek.in

cag-has-become-quiet-in-the-last-decade-who-is-responsible-asks-sachidananda-murthy

Fri May 27 11:03:00 IST 2022

If things go as per the plans of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the coming monsoon session of the two houses could be the last to be held in the old circular building. Construction teams and interior decorators are working hard to ready the new Parliament House in the adjoining plot in time for the winter session in November. Yet, there are no indications so far of any explosive report from the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) which would rock the old building, which has reverberated with tension over CAG reports on Bofors, 2G telecom spectrum allocation and other smoky deals of the then governments. Even the number of reports submitted to Parliament is less compared with a decade ago, because of a new cluster system adopted by the financial supervisory body with autonomous powers under the Constitution.

The CAG, either by accident or design, has stopped creating any sensation since the days of Vinod Rai (who was in office from 2008 to 2013). His reports on the anticipated loss of 01.76 lakh crore had rocked the Manmohan Singh government, leading to an uproar in Parliament. There were corruption cases against communications minister A. Raja, senior officials and middlemen, but the cases were unproven and Raja was acquitted. There were other reports of the CAG in the first decade of the 21st century which had made the governments at the centre and states tremble.

But all has been quiet in the past decade on the CAG front. If Rai’s reports were sizzlers, the reports from his low-profile successors—Shashi Kant Sharma, Rajiv Mehrishi and now G.C. Murmu—have not created much enthusiasm. Even the report on the twists and turns in the negotiation for the purchase of Rafale aircraft from France was a flat one, though the copies of the files received from the defence and finance ministries occupy a big room at the CAG headquarters.

While Rai headed the department of financial services before becoming CAG, Sharma was defence secretary during the UPA era and Mehrishi was finance secretary and later home secretary under the Narendra Modi government. Murmu had worked with Modi in Gujarat and later in the Union finance ministry, apart from being the first lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Both the Congress and BJP governments have preferred to appoint IAS officers as CAGs, instead of professionals from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service.

The public accounts committee (PAC) of Parliament, which had followed up on controversial audit reports earlier, has also now become subdued. By convention, the all-party committee is headed by a frontbencher of the main opposition party. But the dominant numbers of the BJP in Lok Sabha have meant that the BJP committee members can veto the chairman, unlike in the coalition era. The first Congress nominee since 2014 was former Union food minister K.V. Thomas, who was recently expelled from the Congress. Thomas had an uneasy relationship with the high command, especially over his passive role as PAC chairman.

Though the more combative Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury later became PAC heads, they, too, have not been able to deliver any hot reports for two reasons—they are not getting controversial stuff from CAG and even when they have some material, the aggressive BJP members have their say.

But the Modi government insists that there is no masala in audit reports because the government follows procedures and eschews corruption. The opposition, however, says it is because the government has aggressively interfered with high constitutional offices and prevented X-raying of bad deals. Either way, there seems to be less excitement at the desk of the government’s top auditors.

sachi@theweek.in

its-padayatra-time-for-parties-and-patras-says-sachidananda-murthy

Fri May 20 11:17:16 IST 2022

The pandemic scare has died down, and political parties are now planning for yatras in a big way.

There were political rallies and long walks during the pandemic phase, too, but the Election Commission had put a lid on the holding of mega rallies during elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states this year. There were also complaints in many states against politicians violating the crowd norms fixed under the Disaster Management Act for preventing the spread of Covid-19.

But now, with the crowd limit being lifted in all states, planners are busy convincing their bosses to hit the road.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is hopping from one election-bound state to another to secure the first-mover advantage for the BJP. He has just completed a day’s brainstorming in Gujarat, where he has told the party leaders that the next four months should see a surge in party activity. Among the plans is a state-wide yatra led by the low-profile Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel, alongside local chieftains, so that the ground is prepared for high-profile campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah has also been on several trips to Karnataka to pull the faction-ridden state unit together. He has told Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to get the local morchas moving. Unlike earlier occasions, when the party avoided holding rallies during the monsoon, which would hit both Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, the BJP wants to have outdoor activities during the rains this year—even though Karnataka elections are due only next year.

The Congress has decided that its make-or-break Kanyakumari to Kashmir padayatra would start on October 2, by which time the southwest monsoon would have retreated. The party wants its frontline leaders to get involved in the rally, which is an activity meant to charge up the cadres. But it is uncertain whether the Gandhi siblings would walk the full route. Congress leaders are planning state-level yatras also. The party faces tough tests in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh—the only states where it is in power—and in Madhya Pradesh, where it lost the government to the BJP due to infighting and defections. In Karnataka, the Congress had been a junior coalition partner in the Janata Dal (Secular)-led government, but the BJP toppled the shaky government in 2018.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is a veteran of many padayatras, is drawing up plans for a year-long journey through Andhra Pradesh in 2023 to wrest power from Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who himself used padayatra politics to beat Naidu in the 2019 assembly elections.

In neighbouring Telangana, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi has been keenly watching the rallies of state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and state Congress president Revanth Reddy, as both have mobilised big crowds. Now, both are planning state-wide yatras in their bid to end the rule of chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who has been at the helm since the formation of the state in 2014.

Apart from official programmes of parties decided at national and state levels, some politicians are launching their own yatras in their constituencies of interest. BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Puri in Odisha, has decided to return to the temple city to launch his campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Similarly, for assembly elections in the next 12 months, ticket aspirants of national and regional parties have hit the ground running, even spending good sums without the certainty of a ticket!

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-modis-u-turn-on-the-sedition-law

Sun May 15 12:52:05 IST 2022

Narendra Modi’s adherents in the BJP marvel at how he comes up with surprises. While he is an excellent mind reader, it is difficult to read Modi’s mind. He pulled a surprise on his law minister and top officials when he asked them to reconsider provisions of sedition law. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had to make a swift U-turn in their defence of the sedition law, reversing the government’s earlier stand that prosecution of Indian citizens on charges of treason was valid.

Modi wants a comprehensive re-look at the non-bailable law, under which dozens of activists were booked by the police and Central probe agencies like the National Investigation Agency. While Modi’s supporters hailed it as one more vindication of his commitment to liberty and democratic values, his critics, especially those facing relentless persecution under the sedition law, accused him of adopting a diversionary tactic to avoid a knock on the knuckles from the apex court.

Whenever the NDA government has been in a spot, it has promised a review, as it did in the case of demand for legal guarantee by agitating farmers for minimum support price for rice, wheat and other commodities. But the committee, which would give a detailed report to the government, has not yet been constituted. The government has asked the Supreme Court to drop the cases, which had reached the final round, until the comprehensive review was done for which no time limit was given. But the court had tough questions on government’s U-turn and its implication on all those who are under trial for sedition.

The continuous campaign by human rights activists has made several foreign governments ask the government to address fears that civil liberties were being trampled by the police, especially those controlled by the BJP governments. There is also international pressure as economy rating agencies have warned that India’s outlook grading would get lowered if threat to civil liberties by non-governmental groups continued without corrective action. This comes at a time when rupee has been under pressure due to international economic turbulence and inflationary pressures are building within the country.

Further, the sedition game is no longer one-sided, as opposition governments in Maharashtra and Punjab are using the same stick to fix pro-BJP lawmakers and activists, leading to an ugly confrontation between police forces over the arrest of BJP leader Tajinder Bagga from Delhi. The frequent use of sedition law flies in the face of claims that a strong government has reduced anti-national activities, and that there is major improvement on the law and order front.

It helps the prime minister that his party was at the vanguard of the struggle against internal emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government. While top leaders like A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani had undergone preventive detention back then, a younger Modi had worked underground to fight the suppression of fundamental rights.

Modi has to ensure his core constituency is not disillusioned by any dilution of the treason laws, which would seem to favour “the tukde tukde gang and urban naxalites”, whom Modi attacked inside and outside Parliament. But whether the stunning change of mind to review the sedition law has come due to a genuine concern for liberal order or because of other circumstances, would be known only when the government finalises the changes to the sedition law, after the consultative process. No mind reading till then!

sachi@theweek.in

best-option-for-babul-supriyo-is-to-swallow-his-pride-writes-sachidananda-murthy

Fri May 06 14:15:04 IST 2022

Singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo is ready to take oath as a cabinet minister in West Bengal. The oath will be administered by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. But, Supriyo is not ready to receive another oath—as MLA—from Dhankhar. The governor has said that if Supriyo does not receive the MLA’s oath from him, he can remain MLA from Ballygunge (home of the Bengali film industry), but he cannot participate in the assembly proceedings.

Supriyo wants the oath for MLA to be administered by Speaker Biman Banerjee. But, amid continued spats with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a piqued Dhankhar withdrew the powers of the speaker, whom he accused of repeatedly insulting him whenever he drove to the assembly to deliver the customary joint address. On one occasion, the main gates of the assembly were closed to the governor’s motorcade, forcing Dhankhar to enter through a side gate.

Under Article 188 of the Constitution, the oath for members of state legislative bodies can be administered by the governor or any other person designated by the governor. It has been a convention in the states that the speaker of the assembly and the chairperson of the council are delegated this power, while the governor administers the oaths to the chief minister and cabinet ministers.

Dhankhar says he is free most of the time as the West Bengal government does not send any file or information his way and that top bureaucrats defy his summons. Since he is free and is the main person assigned to administer oaths, why should he not do it, he asks. He is ready to roll out the red carpet for Supriyo at Raj Bhavan. But, Mamata thinks it will be abject surrender if the governor gets away with snipping the role of the speaker and that it will only embolden Dhankhar, whom she accuses of acting at the behest of the BJP government at the Centre.

Unlike the president, who is bound by the advice of the Union cabinet, the Constitution has given more powers to governors, including the power to dissolve the state assembly, even if the chief minister has a majority. In the 1990s, Nagaland governor M.M. Thomas had dissolved the assembly because of multiple instances of horse-trading. He did not even consult the Central government. However, an annoyed prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao did ask for Thomas’s immediate resignation.

Surpiyo, who knows he is on a weak wicket constitutionally, requested the governor to restore the speaker’s powers saying that his voters would be unrepresented if he was not sworn in. But, Dhankhar was in no mood to restore the power of the speaker. Instead, the governor, a leading constitutional lawyer, cited cases to tell Supriyo that he can continue to do his MLA’s work without taking the oath of office and that he will only miss the assembly sessions.

This has put Supriyo and Mamata in a catch-22 situation. If the chief minister wants to make Supriyo a minister, Dhankhar will swear him in. But, Supriyo will have to receive the MLA’s oath from Dhankhar within six months or lose his ministership. The other option is for Supriyo to swallow his pride and appear before Dhankhar for a double swearing-in. Especially because Trinamool strategists are not sold on the idea of the speaker approaching the courts challenging Dhankhar’s decision.

In Maharashtra, also ruled by an anti-BJP coalition, the governor has sat over for a year on the proposal to nominate members of the legislative council. In Tamil Nadu, the state assembly wants to take away the powers of Governor R.N. Ravi to appoint vice chancellors. In neighbouring Kerala, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has refused to appoint vice chancellors, asking the government to take away his powers if he was not allowed to monitor the universities.

The games being played by the occupants of the Raj Bhavans and the chief ministerial offices are all within the letter of the Constitution, if not in its spirit.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-why-mamata-banerjee-picked-shatrughan-sinha-for-asansol

Fri Apr 29 14:09:46 IST 2022

Shatrughan Sinha has returned to Parliament after a gap of three years. The star, who was one of the dominant voices in Hindi cinema from the 1970s to the 1990s, spent 12 years as Rajya Sabha member and 10 years as Lok Sabha member, all the time representing the BJP. But now he has entered the Lok Sabha as a Trinamool Congress member, winning the Asansol by-election. He replaced singer Babul Supriyo, who left the BJP to join the Trinamool and became an MLA in West Bengal. Sinha, 76, was still in demand both in public rallies and television programmes, and was often requested to repeat his signature one-word Hindi dialogue—Khamosh (silence)! He had a smooth ride in the stronghold of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee.

Within the BJP, Sinha was seen as a Vajpayee-Advani man, who failed to adjust to Narendra Modi’s style of functioning. Giving him company were two other Modi critics—Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, both of whom were also ministers under Vajpayee. The trio was critical of the departure from the ‘Raj Dharma’ (political code) practised by Vajpayee. Many others from the Vajpayee cabinet like Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ananth Kumar, however, made the smooth transition into the Modi era, getting important portfolios. But the actor, who had handled health and shipping portfolios under Vajpayee, was miffed at being ignored, a grouse he shared with Shourie and Yashwant. Even as he remained a member of the BJP, Sinha took swipes at Modi, though always in a polished language. Even after he was out of Parliament, Sinha would regularly tweet on the plight of the migrant workers who took to the highways during Covid-19 and also on the rising unemployment numbers.

At present, a ruling party MP who raises such critical issues regularly about government policies in a dignified language is Varun Gandhi. Like it ignored Sinha, the ruling establishment has not responded to any of the criticisms from Varun, who became the youngest general secretary of the party before it came to power.

For a man who projected toughness on screen, Sinha even couches his critical messages in mild language. However, when Sinha praises leaders, as he did Rahul Gandhi during his brief sojourn in the Congress, he uses a lot of admiring words. During campaigning, he eschewed the harsh language normally used by Trinamool leaders against the BJP. Though there was criticism that he was an outsider from Bihar, Asansol, with its multilingual population, celebrated the veteran’s nomination. Supriyo’s supporters who had jumped to Trinamool en masse also worked hard for the actor.

There are several reasons being given on why Mamata chose Sinha. It was seen as part of her long-term desire to make the Trinamool a party of north and northeastern India, instead of being confined to West Bengal. That is why she gave Rajya Sabha nominations to Congress defectors Sushmita Dev of Assam and Luizinho Faleiro of Goa, thinking they would help in the expansion. Sinha is an orator who had been deployed by the BJP for a quarter century to campaign in the Hindi heartland, and has a rapport with middle-aged and elderly voters. Further, Mamata feels his presence in the front benches of the Lok Sabha will annoy hardcore Modi supporters on the treasury benches.

The actor himself has not set out what his plans will be in the next session, beginning in July. Inside the house, he would be joining other parliamentarians who had glamorous careers like Hema Malini, Smriti Irani and Sunny Deol, all belonging to the BJP.

sachi@theweek.in

india-happiness-index-ranking-is-on-the-mark-says-sachidananda-murthy

Fri Apr 22 11:03:45 IST 2022

India was ranked 136 out of 146 countries in the United Nations’ World Happiness Report, 2022. This is not surprising in a survey that heavily favours north European countries for its top ten spots. The Narendra Modi government has not disputed the survey, which marginally increases India’s position by three ranks. But, the government had damned two other recently released comparative studies—the Global Hunger Index by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, as well as the World Press Freedom Index put out by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), based out of Europe.

The Union ministry of women and child development questioned India being placed at the 101st place in the hunger index based on figures of malnutrition and mortality among children under the age of five. It said the Modi government had launched the world’s largest food and childcare programmes, which had improved health of babies and reduced deaths.

The Union ministry of information and broadcasting said the RSF methodology, which puts India at 143 out of 180 countries, was opaque and it did not understand how democracy works in India.

But the happiness index ranking seems to be on the mark as there is extreme unhappiness, strife and hate on many Indian streets, and the atmosphere is vitiated with negative talks by a deadly cocktail of aggressive communal groups, negative-minded politicians and provocative media anchors. There is a lot of vitriol poured out amid communal flare-ups. While the BJP blames the opposition, the Congress and other opposition parties blame the BJP for creating tensions to feed vote banks. National presidents of both the BJP and the Congress have come out with long statements blaming the other party for the ‘state of unhappiness’ into which the country is fast plunging. Even the faces of leading politicians have become grimmer as they hurl accusations ahead of elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, all ruled by the BJP.

The tautness of facial muscles is a feature among many regional leaders who have won elections emphasising on the negativeness of their rivals. If there is a national happiness index for parties and politicians in India, the first position would go to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Biju Janata Dal. During the 22 years that he has been in power, Patnaik has tried to avoid vile language against political opponents and critics. He is comfortable in fashioning his own programmes and has created immense sporting infrastructure, which is aimed at keeping the young students busy in a positive way. Perhaps, the second position would go to another long-serving chief minister—Bihar’s Nitish Kumar. Much more combative than Patnaik, Kumar avoids slanging matches, which BJP and Congress chief ministers resort to in their states.

Even though under Modi the BJP has scored big—like winning two Lok Sabha elections, gaining control of Rajya Sabha, gaining complete control of government and its subsidiary institutions—the furrows are stretched on the faces of team Modi, which is seeking to achieve—Congress-free India, coming to power in states in eastern India and achieving a five trillion dollar economy. But one minister who is an exception is the man in-charge of road and bridges—Nitin Gadkari. He can easily join Patnaik and Kumar in the happiness group. He exudes a smile and is rarely provocative while standing his political ground, or even while addressing a group of veteran cricket players, where he had many anecdotes to share. Of course, smiles alone will not change the deteriorating communal situation in the country. It needs the will to contain the troublemakers without fear or favour, and to stop the ugly rhetoric. Once streets come under control, possibly India’s ranking in the happiness index would gradually move up.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-the-validity-of-bulldozers

Sat Apr 16 11:25:31 IST 2022

During the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP said it had two election symbols. One was the lotus, which the party adopted at its birth. The second was the bulldozer, which was displayed at election rallies of Yogi Adityanath. The faithful would flock to decorated bulldozers, which symbolised the power of the state and of the party to punish alleged malefactors and demolish their properties.

The police and revenue officials included bulldozing in their handbook, along with encounters, and were thrilled at the voter endorsement for their zeal. The highpoint before election was the demolition of the house of Vikas Dubey, a Kanpur-based don who killed policemen, and was in turn gunned down by the police.

Recently, a petrol pump that belonged to a Samajwadi Party MLA was levelled for being an illegal construction. There are questions raised about how the government can demolish buildings without due procedure. But, the Yogi government that proudly cites its record, has argued that it is upto the criminal to prove ownership, and also that none of the laws that permit demolition are violated.

There are murmurs of resentment among ministers and officials in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh over the state government’s demolition drive. The most famous case happened in Indore when the local administration demolished properties of a businessman, after he had honey-trapped politicians and bureaucrats and tried to release digital evidence. He was first arrested, after which the municipal corporation deployed the wrecking ball on his properties.

Chief minister Shivraj Chouhan and his aggressive Home Minister Narottam Mishra said the state’s bulldozers must work faster than those in Uttar Pradesh, and now the Indore Municipal Corporation has struck down more properties of offenders in one go. The government has also been accused of targeting Muslims to terrorise the community, but the BJP argues it has zero tolerance towards offenders irrespective of their religion.

It is not as if bulldozer has been exclusively used by the two BJP governments. The Congress and regional party-led governments in states have also used it in the past.

The Central government does not use bulldozers. But in the last few years, the hyperactive Enforcement Directorate, which has a wide ambit to investigate money laundering activities, has issued notices for attachment of properties of businessmen and opposition politicians. In recent days, leaders of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, which rules the most wealthy state, have experienced “special attachment”, including Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s brother-in-law [Shridhar Patankar], Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, minister Nawab Malik and Shiva Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut. There are vows made by opposition politicians that once the wheels of power turn, same medicine will be administered to those politicians of the BJP who are riding high.

The Mughals and the British used to punish villages for offences committed by a few residents. Punitive fines were levied on people living in streets, and villages were demolished, so that nothing remains on record. Sometimes an entire population was uprooted and forced to migrate.

But, since 1947, more sophisticated methods were used to shift inconvenient settlements by seeking the land to be acquired for development projects. The Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court have stayed the practice of the Yogi government of imposing massive fines on charges of destruction of public property and ordered refunds. But there has not been a comprehensive judgement on the legality of the bulldozer. Jurisprudence that strikes its own special fear.

sachi@theweek.in

why-india-may-never-get-a-super-agency-sachidananda-murthy-explains

Thu Apr 07 16:31:19 IST 2022

Chief Justice N.V. Ramana’s proposal for a super investigative agency replacing multiple Central institutions is not a new one. There have been demands earlier, too, to merge the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office and the National Investigation Agency into an umbrella organisation under one powerful boss. Ramana feels that if the merger is done through a carefully crafted law, then there would be no scope for political interference.

He argued during a police lecture that a committee of experts could choose the uber agency’s head; someone who will owe allegiance only to the Constitution and not to any individual or party. The cupboards of the prime minister’s office, and the ministries of home, finance, personnel and law have many files on the merger proposals, but there has been internal and external opposition to the creation of such a behemoth.

Firstly, there have been turf wars between the four ministries who argue that they know best how to investigate crimes in their domain. The finance ministry has gone on expanding and muscling the ED, and the income tax, GST and customs investigation wings for probing money laundering and tax evasion. The home ministry insists it is best qualified to investigate the anti-national and anti-social. The personnel ministry says that the CBI is the right agency to probe corruption cases in the government. And the corporate affairs ministry is looking to expand the SFIO.

In recent years, the CBI has lost anti-terrorism cases to the NIA and financial fraud cases to the SFIO. The ED, with the argument that money is at the root of all crimes, has delved into the domain of all central agencies and of the state police forces, too. Big states have tried to counter it by strengthening their special investigative teams and economic affairs wings.

But in a majority government, the turf war is not a problem as the strings are controlled by an all-powerful prime minister, to whom agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing also report. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who declared war on black money and corruption in his first cabinet meeting in 2014, has relentlessly driven the agencies even to bring back economic fugitives from abroad. But, the opposition has accused the Modi government of continuously targeting political rivals, their families and friends.

Senior officials point out that the trend has been to split agencies, not merge. The NIA and the SFIO were created by taking away the powers of the CBI, while the income tax department has ceded powers to the ED. The dysfunctional Lokpal, too, has got powers which were with the CBI. There is also the argument that the investigative agencies have to be accountable to Parliament and that control can only be exercised by questioning the elected government which is responsible to Parliament. The government does not want the super agency to have powers like prosecutors in Italy and France, on whom the executive has no control.

sachi@theweek.in

mann-wants-special-financial-package-join-the-queue-say-other-cms

Sat Apr 02 10:48:22 IST 2022

The new Punjab Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann, made an overarching request for a special financial package of Rs1 lakh crore from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bail out the state from its debt trap, which he says is Rs3 lakh crore. Mann insists this money is needed for making his state “rangeela [colourful] Punjab”. Metaphorically, several chief ministers would be shouting to the new entrant to the club that he should join the end of the queue of special package aspirants. Among them are Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, Nitish Kumar of Bihar, Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh. They all have failed to get special economic packages or special status from the Union government in the last two decades.

Each had given special reasons to justify the urgent need for funds, apart from fiscal mismanagement by their predecessors. Patnaik and Banerjee had pointed to the long-term neglect of the eastern region and how both their states and Jharkhand lacked infrastructure and had fewer employment opportunities. Kumar and Reddy have argued that after the bifurcation of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, the more revenue-generating districts had gone to new states of Jharkhand and Telangana. But the three prime ministers of the 21st century—A.B. Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and Modi—had a consistent stand of saying no to requests for special financial packages, even though Singh had promised that Andhra Pradesh would get special status. But then Singh lost power, and even though Modi was partnered by N. Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party, his government cited constitutional difficulties in granting the same—which made the TDP leave the NDA in 2018. Only the northeast states and the Himalayan regions of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh as well as Jammu and Kashmir have special status, where the Union government bankrolls more of their expenditure, compared with the other states.

Arun Jaitley, who was finance minister for five years, had argued that the Union government had increased the share of states from the Central pool. He wanted the states to contribute to the Centre to meet partly the expenses for defence and internal security. Some of the states which have better revenue income—like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana—have rarely made requests for special funds, though they have asked for funds for specific purposes like natural disasters and specific infrastructure projects in the roads and rail sector.

Nitish Kumar, who re-joined the NDA in 2016, has been frustrated that he has not got any special status. Reddy—who had unseated Naidu on the charge of failing to get special status for Andhra Pradesh—on the other hand, is under attack from Naidu for failing to get any extra money from the Centre. However, the Union government has argued that states across the line have benefitted from the Rs20 lakh crore stimulus package announced for meeting the Covid-induced economic crisis, and also from the extra funds allotted for the creation of health and vaccine infrastructure. The Union government has also relaxed the rules which allow states to borrow from private and foreign sources, but the states argue that these loans carry their interest burdens.

When new chief ministers complain of mismanagement of state finances by their predecessors, the NITI Aayog always advises prudent management of resources and cutting of freebies. But like all other new helmsmen, Mann, too, has announced money-guzzling schemes. Unlike the AAP-ruled Delhi—where a lot of expenses for land development, policing and national capital area management are paid by the Union government—Mann will have to manage with the funds the state government can generate.

sachi@theweek.in

the-selective-dynasty-card

Thu Mar 24 16:55:04 IST 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned on the anti-dynasty theme in Uttar Pradesh as he took on the Mulayam Singh Yadav family-dominated Samajwadi Party. His party retained the four states despite the challenge from the bigger dynastic party dominated by the Gandhis. He told wildly cheering BJP MPs from the party-ruled states that he had personally denied tickets to sons of MPs and other party leaders, as he wanted the party to fight dynastic tendencies across the country.

During the seat allocation stage, more than 100 BJP leaders had sought tickets for their children. Some of these aspirants, like Mayank Joshi, son of party MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi, had defected to the SP. Even former UP labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya had jumped the ship as he was not confident of getting a ticket for his son; Maurya’s daughter Sanghmitra is a BJP MP from Badaun.

Ever since he became the prime ministerial candidate, Modi has pushed hard against dynastic politics. He has targeted not only the Gandhis, but also the Pawar family (Maharashtra), the Rao family (Telangana), the Lalu Prasad family (Bihar), and the Abdullahs and Muftis (Jammu and Kashmir). During the campaign phase of West Bengal assembly polls last year, he had attacked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek’s hold in the government.

Modi, however, had remained silent on the Badal family’s control over long-term ally Shiromani Akali Dal, which broke with the BJP over the farmers’ agitation. Similarly, he had not directly attacked the Gowda family’s dominance over the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka, entrusting the attack to local BJP leaders. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he had denied a ticket to Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, wife of former Union minister Ananth Kumar, who died in 2018.

But family links matter a lot in the BJP also. The opposition has been releasing a long list of dynastic relations in the BJP. Ved Prakash Goyal, father of Union Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal, and Debendra Pradhan, father of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, were ministers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur is the son of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. The Scindias have five members in Parliament and legislatures, while Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi are party MPs.

In the recent elections, Modi did not touch dynasts who were already in politics like Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh, who retained his Noida assembly seat by a big margin. Similarly, the party gave a ticket to sitting MLA Ritu Khanduri Bhushan—daughter of former Uttarakhand chief minister B.C. Khanduri.

The BJP also encouraged new dynasties when it gave a ticket to Divya Rane, wife of Goa health minister Vishwajit Pratapsingh Rane. The Ranes were the second husband-wife duo who were given tickets, apart from Atanasio Monserrate Babush and his wife Jennifer. All four won the elections. Vishwajit had cajoled his father and four-time Goa chief minister Pratapsingh Rane of the Congress to declare that he would not contest, denying a sure seat for the opposition. But he demanded the seat vacated by his father should be given to Divya and had his way. But long-time BJP leaders who have always been with the BJP grumble that the party is more accommodative to the dynastic wishes of turncoats from other parties like Ranes and Monserrates, whereas the son of former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar was denied a ticket.

These are exceptions, but Modi’s long-term plan is to deny easy paths to dynastic aspirants so that the party can use the dynastic deterioration card against its opponents.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-policing-the-polls

Sat Mar 19 11:16:32 IST 2022

Once again, a long electoral stretch has ended without many incidents, much to the relief of the Election Commission, which continued to give special attention to Uttar Pradesh. This time it was seven phases in the most populous state, where the assertion of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that he had improved the law-and-order situation over the past five years seemed to be proved on the ground.

The success should prompt the EC to stick to the T.N. Seshan era formula of polling in a small cluster of contiguous constituencies. This was adopted after Seshan had an argument with the Central government over his requirement of a large number of Central Armed Police Forces personnel, as he felt the local police was too compromised. As the sole election commissioner (till an angry government appointed two more to curb his powers), Seshan would do his calculation, especially as he had also been secretary in charge of security in the Rajiv Gandhi government.When Seshan did not get the desired numbers at one go, he went for fragmenting the election schedule. All his successors were comfortable in multiple phase polling in several states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which were once notorious for booth capturing by landlords and dons; Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh (before their division) as well as West Bengal, which had Naxalite violence; and states like Punjab, Assam, and Jammu & Kashmir, which were affected by militancy. Political parties—which often were the target of attacks by militants, Naxalites, and criminals—went with the EC’s thinking of concentrating maximum forces in smaller clusters. But the situation has improved in most parts of the country as election-related violence has come down drastically, even though tensions are high in Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland and Manipur.

The law-and-order situation in West Bengal, which was affected by the Maoist presence in Jangal Mahal, has vastly improved after a crackdown by Mamata Banerjee’s government. The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments, too, have cracked down on Maoists. Assam has seen improvement. It was noteworthy that the election in Punjab, once the hotbed of separatism, was held in a single phase—and more heat was generated by words than arms. Further, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Central Industrial Security Force have grown big with large numbers available. The improvement in road network during the last three decades has also meant that eight-lane highways are available for transporting the security convoys in a quicker time than in the 1990s. Thus, there are several factors that make it easier to hold elections in a smaller number of phases than is being done presently. But the three key players—the EC, the Union home ministry, and the state governments—would like to stick to caution, and hence old files containing division of constituencies are taken out and dusted during every election for scheduling the polls.

The negative effect is that states and constituencies that vote in the first or second phase of a seven-phase election have to wait for a month for the results to be known. With proper thinking and coordination, this big delay can be reduced, if not eliminated. The time saved would also mean good money saved in campaigning, and deployment of forces to guard the EVMs from the earlier phases. It would also help the eventual movement towards e-voting where the entire country can vote on one day, after two weeks of electoral campaigning.

sachi@theweek.in

pakistan-not-amused-by-taliban-officials-wheat-comment-sachidananda-murthy

Sun Mar 13 12:12:36 IST 2022

It was a quality certificate that was costly for the issuer. But, the recipient was thrilled. An unnamed Taliban official had, at a meeting in an Afghan city, described wheat donated by Pakistan as inedible, while he praised the quality of the supplies from India.

Unconfirmed media reports said that as soon as the video went viral, the official lost his job, but there was celebration in Delhi’s Krishi Bhawan, which houses the food and public distribution ministry. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who the holds additional charge of food, praised “hardworking farmers”, thanks to whom India was able to supply the Afghan people with “good quality wheat”.

There were congratulations in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India, where workers pack the wheat into bags with the inscription of the gift in English, Pashto and Dari. A total of 2,000 trucks, in batches of 40, then transport the bags through 600km of Pakistani territory to Afghanistan’s borders. As New Delhi does not recognise the regime in Kabul, the United Nations World Food Programme handles the distribution in Afghanistan.

The external affairs ministry, too, piped in saying India always ensured quality assistance to the country’s friends. But, the Pakistan government was not amused with the comparison of its own earlier shipments with Indian supplies. Islamabad launched a protest to Kabul saying that even after agreeing to the request by the Taliban for allowing the transit of humanitarian assistance from India, the criticism by a single individual was being used by the Indian government to give a bad name to Pakistani wheat.

With India-Pakistan relations at a nadir after the changes in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan had agreed reluctantly to the transit request. This was vital, as India could not have transported such volumes through the Chabahar Port in Iran. India was able to send medicines and other essential donations through the aerial route via Gulf countries.

Interestingly, the FCI was criticised by the parliamentary standing committee on food and public distribution in a report last August. The committee said there were major complaints regarding diversion of food grains, rotting of cereals and corruption in the government-owned corporation, which dominates food procurement and distribution in the country.

The committee had asked the government to strictly monitor the corporation’s functioning as there were nearly 2,500 complaints from state governments in 2020—a three-fold increase from the previous year. The Union territory of Chandigarh had asked the FCI to take back wheat supplied for distribution under the prime minister’s free grains scheme because of poor quality. But, the government had argued that it had stepped up quality checks to ensure poor quality grains were not supplied.

The FCI has already sent 6,500 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan and faces the humongous task of sending the remaining commitment of 43,500 tonnes during the summer. The wheat diplomacy may have pleased Afghan consumers, but there could be long faces in Pakistan, if there is more criticism of its wheat.

sachi@theweek.in

need-domestic-political-consensus-on-ukraine-sachidananda-murthy

Sun Mar 06 15:22:31 IST 2022

Describing herself as a senior chief minister and the leader of a national party, Mamata Banerjee has extended her full support to the Narendra Modi government’s diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. In a two-page letter, she expressed her anguish over the suffering of Ukrainians as well as that of Indians stranded in the war zone. She highlighted the long tradition of domestic political consensus during international crises and asked the prime minister to convene an all-party meeting.

The letter has caused raised eyebrows in the BJP, given Mamata’s spat with West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and her war of words with Modi last year. But, for Modi—who is engaged in a balancing act with the west and the east—the letter from the country’s only woman chief minister, who also commands good numbers in Parliament, has been welcome.

Analysts see shifts in Indian policy, after Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Moscow hours after declaring war on Ukraine. Along with Chinese support to Putin, this means the coming together of three nuclear powers in the Asia-Euro sector. But, given the depth of India’s connection with Russia and the continued dependence on it in multiple sectors, there is unanimity in strategic and political circles that the government’s response will have to be measured.

Mamata’s suggestion of an all-party meeting to discuss the crisis, especially when Parliament is not in session, is a good one. However, there has not always been domestic political consensus during international crises. In 1988, when the Rajiv Gandhi government sent the Indian Peace-Keeping Force to civil war-torn Sri Lanka, there was strong resistance from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its allies in Tamil Nadu. They accused the Centre of aiding Tamil genocide.

Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee used the lack of political consensus to deflect American pressure. When president George W. Bush wanted India to send troops to Iraq, the opposition parties told Vajpayee that India should not send any uniformed men to a conflict zone unless it was under the mandate of the United Nations. Vajpayee told Bush that he was helpless as political consensus was against honouring the president’s demand.

But, summoning all-party meetings has become the norm for prime ministers, especially of coalition and minority governments in the last three decades. When all-party meetings have been held on national security and international issues, the normal response of the opposition has been to suggest that the government should act as it deemed best because it would know the full facts.

The Modi government has not been holding regular meetings on international policy. While there are informal briefings by the external affairs minister or the defence minister to select political parties on specific issues, the number of all-party meetings on strategic and diplomatic issues have been far fewer under the current regime. The Ukraine crisis is an opportunity to hear the views of the opposition and also give them the government’s assessment on the multilayered and complex issues involved, including possible negative effects on economic recovery. Mamata has shown the lead in seeking a consensus on the Ukraine issue, which at one level portends a change to the current world order and at another can lead to a mess on many fronts.

sachi@theweek.in

mission-cooperation

Thu Feb 24 15:59:58 IST 2022

During his ongoing shuttle diplomacy to unite non-Congress opposition parties to fight Narendra Modi in 2024, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has flown over many peninsular rivers. Even though the flights were smooth, on the ground, the rivers have become political disputes.

The central government is pushing hard for a Rs80,000 crore project to link six rivers—four major and two smaller—flowing through nine states. The project report says the Godavari-Cauvery river linking would transfer surplus waters from Godavari basin to the Krishna basin (benefiting Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) and the Cauvery basin (helping Tamil Nadu). But some of the riparian states—Telangana surprisingly among them—have strong objections. Only Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are ecstatic as they can develop dry regions chronically short of water.

The riparian states have had bitter battles over sharing of Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery waters. Justice A.M. Khanwilkar of the Supreme Court is currently inquiring about the dispute over the sharing of the Mahanadi river between Chhattisgarh and Odisha. As the Mahanadi basin overlaps the Godavari basin, both Chhattisgarh and Odisha also have a say in the Godavari-Cauvery linking project. Though Kerala and Puducherry are part of the Cauvery basin, their opinion is not asked for, as they gain or lose nothing. Similarly, Maharashtra, where Godavari is a major river and Krishna flows through, has been kept out of initial consultations.

Modi, who got the river linking project launched last year by persuading the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to agree to link the Ken and Betwa rivers to irrigate the parched Bundelkhand region, has a bigger job on Godavari-Cauvery linkage. BJP-ruled Karnataka has raised serious objections as its irrigation needs in the north are met by the Krishna and in the south by Cauvery.

Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi is at odds with the BJP-ruled Centre and the YSR Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh. The Congress is in power in Chhattisgarh and it is anathema to Rao. Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, after he broke the alliance with the BJP, has steered clear of national politics. Among the regional parties wooed by Rao are the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party; both are in alliance with the Congress. Tamil Nadu’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a long-time electoral partner of the Congress.

While waters can be either harmoniously or contentiously shared, the problem with the federal front is that there are no votes to transfer among regional parties. The other regional parties Rao is pursuing—the Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in its Kerala bastion, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal (Secular)—cannot exchange votes with the TRS. A post electoral coalition, too, would depend on whether the BJP is defeated in many states, and the seat share of regional parties, reflecting the hung Parliament of 1996.

Then, the regional parties together matched the strength of the BJP, the single largest party, which propelled H.D. Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular) to prime ministership. But, the general elections are two monsoons away, and both the river levels and voter moods could fluctuate and have a bearing on Rao’s mission.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-the-bjp-silence-in-select-states-on-the-hijab-ban

Sat Feb 19 11:53:32 IST 2022

If there is a quiz on which party is the most aggressive on the issue of banning the hijab, many caught in the swirls of the current headdress controversy would answer that it is the BJP. The BJP government in Karnataka has been ferocious in its attempt to enforce a school uniform code that would prohibit dresses that are identified with a religion. The chief minister insists the code, which is being evolved, would make the school uniform religion-neutral. Ministers in other BJP-ruled states also have spoken about the need to follow the Karnataka model, while the saffron party leaders in the states where the BJP is in opposition say they would agitate for banning the burqa and skull cap of Muslims. There is a counter-campaign by Muslim student organisations insisting on the right, which they say has been in existence for decades; these organisations are asking more Muslim girls to wear hijab. Now the dispute is before the Karnataka High Court, and the losing side will inevitably knock on the doors of the Supreme Court.

But if there is another question in the quiz as to which is the least aggressive party on this issue, the surprising answer would be again BJP—at least in Bihar, Punjab and Delhi. The silence of the BJP in these states is for different reasons. In Punjab and Delhi, the saffron party cannot oppose the headdress as the Sikhs, who have voted for the BJP, would react even more strongly if there is an attempt to enforce the ultimate dream of One India, One Uniform. Even aggressive secularist countries like France and Denmark have faced resistance from the Sikh and Muslim populations. In countries with large minority populations like Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, relaxation has been provided in school uniforms.

In Bihar, the lack of noise from the BJP has a different explanation—though it is a ruling party, it is a junior partner to the Janata Dal(United). Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a strict enforcer of the coalition dharma fashioned during the A.B. Vajpayee-L.K. Advani years, compared with the more assertive Narendra Modi era. Nitish has insisted that his socialistic and secular politics would be the political philosophy for the Bihar NDA. On many hindutva causes, Nitish refuses to react, and when he does, the cryptic comments brook no murmurs of disagreement or disturbance from the junior partner. As the JD(U) is a very junior partner in the Union government, the chief minister has told his leaders not to comment on any decisions taken by Modi or his senior ministers unless the rights of Bihar are impacted.

When asked about the hijab, Nitish came out with his standard response that it was a non-issue in his state. “When someone puts something on the head, no need to interfere. We respect religious sentiments,” was his reply. Nitish controls the police department and general administration; the education portfolio, too, is with the JD(U).

But there are BJP leaders who are itching to initiate moves to topple Nitish and install a BJP chief minister. Over the years, Nitish has measured the potential of every BJP leader and has checkmated their moves to enforce diktats on issues of faith, school curriculum and food habits. He has also been supportive of issues like the ban on instant triple talaq—which his party believes is a progressive measure—without the shrill rhetoric used by the BJP against the orthodox sections of the minority community. The moves to depose Nitish or bring him down a few notches have remained as wishes so far, as the BJP high command knows how Nitish can fight back—as he did in 2015 by teaming with Lalu Prasad to defeat a rampaging BJP. Secularism is Nitish’s political headscarf, which may be difficult to ban.

sachi@theweek.in

polls-flag-off-name-game

Thu Feb 10 17:52:31 IST 2022

A video of five policemen, who were working in an Uttar Pradesh prison, dancing and shouting “Jayant Chaudhary zindabad” appeared recently on social media with a comment that voters’ mood was changing in western UP. The vigilante who shared the video said the policemen were celebrating the “certain” victory of Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary, who is fighting the assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. Outraged BJP supporters demanded action against the policemen for “celebrating the defeat” of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Uttar Pradesh Police—known for its muscular policy, encouraged by the chief minister—has been proactive on complaints received through social media. Senior officers said the matter was being inquired into and the policemen had been asked to explain their actions. The sheepish constables clarified that “Jayant Chaudhary” was the nickname of a colleague who had been commended by President Ramnath Kovind, and the songs were sung to congratulate him. BJP supporters, however, are not convinced by the explanation.

There was an even bigger instance of confusion when Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole declared in a speech that he was so honest that he could “hit” Modi if the latter were to campaign against him. As the video went viral, BJP leaders accused Patole—who had rebelled against Modi and quit the BJP to join the Congress—of threatening the prime minister. Patole clarified that the Modi in reference was a notorious character from his constituency who was nicknamed thus. The BJP said Patole was trying to cover up his threat.

As there are restrictions on physical campaigning, political parties have found smarter ways to engage voters. After finding out that television channels and cable networks no longer give full live coverage to their speeches, leaders have arranged for huge screens to be set up in colonies and villages. Even the Congress, which was lagging behind in using new technology, compared with the BJP, arranged big screens and organised smartphone rallies for the Gandhi siblings.

Road shows are being camouflaged as door-to-door campaigns and later magnified into video shows. But the advertisement blitzkrieg over WhatsApp and Facebook, which had given the BJP a big advantage when smartphones were a novelty, has become less attractive as many users have learnt to distinguish between morphed and real videos. Political parties now employ smarter and quicker fact checkers to expose fake videos of their rivals.

Putting up dummy candidates with identical names is an old ploy which is still popular. Parties try to find and field independent candidates who have a name similar to that of their rival candidate. Even though symbols and photographs accompany candidates’ names on voting machines, simple folk sometimes end up voting for the ‘dummy’. When it was announced that both Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav would be contesting assembly polls for the first time, there was a scramble to find lesser known Adityanaths and Akhileshs.

An interesting feature of the elections is that the more the conditions and technologies change, the more they remain the same in many respects.

sachi@theweek.in

raids-seizures-and-an-ec-dilemma-sachidananda-murthy

Sat Feb 05 11:05:56 IST 2022

The Election Commission is proud of how its expenditure observers and flying squads are preventing parties and candidates from distributing cash, liquor and gifts during the current elections. Punjab’s chief electoral officer announced that drugs worth Rs200 crore, liquor worth Rs12 crore and Rs18 crore in cash have been seized. In other states, claims are being made by both the police and election officials regarding seizures from offices, homes and vehicles.

The haul would only increase as polling dates come closer in the five election-bound states. So far, there has been no seizure of other gifts, though enthusiasts belonging to different parties have announced that lakhs of saris and shirts embossed with party symbols and images of leaders are ready. In Gujarat, where assembly polls are due next year, a sari-maker wants to get political customers from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

T.S. Krishnamurthy, the first Indian Revenue Service officer to become chief election commissioner, had actively stressed the need for having observers to monitor election expenditure. He had also promoted the practice of appointing IAS officers from other regions as general observers reporting directly to the commission in poll-bound states. The present CEC, Sushil Chandra, is also from the IRS background; other chiefs in the past three decades have mainly been from the IAS.

For officials who are drafted from different regions in the country, it is an exciting experience to act on tip-offs and carry out raids when the model code of conduct is in place. Last year, when Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal went to the polls, the seizures were valued at more than Rs2,000 crore—up from Rs225 crore five years earlier. During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which were swept by the BJP, the seizures totalled Rs3,500 crore. Central agencies, including the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau, have been told to focus on the hoarding of money and distribution of drugs, but opposition parties have accused them of being the BJP’s handmaidens.

Activists who work hard on ensuring clean elections are frustrated that these claims of big seizures remain just claims. In most cases, the police or the district treasury are forced to return the seized money, as the accused are able to furnish evidence regarding the source of funds and the intended use. Though the model code of conduct says that anyone who carries above Rs50,000 has to explain the source of money, the claims are easy to establish. Invariably, they are meant for business transactions, especially for purchasing property. Even though the income tax department issues a notice for possessing large amounts of cash, the accused can secure the money if they can furnish a reasonable explanation. Further, prosecution becomes difficult because officials on deputation for the election period would not be available either to complete the investigation or help the investigators in court. When activists approach the Election Commission for knowing the status of the prosecutions, they are referred to the police or Central agencies, as the EC does not have its own teams for monitoring the case.

Even in the case of liquor, ingenious claims are made to prove ownership. Seized gifts like sewing machines, pressure cookers and saris are often reclaimed by producing bills from agents. In some cases, though, they rot away in government godowns.

There are questions whether candidates and parties actually distribute drugs as an inducement, and whether drug seizures are from the usual trade and distribution channels. What seems clear is that the EC now has to seriously work out ways to ensure that seizures made during poll campaigns help in convicting corrupt players.

sachi@theweek.in

congress-thinks-only-promise-to-god-would-keep-mlas-loyal-sachidananda-murthy

Thu Jan 27 14:49:43 IST 2022

In a desperate move, the Congress shepherded its candidates fighting the Goa assembly elections to a temple, a church and a mosque and made them take an oath of loyalty to the party. The ritual is being replicated in Manipur, another state with a small assembly. In both Goa and Manipur, the BJP, with its offers of power and pelf had bought most of the Congress MLAs five years ago, denying the grand old party an opportunity to form the government. The BJP repeated the strategy later in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka—states with bigger assemblies—replacing incumbent chief ministers with its nominees. Most of the defectors from the Congress in all four states got re-elected on the lotus symbol and became ministers.

The Congress, once again fearing the brute power of the BJP and having no faith in the anti-defection law, hopes that a promise made before divine powers will bind the winners with a sense of obligation. Similar attempts, however, have come a cropper in the past. The first big attempt to hold elected representatives accountable was made by two idealistic Gandhians—Jayaprakash Narayan, revered as Lok Nayak for his fight against authoritarianism, and Acharya J.B. Kripalani. On March 24, 1977, they administered a pledge to the newly elected MPs, including four future prime ministers and two future deputy prime ministers at Rajghat. The MPs had defeated the seemingly invincible Indira Congress and many had been imprisoned during the Emergency, which witnessed the suppression of fundamental rights. The MPs, who came from eight parties, promised to carry on Gandhiji’s work, safeguard democracy and practise honesty. But within hours began the jockeying for prime ministership and the infighting was on original party lines. The Janata experiment collapsed after two years and the government was toppled. The splits and defections began in 1979, with Indira Gandhi exploiting the ambitions and egos of the men who had defeated her.

If Janata leaders had spoken about a law to ban defections, it was Indira’s son, Rajiv, as prime minister, who got the Constitution amended in 1985 to ban individual defections. But the new law permitted a split by at least one-third MPs of a party. The law has been used, misused, abused and ignored by governments of most parties at the Centre and the states in the last 37 years, as speakers have been partisan to the interests of their parties. The Supreme Court, with all its powers, could not prevent the deliberate procrastination of the Manipur speaker sitting over Congress petitions for the disqualification of defectors.

Political parties have tried ingenious methods to tackle dissent. When senior minister Arjun Singh threatened to walk away with dissidents who supported him, prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao did not expel Singh, which would have allowed him to keep his Lok Sabha membership. Instead, Singh’s membership in the Congress was downgraded to the lowest level. After some months, Singh went ahead with the formation of a new political party. Aggressive parties like the Shiv Sena and the Trinamool Congress have cadres who menace potential defectors. In more aggressive scenarios, malcontents have even been slapped by their supreme leader.

The Congress, however, has no ethical consistency as it has freely welcomed defectors and given them tickets in the five states, leading to heartburn among Congressmen who have nursed the constituencies. Unless the Congress gets majority on its own in Goa and Manipur, its hopes of retaining the victorious MLAs would rest on a wing and a prayer.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-how-parties-pick-their-cm-candidate

Thu Jan 20 14:41:37 IST 2022

The Aam Aadmi Party added more spice to the Punjab elections by choosing a phone-in programme to select its chief ministerial face. Though national convener Arvind Kejriwal thought he would build suspense on the name, Bhagwant Singh Mann swung the polls with 90 per cent endorsement, as there was no other serious contender. As expected, Kejriwal, too, got a few endorsements to lead the border state, but nowhere near Mann’s numbers.

The strategy has been a new one, even though the AAP has used phone polls to take policy decisions in the Delhi government. Opponents were sceptical on the numbers, as it was an in-house survey that was not independently verified. However, the party had no recourse to vox populi when Kejriwal had last year announced that former Army officer Ajay Kothiyal would be the chief ministerial face in Uttarakhand. Goa is another state where the party is active and Kejriwal has a different strategy there. He has only said that the chief ministerial face would be from the influential Bhandari caste, without specifying a face.

Regional parties normally have no confusion regarding their chief ministerial faces as invariably it is the party supremo—evident in 14 states. Pinarayi Vijayan is de-facto head of the CPI(M) in Kerala, though there is a national and state leadership at the organisational level. Both H.D. Deve Gowda of the JD(S) and Sharad Pawar of the NCP are above the state leadership fray in Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively, preferring projection of Gowda’s son H.D. Kumaraswamy and Pawar’s nephew Ajit as the chief ministerial face.

Another regional party trying to expand wings outside its home base is the Trinamool Congress, but it has struggled to find a chief ministerial face in Goa.

Kejriwal had battled a whisper campaign in the 2017 Punjab elections, when it was alleged he had ambitions to become the first non-Sikh chief minister of the state. Rahul Gandhi’s announcement then that Amarinder Singh would be the face of the Congress had dramatically swung fortunes away from the AAP and the NDA towards the Congress. Otherwise, the Congress normally maintains that its policy is for elected MLAs to choose their leader, even though in reality they authorise party president Sonia Gandhi to nominate a leader.

Likewise, the BJP’s parliamentary board picks the leader, like the surprise choice of Yogi Adityanath in 2017 when the BJP had swept Uttar Pradesh. One of the many reasons for the BJP’s poor performance in West Bengal last year was that it had no chief ministerial face acceptable to its own cadres, let alone voters.

There had been demands that Kejriwal announce a Sikh as chief ministerial candidate, as both the Congress and the Akali Dal are banking on Sikh votes. When the Congress dramatically overthrew Amarinder Singh and appointed a dalit as chief minister, the Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance announced that the deputy chief minister would be a dalit. The AAP, too, jumped on the bandwagon, stating its preference for a dalit deputy chief minister.

The BJP, which rules four of the five states going to polls, is comfortable projecting the incumbent chief ministers. Otherwise in states where it fights elections from the opposition ranks, the BJP generally does not project a chief ministerial face—an exception was in Karnataka in 2018 when B.S. Yediyurappa’s face was on all posters. However, at the national level, the party projects a prime ministerial face like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Narendra Modi.

Now in Punjab, Mann has to prove he is equally popular on the ground as he is on the phone!

sachi@theweek.in

police-prosecutors-oppose-court-ordered-community-service-sachidananda-murthy

Sat Jan 15 11:20:12 IST 2022

In Swachh Survekshan 2020, the annual cleanliness survey of some 4,000 cities by the Central government, Buxar in Bihar found an ignominious place. It was the second dirtiest among cities with a population of less than 10 lakh. The first place went to the international pilgrim centre Gaya, also in Bihar. The state capital, Patna, was the dirtiest among cities with a population of more than 10 lakh.

Buxar, like other Bihar cities, had defied all incentives of the urban development ministry initiated by the Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi governments. From sewage and garbage disposal to supply of clean water, the city administration’s performance was patchy on all cleanliness parameters. The chief justice of the Patna High Court, during an official visit to Buxar, saw for himself that the environs of the court complex in the city was filthy. Interestingly, he did not issue a direction to the municipal corporation, but asked local judges to arrange community services in the area, which included temples.

The oral orders, however, were reduced to writing by an administrative officer as a direction to clean just the temples. Though questions were asked, the judges and staff came on a holiday to do community service. But the district judge felt there was some mischief in the wording, as there was no direction from the chief justice to clean only the temples. An inquiry was ordered on how the cleanliness advice was narrowed down to temples only.

It is not unusual for judges to initiate community service; several high court and district judges have imposed non-penal activities, especially while considering bail applications. Judges have asked accused persons in criminal cases and recalcitrant respondents in civil matters to plant trees, clean premises, take classes in government schools or donate books.

In Madhya Pradesh, a respondent was asked to provide a water harvesting system in the opposite party’s home. Prison authorities, too, take inmates for community service, so that the time spent helps in getting parole or early release.

When it comes to fines, especially for what a court considers as frivolous litigation that wastes judicial time, the litigants are told to deposit fines with the prime minister’s or chief minister’s relief funds, and in some cases into the Advocates’ Welfare Fund. In rare cases, judges have imposed big fines on rich convicts instead of giving them long prison terms.

The police and prosecution, however, argue against this concessional approach, pointing out that the Indian Penal Code and other criminal laws do not provide alternatives to jail and fines. There have also been instances when judges suggested baffling solutions like asking a rape victim to marry the rapist.

There was an attempt in 1978 by the Janata government of Morarji Desai to amend the criminal laws so that those convicted of offences warranting short prison sentences could instead be directed to do a stretch of community service. But the government collapsed the next year, and the amendment was not taken up by subsequent governments.

The Justice Malimath Committee, which made far-reaching recommendations for reforming the criminal justice system two decades ago, had also strongly recommended alternative accountability measures to long prison terms. But this report, too, has not been implemented holistically.

Meanwhile, Buxar festers in its garbage as even judicial advice gets distorted and leads to controversies.

sachi@theweek.in

stalin-will-need-coalition-era-to-return-to-delhi-to-scrap-neet-sachidananda-murthy

Thu Jan 06 14:51:34 IST 2022

Even as legal controversies over reservation for economically backward students in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) All India Quota flared in the Supreme Court, the Modi government is yet to give a green signal to the bill passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly scrapping NEET in the state.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is busy lobbying with his counterparts in 11 opposition-ruled states to join the DMK in opposing the test, which, the bill says, puts poor students from rural areas at a huge disadvantage. But as the bill challenges a Central law, it is unlikely to be recommended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Ram Nath Kovind for assent. Only after receiving Central approval can the state governor sign the bill and make it a law.

So far, the three-party alliance government in Maharashtra has announced its opposition to a common entrance test as the state wants to regulate admissions to its medical colleges. Now, Stalin’s emissaries are lobbying hard with other major non-BJP controlled states including West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Punjab and Delhi to stop the National Testing Agency from conducting the test and announcing the merit list.

Interestingly, NEET was opposed by Modi-ruled Gujarat when it was introduced by the Manmohan Singh government in 2013. Ironically, the DMK, which was a founder member of the United Progressive Alliance, had withdrawn its support to Singh two months before NEET. The reason given was that the UPA government was soft towards the war crimes committed against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by Sri Lanka’s Mahinda Rajapaksa government during the civil war.

But Singh had been convinced by the medical education fraternity that a national entrance test was the answer to complaints of non-meritorious candidates getting admission in state government-run medical colleges. The one-day examination was hailed for providing a level playing field.

When the DMK returned to power in Tamil Nadu last summer, with the Congress as junior ally, Stalin stuck to the promise he had made while in opposition. Even though the AIADMK, which was in power for 10 years, too, was opposed to NEET, it did not bring forth a state law to counter the Central law. The DMK set up a commission of inquiry—headed by a retired judge, which held that NEET was discriminatory, favouring students from elite and urban backgrounds against poor, rural students.

Stalin asked the assembly to unanimously pass the resolution. While all other parties, including the AIADMK, supported the move, the BJP’s four MLAs walked out in protest. They were acting as per the party’s stand that NEET was a beneficial exam that helped produce better doctors, especially as it was conducted in Tamil and other regional languages, apart from Hindi and English. The MLAs were not impressed by the commission’s findings that the NEET merit list had adversely affected at least one out of 10 poor students with a rural background.

Though many states have passed laws opposing a Central law, the Constitution is clear that the Central law will prevail, unless the state proposal making the law inapplicable in the state is approved by the Centre. There have been dozens of laws, including state-level amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, that have been given assent by the Centre through the president.

But the Modi government, which believes in One Nation, One Tax, One Election, One Entrance Test, may not concede to Tamil Nadu’s request unless there is unavoidable political pressure. For success on NEET, Stalin may have to hope for a return to the coalition era where the DMK support is crucial. Meanwhile, Modi and Stalin will share the stage this year for the launch of 11 new medical colleges in the state.

sachi@theweek.in

an-aggressive-russia-a-muted-us-and-a-watchful-india

Sat Jan 01 11:20:18 IST 2022

The strong words used by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov against the United States for opposing the sale of the S-400 missile system to India have surprisingly not evoked an equally nasty reaction from Washington so far. The Indian side also was surprised at the vehemence of Lavrov’s comments made on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in early December. A few hours before that, Lavrov and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had met their Indian counterparts S. Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh together as well as separately.

This indicated multi-level contact, and it was only the second foreign trip by Putin in 2021, the first being to meet his adversary, American President Joe Biden, in Geneva. Indian defence and external affairs ministries have played a dead bat on the issues surrounding the missile system, including the threat of American sanctions for buying big weapons from Russia.

The Indian side has also been circumspect by not being willing to confirm Russian statements that some missile components have already been delivered and that the first set of deliveries will be completed by New Year’s Day. On the other hand, the Russians have been boastful not only on the missile deliveries but also on the quiet beginning of the construction of the sixth nuclear reactor at Kudankulam.

Lavrov, in his carefully prepared statements, had accused the US of trying to make India obey its orders, so that New Delhi follows the American vision for the region. This was a direct reference to India’s Quad alliance with the US, Japan and Australia. The statement also took note of the new alliance planned with Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the US, which is being nicknamed Quad West, though no summit-level meeting has taken place with the leaders of these countries. The spurt in Russia’s interest and aggression has also coincided with increased tensions between Putin and Biden over central Europe, especially Ukraine, as NATO has accused Putin of amassing an army to invade Ukraine.

India’s defence ministry has argued that it is not customary to confirm receipt of sensitive arms and that a big ceremony was organised at the Ambala Air Force Station to welcome the first Rafale aircraft from France as there was a huge political controversy at the time over the purchase. Interestingly, it was the Russian side that took the lead in announcing that the “first concrete” was poured—soon after Putin’s state visit—for the construction of the sixth 1,000MW nuclear reactor in Kudankulam. On the other hand, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India which builds the plants had not made any official announcement, yet.

The atomic energy department does not give publicity to the different stages of construction of a nuclear plant, as per its policy. But the reiteration of the nuclear energy cooperation with Russia is another reminder that the proposals to set up nuclear power plants by American companies, that were included in the India-US civil nuclear deal signed 16 years ago, are yet to be a reality. The muted American response, despite calls from a powerful senator to block the S-400 deal, may indicate the robustness of the relations New Delhi has with the Biden administration. However, there are strong feelings against Russia in the American Congress, and there is a need for dexterity among the Indian diplomats to ensure that there are no sanctions imposed on India for keeping up defence and high-technology imports from Russia.

There are also indications that Putin played the good Samaritan to bring about a rapprochement between India and China, though both sides have been tight-lipped about the conversation or where it would lead to.

sachi@theweek.in

nobody-wants-neutral-panel-to-appoint-head-of-autonomous-bodies-sachidananda-murthy

Thu Dec 23 15:16:41 IST 2021

The controversy over the law ministry’s note summoning the chief election commissioner and the two commissioners for a meeting chaired by P.K. Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister, reignited the debate on the “arm’s length” to be maintained by heads of autonomous institutions. The principle is applied mainly to judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, election commissioners and the comptroller & auditor general (CAG), who have to take decisions which may displease the executive.

However, other functionaries of the Constitution like the president, vice president, Lok Sabha speaker, attorney general, chairman and members of the Union Public Service Commission work with the government of the day. While the president is bound by the advice of the Union cabinet, the vice president, as chairman of Rajya Sabha, constantly interacts with ministers as he has to ensure its smooth functioning. Audit reports of two CAGs—T.N. Chaturvedi on the Bofors scam and Vinod Rai on the 2G scam— have shaken the chairs of prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Yet, the appointment of the chief election commissioner, election commissioners and the CAG, which is solely made by the prime minister, has seen favourite bureaucrats being selected for these sensitive jobs. Since every government has done it, there is no push to have a neutral panel appoint the high functionaries.

While judges were supposed to maintain a mile’s distance from politicians, there is now a great deal of interface with judges and ministers taking part in functions, chief justices of high courts holding meetings with chief ministers, and the Chief Justice of India consenting to be a member of committees headed by the prime minister to select the director of Central Bureau of Investigation, the Lokpal and other high-profile appointees.

In recent times, former chief justice S.H. Kapadia avoided going to social functions, as he did not want any loose talk around his adherence to delivery of justice. On the other extreme is chief justice Ranjan Gogoi, who accepted a nomination to Rajya Sabha soon after retirement. Judges and lawyers argue that unlike earlier when judges could insulate themselves in their legal towers, information revolution has invaded every judicial chamber now. There are stories of how sessions judges would not even read the morning newspaper, lest they come across a report on a murder trial they were presiding over. But now smartphones bring a barrage of news.

One functionary not mentioned in the Constitution but is expected to keep the government at an arm’s length is the CBI director. But his office has always been close to the chambers of the home minister and minister of state for personnel. In the division of his loyalties, it was devised that he would only report to the courts on the CBI’s investigations, and would report to the government on budget, staff and administrative matters. But a clever bureaucrat coined the term “preliminary inquiry”, where the government entrusted investigations to the agency without having to file a first information report in a court. That was a clear way to cage the parrot, as the Supreme Court said later about the government control of the agency.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra did the right thing by expressing his displeasure over the law ministry note, but did wrong by taking part in an “informal” discussion with Mishra, after the regular meeting was over. It is this informal chat that is seen as the government commanding and hugging the commission, especially when assembly elections are round the corner. Famous predecessors like R.V.S. Peri Sastri and T.N. Seshan had taken on prime ministers in asserting the independence of the commission.

But the bigger test for Chandra and his two colleagues would be the supervision of the highly charged contests in Uttar Pradesh.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-a-china-policy-for-2022

Sun Dec 19 17:57:29 IST 2021

Which pressure points will work on China to make it yield the territory it seized in Ladakh has been a question vexing Indian strategic policy planners ever since the Galwan aggression happened. There have been discussions on the available economic, diplomatic and military options, and their costs. Despite the restraint on the military option, India has been ramping up its preparedness on the long and unsettled border from Ladakh to the northeast, by moving more troops and equipment. Additional warplanes have been sent to the bases, while surveillance devices in satellites, drones and aircraft monitor the gathering of more Chinese troops and the construction of permanent structures. Yet, the option of a surgical strike, which seemed so obvious in the case of Pakistan-sponsored terrorist acts, is not so easy, given the size and strength of the Chinese army and its likely response. The long rounds of military-level talks have not been scaled up to the level of four-star generals who can take decisions, while at the political level, only the foreign ministers have spoken.

The economic options, too, are limited because of the comparatively moderate economic relations, especially after the virtual halt to Chinese investment in Indian companies, and the overt and covert steps taken by the commerce ministry to discourage exports. Indian businessmen who used to make frequent trips to China now rarely visit Chinese industrial hubs, because of Covid-19 restrictions and the growing negative sentiments towards China. Still, this has only firmed up the new status quo where the Chinese have occupied Indian territories, though the Indian government has not specified how many square kilometres have been lost in the last three years.

India has joined the Quad, which aims to ensure that China follows global rules in the Indo-Pacific. The Indian Navy has participated in joint exercises with other Quad members—the US, Australia and Japan. But New Delhi is not ready to declare the Quad a military coalition, preferring to describe it as an umbrella grouping for non-military purposes.

India has also not shown any public urgency towards suggestions that the Quad should be expanded to bring in South Korea and the UK initially, followed by southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Singapore, which have close relations with Beijing. During the recent Narendra Modi-Vladimir Putin summit, Russia seemed to have got the assurance that the Quad would not be a military alliance against Russia or its allies, given the hostility of the Biden administration towards Russia.

What should be the China policy for 2022? Experts who have dealt with the northern neighbour in diplomatic services, armed forces and intelligence agencies at the highest levels, feel that the Chinese vulnerability on its restless border territories—Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang—should be exploited. India has not volubly criticised Chinese policies in these territories unlike western democracies, especially the US. Australia, Japan, South Korea and the US have been vocal about Chinese military ambitions on Taiwan, which claims independence. The Taiwanese have been lobbying aggressively to isolate China, even demanding sanctions, for its attitude towards the island. Beijing, however, claims Taiwan to be an integral part of China.

The Taiwanese government has been actively lobbying the Indian government, the strategic community, the business leadership and the civil society to ensure that India supports the Taiwanese cause. Beijing has reacted sharply whenever BJP leaders visited Taiwan or met with Taiwanese officials. India allows a representative office of Taiwan in Delhi which issues travel documents for Indian citizens to visit the island.

There is, however, a counter argument that the Taiwanese ask for too much and give too little in return. Ever since former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao launched the national manufacturing mission, India has been wanting to be a hardware superpower. Four countries were identified by Rao’s manufacturing czar V. Krishnamurthy—the US, Japan, Taiwan and Israel. The US and Japan, which had sanctioned India for its nuclear explosions and for the refusal to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, have been very selective in releasing sensitive and dual-use technology. Though India has been described as a major defence partner by the US, Indian diplomats say American laws have made technology transfer difficult as the US Congress has to approve every important deal.

But Taiwan, which had no reservations on nuclear issues, has been extremely cagey about transfer of technology and has discouraged big foreign investments in hardware technology, despite several concessions given by India. A section of the Indian establishment, therefore, feels that Taiwan is not a low-hanging fruit as far as confrontation with China is concerned, and thinks that India should show some muscle in other Chinese regions which are landlocked. It is a challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national security ministerial team of Rajnath Singh, S. Jaishankar, Amit Shah and Nirmala Sitharaman and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

sachi@theweek.in

sachidananda-murthy-on-bjp-temples-and-divine-rollbacks

Thu Dec 09 15:12:32 IST 2021

The Narendra Modi government’s withdrawal of the three controversial farm laws showed that even strong governments blink under pressure. Pushkar Singh Dhami was in a more vulnerable position in Uttarakhand, so it is not surprising that he, too, has blinked by withdrawing a legislation aimed at bringing temples under state control.

Dhami has been Uttarakhand chief minister since July, but he is more of a nominated CM than someone who had won the mandate. His predecessor, Trivendra Singh Rawat, had provoked priests with his decision to nationalise the administration of 51 temples, including prominent pilgrim centres such as Badrinath and Kedarnath. Rawat had insisted that the protesting priests, and the politicians who supported them, did not have popular backing. But that did not stop the BJP high command from axing him and bringing in a replacement, Tirath Singh Rawat, who was later replaced by Dhami.

Dhami had also favoured state control of shrines to end administrative anomalies. But the assembly polls, due in months, presented a tight deadline. The belligerent priests even threatened to stop Modi from attending an event at the Kedarnath shrine—if their demands were not met. Dhami had to assure them that he would decide within a month, and requested that they not disrupt Modi’s programme. He has now fulfilled the promise by withdrawing the legislation.

The protests of the priests had won support from dissident BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy, who had long been opposing state intervention in managing the Tirupati shrine in Andhra Pradesh. Swamy had also questioned the control of the Tamil Nadu government over a large number of temples in the state.

A section of the RSS leadership was unhappy with Trivendra Singh Rawat because he was apparently setting a bad example of a BJP government wanting to control temples. The RSS has raised questions about some state governments controlling just Hindu places of worship while not intervening in the management of shrines of minority religions. Rawat was also accused of being guided more by bureaucrats than by party patriarchs in the state.

In his defence, Rawat pointed out how the intervention of Jammu and Kashmir governor Jagmohan had saved the Vaishno Devi temple at Katra. Jagmohan later became culture minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and was widely respected in BJP circles for cleaning up the cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora. Rawat’s reforms, however, hit a hard wall of the entrenched governing hierarchies, but he refused to backtrack on his decision.

Though Modi wants a single national model on ration cards, taxes and elections, his government has no policy prescription on temple management. It has left the matter to states, since the subject comes under the state list of the Constitution.

But many temples have valuable parcels of land in tony neighbourhoods of metropolitan and tier-II cities. The DMK government in Tamil Nadu says more than 40,000 acres of valuable land have been encroached on over decades. It has begun digital mapping to recover the assets, and recently claimed to have recovered temple land worth Rs1,000 crore in a prime Chennai locality.

But it is not just temple lands that are encroached upon. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka have reported that wakf land worth thousands of crores have been encroached upon.

There are also allegations that land sharks encourage temple managements to divert land for commercial use, and that large amounts of offerings are deposited in unsafe financial institutions. Thus, many famous and not-so-famous temples have become not just divine attractions, but money magnets as well.

sachi@theweek.in

why-people-still-march-to-parliament-sachidananda-murthy

Sat Dec 04 11:54:57 IST 2021

Staying true to recent trends, the ongoing winter session of Parliament has seen clashes between an impatient government and an agitated opposition, resulting in more noise than informed debate. But even as the old parliament building is covered with fine dust from the construction of a new house, Parliament remains the last resort for groups of concerned people from across the country. Several hundred groups are jostling for permission from the police to articulate their grievances when parliamentarians are in Delhi. Dozens of marches are scheduled during the short winter session; there are also demonstrations at designated spots on Parliament Street, next to Jantar Mantar.

Some organisations are busy organising day-long discussions at congenial venues like the Gandhi Peace Foundation and the Delhi Press Club. The groups which seek the attention of the Narendra Modi government, the MPs and the media are diverse, ranging from a mother seeking justice for her murdered child to tribals who want a state called Tipraland to be carved out from Tripura.

The second day of the winter session saw a group from Madhya Pradesh demanding an airport in Bilaspur, while another one from Kerala wanted the Kozhikode airport to be expanded. Jostling beside them were frustrated aspirants who were asking the Union Public Service Commission for a second chance. A group of teachers from Uttar Pradesh was protesting because the government was yet to confirm their jobs, a demand shared by anganwadi workers from Rajasthan. Some bank employees were protesting the move to privatise government banks.

Unlike in the past when a small delegation was allowed to visit Union ministers or officials to present the grievances, now the memoranda are collected by officers from the Delhi Police and the Intelligence Bureau, who also videograph the protesters. The memoranda are supposed to reach the particular ministries, but the police tell the demonstrators that they should send their grievances by email. A register is maintained to ensure that same groups do not occupy large spaces for many days. As access to the parliament building is difficult, most demonstrators depend on their MPs. Thus the protest sites attract dozens of MPs coming and making a brief address, posing for cameras and hoping that their presence will be noticed.

The retention of the protest sites so close to the parliament building has been a challenge for the police, who have tried in vain to shift the venues to far-off places. Covid protocols have ensured that not more than 200 persons are permitted at the sites, but the police prefer even smaller crowds.

Even as the protesters brave the harsh Delhi weather, the capital is also invaded by special interest groups and lobbyists who use the session time to take their MPs to ministers and officers. The MPs also tell delegations from their constituencies to visit Delhi to meet the decision makers, but the prime minister has been very selective about meeting delegations, which are keen on a photo opportunity and a handshake. Modi tells MPs that it is better they email their issues so that the PMO can take action. But for MPs used to bringing in delegations for enhancing their own standing among the voters, it is a let down.

The winter session also caught some groups by surprise because of the complexity of the Delhi government’s excise policy, which made premium brands of liquor difficult to get. Those who wanted the best brands had to go to neighbouring Haryana to keep the evenings warm. The Parliament session is nevertheless the time when issues of different regions get highlighted on the streets of Delhi, and some even reach the ears of the powerful.

sachi@theweek.in

farm-laws-repeal-wont-diminish-modi-power-sachidananda-murthy

Thu Nov 25 15:29:23 IST 2021

The withdrawal of the contentious farm laws is having multiple consequences for the BJP, which was otherwise riding strong on the stallion of parliamentary majority. Though, there is a perception that the decision was taken due to electoral compulsions, the party has been confronted with twin realities of caste and agriculture in recent months.

The decision to withdraw farm laws was unilateral—without discussions in any party fora, including the national executive, which met few days before Narendra Modi addressed the nation. But, now, party leaders from rural areas say the government should consult them more.

Varun Gandhi, who has written on agrarian policies, has made public his letter to the prime minister. Other MPs, too, have been conveying their opinions on policies, which are perceived to be not in the interests of farmers and agriculture labourers. Many have written about the fertiliser shortage in several states. The MPs are also agitated that the much-acclaimed Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana—of providing gas connections to every kitchen—is shadowed by lesser refills being availed.

There is also criticism that the kisan units of the party at the national and state levels are not taking enough initiatives to mobilise farmers and farm labourers. Several ministers in the cabinet handling agrarian subjects have urban backgrounds. There are suggestions that the party should run a brainstorming session on agriculture and rural development to find out whether the push for a single all-India model on different sectors would help farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans.

The BJP is also forced to look more intensely at tribal constituencies, as it had lost power in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand; had fared poorly in BJD-ruled Odisha, but made some gains in West Bengal’s tribal belt. The Congress and activist groups have accused the Centre of approving too many industrial and infrastructure projects in the tribal belt, ignoring local misgivings.

Conversely, there is also a strong feeling that the party cannot bend too much to accommodate leftist policies, as that would dilute the ‘right-of-the-centre’ ideological focus of the BJP. The question is whether the party would be more vulnerable to other pressure groups in areas of privatisation of public sector.

The RSS has a head of ideological thought who constantly holds discussions to enforce and fine-tune the ideological thought and action plan of the Sangh. It was Modi who succeeded in blending ideology with electoral pragmatism to give scintillating results.

The rollback on agriculture would not diminish Modi’s power, but would increase the chatter on governance options as the bigger election looms in 2024. That would also give an opportunity for Modi and his core team to find enough ways to tell the party leaders, the faithful and the swing voters, that it would listen to all sections of society as much as it speaks for them.

sachi@theweek.in

param-bir-singh-knew-the-odds-well-before-he-disappeared-sachidananda-murthy

Sat Nov 20 12:01:27 IST 2021

For the Maharashtra government, former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh is a missing person; a court declared him a proclaimed absconder. Yet, thanks to the interpretation of rules framed long ago, he would not be considered missing by the Central government until next year. The civil services rules stipulate that if a person is absent from work without authorisation for at least a year after his leave expires, he is confirmed to be missing from service, and can be automatically dismissed.

This is the protection clause inserted long ago to protect officials from the all India services who may go on leave because of harassment by states.

There is much speculation on where Singh is hiding, after making staggering corruption allegations against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh (who is now in jail). The Maharashtra government has slapped equally serious graft charges against Singh, saying that he used a gang of police officers to extort protection money from all kinds of businesses in the country’s commercial capital. Leaks from the investigative team said Singh, fearing for his life and liberty, fled to Nepal. There are others who claim that he has been spotted in Belgium and other European countries. There are also those who believe that Singh is being hidden by powerful people within the country and would make a dramatic return to topple the Uddhav Thackeray government.

Yet, the home ministry, which administers the Indian Police Service, feels that there is a distinction between a missing officer and a court declared absconder. The department of personnel, which is headed by the prime minister and interprets the rule on all India service officers, agrees with the view. They point out that if the trial court in Mumbai has declared that Singh has wilfully defied summons, the criminal laws on fugitives will come into operation. If the court or the investigative agencies have reasonable proof that Singh is outside the country, then the Central Bureau of Investigation would weigh the evidence and decide on alerting the Interpol to issue a red corner notice for his apprehension.

The plot gets complicated as Singh is in the middle of the slugfest between the Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena, which rule Maharashtra, and the BJP. Interestingly, when the call goes out for Interpol assistance, the file would land on the table of CBI director Subodh Jaiswal, who is also from the Maharashtra cadre.

Though the rules restrict French leave to only a year, many IPS and IAS officers have been absent for decades, and their cases are pending. These officers took long leave to study at a western university, where they actively seek lucrative jobs and long-term employment visas. In one case, the resignation of a Maharashtra cadre IPS officer was accepted 16 years after she went to the US to get a doctorate. The department did not get response to the notices sent to her known addresses in the country.

Several times, members of Parliament have asked why these truant officials were not brought back to the country. In most cases, foreign governments do not even cooperate in locating them after they obtain citizenship or legal visas, as it would be an invasion of privacy. Even if there are simpler criminal charges, it would not justify the demand for forced repatriation. The personnel department, however, points out that the percentage of officers who go absent without permission is a miniscule number.

The view in the department is that Singh, who has only a short period before he retires from service, knew the odds well before he disappeared.

sachi@theweek.in

param-bir-singh-knew-the-odds-well-before-he-disappeared-says-sachidananda-murthy

Thu Nov 18 12:28:30 IST 2021

This is the protection clause inserted long ago to protect officials from the all India services who may go on leave because of harassment by states.

The view in the department is that Singh, who has only a short period before he retires from service, knew the odds well before he disappeared.

sachi@theweek.in

doles-have-made-the-government-doleful-sachidananda-murthy

Thu Nov 11 17:52:41 IST 2021

Five kilograms of rice or wheat may be tiny compared with India’s huge grain stockpile, but it has been proposed that the government discontinue giving this modest quantity of grain to 81 crore families (totalling 4.4 million tonnes) every month. The proposal has provoked pleas to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to continue the stimulus until next summer.

The BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls next summer, has extended its own pro-poor food grain programme till next Holi, while Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that his government’s free grain supply scheme will run for another six months. Other states and political parties want the Centre to continue the scheme, which Modi has described as the world’s largest food security programme. States like UP, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have added kitchen essentials like edible oil, salt and sugar to the free grain kits.

Yet Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman face a dilemma in extending the scheme, which was announced as part of the 020 lakh crore stimulus package during the first Covid lockdown. The scheme was introduced for three months to help poor families uprooted by shutdown restrictions, especially those living in villages and urban slums. It was continued as the Covid threat lingered.

The food ministry now says the economy is recovering and that grain distribution in the open system has stabilised. The ministry records also show that even as politicians heap praise on the scheme, as many as 11 states failed to pick up more than 10 per cent of their allotted quota during several of the past 18 months. Also, the grain did not reach many beneficiaries because of corruption and wastage in the system; migrants who had returned to urban centres were no longer drawing free ration.

As elections are being held in five states next March, the discontinuation of the scheme could have political repercussions. There is intense debate in the ministries of finance, commerce, and food and civil supplies on when to end the various stimulus measures announced by the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India last year.

The RBI’s monetary policy committee recently decided to continue its “accommodative” stance of maintaining lower interest rates, moratoriums on payment of interests, higher subventions to banks and other lenders, and concessions for industries and exporters. There are fears that the government’s stimulus spending may not be sustainable and that the borrowing would shoot up.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had defended the accommodative approach as pragmatic, because economic growth was yet to take firm roots and there were worries about supply bottlenecks, fuel price spike and “several uncertainties” in the global economy. But a member of the monetary policy committee warned that the continuation of stimulus in a fast-recovering economy could push inflation higher.

The RBI, however, was also following other central banks, including the US Federal Reserve, whose chairman had said that it was time to be “patient” about withdrawal of stimulus. Banker Uday Kotak has said that the RBI needs to look at withdrawal of stimulus, warning that future generations would pay the price if it is continued indefinitely.

Experts also point out that the Rs30,000 crore stimulus package that the Manmohan Singh government introduced in December 2008 was continued for a long time, resulting in rapid widening of the fiscal deficit. The 2008 package also allowed banks to be imprudent in lending, which saddled the first Modi government with a banking crisis.

While logic dictates that the Covid-era stimulus needs to end, there are compelling political reasons to cater to the wants of a population battered by health and financial emergencies. The call that Modi needs to make is a tough one, especially since most of the stimulus measures are labelled as prime ministerial programmes.

sachi@theweek.in

modi-and-xi-are-not-keen-on-any-talks-now-writes-sachidananda-murthy

Sat Nov 06 10:57:07 IST 2021

The reluctance of Chinese President Xi Jinping to travel outside his country dashed the chances of a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the G20 summit in Rome or the Conference of Parties on Climate at Glasgow, where heads of government gathered in big numbers.

Xi has shut himself in ever since the pandemic began compared with other global leaders who have travelled out at least once, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who went to Geneva for a summit with US President Joe Biden. Top diplomats feel that even if Xi had attended these summits, he would have avoided meeting Modi, as Indian armed forces have got integrated with their counterparts in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad).

Further, Modi participated in two Quad summits; one virtually and then the physical summit in the US. China strongly protested military exercises held by India, the US, Japan and Australia. If Xi was present at these summits, it would have needed the intervention of a Good Samaritan leader to bring the leaders of the two most populous countries across the table.

Putin has a good rapport with Modi and Xi, but Russia was interested in a meeting between Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow. The two ministers have also spoken on the phone with each other on the Ladakh intrusion by Chinese troops.

Yi was present in Rome as the leading Chinese representative for the G20 summit, while Jaishankar was the leading member of the Indian delegation. But there was no reaching out from either side. However, Modi who had bilateral discussions with more than a dozen leaders, did discuss the situation with some. There were also questions from some on the implications of the new border agreement between Bhutan and China that has been a sequel to the Chinese army muscling in on Bhutanese territory, which led to the Doklam standoff in 2017.

The announcement in October that the two Himalayan neighbours will have a three-step “roadmap” to speed up negotiations on demarcation of the disputed boundaries had sparked off fears in the strategic community that Thimphu, which always depended on New Delhi, was opening a big door for Beijing. But both the defence and external affairs ministries felt there was no need for any adverse comment by the government as the Bhutanese government had taken India into confidence about the contours of the agreement. While the official Chinese media hailed the agreement as a big breakthrough, the Modi government felt there was no need even to mildly criticise the agreement.

The thirteenth round of talks between Indian and Chinese armies held at Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control on October 10 failed to get a commitment for the Chinese troops that had intruded into Hot Springs, Depsang and Demchok areas in Ladakh in 2020 summer. No date has been set for the next meeting, but now the mood in the Army is that the talks are not making any progress.

There is strong suggestion that the talks should be continued at the diplomatic level. Both countries have highly placed special representatives for border talks since the 1990s. Yi is the Chinese special representative, while his Indian counterpart is National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, both of whom directly report to Xi and Modi respectively. Doval and Yi can talk to each other only if they get the green signal from their supreme political bosses. But the signal from both Modi and Xi appears to be red, which means the army generals, more used to fighting, will have to keep talking in Moldo.

sachi@theweek.in

governor-satya-pal-malik-has-history-of-troubling-bjp-sachidananda-murthy

Thu Oct 28 14:50:02 IST 2021

The most serious corruption allegation during the seven-year NDA rule came from unexpected quarters. Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik, an appointee of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleged that when he was governor of Jammu and Kashmir (2017-2019), he was offered a bribe to clear two files—in which an industrialist whom he named only as Ambani and an RSS leader active in the state were interested.

While no industrialist with the Ambani surname reacted to the allegation, RSS leader Ram Madhav, who was BJP general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir during Malik’s tenure, responded sharply. Madhav, who has helmed multiple successful missions for the BJP in recent times, said that he was never involved in any such attempt and threatened to take every possible action against the slur.

Malik made a halfway apology, saying he would seek a pardon from the RSS for having mentioned its name, but did not withdraw his claims that he was given the impression that there would be a windfall of around 0300 crore if he cleared the files.

Malik, a Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh, has created some trouble for the BJP in other places, too. He was moved to Goa in 2019, but soon developed differences with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. An annoyed Modi had then sent him to the hills of Meghalaya. But, Malik, who comes from Janata Party background, likes to return regularly to his favoured stomping grounds in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. He said that there would be backlash if the Centre does not resolve the farmers’ agitation. He also irked the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh by saying that BJP leaders should not visit villages which were affected by the farmers’ agitation.

Though Modi has generally been careful in choosing governors, there have been the odd exceptions. Tathagata Roy, who was also governor of Meghalaya, used to create storms with his statements, not only against the BJP’s political opponents, but also against his own partymen in West Bengal. Even after he was persuaded to resign, Roy returned to his home state and, in the wake of the BJP’s defeat, said that garbage had come and now garbage was going out (referring to defectors from the Trinamool Congress). However, the feisty West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has stayed true to the BJP script. Similarly, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has not been friendly to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

It remains to be seen whether Malik’s allegation pertaining to J&K will be investigated by the anti-corruption body at the Centre or in the Union territory. The anti-corruption law says even an unsuccessful attempt at bribery is a criminal offence. Apart from having constitutional immunity while remaining a governor, Malik claims he has only five pairs of kurta-pyjamas and that he lives in a simple house. Till the corruption charge was made now, his most controversial statement was at the height of the Kashmir crisis, when he said he had not received a communication from then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, as “the fax machine in the Raj Bhavan was not working”.

Now the question is whether the government will wait for more bombshells from Malik or ease him out of gubernatorial duties.

sachi@theweek.in

govt-needs-to-be-proactive-on-the-prices-front-sachidananda-murthy

Fri Oct 22 16:58:36 IST 2021

Tensions are rising in several Union ministries as their budgets are showing signs of going haywire because of the disruptions in global supply chains and the resultant rise in commodity prices.

Supply chain disruptions had been there since March last year, because of Covid-related restrictions. But the restrictions also caused a fall in consumption because of the subdued demand for food, fertilisers and petroleum products. But, as the pandemic has slowed down considerably, consumption levels have been rising. Even as the government celebrates the increase in industrial activity and the return to normal work schedules in most areas, the ministries had not been well prepared for the shortfall in imports. Even in the case of commodities that were available, prices have gone up. As government continues to spend on Covid preparedness, by maintaining hospital beds and oxygen plants, the brief scare given by coal shortages has been a forewarning of other crises that are looming.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who also handles the fertilisers, chemicals and pharmaceuticals portfolio, has warned that international fertiliser prices are shooting up. But he has praised the prime minister for directing the government to absorb the price difference so that farmers across the country could get fertiliser at current prices.

The petroleum ministry has sounded a warning that international oil prices were going up and more funds were needed. But the ministry is not earning any sympathy; it is being flayed for having continuously increased prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas even when international prices were low. There is talk that Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri will hold talks with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the need to reduce Central customs and excise duties, so that fuel prices do not rise further. But the finance ministry, which has many demands on its plate, has been a tax guzzler. It would be tough to give up the habit, as deficits can shoot up.

The food and civil supplies ministry has also been criticised for its slow response to the steep increase in prices of pulses and edible oils. Now, using provisions of the amended Essential Commodities Act, the government has imposed restrictions on stocks that can be kept by wholesalers and retailers so that prices would not shoot up. But, since demand has surged because of the festival season and the return to normalcy, countries which export palm oil, tur dal (split pigeon pea), urad dal (black gram) and chickpea to India are eyeing big profits. The government’s edible oil and pulses missions, which aim at making India self-reliant in the production of these commodities, are a long way from fruition because of the annual increase in demand.

During the decades of scarcity, the government had a cabinet committee on prices headed by the finance minister, which monitored prices and shortages, and took necessary actions when required. In the past two decades, shortages of essential commodities have been rare. The functions of the prices committee have been subsumed into the committee on economic affairs, headed by the prime minister and whose members include political heavyweights such as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, as well as ministers who handle economy-related matters—Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal (commerce, industry and civil supplies) and Narendra Singh Tomar (agriculture)—and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

With crucial elections coming up, the government needs to continue to be proactive on the prices front.

sachi@theweek.in

tough-for-singapore-to-balance-its-relationship-with-china-india-sanjaya-baru

Thu May 27 15:38:31 IST 2021

It was just as well that Arvind Kejriwal was ticked off for his Singapore sling. Attempts to offer post-facto justification for his baseless remarks about a Singapore variant of Covid and a call for suspension of Singapore Airlines flights were totally out of line. Important public functionaries in the Union and state governments must learn to educate themselves about the foreign policy implications of their casual political statements before holding forth.

Whatever Singapore’s faults as a defender of free speech, and the island republic has that problem, and the appropriateness of the high commissioner’s remarks about invoking a Singaporean law in response to Kejriwal’s remarks, the fact is that the Delhi CM made inappropriate remarks and was rightly rapped on the knuckles by the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

In 1992, prime ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao and Goh Chok Tong launched a strategic partnership between the two nations that has since made Singapore the fulcrum of India’s policy towards south-east Asia and the Indo-Pacific. The city state has become a preferred destination for millions of Indian tourists, students and professionals. Even though China is Singapore’s most important trade and economic partner, India has emerged as a major security partner for Singapore. Balancing its relationship with China and India has been a tough diplomatic act for the island republic. However, in recent years, this relationship is being tested by a variety of factors including the increasingly tense China-India relationship, India’s uncertain approach to regional economic integration and Singapore’s disappointments in its business and economic relationship with India, made worse by the turn of events in Andhra Pradesh’s capital city project.

An important backdrop to the Kejriwal kerfuffle is the issue of race relations in Singapore and communal tensions in India that political leaders in both countries must handle with care. Two developments over the past decade have created problems for the bilateral relationship. First, the growing profile of mainland China across the region and the consequent assertion of a pan-Asian Chinese nationalism; second, the communal politics of Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist extremist groups across the Indo-Pacific. Singapore has had to deal with the increasing assertion of both Chinese and Islamic elements at home and it has, so far, managed this well.

While Singapore’s leadership has always been mindful of racial differences and tensions at home, and has for long pursued a range of social policies aimed at ensuring social cohesion, India is increasingly viewed in the region as a country with similar challenges, but one that is not doing enough to address them. On top of this, China-India geopolitical tensions are generating social discord between people of Indian and Chinese origin in the Indo-China region, as a whole, and in Singapore, in particular.

Indian leadership must remain acutely conscious of the racial, religious and ethnic composition of its south-east Asian neighbourhood and manage its relations with the region with care. After all, before the region came to be called ‘south-east Asia’, it was referred to as Indo-China. The Indo-China region ran all the way through Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and even Indonesia, because it was culturally shaped by the two great civilisations of China and India.

Indian leaders and strategic analysts must appreciate that China’s rise and China-India tensions have cast a long shadow across the region. Even as the two Asian giants are engaged in a new ‘great game’ for influence, resources, markets and more across Asia, India’s image in the region has been dented over the past seven years.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

sanjaya-baru-says-indias-assiduously-built-brand-equity-has-depleted

Thu May 13 15:20:27 IST 2021

Over the past decade, India’s brand equity, assiduously built over the previous quarter century, has depleted. Several factors contributed to the waxing of Brand India in the two decades since 1991 and an equal number of them have contributed to its subsequent waning. Three prime ministers—P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh—were associated with building India’s brand as an emerging economy and rising power. While a weakening of the brand began in the last couple of years of the second Manmohan Singh government, there has been a precipitous decline under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

What then were the factors that built Brand India and what have contributed to its depletion?

Till the 1980s, India was seen as part of a laggard south Asia that was being left behind by the impressive economic growth process under way in east Asia. The 1990s changed that. India’s improved economic performance after 1991, especially within a policy framework defined by liberalisation and the freer play of market forces, made the world sit up and view India as part of the ‘Asian miracle’. Even sceptical east Asians began to acknowledge that India was learning and was likely to catch up. As a consequence, doors opened to the east, and India became an active member of what came to be called the Indo-Pacific.

A second factor powering Brand India was the emergence of the knowledge economy based on information technology and biotechnology. India’s contribution to the emergence of the software and data processing industry established it as a knowledge power in the new economy. India’s successful integration into world trade—thanks to membership of the World Trade Organization—with India’s share of world trade rising from 0.5 per cent in the 1980s to close to 2 per cent by the 2010s also shaped global perceptions about India. As doors opened to the west, Indians found themselves increasingly welcome in the United States, cementing that relationship.

A third factor that helped promote Brand India was the emergence of India as a nuclear weapons power that had left its traditional rival Pakistan behind and was catching up with China as an Indo-Pacific power. The Rising India narrative was built on this foundation.

Finally, and most importantly, India’s global stature was enhanced by the fact that its economic rise was seen as the success of a plural, secular and liberal democracy in a developing economy, offering a counter to China’s experience of economic rise as an authoritarian state. US presidents George Bush and Barack Obama said as much, defending their approach to India between 2000-2012.

Over the last seven years, each of these aspects of India’s rise in the post-Cold War era has come to be questioned and challenged. Asia to India’s east is as wary of this ‘New India’ of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah as are the trans-Atlantic powers. Their combined desire to keep rising China under check has continued to help keep many doors around the world still open to an India that increasingly disappoints them. We owe President Xi Jinping a big ‘Thank You’ for this.

Just as India’s emergence as an IT and software power burnished its global brand at the turn of the century, its nascent emergence as the ‘pharmacy of the world’, with the promise of affordable medicine, began to contribute to Brand India, until the incompetent handling of the Covid-19 pandemic unravelled the India story. The combination of ideological intolerance and administrative incompetence has depleted Brand India at home and overseas.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

defining-india-power-elite-is-a-tough-task-sanjaya-baru

Thu Apr 15 15:41:45 IST 2021

Few among the power elite in India seem willing to be classified as such. It seems a very Indian thing, this faux humility. The upper castes claim they no longer are the privileged. Business elites complain that politicians and bureaucrats have more power. Politicians lament that they are beholden to vote banks and money bags. Bureaucrats say they have always been only civil servants. All this adds to the additional complication that in India there are multiple hierarchies of power defined by class, caste, language, culture and so on. So, who are the power elite?

An amusing reaction to my new book, India’s Power Elite: Class, Caste and a Cultural Revolution, has been a universal denial of their elite status and their elitism by the powerful. The IAS will tell you that they are no longer the elite corps they once were and that colleagues in the police and revenue services now rule the bureaucratic roost. Business leaders draw attention to tax raids and regulations to point fingers at politicians as the really powerful. Either money no longer fetches power or far too much of it is demanded in exchange for too little patronage. Military officers argue that they have been excessively subordinated to civilian control. Celebrities in the world of media, academia and even entertainment question my arguments about their power, drawing attention to the many attacks on their freedom by politicians in power. Even a powerful prime minister complains that government officials have become roadblocks and bottlenecks in governance. So, who are India’s power elite?

When American sociologist C. Wright Mills wrote his classic study on The Power Elite (1956) in the United States, he had no problem identifying who controlled the levers of power in ‘post-war’ America. Business barons, military leaders, wealthy and influential celebrities and well-heeled politicians were Mills’s power elite. “The power elite is composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences,” wrote Mills. “They are in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society. They rule the big corporations. They run the machinery of the state and claim its prerogatives. They direct the military establishment. They occupy the strategic command posts of the social structure, in which are now centred the effective means of the power and the wealth and the celebrity status which they enjoy.”

Inspired by Mills’s classic, I tried to define the Indian power elite and soon came up against the complexity of our society. Apart from the obvious additional dimension added by caste, the Indian reality presents a matrix of cross-cutting hierarchies that few sociologists have been able to clearly delineate in terms of their power. The socialist leader and political guru of the so-called “other backward classes”, Ram Manohar Lohia, offered a simple definition of who constitutes India’s power elite by identifying three features—upper caste status, inherited wealth and command over the English language.

This simple definition, offered in the 1960s, has been challenged by the social, economic, political and what I define as cultural change over the past half century. Middle castes have acquired as much, if not more, political power as the upper castes; power has yielded wealth for the newly rich; and, English language is no longer such an important social differentiator. Change is afoot and my book tries to capture this change. Interestingly, many from the ‘old elite’ have called to concede the decline in their social standing, but many among the ‘new elite’ are irritated about being so identified.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

bangladesh-is-looking-east-and-succeeding-says-sanjaya-baru

Thu Apr 01 19:11:58 IST 2021

Bangladesh entered the fiftieth year of its liberation and creation registering the highest rates of national income growth among all south Asian economies. For a country that was regarded as the region’s basket case at its birth, Bangladesh has travelled a great distance. On the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) Bangladesh is ranked 133 in 2020, just two steps behind India, and 20 steps ahead of Pakistan. This impressive performance is not statistical.

Over the half century of a troubled existence, Bangladesh has managed to industrialise and invest in its human capabilities. Western multinationals, seeking to relocate out of China as they reconfigure their global supply chains, are increasingly looking at Bangladesh as a hospitable host country. An important factor that has shaped Bangladesh’s post-liberation developmental journey has been its own “Look East” and “Act East” policy. With this the south Asian nation is increasingly behaving like a south-east Asian one.

Japan’s former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi once famously described India as being at the centre of a vast continent with a very different Asia on either side. To India’s west is a politically unstable Asia, remarked Koizumi, to India’s east is an ‘increasingly prosperous’ Asia. In which direction is India headed? That seemed to be Koizumi’s implied question.

Bangladesh has so far addressed that question quite convincingly. It seeks inspiration from its south-east Asian neighbours, establishing beneficial economic links with China and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is also increasingly receptive to Indian and Pakistani investors. Indian investments have been steadily rising, in part to take advantage of Bangladesh’s export quotas and in part because of a more hospitable business environment.

As a member of the regional grouping BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), Bangladesh was viewed as a likely bridge between south and south-east Asia, but it is a bridge that looks more longingly to its east. I would not be surprised if at some point Bangladesh seeks closer engagement with ASEAN, even membership, given the slow demise of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), an organisation that was in fact a Bangladeshi brainchild.

The challenge to Bangladesh’s steady rise comes largely from homegrown religious radicalism, partly stoked by external inspiration and support. The recent military coup in Myanmar and the enduring presence of the military in Thailand should act as reminders to Bangladesh’s democratic forces that a retreat from hard won democratic freedoms is an ever-present possibility. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has unequivocally condemned the coup in Myanmar and has been able to keep the military at home under tight leash.

Religious extremism, cutting across all regionally prevalent religions, is a more widespread regional phenomenon in evidence from west Asia into south-east Asia. India was grappling only with Islamic extremism till a decade ago and is now also dealing with the challenge of Hindu majoritarianism. Hasina has partially succeeded in recovering for Bangladesh its original secular identity. However, given the growing influence of religion on politics in most neighbouring countries, it remains to be seen how long Bangladesh can keep radical religious elements out of key institutions.

Bangladesh’s recent success as a nation, and as an economy, holds many lessons not just for Pakistan, the parent country that it left behind in more senses than one, but for all regional countries. It shows the benefits of pursuing liberal economics and politics with a modern and forward-looking national elite and political leadership.

Happy birthday, Bangladesh!

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

sanjaya-baru-canada-south-korea-and-vietnam-will-seek-membership-of-a-quad-plus

Fri Mar 19 13:45:21 IST 2021

Everyone likes to be a member of an exclusive club, yet no one likes a club whose membership rules disbar you. That social paradox extends to the world of international relations. When Russia brought together Brazil, China and India to launch a quadrilateral group called BRIC, with the stated objective of creating a new world order, the US pooh-poohed it as a gathering of wannabes. A decade-and-a-half later the heads of government of Australia, India, Japan and the US have come together to form the Quad. China has dismissed it as a ‘talk shop’.

When China invited South Africa and made BRIC into BRICS, many analysts argued that they lacked the concrete required to hold them together. It took three BRICS summits of long speeches, longer joint statements and no concrete agenda for India to finally come up with the proposal that the group set up a rival to the US-led World Bank in the form of a development bank, now called the New Development Bank. That China came to dominate BRICS and the bank was located in Shanghai was a natural consequence of the fact that China’s national income and its foreign exchange reserves are more than the combined national income and reserves of the other four.

Quad’s success will be determined by the extent to which the US is willing to address the concerns of its three partners. In any club the most powerful set the terms of engagement. What Quad will achieve in geopolitical terms apart from putting China on guard, important as this objective is, is not yet clear. China’s protestations about Quad being a ganging up are vastly exaggerated given that it is itself a member of many such plurilateral groups that have kept one or the other Quad members out.

What Quad has already achieved in geo-economic terms is to use the Asian demand for Covid-19 vaccines as an opportunity to create a four-way economic relationship that combines the benefits of American research, Japanese funding, Indian manufacturing capacity and Australian marketing network to supply vaccines to Asian developing countries. This is without doubt a smart idea and one that can ensure its equal ownership by all four partner countries.

For the Indian pharmaceuticals industry, that has for many years faced an unequal playing field in overseas markets, the vaccine opportunity has been a boon. Countries that once sought to erect barriers to entry to Indian pharma are now laying out the red carpet. This is welcome news. The Quad have already demonstrated their ability to cooperate in the space of maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region and will continue to explore new areas for cooperation and combined action.

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the formalisation of Quad and its elevation to summit-level meetings is without doubt the single most important diplomatic achievement of his prime ministerial career thus far. Modi had no remarkable foreign policy achievement of his own in his first term, like Manmohan Singh’s historic nuclear deal with the US. He did, however, take forward many initiatives of his predecessor, including the relationships with the US, Japan and Australia.

The formalisation of Quad and the articulation of a clear purpose and agenda through a joint statement is a landmark development on the geopolitical and geo-economic front and a significant achievement for Modi. It has the potential to provide a framework within which India can once again secure a global environment more hospitable for its economic rise. It is entirely possible that over time countries like Canada, South Korea and Vietnam will seek membership of a Quad Plus.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

v-should-follow-k

Thu Mar 04 14:18:23 IST 2021

Students of economics become familiar with several letters of the English alphabet. If you do not know what Y, C, I, X and M mean, then you do not know the subject’s ABC. While the spokespersons for the government of India’s ministry of finance insist that the post-lockdown recovery of the Indian economy, now under way, has taken a V-shape—implying a sharp recovery in the growth rate of output after a sharp downturn—the consensus view of most professional economists is that the economy’s recovery looks more like the letter K.

The letter K captures two distinct phenomena—a V on top of an inverse-V. The corporate sector and big business have seen capacity utilisation recover sharply, output rise and, importantly, a bounce back of profitability. Air travel across cities has resumed and flights are all full. Those who have the money are back to spending it and the stuff they spend on is helping the corporate sector experience of a revival of demand. While alphabetically K comes before V, economic policy, too, should focus first on K and convert K-shaped growth into a V-shaped one.

The return of corporate sector profitability has not been accompanied by a restoration of all the jobs lost during the lockdown, especially contract and casual labour employment. Moreover, the V-shaped recovery in the organised sector is not seen in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Both Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have admitted as such. The Union budget and the May 2020 package of the government recognised this problem and have tried to address it. Critics would say “not enough”, while the government would say it has done the best it can, given fiscal constraints.

While there would be differences between spokespersons of the government and its critics on the effectiveness of the measures taken to address the problem of the MSMEs and the larger problem of unemployment, the fact is that there is universal recognition that these remain policy challenges for the government.

Mahesh Vyas of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, who has unabashedly focused on the challenge of inadequate employment, views post-lockdown job losses as worrisome and distressing given their pattern. “It is the urbanites who are losing jobs more than rural [people], women who are losing jobs more than men,” he said. “It is graduates and postgraduates who are losing jobs more than others. Youngsters losing jobs and not the older people. The composition of this loss of jobs is worrisome.”

The loss of existing jobs is one challenge. Equally worrying is the decline in new recruitments. Think of a middle class family in which the father and/or mother have lost jobs and the young daughter and son entering the job market find no new openings. This segment of society lives below the V, in the world of the inverse-V. This phenomenon is not specific to India, but is witnessed in many market-economies around the world where security of employment is not guaranteed and no social security nets are provided.

What is surprising, however, is that despite the differential impact of the lockdown and the post-lockdown recovery on different sections of society, class-based political mobilisation is still very limited. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has sought to pre-empt such mobilisation by keeping up the nationalist rhetoric, so that people’s anger due to a worsening of their economic situation is channelled into nationalist and communal campaigns rather than class-based mobilisation. How long the economic growth process remains K-shaped will depend on the distributional impact of the government’s pro-growth economic policies.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

the-politics-of-u-turns

Fri Feb 19 12:26:10 IST 2021

The stand taken by the BJP and the Congress on a range of policy issues including the farm laws issue, disinvestment and various budgetary initiatives has prompted spokespersons of both parties to point to each other’s reversal of stance over time. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to embarrass the Congress by pointing to the views expressed on farm sector reform by none other than former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress minister Jairam Ramesh has tweeted a statement by Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat to show the PM’s own U-turn on the issue.

Jairam quotes the report of a working group of chief ministers on consumer affairs, constituted in 2010 and chaired by the then chief minister of Gujarat, whose members included the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, that says, “We should protect farmer’s interests by mandating through statutory provisions that no farmer-trader transaction should be below minimum support price.” Modi presented this report to Singh in 2011.

This is just one example. Congress leaders are busy quoting what BJP leaders said on various policy matters when their party was in opposition and BJP ministers are busy quoting what Congress leaders said when their party was in power. There are any number of issues on which the BJP in power has done a U-turn and an equal number of issues on which the Congress out of power has done a U-turn.

Both parties have one advantage. Today’s BJP, led by Modi and Amit Shah, has not had any problem disowning the policies of yesterday’s BJP led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. Equally, today’s Congress led by Rahul Gandhi has had no problem dumping the policies of yesterday’s Congress governments headed by P.V. Narasimha Rao and Singh.

This tactic of U-turns has not been confined to domestic economic policy alone, and has also extended to foreign policy. The BJP in opposition rejected the India-US civil nuclear energy agreement that was in fact initiated by Vajpayee. Back in power, under a different PM, the same BJP that opposed the nuclear deal quietly completed it by fudging its stand on the nuclear liability law.

Parties come to power opposing some major initiative of the party in government and, once elected to office, go ahead and do precisely what they promised not to. Purists call this hypocrisy. Politicians call this pragmatism. Politics, they remind us, is the art of the possible. If it is possible to win elections saying one thing, while it is not possible to run a government without reversing one’s stance, then pragmatism demands a U-turn.

Singh took a stoic view of such pragmatism. “Do not judge a political party by what it says when in opposition.” He would say, “Judge it by what it does when in government.”

The remarkable continuity in policies—domestic and foreign—through successive changes of government validates Singh’s pithy, if cynical, observation. So all this business of pointing fingers and calling each other hypocrite is a waste of energy. The fact is that with the exception of BJP’s ‘Hindutva’ agenda and its communal politics, on almost all other policy issues the BJP and the Congress are often on the same page.

In an increasingly personality-driven politics ideology plays second fiddle. Hopefully, voters would judge a political party by what it does rather than what it says and the impact of policy in practice on people would remain the final arbiter.

budgeting-for-time

Thu Feb 04 16:07:03 IST 2021

In a recent episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati, Amitabh Bachchan asked a contestant which finance minister had read out the shortest budget speech in Parliament. All of 800 words. The options given were: Rajiv Gandhi, H.N. Bahuguna, H.M. Patel and Nirmala Sitharaman. The 18-year-old contestant sought a lifeline. She has clearly not lived long enough to know that of the four named, only one was a non-politician, and so most likely to have delivered the shortest speech! H.M. Patel, the retired ICS officer who was prime minister Morarji Desai’s finance minister, is the right answer.

The length of the finance minister’s speech has nothing to do with the task at hand, of seeking Parliament’s approval for the government’s revenue and expenditure proposals. Admittedly, Patel was merely seeking a vote on account in 1977 and not presenting a full-fledged budget and so restricted himself to an 800-word statement. However, there have been many other such vote-on-account statements from politician finance ministers and each of them was a long speech. With time, our 18-year-old will come to realise that no politician likes to give up the opportunity of holding Parliament’s and the country’s (with live TV coverage) attention.

Nirmala Sitharaman broke the record last year with a speech that left her speechless. Mercifully, this year she spared us and herself the agony with a 110-minute speech—the shortest in recent times. Since the finance minister hogs the national attention through budget day and evening, the prime minister too manages to secure his airtime to remind everyone that he is the boss. As prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao once famously said, “The finance minister is like the number zero. Its value depends on what number you place before it. The PM is that number.”

Last year’s poorly crafted budget and badly drafted speech got both the PM and the FM a zero. This year, both have secured distinction. Sitharaman did what she was expected to by most analysts. To quote her, she has tried to “spend, spend, spend” her way out of the downturn. A brief policy statement forces a politician to focus. Sitharaman kept her focus on top-of-the-mind issues of reviving growth, encouraging investment, promoting savings and stimulating demand. If public spending can trigger private spending and demand perks up generally, there is the hope of real recovery. If the demand stimulus is not met by a supply response, inflationary pressures will mount. This is one downside risk that the government has to be alert to.

The global intellectual climate of economists’ opinion has come to Sitharaman’s rescue. The discrediting of what has come to be called “neo-liberal” economics identified with the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’, over the past decade, has allowed Sitharaman to get away with a fiscal deficit of 9.5 per cent of national income (gross domestic product). She has buried, for all practical purposes, the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act and got away with it. While sovereign rating agencies may baulk at this, the finance ministry’s Economic Survey has shown them their place. Since the New York-based rating agencies march to Washington, DC’s tune, the foreign minister would be expected to dial DC and make sure the agencies do not step out of line.

In spending more on welfare and infrastructure, Sitharaman has had to curtail the defence budget. Here, too, the foreign minister will have to step in to make sure diplomacy does the job for defence. Sitharaman should be happy with the overall response to her third budget statement. This should help ensure that she gets to present the fourth one too!

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

burnishing-the-padmas

Thu Jan 21 15:09:17 IST 2021

A silver lining to the large and looming dark cloud of concern about institutional decay and falling standards is the revival in the status of the Padma awards. Instituted in the early 1950s, to recognise individual contribution to national development, social welfare and to the fields of culture, education, the sciences, business and economic development, the Padma awards have had a chequered career. While many distinguished awardees have helped elevate the status of the awards, some black sheep have brought disrepute to the award and the process by which nominees were chosen.

Some years ago, a major controversy erupted around the UPA government’s decision to bestow upon a New York-based businessman, against whom various cases had been pending in law courts in the US and India, a Padma Bhushan. Less questionable but equally controversial have been awards to all manner of politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and economists by the governments of both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

Even Bharat Ratna, the highest national award, has not been bereft of controversy. Many had questioned the posthumous award of Bharat Ratna to Tamil Nadu’s M.G. Ramachandran in 1987, when no such award had been given to a B.R. Ambedkar or a Sardar Patel. It was prime minister V.P. Singh who named Ambedkar to a Bharat Ratna in 1990 and prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao who named Patel. Curiously, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave Pranab Mukherjee a Bharat Ratna, but has so far denied it to Narasimha Rao despite demands from all around.

Given the controversial past of Bharat Ratna and Padma awards, Modi may be credited with at least trying to elevate the status of these awards by encouraging the government-appointed nominations committee to increasingly pick individuals who have done worthy service to society. In the run-up to this year’s Republic Day, and before the list of this year’s awardees is made public, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has invited some of the awardees from the last few years to share their work with members of Parliament. Twenty Padma awardees are expected to make online presentations on best practices from various fields of social work. This is a welcome initiative. It should help curb the cynicism associated with the awards process and allow the lotus to bloom again.

This is not to deny that some undeserving or controversial individuals still do manage to get their names listed. I must confess I became increasingly cynical about Padma awards after observing the kind of lobbying that used to go on. I cannot believe it has ceased completely.

In the end one must ask what national purpose such national awards serve. Apart from merely recognising good work, or gratifying friends and influencing people, the selectors must choose such individuals for these awards who may be regarded as national icons.

When an engineer like Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya or a scientist like C.V. Raman was named a Bharat Ratna in the 1950s, they were also regarded as iconic heroes who have since inspired millions to excel in their fields. When Narasimha Rao named J.R.D. Tata to Bharat Ratna, and he is the only industrialist so far so named, he was holding JRD up as a national icon.

The Modi government’s decision to honour individuals from the fields of social work and social development should be welcomed. However, India also needs icons in fields like science, engineering, medicine, architecture, teaching, municipal administration, farming, horticulture and rural development and so on, who can inspire others by becoming objects of national pride, regard and celebration.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

politics-of-personality

Thu Jan 07 16:11:08 IST 2021

Actor Rajinikanth’s decision to opt out of Tamil Nadu’s political sweepstakes will bring to an end a long era of personality-based politics in the state. While the Dravidian leader C.N. Annadurai’s challenge of the Indian National Congress in the 1960s had a distinct ideological edge to it, the subsequent evolution of Dravidian politics focused increasingly on personalities. Thus, Tamil politics revolved for close to half a century around the film personalities of M. Karunanidhi, M.G. Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa.

While film actor Kamal Haasan has decided to remain in the state’s political arena, his is not the kind of personality that can spawn a cult in the manner in which MGR and Jayalalithaa managed to, and Rajinikanth had the potential to. Rajinikanth’s entry into electoral politics would have given the politics of personality cult a fresh lease of life in Tamil Nadu. With the thespian opting out, Tamil Nadu’s politics may return to the national norm of a mix of ideology, money power and wheeling-dealing. Neither the DMK’s Stalin nor any of the other leaders of the clutch of Dravidian parties, nor indeed the local leaders of national parties, have anyone with any charismatic appeal for the voter. Even national leaders like Narendra Modi and Sonia Gandhi have not been able to stir the Tamil voter to any significant degree.

All this would make the political race in Tamil Nadu very interesting. In West Bengal, politics revolves around the personality of Mamata Banerjee. Neither the BJP nor the Left-Congress alliance has been able to offer a leader of equal standing.

Wherever personalities have come to dominate politics—including at the national level with Modi creating a ‘personality cult’ around himself—the formula is quite simple and predictable. Political outcomes increasingly depend on the image of the leader rather than the leader’s performance.

This phenomenon is observed at the global level, too. From the world’s oldest democracy, the US, where Donald Trump pursued the politics of personality, to China, where Xi Jinping does the same, we see the projection and assertion of individual personality in tandem with the pursuit of ideological politics. Those who find the media projection of Modi amusing—posing as he does with peacocks and foundation stones in fancy headgear and dress—should pay attention to the Chinese media’s projection of Xi. Chinese television projects Xi’s public appearances much like Indian television does of Modi’s.

Twentieth century’s democratic leaders learnt their lessons in the politics of the personality cult from the populism of despots. Edgar Snow, the American chronicler of Mao Zedong’s thoughts and achievements, has captured it well in his account of the chairman’s dominance in China. Snow suggests that a key to comprehending Mao’s leadership is the central role played by the ‘cult of personality’.

In one of his many conversations with Mao, Snow quizzed him on the issue. “In the Soviet Union, China has been criticised for fostering a cult of personality. Is there a basis for that?” Snow asked Mao. “There perhaps was,” replied Mao, without any hesitation. Mao then told Snow that while Stalin had been the centre of a cult of personality, Khrushchev never bothered to promote one around himself. “Mr Khrushchev fell,” Mao told Snow, “because he had no cult of personality at all.” Clearly, Mao’s message has been internalised not only by Xi, but also by many of his contemporaries in democracies around the world.

bengals-long-march

Thu Dec 24 16:20:22 IST 2020

It was in May 1943 that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave his clarion call: “Comrades! Soldiers! Let your battle-cry be—‘To Delhi! To Delhi!’ Our task will not end until our surviving heroes hold the victory parade.... on Lal Qila, the Red Fort of ancient Delhi.” Eight decades later, the seat of power in Delhi continues to elude Bengal’s leaders. If Gujarat has nursed the grouse that Mahatma Gandhi chose Jawaharlal Nehru over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Bengal too has had the grievance that Gandhiji was half-hearted in his support for Bose. Netaji managed to convincingly defeat Pattabhi Sitaramayya in the party elections of 1939, but it was a pyrrhic victory. Unable to win over Gandhiji, Bose was left with little option but to resign and eventually walk his own path.

Bose and Patel had a reasonable chance of becoming free India’s first prime minister. Gandhiji’s decision to adopt Nehru queered the pitch. While Patel dutifully accepted Gandhiji’s decision, Bose revolted. A Gujarati managed to succeed Nehru’s daughter, when Morarji Desai became PM, and another one succeeded in ousting the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Bengal, on the other hand, has continued to miss the opportunity of hoisting Netaji’s flag on Lal Qila.

The ‘historic blunder’ of the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) robbed Jyoti Basu of the chances of becoming the first Bengali PM. Rajiv Gandhi’s acolytes and the coterie around Sonia Gandhi managed to stymie the chances of yet another Bengali, Pranab Mukherjee. Interestingly, both Basu and Mukherjee nursed a grievance on this score till the very end.

The north has had its PMs (Nehru, Shastri, Indira, Rajiv, V.P. Singh, Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar, I.K. Gujral, Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh) and so have the south (Narasimha Rao and Deve Gowda) and the west (Morarji and Narendra Modi). The east never managed to get its own on Delhi’s throne.

The coming assembly elections in West Bengal could once again offer Bengal the opportunity to throw up a national leader if Mamata Banerjee secures a third term. The verdict will decide not only who rules from Kolkata, but also who can potentially rule from Delhi if a credible coalition can be formed under Banerjee’s leadership. Little wonder then that the Bharatiya Janata Party is determined to ensure her defeat.

Bengal has every right to feel aggrieved. After all, it was not only the first capital of British India but also India’s intellectual capital. It was not for nothing that Gopalakrishna Gokhale said ‘what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’. Political analysts have often suggested that if in 1996 the CPI(M) politburo had allowed Basu to head the United Front government it may have lasted its term. After all, the wily and well-heeled communist had established a record of sorts remaining chief minister for twenty-three long years.

More recently, it has been reported, Mukherjee has claimed in his yet-to-be published fourth volume of his autobiography that if he had been PM the Congress would not have suffered the ignominious defeat it did in 2014. Both Basu and Mukherjee were consummate politicians and had the ability to take friends and detractors along. Banerjee, on the other hand, has not yet demonstrated the capacity to be inclusive in her leadership. But then, neither has Modi. Perhaps the country wants tough-minded leaders.

The 2021 electoral contest in West Bengal would then be between a tough-minded Banerjee and an equally tough-minded Modi. It remains to be seen whether Banerjee will be able to summon the ghosts of Netaji, Basu and Mukherjee in her support and once again give a spirited call to fellow Bengalis, “Delhi Chalo!”

garden-city-fortunes

Thu Dec 10 14:59:25 IST 2020

I lived my childhood in a locality of Hyderabad called Hardikar Bagh. My high school was situated near Kundan Bagh and my college in Bashir Bagh. Many localities in Hyderabad had the suffix ‘bagh’(garden) because that is how the founders of Baghnagar wanted the city to be. While Bengaluru has come to be known as India’s ‘garden city’, Baghnagar, now Hyderabad, was the original garden city. The sultans of the Qutb Shahi dynasty developed a city of gardens on the banks of the River Musi, across the plains from their rocky fort of Golkonda.

The love affair of the Qutb Shahi sultan, Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah, with a Hindu dancer and singer, Bhagmati, has created some confusion about the city’s original name. Some historians insist the city was called Bhagnagar, after Bhagmati, and became Hyderabad when she converted to Islam and became Begum Hyder Mahal. This version fits well into the “love jihad” narrative of the Bharatiya Janata Party, though the BJP has now demanded that the city be named Bhagyanagar. Bhagya meaning fortune or destiny.

Through the 15th to the 17th century, this urban settlement was referred to as Baghnagar and Bhagnagar in English texts and maps. Historian Andrew Petersen records in his History of Islamic Architecture that Hyderabad was originally called Baghnagar—a city of gardens. Narendra Luther, a civil servant-turned-historian, quotes the Italian traveller Abbe Carre recording in 1672: “This large town... Bhagnagar is full of strangers and merchants. Foreigners and others carry on the trade without restrictions to their nationality.” Mahomed Kasim Ferishta in his History of the Rise of the Mohammedan Power in India (1829) and H.C. Briggs in The Nizam, His History and Relations with the British Government (1861) have recorded that at some point in the 18th century, Baghnagar/Bhagnagar was renamed Hyderabad.

It was the Congress Party that first gave currency to the name ‘Bhagyanagar’, creating the Bhagyanagar Urban Development Authority in the 1970s. Even if the romantic origin of ‘Bhagnagar’ is true, it was still not ‘Bhagyanagar’—the city of fortune/destiny—though that is what Hyderabad has become over the past two decades. Does it then all come down to the location of the letter H and the word’s pronunciation?

I place greater trust in ‘bagh’ than in ‘bhag’ simply because so many localities of the city are called ‘bagh’ and the city of my youth was indeed a ‘garden city’ before concrete took over. While the story of the city’s naming as Bhagnagar is one of love and romance, the name Baghnagar is an equally romantic story of grace and aesthetics, and the ruler’s love for the beauty of nature, if not a woman. However, by contrast, both the political demand for its renaming and the name suggested, Bhagyanagar, are loaded with notions to do with power and wealth.

That is a pity. Hyderabad for me will always be associated with romance, love, gardens, beautiful architecture, grace, hospitality and the confluence of many cultures. As the capital of a kingdom that covered a wide swath of the Deccan, Hyderabad was always truly cosmopolitan. Home to Telugus, Maharashtrians, Kannadigas, Tamils and the Kayasthas who came from the north to join the nizam’s government.

While the Telangana Rashtra Samithi came to power demanding the ouster of “settlers” and “outsiders” from the metropolis, it soon realised that Hyderabad’s cosmopolitanism was its strength, its destiny and its true fortune. The city’s growth is a tribute to the creativity of the people who have come to make it—Telugus and non-Telugus, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

trade-tango-in-a-twist

Thu Nov 26 16:48:06 IST 2020

Having turned its back on a regional trading agreement covering the Asia-Pacific region, the BJP now says that it would seek a free trade agreement (FTA) with the trans-Atlantic economies of the US and the European Union. Gopal Krishna Agarwal, the BJP’s national spokesperson on economic affairs, was reported saying, “We are positive that FTAs with the EU and US will benefit India and talks will be resumed.” Apart from the fact that this statement runs contrary to the view on FTAs espoused by many BJP worthies including Nirmala Sitharaman and S. Jaishankar, as well as the views of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), it would also appear as if India is chasing two birds in a bush, having given up the bird in hand.

There may be very good reasons why India opted out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. The two most important were that its signatories were not willing to alter the rules of origin that India felt would unfairly benefit China and were unwilling to widen the scope of the agreement to include services trade that India sought. An agreement that was in fact initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ended up being perceived as China-led. While Japan made a friendly gesture by saying the doors are still open for India, the fact remains that Asia to India’s east has turned its back on her and signed up with China, at least on trade.

While foreign policy analysts have called the Indian decision on RCEP a retreat from her ‘Look East/Act East’ policy and at odds with her Indo-Pacific strategy, trade economists have questioned the assertion that FTAs have contributed to India’s ‘de-industrialisation’. If Indian industrialisation has not proceeded at the required pace, the reasons are largely domestic—ranging from the ‘unease’ of doing business to the inadequacy of investment in infrastructure, in trained and productive human capital and, a much less discussed issue, the entrepreneurial and technological incompetence of the traditional business class.

Despite all these hurdles, the Indian economy did reasonably well compared with her peers during the quarter century 1990-2015; a period during which the share of trade in national income went up from less than 20 per cent to more than 50 per cent. During the same period India’s share of world exports increased from 0.5 per cent to 1.70 per cent. The anti-trade rhetoric of the BJP gets little support from data.

Faced with these anti-trade views of an SJM spokesperson in the 1990s, international trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati famously said, “If he is an economist, I am a bharatnatyam dancer!” BJP spokesperson Agarwal’s assurance that after rejecting RCEP, and FTAs in general, his party’s government would seek an FTA with the US and EU looks more like an impromptu twist and cha-cha-cha than methodical bharatnatyam.

It also begs the question as to how India can get a more favourable FTA out of the US and EU than it was likely to get from its Asian neighbours. The record of multilateral and regional trade discussions over the past two decades, ever since the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization got grounded, suggests that both the US and the EU seek assurances that India is unwilling to give. The fact that they have become India’s geopolitical partners and share concerns about an aggressive, assertive and rising China does not mean they are willing to be accommodative on trade. That is precisely why even a ‘politically friendly’ Donald Trump administration was unwilling to be friendly on trade. Clearly, New India needs new thinking on trade.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

their-lotus-is-blue

Fri Nov 13 12:40:05 IST 2020

President George W. Bush first ran into prime minister Manmohan Singh on the ramparts of the Kremlin two months before Singh’s July 2005 state visit to Washington, DC. They were in Moscow to witness the Victory Day Parade celebrating the golden jubilee of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. Pulling his wife Laura close, Bush reportedly introduced her to Singh saying, “This is the prime minister of India. He is Sikh. His country’s president is Muslim and his party president is Christian.” “Most Indians are Hindus,” Bush reminded his wife, adding “India is a great democracy.”

The pluralism and liberalism that defined Indian society and democracy have long been its great strengths. That is why many in India and around the world have been worried about the growing assertion of Hindu majoritarianism. Indians celebrating the historic election of a person of Indian-African-American parentage, Kamala Devi Harris, as the first woman vice president of the United States, should sit back and ponder why there are so few representatives of minority communities in the Union council of ministers today. The parliamentary contingent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, whose party symbol is the name of the US vice president-elect, does not have a single Muslim or Sikh in the Lok Sabha. The representatives of these two communities in the Union cabinet come from the Rajya Sabha.

The very moving victory speeches of both Joe Biden and Harris emphasised repeatedly that the most important message of the US election verdict is that a majority of American citizens had rejected the white majoritarianism of Donald Trump and his extremist faction of the Republican Party. Trump did not do poorly in the elections and has in fact increased his support base, fighting hard to win on a narrow platform of white supremacy. But a rainbow coalition of Americans united to ensure that the US remains true to its own constitutional values. It is not as if white Americans have lost power. Biden is a true blue white, so to speak. The US power elite is predominantly white. Yet, even a symbolic sharing of power with non-whites does enable the integration of a diverse nation.

In India, too, the power elite have always been Hindu, from upper and middle castes, and will remain so for some time. Yet, the “umbrella” nature of the Indian National Congress facilitated national integration. Learning from the Congress experience, as well as that of the coalitions that followed, prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ran an inclusive government. He named a Christian as his defence minister and made a Muslim the nation’s head of state. In a plural democracy, such gestures cannot be dismissed as appeasement or tokenism. Vajpayee’s inclusiveness strengthened India, even though he believed in his party’s ideology of hindutva.

The Hindu extremism of the present leadership has weakened, not strengthened, India. Much like Trump’s majoritarianism. The recent revival of a detestable and abhorrent concept of “Love Jihad”, with elected political leaders seeking to criminalise inter-community marriages, does no credit to India’s constitutional values of pluralism and individual human rights, not to speak of values such as humanism and secularism.

The watchword of “unity in diversity” is no empty slogan. It is an idea that goes to the core of our national identity. It is the foundational principle of our Constitution. Indeed, it is captured by the ancient wisdom of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam —the whole world is one family. The wisdom, greatness and the universal and continued appeal of Hinduism lie in its pluralism and liberalism. The sooner the present BJP leadership understands this, the better for India.

the-uncertainty-conundrum

Thu Oct 15 19:06:18 IST 2020

The International Monetary Fund was once the bastion of what its critics have dubbed “neo-liberal economics” and the home of what is famously known as the “Washington Consensus”—that free markets, free trade, economic openness, less government and more private enterprise are all good for growth. Covid-19 is upending much of that orthodoxy. The IMF convenes this week for its annual meeting under the leadership of a woman chief born in communist Bulgaria, Kristalina Georgieva, and a chief economist, Gita Gopinath, who briefly advised the communist government of Kerala. Neither of them is a lefty, but neither swear by neo-liberal economics.

Under the watch of these two women leaders the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, unveiled in time for the annual meetings of the Fund and the World Bank, makes a case for greater public investment as a way of countering the post-pandemic economic slowdown in developed and developing economies. The WEO suggests that a 1 per cent increase in public investment could trigger a 10 per cent increase in private investment. A third lady in the equation, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has responded with alacrity announcing a new spending programme aimed at boosting demand in the coming festive season.

A major post-Covid-19 challenge for economic policymakers remains that of dealing with the consequences of uncertainty triggered by the pandemic and the economic slowdown. Households and firms have become risk averse, unsure of future income. While lockdowns are being eased, uncertainty about the likely course of the pandemic continues. The US-based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has put out an Economic Policy Uncertainty Index (EPUI), which seeks to measure the incidence of uncertainty in an economy, by gathering data from mainstream media in 26 major economies.

The index measures the frequency with which words like “uncertainty” and “economic policy” occur in the media along with the incidence of news coverage on fiscal, monetary and trade policies. The EPUI team finds a global spike in reporting on economic uncertainty from the early part of 2020, with EPUI increasing from an annual average of 267 in 2019 to 320 in the first eight months of 2020. The NBER study shows how Covid-19 “triggered a massive spike in uncertainty”, caused by absence of definitive assessments of the “infectiousness, prevalence and lethality of the virus; availability and deployment of antigen and antibody tests; the capacity of healthcare systems to meet an extraordinary challenge; and how long it would take to develop and deploy safe, effective vaccines”. It also draws attention to continued uncertainty about state capacity— managerial and fiscal—to deal with the consequences of the pandemic and the fall in economic activity. There is uncertainty about future incomes, employment prospects, speed of recovery, consumer spending, and saving behaviour and investor sentiment.

Much of current economic activity is based on expectations about the future. If uncertainty has gripped economic agents around the world, that would alter expectations in ways not seen before. After the Second World War there has been no other global phenomenon that has generated so much uncertainty about the future. The oil crisis of the 1970s was one such event but its consequences were managed within a reasonable period of time and the world economy adjusted itself to a regime of higher prices. The Asian and transatlantic financial crises of 1998 and 2008 were addressed before they became truly global. Many countries, including India, have been hesitating to spend more and it appears the IMF nudge has helped Sitharaman move.

news-weak-time-out

Thu Oct 01 15:50:58 IST 2020

The media love lists, and Indian media obsess about western lists. How is India doing on this index and that, by how many places has it moved up or down. Rarely does such reporting educate the reader or viewer about what goes into the making of a list—the criteria used, the data digested, the assumptions made and the biases inherent to definitions. So, it was not surprising that when the newsmagazine Time included Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a global list of “100 Most Influential People”, Indian media was quick to report but without spelling out why he had made it.

Remember that the criterion for making it to even Time’s “Person of the Year” is the person should have “most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill”. It was left to one of Modi’s irrepressible critics to point out that Time picked the prime minister for this list more for “doing ill than good”, so to speak.

Time explained its choice stating: “First elected on a populist promise of empowerment, his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party rejected not only elitism but also pluralism, specifically targeting India’s Muslims. The crucible of the pandemic became a pretence for stifling dissent. And the world’s most vibrant democracy fell deeper into shadow.”

Despite the fact that the west is today largely on India’s side, and Prime Minister Modi has established good relations and rapport with most major western leaders, western media is turning increasingly critical of him. However, nothing that has appeared in western media is more critical of Modi than what appears in Indian print media. It is only Indian television that has become excessively adulatory.

Modi is not the first Indian prime minister to be criticised by western media. From Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh, every Indian prime minister has been conferred both bouquets and brickbats. In 2008, Newsweek, under Fareed Zakaria’s editorship, wrote off Singh and echoed the view of Rahul Gandhi cronies who, in the run up to 2009 election, wanted an “ageing” Singh to make way for “young” Rahul. Singh surprised everyone later that year leading his coalition back to power with more MPs in tow.

In 2002, Time declared that prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was “asleep at the wheel” and that many in his party wanted him replaced. Nothing of the sort happened. Despite getting Indian politics wrong on many occasions and underestimating the survival instincts of Indian prime ministers, western media manage to make a splash in India, often with half-baked stories. This is more a reflection of Indian obsession with what the west thinks of us than a comment on western media’s political prescience or ability to tell the truth.

It is one of the ironies of Indian media that it invests so little in covering the world and reporting from foreign stations but pays so much attention to what world media says about India and its leaders. Among all the major powers, India has the fewest number of foreign correspondents. World news comes to Indian media from foreign sources, rarely their own correspondents. Worse still, Indian media’s sourcing of news of non-western societies and many of India’s neighbours also comes from western media sources. It is an odd love-hate relationship: excessive dependence on western media for news, combined with condescension when the news is not complimentary.

It has been reported that Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has instructed Indian diplomats overseas to build better relations with local media. While this is necessary and diplomats can help improve India’s image overseas, there are limits to how much carefully built images can blur a reality staring in one’s face.

china-wants-more-than-mountains

Thu Sep 17 15:21:49 IST 2020

While the entire attention of the country may be on the border between China and India, the attention of China’s strategists would be more on the Indian economy. One should not interpret the old Chinese saying—One mountain cannot contain two tigers—too literally. The mountain that the Chinese strategists have in mind is not the Himalayas but Asia and its economy.

The Chinese army’s repeated incursions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)—Depsang (2013), Doklam (2017) and Galwan (2020)—should not be viewed purely as attempts at land grab aimed at securing advantageous positions in the event of a war. Many in India have become students of Himalayan geography, but the real game in Asia is for economic dominance. Of course, it is the duty of military brass to defend the border and retain control over territory. But, China’s strategy towards India has to be viewed from a wider lens, and not a purely military one.

What does China want? From the plains of Central Asia to the islands of the Pacific, from Northeast Asia to Southern Africa, Xi Jinping’s China wishes to establish that there is only one Asian superpower. Sure, at the global level China still acknowledges that there is another superpower, the United States. But, Xi would want the world to acknowledge what it did at the end of World War II, that there are only two superpowers and everyone else is a secondary or tertiary player.

Indeed, most Asian nations, including Japan, have come to implicitly accept this. India, too, has stopped calling itself a ‘leading power’ and now refers to itself, along with Russia, Japan, France and so on, as a Middle Power. But Xi would want India to say that a bit more loudly.

Till around 2012, China may well have gone along with the global consensus that India too was rising rapidly and would catch up with China. After all, none other than Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, a friend of China, had said in 2007 that China and India were the two engines of the Asian aircraft, and for Asia to take off smoothly both engines must fire in tandem.

India’s economic growth experience, between 1991 and 2012, may have made China believe that India was capable of catching up. Till 1980 the two economies stood more or less on par, even if China had by then built a stronger base for future growth. It was assumed India was capable of again catching up.

The travails of the United Progressive Alliance II government may have made China re-examine these assumptions. The Indian economy seemed to be faltering and its political leadership seemed no longer capable of ensuring that India remained on the growth trajectory of the first decade of the 21st Century. It appears that the Chinese assessment of the six years of the Narendra Modi government is that despite its political strength it has not been able to restore momentum to the economy.

It would be wrong to assume that China only aims to bolster its tactical, or even strategic, positions along the border. In appearing to do so, and repeatedly provoking India, China seeks to keep India both politically and economically off-balance. Which means no five-point joint statement is likely to end the impasse in the relationship. The challenge before India is to regain economic momentum and bolster its economic capabilities. That alone will ensure an Asian balance of power conducive to regional peace and global security. An Asia dominated by an authoritarian and hegemonic China will never be peaceful, secure or stable.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

our-man-in-tokyo

Fri Sep 04 11:46:48 IST 2020

No prime minister of Japan has ever made anywhere near the impression on Indian public opinion as Shinzo Abe did. It was not just that he is the longest serving prime minister in Japan’s history since the Meiji Restoration of the late 19th century. Never have millions of Indians had the opportunity to see a Japanese prime minister for an entire evening watching the glorious ceremony of the Ganga Arati at Varanasi’s Dashashwamedh Ghat. As he steps down from office this month, after a tenure of over nine years, Abe will be wished well by a people that have come to appreciate his abiding commitment to Japan-India friendship.

Over the past quarter century Japan has had 17 prime ministers. Of them, eight served terms of less than a year and most others of less than two. Only Junichiro Koizumi enjoyed a decent tenure of five years in office. Into that office with a revolving door that was constantly spinning around Abe stepped in first in September 2007. However, ill-health made him step down a year later. Over the next five years Japan had five prime ministers, of uneven competence. Abe returned to office in December 2012 to become Japan’s longest serving prime minister.

Even in that brief first year in office Abe left a mark as far as Japan-India relations are concerned. Addressing the Indian Parliament in August 2007, Abe enunciated the now popular and widely recognised idea of an Indo-Pacific geopolitical space. Giving his address the title of a book by the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh—A Confluence of the Two Seas—Abe spoke of the historic, cultural, economic and geopolitical links between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Abe’s successors in the period 2007-2012 did not follow up on that idea and many have come to associate it with Hillary Clinton who, as United States secretary of state, spoke about the Indo-Pacific to a gathering in Chennai in 2011.

It was on his return to office in 2012 that Abe gave concrete shape to his ideas and has since laid the firm foundation of India’s probably most consequential bilateral relationship. Indians may be divided in their views on the country’s relations with the United States, Russia, Europe and even China. But there would now be universal agreement that Japan is an important partner country for India. Abe deserves all the credit for shaping that view. Which is why Indian diplomats will watch closely who his successor is going to be, and whether he would remain loyal to Abe’s vision of Japan-India relations.

There is good reason for India remaining wary till the new prime minister unveils his vision for the bilateral relationship. Within the Japanese elite—its business class, political leadership, intellectuals and diplomats—there is an influential pro-China lobby of individuals and companies that have made their millions and billions in China. In 2007, when Abe stepped down, his first successor Yasuo Fukuda did an about-turn on India and cozied up to China. However, since then Xi Jinping has happened!

While Japanese business, like most business, remains frustrated with the “unease of doing business” in India, the economic relationship has become stronger. More importantly, the defence, technological and people-to-people relationship has also grown stronger. The Quad—a new strategic foursome of Australia, India, Japan and the US in the Indo-Pacific region—is acquiring greater relevance and profile thanks to the unrelenting assertiveness of Xi’s China. India’s political leadership would want an early affirmation by the new Japanese prime minister of his commitment to the Abe vision of a confluence of values and interests between Asia’s great democracies.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

the-makers-of-india

Thu Aug 20 14:48:17 IST 2020

In the 1987 movie, Wall Street, the industrial worker and trade unionist father Carl Fox confronts his finance whiz kid son raking in his millions, making money out of money, with words that resonate across America even today: “You stop going for the easy buck and produce something with your life. Create instead of living off the buying and selling of others.” America paid little heed to those words for two decades thereafter till the money machine imploded in 2008. Donald Trump came to power promising to bring manufacturing jobs back home from China.

It was no coincidence that in 2006 India also woke up to the challenge of revitalising Indian manufacturing, having lived through a decade of fantasy that services sector growth would help it leapfrog into the 21st century. Manmohan Singh’s National Strategy on Manufacturing (2006) aimed to take the share of manufacturing in national income from 16 per cent in 2006 to 25 per cent by 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took this strategy forward calling it ‘Make in India’. Six years later, manufacturing’s share remains stubbornly stuck at 16 per cent.

A key policy initiative aimed at facilitating Make in India has been to improve the Ease of Doing Business. Various incentives, including cuts in tax and interest rates, have been given to the mobilisers of capital. Acquiring land and employing labour have been made easier. There is a growing celebration of enterprise, especially of small and medium entrepreneurs, and being self-employed has been made into an act of great creativity and patriotism. All this is good.

However, rapid industrialisation requires increasingly productive labour. The working class are the soldiers in the war against poverty and in the drive for modernisation. It is, therefore, surprising that few political parties have focused on improving labour productivity and the social security of the working class. Prime ministers, from Lal Bahadur Shastri to Narendra Modi, have said ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’, rarely do they say Jai Mazdoor. China’s rise has been on the back of its “creators”, to use Fox’s term for workers, and not just its traders.

The unionised working class has often been damned as a labour aristocracy that has prevented the growth of industrial employment. While industrial labour unions may have their faults, they can hardly be blamed for policies that have encouraged capital-intensive manufacturing rather than labour-intensive manufacturing. Consider the fact that so much of India’s labour-intensive manufacturing activity is getting exported out, and workers in Bangladesh, no less organised or militant than their Indian counterparts, are getting the jobs that workers in Gujarat are losing.

Why is it that political leaders are so quick to say Jai Kisan and so slow to say Jai Mazdoor? Prime Minister Modi’s Independence Day speeches have hardly said much to enthuse the industrial working class even as he has spoken so often about Make in India and Ease of Doing Business. This, despite the fact that the largest trade union organisation today is the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), affiliated to the RSS and the BJP.

In the focus on the large deficit that India faces in its merchandise trade with China attention is often drawn, and correctly so, to China’s various unfair practices ranging from hidden subsidies to non-trade barriers. However, an important factor that has made China’s exports more competitive has been the rising and high productivity of Chinese labour. The average Chinese worker produces more per hour of work and unit of capital than the average Indian worker—thanks to being better skilled, better fed and in better health. Make in India requires investing in the capabilities, health and social security of the ‘makers of India’.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

strategic-promiscuity

Thu Aug 06 18:02:39 IST 2020

Nations have no permanent friends or allies; they only have permanent interests. So said Lord Palmerston, a mid-19th century British prime minister. That should settle the issue of who India’s partners are at any given point in time. When the Chinese invaded India in 1962, the United States offered military support. When India faced a US-China-Pakistan axis in Bangladesh, the Soviet Union stood firmly with India. Both in 1962 and in 1971, India’s interests remained the same—to bolster her own security—her friends changed. A nation has both short-term and long-term interests. Those who stand by it in achieving short-term objectives are tactical partners. Those who stand by it for the long run are strategic partners.

Throughout the Cold War India opted for non-alignment as a strategy, but had no problem seeking tactical support from one side or the other. In the post-Cold War period, however, India got into the habit of calling every tactical alliance a strategic partnership. From France to Russia, from the United States to China, from Japan to... (hold your breath) Rwanda, every other country was signing up to be India’s “strategic partner”! In 2011, Arvind Gupta and Sarita Azad of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses listed as many as 30 strategic partnerships that India had by then entered into.

In April 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted China’s prime minister Wen Jiabao. New Delhi went into a tizzy and the two heads of government ended up signing a joint statement in which they said, “the two sides agreed that India-China relations have now acquired a global and strategic character”. They then went on to establish “an India-China Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity”.

All the actors responsible for that statement are still around. The national security adviser and foreign secretary of the time are now regular columnists. Perhaps they could enlighten us now on what made them get the prime minister of the day to sign on to that statement and what was so “strategic” about that partnership.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seduced by this promiscuity in strategic partnerships. The India-Rwanda strategic partnership was signed by him in 2018. Thanks to China’s President Xi Jinping, India’s strategists have been forced to define more precisely what they mean by a strategic partnership.

Anything strategic must derive from a strategy. The distinguished scholar of war and strategy, Lawrence Freedman defines strategy as “the art of creating power”. As theorists of power, from Kautilya to Antonio Gramsci, have suggested, power itself has many dimensions and military power is just one of them. The foundation of military power, as Kautilya suggested in the Arthashastra, is economic capability and fiscal capacity. Thus, in identifying a strategic partner, a country must determine which other country would assist it in the “creation of power”, with a clear understanding of what form such power would take—military, economic, technological, cultural and political.

Fifteen years after India and China signed the 2005 statement it is clear that it has not delivered on the promise of peace and prosperity, not to speak of enhancing Indian power. Rather, by aligning itself firmly with Pakistan it has enhanced the latter’s power. On the other hand, in these 15 years, the US, Japan, France and even Russia have helped enhance India’s power.

But military capacity building is only one leg of such a partnership. Enhancing India’s economic capability should be the other. To qualify as strategic, a partnership must deliver on both counts. It is time we defined strategic partnerships more strategically, and not just tactically.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

still-the-economy-stupid

Thu Jul 23 14:32:17 IST 2020

Look at where the economies of China and India were in the 1980s, and look where they are now. The power differential between the two today is largely a consequence of the different trajectories of economic performance. That was the reminder that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar offered last week in a televised discussion, echoing Bill Clinton’s famous slogan: It’s the economy, stupid!

It reminded me of what one of his distinguished predecessors as foreign secretary, K. Raghunath, told members of India’s National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) in 1999. Asked what needs to be done to make Indian foreign policy more effective, Raghunath’s reply was quick—improve India’s economic performance. A stronger, more efficient and more competitive economy would facilitate more effective diplomacy. The era when good speeches and clever posturing made up for poor economic performance was over.

The NSAB report that was then prepared reflected the strategic thinking at the turn of the century. China had gained power and influence with its economic capability and performance. Higher economic growth helped improve state capacity, including the fiscal capacity of the state. This, following Kautilya’s famous axiom in the Arthashastra—“from the strength of the treasury, the army flows”—enabled China to become a military power.

If China is today more influential globally it is not because the world has discovered its civilisational greatness or exciting cuisine, but because it has demonstrated economic and human capability and has built relationships of interdependence with nations big and small.

In the first two decades of the 21st century, China became an economic superpower and so became a great power. India has yet to become an economic superpower. From Raghunath to Jaishankar and after, Indian diplomacy can do its best to manage a difficult world, but at the end of the day India’s global standing and power will be shaped in farms and factories, in classrooms and laboratories. When India is economically not only stronger and self-reliant (atmanirbhar) but also more efficient and competitive (globally engaged), it will also be regarded a great power. Till then, we need clever diplomats and generals to mind the gap, and cleverer political leadership to bridge the gap.

I am not yet convinced by the argument that external trade is a threat rather than an opportunity for the Indian economy. Jaishankar is wrong to buy into the Swadeshi Jagran Manch argument that Indian industrial development has been hurt by external trade, especially the few free-trade agreements negotiated by the Manmohan Singh government. India’s decision to walk out of negotiations towards a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement was a consequence of such thinking.

While Indian business leaders who run globally non-competitive firms may agree with what the external affairs minister was saying, those who have benefited from globalisation will not. Indeed, this year the trade surplus being generated signals a slowdown in domestic economic activity, not the growing competitiveness of the economy. There are many reasons why the share of manufacturing in India’s national income is stuck at around 16 per cent for two decades. External trade is certainly not the most important one.

Moreover, there is a contradiction between the government seeking more foreign direct investment while turning away from external trade opportunities. Surely, atmanirbharata does not mean getting foreigners to produce more in India for the Indian market alone. Foreign direct investment policy is about tapping the world market. Trade is the means to that end.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

trade-is-also-strategic

Thu Jul 09 16:43:10 IST 2020

Talking about his recent book on his tenure at the White House, former United States national security adviser John Bolton told an Indian journalist that he disagreed with President Donald Trump focusing far too much on bilateral trade issues and not enough on larger strategic issues with India. This distinction is an old fudge that both the tribes of economists and foreign policy experts indulge in. Every now and then we are reminded that while the US State department wants better relations with India, the US Trade Representative (USTR) marches to a different tune.

This distinction that keeps trade policy in one silo, and foreign policy and strategic ties in another is mirrored even on the Indian side. In New Delhi, the partitioning is made complete by the fact that the Indian Administrative Service runs trade policy while the Indian Foreign Service runs foreign policy. When a certain former prime minister wanted to post an IFS officer as India’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization, the IAS killed the proposal with a ton of files. On the other hand, diplomats have often complained about the insularity of the trade bureaucracy that prevents closer relations with the US.

The current stand-off with China and the new policy of atmanirbharta has forced the government of India to wipe out this distinction between trade policy and foreign policy. Even so, the ideological diehards among both economists and foreign policy analysts remain critical of blurring the distinction. Those who remain sceptical of taking a tough view on trade with China, as a response to China getting tough on border issues and political relations, would do well to read the views of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Thomas C. Schelling who deployed game theory in defining nuclear deterrence.

Schelling told a US Congressional committee on trade and national security way back in 1971: “Aside from war and preparations for war, and occasionally aside from migration, trade is the most important relationship that most countries have with each other.... Trade is what most international relations are about. For that reason, trade policy is national security policy.”

Schelling’s views have been echoed over the years across Washington DC. The White House has used the USTR to browbeat friend and foe. In the 1980s, Japan was the target. Today, it is China, India and many other trade partners. So, Bolton is making much of a muchness criticising Trump for doing what many of his predecessors have done—weaponise trade. What is amusing is that so many Indian apologists for US action continue to peddle the argument that while the White House and the US state department want good relations with India, the USTR is such a bloody-minded fellow.

For good or bad, political and economic relations between countries do get inter-twined. China was a beneficiary of a mounting trade surplus with India during the pre-Xi Jinping period when the political relationship was improving. As the political relationship deteriorated, trade ties, too, took the hit. The theory that trade can buy peace was dumped long ago and China’s deteriorating relations with all its major trade partners goes to show that money cannot buy love.

As for the US-India relationship, the media has reported that India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has been receiving reassuring phone calls from Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, in the context of the spat with China. It would be equally helpful if New Delhi also received reassuring calls from the USTR, Robert Lighthizer. As George Bernard Shaw’s Eliza Doolittle told Freddy Eynsford-Hill, “Do not talk of love, show me!”

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

china-message-to-asia

Thu Jun 25 16:50:43 IST 2020

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi came away from his historic 1988 meeting with the architect of 21st century China, Deng Xiaoping, reassured by Deng’s famous words: “Only when China and India have developed, will a real Asian century emerge.” In 2007, Singapore’s founder-leader Lee Kuan Yew expressed the opinion that Asia’s rise would be powered by the “twin engines” of China and India. In 1988, Deng may well have believed that, and, in 2007, Lee may well have sincerely hoped that. No one in China and few across much of east and southeast Asia any longer takes those views seriously.

The accelerated rise of China is essentially a 21st century phenomenon. The trans-Atlantic financial crisis of 2008-2009 further consolidated China’s power, even as the west went into a period of disarray. India’s impressive economic performance in the first decade of the 21st century kept the hope of a catch-up alive. However, several developments in the second decade have combined to change the landscape to India’s disadvantage.

First, India’s uncertain economic performance and its defensive approach to closer economic ties with other Asian nations. The decision to withdraw from the negotiations towards an Asia-wide Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership signalled India’s economic weakness rather than a new sense of self-confidence or atmanirbharata. Second, the BJP’s focus on a divisive domestic political agenda offered India’s enemies an opportunity to draw global attention to political fault lines at home, which many see as a hurdle to economic revival. Finally, United States President Donald Trump’s “blow hot-blow cold” policy towards India, once again confirmed by the contents of former US national security advisor John Bolton’s book, may have convinced China that the US is unlikely to weigh in on India’s side, beyond a point.

It is into this uncertain space that China’s President Xi Jinping is inserting China, hoping to herald its arrival as Asia’s pre-eminent power. From Depsang and Doklam to Galwan Valley the consistent push against India is, it seems, aimed at demonstrating to the rest of Asia that India remains pre-occupied with its own security, so how can it offer any reassurance to others? China’s India policy is less about acquiring territory and much more about demonstrating to the rest of Asia that India is not capable of challenging China’s hegemonic status across the continent any time soon.

It is important to recognise that India is not alone in worrying about China’s hegemonic ambitions. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Vietnam and several other Asian nations are equally worried about China’s intent and capability. Mindful of this situation, India has reached out to other powers to build a defensive alliance. This is what strategic analysts now call the “Asian Great Game”. India must not deviate from the path of building a pan-Asian alliance that keeps Chinese power under check. Surely, no Asia-Pacific nation wants western hegemony replaced by Chinese hegemony.

It is also important to understand that while an overwhelming number of Chinese citizens and people of Chinese origin around Asia take great pride in China’s resurgence and rise, and why not, there would be many who would not approve of President Xi’s politics and political style. To imagine that Chinese society and China’s political leadership is a monolith would be self-defeating. Even at the height of power of great leaders like Mao Zedong and Deng, China was internally divided. Xi’s politics and economics have caused much discontent within China. But the question is, would an internally plural China be externally less or more aggressive?

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

down-under-looks-up

Fri Jun 12 12:26:05 IST 2020

The virtual summit between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was historic—both in form and content. Given the media focus on Covid-19 and on India-China border tensions, the meeting did not get the attention it deserved. Apart from the foreign policy cognoscenti au fait with the ups and downs of India-Australia relations, few may be aware of the difficult journey that both Australian and Indian diplomats have had to make to get to the point where Modi and Morrison found themselves.

While both countries paid little attention to each other through most of the Cold War, despite their shared history of British rule, the bilateral relationship actually worsened after the Cold War, when Australia sanctioned India for the Pokhran-II nuclear tests.

However, prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was willing to forgive Australian high-handedness at the time and pay a visit to Canberra. I discovered this when I turned up for lunch at the home of the Australian high commissioner Penny Wensley in early 2004. My host had just returned from a meeting with national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, and told me very excitedly that Vajpayee had agreed to travel to Australia “after the elections”. Vajpayee ended up losing those elections and Manmohan Singh kept delaying his visit, waiting for Australia to come to terms with India’s nuclear weapons status and agree to sell uranium.

Meanwhile, something else turned up to spoil the bilateral equation. China. While students of foreign affairs can read the pro-China writings of Australian strategists like Hugh White, and some of the early speeches of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (a Mandarin speaking China lover who has since changed colours), to appreciate the depth of the Australia-China bonhomie in early 2000s, the best popular introduction to how Australia was kow-towing to China would be the Australian television series Secret City! Imagine a TV series that showed an Indian cabinet minister having an affair with the spouse of a foreign diplomat, of whatever country. Secret City had the Australian defence minister in bed with the wife of the Chinese ambassador. Nothing could be more candid in revealing the depth of Chinese penetration into Australian elite circles.

The Modi-Morrison joint statement on a comprehensive strategic partnership inaugurates a new phase in the bilateral relationship. In November 2014, Modi delivered on Vajpayee’s promise and visited Australia. From then on, Australian officials favouring closer relations with India have had to work hard to overcome the influence of the China-lobby in Canberra. If there is one person who deserves credit for cementing the bilateral relationship it is former Australian high commissioner to India, Peter Varghese.

I first met Varghese in Singapore when he came to see me at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where I was then teaching. Varghese was preparing for his New Delhi posting and wanted to know all about India. On completing his extended tenure, he returned home as Australia’s foreign secretary and subsequently wrote an influential report on an India strategy up to 2035. Battling the China-lobby at home, diplomats and analysts like Varghese had to convince their peers and political masters that placing all eggs in the China basket was no strategy.

While a bulk of Varghese’s report focused on economic opportunities in India, the last chapter provided a “geopolitical pillar” to the relationship, identifying shared strategic interests and perspectives within the wider Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. However, geopolitical considerations alone cannot keep Australia engaged, given China’s continuing economic allure. India will have to deliver on the economic and trade fronts to get those Down Under to look up.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

self-reliance-third-edition

Fri May 29 10:04:32 IST 2020

Though the phrase ‘self-reliance’ does not appear anywhere in the First Five-Year Plan (1951-56), it is commonplace that the very idea of planned development, with the public sector occupying the commanding heights of the economy, implied that post-colonial India would seek to pursue self-reliant economic development. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi put forward his version of self-reliance, with a view to build an Atma Nirbhar Bharat, many thought he was saying something new. He was, in fact, enunciating a third variant of a concept that has its roots in India’s freedom struggle.

Between Jawaharlal Nehru’s version of self-reliance, as it evolved through the first three five-year plans and eventually turned into import-substituting industrialisation, and Modi’s recent articulation of it, there is an intermediate second variant that Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao articulated in his famous presidential address to the Tirupati session of the All India Congress Committee in April 1992. Each variant captures the reality of a changing India in a changing world.

Rejecting criticism that the economic liberalisation and reform policies unveiled between June 1991 and March 1992 were a departure from Nehruvian self-reliance, Rao told the AICC that, “a country of India’s size has to be self-reliant”, but the concept of self-reliance has to evolve in step with the country’s own development and the changing global context. “While we are redefining self-reliance,” Rao assured the AICC, “we are not abandoning the basic principle.”

Enunciating his own version of atmanirbharata relevant for an India at the turn of the century Rao said, “The very level of development we have reached has made us independent of the world economy in some respects, but more dependent on it in others. This is an important aspect of the complexity of modern development.”

He then went on to define self-reliance for the world of the 1990s, how it was different from the self-reliance of the 1950s. Given the context of 1991-92, when India was dealing with a mounting internal and external debt and repayments crisis, Rao summed up, “One way of describing self-reliance would be to say that we should be indebted only to the extent we have capacity to repay.”

Rao’s address to the 1992 AICC is, without doubt, the best post-Nehruvian statement on economic policy in the past three decades. Its detailed enunciation of India’s economic priorities and policies and the spelling out of a new theory of a mixed economy and of self-reliance, relevant to a more globally integrated and self-confident India deserves wide reading even today. It is a pity that in its pusillanimous sycophancy towards Sonia Gandhi, the Congress does not make available Rao’s historic AICC address on its website. Those interested can read the full text reprinted as an appendix to my book 1991: How Narasimha Rao Made History (2016).

If Rao re-defined the Nehruvian idea of self-reliance for the 1990s, Modi has tried to do so for an India of the 2020s that would have to deal with a very different post-Covid global context. So, rather than suggest that Modi has expounded something new, merely because he has used a long Hindi word, it would be more appropriate to recognise that he, too, is re-defining an idea that has been intrinsic to India’s freedom struggle and post-Independence development.

Like Rao, Modi too has taken care not to confuse self-reliance with inward-oriented autarky. Referring to the oft-quoted concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (whole world is one family), Modi clarified, “India does not advocate self-centric arrangements when it comes to self-reliance. India’s self-reliance is ingrained in the happiness, cooperation and peace of the world.” Clearly, the appeal of some mantras endures.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

season-of-policy-wonks

Thu May 14 17:18:44 IST 2020

The Covid-19 lockdown will be remembered for many things. One of them, without doubt, would be the tsunami of policy advice that has hit many governmental shores around the world. Sitting at home and forced to read, reflect and write, professionals in the policy world—ranging from pure academics and theorists to locked down government officials and their retired seniors—have loads of time to think about the pandemic and its consequences and come up with solutions.

Crisis periods are like that. When governments are hit with unexpected challenges, they reach out to practical ideas from wherever they can get them. The Great Depression and the era of post-war reconstruction were two such periods when governments desperately looked around for ideas and that is when economists came into their own. The tallest among them was John Maynard Keynes, the father of modern macroeconomics. Keynes’s biographer Robert Skidelsky subtitled the second volume of his three-volume biography thus: ‘The Economist as Saviour’.

In an earlier era, wrote Skidelsky, the common folk turned to priests and soothsayers for reassurance about the future in the midst of uncertainty. In the 20th century of reason, logic and empiricism, they had turned to the economist. “The generational shift with which Keynes was associated,” writes Skidelsky, “is properly called avant-garde. His generation saw itself as the front line of the army of progress.”

However, Skidelsky adds, Keynes gave central importance to uncertainty in the realm of policy-making. All human action in the present is taken based on data from the past and assumptions about the future. But in a world of uncertain outcomes, “uncertainty pervades both private and public calculations of means to achieve given ends”. Skidelsky accused Keynes’s disciples of not paying adequate attention to the role of uncertainty in policy-making.

In a crisis, the more successful governments are those that can manage the implications of uncertainty. Risk can be calculated, based on probability. Uncertainty is a virtual black box. One way in which economic policy makers have handled uncertainty is to rely on the disciplines of psychology and sociology. How are individuals and groups likely to behave under given circumstances? In going into the lockdown, the government may not have had enough time to reflect on its consequences. However, at the end of seven weeks of lockdown, there ought to have been adequate thinking within the government both on the consequences of continued lockdown and of the end of lockdown.

It is now clear that different social classes have reacted differently to the lockdown. The middle class have been remarkably tame. Usually more vocal and argumentative and more demanding of the government, the urban middle class has silently fallen in line and accepted the lockdown. The less privileged and poor have, however, shown little confidence in the government and have opted to return to the imagined certainty of their distant homes rather than accept the risk and uncertainty associated with staying put in less hospitable territory.

How will a population that has lived through the lockdown respond to various economic signals once the lockdown is lifted? Will the middle class regain confidence and return to public places? Will migrant workers return to places of work? Will consumers, savers, investors, employers trust governments? Can policy interventions of the past work in the future? Answers to these questions can only be found in the realm of human psychology and sociology. While behavioural economics may offer some answers, mainstream post-Keynesian economics would have little to contribute since most of its conclusions are based on past data and an understanding of homo economicus in a very different world.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

a-free-press-to-police-the-police

Sat Apr 18 10:14:47 IST 2020

During my tenure as media adviser to the prime minister in the first term of the United Progressive Alliance government, I was often frustrated by the ideologically biased, often tendentious, ill-informed reporting of many journalists. On a couple of occasions, I wrote letters to the editor in protest against such news reports targeting the prime minister. On a couple of other occasions, I went and called on the editor or the publisher, depending on who was really in-charge, and lodged complaints. Never did I ever lodge an FIR at any police station against a journalist. In the recent past, it appears it has become commonplace for chief ministers to routinely do so.

From West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee to Andhra Pradesh’s Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, and including such suave and westernised chief ministers like Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, an increasing number of chief ministers have been trying to muzzle the media. It is not surprising at all that Uttar Pradesh’s priest-turned politician Yogi Adityanath has also used the police under his charge to harass an award-winning editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, founder-editor of the online publication The Wire. Varadarajan’s fault was reporting that the UP chief minister was not observing social distancing even after the prime minister had urged the entire country to do so as a preventive measure against contracting Covid-19.

During my tenure at the PMO, no other journalist was as difficult to handle as Varadarajan, then with The Hindu, who ran a virtually one-man campaign against the terms of the India-US civil nuclear agreement that was still being negotiated. It was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s most important and pet initiative during his tenure. The discussions between India and the US began within weeks of Singh becoming prime minister in 2004, but the deal was finally clinched in 2008. No journalist made the process more difficult for Singh than Varadarajan. Yet, the government of the day did not raise a finger against him. While Varadarajan had his ideological bias, he rarely got his facts wrong. (It was a different matter that he was getting his facts from sources within the government!)

My approach to dealing with the media, as an official of the PMO, was simple—I classified the journalists I had to deal with into four groups: pro-BJP, pro-left, pro-Congress and the purely professional. Each time a pro-BJP journalist wrote something against the prime minister, I would offer facts to the contrary to one of the other three. Each time a pro-Congress journalist wrote something against the prime minister, and there were those who did, I would counter them using one of the other three. And so it went. The best way to deal with motivated reportage is to counter it with facts. If the facts favour the journalist, then the best course to adopt would be to ignore and move on. Even though few politicians have lost power because of professional reporting by journalists, the problem with many who enjoy brute legislative majorities is their intolerance of criticism and dissent. They become democratic despots very easily.

Chief ministers cutting across party lines have for decades made the police service do their bidding. In the recent past, we have seen the Union home minister similarly using the police force under his direct charge in Delhi to do the ruling party’s bidding; for example, when the Delhi Police allowed masked goons who attacked students and faculty on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus to get away. The politicisation of the police force is one of the major governance challenges in India and only a free press can keep it under check.

colour-fades-cracks-show

Sat Apr 04 14:19:36 IST 2020

President Xi Jinping has stopped colouring his hair. Recent photographs of the Chinese leader show him with streaks of grey. While going grey is part of the ageing process, going grey suddenly is a sign of either ill health or distress. Hence, some view Xi’s display of grey as an attempt to show his people that he cares, that he is worried about their welfare, that he is working extra hard in these difficult times. Those of us who have allowed our hair to grey naturally, have never coloured it through good times and bad, happy times and stressful ones, would view this hirsute deception with both amusement and distrust.

When political leaders and entertainers colour their hair black, it is to show that they are still energetic and young. But, when a politician seeks to hide his grey it could be viewed as evidence of a willingness to deceive. Can one trust a person who colours his hair to be transparent in other matters? So, Xi’s decision to stop colouring his hair may not be just about demonstrating his concern for the health and welfare of his people. Its subliminal intent could be to win the trust of a people that are becoming increasingly distrustful of their political leaders.

The Chinese have been largely stoic in the face of Covid-19, but public protests are on the rise and the subdued anger of an anxious people is beginning to show. Winning public trust is a key imperative of effective public policy. In the age of mass communication it is necessary for political leaders to be seen as being concerned about people’s welfare. So, it is not surprising that faced with visuals of thousands of urban poor walking miles to their distant rural homes in sheer desperation, escaping a lockdown of their livelihoods in the name of protecting their lives, even a macho politician like Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced to ‘apologise’ for taking this tough decision.

That was a decent gesture on his part. However, in an unthinking moment, Modi seems to have fallen prey to the sycophancy around him by launching a people’s fund for treatment of Covid-19 victims with the wearing-my-concern-on-my-sleeve acronym PM-CARES (Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund). After his convincing victory in the last general elections, Modi does not require a fund named “PM-Cares” to convince people that he does. Was it hubris or plain incompetence that such an in-your-face name got approved? Some would view it as a sign of political weakness, like Xi’s grey hair. When politicians find it necessary to convince people that they care, then they are merely admitting that they think the people think they do not.

Will people concerned about Covid-19 want their governments to be merely caring or also competent? When each one of us has to go to a hospital, we seek both qualities in the doctor we consult—empathy and competence. When it comes to health, competence scores over empathy. Merely demonstrating concern for peoples’ distress without following it up with competent action is not going to win brownie points for politicians in power. On the other hand, there are different levels of public tolerance for incompetence in different societies. It is possible that in today’s China there is much less tolerance for incompetence than there was in Mao Zedong’s China in which millions died in famines. The question for Indian leadership, in Centre and states, is how much incompetence will the people tolerate merely because their leaders say they care.

turning-crisis-into-opportunity

Sat Mar 21 17:23:57 IST 2020

It is old hat that the Chinese character for ‘crisis’ is a combination of the characters for danger and opportunity. Thus went the wise old saying that in every crisis recognise the danger as well as the opportunity. Many knowledgeable people have been saying that to the Narendra Modi government for some time now. Make use of the economic slowdown and the unsettled political situation to initiate reforms that can turn the economy and polity around, and alter the national mood.

The example often quoted is of P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh in 1991 to show how a crisis can be turned into an opportunity. The reason why this is not an apt precedent for Modi is that in 1991 Rao and Singh could claim they inherited a crisis, even if the chief architect of that crisis was Rajiv Gandhi (see my book 1991: How Narasimha Rao Made History (2016) for the evidence on that), while in 2020 Modi knows that the current conjuncture is of his government’s own making. But then coronavirus is not. That is a crisis made in China and so Modi has been quick to turn it into an opportunity.

A global pandemic has helped concentrate policy minds in New Delhi. First, home minister Amit Shah staged a retreat on the proposed National Citizenship Register and National Population Register, ended the detention of former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and reiterated the government’s assurance that at some point statehood would be bestowed on the union territory of J&K. Second, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been quick to use the fall in oil prices, caused by the global economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, to in fact raise the excise duty on fuel and generate much needed revenues for the government. The finance minister has shown that faced with a prolonged slowdown, a stock market implosion and other negative economic consequences of a pandemic, she will do her best to prevent a fiscal crisis for an already fiscally constrained government.

Then came Prime Minister Modi’s invitation to leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for a dialogue, albeit via a video-conference, on the management of a pandemic. This has the potential to kick-start two stalled engines—the India-Pakistan bilateral dialogue and the SAARC process. While Pakistan has responded cautiously it has not thwarted the opportunity.

A pandemic that recognises no political borders is an apt metaphor for regional cooperation in South Asia.

While India has been correctly defining its neighbourhood in more expansive and strategic terms, including south-east, east and west Asian neighbours, as well as the Indian Ocean littoral, the fact is that it is the immediate neighbourhood that is of greatest importance to India’s own growth, development and security. The Covid-19 pandemic offered an opportunity for regional cooperation and Modi was right to seize it. Be it religious extremism and the terrorism it spawns, be it trade and development or be it the fight against poverty, South Asia needs both regional and national strategies and policies given the multiple cross-border links that feed each other’s worries.

The initiative, however, raises the larger question about the region’s shared destiny. Many have imagined from time to time that India and Pakistan can go their own way. Pakistan looks west, to the Islamic world, hoping to turn its back on India and India looks east, wanting to liberate itself from Pakistan. To an extent, weaker bilateral links have meant that both need each other less and less. However, if south Asia can learn to create an environment of cooperation rather than conflict, all countries in the region would be better off.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

a-world-without-walls

Fri Mar 06 14:28:57 IST 2020

Way back in the 1960s, when my generation was in its teens, long before any economist wrote about globalisation, Marshall McLuhan wrote a bestseller—The Gutenberg Galaxy—and coined the term ‘global village’ that made waves around the world. The book is full of quotable quotes about modern media, advertising, communication, politics, technology and so on. The most persuasive and lasting thought he left behind among his readers was the idea of the world as a village. That time and space had been shrunk by technology.

It was a couple of decades after McLuhan’s book was published that the word ‘globalisation’ captured the imagination of most people as they began to travel more easily and buy goods in their neighbourhood shop manufactured thousands of miles away. Television, as McLuhan reminded us, had brought the world into our living room. “Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behaviour,” he wrote. Television had brought experience closer home, without the required understanding of that experience. McLuhan believed that the Vietnam war was lost in “the living rooms of America—not on the battlefields of Vietnam”.

As we sit in our living rooms and experience the communal hatred in the dirty, crowded streets of the nation’s capital; the fear of coronavirus from Wuhan to Paris and Tehran to Bangkok; the propaganda about citizenship and migration in the streets of Kolkata and Paris; the talk of fair and unfair trade in the election rallies of the world’s most powerful nation, we hear the drumbeats of the global village.

The village drummer brought people together to inform them, warn them, alert them just as modern media does. The parallel ends there. The village drummer knew that the destiny of every villager was linked to that of another. His drumbeats were for all. Does modern media know that? Does television today beat the drum for all? When a virus engulfs a village, all are threatened. How stupid of anyone to imagine that one is safe while neighbours die of a spreading virus.

The metaphor of the global village was meant to remind us of our shared destiny. Not just of those within a single village but of those in villages around, and those that inhabit the space between villages. The drumbeats of one village were heard in the next and so the message went forth.

To imagine that one can have free flow of the good things of life through trade and travel, but keep what one does not like out with a wall in between is naïve, to say the least. The information on climate change only reinforces ancient knowledge that nature recognises no borders. Indeed, till the middle of the 20th century, humans, too, had no particular regard for borders. The history of mankind has been the history of movement of people, sometimes in response to the challenge posed by nature and sometimes in response to the threat posed by fellow humans.

Just as the clouds above move freely across borders, so do animals below and so did humans. For how long can mere governments prevent the free movement of people when nature, the search for life and livelihood, for security and safety push people to move? When governments are unable to prevent a virus from crossing borders, how long can they prevent ideas from doing so? When big business wants free movement of capital and goods, how long can it prevent the free movement of people? Such are the questions that the drummers of the global village raise and we cannot remain deaf to their beats.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

indian-aid-to-america

Sat Feb 22 11:29:21 IST 2020

The United States administration of President Donald Trump has given India a historic push. It has elevated India to the rank of a developed economy. Hallelujah! Perhaps President Trump deserves a Bharat Ratna for helping India rise so fast in such a short period of time. No other politician has been able to stage this developmental miracle for India. If you still think India is a developing economy with per capita annual national income of just $2,000 compared with $60,000 for the US, then you must be living on a different planet, certainly not on Trump’s La La Land.

One cannot blame the simplistic mind of the Trump administration for having come to such a historic determination. After all, what about India do most of them see around them all the time? Some of America’s best educated, talented and best behaved people earning twice as much as an average white American. Consider the statistics. According to the well-known US public information surveying agency, Pew Research, the median household income of Indian immigrants in the US in 2015, at $1,01,591, was almost double that of not just all other immigrant nationalities ($51,000) but also almost double that of the average native American households ($56,000). If Indians around you in the US are so much better off than the average Joe, surely India must be a developed country!

Of course, one reason why Indian Americans earn so much more is because they are better educated than the average Joe. Pew Research found that 72 per cent of Indian Americans in the age group of 25 and above were graduates, while only 19 per cent of all Americans had obtained a graduate degree, and 40 per cent of Indian Americans had obtained postgraduate degrees, with only 11 per cent of all Americans so qualified. So the average Joe thinks India must be doing more to educate its people. So why blame the average Joe and his president for imagining that India is a developed country?

Now look at the other side of the coin. There are over four million Indian Americans in the US and almost all of them, with very few exceptions, either themselves or their parents, migrated after 1980. Less than 10 per cent of the 4.4 million migrated before 1980. A significant number of the migrants were initially educated in India, mostly in government subsidised public institutions. Their initial educational base was good enough for them to excel in institutions of higher learning in the US and get all those well-paying jobs. Today many of them contribute to the development of American science and technology, business and finance, academia and public institutions.

It would be worth quantifying the total economic contribution of Indian Americans to the United States, especially its growth after the end of the Cold War. The ‘brain drain’ to the US out of contemporary India may well be worth more than the ‘drain of wealth’ from colonial India to Imperial Britain. One could argue that by exporting talent, a developing country has aided the continued global dominance of a developed one. The sum could well run into trillions of dollars and that should be considered India’s aid to the US.

US trade negotiators complain that India remains closed to US imports and is running a trade surplus. India’s negotiators could tell their counterparts that the talent this country has exported to the US more than makes up for this. In fact, a developing India is contributing by the hour to keep developed America developed. President Trump may complain that many Indian Americans are not voting for him. That, too, is an important contribution of Indian Americans to America’s development.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

every-city-needs-an-aap

Fri Feb 07 14:40:40 IST 2020

For a chief minister who does not have even the powers of a mayor of most western cities, the head of Delhi’s local government gets a lot of national attention. For the second time in five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pitched himself directly against Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal in a campaign that opinion polls suggest places Kejriwal miles ahead of both national party rivals. In 2015, Modi suffered his first major electoral setback when the AAP swept Delhi polls. It was after that defeat and Rahul Gandhi’s famous jibe about Modi’s ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ that the prime minister had to shift gears and turn populist in his policies. The consequences of that defeat are being felt even now in Modi’s economic policies.

Kejriwal’s larger-than-life image is partly because so much of the national media, especially television news, is located in New Delhi. The chief minister of Delhi is like the mayor of New York, whose name often figures among presidential hopefuls in the United States, but his powers and finances are nowhere near the latter’s. The police commissioner of New York is selected by the mayor and reports to him. Successive chief ministers of Delhi have complained that the city’s police do not report to them.

Delhi goes to vote on February 8 and by evening exit polls will give their verdict. If Kejriwal wins, as he is expected to, it will be because no political party has been able to present an agenda to the nation’s capital city that can hope to rival the AAP’s performance and promise. Indeed, the vote in Delhi will be for the AAP and not just Kejriwal. I have never met Kejriwal or any of his ministers, but I have had the opportunity to meet many of the young men and women who constitute the AAP’s backbone and it has always been an elevating and inspiring experience. Kejriwal’s best contribution to Indian politics has been to mobilise young people interested in improving education, health care and bring decency into human interaction.

In the three decades I have lived in New Delhi, I had never had the opportunity to meet my local member of the state legislature or municipality till a young man from the AAP got elected. His contribution to making the place where I live more liveable, his grasp of the nitty-gritty of municipal and urban affairs, his ability to coordinate the work between agencies of the government that often work at cross purposes has truly impressed me. It is the good work of such young people in the AAP that will make Kejriwal return to office. Hopefully, he understands that and continues to empower them. It would be terrible if a second victory makes Kejriwal too ambitious. He has lots of work to do in Delhi and he must continue to do that.

Every Indian city needs a local government like the AAP that pays attention to improving urban governance, infrastructure, finances, public service delivery and, above all, public education and health. It is by focusing on these issues that the AAP has endeared itself to Delhi’s citizens. Not by pandering to communal fears and resentment. In most states, on the other hand, the chief minister, his family and his ministerial and personal cronies keep a tight grip on urban space, enriching themselves and their next several generations. The India Against Corruption campaign and its political legacy remain the bright spots in an otherwise worrying national political landscape.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

economy-lessons-from-china

Fri Jan 24 19:58:01 IST 2020

While India entered the second decade of the 21st century worried about an economic slowdown and political sectarianism, China entered it celebrating not just the news of thaw in the trade war with the United States but, more strikingly, the fact that its annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) had breached $10,000. Chinese media reported earlier this month that recently published national income data show that China’s per capita GDP was $10,276 in 2019. Technically, this qualifies China to become a member of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—dubbed the rich nation’s club. The OECD’s poorer economies— Mexico and Turkey—as well as countries like South Korea became members when their per capita income was below $10,000, but they are now all above that five digit mark.

The latest news from China is just one more wakeup call for Indian leadership. While the Union government is presently focused on turning the economy around in the near term, and that should be the focus of this year’s annual budget speech of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, it is time Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid out a credible medium-term roadmap for the economy that goes beyond merely asserting that India will be a $5 trillion economy. As former finance minister P. Chidambaram correctly said, India will some day be a $5 trillion economy. The question is when?

One unfortunate consequence of winding up the Planning Commission is that there is no group within the government tasked to develop an actionable medium-term growth strategy, with sectoral plans and targets. Such planning has now acquired renewed urgency given that the Union government hopes to revive economic growth by increasing public investment. There is expectation that the fiscal and revenue deficits are likely to be higher than budgeted and that the government may yet again set aside the discipline of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

There is a case for fiscal liberalism this year given the low rate of national income growth and the low ‘animal spirits’ of private enterprise. However, public spending should be undertaken within a credible medium-term policy framework. While China abandoned socialist planning many moons ago and has pursued socialism with Chinese characteristics, it continues to invest in institutional capacity for medium- and long-term planning. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has a mandate and professional capacity that far exceeds that of India’s atrophied macro-economic planning organisation, fancily called the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog.

The NDRC is a high-powered body that has played a key role in enabling the structural transformation of the Chinese economy from being mainly investment-driven and export-oriented to sustaining growth through a shift to domestic consumption. There is a fundamental difference between turning business and investment cycles around and enabling structural changes. A ministry of finance can, at best, deploy fiscal instruments to alter incentives for investment and consumption. The economy requires an all-in government approach for the kind of structural changes that the Indian economy now requires.

The last time India adopted such an approach was in 1991-1992. Most economists now have come around to the view that the growth process unleashed by the structural changes of the early 1990s has run its course. A paradigm shift that is now warranted cannot be addressed by the finance minister and the annual budget policy alone. The budget speech can, however, chart out a medium-term strategy for accelerating growth and generating employment.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

nehru-dilemma-now-modi

Fri Jan 10 11:45:20 IST 2020

One good consequence of the defeat of the Congress in the general elections of 2014 has been the number of good books that have been written by Congressmen like Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh. Following up on his highly readable biography of Indira Gandhi’s principal aide P.N. Haksar, published in 2018, Jairam has now published a 700-page biography of V.K. Krishna Menon, India’s defence minister at the time of the Chinese incursion of 1962.

Historians and political scientists will benefit hugely from Jairam’s painstakingly detailed account of Menon’s role in India’s freedom struggle, his international articulation of Indian interests before and after independence, and his influence on policy at home and abroad through the first two decades after independence. To me, the most interesting part of this voluminous book was the detailing of the relationship between Menon and Nehru.

The office of the prime minister is the loneliest political office in India. Many prime ministers have been very lonely individuals even in their personal lives—widowers, widows and bachelors—and Nehru was made lonelier by his upbringing. Menon was among the very few in Nehru’s council of ministers that came from a social milieu that Nehru felt most comfortable in. It would have been no mere happenstance that both shared a unique social intimacy with the Mountbattens.

Menon and Nehru were two peas in a pod, but Nehru’s personality was shaped both by his long and deep involvement in the freedom struggle at home and his intimate association with Mahatma Gandhi. Menon fought for India’s freedom in the halls and on the streets of England, and then in the elegant world of diplomacy. He touched Indian soil only after convincing Nehru that he should induct him in his council of ministers. Jairam shows how their tenure as cabinet colleagues created tensions. Nehru had learnt how to function in New Delhi’s political milieu. Menon seemed to think that switching from Savile Row suits to dhoti-kurta was about the only transition needed. Nehru spoke in Hindustani. Menon hardly knew his own mother tongue.

Of the many dimensions to the Menon-Nehru partnership that Jairam brings out, the one that may resonate today is how Nehru was made to pay a price for his friendship. Many around Nehru wondered why the prime minister was so accommodative, so tolerant, so indulgent of a man who was so unlike Nehru. The officialdom, the diplomats and even most political colleagues of Nehru loved the man. Few felt so endearingly towards Menon. So, when opportunity presented itself—in the form of India’s inability to defend itself against Chinese aggression—everyone around the prime minister wanted the defence minister sacked.

An interesting anecdote from among the many is the one about Admiral R.D. Katari informing Nehru as early as in 1959 that he, too, wished to quit as Navy chief, after General K.S. Thimayya had sent in his papers to the prime minister. Nehru wondered why the three service chiefs had “ganged up” against the defence minister. Katari agreed with Nehru that Menon had his good qualities and had contributed to the nation, but then asked, “Why as defence minister, sir?” Katari felt relieved when Nehru laughed out.

A prime minister is often faced with such a dilemma. To what extent can one stick with a friend if the friendship is beginning to hurt his standing? Looking at events in India over the past few weeks, one wonders if the prime minister today asks himself whether his friendship with a fellow Gujarati is beginning to hurt his own standing.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

learn-from-atalji

Sat Dec 28 12:26:37 IST 2019

On Christmas Day Atal Bihari Vajpayee would have been 95. Will the India that celebrates Atalji’s centenary five years hence be the India that he would have felt comfortable living in? The answer to that lies in the manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi responds to the many concerns of many citizens being expressed in many ways as this year comes to a close.

I was still in my teens when I first heard Atalji address a public meeting in the Vivek Vardhini College grounds in Hyderabad. I regarded myself a communist at the time and so was not impressed by his views, but I was mesmerised by his oratory. Years later, I first met Atalji in the stately rooms of New Delhi’s Hyderabad House. Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao was hosting a dinner in honour of the visiting heads of government of the Group of 15—a like-minded group within the Non-Aligned Movement. Rao caught me and a couple of others laughing heartily as Atalji spoke to us, while waiting to move to the dining room. The prime minister walked up to us, leaving the other G-15 leaders behind, and inquired conspiratorially: “What is Atal telling you?” Atalji laughed heartily and replied: “Don’t worry, I am not saying anything that should worry you.”

Like everyone who came in contact with him, I, too, was truly impressed by Atalji’s wit and charm. He endeared himself to all his interlocutors and to multitude of the Indian people. When he passed away, the entire nation mourned a true nationalist—one who united India. There is much that the present leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party must learn from his example. Atalji may not have returned to power in 2004, but he firmly embedded himself in the hearts and minds of a large majority of Indians of all faiths.

The poet Oliver Goldsmith wrote of The Village Preacher: “Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway; and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.” Much the same could be said for Atalji. Ironically though, towards the end of his tenure in office, Atalji was scoffed more within his own political movement than by his critics outside. He was mocked as a mask covering the real face of his party. Attempts were made to unseat him on the grounds that his health had been failing. He was criticised for not pulling up errant ministers, for allowing those close to him, from the late Pramod Mahajan to his family members, to misuse their positions of power and influence, and he was bullied by the BJP’s allies from Bal Thackeray to N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Despite all his faults and foibles, one can say of Atalji what Goldsmith said of the Village Preacher: “His ready smile a parent’s warmth expressed/ Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed./ To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,/ But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.”

All great leaders are remembered not because they were powerful, but because they were caring. The most impressive tribute to any former president in the national capital of the United States is not to a leader who established American dominance over the world, but one who united his own people—Abraham Lincoln—fighting hate and prejudice.

In the difficult days through which the country is passing, with insecurity of different kinds—from livelihood to life, scholarship to citizenship— gripping so many, there is much that Prime Minister Modi can learn from the qualities of Atalji’s head and heart in keeping the trust and confidence of all citizens.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

prioritise-economy-over-politics

Fri Dec 13 12:13:36 IST 2019

Economist Raghuram Rajan was criticised when, as governor of the Reserve Bank of India, he made critical remarks about domestic politics. That was understandable. Central bank governors are generally not expected to air their personal views on political and social issues of the day. However, as an academic economist, which is what Rajan now is, he has every right to speak his mind on any issue and certainly on issues that a professional economist believes impinge on economic policy and performance. So, the critics who questioned Rajan’s recent remarks on political issues are wrong.

It is one of the failings of modern economics that few professional economists are trained to understand the influence of political and social policies and events on economic performance. Indeed, the discipline of economics acquired shape in the womb of politics and of governance. Which is why it was originally referred to as ‘political economy’. Much of the economic theorising done by the discipline’s pioneers was about real-life policy issues and they showed acute awareness of the influence and role of politics and social attitudes on economic policy and performance.

It is only after the Second World War that economics became increasingly about algebra, arithmetic and statistical techniques and the discipline shed the word ‘political’ from its name and declared itself to be a social ‘science’. Which is at least one reason why society expects economists to come up with scientific solutions to economic problems when so many of those problems originate in political and social choices people make.

Consider the case of India’s economic slowdown. There are, without doubt, purely economic and commercial reasons for it. However, there are also political factors. How politicians handle policy is just one way in which politics influences economics. How politicians prioritise their concerns is another. Political management of economic policy is an important determinant of economic performance, for it shapes investment decisions, consumer behaviour and savings preferences. John Maynard Keynes’s most valuable proposition was that expectations have a way of shaping outcomes. Politics and political communication shape expectations about the economy and thereby influence actual outcome.

The ‘rising India narrative’ played an important role in pushing up economic growth rates in the post-liberalisation era. Compared to the average annual rate of growth of national income of 3.5 per cent till the early 1980s, the post-liberalisation era saw growth rates double and accelerate to over 7 per cent. Economists have pointed to several factors that have contributed to the recent slowdown. One of them certainly is the political environment in large parts of the country and the political narrative being built around it.

It would be wrong to blame only one political party, even if the BJP should take a bulk of the political responsibility for economic policy and performance. Most state governments are today run by non-BJP parties. Their performance, too, remains below par. So much of the politics of today revolves around irrelevant issues with the core issue of economic performance not getting the attention it deserves. This environment of political one-upmanship, brinkmanship and constant pursuit of short-term gains by almost all political parties has harmed the economy.

The prime minister and most chief ministers are seen as being busy with and remaining pre-occupied by a range of non-economic issues and not paying adequate attention to the economy. This perception may be unfair and wrong. But, it exists. It is not just the executive that prioritises politics over economics. The judiciary, too, has adopted a lackadaisical approach to economic issues, often failing to appreciate the economic cost of judicial action or inaction.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

stop-celebrating-brain-gain-work-on-retaining-talent

Fri Nov 29 12:03:15 IST 2019

Every now and then members of Parliament routinely and curiously seem to celebrate the departure of Indians from India. I wonder in how many other countries elected representatives of the people celebrate their citizens going abroad in search of employment rather than staying home and contributing to national development.

Recently, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was required to answer that frequently asked question about H-1B visas that the United States dishes out to hire talent produced in India and gainfully employed in the US. The government is put on the defensive if fewer Indians are able to secure their passport to paradise. So, Jaishankar informed Parliament that US official data showed that “in fiscal 2018, 1.25 lakh H-1B visas were issued to Indian nationals which accounted for 69.9 per cent of the total 1.79 lakh H-1B visa issued.” Members of Parliament seemed satisfied to be told that “Indian nationals account for nearly 70 per cent of all H-1B visas issued”.

In my student days this was called “brain drain”. But around the turn of the century, policymakers and economists redefined this as export of services. India began demanding a multilateral regime for the ‘movement of natural persons’, as skilled labour export came to be called. This is no brain drain, argued some economists. India is creating a ‘brain bank’ from which it can draw hard currency in the form of remittances. Then we went a step further. Both former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have spoken about ‘brain drain’ in fact being ‘brain gain’, since the emigrating Indian would return both better skilled and better off, and would contribute to India’s development.

When former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee decided to celebrate the achievement and contribution of the Indian diaspora, he chose January 9 since that was the date on which Mahatma Gandhi returned home from South Africa. The day is celebrated as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas—the home returning Indian, not the home leaving Indian. India now celebrates the home leavers, and hundreds of thousands are paying their way out.

The Reserve Bank of India has estimated that the total expenditure on tuition and hostel fees by Indian students studying abroad has gone up sharply in recent years, rising from $1.9 billion in 2013-2014 to about $2.8 billion in 2017-2018. The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India has, however, estimated the actual figure to be more than twice that number, at $6 billion.

The issue is not the money outflow or inflow, but of the talent flow. Over the past four decades, India has contributed some of its best brains to the US, exporting students graduating from its best institutions. In the first quarter century after independence, most Indians who went abroad to study returned home to work. This benefitted the country. While more and more of those who study abroad are now returning home, because of reduced job opportunities in trans-Atlantic economies, the fact remains that India still exports far too much talent rather than retaining it at home. West Asia has been yet another magnet for talent export. It is no longer low-skilled labour that goes to the Gulf states. High-skilled labour and highly qualified professionals are now moving to the region. Indian companies, too, are investing more overseas.

The time has come for new thinking on policies that impact brain drain and the export of talent. The celebration of the achievements of the overseas Indian is all very well, but how about celebrating the decision of those who choose to remain or return by making it worthwhile to do so.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

judiciary-fills-political-vacuum

Thu Nov 14 15:22:56 IST 2019

The Supreme Court’s verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi issue has been widely described as pragmatic. It has also been criticised for basing itself on faith rather than verifiable fact. All religious belief is based on faith. Hence, there is nothing inherently wrong in a court arriving at a view pertaining to religious belief on faith. As for the fact that the destruction of an existing structure called the Babri Masjid was an act of vandalism, the court has stuck to facts and opined that it was an illegal act.

Much has been written in the past few days on the pros and cons of the court verdict. One aspect of it has, however, not been commented upon. The very fact that all political parties and almost all religious organisations took the view that they would accept the verdict of the Supreme Court and gave the judiciary the last word on the subject is a testimony to the failure of both political and religious leadership.

The movement for the construction of a temple to Lord Ram in Ayodhya at the site where the mosque stood grew in strength over the years mainly as a political movement. Indeed, it can even be argued that the original decision to construct a mosque in the very heart of Ayodhya, a holy place for Hindus, was itself a political act, taken by the rulers of the day. So both the decision to build the mosque, taken sometime in the first quarter of the 16th century, and the decision to replace it with a temple, taken in the middle of the 20th century, were both political acts of assertion.

Little wonder then that Lal Krishna Advani and the then leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party decided to make the construction of a temple in the place of the mosque a political issue. The Archaeological Survey of India has established that the mosque itself was built on top of an existing structure. Even if this were not so, the temple protagonists could argue that they were making a political point with their demand to reverse an earlier political decision.

Given the politics of the entire matter, it would have been appropriate if the matter had been resolved politically between elected representatives from both communities. Such a political resolution and reconciliation would have added shine to India’s democratic institutions. Prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao tried to resolve the matter politically but no political party was willing to confront, address and resolve the matter politically. He then appealed to community leaders to resolve differences. He appointed the late Naresh Chandra, a former Union cabinet secretary and later India’s ambassador to the United States, as an adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office and placed him in charge of finding a way out of the impasse. He was supported by the late P.V.R.K. Prasad, an IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh who had distinguished himself as the builder of modern and devotee-friendly facilities at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams and thereby endeared himself to Hindu religious leaders across the country. But the Rao-Chandra-Prasad trio was unable to resolve matters since neither religious leaders nor political parties extended their support to them.

In the end, the matter landed at the doors of the judiciary. Over the years, it has travelled its way up within the judicial system and was finally settled by a five-member bench of the Supreme Court. For students of public policy, this is a good case study of how the judiciary steps in, time and again, to fill a policy vacuum created by the failure of political, administrative and social leadership.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

economy-hopeful-autumn

Fri Nov 01 11:22:41 IST 2019

If winter comes, can spring be far behind, was the hopeful message of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Philosopher Albert Camus found hope in autumn as well. “Autumn is a second spring,” said Camus, “when every leaf is a flower.” The Indian economy has been through a longish summer of discontent and the consequences are still around. But, with the Central government now focused on the economy, there is hope of a colourful autumn. Winter is anyway a brief event in most of India.

The results of the elections to the Maharashtra and Haryana assemblies showed once again that while the electorate reposes faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of national security, it remains less convinced about his handling of the economy. Interestingly, while Modi still benefits from a positive vote at the national level, the negative vote hurts the BJP at the state level. Development is, after all, a local phenomenon.

Who cares about national gross domestic product, annual rates of growth, and the fiscal and current account deficits. The economy is about one’s employment, education, local infrastructure and development around where one lives. While Delhi may manage foreign policy and national security well, the political consequences of its mishandling of the economy are felt at the state level.

While Modi and Amit Shah have understood how to articulate the language of hope for an aspirational India, they have not yet found a way of translating their mandate into better governance and speedier development, especially in states. The electorate trusts Modi and has given him a long rope. He will have to do more on the domestic development front to retain that trust. To begin with, it is necessary that Modi convinces every chief minister of the importance of the development agenda; he should take state governments along with him in seeking a higher rate of economic growth and improved governance.

There was a time when a few chief ministers came to symbolise development and became national, indeed international, icons for a ‘new India’. Certainly, Modi was one such, as chief minister of Gujarat. There were others like Chandrababu Naidu, at the turn of the century, and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy after him. In his early years in office Bihar’s Nitish Kumar was also a symbol of good governance and development. During the years of above average growth, between 2002 and 2012, the combination of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh at the Centre, and a clutch of active and competent chief ministers in various states came to define the ‘spring’ in India’s growth story.

After 2012, the story entered its hot and humid summer phase. While Modi’s victory in 2014 appeared like the good monsoon many were waiting for, his record on development has remained patchy. It was not just Modi who received the electorate’s hearty endorsement at the Centre but many chief ministers did so in states. Yet, there is no chief minister today who has come to symbolise development and the agenda of growth. Every one of them remains a populist of one kind or another.

If the Indian economy has to return to the 8.0 per cent plus trajectory of growth, the prime minister and the chief ministers must work together to keep the national focus on economic growth, new investment, employment generation and increasing the purchasing power of the poor and middle classes. Modi must inspire chief ministers into better performance and ensure they focus on development. Perhaps a meeting of the National Development Council ought to be convened this winter with a view to take the economy into a new spring.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

brute-majority-not-a-blessing-for-telangana-and-andhra-pradesh

Fri Oct 18 12:15:42 IST 2019

It is generally believed that a comfortable parliamentary majority facilitates effective governance by the executive. While Manmohan Singh reinforced that view with his famous “coalition compulsions” argument, defending his government’s inability to act decisively during his second term in office, the votaries of coalition governments have long argued that the threat of exit keeps minority governments in check. Wafer thin majorities have been criticised because they encourage political corruption, with the ruling clique having to win over support of marginal elements who can unseat a government at will.

Given all this theorising about the role of parliamentary support in the performance of the executive, few would have believed that brute majorities may, in fact, be more of a curse than a cure. Ruling political parties with a brute majority in the legislature come very quickly to believe that they owe no explanation to anyone for the decisions their government takes because the ‘mandate of the people’ is with them.

Just look at what is happening in the two Telugu-speaking states—Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The YSR Congress led by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was voted to power with a huge majority that virtually decimated the then ruling Telugu Desam Party and finally buried the Sonia Congress in Andhra Pradesh. It was hoped that with such a convincing victory the chief minister would take the fledgling state, beset with teething troubles, forward. Yet, not even six months into his tenure, Jagan has made a bigger mess of an existing mess.

Obsessed with seeking revenge against TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, Jagan has been taking one whimsical decision after another, upsetting many who had invested in the future of the new state—ranging from the government of Singapore and the World Bank to high-flying Indian and foreign companies. If Naidu erred in making the building of a new state capital at Amaravati a white elephant that the state cannot afford, Jagan is making his decision to move away from that plan a road to uncertainty about other investments made in the state. Jagan’s decision to nationalise liquor sales is yet another whimsical act, pursuing a policy that has failed in every state where it has been tried before, including Delhi.

If the Telugus of Andhra Pradesh are ruing their decision to give Jagan such a thumping majority, their compatriots in Telangana are not far behind. Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao ran a good government in his first tenure in office, ably assisted by his son, the bright and charming K.T. Rama Rao, and the very grounded nephew T. Harish Rao. KCR was given a thumping endorsement and returned to office with an even bigger majority in the hope that he would continue to take Telangana forward. However, the first year of his second term has been marred by whimsical decisions, ranging from not constituting a ministry for months to wanting to build a new secretariat and getting schools closed for weeks on end because of a public transport strike caused by the manner in which he dealt with its employees and so on.

Both Jagan and KCR have to sit back, take a deep breath and reexamine their record in office if they want their respective states to remain at the top of the league in terms of development. One can only hope that between son and nephew the two younger leaders in Telangana will force the patriarch to focus on good governance and development of the state beyond Hyderabad. In Andhra Pradesh, one can only pray that Jagan’s mother reminds him of the good work his father had done as chief minister and pulls him back from his journey of whims and spiteful revenge.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

future-far-from-perfect-for-india

Fri Oct 04 15:55:54 IST 2019

How prepared is India to deal with the challenges of the future? Not very well. That is the conclusion of a fascinating report on future preparedness produced by a group of Russian scholars. Russia’s premier international affairs forum, the Valdai Discussion Club, has just put out a Future Preparedness Index (FPI) that ranks India at 17 in a list of the world’s top 20 countries. Right at the top of the list is, of course, the United States. Russia itself is at rank 12, testifying to the objectiveness of the study. China is at 10. Western Europe and Japan rank high on the index, occupying most of the top eight slots after the US. The only countries ranked below India are Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa.

Valdai’s FPI is an aggregate of country performance across ten areas, namely, economy, education, technology, science, social cohesion, culture and communication, resources and ecology, state capacity, governance and international power. The FPI researchers used a range of freely available data, mostly from the World Bank, to estimate the level of development of a country along each of the ten parameters. Critics would pick holes about data accuracy and comparability, but then all such international comparisons are fraught. Despite all limitations, a statistical index of this sort has its uses. It allows one not just to judge where one’s country is in comparison with others, but where its strengths and weaknesses lie.

India scores particularly poorly on education, ranked as it is at the very bottom of the list of 20. India’s other weak spots are inadequacy of natural resources and the ecological challenge, lack of social cohesion and low level of technological and cultural development. India scores better, though not too highly, on its economic performance and on governance. The score on governance may surprise many in India, but its relatively better ranking is owing to the extent of computerisation of public services and the role of a merit-based civil service.

There were two surprises for me in the FPI index. First, the fact that it shows that the European Union is better prepared to face the challenges of the future than is generally supposed. The common perception is that it is the US and China that would dominate the future. The FPI index not only shows the EU to be on a stronger foundation, given its investment in education, science and technology and quality of governance and state capacity, but it also shows China as being on a weaker foundation than is widely imagined. Coming from a Russian think-tank, this is an interesting result.

The second surprise in the Valdai report is the gap between what the data shows and what experts in the field of international relations think. A Russian public opinion research centre polled experts in Russia and around the world and asked them to rank the 20 countries on each parameter. There is considerable gap between what the data shows and what the experts think. The results show that the international research community has an exaggerated opinion of the power of most major countries, including the US, China, Russia, India, Brazil, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, compared with what the data shows. On the other hand, expert opinion underestimates the power of the European Union, Japan and Australia.

Many have long argued that India punches above its weight in world affairs. But the FPI data suggests that China and Russia, too, are punching above their weight, while Germany, France and Japan are punching well below their weight. The warning for India, though, is that if it does not invest in education and research its global influence and power will diminish.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

patriotism-out-of-pocket

Fri Sep 20 11:51:00 IST 2019

The balance of payments crisis of 1990-91 was triggered in part by non-resident Indians withdrawing their money from NRI accounts in Indian banks. Patriotic NRIs—the kind who in more recent years having been crowding into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rallies from New York to Dubai to Singapore to Houston—were precisely the kind who ran away with their money when the Indian economy was on the verge of bankruptcy. In 2019, it may well be the even more patriotic resident Indian citizens, who may have even voted for Modi, that seem to be taking their money out of India, worried about the economy’s near-term prospects and their children’s future.

According to a news report, Reserve Bank of India data shows that outward remittance of foreign exchange from India increased from $1.325 billion in 2014-15 to $13.787 billion in 2018-19. In the first four months of 2019-20, it was already $5.871 billion. Part of the increase is due to growing foreign travel (for tourism, business and education) by an increasingly well-off urban elite. Over the past five years, Indian families forked out as much as $10 billion (an average of $2 billion per year) to pay for education abroad. The latter phenomenon is in part a comment on the desire of those who can afford, or who can secure a bank loan, to study abroad, but it is equally a comment on what the Indian middle and upper classes think of higher education in India.

While outward remittances on account of tourism and education are associated with prosperity, rising outward remittances on account of transfer of savings, made possible by the liberalised remittance scheme that allows Indians to transfer up to $2,50,000 per year out of India, are a comment on what investors think of the country’s medium-term growth prospects. India’s rich may be voting for Prime Minister Modi, but are clearly de-risking, taking part of their wealth out of the country. The simple term for this is ‘capital flight’.

The head of an investment bank told Sandeep Singh of The Indian Express, “Small businesses and entrepreneurs who are relatively affluent are looking to shift their base out of the country.” This trend has been observed since 2010, but there is a clear accentuation in the recent past. Whether it is a businessman or a middle-class professional, few allow their patriotism to blind their investment decisions. Money enters a country when investors feel optimistic about its future prospects. Money exits a country when expectations turn negative. The Indian economy is in the grip of negative expectations. Turning the mood around is the single most important challenge for the Modi government.

Turning the mood around, however, is not just about the kind of tinkering with economic policies that the Union finance ministry has been doing over the past fortnight. While most of Nirmala Sitharaman’s initiatives are good and welcome, the fact is that few of her cabinet and party colleagues are lending a helping hand. The political energy of the government is getting dissipated in avoidable controversies that are adding to the negative mindset that has gripped consumers and investors alike. Turning the economy around requires political leadership and a clear sense of purpose at the very top. A subsidy here, a tax sop there, a tariff cut here and a cheaper loan there are not enough.

The government must speak in one voice, avoid stirring the pot on meaningless issues about one’s linguistic, religious, cultural and social life and, instead, focus attention on the citizen’s economic and educational future. The government needs a new mindset moving forward.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

economy-lessons-from-chanakya

Fri Sep 06 11:41:52 IST 2019

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advised his successor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to listen to ‘sane voices’ on the economy to be able to restore confidence in the government’s macroeconomic policies and policymaking. For a prime minister there is probably no one better to turn to for sane and sage advice on statecraft than Kautilya aka Chanakya.

In Arthashastra, perhaps the greatest of the ancient texts on statecraft and political economy, Kautilya advises the king to be “ever active in the management of the economy, without which both current prosperity and future growth will be destroyed”. A strong and vibrant economy, Kautilya repeatedly asserted, is the foundation of a powerful and successful state. Indeed, he went on to say that it is from the “strength of the treasury” that an army derives its strength. By the word ‘treasury’ Kautilya was not referring only to the ‘fisc’, but to the state’s fiscal and economic capacity as a whole. Kautilya believed it is the king’s job to manage the economy.

There are many reasons why the prime minister must place the revival of economic growth on top of his personal list of priorities for the rest of the year. Nothing else literally matters. Returning to the long-term trajectory of around 7.0 per cent annual rate of national income growth would have several positive outcomes. It would improve government finances. It would generate new incomes and new jobs. It would set into motion the ‘virtuous cycle’ of investment-led growth that the Union finance ministry’s annual Economic Survey offered as a panacea for all ills. Above all, it would revive the ‘India Story’ that has driven investment and growth over the past decade.

The ‘India Story’ was based on four numbers. For the first half of the 20th century, the economy of the Indian subcontinent as a whole grew at just over zero per cent per annum. From 1950 to 1980, national income grew at an annual average growth rate of 3.5 per cent. This went up to 5.5 per cent between 1980 and 2000. From the turn of the century, the rate of growth began to accelerate, touching close to 9.0 per cent per annum during Manmohan Singh’s first term in office. After 2012, the downturn began but the ‘India Story’ was kept alive by the fact that even at a lower rate of growth of over 7.0 per cent India was still the ‘world’s fastest growing large economy’.

These simple but hard economic facts formed the basis of fundamental geopolitical reassessments of India around the world. The first off the ground was former United States secretary of state Condoleezza Rice who wrote an essay in 2001 urging the US leadership to stop thinking of India as a neighbour of Pakistan and to start thinking of India as a neighbour of China. Rising India was increasing its economic distance from Pakistan and closing up to China. This narrative helped India avoid the 1990-1991 kind of sentiment-based economic crisis even in times of trouble, as after 2008-2009.

Investment is a sentimental act, whatever the number-crunching, model-building economists may say. The positive narrative about India shaped investor sentiment. The same way today a new negative narrative about India has begun to take shape and that is dampening investor sentiment. Despite his impressive electoral victory, Modi is not being viewed as someone who is on top of a difficult situation. Timely and credible communication is an important instrument of economic policy making. Former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao understood that when he went on Doordarshan and addressed the nation in May 1991 and then went about unveiling dramatic policy correctives that altered sentiment within a month. Rest is history.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

conscience-mandated-by-law

Wed Aug 21 14:33:20 IST 2019

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is once again in the news thanks to what businesspersons have described as a draconian amendment to the Companies Act that makes not adhering to the CSR law a criminal offence. The government got tough because a large number of companies have failed to comply with the stipulation that two per cent of a company’s profits should be spent on “socially-beneficial” activities. While this is true for many defaulting firms it is also true that many others have in fact spent more than two per cent of their profits on a range of such socially-beneficial activities.

A study done a decade ago showed a distinct regional and cultural pattern in CSR spending. Companies located in western India, especially Parsi and Jain enterprises, had a better track record in CSR than those headquartered in northern and eastern India. While businesspersons may now complain about a legally-ordained CSR, the fact is that the idea originally came from some representatives of Indian business.

In early 2007, the leadership of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) called on prime minister Manmohan Singh to invite him to address their annual general meeting. Singh accepted their invitation and advised them to consider ways in which corporate India could be more socially responsible. A senior CII functionary then met me and gave me a list of seven principles of CSR that the prime minister could outline in a speech that I was then drafting for him. Singh increased that list to ten and titled his speech ‘Inclusive Growth—Challenges for Corporate India’.

Singh advocated greater attention to workers’ welfare, affirmative action in employment in favour of the less privileged, greater commitment to clean and green development, donation to charities, socially-responsible advertising and so on. The suggestion that drew most criticism from business leaders and media was for a ceiling on remuneration paid out to senior executives and promoters. Emphasising the importance of investment and saving over conspicuous consumption Singh referred to 19th century European business ethic and quoted economics guru John Maynard Keynes to say “The duty of ‘saving’ became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.”

Most business leaders and business media criticised the prime minister for burdening business with the responsibilities of government. I had to explain to them that most of the ideas in Singh’s speech came from within CII. The media called it the prime minister’s “ten commandments”. In a hard-hitting comment, journalist Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar chastised Singh for his homilies to business leaders with his own set of “ten commandments” for the prime minister. Writing in his famous Swaminomics column, Aiyar’s tenth commandment to Singh was, “Thou shalt insist on intra-party democracy in the Congress, and on open, transparent elections for all posts. If you do so, the Gandhi family will sack you. But it will be socially responsible, no?”

Arguments can be put forward both for and against legally-mandated CSR in a socially and economically unequal developing country. However, there is no justification at all for making non-adherence to such a law a criminal offence. There is, however, another problem with recent CSR funding. Critics have been complaining that companies have come under political pressure to donate to one or the other NGO, affiliated to the political party in power, as also to avoid donating to designated others. Such partisan political interference in CSR is unwarranted and will give a bad name to a good cause.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

whither-asian-century

Fri Aug 09 11:30:54 IST 2019

China’s economy is slowing down. Its growing power and influence are being challenged not just by Donald Trump’s America, but by the common people of Hong Kong. Under growing pressure from China, the Taiwanese are becoming restive. Many among the leadership of China’s closest ally, Pakistan, are having second thoughts on the economics of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Japan is angry with South Korea. The Koreans fired shots at jets flying close to its waters as part of a joint Russia-China air force exercise. Members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) want to ink a regional trade agreement; they are worried about the fallout of a US-China trade war and China’s slowdown. But, India remains wary. The US’s plan to pull out of Afghanistan is contributing to growing unease between India and Pakistan. Kashmir has become a hot spot, the Indian economy is dealing with a crisis of confidence and the government is fiscally constrained.

Taking all these independent developments together, western analysts are already declaring the end of the ‘Asian Century’. Will Asia cross its many geopolitical and geo-economic fault lines to produce rates of development witnessed over the past half century and make the rest of this century Asian? As Asia enters the third decade of the 21st century, that is the question over which many western analysts are salivating.

From 1970 to 2000, the rise of east Asian economies, in a flying geese formation—led by Japan and followed by the so-called ‘Asian Tigers’ of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea—defined the rise of Asia. As the new century dawned, the mighty continental China got on to the east Asian bus. Within a decade and a half, China increased its GDP 10 times from over US$1 trillion in 2000 to over US$11 trillion in 2016.

India entered the narrative during the first decade of the new century with convincing numbers. The annual average rate of growth of the Indian economy was around 3.5 per cent in 1950-1980. It shot up to around 5.5 per cent in 1980-2000 and had crossed 7.5 per cent in the first decade of the 21st century. It rose to over 8.5 per cent per annum during the first term of the United Progressive Alliance government.

In 2001, the Organisation of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), based in Paris, published historian Angus Maddison’s now famous statistical analysis of global economic growth over the past millennium, and showed how China and India together accounted for close to half of world income, with China’s share only marginally more than India’s, till the 17th century. Two centuries of European colonialism reduced the combined share of China and India in world income to less than 10 per cent by the middle of the 20th century. The second half of the 20th century saw the resurgence of China, India and much of east and southeast Asia.

Taken together, the combined growth experience of India and Asia to her east became the basis for the claim that the 21st century would be Asia’s century. Given that the Asia to India’s west is a mixed bag of resource-rich economies and crisis-ridden nations, the narrative about the Asian century focused only on the east.

A combination of demographic change, investment in human capability, development of new technologies and the sheer ingenuity of aspirational Asians will continue to drive Asia’s growth, through ups and downs. Paraphrasing Mark Twain, one can claim that reports of the death of the Asian century are highly exaggerated. What Asia needs, however, is wiser leadership and a willingness to bury the past to claim the future.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

grace-and-grit-of-sheila-dikshit

Fri Jul 26 11:33:04 IST 2019

In recent times, only Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been a recipient of such unalloyed praise and affection. Everyone loved Sheila Dikshit. It was not just because she reminded most people of their warm and cuddly grandmother, nor was it only because she always sported a gentle smile. Sheilaji, as most people referred to her, was a remarkable combination of grace, grit and charm. She was not just a popular political leader, but also a good administrator. By the end of her first term as chief minister of Delhi she had made her mark.

Sheilaji’s victory in the Delhi assembly elections of 1998 was a shot in the arm for a beleaguered Congress that was grappling with the challenge of losing power in 1996 and of the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party across north India. Her reelection to office in 2003 made her a star. Commenting editorially on her political and administrative performance and promise in the Financial Express, I expressed the opinion at that time that Sheilaji had prime ministerial potential. She could one day lead the Congress back to power in New Delhi.

Dikshit was horrified by my editorial endorsement. “Do you want to finish me off?” she called to ask. “I am happy being chief minister of Delhi. Mr Baru, let me be. Please don’t get me into trouble with praise.” That attitude of so many provincial performers of the Congress has, over the years, left it bereft of national leaders. In 2004, the Congress did form a government at the Centre. Its prime minister and four top ministers—Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, P. Chidambaram and Natwar Singh—were all political lightweights in their respective provinces.

Reflecting on this fact I had once said to Sheilaji that she should join the Manmohan Singh ministry. “Tell that to Dr Singh!” she told me, and laughed the suggestion away. When I then added, as an afterthought, that she should become home minister, replacing Patil who had become the target of much criticism even before the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks, she retorted, rather uncharacteristically, “Why home? I think I will make a good finance minister!”

I conveyed a gist of that conversation back to the prime minister. He felt Sheilaji was needed in Delhi to stage the Commonwealth Games. Despite all the criticism that came her way, she held her own and, when the Games opened, the crowd at the opening ceremony heartily cheered Sheilaji even as it booed many of the other organisers. Sheilaji had firmly embedded herself in the hearts of every Delhiwala.

Every single obituary has made this point. Sheilaji was not just a charming, graceful, genial lady whom everyone loved, but she was a good administrator who had speeded up the capital city’s modernisation and infrastructure development. Few today make any reference at all to the charges of corruption levelled against her government. Most Indians are willing to live with a bit of corruption if they get a government that delivers. Of what use are honest governments that are uncaring and do not deliver development?

In retrospect, I still think my Financial Express editorial was right. Sheilaji was made of prime ministerial timbre. She ought to have moved up from being merely the ‘mayor’ of Delhi, which is what a Delhi chief minister is, to becoming India’s prime minister. The Congress would not be gasping for breath if it had allowed such locally popular leaders to make their mark nationally. But, that process ended in Indira Gandhi’s time. Why blame lesser mortals?

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

from-proprietorship-to-party

Fri Jul 12 11:31:38 IST 2019

In his fictionalised autobiography, The Insider, former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao has a provincial leader of the Indian National Congress describing Indira Gandhi’s takeover of the Congress as the party becoming a proprietorship. The Congress, to be sure, was never really a ‘party’. It was what its name suggests, a ‘congress’. The dictionary defines the word congress to mean a gathering, a platform, a meeting of minds. That was what the Indian National Congress was before 1947 and that is how Gandhiji wanted it left to remain. Several parties grew out of the Congress, while the Congress itself evolved into a ‘system’ of political mobilisation, organisation and governance, as political scientist Rajni Kothari famously put it.

Till 1969, the Congress tried hard to function like a party. Once Indira Gandhi staged her coup and then, in 1975, her younger son stepped in to take charge, the party had indeed become a proprietorship. It then began to call itself Congress (I) for Congress (Indira). By the same token, in 1998, we saw the creation of a Congress (S). In between, in 1992, Narasimha Rao tried to reinvent the pre-Indira Congress by conducting organisational elections in the run-up to the All India Congress Committee gathering at Tirupati. He legitimised his ‘nominated’ status as party president by getting himself properly elected. Next year, a dissident group rebelling against Rao’s leadership called itself Congress (Tiwari). For all these reasons, I have always believed the correct name for the party that made Sonia Gandhi its president in 1998 should be Congress (Sonia).

It is precisely because the party has been a proprietorship that the change of guard after an ignominious defeat is proving so difficult. In any normal political party, the incumbent leader would quit when defeated and a new round of organisational elections would have been held to elect a new leader. Not so in a proprietorship. The owner has to nominate the successor. As an aside, the proprietorship metaphor was made more apposite by the fact that many properties of the Sonia Congress became trust properties, including the Jawahar Bhavan on New Delhi’s Rajendra Prasad Marg that was originally constructed to house the Congress headquarters and became home to the Rajiv Gandhi Trust and Foundation, with all such trusts governed by the family and its loyalists.

How then does one reconvert a proprietorship into a party? That is the dilemma facing the Sonia Congress. Should the Congress’s next president be nominated by the present proprietors or should a popularly elected leader take charge? In politics, power is never inherited. It is acquired. Both Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi acquired power through their political actions. While both may have been initially nominated to their national leadership roles, Indira by K. Kamaraj and Modi by Rajnath Singh, the fact is that both Indira and Modi acquired power by asserting their leadership over all others. Whoever succeeds Rahul Gandhi as Congress president will have to do likewise.

In politics, opportunities to assert leadership do not arise often and certainly do not come twice. A good opportunity was lost when Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was nominated leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha. If at that time someone like Shashi Tharoor had demanded an election to that post, he would have launched a new phase in the evolution of the party. Even if Tharoor did not offer himself as a candidate for leadership of his party in Lok Sabha, he could easily have stood up and demanded an election for the post. What is the use of preaching democratic values to the nation and the world when one’s own party does not value them?

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

modi-2-0-eye-on-the-economy

Fri Jun 28 11:59:40 IST 2019

By seeking out the views of economists, business journalists and business leaders a fortnight before the presentation of the Union budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done more than just take ownership of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s first budget. All policy in this government in any case has the imprimatur of the prime minister. Given that the framework of the Union budget and of the government’s macroeconomic policy would already be in place, no one at that meeting would have been under the illusion that they were actually shaping policy. They were at best clarifying the PM’s mind, if it needed any such clarification.

The meeting was convened against the background of an avoidable controversy on India’s economic growth performance, created by former chief economic adviser to the government of India, Arvind Subramanian. His charge that there was considerable overestimation of growth in the past is an implicit criticism of the first Modi government’s economic performance and policies. While more competent econometricians have questioned Subramanian’s methodology and conclusion, the fact remains that Subramanian did strike a chord with many who have felt that Modi did not pay much attention to the economy in his first term. Coming as it does from a former senior official of the Modi government who is presently affiliated to Harvard University, Subramanian’s criticism would have many takers at home and abroad.

It may well be the case that Modi himself agrees with the assessment that the economy did not get its due in his first term. He may agree with the critics of his demonetisation decision, except that he would perhaps still defend it on political grounds, since it was essentially a political move. Modi’s view could well be that his two priorities in his first term were, first, to get elected to a second term and, second, to establish himself as the only national leader of any consequence, recognised as such by the voter and by the world. He has achieved both objectives.

Many psephologists would support Modi if he had felt that economic growth does not deliver electoral rewards as much as low inflation does. He ensured low inflation and built a campaign around non-economic issues and secured his second term. Having ensured his political hegemony, Modi has perhaps decided that he should now focus on growth and development. Hence the meeting with economists and businessmen.

In many ways, this is what the so-called Gujarat model was about. In Gujarat, too, Modi’s first term was focused on ensuring his political survival and dominance. Once he achieved that, he focused on development. Consider the fact that few around the country credited chief minister Modi with any attempt to further Gujarat’s development in his first term in office. Rather, the focus was all on his alleged misgovernance after the incident at Godhra. Chief minister Modi’s focus, however, was on ensuring a second term in office and the establishment of his unquestioned political hegemony over Gujarat. Modi’s national reputation for good governance came into focus the day Ratan Tata moved his automobile factory from West Bengal to Gujarat. That happened in October 2008.

If the ‘national Modi model’, so to speak, has to play out like Modi’s Gujarat model, the prime minister has to ensure that the national economy returns to the 8.0 per cent per annum trajectory of growth. This requires an increase in the savings and investment rates. So, one should expect from Sitharaman a budget policy that promotes both. Modi has raised expectations with his pre-budget policy statements. He and his finance minister cannot afford to falter and deflate those high expectations.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

back-to-bucket-baths-to-save-water

Sat Jun 15 17:51:36 IST 2019

Even as the monsoon lashes the western coast, it has been reported that more than 40 per cent of the country is facing severe drought. The problem of simultaneously dealing with floods and drought in different parts of the country is an annual challenge for the government. The decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appoint a cabinet minister for Jal Shakti came in a week when it was also reported that 21 Indian cities, including Delhi, will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting a hundred million people.

Against this background, any effort to raise water use consciousness ought to be welcomed. So, I heartily applaud the local authorities in Gurugram for fining cricketer Virat Kohli for using drinking water to wash his car. Regrettably, the fine was a measly Rs500.

My generation grew up with greater water use consciousness even when water was not as scarce as it is now. Just as we were taught to switch off the lights and fan while leaving a room, we were taught to use water with care. Having bucket baths was one way of conserving water. Today, it is no longer regarded fashionable to have bucket baths. While shower baths have become more common, western-style bath tubs are back in vogue and, in many upmarket homes, one even encounters a jacuzzi!

The Indian practice of bucket baths received an interesting European endorsement way back in the 1970s when the celebrated European journalist Victor Zorza devoted one of his highly regarded and widely read columns, published in the Manchester Guardian and Le Monde, to the experience of taking a bucket bath. Take a can or a mug in your hand, I recall his writing, splash water over your left shoulder and then your right, over your head if you wish to, splash again on your torso and your back, splash a couple of mugs of water on each leg. Rub soap over yourself and repeat the splashing of water with the mug. It takes just one bucket for a good wash, Zorza told his European tub-soaking audience.

If there is one lesson that urban India can learn from the city-state of Singapore, it is about water conservation and re-use. Singapore’s population has increased several fold in the past two decades and yet it has been able to provide adequate drinking water to all its citizens. Of the many things Singapore does, the most doable in India is rainwater harvesting. India has a standing example, in Fatehpur Sikri, of what lack of water can do to life. That story ought to haunt every urban Indian who has invested one’s life’s saving in a home.

The challenge of revitalising groundwater through rejuvenation of water tanks has received policy attention for some time now, but much more needs to be done to put this programme into mission mode across the country. Hopefully, the new minister for Jal Shakti will address this challenge better than his predecessors.

It is in the very nature of the subcontinent’s ecology that the government has been required to play a key role in water management. Historian Karl Wittfogel wrote famously about ‘hydraulic societies’, wherein the state was required to mobilise the resources required to provide large-scale irrigation systems necessary for sustained agriculture. The state in India has played that role both by constructing and maintaining large-scale irrigation systems and by building local water tanks. Water harvesting, too, requires state intervention. But, above all, the state needs to step in to raise public consciousness regarding water scarcity. Fining Kohli for wasteful use of drinking water was a laudable act of state intervention.

Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

why-chiraiyas-portrayal-of-marital-rape-is-breaking-ott-records

Sat May 23 10:46:11 IST 2026

Preoccupied by the war in the Middle East, it took me a while to realise that something explosive was cooking on JioHotstar too. Launched on March 20, Chiraiya (bird), a tale of the sustained marital rape of a new bride by her ‘charming’ husband in a middle-class Hindu household in Lucknow, quickly became the most-watched limited-episode series nationwide across OTT platforms.

Alongside massive viewership numbers, this modestly budgeted Diyva Dutta-Sanjay Mishra starrer also recorded the highest completion rates across multiple languages on JioHotstar. In other words, people didn’t just start the series and then opt out, but stayed till the end. Even now, in late May, it continues to spark debates, reactions and memes on a daily basis.

Many of these reactions include accusations of propaganda, hurled predictably by those who prefer their rape victims burqa-clad and sans sindoor.

The concept of a fair, beautiful, educated, red-and-gold-clad Hindu bride crying rape—because she had high fever on her wedding night and her husband brushing aside her pleas of “not feeling well” with increasingly aggressive kisses and solicitous whispers of “feeling better now?” before barrelling ahead to the inevitable non-consensual consummation—seems to have unsettled entrenched notions of entitlement masquerading as masculinity. Now, there are petulant memes complaining that women are “always ready” for their boyfriends and office colleagues but “never ready” for their husbands. They have used one of the saddest, most heart-rending rape images from the show to represent how Chennai Super Kings got bludgeoned in the IPL; they have labelled the makers of the show anti-national, you get the picture.

And yet, even as these voices rage online, the show continues to break OTT records. See, Chiraiya isn’t a flawless show. It gets a bit preachy and melodramatic and on-the-nose in bits, sharing DNA, not so much with last year’s powerful Netflix hit Adolescence, but with Hotstar’s immensely popular Anupamaa. (Writer Divya Nidhi Sharma has credits on both, as well as on Lapataa Ladies.) But when the adversary is deeply entrenched desi patriarchy, and the aim is not just ratings but social change, perhaps a blunt, direct approach is precisely what works.

Divya Dutta embodies that blunt force. As the elder daughter-in-law—more Pooja from Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, than Damini from Damini—she transforms from a doting sister-in-law to a relentless seeker of justice, determined to hold her brother-in-law accountable for the week-long assault of his wife. Through her, we confront the devastating reality that marital rape is not recognised a crime in India. Through her, we grapple with the limits of justice—resisting easier, short-cut solutions like slapping a dowry case on the whole family. And through her, we arrive at the only available verdict: public shaming and expulsion from the family.

Is this too weak a punishment for such a brutal crime? Certainly not. But given the constraints of the law, and the fact that marital rape often finds tacit sanction in society and tradition—it is not perhaps an entirely powerless one.

In naiver pre-liberalisation days, Doordarshan used to air skits titled Zara Sochiye (think about it) aimed at increasing public awareness about cleanliness, social and civic responsibilities. Hotstar is (sometimes) brave enough to shoulder this task. Kudos to them for ushering consent so compellingly into traditional Indian drawing rooms.

editor@theweek.in

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an-open-letter-to-the-sports-minister

Fri May 18 11:45:44 IST 2018

Dear Shri Rathore,

Congratulations for a successful showing at the Commonwealth Games! In the near future, it augurs well for Indian sport that exciting young talent has come to the fore.

For continued success, however, there will be a need to find talent consistently at the grassroots, starting with our schools. While the Khelo India School Games (KISG) is a step in the right direction, there are several steps that need to be executed with clarity and integrity for the Khelo India movement to gain momentum.

The KISG needs to be far more inclusive: While the idea is right, and the beginning was well-executed, the number of schools participating in it was miniscule. The KISG was open only to CBSE schools. There are 17,093 listed CBSE schools, and only a fraction of them participated, making the overall participation less than one per cent of the 1.3 million schools in our country.

Of the total number of schools, a million are state and central government schools, while there are around three lakh private aided and unaided schools. Why was KISG open only to CBSE schools when the mandate of the Khelo India scheme is to include all schools? I have been told that for the next edition of KISG, Kendriya Vidyalayas will be included. That is a step in the right direction. But there are only 1,125 KVs in the country! What about the rest of the schools that follow other curricula like the state board, ICSE and IGCSE? Surely, it is not Khelo ‘India’ if less than one per cent of the schools are represented at national-level games. How will you make Khelo India a true representation of India? This brings me to the second step. Who will bring in the schools?

The role of School Games Federation of India (SGFI): Around 3,000 children participated in the KISG. Given the number of children in our schools, this figure is a nano drop in the ocean! Over the years, SGFI, like many other federations, has remained a highly ineffective organisation. They have not developed a strong network with schools, other federations, state-level local bodies and district-level organisations—so critical to reach out to children in the remotest areas.

They have not created sustainable competitive framework for schools to participate in. It is no wonder then that parents prefer their children to pursue academics rather than waste their time on pursuing sport, which is, at best, a very long shot towards building a stable future. By now, SGFI should have had a multi-tiered framework that covered district, zone, state and national level competitions. Is SGFI the right organisation to partner with for conducting such an ambitious programme? On paper, they are the ones who should be doing this, but unless there is a drastic overhaul of their organisation capabilities, KISG will continue to scratch only the surface of the massive potential that exists in our country.

Executing the 12 verticals of Khelo India: While going through the Khelo India website, I saw the overall vision broken down into 12 verticals. They are exhaustive, and the coverage is wide. The scope of work is humungous, and while most of these verticals have been addressed, albeit in a disorganised way thus far, a professional structure of effective execution must be in place. At the same time, I realise the challenge of trying to include all our schools in the country and the effort required under each of the verticals. Perhaps, what is needed is a nodal agency that can coordinate this effort. I have already shared the ‘Sport India’ presentation with you, which makes the case for such an agency.

KISG is a cherished scheme of our honourable prime minister, and you being an Olympian and the sports minister of our country, we have, perhaps, the best opportunity since independence to bring about a much-needed turnaround for sport. Indian sport is counting on you!

Ashwini Nachappa is a former athlete.

salute-the-surge

Sat May 05 15:11:13 IST 2018

Picture this. A young girl in lane six at the start of the semifinals of the 400m race of the recently held Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Golden streaked hair. Utterly confident. Not a trace of nerves. The introductions are on. She looks into the camera as if she owns the place, rhythmically waves with the peace symbol, almost Usain Bolt-like. The race starts, and she finishes third with a personal best time. She gets into the final and finishes sixth with yet another personal best. She is Hima Das, 18, one of India’s brightest athletics prospects. The Assamese girl burst on to the national scene at the recent Federation Cup. With two consecutive personal bests at the CWG, Das is part of the emerging face of Indian sport.

Then there was the striking 22-year-old Manika Batra, who won three medals in table tennis. Sporting tri-colour nails, and oozing confidence, she won the gold in the women’s singles, beating top-ranked Singaporean Yu Mengyu in straight games.

What about the stunning performances of 16-year-old Manu Bhaker and 15-year-old Anish Bhanwala, who won the 10m pistol and 25m rapid fire pistol golds respectively? Our young guns were firing on all cylinders in Gold Coast.

We won the mixed team badminton gold beating Malaysia, which was a stupendous achievement, given that Malaysia had won the last four editions. We even won the table tennis team gold, another unbelievable performance, beating Singapore in the finals.

It was a gold fest for us in Gold Coast. We won 11 more gold medals than Glasgow 2014. And, we won them in style. Neeraj Chopra, 20, whose javelin travelled 86.47m, was at least 4m ahead of the competition! In a thrilling all-India final in women’s badminton, Saina beat the fancied Sindhu, showing that the older players still had that fire in them. Tejaswini Sawant, Heena Sidhu and Shreyasi Singh—all won gold in their shooting events, as did Mary Kom in boxing. They showed that time had not dented their desire to win.

There were many performances that left me with hope that Indian sport is now starting to blossom beyond cricket. Yet, our men’s hockey team left me scratching my head in disbelief. Prior to these games, Roelant Oltmans, a Dutch, was replaced by Sjoerd Marijne, another Dutchman. Marijne was the coach of our women’s team, and it was surprising to many as to why he was put in charge of the men’s team. Oltmans was able to build a cohesive unit that was performing consistently. His approach to team building was what set him apart. He was insistent on players being together beyond the field. Apparently, he collected a fine of Rs 500 if anyone came late for training, including himself. No wonder we are sixth ranked in the world.

In contrast, our women’s team outdid themselves under Indian coach Harendra Singh. They beat England, ranked two in the world. They gave Australia a run for their money, losing 1-0 in a tight match.

Clearly, Gold Coast 2018 belonged to our young champions. And, I see a fundamental shift in their approach to competition. Gone is the diffidence and the inferiority, and decades of closed-door policies post-independence. Our earlier generation was brought up on a scarcity mentality. Today, we live in a time of plenty.

The walls between us and the world have collapsed, and the younger generation has adapted well to this new reality. Everything from the Indian Premier League to Indian geeks have given us the confidence that we are as good, if not better, than many other nations. The journey from the fear of losing to the self-belief in winning is the real revolution taking place in Indian sport. All that is required now is efficient and clean sports governance to make India a world power in sport.

unmasking-our-real-nature

Sat Apr 07 16:21:28 IST 2018

In school, we had moral science as a subject. Right and wrong, good and bad, ethics and values, everything was either woven into stories or just plainly preached by teachers. It was a boring class that one was forced to attend. There was really nothing to ‘learn’ from it. I mean, what was there to learn in being ‘good’, or having ‘right’ values, unlike the knowledge one gains in algebra (yikes!), English or science?

In retrospect, that focus on morality in school and the constant reinforcement by our parents was far more important than math or biology. It ensured that there was the ‘right’ grounding necessary to lead a relatively sound life.

But, any semblance of outward morality is all but gone in today’s world of extremes. The cheating by Australian cricketers Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft has yet again brought to focus the immorality in sport. Given the relatively small act of transgression, were these three dealt more harshly than they deserved to be? I remember one of India’s most revered yesteryear cricketers telling my husband how the entire Pakistani team, comprising an enviable array of fast bowlers, carried soda bottle caps in their pockets. These were used to scrape the ball on one side so that it reversed very early in the innings, making it unplayable for the batsmen. In that context, what is a wee bit of sandpaper? It seems the foundation of the so-called greatness of these legendary bowlers was built on the immoral use of soda bottle caps! If that is so, then their performances must be struck from the record books, like what happened with cyclist Lance Armstrong. All his Tour de France titles were taken away. Armstrong doped to stay on top, and he was so remorseless that it was sickening. Some will also recall sprinter Ben Johnson and his cheating. His medals were also taken away. Both Armstrong and Johnson claimed that most others in the competition were cheating, as well. Thus, morally justifying their cheating.

Then, there is immorality in politics, public administration and in business, which makes cheating in sport look like child’s play! Swindling lakhs of crores of rupees and stashing them in Swiss bank accounts, money laundering, sex scandals, lying and cheating are commonplace occurrences.

Earlier, there was fear of a tarnished image—be it at a mass level or within the confines of one’s own circle of family and friends—that kept people in check from being overtly immoral. Today, it matters little. Image can be managed to our liking in this digital era. So, all caution has been thrown to the winds as people act as they please, without any moral restraint. Especially our supposed role models—sportsmen, film stars, leaders in politics and business—who impact our society at large, thus legitimising immoral behaviour.

Are we becoming an increasingly immoral society? On the face of it, it seems so. Perhaps we see and hear more of it, thanks to the omnipresence of technology. But, as a race, lying, cheating, corruption and immorality have always been a part of our culture from the dawn of civilisation. It is nothing new. The standards of morality have undergone change, but that we are basically immoral has not changed. I say this because there would not be codes of morality, such as those guided by our religious texts, if we were not immoral. These helped build a veneer to counter our baser, self-centred instincts. Unfortunately, the veneer has all but disappeared. There is not even lip-service to it any more. Our real nature has been unmasked. It is immorality.

Ashwini Nachappa is a former athlete.

the-waning-of-nationalism

Sat Mar 24 16:25:55 IST 2018

I was brought up with a deep feeling of being Indian, as were many in my generation and the ones before mine. It is a feeling that is beyond doubt. The remnants of our freedom struggle were still strong in my time and I still carry that fervour of being an Indian. To represent India at the world stage was a privilege that I worked very hard for. It was of great value then to receive an Arjuna Award for excellence in my sport.

An award given by the country is to be cherished. Or, so I thought. Today, awards are bought and sold, even as national pride is swept under the carpet. There is a very different world emerging today. A world where nationality is fast eroding as a pillar of one’s identity. And, one can see that clearly in sports. There was a time when playing for the country was considered by most to be the ultimate feather in one’s cap. But, today, it is the private leagues that players and spectators identify with more. Football is a case in point. Players do not feel the same fervour playing for their country, as they do for their clubs. Messi is more FC Barcelona and less Argentinian. Ronaldo, more Real Madrid than Portuguese. It is only a matter of time before an IPL team becomes the pinnacle of a player’s identity, whether he be from the West Indies or Afghanistan.

An identity has value only when it provides the individual with a sense of security. That is why we identify with the country, our family, an organisation or with a religion. These are some of the main pillars we rely on to build stability in our lives. But, when experiences go contrary to what we desire, and, when there is instability, we start questioning that identity. Especially, when that identity starts getting diffused and has no common, shared understanding. Nationalism is proving to be one such primary means of identity that is losing its relevance.

At the heart of keeping the idea of India alive is a shared understanding of what it stands for. But, that shared idea is getting diffused. Each of us has our own agenda to fulfil. A few people in power make hay while the sun shines, to the detriment of those who elect them. The chosen few in power, the bureaucracy and the rich and famous play by different rules, while most of the citizens struggle through a totally separate set of rules. We bribe and get our work done.

We pay taxes, and there is little development to show for it. For 60 years, there was one kind of idea of India. Today, another idea of India is being pushed. There is no common understanding left anymore, of what the idea of India is. And, so, the value of our national identity is fast eroding.

This is happening not just here, but around the world. The US, with a demagogue for a president, is deeply divided on several fronts. As are many European nations. Brexit has shown how fractured the UK is. The large outflow of refugees from areas of strife and poverty add to the complexity of bringing about a common identity in nations where they settle.

Why is this happening? Technology has played a major role in rapidly spreading alternative ideas of the same identity. Man-made borders have also ceased to make sense in the virtual world. In this information age, there is an overload of views and counter-views that each must contend with. In this charged and volatile environment, keeping an idea stable is virtually impossible. Especially, the idea of a nation. Perhaps, nationalism is still secure in some of our villages, till, of course, the virtual world engulfs them.

Ashwini Nachappa is a former athlete.

sportsmen-need-a-safety-net

Sat Mar 10 19:06:17 IST 2018

Kumar (name changed) is a 16-year-old promising hurdler. He has been training at ASF, my sports foundation in Coorg, for the past two years. Now in his 10th grade, he has decided to drop out of sports to focus on pursuing a professional academic degree, even though ASF looks after athletes till they finish college. Kumar’s is the stereotypical story of what is happening in our country, especially in urban areas. Parents are not keen on letting their children pursue sport because it does not ensure a secure future.

If sportsmen are not academically inclined, and if they hail from low- to middle-income households, sports could be an opportunity to break their limiting conditions. But, it provides no guarantee of a secure future. So, many from such backgrounds choose to do a BA or BCom, which they see as a safer option. Unfortunately, most of these youngsters give up sports.

Those who have the courage to follow their interest, they do so against all odds. And, only a handful succeed. Thankfully, for such top performers, the safety net that our PSUs, governmental bodies and a handful of corporates have provided has been a godsend. Whatever sporting successes that our country has achieved, cricket included, is mainly because of the safety net of employment these organisations provided to top athletes. Who can forget the hockey teams of Indian Airlines and Air India that produced many greats? My husband, Datha, who represented India juniors in hockey, played for Air India. Railways has been one of the most proactive employers supporting sport; its most famous employee being M.S. Dhoni.

As for me, I was offered a job by Vijaya Bank right after 12th grade. It was a huge relief for my parents and me, as it meant I could focus on my athletics career and not worry about working to make ends meet. It made an enormous difference, mentally, emotionally and economically. Recently, Harmanpreet Kaur, India’s intrepid women’s T20 captain, was given a job by Punjab Police.

Yet, for every Harmanpreet Kaur there are a thousand others waiting to make their mark. What happens to these athletes? What is their safety net? It is largely chance that an athlete of meagre means makes it to the top.

There are three distinct phases to an athlete’s career. The first is the struggle phase to establish oneself at a national level. The next phase is training to be an international athlete and the final phase is post-retirement from sports. All these require a safety net relevant to that phase. Much of the support from PSUs, other organisations as well as the emerging competitive super leagues is in the second phase. However, it is in the first phase that one requires clarity about a secure future, to even think of someone wanting to take up sport. Education that provides career options is crucial, should the athlete not make it beyond phase one. Post-retirement, there needs to be a concerted effort to retool the athlete for a secure, stable life.

Today, for-profit organisations define the economy and they must play a decisive role in providing such a safety net. Two per cent of their profits is mandated to be spent on developing their communities, and it is only logical that sports be included in it. They can do so by ensuring that the education needs of athletes are met right through school and college and create programmes for retooling and absorption of athletes post-retirement. These small steps can have a substantial impact in developing our sporting potential.

Ashwini Nachappa is a former athlete

khelo-india-school-games

Sat Feb 24 16:19:06 IST 2018

The recently concluded Khelo India School Games threw up some remarkable performances. We found talent from places that never would have got noticed. A boy from Manipur won the badminton gold. Now, who would have expected that a badminton star would rise from the northeast? The sheer magnitude of talent that exists in the country is unfathomable, and, hence, a great source of hope for a sporting revolution.

Considering the magnitude of the event, it was remarkable how professionally it was managed. Athletes, coaches and officials were treated with care. I was thrilled that the participants travelled by A/C trains and stayed in three-star accommodation. I still remember travelling unreserved, sometimes two to a single berth, with officials travelling reserved for national events. I even travelled all the way to Patiala, sleeping near toilets, during my early days as a student going for the Indian camp. The National Games of 1985 was a nightmare with mosquito-infested rooms and barely enough food to eat. But, we were pleased to return home with medals to show for the misery.

The success of the event can also be attributed to the fact that the involvement of federations was kept to only their area of expertise—on-field technical support—while the rest of the event management was outsourced to those with relevant expertise. This is in stark contrast with similar events managed shoddily by federations, who have no expertise in event management. Then, there was live coverage of six disciplines of the games on Star TV and Hotstar. All in all, a wonderful start. Only a well-seasoned sports person would have understood the importance of all this. Congratulations to our Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore for pulling it off.

Khelo India is an initiative by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring about a culture of sports at the grassroots. Modi tried this in Gujarat, and it is this model that he hopes to replicate across the country. Some Union government schemes have now been merged into the Khelo India-National Programme for Development of Sports. This includes spending on structured competitions for greater participation of youth, identification of talent, training the talent through governmental and private sports academies and the building of infrastructure in smaller towns. Khelo India programme has been allocated Rs 500 crore. In the coming years, this could rise to Rs 1,500 crore. Given the size of our country and the population, the amount would still be miniscule.

The immediate challenge that Rathore faces is to ensure that selected athletes get consistent nurturing that allows a considerable number to rise to the top. These athletes will be given Rs 5 lakh each as a financial assistance. It is a substantial amount, and a great encouragement for younger talent to take up sports as a career option. But, how are the athletes going to be monitored? What are the facilities and training that would be provided? This will be a challenge in the context of the current condition of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), which manages around 60 sports centres, and the respective state centres. A study in 2015, commissioned by the Sports Ministry, which I helmed, detailed the action that needs to be taken to improve these centres. Perhaps the recommendations of the report could help the new management at SAI to start a fresh course in-line with the vision of Khelo India.

The next logical step would be to follow-up soon with a Khelo India University Games. It is here that potential athletes for the Olympics could be found. Let’s hope that Khelo India is a game changer.

Ashwini Nachappa is a former athlete.

deconstructing-federer

Fri Feb 16 15:01:12 IST 2018

Spoiler alert! This article is from an unabashed fan of Roger Federer, whose otherworldly performance at the Australian Open won him his 20th Grand Slam title.

I am awestruck by the longevity of Federer’s performance level. At 36, and being a touch player with a single-handed backhand, he astonishingly continues to win Grand Slam titles in this era of high-octane, physically powered tennis. To consistently beat players who are 10 to 15 years younger is simply remarkable.

So, what makes for this miracle that is Federer?

On the one hand, deconstructing his success, if at all it is possible, would take away the mystery from the miracle. Yet, on the other hand, as a sportsperson who spent the best of her youth training and pursuing her sprinting dreams, I am keen to unravel the factors that have contributed to his longevity at the top. I write this being fully aware that I am not privy to the ‘inside’ happenings in his life, so whatever I gather from the public domain is what I base my analysis on.

Factor 1, the body: At the level that Federer has been playing, it is a miracle that his body has been able to bear the brunt of extreme tennis for so long, with very few breakdowns as compared to most other players. It seems that Federer’s body was created for tennis.

Two, training and skill: Very few come close to Federer in anticipation, shot selection, court coverage and the sheer grace of his game. But, it does not come easy. Recently, I saw a video of Federer’s training and it was incredible to see the care and thought that went into his training methods.

Three, support staff and family: Federer has been blessed with a supportive family and a dedicated training and support team. It is remarkable that he can continue playing at this level while balancing his roles as a husband and a father (to four young children), not to mention his endorsements and charitable work.

Four, mental makeup: They say the hunger to do well arises out of the tough life one has had. But, Federer comes from a wealthy family. His dramatic change from a racket-throwing, emotional teenager to a calm and collected Zen-like statesman on and off the court is well-documented. However, where he showed his mental steel was when Rafael Nadal dominated him. Most would have thrown in the towel and retired, but Federer stuck on.

Why?

I feel it is because of factor 5—his love for the game. To anyone watching tennis, it is amply clear how much Federer loves the game. It is this love that has been the biggest factor of his longevity.

Of course, these factors are not unique to Federer. They form the basis for the potential success of any athlete. I say ‘potential’ because success is not a given, no matter how hard the athlete works to bring about those factors in their favour. Life is forever changing, and the complexity of this constant movement makes it difficult to control the factors in its entirety.

To me, there is an X factor at work that brings all these factors together at the right time and the right place. It is beyond the individual to make it happen. Federer is the outcome of a universe conspiring for its own pleasure. There is no other way to explain the Federer phenomenon.

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when-separatism-goes-mainstream

Sat Sep 21 11:05:21 IST 2024

As a Kashmir watcher for more than 30 years, I must talk about the shifting sands in the valley where the first elections are being held in over a decade. This is also the first poll since the abrogation of article 370. But the fascinating development is the ‘mainstreaming’ of separatist elements in this election.

The banned socio-religious organisation, the Jamaat-e-Islami, shut down by the Modi government in 2019 under the anti-terror law, has backed at least 10 candidates across the valley. Engineer Rashid, jailed in a terror funding case and out on bail, did not just win a Lok Sabha seat by a record margin; he has now fielded or backed at least 30 candidates. In some way, it is the ‘mainstreaming’ of separatism and an electoral moderation of extremist politics.

The last time we saw this on a smaller scale in Kashmir was in 2002, when Sajad Lone, then a separatist, fielded a proxy candidate. Today, Lone is regarded as mainstream and there is a new generation of experimental leaders dipping their toes in election waters.

What this may throw up remains unpredictable.

Parties like Omar Abdullah’s National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP have accused the Jamaat-backed candidates, as well as Rashid, of being proxies for the BJP. Others like CPI(M) veteran Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami, who is being challenged in Kulgam by a Jamaat candidate, go one step further. “Delhi is facilitating these people, it is an ashirwaad [blessing] for those who were previously called anti-India,” said Tarigami.

I asked Sayar Ahmed Reshi, the Jamaat candidate taking on Tarigami, what made him take the electoral plunge. “Development and cleaning up the political system of wrongdoing, of goondas,” he told me, as he campaigned in a remote village. The Jamaat-e-Islami last engaged with electoral politics in 1987, in an election widely believed to be rigged. That election birthed the rise of Syed Salahuddin, today the head of the Hizbul Mujahideen, who sought refuge in Pakistan.

The other big change in the election is the complete absence of any reference to Pakistan. There was a time when separatists and militants, backed by Pakistan, would give boycott calls in every election. Kashmir has officially ended the politics of boycott and shifted to the politics of participation.

Is this a rebel vote within the framework of democracy? Is there simmering discontent beneath the surface? Do the bustling night bazaars and thronging tourists capture the full picture? Is article 370 still an issue? The answers to some of these questions will take time to emerge.

But, as Riyaz Majid, a professor who has joined Engineer Rashid’s party, told me, “This election is about unlocking our suffocation.” We were sitting in an apple orchard in south Kashmir and talking with a group of other politicians. As the apples were plucked from the trees and pulped into juice, in Kashmir’s version of a farm-to-table experience, one of them spontaneously raised his glass of juice and said, “Cheers to democracy.”

And so we all toasted the people of Jammu and Kashmir and democracy.

The outcome of the election may throw up major surprises. The debate will continue over who was backed by whom and what the blueprint may be to smash the status quo. But the process is way more interesting than the result.

I can drink to that.

editor@theweek.in

how-not-to-react-to-rape

Fri Aug 23 15:33:07 IST 2024

The rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata has been an inflection point for the country. But as we feel rage and anguish at the crime, its cover up and the shocking mob vandalism that targeted protesting doctors, there are many other problematic responses in the aftermath of the horror that should give us pause.

The Mamata Banerjee government did many things wrong in its response to what unfolded in the R.G. Kar Medical College. The most egregious is its unexplained protection of Sandip Ghosh, the principal of the college. Not only did the violence unfold on his watch, doctors say he blamed the victim by callously questioning why she was alone in the seminar hall at night—this after she had wrapped a 36-hour shift. He is responsible for college officials lying to the parents of the victim and telling them that their daughter died by suicide. He allowed suspicious ‘renovations’ to take place 20 metres near the crime scene, triggering apprehensions of a cover-up. And, worst of all, when he finally resigned, he was not sacked. Instead he got a new job as the principal of the Calcutta National Medical College. It is to the credit of young doctors there that they refused to let him enter the premises. But, bizarrely, two local Trinamool Congress politicians—a legislator and a state minister—reached the college to persuade students to call off their agitation against Ghosh. As the Calcutta High Court asked while sending Ghosh on long leave, why is this man so powerful? The court pointed out that a government lawyer had been sent to defend him.

The attempt to improve working conditions for women doctors in the aftermath of the crime has come with its own problems. While measures like separate resting space, toilets, mobile apps connected to local police stations are all welcome, two advisories are extremely problematic—avoiding night shift for women doctors and restricting their working hours to 12. This is the exact opposite of the ‘reclaim the night’ movement led by protesters after the rape. Women have not sought differential working hours. Women have sought freedom and security at all hours. This move is antithetical to the very spirit of the protests besides being yet one more obstacle in the career trajectory of women professionals.

Some of the media’s descriptive cliches also need a review. To call this Nirbhaya 2.0 or Justice for Abhaya as many have is well-intentioned but needs examination. When we call a rape victim by these nomenclatures, we are foisting a forced idea of fearlessness on a woman who is no longer there to speak about her ordeal. Women are brave but no one is fearless about sexual violence. No one should be fearless about an attack so brutal that it left the doctor bleeding from eyes and private parts. This idea of thrusting fearlessness on murdered women who suffer assault needs to be examined. This language also takes away from demanding change in what creates fear to begin with.

Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud called this a moment of national catharsis. Which it is. But we need to learn some lessons from it. And the first one is, how not to react to rape and sexual violence.

editor@theweek.in

laugh-kamala-laugh

Sat Jul 27 11:24:37 IST 2024

Ever since Kamala Harris—daughter to a scientist mother born in Tamil Nadu, and father from Jamaica—became the presumptive nominee for the US presidential elections, the internet has lit up with bite-sized memes and videos of her. Some of these are made by supporters of Donald Trump that seek to criticise her but really end up doing the opposite, solidifying her place, especially among female voters.

Take the memes about her so called ‘cackle’.

There’s a brilliant riposte by Kamala herself. In an interview with actor Drew Barrymore, Kamala credited her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, for her loud laugh. For us, in India, the following description is completely relatable: “I have my mother’s laugh and I grew up around a bunch of women in particular who laughed from the belly. They laughed—they would sit around the kitchen drinking their coffees, and telling big stories with big laughs,” Kamala told Barrymore.  Replace the coffee with chai and that could be our masis (maternal aunts), our ammas (mothers), our aajis (grandmothers), laughing uproariously, and without apology.

Jaded cynics argue that Indians romanticising this moment are being naive and cliched. Kamala, they argue, has always chosen to give primacy to her identity as a black American over an Indian-American brown woman. And while at the level of politics, there is truth to that; Kamala’s mother has always been at the centre of all her stories. More than Kamala making dosas with Mindy Kaling, another star of the Indian diaspora, it is the backstory of Kamala’s mother that brings home her desi antecedents in a really powerful way.

Besides, as Zarna Garg, a fabulous stand-up comedian with roots in Maharashtra and Gujarat, told me, “… Just the fact that someone called Kamala or Sujata can run for president changes the games.” It’s a different matter that very few Americans can even pronounce Kamala correctly—and maybe this campaign will finally teach them how to!

More seriously, America has wrestled with structural sexism. Their inability to have a female president for all of these decades—and now their regressions on abortion laws—makes the Kamala story all the more critical. All the more when you consider that she is running against someone who has been accused of not just misogyny, but also sexual assault. In fact, more than a dozen women have publicly charged Trump with abuse or harassment. And his running mate J.D. Vance (married to an Indian American) has revealed his own bigotry, by mocking what he calls ‘childless cat ladies’.

The last time a woman in America took a shot at the White House, she was also punished for her loud laugh, her clothes, her bad hair days. There may have been many different reasons for why Hillary Clinton lost, but among the causes was deep-seated discomfort with women who are opinionated, individualistic and do not conform to societal stereotypes.

And as Garg points out, the Kamala moment is even more significant than the Hillary moment because Kamala is entirely self-made with no political familial links. “Indian aunties rule,” Garg told me, only partially joking, “and Indian uncles, you please sit down….”

Even if you hold back the urge to impose India into the Kamala story, women everywhere should be pleased. And we should laugh as loudly as our mothers and grandmothers taught us to.

editor@theweek.in

there-is-no-single-emotive-issue-that-defines-2024-lok-sabha-polls

Fri May 31 13:00:01 IST 2024

In the last mile of 2024 Lok Sabha general elections, two completely divergent narratives have emerged about who is ahead and best placed to form the next government. Though they are not the only individuals on either side of the trenches to have made these arguments, we can, for the purpose of shorthand, call it the Prashant Kishor and Yogendra Yadav schools of thought.

I was the first to interview Kishor. We met in Patna, where the political consultant-turned-politician—his party Jan Suraaj will contest the next assembly elections—set the cat among the proverbial pigeons with his remarks. While there was a lot of focus on his prediction that the BJP will be back, “by the same or slightly more”, intriguingly there has not been as much debate on his description in the same interview, of the prime minister being, in his words, “a brand in decline”. Likening it to “a century with six dropped catches” Kishor has blamed the opposition for “poor fielding”. He forecasts a “weakened prime minister” whose main resistance will come from the general public in what he is sure will be Modi’s third term.

Yadav, a supporter of the INDIA alliance, has an entirely different sense of what happens next. In a conversation with me, he underlined that he was not talking about a ‘1977-style’ mass wave of anger against the incumbent government, but “a return to normal politics” where a phase by phase decline, combined with the dip in turn out numbers, has now painted a likelihood of the “BJP, maybe even the NDA, slipping below the majority mark”.

Is there a space between these two predictive arguments that we know to be true?

I won’t hazard any guess on numbers. But here are some observations from my road trip traversing the distance between Kanniyakumari and Kashmir—covering 12 states and 12,000km over 40 plus days.

Modi remains the dominant political brand across India. There is more incumbency against local MPs of the BJP than against the prime minister. Whatever the eventual outcome, there has been a spirited fight in this election.

The election feels more competitive than anyone would have forecast at the beginning of the campaign. Modi’s own voters want him to dial down religious rhetoric and Hindu-Muslim barbs. The biggest applause for Modi comes on matters of internal security, abrogation of Article 370, infrastructure and India’s stature in the world.

One thing voters want Modi to do differently (apart from toning down religious politics) is to focus more on jobs.

There is no palpable anger, but in many places, there is despondency and disquiet—small street vendors and shopkeepers spoke often of “sannaata hai” (everything is still) when I asked about how their businesses were doing. Yet, they did not suggest that they would vote differently than before. Young men are agitated about jobs. The four year cap on Agniveer, the new military recruitment scheme, is a genuine issue of angst in states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.

There is no single emotive issue that defines the election. The Ram temple, while welcomed by millions of devout Indians, does not come up in political conversation. These are disparate, seemingly unconnected observations in what’s being called ‘a zero wave’ election.

For the rest, we must have the humility to say the following three words—we don’t know—and wait patiently till June 4.

editor@theweek.in

ram-temple-not-an-election-issue-in-south

Sat May 04 15:37:30 IST 2024

Much has been said this election season about the alleged north-south divide. There are those who believe there is a political line drawn across the map of India and those who believe that these are divisive ways to understand elections and the country.

As a Punjabi from Delhi, I have just driven through most of peninsular India. My election road trip series, Dhabas of Democracy—designed to discover all the resplendent flavours of India—began in Kanniyakumari and wove its way through Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Wayanad, Mysuru, Bengaluru, Kurnool, Hyderabad and onwards to Maharashtra.

I have discovered and loved pazham kanji (watery fermented rice with chili and onions), marvelled at the popularity of kalaan (Tamil for mushroom) served by the street side in a stir fry paste, stood in line to eat a butter masala dosa at Vidyarthi Bhavan, discovered what the history is of Mysore Pak, devoured the onion samosas of Hyderabad and eaten curd rice at every meal I could.

I have gathered some food for thought as well.

While I won’t use the word divide—and normally I hate generalisations—the southern states did feel different. For starters their cities were cleaner and better planned and their surroundings were greener and more lush. The emphasis on education seems greater in many of these states. For instance, in Coimbatore, the high-profile seat of the BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief K. Annamalai, two of the three candidates are IIM alumni (including Annamalai) and the third has a doctorate. I can’t think of another constituency in India with a similar profile of contestants.

The other thing that struck me was the role of religion. I felt the physical presence of religion and faith much more overtly in the south than in the north—temples, churches and mosques. In fact, elaborate wood carvings framed homes in villages, the temples are gigantic compared to the north and much more ornate and grand. And, yet, among everyone I spoke to across peninsular India, not one person mentioned the Ram temple in Ayodhya as an election issue. There was only one elderly gentleman in Kerala who referenced it. But other than that, it came up in conversation when I asked about its impact. Of course, despite the single-minded push by Narendra Modi in the south, the BJP is, at the moment, playing to increase vote share rather than seats. It knows that with the exception of Karnataka, which it swept last time, any gains will be incremental. But, what’s most important is that this response on the temple held true even among Modi voters and fans. In the urban pockets of these states I met many citizens who are big admirers of Modi. But when I asked them why they were voting for the BJP, I often got the same answer—under Modi, India’s standing in the world was stronger than ever before. Sometimes I would follow it up with a question on the Ram temple, and mostly the answer would be that it was of no or little consequence to their political choices.

Modi still holds the distinct advantage in these elections. And maybe the answers I will hear will be very different in the north. But my travels through two phases of the elections convince me that in the southern states there is no political surge around the temple despite religion being a more entrenched and visible part of daily life than in the north.

editor@theweek.in

manmohan-singh-may-not-be-king-but-he-deserves-appreciation

Sat Apr 06 15:25:56 IST 2024

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh officially bowed out of politics this week after 33 years in the Rajya Sabha. Perhaps the most recent image of Singh in public memory is of him arriving at the Parliament in a wheelchair, to cast his vote during a critical proceeding, even when the outcome was foreknown to be in favour of the treasury benches. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his political opponent, complimented Singh on his sense of duty.

Singh famously argued that history would be kinder to him than contemporary media had been. And while, like many other politicians and public figures, he also had several flaws, history is already more benign and generous as it looks back at his years in government.

As a journalist, I would argue that he is the last old-style politician I know who upheld the right of a free media to be critical. In today’s hyper-polarised media environment where if you do not confirm the existing bias or leaning of a political party you are immediately characterised as the ‘enemy’, Singh never closed the doors of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to those who had criticised him.

If his first term was a normal mix of praise and criticism, his second term, especially towards the end, saw him and his cabinet at the receiving end of relentless criticism, including by this columnist. With swirling corruption allegations, sharp questions about who really wielded power—Sonia Gandhi or him—and his inherent diffidence, the second term of his prime ministership was brutal from a communications perspective. Yet, it never impacted our ability in the media to meet with our sources, to be briefed on background on important national issues or indeed to ask questions of the prime minister directly.

I remember after I presented an especially critical programme on his government’s handling of the unrest in the Kashmir valley in 2010, I received a call from his office to come by and share my thoughts directly with him. The only other time a senior politician responded in a similar manner was when L.K Advani, who was deputy prime minister and home minister, invited me for a cup of tea to talk about a column I had written that he especially disagreed with.

I can’t imagine this sort of encounter happening today with any political leader in any political party.

Today, neither the opposition nor the government—for different reasons—has a healthy, even-keel relationship with the media. Both sides have favourites—depending on how they perceive your ideological slant and both sides block access if you are sharply critical.

As his former media adviser Sanjaya Baru said to me on my podcast, Manmohan Singh could have had a different legacy if he had done two things—contested the Lok Sabha elections—and resigned after Rahul Gandhi publicly undermined him on an ordinance that Gandhi thought protected corrupt politicians.

Having said that, he was still a man of rare civility, essential decency and intellectual open-mindedness. And as he steps into his political twilight he deserves at the very least that acknowledgment and respect.

editor@theweek.in

in-india-we-dont-know-to-talk-about-rape

Sat Mar 09 11:42:25 IST 2024

Grotesque details are emerging about the gangrape of a Spanish vlogger in Dumka, Jharkhand. We know, based on a first information report filed by the woman and her husband (both bikers), that she was threatened with a dagger, kicked, punched and raped repeatedly by a group of seven men for over two-and-a-half hours. Her husband was assaulted and tied up according to the FIR.

While all incidents of sexual violence are horrific—and while women battling for space inside and outside of the home is a universal fight—the responses to this gut-wrenching incident have been disappointing and tone deaf from the get-go. Within hours of the couple releasing a video detailing what had happened to them, the issue erupted into a political war.

The chief of the National Commission for Women—while promising justice for the Dumka rape survivor—got into vociferous arguments on social media over what she called an attempt to tarnish the image of India. Others brought up the grave complaints of sexual abuse in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal, to underline a doublespeak in public debate.

Once again, women’s bodies were reduced to a battlefield for competitive politics. Yes, the initial attempt to protect Sheikh Shahjahan, the TMC strongman at the epicentre of the Sandeshkhali storm, should be criticised. As should be what unfolded in Jharkhand. Most Indian women—and men—look at the horror of abuse and violation in a clear-eyed way without the foggy lens of party politics. Unfortunately, the public discourse is captured by politicians who shout and scream at each other, dicing and slicing crime data to wag fingers at each other.

There has not been one case of sexual violence or rape in my memory that has been discussed without it being reduced to the lowest common denominator of leftwing vs rightwing or Congress vs BJP or some other framework of competition.

From Nirbhaya to Bilkis Bano, Dumka to Sandeshkhali, our politicians have pitted women against women. And we have watched this, participating in this trench warfare if we are politically aligned, cynically silent if we are not.

We, the women, have failed to unify on the same side—our own.

While we wait for the day when sexual violence can be discussed beyond politics, the final moment of tone deafness was the ‘compensation’ of Rs10 lakh given to the victim-couple by officials, down to a photograph to record the moment. The idea that sexual abuse can be monetarily ‘compensated’ is a revolting one. Making a photo-op of the moment is abhorrent. And the couple’s decision to accept this money is problematic. Their friends tell me that they are foreigners who were robbed at knifepoint. Given that the seven men have been arrested, the police could have pushed to have their material belongings returned. Throwing money at rape makes me distinctly uncomfortable.

Whether it is judges who have on occasion asked rapists to marry the women they abused, politicians and officials who hector survivors of violence, or, worse, reduce rape to an electoral battle, in India we have not yet learnt how to talk about rape with sensitivity and quietude. And the political noise drowns out the conversations that need to be had and heard.

editor@theweek.in

regulation-of-live-in-relationships-is-definitely-invasive

Sat Feb 10 14:49:00 IST 2024

In principle, I support a progressive Uniform Civil Code.

For too long, orthodoxies of different faiths have been weaponised against women. Gender justice as the goal of a secular family law—on marriage, divorce, inheritance—is something I would support.

A Uniform Civil Code is not meant to be the hegemonic assertion of one set of customs and traditions on the other. Nor is it meant to be a triumphalist political document.

In my understanding, a UCC should standardise family law within the framework of fundamental rights. But the voluminous draft of the new Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code—tabled in the state assembly amid chants of Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Jai Shri Ram—seems to go well beyond this remit.

While it will take time to go through its 800 pages, the proposed regulation of live-in relationships is definitely invasive and ill-thought through. The demand that couples who cohabit outside of marriage have to register their relationship or face a possible jail term/fine is preposterous. Even if we assume the intent of this proviso is noble—arguably to protect women and children by recognising the legitimacy of a non-marital relationship; the punitive action against those who decline to do so is unacceptable.

The bill says that registration of the relationship is required within one month of the date of entering the relationship. A failure to do so can result in three months in prison, or a 010,000 fine, or both. Effectively, it is an invitation to the police to enter the bedroom. Or even to pesky neighbours and landlords to start reporting new, young couples to the local police station. The registrar also has the power to decline the application of a couple. Relationships where one partner is married or registered in a live-in relationship elsewhere cannot have official recognition. It is not clear what happens to those who are separated, but not yet divorced due to the snail-like pace of court hearings or long-drawn out property/custody battles. Nor is it clear what this bill means for same-sex couples. And the legislation already exempts tribal communities. So its uniformity is questionable.

But let us be clear. Not only are these proposals meaningless in the age of Tinder and Bumble, they are completely violative of the right to privacy, a right recognised by no less than Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

To give the state machinery overarching powers of this nature is to unleash the moral police on consenting adults. It is criminalising personal choice. It is quite literally policing the personal.

Those who opt to live together instead of getting married either do so because they are not convinced of the need for the formality of marriage or because they are in an exploratory phase of their relationship. Sometimes it could be because one or the other partner is still emerging from a previous relationship because of a prolonged legal battle.

Whatever be the reasons, what happened to live and let live?

If the essential aim of a Uniform Civil Code is to equalise rights between men and women, these tenets, if approved into law, will have the opposite effect. It is women, young and old, who will be judged, character-assassinated and possibly prosecuted.

editor@theweek.in

why-bilkis-bano-verdict-is-seminal

Sat Jan 13 11:21:59 IST 2024

Bilkis Bano cried tears of relief,” her lawyer, Shobha Gupta, told me as the news filtered in that the Supreme Court had ordered her 11 convicted rapists to be sent back to jail.

The passage of time can dull the memory of the horror that was inflicted on Bilkis when she was just 21 and three months pregnant. She was gangaped, pinned to the ground and forced to witness the rape of her mother. Worst, Bilkis was held forcibly as her three-year-old daughter was killed; her head smashed with a stone. Several other relatives were killed. The men who did this were sentenced to life imprisonment. But they were released by the Gujarat government in a wholesale remission decision that has now been described by the Supreme Court as an order obtained through “fraud, ...abuse of power... and misrepresentation of fact”.

“We are often desensitised because of what we see everyday, but this was a crime against society, a crime against humanity, a crime against the Constitution,” Justice Deepak Gupta told me. Gupta was part of the Supreme Court bench that had in 2019 ordered the Gujarat government to pay Bilkis Rs50 lakh in compensation.

Justice U.D. Salvi, who had sentenced Bilkis Bano’s rapists to life imprisonment in 2008, said the verdict would “reaffirm the trust of people in the judiciary at a time when all kinds of things are being said about it”. The fact that these convicts had walked out to celebrations, garlands and sweets, Salvi told me “was proof that they had never reformed at all”.

The Bilkis Bano verdict is seminal and not just because it delivers long overdue justice to a beleaguered woman who has spent the last two decades fighting in court. It is important because it reminds the judiciary about what its role is in a healthy democracy. “This is what justice feels like” is how Bilkis expressed it, but she spoke for millions of Indians.

Justice B.V. Nagarathna, whose bench delivered the powerful order and who might well be India’s first woman chief justice, located the Bilkis case within the larger debate around the rule of law as the essential principle of a democracy. “Rule of law means whenever and wherever the state fails to perform its duty, the court would step in…. Courts have to be mindful of not only the spelling of the word justice but also the content of the concept,” say the judges.

Most bravely, in a possible nod to their own colleagues—because remember this judgment nullifies an earlier verdict by the Supreme Court—the order states, “Those concerned with the rule of law must remain unmindful and unruffled by the ripples caused by it.”

The last word in this case has, unfortunately, not been spoken. The lawyer for the convicts, Rishi Malhotra, has made it clear that he will exercise legal options in seeking a review of the Supreme Court response. On the ground, several of the convicts have been ‘missing’ from their homes since 2022, raising questions about whether they will surrender in the two-week time frame set by the court. Another set of pleas and petitions could consign Bilkis Bano to more years of struggle.

But with all these caveats, the Supreme Court verdict does what is needed in every democracy. It restores checks and balances. It is a spring-cleaning moment to clear out the cobwebs.

editor@theweek.in

modi-shah-bjp-and-the-surprise-factor

Fri Dec 15 18:22:33 IST 2023

Let us admit it. No political pundit, whether on the left, right or centre, was able to predict who would be the new chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The Narendra Modi government and the Amit Shah party organisation have always thrived on the surprise factor, and it was no different this time. That the BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the BJP under Modi are different is a given. But with one fell swoop the Modi-led BJP has ended the political careers of what used to be known as the party’s second generation leaders in the Vajpayee years. With the exit of Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the only state level leader the BJP central command would find it tough to replace at will is possibly Uttar Pradesh stalwart Yogi Adityanath.

Raje sat stoically surrounded by MLAs as she was handed over a parchi (small paper). The speculation is that like an Oscar or a Grammy award, this hand-written note had the name of the new chief minister—Bhajan Lal Sharma, a first time MLA from Sanganer district. If Raje was unhappy—as she must be—she did not have the luxury to show it. To compound her disquiet, the deputy chief minister is Diya Kumari—female and royal, like Raje. Chouhan, otherwise low-key in the way the Sangh parivar prefers it, revealed his feelings. “I would rather die,” he said, “than go to Delhi to ask for something for myself.”

So the BJP’s recently won states are led by a tribal CM in Chhattisgarh, an OBC in Madhya Pradesh and a Brahmin in Rajasthan. Clearly caste engineering and not disruptive decision making for its own sake is at the heart of these choices.

Even so, there are two ways of looking at what has happened. The opposition says this is further evidence that under Modi-Shah no one else with an independent political profile will be allowed to rise. However, the BJP can easily throw that back at the Congress and several regional parties—where families continue to control the organisation.

The other way to see it is the BJP and the RSS have decided that the organisation is bigger than the individual. The paradox is that this clearly does not apply to Modi, who is now the message, and clearly bigger than the Sangh parivar in terms of electoral winnability.

Ironically, there is a precedent which is similar but not identical in the history of the Congress. Hark back to what Nehru called the ‘Kamaraj’ plan. Kumaraswami Kamaraj’s plan for Congress revival was born after India’s defeat in 1962 and the Congress drubbing in three by-elections in 1963. Kamaraj argued that ministers and chief ministers should resign from their posts and work for the party. Six Union ministers and six chief ministers complied.

Today, the Congress may not be able to take such a risk given that it has tried to regionalise its fights in the states. But there is some merit in keeping the party agile by constantly changing incumbents so that entitlement and status quo instincts do not set in.

Have the BJP’s choices in these three states been ruthless, strategic or laden with risk? Possibly, all of the above.

As long as the party keeps winning elections under Modi, it will continue to take such chances with convention, upending the rules of politics and the capacity of journalists, pundits and the opposition to anticipate them.

editor@theweek.in

end-of-two-high-profile-political-careers-raje-and-chouhan

Sat Nov 18 11:31:29 IST 2023

The BJP, which is known to fight every election, from local polls to the Lok Sabha, with an insatiable appetite, has taken a curious approach in these assembly elections.

Despite the setback in Karnataka, where the marginalisation of stalwart B.S Yediyurappa was at least one reason for the party’s decisive defeat; the BJP has still taken the ‘collective leadership’ approach in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two of the most critical battlefields ahead of 2024. In fact, the BJP tacitly seemed to acknowledge this mistake in the recent elevation of Yediyurappa’s son, B.Y. Vijayendra, a first time MLA, to the top post of party president in the state.

And, yet, it has not stepped back from the very visible undermining of Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje in MP and Rajasthan.

It is almost as if the BJP has decided to quietly phase out all remnant leaders from the Vajpayee years as the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah led BJP builds a new hierarchy.

But would it want to do so at the risk of potential electoral defeat?

Possibly, the BJP believes that neither individual is central to its loss or win.

In Rajasthan, where traditionally, a revolving door system has alternated between the BJP and the Congress since 1996, historical precedent suggests that it is the BJP’s turn to form the government. While several MLAs considered loyal to Raje have been given tickets, the BJP has tried hard to experiment with new faces—Gajendra Shekhawat, Satish Poonia and C.P. Joshi among them. Raje is certainly not the main face of the BJP campaign and who will be chief minister, if the BJP were to win, is a question that is wide open.

In Madhya Pradesh, ‘Mamaji’ as Chouhan is colloquially known, is probably running his most low key campaign in years. His personal popularity is only a few points behind that of Kamal Nath, the de facto CM candidate of the Congress and very much the leader of its campaign. But polls reveal a fatigue factor with the incumbent legislators.

If the BJP manages to win either or both states without Raje or Chouhan at the helm, their redundancy will be highlighted by the central leadership. If the BJP loses either or both states, the party might still argue that the defeats were foretold.

There are other intriguing experiments by the BJP in these assembly elections, including the decision to field a large number of its parliamentarians. Eighteen MPs, including four Union ministers, are contestants across three state assemblies. This decision has caught state level leaders off guard. Perhaps the decision is guided by the overwhelming popularity of its party in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019 in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh where the states swung back to the party despite defeats in the assembly elections of 2018.

Ironically, the BJP and the Congress appear to have swapped their approaches to state election campaigns. It used to be the Congress playbook to avoid a personality-centric campaign in the states till well after the results came in. In the past, the Congress ‘high command’ has historically weakened state satraps. But the results in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh revealed the electoral value of keeping assembly elections local, led by strong local faces. The Congress has embraced that philosophy in these elections, while the BJP appears to have borrowed from the old Congress rulebook in counting on the party cadres, ideology and the Modi factor to win.

Either way these elections are not just the semi-finals ahead of the big elections of 2024; they could well mark the end of at least two high-profile political careers.

editor@theweek.in

womens-reservation-bill-is-finally-a-reality-now

Sat Sep 23 11:21:49 IST 2023

The ‘special’ in the special Parliament session was finally revealed. It was not an early election, the announcement of ‘one nation, one election’, or a move to implement the Uniform Civil Code. Instead, the Narendra Modi government made its big move. Twenty-seven years after its inception, the women’s reservation bill has been tabled in Parliament, appropriately in a new building, to mark new beginnings.

Less than 15 per cent of India’s elected parliamentarians are women in a country where they make up nearly half of the population. And, this is the highest representation we have ever had.

For as long as I have been in journalism, I have watched the ritual of the women’s reservation bill being announced with fanfare only to be buried, abandoned, and in some instances, physically mauled by male members who opposed it. As a young reporter who had short hair, I remember being mocked by the Janata Dal (U) leader Sharad Yadav for supporting the bill. “Women like you with short hair are the types to advocate for this law,” he told me. It was his shorthand for elitism and western ideas of feminism.

But there is nothing elite about asking for more political space for women. India’s women are designing space programmes, flying fighter jets, running law firms and banks, leading parades on Republic Day, closing billion dollar deals. In effect they have stormed every bastion except politics. The representation of women in state assemblies is even worse than in Parliament. In 19 state legislatures, less than 10 per cent were women, according to government data released in 2022.

The women’s reservation bill passed the Rajya Sabha in 2010, when the Congress was still in power. It was Sonia Gandhi’s pet project but she could not prevail upon leaders of regional parties like the Samajwadi Party, the RJD and the Janata Dal (U), who were adamant on a sub-quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC). Ironically, an old speech of Mulayam Singh Yadav accused the BJP and the Congress of conspiring together on this issue. But since then the bill went into a deep freeze. Even the issue of women’s political representation fell off the national grid. The Modi government’s revival of the legislation will give it a special place in history. But women will watch with bated breath to see when it actually translates into actionable reality this time.

The fine print (clause five to be precise) in the new bill speaks of how the seats reserved for women will be rotated but only after a delimitation exercise is completed and a fresh census conducted. There is no mention of timelines in the proposed law. And, at least, at the time of writing this column, there has been no clarity about whether the bill aims at a deadline. It is safe to say that if the reservation of women cannot take place before constituency boundaries are re-marked or before a fresh census (the 2021 decadal census has not yet been conducted), then there will be no political reservation before 2024 elections. In fact some say it could even take up until 2029, since as per present law the new delimitation exercise is to take place in 2026.

India’s women have waited close to three decades for this moment. There is no denying the historic value of this moment. This time, let us hope that a finite closure is within reach.

editor@theweek.in

why-i-am-mighty-impressed-with-mallikarjun-kharge

Sat Aug 26 11:39:27 IST 2023

Did journalists get Mallikarjun Kharge wrong? When Kharge won the election to the post of Congress president, only the sixth time that such a poll was held in the 137-year history of the party, the commentariat was less than impressed.

This scepticism had nothing to do with Kharge’s own impressive credentials. As a nine-time legislator, Kharge, 81, had always been a grassroots leader and a prominent dalit face of the Congress, who rose from poverty and hardship. But, in the high-profile face-off between him and Shashi Tharoor, Kharge seemed more ‘selected’ than elected. In other words, he was seen to be someone who was the preferred choice of the Gandhi family who would then continue to control him—and the party—by proxy.

Tharoor, with his eloquence, charisma and cult following among the rising numbers of aspirational India, seemed just like the disruption a party weighed down by the burden of status quo desperately needed. That may still be the case. Of course, the Gandhi family is still involved in every critical decision and retains veto power.

But Kharge has turned out to be more than a mere placeholder.

In fact, he has been a significantly successful reconciler so far.

In Karnataka, where D.K. Shivakumar, who brought hustle to the Congress game in the elections, was openly demanding the post of chief minister, instead of the more low-key Siddaramaiah (who had more of the legislators with him); Kharge managed to create a holding operation for governance.

But the real imprint of his authority and deftness is on the newly appointed Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision making panel of the opposition party.

Just when it had begun to seem as if Tharoor was being sidelined and thus punished for running against Kharge and owning his ambition, he found a place on the panel.

Sachin Pilot, who has made no secret of his rebellion in Rajasthan, ahead of a critical election, was inducted as well, to at least temporarily assuage him. Another significant appointment was that of Manish Tewari, one of the signatories to the group of 23 Congress leaders who had first raised existential questions about the fate of the party.

Kharge seems to have a penchant for crisis management and the negotiator’s key skill—be flexible when needed and firm when the red line needs to be drawn. And in the last few months he has also shown the energy required to be a 24x7 politician, submerged in meetings and rallies.

Kharge does not come waving a magic wand. He may never be the sort of politician who captures the imagination of a wider, general population. And, of course, the Congress has structural problems—it will still have to answer the tough questions ahead of 2024. Is it fighting an ideological battle? What is that ideology in an increasingly polarised country? Is it ready for a clash of personalities in taking on Narendra Modi?

But for a party bruised by electoral defeats, listless leadership and confusion at the very top for months altogether, he proved to be an effective pivot. It turns out that those who wrote him off underestimated him.

editor@theweek.in

crisis-in-manipur-calls-on-us-to-be-genuine-patriots

Sat Jul 29 11:55:52 IST 2023

In the last few years, on India’s news channels, it is not uncommon to see anchors huffing and puffing hysterically about “anti-nationals”. In fact, the phrase has become near ubiquitous. Every time an individual does not conform to a dominant narrative, their patriotism is called into question.

The horror of what is unfolding in Manipur should make us challenge these faux nationalists.

Over the last few weeks I have been documenting testimonies from the state of those who have suffered, been killed, raped and tortured. Among the victims and survivors are a military veteran, a legislator of the ruling BJP and the ageing wife of a freedom fighter. The horror of what has been inflicted on them should make us banish the loose use of this banal and overused phrase—anti-national—from our political and media lexicon. Either that or we should start calling out those who are truly against the interests of an inclusive India.

The country is still reeling from the viral video in which two women were paraded naked, one of them was brutally gang-raped. I spoke to the husband of one of the survivors. “I served 28 years in the Army,” he told me, “I served in Sri Lanka, in the Kargil war operation. I fought in wars for India. But I could not save my wife.” As his voice fell to a whisper he spoke of his sense of helplessness and fear. “In my worst nightmares I never thought I would see such a day.”

I met Vungzagin Valte, a three-time legislator with the BJP and former adviser to the chief minister. Today, he is barely able to talk after he was crippled in a mob attack. His head was smashed. He was allegedly given electric shocks and he is unable to eat or walk on his own. Though the state government vows that it will pay Valte’s hospital bills and says it has spent close to Rs50 lakh on airlfiting the MLA; his family says they are still struggling financially. They live in tiny rented accommodation—13 of them in three small rooms. For medicines, physiotherapy and other expenses, they are dependent on the charity of “friends and family”.

As houses have been torched and razed in Manipur, the elderly have not been spared either. An 80-year-old woman married to a freedom fighter was burnt alive. Their small village home proudly displayed medals and honours, most recently from president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

I have consciously not mentioned which of the victims I chronicle here are Kuki and which are Meitei. For a moment let us put aside the complex and unique history of Manipur that led to these ethnic clashes.

For now let us remember that Manipur shares a long border with Myanmar and 4,000 weapons were looted during this crisis, including high-calibre ones like rocket launchers and automatic rifles.

If anything, the crisis in Manipur calls on us to be genuine patriots. We should be asking tough questions and we should be able to offer empathy. To lose sight of the human tragedy in whataboutery and competitive politics, or in the banality of TV studio debates, would be a travesty.

So, will the faux nationalists please sit down?

editor@theweek.in

why-india-needs-a-uniform-civil-code

Sat Jul 01 13:08:11 IST 2023

Now that the prime minister has come out and batted for the Uniform Civil Code on the front foot, it is no longer a theoretical debate. The immediate responses have been along predictable lines—right-wing supporters of the BJP have defended it, and the religious orthodoxy and the political opposition have flayed it.

The blanket opposition to the push for a common family law is a short-sighted and ill-advised response. And, in fact, the more the opposition allies with conservative religious bodies, with mostly archaic ideas about sexuality and gender rights, the more it would help the ruling party.

A uniform civil code is a directive principle of the Constitution. It had the support of the great architects of modern India, including Nehru, Ambedkar and Ram Manohar Lohia. Its philosophical essence is equality.

A uniform civil code is not a Hindu civil code; nor does it mean the homogenisation of culture, faith or rituals. At its heart, a well-drafted UCC should simply be a law that protects the equality of all citizens. Indians would still be free to profess, propagate and practise their own religions—another constitutionally enshrined fundamental right—as long as these tenets did not violate a fundamental principle of equality.

In general, personal laws of all faiths, especially as interpreted by the clergy of that particular religion, can often militate against women. A uniform civil code is an opportunity for India’s feminist movement to reframe the conversation around equality within the framework of the Constitution.

Not everyone who supports the idea of a uniform civil code is making a political affiliation. In the past, individuals as varied as musician T.M. Krishna and author Nilanjana Roy drafted their own talking points, for what they called a ‘progressive uniform civil code’. Both happen to be staunch critics of the Modi government.

Instead of rejecting the very idea of the uniform civil code and ceding the entire space of its debate to the BJP, the opposition, as well as religious bodies, should engage strenuously on what such a code looks like. Goa, which has long had a uniform civil code, can be an educative example for a robust public debate on what has worked and what has not.

The debate around the uniform civil code can, in fact, be used to demand the strengthening of the Special Marriage Act, a civil law that permits union of interfaith couples. Right now, the act remains shackled by bureaucratic hurdles. The UCC debate actually allows a strong counter to those who classify every Hindu-Muslim union as an example of what BJP leaders call ‘Love Jihad’.

Sure, the BJP is bound to bring its own ideas of such a code to the debate. But, if civil rights groups, opposition parties and religious groups decline to be part of this discussion, it would be an own goal.

The resistance to the UCC, as well as the support for it, should be focused on what the details of such a code might look like. And there are drafts that have been prepared by the Law Commission in the past that could be a starting point.

The Uniform Civil Code should be seen for what it is—a constitutional ideal.

editor@theweek.in

wrestlers-must-not-immerse-their-medals-in-water

Fri Jun 02 15:01:50 IST 2023

I think Indians, irrespective of political leanings, were dismayed to see the country’s top wrestlers break down in tears, as they sat in a huddle by the riverbank, all set to immerse their medals in the Ganga river.

Farmer leader Naresh Tikait has been able to convince Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik to refrain from doing so for another five days. The wrestlers have been on the streets for over a month demanding the arrest of the till recently Wrestling Federation of India chief and BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, a strongman with an empire of private colleges and four pending criminal cases against him. In the past, Singh has been linked with underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim, before being acquitted because of lack of evidence. In other words, he has always been a terrifying figure to take on.

This is important to understand why it would have taken so long for women in the wrestling community to break the silence around what they allege is entrenched sexual abuse and harassment. Seven women filed a complaint, among them reportedly a minor. Though there is now a dispute over the age of the minor girl, with an uncle claiming that she is at present 20 years old; the wrestlers say she was younger than 18 when the abuse took place, and hence the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act should apply. The law mandates an arrest before bail is granted. In this case, POCSO or not, Singh has not even been called for interrogation.

Singh is not a favourite with the BJP establishment. But he is a sort of autonomous island in the tightly controlled regime of Yogi Adityanath. He has openly criticised Adityanath’s government in the past. The BJP’s inaction against him is inexplicable, especially given the message it sends out to women and young girls everywhere.

Supporters of the government say the wrestlers have diminished the moral force of their movement by allowing opposition politicians to hijack it. Personally, I am not a fan of politician-led people’s movements. But let us remember that the politics was there from the start; otherwise why would a parliamentarian be heading a wrestling federation? Of course, this politicisation of sporting bodies did not start with the BJP; it was always there, right through Congress-run governments.

The worry now is that the shrill collision between the opposition and the BJP has made this yet another political headline, shifting the focus from this being about women in sport alleging institutional harassment and violations.

The United World Wrestling has made its displeasure clear, threatening to throw India out if elections are not held soon to choose a new management. But, as Phogat and Malik explain, Singh is de facto the man in control, even after the government said he had been asked to step aside as the head of the federation.

Singh’s guilt and innocence will be decided in court. But the fact that he has slandered the women who have spoken out against him—taunting with references to Manthara from the Ramayan, quipping that their medals are worth no more than Rs15—says a lot about the brazen impunity he still displays.

The government must begin a dialogue with the wrestlers and the police must act by the book, as it would have if the man in question was not a powerful politician.

And the wrestlers must not immerse their medals in the water. A day’s news cycle is not worth a lifetime of hard-won recognition.

editor@theweek.in

rahul-gandhi-should-apologise-or-choose-jail

Sat Apr 08 11:48:46 IST 2023

Ever since Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha the media narrative has focused on his potential status as a political martyr. The debate on prime time shows has been framed as one around why the BJP would hand him an ace to play with in the form of a sympathy card.

I disagree.

Of course, for Rahul to lose his parliamentary seat in this fashion is wrong and the criminal defamation law that enabled it is problematic. But looked at through the prism of politics, for Rahul, the legal route may not be the smart one.

In fact, he runs the risk of being trapped in the quicksand of court dates in a year when he should not be distracted by anything but the 2024 elections and the big state elections just ahead of them.

Though a sessions court in Surat has suspended his sentence, a suspension on a conviction could still be a lengthy process. Rahul, who lost his Lok Sabha seat, after being found guilty in a criminal defamation case, could be facing multiple legal summons from across India. At last count he already had eight pending defamation cases to fight.

The charge against Rahul is that by linking corruption to the Modi surname he defamed the entire OBC community. The Congress has argued that the petitioner who dragged Rahul to court had no locus standi to do so because he was not an OBC. Of course the party has also argued that the comment was rhetorical and about what Shashi Tharoor called “rich, fat cats”—in a reference to Nirav and Lalit Modi.

But the most recent petition dragging Rahul to court is by the BJP Bihar leader Sushil Modi, who is from the OBC community. And Rahul will most likely have to now turn his attention from Surat to Patna. Expect the cases and petitions to keep stacking up.

The BJP has always calculated that by keeping the public focus on Rahul, the contest for 2024 will be framed as a Narendra Modi vs Rahul battle—a battle that Modi always wins. But by keeping Rahul embattled they may succeed in enfeebling him.

Would it not be smarter for Rahul to simply apologise?

Sure there might be a loss of face for a day or two. But who would remember anything more in the heat and dust of elections?

We have a living example that illustrates this in Arvind Kejriwal. The Delhi chief minister had charged an entire slew of leaders with corruption and, eventually went on an apology spree, including to Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Bikram Majithia and Kapil Sibal. His supporters never cared or held it against him.

If Rahul refuses to cut his losses and say sorry, he may want to look at a disruptive option. He could consider not pursuing the route of legal appeals and welcome his arrest.

Even a short stint in jail would be a more effective political statement than offering up a battery of lawyers. Then he may even have a real chance of being a political martyr.

editor@theweek.in

is-the-counter-to-the-male-gaze-the-female-gaze-barkha-dutt

Fri Mar 10 15:17:53 IST 2023

A recent meeting with actor Aditya Roy Kapur got me thinking about whether we have sufficiently included men in the gender conversation—and whether it us, we, the women, who are guilty of a patriarchal double standard.

Kapur, fresh from the success of The Night Manager, was one of our key speakers at We The Women, the flagship annual festival I curate with THE WEEK as a media partner. Not surprisingly, the crowd, many of whom were young women, were ecstatic and animated as he walked onto stage.

He was also the perfect guest—easy-going, informal and a good sport. A former video jockey with Channel V, Kapur spoke of the special place music had in his life. The crowd urged him to sing. He said if there had been a guitar available, he may have agreed. Another speaker, a guitarist from Nagaland, Imnainla Jamir, obliged. Kapur played and sang a Coldplay number; the audience went wild.

Suddenly, someone yelled from the audience—“Adi, you are so hot!”—loud enough to be heard over the music and the cheering. Kapur laughed and said thank you. But I had a moment of pause. What if it was a female actor on stage—Vidya Balan and Janhvi Kapoor had been on the We The Women stage earlier in the day—and a man from the audience had said the same.

Perhaps, Balan and Kapoor would also have received it as a compliment. Perhaps, I am overthinking it. But my guess is that the gender conversation has drawn enough red lines in public discourse for a man to think a few times before saying something that could be even remotely considered objectifying. And, if he had, there would be at least some people who would have considered it entirely inappropriate conduct.

Just recently, in fact, the actor had to deal with something much more egregious—a fan who tried to forcibly kiss him. Kapur told me, she attempted this, not once but twice. “After a brief moment of surprise, I quickly recognised the situation for what it was and relied on my self-defence instincts…. While it can be uncomfortable to have your personal space invaded, I understand that some people can’t help their excitement. I did not make a big deal about it, and security quickly took care of the situation.”

Now imagine if the genders had been reversed. Had a male fan made such a move on a female actor? Would we have been so forgiving? Would we have been able to half-joke about it as so many have done with the Kapur episode?

Is the counter to the male gaze the female gaze? Is the answer to the sexualised objectification of women to look at men through the same lens?

There aren’t any easy answers. Because, on the other hand, puritanical invisibilisation of attractiveness and sexuality is obviously not to be encouraged. And actors in the public eye, both men and women, know that their sex appeal is at least part of what makes them who they are.

But, when it comes to boundaries and the appropriateness of language in public and personal spaces, surely the rules should be the same for men and women?

editor@theweek.in

air-india-peegate-incident-analysis

Sat Feb 11 11:29:09 IST 2023

News cycles are short-lived, fast-spinning wheels of information. Here today, and poof gone tomorrow. Now, we are caught up in the drama of Gautam Adani’s battle with Hindenburg Research and its political tremors. So, it is hard to feel there is any other headline worth tracking.

But, I draw your attention back to an issue, which though almost irrelevant in implication compared with the Adani saga, was covered with as much breathless urgency—the infamous Air India #PeeGate.

A month later, I have to cautiously wonder if Shankar Mishra was a victim of a media lynch mob. I think we still do not know the facts, for certain. I was among those who was scathing about the man, I then called, the ‘urinator’. As a feminist, it is obviously my instinct to believe women. Even now, I cannot for the life of me answer why anyone, elderly or young, would single out a fellow passenger to blame, if he had not actually done what she says he has. When the story first broke, I even said—apart from the unruliness—it seemed like a case of sexual harassment to me.

But, as time went on and I started doing deeper reporting on the story, some things stopped making sense.

Ina Bannerjee, in her 80s, was seated next to the complainant in the aisle seat. We tracked her down and she was clear that she had neither seen Mishra pee on the alleged victim nor experienced anything herself. All she had seen was the crew cleaning the seat next to her. Her testimony was one of the reasons why Mishra got bail—the judge pointed out that there were contradictions between the police case and what other witnesses recorded.

To discuss the mechanics of #PeeGate feels bizarre, but is necessary. How does any person, no matter how drunk, jump over the passenger asleep in the aisle to urinate on the passenger in the window seat, without them waking up or being urinated on?

The only other “witness” that we know of is the passenger seated next to Mishra—a US-based doctor called Dr Sugata Bhattacharjee. His initial comments to journalists, including to me, became the media basis to further build the case against Mishra. Bhattacharjee recounted how Mishra had too much to drink, how he found the complainant in the galley, distraught at her soiled clothes, and how Mishra purportedly whispered to him, “Bro, I think, I am in trouble.”

The Air India crew have a different take on Bhattacharjee. Crew logs claim Bhattacharjee—whose display picture shows him shaking hands with various US presidents—asked for an upgrade to first class on boarding. That he was denied one, they claim, explains his “loud” behaviour later.

If Mishra is innocent, why didn’t he assert that, instead of apologising and paying for dry-clean—money the complainant later returned. A written submission by crew member Neeta Kararia says that when Mishra was confronted, he was stunned and said he could not imagine doing such a thing.

The internal inquiry panel has not helped the credibility of the process. It got the configuration of the 777 aircraft wrong, referencing a 9B seat that does not even exist in business class.

This is not to say that Air India did not mishandle matters. The pilot, asleep on his rest-shift, should have been woken; he should have upgraded the complainant to first class irrespective and informed the international operations control centre immediately. The case should have been handed over to the police on arrival for them to determine truth from fiction. The management instinct to gag the crew was also a self-goal. But something has shifted internally as well, the Tatas have backed their pilot against the suspension of his license.

Suppose this case collapses in court, would we in the media think we handled the story appropriately?

editor@theweek.in

joshimath-is-not-greater-kailash-barkha-dutt

Sat Jan 14 12:28:48 IST 2023

In 2021, I was driving through Uttarakhand to report on the avalanche and deluge triggered by a glacial burst. I was shocked at what I saw—rampant construction, mountains stripped of green cover, clouds of dust and soot rising from the sites of infra-projects every few kilometres. It took us 22 hours to reach the Tapovan-Vishnugad hydroelectric power project site, where hundreds of workers were trapped inside the tunnel. Another hydroelectric project site at Rishiganga had collapsed under the force of the floods.

I stood with desperate families in the cover of darkness, as they waited for some news of their husbands, sons and brothers from inside the tunnel. This was February. But even three months later, in May, rescue teams had been able to recover only 83 bodies and “36 body parts”. Many others remained missing.

Is the cost of human life really so paltry that we are staring at a catastrophe yet again in the hill state? Joshimath—one of the most revered pilgrimage towns of India—is sinking, and geologist S.P. Sati told me, “Nothing and no one can save it now. Aag lagne ke baad, kuan nahin khotde (You can’t go looking for water after the fire has already started).”

The fragile Himalayas have been pushed beyond capacity despite environmentalists arguing against mega infrastructure projects like the one at Tapovan. Started in 2006, it was meant to be completed by 2013. A decade later, it remains incomplete.

Worse, even warnings by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) have been ignored. A report by the NDMA that studied the impact of the Chamoli disaster of 2021 emphasised the need to find alternative sources of energy in “environmentally fragile” zones like Uttarakhand. Released as recently as the summer of 2022, it warned against large-scale hydroelectric plants that continue to be the policy of successive governments. It also called out the failure of infrastructure companies to put in place early warning systems at projects such as the Tapovan one. The NDMA also questioned the district disaster management plan for not being able to “cover the climate change-related risks and the impacts of developmental activities, infrastructure, environmental changes, houses/buildings and deforestation”.

Obviously no one paid attention. Neither the loss of lives nor the wisdom of experts has been able to shift the callous casualness with which every calamity is moved on from.

Even today experts are lamenting the one-size-fits-all growth model that is being force-fitted onto the Himalayas, again, across all governments. They are urging the government to scrap the Tapovan-Vishnugad project, asking why it was cleared at all. The idea of ‘Big is Beautiful’ is a flawed one when it comes to an already damaged ecosystem. As Sunita Narain, one of the country’s leading environmentalists, told me, “the Himalayas cannot be treated as if they are a parking lot in Greater Kailash,” referring to a tony neighborhood in Delhi that has been increasingly commercialised and built-up over the years.

It is too late to save Joshimath. But other hill-towns are showing serious signs of breakage. From areas in and around Rishikesh to Uttarkashi, the walls are heaving under cracks. Despite a government order calling for an interim halt to all construction activity, there is work taking place on rail lines near Atali and road construction near Joshimath.

It is as if we have a death wish when it comes to Uttarakhand.

That, or a self-destruct button.

editor@theweek.in

the-rise-of-arvind-kejriwal

Sat Dec 10 17:01:26 IST 2022

The unprecedented media interest in Delhi’s local elections can only partly be explained by the north-centric bias of major newsrooms. The other big reason for the disproportionate curiosity it generated is the interest in Arvind Kejriwal—and this is true well beyond the borders of the capital.

Even the most avid supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi want an effective national opposition. And, the continuous vacating of that place by the Congress has led to intense debate over who else may take that spot.

There have been other contenders—Mamata Banerjee’s expansionist experiment in Goa, K. Chandrashekar Rao aiming for national attention, to name a couple. But, perhaps, because of the anti-corruption movement that birthed the Aam Aadmi Party, none of them have the pan-India recall that Kejriwal does. The Delhi chief minister does not have the political cadre that a national party needs, but he has the brand positioning to build on.

And, above all, perhaps more than any other party among the non-BJP players, he is deft enough to borrow from the BJP’s own playbook when needed.

The AAP had a few nervous moments as the results poured in, but was eventually able to break the BJP’s 15-year grip on Delhi’s corporation. The victory—though not as large as forecast by the exit polls—was no less significant when you consider how much energy the BJP invested in the election, bringing out a slew of chief ministers and Union ministers. The AAP has wrested the verdict from the BJP against the backdrop of a barrage of corruption allegations, CBI raids on the deputy chief minister and leaked videos of AAP’s Satyendar Jain getting preferential treatment inside prison. For a party that is still just 10 years old, this is no slight feat. It is, as Kejriwal pointed out in an address to workers after the result, the party’s fourth electoral victory in the capital. Juxtapose this with the BJP that has not been able to win the assembly since 1998. And now has lost control of the civic administration as well.

If Kejriwal is able to take over 6 per cent of the vote in Gujarat—and this appears to be a sure shot—the Aam Aadmi Party, officially, becomes a national party. If it breaches 15 per cent to 20 per cent, not many can deny the primacy of Kejriwal in the opposition pantheon. What will be closely observed is its comparative performance with the Congress, especially after its success in displacing the Congress vote in both Punjab and Delhi.

As the AAP increases its footprint, Kejriwal’s party will perhaps have to find greater clarity on issues of ideology and policy. Its ambivalence has stood it in good stead—politically and electorally. But as it officially enters the national arena, more and more people will want to know Kejriwal better.

Till then, love him or hate him—the opposition and the ruling party can no longer ignore him.

editor@theweek.in

supreme-court-rape-case-verdicts

Fri Nov 11 16:01:01 IST 2022

Before the Nirbhaya gang-rape, there was the Chhawla case. It was in the same year of 2012, in February, many months before the Delhi gang-rape that brought a country onto the streets.

A 19-year-old, the daughter of a security guard, was pulled into a moving car and raped and killed on her way back from work. Much like Nirbhaya, in this sexual assault, too, car parts, glass bottles and metal were used to attack and violate her. The men, in this case, were known to her; one was reported to be especially outraged that she had dared to spurn his interest. Her mutilated and decomposed body was found later in Haryana.

Her parents fought a long and lonely battle for justice. The men were put on death row and the High Court called them predators and trained bloodhounds.

These men, much like the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case, are now free.

Unlike in the Bano case, where the guilt of the rapists was never questioned; here the men have actually been acquitted on the grounds that prosecution had failed to follow process and had taken far too many shortcuts. They could not, the judges ruled, prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Supreme Court may have gone by the book when it decided on their release. But what really stays with people—especially women—is the image of the devastated parents, hunched over in helpless tears on the lawns of the Supreme Court. They say, after this sudden turn, they have lost the will to live. The prosecution’s failure cannot be the victim’s punishment. But that is precisely what has happened here. That a young woman was sexually abused and murdered is not in doubt. And, yet, think for a moment of the despair of the parents, who believe they are in this situation only because they are poor.

In the same week the Madhya Pradesh High Court suspended the 25 years of rigorous imprisonment sentence to a gang-rape convict. The reason? That he had already spent close to six years in jail and there was no likelihood of an early hearing of his appeal.

Once again the slow-moving wheels of justice—certainly not something the rape survivor or victim should be answerable for—effectively meant that six years was considered time enough for the convict.

All three cases—Bilkis Bano, Chhawla and MP—reflect an underlying prejudice. That rape and sexual assault are crimes where leniency is generous. For courts that often put complex or sensitive cases on the back-burner, and where hearings for closure and justice usually move at a snail’s pace. This is nothing but the trivialisation of sexual violence and of the gravity it deserves in response. It is the same mindset that has, on occasion, made judges suggest that rapists marry the women they have assaulted. We have seen this suggestion made by no less than a chief justice at one point, who advised, in open court, that this would be one way of staying out of jail.

Such judgements have been delivered by both men and women.

And the Supreme Court may do well to explain this thinking—and the spate of recent acquittals of rape convicts—to the public at large.

Else, these are developments that would discourage other women from pursuing justice in instances of sexual abuse and violence.

And it would mean that after Nirbhaya, nothing—or precious little—has actually changed.

editor@theweek.in

outrage-is-either-misplaced-or-entirely-missing-barkha-dutt

Fri Oct 14 16:10:49 IST 2022

This past week, two events triggered different political and media responses in India’s capital.

And what happened should give us pause.

At a meet organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a BJP MP, Parvesh Sahib Verma, gave a brazen call for the economic boycott of Muslims. Though he did not name the community, the context was obvious since the meet was organised against the backdrop of the stabbing of a Hindu allegedly by a group of Muslims. Verma went so far as to exhort people to not buy anything from shops and street carts owned by Muslims. A BJP MLA then reinforced the hate speech by using language that was even coarse. A third speaker affiliated to the VHP spoke of taking up arms against “jihadis”.

This outrageous violation of public decency has passed without a blip—or not much more than a blip.

Instead the political noise and prime time attention has been focused on another public event, also in Delhi. This was a mass conversion meet where dalits embraced Buddhism by chanting the 22 vows of Babasaheb Ambedkar. Present on stage was the Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi’s minister for social welfare, Rajendra Gautam, himself a convert to Buddhism. The vows included the rejection of key Hindu Gods giving the BJP an opportunity to target the event for being anti-Hindu.

Instead of standing by their colleague, the AAP clearly felt political anxiety. In Gujarat, where Arvind Kejriwal is trying to take on the BJP on prime minister and home minister’s home turf, posters and banners surfaced showing Kejriwal wearing a skull cap—that is, being soft on Muslims. A day later Gautam resigned from the Delhi cabinet. It did not end there. He was later summoned by the police for questioning.

Speaking to me, Gautam underlined that he had meant no disrespect to any religion or deity. The Ambedkar vows, he argued, were officially recognised by all governments. He then framed the mass conversions in the context of rising atrocities against dalits and posed the question at the heart of this debate: “If we are Hindus, if you want us to remain Hindu, why do you hate us so much?”

The police showed much more alacrity in questioning Gautam—though voluntary conversions are lawful—than it has so far in interrogating those who made hate speeches against an entire community.

Though there may be legitimate questions about how conversions are organised and whether financial incentives can sometimes be part of them, the right to practice and propagate faith is a constitutional right. That we are now criminalising it—and doing so at a speedier pace than the prosecution of hate speech—is worrying.

As if on cue, comes the horrific news from Karnataka of 16 dalit labourers locked up in a coffee estate and tortured for their failure to repay a loan. Among them was a pregnant woman; she was beaten so badly that she lost her baby. The government’s own data shows a rise in atrocities against dalits and scheduled tribes—by over one per cent and six per cent respectively.

The outrage is misplaced. And entirely missing, where needed.

editor@theweek.in

why-is-india-still-a-member-of-the-commonwealth-barkha-dutt

Sat Sep 17 10:58:15 IST 2022

It is perfectly possible to hate the idea of a monarchy and still have a sneaking admiration for Queen Elizabeth II. Much has been said about the duty-oriented devotion of a woman whose tenure spanned 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.

But for us in post-colonial India, Elizabeth’s passing throws up an interesting crossroads question: Why are we still a member of the Commonwealth?

On December 13, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved a resolution that “free India can be nothing but a Republic”. Though we mark our independence day on August 15, 1947, up until 1950 we continued to have dominion status within the British empire. That is to say we were autonomous but owed loyalty to the Crown. King George VI was still emperor; Mountbatten was independent India’s Governor General. It was not till 1950 (1956 for Pakistan) that we became truly free from the imperialists with the President replacing the monarch as the head of the Indian state.

Ironically, the same Nehru who had vehemently made the case for being a republic—unlike Canada, New Zealand and Australia that till this day remain dominions of the British Empire—also advocated in 1949 for India to remain a part of the Commonwealth. In 2021, Barbados did what India did decades ago; it parted ways with the Queen but continued to be a Commonwealth nation.

Even if there were once compelling pragmatic reasons for a young nation to maintain a close relationship with the UK and hence the Commonwealth membership was purely tactical, how can we continue justifying the membership of a group rooted in the history of the empire?

Unlike other alignments of countries, there is nothing that binds the 54-member Commonwealth except for the shared past of British colonisation. We may not pay much attention to this inconvenient truth as we cheer on our athletes at the Commonwealth Games. But even Ireland quit the British Commonwealth as early as 1949.

Yes, of course, the Commonwealth may not operate today as a British forum. Countries can and do participate as equals. But that does not erase the problematic symbolism that defines it. There have been eminent individuals who have called out continued subliminal imperialism of the entity. Amitav Ghosh, for instance, withdrew his novel from the Commonwealth Literature Prize in 2001 because he would not agree to have The Glass Palace be qualified as ‘Commonwealth literature’. As a young reporter I have received a Commonwealth media award without thinking much beyond the joy of winning it. 2022 calls for all of us to think more deeply.

Erasing imperialist symbols is what drove the government’s decision to rename Delhi’s Rajpath to Kartavyapath. Is there not a contradiction between that and a one-day national mourning for the Queen?

The British owe India reparations—for the Bengal Famine, for Jallianwala Bagh, for uncountable cruelties, for the theft and pillage of India’s wealth and assets. While we should not allow them to whitewash their historical crimes, we cannot continue to be part of a colonial forum and demand compensation for the past.

Let us leave the Commonwealth. Yesterday.

editor@theweek.in

why-isnt-there-more-outrage-over-release-of-convicts-asks-barkha-dutt

Sat Aug 20 11:12:13 IST 2022

In 2002, I met Bilkis Bano under a tattered tarpaulin, in pitch darkness, save for the small flicker of a gas lamp, in a relief camp in Godhra. The white plaster of her broken arm—the men who raped her had broken it—gleamed against the black of the night. She spoke softly, with stoicism and a sense of disbelief as she recounted what had been done to her. She knew these men—they were her neighbours; they used to buy milk from her family.

Bilkis Bano was 19 years old—and five months pregnant—when the men lunged for her. They gang-raped her; then they gang-raped her mother, both in the presence of the other. Her two sisters were also raped, she told me. The horror did not end there. As she lay helpless, battered and bleeding on the floor, they took a stone and smashed the head of her infant daughter, Saleha. Bilkis Bano lost 14 members of her family that day.

It took Bilkis and her husband, Yakub Rasul, more than 17 years to secure justice. In this time, they had to change homes 20 times, all in fear for their lives. It was not till 2019 that the then Supreme Court chief justice ordered 150 lakh compensation to the family. As Yakub told me, “We had only just started living again.”

The decision by the Gujarat government to release the rapists and child-murderers as part of a special prisoner remission scheme is an outrageous travesty of justice. This summer, the Centre released new guidelines for shortening the sentences of convicted prisoners. But the rules were clear: heinous crimes like rape were excluded from the ambit of this scheme. So, did the Gujarat government contradict the home ministry’s rules? How did this happen? Whose decision was it?

Senior advocate Vrinda Grover argues that despite the Centre’s new guidelines, the law under which the Gujarat government issued an executive order for the release of the 11 convicts—all of whom have spent 14 years in prison, but had been sentenced to a life term—could not have been done without the “mandatory consultation of the Central government”. In other words, the Centre, while officially quiet on the release, cannot pass the buck entirely to the state government.

“Bilkis feels alone,” Yakub told me, vowing to “never give up. I will support her for as long as I live.” The family has shown extraordinary fortitude. It is gut-wrenching to hear Yakub’s voice choke as he says, “All these years we placed our faith in India’s justice system, now we are scared and demoralised.” But why have they been placed in this position at all?

In a country where gangrape is considered a crime horrific enough to merit the ‘rarest of rare’ proviso of capital punishment, was keeping these men in jail for the rest of their lives so difficult?

And where is the outrage we saw during India’s Nirbhaya moment when a 23-year-old medical student was gang-raped in a moving bus?

Otherwise, so many Indians think it is morally justifiable to eliminate rapists in encounters—we speak loosely of chemical castrations and public hangings in drawing room debates and Twitter arguments. Today, confronted with a real-life travesty, why aren’t we more angry?

This is a betrayal of India’s women. And we should all take it personally.

editor@theweek.in

then-ayodhya-now-gyanvapi-the-indian-army-perhaps-holds-the-solution

Fri May 27 11:20:47 IST 2022

I was in college when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992. I have faint memories of marching down the streets of Delhi in protest against the vigilante violence and triumphalism of the men who took the law into their own hands. And, even L.K Advani, the architect of the Ram Mandir movement, called it one of the saddest days of his life.

Thirty years later, even after the Supreme Court has pronounced that the disputed site at Ayodhya where the Babri mosque stood was indeed the birthplace of Lord Ram, and plans are afoot to build a grand Ram Mandir, the country is again quarrelling over whether a temple stood where the Gyanvapi Masjid does today in Varanasi.

If the Ayodhya verdict was meant to bring closure, the exact opposite appears to have happened, with Mathura and the Krishna Janmabhoomi movement also acquiring new legal momentum. Jurists are quoting the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which seals 1947 as a cut-off point after which the nomenclature of a religious site cannot be changed—temple, mosque or church. Ayodhya was the main exception that the law provided for, and that has been settled.

But the very fact that Justice D.Y. Chandrachud did not invoke the law when the Gyanvapi case came to his bench—sending it back instead for a fast-track hearing to the district court in Varanasi—is proof that this law will not be the necessary guiding principle in this dispute.

Constitutional scholar Faizan Mustafa told me that Indian Muslims “were in danger of repeating [at least] 10 mistakes they made in the Ayodhya case, and the Gyanvapi case is a much weaker case than that was”. Mustafa’s argument is that instead of looking to the judiciary in every such contestation, Muslims and Hindus of Varanasi should settle this among themselves at a community level, without mediation by political parties or lawyers. One way forward, he suggests, is that Gyanvapi makes space for Hindus to offer prayers “silently” in a section of the complex. The petition was first filed by a group of Hindu women who say they have been barred from worshipping their deity at the site.

Indeed, multi-faith sites of worship may be one graceful and equitable method of emerging from the shadows of the past. The country can take inspiration from the sarv dharam sthals of the Indian military, where all faiths pray together and the commanding officer often leads the worshipping congregations of his troops, irrespective of his own faith.

But, then again, context is everything. And, you cannot decontextualise the Gyanvapi battle from the larger sense of siege that the Muslim community must be feeling, given the increased incidents of hate speech, an evident political marginalisation and countless instances of violence that many of their own have been subjected to in recent times.

Religious leaders from both communities have suggested an inter-faith dialogue to create a truth and reconciliation commission. This may reach a final consensus of sorts that, once there is a broad agreement on specific places of worship, history will not be wrenched open with depressing regularity every few years.

editor@theweek.in

gandhis-on-vacay-party-in-decay-barkha-dutt

Fri Apr 29 14:48:03 IST 2022

Prashant Kishor is a rare political being. While most people talk to journalists off the record about what they really think of their competition or potential allies, “PK” is unique for how much he reveals on record. For instance, well before his 600 “slides for change” blueprint got leaked, he told me in a recent interview about how the Congress could learn from the BJP model of separating who leads the party from who is the prime ministerial candidate. “Even a booth worker can become [party] president, that is the message that goes out when someone like J.P. Nadda leads the BJP,” Kishor said.

He was also matter-of-fact about what made Narendra Modi win again and again—a combination of the cult of personality, nationalism, hindutva and welfarism.

The failure of the Congress to induct Kishor—and worse, admit that it was they who were rejected—is not about whether you are convinced or unconvinced of PK’s political worth. It does not matter whether you are a PK fan or sceptic, those debates will carry on well into 2024. What is indisputable is the tardy, casual and non-serious way the Congress has responded for a party that is in grave danger of being wiped away from the country’s electoral landscape.

Congress supporters can hardly argue that they did not see merit or value in Prashant Kishor. For, why else, would their leaders spend weeks urging him to become a Congressman. Given that, what can possibly justify their “committee” approach to change?

It is the equivalent of looking for a locksmith when the adversary is about to break down your door.

And, if politics is war, the Congress is betrayed by its generals. The announcement of Kishor’s refusal to join the Congress has to be viewed alongside another fact: both the Gandhi siblings are outside India on personal vacations. Nothing reflects either the denialism or the entitlement of the family leadership as much as sojourns at the most critical time and in face of 24/7 politics from Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. As someone in the PK camp quipped, “it gives a glimpse into what would have happened if he had joined the party. He would have been made the fall guy for failures while the brother and sister holidayed”.

From Prashant Kishor’s perspective the ‘thanks, but no-thanks’, was borne from the appraisal that he would not have a free hand to make any big changes. The setting up of multiple committees reflected what Kishor has described as “incremental change and low-hanging fruit”. Those in the know confirm that the party remained averse to structural changes and the leadership continued to be loath to nip internal bickering in the bud. The results of that infighting were there for everyone to see in the unravelling party campaign in Punjab and the decimation that followed.

Prashant Kishor is right. More than him, the party needs to get over living in the past. It needs to shed its delusional belief that one day, the voter will tire of Modi and fall back to the default party of government, the Congress. And, it needs to accept that the Gandhi family is the problem; not the solution.

Congress leaders have repeatedly described Sonia Gandhi and her children as the glue that binds the party together.

If so, this is the glue that keeps them stuck in the past with no future to speak of.

editor@theweek.in

india-should-get-off-the-ukraine-tightrope-writes-barkha-dutt

Sun Mar 06 14:22:30 IST 2022

All the points about western hypocrisy are true. As are, what veteran diplomat Vivek Katju has called, “India’s cruel dilemmas” when it comes to being able to take an unambiguous position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But there comes a time in the life of nations, especially those who see ourselves as global players with a moral force, that walking a precarious tightrope appears timid more than thought-through.

India’s response to Vladimir Putin’s unilateral act of aggression against Ukraine may have evolved in shades and hues, more critical today than at the start. But as Russian shelling kills Naveen Shekharappa, a young Indian student, all of 21, the war has come home. Looking at images of his distraught father—who reminded us that even with a high 97 per cent score his son could not get admission to a medical college at home—there comes the reminder that in an increasingly globalised, interdependent world, conflicts do not take place in distant lands any more.

So, yes, the Americans and the Europeans have been transactional and self-serving. And yes, they have not stood steadfast by the side of India when the Chinese or the Pakistanis have intruded into our territory and sought to undermine our territorial integrity. And yes, the Americans invaded Iraq on the back of dodgy, questionable claims of weapons of mass destruction. And wrote the playbook on ‘military action for regime change’.

But the enumeration of these examples does not really tell us why India abstained from a vote calling for an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly. Especially when the previous vote at the Security Council was redundant, given Russia’s automatic veto.

The attempt by the UN to call for a ceasefire during the 1971 war between India and Pakistan has been cited as an example of the sort of necessary relativism that makes one country’s ingress another nation’s freedom movement. But surely we cannot benchmark Putin’s wilful destabilisation of the world with the genocidal killings of the Bengali population in 1971 that eventually gave birth to Bangladesh—with India’s military support. That Putin’s troops have taken the conflict beyond the separatist regions that he initially recognised as independent, too, speaks for itself.

There has also been the suggestion that India has to tread carefully because it does not want a Russia-China axis to solidify if Delhi were to more openly back the other side. But has that ship not already sailed? In fact, China will watch this space with some interest. If Putin is able to get away with his audacious intervention inside Ukraine, who is to say China will not try the same with Taiwan next? The world would have shown that it will look the other way; Beijing will be the biggest beneficiary.

With a little bit of this and a little bit of that, India may have bought itself some time in the initial days.

With Putin marching deeper into Ukraine, India should get off the trapeze and take a stand.

editor@theweek.in

barkha-dutt-writes-on-the-congress-and-the-punjab-pickle

Sat Feb 05 11:27:07 IST 2022

The Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal have already pushed the Congress in Punjab into borrowing from its playbook. The party says it is seeking feedback on who should be its chief ministerial candidate, much like the AAP did before naming Bhagwant Mann as its contender. In 2017, Captain Amarinder Singh threatened to quit and form his own party if the Congress did not declare his name for the top job. In 2022, Charanjit Channi and his supporters have been forced to point out the obvious. The absence of cohesion in the Congress campaign and the lack of clarity over who its leader is has handed the advantage to its challenger.

The Congress has a problem in Punjab and his name is Navjot Sidhu. Sidhu’s elevation was billed initially as Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s decisive intervention. It has turned out to be a colossal self-goal. Sidhu is plagued by delusions of grandeur. At the highly fortified Chandigarh bungalow that is presently his base, the cricketer-comedian makes mercurial appearances before the media when he is in the mood. At other times, nervous aides speak in hushed whispers about how he cannot be disturbed. On a recent trip, one of them told me grandly that it took five days for anyone to get some time with Sidhu, sounding like an overawed supplicant in obeisance to a feudal landlord.

More critically, as an aide in the Channi camp told me, every decision announced by the Punjab chief minister was “mocked” by the ambitious, egotistical president of the Congress’s Punjab unit. “We announced a waiver on electricity bills and he calls it a lollipop,” said the aide, despairingly. Sidhu pointedly left out posters of the chief minister from his press conference to unveil a blueprint for Punjab’s development.

The original idea was that Sidhu would keep Jat Sikhs on the party’s side while Channi, the state’s first dalit chief minister, would pull in the votes of the scheduled castes. Sunil Jakhar, the third face in the troika of Congress leaders, was meant as the Hindu face. Jakhar, also sulky, left for a trip abroad, claiming he could preside over ticket distribution over a Zoom call instead. And the chief minister, bruised by the constant undermining of his authority—an eyewitness says Sidhu lashes out at Channi even in party meetings—has openly pushed the party to name a chief ministerial candidate.

Sidhu’s rantings have made Congress voters on the ground doubtful. While the party made the right call in dropping Amarinder Singh, even if it handled the process clumsily, its delay in publicly endorsing Channi has made his followers sceptical about whether Channi will get to keep the top job even if the party were to defeat the AAP. In the villages of rural Punjab, Channi is universally liked. I did not meet anyone who said anything adverse about the chief minister. But, among Congress voters, their statement of support would invariably trail off into ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. In Ludhiana, a long-time Congress voter told me, “I am embarrassed today to tell you that I support the party; every time Channi takes one step forward, Sidhu takes him two steps back.”

Sidhu’s induction was billed as Priyanka Gandhi’s Ahmed Patel moment, in reference to Sonia Gandhi’s crafty former political aide who died last year. Instead, in the Punjab context, it is a giant blooper, of the sort we saw on Sidhu’s slapstick TV shows.

editor@theweek.in

to-fight-gentlemanly-omicron-we-need-to-reimagine-covid-protocols-barkha-dutt

Thu Jan 06 15:14:09 IST 2022

The Omicron third wave is officially here.

The bad news is that the virus is more infectious than its previous two avatars; the good news is that it is distinctly less lethal.

Iqbal Singh Chahal, Mumbai’s top administrator, confirmed to me that the recovery, especially among those vaccinated, is taking place mostly within five days, as opposed to the 14- to 16-day period that the Delta variant took up. Thus far, the need for ICU beds and oxygen has also been limited.

Yet, in 2022, we have responded to the third wave with some of the same measures—and mistakes—as two years ago.

The night curfews and weekend curfews are especially galling. They are galling, first and foremost, because of the staggering political hypocrisy. Politicians are locking their citizens in, while proceeding with mass rallies themselves. Not just is this mixed messaging, it is dishonest and unethical. It is also the worst sort of deja vu because of the failure of the Election Commission to show a more proactive intervention against these mass gatherings.

But the scientific basis for the restrictions is also extremely dodgy. If Omicron is in community transmission—which it clearly is—curbing social activity on select days or hours is not going to stop it. In fact, it only ends up hurting the economy and lives and livelihood for no significant, achievable gain.

Institutional quarantine or hospitalisation is mindless. Shefali Manilal, a French citizen of Indian origin, arrived in Delhi to meet her mother. On arrival, she tested negative. A few days later though, her 11-year-old son and she turned positive. But both mother and son were entirely asymptomatic. Yet, an official ambulance forced them into a private hospital for several days. “Is this not a waste of hospital beds and doctors’ resources?” Manilal lashed out, in an interview with me.

She is absolutely correct. If anything, there should be clear communication from state authorities urging people not to rush to hospitals. The one thing that can make the health system collapse is if a huge section of frontline workers test positive and are pushed into fortnightly isolation. Given that most Omicron cases are mild and can be managed at home, hospitalisation must be done extremely sparingly.

It is time to reimagine Covid-19 protocols as we know them. Dr J.P. Muliyil, leading epidemiologist at Christian Medical College, Vellore, and also a member of the government advisory task force on Covid-19, told me that “asymptomatic patients and those with mild symptoms should not be encouraged to test”. This variant, he argued, is a “gentlemanly virus” and one that is, in fact, offering a shield against the much more lethal Delta.

The argument is not to go out and get infected, or to be cavalier or callous. But as we watched the United States hit a million cases in a single day, we could be looking at that sort of steep spike here as well, with accompanying panic and a rush for hospitals. It is this that would break the system again.

editor@theweek.in

vaccine-certificate-should-be-given-aadhaar-card-like-status-says-barkha-dutt

Thu Dec 09 15:07:29 IST 2021

We are back to counting cases and variants as the spectre of Omicron haunts the world. But the responses, including many in India, have been short-sighted, full of counterproductive panic and reminiscent of some of the early mistakes of 2020.

Except, today we have many more tools to fight the virus—knowledge of its airborne nature, confirmation that masks in closed indoor places can help, awareness that opening a window can make a difference in a classroom, therapeutic pills of varying success, and above all, vaccines.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who first detected Omicron, told me she found it on a random rapid-antigen test. That in itself should be a warning against the needless RT-PCR tests travellers are being subjected to at both departure and destination, creating a mass congregation at airports themselves.

Most importantly, she said—and this is now being confirmed by doctors worldwide—that feedback from South African doctors is that the symptoms of Omicron are mild, there is no respiratory failure, no plummeting oxygen levels, good self-recovery by day 6 (unlike in Delta) and most critically, vaccinated patients are doing well at getting better.

In other words, while data will reveal if vaccines have fallen in efficacy because of the high number of mutations on the spike protein of the Omicron variant, they are still offering decent protection against the seventh new variant, especially against hospitalisations and deaths. In fact, there has not been a single death from Omicron so far, despite it now being present in 38 countries.

The lesson, if there is any left to be learnt, is an immediate mandating of vaccines. I understand that coercion is anathema to public health specialists. But when you consider that 12.5 crore Indians are yet to receive their scheduled second jab, their freedom ends where all of society is being damaged.

Those who are declining vaccines—and not from a shortage of supply—are holding up the economy and well-being of our nation. I am glad to see some states moving in this direction. Kerala is declining free treatment to those who are unvaccinated; Karnataka is making vaccine passports necessary for entry into malls and theatres. This is the only way forward. Whether you call it a mandate or not, it is time to link it to so many social, economic and professional activities, that it becomes much like the Aadhaar card—whether you like it or you hate it, you need one.

The other policy that needs urgent attention is vaccines for children. India has already had the largest school shutdown in the world, exacerbated by pollution and now the new variant. Children cannot be kept at home or in online classes any longer without it stunting their mental, social and emotional skills. Moving to operationalise these vaccines, making adult vaccines compulsory and adding a third shot to the repertoire for at least the elderly and frontline workers, is the need of the hour.

Anything else is hysteria. And with it we are not saving lives; we are shrinking the very idea of life.

editor@theweek.in

up-elections-is-the-opposition-giving-the-bjp-a-walkover

Thu Nov 11 15:45:12 IST 2021

As the host of a daily digital news show, I am bewildered by some of the issues our politicians manage to push into the headlines—and therefore on to prime time.

The referencing of Mohammad Ali Jinnah by Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav is one such. Yadav’s comments may have been misrepresented by his political opponents, but why would Jinnah come up in an Indian election campaign at all?

Not just does it make gratuitous assumptions about the Indian Muslim voters—implicit in the reference is that they care about Pakistan’s founding father—it offers the BJP, on a platter, the perfect mix of distractions from issues of economic importance.

The most poignant tale to emerge from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh was the first-person accounts of abjectly poor citizens who came to retrieve the residual oil from Diwali diyas in Ayodhya. The holy city had been bathed in a blitzkrieg of lights with lakhs of earthen lamps sparkling during a festive week. But the reality check of rising prices left its shadow on the celebrations.

You would imagine that Covid-19 deaths, mass shallow graves of abandoned bodies and inflation would top the list of issues that the opposition parties would use to target the Yogi Adityanath government.

Instead, Akhilesh’s mention of Jinnah in the same sentence as Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has created the proverbial storm in a teacup. It may not have too many real electoral consequences either way, but it queers the political pitch in such a manner that identity politics and the fault-lines of history and religion become the dominant debate. And that is a debate that the BJP will always win.

The opposition—this includes the Aam Aadmi Party, the SP and the Congress—all seem to have pivoted right into playing some variation of BJP-lite. They are clearly and visibly anxious that the ruling party’s emphasis on hindutva, subsumed within the larger cover of nationalism, is an entrenched poll-winner. And so, for some time now, you have seen the Gandhi siblings drawing attention to their temple visits. Arvind Kejriwal has a list of religious pilgrimages that he is vowing to deliver on. And Akhilesh is falling back on imagined religious polarisation to craft his seat strategy.

Secularism may have become a corroded political slogan. But the problem with the approach of the non-BJP parties is that they are essentially playing by the BJP’s rule book—and on the BJP’s turf.

The UP chief minister has had a challenging two years because of the pandemic. An active grassroots opposition movement could have at least created a competitive playing field. Instead, the SP, clearly the dominant opposition, was dormant through much of the lockdown months. And Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, continues to make guest appearances in a movie where the ending seems to be pre-ordained—another likely victory for Adityanath. Despite her high-voltage announcements on reserving tickets for female candidates, her refusal to lead by example by running for chief minister, makes it difficult to take her seriously as a contender.

The opposition is not just divided; it is ideologically floundering. That confusion means—Advantage BJP.

editor@theweek.in

cases-of-aryan-khan-ashish-mishra-show-contrast-in-how-law-is-applied-barkha-dutt

Thu Oct 14 15:35:58 IST 2021

It took a week of national outcry before Ashish Mishra, accused of mowing down farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, was arrested. Every single retired police officer of consequence called out the Uttar Pradesh Police for the bewildering delay in issuing summons to the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, given multiple eyewitness testimonies and chilling videos that captured how the elderly were among those crushed under his vehicle.

Ajay has continued to deny that his son was present at the site. But multiple voices from the ground have testified to watching Ashish run into the sugarcane fields. Some farmers have provided detailed accounts of why they believe the minister’s son was both armed and drunk. On camera, there are images of ammunition and what appears to be the debris of a weapon. A 14-year-old is among those who watched his father being run over by the speeding Thar.

Among the first to be hit, while he unsuspectingly walked, flag in hand, as part of the protest against the new farm legislations, was Nachattar Singh, an elderly Sikh whose son is a soldier. Despite the fact that the minister is also named in the FIR, he has neither been arrested nor asked to resign.

By contrast, another son, in another city, Aryan Khan, in his early 20s, was almost instantly taken into custody after being at a cruise ship party that was busted for drugs. Khan has neither been accused of trading nor of possession. The Narcotics Control Bureau has cited messages on his phone that indicate consumption. Certain circumstances of his arrest are also shrouded in mystery and dodginess. For instance, we now know that the two men who appear on camera escorting Khan and a co-accused, holding them firmly by the arm away from the glare of cameras, are not cops or security bouncers. One is Manish Bhanushali, a BJP worker, and the other is K.P. Gosavi, a private detective. Gosavi’s online pictures have him posing with a gun like a B-grade movie villain. He has also been identified as the man who took a selfie with Khan while he was in custody. Gosavi has since absconded.

Shah Rukh Khan has already been dropped as brand ambassador of educational technology company BYJU’s in the wake of the controversy around his son. And depending on what happens to the case, more brands could follow.

I am not making the case that Aryan should not face the requisite punishment for his violation of the law. But the alacrity and firmness with which the law was applied to the mega star’s son is in stark contrast with what happened in Ashish’s case, even though the crime is much more egregious in the latter.

In one case, the father has begun to feel the monetary consequences, albeit the fact that he is too wealthy for it to matter financially. In another case, the weight of the government is so far behind him.

This tale of two sons—and two fathers—is a modern day tale of India.

editor@theweek.in

yogi-adityanath-remains-unhinged-and-untouched-writes-barkha-dutt

Thu Sep 16 20:08:06 IST 2021

In a week when Narendra Modi and Amit Shah abruptly replaced the chief minister in their home state of Gujarat, it was a BJP chief minister in another state—election-bound Uttar Pradesh—who hogged the headlines.

If the drama in Gujarat reinforced the BJP as a ‘high command’ party, where only two men matter, simultaneously it made us notice that Yogi Adityanath is probably the only state leader who cannot be summarily substituted.

Adityanath’s often abrasive and communal rhetoric has remained untempered by five years in office. His patently anti-Muslim jibe about how those who say “Abbajaan” once got a disproportionate share of rations—a coarse metaphor for ‘minority appeasement’—will not hurt him electorally; in fact it may even help, as religious polarisation so often does.

Instead of the political and public conversation being focused on the UP government’s handling of Covid-19, rising cases of dengue and protests by farmers in the western pockets, debating the Hindu-Muslim fault lines may even be the perfect deflection.

That Adityanath still sets the terms of the debate around him in a year when bodies washed ashore from the Ganga and shallow mass graves of abandoned bodies were unveiled along its banks at the height of the pandemic speaks of the utter failure of the opposition. Even in terms of hindutva, the image of saffron shrouds being removed off these bodies by the local police, so that they merged more fully with the sand they had been left in, offered a galvanising moment that was not taken by the opposition.

Pre-poll surveys show the UP chief minister down in ratings from his 2017 peak, but still distinctly ahead of competitors. While the Samajwadi Party has benefitted from the anti-incumbency, the gains seem to have been passively obtained as distinct from aggressively sought. If there was ever a context for the opposition to change the framework from caste and identity politics it was now. But we did not see mass mobilisation initiatives or cycle rallies or enough offline, non-virtual, tactile effort to meet voters. Covid protocols forbade large gatherings but this was the time for more personal, intimate, on-the-field politics.

Instead, the opposition seems to have been leaning back in a lazy chair waiting for the voters’ anger to convert organically. The worst, of course, has been the Congress, and this is reflected in all the surveys as well. So much for planted news reports about Priyanka Gandhi shifting base to UP and running for chief minister! The floundering Congress has been unable to resolve its leadership issue. So, while Sonia Gandhi continues to play a placeholder in the post of party president, the few states where the Congress is still in government are beginning to simmer with factionalism.

Make no mistake, if Bengal was the most important bulwark against the expansionism of the BJP, retaining Uttar Pradesh will set the stage for 2024. And, if Yogi Adityanath does manage to pull off a win, as the signs suggest he might well, it could make him the most significant BJP leader after the prime minister and home minister. The consequences for the BJP’s internal power dynamic thereafter will be intriguing.

What happens in UP will not stay only in UP.

editor@theweek.in

taliban-rise-india-wisest-choice-may-be-to-stand-with-afghans-says-barkha-dutt

Thu Aug 19 15:22:57 IST 2021

There has never been a more dangerous time for Indian security interests than now, with the developments in Afghanistan.

The responsibility for the victory of the Taliban may rest squarely with the Americans—and to some extent with Afghan politicians who failed to build an authentic following among their people—but the cross will be carried by India.

The Taliban, a terrorist project of Pakistan—or what Dr Christine Fair has called a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Pakistani state—has long been enmeshed with an intricate network of terror groups, including the Al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Elements of it, in particular the Haqqani network, have been fostered by the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Pakistani deep state. Sirajuddin Haqqani is today a deputy leader of the Taliban.

India was among 12 countries to say that it would not recognise a government in Afghanistan that has been imposed by force. But with Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country and the Taliban literally being able to saunter into the presidential palace, albeit at gunpoint, it is unclear how long India can decline to establish official relations with the Taliban. Even to evacuate our diplomats and jawans from the embassy in Kabul, a certain local and tactical engagement with the Taliban would have been unavoidable.

Eventually, India may have no option but to engage the Taliban and use the influence of our economic investments in the region to mitigate the extremism of the regime. But even in that process, we will be countering the Pakistan-China axis. It is no surprise that China hosted a Taliban delegation even before Kabul had fallen. And that Pakistan, China and Russia remain the three major functional embassies in Kabul today.

There will also be consequences for Kashmir. Two decades ago, it was not uncommon for the foreign terrorists in the valley to be from countries like Afghanistan and even Sudan, alongside local militants and Pakistani terrorists. With Pakistan’s deep roots in large sections of the Taliban establishment, the attempt to revive Kashmir as a pan-Islamist project cannot be ruled out. Pakistan, already smarting from the abrogation of Article 370 two years ago, will be looking for means to re-leverage itself into this matrix.

Any option for India is currently a choice from a substandard menu. India’s wisest route probably remains in standing with the people of Afghanistan. Opening up emergency visas for all Afghans (amending an earlier foreign ministry statement that named Hindu, Sikhs and Afghan partners specifically) is a smart move in this direction. Let India be the benevolent, accessible, friendly powerhouse for a new generation of Afghans. Let us remember that there is a post-Taliban generation that has never known life under the Taliban. India should be a natural port of call for them.

A ‘me-too’ relationship with the Taliban does not just upend decades of our stated position on terrorists; it is also destined to fail given the historic links between the Taliban and Pakistan, and China’s overarching influence. Despite the immediate tactical pressures to normalise the Taliban and despite the need for covert channels of communication to remain open with it, India should opt to side with the underdog—the people of Afghanistan, especially its women.

This would not just be the correct moral principle; it would also be smart statecraft at a time of diminishing alternatives.

editor@theweek.in

snooping-culture-we-journalists-also-contributed-to-it-says-barkha-dutt

Thu Jul 22 18:25:12 IST 2021

The global surveillance scandal, involving the use of Israeli spy software Pegasus, raises many grave questions—not just about the violation of privacy, but also the independence of our institutions. In India, given the list of possible snooping targets, several pillars key to the functioning of a genuine democracy—the media, the election commission, the courts, an effective opposition—have been made vulnerable.

Forty Indian journalists are among the 180 whose devices may have been hacked. In any other country, this would have caused mass public outrage. So, why are we not seeing more fury among citizens at large?

While I believe that the government is obliged to answer the central question—did it or did it not weaponise Pegasus on its citizens—I think we must also reflect on how and why we, as people, became so casual about privacy.

At the risk of annoying some colleagues, I would argue that in some ways we as journalists have brought ourselves to this point. A few years ago, major media outlets happily published the private conversations between Niira Radia, a representative for the Tata and Reliance group and a host of other people, including business people, politicians and journalists. Yes, unlike Pegasus, Radia’s surveillance was authorised under income tax rules. But the violation of the privacy of everyone else she spoke to was not authorised and the leaking of the conversations was unforgivable.

As someone who spoke to Radia in the course of work but hardly knew her beyond that, I found myself at the receiving end of a bizarre and vengeful media campaign, one that suggested that I had somehow played a role in A. Raja, being appointed telecom minister. Snatches of gossip about who might be in the next cabinet—a routine trading of information that all journalists do with professional contacts—were edited and dislocated from the context in an attempt to sully my reputation.

Apart from the ludicrous assumptions about my influence, I repeatedly underlined that I had never met or spoken to Raja (and still have not) and pointed to the many hard-hitting stories I had in fact done on the telecom scam. Others like Vir Sanghvi and M.K. Venu, one of the editors of The Wire (that has led the Pegasus expose in India), took the media organisations to court. Ratan Tata demanded a right to privacy protection from the Supreme Court.

While no fingers were eventually pointed at Tata or Ambani, for whom Radia was working, the tapes became quite simply a weapon by journalists to try and pull down other journalists.

Since then, TV channels have thought nothing about leaked WhatsApp messages being part of their so-called “exposes”. We saw a lot of this salacious stuff during the coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput tragedy where the privacy of actors was routinely violated in prime-time news. It was only when journalists found their own messages and conversations leaked (the Republic TV promoter and a young, brave journalist at India Today among them) that there was pushback. Sting operations—secretly filming people—is another grey area that raises ethical questions.

The media has often cited public interest as it overrides the right to privacy of public figures. Of course, Pegasus violates civil liberties and the functioning of a free press. But if we live in Orwellian times, we too have done our bit in contributing to it.

editor@theweek.in

india-needs-transparency-on-vaccination-data--writes-barkha-dutt

Thu Jun 24 21:27:48 IST 2021

India’s record-breaking rollout of the new vaccination policy has been the news we have all been waiting for all year. A country scarred by the second wave has nothing but vaccines to prevent it from an imminent third wave. At 86 lakh doses in a single day, India has reminded the world of our vast experience with mass immunisation programmes. That we are good on the logistics side is now established.

But while we all need to feel good and indeed feel better, the early triumphalism that has followed this start is both dangerous and scary. It is frightening because it was exactly this sort of imagined exceptionalism and self-congratulatory messaging that made us vulnerable to the second wave.

The dramatic variations in the numbers also raise some puzzling questions. The most curious has been the performance of Madhya Pradesh that appeared to go from 14,000 vaccine doses to over 16 lakh in three days. On the eve of the big-bang Monday, Madhya Pradesh administered less than 700 doses. On Monday, it soared to 16 lakhs, on Tuesday it fell to under 5,000, only to surge ahead in the lakhs again on Wednesday.

It is not only BJP states that show these crests and troughs. Maharashtra showed a gap of two lakh vaccine doses between June 20 and June 21; Kerala soared from 57,000 doses to over 2.5 lakhs on Monday. It almost appeared as if the states had held back vaccines on Sunday to make Monday a good performer. But then there were also states like Andhra Pradesh that showed the reverse trajectory with 13 lakh doses on Sunday that fell sharply to 49,000 on Monday.

These swings are bound to raise questions around the stability of vaccine supply now that it has been proved that the distribution and administering system works super smoothly. It calls for utmost transparency from the government on data. People already know that there is a shortage of vaccines and should be told the truth about availability levels.

Similarly, transparency was found missing when it came to determining the gap between the two doses of the vaccine. The government has previously pointed out Covishield’s assertion that a prolonged gap between the two doses, accidentally discovered during the trial, was better for efficacy. But all of this was before the lethal Delta variant swept through India. Since then, a UK study shows that a single dose of the AstraZeneca (or Covishield as we know it in India) offers just 33 per cent protection against infection and a little over 70 per cent efficacy against hospitalisation. In other words, two doses are critical and an increased gap could make us more vulnerable. Equally, everyone understands that in a crisis the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good, and so any vaccine rollout must focus on as many people getting one shot as possible. The problem begins when the policy is packaged as led by science rather than the compulsions of the greater good—because science has since changed.

As more vaccines are cleared for use in India and the free vaccines-for-all policy takes shape, it is critical that shortfalls, if any, are explained to the citizenry.

editor@theweek.in

we-have-to-own-our-covid-deaths-says-barkha-dutt

Thu May 27 15:53:33 IST 2021

Many morally egregious developments have taken place in the past two months amid a colossal failure to contain the second wave of the pandemic. The most obvious have been the failure to order enough vaccines, the gifting and exporting of vaccines before securing them for citizens, the failure to ensure oxygen supply to hospitals, the decision forcing government teachers to go on election duty, and permitting massive political and religious gatherings during the crisis.

But now, as Covid fires sweep through rural India, we are confronted with a new ignominy: the refusal to count our dead.

I have spent more than ten days travelling through rural Uttar Pradesh, uncovering floating corpses and buried bodies at six different points along the Ganga—Varanasi, Kannauj, Kanpur, Unnao, Prayagraj and the Nanamau ghat in Kanpur Dehat district. I have travelled three hours by boat down the river as well. And the dead do speak if we care to listen. Eyewitnesses confirm that they have never seen a pile-up of bodies in this manner, both in number and in the way they have been abandoned, often in the cover of night. There appear to be two reasons for this dumping of bodies: the absence of money to spend on cremations and the stigma and fear associated with Covid.

To make matters worse, the police have been supervising the removal of Ramnami chadar (sheets with Lord Ram’s name printed on them) from bodies at Prayagraj—perhaps to avoid any further documentation. Surely this is the final, unforgivable indignity.

Apart from the mass graves, there are two other giant factors that are contributing to the serious underreporting of Covid fatalities. In village after village, residents are confirming a surge in the number of deaths over the past month, from what is being described as a sudden onset of fever. In most cases, though, with hardly any testing or health care facilities accessible, people are dying at home, often within three or four days of contracting the virus. Since they never reach hospitals and are never tested for Covid, the death certificates either offer no cause of death or list typhoid and pneumonia as reasons for it.

From the east of Uttar Pradesh to the west, the documentation of deaths is almost negligible. In Basi Gao, two hours from Delhi, villagers said “not even one house was untouched by fever”. The village has more than 5,000 residents. It was the same story at the other end in Ramana, which is part of the prime minister’s constituency, Varanasi. “Forty people have died over the last month,” said the village pradhan. “Barely anyone made it to the hospital.”

Finally, in state after state, there is a mismatch between the number of deaths reported by districts and the pyres burning at cremation grounds and the burials happening in graveyards. Be it in Surat, Ghaziabad, Delhi or Varanasi, undertakers are reporting numbers that are at least ten times more than what the government is acknowledging. Data scientist Bhramar Mukherjee told me that 1.2 million Indians have already died, and that the number is “a conservative estimate”.

Before India claims to have left the worst of the second wave behind, we must at least demand to know how many have died. We must own our Covid deaths.

editor@theweek.in

barkha-dutt-on-injured-cadet-long-wait-for-justice-from-the-army

Thu Apr 01 19:21:17 IST 2021

Today I want to tell you the story of a young man called Shubham Gupta and his extraordinary mother, Anupam. From a young age, Shubham dreamt of being part of an infantry brigade posted on the frontline. When he cleared the entrance for the National Defence Academy, he was the happiest he had ever been.

But two years into the gruelling training programme of an officer cadet, Shubham was gravely injured while diving into the academy swimming pool. The fall paralysed him below the neck; he was declared medically unfit. Not just that. NDA graduates get a bachelor’s degree from JNU. But because he could not complete his three years at NDA, the first two years of his BA were nullified.

Shubham was given a mechanised wheelchair and sent back to his parents in Punjab. Seven years on, after regular use had worn out his first wheelchair, Shubham wrote to the Military Hospital in Pune asking for a new one. He was told that the rules did not allow the issue of another wheelchair because he was not officially recognised as an ex-serviceman.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, a former soldier, has intervened with orders for a new wheelchair. But when I spoke to Shubham and his mother, at the heart of this tragedy is not the principle of charity, but the principle of honour.

At 29, Shubham does not want to be economically dependent on his parents. He started afresh and completed his college degree. His mother, a schoolteacher, speaks of the despair she feels; her son cannot even turn to his side on the bed, without help. Yet, despite what happened to Shubham, she did not stop her younger son from joining the military. “I am living my dreams vicariously now through my brother,” Shubham told me, without a trace of self-pity, victimhood or bitterness.

As an educated, well-read, intelligent young man, Shubham is confident that he could easily perform an administrative role in the private sector. But someone has to be willing to give him that opportunity. His is not the only such case. Officer trainees who are declared unfit for medical reasons are not given the benefits of military service. Ironically, jawans and civilian recruits are deemed part of the service from the first day of training.

Though military chiefs have been known to intervene in individual cases—former Army chief General Ved Malik has made a passionate appeal for Shubham—a larger overhaul of the rules is needed. These are men and women who display readiness to possibly sacrifice their lives for the nation at a very young age. Some of them would be in their late teens when an accident cripples them. They take a chance on the best years of their lives, and as Shubham has shown, display great fauji (military) spirit, in their never-say-die attitude.

We owe them more. We owe them better.

editor@theweek.in

inequality-begins-at-home

Thu Mar 04 14:21:59 IST 2021

One of the big untold stories of the pandemic year will be how it impacted women. With families forced to hunker down and work from home—this may possibly become the norm even when things fully normalise—women, in India and elsewhere, are reeling under the consequences.

There has been some acknowledgment of the surge in domestic violence cases. In India, the National Commission for Women revealed that it received 5,000 complaints of domestic violence against women and children as of December 2020, a sharp spike from the 660 cases reported in July 2020.

This phenomenon is being called the ‘shadow pandemic’.

But lurking behind these headlines is the story of how casual sexism has become institutionalised and legitimised in a way that could have long-term consequences in the battle for equality.

Facebook’s Survey on Gender Equality at Home report—done in collaboration with the World Bank, UN Women, Ladysmith and others—reached a statistically representative sample of roughly half a million people who use Facebook, globally. While many of the experiences for women cut across geographies and cultures, the results from India are revealing.

That women have often been unpaid care-givers is an established fact. But with schools going online, and spouses and children both at home, for women, this has been a year more harrowing than most. For women who also hold a job outside of the home, the pressure has been near debilitating. Asked how many hours per day either gender spent on care activities for family members, men said they spent 6.66 hours compared with the nearly ten (9.7) that women do.

Fifty-eight per cent of women surveyed said that the amount of time they spent on household chores has increased compared with 52 per cent of male respondents. The findings shine a light on the absence of equality in our home spaces that clearly predated the pandemic and the lockdown. When asked whether in normal circumstances they took care of household chores, like cleaning, at least half of the time, 61 per cent of women said yes, to 29 per cent of men.

And most disappointingly, perpetuating sexist stereotypes, 73 per cent of men surveyed agreed that “a woman’s most important role is to take care of her home and children”; 63 per cent of women assented to that proclamation. At a time when women are breaking barriers in every space—flying fighter jets, leading companies, arguing for combat roles in the infantry, helming newsrooms—it is almost tragic to hear that such few women privilege their personal and professional ambitions ahead of the gendered expectations of them at home.

The truth that we do not recognise is that there can be no equality at work without equality at home. In India, the female labour force participation has been sharply declining. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, during March-April last year, 26.6 per cent of women moved out of the labour force versus 13.4 per cent of men. Put simply, it means that fewer women are working today than earlier. What appears to be like progress is in fact the exact opposite when it comes to women in the workforce and attrition rates. A key reason for this is the impossibility of juggling the multiple roles demanded of women at office and home.

We have focused all our energy on the workspace. We need to turn our gaze inwards and start talking much more about what goes on right in our own backyard.

editor@theweek.in

the-pm-must-step-in

Thu Feb 04 16:11:36 IST 2021

The debate on the farmers’ protests has gone well beyond discussing what is the best way to reform the agriculture sector. It no longer matters what you think is the best way to get past the middleman or if you think the market and the mandi can co-exist.

After what went down on Republic Day and the build-up of barricades with nails, iron bars and concrete walls at different protest sites, the need of the hour is de-escalation.

Yes, the violence on January 26, especially the unfurling of the Nishan Sahib at the Red Fort, was utterly appalling, as was the breaking down of barricades and the violence that ensued. But, the farmers I meet are convinced, right or wrongly, that extremists like Deep Sidhu, who can be seen on video exhorting men to put up the religious flag, were given a long rope by the police, just to discredit the movement.

Either way, the movement has shifted gears and momentum from the primarily Sikh-led, Punjab-centric agitation to the mobilisation of Jats in western Uttar Pradesh. Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, who told me he voted for Prime Minister Modi, pulled a rabbit from his hat by breaking down in tears and giving a call to action for farmers to arrive at the UP border. The police, sent in to clear the area of protesters, immediately stepped back, sensing the pointlessness of going eyeball to eyeball with a large crowd.

Every police officer, retired and serving, that I have spoken to, believes the force is being made to carry the cross for the political establishment. Clearly, both the decision to allow the tractor rally to roll into Delhi on Republic Day, and the decision, since then, to fortify the protest sites as if they are war zones, are political. Amod Kanth, former top cop of Delhi, told me that the images are “horrifying” even as he understands the need for the police to act. “But can we afford to have Delhi turn into Tiananmen Square?” he asked.

There is peril in the fact that the farmers’ agitation is leaderless or at least without one central leader or group. It leads to the sort of free-for-all fracas we saw on Republic Day and the subsequent dissociation. Even the involvement of Rihanna, the international superstar, who tweeted about the internet shutdown at the borders of Delhi, is beside the point. Chances are if she were quizzed about the legislation or the protests she would not know too much.

But instead of getting prickly about outside commentary, as the foreign ministry has, the prime minister needs to step in. Not because of what the western media or Hollywood celebrities are saying, but because thousands of men and women, elderly and young, have been on the roads for over two months. And for the most part, they have been peaceful and dignified in the articulation of their opposition.

At Singhu border, the farmers told me they will stay as long as needed. The women said they will not budge, “even if we die”. But everyone is looking at Narendra Modi to step in. “If he comes here to talk to us, we will give him chai, samosas and ladoos. Then we will ask him to repeal the laws.”

Parliament is in session. The prime minister must intervene and pull the street back from the precipice.

editor@theweek.in

for-sciences-sake!

Thu Jan 07 13:55:56 IST 2021

The vaccine wars have reached a tenuous truce, with both Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech issuing a joint statement of unity around “saving lives”. This, obviously on orders from probably the highest levels of government, came after the damage was done. For anti-vaxxers, rumour-mongers and conspiracy theorists, this week offered the perfect opportunity to bash science. And this was the real tragedy.

Ordinary Indians, already terrified by the year they have had to go through because of the pandemic and the lockdown, really do not understand the difference between efficacy and immunogenicity. Not too many even know that in peace-time it would take a year to test the efficacy of a vaccine. And what this is simply measuring is the odds of getting reinfected. Since a year’s luxury is not available to any country in the world, scientists have to deal with other parameters, in which testing for safety is paramount. I would not have known any of this had I not spent an obsessive year reporting on Covid-19 and its aftermath.

And, that is the point. On the day the drugs controller general of India officially greenlit the vaccines, he did not take questions from reporters. The insistence on a monologue as communication at this critical and sensitive point created a massive information vacuum which was then filled by quarrels among scientists, experts and the two vaccine manufacturers. The result is that people are besieged with doubts, some valid and some hysterical.

Experts like Dr Shahid Jameel told me that instead of the opacity that accompanied the announcement and what followed—thereby undermining the legitimate gains made by scientists—the alternative should have been not just to answer questions, but to broadcast live the meetings of the SEC (subject expert committee) to create confidence and comfort among citizens. In this, he says, we must borrow from the American example in transparency and the public’s right to access information.

India makes 60 per cent of the world’s vaccines, and companies like Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute are not newbies. Both have a proven scientific track record. Nor is raising questions and demanding to know more any sort of disrespect to India’s homegrown scientists. The worry, for most people, is that the pressure to be “atmanirbhar” when it comes to a Covid-19 vaccine should not lead to decisions taken in haste or approvals that cut corners.

Since the controversy erupted, several scientists with unimpeachable integrity have explained to me that the efficacy numbers that are available now could well alter over a period of time, as these numbers have not been studied in any trial for the length of a full year.

The government should be holding daily press briefings and running 101 sessions on the vaccine rollout. There should be digital and offline interfaces for people to post their questions. And, there should be much greater transparency and insights into the decision-making process as well as how the trials are being conducted.

Dr Jameel suggests that the best way for Indians to believe that both vaccines are safe for use is for officialdom to lead by example. Let top ministers and bureaucrats of the government take the vaccines and demonstrate their own confidence and trust in the systems that have been used to grant the approval.

In the cacophony, that may be the best way to salvage science.

treat-farmers-with-dignity

Thu Dec 10 15:10:11 IST 2020

Depending on which economist you speak to, you can be persuaded either way on the new farm laws. Ashok Gulati, who has spent a lifetime studying the agricultural space, makes a passionate case for why these reforms are needed and how, as he told me, “you cannot fight the force of a free market. The government cannot be in the perennial business of deciding the price of potatoes and onions.” On the other end of the spectrum is P. Sainath, veteran journalist and chronicler of rural India, who argues that instead of eliminating the middleman, the new laws will throw up “new touts who will wear Gucci and Armani”. The reference is to what journalist Harish Damodaran has called “conglomerate capitalism”—where the market, instead of being genuinely free, is dominated by a handful of giant corporations.

For the layperson this is a confusing argument. Not all of us are trained policymakers or economists to be able to decide whether the legislation will do more good than harm. However, the lessons from the telecom sector are instructive. What was meant to be an opening up of a competitive market has ended up in only three players left in the market where the third is still fighting to survive.

That said, if you did a dipstick test, most Indians would stand in solidarity with the protesting farmers. It is in fact possible to be confused, even ignorant about the exact provisions of the new farm laws and still sentimentally lean on the side of the farmers.

There is a reason for this. First, if the laws are meant to improve the lives of the farming community—60 per cent of India’s population is dependent on agriculture—then the people being “gifted” must believe so. If there is a gap in communication, and men, women and children are on the street—every village in Punjab is reported to have sent a tractor load of protesters to the capital—it is incumbent upon any government to talk with the citizenry and not talk down at them.

As Gulati, who is a supporter of the laws, told me, “the prime minister should go and eat in the langar being run by the farmers and share a jalebi or two with them”. The first instinct of the government to disparage the protests was the wrong one.

There is also another missing piece of the puzzle. From the prime minister downwards, everyone in the government has assured the farmers of the MSP, or minimum support price, continuing despite the new laws. Farmers do not believe this and want it in writing as a legally enforceable guarantee. Of course, MSP varies from year to year and is in the realm of administration. But if the government is indeed sincere about maintaining the mandis and the MSP system in parallel to allowing private players in, it should have no problem in giving some manner of assurance that is formal and goes beyond the verbal.

In effect, the debate around the farmers laws is not about the legislation at all anymore. Even those who think the new acts have value may believe that the farmer on the street deserves a dignified dialogue of equals.

editor@theweek.in

modi-wins-yet-again

Fri Nov 13 13:02:30 IST 2020

Despite the shades of Pennsylvania in Patna—the late count, the allegation of malpractice, the neck and neck race, and the suspense—Bihar finally has a new government.

And the quick short political bullet point is this: Narendra Modi is a Teflon prime minister who can still tip any election.

The two big winners of this election are Modi and the 31-year-old who was hoping to become India’s youngest chief minister. Despite a spirited challenge by Tejashwi Yadav, who fought not just an energetic but a responsible campaign focused on economy, jobs and performance, the groundswell of anger against Nitish Kumar did not stick to his alliance partner, the BJP.

On the ground, in interviews, voters explained this by saying that Nitish Kumar ran a one-man government, and so he was alone responsible for the poor handling of the migrant crisis and the pandemic as well as the flagging economy.

But in truth, the BJP was able to show Nitish Kumar his place. The gamble with Lok Janshakti Party’s Chirag Paswan, who broke away from the National Democratic Alliance and threatened to send the chief minister to jail, was seen as a carefully calibrated project to cut into the vote share of the Janata Dal (United). He set himself up to be the prime minister’s Hanuman and repeatedly spoke of a BJP-LJP government in the state. His game worked. Stung by the results, Nitish Kumar’s party colleagues have been lamenting the consequence of the “chirag (flame)”that burnt “Ayodhya instead of Lanka.”

While Nitish Kumar will be chief minister again, it is evident that this win has been delivered to him by the prime minister. You can expect him to be a paler, blander, more diminished version of himself than we have seen even thus far. And there are legitimate questions over how long this alliance with the BJP will sustain. Probably, the calculation that Nitish is ever ready to switch sides and that Bihar should not throw up a surprise as Maharashtra did (when the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress came together) will ensure that the BJP does not rock the boat for now. But the power dynamic in the relationship has permanently altered.

The other big takeaway is the fall of the Congress that has clearly dragged the Mahagathbandhan down. While in sheer numbers, the staggering improvement of the left was able to compensate for the drop in the Congress, but the fact that Bihar’s Muslim voters chose to give five seats to Asaduddin Owaisi’s party says something significant. The Congress is foolishly lashing out at Owaisi for splitting what it calls the “secular vote”. Instead, it needs to reflect on the reality that increasingly it is no longer seen as a winning party. The image of Rahul Gandhi taking a brief vacation in the middle of the Bihar campaign captures both the entitlement and the denial of the Congress.

The Bihar verdict is yet another jolt for India’s opposition parties. The BJP juggernaut cannot be halted by last minute eruptions of energy. If anything, it is a reminder that politics is a 24x7 commitment. You have to live and breathe it, if you are to survive it in an India whose centre has pivoted right.

barking-news

Thu Oct 15 16:33:14 IST 2020

India’s television news is in meltdown. Channels are fighting among themselves. The relationship between television hosts is as volatile as that between India and Pakistan. And the audience is sniggering at the circus, where the media itself has become the main entertainer. I joked the other day to the razor-sharp stand-up comedian Anuvab Pal that his job was in danger. Prime time anchors, I warned him, might be funnier than he is—and without even intending to be.

Then I amended my words. The difference, I said, self-correcting, is that the news hosts are both funny and dangerous, whereas satirists were benign, if occasionally acerbic.

As TV news becomes a caricature of itself, it has also played to the basest prejudices a society can have; loose talk, instant judgment, slander of women, anti-Muslim rhetoric—everything that good journalism once rose up against has been normalised and made mainstream by television now.

The navel-gazing quarrel over who is worse on the spectrum of options is one more excuse for the TV media to not to its job. First, the tragic death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput was the perfect excuse to not report on the Covid-19 pandemic, the threat from China or the state of the economy. Now the tamasha has been overtaken by the state of play within the media industry. Channels that were till yesterday just as irresponsible and inflammatory in their coverage of the Rajput case and the misogynistic coverage of his girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty, are today acting sanctimonious.

The worst are the networks which play on the formula of yin and yang. In an effort to keep all sorts of audiences on their side, some of their presenters are voluble, gossipy, aggressive and downright irresponsible. Then they have another set who are projected as more rooted and responsible. This way they get to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds, and seek to be all things to all people. Frankly, this last category is the most disingenuous; at least with the others you know precisely what you have signed up for.

The serious impact of all this is, of course, the death of credibility. When journalists become the subject of memes and mockery, what you have is a weakened and divided fourth estate. And guess who that leaves with the last laugh—India’s politicians. Journalism was meant to hold the powerful to account. But if the media is so busy bickering, sniggering and pulling down its own, it is hardly in a position to take a united stand on anything.

Television anchors, with delusions of grandeur, may believe that being on air every night offers them some sort of immunity. But now that a furious debate has erupted over how news ratings are measured and how easily they can be manipulated, channels cannot even hide their venom behind the boastful claims of numbers.

No matter which way you look at it, perhaps not since its inception has television news been this disrespected and irrelevant.

As a former practitioner of TV, I wish I could seek comfort in an “I told you so” moment.

But a weakened media is terrible news for democracy.

dont-bury-the-dead

Thu Sep 17 16:01:27 IST 2020

Migrant workers, forgotten during the lockdown, appear to be forgotten even in the unlocking of India.

The Union government has informed Parliament that no data is available on how many workers may have died in the last few months of the pandemic, during the biggest exodus of Indians since the country’s partition.

It is distressing that no such compilation has been made using a combination of state agencies and media reports.

As someone who spent close to four months tracking the journey of migrant workers, walking with them as they traversed hundreds of kilometres back to their village, I, for one, would be happy to share all my data.

I could introduce the labour ministry to Mukesh Mandal’s family that lives just on the outskirts of Delhi, in an urban village in Haryana. Mandal, a small-time house painter, had lost all his avenues of income when the country closed down. His wife Poonam, held up his passport size photo for me to see, a vacant look on her quietly stoic face. A day earlier, Mandal had sold his mobile phone for Rs2,500. He bought a table fan—it was hot in the crowded tenement where his family lived—and a few kilos of ration. Then he tied a cloth to a bamboo pole outside his hut and hanged himself.

Or, I could draw the attention of officials to the family of Ranveer Singh, who died from a heart attack near Agra, as he attempted to walk the nearly 300km distance. I went to meet his family in Morena. His sister Pinky said her brother had to work in the city so that he could send money home; one of his dreams was that Pinky could start her own school. His last call home was to the family from Agra. “Come and get me please,” he implored. But by the time the family was able to get a curfew pass he was already dead.

Then there is the Gond Adivasi village of Antoli. It is so remote that even when we reached its outskirts after driving for more than a day, we had to walk several kilometres inside, through mud and fields, before we could meet its residents. We all saw the macabre headline of the 16 workers who were run over as they slept on railway tracks in Aurangabad. They thought that no trains were running and that it was a safe space for them to hide from the police. This was their village.

Or, we could remind the governments about the accident that took place in Auraiya, when 24 migrant workers were killed in a road accident. Their injury was compounded with insult when survivors were made to travel in the same trucks which were carrying the dead, the body bags resting on open slabs of melting ice. They were moved into an ambulance only after a massive uproar.

To not tabulate the data of those who died is to render them invisible.

We keep saying that each life lost is more than a statistic.

But it appears that we are not even ready to acknowledge them as statistics.

editor@theweek.in

prime-time-embarrassment

Thu Aug 20 14:55:44 IST 2020

I was a child of television. Unlike many journalists who migrated from newspapers to the visual media, my first master’s degree was in film and television production and my first job was as a producer-reporter-sound mixer in television news.

This background is to explain that unlike others, I have never been contemptuous about television. I loved the grammar of pictures and their capacity to tell an immediate, intimate, powerful story.

But two decades later, storytelling is dead in television news. And all that remains is variants of talk—some polite, some shrill, almost all of it banal and some of it positively injurious to the health of our democracy.

Whether it is the way the tragic death of Sushant Singh Rajput or the fatal heart attack of Congress spokesperson Rajiv Tyagi shortly after he attended a raucous television debate has been reported, the chatterbox is now way more lethal than a mere idiot box.

The problem is not just the coarsening of conversation or the political partisanship. It’s the unleashing of vigilante justice. Today there is little difference in an insane, blatantly fake forward you receive on WhatsApp and the content you may consume on television. And the uncles and aunties in your family forums believe both to be accurate. If the last distinguishing feature of mainstream media—challenged more and more by digital platforms and social networks—was editorial gatekeeping, that distinction no longer exists.

We debate toxicity and hate-mongering on our online platforms. How often do we step back and question the 9pm news? Whether it is subliminal hatred against Muslims, pronouncements of guilt and innocence against individuals, pseudo-patriotism or downright slander, prime time is now a pathetic spectacle.

Funny thing is wherever I go, people crib nonstop about the quality of news media. ‘Tamasha’ is a word frequently used for my erstwhile medium. Everyone recognises that there is barely any reportage in television newsrooms. But even the quality of talk is suspect. It’s not as if viewers enjoy seeing the same faces rotate across studios, or in the age of Covid-19, on Zoom. The most common thing I hear about TV news is how it is chasing TRPs. But no one stops to consider what a TRP (television rating point) actually is. A TRP is all of you, all of us—the audience. It is in your power to reject or accept a certain kind of news media.

Now, of course, the other big problem in an increasingly polarised polity is that of viewers seeking confirmation bias. In other words, if my programme does not confirm your political bias, you will call me partisan. Those of us who remain adamantly free from either camp get to face this even more as we get attacked by all sides.

But keeping aside political affiliations—real and imagined—for the moment, wouldn’t you want a news show that does not embarrass you, that is robustly researched and reported and that you watch for information, not for mindless entertainment?

As somebody who has migrated to the digital world from television, I know this: as a young person growing up today, I would never have become a broadcast journalist if these were the examples before me.

The future of journalism lies not just with its practitioners. It lies with we, the people—the audience.

Choose wisely.

editor@theweek.in

crisis-at-the-core

Thu Jul 23 14:24:03 IST 2020

It would be a mistake to see the Rajasthan political crisis as a story bound by geography. At one level, yes, it is about an old warhorse of politics, Ashok Gehlot, being challenged by a second-generation leader, Sachin Pilot. But more than what happens eventually in the state—and a lot will depend on whether Pilot and his rebel MLAs are disqualified by the court from participating in a trust vote—this is a story about the state of the Congress party. And, once again, it is a story that shines a light on the leadership crisis within.

There can be more than one reading of whether Pilot played his cards right. And Gehlot, by virtue of being an old-style politician who is not easily outfoxed, may well win this round. Audio tapes released by the Congress allege that Pilot’s aides were in contact with senior leaders of the BJP for a bargain to switch sides. I also believe that Pilot made a mistake in a half-way exit, keeping one foot inside the door and one out of it, as he declared that he was still a Congressman. Instead, he should have walked out neatly and outright. Similarly, Gehlot’s use of debasing language (“nikamma, nakaara”) vindicated Pilot’s claim of being shown no respect.

But no matter what side of the Gehlot versus Pilot battle you are, it has split wide open the fissures within the Congress and exposed its real problem—the decision-makers at the very top.

The Gehlot camp and the Pilot camp both aver that the central leadership of the Congress—the Gandhi family—has been alerted to the growing divide between the chief minister and (ex) deputy chief minister for months. The one thing that both men would agree on is the ineffectual response from their leadership in Delhi.

We know now that it was not Sonia Gandhi or even Rahul Gandhi, but Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who worked the phone lines to Sachin Pilot. But nobody knows what her official locus standi to do so was. As interim president of the party, Sonia Gandhi should have been seen and heard on the issue. But she chose to remain in the background, as she has been for several months. Rahul Gandhi remained silent for most part as well, choosing instead to launch a new video series to “counter the narrative of hate”. His first video was on China and its release was the same day as the party released the audio tapes that purportedly showed evidence of horse trading and bribery. Talk about poor timing—by the evening the media was discussing Rahul’s renewed persona instead of the Rajasthan story.

In any case it has been more than a year since Rahul walked out from the post of party president. He had insisted at the time that no member of his family would take the post. That did not happen and now the ground seems to be prepared for his return.

If you talk privately to second-generation Congress leaders not one of them is happy with the state of play in the party. Many believe that Sachin Pilot will not be the last exit either.

The Gandhis can console themselves on outplaying the BJP in Rajasthan. But even that credit must go to Ashok Gehlot. The Gandhis, on the other hand, continue to be in entitled denial about the existential crisis that plagues their party.

editor@theweek.in

the-message-is-everything

Thu Jun 25 16:41:35 IST 2020

For me, being on the ground in Ladakh this past week felt oddly personal. Twenty-one years ago, in 1999, as a young 20-something reporter, I was there to report on the Kargil War, in what would be the most transformative journalistic experience of my life.

While what has unfolded between India and China—the transgressions, the squatting on Indian territory, the deaths of our soldiers in the line of duty—cannot be literally compared with the vast theatre of conflict in the Kargil War, the sense of deja vu is definitely there, especially as the anniversary of Operation Vijay is around the corner.

But no matter which way you cut and splice it, and no matter where you stand on the geopolitical handling of China’s expansionism, there is one lesson from Kargil that the government refused to learn—effective strategic communication.

It is quite clear now that our soldiers showed extraordinary heroism even when they were outnumbered by the Chinese in Galwan Valley and brutalised by People’s Liberation Army troops using crude weapons. Yet, instead of simply coming forward and taking the Indian public into confidence, the government tied itself in knots, with opacity, denials and mixed messaging that only hurt India’s narrative and allowed the Chinese to make absurd, tall claims.

Till there was a clarification on his remarks, even the prime minister fumbled on articulation at the all-party meeting. The clarification made it clear that the Chinese transgression had been pushed by Indian troops in Galwan Valley (though it circumvented the issue of Chinese presence in Pangong Tso). But it was more than 12 hours before the government issued the clarificatory statement, and by that time the Chinese were lapping up the domestic divisions and fissures.

In Kargil, by contrast, both the government and the military were able to use the news media as a force multiplier. In Delhi, there were daily briefings conducted jointly by officials of the foreign ministry and the Indian Army. At the frontline, reporters like myself were permitted physical access to the theatre of conflict. The result: India’s first televised war and an outpouring of national solidarity.

Kargil of 1999 was ahead of Ladakh of 2020 in its instinct for communication. Media planners in the A.B. Vajpayee government also understood the cardinal principle of information dissemination. Quite simply, if you do not say something, someone else will. And, where not enough facts are placed in the public domain, the vacuum will be filled with rumours, fake news and WhatsApp forwards masquerading as headlines.

No one is recommending that a roster list of operations be provided to the public or the media. On the contrary, in times of a sensitive military situation, if officials reach out to key reporters on the beat and ask them to refrain from certain aspects of the reporting, each one of us would.

The Narendra Modi government has never much cared for journalists, despite large swathes of the broadcast media being brazenly loyal to it. But in times of near-war, that contempt and dislike should be suspended.

This is the age of information warfare. In psy-ops, the message is everything.

editor@theweek.in

no-eyes-to-see-no-heart-to-feel

Thu May 28 17:54:28 IST 2020

As I write this I have just entered the state of Kerala after a 72-hour road odyssey that has taken me through the states of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and, then, Kasaragod in Kerala.

After clocking 14,000 kilometres and tracking migrant workers on their long journey home, certain facts have become indisputably evident to me.

The humanitarian crisis of the migrant workers has come to be bigger than the challenge of the pandemic. In part, this is because the national lockdown was announced with four hours’ notice and failed to anticipate the biggest mass exodus of people since Partition. An absence of empathy, efficiency and basic coordination between the Centre and states also cost us. For the first 72 hours, as the workers walked, often barefoot, their children on their shoulders, they were treated as invisible by the Centre and states alike. Then there was a hasty, unplanned attempt to put them on trains, but without anyone to even organise queues before they boarded. This was a moment, frankly, for the paramilitary or military to have been called upon, used as they are to simplifying intricate and large movements of people. Instead, the sight of thousands of workers desperately jostling to get onto a train panicked the government and it issued orders that the movement of workers was a “violation of the lockdown.”

The problem with this was that no government order could ensure that workers were paid wages. Policy makers also failed to understand the twin triggers of economics and emotion when it came to the exodus. While there was an intuitive empathy for stranded middle-class and upper middle-class Indians abroad (who were not impoverished or in any danger of going hungry), there was simply no acknowledgment of the fact that the same emotional need—the need to be at home—was just as true for our poor.

Effectively, the government issued orders that were unenforceable—both on asking the workers not to move and asking their employers to keep paying them. Oddly, in March, it told the Supreme Court that there were no more migrants on the road. Workers were walking our highways, often through the desolation of the night, as recently as this week.

Every worker I have met—those walking barefoot, cycling hundreds of kilometres home, crammed in at the back of small trucks, on board trains—have all said the same thing to me. “If the virus has to kill us, we would rather die at home.” Most believe that poverty will claim their lives quicker than Covid.

In Haryana I met the family of Mukesh Mandal, who sold his phone for Rs2,500 so that he could feed his family and buy them a fan. One day later he killed himself. In Madhya Pradesh I met the widow of Ranveer Singh, who died walking home from a heart attack. In Delhi I met Fazulu, who had been locked in by his employers behind a corrugated tin sheet as if he was bonded labour. In Mumbai, at the back of a truck, I met Vinod, a science graduate, who said no one in the news media had bothered to tell their story. In Hyderabad, I met 10-year-old Sunil who was heartbroken to have to leave his textbooks behind and worried about when he may be able to attend school again. And in Bhiwani, Nitin, the 10-year-old son of a migrant worker, summed up the reality of this pandemic. What does coronavirus mean to you, I asked him. “It means I won’t get food.” He said it simply, in innocence, and after that he even smiled. But in a few words he had captured the tragedy of our times.

editor@theweek.in

bibek-debroy-on-partha-chatterjee-and-kalinjara-story

Sun Aug 07 11:18:33 IST 2022

Cash, flats, houses, farmhouses, land, resorts, guest-houses, businesses—mind-boggling are the assets of Partha Chatterjee’s extended family. In some versions of Uttara Kanda, which has sections interpolated later, Valmiki Ramayana has a story. Briefly, Ram is king in Ayodhya and all is well. King Ram has instated a bell outside the palace, for anyone with a complaint to ring. A dog turns up and rings the bell, and there is a brief discussion between Lakshman and the dog about whether a dog is allowed to approach a king. That sorted out, the dog is taken to Ram. The dog was sleeping on the road, obstructing the path of a brahmana. Had the brahmana asked the dog to move, it would have. Instead, the brahmana beat the dog on the head with a stick. Those facts established, the dog insists the brahmana be punished. A discussion ensues about whether a brahmana can be punished, with ministers and advisers opposing the idea. Finally, Ram asks the dog about appropriate punishment and the dog suggests the brahmana be made kuladhipati (lord) of Kalinjara fort. Accordingly, the brahmana is sent off with a lot of fanfare, astride an elephant, seemingly rewarded, not punished.

The dog then informs the gathering that in its past life, it had been lord of Kalinjara. That provided such an opportunity for corruption and sins that he was reborn as a canine in the next life. The brahmana has actually been punished. A position of power leads to discretionary abuse. We are usually more familiar with Lord Acton’s 1887 letter to Bishop Creighton than Valmiki Ramayana. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd (sic) the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.” Morality can be subjective, an issue discussed in correspondence between the two. Criminality, defined with reference to specific legislation, sets objective norms, subject to establishment of guilt.

I studied in Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur, a school that supposedly instils moral values. Most of my peers (among ones I know), who studied in the school at around the same time, seem to abide by some principles, irrespective of what legality holds. Chatterjee was my classmate from the same school. I don’t remember him from those days. There were two distinct branches, English medium and Bengali medium. Mine was the former, his the latter, and the twain rarely met. Several years later, when he had become a minister, I was introduced to him once and told we passed out in the same year. Given our ages, that is off by a couple of years, but that’s irrelevant. Nor did he contradict the face.

He became a minister in 2011, just over 10 years ago.

Electoral affidavits (2011, 2016, 2021) are not necessarily truthful. Assuming they were, discovered assets are disproportionate to known income. Indeed, they are also disproportionate to wrong-doing from the teacher recruitment scam (dated to 2014) alone. The late Rama Prasad Goenka (well-known industrialist and founder of RPG Group) once told me, “It is easier to handle corruption in West Bengal. The Bengali bhadralok has limited ambitions and is satisfied with a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica.” That impression, if true, was formed several years ago and the Bengali bhadralok’s aspirations, once in a kuladhipati’s position, has exploded exponentially. However, it is inconceivable that aspiring school-teachers could have afforded to pay for grease, to oil the discretionary machinery, on such a scale. There is small-ticket corruption encountered as citizens, dealing with government functionaries. That has palpably declined, but not the big-ticket Kalinjara variety.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

when-a-judge-presides-over-a-court

Fri Jul 08 11:13:00 IST 2022

The word ‘court’ has multiple meanings: courtyard, enclosed space, sovereign’s residence, sovereign’s assembly-hall, a place where some games are played and a forum where justice is delivered. Today, these meanings seem different. But etymology, traced to Old French, is common—a sovereign’s assembly. In similar vein, etymology of the word ‘judge’ means someone who declares the law. We continue to use the words ‘court’ and ‘judge’, when referring to justice delivery. I have less of a problem with the word ‘judge’. The word has been Indianised and has entered non-English lexicons. Replacing it with nyayadhisha seems concocted and unnecessary. But I wonder about ‘court’ and replacing it with ‘nyayalaya’.

Don’t words shape perceptions and behaviour? ‘Judge’ is fine. It conveys the impression that justice must be delivered. But if a ‘judge’ presides over a ‘court’, doesn’t it suggest a judge is the counterpart of a sovereign, a monarch of everything surveyed? Instead of it being a nyayalaya, there are overtones of a rajasabha. We have borrowed a lot from the colonial legacy. But, in independent India, life must move on, and it has. The original attire for judges in England was based on what was proper for attending a royal court. Imagine a judge in India wearing a scarlet or ermine robe today.

Judges are no longer addressed as ‘My Lord’ and ‘Your Lordship’. There is prescribed attire for judges and advocates (I should say legal advisers). I doubt that attire is appropriate for India’s climatic conditions. But that will be adapted and modified in due course. Is there prescribed attire for litigants? There is none. Yet, recently, in the Patna High Court, Bihar’s hapless principal secretary was sternly rebuked for being inappropriately dressed. He was dressed in formal trousers and wasn’t wearing shorts, ready to go to the beach. But the collar wasn’t buttoned. There was no tie and coat.

More than the reprimand, notice the judge’s diatribe. Surely, that crosses the lakshman rekha, if there is one. I think this largely emanates from the idea of royalty being offended. This wasn’t the first such instance and other High Courts have come down heavily on hapless civil servants or those in armed forces. At least, in such instances, there is prescribed formal attire, though a bandhgala isn’t necessarily prescribed in the height of heat. If courts are so inclined to take umbrage, perhaps it is a good idea to prescribe a dress code for all litigants. For instance, in response to an RTI inquiry, the Karnataka High Court stated that crossing one’s legs in court is permitted.

However, that’s only for the Karnataka High Court. Can legs be crossed in the Patna High Court? Such momentous matters of attire and posture need resolution through a uniform template. Otherwise, individual judges will have to loosen their tongues, even if attire and posture for litigants are not loosened. After all, the average citizen is not always well-versed in matters concerning royalty. The Supreme Court has rules for accredited legal correspondents. That doesn’t help, since it speaks of “formal attire befitting the décor of the court”. At best, this is subjective, and decorum (I think the Supreme Court meant decorum, not décor) is left to discretion. Speakers of assemblies have faced similar conundrums, without satisfactory resolution. Courts are better positioned to lay down law of the land. As long as ‘court’ smacks of rajasabha rather than nyayalaya, who knows when a judge will take offence? Lower courts don’t seem to be that concerned about attire. For High Courts and the Supreme Court, why not state clearly what is disallowed? No sneakers, T-shirts, shorts and jeans. For males, black ties and tuxedos.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

bibek-debroy-on-stolen-idols-and-colonial-loot

Fri Jun 10 11:19:23 IST 2022

There have been news reports about stolen idols being recovered from smugglers or art galleries, within India. In the last few years, there have been highly visible returns of idols and antiquities from abroad, too. Loot of cultural heritage is not new. Colonial history is replete with such instances and the British Museum has been described as the world’s largest receiver of stolen goods.

There is a stock of colonial loot, whether it is the Kohinoor diamond or Tipu Sultan’s wooden tiger, scattered across museums. And there is a flow of loot of cultural heritage that goes on, flagged by UNESCO and Interpol alike. Negotiating the return of colonial loot is tough, though some European countries (France, and the Netherlands) have done it. But stemming current loot should be easier.

Most countries tightened up laws in 1970s. On our part, we have the 1972 Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (AAT). This was introduced “to regulate the export trade in antiquities and art treasures, to provide for the prevention of smuggling of, and fraudulent dealings in, antiquities, to provide for the compulsory acquisition of antiquities and art treasures for preservation in public places and to provide for certain other matters connected therewith or incidental or ancillary thereto”. That sounds formidable, in intent.

This is not only about idols. Antiquities and art treasures have broad definitions, covering coins, paintings and manuscripts, too. Unless the government wishes to do so, you cannot export anything that is more than one hundred years old (it is 75 years for a manuscript). The government can compulsorily acquire such stuff (with compensation) and there is a provision for registration. The registration is not mandatory. In any event, universal registration of all cultural heritage (as defined under AAT) is impossible in a country like India.

Let us zero in on idols. As an example, take Tamil Nadu and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, which manages and controls temple administration of 36,425 temples and 47 temples belonging to mutts. If one looks at actual registration and matches it against estimated number of artefacts across these temples, one shudders:

(1) Registration is tardy and incomplete.

(2) There is no database using modern technology.

(3) There is no exchange of information across states, no centralised inventory.

(4) Once an object has been registered under AAT, it can only be sold to someone who is granted a licence, typically a dealer. But registration of the sale/purchase is perfunctory and there is no intermittent audit on the licensee who continues to possess it. Stated bluntly, even when registered, an object can simply vanish.

If this sounds fanciful, read a 2013 CAG report on preservation and conservation of monuments and antiquities, or S. Vijay Kumar’s book on exploits of Subhash Kapoor, the nabbed idol thief. Since non-antiquity certificates required for export cannot be depended upon, the idol vanishes abroad. Whatever be the intent, law and enforcement possess no teeth.

This brings me to the controversial Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 and please do not take my proposition out of context and misunderstand its intent. A functioning temple is always better protected (theft-wise) than one where worship is not current, since devotees and citizens are more vigilant in the former. Once a temple comes under ASI’s protection, no new worship can be permitted there. Forget present cases and controversies around the 1991 legislation. As a general principle, to prevent loot, are we better off with ASI protection or without it? I wish I could be confident about my answer. Monuments, perhaps. Temples, I am not sure.

Bibek Debroy is chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

bibek-debroy-on-piling-arrears-of-criminal-justice-system-death-penalty-debate

Sun May 15 10:34:40 IST 2022

I have written about case property being produced in court before (December 5, 2021). I am harping on the same theme because of a recent news item. A young man, named Shashikant Sharma, was reported missing in Jaipur. Subsequently, in September 2016, his dead body was found, within the geographical area of Chandwaji police station. Presumably, cops were not taking the murder investigation seriously. Otherwise, why were there reports about relatives and neighbours blocking Delhi-Jaipur highway, demanding action? In any event, police arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, both residents of Chandwaji, and charged them with murder. They were produced at additional district judge’s court. The evidence would now have to be produced before court. There were 15 items in the bag of evidence, including the knife used to kill. Normally, such evidence is kept in the malkhana (evidence room). But such are piling arrears of criminal justice that there was no space in the police station’s malkhana and this bag of evidence was simply kept under a tree. The police have now informed the court that a monkey ran away with this bag. In the absence of evidence, the accused will presumably be acquitted. You cannot monkey around with principles of natural justice.

As I have said before, case property does not have to be physically produced before a court. The panchama (a proper description) suffices. The Criminal Procedure Code says so and Supreme Court judgements have also stressed this. Those principles are honoured more in the breach. Besides, in a recent case, commuting the death sentence of a man convicted of raping and murdering a four-year-old girl, the Supreme Court has sagely advised us, “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.” No doubt, the Kanderas also have a future and Sharma must have had a past. If one is looking for something witty to say, Oscar Wilde is normally a safe bet. But surely, we must keep the context in mind. A Woman of No Importance is not my favourite Oscar Wilde play. If I opt to quote from this satirical play, I will certainly not quote Lord Illingworth. I do not think anyone who has read the play, will. If I were to quote Lord Illingworth, “We in the House of Lords are never in touch with public opinion. That makes us a civilised body.” Firoz was 40; the raped and murdered girl was four. There can be a debate on the merits of capital punishment. As of today, we have it.It is imposed in rarest of rare cases. National Law University, Delhi, has a “Death Penalty Research Project”. They did a report titled “Matters of Judgement”, documenting that former judges of Supreme Court did not agree on “rarest of rare”. It was often subjective. In this case, the trial court imposed death penalty and MP High Court upheld it. To quote from MP High Court’s decision in 2013, “In the present case, if the factual position is considered, then it would be apparent that the commission of rape to four years old girl is brutal and inhumane. Thereafter killing the girl child so that she would not make any complaint about the crime to anyone, then it even chosen (sic, probably should be crosses) the limit of extreme brutality.” The non-lawyer will not know the intricacies of law, Bachan Singh and other cases. Nevertheless, public opinion will generally believe death sentence was warranted. The trial court and MP High Court certainly know the law. The Chief Justice of India recently reminded everyone about “Lakshman Rekha”. Not crossing the line also means not tampering with decisions of lower and high courts unnecessarily.

india-has-roughly-50-acts-and-150-laws-that-are-sexist

Sun Apr 17 08:13:48 IST 2022

Independent research organisation Trayas has recently (March 2002) published a study—State of Discrimination Report. At the state level (for 23 states), this study documents barriers that prevent women from entering the labour force. Female labour force participation rates are low in India, and they have declined over time. An increase is desirable. Even without that objective, discrimination is undesirable. The report catalogues roughly 50 Acts and 150 rules, with rules flowing from Acts. Broadly, these are under three heads—labour (such as Factories Act or Plantation Labour Act), Shops and Establishment Acts and state-level excise laws.

For labour, one needs to wait, since most labour-related Acts have now been subsumed under four codes. It is possible that gender discrimination will still creep in, once states announce rules under these new codes. I knew about restrictions on women working at night, or in jobs regarded as hazardous or arduous. There is a history behind such restrictions, even if these are dysfunctional now. Other countries, often perceived to be more advanced and progressive, also have similar provisions.

What stumped me are provisions on excise-related laws. I was aware such provisions existed, but was not aware of the severity. For instance, consider the Punjab Excise Act of 1914, made applicable to many states. Section 30 states, “No person who is licensed to sell any liquor or intoxicating drug for consumption on his premises shall during the hours in which such premises are kept open for business, employ or permit to be employed either with or without remuneration any man under the age of 25 years or any woman in any part of such premises in which such liquor or intoxicating drug is consumed by the public.” One can understand a drinking age, but notice that bit about “woman”. More than the text of the law itself, explanatory notes remind us of the 1914 vintage. “Section 30 is a social piece of legislation with the object to save the younger generation and the woman folk (sic) from becoming addict to the intoxicants and avert and avoid any conflict between sexes and chances of foreseen sexual offences.” The use of the word “foreseen” is presumably not a typo. One should add that countries perceived to be more advanced and progressive also have similar provisions when it comes to liquor, on moral grounds. I did not mention it earlier, but Trayas has a ranking of states, depending on how rigid or flexible they are, on employing women.

For excise and liquor, the most free are Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the most unfree are Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Some states need written permission from the excise commissioner/board before a woman can work in an establishment where country or foreign liquor is served and consumed, not to speak of prohibitions on a woman being allowed to sell such liquor. We may have our views on Article 47 of the Constitution (prohibition of intoxicating drinks), but that does not warrant a gender bias.

Before reading this report, I did not know that “Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh require a licence applicant to file an affidavit to the effect that, ‘he shall not employ any salesman or representative who has criminal background’, or any person ‘who suffers from any infectious or contagious disease or is below 21 years of age’, or ‘a woman’.” This is true. I verified it from a 2005 case before the Chhattisgarh High Court (Rishi Dikshit vs the state of Chhattisgarh). There are related restrictions on women as performers at such premises (think of dance bars in Maharashtra). We have inherited statutes and mindsets (reflected in some court judgements). They do not gel with Article 14.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

bibek-debroy-writes-on-why-india-should-focus-more-on-creating-quality-jobs

Sat Mar 19 11:32:56 IST 2022

Employment is a concern. There cannot be employment without growth. This proposition is a truism. But what is the link between growth and employment? Employment elasticity measures the percentage change in employment when there is a 1 per cent change in growth. Over time, a country’s employment elasticity can change, as it has for India. It is not just growth, but the composition of growth that is important. Over the years, many people have computed employment elasticities for India. Methodologies vary a bit. What varies more is the source of data and how dated they are.

Several such elasticities were computed with National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data for 2009-2010. At that time, overall employment elasticity was around 0.20, a decline from 0.40 in the 1980s and 0.50 in the 1950s. Such NSSO data are available for 1977-1978, 1983, 1993-1994, 1999-2000, 2004-2005, 2009-2010 and 2011-2012, not thereafter. Data are for a specific point in time. To compute elasticity, which measures change, one has to compare one point in time with another, say 1999-2000 with 2009-2010. Regardless of which study and what time period, employment elasticity of growth has declined. There are multiple reasons for this. Let us ignore those.

India’s labour force is now around 470 million. Labour force means those employed, plus those in the job market but without jobs. Unemployment data have to be treated with caution. There are time-lags; 2011-2012 was a long time ago. Self-employment is difficult to factor in. Since the bulk of employment is informal/unorganised, how does one get satisfactory numbers? There is the quality of employment too. Let us distance ourselves from the adverse employment consequences of the pandemic since we are concerned with what happens beyond.

An upper limit for the unemployment rate will be 10 per cent. Or, out of 470 million, around 420 million are currently employed. If growth increases by 1 per cent, say from 6 per cent to 7 per cent, this means, with an employment elasticity of 0.20, we will create an additional 8.4 million jobs annually. We now need a fix on how many additional jobs we need to create annually. That, too, has complications. The workforce participation rate has declined not just for women but men, too. Today, it is around 50 per cent. As there is development, it should increase. But simultaneously, rates of population growth have slowed, implying fewer entrants into the labour force. If one plays around with numbers, one will get a figure of around 8.5 million new jobs that have to be created every year, not 10 million or 12 million, as the Planning Commission used to project once.

These numbers are illustrative and no more. With different assumptions, the required growth rate will be 7.5 per cent or thereabouts. As we recover from the pandemic, with more uncertainty because of global developments, I do not think the key question is the number of jobs being created, but quality (contractual, terms of employment, wages). In 2014, Sangita Misra and Anoop K. Suresh from the Reserve Bank of India computed employment elasticities between 1993-1994 and 2011-2012 and found the same aggregate figure of 0.20. Construction was the only sector with an elasticity of more than 1.00. Manufacturing and services were both around 0.30. Within manufacturing, only furniture-making, garments and leather had high employment elasticities. Yes, the data are dated. But trends have probably not changed. There is a skills issue and low-skill activities like construction often provide most jobs. Perhaps counter-intuitively, employment elasticity is higher in organised manufacturing than in unorganised. Productivity is also higher in the former. In choosing labour over capital, productivity matters. Productivity depends on skills.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

india-needs-a-unified-public-health-legislation-writes-bibek-debroy

Sat Feb 19 12:17:07 IST 2022

Our Constitution was adopted after lengthy debates in the Constituent Assembly. Let me quote from debates on September 2, 1949. H.V. Kamath said: “While commending my amendment seeking to transfer public health, sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries to the Concurrent List, I would like to state that public health has been the Cinderella of portfolios in the cabinet of our country.... We could not do better than make public health a Concurrent subject…. Bearing all these points in mind and viewing this important and vital matter from different points of view, I feel very strongly that public health should not be relegated to the legislative powers only of the states but should be a concurrent subject at least. I am sure my friend Mr Brajeshwar Prasad would try to include it in List I, but I would be happy if this matter were transferred to List III.”

Prasad said: “I feel that public health, sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries should be included in List I.… I fully appreciate the point that by wresting those important powers, provincial autonomy will be modified to a very large extent, but provincial autonomy is not an end in itself.”

This did not happen. Not only did health not move to List I (Union List), it did not move to List III (Concurrent List) either. Entry 6 on State List is “Public health and sanitation; hospitals and dispensaries”.

In 2015, the World Health Organisation produced a report on international public health hazards and Indian legislative provisions. This mentioned India as a signatory to international health regulations, and the National Health Bill of 2009. To quote the WHO, “the study identified 124 relevant laws/legislation which comprise 67 Acts, the rest being rules, regulations, administrative orders, notifications etc…. The laws/legislation also comprise 36 rules, eight regulations, three guidelines, three orders, one notification, two international conventions, one handbook, two standards and one policy.” True, the WHO had a broad definition and some laws/legislations concerned health indirectly. But even if one prunes the list to those directly dealing with health, the proposition remains—multiplicity and silos, and lack of harmonisation.

We need a unified law, an argument reinforced by Covid-19. There may be issues with specifics of what such legislation should contain, as was the case with the subsequent Public Health (Prevention, Control and Management of Epidemics, Bioterrorism and Disasters) Bill of 2017. Besides 2009 and 2017, there were attempts in 1955, 1987 and 2002 too.

Are state-level Public Health Acts and state-level intervention enough? Most people will say they are not. In addition, to quote the Supreme Court in August 2020: “Only a few states took advantage of the subject of ‘public health’ being a state subject.…” Specifically, only six states passed such laws.

To take one example of why health has Union-level importance, why do we have National Health Mission? Despite accepting Union funding for health (over and above devolution through Union Finance Commission), why have states resisted Union-level legislation? It probably has to do with what Prasad mentioned—a perceived threat to autonomy.

Unless the Seventh Schedule is amended, the Union government can draft a model Public Health Act, and states can decide whether to adopt it or not. A more powerful idea is for two or more states to request Parliament (under Article 252 of the Constitution) to pass such legislation. The concerns raised by Kamath and Prasad still remain. 2022 is not 1949. Items have moved from State List to Concurrent List (education in 1976), though rarely. Perhaps the idea should not be discarded out of hand. Health is too important. Autonomy is not an end in itself.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

how-covid-triggered-changes-in-india-disaster-management-framework-bibek-debroy

Sun Jan 16 10:50:38 IST 2022

I know a politician who is petrified of air travel. He belongs to a social class in which travelling by air is the norm. Since he opts to travel by car, this makes life as a politician a difficult affair. Data are better in the US than in India. There, the probability of dying in a car crash is many times more than the probability of dying in a plane crash. Actual numbers may be different, but relative magnitudes must be similar in India, too. Nevertheless, he has his perception of risk.

In every act of decision-making, we weigh risks. Pedestrians die. But we do not hesitate to step onto the road because of the perception that risk is low. Most people are risk-averse. We do gamble and people do win at casinos, though, on average, the odds are stacked in favour of casinos. Otherwise, casinos would not be in business and state governments would not earn revenue by selling lottery tickets. But taking risks on money is different from taking risks on life and limb. Even people who take risks on the former are likely to be risk-averse on the latter.

When the Covid-19 pandemic first struck, no one was initially sure about the risks. Decision-makers mean citizens, as well as governments. As a country, we weathered the first wave in 2020 reasonably well, whatever be the indicator to measure this. Consequently, shades of complacency seeped in.

When the second wave struck in 2021, we were not as cautious and risk-averse as we should have been. Citizens shunned social distancing and masks; governments did not necessarily react with alacrity. Mortality and morbidity numbers during the peak of the second wave were far higher than during the first.

Depending on how a third wave is defined, we are now in its midst and all evidence suggests Omicron is a relatively mild variant, though other more virulent variants may surface. Though irresponsible social behaviour still exists, given the experience of the second wave, citizens seem to be much more paranoid in 2022.

State governments have also clamped down severely and all such restrictions adversely impact economic growth and recovery. But when life and limb are concerned, it is understandable that both citizens and governments should react with excessive caution. No one wants to risk the eventuality of assumptions going drastically wrong. Who in government reacts? Primarily National Disaster Management Authority and state disaster management authorities—mandated to handle not just pandemics, but other natural and man-made hazards.

The backbone is the National Disaster Management Act (NDMA) of 2005. Legislation can only be passed under a constitutional provision and for something like health, everything is squarely in the State List of Seventh Schedule. Yes, there is the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897. But under that, the Union government can only take action at the border, nothing more. How was that 2005 legislation passed? It invoked an entry in the Concurrent List on “social security and social insurance; employment and unemployment”.

Following Humpty Dumpty, an expression can be taken to mean whatever we choose it to mean and something like a pandemic affects social security and employment. But such a wide definition of “social security” is indeed incongruous. Today, it is a pandemic. Tomorrow, it might be some other kind of disaster.

The third report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission was on crisis management and it pointed out gaps in the NDMA: “However, the subject of disaster management does not find mention in any of the three lists in the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution.” Therefore, it suggested the insertion of such an entry in the Concurrent List and amendments in the NDMA. Covid is a trigger for those changes.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

first-indian-made-fountain-pen-wasnt-made-in-rajahmundry-but-varanasi-bibek-debroy

Thu Dec 23 15:31:41 IST 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was recently in Varanasi, where he inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath Dham corridor. Anyone who has visited Varanasi lately will know how the city has been transformed. Those who have not visited should have some idea from the events on December 13. A few days before the PM’s visit, I visited Varanasi.

I will not talk about Kashi Vishwanath Dham corridor or Kashi’s transformation. Others have done that. Instead, this is about fountain pens. Contrary to the impression, the first fountain pen made in India was not produced by Ratnam in Rajahmundry in 1935. In 1911, a remarkable gentleman authored a book titled Romance of Pen Industries. This gentleman was Dr Radhika Nath Saha, a doctor, as a member of college of physicians and surgeons (MCPS). But he was also an inventor. Among other things, he invented a type of fountain pen, got patents in diverse countries and set up the Luxmy Stylo Pen Works in Varanasi in 1907. Luxmy pens were the first fountain and stylo (an ancestor of ball-point) pens produced in India.

Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was established in 1916. Setting up of universities triggered a demand for fountain pens. Tara Prasad Sahu switched from selling fodder to selling fountain pens near the BHU campus, in the second half of the 1930s. In 1946, this became Penco, which not only sold and repaired foreign brands, but also sold its own brands. With the help of a master craftsman named Bhairon Prasad Vishwakarma, Penco manufactured and sold pens under the brand names Penco and Ebonite.

Varanasi’s layout is explained through ghats and one of the more famous is Dashashwamedh Ghat, where the famous Ganga arati takes place. On the way to Dashashwamedh Ghat, Penco still exists as a pen shop, selling fountain pens, but no longer manufacturing its own brands. As Varanasi has been modernised and renovated, so has Penco. And it is a bit of a pen museum too, stocking rare models of Parker, Swan, Plato, Mont Blanc, Waterman, Sheaffer and Wearever. I visited Penco, now run by Nishant Sahu, Tara Prasad’s grandson.

Penco also has an Eversharp pen with a gold nib, known as the Tagore nib. A Tagore nib is adjustable, varying from flexible to firm, useful for sketching and calligraphy. Rabindranath Tagore, who was fond of fountain pens, possessed a similar Eversharp with an adjustable nib. One such fountain pen is displayed in the Rabindra Bhavan Museum in Santiniketan. It is not his Eversharp, which is one that Tagore donated in 1936.

We do not quite know whether this was the pen that was stolen from the poet’s residence in 1918. It was recovered by the police from the thief, but cops insisted that it was stolen property and could not be handed over without permission of the court. They wanted Tagore to appear in court as a witness. Eventually, better sense prevailed. Four years ago, the Kolkata Police released this anecdote from their archives.

Kashi has Shiva lingams and temples everywhere. One such is Tilbhandeshwar. According to puranas like Shiva Purana, Tilbhandeshwar is supposed to be near Dashashwamedh Ghat. We know that Tilbhandeshwar, like many other temples in Kashi, has been subjected to depredations by invaders and temples and lingams are not always where they used to be in the past. The present Tilbhandeshwar is in Bengali Tola, a locality historically populated by Bengalis.

The temple is now managed by a lineage of priests from Kerala. Many temples have plaques in memoriam and I was pleasantly surprised to find one in Dr Radhika Nath Saha’s memory there.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

why-does-case-property-have-to-be-physically-produced-in-court-asks-bibek-debroy

Sun Nov 28 09:34:47 IST 2021

Often, there will be an amusing story about a malkhana (evidence room). For example, three years ago, there was a report about 1,000 litres of liquor that went missing from the malkhana of a police station in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. The police said a “gang” of rats drank up the liquor.

More recently, in 2021, firearms, drugs, bombs, cash and ornaments went missing from a malkhana in Katni, Madhya Pradesh. In this case, the malkhana was not in a police station; it had been shifted to the premises of the district court. Malkhana literally means a storehouse and they are in bad shape. Gangs of mice and men make stuff deliberately vanish. Sometimes, valuables are inadvertently lost, or misplaced.

A couple of years ago, cash went missing from a malkhana in Chandigarh. No, it had not been stolen. It had simply been misplaced when the police station was being renovated, and no one knew where the cash had been kept. Eventually, it was found. When a case is going on, such articles are defined as “case property” under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Courts will decide what needs to be done with such property, during trial and after trial.

How many people remember Raja Man Singh’s (he was elected as MLA several times) death in a police encounter in 1985? He was killed in Bharatpur, but the case was subsequently transferred to Mathura, and the guilty policemen were sentenced in 2020, after a mere 35 years. This is not an aberration. More than 75 criminal cases from 1950-s are still pending.

Should evidence, in the form of case property, sit in a malkhana? CrPC does not require that and the Supreme Court (in 2002) has ruled, “It ought not to be retained in the custody of the court or of the police for any time longer than what is absolutely necessary.” However, it is absolutely necessary to retain it until evidence has been recorded and that is also subject to inordinate delays.

The default option should be that a proper description (panchnama) of case property should suffice as evidence before courts. Why does actual case property have to be physically produced? It does not have to be, and CrPC and Supreme Court judgements have underlined this.

Case property also includes vehicles and the court mentioned these too in that 2002 judgement: “It is of no use to keep seized vehicles at the police stations for a long period.” Obviously, the Supreme Court did not say this—but vehicles, and their parts, have a reputation of vanishing, or getting stolen, from police stations. A police station in Pune is reportedly struggling because of the thousands of vehicles that are piling up. There is no space inside, and vehicles spill over and crowd the roads outside. Sure, under the law, these vehicles can be auctioned. But state government has to appoint an auctioneer and there are delays there.

National Police Mission has a report on malkhana management and there have been reports of e-malkhanas in some states, digitising the inventory. Sometimes, this seems to be ad hoc, that is, not for all police stations. Andhra Pradesh has a standard operating procedure for all police stations and Kerala stores all seized vehicles in a centralised yard. While such initiatives are welcome and makes management easier, does the inventory have to be physically stored and if so, where?

As an example, why cannot cash and jewellery be kept in bank lockers? That is possible, but permission of the court is needed to do that. There lies the rub. Getting permission takes time and it is not necessarily faster than recording of evidence. It seems to me that valuables should be moved to bank lockers by default.

Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

here-is-to-healthy-conversation

Sat Aug 10 15:37:51 IST 2019

A couple of weeks back, I was in Thiruvananthapuram to attend a few meetings. Afterwards, I visited an old artist friend, Shibu Natesan. He lives and works between three cities: Attingal, near Thiruvananthapuram—his home town; Baroda, where he studied, and London, where his wife and child lives. Shibu is a highly skilled painter, who switches effortlessly between different media like oil and watercolour.

The last time I visited his studio in Kerala was a decade ago. He leads a hermit’s life. He paints or sketches every day. Other daily practitioners include artists like A. Ramachandran and Laxma Goud. Whether it is outdoors or in studios, they enjoy daily practice. Shibu loves to travel to beaches and mountains in his jeep. His studio was full of small paintings, piled-up oil colour tubes, canvas tubes, watercolour palettes, brushes, easels, mirrors, hard-boards to paint on and objects from religious destinations.

It is always a joy to visit artists’ studios. During my student days at Sir J.J. School of Art, I used to visit studios of artists like Akbar Padamsee, Laxman Shreshta, Anju Dodiya and Atul Dodiya, Bhupen Khakhar, Prabhakar Barwe, Ramachandran, Sudarshan Shetty and many others. The learning was priceless and largely unavailable in college.

The other day, I was at the Santiniketan Society of Visual Art and Design (SSVAD) in West Bengal as part of an artists’ workshop and camp convened by Jogen Chowdhury. I have always had great memories of Santiniketan—its atmosphere, classrooms, K.G. Subramanyan’s murals, paintings, sculptures, studios and the greenery around the campus. SSVAD, a non-profit organisation, was set up by Janak Jhankar Narzary, Jogen Chowdhury and a few other like-minded people nine years ago. The funds were raised by selling artworks donated by eminent artists. The name is, of course, a play on the word svad meaning taste.

I think the idea originated from looking at the students at the Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan. After their formal education, where do they go and where do they practice and exhibit their works? SSVAD is trying to create opportunities for a new generation to boost their confidence and awareness of the art world through workshops, camps, residencies and symposia, and by providing exhibition and performance spaces. In recent years, SSVAD has acquired some more land and created a new studio for print-making and residences.

Shibu was also among the artists who were invited to give presentations at Kala Bhavan. On a very humid morning, the students sat on the tiled floors. I wondered how they were going to sit like that for three hours. But they did! Shibu made a presentation on his paintings in oil and watercolours, and spoke about his travels, his workspace and styles of paintings. Thereafter, it was my turn and I made a presentation on the art world, how to build a career in art, and the creation of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, institutions and other art festivals.

Sanjayan Ghosh and Prashanta Sahu, both of whom teach at Kala Bhavan, had organised the conversation sessions with artists N.S. Harsha, T.V. Santhosh, Jagannath Panda, Shibu and myself. It went on for a long time and the students had a lot of questions.

I would like to mention here that this is my last ‘Everyone is a Camera’ column for THE WEEK for now. I wish to thank the good people at the publication. Perhaps, I can end with an anecdote from Kala Bhavan. After the conversation sessions, a young postgraduate student came up to me, showed me an issue of THE WEEK, and said: “Your column has given me so much information about the art world and it really has helped me to grow.” Here is to more healthy and creative conversations!

editor@theweek.in

an-award-of-opportunities

Sat Jul 27 17:12:00 IST 2019

Recently, I was part of the jury for the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi’s annual awards along with the brilliant artists Sudarshan Shetty and G.R. Iranna. Our task was to identify 10 artists from the 28 shortlisted youngsters from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. The task was unenviable. They were all of a high calibre, and it was difficult, even saddening, to choose only 10.

Every artist had personal stories of struggle. Many came from far away, travelling hours by train and bus, carrying large and delicate sculptures, paintings, etchings, drawings and sketch books. Along with celebrating the 10 who won, I also wish to applaud the ones who did not. The recipients get 01.2 lakh each. This may not seem like a large amount for art production, but, for artists from humble backgrounds, it would be a huge relief. For young artists, such an award goes a long way in encouraging their practice.

In 1999, I was a student at Goldsmiths college in London, doing my master’s in visual art theory and practice. Sudarshan and Iranna, used to visit me and stay at my little room on New Cross Road. Iranna was attending a six-month painting workshop at Wimbledon College. Sudarshan was in Bristol at Spike Island artists’ residency, a beautiful place. I remember his kinetic sound installation of a boat created like a violin. All of us had received the Charles Wallace India Trust Award. We used to spend a good amount of our time at exhibitions and artists’ studios. It was a very important time in our life and career. Those days Inlaks scholarships, Fulbright scholarships, the Charles Wallace India Trust Award and Mid-America Arts Alliance Awards were very prestigious.

Diwan Manna, chairman of the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi, is working hard to activate the academy and its programmes. He is almost a one-man army. He was happy to hear about our residency and educational days in UK. He keeps organising talks of eminent artists and curators at the academy.

There should be more of such awards and residency opportunities for our young artists. There are a few in India, like the Khoj Artists Residency in Delhi, TIFA Studios in Pune, the recently opened Space Studio & Distillery in Baroda, 1 Shanti Road in Bengaluru and Space 118 in Mumbai, among others. The Pepper House residency programme developed by the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) is another important opportunity.

We have to create opportunities for youngsters to travel. They have to be able to see exhibitions, participate in residencies, and have curatorial and educational mentorship. I am happy that as part of the Students’ Biennale, the KBF instituted the Tata Trusts Awards for the best works at each edition. It has been given at the last two editions. This edition, the jury comprised of the eminent artists K. Madhusudanan, Deepika Sorabjee from Tata Trusts, and myself. Students’ Biennale sees the work of very good young artists from art colleges across India, and to choose three or four recipients from around 100 projects, curated by six experts, was again difficult.

The awards allow the winners to travel to major exhibitions like the Venice Biennale and documenta, and also also receive residency opportunities at the Pepper House programme in Kochi. These are occasions where they can be exposed to contemporary artistic practice, meet artists and curators, and also see masterpieces at museums and important collections. The residency awardees also get time to explore their practice in different ways. Like it was for Sudarshan, Iranna and me, I hope this will turn out to be great learning experiences for these young artists. An award is a recognition, a patronage and an encouragement.

editor@theweek.in

art-unlimited

Sat Jul 13 15:56:53 IST 2019

In 2012, I was fortunate enough to spend time with Alfons Hug at documenta 13. I was there as part of a BRICS curatorial travel programme. Later, we presented a video art project that he had curated at the first Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Hug is an important curator who has done many significant projects in the last 20 years. He curated the São Paulo Biennial 2002, the 2002 and 2005 Brazil Pavilion and the 2011 Latin American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He was also chief curator of the 2nd Montevideo Biennial. Earlier he was a curator at the House of World Cultures in Berlin. He has also been the director of the Goethe-Institut in many countries.

I think of Hug as an energetic vagabond. I want to mention him because of his enthusiasm for art and his selflessness. When I was rushing to catch my flight from Zurich to Mumbai after the Basel Art Fair, he stopped me at the gates and, without any introductions or formalities, started talking! “Unlimited at the Basel Art Fair is like a biennale,” he said. The mind of a critic-curator, I thought. He had said the same thing I had felt.

Unlimited reinvention is difficult in the habitual and ostentatious heavy-art market. But, eight years ago, Art Basel introduced this incredible parallel project called Unlimited. The man behind it, the young Swiss curator Gianni Jetzer—now in his final year of curating Unlimited—is also curator-at-large at Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC. Every time I get the opportunity to go to Art Basel, I look forward to Unlimited. Of course, at the adjacent Messe building you have galleries from around the world and exhibitor Indian galleries like Chemould Prescott Road, Gallery SKE, Vadehra and Experimenter. The six-day fair is attended by around 80,000 people. Next door, you see the Miami Design Basel with all kinds of products, furniture, jewellery, vintage cars and many more designs.

The Kunstmuseum exhibitions of William Kentridge with the largest installations and eight-channel projection was remarkable. The same project was exhibited at the recent edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The effects of charcoal, animated skilled drawings and the narrations through the performances; its layers and dark surfaces and the shadows, the drama... pure Kentridge! Fondation Beyeler put up two great shows. The first titled The Young Picasso-Blue and Rose Period, and the second an immensely skilled presence of images, mediums and materiality presented by artist Rudolf Stingel. I was seeing it all for the first time. I cannot forget Picasso’s mastery and Stingel’s mesmerising material aesthetics.

Another good exhibition was Body Fantasies by Rebecca Horn at Museum Tinguely in Basel. Her works combine early performative works and later kinetic sculptures to highlight lines of development within her oeuvre, the transformation processes of the body and very sensitive and calculated sciences and mathematics in human structure.

Another great experience was a piece of home at the border of Germany. Vitra Design Museum presented on the Indian architect, Pritzker Prize-winner B.V. Doshi. I think this was the master’s first international retrospective. I took a 30-minute ride from Basel to Vitra to see it.

I was also fortunate to meet the legendary Argentinian artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. We were introduced by the curator and writer Hans Ulrich Obrist. Tiravanija resides between New York, Berlin, Chiang Mai and Hong Kong—another vagabond! His installations often take the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing music. The architecture or structures for living and socialising is the core element in his works. His work, I think, is important because this creation of spaces for coexistence is one of the essential elements of art itself.

editor@theweek.in

learnings-from-ljubljana

Sat Jun 29 15:49:19 IST 2019

The breakup of Yugoslavia led to the formation of (currently) six independent states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. Slovenia was the first to declare independence, in June 1991. I recently visited its capital, Ljubljana, for the board meeting of the International Biennial Association. International Centre of Graphic Arts director Nevenka Sivavec hosted us there for the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts.

The biennial was curated by the collective Slavs and Tatars (S&T). It is a pleasure to see more and more artists and artist collectives curating major exhibitions. Kochi-Muziris Biennale has always been curated by an artist. The next Sydney Biennial has artist Brook Andrew as artistic director. Artist Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi will be curating the next Lahore Biennale. Indonesian artists collective Ruangrupa will be at the helm of the next documenta in 2022. Raqs Media Collective will be curating Yokohama Triennale 2020.

S&T produces exhibitions and publications around the region east of Berlin, usually called Eurasia. It works with texts, and words are their main tool and medium. Occasionally, the group performs its own writings. The Ljubljana biennial, titled Crack Up-Crack Down, was a visual art biennale, which included sociopolitical satire, caricatures and archival material, much like its art practice. It was conceptual, complex, incomplete and comforting.

I was pleasantly surprised when Mayor Zoran Jankovic hosted us at the City Hall. It is important that civic authorities take part in cultural activities. After the introduction, the mayor got up and held a flag from the line of flags and said proudly: “You know this flag—Ljubljana’s. We were the European Green Capital for 2016.” In the short time we spent at his office, he came across as a people’s mayor. He was on ground, without any ostentatious security or tamasha.

I also want to write here about a gift from the mayor: a one litre glass bottle. And, Mateja Demsic, head of the city's cultural department, told us its story. The bottle has the words 'Museum Water-Water for the Future' embossed on it along with indentations formed by a left hand. The bottle tells us that Ljubljana is a city in which fresh drinking water is available in abundance. Apparently 80 per cent of the river water is drinkable.

The bottle was created as part of an exhibition on water at the city museum. It brought together some 250 objects from museums, galleries and archives around the city. In the show, water is an element for our survival, forms pathways for transport, flows through our mythologies, and is part of our languages and arts. In India, every day we read about problems related to potable water. We have many things to learn from the care given to water bodies in places like Ljubljana and the recognition of it in cultural activities.

City Museum director Blaz Persin took us on a special walk through incredible collections from the Russian museums. Ljubljana is building a space for culture, and Persin showed us its digital 3D presentation. The municipality invested ᙿ€10 million for the Sugar Factory (Cukrarna) Gallery project, while the state has given more than €2.5 million; €11 million will come from the European Fund for Regional Development. I was told that they see this as an investment with financial returns (in addition to the cultural impact) as 60 per cent of their foreign visitors are cultural tourists. For years, people have averted their gazes from the embarrassing ruins of what was once the largest sugar processing plant in the Habsburg lands. Now, Cukrarna will house the largest exhibition space in this part of Europe. The citizens will finally get appropriate premises for events such as BIO Ljubljana. Cukrarna will also be a future venue for the Biennial of Graphic Arts.

Ljubljana has a vision, and I await to see its realisation.

finding-places-for-sociocultural-initiatives-in-kerala

Sat Jun 15 20:32:59 IST 2019

Kerala is known for its diverse and heartwarming natural landscapes. However, we must consider a couple of points of caution in the face of such beauty. One is that we often take it for granted. The other is that it induces in us a sense of complacency, and we do not enter into a creative dialogue with such places. There are very few sociocultural initiatives and artists in Kerala that initialise such conversations.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to return to a small island called Kakkathuruthu. Situated in the Vembanad backwaters, Kakkathuruthu was named by National Geographic’s travel magazine as the best of destinations. My friends Anoop Scaria and Dorrie Younger used to run an art residency there as part of Kashi Art Gallery initiatives. We used to hang around with artists like Rajan M. Krishnan, K. Reghunadhan, Upendranath, Jyothi Basu, Ratheesh T. and many others.

The island has fishing fields and coconut groves. You have to walk along narrow pathways, with water on both sides. You would walk practically through village homes, since most of them do not have boundary walls. Reghunadhan moved from Kollam, and started living and working in Kakkathuruthu. He is not just an artist but has also created beautiful pokkali paddy fields, combining culture and agriculture. He can also cook the best fish meals ever!

Another space in Kakkathuruthu is Kayal. US-returned engineer Maneesha Panicker took over the residency land and converted it into this small retreat space. Maneesha has been asking me and my family to experience Kayal since its beginning. This summer, I took up her offer and eight of my family members had an incredible experience. It is an ideal place for creative writers and artists. There is a similar place in the hills of Wayanad, in northern Kerala. I first came to know about Uravu at their exhibition in Bengaluru around the work of K.S. Lenin. He is a self-taught artist and the chief creative designer at Uravu. My kids are interested in art and design and we had also heard about Uravu from their friends. We were lucky to get a resort on top of a mountain with the help of Sivaraj and Saira from Uravu.

I was interested to see how Uravu developed their social interest and commitments with a community of bamboo craftsmen. Uravu was established in 1996 as a non-profit NGO for sustainable rural empowerment. Started by a collective of individuals who were determined to make a difference to the lives of the rural poor, they later delved into the wonder that is bamboo. Today, Uravu is a knowledge centre of bamboo—a one stop point for anything bamboo, so to speak—and are spearheading development of the bamboo sector in Kerala and beyond. We saw a great variety of species at the bamboo nursery, weaving and production centre.

Uravu has created a fantastic bamboo-architecture community space, where they have painting classes, talks and workshops. I wish this crafts village initiative had more economic support from the state and philanthropists. Uravu resort—the hospitality segment—has been designed by Swiss architects with the local craftsmen. They are developing a cafe and conversation spaces. It is an ideal place for an art and culture residency.

During my journey to Wayanad, I received a call from the writer Manoj Nair. I did not know it would be our last conversation. He was writing on several things—art, contemporary music, literature—and many things in the life of a genius are fated to be incomplete.

editor@theweek.in

india-needs-a-permanent-seat-in-venice

Sat Jun 01 17:53:04 IST 2019

The 58th edition of the Venice Biennale, the oldest biennale in the world, started on May 11. The six month main biennale is curated by US-born Ralph Rugoff, director of the prestigious Hayward Gallery, London. The performance art programme is co-curated by the young Aaron Cezar, director of the Delfina Foundation. Immediately after the first week of the performance programme, he was in Stockholm with us to announce the winner of the Absolut Global Creative Competition. Aaron was one of the global jury members along with me and the eminent American artist, Mickalene Thomas. The award went to the young Lebanese artist Sarah Saroufim. She was selected from 7,500 entrants from 19 countries and received €20,000.

Aaron mentioned to us that he could organise 30 performances in the opening week, and that the closing week, in November, would have more or less the same. The presence of country pavilions are a popular element of the Venice Biennale. The current edition has 87 country pavilions, each displaying the country’s pride in its art and artists. The countries involved bring in PR professionals and celebrities, and, in some cases, heads of state.

Rugoff curated an eclectic visual plethora with lots of contemporary materiality and sciences. Eighty-three artists were invited for the international exhibitions titled ‘May You Live In Interesting Times’ at Venice. This also includes Indian artists Shilpa Gupta, Soham Gupta and Gauri Gill, at the Arsenale and Giardini venues. Shilpa has engineered a new kinetic installation, a simple yet brilliant work.

The Golden Lion for the Best National Participation was won by Lithuania for its pavilion titled ‘Sun & Sea (Marina)’, created by artists Lina Lapelyte, Vaiva Grainyte and Rugile Barzdziukaite and curated by Lucia Pietroiusti. It was a conceptually simple project, a live time-bound performative participatory work. The Belgium pavilion was done by Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys. They created a world of contemporary sculptures/installations. The Golden Lion for the Best Participant in ‘May You Live In Interesting Times’ went to the US-born Arthur Jafa; the Silver Lion was given to Cyprus-born Haris Epaminonda. The jury’s special mentions went to the Mexican artist Teresa Margolles and Nigerian Otobong Nkanga. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement went to Jimmie Durham from the US.

The Indian pavilion returned after eight years. The works displayed were of artists Nandalal Bose, M.F. Husain, Rummana Hussain, Atul Dodiya, Shakuntala Kulkarni, Ashim Purkayastha, Jitish Kallat and G.R. Iranna. It was curated by Roobina Karode. The Indian pavilion was hosted by the government of India, ministry of culture, CII India, NGMA and art collector Kiran Nadar. I wish to see a permanent Indian pavilion designed for all the art and architecture biennales of Venice. I hope the government takes cognisance of this soon and gives autonomy to the commissioner and curator.

The incomparable Kiran Nadar made an exciting announcement in Venice: a new museum building to be built in Delhi, designed by the young and brilliant British architect Sir David Adjaye. He was selected by eminent jurors of the art world, such as Glenn D. Lowry and Chris Dercon. It was a year of Indian presence in Venice. The Kochi-Biennale Foundation announced the first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2011 in Venice. After eight years, the KBF announced artist and writer Shubigi Rao as the curator of KMB 2020. It was declared in Venice in the presence of patrons and friends of the biennale.

editor@theweek.in

art-in-the-porcelain-capital-jingdezhen

Sun May 19 12:48:45 IST 2019

Every visit to China springs a surprise. On my way to Jingdezhen, I touched down at Shenzhen, a fast developing city. A friend of mine had mentioned that there were fewer people and buildings in Shenzhen a decade ago. Now, this city has more than 10 million inhabitants and is totally urbanised. It also has one of the most aesthetically designed airports in the world.

Jingdezhen hosted the inaugural ceremony of the Taoxichuan China Arts & Sciences project in April. The city is known for its traditional wealth of ceramic craftsmanship and contemporary Chinese artists make use of the skilled craftsmen of ceramics and porcelain from the region. For instance, Ai Weiwei produced 100 million hand-made ceramic sun flower seeds for his Tate Modern’s Turbain Hall project from the region. Priya Sundaravalli from Auroville had a contemporary ceramic residency in Ceramic Art Avenue, and Vinod Daroz from Vadodara was a regular artist there.

Thomas Eller, a German artist known for setting up some important initiatives and publications, now lives and works from Jingdezhen and Beijing. He was the editor-in-chief of Art Net, and is the Boblingen CEO of Gallery Weekend Beijing. He understands the art world, its ecosystem, economy, politics, practice and theory. He had called me a few months ago to discuss about his vision for a future city, creative economy building through its traditional wealth of crafts, art and sciences. He envisioned three verticals for achieving it for Jingdezhen. First, residency: Residency programmes are the beating heart of the Taoxichuan China Arts & Sciences project. Artists of all disciplines and scientists come together to live and work in Taoxichuan. Second, festival: The art festival makes the project visible to the world by staging a biennale in Taoxichuan and by cooperating with global artists and curators to bring to the world its idea. Third, museums: The municipality is to have museums with curated shows, permanent and temporary.

Jingdezhen municipality’s second phase of investment has been conceptualised by Thomas Eller and he nominated Jon Kessler (professor of professional practice in visual arts at the Faculty of the Arts, School of Art, Columbia University), Zhang Gan, (director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University), Shang Hui (chief editor of Fine Art magazine), Shao Yiyang (deputy dean of the School of Humanities at China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts), Ma Sai from Tsinghua University, academic Rick Dolphijn, curators Bonaventure Ndikung and Silvia Fehrmann, Xie Xiaoquan (deputy director of the National Museum of China), Bénédicte Alliot (director-general at Cite Internationale des Arts), Wu Hongliang (deputy dean of Beijing Fine Art Academy) and myself as academic board members at the Taoxichuan China Arts & Sciences project.

The first phase of Jinghezhen has already been built. The old factory areas have now been developed into high-end hotels and medium shops, restaurants, cafes and fashion, designer leather, ceramic and porcelain spaces and a ceramic museum. They become active from afternoon till late night with food and music. The municipal authorities have signed agreements with different institutions and organisations to make their vision possible. The first board meeting decided to set up three important projects and other possibilities for TCA&S.

Restoration or conservation of architecture at its best could be experienced at Jingdezhen Heritage and Ceramic Industry Museum. It won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific World Heritage Award in 2017, thanks to optimistic policy making by the municipality.

editor@theweek.in

sojourn-with-artistic-souls

Sun May 05 11:02:45 IST 2019

A decade or more ago, the rulers of Abu Dhabi envisioned Saadiyat Island as a dedicated zone for creative and cultural buildings. Last month, the department of culture and tourism of Abu Dhabi conducted Culture Summit-2019 that brought together artists, curators, institutional heads, museum directors, academics, social theorists and policy makers from 90 countries.

Reem Fadda, a regular visitor to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Art By Children (ABC) and an admirer of the Students’ Biennale and outreach programme, was present at the summit. Reem is an influential curator and it was on her suggestion that I was invited as a guest to the summit. The talks were well-conceptualised; the theme was ‘cultural responsibility and new technology’. Over 350 delegates and speakers participated in the five-day conference which stood out for its diversity of voices. I met and conversed with many figures from the international art world, including Richard Armstrong of the Gugghenheim Foundation, New York; Antonia Carver, director of Art Jameel, Dubai; Aaron Seeto, director of MACAN, Indonesia, and many others.

I also visited New York University Abu Dhabi, which runs a fantastic visual art educational programme and a gallery of curated projects. They also produce publications, programme talks and children’s educational activities.

Unfortunately, I could stay only for two days in Abu Dhabi since I had to be in New York for the global jury meeting of the Absolut Creative Competition—a contest to identify young artists from 19 countries.

Aaron Cezar, founding director of Delfina Foundation, London, and American artist Mickalene Thomas were the other members of the jury. Frida Hyseus of Absolut organised the jurors’ meeting in a concept space called NeueHouse—few levels with dedicated performance spaces, cafes, bars, books, paintings and conference rooms.

The competition is an initiative to find the next generation of bold artistic voices from across the world. The jury looked at local winners and their 19 artworks. We thought it would be easy to select the best among them. But, we eventually had many rounds of discussions before picking the winner. The global winner will be announced in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 15 in the presence of the 19 national winners and other dignitaries. The winner will receive a purse of €20,000 and will have his/her work displayed on a globally iconic out-of-home site like Times Square.

I was invited to experience a concept space similar to NeueHouse by one of my old friends, Priyanka Mathew (former director of Aicon Gallery, New York, and head of South Asian Art at Sotheby’s). Fifteen years ago, I had curated a show called KAAM, while Priyanka was with Aicon. She mentioned that Indian art collectors still ask her about the artists who were featured in that show. I had visited her temporary office space with huge, high- ceilinged spaces for exhibitions and performances in Tribeca, Lower Manhattan.

I received a few messages on social media. One was from a self-taught Malayali artist and consultant from Philadelphia, Mahinth. The other was from a KMB-2016 volunteer, Erin Montanez. I met them at Whitney’s High Line museum and later visited Chelsie galleries and museums. I was really excited to meet Erin. I used to see her at the KMB sites working diligently day and night. Erin, an American, would love to work with the KMB again. There are many brilliant volunteers in India and abroad like her, who give their heart and soul for the KMB, even though we do not have much money to offer. The commitment of such people cannot be explained in words. Their relationship with KMB endures because they experience passion, commitment and a zest for life in the centuries old trading port of Kochi... now known as the Biennale city.

editor@theweek.in

a-different-arab-spring

Sun Apr 07 21:27:24 IST 2019

What is great about March in the UAE? For me, it is the coming together of the some of the best cultural events in the region. This March saw the opening of the 14th edition of the Sharjah Biennale (curators: Zoe Butt, Omar Kholeif and Claire Tancons), the Sharjah Art Foundations’s annual March Meeting, Art Dubai and the opening of Alserkal Art District. Additionally this year, one of the most prominent Indian art collectors in the UAE, Smita Prabhakar founded Ishara Art Foundation and the maiden show was curated by Nada Raza, artistic director of Ishara and former curator at Tate Modern, London.

The Sharjah Biennial opened on March 7. I have heard from many of my writer friends that its book festival draws a huge crowd. I told Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president of the Sharjah Art Foundation and president of the International Biennale Association, “Every time I visit Sharjah, I experience surprises. Surprises of new art spaces for conversations, art and residencies, or something entirely unexpected.” This year it was a special lunch organised in the Rain Room during the Sharjah March Meeting (a platform for curated talks and programmes, held every year). This year, it was hosted during the professional preview week of the Sharjah Biennale.

The Rain Room, now a permanent installation in Al Majarrah, Sharjah, is a fantastic concept of experiential, sensitively-created, immersive art that uses technology, design and architecture. It was created by London-based Hannes Koch and Florian Ortkrass for Random International, a collaborative studio they founded in 2005. I had first seen it at the Barbican Centre, London, and thereafter at the MoMA, New York. The darkened, rectangular space allows visitors to walk through a downpour without getting wet. The incessant rains always move away from you. Quite a remarkable experience, to say the least.

I first met Antonia Carver over a decade ago, when she was the director of Art Dubai. She was an excellent administrator and director, and friends with many in the art industry. Antonia left Art Dubai, after making it hugely successful, to take up the directorship at Jameel Art Foundation. Last November, Art Jameel Dubai, opened to the public. The Jameels, Saudi Arabian business tycoons, have invested heavily in contemporary art and their architects created a minimalist space for this fantastic art centre. To my mind it is one of the finest contemporary arts institutions in the city. Art Jameel is dedicated to exhibitions and research, and has an extensive education programme for all ages. I am sure that under the directorship of Antonia, this centre will make huge creative waves in the region and beyond.

To top off this spring’s engagement with the region, I have been invited to the Abu Dhabi Culture Summit 2019 (April 7-11). It is a forum that has been conceived to convene leaders from the fields of arts, heritage, media, museums, public policy and technology. The 2018 edition was attended by 350 delegates from 85 countries. The summit is organised by Abu Dhabi’s progressive and visionary department of culture and tourism, in collaboration with five global partners who will curate and lead in their areas of expertise. This year’s partners include the Royal Academy of Arts (UK), UNESCO, Guggenheim (USA), Economist Events and Google. The theme is ‘Cultural Responsibility and New Technology’. The event aims to identify ways in which culture can build bridges and promote positive change. These goals chime with our own at the Kochi Biennale Foundation and I am looking forward to visiting the capital of the UAE.

editor@theweek.in

okwui-enwezor-curator-visionary-associate

Sat Mar 23 16:58:42 IST 2019

The past few weeks have been very distressful, punctuated with deaths of admired figures from the world of arts. Keith Flint of Prodigy; Dick Dale, the king of surf guitar; and Karl Lagerfeld, to name a few. Yet, the biggest shocker was the departure of a fellow traveller, Okwui Enwezor, who died of cancer on March 15.

Okwuchukwu Emmanuel Enwezor was born on October 23, 1963, in Calabar, a port city in southern Nigeria, close to the border with Cameroon. He moved to the US in 1982 and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. However, his sights were set on claiming for Africa its rightful place on the global art map. He was the first non-European, non-white, artistic director of the prestigious Documenta [eleventh edition]. In addition to Documenta, he also curated the acclaimed 1997 Johannesburg Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2008), the Paris Triennale (2012) and the Venice Biennale (2015). He was also the director of Munich’s Haus der Kunst.

Documenta was built on his vision of a set of programmes called ‘Platforms’ that were international debates, conferences and closed seminars that took place over a two-year period in Berlin, Vienna, New Delhi, St Lucia and Lagos. With his curatorial intelligence, Documenta 11 succeeded in bringing issues such as genocide, poverty, political incarceration and industrial pollution to the fore through 415 works by 180 artists from five continents. It also explored border disputes, contested territories (such as Pakistan and India, or Palestine and Israel), and collapsing urban space. At Venice, his curatorial power of sight manifested again. He anchored his show in one work of literature: Marx’s Das Kapital. He had a team of performers staging daily readings from the book till the close of the biennale. “I wanted to do something that has contemporary relevance,” he told an interviewer. “And, so, I thought of Das Kapital, a book that nobody has read and yet everyone hates or quotes from.”

My association with him goes back to 2010 when my research for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale took me to Gwangju (to look for artists and to experience a biennale).The biennale’s artistic director was the young curator Massimiliano Gioni. It was a memorable experience because one thing led to another and we (Riyas Komu, Shwetal Patel and me) ended up meeting young curatorial students, curator Dan Cameron, legendary and controversial artist Ai Weiwei and, finally, Enwezor. We spent some time with Enwezor at his hotel to discuss our inaugural biennale. He was sceptical and laughed off our idea: “Aha, yet another biennale!” Then he launched into the trials and tribulations he faced while putting together the Johannesburg Biennale.

He visited the KMB in 2015. It was one of his last research trips for the Venice Biennale 2015. He found Kochi to be a platform that “offers a vital link between Asia and Africa”. He also had conversations with Riyas and Jitish Kallat at the Biennale Pavilion at Aspinwall. It was followed by a wonderful dinner at Casino Hotel, where he talked at length about the Johannesburg Biennale. I also heard a lot about him from my mentor and teacher Sarat Maharaj, who was a co-curator at Documenta 11. I still remember his unusually thick and long fingers. Dressed like a dandy (he was known for his double-breasted suits), he always had a twinkle in his eye and mirth around his lips.

editor@theweek.in

art-education-needs-disruption

Sat Mar 09 16:23:37 IST 2019

I had the opportunity to attend the Art Education in India conference organised by the Foundation for Indian Art and Education (FIAE) and Goa University, this week. The conference had some of the most important artists and art educators in India speaking, including Gulammohammed Sheikh, Sadanand Menon, R. Siva Kumar, Indrapramit Roy and many others.

FIAE was formed out of the realisation that there did not exist a database that we could use to identify the problems of art education in India and the possible solutions for the future. So a number of researchers surveyed art colleges in India about the syllabi, infrastructure, students and funding. In 2015, the Kochi Biennale Foundation, at its Students’ Biennale conference, hosted the first report of the FIAE that covered the southern states. The Goa conference presented a more comprehensive data covering the whole of India.

My role at the conference was to present the lessons we have gathered through the Students’ Biennale, as well as my thoughts as an artist who has come through the Indian education system.

One of our learnings with the Students’ Biennale is about the disparity in conditions of art schools in India. The FIAE studies also bear this out. In Students’ Biennale workshops, we have attempted to bring together the students and resources of geographically close institutions, so that the students of one college can benefit from what is available at the other. Such an exchange and reciprocity between colleges could be activated at a larger scale.

Another lesson from the Students’ Biennale and our Young Residency programmes is that colleges are unable to connect students to the wider art-world ecosystem. I think an elementary layer of familiarisation with both the art-world landscape and its practices will be very useful for young artists. Simple exercises like how to prepare a portfolio, how to write a proposal will enable students to access opportunities that will otherwise remain distant from them. Art colleges should also create spaces where students can learn, read and talk about other subjects.

In spite of what we think is a surfeit of information available today, I find that many art students still do not have sufficient exposure to knowledge repositories on the internet or journals and magazines. One of the tasks of the teacher is to make sense of this bigness of data, to give students the tools to sort and filter information.

In addition, the presence of the teacher is important to ensure that she is not simply a compiler or a syllabus-giver. The teacher should enable the students to converse among themselves and with the world outside.

The most concerned discussions of the conference were on UGC policies, especially on qualifications of a teacher at colleges. It says that you have to have a PhD to get a job! Indian art has had many inspirational figures as teachers—Nandalal Bose, K.G. Subramanyan, A. Ramachandran and Gulammohammed Sheikh, to name a few. Sometimes, inspirational individuals outside institutions can also come to function like universities. At the conference, Sadanand Menon was talking about Akbar Padamsee, whose house in Mumbai was a gathering ground for filmmakers, artists and writers. I benefited tremendously from being able to meet and speak with such persons.

Finally, another element art schools have been unable to provide to students enough is the opportunity to travel. Young artists should be able to travel to different places, especially to visit museums, biennales and galleries. These should be included in the syllabi, and museums and other such institutions should take a proactive role in facilitating visits from art schools.

editor@theweek.in

caligari-in-contemporary-times

Sat Feb 23 17:47:18 IST 2019

First, the known fact: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is a 1920 German silent horror film, directed by Robert Wiene. Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypnotist (Werner Krauss), who uses a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders.

Now, the unknown fact: Deepan Sivaraman has given it a contemporary feel with his student production, done as part of a course titled ‘Space and Spectatorship’, at the Ambedkar University Delhi, where he teaches. It was presented by Performance Studies Collective, Delhi, in collaboration with NECAB and Blue Ocean Theatre, Bengaluru.

I am neither a theatre critic nor a writer, but my career began with an association with the proscenium play. I was an amateur theatre enthusiast and my passion for theatre ended because of my stage fright and lack of confidence. I could not, to save my life, face the public. And, I was all of 14 years old. Yet, between the ages of 17 and 25, I was active in theatre and worked with a lot of productions and won several awards. But that was not my calling.

My bonding with theatre began at my ancestral house when I saw my brothers, cousins and friends rehearsing at home. Some of the plays that are etched in my mind are G. Sankarapillai’s Thavalam, Mario Fratti’s Pep, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, John Abraham’s Chennaikkal Adhava Pattinimaranam and T.M. Abraham’s Albhuthanganam, which was directed by the eminent Jose Chirammel. Narippatta Raju, Purushothaman and other theatre experts used to spend a lot of time at home. The tradition continues with my sister-in-law Thankam and younger brother Mohan. My village, Mangattukara, near Angamaly, Kerala, is still an active home for experimental theatre and culture. I have seen and still see passionate practitioners of theatre even if they struggle to survive with their passion.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see Deepan’s version of Dr Caligari. According to Deepan, as told to a newspaper, “The central concern was how space works as a key component in theatre, because, at least in theatre, we never consider it as an important component like text, script or performative body. Space is always a given space.” So he chose a warehouse in the university to set his play. The rest followed.

I was overwhelmed by the production, performances, direction, scenography and adaptations of the play. Every second of Dr Caligari was with performative surprises and sudden shifts in theatrical languages. And the text in this case took a back seat. You return from the play with exaggerated emotions and memories of incredible sets. Wiene’s film reflects the sentiments of that time, depicting an authority that is brutal and insane, manipulating those under its observation to their own whim. Deepan turns the idea of the film on its head, reflecting upon our contemporary times.

I was happy to be with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale team of 20 and everyone was grateful to Deepan and Prakash Bara, who essayed the role of Dr Caligari. It was done with great difficulty and creative freedom for Kerala’s flood relief. We are active in theatre with an International Theatre festival in Thrissur to boot. Yet efforts like Deepan’s need to be appreciated and supported not just morally, but financially, too. It is a rarity. So all the more precious.

This version of the German epic is a dark thriller that evokes the times we live in subject to political climes. In these times of fake truths, this play is a reminder of the truths that we try to avoid but have to live with.

editor@theweek.in

The-celebration-of-lot-2019

Sat Feb 09 12:03:30 IST 2019

We are literate. But do we know our literature? That question would not perturb the mind of the average Malayali. The distance between literature and the literate is easily traversed in this coastal state, what with more than half a dozen literary weeklies being published, not to mention fortnightlies and special issues. This was further reinforced when I recently participated in the Kerala Lit Fest in Kozhikode. I had the opportunity to participate in it two years ago. This time, I was overwhelmed by the way it has grown to become one of the most important lit fests in the country.

According to the organisers, it is “the grandest celebration of words, stories, and ideas”, and the “second largest cultural gathering in the country”. I could not agree more. The humble Ravi Deecee, chief facilitator of the Kerala Lit Fest, whispered in my ear that the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was his inspiration. It made me wonder if the ‘People’s Biennale’ in Kochi was the biggest cultural gathering in the country. The jury is still out.

A couple of years ago, I had visited the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival. It was overcrowded with celebrities and corporate support and appeared to be more like a jamboree of bigwigs than a place where ideas and thoughts were exchanged. I was completely disillusioned by the experience and I began thinking: Is this where literature is at?

Today there are a number of lit fests from Mumbai to Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru to the ‘Ka’Lit Fest in Thiruvananthapuram. Yet, Kozhikode to me seemed to be beating other lit fests all ends up when it came to the participation of the youth and local residents. Other lit fests are mostly high-brow affairs where the elite gather to get a fair degree of literary jollies. What added more colour to the Kerala Lit Fest was its location—the Kozhikode beach. The venues were also equally enticing: Ezhuthola, Aksharam, Thulika, Vaakku and a special venue, Vellithira, to screen films.

The Kerala Literature Festival, 2019, saw a massive turnout of 2.6 lakh people attending various sessions conducted by around 500 guest speakers and authors. The topics covered were invigorating to say the least—everything from Sabarimala and women empowerment to literature and rebuilding Kerala after the floods.

I returned with a lingering thought that writers are at the shy end of the spectrum—silent watchers of life rather than noisy graspers of it. It is such thronging crowds that allow them to be in zones where they can speak their minds. In that respect, the Kerala Lit Fest will be marked in the sands of time. It takes a city to organise a festival like KLF.

Speaking of which, I must say that my mental floss about KLF was soon cleaned out by the event that the Kochi Biennale Foundation was about to host: the first ever contemporary art auction in Kochi. But by the night of January 18, when the auction was about to conclude, all my apprehensions vanished, because most of the bidders were young people from Kerala. They had no inhibitions in putting their money where their heart was—the art works on sale. Such confidence would go a long way towards encouraging the young artists whose works were among the ones auctioned. KLF and KBF’s auction for flood relief are to quote American author Thomas Pynchon: “I don’t believe in any of it, Ode”.

editor@theweek.in

a-biennale-for-everyman

Mon Jan 14 16:10:20 IST 2019

I start with a sad story. It has been a month since the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, South Asia’s biggest contemporary art festival, began successfully. However, a lump in the throat still remains. Soon after the biennale had started, I was told that one of my dearest friends had passed away in his sleep. Tushar Joag was always an artist interested more in being an educator than in his practice. He was always socially conscious and politically critical.

Talking about Tushar is very difficult because our bond goes back a long way to our days in the Sir JJ School of Arts, Mumbai. He was couple of years senior to me in college and was pleasant and handsome. His time at an artist-residency in Amsterdam changed his perception of contemporary art. Tushar co-founded Open Circle, an artist collective that sought to engage with contemporary socio-political issues via an integration of theory and practice. Tushar was a good soul and I will always miss him. He was supportive ever since Riyas and I made the proposal for a biennale in Kochi. In fact, after he joined Shiv Nadar University as a professor of arts, he brought students from the university to the last biennale.

Amid the despair about a dear departed friend, something else cheered me up. This happened in the middle of the opening of the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. This was the invitation to be a member of the International Biennale Association (IBA). Top biennale functionaries from across the world came to Kochi for three days of official deliberations. The IBA, based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, and founded in 2012, also held its fifth general assembly in Kochi. The board meetings on the first two days and the general assembly were closed-door. The final day’s conference was open to the public.

The public conference, titled ‘Shifting Borders: Biennials in Transforming Landscapes’, was held at the Biennale Pavilion in Cabral Yard, Fort Kochi. The Kochi Biennale Foundation co-hosted the four-hour meet. The keynote address was delivered by Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, who shared her experiences and work at numerous biennials. It was followed by panel discussions to further explore the role of biennials and their ability to connect art with communities.

IBA president Hoor al Qasimi, who also heads the Sharjah Art Foundation, spoke on the occasion. Select IBA members from around the world gave presentations about their biennials and institutions with a view to increase representation while offering opportunities for collaboration. Aichi Triennale, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Biennale of Sydney, Land Art Mongolia, Manifesta, Media Arts Biennial Chile, Rencontres de Bamako and the Atlantic Project gave interesting thoughts. I was overwhelmed and, also, informed for the better. It was great to have them all here. That is what Kochi is all about. We aspire to be good hosts and the biennale is a way to educate, entertain and emancipate.

There are new initiatives with this biennale, like every time. This year the Students’ Biennale expanded and included students from the SAARC countries. It was a great experience to see them work here. It reaffirmed the fact that art, and only art, can bring people together. We are one and nothing can separate us. The evidence lies in the fact none of the hartal calls had any effect on the footfalls at the biennale. This biennale, so far, has been as the famous Ornette Coleman songs go: ‘Open to The Public’; ‘Check Out Time’. Just as Tushar reminded us.

editor@theweek.in

my-kolkata-conundrum

Sat Dec 08 17:15:18 IST 2018

This is the biennale season. With little time left for the fourth Kochi Muziris Biennale to begin, all of us are wishing we had more than 24 hours in a day. There is so much to be done. Every morning, when you return to the office or visit a site, you are struck by yet another task that remains undone. Our emotions are oscillating between anxious despair and macabre excitement. So, naturally, this is the most difficult time to sit down and write a column that is unrelated to what you are preoccupied with. However, a column is neither a date that you can be late to, nor afford to miss. Thankfully, unlike most of my colleagues working at KMB, something fell in front of me like manna from heaven. It was like the timeout that a basketball team yearns for in a tight match. This provided me with the subject for this column.

Before getting there, I must fill you in with something that happened about a year ago. I had gone to Kolkata to see a gallery space, on the invitation of my dear friend, the journalist, critic, gallerist and art consultant, Anupa Mehta. She wanted to introduce me to Richa Agarwal.

Reams can be written about the story of the friendship between R.S. Goenka and R.S. Agarwal. It was on the foundations of this friendship between two Marwaris that the empire of the Emami Group, which built its fortunes in the cosmetic industry, was built. They were one of the first off the blocks in India to see skin care and beauty health care as a sunrise industry.

Today, their children have taken the business to even higher levels. Richa, daughter-in-law of R.S. Agarwal, started Emami Art, a contemporary art space in Kolkata, 10 years ago. However, it failed to make any significant impact. Richa grew up in south India and lived in Coimbatore most of the time, before getting married to Aditya Agarwal. She is humble and down-to-earth but ambitious to the core, which is more a virtue than something to be scorned upon, if you are born in the Emami household.

Anupa had given me a gist of the vision and mission. Emami Art wanted a rebirth and a commitment from me that I would open with my show at their 9,000sqft art space. When I visited the space, it was a work-in-progress. The resurrected space was being designed by Mumbai’s designer-architect-collector Pinakin Patel. I have known Pinakin for almost 25 years as a designer, and he has collected my abstract works. He was developing a 75,000sqft building dedicated to art, design, craft and education of Indian mythology. I was literally floored. Without a moment’s hesitation, I committed to do the inaugural show with Richa, Pinakin and Anupa.

Things can be exciting once the relationship and trust develop; here, Pinakin (aka PK) and Agarwal’s grew with total commitment to create a complex for creativity. Unfortunately, I could not fulfil my commitment, but Emami Art opened with a spectacular show. It was a collection of painting, prints, graphics, products and photography from visionary artist and designer Dashrath Patel’s collection. On November 21, Emami Art and Kolkata Centre for Creativity opened its doors to the public.

My responsibilities with the Kochi Biennale Foundation got the better of the word I had given to Pinakin, Richa and Anupa. However, after I saw Dashrath’s collection, I felt sometimes things happen for the good.

editor@theweek.in

bangkok-embraces-modern-art

Sat Nov 17 15:53:29 IST 2018

In French author Michel Houellebecq’s controversial novel Platform, one western character describes Thailand as a place where “everybody gets what they want, there’s something for everybody's tastes....”

Houellebecq (read Wellbeck) was making a contentious reference to the growing influence of the sex industry in Thailand. But, Thailand is not just about tourism anymore, as I discovered last month when I attended the inauguration of the first Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB). Bangkok is a city of culture, traditions, hospitality and gastronomy. However, censorship of the arts is often whimsical and subjective. So, artists find their freedom to express themselves curbed. BAB seems to have put all those concerns to rest with a very bold biennale.

I met Thailand’s most respected art critic and historian Dr Apinan Poshyananda at Venice, a couple of years ago during a brunch organised by the Biennale Association. He gave me his BAB business card, which reignited my excitement about the number of contemporary art initiatives growing in south and southeast Asia.

Poshyananda is the driving force behind the biennale. With Thailand battling issues such as the conflict between Muslim and Buddhist communities, and the inability to reconcile with the influx of persecuted Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Poshyananda has pulled off a grand event with great defiance. The other issues addressed in the biennale, particularly by Thai artists, include the exploitation of migrant workers, the plight of women in a patriarchal society and the wrath over environmental pollution of Thailand’s rivers.

In an interview after the opening, Poshyananda is reported to have said: "People said to me: ‘Why ask for trouble?’ And yes, we chose to take the difficult path. But under the military we have gone through five years of intense scrutiny and it is time to have a breather and be able to freely express ourselves." Despite apprehension, there has been no interference by the authorities, despite two venues being the city’s most famous temples—Wat Pho and Wat Arun. In a highly religious country, they were the unlikeliest places to display contemporary art. Yet, the government complied.

It is not easy to establish a festival on contemporary visual art. But, the BAB has been able to overcome all adversity. Poshyananda was aided by an advisory committee of prominent art figures. During the inaugural ceremony, he invited the incredible Marina Abramovic to join him on stage, to represent all the participating artists at the BAB.

The exhibition is also taking place across urban public spaces, from historic architectural sites to iconic landmarks like the East Asiatic Company building, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and Bank of Thailand Learning Centre.

These beautiful venues hosted fantastic paintings by Francesco Clemente, the trademark pumpkins of Yayoi Kusama, Heri Dono’s kinetic works, AES+F’s huge scale video, Gauri Gill’s photographs, Mark Justiniani’s installation and some brilliant performance pieces by Kawita Vatanajyankur. Kawita is a Thai video artist who creates thought-provoking works that emphasise the importance of gender equality. At the BAB, the young artist undertook physical experiments to examine weaving, knitting and printing processes in the textile industry. She was seen performing as a spinning wheel and textile shuttle.

It is difficult to cover 200 works spread over 20 venues. Yet, it was heartening to see that for a country that has been under a military regime, BAB has come as a welcome relief.

editor@theweek.in

death-of-a-ferryman

Sat Nov 10 19:12:25 IST 2018

Anoop Antony Scaria was exactly that: a ferryman. He took art, hospitality and music to many shores. But it had to start from one shore and that was Fort Kochi. I did not know much about him till he set up the pioneering Kashi Art Café. That was literally the beginning of art in Kochi. It gave the people in Kerala—starved of venues to see, discuss and display art—a platform.

He and his wife, Dorry, would invite unknown artists to his café and provide them all the facilities to further their practice. It was shorn of any selfish motive and was the result of pure love for art. They gave them food, space and loving company. There was a well-concealed altruistic selflessness in Anoop. And he had a vision when he began Kashi.

But, Anoop was backstabbed by the very artist he promoted, and he and Dorry left Kashi. Now, Dorry and their two beautiful children have to survive his permanent absence. He is no more. The vision has come full circle. Kashi has taken a new avatar, but it is not quite the same. Nobody could match Anoop’s zest, energy and ability to make art possible in Kochi. But the success of Kashi spawned a number of galleries in Fort Kochi.

One of the firsts that Anoop introduced to Kochi, and Kerala, was artist residencies. He set up a residency space and studio in Kakkathuruthu, a lovey island in Alappuzha district. Then, the Kashi Art Prize, which is being continued by the new owners of Kashi. There are many other things he started, one of which was the beach festival that has now taken the form of the Cochin Carnival. Then there was the tree festival during which he and his friends planted nearly 10,000 trees in Kochi. All of this happened before I got to know him.

I first met Anoop in 2003 during my show De-Curating. We bonded immediately and that was the beginning of a long friendship. Anoop and I insistently sought each other’s constant company. The first time I worked with him was for a group show, Remembering Bhupen Khakhar. Then I went on to do many shows in Kashi, some my own and some curated by me. I prefer not to list them here because it is painful to remember all of them at this moment. I invited him to be a part of ARCO Madrid as a participating gallery when I curated the India Pavilion. I also did several other things with him, one of which was giving an advance to buy property in Kakkathuruthu on the recommendation of Anoop and Dorry. Now I see it as an ominous sign because I never went back there.

The amazing and, of course, mouth-watering thing about Anoop’s and Dorry’s hospitality was the food they served. It was not the food that they served to their customers, most of whom were tourists, in the café. It was homemade food that both the couple and their staff ate. When in Kochi we could never think of eating anywhere else. Sometimes, we went to Shala in Princess Street. What I cannot forget is meeting a lot of artists, through them, like Upendranath T.R. and K. Reghunathan.

When Kochi became the art hub of Kerala, Anoop—the gallerist—turned out to be more interesting than the artists. He was not just a gallerist, but a friend to artists.

Gifted with a great sense of humour, among other gifts such as his handsome Native American looks, Anoop never resisted a good laugh though he himself was the butt of many jokes. He used humour to navigate situations when things heated up between competing artists. Even when he was fatally ill and bedridden, that jovial quality never left him. But then all good things must come to an end. And the ferryman had to leave.

editor@theweek.in

going-going-gone-graffiti

Mon Oct 22 10:10:20 IST 2018

If you follow contemporary art, there is no way you would not know Banksy. If you follow politics, there is no way you would have missed Banksy. If you follow controversies, you would be familiar with Banksy. If you like pranks and practical jokes, then surely all things Banksy are up your alley. If you are NOTA, Banksy is an artist from Bristol whom the entire art world knows of but has never seen.

He works under the cover of darkness to make provocative and radical statements. His true identity is the subject of much speculation. Some say Banksy is 3D aka Robert Del Naja of the trip hop band Massive Attack, who was a graffiti artist before he became a founding member of the band. He is credited with pioneering the stencil graffiti movement. But nobody is sure he is Banksy. And nobody can keep Banksy quiet.

Last week, he pulled off one of the most outrageous stunts in the history of art when he automated one of his iconic works, ‘Girl With A Balloon’, to self-destruct after being sold at a Sotheby’s auction for £1.04 million. It was the final item to go under the hammer that evening and soon after it was sold, the canvas began to slide through a shredder installed in the frame. Later, Banksy posted an image on Instagram of the shredded work dangling from the bottom of the frame with the title “Going, going, gone….”

That episode triggered a number of questions about the mechanics of the art market. Banksy was obviously cocking a snook at it. It renewed worldwide interest in Banksy’s work and in the art of graffiti. The history of graffiti is complex and is inextricably entwined with events that make it remarkable and events that push it to obscurity. It had its birth in the Stone Age. Graffiti, dated to 78 BC, has been found in Roman cities with themes of debauchery, opulence and politics.

In 1949, Edward Seymour introduced the idea of putting paint in a spray can. In the early 1960s, controversial people such as Cornbread and Cool Earl started writing on the walls [in Philadelphia], a trend that quickly spread to New York. In 1972, Hugo Martinez started the United Graffiti Artists collective that displayed graffiti in galleries for the first time. This history is vividly captured in Henry Chalfant’s documentary Style Wars (1983).

The decline of the USSR and the fall of the Iron Curtain spawned more expressions in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. This allowed artists like Banksy more freedom, and graffiti began selling in galleries. By 2007, the art had also gained ground in India.

Apart from Banksy, a figure who stands out in the world of graffiti is Jeffrey Deitch. He has been especially engaged with the careers of three of his contemporaries, two of whom were master graffiti artists—Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

The third was Jeff Koons. He ran a gallery called Deitch Projects in New York. But he closed the gallery to become director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. During his three years at MOCA, he presented 50 exhibitions and projects of which the graffiti show called Art in the Streets (2011) was the most significant. It had the highest attendance in the museum’s history. I was lucky enough to see the show in LA. Then, a couple of years ago, I met Deitch at Art Dubai preview nights and took some selfies.

Something tells me that Deitch was also responsible for introducing some of the most important contemporary artists from the subcontinent like Ravinder Reddy and Shahzia Sikander to the west. I think, he was also instrumental in promoting Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, who incidentally is one of the participating artists in this year’s Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The painting, incidentally, is on the wall closer to home.

editor@theweek.in

bend-it-like-germans

Fri Oct 05 19:01:30 IST 2018

Sometimes, it is at the most unexpected places and in extraordinary situations that the smallness of your existence dawns upon you. One of those rare occasions made a house call just last week. I received an invitation from Bernhard Steinruecke, director general, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, to speak at the 62nd AGM of the chamber in Mumbai. I first met Steinruecke when he was director of the Deutsche Bank in Mumbai. Tata House, in the city’s Fort area, the residence of the Tatas till 1992, had just been restored. And Deutsche Bank opened their head office on the premises in 1995. To experience Deutsche Bank’s art collection was nothing but exhilarating. Deutsche Bank must be one of the biggest art collecting banks in the world.

Steinruecke had great taste for art and was an avid collector. This was reflected in his personal life. He found his life partner in the Mumbai art world, the beautiful Ranjana Mirchandani. Ranjana and her mother, Usha, now run one of the best contemporary art galleries in India—Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke. I have seen the growth of the new tasteful gallery and one could notice that Steinruecke’s influence had transformed it.

It was indeed a great honour for me to address the gathering at the IGCC, among whom was the chief guest Monika Grütters, German federal government commissioner for culture and the media, and minister of state to the German chancellor; Martin Ney, German ambassador to India; and the guest speaker Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director general, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India). I have immense respect for Mukherjee, for the commitment, passion and open-mindedness that he shows towards running the best public museum in India. To my chagrin, he says all of it is possible, and the museum is sustaining itself, because of the beautiful people of Mumbai.

The subject of IGCC this year was business and culture. My talk was primarily about the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and how the fledgling event has turned out to be South Asia’s largest and the only ‘people’s’ biennale in the world. In fact, the IGCC is hosting its delegates in Kochi during the opening of KMB this year. I was pretty pleased with my presentation till my somewhat bloated ego was punctured. Thomas Fuhrmann, IGCC president and CEO, Grütters and Ney told me about how much Germany invests in culture every year. It is nearly €2 billion, which goes into the 6,200-plus museums and 800 opera houses they have. Not to speak of the year-round cultural activities and, of course, the art institutes.

Last year, when Grütters announced a 23 per cent boost for annual national arts funding, she said that it was meant to emphasise how ‘culture is the foundation for our open and democratic society’. This year she got the German Bundestag to up it to €1.8 billion. Today, Berlin is the hub of culture in the world. Any art organisation worth its salt wants to have a foothold in Berlin. I personally know of artists from different parts of the world who have migrated to Berlin. I am not saying that we in India should be like Germany. In fact, we cannot come anywhere near even if we try. But what I am saying is that it shows how much Germany cares for its culture. The German parliament could dare to set aside that kind of money only because they are well aware of the fact that there would not be any public backlash. If we begin to care, our politicians will begin to dare!

editor@theweek.in

kerala-time-for-sustainable-development-post-floods

Sat Sep 22 16:15:01 IST 2018

The floods have come and gone, leaving in their wake a heap of debris, delirium and despair. However, if we were to train our eyes from the watchtower of optimism, then every disaster offers an ocean of opportunity. With all the controversies surrounding donations, their disbursement and misuse/disuse notwithstanding, the money already in the kitty can be judiciously used to explore new and sustainable methods of development.

The government can start by seriously looking at rebuilding Kerala from scratch. It can look at building new roads, bridges and other public infrastructure that are of international standards and at par with first-world amenities.

China is not too far away to look for models. If one were to put aside petty politics and squabbles based on assumed ideologies, then China’s Belt and Road Initiative has a few lessons to offer. The government, whichever dispensation it may belong to, can create an environment where Malayalis can create valuable and successful businesses that do not depend on donations. This ecosystem can be based on infrastructure development that follows a minimum standard procedure to begin with. This moment has presented us with the best opportunity to salvage Kerala from the scourge of plastic—the bottles, bags and polystyrene wrappings that are blocking our drains and our docks and harbours, not to mention littering our parks and paths.

Yet the disposal of plastic offers one of the most exciting prospects of not only solving the problem but also helping the most vulnerable among us. And this can be easily done by creating and incentivising an army of informal waste-pickers. In exchange for cash from private and government-run companies, internally displaced people who have moved out of flood relief camps to makeshift habitats can collect 150-300 kilos of plastics a week. More than 80 per cent of this secondary raw material can easily be exported to South Asian countries for industrial purposes, or to recycle for use as packaging in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.

This is how we can see recycling as the right direction for the future. There are more than two million informal waste-pickers around the world, and recycling of waste is now a legitimate global business, with robust international markets, extensive supply and transportation networks, and a rapidly rising international market for secondary raw materials, especially in China. This sector could offer significant economic opportunities for our flood recovery activities, as well as create more jobs and allow inflow of money into the state.

An intensive investment in broadband and turning the state into one big smart city can go a long way in drawing the attention of venture capitalists and startups and those ploughing money into future technologies.

However, modernisation must not be at the cost of the environment. We should plant more coconut trees, areca nut trees, pepper and spice plants as vertical gardens and look at creating forests of deep-rooted trees. At the same time we should protect our mangroves. The ‘Things-to-Do’ list can go on and be as ambitious as it can be. Yet, it goes without saying no project can kickstart itself without planning, vision and meaningful discussions. Silence, of course, should not exist. And no noise, if productive, is loud enough. Just as charity begins at home, it is in our hands, not those of the politicians.

editor@theweek.in

flood-kerala-with-art

Fri Sep 07 17:14:38 IST 2018

Last week, I talked about the similarities between what happened in New Orleans ten years ago, and what happened in the month gone by in Kerala. This is what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans: nearly 2,000 deaths, more than $100 billion in damage, flooding in 80 per cent of the city, and the displacement of 400,000 residents. The impact of the floods in Kerala is yet to be completely assessed, though the government estimates that rebuilding would require about Rs 30,000 crore.

The case of New Orleans is worth going back to for more reasons than one. In the Kerala government’s decision to cancel all cultural festivals for one year, including the International Film Festival, makes it all the more relevant. Despite state apathy, New Orleans recovered fast. Much of its convalescence was catalysed by a vibrant art community, which not only restored the fabric of the city of music, Mardi Gras and memories but also recast its future.

It began with Prospect 1, an art biennale that was instituted and hosted by New Orleans within a month after the tragedy and went on for four months. It was the idea of international art curator of Dan Cameron, who had first-hand experience of witnessing host cities reaping huge rewards, both social and financial, from biennale exhibitions. Prospect 4, which ended in February this year, is now a major platform for artists from the Global South. Not only did it make a tremendous impact on cultural tourism but it also inspired artists embrace the social mission of the biennale, and created projects that resonate deeply with the city’s unique history, culture, people, and institutions.

Prospect was not the only thing that Katrina triggered culturally. There was a multi-media dance festival called Katrina Katrina: Love Letters to New Orleans; since then D.C. Blues Society has been dedicating its 18th annual festival to the music of New Orleans; that year the PEN/Faulkner opened its season with a New Orleans Night, with renowned authors reading New Orleans stories. But the hallmark of the post-Katrina year was a stupendous show titled Seeing Is Believing, Seeing Is Healing.

No one doubts the noble intention behind diverting finances set aside for cultural festivities to the disaster relief fund. But I cannot fathom the fact that it stems from the belief that art and culture is a luxury. I feel art has a crucial role to play in the reconstruction of Kerala.

When Hurricane Sandy hit the New York City, the US Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) published a report titled Art Became the Oxygen: An Artistic Response Guide, in which it argued that “crises need creativity”. Art has always been not only about visual or aesthetic pleasure, which is important, but also about creative responses to emergent situations. Nature has bestowed us abundant splendour, but our modern practices of architecture and urbanisation have worked against both the benefactor and those who benefitted. When we rebuild Kerala, it should be done with a complete understanding of our inheritance. Our standardised, context-free building and zoning practices that respond only to expediencies of economics will not do anymore. Art that is aware and sensitive of its materials and its context, and thinks beyond any immediacy can contribute greatly. Instead of turning its back to art activities in the name of austerity, Kerala should adopt curated/edited “emergency arts”, the coming together of artistic practice, emergency management, and community development.

editor@theweek.in

rebuilding-kerala

Fri Aug 24 16:00:19 IST 2018

Around this time in 2005, New Orleans on the Gulf Coast of the United States was struck by Hurricane Katrina. The devastation inflicted on the southern American city then, and now on Kerala by floods caused by the relentless monsoon rains is similar. The reaction of the respective national governments—George W. Bush was the US president then—to the death and destruction is also sadly similar. There have been complaints of apathy and even of not encouraging support coming in from outside. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done in the next few months in Kerala’s case, and one hopes that the Central government plays its part and helps the people in putting their lives back together.

The jury is still out on how much of the disaster could have been averted through better land and construction practices, environmental zoning and more efficient on-ground coordination. These are important reflections that must be undertaken. However, this must not be reduced to bickering. As the chief minister of Kerala rightly said, we should concentrate all our attention, energy and faculties on rebuilding Kerala.

There are many ways to do this. As we embark on the Herculean task of reconstructing our houses, roads, bridges and schools, we should bear some basic points in mind. We should remember that it is not just a brick-and-mortar process. It also involves long-term planning, efficient and sustainable building ideas and innovative material sourcing. I think the rebuilding must make use of the ideas and skills of architects and post-disaster reconstruction experts. In the present urgency, we must not make the mistake of amplifying the devastation by building difficult and unseemly infrastructure that ultimately reduces the quality of life. Kerala must answer the crisis by becoming stronger, healthier and more beautiful.

The typical aesthetics of the landscape must be taken care of. I have said this on this column before and I am repeating it. We should look for eco-friendly materials as well as designs. Building regulations, especially near river banks, have been flouted with impunity. When we rebuild, these regulations must be respected. Better architectural and design practices are not luxuries, and could actually reduce the financial burden of reconstruction.

There are examples that we can learn from. Look at how Fukushima and the neighbouring area rebuilt itself after it was struck by the tsunami. I began with New Orleans for a reason. The city bore the brunt of the damage when the levees failed, submerging 80 per cent of the city. I am not ignoring the lives lost and the trauma that was caused in 2005, but New Orleans is a vastly-improved place now. The reassembly of the city’s infrastructure was thoughtful and multilayered. High school graduation rates have jumped from 56 per cent before the storm to 73 per cent today, thanks to a proliferation of charter schools. There are more and higher-paying jobs than before Katrina, and the city is safer from floods thanks to a massive hurricane and flood protection system. An influx of the millennials post-Katrina delivered a stream of educated professionals to the city, flush with new ideas and energy. The infrastructure has got such impetus that tourism, which, like in Kerala, is the mainstay, is now much improved. New Orleans is one of the greatest comeback stories in American history. Kerala, too, can become a symbol of resurrection in India’s history.

editor@theweek.in

plan-cities-for-their-residents

Fri Aug 10 17:08:12 IST 2018

Ever since the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was conceptualised, I have become a part-resident of Kochi. However, despite the success of the biennale, the state of the city is worrisome.

On the roads, one can see garbage piling up on the sides. During the monsoon, the roads become unusable. As the city expands, not enough is done to seek better ways to accommodate its citizens. Last month, there was a conference in Shanghai, and the spokesperson for the Communist Party of China said they had started working on the city project towards the 22nd century, and its first part would be ready by 2025. This is the scale of their planning!

It’s not just about urban planning, but also about involving architects and artists so that aesthetics is attended to. In Kerala, we should look for eco-friendly materials and try to avoid steel and glass as much as possible. Heritage buildings in and around Fort Kochi and Mattancherry should be protected and not allowed to fall prey to the real estate market. This can be done by bringing in regulations that restrict demolitions and building new structures, and even if a new structure is allowed, the height and look of the building can be defined.

Too many smart city visions concentrate on big data and connectivity while there are many more fundamental problems. I’ve heard that Jakarta and Beijing are both exploring data dashboards and citywide sensing projects to address issues of traffic congestion. What these cities really need are improved public transport systems. Similarly, Kochi has a world-class metro rail network now, but it needs to be seen how far it has gone in solving people’s transportation needs.

As mentioned, Kochi has a huge waste management problem which needs to be addressed with express efficiency. The once-beautiful canals in the Fort Kochi region have become drainage and waste-dumping systems. Worse, it is on the sides of these dirty canals that a good portion of the population lives. Another issue is the water supply to houses. People are now seeking refuge in cans of supposedly purified water because they don’t have a proper drinking water supply. Planning for the future must create open, green spaces and playgrounds because Kochi is not just for us but for our children and their children, too.

For these problems to be addressed, two things must happen simultaneously.

One is a strong and visionary leadership. This should come from the public sector. Some of the standout smart cities—Barcelona, Amsterdam, Malmö—exhibited dynamic leadership from their mayors as well as chief executives. Crucially, they did not leave the evolution of the city to the market. In parts of Africa and Asia, smart cities are almost purely private sector-driven. As a result, we are seeing elaborate hi-tech satellite cities gathering dust.

Second, many smart city projects fail in communicating their goals and in capturing the imagination of people so they can be bothered to participate. Here, the aesthetic and cultural dimension is crucial because that will help connect to people. This must be part of the conversation apart from political will.

editor@theweek.in

accolades-aplenty

Fri Jul 27 12:43:05 IST 2018

Awards are more than momentary recognition. They can demand responsibility of the achiever whilst bestowing an honour. There are many important awards in the art world such as the Marcel Duchamp Prize in France or the Turner Prize in the UK. The latter, given by Tate Britain to celebrate contemporary visual art, was named after the legendary British artist J.M.W. Turner because he had wanted to establish a prize for young artists. The £25,000 prize money is considered a token amount given the prices for contemporary art. But the prize is a prestigious accolade in the international art world.

Similarly, the Artes Mundi (Latin: arts of the world) is an international biennial contemporary art exhibition and prize, held in Wales and organised by the eponymous arts charity. Mysuru-based artist N.S. Harsha was an early recipient (Artes Mundi 3 in 2008). In the UAE, The Abraaj Capital Art Prize worth up to $1 million divided among five artists from South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East has become an important benchmark. The Hugo Boss Prize, which is funded by the German lifestyle and menswear brand, annually collaborates with The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The Future Generation Art Prize, an international award funded by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, gives up to $100,000 in cash and towards the production of a new work, plus up to $20,000 to fund artist-in-residency programmes for up to five ‘special prize’ winners. This level of patronage goes to show that prizes have become a big marketing strategy for brand building.

However, it is not all about huge prize money. The prestigious Golden Lion and Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale that honour the best national participation and the most promising artist carry little prize money. The BMW Art Journey enables the winning artist to go almost anywhere in the world to develop new ideas, find new themes and envision new projects. The seventh winner of the award is now on his journeys.

I was recently invited to be one of the jury members for the Signature Art Prize 2018, funded by the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation and organised by the Singapore Art Museum. The other members of the jury were Mami Kataoka, chief curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Joyce Toh, head of content and senior curator, Singapore Art Museum; Gerard Vaughan, director, National Gallery of Australia, and Malaysian artist/politician Wong Hoy Cheong.

The prize is now a decade old. The inaugural edition of the triennial award in 2008 had 34 nominations from 12 countries. The fourth edition this year had 46 different countries and territories, with Central Asia being included for the first time. Jury members had to review 113 works and many more again on PowerPoint presentations in closed rooms. The artist and art works were nominated for the prize by 38 invited curators/artists from different regions and countries. After rigorous conversations and critical debate, we invited 15 projects. In fact, the jurors had to visit Singapore again to see the original exhibitions of 15 shortlisted entries at the National Museum.

Vietnamese artist Phan Thao Nguyen was finally awarded the Grand Prize—SGD60,000. Her poetic, regional story telling, including paintings and video, caught the jurors’ attention. Indian-Singaporean artist Shubigi Rao and Thailand’s Thasnai Sethaseree received the two Jurors’ Choice Awards, receiving SGD15,000 each. Indonesian narrative story painter Gede Mahendra Yasa received the People’s Choice Award worth SGD10,000. And, the Signature Art Prize—an important art award in Asia—completed another successful edition, brilliantly structured and executed by the Singapore Art Museum’s team at the National Museum of Singapore.

editor@theweek.in

india-remembered-at-basel

Sat Jul 14 15:17:36 IST 2018

Anytime is a good time to be in Europe if you are a culture vulture, but June is the standout month. And Basel is the place to be, because art, creativity and diversity are this riverside city’s calling card. It may lack the glitz and glamour of Zurich or Geneva, but it hosts one of the most important art events in the world—Art Basel. In 1970, three Basel gallerists, Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt, created an international art fair with 90 galleries and 30 publishers from ten countries. It proved to be an instant success with an attendance of more than 16,000 visitors.

Today, it brings the art world together, with 290 of the world’s leading galleries showing the works of more than 4,000 artists. I have already written about this year’s Art Basel. But a quick flashback to two things I missed to mention is warranted. One is Unlimited—Art Basel’s pioneering exhibition platform for projects that transcend the classical art-show stand, including massive sculptures and paintings, video projections and live performances. This year Unlimited was curated by New York-based Gianni Jetzer and one of the exhibits was our own Sudarshan Shetty’s Shoonya Ghar (Empty is this house).

Design Miami also opened next door the same time. Apart from the usual fare of publications’ booths, cafes, restaurants and bars there, was a section called Conversations—curated talks by Mari Spirito, founding director of the art organisation Protocinema.

Moreover, Basel boasts some 30 museums, including the world-class Kunstmuseum, Foundation Beyeler, Museum Tinguely and Schaulager Basel. The Schaulager has an amazing show by Bruce Nauman—Disappearing Acts [till August 26]. The Foundation Beyeler, in its Renzo Piano-designed building, is expanding the museum space with the help of Swiss architects Peter Zumthor & Partner. Both the Kunstmuseum and the Foundation has world-class collections, from Rembrandt and Rubens to Monet and van Gogh. The Kunstmuseum houses the largest and most significant public art collection in Switzerland, and is listed as a heritage site of national significance. The Gegenwart, also known as The Museum of Contemporary Art (Museum für Gegenwartskunst), is a wing of Kunstmuseum built in 1980, and was the first public museum in Europe exclusively dedicated to the production and practice of contemporary art. In 2016, it was enlarged and renovated, and was turned into two buildings designed by the Swiss firm Christ & Gantenbein. The other interesting museum in Basel is the Vitra Design Museum near Basel, designed by Frank Gehry and Herozog & De Meuron.

But Museum Tinguely is where you’ll find truly wacky installations. It is head-scratchingly good. Jean Tinguely was a 20th century master of mechanical sculpture, whimsically transforming machinery, appliances, and items straight from the junk heap into ironic and often macabre statements. He was the Swiss version of Kerala’s Perumthachan. One of Tinguely’s more elaborate constructions, Le Ballet des Pauvres, from 1961, suspends a hinged leg with a moth-eaten sock, a horse tail and a fox pelt, a cafeteria tray, and a blood-soaked nightgown, all of which dangle and dance on command. Many of the sculptures are activated at preset times, usually every five to 15 minutes, so it pays to wait and see them in action.

I had first met Tinguely Museum director Roland Wetzel during CiMAM’s (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) annual conference in Tokyo. Then he visited the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale during which the work of Gauri Gill caught his attention. He invited her to create a show at Tinguely Museum during Art Basel. I was proud to see a larger collection of the same series of black and white photographs from her ‘Notes from the Desert’ project set in Rajasthan. Somehow, India can’t be ignored, even in Basel.

editor@theweek.in

behind-enormous-artworks

Tue Jul 03 22:38:06 IST 2018

Human imagination and skill are essential elements in making art. Whenever one encounters an art installation, skilled craftsmanship, understanding of materials and awareness of structural engineering are required to have its aesthetics.

Whenever I see enormous artworks, I wonder how and where they had been produced to such exacting and polished standards. Artworks like Sir Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate at Chicago’s Millennium Park were all ‘fabricated’ at specialist producers that artists are increasingly reliant upon for their most ambitious projects. Another example is Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s Venice Biennale project at Arsenale. His large wax candle sculptures were scaled copies of figures which slowly melt away over the six-month-long biennale. Subodh Gupta’s Carrara marble works or giant metal banyan tree—outdoor installation at National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi—were produced with the precision and attention to detail normally reserved for architecture and high specification engineered products.

A few years ago I heard about a place called Sittertal, St Gallen, in rural Switzerland. Two of my colleagues from the Kochi Biennale Foundation—Riyas Komu and Shwetal Patel—visited the place and told me about a secluded foundry and its amazing production centre for contemporary art works.

As I was attending the annual Art Basel fair this summer, I wrote to Marianne Burki, head of visual arts in the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, to arrange a guided tour and appointment with Felix Lehner, the founder and director of the art foundry Kunstgiesserei St Gallen.

Along with Richa Agarwal, an art connoisseur and a patron of Kochi Biennale Foundation, I set out to see the production facilities. Richa will be opening her new gallery space and 60,000 square-foot cultural centre in Kolkata this September.

There are two institutions on site. The art foundry, Kunstgiesserei St Gallen, and Foundation Sitterwerk—a nonprofit institution with an exhibition space, a library, a material archive and two guest studios. At Sitterwerk, we were received by Roland Früh, librarian at Sitterwerk Art Library. He accompanied us on a guided walk through the institutions of Sitterwerk and Kunstgiesserei St Gallen, recalling its history and anecdotes along the way. About three decades ago Felix met with artist Hans Josephsohn, and being a passionate craftsman Felix started producing sculptures for him and others. In 2006, Felix founded the Sitterwerk Foundation with Hans Jorg Schmid, owner of the area, and Daniel Rohner, book collector. The art foundry is located on the grounds of a former textile dyeing factory. The library at Sitterwerk has over 25,000 volumes on art architecture and design, all meticulously archived. The material archive has an incredible collection of materials and mediums, and processes of every kind imaginable. The foundation includes two residency art studios, a gallery space called Kesselhaus Josephsohn—an exhibition and storage space for the works of Hans Josephsohn, and a collection of casted artworks, moulds, catalogues and other materials.

While walking through the Kunstgiesserei, one could see miniature models to massive sculpture-making foundries, ceramic studios, 3D printers, graphic studios, wax mounding to all kinds of steel, aluminium, copper and metal processing facilities.

We were able to see the making process for Subodh Gupta, Urs Fischer, and many other eminent works at the factory. Approximately 50 craftsmen, artist-assistants and fabricators were working towards what the artists envisioned. It was great to join with Felix, Roland and others at communal kitchen to have lunch together, and I was touched to see Felix queue up with other staff for food.

As we departed for Art Basel, Felix said: “We hope to see you at Art Basel tonight. Also, look out for some fresh works from the Kunstgiesserei at the gallery booths.”

returning-to-yinchuan

Sat Jun 16 12:40:20 IST 2018

Tis the season to be… at art biennales and fairs. June saw the opening of four biennales: the 10th Berlin Biennale on June 8; the second Yinchuan Biennale in China on June 9 and Manifesta, the European biennale, in Palermo, Italy, on June 16. Not to mention the place where everybody worth his salt in the art world will be flocking to—Art Basel, the mother of all art fairs.

I was thrilled to watch the second edition of the Yinchuan Biennale, which opened in Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Yinchuan. I could be reasonably proud of it, as I curated the first edition in 2016. That gave me the unique opportunity to familiarise myself with Yinchuan, the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Flanked by the Yellow River in the east and the Helan Mountains in the west, the region is serene and scenic. This landscape has influenced the architecture of MoCA.

This year's Yinchuan Biennale has new commissions alongside ancient artistic relics from public museums and private collections. The participating artists have been selected from over 30 countries, with particular attention being paid to the western borders of China (from Mongolia to central and southeast Asia) in a way that is consistent with the exhibition’s geopolitical and investigative methods. The title of the biennale, 'Starting from the Desert - Ecologies on the Edge', was apt for the works from 80 groups (92 individuals) of artists. These were displayed within the museum, the International Artists Village, and the Hui Nongqu Eco-Park.

The concept put together by chief curator Marco Scotini and his team—Andris Brinkmanis, Paolo Caffoni, Lu Xinghua and Zasha Colah (from India)—was daunting in its scope, yet thought provoking in the end. It had a reasonably good Indian representation with Ravi Agarwal, Navjot Altaf with Rajkumar Korram and Shantibai Vishwakarma, Sheba Chhachhi, Nikhil Chopra, Shiva Gor, Prabhakar Pachpute, u-ra-mi-li (Iswar Srikumar and Anushka Meenakshi), and Justin Ponmany.

Justin never refrains from springing surprises with his art projects. This time, I had the chance to see his choreographed and theatrical performance, a first for me. His project has been put together with the help of local theatre students and faculty. Using an outdoor amphitheatre with the landscape—a Chinese metaphor [for the well-regulated state]—as backdrop and a bicycle as prop with mimicked birdsong, the performance was at once mesmerising, persuasive and meditative. There was another performance by the compelling Nikhil Chopra—his live drawings alluding to nomadic nature.

My Yinchuan MoCA team was thrilled to see me back. It was really nice to hear most of them say, “We remember you a lot and miss you,” which immediately transported me to the days I spent there with my small team—Jessal Thacker, Mithika Mathew, the unpredictable maverick Manoj Nair, the lovely Rebecca, Julia and others. Su Chen, then artistic director of MoCA, who had invited me to curate the inaugural biennale, has moved on to other pastures and been replaced by Professor Lu Peng.

But setting up a biennale is as exacting as it is exciting. Thinking about a new biennale itself is a risk with inherent questions like, is it possible; where are the sites; who will run it; who is the audience; who will fund it; how many artists; how many days and finally who is going to ensure quality and consistency. And, Yinchuan is a distant and diffident place to run both a museum and a contemporary art biennale.

Yet, I was struck by the diversity of the works on display at Yinchuan. The works of Shiva Shreshta from Nepal, Mariam Ghani from Afghanistan, Kim Sooja from Korea and many others were impressive. However, what I left Yinchuan with was the image of a fantastic carpet, an arte povera work by the legend, Alighiero Boetti.

editor@theweek.in

a-day-at-delfina

Fri Jun 01 18:07:35 IST 2018

I had been hearing about Delfina Studios in London since my student days as the ideal place for upcoming artists to learn and work in an international atmosphere. It was set up as a residency space in 1988 by Spanish philanthropist Delfina Entrecanales. It was initially above a jeans factory in East Stratford. Later, as its scope increased, it moved to Bermondsey Street and had 34 studios. Twelve of them were fully funded by Delfina and the rest were available to artists at discounted rates.

After almost two decades, she reinvented it as the Delfina Foundation and invited the dynamic Aaron Cezar to be its director. Aaron, who continues to lead the foundation, has devised its thematic residency programmes. In its latest residency, the foundation has supported several artists from the Middle East and South Asia, such as Khalil Rabah, Farhad Moshiri, Susan Hefuna, Haluk Akakce and Khosdrow Hassanzadeh. This time, during my visit to London, I was able to fulfil my long-cherished dream of visiting Delfina. I wanted to understand the mechanics and workings of such a successful space. And I was not disappointed, because Aaron, the perennially charming master of public relations, obliged. I had met him at various art-related events around the world and seen him enjoying drinks and dancing light-footedly with friends and rank strangers. Aaron is easygoing, fluid and interested in developing relationships and cultivating ideas.

I had informed him that I will be coming over with a couple of friends—Shafi Rahman, a London-based Malayali journalist, and Sara Moralo, a young photographer from Spain. The foundation is located at 29-31 Catherine Place, Victoria, London, and has been renovated and designed by Studio Octopi and Egypt-based Shahira Fahmy Architects. It is only 100 metres from the Buckingham Palace and within walking distance from many of London’s iconic landmarks. Aaron welcomed us with a warm hug and I introduced my friends. He then took us around explaining everything to the minutest detail.

The Delfina Foundation can accommodate up to eight residents at one time. With interchangeable spaces, the house is an ideal base for research and developing ideas. The entire house, from the kitchen to the gallery, is treated as ‘studios’. It has done away with the idea of having dedicated spaces solely meant for work. The organisers prefer to host a mix of residents with a range of backgrounds, from artists and writers to collectors. Therefore, the facilities are not equipped for specific practitioners. The house includes a 1,650sqft event and exhibition space. It also has a communal kitchen area, an outdoor terrace and a courtyard, the foundation’s offices, and a library/ resource room.

A place [like this] is created by committed patrons and visionary directors. Without the efforts of the 90-year-old Delfina or the dashing Aaron, this place wouldn’t have the glories it has. It is the largest and the most sought after residency space in London. So far more than 250 artists, writers and collectors have gone through the lived experience of culture in Central London. Among its alumni are a dozen Turner Prize winners and nominees such as Shirazeh Houshiary, Jane and Louise Wilson, Mark Wallinger, Anya Gallacio, Tacita Dean, Glenn Brown, Mark Titchner, Martin Creed, Goshka Macuga, and Tomoko Takahashi.

Aaron continues to knit relationships/ collaborations with North Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia. I have seen creative and passionate people take art institutions to new heights—Sir Nicholas Serota at the Tate; Hans Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton-Jones at The Serpentine Galleries; Nicolas Bourriaud at Palais de Tokyo in Paris; Thomas Girst head of BMW’s cultural engagement department; and our own Jyotindra Jain at the National Crafts Museum, Delhi. With Delfina Foundation, Aaron has joined their ranks. Who could have imagined that Edwardian houses amalgamated into one property would become a hub for cultural exchanges.

editor@theweek.in

an-incredible-exchange-at-tate

Fri May 18 15:09:30 IST 2018

Ever since 2012, one question that has been consistently confronting all of us at the Kochi Biennale Foundation is: how did you put up this incredible biennale? It is a question that does not have a one-word answer or can be explained in a sentence or two. “It just happened,” is our common refrain, though we all know that it took more than a village to establish it in Kochi. And, now, Kochi is on the global art map.

Recently, we were at the Tate Modern in London, demonstrating how to build a biennale. I was invited by Winchester School of Art (WSA), University of Southampton, as part of the celebrated ‘Tate Exchange’ programme, involving participants who were mostly students from various disciplines in the production of contemporary art. We explored how to make, organise, design space, curate and install or orchestrate works of art. The programme also included a variety of workshops to discover what it means to build art ‘events’, including the use of 3D digital scanning, an introduction to crowdfunding, participation in performance-based art and a series of daily thoughtful discussions.

According to the Tate website, Tate Exchange is “a space for everyone to collaborate, test ideas and discover new perspectives on life, through art”. It has more than 60 associates—charities to universities and health care trusts to community organisations from the UK and other parts of the world. And, it includes working within and beyond the arts in association with Tate Modern and Tate Liverpool.

In 2000, the derelict but historic Bankside powerhouse was converted into a grand museum by Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron, and Tate Modern was born. Couple of years ago, it opened an annexe called the Blavatnik building—WSA held Tate Exchange on the fifth floor of this new building.

On the first day, we explored how to install a work, followed by a discussion between me and Tate Exchange participants on ‘Production’ as a concept and practice and the diverse biennale practice, especially in the context of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB). On the second day, national and international participants (including Jitish Kallat, second edition curator of KMB) were invited to submit proposals and formulate materials for the book, How to Biennale! The Manual, a practical guide for making your own art events.

Also, participants collaborated with Chinese calligraphy artist Zhang Qiang, making silk scrolls to be exhibited on the Tate Exchange floor. On the fifth day, Zuleikha Chaudhari, who participated in the third edition of KMB, devised an event called ‘The Ideal Spectator’, in which she held auditions for the position of spectator or even an impostor artist! Interestingly, Sudarshan Shetty, curator of the last biennale, was a participant and had a dialogue with Zuleikha later.

The last day was an open forum that discussed the future of biennales. The programme concluded with a live event, with the curator of the next edition of the KMB, Anita Dube, joining us from Kochi.

I have known Robert E. D’Souza, head of Winchester School of Art, and Sunil Manghani, professor of theory, practice and critique and director of doctoral research at WSA, since the inception of the KMB. Both of them have visited the biennale several times and have been part of the ‘History Now’ (art talk series at the KMB). They also published the first academic book on the KMB, India’s Biennale Effect: A Politics of Contemporary Art. The ‘How To Build An Art Biennale’ programme was conceptualised and organised by Tate Exchange, WSA and Shwetal Patel, consultant to the KMB.

I was overwhelmed by the response that the programme received. It was a great opportunity to meet incredible minds from the biennale world—artists, curators, writers, journalists, Tate members, Tate curators and, undoubtedly, the wonderful students of WSA. Drawing inspiration from the KMB, they produced three works based on Subodh Gupta’s Sea of God, Robert Montgomery’s text-based light works and the tents of Francesco Clemente. It was quite an unusual experience to watch students and tutors install the three massive works at the fifth floor of the impressive Blavatnik building.

editor@theweek.in

art-and-the-pearl-of-the-orient

Sat May 05 15:08:29 IST 2018

Not so long ago when I was in Hong Kong, I could see the West Kowloon District across from where I was—the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Past the Victoria Harbour, the skyline and across the bay, in the distance, on reclaimed land, one could see a huge signage that screamed M+.

M+ is home to a future world of culture. Funded totally by the government, the site is being developed into one of the most buzzing areas for culture in the world with parks, museums, theatres, exhibition spaces, food courts and other commercial spaces that speak nothing but culture. The idea germinated in 2008, with an upfront endowment of $21.6 billion. The project is taking off in phases, with most of the spaces for cultural activity already in place and one of the most spectacular operas taking off last year at its opera house. The total cost of M+ is expected to be more than $63 billion. It is expected that the authorities would make nearly $100 billion from the commercial activities alone that would sustain the cultural spaces and activities within.

On my return to Kerala, I imagined Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi from the other side of the backwaters, Vypin. Well, in comparison to Kowloon Cultural Hub, it is only a drop in the ocean, and revolves around a single event, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. However, we had created borderless and non-hierarchical expositions with minuscule amounts compared with any other international operations. But, a fruitful beginning has been made.

Going back to Hong Kong, I have been attending the last three iterations of Art Basel Hong Kong, and I am always eager to see the wide range of contemporary art from around the world one gets to see there. Especially ‘Encounter’, which as I have mentioned earlier, is a large-scale project commissioned by Art Basel Hong Kong and is curated by Alexie Glass Kantor, director of Artspace, Sydney. This time she had invited 16 artists, one of whom was Subodh Gupta.

One of my duties at Art Basel Hong Kong is to be part of a jury to shortlist and later select a winner from among the individual projects shown by the 23 galleries participating in the ‘Discoveries’ sections of the events.

We have shortlisted three artists for this year’s BMW Art Journey —Los Angeles-based artist Gala Porras-Kim, Lahore-based Ali Kazim (represented by Jhaveri Contemporary, Kazim drew a lot of attention) and Berlin-based New Zealander Zac Langdon-Pole. Each artist will be invited to submit a proposal for an artistic project that involves a journey to anywhere in the world.

This edition of Art Basel HK had a large Indian participation compared with the earlier years—Chemould Presscot, Espace, Experimenter, Jhaveri Contemporary, Nature Morte, Sakshi, SKE, Vadehra, Tarq, and Icon Gallery (NY) and Kavi Gupta (Chicago) from abroad.

It was also a proud moment to attend the Asia Society’s Game Changer Awards ceremony. Asia Society is a global non-profit organisation and is a leading force in forging closer ties between Asia and the west through arts, education, policy and business outreach. This year, Asia Society honoured the artistic excellence and pioneering contributions to the arts of Subodh Gupta, Shirazeh Houshiary, Ju Ming, and Park Seo-Bo.

Like at any event of such a scale, one can do several things at Art Basel Hong Kong: attend Asia Art Archive’s Special Conversations and talks (it was good to hear the legendary Guerrilla Girls), visit some fantastic exhibitions, and curated exhibitions at the Para Site; and browse through all art magazine and art news paper stands. UBS and Davidoff VIP Lounges were ideal places to hold meetings.

Astha Butail, BMW Art Journey awardee of 2017, had a great presentation of her research and installations. She had a short conversation with Dr Thomas Girst, BMW’s global cultural head. We are truly making our presence felt on the global front. Back home? Well, that’s another story all together.

editor@theweek.in

a-visit-down-under

Sat Apr 21 15:48:06 IST 2018

Some time back, a gallerist friend of mine asked: “What are artist residencies?” It is a question that is asked often. Residencies are studio spaces of varying sizes to which writers, performers, dancers, artists and scientists are invited to live and work, mostly for a short period of time. A normal residency has living facilities and work spaces. Residencies provide creative professionals with connections and an audience.

Residency programmes are never the same. Each programme or guest studio, large or small, established or experimental, has its own background and atmosphere. Working periods differ enormously: from two weeks to six months, sometimes even a year or two. Some specialise in one discipline, others are interdisciplinary. I have participated in some fabulous artists residencies to work, learn and live. One of them, called Headlands Centre of Visual Arts, was at Sausalito—a city in California, across the Golden Gate from San Francisco.

I would like to use this space to talk about a few people behind such spaces. One of them is Alexie Glass-Kantor. I met her a few years ago at Art Basel Hong Kong. She has been the curator for the large-scale installations called Encounters at Art Basel in Hong Kong. I had attended her moderated talk sessions called Conversations during the event. She is a fluid, articulate and prolific speaker, a great conversationalist and an inspiring moderator. During our trip to Australia, we met her at Artspace [art gallery in Sydney] during the professional preview. She has been the director of Artspace for the last four years. She has a great team and spirit to run such spaces.

Support comes from state agencies like Australian Council for the Arts (ACA). In fact, the artists’ studios or cultural institutions in Australia are mostly funded by the ACA. It also coordinated the Meet the Artists programme for visiting international curators at Artspace, and other venues such as Carriageworks Studios, Parramatta Artists Studios and ACE Open in Adelaide. We went through a lot of good artists’ presentations. At the Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne, we heard and saw Sangeeta Sandrasegar. Her works are extremely minimalist and conceptual.

Now, we are also looking forward to welcoming Alexie to Kochi soon to continue our artist and studio exchange programmes. It would also be an opportunity to learn her administrative and multi-tasking abilities.

ACE has some good exhibition spaces and had a good show by ten Muslim artists—part of the Australian Muslim artist collective, Eleven. (The collective was initiated by Tripoli-born, Sydney-based artist Khaled Sabsabi. I had showed his works at the Yinchuan Biennale 2016 and Sudarshan Shetty invited him for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016. In fact, Khaled was everywhere: Biennale of Sydney, and ACE and Samstag Museum in Adelaide.) ACE has also set up a few new studio spaces. There are a lot of complimentary spaces that are also used by ACE, like Jam Factory Contemporary Craft and Design, a fantastic foundry for blown glass and ceramics. It is a lovely exhibition space and has a cool design shop, everything produced by artists or designers.

Riyas Komu, director of programmes, Kochi Biennale Foundation, and ACE’s CEO Liz Nowell and reputed curator Natalie King had a meeting for long-term relationship building between Kochi, Adelaide and Melbourne. Within a minute’s walk from ACE is the Samstag Museum. It was a great feeling to ruminate on the works of some of our KMB artists. One of them was Angelica Messitti, who participated in the 2012 edition. She will be part of the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019.

I have a lot to write about our visit to Australia, but here I would like to inform you about a fairly new space called Victoria College of Arts at the University of Melbourne. Vikki Mcinnes, the managing editor of the art journal Art +Australia and an independent curator, and Natalie gave us an enlightening walk through the students’ studio spaces, workshops, graphic studios, space for conversations and the gallery next door, the Buxton Contemporary. There were three eminent people during our short visit at the university—Vietnamese artist Tiffany Chung, curator and historian David Elliott and our own artist N.S. Harsha. They were there as guest tutors. I wish our students also got such opportunities, patronage and infrastructure like studios, galleries, libraries, museums, parks and gardens.

editor@theweek.in

an-incredible-australian-adventure

Sat Apr 07 16:44:13 IST 2018

Art can be exhausting. It can also be invigorating. Three art festivals within one week can take its toll. But, it did not because I was in the good company of Riyas Komu and other curators. The Australian Arts Council (ACA) had invited us to participate in the visiting international curators programme, along with 11 other curators from different institutions, museums and galleries around the world. It can be exacting. On the contrary, it was exciting. As artist Marco Fusinato’s work at the Sydney biennale demonstrated, minimalism can go with maximalism. His work established the fact that noise can coexist with silence.

The 21st edition of Biennale of Sydney was curated by Tokyo-based Mami Kataoka, chief curator of the Mori Museum. Since 2005, the city has been following a tradition of opening any project or festival with a blessing ceremony presided over by an Aboriginal. This time, the biennale opened with a smoking ceremony, which is a cleansing ritual performed only on special occasions. The guidance of ACA project officers Sabina Finnern and Matthew Loftus helped us understand the journey of the Biennale of Sydney, the Adelaide biennale and the Melbourne design triennial.

The high point of the Sydney biennale this time was a conversation between Kataoka and the legendary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Sometimes art events can be tiring for the participants. However, Weiwei’s two works—Crystal Ball (crystal, life jackets) and Law of the Journey (reinforced PVC, with aluminium frame)—made up for it all. When an artist’s work speaks for him, he does not need a pulpit to shout from.

This space is not enough to list all the artists who made a lasting impression on the viewers, but the works of Australian artists Brook Andrews and Khalid Sabsabi did have some incredible resonance.

The Sydney biennale was spread across seven sites: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Artspace, Carriageworks, Cockatoo Island, Sydney Opera House and, for the first time, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.

Each site offered its own speciality, and Kataoka had put a lot of thought into allocating each of the 69 participating artists their space. Among them were four Indian artists and one of Indian origin: Sosa Joseph, Prabhavati Meppayil, Tanya Goel, N.S. Harsha and Simryn Gill.

It was a moment to cherish, and I was pleasantly surprised when a gallerist and collector from Australia asked me if I knew Sosa Joseph. “Of course,” I replied, because Sosa was part of the first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. And, it is amazing how things fall into place, and are connected without our knowledge. Kataoka has been a regular visitor to KMB, and it was during one of those visits that Harsha mentioned Sosa’s name to her. She made it a point to visit Sosa’s studio in Kochi. Prabhavati, too, was a participating artist in Kochi.

All these thoughts and cross-connections occupied my mind as we cruised through the packed schedule that included visiting various locations of the biennale, meeting artists, directors and curators, and visiting the respective studios and residencies. There was one thing that stood out through all of that: every organisation had a huge responsibility to perform well. And, every one entrusted with that responsibility was a stakeholder in its successful execution. And, I thought, what if the Australian Council of Arts did not have people like Wendy Were and Amrit Gill? They make an important contribution towards ensuring that art does not become tiring, irrespective of how much you pack into the itinerary.

editor@theweek.in

a-selfie-with-the-french-president

Sat Mar 24 16:19:42 IST 2018

In May this year, Julie Ward, a British member of the European Parliament from the Labour Party, will intern at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, the Netherlands. She chose the museum because she is interested in ancient artefacts, design and community work, and, particularly, because of the museum’s focus on youth, gender and sexuality. It is part of the political internship programme initiated by the Network of European Museum Organisations, to give politicians an understanding of the workings and importance of museums. It is actually an extension of a programme called ‘More Than Worth It’, run successfully by the Netherlands Museum Association. So, do not be surprised if you find a Dutch minister behind the reception desk, when you enter a museum in the Netherlands.

Politicians play an active role in cultural activities in the west. They are regular visitors to galleries, museums, art shows, fairs and biennales. I vividly remember the Argentinian president visiting the Argentinian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011, when I had gone there with Riyas Komu, Sunil V. and Shwetal Patel to make our first presentation about the Kochi-Muziris Biennale to an international audience.

Incidentally, that was the only year when India had a pavilion at the mecca of contemporary art.

My first encounter with a culturally, socially and politically conscious minister from a European country was during ARCO 09, Madrid, where India was the focus country and I was the guest curator. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of the politician who was talking to me about art, sans the company of bodyguards or bureaucrats. I wondered if such a thing would ever happen in India.

But, when we began the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, several Kerala politicians including former chief minister Oommen Chandy and the current chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, visited the event. Some of them have not missed any edition since. KMB was born out of former culture minister M.A. Baby's wish to bring international visual art to Kerala. Last year, president Pranab Mukherjee visited the biennale and addressed the audience.

Here I am writing about another president’s visit. Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron came to India on an official visit. And, guess what was on his itinerary. A trip to artist Subodh Gupta’s studio. Subodh is having a major retrospective at the 1,154-year-old Monnaie de Paris—the French mint is the oldest enterprise in the world. The charming president and his cheerful wife, Brigitte, visited the Gurugram studio where Subodh and his wife Bharati Kher work. Also in attendance were 60 invited guests—artists, designers, writers, museum directors and gallerists.

Subodh took our hands (Riyas’s and mine), pulled us closer to Macron and said: “I wanted to introduce both these artists. They have changed Indian art and we are so proud of India’s biennale in Kochi.” Later, we met again and explained KMB in detail to an attentive president. He was, of course, coming from a culturally conscious country. The French understand the value of soft power. France has the most visited art museums and cultural spaces in the world.

Macron's visit to Subodh and Bharti's studio is history. I hope our political figures also come down to earth. At least, our new and young blood should respect the wealth of art and culture. Art is humane and humble; it is like a mirror. Riyas could not miss the selfie-opportunity. He took out his mobile and asked if he could take a selfie with Macron. Jitish [Kallat] and I squeezed into the frame!

Just before the president left, he said to us: “I know where to go on my next visit.” After a pause, he said: “Kochi!” He might as well.

editor@theweek.in

free-lunches-anyone

Sat Mar 10 19:08:21 IST 2018

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch. There could be some, though. India, 'the land of bikshuks’, has a tradition of serving free food to rank strangers. The Bhikshuka Upanishad lays down the lifestyle of four types of mendicants, who live mostly on alms. India is also the land of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which has the world’s largest kitchen where nearly a lakh people eat everyday. ISKON, the organisation of Krishna devotees, has a concept of community kitchen called akshayapatram, and history tells us that we have always been feeding, not feeding on others.

Last week, I attended the inauguration of the Janakeeya Bhakshna Shala (JBS)—which roughly translates into ‘people’s dining hall’—conceptualised by Kerala’s finance minister Dr Thomas Isaac. The first one of these food centres has been set up in his constituency of Allepey, on National Highway 66.

In evolutionary biology, an organism is said to behave altruistically when its behaviour benefits other organisms, even at a cost to itself. In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin discussed the origin of altruistic and self-sacrificial behaviour among human beings. Studies inspired by Darwin have proved that the capacity to be caring, generous and being kind have been built into the brains, bodies, genes and social practices of human beings.

But then, how do you sustain altruism? Let us look at the mechanics of JBS. It was initiated by eight people, who worked day in and day out to provide food to nearby hospitals. Now, with the help of the Kerala State Financial Enterprices, it has started this centre spread over 1,500sq.ft. I was talking to local artists and common folk and they took me to the backyard of the JBS building and showed me a patch of land—nearly four acres—that has been donated by a generous man to cultivate vegetables for and by JBS.

It made me think about the near total absence of Indian philanthropists (if you were to stack up the number of philanthropists, against the number of Indian billionaires, then you will get the picture). Of course, philanthropy in India means setting up schools or temples in the name of family members. Philanthropy is more of an ego-boosting exercise. The rich in India seldom open their wallets, but to build collections of jewellery, fast cars, yachts, private jets and ostentatious farm houses.

While on a drive down the Mattanchery Bazar road, I saw yet another heritage structure brought down by moneybags, and it brought back memories. I began wondering how they are able to execute their wishes with impunity. Isn’t there any policy that protects the heritage zone? Kochi and Mattanchery area have been declared as heritage zones by the UNESCO. And, just the other day, I was reading about how a new project, commissioned by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, has identified synagogues built before the second World War, from Cork in Ireland in the west to Vladivostok in Russia in the east. Each has been catalogued with construction dates and materials, the Jewish community it served, its present use and condition, and a “significance rating”. Simon Schama will launch the project with the backing of more than 40 high-profile supporters including architect Daniel Libeskind, television newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky and artist Anish Kapoor. Such a thing is possible only if we have an idea of what our heritage is, and only if we look beyond immediate short-term gains.

I have had the good luck to meet incredible people whose passion, intuition and inquisitiveness have taken them to their desired destinations. One such person is the 84-year-old Lady Helen Hamlyn. I met her last week. She was one of the first fashion designers to pass out from the Royal College of Art in 1963. And, now she preserves, protects and funds conservation. Three of the projects are in India: the Reis Magos Fort in Goa, the Nagaur Fort in Rajasthan and the Chittoor Palace in Kerala. Apparently she spots these places on her own, and is not approached by anyone in India or abroad. Altruists walk alone.

editor@theweek.in

india-art-fair-an-art-fair-to-remember

Sat Feb 24 17:06:00 IST 2018

Recently the India Art Fair, which was launched in 2008 by Neha Kirpal, concluded its 10th edition.

Last year, the MCH Group, the Swiss fairs, and behemoth events, invested in the India Art Fair. While such a fair provides a much-needed aesthetic acupuncture to a city like Delhi, it also helps instigate and inspire the lives of culturally conscious minds while creating a healthy business. So, the move by MCH is a smart one. The India Art Fair had the aesthetic imprints of the new director Jagdip Jagpal and her team, including artist UBIK and VIP relations director Noel Kaddar. The expertise of MCH, also the owner of the preeminent Art Basel (Basel, Miami and Hong Kong) in fair production, was conspicuous at the NSIC grounds, the location of the annual event. This year, I saw many new faces from the art world, new collectors, young curators and writers. Of course, one would not miss the BMW art car by celebrated artist Jeff Koons.

Jagdip Jagpal’s arrival on the scene has brought in a breath of fresh air. The London-born Indian-origin director, now living in Delhi, has had to quickly absorb the nuances of the Indian art scene. Jagpal, who has great faith in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, provided space for the same at the art fair. Anita Dube, Jitish Kallat, Riyas Komu and myself were invited to an opening-day panel discussion moderated by curator Michelle Lun from the Asia Society, New York. The Asia Society awarded the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) its prestigious Game Changer Award, which was accepted by Riyas Komu and me on behalf of the foundation. It was a proud moment of recognition for us, our entire team and trustees, as well as our sponsors and patrons, and, the people of Kochi who supported the dream of a biennale in India.

As at most art events, we had to come to terms with the fact that we cannot see everything in a week. There were too many parallel exhibitions, talks and tours. Some of my personal highlights of the week included seeing Pooja Sood’s Khoj International studios that has an exhibition of small-scale artworks by young artists, Shalini Passi's great collection of art works and Tarana Sawhney hosting on behalf of the Tate museum.

The energetic Feroze and Mohit Gujral’s Gujral Foundation organised a brilliantly curated exhibition at their project space, 124 Jor Bagh, an old building that has been transformed for special exhibitions. This year, the space was dedicated to photography. A trustee of the KBF, and design legend V. Sunil hosted a Motherland magazine party at his Dhan Mills office, and Manish Arora held a mini-retrospective of his greatest pieces from the catwalks in an adjoining ex-warehouse building. Dhan Mills Compound is quickly turning into a must-visit place in the capital.

Another highlight was Riyas Komu’s Holy Shiver at Vadehra Gallery. In my knowledge, Komu is one of the finest artistic minds in India and his works are an acerbic look at contemporary social issues, much needed in the fractured political climes that we live in. His works confront you with questions on religion, Constitution, nationalism and concerns of the minority. Artist friend Anju Dodiya created visceral drawings, paintings and sculptural paintings on textiles collected from Germany and India. Her creations are on show at the Bikaner House. The exhibition is Dodiya at her best, and it lingers in my thoughts.

Another must-see event was 50 years of Vivan Sundaram’s work in a poignant retrospective, curated by Roobina Karode at the Kiran Nadar Museum. Kiran Nadar—patron, collector and an astounding mind that leads with tremendous vision—and her better half, Shiv Nadar, are a great asset to the country. We need more of such patronage of arts and a strong private and public partnership to build the necessary arts infrastructure, especially in our nation’s capital.

The India Art Fair is a good reason to think on those lines. When such events are held, one must also think of making them more accessible to the common man and not confine it to a cocoon within the city.

editor@theweek.in

art-in-the-pink

Fri Feb 16 15:59:11 IST 2018

There is something new in the country to be cheerful about. This, at a time when finding something to be happy about is as difficult as fishing in plastic-filled waters. There is a new Sculpture Park at the Madhavendra Bhavan palace in Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur, which showcases the finest three-dimensional works by contemporary artists.

We were invited to the palace to attend a dinner hosted by Shreyasi Goenka of Zee and Aparajita Jain to celebrate the Jaipur Literature Festival. The exhibition is curated by Peter Nagy, and has works by 17 Indian and eight international artists.

Peter Nagy is an artist who moved out from New York to India, after closing his East Village gallery in 1996. Exhibiting works in rented and leased out locations in Delhi, Nagy became one of the most familiar names in the art world as a gallerist. He set up, and, now co-runs, the prestigious Nature Morte Gallery in New Delhi with Aparajita, whose Saath Saath Arts is in partnership with the state government of Rajasthan for the Sculpture Park project. The state government has given the space out on a ten-year lease for the project.

I missed the grand opening in December, and so was very excited to visit the exhibition. To my surprise, it was an exhibition of brilliantly put together sculptures and installations; outdoor, indoor, on the ground, hanging from the ceilings and on the terrace of the well-maintained and restored palace. The works blend very well with the grandeur of the fort, built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1734. After my visit, I felt the government should lease out spaces for the long term to dedicated and committed art professionals and specialists like Nagy.

The exhibition seems to have received some corporate support with names like Zee, Borosil, PI Foundation and JSW being displayed prominently. There are similar projects encouraged by the government, such as the Museum of Legacies—a historical building, which once served as an art school, that has now been made a museum dedicated to tribal and traditional art, textiles and design.

I think the people behind the immensely successful JLF—Sanjoy Roy, William Dalrymple, Namita Gokhale and their team—should seriously think about crowd management, which was quite exhausting. There were great speakers at five venues, every day, from the fields of arts, literature, social and political sciences, media and cinema. I was a guest delegate at the JLF and was able to attend reading sessions, conversations, book releases and visit pop-up bookshops, besides enjoying the great food and entertainment—Kailash Kher, my good old friend Talvin Singh and many more.

But, there was a terrible flaw. Most of us could not see the speakers, especially on opening night, because of the backlights! Clumsy stages and garish sets turned it into the caricature of chaos. That managed to overshadow the amazing speakers who had come from all parts of the world. Festivals like this should have exemplary design.

Jaipur has a lot to offer, culturally, like the Jawahar Kala Kendra designed by Charles Correa, and now directed by Pooja Sood. I was lucky to visit ‘Where is Space’, an architecture/art show curated by Rupali and Prasad Shetty. Though I found that some of the works were beyond me, as I couldn’t connect them with architecture or space.

Another sight at the JLF that delighted me was a group of around 70 students and tutors from St. Teresa’s College and Sacred Heart College, both in Kochi, Kerala, along with the selfie performances that have become customary these days. I was privileged to attend, at the JLF, the fourth edition of Ojas Art Awards, an initiative of art lover Anubhav Nath. This year, the award went to Anwar and Uttam Chitrakar, Pattachitra artists from West Bengal. The Pink City overwhelmed me with its love for art.

editor@theweek.in

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early-detection-is-key-how-advanced-diagnostics-are-transforming-indian-health-care

Sat May 23 16:10:39 IST 2026

Good health begins with accurate diagnosis—this was the principle behind the launch of Apollo’s Digi-Smart Central Reference Laboratory in Chennai. It is a simple idea, but it captures the transformation underway in health care today.

For much of modern medicine, diagnostics played a supporting role, something clinicians turned to after symptoms appeared. That is changing. The real shift in health care is from reacting to disease to anticipating it. Also, recently published findings from India’s health of the nation report underscore the growing importance of preventive diagnostics. Among the most striking insights is that 45 per cent of asymptomatic individuals who underwent coronary calcium scoring already showed signs of calcification.

Advances in diagnostic science are making earlier detection increasingly possible. Liquid biopsies, for instance, illustrate this progress clearly: a routine blood draw can identify fragments of tumour DNA circulating in the body—often before symptoms arise and well before abnormalities appear on conventional imaging.

Genomic testing extends this capability further, enabling clinicians not only to understand what is happening biologically, but also to anticipate what may develop over time based on an individual’s genetic profile. These are no longer distant possibilities—they are already transforming clinical practice and improving survival outcomes.

This shift matters deeply in India, where more than 70 per cent of cancer cases are still diagnosed at advanced stages. That reflects not just the scale of the challenge, but the cost of a system long oriented towards treatment rather than prevention. Early diagnosis improves survival, but it also changes the experience of care itself. It can reduce the need for aggressive intervention, lower the financial burden on families, and preserve quality of life. The case for early detection is therefore both clinical and economic.

India is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. The country brings together deep clinical expertise, a large and genetically diverse population, and rapidly expanding digital infrastructure. That combination gives India the opportunity not only to adopt global advances, but to help shape what comes next. Earlier, what was once seen as a challenge in standardising care may well become one of India’s greatest scientific strengths.

Change is already underway, and as a case in point, more than 11,000 genomic consultations across our network reflect the growing integration of precision diagnostics into routine clinical care. Likewise, Digi-Smart Central Reference Laboratory marked another important step. Spread across 45,000 square feet, this fully automated facility can process over one lakh samples a day with near-zero manual intervention. It proves that scale and precision do not compete; with the right systems, they strengthen each other. Faster turnaround times mean quicker decisions and better outcomes.

The larger opportunity is systemic. Today, diagnostics has the potential to move from the margins of care to its very centre. Risk-based screening can become a routine part of clinical pathways. Personalised testing can extend far beyond metropolitan centres through India’s expanding digital health ecosystem. Point-of-care technologies can strengthen last-mile access, especially in communities carrying a high burden of non-communicable disease. And, as innovation scales, advanced diagnostics, including whole genome sequencing, will continue to become more accessible and more affordable.

Across the world’s leading health care systems, diagnostics is anchoring a more proactive model of care. India now has the chance to build its own model—one that is technologically advanced, scalable, inclusive, and built for its own realities.

That is what makes this a quiet revolution. It is not loud, but it is transformative. It gives us the chance to find disease earlier, treat it with greater precision, and increasingly prevent it before it takes hold. And that may be one of the most important shifts health care will see in our lifetime.

Dr Preetha Reddy is Executive Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited.

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the-iran-nuclear-deal-is-dead-and-it-is-a-good-thing-writes-jeff-jacoby

Sun Apr 03 14:08:30 IST 2022

Former US president Barack Obama never submitted his 2015 Iran nuclear deal to the senate for ratification as a treaty. Had he done so, it would have been rejected. A majority of senators opposed the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The public frowned on it, too. A Pew poll that fall found that only one in five of those surveyed backed the treaty.

Almost from the outset, Iran had violated several of the restrictions imposed by the deal. It hid information from international inspectors. It test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile and declared it would accept no limitations on its missile development. Obama had pitched the deal as one that would encourage Iran to “get right with the world”, but that never came close to happening. The Islamic Republic intervened in Syria’s civil war in support of the murderous Bashar al-Assad, armed Houthi rebels in Yemen, seized two US navy vessels and humiliated their sailors, called repeatedly for the extermination of Israel, and continued to subsidise terrorist groups.

Despite that record, Joe Biden ran for president on a pledge to revive Obama’s nuclear agreement, from which the US withdrew when Donald Trump was in the White House. For months, the Biden administration has been negotiating in Vienna to strike a deal with Iran, and latest reports suggested that a return to the JCPOA was imminent.

No longer.

The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that Russia, which has been a key player in the Vienna talks, was conditioning its support for a new nuclear deal on the creation of a loophole in the economic sanctions imposed by the west. Russia is demanding a written guarantee that its trade with Iran will be exempted from sanctions if the JCPOA is resurrected. But that would undermine the international financial squeeze being applied to Russia. That is a concession the Biden administration refuses to make, even to clinch an Iran deal. Meanwhile, Iran has issued a fresh reminder that it remains committed to spreading terrorism and violence across the Middle East.

On March 13, Iran fired a barrage of missiles into northern Iraq, striking near the US consulate site in Erbil. This was a deliberate violation of Iraqi sovereignty and an act of aggression against the US. Writing in The Jerusalem Post, Seth J. Frantzman observed that the consulate is not in the centre of the city, which meant that the consulate had to be specifically targeted. Tehran readily took credit for that attack. Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was meant as a message to Israel.

All this comes as participants in the Vienna negotiations have been warning that the new deal in the works would amount to a capitulation by the US. According to former state department official Gabriel Noronha, the Biden administration agreed “to lift sanctions on some of the regime’s worst terrorists and torturers”. Unable to condone such concessions, Noronha wrote on Twitter, three members of the US team chose to leave.

The response on Capitol Hill to these developments has been a rising tide of opposition to a new Iran deal. A bipartisan group of representatives wrote to the White House with a long list of concerns and questions about the proposed new agreement. Their bottom line was polite but blunt: “It is hard to envision supporting an agreement along the lines being publicly discussed.”

If Russia’s attempted extortion was not enough to put the Iran deal on the ropes, Iran’s recent missile attack should certainly have done so. If those do not do it, the rising tide of congressional opposition ought to. The first Iran deal was a disaster and the second was shaping up to be another. The JCPOA has been dead since 2018. It is in the world’s best interest that it stay that way.

The author is a politically conservative American journalist.

case-for-coalitions

Wed Mar 10 12:03:31 IST 2021

This month, there will be elections in the Netherlands for the house of representatives, which has a four-year term. The present cabinet has been in power since October 2017. At the moment, it is a caretaker cabinet because it resigned in January to take political responsibility for the outcome of parliamentary investigations into child welfare payments that wrongly labelled thousands of parents as fraudsters. As the recently resigned Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte noted, “In this case, the whole system has failed.” Being accountable and showing responsibility are important features of the Dutch political culture.

The king is the head of state in the Netherlands, but his power is limited. With all its political structures and complex political processes, the Netherlands is a very stable democracy. (In 2019, King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima’s visit to India was a successful one, illustrating the excellent relations between India and the Netherlands.)

In the Netherlands, no party has ever gained an absolute majority. Political parties always have to work together in coalitions. Since 1945, the country has always had coalition governments and it seems to be part of the Dutch DNA. The most recent coalition comprises four parties. Coalitions may at first sight seem inefficient, but they have been very successful in governing the country. Perhaps the best proof of its effectiveness is that the Netherlands has always figured in the top 10—often even in the top five—in global rankings on economic well-being, equality, competitiveness and innovation.

In the last 10 years, we have seen a fragmentation of the Dutch political landscape. We used to have three main parties—Labour, Christian Democrats and Liberals—but we are now acquainted with many smaller parties. Some parties base their programmes and positions on religious convictions, and many non-religious parties base their programmes on socio-economic, environment, employment, education, taxation or international convictions. As a result of the political fragmentation, the process of forming a coalition government is getting more complicated. In 2017, it took a record 225 days to form a cabinet of four political parties.

The Dutch political culture, including the formation of a new government, is used to a process of negotiating, convincing people, engaging with all private and public stakeholders, and of taking into account different opinions—on a national level, and also on a regional level. We call this consensus decision-making process polderen. Polder in Dutch means land reclaimed from the sea. In the Middle Ages, different societies and people living in the same polder had to cooperate and share responsibilities to maintain the polder. The polder model is basically a pragmatic recognition of pluriformity and collaboration despite differences of opinion.

As always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The proof of governance is in the happiness of the Dutch people. The Netherlands is ranked the world’s sixth happiest country in the world. Not a bad performance!

Marten van den Berg is the Dutch ambassador to India.

innovate-and-collaborate

Wed Feb 24 18:20:05 IST 2021

Ten thousand acres under cultivation, 45,000 tonnes of marigold production, touching the lives of 9,000 farmers and multiplying their income from around Rs30,000 per acre to nearly Rs3lakh per acre—this is what we conceived and delivered in less than 10 years. And this was just for one of our products—Lutein—the key ingredient to manufacture nutraceutical formulations for eye care. Given that we required a specific quality of marigold to extract quality Lutein, we ventured into cultivating the crop ourselves.

Nature-based science is deep-rooted in India, and there is a huge export potential yet to be tapped. Like marigold, there are many natural herbs and flowers rich in medicinal properties, like curcumin from turmeric or piperine from black pepper. India is the dominant supplier of such plant materials and ranks among the top three producers in the world. India's overall contribution to the global nutraceutical market, however, remains minuscule, at just about 1-2 per cent. At $4 billion today, nutraceuticals have immense potential to reach $9 billion in the next five years.

Everything, including health care, saw a digital transformation during the pandemic. There was another fundamental transformation—the resurgence of the preventive care model. Patient care has shifted from hospitals to homes. And, prescription-based consulting has become customised and personalised. And, this shift has triggered significant growth potential for the nutraceutical industry.

The current ecosystem, including the regulations, is well-defined and robust in the US, the European Union and Japan. China, despite similar complexities as India, captured 14 per cent of the global trade. So, radical changes are a must for India. Availability of natural resources, labour, research talent and business community make it possible for India to be present across the value chain—wfrom farms to formulation. While opportunities exist, the key to meaningful conversion lies in making the environment conducive for industry players and building a strong ecosystem. A collaborative approach is the only solution.

We need to recognise that to succeed in this space, a new model of agriculture-linked enterprise needs to be created and nurtured. Entrepreneurs still wait for the government to fix crop availability and the cultivation of raw materials. We experimented with marigold cultivation in 2009 and expanded it to paprika in 2015.

India is one of the mega-diverse countries, harbouring nearly 7-8 per cent of the recorded species of the world, and representing 4 of the 34 globally identified biodiversity hotspots. India is also a vast repository of traditional knowledge associated with biological resources. While regulators will have to continue to provide support through reforms, ease of doing business and other policy incentives, businesses will have to step up and invest enough to make India a global hub for the nutraceutical industry.

The future of the nutraceutical industry is promising. What is essential for us is to bridge the regulatory gaps, make all constituents equal stakeholders, build a common agenda and align them to achieve the goals.

The writer is executive chairman and managing director, OmniActive Health Technologies.

block-buster

Wed Feb 24 18:17:13 IST 2021

Most writers experience writer’s block at some point. This is typically characterised by gazing vacantly at an empty document on their computers or a blank page in their notebooks, with no new stream of thought pouring in. Playwright Paul Rudnick described it as follows: “Writing is 90 per cent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It is a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write.”

Writer’s block, or creative block, is not a new construct. And this is not intrinsic only to writers. Creative people from all walks of life—artists, musicians, poets, entrepreneurs—can and will experience this at some point. Sometimes, inspiration just fails to strike.

What is writer’s block?

Creative block is a complex process of thought inhibition preventing a writer from proceeding with a piece in stipulated time, with the result often being that the writer would abandon the piece altogether.

The construct of writer’s block originated in the early 19th century when English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge first described his “indefinite indescribable terror” at not being able to produce work he thought worthy of his talent. Later on, French writers described the construct of “suffering” being inextricably woven to writing and expanded it to create the myth that all writers possessed a tortured soul, and were unable to write without anguish. The esoteric idea of not being able to accomplish creative work, without having been subject to personal trauma, probably has its underpinnings in the French concept of suffering for the sake of being able to write.

Writing is an onerous mental process. It requires a certain degree of cognitive expenditure than many other lines of work and that is why most writers struggle. Whether writer’s block is a valid psychological construct or a term coined to give the challenges of writing a somewhat romantic flair, the reasons behind the struggle are numerous.

A few plausible cognitive processes come to my mind when I think about what possibly hinders the journey of writing.

Irrational fear

Most people struggle with being judged for what they are. This will hinder them from putting their ideas out in open space. We should not be too bothered about criticism while making sure to look out for ways to improve.

The fear of being rejected by publishers or readers weighs heavily on many writers. Identifying and accepting this is the first step to getting our creative juices flow once again. One must seek psychological help if this phobia continues to dominate one’s life.

Perfectionism

Some thought leaders argue that a constant striving for perfection is the basis of all worthy human pursuit. However, such an enduring pursuit often stems from a distorted sense of perfectionism that sees it as a tool for protection, to shield ourselves from harsh critique or failure.

Some writers may have obsessive-compulsive personality disorder or anankastic personality disorder. They are oblivious to the fact that other people are often annoyed at the extent to which their striving for perfection results in exasperating delays in accomplishing routine tasks. The treatment found to be most effective for this condition is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

Undue self-criticism

It is often said that we are our own worst critics. Unnecessary comparisons to other more successful writers or even to our own earlier work is an impediment to fulfilling creative work. This often reaches an impasse wherein nothing ever seems good enough.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

This is an oft-neglected cause. ADHD is characterised by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development.

Inattention generally manifests as tendencies to wander off from tasks, lacking persistence, difficulty sustaining focus and being disorganised. Impulsive behaviour may take the form of the individual making hasty, rash, ill-thought-out decisions with a great potential for harm, or the inability to delay gratification. Treatments include medication, psychotherapy, training or a combination of these modalities.

Negative mood states

This encompasses mood states ranging from anxiety to depression, and including constructs such as dysphoria. Studies have shown that negative mood states are associated with poor functionality and health-related quality of life. Having a number of depressive symptoms but not necessarily at a clinical level can lead to poorer cognition. A positive outlook towards life has shown to be beneficial.

Means to overcome writer’s block

Set a writing schedule

Experts say scheduling a time to write is the best way to be prolific. Some authors are comfortable to write as soon as they get up after a good night’s sleep. Writing can become monotonous, so break the monotony. Regular writing practice may help reduce writing's demands on working memory, freeing experienced writers to create and revise more nuanced prose.

Prepare

The creative process has four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. To consistently come up with fresh ideas requires a vast amount of reading to be done. While thinking about a topic, it is important to jot down ideas that come to mind. Many a time, these ideas come unexpectedly in a conversation. Document them immediately.

Incubate inspiration

What is referred to as writer's block is waiting for the third phase of creativity. If you are stuck on something, give it a rest for a day or two. Even when we consciously take a break from a project, the brain is still tinkering with it. Sleeping may also help consolidate ideas and associations we have gathered during the day.

Starting the process

To get ideas flowing, sit down in a place of your liking, and then attempt to write. Putting down the first ideas or words that come to you will help you establish the broader framework. Some find that writing in freehand generates more ideas than typing.

Writing involves generating fresh ideas, and editing involves evaluating ideas. Work will flow more smoothly if we write for one session and edit in another, rather than stopping after each sentence.

Finding the right environment

If you work best in a shared work space, or in a coffee shop or park, go for it. Right environments enable words to gush at consistent pace. Such enabling environments have to be found out through trial and error.

Exercise

Studies have found that people have a greater degree of divergent thinking while walking, and that this effect lasts even after they sit down. Exercising has been proven to reduce stress, focus the mind, increase productivity and enhance memory. In particular, aerobic exercises encourage the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus.

Criticism is inevitable

We will inevitably receive rejections throughout our writing careers, but we should not doubt our ability as soon as this happens. Sharing our drafts with friends or a mentor will often help us in giving the right context and meaning to our work.

Goals and rewards

Set goals for each writing session, like writing a certain number of words or revising a draft, and reward yourself for completing them. Some authors set word count goals.

Avoid distractions

We are surrounded by distractions and seemingly urgent interruptions to our work. Avoid these unnecessary distractions. They tend to occupy a lot of mind space which can otherwise be used more productively.

Say no to binge writing

Amateur writers tend to binge-write—doing nothing for weeks and then locking themselves into a room and writing for days on end. This drains us out physically and mentally, and affects the quality of work. A more pragmatic approach would be to break down the task of writing into smaller segments.

In conclusion, the only thing that will really get us to overcome creative block is to simply start the process of writing. The creative juices will then inevitably start to flow again and we can let the words flow out!

The writer is senior psychiatrist, Manas Institute of Mental Health, Hubli, Karnataka.

the-invisible-pandemic

Thu Jan 28 17:05:50 IST 2021

I was attending to an old patient of mine when Sheila, the staff nurse, barged into my consulting room and said anxiously: “Doctor, we have an emergency; there is a 21-year-old who has recently recovered from Covid-19 and has now tried to kill himself. He is waiting in the emergency room.” I hurriedly finished the consultation and went to see the patient. As I began gathering the history from him and his parents, it became increasingly clear to me that his presentation was secondary to Covid-19, and that it was not a primary psychiatric disorder.

The youth had got Covid-19 eight weeks ago and was convalescing at home for the last two weeks. Around that time, he had started to hear strange buzzing sounds every once in a while. These had become more acute in the last one week. He had now started to hear his closest friend’s voice that commanded him to kill himself. And today he had tried to hang himself in response.

Psychiatrists are now routinely seeing clinical presentations that are secondary to Covid-19. Uncertain prognosis, an acute shortage of resources for testing, unprecedented public health measures that curtail personal freedom, economic recession, and uncertainty about the future are among the major stressors that are contributing to the widespread emotional distress, and increased risk for psychiatric illnesses associated with Covid-19. Those with an anxious temperament have found themselves being more prone to obsessive doubts about getting Covid-19. Many had developed the obsessive-compulsive disorder, too, in the face of this pandemic. Some of the commonly encountered obsessions include fear of getting Covid-19, obsessive thoughts about infecting loved ones, fear of being quarantined, not having access to timely treatment, and fear of death. I have had people compulsively checking the news to get a real-time update about Covid-19. I have also seen people getting repeatedly tested, and seeking reassurance from physicians at fever clinics.

Covid-19 has provided a fertile ground for the explosion of common mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Home-confinement directives, like quarantine, that are necessary to minimise viral spread, have had a negative psychological impact, such as causing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, depression and insomnia. Layoffs from work and economic recession have been associated with a long-lasting decline in mental health.

Chronic loneliness brought on by social isolation during the pandemic is another major concern. People who have been given the option to work from home routinely complain about not being productive at work. They also talk about missing office conversation over a cup of coffee. At the other end of the spectrum are people who have understandable fears of being unable to reconnect with their work colleagues once the pandemic subsides.

Covid-19 is also responsible for neuropsychiatric syndromes such as delirium and stroke. Increasingly, young people are arriving at the emergency room with unexplained strokes. I was called to attend to a 25-year-old woman who had been presented with progressive difficulty in speech, crying spells, emotional outbursts, and numbness and weakness in the left arm and leg. The attending physician had made a note of cough, headache and chills lasting one week before this hospitalisation. This patient had delayed seeking emergency care because of fear of Covid-19. A CT scan showed obstructed blood flow in a large brain artery, and a chest scan revealed typical features of Covid-19. Social distancing, isolation, and delayed decision-making to seek help result in poorer prognosis in such patients.

I have been increasingly seeing Covid-19 patients having delirium in the intensive care units of general hospitals. Fatima (name changed) was a 56-year-old primary school teacher who had got Covid-19 from her husband. She was progressively worsening with little improvement in her clinical status. One day I received a call from the doctor-on-call at a general hospital where I consult. “Fatima is speaking incoherently,” said the doctor. “She has been seeing ants and lizards on the walls of the ICU. She also complains of a foul odour. She is not recognising her family anymore.” We soon realised that she had slipped into delirium. Delirium is a psychiatric emergency characterised by an acute onset of confusion. An April 2020 study in France found that approximately 65 per cent of people who had a more severe form of Covid-19 had developed confusion—a defining and hallmark feature of delirium. The data of 2,000 Covid-19 patients presented at the annual meeting of chest physicians in America showed that a staggering 55 per cent had developed acute onset confusion and disorientation. These are unprecedented numbers and something that the medical fraternity is not routinely used to. A single episode of delirium can increase the risk of developing dementia years later. Conversely, people with underlying dementia are more prone to develop episodes of delirium. This becomes pertinent in the context of the elderly population with multi-morbidity, being more prone to develop severe Covid-19.

Health care workers are particularly vulnerable to emotional distress during this pandemic. Long working hours donning personal protective equipment, and being involved in emotionally fraught decisions, take a huge toll on the mental health of doctors.

Exercise, regular sleep, nutritious food and a strong mental health support system become imperative to deal with the psychological ramifications of Covid-19.

Kulkarni is a senior psychiatrist at Manas Institute of Mental Health, Hubli, Karnataka.

patch-work

Mon Feb 10 15:42:42 IST 2020

Psoriasis is a lifelong skin condition and living with it can be difficult and stressful on some days. Everyday life with psoriasis can seem challenging for patients, family and caregivers. Nonetheless, with the right medication and lifestyle changes, patients can enjoy a fulfilling life. Staying positive and not becoming self-conscious about it are just as important.

Psoriasis usually affects people in their thirties or forties. In India, it is twice as common in men than in women. Contrary to what some people think, the condition is not contagious. It is caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking healthy skin cells that are then replaced at an abnormally rapid rate, in 14 days rather than the usual three to four weeks. This causes a buildup of dead cells that are visible on the surface of the skin as red, itchy patches, commonly called plaques. Typically, these patches appear on the scalp, knees, lower back or elbows, though they may be seen anywhere on the body. The plaques may vary in size and may either appear as a single patch or may merge to form a larger patch. Other symptoms of psoriasis include dry and cracked skin or skin that feels sore, besides a burning sensation and swollen or stiff joints.

Today we have a number of treatment options for psoriasis, including topical skin creams, pills and injections that can be prescribed by a dermatologist. Here are some tips to help you manage the condition better:

Care for your skin: Use the right skin moisturiser to reduce itchiness, dryness and scaling. Bathe with lukewarm water and a mild soap to ease the itch and get rid of dry skin. After a wash or bath, gently pat your skin dry instead of rubbing it with a towel.

Quit smoking: Giving up cigarettes and other forms of tobacco may help to reduce the occurrence of flares.

Live an active life: If you are overweight, losing the extra weight through regular exercise can help your treatment work better and could also reduce the need for some medicines.

How you can help someone living with psoriasis

Read up about the disease: A lot of people do not know enough about psoriasis. They think it is contagious, which is not true. Instead, learn more about psoriasis, its causes, triggers and treatment.

Do not stare: One of the worst things you can do if someone has psoriasis is to stare at their skin patches or rash. This can cause the patient to become self-conscious and embarrassed. Instead, ignore the rash and make eye contact while speaking or working with them.

Offer help: If a loved one has psoriasis, make yourself available to help out whenever possible. Do not assume to know what they need, but ask how you can be of help.

Be alert to new symptoms: Patients with psoriasis are at a higher risk of being depressed. If you notice that the patient is persistently sad or unwilling to take part in any form of social activities, it may be a sign of depression. In such a situation, gently encourage the patient to visit the doctor.

The writer is chief consultant and dermatologist, Skinvita Clinic, Kolkata.

growing-up-without-godfathers

Tue Dec 17 14:10:50 IST 2019

WHEN I CHOSE to enter politics—with the realisation that the kind of politics we see in our democracy has to change with people from non-political backgrounds entering the field—I was also aware of getting a chance to be a change maker. Politics is often looked down upon as a bad word. Politics is a career. Let nobody tell you otherwise. My decade-long journey has been about shouldering all responsibilities given to me with the best of my abilities. I believe that it is the responsibility of the party/organisation to nurture the talent and give people the space to grow and give them the dignity they deserve. It is important to be at a place where one’s ability and talent are respected and valued.

Is the political system skewed? I would say the answer lies in the choice of candidates in elections. While we pat ourselves on the back for increasing women’s representation in Parliament to 14 per cent, we forget that we lag behind even countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The way to show women that there is space for them in politics is to encourage them by giving a chance to contribute either electorally or through organisational growth. Otherwise, how can we tell women who are in politics that they belong here? How are women going to be heard in the power structure?

In politics, unlike in any other field, men have a sense of entitlement which is entrenched in them, thanks to a patriarchal society. A woman has to consistently prove herself to validate her presence and grow in the system. Women in positions of power should be able to help other women instead of pushing them down. They should proactively share their networks to help other women who are struggling, be mentors, create space and make more space.

My journey has much to do with my own resilience and a commitment to persist in my call of duty. It also has a lot to do with setting rules where none existed and breaking rules as to how women are portrayed in public life. This is what I expect from every new, wonder-eyed youth who takes up a career in politics. Remember, there is no financial stability, no emotional stability and no clear career path. However, the thrill of being part of a journey that helps you contribute significantly towards building a nation of your dreams is immense and the satisfaction unparalleled.

People from my own family at times questioned my choice of being in politics, my ability to handle the rough and the tumble of it all. My journey has been tougher, since I was led by my heart. Had I been calculated and calibrated, it could have been easier.

But, when you have the talent and the ability, and no godfather, there are still ways and means you can shine through. That is what has happened in my case. And that is what will happen with each and everyone who chooses this path of public life, which has its own share of highs and lows. But once the bug bites you, it is impossible to stay away from it.

Chaturvedi is deputy leader, Shiv Sena.

As told to Pooja Biraia Jaiswal

fighting-it-together

Sat Sep 14 16:54:58 IST 2019

Autism spectrum disorder is a group of neuro-developmental conditions characterised by impairment in three main areas—social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and stereotyped, restricted or repetitive pattern of behaviour, interests and activities.

In most cases, ASD is under-diagnosed or missed because of lack of awareness regarding its clinical presentation. Usually, the problems are labelled as speech delay and the parents are asked to wait till the child is three. The median age of diagnosing autism is two to four years, but with awareness and early screening, we can diagnose it as early as one-and-a-half years. This helps in early intervention, which changes the outcome in a significant manner.

The recent increased incidence of the disorders, the emotional impact they have on families and the challenging financial demands make ASD an important public health issue. Autism is currently incurable and most people with ASD do not receive specialised treatment or any treatment at all.

Eugen Bleuler coined the term autism in 1911 and Hans Asperger described the symptoms of autism in 1938. Globally, the prevalence of the disease is four to six per 1,000 persons and it is constantly increasing. It affects all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups, although it is five times more common in boys.

CAUSES

Autism occurs because of a combination of genetic and environmental factors, though the exact cause is unknown. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering connections and the organisation of nerve cells and their synapses. Genetics play a major role—about 20 per cent of children with ASD also have certain genetic conditions. Some of the conditions include Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome and tuberous sclerosis. Other risk factors are having a sibling with ASD, having older parents (mother or father > 35 to 40 years) and parental history of psychiatric disorders.

CLASSIFICATION

Under ASD, autism is one of the five types of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) of childhood. Of five PDD forms, Asperger syndrome (high-functioning autism) is the milder form and closest to autism. PDD not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), also called atypical autism, is the most common PDD. Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder are the other PDDs.

Autism is diagnosed not by a single symptom, but by a characteristic triad of symptoms that becomes apparent typically before age three:

SOCIAL INTERACTION

Autistic infants show less attention to social stimuli, poor response to their names and decreased eye-to-eye contact.

COMMUNICATION

They speak random words and cannot form proper sentences. They are also less likely to make requests or share experiences, and are more likely to simply repeat others words or reverse pronouns.

REPETITIVE BEHAVIOUR

Stereotyped behaviour: They make repetitive movements, such as flapping their hands or rocking their bodies.

Compulsive behaviour: Time-consuming behaviour intended to reduce anxiety, such as placing objects in a specific order, checking things or washing hands.

Sameness: Children with autism are resistant to change. For example, they will insist that the furniture not be moved and refuse to be interrupted.

Ritualistic behaviour and restricted interests: Interests that are abnormal in theme or intensity of focus, such as preoccupation with a single television programme, toy or game.

Self-injury: Eye-poking, skin-picking, hand-biting and head-banging.

RED FLAGS

● Speech delay or speech regression. No babbling by 12 months, no single words by 16 months.

● Lack of interest in peer relationships.

● Lack of spontaneous play.

● Persistent fixation on parts of objects.

● No gesturing by 12 months.

● Loss of any acquired language or social skills, at any age.

● Nearly half of the parents of children with ASD notice their child's unusual behaviour by the age of 18 months, and about four-fifths notice only by the age of two.

SCREENING INSTRUMENTS

Several diagnostic instruments are available. The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) are used widely.

TREATMENT

Early intervention improves prognosis in a significant proportion of children with ASD. The main goals when treating autism are to lessen associated deficits and family distress, and to increase quality of life and functional independence.

A multi-disciplinary approach, which includes a paediatric neurologist, child psychologist, early intervention therapist, speech therapist and occupational therapist, works better to treat the child. A few medications, such as a high dose of vitamins, omega fatty acids and L-carnosine have been tried. Also, co-morbidities like epilepsy, hyperactivity, irritability and sleeping disorders are treated with medication.

Available approaches to treat children with autism include applied behaviour analysis (ABA), developmental models, structured teaching, speech and language therapy, social skills therapy and occupational therapy.

PROGNOSIS

Autism is a life-long disability. It requires awareness and education for early detection and intervention. The vast majority of children with ASD will continue to show deviance and difficulties in social interactions throughout their lives. Acquiring language before the age of six and having an IQ above 50 predict better outcomes. People with severe autism will be less likely to live independently.

Prognosis should be discussed with the family to avoid unrealistic expectations. It is essential to put in the effort for early intervention and to foster family involvement, as well as community participation.

The writer is consultant paediatric neurologist, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital, Bengaluru.

preventing-chronic-kidney-disease

Sat Jul 20 18:00:33 IST 2019

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is increasing in India by epidemic proportions. Globally, one in every ten individuals is affected by CKD. The 2016 Global Burden of Disease reports an 87 per cent rise in the global burden of CKD and a doubling of CKD deaths between 1990 and 2016.

Understanding CKD

CKD is a condition characterised by chronic (> 3 months) urinary abnormality (protein or blood loss) or chronic reduction in kidney function (< 60 per cent). Diabetes and hypertension are the major reasons for developing this condition. Other causes include autoimmune diseases, hereditary kidney diseases like polycystic kidney disease, kidney stones and abuse of painkillers called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Rising incidence in youngsters

The urban population is more affected by CKD owing to the rise in lifestyle diseases. A recent survey conducted to analyse factors contributing to CKD in the urban population found that 40 per cent of the CKD cases were due to diabetes, 20 per cent due to hypertension and the rest owing to other causes mentioned above. In about 25 per cent of the cases, the causes are unknown. Youngsters today have a fast-paced lifestyle, as a result of which the age a person can develop CKD has become 40-50 years instead of the earlier 50-60 years.

Managing CKD

Management of CKD includes treatment of the primary cause, if known, and treatment of complications associated with CKD, which include hypertension, abnormalities in volume and composition of body water and anaemia (low haemoglobin). Diet modification is also important and should be initiated at an early stage. The most common dietary modification is protein restriction, as the kidney's main function is to eliminate waste products of protein breakdown. It must be stressed that treatment including dietary modification must be individualised as complications of CKD vary from case to case. When kidney function is significantly reduced (<5 to 10 per cent), renal replacement therapy becomes mandatory. This stage is called end stage kidney disease (ESKD).

Treatment options for ESKD

There are three options: haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplant.

In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of the patient’s body to an artificial kidney to clean out the impurities. Patients will have to undergo the procedure thrice a week, with each session lasting three to four hours. It can be taxing for patients owing to the constant visits to the haemodialysis centre. It is worse for people in remote areas, with limited access to such centres. In peritoneal dialysis, a synthetic tube is placed in the peritoneal cavity of the abdomen. A cleansing fluid called dialysate is introduced through the synthetic tube and allowed to remain in the peritoneal cavity for six to eight hours. During this period, waste products and excess water from the blood diffuse into the dialysate, which is then drained out and fresh dialysate is introduced. This procedure is carried out three to four times daily. Peritoneal dialysis is simpler as it can be done at home or office and, therefore, involves limited lifestyle interruptions. It can even be done overnight, while the patient is asleep, with the help of a machine.

Kidney transplant provides better quality of life, longer survival and is more cost-effective in the long run. However, getting a suitable donor (living or deceased) is a challenge. Less than 5 per cent of patients developing ESKD are able to undergo kidney transplant.

Peritoneal dialysis: a boon for CKD patients

The outcomes of patients who receive haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis are very similar, although some patients may be better suited for one modality compared to the other. For example, peritoneal dialysis has various advantages like no haemodynamic instability. Further, as there is no blood loss, haemoglobin is better maintained. The diet is more liberal, as this is a daily process and patients can perform this in the comfort of their home. This is a more suitable option for patients with high blood pressure and heart ailments as it allows removal of excess fluid in a gentle manner, thereby reducing stress on the heart. Moreover, peritoneal dialysis is very helpful for patients living in remote areas with limited access to haemodialysis facilities. Cost of peritoneal dialysis is similar to haemodialysis. With the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority recommendation to insurance firms to include peritoneal dialysis in their policy, we see a scope for more patients being able to avail of peritoneal dialysis facilities in the future.

Challenges in managing CKD

The real challenge with managing CKD is the availability of treatment. On an average, only 20 per cent of the urban population and less than 5 per cent of the rural population get treatment facilities for CKD. Haemodialysis is availed of by only 8 to 9 per cent of the population and peritoneal dialysis only by 2 to 4 per cent. Less than 5 per cent people can avail of transplant as a treatment option. This brings to the fore the need to address the gap in treatment. Health is a state subject, and states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have a Jeevandayee scheme for addressing the needs of CKD patients. India should be more preventive than curative and address the looming epidemic of diabetes and hypertension to curb the growing incidences of CKD affecting India’s young population.

Shah is a nephrologist at Global Hospitals, Mumbai.

building-capacity

Sat Jul 20 17:59:59 IST 2019

Health care emerged as a popular choice in the election manifestos this year. From raising the health care spend to 3 per cent of the GDP, upgrading diagnostic facilities in some 1,50,000 wellness centres to enacting the Right to Healthcare, the promises are many. But we must not forget the many infrastructural battles that India is still fighting. India has one of the worst doctor-to-patient ratio in the world. In fact, India stands at the 145th position on the Healthcare Access and Quality 2018 index, lower than neighbouring Bangladesh and even Sudan and Equatorial Guinea. For electoral promises to show tangible results, the existing health infrastructure demands a holistic facelift.

India needs a robust health infrastructure, which can be achieved only if we strengthen and build capacity within the existing health sector. From more hospitals, doctors and caregivers to a stronger public-private partnership towards building of more medical institutions, the existing medical infrastructure is in a dire need of a revamp in all its aspects—quality, accessibility and affordability.

Last year, the government introduced Ayushman Bharat—the world’s largest insurance scheme—to address access to health care, to improve patient outcomes and reduce out-of-pocket expenditures. But will a corpus of mere 06,400 crore be enough to treat millions, when reports suggest the minimum funds required for successful implementation are close to 01,00,000 crore? Take, for instance, Chhattisgarh. A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General shows that Chhattisgarh performed the worst in terms of medical infrastructure. Between 2012 and 2017, the audit found, “The state suffered from shortages of human resources in critical positions of specialist doctors to the extent of 89 per cent, medical officers by 36 per cent, staff nurses by 34 per cent and paramedics by 12 per cent against their sanctioned strengths. These shortages adversely affected the delivery of health care services by the district hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres.” This is true not just for Chhattisgarh, but also for all the other states.

Also, if the nearest hospital is far away and lacking a full-time doctor, specialist and paramedical staff, essential medicines, medical equipment and has an erratic power supply, the provisions of an insurance cover listed by Ayushman Bharat alone will not benefit an ailing patient.

Moreover, we need to enhance the skill sets of health care professionals for addressing existing and emerging medical conditions. The recruitment policies are outdated. We can learn from the private sector and recruit doctors, nurses and other health staff from colleges in the final year. The career progression needs to be streamlined, like in the Indian Administrative Services.

The Medical Council of India in 2011 mandated doctors to undertake 30 hours of continuing medical education every five years in order to re-register. However, only nine of 26 state medical councils have made re-registration mandatory.

With dramatic transformation of the health care industry, we can expect to shift the course of treatment from reactive to proactive diagnosis and management. Capacity building will help reinvigorate the development of sustainable skills, structures, resources and commitment to improvement in delivery of health care services. We need to move beyond the promises laid out during the electoral campaigns and address the following questions plaguing the growth of the existing medical infrastructure:

● Do the available health functionaries have the required skill sets?

● Do those with required skills have the required equipment, medicines and other supplies?

● Does the work environment facilitate caregivers to deliver high quality services?

All these questions need answers and the only way to address these gaps is through enhancing the state of existing health care infrastructure. While the promise of affordable health care seems like a perfect fit in a country where out-of-pocket health care expenses are pushing close to 64 million lives into poverty each year, the road to accessible health care is a long one. India needs to address the infrastructural gaps before paving the road to affordable health care.

The need of the hour is to provide quality health services, covering even the most remote locations. While the government is the most important player in administration of health services in India, there are gaps that need to be plugged, such as innovation, accountability, monitoring and evaluation and capacity building. Hence, it is imperative to forge partnerships both with the government as well as with private organisations. The PPP model can help enhance capacity of the existing medical institutions, doctors and frontrunners. By means of capacity building, we can scale the reach of health services while focusing on quality and innovation.

Kumar is director, International Institute of Health Management Research.

patient-safety-the-prime-priority

Sat Jun 15 19:06:46 IST 2019

Studies show that among 100 patients at any given time, seven in developed and 10 in developing countries will get at least one health care-associated infection. Therapeutic errors, incorrect diagnosis, counterfeit drugs, unsafe injection practices—the threats to patient safety are many.

Even as India inches towards the dream of accessible and affordable health care, patient safety continues to be a challenge. The national patients safety implementation framework (NPSIF) for 2018-2025 says that there is minimal funding on patient safety research. From the absence of a systematic method of training nurses to the lack of specialised skill sets in health care, the scarcity of resources is a barrier towards mitigating risks of unsafe care.

To address these gaps, Becton Dickinson partnered with the Joint Commission International for Patient Safety to develop a gold standard safety programme called PRIME (preventing risks of infections and medication errors in IV therapy) in South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and India.

PRIME marks a significant step in the direction of upgrading quality standards in a health care setting. It is structured to enable implementation of standard practices at bedside, with an enhanced awareness of preventable harm, through the process of IV therapy. This programme has a multi-pronged strategy for awareness, assessment, continuous updates through webinars, consultation sessions, evaluation and certification.

PRIME content consists of medication preparation, initiation of therapy, medication administration, maintenance of vascular lines, surveillance of health care-associated infections and incidence reporting. Working with a unique approach towards patient safety, we believe PRIME has the potential to accelerate the delivery of quality care in India.

The initiative sets an important milestone in patient care in India. Upon completion of the programme, hospitals will be certified to deliver quality care interwoven with patient safety. BD is working with hospitals such as Belle Vue Clinic Kolkata, Fortis Anandapur and Mohali, Breach Candy Mumbai, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai, KIMS Thiruvananthapuram, Kasturba Hospital Manipal, Max Healthcare Saket and Medanta-The Medicity, Gurugram.

In a country with rationed public health care and lack of data on the root causes of unsafe patient care, the understanding of a “patient safety culture” is limited. With PRIME as a vehicle to address the fundamental gaps in patient safety, we want to create safety champions in all clinical areas across hospitals.

Mocherla is managing director of Becton Dickinson, India and South Asia.

hit-in-the-heart

Wed May 22 11:42:32 IST 2019

In June 2018, Siddram, 25, a farmer from Chittapur in north Karnataka, experienced a sudden burning sensation in his chest. He started vomiting, and felt cold and weak. He went to a primary health centre and was treated for acute gastritis. He was placed under observation for a couple of hours, and was rushed to Jayadeva Hospital in Kalaburagi as his condition did not improve. Here, it was revealed that what was thought to be a gastritis episode was in fact a heart attack.

Owing to the fact that he was diagnosed with a heart attack only after six hours, Siddram developed acute heart failure—a progressive condition, in which the heart muscles weaken or stiffen over time, resulting in impaired blood flow to the body. Siddram is one of the 8 to 10 million heart failure patients in India. Heart failure is the leading cause of mortality among cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), with close to 23 per cent patients succumbing within one year of diagnosis.

Heart ailments, a national issue

According to a recent study published in The Lancet, the incidence of heart diseases has increased by more than 50 per cent among Indians, aggravated by a wide range of triggers such as salt, sugar, fat consumption and air pollution. The total number of deaths due to CVDs has also increased to 28 per cent in 2016, from 15 per cent in 1990. Indians are genetically predisposed towards coronary heart diseases. Chronic lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity and diabetes, and lifestyle habits like lack of physical activity, smoking, drinking and unhealthy diet are additional risk factors. The prevalence of CVDs was the highest in Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa and West Bengal, the report further said.

Some of the most prevalent heart diseases that ail Indians are ischemic heart disease, heart attack, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, coronary artery disease, heart failure, arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy (damage to the heart muscles from infections or alcohol or drug abuse or smoking). Ischemic heart disease is the most rampant of all heart diseases and is also the underlying cause of other CVDs. Close to 25 per cent of the global disease burden for ischemic heart disease is from India. The disease is characterised by reduced supply of blood to the heart. It is also the main reason for heart failure in Indian patients.

CATCHING THE YOUNG

The country has undergone rapid epidemiological and demographic transitions in the last two decades. As a result, the burden of heart diseases has increased significantly. For instance, heart failure in India has increased by nearly 140 per cent from 1990 to 2013. And worryingly, heart diseases are even affecting youngsters. As a result the mean age of heart failure patients in India is 59—around 10 years younger than patients in the US and Europe.

Shabina Taj, a 36-year-old housewife and mother of an 11-year-old, had been experiencing severe breathlessness and swelling in the legs for the last five to six months. She continued consulting her family physician to address these symptoms, but with no relief. Shabina had been also suffering from several other underlying diseases like diabetes, hypothyroidism, anaemia and mild-renal dysfunction. She had been a diabetic for more than 14 years. She also had six abortions.

The diseases were taking a toll on her overall health and eventually led to the weakening of her heart muscle. Recently, her symptoms worsened and she finally visited a hospital in a very unstable condition. After a series of tests, she was diagnosed with grade 4 heart failure (in which patients are almost bedridden and unable to perform routine activities).

Shabina had a surgical intervention, where a Left Ventricular Assist Device—a mechanical pump which assists the heart muscle to pump blood across the body—was implanted in her heart. She is currently on medication for heart failure and for all other underlying diseases. Her comorbidities are majorly responsible for her aggravated heart failure symptoms.

Living with heart diseases

With increasing life expectancy of the population and availability of effective treatment options to prevent death, the actual number of patients living with heart diseases has increased manifold. With proper medical supervision and adherence to doctor’s advice, heart diseases can be managed. Because a majority of heart patients reach the hospital in an emergency situation, they require intensive care and surgical intervention. This is almost always followed by long-term medications.

Most patients diagnosed with heart diseases at a younger age have to continue treatment and lifestyle modifications throughout their life. Elder patients with other existing chronic diseases have to be more careful. Conditions like heart failure are progressive in nature and increase the risk of impacting other vital organs, which leads to repeated hospitalisations and even death, regardless of the age.

Prevention and early diagnosis

Sudden cardiac diseases like heart attack and cardiac arrest could strike any time. To avoid them, one should resolve to maintain a healthy lifestyle and if above 30, go for an annual screening. However, some heart diseases like heart failure have visible symptoms, which, if identified early, can be effectively managed through advanced treatment options. Since the symptoms of heart failure could overlap with many other diseases or signs of old age, they could often be ignored.

Common symptoms include shortness of breath, swelling in the ankles, legs or abdomen, need for elevated pillows while sleeping to breathe properly and unexplained fatigue while performing routine activities. If any of these symptoms are present, one should immediately consult a cardiologist. The National Health Policy 2017 of India aims to reduce 25 per cent of premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases and ensure screening and treatment of 80 per cent of hypertensive patients by 2025. Comprehensive efforts by the government, medical community and other stakeholders from the health care industry can help prepare a roadmap to fight the growing epidemic of heart disease in India.

Names of patients changed to protect identity.

Manjunath is professor and head of cardiology and director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, Bengaluru.

five-worrying-factors-this-election-season

Fri May 17 21:35:05 IST 2019

THE ELECTIONS so far have left me deeply concerned for five reasons.

First, the May Day attack on security forces in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district that killed 15 security personnel and one driver. It shows that the fight against Maoists has become a protracted war that intensifies during elections. Tragedies continue to strike in India’s red corridor, comprising districts in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar. The situation had hit rock bottom in 2013, when almost the entire Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh was gunned down in Sukma district in the run-up to the assembly polls.

It is well known that Maoists bury explosives deep below arterial roads and adjacent paths, making vehicular movement extremely dangerous. In spite of this knowledge, 15 personnel were dispatched in an unsecured, civilian bus to investigate a Maoist attack on trucks used by contractors for building roads. Standard safeguards were bypassed, leaving families shattered.

My second concern is the extent of illicit money being used to influence elections. Hard cash, liquor, drugs, bullion and freebies worth more than Rs 3,000 crore have been seized by election officials. The seizures made in the first four phases of this year’s elections significantly exceed the total seizures made in the 2014 polls.

It is clear that candidates are spending far more than the statutory limit of Rs 70 lakh. There are also rumours that the average spending is 10 to 20 times the limit. Surely, this makes a mockery of the Election Commission’s rules. Moreover, there is no limit on the spending by political parties on publicity or hired aircraft. Where does the money come from? How is it spent? There is very little transparency here.

The increasing presence of candidates facing criminal charges is my third worry. As many as 189 of 967 candidates (nearly 20 per cent) in the first four phases had criminal cases against them, according to their affidavits. More worryingly, 15 per cent (146 candidates) faced serious criminal charges, including murder, attempt to murder, dacoity, kidnapping and rape.

As many as 30 per cent of members of the sixteenth Lok Sabha had criminal cases against them; 16 per cent were booked for heinous offences. Will the 17th Lok Sabha be any different?

Fake news is my fourth concern. Its rapid proliferation on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms is playing a destructive role. Our likes, dislikes and prejudices can be deduced and manipulated—as the US presidential election in 2016 showed an incredulous world.

The Election Commission has issued comprehensive guidelines to all social media platforms, asking them to abide by rules and statutes. But social media remains difficult to monitor. So the efficacy of the laws will need to be analysed in the post-election period of reflection.

My final concern is the growing perception that the model code of conduct is not being fairly administered by the Election Commission. The commission must be seen as a fair umpire, not just by politicians but also by the country as a whole. That would be the final measure of the fairness and transparency of the elections.

Will this Election Commission be able to measure up to the high standards set by the post-Seshan era of polls? The jury is still out.

guaido-vs-maduro-face-off-in-venezuela

Sat Apr 06 19:34:49 IST 2019

Juan Guaidó is really shaking things up in Venezuela. Twenty years after Hugo Chávez began the Bolivarian revolution, Guaidó, the 35-year-old opposition politician, has finally forced the government of Nicolás Maduro to play defence.

Over 50 countries recognise Guaidó, who has served since January as head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as the country’s rightful leader. Meanwhile, the pressure to restore democracy in Venezuela is mounting, both domestically and internationally.

“How should I address you?” I asked Guaidó during a recent interview, via Skype. The question was an important one. Maduro’s government in Caracas describes Guaidó as a self-proclaimed president. But, Guaidó prefers another title, “acting president of Venezuela by mandate of the constitution,” and offers his own explanation—namely, that he has invoked Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution, which prescribes that “when the president becomes permanently unavailable... the president of the National Assembly shall take charge of the presidency of the republic”.

In Guaidó’s view, the office of the president became vacant following Venezuela’s monumentally fraudulent election in May 2018. It was then, after the inauguration of the dictator for a second term in January, that Guaidó was sworn in as interim president, taking Venezuela’s Chavistas by surprise.

After he was declared president, many Venezuelans hoped Maduro would be ousted quickly. That did not happen.

I asked how Maduro can be unseated. “We must remain committed to ‘Operation Freedom’ and keep building up pressure within Venezuela,” Guaidó said. “And the international push that has been vital thus far must maintain momentum.”

In addition, Guaidó has offered an amnesty to members of the military and government officials who reject the regime, as well as the promise of free elections once Maduro is finally removed from office. But this has not been enough.

High-ranking military officers have refused to turn their back on Maduro. The atmosphere in the streets is one of fear. When I visited the country in February, I saw troops, police officers and Colectivos (pro-Maduro groups) all over Caracas.

Looking further back, Latin America has had to contend with a long and sad history of US invasions. It begs the question: Would Guaidó authorise foreign military missions in Venezuela? And, could the topic end up splitting the opposition? “The subject is not a cause for division,” Guaidó said. “It is a possibility among many others available to us. It is a sensitive subject. And, it would not be an act of external aggression, but rather of international cooperation.”

So, what can be done to solve the crisis? “We have three real options: a transitional government followed by an election; a sui generis transition, like in 1958 in Venezuela [when a military board unseated the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez]; or the use of force, but not necessarily involving foreign parties,” Guaidó said. “Right now, the armed forces are not happy with what Maduro is doing.”

So far, Maduro has not attempted to arrest Guaidó, who has travelled in and out of Venezuela several times. In this tug of war, neither side is willing to relinquish a single inch of power to the other. But, even this delicate balance is in itself a welcome change. It is a kind of balance that was never achieved while Hugo Chávez was alive.

“When will we see you in Miraflores Palace?” I asked finally.

“We would like for it to happen in hours or days,” he answered cautiously. “Never before have we reached this point. And if we persist, I feel—and this is the general perception here in Venezuela—that it will happen very soon.”

Ramos is a veteran journalist and author.

get-tested-on-time

Sat Feb 16 14:39:40 IST 2019

Cancer is one of the most dreadful but preventable non-communicable diseases. According to estimates by the Indian Council of Medical Research, about 8.8 lakh people will die of cancer annually by 2020. There is no holistic approach towards cancer prevention and treatment in India currently. A cancer diagnosis often leaves a person devastated and worried about the treatment options, the costs and the pain involved. However, it is not just the fear of invasive treatment, disfigurement or the financial burden. The misplaced belief that death will be the ultimate outcome for a cancer patient often makes families opt out of specialised treatment.

There is a need for a well-planned treatment pathway—cancer prevention, early detection, complete medical treatment as advised and post-treatment rehabilitation, not to mention availability, affordability and accessibility of the same. Cancer care in India is yet to fully adopt a preventive approach and still clings to treating the disease mostly when it has reached an advanced stage. For example, obesity, which stems from a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating pattern, is one of the major risk factors for cancer. So are smoking and chewing tobacco. However, such issues are yet to be handled in a more comprehensive manner. Kerala, for instance, has ensured that a good number of cancer cases are detected at an early stage, thanks to timely screening, leading to relatively less mortality from the disease.

While the thought that “is it me?” can be scary, any unusual symptom should be reported. Notice any major changes in the way your body functions or feels and see a doctor immediately, more so if these persist for more than two to three weeks. Make some necessary lifestyle changes such as avoiding the use of tobacco, switching to a healthier diet and regular exercise. Vaccines such as the human papillomavirus and Hepatitis B help lower the risk of cervical and liver cancer, respectively.

Although India already has an extensive registry system for cancer, there is more work to be done to make a difference in the quantity and quality of data collected. Understanding the prevalence of cancer better across geographical locations can help in using them for research and development of better policies for effective cancer prevention. Better public-private partnerships in creating more awareness are also needed to ensure that the message reaches out to a larger audience.

Arming oneself with the right knowledge and utilising it effectively is the key to reducing the mortality associated with cancer. The future of this battle will be between an individual, his/her lifestyle and preventive approaches. It is important that we do not let cancer take us by surprise. The alarming rate at which cancer has spread across the country should initiate a call for action and awareness at the earliest. It must be ingrained in every citizen that only early and timely screening can ensure control and treatment at the appropriate time and prevent mortality. Going by the theme of this year's World Cancer Day—I am and I will—the need of the hour is to understand the condition and risk factors and take timely action.

Maiya is medical director, Portea Medical.

hypocrisy-documented

Fri Feb 08 11:18:37 IST 2019

It should come as no surprise that millions of undocumented immigrants work in the United States. Until recently, some of them worked at two, perhaps more, of President Donald Trump’s properties.

About a dozen undocumented immigrants worked at Trump’s golf clubs in Bedminster, New Jersey, and in Westchester County, New York, according to The New York Times and The Washington Post. The fact that undocumented immigrants were employed at the properties of a president who rose to the White House by criminalising and attacking these very people—whom he calls “illegals”— is worth noting, of course. But the practice of employing undocumented immigrants is much more common than we might imagine.

There is no evidence that Trump himself knew undocumented immigrants were working at his clubs. However, two of these employees, both of whom worked at Trump’s Westchester club, told me in an interview that they had worked there for years and had never had any problems. Until they were fired.

“Did the company know you were undocumented?” I asked Gabriel Sedano, a Mexican immigrant who had worked in maintenance at the Westchester property since 2005. “I think so,” Sedano said. “It was a very common practice at the club. I think they did not check them up.”

Margarita Cruz, who is originally from Puebla, Mexico, had worked as a housekeeper at the Westchester golf club since 2010. She gave her account of what happened: “I believe [Trump] wanted to carry out a purge before the government cracked down. He is just cleaning up. He has always said he does not want undocumented immigrants working for him. And now, if the government finally inspects all his employees’ documents, as it should, of course they won’t find anything, because he has already fired all of us.”

The president’s son, Eric Trump, who has day-to-day control of Trump’s properties, explained the dismissal of the workers to the Post as follows: “We are making a broad effort to identify any employee who has given false and fraudulent documents to unlawfully gain employment. Where identified, any individual will be terminated immediately.”

“The system is broken,” he concluded.

The fact that many undocumented immigrants worked at Trump’s properties for years is not surprising. What is surprising is that we pretend that this is something unusual. There are undocumented employees throughout the US, and we all benefit from their labour; they harvest our food, build our houses and apartments and look after our children, taking on the jobs most of us reject.

It is deeply hypocritical for Americans to badmouth undocumented immigrants, given the benefits they provide to society. It would be extremely difficult to find a single American whose life has not been positively affected by these immigrants.

The United States, as everyone likes to say, is a nation of immigrants. Now, that national identity is under siege. Many Americans are frightened by the country’s demographic revolution, and many would prefer that the country stop accepting so many immigrants, documented or undocumented, and instead become a nation of settlers and senior citizens.

Trump and the other merciless critics attacking undocumented immigrants refuse to accept a simple fact: Every time they visit a restaurant, or stay in a hotel, they receive the services of one or more undocumented immigrants. Such is life in the United States.

Ideally, the 10.7 million undocumented immigrants that now live in the United States would gain legal status. Unfortunately, in our current political climate, this is impossible. Until we have a new president, we can only operate in Trump-survival mode.

Ramos is a veteran journalist and author.

blood-cancer-needs-specialised-treatment

Fri Jan 25 16:52:27 IST 2019

Cancer is dreaded. Despite advances in surgical techniques, the affected organ, be it kidney or breast, often has to be removed from the body, followed by radiation therapy and treatment with anti-cancer drugs aimed at preventing its recurrence or spread. Once the cancer has spread beyond the organ or escaped into the blood stream to invade distant organs, it is called metastasis and is deemed incurable.

Compare this to the development of blood cancers, named under three broad categories—leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. They are blood cells originating from the bone marrow that have gone rogue and are exploding in different lymph nodes and organs through the entire length and breadth of the body. Yet, blood cancers remain the most curable cancer, both in children and adults.

The reason for this is three-fold. First, the cancer cells are flowing in the blood stream and are accessible to the drugs we want to expose them to. Second, we know that they originate from the blood stem cells and they can be replaced with normal healthy blood stem cells. Finally, cancer of any sort rises from deficiency in surveillance of our immune system. By changing the soldiers of the immune system who are exhausted and cannot fight the cancer anymore with fresh ones, we can cure blood cancers that are not responsive to drugs. The latter two goals are achieved with a process called blood and marrow transplantation (BMT).

BMT is not a process in isolation but a culminating treatment for blood cancers, where the initial steps are orchestrated and entwined to lead to BMT. Thus, doctors who specialise in treating blood cancers and who are competent in performing the procedure of BMT are best suited to treat blood cancers. While this segregation of treatment of blood cancers and BMT is established in the western world, the concept is nascent in India.

There was a time when surgeons administered chemotherapy and later radiotherapists joined force as the drugs available to treat cancers were limited. Subsequently, surgery and radiation therapy attained greater precision and numerous drugs were added to the anti-cancer armamentarium. Newer drugs have increased the survival of patients with advanced solid organ cancers by an average of three months. On the other hand, a majority of blood cancers, irrespective of their type or nature, are potentially curable in patients below 65 years with a BMT done at the right time in the right way. Lack of awareness often leaves a patient suffering from blood cancer languishing under assaults of repeated chemotherapy and radiotherapy without being offered a curative option such as BMT. For example, 80 per cent of adults with acute myeloid leukemia require a BMT once the disease is under control (called first complete remission) and have 80 per cent chance of being cured. This reduces to less than 10 per cent once the disease returns with vengeance. Unfortunately, less than 10 per cent of the patients in the former category ever receive a BMT, depriving them of a potentially curative option.

A word of caution about BMT as well: being the most intricate process of modern medicine, this requires the greatest degree of expertise.

air-cover

Sat Dec 15 16:28:37 IST 2018

In the last few years, there has been a surge in respiratory issues among the elderly and children. Though many factors like allergens, smoking, family history, diet, nutrition and physical inactivity are associated with respiratory issues among these vulnerable groups, air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, is also a significant risk factor for pollution-related diseases like respiratory infections, bronchitis, asthma attacks and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This can result in strokes and lung cancer among the elderly, and increase medication use, doctor or emergency room visits, hospital admissions and also result in premature death.

The reason why the effect is more in children is because their immune system and lungs are underdeveloped when exposure begins, resulting in impaired response to air pollution. Also, they spend more time outdoors, so exposure is high. Their breathing rate is faster than adults, and they breathe in more air per kilogramme of their body weight than adults. So, they are more exposed to air pollutants.

As we grow older, lung function decreases, and this decline is further increased with exposure to air pollution. Moreover, pre-existing diseases may determine susceptibility. Elderly people will most likely suffer from chronic diseases, and there is evidence that co-existing chronic lung, heart or circulatory conditions may worsen following exposure to environmental pollutants.

It is important to understand that respiratory issues can also affect overall health. Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorders are common in patients suffering from chronic respiratory diseases. Sleep also gets affected, which further results in stress and affects concentration, immunity and routine work. Respiratory stress can also affect vital organs like the heart.

To reduce the effect of air pollution at home, one should ensure proper ventilation and use cleaner fuels at home. Keep the house clean. Window mesh screens can filter pollutants as well as insects. Purifiers and filters can be used, especially when someone has difficulty in controlling asthma. Air purifying plants such as aloe vera can help improve air quality at home. Avoid smoking at home. Children and the elderly should exercise to build lung capacity, and consume fruits rich in vitamin C, magnesium and food rich in omega fatty acids to improve immunity.

Before stepping out, check the pollution forecast. Pollution levels vary with time. For instance, mornings and evenings during winter are worse because of smog. Avoid exercising outside when air pollution is high. Medical grade anti-pollution masks can also be used. They vary in cost, durability and in extent of their protection against particulate matter (PM) and other pollutants. There are N95 masks, Cambridge masks, totobobo masks and N99 masks. While ‘95’ means that they can filter 95 per cent of PM, starting from 0.3 to 2.5 micron, ‘99’ means they can filter 99.9 per cent of PM, from 0.3 to 2.5+ micron. P95 and P100 masks are also available, which can filter oil-based pollutants, too. While buying a mask, look for its rating, level of protection, durability, fabric quality, nose bands and presence of exhalation valve. Extreme measures like closing the schools can be taken when pollution levels are very high.

Maurya is senior consultant and head, department of pulmonology and sleep disorders, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi.

marriage-proposal

Fri Sep 28 13:07:53 IST 2018

AFTER THE Section 377 judgment, the door has opened….

Even as Supreme Court judgment created tidal waves in the country on September 6, I was not just overcome with joy, but also a massive anxiety attack that led me to take an anti-depressant.

I saw a glass not just brimming with blessings, but also with muddied water. You may wonder why. Frankly, the issue of gay and lesbian freedom is really the last frontier our society has to confront.

Religion, class and caste may and will dissolve as our cities get more egalitarian and more densely populated. Imagine a Brahmin trying to practise untouchability in a crowded Bombay suburban train and you will get what I mean.

The 2006 Yogyakarta Principles introduced a new framework of human rights based on sexuality and gender. Called the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) framework by the United Nations, these are organised and outfitted in the human rights framework to accommodate a new kind of human being who has a sexual and gender identity that is based on an individual’s right to them. In previous eras, gender was a socially constructed identity. You were ‘taught’ by society to be a man or a woman. This binary was not recognised in many indigenous societies. In India, we had the tritiya panthi (the third gender). Today, the WHO recognises more than 20 genders as legitimate and scientifically valid. Thus, a certain autonomy has come into the gender paradigm.

Though I am against the very institution of marriage, probably the first benefits that must accrue from the Supreme Court judgment are the right to marry and the demand for civil unions.

Marriage confers on people certain rights and entitlements by the state that cannot be imagined away; they are hard, material benefits that have not just constructed the very idea of marriage, but strengthened it into a safe-house for women and children. However much we can laugh at the fact that men bear responsibility of taking housing loans, it is true that they put their money where their mouth is to take mortgages over four decades of their lives. In this house, his wife gets a roof over her head and may either bear children (hopefully) or set up a home from where she can also go out and become a wage earner to lighten his burden.

Patriarchal though this marriage bond sounds, it can be turned around, too. Many wives earning more than their husbands do take mortgages on their own and become the “main wage earner” to service the mortgage or even the family car. The point I am making is that the marriage bond, recognised by the state, is the first such union of two persons from where benefits that one wage earner gets in a workplace automatically means that these benefits are continued to the other partner.

This means mediclaim, pension, post natal and pregnancy benefits for one can be extended to the other partner. Thus, a husband can get leave to look after the children or for an important commitment at home to strengthen the family bond. I have been refused Mahindra Holiday deals precisely because I am single and a bachelor, my same-sex partner not being considered a spouse though he looks after me and my household together.

In urban India today, one of the best reasons for having a spouse is to sign in for any hospitalisation. Spouses recognised by the state are allowed to receive or give authority for surgeries or interventions. In the case of same-sex couples, this bond is not recognised at all. I have seen same-sex partners who have been barred from even attending funerals of their partners.

Matters like adoption, surrogacy and even partner certifications in many cases are not allowed to same-sex couples. For instance, Hanafi laws for Muslims do not recognise adoption. In case a valid will is made by a Muslim man for his non-Muslim lover/partner, the will could be challenged in court, and, most probably, will be invalidated by common law. I wonder if same-sex partners have any standing to inherit parts of the inheritance of a Hindu partner in a joint family.

In many cases now, most men are not allowed to adopt female children according to common practice. In case an adoption has to be done by an openly gay single man, it would mean he is not allowed to adopt a female or male child for obvious reasons. Neither partner may be allowed to donate blood, for example, as homosexuals are not allowed to donate blood because they are said to be at high risk to HIV and STIs. The stigma and discrimination suffered by the LGBTQ community extends into spheres of life that roll out the stigma in various exclusionary ways, as I have pointed out.

However, with sex education on both sexuality and gender, we can push back the stigma and fight discrimination through rational laws that include LGBTQ in the mainstream.

I should end this on is a happy note. Those who were celebrating the Supreme Court judgment would also have noticed the stunning silence from politicians. Not even Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the judgment. The usual BJP motormouths were uncharacteristically quiet as were the Congress and its Modi-baiters.

That says the judgement was solely the achievement of the LGBTQ communities that rescued this case out of the jaws of an otherwise hopeless situation, where we were staring a curative petition in its face.

The credit for this victory goes solely to the community and its supporters and not to the political class or the political parties. That itself reveals that the LGBTQ community has matured to take part in the political challenge ahead.

The author is chairperson, The Humsafar Trust, an LGBTQ organisation based in Mumbai.

unreal-growth

Sat Sep 22 16:29:23 IST 2018

The GDP growth of 8.2 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year has created high expectations about the Indian economy. Many analysts have upgraded the GDP growth projections for the year with a median growth of 7.5 per cent. How realistic is that optimism?

After a slowdown for quite some time, there is a clear recovery in the economic activity. But, one also needs to understand that the first quarter GDP growth was on the back of a low base. For instance, the growth of manufacturing sector has increased from -1.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 13.5 per cent in the current year. Similarly, construction sector, which collapsed because of demonetisation, has also revived from 1.8 per cent to 8.7 per cent. However, the recent developments in the global economy as well as in the domestic policies do not suggest such high optimism on the economy.

There are indications that global trade is dwindling, and commodity prices are firming up. These developments do have significant impacts on India, both through trade and finance channels. Added to these external risks, the sharp depreciation of exchange rate, which is currently at a historically low (72.87 rupees for a dollar on September 12), could also pose serious challenge to India’s macro economy.

While theoretically depreciation in exchange rate should encourage exports and discourage imports, the recent empirical analyses do not confirm this. In fact, it seems to have an asymmetric impact on exports and imports. In other words, depreciating currency neither results in higher exports nor discourages imports as India’s import basket is largely essential goods needed for growth expansion. In such a situation, depreciation could potentially lead to widening the current account deficit (CAD). The initial indications suggest that India’s CAD could cross 3 per cent given the rupee depreciation and high oil prices, which, in my view, is unsustainable and needs to be contained—even at the cost of growth.

Many studies have shown that India could sustain a CAD of about 2.5 per cent. Anything above this level could pose financing problems, especially when there are tight liquidity conditions in the global level. There are also downside risks to growth from our domestic policies. The proposal to increase the minimum support prices, two interest rate hikes and tightening of fiscal deficits could create short-term demand side pressures. As the monetary policy committee is expected to increase the interest rates further (mostly due to open-economy macro pressures), aggregate demand could come down further in the current year.

Given these issues, it is baffling to learn that the analysts still predict a very optimistic growth of about 7.5 per cent, but are not really sure what could be the impact of a wider CAD and higher inflation. In my view, given the trade conditions, exchange rate depreciation and international oil prices conditions, such high growth is possible only if India is ready to run a CAD of 3.5 per cent with inflation above 5 per cent. However, since both are unsustainable, any reduction in CAD and inflation would be possible only through a compromise on growth.

A realistic GDP growth projection in such a situation could be a little lower than 7 per cent. This lower rate could ensure CAD of 2.5 per cent and maintain inflation below the 5 per cent mark.

The writer is professor of macroeconomics at the National Institute of Public Finance Policy, Delhi.

why-they-want-to-kill-me

Sat Aug 04 16:51:56 IST 2018

RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM and bigotry are spreading at an alarming pace across India. After the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, there has been a spurt in the assertion of one’s religious supremacy.

A fallout of this perilous assertion is the serial killing of thinkers like Narendra Dabholkar (in 2013), Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. None of these people had violated any law, morality or the Constitution. They were people who tried to save and strengthen democracy, and create social awareness through their works. But they were murdered by ignorant and narrow-minded people who misunderstood their good intentions.

I have been writing and publishing books for the last four decades, speaking and taking part in people’s movements as I consider it to be my duty. The Constitution of India says, “It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to promote rationalism, scientific temper, reform and humanism” [article 51 A (h)]. I work as directed by the Constitution.

In 1982, I published my book Shankaracharya Mattu Pratigaami (Shankaracharya and His Reactionary Philosophy) and argued that Shankara’s philosophy was anti-people. I detailed his visit to Nagarjunakonda, where he destroyed the Buddhist monuments (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, no. 54, The Buddhist Antiquities of Nagarjunakonda by A.H. Longhurst, 1938). I made enemies with this book. I invited them to counter me with evidence, but to date no one has come forward. It is such intellectual bankruptcy that instigates people to eliminate thinkers.

In my case, people made wild allegations and issued threats to my life. These phone calls and messages stopped one and a half years ago, after the police intervened and took appropriate action. I am also thankful to the late K.S. Puttannaiah, then MLA and president, Karnataka State Farmers Association, who challenged them, saying, “I will bring Prof Bhagavan to Vidhana Soudha. You come there and kill him.”

The killers who claim to be protecting Hindu religion have no idea what it is. They think that visiting temples, celebrating festivals and performing puja is Hindu religion, for they don’t understand the essence of Hindu religion or social hierarchy. There are four varnas—Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra—and the privileges and status enjoyed by the first three are denied to Shudras as they are slaves (daasyam shudram dwijanmanaam—Manu Smriti 8. 410). According to Manu, Shudras are slaves and children of prostitutes, and cannot own any property.

Manu Smriti was written in 185 BC. If the low castes, dalits, tribals and nomads continue to live in penury, it is due to society’s adherence to Manu’s code. Surprisingly, most Indians remain mute spectators when some leaders proclaim that they will replace the Indian Constitution with the regressive Manu Smriti. What a difficult circumstance! I have spoken against such statements in public forums. In fact, Dr Ambedkar and Periyar had burnt Manu Smriti.

The Bhagavad Gita was authored on the same lines as Manu Smriti in the third century, and Krishna says he created the four varnas (Gita, 4.13). Krishna considered Shudras, women and Vaishyas as sinners (Gita, 9.32). By calling Shudras slaves and sinners, he denied them a life of dignity. But it is the hard work of Shudras that has ensured prosperity and food production in this country. So, Shudras are not sinners but blessed ones. The priestly class who are leading a luxurious life exploiting the working class are the sinners.

I have written and spoken about religion and gods only to warn the masses against exploitation in the name of gods. But some ignorant people who do not bother to read books have been misled by the Brahmanical forces to murder Gauri, Kalburgi and others.

It is now well known that there was a conspiracy to kill me. The conspirators have confessed to it before the special investigation team in the Gauri murder case.

My contention is that if people who lie are daring, people who speak truth are no less courageous. I have always written what I felt was right. The Karnataka government had extended police protection to my residence in Mysuru, installed CCTVs and deployed bodyguards, too. I am grateful to former chief minister Siddaramaiah for it, and the present chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Home Minister G. Parameshwara for extending security to me.

Almost one and a half months before Gauri was killed, one of the accused, Naveen Kumar alias Hotte Manja, did a recce around my house. He has confessed that, after noticing round-the-clock police cover, he abandoned his plans to shoot me down. If not for the police protection I would not have been alive today to write this article.

After Naveen was arrested, his photograph was flashed on newspapers and television. When I went to Mylari restaurant near my house for coffee, the employees there said Naveen used to frequent the place.

I endured the suffocating and dreadful situation and grew stronger mentally. I stopped going out of my house, except for my daily walk, and kept reading and writing. I wrote an essay titled “Transcreating Shakespeare—Some Rays”, which was well appreciated by scholars.

I studied the Valmiki Ramayan and realised that the different narrations of Ramayana in Kannada and other Indian languages were part of the original story. The Kannada version has omitted several sub-stories. The Valmiki Ramayana is a poem that upholds the varna system. Contrary to popular belief, Rama rajya was not based on social equality. Rama protected the varna system—“Chaatur varnasya rakshita” (Sundarakaanda, chapter 35, shloka 11). I have elaborated on this in my latest work, Rama Mandira Yeke Beda? (Why we don’t need a Rama temple).

The Ram Janmabhoomi and Babri Masjid case will not be resolved if either of the two communities is given the disputed land; it may result in bloodbath. An ideal solution would be new legislation to declare the disputed land a national property, build there a garden of rare plants; or a hospital that will treat not only physical illnesses but also the ‘caste and religion’ disease; or a national museum of rare artefacts and manuscripts that exude India’s vibrant cultural heritage.

I dare my would-be killers, if they are not cowards, to fix a date for killing me in front of the Vidhana Soudha in the presence of the chief minister and top police officers. I will be there to face death. If they succeed they will be heroes.

K.S. Bhagavan is a rationalist, writer and retired professor of English

joint-effort

Sat Jul 07 17:51:10 IST 2018

Knee problems can be unusually painful and life-altering, especially if they come with other complications like arthritis. It is estimated that about 2 per cent of people above 55, affected by arthritis, require knee replacement.

Knee problems start much earlier for people affected by arthritis and other connective tissue disorders. Whether the arthritis is age related or of the inflammatory type, the end damage to the joint causes significant pain and difficulty in even walking.

Early arthritis can be managed by physiotherapy, analgesic drugs, cartilage-regenerating agents and weight reduction. But, it is the endpoint arthritis that needs knee replacement. The operation alters the quality of the patient's life. The timing of the surgery depends on the extent of the pain and disability.

The procedure is now common and has a high degree of success. But, this has become possible only because of constant improvement in surgical procedures and technology. Two technologies have proven immensely successful in enhancing the accuracy of knee-replacement surgeries and in also improving the rehabilitation process. Gyroscope-based computer navigation helps the surgeon place the implants accurately, whereas operating without using the tourniquet reduces post-operative pain, leading to early rehabilitation. Pain is now managed by injecting a ‘pain control cocktail’ (an amalgamation of specialised drugs) during or around the operation period. Also, a ‘cocktail’ of simple drugs is used to control post-operative pain. Some special drugs are used to reduce blood loss after the surgery.

Gyroscope-based computer navigation for total knee replacement

Precise positioning of knee-replacement implants is critical to achieve pain-free movements with normal gait. Done correctly, it can last the patient at least two decades. But, imprecise positioning can loosen the bond between bone and replaced implants very quickly, leading to pain and another surgery.

The aviation industry uses the gyroscope to earmark aircraft position precisely. Coupled with an accelerometer, which is used to indicate movement pattern at a located position, aircraft are guided with pin-point accuracy. The same principles have been used for knee replacement in India for about four years, with resounding success. The beauty of the situation is that engineers and surgeons have combined to create this wonder, which is accurate, user- friendly, reproducible and also economical.

Gyroscope-based iAssist system

Developed by a company headquartered in the US, this system helps the surgeon locate the centre of the hip, knee and ankle joints in realtime on the operation table. The surgeon then places the implants at 90 degrees to the line joining these three joints, thus avoiding any shear stress at bone-implant interface. Implants are positioned close to patient’s own anatomy, which differs from person to person. Gyroscope-based navigation not only helps in perfect placement of implants, but also reduces risks of serious complications like bone marrow particles or blood clots travelling to and causing problems in the lungs and brain. Also, with this technique, blood loss is significantly reduced and single knee replacement can almost always be done without any blood transfusion.

It is a user-friendly technique requiring a computer, like a small laptop, and two pods. The portable system works with Wi-Fi, which eliminates the line-of-sight problem that cropped up with earlier infrared-based systems.

After knee replacement, the patient can expect to walk with support in a day. If only one knee is operated on, the patient can walk without support within four weeks. If both knees are operated on simultaneously, it could take six weeks.

The writer is senior consultant, joint replacement, and spine surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.

why-mammograms-are-safe

Sat May 26 16:17:25 IST 2018

The origins of mammograms can be traced back to 1913. X-rays were discovered 18 years earlier. Albert Salomon studied the correlation of known cancerous tissue of the breast specimens to radiographs taken of the same breast and concluded that X-rays of breast specimens gave a demonstrable overview of the form and spread of cancerous tumours.

More than 100 years on, the foundations laid by him assist in the early detection of breast cancer, which is today the most common cancer in women, and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in developing countries.

With a massive rise in incidences, one would assume that mammograms are high on priority for women. Unfortunately, there are myths that confuse and even deter women from undergoing mammograms.

Myth 1: I don’t need a mammogram if I don’t have any breast complaints.

Fact: Mammograms are not just for women who are already diagnosed with breast cancer. It is, in fact, the only proven screening test capable of detecting the earliest signs of breast cancer for those yet to show common symptoms.

A mammogram is recommended for women between the ages of 40 and 75, as this group has the highest incidence of developing breast cancer. Early detection could lead to positive treatment outcomes.

Myth: I cannot get a mammogram done during my periods.

Fact: It is safest to have a mammogram done within the first two weeks of your period, as a woman is least likely to be pregnant then. A mammogram also causes the least discomfort during this time as the breasts are less engorged and less tender.

Myth: Breast cancer makes breasts denser.

Fact: Breast density is the ratio of fat to tissue and differs in every woman. Denser breasts contain more glandular and fibrous tissues than fatty tissue, a pattern seen in young women. With age, breasts are likely to get less dense. Women with denser breasts have slightly increased chances of developing breast cancer. Also, the diagnosis and examination of a dense breast is challenging because a normal dense breast and and one with cancer appear similar in a mammogram. A mammogram screening is also able to assess the density of the breasts and recommend additional 3D mammogram or ultrasounds to improve sensitivity of the screening test and trace malignant strains as early as possible.

Myth: Mammograms are more harmful than beneficial.

Fact: The benefits of a mammogram far outweigh any negatives associated with exposure to low levels of radiation during a mammogram. In fact, this radiation exposure is comparable to natural background radiation from cosmic rays that one would receive during an international flight.

The mammogram machines of today use minimal doses of radiation (0.4mSv) that have little to no effect on the individual. Discomfort can also be reduced by abstaining from caffeinated beverages two to three days prior to the mammogram.

Early detection of cancer goes a long way in contributing to a successful recovery and a timely mammogram is one of the best tools that aid in doing so.

Dr Mahajan is consultant radiologist, breast imaging and intervention, Cytecare Cancer Hospital.

the-growth-of-poaching

Fri May 25 18:03:24 IST 2018

Hey, check your WhatsApp! I have sent photos of some snakes for identification… cops caught ‘em at a checkpost near Jorhat,” read a message from an animal rights activist and journalist from Guwahati. Two unlucky boa constrictors, two sorry looking turtles; “is that a pair of albino African pythons?” I thought to myself, as I scrolled through the images. But one image had me jump up in bed—the unmistakeable pattern of dorsal scales and tiny horns on a large triangular head. The deadly gaboon pit viper was far away from its native home in the rainforests and savannas of sub-Saharan Africa. My immediate reaction was to warn the authorities handling the consignment. The gaboon viper can inject fatal toxins in just one bite, and since this is an exotic species, there is no antidote available in India. This huge consignment of gaboon vipers, African pythons, marmosets, turtles, and 13 unidentified exotic snakes was bound for the exotic ‘pet shops’ of Delhi, via Assam.

Are people on a suicide spree? Are dogs and hamsters no longer cute enough? To my utter disbelief, an informant in the pet trade confirmed my worst fears. The rich and flamboyant in India are demanding exotic species as pets—ranging from African black mambas to American rattlesnakes and adorable Australian sugar gliders. This highly educated and socially influential gentry is willing to go against the laws and ethical constraints just to impress each other or to simply fulfil a whim.

Earlier, we used to deal with tiger poachers who employed poaching practices of a bygone era. Now we are up against the highly educated, well-travelled, English speaking, next-gen wildlife smuggler, who is well-versed with forensics and crime management. Their dealings are often untraceable. The challenge is big, and currently we are only trying to understand it. The network of wildlife crime, like any other crime syndicate, is well organised and well hidden. It relies on pawns and mules, completely unaware of each other’s roles, to move goods. If one of them gets caught, they have little information to share and can be replaced
easily.

A former trader told us how he had operated: “We used to send tortoises to Bangkok and imported fishes in exchange. There was no money involved. When I would meet the trader, he ensured that my expenses were taken care of. The profit from the fish business sustained us well enough till the next operation. We all were minting money.” These innovative methods are routinely employed to ensure there is no money trail.

In sharp contrast, traditional tribal poachers ensure there is no digital trail. They are mindful of the fact that a cell phone could cost a gang member’s life. They deploy age-old signals and depend on one-to-one meetings or messengers. Yet, their network is efficient and synchronised to precision. Enforcement agencies are struggling to keep pace with these extreme ends of the global crime network, and has resorted to forensics and undercover operations to gather intel.

An attempt by one of our team members to infiltrate a suspected WhatsApp group of traders hit a manual firewall. We failed to clear three levels of scrutiny—(a) the new member must be vouched by at least two existing members, (b) a live video chat and (c) examination of the Facebook profile of the new member. This level of professionalism is no less than the HR policies of an established multinational company, except that any compromise on it may be a matter of life and death.

The key to stop this trade is no longer limited to effective enforcement. Till there is no curb on demand for these wild animals, the trade will continue to flourish. The onus is on us to ensure these exotic wild animals thrive in their natural habitats and are not reduced to a status symbol or an object of entertainment. When the demand stops, the supply stops, and once the chain is broken, the network will collapse.

Jose Louies is head of south Indian projects, Wildlife Trust of India.

allow-captive-cultivation-of-cannabis

Fri May 11 13:39:11 IST 2018

Cannabis has been an important medicinal plant for centuries, rooted in Indian culture and ayurveda. However, owing to the global abuse of cannabis as a psychotropic substance, the plant was banned under the National Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, 1985, and consequently all research and development work on it came to a virtual halt.

Owing to breakthroughs in biomedical research in the last several years, particularly by scientists from Israel, there has been a global renaissance in cannabis-driven drug development for treating various diseases. And, this multi-disciplinary research has brought remarkable clarity in terms of harmful and beneficial compounds produced by the cannabis plant.

Most of the harmful or narcotic or habit-forming properties of cannabis are due to a compound called THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), and most of the therapeutic properties are due to another phytocannabinoid called CBD (cannabidiol). These harmful and medicinal compounds can be separated.

CBD-rich phytocannabinoids have undergone phase-II and phase-III clinical trials in the United States, Europe and Israel for cancer pain, epilepsy, glioma (a type of brain tumour), type-II diabetes and schizophrenia. This led to the regulatory and marketing approval of cannabis-derived drugs for treating pain, multiple sclerosis, appetite loss in AIDS patients and nausea in chemotherapy.

The breakthrough on CBD was highlighted in the September 2015 issue of Nature. The most important use of cannabinoids is in the management of pain in advanced terminal cancer, epilepsy in children and in sickle cell anaemia.

In India, however, despite the best quality cannabis available, no effort has been made to bring CBD to the market. For the last several years, the CSIR-IIIM [Centre of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine], Jammu has been approached by several leading cancer doctors and companies from abroad regarding CBD-based therapeutics for pain management in cancer and epilepsy patients. The institute approached the Union and state governments for permission to bring cannabis under captive cultivation. Recently, the state government granted licence to IIIM for cultivation of cannabis for medical research and drug development. This landmark and visionary step will go a long way in enabling access to CBD-based medicines for cancer and epilepsy patients in India.

There is an urgent need to review the law in India. The Union government should allow protected cultivation of cannabis in different parts of the country, and support process development, biomedical research and clinical development of phytocannabinoids under the regulatory oversight of the Drug Controller General of India.

The writer is director, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu.

osteoarthritis-risk-increases-multi-fold-after-menopause

Sat May 05 15:24:09 IST 2018

Transformation from an adolescent to a teenager, and from a teenager to a woman, leads to various biological, hormonal and psychological changes. The menstruation cycle is a natural and physiological process, and an integral part of a woman’s life. This process essentially allows her to bring a new life into this world. Yet, menopause, in many ways, can be a welcome change—no more menstrual cramps, frequent mood swings or headaches.

Globally, women experience menopause between the ages of 45-55 years. However, a recent survey conducted by The Institute for Social and Economic Change states that about four per cent of Indian women experience menopause between the age of 29-34, and approximately eight per cent in the 35-39 age group. This is largely because of differences in lifestyle.

Menopause and healthy bones

Estrogen, a hormone found in both men and women, plays a vital role in promoting the activity of osteoblasts, cells that are bone-forming. During menopause, the estrogen levels in women drop, thereby limiting the efficiency of the osteoblasts. As a result, the bones become weaker than in men. Less estrogen reduces calcium absorption, thus decreasing bone density, and causing reduction in overall bone mass. This pre-disposes women to a higher risk of orthopaedic ailments like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis (OA).

To be aware of one’s health and to equip oneself with the right knowledge, right decisions have to be made with regards to prevention and cure of these conditions.

OA is not a disease but a condition, which occurs as a result of the regular wear and tear of joints. Every human being experiences it at some point in their lives. However, if this progresses, it can become a challenge, and impact one’s quality of life, impacting the mobility of joints at a later stage.

Why are young women falling prey to early menopause?

The common reasons for early menopause can vary from smoking, pre-existing thyroid disorders, to chemotherapy and major pelvic surgeries. Staying indoors for long, leading a sedentary lifestyle, body-weight problems, and calcium deficiency can add to the risk of osteoarthritis. Aches, stiffness and swelling around the joint, and, sometimes a warm joint, are typical symptoms of menopausal joint pain. These may worsen during the morning, and subside as the day continues.

Treating OA

Researchers have observed that OA is more common among women than men, and its risk increases multi-fold after menopause, even if they are on hormone-replacement therapy (wherein the natural estrogen loss is supplemented through medication).

In the primary stages, OA is usually treated with pain killers. While painkillers help subside the pain, exercise helps in strengthening the muscles around the joints, that eventually stabilises and protects the joint from further damage. In chronic arthritis, where the condition becomes severe enough to affect one’s mobility and quality of life, replacing the damaged joint may be the most viable option. In joint replacement surgeries, the damaged part of the joint surface is removed, and resurfaced to accommodate the artificial implant. This new implant helps to relieve pain and restores smooth functioning of the joint.

A study conducted at the University of Bremen in Germany found that those who undergo a total knee replacement (TKR) for osteoarthritis of the knee are much more physically active within a year of surgery. It was also noted that a TKR offers profound improvement in the level of physical activity of most patients.

Prevention is better than cure

Hormone levels change in both men and women. In women, it is referred to as menopause; whereas in men, when their testosterone levels begin to drop, it is called andropause. Bone loss among women happens at the average rate of 2-3 per cent a year, while among men, it is only 0.4 per cent of the bone mass. Knowing what your body needs can help in keeping your bones and joints healthy, and away from severe joint conditions.

While the loss cannot be entirely prevented, there are ways to reduce the rate of loss through anti-osteoporotic treatment replacement therapy. Regular exercise, weight training, consumption of protein and calcium rich food, avoiding caffeine and reducing the intake of tea and aerated drinks, can go a long way in keeping the joints healthy.

DrTalwar is associate professor and joint replacement surgeon at Central Institute of Orthopaedics, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital.

Dr Bhardwaj is chief of knee and hip replacement and arthroscopy department at the Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute Hospital.

data-protection-rules-and-2019-elections

Sat Apr 14 15:16:31 IST 2018

GUEST COLUMN

On March 25, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ran full-page advertisements in nine leading British and US newspapers, admitting data privacy breach on the social networking platform. Facebook policies had enabled a Cambridge researcher to harvest data of more than 50 million Americans through a psychological test of just 2.7 lakh Facebook users, who had consented for the same. He shared it with (sold it to) Cambridge Analytica (CA, a political consultancy), without authorisation.

Facebook collects personal information from users, and generates insights into their behaviour by analysing their ‘likes’, interests, relationships, political and religious views, social views, locations visited, countries and regions. It categorises users into ‘like-minded’ groups and ‘personality types’—target audiences for advertisers.

Facebook makes this platform available to hundreds of thousands of app developers in its quest to make it attractive to more and more people, which, in turn, makes it useful to advertisers and other organisations, such as political parties. No wonder, it is home to two billion global citizens, who are residing in different countries, but receive targeted messages, which are aimed at changing different aspects of their behaviour, including making them change governments through elections and/or mass movements.

Prior to the newspaper ads, Zuckerberg, in his post on Facebook on March 23, admitted that its policies were responsible for “a breach of trust between FB and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it.” Is it merely the misuse of data or data privacy policies that is at the heart of the problem? Why has this problem assumed such proportions when data protection and privacy principles have been around since 1974? The privacy principles are nearly universal: data collection for a stated purpose with consent of data subject, purpose limitation, accuracy and quality of data, cross-border data flows, data security, legitimate interests and accountability of data controller. User to be informed of data privacy policies by the data controller so that he can take informed decision on sharing his data.

What has changed in cyberspace over the last decade that warrants a fresh look at data privacy? It is the social media platforms, accessible over broadband from a variety of devices, with interactive participation of data subjects through myriad apps, that have led to creation of innumerable communities on the internet. The race is to have apps for niche areas such as entertainment, shopping, travel and food. Big companies offer their platforms as gateways to the internet for data subjects to reach out to these apps—they provide the authorisation infrastructure.

It is these apps that collect users’ information for better services, convenience and delight! It was such an app which was using Facebook to reach users for the personality quiz. It harvested data of users, their friends, and friends of friends, since Facebook allowed that in its earlier version. For the latter group, it was without their express consent!

The scene gets fuzzier when one talks of fake likes and other news that gets pushed on to walls of unsuspecting users by bots and artificial intelligence (AI) apps that have been created by vested interests to influence the thinking of ‘like-minded’ groups identified for a specific purpose. In the political area, this could be to arouse the feelings or to cause depression/pessimism to drive a particular outcome. The jury is still out on the impact that Cambridge Analytica had on the Trump campaign—whether it did make Afro-Americans depressed enough to not go out to vote because of the perceived futility of voting, or other groups of Americans to vote in large numbers to make “America Great Again”. The picture got muddier because of the suspected meddling by Russians in buying fake advertisements to drive a specific view.

In India, too, the apps today include those of political parties. Witness the war of words between the Congress and the BJP on what personal information of users are they collecting. Are they collecting too much information than they should for sending targeted messages? Are they sending data to servers abroad? Are they following the privacy policy that they have declared on their websites? Christopher Wylie, the CA whistleblower, has confirmed in his testimony to the British parliament on March 27 that CA did provide services to the Congress party and others in various regions. What impact did it have is a matter of detailed study. But, is it illegal to hire consultants? Perhaps not!

State of data privacy of mobile apps in India—a study of 100 apps developed in India for local audiences—carried out by Arrka in December 2017 analysed the kind of personal information collected, shared with (or sold to) third parties, and the kind of tracking that the users are subject to. The study looked at mobile apps with dangerous permissions that allow sharing of personal information that is sensitive (as categorised by Android) as this enables tracking of the subject, building his profile. These include: calendar, camera, contacts, location, microphone, phone, sensor, sms, and storage. While 40 apps have 10 dangerous permissions, 31 have more than 10; with an average of 7.9 per app. Many of the mobile apps have third party software development kits embedded in them. These SDKs may belong to advertisers, analytics providers, or some specialised partners of the app provider for providing some specialised feature or functionality.

Clearly, there is scope to improve policies. But, should there be strong regulation to monitor the implementation of policies? There should be no knee-jerk reaction in favour of a strong data protection authority empowered to monitor and control. Such monitoring will promote an inspector raj that will more likely impede the digital economy, with no positive impact on privacy enhancement. India needs a proactive, but light-touch regulation with industry SROs working with the data protection authority in a co-regulatory model under the proposed DP Act.

Finally, CA using the harvested data of potential voters has violated no laws in India. It is immaterial whether the BJP or the Congress has used its services to micro-target advertisements based on the psychological profiles of potential voters. Justice B.N. Srikrishna, in an interview, laid to rest the threat issued by the law and IT minister to Facebook—of summoning Zuckerberg if there is any meddling in Indian elections. Blocking access to CA (done by the government) is no solution, nor is banning of companies, as per Justice Srikrishna.

What we do need is a data protection law that incorporates the learnings from the US, EU, UK, OECD and APEC privacy laws/frameworks; and it takes into account all facets of the digital economy unique to India in its growth story at this time when we are poised to become a trillion dollar IT economy—a whole new privacy ecosystem with minimum bureaucracy, and minimum government control. No knee-jerk reaction, please. That would be counterproductive. Let the Srikrishna Data Protection Committee submit its report.

Bajaj is founder CEO of Data Security Council of India and founder director of CERT-In.

why-this-desperation-to-win

Sat Mar 31 13:31:34 IST 2018

Cricketers are getting the wrong kind of attention at the moment. When it should be their wonderful skills we should be marvelling at, it is their behaviour that is catching the eye and making headlines.

I guess the modern way of playing the game does not help either. You need to be seen as an aggressive player, whether you are batting, bowling or fielding. That is the ‘in thing’ now. That is how you get attention.

The low-profile, undemonstrative, internally aggressive players like Ajinkya Rahane, for example, are not the brands used to market or promote cricket.

Our television cameras tend to follow the more animated person on the field, often at the cost of a quiet, subdued bowler who has just got a wicket.

The cameras are stationed on that exuberant player on the field who has neither taken a wicket nor a catch, he is just pumped up after that wicket. So, he is the person you see on the screen.

But, this is a double-edged sword. It is just a small step from there in the wrong direction, like instead of pumping your fist in the air and saying something to no one in particular, you do this looking at the batsman. Boom!

You invite the wrath of the match referee and the ICC code of conduct kicks in... oops.

The media then has a field day with this—a side story has become more attractive than just plain cricketing action, which is another fallout of excessive cricket, I think. YouTube videos of Kagiso Rabada making shoulder contact with Steve Smith have more views than a beautiful cover drive by Virat Kohli.

I have been understanding of players losing their cool and doing things they regret later. After all, these are mostly 20-year-old athletes, not a bunch of nerds who will behave like good boys in a classroom.

If they were the latter, they would not be playing cricket for their country.

But, what really gets to me is cheating, especially when it is a well thought-out, premeditated plan, like with the Australians in the Newlands Test in South Africa.

My first reaction to this is always—why this desperation to win? It is just a sport, not a matter of life and death. Even if you are a sportsman, one must never confuse sport with life. Just like the great West Indian sides of the 1980s and 1990s, whose countries’ culture kept them grounded. They never lost sight of the fact that cricket was paying their bills, but it was not life.

Australians are not that worldly-wise. They play cricket like their life depends on it. They are not cheaters, have never been. But, their motto is to win at all costs.

Greg Chappell got one of his players to bowl underarm to win a game. That was not cheating; it was finding a hole in the laws of the game, but it showed the desperation to win.

Sledging and hustling are used to win games, and they naively believe these are some of the important ingredients to be a winning team.

They are getting a reality check now. They still do all those things, but are not able to win as much. Why? Because their skills have diminished.

Used to winning all the time in the past and not being able to win as much today may have pushed Steve Smith to go beyond the sledging... to cheat.

But, he misjudged the Australian public. Australians love their sportsmen, but they do not like them cheating, hence this outcry over what is only a second-level offence in the ICC code of conduct. The Australian prime minister was one of the first to express his anger at the incident.

Steve Smith may have to pay a heavier price than others who were caught ball tampering because of this. He will have to learn the truth the hard way—his country is not as desperate to win as his team is.

break-the-walls

Fri Feb 16 16:24:11 IST 2018

President Donald Trump has already built a wall, but it is inside his head. No matter how many times he is told that a physical barrier between Mexico and the US would not considerably deter the smuggling of drugs or undocumented people into the country, he keeps insisting that it be built. It is an absurd and outdated idea.

Building walls to protect borders, is, of course, an ancient concept. Tall, powerful walls kept foes from storming the castles of Europe during the Middle Ages; and from the 14th through the 17th centuries, China’s great wall helped keep the Ming dynasty safe from the nomadic tribes of Asia. But, in a 21st century marked by globalisation, technological shifts and the rapid movement of people, walls just make no sense as border deterrents.

Still, Trump wants his.

His insistence began on the day he announced he was running for president in 2015. “I will build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me,” Trump said then. “And I’ll build them very inexpensively... and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

I have indeed marked his words, and say once again that Trump is lying. Trump will not build a great wall on the border with Mexico, nor will he build an inexpensive one, and Mexico will certainly not be paying for it. Yet the president refuses to tell the truth; his campaign pledge only stoked prejudice and insults to win votes.

John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, recently acknowledged to a group of lawmakers that Trump wasn’t “fully informed” during his campaign about what building a wall with Mexico would involve. When the president’s main adviser says his boss doesn’t know what he’s talking about, we know something very serious is going on.

The main problem is that a wall would prevent neither people nor drugs from entering the US. Many immigrants arrive with a visa, by aeroplane, and illicit drugs are smuggled in through tunnels and airports. Nevertheless, Trump wants his wall.

It is very difficult to understand why a man who describes himself as a genius and a great entrepreneur would ask Congress for $18 billion to build a project that will not work. According to reports from The Wall Street Journal, the money would be used to add about 350 miles of fencing to an existing 654-mile border wall; even if the project were completed, about 1,000 miles along the border would still have no physical barrier.

It is worth noting that we have had a similar debate before. Former President Bill Clinton put Operation Gatekeeper in place in 1994 with the purpose of restricting the passage of undocumented immigrants to San Diego from Tijuana. The programme increased the number of border patrol agents in the area and built miles of new fence (yes, Democrats have also voted to build a wall along the Mexican border).

In the end, Operation Gatekeeper failed. Undocumented immigrants stopped entering San Diego through Tijuana, but they started crossing deserts and mountain ranges and passing through other states. The crossing became an extremely dangerous undertaking. Over the years, thousands died attempting it.

Operation Gatekeeper was like placing a big stone in a moving river; the water just ran around the sides. Neither more walls nor more agents prevented the growth in the undocumented immigrant population, from 3.5 million in 1990 to 11.2 million by 2013, according to data from the American Immigration Council.

Conclusion: No wall can stop undocumented immigrants if they are determined to cross over, much less if they are hungry and have been promised a job up north. And no wall can stop the flow of drugs from Latin America into the US as long as there are millions of drug addicts living in the country. Migration and drug trafficking are, in the end, a matter of supply and demand.

I do believe that every country has a right to secure its borders. But, there are much more humane and rational ways to protect a country than building walls. The renegotiation of NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] could do more to regulate the entrance of undocumented people into the US than a 350-mile wall ever could.

Sadly, the hardest walls to bring down are the ones we erect in our heads.

Ramos is a veteran journalist and author.

union-budget-health-sector

Fri Feb 16 14:38:53 IST 2018

Ayushman Bharat is the title under which two revamped health programmes were unveiled in the Union Budget to proclaim a thrust towards universal health coverage. The assurance of accessible and affordable health care is directed at rural and vulnerable sections of the population through initiatives that promise community-based primary care as well as government-financed hospital care.

About 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres will bring several elements of essential primary health services closer to people’s homes. This comprehensive package will provide maternal and child health services; prevention, detection and early care for common communicable and non-communicable diseases; essential drugs and basic diagnostics; and health promotion through community health education. While the funds required will certainly be more than the Rs 1,200 crore allocated, additional funds have to flow from the main budget of the National Health Mission.

However, the real challenge lies in equipping these centres with a health workforce of the size and skills needed in a short time. Auxiliary nurse midwives, male multipurpose workers and mid-level health workers like nurse practitioners would be needed, apart from persons who can function as a lab technician, pharmacy dispenser and data entry operator. A great opportunity exists for employment generation, but training and skill building programmes are needed to generate this workforce.

The National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) scales up the Rashtriya Bima Yojana in both population coverage (10 crore poor and vulnerable families) and cost coverage (Rs 5 lakh a year per family) in providing access to hospitalised secondary and tertiary care. Such advanced care will be provided by public and private hospitals empanelled and paid through a ‘strategic purchase’ mechanism, administered through a trust or an insurance company. This will not cover outpatient care, though that is the principal source of high ‘out-of-pocket expenditure’ on health. Unless strategic purchasing of selected services is accompanied by cost and quality controls, induced inappropriate care (unnecessary procedures) by hospitals will drain funds and distort health budgets.

Contrary to popular perception, NHPS is not a classical insurance programme, wherein an individual or her employer pays the premium. Here, the government proposes to pay the whole amount. The Rs 2,000 crore allocated this year will be insufficient as the scheme evolves after its introduction in October. If there is a high level of enrolment (large risk pool) the premiums can be pegged down, but as utilisation rates rise, so will the premiums. With an insurance company as the intermediary of government financing, the premiums may spin out of control because of high overheads. NHPS also requires merger of the central- and state-funded health insurance schemes to increase the resource pool and ensure interstate portability.

While these two initiatives can potentially fit into a framework of Universal Health Coverage, the journey may go astray unless the programme prioritises primary health care as the bulwark of the health system, both for essential service provision and also as an efficient gatekeeper for advanced care. Further, UHC cannot be segmentally targeted, but has to include the whole population in a design which protects all Indians even while prioritising the welfare of the poor. The best outcome of the budget might be to trigger wider interest and a debate around UHC.

Reddy is president, Public Health Foundation of India. Opinions are personal.

digital-companies-cannot-afford-to-defy-laws-of-the-land-says-jyotiraditya-scindia

Thu Jun 17 20:25:36 IST 2021

Necessity is the mother of invention. Regular instances of unlawful content impinging upon individual safety and national security paved the way for the new IT rules. However, by vehemently disregarding them, social media intermediaries are complicating an already tricky situation.

The key debate is with regard to the aspect of tracing the originator of unlawful messages. Companies like WhatsApp contend that it would compromise on a key non-negotiable, i.e. user privacy. This, however, is not true. First, the rules do not dilute the right to privacy of ordinary users, since traceability will be sought only in exceptional cases as a last resort.

Second, it is noteworthy that no social media intermediary has made a case about the robustness of their algorithms in tackling the menace of circulation of unlawful content. The companies, instead of developing a technical solution to comply with the traceability clause, have chosen to fight the government tooth and nail. Do these companies not owe it to their 100 crore-plus Indian users—the largest in the world—to proactively create a mechanism to assist law enforcement in preventing serious cybercrimes?

Next, WhatsApp’s fierce opposition to traceability reeks of hypocrisy, given that the company recently tweaked its new privacy update to share user data with both the parent company and its business associates. The way WhatsApp has attempted to impose this update upon users is nothing less than coercion. Besides, it is discriminatory when in the EU it gives people a chance to opt out of the update. Given the double standards, WhatsApp naturally loses leverage to negotiate on India’s new rules.

The fourth issue is with their opacity. Whether it is the uncanny disappearance of blue ticks from the accounts of political figures, or content being labelled as manipulated media, or the mechanism of choosing fact checkers, it is about time for Twitter to come out into the open. Exercising opacity is unbecoming of a clique of companies that, by their very purpose, position themselves as facilitators of freedom of speech. And, with limitless freedom of expression, there also comes some responsibility. You cannot create a democratic space when you are denying users the right to effective redress.

That said, do these platforms consider themselves as content hosts or as publishers, given they exercise their editorial prerogative? If it is the latter, should they not be subject to the regulations that govern other media enterprises? It is incumbent upon social media companies to clarify.

India's IT regulations could redefine the rules globally. Countries like Australia, the US and Brazil have been contemplating regulations to address contentious issues like traceability, and now, India must look to set a precedent. Perhaps, Narendra Modi’s commitment to ‘open societies’ at the G7 Summit couldn’t come at a better time.

Fostering a space online that is truly democratic, and serves as an effective tool for freedom of speech, requires both sides to draw a delicate balance. However, digital companies cannot afford to defy the laws of the land. The government's new rules mirror its role as both a facilitator of free speech via social media as well as a protector from its devious misuse. And the government’s stance is clear—there will be no compromise on India’s digital sovereignty.

It’s now up to the social media companies whether they should choose to adapt or resist to no avail.

we-need-a-shot-of-optimism-to-defeat-covid-19--jyotiraditya-scin

Thu May 20 17:44:06 IST 2021

As the world continues to grapple with the uncertainty of the virus’s trajectory and the evolving new strains, India is facing its worst Covid-19 wave that has unleashed tremendous suffering. The need of the hour is for all stakeholders to rise above whataboutery and act as citizens first with a common goal—to defeat the virus.

A second wave was inevitable, but the magnitude of virulence could not have been forecast—neither in India, nor in other countries. So, let’s view India’s position vis-à-vis its developed and developing counterparts. India’s daily cases crossed the three lakh mark on April 21, which was the case in the US on January 2. At this juncture, health infrastructure broke down in the US. Similarly, the UK (which is home to a small population of 65 million) saw its systems collapse after daily active cases reached the 70,000 mark. Thus, even developed countries do not possess health infrastructures that could withstand an India-like astronomical caseload. Nevertheless, the Union government pulled out all the stops to cope with this mammoth challenge.

The government pressed into action from the very first signs of a second wave in Kerala in January. On January 7, a high-level team constituted by the Central government was rushed to Kerala to support its fight against the surge in cases. In fact, since September 2020, more than 75 high-level teams have been deployed across states. We have scaled up our health care capacity in terms of centralised quarantine centres, isolation and ICU beds. We have tripled the number of ventilators since last year. Our production capacity of medical oxygen has increased from 2,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes per day.

To address the logistics issue, we are importing tankers, airlifting empty tankers and oxygen containers with the help of the Air Force, and are even using trains as ‘Oxygen Expresses’ to ferry tankers.

As a result, today, active cases and positivity rate are on a decline (national average is less than 20 per cent)—signs that the Centre’s advisory to states has worked well in containing the virus spread. Most mathematical models have predicted passing the second wave peak, and for nationwide cases to start dropping by mid-May.

The ultimate solution now lies in vaccinating speedily. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that we need 1.89 billion vaccine doses to inoculate 70 per cent of our population. Our current production capacity is 85.3 million doses a month. According to the data submitted by manufacturers of eight Covid-19 vaccines, it is likely to double to 167 million per month by July, and cumulatively, 2.16 billion by December end.

Top government adviser, Dr V.K. Paul, recently stated that the Central government and Bharat Biotech would invite other companies to produce the indigenous Covaxin. This would help address the current shortage.

Thus, the Centre’s roadmap for vaccination is well placed to achieve herd immunity in the coming months. To win the battle, however, all parties must agree upon something critical—the opposition needs to quit blind criticism and band together, as this is about India winning the battle, and not about competitive politics. We cannot afford to indulge in petty politics, ignore humanism, and concentrate on the sole basal instinct of scoring points against each other.

This is an all for one, and one for all situation. We will soon march towards victory in our fight against this virus. But for that to happen, as Mohan Bhagwat said, “everyone should keep their mind positive and body Covid negative”.

covid-19-is-opportunity-to-revamp-student-evaluation-system-jyotiraditya-scindia

Thu Apr 22 17:21:16 IST 2021

Covid-19 has made a virulent comeback, having put 260 million children in India through uncertainty and continued struggle with online learning. Class 10 board exams stand cancelled, and in a one-of-a-kind phenomenon, the new academic session for the board exams of 2022 has begun, even as the 2021 edition is far from over. Obviously, this has given the jitters to parents, children, schools and academicians, who are left guessing the way forward.

The fear of missing out on board exams begs a necessary question: Is it because board exams set the real benchmark for students’ abilities? Or, because there is no time-tested alternative evaluation mechanism? Good assessment is at the heart of good education. Our board exams pit students against one another in the so-called “race to the top”, which is actually a race to the bottom; it is a dogged attempt for teachers to finish the syllabus, and for students to memorise a whole lot of factoids.

The CBSE not affording a cut in the syllabus for this year and the next, stems from this very test-oriented mentality. With sharp digital divides, internal assessments as an alternative to board exams cannot take place on a level playing field, and could end up being counter-productive for some. Why? Without in-classroom instruction, students have already regressed by at least a year on the learning curve, and a huge chunk has fallen off the grid. Clearly, the task ahead of governments and schools is to focus on remediation of students and close the learning gaps, rather than steadfastly hold on to dogmatic assessments. This remediation process needs to be fitted into the usually packed academic calendars for at least the next few years.

Meaningful online learning should be seen as a more important goal than syllabus completion. Evaluation and assessment should not be seen as ends in themselves, but instead as important means for achieving better student outcomes. What should then comprise conceptual/competency-based student evaluation models?

Teachers at The Scindia School, Gwalior, offer a few suggestions. Bring the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system back or introduce semester examinations as proposed in the National Education Policy 2020. Class 12 students could opt for board examinations in only three core subjects of their interest. For example, students who wish to study computer engineering can appear for examinations in computer science, physics and mathematics. Apart from alleviating exam pressure, such a mechanism would help even out competition for college admissions.

On the whole, we need to move towards formative assessment systems that measure performance throughout the process of learning, as opposed to the end. The good news is that most of this has been recognised in the NEP 2020. It calls for a 10 per cent increase in application-based questions every year, and a complete revamp of the exam pattern by 2025. The NCERT, CBSE and other agencies have been working on textbooks and examination reforms. Now that we are compelled to transform, such efforts require greater urgency.The pandemic has taught us tough lessons; at the top is the need to recalibrate our system to deal with disruptions. Covid could be an opportunity in disguise—the fillip needed to fundamentally revamp learning objectives and our assessment mechanisms; to urgently act upon the statutes of the NEP 2020, and to build a more resilient student evaluation system for the future. And, that future is now!

policies-should-help-more-women-join-the-labour-force-jyotiraditya-scindia

Thu Mar 25 17:35:08 IST 2021

A landmark judgment made early this year by the Supreme Court rekindled the dialogue on the much debated issue of fixing a near universal basic income for homemakers. Sure, it is path-breaking to recognise women’s work as “valuable”, rather than as a labour of love that need not be remunerated. From an electoral standpoint, it is only sensible for political parties to appeal to this voting bloc. In Tamil Nadu, out of the 6.26 crore total electorate, 3.18 crore are female voters.

But there are a few things to consider. In its manifesto, the Makkal Needhi Maiam assured a sum of Rs3,000 a month to homemakers, “who only did household chores”. Naturally, parties should think about factoring in the category of women who are “not full-time homemakers in low-income groups”. Besides, like all other states, Tamil Nadu is already reeling under the financial burn caused by heavy Covid-related expenditures; not to mention burgeoning debt in its balance sheets. The government-to-be would be tasked with finding a way to foot these payouts month after month. Thus, laying out a reasonable implementation plan alongside would not only help assuage such concerns but also go a long way in creating a feasible, replicable model for all states.

Ensuring economic security for homemakers is a complex, multi-pronged exercise, and parties that pledge themselves to the cause should aim to address the core issues, such as women disappearing through the cracks in our labour market. Between 1990 and 2019, India’s female labour force participation rate declined from 30.28 per cent to 20.52 per cent, the lowest in the subcontinent. According to the latest estimates of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a lot more may have dropped out after the pandemic.

These statistics suggest that staunch patriarchal attitudes have come home to roost, having given birth to gender disparities that manifest in low educational levels, unsafe workplaces, unequal employment opportunities and wages. In some southern states, there is a visible gender wage gap in the rural casual labour sector―a visible flaw in their model of development. What is rather disturbing is that the Census of India puts homemakers in the category of “non-workers”, which ultimately puts them on the back burner of policy priorities.

The rot, therefore, runs deep. Perhaps, governments should borrow from the Madhya Pradesh model, where the government provides bank loans at a 2 per cent rate of interest (the remainder paid by the state government) to more than three lakh self-help groups (almost 37 lakh women), to help run their micro-scale businesses. The government is also working on getting at least one woman from each family to join an SHG and earn, thus enhancing their share of participation in the overall labour force.

Doles aside, we need policies that enable more women to join the labour force, assure women of a safe environment and equal opportunities at work; and perhaps, governments can take steps to reduce and redistribute domestic work. That is when we would be in for an actual progressive pawri!

wake-up-and-smell-the-reforms

Thu Feb 25 16:48:00 IST 2021

It is sort of a Rip-Van-Winkle moment for the agriculture sector, only that many have still not awakened to the tectonic transformation in store with the rollout of the three proposed reforms. And then, there are some who have deliberately succumbed to deep slumber.

Resultantly, we stand to lose sight of the big picture, which is to seize the Covid-induced vacuum in the global supply chain and elevate local products to serve global markets. This, however, is far from realisation when 60 per cent of our workforce is not equipped to produce for the world. Farmers have been held hostage to the archaic system of selling solely to government mandis, limiting the potential to diversify production to meet the growing demand for higher value crops. For decades, our policies have had a laser-like focus on the proliferation of rice and wheat, which have inadvertently led to crowding out of other crops. Not only has it kept our annadatas from exercising sowing decisions out of free will, but it has also resulted in an imbalance in the micronutrient supply in the food system―a major cause of high levels of malnutrition in India.

Most experts agree that restrictive laws governing the agriculture sector have run their course, and reforms have been long due. The current reforms promise farmers both horizontal growth―wherein they would have the freedom to cultivate any variety of crops in line with market demand―and vertical growth by helping them move up the agri-value chain. I would like to elaborate on the latter. Diverse market linkages serve as incentives for the private sector to set up agri-food processing units, thus allowing farmers to capture additional value in the chain. This is where cooperatives like Amul have shown the way. Producers gain not just from selling the product, but also through the equity of the cooperative they help grow. The model could well be replicated for farmers, too.

The key ingredient in creating greater value for farm produce is building a robust web of warehousing or cold storage. The farm laws open the floodgates to private investment and tech-led innovation, especially in sourcing, marketing, storage and supply chain infrastructure. This, in turn, would create tailwinds for agri-startups, help farmers gain greater access to technology, and enable corporates to produce superior quality products―a win-win for all!

The reforms thus empower farmers with choice, and do not take anything away from them. On the contrary, this government has succeeded in doing what other governments have failed to achieve in several decades, i.e. cut through the political clout as well as the immense market power of middlemen who eat into much of the farmers’ income pie. According to NITI Aayog member and agriculture expert Ramesh Chand, an average of four to six transactions take place before the produce reaches the final consumer, and the price realised at the farm level is the lowest competitive price.

The NITI Aayog estimated it took 22 years (1993 to 2015) for farmers’ income to double. Governments have sat on these reforms for years. If we repeal them now, we might deprive small farmers of a bright future for another decade, and that would be a travesty of India’s growth pitch in the new world order. We all know this, and yet, many still choose to balk at the reforms. If supporters of the annadata are truly committed to his/her well-being, they must help untether the farmers, and stop using the turmoil as an opportunity to realise their own agendas.

a-shot-of-trust

Thu Jan 28 16:23:30 IST 2021

Covid-19 does not seem to be on its way out globally, but India’s much-awaited inoculation drive is off to a good start! With over a million people getting vaccinated in the first six days, the mass-vaccination rollout is not only the largest in the world, but also the fastest.

But, here is the real tragedy: False information and fear of medical procedures filling the echo chambers online could get in the way of the government’s efforts. The 80 per cent who were willing to take the jab until November have now tumbled down to 69 per cent—this could cause unnecessary jitters at a time when massive efforts are already under way.

Some fears are exaggerated and misplaced. The government has done well to be forthcoming on addressing frequently asked questions on the possibility of aftereffects, and on the experience of getting the shot. However, questions like the duration of a vaccine’s efficacy can only be answered in due course based on data from continued vaccine trials. Besides, as per doctors, pain, giddiness and sweating are common aftereffects in any vaccination programme. It is noteworthy that the adverse events have been reported in less than 0.15 per cent of recipients in India.

Another fact that comes as a relief, and must also become common knowledge, is that the government has put a reliable mechanism in place to track adverse events from vaccination. This vaccine safety surveillance network extends to every district, where doctors and health workers monitor, investigate and escalate reports of adverse events to the state and national levels. Dr N.K. Arora, head of the operations research unit of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Task Force for Covid-19, said that “monitoring is being carried out based on the country’s existing vaccine safety surveillance mechanism under the Universal Immunisation Programme”.

But this does not imply that we are solely relying on our glorious past. Rather, in a short span of time, we have evolved a fine blueprint for vaccine delivery, along with a detailed standard operating procedure specific to Covid-19, thanks to the decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington remarked that India’s deployment blueprint “has a level of detail which I haven’t seen in any other rollout plans”. As can be seen from the first week of the drive, the government has been nimble in stepping in to iron out technical and logistical glitches in the system. It is fair to deduce that with time, we would be in a favourable position to expand vaccine access beyond the priority groups, particularly in the hinterlands.

However, we cannot be complacent about the dangers of misinformation causing a snag in the inoculation process. The shrill of false news is louder than the voice of reason and truth. The government is stepping up its communications strategy to eliminate even a sliver of mistrust about the efficacy of the vaccines. Several media reports have surfaced about the likelihood of Prime Minister Modi himself joining the league of world leaders taking the jab. In the cacophony of misinformation, this would help dispel any doubts, and rejuvenate confidence among citizens.

This must be followed with an understanding that we cannot move ahead without taking risks. Half-baked information or rumours should be expunged at the earliest. The opposition should refrain from politicising the issue at the time of a national health emergency. Till then, the images of health workers flashing victory signs after getting a shot of the vaccine should get citizens’ enthusiasm back and kicking.

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Sat May 16 11:30:42 IST 2026

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Sat May 02 14:28:36 IST 2026

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Sat Apr 18 11:31:49 IST 2026

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Sat Apr 04 15:52:59 IST 2026

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Sat Mar 07 16:46:02 IST 2026

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Sat Feb 21 12:00:20 IST 2026

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Sat Feb 07 11:30:54 IST 2026

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Fri Jan 23 18:22:09 IST 2026

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Sat Jan 10 15:32:39 IST 2026

beyond-academics-political-journeys-and-hope-in-challenging-times

Sat May 23 10:35:08 IST 2026

I WONDER WHAT would I have done if St Stephen’s College had a zero attendance policy. I surely would not have made a kamikaze drone, as Sourya Choudhury of BITS Pilani did.

The co-founder and chief technology officer of Apollyon Dynamics registered his independent project as academic work and Dean (Research) Sanket Goel approved funding at zero stage. So, the institute offered both academic and financial support. Later, BITS alumnus Vikas Katragadda stepped in as lead investor, completing the BITS network, writes Principal Correspondent Abhinav Singh in this week’s cover story on India’s best universities. As always, our annual issue on the topic is powered by THE WEEK-Hansa Research Best Universities Survey 2026.

Abhinav brings in diverse voices such as those of Vice Chancellors V. Ramgopal Rao of BITS Pilani, Yogesh Singh of Delhi University, Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi of Banaras Hindu University and Deependra Kumar Jha of Manav Rachna University. He also interviewed former UGC chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar, BigBasket co-founder Hari Menon and Joint Commissioner Deepak Purohit IPS to bring you perspectives from higher education, entrepreneurship and public administration.

While reading the cover story, I realised the context in which Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi said the other day about Gen-Z being 10 times better than his generation. He listed five characteristics that stood them in good stead: adaptability, risk appetite, social awareness, global connectivity and digital fluency. The general’s observations and Abhinav’s cover story make me hopeful of tomorrow’s Indians.

If you are well past your university days, let me assure you that this issue covers more than education. Our political coverage continues, with Special Correspondent Prema Rajaram visiting the family borough of Contai and writing about the Adhikari clan right from patriarch Sisir to Chief Minister Suvendu, Lok Sabha member Soumendu and legislator Dibyendu.

Senior Special Correspondent K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy spoke to K. Kavitha—BRS founder K. Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter—who floated the Telangana Rakshana Sena. The BRS was formerly TRS, and the new TRS is poised to eat into the original’s vote bank. In Kerala, Principal Correspondent Nirmal Jovial is tracking the sparkling new V.D. Satheesan government and the hope it inspires, despite an empty treasury.

In closing, I cannot but draw parallels between two academic situations—the way in which universities are reinventing themselves, and the way in which we have let down our children through the NEET paper leak. The government should evolve a foolproof system, yes, but what about the dishonesty that runs deep in society? No legislation can correct that. Senior Special Corrspondent Kanu Sarda’s article on the leak is quite comprehensive.

For a country that prides itself on being religious, what do such incidents say about our spirituality? If my child does not have the academic rigour to become a doctor, what am I doing to him and society by paying Rs20 lakh for a leaked question paper? That child might become a doctor, but will he be a healer?

The emotional toll of such leaks has not been calculated, I must say. A senior editor on THE WEEK’s desk told me about a man who lost his mind when he lost a medical seat. This son of a headmaster and headmistress was a bright student and had set his heart on becoming a doctor. In those days, medical admissions were linked to pre-degree marks. He lost his seat by one mark.

He withdrew into a shell and never did anything else in life. He is in his 60s now, and both his parents are no more. Imagine those lost decades of self-doubt and meaningless pain. In his case, of course, the system or society were not at fault. But, what happens when we collectively let our children down?

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Sat May 16 11:11:10 IST 2026

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Sat May 09 11:10:29 IST 2026

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Sat May 02 11:08:36 IST 2026

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Sat Apr 25 10:34:46 IST 2026

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Sat Apr 18 11:01:11 IST 2026

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Sat Apr 11 10:51:00 IST 2026

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Sat Apr 04 14:22:13 IST 2026

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Sat Mar 28 11:31:10 IST 2026

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Sat Mar 21 11:07:11 IST 2026

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Sat May 23 10:40:26 IST 2026

I had a cousin, a reputed backbencher in his class, who once impressed his literature professor by peppering his essay with a few wise-sounding lines in Tamil. When questioned, he claimed the lines were from Thirukkural composed by the ancient philosopher-poet Thiruvalluvar. With no Google available those days and no text of Thirukkural in the poorly-stocked college library for him to check, the poor prof had no go but to give my cousin a good score. The lines were actually from a song in an MGR potboiler.

Xi Jinping is much like my cousin. He likes to pepper his speeches with classical quotes and epigrams. Before anyone gets me wrong, let me add—there is a difference, though. Unlike my cousin’s, the Chinese helmsman’s quotes are genuine, well-studied and appropriate. Most of them are drawn from Chinese masters like Confucius and Sun Tsu or oriental thought systems like the Tao, but there are times when he borrows from Shakespeare, Dickens, Hugo or Goethe, especially when he wants to impress western audiences. He hasn’t yet touched Chanakya—not surprising—though he has met the Indian prime minister close to two dozen times, and despite there being a thriving cottage industry in India that manufactures quotes in the Mauryan master’s name for students of WhatsApp university.

Classical quotes impress listeners. Xi’s latest target has been the Hormuz-squeezed Donald Trump, who called on him in Beijing earlier this month. Perhaps because America lacks a classical age, and therefore suffers from a shortage of classical thinkers save a modern-day Jefferson or a Thoreau, Xi chose a Greek master to impress his guest.

He invoked Thucydides, a fifth century BC Athenian naval commander and historian, whose account of the Peloponnesian War led to the theory that when a rising power seeks parity with an established power, it could lead to war. Modern-day American scholar Graham Allison has theorised that just like the rise of Athens made Sparta insecure and both finally clashed, the attempt by China to seek parity with the US could lead to war. Allison studied 16 power rivalries in the world since 1500 to show that 12 of them ended in war.

Xi seems to be fixated on the Thucydides Trap. He has referred to it time and again, first during a state visit to the US in 2015 where he said, “There is no such thing as the Thucydides Trap…. But should major countries time and again make the mistakes of strategic miscalculation, they might create such traps for themselves.” In other words, conflict can be avoided if America respects China’s core interests (read Taiwan).

The problem is that Xi’s intended target missed the point. Trump thought Xi was talking about America’s weakening strategic will, and posted on Truth that things were bad under Joe Biden; now America is being made great again.

What worries the world is that with all his Thucydides claptrap over the last one decade, Xi seems to be leaving behind a quarter century-old promise that China had made under his predecessor Hu Jintao—that China’s rise would be a “peaceful rise", as extrapolated by Zheng Bijian, who headed the Communist Party school. The idea was that China would put a premium on economic development rather than expansionism, avoid conflict through cooperation, and avoid the pitfalls of Imperial Japan, Weimar Germany, and the Soviet Union, all of which grew challenging the existing superpowers. Was it all a trip up a Chinese garden path?

prasannan@theweek.in

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Sat Sep 07 17:00:04 IST 2019

The World Cup this year was like fantasy cricket. Many nerve-jangling matches through the league stage climaxing with the best-ever final, where even the Super Over could not decide the fate of the game. The chances of this happening in 50-over cricket are almost zero. That is how rare the game was!

For the past few years now, 50-over cricket has been showing a steady decline in fan interest, but then the World Cup comes along and suddenly there is spike in viewership.

Organisers are in a bit of a fix. The format gets true global attention only once in four years and that is insufficient to sustain cricket’s economy. Test cricket has also not been too different this year; most Tests are now getting results as pitches are getting spicier and batsmen trained to play the attacking, power game are struggling to defend to survive. Attack can only take you so far in Tests.

To succeed in Test cricket, a certain amount of defence is absolutely necessary. Even the great Virat Kohli had to draw on his defensive game in big doses against Jimmy Anderson in England last year.

Like the World Cup this year, in Tests, too, we saw some terrific matches, including two games that had unbelievable results made possible by two all-time great innings. And when one says “all-time” in the context of Tests, it carries a lot of weight. Test cricket today is 142 years old!

Sri Lanka beating South Africa in the Durban Test in February was one such game. It was a David and Goliath situation, with the current Sri Lankan team being the weakest it has ever been. Then in comes Kusal Perera, a replica of Sanath Jayasuriya, to play one of the greatest innings in Tests (153 not out). It was not only a great spectacle, but if you feed all the data of that innings into a computer, it will rate that innings as one of the best ever.

Six months later, we had another one! This time crafted by Ben Stokes, the talismanic all-rounder from England. On the brink of losing another Ashes Test, Stokes, in the company of the number 11 batsman, took his team to an impossible win! The last wicket added 76 runs to win the game for England and the contribution of the other batsman in that partnership was one run! That shows how special Stokes’s innings (135 not out) was.

Now here is where being an attacking player really helps; a defensive player cannot accomplish such a feat.

Sadly, despite such great advertisements for the two formats of the game, these formats may still struggle to stay relevant. Perera’s great innings was watched by only a handful of spectators. In fact, the applause we heard on television after every shot was of the Sri Lankan players cheering from the balcony.

Thankfully, Stokes’s blinder came in England, a country that loves Test cricket like no other, and thousands saw his innings at the ground and it got more attention worldwide than Perera’s innings.

That the two formats are losing ground to T20s is from no fault of the players. The world is changing and so are the tastes of sports fans. What I find amazing is that the modern players who are groomed to thrive in the power game are still putting on such great performances in the longer formats.

Tests will clearly not make the sport rich, but will be a platform for us to discover true greatness and performances that fans will remember for years, and not for just a week, like it can be with a performance in a private T20 league.

We still have classical singing and also an audience for it, and I guess so it will be for Tests and ODIs. Fingers crossed.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

the-lessons-i-learnt-from-chappelli

Fri Aug 09 11:14:53 IST 2019

One of my first stints as commentator was soon after I retired as a player. I was approached by WorldTel, the company that raised the stakes in Indian cricket from lakhs to crores of rupees by signing Sachin Tendulkar. WorldTel went on to make him one of the biggest sporting brands in the world.

So, off I went to Sri Lanka for the first time in my life. Funnily enough, I never got picked as player in the team that toured there. I checked into the hotel in Colombo, and as I opened the door to my room, I heard a voice, “Hi Sanj.” I looked behind. It was Ian Chappell. “What are you doing for lunch?” he asked. We had lunch together and after that began a long friendship and an exploration of a human being whom I find truly exceptional. My admiration for Ian Chappell grew as I got to know him more.

In that series, I was, of course, a greenhorn as a commentator. Once, while we were on air together, he teased me saying that fans in India had tried using a piece of glass to reflect sunlight into his eyes while he was playing, and asked if I was aware of this. I said, “Yes, the same thing happened to me in Australia.” He laughed heartily. I could see pride in his eyes that a young commentator had a retort and because it had become a fun moment on TV.

I have known commentators who do not like such retorts, even if it is just banter. Chappelli, as he is fondly called, is different. Ian Chappell was my mentor in commentary when I started off. There was one occasion during commentary when a batsman reached his 100, and I excitedly began to react to it. He gently put his hand on my arm, stopped me, and said, “Let him have his moment. Let us not say anything. Let the moment just play out.”

Ian Chappell, despite his legendary status as a player, became a hardcore media person after retirement. He put in the same amount of time and commitment into it as he did into playing cricket. When only his opinions on the game would be enough for any production company, Chappelli still takes the pain to know statistics. He has a special software that gives him details of all matches played all over the world. He is not just an expert on Australian cricket. Hamilton Masakadza of Zimbabwe holds as much interest for him as Steve Smith.

When I was in Australia in 1992 as player, I did a quick radio interview during a rain break. When I came out of the commentary booth, Chappelli was waiting for me. He asked me why I was not pulling the short deliveries bowled by the Australian pacemen? He suggested very animatedly that if I did that I would be able to put the Australian bowlers off their game. So here was a great Australian cricketer who wanted a player from the opposition to play better so that Australia would be challenged more. Chappelli stood for quality and not nationality when it came to world cricket.

Ian Chappell is not looking to make friends in the world. He is very choosy about who he spends time with, and once you have passed through his scanner, then you get the best of Ian Chappell. The rest have to be careful, because for them, he puts on the hard, ex-Australia captain’s hat. I have seen a few famous cricketers sneak out of the room when Chappelli enters. It is a matter of pride for me that I am not one of the people who has to do that. Get well soon, Chappelli!

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

the-quadrennial-spike

Fri Jul 12 11:20:13 IST 2019

The 50-over format is going through an interesting phase.

Bilateral ODI series are seeing a steady decline in viewership. The sheer excess being one reason; the randomness without any relevance, the other. Also, after tasting the pleasures of T20 cricket, 50-over cricket seems just too long for today’s fans.

Almost half the game is about batsmen running ones and twos, which is never really entertaining for the crowd. And, because of the length of the innings, close finishes are very rare; even in this World Cup, real nail-biters can be counted on one hand.

In T20s, well, every second game is a cliffhanger, and weaker teams compete better against strong teams. The shorter the format, the less the inequality. Afghanistan and the West Indies are great examples of this. The West Indies have, in fact, won the world T20 title twice, but have not won a 50-over World Cup in the last 40 years. Afghanistan looked like what they are in the longer formats—minnows.

ODIs are slowly and steadily losing their sheen, but here is where it gets interesting. The World Cups are getting bigger and bigger every four years. This time, too, it has broken all records of viewership.

The ICC is in a bit of a quandary. ODIs are losing their connect with the masses, but reach new peaks every four years when the world comes together.

Be that as it may, we have once again seen how the World Cup is such a special event. There is an ODI between two countries and then there is an ODI between two countries in a World Cup. And they are like chalk and cheese. We see high scores on a regular basis in general one-dayers, but come this World Cup, even with the small grounds in England, those kind of scores are not being seen.

Batsmen just bat differently when the match has the World Cup tag on it. It is the grain of anxiety that seeps in when you are batting out there.... “What if I get out?” The whole world is watching and there is so much at stake here. It is not just a defeat in a seven-match one-day series; those setbacks are forgotten two days later.

The stakes make all the difference. Fans can rattle off the names of the World Cup champs since the event started in 1975. It is at the tip of their tongues.

It is the same with bowlers. When it comes to bowling that 49th over in a close game, it is not just about controlling the line and length of the ball, but also about those jangling nerves as you run in. Yes, that cliche is so true. Events like these separate the men from the boys and that is why you see the truly established, class players topping the charts with runs and wickets. These are not just men with skills, but also those with a temperament of steel. Shakib Al Hasan, David Warner, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Mitchell Starc and Jasprit Bumrah, to name a few.

Another revelation that hit me as the World Cup went on was that, for a while now, since Dhoni and Virat became an integral part of the Indian team, I have been a huge admirer of modern-day Indian batsmen and their ability to chase down targets. In our times, it was the harder thing to do than bat first.

I remember our coach Ashok Mankad suggesting before an India-Pakistan game at Sharjah, “Let’s bat first.” He thought chasing against them in a highly intimidating atmosphere where there was massive support for Pakistan would take a toll on our nerves, and he was right.

And here I was seeing Dhoni, Virat and Co chase down scores nonchalantly.

But come the World Cup, the old adage came true—put runs on the board and watch the chasing team handle the immense pressure unsuccessfully.

In the 20 games before the semis, 16 were won by the team batting first, and it is not just because of the pitches.... Yes, you guessed right, it is because it is the World Cup!

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

world-cup-predict-a-winner-at-your-peril-says-sanjay-manjrekar

Sat Jun 15 22:43:35 IST 2019

Someone up there really likes cricket. In what is essentially a format that is likely to lose fans’ interest first, the 50-over cricket World Cup continues to drum up great interest around the world.

What’s more, two teams have suddenly bulked up and become serious contenders for the title—West Indies and Australia. Now, you have at least six teams with a very good chance of becoming world champions. Three months ago, Australian cricket was a shambles and we were lamenting that Australia, too, has joined the group of teams that had seen better days.

Then they came to India, beat India in a one-day series, in which they discovered a couple of impact batsmen. Then, two batsmen who were banned, joined them soon after, and Australia are now looking like a pretty rounded unit.

I am glad the Australian Cricket Board did not waste any time in getting David Warner and Steve Smith back in the team the moment their ban period was over.

These are two class players and this sport desperately needs as many quality players as it can have. Also, it was not like these two had fixed matches. They had done something, namely tampering the ball, that no country is innocent of. Even India has been caught in this act.

Why, even South Africa’s Faf du Plessis was caught twice tampering the ball and after his second offence he was made captain of South Africa.

The timing of this event was unfortunate for Warner and Smith. There was a general disapproval of player behaviour when this incident happened. It was like the last straw on the camel’s back. It also showed us that the Australian public does not mind the odd sledge. But, they do not like cheaters and that is what Warner and Smith were guilty of.

But it was still not fixing matches, a far graver crime. But you would think that is what Warner and Smith did! I mean, how dare English fans boo them?

England has its own culprits of ball tampering. One from their team who recently threw 15 punches at another human being in a drunken brawl is being lauded. Anyway, this World Cup is getting very exciting. In the first week, Bangladesh beat South Africa, and Pakistan beat England. Those results have just given us a teaser as to how all teams can be vulnerable and no one can be ruled out from scoring an unexpected win.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are not even among the top six contenders for the title, but they have already demonstrated that they can beat the big boys. So predict a winner at your peril, I say.

But, as a former cricketer, and now in the opinion industry, I cannot hide behind this fact that I am duty-bound to predict a likely winner and my vote goes to India!

Like all other teams in the fray, India, too, is not a team without vulnerability. India’s middle-order is its soft underbelly that could get exposed on a bad day. But why do I still pick India?

Because India has the best temperament among all teams, the ability to hold its nerves on the big stage. In M.S. Dhoni and Virat Kohli they have two players who create this culture in the team. The culture of playing on the biggest stage like it is just another game.

Why has South Africa not won as much on the big stage? Temperament. Why has England never won the World Cup? Again, temperament. Why has Australia won it five times? A champion’s temperament.

Host England is the in-form team with an excellent current record and a style of play which is ‘attack at all times’. But can they keep playing this way, when there is a world title at stake? 2019 will tell us.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

the-stars-of-this-ipl

Fri May 17 19:42:24 IST 2019

Fifty-three matches in total! It goes on non-stop for weeks. An IPL season is like life itself. You see ups and downs, periods of joy followed by days of gloom, players find form and lose it—all in one season.

And, when the season is over, it leaves behind evidence, footprints that you can draw conclusions from—about T20, about IPL.

It is after all such a new format, that we are trying to get more acquainted with it all the time. Test cricket is 142 years old. T20s is just about 15.

Two factors stood out for me in this IPL season.

With regard to players, in this IPL, I observed that the Indian contingent of uncapped bowlers showed greater temperament than young Indian batsmen, especially in pressure situations.

Indian bowlers were calmer and less anxious when things got tense.

It is not an easy challenge where the overs have shrunk to 20 but wickets in hand are still the same—10. So, batsmen have the licence to go crazy and they don’t get crucified when they fail. It is considered an occupational hazard.

A bowler, meanwhile, has just four overs in which he has to make an impression—small boundaries in the IPL make their task even tougher. I guess when thrown into the deep end people have no choice but to flap their hands and legs to survive. That is what has happened to the young Indian bowlers. IPL has made them hardened competitors. They develop a thick skin and don’t lose sleep when after bowling three terrific overs, they are tonked for 20 in the last over.

Prasidh Krishna of Kolkata Knight Riders impressed me. His super-over performance vs Delhi Capitals won my heart and my vote, too, as one for the future. He is tall, has a good bowling action and seams the ball well. He also possesses a calm demeanour. I foresee Krishna becoming the perfect third seamer for India in Tests, a ‘like for like’ replacement for Ishant Sharma.

Navdeep Saini from Delhi, who played for Royal Challengers Bangalore, is another bowler who caught everyone’s attention. He is naturally quick and potentially a better version of Umesh Yadav. This kid can’t help but bowl quick.

I, especially, liked the attitude of Rahul Chahar of Mumbai Indians and Shreyas Gopal of Rajasthan Royals. Both bowl wrist spin and it is easy to see that they like being in the spotlight. Yuzvendra Chahal, India’s incumbent leg-spinner, must watch over his shoulder now, for these young men are likely to give him a run for his money.

I will remember this IPL season also for the big hitting. I am not saying that the ball is getting hit further, but it was the amazing consistency of the big hitting. Hardik Pandya and Andre Russell were flag-bearers of this new wave. No matter what the pitch, or the bowling—pace or spin—they rarely miscued their big shots. Innings after innings, they kept striking at an unbelievable rate. This kind of consistency in big hitting was never seen before.

One piece of remarkable hitting was when Hardik went after RCB left arm spinner Pawan Negi on a rank turner at the Wankhede stadium. He was hitting massive sixes against the spin—one of the hardest thing to do in cricket.

I love this format more and more every year. Like Tests, it is a platform for excellence, but of a different kind.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

the-ipl-own-nerds

Thu Apr 18 12:18:04 IST 2019

Before the T20s and the IPL came along, there were just two formats in cricket—Test cricket and ODI. I remember at the time someone calling this new entrant—T20s—as ‘cricket for those who do not like cricket’. This was not far from the truth.

A fan had to dedicate five full days of his life, coinciding with his working hours, to win the recognition of being a Test cricket fan, and to qualify as an ODI fan, you had to take out eight hours from your daily schedule. IPL was the perfect fit for those not willing to make such ‘sacrifices’.

A ridiculous MCC survey suggested that 83 per cent of today’s cricket fans prefer Test cricket, and my immediate reaction to this was that this 83 per cent should now actually go and watch Test cricket!

For many years now empty stadiums have greeted Test matches, its TV viewership has plummeted, but the MCC claims that an overwhelming majority of cricket fans love Test cricket. It is like, I love music, but I do not listen to it.

T20s were a blessing for a world that got really busy. It also offered an option to do something different in the evening—go to a cricket ground or gather at someone’s place to watch nail-biting cricket filled with fours and sixes. As T20s started growing in popularity, its followers started changing, too.

There were obviously those who loved watching the fours and sixes, but now there was a new breed that was really getting into T20s and the IPL. A breed I call the ‘cricket nerds’.

I use the term nerds fondly, for it is their company I keep most while working on the IPL.

These nerds are your typical chemical engineers, lawyers, chartered accountants or IITians, who are fascinated by what IPL offers—the multiple teams in it, the little match-ups within a match. They meticulously assess and suggest their team tactics and selections on Twitter.

They analyse strengths and weaknesses of each player—all this based purely on numbers and not on perception or instincts like, we, the former cricketers, mostly do.

These are guys who like Dravid more than Tendulkar. So, for instance, when I make my ‘expert’ analysis like “[Rajasthan Royals] looks a good team this IPL season and may make the play offs”, the nerd shakes his head. He will bring to my notice that four of their key players will be missing during the final stage of the IPL because of their national commitments. The nerds are brilliant at this. They study every aspect of the IPL and, most importantly, remember each detail; that is how they passed their big, fancy exams, remember? But some of them have a tendency to get under my skin when they get carried away with their numbers and think they know best. They will proclaim that a certain foreign player will be the rage of this IPL only to discover that the poor batsman did not have the temperament to play in front of 50,000 noisy fans, and their ‘rage’, four matches later, is warming the benches.

But the nerds I adore are ones who tear their hair out when they listen to us cricketer commentators draw easy conclusions from basic numbers. Yes, these are the nerds who watch cricket on mute.

Their advanced research of statistics shows that Sunil Narine of Kolkata Knight Riders was the greatest performer in the last IPL for his impact with both bat and ball, but the official best batsman and the best bowler awards went to someone else.

For IPL to have the same passionate following for years to come, it must engage all kinds of followers and not just lovers of fours and sixes. And that is why IPL coverage must take care of the cricket nerds—the discerning members of the IPL fan club.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

the-ridiculous-imbalance-in-odis

Sat Mar 23 16:53:00 IST 2019

With the cricket World Cup due in a few weeks, the timing of this article is not great, but then I was never known for good timing even as a batsman, so what the heck!

Every time I watch 50-overs cricket, I realise that it is my least favourite format. Yes, the World Cup is just round the corner and it is the biggest, flagship event in cricket. But, that is not because it is 50-overs cricket, but because it is the World Cup, and it comes once in four years.

Barring the starting few overs and the death overs—which are the six overs at the end, as Harsha Bhogle rightly calls it—it is a non-aggression pact between two teams. No team is really desperate to take the initiative in these 35 overs or so phase; the bowling team is happy to concede four to five runs an over, while the batting team is happy to pick four to five runs an over.

Anyway, what I truly dislike about 50-overs cricket is the ridiculous imbalance it has; it is such an easy game for the batsmen, but a tough one for the bowlers. This imbalance exists even before the game starts, because of the basic rules. When a batsman is batting well, he can keep batting the whole 50 overs; a bowler cannot bowl more than ten, even if he is bowling the spell of his life.

Yes, I know T20 cricket also sets limit on bowlers, but because of its very short duration, all the action in it is compressed. So a little event has a massive impact on the game. A couple of dot balls for instance, and the batman is as nervous as the bowler, and this brings in some balance in T20s.

But in 50-overs cricket, well, if you are not finding your touch as a batsman, no problem, take your time, take an over or two or even more to get into the “groove”. That is is why I do not care much about top run-getters in ODIs. First, they are mostly openers, and once you have some clout in the team you can ensure that you are opening the innings in 50-overs cricket.

When I went to Australia in 1992, I was at the top of my game. But, I failed in the first two ODIs and I was thinking what is happening here! How is that even possible? After that, I proceeded to get two consecutive 50s and thought to myself, “OK, that is more like it.”

For batting greats like Tendulkar and Virat, getting 100s in ODIs would be the easiest thing to do at the international level. And, that is why I have always believed that the true greatness in Tendulkar’s feat of hundred 100s were his 51 Test hundreds, not his 49 ODI hundreds.

You will find in Test matches, so also in T20s, bowlers getting ‘man of the match’ awards as much as the batsmen do. But, this is not the case in 50-overs cricket.

If Tests are about batsmen defending or getting runs and bowlers trying to get batsmen out, 50-overs cricket is mostly about picking ones and twos, and hitting the odd boundary. Yes, even today, it is mostly about ones and twos.

In T20s, well, the batsman is under pressure to hit a six of two balls, and as the bowler is in denying that, pressure is equally divided.

Fifty-overs cricket, as I see it now after all these years, is for batsmen to make a name for themselves. Know any legendary one-day bowler? No.

And yes, it is also ten overs too long. So many little innovations have been tried to infuse life in 50-overs cricket, when the simplest thing to do is to make it 40 overs. That will reduce the middle-overs’ boredom, and most importantly batsmen will have lesser time in their comfort zone, and with it, less imbalance in the game.

But, the World Cup will be 50-overs cricket, so along with finding out who is going to be the champion, let us also see which batsman is the man of the series in this World Cup.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

the-coach-who-runs-the-team

Sat Feb 23 11:07:23 IST 2019

Ian Chappell once famously said that the only coach a cricket team needs is the one that takes it to the ground. My view is not as extreme, but I do believe that in cricket, a coach’s role is not as crucial as in, say, football.

I maintain that the most insignificant player in the cricket squad adds more value to the team than a coach does; if you want a member of the squad ill before a game, it rather be a coach than a player. The coach’s contribution is at best marginal.

Here is a very interesting detail. When India put in one of its best performances away from home, in 2007/8—that is when it competed superbly against Australia in Australia and went on to win the T20 World Cup—who was India’s coach?

Lalchand Rajput. Not too many people remember this, nor was Rajput given too much credit for it because he is not a big name in world cricket and keeps a very low profile. Anil Kumble and M.S. Dhoni were the Indian captains then, and they were really the ones leading the winning efforts.

But, you know what, like with everything in life, there is an exception to this, too. It is Chandrakant Pandit, the current coach of the Vidarbha Ranji team. Before he took over as coach two years ago, Vidarbha was a nondescript first-class team. Since then, they have won the Ranji trophy twice and the Irani trophy twice. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Why? Let me explain.

Pandit, by nature, cannot play second fiddle to anyone, he has to be the ‘boss man’ of the team. When he was coach of Indian junior teams, which were putting up some impressive performances, I asked Pandit how much credit he would take for the team’s success. “80 per cent” he said.

There was a cheeky grin on his face. But he was being honest to me and himself, too, because that is what Pandit does. Unlike other coaches, he actually calls the shots in the team.

He is not shy about shouting out bowling changes and making field adjustments from the pavilion. Being a typical Mumbai street-smart cricketer himself, his tactics are sharp; the captain just executes his ideas without questioning.

No, Pandit cannot be a coach if Virat Kohli is captain, but his method works with teams like Vidarbha. He does not care about decorum, he does what he thinks will work. He is hard on his players and believes that if “I have a sharper mind and more experience than a bunch of 20-year-olds, why don’t I plan and they do what they can do best–execute.”

I can’t fault this approach, makes for a lot of common sense.

In fact, considering the misplaced, exaggerated importance given to most cricket coaches, why not actually give them more powers? Like it was tried way back in the 1999 World Cup by Bob Woolmer, the South African coach, why not have a constant communication line going from coach to captain?

In today’s world, where optics matter a lot, if a captain blunders on the field, the coach respectfully stays out of it, letting the captain rule in his domain, even if he is clearly making some bad calls. But Pandit will not allow such things to happen on the field. He will intervene right then and not after the damage is done and the team has suffered the consequences.

I know there is no one winning way, but Pandit’s way seems to be working brilliantly for one cricket team.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

dhonis-method-and-madness

Fri Jan 25 18:46:37 IST 2019

In India, MSD is as famous an abbreviation as RBI or LIC.

There will come a time when Mahendra Singh Dhoni will no longer be playing the game, and when that time comes he will go down in Indian cricket history as one of the true legends of the game, a global legend.

When Dhoni took over as captain, his greatest gift to Indian cricket was to help it get rid of its anxiety. In the 1990s, when I was part of the team, there were many matches we let slip because we were too anxious in crunch situations. Even under Sourav Ganguly there were traces of this weakness—India bowling first on an obvious ‘bat first’ pitch in the finals of the 2003 World Cup against Australia was symptomatic of this.

Chasing scores under pressure prevented India from becoming real champions. Remember all those matches versus Pakistan in Sharjah? By the time Dhoni finished as captain, Virat Kohli inherited an Indian team that are master chasers with Virat himself leading the way in this regard.

It was just incredible to see Dhoni, a small-town boy, lead an Indian team that had the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. They were not only greats, but also big city boys.

Dhoni, interestingly, had no small town traits. Just to compete and measure up to the big city boys (a trap so easy to fall into) he never went over the top with the authority that he had as captain. He never disrespected the greats, nor did you ever wonder who was in charge out there on the field. It was Dhoni.

If the 1983 World Cup win was momentous in the history of Indian cricket, a David beating the Goliath of world cricket (the West Indies), the 2011 World Cup win, in my view, was a greater accomplishment.

The win in 1983 was freakish. The same West Indian team toured India a few months later and beat us 6-0.

The 2011 World Cup was about an Indian team performing with the burden of immense expectation. India was expected to win the World Cup at home. If not for Dhoni’s calmness, India would not have won the 2011 World Cup. It is 2019 and Dhoni is still around, but he is not leading an Indian fight this time. That is now Kohli’s thing.

Dhoni is fighting his own fight, to stay relevant, and more importantly, useful to this team. He still runs quickly between wickets, but his powers as a batsman have clearly diminished, and he knows it. The great mind of his has recognised that he has to now rely on his partner, one who can hit the ball out of the ground at will, to keep up with the required run rate.

But the warrior in him still wants to be out there on the front lines, trying to win the game for his team; his weapons are a bit rusty, but the will is as strong as ever.

Dhoni knows only one way of winning matches in a run chase—to stay till the very end, almost until the last ball of the innings, even when it is possible to win the match earlier. This approach of his is highly debated. But, this is Dhoni’s way. It is risky, especially given his current ability.

Dhoni fans believe in him and think he can still win matches for India like he did in 2011. As for me, his methods worry me, and as a huge Dhoni admirer I pray they do not backfire on him on any big night in the 2019 World Cup.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

beat-that-stump-mic

Sat Dec 29 11:06:15 IST 2018

After winning the first Test in Adelaide, India lost the second Test in Perth. The four-match series is now poised 1-1. The Indian and Australian teams carry similar traits—quality bowling, but a fragile batting unit. That is why the result of this series is a hard one to predict. Both teams are living in glass houses.

Though India lost the second Test, there were a couple of high-quality performances from Mohammed Shami and Virat Kohli. Shami has had this reputation of being a ‘blow hot, blow cold’ kind of bowler for a while, but recently he has been mostly ‘red hot’ for India. In Perth, he picked up his second five-wicket haul this year, while Kohli got another high-class hundred, the only hundred in the match.

But you know what the fans and media were talking about after that match? The little squabble on the field between Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma.

Now such exchanges are very common in matches when you have mostly 20-year-olds, high on adrenaline, involved in a contest. Until now there may have been a million such minor altercations between players of the same team. This is not your Javed Miandad and Dennis Lillee coming-to-blows kind of confrontation. This was innocuous.

So why is it getting so much attention?

Because, now the television broadcasters have become more mischievous than the players.

While covering the match, they are carrying on a ‘sting operation’ of their own to catch players who are slightly out-of-line, and then share that footage with a hungry media. Thankfully, Indian channels’ cricket coverage is much more responsible.

Such controversy-driven TV channels are feeding gossip from the field and the media is lapping it up, and why wouldn’t they! There are soap operas running for years on TV, based on such themes.

Kerry Packer, the owner of Australia’s Channel 9, was a game-changer in cricket coverage. He introduced stump microphones for the first time. Packer wanted to enhance the viewer experience of watching cricket on TV—to give cricket fans not just the sight, but the sound of the game, too.

Taking the fan closer to the action was Packer’s idea. So, for the first time, fans at home heard what a non-striker on the field heard, the rustling of a fast bowler’s motion through the crease as he bowled. Viewers also got to listen to the scraping sound of a batsman’s shoes as they shaped up to play the ball. It all added to the appeal of the game. Stump microphones are even used to help umpires in decision making.

With Test cricket’s limited appeal these days, some channels are taking the short-cut to get people interested in Test cricket by using the stump mics technology to feed gossip that has got nothing to do with the game.

In the ongoing series in Australia, stump microphones were turned up full volume, all the time, even between overs, just to hear what the players are saying. Players, meanwhile, are still coming to terms with it. Some are aware of its presence and its potential threat, while others like Sharma and Jadeja are caught off guard.

How can eavesdropping on what is being said among players and then revealing it to the world be right? I am amazed players have not officially protested against this.

A very smart thing was done by a player recently to get rid of this intrusion. He started praising rivals of the match sponsors straight into the stump mic. The stumps mics went down immediately. I suggest Sharma and Jadeja do the same.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

england-the-underachiever

Tue Nov 27 19:01:47 IST 2018

England invented cricket and the first Test was played in 1877 between England and Australia. For many years there were just two or three countries that played Tests and England was quite a force. Then along came the West Indies in 1928, 51 years later, and what happens in the coming decades? England starts getting a real beating.

The West Indies, the new kid on the block, was hammering the daylights out of the veterans. Australia took over from the West Indies to mete out the same treatment to England, and with it the rest of the world.

Cricket, since it has become more than a four-nation global sport, has had two teams ruling the sport. The true champions of the world—the West Indies and Australia.

England started struggling the moment there was increased competition. It was still a country that loved its cricket and had the best infrastructure in the world for it, but it somehow has not been able to produce a champion team.

Here is a shocking fact about ICC or world titles, essentially the winners of the World Cup and the Champions trophy for 50 overs cricket and the World T20 for the 20 overs format.

Australia leads the charts with seven world titles. The West Indies has five. Sri Lanka, an island nation with simple infrastructure for cricket, has two, plus one shared Champions Trophy title with India. Pakistan, with zero infrastructure for cricket and now hardly any international cricket at home, has three. India has also done well with world titles; three plus one shared with Sri Lanka. England? Just one! Yes, one. That was the World T20 title in May 2010 in the West Indies.

I remember bumping into an English journalist after that superb England win. He wasn’t looking very happy, and when I congratulated him, he said, “Thanks, but is this really an England team?”

There were at least five non-English players in the eleven that won the final, including [South Africa-born] Kevin Pietersen. When I say non-English, I mean players who were born and played most of their cricket outside England. That was why the journalist was reluctant to take pride in the win as a truly English one.

Despite such a poor record, England still continues to command respect for its cricket and its ways, maybe because it is so sophisticated and pristine. The cricketing landscape, I mean. Also, the media coverage of its cricket is highly impressive. England may not have the best cricket team, but it has the best commentary on its cricket.

So why has England underachieved so much? The main reason is that it has not really acknowledged that it has underachieved. So, what hope is there? The English are also the ultimate ‘geeks’ of the game (when I say geeks, I mean people in sport who tend to complicate sport). They have not quite learnt the lessons from their own cricketing greats like Ian Botham, that to really excel at sport you have to simplify it.

But the ‘geeks’ are currently consumed by some more bizarre thinking and tactics, though they are winning a few games, like in Sri Lanka recently.

They have concluded that this win came because of some brave selections and tactics. No guys, you won because Sri Lanka is a bad team now, and India beats it regularly without breaking a sweat.

England are supposed to be hot favourites to win the 2019 World Cup, to be played at home. I am not so sure. For, to be a champion, you have to think like a champion.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

baptised-for-greatness

Sat Nov 10 19:13:01 IST 2018

Is it the waters of India? How else do we keep producing all-time-great batsmen with such regularity.

Sunil Gavaskar retired in 1987, paving the way for another great—Sachin Tendulkar—in 1989. As Tendulkar was winding up his career, Virat Kohli took up the mantle to be the great of this generation.

And yes, these are true batting greats acknowledged by the entire cricketing world, and not just us Indians. So this is not like mera Bharat mahan.

Sunil Gavaskar was my icon; more than my father, it was because of him that I wanted to become a cricketer. In fact, I gave up leg-spin bowling that I used to bowl decently, lest I become an all rounder and be nothing like Sunil Gavaskar.

Gavaskar played at a time when India went about playing international cricket with an inferiority complex. These were pre-helmet days, so fast bowling and the West Indians with their four fast men were the challenges that you had to take on as an Indian player.

Sunil Gavaskar passed this test by fire with flying colours and made us all proud. India loved him for the courage he showed as an Indian on the world stage.

This era was about defensive batting and Gavaskar was a model of the perfect defensive technique, we up-and-coming batsmen marvelled at how he left the ball alone as it passed his chin. West Indians bowled at least three bouncers per over; they called it “chin music”.

Tendulkar took Indian batting to the next level. He was the first Indian batsman who dominated foreign attacks in their homes like Viv Richards did in the Gavaskar era.

Tendulkar was unique in the way that it was the first time fans saw an Indian batsman hit good balls for boundaries. This was the phase when India had earned the reputation as a team that were tigers at home and lambs overseas (they still carry that tag). Tendulkar was the only guy who looked at home away from home.

If the West Indians respected and loved Gavaskar, Tendulkar earned the adulation of the Australians, the best team in his time.

If Gavaskar willed himself to batting greatness, Tendulkar was a child prodigy who may have found batting at the international level easier than Gavaskar did. But his confidence never became arrogance. This was his special quality.

Now, the baton has been passed on to Virat Kohli. If Tendulkar got hundreds, this guy gets match-winning ones. When he leaves the scene, he will leave behind the legacy of physical fitness and mental toughness. His batting is as much about him running singles and twos with child-like enthusiasm, as it is about the signature cover drives.

This batting great keeps putting his body—that he has developed to bear exceptional rigours—on the line day in, day out.

The hotter the conditions, the more physical his innings become. His hundreds are generally studded with only ten boundaries. It is not that he cannot hit big shots, but he is a believer of risk-free run accumulation.

In England we saw the mental toughness, too. Unlike Tendulkar, who had no batting flaw, Virat clearly has a chink in his batting armour when, in helpful conditions, bowlers target his off stump.

This is where his great character kicks in. When he got his first hundred in the recent series against England, he left almost seven overs of James Anderson alone. This from a guy who is a game changer in T20 cricket.

As I said, it has to be the waters of India.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

thanks-for-coming-afghanistan

Fri Oct 05 19:05:29 IST 2018

In a crowded Indian cricket calendar, an Asia Cup tournament was a hindrance. As players, too, we felt that way. It never quite had the charm that other non-bilateral series had. But, after this year, things will change. Asia cup will be an event cricket fans will look forward to. Why?

Because now we have five teams of international standard out of which four are pretty evenly matched with India the clear number one team by a distance. So, henceforth, the fun will be about the four teams—Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh—fighting for a chance to play India in the finals and win the Cup. India will have to carry the burden having to keep its position as ‘numero uno’. They cannot even blink as these four teams are perfectly capable of upsetting them.

That the Asia Cup will always be played in Asian conditions means that these teams are all playing on pitches they are familiar with. In overseas conditions, the competition between the four teams I mentioned, would not be so close.

India won the 2018 Asia Cup, but this year’s edition of the tournament will be remembered more for Afghanistan’s exploits and their rise in international cricket, ripping off of the tag of minnows put on them.

They played five matches, won two, nearly three. If it were their nights, they would have beaten Pakistan and Bangladesh twice and also beaten (albeit not at full strength) India, a match that ended in a tie. Afghanistan’s rapid rise confirms the fact that more than infrastructure and sophisticated academies, it is really inspiration and a drive from within that fuels the growth of a player or a team.

Afghanistan wants attention, success and fame, and cricket has become the medium to achieve these goals. Everyone wants success and fame, but considering the situation back home for the Afghanis, I guess they want it more badly than others.

Rashid Khan, their fantastic wrist-spinner, a high value cricketer in T20 leagues around the world, is their poster boy now.

Rashid Khan is a game changer for all teams that he plays for, like how he is invaluable for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. You can just imagine what effect his showings in the IPL would be having on all those young boys in Afghanistan.

When you are growing up with an impressionable mind, nothing stimulates the urge to become a star more than watching a star at his peak. It was Sunil Gavaskar for me. For many 12-year-olds, it must be Rashid Khan. If he can do it, why can’t I? They must be thinking.

Rashid Khan, in a recent interview, said there are hundreds of wrist-spinners like him back home, including a few within his family. So, don’t worry. There will be a regular supply of these game-changing wrist-spinners from Afghanistan that all private leagues will be wanting to have a piece of. There is already Mujeeb Ur Rahman who plays for Kings XI Punjab.

It is great to see that the glamorous and lucrative T20 leagues have not spoilt their (Afghanistan’s) players. Their desperation to win international matches is the same. I guess they don’t know any other way to play. They are a very likeable team, too, and hence a welcome addition to the shrinking pool of quality teams in international cricket.

They are not over the top with their aggression or celebrations, high adrenaline moments are handled with an air of calmness by these guys—a rarity in today’s cricket.

Thanks for coming, Afghanistan. Hope you have a long and enjoyable stay in international cricket.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

safe-and-sorry

Fri Sep 07 17:13:28 IST 2018

When it comes to safety, there is no country like England. ‘Safety first’ is their motto in all aspects of their lives.

I remember one incident when we were covering a World Cup game in 1999 in Taunton. It was an India-Sri Lanka game. Our broadcasting crew had left some of their equipment in the corridor outside our commentary box. A steward came up to our box and told our producer that the three little boxes and a camera stand in the corridor had to be removed as that area was a fire exit route and nothing should be kept there.

It was a spacious corridor and these were just a few pieces of equipment lying in one corner, coming in no one’s way. Our producer was too occupied with the ongoing game and ignored or may have forgotten the steward’s request.

Ten minutes later, a policeman came into our box asking who the producer of this broadcast was. In no uncertain terms, he said just one thing to our producer: “Sir, if those items lying in the corridor are not removed in the next five minutes, I am going to put an end to this broadcast.” Our producer jumped off his seat, forgot completely about the World Cup match, and in two minutes had the corridor cleared. It is an incident I will never forget, as it tells you so much about a country.

When you fly an English airline, you will find their in-flight crew puts safety well above hospitality. They are passionate about safety.

This is all very good, but when your obsession with safety starts spilling over into sport, well, then it is not such a good thing. Take, for example, the ongoing Test series against India. They have a pure batsman called Jos Buttler batting at number seven. Yes, it is that preoccupation with safety. “What if our top order fails? We need to have a back up for that,” they think.

Their media and their experts keep harping on the fact that they have great depth in batting. “Even our number nine can bat,” they say. But, their deep batting lineup often fails and they struggle to put up big scores. It is a team that loses Tests at home more than any other top team.

When England selectors want to pick a bowler and they have a choice between two, they will pick the one who can bat even if he is slightly inferior to the other as bowler. Moeen Ali is a fine cricketer, whose main strength is his off-spin bowling. But, England expects him to bat as well, and when he fails with the bat, they are disappointed.

All their batsmen in this series have gone on record saying they would want to bat one position below their current place. This is again a sign of being defensive, and being safe rather than positive and courageous.

The history of this game has shown that the two sides that ruled world cricket for a span of time—West Indies and Australia—kept it simple. They picked pure bowlers and pure batsmen and one wicketkeeper. They trusted the purity of skills of a player to win them matches. They did not think, “What if our batting fails?” Instead they thought, “If our batting fails, our pure bowlers will bring us back in the game by decimating the opposition for an even lower score.”

England has never ruled world cricket, and never won a World Cup or a Champions Trophy, in all these years, which is a shocking statistic. It shows that ‘safety first’ in sport does not quite work, but by losing another series in England, it seems India is the only country out there to prove that it does.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

see-sceptics-its-a-century

Fri Aug 10 17:13:32 IST 2018

I had once tweeted that the only thing remaining between Virat Kohli and ultimate batting greatness is his vulnerability outside the off stump.

I knew I was being a bit dramatic here, but you know what, there were a few sceptics out there who kept bringing up the fact that he averaged just 13 in four Test matches in England, and how he kept nicking the ball to the slips, especially off Jimmy Anderson.

Something about performing in England. To be acclaimed as a true great somehow you have to put up a good show in England, maybe it is because cricket in the summer of England gets global attention.

But, I see a cricketing reason for it. It is like in tennis, a master of clay courts has to win the odd title on grass to show that he is not just a great player in conditions that suit him.

English conditions are alien to batsmen who are brought up on hard pitches where the ball skids on to the bat nicely. On these English turf pitches, the ball tends to just hold into the pitch and change direction. A very subtle occurrence that has a big impact on a batsman’s performance.

So, now that Virat has a 100 in England, the sceptics will nod their head and say, “hmm... he is special, this guy”.

India is an amazing country in this regard. We had Sunil Gavaskar in the 70s and 80s—the undisputed batting great. When he packed up, in just two years, we had another batting great in Sachin Tendulkar. While Tendulkar’s long career was winding up, the brick and mortar was laid for another Indian great that the cricketing world could marvel at—Virat Kohli.

My theory is that Indian batsmen play so much on flat pitches that they end up playing long innings from a very early age, as early as 12 and they do play a lot of matches.

So, when an Indian batsman reaches the international stage, at say, age 20, he has faced and hit three times more balls than a batsman of the same age from England, New Zealand, South Africa or Australia.

After that, the only hurdle is adjustment to different conditions. Once you are able to do that, the advantage of the batting hours kicks in, and, lo and behold, we have another Indian batsman ruling the world!

For one of the greatest stroke players in the world, Virat’s first 100 in England was about not playing strokes. He had to fight off his biggest threat, Jimmy Anderson, by reining in his natural instincts of playing shots, especially his favourite, signature shot, the cover drive.

When he reached his 100, Virat had deliberately left 40 balls outside the off stump, out of which 26 were off Anderson alone. That is more than four overs of Anderson.

Can you imagine that? This is a modern player, where in one format he has to belt every ball for a four or six, in the other score off every ball, but come Test cricket, he was able to do the extreme opposite.

And, that was the real hallmark of that Virat 100. Sure, he was dropped on 21, when for once he was sucked into the England trap, but like great batsmen do, he made the opposition pay a heavy price for it.

This is all very nice—Virat’s dominance and all that—but, what about India the team? What about India replicating its home performance overseas?

Well, that issue still remains. And for that, at least on this England tour, Indian batting cannot be a sole proprietorship, for in a competition between a team and an individual, even if that individual is Virat Kohli, the team will generally win.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

kuldeeps-not-a-freak

Fri Jul 13 13:02:03 IST 2018

My calendar can get pretty tight as a commentator, but whenever I get an offer to do commentary in the under-19 cricket world cups, I grab it.

It is nice to cover a comparatively low profile event, the hyper activity that goes around big event productions can get to you sometimes, so this makes for a refreshing change.

But, more importantly, it is very fulfilling watching young talent at the cusp of their careers, where in a matter of two years or so, they will become real stars of mainstream international cricket.

When this happens, it is a nice feeling. Because you have seen them at the under-19s as kids with big dreams in their eyes, you feel a certain kind of affiliation towards them, a soft corner perhaps.

It is how neighbours must feel when that kid they have seen playing around, smash a few windows, goes on to become a Virat Kohli. The list is long, of under-19 boys I saw who went onto become famous household names, the latest in that list is India’s new game changer with the ball—Kuldeep Yadav.

I saw him in the under-19 World Cup of 2014, held in Dubai. I remember coming back from Dubai carrying images of two cricketers in my head. One of a tall, athletic fast bowler from South Africa with a beautiful action, running in and terrorising batsmen—that was Kagiso Rabada.

The other was that of a Chinaman bowler from India bamboozling everyone with his skills, yes, it was Kuldeep Yadav.

In a matter of just three years, Rabada attained top ranking in senior cricket and as for Kuldeep, well, just yesterday, as I write this, he picked up five wickets in a T20 International versus England. His stock as a cricketer is rising every day.

Actually I do not like him being called a ‘Chinaman bowler’, a term used in cricket for his kind, who bowl leg spin left handed.

There has been no great Chinaman bowler in cricket, so this breed is traditionally looked at as slightly freakish , more a novelty than anything, their skills are taken a bit lightheartedly.

Kuldeep is nothing of the kind. He is as pure as they come with sound fundamentals, just that he bowls leg spin left handed, he is a mirror image of the great Shane Warne.

The reason Kuldeep stole my heart in Dubai was because he was all I wanted a spinner to be. With batsmen getting stronger, hitting the ball further and the boundaries staying the same distance they were 50 years ago, spinners are bowling quicker and flatter. It is interesting actually to see fast bowlers bowl slow and spinners bowl quick to survive in today’s world.

Kuldeep is different, he holds onto the age-old belief that spinners must deceive batsmen by guile and flight, a theory rubbished by people saying it will never work in today’s power-driven game.

Kuldeep has proved them wrong. He has shown that deception still works, in fact it rocks!

It is just mind boggling to see Kuldeep sometimes bowl as slow as 73kmph and flight the ball above the eye line of the batsman, the kind of spin bowling you saw in the 70s from Bishan Singh Bedi and E.A.S. Prasanna.

So, basically Kuldeep is using the methods of the 1970s in 2018 to make a winning impact, and, that too, in the frenetic format of cricket—the T20s.

England decimated the Australian seam bowlers recently, but were like fish out of water against Kuldeep. Spin is still king, guys, and if you are as good as Kuldeep Yadav, the cricketing world is your kingdom.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator • editor@theweek.in

a-land-that-has-already-risen

Sat Jun 16 12:44:37 IST 2018

Ticked off another item on my bucket list last week—a visit to Japan. I knew cricket was not going to take me there. So, it was not a trip that was going to happen just like that. I had to make it happen. Taking ten days off, I cracked that code. Now, it is ‘been there, done that’. Feels good.

I was always fascinated by this country—so far away from the west, not speaking the language of the west, but made such an impact in the west. I had to see Japan up and close, see their ways, their culture, even if it was to be in a limited time of ten days.

The first thing that struck me about Japan was its richness. Their city pavements are floored like in a luxurious Mumbai flat. Expensive stones of different textures and colours are used to create patterns and designs, and this goes on for miles all over its cities. Every item used in its public infrastructure is of high quality. But, no, it is not the ‘in your face’ kind of opulence. The understated richness and class of it all is what comes through.

Their favourite colour combination is grey and cream. Most of their houses and buildings flaunt this colour scheme, very subtle. It gives you a sense of calm, being surrounded by these colours. I plan to repaint my bedroom in these colours now. I have not been sleeping too well, lately.

Hygiene, the Japanese are very big on this, almost obsessed by it. Their bowing practice and general respectfulness towards others is well known. That is exactly how they will tell you to remove your footwear from the outside, and offer clean slippers the moment you step indoors.

Their toilets should be a tourist attraction, if you ask me. They are squeaky clean, and, yes, very hi-tech. Being pioneers in technology, it is no surprise to see Japan using technology in every aspect of their daily lives. It is actually worth travelling to Japan just to use their toilets and take showers.

Forgive me for getting into details of this, but I have to, for this will be one of my abiding memories of Japan. When you sit on the potty, it feels like you are in an aircraft seat, surrounded by all these buttons. Think of everything you do while going through this daily ritual of our lives. It is all taken care of by a light touch of a button.

Right from warming up of the seat to lifting it and all the rest after it, everything is automatic. Same with the showers. The best shower experience of my life has come in Japan. Did you know that many hotels in Japan have a community spa for its guests called onsen? It is like a paddle pool that is filled with hot water.

Now, where does this hot water come from? From the underground natural hot springs. I have no idea how they source that into the hotel—must be some Japanese technology again.

Now, to my favourite subject—food. A warning here: If you do not like Japanese food per se, you may not enjoy the whole Japanese experience as I did. For those who love spices in their food, Japanese food may seem like fish, meat or vegetables dipped in hot water. I have come to a stage where I cannot enjoy food, however tasty it is, if it is high calorie and not healthy. So, Japanese food was just perfect for me. I do not think my family liked the food very much. But, I gorged on it, even on their desserts.

Finally, the biggest takeaway from Japan has to be its people and their culture. I used to actually go down to the hotel lobby to see a particular practice of the hotel staff. Every staff, senior or junior, would bow towards the hotel before opening the door behind them to enter the staff area.

Staff coming out would do the same when stepping out from the hotel, a very solemn bow, like you would do in a place of worship. Work is truly worship here in Japan, and, I guess, that is what makes this country so special.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator.

editor@theweek.in

indian-potentials-league

Fri May 18 15:14:34 IST 2018

I guess 2018 will be the year when the Indian Premier League became truly Indian. A simple evidence of this is the orange cap presented to the leading run scorer. For the first time, it is mostly Indian players. Glance through the bowlers’ list, and that will also show more Indians than foreigners.

This could be because some terrific overseas players like David Warner, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc of Australia, and Kagiso Rabada of South Africa are missing in this edition of the IPL.

Young Indian players—not the established Indian internationals, but fringe Indian players—have come into their own and taken centre stage in the IPL. They genuinely believe now that the IPL is their platform, and there is no longer any inhibition in them being on a world stage, with big global stars around them.

In this IPL, Rishabh Pant has overshadowed AB de Villiers.

Like Pant, Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Daredevils and Suryakumar Yadav of Mumbai Indians are playing well. Even an 18-year-old Prithvi Shaw of Mumbai, who got break a little late for Delhi Daredevils, is batting like he would in his backyard. In one of his first matches, he was going after Mitchell Johnson (still quite a fearsome bowler) as if Johnson were a rookie.

There is a proper cricketing reason why it has not been a great IPL for the foreign players. An interesting change is happening in world cricket. Players, even the good ones from a country, are struggling to make an impact in another country. You have players from England playing well in England and getting decimated by the same opposition away from England. South Africa beat India recently in South Africa, but when they come to India, India bosses them around. Also, there aren’t any truly great teams around like we had in the earlier days. Teams that were winners in all conditions, like the West Indians and the Australians. That’s because there aren’t enough players in today’s teams who excel in all conditions.

Being versatile is being great. Like a Smith or a Virat Kohli or a Kane Williamson, but their number is very small.

Today you have a lot of good players, but the exceptional ones are rare. I am not talking about the truly great players; their number has always been very small through the generations. I am talking about world-class players, who are just a notch under great players, and are the spine of any great team.

To be versatile is not about fitness, strength or power. These qualities are found aplenty in players of today. But, to be effective in varying conditions, you need the subtleties—subtle adjustments of your game and your instincts. Throw in a bit of street smartness—to behave differently in different landscapes. This is more about the mind than the body.

This is also the reason why teams in this IPL have lost their way after a great start in the first six overs. The first six overs is about power hitting, the middle phase, well, it is about the cricketing ‘smarts’.

It is great to see young Indian players show this quality, but will they be versatile? That, the IPL can’t show us.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator.

editor@theweek.in

amar-tomar-kolkata

Fri Apr 20 17:09:09 IST 2018

When I got my IPL schedule, I quickly checked how many matches I was slotted to commentate on in Kolkata. It is interesting, right from my playing days I have always looked forward to my visits to Kolkata.

When I first went there as a player, I was dazed watching the adulation an Indian cricketer received. We would be put in that wonderful hotel, Grand Oberoi, which is located right in the middle of the city, in the epicentre of Kolkata’s chaos. There were hundreds of people gathered at the main gate of the hotel, which opened to the main road.

Obviously, these poor souls were not allowed inside the premises of the hotel. So, they would all huddle together outside the main gate just to catch a glimpse of an Indian cricketer, passing through that gate in his car.

As players, we could see their expressions when they looked at us. It was something I will never forget in my life. In the lobby of the hotel, there would still be a crowd. These were the more influential cricket fans who had the right ‘contacts’ to get up till there.

You do not see such scenes any longer, by the way. Today’s cricketers are bigger brands. But, I cannot say that they are more popular than players from the bygone era.

It was a heady feeling for a 20-year-old cricketer, to get this kind of attention and the pampering that came along with it. But, then I quickly saw the other side of this.

I once played a match-winning innings at the iconic Eden Gardens and the spectators there went crazy. I felt the full force of their love and fanfare. A few weeks later, I failed in a run chase, and, as I walked back to the pavilion, I could hear boos, and there might have been a few orange peels thrown at me, too. This was my early reality check, to not take fanfare too seriously.

They are quite unique, the fans at the Eden Gardens. Like most venues around India, there is always a pin drop silence when the opposition hits a boundary. But, at all other times too, there is generally silence here—fans sit still as a T20 match unfolds itself. Like you would experience in most other places, especially in Mumbai and Bengaluru, you do not hear the general noise that you hear when 50,000 excited people gather in one place. But, suddenly there will be an eruption of noise when their team has had a happy moment. After that, they go silent and still again.

It has got slightly left behind among Indian metros, but it is the old charm of Kolkata that appeals to me, I tell my overseas friends to visit Kolkata if they want to see the quintessential India. Bengal’s music, their food, wow! I adore them both.

Forget meditation, just listen to Rabindra Sangeet and that should take care of your stress levels. I win people over quite easily here, I just hum a couple of lines from it and they are my well-wishers for life.

Bengali cuisine, for me, is the best Indian cuisine. Perhaps because it suits me in the sense that it is not hot. Bengali food is not about putting hot, spicy masala and chillies in to make an impression. They opt for the more tedious ways to make food delicious.

Somehow I keep forgetting to carry an extra bag to Kolkata, to take home all the gifts and the Bengali sweets that I receive from all my ‘well-wishers’.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator.

editor@theweek.in

enchanting-island

Sat Mar 24 16:17:55 IST 2018

A TV producer called me two weeks ago, asking if I would be interested in doing a short commentary stint for a T20 tri-series. I asked him the location. He said, Sri Lanka. Yes, I said instantly.

Sri Lanka has been one my favourite places, to travel for work, and also to generally unwind. With the long civil war behind them, every time I visited Sri Lanka after that, it has looked better and better.

Somehow, as a player, I never got picked in the team when India toured Sri Lanka. But, my first overseas tour as a commentator was to Lanka. I did not know what to expect then. I had a vague image in my head of it being like Goa or Kerala. But, after I explored it, I came to realise that although its topography is a bit like south India, it is nothing like India. Its people are nothing like Indians.For starters, it is clean. The entire country is clean. You will see obvious poverty in the smaller towns, but you will not see dirt. Give India a nice scrub and you get Sri Lanka. They are already ‘Swachh Sri Lanka’.

Like the Worli seaface in Mumbai, they have the Galle face in Colombo, where people turn out in the hundreds to take walks and generally hang around in the evening. There are a few stalls serving local food. After the people leave, the place remains litter-free and clean.

Kerala is perhaps the cleanest state in India, and it has a very high literacy rate. I wonder if there is a connection between the two, because Sri Lanka has a 100 per cent literacy rate, too.

Sri Lankans are not necessarily comfortable with the English language, and that hinders their progress somewhat on the world stage. But, as I said, they are still educated people.

What struck me the first time I went there was how Sri Lanka was nothing like its neighbours, India or Pakistan. Come to think of it, they are more like Europeans in their general lifestyle and instincts.

I watch with fascination how people react when they see a celebrity, say a cricketer, wandering into a hotel lobby. In India, fans will scream when they see one, topple a few things around them, as they rush to meet him, hoping to take a picture or two. In Pakistan, I have noted, they love their handshakes. When they see a cricketer they recognise, they will come forward and offer a firm handshake. While in Sri Lanka, even when they spot someone like a Kumar Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene, they will only exchange knowing looks with their friends, murmur about the presence of a celebrity near them, and generally feel very happy about it. That’s it.

Some of the more excitable and brave ones will come up to you, and you think they are going to ask you something very awkward by the way they approach you, but all they will want is a picture. They love cricket, but they are not as passionate about it as their neighbours are.

You see this quality of theirs at cricket matches, too. They come to the ground to support their team, they will play their music, beat the drums and basically have a party at the ground. But, when their team loses, they quietly leave the ground, some still playing the drums on their way home.

They speak Sinhalese; its tone is very soft and polite-sounding. So, when they speak English, it is in that same style. A Sri Lankan will never come across as disrespectful or cocky. As I said, I love a lot of things about Sri Lanka and no, I have not been paid by their tourism department to write this piece.

Manjrekar, a former cricketer, is a commentator.

editor@theweek.in

a-new-captain-a-new-team

Sat Feb 24 17:08:31 IST 2018

Post 2000, Indian cricket has shown a steady improvement. Sure, there have been setbacks like in 2011 when India lost to both England and Australia 4-0, but, generally, the graph has been northbound.

If Sourav Ganguly, as India captain, brought self-esteem to Team India with the way they competed overseas, Mahendra Singh Dhoni injected calmness under pressure into Indian cricket.

In the 1990s, India would lose many a close match out of sheer anxiety. Think of the the 1992 World Cup game against Australia in Brisbane—a classic case of nerves getting the better of the team.

With Dhoni gone as captain, Virat Kohli has taken over the reins of Indian cricket. He is still young as captain, but what has become evident is that he is bringing a quality into Indian cricket that was never seen before. The ‘never say die attitude’, and this was so visible in the last Test of the series against South Africa. India had lost the Test series when they came to the Wanderers to play this final Test, but they played this inconsequential game as if their lives depended on it.

It was a poor pitch, bordering on dangerous. Balls were rearing up from good length and batsmen were getting hit on their hands and ribs regularly. The physios of both teams would have lost a few pounds from the many runs they had to make on to the field to attend to the batsmen’s bruises.

But India was very happy, in fact, very keen to carry on playing even after the umpires had clearly hinted that they would be okay if the teams did not want to continue playing on that surface. Every time an Indian batsman got hit, he would immediately let the officials know that he was fine and wanted to continue. And, the captain led from the front in this regard.

My heart went out to them. Watching them fight this way, especially in a dead rubber, the desperation to still win a Test, made me feel really proud of this Indian team. It was a unique Test win for India in the end. One I will always remember for the courage shown on a treacherous pitch in an already lost series. It would have been so easy to take the other option and finish 2-0, but, no, they wanted it to be 2-1.

I guess Virat wanted the win to regain some self-respect and the others had no choice but to follow him. Yes, Virat has that kind of hold on this team. He leads and the others follow, wherever he takes them.

When the one-day series of six matches started after the Test series, at the toss, Virat used the win in the last Test to gain a psychological advantage over his opponents. He went out of his way to say that his team was very confident after the last Test win and kept highlighting that fact in all his talks. Anyone would think, it was India, and not South Africa, who had won the Test series. Virat had created that kind of a mood. The value of that last Test win, seemingly meaningless, came through in the one-day series.

Come the one-dayers, the South African captain confessed that the last Test had taken a lot out of his team. Keeping these tenacious Indians at bay had taken its toll on the South Africans. India won the one-day series 5-1.

This result had a lot to do with the ‘never say die attitude’ that India showed in the last Test.

Manjrekar, former cricketer, is a commentator.

editor@theweek.in

can-we-learn-to-survive-on-moon-why-artemis-is-our-celestial-wake-up-call

Sat May 23 16:20:48 IST 2026

For decades, the conquest of the moon was little more than a dusty relic of the Cold War, a giant, pockmarked nightlight of which the US could say, “been there, done that”. Having conquered the lunar surface in 1969, humanity collectively decided that the moon was a bit like an old high school trophy—impressive to glance at occasionally, but ultimately a familiar object gathering cosmic dust while we moved on to the more pressing business of making a mess of our own backyard.

But suddenly, the tides have turned. Enter Artemis. Named for Apollo’s twin sister, this mission is less of a nostalgic revisit and more of a celestial wake-up call. And frankly, who can blame us for looking up? Down here, the terrestrial “to-do” list has become a “don’t-look” list. We are currently engaged in the geopolitical equivalent of fanning a kitchen fire that has spread to the living-room curtains. Just as we are making earth uninhabitable—alternating between scorching it with carbon and scarring it with conflict—we have decided it is high time to see if we can live on a barren rock with no atmosphere, no liquid water, and a distinct lack of Wi-Fi. It is the ultimate “grass is greener” scenario, except there’s no grass, only grey regolith, and a crippling lack of oxygen.

One cannot help but admire the human spirit. We are a species that will argue over a few square miles of desert or a maritime boundary until the missiles fly, yet we gaze at the moon with the starry-eyed wonder of a child looking at a fresh colouring-book. Artemis isn’t just about water-ice at the lunar south pole or establishing a “gateway” station; it is a grand, multi-billion-dollar act of escapism. It is as if humanity, sensing the inevitable eviction notice from mother nature, is desperately trying to flirt with the calm neighbour next door.

The moon, of course, remains indifferent. She has watched us from a comfortable distance of 3,84,400 kilometres, witnessing our rise from flint-wielding primates to nuclear-armed keyboard warriors. She saw the smoke of the Industrial Revolution rise and the flickers of a thousand wars, yet she remains remarkably pristine, save for the occasional crater from a passing asteroid that lacked GPS. There is a certain irony in humans seeking to establish “sustainability” on the moon—recycling every drop of moisture and optimising every watt of solar power—while treating the earth like a rental car we have no intention of returning with a full tank.

Perhaps this is the true utility of Artemis. It forces us to practice the virtues we’ve forgotten on earth. On the moon, you cannot afford a war; the logistical cost of a bayonet charge in one-sixth gravity is prohibitive, and a single bullet is a communal death sentence. It is a place where “international cooperation” isn’t a lofty diplomatic cliché but a basic requirement for breathing. If we can learn to survive in the lunar shadows without killing each other, perhaps we might bring some of that hard-won maturity back home.

So, we are building massive rockets, fuelled by liquid hydrogen and the collective hopes of a species, all to reach a destination that is essentially a high-end quarry. We are sending mannequins and eventually humans to sit in the silent dark, looking back at our “pale blue dot” that is currently glowing a bit too red for comfort. From their lunar base, scientists will meticulously document the composition of moon dust, while behind them, in the vast blackness, the earth provides a spectacular backdrop of forest fires and naval blockades. We are a species of tragic contradictions—capable of orchestrating the most complex dance of physics and engineering ever conceived, while simultaneously failing to figure out how to share a planet.

As Artemis prepares to plant new boots in the lunar soil, let us hope the view from the moon provides more than just a pretty picture. Perhaps, by looking at our home from the perspective of the stars, we might finally realise that the earth is a much better place to live—if only we could stop trying to prove otherwise.

editor@theweek.in

from-ancient-wisdom-to-modern-discoveries-reimagining-indias-intellectual-landscape

Sat Apr 25 11:25:01 IST 2026

lutyens-evicted-rajaji-installed-is-india-prioritising-symbolism-over-substance

Sat Mar 28 18:17:14 IST 2026

tharoor-mapping-the-ego-why-global-politics-is-having-a-vibe-check-via-maps

Sat Feb 28 17:04:05 IST 2026

the-high-price-of-headlines-how-sensationalism-fails-victims-and-society

Sat Jan 31 15:05:37 IST 2026

the-human-touch-five-surprising-jobs-that-ai-cant-replace

Sat Jan 03 11:16:35 IST 2026

why-delhi-cant-be-indraprastha

Sat Dec 06 11:13:58 IST 2025

gandhi-trump-and-the-nobel-peace-prize-conundrum

Sat Nov 08 11:51:19 IST 2025

linguistic-warfare-understanding-donald-trumps-renaming-tactics

Sat Oct 11 17:49:51 IST 2025

hindi-imposition-national-language-debate-india

Sat Sep 13 15:35:23 IST 2025

trump-tariffs-india-economy-indo-us-partnership-future

Sat Aug 16 16:55:16 IST 2025

understanding-india-constitutional-values-india-constitution-living-document

Fri Jul 18 17:49:48 IST 2025

the-language-of-grief

Sat Jun 21 17:58:21 IST 2025

help-kashmir-bounce-back

Sat May 24 17:04:24 IST 2025

current-leaders-dont-care-what-the-public-wants-they-do-what-they-want-netanyahu-and-trump-are-examples

Sat Apr 26 14:52:07 IST 2025

covids-silver-lining-for-india

Sat Mar 29 11:24:36 IST 2025

in-donald-trumps-world-there-are-no-rules-anymore

Fri Mar 21 11:27:43 IST 2025

wheth-atmami-omnivistatude-new-words-for-old-feelings

Sat Feb 01 12:08:40 IST 2025

all-mps-should-serve-together

Sat Jan 04 11:19:31 IST 2025

stay-with-kochi-biennale

Sun Dec 08 12:14:19 IST 2024

be-proud-of-accomplishments-of-our-ancestors-without-hindutva-delusions

Sat Nov 09 11:40:10 IST 2024

i-shashi-tharoor-coined-the-term-multi-alignment

Fri Oct 11 16:21:12 IST 2024

how-i-became-indias-mr-difficult-words

Sat Sep 14 11:45:31 IST 2024

tax-the-rich-till-they-invest-more

Sat Aug 17 14:26:29 IST 2024

all-indians-dont-understand-how-our-democracy-works

Sat Jul 20 10:59:05 IST 2024

i-played-twice-against-hollywood-cricket-club

Mon Jun 24 12:30:15 IST 2024

some-political-vocabulary-with-shashi-tharoor

Sun Jun 23 09:47:07 IST 2024

let-us-not-surrender-the-idea-of-india-shashi-tharoor

Sun Apr 28 13:49:21 IST 2024

hard-work-a-way-of-life-for-indians

Sat Mar 30 16:17:28 IST 2024

why-i-have-profound-respect-for-french-democracy

Sat Mar 02 14:42:59 IST 2024

newspeak-seems-to-be-back-in-todays-world

Sat Feb 03 14:32:59 IST 2024

death-or-debt-is-the-question

Sat Jan 06 13:50:25 IST 2024

dont-snub-the-dollar

Sat Dec 09 15:10:51 IST 2023

why-higher-level-reading-is-important

Fri Nov 10 17:40:59 IST 2023

can-an-indian-succeed-pope-francis

Sat Oct 14 15:03:54 IST 2023

china-is-in-distress-many-things-have-gone-wrong

Sat Sep 16 11:39:37 IST 2023

chandrayaan-3-new-horizons-beckon-beyond-the-stars

Sat Aug 19 11:16:30 IST 2023

four-observations-i-made-at-a-convocation-in-kerala

Fri Jul 21 16:22:02 IST 2023

how-technology-enabled-and-destroyed-a-sunrise-industry

Sat Jun 24 11:32:06 IST 2023

biden-vs-trump-again

Fri May 26 17:31:17 IST 2023

china-complicates-indo-russia-bonds

Fri Apr 28 15:07:26 IST 2023

how-centre-is-using-money-as-a-weapon-shashi-tharoor

Sat Apr 01 15:05:21 IST 2023

debunking-deepak-baglas-hype-shashi-tharoor

Sun Mar 05 13:57:29 IST 2023

pride-not-prejudice-is-the-way-forward

Fri Feb 03 13:25:17 IST 2023

success-of-indians-in-the-west

Sat Jan 07 11:21:35 IST 2023

a-new-world-order-is-in-the-making

Sat Dec 17 17:19:22 IST 2022

shashi-tharoor-on-the-rise-of-electoral-autocracies

Sun Nov 06 13:11:53 IST 2022

congress-must-truly-become-the-party-of-young-india-shashi-tharoor

Sat Oct 08 16:52:49 IST 2022

latin-catholics-not-anti-development-they-fear-for-fishing-communitys-existence-tharoor

Sun Sep 11 11:19:00 IST 2022

britain-not-ready-for-brown-pm-says-shashi-tharoor

Sat Aug 13 12:10:07 IST 2022

understanding-ebola-and-hantavirus-what-india-needs-to-know

Sat May 23 16:03:15 IST 2026

Over the past few weeks, global attention has once again turned to infectious diseases—this time, Ebola and hantavirus. After the experience of Covid-19, such reports naturally create anxiety. Yet, the present situation calls not for panic, but for awareness and practical understanding. Misconceptions, often, spread faster than the diseases themselves, especially online.

At present, India has reported no cases of Ebola and no evidence of widespread hantavirus pulmonary syndrome transmission. Health authorities continue to monitor developments closely through existing surveillance and response systems. In an interconnected world, staying informed helps people respond calmly, responsibly and without unnecessary fear.

Hantavirus, though unfamiliar to many, is not a new disease. It is mainly carried by rodents. Humans become infected through exposure to rodent urine, droppings or saliva, especially in enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces. Unlike common viral infections, hantavirus does not spread from casual person-to-person contact.

This distinction is important in India. The virus does not spread in crowded trains, markets or offices, and cases in the country have been extremely rare. However, certain conditions—such as grain storage areas, construction sites, flood-affected regions and poor sanitation—can increase contact with rodents and create limited risk.

Early symptoms often resemble a routine viral illness: fever, body ache, fatigue and headache. However, hantavirus can rapidly become serious, causing severe breathing difficulty due to fluid buildup in the lungs, and sometimes kidney complications. Since there is no specific antiviral cure, early medical attention is critical and can significantly improve survival.

Anyone developing high fever with severe breathlessness, persistent vomiting or rapidly worsening illness after rodent exposure or travel should seek medical care promptly. Fortunately, prevention is simple and effective. Keeping surroundings clean, storing food safely, sealing rodent entry points and using wet cleaning methods instead of sweeping dusty areas can greatly reduce risk. These are practical steps that fit easily into daily life in India.

Ebola presents a different situation. Recent outbreaks in parts of Central Africa, including Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, involve strains being closely monitored by international health agencies. While these outbreaks remain geographically limited, global surveillance continues to track and contain cases. For India, however, the overall risk remains very low.

Ebola spreads only through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person, such as blood, vomit or saliva. It is not airborne and does not spread through casual contact in public spaces. Symptoms usually appear within two to 21 days and include fever, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, bleeding and organ failure. Health care workers and caregivers without adequate protective equipment face the highest risk.

India has strengthened airport screening, laboratory preparedness and surveillance systems to detect suspected cases quickly. The most effective strategies remain early diagnosis, isolation and supportive care.

For the general public, the message is simple: continue basic hygiene practices, remain aware of symptoms after travel or environmental exposure, and rely on credible health information rather than rumours or misinformation.

Both Ebola and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome remind us that infectious diseases—new and old—will continue to emerge. But they also highlight something equally important: knowledge, preparedness, and calm, informed action remain our strongest defence. In India, there is no cause for alarm—but there is strong reason to stay aware, informed and prepared as part of everyday public health awareness.

Shyla Jovitha Abraham is a health and wellness writer based in Cleveland, and Dr Jame Abraham is chairman, department of hematology/medical oncology, and professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic The views expressed are his own and do not represent the views of Cleveland Clinic.

predicting-alzheimers-how-a-simple-blood-test-could-change-your-life

Sat Apr 18 11:19:10 IST 2026

stephen-hawkings-legacy-how-brain-computer-interfaces-promise-new-era-of-communication

Sat Mar 21 11:16:51 IST 2026

glp-1-medications-and-the-science-of-weight-loss-revolution-dr-jame-abraham-shyla-jovitha-cleveland

Sat Feb 14 11:30:16 IST 2026

gene-editing-are-we-playing-god

Sat Jan 17 11:38:48 IST 2026

four-years-is-a-substantial-time-to-write-a-regular-column-goodbye-dear-readers

Sat Oct 07 16:36:48 IST 2023

For the last few years I have had a familiar routine that repeats itself every fortnight. I get an email on Thursday from Susamma at THE WEEK, reminding me that my column is due Monday evening. Tuesday morning I am scrambling for a topic to write on, and desperately rescheduling meetings or sneaking in writing time between shots on set while staving off polite reminders from the team at the magazine. When I send the column off, I bcc my father and my best friend (a journalist) who act as my ‘rant filter’ ensuring I don’t get carried away in my often rather polemical writing on politics and the state of affairs in our country. Lately my husband has joined this group of unofficial behind-the-scenes editors. Typically, in the next 12 hours, a playback is emailed to me and always I’m dissatisfied with the editorial tinkering of my writing. A short argument, mostly with Anirudha, follows. It is a set template. I complain about the edit and then lament the word limit. Anirudha patiently explains to me the policy of the magazine regarding opinion pieces. He makes some allowances and finally I type a thumbs up emoji and that version goes to press. This routine has now gone on for a few years!

I never really saw feedback except the fortnightly review notes in the reminder email and the occasional message from an acquaintance who would read my piece. My father sometimes forwarded feedback his friends sent him. Once I was at an event where the then governor of Maharashtra B.S. Koshyari announced that he read my columns regularly in THE WEEK, and while he disagreed with my viewpoint he appreciated my writing skills. I was both flattered and humbled and admitted to myself that the longtime RSS member was a more gracious and magnanimous person than I was! It also made me aware of the platform that this column gave me. I wondered whether I should write more ‘positive’ opinion pieces, but my columns continued to reflect in a fairly unadulterated manner my thoughts as a ‘dissenting citizen’ of ‘New India’.

Then, a few weeks ago, as I was in the very last weeks of my pregnancy I received a polite email from the editor-in-charge. After some kind words it read, “This has been one of our longest running columns, and Bitter Chocolate will score a century after two more columns. Two years is too long a period for any writer, however brilliant, to sustain reader interest so we feel that your 100th column can be the last Bitter Chocolate.” While the words were flattering, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. I think a part of me had come to assume that this one-way conversation with unknown readers would be a long-term privilege I would continue to enjoy. Were my last few pieces too critical of the government, I wondered. Was my choice of topics too monotonous? “You focused too much on Hindu-Muslim issues,” offered my husband as I scowled at him and hissed that it was after all a current affairs magazine and it was not my fault that Indian politics was obsessed with Hindu-Muslim conflict.

In preparation of my last column I decided to re-read all the pieces I had written, and noted with a sense of pride that my first submission was on August 21, 2019, four years ago! Four years is a substantial time to write a regular column. I was struck by how candid some of the pieces were; more than once hinting at painful personal truths and bearing some significant soul. It made me recall a passage by the legendary Rabindranath Tagore about his writing. As I remember he said that he had told many untruths in his life but if readers wanted to know his truth, they should look for it in his writing. Because he had never lied in his writing. What was recorded in his written word was his unabashed truth. That passage has since been my marker for integrity of the written word.

And, so, as I type out this farewell piece for Bitter Chocolate, I thank you dear readers and the ever-patient editorial team for bearing with me and my truth for these past few years. If I seemed a bit too passionate or a bit too polemical, forgive me for my heart was in the right place. And as I honour the word limit for the first time in a hundred times, and type over the little head of my suckling newborn daughter, I think it was in fact time for me to say au revoir to you. Until we meet again in another column, please accept my pen salute!

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

when-anchors-aka-propagandists-spread-rancour

Sat Sep 23 11:35:04 IST 2023

Public culture in India, especially in the past decade, is not a fan of accountability. Politicians have never been a fan of accountability. It seems the dominant among the journalistic community, too, do not like to be held accountable. Ironic, because the very definition of the word journalism assumes a sense of accountability. Journalism is defined by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as “the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through such print and electronic media.” And the word news can be defined as “reporting or intelligence of an event that has lately taken place.”

Both definitions assume the centrality of events taking place, things happening, or facts. Thus, journalism has come to assume a certain objectivity and neutrality when reporting these facts, if it is to be considered serious journalism. So when journalism came to include interviews and commentaries, it became protocol to hold interviewees and commentators accountable if they made claims that were misleading.

Of course, nothing exists in a pure, uncorrupted form and journalism everywhere in the world has faced pressure in the form of succumbing to government diktat or falling prey to the commands of owners of media outlets. Two extreme forms of corrupt journalism that the world has witnessed are the state-dictated news that comes out of North Korea or China and the genocide-mongering Radio Rwanda stations.

From 1993 to 1994, a Rwandan radio station received support from the government-controlled Radio Rwanda, which allowed it to transmit using their equipment. Listened to by wide swathes of the population, this channel projected hate propaganda against Tutsis, moderate Hutus, Belgians, and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). It is now regarded by many Rwandan citizens and the United Nations as having played a crucial role in creating the atmosphere of racial hostility that normalised the genocide of the Tutsis.

Indian media, especially electronic media, has in the last decade come disturbingly close to resembling the Radio Rwanda stations in its hysterical demonisation of minorities, chiefly the Indian Muslim community, its relentless communal dog-whistling, vilification of dissenters, and its servile parroting of the government’s position on almost all issues. India must be the only democracy in the world whose leader has never in nine years taken a press conference.

It is also a country where the democratically elected government is using overwhelming majority in Parliament to change laws and push its agenda changing the very nature of the Indian state. Most electronic Indian media channels have acted as lapdogs of the government. But what is probably more damning is that citing the TRP excuse, they have also aired fake news, targeted and vilified critics of the government.

After a decade of such poison masquerading as journalism, in the run-up to the critical 2024 general election, the opposition parties comprising the INDIA alliance have (finally) decided to boycott 14 anchors known for communal propaganda and rabble-rousing. The parties will not send their representatives to the shows of the named (and thus shamed) anchors. A lot of feathers have been ruffled. The anchors are hysterical in their indignation, the BJP is self-righteously touting free speech and even the silent-in-the-face-of-hate-speech News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) and News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) have issued critical statements claiming an attack of democratic principles reminiscent of the Emergency era.

I frankly find the clamour amusing. In my opinion these 14 (and a few more who were left out) are not journalists. They are propagandist rabble-rousers with jobs in news channels. They haven’t been banned. The political parties have exercised their right to protest by not appearing on these channels.

Boycott is an accepted form of peaceful protest in India, used most effectively against the British by Mahatma Gandhi himself. Those who are offended are actually stung that they and the Indian media are finally being held accountable for their words and actions. They abused their journalistic power and continue to do so, but for once the mic is pointing at them!

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

three-countries-same-story-but-how-will-history-judge-indians

Sat Aug 26 16:49:42 IST 2023

August is a month of some significance for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, incidentally nations with deep historic ties to one another. August 14 and 15 are Pakistan’s and India’s independence day respectively, and August 15, 2021, was the day when Taliban stormed Kabul and re-captured Afghanistan a second time round, two decades after they were ousted from power by the US.

All three countries are also grappling with a similar sociopolitical malaise—religious extremism and mob violence; though few in India would agree with my comparison. Arguably, Afghanistan exhibits the most extreme version of what happens when religious extremism accesses absolute state power. Two years after Taliban 2.0 came back to power predictably with a revised plan to oppress women, the war-ravaged country is reeling from economic hardships, malnourishment of large swathes of the population, lack of proper health care, and an arbitrary, authoritarian and violent government. Women have, of course, been the worst affected, with the Taliban passing 51 decrees relating solely to women in the last two years, effectively banning women from education, employment and travel, and severely limiting their access to health care, rightly prompting accusations of gender apartheid.

Pakistan, too, has suffered the results of the army attempting to use religion to consolidate its powers, appeasing religious extremists and allowing the ISI to (unofficially) nurture terrorist groups. Minorities in Pakistan live in fear and are vulnerable to violence by mobs of religious extremists. Recently, churches and several homes of Christians were burnt by mobs in Jaranwala in Pakistan, in one of the worst attacks on minorities in the country in recent years. Alongside such incidents, the country is also suffering a crippling economic crisis.

India is the most prosperous, stable and progressive of the three countries and is trumpeting its democratic and inclusive growth credentials as it prepares to host world leaders at the G20 summit. But last month, riots broke out near the national capital after authorities failed to restrict movements of a person accused in a triple murder. Muslims have been at the receiving end of calls for economic boycott in Haryana.

Manipur has continued to be embroiled in a sectarian war which was also precipitated by the exclusionary policies of the BJP-led government. Every week new incidents of mob lynchings of minorities are reported and ignored, bills for new laws are introduced and passed in the Lok Sabha with no discussion. We are likely to have a new penal code that replaces sedition with treason and gives our already communalised police forces more extra judicial powers. At the time of writing this article a church in Delhi’s Tahirpur was attacked by armed mobs who thrashed devotees and surrounded a police station chanting pro-Hindu rashtra slogans for hours before an FIR could be filed.

Democracy and growth may be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s favourite marketing gimmick but the fact is India has never been more similar to Pakistan and Afghanistan in one shameful reality. All three countries share the persecution of minorities by majoritarian mobs. In one aspect India is different. Both the Taliban and the Pakistani army came to power via military coups, but we, forward thinking descendants of a glorious and ancient civilisation, voted for majoritarianism twice! The Afghan people are victims of history, the Pakistanis to some extent victims of their army’s political machinations, but how will history judge Indians? We who have become similar to the nations we once scoffed at because the pleasure of seeing minorities being harassed seems so addictive. How will history judge us, Indians? Perhaps, the Germans can tell us.

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

when-the-fire-comes-home-nobody-is-safe

Sat Aug 12 17:50:25 IST 2023

India is a land of all kinds of hereditary privilege. And perhaps the central outcome of privilege is being relatively safe amid all kinds of chaos that grips the country. I come from one such privileged group—savarna Hindu, upper-middle-class, intergenerationally English-educated, cosmopolitan, and progeny of Delhi-based Central government employed parents. It is the safest subset of Indians to belong to.

As a progressive Indian I have tried to educate myself about the reality and experiences of those groups not as privileged. But, to be honest, fear of mass violence and threat to life has never been a part of my lived reality. And one doesn’t experience fear or understand the vulnerability of another identity until it begins to affect one personally.

Six months ago I married a young Muslim activist. Slowly, after the wedding festivities died down, and I began to spend normal time with my in-laws, we began to get used to each other. To be honest, my Hindu identity, and their Muslim identity, didn’t really mean so much within the familiarity and comfort of the home setting. I felt at home, candidly recounting some wild stories of my youth to my mother-in-law, much to my husband’s horror!

My brother-in-law, a graduate from Aligarh Muslim University, got a job and began living and working in Gurugram. I was back in Delhi, and he came to see me at my parents’ house. We discussed his new job and he told me he was at a paying guest accommodation in Gurugram. He narrated how when he took some friends to have biryani at his sister’s house in Shaheen Bagh, the rest of the PG residents had chided the ‘biryani-eating gang’ for ‘risking their lives and safety’ by going into ‘those areas’. My brother-in-law was talking about how stereotypes against Muslims were infiltrating common sense of even educated young people like his colleagues. I nodded. He said that he felt insecure staying there and was considering moving to Shaheen Bagh or Okhla (Muslim majority areas in Delhi). I frowned—wasn’t this an overreaction? I mean, Gurugram was a tech hub and a cosmopolitan town neighbouring Delhi. Surely he didn’t feel unsafe there. I didn’t say anything. Some months passed and my brother-in-law moved to Okhla.

On July 31, following a viral video announcement by a triple murder accused Bajrang Dal leader about his attendance in a religious rally in Nuh, in Haryana, riots broke out. The communal conflagration turned bloody, killing two police personnel and others. As the situation was brought under control in Nuh, in neighbouring posh Gurugram retaliatory mobs torched a mosque in Sector 57 and killed a deputy imam. More incidents of arson followed and soon there were riots in Gurugram.

I was looking up the news when I suddenly remembered with shock and consternation that my brother-in-law worked in Gurugram. I dialled his number hastily, wondering if he was having to make a dangerous daily commute. He answered that he was safe, had quit that job just 10 days earlier and was now working in Noida. I breathed easy.

Some days later my husband had to travel and was packing clothes. He took out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and announced he was changing. Surprised, I looked at the freshly starched kurta-pajama he had on and asked why he was changing? He said with a wry smile, “I already have a beard. In kurta-pajama I will pakka look like a Musalmaan!” And he casually went off to change.

An uneasy feeling emerged in the pit of my stomach as I realised that none of my privileges would protect my love, my partner, and now, my family, from the effects of the hate politics that was destroying everything good and decent in our country. The fire truly had come home.

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

fix-accountability-in-manipur

Sat Jul 29 16:48:42 IST 2023

Accountability or being responsible for one’s actions, of being answerable, are basic tenets, not just of a democracy, but any civilised society. In the absence of accountability, chaos, anarchy and injustice will follow. And those in positions of power may misuse their authority in any way they please.

Some days ago an absolutely chilling video of two women being paraded naked and molested by a mob went viral on the internet. The incident took place on May 4 in Manipur, which has been on the boil for some months—Meitei versus Kuki tensions that were simmering for long erupted after a High Court order in April that granted tribal status to the Meitei community.

Fresh protests by the Kukis began in Manipur and soon turned violent with clashes with the police and the local administration. The BJP government of N. Biren Singh responded with a crackdown, curfews and internet shutdowns. The violence, however, has not stopped entirely. Existing fault-lines and tensions between the largely Hindu Meiteis and the predominantly Christian Kukis have deepened and taken on a communal tinge, and violence, rioting and rape have followed. The violence in Manipur and attacks on civilians and churches have prompted the European Union to adopt a resolution, and the British parliament raised the issue in the House of Commons, while the US ambassador to India offered ‘assistance’ to help solve the conflict. But the prime minister has been busy with world trips, and large defence purchases that sit pretty with international laurels. After months of studied silence, a gruesome gang-rape and the naked march of women survivors prompted the prime minister to make a measly statement that found a way to blame the opposition for rapes in their states!

One would assume that any responsible central leadership would understand that the humanitarian crisis in Manipur is grave and the conflicts damaging from a strategic perspective and impose presidential rule and/or initiate peace talks with the stakeholders. Instead, our government has suspended opposition MPs like Sanjay Singh for demanding Narendra Modi’s presence in the house when Parliament debates Manipur. Biren Singh has refused to resign and callously said that hundreds of such cases (raped women being paraded naked by mobs) have taken place in Manipur and thus the internet shutdown. Right-wing media and social media have attempted to equate the trauma of the women survivors with previous gang-rape cases in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan or West Bengal. Meanwhile, panic has gripped Meiteis in neighbouring Mizoram, too, with rumours that similar conflict will start there, too.

Who then should be accountable? Why do citizens vote if not to look to the government to maintain rule of law even in times of conflict? Isn’t the basic duty of an elected government, especially a ‘double engine’ government (led by the same party—BJP in the state and the Centre), to safeguard the lives and livelihood of its people and de-escalate conflict?

As I type these last few lines out at a Mumbai cafe, a familiar face appears at the table; an acquaintance from the film fraternity. He orders himself a latte and begins to chat. He talks of how he’s beginning to work more overseas and is soon going to shift his family abroad because there are no ‘guarantees’ anymore in India. “You never know who will enter your house, or if a mob will attack you. I mean look at Manipur! It’s too bad you know! Can’t live in India anymore. I voted for Modi in 2014, but I never thought it would come to this.”

I nod silently. That is what the people of Manipur must be saying, too.

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

how-do-i-protect-my-child-from-the-mothers-angst

Sat Jul 15 15:47:06 IST 2023

Every fortnight as I sit down to write this column, I scan the news websites and social media to update myself on current affairs. In the last few months this process has been accompanied by a sense of foreboding. Some months ago, my husband and I discovered I was pregnant. It was almost immediately after our court marriage and neither of us was prepared! We were prepping for a larger wedding celebration in March, and did not guess that my constant fatigue and gynaecological issues were signs of pregnancy. Once we digested the news, all other concerns were replaced by our anxiety at being clueless first time to-be parents. I, beset as I was with hormonal changes and first trimester sleepiness, began to read books on pregnancy and devour the internet for any kind of helpful information.

My biggest takeaway—one that was corroborated by my gynaecologist and friends—was the simple motto: what affects the mother, affects the baby. This was true not just on food and nutritional consumption but also audio-visual consumption. ‘Avoid stress’ was the seemingly simple mantra everyone parroted.

I tried to take all the pregnancy advice seriously. Along with giving up my much beloved daily coffee, I also switched what I was reading and watching. I decided to avoid non-fiction, or tragic literature, and switched to light comic novels or (safest) Enid Blyton! Next, I stopped watching all the realistic drama on streaming platforms and replaced them with re-watching of romantic comedies that I knew had happy endings, and children’s cartoons! But, at least once a day, my already hyperactive hormones found me getting awfully wound up! The culprits I decided were the Bollywood entertainment sites I followed. The spate of Hindutva propaganda film trailers, announcements and controversies were agitating and depressing me as I witnessed my beloved place of work transform into a mouthpiece for hate. I unfollowed such sites.

I took care not to read any comments on any life update I had posted. But how could I avoid the news completely when I write an opinion piece for a current affairs magazine? And I decided perhaps there is nothing wrong with following the news—surely the foetus should be kept abreast of happenings in the world it will soon come to inhabit.

But the news seemed to be on awful, destructive hormones. Each time I refreshed the screen, there were reports of more shootings and destruction in Manipur. One more hapless Muslim lynched. A dalit thrashed by an upper caste lineman for checking a faulty electrical wire. A video of a man urinating in the face of a tribal, the assaulter a BJP member and aide of an MLA in Madhya Pradesh. Images of Israel attacking Jenin, killing children and forcing thousands of Palestinians to once again turn refugees. Our Army threatening retired personnel on withholding their pension if their social media posts maligns “the image of the Army”. I felt weary and depressed. How do I protect an unborn child from a world that seems hell bent on encouraging the basest and most evil of human instincts and further oppressing the already marginalised? More important, how do I protect my child from the mother’s angst?

I confided in an older friend I trust and respect. She started with a disclaimer, “I don’t have children but I think it is more important to raise a courageous child who can stand up for what is right, than a well-meaning coward who has been shielded from harsh facts her whole life. The world is in this state because well-intentioned people allow the evil ones to have their way!” It was sage counsel, but I thought of my poor unborn child, blissfully ignorant of the cruelty that persists in the human race, and I began watching heartwarming animal videos.

Let the little one have another few happy unaware months in the safety of the womb—it will have an entire life to deal with the realities.

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

adipurush-fiasco-when-idiocy-and-hypocrisy-reign-supreme

Sat Jul 01 12:57:23 IST 2023

I must begin with a disclaimer. I have not watched Adipurush, the much-hyped multilingual retelling of India’s favourite epic, Ramayana, directed by Om Raut, starring Prabhas and Kriti Sanon, with dialogues by lyricist and self-appointed hindutva spokesperson Manoj ‘Muntashhir’ Shukla. I have seen the trailer. And I have seen audience review videos, tracked social media posts and followed the debate, and the controversy around the film that has included protests by hindutva groups and petitions in the Allahabad, and Punjab and Haryana high courts by right-wing activists demanding a ban on the film. Both as an actor and as a social media user, I have been used to trolling, abuse and negative commentary on my work by the right-wing social media ecosystem (often by those who haven’t seen it), but I watched and read the controversy around Adipurush with bemusement.

From watching the trailer, and the marketing of the film, it was clear that the makers of Adipurush were trying hard to cash in on the general hindutva sentiment that is rampant in India today. The trailer, which described Sita/ Janaki as Bharat ki Beti (India’s daughter), and showed her being abducted by the evil one, who must be reminded of the paurush (masculinity) of Ram’s army, which will vanquish the arrogant enemy by the victorious Bhagwaa Dhwaj (saffron flag) to the thumping anthem of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, incorporated all qualities that the hindutva ideology identifies itself with. Raut, who also wrote and directed Tanhaji, an Islamophobic and grossly inaccurate fiction film marketed as a historical in 2015, credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the promotions for Adipurush, claiming that Modi created a conducive atmosphere and gave power to the film fraternity to make the films they want. The credits of the film thank all nine chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.

However, the day the film released, social media was abuzz with angry comments from viewers feeling affronted, having discovered that the film took too many creative liberties. The main complaints were that the dialogues were not Sanskritised enough; there was an overuse of Urdu; Hanuman and Ravan’s dialogues were crass; Ravan was depicted to resemble Alaudin Khilji; Hanuman wore his beard like a Tablighi Jamaat member; Lanka, known to be made of gold, was shown as being charcoal black; Ravan’s pushpak vimaan was replaced by a large carnivorous bat; Ravan, a scholar and devotee of Lord Shiva, was feeding raw meat to his pet; and the action sequences looked like they belonged to Planet of the Apes, Lord of the Rings or the Marvel metaverse.

In a bizarre turn of events the very sentiments that the filmmakers wanted to profit from, seemed to have been affronted. Even the sly move to depict Ravan like a medieval Muslim ruler seemed to have backfired. The right-wing ecosystem on social media joined in to troll the writer and director, who till the day before were poster boys of hindutva. A bench of the Allahabad High Court lambasted the filmmakers for hurting the sentiments of a tolerant community (Hindus).

While the irony is too delicious to ignore, one wonders if this moment is a satire on what culture, common sense and public discourse will look like in the Hindu Rashtra. Is this what it feels like to live in a nation of perennially hurt sentiments? Is there a moment of self-realisation hidden somewhere for Hindus who are affronted by how Ram and Ravan are depicted but who stir not when the very name of our Lord Ram is used as a war cry to bully Muslims, by the very people now protesting this film?

Did a Bollywood propaganda film attempting to slyly incorporate widespread political discourse, and use people’s devotion, belief and sacred nostalgia to rake in box office profits, inadvertently just show the mirror to a nation where idiocy and hypocrisy reign supreme?

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

brijbhushan-vs-brand-modi

Sat Jun 17 11:41:50 IST 2023

There is a saying in Hindi nang badey parmeshwar sey, which means a naked man is greater than God—he fears not even God, and has nothing to hide.

Nothing captures more aptly the naked callousness of the Union government, the Delhi Police, BJP ministers and spokespersons and some media channels toward the accusations of sexual harassment by a large group of India’s women wrestlers against the BJP MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, long-time president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

Singh is himself a picture of the utter shamelessness that total impunity grants to those in power. He has continuously denied allegations, rallying supporters to discredit the women athletes and even planning a mahapanchayat with Ayodhya-based seers to demand a watering down of the POCSO Act (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act). While the governor of UP denied permission for the mahapanchayat to be held, one cannot help wondering why seers would lend their support to such an unholy cause spearheaded by someone accused of acts that are clearly morally reprehensible?

The wrestlers—who began the sit-in protest in January 2023, took a break and then resumed in April 2023—were arrested by the Delhi Police for protesting at the site of the new parliament building. Awful images of our champion women athletes being dragged through the streets populated social media much to the horror of any sane-minded citizen. They have since been released and charges against them have been dropped. The wrestlers have in the meantime garnered a lot of international support, including from the international governing body of the sport—United World Wrestling. After the athletes were dissuaded from throwing their Olympic medals into the Ganges, the government has finally assured action, claiming that the WFI presidential elections will be held on July 4, and neither Singh nor any of his family will be allowed to contest. The wrestlers have halted their protest, giving Delhi Police a deadline to arrest Singh and commence a proper and fair investigation.

However, some facets of the sordid business raise questions. The father of the minor, who had alleged sexual harassment that led to POCSO charges being levelled at Singh, has changed his statement claiming he lied about his daughter’s age. This means the most legally incriminating and non-bailable charge against the accused no longer holds. Olympic medalist Bajranj Punia has since claimed that the minor’s father is being ‘pressured’. The Delhi Police have also asked the wrestlers to furnish ‘proof and evidence’ against Singh, a bizarre demand considering that investigation and finding proof is normally accepted to be the job of the police.

These protests are not the first instance where the government’s brazen indifference to women’s safety and seeming patronage to a sexual predator has been witnessed. The infamous Unnao rape accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar has long been shielded by the BJP, which also repealed the conviction of Bilkis Bano’s 11 gang-rapists and released them just before the Gujarat assembly elections. But, even cynically speaking, one must ask why in the face of such international scrutiny, attention and public criticism does the Modi government continue to shield Singh even as Modi’s own image as a women’s rights champion is shown to be a farce? Is it simply because Singh, a history-sheeter with more than 30 criminal cases against him and a case alleging harbouring Dawood Ibrahim’s shooters, is an eastern UP strongman with a loyal Thakur votebank? Surely UP’s biggest Thakur leader is Yogi Adityanath? And surely Brand Modi is not yet so fragile that it needs a history-sheeter with a sordid past to garner those few Thakur votes in eastern UP? Is it electoral calculation or a balancing of power equations within UP BJP?

Or, is it simply that after the victory of the farmers’ protest, the 56-inch-chest can no longer be seen as succumbing to yet another citizens’ protest however damning the details…. because the Modi government has understood that the Indian voter just doesn’t care for the safety or dignity of Indian women?

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

speak-up-for-justice-fellow-indians

Fri Jun 02 16:00:09 IST 2023

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” says a minor character in Shakespeare’s iconic play Hamlet, expressing a sense that the affairs of the kingdom are no longer being ethically conducted, and that even the highest authority in the land is sullied by some moral turpitude. More than 400 years after Shakespeare wrote the play, citizens are so jaded that we are no longer surprised at any kind of abuse of power by government. We are too used to scams and the favourite response of the middle-class and educated Indians when critiquing politics is to quip, “All politicians are the same.” Or, “Politics is a dirty game.”

But, behind these hollow sayings is a cop-out that hides a deep rot. Many things are deeply rotten in India—our polity, politics, politicians, media, and once ‘neutral’ institutions. But, perhaps, the deepest rot is the one that festers in our society, in people like us.

Every other week there is fresh proof of this rot in the form of a heinous crime often enacted in public and, we, the proud inheritors of an ancient land and great culture hum and haw and make insipid remarks on social media, but never really shake off the cynicism and indifference that has brought us where we are today.

Recently, a ghastly video from Delhi captured a man repeatedly stabbing a young girl in a street as passersby kept witnessing the crime but rushing off. The man then smashed the girl’s head with a large stone. She died. Eventually, the Delhi Police arrested the 22-year-old Sahil Khan who apparently killed the 16-year-old girl because she broke up with him. I have seen the video. To me what is even more disturbing is the number of onlookers who witness the crime and stroll on, without intervening.

The horrifying video seems like an apt tribute to Indians of this decade. We, the educated Indians, who gathered in large droves at Ramlila Maidan in 2011 to support the India Against Corruption movement, but didn’t flinch when dalits in Una were tied to a jeep and flogged in public. We, who celebrated when a Kashmiri civilian was used as a human shield and later justified the blindings of Kashmiri protestors by pellet guns. We, the Indians, who have been undisturbed by the continued lynchings of Muslims to date. We, who didn’t flinch when an eight-year-old child was gang-raped in a temple in Jammu in a pre-planned crime. We, who name call protestors—be they students, farmers or sportswomen—because it is easier to discredit ordinary people than question those in power. We, who brush under the carpet unsavoury historical facts like the 2002 Gujarat riots, but believe lies and propaganda as long as it is in cinematic form. We, who light candles and beat utensils but never ask why oxygen did not reach the lakhs of Indians who died during the pandemic. We, who applaud the pomp and show of the inauguration of a new home to India’s much beleaguered democracy, but turn our faces away from the Olympic champions who are manhandled by Delhi Police.

We are the Indians who just don’t care! We don’t care about justice. Nothing pricks our conscience.

It is, perhaps, then no surprise that when we witness a woman being murdered on the street, we stroll by unconcerned.

Because, we, the Indians, have mastered the art of a split hypocritical existence. We are friendly, civilised and most of us fairly decent human beings in our personal spaces, trying to live honourable lives, but in public we are a disinterested, disconnected, cowardly lot scurrying to safety, willing to let a crime go unreported as long as we are not inconvenienced. We are so scared of some unknown retribution that we don’t have the moral courage to call murder or rape wrong. We prefer finding a way to blame the Congress from the 1970s for everything.

A society that couldn’t care less will one day turn its face away when we are at the receiving end of injustice. If only for selfish purposes, fellow Indians, speak up for justice now because one day the cause may be you!

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

if-not-modi-then-who-so-many

Sat May 20 11:33:40 IST 2023

But there is no alternative!” is the favourite quip of many liberal educated Indians when they want to end an uncomfortable discussion about the unsavoury direction Indian politics and society have taken under Narendra Modi’s ‘New India’. Each time the now rampant culture of bigotry, hate speech, Islamophobia, mob lynchings, blatant disregard for constitutional procedures, unconstitutional actions of agencies of the state, the misuse of ED-CBI and other state agencies, crony capitalist corruption, demonetisation, price rise, unemployment or China’s encroachment of Indian territory is brought up, the educated rational, liberal, ‘I-don’t-hate-Muslims’ elite Indian brings up the ‘TINA factor’.

TINA, which stands for ‘there-is-no-alternative’, is a myth popularised in public discourse and common sense understanding of Indian politics by the media and social media ecosystems much like the ‘Rahul Gandhi is a Pappu’ narrative. Both these popular ideas have ensconced in public discourse the notion that if not Modi then who?

The argument is that while there may be several valid critiques of Modi’s governance of India in the last nine years, people keep voting for Modi because there is no other alternative to effectively lead and govern the country, and surely they can’t be expected to vote for Pappu Rahul Gandhi! And so we must keep living with growing human rights abuses, corruption and authoritarianism because if-not-Modi-then-who? Pro-BJP journalists and opinion makers have also pushed this narrative enthusiastically, the subtext being that the BJP under Modi is invincible.

The decisive victory that the Congress has won in the Karnataka assembly elections has, however, challenged this fallacy. The campaign the BJP ran, headlined by Modi, was high on communal rhetoric with Modi equating Bajrang Dal with Bajrang Bali (Lord Hanuman) and violating the code of conduct by asking for votes in the name of Bajrang Bali.

In the past these pre-election techniques worked (most successfully in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh), but the Karnataka loss has upturned the BJP’s communal apple cart. The Congress campaign—targeting the state BJP for corruption, foregrounding the message of unity with Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and focusing on local issues and leaders—seems to have resonated with voters. The Congress took a clear line on secularism. It spoke out clearly for the poor without worrying about how elites would perceive its platform. The results vindicated it. And, with this win, the narrative of BJP’s invincibility and the TINA factor myth have been punctured as well.

But it is worth asking ourselves: Is the TINA factor an accurate assessment of the Indian voters predicament these past few years? A look at regional elections and ground level activism tells us that India has been throwing up a variety of local political alternatives. In 2018, months after the huge BJP sweep in assembly elections of 2017, the Congress under its supposed Pappu won Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (now BJP ruled) and Chhattisgarh. Recently it has added Himachal Pradesh (and now Karnataka) to its kitty. Other parties have come to power in Delhi, Punjab, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand and Mizoram. The point is that states in India have been finding alternative leadership to Modi’s BJP since the last five years at least.

But alternatives don’t only come from elections. They take birth in mass movements. In just the last three years India witnessed two major protests. In December 2019 the nationwide student- and women-led CAA-NRC protests began, which lasted till March 2020, and, in November, 2020, farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan began the farmers’ protests against the farm laws. The farmers won their fight with Modi repealing the laws. While the CAA-NRC protests ended with the ugly Delhi riots, it is noteworthy that the government has so far put the NRC campaign on the back-burner. Such mass protests present alternatives—an alternative vision for India, an alternative political language, and, hopefully, an alternative future.

If this is the present-day ground reality in India, maybe it is time to ask ourselves who is peddling the TINA factor narrative and who does this fallacy serve? Because voters are decisively voting for the alternative, when they see it.

The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator.

make-the-impeachment-process-apolitical

Sat May 19 16:56:05 IST 2018

Recently, 64 members of Parliament and seven recently retired MPs from seven opposition parties moved a notice for impeachment of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, accusing him of ‘misbehaviour’ and ‘misuse of authority’. The notice levelled five charges of misbehaviour. It was moved a day after the Supreme Court rejected a bunch of petitions seeking an independent investigation into the death of judge B.H. Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. This was the first attempt in the history of India to impeach a Chief Justice of India (CJI). The notice for impeachment was moved before the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, as it was signed by its members [the minimum requirement is signatures of 50 members of the Rajya Sabha].

Article 124(4) of the Constitution mandates that in case the notice is accepted by the chairman, a three-member panel, comprising a chief justice of a High Court, a Supreme Court judge and an eminent jurist, should be constituted to investigate the charges. After investigation, if the panel finds the judge guilty, the house can take it up for discussion. The house is required to pass the motion by a special majority, with two-third members present and voting, and supported by more than half of the total members of the house. After passing, the motion goes to the second house, which is also required to pass it by a special majority. It is then presented before the President, who can pass an order for the removal of the judge.

The chairman of the Rajya Sabha rejected the notice after consulting legal and constitutional experts. This decision was not accepted by the opposition parties, and they decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court to review the chairman’s decision. It was also represented before the court that the review should not be placed before the chief justice and that it should be reviewed by a bench presided over by the second senior-most judge in the court. The court, however, decided to list it before another bench of five judges. Being aggrieved of this order and seeking a copy of the ‘administrative order’ issued by the court, the signatories to the notice decided to withdraw it. They contended that they were aware that they did not have the numbers in the Upper House to get the resolution passed.

There were animated discussions in the country whether the decision to issue the notice was politically motivated, since ab initio it was known that the opposition did not have the numbers to have it passed. The Constitution makers had provided for a process of impeachment to ensure the accountability of the judiciary and yet made the process stringent so that mere political considerations do not attempt to erode its credibility.

In a 2010 interview, Kapil Sibal, then minister in the UPA government, observed that he does not accept the impeachment process if political parties in the opposition are involved and they have to vote on the basis of a whip issued by their party. However, this is the very path the opposition has adopted in the current episode.

Without going into the merits of the allegations levelled against the CJI, or the grounds for rejection of the notice by the chairman, we need to debate whether any of the three pillars of Indian democracy, which have been the bedrock of India’s development in the last 70 years, should ever be weakened at the behest of a handful of politically motivated objectives. It is natural, as has happened, that if the opposition targets a particular institution, the government will rally around it. However, in the process, especially so in the case of the judiciary, which quite often has to take strong positions against the executive, the independence of the judiciary gets impaired. A corollary of the process would imply that if the executive were to be unhappy with any particular decision of the judiciary, and since they have the numbers in Parliament, they could initiate a process for impeachment of a judge on the grounds of ‘misbehaviour’.

Indian democracy has been a shining example of enabling rapid economic development, keeping the welfare of the citizen at its core. Its institutions have stood the test of some very testing times. We need to strengthen these institutions to ensure a bright future for our citizens by rising above political and other narrow confines. The citizen has displayed the will to do so, and in going forward we need to reinforce that commitment in him.

Former comptroller and auditor general, Rai is head of the Supreme Court-appointed BCCI's committee of administrators.

my-cushy-jobs

Sat May 05 11:49:32 IST 2018

Recently, at an event, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was asked whether corruption was the main issue in 2014. This was her reply: “Yes, that was an issue, but it was highly exaggerated. In the case of 2G, for instance, you must have seen what happened recently. The CAG then came out with some humongous sum of money. How come the person who was in charge of that institution was given a very cushy job right after [ by the government?]”

The reference in the answer was evidently to me. I wondered what is the cushy job entrusted to me? I have done four part-time assignments, post my retirement. Three of these have been entrusted to me by the Supreme Court.

The first was the court’s direction to do a special audit of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple and its properties. The assignment was obediently accepted, undertaken and completed by me on a totally pro bono, basis with no monetary or other benefits derived for services rendered. It was also with deep dedication and abiding faith in Lord Padmanabhaswamy, whom my family and I have worshipped, from the day I joined the Kerala cadre.

Later, the Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee, headed by former chief justice of India R.M. Lodha, to oversee the functioning of the Medical Council of India for at least a year. I was a member of that committee which completed its tenure in May 2017. None of the members of the committee have accepted any remuneration from the MCI or government for this assignment.

In January 2017, the Supreme Court directed me to chair a committee of administrators to oversee the functioning of the BCCI. I am undertaking that assignment. However, since the court has not decided on the terms of appointment as yet, and though the BCCI is a private body, none of the four administrators have drawn any remuneration or sitting fee. In fact, two have already left.

In the budget speech of 2015, the finance minister had stated the government’s intention to set up a Banks Board Bureau (BBB) which will search and select heads of public sector banks, and help them with innovative financial methods and instruments. This was intended to be an interim step towards establishing a holding and investment company for banks. In due consideration of my long experience in the department of financial services, and since I had also served on the boards of the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, IDFC, IDBI, and the Life Insurance Corporation, I was requested by the government to chair the first BBB along with some experienced financial experts and bankers as members. Members were entitled only to sitting fee for meetings. However, since I had served as CAG, I was precluded from taking up any appointment with the government after demitting office. So, to avoid any odium on the government or on myself, I offered to undertake the two-year assignment on a purely pro bono basis. This part-time assignment has no attendant perks such as housing, HRA, vehicle or any other benefits. The quantum of work put in by the bureau has been substantial and its recommendations have been submitted to government. The two-year term of the present set of members expired on March 31, 2018. I have not drawn even a rupee from the government. The assertions made by me are verifiable. The bureau, being a public body, is covered by the RTI Act, and, hence, anybody can seek clarifications on the aforementioned facts stated by me.

I leave it to the readers whether this part-time, pro bono engagement can, by any stretch of imagination, be called ‘a cushy job’. I had seen the futility to voice my protestations on the post being cushy, and, felt, it was only proper for me to set the record straight. I do not fault Sonia Gandhi for this; she must have been briefed inaccurately.

travails-of-buying-l1

Fri Apr 20 12:21:02 IST 2018

I was trying to pay my advance tax online for the assessment year 2018-19. The tax authorities have made it very simple with all the facilities to pay through portals. Being a loyalist of public sector banks [PSBs], I was attempting to transfer the money from my account in a PSB. After repeated attempts, I managed to get to the page from where the tax could be paid. I made the transfer. The usual circle appeared indicating that the payment was in process. I waited in hope. Then came the message, “Unable to connect with the bank server.” I tried again. And, yet again. After four attempts, I finally managed to get a message, “Your tax has been successfully paid.” But, I was unable to generate a receipt. I had to wait till the bank opened next morning to confirm that the amount had been debited from my account and credited to the government account. Meanwhile, for payment of my GST, I decided to access a private bank in which I have an account. I accessed my account and paid. It went through and generated the receipt duly acknowledged by the bank.

My next attempt was to purchase an airline ticket. Obviously, my first choice was Air India. Foreign tickets by Air India are usually cheaper, and the added advantage of getting frequent flyer points and the bonus of 500 points by booking through its website prompted me to do so. Three attempts. All three resulted in the message, “Sorry, unable to confirm your booking at present.” I gave up and accessed a private website. The booking was immediate. However, I could not block the seat of my choice. Back to the Air India website. No luck. Finally, late at night, I called the toll-free line [of the private website] and managed to block my seat.

The next morning, I was narrating my encounter with the public sector to my tennis foursome. They diagnosed the malady that afflicts the public sector, and, of course, as is the cross I carry post a certain assignment, was told “all because of your types”. The culprit was the famous L 1, an abbreviation for the lowest bidder and has become synonymous with our present process of evaluating bids. This process ensures that the contract is awarded to a bidder who meets the basic minimum criteria set forth by the government agency, at the least cost. The government agency does not have the option, ordinarily, to buy from [anyone] other than the lowest bidder. Thus, they end up purchasing the equipment or item which meets the bare minimum specifications. Obviously, the quality of the software and hardware in an online system would thus be the bare minimum. The net result is that the public sector loses out on being able to provide superior quality service and die hard loyalists like me are forced to route my transaction through the private sector.

Must we be so distrustful of persons who make the ‘buy/ contract decisions’ in government or public sector? Are there no other measures by which we can ensure that public sector can compete with private sector, especially in the services sector, by purchasing equipment which may be L2 or L3, and is able to provide value for money? Must we tie down the hands of officials such that they have no discretion? Can we not have a quality-cum-cost based selection process which first takes care of the technical evaluation of the equipment, and after it meets not only the necessary but desirable conditions laid down, then proceeds to an evaluation of the cost quoted. Agencies like the World Bank use such methodologies without any scandals.

Maybe the Air India website has alternatives, but what happens when the paratrooper jumps out of the aeroplane with a parachute bought because it satisfied the L1 criteria? What happens when the policeman pulls out his revolver, bought since it fulfilled the L1 criteria, to save himself?

Former comptroller and auditor general, Rai is head of the Supreme Court-appointed BCCI’s Committee of Administrators.

declare-and-be-elected

Sat Apr 07 16:20:20 IST 2018

In February, the Supreme Court passed a verdict requiring those contesting elections to mandatorily reveal their sources of income. A landmark judgment, it will strengthen the pillars of democracy. Lawmakers must lead by example. When the public finds that between two elections a member of Parliament or of the legislative assembly declares his income to be manifold of what it was when he first contested elections, it raises doubts in people’s minds. This is not a healthy trend. People must have trust in the leaders they elect. Even an elected person has a right to do business and grow rich, but being in public life he must indicate how he improved his income. It adds to his credibility, and strengthens the bond between him and those who elected him. Greater transparency in a democracy is the edifice on which it can grow stronger, and this is exactly what the verdict will do.

In the extant situation, the contestants are required to declare and file an affidavit on behalf of self, spouse and dependents, with details of PAN, income declared in tax returns, moveable and immoveable assets. Adding the requirement to declare sources of income would be healthy as it would be a deterrent to the errant of the lot, and separately help the government or the public to assess whether their assets have increased disproportionately over the period they have been in office. Those adversely affected may demur and claim that this is unfair and gives a handle to their adversaries to raise unfair allegations against them. However, anybody seeking to be in public life has to contend with such exigencies. On the plus side, it makes them morally stronger if they declare the source of their income and, both in substance and optics, raises their stature a notch higher. This makes their case stronger with the electorate, who can make an informed choice, and with whom a clean candidate will carry greater conviction. It will help separate the wheat from the chaff, the good apples from the rotten ones.

It may be recalled that there is a pending verdict of the Central Information Commission (CIC) that political parties be brought under the Right to Information Act. This order of the CIC had come after activists and members of the Association of Democratic Reforms approached the CIC to declare political parties as public bodies. They had approached six political parties to make available details of financial contributions. It was only the CPI that provided the details. As a consequence of denial by the others, they had approached the CIC.

Last year, the Supreme Court turned down a plea to make it mandatory for political parties to declare their source of funds. However, in a vibrant democracy, there is a great degree of difference between what is legal and what is ethical. While in the strict legal sense the parties need not disclose, it would enhance their stature and credibility were they to voluntarily decide to declare their source of funding. India is becoming a society in which the citizen is taking centre stage. The new generation has become very discerning and will be asking these questions of the candidates who are seeking their votes. So, the earlier the political parties and politicians take the plunge and put things out in public domain, the greater will be their public acceptability.

The Supreme Court’s February verdict has left it to the Centre to set up a permanent mechanism to keep account of the wealth of lawmakers. It is now incumbent on the government to lead and display its political will, not so much to cleanse the system but more to be the facilitator in developing closer rapport and trust between the elector and the elected. Democracy is a precious gift. It is incumbent upon the people who elect and those they elect to maintain its sanctity.

Former comptroller and auditor general, Rai is head of the Supreme Court-appointed BCCI’s Committee of Administrators.

audit-our-ethics

Sat Mar 24 15:45:42 IST 2018

Speaking at a function in Chennai the other day, a former minister declared that “the nation faces a deficit of ethics”. This observation is one that would make all right-thinking Indians hang their heads in shame. The country has heard of revenue deficit, fiscal deficit and current account deficit. They are mere accounting terms used in understanding the fundamentals of our budget or economic stability. However, to be termed as lacking in probity, integrity and honesty, which are essentials constituting ethics, is a very unfortunate testimonial on the state of the nation and its people. We need to introspect deeply on this aspect of our culture. One finds that the recurring media reports of ‘scams’ in every aspect of our daily life is indeed a commonplace occurrence. The government has been endeavouring to make the country move up in the ‘ease of doing business’ ranking. There was widespread applause for our performance when we moved up to the 100th position in the world, even though we have 99 countries ahead of us. Are we content with our efforts?

But then, it is indeed true of our daily chores. The only difference is that we have come to accept it as a way of life. We purchase property and register it for only part of its value to avoid registration charges. We buy products and avoid taking a bill, so that we can escape the levy of tax on that product. To procure a birth certificate or a death certificate from the municipal authorities, we part with ‘speed money’, consoling ourselves that the couple of extra hundred bucks spent was worth the time saved in making repeated visits to that office. While running an eatery, we regularly tip the sanitary inspector to ensure that he keeps a benign eye on our venture. The boiler inspector for a factory is regularly ‘taken care of’, to ensure that he does not fault the safety standards in our factory.

India ranked high among the most unethical of 13 major economies in the 2016 Global Business Ethics Survey. Global investors and entrepreneurs find India a difficult place to do business in. They cannot be faulted though. As per the Ernst & Young’s Asia-Pacific Fraud Survey (2017), 78 per cent of Indian respondents observed that bribery and corrupt practices occur widely, whereas 57 per cent said that senior management would ignore unethical behaviour of employees to attain revenue targets. This is indeed most unfortunate because if we resort to shortcuts to beat competition once, it becomes a habit. Sustainable business or good governance cannot be built on an edifice of unethical means. We console ourselves that what we are resorting to are not illegal means, but these will certainly not withstand the scrutiny of global business standards.

As a nation seeking to gain our rightful place among leading economic powers, we need to recognise that any corroding influence on the moral fabric of the citizenry, the Gen Next in particular, will deprive us of long-term sustainable growth. This will be most unfortunate for disadvantaged sections of society who have been deprived of the fruits of economic development. Going forward, we need to ensure that anything unethical is totally distanced from our DNA. Honesty, morality and integrity are qualities that no school or educational institution can inculcate. It has to be imbibed within the family and can be ingrained only by demonstrative example and not by lip service alone.

Our cultural and moral fabrics have to be totally impeccable and we need to aspire to be at the top of any global list of survey of business ethics and way of life. India has a rich cultural heritage that was premised on good and moral character, and we can hardly let this rich heritage erode in our times.

Former comptroller and auditor general, Rai is head of the Supreme Court-appointed BCCI’s Committee of Administrators.

copycats-could-not-cope

Sat Mar 10 19:09:55 IST 2018

The ides of March descend upon us every year in the form of examinations. Tensions and blood pressure run high among examinees and their parents. Board exams is the buzzword. All activity is directed towards preparation for the oncoming exams. Preparation takes various forms. The conventional mode of preparation is of burning the midnight oil. Examinees stay up late, forgo all other distracting activity and focus only on the exam. However, in recent times—and, I say recent times only because the breed of this group seems to be growing rapidly as is evidenced from what has been seen in the state board examinations in Uttar Pradesh—the preparation seems to be directed towards how cleverly one can arrange to copy or cheat, while taking the exams.

It is reported that over 10 lakh students have skipped board exams in UP in the last four days. The dropouts are close to 15 per cent of registered examinees. The high dropout rate, as per experts, is the result of strict anti-cheating measures. Obviously then, there will be a substantial decline in the pass percentage of students. It is so intriguing that the dropout rate has been as large as 2.89 lakh on day one, 2.15 lakh on day two, 2.71 lakh on day three and 2.67 lakh on day four. It is reported to be for the first time in the history of the UP board that such a large number of examinees have failed to appear for exams.

I distinctly recall that in the early 1990s, when Kalyan Singh was UP chief minister, he had clamped down very heavily on mass copying. It was rumoured that things had come to such a pass then that students would come to classroom with a knife, stick its blade onto their desks and happily indulge in mass copying. The knife on the table was to deter invigilators from even remotely trying to challenge them. In other exam centres it was so well organised that a person would come to the exam hall and start writing the answers on the black board for the examinees to copy. The latter modus operandi was employed to ostensibly bolster the pass percentage of particular institutions! Since Kalyan Singh clamped down on such unpardonable activity, the pass percentage had come down by about 14 per cent those days. However, it rose again with the change of government, with the Samajwadi Party at the helm. It had come down during Mayawati's chief ministerial tenures, too. However, between 2012 and 2017, the percentage went up again to about 80 per cent—a very sad commentary on the administrative acumen and declared aspiration of the young chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who had taken up the reins from his father.

It is most unfortunate that the administration in preparation of the state board examinations had to install CCTV cameras in all examination centres, deploy armed police to aid and support invigilators, and issue warnings of strict action against wrongdoers. This is a downright waste of resources, time and effort. This is hardly the role of an examination conducting body, as it involves so much of negative activity on their behalf.

We need to reflect that 70 years after independence, our standards of probity and honesty have declined to such levels that merely ensuring a strict vigil in the conduct of exams leads to a 15 per cent dropout rate. When, as a nation, will we inculcate the habit of learning to play the game by the rules, and, hence, build character and not seek false mark sheets? I think the responsibility devolves entirely on parents to ensure that their wards do not take to such unscrupulous means so early in life.

Former comptroller and auditor general, Rai is the head of the Supreme Court-appointed BCCI’s Committee of Administrators.

pnb-scam-breaking-the-peoples-trust

Sat Feb 24 16:12:49 IST 2018

Banks are the ultimate custodians of people’s trust. They keep the savings of the common man and provide some returns on his savings by lending it to those who can utilise the funds for a commercial venture. It is expected, in this tripartite arrangement, that the borrower will borrow for an enterprise that will provide him the returns so that he can service the loan he took from the bank. It is expected of the bank to ensure that it properly appraises and then approves the borrower’s proposal, making sure that the venture would be able to earn enough to service the loan. On the other hand, the borrower should be a credible entrepreneur. For this tripartite arrangement to function effectively, the sincerity of all concerned should be unimpeachable.

So, what is the responsibility of each? The bank should have the capability to do proper credit appraisal. It should put in place adequate risk-management systems to ensure that it is not putting public money at risk. It should have an IT architecture in place for stringent monitoring. It has to ensure that the lent funds are never at risk, and has to closely monitor this at different levels in the bank every month and every quarter. There is then the internal control system, followed by the audit by the statutory auditor, who is well selected and competent. Beyond that is the audit committee of the bank’s board of directors. Then there is the final supervision by the board of directors. Above all, there is the annual inspection and audit done by the regulator, which is the Reserve Bank of India. The IT architecture is so devised that there are multi-layer checks in the bank and the Central bank.

With all these precautions in place, there is no possibility of any default, wilful or otherwise, without the agency concerned getting a signal. So, how did the latest Punjab National Bank default take place, and who is at fault?

It needs to be recognised that the best systems are bound to fail if the man operating them has an ulterior motive. There was collusion at the operator or branch level, and there was extreme laxity/malfeasance at the bank’s supervisory level. The most surprising aspect is that the internal control and external auditors did not blow a whistle when they saw the default building up. Or, were they also complicit in the “ever-greening” of the account? (Covering the defaulted portion with an additional loan). Did the audit committee also ignore the warning signal? Ultimately, the board, with members representing the majority shareholder (government) and regulator (RBI), did not seem to have exercised its fiduciary responsibility and, thus, miserably failed the depositor, whose money it holds in trust.

The bank management is to blame, definitely. However, when it is a public sector bank, the depositor sees the government as the owner and trusts it more. He is let down on that score, too. But, the ultimate responsibility is of the regulator, which puts in place a hundred routine compliance instructions, allows the biggest of defaults to slip through its fingers, and penalises the poor farmer who, not having recourse to dual citizenship and resources stowed abroad, faces a cul-de-sac, leading to his suicide.

When will the system be fair to the common man who borrows in the thousands, or maybe at most a few lakhs, for which he fills myriad forms, mortgages every asset and provides collateral of every kind? Who will provide him justice? When will the system treat big and small borrowers equally and penalise defaults equitably? Banking, and public sector banks in particular, have to undergo a reality check.

Former comptroller and auditor general, Rai is head of the Banks Board Bureau and BCCI’s Committee of Administrators.

fire-disasters

Fri Feb 09 10:48:20 IST 2018

We had recently read of the ghastly fire in a roof-top cafe in Mumbai, that took 14 lives. No sooner had public memory got over that tragic incident, the newspapers carried the screaming headline of a blaze in Bawana factory that killed another 17 people. Apparently, an explosion in a firecracker unit's basement gutted the two-storey building. It was reported that 30 people working in the unit got trapped when the fire broke out. The building had only one exit. A lone exit, in a three-storey building with a basement, that was used to pack and store firecrackers. It was later learnt that the owner had procured a licence for a plastic factory, but was running a firecracker unit instead. One of the persons who died in the blaze was a mother of six children, who had started working in the unit for Rs 200 per day to support her children. The price of a life—Rs 200! Thanks to the sheer neglect and greed of a group of people, the six children she had set out to feed were now left bereft.

When will we, as humans and those who regulate such entities, learn? Whether Mumbai or Bawana, these fires will make headlines for a couple of weeks and will soon be forgotten. It will be business as usual.

In the Mumbai fire, the restaurant-cum-pubs—Mojo Bistro and 1 Above—had only one entrance/exit. The fire department and civic authorities, who obviously were complicit, will be punished with suspension. Such stories have become commonplace. We read about them and then forget as some other crisis overtakes us. The authorities just do not seem to care. The Fire Safety Measures Act 2006 of Maharashtra stipulates that contractors procure a fire compliance certificate before they can build a structure taller than 15 metres. In the Kamala Mills fire, there was no strict enforcement of any of the safety standards.

The preliminary inquiry conducted by the municipal commissioner reports: “This tragedy took place at the intersection of greed fuelled by impunity and other contempt of rules; and the failure of various agencies to ensure compliance. We will initiate a departmental inquiry against ten of our officials, including two assistant commissioners of that ward. Those guilty will not be spared.”

On the one hand we do not care for rules and norms. We take short cuts. The driving factor is greed. On the other hand are the authorities who are complicit in our taking short cuts. We just do not seem to have a conscience.

Enough warnings have been given by agencies such as the Comptroller and Auditor General that fire disasters are waiting to happen in high-rise buildings, petrol stations, sawmills and fire-cracker shops. The reports have pointed out that 78 per cent of the budget allocated to buy fire safety equipment and rescue vehicles went unused across the state between 2010 and 2015. Yet, corrective steps were not taken.

We have thus developed respect neither for laws nor authority. When officials are repeatedly found to be complicit in such negligent acts leading to such massive loss of lives, why does not the administration take exemplary action to set a precedent? This will act as a deterrent for such officers who are negligent in the discharge of their duties. The punishment that should be meted out for such negligence is dismissal from duty. This is the only punishment which will create an awareness that cutting corners to make a fast buck can indeed be very disastrous.

There is a need to create a culture of safety and accountability in the country.