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Volume LIX, No. 12

EDITOR Ruben Banerjee
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Shailender Vohra
ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER
in the recent past wasting the time of courts and causing much irritation to judges
Diwan Singh Bisht

44 The Grand-Vote Viziers

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 letters
Electoral Biograph
PERTH, AUSTRALIA Sanjiv
Gupta: It’s important to have acknowl-
edged the unfortunate news that over
21 million women will remain disen-
franchised in the coming election (The
Women Count March 18). It is some-
thing to seriously think about on this
women’s day. Statistics can reveal what
we as a country are trying to hide.
There is no active programme that is
encouraging this large figure to exer-
cise its voting rights. There are only a
handful of women representing peo-
ple’s interests in Parliament. The wom-
en’s reservation bill is still hanging fire.
Would our next government care to
make our women count in the democ-
racy? The example has to be set now.
BANGALORE Shailendra Dasari:
Women in India always get a raw deal
and it is a shame that they are at the
receiving end of even the suffrage
drive, with more than 20 million
women not being able to exercise their
franchise. As for the efficacy of EVMs,
there cannot be any doubt that they
are faster, more accurate and the least
prone to rigging and booth-capturing.
But the moot point is that the Election
Commission does not seem fully com-
mitted to capitalising the advanced
technology of EVMs. Otherwise how
can one justify the forthcoming elec-
tions being held in seven phases
spread over 37 days, pushing up the
costs and bringing all development
activities to a stand-still.
It never used to take so long for the
election process to be completed when
EVMs were not around. May be, the
scheduling has been done to suit the
ruling party, totally ignoring the incon-
venience it may create for the general
public and government officials eng-
aged in poll duty. Even in a state like
Karnataka where the number of LS
seats is only 28, the polling is being
one-liner
DEHRADUN Rakesh Agrawal
Yes, women count; that’s precisely why they’re uncounted by our patriarchal polity.
4 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
WOMEN’S DAY SPECIAL
NEW AGE HEROINES
www.outlookindia.com
The Verdict
21 million women missing from 2019 rolls
Higher women turnout is bad news for BJP
Opinion polls get the trend right 97%
EVMs are foolproof
Exclusive extracts from
book on Indian elections
by Prannoy Roy
and Dorab Sopariwala
March 18, 2019
conducted in two phases.
It is high time that the EC acts as an
independent body, as was the case
when T.N. Seshan was at the helm of
affairs, and does not compromise
national interests for pleasing the
party in power.
BANGALORE Rangarajan T.S.: The
nation has been following Prannoy
Roy since the 1980s. His World this
Week on DD was a news show eagerly
awaited by millions. He caught the
nation by storm teaming up with
Vinod Dua for its Hindi version and
with Sopariwala, the irrepressible pse-
phologist. His coverage of the elections
both in Star TV and NDTV now is
taken very seriously. However, I think
Mr Roy has overstated the case of the
woman voter this time. It’s a fact that
the women of Tamil Nadu used to vote
for MGR and Jayalalitha simply bec-
ause both the leaders cared for wom-
en’s issues. Now, Modi has caught the
imagination of the woman voter bec-
ause of schemes like Ujjwala and
Swachh Bharat as well as the Mudra
scheme. So, more women may come
March 18, 2019 Rs 60 INTERVIEW
RADHIKA APTE
out to vote than expected.
LUCKNOW M.C. Joshi: After going
through the two psephologists’ theo-
ries and contentions about elections in
India, the gist of The Verdict lies in the
answer given by Prannoy Roy to the
question: Who is winning in 2019? He
says “most psephologists give half-way
plus a little bit for one side and half-
way minus a bit for the other side.” He
then speaks about the 2019 Lok Sabha
election with lots of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. Roy
says that “there is a danger in saying
who is going to win” and he and
RNI NO. 7044/1961
8 904150 800010 10
Sopariwala will answer the question
after the results are out. How conven-
ient! Even I can give such an answer.
The book says that the turnout of
women voters will be more than men
in the 2019 polls and it also says that if
only men had voted in the 2014 Lok
Sabha elections, the NDA would have
won by an enormous landslide with
376 seats. However, if only women had
voted, the NDA would have won 265
seats—which would have been seven
seats short of the majority mark. Going
by such assumptions, shouldn’t it be
fairly simple to calculate who is win-
ning in 2019. If the figures are authen-
tic, The Verdict’s claim that 21 million
eligible women will not vote in 2019 is
extremely disturbing and puts the
Election Commission and the govern-
ment in the dock. What did they do for
the right-to-vote of these women if the
fact was in their knowledge?
Islamic Acceptance
AMRITSAR Lal Singh: This is in ref-
erence to the story about India’s diplo-
matic offensive against Pakistan, in the
light of India’s presence at the OIC for-
eign ministers’ conference in Abu

letters
Dhabi for the first time in nearly half a
century (A Hum of Persuasion, Mar 18).
It may have irked Pakistan no end, but
if Russia, with a minority population of
a few Muslims, can be an observer,
India with its large Muslim population
is a deserving candidate too. This could
open doors for a broader engagement
with the Muslim world that can shore
up India’s interests in areas ranging
from energy to counter-terror strate-
gies. Pakistan tried to keep us out this
time also, but its entreaties cut no ice
with OIC boss Saudi Arabia. More cut-
tingly for Pakistan, the host country,
the UAE, also snubbed it by not heed-
ing its unfair request to keep India out.
The reason is, even West Asia is feeling
the threat of terror and they are wary
of the prime habitat of its breeding—
Pakistan. Though the OIC may not
have plumped for India over Pakistan,
it seems a major diplomatic victory has
been achieved by New Delhi.
Places To Hear Of
ON E-MAIL Manik Das: Outlook’s
Diary pages are a reader’s delight, offer-
ing peeks at places well-known and lit-
tle-known, with glimpses of foreign and
domestic states of being, all filtered
through unique and prominent points
of view. You may consider carrying a
small map of the places being covered—
actually its position on the globe. It
would be a great help to people like me.
Be A Sport!
MUMBAI Ram Avadheesh: This
refers to It’s Freezing, But They Want
To Bat (March 18). Sportspersons are
aware of things others do not give a
thought to or cannot understand. On
the field, both your body and mind are
at work and this is the case with every
player. So, the goal is common and the
sentiment for victory is shared. This
makes players of any game respect
each other no matter how strong indi-
vidual or team rivalries may be. In
times of crisis—like the war clouds that
gathered briefly over the Indo-Pak
border, nothing may work well as sport
to help mend relations.
The Dhyan Chand-Dara Shah inci-
dent mentioned in your story was so
heartening to read. A lot of contempo-
rary sports personalities from both
India and Pakistan may take inspira-
tion from it. But, sadly, we live in times
6 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
INBOXED
Left-out Democrats
PUNE Anil S.: The data revelations
made by psephologist Prannoy Roy’s The
Verdict are very interesting (The Women
Count, March 18). The findings show that
the largest democracy in the world is far
from utilising its true democratic poten-
tial. The right to exercise one’s vote is a
fundamental right and understanding
this, the Election Commission must be given the powers to come up with a
massive awareness campaign so that each and every person in India above
the voting age can make their decision.
We could do a small test to study how democracies are manipulated. If an
agency can analyse what all groups the present government is encouraging to
vote through various campaigns, we can get an idea about those left out. The
same can be done for opposition parties. Then, we’ll know which party wants to
leave out which group from voting. The remedy then would be to focus on all
these left-out groups and get them to vote for a truly unbiased election. Roy and
Sopariwala’s book is an eye-opener as one doesn’t get to learn of the internal
dynamics of elections even though they are all that is covered by the news.
of films that still attempt to be pan-
Indian. I’m amazed to see the boldness
with which Netflix and Amazon Prime
are creating content. They benefit from
being out of the country’s censorship
framework. Soon, theatre films will also
be doing what they can to keep up with
this revolutionisation of content online.
RANCHI Prerit Lal: The informal
‘queen’ of this generation of actresses is
truly Kangana Ranaut. She single-hand-
edly increased the market value of ‘one-
PEACE FLAGS Indo-Pak cricket fans woman productions’ in recent years
with films like Queen (2013) and the
where we are pushed and coaxed into Tanu Weds Manu (2011, 2015) series.
being hostile. Take the example of onl- Now, Ranaut has set another bench-
ine trolls viciously criticising cricket mark with Manikarnika: The Queen of
legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Jhansi. Vidya Balan is the other pioneer
Sunil Gavaskar for not adding fuel to of ‘women-centric’ films in new-age
fire during the recent escalations at Bollywood. Her Dirty Picture (2011) had
the LoC. Then we had the gimmick of a huge impact on gender perceptions in
the Indian cricket team wearing mili- the film industry. Both Vidya and
tary caps to ‘respect our soldiers’. To Kangana are responsible for ushering in
me, those military caps were a state- a market understanding that relates to
ment of aggression. Military caps have strong, vocal women characters..
no business on the cricket field.
Market’s the Indicator
Coming of Age ON E-MAIL Harshit Gupta: Refers
ON E-MAIL Anirudh Sinha: Refer to to Doves, Hawks And Market Lows
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha... (March 18). It’s (March 18). So, Prime Minister
great to see the pace at which film con- Narendra Modi’s rise is understood by
tent is evolving in the Indian main- a considerable section of semi-pro
stream. It’s probably because the market investors to correspond with
mainstream has splintered due to the the highs in the stock market. But
coming of multiple platforms and the when it comes to the talk of war, the
various modes of visual content-con- gloom cannot be avoided. The slump in
sumption. So, we have left the ‘family the exchange due to hostilities bet-
drama’ mould behind us, or rather, rele- ween India and Pakistan tells us that
gated it to everyday TV or to a handful war is good for no one.
 POLIGLOT
E L E C T I O N S > 2 0 1 9
SNAPSHOT
ASSAM
BLOODY HISTORY Scenes
from the 1983 Nellie carnage
It's Love
By Half
by Anupam Bordoloi
P
RAFULLA Kumar Mahanta has
been called many things, including
“durdanto premik” (terrific lover) by
a woman who once claimed they were
secretly married at a Mumbai temple.
The bigamy allegations—never confir-
med—played its part in the slide in the
political fortunes of Mahanta, once a
hero who led a six-year-long mass mov-
ement against “illegal immigration” in
Assam. That phrase, frequently used to
describe the undocumented entry of
people from Bangladesh, still marks out
the most volatile issue in the state, nea-
rly 35 years after signing of the Assam
Accord. As things stand, the BJP has tot-
ally hijacked that narrative— with a
twist, though—from its original sutra-
8 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
dhar, the Asom Gana
Parishad. Its unifocal plank
of restoring Assam to the
Assamese had swept the AGP
to power twice (1985, 1996),
with Mahanta at the helm,
but now the party he founded
is on the verge of a split. How
did it come to this? It’s the
elections, silly.
First things first. This week,
senior BJP strategist-cum-
pointsman Ram Madhav
suddenly announced an allia-
nce with the AGP for the Lok
Sabha polls. That came as a
bolt from the blue for many,
not the least party supremo
Mahanta, who evidently had
no idea about the backroom
dealings that brought it
about. It was just in January
that the AGP had angrily
pulled out of the BJP-led gov-
ernment in Assam to protest
the now-lapsed Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill, 2016. The
bill, which envisages extend-
ing Indian citizenship to non-Muslim
immigrants, had roiled Assam all over
again. Indeed, most of the Northeast—
here, “illegal foreigner” does not have a
religion, it’s only a shorthand for those
who are seen to be wresting land or re-
sources from the native-born. The
AGP—languishing in the political pe-
riphery for years, rejected by voters
election after election—spied a chance
to water its parched fortunes. And so it
was quits with the BJP.
But the BJP knew many AGP leaders
were plagued by survival anxiety, never
mind their bravado—and zeroed in.
Mahanta is angry. Very angry. Living in
the BJP’s shadow is not something he
was comfortable with. And the anger
against the Bill had handed him a cha-
nce to restore his primacy, even eye a
bigger role in national politics (Assam
has 14 Lok Sabha seats). But now, as for-
mer comrades-in-arms clash in front of
the AGP HQ in Guwahati, the “durdanto
premik” must be wondering how to sur-
vive this broken relationship. O
"Citizenship
Bill nullifies
Assam Accord"
An angry AGP founder-president
and two-time CM Prafulla Kumar
Mahanta finds himself on the wrong
side of his party’s new alliance.
Excerpts from an interview with
Abdul Gani:
You say you were unaware of the
developments?
The leadership has violated the
party constitution. The alliance
with the BJP is a major decision, it
should have been discussed. No one
was informed. I was not aware of it.
The Citizenship Bill is a crucial issue
for this region. Do you think the
masses will back this alliance?
The AGP was formed after a six-
year-long agitation to make the
state free from illegal migrants...
we lost 855 martyrs. The Assam
Accord was signed after that. This
bill nullifies the Assam Accord.
People have expressed their opposi-
tion to it. By joining hands with the
BJP, they have diminished the
dreams and hopes of Assamese
people. Let’s wait for the polls to
know if they get support or not.
Amit Shah has clearly said the bill
will be brought back. Can the AGP
survive that in Assam?
I don’t think that way.
There’s still a lot
of scope for the
party to grow.
But the leader-
ship must res-
pect the
sentiments of
the grassroots.
As a regional party,
one should focus on
the interests of the people.
Explain your stand….
My stand has always been clear.
I’ll continue opposing the
Citizenship Bill, be it as a citizen
of India or as a political leader. I will
not stand with something that goes
against the people of Assam. O
 POLIGLOT

Golden name, interpret the Tamil equivalent of

‘Truth will Triumph’. “Unmai Jellum,”

silver tongue Rahul declared, and as Balu struggled

to interpret that, Rahul repeated it—
only for the former-MP to blurt out,
by G.C. Shekhar “He (Modi) will go to jail!”
Leaders of the Congress, DMK and
Former Union Minister other alliance parties could be seen
TAMIL and TNCC president squirming even as the crowd was
QUOTE NADU K.V. Thangkabalu has bemused. By evening, social media was
gold in his name. Now awash with memes ridiculing
he has proved he can be silver-tongued Thangkabalu’s efforts. The ex-minister
“Hugs for 'tukde too—in a funny way. The Congress
leader quickly emerged as the troll of
later broke his silence, claiming he had
successfully translated 90 per cent of
tukde' gang and the week after a string of gaffes when Rahul’s speech. “I had difficulty only
arrest of peaceful he translated Rahul Gandhi’s English
speech at Nagercoil on March 14. Here
with a few sentences due to the echo
from the speaker, made worse by gusts
youth raising are a few nuggets: of wind on the stage,” he told a Tamil
pro-Modi slogans? news channel. O
Rahul: That is precisely why we love
Where are the the people of Tamil Nadu (for resist-
champions of ing the imposition of a single culture
by the BJP).
free speech?” Balu: That is why we are fighting for
AMIT SHAH it. We will show our strength at the
BJP PRESIDENT right time.
Responding to 'police action' against a
Rahul: That is why we respect the
crowd of techies at a rally addressed by
people of Tamil Nadu.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Bangalore
Balu: Narendra Modi is the enemy of
Tamil Nadu
“The Modi tsunami And when Rahul Gandhi talked about
Karunanidhi as a great leader,
has awakened India. Thangkabalu translated it as Kamaraj.
I feel there will be no When Rahul, as an afterthought,
election in 2024.” added Kamaraj, Balu replied noncha-
SAKSHI MAHARAJ lantly, “I’ve already translated sir.”
BJP MP Rahul too did not help by trying to

Illustrations by MANJUL

WEST BENGAL

Call Them Calcuttales by Probir Pramanik

F RUSTRATED by the low

voter turnout in Uttar
Kolkata Lok Sabha constitu-
ency, the Election Commission
has decided to prod the
Bengalis with, well, some-
thing quintessentially Bengali:
the iconic filmmaker Satyajit
Ray. The EC will shoot a dozen
short documentaries about
the neighbourhoods where the
modern metropolis originated
and call them 'Ek Dojon
Goppo'—after Ray’s celebrated
collection of a dozen short
stories—and show them
Bengal’s average voter turn-
out of 82 per cent. “Yes, our
idea was inspired by Ray…
around the streets of North people in Bengal love stories
Calcutta, hoping that will and story-telling,” North
buoy enlightened voters into Calcutta district electoral
bettering the 66 per cent officer Dibyendu Sarkar was
voter turnout they totted up reported as saying. Ray, the
in the 2014 general poll. While man behind masterpieces like
that sounds almost healthy— Pather Panchali and Goopy
and is indeed on par with the Gyne Bagha Bayne, spent his
national average—it was very life in both north and south
sluggish compared to West Calcutta. O

10 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019


MIC CHECK
"Bhim Army
won’t go with
Congress"
Days after announcing his decision to
challenge Prime Minister Modi in
Varanasi, Bhim Army chief Chand­
rashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ says his sole
aim is to defeat the BJP in this elect­
ion. In an interview with Preetha
Nair, Azad also scotched rumours of
an alliance with Congress. Excerpts:
What’s behind your decision to
take on Modi in Varanasi?
Modi is anti-Dalit, his government’s
policies have ruined the country. I’ll
make sure he’s not re-elected to the
Lok Sabha. I have requested the SP-
BSP-RLD grand alliance to support
me in Varanasi to defeat the PM and
send him back to Gujarat. We’ve
taken a pledge to defeat the BJP.
But you’d said the Bhim Army
wouldn’t be in the fray….
During our rally in Meerut,
we were arrested though "After I said I
we had permission…our
members were beaten up would contest
and detained. If Modi retu- from Varanasi,
rns to power, the Bahujan
will be at the receiving end.
the PM has
It will sound a death-knell started to wash
for all things constitutional.
Our rights will be curtailed.
the feet of
Dalits will teach him a les- sanitation
son. Uttar Pradesh is a workers."
sacred land. We urge all
parties to support us.
Priyanka Gandhi’s meeting with
you has fuelled speculation….
Priyanka Gandhi visited me in hospi-
tal out of concern and pledged her
support in our fight against Modi. I
didn’t have any prior knowledge of
her visit. We didn’t discuss politics.
What if Congress approaches you?
I won’t ally with the Congress at any
cost. My primary aim is to defeat the
This April and May
could get hotter than
usual for sarkari babus in
Andhra Pradesh. The ruling
TDP seems to have got
wind of something that's
worrying it no end: could
the humble, workman-like
ceiling fan influence voters?
It is, after all, the election
symbol of Jaganmohan
Reddy’s YSCRP! So they've
asked EC to remove all fans
from public offices. "Will
they remove pens too if it
becomes a party symbol?"
JITENDER GUPTA an official in Chittoor was
heard grumbling. Chittoor
BJP…we’ll support parties fighting them. I’m
will hit 40°C on April 1.
working towards fulfilling Ambedkar’s vision.
My aim is to empower the Bahujan.
But if you contest, won’t it become tri-cor-
nered and benefit BJP?
I will try sort it out with Mayawatiji. If they sup-
port us in Varanasi, we can return the support in Policing
79 seats. If they wish to field strong candidates
like Mayawati, Akhilesh or Mulayam to challe-
nge Modi in Varanasi, I’m ready to support that.
Our path is the same, we should go together. We
the Self
will lend support in Bihar and Maharashtra also.
Have you consulted Mayawati on this?
Not yet. Hope she agrees. I am not waiting for
anyone’s invitation.
Mayawati has often denied any association
with you and calls you a B-team of the BJP.
That’s her personal opinion. Earlier people used
to say I’m a BJP agent. After Priyanka’s visit, they
call me a Congress agent. By challenging Modi, I
have proved I am anti-BJP.
Is BSP doing enough for Dalits?
I haven’t seen BSP do enough in
the last five years. I was jailed in
Sabirpur along with 40 people—
no leader came forward to help
us get bail. No leader visited the
victims of the April 2 violence.
What's the status of Dalits
under this government?
There’s large-scale oppression, No Facebook, no Twitter, no
atrocities have increased. They WhatsApp? Well, it's not
diluted the SC/ST Act. When
that drastic but UP Police
have warned their own per-
Dalits called a strike, many were sonnel against getting too
killed. Hundreds are in jail. excited by politics and
And the 10 per cent quota for elite castes? going online with their
It’s a mockery of the Constitution, it clearly says views. An advisory from
reservation should be based on social backward- the DGP cautions cops
ness. It’s a political move to appease the elite against putting up posts
favouring one party or the
castes. If we come to power, we will scrap it.
other, and being too politi-
The BJP claims it’s pro-Dalit… cally coloured in their onl-
After I announced my decision, the PM started ine interactions. Hope
washing the feet of sanitation workers. Kanshi bottled-up emotions don't
Ram once said that if caste hegemony is threat- find other, more tactile
ened, they will go to any extent to appease…. O outlets of expression.
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 11
 POLIGLOT
PIC OF THE WEEK
Give me 42... Prayers for a TMC sweep
"Jobs, not
Pakistan,
is the issue"
Hamro Sikkim Party,
floated by football
icon-turned-politician
Baichung Bhutia in
February 2018, will make
its electoral debut on April
11. Sikkim has simultane-
ous polling—HSP will cont-
est all 32 assembly seats.
Baichung himself, brimful
with talk of change, will
contest the sole Lok Sabha
seat in the state. Excerpts
from an interview with
Jeevan Prakash Sharma:
Are you looking for a tie-up
with any national party?
A: No. We are a young new
party, we need to build it
strong. So we want to go it
alone for both assembly as
well as the Lok Sabha.
After retirement, you’d
joined Trinamool in 2013
and contested twice on its
ticket—from Darjeeling (LS
2014) and Siliguri (2016
assembly polls). You lost
both. Didn’t that deter you
12 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
from politics?
I lost because I was an out-
sider in West Bengal.
That’s not the case now. I
was born in Sikkim. I have
my roots here.
You are challenging Pawan
Kumar Chamling, India’s
longest-serving CM, in off-
ice since 1994. Isn’t that
quite a mountain to climb?
Not at all. In politics, there
is always something bey-
ond what you see. He’s
been there so long because
there was no strong oppo-
sition. That’s not the case
LEAVING A
LI'L MARK
Every general election, a quaint
Mysore company makes its way
unfailingly into the newspapers.
And, why not? After all, Mysore
Paints and Varnish Ltd makes a
humble little product so vital to an
election—indelible ink. As most
things Mysore, this government-run
paint company too traces its days
back to the city’s golden age of
enterprise, helmed by Krishnaraja
Wodeyar IV. It was set up in 1937
and has been supplying indelible ink
to every election since 1962. Over
4.5 billion voters in India and else-
where have been inked so far, says
the firm. This election, MPVL rec-
eived an order for 26 lakh vials of
PTI indelible ink. Each 10 ml vial can ink
700 voters. That’s good enough for
1.8 billion voters…twice the size of
this time. HSP will give India’s 900-m-strong electorate!
him a tough fight and make
a very good impact…it’s a
clean party with credible
people. Our major issues
are corruption, jobs, lack of
education and infrastruc- Punter
ture. They’re a highly cor-
rupt political class. Sikkim
is looking for an alternative Gatherers
and I’m very confident we’ll
be the first choice.
You think BJP is trying to
take political advantage
out of Pulwama?
Yes, it should not happen.
To be honest, any other
party would have done the
same thing. We all talk
about elections free of cor-
ruption, communal hatred,
distribution of alcohol/
money etc, but reality is
just the opposite. Parties in
power resort to any means
to stay in power. The same
is the case here. Pakistan
shouldn’t be the issue.
• You could have bet on getting this
Army shouldn’t be the
trend right. The satta bazaar, or the
issue. It should be unem-
illegal betting market, is perhaps a
ployment, corruption, farm-
more honest barometer of public
ers’ plight.
expectations than opinion polls filled
Anything common between
with statistical jargon. Right now,
football and politics?
you guessed right, most bets are
Yes. You need to have a
falling on the BJP scoring 250+ and
strongly bonded core team
NDA surpassing 300 seats, reports
in both, more so in politics.
ET. The odds of the Congress cross-
You really don’t focus more
ing 200 are 10:1, but perhaps even
on the opponent but on
loyalists wouldn't bet on that!
building a strong, strategi-
cally aware team. O
 #
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 POLIGLOT

A CARNATIC RAGA? BY THE

TWEEPLE
by Ajay Sukumaran

There’s some history here. have now started up a chant

Indira Gandhi had won an for Rahul Gandhi to con-
election from Karnataka in sider a second seat from the
1978—a bypoll whose mem- state. Will he, won’t he? We
ory still lives on among the don’t know. But it’s perhaps
older residents of safe to guess that neither
Chikmagalur. About twenty Chikmagalur nor Bellary
years later, Sonia Gandhi will make the cut—the cof-
too made her way down fee country has been voting
south—to Bellary, and a BJP for quite a while now;
memorable election battle as for Bellary, the Congress

?
with Sushma Swaraj. In the
process, Karnataka firmed
up its connect with the
Gandhis, especially when a
safe seat was needed. No
wonder, local Congressmen
only recently notched up its
first win there (in a bypoll
four months ago) since
Sonia Gandhi vacated the
seat in 1999. That’s too slen-
der a vein of hope.

Rayalaseema Rat-a-Tat
by M.S. Shanker

A
NDHRA Pradesh CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who is anyway battling
rough electoral weather this time, has now got another spreading stain
to bother about. In reality, it has all the elements of the blood-soaked
vendetta raj that makes such a dreaded legend of Rayalaseema, the home
province of perhaps the biggest political rival of his life, the late Y.S.
Rajasekhara Reddy. But when YSR’s elder brother, the 68-year-old Y.S.
Vivekananda Reddy, lay dead under suspicious circumstances at his native
Pulivendula residence, it’s Naidu who must have felt the pincer-grip of bale-
ful destiny. A two-time Congress MP from Kadapa, the deceased is the uncle
of YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy,
Naidu’s young bugbear. The seats of Valsad in
Krishna Reddy, a relative who lodged a Another 'bloody'
police complaint, tried to establish it as a death in the YSR Gujarat and West Delhi
murder. He specified that bloodstains were
found in the bedroom and bathroom, and family—that of his have selected the same
that he saw two blood injuries on the dead elder brother—is winning party as the Lok
man’s forehead and right hand, besides
bruises on the face and neck, which raise likely to impact Sabha in the past 11
doubts about it being a natural death. voting in his region. general elections
As was to be expected, family members
allege the ‘murder’ was the handiwork of since 1977.
Naidu, who they say is bent upon physically eliminating all YSR family
members. They hold him responsible for the brutal murder of YSR’s father
Raja Reddy in the past as also the recent ‘knife attack’ on Jaganmohan at
Visakhapatnam airport. Now, the fresh ‘murder’ allegation is likely to have
some impact on Naidu’s personal image as well the TDP’s poll prospects—at
least in volatile Rayalaseema. His own cadre, however, are sure their leader
has turned the tide on the back of a slew of welfare initiatives. O

https://www.outlookindia.com/lok-sabha-elections-2019

14 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 POLIGLOT

92%
Kerala takes a king-sized cut of registered NRI voters. That
doesn't make for a huge swing though. The total number of
registered overseas voters is just under 72,000. With as many
as 1.3 crore expats, the coastal state was sure to figure high.
In 2014, out of 13,039 registered NRI voters, only eight voted.

Tom Goes With the Northerlies Must

Be Her
The Mimi Chakraborty-Nusrat
Jahan effect has rubbed off on
the Trinamool itself. After the
popular Bengali actresses were
fielded for the LS polls (two
among those who make up the
very high 41 per cent women
candidates put up by the TMC),
a poster shared on FB by the
party's Adivasi Cell chief made
an understandable error.
Instead of the actual candidate
from Jhargram, activist Birbaha
Many found mirth in Grand Old Spokesman Tom Vadakkan jumping ship to the Soren, it carried the picture of
BJP barely days after holding the GOP line steadfastly on social media and TV
Birbaha Hansda, the megastar
debates, but another curious occurrence was noticed only in his native Kerala. The
BJP also welcomed Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s aunt and her husband into its
of Santhali cinema, reports NIE.
fold. The hoo-haa was unwarranted though: they were supporters all along! The name means 'wild flower'
in Santhali, and Ms Soren is in
politics too and was once tipped
to be the TMC's choice.

Assembly polls are an
excellent predictor of
the next Lok Sabha
results if held within...
93%
of the time, assembly poll
winners also corner more
12 MONTHS seats in that state if LS
polls follow within a year

IF THIS, THEN THAT? WELL...

LS bypolls are a good
predictor of how voting
will go in those seats if
the big polls fall within...
75%
of the time, parties that
win LS bypolls win the
9 MONTHS seat again if the big polls
fall within this timeframe

Yes, a 93 per cent chance sounds like a done thing. But don't forget the unstated
7 per cent in this piece of statistic from Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala's The
Verdict. The interesting case-studies this time will be Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and
Madhya Pradesh. Will the results seen in the November 2018 assembly elections
repeat this summer? The punters in Phalodi, Rajasthan, are not betting on it.

%more seats in
It's the domino effect: When simultaneous
elections for assembly and Lok Sabha seats
happen in a state during general elections,
Parliament the party winning the assembly also ends
than in the up winning 9 per cent more LS seats.
LOK SABHA ELECTIONS assembly

16 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 T N EQUAT IONS
The Spoiler Alert
Dhinakaran and a sex scandal threaten AIADMK’s
chances in this summer’s parliamentary polls
by G.C. Shekhar in Chennai
C
HALLENGES linked to elec­
tions come in many shapes
and sizes—some can be antici­
pated, most are hard to tell.
The ruling AIADMK in Tamil
Nadu is now straddling both fronts.
The party clearly anticipated that
its vote­share would be eroded after
its split and when T.T.V. Dhinakaran
emerged as a doughty challenger. To
compensate this erosion it embraced
the PMK, BJP and Vijayakanth’s
DMDK—even if it meant contesting
only 21 seats as against all the 39 it
had in 2014, of which it won 37.
While Dhinakaran has lost his legal
challenges—against the disqualifica-
tion of his 18 MLAs and denying the
AIADMK its Two Leaves poll symbol—
he remains a potent political threat
especially in the Thevar-dominated
districts of the Cauvery delta and
southern Tamil Nadu. “Dhinakaran
knows that he will not win any seat, but
his intention is to undercut our vote
bank and spoil our winning chances. So,
while we take the DMK head on, we
also need to watch out for Dhinakaran
snapping at our heels,” a senior
AIADMK minister says.
18 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
Photographs: PTI
The ruling party tinkered with its
candidates—axing 31 of the 37 MPs and
renominating only six. It inducted
freshers, including the sons of deputy
CM O. Panneerselvam and another
senior MLA from Madurai to counter
the TTV effect. The party held on to its
trusted strongholds in western Tamil
Nadu, giving away only one seat to the
Dhinakaran remains a
potent political threat,
especially in the Thevar
areas of Cauvery delta
and south Tamil Nadu
SLOGANS AND PLACARDS Protests
against the Pollachi sex scandal
BJP. This region, called the Kongu belt
due to the predominance of Kongu
Vellalars or Gounders who elected 45
AIADMK MLAs in 2016, including
chief minister EPS, has always stood
behind the AIADMK.
Even as the AIADMK was hoping for
a rich haul of seats from this western
belt the unanticipated storm hit the
ruling party in the form of a sex scandal
in Pollachi town near Coimbatore. The
arrest of a gang of youths for sexual
exploitation, torture, extortion and
blackmail of young girls from the
region blew up in its face as one suspect
is said to be associated with the ruling
party. The DMK latched on to the con-
troversy and tried to link the son of as-
sembly deputy speaker Pollachi
Jayaraman to the scandal.
Though the administration quickly
referred the case to the CBI, the local
police’s ham-handed handling of the
preliminary investigation triggered
public anger, further fuelled by satura-
tion coverage by the TV channels. “It
was clear that the Opposition and
media were trying to whip up frenzy to
turn women voters against the
AIADMK as if we had plotted the whole
affair and tried to protect the guilty.
Once the heat and noise die down peo-
ple will be able to sift through and see
the truth,” fisheries minister
D. Jayakumar says.
The DMK, which has been on a
stronger wicket from the start, is natu-
rally smiling at the troubles of its rival.
But the two Dravidian majors have
chosen to contest only 21 seats each
and will be locked in a direct contest
only in 11. “Even if the DMK manages
to win all its 21 seats, it could be let
down by its allies who will be easy meat
for the AIADMK as it happened in 2016.
The DMK might have erred big time by
giving the Congress ten seats when the
national party could win only eight of
41 assembly seats, thereby robbing the
DMK of a certain win,” political com-
mentator Rangaraj Pandey says.
But DMK managers hope that this
being a national election the voter
preference for the Congress would be
much greater than an assembly elec-
tion. And the Congress too harbours
similar hopes. O
 Fans wear ghost
masks at a march
protesting the fate
of Bhobishyoter
Bhoot

BLANK SCREEN PTI

Ghosts Who
by Probir Pramanik in Calcutta

I
N Bhooter Bhobishyat (2012), Anik

Walk The Gag

Dutta’s debut film, a bunch of ghosts
as diverse as a 19th century courte­
san and a Kargil War veteran get up
to all kinds of mischief to keep prop­
erty/land sharks and politicians
from laying their hands on their last
refuge—an old, dilapidated house. It
A satirical film that dares to hint at Bengal’s political
delighted audiences, especially the reality is taken off theatres at the behest of ‘authorities’
wordplay and puns, often in witty, rhy­
ming doggerel that made up much of of theatres on February 16. As murmurs 16, without intimating our producer,
the screenplay, its droll darts hitting of a Trinamool Congress-imposed quie- they started taking off shows from the-
socio­political targets with ease, rais­ tus gained ground, single-screen owners atres,” Dutta tells Outlook, ruing the
ing rolls of mirth. In February 2019, said a “technical issue” forced their loss of revenue.
Dutta returned to the existential woes hand, while multiplexes said it was an That something was amiss was indi-
of a different group of spectral beings order from “authorities”. cated by the Kolkata Police’s request for
(hounded out of their last few habitats On March 10, actors, filmmakers and a special screening of the film before its
by multistoreyed buildings and malls, students took out a rally led by veteran release, a request that was turned down
they now resolve to seek actor Soumitra Chatte- by the producers as the film was cleared
refuge in the digital rjee, filmmaker Buddha- by the censor board without cuts.
world) in Bhobishyater deb Dasgupta, actor Ever since she gained power in 2011,
Bhoot, an inversion of the Jayant Kripalani, actor- Mamata Banerjee has assiduously cul-
title of his first movie. director Aparna Sen and tivated film and cultural personalities
Innocuously funny as Dutta himself. Artistes in Bengal, putting together a sizable
the premise is, in this and technicians from team who attend party functions and
movie Dutta’s satire gets Tollywood film studios, meetings—usually to show themselves
a sharper focus, and deals young film enthusiasts to the public. Then there are the five
barbs generously across and students wore skele- actor-MPs of the Trinamool in the cur-
the political spectrum. Its ton and ghost masks rent Lok Sabha. Analysts say that a wily
sharpest bites, however, depicting characters Mamata wooed filmstars to boost the
are reserved for the
The dropping of from the movie, with slo- image of the party, doling out patronage
‘Chhinnomool Party’. Dutta’s film led gans demanding “an and state awards. That’s as far as carrots
Quite predictably, this to intellectuals explanation” for the go; the treatment of Bhobishyater Bhoot
brilliantly comic take- decrying withdrawal of the film, embodies the stick-end of the deal.
down of the sinister bun- Mamata’s alleging “silence by the The silent dropping of Dutta’s film,
gling of a strongman-ruled administration and the however, was a tipping point of sorts,
outfit drew blood. A day inability to ruling establishment”. with a section of Bengal’s intellectuals
after its release, Bhobish­ accept “My film was released on questioning Mamata’s “autocratic style
yater Bhoot was pulled out criticism. February 15; on February and vengeance against criticism”.

20 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 “People who have spoken up for me
have received ‘be careful’ messages”
Excerpts from an interview with
Bhobishyoter Bhoot director Anik Dutta
Now that the SC has directed the West
Bengal chief secretary and director-gen-
eral of police to ensure proper arrange-
ment security to facilitate the screening
of the film….
The way they have been going about
with the film, I can’t vouch that they
won’t try and find some loopholes, but I
don’t think they ignore this (the SC dir­
ective) at all. I think they (movie thea­
tre owners) will try to delay the
process as this is election time too.
They could use a pretence, saying
about freedom of expression etc…The
media has been badly capped…it is a
quid pro quo.
Would you connect it to the so-called
‘unofficial’ censorship on the media
about the arrest of senior journalist
Suman Chattopadhyay?
Yes, there is a similarity between that
and in the effort to muzzle the media and
forcing them not to talk about my film.
What are the chances of the film return-
ing to the theatre anytime soon?
I have no idea. It will depend on
hall­owners. This incident has
acted as revelation to others…a
lot of people within the industry are talk­
ing about this. Some who have opened up
have started receiving “be careful” kind
of messages.
Are there any theatres in the state
where the film is still being screened?
Yes, in a couple of standalone cinema
halls in Sodepur and Barackpur on the
outskirts of Calcutta, where it is running
full­house. I am told that Calcuttans are
going there to watch it.
Has the targeting of the film been a con-
sequence of your public criticism of the
present regime at last year’s Kolkata
Film Festival?
I think it all added up. I have not been
aligned like a lot of people in my frater­
nity have been (closeness to the state
government). It must have been noticed
and that must have reached ‘higher au­
thorities’ and so they must

“
we have big releases scheduled have been careful when the
and so on. They were under pres­ film came out. Otherwise,
sure. Our legal team is taking why should they want to
care of it and we have been see the film before its rel­
attending protest marches “My not being close to ease? The film was cleared
and doing our bit on social the government must by the censor board
media. The mainstream without any cuts. It had a
local media initially have been noticed. Why valid CBFC certificate and
avoided the issue as
much as possible but
else would they want to thus could be released
without seeking any other
some have finally talked see it before its release?” permission. O

Pointing to “a very evil nexus within
the Bengali film industry”, Dutta says,
“A section of Tollywood, is linked with
the government, which has spread its
tentacle within the industry but no one
talks about it. But I have been talking
about it for a while.” He alleges the exi-
stence of a couple of government-con-
trolled industry federations. “It’s a kind
of quid pro quo. These people decide
which film will be released and exactly
for how long.”
Terming the rhetoric about Bengal camp. “The film talks about marginal-
being at the vanguard of Indian democ- ised people who have become irrele-
racy as mere cant, Dutta recounts that vant…it has a political slant.” In the film,
he faced hurdles from the first day of “future ghosts” debate if embracing
production. “Somehow we finished the technology and the cyber world would
film, because my crew and cast stood help them stay relevant.
behind me.” “In doing this, I have tried at least to
Bhobishyoter Bhoot is about people show what is going around at the grass-
rejected during their lifetime, who were roots level, or at political or socio-polit-
almost like living ghosts while alive; ical levels,” says the filmmaker. He was
when they die, they form a collective paid the wages of truth-telling—a
that gathers in a place that was a refugee stealthy cosh on his film. O

1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 21

 2 0 -YEAR CH ALL ENG E
An Applecart Turner
In Shah Faesal, the NC sees a bees­saal­baad reflection
by Naseer Ganai in Srinagar
I
T was exactly two decades ago that
Mufti Mohammed Sayeed formed
the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) as an alternative to the Na­
tional Conference (NC) and the
Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.
That was 1999—and the NC pulled no
punches to accuse Sayeed of doing
Delhi’s bidding to muddle the politi­
cal space of the restive state. Cut to
2019 and a flashback besieges the NC,
unsettling it before this summer’s
parliamentary and assembly elec­
tions. The déjà vu moment: the lau­
nch of IAS topper Shah Faesal’s party,
the J&K Peoples Movement, in Sri­
nagar last weekend.
To put the new entrant into perspec­
tive, Tanveer Sadiq, the political advisor
to NC vice president Omar Abdullah,
said “exactly 20 years ago a party was
founded to counter the National Con­
ference after it tabled the autonomy
report in the assembly and another
attempt on the same pattern is being
made today”. The NC leadership always
alleges that the PDP is a creation of
Delhi and intelligence agencies as it was
formed after the J&K assembly passed
an autonomy resolution, seeking resto­
ration of the 1953 position to Jammu
and Kashmir. The resolution embar­
22 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
PTI
IAS TO POLITICS Shah Faesal at the
launch of his party in Srinagar
rassed the BJP government of Atal
Behari Vajpayee as it got resonance at
the international level.
Around 70 km south of Srinagar,
Omar Abdullah accused Delhi of creat­
ing new political parties in Kashmir.
And with a disclaimer that he has no
issues with new parties, he asked why
they come up only in the Valley not in
the Jammu region.
Faesal is unfazed by such allegations.
Addressing people in Srinagar at the
launch of his party, he vouched to emu­
late the politics of Pakistani prime
minister Imran Khan and Delhi chief
“peaceful resolution of the Kashmir
“It remains to be
seen whether the
new party would have
something new to
offer to the people.”
Omar Abdullah
National Conference vice president
minister Arvind Kejriwal. He quoted
Pakistan’s revolutionary poet Habib
Jalib, evoking applause from the audi­
ence of around 3000 people: Tum nay
loota hai sadyon hamaara sukoon/Ab na
hum par chalega tumhara fasoon (You
have plundered our peace for too long/
No more shall your spells work on us).
Faesal says several parties wooed him
when he resigned from the civil services
and were ready to give him ticket for a
parliamentary seat. “Now that I have
launched my own party, they are accus­
ing me of being an agent. I left my job 25
years before my retirement. I didn’t
leave it to become an agent.” Like the
new leader, Faesal’s crowd was confident
and outspoken, never hiding their faces
from news cameras. Advocate Mir Azad,
a young lawyer, who had travelled from
Handwara of North Kashmir to attend
the rally, says traditional political parties
have done nothing for Kashmir. “Faesal
is educated and has left a coveted post to
join politics. I think it matters a lot for
people, especially for the youth, and I
think the young generation sees hope in
this party.”
Faesal’s entry into politics has more to
do with the political vacuum created by
the diminution of the pro­Kashmir PDP,
which is facing public criticism over
human rights violations and undermin­
ing of constitutional privileges of J&K
during its two­and­half­year rule with
the BJP from 2015. A section of people,
disenchanted from the NC and its rival
PDP, are looking for an alternative voice
in Faesal.
The Valley’s politics revolves around
the Kashmir issue and its resolution.
Faesal, in his 29­point agenda, has made
problem as per the will and aspirations
of the people of Jammu and Kashmir
state” the top objective of his party. It
would interesting to watch how Faesal,
who is not from any dynastic party and
carries no past baggage, makes his mark
in the tight J&K space where loyalties
are firmly divided. With him are student
leader Shehla Rashid and businessman
Feroz Peerzada. “Ours is not a party, but
a movement,” Rashid says. But sceptics
insist Faesal would further divide the
votes and add to the disempowerment
of Kashmiris in the state. O

Gavel On The Duds
Flimsy petitions are simply clutter to be dealt with by judges in
absence of a filtering mechanism. And they’ve been stacking up.
by Puneet Nicholas Yadav
A
LMOST exactly 40 years ago, on
March 9, 1979, Kapila Hingor­
ani made history by getting a
Supreme Court bench of Justic­
es P.N. Bhagwati and D.A. Desai
to order, in the ‘Hussainara
Khatoon’ case, the release of nearly
40,000 undertrials languishing in the
jails of Bihar’s Patna and Muzzafarpur.
The verdict had instantly made Hin­
gorani famous as hers was the first
public interest litigation (PIL) to ever
be entertained in Indian courts. In lat­
er years, as she successfully fought
many such cases for the rights of the
underprivileged and those wronged by
the system, Hingorani earned the mon­
iker, ‘mother of PILs’.
The ‘Hussainara Khatoon’ case had
established a new paradigm in the Indian
justice system, which until 1979 was
accessible to only those personally aff­
24 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
TIME SPILLERS
Illustration by MANJUL
ected by the law or facing penal action. counsel before dis­
Hingorani, encouraged by Justice Bhag­ missing the petition.
wati’s decision to allow her to pursue a While the dismissal of
case in which she had no personal locus Chauhan’s petition and the court’s stern
standi, made PILs a permanent fixture in rebuke were expected, questions have
Indian jurisprudence. also been raised on the need for an effec­
Last week, had Hingorani been alive— tive deterrent to prevent such frivolous
she passed away in December 2013—she cases, especially those that blatantly vio­
would have hung her head in embarrass­ late the Constitution, from being filed.
ment seeing how PILs have come to be Senior advocate Indira Jaising vented
used as a means to gain publicity, or more her ire on Twitter, asking: “Why did the
disturbingly, further bigotry and commu­ judges not impose costs? Is the Supreme
nal hate in the name of public interest. Court a playground for violating the
On March 15, a Supreme Court bench Constitution? How can anyone dare to
of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and say in court that Indian Muslims should
Vineet Saran dismissed a plea—filed by be sent to Pakistan?”
former RSS member and social worker In recent years, the Supreme Court has
from Uttarakhand, Sangat Singh Cha­ often imposed costs on litigants who had
uhan—that sought directions for sending filed pleas that were far less atrocious
all Indian Muslims to Pakistan. “Do you than Chauhan’s. In May 2017, then Chief
seriously want to argue this? We will Justice of India (CJI), J.S. Khehar, had
hear you, but we will pass strictures imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on Suraz
against you,” an irritated Justice Nari­ India Trust and its chairman, Rajeev
man had told the petitioner and his Dahiya, for filing as many as 64 frivolous
petitions. CJI Khehar had also restrained A LIST OF RECENT PETTY PILS
Dahiya from filing “any case, including
PRAYER IN THE PETITION LITIGANT COURT’S ACTION
PIL, in any court across India.”
CJI Khehar was, arguably, the most Centre should construct a Great Wall Vaishya Samaj Petition dismissed
vocal chief justices in recent years on the of India along the entire border of the Association
need to curb flippant cases to ensure that country
the sanctity of the PIL system, responsi­ Lower marriageable age for men from Advocate Asok Petition dismissed, Rs
ble for some of the most progressive ver­ 21 years to 18 years Pande 25,000 imposed on Pande
dicts delivered by various courts, is not Directions for regulating caesarean Reepak Kansal Petition dismissed, cost
lost. Heavy penalties were imposed by deliveries and guidelines on how to of Rs 25,000 imposed
him on various litigants, including a fine perform them
of Rs 10 lakh on a Bihar MLA, for “wasting Prime Minister and chief ministers Gaurav Pal Petition dismissed
precious judicial time”. In March 2017, an should file a monthly report of their work
apex court bench led by him had asked all
Rename India as Bharat Niranjan Bhatwal Petition dismissed
courts to “impose exemplary cost” against
petitioners who “choke the judicial sys­ Repeal all pre-independence laws Advocate R.B. Petition dismissed, cost
tem” with absurd PILs. “The sanctity of because Parliament is hostage to Sharma of Rs 1 lakh imposed
the judicial process will be seriously ero­ colonial mindset
ded if such attempts are not dealt with Finance minister Arun Jaitley be Advocate M.L. Petition dismissed, cost
firmly. A litigant who takes liberties with prevented from “plundering the RBI” Sharma of Rs 50,000 imposed
the truth or with the procedures of the by waiving loans of big corporates
court should be left in no doubt about the Donations to political parties be Advocate and Petition dismissed,
consequences to follow,” the bench, capped at Rs 2,000 per year per person Delhi BJP leader Upadhyay told he’d be
also comprising Justices D.Y. Chan­ Ashwini Upadhyay banned from filing PILs
drachud and S.K. Kaul had said.
But, irrational petitions con­ mission irrespective of its merit, eating publicity has a deterrent cost attached to
tinue to stack up. Legal experts away the court’s time that could other­ it. “Even if a frivolous plea is eventually
think this may be because wise be utilised to hear the massive dismissed, the judges do need to spend
there’s no mechanism to filter backlog of cases. Union minister of state time going through the prayer and, on
genuine pleas from what have for law and justice, P.P. Chaudhary, had most occasions, hearing the petitioner.
come to be known as “publicity recently informed the Lok Sabha that the The Registry should be empowered to at
interest” or “political interest” total number of cases pending before the least check the credentials of the person
litigations and the courts have so SC, as on December 1 last year, stood at filing a PIL and those who have a prior
far placed the onus of curbing the 56,994. The National Judicial Data Grid record of filing such cases should be
menace on litigants. puts the total number of cases pending warned of the consequences,” he adds.
A former Delhi High Court chief before various high courts, as on March 17, In the 40 years since its inception as a
justice told Outlook that the judiciary at a whopping 42.89 lakh. course for judicial remedy, the PIL sys­
needs to be more proactive in dealing “PIL was introduced in Indian jurispru­ tem emerged as a potent tool for ensuring
with those who file cases “purely to gain dence to help further the cause of justice. transparency in governance and access to
publicity”. He says: “PILs like the one Unfortunately, it has now become routine social justice. In the past few years, PILs
demanding deportation of Indian Mus­ for people to use these either to gain have been responsible for landmark ver­
lims are a criminal waste of the court’s publicity or for political agenda. The dicts that outlawed instant triple talaq,
time. The increasing frequency of such court cannot entirely abdicate its resp­ identified privacy as a fundamental right,
petitions is a matter that should deeply onsibility (of deciding whether a case opened the doors of the Sabarimala tem­
concern the judges and a mechanism to deserves to be heard) in favour of the ple in Kerala and Mumbai’s Haji Ali
arrest the abuse of PILs, which otherwise Registry. However, it is within the powers shrine to women, legalised consensual
are an effective tool of social justice, must of the court, and its chief justice, to lay homosexual relations and made passive
be put in place with urgency.” down broad guidelines for the Registry to euthanasia permissible.
Under the present sys­ follow while deciding what A litigation that demands deportation of
tem, only judges have the kind of cases deserve to be Indian Muslims to Pakistan strikes at the
power to decide if a petit­ listed,” former CJI, T.S. very core of the purpose that a PIL is
ion should be admitted or
In recent years Thakur told Outlook. supposed to serve—public interest. It is
dismissed while the job of the Supreme Senior advocate and also an insult to the memory of Kapila
the Registry (of the SC or Court has former president of the Hingorani, who in November 2017, four
of any high court) is to ens­ imposed costs Supreme Court Bar Ass­ years after her death, became the first and
ure that technical require­ on litigants ociation, Vikas Singh, says only woman lawyer in the Supreme
ments of filing a petition those who file publicity Court’s seven­decade­long history to
have been fulfilled by the who had filed interest litigations must have her portrait adorn the walls of its
litigant. This means that a such ‘irrational be penalized by the court library alongside legal luminaries like
petition gets listed for ad­ petitions’. so that they know that M.C. Setalvad and C.K. Daphtry. O

1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 25


e Sa b ba n d e
ku d r at k
u
nveiling the five-volume Bengali translation of the holy
book of the Sikhs, Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Bharat Ratna
and former President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee,
said that he believes one of the key messages in the holy book is
inter-religious faith. He said that a publication such as this
broadens the essence of human consciousness and makes us
realise that the Creator is One. He expressed he happiness that the
Bengali translation will carry the message of the holy book to all
Bengali-speaking people around the world.
The programme, aptly titled Kudrat Ke Sab Bande (a phrase
from the holy book meaning ‘it is from nature alone that everyone
originates’), was organised by the Kolkata-based JIS Group which
facilitated the publication of the translated book as a part of the
26 OutlOOk 1 April 2019
Shri Pranab Mukherjee
releases Bengali
translation of Shri Guru
Granth Sahib
celebration of the 550th birth anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Sahib
Ji. The book has been published by Dada Chellaram Publications.
The event was organised at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute
of Culture (RMIC) in Kolkata where Shri Pranab Mukherjee
released the book in the presence of Swami Suparnananda
Maharaj, General Secretary, RMIC; Sardar Tarlochan Singh,
member of Rajya Sabha; Sardar Taranjit Singh, Chancellor, JIS
University, Kolkata and Managing Director of the JIS Group;
former Olympian Sardar Gurbax Singh and other dignitaries.
Swami Suparnananda Maharaj termed the release as an important
milestone as the holy book would now reach many homes it had
not so far.
The book is a translation of 1,430 pages of the original scrip-
ture, consisting of an anthology of the teachings and compositions
of 6 gurus, 4 saints, 15 bhagats of different faiths and 11 bards.
According to many scholars present at the event, the translation
will not only help the general public to read the holy book but also
help Bengali-speaking researchers and scholars to study the text.
The solemn programme also saw the release of a second book,
“Asardar Sardar- Jodh Singh ki Jivani”, a biography highlighting
the life and work of the founding father of the JIS Group of
Educational Initiatives. This hard bound book has been written
by Shri Dhiraj Sarthak and Dr Arvind Yadav. Sardar Jodh Singh
was an illuminating father figure who started the foundation of
an education legacy that is the JIS Group.
Said Sardar Taranjit Singh, “It is an honour and privilege for
me to see this day when our holy book is going to reach all
households of my state of West Bengal with this Bengali
translation. Also I am immensely proud to see the release of the
book on my father, late Sardar Jodh Singh, who was also a father
figure for the JIS Group.”
 educatIng our youth
empowering our nation
JIS Group Educational Initiatives, the largest educational conglom-
erate of Eastern India with 26 institutions, 126 programmes and
35000 students, began its journey 20 years back. The journey, though
not easy, has been quite a successful one. The laying of the foundation
of JIS University is another significant milestone on this journey.
The success of the Group lies in its core belief - that of empowering
students with top quality training and skill development – which it
has realised with total commitment and dedication. The Group’s
objective is to nurture research and knowledge initiatives, to empower
students with education and employment opportunities, to establish
worldwide network with industry and to entrust their enterprise as
well as motivate their students towards social responsibility.
Sardar Taranjit Singh, Managing Director of the Group, says, “The
Group's Educational Initiatives are committed to create an academic
ground for social, cultural, scientific, economic and technological
development nationally and globally and aspires for excellence that
will bring the holistic development of our society and mankind.”
Singh’s contributions have been crowned with the illustrious title of
Education Evangelist 2013 by ET Now in association with Skill Tree for
bringing about innovation and transformation in the evolution of
learning. World Consulting and Research
Corporation (WCRC) awarded him the excellence in
Education Innovation and Leadership and also the
title of Game Changer of the Year 2014- Business.
These awards, and more, have not come
easily – the Group is dedicated to offering its
students more and more year on year. The state-
of-the-art infrastructure and world class teach-
ing facilities at all its institutes impart knowledge
and deliver contemporary pedagogy through
consistent quality. The Group imparts glob-
al-level education infrastructure such as Smart Classrooms; E-library
facility; Student Innovation Lab; Incubation Centre among others.
Student exchange programmes, scholarship for meritorious stu-
dents, etc. are some of advantages of studying under the Group.
Some key features include 228 specialised departmental labora-
tories, libraries with over three lakh books, 1,724 faculty members
(including 324 PhD holders), 416 faculty development programmes,
384 student development programmes, and a proven placement track
record. It has received grants worth rupees six crore under the World
Bank assisted, Technical Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP).
n Rankings for Narula Institute of Technology amongst
Top 150 Engineering Institutions and Guru Nanak Institute of
Pharmaceutical Science & Technology amongst Top 80
Pharmacy Institutions in India by MHRD, Govt of India.
n QS I.GAUGE methodology (QSI. Gauge- a nationwide Higher
Education rating system by UK based Quacquarelli Symonds)
awarded Guru Nanak Institute of Technology with a Gold
College Rating.
n Narula Institute of Technology has become the 1st Institution in
Eastern India to earn the prestigious “ Three Star Rating
(overall)” by QS International Rating.
JIS believes that students can be made industry-ready only when
there is a strong relationship between the institute and the industry.
Therefore, each institute has the Industry Institute Partnership Cell
(IIPC). The JIS Group regularly organises events, seminars and
conferences to promote and enhance Industry-Institute Partnership.
The cells identify the industry expectations and promote
institutional preparation to meet industrial needs by facilitating
internship, sponsored R&D projects, seminars, workshops,
placement and various other industrial training programs. The IIPC
of JIS is also closely associated with different chambers such as
NASSCOM, FICCI, BCCI, CII, ICI, NHRDN, etc. to bridge the gap
between industry and academics.
All this effort has not been in vain – the
students of JIS Group of Colleges have time and
again proven their academic excellence by
topping University exams. They have also
qualified for further degrees in reputed
institute's Pan-India such as IIMs, ISI, IITs as
well as abroad in countries such as the United
Kingdom, the United States and Germany. We
have placed our students with major national
and multinational brands such as Google, TCS,
Capgemini, L&T, Infosys, IBM, Cognizant, Ranbaxy, Glaxo, L&T,
etc. Students have also procured esteemed placements in Govt.
Organizations’ like ISRO, BARC, etc. Several students have
embarked an illustrious careers in UK, USA and Germany. Last
year, the highest salary package received by our student was Rs.10
lakhs per annum.
The University seems well set on its mission to become one of
the top universities in India and a preferred destination for
students, research scholars and faculty members alike. Students
aspiring to study in JIS University can be assured of quality
education as all courses are duly accredited and affiliated by
University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi; Bar Council of
India (BCI), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), National Council
for Teacher Education (NCTE) and United Nations Academic
Impact(UNAI).

JIS recognitions, rankings and awards

JIS University has been conferred with the award for Royal Excellence Awards for Best Private University 2018.
JIS University has been awarded the title of Fastest growing University of Eastern Region by Byatikram Awards 2018, in Guwahati
Centre for Education Growth and Research has recognized JIS University with Best University in East India 2018.
JIS University has been awarded the Best University by Zee 24 Ghanta Education Excellence Award 2018.
JIS was conferred the ‘Award of Excellence’ for showcasing excellence in higher education at the India-Africa ICT Summit (2017).
JIS University has been awarded for the Upcoming University/Higher Education Institute from Eastern India for recruiting
International Students at Geneva Switzerland by the Global India Education Forum 2018
Sardar Taranjit Singh, MD, JIS Group has been conferred the Mother Teresa International Award for outstanding
achievement and contribution in the field of Education.

1 April 2019 OutlOOk 27

 Q&
A
Sardar Taranjit Singh
Managing Director, JIS Group, Kolkata
For the greater good
JIS Group is instrumental in promoting inter-
religious faith through the Bengali version of
auspicious Shri Guru Granth Sahib amongst
the Bengali community across the country to
commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Shri
Guru Nanak Sahib Ji. A very special initiative to
promote inter- religious faith, unmatched by any
other institution in the country and so. This will
definitely create ripples in all the communities.
28 OutlOOk 1 April 2019
Q The event Kudrat Ke Sab Bande,
where former President of India
Shri Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated
the Bengali translation of Shri Guru
Granth Sahib, was very well
received. How did you get drawn
to the project?
When I came to know that Dada
Chellaram Publications has got the holy
book Shri Guru Granth Sahib
translated in 15 languages, I thought it
was an opportunity for me to do my bit
for spreading the message enshrine in
the book.
Based in West Bengal, I decided to
facilitate the publication of the Bengali
translation and ensure that the book
reaches many people. The publisher
wanted to put a price tag on the book
but I felt that it would be a deterrent for
promoting the book. So I decided that
JIS Group University will defray the cost
and ensure that the book reaches a large
number of people. I have created a
separate room in the University library
and kept the translated book with all the
respect it deserves. But anyone who
wants to read it, is most welcome to do
so. We thought it is also a nice way to
celebrate the 550th birthday of Shri
Guru Nanak Sahib Ji.
Q In today’s perspective, how
relevant is Shri Guru Granth
Sahib? Why will anyone outside
the Sikh religion want to read
the holy book?
Sikhism is one of the youngest religions
in the world. Compiled over a period of
350 to 500 years by various Sikh Gurus,
the book has a relatively more modern
outlook when compared with older
scriptures. Therefore, it is easier to get
answers to many of the problems that
assail us today. The holy book is the
Sadguru, the eternal living Guru, who
can guide you through life.
There is no restriction that you have
to be a Sikh to read the Shri Guru
Granth Sahib. You do not have to forego
your religion to read the book.
Considered as a holy book, it deserves
respect and anyone can read the book.
One of my friends is doing research
among the Sikhs living in Bihar. He
found that there are many non-Sikh
people who set great store by the
teachings of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib
and read it for spiritual sustenance.
 Today, all of us are searching for
answers. You want to know how the
future will plan out for you, you want
to know how your children will shape
up, you want a solution to any
particular problem in life – the holy
book can provide you with answers to
myriad problems.
Q How did the JIS Group begin
its journey? JIS Group has emerged
as the largest educational group in
Eastern India – when did you
decide to enter the education
sector?
My father arrived in Kolkata in 1948. He
was an entrepreneur. As my siblings and
I completed our studies, we joined our
father’s business. We moved from
strength to strength until it was around
1998 that we decided to enter the
education sector. I was already the
General Secretary of my alma mater,
Central Model School, which provided
me basic knowledge about the sector.
My father, Founder Chairman of JIS
Group, Sardar Jodh Singh, was always
keen about getting people educated. He
believed that the best way to advance
society is by fostering education and it
was at that moment that the dream and
vision of JIS Group Educational
Initiatives was conceived. We started
with Asansol Engineering College in
1998. As a joint venture project and JIS
College of Engineering in 2000 directly
under JIS Group Educational Initiative.
Q The JIS Group is present in
almost every branch of education
sector. Is that an indication that
the Group is keen on
diversification?
We came into the education sector in
West Bengal at a time when students
Based in West
Bengal, i
decided to
facilitate the
puBlication
of the Bengali
translation
and ensure
that the Book
reaches many
people.
were leaving the state for higher studies
elsewhere. We wanted to stem this brain
drain. And to do that it was necessary to
diversify into many branches so that no
student felt left out of opportunity to
study in their home state.
Q What is the present strength?
The Educational Initiative of JIS Group
runs 26 Institutions of higher education,
catering to nearly 35,000 students,
enrolled in 126 diverse academic
programmes. From play schools to public
schools, from engineering colleges to
hotel management institute to dental
college to pharmacy college etc., the
Group's Educational Initiatives are
committed to create an academic ground
for social, cultural, scientific, economic
and technological development nationally
and globally and aspire for excellence that
will bring the holistic development of our
society and mankind.
Q What is the Group’s
outlook on the education front?
We believe imparting the best
educational experience is only possible
under the dual nurturing of competency
and sense of responsibility within an
environment, favourable for encouraging
new ideas. Hence, we intend to build up
our facilities in a manner which helps in
continuing our momentum in varied
fields of education for all-round
development of students. We want to
instill a sense of commitment and values.
www.jisgroup.org and www.jisuniversity.ac.in
Q Do you offer career counselling
and campus placement
opportunities? How do you make
the students industry ready?
In our colleges and management
institutes, from day one, we offer
counselling and placement training.
Employment opportunities are reducing
day by day. So we emphasise on skill
development and entrepreneurial
thinking. We offer industrial training,
internship, placement, start-up and
incubation opportunities – in short,
every kind of help that students require
to go forward in life. We have corporate
tie ups to ensure that the students are
groomed properly.
Q Can you provide one example
of any special opportunity or a
process that you have introduced?
We have introduced the Flip Learning
facility back in 2017. This method of
learning is followed by many universities
abroad. Making classrooms effective and
interesting and redefining student
teacher relationship is the need of the
day in modern educational style and JIS
has always made every effort to
incorporate new ideas to the entire
training process.
Flip Learning bridges the gap
between students’ ability to consume
information and their ability to apply the
information that they have consumed in
a coherent and intelligent way.
Traditionally, students are taught in class
rooms, they take notes, go home and
study; if practical work is required, they
attend the lab separately at a different
time. In Flip Learning, we provide the
lesson plan and links to study the topic.
The students study the lesson before
arriving in class. When they come to
class, the students engage in group
discussions, thrash out the problems or
their queries with fellow students and
their mentor. They also engage in
practical lessons. Flip Learning, not
only saves the students’ time but also
helps them to learn each and every
topic in a more interactive and
immersive manner.
Q What is your message for the
readers, especially the millennials?
There is no shortcut in life. Work hard
and you are bound to succeed. Success
does not ride on shortcuts!
1 April 2019 OutlOOk 29
 VERTICAL LOOP
Fixed
Wings
Are Passe
At one point, India must
stop regarding China
solely through its staunch
support of Pakistan
by Pranay Sharma
T
HE National Day celebrations of
Pakistan on March 23 rarely
evoke interest among people
beyond the confines of its bor-
ders. However, reports of a set of
Chinese J-10 fighter jets’ arrival
in Islamabad for a fly-past, as part of
the celebrations, have forced India to
focus on its deeper significance.
The J-10 fighter jets are part of the
Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air
Force’s Bayi Aerobatic Team. It has per-
formed earlier in Balochistan in 2017.
But, trailing the slipstream of India-
Pakistan tension in the past month and
China’s recent action in the United
Nations at Pakistan’s behest, this year’s
acrobatic manoeuvres take place in a
piquant atmosphere.
Pakistan has been chafing under an
Indian diplomatic onslaught ever since
the Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed resp-
onsibility for the February 14 ‘fidayeen’
attack on a CRPF convoy that killed 40
personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s
Pulwama district.
30 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
Consequently, on February 27, India
carried out an airstrike deep inside
Pakistani territory in Balakot, where the
JeM’s training facilities were located.
When Pakistani fighter jets entered
Indian airspace the next day and tried to
target Indian military installations, they
were driven away by the Indian Air Force,
which lost a fighter jet after shooting
down a Pakistani F16. Troops on both
sides of the border have been put on high
alert ever since, marking yet another
sharp spike in tensions in bilateral ties.
This being the lurid backdrop of the
arrival of the PLA’s J-10 fighter jets in
Pakistan, what kind of signal does
Beijing intend to send, especially when
New Delhi is making all efforts to isolate
Islamabad at the international level?
Former national security advisor Shiv
Shankar Menon’s recent tweet (“Pick-
ing sides when tensions are high”)
about China’s decision to send the jets
seems to have added fuel to ongoing
speculation in India as to why and how
China is aiding Pakistan.
Indications suggest that apart from the
J-10 fighter jets, many other Chinese
defence platforms could also be on dis-
play at the Pakistani National Day parade
in Islamabad. Apart from being a close
ally, Pakistan offers a lucrative market for
the Chinese defence industry.
It thus can be cogently argued that des-
pite mounting international pressure on
Pakistan to act against terror groups
operating from its territory, its isolation
at the world stage appears to be far from
complete. Among others, Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammed,
who often championed closer ties amo-
ngst Islamic nations, is likely to attend as
the chief guest at the March 23 celebra-
tions. Besides, army contingents from
Saudi Arabia and Turkey will also be
joining Pakistani forces at the parade.
More than anything else, it is this latest
Chinese gesture that will be analysed in
the Indian foreign policy establishment.
An international initiative undertaken on
India’s behalf at the UN Security Council
on March 13 to list JeM founder Masood
Azhar as a “global terrorist” was thwarted
because China, for the fourth time, dec-
ided to put it on “technical hold”.
The anger in the Indian public domain

Photograph: AP
The Chinese air force’s Bayi
Aerobatic team in action
following the Chinese decision notwith-
standing, South Block was restrained in
its reaction to the development in New
York, describing it as “disappointing”.
Through the deafening clamour from
self-proclaimed experts on the need for
a tougher stand against China, seasoned
diplomats tried to look for reasons
behind Beijing’s mulish insistence on
coming to Islamabad’s rescue every
time it faces a crisis at the global stage
and, if possible, to find ways of weaning
it away from Pakistan.
The move to list Azhar as global terrorist
at the UN Security Council had the sup-
port of all other members in the 15-mem-
ber body but, as predicted by some, ran
into the brickwall of China’s veto power
as a permanent member.
 “I really fail to understand why China
wanted to go out on a limb in blocking
the move against Azhar when the inter-
national mood was so overwhelmingly
against it,” reacts a baffled former
Indian ambassador to China.
Many Indian experts however, came up
with a set of reasons, ranging from inter-
nal developments in China and the strong
links between the Chinese and Pakistani
armies, to the multi-billion dollar Chin-
ese investment in Pakistan to explain the
logic behind Beijing’s inflexible policy.
The closeness in Sino-Pakistan ties
had begun in the wake of the 1962
India-China boundary war. Over the
years, relations grew much stronger
(recall the role Pakistan played in bring-
ing about the Nixon-Mao summit in
1972), with widening cooperation on
various fronts. But the lynchpin of their
friendship lies in the strong bond bet-
ween the People’s Liberation Army
(PLA) and the Pakistan Army. This has
led senior PLA members to tradition-
ally play a key role in China’s Pakistan
policy. Masood Azhar and leaders of
other terrorist groups are valued assets
of the Pakistani military establishment
and the ISI, who use them at regular
intervals to hurt India.
Proscription of Azhar by the UNSC will
not only hurt the Rawalpindi establish-
ment, it will cause them to lose face inter-
nally, since the sworn enemy, India,
stands behind the ongoing international
initiative. China’s help was, therefore,
urgently needed to stymie the move.
In addition to this close geo-political
and economic alignment between China
and Pakistan, President Xi Jinping’s
various reforms within the Chinese
state may also have played a role in this
tight embrace of Pakistan. Xi’s anti-
China knows that
repeated use of the veto
to shield Azhar at the
UN hurts its image.
Indications are it may
soon relent on the point.
corruption drive in recent years had
targeted senior generals of the PLA and
brought its finances under close scrutiny.
Taking the pedal off the JeM and thus
slowing down the isolation of the
Pakistani army and its assets at the inter-
national stage could be a small price for
Xi to pay to keep both the PLA and the
Rawalpindi establishment happy.
T
HEN again, the obvious connect—
China has made heavy investments,
approximately around US $ 40-60
billion, in the China-Pakistan Eco-
nomic Corridor (CPEC), a key project
of Xi’s pet Belt and Road Initiative, and
it is natural for it to ensure the security
of the high-profile project. Since there
have been attacks on CPEC assets and
Chinese personnel working on it in the
past, a guarantee of their safety is para-
mount for China, and President Xi
needs the unwavering support of the
Pakistani army to ensure it.
If Beijing had joined the international
initiative against Azhar, it could have
alienated sections of the Pakistani army,
especially the ISI. Therefore, using its
veto to block Azhar’s proscription all-
ows President Xi to earn the gratitude
of Rawalpindi at a time it has been fac-
ing mounting pressure.
However, China also wants to be
regarded as a responsible global power.
It knows that using the veto repeatedly
to shield Azhar could also tarnish its
image. Indications from New York
suggest that soon China may lift its
‘technical hold’ and allow the UNSC to
put the JeM founder on its list of
global terrorists.
 For now, the presence of Chinese J-10
fighter jets in Islamabad is a reiteration
that irrespective of developments in
the UN, Sino-Pakistan ties are strong
and will remain so in the future.
After every strand of the Sino-
Pakistan relation is dissected thread-
bare, perhaps Indian policy planners
need to rethink and stop looking at
China through the Pakistan prism.
Instead, it may serve New Delhi far
better if it develops an independent
structure to evaluate Beijing. If that
happens, Sino-Indian relations may
turn into meaningful partnership—
much in the line of the Wuhan spirit,
where they are confident of each oth-
er’s presence and intent, with no third
party casting a baleful shadow. O
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 31
 REPORT BALLOON
by Lola Nayar

A
leading industry lobby recen­
tly came out with a feel­good
report claiming that the
micro, small and medium ent­
erprises (MSME) sector has
added up to 14.9 million jobs
annually in the past four years. This
suggests a 13.9 per cent increase in
net jobs created, or a 3.3 per cent
yearly growth over the study period.
But the optimistic figures have those
from within the MSME sector a trifle
puzzled. The scenario painted by the
industry lobby is contrary to the
ground reality. Even the government
had to acknowledge that MSMEs
were badly hit: In November last
year, the Centre had taken steps to
provide easier credit to bail out many
micro and small units that have been
languishing or are gasping to survive
for want of fresh capital.
“The CII data may well have captured
the shift of MSMEs from informal to MICRO STITCHES Inside
formal sector as there is no national a garment unit in Tiruppur
register that shows how many people

The Job Boom

were working and what has been the
growth in employment. It may well
be a perception report based on the
number of units now getting regis-
tered and moving from informal to
formal sector and taking this to project
employment growth,” says Animesh
Saxena, president of the Federation of
Indian Micro and Small and Medium
Enterprises (FISME).
In other words, there is no data on new
jobs, but more workers are now for-
mally registered which shows a spurt in
the number of employed people. The
shift from informal to formal sector is
borne out by the 10-12 per cent rise in
the number of MSMEs registered with
the FISME after the introduction of
GST. The lure of getting registered
under GST is the input credit such
companies can obtain. Another attrac-
tion is that registered companies are
able to avail themselves of easy govern-
ment loans and interest subvention
being provided to the MSME sector.
“The demonetisation has led to part
formalisation of informal sector which
is positive. Other MSMEs in the infor-
mal sector have ceased to exist. Yet,
two-and-a-half years later, the situation
would appear to have normalised,” says
René Van Berkel, the United Nations
The MSME sector has just about started to recover, but a
Industrial Development Organization workers in the MSME sector work at
(UNIDO) representative in India. that level. These units have limited ac-
Overall UNIDO observes a division of cess to institutional finance so they de-
MSMEs in two broad categories. The pend on the cash payments by companies
largest share falls within a group of suste- for which they undertake job work in a
nance (or sometimes lifestyle) businesses product manufacturing chain. “Mostly
that serve as an alternative to employ- it was a cash economy they were working
ment, are surviving but not able and not in. Because of the cash crunch and un-
aspiring to expand and grow their busi- certainty of when it would resume, a lot
ness. The others are market-oriented of people lost jobs or were not being
MSMEs that are professionally and for- paid,” says Saxena. “After three to four
ward looking in their management and months, some of these units started
thus continuously working to expand limping back but before they could
their business. stablise, the GST was
The MSME sector has introduced, creating
been languishing for the stress as a lot of people in
most part since demon- MSME clusters the supply chain were
etisation, which led to claim that it is not fully prepared for the
large number of job losses only in the past new tax regime...”
at the lower end of six months that MSME clusters claim
MSMEs, especially those that it is only in the past
working in tiny units, be-
things have six months that things
cause of cash crunch. normalised have normalised. The
Around 50 per cent of the for them. jobs that are being cre-

32 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 demonetisation and GST, glitches are still
to be fully ironed out, they have not had to
lay off workers as the automobile sector
has been more or less been on an even
keel. To tide over the cash crunch, many
units helped their staff open
bank accounts. This led to regu-
larisation of jobs of almost
THE FORM AL
30-40 per cent staff, admitted
HEALTH company owners, adding that
nal data on
There is no natio while there has been no layoffs,
in MSMEs
people employed there has also been no expan-
its both sion for the past three years.
MSMEs include un
informal
in the formal and A more positive narrative
sectors can be had from Tiruppur,
Post-GST, there
is an one of the largest textile
th e nu mber of clusters in the country. R.
increase in
ME s be ing reg istered Shanmugam, president of
MS
The Ce ntre’ s ea sy cre dit Tiruppur Exporters’ Asso-
MSMEs ciation, reveals their cluster
plan is also pushing
th e for ma l se cto r has seen a big turnaround
into
Recent rise in job -creation since 2011-12, when it was
capacity of micro
/small units struggling to sustain due to
global slowdown and poll-
ution-related problems.
After the infrastructure and pollution
issues were resolved, the Tiruppur clus-
ter has seen a big turnaround. “Where

On Paper
Tiruppur is concerned, jobs were gener-
ated between 2013 and 2017 as our turn-
over increased over three-folds from Rs
10,500 crore to Rs 45,000 crore which
resulted in our labour force increasing
from 2.5 lakh to around 6 lakh,” says
new report claims that things have been swell Shanmugam. “Despite demonetisation
and GST we did not see any noticeable job
ated are mostly in the informal sector (a MSMEs to grow and generate more losses in Tiruppur since the cluster itself
part of MSME) like in the case of job employment, “those forces clearly have is growing. Even now we see trainloads
workers who temporarily hire ad hoc not been in the favour of MSMEs. Partly and busloads of people from northern
workers for work. Such people also because of this crisis everybody got states coming for jobs in Tiruppur.”
engage people to work from home. Saxena alarmed about the MSMEs. I am glad Shanmugam is quick to state that
emphasises that FISME has “no data on the crisis has forced attention on things nearby industrial clusters were not as
such people. But in the formal sector or that may otherwise have been over- lucky as Tiruppur as demonetisation
larger manufacturing units we have not looked for a long time: the fact that and GST glitches put a lot of hardship
seen much job growth”. MSMEs are engines of growth and they on the MSME units. Recognising the
Arun Maira, chairman of the generate employment, and so on”. growth potential of MSMEs states such
Foundation for MSME Clusters, says UNIDO representative Berkel points as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chha-
growth of MSMEs depends on their out that overall the GST system has put ttisgarh and Odisha are offering incen-
ability to keep investing and lubricating further pressure on cash flows and fin- tives, including prefab structures and
their business with infusion of fresh ances of enterprises and this seems to easy credit for a quick start.
capital and that got badly affected hurt MSMEs most. “Many MSME thus On the jobs front one would have to
post-demonetisation. So MSMEs, par- face significant financing challenges. The study the period of comparison. As exp-
ticularly the micro and small units, are government is reaching out to assist with erts point out more jobs are probably
not growing the way they used to. “Many its MSME Outreach and Support Pro- being generated over the past six
say they have been stagnating while gramme (launched last November), but it months. But it is important to know
some claim they are on their deathbed,” seems too early to ascertain the impacts how many jobs the MSMEs were gener-
says Maira, who is a former member of thereof,” he stresses. ating five years ago, when it was defi-
the now-defunct Planning Commission. It is not all grim in the MSME sector as nitely more. If compared to two years
Maira says based on common sense auto parts units in Gurgaon and Faridabad back, when thousands of jobs were lost,
understanding of the forces that help point out that despite the turbulence of the picture now is bound to be rosier. O

1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 33

 B E N CH MARK OPINI ON
JOINING THE
PRADEEP BAISAKH &
AMITABH BEHAR SDG DOTS
The time for a piecemeal approach to sustainable development is long past
T
HE trajectory of development was redefined at the global
level with the adoption of Agenda 2030 (popularly known
as sustainable development goals, or SDGs) on September
25, 2015, by the UN General Assembly, which changed
the focus from ‘growth-centric’ to ‘sustainable, inclusive,
equitable and just’ development. PM Narendra Modi reiterated
India’s commitment to SDGs at the UN and other international
fora. But has it cut ice at the operational levels? NITI Aayog, the of SDGs, but they have not been thought through and the
nodal body envisioning and overseeing implementation, has
tried to identify existing policies and relate them to the targets. goals related to education, health and climate change have
There has been some visible involvement of states like Assam,
Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh—for instance, Chhattis-
garh’s Naya Raipur Declaration. Andhra Pradesh has an online
dashboard for real-time monitoring of
outcomes. The Union cabinet recently
approved a high-level steering commit-
tee for periodic review of the national
indicator framework for monitoring
the SDGs. Government sources suggest
framework has been finalised and will
be in the public domain after a go-ahead
from this committee. This would make
the achievement of SDGs measurable and
fix accountability.
A big shortcoming is that SDGs have not SDGs have not been
been aligned with budgetary allocations, aligned with budgetary
the most crucial factor for their execution. allocations, the most
So, while the National Health Protection
crucial factor for
Scheme covering 10 million families is
well in line with Agenda 2030’s goal no. 3 their execution.
(“ensuring healthy lives and promoting
well-being”), there has been “a strong policy shift...in the int-
erim budget 2019 towards insurance-based healthcare model
at the cost of weakening public health system”, according to the
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability. This is a
cause of worry. And, though the highest allocation of Rs 61,000
crore for the rural employment scheme, MGNREGA, has been
made in the revised estimates for 2018-19, the figure is not
encouraging when adjusted to inflation. Moreover, the direct
income support of Rs 6,000 a year for farmers is abysmal, given
the scale of distress. Allocations to and spending on flagship
social schemes such as food security and Beti Bachao in previ-
ous budgets have also drawn flak from experts and activists.
In the March 2018 Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable
Development (APFSD) in Bangkok, NITI Aayog vice-president
Rajiv Kumar claimed that Aadhaar has potential for successful
34 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
delivery of welfare with minimal leakage. In sharp contrast to
the claim, hunger deaths due to making Aadhaar mandatory for
accessing the public distribution system were reported from
Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh recently. And there has been no
serious attempt to popularise Aadhaar with mass awareness
drives and capacity-building measures among the key actors.
There have been some stand-alone initiatives for fulfilment
interconnectedness among the goals is not understood. Some
been cherry-picked, leaving behind important ones such as
reducing inequality and building a peaceful society. This
means the spirit of SDGs has not been comprehended and its
transformative aspects are absent in the
government’s actions. It is being seen
perhaps as just another framework to get
international attention.
The government claims India can
achieve the Paris agreement targets on
renewable energy generation before 2030,
but we have been ranked 177 among 180
nations on the 2018 environment perfor-
mance index in a report by Yale University
and the World Economic Forum. This is
despite launching the international solar
alliance with France, installation of solar
parks, creation of green energy corridors.
Regarding inequality, the recent OXFAM
India report suggests India’s wealthiest
got wealthier by 39 per cent even as wealth
of the bottom half of the population grew
by a mere 3 per cent over last year. All these call for urgent
actions towards realising SDGs, but the government ought to
understand that it cannot do it alone. This needs to be taken into
a campaign mode, just like the successful one for polio eradica-
tion. Partnership with civil society and other stakeholders
should be formalised along the lines of the APFSD, High Level
Political Forum and the South Asia Forum on Sustainable
Development. At the national level, something like a ‘National
Forum on Sustainable Development’ could be conceived for a
multi-stakeholder engagement and discussions involving civil
society should go all the way down to at the local bodies.
The time for rhetoric on sustainable development is over; it’s
time for concrete, visible and accountable actions. O
(Baisakh is Asia coordinator of Global Call to Action Against
Poverty and Behar is CEO of Oxfam India.)

DELAYED /CANCELLED
Unfair
Airfare
Spikes
The aviation sector is in the
midst of a meltdown; flights
grounded, tourism worst hit
by Jeevan Prakash Sharma
A
group of sixteen tourists from
Mexico—yes, Mexicans travel for
leisure too—landed in Delhi rec­
ently en route to Khajuraho, inv­
esting their hard­earned pesos
for a rendezvous with ancient Indian
erotica. But their connecting Jet Air­
ways flight via Varanasi was cancelled
at the last minute without a caveat.
The choice then was an Air India flight—
which flew on alternate days and its
fares were as inflated as a tortilla
stretched to the size of a sombrero.
Blowing hot like a jalapeño over the
unexpected turn of events, the mari­
achis abandoned their up close and
personal encounter with Kama Sutra
and returned home. “It threw their
plans and budget to the wind. A couple
of Australian tourists had a similar
experience and had to go back without
reaching their intended destinations,”
says Amit Prasad, CEO of tour opera­
tors Le Passage to India.
These examples reflect the current
state of India’s aviation sector,
which is besieged
with flight delays/
cancellations and
fares touching the
sky—forcing hun-
dreds of foreign and
domestic flyers to lose
precious time, money,
business opportunities
and much more. Most
tour operators portend
that the scenario will get
more critical during the
summer elections and vaca-
tions. “November to April is
42 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
WRITING ON THE BOARD Cancellation has become a recurring problem
considered peak season for foreign as
well as domestic tourists. Unfortunately,
the aviation crisis has hit this season,”
says Arun Anand, head of Midtown
Travels, which focuses largely on
Chinese visitors.
The reasons are clear. Of more than
700 aircraft operating in the country,
about 100 are grounded because of vari-
ous reasons, leading to the cancellation
of over 500 flights each day in the coun-
try. “As estimated 75,000 to 80,000 flyers
are affected every day. They are either
cancelling their trips or travelling on
expensive tickets in other available air-
lines,” says D. Sudhakara Reddy, founder
and national president of Air Passengers
Association of India (APAI), a non-profit
focusing on the rights, wellbeing and
welfare of air passengers.
Multiple factors have contributed to the
crisis. While Jet Airways and Air India are
caught up in a financial mess, Indigo and
GoAir are facing a shortage of crew.
SpiceJet, on the other hand, had to
ground all its 12 Boeing 737 MAX
planes following a government
ban in the wake of the recent
crash of an Ethiopian Airlines
plane of the same model that
killed all 157 on board. “The
closure of airspace in Pakistan
post-Pulwama contributed
to the crisis as many inter-
national tourists had to
change their flights bec-
ause of the time difference
of their connecting
flights from foreign loca-
tions,” says Rajeev
Kohli, the joint manag-
GETTY IMAGES
ing director of Creative Travel, a private
tour operator. He says situations like
grounding of Boeing 737 MAX and clo-
sure of airspace in Pakistan are events
classified as force majeure—beyond any-
one’s control—but most disruptions in
the domestic sector could be attributed to
the mess created by Jet Airways and
Indigo to which, he says, the government
has been a mute spectator.
Tour operators allege that Jet Airways
grew as a carrier connecting many ports
of tourism and overnight they removed
the critical flights. “The government
says it is the prerogative of the operators
to increase fares. However, we must rea-
lise that flying is no longer a luxury, but
an essential commodity today,” says
Kohli, adding that single way fare from
Delhi to Mumbai being anywhere bet-
ween Rs 20,000 and Rs 22,000 amo-
unted to profiteering and such fares
need to be capped. The Mumbai-Delhi
fare already surged 20 to 25 per cent
beginning February due to the closure of
Chhattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Inter-
national Airport for repairs between 11
am and 5 pm three days a week.
Passengers say airlines are trying to
minimise the inconvenience by refund-
ing the fare, accommodating them on
other planes or suggesting alternative
flights, but that’s not enough. People
familiar with the aviation sector call
Indian regulator, the Directorate Gen-
eral of Civil Aviation, weak. Reddy sug-
gests India needs something equivalent
of a ‘codeshare agreement’ prevalent in
Europe that lets a passenger of a can-
celled flight travel on another on the
same ticket without paying extra. O
 by Bhavna Vij-Aurora

I
T may seem like a bit of political
incongruity but Mayawati’s confid­
ant­in­chief is a Brahmin. Satish
Chandra Mishra, virtually number
two in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP),
has over the years emerged as the key
political advisor, election manager and
deal­maker for ‘Behenji’. The low­key
Mishra is said to have negotiated the
alliance with the Samajwadi Party
(SP). And it was on his counsel that
Mayawati vetoed the inclusion of
Congress in the grand alliance.
Both are chessboard moves that
will alter the voting patterns of
millions in Uttar Pradesh, with the
capacity to mould the very shape
of the 17th Lok Sabha one way or
the other. Not just potentially
game­changing strategic choices,
but acts that can impact India’s
political destiny way beyond their
immediate circumstance of birth.
COVER STORY And they emanated not entirely
from a supremo’s instincts, nor
the empty drums who rattle a lot

Who’s
on TV or Twitter, but a person
largely in the shadows. Not Akbar,
so to speak, but a silent Birbal. One
who mostly speaks only off­stage.
It’s a whole array of roles and
functions that they fill out. From

That
number­crunchers to SWOT analysts,
speechwriters to henchmen, fixers
and Man Fridays and troubleshooters,
OSDs and secretaries, mere factotums,
or even full­blooded political animals
who can read the winds and talk across

Man
party lines. In election season, the art
of behind­the­scenes politics is
perhaps more vital than the populist
public rhetoric of leaders. The latter
germinates in the backrooms, the real
lab. This is where public manoeuvres

?
are conceived and fine­tuned, this is
where the hotlines buzz, where allies,
potential allies and even enemies
come calling. This backstage needs
people who have a clear periscope to
possible futures, and words flexible
enough to realise them.
But for a leader, Mayawati or any
Indira Gandhi had R.K. Dhawan. Rajiv had other, it’s unspoken loyalty and
complete discretion that are the
his elite cabal. But the ‘backroom boys’ of most valued qualities in an aide.
Mishra, a lawyer by profession,
the 21st century are an evolving species. ticked these and much more. He
was taken into the fold to expand

44 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 the BSP’s catchment area beyond its predominantly Dalit base. who served as media advisor to Manmohan Singh till 2008,
After sharing power in UP in uneasy alliances with the SP and differentiates this role from that of the traditional ‘backroom
then the BJP, Mayawati tasted full majority only in 2007. The boy’. “Media advisors are professionals in the PMO. Someone
highlight of her victory: the seemingly incongruent addition of like Dhawan was a more political person,” he says. But he says
Brahmin votes to a ‘Dalit party’, the ‘Haathi nahi Ganesh hai’ his interactions with the media would flow back as inputs.
phase…. Mayawati’s razor­sharp political brain was at work “The main benefit of such information is that it may not be
there, but soon she found another mind that could share the available to the PM through official channels like IB, RAW and
burden of tactical thinking on her behalf. He became perhaps the bureaucracy,” he tells Outlook. But 2008, of course, was
the only ‘Chanakya’ to figure in the WikiLeaks revelations. The another era. The blooming of digital media platforms now calls
documents described him as “fluent in English and…the for a different kind of ‘backroom boy’.
principal interlocutor between the US Embassy and the BSP”. The BJP, way faster in adapting to the new epoch, relies on a
Indira Gandhi, back in the day, didn’t need to outsource her whole parallel world of social media generals and footsoldiers.
English, but an utterly loyal shadow was a total must for one But yes, the old­world manoeuvring skills of the late Pramod
who did not trust people easily. In fact, she came to acquire a Mahajan, Arun Jaitley (often monikered as the ‘Chief of
few—R.K. Dhawan, M.L. Fotedar and P.N. Haksar. “All three Bureau’ for his media management) and, more recently, Amit
were family loyalists and contributed to the making of Indira’s Shah are still critical. Alliance­making (and breaking), forging
iron lady image. Fotedar and Haksar, both Kashmiri Pandits, industry links, steering legal strategies, coordinating between
had worked closely with Nehru too,” recalls a senior Congress HQ and the grassroots—take a Ram Madhav, a Piyush Goyal or
leader. In her Pandit cabal, there were also P.N. Dhar and D.P. a Bhupendra Yadav filling out these roles. Madhav’s hand was a
Dhar. But it was Dhawan, a stenographer in Nehru’s office, who significant one in swinging the Northeast for the BJP. He, in
“rose to become the most important person in her PMO”. turn, was helped by his own team of strategists that included a
The trust quotient, and deficits thereof, backroom girl, Shubhrastha, who made
make for fascinating portraits even in Assam her home for over a year in the
such rarefied spaces. Dhawan was Their imprint isn’t run­up to the assembly elections.
Indira’s ‘gatekeeper’ during the Emer­ Part of the growing tribe of professional
gency, instructing mantris and mukhya
often recognised. strategists, she started out with Prashant
mantris alike. T.V. Rajeswar, the IB chief But whether the Kishor, the pioneer, in 2013 and was part
those days, wrote in his book that it was Man Friday in the of a volunteer outreach that turned the
Dhawan who informed him about his shadows or political media image of Narendra Modi. “Our
appointment. However, the shrewd grandmasters or role is very fluid. We could be flowing
Indira didn’t allow him to exercise from one vertical to another—from data
unrestrained power either: Fotedar was
digital generals, they analytics to social media outreach one
deployed as a foil to him. If it was are vital to the plot. day, strategising on communication the
Dhawan who carried the Emergency next. Though I’ve taken a definite
proclamation to President Fakhruddin political position that’s closer to being
Ali Ahmed for his signature, Fotedar was one of the two anti­Congress, parties are looking for professionals, not
witnesses to her will. Fotedar was a kindly avuncular presence necessarily loyalists,” she tells Outlook.
even for Rajiv and later Sonia Gandhi, who even referred to There’s another kind of professional layer. M.R. Madhavan,
him as ‘Chanakya’. He was one of the strategists, along with founder of PRS Legislative Research, says MPs and MLAs also
Pranab Mukherjee and the late Arjun Singh, who gave shape to need proper research support. “An elected MP/MLA is like a
the UPA coalition that managed to end the Vajpayee era and CEO of a company looking after his constituency. They need
rule for a decade. Haksar, Indira’s principal secretary from research inputs and analysis…we provide them that assistance,”
1967 to 1972, advised her on bank nationalisation, and played a he says. PRS runs the LAMP fellowship that offers a platform
vital backroom role during all the frenetic strategising during for young Indians to engage with policy­making at a national
the 1971 war that ended with the creation of Bangladesh. level. A selected Fellow gets to work with a MP for almost a
Dhawan isn’t the only stenographer to inveigle himself into year. “This benefits the MPs and gives bright young people an
the inner circle of the Gandhis. Vincent George, though not in opportunity to get into politics. Many of our LAMP fellows
the same league as Dhawan, was first with Rajiv and then came now work with leaders and joined their party,” says Madhavan.
to wield a disproportionate amount of power as Sonia’s PA—till It’s still a subsidiary role, says Ashwini Anand, a political
he was investigated by CBI for, well, disproportionate assets. consultant­turned­tech entrepreneur. “High­calibre consult­
Though finally discharged, he lost the proximity and the ants can help bring a certain efficiency to the execution of any
borrowed eminence. Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who campaign. But they should be viewed, at best, as Gandiva bows
served as Sonia’s political advisor proper, has now managed to to the Arjunas, rather than Arjunas themselves,” he says—they
survive in Team Rahul too, after some discomfiting moments. can’t swing an election on their own. “Ultimately, it’s not social
Over the years, the media managers of leaders also emerged media campaigns or PowerPoint presentations but the ability
as important backroom boys—doing as much of a crucial job of the politician to connect....” But it’s a zone of mobility:
behind closed doors as in the public, though in a less potent subsidiary, maximally, can also yield an Amit Shah, who has
role. Indira had the erudite H.Y. Sharada Prasad, part of whose risen from a satrap’s confidant to near­potentate. Scan the
skills lay in knowing when to stay in the shadows and when to snapshots of India’s unknown regional Chanakyas in these
emerge with the right amount of information. Sanjaya Baru, pages carefully: you could be looking at a future kingmaker. O

1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 45

 COVER STORY
AKHILESH YADAV
Advisors Rajendra Chaudhary
and Kiranmoy Nanda
The SP chief is flanked by two veteran wellwishers
on either side as well as a talented, young team
“owing to socialist connections” but was edged out by the
W
HEN “UP Ke Ladke” Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul
Gandhi failed to stop the Narendra Modi jugger-
naut in the 2017 assembly elections, it is 65-year-
old Rajendra Chaudhary (in pic above with
Akhilesh) who advised the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief to
focus on the caste maths. “Idealism is good but if it doesn’t
get you in a position where you can practice it, what’s the
point,” Chaudhary is believed to have told the young
leader. This is how the seeds of SP’s formidable alliance
with its arch-rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party, were sown.
The SP-BSP mahagathbandhan has now become an
example for other opposition parties to emulate.
Soft-spoken Chaudhary is modest and credits Akhilesh
for the alliance. “It was completely Akhilesh’s idea. He was
willing to start afresh with Behenji (Mayawati). A united
front was necessary to fight the BJP,” he tells Outlook.
Chaudhary is SP’s national spokesman and has emerged
as Akhilesh’s chief political adviser. Chaudhary, an MLC,
has also been close to Mulayam Singh
Yadav, and worked with him for over
three decades. He has served as a
minister under both father and son.
If Chaudhary was responsible for
Akhilesh’s game-changing decision, it
is SP’s national vice president
Kiranmoy Nanda, who is in charge of
stitching up alliances beyond the BSP
to unite the Opposition against the
BJP. A former minister in West
46 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
Photographs: NAEEM ANSARI
Bengal’s Left Front government, Nanda is often seen as an
enigma in UP politics. Old timers in SP say that Nanda is
to Akhilesh what Amar Singh was to Netaji (Mulayam).
Nanda represented the young SP chief in Calcutta recently
as he joined Mamata Banerjee in her sit-in to protest the
CBI action against the city police commissioner. Like
Chaudhary, Nanda too worked very closely with Mulayam
more aggressive fundraiser Amar Singh. Nanda left the SP
in 1997, but returned after Singh was thrown out.
Akhilesh has also built his own team of young loyalists
over the years. This includes former IIM-Ahmedabad
professor Abhishek Mishra, 42, an expert in strategy and
innovation, and Ashish Yadav, who handles Akhilesh’s
media management. Mishra, who did his PhD in strategy
and marketing from Cambridge University, is responsible
for the SP’s image makeover—from the perceived
rowdy-goonda party to a development-oriented one.
Advising Akhilesh on education policies, he was responsi-
ble for getting investors to Lucknow.
While Mishra doesn’t mind the limelight, Ashish, 41,
prefers to keep a low profile. A member of the larger Yadav
clan, he is Akhilesh’s childhood buddy. He’s said to be a
minefield of information—remembers each and every
word uttered by Akhilesh or Yadav senior at any public
meeting or written about them.
But Akhilesh’s ‘best’ adviser is at home—wife Dimple.
She is believed to be his sounding
board and confidante on most issues.
“She is intuitive and bhaiya (Akhilesh)
often jokes that he ends up regretting
whenever he doesn’t listen to her. He
has taken her advice on many
women-related policies and promised
pressure cookers to poor woman
voters at her insistence,” reveals a
party leader. O
Bhavna Vij-Aurora
K. CHANDRASEKHARA RAO
Advisor Kancherla Keshava Rao
The TRS general secretary’s long years in politics
make him KCR’s go-to man in times of crisis
T
HE wide appeal of Telangana
chief minister K. Chandrase-
khara Rao is complemented
by a few trusted ministers in
the party backroom. Kancherla
Keshava Rao, or KK, as he is fondly
called, is the most visible among
them—and the most effective, if
party sources are to be believed.
His persuasive skills proved to be
of great help to KCR during the
final push for a separate Telangana
state to be hived off Andhra
Pradesh, when the Congress-led
UPA ruled the Centre. Keshava
Rao is instrumental in restraining
KCR from merging the party with
the Congress immediately after
the bifurcation of Telangana was
ratified in the Parliament in 2014.
It is said that he convinced KCR
with the argument that people will
not forgive him if the party is
merged with the Congress.
It is in a sense ironic that Rao
became one of the protagonists of
the Telangana movement. He was
an integrationist when the first
separate statehood movement was
spearheaded by stalwart Marri
Chenna Reddy in 1967. But as the
idea of separate state increasingly
appeared to become a political
reality, he shifted his position. In
fact, in 2013, Rao quit the Con-
gress to join the Telangana
Rashtra Samithi (TRS) when the
Congress did not meet the
deadline to take a decision on the
creation of Telangana.
In assembly polls following the
formation of the new state, KCR
appointed Rao as the chairman of
the election manifesto drafting
committee. And, the astounding
victory that the party registered is
for everyone to see.
Rao is the general secretary of
the TRS and is the second in
command in the party. He was
elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014
for a six-year term.
Sources close to KCR say that it
PTI
was Rao, who advised him to lobby
with other parties for a ‘federal
front’ after the 2019 polls, so as to
be prepared in case the BJP-led
NDA falls short of a majority to
form the next government.
KCR’s ‘Chanakyas’ include son K.
Taraka Rama Rao and Santosh
Kumar, a close relative. Kumar
looks after the micro-level political
issues, while the son has the tech
bit on his watch. All these men and
many more are working towards
achieving the party’s target—win-
ning all 16 Lok Sabha seats in the
state, which will leverage KCR’s
role nationally in case the BJP fails
to get a majority. O
M.S. Shanker
N. CHANDRABABU NAIDU
Advisor Yanamala
Ramakrishnudu
The Andhra CM puts his trust
in his understated ministers
T
HE bureaucracy was Nara Chandrababu
Naidu’s most proactive guides in govern-
ance when the Telugu Desam Party
leader ruled the undivided state of Andhra
Pradesh for two consecutive terms from
1994. He was so dependent on the bureau-
crats that he was even snidely called Babus’
Babu. “That’s not the case after the state’s
bifurcation in 2014 (when Naidu returned to
power),” says a close aide. Then again,
Naidu may have unfastened the grip of the
babus, but he has now been accused of ig-
noring the political advice of his seasoned
colleagues and encouraging his inner circle
with a coterie of magnates from the corpo-
rate and infrastructure worlds. The allega-
tion cannot be independently verified.
Naidu’s core team includes C. Kutumba
Rao, a stock broker on financial matters,
and Hari Prasad, who handles IT—a signa-
ture area of the chief minister whose tech
obsession has earned him the moniker
Cyberbabu. Sources close to Naidu say
Hari Prasad convinced the chief minister
that tampering of EVMs was possible, a
subject the TDP had raised in various plat-
forms. Naidu, along with other non-NDA
representatives, has filed a fresh appeal
before the Election Commission over the
possibility of faulty EVMs. Hari Prasad
has since been made the Andhra Pradesh
government’s IT department CEO.
For political advice, Naidu relies heavily on
those who keep a low profile such as state
finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu
and Kala Venkat Rao. In fact,
Ramakrishnudu is a trusted lieutenant bec-
ause of his long association with the TDP—
he won the Tuni assembly seat six times
since the formation of the party in 1982,
losing only in 2009 and 2014. Naidu’s got
him into his cabinet as an MLC. O
M.S. Shanker
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 47
 COVER STORY

E.K. PALANISWAMI
Advisors S.P. Velumani
and P. Thangmani
The two Manis fully shaped
AIADMK’s alliances; they are
the CM’s ears and hands

T
HEY are called the Mani twins. And they
operate in tandem. Trouble-shooting,
negotiations, deal-making, alliances…
they test the waters before decision-mak-
ers step in and seal deals. They are Tamil
Nadu’s municipal administration minister
S.P. Velumani (in pic, left) and electricity
minister P. Thangmani (in pic, right), both
hailing from the Gounder community like
CM E.K. Palaniswami—a reason why EPS
trusts them. If the AIADMK took the DMK
M.K. STALIN
by surprise by allying with the PMK, the
credit should go to the two Manis, for they
Advisor Sabareesan
had opened channels with PMK leader S. From curating Stalin’s youthful image to lending
Ramadoss months ago through a common
friend, realising that the pragmatic leader digital muscle, Sabareesan is an engine driving DMK
was open to an alliance with the AIADMK in

spite of being a critic of the government.
Realising that the PMK’s presence was
needed to win in the north, the duo gave in
to its demands of seven LS seats and a RS
seat…but only if the PMK supported
AIADMK candidates in the assembly bypolls,
as those were crucial for the government.
With PMK and BJP on board, the Manis
started to work on the DMDK; when Vijay-
kanth’s brother-in-law Sutheesh was fixed
on getting the same terms as PMK, they
gave him a deadline and cut off further
talks, knowing he would return. Finally, the
DMDK meekly accepted four seats.
The Manis also stepped in to repair the
frosty ties between Ramadoss and
Vijaykanth, and convinced the former to
call on Captain and break the ice. Result:
PMK has promised that their cadres
would work for DMDK candidates with
sincerity. All along the negotiations,
Velumani and Thangmani ensured that
EPS retained his pre-eminence, and would
only make a final appearance, for the final
formalities. O —G.C. Shekhar
A
year before the 2016 Assembly elections, M.K. Stalin, then DMK
treasurer, embarked on a public outreach programme titled
Namakku Naamey (We for Ourselves). In a cleverly tailored tour of
the state, Stalin travelled to small towns and villages, often eschew-
ing his usual dhoti-shirt garb for trousers and T-shirts, often on a cycle or
two-wheeler, or on a bus. He met common folk and heard out their
grievances at town hall meetings, even on a one-to-one basis. All this was
aimed at young voters, presenting Stalin as a next-gen leader.
The tour footage was uploaded on Stalin’s social media accounts, packag-
ing him as a popular leader in his own right, and not just as heir apparent
of M. Karunanidhi. The entire show was orchestrated by Sabareesan (in
pic, right), Stalin’s son-in-law. An IT engineer, Sabareesan realised the
need to leverage digital media after Narendra Modi’s success in 2014.
Sabareesan is the man behind Stalin’s stand-out presence on social media.
Not just this, Sabareesan got a team of data crunchers to analyse
assembly seats before the 2016 polls, often shortlisting candidates.
Though the DMK failed to win, it performed strongly, let down only by
the weak show by its ally, the Congress. “There was a mere one per cent
difference in voteshare between the AIADMK and DMK. In fact, the
DMK won more seats than the AIADMK in direct contests,” points out
a senior DMK legislator.
Soon, Sabareesan emerged as the man to approach if one needed to
have Stalin’s ear, more so after he became DMK president after
Karunanidhi’s demise. Sabareesan’s out-of-the box thinking was on
display when he recently convinced Stalin to hold “gram sabhas” in
villages to increase DMK’s rural footprint.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Sabareesan and his team have
drawn up the DMK battle plan. They are for younger candidates, even
if they were children of DMK leaders. Though it risks the usual charge,
Sabareesan felt that the change of guard should happen with the
blessings of seniors who would work overtime. Unlike Stalin’s son
Udayanidhi, Sabareesan has no political ambition. He remains an
important cog in Stalin’s inner circle—proven when he accompanied
his father-in-law to his meeting with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in New
Delhi in December 2018. O —G.C. Shekhar

48 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

NAVEEN PATNAIK
Advisor V.K. Pandian
A low-key IAS officer whose influence over the
taciturn Odisha CM is unparalleled
“H
OW is it that an officer has
come to acquire so much
power?” Prime Minister
Narendra Modi is reported
to have asked an Odia dignitary
once during a visit to an eastern
state. A sizeable section of Odias
too speculate in similar vein about
the clout that V. Karthikeyan
Pandian, Odisha chief minister
Naveen Patnaik’s private secretary,
has seemingly come to wield in the
state. But there is good reason why
the longest-serving private
secretary of Odisha’s longest-serv-
ing chief minister is considered
the second most powerful person
SANJIB MUKHERJEE
in the state.
Rarely seen in public and heard
even less, the 2000-batch IAS
officer from a family of modest
means in Tamil Nadu is thought to
be the eyes and ears of the Odisha
chief minister. Patnaik has always
relied on bureaucrats more than
ministers and MLAs to run the
affairs of the state, but no official
has ever been the subject of
intense animated discussions as
Pandian has been. Occupying a
room at the end of a long corridor
on the chief minister’s floor of the
state secretariat, Pandian’s office
is the farthest from that of the
chief minister. But he is the closest
to Patnaik. He sits at every
meeting and does most of the
talking with the normally reticent
chief minister staying quiet.
A fitness freak and a long-dis-
tance runner, Pandian starts his
day at 4.30 am and almost
instantly immerses himself in
planning and plotting Patnaik’s
moves, sending out directives on
the relatively more secure
Telegram messaging service. Since
becoming Patnaik’s aide in 2011,
he has come to control access to
the chief minister and now decides
who Patnaik meets or what he
hears. That he is not keeping
well and is less agile has
forced Patnaik to lean more
on Pandian. No wonder
politicians, including
cabinet ministers, queue up
before Pandian’s room for
an audience. Even bureau-
crats, many of them senior
to Pandian, are reverential
towards him, with a former
DGP going as far as to
publicly bow before Pandian
every time they met.
Though no conclusive proof
has yet emerged, Pandian’s
influence today is said to ext-
end to media management,
and even the affairs of the ruling
Biju Janata Dal (BJD), with party
spokespersons taking their brief-
ings from him. It has caused heart-
burn and triggered a few high-pro-
file exits from the party, including
that of Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, who
accused the IAS officer of seizing
control of the BJD. Several other
leaders have also cited Pandian’s
unmatched influence as an affront
to Odia pride even though the
officer is married to an Odia IAS col-
league. For the time being though,
Pandian enjoys Patnaik’s trust and
his position looks secure. O
Sandeep Sahu
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 49
 COVER STORY

TEJASHWI YADAV
Advisor Sanjay Yadav
From a multinational firm to the rough and
tumble of Bihar politics and Laloo’s ideology

I
N the run-up to the 2015 assembly polls in Bihar, a
young man named Sanjay Yadav rushed to Laloo
Prasad Yadav one morning to show him Mohan
Bhagwat’s statement on the need to review the
reservation policy. Sensing an opportunity to make the
most of it, the RJD president asked Sanjay to post the
RSS chief’s remarks on his Twitter handle. The ensuing
controversy turned out to be a trump card for the RJD,
with Laloo accusing the BJP-led NDA of pursuing a
hidden agenda to abolish caste-based quotas. It was, in
fact, Sanjay who had first visualised the possibility of
turning Bhagwat’s opinion into the RJD’s electoral plank.
Haryana-born Sanjay was working with a multinational
firm when he first met Laloo’s son Tejashwi Yadav when
the latter was playing for Delhi Daredevils in the IPL. He
moved to Patna barely months before the polls at
Tejashwi’s behest to work as an election strategist for the
RJD, which had faced a series of electoral reverses since
being ousted from power in Bihar in 2005. The RJD was
part of the mahagathbandhan with the JD-(U) and the
Congress, but hardly anyone outside the inner circle of
Laloo’s party knew Sanjay or his work. The spotlight shone
on him only after the RJD emerged as the largest party in
the polls. He had worked hard behind the scenes to make
the party’s buzz felt across all media, especially in the
Photographs: SONU KISHAN
social network where it had negligible presence. From
setting up the RJD’s official website to convincing Laloo to
have a Twitter handle, he worked around the clock to
expand the party’s reach despite limited resources and
manpower. Armed with data from all 243 assembly
constituencies in Bihar, he also helped refurbish the
party’s image, chalk out election strategies, identify key
issues and even zero in on prospective candidates.
A firm believer in Laloo’s ideology and now political
advisor to Tejashwi, Sanjay is busy formulating strategies
to enable the RJD-led alliance win the maximum number
of seats in the general elections. A quintessential back-
room boy doing his job without fanfare, this election’s
outcome will decide whether he deserves a better moniker
than ‘RJD’s Prashant Kishor’. O
Giridhar Jha

NITISH KUMAR 1990s when he picked the UP-cadre bureau-

Advisor R.C.P. Singh
More trusted than Prashant Kishor
2015 assembly elections after playing a key
role in bringing together foes Nitish and
RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav for the
first time in 20 years.
Today, RCP, as Singh is popularly known,
handles key matters of the organisation
such as election strategies and smooth
coordination with the allies, besides keeping
tabs on the state government’s welfare
schemes. If RCP still gives the impression
of being a hard-nosed bureaucrat rather
crat to be his private secretary. Of course,
they belonged to the same caste (Kurmi)
and the same ancestral district (Nalanda) in
Bihar, but it was RCP’s managerial skills
and understanding of grassroots politics
that ultimately endeared him to Nitish.
Above all, he proved to be a Nitish loyalist
to a fault. When Nitish became CM in 2005,
he got RCP repatriated to Bihar from his
parent cadre and appointed him his principal
secretary, a post he held until he formally
joined politics. Two years ago, he was ele-
vated to the party leader’s post for the
Rajya Sabha after Sharad Yadav was dis-
qualified due to his differences with Nitish.
In 2014-15, RCP’s deft handling of JD-(U)
MLAs in the face of a rebellion by then CM

R
AMCHANDRA Prasad Singh is a man of
few words who shuns the limelight. But
beneath the veneer of a reticent persona
lies sharp political acumen. For more than
two decades, he has been Bihar CM and JD-
(U) president Nitish Kumar’s Man Friday—
more trusted, perhaps, than the high-profile
Prashant Kishor, who had a meteoric rise in
JD-(U) since his innovative campaign for the
. mahagathbandhan against the NDA in the
than a pliant neta, it’s not without reason.
The 60-year-old Rajya Sabha member was
in the IAS for 26 years before Nitish per-
suaded him for a deep dive into rajneeti. In
2010, the 1984-batch IAS officer took volun-
tary retirement to become the JD-(U)’s
Rajya Sabha MP and has since emerged the
second most powerful leader in the party.
Nitish was a Union minister in the Atal
Behari Vajpayee government in the late
Jitan Ram Manjhi after Nitish’s resignation
underlined his art of political manoeuvring.
Similar expertise was on display again
when Nitish walked out of Laloo’s maha-
gathbandhan to join forces with the BJP in
2017. Proximity to Nitish has also earned
him accusations of corruption, nepotism
and casteism from within the party. But he
is apparently answerable to only one man. O
Giridhar Jha

.
. 50 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

MEHBOOBA MUFTI
Advisors Waheed-Ur-Rehman Parra and Naeem Akhtar
In Parra and Akhtar, Mehbooba has energy and wisdom by her side
I
N December 2018,
around six months
after the break-up
of the PDP- BJP
government, Meh-
booba Mufti visited
Patipora village in
south Kashmir’s
volatile Pulwama.
There, she expressed
solidarity with members of a
militant’s family who were “merci-
lessly beaten” by the police. Though
the Opposition accused her of being
sympathetic to militants, Mehbooba
was adamant. The suggestion for
the visit had come from the PDP’s
youth leader Waheed-ur-Rehman
Parra (pic inset). It proved a turning
point—Mehbooba drew confidence
from the visit, spoke up oftener and
signalled a PDP fightback. In May
2015, Mehbooba nominated Parra
as the president of the party’s youth
wing. A month later, then chief
minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed
appointed him political analyst in
the CM’s office. During the next few
years the leadership came to heed
Parra’s suggestions; the 30-year-old
from Naira village of Pulwama is
now in Mehbooba’s inner circle.  ing the party after the dissolution of
As sports council secretary, Parra
earned the praise of Union home
minister Rajnath Singh; he engaged
around 1,20,000 youth in sports
activities across J&K in 2017. When
a photo of 21-year-old footballer
Afshan Ashiq hurling stones at
security forces became viral, Parra
persuaded the police to not file an
FIR. Afshan became captain of
Photographs: JAVED AHMAD
J&K’s first women’s
football team.
Recently, along
with some Hurriyat
leaders, Parra too
had his security
withdrawn by the
Centre. Last year, he
survived an assassi-
nation attempt by
militants. Parra, however, says he
is a “foot-soldier of the party”.
Another man in Mehbooba’s inner
counsel is her political advisor
Naeem Akhtar (in pic, top), who is
from Bandipora. He is known as
‘PDP’s Chanakya’. He was minister
of education and later that of roads
and building, besides being
spokesman during the PDP-BJP
government. Akhtar has not fought
any polls—something his many
detractors within the PDP point out.
However, during the combustible
days of the 2016 uprising, Akhtar
was the only minister who spoke on
behalf of the PDP, almost defending
the indefensible. His staunch
support of Mehbooba and the PDP
has been requited amply. When
senior PDP leaders started desert-
the alliance with the BJP, often
citing Akhtar’s ‘overbearing’
presence, Mehbooba told them
clearly that she wouldn’t sack him. A
newspaper columnist, Akhtar is
known for his facile, acid-tipped pen.
If the PDP sees a resurgence in
popularity, much of the credit would
go to Akhtar and Parra. O
Naseer Ganai
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 51
 COVER STORY
HIMANTA BISWA SARMA
Aide Taranga Gogoi
The BJP’s talisman in the Northeast
practically runs his own show, says
his confidante of 20 years
T
HE story of Himanta Biswa Sarma’s famous fall-out
with Congress president Rahul Gandhi—who was
allegedly busy feeding his dog ‘Pidi’ when they met
at his Delhi residence—is now part of Assam’s
political folklore. Shortly after walking out of the
Congress in 2015, Sarma joined the BJP; and within a few
years he has firmly entrenched himself as one of the key
strategists of the saffron party in the Northeast, success-
fully pushing the Congress out of power in the region.
Congress leaders and critics may
see Sarma, 50, as an opportunist
ready to change ideologies for his
political survival. But for those who
admire the wily leader, he is a master
craftsman who chisels his fortunes
on the hard granite of politics. And
among those who hold the Assam
minister in high esteem is his close
confidante for nearly 20 years,
Taranga Gogoi, the vice president of
the state BJP’s youth wing.
Gogoi, 34, is designated to look after
Sarma’s social media and provide
political coordination. But for all
practical purposes, the minister is his
52 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
own man, verifying every tweet or Facebook
post before they are sent out to his legions of
followers. Sarma is one of the most visible
political faces on Twitter from the region.
Gogoi and Sarma has been a team for over
two decades, though the youth leader sees
himself only in a supporting role to the BJP
talisman in the Northeast. “He is a super-
man,” says Gogoi about Sarma, who cut his
political teeth as a student leader in Cotton
College, Guwahati. Legend has it that Sarma
was introduced to the people by former
Assam minister and student leader, late
Bhrigu Kumar Phukan, at a public rally.
Years later, in 2001, Sarma defeated Phukan
to enter the assembly for the first time as a
Congress MLA. Since then he has won four
consecutive times from the Jalukbari
constituency in Guwahati.
Gogoi says Sarma is a workaholic, sleeping
only three-four hours in a day. “Even we get tired working
with him but not him. He would continue to work through
the day and even in the evening and night. He personally
replies to all the messages on his favourite iPad...be it text
message, WhatsApp or email. He would reply to every-
body...he would read all the messages,” Gogoi adds.
Besides, the state finance minister remembers thousands
of names of people in his constituency. Sarma, father of a
son and a daughter, also plays badminton in the evenings.
“We need to work extra hard to
match his energy and work ethics.
That’s a challenge every time. We
never had to guide him on what he
would say at meetings or rallies. Very
rarely, we give him information on
some local areas if we happen to travel
for some political meetings,” Gogoi
says. “Now, it’s become a brotherly
relationship. He trusts me and at the
same time, I need to stand up to his
expectations,” Gogoi adds. Apart from
Gogoi, there are others like Gautam
Prasad and Naba Patgiri who are part
of Sarma’s inner circle. O
Abdul Gani
MAMATA BANERJEE
Aides Subrata Bakshi, Firad Hakim, Chandrima Bhattacharya
The Trinamool supremo has a group of close aides who
guide her on matters of elections and governance
E
PANG opang jhopang,
reads a limerick penned
by Trinamool Congress
supremo and West
Bengal chief minister
Mamata Banerjee. The
words are gibberish but in
the book of rhymes for
children called Ajob Chhora
they are meant to be
precisely that. The limerick,
perhaps, opens a window to
the workings of the
maverick leader who appear
to seek order in the chaotic
world of Bengal politics. Or
look for a common thread in
the diverse voices of her inner
coterie, to guide the Trinamool
Congress through the hurly burly of
governance and elections.
Every evening, as Banerjee—most
prefer to address her as Didi—retu-
rns to her Kalighat home in south
Calcutta, the Trinamool boss’s
backroom men and women troop in
one by one. But before all that, her
Man Friday for many years, Manik
Majumdar, 75, comes in with a
piping hot cup of her favourite
Darjeeling tea and ‘jhalmuri’—
puffed rice garnished with onions
and green chillies.
Majumdar switches on the
television for Banerjee, who loves
watching Bengali TV serials; she
surfs the channels in between
commercial breaks to catch up with
the latest national and international
news. Prominent among those who
attend the late evening discussion
include party national general
secretary Subrata Bakshi (in pic),
Calcutta mayor and fellow cabinet
colleague Firad ‘Bobby’ Hakim and
her nephew Abshishek. Also in
attendance is TMC women’s wing
chief and state minister Chandrima
Bhattacharya, the only women
member in the party’s candidate
selection committee, and Mala Roy,
a constant companion of Mamata
and chairperson of the Kolkata
SANDIPAN CHATTERJEE
Municipal Corporation, who has
replaced Bakshi as the party
candidate in the South Kolkata LS
seat. RS member Derek O’Brien also
comes in to chalk out poll strategy,
says a senior TMC leader.
Mamata, who ended the Left’s
long reign in 2011, is facing one of
her toughest electoral battles in the
forthcoming polls but the Bengal
satrap hardly breaks a sweat as she
conducts the brainstorming
sessions. Bakshi’s decision to opt
out of the electoral fray is a
calculated move by the party chief.
“At a time, when the electoral
paradigm is heading for a Tri-
namool-versus-BJP binary in
Bengal, Didi’s strategy is to put
Bakshi at the helm of campaign
strategy rather than contest the
polls,” says a political analyst.
An insomniac, Banerjee loves to
play Rabindra Sangeet on her
harmonium late into the night, says
senior journalist Sudip Roychoud-
hury, who also recounts an
anecdote from a campaign trail in
Purulia in 2006. “We were staying
at the same hotel and Didi, after
wrapping up a hectic day of
campaigning, called everyone to
her room and asked us to sing a
song each…the soiree went on till
early next morning,” he recalls. O
Probir Pramanik
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 53
 COVER STORY
DEVENDRA FADNAVIS
Advisors Kaustubh Dhavse,
Ketan Pathak, Priya Khan and
Ravikiran Deshmukh
O
NE of the many controversies Devendra
Fadnavis has braved as Maharashtra CM was
about his appointment of officers on special
duty (OSDs) at high salaries. Among them are
Ketan Pathak, Kaustubh Dhavse, Priya Khan and
Ravikiran Deshmukh. While additional chief sec-
retary Praveen Pardesi and principal secretary
Bhushan Gagrani are key administrative mem-
bers in the CM’s office, each OSD has been given
a specific area such as infrastructure, social sec-
tor and media, including social media. With the
IAS officers, they run the CM’s war room, consti-
tuted specially for expediting key infrastructure
projects delayed for many years such as the
Mumbai Metro and Trans Harbour Link and new
ones such as the Jalyukt Shivar.
Most of the OSDs were known to the CM well
before 2014, through the BJP or Nagpur connec-
tion. “I worked for two NGOs before joining this
team, and my areas were policy advocacy and
state budget analysis,” says Khan. “I had seen
the CM as opposition MLA with a keen under-
standing of the state budget.” Dhavse, a man-
agement professional, left a lucrative job to
become an OSD. “Look at what we have
achieved,” says Dhavse. “For example, the exist-
ing 11 km of operational metro took 11 years to
complete, whereas we have given the go-ahead
to 276 km of metro in three to five years in three
major cities. Work has already started on more
than 100 km.”
The tenure has been full of ups and downs.
That’s where the media team comes handy. “Our
policy is to respond within an hour to any news
about any department,” says Pathak, a former
journalist. Along with Deshmukh, also a former
journalist and now media advisor to the CM,
they address every piece of news that pertains
to the state government or the CM. O
Prachi Pinglay-Plumber
54 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
H.D. KUMARASWAMY
Advisor Danish Ali
Ali has joined the BSP, but the Gowdas still look
up to him for counsel on important decisions
L
AST May, a crowd milled around
Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.
D. Deve Gowda’s home in Bang-
alore where the needle—after a
nail-biting end to the state elec-
tions—had finally come to rest.
Gowda, and his son H.D. Kumaras-
wamy, were the men of the moment.
And, a tumultuous week later, the
father-son duo were at the centre of
a political panoply that set the tone
for what’s now the key word in the
2019 election season—alliance.
Therefore, it was with some
surprise that many received news of
Gowda’s pointsman in Delhi,
Kunwar Danish Ali, joining the BSP.
Ali, party insiders say, has been one
of Gowda’s aides for long. He’d been
visible this past year as the JD(S)
opened up a hotline with Rahul
Gandhi. “The love and affection he
gave to me is incomparable. That
will continue,” Ali tells Outlook,
explaining that his move would
enable him to contest elections in
home-state UP, something he
couldn’t have done on a JD(S) ticket.
“It was also his wish that I should
enter the Lok Sabha,” says Ali.
“Nobody can break my relationship
with Gowda and Kumaraswamy.”
Gowda and Mayawati had a
pre-poll seat-sharing pact for the
2018 Karnataka elections—Ali,
again, was instrumental in making
that happen. Among Gowda’s
longstanding lieutenants is Y.S.V.
Datta, a former party legislator who
was for long its spokesman. But, as a
party insider put it, “if Gowda wants
grassroots information, he’ll go to
his old friends in (hometown)
Paduvalahippe. And, just as easily
seek out experts if he wants advice”.
The Gowda family, despite its
internal power wrangles, is
closely-knit, observers say. While
Kumaraswamy is the party’s face,
his elder brother Revanna manages
the family’s pocketborough of
Hassan. Besides, there are siblings
and their spouses with varied
professional backgrounds (former
bureaucrat, surgeon etc) who stay
away from the limelight.
Kumaraswamy’s inner circle
comprised a clutch of five-six
former party legislators, including
Zameer Ahmed Khan, Chalu-
varayaswamy, and H.C. Balkrishna.
It was a coterie that had stood by
him in 2006 when he had made a
dramatic bid to seize power and
become Karnataka CM, defying his
father. But that circle had fallen out.
“The situation was different. Now,
it’s him and Gowdaji,” says a party
leader. These days, for political
decisions, Kumaraswamy relies on
two-three cabinet ministers. On
occasion, Congress leader D.K.
Shivakumar too advises him. O
Ajay Sukumaran
ASHOK GEHLOT
Aide Kuldeep Ranka
The CM turns to his
principal secretary and
six journalists for advice
A
SHOK Gehlot, many say, is his own advisor—rare-
ly seeking, let alone acting on, advice from
anybody other than himself. In fact, he would
steer the discussion to something else if some-
body suggests political or administrative action, says a
senior journalist who had covered Rajasthan for
several years. The 67-year-old Congress veteran, a
three-time chief minister of Rajasthan, owes this
maverick self-reliant trait to the fact that he had no
mentor during his formative years in politics—unlike
rival Vasundhararaje, for instance, who had a tall
mentor in the late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
Still, the fiercely independent Gehlot is said to have
a group of six—often referred to as G6—for counsel
when he needs a second opinion on important
matters. The group includes journalists who have
been Gehlot’s associates for over two decades. Their
influence may be a subject of debate, but certainly not
their proximity to the Marwar Ka Gandhi, a term used
The Best Healthcare
in Delhi NCR
Hitting stands on 29th March 2019
SURESH K. PANDEY
for Gehlot vis-à-vis his Jodhpur origin.
Gehlot often turns to the G6 when he has to appoint
press advisers. In fact, three of those were in the
Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass
Communication that Gehlot started in his previous
term. The BJP that came to power in 2013 shut down
the university, but Gehlot revived it after his party’s
win in the 2018 assembly elections.
Another man he trusts is Kuldeep Ranka (in pic,
right)—said to be his favourite bureaucrat and now the
principal secretary in the CM’s office. Ranka is a fellow
Jodhpuri. Notwithstanding these assertions, Gehlot
largely remains a deeply freethinking politician.
Speaking off the record, members of the G6 chortle over
a question whether they advise Gehlot or not. “Who can
advise the master?” one of them says, affirming that
Gehlot’s political acumen is peerless. But they agree that
he is a very receptive person and listens to people with
great keenness. O —Salik Ahmad
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 55
The rhythmic click-clack of the handloom punctuates all life in Sualkuchi, the
nerve centre of Assam’s heirloom silks. Swathes of golden paddy in the fields
and the boats on the Brahmaputra keep time to the shuttles flying through the
sheds of warp. From the taatxaal looms of Sualkuchi materialise silken threads
of a timeless tradition, once the pride of Ahom kings. Can there be a better
way to immerse yourself in the colours and textures of Assam than to hear
the rustle of a transparent kesa pat yardage? Feel the kinkhaps and butterflies
come alive on the buttery muga of a mekhela sador drape?

Touch, feel, experience the beauty of all things handmade. Celebrate craft.
Celebrate India.

The Outlook Responsible Tourism Initiative has been doing just that — rallying
to protect and preserve our heritage, be it a monument or an art form, an
endangered bird or a musical tradition, out in the countryside or in our own
backyard. We do it by supporting people and planet-friendly travel companies
and telling travellers about the wonderful journeys that await them.
Presenting sponsor Associate sponsors Supported by
 P OST-PULWAMA OPI NI ON

IN-HOUSE THE
PRAKASH SINGH
SURGERIES
Trans-border ops may have more optic value, but internal security needs a revamp

B
ALAKOT has been a game-changer. And it
was a long time coming. There was adequate
justification for taking such action after
Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked the Indian
parliament in December 2001. The govern-
ment had, in fact, mobilised forces for an
‘Operation Parakram’ then, but it fizzled out under
international pressure. The 26/11 Mumbai attacks
demanded counter action too, but nothing materi-
alised. The Balakot operation shows that future
terror strikes will not go unpunished. But there’s a
dichotomy in government measures to take on
terrorism. We have secured the borders, but our
internal security architecture needs attention.
There are forty-three terror outfits currently
active in the country. They can’t be negotiated
with. Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed has gone
on record saying: “Jehad is not just about PTI
Kashmir…. I will not rest until the whole of India
is dissolved into Pakistan”. How does one deal with Our intelligence operations have also been
this kind of threat? Only a well-defined policy and non-aggressive. We are repeatedly told that our
stringent laws can strengthen the internal security capacity to launch covert operations across the
apparatus. But we don’t have a clear-cut anti-ter- borders was dismantled by former-prime minister
ror policy. A clear enunciation of policy would I.K. Gujral, but what did our policy makers do
ensure that there is no humiliating surrender like since then, for the last twenty years?
in the case of the IC-814 hijack in 1999. A National Counter-Terrorism Centre, modelled
Our anti-terror laws have been weakened over on the American institution, was proposed in the
time. The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act wake of 26/11 to coordinate efforts of the Centre
(TADA), 1987 was repealed and substituted by the and states. The states had reservations on its pro-
Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), 2002. posed mandate. But their legitimate objections
Eventually, even that was substituted by the fee- could have been negotiated, and the NCTC set up.
bler law—the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act At the state level, intelligence organisations have
(UAPA), which was actually a 1967 legislation become highly politicised. They are catering to the
amended in 2008 to incorporate terrorist offences. Internal requirements of the political leadership. Coastal
The UAPA doesn’t even have the word terror in it! security security too needs attention. A three-tier security
The internal security apparatus remains as remains as plan was drawn up a few years back. While the
fragile as it was five years back. Only cosmetic Indian Navy and the Coast Guard components are
improvements have taken place. While there has
fragile as it broadly in position, the third tier of marine police
been some improvement in Police infrastructure, was five is still struggling to take shape. A National
grassroots policing continues to be in shambles. years back. Maritime Authority is also yet to be set up.
States are apathetic and the Centre is indifferent Only It is high time we set our house in order by defin-
to these concerns. The Supreme Court’s directions cosmetic ing our internal security doctrine. In-house
to reorganise and restructure the police have not reforms, even if difficult to implement, would
been implemented in letter and spirit. Our leaders changes provide better protection to the citizens. O
forget that the first responder to any terrorist have been (The writer was director general, BSF; DGP Assam
crime is the local police station. made. and DGP Uttar Pradesh)

58 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 POST-PULWAMA
Family
Portraits of
the Nation
A shared grief unites kin of CRPF men
killed in J&K with those of colleagues
who fell in Dantewada nine years ago
by Salik Ahmad in Agra,
Kanshiram Nagar and Aligarh,
Sandeep Sahu in Cuttack,
Probir Pramanik in Howrah,
G.C. Shekhar in Ariyalur,
Abdul Gani in Baksa and
Ajay Sukumaran in Bangalore
I
N life, there are some big things—
oath, duty, glory, honour and so on.
In death, small things become big
too—adding a floor to the house,
keeping a promise made to a nine-
year-old, making a phone call from
a faraway place to wake up the
children at home every morning.
The killing of 40 CRPF personnel on
February 14 in a suicide bombing in
Kashmir’s Pulwama district led to much
outrage across the country. Hot-headed
speeches and calls for revenge rent the
air. For those the slain had left behind at
their homes and who would never see
them return, there came a slew of ann-
ouncements—monetary compensation,
jobs, passes for concessional train tickets.
Leaders and officials of every stature
flocked to the houses of the bereaved,
60 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
Photographs: SURESH K. PANDEY
promising unwavering support and ass- before he left, we had a small argument,”
istance even in future. A month later, the remembers his bereaved wife Mamta. “I
families of the dead find themselves still wanted to watch the movie Vivah, while
coping with their loss, and sometimes in he was keen on enjoying Border.” The
disturbing situations. family has received about Rs 80 lakh in
At slain jawan Koushal Kumar Rawat’s total from the CRPF, the UP govern-
house at Kahrai village in Uttar Pradesh’s ment, and contributions from citizens.
Agra district, a CRPF officer poses as he There is also a plan for a memorial, but
presents the home minister’s condo- it seems stuck as of now. “The state
lence certificate to the family, while his government says there is no land. Can
gunner clicks a photograph. Born on a you believe it? If they don’t make the
Republic Day, Koushal was at home for a memorial soon, I’ll sit on a hunger
vacation in February and had left only strike,” says Mamta.
two days before he was killed. “Papa was Pangs of absence are also felt some
always humming a tune, or tapping his 1,600 km away in Assam’s Baksa, at
fingers to one,” says Koushal’s 22-year- the house of Maneswar Basumatary,
old son Abhishek, who is studying medi- one of Koushal’s colleagues who died
cine in Russia. “He was with him in Pulwama.
also an excellent cook. “While being away on
Whenever he was home, duty, he would supervise
he would take over the “Whenever all the domestic affairs
kitchen from my mother.” Papa was over phone, from the
Cooking, music, dance, home, he would feeding of the cows to the
Urdu couplets, admira- take over the construction of our new
tion for Rajesh Khanna house,” says wife Sanmati.
and war movies—this kitchen,” “He even used to call our
pretty much sums up recalls Koushal son and daughter in the
Koushal. “Only a few days Rawat’s son. morning to wake them up.
 Now, suddenly, I’m feeling empty.”
Sanmati is grateful to the CRPF and
the Assam government for the support
they extended. Their daughter got a job
in the state tourism department and
started working earlier this month.
Despite the searing loss, there is a sense
of pride and contentment in the family.
The contentment seems to be largely
due to India’s airstrikes across the LoC.
“At least, my man and his colleagues will
get peace from this. I don’t want to see
a war, but the terrorists who attacked
Indian soldiers should be finished,”
says the widow.

T
HE CRPF convoy that was atta-
cked had men from all parts of
the country. In Karkudi village of
Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur district, the
digital banners paying homage to slain
Sivachandran dot the streets and lead
the way to his small two-storey house.
An MA in history, he was the first you-
ngster to join the security forces from
the village that has around 300 house-
holds. A month after the tragedy, the
stream of visitors has become a trickle
and Siva’s family is slowly attempting to
return to their routine.
But a new routine it would be—as the
regular phone calls from Siva are now
LEFT BEHIND Mamta, wife of Koushal Rawat, who was killed in the Pulwama etched only in memory. Siva’s 26-year-
attack; (below) Amir’s father Zamirul Hasan was killed in Dantewada, 2010 old wife Gandhimathi will soon become
the sole earning member of the family
when she joins as the village administra-
tive officer at Suddhamalli village, about
5 km from her home. “Though I am a
qualified nurse, the district collector
suggested this posting so I could be closer
home. I am pregnant with our second
child and must not travel,” she says.
Gandhimathi has been stoically silent.
Her tears and sobs have given way to a
forlorn look at her dead husband’s photo.
The occasional smile comes due to the
mischievous sounds from their two-
year-old son Sivamunian. Oblivious to
the tragedy, the little boy is busy playing
with his cousins and neighbours. Even
when he rifles through a photo album, he
readily points to his mother and says
“Amma”, but is unable remember who
the tall gentleman next to her is.
“When his father came this January for
Sivamuni’s second birthday, the little
boy refused to go to Siva, thinking he
was a stranger,” says Siva’s father Chin-
nayan, who used to work as a labourer.
“Only after a couple of days could father

1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 61

 P OST-PULWAMA

ALL THAT’S LEFT

Parents of Aryendra
Kumar, who was
killed in a Maoist
ambush on a
CRPF convoy in
Dantewada, 2010

and son really bond with each other. lting,” says a visibly distraught Jitendra, superannuation to do something for
Now Sivamuni and his (to be born) sib- Manoj’s father, who suffers from a host the people,” recalls the 50-year-old
ling would both grow up without of chronic diseases. Sabitri fondly, and then adds, with a
knowing their father.” Manoj left home on February 6, after a touch of palpable pathos, “Alas! All his
Chinnayan had already lost his second month-long period of domestic bliss in dreams remained unfulfilled” as tears
son, who died of electrocution a few the company of his parents, wife and start rolling down her cheeks. Money
years ago. He also has a daughter with one-year-old daughter. He had promised has been pouring in for the family, but
disability to take care of. “Siva was theto come again in March, but returned this windfall of sorts has also stirred
pillar of our family and now we have to much earlier, on February 16, draped in discord between Manoj’s parents and
rebuild our lives without him,” he says, the tricolour. “I had spoken to him at his in-laws.
almost choking on his words. around 9 in the morning on the fateful Manoj’s wife does not want to go to
day, hours before he boarded the bus,” her parental home. There have been a

R
EBUILDING seems to be the only says the slain jawan’s wife Ililata, who few job offers for her from various org-
option the 40 families of the slain lives in Cuttack’s Ratanpur village. anisations, including the CRPF and
CRPF men are left with. Though “During the short conversation, he en- KIIT University in Bhubaneswar. “I will
there is support from various quar- quired about the well-being of our certainly take up a job, but only after
ters, martyrdom also brings unwelcome daughter and reiterated his promise to two or three years, when my daughter
propositions in its wake. For instance, come in March.” can do without my constant care and
the wife of slain jawan Manoj Behera, The fallen soldier’s mother can’t stop attention,” Ililata says. Manoj was the
who lives in Odisha’s Cut- swooning over the en- sole breadwinner in the family and, in
tack, was approached by dearing qualities of her his death, has ensured bread for the
all three major parties in son. Between intermit- family for a lifetime. But they would
the state—the Biju Janata
“He used to call tent bouts of sobbing, she rather have the breadwinner than the
Dal, the Congress and the our kids to talks about how good a bread he left behind for him.
BJP. All three offered her wake them up. son, husband, father and Petty fights in the family, driven by
a ticket for the elections. Now, suddenly, friend he was. “He wanted greed for the compensation, seem to
“But I clearly said no. I’m feeling to do so much. He wanted have happened in other places too. Barely
The mere thought of my to add another floor to days after the attack, reports emerged
daughter-in-law begging
empty,” says M. the house, open a charity that the wife of H. Guru in Karnataka’s
for votes with a toddler in Basumatary’s hospital in the village and Mandya district was being pressurised to
her arms was deeply insu- bereaved wife. enter politics after his marry her brother-in-law, probably so

62 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 P OST-PULWAMA
MARTYRDOM Slain CRPF jawan Manoj Behera’s wife, who lives in
Cuttack, was offered tickets by the three major parties in Odisha
that the hefty monetary compensation
and donations she was receiving would
remain within the family. She later ref-
uted those reports in a press conference
she addressed with her mother.
SANJIB MUKHERJEE
“All I have got in these years are assur-
with the media for what it has done
to us. They have made a mockery of a
tragedy. Please spare my daughter from
all this unwanted publicity. She is too
young to even understand what she
has lost in life,” she sobs, sitting in her
who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Aryendra Singh of Chandpura Gaupura
village in UP’s Kanshiram Nagar
(formerly part of Etah district) was 26
when he was killed in the Dantewada
ambush. His 64-year-old father, Soren
Singh, says he has been running from
pillar to post for the past nine years to
get a memorial built for his son. “My son
is gone. I just want his name to live on,”
says Soren, who has lost sight in one eye.
ances. The smriti dwaar (memorial gate)
built for him fell down in a storm. It
hasn’t been rebuilt either.”
Soren says he organised a small func-
tion on Shaheed Diwas in his village a
few years ago. “Both the district magis-
trate and the superintendent of police
promised to come, but they did not turn
up. We became the butt of ridicule in the
village,” he adds. He also recalls the
hardships his son used to face during his
stint in the Maoist guerrilla zone. “He
would have to walk 25 km in a day, even
drink water from a pond. Once I told him
to quit the job, but he snapped at me, ‘I
am not a deserter. I’ll protect my country,
die if need be, but I won’t quit’,” says
Soren, whose second son joined the
CRPF after the youngest was killed. The
eldest died of a heart attack.

I
N Bauria village of West Bengal’s under-construction two-storey house. Some 75 km from Aryendra’s village
Howrah district, a slain jawan’s wife Completing the house and giving his lives the family of Zamirul Hasan, ano-
was ruthlessly trolled on social media family a comfortable life was Babloo’s ther of the CRPF men killed in the
for her anti-war views. “We want to dream, says his 65-year-old mother. Dantewada attack. The mere mention of
be left alone and piece together our life. Despite the harassment she faced on Chhattisgarh reminds his 22-year-old
I am grateful to people for the love they social media, Mita remains a resolute son, Amir, of the ghastly incident. “My
have shown to my husband, but let us be, pacifist. “There will be more martyrs father always told me to realise my res-
please,” says Babloo Santra’s wife Mita, like Babloo. We don’t want war. Many ponsibilities,” says Amir, who lives in
almost choking with grief. wives like me will lose their husbands. Aligarh’s Jamalpur area. “Half the money
“Today is my daughter’s ninth birthday Many daughters like mine will lose we got in compensation has been spent in
and we were supposed to be celebrating their fathers,” she says. “All I wanted five surgeries that my mother underwent.
in Puri (a beach town in Odisha) today. to say was that the Pulwama attack was She has another operation five days later.”
He was to come home on March 4,” she carried out by an external force, which Amir has four sisters, two of whom are
says. Mita, an MA in modern history, is why it attracted so much publicity. unmarried. When the second sister was
teaches at the Ludlow Academy, which What about the massacre in Dantewada, getting married, he sought help from
is located in the Ludlow Jute Mills where 76 of Babloo’s colleagues from the CRPF, something he says was prom-
complex in neighbouring the CRPF were killed?” ised to the family in 2010. “We kept
Chengail. Offered a job by On April 6, 2010, guerr- writing letters and meeting people, but
the CRPF as well as by the illas of the outlawed the help never came,” says Amir, a sci-
state government, she is
“We don’t want CPI(Maoist) ambushed ence graduate who is jobless at the mo-
more inclined to take up war. Many a CRPF convoy, killing ment. His sister got a job in the CRPF,
the latter as she wouldn’t wives like me 76 personnel. That has but she got unwell and quit in a few
have to move out of the will lose their been the deadliest attack months. A memorial gate built to com-
state for it. husbands,” on the Indian security memorate his father in their village in
Mita is not just upset forces so far. The attack Sambhal fell down, he says, and a new
with cyber-bullying, but says Mita, wife in Pulwama brought back one was erected in its place. The new
also the pervasive media of slain jawan to life the memories of gate bore a different name though, that
glare. “I am disgusted Babloo Santra. Dantewada and those of the village pradhan. O

64 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 March, 2019

www.outlookindia.com

Law Education:
SEtting nEw ParadigmS
of oPPortunitiES
Education

The extent of the role of law in society is incredible where conflict in the family, society, institution,
state or internationally is required to be sorted out. When the basic tenets are violated and mediation
fails, knocking the doors of justice is the only way out to ensure equal rights for leading life with
dignity. Unquestionably, man and law share an inseparable relation, that makes studying law a good
career option in terms of service to mankind, professional and financial prospects. India has several
well-known law schools and colleges which have given the nation legal luminaries of world repute.

L
aw as a profession has
undergone a drastic image
makeover from drab to that
of a dynamic one with law
educational institutions laying
emphasis not only on education, but
also the overall grooming of students
for taking on their professional career
with confidence. With increasing
number of new specializations in
law which includes space, cyber,
intellectual property and international
law, the demand for the course has
risen steadily. The conventional scene
in which a law graduate has to operate
now encompasses swanky corporate
environments spawned by foreign
investors tapping the lucrative Indian
market.
In India, some of the premier
names in imparting education
in law are National Law School
of India University (NLSIU),
Bengaluru, NALSAR University of
Law, Hyderabad, ILS College, Pune,
Symbiosis Law College, Pune, Faculty
of Law, Banaras Hindu University,
Faculty of Law, University of Delhi,
Faculty of Law, Jamia Millia Islamia,
Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim
Mr. AkshAy kAnti BAM,
Chairman,
indore institute of Law.
Law as a career
path is a profession of honour,
distinction, and integrity.
I encourage the students to take
up law as they will then
be the future defenders of
the Constitution and the
guardians of our liberty and this
is exactly what they will be
trained to become at Indore
Institute of law.
University, The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences,
Kolkata, Gujarat National Law
University, Gandhinagar, Bharathi
Vidyapeeth Deemed University New
Law College, Hidayatullah National
University of Law, PG College of
Law, Osmania University, Amity Law
School, Delhi, School of Law, Christ
University, Lucknow University, KIIT
School of Law, Bhubaneswar, Indore
Institute of Law, Indore, School of
Legal Studies, Bengaluru, Institute
of Law, Kurukshetra University,
Lloyd College, Greater, Noida, Lovely
Professional University, Chandigarh
University, SGT University and others.
An interesting aspect to observe is the
number of private law colleges making
a mark in the discipline of law.
These colleges offer a choice of three-
year LLB degree after graduation in
any discipline or a five-year integrated
BA LLB programme after plus two
for aspiring students. However, to
get admission to the law programs it
 Education
is mandatory to clear the Common
Law Admission Test (CLAT). To
keep pace with the rapidly changing
global demands, law schools of India
are introducing more subject specific
curriculums and programmes. Some
of the recent introduction of new
programmes include Aviation law at
NALSAR, Public policy at NLSIU,
Entrepreneurship administration
at NUJS and Labour welfare laws at
Symbiosis Society’s Law College.
In addition to the conventional
disciplines and new courses, law
institutions foster pedagogy with a
very practical approach replete with
qualities desired of a lawyer such
as excellent communication skills,
prowess of the intellect, leadership
traits, logical reasoning and analytical
power, in-depth knowledge and
understanding of legal laws and their
use. Students are groomed through
moot court sessions, competitive legal
events, journal writing and mandatory
internships providing court-ready
students, who then equipped with
a broader perspective and level
headedness can think out-of-the-box,
besides make themselves proficient in
handling any kind of case. To further
hone their legal skills and be well-
versed in courtroom etiquettes, law
experts often suggest that freshers
should go for litigation for at least
five to ten years and learn cross-
examination, pleadings and drafting
for two to three years in trial courts
to build a reputation as a successful
lawyer.
“Law as a career has gained
immense popularity in the 21st
Prof.
(Dr.) Manjula Batra,
Dean, faculty of law at
SGt university
To me, law is the
noblest profession in the
world,” said Prof. (Dr.) Manjula
Batra, Dean, Faculty of Law at
SGT University. “Lawyers save
lives, protect rights and
mobilize the wheels of the
economy. I am humbled and
honored to have the
opportunity to help do so at
one of the most important law
schools in the country.
century in India. Especially because
apart from the traditional civil and
criminal litigation, corporate law has
also emerged as a coveted option. Now
a career in law is no longer considered
an option for only someone who is out
going or a confidant public speaker,
which is essential for litigation but
is a great choice for all personality
types and both genders. Also, apart
from being a lawyer in the traditional
sense there are limitless other
career opportunities like joining
government services, becoming
legal journalists, recruitment to the
Indian army (through JAG), starting
businesses with regard to legal data
etc.,” says Veena Rajes, Advocate,
Indore Institute of law
LL.M, University of Pennsylvania Law
School, Practicing at the High Court
of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow
Bench, Lucknow.
Though very demanding and having
to put in gruelling years initially,
law is considered as an exciting and
challenging career having immense
opportunities to serve the innocent
and the wronged, improve on one’s
experience with the handling of each
case, rise to social and professional
eminence while ensuring one’s
financial security. Law institutes have
witnessed a boom in campus hiring
of students by reputed law firms,
offering generous pay packets for the
best brains to handle and assist their
clientele with mergers, acquisitions,
due diligence audits and other similar
legal requirements. This is attracting
young law graduates to join such firms
to further their career interests and
personal aspirations. Banks and PSUs
also scout for erudite and brilliant law
recruits for their legal departments and
take care of drafting, negotiating and
vetting contracts. An assured job with
periodic salary hike and promotions
and set working hours, are major
attractions of such an opportunity.
Other areas to explore interesting
career opportunities for law students
are with corporate, established and
fledgling law institutions having
increased demand for law faculty,
legal journalism, international
organisations, NGOs, centres for
policy-making and legal research and
government departments, providing a
wide array of choices. However, for a
more speedy and steady growth in the
profession one has to become a partner
in a law firm or start one to flourish in
independent practice. In such cases,
most of them come from a family of
established lawyers already having a
firm or can afford to setup one for the
young law graduate to encourage and
push their careers.
“Law has gained popularity as a
career choice in the recent years,
primarily because of better career
prospects in the corporate world.
Most corporate houses either have an
internal legal team, or rely heavily on
external law firms. Unlike a decade
ago, when there were only a handful of
service law firms, today we see several
large and mid-scale law firms advising
corporates. The upward trend in start-
up growth has helped in this as well,
as several boutique law firms servicing
this segment have come into being in
 Education
the recent years. The law schools in
India too have adapted to this change
and now offer courses and electives on
subjects such as insurance, banking
and insolvency, which are geared
towards a more specialised practice
of law,” Chinmayee Prasad, Senior
Director and General Counsel, South
Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.
In a nutshell, Pragya Baghel, Advocate
on Record, Supreme Court observes,
“In today’s globalised world, where
businesses are run internationally, the
dynamics of the legal profession have
been fundamentally altered. Today
the legal framework has to cater to
challenges posed by conflicts between
global economies and domestic legal
frameworks. The legal profession is
primarily focused on providing of
an ecosystem where businesses can
be smoothly run on global scale in
different jurisdictions. Various fields
of law like international taxation,
international commercial arbitration,
intellectual property laws etc have
gained prominence over the traditional
laws. The seamless reach of internet
across borders and exponential
growth of e- commerce has also posed
challenging situations before the legal
fraternity. War crimes, cross border
terrorism, violation of human rights
in global context has also emerged as
an area of practice.
The legal education in India has
coped with these challenges by
structuring specialised courses in
their legal curriculum. Law schools in
India have adopted dynamic teaching
mechanisms and course contents to
cater to the complex demands in the
field of law. Law, as a study course has
become a highly specialised field and
is no more the last option for students
as it used to be in the past. Many
young bright minds are opting for law
as their first choice and charting new
paths in the legal field. However, the
old charm of donning the robes and
arguing in a court of law remains as
alluring as ever.”
As law incorporates diverse
fields, it offers innumerable choices
for law graduates to pick from.
Conventionally, to understand and
practice law in the courts, it is essential
for fresh law graduates to learn the
nitty gritty of their discipline under
a senior lawyer. Litigation provides
ICFAI Law School
abundant employment options in
both private and the public sectors.
A career as a corporate counsel,
judicial services, civil services, legal
processing outsourcing, are popular
options besides academia where one
gets to work on research projects, be
part of think tanks. Judicial clerkship,
legal publishing and legal reporting,
both specialised areas in the media
are fast catching up with the attention
and choice as a career option for
law graduates. Today, iconic lawyers
charge anything between Rs 5 lakh to
Rs 1 crore for a single appearance in
the court, and the fee could be much
higher depending upon the case.
With a burgeoning economy
having global dimensions with
foreign companies eyeing the Indian
market, and so is the requisite for
legal expertise increasing. This has
raised the demand for the new-age
law colleges which are savvy, well-
equipped and having tailormade
courses to meet any legal contingency.
It has further consolidated that a career
in law is imperative for establishing
a socio-economic balance, as well as
self-promotion.
 Education
ICFAI LAw SChooL, hyderAbAd
For Dream Career in Law
I
t is that time of the year for admissions.
Students are out on a mad rush to pick
that ‘one’ school and the parents are
in a frenzy to get their children admitted
into possible college. One stream that
is in demand is law given the variety of
options that a student picks and chooses
from. Right from commercial law to cyber
law, the students have plenty to choose
from. One such school that offers a good
variety of options is ICFAI Law School.
The Bar Council of India has
accorded approval to the ICFAI
Law  School,  Hyderabad  to  offer  five  * Five year, Integrated BBA-LLB (Hons.)
year full-time campus based Integrated
St JoSeph’S
CoLLege oF LAw,
bengALuru
T
he Society of Jesus has been in the
forefront of education with a legacy
of 450 years. They are renowned
for their quality education with some
prestigious institutions. St. Joseph’s
College of Law (SJCL), under the
Bangalore Jesuit Education Society
(BJES), established in 2017-18, is the
first-ever  Jesuit  Law  College  in  South  Fr Swebert D Silva, SJ
Asia. The students are given exposure
to the best practices of Indian and
international law and jurisprudence.
SJCL is in the heart of Bangalore
and  is  affiliated  to  Karnataka  State  harmony. SJCL emphases on minority
Law University, Hubbali. With modern
infrastructure SJCL offers new era
of legal education with ethically
competent and committed lawyers and
opening up fresh avenues for students.
SJCL is a new law college committed
to pursue progressive and innovative
ideas to shape its identity among
the premier legal institutions. Our
BBA-LLB (Hons) and BA-LLB (Hons)
programs. ICFAI Law School,
Hyderabad,  offers  five  year  full-time 
Integrated BBA-LLB (Hons) and BA-LLB
(Hons) programmes.
High academic standards,
contemporary  curriculum,  diversified  of Classroom Instruction, Assignments,
teaching methodologies, internships and
assignments, makes it a highly sought-
after law school. .
ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad offers
the following programs in law:
& BA-LLB (Hons.) programs
* LLM Program in
* Corporate and Commercial Law
* Taxation
* Alternative Dispute Resolution
* PhD - Full time & Part time
* Certificate programs in:
* Cyber Laws
* Infrastructure Laws
* Law of Financial Services
* Immigration Laws
* Solid Waste Management & Law
* International Trade Law
* Forensic Science & Law
curriculum is rigorous and progressive.
The curriculum exposes students
to the best practices of teaching
and learning. The College with its
qualitative training offers various co-
curricular programmes. The faculty
members of SJCL innovate teaching-
learning techniques. This learning
includes case-studies, experiential
learning and interactive teaching
emphasizing critical thinking. Apart
from the full-time faculty members,
teaching is supplemented by a panel
of distinguished and experienced
visiting professors from universities
and renowned legal practitioners.
Promoter of Practical Wisdom
The institutional vision aims to
transform the lives of people based
on  justice,  equality,  peace  and  to the qualitative demands and
and women education who are
traditionally underrepresented in our
legal profession. While the institution
believes in gender and caste equality
it also believes in bridging any gap
through education. The institute also
offers scholarships to the economically
weaker meritorious students.
The  college  is  confident  that  these  recognition it rightly deserves.
* Goods & Services Tax Law
Teaching at ICFAI Law School is an
integrated learning process and consists
Moot Courts, Clinical Courses, Immersion
Workshops, Seminars/ Workshops,
Internships, Co-Curricular Activities,
Court Visits
With full-time faculty comprising mostly
Doctorates, the students are mentored
individually to help them gain maximum
exposure. The students are encouraged
to go to law firms, corporates, advocates 
offices of judges of High Courts, Supreme 
Court, NGOs, Consumer Courts, etc, to
gain practical knowledge, as a part of
internship programmes.
Moot courts and mock trials play an
important role in the learning curve of
students. Last, but not the least, the Law
College conducts a lot of guest lectures
by inviting eminent academicians and
practicing legal professionals for the
students to imbibe from the visiting
personalities.
Director, St Joseph’s College of law, bengaluru
law students of SJCL will contribute
expectations. Law education at SJCL
intends to create lawyers who have the
courage and guts to fight for the right. 
They will be socially conscious, morally
upright and exhibit leadership qualities
to transform society. At a time when
the demand for legal practitioners are
growing manifold SJCL is determined
to give its students a place and global
 Education
PM Modi, President and Vice President, all haVe
Visited loVely Professional UniVersity (lPU)
I
t is a matter of pride for any university
to get an honour of hosting the
President or Prime Minister of the
country, and indeed, LPU is the only
organization which has not only hosted
the President but has welcomed all the
first three citizens of the country. LPU
has greeted Hon’ble Former President
of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee, twice
at the LPU’s campus, and he is also
LPU’s Honoris Causa Doctorate Degree
Recipient of LPU. Second citizen of the
country, Hon’ble Vice President of India
Shri Venkaiah Naidu was invited to chair
the grand occasion of Convocation
Ceremony, and, latest is hon’ble Prime
Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi,
who inaugurated 106th Indian Science
Congress at LPU. This talks about
how prestigious Lovely Professional
University is as all the first three citizens
of the country accepted its invitation to be
a part of LPU. This also makes LPU as
the only university in the country to host
all the first three citizens of the nation.
In a very short span of time, LPU
has created a niche for itself to attract
the best minds from across the globe.
T
his is an era of information capitalism
and economic liberalization
which puts an emphasis on legal
education to cater to the needs of legal
profession. Manav Rachna University
offers multi-disciplinary law education
developing professionals who strengthen
the legal system with their rational
thought and actions.
The Faculty of Law at Manav Rachna
University offers three Integrated
LL.B. Programmes, and two LL.M.
Programmes recognized by Bar Council
of India and approved by Govt. of
Haryana respectively. Constitutional
A vibrant campus lifestyle,
great placements, futuristic
laboratories, one of the world’s
best sports complex and top-
notch, highly trained teachers
are all that you find at LPU. LPU
is delightful to host more than
3000 international students in its
campus and rigorously absorbs
admissions from 70+ countries,
LPU stands proud at signifying
the kind of diversity it has when
it comes to large number of
cultures and communities.
Moreover, this year, LPU
organized the world’s biggest
science event, ‘Indian Science
Congress’, which was
inaugurated by our Hon’ble Prime Minister
Shri Narendra Modi. 4 parliamentarians,
3 Nobel Laureates, and 1500 delegates
participated in this event. Hosting such a
big event talks in length about the quality
of education at LPU.
LPU also has one of the great placement
records in India. Every year, more than
450 companies visit LPU, where 90%
of them are MNCs. LPU students are
Court Room at
Manav Rachna University
Law, Crime & Criminology, Business
Law, Intellectual Property Rights,
Finance, and International Trade are
among the specializations offered. The
programs are structured to embrace
inter-disciplinary approaches to learning.
Students are exposed to Choice Based
Credit System (CBCS) which allows
students to choose the number of
courses they want to pursue.
With an emphasis on experiential
learning; Moot Court Workshops,
Development Programs, Stimulus
Exercises and Motivational Talks have
been embedded into the curriculum.
persistently being placed at the top-
notch companies like Google, Amazon,
Qatar Airways, Apple Inc., Microsoft,
and more. Notably, over the last three
years, Cognizant alone has recruited
1900+ students from the campus. India’s
top talent company ‘Aspiring Minds’ has
ranked the University as having the most
employable students consecutively twice
in a row.
incUlcating
adVanced
legal essence
throUgh MUlti-
disciPlinary
law edUcation
The institute has a full-fledged Legal
Aid Clinic and a student’s Legal Aid
Society that is focused on holding Legal
Awareness camps and Spreading Legal
Literacy among the masses. Under a
very novel technique, all the students
are made to write memorials and case
comment of the important case laws in
each subject. This enables them to learn
and understand the moot legal points.
Faculty of Law also boasts of a dedicated
Shri Ratan Lal Lahoti Memorial Law
Library, and an elite Advisory Board
comprising High Court Judges, Senior
Advocates, IAS officers, Former Law
Secretary to Ministry of Law and Justice,
ASG and other legal luminaries.
 Education
Indore InstItute of Law:
GroomInG worLd-CLass Lawyers
I
ndore Institute of Law (IIL) was
established in 2003, as the first
independent and exclusive college of
law in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, under the
aegis of Icon Education Society (I.E.S)
to provide specialized and high-quality
law education to students in the midst
of world-class infrastructure facilities.
Affiliated to the Bar Council of India and
Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV),
Indore, IIL offers B.A.LL.B. (Hons.), B.B.A.
LL.B. (Hons.), LL.B. (Hons.), and LL.M.
law courses under one roof.
The IIL campus is an epicentre of
a vibrant student life having an active
student council and nine societies
encompassing all aspects of academic
development and personal grooming.
The perfect balance of academics and
extracurricular activities nurtured by
highly qualified and experienced faculty
ensure a 360 degrees development of
every student with qualities necessary
for a successful career in law.
The beautiful and eco-friendly, IIL
building amidst lush green surrounding,
sGt unIversIty: nurturInG Lawmakers of future
S
GT University made its way
in the education sector in the
year 2013 making educational
opportunities available to all
segments of the society under the
parasol of Dashmesh Educational
Charitable Trust, which was founded
in 1999. In fact, the seeds for its
magnificent growth were sown way
back in 2002 with the establishment
of the SGT Dental College.
Faculty of Law was established
in 2014 which aims at developing
academically competent legal
professionals. Highly qualified and
experienced Faculty have not only
designed its curriculum in keeping
with the emerging areas in the
field of law but also at facilitating
houses smart class rooms, seminar halls,
e-library, moot court room, auditorium,
separate residential campus for girls and
boys and several such unique facilities.
Students get practical training sessions
that involve lawyer’s chambers to
equip them with specialized interactive
training for legal skills, besides required
exposure to the Supreme Court and the
International Court of Justice dignitaries,
along with National level Moot Court
Competitions, and conduct of seminars
so that they get an overall understanding
of their subject for their bright future
professional careers.
Aware of its social responsibilities,
IIL provides scholarships and financial
assistance to brilliant students coming
from economically disadvantaged and
backward classes. Irrespective of their
economic background, the institute
provides a variety of exposures and
career opportunities to its students by
signing letter of understanding (MoU) with
renowned corporates, law firms, and LPOs
for internship and placement of students.
the academic growth of students
and groom them to compete for
prestigious positions in the field of Law
and Judiciary. Apart from studies, the
emphasis is also laid on organising
seminars, conferences and extension
lectures on current legal issues,
thus facilitating students to interact
with nationally and internationally
renowned legal luminaries.
Recently, The Faculty of Law
organised its 5th Moot Court
Competition in which students
from across 35 law schools of
the country participated. Hon’ble
Justice B.B. Prasoon, former
Justice, Punjab and Haryana High
Court was the Chief Guest at the
Inaugural ceremony and Shri P.
“The institute aims to make
legal process an efficient
instrument of social
development and establish
new standards of excellence in
legal education,”
Mr. AkShAy kAnTi BAM,
Chairman, indore institute of Law.
K. Malhotra, Former Secy, Law
and Justice and currently Secy.
General, ICADR. The valedictory
address was delivered by Hon’ble
Mr. Justice Deepak Mishra, former
Chief Justice of India.
Our students continue to
find professional careers in the
institutions like National Human
Rights Commission, National
Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission, Delhi and Delhi
Dispute Resolution Society etc. The
Faculty of Law has an academic
partnership with National Law
University Bangalore whereby
students get the opportunity for
Interdisciplinary Research and
Project Based Learning.
SGT CAMPUS
 Education

LLoyd Law CoLLege- an ideaL institution for

ProfessionaL LegaL eduCation
L
loyd Law College, Greater Noida,
U.P. India was established in 2003
in affiliation with CCS University,
Meerut, U.P. (State university established
in 1965) and approved by the Bar Council
of India (patron of professional legal
education in India). We are imparting
regular professional degree in the mode
of BA.LL.B.—5 year and LL.B.—3 year
programme. During the past sixteen
years in BA.LL.B.—5-year programme
eleven batches consisted of approx.
1500 students and in LL.B.—3-year
programme thirteen batches consisted of
approx. 2200 students who successfully
completed degree from this college of India - Annual Survey by India NUJS Kolkata and Former Director -
and entered Bar, Bench, Law firms and Today, Outlook and CSR - June 2018. NJA-Bhopal. This is a reflection of our
national and multi-national corporations. His Excellency Shri Venkaiah Naidu, commitment to academic quality and
Currently approx. 2000 students are the Hon’ble Vice-President of India professional excellence, support of
taught and trained by approx. 75 faculty Awarded Lloyd Law College “SILF Hon’ble judges of the Supreme Court of
members from regular academics, -MILAT INSTITUTIONAL EXCELLENCE India and the High courts, our professor
visiting practitioners and professionals. AWARD” on Tenth Law Teachers Day and industry experts for profession-
Programme on 1 Sept. 2018. We have oriented academics in regular classes
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS privileged patronage of Prof. (Dr.) N. and student-mentoring programmes. It is
Lloyd ranked among top 3 North India R. Madhava Menon the founder Vice our endeavour to be among the TOP 5
and top 10 all India best law colleges Chancellor of NLSIU-Bangalore and LAW SCHOOLS IN INDIA BY 2020.

iCai-CaPa joint “roundtabLe stakehoLder’s

meeting on PubLiC seCtor finanCiaL management
Finance, Ministry of Railways, Ministry
of Communications and many others.
I am certain, this sharing of views and
discussions of the learned participants
will aid in empowering financial
management in the public sector.
Speaking on the occasion Chief
Guest Shri Shashi Kant Sharma, Former
Comptroller and Auditor General of
India said, “Accountancy professionals
have a great responsibility on their
shoulders to make sure that public
money is utilized in the right manner.”
He further added “Earlier, India was not
even among the 10 major economies
but by the turn of the millennium it came
amongst the top 10 economies. Today,
and attended by the delegates from it is 6th largest economy and most

T
he Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India in more than 8 countries. The Roundtable projections show that it will be the 3rd
collaboration with the gave the attendees an overview of largest economy in the next decade.
Confederation of Asian and Pacific Public Sector in India and the role that ICAI Vice-President CA. Atul Kumar
Accountants organized a joint the accountancy profession plays in Gupta said, “Accountancy Professionals
“Roundtable Stakeholder’s meeting on improving its financial management. are fully geared to take up the challenges
Public Sector Financial Management” CA. Prafulla P. Chhajed, President, ahead as they have in the past.” He
in New Delhi on March 11, 2019. The ICAI said “This event has brought also mentioned “ICAI through its
event was inaugurated by Chief Guest together professionals from all arenas Research wing, Accounting Research
Shri Shashi Kant Sharma, Former including the World Bank, ADB, CAG, Foundation is playing a pivotal role as
Comptroller and Auditor General of India CGA, GASAB, CAPA, Ministry of a Partner in Nation
North: Jatinder Singh : + 91 98115 40202
South: Vinod Kumar : +91 98840 38320
West: Aalap Shah: +91 9909001098
MAD ( Mobile & Internet Advertising)
Sanjay Sharma : +91 98184 53031
TDI Media Services: 011 - 42534300
 G A M E P O IN T
I L L ZO N E I N CY B E R I A
THE K
B anning PUB G wo n ’t h e lp. Regulate children’s ga
ming habits
by Lachmi Deb Roy
I
N 2000, Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku
released Batoru Rowaiaru—Battle Roy-
ale—a dystopian thriller in which young-
sters are forced to fight to death by gov-
ernment forces. Years later, a South
Korean firm picked up the film’s plot to
develop a PC game, PlayerUnknown’s Battle-
grounds—PUBG to millions of fans world-
wide. But the game really took off when the
mobile version was released on March 19,
2018. Exactly a year later, India is caught in
the crossfire between authorities seeking to
clamp down on the “violent game” and gam-
ing enthusiasts who stress on a regulatory
mechanism rather than an outright ban.
Last week, police in Gujarat’s Rajkot city arre­
sted 16 people in two separate cases for playing
PUBG in public places. Since then the game has
82 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
instead.
been banned in Gujarat—apparently, the govern­
ment feels the game can drag the youth towards
terrorist activities. The Bombay High Court is
hearing a PIL seeking a ban on the game. The
National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights too has sought a response from the Ministry
of Electronics and Information Technology on a
similar petition. As a debate rages over the game
and its ill effects on children, Mumbai police said
two people were run over by a train on Saturday
when they were playing PUBG on a railway track
in Hingoli district of Maharashtra.
What makes PUBG such a rage? As online
shooter games go, this one’s not among the most
popular. Not even the most attractive as far as
graphics and gameplay go. But experts say the
game’s USP lies in its “kill­to­survive” storyline;
it’s like the gaming version of the hit book and
movie series, Hunger Games. In PUBG, players
parachute into an island and start killing each
 other with an assortment of weapons they pick
up. The last man—or woman—standing is the
winner. “It’s a fatal attraction,” says Abhinav, 16,
a Delhi student, who refuses to be identified with
his surname. “You either win or you die,” adds
the gamer, who admits to playing PUBG till 2 am
“on certain nights”.
Vishal Gondal, acknowledged as the father of
gaming in India, says the problem lies not in
PUBG, but the easy access minors have to all
kinds of content on the internet. “The same goes
with junk food, but are chips and burgers banned
in our country?” he tells Outlook. “Parents today
pass on their mobile phones to their kids to
spare themselves the trouble of parenting. This
is leading kids to watch videos and play games
endlessly. Today it’s PUBG, tomorrow it will be
another game,” adds Gondal, who founded
India’s first game development company indiag­
ames.com in 1999.
Between 2016­17, several countries—including
India—were trying to figure out a strange phe­
nomenon of youngsters allegedly committing
suicide or attempting self­harm while playing a
game called ‘Blue Whale Challenge’. Several
deaths worldwide were also linked to the game,
believed to have been developed in Russia. But a
government committee concluded in January
2018 that there was no link between the incidents
and the game. The game and its effects disap­
peared as mysteriously as they had appeared.
Even a game as innocuous as PokemonGo has
come under the scanner for being too distracting
for the players, leading to even fatal accidents.
Experts say all games have to be developed in
accordance with guidelines set by industry
regulatory bodies such as the Entertainment
Software Rating Board (ESRB), Pan European
Game Information (PEGI) and International Age
Rating Coalition (IARC). “As far as ratings and
guidelines are concerned, PUBG has not violated
any as they have displayed the relevant ratings
appropriately across all the platforms,” says
Ninad Chhaya, co­founder of GoPhygita, a game
developing company. PUBG has a “teen” rating,
which, according to the ESRB guidelines, means
the content is generally suitable for ages 13 and
above. In the iOS App Store and Google Play store,
it has a rating of 17 plus and 16 plus respectively.
Gondal says the trick in combating the gaming
mania among children lies in parents, who
should monitor and regulate their children’s
online behaviour. “There are apps on the phone
with which one can moderate timings of gaming.
Banning a game is not a solution. Fortnite, from
which PUBG was copied, is more addictive.
Content of all kind in the internet is addictive.
But just pulling out one particular game won’t
help. It’s time parents encouraged children to go
for more outdoor activities.”
An official of Gujarat Police’s cyber cell, who
refused to be named, says arresting college stu­
dents for playing a game is a drastic step.
“Creating awareness, in fact, should have been
the first step. There are much bigger cases where
public order is disturbed. Since there was no
money or crime involved, arresting teenagers for
FIVE MOST playing a game is not justified. The government
ADDICTIVE GAMES should do an awareness campaign and educate
youngsters on the harmful effects of gaming.”
Ahmedabad police commissioner A.K. Singh,
however, says the ban on PUBG was enforced in
response to pleas by parents as well by the edu­
cation department, in the middle of the exami­
FORTNITE nation season. He adds that the ban is only for 15
Can be played solo days. “There is ample evidence in Ahmedabad
or competitive city that in several instances gaming disorder
induced by such addictive games has acquired a
dimension of a disease, leading to highly com­
promised personal, social, educational and eco­
nomic life in victim’s families. The ban is targeted
solely against such individuals.”
LEAGUE LEGENDS
B
Team-based UT there is also a flip side to the issue.
online game Experts say that the ban and the arrests,
combined with the media buzz around the
game, might just make people more curious
about the game and increase its popularity.
According to a research study published by CATO
Institute, a US think tank, people are unlikely to
WORLD OF become well­functioning, independent­minded
WARCRAFT adults and responsible citizens if they are raised
Online multi-player in an intellectual bubble. “To shield children
role-playing game
right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent
descriptions and images would not only be
quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them
unequipped to cope with the world,” it reads.
Some parents feel that the government should
stop being a nanny state and focus on issues at
CALL OF DUTY hand. Kiran Manral, author and a mother of a
First-person shooter teenager, says, “I wish there was as much effi­
game series
ciency and determination shown to eliminate
hate speech, trolling, sexual assault on women,
and the other ills that plague us. PUBG is a game,
albeit one that is pretty violent. But it does not
mandate a kid getting arrested for playing it. It
is high time we sort out our priorities and foc­
CANDY CRUSH used on the real issues.” Mumbai­based psy­
One of the most chologist Seema Hingorrany feels that arresting
popular online games
kids was an extremely unhealthy and drastic
Source: https://www.addic- measure. “The approach could have been differ­
tioncenter.com/community/ ent; the authorities could have sensitised the
video-game-addiction
children by communicating with them about the
adverse effects of such games.”
In the heat and dust generated by the game,
one fact has gone unnoticed. When Fukasaku’s
Battle Royale was released, it was banned by
several countries for its disturbing content.
Many believe it would be right response to
PUBG too. O
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 83
 AD-DOM STARS

APOORVA SALKADE

Time’s Filter: Made They are the

faces that launch a
thousand products.
Some are famous

For Each Other now; some are

forever touched by
the magic of old ads.

84 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

by Arshia Dhar But the fairytale comes with its share of poisoned
apples and tricky snares. With social-media visi-

T
HE day truly dawns, for most of us, with bility comes the dangers of greater trolling, and
a steaming cuppa and a newspaper that Left, the the Airtel girl has had her share of it. “While many
traditionally complements it; for some, ubiquitous Sasha connect with that happy persona of mine, there’s
the morning television bulletins work Chettri, face of a disconnect, where people ask. ‘Yeh hai kaun?
just fine; for millennials, a scroll Airtel; below Yeh itni khush kyun hai?’ (Who’s she? Why is she
through their social media feeds is Abhinav Kumar, the happy?) But that’s just a character that I portray.
mandatory. But, along with the freshly mint- ‘Trivago guy’ and However, I understand it, because if I had to see
ed news, there are ubiquitous faces—some the 5 Star duo, Rana myself so many times on TV even I would feel that
fresh, some worn well, others the visual Pratap Sengar (left) way,” Sasha says. She also warns millenials of the
equivalent of the tiredest of clichés—asking and Gagan Duggal emotional costs of high recognition. “There were
you to subscribe to a telecom service, buy a days I haven’t gone out because I was scared of
deo, or use an app to book hotels, their cheery the attention. I had to change my look...I have no
smiles enticing you at every turn of a morning respite; I am everywhere!”
paper? Most aren’t well-known actors, sport- Indian advertising had its watershed moment
spersons, or TV stars. Yet, they have accompa- when in the 1970s, Alyque Padamsee launched
nied you through every stage of your life: Liril soap with his iconic advertisement, star-
from television commercials and YouTube ring the ‘Liril girl’, Karen Lunel. Clad in an em-
shorts, to larger-than-life billboards towering erald green swimsuit, frolicking under a crystal
over every road across the country. Like the blue waterfall and smiling through the cascade
bespectacled eyes of Dr Eckleberg looking of water crashing on her, Karen’s ‘Liril girl’ may
down from a billboard on the road that ran be construed as the image of the perfect male
between West Egg and Manhattan in The fantasy, but the ad, on the contrary, was said to
Great Gatsby, one cannot ignore their gaze; have been a reflection of what women really
they have a curious way of lodging themselves wished for, that too while taking a shower, away
in your head. The owners of those faces are from mundane drudgeries into a world of
celebrities too, people who occasionally exas- make-believe fun. “I always got positive reac-
perate with their omnipresence, but often tions and I enjoyed being the face of the product.
conquer the viral spheres of advertising. The ad was ahead of its time,” Lunel, now a
Take Sasha Chettri, better known as the ‘Airtel school teacher in New Zealand, tells Outlook.
4G girl’, a face that has colonised Indian ad The ad catapulted the 20-year-old to stardom,
spaces in the last four years. For Chettri, previ- turning her into one of the most recognisable
ously a brand strategist at a Mumbai-based pro- faces in India. Before she joined Air India later
duction company, life changed dramatically as an air-hostess, Lunel con-
almost overnight. For the 26-year-old from tinued to shoot for the ads
Dehradun, whose face launched a thousand ads regularly, from 1975 to
for Airtel 4G, it seems like a “fairytale”. “I had a 1983. “It was definitely
fairly normal life before Airtel. I have worked challenging work, get-
for agencies, non-profits, pro- ting up at a stupid o’clock,
duction houses, and I used to getting into a wet swimsuit
moonlight as a musician on in the freezing cold
weekends,” Sasha says. Then, while shooting in
one day, a call from her Kodaikanal and
friend, informing her Khandala and
about auditions at wrapping up in
Airtel set the wheels blankets between
in motion. From feel- takes. We were
ing like a misfit ini- determined to
tially on the sets, make the best of
Sasha is now pursu- it...I had a blast
ing a full-time ca- while it lasted,” says
reer in not just the lady with one
acting, but in of the first ‘viral’
music too. “I am faces of Indian
shooting for a advertising.
Telugu film now “Nobody counts
and working on the number of ads
my music. It’s un- you run; they just
real!” she quips. remember the im-

1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 85

 A D- D OM STARS

pression you make,” William Bernbach, legend-

ary adman famously said. But, in the age of
high-speed internet, the multiple mediums one
is exposed to may consequently multiply the
frequency at which a person meets the unfamil-
iar-yet-ubiquitous faces, thereby making peo-
ple wonder who they are, or why they claim so
much mindspace. Trivago’s Abhinav Kumar
may very well be able to explain this phenome-
non. “I was the country developer for the FACES WE KNOW
Indian market at Trivago for over five years. Right & below,
Last year we were casting for an actor for our Karen Lunel now,
ads...the head of brand marketing suggested and her path-
that I give it a go,” says the puppetish and funny setting Liril ad;
‘Trivago guy’, who is from Bihar. Currently resi- below right,
ding in Dusseldorf, Germany, Kumar’s manne- Mahashay
red ways has been widely trolled and memed, Dharamlal Gulati of
with social-media threads asking why the brand MDH and (below
chose an unknown face. But that’s all grist to left) as he
Trivago’s mill. “It’s great to see people discuss- appeared in the
ing it,” says Kumar. Certainly, he isn’t com- distinctive
plaining about the few additional services he’s masala advert
offered at Indian hotels on account of being the
‘Trivago guy’.

F
ROM the barely smiling, mildly admonitory
Lalitaji (white sari, big red bindi), asking you
to buy Surf to the ever-effervescent Maha-
shayji selling MDH spices, a nostalgic Indian
heart beats to images of great advertising. “I still
get introduced as the Onida model, even after
20 years of the campaign,” says David Whitbread,
the original bi-horned devil for television brand
Onida. From 1985 to 1999, Whitbread’s smoky
devil act had a harmless pungency that kept the
Indian audience hooked. Whitbread, now in his
early 60s, is a freelance stylist and model chore-
ographer based in Coonoor. While he was a
model coordinator in Mumbai, art director Gopi
Kukde approached him to play the iconic televi-
sion devil. “I said no, and offered to find them a
model. It took a couple of months for them to
convince me. I just don’t like being in front of
the camera. Once shot, I was like which client
will like this! It was all about the pretty boys and
girls back then,” the veteran stylist says. He was
paid Rs 7,000—a princely amount then. A
month-and-a-half later, he found the monster
glaring back from the last page of an English From Lalitaji GETTY IMAGES
daily. “I thought no one would recognise me...I demanding
never told anyone. But the press found out. I
would get asked for autographs, and get pointed
that you buy time. Debuting in 2006, the now-legendary
at in restaurants. I didn’t enjoy that bit as I am a Surf, to the Cadbury 5-Star chocolate twins, Ramesh and
shy person, but most of it was good fun,” Whit- effervescent Suresh, continue to occupy screen space in
bread reminisces. Mahashayji India after having shot over 250 ads with agency
Characters like Whitbread’s devil are selling MDH, Ogilvy and Mather. “I am into writing and direc-
once-in-a-generation phenomenon—each one tion. I just want to continue doing the 5-star ads
handing the audience a visual shorthand that Indian hearts and keep travelling the world,” says Gagan
defines an era, an addition to the pop-culture beat to great Duggal, aka Suresh. Often mistaken for being
lexicon, the chosen few that stand the test of advertising. twins, Duggal and sidekick Rana Pratap Sengar

86 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

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 A D- D OM STARS

Characters us to the aircraft,” Duggal laughs. For Sengar,

like Onida’s who was spotted in the 2016 Abhay Deol-Diana
Penty starrer Happy Bhaag Jayegi, life changed
devil come once the campaign took off. After being rejected
once in a twice at the auditions, an indefatigable Sengar
generation, returned a third time, clothed differently and
providing a pretending to be the brother of the twice rej-
visual ected aspirant, until he finally made the cut.
“I’ve seen kids ask shopkeepers for the ‘Ramesh-
shorthand Suresh wala chocolate’. Can you believe that?”
that defines Sengar says. The duo was offered the Hindi re-
a generation. make of Hollywood comedy Dumb and Dumber,
which failed to take off.

I
NDEED, the success of an ad campaign is
nearly impossible to predict. But for gen-Z,
the ultimate test for anything ‘viral’ is its
‘meme-worthiness’, or so believes Amol
Parashar, aka ‘Kunal’ from the Wild Stone deo-
dorant ads. “We no longer live in times when
only the conventional filmy hero or heroine is
needed to sell a product. The definition of
‘good-looking’ is also changing. If you’re relata-
ble, people are going to like you. People put
Kunal in all kinds of memes—from political
memes to Avengers memes, that guy is every-
where!” Parashar says. The IIT-Delhi alumnus
has a successful web-series in his kitty as well.
“The Viral Fever’s Tripling released six months
before the Wild Stone ad, in 2016. I think it kind
of built up from there. It’s definitely opened
more avenues for me,” the actor says.
While some like Rajesh Khera (who replaced
Whitbread for Onida) ended up being typecast
PRODUCT and not getting many other offers, as he seemed
FRONTS Top left & to “remind people of only the devil”, the little
right, David boy from the ’90s Dhara ad has gone on to act in
Whitbread now, and several films and TV shows. “I have vague mem-
the Onida ad that ories from that shoot which happened when I
made him famous; was four. I remember going to the sets very
Left, a grown-up hungry after school. They offered me jalebi
Parzaan Dastur, and there and I loved jalebi. The reactions you see in
(top) as he appeared it are natural,” says Parzaan Dastur, who played
in the Dhara ad the unforgettable ‘sardar kid’ in Kuch Kuch Hota
Hai (1998). But his ‘jalebi boy’ act has struck the
popular chord. “People still recognise me from
that ad. They often are confused with the oil
brand name, but that boy with a squeaky voice,
saying ‘jalebi’, has lasted,” Dastur says.
As the world looks for its next viral face to
squeeze every last meme out of, the mild, intoxi-
(aka Ramesh) have made great memories play- cating whiff of nostalgia never stops clinging to
ing the goofy, stoned, forgetful mascots almost the old ones. For all those characters drawn in
sleep-walking into hilarity. “While on our way indelible ink in our memories—some vaguely
to Romania to shoot one of the 5-Star ads, we remembered, some recalled with startling acu-
had a layover in Doha. A guy at the airport asked ity, all of them sodden with the fading colour
us where we are headed and for what, and ins- tone of old Doordarshan and smudgy news-
tantly recognised us when we mentioned 5-Star. stock—are hooks that let us into another time,
Then others and airport staff walked up to us for one that has gone forever. ‘The Zing Thing’
a photo and arranged a special jeep for us to take tastes so good in that foreign country. O

88 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019


LET YOUR
FAITH (Dharma)
OVERCOME
FEAR (Adharma)
I
n my 2 decades of Astrological journey,
I am of the firm opinion with examples
materialised that all Horoscopes have
both negative & positive Yogas but no
one should either feel blessed or dejected for
life only because of these positive or negative
planets as the final results depend on many
more factors & most important of them is
our Own Karma. Else people once at the top
of pinnacle would not be reduced to ashes &
poppers or people unheard at once would
not achieve the commendable heights. This
further leads us to a point that miracles do
happen atleast once in a life time which can
turn the future life of a person both ways as
stated earlier. Same way sometimes in our
own dreams of expansion or getting more
towards worldly prominence we are trapped
in wrong deeds & that lands the person into
never ending miseries. One can surely co-
relate it with many prominent figures of the
recent times be it politicians, businessmen,
spiritual Gurus. Also do not forget the point
here that more we get, more scared we
become with sense of insecurity creeping in.
So, Let your faith (Dharma) be more
significant than your fear (Adharma). The
fulcrum of faith and fear is meticulously
controlled by Saturn which has many
frightening facades like the shadow of Saturn,
the aspect (Dristi) of Saturn, the association
with Saturn, the period (Dasha) of Saturn,
the Dhaiyya of Saturn and the Sade Sati of
Saturn. Out of these the MahaDasha of
Saturn and the Sade Sati (Seven and half year
transit of Saturn around the natal moon) is
the most feared. As a quack treats his patients
with a restricted knowledge and a limited
set of treatments so does a lesser astrologer
frightens his patrons with these negative
traits of a sinisterly attributed Saturn. I meet
many who, in the fearful grasp of this half-
hearted wisdom, have indulged themselves
into relentless unmindful rituals. But what
they forget is that Saturn or Shani is nothing
but Karma and whatever negativities Saturn
has to offer is indeed a showcase of their own
Karma. Saturn is crooked in appearance with
tall and a lean body, habitually keeps itself
unkept, has sunken eyes with prominent
veins, looks older than its age, is also
stubborn, quarrelsome and often a loner.
He rules over longevity and takes to illness
easily. Now the more prominent these traits
are in one horoscope, the more influence of
a negative Saturn is on the individual. Those
who habitually frighten people with or
without reason, gain happiness by inflicting
misery, become happy in humiliating people,
try to push people down, become delighted
when someone wears a sorrow look, is harsh
and hard-hearted, is pessimistic, is truly
selfish, delays matter for no reasons and
becomes happy when someone suffers, has
a very profound influence of Saturn in him
and without realising of the negative clutches
fate that are to follow the native engulfs with
the Saturnine traits.
Interestingly people with strong Saturnine
traits do not admit a bit of its influence on
them. But they forget that Saturn who is also
a judge, makes one pay when it comes to
evaluating the Karma which usually happens
in the Sade Sati which is the judgment
deciphering time of Saturn. So, it makes
sense not to commit a crime rather than
pleading not guilty in front of a judge who
knows all. There are specific karmic ways
to appease Lord Shani before the onset of
its Sade Sati and few more subtle ways to
soothe the Saturn in its Sade Sati and Dasha
following which can push the luck up in all
domains of life. Same way I will elaborate
about other planets like Rahu , Ketu &
likewise in my next articles here.
Dr.VinayBajrangi,
Ph.D., Scholar in Vedic astrology.
Many more such astrological insights
are available on his blogs
https://www.vinaybajrangi.com/blog/
or on Quora where he is Most Viewed
Astrologer. Connect with him through
his website www.vinaybajrangi.com
or for any other queries contact at
9278665588 or 9278555588.
1 APRIL 2019 OUTLOOK 89
 books Radha Kumar
Paradise at War: A Political History of Kashmir |Aleph Book Company | 416 pages | Rs 799
Burnt Leaves Of The Chinar
A comprehensive study of Kashmir looks at its history, the conflict, the
irretrievable tangle of interests and casts a gimlet eye on political bungling
by Gen (Retd) Ashok Mehta
T
HIS is the most apt book to read
at present, with the faceoff bet­
ween India and Pakistan over
Kashmir at a dangerous new
level. This conflict­ridden tale
has been playing out since insur­
gency started 30 years ago, or perhaps
since Kashmir was first invaded by
Pakistan 71 years ago. As the oldest un­
resolved issue on the UN statute book,
the Kashmir story is narrated with pre­
cision by Radha Kumar; she calls it a
“labour of pain as much as of love”.
The Kashmir dispute has two inter-
twined strands: internal and external. As
an academic and practitioner of conflict
resolution, Kumar covers the full spec-
trum of the Kashmir imbroglio, encom-
passing its historical roots, troubled
legacy and convoluted internal politics,
couched in evolving geopolitics and
marked by the failure to find any durable
meeting points between New Delhi and
Srinagar and New Delhi and Rawalpindi.
Except, as Kumar points out, in late 2006,
with a Musharraf-led government in
Pakistan and UPA government in India,
when the Lambah-Aziz backchannel
produced the 4/5 point formula: no exc-
hange of territory; soft borders across
LoC; self-governance and greater auton-
omy in all three parts of undivided J&K; a
cross-LoC consultative mechanism; and
demilitarisation of Kashmir commensu-
rate with a decline in terrorism. Kumar
says that Musharraf could not push this
formula through due to problems arising
from his suspending the chief justice and
the Lal Masjid episode, without mention-
ing that Manmohan Singh did not receive
the mandate from his party to take the
initiative forward. It was a missed oppor-
tunity, just like the failure to convert the
military gains, including 93,000 Pakistani
POWs, in 1971 into a political settlement
of the LoC as a border, even if trickier.
Kashmir’s accession to India, distinct
from the full merger by other princely
90 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
states made it a unique case that was
backed by commitments made to
Kashmiri leaders through Articles 370
and (later) 35 (A), both of which were
subsequently sought to be revoked or
diluted by New Delhi. The question of
political autonomy remains central; pol-
itical parties in Kashmir, no angels in the
power game, are highly suspicious of the
central government's tendency to abro-
gate formal politics.
Kumar has attributed the origins of the
insurgency to the rigged elections of 1987,
which gave Pakistan its third chance to
PTI
The question of political
autonomy remains central.
Kashmiri political parties,
no angels in the power game,
are very suspicious of the
Centre’s tendency to
abrogate formal politics.
instigate another insurrection, after 1947
and 1965, both leading to wars which she
has traced with considerable insight and
depth. Kumar mentions that the 1977
elections were the first free and fair polls,
followed by the 2002 elections, which
recorded an all-time high turnout of 80
per cent in the Valley. One of the key rea-
sons for the large turnout was the full-
scale deployment of the Indian army
following the Jaish-e- Mohammed attack
on Parliament in December 2001. The
de-induction of troops was delayed till
after the polls despite Musharraf’s pledge
in January 2002 to not allow the use of
Pakistani soil for cross-border terrorism.
Kumar writes that the insurgency had
strands of ‘Muslim chauvinism’, but it
took ten years for it become an Islamist
jehad against India. Kumar lists a com-
pendium of blunders which spurred the
jehad, not least the dissolution of the
assembly in February 1990 and the ensu-
ing ‘counter-insurgency alone’ policy.
Governor Jagmohan’s high-handedness
in quelling protests, the Gawkadal massa-
cre and other untoward incidents led to
the unprecedented event of 137 senior
state officers writing to the UN Secretary-
General for intervention. Pakistan took
full advantage of the civil strife and has
not ceased doing so. Insurgency waned
and waxed, triggering a process of aliena-
tion and radicalisation which culminated
in the Burhan Wani uprising in 2016,
Pathankot, Uri, surgical strikes, et al.
The chapter on ‘Talking to the People’,
on Kumar’s experience as a government
interlocutor, is a rich feast for potential
envoys. Sadly, her team’s report, with its
valuable feedback, went largely unhee-
ded. Two facts emerge. Successive gov-
ernments have used security forces to
combat insurgency whereas the real
problem is political, and when conditi-
ons amenable to political discourse were
created, the opportunities went abegging.
Political processes and round tables
were launched, with their reports not
acted upon. Kumar has reserved the best
for the last chapter—looking back and
into the future, encapsulating lessons for
India, Pakistan and Kashmir. The mess
in Kashmir is due more to central and
state incompetence and misgovernance
than Pakistani chicanery. The revival of a
political process like that initiated dur-
ing Musharraf’s time, though promising,
appears unlikely as it is intrinsically
against the corporate interests of the
military elite. Kashmir, alas, will be left to
be hoist with its own petard, with no one
able or willing to help. O
Nayanjot Lahiri
10 Time Pieces, A whistle stop tour of Ancient India | Hachette | 165 pages | Rs 399
Ashoka Laughed At The Same Joke
Ancient India is dragged into focus through such eternal lenses as love, art,
harassment and moral policing. The past springs to life; it is our present too.
by Pramod Kumar K.G.
I
T is rarely—once in a very long
time—that a slender book comes
along and startles you out of your
reverie with a tale told so simply
that you are filled with wonder­
ment. 10 Time Pieces: A Whistle-
stop tour of Ancient India, by Nayan­
jot Lahiri, is a formidable offering
that can only occur when an expert
story­teller is at the top of her craft
with a vastness of scope and breadth
of intertextuality that spans genres.
Packaged vignettes of history can be
easily found; what makes this book
stand out is the use of a set of 10 time
filters that are almost foundational in
their engagement with any civilisation,
the acuity with which these subjects are
tackled and a departure from ponder-
ous musings. The sheer joy of telling the
stories is evident as the author negoti-
ates art, food, love, laughter, identity
and afterlife, among other illuminating
concerns. These interests have held
true to our present day across the
very same geographies.
The book begins two million years
ago with the arrival of the first hom-
inins to India and works its way
through the first millennium CE, a
period often referred to as ancient
India. What is interesting is how the
ideas of the past hold true even today
across time and space in the Indian
subcontinent. Away from the bind-
ings of a linear didactic history, the
book traces love as an emotional
bedrock, as first seen in the sylvan
surroundings of the Jogimara caves
of Chhattisgarh, with a 3rd century
BCE inscription that immortalises
human tenderness that even a lover in
the 21st century could identify with.
However, the past is not all fair and fun.
As early Buddhist texts reveal, laughter
and jest under strict monastic rules
were to be tempered to avoid disre-
spect; showing teeth was akin to show-
ing skin. Moral policing seems to have appears at the end of the ice ages across
existed in continuum till today, albeit Western Europe, its destiny in the sub-
differently for different communities. continent is different and the author
It is, however, when exploring ideas of leaves us wondering if continued enga-
identity that a great poignancy infuses gements with a historic site by succeed-
the narrative. Amrapali’s intuitive not- ing generations was an act of homage.
ions of self as she ages and describes her An accident of pronunciation by our
changing body in the Therigatha are Persian neighbours has corralled us
accompanied by voices of several other as ‘Hindus’—the word that is closely
Buddhist nuns who authored poems related to the ‘India’ of contemporary
that are seen in this collective. The parlance. However, a conceptualisation
crescendo of their voices is a rare ins- of this land between the Himalayas
ight into the lives, loves or labours of and the seas as one entity has an early
the common populace that we often provenance if one were to try and
miss when confronted with the past. read between lines of Kautilya in the
Viewing several non-narrative forms of Arthashashtra. Finally, prepare to be
contemporary Indian art can leave a astonished as you are led into myriad
viewer befuddled and this is not vastly directions while pursuing poetic des-
different from the great cave paintings criptions of a devastating cloudburst
seen at Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh. in the 5th century AD, or by Lahiri’s
We are no closer today to the motiva- searing honesty while explicitly
tions and desires that triggered the discussing the possibility of sexual
creation of these extraordinary works abuse of novices by Buddhist monks.
of art whose colour may have dimmed Dissonance and breaks are, however,
but whose luminosity and clarity of line tempered over time by a reflection on
continue to amaze. While cave art dis- the many extant historical continuities.
The book gathers many of these
thoughts in a befitting manner in
the introductory chapter.
The acknowledgements in the
book are a revelation—about the
wonderful possibilities that collabo-
rations allow for and the superb
results that obtain when publishing
houses listen to their authors. The
role of a rival publisher, Rukun
Advani, in editing this book has allo-
wed for a quality of delivery that
only continued partnership can
facilitate. Hachette has to be com-
mended for their generosity of spirit
A poignancy infuses the and a canny realisation of what this
narrative as Lahiri would mean for the book. It is, however,
Nayanjot Lahiri’s attempt to ‘utterly
explores identity. Voices of obliterate’ an academic’s impulse that
Buddhist nuns here is an allows this book to flower. One wishes
insight into the lives, loves more scholars would consider irrever-
ence as part of their duty; a newer gen-
and labours of common eration would choose to engage with
folk in ancient India. their subjects. O
1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 91
Presenting sponsor Associate sponsors Supported by
 1 2 3 4a

4b 4c 5

6a 6b 7a

7b 8a 8b

Presenting sponsor Associate sponsors Supported by

 glitterati

Photographs: PTI
Confused Modernist Twists
A fashion show dedicated to the glorious ‘modern’ possibilities
of the saree seemed in danger of design hyperbole, had it not been
for the stupendously stunning results obtained when Adidti Rao
Hydari and Diana Penty wrapped their nine yards. The rest were
a cross between wannabe gowns and strenous echoes of ancient
India, one example being this monstrosity in white (left).

Keep Saajan In Your Heart

Except for the droopy eyes, everything in the person of the
grizzled Sanjay Dutt has put on age since he loped so memora-
bly in Khalnayak and Thanedaar. His co-actor in those,
Madhuri Dixit, seems untouched by Father Time, as ever. The
pair makes another sally together in Kalank. Root for them.

Something strange happened at the Benito Villamarin Stadium in Seville, which Spanish side Real
Betis call home. The entire stadium united as one to cheer a Barcelona player, something which
THIS TOO surprised legend Lionel Messi, who scored his 45th hattrick for the Blaugrana and his 51st overall.
HAPPENED

96 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019

 In The Smithy Of His Blade
Virat Kohli has misgivings about T20’s bad habits
creeping into one-day batsmanship. For Steve
Smith, who got a royal welcome as skipper in
Jaipur ahead of the IPL, it would be the only match
practice he (and David Warner) would get ahead of
the World Cup. The ban is done; let the bat speak.

Touched By Euterpe
For some inscrutable reason, child prodigies seem to gravitate tow-
ards music. From Mozart to Menuhin, the list is long. One hopes to
add Lydian Nadhaswaram, 13, to it—the boy pianist, who trains at
A.R. Rahman’s conservatory, aced US show The World’s Best, grab-
bing a cool million bucks. Hope ARR drives him hard to his destiny.

More Frills
In Sandalwood
Was the Kannada movie industry
in mourning when Nidhi Subbaiah
moved northwest to Bollywood to
ply her moves in Oh My God and
Ajab Gazabb Love? A siren call
must have answered ano-
ther—Nidhi is safely
back in Bangalore.

“Ma ny of th ose wh o w il l h ave bee n di rectly af fect ed b y thi s sh oot i ng m ay

be m ig ra nt s t o Ne w Z eal a n d .... Ne w Z eal a n d i s th e i r h o m e. T h e y a re u s.”
– Ne w Z eal a n d P M J AC I N DA A R DE R N af t e r th e C hr i st ch u rch sh oot i ng.

1 April 2019 OUTLOOK 97


A Nordic Election
On April 14, around the time India’s
massive general elections will be underway,
tiny Finland in the Nordics will also hold
its parliamentary elections. Finnish par-
liamentary elections are held once every
four years and the present government, a
three-party coalition that controls 104 of
the 200 seats, comprises Prime Minister SANJOY
Juha Sipilä’s Centre Party (centrist; with NARAYAN
an agrarian base); the National Coalition
Party (liberal; with an urban, high-income (The author is former editor-in-chief,
Hindustan Times)
base); and the Blue Reform Party (a con-
servative party that broke away from the
right-wing Finns Party, a former member of the coalition).
Finland’s voter turnout is typically high. In 2015, it was
70 per cent plus (nearly three million people turned up to
cast their votes), which is probably also a reflection of the
nation’s demographics: over 73 per cent of Finns are 25
or older, and those who are 65 or older make up 21.5 per
cent—quite the opposite of India.
Sipilä’s government is a non-typical coalition in Finland.
The previous government, also a coalition, comprised six
of the eight parties that contested the elections. But then
coalitions work remarkably well in Finland: once formed,
a coalition’s members with quite opposite views on mat-
ters such as immigration; the European Union (Finland
is a member); or on health and social welfare policies, are
able to bury their differences and provide a stable govern-
ment that functions in what Finns call “national interest.”
That is what forms the bedrock of Finnish democracy. In
2017, when an ultra-right winger became the president of
the Finns Party, the party was ousted from the coalition
and the Blue Reform, a breakaway from that party but
with far less hard-line views was inducted, averting a
collapse of the government.
Coalition Lessons
In Finland, the president is also elected by popular vote
and has a term of six years. Incumbent Sauli Ninistö, a
widely respected independent, was elected for a second
term last year. Unlike in India, it is not a dec-
orative post: foreign policy and diplomacy
are part of the sole responsibilities of the
president of Finland who, in turn, has
a hands-off policy when it comes to
internal matters and Finnish politics.
Next month, as Finns head to
the polling booths, the Social
Democratic Party (with centre-left
leanings) could well have the edge.
Although Finland’s economy has
been growing—in 2017 the economy
grew 2.6 per cent (higher than
Sweden’s 2.3 per cent and Norway’s 1.9
per cent)—Sipilä’s labour reforms and
MANJUL
98 OUTLOOK 1 April 2019
FINLAND diary
austerity measures have come under fire.
If the Social Democrats win the most seats
and are called to form the government,
they could likely ally with the Left Alliance
(erstwhile Communists) and the Green
Party (strongly environment-focused).
Finland is like a Petri dish for coalition
politics and could be a good example for
bigger democracies.
Snow Snobbery
If the average Finn was less polite and
more outspoken, he might have chortled
with scorn when snow blizzards lashed
across North America this winter, making the headlines
and crippling normal life. When you’re as high up north as
Finland is, harsh winters are a way of life. It’s still snowing
here, by the way, although my Finnish friends are calling
it Spring. Finns are a resilient lot. So when temperatures
dipped down to as low as -38.5 C in January end, and unbe-
lievable amounts of snow covered everything, life went on
as usual. Schools remained open—many kids walk to school
even during winter—and offices functioned quite normally.
“Yes, I know,” a Finnish friend said to me with nonchalance
one day when I was struggling outdoors in about -20 C, “it
is a little bit cold today.”
Finns make the most of winter and the snow, though.
Forests cover 75 per cent of Finland and trekking there is
great fun in winter. And all schools have a break of a week
during the height of winter just to give the kids a chance
to go skiing. It is even called the Koulujen hiihtolomat or
school skiing holidays.
When In A Sauna…
Saunas are so deeply embedded in Finnish culture that for
a country with 5.5 million people there are more than two
million saunas. Most houses have their own saunas, and,
in addition, there are many public ones. The basic sauna
etiquette is that you’re naked (there are separate sections
for men and women in most public saunas); that it’s really
hot (+80 C is quite normal; I’ve been to one where
it soared to +102 C); and that you enjoy the
cleansing effect that it has, quietly.
While most people have electric
stove-fired saunas at home, there are
a few wood-fired saunas open to the
public. Helsinki’s bohemian district,
Kallio, has the Kotiharjun Sauna,
an establishment with a distinctly
old-world feel. The idea is to sit in
the heat and then go out on the
streets for a while, wrapped only in
a towel. And then go back in. When
it’s -10 C outside and around +80 C
inside, it’s an experience that is more
invigorating than words can describe.