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mr.
tough
As Union Home minister,
How Amit sHAH will
Assert His brAnd of
mUscUlAr nAtionAlism
DIGITAL EDITION
OC
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: DEVENDRA FADNAVIS Bollywood: Summer of ’19
www.indiatoday.in JUNE 17, 2019 `60
REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/2018-20; U(C)-88/2018-20; FARIDABAD/05/2017-19 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT

RNI NO. 28587/75
MR.
TOUGH
AS UNION HOME MINISTER,
HOW AMIT SHAH WILL
ASSERT HIS BRAND OF
MUSCULAR NATIONALISM
EXCLUSIVE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

ONLY FOR IPAD
THE BIG STORY HOW THE BJP BREACHED DIDI'S BASTION
COVER STORY THE NEW MR. TOUGH
STATES WHY THE DELAY?
STATES A CONGRESS REVIVAL?
MOVIES LOVE THY NATION, LOVE THY FAMILY
ECONOMY HOW TO KICKSTART AN ECONOMY
IN SLOW-MO
UPFRONT THE HEAT IS ON
#AMITSHAH
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www.indiatoday.in EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie
I
VICE CHAIRPERSON: Kalli Purie
ndia’s powerful Ministry of Home will it find a way around the issue?
GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa
GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh
Affairs can often be like a mirage. Then there is the long-simmering
MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha One that promises shimmering issue of Maoists in central India who,
CONSULTING EDITOR: Ajit Kumar Jha (Research)
EXECUTIVE EDITORS: S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan
visions of fame and power but despite their shrinking sanctuaries, have
Mumbai: M.G. Arun which in reality hides a minefield. One proved to be resilient foes. The govern-
DEPUTY EDITORS: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop
Hyderabad: Amarnath K. Menon Chandigarh: Asit Jolly
misstep can result in catastrophe. North ment also wants to push the Citizenship
SENIOR EDITORS: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, Alokparna Das Block holds within it a graveyard of (Amendment) Bill, which grants citizen-
Jaipur: Rohit Parihar
SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Ashish Mukherjee
political reputations. ship to Hindus, Christians, Buddhists,
Mumbai: Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; patna: Amitabh Srivastava L.K. Advani demitted office in 2004 Jains and Sikhs from neighbouring
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha
Kolkata: Romita Sengupta; Bhopal: Rahul Noronha; after failing to live up to the hype of countries. Shah has, in the past, held
Thiruvananthapuram: Jeemon Jacob
being another Sardar Patel. Shivraj controversial views on the identification
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri
pune: Aditi S. Pai Patil was sacked for inaction during and deportation of illegal immigrants.
PHOTO DEPARTMENT: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor),
Rajwant Singh Rawat, Yasir Iqbal (Principal Photographers),
the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. His The BJP has promised to implement
Chandra Deep Kumar (Senior Photographer); Mumbai: Mandar Suresh replacement, P. Chidam- a Uniform Civil Code
Deodhar (Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer);
Kolkata: Subir Halder (Principal Photographer); baram, opted to return to and abide by the Su-
Chennai: N.G. Jaison (Senior Photographer)
PHOTO RESEARCHERS: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher),
the finance ministry after preme Court-monitored
Saloni Vaid (Principal Photo Researcher), Maoist attacks on security resolution of the Ram
Shubhrojit Brahma (Senior Photo Researcher)
CHIEF OF GRAPHICS: Tanmoy Chakraborty forces worsened. temple issue. All of these
ART DEPARTMENT: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director); We now have in Amit concerns are within the
Angshuman De (Art Director); Devajit Bora (Deputy Art Director);
Vikas Verma (Associate Art Director); Shah a personification ambit of Shah’s ministry.
Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Senior Designer)
Siddhant Jumde (Senior Illustrator)
of the power of the home There is still no clar-
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production), ministry. Shah is better ity on who will succeed
Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator),
Vijay Kumar Sharma (Senior Coordinator) known for transforming Shah as BJP president.
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Manoj Sharma the BJP into an electoral Assembly elections are
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Anil Fernandes (Impact) juggernaut. In 2017, I de- Our Jul. 2014 cover due in Maharashtra,
IMPACT TEAM
Senior General Manager: Jitendra Lad (West)
scribed him as ‘the most Haryana, Jharkhand
General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North), politically astute, ruthless, and Delhi in the coming
Upendra Singh (Bangalore),
Kaushiky Gangulie (East) result-oriented and hard- months. If Shah follows
GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Vivek Malhotra
Head of Marketing: Preetha Athrey
working Indian politician his party’s ‘one man,
SALES AND OPERATIONS: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager I had ever met’. The BJP’s one post’ norm, he could
Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (National Sales)
Vipin Bagga, Deputy General Manager (Operations)
landslide in the 2019 Lok make way for another in-
Rajeev Gandhi, Regional Sales Manager (North) Sabha election has vindi- cumbent, who will have
cated this perception. enormous shoes to fill.
The question now is Our cover story,
whether Shah can use his Mr. Tough, written by
acumen to deliver results Deputy Editor Uday
Our Oct. 2017 cover
Volume XLIV Number 24; For the week in this sensitive ministry. Mahurkar, who has
June 11-17, 2019, published on every Friday
The choice of Shah as home known Shah for close
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INSIDE
UPFRONT LEISURE
HOW TO REV UP PICO IYER’S
THE ECONOMY PG 4 NEW BOOK PG 54
INDEX: KNOW Q&A WITH

YOUR MANTRI BABA SEHGAL
PG 13 PG 62
C OV E R S T O RY
22 DRAWING THE LINE

What new home minister Amit Shah’s brand of
muscular nationalism means for the country
Cover photograph by BANDEEP SINGH
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2 INDIA TODAY J U N E 17, 2 019

Presenting India Today Insight

For sharp analysis on topical issues by the editors of india today,
log on to www.indiatoday.in/india-today-magazine-insight
NARENDRA MODI’S FOREIGN

POLICY 2.0
https://bit.ly/2WgUp9I
PA R L I A M E N T
30 HOUSE
MAKEOVER
The changing face of
the Lok Sabha
I N T E RV I E W
34
MAN OF
ACTION
Devendra Five GST fixes the Modi government
Fadnavis on the needs to implement
Lok Sabha win, GST needs further streamlining and easier
the BJP-Sena compliance norms if India is to become one market
alliance and
challenges before https://bit.ly/2JJIa3K
his givernment
Can a new ministry address India’s
water emergency?
https://bit.ly/2EU0sen
M A D H YA P R A D E S H
The road ahead for Jagan Mohan Reddy
46
The new Andhra Pradesh chief minister stares at
empty coffers and a long list of poll promises
https://bit.ly/2wCy7F8
WAKE-UP CALL
After the Lok Sabha
rout, can Kamal Nath
overcome the looming
Auto sales
BJP threat to his in the slow
government? lane
In 2018-19,
overall ve-
hicle sales fell
by 8 per cent.
Here’s why a
CORRIGENDUM rebound may
The picture accompanying the profile of not come so
soon
Alwar Lok Sabha MP Mahant Balaknath
(left) in the cover section, Meet Our https://bit.ly/2W3x3Ey
New MPs (page 30, June 10, 2019), was
incorrect. The error is regretted.
UPFRONT
WINNING FARMERS CASE OF THE
OVER AGAIN ‘MISSING EVM s ’
PG 6 PG 8
BOOKS: POWER INDEX: KNOW

GAMES IN AKHARAS YOUR MANTRI
PG 10 PG 1 3
ECONOM Y
HOW TO KICKSTART
AN ECONOMY IN SLOW-MO
By M.G. Arun
T
he worst fears of India’s policy- GDP growth underlines the consensus ment, shows that India’s unemployment
makers seem to have come true. that India can no longer thrive on just rate rose to 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. This
India’s economy grew at its lowest government spending; it also needs a data, withheld earlier but also ‘leaked’,
rate in the past five years as private in- big private investment push. Private in- showed unemployment to be the highest
vestment slowed and agriculture, indus- vestment grew 7.2 per cent in the March in 45 years. The government, however,
try and exports continued to slacken. quarter, down from 8.4 per cent in the maintains the new data is not compara-
GDP growth in the January-March previous quarter. Government spend- ble with previous surveys as the survey
quarter of 2018-19 stood at 5.8 per ing, however, rose 13 per cent from methodologies are different.
cent, lower than market expectations 6.5 per cent ahead of the general Most of the key components—
and falling behind China for the first election, widening the fiscal deficit in manufacturing, construction and
time in two years. Growth for the full the last financial year. trade—slowed notably. Manufactur-
year stood at 6.8 per cent, lower than NSSO (National Sample Survey Of- ing, in particular, has been hit by a fall
the 7.2 per cent in 2017-18. The slowing fice) data, now released by the govern- in both production and consumption.
4 INDIA TODAY J U N E 17, 2 019 Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

UPFRONT https://t.me/daily_paper
The steel and cement sectors have begun to slow

down. Meanwhile, urban consumers are bat-
tling a money-supply squeeze in the aftermath of
the IL&FS crisis, while rural consumers labour
under the effects of lower wage growth. An HSBC PM-K ISA N
research note said a ‘soft’ growth data scenario is
WINNING
likely to continue into the next quarter (April-June
2019), following which growth might rebound to
7 per cent. “There are three reasons for this. One,
a pick-up in activity as election-related uncertain-
ties fade. Two, an improvement in banking sector FARMERS
OVER AGAIN
liquidity. We find the liquidity situation generally
improves over the months of June-August. Three,
we expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to
remain supportive,” says Pranjul Bhandari, chief
economist, HSBC India.
F
A weak economy should also prompt the RBI ulfilling an election 145 million beneficiaries and
to further cut interest rates, maybe by 25 basis promise, the Narendra cost the exchequer Rs 87,000
points in its next meeting, taking the repo rate Modi government, in its crore annually.
(the interest rate at which the RBI lends to banks) first Cabinet meeting on May In its Lok Sabha elec-
to 5.7 per cent. The 31, extended the PM-Kisan tion manifesto, the BJP had
central bank has scheme to all farmers. The promised to extend the PM-
Coordinated already reduced the scheme promises poor farmers Kisan scheme to all eligible
fiscal and repo rate twice by an annual payout of Rs 6,000, farm families, irrespective of
monetary 25 basis points each. directly transferred to their the size of their land hold-
stimuli will Meanwhile, corpo- bank accounts in three instal- ings. Prime Minister Nar-
help reverse rate earnings grew ments. The decision means the endra Modi reiterated the
the ongoing at a six-quarter low scheme will now have some promise during an election
demand of 10.7 per cent in rally in Patna on April 10.
slowdown the January-March
PM-KISAN
“We will scrap the 5 acres (or
period on weak 2 hectares) maximum land
consumer senti- SCHEME holding criterion to avail of the
ment and lower commodity prices, said ICRA, the benefits of the yojana once our
Indian arm of ratings agency Moody’s, on the basis Farmers covered under government is formed,” Modi
of a sample of 300-plus companies. PM-Kisan had said. He also promised
According to D.K. Srivastava, chief policy advi- 2019 a regular pension cover for
145 MN
sor, EY India, one option for the new government 2018 senior citizen farmers. “Our
to stimulate the economy is to front-load expendi- government will provide pen-
tures planned in 2019-20. For this, the government
should bring out the annual budget for the current
125 MN (about
16% more)
sion to farmers over 60,” the
prime minister had said.
fiscal as quickly as possible. “One likely focus Announced in the interim
will be the rural and agricultural sector, given How many budget of February 2018, PM-
the continuing distress and the need for relief.
To supplement the fiscal effort, there may be one
small/marginal
farmers have 30MN
FARMERS
Kisan initially targeted 125
million farmers holding up to
more repo rate cut, which should be sooner rather benefitted 2 hectares of land. Its rollout
so far?
than later in the fiscal year,” he says. This, he says, provided the BJP a powerful
is unlikely to affect the inflation outlook, since the weapon to counter the Con-
CPI (consumer price index) rate, at 2.9 per cent in Who is eligible? gress’s NYAY scheme, which
April 2019, is still well below the mean CPI infla- Currently all landowning small/ had promised India’s poor-
tion target rate of 4 per cent. Further, even though marginal farmers with up to 2 ha est 20 per cent a minimum
food and vegetable prices have recovered from a of land; ceiling to be removed income guarantee of
previous sequence of contraction, the core CPI has Rs 72,000 a year.
Annual
87,000CR
actually fallen. A coordinated fiscal and monetary According to the new
stimulus will help reverse the ongoing demand cost to the agriculture and rural develop-
`
exchequer
slowdown, he adds. n ment minister Narendra Singh

SEEDS OF A FUTURE
A farmer couple work their field
in Mohanlalganj, Lucknow
an entry age of 18-40 years. Rural

subscribers will contribute Rs 55-100,
with the government matching the
amount. Once the subscribers cross 60
MANEESH AGNIHOTRI
years, they will receive a pension of
Rs 3,000 per month.
The cabinet decisions are expected
to address the farm sector distress
that has gripped the rural economy
ever since the back-to-back droughts
between 2014 and 2016. As per central
Tomar, “nearly 145 million farmers
will now benefit from the scheme. A
THE AGRI SECTOR government data released on May 31,
the agriculture sector grew 2.9 per
number of states have not sent the GREW AT A DISMAL cent in FY2018-19 against 5 per cent
information on their farmers, so they
have not got the benefits. However,
2.9% IN FY2018-19; in FY2017-18. The average agricultural
growth rate in the past five years is
more than 30 million farmers have THE AVERAGE even lower at 2 per cent.
already received the benefits”. The decision to expand the PM-
Ashok Dalwai, CEO of the Na-
GROWTH RATE Kisan scheme in the first cabinet
tional Rainfed Area Authority and FOR THE PAST FIVE meeting shows that the farm sector
secretary in the ministry of agriculture is a top priority for the Modi govern-
& farmers’ welfare, clarified the impact
YEARS WAS EVEN ment in its second term. Top sources
of the expanded PM-Kisan scheme: LOWER AT 2% in the rural development ministry said
“Eighty-five per cent (small and mar- higher spending in rural areas is likely
ginal) farmers were covered under PM- to boost sagging rural consumption
Kisan when it was announced in 2018. Pension Yojana aims to cover 50 mil- and increase demand in the country-
This expansion extends the coverage to lion small and marginal farmers, with side, helping jumpstart the economy,
100 per cent,” he says. the government expected to spend which is facing a slowdown. “Spend-
In addition, small farmers and around Rs 10,775 crore on the scheme ing and investment in rural areas via
retail traders will now benefit from over a three-year period. The traders PM-Kisan and the pension schemes
new contributory pension schemes, pension scheme will cover 30 million can raise rural demand and prove to be
similar to the scheme for unorganised shopkeepers, retail traders and self- a key growth driver,” said a secretary-
sector workers introduced in the last employed persons with a GST turnover level officer. n
budget. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan below Rs 1.5 crore. Both schemes have —Ajit K. Jha
Poor Samajwadi Party chief AKHILESH

YADAV sounds like a man jilted on his
wedding day. His putative ally, Bahujan
PU LLQUOTE Samaj Party leader Mayawati, announced
last week that her party would contest the
“If the coalition h upcoming Uttar Pradesh byelections for the
11 assembly seats on its own. She suggested
broken, I will reflect the SP had not got its act together in the
on it. And if the coa general elections, unable to secure even the
isn’t there in the byele Yadav vote, thus leaving her little choice but
to go her own way. She hasn’t sounded the
the Samajwadi Part death knell on the alliance, but the onus is
fight on all 11 seats a on Akhilesh to convince her that he has the
votes. After much media hype, the SP-BSP
alliance could not halt the BJP juggernaut in
UP. Can it save an alliance built on a mutual
enemy rather than shared goals?
VIKRAM SHARMA
GUEST COLUMN
THE CASE OF THE

TRILOCHAN
‘MISSING EVMs’
SASTRY
T
he EVM issue is an election-time perennial. This So far, no one has done so, but we still have a few weeks
time two new issues have come up. The first is during which such petitions may be filed.
an apparent discrepancy between the number It is important to note that often parties and
of votes polled, as logged on the Election Commission candidates who lose elections or are apprehensive of
(EC) website, and those obtained from the EVMs. The losing elections allege rigging or missing EVMs, or
EC has since explained that figures on their website were demand paper trails, full recounting and even re-polling.
provisional, and they will reconcile the numbers and put The winners are busy celebrating. Many doubts have been
out the correct ones soon. The second issue is the large raised and, unfortunately, biases creep in even in the way
number of EVMs allegedly gone ‘missing’—information we react to these doubts. Those who voted for the ruling
gleaned from an RTI query. The EC party dismiss the doubts out of hand.
will hopefully explain this as well in the For others, there is proof of rigging.
coming days. It is important to restore public
Before the elections, Opposition confidence in the system.
parties had asked for a 50 per cent In this era of social media and
VVPAT (or paper trail) verification fake news, all sorts of messages are
of votes cast, a demand the Supreme flying around. Not all are accurate or
Court turned down. The Opposition factual. But there are some interesting
parties did not state their apprehensions facts that may be worth noting.
explicitly, and the EC finally allowed Three states—Chhattisgarh, Madhya
a 5 per cent paper trail verification, Pradesh and Rajasthan—dramatically
without specifying the course of action reversed the verdict of assembly polls
in the event that there were substantial held less than six months ago. In
differences in the EVM and paper trail Karnataka, there were two reversals:
counts. One former Chief Election the Opposition won assembly
Commissioner (CEC) recently said there elections in May 2018, and the ruling
It is important for
was no possibility of manipulation. party swept the Lok Sabha poll one
However, he did exhort the EC to clarify/
the EC to offer a year later. One month after the Lok
remove all doubts. point-by-point Sabha poll in late May, the Opposition
A couple of key issues need to be clarification of all once again won the municipal
examined: the possibility of rigging substantive doubts elections. Two dramatic reversals in
elections, for example. Conspiracy less than a year, and one in less than a
theories abound in our country. One month. There are probably reasonable
such theory is that manipulation explanations for all this. But for those
occurred during storage/ transportation who suspect manipulation, these
of EVMs. Another offers that perhaps additional votes reversals raised further questions. In such a situation, it
were cast after polling hours, as many did not show up becomes even more important for the EC to clear the air
for voting. The polling percentage data for 2019 does by offering a point-by-point clarification of all substantive
not suggest large-scale rigging—if that were true, polling doubts. If indeed there are no problems in the conduct of
percentages would perhaps have risen significantly, in elections, the EC’s clarifications will silence critics not just
some constituencies at least. But whatever the truth may for now but for future elections as well. Elections do, after
be, it is important to put at rest all doubts on the issue. all, also need to be seen to be fair. n
The second issue is whether errors, if any, would affect
the outcome of the election in any constituency. There is Trilochan Sastry is founder chairman
a legal remedy in place for this: any candidate who feels of the Association of Democratic Reforms and
aggrieved about the counting can file an election petition. Professor, IIM Bangalore
18 INDIA TODAY J U N E 17, 2 019 Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

UPFRONT
C H AT T E R
The week in social media INDEX

@ShougatDasgupta
The Kishwar The Heat Is On

Report The severe heatwave in the northern and western parts of India
Breaking news from has broached all-time records. In the last week or so, Indian
and Pakistani cities and towns have registered the highest
the increasingly abu-
temperatures in the world. High heat coupled with humidity
sive Twitter account of is expressed as ‘wet bulb’ temperature, and a place with a wet
academic Madhu Kishwar bulb temperature of over 35 degrees Celsius is considered
and part-time conspiracy unlivable. Many Indian cities are expected to pass these wet bulb
theorist: “Nehru’s extraordinary hold over Gandhi can only be temperatures in 50 years, making swathes of the country, home
explained by gay relation between 2”. Yes, that is, of course, to tens of millions of people, uninhabitable. In a 2015 heatwave,
the only explanation (though has she considered, and ruled some 2,500 people died. The effects of climate change, manifest
out, hypnotism?). Kishwar also supplies evidence to back up in this extreme heat, are reversible, scientists have argued. So,
her claims—an unnamed South Indian friend “in whose family for instance, by meeting its Paris Agreement targets to control
home Nehru & Gandhi once spent night” told her that “both emissions, India could still pull itself back from the brink, could
still avoid breaching that wet bulb mark.
slept in same bed”. Others have speculated about Gandhi’s
sexuality, notably Joseph Lelyveld, former executive editor of
The New York Times, who alleged Gandhi enjoyed more than
just an intimate friendship with a South African bodybuilder.
Lelyveld’s book was banned in Gujarat, where Prime Minister 10 6,167
Narendra Modi was chief minister at the time. Kishwar has- of the 15 hottest heat-related deaths
places on the planet recorded between
tened to add, there’s nothing wrong with being gay. It’s just that
on June 4, according 2010 and 2018,
Gandhi’s gayness made him overlook Sardar Patel and that, to a website that according to figures
Kishwar asserts, is “unacceptable”. In the Hindutva-inflected collates international provided by the
worldview, Gandhi’s favouring of Nehru was his cardinal sin, weather reports, Ministry of Earth
alongside his ‘appeasement’ of Muslims. So, following Kish- were in India, Sciences to the
including 6 of the top Lok Sabha; 2,081
war’s Byzantine ‘logic’, Gandhi’s gayness is what brought 10. The other 5 were (33.74%) in 2015
down the Republic? n in Pakistan alone
50.3°C 75 billion
The temperature in hours of work lost in
Sticklers for Etiquette? Churu, Rajasthan, India due to extreme
the highest heat each year,
According to popular social temperature said a 2017 report
media interpretations of a recorded in the published in British
video doing the rounds online, world on June 4. The medical journal,
Pakistani Prime Minister coldest was -78.7°C Lancet
in Antarctica
Imran Khan has appar-
ently offended his country’s
$2 trillion
Saudi Arabian benefactors by
walking away from the Saudi
8 cost in lost labour
of the 15 hottest productivity
king before giving him the op- places in the world, worldwide by 2030
portunity to respond in a con- including Churu, due to extreme
versation. Khan’s gestures are in Rajasthan: heat, estimates
and upright posture were Ganganagar (48.8°C); International Labour
Bikaner (48.4°C); Organization. Cost
apparently not respectful
Phalodi (48.2°C); to India by 2050:
(i.e. servile) enough. According to one commentator on Twitter, Jaisalmer (47.8°C); 2.8% of GDP, says
“Saudi govt has said IK’s behaviour was disgusting”. Not sure Kota, Pilani (47.5°C); 2018 World Bank
Saudi royals are the arbiters of what qualifies as “disgusting” Barmer (47.2°C) report
behaviour. In any case, in the video, it looks like Khan walks
away towards the summit room before making his concluding
remarks and leaves the translator and the king to it. On Twitter, 11
and elsewhere, it was widely reported that the Saudis can- of the 15 hottest years on record since 1901, says
the Indian Meteorological Department, have been
celled meetings because of Khan’s “insult”. The Saudis denied in the period from 2004-2018. Last year was the
this, lest they be thought petty and hidebound. n 6th. Top 5: 2016, 2009, 2017, 2010, 2015
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

UPFRONT
BOOKS
POWER GAMES IN AKHARAS

By Alok Rai
A
s someone who grew up in casionally it spills over into something
Allahabad, I have been aware more. One wildly grotesque detail must
of the Kumbh Mela for as long suffice for the virtual banquet that is on
as I can remember. Indeed, offer here. Given that notionally celibate
one of my earliest Kumbh monks cannot have progeny, the trans-
memories is of the ashen faces of my fer of property—temple rights, etc—is
parents when, in the winter of 1954, a fraught business. And since the rules
they returned after having survived are ambiguous, the whole thing turns
the stampede in which hundreds were on whoever has possession of the body
crushed to death. In fact, that stampede of the deceased mahant and funerary
was related to the procession of Naga rights, and, consequently, inheritance.
sadhus who are, famously, turbulent Jha tells of one such body-snatch, where
and untamed—so it has a direct con- the bamboo bier on which the body
nection with Dhirendra Jha’s book— rested having been stripped for sticks to
Ascetic Games. I have other, less gory fight with, one desperate monk picked
memories too—the mela itself, food up the body itself, and lurched into
stalls, bewildered pilgrims, the fakes ASCETIC GAMES battle swinging the corpse. Fiction fails.
and the frauds. All these memories Sadhus, Akharas and the Federico Fellini weeps with envy.
Making of the Hindu Vote
relate to the consumption side of the by DHIRENDRA K JHA More substantively, however, the
Kumbh. Jha’s book, subtitled Sadhus, Published by Context VHP’s attempt to weaponise the mo-
Akharas and the Making of the Hindu `599; 216 pages nastic orders has not been as successful
Vote, tells you everything you have as might have been expected. Many
ever—or, in my case, never—wanted to people—even Mahatma Gandhi and
know about the production side of the Even Gandhi and Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru, certainly Indira
Kumbh, and similar spectacles. Gandhi, of course Madan Mohan Ma-
The Naga sadhus—wild, ash-
and certainly Indira laviya—have been tempted to make in-
smeared, flagrantly naked and stoned have been tempted to strumental use of sadhu networks. But
out of their minds—are, in some sense, make instrumental use the “instrument” is, of its nature, unruly
a perfect symbol of the old, the secret, of sadhu networks and unpredictable. Thus, the VHP has
the mystic India. Come Kumbh, they struggled to make the regular shanka-
emerge mysteriously, boisterously, racharyas fall in line. Consequently, the
riotously, create mayhem and provide VHP has connived in the production of
high-value, internationally glamorous power began to corrupt the institu- many shankaracharyas. According to
entertainment. Then, just as mysteri- tions—corrupt them, be it said, in one source cited by Jha, there are more
ously, they disappear. Jha researched new ways—because, in Jha’s account, than 100 shankaracharyas today! These
what they do between these appear- they were pretty corrupt even earlier. shenanigans apparently led to a revolt,
ances—and survived to tell the tale. Obviously, monastic orders, here and and the All India Akhara Parishad
Unfortunately, however, the story everywhere else, have always been about was forced to publish a list of people
soon falls into a pattern that is de- money and power, about property and who had been, so to speak, defrocked.
pressingly familiar. The infiltration influence, but the ministrations of the Among the many formerly “holy” people
of institutions by the Hindu Right is VHP have scaled the whole game up to on that list, there was one Amritanand
something one recognises. It is hardly another level. Tirth who, defrocked as shankaracha-
surprising, then, that Hindu religious Nothing new, alas, in this appropri- rya, turned up as a prime accused in the
institutions—the traditional monastic ation of old India by new India, except Malegaon blasts case. Perhaps he can be
orders, the akharas and the peeths— that old India—in the alleys of Ayod- made an MP? n
should have attracted the attention hya and the dhoonis of Haridwar—is
of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). showing a kind of stubborn persistence. Alok Rai is a writer, translator and
Pretty soon, the lure of money and Often this is only cosmetic, but oc- former professor of English

EXPOSUR E
FIGHTING NIPAH
Last year, the Nipah virus, a fast-moving infection spread by fruit bats and pigs, among other animals, killed 17
people in Kerala. Hence, the discovery of the virus in a student admitted to a private hospital in Ernakulam, Kochi,
this year is being treated as an emergency. From hospital staff clad in masks and protective clothing akin to hazmat
suits, every measure is being taken to prevent another outbreak. About 80 people with whom the patient has had
contact over the past few days are being monitored. Four of them, including two nurses, have reportedly suffered
fevers, but there is no confirmation of further Nipah cases. Named after the Malaysian town in which it was first
discovered about 20 years ago, Nipah has no vaccine or treatment. The patient’s fever has to be managed since one
can slip from a fever into a coma within a couple of days. Of the 700 people thought to have had the virus, 50 to 75
per cent have died. The impact of Nipah on Kerala’s imagination has been so significant that a Malayalam film, titled
Virus, is releasing this month. Let’s hope this year’s outbreak will be contained without too much drama.
PR AK ASH EL AMAKK AR A /EPA

INDEX
56 7 3
Know Your ministers in
Narendra Modi’s
cases against Pratap
Chandra Sarangi, one
ministers face
charges of electoral
Mantri
new cabinet, down of 6 ministers battling violations—including
from 64 (2014) charges of spreading illegal payments,
communal disharmony bribery and exercising
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned and outraging religious “undue influence”
to power and has a strong mandate to continue 39% feelings
to implement the development model he
promised in 2014. The new Modi cabinet
of ministers, 22/56, 233
have declared
is leaner and most of the excitement has ongoing criminal or 43% newly
been focused on BJP president Amit Shah’s proceedings elected Lok Sabha
induction as the home minister (see Cover against them, up MPs battling
Story, page 26). Less discussed, perhaps, are from 20 (31%) criminal cases,
the criminal cases against almost 40 per cent in 2014, says compared with 185
of the ministers. Some of these charges are Association (34%) in 2014 and
serious, like fomenting communal conflict. for Democratic 162 (30%) in 2009
Junior minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Reforms
for example, recipient of much social media
116
ardour for his thatched roof home and choice
of transport, a bicycle, is now dealing with 16 of 303 BJP MPs and
mainstream media attention on his Bajrang ministers 29 of 52 Congress
Dal activism. He has earlier been investigated (28.6%) face MPs fighting criminal
in connection with the murder of a Christian “serious” charges, cases; one Congress
missionary and his two sons—links that remain compared with 11 MP from Kerala faces
unsubstantiated and that Sarangi rejects. (17.2%) in 2014 204 charges
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
RAM
GL ASSHOUSE
AT THE HELM
THE NEW T he BJP is looking
for a successor to
WINGMAN Maharashtra party chief

Raosaheb Danve since
his appointment as Union
T
hat former foreign secretary minister of state for food
S. Jaishankar was in the running and civil supplies. There is
for a tenure in the second term of speculation that it will be
the Modi government had long been the state minister for water
buzz on Raisina Hill—Prime Minister conservation Ram Shinde
Narendra Modi had implicit faith of the Dhangar community,
in the mandarin’s abilities. But which has been demanding
Jaishankar’s appointment scheduled tribe status.
as foreign minister on Shinde is from Ahmednagar
May 30 took everyone by district, where the BJP is
surprise. BJP sources trace also expecting influential
the decision to a recent review local Congressman
meeting that the PM’s Office had with Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil
external affairs ministry officials. In this to join them, making their
meeting, held when the election was presence even stronger. Patil
on, Modi discovered that foreign-policy quit the Congress on June 4.
matters comprised roughly 30 per cent
of his workload. It was to reduce this
workload that he took the decision to A HOUSE
induct the former foreign secretary. With
Jaishankar now fully in charge, it remains
FOR MR CM
K H.D. Kumaraswamy
to be seen if South Block will see a more arnataka chief minister
inwardly focused PM in his second term.
plans to move out of the
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
five-star hotel he has been
staying in on Bengaluru’s
Race Course Road.
The Janata Dal
(Secular) leader had
justified his stay
Dividing Bridge here citing health
reasons but has
A s the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2014,

Akhilesh Yadav had sanctioned the construc-
tion of a railway bridge over Lucknow’s Mall
come under fire for
being inaccessible to
grassroots party workers.
Avenue railway crossing, much to Bahujan Samaj Many see this as a reason
Party leader Mayawati’s displeasure. The bridge for the party’s drubbing in
blocked access to her party office and residence the Lok Sabha election—it
at 12-13, Mall Avenue. She promised revenge and won a single seat to the
seems to have got it too. Current CM Yogi Aditya- BJP’s 25 (out of a total of
nath has okayed the construction of the Vikra- 28 seats). The hunt is now
maditya Marg railway overbridge where Akhilesh on for a vaastu-compliant
and father Mulayam Singh Yadav live. home for the CM.
CHANDRADEEP KUMAR
—Sandeep Unnithan with Anilesh Mahajan, Ashish Misra,
Kiran D. Tare and Aravind Gowda

STATES
KARNATAKA: A RAJASTHAN:
CONGRESS REVIVAL GEHLOT’S HERE
PG 1 8 TO STAY PG 1 8
KERALA: LEFT IN J&K: WHY THE

THE LURCH DELAY IN POLLS?
PG 20 PG 2 1
W EST BENGA L
MAMATA
BEGINS
A PURGE
The West Bengal
chief minister is
going after ‘traitors’,
both in her party
and the state
administration
By Romita Datta
KOLK ATA
PANIC STATIONS
CM Mamata Banerjee
at a press conference
in Kolkata
IANS
W
hen the Lok Sabha election results came leaders, accusing them of misinforming her. She has already
out, West Bengal chief minister Mamata expressed displeasure with some of her ministers, among
Banerjee’s first reaction was disbelief. She them Gautam Deb, Rabindranath Ghosh, Tapan Dasgupta,
apparently locked herself up in her room, Sukumar Mahato, Asima Patra, Binay Krishna Barman and
crying, lambasting party leaders over the Soumen Mahapatra. Mahato and Barman have been stripped
phone. Hadn’t they chanted “beyallishe of their portfolios after the defeat of TMC candidates in their
beyallish” (42 out of 42 seats) with her? How did the BJP then areas of influence, the Purulia and Cooch Behar LS seats.
get a 40 per cent vote share and 18 seats in West Bengal? Two But while some ministers are being punished, others such
days later, when she emerged out of her self-imposed confine- as Suvendu Adhikary and Subrata Mukherjee, seen as pos-
ment, all Mamata could say was, “I don’t accept the verdict.” sible fence-sitters, have got away. Incidentally, the duo, along
What left the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief shocked with two other party MPs, had earlier evinced interest in join-
was that no one in her team had foreseen this outcome. As re- ing the BJP, allegedly to escape investigation by central agen-
ality dawned, Mamata was quick to pass the buck to her party cies. With the Saradha and Narada scams probe getting new

energy from the Modi government’s re-election, some PU NJA B CHANDIG ARH
TMC leaders accused in the scam may feel tempted to
jump ship. The change in the BJP’s fortunes and the
wave of anti-incumbency against the TMC has gener-
ated a lot of interest, cutting across political allegiance.
PERKS OF AN
So far, four MLAs, including two from the TMC, and
50 civic councillors have joined the BJP. “We will have EDUCATION
hordes of people joining us through the seven phases,”
Excellent state board results put
BJP leader Mukul Roy had predicted, claiming at the
time that a 100 TMC MLAs were in touch with them. government schools back in demand
Such claims have made Mamata hit the panic but-
By Asit Jolly
ton. Desperate to keep her flock together, she’s trying
to isolate the “traitors”. But this could lead to further
T
desertions. As a senior party leader says, “Going by he results of the Pun- threw a celebratory tea party
the Lok Sabha results, the party has suffered losses in jab School Education for the village high school’s
129 assembly segments (out of a total 294) while in 60 Board (PSEB) Class teachers—every one of the
others, the TMC scraped through by a margin of 4,000 12 examinations, declared students had passed in a
votes. Can you imagine what will happen if she starts on May 15, have come as a significant turnaround from
taking action in all these cases....” But Mamata has no happy surprise for every- the previous year, when,
reason to panic. The TMC has a massive majority now, one in the state education “they had all failed!”, he
200-plus MLAs in the 295-seat house. department. Apart from the says. The appalling situation
The West unprecedented 30 per cent in state-run schools had
Bengal CM is now improvement in the overall led to an exodus to private
MAMATA HAS holding counselling percentage of successful English-medium schools
sessions for party students, for the first time in even though many were no
SHIFTED 43 leaders to lift their three decades, government- more than ‘teaching shops’.
IPS MEN. ONE morale. To combat run schools outperformed But that appears to be
the RSS network private ones with a pass per- changing with scores of
AREA SAW FOUR in rural Bengal, centage of 88.2 (against 86 parents seeking to re-admit
COMMISSIONERS she is raising, for
the first time, a
per cent for private schools).
Celebrations were in
their wards to government
schools, especially the ones
IN FOUR DAYS TMC social service order and none better than where students scored well
wing, the Jai Hind in the border district of Gur- in this year’s Class 10 and
and Banga Janani daspur, where the sarpanch Class 12 examinations.
Vahini. of Basrawan, Amrik Singh, The change isn’t inciden-
Mamata is seeing traitors not just in the party but
also in the administration. She has transferred 43 IPS
PR ABHJOT GILL
officers, including the 11 officers taken off from poll
duty by the Election Commission. In fact, Bidhan-
nagar saw its police commissioner change four times
in four days. She has also sent three IAS officers on
central deputation after sitting on the files for a year
or so. “She doesn’t trust the officers. She feels a section
of administrative officers was hand-in-glove with the
EC to frustrate her party,” says a senior bureaucrat,
requesting anonymity. Many officers see a situation
similar to the one that prevailed in the last phase of
the Left Front government. “Instead of getting down
to administrative work, the bureaucracy is hopping
from one chair to another,” one of them says.
Political analysts believe Mamata’s “emotional
reaction” to the situation is only giving the BJP more
mileage and will hurt her more. “Her actions are com-
MARK THIS
pletely irrational,” says Sovonlal Gupta, ex-professor of CM Amarinder Singh with school students in Ludhiana
political science at Calcutta University. n

STATES https://t.me/daily_paper
tal. Education department officials say it K A R N ATA K A

is all thanks to a process initiated when
A Congress
the Amarinder Singh government took
charge two years ago under which a Com-
mittee of [school] Principals (CoP) was
constituted to suggest reforms. Besides
Revival?
recruitment of new teachers, improving
schoolroom infrastructure and advanced
teaching aids, the CoP recommended
mid-career training programmes for the
teachers. Advised by the State Council Days after the Lok Sabha debacle,
of Educational Research and Train- the party scores a morale-lifting
ing (SCERT), schools also conducted a victory in the municipal polls
general test to assess student capabilities.
“All students who scored 40 per cent or By Aravind Gowda
less were signed up for special learning
GET T Y IMAGES
improvement classes to help them catch
up,” says an SCERT official.
J
To tackle teacher absenteeism, a ust weeks after delivering its respite from the fire-fighting over
special cadre of some 3,000 teachers was worst Lok Sabha poll perfor- legislators keen on joining the BJP.
created for the border districts where the mance in Karnataka, the In the first phase of the ULB
problem was rampant. This, says state Congress party has bounced back polls (2,662 wards) in September
education secretary Krishan Kumar, “was in the elections to urban local bod- 2018, the Congress had won from
to resolve the problem of teachers seeking ies (ULBs), securing victory in the 982 wards, while its alliance part-
frequent transfers to posts closer home.” maximum number of wards with ner in the state government, the
the BJP coming in a distant sec- Janata Dal (Secular), had won 375.
To tackle teacher ond. The result wasn’t surprising The BJP had won 929 wards then.
absenteeism, a because Karnataka has historically In the second phase (1,361 wards),
voted for parties in power in the held on May 29 after the Lok Sabha
special cadre of ULBs. For the Congress, it is some election, the Congress won from
some 3,000 teachers
was created for the
border districts
R AJASTH A N
Also, as part of the revamp, a state-
wide crackdown on cheating in board
exams was launched. While this brought
down pass percentages for a period, this
Gehlot’s Here to Stay
year’s results clearly show it was worth Despite the Congress rout in Rajasthan, the party
it. Consider the evidence: the border dis- retains its faith in the chief minister
tricts of Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Amritsar,
Tarn Taran and Ferozepur have all done By Rohit Parihar
IANS
exceedingly well. The pass percentage
in Pathankot jumped from just 52.3 last
year to an impressive 91.2 this year. TEFLON TOUCH
The state’s ‘Padho Punjab’ initiative CM Gehlot, right, with
deputy Sachin Pilot
(the state’s version of the National Learn- at a PCC meeting
ing Enhancement Programme), revived
in 2017, has already revamped infrastruc-
ture in 3,000 senior and senior secondary
schools. There is also a renewed empha-
sis on English learning. The plan, says
Kumar, is to extend the change to some
19,000 state schools. n

THE REBOUND Ruling party leaders led by
CM H.D. Kumaraswamy (second from right) protest
tax raids during the Lok Sabha campaign this March
Lok Sabha Municipal bodies So, Congress is the obvious choice for
many,” says poll analyst N.L. Prakash.
25 406 Another reason for the Congress
2 2 success may be that it had gone solo,
1 without any tie-up with the JD(S). Their
56
02
2019
2019 (1,361 wards after differing political ideologies had not
1
(28 seats) Lok Sabha polls) helped working conditions for party
workers in the Lok Sabha poll. The alli-
929 ance never clicked, with party workers
17 openly supporting rival candidates.
37
2
9
“They knew that any tacit understand-
98
2018
5
2014 (2,662 wards after ing wouldn’t work at the village level, as
2
(28 seats) assembly polls)

the rivalry is a daily affair,” noted F.M.
BJP Congress JD(S) Others & Independents Khan, a research scholar from Banga-
Source: Election Commission of India lore University.
For the Congress, victory in 40 per
cent of the total seats is a morale-boost-
er. “We are grateful to the people. They
562 wards, the BJP took 406, JD(S) roots level. “The issues in ULB elections changed the mandate within days of
202 and Independents 178. are very different from assembly or the Lok Sabha poll,” says state Congress
The Congress is set to capture Lok Sabha polls. Basic issues relat- president Dinesh Gundu Rao.
power on its own in two city municipal ing to PDS, land records, certificates, The results have also impacted
corporations (CMC), 12 town municipal state schemes overtake national issues. the coalition government, with three
corporations (TMC) and three town People tend to vote for parties in power of the eight Congress legislators who
panchayats (TP). The BJP can stake as their work gets easier,” says political were planning to quit the party backing
claim in six TMCs and seven CMCs if analyst A. Veerappa. out. Apparently, the party’s success
it joins hands with the JD(S), as it has “The BJP is yet to strengthen its in the constituencies represented by
done in the past at the municipal level. network in the villages. They did not them led to the rethink. The BJP, too,
Political observers say the BJP still focus much on this when they were in has decided to put on hold the move to
has a lot of ground to cover at the grass- power (2008-13) because of infighting. destabilise the state government. n
R
ajasthan chief minis- rivals like deputy CM and suspect Pilot is working to Meena was demanding a
ter Ashok Gehlot has PCC president Sachin Pilot, destabilise him. Also, one job for the kin of a tractor
expressed anguish even asking the latter to do a minister has put in his papers driver involved in illegal sand
over reports that Congress “post-mortem” on the defeat (Gehlot has rejected it), two mining, who died following a
president Rahul Gandhi was of his son. Gehlot says Pilot have demanded introspec- police chase in Nagar Fort in
annoyed with his special had recommended Vaibhav’s tion and Harish Meena, the Tonk district. Tourism minis-
focus on son Vaibhav’s Lok candidature and guaranteed party MLA who was DGP for ter Vishvendra Singh too sat
Sabha campaign in Jodhpur a win. The deputy CM, mean- most of his second tenure, in protest and successfully
at the expense of other while, expressed surprise at went on fast for two days. engineered the transfer of
candidates, leading to the Gehlot’s statements. Obs- several police officers, alleg-
party’s rout in the state. He ervers now foresee the fight ing large-scale corruption in
acknowledged that the high between the two spilling into GEHLOT HAS his home town, Bharatpur.
command had a right to be the open. Gehlot may even COME OUT The tide may be against
upset, but added that “what exhort the high command to him now, but Gehlot has
Rahul said was not what ask Pilot to relinquish one of UNSCATHED survived many such run-ins
the media reported, and it is
immoral to selectively leak
the two posts he holds.
FROM MANY and effectively dealt with
As of now, party rivals other formidable rivals in the
half-truths”. are sniping away, the oppo- SUCH CRISES past. This is his third tenure
Gehlot’s reaction indic-
ates a resolve to take on
sition BJP is adding fuel to
the fire, and Gehlot’s aides
IN THE PAST as chief minister. The Lok
Sabha election, too, is over.

STATES https://t.me/daily_paper
The Nehru-Gandhis also trust onal policy against tobacco of a young Dalit woman in
Gehlot despite his inability
Gehlot has and alcohol. He has been Alwar. He has also sought
to win elections, valuing his been reaching pushing hard for affordable reports on all rape and police
loyalty and political acumen. out to his healthcare, having pioneered atrocities in the state and has
Gehlot has been reach- worst critics, the concept of providing free instituted changes, such as
ing out to his worst critics, in a visible generic medicines in govern- allowing district police chiefs
and has begun to live down departure ment hospitals during his to register FIRs for crimes like
his reputation for nursing from the past, second tenure. rape. Insiders say his next
grudges. He has shunned the
when he often The chief minister is also focus will be infrastructure
coterie that was a fixture in focusing on improving deliv- despite state finances being
his last term and has been
held grudges ery mechanisms. Gehlot has in the red following the farm
having frequent interactions also shown intent in breaking loan waivers and other sops.
with mediapersons, opening the nexus of police, mining of- This does not mean all is
himself to all sorts of ques- ficials, contractors and local well in the battle with Pilot at
tions. He has also shown a in Bhilwara district on June 2. politicians, who have minted home. Gehlot’s patient ways
socialist bent of mind, of late, Simultaneously, Gehlot millions by violating the apex have always worked for him,
inviting activist Aruna Roy to has continued with his admin- court’s mining ban orders. and he will wait for the right
address officers on Police istrative agenda. The sale of Gehlot also took action time to strike. The young Pilot
Day on May 27 in Jaipur and e-cigarettes and flavoured the moment he learnt of the has some way to go before
attending her Mazdoor Kisan hukkas has been banned delay in proceedings against he can take on the wily chief
Shakti Sangathan conference even as he advocates a nati- the accused in the gangrape minister. n
WINNING LOOK
KERALA Shashi Tharoor
celebrates his win in
Thiruvananthapuram
LEFT
IN THE
LURCH
The Rahul factor,
Kasargod murders
and Sabarimala
swung the polls
for the UDF
By Jeemon Jacob
THIRUVANANTHAPUR AM
T
here may be gloom elsewhere in ruin the party was in in the state when gling to find a good batting line-up, the
the Congress. In Kerala, however, the Lok Sabha election was declared. Congress had delayed the candidate list
the party is in God’s own country! Veterans such as K.V. Thomas and P.J. for a week, eventually fielding a second
The Congress-led United Democratic Kurien were at loggerheads, and top line of leaders to contest the election.
Front (UDF) outplayed the ruling Left leaders, such as Oommen Chandy, V.M. The strategy seems to have paid off.
Democratic Front (LDF) to win 19 of Sudheeran, Mullapally Ramachandran Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s
the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state. and K.C. Venugopal, were in no state to decision to contest from Wayanad
It’s a resurrection from the complete fight the election for the party. Strug- changed the party’s fortunes. The mi-

norities rallied behind the Congress. “The minorities,

women and youth voted the Congress. Chief Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan’s anti-people stand and authoritar-
ian style helped us a great deal,” the Congress’s Kerala
FALSE START
ABID BHAT
unit chief M. Ramachandran told india today. Mehbooba Mufti
He attributes the UDF’s 47.3 per cent vote share campaigns in Budgam
to three more reasons. “The murder of two Youth
Congress workers in Kasargod exposed CPI(M)
brutality. DGP Loknath Behera’s ‘Yes Master’ attitude JA MMU & K ASHMIR
and mismanagement of the police, too, contributed
to the LDF’s fall. Finally, the government’s stand on
Sabarimala triggered the vote drain,” he says. WHY THE DELAY?
Rajmohan Unnithan, the newly elected MP
After a prolonged phase of President’s rule, the
from Kasargod, agrees. “I got a warm welcome in
Communist strongholds. Many women assured me
state is left wondering when it will see elections
of their vote. The reason was the twin murders of By Moazum Mohammad
Youth Congress workers and the Sabarimala issue,”
says the 63-year-old, who wrested the seat for the
I
Congress after three decades. t has been almost a year
That vote drain since the BJP pulled out of
was evident in the its opportunistic alliance
Rahul’s CPI(M) strongholds with the Peoples Demo- SRINAG AR
decision to of Kasargod, Kannur, cratic Party (PDP) in Jammu
contest from Vadakara, Kozhikode, & Kashmir in June 2018. The six months must make way
Wayanad was Palakkad, Alathur state is yet to emerge from the for President’s rule, which
a catalyst, and Kollam. But the political vacuum. began on December 19, 2018.
rallying the party failed to sense Many like former PDP MLA The process of extending it is
minorities the trend or counter it Ajaz Ahmad Mir, from Shop- under way.
during the campaign. ian’s Wachi seat, favour an The Election Commission
behind the Till the end, LDF early assembly election to end is required to offer an explana-
Congress bosses were confident the “political drought”. Coming tion if elections to a state as-
of winning at least from Mir, that means some- sembly are not held within six
eight seats. But CPI(M) poll strategies failed one after thing. “People are feeling suf- months of its dissolution. The
the other. LDF convenor and CPI(M) central com- focated,” he says. “Governor’s National Conference is mulling
mittee member A. Vijayaraghavan’s sexist remark rule cannot replace a popular a petition in the Supreme
against Alathur MP Ramya Haridas backfired. Anti- government.” Court, seeking answers from
Pinarayi comments in the media added to the blow. The delay in elections is the EC. If Lok Sabha polls
“The poor performance of the Pinarayi govern- only deepening the mistrust can be held, why not for the
ment swung the vote in the UDF’s favour. We fought between New Delhi and pro- assembly, asks the NC’s Valley
without money and power. The people stood by us India mainstream parties in the chief Nasir Aslam Wani.
when we raised issues that mattered to them,” says state, whose space shrank af- While the EC supported
Ramesh Chennithala, leader of the opposition. ter the ideologically divergent the idea in its report soon after
Others spy an RSS hand in the LDF rout. PDP-BJP coalition assumed the parliamentary election,
According to N.J. Nair of The Hindu, “the RSS di- power in 2014. sources say there is strong
rected its cadre to vote for the BJP in the five prime Lok Sabha MP Hasnain opinion in Delhi and Srinagar
seats of Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal, Pathana- Masoodi points to the 1996 against conducting elections
mthitta, Thrissur and Palakkad and vote for the election, held amid peak before November. Besides the
Congress in the other 15”. The RSS and BJP may militancy after over six years Amarnath Yatra, there is the
adopt a similar strategy in the upcoming bypolls. of central rule. “Today, the tourist season and summer
“Once we defeat the CPI(M) in its strongholds, we situation is relatively better, migration of the nomadic
can easily take on the Congress. Our immediate but still the election is not held. Bakarwal tribes to the moun-
agenda is to work for the fall of the CPI(M)’s last This raises questions about tains. If all is normal, the elec-
post,” says a senior BJP leader. the motive,” he says. tion could happen alongside
Politics, though, is full of surprises and Kerala is According to the J&K con- those in Maharashtra and
no exception. n stitution, governor’s rule after Himachal Pradesh. n

COVER STORY | AMIT SHAH
THE
NEW
MR.
OUGH
India’s internal security landscape
is set for a radical shift under the
new Union home minister
BY U DAY M A H U R K A R
Photograph by BANDEEP SINGH

T
sent from Gujarat. His interrogation unravelled a terrorist cell
headed by Riyaz and Yasin Bhatkal of the Students Islamic Move-
ment of India (SIMI). The Bhatkals had set up a terrorist outfit
called the Indian Mujahideen (IM), which had carried out a wave
of bombings across India, in Lucknow, Bengaluru, Mumbai,
Jaipur and Delhi in 2008. Intelligence tip-offs from the Gujarat
police led Delhi police to Batla House which led to the eponymous
encounter where two alleged IM terrorists, said to be involved in
the Delhi bombings, were gunned down.
Shah’s ascent as Union home minister comes after a five-year
interlude as BJP president where he reshaped the party into an
election-winning juggernaut scoring victories in over a dozen state
elections and historic majorities in two consecutive Lok Sabha
elections. In his first Lok Sabha contest in 2019, Shah won the
Gandhinagar seat with a margin of 570,000 votes. The buzz is that
former health minister J.P. Nadda will replace Shah in the party,
but only as ‘working’ president. Shah will continue to call the shots
in the party from his North Block office. The Modi government’s
The image of Amit Shah as a hawk- first term did not have a No. 2. The second term now has a clear
ish, no-nonsense internal security second in command and possible heir apparent.
minister was cast 11 years ago, long Viral memes on social media that began doing the rounds soon
before he moved out of his office after Shah’s portfolio was announced showed a grim-faced leader
in the BJP party headquarters on oozing toughness, promising to settle scores. Rarely has an Indian
politician’s arrival in office been greeted with such trepidation. As
6 Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg home minister, Shah is all-powerful. He heads India’s entire in-
into Room No. 104 in New Delhi’s ternal security apparatus, controls a million-strong central armed
North Block on June 1 this year. police and paramilitary force, oversees the Intelligence Bureau, the
It was the evening of July 26, National Investigation Agency and over two dozen departments
2008, and 21 bombs had gone off that manage relations between the Centre and the states, guide the
in Ahmedabad, in the city’s buses, modernisation of the police forces, keeps tabs on foreigners and
hospitals and public places. In the promotes official language Hindi. He also joins Prime Minister
space of four hours, the blasts had Modi as part of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
(ACC) which selects candidates to all top government posts.
killed 58 people and injured over Shah began his first day at work on June 1 by paying homage
200 others. At around 6.30 pm, to martyrs at the police memorial in Delhi. He held meetings with
as panic-stricken citizens reeled in
shock, state home minister Amit
Shah came on TV channels and
assured the people that he would
bring the culprits to book. Later SHAH’S IMMEDIATE
that night, Shah, then Gujarat’s
rorism—the ones who come
youngest home minister at 43, reit- in droves for government
erated the pledge to his boss, Chief job recruitment drives. Also,
Minister Narendra Modi. The test the waters for removal
of Article 35A
next few days were hectic, spent in
meetings with state police and In- The Naxals
telligence Bureau officials. Further muzzling of ‘urban
Jammu & Kashmir Naxals’ who provide support
Twenty days later, there was a Peaceful organisation of to those on the ground. And
breakthrough. One of the agencies Amarnath yatra and then the implementation of Stand
reported the arrest of a suspect, a state election. While con ard Operating Procedures
tinuing the zero tolerance (SOPs) by the security
maulvi from Azamgarh in Uttar policy against terrorists, he forces while conducting
Pradesh. He was flown to Ahmed- has to tap those Kashmiri antiNaxal ops to avoid
abad in a state government aircraft youth who are tired of ter casualties. Bringing down
governors from J&K, the Northeast, West Bengal and Kerala. This was
followed by meetings with key bureaucrats, the Union home secretary,
the Intelligence Bureau chief and the National Security Advisor. “We got
clear signals of a much tougher approach on internal security,” says an
official who met Shah. Another IAS officer recalls how L.K. Advani too
began his tenure as home minister in 1998 with a similar hardline ap-
proach but it did not translate into action. “But things will be different
now, given Shah’s track record,” the official says.
The reference is to the period after 2002 when Shah was Gujarat
home minister. He was embroiled in controversies around a series of po-
lice encounters, particularly the 2005 killing of gangster Sohrabuddin
Sheikh and his wife Kausar bi. The case was pursued by the then UPA
government, which the BJP believes was part of a plan to thwart Modi’s
emergence as a prime ministerial candidate. Shah was even incarcer-
ated for three months in Sabarmati Jail in 2010. His party sees this as
evidence that he was made the fall guy in the case. The authorities even
tried pressuring Shah into implicating Modi but he refused to budge, all
the while assuaging the fears of the anxious chief minister.
Shah’s bail came in 2010-end, and was conditional on him staying
out of Gujarat. In retrospect,
the two-year externment
RARELY HAS A from his home state was a
POLITICIAN’S blessing in disguise. Shah
spent time networking with
ARRIVAL IN OFFICE top BJP leaders in Delhi on
CAUSED SO MUCH behalf of his boss, preparing
TREPIDATION. the ground for Modi’s 2014
arrival. Jail and externment
SHAH IS ALL- hardened Shah as a pol-
POWERFUL AS itician and cemented his
relationship with Modi. “The
HOME MINISTER two are now even more close.
Their understanding of the
Congress’s machinations
became near-perfect,” gushes
TO-DO LIST
Maoistaffected districts from 67 acres land, allotted by the Al
the 90 now lahabad HC judgment, to the Ram
Janmabhoomi Nyas after appeals
Police reforms are disposed of. A balancing act
Strengthening of the state police between the core constituency
infrastructure in terms of man which sees BJP’s victory and the
power, transport, communication judicial imperatives
and forensic support to prevent
the collapse of the Centre-state relations
police force under Moving the police from the state
increasing pres to the concurrent list for bet
sure of work ter intervention by the Centre in
respect of reforms. Organising
Ram temple simultaneous parliamentary and
Transfer of state assembly polls, a sugges
twothirds of the tion made by the prime minister
Gujarat BJP spokesman Bharat Pandya. dir will be another big challenge, as will be implementing
The tough guy image has followed Shah since Modi the National Register of Citizenship in Assam. He has to
appointed him MoS for home after his December persuade the people of Assam and the Northeast to ac-
2002 re-election. Close associates say Shah’s national- cept the controversial Citizenship Bill, 2018, which allows
ist thinking is marked by moderation and practicality. accepting Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Buddhist refugees
A lesser known fact is his cultivating police officers from neighbouring countries but not Muslims.
from the minority community who played a stellar
role in police action against terrorists in Gujarat. The THE VALLEY CONUNDRUM
challenges he now faces as Union home minister are Shah’s views on J&K are inflexible. He believes Article
formidable, the biggest of them being the troubled state 370—which gives autonomy to J&K—needs to go. This,
of Jammu and Kashmir which for the past year has been he believes, will happen once the BJP gains a majority
under President’s rule and earlier Governor’s rule. The in the Rajya Sabha next year and is able to pass legisla-
first challenge is to peacefully conduct the Amarnath tion to abrogate the special status. As for Article 35A,
Yatra, between July 1 and August 15. Elections to the which defines the privileges of permanent residents of
87-member Jammu and Kashmir assembly will only the state, Shah wants it removed through an executive
be called after the yatra. Abrogating Article 370 and order. He believes it is bad for the state and the country
Articles 35A, the BJP manifesto promises, are not in the as it prevents J&K from realising its full development
immediate horizon. Under existing law, the government potential. He feels Article 35A’s purpose is the Islamisa-
needs to reconvene a new J&K Constituent Assembly tion of J&K, particularly the Jammu region. However,
and bring them onboard to abrogate Article 370. among the arguments against the abrogation of Article
Solving the Ayodhya tangle and building a Ram man- 35A is the fact that such laws prohibiting outsiders from
THE
1964 1978 1979
SHAH
Born to Anil- Starts attending After doing his
chandra Shah, RSS shakha in schooling in
a wealthy busi- Mansa while go- Mansa, shifts to
SHOW nessman of the

princely state
of Mansa near
Ahmedabad
ing to school. Adi
Shankaracharya
and Chanakya
become his icons
Ahmedabad for
further studies
2002 1999 1998
Becomes MoS for home Snatches con- Elected MLA

and transport, handles trol of Ahmed- from Sarkhej
several other ministries abad District constituency in
successfully till 2010. Cooperative Ahmedabad for
Several gangsters/ ter- Bank from Con- the first time
rorists killed in police en- gress in a keenly
counters till 2006 during fought election
his home ministership
2008 2010 2013

PANKAJ NANGIA/MAIL TODAY
Plays a key role in bust- Arrested after Made national

ing the terror network CBI accuses him BJP general
of Riyaz Bhatkal and of masterminding secretary in
SIMI responsible for the 2005 police charge of UP,
the serial blasts across encounter killing implements
India including Ahmed- of Sohrabuddin Modi’s booth
abad. Seen as a tough Sheikh and his management
hand while dealing with wife model in UP
terrorists
buying property already exist in other states (Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim,
for example). So why target only J&K? Shah is also contemplating delimita-
tion of assembly seats in J&K to remove the current ‘disparity’ in strength
between the Valley and Jammu regions.
“Nation First in the truest sense will mark my approach to all the
problems to do with national security,” says Shah, without going into the
details of how will he conduct himself. On the question of the fears of Mus-
lims over his appointment, he insists he is unbiased, “I strictly follow the
BJP’s nationalist ideology, which has never discriminated against religious
minorities while implementing the developmental agenda. Those who do
not have ulterior designs against the nation need not fear me or the BJP,
whichever religion they may belong to.”
To another question, he says, “Even (Hindutva ideologue) Veer Savarkar
was fighting minority appeasement, he was not demanding special treat-
ment for Hindus. In that sense, Savarkar was fighting a battle for equal treat-
ment.” Asked why he keeps images of Adi Shankaracharya, Chanakya and
Savarkar at home, he says simply, “I get immense inspiration from all three.”
In J&K, Shah maintains that his aim is to stop the Islamisation of the
Jammu region which he believes has accelerated over the past 20 years. He is
also considering the old RSS proposal of a trifurcation of J&K into Kashmir
and Jammu states with Ladakh as a centrally-administered Union territory.
1982 1983 1984
Does gradua- Joins youth

tion in science, wing of BJP
firms up as-
sociation with Comes in
RSS fired by touch with
the ideology of Narendra
Veer Savarkar Modi, then a
pracharak in
Ahmedabad
1996 1995 1989
Rift starts Plays key role Takes les-

between under Modi in sons in booth
Modi and then Ahmedabad management in
Gujarat CM region in BJP’s Gujarat Vidhan
Keshubhai grand vic- Sabha polls
Patel; sides tory in Vidhan from Modi
with Modi Sabha polls
2016-17 2019
Wins Assam for Plays integral

NDA and BJP role in trans-
against heavy lating Modi’s
odds. In 2017, popularity into
wins UP with votes in Lok
a handsome Sabha polls and
majority, adds to becomes India’s
his image of elec- youngest home
toral invincibility minister
Sangh Parivar ideologues believe this will automatically

make Article 370 redundant. Also, for the abrogation
strategy to work, Shah’s home ministry will first need
to clean up the terror networks in J&K. In fact, this is a
pre-requisite to pre-empt the violence following such a
step. Says an RSS ideologue, “Trifurcation of J&K is a good
proposal if Article 370 has to be left alone. Even Pakistan,
which is facing protests from locals in PoK, separated the
Gilgit-Baltistan region recently through a legal ploy in
order to prevent the protests from spreading. India can use
it as a strategic argument while trifurcating J&K.”
But the issue of trifurcation will open India to charges
of trying to divide the state along religious lines—Muslim
Valley, Hindu Jammu and Buddhist Ladakh. Says Sushant
Sareen, a national security expert, “I don’t think Shah can
solve the J&K problem in five years, but he will bring more
depth to India’s Kashmir policy which, in turn, will move
it in the right direction of solving the problem. Clearly, the
namby-pamby approach of the past is over. It has been
replaced by a much-needed ruthlessness to deal with the
pro-Pak elements in the Valley.”
A former police officer who has worked in J&K adds:
“The ground has been prepared by the Modi government
with its multiple actions against separatist leaders like
Geelani, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz, sending
a signal that India will now deal with only
the pro-India elements in the Valley. But
still there are remnants in the J&K system
THE RAM of the land be shared by the two
Hindu plaintiffs and one-third
of the support the separatist leaders draw TEMPLE IS ONE be given to the Sunni Muslim
from, due to behind-the-screen indulgences
by former Indian governments. This has to
ISSUE WHERE Waqf Board, but with appeals
pending, the UPA government
be squeezed out. Shah has to take the tough SHAH AND THE had taken no action. The Modi
Kashmir policy to the next level.”
The officer suggests that this would
SANGH ARE ON government, too, kept quiet till
January last when, with the gen-
mean a stop to actions like allowing relatives ONE SIDE AND eral election in mind, it moved
to take out funeral processions of slain ter-
rorists (like in Israel where the state conceals
MODI ON an application in the apex court
asking for permission to transfer
the graves of slain terrorists). Plus, steps THE OTHER the land to the Nyas.
have to be taken to strengthen the intelli- Significantly, when spiritual
gence network and encourage the moderate guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had
Islamic cultural traditions of the Valley. started efforts to resolve the issue
through negotiations with the
THE RAM TEMPLE TANGLE Muslim leadership, Shah and
The sadhus associated with the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi the RSS had opposed it, saying the issue should be solved
Nyas and various other outfits have started the clamour through the court. The Ram temple is possibly the one is-
for the Ram temple to be built in Ayodhya. One of them, sue where Shah and the Sangh parivar are on one side and
Ram Vilas Vedanti, is already pressing for the transfer of Modi on the other. The prime minister reportedly wants
the two-thirds of the 67 acres land around the temple to the issue resolved through negotiations in the hope of bet-
the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas. The Nyas is one of the main ter Hindu-Muslim ties in the future. Shah and the RSS, on
plaintiffs in the case. This land is apart from the 2.77 acres the other hand, are for a tougher policy on the Ram temple
of disputed land where the Babri Masjid once stood. This issue since they believe it’s the only way to deal with radical
67 acres was acquired by the Narasimha Rao government elements in the Muslim community on the issue.
in 1993 on the condition that it will be released after the
judgment comes on whether the disputed land goes to OTHER CHALLENGES
the Hindus or Muslims. The 2010 Allahabad High Court The number of Maoist-affected districts has come down
judgment in the case had ruled that a two-thirds portion from 126 to 90 in the past five years and the policies of the

PANKAJ NANGIA / MAIL TODAY
DOUBLE Modi government and former Union home

POWER minister Rajnath Singh played a big role
Amit Shah and PM in this. The Modi government went a step
Modi wave to BJP further and started cornering the so-called
workers after the
urban Maoists—Left intellectuals whom the
LS poll victory
government alleges are working as the ideo-
logical brains of the Maoists overground.
One significant security issue on which the Modi government has
been uncharacteristically weak-willed is the non-implementation of
police reforms recommended by former Border Security Force (BSF)
DGP Prakash Singh who went to the Supreme Court to get his plea
sanctioned legally. Singh says the Modi government has done nothing
to reform the police system. He recommends five major reforms im-
mediately, including the strengthening of police infrastructure (in the
form of manpower, transport, communication and forensic support),
the creation of special police units like Andhra Pradesh’s Greyhounds
in every state, a legal mandate for the CBI so that it isn’t a pawn in
the hands of politicians, a special all-India law to control organised
crime like the MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime
Act, 1999) and transferring the subject of police from the state list to
the concurrent list of the Constitution to give the Centre some role in
moulding the state police.
For sure, with Shah’s arrival, a new chapter in muscular nation-
alism has begun on India’s internal security turf. But the challenges
are also many. The ministry has several unfinished schemes like
the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS)
and NATGRID or National Intelligence Grid database. These are
absolutely critical in tracking the movements of terrorists and shar-
ing intelligence among police forces. Amit Shah clearly has his work
cut out for him. n
PANKAJ NANGIA/MAIL TODAY
B
T HE BI G S T O RY | L O K S A BH A ENGALI CINEMA STAR-
CHANGING
LETS Nusrat Jahan and Mimi
Chakraborty, both elected as Tri-
namool Congress MPs from West
Bengal, proudly posted selfies on
May 27, their first day in Parlia-
FACE OF THE
ment. The Bengali Twitterati was
enraged and booed them for not
having a sense of occasion and
for missing the point of sartorial
messaging. You must look the part, after all,
LEGISLATURE
and actors of all stripes should know better.
Nusrat was in white shirt, jeans and sneak-
ers, Mimi in a pant suit, and both wore dark
glasses. Fans perhaps expected them in formal
Indian attire, maybe a sari or kurta.
Or perhaps the new-look Lok Sabha will
wear its transformation on its metaphoric
More educated professionals, sleeve. So while saffron may be the predomi-
more millionaires, a few more nant colour this parliamentary season, the so-
women, younger MPs and a rejig cial demographic of our legislature has changed
in other ways. A deep dive into data compiled
of caste equations. What the by PRS Legislative Research and the Trivedi
changing face of Lok Sabha Centre for Political Data at Ashoka University
means for the Indian democracy? reveals several breaks from the past.
A heavily nationalist mandate has placed
BY AJIT KUMAR JHA 353 NDA MPs, 303 from the Bharatiya
MANDATE FOR
DIVERSITY
Women’s representation has improved in the
past 60 years but is still not enough. And is an
older Lok Sabha a wiser one too?
en i n the L ok Sabha (%
50 Wom )
40
30
20
10
0 S 17th LS
1st L
60
50
age of MPs (yrs)
Avg.
A NEW BEGINNING 40
Narendra Modi and the
NDA MPs stand for
the national anthem in 30 1st LS 17th LS
Parliament, May 25
Source: PRS Legislative Research; Trivedi Centre
for Political Data, Ashoka University
Janata Party, in the current Lok Parliament has increased since 2009
Sabha, cementing the pronounced despite the Women’s Reservation Bill
rightward shift in Indian politics. still hanging fire. The 3 percentage
But there are other trends in Lok point increase from 2014 to 2019 is
Sabha 2019 that are worth taking a not insignificant even if low.
serious note of. Of the 78 women MPs, 34 are
from the BJP, which had fielded 53
WOMEN IN THE HOUSE women candidates. In compari-
For instance, the greater participa- son, women formed 41 per cent of
tion of women in the electoral arena the candidates the TMC fielded in
and the greater turnout of women West Bengal and 33 per cent of the
voters has resulted in the highest total candidates the Biju Janata Dal
number of women ever being elected (BJD) fielded in Odisha. It is these
to the lower house this time. Their three parties that sent the bulk of
numbers are still very low, and not the women Lok Sabha MPs in 2019.
even close to the 33 per cent reserva- In terms of states, Uttar Pradesh
tion that has been demanded but the sent the highest number of women
cohort of 2019 has 78 women MPs MPs—11 out of 80—followed by West
out of a total of 542, raising their Bengal and Odisha, respectively.
strength to 14.4 per cent in the 17th The numbers indicate that
Lok Sabha from 11.4 per cent (or 62 women are more electable than men.
MPs) in 2014 and 10.5 per cent (or 57 Ten per cent of the 715 women who
MPs) in 2009. Although lower than contested this general election went
the global average of 24 per cent, on to win. By contrast, only 6 per
this is the highest ever participation cent of the 7,334 male candidates
of women in the history of the Lok who fought this election finally made
Sabha. Women’s representation in it to the legislature.
THE BUILD OF
Agriculturists/ horticulturists
https://t.me/daily_paper Lawyers
Political and social workers
THE HOUSE Teachers and educationists

Businessmen
Journalists/ writers
Civil, police & military service
1984 1989 1991 1996
1980 1998
197 7 1999
1971 20 0
1967 4 17t
k 20 0 h
t Lo 196
2 9 Sa Lo k
s
1 b ha 5 7 2 01 bh
4 a
Sa 2 19 20
19
195
50
40
(in %)
30
20
10
AN ECLECTIC
MIX THE RISE
Political and social
0
CA S T E / C O M M U N I T
OF OBCs
BY Y
workers have M Ps OBCs have narrowed
caught up with 45 Hin di he
ar tlan d stat es the gap with upper
agriculturalists in the 40 castes in this House
17th Lok Sabha 35 2004 2009
30 2014 2019
) s
25
MP
of
20
AY
r
be
ED 15
OU OUN
m
T
(Nu
U CA USE 10
Lok TLO GE
D H O e and 5
ge t Sabh O K R
A NE uat ow 0 i n t ti n g y a m e m
ra d i l l n
i t h g e s w che s he o
41- unge bers
w e n
Ps d e g r h e b e 55 r
b r a , w i th a r e
100
Muslims
Scheduled Tribes
Scheduled Castes
OBCs
Forward Castes
M
100
re te y t cke mo
Mo ra d u a c c u p t re M
o
80
tg Ps
p os
80
60
60
40
40
20
20
0
0
S a Lo k
1st bha
a
bh
Sa
h
Lo
17t
k
(in
%) %)
(in
Education
Age Source: PRS
Up to Higher Secondary Legislative
25-40 Research; the
Graduates
41-55 Trivedi Centre
Postgraduates
17th L k for Political
1st Lo
56-70
Doctorates ok Data, Ashoka
Sabh Sabh a 71-100
Source: PRS Legislative Research; Trivedi Centre
a University
for Political Data, Ashoka University
T HE BI G S T O RY | L O K S A BH A
CASTE COMPLEXION these MPs are below 40 years while 6

In 2019, the Lok Sabha has a new per cent are about or above 70 years
sociological mix. Brahmin represen- (see Mandate for Diversity).
tation continues to be high. As French Compared to the previous Lok
scholar Christophe Jaffrelot writes, Sabha, however, the level of educa-
the “proportion of Brahmin MPs tion in this Lok Sabha has come
jumped from 30 per cent in 2009 to down relatively. If 80 per cent of
38.5 per cent in 2014” and continues the legislators in 2014 had at least
to be more or less the same in 2019. a graduate-level qualification, this
But the number of upper-caste MPs time, 72 per cent, or 394 out of 542
from the Hindi belt has declined MPs, according to PRS Legislative
over the previous Lok Sabha while Research data (see An Educated
that of Other Backward Classes has House for break-up).
increased over the years. However, the No one profession holds sway
proportion of Yadavs in OBC MPs has this Lok Sabha; the MPs come from
declined from 29 per cent in 2009 to diverse professional backgrounds.
16 per cent this time. This is due to Given their leading role in the coun-
the rout of the Rashtriya Janata Dal try’s national movement, lawyers
in Bihar and fewer Samajwadi Party made up 36 per cent of our very first
MPs getting elected in Uttar Pradesh. Lok Sabha (1952-1957). In 2014 and
However, in contrast to the fall- 2019, however, their numbers have
ing representation of the Yadavs, the come down to below 10 per cent (see
proportion of most backward caste An Eclectic Mix). The number of
MPs has gone up from 23 per cent agriculturists, too, has come down as
in 2014 to 31 per cent in 2019. It is a proportion of the total Lok Sabha
a reflection of the BJP’s social en- strength—from a peak of 49 per cent
gineering strategy, wherein greater in 1998 to 38 per cent in 2019.
representation was given to non- In terms of assets, 475 of the
Yadavs among OBCs and non-Jatavs 542 MPs are what the Association of
among Dalits. The Trivedi Centre Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO
data reveals that of the 199 candida- working for electoral reforms, calls
tes fielded in the Hindi belt, only ‘crorepatis’. Among the sitting MPs,
seven were Yadavs (of which six got 32 declared assets worth more than
elected), 14 were Jats (all got elected) Rs 50 crore, only two declared assets
and eight were Kurmis (seven were less than Rs 5 lakh. ADR data also
elected). Among the Dalits, the BJP reveals that 33 per cent MPs declared
gave more tickets to Pasis (four) criminal cases against them in their
compared to the three it gave to the self-sworn affidavits.
numerically dominant Jatavs. The 17th Lok Sabha finds itself at
And while the number of a curious crossroads. The number of
Muslim Lok Sabha MPs may have women has gone up, but they are still
gone up from 23 in 2014 to 27 this under-represented. OBC represen-
time round, none of the six Muslim tation has risen since 2009, but is
candidates the BJP fielded this time still not enough. The rich, educated
managed to win. and professional elite continue to
overwhelm businessmen, farmers and
YOUNG, EDUCATED social workers.
AND RICH What does this mean for Indian
It is a comparatively younger Lok democracy? Will more education,
Sabha in 2019, with the average age prosperity and a few more women in
of its MPs having come down from 58 the Lok Sabha improve the quality of
in 2009 and 56 in 2014, respectively, debate, end unruly scenes and make
to 54 this time. According to PRS lawmaking more efficient? We will
Legislative Research, 12 per cent of know in the next five years. n
Graphics by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

INTERVIEW / DEVENDRA FADNAVIS
There were
always
challenges,
but we did
not run away
from them.
We fearlessly
Photographs by MILIND SHELTE
faced each
and every
one of them
When he took over as Maharashtra chief minister in October 2014, the highest post
DEVENDRA FADNAVIS, 49, had held till then was that of Nagpur mayor. But the
four-time BJP MLA and former party president has proved equal to the task de-
spite multiple challenges, such as the widespread agrarian distress in the state, the
Maratha agitation, the Dalit uprising and the constant sniping by alliance partner
Shiv Sena. However, keeping the BJP-Sena alliance intact for the Lok Sabha earned
a rich dividend—41 of the state’s 48 parliamentary seats. Fadnavis and the alliance
are now frontrunners in the assembly poll due in October. In an exclusive interview
to Group Editorial Director RAJ CHENGAPPA and Senior Associate Editor
KIRAN D. TARE in Mumbai, Fadnavis spoke on a range of issues. Excerpts:

Q What were the main factors behind the

BJP-Shiv Sena alliance’s win of 41 of Maha-
rashtra’s 48 seats this Lok Sabha election?
The credit goes to Mr Modi. The way he has
governed for five years has had a huge impact
on the minds of the people. For the first time, they had a
direct attachment to the leader. A huge wave for the PM
was visible. Maharashtra, too, faced many crises in the
As for the CM post, we have
not agreed on any formula for
the assembly poll, whether to
rotate it between the BJP and
past four and a half years. But we turned those crises Sena or give it to whoever gets
into opportunities with our decisions. That is why there
was a lot of positivity among the people.
more seats. We will decide
when the time comes
Q. Will people differentiate between the prime min-
ister’s performance at the Centre and Devendra Fad-
navis’s governance in the state while voting in the as-
sembly election four months from now? yes, we do feel that if we contest more seats, it will be fa-
I don’t think there will be any difference because we vourable to us and we can win more seats. But you know
have had elections in Maharashtra every year in the you cannot have both things at the same time. What is
past four and a half years and won every one of them. convenient for the Lok Sabha may not be the case for
We have passed a test every six months. And with merit. the Vidhan Sabha. In fact, the last time we broke away,
The municipal corporation elections, the municipal we never wanted to do it. Let me tell you, it was only
council elections, the zila parishad polls, the gram on four seats. Frankly speaking, we were giving them
panchayat elections. I don’t think anything is going 147 seats and keeping 127 seats for ourselves (out of a
to change. In fact, all those fence-sitters wondering total of 288 assembly seats). Our friends were insisting
whether we could repeat our performance will now be on 151 seats. Now, much has happened and both of us
on our side. have understood that you have to make compromises in
a relationship. We have now, mostly, made up our mind
Q. Including Congress MLAs? You got the leader of the that we want to do it together. Our first target is to win
opposition to join the BJP. 220 seats in the assembly election and I am confident
Many fence-sitters within the Congress and the NCP we will do so.
(Nationalist Congress Party) want to come to the BJP
and Sena, of course. We are evaluating those who have Q. Given that both partners will be contesting an equal
a good image in public. We are open to them. number of seats, will you be willing to concede the post
of Deputy CM to the Sena or will the Sena want the chief
Q. You had a torrid relationship with the Shiv Sena ministership by rotation?
before the Lok Sabha election. Did the alliance with We are absolutely open to offering them the post of Dep-
the party help? uty CM. In fact, even now, we have offered it to them.
It did. I think, basically, both parties knew they had Even while discussing the alliance, I had told them that
a common voter base. Separation would have divided if they wanted a Sena deputy chief minister, we were
our votes. Especially as the opposition was forming open to it. As far as the post of the chief minister is con-
an alliance of 56 parties. And, mostly, we never had cerned, I don’t think we have agreed on any formula that
ideological differences; all the differences were on is- it will be for two and a half years or go to whoever gets
sues. So when the alliance was announced, I told the more seats. We will decide that when the time comes.
media, I don’t know the proper word for it, but this
proved to be a deadly combination. We got more than Q. You have had back-to-back droughts in Maharash-
50 per cent votes. tra and the agrarian distress is quite evident. Will it
impact your chances in the state election?
Q. You agreed to 50:50 seat sharing for the assembly There is no denying there is huge agrarian distress. Of
election. Would you still respect that agreement? the past five years, four were drought-affected. There is
I don’t think we are going to go back on that. Although, large-scale distress. At the same time, the way we have

WINNING
PARTNERSHIP
CM Fadnavis with Sena
chief Uddhav Thackeray
A ALOK SONI/ GETT Y IMAGES
managed the drought has made a difference. Usually, in four years. The same is the case with direct pay-
in a drought year, the compensation paid to farmers ments. Not only that, if you look at the cattle camps, we
would be only between April and June. This time, have increased the amount per animal. We are taking
we had paid the entire compensation by December. practical decisions everywhere. We are providing water
While the central government gave Rs 4,700 crore, we through tankers. We have created emergency water
also put in our own money. We are paying more than supply schemes. I did audio bridges with sarpanches
Rs 5,000 crore as compensation and Rs 3,200 crore to assess their grievances and responded to them im-
as insurance payout. mediately. They were so happy because never in their
life had anybody at this level contacted them. With this
Q. Have the payments to farmers helped? proactive working style, people realised that here is a
Yes. Never before in this state was so much money paid government that wants to work.
to the farmers. And, again, in a good year, whenever
there was a good crop, we actually procured almost all Q. Critics says water scarcity in the state is a result of
of it, making the payment directly into the farmers’ ac- mismanagement in terms of crops prioritisation. For
counts. If you look at the total payouts in the 15 years of instance, the Dhanegaon dam was 100 per cent full the
earlier governments, the insurance payouts had been previous year. Today, it is empty because most of the
around Rs 3,500 crore. We have paid Rs 12,000 crore water went to sugarcane cultivation. Is there nothing
you can do to curb this?
We are doing that. See, we can-
not discourage sugarcane farming
because it is one of the most sus-
Everything is moving at a very fast tainable crops. There is an assured
market for sugarcane. That is why
pace. The Pune metro, the Nagpur farmers are moving towards its
metro, hybrid annuity roads, our cultivation. It is absolutely correct
that it is a water-guzzling crop. But
national highways... today, there are new technologies

like drip irrigation. Earlier, people were

averse to drip and micro irrigation be-
cause they thought it affected produc-
tivity. But with new varieties, cropping
patterns and drip irrigation, productivity
is increasing by one and a half times. The
only solution is to put all sugarcane farm-
ing on drip or micro irrigation. Our focus
in the next three years will be on ethanol.
That can change the entire economy of
agriculture. As far as going for ethanol
is concerned, our problem is that the in-
vestment capacity of all sugar mills has
been exhausted. We have to give them
RAKESH WATEKAR
new investment capacities.

REACHING OUT
CM Devendra Fadnavis
Q. What about water conservation itself? meets a farmer’s family in
Our water conservation programme, Malkapur, Akola district
the Jal Yukta Shivar, has been the most
successful. It has changed not only the
way water conservation works were con-
ceived but also the mindset of the people.
Today, if you go to rural areas, everybody Yes, there has been agrarian distress.
is aware of water conservation, keen to do
it and is participating in the efforts. The
But, never before in this state was so
average rainfall in Marathwada this time much money paid to farmers—Rs 12,000
is below 50 per cent and it is 70 per cent of
normal in the entire state. There should crore in four years
have been massive distress. However, it is
only because of water conservation efforts
that our wells have water. progress on the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway?
Fortunately, work on that road has begun. Construction
Q. But the scheme has been widely criticised for not is in full swing. The base work should be almost complete
being scientific. by the end of June. It is going at a phenomenal speed.
There is no dearth of experts in our country with di- All packages are ahead of schedule. In two years, the
verse opinions. We should respect them all. I won’t road will be ready. Then there will be 22 nodes. The cre-
criticise anybody. Fortunately for us, the Bombay High ation of a node is a seven-year job. That is absolutely on
Court constituted an expert committee with IIT and time. My other infrastructure projects like the Mumbai
other institutions in response to one petition that said metro are also on time. We have already begun work on
the scheme was unscientific. And if you look at the re- the trans-harbour line. Coastal road work has begun.
port, it shows that it has been done in a most scientific You can see that the Navi Mumbai airport work is on
way. It shows how the water table has increased, how in full swing. It might be delayed by a couple of months
we have managed to sustain it despite low rainfall. The because of certain issues but not beyond it. Everything
report is self-evident. So, instead of listening to every- is moving at a fast pace...the Pune metro, the Nagpur
body, let us go by the experts nominated by court. In metro, hybrid annuity roads, our national highways...
Latur district, the lowest rainfall was in Nilanga. But everything is moving very fast.
you can still find water in the structures that we built.
Even today, you can swim in them. That has been the Q. Maharashtra is the industrial hub of the country.
kind of success we have had. Have the MoUs signed at Magnetic Maharashtra re-
sulted in investments?
Q. Infrastructure is another area where your govern- Both Make in India and Magnetic Maharashtra have
ment claims to have done a lot of work. What is the been very, very successful. Our rate of conversion of

The earlier governments did not act on

MoUs into actual investment has been the problem of urban Maoism, resulting
unprecedented. Otherwise, too, if you
look cumulatively, then our rate of con-
in its spread. It has entered university
version of MoUs has been the highest campuses, cities. We have dealt with it in
in the country. We have been hugely
successful in attracting foreign direct
a very strong manner. All our actions have
investment. Before 2014, Maharash- been vindicated by the Supreme Court
tra was number four and our average
was 11 per cent of the total FDI into the
country. Now, we are number one and
the average is over 40 per cent. largely understand that there was a deliberate design
behind the violence.
Q. Corruption has always been a big issue in the state.
What measures have you taken to tackle it? Q. What are you doing to curb the problem of so-called
We maintained transparency from the beginning. We urban Maoism that is said to have spread to big cities
took many decisions. Right to Services was one of our like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad?
initiatives. If you look at its implementation, tens of The earlier governments did not act on it. That is why
millions of people have got their work done in the stipu- this menace has spread. It has entered university cam-
lated time. There was big centralisation earlier which puses, it has entered cities. We have dealt with it in a
too results in corruption. So, a lot of decentralisation very strong manner. All our actions have been vindi-
was done. Secondly, it begins from the top. People know cated by the Supreme Court. Although liberals in this
you are serious and you want transparency. Then it country have created a huge ruckus and tried to portray
starts percolating down. the situation as if we have arrested innocent people. We
have given all the evidence we had to the apex court.
Q. Your tenure saw a huge agitation by the Marathas The Supreme Court is convinced.
for reservation. Are they satisfied with what you have
done for them? Q. Do you have evidence against the prominent alleged
There was a big agitation and, yes, towards the end, urban Naxals you have arrested?
there was violence in a few areas, but it was blown out of Absolutely. They were in direct touch with Kashmiri
proportion. However, we took it seriously. We started a separatists. Not only in touch, they are working in co-
dialogue with them. And things which were correct and ordination with Naxal elements operating in forests
logical and which needed to be done, we did. Without who are actually gunning down people. In some cases,
a single shot being fired, without a single lathi-charge. they are actually involved in the procurement of arms
I won’t say we sorted out each and every issue they and ammunition. We have more evidence against those
wanted. Nobody can do all that, but at least they got who have been arrested.
the feeling that ours was a serious government and did
what was possible. Q. There is a charge-sheet against Sadhvi Pragya Singh
in Maharashtra. Now that she has become an MP, will
Q. Who was the culprit in the Koregaon-Bhima case? you still pursue the case?
Did you lose the Dalit vote because of that? Becoming an MP does not change the status. The NIA
I don’t think we lost anything among the Dalits. Yes, it is pressing charges against her. The NIA court has to
was serious, but now the conspiracy is being revealed. give its decision. It is totally in the judicial domain. We
All the documents we seized from the so-called urban have nothing to do with it. As far as the allegations are
Naxals show that it was their design to make it appear concerned, I have advised her that if she has a grievance
as though it was a fight between the Dalits and Sa- she should write to us. Make an official complaint. If
varnas. It was not the case. Even on that day, we took something is said on TV, we cannot take cognizance
everyone present there for darshan till 11 in the night. of it. If she files a complaint, it will be evaluated fairly.
We also assisted them in going back; the aftermath,
too, was controlled in a day. But, yes, I would say that Q. What about her statement against the late ATS
it was a very unfortunate incident. It created ill will, to chief, Hemant Karkare?
some extent, among the Dalits. But, ultimately, with all That was absolutely terrible. I have condemned it. She
the revelations that are coming out, I think people now might have a grievance against the ATS (Anti Terror-

ism Squad). Hemant Karkare is a martyr. She should a demand for many years that his memorial be erected
not have said that. on the mill land nearby.
Q. The public prosecutor in the case has alleged that Q. You never really had any experience of running a
she was under pressure to go slow on the case. Are you government before you took over as CM in 2014. How
going to investigate that? did you cope?
If you look at the material, it is absolutely evident that There were always challenges, but I did not run away
these people have been framed. It was a narrative that from them. I faced every challenge. You find solutions
they (opposition) wanted to float. That was the time a when you fearlessly face them. We brought a lot of cred-
lot of people from the minority community were arrest- ibility to governance too. If you look at the infrastruc-
ed. ISIS activities were at their peak. There was huge ture projects, how could I do what the earlier govern-
resentment among the minorities that their boys were ments could not? Because we created mechanisms like
being picked up. So the Congress-NCP government a war room, where every single project was tracked.
realised that the entire minority community was going The biggest problem in urban infrastructure projects
against them. Instead of taking corrective action, they is the number of departments involved and the move-
adopted a different route. They created this narrative ment of files. Here, every single stake-holder has to be
of Hindu terror. We don’t believe in Islamic terrorism. present and decisions are taken then and there. There
We don’t believe that every Muslim is a terrorist. Not at has to be a timeline. This has resulted in the success of
these infrastructure projects. We
changed the style of governance. In
Jal Yukta Shivar, I was constantly
talking to our collectors. We man-
Sadhvi Pragya Singh’s becoming an MP aged to construct 60 lakh toilets
does not change the status of the in Maharashtra in just three years
and make the state open-defecation
charges the NIA is pressing against her. free. We have already constructed
The NIA court has to give its decision. three lakh houses. We are on the
verge of constructing five lakh
It is totally in the judicial domain. We houses in rural areas. All this could
have nothing to do with it happen because of constant track-
ing and trouble-shooting.
Q. What has your tenure taught you

all. This Islamic terror terminology was not generated about governance?
from India. It was generated globally because of ISIS. Every decision and its consequence made me more
They (the opposition) created the narrative of Hindu mature. There were lessons to be learned out of every
terror to counter that. They thought it would satisfy the decision. Many times I discovered that I may have taken
minorities. They created all these cases out of that. Who a decision with good intentions but there were people
coined the term ‘Hindu terror’? Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr out there who would always challenge it. They would
Sushilkumar Shinde and Mr Digvijaya Singh. always question your intent. Earlier, I would get quite
disturbed. Now, I don’t because I always tell myself that
Q. You are also accused of having started a memorial when I am doing something for a good cause and have
culture with big statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji and no ill intentions, why should I worry. That helps you
Dr Ambedkar. You are said to be investing huge sums take firm decisions. This ultimately results in action on
of money when there is a shortage of funds. the ground. On the personal front, I don’t have time for
We can look at it in perspective. Ultimately, every ci- my young daughter. It is a great personal loss. There is
vilisation survives on identity. You cannot have spine- no family life as such.
less people. There are certain things we feel proud
about. That makes a community strong. Chhatrapati Q. What is the one big personal lesson you have learned
Shivaji Maharaj has created this state. He showed the as chief minister?
entire country what freedom is. That is why everybody The only thing that I have learned is that you need to
wanted a big memorial of him on the Arabian Sea. And have patience. It is the key to everything. Have patience
Dr B.R. Ambedkar was cremated at Dadar. There was in any adverse situation. n

THE BIG STORY | WEST BENGAL
HOW THE BJP

BREACHED
DIDI’S
BASTION
Forcing the Left to move Right, wooing TMC’s
disgruntled leaders and building a strong
organisation at the grassroots level were key
elements of the BJP’s ‘Mission Bengal’ strategy
By Romita Datta
SUBIR HALDER
O
n May 30, as Prime Minister Narendra leaders from Madhya Pradesh—Kailash
Modi was taking oath for a second term in Vijayvargiya and Arvind Menon—were
office, West Bengal chief minister Mamata also sent to the state. At the time, Mamata
Banerjee broke open a BJP office at Naihati enjoyed a 44 per cent vote share, though
in North 24 Parganas district and painted people were beginning to associate her
her party’s name—the All India Trinamool party leaders with extortion and infring-
Congress (TMC)—and its symbol on its ing on people’s democratic rights.
wall. Barely eight years after she brought The TMC had won the 2016 assembly
the Left Front’s 34 years of rule to an end, poll with a two-thirds majority, despite
Mamata faces a tough challenger in the allegations of corruption against its
shape of the BJP. The BJP has not only leaders in the Saradha and Rose Valley
won many more seats—from 2 out of 42 in ponzi schemes and the sting operation in
2014 to now 18—it has also dramatically which TMC leaders were seen taking cash
increased its vote share—from 16.8 per cent on camera. “The situation was explosive
in 2014 to 40 per cent in 2019. against the ruling party. But we could not
It all started in 2015, when BJP make use of it as hardly anyone in rural
president Amit Shah sent 45-year-old Bengal had the courage to hoist a BJP flag
Shiv Prakash, joint general secretary atop his house,” says a state BJP leader.
(organisation), who does not know a word
of Bengali, to the state. The reason? To BUILDING A NETWORK
implement ‘Mission Bengal’. Prakash had To begin with, the BJP started building
closely worked with Shah in Uttar Pradesh a strong cadre-based foundation. And
during the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Two instead of having a top-heavy structure,
given to understand that they were all

Shah’s foot soldiers in Bengal.
Within one and a half years, the
party increased the number of man-
dals from 484 to 1,250, shakti kendras
from zero to 12,404 with more than
10,000 shakti pramukhs, and booth
committees from zero to 58,000. The
party also appointed 300 vistaraks for
each of the 294 assembly constituen-
cies. These were full-time workers, get-
ting a monthly allowance of Rs 15,000,
accommodation and a bike to travel to
rural areas. The job of a vistarak was
to set camp in a constituency, oversee
organisational work and send weekly
reports to the party headquarters. The
party also created separate cells of
teachers, advocates, musical troupes
and Matuas (Bangladeshi Dalits who
had crossed over to West Bengal).
USING THE NEW MEDIA

VICTORY DANCE
A 15,000-member WhatsApp group of
BJP workers celebrate
their win in front of their the party reached out to 1.5 million vot-
party office in Kolkata ers. The BJP started a social media cell,
under its national IT cell head Amit
Malviya, with 10,000 people to reach
areas where the party was finding it
hard to penetrate due to the strong
its karyakartas reached out to people presence of the TMC. About 50,000
in the decentralised enterprise. Each WhatsApp groups were created with a
of the 20-odd blocks in a district was target of delivering messages to 30 mil-
treated as a mandal of 60 booths, with lion smartphones in the state.
roughly 40,000-50,000 voters. Each
mandal was run by a committee of SELECTING THE RIGHT
12-36 members. Working under the CANDIDATES
mandals were shakti pramukhs with “The RSS had given us a free hand to
the specific target of increasing the THE 2016 COOCH select candidates who could deliver.
party’s presence in five to six booths; We were targeting prominent but
booth palaks were given the responsi- BEHAR BYPOLL disgruntled leaders of other parties,
bility of targeting two booths, or 2,000 BECAME A who could win seats. For instance,
voters each. The party engaged panna we needed a bahubali like Nisith
pramukhs to shadow 30-50 voters in SUCCESSFUL Pramanik (sidelined TMC youth
each locality, befriending them and TEMPLATE OF leader from Cooch Behar) to take on
solving their problems. Party workers another bahubali (minister Rabin-
were made office-bearers of organ- CONSOLIDATION dranath Ghosh); the party allowed us
isational units to give them a sense OF ALL ANTI- to select the candidate we wanted,”
of ownership of the mission. Though said Deboshree Choudhury, BJP state
each of the districts ended up having TMC VOTES IN general secretary and now Raiganj
30-40 leaders, it was never a case of FAVOUR OF MP. This allowed defectors from the
too many cooks, as each was assigned Left and TMC to contest as BJP candi-
a specific job and, irrespective of rank, THE BJP dates, even as many senior BJP leaders

THE BIG STORY | WEST BENGAL
and state general secretaries were de- 2014 Lok Sabha election and 33.5 per municipal corporation as a victim of
nied tickets. Dissatisfaction among the cent in the 2016 assembly poll. The Mamata’s discriminatory politics. The
party workers was also contained. For BJP’s vote share could increase by a idea was to give Left supporters the
instance, denied a ticket from Hoogh- transfer of votes from the Left, as was message that the PM was aware of how
ly, the party’s state vice-president Raj established in the 2016 Cooch Behar Didi was depriving an elected civic
Kamal Pathak resigned from his post. Lok Sabha bypoll, where a loss of 27 body of its dues just because it was run
He was promptly sent to North Bengal, per cent vote share from the Forward by her political opponents. Inciden-
given the responsibility of organising Bloc and its direct transfer to the BJP tally, a day after Modi’s landslide win,
Modi’s Siliguri rally, and ensuring the helped it move to second position from nearly 10 CPI(M) party offices were
party’s victory in the region. fourth. Cooch Behar became a suc- handed over to the Left and the red
Candidates were also selected cessful template of consolidation of all flag fluttered again in Cooch Behar,
keeping in mind the demographic anti-TMC votes in favour of the BJP. Birbhum, North 24 Parganas and
composition. “We barely got a fort- “Winning the support and confi- Hooghly districts. The Left was no lon-
night for campaigning in the first two dence of the Left in the battle against ger a threat to the BJP. Its vote share
phases in areas like North Bengal. So the TMC was easier as the former was had dipped to an all-time low: from 29
we fielded known faces—John Barla, a natural enemy of the latter and it had per cent in 2014 to 7 per cent in 2019.
a tribal labour leader from the tea gar- suffered the most at the hands of the “The shifting of the Left vote is a
dens, from the Alipurduar seat; and ruling party and the state administra- narrative floated by the media. It cre-
Kunar Hembram, the engineer who tion. The BJP came out in support of ated the political binary backed by the
programmed software for the Alchiki Left workers who were facing allegedly Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as if
script, was fielded from a tribal seat in false cases or were scared to return the state had only two parties. But look
Jhargram,” said Diptiman Sengupta ,
BJP leader from Cooch Behar. Even a
former Left MLA like Khagen Murmu,
with a strong base in Malda district, MAMATA TRIED TO WOO HINDUS AS
was allowed to contest immediately
after joining the party. WELL AS MUSLIMS FROM THE SAME DAIS
Accusing Mamata of minority ap- BY CHANTING MANTRAS AND QUOTING
peasement, the BJP advocated the need
for a majority narrative. “Religious po- FROM THE QURAN. IT ALIENATED BOTH
larisation was the BJP’s trump card and
Mamata fell into the trap. She tried to
woo both the Hindus and the Muslims
from the same dais by chanting man- to their villages after the TMC came at the booth-wise results, the TMC is
tras and quoting from the Quran, iso- to power,” says Mohit Ray, a former melting. The dip in our vote share and
lating her from both the communities,” professor at Jadavpur University. the increase in the BJP’s vote share
says Prasanta Ray, former professor of The TMC was also accused of shouldn’t be simplified in numeri-
Social Science, Presidency College. rounding up BJP leaders in false cal terms. Voters are driven by many
The BJP fielded two Muslim cases; Prakash was allegedly falsely factors—a fact highlighted by the PM.
candidates to convey the message implicated in a rape case in October I believe the culture of Bengal, as re-
that it was not communal as the 2018 for which he got anticipatory bail. flected by the Left liberals, will prevail
other parties made it seem. “Having “Mamata’s administration maligned in the long run,” says former CPI(M)
Muslim candidates was important to the image of our leaders,” says state MP Mohammad Salim.
erase the communal tag and make the BJP president Dilip Ghosh. Political pundits say the BJP did
party acceptable among Left-inclined The BJP held many closed-door not allow the Congress and Left to
voters,” says Sengupta. In Malda, a meetings with district-level Left lead- form a credible, secular third front,
minority-dominated district, 48 per ers. “For Left cadre, the party office which could have damaged its chances
cent Hindus voted for the BJP. While is more than a political space. After of making the most of the anti-incum-
the BJP won in one seat—Malda(N), it the TMC came to power, several Left bency votes. “In Bengal, the contest
lost Malda(S) by 8,000 votes. offices were forcefully acquired. Our was between the TMC and the BJP.
leaders assured the return of these of- And the latter made sure that the anti-
THE LEFT MOVES RIGHT fices to the Left, if they came to power,” incumbency votes did not get split,”
The BJP left no stone unturned to eat says a BJP leader. At the Churabanda says Biswanath Chakraborty, profes-
into the Left’s vote share. The Left rally in Jalpaiguri, Modi made special sor of political science at the Rabindra
had a 29.7 per cent vote share in the mention of the CPI(M)-run Siliguri Bharati University. n

TAKING STOCK
CM Kamal Nath meets a
delegation of farmers
in Bhopal on May 29
THE BIG STORY | MADHYA PRADESH
MINDING
HIS FLOCK
Rattled by the Lok Sabha defeat, Chief Minister Kamal Nath looks to
ward off a looming threat to his government from an upbeat BJP
By Rahul Noronha
At the meeting, the message to all THOUGH KAMAL NATH

MLAs was to stick together and keep
an eye on each other. Most important- HAS DECLARED HE
ly, they were told that their ‘interests’ IS READY FOR A
would be taken care of. Nath held one- FLOOR TEST, HE IS
on-one meetings with more than two
dozen MLAs, most of whom had com-
BEING CAUTIOUS.
plained about the high-handedness of MINISTERS HAVE BEEN
ministers and bureaucrats. ASKED TO ‘TAKE CARE’
Questions about longevity had
started doing the rounds soon after
OF FIVE MLAs EACH
the government assumed power last
December, with Congress leaders al- critical issues, including the farm
leging that attempts were being made loan waiver. Though he did not hint
to poach their MLAs. “Sabalgarh at any aim to test the government’s
MLA Baijnath Kushwaha was taken majority on the floor of the house,
to a dhaba and promised money,” Bhargava told india today that all
former chief minister and Congress issues, including a floor test, would
heavyweight Digvijaya Singh had be discussed with the party leader-
claimed in January. Nath repeated ship. Bhargava apparently earned the
the charge on May 21. “At least 10 BJP leadership’s reprimand for his
Congress MLAs have told me that statements.
attempts are being made to lure them “If the BJP intends to destabi-
with money,” he said. lise the government, it won’t do so
Behind the Congress government’s through statements but through
vulnerability is its wafer-thin majority. political moves that will obviously not
The Congress, which won 114 seats be discussed in public,” says political
in the December assembly election, analyst Girija Shankar. “After the Lok
is supported by seven MLAs—Inde- Sabha verdict, with many Congress
pendents Surendra Singh, Pradeep leaders losing, Kamal Nath should
Jaiswal, Kedar Dawar and Vikram have become stronger, but statements
PANKAJ TIWARI
Singh Rana; Sanjeev Singh and from the BJP quarters are forcing
Rambai Govind Singh of the Bahujan him to react too.”
Samaj Party (BSP) and Rajesh Kumar Though Nath has declared that he
from the Samajwadi Party (SP). The is ready for a floor test should the BJP
total strength of the group is 121, five demand one, he is certainly in a cau-
more than the halfway mark of 116 in tious mood. Every minister has been
the 230-member assembly. asked to ‘take care’ of five MLAs each.
The BJP is a close second, with The legislators have been asked to re-
O
N MAY 26, EVEN 109 MLAs and a negligibly higher port their grievances to the ministers,
before the dust raised by vote share (41 per cent) than that of who have been instructed to address
the Congress’s crush- the Congress (40.9 per cent). BJP them. Every MLA is under watch—es-
ing Lok Sabha defeat at leaders have been stoking the fires pecially the first-timers. The Congress
the hands of the BJP in regularly. “Chief Minister Kamal anticipates a strength test during
Madhya Pradesh had settled, Chief Nath had predicted victory in 22 (of the budget session of the assembly,
Minister Kamal Nath convened a the 29 Lok Sabha) seats in MP. But expected to be called in June.
meeting of all MLAs supporting his whether he would remain in office for One way for the BJP to force a re-
six-month-old government. the next 22 days is itself in question,” gime change could be to get the seven
The decisive mandate to the NDA BJP general secretary Kailash Vi- MLAs supporting the Nath govern-
government at the Centre had come jayvargiya said in Indore on May 19. ment to cross over. The four Indepen-
as a wake-up call for the Congress-led The next day, leader of the opposition dents have a Congress background.
state government, which is now busy Gopal Bhargava shot off a letter to the The BSP’s Sanjeev Singh, whose
assessing the threat from the BJP and governor, demanding a special ses- father was a BJP MP from Bhind,
figuring ways to control the damage. sion of the Vidhan Sabha to discuss has confirmed being approached by

THE BIG STORY | MADHYA PRADESH
THE HOUSE the BJP to join the party. Ram-

bai Singh, the other BSP MLA,
top leadership. He is aware that
even if the Congress government is
STRENGTH finds herself on the backfoot since reduced to a minority and the BJP
Vidhan Sabha election 2018 March when her husband and is in a position to form the govern-
Total seats 230 brother-in-law were booked for ment with outside help, he will not
the murder of a Congress worker be the party’s choice for chief min-
in Damoh district. On May 26, istership. The BJP appears keen
the MLA pledged allegiance to the to bring in a new state leadership,
114 109
Nath government, but lamented which Chouhan is expected to re-
that she was not being given ‘due sist. He would like to remain ready
importance’. The next day, she for a mid-term election, should
1
claimed that almost all MLAs were such a situation arise owing to the
Halfway getting phone calls from BJP lead- Congress government falling into
mark 116 ers and that she had been offered a minority. The former chief min-
2 4 Rs 50 crore to make the switch. ister has been touring the state
BJP Congress SP
BSP Independent Nath has already held out the regularly and feels he would be a
bait of a cabinet expansion. The contender for the top job should
strength of the state cabinet is he lead the party to victory on the
‘FRIENDS’ OF THE 29, allowing six more berths (the basis of his popularity.
GOVERNMENT maximum permissible strength is
M
35). Jaiswal, an old associate of the ost importantly, will
The seven MLAs whose support is
chief minister, is already a minis- the BJP be able to form
critical for Kamal Nath
ter while Surendra Singh claims the government in case
that he has been assured a place in the Congress is not able
the cabinet soon. A reshuffle of the to hold the numbers together? Past
cabinet looks imminent indeed, experiences—Goa, Uttarakhand
owing to the dismal Lok Sabha and Karnataka—show it can. In
performance of the Congress such a scenario, two offices in the
in areas covering the assembly state become extremely important.
Surendra Singh Pradeep Jaiswal
Independent Independent
constituencies of several ministers. The first is that of the governor,
The Congress lost the Lok Sabha occupied by former Gujarat chief
election in 209 of the 230 assem- minister Anandiben Patel at
bly constituencies. present. The second is that of the
Not that the BJP is united on legislative assembly speaker, held
the issue of destabilising the Nath currently Nath confidant Narmada
government. While former party Prasad Prajapati. The speaker can
ministers Narottam Mishra and take a number of decisions pertain-
Kedar Dawar Vikram Rana Vishwas Sarang are reportedly ing to MLAs in case they cross the
Independent Independent all for going the extra mile to pull floor. The governor can make the
down the government, a section Union government take a call on
of the BJP, led by former chief dismissing the state government in
minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, case it falls into a minority but the
is not in favour of such a move. BJP remains unable to form the
“Had I wanted to destabilise the new government.
government, I would have delayed The Congress is also prepar-
my resignation and done so when ing itself for a legal battle in case
Sanjeev Singh Rambai Singh the assembly election results were the BJP moves in for the kill. The
BSP BSP
declared,” Chouhan told india to- neighbouring states of Rajasthan
day. “The Congress government and Chhattisgarh, where the party
will collapse because of its own is in power, could be potential safe
inefficiencies and contradictions.” havens in case MLAs need to be
Party sources say Chouhan’s shifted to prevent poaching, claim
stand is born out of his sidelined Congress sources.
status in the state in the eyes of the Another destabilising option
Rajesh Kumar
Samajwadi Party
TURNING UP THE HEAT

Shivraj Singh Chouhan holds a media briefing on farm loan waivers in Bhopal
PANKAJ TIWARI
ONE OPTION DOING THE ROUNDS, ALBEIT FRAUGHT WITH RISK, IS THAT
THE BJP GETS AROUND 10 CONGRESS MLAs TO RESIGN, AND THEN
RECONTEST THE SAME SEATS AS BJP CANDIDATES IN BYPOLLS
doing the rounds, albeit far-fetched felt on the bureaucracy, which does legislative assembly will go down
and fraught with risk, is that the BJP not seem convinced that the govern- from 109 to 108. It will also provide
induces around 10 Congress MLAs ment is here to stay. This mindset the Congress a chance to regain
to resign and then recontest the same is manifesting itself in the form of Jhabua, a seat that has traditionally
seats as BJP candidates in the subse- bureaucrats not working seamlessly been with the party, and strengthen
quent bypolls. The BJP would have to with the government, which has, in its position.
win at least seven of these seats to get turn, resulted in numerous rounds Meanwhile, the Nath govern-
a majority. Officially, though, the BJP of transfers and postings. It has par- ment needs to get its act together
denies any attempts to pull down the ticularly hit the delivery of promises on various fronts, such as law and
government. “The BJP has no interest made by the Congress. order, agriculture, urban and rural
in destabilising or bringing down the G.S. Damor, the BJP MLA from development and the problem of
Kamal Nath government. The defeat Jhabua who was elected to the Lok illegal mining. The only achievement
in the Lok Sabha has rattled Congress Sabha from Ratlam, has decided to the government can talk about—and
leaders, who are accusing the BJP, retain his parliamentary seat. BJP that too in part—is the waiver of farm
even when the Congress’s own leaders state chief Rakesh Singh announced loans, although this failed to yield
are openly coming out with their dif- on June 4 that Damor will resign any political dividend in the Lok
ferences openly,” says BJP state unit from the Vidhan Sabha seat, which Sabha election. In case the Congress-
spokesperson Rahul Kothari. implies that a bypoll would be held led government does come into a
The BJP’s game plan also seems for the assembly segment at a later minority and elections are ordered
to be to keep the pressure on the Con- date. This is a positive sign for the immediately, with the BJP sweeping
gress government through threats of Congress as with Damor’s resigna- the Lok Sabha poll in the state, the
destabilising it. The impact is being tion, the strength of the BJP in the Congress may be caught napping. n

Bharat https://t.me/daily_paper
The Salman Khan
starrer is a remake
of the Korean drama
Ode to My Father
MOVIES
SUMMER
VIEWS Just in case the cricket gets to you,
playing in a theatre near you…
By Suhani Singh
F
ive months into 2019 and Uri: The Sur- ODI World Cup in England for eyeballs.
gical Strike is the only blockbuster. The But if there’s one star who can put bums on seats, it
josh in Bollywood failed to match the is Salman Khan. Bhai teams up with Ali Abbas Zafar for
excitement of the Indian general elec- the big-budget drama, Bharat. Anubhav Sinha follows
tion. Gully Boy’s success was restricted up last year’s acclaimed drama, Mulk, with another
to Mumbai and the metros and Kesari punch of reality in Article 15. Telugu hit Arjun Reddy
failed to live up to the hype. It was the will be served up for the Bollywood audience as Kabir
grand finale of Avengers that saved the day at the box Singh. And Dhanush’s first international film, The Ex-
office. The rest of the Indian summer won’t be a breeze traordinary Journey of Fakir, will finally make its way
either. The few Hindi releases will be vying with the into Indian theatres a year after its release in France. n
LOVE THY NATION,

LOVE THY FAMILY
M
ore than laughs and whistles, Salman
Khan intends to make his fans tear up with
Eid release, Bharat (June 5). A remake
of the Korean family drama, Ode to My Father,
the film follows the tragedy-packed life of its lead,
played by Salman. The actor and his brother-in-law
and producer Atul Agnihotri were keen that Ali Ab-
bas Zafar, who has delivered back-to-back hits with
Salman in Sultan and Tiger Zinda Hai, adapted
the film for an Indian setting. “I was very reluc-
tant because, as a writer-director, till I own the
material, I am not very confident of it,” says Zafar.
Luckily for him, the subject and the message made
an instant impact. “I told Sir [Khan] I like it, but if
I am to make it, I will have to rewrite it completely,
which could make it very different from Ode to My
“It is a contin-
uous struggle Father.” Bhai gave his blessings and the money.
for me when Bharat, says Zafar, stays true to the “emo-
I write for tional core” of the original. Also starring Jackie
Salman. The Shroff as Bharat’s father, Katrina Kaif as his wife
character has Kumud and Sunil Grover as his best friend, the
to be bigger film spans six decades, starting from Partition.
than his So we have Salman in six different get-ups—as a
persona. Also, bike stuntman in a 1960s’ circus, a worker in the
you may have Gulf during the oil boom, a navy officer later and,
known him finally, a businessman in the liberalisation years of
for 20 years, the 1990s.
but he can still Like Sultan, Bharat expects a lot from
throw you off Salman, playing a devoted family man whose
every day” life is hinged on a promise he made to his father.
Ali Abbas Zafar, “It has been a continuous struggle for me when I
Director, Bharat
write for Salman, his character needs to be bigger
than his persona,” says Zafar. “I can’t make a film
any other way.”
Expectations from Bharat are high given that
it’s coming from Zafar who has earned the distinc-
tion of being Salman’s favourite director. “It’s a lot
of pressure I don’t want,” said Zafar. Even after
having worked with him on three big-budget films,
Zafar says the superstar’s “unpredictable” ways
mean one can never ever be thoroughly prepared.
“With Salman, you have to understand one thing—
you can have a good or bad day even if you have
known him for 20 years. It’s why I like him and like
working with him. He throws you off every day and
that keeps you alive.”
Whether Zafar scores a hat-trick at the box of-
fice with Salman remains to be seen, but if it does,
it will catapult him into the A-league of Bollywood
directors. “I am fortunate that I have been doing
films with Salman Khan,” says Zafar. Or is Salman
fortunate to have Zafar by his side? n

MOVIES
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir

Ken Scott’s English-French adaptation of Romain Puértolas’ The
Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe
“You learn a
lot of things
when you
revisit your
own cinema
and remake it
in a different
language. The
onus is huge”
Sandeep Reddy
Vanga, Director,
Kabir Singh
A FUN RIDE
In 2014, Romain Puértolas, a
former French border guard,
tasked with investigating illegal
immigration networks in Paris,
made his debut as an author with
The Extraordinary Journey of
the Fakir Who Got Trapped in
an IKEA Wardrobe. Written on a
mobile phone while at work, the
novel was a superhit in France
where it sold six million copies. The film, which also stars Berenice
Puertolas’ uplifting story of an Bejo (The Artist) and Barkhad
immigrant’s whirlwind trip across Abdi (Captain Phillips), will
Europe and empathetic take on release in India on June 21. With
refugees was translated in 30 the French and English language
languages. Four years later, it got film, Dhanush joins the exclusive
the big-screen treatment. Director club of Indian actors to headline
Ken Scott’s adaptation features an international film. Going by the
STAR CASTE
popular Kollywood actor Dhanush reviews, he appears to have made
as Ajatashatru Oghash Rathod a good first impression. Jordan
aka Aja who pretends to be a fakir Mintzer in the Hollywood Re- Andhadhun and Badhai Ho (2018)
with special powers and heads to porter said the film largely worked had already earned Ayushmann
Paris in search of his father. Things because of “Dhanush’s radiant Khurrana his spurs in Bollywood.
don’t go according to plan and Aja charm, with the actor adding In Article 15 (June 28), the first of his
ends up trapped in a wardrobe humour and sincerity to a project four releases in 2019, he plays a police
being transported in a lorry full of that can feel too overstuffed and officer for the first time. But his khaki
illegal immigrants to England. So wacky for its own good—mixing avatar is nothing like Rohit Shetty’s
begins a journey of self-discovery magical realism, deadpan comedy, machismo-high Singham. In the
that takes him to Spain, Libya and musical numbers and moments of Anubhav Sinha-directed investiga-
Italy, before returning to Paris. tear-jerking drama”. n tive social drama inspired by the 2014

CRAZY IN LOVE
In Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Telugu film
Arjun Reddy (2017), the dishy, angry
young lover is defined by his vices:
smoking, drinking, doping. Naturally,
his girlfriend’s parents reject him, lead-
ing Arjun to go into self-destructive
mode. The part-college romance,
part-break-up meltdown revisits the
regressive tropes of 1980s-90s’ cinema.
Vijay Devarkonda earned heart-throb
status and won accolades for his Arjun
Reddy. In its Hindi avatar Kabir Singh
(June 21), also written and directed by
Vanga, Shahid Kapoor has the tough
Kabir task of filling his giant shoes.
Singh “We tend to do superhero cinema
A remake of the and generally make our heroes good,
Telugu hit Arjun
Reddy, starring but we are all flawed,” says Vanga, who
Shahid Kapoor grew up in Warangal. There he was
exposed to Hindi films in theatres as
well as Hindi in school (he can both
“It’s always read and write the language). He at-
the subject tended medical school before heading
that attracts prohibits the state from discriminating to the International Film School Sydney
me. It’s a against any citizen on grounds of reli- for a three-year specialised course in
realistic cop gion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. “I screenwriting and editing. One of his
role, not a film feel very strongly about the issue,” says biggest takeaways was that there’s no
laced with Khurrana. He has already watched the language in cinema.
slow-motion hard-hitting documentary, India Un- For the remake, Vanga says he has
shots” touched, on the Brahmin-Dalit power deployed less English than the original.
Ayushmann
Khurrana, Actor imbalance, and is reading Omprakash “I’ve also tried to retain the colloquial
Valmiki’s Joothan, in which the author quality in the Hindi dialogue.” While
documents his life as a Dalit who grew he retains the name of the leading
Article 15 up on leftovers discarded in garbage. lady and the hero’s pet Labrador (both
The Anubhav Sinha- Caste is the elephant in the room named Preeti), Arjun becomes Kabir.
directed film is that Bollywood rarely acknowledges in “There’s a lot of melancholy in the
based on the 2014
Badaun gang rape
commercial film led by a star; Marathi name Kabir and a poetic side too,” says
case cinema has given us Sairat and Vanga. Like the original, the Hindi
Tamil cinema Kabali. Article 15 should version too begins with a voiceover
change that. It will also help Khurrana from the hero’s dadi. Only this time
shed the man-child hero image he has she’s reciting a Kabir doha.
been typecast into. Sinha had offered The change in geography has
Badaun gang rape case, Khurrana him a rom-com to begin with, but dictated changes in the remake too. The
plays Ayan, a higher-caste officer who, the actor was keen on an issue-based action shifts to Delhi and Mumbai and,
while solving the murder case of two drama akin to Sinha’s previous film, instead of caste conflict, Preeti’s father
girls from marginalised communities, Mulk. It was then that Sinha suggested takes offence to Kabir smoking and not
unearths the messy caste politics in the the film. “It’s my first serious, hard- being a turban-wearing Sikh. Compari-
Uttar Pradesh village. “It’s always the hitting film,” says Khurrana. He drew sons with the original are inevitable,
subject that attracts me,” says Khur- inspiration from IPS officer Manoj but Vanga assures a faithful recreation
rana. “It’s a realistic cop role, not a film Malviya in Delhi whom he has known of his popular film. Audiences in his
laced with slow-motion shots.” for five years. “I have imbibed his man- homeland, he says, are keen to see his
The title of the film draws from nerisms and look,” says the actor, who Bollywood debut, even if it is a film they
Article 15 of the Constitution, which sports a moustache in the film. n have seen before. n

BETWEEN
https://t.me/daily_paper THE SHORTER
INNOCENCE & WAY FORWARD
EXPERIENCE PG 5 7 PG 5 8
PETE SOUZA: A Q&A WITH

PHOTO HISTORIAN BABA SEHGAL
PG 6 0 PG 62
BOOKS
UP IN
THE AIR
Pico Iyer’s new book is an
ode to the plangent pleasures
of the Japanese autumn
BANDEEP SINGH
LEISURE https://t.me/daily_paper
e know Pico Iyer as an apostle of travel, an an unhappy marriage. Bereft of a

evangelist of globalism. In a popular 2013 common language, communicat-
TED talk, he described the “typical person” ing in pidgin (whether English or
he meets on his travels: “Let’s say a half-Ko- Japanese), they are held together
rean, half-German young woman living in by fantasies of their respective cul-
Paris.” And as soon, he adds, “as she meets tures as much as by the reality of
a half-Thai, half-Canadian young guy from their attraction. Hiroko is named
Edinburgh, she recognises him as kin, she ‘Sachiko’ in Iyer’s 1991 book,
realises that she probably has much more The Lady and the Monk, about
in common with him than anybody entirely that year in Kyoto. His latest
many.” Wait, there’s more. “So they become book, Autumn Light, serves as a
friends, they fall in love. They move to New York City. And the little girl companion, although each can be
who arises out of their union will of course be not Korean, or German, or read discretely with no loss. Iyer
French or Thai or Scotch or Canadian, or even American, but a wonderful is now married to Hiroko, and is
and constantly evolving mix of all those places.” a friendly, if distant, stepfather
Iyer ascribes to this fabulously bijou being an entirely new way of to her two children. He goes to
writing about and seeing the world. He devotes seven seconds to Japan every October, insisting on
acknowledge that of the over 220 million people who now “live in travelling only on a tourist visa,
countries not their own”, most are “refugees who never wanted to leave marvelling anew each time at the
home and ache to go back home”. He entirely ignores the products of vivid beauty of the Japanese fall.
equally cosmopolitan unions as his imaginary paragon, born in major Autumn Light is a meditation
‘global’ capitals, who live in rough state housing and are systematically on evanescence, on absence and
denied opportunities available to their richer compatriots. What about presence, on how we cope with
their ways of seeing or writing about the world? But Iyer writes for loss. Hiroko’s father dies at the
globalism’s winners, for people like himself. beginning of the book and her
Born in England to peripatetic Indian academics, Iyer moved to Cali- mother is put in a home for the el-
fornia as a small boy, though he returned to school in England. After Eton, derly. Hiroko’s brother, Masahiro,
Oxford and Harvard, he moved to a 25th-floor office in a Manhattan cut off all contact with the family
skyscraper to write articles for Time magazine. He gave up this fancy life to decades ago, ostensibly because
move to Japan in 1987, his decision the product of an epiphanous layover. of his sister’s divorce. A Swiss-
At a monastery in Kyoto, Iyer meets Hiroko, a young mother of two in trained Jungian analyst, Masa-
hiro looms over Hiroko’s family
(an absent presence/ a present
absence), and so the book, though
Iyer never meets him.
AUTUMN LIGHT He models Autumn Light
Season of
Fire and Farewells after the films of Yasujiro Ozu,
by Pico Iyer placid on the surface, but tur-
PENGUIN VIKING bulent with repressed emotion.
` 599; 248 pages And, despite the book’s many
irritations, it is affecting. But Iyer
EVEN AS HE
PENS SELF-
EFFACING
JOKES IN HIS
NOVEL, PICO
IYER CAN’T
DISGUISE HIS
SELF-REGARD

BOOKS
is too fond of the flip paradox. BETWEEN

INNOCENCE
His stepdaughter is at her most
luminous, on the outside, when
she has Hodgkin’s lymphoma as
a teenager, and later when she
AND
is unable to see that she is being
led on by a (possibly homo-
sexual) Spanish boyfriend. In
an act of apparently ‘Japanese’
EXPERIENCE
self-effacement, Iyer is mostly
absent from the book, a reticent,
coy presence. He jokes that the
neighbourhood kids’ nickname
for him is ‘Isoro’ or parasite, a
man dependent on his wife, but
he can’t disguise his self-regard.
One single, bloody event transforms the life of
In a scene at his local health club Poomani’s child protagonist forever
where he plays table tennis with
a group of sprightly septua- and
T
octogenarians, he notes: “I... am HEA ani
o m
o
reminded how different I still by P slated an
am from my passionate hobbyist tran an Ram
y
. Kal AUT
friends; they’re waggling a finger by N GGERN
JU 499,
under the table, like Olympians, ` s
is fiction, though equally
6 4 pa g e
to show partners how they’re real. Standing stubbornly 2
planning to serve, while I’m try- against the land-grabber
ing to unriddle my piece for The is Chidambaram’s family,
who work hard and live died of a fever, and his little
New York Review of Books on the
hand to mouth, but tend sister, for whom he bought
warlords of Mogadishu.” sweets every day and
their own land instead of
Later, he writes about working for Vadakkuraan. strung flowers to wear. He
how nothing seems to have Their son’s death breaks thinks about oppression
changed at the club in his them and they are horri- and injustice.
absence, that while he is t the fied, yet proud, that Chi- Poomani intimately
A centre of dambaram has achieved paints the landscape of

“carrying the call to prayer
Poomani’s something his father and rural Tamil Nadu of a few
above the flickering lights of decades ago—the sunken
novel, Heat, uncle couldn’t.
Jerusalem” inside him, or, “the For seven days, graveyard, the paddy
is Chidam-
intricate alleyways around the baram, a boy who, in an Chidambaram wanders as fields, grasslands with a
blue-tiled mosques of Isfahan”, act of daring and planning a fugitive, accompanied at space cleared for thresh-
his friends are “squealing over beyond his years, strikes nights by his father, who ing, streams at which
long rallies”. His wife, a blur of down his elder brother’s runs around during the day women collect water.
killer, Vadakkuraan. A to find a way to save the In the original, the lan-
activity, if not, according to her
powerful land-grabber, boy. They eventually return guage may have been pithy
husband, much of a thinker, is and evocative enough to
Vadakkuraan is always to surrender themselves
frequently patronised. to the authorities. He is an keep our attention, but
surrounded by his own
The lucid elegance of Iyer’s armed men. There are enterprising boy, careful this translation takes a
prose is misleading. What you people about, even to keep his weapons clean good while to catch fire,
think is moving, you come to see policemen not far away, and handy, staying out of with repetitive dialogue
as sentimental. What appears when the boy attacks him sight when needed, pro- in which it is hard to tell
with his sickle and runs tective and considerate of who is talking. Still, the
momentarily profound is, upon
away, scattering a couple the family members who patient reader is rewarded
rereading, a banality, a com- towards the end with a
of home-made bombs to will be in trouble for what
monplace. What suggests an confuse his pursuers. he has done. However, glimpse of what the cover
appreciation of depth, evinces The incident, Poomani he still thinks like a child— promises, a work of “great
only the superficial. n says in his Afterword, was missing his elder brother, force and beauty”. n
—Shougat Dasgupta real. The rest of his story his cousin Janaki, who —Latha Anantharaman

LEISURE https://t.me/daily_paper
FILMS
THE MEAL
by Abhiroop Basu
SHORTER
WAY
FORWARD
WHILE ONE INDIAN SHORT FILM
HAS ITS SIGHTS SET ON AN OSCAR, CHUTNEY
OTHERS ARE BEGINNING TO FIND by Jyoti Kapur Das
NEWER AUDIENCES
two of Basu’s shorts—After-

noon with Julia (2016) and
The Paper Man (2017)—
were screened at the Cannes
Film Festival. Surprisingly,
Basu is only 25.
As Indian filmmakers
have started to experiment short films are often con- Films, YouTube, Terribly
with the short film format, sidered a stepping stone for Tiny Tales, Large Short
the format itself allows them directors who have their eyes Films and Hotstar—try-
to be more experimental. on feature-length films. Never ing to promote the genre
ently Meal, for instance, has no looked at as a standalone in India. Humaramovie,
s that dialogues. Actors Ratna- entity, shorts have not been which also doubles up as a
l (2018), bali Bhattacharjee and Adil particularly profitable. There studio and incubator lab,
would soon be travelling to Hussain don’t speak to each is, however, some cause for had kicked off its short film
Denmark. The only Indian other. It’s the bruises on hope. With Netflix and other foray with a film called
entry to be selected for the Bhattacharjee’s face that do online platforms now stream- Adrak (2012), directed by
2019 Odense International the talking. “All around us ing shorts, many filmmakers Sahirr Sethhi, a first-timer
Film Festival (OFF), Meal today, people have become have begun to argue that who had just passed out of
stands a chance of qualifying very nonchalant and un- times might be changing. FTII. Associate producer
for the Oscars if it wins in its emotional. It says a lot about Humaramovie, which has Abhishek Gautam says that
category. Before the 11-min- where we’re headed—a state produced approximately 400 when he started, only people
ute Meal won top prize at of lovelessness. That’s what short films since its inception from film schools talked
the 9th Dadasaheb Phalke Meal is about,” says Basu. in 2012, is among a handful about short films. Today,
International Film Festival, In India, especially, of online platforms—Pocket Gautam has worked with

THE
BIG
SHORTS
SAKNOIA
(2013)
Set in Assam, the
Khanjan Kishore Nath-
directed film has two
ADRAK protagonists—a fisher-
by Sahirr Setthi man who wants to see
his children educated,
and his boat, known for
its luck
like
akers
Filmm IROOP
ABH ay that
s
BASU are for
s
short ries that
g s to
tellin on’t
wise w
other t told
ge
says, “Veterans like Sudhir

Mishra, Sujoy Ghosh and THE GATEKEEPER
Anurag Kashyap are making (2014)
shorts. Filmfare has started a Directed by Atanu
Mukherjee, this Hindi
section to award them. All this
short tells the story of
MAYA shows the format has finally an old gatekeeper who
by Vikas Chandra come of age.” negotiates routine and
Shooting his next short in solitude while manning
Shillong, Basu does sound a a railway crossing in the
word of caution. He says that middle of nowhere
close to 200 filmmakers. Festival, for instance, is held now anyone with a DSLR
“From a content creators’ in Nagpur. When you add camera and access to a You-
perspective, it really is to this the digital explosion, Tube tutorial feels they can
heartening to see everyone the options for filmmakers make a short film. “But would PALLOTTY
take to short films with such increase exponentially. “The you let a hardcore gamer who (2017)
In this evocative
enthusiasm,” he says. flip side is that it leaves the can fly jets in a video game, fly
Malayalam short film,
With newer audiences short filmmaker confused an actual aircraft? That’s what director Jithin Raj plays
demanding films of a smaller as to how best to release the is happening with 80 per cent on our nostalgia for
length, multiplex chains film,” admits Mumbai-based of shorts,” he says. Abhishek a childhood innocence
such as PVR have even director Vikas Chandra. Gautam, too, is concerned that once allowed us
started picking up shorts While Chandra’s short about shorts that forsake qual- to forge unconditional
friendships
to screen in their theatres, Maya (2018) won its pro- ity in their hope of going viral.
and several film festivals are tagonist a Filmfare award “We must focus on what made
setting aside time to accom- this year, Jyoti Kapur Das’ short films successful. They
modate them. The popular- Chutney (2016) got more were a device of telling stories
ity of short films is also in no than 113 million views after which otherwise weren’t get-
way limited to the metros. winning big at The Filmfare ting told,” he says. n
The Expressions Short Film awards in 2017. Chandra —Chinki Sinha
LEISURE
SH O T PHOT
O GR AP
HY
M AK IN G
AT Y
HIS TO R TE D THE
OCUM EN
HAV IN G D
E NC Y WITH
PRES ID
O BA MA
P H S, PETE
H OT OG RA HISTORIAN
HIS P
S AY S HE IS A R
SOUZA MERA, NOT A P
CA
WITH A APHER
R
PHOTOG
OUZ A
hs by PE T E S
Pho tog rap
Hyderabad to This is something Souza Souza says that he didn’t
IN speak at the
PEP Photo
Summit,
knows a thing or two about.
As the chief official White
House photographer for
see the embedded nature of
his job as an impediment to
the truth of the situation that
American former US president Barack he was photographing. “My
photojournalist Pete Souza Obama, Souza is one of the overriding concern was to
visited India while it was most significant photog- make authentic photographs
in the grips of a polarising raphers to have used the that captured, accurately
PETE SOUZA general election, its politics power of the image, to build and honestly, the mood and
seemingly reduced to spin. an image. emotion of what was taking

https://t.me/daily_paper CINEMA
ESCAPE ARTIST
Actor Manav Kaul would much rather
follow a star than call himself one
ctor, director as a child he would go days
A and writer
Manav Kaul
is a traveller
without bathing so that his
fair skin would not stand
out in Madhya Pradesh’s
first. “Travel- Hoshangabad, where his
ling is the most boring thing family had moved from
to do when you’re alone, Kashmir. “There was dis-
place.” There has been Pete Souza but that’s when the writing placement, but when you’re
criticism, though, of the comes. Boredom is a cross- young, you are caught up in
has been using over point,” he says. Despite survival,” he says.
overdominance of the
White House narra-
Instagram to knowing that Europe will be Released in 2016, Kaul’s
tive, with limited access post photos lonely, Kaul, 42, is spend- first book, Theek Tumhare
granted to the media, of Obama as a ing six weeks backpacking Peeche—a collection of Hindi
across the continent to short stories—had a photo
something that we counterpoint to work on a travelogue and of a broken window on its
see mirrored in India. Trump’s actions a collection of poetry. “I cover that he had shot in
Souza, however, is realised very late that I live Baramulla in Jammu and
categoric that he was for travelling,” he says. Kashmir, where he was re-
not a PR photographer. This realisation set him turning 27 years later. “I still
“I look at myself as a free: “Travelling, espe- remember where I would
historian with a cam- and geniality tend to cially travelling randomly, hide toffees.” This innocence
era. While photograph- airbrush the shades of feels like the beginning of is apparent in his first direc-
ing, my eye was not grey that rest within a relationship.” In Music torial venture, Hansa (2012),
Teacher, a recently released about a boy and girl looking
political. I was there to his policymaking.
Netflix film, Kaul’s perfor- for their missing father in the
witness, to document, Interestingly, Don-
mance as the forlorn Beni mountains.
to try and pay obeisance ald Trump’s presidency Madhav Singh, won him rave As Kaul speaks, it
to history,” he says. makes Souza’s photos reviews. Earlier this year, becomes clear that his calm
Whatever side of take on different layers he starred in Badla with results from having faced
the debate one may be of meaning. Souza has Amitabh Bachchan and with many challenges. He has
on, it cannot be denied been using Instagram roles in films like Maroon worked odd jobs and lived
that Souza’s archive of to post photos that (2016), Tumhari Sulu (2017) in chawls with hardly any
1.9 million photographs serve as a counterpoint and Ghoul (2018), he is being money. Kaul says to come
is one of the most to Trump’s words and seen as one of India’s most this far and then want to run
remarkable documents actions. When his wife versatile actors. away to faraway places is
But Kaul doesn’t want to what his life now is. n
of our times. Whether Melania Trump swat-
“fit in”. He remembers that —Chinki Sinha
it is a picture of Obama ted away her husband’s
lying flat on the rug of hand in Italy, for MANDAR DEODHAR
the Oval office or the, instance, Souza posted V KAU
L,
now iconic, photograph a picture of Barack MANA ia’s most
Ind
among e actors,
of Obama bending and Michelle Obama’s versatil an actor,
is
over, so that young fingers, intertwined. says he and writer
r
directo d and a
Jacob Philadelphia can Whether one calls secon first
r
touch his hair, Souza’s this trolling or mere travelle
photographs are almost critique through hind-
always endearing, mak- sight, Souza maintains
ing the most powerful that he is “respectful,
person in the world subtle and playful”.
surprisingly human. “I am hopeful,” he
It is difficult to pre- adds, “hopeful that my
dict how history would country will survive
judge the Obama years. Donald Trump.” n
His personal charisma —Raj Lalwani
S O N
Q A D R EA
M E AN Q. You share your amusing rhymes on
Y
Twitter. How do ideas come to you?
’S RH Sometimes I’m alone and thinking. I may look
B A upset, but I am not. I try to be happy. As I say,
BA
Q. What attracted you to
live, jiyo moment ke liye; kaam karo payment
Yamraj’s role in the web
ke liye; pyaar karo sentiment ke liye; chicken
series Bhoot Purva?
yoon pakao ke kachcha na ho; mohabbat
The makers said that Yamraj is Baba
Wi l yoon nibhaao ki bachcha na ho
d Sehgal. He’s a funny guy who is always
s t a ly p o p
y re u clicking selfies and doing TikTok
le v l a r i n videos. He raps too. Q. In some of them you tag
a nt
. H i t h e 19 9 celebrities. Has anyone responded?
s ef
fo r t 0 s , ra p DJ Snake and DJ Khaled replied on
s h a per Instagram. So, I used it to reach out to them
ve e Ba b
ve n a Se for a collaboration. Snake said he didn’t
e a r h ga
ned l i s understand half of it.
Q. Gully Boy was inspired by the h i m now
a pa u s i n —with Suhani Singh
lives of Naezy and D
there be a Baba Se
I was a simple guy from
Moving to Delhi was a b
father would call and as
my job at the Delhi Elec
Undertaking. In Bomba
meet all the music direc
Q. Rap is associate
your verses aren’t
Rap is rhythm and poet
rappers were killed, so
even Eminem changed
this cannot sustain bec
spoken your story, wh
like Emiway Bantai. He
62 Volume XLIV Number 24; For the week June 11-17, 2019, published on every Friday Total number of pages 68 (including cover pages)

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exclusive interview : DevenDra FaDnavis bollywood: summer of ’19

REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/2018-20; U(C)-88/2018-20; FARIDABAD/05/2017-19 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT

EXCLUSIVE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

J U N E 17, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 1

INDEX: KNOW Q&A WITH

22 DRAWING THE LINE

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Presenting India Today Insight

NARENDRA MODI’S FOREIGN

BOOKS: POWER INDEX: KNOW

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The steel and cement sectors have begun to slow

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an entry age of 18-40 years. Rural

Poor Samajwadi Party chief AKHILESH

THE CASE OF THE

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The week in social media INDEX

The Kishwar The Heat Is On

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10 INDIA TODAY J U N E 17, 2 019

PR AK ASH EL AMAKK AR A /EPA

WINGMAN Maharashtra party chief

A s the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2014,

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KERALA: LEFT IN J&K: WHY THE

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tal. Education department officials say it K A R N ATA K A

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(28 seats) assembly polls)

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norities rallied behind the Congress. “The minorities,

J U N E 17, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 21

Photograph by BANDEEP SINGH

SHOW nessman of the

2002 1999 1998

Becomes MoS for home Snatches con- Elected MLA

2008 2010 2013

Plays a key role in bust- Arrested after Made national

1982 1983 1984

Does gradua- Joins youth

1996 1995 1989

Rift starts Plays key role Takes les-

Wins Assam for Plays integral

Sangh Parivar ideologues believe this will automatically

28 INDIA TODAY J U N E 17, 2 019

PANKAJ NANGIA / MAIL TODAY

DOUBLE Modi government and former Union home

THE HOUSE Teachers and educationists

CASTE COMPLEXION these MPs are below 40 years while 6

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INTERVIEW / DEVENDRA FADNAVIS

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Q What were the main factors behind the

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like drip irrigation. Earlier, people were

new investment capacities.

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The earlier governments did not act on