oc

GyanVapi Back to appointinG judGes BadMinton hoW

Mandir Vs Masjid? Why the delay india Made history
www.indiatoday.in may 30, 2022 `75
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Living it up
Covid triggered the YoLo —You onLY Live onCe— phenomenon,
pushing manY indians to seize the moment and Chase their dreams
FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A
young man, who used to be mortally afraid
of heights, suddenly signs up for a skydiv-
ing course in Dubai—and thinks nothing of
jumping off a plane. A 65-year-old home-
maker in Delhi, Sunita Ahuja, goes back to
studies—after over 45 years. By now, she has completed
three full online courses in English literature. A couple in
Hyderabad-Secunderabad, Srikanth Arval and Prabh-
joth, find that the pandemic has disrupted
their thriving florist business. What do they
do? Take an entirely different line—investing
their savings, and they now run a boutique
homestay outside the Tadoba Tiger Reserve
in Maharashtra. Bakshish Dean, a veteran of
the hospitality industry in Delhi, decides to
go on not one but 20 holidays with his fam-
ily and even buys himself a car that is way
beyond his budget.
What’s common between them? The thing
they are reaching out for is, literally, their March 30, 2020
dream. A piece of real estate that we all carry
inside of us. Something that we all tend to
keep for a later day—a matter of infinite defer-
ment and procrastination. It could be realised
in the form of a vacation, a new job, or a
hobby—but, at its core, it is the manifestation
of an inner transformation. What brought it
about? The shock to our ordered, predictable
lives that the pandemic brought. Suddenly,
we are all too aware of mortality—the idea
that life is fundamentally something that can
be extinguished at any moment. A sense of
impermanence, of physical health and our
finances, now haunts us constantly. And it has
brought about what may seem a paradoxical
reaction at first. People are splurging, living it
up, taking the plunge into the unknown. As if
everyone is now driven by the acknowledge-
ment that You Only Live Once, better known
by its acronym YOLO. If we were saving up for
a rainy day, that rainy day is right here.
The idea for this week’s cover story took
birth when a colleague talked about a radi-
cal, unexpected behavioural change she had
seen in a few of her acquaintances. And we
realised that almost everyone could identify with that—at
the experiential level. Could there actually be a broader
pattern, we wondered. A kind of a psychological corner
that humanity has collectively turned? We decided to
explore this intriguing idea. As Senior Associate Editor
Sonali Acharjee cast out her net and colleagues elsewhere
came up with contributions, we found the examples
multiplying easily. This, indeed, was not a random phe-
nomenon. From all over the map, cases came in of people
making radical life choices—accompanied by a new
willingness and capacity for risk-taking.
S o, there was the 48-year-old, stay-at-home dad and
former merchant navy officer Arvind Ganga, taking
off to no less than Antarctica. After two full years of living
in isolation, with our worlds turned still, we all know what
he means when he says, “Not being able to travel during
the pandemic was extremely difficult on me.
I felt deprived of something essential in my
life. If I had let Covid hold me back, I would
have missed out on one of the most eye-
opening, beautiful experiences of my life.”
Indeed, the more we heard the voices, the
more we were struck by the commonality of
sentiment. There were other tell-tale signs,
too, of changed behaviour. Luxury car-maker
Mercedes Benz reported its highest sales ever
this year, and the demand surprisingly came
from smaller cities like Guwahati and Surat.
Almost everyone had seen death up close—
many of us lost family and friends. And the
collective experience of grief and shock on
such a planetary scale has almost genetically
altered our outlook on life. Something we
could not even see changed us.
What we are doing in response is es-
sentially a kind of coping. Mental health
experts attest to the phenomenon. Says
Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Kedar
Tilwe: “People want to find a silver lining to
August 10, 2020 the pandemic. The sudden realisation that
life is short makes many want to do more
things that bring them peace and make
them happy.” The world has seen this before
somewhat. Soon after the end of World War
II, there was a boom in the sales of consum-
er goods, many of which were considered
luxuries at the time, like cars and washing
machines. Undoubtedly, the world has
changed so much that it is never going back
to what it was. The process of globalisation
that started in the middle of the previous
June 7, 2021
century is now in reverse gear. Added to
that is the fact that we have reached inside
of ourselves to find a ‘new me’—and through that path of
discovery, we are crafting a new world outside of us.
So, if you haven’t joined the party yet, do so. YOLO.
(Aroon Purie)
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 3
 UPFRONT
NEW RESOLUTION, JHARKHAND: SORENS
OLD CONGRESS IN A MINEFIELD
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UPFRONT LEISURE cultivating all these years. Recently, the CM

YOGI’S NEW NEUTRAL WHAT ‘IS’ INDIAN visited his mother—after five years—in Pauri
AVATAR PG 5 POETRY? PG 59 Garhwal district in Uttarakhand while on a

ANI
three-day trip to the state. Pictures of Yogi
CRYPTOS ON A Q&A WITH with his mother and of his stay at the ances-
CRASH COURSE MASABA GUPTA tral home (after 28 years, say reports) went
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UPFRONT
been brought down to minimum levels
in the state. The state’s ADG (Additional
Director General), law and order, Prash­
ant Kumar, says, “We have strictly ensured
that loudspeakers are taken down and no
one is harassed on the basis of faith.”
The Ramnavami and Hanuman Jay­
anti Shobha Yatra events, a source of
friction and altercations every year since
they coincide with the Ramzan month
for Muslims, also went through without
any violence, say UP authorities. Yogi
had ordered that no religious procession
would be taken out without official per­
mission and the organisers giving an affi­
davit that they would maintain peace and
harmony. “As many as 800 Ramnavami
rallies were held in UP, a state of 250 mil­
lion people. At the same time, roza and
iftar were also being held as this is the
month of Ramzan. Not a single incident
of violence was reported,” claims an offi­
cial at the CM’s office.
NO ‘SELECTIVE ACTION’
In his second tenure, Yogi is trying hard
to shed the “selective approach’’ charge
of the Opposition, which says his deci­
sions are biased and target the minor­
ity community. Last month’s incident
in Ayodhya was an eye­opener even for
the Muslims. On April 28, locals found
some ‘objectionable material’ placed out­
side a mosque. Investigations revealed
that the accused were Hindutva activ­
ists who wanted to create trouble before
Eid to “avenge the Jahangirpuri violence
in Delhi”. The main accused, Mahesh
Mishra, is a known associate of the
VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) and the
Bajrang Dal. The police not only busted
the plot but also had them booked under
the National Security Act (NSA). The
chief minister, apparently, was very clear
that “no nuisance’’ will be allowed.
A similar incident was reported from
Meerut’s Hashimpura, where some BJP
leaders wanted to organise a Devi Jagran
on May 2. The local administration objec­
ted to it because of Ramzan and May 2
being the day Eid is celebrated. A video of
a heated exchange between a local politi­
cian and the SHO went viral, with the
former daring the police to stop the jag-
ran. But senior officials intervened to get
6 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
ANI
EVEN-HANDED
APPROACH?
 CM Yogi instructs officials
to ensure there are no power
cuts on Eid, Akshaya Tritiya
and Parashuram Jayanti
 Action taken against
ex-Bajrang Dal activists in
Ayodhya who wanted to
create trouble before Eid
 Authorities intervene to
get a jagran event on Eid
day cancelled in Meerut’s
Hashimpura despite resis-
tance from local BJP leaders
the event cancelled. The new inclusive
initiatives have not gone unnoticed.
Former UP DGP Prakash Singh tweet­
ed: ‘’Removal of more than 50,000
loudspeakers from religious shrines in
UP—and that too without any visible
opposition or clashes—has been one of
the finest examples of good governance
in any state in recent times.”
The state’s religious leaders have
also given a thumbs­up. “We welcomed
the CM’s order, for we believe it is a
general order for all communities. We
have directed all the Sunni mosques
to limit the sound and ensure that
it does not carry outside the prem­
ises,’’ says Maulana Khalid Rasheed
Farangi Mahali, Naib Imam of the
Aishbagh Eidgah in Lucknow. Hindu
religious leaders, too, have been mostly
enthusiastic. Raju Das, priest of the
Hanumang Garhi temple of Ayodhya,
says, “It’s a good decision. People of all
faiths must make sure that loudspeak­
ers do not become a nuisance.”
Political observers in UP see the
current developments as preparations
for a future role for Yogi in national
politics. Prof. S.K. Dwivedi, former
head of the political science department
at Lucknow University, says, “It was the
need of the hour. Yogi is looking for a
bigger role in national politics, so he is
trying to change his image. It’s also a posi­
tive gesture and in the party’s interests. I
personally feel Yogi 2.0 is running more
efficiently than the first term. They have
started the anti­Romeo squads again, but
no one is questioning them now, unlike
the protests earlier.’’
S
hilp Shikha Singh, assistant profe­
ssor at Lucknow’s Giri Institute of
Development Studies, sees welcome
signs in Yogi’s unwillingness to indulge
in “reactionary politics”. “The way he
handled the loudspeaker issue, he is trying
to balance out things. Earlier, during the
anti­CAA protests, there were many alle­
gations of selective action. It may be a new
approach targeting the 2024 general elec­
tion where UP’s 80 seats will be crucial.
Yogi also wants to increase his acceptance
within and outside the party,” he says.
It’s still early days, though, and despite
the government’s reassurances, some
things remain the same. The ‘bulldozer
politics’, ostensibly to flush out criminals
and clear encroachments, continues. Just
ANI
last week, a 43­year­old man, Rohtash,
died of injuries sustained in a bulldoz­
er­backed anti­encroachment drive in
Bulandshahr. The law and order appa­
ratus, too, seems to be in upheaval. State
DGP Mukul Goel, who has held a number
of critical posts in the past couple of years,
was suddenly shunted out and accused
of “neglecting work” and “inefficiency”.
There has also been a series of incidents
where the police themselves are perpetra­
tors in crimes, including rape. It has given
enough ammunition for Samajwadi Party
president Akhilesh Yadav to comment: “In
Yogi Adityanath’s second term, the crime
situation has become twice as bad. Worst
of all, the men in khaki are now being
accused of criminally exploiting victims.’’
Akhilesh was referring to the Lalitpur
rape case in which a Dalit minor and
gang­rape victim was sexually assaulted
by the SHO at the police station. Yogi may
have a mind to change the system but his
government has a long way to go before
Ram rajya comes to Uttar Pradesh. n
BIHAR
THE CASTE CALCULUS
By Amitabh Srivastava
O
n May 11, Bihar chief mini­
ster Nitish Kumar had a
one­on­one meeting with
leader of the Opposition
Tejashwi Yadav, ostensibly to decide
when to hold a statewide caste census
in Bihar. But any meeting with the
de facto Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
chief raises the political heat in capital
Patna, especially since Nitish’s Janata
Dal (United) and alliance partner BJP
have been having a testy time of late.
Tejashwi later told the media not to
attach any political meaning to the tete­
a­tete but the fact that no other leader
was present—not even any bureaucrat
to explain the nitty­gritty of a census—
only fanned speculation about a politi­
cal realignment. The two former allies
have been at loggerheads since July
2017 when Nitish dumped the RJD and
Congress and joined hands with the
all­party meeting would be called on the
caste census. “There will be no delays,”
he said, promising “a cabinet decision”
on moving forward after all inputs were
received.
It may be a political gambit but
the two leaders have clear arguments
for a caste census in Bihar. As it would
do elsewhere in India if conducted, it
will enable a detailed enumeration of
OBCs (Other Backward Classes) and
help identify sections that remain off
the government’s social welfare radar
or have not fully got their due share of
benefits. It will quantify the sundry lay­
ers of OBC communities, just as it does
for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the
national census. But OBC numbers are
a hot potato. They bump up against
the vexed issue of reservations—and
the Supreme Court cap of a cumulative
50 per cent. The real OBC population
numbers could cast questions on the
very logic of that ceiling. No wonder
successive regimes at the Centre have
dithered. In the 2011 national census,
A NEW MOON BECKONS?
OBC numbers were kept off the official
CM Nitish and RJD’s
list—and remain a secret. The Modi
Tejashwi at the latter’s iftar
government mulled over having OBCs
party in Patna, April 22
counted in the 2021 iteration, and
finally opted not to go down that route,
as Union MoS for home Nityanand Rai
BJP to form a new government. But the clarified to the Lok Sabha in July 2021.
ice seems to have melted after April 22 For Nitish, who is credited with
when Nitish dropped in at an iftar at getting state benefits to the most mar­
the residence of Rabri Devi, Tejashwi’s ginalised among the OBCs and SCs
mother. They have since had two more (categorised as the extremely backward
meetings, including the one on May 11. classes or EBCs or Mahadalits in Bihar),
That this thaw could be just a way it’s just the theme that could galvanise
for Nitish to shore up his political rel­ his core vote base. Which is exactly what
evance—and bargaining power with the BJP fears—a new demographic
the BJP—is another likelihood observ­ exercise that could facilitate the resur­
ers grant. After all, he has a history of gence of parties like the RJD and JD(U)
waxing and wan­ which have OBCs
ing on the RJD at as their core voters.
CM NITISH SAYS
strategic points. With less than two
Nor does it harm
“THERE WILL BE years to go before
Tejashwi to play NO MORE DELAYS” the next Lok Sabha
along, with caste FOR THE CASTE election, the BJP is
as the winning CENSUS. THIS MAY likely to put up some
logic. On May 16, SEE A RESURGENCE voluble resistance to
five days after their OF THE REGIONAL the idea—but with­
meeting, Nitish PARTIES; IT WILL out seeming to be
announced that an anti­welfare. n
WORRY THE BJP
UPFRONT
CONGR ESS
NEW RESOLUTION,
OLD CONGRESS
By Kaushik Deka
O
n May 16, a day after the
Congress ended its three-
day-long Nav Sankalp
Shivir in Udaipur, the
party witnessed a formal gesture. T.N.
Prathapan resigned from a post he
had been holding since 2017—that
of national chairman, the All India
Fishermen Congress. He did so in
accordance with the letter and spirit of
the Udaipur resolution, which, among
other things, declared that no person in
the party would hold the same position
for more than five years. The key ques-
tion now is: will other stalwarts in the
party voluntarily walk the talk when it
comes to organisational reforms?
That there is an urgent need to
make key alterations in the party’s
organisational structure if it has to find
a road to revival was acknowledged by
Congress president Sonia Gandhi her-
self. The “most immediately relevant”
resolutions are related to organisational
reforms, she said in her concluding
speech. But the heads of several depart-
ments of the party have been occupying
the positions for more than five years—
take communication, law, research and
the professional Congress. In his own
words, Mukul Wasnik has been a gen-
eral secretary for over two decades. Will
we see everyone acting in concord with
Prathapan’s gesture?
At Udaipur, the party also made a
few other radical decisions. A new layer
has been created in the organisation:
mandal committees, which will be
A NEW THOUGHT PROCESS?
Sonia-Rahul with other Congress
leaders in Udaipur
8 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
placed between the level of the booth
and that of blocks. The performance
of every officer-bearer, from the booth
to the Congress Working Committee
(CWC), the highest decision-making
body, will be evaluated. “General sec-
retaries will be given specific tasks and
the organisational general secretary
will evaluate them based on their per-
formance,” said Ajay Maken, two days
after the Udaipur resolution.
In every committee of the Congress,
from the booth upwards to the CWC,
50 per cent of the members will be
under the age of 50. Only one member
from a family can get tickets. The sec-
ond person must spend at least five
years in organisational work to earn
the right to get a ticket. To drive the
processes of internal reforms, the party
will form a compact task force.
These changes will be crucial for
the successful implementation of the
party’s political agenda, as set out at
Udaipur. With the slogan of ‘“Bharat
Jodo”, the Grand Old Party resolved to
fight the ruling BJP by offering a new
narrative. It will go for a nationwide
padayatra to fight back against the
BJP’s politics of division, poor han-
dling of the economy and indifference
towards the socially and economically
backward, women, farmers and youth,
the resolution said.
But to take its narrative to the
masses, the task force must deliver
on reforms. The party already has
an excuse to buy time till September
as organisational elections are going
on. Some of the proposed moves are
not entirely new; it’s just that the past
record on implementation has been
very poor. For instance, the party
will create a public insight depart-
ment to receive “continuous, scientific
feedback” from the people of India.
Feedback mechanisms already exist in
the party, but in the past, the leadership
has often acted against feedback given
to it by, say, its data analytics depart-
ment or by independent agencies. For
instance, a report about high anti-
incumbency against former Punjab
chief minister Captain Amarinder
Singh was given to the party high com-
mand almost a year before the state
MANY FEEL THE
PROPOSED NEW
COMMITTEES
ARE ONLY
MEANT TO
MOLLIFY THE
G23 REBELS
ANI
went to polls. Yet the party took nearly
six months to sack the former CM or
take corrective measures. In 2021, the
party was advised not to form an alli-
ance with the AIUDF (All India United
Democratic Front) in Assam while
another internal report talked posi-
tively about a tie-up with the Trinamool
Congress in West Bengal. On both occa-
sions, the party went and did exactly the
opposite of what was suggested.
It has also decided to form a
national training institute for party
workers and leaders and an election
management department. Well, the
party already has an election coordina-
tion committee with Rahul Gandhi,
C.P. Joshi, Digvijaya Singh, Janardan
Dwivedi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam
Ramesh and Randeep Singh Surjewala
as members. There is also a training
department headed by Rahul’s close
aide Sachin Rao. It’s a different mat-
ter that nobody knows when meetings
of various Congress departments are
held—if at all. There is also no mecha-
nism to monitor and evaluate the per-
formances of these committees.
And yet, the spectacle of commit-
tees begetting committees continues.
Sonia Gandhi said she would form an
advisory group drawn from the CWC
to meet regularly and deliberate on
political issues and challenges before
the party. This decision is baffling, to
say the least. By September, the party
will elect a new president. According to
the party constitution, a new CWC has
to be formed after the new president
comes in and 12 of its 25 members are
to be elected. The rest are nominated
by the president. Irrespective of who
becomes the new president, a new
CWC will have to be constituted. In
that case, this advisory group, carved
out of the present CWC, will be a very
short-lived one.
What’s even more ironical is that
the Congress president had formed, in
September 2020, a six-member com-
mittee—which had A.K. Antony, the
late Ahmed Patel, Wasnik, Ambika
Soni, K.C. Venugopal and Surjewala—
to assist her in organisational and oper-
ational matters. This was done even
though the Congress already has a core
committee, which again has Antony,
Venugopal and Surjewala, besides
Ghulam Nabi Azad, P. Chidambaram,
Ashok Gehlot and Jairam Ramesh.
Many underwhelmed Congress insid-
ers are asking what radical novelty the
new committee will offer.
In fact, the challenge before the
task force is precisely to ensure that it
bucks the party’s own history of sloth.
Many suspect the new committee and
task force have been announced as a
mollificatory gesture—only to accom-
modate some key members of the rebel
G23 group. Several veterans are also
likely to turn hostile as they would
have lost their Rajya Sabha seats by
June and July. So, keeping them in
good humour is essential. There is also
speculation that this committee will be
nothing but the “margdarshak mandal
of the Congress”—a retirement home
for the veterans.
But there is consensus that the
Congress itself must find its ‘marg’—or
path—now. That’s why the leadership
question is key as all reforms will have
to be driven by a decisive leadership.
So must the political battle against the
BJP. The collective leadership of the
Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka troika has failed
to deliver till now. Most Congress insid-
ers say the three must bring urgency
and boldness to their decision-making
process and, more importantly, end the
ad-hocism on presidentship.
At the shivir, besides Sonia, Rahul
was the only leader who addressed
the delegates. By the rule book, he
doesn’t hold any position, except as a
CWC member. Though Rahul has not
expressed any overt willingness to take
to the helm again, the shivir offered
some indication that he could contest
the presidential poll in September—
that will make it an ‘uncontested’
election, the way it happened in 2017.
The whole process may not look very
much like ‘reform’, but at least it will
be a decisive change from the rudder-
less drift that has characterised the
past two-three years. The paradox that
exists at the core of the whole issue will,
however, not disappear. n
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 9

UPFRONT
JHARKHAND
SORENS IN A
MINEFIELD
By Amitabh Srivastava
J
harkhand chief minister Hem­
ant Soren has some real fire­
fighting to do in the coming
days if he wants to continue
in his post. Everything seems
to be going wrong at once. On one
flank looms an Election Commission
notice asking him why he should not
be disqualified for holding a mining
lease from the government (an office
of profit offence). On another, the
Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May
11 arrested state mining secretary Pooja
Singhal, the officer he had handpicked
in August 2021 to lead the department.
The EC has given time till May 20 to
Soren—who also holds the mining
portfolio—to explain why he owns the
lease, a violation of Section 9A of the
Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The apparent coincidence—ED
conducting raids on Singhal on May
6, just three days after the EC served
Soren notice—has also spawned cons­
piracy theories in capital Ranchi that
the central agencies are again at work
to destabilise a duly elected govern­
ment of the Opposition. The Soren­led
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) allia­
nce government, with the Congress and
Rashtriya Janata Dal as partners, had
come to power after defeating the BJP
in the December 2019 state election.
Soren has described the raids as
“empty threats” and accused the BJP­
led central government of trying to
browbeat political opponents using
state machinery. Jharkhand BJP presi­
dent Deepak Prakash countered this,
10 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
saying it was a weird defence of the
corrupt, considering the ED had seized
over Rs 18 crore in cash from the house
of chartered accountant Suman Kumar,
who is allegedly linked to Singhal.
Singhal, a 2000 batch IAS offi­
cer, has been arrested in an old case of
money­laundering, and not in connec­
tion with Soren’s current crisis. But as
mining secretary, she must have known
about Soren’s mining lease. Also, a
number of serving mining officers are
under the radar (in connection with the
recovered cash), so the ED has possibly
widened the investigation’s limits.
Meanwhile, the conspiracy theory
gets new legs every day. The ED has
not officially spoken about Singhal’s
ongoing custodial interrogation, but
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s updates
via tweets referring to WhatsApp
chats linking the ‘Raja to the recovered
money’ has got everyone in the loop.
Rumours that the IAS officer and her
husband were going to turn govern­
ment approvers have also got Soren
camp followers on the edge. JMM party
workers even staged a demonstration
outside the state BJP headquarters in
Ranchi, alleging the saffron party was
intentionally trying to malign the CM.
On May 15, the ED questioned former
JMM treasurer Ravi Jaiswal for alleged
money­laundering.
Apart from Hemant Soren, the
EC on May 4 issued a similar notice to
his younger brother and MLA Basant
Soren. He is a director of two compa­
nies, Chandra Stone Works and Grands
HOT SEAT
CM Hemant Soren at a
function at Governor’s
House, Ranchi
ON SHAKY GROUND
 Soren cannot deny that he ob-
tained a mining lease for himself while
holding the mining portfolio in the
government
 Governor Ramesh Bais will have the
final say on the disqualification of the
Soren brothers, subject to EC’s advice
 Though the JMM-led alliance
government has an absolute majority,
picking an acceptable successor—in
case of disqualification—will be tricky
 Precedent exists. In 2015, two Uttar
Pradesh MLAs were disqualified after
they were indicted by the Lok Ayukta
for bagging government contracts
CM SOREN’S DEFENCE
 The CM gave up the lease in Feb;
no mining or excavation was done, so
there is no question of profit-making
 Having a mining lease does not
entail disqualification as a member
of the Legislative Assembly under
any law
 Mining lease was just a “renewal”,
and the leased land was declared in
various affidavits to the EC
 The BJP is using central agencies to
destabilise the Jharkhand government
Mining, which own mining leases. The
EC has also asked for information about
minister Mithilesh Thakur’s commer­
cial activities. The BJP’s Dubey had
tweeted on May 14 that the EC might
serve notice to Thakur too.
THE LEGAL CHALLENGE
Though Soren holds the mining and
environment portfolios, he still got a
lease renewed for 0.88 acres in Angara
block of Ranchi. A letter of intent to
mine granite­gneiss rocks (known as
‘building stones’) was issued by Ranc­
hi’s district mining office in June 2021.
Green clearances were also granted.
State advocate general Rajiv Ranjan
on April 8 informed the Jharkhand
High Court that Soren “has disassoci­
ated himself from the lease and had
surrendered it in February 2022”. In
an affidavit to the court this month,
Soren submitted that the act of acquir­
ing a mine lease “does not entail his
disqualification as an MLA”, and
claimed the PIL on the issue was a
bid to “destabilise the democratically
elected government”. The affidavit also
says the mining lease was granted for a
SOMNATH SEN
period of 10 years on May 17, 2008.
Soren says he applied for renewal of
the lease in 2018 and, when it lapsed,
again in 2021. The CM’s main defence
is that he surrendered the lease without
beginning any extraction, so there was
no profit made. JMM general secretary
Supriyo Bhattacharya alleges a “manu­
factured conspiracy” and claims the
CM “ has declared the leased land in his
various election affidavits”.
But even the most optimistic JMM
supporters accept privately that the
Soren brothers are staring at a real pos­
sibility of disqualification. The good
news is that the JMM­Congress­RJD
alliance has an absolute majority (48
MLAs) in the 82­member Jharkhand
assembly, which includes a nominated
seat. Of these, the JMM has 30 MLAs
(including the Sorens), Congress has
on paper 17 (with Jharkhand Vikas
Morcha MLA Pradeep Yadav, who
defected to the party in February 2020)
and RJD one.
The BJP has an effective strength of
26 with JVM founder Babulal Marandi
rejoining the party last February. But
the defections of Pradeep Yadav and
Marandi are yet to be approved by the
assembly speaker. With the two mem­
bers of the All Jharkhand Students
Union (AJSU), the NDA has 28 MLAs,
not nearly enough to challenge the rul­
ing alliance in Jharkhand.
A DENT IN THE IMAGE
Hemant Soren is the son of JMM
founder Shibu Soren, who fought
against non­tribal oppressors and
illegal mining operators during his
agitation days in the 1970s. This is
his second term as Jharkhand chief
minister. Compared to his first term,
an 18­month tenure that ended in
December 2014, the 46­year­old
CM seemed a proactive and confi­
dent leader this time, astutely mixing
pro­tribal politics with good gover­
nance measures. However, just when
Hemant appeared to be coming out of
his father’s shadow, the mining contro­
versy has struck. Bhattacharya says the
party does have a plan B in mind for a
worst­case scenario (read disqualifica­
tion), but did not elaborate.
Other party sources say this
includes the option of Hemant con­
tinuing as CM even if disqualified, as
the Constitution allows a non­member
(of the legislative assembly) to be
a minister for six months while he
approaches the courts for relief. “But
if this becomes untenable, he can pick
someone from the family like father
Shibu, mother Rupi or wife Kalpana
as a stopgap successor,” says a close
aide. Despite the JMM­led regime’s
clear majority in the assembly now,
Hemant’s stepping down may trigger
turmoil in the party.
The opposition BJP also points to
Hemant’s sister­in­law and MLA Sita
Soren, wife of his late brother Durga
Soren, who has already thrown a chal­
lenge to the government. Sita had writ­
ten a letter to Governor Ramesh Bais
last month, alleging ‘corruption and
misgovernance’. Sita has no love lost for
Hemant and his family, and fancies her­
self as the real inheritor of her late hus­
band’s legacy. Durga was the chosen one
before his untimely death in May 2009.
It looks like matters could get murkier
in the days ahead for CM Soren. n
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 11
UPFRONT
STATES ON FIRE EFFECT ON
Highest recorded temperature in 2022 AGRICULTURE
8.9% 215-220
H E AT WAV E
(in Celsius) The excessive heat, and

THE
so early in the year, has
damaged the country’s
Spike in energy GIGAWATTS wheat harvest
J&K
(Jammu) Himachal demand in March Expected peak demand for

HEAT
o Pradesh (Una) this year power in May-June 2022
43.9
44.4o
Punjab
Uttarakhand
(Muktsar) (Jollygrant)

IS ON
o
47.4 40o
Haryana Delhi NCR
KEY HEALTH IMPACTS
(Gurugram) (Mungeshpur) A heat wave compromises our ability to regulate body temperatures
Uttar and can result in a cascade of illnesses and conditions of hyperthermia,
The hottest March 48.1o Pradesh
49.2o including heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heatstroke
Rajasthan
in 122 years has (Churu) (Banda)
been followed by 47.9o 49o
record-breaking heat Madhya HEAD MOUTH
waves* in Apr-May Gujarat Pradesh Jharkhand
(Ahmedabad) (Khajuraho) Headache Intense thirst
Graphic by TANMOY 46o

15-20
o o Dizziness Dry mouth
CHAKRABORTY 43.3 47.4 Odisha
Bihar Irritability
Maharashtra (Subarnapur)
(Aurangabad) Loss of HEART
Rajasthan 25
(Akola) 43.3o 46.7o concentration MILLION TONNE
Madhya Pradesh 25 45.8o Confusion
Rapid heartbeat
Irregular
Estimated damage to
Himachal Pradesh 21 Delirium heartbeat wheat crop in the Jul.
Gujarat 19 2021-Jun. 2022 crop year
J&K Anxiety Reduced blood
16 due to heat wave
Haryana Loss of flow to
15 the heart
consciousness

39
Delhi NCR 15
Uttar Pradesh Seizures Heart attack
11
HEAT

10-15
Jharkhand 11 Stroke
Punjab 7 WAVE LUNGS
Indian districts Coma
Maharashtra 6 DAYS reported a maximum Increased
Uttarakhand 4 BETWEEN temperature of LIVER breathing rate PER CENT
Goa 2 MARCH 45OC or more on Worsened Fall in per acre yields (one
Bihar 2 11 AND May 15 Liver
allergies and
Odisha injury acre equals 0.4 hectare),
1 APRIL 24 asthma according to farmers
Worsened in the major grain-bowl
chronic states of Punjab, Haryana,
obstructive Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan
HEAT WAVE DEATHS NATURAL pulmonary and Madhya Pradesh
disease
Heat waves have claimed more KILLERS
than 10,000 lives in 20 years
Heatstroke is one of
2,081

*The IMD declares a

32,743

the top three killers in KIDNEYS

heat wave when an area
the country
Kidney disease registers temperatures 4.5
1,539

1,433

(2000-2014) ARMS & to 6.4 degrees Celsius above

LEGS Kidney failure
normal for that day. When
14,593

13,548
12,258

temperatures rise more than

11,695

Heat cramps
807

729

SKIN 6.4 degrees Celsius above

587

547

5,056
505

4,207
510

Muscle spasms normal, it is classified as a

419

375
269

Flushed and
216

‘severe’ heat wave

135

Weakness clammy skin

772
117

111
70

27
33
12

Profuse sweating Source: Data Intelligence Unit,

India Today; IMD; CSE; NITI
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021

Lightning

Earthquake

Heatstroke

Flood
Cold &
Exposure
Landslide
Cyclone/
tornado
Avalanche

Heat rash
Aayog; WHO; ghhin.org; MoSPI;
power ministry
UPFRONT
A
round 30,000 vacancies
in state-run schools—for
the youth of employment-
parched West Bengal, it
was a once-in-a-decade opportunity.
However, for the thousands of diligent
candidates who took the State Level
Selection Test (SLST), that modest
ambition curdled into bitter disap-
pointment. The reason? They were
left in the lurch even as many alleg-
edly ‘ineligible’ candidates made it to
the merit list and secured jobs. Soon
enough, there were malodorous whiffs
of alleged political patronage and the
sale of posts. All such allegations of
irregularities were denied by the rul-
ing Trinamool Congress government.
For some 4,000 graduates and post-
graduates caught in a limbo, there was
nothing for it but to file petitions in
courts, and as it slow-cooked there, sit
in a dharna in central Kolkata.
They endured police batons,
arrests, insults and tragedy—two pro-
testers took their own lives and two
others died of ill health. Sensing a scan-
dal, the state government approached
with inducements, but little ground
was ceded. The breakthrough came on
February 28, 2022, when a Calcutta
High Court single-judge bench of
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered
a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
probe into the alleged irregularities.
Then, on May 5, the government gave
in—it announced the creation of 5,000
additional teaching posts to accommo-
date the protesters.
Government teachers are recruited
by the School Service Commission
(SSC) through the SLST. Soon after the
recruitment process started in 2017 fol-
lowing the exam (500,000 candidates
took it), as many as 2,030 petitioners
approached the Calcutta High Court,
alleging various discrepancies. The
protracted litigation has unearthed
nearly 6,200 instances of alleged devia-
tion from due process.
Instead of the usual practice of
publishing full results on the website,
candidates had to feed their names and
roll numbers in a portal. The cryptic
signal that told them they had qualified
14 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
BENGA L SCA M
BLACKEST
OF BOARDS
By Romita Datta
and were eligible for the interview
read: “Called for verification” (of
documents). “Since there was no list
of successful candidates, there was no
way to find out who was being called
for the interview and getting appoint-
ment letters. We sensed a hidden
agenda,” says Mohidul Islam, presi-
dent of the Yuva-Chhatra Adhikar
Mancha (Rights Forum for Youths
and Students).
Some students went on a hunger
strike for 29 days, demanding full
results with marks and ranks; some
moved court. Under orders from the
HC, the SSC produced a printed list
in January 2019, which was equally
incomplete—a list of names, roll
numbers and ranks, without marks.
A waiting list was also published.
The continuing absence of marks
increased the suspicion that many
unsuccessful candidates had been
called for the interview. Plus, candi-
dates way down in the waiting list
allegedly jumped ranks.
SUBIR HALDER
“There was no way to find out if
genuine candidates got interview calls.
Even non-B.Ed. candidates made it to
the merit list when a B.Ed. degree was
a mandatory eligibility clause,” says
Islam. According to Sudip Mondal of
the Mancha, around 100 candidates
with lower ranks got jobs, even as those
with higher ranks languished.
As the court rapped the SSC for
dereliction of duty, Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee visited the dharna
site in March 2019. She formed a
10-member inquiry committee, includ-
ing five candidates and five education
department officers. Later, some of
those candidates were allegedly bought
over by job offers and the movement
lost steam temporarily.
On November 1, 2019, the gov-
ernment formed a five-member panel
to look into the matter, comprising
Shanti Prasad Sinha, convenor and
advisor to SSC; Alok Kumar Sarkar,
SHOW OF ANGER
Protesting SLST candidates on a
hungerstrike in central Kolkata in 2019
deputy director of education; Sukanta
Acharjee, secretary to then education
minister and senior TMC leader Partha
Chatterjee; P.K. Bandyopadhyay (OSD
to the minister); and T. Panja, senior
law officer. The panel’s proposals only
seemed to rekindle the protesters’ indig-
nation. “The committee was arbitrary,
with no one representing aggrieved
candidates,” says lawyer Firdous Samim,
who is representing a candidate. In a
new order on May 12, the court has now
asked the SSC to publish a fresh list
showing a complete break-up of marks
along with the evaluation categories.
Before ordering the CBI to
probe the alleged irregularities in
the recruitment of teachers, Justice
Gangopadhyay had also ordered a
“THE ALLEGATIONS
ARE BASELESS AND
POLITICALLY
MOTIVATED. THOSE
MALIGNING THE TMC
SHOULD REFLECT ON
THE VYAPAM SCAM”
SUKHENDU SEKHAR RAY
TMC Rajya Sabha MP
preliminary CBI probe into allega-
tions over irregular recruitment of
non-teaching staff in November 2021.
Gangopadhyay gave another go-ahead
in February 2022, but the order was
stayed by a division bench of Justices
Harish Tandon and Rabindranath
Samanta. A judicial inquiry was initi-
ated under retired justice Ranjit Bag
to submit an independent report on
the alleged scam. Justice Bag’s report
has pointed out that about 990 ille-
gal appointments had taken place in
Group C (clerical post) and Group D
appointments in government schools.
On April 12, Justice Gangopadhyay
observed that “no education depart-
ment officer could act without the
direction of the minister” and autho-
rised the CBI, if necessary, to take
Partha Chatterjee into custody for
questioning in the teachers’ recruit-
ment case. A division bench gave him a
reprieve of four weeks, which will end
this month. Chatterjee has denied any
involvement in the matter. The CBI
grilled Sinha, who reportedly said he
merely uploaded names given by influ-
ential people.
A
ccording to students and other
teachers, around 400 candi-
dates from Kazi Para, Vatra,
Kirnahar and Jamna of Labhpur block
in Birbhum district made it to the
merit list, allegedly through a promi-
nent minister’s security officer, who
hails from the area. “Each candidates
paid Rs 12 lakh, to be claimed after
they got appointment letters and were
paid salary for two months,” alleges a
Labhpur school teacher. “Eleven MLAs
of Birbhum had quotas between 100
and 500,” as even a TMC leader claims.
Corruption was reported from Tehatta
and Palashipara in Nadia district too.
Fingers were pointed at TMC MLA
Tapas Saha by many who allegedly paid
him money for teachers’ jobs. Saha
denies the charges.
Asked about the scam, Rajya Sabha
MP and TMC spokesperson Sukhendu
Sekhar Ray said, “The allegations are
baseless, politically motivated. Those
trying to malign Trinamool should ref-
lect on the massive Vyapam (examina-
tion and recruitment) scam in Madhya
Pradesh. The CM has taken a humani-
tarian step to address the problem.”
Mamata has indeed decided to cre-
ate posts and set the wrong right but, in
a matter under CBI inquiry, it will need
the court’s acquiescence. Only then can
the long darkness shrouding those who
wait in hope be dispelled. n
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 15
UPFRONT
GUEST COLUMN
Why Marital Rape
Qualifies as Rape
VRINDA
BHANDARI
I
n the second week of May, the
Delhi High Court passed a split
verdict on the issue of whether the
marital rape exception engrafted
in Section 375 of the Indian Penal
Code (IPC) was constitutional or not.
Exception 2 to Section 375 reads as
follows, “Sexual intercourse or sexual
acts by a man with his own wife, the
wife not being under 15 years of age, is
not rape.”
Justice Rajiv Shakdher struck
down the marital rape exception
(MRE) as being violative of Articles
14, 15(1), 19(1)(a) and 21 of the
Constitution, while Justice Hari
Shanker held that the MRE was con-
stitutionally valid. Given the split
decision and the importance of the
issue, the judges unanimously granted
a certificate of leave to appeal to the
Supreme Court. Appeals have already
begun to be filed by the parties before
the apex court. It is expected that
instead of the matter being referred to
a three-judge bench in the Delhi High
Court, it will be decided straightaway
in the Supreme Court. Till then, how-
ever, the MRE will continue on the
statute books in India.
The split verdict reveals two com-
pletely different worldviews held by
the two judges. As Justice Shakdher
notes, the colonial history of MRE
discloses that it is “steeped in patriar-
chy and misogyny”, and has contrib-
uted to the diminishing of freedoms
won by human beings. His judgment
centres the autonomy, dignity and
privacy of a woman, with the insti-
tution of marriage receding in the
background. Thus, he observes that
marital rape “needs to be called out
16 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
as rape” as a way for society to express
its “disapproval” concerning the hus-
band’s conduct.
For Justice Shankar, the MRE
does not violate the equality guarantee
under Article 14 of the Constitution
since there was an “intelligible differ-
entia” between rape committed by a
husband within a marriage, and rape
committed—whether by an intimate
partner or a stranger—outside mar-
Only around 32
countries in the
world continue
to decriminalise
marital rape. It is
unfortunate that
India has still not
been able to
move out of this
dubious list
riage. Justice Shankar’s opinion differs
starkly from Justice Shakdher in the
importance it gives to the institution
of marriage and the “legitimate expec-
tation” of sex in a marriage and the
fact that sex between a husband and
wife is “sacred”. This is despite his rec-
ognition that there may be marriages
between unequals, marriages may be
good or bad, or happy and sad.
In all this, the State—whether the
Centre or the Delhi government—
notably did not take any stand on the
issue, whether in support of or against
the MRE. The Centre only sought
time for further consultation given the
importance of the issue.
WHY THE EXCEPTION
The history of MRE can be traced
back to the doctrine expounded by
the 17th century judge, Sir Mathew
Hale, who published a treatise in
1736, titled ‘History of the Pleas of
the Crown’. He argued for an MRE,
since, once a woman consented to
marry, “the wife hath given up herself
in this kind unto her husband, which
she cannot retract”. Additionally,
he also viewed women as second-
ary citizens who must be criminally
punished for abortion and he sen-
tenced two widows to death during
a witchcraft trial for “bewitching”
their neighbours. In fact, in the
recently leaked draft opinion of
the US Supreme Court in Thomas
Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health
Organisation, Justice Samuel Alito
relied on Sir Hale to overturn the
decades-old abortion rights jurispru-
dence established by Roe vs. Wade.
Given the misogynistic and
patriarchal origins of the MRE, it
is perhaps no surprise that in most
countries, whether in the UK, US,
Canada, South Africa, Israel or Russia,
marital rape is treated as rape or
sexual assault and is criminally pun-
ished. Only around 32 countries in
the world—among them, Bangladesh,
China, Haiti, Laos, Mali, Myanmar,
Nigeria, Senegal, Afghanistan,
Tajikistan, Lebanon, Malaysia,
Singapore, Egypt, Libya, Oman,
Yemen and Kuwait—continue to
of an existing exemption in the law
is not the same as a court proactively
legislating an offence into existence.
Exception 2 to Section 375 of the IPC
is present on the statute book and
hence it is well within the court’s remit
to examine the constitutionality of the
provision.
S
econd, that the criminali-
sation of marital rape will
result in severe misuse. It is
a settled position in Indian law that
mere apprehension of misuse cannot
be a ground to strike down a law or
render it unconstitutional (Budhan
Choudhry vs. State of Bihar, 1955).
Arguments of misuse were also made
when Parliament introduced the
domestic violence legislation in 2005
or when it criminalised the comm-
ission of cruelty against women.
Concerns of misuse need to be
addressed by improving existing laws,
procedural due process, and curbing
unrestrained (mis)use of police pow-
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
ers—as is needed to curb the misuse
of, say, sedition or anti-terror laws.
However, the answer does not lie in
removing the protection otherwise
afforded to women or preventing the
state from intervening in a marital
home, especially given the gender-
unequal nature of society.
Third, that the MRE is integral
to maintaining the sanctity of marr-
iage—that introducing the possibility
decriminalise marital rape. It is unfor- of the husband being regarded as the
tunate that India has not able to move wife’s rapist is “completely antitheti-
At the end of the out of this list of countries. cal to the very institution of marriage”
day, we must (per Justice Shankar). At the end of
question whether WHY ARGUMENTS FOR the day, we must question whether
MRE DO NOT HOLD we want to protect such a version of
we want to protect There are a few arguments put for- marriage that cements the inequality
such a version ward by supporters of the MRE that between a husband and wife, ignores
of marriage that need to be dispelled immediately. consent and autonomy, and treats
First, that by striking down Exception women as chattel. That is at least not
cements the 2 to Section 375 of the IPC, the court the kind of world I want my daughter
inequality between is usurping the role of the legislature to grow up in. n
a husband and wife, and making a law. Such an argument
is predicated on a misunderstanding Vrinda Bhandari is an independent
or ignores consent of the role of the court and the power legal practitioner at the Supreme
of judicial review. The striking down Court of India
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 17
UPFRONT

C RY P T O

CRYPTOS
ON A CRASH
COURSE FREE FALL THE
REASON
WHY
By M.G. Arun $
2.83 trillion  Squeeze on
Global crypto m-cap in liquidity as
November 2021 economies

C
ryptocurrencies have been
tumbling worldwide as the
Ukraine war prolongs and
the spectre of still higher
crude prices and inflation haunts coun-
tries. In over six weeks, the global crypto
market has lost around $830 billion,
hurting investors, even as stock markets
remain highly volatile globally. On May
16, the global cryptocurrency market
capitalisation (m-cap) was $1.27 tril-
lion, less than half the $2.83 trillion in
November last year. Bitcoin, the most
valuable cryptocurrency, was trading at
$29,505 (around Rs 23 lakh) per coin,
compared to $64,862 (around Rs 50.5
lakh) in November. The big fall, howev-
er, came in the second week of May, led
by the crash of “stablecoin” TerraUSD
(code-named UST) which fell to $6.16
billion (Rs 47,934 crore) in m-cap, a 63
per cent fall from a month ago. A stable-
coin like TerraUSD uses complex codes
to create new coins or destroy old ones
to maintain a steady price. But with big
investors dumping the coin, it dropped
below $1 and further collapsed to $0.30
on May 11. Its sister coin Terra (code-
named Luna) has also been in a free
fall, erasing billions in investor wealth.
Indian crypto exchanges delisted Terra
(Luna) from trading as its price crashed
below zero on May 13.
For investors in India, the fall in
crypto could not have come at a worse
time. Already hurt by the 30 per cent tax
Illustration by NILANJAN DAS
the Union budget imposed on proce-
eds from crypto trading in February,
its continuing slide has left millions of
investors in the lurch. As many as 15-20
million Indians had invested around $6
billion (Rs 46,695 crore) in cryptos on
digital platforms, as per industry esti-
mates in November last year.
The reasons behind the crash are
not hard to grasp. Unlike the stock mar-
kets, where share prices are supported
by underlying assets and revenues of the
listed companies, cryptos have no such
backing. Over 7,000 different cryptos
are traded publicly, but the number
in circulation is much more. Their
unregulated and decentralised nature
means that anyone with knowledge of
the underlying technology can launch a
crypto. With very little backing of physi-
cal assets, cryptos are quite vulnerable
to the vagaries of the financial world.
The uncertainties around Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine have jolted global
stock markets, leading to huge correc-
tions. Crude oil prices (for Brent) con-
tinue to hover around $110. Coupled
with the supply constraints imposed
by the war, they have stoked high infla-
tion, forcing the US Federal Reserve to
raise interest rates by 50 basis points
(bps) earlier this month. In India, infla-
tion crossed the Reserve Bank of India’s
(RBI) targeted 6 per cent upper limit
for a fourth consecutive time in April,
touching 7.79 per cent. The RBI raised
WITH NO PHYSICAL
ASSETS TO BACK
THEM, CRYPTOS ARE
VULNERABLE TO THE
VAGARIES OF THE
FINANCIAL WORLD
repo rates by 40 bps on May 4, its first
rate hike since the pandemic’s onset.
Before the crash, cryptos had seen
a sharp rise in investments during the
pandemic due to the huge stimulus
measures the world over. A stimulus of
$10 trillion was pumped into the global
economy in the first two months of the
$
1.27 trillion
Global crypto m-cap on
May 16, 2022
63 per cent
Fall in m-cap of stablecoin
TerraUSD in the span of
just a month to May
pandemic alone. “A part of the stimulus
went into investable assets like cryptos,
stock markets, real estate and start-ups,”
says Kunal Nandwani, co-founder and
CEO, u-Trade Solutions. “Now, as banks
pull out liquidity from the respective
economies by buying bonds and raising
interest rates, there is a sudden liquid-
ity crunch.” Panicking investors began
selling off their investments, including
in cryptos, precipitating the current
crisis. Others are holding on to their
investments but unwilling to put in any
more money at present. “I am hold-
ing on to the portfolios I already have,”
says Anand Mahesh, an advertising
professional based in New Delhi, who
had invested Rs 2 lakh in cryptos like
face high inflation
 Unregulated,
decentralised
nature of
cryptos
 Dampening of
market sentiment
because of the
uncertainty of the
Ukraine war
ethereum, polkadot, solana and doge-
coin. “I’m in no hurry to withdraw the
amount, I had put it in as a risk invest-
ment. It’s cyclical. Bitcoin has dipped
earlier too, but bounced back,” he says.
He still finds cryptos attractive due to
their liquid nature, where investors get
money immediately after sell-off. Some
even saw the move to tax gains from
crypto trading as legitimising them.
However, Nandwani predicts a
bleak future for cryptos. “They may have
a further free fall, and may not even
come back,” he says, adding that retail
investors who have burnt their fingers
may quit their portfolios for good. That
may sound too drastic, but it will be a
while before cryptos are a rage again. n

18 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 19


GL ASSHOUSE
SONI AND
SONIA
T
he recently concluded Congress Nav
Sankalp Shivir in Udaipur resolved
to reserve 50 per cent of all party
positions for leaders under the age of 50.
But the top leadership seems to value
veterans more. After the death of Sonia
Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel
in 2020, the Congress president seems to
have found a trusted lieutenant in Ambika
Soni. The 79-year-old Rajya Sabha
member from Punjab is part of all top party
committees. She was the only leader to
have travelled with Sonia in her aircraft to
Udaipur. Not surprising that former Punjab
Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, while quitting,
directed his anger at Soni for allegedly
messing up affairs in Punjab. Soni now
has a battle to fight—her RS tenure ends in
July. Re-election chances from Punjab are
slim. Too many claimants, few states with
winning arithmetic for Congress make her
return even more difficult. Will Madam come
to her rescue?
Bend it Like Didi
A fter Bengal lost
to Kerala in the
Santosh Trophy final,
state sports minister
Aroop Biswas gave
the team a portrait
of Mamata Banerjee,
asking them to put the
picture on their walls
ANI
and draw inspiration
from how a girl from a disadvantaged
background made it to the top. He could
just as well have used the image of Mam­
ata kicking a football with her plastered leg,
which became the leitmotif for the 2021
electoral battle between the TMC and the
BJP. Didi can sure teach a lesson or two on
how to turn around a game.
—Kaushik Deka with Romita Datta, Anilesh S. Mahajan, Kiran D. Tare
and Amarnath K. Menon
UPFRONT
ANI
NEW MIMIC
IN TOWN
A n otherwise fiery orator,
Devendra Fadnavis
stunned the audience when
he mimicked Uddhav Thacke-
ray at a BJP rally in Mumbai
on May 15. The leader of the
Opposition modulated his
voice, teasing the CM, and
made fun of his body lan-
guage while attacking his
anti-BJP ‘rhetoric’. He is no
match for Raj Thackeray,
though, inarguably the best
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
mimic in Maharashtra politics.
Fadnavis’s comic turn in Raj’s
footsteps may be a new stage
in their growing friendship.
Should Uddhav worry?
Office
Network
A NEAT BARGAIN
P ushed to a corner in Karnataka politics,
former chief minister B.S. Yediyu­
T he Telangana Rashtra
Samithi (TRS), steered
by state chief minister K.
rappa has struck a compromise. At a Chandrashekar Rao, is adept
BJP core group meeting, he offered not to at building assets. On May
stake claim to his Shikaripura constituency, 11, a day after the Hyderabad
assuring support to the party nominee Collector proposed allocation
there. He is seeking a legislative council tic­ of 4,935 yards in posh Banjara
ket for younger son B.Y. Vijayendra. Many Hills for the party’s city office,
believe this can keep the Yediyurappa family chief secretary Somesh Kumar
interested and the Lingayat votes intact. directed it to be finished fast.
He also said his family will Except Warangal and Hyde­
not contest the upcoming rabad, TRS has offices in the
assembly poll, remaining 31 districts; KCR
only campaign laid the foundation stone for
for the party. The one in Delhi last year. The
ball is now in the latest allocation, despite TRS’s
high command’s state office nearby, is also on
court. government­allotted land.
HEMANT MISHRA
 COVER STORY Lifestyle

LIVING
BAKSHISH DEAN, 51
Chef and hospitality
industry veteran, Delhi
it up
If there’s one thing the
Dreams fulfilled
Went on close to 20 pandemic taught us,
holidays, including to
Dubai, Sri Lanka and
it’s that you only live
the Maldives;
bought an SUV way
once. And Indians are
above his budget making the most of
How Covid changed me it, travelling, chasing
“As messages of
death and disease a new job or hobby,
became more
commonplace, I
exercising or savouring
realised we don’t a moment of pure joy
have as much time
as we think we do. By SONALI ACHARJEE
The pandemic is a
high price to pay to
arrive at the reali-
sation, but it’s all
about being bold
and daring to take
that first step”
COVER STORY Lifestyle
A
All of us know, from experience, that
something we cannot even see has
changed us. That nothing is bigger.
No community, no nation, no bor-
ders, no government. That some-
thing microscopic, which goes by the
technical-sounding name SARS-
CoV-2, could dwarf all else. A world
that has seen and survived that may
look no different from the outside,
but the inner landscape of human-
ity has been transformed. We all act
now with a much deeper sense of
mortality: its presence is not some-
thing we can refuse to think about.
The time we have, now we know, is not a given—
and it’s evanescent. The ubiquity of death has
brought about an overwhelming respect for the
present moment. And people are responding
to this new feeling, perhaps paradoxically, in
extravagant ways. Call it a coping mechanism,
but everyone is indulging their inner desires
like there’s no tomorrow—things they may have
perennially deferred otherwise. Moving to a
vocation after their heart, buying something of
their fancy regardless of its cost, travelling to ex-
otic locations, trying to eke out moments of pure
joy, painting a silver lining to the greyest time we
have seen. After all, You Only Live Once.
Arvind Ganga, a retired merchant navy
24 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
officer based in Delhi, came to that re-
alisation at the peak of the second wave
as he saw death snatching his friends
SANKHADEEP overnight. So he decided to travel...to
MITRA, 46 Antarctica! When the 48-year-old stay-
at-home dad came across the chance to
Former banker,
go on his dream holiday—in the middle
Kolkata
of the pandemic—he went right ahead
Dream fulfilled and booked his ticket. As a sailor, the
Started his own seas are not unknown to him. The
photo gallery thought had been breeding within,
cum cafe, Zoom
but the cost always seemed prohibi-
Tea-O-Graphy
tive. This time, though, he simply had
to do the South Pole. Last December,
How Covid
changed me
he found a ship that offered a trip to
“It was only the continent at half the usual price.
when Omicron had just come on the horizon,
Covid struck and as a highly infectious brand of
and I saw death Covid-19, it was not to be taken lightly.
around me
But Ganga and his three friends didn’t
that I realised
cancel their tickets. Fortune favoured
life was short,
them and all borders remained open
transient and
during their dates of travel. Theirs was
had to be lived the second, and last, ship of the season
to the full”
to visit Antarctica.
His words express sentiments that
DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORT Y
would resonate with most of us after two full
years of living in isolation, with our worlds
turned still. “Not being able to travel during the
pandemic was extremely difficult on me,” he
says. “I felt deprived of something essential in
BANDEEP SINGH
my life. We knew it was a risk to take a holiday
with the pandemic still going on, but we de-
cided to take it. If I had let Covid hold me back,
I would have missed out on one of the most eye-
opening, beautiful experiences of my life.” Time
had, literally, given access to space in his case.
Others are finding different ways to fulfil
their dreams before time runs out. Sunita
Ahuja, 65, decided to start studying again—
DIPINDER SINGH, 56
Fashion designer and clothier, Delhi
after a gap of over 45 years. “I had wanted to
do a course in English literature ever since Dreams fulfilled
I was a child,” says the Delhi-based home- Started to cook and set up a
maker. “But after marriage, I never had the home gym
chance. I kept saying to myself that ‘I would
How Covid changed me
do it the next year’...and the procrastination
“The pandemic stirred in
never stopped. After I turned 50, I was too
me a culinary awakening.
afraid that I won’t be able to study again.”
It also made me realise that
Then, Covid struck, and she realised, it was I needed to focus on
now or never. “After losing a close friend to
myself, because if I don’t,
Covid,” she says, “I woke up one morning and no one elase will”
thought, ‘What if I die tomorrow and never
 COVER STORY Lifestyle

ARUN SAHA
VAIBHAV KULKARNI, 41, Financial consultant, Pune, Nashik
Dreams fulfilled
Set up a farm and took up golfing seriously

How Covid changed me

“I always had dreams but not the time for them earlier. ARVIND
Covid taught me how to utilise time and pursue the things I enjoy”
GANGA, 48
Retired merchant
navy officer, now stay-
at-home dad, Delhi

have time to fulfil my dreams?’ And I decided to go for it.
It had be done today.” She went on to complete three full
online courses on the subject during the pandemic.
Dream holidays, finding a new job, investing time to
look after one’s own body and health, pursuing relation-
ships—people are not merely ticking things off some inert
bucket list, they are girding their actions with a new sense
of purpose. “People want to find a silver lining to the
pandemic. The sudden realisation that life is short makes
many want to do more things that bring them peace and
make them happy,” says Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr
Kedar Tilwe. “After so much chaos, the mind looks for
ways to recover and heal.”
Pune-based life coach Gaurav Agarwal offers a similar
conclusion. “The time to do things is now,” he says, “no point
saving for a rainy day and denying yourself the pleasure of
the present. That is what I am seeing. People are more con-
scious of their time limitations on this planet after Covid.
Dream fulfilled
And they don’t want to postpone their dreams because we Visited Antarctica will last beyond Covid-19. Take Delhi-based Arjun
don’t know about tomorrow, we only have today.” Ruchi
Sharma, Delhi-based clinical psychologist, chimes in with How Covid
Seth, 38. This automobile manufacturer and owner of
a sustainable living company says his work schedule
PEOPLE WANT A
that analysis too. “The focus is on finding one’s inner self, changed me used to be so hectic that he always felt he had no time SILVER LINING TO
“We knew it was
building on relationships that matter, generally living in the
moment,” she says. But Sharma, who works as a counsellor a risk to take a
for exercise. “It was during the pandemic that I realised
I was only making excuses. The real motivation for a
THE PANDEMIC.
at Manipal Hospital in Dwarka, adds a subtle point of order. holiday with the
pandemic still go-
lifestyle change comes from within,” says Seth. He hired REALISING, AFTER
“People wanting to make significant lifestyle changes need
to do so one step at a time—in a planned, phased manner.” ing on, but we de-
an online trainer and nutritionist and now wakes up at
4.30 am every day for a workout. “I used to drink before
SO MUCH CHAOS,
cided to go ahead.
Covid, but have completely cut out alcohol now. It isn’t THAT LIFE IS SHORT,
A change in lifestyle If I had let Co-
vid hold me back,
just about the way I look. It’s a change in mindset. I was
THEY WANT TO DO
One of the realms where a new focus is most visible, natu- aware that I needed to change my entire lifestyle, from
then I would have
rally, is health. In November 2021, consultancy firm EY
missed out on one dietary choices to daily fitness routines.” Seth has lost MORE THINGS THAT
India did a survey of 16,000 respondents, 1,002 of whom
were Indians. It found that 94 per cent of them are now
of the most eye-
opening, beautiful
close to 13 kilos in the past year, but more than that, it’s
the appreciation and deeper understanding of his body MAKE THEM HAPPY”
spending more time actively worrying about their family’s experiences of my that he has come to value more. DR KEDAR TILWE
health—and 52 per cent of them talked of a decisive trans- life” Pune-based Vaibhav Kulkarni, too, decided he
Psychiatrist, Mumbai
formation. The changes they are making, they are confident, simply had to find a work-life balance. The WFH

26 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 27

 COVER STORY Lifestyle

ARJUN SETH, 38
Automobile manufacturer, Delhi

Dream fulfilled: Lost 13 kilos

How Covid changed me

“It gave me the motivation to
make a permanent lifestyle
change and aim towards long-
SOMYA term, holistic well-being”
SATSANGI, 52
Business consul-
tant, Delhi
yourself from the daily pressures, it rejuve-
Dream fulfilled
Travelled 5,000 nates you mentally, physically and spiritually.”
km by road across For Yash Aggarwal, the 24-year-old co-
the northeast, founder of Delhi restaurant Bougie, it was
visiting 16 places, a push from his father, who fell seriously ill
with her twin girls during Covid’s second wave, that persuaded
him to take a leap of faith. He finally over-
How Covid
changed me came his fear of heights and went skydiving in
“I realised that Dubai this March. Jumping off a plane 13,000
you do not need feet above the ground changed his life, he
routine during the lockdown says. “The free fall, which lasted 22 seconds,
much to enjoy
life—just offered him a chance to pursue PEOPLE ARE CONSCIOUS THAT THE was completely surreal. And I realised that
experiences
that stay with
two passions. In September
2020, he bought a plot of land
TIME TO DO THINGS IS NOW—THERE one should not spend one’s life wasting away
chances, just do what one wants to do when
you forever” in Sanjegaon near Nashik IS NO POINT IN SAVING FOR A RAINY the chance comes.”
to plant vines, a dream he
had cherished for years after
DAY AND DENYING YOURSELF THE These pursuits are not temporary.
Everyone talks of a new approach to life be-
visiting vineyards in France, PLEASURE OF THE PRESENT” ing instilled in them, and a sense that this
Germany and elsewhere in Europe. “I always dreamt of it, change will endure. Seeing family and friends
but never had the time earlier,” he says. As Covid restric- GAURAV AGARWAL, Life coach, Pune “gasp for oxygen, struggle to get medicines,
tions were relaxed, he also brought out his golfing clubs to and drop like ninepins” was a life-altering
hone his skills at a game he had begun to learn in 2018. thing for Delhi-based Dipinder Singh. “The
“With no work-related travel, I was motivated to utilise pandemic changed my perception about a
that extra time to pursue things I enjoy. It’s a fulfilling In Navi Mumbai, flamingoes, herons and seagulls gave lot of things. I realised I needed to care for
experience to learn new things from the basics,” he says. wing to Amit Chopra’s days. Birds he had never noticed myself,” says the fashion designer. Always an
While he continues to clock long hours at the consulting near his home in Seawoods now suddenly came alive. He avid runner, Singh now spends at least three
firm he works with, Kulkarni begins his day at dawn and spends hours with his camera these days, capturing images hours every day swimming, running, cycling
plays golf for two hours every morning—and has even of birds in flight. “It’s important to feel rejuvenated. That’s or working out in a gym. “I don’t feel the need
reached the level of an amateur handicap. how it all began,” says Chopra, 56, MD of Thermo Fisher now to hang on to people. I focus on myself. If
For Delhi-based Somya Satsangi, 52, who gave up a Scientific for India and South Asia. His home is ideally I don’t do it, who will?” he asks.
full-time corporate career for business consultancy, travel located for his hobby. The surrounding coastal areas have
became both an opportunity to commune with nature mangroves and wetlands that host several species of native New Job, New You
and to bond with her twin girls, Naina and Tara, after the and migratory birds. Chopra invested in good gear and If a lot of people are finding emotional sus-
many months of being cooped up in the Covid lockdown. learnt photo techniques online, as well as through a sup- tenance outside of the workplace, others are
She travelled 5,000 km by road last year, across the port group. Merlin, an app developed by Cornell Univer- looking for it at work itself. This could mean
Northeast, visiting 16 places in all. “I realised you do not sity, helps him identify the birds he clicks. “YouTube was changing one’s profession entirely—or at least
need much to enjoy life,” she says, “just experiences that my biggest teacher,” he says. Shooting birds takes patience, finding employment that makes one feel more
can stay with you forever.” and he now gives it that. “When you are able to distance contented. Randstad NV, a global provider of
BANDEEP SINGH

28 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 29

 COVER STORY Lifestyle
PAROMITA BANERJEE, 53
Entrepreneur, Kolkata
Dream fulfilled: Started her own handicraft and handloom
business, Mohona
How Covid changed me: “I wouldn’t have quit my job
if it hadn’t been for the pandemic and my friends
who inspired me to follow my calling”
employment services, found in a 2021 survey that 63 per
cent Indians would rather be unemployed than be unhappy
in a job. Over half the respondents also said they would quit
a job if it was preventing them from enjoying their life. In the
case of Kolkata-based Sankhadeep Mitra, 46, this meant
forfeiting a blossoming career in the banking industry and
an annual salary of Rs 14 lakh—but a childhood dream
beckoned. He had always loved food. As a child, he accom-
panied his father to the city’s bustling fish and vegetable
markets. He was hooked to the stories too—of which fish
breeds when (and should therefore be avoided), or why
seasonal greens are so vital. However, his banking career left
no time for culinary pursuits. “It was only after Covid struck,
and I saw death all around, that I realised life was short,
transient and had to be lived to the full. I really needed to
heed the calling from my inside,” says Sankhadeep. That
resulted in Zoom Tea-O-Graphy, a cafe-cum-art gallery. It
has an old-world charm to it. Sankhadeep brought to it the
feel of the North Kolkata he had grown up in—the world of
30 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORTY
Amherst Street and Shyam Bazar, where houses had patios
and steps in front, where people sat for endless adda over tea
and roadside fritters. Alongside his café, Sankhadeep added
in another hobby—photography. “I’m now clicking away to
my heart’s content,” he says.
G
iving up a profession one has invested years
and decades in is not easy. People reas-
sessed their karmic selves. What exactly
were they doing in their lives? Was their old
business actually good enough to satisfy
body and soul? If not, what else could they do? For some,
the economic disruption Covid brought fuelled a trans-
formation. For over two decades, since their marriage in
1992, Srikanth Arval, 54, and Prabhjoth, 47, had run the
flourishing Orchids florists in Secunderabad. It had even
expanded...a new branch came up in Visakhapatnam in
2003, another one at Gachibowli, west Hyderabad, in
2012. But flower prices shot up during the pandemic, and
THE FOCUS IS ON FINDING ONE’S
INNER SELF, BUILDING ON
RELATIONSHIPS THAT MATTER,
GENERALLY LIVING IN THE MOMENT”
RUCHI SHARMA, Clinical psychologist, Manipal Hospitals, Delhi
supply was disrupted too. That led the couple from flower
to root, in a manner of speaking. On September 10, 2021,
they opened the Orchids Jungle Camp, a boutique home-
stay and resort, at Kondegaon Village, on the fringes of the
Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.
“On a trip to Tadoba in 2007, we had fallen in love with
the place and dreamed of having a home here. We planned
YASH AGGARWAL, 24
Restaurateur, Delhi
Dream fulfilled: Went
skydiving in Dubai
How Covid changed me
“When my father
got sick with
Covid, I saw how
quickly life can
change. I decided
I won’t be afraid to
do things I want to
do. The pandemic
taught me courage”
for it too, consistently,” recalls Prabhjoth. But the idea
remained on the backburner for over a decade. After Covid,
however, the Arvals sold their home in a gated community
in Hyderabad, and invested in a four-acre site at Kondegaon
village, on the fringes of the tiger reserve. “It is so satisfying...
the thought that we could follow our dream and bring it to
fruition,” says Srikanth.
The road to change need not be a solitary one. In Kol-
kata, three friends found inspiration and strength in one
another to change their professional destinies. Paromita
Banerjee, 53 and a single mother, could never have imagined
quitting her job earlier—but Covid brought her closer to
her real self. “I was good at art and craft. When I thought of
picking up a calling that would make me happy at the end
of the day, it had to be art,” she says. In February, Banerjee
launched Mohona, an outlet for handloom and handicrafts.
She says she would not have ventured to take this career risk
had it not been for her friend Sunita Lahiri, who had also
left her job as a top HR person in PricewaterhouseCoopers.
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 31
 COVER STORY Lifestyle

Lahiri had a degree in interior designing from Jadavpur
University and, during Covid, decided to set up her own
design firm—Mystt. “It was a big challenge. But I felt...
it had to be now. The new sense of the uncertainty of life
perhaps brought me to my dreams. You can’t leave your
dreams on the shelf. You have to take them out and live
them,” says Sunita. The last of the trio, Ranu Mandal, a
home-maker, took the culinary route and started her own
catering outlet—MohonBhog. She had always wanted to
around like a crazy person, attending meetings in differ-
ent cities. I felt like popcorn on a skillet.” But the pandemic
brought all work to a grinding halt. “Payments didn’t come
through, or were interminably delayed...a project in Mau-
ritius was stalled. Both my wife and daughter freelance,
so when money stopped, it was literally from all quarters,”
says Dean. Like all families, they hunkered down for the
long, collective incarceration of the lockdown, distributing
household chores among themselves.

B
open a food joint or do catering but never had the courage
to take the plunge. “Difficult times make you wise and ut then, Dean lost a very close friend of his.

SANDESH RAVIKUMAR
philosophical. The pandemic helped me,” she says. “He was supposed to be discharged in a day
Some, in fact, found a calling they didn’t even know from hospital. But within 24 hours, he was
they had in them. While cooking for friends and family in gone. His father, too, passed away within
the lockdown, 46-year-old Sunita Zacharia realised there three days. Then, a junior colleague lost his
was a need for “well-cooked and convenient food” in her 34-year-old brother, who had two small kids. Messages of
home city of Bengaluru. Together with fellow homemaker death and disease filled our lives, and I realised we don’t
and friend Sneha Mathew, 43, she launched Spice Boat, have as much time as we think we do.” The family of four—
which sells homemade masalas, spice pastes and podis mother, father, daughter and elderly grandmother—began
(powders). “This company brings me so much joy. Simply to eat all meals together at the table. And being together SUNITA ZACHARIA, 46;
to hear a customer say that my podi reminds them of their then took another form...as wanderlust struck. “We took SNEHA MATHEW, 43
grandmother is so fulfilling! And Covid showed me the about 18-20 holidays, including four international holi- Homemakers, Bengaluru others in the event of an emergency. The 66-year-old loved
market potential for this venture,” says Zacharia. days (Dubai, Maldives and Sri Lanka); people thought we the experience of returning to education. “I had felt the lack
If planning is part of it, impulse, too, is not absent— Dream fulfilled: Floated Spice Boat, a of this skill ever since my mother died of a heart attack six
company that sells homemade masalas,
the economic challenges of the pandemic bringing a twist years ago, but I never had the courage to study again. Now,
MANDAR DEODHAR spice pastes and powders
to the usual thrift of Indians. A 2021 survey by Deloitte I constantly tell my friends and family to start learning any
India found that 85 per cent of those surveyed planned How Covid changed me new skill. It makes you feel younger, healthier and, in my
to spend on leisure travel in the next “Covid showed me the market case, certainly happier,” says Kameswara.
month. And 74 per cent were plan- potential for this venture. Simply to Helping others, in fact, has become quite a trend. The
ning to buy a vehicle in the next six hear a customer say that my podi India Giving Report 2021 by Charities Aid Foundation,
months. This paradoxical reaction to reminds them of their grandmother based on an online survey of 2,000 Indians across cit-
crisis is not an unknown phenome- is so fulfilling! ” ies, found that individual donations had gone up by 43
non—it’s often witnessed in the per cent—with many preferring local philanthropy. Most
aftermath of catastrophes. After the donated for emotional reasons: half the respondents said
Second World War, the baby boom-
AMIT giving to others made them feel good personally.
ers created a market for items that CHOPRA, 56 were crazy, but we were careful and went where occupancy When Hindustani classical musician-couple Shubhen-
were deemed ‘luxury’ earlier. Sales of MD, India & South was low, to escape infection. There was hardly any money dra and Saskia Rao began the concept of ‘e-baithaks’, they,
washing machines, cars and tele- Asia, Thermo Fisher coming in at this point, but that never mattered.” There too, were thinking of others. In October 2020, when Ustad
Scientific, Mumbai
phones spiralled in the ’60s-70s. In was another worry—an eight-year-old car on its last legs. Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar performed in their Delhi home
India, Mercedes Benz has reported Dream fulfilled “We zeroed in on the Volkswagen Taigun. It was way above to a small gathering of 20 music lovers, the vocalist was in
its highest sales ever this year! Or- Started bird- our budget, but my daughter had her heart set on it, so we tears. He was performing ‘live’ after more than six months.
ders run in excess of Rs 3,500 crore, watching as a decided to splurge! Not just the base model, we went for the And an audience, as any artist will attest, is the prime source
and demand is coming even from hobby most expensive variant, with the sun roof et al. I usually of energy for a performer. The overwhelming response saw
smaller cities like Guwahati, Surat, calculate all my decisions carefully, and was going against the couple set up monthly performances. Hosting baithaks
How Covid
Ahmedabad and Chandigarh. changed me my grain. That, too, at a time when everything, including fi- had been a dream for the Raos, but their travels and work
Bakshish Dean, 51, did not set- “Covid was nances, was so uncertain. But when I drove it home in time commitments never allowed space for it. “The pandemic
tle for one dream. He went on close challenging for for Christmas, the smile on my daughter’s face made me re- changed that. We had all the time in the world, so I thought
to 20 holidays with his family, and everyone and alise there are things you can’t put a price on. The pandemic why not revive those sessions...with a new format,” says
also bought a costly car. A chef of I felt I needed is a high price to pay to arrive at such a realisation, but it’s Shubhendra. Rasa, in the Indian tradition, is a collective
some repute, who worked 22 years in a passion to all about being bold and taking that first step.” thing—produced in togetherness, not isolation. And perhaps
hospitality and brought the American pursue. It was If family came first for many, others responded to the something like a new raga has washed over all of us. n
chain Johnny Rockets to India, Dean important to idea of the wider humanity, of community. In Visakhapat-
worked 15 hours a day on average retain a sense nam, Kameswara R., a retired banking manager, did a — with Aditi Pai, Romita Datta,
before the pandemic. “I would run of balance” distance learning diploma in nursing so he could help Chumki Bharadwaj and Amarnath K. Menon

32 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 33

JUXTAPOSITION
The Gyanvapi mosque with the Kashi
Vishwanath temple in the foreground

O
n May 16, chants of ‘Baba mil
gaye’ came to fill the streets out­
side Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque.
A court­mandated survey of the
masjid had reportedly thrown
up evidence strengthening the
suspicion of several Hindu believ­
ers and religious outfits: Gyanvapi
could have been built on the foun­
dation of the famed Vishweshwara
Temple that Aurangzeb destroyed in 1669. The floral motifs
on the mosque walls were a clue of sorts, but it was, finally,
the apparent discovery of a linga­like structure that had
devotees excited about parts of a temple lying buried below.

As news spread that a purpor­ Faizabad who had appointed the

ted ‘shivalinga’ had been found
inside the masjid compound,
Varanasi resident Manju Vyas
wanted to immediately go inside
Gyanvapi for “darshan”. When
told that women weren’t allowed
inside Gyanvapi, she retorted,
“We’re going to a temple, not a
mosque.” Vyas, along with four
women petitioners, had moved a
local court on August 18 last year,
demanding they be allowed to
worship Shringar Gauri 365 days
a year. Enshrined on a red stone
platform that rests on Gyanvapi’s
western wall, the goddess is wor­
shipped only on one day of the
year—the Chaturthi (fourth day)
court commissioner on April 1,
1950, to prepare the map of the
disputed site. In the entire case
thereafter, from the high court
to the Supreme Court, the report
of the court commissioner was
discussed. The same report is also
part of the Supreme Court’s deci­
sion in November 2019.” Litiga­
tion apart, one can already hear in
the arguments of some Banarasis
a ratcheting up of emotion that
seems reminiscent of 1992.
Advocate Sudheer Tripathi
represents Vyas and her fellow
petitioners in the Varanasi court.
He insists his clients have almost
won their case: “You can no longer

MANEESH AGNIHOTRI
of Chaitra Navratri.
The plaintiffs had a second
appeal: they wished to pray to
all “visible and invisible deities
within the old temple complex”.
On April 26, when the Varanasi
court assured the petitioners
A COURT-MANDATED SURVEY that the disputed Gyanvapi site
T HE BI G S T O RY | GYA N VA PI would be inspected, there were
OF THE HISTORIC MOSQUE
call Gyanvapi a masjid. Have
you ever heard of a masjid that
has in it a shivalinga or idols of
other Hindu gods and goddesses?
Wouldn’t it be great if by reaching
an understanding we could give
a message to the world that in
India we solve age­old differences
through reconciliation? The deci­

BACK TO MASJID
some who found in the decision sion is theirs—to give it to us now
LEADS TO FURTHER ESCALATION a resonance of the Ayodhya Ram or give it later.”
WITH CONTESTED CLAIMS OF Janmabhoomi case. In that case, Gyanvapi’s caretaker com­
A HIDDEN LINGAM BEING too, the court commissioner’s mittee, the Anjuman Intizamiya

VS. MANDIR?
survey had proved to be key.
DISCOVERED. COULD KASHI BE
V.N. Arora, former principal of
THE NEW AYODHYA? Saket Degree College in Ayod­
hya, explains, “In the Ayodhya
BY SHREEVATSA NEVATIA
case, it was the civil judge of
Masjid (AIM), says it prefers to
keep its faith in the 1991 Places
of Worship (Special Provisions)
Act than react to veiled threats.
Passed by the Narasimha Rao

M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 35

SHRINGAR
GAURI SHRINE
CONTESTED PRAYERS
In 1937, the Allahabad
High Court in the
Deen Mohammad vs.
State Secretary case
decreed that while
the Gyanvapi complex
would be treated as
a Waqf property, the
Hindu Vyas family
would be in posses-
sion of the masjid’s
basement and cellars.
36 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
GYANVAPI MASJID
GYANVAPI WELL
KASHI VISHWANATH TEMPLE
The Narasimha Rao govern-
ment passed the Places of
Worship (Special Provi-
sions) Act in 1991, at the
peak of the Ram Janmab-
hoomi movement. The law
mandated that with Babri
Masjid in Ayodhya as the
only exception, the reli-
gious character of all other
places of worship would
be maintained as it was on
August 15, 1947.
ALLEGED
SHIVALINGA/ FOUNTAIN
WAZOO AREA
On October 15, 1991,
Pt. Somnath Vyas, Dr
Ramrang Sharma and
After the death of Som-
nath Vyas in March
2000, the court named
a few others filed a suit advocate Vijay Shankar
in a Varanasi court, de- Rastogi as the litigant in
manding the construc- Oct. 2018. Rastogi then
tion of a new temple in appealed to a civil judge
Gyanvapi complex and to conduct a radar
permission to wor- technical survey of
ship there. The district the Gyanvapi complex.
judge ordered the case After the appeal was
to be heard, but on allowed, Gyanvapi
August 13, 1998, the authorities filed a peti-
Allahabad High Court tion in the HC against
stayed this decision. the order. The case is
ongoing.
Five petitioners moved
a Varanasi court on
August 18, 2021, de-
manding they be allowed
to worship not just the
shrine of Shringar Gauri
behind the Gyanvapi wall,
but also all other “visible
and invisible deities within
the old temple complex”.
On April 26, 2022, the
court ordered the Gyan-
vapi site be inspected.
The survey was finally
conducted on May 14-16.
KASHI VISHWANATH CORRIDOR
TOWARDS GANGA
On May 16, the survey threw up
evidence of a shivalinga-like struc-
ture—also described as a foun-
tain—in the mosque’s wazookhana,
a pond for ritual ablutions. Though
the Varanasi court asked that
the area be cordoned off until the
survey report was submitted,
the Supreme Court had on May
17 also started to hear a special
leave petition filed by the Gyanvapi
management committee. While it
didn’t order a stay on the survey’s
proceedings, it did allow for na-
maaz to be freely offered inside.
T HE BI G S T O RY | GYA N VA PI
government at the peak of the Ram
Janmabhoomi movement in 1991, the
Act states that the religious character of
all places of worship—barring Ayodhya,
then under litigation—shall be main-
tained as it was on August 15, 1947.
In November 2019, when a five-judge
bench of the Supreme Court decided the
Ayodhya title suit in favour of permit-
ting the construction of a temple on the
disputed site, it upheld the provisions of
the 1991 Act, stating that, “In preserving
the character of places of public worship,
Parliament has mandated in no uncer-
tain terms that history and its wrongs
shall not be used as instruments to op-
press the present and the future.”
Even though there are before the
Supreme Court two petitions challenging
the Act on the ground that it bars judicial
review, S.M. Yaseen, AIM’s general sec-
retary, says he would still choose law over
history. “History is disjointed,” he says.
“You won’t even find the right history of
Gyanvapi anywhere. I believe in the status
quo that the 1991 Place of Worship Act en-
sures.” Advocate Tripathi, for his part, has
a taunt ready. “If we have found a shival-
inga there today, this means there was a
shivalinga there in 1947. It was there in
Aurangzeb’s time as well. If you go and of-
fer namaaz in a temple, does that make a
temple a mosque? No, nor do domes. They
are offering namaaz in a temple.”
I
n 1936, when a certain Deen
Mohammad had filed a civil suit
before a Varanasi court, asking
for the Gyanvapi complex to be
declared a Waqf site, it was already an
open question. When the court rejected
Mohammad’s petition, he appealed to the
Allahabad High Court. In 1937, the HC
ruled that the Gyanvapi mosque complex
belonged to Muslims, and that they had
the right to pray there, but it also went
on to allot the basement of the mosque
to the Vyas family. Interestingly, the
wazookhana, a structure for ablutions in
which the purported shivalinga has now
been found, had in 1937 been accepted as
a property of the mosque.
Advocate Abhay Yadav, who repre-
sents AIM in the Varanasi court, says he
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 37
 T HE BI G S T O RY | GYA N VA PI

SNAPSHOTS OF A DISPUTE
(Clockwise from top left) Muslims protest the Gyanvapi
survey; Shringar Gauri priest Jitendra Nath Vyas shows
some old documents; Sohan Lal Arya, a petitioner's
husband; police stand guard during the survey
PTI

was witness to the discovery of the
linga-like structure. “As AIM’s law-
yer, I was inside Gyanvapi when the
structure was found. I can safely tell
you that it is a fountain, not a linga.”
The advocate goes on to add that
he also finds odd the May 17 Supreme
Court order that allows Muslims to
offer namaaz at Gyanvapi while se-
curing the shivalinga that was found.
“If you cordon off that area, you stop
people from using the wazookhana.
How can a Muslim offer namaaz
without performing wazoo? Also,
isn’t it strange how we can now ‘allow’
people to offer namaaz at a place of
worship that is very much theirs?”
While Vyas and her fellow
plaintiffs had started by asking
similar questions about Ma Shringar
Gauri, there are some in Banaras
who, in turn, doubt the fervour of
their piety. Especially as the Vyas
family, as distinct from Manju Vyas,
are priests at the temples of Nandi,
Ganesh, Gaurishankar, Tarakeswar
Mahadev and Lord Hanuman, and
also caretakers of the Shringar Gauri
shrine. Jitendra Nath Vyas, who
oversees worship at the shrine, says,
“Shringar Gauri is seen daily but she
is worshipped only once a year—on
the Chaturthi of Vasantik Chaitra
Navratri. This tradition has always
been going on. Shringar Gauri is
not worshipped regularly and this
demand is not justified.”
In 1991, when the Ram temple
movement was reaching its peak in
Ayodhya, the dispute related to Kashi
Vishwanath and Gyanvapi mosque
also reached the court in Varanasi.
After the demolition of the Babri
Masjid in 1992, security at Gyanvapi
was tightened, and the entire complex
barricaded. Mahant Surendra Tiwari
of the Kalika temple says, “In 1996,
Hindu and Muslim festivals fell on
the same day. The road leading to
Shringar Gauri was closed for secu-
rity. After that, it was closed forever.”
Following the inauguration of
work on the Kashi Vishwanath Corri-
dor in 2021, a path was created in the
western part of the Gyanvapi complex
which made the shrine of Shringar
Gauri quite accessible. Indu Prakash
Srivastava, the Vyas family’s lawyer,
says, “Devotees of Shringar Gauri
are getting regular darshan now, but

38 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
 T HE BI G S T O RY | GYA N VA PI
the tradition is that worship is only
done once a year. On the issue of daily
worship at the Shringar Gauri temple,
no one has taken the opinion of the
Vyas family, the priests of the temple.
This matter seems to be sponsored by
outside elements.” The Vishva Hindu
Parishad (VHP) and Shiv Sena, one
finds, are already running a ‘Shringar
Gauri Mukti Andolan’.
Gyanvapi’s imam, Maulana Ab-
dul Batin Noomani, finds it strange
that it is the worship of Shringar
Gauri that has stirred up this hornet’s
nest. Even though AIM’s Yaseen
says that the annual worship of the
goddess has been an age-old practice,
Noomani makes the case that Hindus
themselves are divided on where the
Shringar Gauri shrine should be ide-
ally located. “Their own mahants say
the shrine isn’t here, it’s somewhere
In its 2019 Ayodhya verdict, the SC upheld the 1991
Act saying that the religious character of all places
of worship be maintained as on Aug. 15, 1947. Any
move by the Modi govt to amend the Act will be
challenged in the apex court
else. Wherever Shringar Gauri may
be, the masjid has nothing to do with
it.” Surprisingly, Noomani thinks
of the court-mandated survey as a
silver lining: “It isn’t wrong. We have
always welcomed it. Everyone will get
to know the truth.”
Though the AIM had taken a
stand—that there will be no vid-
eography inside the masjid or its
cellars—the Varanasi court ordered
a complete resumption of the survey
on May 12. AIM also wanted the
“biased” advocate commissioner
Ajay Kumar Mishra replaced, but
Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar instead
expanded his team. On the three days
that Mishra conducted his survey
(May 14-16), imam Noomani says he
was struck by how often findings that
ought to have been confidential were
being leaked. “Yeh mil gaya, woh mil
gaya (We found this. We found that).
40 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
What right do you have to say all this
to the media? You are only spreading
falsehoods in the minds of the people.
This sort of behaviour ought to be
punished.” Mishra seemed to find his
comeuppance on May 17, when Jus-
tice Diwakar relinquished him of his
duties after finding he had hired his
own cameraman during the survey.
Jitendra Singh Bisen is an out-
sider in Banaras. Representing his
Delhi-based niece, Rakhi Singh, one
of the five Shringar Gauri plaintiffs,
it took Bisen only a few hours to
call a press conference after it was
rumoured that a linga-like structure
had been found in Gyanvapi. Presi-
dent of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan
Sangh, an organisation headquar-
tered in UP’s Gonda district, Bisen
said, “I would like to appeal to the
nation…do not let your emotions get
the better of you. Yes, a shivalinga has
been found in Gyanvapi, but please
act with patience and discretion. Ours
is a constitutional fight.”
Bisen seemed to want to make
clear that the fight would not be long
when his organisation was involved:
“We didn’t file these cases thinking
they will then drag on for 500 years.
No matter where we file a case—
Mathura, Kashi, Qutab Minar, Taj
Mahal—you will see that we get re-
sults fast. These are transformations
we’ll see within our lifetimes.”
Given the frequency with which
lawsuits are disturbing the peace
of our monuments and places of
worship, Bisen’s threat should not be
taken lightly. Especially with Alok
Kumar, VHP international working
president, already declaring that the
Places of Worship Act doesn’t apply
to the “Gyanvapi Mandir”. Clearly,
Kashi is likely to be a new flashpoint.
Having heard news of the ‘shival-
inga discovery’, Sunil Ambekar, an
Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh
of the RSS, said, “You cannot sup-
press history for long. This is the
right time to bring all such evidence
in front of our people.”
While the Gyanvapi case has all
the makings of another mandir vs.
masjid battle as in Ayodhya, there
are significant differences. For one,
to appropriate the site the BJP would
have to amend the 1991 Places of
Worship of Act by using its brute
majority in Parliament to remove
Section 3 of the Act, which prohibits
individuals and groups of people
from converting a place of worship
of any religious denomination, and
Section 4, which declares that a place
of worship’s religious character “shall
continue to be the same” as it was on
August 15, 1947.
Since the Supreme Court had al-
ready upheld the 1991 Act in its 2019
Ayodhya verdict and recognised that
the law as it stands secures the fun-
damental values of the Constitution,
any such move by the ruling dispen-
sation is bound to be challenged in
the nation’s highest court.
BJP leaders in Banaras remain
circumspect. Daya Shankar Mishra,
the recently elected MLA from Va-
ranasi (South), said: “Both sides will
respect the court’s decision. This is
just a survey being conducted. We re-
ally should not think of bleak future
possibilities. Banaras is a city of un-
derstanding.” When it comes to mat-
ters of peace, Congress leader Gaurav
Kapoor finds common ground with
Mishra: “Varanasi is very much a
land of entrepreneurs and we like to
focus on that rather than anything
else. ‘What did Aurangzeb do? What
did Babur do?’ This is just a hun-
dred per cent political propaganda.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we stopped to
worry about the economy for once?”
It would have been, but the
mandir-masjid debate has most
often precluded all other thought. n
—with Ashish Misra

AGRICULTURE | WHEAT EXPORTS
BAFFLING
BAN
Foreign governments and our own farmers are
angry about India’s sudden ban on wheat exports.
But high inflation, lower-than-expected yield and
procurement forced New Delhi’s hand
BY ANILESH S. MAHAJAN
O
N MAY 14, THE COUNTRY BANNED
all shipments of wheat “with immediate
effect”. In a circular, the Union commerce
ministry said that export of all wheat,
including of the high-protein durum and
normal soft bread varieties, has been
moved from the “free” to the “prohibited”
category. The only relief exporters have
is the window left open for two kinds of
shipments—to honour committed exports
where letters of credit have already been
issued, and where the government bas
made a commitment to ‘vulnerable’ coun-
tries, that is, those that depend on imports
for their food requirements or are facing
the brunt of natural calamities.
The move has triggered a global
uproar, with developed countries saying
India’s decision will aggravate the food
crisis precipitated by Russia’s continuing
aggression in Ukraine. Industry watchers
are flummoxed and the farmers angry.
Defending the ban, commerce secretary
B.V.R. Subrahmanyam says: “India is
committed not only to its own food secu-
rity but also of neighbouring and other
vulnerable developing countries.” India’s
decision, officials explained, was dictated
by the exigencies of taming domestic
prices and ensuring food security in the
time of high inflation, especially in food
prices, and its falling wheat output.
GLOBAL OUTCRY
India is the second-largest producer
of wheat in the world after China, and
among its largest exporters. The coun-
try’s wheat exports hit an all-time-
high of 7.22 MT, worth $2.05 billion
(Rs 15.9 crore), in the previous fiscal.
Shipments carried an additional 1.46
MT in April, even as commitments for
another 1.5 MT of wheat exports are
being fulfilled. The commerce ministry
had estimated India’s wheat shipments
to be anywhere between 10 and 15
MT this fiscal, of which 4.5 MT has
already been contracted. The ban has
now put these estimates under a cloud
WHEAT IN WAITING
Mounds of grain waiting
to be loaded on ships
at Deendayal Port in
Kandla, Gujarat
and led to a sharp rise in wheat prices
in the global market. On May 16, the
futures trade of wheat at the US-based
Chicago Board of Trade—a global
benchmark—hit $12.47 a bushel (about
27 kg), clocking 5.9 per cent gain in
a single day. Euronext, the European
benchmark commodity market, saw
a surge to €435/ tonne on May 16, up
from €422 on May 13.
It was just a month ago that Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, during a
virtual meeting with US president Joe
Biden, offered to supply India’s food
stock to the world if the World Trade
Organization accorded it permission
to do so. India’s U-turn is now evok-
ing angry statements from developed
economies. The agriculture ministers
from the Group of Seven or G7 industri-
alised nations condemned the decision.
“If everyone starts to impose export
restrictions or to close markets, that
would worsen the crisis,” German agri-
culture minister Cem Özdemir said in a
statement on May 15. With the Ukraine
war raging on, there is a shortage of 25
MT in global wheat supplies. Russia
and Ukraine together produce more
than a quarter of the world’s wheat.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US
ambassador to the United Nations, too,
said on May 16 that “any restrictions on
exports will exacerbate the food short-
ages”. Agriculture economist Ashok
AGRICULTURE
ECONOMIST
ASHOK GULATI
SAYS INDIA’S
WHEAT BAN HAS
DENTED ITS IMAGE
AS A RELIABLE
SUPPLIER IN
GLOBAL MARKETS
Gulati says the move has dented India’s
image as a reliable supplier in global
markets. A much lower-than-expected
production and procurement of wheat
could be behind India’s ban, he reasons.
China, which often aligns with India on
food security matters on multilateral
forums, has backed the ban.
WHY THE BAN
So what made India ban wheat exports
a day after it had decided to send a
delegation to nine countries to explore
ways to boost them? Two big chal-
lenges seem to have prompted India’s
decision. The first is the rising inflation
rate, with food and fuel prices causing
it to breach the Reserve Bank of India’s
(RBI) targeted upper limit of 6 per cent
for the fourth consecutive month since
January. Consumer price inflation hit
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 43
 AGRICULTURE | WHEAT EXPORTS
an eight-year high of 7.79 per cent in
April, while retail food inflation surged
to 8.38 per cent. On May 4, the RBI
raised the benchmark lending rate by
40 basis points (bps) to mop up Rs
87,000 crore of liquidity.
A day before the ban, wheat prices
in the Delhi market stood at around
Rs 2,340 per quintal, while the export
price ranged from Rs 2,575-2,610/
quintal. The government-assured
price declared before the start of the
season was Rs 2,015 per quintal.
Wholesale wheat flour prices, too,
have risen, to Rs 32-33/ kg, from Rs
27/ kg in March.
T
he other reason is low
wheat production. Against
the expected production
of 111 MT, the heat wave
damaged 15-20 per cent of the crop in
many wheat-growing states, bringing
the country’s cumulative production
down to 98 MT. In Punjab, only 9 MT
wheat had been procured against a
targeted 13 MT this season. Lower
yields and higher prices in the global
market (which aids exports) squeezed
the quantity of grains flowing into
the government’s buffer stock. The
food ministry is unable to procure
44.4 MT of wheat for its buffer stock.
India started the fiscal with 19.5 MT
of stock, and bought another 18 MT, a
15-year low in wheat procurement. It
is also leading to hoarding and higher
wheat prices in the domestic market.
If we discount the 7.5 MT of grains
required for reserves, India had about
30 MT to give states to fulfil their
beneficiary commitments. India needs
26 MT of wheat annually to distribute
under its various schemes. But with
just the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
Anna Yojana, the Covid relief free food
scheme, extended till September, it will
require an additional 10 MT of wheat.
Farmers have been unwilling
to sell their produce to government
agencies, preferring to sell to pri-
vate traders instead or hoarding in
anticipation of higher prices. This is
ironic since the country saw protests
from farmer unions last year seeking
a repeal of the farm sector reforms
44 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
T H E N AT I O N | C H H AT T I S G A R H
NORTHWARD
BOUND crop in these countries has been dam-
aged. Ukraine contributed 12 per cent
Low prices in the domestic
to global wheat supplies. Currently, 20
market prompted wheat
MT of wheat grains is estimated to be
producers to export more
squatting in Ukrainian silos.
MINIMUM MAXIMUM A day before the ban, India had
SUPPORT TRADING announced the trade delegation to
PRICE / PRICE / Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia along
QUINTAL QUINTAL with six other countries to explore the
possibilities of boosting wheat exports
`2,610
from India. In mid-February, the agri-
`2,015
`1,975
`1,883
`1,925
`1,907
culture ministry had estimated India’s
2021-22 wheat crop at a record 111.32
MT. Thereafter, the wheat-growing
states in north India witnessed a heat
wave and the onset of an early summer,
which damaged the standing wheat
crop. Except Madhya Pradesh, where
the harvest starts mid-March, the
BUFFER BLIP other states, which saw temperatures
rise to 40°C by April-end, had prema-
Low yield and high exp­ ture ripening and shrivelling of grain.
orts led India to slip on Agriculture secretary Manoj Ahuja,
its wheat procurement though, on May 14 maintained that
target the yield losses are not that high and
added that the ministry’s estimates of
FCI’S ACTUAL
production are 105-106 MT. Officials
TARGET PROCUREMENT in his own ministry view this projec-
(MT) (MT) tion as too optimistic and peg realistic
estimates at around 98 MT.
44.4
43.3
43.3
A report by financial services firm
39.1
39
19.5#
BHUPESH KESHARWANI
Nomura says the government’s move GOVERNANCE HERE
to ban wheat exports may prove to Chhattisgarh CM
be counterproductive. “This export Bhupesh Baghel
ban is a pre-emptive step and may interacts with residents
of Mangrelgarh village
prevent local wheat prices from rising
2020 2021 2022 in Ambikapur district
substantially,” it said in a research
#till May 15 note. “However, with domestic wheat
production likely limited by the heat
BETTING ON THE
wave, local wheat prices may not
moderate materially. If India’s wheat
since they feared the laws would end ban leads to higher price of substitutes
assured procurement at government- like rice, then there could be upward
HINTERLAND
determined prices. The shortfall has pressure on other food prices.” Food
been glaring. Economists like Gulati secretary Sudhanshu Pandey expects
have argued that the government the ban on wheat export to cool down
should have offered farmers a bonus the domestic prices in a week’s time.
on MSP to shore up buffer stocks. Officials believe the export ban will
fetch 5 MT of grains—already held by
HEAT STRUCK traders—into the buffer stock at the
BHUPESH BAGHEL KICKS OFF HIS 2023 RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Demand for wheat has surged this year minimum support price (MSP). BY UNDERTAKING A SWEEPING TOUR OF RURAL CHHATTISGARH
because of extreme weather conditions The ban has put wheat produc- AND ASSESSING GOVERNMENT WELFARE SCHEMES
such as droughts, flooding and heat ers in a quandary, while its benefits
waves in the US, Europe and China, in remain unclear. Their only hope is that BY RAHUL NORONHA
addition to India. The war in Ukraine it is temporary and will be lifted once
has only compounded the crisis. The concerns over food security ease. n
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 45
 PADDY PROCUREMENT COW DUNG
T H E N AT I O N | C H H AT T I S G A R H OVER THE YEARS PROCUREMENT
PADDY PROCURED
(in million tonnes)
SCHEME
9.79 (GAUDHAN NYAY YOJANA)

It’s
9.20
8.04 8.28 Active
Gauthans 8,397
have been waived, costing the exche- Tiwari, political advisor to CM Baghel.
quer Rs 6,100 crore. Next up was the The focus on rural schemes, therefore,
5.69
paddy procurement scheme—called the is not surprising.

2,406,560
Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana—un- Registered The population of Chhattisgarh

2,152,986

2,177,283
2,161,725
Cattle Owners

1,955,554
der which farmers who sell paddy to the is estimated at 27.5 million and farm

1,820,914
1,698,005
government get Rs 2,500 a quintal for 310,073 /rural schemes are likely to impact

1,577,332

their produce, as against the Rs 1,940
announced as MSP (minimum support
price) by the Union government. The
state offers the highest prices for paddy
in the country, and procurement has in-
creased over the years (see box). Farm-
ers who grow other crops are also paid
May 11 and day seven of the ongoing Bhent-Mulaqat (a cor- Rs 10,000 an acre as input subsidy and
dial meeting) Abhiyan of Chhattisgarh chief minister Bh- an incentive for crop diversification.
upesh Baghel. As the helicopter carrying Baghel and his Then there is the novel Gaudhan
entourage of ministers and officials touches down at Man- Nyay Yojana or cow dung procurement
grelgarh village in Ambikapur district, it triggers a flurry of scheme, whereby cow dung is procured
1,571,414
1,206,264
401,000 families out of the total
Cattle owners 682,200 families in Chhattisgarh. It is
who have sold estimated that the various government
cow dung to programmes can impact over 20 mil-
government
lion of the state’s population.
211,540 Out of the 90 assembly seats, 14
are located in the Surguja division in
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 north Chhattisgarh, while 12 are in the
● No. of registered farmers southern Bastar division. Currently, the
● No. of farmers who sold paddy to govt Congress holds all these seats. The bulk
of seats in Chhattisgarh are located in
the central plains region, largely popu-

Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

from farmers at Rs 2 per kg, is turned lated by the farming community. While
activity. Villagers rush to welcome the high-profile guests into vermicompost and sold to farmers the rural, farm/ agriculture-oriented
who have come to solicit feedback from them on the govern- and government departments at Rs 10 schemes apply equally to the predomi-
ment’s schemes. On the advice of Amarjeet Bhagat, the local a kg to recover the cost. nantly tribal and forested northern
MLA and minister for food and civil supplies, Baghel walks Since the inception of the scheme in
2020, a total of 6.92 million quintals of
6.92 `
139 and southern parts of the state, the
topography and prevalent economic
from the helipad to a temple dedicated to the Mangrelgarhi Million crore
cow dung have been procured at a cost Quintals Total value practices prevent them from having a
deity, after which he settles down under a makeshift shed of Rs 138.56 crore. Out of the 310,000 of procured big impact. To remedy this, Baghel’s
Total cow dung
with a thatched roof made of Saal leaves. “Has everyone’s cattle owners in Chhattisgarh, 211,000 procured cow dung government has expanded the procure-
farm loan been waived?” he asks villagers. “What do you have sold dung to the government. A ment of minor forest produce (MFP)—
with the handsome amount you earn by selling paddy to the total of 1.03 million quintals of vermi- an important economic activity—from
compost, to be used as a nutrient-rich the earlier seven items to 65.
government?” After hearing the mostly positive responses, fertiliser, has been sold till date. Ar- A couple of hurdles confront
Baghel switches to some light banter. rangements are being made to add cow Baghel. While the farming community
urine to the scheme. CHHATTISGARH’S SCHEMES ENTAIL in central Chhattisgarh seems happy
If you think the Congress is a
laggard in early preparation for polls
Besides fine-tuning his popular
outreach strategy, Baghel also has
Though the scheme isn’t profit-
able at present, efforts are being made
PUTTING MONEY IN THE HANDS OF THE enough, this is also the region where
OBCs dominate and from where the
and rests on its laurels, Baghel is out to contend with a challenge from to give a fillip to the rural economy BENEFICIARY, WHICH IS EXPECTED TO BJP draws the bulk of its support. He
to disprove that notion. By cover-
ing three villages in each of the 90
within the party—health, rural
development and panchayat minister
through the use of unutilised cow dung
procured by the government. All-wom-
CONVERT INTO POLITICAL SUPPORT. IT will have to find a way to win more of
them over to the Congress.
assembly segments across the state, T.S. Singhdeo and his loyalists were en self-help groups (SHGs) who work WORKED FOR THE BJP IN THE UP POLLS Then there is the aforementioned
the incumbent CM is keen on being conspicuous by their absence, even at gauthans—rural cattle sheds created challenge from party rival T.S. Sing-
seen as a hands-on man who susses when the assembly segments being under the Gaudhan Nyay Yojana—are hdeo, who comes from the tribal north
out local issues in person. Also, covered under the Bhent Mulaqat making a variety of products from and has emerged as a champion of
most schemes launched by him in programme were in the home turf of cow dung. From eco-friendly diyas to tribal rights through his adamant push
the past 42 months in office—be it the titular maharaja of Surguja. idols of Ganesha, from candlestands Clearly, Chhattisgarh’s schemes Singh Chouhan is giving Rs 4,000 to for a strong Panchayats (Extension to
the loan waiver, paddy procurement to flower pots, there’s a market for such entail putting money in the hands of every small and marginal farmer, over Scheduled Areas), or PESA, Act, where
at MSP plus prices, schemes for SCHEMES FOR THE MASSES things. Cement and bricks made from the beneficiary, which is expected to and above the annual Rs 6,000 given gram sabhas will have more powers in
rural landless labourers or the cow What are the schemes Baghel sets cowdung is the next step. translate into political support. In under the PM Kisan Samman Yojana. tribal areas. Chhattisgarh is in the pro-
dung procurement—have focused so much store by and how will The latest scheme to be directed the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly cess of framing rules under the PESA
on rural areas and the CM wants to they help him politically in 2023? at rural Chhattisgarh is the Rajiv election, this approach—seen in the HOW THEY PLAY OUT Act. Singhdeo’s clout in Ambikapur
judge their impact on the ground. After coming to power in 2018, the Gandhi Bhoomiheen Krishi Mazdoor PM Awas Yojana, free rations to 150 “There are a total of 15 assembly seats (headquarters of Surguja district) was
Through the Bhent Mulaqat, Baghel first scheme the Congress govern- Nyay Yojana, under which registered million people and the cash transfer that are fully urban, another 10 that evident, with most Congress office-
wants to see if his political strategy ment announced was the farm loan landless labourers will be eligible to scheme—was said to be a game-chang- are a mix of urban and rural and the bearers and leaders also skipping Bag-
of securing the hinterland to win waiver, a poll promise. Consequently, get Rs 7,000 a year. A total of 1 million er for the BJP. In Madhya Pradesh, remaining 65 seats out of the 90 in the hel’s Bhent Mulaqat when it covered the
2023 is viable or not. farm loans of 1.67 million farmers labourers are expected to benefit. the BJP government led by Shivraj state that are purely rural,” says Rajesh Lundra and Sitapur assembly seg-

46 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 47

 T H E N AT I O N | C H H AT T I S G A R H
ments. Singhdeo excused himself by cit-
ing an engagement; a week ago, he went
to south Chhattisgarh to tour and inspect
departments under his charge, while the
CM was in the north, touring villages as
per his Bhent Mulaqat schedule.
The BJP has termed Baghel’s out-
reach programme an eyewash. “Bhent
Mulaqat should be renamed badtameezi
aur daant,” said former CM Raman
Singh after videos emerged of Baghel
reprimanding a woman in Surajpur on
May 8 for blaming the police over a mat-
ter. As criticism mounted, Baghel was
forced to express regret.
Back in Rajapur, one of the villages
under the Sitapur assembly segment,
CHANDRADEEP KUMAR
CM Baghel asks the audience if they have
received all payment instalments of the
paddy procurement scheme. At the end,
Baghel announces plans to open schools,
a stadium and a police post in the area,
besides making Rajapur a sub tehsil.
The convoy of helicopters then moves
to Sarmana village. A large number of
people come up with personal problems,
many of them related to land revenue
management or securing caste or tribe
certificates. Chhaya Mishra, a B.Sc.
student, tells Baghel that she comes from
a family of Brahmins but is forced to do
menial jobs. She demands a toilet, a job
and financial assistance. Baghel tells her
about dignity of labour and tells her about
the schemes she could benefit from. He
asks if everyone was getting the promised
35 kg of rice and kerosene under the PDS
(public distribution scheme). A girl asks
Baghel to show her the school he studied
in. “We would walk five kilometres to
school every day,” the visibly proud CM
says, asking the district collector to orga-
nise trips for students who want to visit
his school in Durg district.
Every now and then, Baghel reminds
villagers of galloping inflation or prices
of cooking gas, taunting BJP leaders who
protested when cylinder prices were Rs
450. With assembly election 18 months
away, Baghel is clearly testing the waters.
The BJP, till now, hasn’t matched him in
energy and activity. But it won’t remain
that way for long. A fight is in the offing. n
48 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
INTERVIEW | BHUPESH BAGHEL
“Our schemes
aren’t freebies,
they help
productivity”
Partaking of a traditional Oraon tribal
meal of kurthi daal, tomato chutney
and lakra at the house of Rajnath
Singh, a resident of Bhainsakhar
village in the state’s Ambikapur
district, CM BHUPESH BAGHEL
spoke to india today on the Bhent
Mulaqat Abhiyan programme, his
government’s schemes and plans to
take on the BJP in the upcoming 2023
assembly election. Excerpts
Q.
What is the objective
behind the Bhent Mu-
laqat Abhiyan?
We introduced many
schemes, but were
unable to go to the ground, to the
villages, to see their rollout in the two
Covid-hit years. So, the idea is to come
to the villages, see the impact of the
schemes and hear from people if they
are genuinely getting the benefits. I
will go to three villages in each as-
sembly constituency, sit under a tree or
in a bageecha with villagers. If things
are satisfactory, it’s fine. Any scope for
improvement can be suggested and if
lapses are found on the part of officers,
immediate action will be taken.
Q. Most schemes of your government,
be it loan waiver, paddy procurement,
cow dung procurement or money to
landless labour, are rural-oriented.
As a political strategy, do you think
it will pay off? Doesn’t the Congress
need urban seats? Can you face a
backlash from them?
No, not at all. If I spend the day in
three villages, I spend the night in
“THE BJP RAISES
COMMUNAL ISSUES TO
POLARISE. THEY ARE
TRYING TO CHANGE
THE CORE OF WHAT
RAM IS. THE RESPONSE
TO THIS IS CULTURAL”
towns. I meet people there and have
a separate set of schemes for urban
areas. Otherwise, Chhattisgarh would
not have won the award for the clean-
est state three times on a trot. We are
allowing conversion of land to free-
hold, and have brought out an indus-
trial policy. If people were not happy in
urban areas, Congress would not have
won all 14 municipal corporations in
the state, including Raipur.
Q. Have you taken a leaf out of the
BJP playbook by bringing in benefi-
ciary-oriented schemes wherein you
put money in the hands of people and
reap political benefits? Doesn’t
welfarism need to be linked to pro-
ductivity somewhere?
Chhattisgarh’s schemes were not in-
spired by BJP governments. The Nyay
scheme was brought by then party
president Rahul Gandhi. The BJP did
not ask for votes on the basis of work,
but on surgical strikes and Pulwama.
On the basis of the Swaminathan
Committee report, our government
decided to give remunerative prices for
paddy at Rs 2,500 a quintal. We pay
people who work hard. People who are
poor and don’t have land are getting
Rs 7,000 a year. We are buying cow
dung, used for making vermicompost.
The land is getting nutrients and
cattle are being made productive. Our
schemes are not freebies, they help
increase productivity.
Q. Coming back to Bhent Mulaqat,
the BJP is saying that your tours are
actually exposing the real ground
situation—how there is little by way of
delivery of schemes. Also, it says the
Congress is rattled by internal surveys
that don’t suggest a very rosy picture.
What do you think?
I am asking people in public if
schemes are reaching them. By and
large, people tell me they are get-
ting benefits, but there is scope for
improvement in some schemes. As for
popularity, if we weren’t popular, we
would not have won four byelections,
most recently in Khairagarh, which
was not even the Congress’s seat, that
too by 20,000 votes.
Q. For the first time, religious issues
are taking centrestage in Chhattis-
garh. How do you plan to counter it?
The BJP raises communal issues to
ensure polarisation. The response
to this challenge is cultural. Chhat-
tisgarh has a unique culture, of tribes,
festivals such as Hareli, Teej, Karma
Jayanti, traditions like Dev Garhi,
tribal dance festivals, which we are
reviving. We are also bringing to the
fore an alternative view of Ram, one
that has been sidelined. Ram is being
made into Rambo—Ram wasn’t ever
like that. The message of Ram Rajya
has equality and peace as its funda-
mentals. Hanuman is the trimurti
of Shakti, Bhakti and Gyaan. Now
you see flags and stickers portraying
an aggressive Hanuman. The BJP is
trying to change the core of what Ram
and Hanuman are.
Q. A strong PESA (Panchayats Exten-
sion to Scheduled Areas) Act has been
proposed in the state. This is leading
to conflict between tribes and back-
ward classes. Will additional rights
be given to tribes under PESA?
The PESA Act has been in force in
Chhattisgarh for long, only rules
under the Act need to be drafted. This
is being done and they will be put up
before the cabinet soon. We must en-
sure that gram sabhas in PESA areas
need to be representative. If OBC and
general categories are 40 per cent of
the population, they need to be repre-
sented in the sabhas. We will ensure
a politics of coordination before we
move ahead on PESA rules. n
 THE NATION | JUDICIARY
WHY JUDICIAL
APPOINTMENTS
ARE DELAYED
Tardiness driven by a tangle involving
collegiums and the Centre characterises the
filling up of vacant positions of high court
judges. And pending cases pile up inexorably
By Kaushik Deka
I
t was a grand occasion where the two pillars
of democracy—the executive and the judi-
ciary—came together to create frameworks
for faster and inclusive delivery of justice in
India. Held after a gap of five years, and ad-
dressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, the
joint conference of chief ministers and chief
justices of high courts at Delhi’s Vigyan Bha-
wan on April 30 laid bare one of the biggest
challenges facing the judicial mechanism in
the country—a serious shortage of judges,
particularly in the high courts.
The 25 high courts across India have 1,104
positions for judges, but 378 of them lay vacant
as on March 31, 2022. Nine new high court
judges were appointed after the conference. In
the lower judiciary, there are 24,521 posts for
judges, but 5,180 are yet to be filled up as on
April 7, 2022. In fact, the share of vacancies in
the high courts has jumped since 2014—from
29 per cent to 35 per cent now—when the Na-
rendra Modi-led government took charge at
the Centre. This despite the fact that between
2014 and 2021, the Centre has been appoint-
ing annually an average of 92 High Court
judges, up from 76, between 2006 and 2014.
Besides, since 2014, the Union government
has created 198 new positions for judges in the
high courts. In the lower courts, the govern-
ment has increased the number of seats for
judges by over 5,000—and appointed many of
them—in the past eight years, taking the total
to 24,521. This has brought about a marginal
decline in the share of vacant positions in these
courts—from 23 per cent of the total sanc-
tioned strength in 2014 to 21 per cent now.
Undoubtedly, the spiralling vacancies have
added to the judiciary’s burden, multiplying
the ever-increasing case load. With nearly 48
million cases pending in various courts, every
judge has an average pendency of 2,356 cases
under his gavel. As Justice Ramana points out,
despite an increase of judges in lower courts by
16 per cent since 2016, when the last confer-
ence was held, pendency of cases had gone
up by 55 per cent. “The delay in hiring judges
adds to the workload of incumbent ones and,
prepared in 1998. The process for the appointment of high
court judges begins with the high court collegium—a body
comprising the chief justice and other senior judges—recom-
mending names for appointment. The recommendations are
then sent to the state government, the Intelligence Bureau
(IB) and the Union law ministry. Once cleared, the ministry
forwards them to the Supreme Court collegium—consisting
of the Chief Justice of India and other senior SC judges—for
approval. The SC collegium sends the final recommenda-
tions to the law ministry. In case the government has any
reservations, the name(s) are returned to the collegium for
reconsideration. If it reiterates its recommendations, the
Centre is bound to make the appointments.
Under the existing MoP, the high court collegium must
make recommendations six months prior to the occur-
rence of vacancies. While the existing MoP doesn’t suggest
any period within which the law ministry is supposed to
forward the recommendations to the Supreme Court col-
legium, in 2021, the Supreme Court set down a period of 18
weeks to complete the process. The IB must give inputs on
the names within eight weeks and the law ministry should
process the names—following IB inputs—within four to
six weeks. As already laid down in the MoP, the Supreme
Court collegium must send its final recommendations to
the Centre in the next four weeks.
Within the next three weeks, the law ministry must
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE put the names of the prospective high court justices before
the prime minister, who would advise the President on the
appointments. No time limit has been prescribed for action
by the PM and the President. While the central government
can send back a name to the SC collegium for reconsidera-
tion, if the same name is reiterated by the collegium, the
CANDIDATES ARE appointment must be made within three to four weeks.
EXAMINED BY THE Earlier, the MoP did not lay down a timeline for cases when
EXECUTIVE. THEIR the collegium resends names.
FAMILY'S POLITICAL Though this is what the process looks like on paper, none
of the players follow any time-frame. Most legal observers
AFFILIATIONS MAY BE concur that building consensus on names has always been
SCRUTINISED, OR OTHER time-consuming. The aspirant has to not only pass the in-
'QUALIFYING DETAILS', tensive scrutiny of the collegiums, but also has to withstand
the clearance of the executive. That last test can hinge on his/
WHICH NEVER COME OUT her family’s political affiliation, antecedents and any other
“qualifying details”, which never come out in public. Neither
the Union government nor the collegium system substanti-
ates its decisions and recommendations with reasons.
consequently, reduces their efficiency. Most of our judges are THE SLOW, FIRST MOVE
working to keep up and clean up the rosters,” says Siddharth The delay first starts at the level of the high court collegiums.
Luthra, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court. The timeline for recommending names six months prior to
occurrence of vacancies is rarely followed. While there were
HOW HIGH COURT JUDGES ARE APPOINTED 378 vacancies in high courts at the end of March, even the
Judicial appointments in the Supreme Court and high courts proposals for names from the high court collegiums did
are largely governed by the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), not come for 219 positions. Recently, the parliamentary
a collaborative framework between the executive and judiciary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law &
M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 51
 THE NATION | JUDICIARY VACANT SEATS NO ROOM FOR
OF JUSTICE JUSTICE
justice headed by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi
While existing vacancies remain, the number
Infrastructure in India’s court rooms
remains in abysmal state
27%
court rooms have computers ency about names under consider­
of new positions has not grown significantly in
expressed dismay over delays in the sending of recommen­ placed on the judge’s dais for ation may make the process longer,
proportion to the rising case load video conferencing
dations by the high court collegiums, as the date of vacancy Total court halls as every decision will be questioned.
of a post becomes known the day a judge assumes charge.
159
available in 21,364 “Transparency can be brought in af­
At the 39th Chief Justices’ Conference on April 29, Jus­ HIGH COURTS SUBORDINATE states and UTs ter the appointment process is com­
Pending
tice Ramana appealed to the high courts to expedite the Sanctioned proposals for
COURTS plete. After a cooling­off period, de­
process of sending the proposals to fill the vacancies. Arghya strength 1,104 appointment Sanctioned Total pending tails of proceedings may be disclosed
47,303,131
26%
Sanctioned strength
Sengupta, research director of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, 219 strength
cases appropriately, without putting ques­
Proposals for 24,489
believes that judges are not to be blamed for the failure to 378 19,518 tion marks on anyone’s integrity,” says
appointment Average no. of
send recommendations in time. “Judges cannot be expected
yet to be sent
5,133 of court complexes do not lawyer Singh.
to keep track of who is retiring when. It’s an administra­ 717 by high courts 4,403 pending cases in 2,214 have separate toilet for ladies There was even an attempt to
tive function that is not professionally managed in high every court hall disband the collegium system. To
courts and the Supreme Court. This causes delay in the 126 115 120 19,356 streamline judicial appointments,
108 15,115 Source: Lok Sabha, as on Dec. 31, 2021
first place. The solution lies in professionalising the judicial the National Judicial Appointments
administration,” he says. Former Supreme Court judge and 82 81 Commission (NJAC) was created

16%
Dec. 31, Dec. 31,
78 60 66
Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court Justice Madan 2013 2021 through a constitutional amend­
Lokur points towards an institutional barrier. “The chief 35 AN AVERAGE OF 2,356 ment; the NJAC Act was passed
justice of a high court is always an outsider and he or she 38 19 20 In position Vacancies do not have toilets for gents in April 2015. The NJAC was sup­
takes time to get familiar with the lawyers, their merit and 0 0 0 0 6 No. of high court judges CASES ARE PENDING WITH posed to be a body comprising three
integrity. This delays the process,” he says. 2014
appointed
EVERY JUDGE IN INDIA senior­most judges of the Supreme
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
No. of new seats of
Court, the Union law minister and

T
judges created
he rejection of recommendations by the govern­ two eminent persons appointed by
ment and the Supreme Court collegium also adds
to the delay, as the high courts then have to find
new names, starting the process all over again.
Source: Lok Sabha, data as on March 31, 2022 ANOTHER 2,830 COURT
HALLS ARE UNDER
32%
court rooms have
the CJI, prime minister and leader
of the Opposition in the Lok Sab­
ha. However, within months of the
According to Attorney­General K.K. Venugopal, around
THE SANCTIONED STRENGTH OF JUDGES CONSTRUCTION separate record rooms NJAC coming into force, it was struck
35­40 per cent of names are rejected by the Supreme Court down as unconstitutional by the apex
collegium. “There is complete lack of communication and OF HIGH COURTS HAS INCREASED FROM court. “One of the members of that
an absence of transparency between the Supreme Court
and the high courts in the manner of dealing with recom­
906 IN 2014 TO 1104 IN 2022 THE VIRTUAL Supreme Court bench later regret­
ted striking it down, saying it was
mendations. The cause of rejection of recommendations is COURT ROOMS 49% wrong. But what’s the point now?
not known to the high court chief justice. So, rectification
of an error is not possible,” says Justice Lokur.
JUSTICE DELAYED Since Covid lockdown, courts have do not have a library
Had the NJAC been in place, things
would have been different and more
Many legal experts say that high courts should send a Nearly 48 million cases 4,14,07,548 heard a large number of cases through transparent,” Union law minister
larger pool of names so that even after rejections, enough are pending in various the digital mode Kiren Rijiju said.
names remain to fill vacancies. Even the Supreme Court courts in India
Source: Lok
has often emphasised that high court chief justices should Sabha, Supreme EXECUTIVE DELAY
58,95,583 Source: Supreme
181,909
5%
recommend vacancies as early as possible, irrespective of Supreme Court data till The third cog in this process is the
January 8; high
Court
whether their old recommendations were cleared or not. Court as on central government, whom the apex
That is easier said than done. Most judges in private 70,632* April 1, 2022, courts and
High Courts 5,739,966 court has continuously criticised over
National subordinate court complexes have
claim that there is a huge shortage of suitable and willing Judicial Data courts data till medical facilities the vacancies. Under Ramana’s ten­
candidates. A collegium cannot recommend the name of an Dec. 31, 2021 Subordinate ure, the Supreme Court Collegium
Supreme High Subordinate Grid, as on
Courts 10,836,087 Source: Supreme Court
unsuitable candidate simply because vacancies are increas­ Court Courts Courts May 1, 2022 made 180 recommendations for ap­
ing. It has to consider several factors, including performance pointments in various high courts,
and integrity of a candidate. These decisions take time, as Graphics by ASIT ROY but the government is yet to clear 45
opinions are often subjective. “We must not forget that re­ names. A total of 159 recommenda­
moval of judges is far more difficult than appointing them. recommended by the MoP. Apart from these delays, the colle­ tions from the past are still pending
One erroneous appointment can disrupt the entire system,” gium process has also been criticised for lacking transparency. with the Centre. By the government’s
says Supreme Court lawyer Utkarsh Singh. Prior to 2018, collegium recommendations were not made own admission, after receiving IB in­
available in the public domain. It changed under the tenure of UNDER RAMANA’S TENURE SINCE APRIL puts on names recommended by the
CHALLENGES OF THE COLLEGIUM the then CJI Dipak Misra, who facilitated the publishing of col­ 2021, THE SC COLLEGIUM SENT 180 NAMES High Court collegium, it takes 127
The delay also happens at the Supreme Court collegium level
in clearing names. In 2020, Venugopal submitted to the
legium resolutions on the Supreme Court’s website. However,
the reasons and rationale behind rejecting or accepting a name
FOR APPOINTMENTS IN HIGH COURTS. days or 18 weeks to send the same to
the Supreme Court collegium. On
apex court that the average time taken by the collegium to are still not published. The judicial fraternity is divided over THE CENTRE HASN'T CLEARED 45 NAMES being questioned by the apex court
clear names was 119 days or 17 weeks, as against four weeks public scrutiny of these decisions. There are fears that transpar­ about this long period, Venugopal

52 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 53

 SPORTS | THOMAS CUP
THE NATION | JUDICIARY

said: “Suppose there is an adverse IB report, we have to verify it.
We cannot blindly forward it.”
Some even seek to attribute political motives to these delays
by the BJP-led Union government. Amongst the 25 high courts,
the ones with the highest percentage of names still pending with
the Centre are the Bombay High Court (65 per cent of all names
appointments. Claiming that file clearances are much faster now, HOW INDIA
MADE
he pointed out that two apex court judges were appointed in May
within 48 hours of recommendations. He also invoked the fact THE INDIAN MEN’S BADMINTON TEAM WON
that the Supreme Court itself had stated that the government
GLORY BY CLINCHING THE THOMAS CUP FOR
must act on the selection of judges only after proper due diligence,
THE FIRST TIME. WHAT WENT INTO THE BIG
WIN AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
which takes time. In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the Cen-

sent by it to the Union law ministry), Calcutta High Court (47
per cent) and Rajasthan High Court (33 per cent). Critics point
out that these courts are located in states governed by non-BJP
parties. They also have a very high share of vacancies—48 per
cent of the total sanctioned strength of judges in the Rajasthan
High court, 46 per cent in the Calcutta High Court and 38 per
cent in the Bombay High Court.
HISTORY
tre said that it appointed 77 per cent of the judges recommended
to various high courts by the SC collegium between January 1,
2021, and January 30, 2022. A Supreme Court order in 2019 said
that the names on which the SC Collegium, the high courts and
the governments had agreed upon should be appointed within
six months. The affidavit claimed that the Centre took an average By Suhani Singh with
of 41 days, or six weeks, from the date of final resolution of the SC Amarnath K. Menon
collegium to the appointment of judges in high courts. and Ajay Sukumaran

H
owever, BJP-ruled states fare no better, going by
the percentages of judges’ vacancies in their high THE WAY FORWARD
courts. For instance, 48 per cent of the sanctioned The parliamentary standing committee doesn’t seem impressed

strength of judges in the Patna High Court lie va-
cant; 42 per cent in the Allahabad High Court and and 38 per
cent in the Gujarat High Court. Even dur-
ing UPA rule, judicial vacancies in high
courts hovered around 30 per cent. The
bigger problem lies with names that are DELAYS IN THE
not cleared despite having been re-sent APPOINTMENT OF
by the collegium several times. Between
January 1, 2021 and February 1, 2022, the
JUDGES DESPITE
SC collegium reiterated 29 recommenda- REITERATIONS
tions at least once. The Centre had cleared BY THE SC
none till April 11. COLLEGIUM DO NOT
“The delay in clearing reiterated ap-
pointments is a way of the executive tell-
ENCOURAGE
ing the SC that we are the masters of ap- SENIOR LAWYERS
pointments, regardless of your opinion. TO JOIN THE
Besides, the waiting time has significantly
increased in the past few years and, more
JUDGESHIP
worryingly, in selective cases. The Union
law minister and the Chief Justice of India
should sort out these and other problems,”
says Justice Lokur.
Legal experts say that such delays, despite multiple reitera-
tions by the SC collegium, can demoralise potential candidates.
The apex court has said that keeping names pending for long
periods does little to encourage senior lawyers to join the judge-
ship. The Sushil Modi-led standing committee has also pointed
out its effects—because of delays in appointments, many lawyers
have started saying no to such appointments.
For instance, in February 2022, senior advocate Aditya
Sondhi withdrew his consent for elevation, citing a delay of a
year. His name was recommended for a position of a judge at
the Karnataka High Court in February 2021 and reiterated in
September 2021. “No respectable lawyer is prepared to wait ad
infinitum and thus there have been a spate of refusals by them,”
read the Standing Committee report in March 2022.
Rijiju claims the government has “never deliberately” delayed
with the current pace. In its report, it categorically asserts that the
“existing process is not working and needs to be re-engineered”.
It cautions that no mechanism will be ef-
fective unless timelines for completion of
various stages of the appointment process
are not only firmly laid down but also scru-
pulously followed by all authorities.
But India’s problem of shortage of
judges cannot be solved just by filling up
vacancies. To achieve something like the
judge-population ratio of leading coun-
tries, India needs to create more judges.
In 1987, the Law Commission had recom-
mended 50 judges per million people. Over
three decades later, India has 21 judges per
million persons. That too on the basis of
sanctioned strength. There will be a steep
dip if the actual working strength of judges
is considered. Compare that to nearly 150
judges per million people in the US and
China and over 50 in the UK.
Addition of manpower must start from lower courts, where
recruitments happen either through state public service com-
missions or on recommendations by high courtss. In both, the
state executive machinery plays a critical role. That’s the reason
Justice Ramana urged chief ministers to increase the sanctioned
strength of judicial officers in subordinate courts.
Not just more justices, judicial infrastructure too must be
improved. Since 2014, the Centre has given the states Rs 5,565
crore under the centrally sponsored scheme for development of
infrastructure facilities in district and subordinate courts. Yet,
infrastructure remains abysmal. Only 27 per cent court rooms
have computers placed on the judge’s dais for video conferencing;
26 per cent of court complexes do not have toilets for women,
only 32 per cent of court rooms have separate record rooms,
and 49 per cent courts don’t have libraries. Rude reminders that
the judicial system in India is still limping along on crutches. n
ON
SUNDAY, MAY 15, A
cricket-obsessed nation found
itself in awe of its shuttlers.
Lakshya Sen was sprawled on
the court, relieved, having come
from a game down to defeat
2020 Olympics bronze medal-
list Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
Chirag Shetty took off his shirt to
celebrate his and partner Satwik-
sairaj Rankireddy’s victory, which
saw them save four match points
against doubles luminaries Mo-
hammad Ahsan and Kevin San-
jaya Sukamuljo. The otherwise
calm Kidambi Srikanth screamed
and dropped his racquet after
defeating Jonathan Christie.
Trouncing 14-time champions
Indonesia, India won the Thomas
Cup, the world men’s team cham-
pionship in badminton. Think of
it as similar to the Indian cricket
team defeating Australia in the
World Cup finals. Or, as the chief DEADLY DOUBLE
coach of the national badminton Satwiksairaj
Rankireddy (left)
team, Pullela Gopichand, puts
and Chirag Shetty
it—like the Kapil Dev-led team celebrate their win
beating the mighty West Indies in
Photographs by GETTY IMAGES

54 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 55

SHUTTLER’S GLORY
Team India pose with their medals
and the coveted cup at Impact Arena
in Bangkok; (opposite) Lakshya Sen
the 1983 World Cup finals.
“This is an inflection point for In-
dian badminton,” says Gopichand. “The
last few years have been very successful,
but largely at the individual level. We
have depth in the singles and a strong
doubles pair capable of beating the
best in the world. Moreover, the entire
unit worked as a team. This is what
has made ours a formidable team that
can take on the best of other leading
badminton-playing nations.”
Over the course of a week at Impact
Arena in Bangkok, Team India played
with flair and without fear to defeat
five-time champions Malaysia and title
contenders Denmark. There was no
dearth of verve on the court and in the
stands, where coaches and support staff
gathered to rally behind the players. In-
dia the underdogs didn’t crumble under
pressure, but thrived in it. For instance,
H.S. Prannoy won the decisive fifth tie
not once but twice, ensuring India got
56 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
josh?” The response but naturally was
“High sirrrrrrrrr”. The nine members
“WE DIDN’T HAVE A in the group were fairly young, includ-
GOOD HISTORY IN ing singles player Priyanshu Rajawat,
20; and doubles players Vishnuvardhan
TEAM EVENTS AND Goud Panjala, 21; Dhruv Kapila, 22;
WANTED TO CHANGE Krishna Prasad Garaga, 22; and M.R.
IT. IT’S HIGH TIME Arjun, 25. Prannoy and Srikanth, both
29, became the de facto leaders of the
THE REST OF THE pack. “I appreciated their leadership
WORLD FEARED US,” qualities. They really took care of the
SAID H.S. PRANNOY younger players,” says Vimal Kumar,
manager of the Thomas Cup team and
coach at the Prakash Padukone Badmin-
ton Academy in Bengaluru.
through to the semis and then the finals. Given that the players compete in
individual events during most of the year,
SMELLS LIKE TEAM SPIRIT Prannoy felt the chat group would help
Prannoy had sown the seeds of this win build the camaraderie that would be key
two weeks ago by setting up a Whats- to winning the trophy that had eluded
App group named ‘It’s coming home’, India for 73 years. “We didn’t have a good
with emojis of a cup, an angry face and history in team events and wanted to
the TUC (Thomas & Uber Cup). His change it,” said Prannoy. “It is high time
first message read: “Buoysssss how’s the the rest of the world feared us. We wanted
SPORTS | THOMAS CUP
IT’S RAINING MEN
Over the past decade or so, the men’s
team has been overshadowed largely
by two wonder women—Saina Ne-
hwal and P.V. Sindhu. Nehwal won
India its first Olympic medal in the
sport, with Sindhu adding two more,
besides becoming the only Indian to
win the World Championships. The
women’s team had already won two
Uber Cup bronze medals (in 2014 and
2016), thanks to the doubles pair of
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa.
Among the men, Srikanth had a stel-
lar showing in 2017, winning four
tournaments and even ascending to
world No. 1 before hitting a slump that
lasted three years and culminated
in his failure to qualify for the 2020
Tokyo Olympics. The past six months
have seen a renaissance in men’s bad-
minton with Sen’s rise in the senior
circuit. The 20-year-old has been on a
dream run, grabbing the bronze at the
2021 World Championships, winning
the men’s singles title at the India
Open 2022 and finishing runner-up
at the All England Open Badminton
Championships. It coincided with Sri-
others to know we are not here just to
play, but to win.”
The messages had the
desired effect. “Bonding among
players is the key to success.
The victory is a result of team
effort and self-belief,” says
Rankireddy, 21. The Thomas &
Uber Cup, much like the Asian Games
and the Sudirman Cup, the interna-
tional badminton mixed team com-
petition, comes with no prize money.
Srikanth, the squad captain who won
all his six matches, took special pride
in the fact that the “win is for the
country”. “After we won, everyone said
‘India won the Thomas Cup’ and not
one player. That’s a very special feel-
ing,” he said at a press conference after
the victory. The Indian contingent cel-
ebrated the victory at a restaurant and
returned to their hotel rooms to dance
as was the routine after every win in
the knockout stages, said Shetty.
kanth going back to his winning ways
after finishing second at the 2021
World Championships. Prannoy was a
finalist at the 2022 Swiss Open.
I
ndia currently has 14 players
in the top 100 of men’s singles.
And now it finally has a top-
notch doubles pair in Shetty and
Rankireddy, ranked eighth in the world.
They are not alone. Dhruv Kapila and
Arjun along with Krishna Prasad and
Vishnuvardhan are the next generation
of doubles pairs to watch out for. It has
meant that the burden isn’t on singles
specialists as has historically been the
case in the competition. Vimal Kumar
credits the Indian Badminton League
for the growth as it gives players the op-
portunity to mix with some of the best
in the world. “One thing I noticed was
whether it was the Danes or the English
and the Malays, all of them were asking
me, ‘Are you going to have the league
this year?’ So, what we have started, we
have to invest little more money and
run it properly,” says Kumar.
This abundance of talent is a huge
asset and instrumental in the men’s
team lifting the silver trophy. “Not
many countries can boast of that,” said
Gopichand. “It is a coming together
of the players at the right time. I hope
it happens more often in future.”
Himanta Biswa Sarma, president of
the Badminton Association of India
(BAI), is convinced that the victory will
inspire youngsters to pick up the sport.
“Indian women players have already
created milestones, but this all-round
performance by the boys will inspire
the next generation of players and also
enhance the popularity of the sport
in India. Each of these shuttlers and
their journey will create a legacy for the
game,” he says.
THE ROAD AHEAD
In an interview with
Rajdeep Sardesai for India
Today TV, Gopichand and
badminton legend Prakash
Padukone spoke of how the
number of entries at the
junior-level events had sky-

SPORTS | THOMAS CUP
rocketed in the past few years. “There
is a huge talent pool available. How
you groom them is of utmost impor-
tance,” Gopichand told india today.
“We should ensure that we take care
of it well. The grassroots and inter-
mediate levels need to be nurtured
properly. For this, we need a robust
coaching system and perspective
planning to enable talented players to
reach their full potential.”
P
adukone, whose acad-
emy in Bengaluru has
trained Sen since the
age of 10, said BAI must
seize the moment and take the game
forward by setting up more acad-
emies across the country as it’s not
possible for everyone to join the two
premier academies in Bengaluru and
Hyderabad. Badminton can be an
expensive proposition, especially for
middle-class parents with aspirations
that their child be the next Sindhu or
Gopichand. “It will cost them about
Rs 30,000-35,000 a month just to
train and play properly. For many, it is
tough to keep aside that sort of money.
Despite that, many are into this,” says
Kumar. Costs mount once players
start playing tournaments, especially
international ones. Kumar lauds the
government for supporting players
during the pandemic with Khelo
India scholarships and covering high
salaries of the foreign coaches who are
now open to a working stint in India.
Already in action mode, BAI has
identified coaching academies in
Panchkula, Haryana and Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh, to cater to the needs
of players from north India; Nagpur,
Maharashtra, for those from central
India; and Guwahati, Assam, for
those from the Northeast. The UP
centre is already operational and the
Guwahati one will open its doors in
September. Thirty coaches will be ap-
pointed to identify and nurture young
talent. Moreover, BAI has approached
the Badminton World Federation to
seek an opportunity to host two Chal-
lengers tournaments. “Our objective
will be to give the maximum number
58 INDIA TODAY M AY 3 0, 2 02 2
of young and talented players an op-
portunity to play international tour-
naments in India itself,” says Sarma.
THE HOMECOMING
While most of the new icons stayed
back to compete in the Thailand
Open, Sen, who had battled food
poisoning on his arrival in Bangkok,
returned to India late on May 16. His
mother Nirmala Sen and elder brother
Chirag, also a badminton player,
were at the Bengaluru airport to
welcome him, coach-father D.K. Sen
and Kumar with two boxes of milk
peda and bouquets. The next day, Sen
SMASHING RIGHT
H.S. Prannoy (top) in a semifinal
match; Kidambi Srikanth (below)
ENTERTAINMENT: LETTERS FROM
RETURN OF THE SATYAJIT RAY
takes on Jonathan Christie LEGAL DRAMA PG 62 PG 64
BENGALI OTT: AGAINST Q&A WITH
THE STREAM MASABA GUPTA
PG 65 PG 66
POETIC LIGHT
Arun Kolatkar (left)
and Kamala Das
nguin
The Pek of
Boo
Poets
Indian ersation
nv
is a co atastrophe
nc
betwee pe for a time
and ho cy
emocra
when ‘d lity were
and rea attack’
under
A
headed to the chief minister’s office
for a felicitation ceremony. “So many
players are playing, but India doesn’t BOOKS
have viewers,” bemoaned Chirag Sen.
WHAT ‘IS’
That changed with the Thomas Cup, Any book that claims to anthologise ‘Indian’ literature, in
which made everyone take note of the a way, sets itself up for failure. What does it even mean for
Reliance-owned Sports18 channel or a piece of writing to be Indian? Is it the author’s citizen-
turn to Voot that streamed the finals ship? Her manner of speech? Cultural references that
INDIAN POETRY?
for free. bind her words to a place with rigid borders?
“This is the start,” said Prannoy. The Penguin Book of Indian Poets, edited by Jeet Thay-
“We need to build on this and start il, is aware of these landmines. A beautiful compilation of
creating more champions so that in the Indian poetry in English from the 1950s to the present, it
next 10 years you see two to three more steels itself against its own grandiose title. Here is a book
Thomas Cups coming to India.” Before A milestone and a doorstopper, this made of poets living and dead, those who migrated and
May 15, this would have sounded like a ambitious anthology brings together 94 even those who were born elsewhere. Among the 94 poets
pipe dream. Not anymore. n poets whom India can claim as its own (49 of them women), we are forced to resist a shorthand for
Photographs by MADHU KAPPARATH M AY 3 0, 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 59

what ‘Indian poetry’ is.
Thayil says in the fore-
word that the book builds on
60 Indian Poets, which he
edited for Penguin back in
2008. In the new iteration,
however, form is no longer
the organising principle. The
world had changed drasti-
cally, Thayil writes, and
“democracy and reality were
under attack”. The anthology
then necessarily captures a
palpable conversation be-
tween catastrophe and hope.
The first poet in the
book, almost obviously,
is Nissim Ezekiel, widely
considered the father of
modern Indian poetry in
English. His poems clearly
reveal a period of discovery
and wrestling. On the one
hand, their lines bear the
scaffoldings of British poetic
meter but, on the other, are
punctured by the muckiness
of Bombay’s daily grind.
However, even though
Ezekiel marks the begin-
ning, he comes to be a provi-
sional origin. The arrange-
ment of poets after him is
not chronological. Instead,
it is based on aesthetic
impressions that come alive
only in the process of read-
ing these poets in tandem.
(But for those readers who
might find a historical les-
son useful, halfway through,
there is an essay by Bruce
King on the Bombay group
and their contemporaries.
Also, the ‘Afterword’—with
some bitterness—confronts
the unceasing criticism that
English writing is ‘not at
par’ with writing in other
Indian languages.)
As we meander through
the words of established
poets and ones who have
yet to publish their own
collections, we begin to
recognise, as Thayil says,
“how vast, how riverine is
the poetry”. In the absence
of the usual hierarchies of
age, urbanity and fame, we
also see a fractured poetic
evolution. Given that most
Indians’ first encounter with
English poetry continues to
be through Tennyson, Eliot
and Pound, this uncertainty
makes perfect sense. For
many of us, Ezekiel, Dom
Moraes and Adil Jus-
sawala come later, through
a process of unlearning.
True to these contradictions,
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF
INDIAN POETS
Edited by Jeet Thayil
INDIA HAMISH HAMILTON
` 1,499; 908 pages
THIS ANTHOLOGY
DEMONSTRATES THAT
LIKE INDIA, INDIAN
POETRY IN ENGLISH,
TOO, HAS NO SINGLE
HERITAGE
this anthology embraces the
belief that like India, Indian
poetry in English, too, has no
single heritage.
Despite the expanses
between many of the poets,
however, certain concerns
persist—meditations on
landscape, negotiations of
‘mixed’ identity, the pleasure
and potential of language.
Eunice D’Souza, for instance,
pushes hard against the typi-
cal subjects of poetry, but also
against their self-important
ways of speaking. She begins
‘Compound Life’ with pithy
observation:
The first-floor procuress/
takes the air.// Her bosom
precedes her.
And yet, insight comes
swiftly and with a wry sense
of humour:
A bird hovers.// A word
hovers.// A word is a bird/ Is a
bird is a bird.
But there are other poets,
like Tishani Doshi, who up-
hold ornamentation:
Lean backwards and lis-
ten to the slippery/ bastard of
your own arrhythmic heart.//
Remind yourself that you feel
pain,/ therefore you must be
alive.
Such contrasts between
poetic voices propel the
anthology, often taking it far
away from any kind of literary
preciousness. Where Ezekiel
breezily mentions “One day
Ram Rajya is surely coming”,
the pseudonymous poet Ham-
raaz—with poems like ‘PM
LEISURE
I N T E RV I E W
PEOPLE WHO METER
The Indian Poets Society
(From left) Aditi Nagrath,
Akhil Katyal, Imtiaz Dharker, Looking at The Penguin the first version of this substantial period of
Nissim Ezekiel Book of Indian Poets, the book in 2003, for Fulcrum time, for instance Monica
first adjective that comes Number Four, which Ferrell and Prageeta
to mind is ‘massive’. The included the work of 53 Sharma, and there are
Cares’ and ‘How to Be a Home anthology features 94 Indian poets. There were poets who never left
poets, including some two further iterations India, for instance Gopal
Minister’—doggedly tears at the
who have hardly been before The Penguin Book Honnalgere and Vijay
government. Explaining their
published before and of Indian Poets, which Nambisan. But as you
anonymity, Hamraaz writes, others who have largely makes it the culmination read them, one after the
“Who wants to be punished—or been forgotten. Walking of a 20-year project. I other, you will find a unity
to have other projects be endan- us through his process thought incessantly about of sensibility and history.
gered—for a mediocre poem or of selection, editor Jeet those poets whose work For me, that faint unity is
even a pretty good one?” And Thayil says one of his would continue to be vital a definition of Indianness.
so, we get a glimpse of the threat main concerns “was in the decades to come.
that poetry can harbour, and to give newer voices a Q. What did your
also of how, for some poets, the chance to be heard”. Q. With boundaries research entail? How
and borders now blur- did you come up with
Q.
real work lies beyond the page.
This is rier than ever before, the list? Also, did you
After its winding journey, the
being hailed what was your scope have any gender/ num-
anthology concludes with Arun
as a defini- in terms of defining an ber/ region criteria?
Kolatkar, in some ways, only a tive anthol- ‘Indian’ poet? I went to a number of
few paces away from Ezekiel. ogy of Indian poetry in As broad as possible. public and private librar-
Invoked by other poets through- English. How does it There are poets in this ies in various cities over
out the book, Kolatkar’s lines are differ from earlier col- book who left India at two decades, including
sharp, his images abrasive, his lections, particularly a very young age, for the British Library, the
references both pedestrian and ones you have edited? instance Vijay Seshadri, India International Centre
mythic. But rather than hail Eze- Inclusivity. Breadth. who went to the United in Delhi, Adil Jussawalla’s
kiel and Kolatkar as signposts Informed guesswork States at the age of five. archives at his home in
regarding the future. There are poets who Cuffe Parade, and my
with some definitive poetic world
There are poets from all never lived in India for a own extensive poetry
between them, the book gives us
over the world, which shelves. I scoured the
a proposition: even in the short- entails a broader vision Internet. Many of the
est of distances, poetry can and of Indian poetry than poets were suggested
must undergo a revolution.
For the next generation
previous anthologies.
And there are essays
this
How is erent
diff
by Adil, whose knowl-
edge of Indian poetry
olo g y
of Anglophone Indian poets, and photographs that anth ast one
s? is unequalled. For the
from p . Breadth.
whoever they might be, this place writers into con- ity rest, I was guided by
iv
“Inclus d guesswork
text. I began work on e poems, not poets. And I
anthology is sure to be held up as Inform g the future,”
in
a canon. But truth be told, it isn’t
concerned with peddling intel-
regard s Thayil
say
knew fairly early on that
the book would include
lectual agendas. Rather, it insists
more women than men,
because some of the
simply that we read poetry
capaciously and with instinctive
more interesting work at
the moment is being cre-
pleasure. Of course, like with ated by women.
any synthesised collection, each
person will (and should) find in it Q. How long did it take
their own unacceptable omis- you to put together the
sions. (For me, a few major ones anthology? What was
are Aditi Machado and Kazim your favourite part
Ali.) But that’s the loveliest part about working on it?
It took about two years
of this so-called canonical feat.
in all, with a final, sus-
From the outset, it recognises
RAJWANT RAWAT
tained effort of about
its limitations and readily offers three months. My favou-
itself to be remade. n rite part? That’s easy.
—Poorna Swami is a writer Finishing the thing. n
and poet from Bangalore -with Sukhada Tatke
 WAT C H L I S T

Ball in Their Court

CROSS
EXAMINATION
(From extreme left)
Stills from Guilty
Minds, Criminal
Justice and Your THE LINCOLN LAWYER
Honor (2022-)
Netflix
Based on Michael Connelly’s bestselling
novels, the series tells the story of
Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo),
an iconoclastic LA criminal defence
LEISURE attorney whose office is, oddly, his SUV
(a Lincoln Town Car in the original novels)

OTT

LAYING DOWN
Jimmy Sheirgill plays a judge
whose principles are put to
the test when his son is in-
volved in a hit-and-run. One

THE LAW
of Disney+ Hotstar’s biggest
hits is Criminal Justice
(2019-), another interna-
tional adaptation created by
Applause Entertainment fea- PERRY MASON
SHOWS LIKE GUILTY MINDS ARE PROOF THAT OTT PLATFORMS turing Pankaj Tripathi and tension. OTT is a “powerful fact that his work has struck
(2020-)
HAVE FOUND A WINNER IN GRITTY LEGAL DRAMAS Disney+ Hotstar
Anupriya Goenka as lawyers medium”, she says, for one can a chord. Not only was Aligarh Adapted from the fiction of Erle Stanley
fighting the good fight. ALT- “cover so much legal ground” cited by the Supreme Court Gardner and set in booming 1932 LA, the
Balaji’s The Verdict—State vs and also “have satisfying arcs judgment decriminalising ho- show follows Perry Mason (Matthew

S
hefali Bhushan
is no stranger
to the legal
profession.
The film-
maker’s family boasts of
several illustrious members
in the legal fraternity (legal
luminary Shanti Bhushan
is her father, public interest
lawyer Prashant Bhushan
her brother) so developing
the Amazon Prime court-
room drama Guilty Minds
came easy. Her writing team
comprised Manav Bhushan,
a biomedical engineer with
a law degree, and Deeksha
Gujral, a human rights
lawyer. They made sure the
“line of arguments and sec-
tions quoted” were accurate.
Shefali also did a tour of
the courts with co-director
Jayant Digambar Samalkar,
her director of photography
and the production designer
to ensure they got the ambi-
ence right.
Given this insistence on
accuracy, it’s no surprise that
Guilty Minds, released late
last month, has drawn much
praise for its authentic depic-
tion of judicial proceedings.
“Of course, there are places
where you can’t be complete-
ly true, so you take creative
liberties,” says Shefali.
While the success of
Guilty Minds hinges on Nanavati (2019-) and Voot’s
its own merit, it is also an Illegal–Justice, Out of Order
indicator of a larger trend— (2020-21) also dabbled in
legal dramas are taking off the genre. The third season
on OTT. Almost every major of Criminal Justice is in the
platform has a show in the works and it is likely that
genre. SonyLIV has released Guilty Minds, too, will get a
two seasons of Your Honor second season.
(2020-), an adaptation of For Shefali, it was key
an Israeli series, in which that the cases in Guilty
Minds “raise questions” and
“start a conversation” on
topics such as the effect of
violent video games on teens,
n (2015-)
d seaso sexism at the workplace,
The thir INAL
of CRIM is in the
plagiarism in music industry
E
JUSTICand it now etc. The show also looks at
works GUILTY the workings of a family-run
ke
looks li S, too, firm and Shefali throws in
MIND second
a into morally challenged lawyer Saul
will get son a love triangle to add to the
sea
for so many characters”.
Apurva Asrani concurs.
The writer of two acclaimed
legal procedural films, Shahid
(2012) and Aligarh (2015), he
feels viewers enjoy “the luxury
of privacy” that OTT content
affords them. This enables
creators like him to “explore
more risqué themes and narra-
tives”. Asrani says, “I know a lot
of men who were embarrassed
to be seen in a theatre [watch-
ing] Aligarh, lest they be
labelled ‘gay’.” For season two of
Criminal Justice, he focused on
marital rape through the case
of a wife accused of killing her
high-profile lawyer husband.
Asrani takes pride in the
mosexuality, Criminal Justice Rhys), a down-and-out attorney who is
was also referred to by some suddenly handed the case of a lifetime
on social media as a critique
of Justice C. Hari Shankar’s
verdict in the criminalisation
of marital rape case. Unlike
Shefali, though, Asrani isn’t too
concerned about legal par-
lance: “I try to avoid getting too
technical. It is my belief that the
Indian audience is more emo-
tional than cerebral, therefore
the characters, their challenges,
their motivations take prece- BETTER CALL SAUL
dence over pitch perfect con-
Netflix
structions of cases.” Either way,
The show is a prequel to Breaking Bad
we now know our audiences are (2008-13), yes, but is also so much
as taken by lawyers as they are more. It is riveting to see ex-con Jimmy
by lawbreakers. n McGill (Bob Odenkirk) transform
—Suhani Singh
Goodman
Photos courtesy MUSUI ART FOUNDATION
DOWN TO THE
LET TER
DISPLAYED AT AN EXHIBITION IN KOLKATA,
SATYAJIT RAY’S LETTERS TO A YOUNG FRIEND
MAKE HIS WARMTH CONSPICUOUS
P
art of the trib-
utes and events
in Satyajit Ray’s
centenary year, Iti, portrayed by other photographers as
Satyajit Da: Letters well. We see the director shooting on
to a Friend from
Satyajit Ray (on display at the Kol-
kata Centre for Creativity until June writing, speaking. Yet
7) makes for an engrossing visit. Cu- other photos are lit by the
rator K.S. Radhakrishnan assumes
that most visitors will be thoroughly with the good and the
familiar with Ray’s films and his
multi-faceted output as graphic de-
signer, writer, publisher and music
composer. There are, therefore, no
hagiographic panels explaining who
Ray was or how he was one of the
great directors of world cinema.
As we enter, we are greeted
Centenary Salute
ABHIJAAN (2021)
Filmmaker Qaushiq
Mukherjee (known to his
audiences as Q) always
preferred Ray’s calligraphy
to his cinema, but despite
the great dislike, he readily
agreed to play Ray in this
Soumitra Chatterjee biopic.
LEISURE
OTT
speak of daily things:
the weather, current
work, piled up tasks,
Against
travel plans, the constant
load-shedding.... Occa-
the Stream
sionally, there are small Bengali OTT entertainment
complaints—for example, has taken off, but it sadly
about Victor Banner- remains a prisoner of its own
jee’s inadequate spoken predictability
RAY OF GOLDEN SUN Bangla, and later, the
unaffordable amount he t was Leo Tolstoy who had
(Left) Satyajit Ray at work, (top left) an illustration
famously said, “All great
for the cover of Sandesh, and a letter to Nilanjana asks to act in one of Ray’s
last movies—and then I literature is one of two sto-
ries; a man goes on a jour-
there are the questions of ney or a stranger comes to
EX HIBITION
an anxious quasi-parent, town.” The Russian master seems to have
described perfectly modern Bengali enter-
magazine Sandesh, and reproduc- about Nilanjana’s impend-
tions of some filming notebooks. All ing marriage, her putting tainment—films and shows that
of these circle around the core of the on weight and so on. stream on OTT platforms such
as Hoichoi, Klikk and Addatimes.
exhibition—a set of letters Ray wrote Poet Sampurna Chat- ST
There is one problem, however: NEWE
to Nilanjana Sen (later Chakraborty) tarjee’s clean and deft Not all that streams is “great”. FA E R
),
between 1972 and 1988. English translations are When Anirban (From top anto
a r, S rik noodles, with no thought
Ray meets the young student presented alongside the Mand a n
Bhattacharya’s directorial
d (b ott om) Eke or research.”
in Shantiniketan when shooting originals, conveying Ray’s debut Mandaar released on an
Babu Though many of these
Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder). eloquent but unadorned Hoichoi last November, it was new shows are made with
rightly lauded as “pathbreaking” low budgets, Sarkar says
Nilanjana, only a couple of years language. Posited against
and “stunning”. Set in a coastal their look and feel have come to
older than Ray’s son Sandip, strikes the other material, the let- town in Bengal, there was something matter greatly. “Every other day, I get an
by clusters of photographs. While up a friendship with the director ters show a man who was compelling about his take on Macbeth. offer for another film where they can’t
many are familiar with the work of and the two write to each other obsessed by his work and Though it followed the usual web show tell me much about the character’s inner
Nemai Ghosh, here you can see Ray regularly over the next 16 years. We yet had the energy and recipe—sex, violence, cuss words—its fish- life, but they can tell me about her look,
don’t see any of Nilanjana’s letters warmth to communicate eat-fish world also exceeded these tropes. right down to what colour petticoat she
but presented in double-sided glass with a younger person just The same, sadly, cannot be said for other wears under her sari.” For audiences,
Bengali OTT thrillers. this premium on aesthetics serves as
location or on the sets in Tollygunge. frames are letters Ray writes to for the pleasure of it.
The average streaming potboiler fol- a hook of sorts. Thrillers set in hill sta-
Some show Ray in his study, reading, her in the middle of a packed and Except for the curving lows a paint-by-numbers pattern—an idyllic tions must have brought a lot of views.
hectic work life. Ray’s dark walls, this quaint hill station, a murder mystery, two cops, a Because even after Danny Detective
exquisite handwriting, exhibition design could love story or illicit relationship (for sex and
harsh glare of flash: Ray
Ray’s mostly Bangla with the have been from any time sleaze), then a cliff-hanger. Sohini Sarkar,
Inc (2021—), Murder in the Hills (2021—)
letters show a occasional English word Sin (2020—) Eken Babu (2018—) and
between the ’60s and ’90s. who has starred in Mandaar, Srikanto the countless Byomkesh and Feluda
great of the film world—
famous, busy or phrase, traverses var- What is on offer is sump- (2022—), Break Up Story (2020—), believes remakes, this trope is never-ending.
Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar,
man who had ious kinds of stationery. tuous, but there seems to
such treatment is unfair to the story and Bangladesh, in comparison, seems
Uttam Kumar, Sharmila
the energy Even in the one-sided be no good reason for the
viewers: “I say this knowing I’m part of to have taken a grittier path. Taqdeer
to write to a the problem, but I think the trouble lies in (2020—), Mohanagar (2021—) and Boli
Tagore, Tapan Sinha and epistolary exhibit, you tiny cards with photo- how our generation consumes cinema. We
Mrinal Sen. Displayed
young person can see this famous credits pasted at the can’t make a film the way we cook instant
(2021—) are available as “stories beyond
also are posters that Ray
for pleasure and busy man taking ideal reading height for a
borders” on Hoichoi, while the equally
refreshing Ladies and Gentlemen (2021-
designed for his films, time out to reply as if to seven-year-old. n ) can be streamed on Zee5. This year,
covers for his children’s a daughter. The letters —Ruchir Joshi SVF, Hoichoi’s parent company, plans
to “deliver at least 60 new Originals, out
of which 20 will be from Bangladesh”,
says Vishnu Mohta, co-founder,
Hoichoi. There is one question, though:
Recent films that have doffed their hats to Satyajit Ray How original is “Original”? OTT films and
shows often adapt the works of authors
APARAJITO (2022) AVIJATRIK (2021) from long past, like Sarat Chandra
Chattopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan
In his film about how Ray’s For many, Ray’s Apu trilogy
Bandyopadhyay and Rabindranath
iconic Pather Panchali was the last word in cinema, Tagore. “We don’t mind watching
(1995) was made, Anik Datta but director Subhrajit Mitra remake after remake of Batman and
changes all names—Satyajit became obsessed with Spiderman, so why not these authors
becomes Aparajito—but he the last words of Aparajito and films?” asks actor Parno Mittra. n
ensures that Jeetu Kamal’s that Ray had not adapted. —Malini Banerjee
impersonation of Ray is Avijatrik finished what Ray
eerily faithful. had started.
 Q A
IN ON
THE ACT
One of Indian fashion’s brightest stars,
Masaba Gupta, 33, is living her child-
hood dream of acting. This time, she
has a part in the Amazon Prime anthol-
ogy Modern Love: Mumbai

Q. This is the first time you’re

playing a character that isn’t
semi-autobiographical. Con-
sidering you are not a trained
actor, was that a challenge?
I think that works to my advantage.
It’s nice to just go in fresh, with no
experience, because then you’re
a little more relaxed. There’s an
interesting grounding exercise Puja
Sarup, an actor and acting coach,
taught me—it’s a spine roll that helps
ground you and block out all the
external noise. I did this a lot while
shooting for Modern Love: Mumbai.

Q. Growing up, you wanted to

act. Do you regret missing out
on what could have been an
acting career of 10+ years?
Design was meant to happen. It
helped me find acting on my own
terms. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have
got this chance. I am not acting to be
a movie star. When your intent is to
do something just for the love of it, I
think everything else falls into place.

Q. Creatively, what does

acting offer that designing
doesn’t?
I find acting to be a very meditative
experience. You have no choice but
to tap into the emotions you have
known. You have to be centred,
whereas designing at some level
isn’t 100 per cent for yourself. As an
actor, I am reaching into my own jar
of emotions, which never happens
in other professions.

Q. What have acting projects

taught you about yourself?
That I am not what people have
made me out to be. Some friends
think I am a highly emotional, wired,
dramatic individual, but I think I have
a lot of stillness in me. I only don’t
show that side to many people.

—with Karishma Upadhyay

66 INDIA TODAY J U N E 7, 2 02 1
66 Volume XLVII Number 22; For the week May 24-30, 2022, published on every Friday Total number of pages 68 (including cover pages)