registered No.

dl(Nd)-11/6068/2018-20; U(c)-88/2018-20; FAridABAd/05/2017-19 liceNsed to post withoUt prepAymeNt

oc
special campaign
www.indiatoday.in july 30, 2018 `60

9 7 7 0 2 5 4 8 3 9 9 0 9

An inverted image of
the Taj reflected in the
polluted Yamuna

save
rNi No. 28587/75

the ta j!
Government apathy and short-sighted development
priorities are destroying India’s most iconic monument.
What we can do to rescue our national treasure
 DIGITAL EDITION

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

OC
SPECIAL CAMPAIGN
www.indiatoday.in JULY 30, 2018 `60

9 7 7 0 2 5 4 8 3 9 9 0 9

An inverted image of
the Taj reflected in the
polluted Yamuna

SAVE
RNI NO. 28587/75

THE TA J!
Government apathy and short-sighted development
priorities are destroying India’s most iconic monument.
What we can do to rescue our national treasure

EXCLUSIVE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

ONLY FOR IPAD
COVER STORY LOSING THE TAJ
INTERVIEW THE ONLY SOUNDS I HEAR ARE
SET! BANG!
STATES FAMILY FEUD
STATES SAFFRON SETBACK

#SaveTheTaj
SUBSCRIBE NOW
www.indiatoday.in/digitalmagazines
 FROM THE

www.indiatoday.in EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie

T
GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa
EDITOR: Ajit Kumar Jha (Research)
he poet and Nobel laureate Rabin- attracted 10 million tourists last year. Sin-
GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh dranath Tagore once described the gapore, which has nothing on the scale of a
MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha
EXECUTIVE EDITORS: Damayanti Datta, S. Sahaya Ranjit,
Taj Mahal as a ‘teardrop’, glisten- Taj, attracted 17 million.
Sandeep Unnithan
ing ‘spotlessly bright on the cheek Our cover story in this special issue
DEPUTY EDITORS: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop
Mumbai: M.G. Arun Hyderabad: Amarnath K. Menon Chandigarh: Asit Jolly of time, forever and ever’. The only tears is ‘Save the Taj’, put together by Execu-
SENIOR EDITORS: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, Alokparna Das
Jaipur: Rohit Parihar being shed these days are about the state tive Editor Damayanti Datta, who takes a
SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Ashish Mukherjee
Mumbai: Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; patna: Amitabh Srivastava
of the Taj. comprehensive look at the issues bedevilling
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha To quote from what M.C. Mehta, a the marble mausoleum—abysmal waste
Kolkata: Romita Sengupta; Bhopal: Rahul Noronha;
Thiruvananthapuram: Jeemon Jacob; BeiJing: Ananth Krishnan long-time crusader for what is arguably the disposal, pollution, pests and overcrowd-
ASSISTANT EDITOR: pune: Aditi S. Pai
PHOTO DEPARTMENT: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor),
world’s most beautiful building, recently ing, all of them corroding this crown jewel.
Rajwant Singh Rawat (Principal Photographer), told the Supreme Court: the upkeep of Taj is It’s a sad tale of blunders, lethargy, neglect,
Chandra Deep Kumar (Photographer); Mumbai: Mandar Suresh
Deodhar (Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer); in a shambles. Cracks are appearing in the criminal mismanagement, myopic vision
ahmedabad: Shailesh B Raval (Principal Photographer);
Kolkata: Subir Halder (Principal Photographer); structure. The minarets are tilting. Stones and just plain apathy. Here is a monument
Chennai: N.G. Jaison (Senior Photographer)
PHOTO RESEARCHERS: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher), and materials are falling off. Acute water so conjoined in the collective memory of the
Saloni Vaid (Principal Photo Researcher),
Shubhrojit Brahma (Photo Researcher)
and air pollution are changing the colour of world with India. So often when you tell
CHIEF OF GRAPHICS: Tanmoy Chakraborty the marble, from light yellow to brown. Ille- someone you are from India, the next thing
ART DEPARTMENT: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director);
Jyoti K. Singh (Art Director), Vikas Verma (Associate Art Director); gal encroachments, industries and activities they say is ‘Taj Mahal’. The Taj has survived
Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Senior Designer)
Siddhant Jumde (Senior Illustrator) are mushrooming in the vicinity, the CCTVs the many rulers of India, natural disasters
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production),
Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator),
do not work, all the drains around the
Vijay Kumar Sharma (Senior Coordinator) site are clogged. And the Yamuna, which
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Manoj Sharma
cradles the Taj, is dying, putting at risk the
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Anil Fernandes (Impact)

IMPACT TEAM
foundation of the mausoleum. Hordes of
Senior General Manager: Jitender Lad (West)
General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North),
insects flying out of the river are soiling the
Upendra Singh (Bangalore), monument. A poem in stone, it seems, has
Kaushiky Gangulie (East)
GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Vivek Malhotra now turned into a hive of ailments.
Assistant General Manager: Garima Prashar (Marketing)
SALES AND OPERATIONS: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager
“You can shut down the Taj. You can
Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (National Sales)
Vipin Bagga, Deputy General Manager (Operations)
demolish it, if you like. You can also do away
Rajeev Gandhi, Regional Sales Manager (North) it.” This anguished cry from the bench hear-
ing Mehta’s petition sums up the exaspera-
tion with which even the apex court regards
Group Photo Editor Bandeep Singh with
the state of what is widely seen as one of the Executive Editor Damayanti Datta at the Taj
‘wonders of the world’.
Other famous monuments elsewhere and wars for 370 years. How can we let
Volume XLIII Number 31; For the week
in the world have faced similar conserva- this Wonder of the World deteriorate into
July 24-30, 2018, published on every Friday
tion challenges. The Colosseum in Rome one more dilapidated Indian monument?
l Editorial/Corporate Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex,
FC-8, Sector-16A, Film City, Noida - 201301; Phone: 0120-4807100
l Subscriptions: For assistance contact Customer Care India Today Group, B-45,
emerged only recently from a three-year I have visited the Taj dozens of times and
Sector-57, Noida (UP)-201301; Phones: Toll-free number: 1800 1800 100 (from
BSNL/MTNL lines); (95120) 2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad; (0120) 2479900
restoration, its walls scrubbed clean of the each time it takes my breath away. We can’t
from Rest of India (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.); Fax: (0120) 4078080;
Mumbai: 022-66063411/3412, Kolkata: 033-40525327, Chennai: 044-24303200;
soot from city traffic. be the generation that let the beauty of this
e-mail: wecare@intoday.com
l Sales: Direct all trade enquiries to General Manager (Sales), Living Media India
UNESCO, which monitors world great monument be destroyed.
Limited, B-45, Sector 57, Noida-201301 (UP)
l Regd. Office: K-9 Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001
heritage sites like the Taj, recommends the Beginning this week, the India Today
l Impact Offices: 1201, 12th Floor, Tower 2 A, One Indiabulls Centre, (Jupiter
Mills), S.B. Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai-400013; Phone: 66063355;
implementation of ‘an integrated man- Group will launch a #SaveTheTaj campaign
Fax: 66063226 l E-1, Ground Floor, Videocon Towers, Jhandewalan Extn,
New Delhi l Guna Complex, 5th Floor, Main Building, No.443, Anna Salai,
agement plan to ensure that the property across all its platforms.
Chennai-600018; Phone: 2847 8525 l 201-204 Richmond Towers, 2nd Floor,
12, Richmond Road, Bangalore-560025; Phones: 22212448, 22213037, maintains the existing conditions, particu- Each week, we will highlight one aspect
22218343; Fax: 22218335; l 52, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, 4th Floor,
Kolkata-700071; Phones: 22825398; Fax: 22827254; l 6-3-885/7/B, Somajiguda, larly in the light of significant pressures of the problem. I urge you all to join our
campaign and send in your ideas on how we
Hyderabad-500082; Phone: 23401657, 23400479, 23410100, 23402481,
23410982, 23411498; Fax: 23403484 l 39/1045, Karakkatt Road, Kochi 682016; derived from visitation that will need to be
Phones: 2377057, 2377058 ; Fax: 2377059 l 2/C, “Suryarath Bldg”, 2nd Floor,
Behind White House, Panchwati, Office C.G. Road, Ahmedabad-380006; Phone: adequately managed’. It’s a suggestion that can protect this magnificent structure.
26560393, 26560929; Fax: 26565293 l Copyright Living Media India Ltd. All
rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. need serious study. It’s a legacy we must preserve. If we
Printed and published by Manoj Sharma on behalf of Living Media
India Limited. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited, The Taj’s troubles, however, go far bey- don’t, the world won’t forgive us.
18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana)
and at A-9, Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, District
ond just its neglect. They are a disturbing
Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at K-9, Connaught
Circus, New Delhi-110001. Editor: Raj Chengappa.
metaphor for our sustained disregard for
l india today does not take the responsibility for returning unsolicited
publication material.
our environment and heritage. The Taj also
All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of represents our inability to monetise our
competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only
vast, untapped tourism potential. India (Aroon Purie)

J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 1

 INSIDE
UPFRONT LEISURE
BJP BACKS ITS PRATEEK KUHAD’S
INCUMBENT CM s PG 4 LOVESICK CHARM PG 57

POV: A LOADED Q&A:

SILENCE HOCKEY PLAYER
PG 14 SANDEEP SINGH PG 66

H I M A DA S

22 C OV E R S T O RY

SAVE THE TAJ!

A national treasure is now a picture of
48 GOLDEN
GIRL
The 18-year-old from Assam becomes
the first Indian athlete to win a major
monumental neglect—at risk of irreversible
damage from pollution and administrative international track event
mismanagement. What can we do to preserve
this precious symbol of our heritage?

52 B I G S T O RY

BODY BLOW
Despite growing awareness and changing
laws, organ transplants continue to be
mired in controversy, the latest being
preferential allotment to foreign patients

Cover photograph by BANDEEP SINGH

Readers are recommended to make appropriate enquiries before sending money, incurring expenses or entering E-MAIL to:
into commitments in relation to any advertisement appearing in this publication. The India Today Group does not
vouch for any claims made by the advertisers of products and services. The printer, publisher, editor-in-chief and letters.editor@intoday.com or
the editor of the India Today Group publications shall not be held liable for any consequences in the event of such log on to www.indiatoday.in
claims not being honoured by the advertisers.

FOR SUBSCRIPTION ASSISTANCE, CONTACT: Customer Care, India Today Group, B-45, Sector-57, Noida (Uttar Pradesh)-201301. Phones: 2479900 from Noida, 95120-
2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad, and 0120-2479900 from Rest of India. Toll Free No.: 1800 1800 100. Fax: 0120-4078080. E-mail: wecare@intoday.com

2 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

 UPFRONT
CBI INFIGHTING
GOES PUBLIC
PG 6
BEIJING WARY
OF ‘QUAD’ AGENDA
PG 11
PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR
MODI-SHAH EMBRACE SATRAPS
D
espite advice to marginalise or
even jettison some BJP chief
ministers on the 2019 campaign
trail, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
has chosen to embrace their work and
achievements. Driven by BJP president
Amit Shah, the strategy appears to be to
highlight the likes of Vasundhara Raje,
Yogi Adityanath and Shivraj Chouhan
as exemplars of development flowing
from the Centre through to the states
via strong leadership at every level.
The fears expressed by BJP
members about the string of bypoll
14 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018
BJP
By Uday Mahurkar
losses suffered in UP since Adityanath
became chief minister, or the appar­
ent unpopularity of Raje, have been
brushed aside by Shah, who has crafted
an electoral approach that emphasises
the chief ministers’ roles as regional
executors of the prime minister’s sch­
emes. In the past six weeks or so, in his
appearances at public rallies, Modi has
been extravagant in his praise of BJP
chief ministers. The volte face has been
particularly noticeable in Rajasthan,
heading to polls at the end of the year.
Whereas in previous appearances ana­
HATE CRIMES
FLOURISH
PG 7
THE CENTRE AND
ARTICLE 377
PG 1 4
CLEAN SLATE?
PM Modi and chief
minister Raje during
his Jaipur visit, July 7
lysts argued he had been somewhat cool
towards Raje and that she was proving
resistant to changes Shah sought to
make to the local party unit, during
Modi’s visit this month he showered
extravagant praise on her governance.
He contrasted Raje’s performance
with what he said was the Congress’s
abject record. Modi also described
Raje—previously thought to be vulner­
able to the anti­incumbency rife in
Rajasthan—as a people’s CM, a “leader
of the masses”. He waxed lyrical about
the success of her schemes, such as the
Exclusive Politoons by India Today Group

WATCH NOW
UPFRONT

Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan, an ambitious water con-

servation project, and the effectiveness with which
she has implemented the prime minister’s flagship
schemes. Modi said the Centre and state governments CBI

CBI
were working together and as a result development
programmes had progressed at “double” the speed.
These were almost the same words he used to
praise the Yogi Adityanath government on his visit to

Infighting
UP just days after the Raje rally. Adityanath, who only
recently, during the visit of the South Korean presi-
dent to open a Samsung plant in Greater Noida, had

Goes
seemed a somewhat isolated, forlorn figure, was de-
scribed by Modi as a partner in development. Taking a
sly dig at so-called family-run parties such as the Con-

RAMESH SHARMA
gress and the Samajwadi Party, Modi said for himself

Public
and Adityanath, the only family was the people. Again,
as in Rajasthan, Modi claimed that the implementa-
tion of public schemes, whether central or state, was
made easier by cooperation and collaboration.
The message is being made clear too in poll-
bound Madhya Pradesh,
where last month embat-

K
Shah’s new tled chief minister Shivraj ey to Prime Minister including those into disgraced
plan is to Singh Chouhan was the Narendra Modi’s succ- billionaire Vijay Mallya, the
recipient of warm praise ess as an administrator AgustaWestland corruption
promote from Modi for doubling is his ability to run a tight ship. scandal, former finance min-
the idea of the speed of development He puts his trust in a small ister P. Chidambaram’s son
Centre-state in the state. A BJP leader, group of bureaucrats, officers Karti in the INX Media case,
cooperation speaking on condition of and party colleagues and leans and the land dealings in Rajas-
as the only anonymity, said regional heavily on them to keep the than of a company belonging
path to satraps are increasingly huge machinery of the govern- to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of
progress important to Shah’s vi- ment in running order. In ret- Sonia Gandhi.
sion, in which the BJP urn, this group can expect the So it is surprising that the
controls the levers of PM’s loyalty and support. prime minister’s office has
power from the central to the panchayat level. Rakesh Asthana, special done so little, even behind the
By lavishing praise on chief ministers in BJP-led director of the Central scenes, to support Asthana in
states, regardless of actual performance or personal Bureau of Investigation his conflict with his superior,
tensions with Shah and Modi, they hope the elector- (CBI), is certainly part of CBI director Alok Verma.
ate concludes that the only way forward is consoli- the prime minister’s inner Their antipathy became
dated control, in which there is no opposition to ask circle. Asthana led a Special part of the news agenda last
uncomfortable questions or block plans. The BSP-SP Investigation Team (SIT) week when it was revealed
alliance in UP has shown that the opposition, if it is inquiry into the 2002 fire that Verma, attending an
willing to put aside personal agendas and differences that killed 59 people, many Interpol meeting in Uruguay,
to present a united front, can threaten a seemingly of them kar sevaks return- instructed a junior officer to
dominant BJP’s vote share in a state critical to its ing from the disputed Babri inform the Chief Vigilance
electoral prospects. Shah’s new plan, say party insid- Masjid site on the Sabarmati Commissioner (CVC) that
ers, is to promote the idea of cooperation between the Express train, arguing that Asthana, the second in com-
Centre and states as the only path to progress. Modi it was a “carefully planned mand, did not have Verma’s
and Shah, these insiders say, believe they have enough and meticulously executed authorisation to attend a CBI
command over the party to sidetrack the possibility criminal conspiracy” at a time selection committee meet-
of diverging concentrations of power. when the counter-narrative ing in his stead. The meeting
Modi is scheduled to address some 50 rallies across was that it was an accident. was necessary to induct new
the country up to February next year, before election As special director, second officers into the CBI. A letter
campaigning is ratcheted up further. Prepare for this in command at the CBI, sent from the CBI made a
message to be amplified: not only is there no alterna- Asthana oversees several reference to Asthana and said
tive to Modi, there is no alternative to the BJP. n high-profile investigations, he should not be allowed to

16 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018


The CBI’s Rakesh Asthana, left, and director Alok Verma
attend the meeting as there
was an investigation pend-
ing against him. Asthana’s
recommendation of an off-
icer for a CBI post was also
questioned in the letter as
the officer was being investi-
gated as a suspect in a case.
Given how
close Asthana
is to the ruling
dispensation, it
is surprising that
the PMO has done
so little, even
behind the scenes,
to support him
Verma had already regi-
stered his objection when
Asthana was appointed
special director, so, insid-
ers say, his unwillingness
to trust Asthana should not
come as a surprise. But for
many close to the govern-
ment, Asthana is a byword
for integrity and efficiency.
He has angered people on
both the left and right sides
INDEX
Hate Crimes
Flourish
Since 2015, Amnesty International has been tracking
hate crimes in India. Its ‘Halt the Hate’ website was
started after Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by a mob
in his home in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, on September 28
that year. As if to show how little has changed, last month
two Muslim men were filmed being beaten by a mob in
Hapur, UP. Qasim, a 45-year-old cattle trader, died of
his injuries in hospital. While it seems clear that the men
were set upon by cow vigilantes, the police claim it was
‘road rage’ over a motorcycle accident, though they offer
no evidence to support such a theory. The second man,
64-year-old Samiuddin, who survived the beating, says
the police did not record his statement and, given possible
police complicity in hushing up the lynching, he now fears
for his safety. Should he take heart from the Supreme
Court ruling on July 17 demanding a separate law against
lynching, to stop these “horrendous acts of mobocracy”?
THE BREACH
98 601
Hate crimes Such ‘incidents’
recorded on Amnesty tabulated on ‘Halt
of the political spectrum as International’s ‘Halt the Hate’ since
a police officer. While his the Hate’ website in September 28,
2018 alone 2015
conclusions about arson
on the Sabarmati Express
countered the prevailing
position and led to him be- 18 111
ing excoriated by left-wing Hate crimes in 2018
Deaths and 2,384
in Uttar Pradesh,
and Muslim groups, his the most in any
injured in 822
investigations into Asaram “communal incidents”
state, followed by
in 2017, said Hansraj
Bapu and his son for rapes Gujarat (13) and
and corruption made him a Rajasthan (8). 138
Ahir, MoS for home
affairs, in Parliament
target for some right-wing
such crimes in UP
since September
in February. Up from
Hindutva groups. Of late, 28, 2015
644 incidents in 2014,
though, under the
supporters of Asthana say he UPA government, 943
had annoyed senior officials such incidents were
recorded in 2008
at the Bureau by warning
the Centre about the involve-
ment of a CBI officer in Mal-
lya’s departure for London. 33
Insiders say the CBI, Deaths in 86 incidents
Enforcement Directorate of “cow-related
and Income Tax depart-
ment are riven by infighting,
80.4% violence in India”
since 2010, says data
journalism website
Of 4,991 communal
with Asthana and revenue IndiaSpend’s ‘Hate-
incidents in India
secretary Hasmukh Adhia, between 2011 and Crime Database’. All
both known to be close to 2017, says ministry deaths in 81 incidents
of home affairs, from 2015-2018
the prime minister, the
occurred in just 7
focus of opponents’ ire. The states: UP (1,094);
government is choosing to
ignore internal rivalries. But
Karnataka (591);
Maharashtra (586); 56%
Madhya Pradesh Of those killed in “cow-
for how long will the PMO
(522); Rajasthan related violence”, says
tolerate the bypassing of (422); Gujarat (404); IndiaSpend, are Muslim,
favoured officers? n Bihar (392) 11% Dalit and 9% Hindu
—Uday Mahurkar
 UPFRONT

PERSONNEL
GAIN

B ihar chief minister

Nitish Kumar does not
want IAS and IPS officers
visiting his office for “per-
sonal matters”. The General
Administration Department,
a portfolio Nitish holds, shot
off a circular saying some of-
ficers of the all-India services
(IAS, IPS and Indian Forest
Service) frequently query the
CM’s secretariat on files relat-
GL ASSHOUSE ing to personal matters. It’s
the first and most unambigu-
CLIMATE CHANGE ous acceptance of canvassing
by top babus in Bihar.

D
uring last year’s monsoons in Mumbai, the BJP had trained its guns on the
Shiv Sena­controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over
the flooded streets and potholed roads. City BJP president Ashish Shelar
fired salvos at the Sena while Mumbai Northeast MP Kirit Somaiya held the ILL TIDE
‘Bandra mafia’ responsible, a clear hint at the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s
residence in the western suburb. This year, the city saw its worst spell of
flooding in recent years. The BJP, however, was strangely silent. Somaiya G oa chief minister
Manohar Parrikar
who recently returned after
requested better coordination among all agencies working in the city. What
seems to have changed is the saffron party’s newfound love for its allies. Party a three­month treatment
president Amit Shah had a two­hour­long one­on­one meeting with Shiv Sena in a US hospital is officially
chief Uddhav Thackeray last month. The word is out. Allies are in. the country’s most heavily
burdened CM. He’s holding
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE additional charge of seven
portfolios besides the
five he already has. This
Ghar Wapasi is because two cabinet
colleagues continue to

F ormer Uttar Pradesh chief have health troubles.

minister Mulayam Singh
Yadav is planning a return—to
Lucknow’s posh Vikramaditya
Marg. He was evicted only last
month from his official residence
on a Supreme Court directive.
MANEESH AGNIHOTRI
Power minister Pandurang
Madkaikar remains
hospitalised after a brain
stroke. The latest is PWD
minister Sudin Dhavalikar,
who recently underwent a

Yadav, who has lived there for 28 surgery in Mumbai.

years and developed an emotional
bond with the place, has now
rented a private bungalow where
he will live as a tenant.

Sandeep Unnithan with Sahil Joshi, Ashish Misra,

Amitabh Srivastava, Kiran D. Tare

18 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

 year of an officer cadet’s
course at the Indian Military
Academy which means all
officers will be commis-
sioned as captains. The
review has proposed doing
away with the rank of briga-
dier (of which the army now
has around 800 officers).
If implemented, this
would represent a radical
restructuring for the Indian
army which has seen little
change in its rank structure
since independence. If the
new suggestions are imple-
mented, a colonel-ranked
Epaulets for the rank of lieutenant (left) and brigadier officer will be promoted
directly to the rank of
major-general. Another
ARMY controversial suggestion is
AN ARMY OF
that all officers, irrespective
of merit and selection, will
be assured of reaching the
GENERALS
rank of major-general.
Currently, an army
officer who gets promoted
to the rank of brigadier,
T
he Indian Army’s the Military Secretary, a Lt spends the longest in this
cadre review, the General-ranked officer, has rank, nearly seven years, be-
first in over three proposed doing away with a fore being cleared to become
decades, has recommended few rungs of the army’s steep major-general. Roughly one
drastic changes in the rank promotion pyramid. It plans in three officers makes it to
structure. For starters, the to convert the starting rank the rank of brigadier and
review, being carried out by of lieutenant into the final major-general.
INDEX
5 640
Parallel Justice? Darul Qaza appro­
ved by AIMPLB in UP,
Gujarat, Maharashtra
Number of Darul
Qaza there will
be, if AIMPLB’s
The All India Muslim Personal Board (AIMPLB) between July and recommendation
caused widespread indignation last week when it December 2017; 10 of one per district
announced its intention to open several so-called applications pending were implemented
sharia courts across the country. While much
of the discussion around the opening of more
‘Darul Qaza’ was uninformed and prejudiced, it
is pertinent to ask, as the idea of a uniform civil 40
code gains increased traction, whether there is Darul Qaza in UP
a place for personal law based on religion and alone. An all­India
tradition and whether that conflicts with the law count is elusive. In
of the land. In 2014, the Supreme Court said that the UK, estimates
“Fatwas are advisory in nature and no Muslim is vary between 30
bound to follow those.” It added that the Darul and 85 ‘sharia
Qaza “can be perceived as an alternative dispute courts’, though
resolution mechanism” with “no power or exact numbers are
authority to enforce its orders”. difficult to confirm
At the heart of this new
cadre restructuring study is
what appears to be a burn-
ing desire to seek parity
with the civil services. The
army’s grouse is that while
an IAS officer reaches the
rank of joint secretary in
just 18 years of service, an
army officer will take, on
average, 30 years of service
to reach the equivalent rank
of major-general.
Experts warn of a blow-
back on the army. “First,
we had time-scale colonels
and now, time-scale major-
generals. Every time we
have sought parity with the
civil services, we have ended
up diluting our own rank
structure,” says Major-Gen-
eral Surjit Singh (retired), a
manpower planning expert.
A senior army official,
however, says the cadre
restructuring is “just an
idea now which may be
comprehensively analysed
later. It’s just a thought, as
of now. All modern armies
routinely undertake such
studies to remain dynamic
and effective”. n
—Sandeep Unnithan
`50,000
Monthly cost
of running a
sharia court,
says AIMPLB
secretary
Zafaryab Jilani
89%
Cases in sharia
courts, examined in a
2017 Nalsar University
study, cost users less
than Rs 1,000; 32%
of women petitioners
sought divorce, 49%
men restitution of
conjugal rights
UPFRONT

US V ISA

No Second
visa­holder. Under the revised policy, there was a 16 per cent drop in student
the visa official can deny an application visas to the US for the year up to Sep­
without a ‘request for evidence’ if the tember 20, 2017. Only 47,302 Indian

Chance case lacks sufficient ‘initial evidence’,

which experts say could lead to sum­
mary deportations. While even earlier
students obtained US visas, a 27 per
cent drop from the previous year.
“The critical point is whether the

Will Hurt IT an insufficient application was rejected,

dismissing applications for lack of
move is affecting the number of visas
given to Indian professionals,” says R.

Companies
recommended evidence is a matter
of concern. “This is part of an overall
position on immigration that Trump
is talking about,” says Dilip Chenoy,
Chandrasekhar, former president of
Nasscom. In the past few years, there
has been a progressive shift in the
percentage of people getting US visas,
from Indian companies to American

U
S President Donald Trump’s
protectionist ‘America First’
agenda continues, and this
time again on the visa front.
New powers have been acc­
orded to US officials to reject outright
the visa applications of foreigners
under certain circumstances, starting
September 11. Officials can take this
step if the required ‘initial evidence’ is
not submitted or eligibility for the visa
sought isn’t established.
The July 13 directive from the Uni­
ted States Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) could spell trouble for
visa applicants from India, who used
to get a second chance to submit more
documentary evidence or satisfactory
explanations for their eligibility. What
is worrying for companies sending
their employees abroad on H­1B visas is
that they face the threat of immediate
deportation if their visa applications
are rejected. An earlier notification
had empowered US authorities to issue
a notice to appear (NTA) to a person
waiting for renewal of visa. Reports say
issuing the NTA could be a precursor
to removal proceedings against the
TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
secretary general of the Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commerce &
Industry. “This is based more on the ex­
ecution part. It is up to the companies
concerned to ensure that they stick to
the regulations, and then it should not
be a problem.” Though officials have
powers to reject visa applications, this
does not prevent them from reconsider­
ing those applications, he adds.
The US issues 85,000 H1­B visas
in a year, but three times that number
apply for them. In 2016, the USCIS
received 236,000 applications, which
dropped to 199,000 in 2017. Similarly,
companies based in India. However,
the overall number of visas issued
remains the same. “The number of
visas taken by Indian IT companies
has dropped by half to 10,000 and will
decline further,” he says. Following
visa restrictions and the local rhetoric
against migrant workers, Indian com­
panies have been stepping up to hire
locally, he adds.
The tightening of visa norms has
been slow but steady under the Trump
regime. On March 3 last year, USCIS
said they would temporarily suspend
premium processing for all H­1B visa
petitions until further notice from
April, but resumed premium process­
ing in October. On April 18 last year,
Trump signed a ‘Buy American, Hire
American’ executive order, indicating
broad policy intentions, directing fed­
eral agencies to propose reforms to the
H1B visa system. These policies were
seen hurting Indian IT companies,
which earn around $60 billion annu­
ally from the US market.
“The overall challenges of obtaining
H1B visas still remain,” says Chenoy. n
—M.G. Arun

RAHUL GANDHI took to Twitter to respond

PU LLQUOTE (indirectly) to the controversy generated by his
remark, as reported by an Urdu newspaper,
“I stand with the last person in the at a meeting of Muslim intellectuals that the
line. The exploited, marginalised Congress was a Muslim party. The paper’s
and the persecuted. Their religion, headline was denied and described as inacc­
caste or beliefs matter little to urate and misleading. Not that it stopped def­
ence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prime
me. I seek out those in pain and
Minister Narendra Modi making accusations.
embrace them. I erase hatred Rahul’s sentiments in his tweet seem noble.
and fear. I love all living beings. But given the conflation of his family with
I am Congress.” the party, such first­person grandiosity was
perhaps misjudged. Albeit comical.

Beijing Wary of ‘Quad’ Agenda
F
aced with a growing regional
clamour for a new Asian secu­
rity consensus, China is find­
ing itself in a dilemma. The
idea currently gaining currency—ar­
ticulated by the US as a “free and open
Indo­Pacific”, and backed by countries
including India, Indonesia, Japan and
Australia—has been viewed coldly in
Beijing, seen as aimed at stifling its rise.
On July 13, India looked to address
some of China’s concerns when officials
from the two sides met in Beijing for
a second maritime dialogue. The first
round was held in February 2016, but
no meetings took place last year when
the focus was on the land domain and
the border stand­off in Doklam.
India’s message was a carefully
calibrated one, taking off from Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at
the Shangri­La Dialogue. As much as
China has dwelt on and wholeheartedly
welcomed his declaration that India
neither sees “the Indo­Pacific Region
as a strategy or as a club of limited
members” nor “directed against any
country”, Beijing is aware that much of
Modi’s message doesn’t sit easily with its
view of the region.
Modi emphasised ASEAN as “the
heart of the Indo­Pacific”, which he
said stands for “a free, open, inclusive
region”. He said it was India’s view that
I N D O - PAC I F I C
“rules and norms based on the consent
of all, not on the power of the few” and
that “when nations make international
commitments, they must uphold
them”. At least among a number of
ASEAN diplomats, this was seen as
referencing China’s reneged commit­
ment to not militarise the disputed
South China Sea islands.
At Beijing’s most prominent
international relations conference on
July 15 at Tsinghua University, Chinese
strategic experts dismissed calls for an
Asian security architecture as a ruse to
contain China’s rise. Much of their ire
was directed at “the Quad”, referring to
India, US, Japan and Australia starting
a four­way dialogue.
Wu Shicun, a leading Chinese
strategist who heads the government’s
only think­tank dedicated to the South
China Sea, declared that “the Quad
countries share suspicions about China
and its Belt and Road Initiative”.
Much of the ire of
Chinese strategic
experts is directed at
India, US, Japan and
Australia starting a
four-way dialogue
Shyam Saran, former Indian foreign
secretary, told the forum, “We are
not forming a military alliance, but no­
body can have a veto on who we want
to talk to.” India, he said, shared cer­
tain common interests with the three
countries, just as it did with China and
Russia in Eurasia, where it is a mem­
ber of the Shanghai Cooperation Or­
ganisation grouping. Any rules­based
order, pointed out former Chinese vice
foreign minister He Yafei, should not
just be “one kind of order”—as, say, the
US, sees it—but a “new modus vivendi
for Asia­Pacific security”.
Yet, as one Asian diplomat at the
conference pointed out, neither He nor
Wu could offer any suggestion as to
what were the “rules” that China would
find agreeable. Nor did they give a rea­
son for why China feels unease at basic
principles that refer to settling disputes
peacefully, allowing freedom of naviga­
tion for both commercial and military
vessels, and following international law
in settling disputes. Beijing’s current
strategy appears to be deflecting re­
gional calls for fair security architecture
by focusing on largely imagined—and
practically unfeasible—attempts to
contain the rise of the world’s second­
largest economy. Its neighbours might
not find it very convincing. n
—Ananth Krishnan in Beijing
Indian and Japanese ships
during the Malabar 2018 naval
exercise off the coast of Guam
UPFRONT

12 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

 EXPOSUR E

MUMBAI DANCES
ON WATER
The city may have been
battered and bruised by
rain—a whole month’s worth
falling in just 10 days—but
the famous spirit of Mumbai-
kars, as this picture shows, is
still intact. They’re enjoying
high tide at Worli Seaface,
taking the sea spray full
in the face. For these mo-
ments, these revellers are
not thinking about how they
have been let down by their
government, how little has
been done to shore up the
city’s infrastructure, about
their fellow citizens whose
makeshift homes have been
swept away, or those holed up
in flooded buildings without
electricity or even much ac-
cess to food.

KUNAL PATIL / GET T Y IMAGES

UPFRONT
POINT OF V IEW
A Loaded Silence
By Danish Sheikh
L
ast week, the central government was
primed to unveil its position on LGBTQ
rights before the Supreme Court of
India. Their statement was anticipated with
bated breath: in recent years, there has been
a strong movement asking political parties
to extend their support to the LGBTQ com­
munity. A few parties have responded
positively. The Congress, the JD(S), the
National Conference, AAP and the CPI(M)
have made unequivocal public statements
in favour of the community, with the last
two placing a demand for decriminalisation
in their manifestos. The NDA government,
however, has been silent. On July 11, it broke
its silence—which at first glance seems like
more silence. Only on further perusal does it
become clear the party does have a position on
the issue. It is certainly not one that imagines
LGBTQ persons as equal citizens.
On July 11, Tushar Mehta, the Additional
Solicitor General, informed the five­judge
constitution bench hearing the Section 377
case that the Centre would defer to the court’s
wisdom. This is not the equivalent of the
government supporting decriminalisation.
Support would have entailed submitting
an affidavit recognising the many harms
perpetrated by the section, and acknowledging
the equal citizenship of the millions of
individuals who constitute the LGBTQ
community. In 2012, it is precisely what the
UPA government did.
Then Attorney General, the late Goolam
Vahanvati, stated in open court that the
ASG Tushar government had learnt from the Delhi High
Mehta’s Court’s Naz Foundation decision and sought
‘concerns’ with to support the reading down of Section 377.
bestiality were Vahanvati went above and beyond this mere
bizarre and no statement to actively make submissions
more than a about how the law was a form of sexual
diversionary imperialism fostered by colonial rule and
tactic; at no that the introduction of Section 377 was
not a reflection of otherwise more tolerant
point did the Indian values and traditions. Later, when
petitioners the apex court delivered its verdict in Suresh
make this Kumar Koushal v. Union of India, the central
argument government filed a review petition. It did not
take measures to strike down the law once the
review petition failed, but at the very least they
took a clear, cogently articulated position.
In contrast, the current ASG didn’t stop
at just stating there was no government posi­
tion. Time and again, he told the court he held
a few apprehensions. But as it turned out,
these weren’t apprehensions that the mistakes
of S.K. Koushal might be repeated. Instead,
all the government wanted to do was to strike
a note of caution about the level of relief the
court might grant, the potential civil liberties
overload we might be confronted with, or the
possibility of being beset by the abominations
of incest and bestiality. The concern with
the apparent legalisation of bestiality is
particularly bizarre: at no point has any
petitioner made this argument, and the ASG’s
unnecessary “concerns” only served to distract
the court from the petitioners’ arguments.
Indeed, the ASG constantly interrupted
the petitioners as they made their submissions,
either complaining that the reliefs they were
asking for went beyond the scope of the
petition, or questioning the relevance of their
constitutional arguments. He displayed a
particularly pointed apprehension around
the arguments relating to the right of LGBTQ
persons to form associations, leading the court
to reprimand him multiple times.
Judgments might be declared by courts,
but they need active state cooperation to be
implemented. In this case, it’ll be one thing
for the court to declare that Section 377 does
not apply to consenting adults (and thus,
decriminalise LGBTQ persons), it’ll be another
for state authorities to internalise this decision
and stop the persecution of the community,
and yet another for the state to actually
make an amendment to 377. At this point, it
appears that even if the apex court delivers the
empowering decision the community deserves,
it’ll be undercut by the government’s apathy.
More than apathy: the government was not
silent in the Supreme Court; it spoke, and its
choice of words betray nothing but contempt
for the queer community. n
Danish Sheikh is an Assistant Professor
at Jindal Global Law School
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
 STATES
MADHYA PRADESH: MAHARASHTRA:
RIVAL YATRAS FADNAVIS SLIPPING
PG 1 8 PG 19

RAJASTHAN: KERALA: THE

RAJE’S PRE-POLL LOTUS WILTS
SHOWCASE PG 2 0 PG 2 1

AFTAB ALAM SIDDIQUI

BROTHERS IN ARMS
Tejashwi (right) with Tej Pratap at
the RJD foundation day programme

BIHAR

FAMILY O
n July 5, when Tej Pratap Yadav got up to
address partymen at the Rashtriya Janata
Dal’s 22nd foundation day in Patna, younger
brother Tejashwi quietly told him to keep it

FEUD?
PATNA
All’s not well in Lalu’s RJD.
Elder son Tej Pratap feels he
might have got short shrift
By Amitabh Srivastava
short. Evidently unconvinced, the older Yadav promptly
told the gathering what had transpired. “Tejashwi must
be thinking I should give him a chance to speak. I will.
He is going to Delhi by the evening flight. And then, I
will take care of everything here,” Tej Pratap said.
Comparing himself to “Lord Krishna” before a
“trembling Arjun”, he used the lilt and mannerisms
characteristic of their father Lalu Prasad Yadav as he
claimed seniority. All through, Tejashwi looked uneasy.
This wasn’t the first time the elder sibling had spoken
out publicly. In June, Tej Pratap had tweeted his disap-
proval of how “some people were worried over his emergence
as kingmaker” and then criticised state president Ram
Chandra Purvey over how he was running the RJD. He also
alleged that he was being ignored within the party, repeat-
edly reminding people of his “authority”. Lalu’s older son has
been showing himself as a potential rebel, and it is something
neither his family nor the party can afford to ignore.
Once deemed a lightweight, Tej Pratap is now trying to

SONU KISHAN
craft a new image for himself. Attacking opponents, both
inside and outside the RJD, he is trying to project himself as a
mass leader in Lalu’s mould. On July 9, he visited his assem-
bly constituency Mahua and spent the day riding a cycle-rick-
shaw, sitting on the floor to have sattu in mahadalit homes, DRY DAYS
berating a government official on the phone and letting people CM Nitish Kumar at the Bihar
Diwas function in Patna
hear the conversation on the speaker and other such gim-
micks. He even stopped to take a bath at a public hand-pump. BIHAR
Many in the RJD say Tej Pratap has changed after his

Watered-down
marriage in May. Wife Aishwariya Rai is widely seen as
the reason for this aggressive
reincarnation. Often described

Prohibition
“I’ll put Arjun by Lalu as “a man with a heart
on the throne of gold”, he is not as articulate
as Tejashwi but doesn’t mince
in Hastinapur
and take off
words and is given to unpre- Fearing an election backlash, Nitish
dictable outbursts.
is set to dilute liquor laws. But he may
to Dwarka, Tejashwi, in comparison, is
lose women voters in the bargain
[though] a mild-mannered and astute. As
few tattlers leader of the opposition in Bi- By Amitabh Srivastava
har, he has been an urbane and
still think politically correct version of
I’m playing
C
Lalu. And to his credit, he has hief Minister Nitish Kumar is all set to water
kingmaker” almost single-handedly led the down the prohibition law he so grandly pro-
RJD to three bypoll wins since claimed in 2016. His government will table
TEJ PRATAP YADAV
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s amendments in the monsoon session of the state
Janata Dal (United) snapped assembly to withdraw provisions to impose collec-
ties with the party in July 2017. tive fines, higher penalties for repeat and habitual
Despite his recent outbursts, Tej Pratap also seems to offenders, and for passing off country liquor as IMFL
share an affectionate bond with Tejashwi. They danced (Indian made foreign liquor). The amendments will
together at the wedding in May and, at Lalu’s birthday help first-time offenders get bail at police stations.
celebration in June, Tej Pratap promised to find Tejashwi a Further, Section 38 of the Bihar Prohibition and
bride soon. At least in public, they seem like best buddies. Tej Excise Act, 2016, which mandates a 10-year jail term
Pratap still describes his brother as his “kaleje ka tukda”, and and a Rs 10 lakh fine, is expected to be withdrawn.
Tejashwi says his older brother is his “friend and guide”. As amended, the law will exclude family members of
But the criticism and tweets seem to be directed against the accused person, who, under the existing provi-
the way the party functions under his younger brother who, sions, are liable to suffer penalties. The amended law
for all practical purposes, heads the RJD in Lalu’s absence. will also do away with provisions to attach assets of
“It doesn’t rankle him that Lalu picked Tejashwi to lead the accused persons.
party,” says a senior RJD leader, “but Tej Pratap will not Although the state government insists that the
play second fiddle... he wants equal stature in the party.” relaxations are part of an ongoing review process, the
It’s a skirmish the RJD can ill afford, with the Lok Sab- timing—less than a year before the Lok Sabha elec-
ha elections less than a year away. The chemistry between tions—is telling.
the brothers will determine how effectively the RJD is able A senior leader of the ruling Janata Dal (United)
to challenge Narendra Modi and the NDA. n concedes that bypoll losses in Araria and Jehanabad

J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 17

STATES

in March, and the Jokihat assembly M A D H YA P R A D E S H

seat in May may have contributed

TIT-FOR-TAT YATRA
to Nitish’s change of heart.
Bihar’s prohibition law has
landed over 1,41,000 people in
jails. It is widely accepted that the
JD(U) lost Jehanabad and Jokihat CM Chouhan is on a statewide rally, and BHOPAL
because of police action against the Congress is on his tail with a counter
Dalits under the prohibition law. In
fact, opposition leaders, particular- By Rahul Noronha
ly former chief minister Jiten Ram
Manjhi, have been vocal on how
Dalits have been bearing the brunt

O
of the anti-liquor law. n July 14, BJP chief Amit
It is a fact that a large majority Shah flagged off Shivraj
of those arrested under the pro- Singh Chouhan’s Jan
hibition legislation are Scheduled ashirwad yatra from
Castes and OBCs—sections that Ujjain to seek the voters’
constitute a significant support ‘blessings’ ahead of the upcoming
assembly polls. It was the second
such, Union minister Rajnath Singh
THE PROHIBITION having launched a similar roadshow
LAWS HAVE LANDED in neighbouring Chhattisgarh in
May, with another one planned for
141,000 PEOPLE Rajasthan, the third BJP-ruled state
IN JAILS SO FAR. headed for elections.
As in 2008 and 2013, Chouhan
AND DALITS HAVE hopes to use the statewide exercise
to re-engage with voters, get feed-
BEEN BEARING THE back on incumbent BJP legislators
BRUNT OF THE
ANTI-LIQUOR DRIVE
SAT YABRATA TRIPATHY/GETT Y IMAGES
and weed out the weaker ones. But
this time, the opposition aims to
throw a spanner in the works. The
Congress, now collectively headed
by three party heavyweights—Ka-
mal Nath, Digvijaya Singh and
Jyotiraditya Scindia—is on a jan
jagran (awakening) yatra or pol
khol yatra that will trail Chouhan
across the state, with counter-rallies
where the CM spoke, to expose the
“true state of affairs”.
Launched by state party chief
Nath from the Ujjain township of
Tarana on July 18, the Congress
yatra will be using the four-day lag
to expose the BJP government in

base of the JD(U).

However, it is just as true that
prohibition has strengthened Nit-
ish’s image among women voters
irrespective of caste. Analysts
say, Bihar’s women voters have
emerged as a “caste-neutral”
constituency for the chief minis-
ter. Prohibition has discernibly
brought down domestic violence
and raised the disposable family
incomes in the state.
Since April 5, 2016, state agen-
cies have registered 117,000 cases
under the prohibition law. Some
two million litres of IMFL and
900,000 litres of country liquor
REDTAPE AND MORE CM Fadnavis launches a mobile ticketing
have also been seized during
service at Versova metro station, June 8, Mumbai
this period. n

18 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018


Shah and Chouhan at the launch of the rally in Ujjain
MP. “It’s a deliberate plan,” says Con-
gress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi.
“We will make a point-by-point rebut-
tal of all the BJP’s claims.”
At the start of the BJP yatra at
Nanakhedi in Ujjain, Shah lost no time
taking potshots at the Congress: “I urge
Congressmen to follow Chouhan’s yatra.
They will then discover why the BJP
is in power in 19 states,” he thundered
with the chief minister at his side. “An
udyogpati (industrialist) and a maha-
raja will never triumph over a kisan
putra (Chouhan),” he said, alluding to
MUMBAI
M AH AR ASHTR A
In the
Slip Zone
Chief Minister Fadnavis is
in danger of losing his grip
on the government
By Kiran D. Tare
PANKAJ TIWARI
HITTING THE TRAIL
Nath and Scindia, the Congress’s cam-
paign committee chief.
For his part, Nath described
Chouhan’s roadshow as a “ jan chhalav
yatra (journey to con people)”. He
pointed out that all the arrangements
for the BJP programme were made by
the state government. The Congress
chief even wrote a letter to Mahakal
baba, the resident deity of the Mahakal
temple, where Chouhan and Shah
prayed before launching their yatra,
reminding voters of the CM’s failed
promises from 2013.
D
evendra Fadnavis is in a bind.
In the final year of his term,
the chief minister is in serious
danger of tripping up over the poor
implementation of key government
decisions and delivery of schemes.
Evidently, complacency is plaguing the
BJP government in Maharashtra.
It’s already caused the CM consid-
erable embarrassment with regard to
his flagship jalyukta shivar abhiyan
(JSA). The scheme supports local
micro-irrigation projects and has
helped increase farm productivity, even
in deficient monsoon years. But even
though the statistics point to success,
the state hasn’t claimed credit fearing
trouble, after a petition in the Bombay
High Court claimed the JSA was “un-
scientific and damaging to the ecology”.
230
Number of
assembly
constituencies
Chouhan’s jan
ashirwad rally
plans to cover
Meanwhile, Chouhan will, in this
yatra, touch all the 230 assembly
constituencies before it ends at Nagod
in Satna district on September 25. He
will travel in—and address meetings
from—two specially customised buses
(one each for western and eastern MP).
He’s looking to peak with a major show
in the state capital Bhopal.
Chouhan’s earlier pre-poll road-
shows have been successes, winning
the BJP many elections. This time,
much will depend on the Congress’s
stamina to keep things on the boil. n
A court-appointed panel, headed by ex-
chief secretary Johny Joseph, has also
picked holes in the scheme.
Fadnavis’s ‘historic’ Rs 32,500
crore farm loan waiver has also come
a cropper. To date, just 3.7 million of
the 8.9 million farmers in the state
have benefitted. Implementation has
been mired in bureaucratic red tape
including online processing of applica-
tions and mandatory Aadhaar linking
of farmers’ bank accounts. Further
adding to the ire of cultivators, banks
have been delaying/ denying fresh
crop loans to those whose loan waivers
haven’t been processed.
And while he copes with all this,
Sanjay Nirupam, the opposition Con-
gress party chief in Mumbai, has acc-
used the CM of nepotism of the worst
J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 19
STATES

kind. On July 2, he charged Fadnavis
with clearing a dubious transaction for
24 acres of prime real estate adjacent to
the upcoming airport at Navi Mumbai.
Nirupam claims the two builders who
benefitted are friends of Prasad Lad,
the NCP leader who defected to the BJP
last year to become an MLC. The CM
was forced to stay the sale and order a
judicial inquiry that will now scrutinise
200 land transactions after 2009.
It would appear that Fadnavis is
being kept in the dark on several fronts.
In June, when the Pune police ar-
rested Bank of Maharashtra chairman
Ravindra Marathe, they didn’t think it
FADNAVIS
ADMITS THE
BUREAUCRACY
DOES NOT ALWAYS
LISTEN TO HIM
prudent to inform the chief minister
(who is also the home minister) or the
Reserve Bank. “I’m concerned over the
manner the Pune police dealt with the
case,” Fadnavis later said.
It is by now an open secret that the
police and civil bureaucracy rou-
tinely defy the writ of the CM and his
ministers. Most recently, social justice
minister Rajkumar Badole publicly
told off a secretary in his department
for failing to act on his instructions. A
senior party leader informed Fadnavis
that his principal secretary, Praveen
Pardeshi, allegedly tore up a letter the
CM had signed. “I’ve never heard [of]
a secretary tearing up a CM’s letter.
This is disheartening,” the leader said.
On the third anniversary of his
government, in October 2017, Fadna-
vis had admitted that the bureaucracy
did not always listen to him. That
evidently hasn’t changed. n

BUILDING CACHET CM Raje on an inspection tour in Jaipur

R AJASTH A N

RAJE’S
PRE-POLL
SHOWCASE
The CM is hoping two grand new
projects will shore up her image
By Rohit Parihar
PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR

JAIPUR

J
aipur has two brand new landmarks
rapidly nearing completion—a 47-km
riverfront development along the
length of the seasonal Dravyavati rivulet,
and a 90 metre wide road fringing the city
in the south. Touted as Vasundhara Raje’s
dream projects, the two will cost an esti-
mated Rs 3,000 crore.
Originating in the Nahargarh hills,
the Dravyavati carries rain water through
Jaipur every monsoon, eventually emptying
itself in the Dhoond river. Over the years,
it had became a dumping ground for the
city’s sewage, with rampant encroachments
along both its banks. In 1981, the congestion
caused a huge flood that took eight lives.

Personally monitored by the chief min-
ister since work commenced two years ago,
the riverfront project is being partly paid for
through a loan from the National Capital
Region Planning Board while the road
construction is being done by the National
Highway Authority of India. Raje hopes to
showcase both projects in time for the state
assembly elections, due in December.
3,000
Now, besides removing the encroach-
ments and setting up multiple sewage
`
treatment plants (STPs), the project includes
paving the length of the Dravyavati’s banks
with concrete and cobblestone. Riverbank CRORE
roads, walking paths, cycle tracks, three The estimated cost
extensive gardens, eateries and recreation of two big-ticket
centres are also planned. The project will election-year projects
free some 800,000 square metres of prime

20 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

riverfront land that will be sold to
recover Rs 1,600 crore of the cost.
Jaipur Development Authority (JDA)
commissioner Vaibhav Galleria, who
is heading the project, says three
dams along the river course have been
repaired, and check dams are being
constructed every 300 metres, to
ensure year-round flow in the rivulet.
Raje says it will be “an oasis in
the desert, which will make Jaipur a
better, more desirable city”. And it’s
fast nearing completion. By mid-
August, she says, almost the entire
length of the rivulet will have street
lighting parts of it even wi-fi.
Close to the Jaipur international
airport and at the downstream end
of the Dravyavati, the southern
corridor of what will be a ring road
around Jaipur, is also close to com-
RAJE SAYS THE
RIVERFRONT
PROJECT WILL BE
“AN OASIS IN THE
DESERT” FOR JAIPUR
pletion. Conceived by Raje in 2007,
the previous Congress government
gave the contract in 2011 but the
project remained mired in delays.
Raje’s persistence eventu-
ally paid off, with Union transport
minister Nitin Gadkari agreeing to
build the central 60 metre section
of the 90 metre wide transportation
corridor. When completed, it will
significantly reduce congestion due
to highway traffic that has to pass
through Jaipur city. The project has
released 6.8 million square metres
of land, which is simultaneously be-
ing developed by the JDA.
The BJP hopes to showcase
the two projects in the assembly
elections by drawing comparisons
with former chief minister Ashok
Gehlot’s failed metro rail project,
which did little to alleviate Jaipur’s
traffic snarls. n
KERALA
THE STICKUP
Saffron Setback
An RSS ‘route march’ in
Thiruvananthapuram;
Shah inaugurates a
party convention
in the capital
The BJP and RSS are not quite in sync in
Kerala, and plans have been misfiring of late
By Jeemon Jacob
I
n May 2014, as counting got under way for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok
Sabha constituency, BJP workers were upbeat. For the first time in Kerala’s
political history, the saffron candidate, O. Rajagopal, was leading over the
Congress’s Shashi Tharoor. The 88-year-old BJP veteran eventually came in
second, losing by 15,470 votes, but he had proved a point.
The RSS saw the result as proof of the changing political mood. The idea
got traction after Rajagopal won the Nemom assembly poll—in the same LS
constituency—two years later, defeating a local heavyweight, the CPI(M)’s V.
Sivankutty. The Sangh was convinced the lotus was ready to bloom in Kerala.
Building on that, the RSS’s prant karyavah (state secretary), P. Gopalan-
kutty Master, says the organisation has been able to establish a dedicated
cadre in the state. According to him, more than 150,000 volunteers partici-
pate in 5,200 daily and 800 weekly shakhas in the state. That, he proudly tells
you, is more than “in states like Gujarat and Rajasthan”.
15%
It’s an important part of BJP chief Amit Shah’s mis-
sion. The party ramped up its Lok Sabha tally of 10.3
per cent votes to 15 per cent in the 2016 assembly polls.
But in the past two months, the plan seems to have lost
momentum after former state president Kummanam
vote share of the
Rajasekharan’s unceremonious ‘ouster’ (he was shipped
BJP in the 2016
off to Mizoram as governor) in May. Insiders say the
assembly polls, up
Sangh was against the move, but both Prime Minister from 10.3 per cent
Narendra Modi and Shah wanted someone more pliable in the 2014 LS polls
to run the party in Kerala. The BJP’s failure to name a
successor to Kummanam till now also shows that not all
is okay in the state set-up, say analysts.
Addressing partymen in Thiruvananthapuram on July 3, Shah was most
cut up about the situation. He said Kerala’s BJP leaders were caught up in ego
clashes despite the central (party) leadership bestowing numerous favours,
including plum positions. “Amit Shah has a poor opinion of the state leader-
ship and its functioning,” a senior party leader said.
Party insiders say Shah is eyeing 11 of Kerala’s 20 Lok Sabha constituencies
in 2019, which the RSS thinks is much too ambitious. “We are realistic,” says
Master. “We have winning chances in three Lok Sabha constituencies. The
Sangh will work meticulously for the victory of BJP candidates. But we won’t
interfere in the party’s internal affairs.” n
J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 21
LOSING
THE TAJ
A POEM IN STONE THAT ONCE FULFILLED AN
EMPEROR’S FANTASY OF LOVE, GLORY AND
MAGNIFICENCE IS FIGHTING A FIERCE BATTLE
FOR SURVIVAL IN THE AGE OF MODERNITY.
DANGER SIGNS ARE ALL AROUND. DO YOU WANT TO
WAIT FOR THE WORST CATASTROPHE TO STRIKE?
JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE TAJ MAHAL

By Damayanti Datta
Photographs by
Bandeep Singh and Yasir Iqbal
C OV E R ST O RY
 90
The number of drains that
discharge sewage into the
Yamuna through its 122 kilometre
journey in Agra district
 Taj dies if
the Yamuna dies
Hydel plants, mining, domestic and industrial
waste, deforestation, groundwater exhaustion,
floodplain encroachment, the Yamuna is an
‘ecologically dead’ river at Agra. The Taj’s
foundations are buried deep below the riverbed.
Research now shows the water level is receding.
Will the Mughal tomb cave in if the Yamuna dies?

Green stains are fly specks

With the rising algae and detritus, the
population of midges in the Yamuna has
exploded. Their green faeces can be washed
off, but the alarm has been sounded on the
severe environmental degradation
A maddening
rush of tourists
The Taj is reeling under footfalls. Fragile
areas like the main mausoleum, the
platform at the centre of the char bagh—the
one extending from the main entrance to-
wards the mausoleum—are all under severe
pressure. Mass human presence creates
unhealthy humidity. Sweat, oil, dirt from
contact gets absorbed into the marble. The
longer it remains, the harder it is to remove
Not just vandalism and graffiti
The volume of visitors places enormous
pressure on the conservators who have to
battle for space to carry out their work
70,000
The number of tourists
visiting the Taj on holidays and
weekends
Erosion is
scarring the Taj
Flaking plaster and stained marble, missing
stones and inlay work, minarets and domes
crrumbling in a storm—these are all indications
of a prolonged structural erosion, possibly from
the rusting of concealed iron lugs and dowels
used to join together stone slabs in the Taj

Blasted by sand and mining

A major menace is the erosion of marble by
the sand-laden winds from the deserts of
Rajasthan, and illegal, unbridled sand mining,
creating deep pits in the riverbed
 100 kmph
Windspeed during dust
storms, the sand grains
abrading Taj’s surface
 Pollution from the
burning ghats
There are eight ghats on the riverbanks
in a 10-12 km radius around the Taj
Mahal. All are used for bathing, religious
rituals, idol immersion and cremation.
Apart from the organic waste and
plastic, even carcasses are regularly
found floating on the Yamuna
Thick black smoke billows out
Despite a Supreme Court order in 2015
to protect the monument from pollution
damage, the UP government has failed
to remove the wood-burning
crematorium closest to the Taj

Carbon and dust

turning the Taj dark
New research shows atmospheric carbon
is wreaking havoc on the Taj, discolouring
the marble. Agra is the eighth most polluted
city in the world, with particulate matter
levels more than twice the national average
and eight times the WHO standard

Acid rain may not be the culprit

In the 1980s, SO2 emissions were identified
as the main factor degrading the stonework
of the Taj. Current data does not support
the claim that acid rain or sulphates and
nitrates are responsible for the damage
 2.5 PM

Total particulate matter in the

Agra air, responsible for
discolouration of the Taj
 Is the Taj Doomed?
The Taj Mahal is in grave danger. While air pollution is turning the monument brown,
severe degradation of the Yamuna is likely to ruin its foundation. If not tackled on a war
footing, India’s only ‘Wonder of the World’ may one day become a rotting remnant of the
glory that was. Or worse, it may just slide off its pedestal into the mud
Infographics by NILANJAN DAS

A RIVER
FULL OF 99% ECOLOGICALLY DEAD
Between Panipat and Agra, the
river is black and stinking, with
municipal, domestic and
industrial waste pouring into it

SORROW WATER VOLUME THE YAMUNA

LOSES
from 22 drains in Haryana, 42 in
Delhi and 17 in Uttar Pradesh

After diversion into two canals for

drinking and irrigation. The river
is reduced to a trickle at the Hathni-
kund dam in Haryana. From this
point, it is fed by untreated sewers.
The stench is unbearable

CLEAR, BLUE AND MINING ON RIVERBANK

SPARKLING
The Yamuna springs from the
pure meltwaters of the
Yamunotri glacier on the
Banderpooch peaks in the
Lower Himalayas in Uttarkashi,
Uttarakhand
FIRST INTERVENTION A canal meets the river 20 km
The Yamuna enters the downstream at Paonta Sahib,
plains at Dakpathar, a Sikh pilgrimage site and an
Uttarakhand. A weir, 3 hydel industrial town; stone and
plants and a tourist complex sand mining goes on at the
destroy fish, turtles and riverbank, in open defiance of
water birds Supreme Court directives
 UNFIT FOR ANY USE The Yamuna
gets all the waste from Ghaziabad,
Noida, Greater Noida; at Mathura, the
Gokul barrage robs it of more water
while the Masani nullah empties more
waste: remains of ghats, cremation
grounds, industrial chemicals
IT’S A SEWER
At Agra, it’s no longer a river, but a
sewer; with 630 MLD of untreated
municipal sewage dumped every day,
floating filth, plastic, tannery waste,
cadavers and carcasses, toxic metal
discharge from industry...

CHOKED TO DEATH
Illegal sand mining and
construction in the
Yamuna floodplain—the
water is dark, slimy,
with negligible flow

MOST POLLUTED STRETCH

Nearly untreated water from 17
drains in UP, the water turns
poisonous from here, full of
filth, microbes, heavy metals,
arsenic, residual ash and coal
02

02
02

0 MG/ L OF
DISSOLVED OXYGEN
at a few locations near
Agra. Healthy rivers should
contain at least 5 mg/ L for
CAPITAL marine life to thrive
CALAMITY
Delhi drains out
almost all the water,
dumps 80% of its POISONOUS WATERS
solid waste into the The Yamuna behind the Taj is
river between Palla, greyish-black, smells of
Wazirabad, ITO and rotten eggs, marked by
Okhla barrages blooming algae and dead fish
A TOXIC
NEIGHBOURHOOD
WORST POLLUTERS
Open burning of trash by the
Agra municipality; burning of
scrap tyres to extract iron;
wood-burning crematoriums;
forest fires; chullahs—in homes
and small-scale industries; on-
road and off-road diesel
engines; industrial emission

DISCOLOURING
THE TAJ
Scientists have found
that tiny dust particles,
black carbon (soot)
and brown organic
carbon are sticking to
the Taj surface. They
absorb ultraviolet light,
giving the white marble
a dirty brown hue

50
TIMES MORE
BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN
DEMAND (BOD) than the
permissible limit, by the
time the Yamuna flows
through Agra; indicates
very high levels of pollution,
which promotes the
proliferation of harmful
insects and microbes

GREEN MARBLE
Chironomid insects emerge
from the water at night and
swarm the monument,
staining it green
 DEADLY PARTICLES
Open burning of waste
and diesel fumes release
tiny carbon par ticles that
stick to the marble. They
are insoluble in water and
hard to remove. The only
way to reduce emissions
is to identify and eliminate
the sources of pollution

BROWN CARBON
Solid waste from animal
and crop sources; meat
processing waste;
leather tanning waste;
stubble burning in
nearby states: these are
the biggest sources of
hazardous brown
carbon in the air, Agra’s
enduring bane

SAND IN THE AIR

Dust particles, mostly
from the Rajasthan
deserts, and illegal
sand mining, increase
the level of suspended
particulate matter in
the air. Sand particles

FOUNDATION also abrade the marble

FEARS

2,000
WELL FOUNDATION
The Taj is built on
gigantic wooden slabs
atop a well foundation,
to stabilise the river- METRIC TONNES
bank sand. Rows of of waste is
columns and archways dumped in the
keep it from sliding open in Agra city
into the river every day

RIVER DIVERTED
A series of conduits,

24
and drainage pipes
encased in stone and
mortar built in to
divert the river water

PER CENT
UNKNOWN DEPTHS Municipal waste is
Caissons, or watertight
burnt on the
hollow cylinders, cased in
roadside, releasing
ebony or mahogany, and
particulate matter
filled with rubble and
masonry, extend deep
into the river bed

WOOD BASE
GOES BRITTLE
The wooden parts need to be moist, to
retain flexibility and strength. With the
9
PER CENT
Yamuna receding, it’s feared the logs and Or less is Agra’s green
boards have become brittle and that the cover now, against the
* Artist’s impression Taj might cave in national goal of 33%
Pollution from the
burning ghats
There are eight ghats on the riverbanks
in a 10-12 km radius around the Taj
Mahal. All are used for bathing, religious
rituals, idol immersion and cremation.
Apart from the organic waste and
plastic, even carcasses are regularly
found floating on the Yamuna
Thick black smoke billows out
Despite a Supreme Court order in 2015
to protect the monument from pollution
damage, the UP government has failed
to remove the wood-burning
crematorium closest to the Taj
 500 METRES

The distance from the Taj to

Mokshadham, the wood-burning
crematorium that spews ash and
smoke through the day
 C OV E R ST O RY

He’s a crowd-puller, in death as in life. For 30 long

years, the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan,
stood at his jharokha every morning, resplendent
in his court attire, acknowledging the crowd
below. Nearly 352 years after his death, a crowd
still scrambles for his darshan. Standing in front
of the soaring mausoleum he built for his beloved
empress, they jostle, shove, smile, pout, make
silly faces, for that ultimate #TajMahal selfie. No
matter the haze of pollution, the iron scaffolding,
the stains or cracks that mar the marble edifice.
Who knows if their lives will be the same when
they are done? Who knows how long the
Taj Mahal will survive?

“You can shut down the Taj. You can demolish it, if you
like. You can also do away with it.” That stinging comment
from the Supreme Court on July 11 has ignited a debate
of unusual interest over preserving India’s best-loved
and most-visited monument. Daily hearings will start
from July 31. As the bench says, “The Taj Mahal must be
protected.” On July 16, Union ministers have gone into a
huddle, along with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh,
to meet the threats facing the Taj. This is a moment of
truth. “The time has come to open up conversations,” says
A.G. Krishna Menon, architect and conservationist. The
problems Taj faces are very complex, he explains, but per-
haps the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the Pyramids in Egypt
or the Acropolis in Athens have already faced these. “Let’s
explore and learn from the world, so that we can leave the
monument to the next generation as we found it.”
As the medieval edifice meets modernity, new signs
of danger are mounting. A raft of new research suggests
that the source and type of problems, as well as their so-
lutions, have changed dramatically over the years. For the
last 35 years, india today has reported on the fight to
save India’s only wonder of the world, ever since the coun-
try’s longest and perhaps the most difficult legal struggle
to rescue heritage from pollution started in the Supreme
Court. History rarely offers second chances. And we
again take this opportunity to stand up, face facts, speak
out and, hopefully, change course. It’s a moment of soli-
darity, not looking for blame but for solutions; of setting
aside the politics and embracing the hour. Our democ-
racy shows the collective strength of engagement, to find
innovative ways and create positive changes. So can we
save the Taj?

38 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

 ACQUIRED FROM F. FRITH AND COMPANY, 1954

Upkeep in a Shambles
At the centre of the debate is environmentalist and lawyer
M.C. Mehta, the man whose public interest litigation in
the 1980s resulted in stringent orders against the Mathura
oil refineries for significantly reducing ambient air quality
around the Taj (M C Mehta vs Union of India,1996). Since
then, the Supreme Court has directed action to clean the
Taj, declaring 10,400 square kilometres of area the Taj
Trapezium Zone (TTZ), closing down or relocating pollut-
ing units. In a fresh application, Mehta has alleged that the
upkeep of Taj is in a shambles: the colour of the marble is
turning brown, cracks are appearing, minarets are showing
signs of tilting, materials are falling off, chandeliers are
crashing, CCTVs don’t work, drains around the area are
clogged, illegal encroachments, industries and activities
are mushrooming in the vicinity, while a dying Yamuna is
putting the foundation of the Taj at risk and also promoting
invading insects. “Pollution is still the biggest problem,” says ‘Agra. The Fort and Taj’, photographed
1850s-1870s by Francis Frith
Mehta, “but its source and nature are very different now.”
In the last one year, the story has been gathering mo-
mentum in court room four of the Supreme Court. Justices
Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta have sounded an alert
“LET’S EXPLORE AND LEARN FROM
on the “changing colour”, voiced their annoyance at the ab-
sence of “a vision document”, demanded “constant dialogue” THE WORLD,” SAYS ARCHITECT AND
with “genuine experts” and cautioned against “adversarial” CONSERVATIONIST A.G. KRISHNA
grandstanding. In August 2017, they raised a careful but de- MENON, “SO THAT WE CAN LEAVE
finitive finger at the political and bureaucratic machinery—
at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh: “This is a world famous THE MONUMENT TO THE NEXT
monument and you want to destroy it?” In November 2017, GENERATION AS WE FOUND IT.
they brought public attention to the fragility and irrevers- THE TIME HAS COME TO OPEN UP
ibility of its marbled magnificence: “You can’t get the Taj
again if it is destroyed.” In May this year, they subjected the CONVERSATIONS”
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to sharp and relentless
questioning: “According to you, you are looking after the Taj
very well and nothing has to be done? You are not ready to
accept that there is a problem?”
suggested its removal in 1994). One of the four official
burning ghats in Agra, it is the most popular, with up to
Fumes of Death 100 bodies burnt every day, each requiring about 300 kg of
It was another judge of the Supreme Court who raised yet wood, informs a member of the Kshetra Bajaj Committee, a
another red flag. In September 2015, when Justice Kurian voluntary organisation that provides funeral material. The
Joseph visited the Taj Mahal with his family, something new technology is in the process of “getting installed”—for
caught his eye: fumes of acrid black smoke coming toward the last four years now.
the monument. It emerged from a crematorium, Mokshad-
ham, nestled between the Taj and the Agra Fort. In a letter
to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Joseph sought the A River Runs Dry
intervention of the apex court: should the crematorium be For 200 kilometres from Delhi, the river flirts with the road.
shifted or should chimneys with wet scrubbers be installed At Etmadpur in Agra they criss-cross. And the romance
to ensure zero carbon emission? But efforts to shift the fizzles out: the ancient river is eerily empty, a landscape of
cremation site have not worked (they hadn’t worked even sand and silt. The five-year-old smart expressway moves
when the Dr S. Varadarajan Committee on atmospheric on, to be closer to the action: India’s only wonder of the
environmental quality and preservation of the Taj Mahal world: the Taj Mahal, and the giddy crush of humanity that

J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 39

 A Stain on Our Heritage Graphic by NILANJAN DAS

THEN NOW

1. Was ‘pearly white’ or ‘snow 1. Overall yellow hue, with

white’ even till the 1970s brown, black, brown and
green patches
2. The translucent marble changed
colour with the light: pinkish in the 2. Translucence affected by
morning, dazzling white at noon, pollution; colour change not
golden orange in the evenings and that discernible
milky white at night

3. Optical tricks are central 3. That grand

to the design of the Taj. From experience is no
its southern gate, the entire longer allowed; ASI
Taj fitted into the frame, has barred the gate
growing larger as one moved this year
closer
4. Stolen or
taken down;
4. Had gold not replaced
railing around by replica
the inner
sanctum and 5. Getting
silver gates flaked, slabs
5. The red are cracking
sandstone and breaking
was vibrant,
shiny and
smooth

6. Inlay work had 28

kinds of semi-precious
and precious stones,
including pearls and
diamonds

7. Surrounded by tall 7. That view has gone with the

green trees, the wind; Lord Curzon, Viceroy of
‘snow-white emana- India, mowed those down, turning
tion’ rose from ‘a bed a Mughal garden into a flat
of cypresses, backed Victorian garden
by a turquoise sky’ 9. River Yamuna
offered the most
6. Stolen or 8. Have 9. Nearly depleted
magnificent view,
8. Caravanserais— taken down; disappeared, and garbage-filled,
with the Taj
open-air squares not replaced overtaken by the river breeds
seemingly
with shopping by replica urbanisation of insects that are
floating on its
arcades all around— for visual Agra turning the marble
waters
were integral to the grandeur green; cannot appro-
Taj experience ach Taj from the river

10. A prosperous, cosmopolitan city, Agra was 10. One of the most polluted cities in the world, with
renowned for its craftsmanship of silk, lace, gold abysmal civic facilities; needs to be turned into a
and silver embroidery and metal and stone works heritage city to revive the Taj
 C OV E R ST O RY
descends on it every day. The river shrugs and keeps quiet.
It knows what it knows—the Taj dies if it dies. So ignore the
river at your peril.
A dry, polluted Yamuna was never in Shah Jahan’s sch­
eme of things. Sparkling blue and plentiful at its origin near
the Yamunotri glaciers, it is virtually a sewer by the time
it reaches Agra, says geologist Anil Kumar Misra, profes­
sor at Sikkim University in Gangtok. At the Hathni Kund
barrage in Haryana, the Yamuna is robbed of 99 per cent of
its water. Between Panipat and Agra, a series of drains, dark
with untreated wastewater, open into the river. At Delhi,
Yamuna gets the most polluted, with 17 sewage drains
dumping 3,296 MLD (millions of litres per day) of sewage
into the river. The City of Taj doesn’t spare the river: through
its 122 kilometre journey in Agra district, about 90 drains
discharge sewage into it, only 29 drains have wire meshing.
That’s not all: clusters of illegal settlements, called colo­
nies, have mushroomed along the most eco­sensitive zones
on its banks, with houses, apartments, commercial build­
ings, farmhouses and industrial units taking over thousands
of acres of its floodplains. The view of the Yamuna from
the Taj is a disturbing sight: on a normal day, at any point
in time, one can see truckloads of stinking garbage being
dumped into the turbid, slimy, black river, with mounds of
plastic bags, strips of leather, mouldy flowers and vegetation,
even carcasses and cadavers floating in it.
City under Pressure
A far cry from the Agra of the Mughals, when three genera­
tions of emperors initiated an extraordinary sequence of ur­
ban development and architectural projects: forts, palaces,
pavilions, gardens and serais. Even now, carved jali screens,
pillared verandahs and rooftop chhatris can be seen as
the underlying building idiom. Travel accounts in the 16th
and 17th centuries described it ‘a magnificent city’. Not just
contemporaries, research by former director­general of the
ASI, Debala Mitra, shows how Agra was a study in urban
landscaping, built on a grand scale, with massive hydrau­
lics for irrigation, radial road networks and monumental
riverfront gardens.
Today, for tourists visiting the city, Agra is an unhappy
experience: from lack of public convenience and information
centres, pollution and bumpy roads, crowds of harassing
hawkers, peddlers, touts, guides and photographers and an
absence of nightlife. Precisely the reason why “Taj Mahal
comes first and Agra second”, shows a survey by researchers
“NEW STUDIES SHOW THAT
POLLUTION IS STILL THE
BIGGEST PROBLEM, AFFECTING
THE TAJ,” SAYS ACTIVIST M.C.
MEHTA. “BUT THE SOURCE
AND NATURE OF THE
POLLUTANTS ARE VERY
DIFFERENT FROM THE 1980s”
Shiv Kumar Sharma et al of the department of manage­
ment, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra. To transform
the city in an age of ‘experience economy’, India may have
something to learn from other countries: the UK, for in­
stance, where heritage tourism has evolved as a vital part of
the economy—supporting a £20.2 billion gross value added
contribution to the GDP and generating 386,000 jobs.
A Plastic Paradise
Sunday, June 3. There was a buzz in the air. “Aa raha hai (he
is coming),” said Raju the rickshawallah. “A minister from
Delhi,” added Nand Kishor, owner of Maa Kela Devi Dhaba,
shaking debris out of a broom. “Will Yogiji (UP chief minister
Yogi Adityanath) come too,” asked Ahmed, a courier agent,
waiting for his first kulhar of tea. As the day wore on, the
news spread: Dr Mahesh Sharma, Union minister of state for
 C OV E R ST O RY INTERVIEW I MAHESH SHARMA
‘WE’RE WORKING
WITH NATIONAL AND
INTERNATIONAL
ORGANISATIONS
DR MAHESH SHARMA, Union minister of state for
culture (independent charge) and minister of state for
environment, forest and climate, in a candid interview
on the Taj with Executive Editor DAMAYANTI DATTA.
Excerpts:
Q: With the Supreme Court taking a stern stand on the
state of the Taj, what is your reaction? After all, your min-
istry is responsible for its upkeep.
A: The Taj Mahal is India’s pride, the second most visited
monument in South Asia and the sixth in the world.
Hence, we are contemplating long-term measures for
protecting and conserving the Taj. In June, senior
officers, including the Director General of the Archaeo-
logical Survey of India, those from the environment
ministry, the Uttar Pradesh government, the TTZ [Taj
Trapezium Zone], along with other stakeholders, met
at a day-long meeting, where long-term and short-term
measures for the protection of the Taj and Agra were
discussed, especially making 500 metres around the Taj
free of plastic pollution. We propose to hold further meet-
ings with all the stakeholders, including the UP chief
minister, very soon either in Delhi or Lucknow. We will
take decisions for protection and showcasing the Taj in a
time-bound manner.
Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing
the Taj?
A: First, Agra’s pollution, traffic and infrastructure are
not in line with the importance of this monument. A
major concern is the crematorium nearby, which is blow-
ing carbon dust towards the Taj. The Yamuna is polluted,
insects are thriving in it, dropping excreta on the marble
and discolouring it. River pollution is a nationwide prob-
lem. The government has created a separate ministry for
this and they are on board with us. We are working with
national and international organisations to ensure the
monument’s long life.
Q: What are the initiatives you have taken?
A: Now that the same party is at the Centre and the
state, work is definitely being done in a more cohesive
manner. We have taken measures such as an interpreta-
tion centre, eating joints, cleanliness and battery-oper-
ated cars near the Taj. High-value ticket users are being
given separate clean toilet facilities, kits with water
bottles, information etc. when they enter. E-ticketing
facility has been introduced by this government—people
don’t have to stand in a queue, they can buy tickets
when they start from their country or home. We have
restricted the time for visitors to three hours. Earlier
people used to enter in the morning and sit there until
late evening. We have been able to control the crowds.
The National Environmental Engineering Research
Institute recommended a restriction to the number of
visitors to the Taj. So there is a separate Rs 200 ticket
for people who want to visit the mausoleum. We have
been cleaning the marble regularly; the multani mitti
pack has shown good results.
Q: How is the funding of the Taj decided?
A: Any collection being done by the ASI at the Taj or any
other monument goes to the consolidated fund of the
country. Whatever we may collect there, we cannot use
that money. The budget sanctioned by the GoI to the
ministry of culture is utilised via the ASI. The budget has
two components: one part goes to the ASI and the other
to the Agra Development Authority via the state govern-
ment. This fund is used by the ADA mostly in and around
the Taj. There is no monument-specific budget, but the
funds are released as per requirement.
Q: Why does the Taj not have a stakeholders’ committee,
essential for every world heritage site?
A: It is a good suggestion and we will take steps to involve
public representatives and declare a stakeholders’ com-
mittee for the Taj. n
 THE TAJ IS PERHAPS ONE OF
THE MOST MISMANAGED
MONUMENTS IN INDIA
WHERE CRORES ARE SPENT ON
CONSERVATION AND TOURIST
MANAGEMENT AND YET THE WOES
OF THE TOURISTS DO NOT END
culture and for environment, forest and climate change, was
taking a vow, along with MPs, MLAs, state government of-
ficials, local administration, public representatives and NGOs
to make 500 metres around the Taj plastic free.
But at the Taj, water bottles, polythene bags, shoe covers
and snack wrappers discarded by tourists are a common
eyesore. According to ASI officials, every day, 12,000-20,000
discarded bottles are removed from the grounds. Not just
that, the city generates about 180 tonnes of plastic waste per
month. Research conducted by professors H.K. Thapak and
P. Rajaram of the Department of Chemical Engineering at
Jiwaji University, Gwalior, showed that decomposed plastic
garbage produces methane gas that contributes to the yellow-
ing of the Taj marble.
All this, despite the fact that the city has had a ban on
plastic use since 2014, when district administration and
municipal authorities even announced a plan for barricades
at Yamuna ghats to stop locals from throwing garbage and
polythene into the river. “Taj Mahal is one of the most mis-
managed monuments in India,” says Agra Tourist Welfare
Chamber Secretary Vishal Sharma. “Crores are spent on its
conservation, yet the tourists’ woes do not end.”
Dance of Pests
The green stain on marble has created the biggest scare about
the Taj Mahal’s health. To Professor Girish Maheshwari, head
1942. A protective wartime scaffolding around
the Taj during World War II
of the School of Entomology at Agra’s St John’s College, and
his team, these are caused by tiny, non-biting, midges, called
Chironomus. Millions of males and females emerge from the
Yamuna between 6 pm and 8 pm, mate in the air, then at-
tracted by Taj’s shiny marble, settle on its walls. They survive
for 2-3 days and before dying, cast off faeces the colour of
green, from the partially digested chlorophyll from the algae
they feed on. And this is what stains the Taj marble.
“Their sudden emergence indicates deeper changes tak-
ing place in Yamuna water,” he says. “The water is turning
highly eutrophic, or nutrient rich, near the Taj, with higher
concentration of phosphorus and underlying sediments,
impacting population of small fish that feed on them.” The
chlorophyll and faecal matter are water soluble and can be
cleaned easily, but these are invasive species and, left to breed
uncontrolled, may lend the marble a permanent greenish tint.
Black Smear Mystery
The research on the pollution discolouring the Taj has taken
a new direction and can be used to evaluate the potential
benefits of policy interventions in and around Agra. That
valuable research comes from an international team of
researchers, including from IIT Kanpur, conducted between
2014 and 2017. “Research has shown that poor air quality
is responsible for the soiling and discolouration of the Taj,”
says Professor Sachi Nand Tripathi, Department of Civil

‘Principal Street at Agra, 1858-62’,
salt print from a waxed paper negative by John Murray
Engineering and Center for Environmental Science and
Engineering at IIT Kanpur. While measures have been tak-
en to curb the impact of local air pollution around the Taj—
from restricting vehicles near the complex, closing over
200 enterprises in Agra, requiring iron foundries to instal
scrubbers and filters on their smokestacks, prohibiting
new polluting enterprises within the buffer zone around
the mausoleum and, most recently, banning cowdung cake
burning as cooking fuel—the specific components of air
pollution responsible had not been identified.
With that in mind, the researchers started probing the
ambient air in and around the Taj. Their studies showed that
the discolouration of the Taj was due to high concentrations
of particles: black carbon (soot), brown carbon and dust de-
position, primarily coming from human activity in the city,
especially biomass burning, or open combustion of munici-
pal solid waste, wood and dung cake burning, trash and crop
residue burning apart from diesel emission and smoking
vehicles. “The rapid growth of urban population and limited
infrastructure leave large volumes of trash accumulating in
the streets, frequently burned openly on roadsides and in
residential and commercial areas,” explains Tripathi.
Mud-pack on Marble
Mix together Multani mitti, cereals, milk and lime. Apply,
dry, wash and glow. The Taj has been getting that face-
pack—traditionally used by Indian women—on marble
walls stained by grime and dirt from air pollution,since
1994. A relentless process, where the clay is added in layers
until an inch-deep, left to dry for 24 hours, then washed
off with distilled water. Unfortunately, the ‘new look’ does
44 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018
TO TRANSFORM
AGRA IN AN AGE
OF “EXPERIENCE
ECONOMY”, INDIA
MAY HAVE
SOMETHING TO
LEARN FROM
OTHER COUNTRIES
LIKE THE UK, WHERE
HERITAGE TOURISM
HAS EVOLVED AS A
VITAL PART OF THE
ECONOMY
not last and the ASI has had to use it repeatedly in 2002,
2008 and 2015, to combat the corrosive effects of air pol-
lution on marble. To octogenarian historian Ram Nath, an
authority on Mughal art and architecture, the pack may
have triggered further yellowing of the Taj. Multani mitti is
a bleaching agent, he explains. It simply strips the marble
of the original polish, vajra lep, a concoction of local ingre-
dients used traditionally in India for centuries that acts as
a permanent treatment, and opens up the pores, making
the marble vulnerable to environmental degradation. “Has
the ASI studied the long-term effects of regular mud pack
on marble?” he asks.
The Vanishing Greens
It was in 2006 that the Supreme Court directed the ASI
to develop the Taj Heritage Corridor—over 20 hectares
of a garbage-dumping site between Agra Fort and the Taj
Mahal—as a green buffer, to insulate the monument from
air pollution, especially sand particles. The strong winds
in May-July from the dry Yamuna riverbed as well from
around Bharatpur in Rajasthan, usually at 30-45 kmph but
peaking up to 100 kmph in dust storms, lash against the
Taj, and over time scar the surface. Planting tree barriers is
an age-old protective measure. “But it has taken more than
a decade for the work to start,” says Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi,
orthopaedic surgeon and secretary of Agra Citizens Council.
“It was in August 2015 that the central government issued a
preliminary notification to bring the heritage corridor under
the ASI’s purview. It has finally started in May 2018.” But
local environmentalists say that the heritage corridor was,
legally speaking, an encroachment on the Yamuna river bed.
 C OV E R ST O RY

Shravan Kumar Singh of the Braj Mandal

Heritage Conservation Society says, “The
park has been built just behind the Taj and
distanced the Yamuna from it.”

Great Foundation Secret

The official historian of Shah Jahan, Abd
al-Hamid Lahawri, wrote in detail about the
building of the Taj but not about its founda-
tion in the Padshahnama. “There are no
historical records available for the subsoil
profile of the Taj,” says Professor S.C. Handa,
civil engineer and former director of IIT,
Roorkee, who had earlier surveyed the Taj.
“Nor has there been any attempt on the part of
the government to ever make a borehole at the
site to be able to analyse and respond should
any threat ever arise.” From existing records, View of the Taj Mahal from the Yamuna river,
it seems likely that the base of the foundation 1891, by an unknown photographer
was made of a series of deep wells, filled with concrete, lime,
stone, rubble, capped together with a wooden box-like struc-
ture, on which the mausoleum was built, he says.
But given the wear and tear of the structure and the fact
INSECTS ARE
that the level of water in the Yamuna is receding, there has
been speculation whether that could make the foundation BIO-INDICATORS
fragile, putting the Taj at risk of sliding into the mud. The OF WATER QUALITY.
foundation was buried deep into the earth, well below the AS ENTOMOLOGY
river basin. “If the base were to shift or decay,”says Handa, “a
substantial section of the tomb would sink inside the earth.” PROFESSOR GIRISH
To Professor Nath, the Taj stands on the edge of the Yamuna. MAHESHWARI POINTS OUT,
Its builders never anticipated the drying up of the river. “It is THEIR SUDDEN
an essential part of the architectural design, and if the river
dies, the Taj cannot survive,” he says. EMERGENCE INDICATES
Archaeologist Bhuvan Vikrama, chief of ASI, Agra, dis- DEEPER CHANGES ARE
agrees. “The subsurface foundation of the Taj is quite stable,” TAKING PLACE IN THE
he says. He also mentions that according to the Survey of
India and Central Buildings Research Institute, Roorkee,
YAMUNA WATER
there has been no change in the structure in the past 60
years. But experts have been asking the ASI to conduct a
 REVIVAL
geotechnical survey of the Taj since the 1980s. P.B.S.
Sengar, former archaeologist with ASI, Agra, had
written in Purattatva, the journal of the Indian
BLUEPRINT
Archaeological Society in 1995, ‘Due to its age, the
l Form a stakeholders’ committee for the Taj,
effects of environmental and geotechnical changes,
engage members and citizens so that they can
besides its own massive weight over the years, some
specific, visible signs are noticed which need due
influence decision-making
attention. These include leakage of water inside,
lAllocate more manpower and money for the
cracks in the veneer stones, out of plumb minarets,
upkeep of the Taj. In the past three years, Taj
loss of inlay pieces, and loss of cohesion in the mortar.
Since so many different types of factors are involved,
got only 8 per cent of what it earned in rev-
it would be prudent to make a full geotechnical and enues just from the sale of tickets
other relevant studies before undertaking any major
lShift the the nearby crematoriums and diesel
conservation project. Otherwise, the conclusions
drawn may be totally faulty.’ No such study has been
generators
taken up so far.
lPunish states and UTs for dumping untreated
wastewater into the river and not building
The Hordes Descend sewage treatment plants
On a normal day, some 40,000 tourists visit the Taj,
lRemove clusters of illegal settlements on the
but the number can rise up to as much as 70,000 on
weekends and holidays. ‘Tourists are in close proxim-
Yamuna floodplain
ity to the white marble walls of the main mausoleum,
lStop illegal sand mining rampant on the
which gets discoloured due to continuous touching
banks of the river
and rubbing by hand,’ according to an environmental
engineering report by the National Environmental lGet the Agra municipality to stop burning
Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur,
garbage in the open
in 2015-16. And this happens especially at the tourist
bottlenecks inside the Taj: first, the main gate, then lInvest in night activities for tourists, to en-
the entry to the white marble floor and then the main
sure a longer stay in the city
mausoleum. The NEERI report recommends that the
maximum number of tourists the Taj should accom- l Make it compulsory for tourists to pick up
modate at any point should not cross 10,000.
their own litter
The ASI has now come up with a new idea to
regulate tourist traffic inside the monument: turnstile l Check the quality of the Yamuna water
gates and online tickets. A new software is being de- regularly, so that aquatic life and birds return
signed to accommodate plastic tokens for turnstiles
as well as online QR-code printed tickets for the web- lMake Agra a priority in the Pradhan Mantri
site. Members of the Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber, Ujjwala Yojana; provide LPG connections to
however, say that they had suggested these measures BPL households to help them replace unclean
almost 10 years ago, but bureaucratic red-tape de-
cooking fuel
layed their implementation. “Limiting the number of
tourists is not a solution, but creates a bigger problem lInvest in Ro-boats, or river-cleaning ro-
by generating a bad reputation for the city,” says
bots, for a continuous automated cleaning of
member Vishal Sharma. “While the Agra Develop-
Yamuna
ment Authority earns crores each year through a toll
tax imposed on tourists visiting local monuments, the l Create a green buffer as a protective mea-
toll tax money is mostly used in development work
sure to minimise the harmful effects of air
unconnected to the Taj.”
pollution and sand erosion

l Commission geotechnical and other relevant

Changing Taj for Citizens studies to ensure the health of the foundation
For the citizens of Agra, the Taj experience is chang-
ing. There was a time when the Taj’s ticket was just 50 l Regulate flow of tourists inside the Taj
paise for anyone who wanted to enter the monument

46 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

and spend time there, irrespective of nationality. Moonlit
views were not restricted by any court orders and thousands
THE GOVERNMENT MUST CONSULT
of locals and tourists thronged to view a very Taj-specific GLOBAL EXPERTS WORKING ON
phenomenon, the chamki, or glitter, caused by various WORLD-CLASS MONUMENTS AND
facets and angles of the mausoleum catching the moonlight
in a bedazzling array of light. Today, the Taj has become a
ALSO TAP INTO TRADITIONAL
heavily guarded fortress with tiered entry tickets, hi-tech CONSERVATION KNOWLEDGE
security and it’s hard to see chamki, as night-time entry is AND BEST PRACTICES TO
banned for security reasons. “We have grown up with the
RESTORE THE TAJ
Taj, now live and work around it, says Sandeep Arora, ho-
telier and president of the Agra Tourism Development Foun-
dation. “But with constant controversies and restrictions, it
doesn’t feel like our own any more.”
Arora’s budget hotel is on what was once the main road managing the crowd, first. He would have restored tour-
to the Taj, leading up to the Royal Gate or the South Gate ist facilities, just as he had set up caravanserais—open-air
(Sidhi Darwaza). It is one of the many in the area, with squares edged with shopping arcades to provide shelter and
rooftop restaurants and a direct view of the Taj. The market entertainment to travellers, while the revenue from shops
aligned to the street houses stone craftsmen, petha makers, would have financed the upkeep of the Taj. A perfectionist, he
textile and other shops selling souvenirs, refreshments and would have started daily meetings with archaeologists, engi-
shoes, on arcaded verandahs. This year, the South Gate has neers and architects, setting up a board of supervisors and a
been closed by the ASI, because X-ray machines—recom- core creative unit, just as he did with the Taj. He would have
mended by the Intelligence Bureau two years ago—could sought out global experts, as he did for the Taj—masons from
not be installed. With the flow of tourists through the gate Iran and Central Asia, sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers
ebbing, a pall of gloom now hangs over the area. “Thousands from Syria and Persia, stone-cutters from Balochistan, pietra
of people earn livelihood from tourist-centric activities dura craftsmen from Italy. And he would have made sure that
here,” says Arora. “Everybody is worried about the impact on his Taj would remain a “masterpiece”, to quote court histo-
shops and hotels.” rian Muhammad Amin Qazwini, “of the days to come”. The
Taj has been with us for the last 12 generations. Can we pass
it on to the next 12? n
Of the Days to Come
The Taj is under siege. But not for the first time. It went
through extensive repairs within four years of completion,
in 1652. It has been looted, ransacked, almost destroyed The India Today Group has
and nearly auctioned off in the past. Nadir Shah’s soldiers, launched a ‘Save the Taj’ cam-
the Jats of Bharatpur, the East India Company traders—all paign across all its platforms.
The magazine will feature each
have made off with its jewels and carpets, chandeliers and
of the problems the Taj faces
lamps, silver doors and gold railings. Militants from Pun- and possible solutions in the
jab and Kashmir have threatened to blow it up. The story coming issues. Join our cam-
that lies hidden is how the world’s most famous monument paign and send in your ideas
to love, loss and longing survived every time. of what can be done to restore
What would Shah Jahan have done, had he been around? our most precious inheritance.
The fifth Mughal emperor had a reserved personality, records Write to us at: savetaj@intoday.com
the Shahjahannama. He would probably have set about
 INTERVIEW / HIMA DAS
“THE ONLY SOUNDS
I HEAR ARE
SET! BANG!”
I
t was an unheralded victory, but when Hima Das,
a young girl from Dhing, Assam, powered to the
finish line in the Women’s 400 metres at the World
Junior Athletics Championships in Tampere,
Finland, India was transfixed. Das’s dominant
form was startling, but so was the realisation that this was
the first—the first!—outright victory by an Indian athlete in
a major international track event. There were celebrations
and moist eyes, followed by internet fame—and every form
of desi nosiness, most notoriously about Das’s caste and
regional ethnicity. But if we are like that only, the young
runner displayed an unusual calm and level-headed con-
48 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018
fidence about her achievement and sudden fame. Excerpts
from an interview with Kazu Ahmed
Q. What were your thoughts after you won the race?
A. I don’t think about anything while running. The only
things I look for, and hear, are the word “set” and the bang
of the gun firing.
We had prepared well. I was sure I would get a medal.
I had even got the flag and the gamocha (Assamese towel)
and given it to sir after the race. But to break a record, cre-
ate history, it was beyond my wildest dreams. As an Indian
athlete and an Assamese girl, I consider myself extremely

fortunate. And the fact that I could, along with the national
flag, introduce the gamocha to the world, fills me with pride.
Q. Your story is so inspiring, a village girl from a farming
family creating history. It’s inspired a feeling in India that
anyone can achieve anything...
A. It’s all true. But as far as my background is concerned,
there are many aspects to it. Yes, we are a family of farmers.
But my father is also a graduate and has been to the ITI
(Indian Technical Institute). If he still had his documents
and certificates, he could have been an engineer with the
Indian Railways. Unfortunately, he lost his documents in a
IT’S GOLD Hima Das, after winning the 400 m in Tampere
fire and then he lost interest in getting a job.
We are a joint family. About 17 of us live and eat together
in our house. We have about 60 bighas of land, and cultivate
several crops through the year. We have fish ponds where we
have fish. In that sense, I have never faced any hardship while
growing up. We are quite comfortably off. What people know
is only 40 per cent of what I am. I will tell my story, what I am
and where I have come from, when the time is right and after
I have achieved my goals. Now, it’s time to work.
Q. Do you want to tell us a bit about it?
A. (Laughs) You all know a bit. I have said that I was very
INTERVIEW / HIMA DAS

mischievous, headstrong and a bit of a bodmash (hell­ a big deal. In Prague, where we are training, there is a cook.
raiser). If I set my eyes on something, I would do it, as long So we get what we want. There are no problems there. I did
as I knew it wouldn’t harm anyone. find rice here (in Tampere), though. And fish.

Q. Who called you first after you won?
A. I made the first call, to my coaches in Assam, Nipon Das
sir and Nabajit Malakar sir. After that, I called my parents.
Q. What was your parents’ reaction?
A. They were not really aware of what
was happening. When I called them, “Nothing
they were going to bed. I had also not
told them I had come for a world event.
concerns me
When they said they were going to bed, I other than my
said, “OK! Go, sleep! I have taken on the time. That is my
world and you folks keep on sleeping!”
They asked what had happened. I told only concern. I
them they would know in the morning. pay no attention
The next morning, my father went to
the market to sell the gourds from our
to the rest”
farm. Then he saw the convoy of cars
from TV channels speeding through our
village. He was like, “Xorbonax aji (Oh, dear!).” When cars
from the TV channels take that road, they usually go to our
place. Finally, they got to know (laughs). I feel very proud
and fortunate.
Q. You have travelled to many countries now. Any interest-
ing observations or thoughts so far?
A. A major problem I face is food. Every country has its food
culture which does not necessarily agree with me. So I have
to find the right food sometimes. But I manage. It isn’t such
Q. Your thoughts on the athletes from other countries?
A. Nothing concerns me other than my time. That is my
only concern. I don’t pay any attention to the rest. I run
after time. If that improves, the gold, silver
etc. will follow. I do not fear anything. My
goal always is to give my best time. People
ask me why I do not feel nervous. I don’t.
I believe in time and in God. Nothing else
bothers me. It is as simple as that.
Q. And what plans for the future?
A. The next big thing is the Asian Games
a month from now. That is the priority
now. Let us see what happens there. We
will put in our best effort to score the best
timing (waves at track legend P.T. Usha
who is walking by).
Q. And beyond the Asian Games?
A. The ultimate dream of an athlete is to compete in the
Olympics. For us athletes, that is the zenith. There is noth­
ing beyond that. I hope I will get a chance to compete in
the Olympics. I’ll try to get the best time scores to qualify.
I have been in the global sporting arena for only two years
now. I am not saying I will always get a medal. But my con­
sistent effort is to give my best time, and if I can do that,
it will certainly be possible to compete (in the Olympics).
That is the dream. n

‘We have a “We had not really

thought of coming here.
her vacations. We were
in Assam recently and I
come calling when we
are back in India. She has
strict regime’ We were training in
Prague for the Asian
told Hima she could go
home for one night. It’s all
no idea about all of this”

National 400 metres coach
Basant Singh on what his star
ward has to do going forward
CENTRE STAGE Coach Basant
Singh with Hima
Games. There were
some games happen-
ing in other parts of the
world and I had told my
colleagues we shouldn’t
take part as it takes a lot
of time off our training.
Since this event was in
Europe and we were in
the region, I thought we
would come here ”
“Hima is still very naive.
She wants to play every-
thing. I have to be very
strict with her. Even with
about maintaining a strict
regimen. We cannot take
any risks now. I have
told her, it’s just for one
more month. After the
Asian Games are over,
she can go home for
longer. The good thing is
she understands. She is
also still naive about her
earnings. With what she
has achieved, she will
earn a lot. Apart from the
mandatory government
allocations for sports
achievers, big corpora-
tions like the Tatas will
“She has been training
very hard for a year.
Earlier, she was a 100
and 200 metres runner.
It has only been a year
since she moved to
400 metres. In fact, her
performance at the 2018
Commonwealth Games
in April (where she came
in sixth) impressed me
more than her perfor-
mance here. Here (in
Tampere), we were quite
sure of the gold. And she
showed her mettle”

50 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

GAMOCHA
GIRL
The ‘Dhing Express’ is more
than the sum of her parts.
From ‘Mon Jai’ activism to
her feats on the field, she is
Assam’s new darling
By Kaushik Deka
A
fter winning gold in Finland, when Hima Das
called the members of Mon Jai (‘I wish’)—an ac­
tivist group she had founded in 2013—the first
thing she wanted to know was if the perpetrators
of the two ghastly murders in train toilets in As­
sam a couple of days back had been arrested.
News of the murders had agitated her. Just a few years ago,
she used to travel all alone at night in empty train compart­
ments to Dhing railway station—the nearest to her home at
Kandhulimari village in Assam’s Nagaon district. “She used
to take the train after tournaments in Guwahati and other
places. I always felt scared for her, but Hima believed God
would always protect her,” says father Ranjit Das.
So when Hima heard about the two women who got murd­
ered in a span of 24 hours, she was worried. “She’s always been
socially aware. She fights back whenever she sees injustice,”
says Bhaskar Jyoti Nath, the Mon Jai member who had got
the call. That awareness is what made her an active member
of the All Assam Students Union (AASU), the influential pres­
sure group which led the six­year­long Assam agitation. From
helping flood victims in her district to leading a vigil against
illegal liquor shops, Hima has literally “run” whenever “Assam
needed her”. The Assamese pride is evident as Hima carries the
local gamocha everywhere she goes. In Finland, the gamocha
took pride of place along the national flag.
The running began early in life as her father was a district­
level football player. He used to run to stay fit, and Hima—the
eldest of four sibings—always joined him. Indeed, soon she
was the default running champion in her school—the Dhing
Public High School. In 2014, Shamshul Haq, a trainer at the
Navodoya School, noticed her at an inter­school running com­
petition and was so impressed he took her to Nagaon town to
meet Gauri Shankar Roy, a sports trainer. Under Roy’s super­
vision, Hima won her first gold in the inter­district running
championships in 2016. At the Assam state championships in
2016, her first competitive race on record, she bagged a silver.
HOMEGROWN Hima’s family in Dhing
The next destination was Guwahati, where Roy introduced
the ‘Dhing Express’ to coaches Nipon Das and Nabajit Malakar,
from the Directorate of Sports and Youth Welfare. Her first
formal training began in 2017 at the Sarusajai sports complex
in Guwahati. Here also—like at her village’s football grounds—
Hima preferred to practise with the boys. “She wanted tougher
competition to improve her performance,” says Nipon Das.
Such was their faith in Hima’s abilities that the two coach­
es took loans to send her to the 2017 World Youth Champi­
onships in Nairobi, Kenya, where she competed in the 200
metre sprint and finished fifth. Now it was time to graduate
to distance running. In March 2018, she competed for the
first time in a 400 metres event at the Patiala Federation Cup.
The Indian trials for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
came a month later. “We had no clue she was going for a big
competition such as the Commonwealth Games,” says Ranjit.
Even when the family watched the IAAF World U­20 meet
in Finland on TV, they did not realise the significance of the
event as Hima had told her that it was a “tiny tournament”.
Mother Jonali smiles sheepishly but declined to comment
on the advice of Hima’s icon Zubeen Garg—Assam’s biggest
singing star—that she should now start eating beef to increase
her strength (the family doesn’t eat meat at home, though Hima
has got a taste for it after moving to Guwahati). “Hima idolises
him but it is not necessary that she has to pay heed to everything
he says,” says Mon Jai’s Bhaskar, who evidently doesn’t approve.
He, however, admits the name Mon Jai was borrowed from
the film of the same title, made by Zubeen. A month ago, during
the inter­state championships in Guwahati when Hima clocked
her personal best of 51.13 seconds, the athlete screamed out
“Mon jai” and her supporters chanted back the same in unison.
Till now, Hima’s progress has been at a very high pace.
From running free in the fields just two years ago, to creating
history for the country, it has been a fairytale journey for Hima.
Next up, the country waits to see if she can do a repeat of her
record­breaking effort at the Asian Games in August. n
J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 51
 BI G S T O RY O RG A N D O N AT I O N

BODY BLOW
Despite growing awareness and a raft of changing laws, organ
transplants remain mired in controversy, the latest being suspicions
of favouring rich foreigners
By AMARNATH K. MENON
 T
THE GOOD NEWS FIRST: ORGAN donation for trans-
plants is surging. In a country famously skittish about
gifting organs, there has been a spectacular spike. Total
organ donations have gone up from 1,149 in 2014 to 2,870
in 2017. This includes a two-and-a-half times increase in
kidney and liver donations, not to mention a whopping
6.5 times rise in heart donations.
Now for the bad news: despite all this, less than one in a
million Indians donates an organ. More than three million
Indians have died for want of a life-extending transplant
since 2005. The wait list is so daunting that just 9,000 out
of 200,000 patients needing a kidney get one.
And the ugly controversy: Some
20-25 per cent of heart or lung trans-
plants in Tamil Nadu are performed
for foreign recipients/ beneficiaries.
The question is: is this happening at WHERE THE
the expense of Indian patients? DONORS ARE
RAISED EYEBROWS
Come August 13, World Organ Do- Total organs
needed
nation Day, and more Indians will
pledge their organs to extend or save
the lives of others. Yet the demand- TAMIL NADU
supply gap is yawning, drawing
unethical commercial intent into a
medical procedure that relies on per- 673
sonal generosity and public trust. So
what’s going on? MAHARASHTRA
A par ticular concern is the
opaque process in harvesting and
transplanting organs. The bias in 503
implementing organ transplant laws
has raised suspicions about a lack TELANGANA &
of transparency. The Transplanta- ANDHRA PRADESH
tion of Human Organs and Tissues
480
Rules clearly give priority to citizens
enrolled on the state and national
waiting lists rather than foreigners. But it is apparent,
from data analysed by social activists in Tamil Nadu,
that hospitals and surgeons perhaps make preferential
allotment to foreign patients, possibly with overriding
commercial factors.
SOURCING AN ORGAN
Gifting and sourcing organs are at the core of this con-
troversy. Despite the growing awareness, live donations
alone can never meet the increasing need for organs. Only
a kidney or part of the liver can be tapped from a living
source. The live donor pool has, with the changes in trans-
plant laws, since 2011, widened the scope of near-relative
donors. But it is inadequate. For most transplants, includ-
ing those of heart, lungs, pancreas and intestines, the dire
need is for deceased donors.
It’s a stiff challenge that’s prompting courts to inter-
vene. On June 28, Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy of the Hy-
derabad High Court directed the Telangana government
to permit P. Ratnakar, a businessman, to receive a kidney
being donated ‘out of love and affection’ by his chauffeur K.
Raju. The court dismissed the objections of the state trans-
plant authorisation committee and the appellate authority,
which observed that “it was difficult to believe there was no
financial consideration in the matter and the prospective
donor could not explain reasons for his donation”. The court
passed the order keeping in view that Ratnakar, who lost
one kidney in 2007, undergoes dialy-
sis three times a week to survive with
the other damaged kidney.
A SKEWED SYSTEM
The numbers are telling. During
2017, foreigners received 31 heart
transplants, 32 lung transplants and
Number 32 heart and lung transplants while
of donors
Indian recipients were 91, 75 and six
in the three categories in Tamil Nadu.
What makes it a skewed system is
that there were 5,310 Indians and 53
176 foreigners on the wait list of active pa-
tients in June this year. Predictably, it
has kicked up an unseemly row about
foreign patients bypassing Indians on
the waiting list for organs.
170 “It is difficult to digest that Indian
hearts are not matching with our In-
dian patients but matching with for-
eigners. How is it possible… It seems
that Indian money is not matching
with foreigners’ money. Really sorry
150
to write that we are so greedy [that]
we don’t bother to help poor Indian
(Figures for 2017)
J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 53
 BI G S T O RY O RG A N D O N AT I O N

GETTING THAT ORGAN

1 A hospital coordinator counsels
relatives of a patient once first
breath apnea—when breathing is
suspended and movement of muscles
of inhalation stops while volume of the
lungs remains unchanged—is positive
The processes are elaborate, from preparing a family
about donating the organ to harvesting, transporting and 2 If they agree to donate organs, a
potential donor alert is sounded
transplanting it in the potential recipient to the state transplant authority

3 In turn, it alerts probable

recipient hospitals. Authorised
Patient’s hospitals must send a decline
relatives agree message to the state transplant
to donate organ authority if they don’t want to
take the organ

4 Some six hours after the first

1 breath apnea, a second test is
done to reconfirm brain stem death

5 Once a patient is certified as

HOSPITAL brain-dead, the state transplant
authority gets an alert. It alerts all the
authorised hospitals on priority as the
4 State
5 2 process of receiving and transplanting
transplant an organ is to be done within hours
Second test authority
DONOR to confirm alerted 6 If there are no prospective
recipients within the state, the
brain death
National Organ and Tissue Transplant
Organisation and other regional
3 transplant authorities are asked
whether the organ can be offered to
Recipient an Indian in waiting before allocating it
hospitals alerted to an international patient

6 7 By protocol, an organ should first

be offered to an Indian, then an
NRI. Only when both decline is a
TRANSPLANT 12 foreign national considered
RECIPIENT AUTHORITY
HOSPITAL
Organ
Follows 8 State transplant authorities are
waitlist, often short on staff to verify a
offered does not hospital’s claim that Indian patients in
If there are 8 match its waitlist are not fit for the transplant
no Indian
7 donor and
patients,
recipient 9 If a foreigner is given an organ by
waitlist is overlooking Indians, the surgeon
checked must give valid reasons

10 Some hospitals initially propose

9 the organ for an Indian and make
last-minute changes—citing patient’s
health and logistical difficulties—to
INDIAN NRI FOREIGNER The state 11
authority has suggest it should be given to a
to go by what foreigner
10
the transplant
If Indian patient surgeon says
11 The state authority goes by what
the transplant surgeon says as
is not fit there is no mechanism to verify the
surgeon’s claim
14
13 12 The state authority puts out the
priority list based on the date of
Onus is on the recipient hospital to comply Recipient is finally chosen by registration of the prospective
with regulation and procedures clinical judgement recipient
patients and [are] trying to manipulate [the waiting list] for
foreigners,” posted Professor Vimal Bhandari, director, Na-
tional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO),
on the official WhatsApp group set up for organ allocation.
He did this on learning that hearts and lungs harvested from
brain-dead patients were given to foreign nationals admitted
to corporate hospitals. There are also allegations that organs
were harvested without the consent of the brain-dead pa-
tient’s family to meet the needs of foreign nationals.
All is not well in Tamil Nadu, where the earliest cadaver
organ donation campaign began, about a decade ago, and
as a welcome fallout following a flourishing and unrelated
kidney donation racket in the 1990s. Now, it has the most
evolved organ transplant programme, boasts of the robust
Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN), a me-
ticulously maintained Organ Sharing Registry, the first in
any state, and sees more transplants than in any other state.
Yet, the state’s recent record has fuelled suspicion about
foul play. “My immediate challenge is to bring about transpar-
ency to ensure that all Indian patients deserving an organ get
it,” says Dr R. Kanthimathi, who took charge as TRANSTAN
member secretary in early June. She is reluctant to discuss
what had happened earlier, but she is eager to
tweak processes “to enhance transparency”.
TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY
Bhandari emphasises changes are imperative. One-third of all hearts and
He says no state is following the rules to be
part of the proposed national organ registry,
lungs are still not being used due
launched in November 2015, and to make to lack of a suitable recipient
their wait lists transparent.
Transplant laws make it mandatory for MOHAMMED RELA
Director, Institute of Liver Disease and Transplantation,
all hospitals to upload the wait list on their
Global Hospitals Group, Chennai
websites, link it to the state waiting list and,
in turn, to the waiting list of the regional
transplant organisation and, finally, NOTTO
to form part of the national registry. It is only
on paper.
Time is of the essence in the organ reaching from donor
to recipient. While a kidney can be preserved for 12 to 18
hours and a liver for 8 to 12 hours, hearts and lungs have to
be transplanted within six hours if the transplant is to be
successful. In effect, sharing of livers and kidneys across the
country is feasible, but there is a challenge in transporting
hearts and lungs. This paucity of time has the potential to
enable hospitals and transplant surgeons to justify and offer
preferential treatment overlooking the order on the wait list.
“Even though occasional abuse of the system may be a
possibility, it is important to point out that even with the cur-
rent practice of allocating an organ to a foreigner when there
is no suitable Indian patient, one-third of all hearts and lungs
are still not being used due to ‘lack of a suitable recipient’,”
says Mohammed Rela, director, Institute of Liver Disease
and Transplantation, Global Hospitals Group, Chennai, and
professor of liver surgery, King’s College Hospital, London.
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
“As public and physician confidence in the success of heart
and lung transplantation improves in India, the waiting list of
Indian patients will increase and it will be possible to match
every organ to a suitable Indian patient. Then there will not
be even a remote possibility of a foreigner getting an organ.”
Rela has performed over 1,000 successful liver transplants in
the past seven years in Tamil Nadu.
Transplant surgeons concur that the process should be
made more transparent. They feel if the donation and the al-
location of each organ can be tracked, the outcome of every
transplant monitored and the transplanting centre asked to
report the outcome of the organ and the patient with peri-
odic updates for a year after transplantation, the prospects
of foul play are minimised. “Our organ utilisation has been
exemplary, but we must not waste time on confirmations.
The brain stem death message should be sent at the same
time across the country,” says Dr K.R. Balakrishnan, chief
cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon, Fortis Malar, Chen-
nai, which has the largest heart transplant programme in the
country, having done more than 250 procedures, with three
of every four heart recipients alive and well after five years.
There are other issues and challenges. “Hospitals cannot
ignore the commercials of the transplant programme. After
all, they invest and spend too. Once money is involved, any-
thing about the nobleness of the profession can be challenged.
They have to be clear about the benefits for themselves in
running a programme. No one wants to run in losses because
sustaining a programme costs money,” emphasises Dr C. Mal-
likarjuna, managing director, Asian Institute of Nephrology
and Urology, Hyderabad. Paying for the organs is an option.
Iran has adopted the practice of paying kidney donors in 1988
and within 11 years became the only country to clear its wait
list for transplants.
SHAKE OFF THE MINDSET
While there are issues to be resolved, organ donation and
transplant are still at a nascent stage in India. “Adequate ap-
preciation of an evolving transplant programme is wanting
and the media going overboard without comprehending the
challenges is making it tougher,” says Dr Sunil Shroff, man-
J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 55
 BI G S T O RY O RG A N D O N AT I O N
SURGE IN ORGAN
TRANSPLANTS
Between 2014 and 2017, kidney and liver
aging trustee, MOHAN Foundation, Chennai, an NGO that donations have shot up 2.5 times, heart 6.5
promotes organ donation. He says there is a need to shake off
the mindset about giving organs to foreigners forgetting that
Indians are also among the recipients abroad. Shroff cites the
case of Amritsar-born Manmohan Singh Mahal, possibly
the longest heart transplant survivor of Indian origin, who
celebrated the 25th anniversary of his transplant on June 26
54
and is a staunch campaigner for organ donation in California. Heart 16
“Organ donation is the greatest gift anyone can give as Lung
it saves lives. It is important that everyone understands that 339 125
the need to become blood and organ donors is bigger than
just themselves,” says Mahal, who knows he’d never have
been able to help others the way he does now. “I owe it all 5
Pancreas
to that young heart from Colorado and will remain forever 354
indebted to their generosity.” Mahal also received countless 14
blood and plasma donations through the years. “Sure, I have Liver
to take 10 to 12 medications every day for the rest of my
life,” he says, “but the feeling of giving back to the world by 708 720
making the earth a better place makes this ever-changing
journey invaluable.” Kidney
Clearly, the challenge for the success of an organ trans-
plant programme is to engender greater trust in the process- 1,684
2014
es of organ donation and allocation, considering that each 2017
donor can save up to seven lives. But, when doubts about
suspicious practices surface, organ donation declines. In
NUMBER OF NUMBER OF TRANSPLANTS
India, it is a lowly 0.86 per million population if compared
DONORS
with 26 donors per million in the US and 36 in a million in
Spain. “Sensitisation of doctors regarding brain stem death
411 905 1,149 2,870
declaration is one of the biggest challenges encountered by
the transplant programme,” says Bhandari. “Lack of trained
retrieval and transplant surgeons, availability of adequate
infrastructure and other trained manpower are also major
Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
issues. This is why we have few registered transplant centres
and hardly any non-transplant organ retrieval centre.”
organ donation advocacy group. India sees nearly 500,000
THE SOLUTION road accidents every year, killing about 148,000 persons and
Though there are common national health programmes, the leaving three times that number injured.
nuances of health policies are decided by states which are in- A major change in the transplant laws can significantly
novative with initiatives and effective in its implementation. increase the deceased donor pool if declaration of brain stem
While Tamil Nadu is the leader in organ donation, Maharash- death is made mandatory for every hospital. Currently, brain
tra is relying on a new regulation to catch up. Early this year, it stem death is only relevant for organ donation. If it is also rec-
issued guidelines to ensure, among other things, a mechanism ognised as the mode of death in the Registration of Births and
to deal with emergency organ donation or retrieval situations Deaths Act, it will also increase the availability of ventilators
even for patients undergoing treatment at hospitals without to potential donors and increase the organ pool.
licences and not registered for conducting organ transplant. States are slow in adopting the Transplantation of Human
Later, in April, the Union ministry for transport, in an Organs (Amendment) Act, 2011. Besides Tamil Nadu and
advisory, asked all transport offices across the country to Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are also among
add a column in the application form for a driving licence the better performers. NOTTO is now helping expand the
so that those filling it can be encouraged to donate organs. transplant programme to other parts of the country, includ-
“The idea is, if someone who has pledged, dies in a road ac- ing Delhi, Jaipur and Indore. But going by the burgeoning
cident, the organs can be harvested,” says Bhavna Jagwani, numbers needing organs in the country, it’s a promising blip
convenor, MOHAN Foundation Jaipur Citizen Forum, an on the radar. There are many more miles to go. n

56 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

 LEISURE
FORGOTTEN POST
EMPIRES CROSSING
PG 61 PG 5 8

THIN Q&A WITH

WITHIN SANDEEP SINGH
PG 64 PG 66

M USIC

Lovesick
Charm
n the title track of his
O new English EP cold/
mess, Delhi-based singer-
songwriter Prateek Kuhad, who also
performs in Hindi, seems to be doing
a bit of method singing. Kuhad did
indeed have a cold when he laid down
his vocals for ‘cold/mess’. However, the
rhinitis was not self-induced but a re-
sult of frosty temperatures in the US, EEK
PRAT D’S
where he recorded the EP this year. A
KUH , cold/
lbum
“The day I landed in New York, the new a s fuelled by
, wa
YASIR IQBAL

a
city was hit with a snowstorm,” says mess storm and
Kuhad. “[This] was a few days before a s ow breakup
n
bad
we were starting to track in Nashville.
I was just freezing the whole time.”
LEISURE

On the other hand, he was frequently
a mess during the two years he wrote the
six songs on cold/mess, a free copy of which
was sent to everyone on the mailing list
when it was released last week. The EP is
available for streaming on Saavn, Sound-
cloud and YouTube.
“I had a pretty bad breakup. I went
through a lot of emotional turmoil,” says
Kuhad whose songs have featured in
television commercials for brands such
as McDonald’s and Shoppers Stop, on the
soundtracks of Hindi films like Baar Baar
Dekho (2016) and Lust Stories (2018), and
in international TV series such as Lethal
Weapon, thanks to his deal with the US-
based publishing company Cutcraft Music.
Kuhad’s 2015 English album In Tokens
& Charms and the English and Hindi EPs
that preceded it also documented a rela-
tionship. But that one ended
amicably. This time around, he
was left far more unsettled, and
the tumultuousness is repre-
sented in both the lyrics and the
artwork of cold/mess.
“I wish I could leave you my
love but my heart is a mess,”
he sings on the title cut. “Not
mindless, I’m just spineless/ for whom that song is supposed to be really in-
Put cellophane on my mouth
ratio is flipped spirational; I’ve never written
composer, who will promote his new EP with H I S T O RY
a series of house concerts across India. He
prefers performing where “there’s no ampli-
fication, just me on a piano or a guitar [and] Post
15-20 people”, he says. “Then it feels like I’m
playing the song the way I wrote it, on an in-
strument in my bedroom, without stressing
Crossing
about sound issues. On stage, there are other
things at the back of my mind.”
Over the last few years, Kuhad has
become successful enough to do things on
his terms—from asking venues to give him a
larger portion of the ticket sales as opposed
to a landed fee (a flat sum with which touring
artists are expected to take care of their travel
and accommodation) to ensuring that he has
creative control over commissioned projects.
Recently, he contributed two tunes to
the upcoming Bollywood movie Karwaan,
and though he “had complete freedom”,
Kuhad “was a little wary that
“Saavn’s at the last minute, they’d PAPER JEWELS
Postcards from
listener base change my song around or do
the Raj
something to the mix. We were
is 75 per cent by Omar Khan
pretty clear about having in the
male and contract that [they] cannot
Mapin
`3,500
25 per cent make any changes.” The job 364 pages, 519 colour
female. I’m provided him an opportunity illustrations
the only one to do something different. “One

B
and kiss”, he croons on ‘with anything in that vibe before.” efore Instagram,
you/for you’. The EP’s cover is a
around” Interestingly, Kuhad does there was the
photograph of a couple kissing not consider his Bollywood picture postcard: a
underwater. “To me that im- work playback singing. “[If] messaging system
age is like the relationship the I wrote it, played the guitar created to share images
record talks about,” says Kuhad. “It’s a lot [and] produced the whole thing, it’s com- and conversations across
of love and passion, but they’re underwater pletely my baby,” he says. He might even continents and cultures.
so they’re suffocating.” include some in his live sets, half of which now Postcards were the viral
Expectedly, Indian independent music’s comprise tracks he wrote on the piano, which memes of their time, the
biggest romantic has a large female follow- he taught himself to play three years ago. craze of the early 20th
ing. “We were at the Saavn office [where “My future [releases] will have a lot more century when billions of
they showed us that for] all their other acts piano songs because [that’s] what I’ve been postcards were mailed
[the listener base] is usually 75 per cent writing lately,” says Kuhad, who frequently each year. Often the first
male and 25 per cent female,” says Kuhad, switches between the guitar and keyboard and most influential im-
who is part of the streaming service’s Artists at shows to play tunes such as his last Hindi ages people saw of distant
Originals platform. “[I’m] the only one [for single ‘Tum Jab Paas’ and the unrecorded lands, for Westerners, they
whom the gender ratio is] flipped around.” English composition ‘Darling Darling’. crystallised a vision of India
Cold/mess is filled with the sort of His next effort could be out in 2019, as a sun-baked land of
confessionals these fans have come to expect believes his long-term manager Dhruv Singh. grand edifices and bustling
of Kuhad, whose ability to make relatable “This EP is a bridge between everything he’s bazaars, peopled with
music about matters of the heart has turned put out in the past and all this new material nautch girls, naked fakirs
him into one of the most popular singer- he’s sitting on,” says Singh. “There’s enough and snake charmers.
songwriters in the country. Such intimate [for] a 10-track album within a year.” n Paper Jewels: Post-
lyrics warrant intimate settings, feels the —Amit Gurbaxani cards from the Raj takes

58 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018

 Photographs:
REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION FROM
PAPER JEWELS: POSTCARDS FROM
1 THE RAJ BY OMAR KHAN,
PUBLISHED BY MAPIN PUBLISHING

1. Bombay. Bertarelli & Co., Milan, Italy, C. 1900, lithograph, undivided back, 13.95 x 9 cm. 2. Clock Tower, Chandni Chowk, Delhi. H.A. Mirza & Sons, Delhi,
C. 1905, coloured collotype, divided back, 13.8 x 8.9 cm. 3. Telegraph peon. M.V. Dhurandhar [signed], unknown publisher, C. 1903, chromo-halftone, undivided
back, 12.1 x 8.7 cm. (copyright Michael Stokes Collection, Royal Society for Asian Affairs, London) 4. The place of contrition in Benares. Josef Hoffmann [signed],
Joseph Heim, edited by Thacker & Co. Ltd Bombay, C. 1898, lithograph, undivided back, 14 x 9 cm.

the reader on a tour of this
imagined India, with author-
collector Omar Khan serving
as an enthusiastic and knowl-
edgeable guide.
Featuring visions of flam-
ing skies over Varanasi and
the painted gates of Jaipur,
as well as the more mundane
evidence of the British Em-
pire’s ‘civilizing mission’, many
of these vintage postcards
are tributes to the art of the
photo colourist—applying
bright hues to halftones and
collotypes in order to trans-
form reality into fantasy. The
views are not entirely from
a Western perspective: the
works of Indian studios such
as Gobind Ram Oodey Ram
are discussed, as well as the
illustrations of M. V. Dhurand-
har, a master of the form if
there ever was one.
Dhurandhar’s sharp,
satirical vision is evident in
his caricatures of contempo-
rary urban characters such
as the Mumbai policeman
and the telegraph peon, as
well as his saucy Coquett-
ish Maid Servant series, 10
postcards depicting the story
of a philandering husband
who seduces a maidservant
working in his kitchen and
is betrayed by the tell-tale
floury palm print she leaves such fascinating detours as it
on his jacket. traverses the subcontinent.
Published by Dadasaheb For all the mythologising of
Phalke’s Laxmi Art Printing empire, reality is never too
Works in 1907, the cards far away.
prefigure the plot of Phalke’s The grand tour of the
short film Pithache Panje Raj ends at the north-west
(1913), linking the popular vi- frontier, where images of
sual culture of the time to the battlegrounds, graves and
emergent medium of cinema. gallows tell the story of Brit-
The book takes several ish conflict with the fiercely
independent Pakhtun tribes-
men. An especially macabre
image presents the dismem-
PAPER bered corpse of a Khyber
S
JEWEL e
s th raider: a mute witness to the
capture ds of
oo
many m under lies of Empire, the brutality
y
a countr rule behind its pomp and glory. n
foreign
—Rajesh Devraj
 LEISURE
ANURADHA RANA
F
For Mimi Mondal, being
nominated for one of the
most prestigious awards
in science fiction/ fantasy
(SFF) has had an unexpected
downside: instead of her
work, it has drawn attention
to her identity.
That’s because Mondal,
who was nominated for the
Hugo Award along with
BOOKS senior editor Alexandra
Pierce in the ‘Best Related
THIS
Work’ category for an
anthology of essays and let-
ters to the eminent sci-fi
writer Octavia Butler, hap-
COULD BE
pens to be both Dalit and
queer. The combination
is pure headline gold, of
course. And it’s even rel-
HUGO
evant, since Butler was a
pioneer African-American
in the writing of speculative
fiction. But Mondal isn’t
keen to play the part.
“Being turned into a
Dalit icon while not many
people talk about my actual
work reiterates the exact
stereotype casteists bring
LUMINESCENT
against us all the time—that
THREADS we will take any opportunity
Edited by for attention while nobody
Alexandra Pierce ever sees any work. I am not
and Mimi Mondal an activist by profession,
Twelfth Planet but Dalits don’t have to be
Press
either activists or nothing,”
` 389.54
(Kindle edition) Mondal says.
434 pages With the nod to
her anthology, titled
60 INDIA TODAY J U LY 3 0, 2 018
Luminescent Threads, and
another nomination for the
magazine Strange Horizons,
edited, among several oth-
ers, by lawyer Gautam Bhatia
and scholar Aishwarya
Subramanian, the Hugo
Awards recognised India’s
contribution to the genre.
Luminescent Threads
has also won a Locus Award
and has been nominated for
a British Fantasy award. “I’ve
been extremely stunned the
past few months,” she says.
“I’m not the best Indian SFF
writer internationally, and
the unspoken understanding
we always had was that not
many people in India would
ever read or hear of us.”
Luminescent Threads
is anything but a passive
tribute to a dead writer. The
letters speak of the hope
Butler’s work gave to those
who faced oppression, and
the prescience she displayed
in predicting today’s politics.
In her own fiction, too,
Mondal writes about the
oppression of Dalits, women
and the underprivileged.
Mondal’s characters are
strikingly relatable, but that’s
no surprise, she says. “People
have always related more
closely to fantastical charac-
ters because they represent
archetypes that are true
about their narratives in life,
while a more ‘realistic’ char-
acter can become unrelatable
for just one detail that differs
from you,” she says.
Voting for the Hugo
Award—open to anyone who
joins the World Science Fic-
tion Society—ends July 30. n
—Farah Yameen
 REVIEW

Forgotten Empires

M
ost histories of the Deccan region regime until the rise of Shivaji. Pillai populates
have highlighted the ruthless- the pages with portraits, family trees and
ness of Aurangzeb or the valour tales: of a Raya of Vijayanagara who escapes
of Shivaji. In Rebel Sultans, Manu his captors while hiding near-naked in a sug-
Pillai instead explores the rise and fall of the arcane field, of warrior queen Chand Bibi,
empires of six earlier centuries. who reportedly forges cannonballs out of
Dakshina in Sanskrit—hence Deccan—was gold and silver when she runs out of ammu-
known for its monetary and cultural rich- nition in battle, of an Ethiopian slave who
ness. As early as the first century, travellers becomes a ruler and speaks the language of
wrote of the abundance of cotton and onyx in the region, of the mining of some of the larg-
the region. Its welcoming rulers and bazaars est diamonds in the world, including the one
heaped with silver, gold and called Hope, in Golconda.
diamonds attracted artists, When united, the rulers
Thirst for power,
poets and fortune-seekers from produced great art and poetry
everywhere. It also drew invad-
rather than or built fine monuments, some
ers, especially from the north. Hindu-Muslim of which still stand in Bijapur,
But the Deccan was unyielding strife, was the Hampi and Hyderabad.
and, therefore, tantalising. To prime motivator Contrary to the picture
know India, Pillai writes, one for the Deccan’s painted in many other histo-
must know the Deccan. ries, Pillai’s work shows that
many conflicts
Rebel Sultans begins in the thirst for power and recogni-
13th century, with the Yadavas tion, rather than Hindu-Muslim
falling to Alauddin Khilji’s small strife, was the prime motiva- REBEL SULTANS
cavalry, and the eventual sei- tor for the region’s many con- The Deccan from Khilji
zure of the lands of the warring Hoysalas flicts. There are tales of Muslim rulers who to Shivaji
and Kakatiyas. The Bahmani Sultanate rises appointed Brahmins as the local administra- Manu S. Pillai
and, wracked by dissension, it disintegrates. tors or were devout followers of Goddess Juggernaut
` 599, 308 pages
Rebels emerge, only to feud over every- Saraswati and fluent in Sanskrit; of Hindu
thing. Once they join forces, they destroy the kings who called themselves Sultans; and of
Vijayanagara empire. But their unity is short- rulers who flaunted their status as Shudras.
lived and their internecine quarrels lead to For all its meticulous detail, Rebel Sultans is
their downfall. Beheadings, blindings, poi- an enjoyable read. n
sonings and greed for power feature in every —G. Krishnan

MEANWHILE IN DELHI
JINNEALOGY
DELHI IN by Anand Vivek
TRANSITION: 1821 Taneja
and Beyond A Vanderbilt
by Shama Mitra University scholar
Chenoy of religious studies
The first complete THE FORGOTTEN CITIES OF DELHI and anthropology,
English translation of Taneja examines the
flaneur Mirza Beg’s by Rana Safvi
entreaties made to
fascinating observa- Chronicling the nine cities that pre-
the jinns at Delhi’s
tions of 19th century ceded Delhi over 1,500 years, in this
Firoz Shah Kotla to
Delhi, as commis- illustrated sequel to Where Stones
discover a popular
sioned by the East Speak, Safvi explores the monuments
Islam resistant to
India Company and tombs that survive among our
state repression
slums and mansions
 LEISURE

P RO F I L E

Body of
Evidence
F
ollowing 71-year-old Astad Deboo’s performance at
the Serendipity Festival in Goa last year, another major
Indian classical dancer excoriated his more hidebound
contemporaries for not acknowledging his genius.
“The classicists are digging their own grave,” the dancer
said. “[Deboo] is the man with a new idiom.”
In honouring Deboo with its Yagnaraman Living Legend
Award recently, the Krishna Gana Sabha echoed that senti-
ment. Foundations devoted to the arts must support reinter-
pretation in order to keep tradition alive.
Awards are nothing new for Deboo, who received the
Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1996 and the Padma Shri in
2007. And neither is breaking new territory. Considered the
pioneer of modern dance in India, he created his own peculiar
form by employing his training in Kathak and Kathakali and
has performed around the world with the likes of
Pink Floyd and Alison Becker.
Naturally, he prefers to talk about what
he’s working on now—a retrospective of R
DANCE BOO
his work titled, ‘A n Evening with Astad’, S T A D DE
A
choreographed by Rani Nair, which IS NOW Y A
recently opened in Sweden and South O F FICIALL END
LIVIN G LEG
Korea. “This is something really special,
an amalgamation of dance, theatre and
photography which brings together glimpses
of my unrecorded choreography from the 1970s and
’80s. What is really challenging and fascinating is how much
do I remember of my own body from that time. How much can
I reproduce faithfully?” he says.
Though the thought of showing his retrospective to home
audiences is giving him the adrenaline rush, it is tough for De-
boo to mask his frustration about the pathetic state of contem-
porary dance in the country. “Very few classical dancers can
afford to make a living here. To survive as a contemporary one
is even tougher, even in these times when everyone pretends to
be open to ‘something novel’.”
Long before he received the award, he recalls that a major
Japanese dance critic he met on the streets of Tokyo kept call-
ing him a living legend. “I didn’t know how to react,” he said.
“In my 48 years as a dancer, I was still struggling for grants
and commissioned work in my own country.” n

—Sukant Deepak

AMIT KUMAR
 WAT C H L I S T
LEISURE
KYA BOLTA BANTAI
Vice debuts its first India
documentary with this explo-
ration of the Mumbai rap
scene—beating Ranveer Singh’s
upcoming Gully Boy to the punch.
Voot
UNMARRIED
A focus on the social changes
dividing India’s generations isn’t
enough to make this somewhat
plotless Friends type show
about the pressure to get
married compelling.
PoPxo
MEMORIES
In Vikram Bhatt’s latest web
series, a newsman returns
from the dead with the power
to read the memories of the
deceased. Naturally, he starts
solving crimes.
Viu
THE BEST-LAID PLANS
illed as a millennial rom-
B
com, Netflix Original Set
It Up takes on the now
familiar premise of the
overworked, under-appreciated
twenty-somethings, stuck in a
routine and waiting for the big dream
to pop up and say hello. Both assis-
tants to unpleasant bosses, Harper
(Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen
Powell) conclude the solution is to
get their bosses to fall in love with
each other so they are out of the of-
fice more often. Predictably, things
go well, then not, and end up with
Harper and Charlie falling in love and
pursuing their dreams.
Set It Up works despite its
formulaic adherence to the romantic
comedy blueprint—or, perhaps, be-
cause of it. In fact, it goes right back
to the Victorian romance: boy meets
girl and they don’t know they are in
love until they do. n
—Farah Yameen
PR I M E T I M E
Thin
Within
A
licia ‘Plum’ Kettle is an
overweight young white
woman in Brooklyn,
plodding heavily through
her unhappy present
while keeping her inner life
afloat with dreams of a thinner
future. While the imaginary
Alicia struts sveltely in a perfect
red dress, the real-life Plum
(Joy Nash), clad invariably
in shapeless black, moves in
a ceaseless loop between her
friend Steven’s coffee shop, her
‘sad apartment’ and waist-
watchers’ meetings led by an
annoying skinny woman who
calls eating a ‘bad habit’.
Dietland is at its painful
best when depicting what life
 W EB SER IES

’ 9 0 s N O S TA L G I A
eminiscent of the popular US sitcom The tutor for Hindi. In episode two, Harshu’s ‘wild’ birthday

R
Wonder Years, The Viral Fever’s latest web plans—to watch Raja Hindustani in a cinema solely for the
series, Sameer Saxena’s Yeh Meri Family, is Karisma Kapoor smooch and have food with Shanku at
a nostalgic look at adolescence in the late their favourite joint—go kaput. This time, his mother wants
1990s—when Indian kids drank Goldspot to throw a bash at home by inviting all of the colony’s kids.
and rooted for Shaktimaan and their parents covered the Writer Saurabh Khanna effectively captures the intricacies
living room television with plastic. But its 12-year-old of adolescence: the innocence, the urge to discover
protagonist’s deadpan commentary on parents’ the outside world and the harmless rebelliousness.
expectations from their kids and its delightful fr om Being cool in YMF universe is to throw tantrums,
New
portrait of friendship make the show resonant, l fever,
the vira axena’s deceive parents and believe that family is the
rS
whether you grew up in that era or not. Samee MERI obstacle in your independence.
Harshu Gupta (Vishesh Bansal) is the YEH is a Because Yeh Meri Family is sponsored by
Y
FAMIL ok at
troublesome second child who spends the talg ic lo a mutual fund website, some obvious ‘product
nos the
two episodes available so far berating his ence in placement’ investment tips pepper Khurana’s
adolesc 1990s
mother (Mona Singh of Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi fame) late portrayal of the dutiful patriarch. And hope-
and seeking advice from Shanku (Prasad Reddy, fully Singh’s role of an exhausted and exhausting
adorable), his geeky, wiser and lovingly sardonic mother will become meatier as the series pro-
best buddy. Akarsh Khurana plays Harshu’s indulgent, gresses. But thus far there’s lot to appreciate—such as a
clueless father and Ahan Nirban is Harshu’s smarter elder scene where Shanku narrates a story to inspire Harshu
brother. only to realise it’s a literal translation of Bryan Adams’
Set in April 1998, the show starts off with Harshu mak- chartbuster Summer of ’69. The show never judges or
ing grand plans of doing nothing during summer vacations. mocks its characters. It just lets them be. n
His mother has different ideas, and gets him a private —Suhani Singh

as a fat person can feel like: Plum’s job is answering

the casual rudeness, the
non-stop judgement, the
angst about body image
engulfing all aspects of
selfhood. Obesity isn’t just
Plum’s greatest stumbling
block, it’s the sole subject of
her aspirations. All other
goals—career, love-life, just
life-life—are placed on hold
while she saves for a gastric
band surgery to free her
‘thin person within’.
Like the 2015 Sarai
Walker novel it’s based on,
the series refuses to offer
psychological reasons for
fatness. “One of the things
I push back against in
Dietland,” Walker said in
2016, “is that fat is an outer
representation of some kind
of inner trauma.” Instead,
it looks outwards, placing
its heroine in the midst of a
multi-pronged female fight-
back against constricting
beauty standards.
sad letters that teenage girls
address to Kitty Montgom-
ery (Julianna Margulies),
manager-editor of teen zine
Daisy Chain. Plum’s replies
catch the attention of Julia
(Tamara Tunie), who wants
to subvert ‘the dissatisfac-
tion industrial complex’
from inside the belly of the
beast: the ‘Beauty Closet’
she runs in Daisy Chain’s
basement. Initiated into it—a heroine on the cusp of
an anti-diet self-realisation transformation, engaging
programme by the phi- feminist politics, striking
lanthropist daughter of a women characters—but it
dead diet guru, Plum goes also has too much going on.
off anti-depressants to find The constant segues from
herself hallucinating about its bitchy Devil Wears Prada
sex with a man-tiger. Mean- tenor—into loopy animation,
while, a vigilante group Dietland is at its lush NatGeo-inspired fantasy,
called Jennifer is murder- painful best when violent masked murders—can
ing rapists, while targeting depicting what feel choppy. Plum’s unusual
Fashion Week because it path, though, might suc-
life as a fat person
‘fosters rape culture’. cessfully cut a wide swathe
If that sounds like
can feel like through the stock gender
a lot, it is. Dietland has tropes of pop culture. n
many things going for —Trisha Gupta

J U LY 3 0, 2 018 INDIA TODAY 65

 Q. You were paralysed
by a bullet, but came back
to captain the Indian hockey
team. How did you react when
co-producer Deepak Singh
approached you for a film
on your life?
I was overwhelmed. I knew if a Q. You always wanted Diljit
true biopic was made on my life, Dosanjh to play the lead.
it would encourage every Initially, he was not very
youngster, whether or not enthusiastic about it.
interested in sports. I did not want someone to play the
caricatured role of a Sikh. I have
always found Diljit convincing.
However, he was not sure he would
be able to carry off the role of a
hockey player and the training.
But after hearing the script,
he did not want to miss the
opportunity.

Q. The past 10 years have

seen several biopics on
sportspersons. How is
Soorma different?
Most of them have had a fair
dose of fiction for dramatic
effect, but Soorma is realistic
and raw. Shaad Ali has
stayed true to my life. Even the
hockey players and coaches in
the film are real.

Q. What do you remember —with Sukant Deepak

of the hospital stay?
I was unconscious for four weeks
and lost more than 50 kg. When
doctors told me I would never
be able to walk or play hockey, I
asked them to leave. Every night,
I would practise getting up with
my hockey stick. I knew my place
was in the hockey field, not on

Q A
the wheelchair.

INDESTRUCTIBLE
Sandeep Singh, hockey
player, on life in the movies
and the ICU

SANDEEP SAHDEV

66 Volume XLIII Number 31; For the week July 24-30, 2018, published on every Friday Total number of pages 76 (including cover pages)