Innholdsfortegnelse for November 23, 2020 i India Today

When we put Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the cover of the magazine three weeks ago, with the headline ‘A Winning Combination’, it seemed like the Bihar elections would be a cakewalk for the NDA. A Lokniti-CSDS poll predicted a comfortable majority and given this formidable alliance of leaders—one with national charisma and the other with powerful local salience—facing a relative newcomer, the 31-year-old dynast Tejashwi Yadav and his hastily assembled allies, the result seemed a foregone conclusion. But as former British prime minister Harold Wilson famously said, “One week is a long time in politics”. Three weeks, of course, would then be an age. So it was in the recent Bihar elections. After a shaky start, Tejashwi emerged as a serious contender. He ditched…

In the run-up to the Bihar assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a dozen rallies in the state. Rahul Gandhi spoke at eight. Both campaigned for chief ministerial candidates from other parties. That’s where the similarities end. Modi’s rallies helped the BJP increase its seat count to 74 from 51 in 2015, and ensured a fifth chief ministerial term for JD(U) (Janata Dal United) chief Nitish Kumar. Rahul could not deliver similarly for the RJD (Rashtriya Jana-ta Dal). Rather, the Congress’ abysmal poll performance—it contested 70 seats, but won only 19—brought down the RJD-led alliance’s final tally. The Congress’ slide is visible across the board. In Madhya Pradesh, where bypolls were held for 28 seats, it won just nine. Its numbers in that state assembly fell to 96 from…

On November 6, Assam’s finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted a video on his Twitter handle claiming that supporters of the AIUDF (All India United Democratic Front) chief Badruddin Ajmal shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans to welcome the Dhubri Lok Sabha MP at Silchar airport a day earlier. There is no official verification of whether the supporters did indeed shout the slogan, they claim they were hailing local MLA Aziz Khan, but Sarma’s tweet is just another example of the rising communal decibel in Assam, heading for an assembly election in less than six months. By consistently targeting the AIUDF, a party representing the interests of Muslims of immigrant origin, the Assam minister is aiming to consolidate the Hindu vote in a state where Muslims form 35 per cent of the…

Over 400 million and counting—that is the cumulative view count for ‘Garmi’ (Street Dancer 3D) and the recently released single ‘Naach Meri Rani’, two 2020 tracks featuring the Canada-born Moroccan dancer-actress Nora Fatehi. It’s not quite her personal best—’Dilbar’(2018)at907millionviews—but is double that of ‘O Saki Saki’ (2019) with 294 million views. A significant reason for their popularity lies in Fatehi’s indisputable terpsichorean talent. A self-taught dancer, Fatehi, as an adolescent, relied on YouTube videos to hone her skills. The same platform has now made her a sensation. “It’s a divine force that pushes me to learn and prove myself,” says Fatehi of her ability to pick up dance styles—Afro, dance-hall, street, hip-hop, belly dancing and Bollywood. It’s why Fatehi now also has a say in the selection of choreographers. Her…

Ab aap Saeeda Bano se khabrein suniye... (And now listen to the news read by Saeeda Bano).’ And a nation waited in breathless anticipation for the bulletin that followed. The first woman to read the news on All India Radio (AIR), Saeeda Bano was to an earlier generation of radio listeners what Pratima Puri and Salma Sultan would be for decades of television viewers. Her Urdu memoir, Dagar se Hatt Ke, published in its English translation as Off the Beaten Track: The Story of My Unconventional Life, is important not merely because it records a life less ordinary lived during the nation’s most turbulent years when the narrator had the occasion to meet several very interesting people from diverse fields of life, but also as a documentation of a woman’s…

Smell. The first thing you notice even before you enter the front door, wafts of mogra mixed with tuberose, jasmine and rose. Sight. Gorgeous whites in varying tones, with hints of champagne gold and subtle yellows, spread across the festive landscape. Touch. Mirror work cushions, cool marble dining table, tufted sofas or the rough stone coffee table, textures fill up the space. Sound. The joyful whisper of leaves when a cool breeze brushes past the many potted beauties, the soft music playing in the background and the clamour of shoes that are doing last minute festal touches, echo the celebratory mood. Taste. Bright orange motichur ladoos placed delicately on tables, shiny kaju katli lined in neat rows, make mouths water as if on cue. We don’t know if it was…

“A pendant or suspension light is a fixture suspended from the ceiling by a cord, chain or metal rod. Pendant lights are usually harnessed in clusters or arrays, dangling in a decorative series, or as a stand-alone fixture serving as a focal facet. It can be used as a functional lighting source as well. Automated diming can aid pendant lights to bestow multiple scenes. Ideally, in a house, one or two pendants are usually enough for specific areas.”…

J&K State Land Act (vesting of ownership of land to occupants) was promulgated by the Farooq Abdullah government in 2001. It was to generate a Rs 25,000 crore corpus to fund power generation, hence the ‘Roshni Act’ Initially, the act set 1990 as the cut-off year for regularising private ownership of state land occupied through encroachment, on payment of prevailing market rates. The cut-off date was later relaxed to 2004, and then 2007 In 2014, the CAG found gross irregularities in the sale of land including reduction in prices to benefit politicians and other bigwigs. Report indicted officials but no further action was taken In 2014, Ankur Sharma, who heads Hindu right-wing group Ikjutt Jammu, challenged the Roshni scheme in court, blaming it for a “demographic invasion of Jammu” In…

The Assamese-speaking people have been demanding for nearly five decades that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh be detected and deported. The National Register of Citizens was updated last year, showing 1.9 million people ineligible for citizenship The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, is expected to legitimise the non-Muslims among these 1.9 million people as citizens. This has caused huge resentment among Assamese-speaking people who fear being outnumbered by Bangla-speaking Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh. Two political parties have been set up to represent this public sentiment To counter this outrage, the BJP has sought to convert the narrative from Assamese vs illegal Bangla-speaking Bangladeshi immigrants to Hindu vs Muslim. Sarma’s recent actions against madrassas and rejection of a Miya museum are aimed at projecting to Assamese people that Muslims are a bigger threat…

The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promises to be a game changer. The policy, approved by the Union cabinet in July, replaces the National Policy on Education 1986. The sector has been waiting for some big reforms for the past three decades and will now undertake sweeping changes as laid down by the new policy—access, equality, affordability, quality and accountability will be the core focus areas. From a multidisciplinary approach to doing away with rote learning, from experiential learning to foundational literacy, and from vocational education, along with technical know-how, to learning in one’s mother tongue, NEP 2020 aims to transform the education space from pre-school to secondary levels and higher. On November 8, during the first-ever virtually held edition of the India Today Education Summit, educationists and academicians…

1. DILBAR (Satyameva Jayate, 2018) Five years after she came to Mumbai, Fatehi got her breakthrough with this Adil Shaikhchoreographed belly dancing number 2. O SAKI SAKI (Batla House,2019) Fatehi’s flexibility is on full display in this track, a portion of which required her to dance with a fire fan. She learnt it in two days 3. GARMI (Street Dancer 3D, 2020) Fatehi was a standout in the film with this frenetic dance number which capitalised on the sexiness and swagger of twerking…

Q. You enjoy a reputation as an intense actor. Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari is a comedy, a genre you are not associated with much. I enjoy watching slapstick films but doing silly things to make people laugh doesn’t come naturally to me. This film is different from others in that we are not playing to the gallery. The director just wanted me to be in character, which is what I do with my other roles. Q. They say the toughest job for an actor is to make the audience laugh. Do you concur? From Charlie Chaplin to Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler, I have complete admiration and respect for them. You need a genius mind, skill and hard work to perform the way they do. The film has given me…

FRENCH CONNECTION For a stand out light go for the Noblesse Oblige chandelier from Windfall’s Frenchy Balance collection that has mouth blown gold plated glass candles. PRICE on request AT @emerystudio.in (Instagram) HANG IN THERE Crafted in metal, wood and glass, this chandelier from It’s All About Home, has eight bulbs. PRICE ₹34,995 AT www.iaah.com CENTRE OF ATTENTION This sculptural copper chandelier mimics the delicate silhouette of dandelion flowers. Aptly titled Flaming Copper Dandelion, it is handcrafted by Studio Avni. PRICE on request AT www.studioavni.com GROUND REPORT Add drama with the Flora Floor lamp from Visionnaire, PRICE on request, AT www.visionnaire-home.com; Regent Floor Lamp from Beyond Designs Home is perfect for modern homes, PRICE on request, AT www.beyonddesigns.; This iron lamp by Ador from Asian Paints is stunning, PRICE ₹7,786, AT…

The festive season is synonymous with gifting.. When it comes to the most memorable gifts, the devil is in details. Curated hampers keeping personal and unique tastes in mind is the key. Readymade hampers are usually passed from one home to the other. Curating hampers by handpicking objects from a variety of brands adds a fresh take and a sense of excitement and distinction. Use complementary colours and layer the hamper with objects of different size, scale and texture to make the gift you give create a high impact. STEP 1 The starting point is a tray. Selecting a good tray is the key to a stand out hamper. It also shows the extent of detail. I am totally in love with thali trays from No Mad India. Available in…

It was a worthy enough cause. To make a film on the India-China skirmish in Galwan Valley on June 15. Twenty Indian soldiers, including commanding officer Colonel Santosh Babu, and an undetermined number of People’s Liberation Army soldiers were killed in the clash. Except that the Indian Army denied permission to the project announced by actor-producer Ajay Devgn. Government officials say it had to do with the sketchy proposal they received from Devgn’s office. But the real reasons lie elsewhere. With the government keen to dial down tensions with Beijing—a ninth round of military talks with the PLA are set to begin soon in Ladakh—a Bollywood war film is the last thing you need. Fare Play Both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress are lavishing attention on a tribal family…

Nitish Kumar should be a happy man. He proved wrong scores of opinion polls which had predicted that he would be swept away by the perceptible undercurrent of anti-incumbency. The results of the hard fought Bihar assembly election showed that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Nitish secured a slender majority, thwarting a determined challenge by the mahagathbandhan (MGB) led by young Tejashwi Yadav, the son of his old political rival Lalu Prasad Yadav. It ensured that Nitish would be sworn in for a fourth consecutive term as chief minister of Bihar (all in all, the seventh time). Yet, hours after the victory, barring a thank you tweet to voters from the official handle of his party, the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), there was silence from Nitish about…

May 27, 2014 PM Narendra Modi and then-Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif hold talks in New Delhi after the new NDA government is sworn in December 25, 2015 PM Modi makes a surprise stopover in Lahore en route to India from Afghanistan. The increasing diplomatic contact rekindles hopes of improved relations January 2, 2016 Pakistan-based militants launch a suicide attack on an Indian airbase in Pathankot, killing several soldiers. On Sept. 18, a similar attack targets an army base in Uri, Kashmir September 29, 2016 Following the Uri attack, Indian forces conduct a retaliatory cross-border raid on militant camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Notably, the raid is publicly acknowledged by the Modi government February 26, 2019 After a suicide attack on an army convoy in Pulwama on Feb. 14 by JeM cadre…

The BJP has relied heavily on Sarma’s mass appeal and managerial skills to establish itself in the Northeast. He was the chief architect of its electoral wins in Assam and Tripura and his backdoor management helped it form governments in Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, despite Congress being single-largest party Before the 2021 assembly poll, he wants either a senior Union cabinet portfolio or made CM candidate of Assam. By saying he won’t contest assembly poll next year, he has already sent the high command a signal For BJP, it will be extremely difficult to ignore current Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, who is a popular leader across the state and who has always had RSS backing However, the BJP will need Sarma’s poll management skills and resources to counter anti-BJP…

Deepa Mehta’s latest film Funny Boy is a coming-of-age story of a minority Tamil Christian boy growing up in a Buddhist, Sinhalese-majority Sri Lanka. Set in the 1970s-80s, it explores a Tamil-Sinhalese gay love story at the onset of the 26-year civil war that left about one million Tamils as refugees. A sumptuous period film that is deeply felt, moving and funny, it is Mehta’s finest film yet. The book is an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 best-selling book, Funny Boy. Even before its release, Funny Boy has been garnering laurels: it has been selected as Canada’s entry for the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film (Amritsar-born Mehta is based in Toronto). Additionally, it is being released by the high profile Ava DuVernay’s Array, a distribution collective for films…

LIGHT UP Add a bit of shine to your interiors with the Shimmer Tea Light Holder. The piece is part of Swarovski’s capsule collection for home, for the festive season. PRICE ₹3,190 AT www.swarovski.com LEVEL UP Titled Tai Chi, this asymmetrical vertical display table inspired by Yin and Yang is by Ahmedabad-based multi-disciplinary studio, KEPH. Standing tall at 5 feet, it is made of solidified resin with teak wood pillars. PRICE ₹35,000 AT www.kephdesign.com IN YOUR PRAYERS Take your celebrations up a notch with this pooja thali from Arttd’inox. Called Padma Shvet, it comes as a full set. PRICE ₹3,564 AT www.arttdinox.com GLEAM OF GOLD Home4U is a new e-commerce website that is all about affordable luxury. It is founded by Ritika and Nitin Jain, who are passionate about decor,…

A Tropical Retreat Flowers big and small, lush scenes from the forest, delicate patterns, bring the jungle alive on your table with Passifolia tableware collection by Hermès. Place the flatware at different levels to recreate the forest indoors. The range has 30 pieces including presentation platters, coffee cups and dinner plates, giving you a lot of options to choose from. PRICE on request; AT Hermès store in Delhi and Mumbai (The brand also has a home delivery service, through which products can be sent across the country) Natural Beauty Nature continues to be the central trend in décor across the globe. This tablescape by Goodearth takes its cues from there with elements foraged from the garden sitting pretty next to traditional Kansa dinnerware (made using the age-old technique of hand-beating).…

“Floor lamps are an excellent addition to transforming any space immediately. Generally, when we put lights on the ceiling, it creates a flat look, but when you add a floor lamp, its muted light creates a lot of drama in terms of shadow it casts. Since they do not light everything with equal intensity, floor lamps help create a warm and inviting space, perfect for conversations. As opposed to other lights, they also occupy less space and do not need any additional electrical work.”…

UNLIKE FASHIONWEAR, most don’t think of furnishings as seasonal. They think of their dream home as a fixed entity. Unfortunately, that dream is a lie. Home textiles are subject to trends as much as the clothing industry. This does not mean you need to buy a new set of curtains or change your upholstery every three months, but it does mean that as the season changes—elevate, renovate and innovate. Diwali is the perfect time to buy, DIY or take out of your closest bright cushions, rich materials, stylish curtains and gorgeous table linen. However, before you start here’s what the experts have to say. Go for a rich material palatte “This festive season, we see the inclusion of hand printed silk cushions and runners, contemporary lighting, rugs and hand crafted…

It was 1988. Vijay Mallya had asked her to pitch a design for one of his offices. Everything had to be ready in a week’s time. During this period, she had friends over and happened to tell them she needed to print her letterheads the next day. They together came up with the name Prisim; and her interior design firm was born. Prior to this she was working with the Oberoi Group in the design department. The designer in question is Bangalore and Coorg-based Vinita Chaitanya, who is synonymous with creating dramatic interiors for top corporates, athletes, Bollywood stars and a wide range of high-end clients. Over the years her repertoire has grown to include some of the most beautiful homes in the country. Even today she continues to break…