Innholdsfortegnelse for May 6, 2019 i India Today

The road to power in New Delhi, they say, goes through Uttar Pradesh. Nine of India’s 14 prime ministers have been elected from one of the state’s 80 constituencies. The state’s 144 million voters make it India’s political pivot. When Narendra Modi wanted to capture power in New Delhi, he chose to contest from Varanasi. The BJP won 71 seats in UP in 2014, a fourth of their eventual Lok Sabha tally. Any major setback in this state will make it difficult for the party to make it up elsewhere as they won 84 out of the 105 seats in the other Hindi heartland states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Undoubtedly, anti-incumbency will be a factor. Two of India’s biggest post-Independence political movements of the 1990s—the Ram Mandir…

After considerable criticism, including from the Supreme Court, for its tolerance, the Election Commission has bared its teeth. Those who have received temporary bans in recent days include BSP president Mayawati, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and current Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi. The bans served range from 48 to 72 hours. But the EC is fighting a battle it has already lost. Now the BJP is accusing Navjot Singh Sidhu of asking Muslims in a Bihar constituency to vote as a block, the same ‘crime’ for which Mayawati is doing her penance. Who next after Sidhu? —Speaking in Deoband, at a joint BSP-SP-RLD rally, former UP chief minister Mayawati appeared to be arguing that Muslim voters would be betraying their…

Damned If You Do... After domestic airline Vistara tweeted a picture, with a suitably sycophantic accompanying message, of two of its staff beaming alongside retired Indian army officer G.D. Bakshi, it was inundated with complaints about its celebration of a ‘bigot’. Bakshi, a major-general, had a decorated army career, which he has followed with a career of bellicose and, yes, often bigoted opining in television news studios. Vistara took the offending picture down, provoking even greater outrage. “Spineless,” howled right-wing users. “We do not want our platform to be disrespectful or hurtful to anyone,” explained the airline, rather missing the point of Twitter. But it has since posted another picture of executives paying Bakshi a grovelling personal visit. Clearly, more right-wingers buy airplane tickets than, as one erudite example of…

When Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed his first public meeting in Patna on February 3, the man tasked with drawing big crowds to the venue was Anant Singh, the criminal-turned-Independent MLA from Mokama, known by the nickname ‘Chhote Sarkar’. After the rally, the Congress’s Bihar campaign committee chief Akhilesh Singh profusely thanked Anant, who, having proven his worth, demanded the Lok Sabha ticket from Munger. The Congress obliged a month later by fielding Anant’s wife Neelam Devi. For the party, it was a win-win—ensuring the muscleman politician’s support without risking the taint of fielding a bahubali. Bahubalis have been synonymous with electioneering in Bihar, and the 2019 Lok Sabha battle is no different. Neelam Devi is pitted against Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, a minister in the Nitish Kumar…

The Bengali new year has brought some cheer for the CPI(M) cadres. From its office in Nandigram, which was closed since March 2007, to those in Khejuri, Keshpur and Dhaniakhali, the party has been able to reopen its offices that were closed for seven to 10 years—with arch-rival Trinamool looking away. Be it the 2013 panchayat poll, the 2014 Lok Sabha election or the 2016 assembly and 2018 panchayat polls, CPI(M) workers were attacked whenever they tried to reopen their offices. The situation seems to have changed now. The Nandigram office, for instance, was vandalised, set on fire and locked up by the Trinamool at the peak of the agitation led by Mamata Banerjee. Surprisingly, the move to open the office this April had the support of Trinamool’s Suvendu Adhikary.…

THE NEWCOMERS They are hoping to open their maiden political inning with a bang Prakash Raj, 54 Independent “The national parties have failed the people. Karnataka is ready for alternative politics” The National Award-winning actor and vocal BJP critic is a candidate from Bangalore Central. Nusrat Jahan, 29 Trinamool The Mamata Banerjee loyalist is wooing Hindu voters in Basirhat—otherwise a tough task for Muslim candidates given the strong polarisation of votes. Urmila Matondkar, 49 Congress The party is banking on Urmila’s ‘Marathi girl’ identity to unseat the BJP’s Gopal Shetty, the sitting MP from Mumbai North. “I felt the need to join the Congress as the freedom to express is under attack” Sumalatha Ambarish, 55 Independent Actress and wife of late Kannada star Ambarish; she’s contesting from Mandya in Karnataka.…

THIS KHARI BOLI-SPEAKING REGION consists of 10 Lok Sabha seats, all of which polled in the first two phases in April. West UP is a traditional stronghold of the BJP with the party averaging one-third of the votes polled since 1991. Between 1996 and 2014, the Samajwadi Party averaged 29 per cent and the Bahujan Samaj Party 21 per cent. In 2014, the BJP swept West UP with 48 per cent of the popular vote. In the 2017 assembly election, the BJP won three-quarters of the assembly seats in western UP. West UP is dominated by Dalits, Muslims, Yadavs, Jats, Gujjars and upper castes. The Muslims make up 27 per cent of the population in this region, compared to 19 per cent in the rest of the state. Together with…

THIS BUNDELI-SPEAKING AND SPARSELY POPULATED region is spread along the Madhya Pradesh border, with a larger part of it falling in MP. Drought-prone and receiving scanty rainfall, Bundelkhand was the epicentre of rural distress from 2014 to 2016 and witnessed massive farmer protests. In UP, Bundelkhand includes five Lok Sabha seats, all of which were won by the BJP in 2014 with a massive 45 per cent of the vote. In 2017 again, the BJP swept all the assembly seats. The vote share for the BSP in 2017 was 22.5 per cent whereas the SP and Congress together received 24.3 per cent of the votes. With a large geographical area falling under very few seats, the region is prone to one-way swings in elections, usually in the BJP’s favour. CONSTITUENCIES…

A UNIVERSE OF RICHES Together,InfinityWar andEndgame cost about $321 million to make. InfinityWar went on to earn over $640 million in just its opening weekend, and is currently valued at over $2 billion. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the highest grossing film franchise with over $18.5 billion in worldwide earnings. OF FIRST TIMES Both films are the first to be shot only in IMAX, using lenses developed specifically for it. Early work with the camera (the ARRI Alexa 65) began while shooting the airport face-off between the Cap and Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War. THEIR SECRET OF SUCCESS Keeping details of these movies under wraps can be difficult, especially since actors can be absurdly loose-lipped. Mark Ruffalo (the Hulk) was reportedly given a fake script to prevent…

Q. For Hindi films, you write in English and then translate. Did this experience of writing and performing in English feel more authentic? A. It’s not like performing in Hindi doesn’t feel authentic. It’s a part of me. But when I write, I write in English because it’s a language I think in, so the flow becomes easier. It’s nothing more than that. Q. Why did you choose to make an album in an age of singles? A. I don’t really think of this as an age of singles. I’ve grown up with a healthy appetite for consuming albums. I feel that albums at times can tell you the story of an artist’s journey, which a single cannot do. Q. Did your father inspire you to become a poet? A.…

Jurisprudence has thrust upon judges a divine status—it’s no coincidence that they are addressed as ‘Lords’. But while gods may be infallible, judges are only human and may err, even if inadvertently. Given this plain reality, judges, even the Chief Justice of India (CJI), cannot—and should not—hide behind calls to uphold ‘institutional supremacy’ or the ‘independence of the judiciary’. In fact, submitting to normal procedure will only enhance the stature of both the concerned judge and the court. And, besides, it is not really the Supreme Court that is supreme, the Constitution is. The principle of the Rule of Law demands accountability, which is a kind of reciprocity between the powerful and their subordinates. Accountability makes the exercise of power more efficient and effective. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus said:…

The BJP heaved a sigh of relief when former Bollywood action hero Sunny Deol finally joined the party on April 23 and agreed to contest the Gurdaspur seat. The party’s entire Plan B for Punjab—B as in Bollywood—rested on Deol. BJP president Amit Shah has had no luck so far in attracting stars to the state. Akshay Kumar was briefly considered until the party discovered he was also a Canadian national. Akshaye Khanna declined to contest from his late father Vinod Khanna’s seat Gurdaspur. Even Sunny took some months to make up his mind. BJP veterans, who recall the tough time they had getting father Dharmendra to contest the 2004 Lok Sabha election from Bikaner, are not surprised. Wrath of Kharge Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun…

Q Poll surveys predict doom for the Left Democratic Front (LDF). How many seats do you hope to win? A. We have seen in the past how these surveys fall flat. They are nothing but exercises to see if public opinion can be swayed in favour of groups backed by the organisations that conduct such survey. The LDF is poised to win a thumping majority, as a situation similar to 2004 exists now. What had the poll surveys predicted in 2016? Doom for Left parties. What was the result? We won and formed the government. The LDF is confident of victory, we have fulfilled all our promises. Q. Do you think the entry of Congress president Rahul Gandhi into the Kerala poll arena will trigger a wave for his party…

THERE COULD HAVE BEEN NO BETTER photo-opportunity for the Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal gathbandhan (alliance) in Uttar Pradesh than BSP supremo Mayawati sharing a stage with SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri on April 19, 24 years after the infamous Lucknow guest-house incident when the two parted company. The SP bastion voted on April 23, in the third phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, and prior to that BSP leader was in Mainpuri to canvass for Mulayam. Hailing Mulayam as the “asli, vastavik, janam jatiya pichhre varg ka leader (real, original, natural-born backward class leader)”, Mayawati called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “nakli, farzi (false, fraud) backward class leader”, accusing him of co-opting his Modh-Ganchi caste into the backward class list when he was the chief…

THE LOWER DOAB BRAJ-SPEAKING REGION, situated on the banks of the river Yamuna and associated with Lord Krishna, is comprised of just seven Lok Sabha seats. The residents of Braj are called Brijvasi and the language Braj bhasha. Being part of the Agra division, the main base of the economy, other than agriculture, is tourism. Shoe-making, too, is big business but the leather tanneries have all shut down. The Taj Expressway, which connects Agra to Lucknow and also Delhi, has provided great connectivity, giving a boost to the region. The BJP swept all the seats in this region in 2014 except for Mainpuri and Firozabad, which were won by the Samajwadi Party—by candidates from the Mulayam Singh Yadav family. While SP supremo Mulayam was the Mainpuri candidate in 2014, his…

IF UP IS THE HEART OF INDIA, AWADH IS THE HEART OF UP. Known for its Awadhi literature, cuisine and music, the region has sent three prime ministers to Parliament—Indira Gandhi from Raebareli, V.P. Singh from Fatehpur and Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Lucknow. It comprises 20 parliamentary constituencies; state capital Lucknow and the industrial city of Kanpur are the big cities of this region. The BJP had won 16 seats in 2014 with ally Apna Dal securing one. The Congress had won two seats in the Gandhi family pocket boroughs of Raebareli and Amethi, and the SP its stronghold, Kannauj. In 2014, the BJP secured 42 per cent of the votes in the region, while the SP, BSP and the Congress bagged 22 per cent, 19 per cent and 13…

Clothes have long been visual shorthand for netas to communicate their politics. So, if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s half-sleeved kurtas and well-groomed appearance give the impression of a man who knows his mind and likes order in everything he does, his primary political opponent, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, portrays a youthful image in his kurta-pyjama and sneakers. Sister Priyanka evokes the image of her grandmother, Indira Gandhi, with her short, wavy hair and brightly coloured cotton handloom saris. Matching her sari for sari is textiles minister Smriti Irani. West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, on the other hand, is a picture of austerity in a white sari with coloured borders, a dress code she stuck to even at the recent wedding in the Ambani household. BSP supremo Mayawati eschews the sari altogether,…

Home loans are a big, longterm liability for a majority of borrowers, often stretching up to 15-25 years. Borrowers want to pay it off as soon as possible, but are often unable to do so, either due to a shortage of funds or lack of awareness. It’s good to bear in mind, though, that a small increase in EMIs will let you repay the loan faster. And if interest rates are falling, even better. INCREASE EMI IF YOU CAN Higher EMIs not only help you get rid of a liability faster but also save big on interest outflow. “As a general principle, the longer the loan tenure, the higher the total interest amount you pay on your loan,” says Gaurav Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Myloancare.in. Unfortunately, most home buyers often…

An AI with feelings, a pill that will find you a soul mate, a human-machine bond and an app that allows people to date and have sex virtually. You could be mistaken for thinking the French show Osmosis, is a BlackMirror reboot, but, really, it is much more. In this, humans control the narrative, not the machines, and the show doesn’t hate technology but revels in its capabilities. Osmosis, one of Netflix’s international Originals, is already gaining much attention worldwide. It could perhaps be said that the streaming platform’s focus on foreign-language shows is allowing us to cross borders, both physical and linguistic. Netflix entered the international production business in 2015 with the Spanish series Club de Cuervos. Since then, they have released a number of hit shows from beyond…

The Sri Lankan authorities see the hand of a local group of Islamist extremists in the “ISIS-inspired” coordinated bombings that left 300-plus dead on Easter Sunday. Both Indian and American authorities had reportedly warned the Lankan government of an imminent attack as early as April 4. But mistrust between the president and the prime minister meant the Intelligence was treated as yet more grist to the mill of internal politicking. 10 Indians among the dead in Sri Lanka; At least 5 were holidaying workers for the Janata Dal (Secular), part of the ruling coalition in Karnataka 40 Arrested in connection with the bombings; 7 suicide bombers are thought to have carried out the attacks 87 Bomb detonators found in central Colombo bus station after the blasts 1 MILLION Sri Lankan…

From reshaping banking theory to exploring how capitalism sowed its own seeds of destruction (Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists) or how providing subsidised credit to allay widening income inequality and rising job insecurity in the US ended up as the biggest global crisis since the Great Depression (Fault Lines), Raghuram Rajan has a penchant for asking the big questions. In his latest book, The Third Pillar, Rajan, professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, asks another critical question: what has caused the rise of the nationalist populism? While innumerable commentators have opined on the subject, few have attempted to provide an analytical framework to discuss it. The book provides that framework to see the problem as…

Phase III of this long general election began on April 23, with 115 seats up for grabs in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala, among others. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which keeps meticulous records of the backgrounds of election candidates, has released its analysis of candidates in the fray in the first three phases. For many, this election is not simply a vote on the performance of the Modi government but also a sort of referendum on competing ideas of India. The ADR, however, would have voters look past national ‘narratives’ at the records of candidates in the constituencies where they vote. And given legal yet opaque instruments of poll funding such as electoral bonds, a scrutiny of the mandatory declaration by…

The Hisar Lok Sabha seat in Haryana is all set to witness a three-way contest between the third and fourth generation dynasts of powerful political clans. While the Congress is hosting former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi, the Jannayak Janata Party has re-nominated Dushyant Chautala, a great-grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal. Even the BJP has put forth a ‘political blue-blood’ in Bhajendra Singh, the son of Union minister Birender Singh and great-grandson of Jat leader Sir Chhotu Ram. All three contestants are eminently qualified: Bhavya is a London School of Economics graduate; Dushyant, the sitting MP, has a management degree from the California State University (Bakersfield); and Bhajendra quit the IAS to join the electoral fray.…

Even as he awaits the outcome of the polls, chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is travelling to other states as a campaigner against the NDA. He tells Amarnath K. Menon that he is confident of a second term in a row. Excerpts: Q. The turnout for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in the state at 79.64 per cent was higher than the 78.4 per cent turnout in 2014. There were 2.6 million more voters than in 2014. This has prompted YSR Congress to say Jagan Mohan Reddy will come to power. The results will prove them wrong. People from all over the country travelled to vote for us in Andhra Pradesh. We will emerge victorious. Q. What kind of role do you see for yourself in national politics if…

In an interaction with Kiran D. Tare, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis acknowledged that agrarian crisis and the lack of jobs are prominent issues this election. However, he is hopeful  that a ‘silent’ Modi wave will help the BJP win the Lok Sabha election. Excerpts: Q. Is the Modi wave fading now? In 2014, the Modi wave was primarily amid the middle class. This time, there is a Modi wave in the lower strata of society. This class does not show euphoria; this Modi wave is silent. Q. Then why has the BJP fielded Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blasts case? The National Investigation Agency has told the court that it does not have any evidence against her. In 2007-08, terrorism-related activities were at their peak and…

ROHILKHAND, NAMED AFTER THE ROHILLA AFGHAN TRIBES, is a region in northwest Uttar Pradesh bound by the Ganges in the south and part of the upper Ganges alluvial plains in and around the city of Bareilly. It shares a border with Nepal in the north and Uttarakhand in the west. Rohilkhand consists of 12 constituencies, a majority of which voted in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 23. Muslims have a large presence in the area, with a population share of 50.6 per cent in Rampur, 52.2 per cent in Sambhal, 47.1 per cent in Moradabad, 34.5 per cent in Bareilly, 24.1 per cent in Pilibhit and 21.5 per cent in Badaun. Despite the size of the Muslim population, the BJP swept Rohilkhand in 2014, barring…

THIS BHOJPURI-SPEAKING REGION bordering Bihar accounts for 26 Lok Sabha seats (larger than states like Gujarat and Rajasthan) which include high-profile constituencies such as Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Varanasi. Phulpur was the first constituency of India’s first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the BJP candidate for the second time from Varanasi, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is the SP candidate from Azamgarh. Current chief minister Yogi Adityanath was the BJP MP from Gorakhpur for 25 years. In 2014, with the Modi wave high, the BJP swept the region except for Azamgarh where SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was the only one left standing from the Opposition. Except for 2009, when the Congress won three seats from Purvanchal, the party has drawn a blank in…

In the case of a family floater health insurance plan, there are chances the claim limit will get exhausted if a family member has a serious illness. Such a situation makes other family members vulnerable till the policy year ends. A restoration benefit comes to the rescue in such a situation. This is a facility that restores the original sum assured of the policy in case the limit is exhausted. Here is what you should know about restoration benefits. HOW DOES IT WORK? Depending upon the health insurance provider, the restoration benefit may kick in after partial or complete exhaustion. “Most health insurance policies offer this benefit only when the sum insured is completely exhausted. However, some plans do offer the flexibility of using the restoration of the sum insured…

In 2014, three years after his death at 95, India’s most famous exile received a swan song at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, which exhibited his final works, the nine paintings known as the Indian Civilization series. The lushly-mounted series was a homage to the rich diversity of Indian culture. Today, it’s time for Maqbool Fida Husain’s adopted home to give him a much-needed retrospective that, fittingly, riffs on the idea of home and belonging. Aptly called Horses of the Sun, the exhibition at Qatar’s Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (on display till July 31) explores the concept of home for an artist who often positioned himself as a global nomad—a folk artist who artfully straddled the worlds of five-star suites and expensive suits on the one hand and…

Eor some of us, inevitably, Freda Bedi will be seen as the mother of the suave Kabir, he of the manysplendoured larynx; or even the grand-mother of Kama Sutra condoms, modelled by her grand-daughter Pooja. Coincidentally, both Kabir and the Kama Sutra were launched by the late Alyque Padamsee. Freda would have been proud of the association. She stands as part of the vanguard of women who found themselves India intoxicated, ready to throw convention aside, wrap themselves in cotton saris and fight for the country’s freedom. Freda Bedi was an English champion of Indian nationalism, protesting against her own motherland Freda’s biographer Andrew Whitehead is not only an old India hand but a journalist and writer of repute, and gives us a more rounded image of her against the…