Innholdsfortegnelse for August 26, 2019 i India Today

A few years after India’s decisive military victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war, D.K. Barooah, the president of the Congress party during the Emergency, coined the memorable epithet ‘India is Indira, Indira is India’. It was not without reason. Mrs Indira Gandhi straddled India’s political landscape like a colossus. History, it seems, is repeating itself nearly half a century later. The BJP’s second consecutive Lok Sabha win, with even greater numbers than in 2014, has decimated the opposition. The Congress party’s response has been to play another round of dynastic musical chairs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi towers over India’s political scene quite like the statue of Sardar Patel he inaugurated last year. The Karvy Insights-INDIA TODAY Mood of the Nation (MOTN) 2019 survey reflects this dramatically altered political reality.…

Any whiff of corruption and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath puts a swift end to dubious transfers and postings. On August 8, he cancelled the transfers of 300 officers in the stamp and registration department headed by BJP minister Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’. Yogi had received complaints regarding irregularities in such transfers. In July, the CM had cancelled the postings of 19 chief medical officers in the health department run by health minister Sidharth Nath Singh. He then suspended an education official in Unnao, bypassing basic education minister Anupma Jaiswal. The CM has also ordered an inquiry into e-tenders issued by the public health department headed by deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. —Sandeep Unnithan with Ashish Misra, Kiran D. Tare, Jeemon Jacob and Rohit Parihar…

Hundreds dead, tens of thousands displaced, this year’s delayed monsoon has devastated states across India. After suffering its worst floods last year since 1924, Kerala is once again forced to cope with calamity. Erstwhile Congress president Rahul Gandhi, MP for Wayanad, travelled to his battered constituency, visiting relief camps and making appeals for aid. A report released this month by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that irrigation in India might be playing a role in delaying monsoons and decreasing the intensity of rainfall early in the season. It said there is clear evidence that incidents of extreme rainfall have multiplied, with central India experiencing a three-fold increase between 1950 and 2015. The unpredictability of rainfall too has been growing, prompting IIT campuses in Mumbai, Chennai and…

Corruption-free governance 20 Crackdown on black money 11 Demonetisation 10 Improved infrastructure (roads, highways, electricity, ports, etc.) 9 Improving India’s international standing 8 Tough stand on terror 8 Implementation of GST 7 Pro-poor initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana 6 Pro-women initiatives like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao 5 Social reform initiatives like the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan 4 Pro-farmer initiatives like the PM-Kisan scheme 3 Health reform initiatives like Ayushman Bharat 3 Nation-building initiatives like Make in India 3 Financial reforms and initiatives like direct benefit transfer 2 All figures in per cent…

BUOYED BY A COMMANDING MAJORITY in the Lok Sabha and the tactical support from friendly opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha, the Narendra Modi government has been on a legislative overdrive, chasing social goals to ensure sustainable growth is a tad easier. So even though not all measures are backed by budgetary intent, there is a perception that things have improved, especially in rural areas. The MOTN survey shows that this is especially true for the availability of potable water as well as for irrigation, power and the condition of roads. People say these have improved strikingly in the past two years. The reconstitution of water-related departments into the newly named Jal Shakti ministry displays a resolve to address the country’s water woes. Prime Minister Modi has pledged to make…

In the race for Bollywood’s most popular Saif, Saif Ali Saif has always finished fourth. Even so, he has made an impression with roles that have been varied and often challenging. He was Langda Tyagi in Omkara (2006), and again a manipulator in Being Cyrus (2006). Later, in Go Goa Gone (2013), he played a Punjabi zombie hunter who thought he was Russian. This year, we are seeing him again as Sartaj Singh in Netflix’s Sacred Games, an emotionally vulnerable police officer who struggles to save Mumbai. Later this year, in Navdeep Singh’s next, Laal Kaptaan, he will be seen playing a lone wolf who goes out on a hunting spree in 18th century India. Looking at his recent choices—Chef (2017) and Kaalakaandi (2017) included—it seems obvious that Saif is…

SABSE BADA SUKH (1972) Hrishikesh Mukherjee stepped out of his comfort zone with this film about two village lads going to the city to discover sex (with “easy” women), and learning moral lessons instead. HUNTERRR & GUDDU KI GUN (BOTH 2015) Each of these is a bildungsroman about sex addicts who journey, almost in spite of themselves, towards true love. But in only one of them does a magic spell turn the protagonist’s penis golden! NO ENTRY (2005) Many critics reflexively label such films misogynistic, but in this breathless comedy, full of belly laughs and fine performances, about marital misdemeanours, the philandering men come off worse than the befuddled women.…

Q. How difficult is it to be yourself in an industry which celebrates artifice? People keep telling me that over the years I have remained unchanged. I know no other way to be than to be me. Q. Mission Mangal is your third film with Akshay Kumar. You haven’t changed, but has he? No. His professionalism is intact and his madness too. What’s amazing is that he is so committed. He does four films a year! He has reinvented himself from time to time. He is a real entertainer. Q. You play a scientist in Mission Mangal. By the end of it, did you understand how Mangalyaan unfolded? I was nervous because I do not have a scientific bent of mind. My only concern was when I spout these technical…

Let’s face it, the simple spout has gone through a serious transformation. Take for instance this bath space (right) by Somany with the Chanel basin mixture in gold and marble look alike tiles. The faucet not only complements the basin and marble tiles but also adds an element of drama to the bathroom. Here’s what’s new in this segment. LATEST TRENDS “Faucet trends are pointing towards metals like steel, nickel, brass in different colours and finishes, and in terms of design, the industrial look has also gained popularity,” says Abhinav Khandelwal, MD, FCML Distributors. Maurizio Meloda, technical and operations director at GRAFF India agrees with Khandelwal and adds that the inspiration lies in the form of classic motorcycles, fusing an industrial aesthetic with nostalgic details. “Black is one of the…

This 5,000 sq ft, four-bedroom home located in Gurgaon, is designed for a family of four—a couple and their two daughters. They gave us a very clear brief. Since they were already designing a tropical Indian home with traditional colours in Bangalore, they wanted this house to have a modern and minimalistic look and feel. During the time, we were deeply inspired by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. The purist canvases of Corbusier led us to use sombre colours for the shell of the house such as the unusual palette of the cement finished grey, sienna and sage. This set the stage for a sophisticated and refined shell, which also had a Zen-like calmness to it. We wanted the materiality of the walls, the ceiling and the floor to be…

Subramaniam critiques the easy and condescending misuse of scientific language by non-scientists committed to Hindu nationalism to create triumphant fictions of timeless Hindu supremacy The man in the Mumbai suburban train was carrying the latest iPhone XR but I was completely taken by his home screen. It was a deity I recognised from a childhood in Kerala—Ayyappan, the handsome Hindu god of growth. My uncles used to talk of making the pilgrimage to Sabarimala, where existed the most famous of Ayyapan’s temples. However, the confluence of religion and 4G technology in India did not strike me until I began reading Banu Subramaniam’s profound Holy Science. In it she systematically probes, prods and unravels the unsettling camaraderie between religion and science that marks modern Indian social and political discourse, revealing sometimes…

The NCP’s Ajit Pawar seldom misses a chance to contradict uncle Sharad Pawar. It was no surprise then that, on August 5, he backed the Centre’s dilution of Article 370, even urging the government to wrest back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This isn’t the first time he has deviated from the party line. When all opposition parties were alleging EVM tampering, Ajit said he sensed nothing amiss. He has been this way ever since son Parth got a drubbing in the Lok Sabha election. Clearly, there’s more to it than meets the eye.…

The Thiruvananthapuram airport was started as a flying club in 1932 by the Travancore royal family. The Tata Airlines’ maiden flight to the airport in 1935 used a DH-83 Fox Moth aircraft, and it came carrying birthday wishes for Maharaja Chithira Thirunal from the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon. The airport, now spread over 700 acres of land, handled 4.4 million passengers in 2018-19. But now, Kerala’s first international airport is in the thick of a controversy. In February, it became one of the six airports leased out to highest bidders Adani Group by the Airport Authority of India (AAI). Protests started soon after in Kerala. “The city airport is our pride and we had requested the prime minister that the state be given preferential consideration while selecting the bid for the…

ONLY RARELY DOES A NATION’S DESTINY become so closely intertwined with that of its leader. Till recently, this pantheon of great Indian leaders had been limited to Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Some did come within striking distance of that trinity: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and, for a brief while, even Manmohan Singh when he was re-elected prime minister for the second time. But these statesmen were unable to ascend the altar of mass idolatry. Now, however, a new claimant is emerging to the throne of absolute power: Narendra Damodardas Modi. The size of the screens and the colour with which we view our leaders have drastically altered from the sepia-toned photographs of Gandhi and Nehru and the flickering black-and-white images of Indira on hunchbacked…

WHEN IT COMES TO ambition and performance, there’s no stopping Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath, adjudged the ‘Best Performing Chief Minister’ in the country in the latest INDIA TODAY Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll. Adityanath, who secured 20 per cent of the votes, was ranked second in the last MOTN poll (January 2019), where he shared the honours with Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal. An early setback in his political career—the BJP’s defeat in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls in March 2018, exactly a year after he became chief minister—had opened Adityanath’s eyes to, in his own words, his “overconfidence and inability to gauge the strength of the BSP-SP alliance”. Having won the Gorakhpur seat five times in a row in the past, he took the loss to heart. Since…

Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost,” said Shah Rukh Khan in Om Shanti Om. Only the audience is no longer as captivated by his films or that of the other Khans—Aamir and Salman. The latter, “Bhai” to his fans, just squeezed through by a percentage point to hold on to the No.1 spot in the latest edition of the INDIA TODAY Mood of the Nation (MOTN) survey. Salman may have played Bharat in his last film, but it’s Akshay Kumar who wears the Mr Bharat label better with a roster of nationalistic films, such as Kesari and Mission Mangal. Unlike the Khans, Kumar is prolific, doing four releases a year, making him one of the busiest and highest paid actors in Bollywood. Not far behind is Ranveer Singh, impressing with…

The second season of Sacred Games only confirms what the first had signalled—Pankaj Tripathi’s Guruji is the glue that will now hold much of the web show together. As more and more people stream the web show, Tripathi says he is “excited” and “anxious” about the feedback he might receive. This is his first collaboration with director Anurag Kashyap since Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). Tripathi says, “I have a special love for Anurag. He gives me the world’s freedom.” At a time when any odd depiction of religion seems enough to raise hackles, was Tripathi worried about hurting Hindu sentiments while playing Guruji? He is tight-lipped. “I am an actor, I work with the written material I get,” he says. In Newton (2017), Tripathi had made the antagonistic Aatma Singh…

FURNITURE FIESTA The new console collection from The Great Eastern Home is made from solid wood. Each one has a unique design that makes it distinctive. PRICE on request ATwww.thegreateasternhome.com CUSHION COMFORT Designer Aradhana Anand has launched a new cushion collection called Tetris, named after the infamous tile matching game of ‘84. Made from cotton fabric with woven Indian motifs, it is embellished with a grid of fluorescent orange and pink thread. PRICE on request AT www.limon-design.com QUIRK WORKS After conquering the online space, Bent Chair tries its hand at an offline model with the launch of their first flagship store in the heart of Delhi. PRICE ₹21,000 to ₹8.5 lakh AT 22 Janpath Road, New Delhi BEDROOM SECRETS The latest range of duvets, sheets, bed covers and pillows from…

Dripping Faucets Problem 1 Dripping at the junction of tile and faucet Solution This is caused due to improper installation of the faucet with the wrong thread, or inadequate usage of Teflon tape while mounting. It is important for homeowners to ensure that mounting is done properly to avoid this situation. Problem 2 Dripping at the junction of the faucet control valve or handle Solution This happens because of two reasons—either the spindle (also called disk cartridge) of the faucet is damaged or the washer is worn out. Gentle usage of the valve will reduce these instances. Problem 3 Dripping at the mouth of the faucet Solution This usually happens when the washer of the foam-flow aerator is either worn-out or missing. It could also be caused due to inadequate…

S Ghosh and Architects (SGA) dates back to 1973; when a young and energetic husband-wife duo, Sumit and Suchitra Ghosh wanted to make their mark in Indian architecture. Sumit worked with Joseph Allen Stein after his masters at Kahn’s Studio at the University of Pennsylvania while Suchitra had been working at the offices of Bose Brothers in Delhi after having worked in Germany. In the 90s SGA won wide recognition, including two national awards, and significant social housing and infrastructure commissions. Their son, Sudipto (a graduate of CEPT, Ahmedabad and the University of Cincinnati) joined the firm in 2003 after having worked for several years at Richard Meier and Partners in New York. Since then they have won several important commissions through architecture design competitions. We sat down with Sudipto…

The British can’t do without their high tea and the Japanese make a ritual of it. Whatever your taste don’t forget that tea parties are all about what you serve the brew in. That’s where Teabox comes in. From steeping your favourite tea in a classic teapot with clear glass borosilicate to handmade, hand-glazed and wood-fired signature design and the sophisticated Bevel kettle with an easy grip—there’s a lot to choose from. PRICE ₹1,499 to ₹8,999 AT in.teabox.com…

Many things changed with a stroke of the president’s pen on August 5, not only in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) but in India as well. The die is cast, the Rubicon has been crossed and there is no going back, even if the legality of the government’s moves altering the status of J&K is successfully challenged in courts. The legal process will take time, but the facts on the ground will continue to change and the fait accompli will become its own justification. What we need to focus on is the fallout from the momentous decisions taken on August 5, both domestic and external, and formulate appropriate and carefully thought-through responses. The driver of Art. 370 is the same as for Art. 371, which confers the same special status on…

Governance is on the move in Telangana. On August 9, the state’s chief secretary S.K. Joshi vacated his spacious office in the state secretariat in Hyderabad for a makeshift arrangement. But since it is far from ready, Joshi will be running his office from home this entire month, if not longer. Joshi is not the only ‘displaced’ official. Since August 13, the 2,000-odd occupants of all 33 departments in the 22.5-acre state secretariat complex have begun shifting to provisional offices across the city. The orders for this massive exercise have come from Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who is pursuing a grandiose plan for a new secretariat and legislature complex that will house all government offices together. KCR laid the foundation stone for the ‘vaastu compliant’ complex in the northeast…

HIMA DAS, POPULARLY KNOWN AS THE DHING EXPRESS, has arrived and the respondents of the INDIA TODAY Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll, too, acknowledge the achievements of the Assamese sprinter. With India’s badminton stars P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal struggling with form and injury and tennis player Sania Mirza still on maternity leave, it was the 19-year-old who finished first on the MOTN poll. It’s not only Das’s stellar performances on track—winning five gold medals in 400m and 200m recently in Europe—that have helped her climb the popularity charts, but also her dynamic, tomboyish personality and charming social media feed that make her shine even off the field. Rarely has a sportswoman exuded so much self-belief and maturity when confronted with expectations and attention, especially for qualifying for 2019…

Shilpi Dasgupta’s Khandaani Shafakhana opens with the very word “sex”—pronounced “sheksh”—drawing shudders from small-town medical representatives who want nothing to do with a clinic that brings such “chhee-chhee” things into the open. From this the film moves towards a climactic courtroom discussion where many (including the protesters from the first scene) are so engrossed in their arguments that they barely realise how often they are using this “dirty” word. Normalising conversations and enabling healthier attitudes—such is the film’s intent, its arc paralleling the growth of its protagonist (played by Sonakshi Sinha) who goes from being just “Baby” to a hakim (a physician), after she inherits her deceased uncle’s sex clinic. One might speculate that the medicines Hakim mama (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) dispensed were placebos—the real worth of his treatment lay in…

CAPITAL A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi by Rana Dasgupta FOURTH ESTATE ₹599; 484 pages The people Dasgupta meets in this book are both the terrible and the terrified. In his vision, Delhi is not a sum of its monuments; instead, it is made up of a violence that can be explicit and implicit. PERPETUAL CITY A Short Biography of Delhi by Malvika Singh ALEPH ₹295; 136 pages This slim title asks an essential question: how did a small settlement, founded in the Aravalli Range in the eighth century, become one of the world’s great cities, home to nearly 20 million people? CITY OF DJINNS A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple BLOOMSBURY ₹499; 360 pages For Dalrymple, Delhi is a “bottomless sea of stories”, and in this almost novel-like…

Gone are the days when all you needed to choose was whether you wanted a wall mounted WC or an independent unit on the floor. Today you also have to choose between function, form, style and the number of high-tech features. So, here are the top trends from this space. TOILETS BECOME SMARTER Just when we were wrapping our heads around the idea of the idiot box becoming a smart TV, intelligent toilets became all the rage. “The smart toilets include automated functions for cleansing, drying, perfuming, adjustable pressure, temperature control, massage functions, dryer function along with power saving technology,” says KE Ranganathan, MD, Roca Bathroom Products. A good example is Roca In-Wash Inspira, a smart toilet with presence sensor and the night LED light. You can use a remote…

DRAMA OF BLACK AND WHITE Neha Gupta and Sachin Gupta Founder and Principal Designer Beyond Designs, Delhi www.beyonddesigns.in What’s the idea behind this bath space? Located in Chattarpur, Delhi, we designed this bathroom for the pool house. The entire pool house was designed on the principles of neoclassical style where a contemporary space is carved out by fusing traditional Indian and European design influences with modern sensibilities. This bath space follows the same style. The chequered black and white flooring, the wash basins, the mirrors, the chandelier and the chairs create a captivating visual. How does one balance the rest of the space with such a busy floor? The bold black and white flooring sets an alluring stage for a bathroom. We teamed it with neutral but equally dramatic classic…

As droplets of water gently skim the body, fatigue simply disappears. There’s something about a shower that can rejuvenate and refresh you in a matter of minutes. Clearly, no bathroom is complete without it. But one step into the market, and you are inundated with a wide variety of shapes and types of showerheads. This can confuse the most astute and smart homeowner. So what should you do? Take a look at our six categories that make the job of purchasing the right shower a lot easier. TWO-IN-ONE Sometimes one can’t decide whether to go for a wall mounted shower or a hand held one. So instead of investing in two separate showerheads just opt for one that offers flexibility. Such as the SPECTRA Duo from American Standard. You can…