Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2, 2019 i India Today

Among India’s most magnificent state symbols are the four lions of the Ashokan pillar. Majestic beasts sitting back-to-back, jaws open and ever vigilant for approaching enemies. These lions could also symbolise our armed forces, individually excellent, but, like the symbolic lions, not seeing eye-to-eye or working well as a team. There is more dysfunction when one looks at the defence ministry—the labyrinthine bureaucratic structure that is meant to give the lions their claws and their teeth. Weapons and equipment purchases worth thousands of crores—from fighter jets for the air force to submarines for the navy—are stuck in endless delays. The plan to turn India from the world’s second-largest buyers of weapons to a country that makes them locally and exports them has not quite taken off. There is no roadmap…

1 Apr 2017  A mob attacks Pehlu Khan near Behror in Alwar district of Rajasthan, accusing him of smuggling cattle for slaughter to Nuh in Haryana 2 Apr 2017  An FIR is registered against six persons, accused by Khan of assaulting him. An FIR is also filed against Khan and others for smuggling cattle 3 Apr 2017  Khan dies at Behror’s Kailash Hospital, run by Mahesh Sharma, then a minister of state in the Modi government 3 July 2017 The case is handed over to the CID 16 Aug 2019 Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot sets up an SIT to reinvestigate Khan’s lynching 14 Aug 2019 Alwar court judge gives six accused “benefit of doubt” and acquits them. One of the accused is still absconding Apr 2019 The district and sessions…

Defence minister Rajnath Singh has come out swinging against Pakistan in recent days. Known for being a moderate, Singh hit the headlines with two strong statements just two days apart. On August 11, he was at Pokhran in Rajasthan hinting at a possible change in India’s two-decade-old ‘No First Use’ policy on not using nuclear weapons unless attacked. Two days later, he was at a public rally in Haryana saying if talks were held with Pakistan, they would only be on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Sounds like tough talk. —Sandeep Unnithan with Ashish Misra, Amarnath K. Menon, Kiran D. Tare and Rahul Noronha…

With the long overdue overturning of Article 370, the status of Jammu & Kashmir is now regularised within the Indian Union. In its wake, the Bharatiya Janata Party government seems inclined to gloat over diplomatically wrongfooting Pakistan and the United States and to consolidate its control over that province. It has entrenched Pakistan’s enmity which, in the larger strategic perspective, is not a good thing to happen. The Imran Khan government will now move closer to China, firm up the Sino-Pakistani military nexus and, notwithstanding the possibility of running afoul of the Financial Action Task Force, persist with terrorism to keep the Kashmir issue alive. India can do something to pre-empt such a denouement, but it will require Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go against his own ideological grain and…

Sikkim’s political waters are set for churn. The ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), which so far wore the BJP ‘friendship’ band on its sleeve, with its lone MP supporting the NDA government at the Centre, is likely to face challenges from the party at the state level (it won 17 of the state’s 32 seats in the assembly election in May). The BJP drew a blank then, but has now become the main opposition party following the defection of 10 MLAs of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF). BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav has asked the state unit to play the ‘constructive’ opposition role. The SDF, which won 15 assembly seats, is now left with a lone MLA (former chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling) after two more legislators defected to…

PROBLEM Present chiefs are both operational and administrative heads of their service. Cannot devote time as Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee Lack of synergy between the three services in procurements. Perspective plans of the services remain individualistic and lack desired levels of integration Government has to deal with three service chiefs The services operate in silos and as individual units. Right now, there are 17 single-service commands, each operating independently of the other SOLUTION Full-time CDS and seniormost of the three chiefs will administer tri-service institutions and increase cooperation among services Empowered CDS can enhance HQ-IDS, evolve an integrated plan and accord inter-service prioritisation based on budgetary projections CDS will function as a single-point military advisor to the government CDS will promote ‘jointness’ or set up structures to enable the…

KASHMIR CHANGED irrevocably on August 5, 2019. The splitting of the state was the final nail in the coffin. Sheikh Abdullah’s dream of a naya Kashmir, which once projected hope, now appears as the end of the road. Even Vajpayee’s “Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat (humanity, Kashmiri culture, democracy)” has been snuffed out. The state is soon to disappear, and will be replaced by the Union territory of J&K. What kind of Kashmir Delhi can now conjure from the scraps of what was once the fifth largest state in the Union remains to be seen—but more than just troops, it will require considerable imagination. In the eyes of some cynics, Kashmir had effectively been a Union territory since the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on August 9, 1953. The long list of…

With more responsibility comes a greater need for higher insurance coverage Each new dependant means a higher coverage amount is required for complete protection As incomes rise and lifestyles improve, the insurance cover needs to be higher In the absence of existing assets in the early stages of a career, insurance is the best protection A spouse and children are a major responsibility—protecting them requires insurance too As careers progress and assets are acquired, the need for insurance decreases…

I had tied the clothes we took off in a handkerchief; with that in one hand and brandishing my stick in another I boldly sallied forth…” She-Merchants, Buccaneers & Gentlewomen charts British exploits in India from their earliest beginnings through to the inauguration of the Raj, but with an original twist. Katie Hickman delivers this story from the sidelines, in the voices of the women of the era. Historically, women’s voices have rarely been deemed worth recording, especially of those without social status. Hickman turns this scarcity to her advantage and, instead of a few in-depth studies, assembles a pacey collection of women of every kind. Some are priggish and feathered, while some are doughty creatures with more grit than a quarry. All are fascinating and together they create a…

By the time six-year-old Kamali Moorthy arrived in Bengaluru to meet Sasha Rainbow, it was dusk. Accompanied by her mother Suganthi, Kamali was there to shoot a music video for Alpha Female, a song by the British band Wild Beasts. It was the first time she and her mother had left their small fishing village in Tamil Nadu. Thought completely exhausted, Kamali’s eyes shone when she spotted the skate park where she would be shooting. “The little girl’s energy was magical. We all came to life again,” remembers Rainbow, whose documentary Kamali on the young skateboarding sensation, recently won Best Short Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival and has qualified for the Oscars 2020. While making the music video, Rainbow intended to make a documentary on the side. She was…

On August 7, two days after the government revoked Jammu & Kashmir’s special status, Srinagar-based rapper Ahmer Javed was returning home from Delhi, where he had been invited by New Delhi-based hip-hop artist Prabh Deep to perform ‘Elaan’ on stage, the incendiary centrepiece of Ahmer’s debut album, Little Kid, Big Dreams. “I just spoke about what was going on and I spoke to the crowd. More than just performing, I had a conversation,” he says, his voice now resigned. On ‘Elaan’, Ahmer is searing but also boastful, one of the essential tools in a rap artist’s armoury. He says in Kashmiri: “ Sirinagariken kochen kin neerith aawus. Meh heu na kah, zan bha koshur hangul (Straight outta Srinagar, this is my destiny. I’m one of a kind, like that stag,…

When filmmaker Gitanjali Rao heard that her first full-length feature, Bombay Rose, had been selected to open Critics’ Week, an independent section of the 76th Venice International Film Festival (August 28-September 7), her euphoria quickly gave way to relief. “Relief that our years of hard work had received due recognition,” she says. Rao is in no way new to the international film festival circuit. Her earlier animated shorts, Printed Rainbow (2006) and TrueLoveStory (2014), have together bagged 28 awards at various festivals. Her debut, Printed Rainbow, had, in fact, won the Kodak Short Film and Young Critics Awards at the Cannes international film festival in the year of its release. Despite the critical acclaim, Rao notes that raising funds for her films has never been easy. “Mine were short films,…

WHY MUKESH AMBANI IS DILUTING STAKE IN HIS BUSINESSES by M.G. Arun RIL’s 20 per cent stake sell-off in its oil and petrochemicals business to Saudi Aramco—the latest in a series of global deals in 2019—is aimed at battling a debt pile-up http://bit.ly/2NiCizq Kashmir: Now for the legal battle by Kaushik Deka The legality of the Centre’s decision to ‘dilute’ Article 370 and make Jammu and Kashmir a Union territory will be decided by the Supreme Court http://bit.ly/30lgqXE “We can’t erase our hijra culture” by Chinki Sinha The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill does not recognise the non-blood family structures of the community http://bit.ly/2Hcf NrW How a little-known Gujarati movie won the best feature film award by Suhani Singh Hellaro, the directorial debut of Dhollywood filmmaker Abhishek Shah, throws…

On Independence Day, from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again declared his devotion to the digital economy. Shops, he thundered, should put up signs: ‘Digital payment ko haan, nakad ko na!’ Except Indian consumers, while exponentially increasing their use of payment apps, continue to do most business in cash. According to a Credit Suisse report, almost three-quarters of transactions in India are still cash-based. Some critics of Modi’s drive towards digitised payments argue that there are infrastructure and safety concerns and that the government’s major motivation is to expand its control over citizens. Compared to China, we lag behind in our adoption of cashless payments, but the variety of options available to us is dizzying. There are over 80 payment apps vying for our…

Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane has been in three of the state’s four major political parties. In his recently released Marathi autobiography Zanjhaawat (tornado), Rane, now in the BJP, attributed his 12-year stint in the Congress (from 2005 onwards) to fate. He drew lots and chose the Congress over the NCP. No one’s convinced, though. NCP’s Gurunath Kulkarni had vehemently opposed Rane’s entry. Plus, Rane wanted the CM’s post, which was held by the Congress.…

Meera Parida, the current mahamandaleshwar of the Kinnar Akhara, has come a long way from the shy child she was while growing up in Begunia in Khorda district of Odisha. She is now a transgender leader, social activist and, as of April this year, the vice-president of the women’s wing of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). “Politics can be a major platform for social service,” says Parida. “Through it, we can now better serve the community as well as other people. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is my idol. He gave me membership and a position in the party, he has opened the way to progress.” The passing of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019 by the Lok Sabha on August 5 was cause for celebration for Parida…

“One cannot name more than 3-4 mainstream leaders in the Valley. In the past, there was never an effort to allow leadership to grow at various levels in the state” Q. What do you see as the key challenges now for the Modi government in Jam-mu and Kashmir? A. The people in the state are largely in thinking mode. They are not ready to go to any extreme immediately. Even if they have reservations, my input from the Valley is that a good number of social and community leaders have come forward to tell our administration that they will manage the situation and make sure, to the extent possible, that no violence takes place. This has become possible because of our engagements in the past five years. Even if some…

2019 Mar 4: Former Kendrapara MP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda quits the BJD in Odisha and joins the BJP Mar 12: Ahmednagar MP Sujay Vikhe-Patil, son of senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, joins the saffron party in Mumbai Mar 14: Long-time Gandhi family loyalist and an old hand in the Congress media department, Tom Vadakkan, joins the BJP in a surprise move Mar 25: Congress leader and the party’s Satara district president Ranjitsinh Naik-Nimbalkar joins the BJP Jun 16: Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil joins the BJP Jun 20: Four of N. Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP)’s six Rajya Sabha MPs join the BJP Jul 6: 11 Karnataka Congress MLAs resign from the Congress-JD(S) coalition and join the saffron ranks Jul 10: Ten Congress MLAs in Goa, led by leader of the opposition…

“In THE HIMALAYA, you often find the best stories when you are lost” Mussoorie-born-and-bred writer Stephen Alter has often been called a “pahadi American”. He laughs off the label. “If somebody asks where I’m from, I say Mussoorie, but then usually people don’t know where that is, so I explain it’s in the Himalaya,” says Alter, 62, on the phone from Denver, Colorado. “I try to avoid labels of nationality. I don’t think of myself necessarily as an American, though my passport says that. At the same time, I am an Overseas Citizen of India. These labels are largely meaningless. If someone pushes me, I say I’m from the Himalaya. That’s very much a part of my identity.” The mountains have framed Alter’s life and works and his latest, Wild…

THE WOMEN WHO RULED INDIA Among figures like Nur Jahan and Begum Samru, there are little-known names, like Chenamma of Keladi and Umayamma Rani. But, big or small, each has a tale of how she made her way in a misogynistic world that has forgotten her role in India’s history. MAGICAL WOMEN A collection of short stories about the secret lives of courtesans, of women who drink like fish, of chudails with stares that terrify weak-willed men who only want women to be objects, whether of fascination or sex. EMPRESS OF THE TAJ In a quest to understand the life of the empress who wielded immense power over Shah Jahan, Timeri N. Murari’s nomadic, sometimes self-indulgent, journey follows the life of Arjumand, better known as Mumtaz Mahal.…

Q. What does your inclusion in the Forbes list mean to you and what was your reaction? I’m happy I’ve been listed and it’s good to be on the top female athletes list. Comparing myself with the legends [on the list] makes me really happy. It was exciting when I heard about it. Q. Is this also a sign of how far badminton, especially the women’s game, has come in India? Yes, definitely. It’s doing really well. It’s really good that after cricket, there are many people coming up in men’s and women’s badminton. It’s a very good sign. Q. Why did you withdraw from the Thailand Open earlier this month? I withdrew because I wanted to train for the Badminton World Federation Championships. There wasn’t much time. After the…

The alleys of Manila’s slums filled up with corpses. Bikers would shoot people and ride off. No one really knows how many died in the Philippines’ brutal war on drugs since its vigilante president, Rodrigo Duterte, was elected in June 2016. Rights organisations estimate 12,000; some politicians say 20,000. One politician who pushed back against the extra-judicial killings found herself on trial, with online mobs baying for her blood. An archbishop condemned the killings, and the online mobs turned on him too. Next it was the media’s turn: the ‘presstitutes’ who dared to accuse the president of murder. Freedom of speech versus censorship was a clearer conflict in the 20th century, the former often triumphing. But what if those in power today were to use information overflow to drown dissenters,…

The arrest of two staffers of ex-water resources minister and current BJP MLA Narottam Mishra in the multi-crore e-tendering scam investigation has kept the state on the boil. While the ruling Congress government claims it’s only following up on its poll promise to launch a crusade against corruption, the BJP insists that it is a pressure ploy to keep the opposition in check. On July 27, the state’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested Nirmal Awasthi, formerly a telephone operator at the minister’s residence, and Virendra Pandey, an OSD to the ex-minister. The two were charged with conspiring to fix e-tenders of the water resources department, working in connivance with department engineers and a private company that managed the portal that provided the online service. Awasthi and Pandey are now in…

On August 15, after unfurling the tricolour at Fort St George in Chennai, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced the trifurcation of Vellore district, creating two new ones, Ranipet and Tirupattur. “The decision was made following representations from ministers, MLAs and the public,” said the chief minister. Earlier, on July 18, Palaniswami had announced Tenkasi and Chengalpattu districts, carved out of Tirunelveli and Kancheepuram districts, respectively. In January, Kallakurichi was similarly hollowed out from Viluppuram district. This makes it a total of five new districts in 2019, a record for any chief minister. Meanwhile, there are more division demands: traders in Mayiladuthurai downed shutters for three days in July, demanding a new district be carved out of Nagapattinam. Others demand new districts for Pollachi (in Coimbatore) and Sankarankovil (second largest…

IN THE DIN OF COMMENTS on Kashmir that have flooded the Indian media in the past three weeks, the views and feelings of the people of Kashmir have counted for very little. Indeed, they have been tightly muzzled. On 5 August 2019, when Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was effectively abrogated, all means of communication were disabled in Kashmir. Curfew-like conditions were imposed across the Valley, making it very difficult to move about. Kashmir became a kind of black hole for days on end. It was to see the situation for ourselves and listen to people’s views that four of us (Kavita Krishnan, Maimoona Mollah, Vimalbhai and myself) left for Kashmir on 9 August and stayed there for five days. We first spent two days in Srinagar, walking around…

“AFTER THE FLOODS, THE CENTRE DID NOT EVEN PARTIALLY MEET OUR DEMANDS. THEY HAVE APPROVED ONLY A PALTRY ASSISTANCE OF Rs 3,048 CRORE” Q. Kerala has been hit by floods again. Per reports, more than hundred people have been killed by landslides. How bad is the situation on the ground? This is a difficult time. We are battling a second flood within a year. North Kerala has been hit particularly hard—I have just returned from a visit to the flood zones. The rains have broken for now, and the situation is improving in the hill areas. We have yet to take full stock of the situation, but the damage is huge. However, I’m optimistic that we will be able to overcome this too, with the support of the people. Calamities…

Babu Bangladesh! is a fantastical novel set in the future about a revolutionary who changes the trajectory of Bangladesh’s history. Written in a deliciously fresh style by Numair Atif Choudhury, it is presented by a nervous narrator who does his best to piece together a ‘biography’ of the elusive Babu who disappeared after changing the course of the nation, leaving behind only scant traces of his life. The narrator says, ‘This is not a work of deification or a glorious account of a dashing, wavy-haired titleholder...I have tried to ascertain the true airs Babu breathed and the rough chemistry of how flesh and bone settled to carriage a soul.’ It is thus a collection of interviews with ‘folklorists, historians, ecologists, astrologers and anthropologists’—fragments framed as possibilities without proof. Often, the…