Innholdsfortegnelse for Monday, October 23, 2023 i India Today

The upcoming assembly elections would generally qualify for the tag of being “the semi-finals”. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana are not only prized provinces; their results can profoundly affect the political momentum going into the 2024 general election. However, experience forbids us from making a simplistic cause-and-effect equation. The first three states voted one way in 2018 and unambiguously in the opposite way months later in 2019. If one wagers that 2023 and 2024 could differ, the hypothesis still awaits proof. And yet, a black swan event like the Pulwama attacks had intervened last time. History need not repeat itself. There’s also a specific moment of political novelty that perceptibly heightens the stakes this time for the two main combatants: the Narendra Modi-led BJP that rules at the Centre…

Q: How Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board emerged as role model in India catalysing infrastructure growth of Kerala? The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) has successfully tapped into diverse financing avenues to meet the increasing demands of the state’s infrastructure requirements. KIIFB has become renowned for its ability to secure alternative funding sources, beyond the traditional state budget, to finance infrastructure development in Kerala. This has enabled KIIFB to fuel the State’s progress, contributing to its reputation as a model for infrastructure development in India. The formation of KIIFB marked a significant milestone in Kerala’s infrastructure development journey. Established in 1999, KIIFB was conceptualized under the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund (KIIF) Act with the primary objective of mobilizing funds and facilitating investments in critical infrastructure projects across the State.…

The Rashtriya Janata Dal, of course, needs Lalu Prasad, but even the BJP can’t seem to do without invoking the RJD patriarch’s name. When party president J.P. Nadda was in Patna recently, he reminded Lalu how he had named his first daughter Misa because he was arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency, alluding to the shift in his stand from being anti-Congress to pro-Congress. RJD insiders believe Lalu has once again become a bugbear for the BJP after, at 14.3 per cent, his Yadav vote bank emerged as the single-largest caste bloc in the recently concluded caste survey in Bihar, dashing the BJP’s hopes of riding a Hindu wave. Hence their ire.…

“Aisa bhaiyya nahin milega. Jab main chala jaunga, to bahut yaad aaunga (You won’t find a brother like me. You will miss me a lot when I am gone),” Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told a group of women beneficiaries in Ladkui village in Budhni constituency, a seat he represents, on October 1. Two days later, at an outreach programme in Sehore, Chouhan asked the assembled gathering: “Should we fight the election or not?” For someone who has held the reins of his state for over 16 years, Chouhan’s successive statements betrayed the insecurity of a man fighting for political survival, within and outside his party. Chouhan is no stranger to the heat and dust of an election; he thrives on such occasions, in fact. He led the…

“Kaka abhi zinda hai (Your uncle is still alive),” is an oft-repeated assurance from Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel at his ‘bhentmulakat’ outreach programme across the state’s 90 assembly segments, which began in May last year. Now, as the 62-year-old ‘avuncular’ leader barnstorms down the state, he wants an assurance from the electorate in return—that they will give his Congress regime another five years in power. Baghel, as the then Pradesh Congress Committee president, had led the Congress to an unprecedented win in 2018, winning 68 of the 90 seats in Chhattisgarh. The party has only grown stronger since then, winning all five byelections. Its present tally in the state assembly stands at 71, even as that of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—which ruled the state for three consecutive terms…

THE PLAINT: Train colour was a signature white with blue band THE FIX: Changed to bright orange, a “globally popular colour” for high-speed trains as it is low on maintenance and high on visibility THE PLAINT: India’s old tracks have too many speed restrictions due to engineering challenges on the tracks like curvature and weak beds THE FIX: The zonal railways asked to work on track infrastructure on priority so that all trains can increase average speeds THE PLAINT: Toilet floors always wet, lights too dim and the taps were gushing water THE FIX: Deeper sinks to stop splashing on floor, brighter bulbs and taps fitted with aerators for controlled flow THE PLAINT: Passengers wanted softer seats in a more pleasant shade, subdued lights and better cooling THE FIX: Seats are…

At the heart of the Tree & Serpent exhibition showcasing early Buddhist art in India from 200 BCE to 400 CE at the Metropolitan Museum in New York are sections of a monument so stunning they’re worth the price of entry all by themselves. Soaring above the visitor are whitened limestone fragments of a monumental gateway—a torana—bookended by expressive composite animal creatures: lions, elephants and griffins, each topped by a rider and fused to toothy open-mouthed makaras, mythic sea creatures with lolling tongues. Between their jaws unfurl exquisitely carved panels depicting episodes from the Buddha’s biography. These ancient treasures were only recently disinterred during a 2003 excavation in Phanigiri, a “snake-hooded hill” monastery complex that flourished in modern-day Telangana between the 3rd and 4th centuries. Coming to the exhibition “direct…

Tarana Marwah has always understood that one of pop music’s biggest strengths is its embrace of joyful escapism. For her 2017 debut album Soliloquy, the avant-pop artist—who makes music as ‘Komorebi’—she conjured up an entire fantasy world called ‘Candyland’, a riot of bright anime colours and magical surrealism, within which she situated introspective little songs that explored inner turmoil and troubled relationships. She leans even further into quixotic world-building with her sprawling new conceptual project ‘The Fall’—spread across an album, a 30-page comic book and technically ambitious music videos—which tells the story of a runaway alien who crash lands on Planet Earth. “I really like performative art, and I like building characters and creating worlds,” says Marwah over the phone from New Delhi, where she’s busy rehearsing for an upcoming…

Q. ZEE5’s Haddi isn’t the first time a male actor has played a transgender character. What’s different? To be honest, Haddi isn’t just about whether one is able to portray the physicality of a transgender. It is more about portraying the inner world of transgender…. Yes, we have had transgender characters in a lot of films, but mostly on the fringes, as subjects of ridicule, or as mere lip service. Haddi was difficult for me because I had all these things in mind. Q. Would you like to elaborate on the challenges you faced? The character was not just intense, but also painful. The prep of living with transgenders was something I was looking forward to. But once I did that, every single day was a war in my mind.…

Ashok Gehlot wants to change history. The 72-year-old, three-time chief minister of Rajasthan has lost twice before as an incumbent and he is desperate for it not to happen again in 2023. But it’s an uphill battle—the state hasn’t voted back a sitting government to power in nearly three decades. So even when he released Rajasthan Vision 2030 on October 6 (the government claims to have perused 30 million suggestions before finalising it), he was candid enough to admit that nobody knows who will be ruling the state then. Yet he wants to be known as the ‘welfare man’ of Rajasthan, and has spent crores on state publicity ads trying to cultivate that image. He points out with glee that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at his political rallies in…

Since its formation in 1987, the state of Mizoram has seen electoral fortunes swing between the Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Congress after every 10 years. Chief Minister Zoramthanga, whose party MNF grabbed power in 2018, must be hoping that this trend remains unbroken, but when 856,868 electors vote on November 7 to choose 40 MLAs, they will have one more significant choice—the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM). The ZPM, born in 2017, not only emerged as Mizoram’s second largest party in 2018, but created ripples in April 2023 by winning all 11 wards in the municipal polls in Lunglei town. The BJP is a fourth contender, though seen as a marginal player in a state with an 87 per cent Christian population. Religious/ethnic identities are crucial, and 79-year-old Zoramthanga…

↘ Central investigating agencies have questioned Abhishek on five occasions ↘ Over the past year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has interrogated him twice, in Delhi and in Kolkata, over the coal scam; wife Rujira Banerjee, sister-in-law Maneka Gambhir also questioned multiple times ↘ Questioned by ED in the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam case in Kolkata on Sept. 13 when he was to attend the INDIA coordination committee meeting; parents Amit and Lata Banerjee also summoned ↘ In supplementary chargesheet on the recruitment scam, ED has named Abhishek, alleging that one of the accused they have arrested, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, was close to the TMC heir…

Now donning the additional hat of BJP co-in-charge for Madhya Pradesh, rail minister Ashwini Vaish naw has got down to business in right earnest. Be it monitoring messaging on traditional or social media, or generating local, micro-level talking points or door-to-door engagements, Vaishnaw is relying on hard data from karyakartas and the party’s internal surveys. He is apparently swamped in pie charts, spreadsheets and graphs these days. Now to see if the hard work pays.…

Come November, and 161 million voters in five states—Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram—will exercise their franchise to elect their governments. Elections in these five states, which account for 83 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, are the last major battles before the general election in 2024. Of course, state elections do not necessarily influence, or presage, the outcome of the subsequent Lok Sabha election—in the 2018 assembly polls, for example, the Congress notched up victories in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, but won just three of the 65 Lok Sabha seats in these states in 2019. Yet, the results of the electoral contests in November will most certainly set the tone and narrative of the poll campaigns of political parties, particularly the two national ones—the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress.…

“Te people of Telangana have blessed KCR twice. Are you ready to do so a third time? This will be the first hat-trick for a chief minister in south India.” It is with this impassioned appeal that the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is going to the people, seeking votes for its founder and chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao—popularly known as KCR—who is fighting for a third successive term in the state that goes to the polls on November 30. The appeal is underlined by a catalogue of Direct Benefit Transfer schemes that KCR has initiated for the state’s marginalised communities. Since clinching his party’s first electoral victory in 2014, after the state was formed out of the northern parts of undivided Andhra Pradesh, KCR has endeavoured to catapult Telangana…

Not long ago, railway passengers had to endure 11 or more hours of train travel—assuming it ran on time—to travel the 770-km distance between Delhi and Varanasi. The only quicker option was taking a flight. All that changed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first Vande Bharat Express at New Delhi in February 2019. The gleaming white train was different. For starters, it didn’t need an engine to pull it. It featured 16 newly designed chair cars and had a top speed of 160 kmph. The Vande Bharat marked India’s first tryst with semi-high-speed ‘trainset’ technology, designed and built in India. Its older cousins, the Rajdhanis and the Shatabdis, with their maximum speeds of 110 kmph, instantly paled in comparison. Thanks to the new technology of fully electric,…

“The BJP has experience in running a government with partners. Yes, there are ups and downs, but understanding the circumstances and running a government according to them helps you stay relevant, and also deliver”DEVENDRA FADNAVISDeputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra When in Mumbai, expect fireworks. They were aplenty on October 4 and 5 at the India Today Conclave Mumbai, beginning with Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis declaring that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar had in 2019 consented to the imposition of President’s Rule in the state, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had tried to form the government. Pawar took to stage later in the day to reassert that he would not join the BJP and stood firmly on INDIA’s side. But this was just the beginning—the verbal pyrotechnics…

BHUPEN KHAKHAR STANDS under the sun holding a canvas out in the open with the hills rising behind him. There is something revelatory about Khakhar’s 1980 photograph—and many other such images of artists with paintings and sculptures outdoors, their families in tow, sharing plates of food, dancing and drinking into the night—that undoes the idea of what an institution can look like, what forms thinking and theorising can take. The texture of activities that were organised at Ivy Lodge—a mansion in Kasauli that artists Vivan and Navina Sundaram inherited from their mother, Indira Sher-Gil, in 1975—are the subject of Belinder Dhanoa’s Kasauli Art Centre 1976-1991. The house is the book’s protagonist. The way it was repurposed from being a home to a space for residencies with rooms for studios and…

IN 2008, with large parts of Bengaluru dug up or cordoned off thanks to the Metro project and massive development works, Maraa, a media and arts collective, launched October Jam as an independent arts festival. The idea behind the free, crowd-funded festival was to reclaim the city’s public spaces for the arts. Early editions, often held in Cubbon Park, offered an inclusive vision of our public spaces as open to all. Over the years though, October Jam has evolved into something a little different—it’s now a space where artists gather to engage with a different curatorial theme every year, ranging from how we experience time (Anti-Clocks, 2012) to the air we breathe (Hawa, 2018). The festival returns for its 15th iteration this month with conversations, film screenings, workshops, comedy shows and…