Innholdsfortegnelse for May 13, 2024 i India Today

It’s a cruel 40 degrees in Rajgarh, the north-central Madhya Pradesh district that shares its border with Rajasthan. But the group of men assembled under a neem tree in Sonkatch village within the Narsinghgarh sub-division do not seem to be noticing it. Dressed in colourful headgear, they are engrossed instead in an animated conversation as they wait for the arrival of Digvijaya Singh. The former chief minister has been nominated by the Congress to contest in the Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency after 33 years. Just as their conversation peaks, Singh makes an entrance at the village chaupal and proceeds straight to the temple to seek the blessings of the local deity before commencing his address to the gathered crowd. Singh first entered the Rajgarh electoral scene in 1984, securing success…

For the 6,200-odd voters of Katewadi, a village in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency that goes to the polls on May 7, the decision on who to vote for is not incumbent on any discussion on the merits and demerits of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. It is not even centered around Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti (grand alliance) and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Rather it revolves around saheb (veteran politician Sharad Pawar) and dada (his nephew Ajit Pawar). This is because the extended Pawar clan is from this place, located around 12 kilometres from Baramati town. The split in the Pawar parivar, and in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founded by the patriarch Sharad Pawar, when Ajit departed last year with a section of party MLAs…

Mr. Prasad Rao Daggumalla is a towering figure of patriotism and unparalleled achievement. Emerging from the esteemed corridors of the Income Tax Department, Mr. Prasad’s journey, marked by dedication and service, has taken him to new heights as Chairman of Radhey Constructions India Pvt. Ltd. and Cloudswood Constructions Pvt. Ltd. He now ascends to the pinnacle of political glory, where he advocates a symphony of change, justice, and national pride. EDUCATION: A TESTAMENT TO TRIUMPH Born on January 9, 1962, in Chinthagumpalle, Chinnaganjaam Mandal, Chittor Dist, Mr. Prasad Rao Daggumalla hails from humble beginnings. Raised by his late parents, Luke Daggumalla and Suseelamma, he learned the values of hard work, compassion, and service from ayoung age. His journey in education began at BV & BN High School, Jandrapet, Chirala, with…

The Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns (1760-1824) lived in Calcutta in the 1790s and produced a sizeable set of etchings depicting the common people and scenes he encountered during his stay. An exhibition titled People of Bengal: Coloured Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai has brought together 288 etchings from the second, enlarged edition of Solvyns’s Les Hindoûs, which was published in Paris between 1808 and 1812 in four volumes. The exhibition, which is on till June 29, has been curated by DAG, which owns the etchings. Solvyns was not your typical colonial painter, although his work is an important precursor of the ‘Company’ style of painting. “Among all attempts by foreign artists to present a complete view of India, none is so focused…

The hot April forenoon does not seem to have deterred the people of Juria-Rupahi, a small rural block in Assam’s Nowgong district, from rushing to the rally spot where Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is scheduled to address them. Young and old, men and women, they are all there. The overtly enthusiastic ones surround the CM’s chopper as it descends. With an estimated Muslim population of 95 per cent, electorally, this could be considered ‘hostile territory’ for a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. But not for Sarma. Hopping off the chopper, he runs to the nearly 10,000 people assembled there and jumps the barricade, sending the crowd into a frenzy. They hug him, touch him, and shake his hands, in the process, leaving many scars on his arms. In the…

Brain drain, did you say? Well, some of that effluence can flow back temporarily and become…influence! The BJP, for one, is keenly aware that the deepest nationalist aspiration among some of its core voters in Gujarat is the noble wish to flee the nation altogether. The allure of a life abroad, paradoxically, always seems to get those saffron juices flowing. So, as a desirable role model, there’s nothing to beat the figure of the affluent Non-Resident Gujarati (NRG). To mine this patriotic vein, the state BJP has organised a full NRI motorcade—100 cars full of expats flown in specially for this spot of performance propaganda. From Ahmedabad, the swanky caravan crisscrossed through the Patel-dominated villages of central Gujarat’s fertile Charotar region—the districts of Anand, Nadiad, Ankleshwar and Bharuch, where every…

Jamlelya deshbhakta bandhawano, bhaginino aani maatano…” The words ring out from a stage in Solapur, the textile town once known as the Manchester of Maharashtra. Rendered in English — “All my patriotic brothers, sisters and mothers gathered here” — it has all the grandiose air of one who has come to bury a Caesar, albeit in a different way. The speaker is a tall, lanky, bespectacled man—rather more bookish-looking than his flamboyant father. Uddhav Thackeray’s chosen form of address too is a departure from what orators from his stable have deployed over the years: the usual Shiv Sena invocation is to ‘Hindus’. It’s not just that Solapur has a significant Muslim population. The adjustment in vocabulary is in sync with the 180-degree turn Maharashtra’s politics has undergone over the past…

A CURIOUS SIGHT GREE-ED PEOPLE AT THE JOINT CONGRESS-CPI(M) rally in Baharampur, in Murshidabad district, on April 18. Supporters were struck by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury—the Bengal Congress chief who is seeking to be elected from the Baharampur constituency, which he has been winning since 1999, for a sixth time—with a scarf printed with CPI(M) symbols around his neck. The Congress and the Left are strange bedfellows, but this is the new political reality in Bengal where Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, though part of the INDIA alliance, has decided to contest alone. And Chowdhury, who opposed a seat sharing deal with the TMC, has been among Mamata’s worst critics. Standing beside him was CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim, the alliance candidate from the Murshidabad seat. Every monsoon, followers of the ‘Robin Hood of…

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For a first, the India Today Smart Money Financial Summit, held in Mumbai on April 12, could not have had a more eminent galaxy of leaders and experts. They came from across the financial services spectrum—banking, mutual funds, insurance, stock markets and real estate. Delivering the keynote address, ‘Disruption as the new norm in financial services’, V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO, IDFC First Bank, elaborated on how new technologies such as generative AI, blockchain and hyper-personalisation are helping reach financial services to the common man. Digitisation, he said, can be used to create insights, which is one level above information. It is also cost-effective for banks and helps reduce paperwork. His bank, he said, found that it needed 28 pieces of paper for a microfinance loan of Rs 25,000-30,000. If…

In 1912, Ezra Pound famously wrote how the poet Rabindranath Tagore had sung Bengal into a nation. And yet despite Pound’s enthusiastic endorsement of the English version of the poet’s work, Rabindrasangit (literally Rabindranath’s songs and music) and its appeal remains elusive to non-Bengali language speakers. The latter are often told that the magic lies in the poetry, in the lyrics that index a unique sensibility fashioned by landscape, seasons, metaphors passed down from experience that escape the outsider. But does this need to be so? Ananda Lal’s project suggests the contrary and argues that the poet was after melody and music and that words followed this deep quest. Lal’s work is a deeply sensitive and measured treatment of the poetry and melody of the poet’s songs, while showing several…

Jyotiraditya Scindia’s convoy arrives at Kadwaya village in Ashoknagar district just as the summer sun begins to set over the harvested wheat fields, and comes to a halt at the chaupal. This is the last meeting of the day for the BJP candidate from Guna Lok Sabha constituency, having started his campaign that morning from Chanderi, the town renowned for its fabric. A group of trumpeters and drummers herald Scindia’s arrival as he ascends a small dais. Addressing the gathered crowd moments later, he invokes his royal family’s longstanding ties with the region—where his grandmother Vijaya Raje and father Madhavrao served as MPs. There’s no mistaking the emotional appeal—evident even in wife Priyadarshini and son Mahanaaryaman’s campaigning in the constituency. As a Congress candidate in 2019, the four-time Lok Sabha…

Gujarati asmita (pride) is by now a given in Gujarat, and continues to dominate the political narrative as popular son of the state Narendra Modi seeks the mandate for a third term as India’s prime minister. The state votes on May 7, but pride in their identity will not be the only guiding concern of the 49.2 million voters this time. Across the towns and villages, the chorus is all about unemployment, question paper leaks in recruitment exams and inflation. Of course, this by no means diminishes Modi’s popularity, nor will it throw up a surprise in the vote. Ahmedabad-based social activist Mittal Patel, who works extensively in the state’s rural areas, says, “I hear women complain that vegetables and pulses have become unaffordable. Yes, there is a thrill about…

Blue-blooded Maharashtra takes its ex-royalty seriously. And why not, when the tales of intrigue today could rival anything from the heyday of the Maratha confederacy. Already, two descendants of the legendary Shivaji—Chhatrapati Shahu of Kolhapur and Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale of Satara—are in the fray for the Congress and BJP respectively. Now, the wily Sharad Pawar has upped the Maratha sheen of his rump NCP by bringing in Bhushansinh Raje Holkar, of the Indore line. The suave architect has been coronated as party veep. He’ll be a magnet for the increasingly assertive Dhangar (shepherd) community, from whom the Holkars had descended.…

THE THOUSANDS PACKED INTO THE VENUE—THE SUKANTA SPORTING CLUB GROUND, IN A VILLAGE NOT FAR FROM THE BORDER—SWORE AND SEETHED IMPATIENTLY ON A recent afternoon in Dhubulia, in south-central Bengal’s Nadia district. The rallyists gathered in support of Mahua Moitra, the Trinamool Congress candidate for Krishnanagar, were cooking on slow flame in the stifling heat. For hours, the gathering chafed under the intense discomfort, calling for water and fighting for a place in front of the pedestal fans. Then, a mechanical rumble issued from the sky, as the helicopter carrying Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hove into view. That’s all it took for the crowd to revive itself. The emergence of Mamata’s familiar figure, in her trademark blue-bordered white sari, drew hysteric cheers. In Bengal, scenes like this have played out at…

“OUR APPROACH IS ONE OF SANTUSHTIKARAN (SATISFACTION), theirs (the Congress-led opposition) is tushtikaran (appeasement)….” In a 30-minute address replete with rhetoric and promises of a better tomorrow, at Munger on April 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not pull his punches. From Bihar’s “dark ages” under Lalu Prasad and his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to the Congress’s “ominous gaze” on the common man’s property (via the much hyped ‘inheritance tax’), the BJP’s campaigner-in-chief whipped up enough bogeys to make a strong pitch for the NDA. Like the past few times, the saffron party’s campaign in Bihar this time, too, leans heavily on the appeal of PM Modi. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has held public meetings and road shows, but his rhetoric is limited to critiquing the RJD—his ally in government till…

At the launch of the trailer for Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, which Netflix has billed as “India’s biggest cinematic series”, the international streaming giant pulled out all the stops to promote one of 2024’s most anticipated shows—and also Netflix India’s most expensive outing till date (made at a rumoured budget of Rs 200 crore)—giving a sneak peek into the world its creator Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) has conjured. The event, held at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi in early April, saw the main conference hall at the hotel being converted into a bazaar, with stalls offering gajras (garlands made of mogra flowers) and attar (perfume). In one corner, two women dressed in rani pink (hot pink) ensembles helped attendees pick Urdu poetry to send to a lover or…

Over the past five years, Kashmir’s small independent music scene has been making waves outside the Valley. Following in the footsteps of pioneers like MC Kash and Mohammad Muneem, a new generation of Kashmiri artists—such as Ahmer, Straight Outta Srinagar, Ali Saifuddin—are finding audiences in the Indian mainland and beyond, with music that blends global sounds with elements of Kashmiri culture. With his debut album Lost; Found, out on May 25, Faheem Abdullah stakes his claim as one of this scene’s most exciting torchbearers. The 26-year-old musician, writer and filmmaker grew up immersed in music, whether it’s the devotional songs his mother would sing, or the Lucky Ali cassettes his uncle would always be listening to. His formative influences include the alternative-leaning pop-rock of bands like Jal, Roxen (both from Pakistan)…