Innholdsfortegnelse for June 17, 2024 i India Today

History across the world has shown that the greatest of men who were treated like Gods by their citizens were eventually found to have feet of clay. That’s the ultimate political paradox. This time in India, a powerful statement at the voting booths brought that diminution of stature. If it looks like a mixed mandate and not an emphatic one, that is precisely what it is meant to be. It is a correction of excess, a tempering, a recalibration. Instead of handing another blank cheque to the Narendra Modi dispensation, another gift of superabundance, the voters favoured moderation. Democracy, by definition, is ‘the rule of the people’. Governments must heed their collective will. Indeed, the Indian electorate is a great teacher. Here are some of the lessons of the 2024…

More embarrassment than riches. That’s what the 2024 election results have brought for the top echelons of the Bharatiya Janata Party—a narrow face-saving win, a potentially worse fate averted, and plenty to introspect over. An unusual predicament for a party that had been lulled by a decade of unquestioned supremacy, but just about enough to put up a brave front. That allowed images coming out of the prime minister’s residence in New Delhi to exude an air of normalcy and cheer. It was a historic third straight term for Narendra Modi, after all. But among all the smiles, two faces bore visible signs of stress and exhaustion—that of Modi’s ‘Chanakya’, Amit Shah, and party chief J.P. Nadda. They had a series of unending back channel negotiations. Partners, potential friends, anyone…

*Rest others “UP ne kamaal kar diya (UP did an incredible thing)….” That was Congress leader Rahul Gandhi when asked about the Lok Sabha result in Uttar Pradesh. It is, in fact, the “UP ke ladke”, as Rahul and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are fondly called in UP, who have managed to do the ‘incredible’, stun the BJP despite the Ram temple and the Modi-Yogi double engine hype. The Congress-SP alliance won 43 of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha seats (SP 37 and Congress six), restricting the BJP-led NDA to just 36 seats in the state, a feat that has huge ramifications. UP had propelled Narendra Modi’s rise to power in 2014, sending 71 BJP MPs to the Lok Sabha; in 2019, it helped him consolidate his grip by electing 62…

*Rest others Politics may have put them on different planes but fate had Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his former deputy Tejaswi Yadav on the same plane on June 5. Or, more specifically the Tata Vistara flight from Patna to Delhi. The young Tejaswi, seated in Row 2, got up to greet the Janata Dal (United) patriarch, hands folded. Nitish enquired about his back, since the toll of holding 251 election rallies had evidently begun telling on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) scion, seen as he was campaigning in a wheelchair or with a waist belt. Lalu’s son assured Nitish that all was well. The political scars, though, may take longer to heal. Despite a spirited campaign focused on employment and livelihood, Tejaswi proved no match for the combined…

IN November 2021, an emotional N. Chandrababu Naidu had made a dramatic walkout from the Andhra Pradesh assembly. Stung by abusive remarks against his wife Bhuvaneswari during a debate on women’s empowerment, a tearful Naidu vowed with folded hands not to return to the Sasana Sabha “unless as chief minister”. Nearly two and a half years later, the 74-year-old Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo has made good on that vow. Riding a potent anti-incumbency wave against the outgoing chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), Naidu has led the TDP to a resounding victory and will now hold the state’s reins for the fourth time. His party captured 135 assembly seats and swept all 16 Lok Sabha constituencies it contested, with its allies—actor Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena…

IN the Lok Sabha election held in 1984, shortly after the assassination of party leader and then prime minister Indira Gandhi in October, the Congress won all 40 seats in united Madhya Pradesh. Four decades on, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have returned the favour this summer, winning all of the state’s 29 seats, the number it was left after Chhattisgarh was carved out of it in 2000. The Congress didn’t manage to win any of the 27 seats it contested (Khajuraho was given to ally Samajwadi Party but the candidate’s nomination was rejected, while the Congress’s Indore candidate withdrew his nomination and defected to the BJP). MP—often called the laboratory of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the “ideological fountainhead” of the BJP—has seen a gradual but consistent…

*Rest others In the past 10 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often talked about developing India’s northeast—a marginalised region that has lagged in terms of infrastructure and socio-economic progress. Blaming it on the political apathy of the previous governments at the Centre, the BJP stalwart never misses an opportunity to point out that he, as PM, has paid more visits to the northeast than the combined trips of all his predecessors. Yet, when Manipur remained engulfed in ethnic violence for more than a year, claiming the lives of more than 200 people and displacing 60,000, the PM did not pay a single visit to the strife-torn state, ruled by his own party. He even took more than two months to break his silence on the sensitive issue. In contrast,…

The year 2024 holds a special place in Hero MotoCorp’s illustrious journey. It marks the 40th anniversary of the indigenous two-wheeler brand as well as the centennial year of Hero MotoCorp’s Founder & Chairman Emeritus, Dr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal. Furthermore, the company held the second edition of the Hero World at the company’s state-of-the-art research and development hub, the Centre for Innovation and Technology (CIT), located in the pink city of Jaipur, India. The one-of-a-kind event served as a platform to unveil the brand’s promising future roadmap. The latest production-ready vehicles in ICE segment, customer-centric solutions, technological innovations, electrification and sustainability took centre stage and opened the door for a number of exciting announcements. The first step of this journey was the launch of the Hero Xtreme 125R. As the…

Q. You sang ‘Doubtwa’ in Laapataa Ladies. Tell us about your experience of being a part of the song. ‘Doubtwa’ is my kind of song because it has a good melody with chatpata lyrics. I must thank composer Ram Sampath for giving me the opportunity to sing it. It’s an important piece that takes the narrative forward. Q. What was it like getting back to romantic tracks with Gabru Gang’s ‘Mujhe Ishq Hua’? In the past few years, I have largely sung motivational title tracks in films like Singham, Tiger Zinda Hai, Dabangg, and Dabangg 2. I was aching to be a part of romantic and club songs with good lyrics; thus, I reached out to new-age music directors who are masters of their craft. That’s how ‘Mujhe Ishq Hua’…

Men today are not entirely uncomplicated. While our ancestors could roam the earth with no more than a sickle by their side—and Douglas Adams said that a towel was the go-to travel accessory for everyone saddling around the universe—today we all have our little parcels of knick-knacks that we desperately need to bring with us everywhere we go. I remember taking a flight about two decades ago and almost never having anything by way of hand luggage, maybe a book. Today, I need separate trays for my electronics, my hand creams and sunscreens, and other paraphernalia that make up the compilation also known as the insides of my bag. So what kind of bag is the best to carry? Are there brands one must consider first? Is there a flaunt-to-functionality…

Morocco simmers, stews, and sizzles, in imagination, literature, and reel much as it does on the magical streets of its charming cities. With its epic landscapes and ancient mystique, it makes for prime road trip territory. This is where our journey unfolded; an experience that transcended mere travel to venture into the realm of the unforgettable. The idea: to odyssey through the vibrant landscapes and cultural tapestry of this ancient land in the Mercedes-Benz GLS. With the vehicles working not just as transport but as companions in a voyage of discovery and indulgence, we began our journey at Marrakesh with a grand welcome at Hotel La Mamounia. As the sun began its descent over the enchanting city of Marrakesh, the legendary La Mamounia unveiled her grandeur and elegance in true…

There’s never a dull moment in the Indian alco-bev scene. Something’s always brewing. Two recent launches are testimony to the ethos of innovation and craftsmanship that drives the creation of whisky, which remains the top-selling spirit in India. Single, Ready to Mingle April saw the understated launch of the McDowell’s & Co Distiller’s Batch Indian Single Malt in Gurgaon in the presence of Ruchira Jaitly, CMO and Vikram Damodaran, Chief Innovation Officer, Diageo India. The launch was ground-breaking for several reasons. India’s beloved blended whisky brand has waded into the single-malt space (truth be told, they did launch a single malt in the 1990s as well, but that’s well before Diageo came into the picture). Front and centre in the storytelling is the manufacturing location. The spirit has been crafted…

*Independent, who has extended support More than numbers and victory margins, the Lok Sabha results in Maharashtra were to be a referendum on the state’s political realignments since 2022. The first true test of the public opinion after the splits in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2022 and 2023 respectively, they were to determine which factions deserved to be called the ‘real’ Shiv Sena or NCP. It was also to be a verdict—a legitimacy test—on a government forged out of splits and defections, toppling a democratically elected one. As it happened, it settled the second question—the more national one. It was the aggrieved Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the coalition of the Congress and the leftover Sena and NCP factions, that came up trumps at the…

Six months after handing the BJP a facile win in the assembly election, voters in Rajasthan sprang a big surprise in the Lok Sabha polls—handing the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) 11 seats and reducing the BJP, which had won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014 and 24 in 2019, to just 14 seats. Not just that, the BJP’s victory margins have plummeted, with only six candidates winning by 300,000-plus votes, as against 16 in 2019. Its vote share, too, plunged to 49.2 per cent from 58.4 per cent. The INDIA bloc made a clean sweep in eastern Rajasthan and Shekhawati regions. The BJP lost 72 per cent of all seven reserved seats; among three seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, the BJP won one and…

Chants of ‘Desh ka neta KCR’—the national leader KCR—had echoed in the Telangana Bhavan as K. Chandrashekar Rao announced the rechristening of his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and with it his intent to make a national foray. That was on October 5, 2022. Now, barely six months after its drubbing in the assembly polls, yielding power to the A. Revanth Reddy-led Congress in the state, the once formidable BRS has suffered another humiliating rout in the Lok Sabha polls. The party that had won nine of the state’s 17 parliamentary seats in 2019 failed to net even one seat, as its vote share plummeted to a dismal 16.7 per cent from 41.3 per cent in 2019. Conscious of the BRS’s declining fortunes post the state…

In late April, amid the high-voltage campaigning leading up to the first phase of the Lok Sabha election in Karnataka on April 26, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was thrilled to receive a unique souvenir from a law student in the state’s Arsikere region. Strung together into a garland were the ‘zero fare’ bus tickets she had collected since bus travel was made free for women in Karnataka by the Siddaramaiah government after taking office last year. The Congress’s welfare schemes have been a hit, especially among women, and it was this goodwill that the party was counting on for a double-digit haul in the Lok Sabha polls. The jury is still out on whether these welfare schemes paid off. The Congress’s vote share has risen significantly but the Karnataka result hasn’t…

SANTOSH IYER MD & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India The ‘Mercedes me’ application is the stepping stone to the connected world of Mercedes-Benz and is extremely popular amongst our customers, with more than 80,000 connected cars. Customers love connected features like geo-fencing, advanced navigation, vehicle stats-check, location, car to X communications and a host of other features like pre-climatised cabin, remote start-stop, remote lock-unlock and also setting up service appointments. Through regular over-the-air (OTA) updates, our vehicles easily cater to customers’ ever-changing preferences and desires. Mercedes-Benz pioneered ADAS [advanced driver assistance systems] features in India and we are glad to see them widely adopted now, enhancing customer safety and convenience. In addition to ADAS features, for the first time in India, Mercedes-Benz offered Level 2 Autonomous Driving with ‘evasive steering assist’ and…

STORY TELLING IS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF A GREAT design; it piques interest, adds another dimension, and inspires a compelling narrative. That is precisely what a meteorite dial delivers: literally something out of this world. Meteorites are rare, accounting for their value at auction houses and their choice as a new precious component for watch designers. Of the three main categories of meteorite, stony, iron and stony-iron, it is the iron type (an iron-nickel alloy) that is most preferred for watch dials because of its density, strength and the characteristic Widmanstatten pattern, which features geometric striations resembling a vintage textile design. Swiss watchmaker Omega’s recently launched Constellation Meteorite collection, features dials in gold, grey, ice-blue and lilac that reveal natural Widmanstatten patterns. On the other hand, Hermès’ Arceau L’heure de…

Watching Grant Garmezy mould a beautiful fish out of molten glass reminded me of the words of famous science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Garmezy’s finished products, which often integrate glass into performances is a dance between alchemy and art. “Glass is so interesting because you can’t touch it. It’s 1200 degree Celsius. That’s really hot. We use special tools, timing and gravity to manipulate the material, which is constantly moving while hot. But I can sculpt it to look like anything---stone, fur, bone, ice, water, fire. There is no other material in the world that offers such optics. I have been playing with it for 20 years and have loved every minute of it,” says Garmezy an acclaimed glass sculptor…

IN the end, it was Didi who had the last laugh. On the evening of June 4, a little after the clock struck six, Mamata Banerjee climbed the stage erected on the backyard of her residence in Kalighat in Kolkata. Clad in a brown-bordered white saree, she looked sprightly even after attending 108 campaign events over 61 days. The joyous mood—with hundreds of slogan-raising Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters caked in trademark green gulal—was well-deserved: under her, the TMC had emerged on top in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, wresting more than two-thirds of the 42 seats in Bengal. On the stage, she held the hand of her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, and congratulated him for his record victory from Diamond Harbour. Before flashing cameras, the TMC chairperson…

On June 6, two days after Odisha dealt a shocking defeat to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), ending Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year rule, chief secretary Pradeep Jena released a video message assuring the state’s people about the continuance of the outgoing government’s flagship health scheme, the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY). Jena was forced to come up with the clarification following media reports that several hospitals refused to honour the BSKY cards, turning away patients. This sense of uncertainty, believe experts, is likely to be the primary challenge that the incoming BJP government will have to tackle as it starts off. The burning question on everyone’s lips is whether it will uphold the welfare initiatives pioneered by Naveen. This intrigue is fuelled by the hints dropped by various state BJP leaders,…

Dr. Murarka hails from a family of legends. His grandfather, Late Chiranjilal Murarka of Lachhmangarh of Sikardistrict, Rajasthan, was a Freedom Fighter and Philanthropist. His father Kashi Murarka made significant philanthropic contributions to society. Dr Murarka is upholding this legacy, focusing on achieving tangible outcomes, exploring and implementing innovative solutions to address the pressing issues facing our society and nation. His son Sidhaant is now actively engaged in social work and leads a dedicated team of young members at Ample Missiion. Under his leadership, numerous innovative social campaigns have been successfully initiated across India, with a particular focus on reaching out to economically disadvantaged youth. Ample Missiion, founded by Dr Murarka, is dedicated to fostering societal progress for a better India through collaborative endeavors. He spearheads adiverse array of social…

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s rallying cry of ‘Naarpathum Namathe’ (All Forty are Ours) resounded loudly, enabling his Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) to sweep all 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, along with the lone Puducherry seat. For the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), hoping to reverse its fortunes after the 2019 setback—when it had won just one seat, down from 37 in 2014—this complete rout proved to be yet another disappointment. In the wake of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s push into the southern citadel, the contest was also seen as a clash between Hindutva and the Dravidian ideology. Denying the saffron party a toehold, the DMK chief came up trumps in that battle too. “It’s a massive, historic victory for our DMK-led alliance,” Stalin declared…

For the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), embattled as it is with its convenor Arvind Kejriwal back in jail, the news from Punjab would have been of little solace. In a virtual mid-term referendum on the Bhagwant Mann regime’s performance, the party managed to win just three of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the border state, its vote share plummeting to 26.3 per cent from the 42 per cent it had cornered in the assembly election just over two years ago. The AAP, in a seat-sharing agreement with the Congress elsewhere, decided to go solo in Punjab. And it was Mann who took it upon himself to lead the party’s campaign, holding 122 public rallies and roadshows over 25 days besides travelling to Delhi and other states to canvass for…

The Indian passenger car market continues to show strong growth and, despite the blip caused by Covid-19, disruptions in the global supply chains and the semiconductor shortages, is back on a steady growth curve. The surge may not be as strong as the previous couple of years which saw the market scrambling to keep up with pent-up demand but it has been consistent. This is despite the added costs from emission norms and safety requirements. At over eight per cent growth in 2023, auto sector growth was among the highest in what is now the third biggest market in the world. Perhaps this was only to be expected as car penetration in our country is amongst the lowest in the world (India is ranked closer to 200th than to 100th…

Engine: 124.7cc single cylinder Power: 11.4bhp@8,250rpm Torque: 10.5Nm@6,500rpm Gearbox: 5-speed Kerb weight: 136kg Price: `95,000 (ex-showroom) Hero MotoCorp recently added a new member to its family, and before you make any assumptions, no, we aren’t talking about the Mavrick 440. It is the ‘other’ new motorcycle to come from the home-grown manufacturer’s stable—the Xtreme 125R. It is now the smallest member of the Xtreme family. So, where does the 125R fit into the mix? At first glance, the Xtreme 125R looks quite radical. Take for example the front projector LED headlamps, indicators and that funky headlamp cowl design. The tank extensions, alloy wheel design and extended rear section look rather sleek and sporty. Even subtle nuances like the reflector on the tyre hugger mudguard and well-integrated sari guard really blend…

If fashion is religion, then the Met Gala is surely your Mecca. Held on the first Monday of May, fashion’s biggest night sees celebrities, designers and stylists all wowing for attention on the red carpet. Officially, it is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit, a black-tie extravaganza meant to raise money for the museum’s fashion wing. But unofficially, it is the party of the year—the ultimate celebrity power cocktail of famous names from fashion, film, politics, tech, sports and social media. Entry is by invitation only and this year around 400 lucky people were the chosen ones. However, it is not just about the price, which was US$75,000 per person this year with brands purchasing tables for US$350,000, but more to do with achievement and news worthiness. So,…

Aviator watches are attention grabbers; there’s scarcely a second opinion on that. But the pilot watches from Breguet are also carriers of their history and symbols of their performance. The marque has recently launched a new generation of the Type XX pilot’s watches, which the brand is now presenting in a new stainless steel bracelet, offering versatility and sleek lines. This three-link bracelet features mainly satin brushed finishes, which are secured to the wrist by a triple folding clasp with security push-pieces that are comfortable to wear, and perfectly lightweight. Additionally, the new metal bracelet adds a subtle hint of contemporary to a popular classic design, without diluting its time-honoured aesthetic. The Type XX flyback chronograph in steel comes with a selfwinding movement with date and subdial for the seconds,…