Innholdsfortegnelse for 17 March 2025 i India Today

Just a decade and a half ago, Naxals had such a vast, malignant presence across the country that then prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh described Left-wing Extremism (LWE) as “the greatest internal security threat to the nation”. The Red Corridor, as it was called, sliced India vertically all the way from Pashupatinath in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. On the Indian side, at its peak, this is estimated to have affected the lives of about 80 million people. In 2014, when the Modi government took charge, the Naxals had the upper hand in 126 districts spread across 10 states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Dr Singh unfailingly flagged its root cause: near-criminal levels of neglect of tribal India, worsened…

In politics, words can be weapons, but silence is often the sharpest blade. Barely a day after swearing in seven new ministers, all from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar made an appearance at a public gathering organised by another alliance partner—Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular)—at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on February 28. What followed was an enactment of brevity. The man who once spoke uninterrupted for 172 minutes during the fevered campaign leading up to the 2020 assembly election wrapped up his remarks in an astonishingly short 30 seconds—a hollow congratulation to the gathered crowd before he stepped away from the podium. To seasoned political observers, this was a deliberate act of disengagement from an alliance already marred by…

For devotees heading to the Tirumala temple, booking darshan and stay and even offering donations will soon be as easy as, well, using WhatsApp. But that barely scratches the surface. A month after the Andhra Pradesh government launched ‘WhatsApp Governance’ for 161 civic services on January 30, the state is now poised to extend the rollout to more programmes. The Meta-backed WhatsApp, the king of ‘unhindered communication’ in India, has been coopted as a tool for digital services delivery by the state-run civic service initiative, Mana Mitra. The first such platform in the country, it streamlines the delivery of civic services, allowing citizens to submit requests, access essential information and avail services directly through WhatsApp. It is accessible both in Telugu and English and also as a voice service for…

IT is early March, spring is in the air and the mahua trees are in full bloom, their reddish hue a striking contrast to the luminescent green of the sal forest in the Bastar region of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. From the window of the BSF (Border Security Force) chopper hovering above, the river Indravati looks like a blue ribbon wrapped around a brilliant tapestry of nature. The serenity, though, is deceptive. In the forbidding jungles below, central and state armed police forces are engaged in a grim, bloody battle against a determined band of violent left-wing extremists (LWE), or Naxals, who posed the biggest internal security challenge in India for the past six decades. It is a war that has exacted a dismaying toll. In the past…

IN India’s arsenal against Left-wing Extremism, the Naxal surrender policy has emerged as a crucial weapon. By providing Naxal cadres a peaceful exit, the policy has reduced insurgent numbers, disrupted leadership structures and logistical support, and yielded valuable intelligence for counter-insurgency operations. Over the past five years, nearly 3,000 rebels, including mid-level leaders, have surrendered in Chhattisgarh, significantly weakening Naxal influence in its last bastion. So how does this policy work? The surrender policy offers financial aid, housing, education and employment assistance to Naxals who lay down their arms. An immediate deposit of Rs 25,000 is made into the account of each surrendering cadre, with additional financial rewards based on rank. Militia commanders receive Rs 1 lakh, party members between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, area committee members Rs 5…

Voter registration doesn’t always align with population size in a constituency. Northern states, with a higher share of under-18 residents, see lower registration rates, while southern states show greater political engagement. This gives rise to representation disparities. In Uttar Pradesh, an MP represents an average of 3.1 million people, compared to almost 2 million in Tamil Nadu—a gap of 1.1 million. However, the difference in registered voters per constituency is just 300,000 Source: Report of the Technical Group OOn Population Projections 2024-25, ECI…

Vicky Kaushal’s fierce turn as Maratha king Sambhaji Maharaj in Chhaava has ensured that, like Pathaan in 2023, Hindi cinema is off to a soaring start in 2025. With collections of Rs 450 crore in three weeks, the period action drama, which gives a Gladiator-like gritty treatment to its warrior hero, has struck a chord. But Chhava may just be a handful of original films to succeed in 2025, for the upcoming roster is all about sequels and franchise-building exercises. Picture this. Ajay Devgn will star in not one, or two, but three sequels: Son of Sardaar, Raid and De De Pyaar De. Akshay Kumar returns for yet another Housefull, the second chapter of Kesari and Jolly LLB 3. Tiger Shroff is banking on the fourth instalment of Baaghi to…

After four editions in Kolkata, DAG’s art and heritage festival, The City as a Museum, will open in Mumbai with a lineup of exhibitions, talks, walks, workshops and a final iftaar feast. Held over two weeks, the festival will travel to historic sites and lesser-known spaces such as artists’ homes and personal archives and collections. Ashish Anand, CEO and MD of DAG, says, “With four editions of The City as a Museum in Kolkata behind us, we wanted to explore other cities through the same platform, and Mumbai was the logical choice given its extraordinary heritage sites and diverse and vibrant communities and cultures. Even from a purely pedagogical exercise, Kolkata and Mumbai are the two cities most closely linked with the development of pre-modern and modern Indian art.” The…

In 2017, india today roped in Ram Madhvani to direct a short, This Bloody Line, for its ‘India Tomorrow’ series. Premiered at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai, it instantly struck a chord for its subtle, affecting reminder of how the Radcliffe Line ripped the Indian subcontinent apart and sowed seeds of discord from which people still reel. Seated in his office in Famous Studios, Madhvani says the experience of making the short lit a spark to relook at seminal moments from the British colonisation of India. “It was the most personal thing somebody had asked me to make,” he recalls. “Since then, I have been trying to figure out how to speak about all that bothers us—racism and prejudice, cultural colonialism and the white man’s burden.” The result is the…

In an intensifying confrontation between the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre, chief minister M.K. Stalin has reinforced his unequivocal opposition to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, declaring that the state will not implement it. The core of this resistance stems from concerns over perceived Hindi language imposition, besides potential disruption to Tamil Nadu’s long-established education model, and what the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government views as a violation of cooperative federalism. NEP 2020 has reintroduced the three-language formula, a concept first introduced in the 1968 NEP. The DMK sees this as a covert attempt to introduce Hindi through the backdoor. The earlier NEP advocated for Hindi to be a compulsory language across the nation. Hindi-speaking states were required to teach Hindi, English and a modern Indian language—preferably a…

The Bengaluru Palace, an iconic Tudor-style castle located in the heart of India’s tech capital, has been the subject of a long-drawn legal battle. In 1996, the Karnataka government had enacted a law to take over the entire property—spread over 472 acres, dotted with trees and open vegetation—from the heirs of the Maharaja of Mysore. While the Bangalore Palace Acquisition and Transfer (BPAT) Act, 1996, was upheld by the Karnataka High Court in 1997, following an unsuccessful challenge by the erstwhile royal family, their subsequent appeal is still pending in the Supreme Court. However, even as this protracted tussle continues, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka has now landed in a predicament—and a costly one at that. In 2009, Bengaluru’s civic authority had come up with a proposal to utilise…

Seven months after tumultuous events changed the course of the country, a new wind is picking up in Bangladesh’s polity—and getting caught, right upon its birth, in its twisted arcs. On February 28, a grand political event at Manik Mia Avenue in Dhaka marked the launch of the National Citizen Party (NCP), an outfit born out of the July 2024 studentled uprising that overthrew ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Given that backdrop, its inherent formative contradictions didn’t take long showing up. An evolution of the Jatiyo Nagorik Committee—the political platform formed after the August uprising—the NCP positions itself as a centrist force aiming to rebuild Bangladesh through democracy, social justice and economic reform. Nahid Islam, a former cabinet member in the interim government of Muhammad Yunus, took the stage as its…

Q. What is the government doing to end Naxalism in your state by the March 31, 2026, deadline? We have studied the surrender and rehabilitation policy of other states and are trying to offer the best possible terms. We have allocated 15,000 units under the PM Awas Yojana to surrendered Naxals and are giving them jobs and skilling them. We have had unprecedented results in eliminating Maoists and ensuring surrenders. Our message to the Naxals is clear: if you understand the language of goli (violence), then we will respond accordingly, but if you understand the language of boli (talks), then you are welcome to surrender and join the mainstream. We are on track to attaining the target of eliminating Maoism by March 31, 2026. Q. What are you doing to…

IN the past five months, both Jensen Huang, CEO of the American computer chipmaker Nvidia, and Sam Alt  man, who heads OpenAI, have visited India, emphasising the country’s growing significance in the tech world, including in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Nvidia reports a tenfold increase in the deployment of its graphics processing units (GPUs)—specialised chips used to train AI models—in India over 18 months, while for OpenAI, India has emerged as the second-largest market, with users tripling in the past year. During his February 5 visit, Altman said that India should be “one of the leaders of the AI revolution”, an endorsement in stark contrast to his 2023 stance that the country “should not even try” to build foundational AI models. What has changed in between, of course, is…

M F. Husain, F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and many other distinguished artists feature in Celebrating the Modernists of Indian Art, the first exhibition at the new Thapar Gallery in Delhi. “It offers an exceptional opportunity to budding art enthusiasts and collectors to experience the genius of these iconic artists,” says Ashish Thapar, founder, Thapar Gallery. On view are 32 paintings and six sculptures that honour the legacy of the artists. “The curated collection, spanning decades of innovation, explores diverse themes and styles, creating a visual dialogue between the celebrated works of India’s modernist masters,” adds Thapar. Divided into four sections, the show takes visitors through different genres. While the first section highlights the contribution of early modernists, including Progressives, the second introduces them to tantric and figurative abstractionists and still-life and…

Small town, big crime, set against a festival. It’s Pushkar-Gayatri’s succinct oneline description for the Amazon Prime Video series Suzhal: The Vortex. In season two, the setting shifts to the seaside town of Kulasekharapatnam in Tamil Nadu, the festival in focus is Ashtakali and the whodunit expands to include more characters. “Our team went hunting for myths, many of which were not documented, and interviewed a bunch of people, especially older ones,” says Pushkar. “Few people outside the town know of the festival, so there’s something to discover for everyone.” As writers they use the ageold myth as “a metaphor” to reflect on a social issue in contemporary times. It’s this sense of wonderment, rootedness and relevance that made season one of the crime thriller one of the best series…

The NCPA Soulful Blues Festival is set to return in 2025, bigger and better than ever. Expanding to three electrifying nights, the festival brings internationally acclaimed blues legends, some of whom are making their India debut, to Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) from March 14 to 16. “The blues, although a familiar genre, was still relatively new territory for the NCPA,” says Farrahnaz Irani, general manager–international music at NCPA. “We started on a smaller scale, but after curating two powerhouse vocalists who had audiences on their feet, we knew we had gotten it right. We were confident about growing the festival and tapping the right artistes.” Opening the festival is Alvon Johnson. A dynamic performer, he blends powerful guitar work with an infectious stage presence. “Alvon will…

Behenji may be down, but not out. That is what the leaders and cadres of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have been telling themselves for the 13 years since Mayawati was last chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. But a series of unpredictable actions—and none more bizarre than divesting nephew Akash Anand of all party responsibilities—has left them unsure. The action against Akash follows his father-in-law Ashok Siddharth’s expulsion last week. If Akash was widely seen as Mayawati’s chosen heir, Siddharth was her closest aide. A former Rajya Sabha MP, he played a significant role in ticket distribution and alliance negotiations and handled key responsibilities in the southern states. “She had even married off her nephew to his daughter,” says a BSP functionary. If Siddharth was removed ostensibly for encouraging groupism…

It’s a miracle Kashmir calls its own—the mysterious appearance every year in February of the Vasak Nag stream during the urs (festival) of Sufi saint Syed Noor Shah Wali Baghdadi in Kund village of Kulgam district. This precursor to the Vasak Nag’s six-month-long run from April to September every year—when it disappears again—is seen as the presage for a good year. This February, the Vasak Nag didn’t make an appearance. It was a bad omen, but not just in a symbolic way. The stream caters to the drinking water and irrigation needs of 13 villages. What it sparked is fears of an imminent water crisis, one that is emblematic of Jammu and Kashmir’s parched 2024-25 winter season. “I haven’t seen a situation like this. This is the punishment for our…

STATE LEVEL ↘ Similar structures exist at the state level too: State Committees, State Military Commission, Zonal Committees, Area Committees, etc. ↘ In areas under their domination, the Naxals set up Revolutionary People’s Committees (RPCs), the civilian machinery that carries out basic administrative functions and provides logistical support to the armed formations POLITBURO ACTIVE MEMBERS NAMBALA KESHAV RAO alias Gaganna alias Basavaraj, 70 ↘ Gen. Secretary, CPI (Maoist) ↘ Member, PB, CC & CMC MUPALLA LAXMAN RAO alias Ganapathy alias Ramanna, 74 ↘ Member, PB ↘ Advisor, CC MALLOJULA VENUGOPAL alias Vivek, 69 ↘ Member, PB & CC ↘ Incharge, education dept THIPARI TIRUPATI alias Devji, 61 ↘ Member, PB & CC ↘ Incharge, CMC MISHIR BESRA alias Bhaskar, 62 ↘ Member, PB & CC…

INCLUSIVE REFORMS The Niyad Nellanar scheme launched in February 2024 is proving to be a gamechanger by extending basic amenities and welfare projects to 125 villages most affected by Naxalism in Chhattisgarh 14,458 Ayushman cards issued 24,177 Aadhaar cards issued 23 Schools sanctioned 130 Anganwadis sanctioned 41 Ration shops sanctioned IMPROVING CONNECTIVITY ROADS ↘ The Road Connectivity Project for LWE-affected Areas has seen 49 roads (238 km) and nine bridges built in Chhattisgarh since January 2024 ↘ Another 550 km roads repaired under PM Gram Sadak Yojana (Rs 100 cr.) ↘ Eighteen unfinished road projects (204 km) completed with the help of security forces MOBILE TOWERS ↘ In the same period, 574 mobile towers installed, 325 upgraded to 4G ↘ Those installed include 125 under the LWE Phase 2 backed…

↘ Southern states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka successfully controlled population growth but now risk losing parliamentary representation as seats are reallocated based on population. Delimitation could diminish their political influence by giving a greater share to northern states with high population growth ↘ Southern states contribute significantly to India’s GDP and tax revenue but may see their share of Lok Sabha seats shrink, leading to questions of fairness in fiscal federalism. Economic disparity is already growing between southern and northern states. Delimitation could deepen this divide, making governance more centralised in the north ↘ Some southern leaders argue that if LS seats are reallocated by population, the Rajya Sabha sho uld be reformed to give states equal representation regardless of population ↘ Northern states argue that representation must…

Charles Correa once wrote that people’s desperate demands for daily subsistence ensures there is no place for architects and architecture in India. As a new monograph on the architect explains, architecture in India is largely an expression of middle-class affluence, and the poor have rarely benefitted from the profession. Written by Mustansir Dalvi, himself an architect, the book is a simply presented and thoroughly researched biography that traces Correa’s childhood, his growth as an architect, to his extraordinary achievements. Planned as an affordable student production, the book is small-sized, uses cheap paper and carries virtually no illustrations—far too modest a product for a subject as richly textured and complex as Correa. In a half-century long career, Correa built museums, state assembly buildings, apartments, churches as well as ashrams—an architecture exceptionally…

Just like every year for the past two decades, the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) has selected the top 10 plays from across India. The task was far from easy—META received almost 367 entries from 20 states across the country. Inclusivity and diversity have always been a keystone of the awards, so the submitted plays were in 32 Indian languages and dialects. Admitting that it was an arduous task, Jay Shah, vice-president, head, cultural outreach, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, is all praise for the selection committee which included film and theatre actor Kuljeet Singh, film and television actor Divya Seth Shah, theatre and film casting director Dilip Shankar, theatre director Sankar Venkateswaran and director of puppet theatre Anurupa Roy. “They had the responsibility of selecting which plays demonstrate excellence…

Q. How did the year pan out for you before the World Rapid Chess Championship? I had a bad start to the Candidates in April 2024, but bounced back to finish second. But then I didn’t do well at the Norway Chess and wanted to quit professional chess. The Tata Steel Chess tournament in November wasn’t any better. But I had come really close to winning gold in the World Rapid Chess in 2023, losing only in the tie-break. So I felt I should give it one more shot. Q. How did you prepare for the World Rapid Chess? I don’t use chess engines as much, nor do I prepare for openings. I play online games and solve a lot of puzzles, while also following videos of previous world champions…