Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IN
P O L IT I C S COVER STORY L I T E R AT U R E
“The vengeance”, translation
Rahul Gandhi’s elevation
as Congress president 19 Close call of an Odia short story 96
Disqualification of
Sharad Yadav 124
The BJP survives an electoral scare in HISTORY
Gujarat by resorting to its time-tested
D I S AS T E R
politics of communal polarisation, but
the verdict destroys the Modi-Amit
Shah combine’s aura of invincibility. 4 Tipu Sultan in Malabar 99
O B I T U AR Y
Cyclone Ockhi and the
Shashi Kapoor:
tragedy in Kanyakumari 22
Stuff of dreams 105
When someone goes
Sukomal Sen:
missing 26
From worker to leader 108
E S S AY
I N S T I TU T I O NS
Ayodhya case:
Supreme Court on trial 29
Faith vs law 32
R I G HT T O I N F O R M AT I O N
Attempt to weaken RTI Act 39
Bihar Museum 110
E V E NT S
A nuclear conference SOCIAL ISSUES
in Moscow 44 Victims of intolerance 120
Russian reactors for
CRIME
Bangladesh 46
Tamil Nadu: Judicial blow
W O R L D A F FA I R S to casteism 126
COLUMN
R E L A T ED S T O R I E S C.P. Chandrasekhar:
Making merry on bitcoin 42
Checking the BJP’s juggernaut 9 Jayati Ghosh: Obscenity
Trump signs off on Jerusalem The caste factor 13 of hunger deaths 114
as Israel’s capital 50 Himachal Pradesh: Return of the BJP 16
DATACARD
Trump as Balfour 55 Dip in FDI growth 116
Left alliance wins Nepal 58
West Asia: Cracks in
the GCC 61 S C I E N CE N O T E B OO K 118
Yemen: Saleh’s last sigh 64
BOOKS 84
A R C HI T E C T U R E
L E T T E RS 129
On the Cover
Prime Minister Narendra Modi after casting his vote in Ahmedabad.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi campaigns at Bhatia village
in Saurashtra region.
For subscription queries and delivery related issues Contact: Pan-India Toll Free No: 1 8 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 8 7 8 or customercare@thehindu.co.in
Disclaimer: Readers are requested to verify & make appropriate Published by N. RAVI, Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600 002 and Printed by T. Ravi at Kala
enquiries to satisfy themselves about the veracity of an advertisement Jyothi Process Private Limited, Survey No. 185, Kondapur, Ranga Reddy District-500 133, Telangana on behalf of
before responding to any published in this magazine. Kasturi & Sons
Limited, the Publisher & Owner of this magazine, does not vouch for Kasturi & Sons Ltd., Chennai-600 002.
the authenticity of any advertisement or advertiser or for any of the EDITOR: R. VIJAYA SANKAR (Editor responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act). All rights reserved.
advertiser’s products and/or services. In no event can the Owner, Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Publisher, Printer, Editor, Director/s, Employees of this magazine/
company be held responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for any e-mail: frontline@thehindu.co.in
claims and/or damages for advertisements in this magazine. Frontline is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites.
CLOSE CALL
The BJP survives an electoral scare in Gujarat by resorting to its
time-tested politics of communal polarisation, but the verdict destroys
the Modi-Amit Shah combine’s aura of invincibility.
BY V E N K I T E S H R A M A K R I S H N A N
THE MESSAGE BETWEEN THE LINES IN THE Even when it became clear, around noon, that the BJP
results of the Assembly elections in Gujarat and would retain Gujarat for the sixth term and capture
Himachal Pradesh was writ large on the office of the Himachal Pradesh from the Congress, party workers
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi, the national gathered at the headquarters had to be goaded into
capital, in the early hours of counting on December 18. In celebratory demonstrations.
stark contrast to the normal atmosphere that has The reasons for this uncharacteristic diffidence was
prevailed in the central office over the past two decades not far to seek. As some of the workers revealed to
on the day of counting in any election in Gujarat, there Frontline, the triumph in both the States was not up to
was no festive mood that morning. All the ingredients of the expectations generated in them by the projections of
the festivity that used to be on display on such days, such senior leaders, including party president Amit Shah,
as animated slogan-shouting, incessant bursting of fire both during the campaign and even after polling was
crackers and periodic distribution of sweets, were over. Amit Shah had proclaimed that 150-plus seats were
conspicuous by their absence. The mood was pregnant a reasonable target for Gujarat and for Himachal
with disquiet and a sense of apprehension. Pradesh it was 50-plus.
The early trends, wherein both the Congress and the “We had expected at least 120 seats in Gujarat and a
BJP were alternately taking the lead, added to this mood. minimum of 50 in Himachal Pradesh. But the Congress
has performed much better in comparison to these Joining Amit Shah later that evening, Prime Minister
expectations. Of course, a victory is a victory, but we are Narendra Modi also sought to push this qualitative
not able to gear ourselves into a high celebratory mood,” a analysis of the Gujarat elections, stating that the BJP had
party worker who had come from Noida in Uttar Pradesh striven, since 1995, to take the politics of the State beyond
told Frontline. caste divisions and that the Congress had unsuccessfully
Some senior leaders, such as Seshadri Chari, tried to bring them back into vogue in the current
expressed a similar sentiment while participating in elections. Amit Shah, on his part, asserted that the BJP’s
television debates and admitted that the Congress had vote share in both States had increased and that the party
come up with a reasonably good show, particularly in was “confident that when we go into 2019 elections under
Gujarat where it pushed down the BJP’s seat share the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, we will once
significantly as compared with the last Assembly again get people’s support”. Modiji has great visionary
elections, held in 2012. plans for the youth and in 2022 all that will become a
reality, was his refrain.
PEP TALK Notwithstanding this pep talk, there were still some
By early evening, however, Amit Shah himself reached BJP workers at the party headquarters who wondered
the BJP headquarters and made an earnest attempt to whether the party had been able to prove decisively the
blow away the diffidence. Addressing a media conference claims made by Amit Shah in relation to the election
at the party office in the presence of party workers, which results. Their primary doubt was whether the party had
was telecast live, he said that the results of the Gujarat really advanced, even in terms of vote share, in
and Himachal Pradesh elections had shown that the comparison with the percentage of votes it had garnered
people had voted for “politics of performance and in the last elections in both the States, namely the 2014
development over dynasty and polarisation”. He added Lok Sabha elections. In the 2014 elections, the BJP’s vote
that the BJP was not able to win the projected 150 seats in share in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh was 60.11 per
Gujarat because the Congress played “caste-based cent and 53.3 per cent respectively. Three years later, it
divisive politics” and “pulled down the standard of had become approximately 49 per cent in both Gujarat
political discourse”. and Himachal Pradesh. In comparison, the Congress’
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 6
vote share in Gujarat had increased from 33.45 per cent Janmabhoomi case to a period after the next Lok Sabha
to 42 per cent. In Himachal Pradesh, it had risen from elections in 2019. Aiyar’s comment was castigated by BJP
40.7 per cent to 42 per cent. “This trend is not at all leaders, including Modi, as one that pointed to the lower
heartening,” said some of the BJP workers from Noida. caste origins of the Prime Minister and Sibal’s appeal at
The analysis presented by Amit Shah and Modi about the apex court was portrayed as an attempt to play
the Gujarat results was being questioned also at the electoral politics with an issue as crucial as the Ayodhya
highest level of the party. Talking to Frontline, a veteran Ram Mandir, considered central to the Hindu sentiment.
leader and former Cabinet Minister, who has been The Pakistan angle was propagated even more
consistently sidelined by Modi and Amit Shah, was of the aggressively when Modi accused Aiyar and former Prime
view that while the statement about “politics of Minister Manmohan Singh of conspiring with Pakistan
performance and development winning over dynasty and to finish him politically and physically. Modi even said
polarisation” was great in terms of political rhetoric, it that “these conspirators” have issued a “supari” (contract
did not actually represent the victories in both the States. to liquidate) against him. Undoubtedly, all this added to
“Himachal Pradesh has an electoral tradition of the communal, sectarian and emotional quotient of the
alternating between the BJP and the Congress. So, that Gujarat election campaign.
was a given. But if we had not been able to bring in the
Hindutva element forcefully at different stages of the COMMUNAL POLARISATION
campaign, including by highlighting the ‘non-Hindu’ Mathew Vilayasseril, a pollster with over a decade of
entry of Rahul Gandhi into Somnath temple and experience, pointed out that but for this high-voltage,
Pakistan’s desire to make a Muslim Congress leader, communally polarising campaign led by Modi himself,
Ahmed Patel, Chief Minister of Gujarat, this election in the BJP could have lost the elections in Gujarat.
that State would have been as good as lost. Let us accept Corroborating this opinion, Prithvi Singh, a politically
that. These campaign masterstrokes are what won us active farmer leader from the Kutch region of Gujarat,
these elections in Gujarat, even though by a small pointed out that this communal campaign was tried out
margin.” in bits and pieces initially, including through Chief
Minister Vijay Rupani’s allegations against Ahmed Patel
NEW CASTE ORIENTATION in the name of jehadi terrorist links. “This was done by
There were several signals that emerged during the seeking to link two alleged Islamic State operatives from
campaign in Gujarat that corroborated this point of view. Surat to the senior Congress leader since one of them was
To start with, the BJP leadership had been forced not to working with Ankleshwar’s Sardar Patel Hospital in
highlight the so-called Gujarat model of development, Bharuch, of which Ahmed Patel was a trustee once upon
since it had got exposed as a mechanism essentially a time. This did not stick as Ahmed Patel proved by
benefitting a clutch of crony capitalists, through a producing an affidavit that he had resigned his
number of reports of the Comptroller and Auditor trusteeship of the hospital way back in 2014. Patel saab
General (CAG) and through agitations by Dalits, Patels, was, incidentally, not very active in this election
farmers and fishermen. The new caste orientation that campaign, but still Modi used his name to drive a
had developed at the grass roots as a consequence of communal campaign by invoking some Pakistani who
these struggles under the leadership of young leaders had wished that Patel become the Chief Minister of
such as Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani Gujarat. Ultimately, all this worked, although not at the
had added to this, along with the socio-economic climate scale that the BJP wanted. Still, that was good enough to
created by the economic woes inflicted on the trading and get the party a majority,” Prithvi Singh told Frontline.
farming communities by the new Goods Notwithstanding the obviously
and Services Tax (GST) regime and the contentious and communally polarising
persistent ripple effects of methods employed to win the Gujarat
demonetisation. Blatant communal elections, there is a general acceptance
polarisation was the only counter within the hierarchy of the BJP leadership
visualised by the Modi-Amit Shah duo in that the victory would help Modi and Amit
this context. The BJP veteran also pointed Shah to re-assert their dominance within
out that the supplementary campaign the party. The veteran leader, who
built on some controversial statements of questioned the qualitative analysis of the
Congress leaders such as Mani Shankar verdict by Modi and Amit Shah, told
S H I V K U M A R P U S H P AK A R
Aiyar and Kapil Sibal contributed to the Frontline that if the duo had ultimately
advancement of this Hindutva plank. lost the elections in Gujarat, many leaders,
His reference, obviously, was to Aiyar’s including veterans such as former Deputy
comment on Modi being a “neech kisam ke Prime Minister L.K. Advani, would have
insaan” (a low level human being ) and made bold to raise the banner of revolt.
Sibal’s appeal in the Supreme Court “Now, the sense within the leadership
seeking postponement of the hearing of C O N GR E S S LEA D E R hierarchy as well as large sections of the
the Ayodhya Babri Masjid-Ram Ahmed Patel. rank and file is that it is Modi and his
Distress vote
In the neck-and-neck race in Gujarat, the Congress sweeps the
Saurashtra region which is beset by widespread distress within
the farming community and discontent among the Patidars.
B Y ANUPAMA KATAKAM
S A N T OS H H I R L E K A R / P TI
quired to form the government is all that matters, the C O NG R E SS L E A D E R Rahul Gandhi in Hanjrapar village in
neck-and-neck race may slow down the BJP juggernaut Saurashtra region of Gujarat on September 25 during his
and perhaps be an indicator to the Lok Sabha elections in two-day visit ahead of the Assembly election. Of the 56 seats
2019. in the region, 32 went to the Congress. The Saurashtra-
For 22 years, Gujarat has been ruled by the BJP and it Kutch region is singularly responsible for the higher
was almost a given that the party would come back for a Congress tally.
sixth term in this State that has historically seen the two
national parties battle it out in every election. The pres- time, too, the region proved it can turn the game on its
ence of regional and other national parties is negligible. head. Of the 56 seats in the region, 32 went to the
Most poll surveys said the BJP would win between 105 Congress. This is a massive jump from the 15 the party
and 110 seats. The drop of the final tally to 99 was least won in the 2012 elections. The Saurashtra-Kutch region
expected. The day of the results was also different from is singularly responsible for the higher Congress tally.
those of previous elections. For two decades, the clean The BJP secured just 23 seats in the region, down 13
sweep by the party used to be clear by midday. This year, seats from its 2012 tally. One seat went to an independ-
however, until evening the numbers for the BJP kept ent. The region has been under BJP influence for more
hovering around 100, and the final result was declared than two decades, but the party was nervous this time.
late in the day. Saurashtra was the hotbed of the Patidar agitation. Apart
from the BJP and the Congress, Hardik Patel’s Patidar
CONGRESS SWEEP IN SAURASHTRA Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) too campaigned extens-
The voting patterns classified according to region (North ively in the region, knowing full well the crucial role it had
Gujarat, South Gujarat, Central Gujarat and Saurashtra in the elections. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and Kutch), urban-rural divide, and key communities launched his campaign from Bhuj, and Congress leader
give a clearer picture of the results. Playing a significant Rahul Gandhi was criticised for spending too much time
role in each election is the Saurashtra-Kutch belt. This here.
AMONG THE FEW INDISPUTABLE 18, show that this form of identity politics still has wide
consequences of the just-concluded Assembly election in acceptance in the State even if Hindutva continues to
Gujarat is the forceful return of a peculiar form of iden- dominate.
tity politics. While religious identity, in the form of ag- “KHAM-style politics has been revived in this elec-
gressive Hindutva, was the dominant tool for mobilising tion.” This was the common refrain in a section of long-
voters during the past two decades, this election cam- time Gujarat-based election watchers and researchers as
paign reintroduced an old form of identity politics first they spoke to Frontline, even if they differed in detail, on
pushed by the Congress during the Assembly elections in the day the results came out. The acronym KHAM de-
1980. The 2017 election results, declared on December notes an electoral alliance of the Kshatriya, Harijan,
S A N T OS H H I R L E K A R / P TI
K A M A L S I N G H / P TI
Jignesh Mevani. However, this identity politics has
emerged at a time when issues of rural-urban divide and
class are also potent. Hence it was raised much more
overtly during the 2017 election campaign. The con-
J I G NE S H M E V A N I. The seat he won, Vadgam, was a sequences were apparent in the results.
BJP bastion. As Mahashweta Jani pointed out, Hardik Patel’s
campaign was especially effective in rural Gujarat, where
Patel farmers growing cotton and groundnut could not
Adivasi and Muslim communities, first framed by the be swayed by claims of “vikas” (development). This was
Congress leader Madhavsinh Solanki before the 1980 clear in the Congress’ impressive showing in the Sauras-
Assembly election with great success. Explaining how htra-Kutch region, where more than half of Gujarat’s
KHAM reflects in the 2017 Assembly election results, Patel community seats are located. It won 30 of the
Mahashweta Jani, a researcher with long experience of region’s 54 seats, while the BJP won 23. The one remain-
working on pre- and post-election surveys for the Delhi- ing seat went to an independent candidate.
based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies In Mahashweta Jani’s reckoning, the co-existence of
(CSDS), said: “The Congress has done well among Dalit, issues of caste and profession affected the campaign and
OBC [Other Backward Classes] and tribal voters.” She the results: “If you look closely, he [Hardik Patel] cam-
said that the increase in the Congress’ tally had come paigned mostly in Saurashtra. He spoke a lot about farm-
predominantly from rural seats, especially those where ers, especially about them not getting supportive rates. In
Dalits and tribal people are numerically strong. While 6.7 Saurashtra, cotton and groundnut farmers have played a
per cent of Gujarat’s population is identified as Dalit or big role [in victories for Congress]. Apart from being
Scheduled Caste (S.C.), 14.7 per cent is identified as tribal Patidars, they are also farmers. But their counterparts in
or Scheduled Tribe (S.T.). cities voted BJP. Even Surat, for instance, where dia-
Dr Bhanu Parmar, a professor based in Anand who mond traders protested against the Goods and Services
has been a part of the surveys conducted by the CSDS, Tax, the BJP won. So there was no en masse voting by
differed slightly. He also believed caste-based mobilisa- Patels, but a significant chunk of the community’s vote
tion played a critical role in the results, but he felt there went away from the BJP and towards the Congress.”
Curiously, though, as the CSDS’ third pre-election
report about Gujarat’s voting preferences shows, Hardik
Patel’s popularity was progressively decreasing until late
Notwithstanding its defeat, November while Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani
were improving upon their own popularity steadily.
the Congress is now being This also fuelled the Congress party’s campaign,
which appears to have improved upon support from Dalit
seen as an electoral force voters. Data from the Election Commission about the 13
reserved S.C. constituencies in Gujarat show that this
in Gujarat with the time the BJP won seven of them, the Congress won five
and Jignesh Mevani, who contested as an independent
potential to perform the candidate backed by the Congress, won the Vadgam seat.
This is a significant improvement for the Congress, which
role of a strong opposition. had won relatively fewer S.C. seats in the 2012 elections.
Mahashweta Jani said: “On a larger scale, Dalits have
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 14
PTI
A L P E S H T H A K O R with Rahul Gandhi at the rally in which he joined the Congress in October. He won from Radhanpur
against a Thakor candidate fielded by the BJP.
always been committed voters of the Congress party. It’s gress and the BJP in the past. This time, he reckoned,
not necessary that winning Dalit seats alone indicates owing to the rise in the Thakor community’s support for
support from Dalit voters, as people from the Other the Congress, the Chaudhary community shifted allegi-
Backward Classes and Muslim communities also con- ance en bloc to the BJP.
tribute to votes in these [reserved] constituencies. How- Notwithstanding its defeat, the Congress is now be-
ever, Dalit community voters in general constituencies ing seen as a serious electoral force in Gujarat with a
have also voted Congress. This was evident during our potential to perform the role of a strong opposition party
multiple surveys before the election and is now reflected in the Assembly where the BJP reigned virtually unchal-
in the results, too.” lenged in the past two decades. Parmar said: “The Con-
Clearly, the Congress benefited by the KHAM-like gress party’s slogan was about bringing navsarjan to
strategy to some extent, but it could not repeat the 1980 Gujarat, it seems it is the party’s State unit which has got
performance. Also, the BJP conducted its own social navsarjan.” A significant role in this “navsarjan” was
engineering among castes with non-Thakor OBC groups played by the alliance of the three new and young caste
backing the saffron party in a significant manner. For leaders who campaigned aggressively against the ruling
instance, Dr Bhanu Parmar cited how North Gujarat’s party. $
Chaudhary community vote was split between the Con- With inputs from Anupama Katakam
Clean sweep in
Himachal Pradesh
The BJP wrests power from the Congress in a keenly
fought election marked by a few upsets. B Y T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
A K H I LE S H K U M A R
A K H I LE S H K U M A R
PTI
PREM KUMAR DHUMAL. V I R BH A D R A S I N G H . ANIL SHARMA.
IN THE SINGLE-PHASE ELECTION TO THE the Congress, was once his protege. He had successfully
Himachal Pradesh Assembly on November 9, which re- contested as an independent in 2012 too.
gistered the highest ever turnout (75.28 per cent) in the Dhumal’s relative and former Speaker Gulab Singh
history of the State, the electorate of Himachal Pradesh Thakur also lost. The defeat of the BJP heavyweights in
voted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power. The the face of anti-incumbency and a decisive two-thirds
BJP’s return to the seat of governance in the State after a majority was inexplicable.
gap of five years was not a surprise because no party has Factionalism in the BJP has been a feature for quite
managed to win elections successively and retain the some time. With competing interests and claims for
reins of power since 1985. Yet, the elections to the 68- Chief Ministership, Dhumal’s position was always some-
member State Assembly were keenly contested between what shaky in this round of election. He was not keen to
the incumbent Congress and the opposition BJP. While shift his constituency from Hamirpur. He was named as
six-time Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh led his the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate after a consider-
party’s campaign, his political adversary and former able delay. There was intense speculation early on that
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal was the face of the J.P. Nadda, the Union Minister for Health and Family
BJP. Welfare, would be the BJP’s candidate for the top job.
Compared to the number of high-octane rallies in Accommodating all these competing interests had be-
Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed only come a challenge for the party.
seven in the State, leaving most of the campaigning to The highlight of this year’s elections was that it was a
Dhumal. The high-decibel campaign in Gujarat was in straight contest between the two parties unlike the As-
contrast to the largely subdued campaigning in Hi- sembly elections of 2012 which saw a formation like the
machal Pradesh. Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) as well as many independ-
While the BJP secured a thumping majority, its Chief ents in the fray. The HLP, a breakaway faction of the BJP,
Ministerial candidate lost, as did the party’s BJP State eroded the BJP vote base and helped the Congress win a
president, Satpal Singh Satti. Dhumal lost from Sujan- simple majority. In 2012, the Congress and the BJP won
pur by 2,933 votes. The winner, Rajinder Singh Rana of 36 and 26 seats, while six seats went to others, including
PTI
FROM a bespectacled teenager R A H U L G A N D HI being greeted by supporters after taking charge as Congress
who hugged his father and sobbed president in New Delhi on December 16.
when his grandmother’s (Indira
Gandhi) pyre was lit, to the shy win any major election since he as- In speeches filled with nostalgia
young man who stood hesitantly in a sumed an active role in the party and emotion, Rahul Gandhi and So-
line of Congress M.P.s in the Central have been dissected threadbare by nia Gandhi spoke on how they had
Hall of Parliament in order to greet his political opponents. faced the “politics of hate” without
his mother Sonia Gandhi after she Rahul Gandhi took over as Con- getting bogged down by it and prom-
was elected leader of the Congress gress president at the party ised to continue to fight for the “secu-
Parliamentary Party in 2004, clutch- headquarters in New Delhi on lar and democratic fabric of India”.
ing a single rose behind his back, December 16 amid fanfare and cel- “The Congress will defend the
Rahul Gandhi has traversed a long ebrations by Congress workers, after voice of every single Indian and fight
road but still remains an enigma. Mullappally Ramachandran, presid- politics that crushes people,” Rahul
And this is what makes his elevation ent of the party’s central election au- Gandhi said, and accused Prime
as Congress president interesting, thority, completed the formality of Minister Narendra Modi and the
notwithstanding the fact that his handing over the election certificate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “set-
lacklustre leadership and failure to to him. ting the nation on fire”.
19 FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018
“The Congress took India to the suddenly burst into a press confer- gress leader in charge of Maha-
21st century, but the PM today is ence and blast his own government rashtra. Several others who did not
taking us back to the medieval times. on a proposed ordinance intended to want to be named said that while it
We are now being compelled to ima- overrule a Supreme Court order on was true there was discontent, the
gine that businesses can be built banning convicted individuals from bigger truth was that “there is no
without harmony; that only one man contesting elections, tearing a copy other option”.
himself is the voice of reason; and of the ordinance to bits. He would “Sonia Gandhi’s health is deteri-
that expertise, experience and know- suddenly land in the midst of Niyam- orating and a decision had to be
ledge can be cast aside for personal giri’s tribal people, promising them taken. Rahul Gandhi’s election was a
glory,” he said. his support in the fight for their hills, foregone conclusion. Why make an
Cautioning the BJP against pur- only to remain completely silent on issue of whether it is good or bad for
suing the politics of hatred, he said: the matter afterwards. the party? It cannot get any worse
“Once fire breaks out it is difficult to His actions and reactions would than it already is at the moment any
douse it. That is what we are telling often be jerky. He tried overhauling way. Maybe it will just be good for us
the people of BJP, that if you set the the Youth Congress and the National because a change of leadership may
nation on fire it will be difficult to Students’ Union of India (NSUI), infuse a certain amount of optimism
control. Today, the BJP has spread only to halt the exercise midway. He in the cadre,” a senior leader said.
the fire of violence across the coun- tried to create a think tank of young According to political observers,
try,” he said. Congress members, only to lose in- the fact that not much is known
Promising to make the Congress terest in it later. Although he was about the politics of Rahul Gandhi
a “grand old young party”, he said appointed party general secretary in could actually go in his favour.
that the party had always believed in 2007 and vice president in 2013, “People are getting put off by the
the policy of inclusion. nobody knows what his views on cru- unfulfilled promises of Narendra
Sonia Gandhi, who has been the cial issues like Ayodhya are or what Modi,” an analyst said. “High prices
longest serving Congress president his vision for India is. Nobody has an of essential commodities, lack of job
(19 years), recalled how she had idea what he thinks of the country’s opportunities and loss of employ-
taken over the party’s reins nervously economy or how he plans to solve the ment continue to be major problems.
at a time when the party was weaken- problems facing farmers or the Added to this was the jolt from de-
ing. Referring to the BJP’s continued youth, or how he plans to tackle un- monetisation and GST. There is dis-
attacks on Rahul Gandhi, she said employment or corruption or even content everywhere. How much that
they had made him stronger. “Rahul Delhi’s pollution problem, for that will translate into goodwill for the
is my son. So I do not think to praise matter. Congress is still not clear, but the
him is appropriate for me. But I mood in the country today is veering
would say that since childhood he TRACK RECORD away from the BJP and this could
had to bear the brunt of violence. While he has campaigned extens- work for the Congress now.”
After joining politics he had to face ively since 2007, his campaigns have Political observers said the BJP’s
blatant personal attacks that have mostly been road shows where he vilification of Rahul Gandhi, making
made him a stronger person,” she would only be required to smile and him the butt of jokes on social media
said. wave to people. Significantly, the and calling him names like “Pappu”,
Having worked in the shadow of party has lost elections in crucial has actually helped him garner sym-
Sonia Gandhi since his entry into States such as Madhya Pradesh, Ut- pathy from a certain section of soci-
public life in 2004, Rahul Gandhi tar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Ut- ety that has started looking at him
has so far given the impression of tarakhand, Maharashtra and Assam, with a new understanding.
being an accidental politician, a re- since he started campaigning. The Senior Congress leader Rajiv
luctant one who sporadically bursts 2014 Lok Sabha election, where he Tyagi said, “Most of the slogans used
into activity, only to withdraw com- was the campaign in-charge, proved by the Prime Minister during cam-
pletely. One witnessed him energet- disastrous for the Congress as its paigning before 2014 election have
ically hoodwinking the Uttar tally dipped to 44, its lowest ever in remained just slogans. Their [BJP
Pradesh government in May 2011 at history. Barring the victories in leaders’] barbs on Sonia Gandhi and
Bhatta Parsaul village as he visited Karnataka and Punjab, the Congress Rahul Gandhi sound hollow now.
agitating farmers who were demand- finds itself at sea in most of India. People have now started paying at-
ing better compensation for their But despite all these setbacks and tention to what they are saying. The
land, riding pillion on a motorcycle debacles, Congress members are un- vitiated communal atmosphere in
despite ban orders, but was nowhere animous in admitting that they have the country is making people look up
to be seen in the Lok Sabha when the no other option. “Tell me, who could to the Congress party with a better
debate on the land Bill was held have taken over the leadership after understanding. This is just the right
shortly afterwards. He would disap- Sonia Gandhi? The Gandhis are the time for Rahul Gandhi to assume
pear from Parliament for weeks, glue that holds the party together,” charge. He will give the party a new
without any explanation. He would said Mohan Prakash, senior Con- direction as the youth, disenchanted
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 20
with the BJP, have started paying against BJP leaders, even though
attention to what he is saying”. they leave no chance to lampoon
But despite the optimism in Con- him. However, he has not shied away
gress circles, Rahul Gandhi has a from asking the Prime Minister
tough job ahead. His first challenge pointed questions about the state of
is to steer the party through many affairs in Gujarat.
approaching Assembly elections and If history is any indication, then
then lead it to victory in 2019. As the BJP has reasons to be worried.
things stand today, the party is not Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, Indira
very optimistic about the outcome in Gandhi, was called a goongi gudiya
Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. An (dumb doll) when she became a Min-
adverse verdict in these two States ister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s Cabinet,
OINAM ANAND/AP
immediately after he takes over will but she evolved to become a tough
only put a question mark on his lead- Prime Minister, so tough that she
ership. Holding on to Karnataka, was referred to as the “only man” in
which is next in line, is another chal- her Cabinet. Her iron-fisted hand-
lenge and dethroning the BJP in ling of the Bangladesh situation even
R A HU L G A N D H I with his mother
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and forced the Rashtriya Swayamsewak
and former party president Sonia
Rajasthan, where elections are Sangh (RSS) to praise her. Former
Gandhi on December 16.
scheduled for next year, will again Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
require a lot of hard work and out-of- once referred to her as Goddess
the-box thinking. It remains to be retary in Maharashtra, told Front- Durga, after the 1971 war.
seen if he has the required acumen to line. Rajiv Gandhi, who too had
steer his party to victory. Poonawalla justified his revolt stumbled into Prime Ministership
Another challenge he faces is saying that the Congress could only after the assassination of Indira
maintaining a balance between the be revived if dynasty was brought to Gandhi, endeared himself to the
young and the old guard. A genera- an end and positions were filled ac- masses with his innocent bumbling
tional shift is imperative in the party cording to merit. “Rahul Gandhi has ways. One of his Independence Day
but whether the veterans will make lost every election that he cam- speeches, in which he kept referring
way smoothly is a question mark. It is paigned for. Is this why he is being to it as gantantra diwas (Republic
assumed that young leaders such as promoted to the post of party presid- Day), evoked great benign amuse-
Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora ent?” he asked. ment. On another occasion, while
and Sachin Pilot will be given new Poonawalla could prove to be a giving an election speech, he re-
responsibilities and this could irk pain in the neck for Rahul Gandhi peatedly kept saying “hum jeetenge
senior leaders such as Digvijaya because he is related to Priyanka ya loosenge” (whether we win or
Singh, Ahmed Patel, P. Chidam- Gandhi’s husband, Robert Vadra. lose), and the people simply loved it.
baram, Motilal Vora, and Janardan Vadra’s sister is married to his Despite his innocent follies, he
Dwivedi. brother Tehseen Poonawalla and his ushered in the telecom revolution in
“The senior leaders, whose hege- outburst could prove to be an embar- the country, introduced computers
mony is about to end, will definitely rassment for the family. in India and brought about funda-
feel restless. The outburst by But senior Congress leaders were mental changes by bringing in the
Shehzad Poonawalla is a sign that dismissive. “He is not even an ordin- Panchayati Raj Act, a truly em-
some resentment is brewing within ary member of the party. He is powering piece of legislation. Be-
the party and this resentment is be- nobody. We don’t even want to com- sides, he altered the electorate’s
ing stoked by some disgruntled ele- ment on what he is saying,” said Mo- profile forever by lowering the voting
ments,” said a senior Congress han Prakash, dismissing any age to 18.
functionary, referring to the recent suggestion that Poonawalla could do Being seen as “naive” and “being
media outburst by Poonawalla in some harm to the party. ignorant” is no disqualification in
which he alleged that the entire elec- But the fact that Narendra Modi this country, provided the people
tion process for the post of president referred to Poonawalla’s outburst in realise that the intentions are good.
was rigged. his election speeches in Gujarat is If Rahul Gandhi can convince the
“This is not a free and fair elec- proof that there is a certain degree of people of India that his intentions
tion. This is a selection, a fixed elec- nervousness in BJP circles. This are good, then his ignorance or naiv-
tion where the process has been nervousness also arises from the ety will be forgiven. It remains to be
rigged. Rahul Gandhi should have realisation that Rahul Gandhi seems seen if India will have yet another
resigned from the post of vice presid- to have matured lately and this has Gandhi ruling over the hearts and
ent and then contested as a common been reflecting in his election minds of people or whether Naren-
member of the party,” Poonawalla, speeches and tweets. He has never dra Modi’s call for a Congress-mukt
who, until recently, was a party sec- stooped to using abusive language Bharat will come true. $
Waves of
grief and
anger
Cyclone Ockhi devastates the coast of south
India and lays bare the administration’s
indifference to the plight of fishing
communities. B Y R . K . R A D H A K R I S H N A N I N K A N Y A KU M A R I
THE only sounds that originate dreds of fishermen who went to sea
these days from homes in the richest much before Cyclone Ockhi struck
fishing villages in India, in the the southern-most tip of mainland
Thoothoor belt of Kanyakumari dis- India on November 29. Even three
trict on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala bor- weeks after the disaster, the chances
der, are the wails of women and of retrieving them dead or alive ap-
children. Thoothoor—known to the pear remote.
rest of India for the footballers it has According to data put out on
produced and for its residents’ pen- December 13 by parish priests of the
chant for hunting a particular variety eight villages in the Thoothoor belt—
of sharks—is still waiting for hun- Neerody, Marthanthura, Vallavila,
EP Thura, Chinnathura, Thoothoor,
Poothura, Eraimanthura—376 per-
sons were missing and 104 were con-
firmed dead. As many as 17 boats had
sunk and 28 were missing. Of the
smaller boats, 29 had sunk and three
were missing. Also missing were four
kattumarams and about 60 plywood
vallams. A Union Home Ministry
statistic, put out on December 14,
said that in all, 619 fishermen were
missing. Of them, 433 were from
Tamil Nadu.
A . S H A I K M O H I DE E N
her children, nearly 10, understands communities in Tamil Nadu because went out because there was a short-
the implications of the words they do not form a sizeable vote bank age of crew and never came back, of
uttered, and joins the mother, crying. in any constituency. four members of a family who went
The youngest is distracted by the at- on the same boat and were yet to
tention that many outsiders, officials ENORMITY OF THE TRAGEDY return, of a survivor still crying be-
and the media, are showering on her. In most of these villages there is not a cause he cut loose a colleague’s dead
Some distance away, 16 families single family that is unaffected by the body tied to him with a rope because
have lost at least one breadwinner. In tragedy. In one case, a BTech gradu- he could not pull it any longer, of a
some of these homes, the fishermen ate, who studied in an engineering boat crew unable to decide whom to
who went out to sea were the sole college in Coimbatore and had just help after two of its members were
earning members. Village after vil- completed his course, decided to washed overboard, of passing ships
lage has the same story to narrate. By head out to sea because he was not refusing to help them even though
the time the media reached the vil- doing much at home. they were holding on to capsized
lage and officials began making Fishermen in the Thoothoor belt, boats because the Indian Coast
rounds, rage and anger replaced grief comprising eight almost fully-Chris- Guard—ironically the search and
and gloom in the bilingual fishermen tian villages, have a hundred such rescue coordinators for the Indian
community—the most neglected of stories to tell: of a father and son who Ocean Region—did not put out an
A . S H A I K M O H I DE E N
The reason for their lack of con- comprehend, was about the direc-
fidence is not far to seek. Neither tion of the rescue efforts. “Put us out
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edap- on a boat. With the [ocean] currents,
padi K. Palaniswami nor the local we can tell you where our people will
Member of Parliament, Pon A . H E L E N M A R Y , who lost her be,” said a fisherman.
Radhakrishnan, visited any of the af- husband S. Antoniar Pichchai. “Neither the Coast Guard nor the
fected villages for over 10 days after government was willing to listen to
the tragedy. “The MP was inaugurat- us. We could have saved many more
ing some textile showroom in Nager- lives if they had listened to us,” said
coil. Why can’t he come here?” asked According to Jose Bilbin, president of the Thoot-
a fisherman. hoor fishermen’s cooperative society.
Following incessant pressure on government The fishermen are angry in all the
the Tamil Nadu government, the eight coastal villages and have not
Chief Minister finally visited the dis- regulations, if a made their displeasure a secret.
trict on December 12. “As a result of The Coast Guard dutifully puts
the energetic ongoing protests in all body is not found, out releases each day on what it has
coastal places in our region since the done. For example, on December 14,
Kuzhithurai railway station protest, compensation a release said: “Indian Coast Guard
Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edappadi continued its Search and rescue ef-
K Palanisamy visited the represent- can only be given forts off Tamil Nadu/ Kerala/
atives of all 8 villages in Thoothoor Karnataka/ Lakshadweep/ Minicoy
region in a meeting organised at St after seven years. coast upto 625 kms off coast by de-
PTI
O N D E C EM B E R 1 0 , days after the cyclone hit, family members of fishermen staging a demonstration in Kanyakumari
seeking the help of Central and State government agencies to intensify the search for the missing fishermen.
PTI
been done properly,” he said.
I N K O C H I on December 3, Tamil Nadu fishermen, who were stranded at sea Initially, the district administra-
following the cyclone, being brought to the Chellanam harbour with the help of tion claimed that only a few hundred
local fishermen after they were rescued by the Coast Guard. electric poles had been damaged.
This was later revised to 13,439. Of
have died. Can any community keep Seeing the police personnel, Bedi this, the government claimed that
its peace during extraordinary situ- directed the local officials to keep 13,264 had been replaced. Mano
ations like this?” asked a priest. them away. “I am here to talk to the Thangaraj and representatives of
The seething anger and the total people. I do not need police protec- fishermen from across the State say
incompetence of the State ma- tion,” he said, and asked for direc- that the actual damage is much
chinery finally dawned on the gov- tions to the parish priest’s house. On higher.
ernment and it deputed a senior the day that Bedi landed in Kanyaku- There are a few related issues
Secretary-level officer, Gagandeep mari, he was gheraoed. “After that I that get little attention. One is that of
Singh Bedi, who is also a former Col- went to Chinnathurai, from home to fishermen from a village travelling
lector of Kanyakumari district, to home. The fishermen are upset,” he distances to be part of a crew in an-
handle the situation. Bedi, currently said, when asked about the gherao. other part of the country. For in-
Agriculture Secretary, was open to The anxiety of the State govern- stance, three fishermen from
suggestions that the death toll could ment is a bit difficult to comprehend. Nadukuppam, near Puducherry,
be higher than the figures men- “This is plain stupidity,” said an offi- came to work for a boat owner,
tioned. But all these measures were cial who was made aware of the situ- Wilson, in Kanyakumari about two
too little, too late. ation. “Obviously the government months ago.
This high-powered government cannot be held responsible for those “They get paid better in Kanyak-
team came in considerable style— who died at sea because of the cyc- umari,” said Viduthalai Chiruthaigal
just as all government delegations lone. So why is the government not Katchi general secretary D. Raviku-
arrive. A convoy of 17 vehicles putting out the correct numbers as mar. “The three fishermen left home
reached Thoothoor just past 3 p.m. and when it gets updated?” he asked. on November 8 and are yet to return.
on December 10 and parked right in All that was required was to acknow- I am told that their boat didn’t re-
the middle of the road, which had ledge the numbers, pacify the people turn. I have no clue where to search
barely enough width for two vehicles with updates on the efforts being for them,” he said.
to pass each other. The government taken, and speed up the compensa- Instances of fishermen travelling
vehicles remained right in the tion mechanism, he added. Needless from Kanyakumari to Kerala,
middle of the road until the delega- secrecy has been the hallmark of the Karnataka and beyond for work are
tion left the village more than an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra not rare. However far they travel for
hour later. A large posse of police Kazhagam government from Jayala- work, the fishermen, mostly Christi-
personnel jumped from their mini lithaa’s time and it continues to this ans, almost always come back home
buses and formed a protective cor- day. for Christmas. Families ashore are
don around the officials. A little dis- waiting with bated breath for Christ-
tance away, in a makeshift shamiana, ADMINISTRATIVE INACTION mas.
fishermen kept raising slogans de- It was not just the government that They hope that by then their near
manding quick action and relief. was absent from the scene. While and dear would return home. $
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 28
ESSAY
SUPREME COURT
ON TRIAL
The Supreme Court should
consider seriously whether it
should proceed with the appeals
on the Ayodhya case at all after
quashing the partitioning
judgment of the Allahabad High
Court, rejecting decisively its
view that faith prevails over the
law and that any object
worshipped becomes an object of
legal protection. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I
possible through a negotiated settlement, or else by legis- the fact that from two seats in Parliament in 1984 we have
lation. Litigation certainly is no answer.” Advani said that come to 117 seats in 1991. This has happened primarily
very day, “I am sure it will translate into votes” in the 1989 because we took up this issue [Ayodhya].”
election. On November 20, 1990, he was asked “So, the Behind the BJP’s religio-cultural rhetoric, however,
rath yatra did have a political purpose?” Advani replied: there has always been cold political calculation. The BJP
“Yes, it did have [pause]. It did have. I [sic] passed a leader Sushma Swaraj ripped apart this pretence in Bho-
resolution in Palampur, it was a political resolution.” The pal on April 14, 2000, when she admitted that the Ram
record damns the BJP completely. On December 3, 1989, Janmabhoomi movement was “purely political in nature
after the general election, he expressed satisfaction that and had nothing to do with religion” (The Telegraph,
the issue had contributed to the BJP’s success. On Febru- April 16, 2000). Arun Jaitley admitted to Robert Blake,
ary 24, 1991, as India teetered towards another election, the Charge d’affaires in the privacy of the U.S. Embassy
he was confident that the issue would “influence the on May 6, 2005, that “Hindu nationalism was an oppor-
electoral verdict in favour of the BJP”. On June 18, 1991, tunistic issue for the party” (The Hindu, March 26, 2011).
he made this pathetic confession; “Had I not played the Since 1989, the BJP has consistently asserted two
Ram factor effectively, I would have definitely lost from things—the issue is not justiciable, and the court’s verdict
the New Delhi constituency.” In July 1992, he argued in cannot and will not be implemented. “Even where a court
the Lok Sabha Speaker’s chamber: “You must recognise does pronounce on such facts, it cannot suggest remedies
R A J E E V B H A TT
come up at the disputed place in Ayodhya at any cost and
the BJP was committed to make the temple plan a suc-
cess (The Times of India, September 24, 1990). The RSS
boss M.D. Deoras was as emphatic: “This is not a case in
M O H AM M A D S H A M I , whose brother, Fateh which the judiciary can pass a judgment. What type of
Mohammad, was killed by a marauding mob of kar evidence are the Hindus expected to produce? That Ram
sevaks the day after the demolition in Ayodhya. Here seen was born and that his birthplace is Ayodhya?” (Organ-
with his wife, Amina, on December 8 outside the concrete iser, March 12, 1989.)
house in which they took refuge and saved their lives.
WHY THE U-TURN?
Now the BJP has not only resiled from its 30-year-old
cannot deal with the issue, and if it does its opin- rejection of the judicial route but is raring to enter it.
ion would be without jurisdiction and not binding Why? The Sangh Parivar’s entire case rests fundament-
on the group which is adversely affected… ally on a lie that now stands exposed. What exactly
“The Supreme Court has to decide the issue happened on December 22-23, 1949? The RSS journal
whether there was a pre-existing temple on the Organiser of March 29, 1987, will have us believe that on
disputed site before the mosque came into exist- the historic morning of December 23, 1949, the idols of
ence. Even a finding on this single point issue “Sri Ramchandra and Sita Devi miraculously appeared in
would leave at large various other questions the Janmasthan as the Hindu devotees rejoiced over the
which are bound to crop up, irrespective of the miracle and thronged in their thousands”. The govern-
court’s finding on the question referred for its ment proclaimed the premises as disputed and locked
consideration. … Should any religious place of the gates. It is a patently absurd explanation. The truth
worship be razed to the ground because a struc- about the takeover of the mosque was too shocking to be
ture pertaining to another religion stood in its admitted. Justice Deoki Nandan Agarwal also took cover
place before? under this “miracle” (Parlance, 1986, page 10).
“Archaeology is the study of the art, customs In truth, the miracle was the climax to a nine-day,
and beliefs of ancient times. It can afford a ground non-stop recitation of the Ramcharitmanas just outside
for a belief or an opinion but never for universal the mosque organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Ramayana
certainty. Cannot two minds come to different Mahasabha. There was one man who had the moral
conclusions on the same archaeological evidence? courage to speak up against the outrage and continued
How can a conclusion reached by a judge be still to denounce it—Akshay Brahmachari (see his inter-
binding on people whose opinions or beliefs go view in Sunday Mail, July 2, 1989). He was then Secret-
counter to those of the judge? Does it help in any ary of the Faizabad District Congress. He wrote to Lal
way to confuse separate and distinct questions? Bahadur Shastri, then a Minister in the Uttar Pradesh
Whether Rama was born at a particular place is government, and went on hunger strike twice in 1950. “In
wholly distinct and different from the issue November 1949, I was told that the Muslim graves near
whether a temple existed at that place. Therefore, the Babri Mosque were being dug out en masse. I person-
are we in any way dislodging the beliefs of those ally went and saw that it was actually so. …
who hold a certain spot to be the birthplace of “In the Babri Mosque itself, even after the govern-
Rama by saying that no temple existed there? … ment took possession of it under Section 145 CrPC,
“There are times in a country’s history when Hindu worship remaining unchecked, only the Muslims
inaction and silence can be a culpable wrong, and could not say their namaz there. … There is terror in the
we are living in such times. The nation is standing hearts of the Muslims of Faizabad, and most of them have
on the escalator of anarchy and chaos.” sent their families away to relations living elsewhere. And
some of them have left with all their belongings for good.
K A M A L K I S H O R E /P T I
There are 13 incontrovertible docu- Nayar wrote to the Chief Secretary: “In-
ments that prove that Muslims were for- stallation of the idol was carried out in the
cibly ousted that night. Two reports dated night between 22 and 23 instant.” There
December 10 and 23, 1948, by the In- are other written records. Ramchandra
spector of Waqfs, Mohammed Ibrahim, Das Paramhansa’s admission to The New
after visits to the Babri mosque recorded York Times on December 22, 1991, that he
K A P I L S I B A L , counsel
the harassment and stoning of the namazis had installed the idol. Prime Minister
for the appellants in the
going to the mosque. Yet, prayers contin- Jawaharlal Nehru’s wire and letters to
Ayodhya case.
ued to be offered just before dawn and on Chief Minister G.B. Pant. Deputy Prime
Fridays. Minister Vallabhbhai Patel’s letter to Pant
There was official support to an application by on January 9, 1950. Akshay Brahmachari’s letters and
Hindus in 1949 to build a Ram temple on the Chabutra memorandum to Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
near the mosque. The Imam of the Babri Masjid, Abdul Ghafar’s interview
in 1987.
INSTALLATION OF RAM IDOL A written statement in court by the State of Uttar
The first information report on December 23, 1949, Pradesh, signed by Deputy Commissioner, Faizabad,
lodged by Sub-Inspector Ram Dube, Police Station, Ay- J.N. Ugra, on April 25, 1950. Paragraphs 12 and 13 read
odhya, reads thus: “According to Mata Prasad (paper thus: (12) “That the property in suit is known as Babri
No.7), when I reached to [sic] Janam Bhumi around 8 Mosque and it has for a long period been in use as a
o’clock in the morning, I came to know that a group of mosque for the purpose of worship by the Muslims. It
50-60 persons had entered the Babri mosque after had not been in use as a temple of Shri Rama Chandraji.
breaking the compound gate lock of the mosque or (13) That on the night of December 22, 1949, the idols of
through jumping across the walls (of the compound) Shri Rama Chandraji were surreptitiously and wrongly
with a stair and established therein, an idol of Shri Ram put inside it.”
Bhagwan and painted Sita, Ram, etc. on the outer and In The Statesman of October 26, 1986, Chandan
inner walls. … Ram Das, Ram Shakti Das and 50-60 Mitra, now eminence grise of the BJP, quoted an official
unidentified others entered the mosque surreptitiously as saying, “Obviously the guard had been bribed heavily.”
and spoiled its sanctity. Government servants on duty Imam Abdul Ghafar testified that until the end “we used
and several others are witness to it.” to offer namaz inside the mosque and the Hindus prayed
on the chabutra” (Sunday Mail, July 2, 1989).
S H A N KE R C H A K R A V A R T Y
this. M.C. Setalvad opined on the Golakh Nath case that
it was “a political judgment” which “paved the way for
political moves which may result in fading the Supreme
Court, so as to alter its complexion”. This was written in
1970 (My Life, page 588). It came true in April 1973 when
three most senior judges were superseded in the appoint-
ment of the Chief Justice of India. Nearly 45 years later,
M A HA N T D H A R A M D A S of the Ayodhya-based
the court has not fully recovered from that dastardly
Nirvani Ani Akhara, who is one of the petitioners,
blow.
after the hearing.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott
case triggered off the Civil War (Dred Scott vs Sandford;
suits. This also results in extinction of the several de- 18 Howard 393; 15 L. Ed. 691 [1857]) A black slave was
fences raised by the Muslim community including that of taken by his master to Illinois where slavery was forbid-
adverse possession of the disputed area for over 400 den. He was taken to an area in Louisiana where also
years since construction of the mosque there in 1528 AD slavery was forbidden by the historic Missouri Com-
by Mir Baqi. It is clear from the issues framed in those promise. He sued for his freedom. The Supreme Court
suits that the core question for determination in the suits rejected his claim upholding his owner’s claim to “protec-
is not covered by the reference made, and it also does not tion of private property”. The Missouri Compromise was
include therein the defences raised by the Muslim com- held to be unconstitutional.
munity.” He recognised that possession was “the core “There was still hope that American forbearance and
question”. statesmanship would prove equal to finding some com-
Justice Verma’s observations on counsel are a promise between the angry forces that were being
giveaway. They reveal more than he intended. “It was aroused by the slave issue. That hope vanished when the
particularly heartening to find that the cause of the Supreme Court held that the Constitution would allow
Muslim community was forcefully advocated essentially no compromise about the existence of slavery in the
by the members of the Bar belonging to other communit- territories. Chief Justice Taney had attempted to forestall
ies” (paragraph 88). This was surely not the first instance the anticipated verdict of coming elections—the verdict
of a suitor of one religion being represented in court by a that came with the election of 1860. Now the weary and
lawyer of another. Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhawan and weather-beaten old Chief Justice was overmastered by
Dushyant Dave will not find those remarks flattering or the violence of forces that he had himself turned away
even pleasant. The best research which supports the from compromise in legislative halls and had hurried
Muslims’ case has been done by non-Muslims. This is not toward war” (Robert H. Jackson, The Struggle for Judi-
a Hindu-Muslim question. It is a question of survival of cial Supremacy, page 327).
secularism.
Chief Justice Venkatachaliah’s record is pathetic. He QUESTIONS BEFORE THE COURT
shut his eyes to the peril facing the Masjid despite warn- It is hard to understand why Chief Justice Dipak Misra
ings by the Attorney General, Milon Banerjee. This took umbrage at the three counsels’ move to withdraw
writer has documented how his persistent indifference from the case (“shock and surprise”). No aspersion was
facilitated its demolition (A.G. Noorani; The Babri cast against the judges. They objected to the procedure;
Masjid Question: 1528-2013, Tulika Books, Volume 1, like asking, on reasonable grounds, a judge to recuse
pages 408-415). himself from a case, counsel’s right of withdrawal from a
On October 24, 1994, he held Uttar Pradesh Chief case is well established (see box on page 36). In 1954,
Minister Kalyan Singh guilty of contempt of court, nearly A.S.R. Chari withdrew from court in protest at Justice
five years after the offence. For this grave offence he was S.T. Desai’s conduct of the trial in a libel case by Devdas
ON December 6, Vigyan Singh. Like every year, their speeches tion’.” Significantly, he suggested
Bhawan, a government-run conven- received close attention from those that information must be given to the
tion centre in the heart of Lutyens’ assembled as their pronouncements applicant in his “mother tongue” or
Delhi, was filled with hundreds of signify the government’s intent, fo- “at least in the scheduled languages”.
people from across the country— cus and future commitment towards This was well received.
those implementing the Right to In- the implementation of the RTI Jitendra Singh’s pronounce-
formation (RTI) system and those system. ments, however, had the opposite ef-
using it. They were there to attend In his half-hour-long speech, fect, provoking a bit of a controversy.
the 12th Annual RTI Convention, a Venkaiah Naidu spoke about the In his relatively brief address, he
government-sponsored stocktaking need for transparency and account- spoke about appointment of Inform-
exercise on the implementation of ability in the conduct of the govern- ation Commissioners (ICs) in the
the landmark transparency law. ment as envisaged in the RTI Act. He Central Information Commission
The chief guest and guest of hon- said: “Information can be empower- (CIC), the top adjudicating authority
our were Vice President M. Venkaiah ing if it is authentic and that’s why I for the RTI Act, and suggested pos-
Naidu and Minister of State (MoS) in coined a phrase, ‘Information with sible changes to the rules for filing
the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra confirmation is more than ammuni- RTI applications with a stated intent
KAMAL NARANG
PTI/PIB
V I J A Y K U M A R J O S H I / PT I
trated the very purpose of the Right
to Information Act, 2005, we are of
the view that it is necessary for this
court to monitor the steps that are
being taken for filling up the vacan-
cies in question so as to ensure that
P R I ME M I N IS T E R N A R E N DR A M O D I with Chief Information
all the vacancies are filled up within a
Commissioner R.K. Mathur when he was sworn in at the Rashtrapati Bhavan
time frame.” The court disposed of
in New Delhi on January 4, 2016.
the matter in November 2015, and
the following month the government
plication, as also directed by Punjab cent. Clearly, there is an element of appointed former Defence Secretary
and Haryana High Court in its ver- exaggeration in concerns about mis- Mathur as Chief Information
dict dated 02.11.2012 in the matter use of the RTI Act. Commissioner.
Fruit & Merchant Union vs Un- While Mathur has half of his
known [CWP No. 4787 of 2011], and DRAFT RULES & VACANCIES term still left, the problem of
having a uniform RTI fees of Rs.50 Jitendra Singh’s suggestions and pending vacancies has arisen once
inclusive of copying charges for first claims received adverse reactions again, affecting the CIC’s capacity to
20 copied pages can be instrumental primarily because of the context in clear the backlog of claims, which,
[in preventing misuse of the Act].” which they were made. The Depart- according to Mathur’s speech at the
While complaints about the mis- ment of Personnel & Training convention, was around 26,000 ap-
use of the RTI are raised, often by (DoPT), of which Jitendra Singh is a plications up to March.
sections of the bureaucracy and the junior Minister, handles all policy Perhaps, the Minister would do
political class, evidence on the extent and administrative matters regard- well to heed the Vice President’s ap-
of misuse is rarely presented. In fact, ing the RTI Act for the Union gov- peal at the convention while speak-
in his presentation at the convention, ernment and is currently in the ing on the backlog: “An early
Suresh Chaudhary, Chief Informa- process of revising the rules that gov- disposal by the Information Com-
tion Commissioner of Rajasthan, re- ern the Act. The DoPT floated its missions will help citizens get their
vealed that an analysis of 44,376 RTI proposed draft rules for the RTI for grievances redressed quickly. I
applications filed by 13,838 appel- public consultation in March. These would encourage all the commis-
lants from January 2010 to August quickly became controversial, with sions to make a concerted, sincere
2016 found that less than 10 per cent one prominent non-profit organisa- effort towards speeding up disposal
of the appellants were of the “persist- tion referring to one of the draft rules of cases registered with them. They
ent” or “dedicated” type. Chaudhary as a “death sentence” for RTI users. A must ensure timely and correct in-
hesitated to call all of these appeals serving Central Information Com- formation for the citizens.” To pay
cases of misuse. He seemed to sug- missioner, M. Sridhar Acharyulu, of- heed to this appeal, the government
gest that the section misusing the ficially opposed several draft rules in will have to fill the vacancies in the
RTI process was less than 10 per a written submission (see Frontline, CIC. $
B
ITCOIN has left the world of owy currency with a still-elusive ori- been mined until then had not been
finance gasping. Although the ginator named Satoshi Nakamoto used in an exchange transaction.
total market value of all that took centre stage in financial One advantage of the currency is
cryptocurrency in circulation is only a markets. that transactions involving move-
fraction of the value of the world’s Launched in 2009, the role of ments of large volumes of money
financial assets, the rapid rise in the bitcoin has always been in question. across space and borders can be con-
value of the currency has made it the What its advocates regard as its ducted without revealing the identity
most wanted of those assets. On strength—decentralised manage- of the transactor. Not surprisingly,
January 1, 2017, the currency was ment by a community that can en- criminals of various kinds have been
trading between $972 and $990 a sure integrity through verification of using the currency to transfer funds.
unit. By December 7, it was trading transactions over a “public”, peer-to- For example, demand for bitcoins
between $14,063 and $17,363. Ac- peer network—many of its critics see initially rose because drug dealers
cording to a calculation by Reuters, as its weakness because there is were making payments with the cur-
an investment of $1,000 in bitcoins at neither an issuing authority in the rency on the Silk Road website. Since
the beginning of 2013 would be worth form of a central bank nor the back- then there have been many reports
around $1.2 million now. Sensing the ing of a state. about the links between illegal activ-
opportunity this offers by serving as a Moreover, while there are a few ities and the bitcoin market.
platform for speculation, the Chicago establishments that accept bitcoin A high-profile example is Alexan-
Board Options Exchange and payments, the currency is still der Vinnik, who was arrested in
Chicago Mercantile Exchange nowhere a ubiquitous means of pay- Greece in July this year. He is ac-
launched bitcoin futures on Decem- ment in day-to-day exchange and cused by the United States Ministry
ber 10, with the contracts opening at commodity circulation. At the end of of Justice of laundering more than
$15,460 a unit and rising more than 2013, researchers from the Univer- $4 billion, derived from activities
20 per cent to $18,700, before shed- sity of San Diego and George Mason suspected to be illegal, using the bit-
ding some of those gains. University estimated that 64 per cent coin exchange BTC-e that he was al-
With these developments, a shad- of the 12 million bitcoins that had legedly running.
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 42
Most miners or buyers of bitcoins was restricted to those from the “bit-
are looking to gain from appreciation coin community”, the virtual cur-
in its value as the currency is adopted rency had little value in terms of real
more widely. If indeed the currency currency.
is widely adopted, its price is bound Moreover, safety is by no means
to rise because there is a limit on the ensured. According to reports, more
number of bitcoins that can be put than 980,000 bitcoins have been
into circulation. Bitcoins are “mined” stolen from exchanges, a stark ex-
by players by solving complex math- ample being the hacking of the min-
D A V I D G R A Y / RE U T E R S
ematical puzzles that require com- ing exchange NiceHash in early
bining guesses with running December 2017, through which
algorithms. Each step creates a block around 4,700 bitcoins worth around
of transactions linked or chained to $70 million were stolen and trans-
the puzzle in the previous block— ferred to a mystery account. Despite
hence the term “blockchain”. When A T A N E S T A BL I S H M E N T in
such developments, over time small
the puzzle is solved the miner is re- Sydney, Australia, that accepts increases in demand were enough to
warded with an allocation of payment in bitcoin. keep bitcoin prices rising. Those
bitcoins. price increases attracted new in-
However, the process of generat- vestors, and in keeping with the
ing new bitcoins is planned and the even of others like real estate had tendency to run with the herd that is
total volume to be generated is fallen sharply. Simultaneously, cent- typical of financial investors, de-
capped. The cap is 21 million bitcoins ral banks in the U.S., the United mand soared and so did prices.
and the pace of their generation is Kingdom and subsequently Europe Bitcoin has suddenly become the
adjusted downwards so that the cap resorted to a policy of quantitative much-discussed, or even the most-
is reached only in 2140. As of now, easing to save banks and financial discussed, of all new assets in the
around 16.7 million bitcoins have firms. This involved buying up finan- market. That is surprising given the
been released. Since it is a store of cial assets to inject large volumes of size of the bitcoin business. Accord-
value, there is no reason why any- cheap liquidity into the system. Since ing to estimates, despite the spike in
body “earning” bitcoins by sale of a 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve has prices the total value of the bitcoin
good or service must spend that bought bonds worth around $4 tril- “market” is around $270-280 billion,
money immediately. So, as GDP in- lion. which is just a fraction of that of
creases and the volume of transac- The Bank of England, the Bank traditional financial assets.
tions expands, the volume of of Japan and the European Central Moreover, the bitcoin shortage
currency in circulation must in- Bank followed. All told, six central means that if investors hold on to the
crease. banks that opted for this policy now available currency in the hope that
The fact that this is not expected hold four times as much assets on prices would rise further, trading in
to happen with bitcoin implies that their balance sheets as they did be- the market would be limited. It is the
its creators assume that a combina- fore the crisis. With interest rates too recognition of this that is triggering
tion of increase in value and the easy at long-term lows, this liquidity has the launch of bitcoin-based securit-
“divisibility” of a digital currency found its way into speculative invest- ies so that there is more space for
would solve the problem. ments in asset markets, resulting in speculative bets to be placed, espe-
The fact that only a limited asset price inflation that has been cially by new investors.
amount of the cryptocurrency is troubling institutions like the Bank To spur the futures markets,
available indicates that if demand for of International Settlements. In a “analysts” are predicting that the
the currency increases for some speculative environment like this, value of the currency could touch
reason, such as it being an alternative financial institutions, fearing that $50,000 or even $100,000 a piece.
store of value to money and financial traditional markets are saturated, This frenzy says more about the fin-
assets of various degrees of liquidity, are always looking for alternative as- ancial markets these days than it
then its price determined by auctions sets. Even an asset like gold, the price does about bitcoin. Commentators,
in bitcoin exchanges would rise to of which rose sharply over the decade ranging from Nobel Prize winners in
accommodate the value being de- starting 2001, has been losing its Economics to so-called financial
manded. When the value of the cur- sheen in recent years. market leaders, have described the
rency appreciates, investors looking In itself there was no reason to goings-on as a bubble.
for capital gains will join the game, expect that bitcoin would emerge as Yet the cryptocurrency has be-
and prices can spiral. an alternative asset, since there was come an instrument for an industry
Interestingly, bitcoin was nothing endowing it with value other that remains drunk on speculative
launched at the time of the global than the state of demand relative to profits despite the 2008 financial
financial crisis in 2008-09, when the the limited quantity being put into crisis. Whether this was planned or is
value of most financial assets and the market. So long as that demand accidental is, however, not clear. $
Nuclear glasnost
The “Public dialogue-forum AtomEco 2017”, organised in Moscow on
November 21 and 22, discussed the pros and cons of nuclear power
generation and its future. B Y T . S . S U B R A MA N I A N R E CE N T L Y I N M O S C O W
IT was a conference that was ec- ings can meet the most fundamental out for the insightful observations
lectic in its proceedings to the point challenges in agriculture, food sup- made, as did two other sessions: “The
of discussing embarrassing topics ply and medicine; public acceptance formats of public hearings in the
too. If the underlying thrust of “Pub- of nuclear power; ethics in decision- construction of nuclear power
lic dialogue-forum AtomEco 2017”, making; the Arctic and the atom; plants: the Russian and the foreign
organised in Moscow on November Russia’s mastery in decommission- experience” and “The Arctic and the
21 and 22, was to assert that “nuclear ing research reactors, power reactors Atom: environment and
power is green energy” and that “nuc- and nuclear weapons; the closed development”.
lear energy is one of the most effi- nuclear fuel cycle as the basis of clean The conference was organised by
cient systems” of generating nuclear power; the reprocessing of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Cor-
electricity, there was also a readiness spent fuel; radioactive waste man- poration, the overarching organisa-
to acknowledge that “switching over agement; the need to develop small- tion under which fall several
to renewable energy is not something capacity reactors for production of companies that are responsible for
for tomorrow but today”. isotopes used in nuclear medicine; the mining of uranium, its enrich-
The topics the conference dis- women occupying top positions in ment, fabrication of fuel assemblies,
cussed were remarkable for their nuclear industry; and so on. manufacture of nuclear power com-
sheer variety: how atoms formed a The plenary session, “Clean en- ponents, building of reactors, and so
unique tool with which human be- ergy for future generations”, stood on. Rosatom commands 17 per cent
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 44
mendations of the United Nations stable and steady power supply for
Climate Change Conference held in the development of the Arctic region,
Paris in November-December 2015 which is rich in hydrocarbons. The
were “tricky political matters”. Coun- Russian delegates pointed out that
tries changed their position depend- the USSR had dumped nuclear-
ing on politics, and the number of powered submarines, decommis-
countries that would agree to a vol- sioned reactors and containers with
untary cut in greenhouse emissions, radioactive waste in several locations
subsequent to the Paris conference, in the Arctic and spoke of the need to
would be known by November 2018, clean up the Arctic.
they said. Incidentally, nuclear
power stations generated 38 per cent TRANSITION TO RENEWABLES
of global “green” electric power. The plenary session started on a
Public acceptance of nuclear lively note with Stanislav Naumov,
power generated a lot of debate. Kir- president of the Russian Public Rela-
ill Komarov, first deputy director tions Association, pointing out that
general for corporate development several European scientists had
and international business, Ros- raised the pitch for renewable energy
atom, pointed to a “paradoxical situ- sources to be a reality today rather
ation” in which the level of public than a long-term forecast. He said:
acceptance was higher among people “To this end, they argue that the use
COURTESY ROSATOM
COURTESY ROSATOM
IN what could be a significant devel- T H E FI R S T P O U R O F C O NC R E T E for the foundation of the first of two
opment for both Russia and India, VVER-1200 reactors at Rooppur on November 30, 2017. The reactors have an
two VVER-1200 reactors of Russian installed capacity of 1,200 MWe each.
design will be built near Rooppur in
Bangladesh. The first pour of con- stalled capacity of 1,200 MWe each. Power Project [RNPP] begins the
crete for the foundation of the first Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh realisation of a dream. We enter the
unit took place on November 30, Hasina and Director General of nuclear world, which is a matter of
2017, at Ishwardi village, near Rosatom State Atomic Energy Cor- great pride and honour for us as a
Rooppur, about 160 km from poration Alexy Likachev attended nation. We are grateful to Russia
Dhaka. The first pour signals the the event. and the Russian people for this,”
start of the main construction “With the first pour of the con- Sheikh Hasina said.
phase. The reactors have an in- crete for the Rooppur Nuclear Likachev said: “Similar plants
is no escaping the fact that carbon ditions of the COP climate change and 31 nuclear power units in the
dioxide emissions are growing [even conference [on reducing carbon di- 2030s, each with a capacity of one
when] wind generation is used at full oxide emissions] nor achieve the GW, he said.
power. It indicates that with all the goals of sustainable development.” Chudakov said public acceptance
positive features associated with the In many countries, including Russia, of nuclear power should be trans-
development of renewables world- the Netherlands, Finland and Slov- formed into public demand. “We saw
wide, we do not consider them an akia, public support for nuclear this in Armenia when people voted
alternative source to nuclear power,” power has exceeded 50 per cent. This for the closure of nuclear power
he said. support alone is not enough to build plants and then for the resumption of
Mikhail Chudakov, Deputy Dir- new nuclear power plants for ful- their operation,” he said. He sugges-
ector General and Head of the De- filling the conditions of the climate ted that the public should be shown
partment of Nuclear Energy, IAEA, change conference. To meet those the real advantages of nuclear power
Vienna, asserted: “Without nuclear conditions, it was necessary to build and the energy security it brought
power, we shall neither fulfil the con- 20 nuclear power units right now about. For instance, hundreds of
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 46
with the innovative VVER-1200 are Kudankulam. While Russia sup- depth/redundancy, which are a
already operational in Russia. We plied all the components for its re- unique combination of active and
will pay as much attention and care actors at Kudankulam, the Nuclear passive safety systems. The
to RNPP in Bangladesh as we do in Power Corporation of India Limited Bangladesh media have quoted Al-
Russia.” built them. Informed sources said exander Khazin, senior vice presid-
Atomstroyexport (ASE), which that several Indian companies, ent for international projects of the
forms part of the engineering divi- which took part in the construction ASE group of companies, as saying
sion of Rosatom, will build the re- of the Kudankulam reactors, might that the passive safety systems will
actors at Rooppur. All the reactor like to bid for the Rooppur reactors function even when power supply
components, including the reactor when tenders are floated. fails totally. They will provide safety
vessels, turbines and steam generat- Shah Nawaz Ahmed, senior Ad- without the functioning of the active
ors, will be shipped to Rooppur viser (India, Middle East and South systems or the operator’s interven-
from Russia. The reactors will use East Asia), World Nuclear Associ- tion. For instance, the passive heat
enriched uranium as fuel, and light ation, has been quoted as saying: removal system will cool the fuel
water as both coolant and moder- “Bangladesh is cooperating with core if all other power supply
ator. The spent fuel from the two Russia to build two 1,200 MWe sources fail. There is a “core-
reactors will be sent back to Russia. VVER units similar to the catcher” [a tank with a huge pool of
The construction of these two Kudankulam plant. This has big im- water] at the bottom of the reactor
units means new orders for Russian plications for Bangladesh as it will vault and in case a of loss-of-coolant
companies and jobs in Russia. get a source of power which is clean accident the molten core will fall
About 12,000 Russian specialists, and has a 24/7 base load. For India, into the core-catcher. The core-
including designers, engineers, [the Russian] cooperation with catcher will cool the molten fuel and
equipment-fabricators and electri- Bangladesh is a positive step. Many ward off radioactive leakage into the
city engineers, will be involved in Indian firms involved in the con- environment, Khazin has been
the construction. At present, the struction of the Kudankulam plant, quoted as saying. The VVER-1200
foreign order portfolio of Rosatom we are hopeful, will be able to supply units will have a double contain-
includes building 34 nuclear power material for construction [at ment dome to prevent radiation
reactors in 13 countries, including Rooppur].” from leaking into the atmosphere in
Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Egypt, The two VVER-1200 units are case of an accident. The reactor
Finland, Hungary, Iran and India. being built under the framework of buildings can withstand tornadoes,
an inter-government agreement cyclones and missile attacks.
INDIAN CONNECTION signed on November 2, 2011, Lessons from the Fukushima ac-
Bangladeshi engineers who will be between Bangladesh and Russia. cident in Japan in 2011 have been
appointed as operators of the The RNPP will cost about $12.65 taken into consideration in design-
VVER-1200 reactors at Rooppur billion. The Bangladesh Atomic En- ing the VVER-1200 units. They
will be trained at Kudankulam in ergy Corporation and the have been designed in accordance
Tamil Nadu, where two Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regu- with Russian and European regu-
VVER-1000 reactors are functional latory Board will supervise each latory requirements, and Interna-
and two more are under construc- stage of the construction. tional Atomic Energy Agency
tion. Two more VVER-1000 units, The VVER-1200 units have lay- standards.
fifth and sixth, will come up at ers of features called defence-in- T.S. Subramanian
thousands of kW/hour of electricity ating 450 commercial nuclear power 25 per cent of the world electricity
could be generated using one kilo- units with an installed capacity of sale by 2050, Chudakov said.
gram of uranium. A nuclear power 3,91,000 MWe. This amounts to 5 According to the IAEA’s annual
plant with an installed capacity of per cent of the world’s installed capa- projections, the dynamic energy de-
one GW needed only three sq km of city and 11 per cent of the electricity velopment scenario showed that the
land, but wind turbines with similar generated. Fifty-seven reactor units demand for nuclear energy would
capacity would occupy 900 sq km. are under construction in various keep increasing despite the
Besides, windmills depended on the countries. Another 30 countries have Fukushima accident of 2011. De-
vagaries of the weather. “It is, there- plans afoot to build nuclear power mand is projected to grow by 2.5 to
fore, necessary to speak about the reactors. It was estimated that to three times, while generation re-
real situation at all levels. We need to comply with the terms of the Paris mains at the same level. “The ques-
talk the truth about nuclear power,” climate conference COP21, the world tion is how to sustain this dynamic
Chudakov said. needed to have 1,000 GWe of in- trend without pitting nuclear energy
Currently, 30 countries are oper- stalled capacity of nuclear power and against renewables? On opposite
Woe to Jerusalem
Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,
against international opinion, legitimises Israel’s brutal
occupation of the city and dumps the two-state solution for the
Israel-Palestine dispute. BY JOHN CHERIAN
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 50
embassy did not have the courtesy to mention the State of
Palestine even once.
Trump said that recognising Jerusalem as the capital
of Israel was the “right thing to do” and criticised his
predecessors in office for failing to do so. He insisted that
Palestinians “must come to the table knowing that the
bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely,
truly unbreakable”. There was nothing on offer for
Palestinians except a few platitudes and warnings to
desist from violence. Palestinians, Trump solemnly
opined, should “respond to disagreement with reasoned
debate, not violence”. According to reports in the U.S.
media, the Secretaries of State and Defence, Rex Tiller-
son and James Mattis, had warned Trump against taking
such a dangerous and precipitate step.
East Jerusalem is the designated capital of the
Palestinian state. It is a city where the people belonging
to the three faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, coex-
isted peacefully until the Zionist project was imposed on
the region by the colonial powers. The status of Jerus-
alem, along with the right of return and statehood, are
the three main pillars of the Palestinian movement.
These principles will never be given up. Trump’s recogni-
tion of Jerusalem coincided with the centenary of the
infamous Balfour Declaration (a statement by Britain in
November 1917 supporting the establishment of a home
for the Jewish people in Palestine), which led to the
creation of the Zionist state and the uprooting of the
Palestinian people from their ancestral lands. The Al
Aqsa mosque, among the holiest sites for Muslims, is
located in Jerusalem. Right-wing parties in Israel are
demanding control of the site saying that the mosque was
built on the site where the Temple Mount, one of Juda-
ism's holiest sites, had existed.
K E V I N L A M A R Q U E /R E U T E R S
P A L E S T IN I A N P R E S ID E N T Mahmoud
Abbas. (Below) Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.
SAID KHATIB/AFP
scribed Trump’s decision as “deplorable” but he is against fired into Israel, injuring 25 Palestinians, including six
launching another intifada. His administration has been children. In the Jordanian capital, Amman, angry pro-
accused of not taking a tough stand as the Israeli govern- testers gathered near the U.S. embassy and burnt U.S.
ment appropriated or demolished Palestinian homes in flags and pictures of Trump with the words “go to hell”. In
Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers. Jerusalem, Jakarta, more than 10,000 people rallied outside the U.S.
which had a majority Palestinian population before 1967, embassy. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said
is now a Jewish majority city. Even so, more than 40 per Trump’s move was in violation of United Nations resolu-
cent of the population in the holy city consists of tions. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in
Palestinians. The P.A. had allocated less funds for the the world, has refused to establish diplomatic contacts
welfare of the residents of Jerusalem than it had for the with Israel.
rest of the West Bank.
Feeling let down by the U.S., the P.A. has announced INDIA’S RELUCTANCE
that the U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence, was not wel- India, which was among the first states to recognise the
come in the West Bank. He was scheduled to have a State of Palestine, did not criticise the U.S. action. The
meeting with Abbas in late December during his visit to External Affairs Ministry issued a mild statement: “In-
the region. The spiritual heads of al Azhar University and dia’s position on Palestine is independent and consistent.
the Coptic Church in Egypt also declined to meet Pence. It is shaped by our views and interests, and not determ-
Three protesters were killed and more than 800 civilians ined by any third country.” There was no mention of
injured in the protests by Palestinians in Jerusalem, the India’s consistent stand that East Jerusalem was the
occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip soon after capital of the State of Palestine or that India supports the
Trump’s speech. The Israeli Air Force carried out attacks two-state solution. It is no secret that Prime Minister
on Gaza allegedly in retaliation for two rockets being Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 52
GETTY IMAGES
T H E A L A Q S A mosque in the Old City in Jerusalem. Assembly Resolution 181, which was adopted in 1949,
when Israel became independent. The resolution stated
(RSS) are great admirers of the Zionist model, where that Jerusalem should be administered as a separate
non-Jews have been reduced to the status of second-class entity. Israel had agreed to this definition at the time. It
citizens. During his visit to Israel in July 2017, Modi was only after the occupation of East Jerusalem and the
made it a point to go to Jerusalem. He did not visit West Bank after the 1967 war that the Israeli government
Ramallah, where the P.A. is headquartered. “Unlike the started laying claim to the whole of Jerusalem. In 1967,
worldwide opposition to this move, the official spokes- Israel captured East Jerusalem and in 1980 unilaterally
man of the Ministry of External Affairs has scrupulously declared Jerusalem as the country’s capital. The U.S.
refused to criticise the U.S. decision,” the Communist government had desisted from formally recognising Jer-
Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau said in a statement. usalem as Israel’s capital despite the U.S. Congress voting
The U.S.’ traditional allies, including Britain, were overwhelmingly in favour of moving the U.S. embassy to
critical of the Trump administration’s decision. The U.S. Jerusalem in 1995.
was completely isolated when the United Nations Secur- In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed a de-
ity Council discussed the issue on December 8. The U.N. cision that forbids those born in Jerusalem from claiming
Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has reiterated that that they are Israeli citizens. Only two countries, the
there is no alternative to the two-state solution to end the Czech Republic and Colombia, have recognised Jerus-
impasse in West Asia. He said the two states, Israel and alem as Israel’s capital. The Israeli government has been
Palestine, had to “live side by side, in peace, security and stressing that recognition of Jerusalem as its capital
mutual recognition—with Jerusalem as the capital of means the recognition of the entire city as being under its
Israel and Palestine”. administration.
The legal status of Jerusalem was defined in General Innumerable U.N. Security Council resolutions,
YASIN AKGUL/AFP
The Saudis have struck up an alliance with Israel,
which is no longer under wraps. Washington, Tel Aviv
and Riyadh now consider Tehran as their main enemy.
Saudi Arabia had tried to convince the Palestinian lead-
ership to accept the U.S. decision on Jerusalem and sign
A P R O - P A L ES T I NI A N protest in Istanbul on
up a plan that would have given Palestinians a more
December 8, 2017.
truncated state, without Jerusalem as the capital. The
Trump administration had threatened to close the
which the U.S. have not blocked, have termed the Israeli Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) office in Wash-
occupation of Jerusalem as illegal. U.N. Resolution 242 ington, if the P.A. did not accept the “ultimate deal” to
of 1967 asked Israel to withdraw from all territories solve the Israel-Palestine dispute cooked up by Kushner,
occupied in the war that had taken place earlier that year. with the support of Saudi Arabia. As it is, the current P.A.
Security Council Resolution 252 of 1968 specified that leadership’s role is that of policing the Palestinian people
Israel should rescind “actions that tend to change the on behalf of Israel and the U.S.
status of Jerusalem”, including the expropriation of land
and property. Security Council Resolution 465 of 1980 ISRAELI ATROCITIES
had warned Israel to stop construction activities on the Palestinians in Jerusalem, unlike their compatriots in
West Bank and Jerusalem. Such acts, the resolution Israel proper, have been reduced to the status of non-
warned, amounted to a “flagrant violation” of the Geneva citizens. Israel treats Palestinian residents as foreigners
Convention. Another U.N. resolution passed in the same who have been benevolently bestowed the right to reside
year censured Israel for enacting a law changing the in their city and has issued “permanent residency” cards
status of Jerusalem. The resolution stated that “it consti- to them. They live in constant fear of their residency
tuted a violation” of international law. being revoked by the Israeli authorities. Since 1967, Is-
Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital rael has revoked the citizenship rights of more than
has not only trampled on international opinion and law 14,000 Palestinians and built Jewish colonies in the
but has helped entrench Israel’s brutal occupation. Israel middle of densely populated Palestinian localities in East
has promulgated apartheid laws and indulged in ethnic Jerusalem. Around 200,000 Jews live in such areas
cleansing in Jerusalem and the occupied territories. The today under the protection of the Israeli security services.
European Union (E.U.) foreign policy chief, Federica According to the U.N., since 1967, 20, 000 Palestinian
Mogherini, said that the U.S.’ action “has the potential to homes have been destroyed by Israel in Jerusalem.
send us backwards to even darker times” and that “what For all practical purposes, the two-state solution for
happens in Jerusalem concerns the entire region and the Palestine is now dead. Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator
entire world”. She suggested that the U.S. role in the for Palestinians, speaking after Trump’s announcement,
region would be considerably diminished now. Frederica said that Palestinians should now focus on fighting for
Mogherini reiterated to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ben- their democratic rights in a “single state”. Albeit one that
jamin Netanyahu, who was visiting Brussels in the describes itself as a Jewish state. Erekat accused Trump
second week of December that the E.U. remained com- and his advisers of being “more Israeli than Israel”. Han-
mitted to a “two-state settlement” to the Israel-Palestine nan Ashrawi, another senior member of the PLO, said
dispute “with Jerusalem as the capital of both”. The that the U.S. had made peace talks between Israel and
French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was even Palestine “irrelevant and superficial” with its recognition
more forthright. He said that because of Trump’s move of Jerusalem. She stressed that the Trump administra-
on Jerusalem, the U.S. could no longer play the role of a tion had “totally ripped apart the legal foundation for
mediator in West Asia. peace in the region”. $
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 54
W O RL D A FF A I RS
UNITED STATES
Trump as Balfour
Donald Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem seems more dangerous theatre
than anything else, another of his mischievous political acts. B Y V I J AY P R A S H A D
S E B A ST I A N S C H E I N E R / A P
Diary from Trumpland where the people have long worried about the seizure of
East Jerusalem, which the United Nations deems to be
55 FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018
part of Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the rest of the Palestinians will respond to the Israeli violence, which
old city. Protests broke out in the West Bank, in Jerus- comes on top of the occupation that has lasted over 50
alem and in the Gaza Strip. These were largely non- years. Little wonder that some Palestinians chanted: “We
violent, a mirror of the frustration of the Palestinian don’t need empty words. We need stones and
people with the collapse of their national liberation Kalashnikovs.”
project. No wonder, too, that many world leaders—from Iraqi
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to Qatari Foreign Min-
DANGEROUS ESCALATION ister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani—have
On December 8, which was a Friday and therefore a day called Trump’s statement a “dangerous escalation”. It
of prayer for Muslims, Israeli forces gathered in a show of will only create far more violence. The European Union
force near the Al Aqsa mosque, revered by Muslims as the and the U.N. have roundly condemned Trump’s
third holiest site in Islam. Prayers went on as usual in the statement.
mosque, although the tension on the streets was palp-
able. It provoked protests from Palestinians in the city, J E R U S A L E M A S E M B L E M
who marched in small groups chanting: “Jerusalem is In 1947, the U.N. passed Resolution 181 which placed
ours, Jerusalem is our capital.” Jerusalem under the administration of the U.N. It was to
Israeli forces descended upon the demonstrations be a city governed by a “special international regime”.
with ferocity. Israeli troops on horseback galloped down The countries of the world recognised Jerusalem as a
Salah Eddin Street in the old city, scaring passers-by. The special place, precious to the major Abrahamic religions
soldiers smashed up shops and arrested men, women and and located in the midst of tensions between the new
children. The Red Crescent said that about 800 state of Israel, exiled and occupied Palestinians and the
Palestinians had been injured and a handful, mostly in neighbouring Arab states.
Gaza, had been killed. Israeli forces used a combination Over the years, the U.N. Security Council has voted
of rubber bullets and live fire in the West Bank and seven times to condemn the Israeli 1980 Basic Jerusalem
Jerusalem and air strikes against Gaza. Two days later, Law, which claims the city as the “eternal and indivisible”
on December 10, an Israeli military vehicle ran over a capital of Israel. The first of these resolutions, 478 in
five-year-old Palestinian girl in the city of Hebron, per- 1980, was passed unanimously, with an abstention from
haps the tensest city in Palestine. the U.S. But even former (and late) U.S. Secretary of
It was in Hebron that 14-year-old Al-Junaidi was State Edmund Muskie suggested that Jerusalem was a
arrested and detained. His uncle said that the boy had unique city. “We must share a common vision of that
gone out to get medicine and food for his family. This ancient city’s future—an undivided Jerusalem, with free
young boy cares for his father, who had undergone sur- access to the holy places for peoples of all faiths.” At the
gery recently. The incident moved the uncle to say: “We same time, the U.S. held that it had the right to have its
are the children of Palestine. Jerusalem is the capital of embassy in Jerusalem. Any instruction from the U.N. to
Palestine in the hearts and minds of our children. They move its embassy, Muskie said in 1980, would not be
will never be able to erase it.” binding.
Wisam Hashlamoun, a Palestinian photojournalist, The tone in the Security Council in 1980 was strongly
took the iconic picture of Al-Junaidi. About 50 Israeli against an Israeli annexation of Jerusalem. Pakistan’s
soldiers attacked a group of Palestinian youths, Hash- then Ambassador to the U.N., Naiz A. Naik, said that as
lamoun recounts. Al-Junaidi fell to international pressure mounted
the ground, sustaining a head against Israel, it had “revived with
wound. The soldiers “pulled him to increased vigour the obsessive Zion-
his feet and encircled him”, which is ist scheme to Judaise the Holy City
the moment Hashlamoun photo- of Jerusalem by destroying its his-
graphed the boy. “It definitely didn’t torical personality and turning it
occur to me that this photo would into ‘the eternal capital of Israel’”.
become a symbol,” Hashlamoun Israel’s then Ambassador to the
A F P / AL M A NA R T V / H A N D OU T
New direction
The Left alliance, forged just before the elections, makes spectacular gains in
the Parliament and Provincial Assembly elections, but the challenge before it
is to fulfil the voters’ aspirations for a corruption-free, vibrant and dynamic
Nepal. B Y S . D . M U N I
NEPAL’S RECENT ELECTIONS WERE HISTORIC. reach that number but would be very close to it.
The new Constitution adopted in September 2015 man- What has led to this spectacular victory of the Left
dated that a new Parliament and Provincial Assemblies alliance is its strong leadership, in the UML’s K.P.
must be in place by January 2018. When a coalition of the Sharma Oli and the Maoist Centre’s Pushpa Kamal Da-
Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal hal “Prachand”. Both these leaders are great communic-
(Maoist Centre) assumed power in August 2016, there ators and powerful mobilisers. They were backed by
was widespread scepticism if elections at the local, pro- strong grass-roots organisations and plenty of resources.
vincial and national levels would be held successfully to The alliance was forged from top down and there were
implement the new Constitution. Nepalese people and doubts whether the cadres would respect their leaders’
the leadership, including the Election Commission, de- wishes to support each other, forgetting years of mutual
serve compliments for completing the electoral process, conflict and rivalry. But the electoral outcome has set
which looked almost impossible 16 months earlier. Nepal aside these doubts.
is now well set on the path of stability and development, While forging the alliance, it was also declared that
in a broader sense, although some political and constitu- the two parties would be merged after the elections.
tional issues remain to be resolved. There are issues of ideology, leadership and, most of all,
power-sharing that remain to be resolved before the two
THE CONTEST formations are integrated into one communist party.
Elections were held on November 26 and December 7 for
national and provincial legislatures. Direct, first-past-
the-post elections were held for 165 seats in a 275-mem-
ber Parliament. The remaining 110 will be filled by pro-
portionate representation depending on the votes
secured by specific political parties. Similarly, 330 of the
550 seats in the seven Provincial Assemblies were put to
direct vote and 220 will be filled through proportionate
representation. The main contest was between the Left
alliance of the Maoist Centre and the Communist Party of
Nepal (United Marxist Leninist-UML), forged just be-
fore the elections, and the reactive Democratic alliance of
the Nepali Congress, the Madhes and other parties that
remained unformalised. At the time of going to press, the
Left alliance had secured 115 seats. The Left alliance was
also way ahead of the Nepali Congress in proportionate
votes for which counting was still in progress. In the
Provincial Assemblies, the Left alliance had bagged 239
seats. Left alliance leaders had claimed that the alliance
would secure a two-thirds majority. They might not
N A V E S H C H I T R A K A R / RE U T E R S
ies, however, will be tested which adversely affected the
with time. There has also electoral fate of some prom-
been widespread specula- inent party leaders such as
tion in the Nepali media that vice president Ramchandra
the Left alliance was facilit- Poudyal, Ramsharan Mahet,
REUTERS
ated by strong Chinese sup- Shelhar Koirala and K.P.
port as China is resolutely Sitaula, and even his wife
anchored into expanding its Arju Deuba. He is not an ef-
economic and strategic pres- K . P . O L I , Communist P U S H PA K A M A L fective communicator and
ence in Nepal. Party of Nepal (UML) D A H A L “Prachand”, his ideological credentials
The massive victory of leader. Maoist Centre leader. on democracy are not viewed
the Left alliance also owes it as consistent and firm. He
to the weak contest put up bythe Nepali Congress and the was also blamed for promoting nepotism and favouring
Madhes parties. As noted earlier, the move for forging a corrupt, criminal and business interests while distribut-
Democratic alliance under the leadership of the Nepali ing the ticket.
Congress came only as an afterthought, in reaction to the The Left alliance was also not free from such blemish,
Left alliance, and it remained a work in progress as the but its damage was controlled organisationally. The
alliance could not be firmed up. In fact, Nepali Congress Nepali Congress’ main campaign slogan was to scare
leader Bimlendra Nidhi, who was tasked with forging the people from voting for the Left alliance as that would
alliance, ended up alienating some Madhes leaders, so destroy democracy and bring in a totalitarian system.
much so that he lost to Rajendra Mahto, the leader of the This did not cut much ice with the voters. It would have
Madhes coalition called the Rastriya Janata Party. Some been better for the Nepali Congress to contest elections
other alienated Madhes leaders, such as Hridayesh Tri- on its achievements such as leading Nepal’s democratic
pathi, felt forced to contest, and even won, on the UML struggle through decades, mainstreaming the Maoist in-
ticket. The Madhes parties were also internally fractured. surgency, giving Nepal its first Republican Constitution,
They went to the polls in two different formations, with improving its economic performance and holding elec-
yet another, led by Bijay Gachchadhar of the Tharu re- tions in record time against heavy odds. There was also
very little in the Nepali Congress campaign promising
development and progress.
THE CHALLENGE
The Left alliance, therefore, swept the polls, except in
Province No.2, which is a Madhes stronghold. It will have
its government in all the six other provinces as well as at
the Centre. It would, however, be misleading to read the
massive victory for the communist parties as a victory for
communism in Nepal. In voting for the Left alliance,
Nepali voters have sent some clear messages. The first is
that they have voted for Nepal’s rising new nationalism,
which has two distinct components. One, that it is confid-
ent and assertive and two, that it is development aspira-
tional. Fuelled by Nepal’s young population, this
nationalism wants stability and progress, which has
eluded Nepal for the past many decades, especially for
the past 10 years when the aspiration for change and
P R A K AS H M A T H E M A / A F P
THE ABORTED GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL Saudi Arabia’s actions. In short, Saudi Arabia, while
(GCC) summit in Kuwait scheduled for December 5-6 seeking confrontation with Iran in order to weaken its
raises the question whether this regional integration pro- bete noire, has only strengthened it.
ject, until recently one of the more successful of such Let us look at what happened in Kuwait. The Emir of
projects, has collapsed or not. When the GCC was formed Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah, 88, was working hard to reconcile
in 1981, the main motivation was to address the perceived Saudi Arabia and Qatar even before the blockade against
threat from Iran by raising the level of synergy among the Qatar was announced by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
member-states who had much in common. Even without Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt on June 5, 2017.
hindsight it can be said that the threat from Iran was That the summit was doomed was known for weeks.
exaggerated. Bahrain had publicly declared that it would not sit with
It is paradoxical that Qatar, one of the founding Qatar and called for suspending its membership. The
members, has been compelled to embrace Iran owing to UAE had signalled that it agreed with Bahrain. Bahrain,
REUTERS
K U W A I T E M I R Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (right) welcomes Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani upon
his arrival to attend the annual GCC summit in Kuwait City on December 5.
61 FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018
billion in 1996. In 1999, the Emir of Qatar specifically
requested the U.S. to station at least 10,000 troops there.
Currently, the number exceeds 11,000.
The UAE resents Qatar’s support to the Muslim
Brotherhood organisation. The UAE supported finan-
cially and otherwise the plot hatched by the military-led
H A M A D I M O H A M M ED / R E U TE R S
Deep State in Egypt to bring down Mohamed Morsi, the
first democratically elected President in Egypt’s history.
Qatar and the UAE have supported opposing camps
K A R I M J A A F A R / AF P
Israel” during a speech at a military academy. The hacked think, fully consider the consequences.”
story was widely covered in the media in Saudi Arabia Qatar has behaved with exemplary resilience and
and the UAE. Qatar has accused the UAE of having judgment and avoided retaliation. Qatar is still supplying
arranged and paid for the hacking operation. gas to the UAE and has not sent out any of the roughly
While announcing the measures against Qatar, Saudi 300,000 Egyptians working there. Egypt worked over-
Arabia claimed that it was compelled to act because of time to prevent Qatar’s candidate from getting elected to
“grave violations being committed by the authorities in the top post in UNESCO. Qatar, worried over a military
Doha over the past years in secret and public aiming at move by Saudi Arabia, did take the precaution of asking
dividing internal Saudi ranks, instigating against the Turkey to strengthen its military base in Qatar. Saudi
State, infringing on its sovereignty, adopting various ter- Arabia did try to encourage a regime change by support-
rorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the ing a Qatari prince, but it was an inconsequential move.
region including the Muslim Brotherhood Group, Daesh India has scrupulously avoided saying anything to
(ISIS) and Al Qaeda, promoting the ethics and plans of annoy either side, for understandable reasons. If hostilit-
these groups through its media permanently….” Obvi- ies break out, India will face the daunting problem of
ously, any argument that puts Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the repatriating 8 million of its nationals, not to mention its
Muslim Brotherhood in the category of promoters of dependence on the region for energy imports. The evacu-
terrorism is unconvincing. ation of 176,000 people from the region in 1990-91 was a
The U.S. has pursued an incoherent policy in the formidable task accomplished competently. It is a pity
matter. Trump tweeted in support of Saudi Arabia; his that India lacks the diplomatic clout to mediate dis-
Secretaries of State and Defence pointed out to him that creetly in the region, mainly because it has not cultivated
Qatar hosted the biggest U.S. air base in the region and personally the rulers and other influential persons.
that it was not in the U.S.’ interests to drive Qatar into As of now there is no sign of any reconciliation. The
Iran’s arms. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to U.S. could have imposed a settlement if it had acted in
mediate between Qatar and Saudi Arabia but stood no good time. There is a stalemate that might last for a while,
chance with Trump’s open support to Saudi Arabia. adversely affecting the economies of the member-states.
But the U.S. has now concluded that Prince Mo- Oman was supposed to host the next summit. It has
hammed bin Salman is overplaying his hand. On Decem- declined and said Saudi Arabia will be the host. The GCC
ber 8, Tillerson said in Paris: “With respect to Saudi can be reunited only if there is a change of policy on the
Arabia’s engagement with Qatar, how they’re handling part of Saudi Arabia, with or without a regime change
the Yemen war that they’re engaged in, the Lebanon there. $
situation, we would encourage them to be a bit more K.P. Fabian, former Ambassador to Qatar, is writing a book
measured and a bit more thoughtful in those actions to, I on the GCC.
Saleh’s
last sigh
The Houthi militia kills the former
Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh
after he showed willingness to hold
talks with Saudi Arabia, whose
military campaign against Yemen
K H A L E D A B D UL L A H / RE U T E R S
has claimed thousands of lives.
B Y J O H N C H E RI A N
attending Friday prayers. A few months later, Saleh de- periods of time. The Houthis were angry with the grow-
mitted office under pressure from his Gulf allies. ing Salafist influence in the country. They were also upset
Saleh was succeeded by his Vice President, the inef- with Yemen’s close ties with the United States and its
fectual Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudi government growing dependence on Saudi Arabia. Saleh had become
had a big role in his elevation. Unlike other Arab leaders close to Washington after the second Gulf War of 2003,
who were deposed, Saleh preferred to stay on in Yemen when he joined the U.S.-led alliance against Iraq. In the
and nurse his grudges. As the country slid deeper into first Gulf War, Saleh was among the few Arab leaders
civil war, Saleh, to the surprise of many observers, struck who refused to join the U.S.-led military coalition against
up an improbable alliance with the Houthis. During his Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. That action proved costly for the
33-year-long rule, Saleh had waged wars against the country. The U.S. imposed tough sanctions on Yemen
Houthis on more than four occasions. Hussein al Houthi, and Saudi Arabia expelled more than a million Yemenis
the father of the current leader of the Houthis, Abdul who were working in the kingdom.
Mallik al Houthi, was killed in 2004 reportedly on the The alliance between Saleh and the Houthi move-
orders of Saleh. The Houthis were part of the mainly ment, which was forged in 2014, was essentially an ar-
peaceful revolution that overthrew Saleh in 2011. rangement to foil the game plan of the Saudi-led alliance
to impose their writ on the country. Saleh was unhappy
HOUTHI ANGER that the Saudis were favouring the Islah Party, the tradi-
The Houthis, a branch of the Zayedi sect of Shias, consti- tional rivals of the GPC. Despite his removal from the
tute more than 40 per cent of the country’s population. presidency, Saleh continued to hold political, military
They were the dominant sect in North Yemen for centur- and financial clout. During his long years in power, Saleh
ies. Saleh himself was born a Houthi but the party he had siphoned off billions of dollars from the country’s
formed, known as the General People’s Congress (GPC), treasury and oil funds. But unlike many other Arab po-
had antagonistic relations with the Houthis for long tentates, he is not known to have saved his fortune in
H A N I M O H A M M ED / A P
Saleh from the political scene and the dominance of the
Houthis in the North, Yemen could once again be head-
ing for partition. The military situation in the country is
now in a stalemate.
The making of
NEW DELHI
I N D IA G AT E . It was originally designed as a war memorial dedicated to the Indian soldiers killed during the First World
War and other wars such as the Afghan War. The nearby canopy used to serve as a memorial to George V.
THE imperial capital of New 1911. The process of setting up the style of architecture, layout of the
Delhi forms one of the most endur- new imperial city was not a simple city, acquisition of land and design of
ing architectural legacies of colonial architectural or urban planning ex- individual buildings—all of which
rule in the Indian subcontinent. It ercise; it emerged out of intense de- played an important part in the mak-
had come under British control by bates relating to the changing ing of New Delhi. The whole process
1803 and more firmly so after the strategic interests of the British Em- was further complicated by the out-
suppression of the 1857 rebellion. pire in India. It also involved intense break of the First World War, time
However, the decision to make it discussions regarding the site of the and cost overruns, and differences
the new capital was only taken in new capital, choice of architects, between the two leading architects,
grandeur of Delhi. Further, the 1857 master plan. Viceroy Lord Hardinge signed colonial buildings in South
rebellion had shown the symbolic himself was involved in the planning Africa. Baker could only join in 1913,
importance of Delhi and the emo- of the new capital in a major way. by which time most of the decisions
tional connect people had with it and The historian Percival Spear says had been taken. It was agreed that
the Mughal emperor. Interestingly, the architectural committee of Luty- Lutyens would design the Viceroy’s
during the Coronation Durbar, ens (an architect), John A. Brodie (an House and the overall layout of the
George V and Queen Mary even ap- engineer) and S.C. Swinton (a muni- city, whereas Baker would take care
peared before the Delhi public from a cipal issues expert who also had of the twin secretariat buildings
jharokha (overhanging enclosed bal- knowledge of Indian architecture) (now North and South blocks).
cony) at the Red Fort—trying to ap- chose a site on Raisina Hill, south of The historian Thomas R. Met-
propriate an imperial symbolism Shahjahanabad, reversing an earlier calfe argues that New Delhi was not
and a practice only reserved for em- decision to build the capital on a site simply meant to provide housing and
perors—to reiterate their supremacy north of the Mughal capital. They office space for bureaucrats and was
over the subcontinent. saw the new site as an Indian Acro- charged with symbolic meaning
polis, with the proposed Viceroy’s from the very outset. There were
IMPERIAL IDEOLOGY AND House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) as many opinions on the proposed ar-
ARCHITECTURE the Parthenon. The architect and chitectural style. George Bernard
The Delhi Town Planning commit- heritage expert Lucy Peck says that Shaw and Thomas Hardy advocated
tee was formed, and Lutyens (who the Viceroy’s insistence that the cap- an Indian style executed by an Indian
had designed a garden city and coun- ital should be completed in four architect. The debate eventually nar-
try homes in England) was appoin- years made Lutyens rope in Baker, a rowed down to the three principal
ted as the consultant to draw up a friend and architect who had de- actors: Hardinge, Lutyens and
curved street) behind the Viceroy’s House via the war memorial arch Vidya Dehejia points out that
House, Willingdon Crescent (now (India Gate) and Victory Square (Vi- streets in residential areas were
known as Mother Teresa Crescent), jay Chowk). Queen’s Way (now Jan- structured around roundabouts
contained residential accommoda- path, or “Avenue of the People”’) which were mini gardens that func-
tion for important functionaries. crossed the principal axis at right tioned as traffic circles. Rules of offi-
The main streets were supposed angles, connecting the central com- cial hierarchy were followed, and
to have beautiful vistas at their ends. mercial hub Connaught Place and a residences were allotted on the basis
King’s Way (now Rajpath, or “Av- host of important buildings with of official status. A lot of thought also
enue of the State”) was the principal South End Road (now known as went into the greening of the new
imperial axis and was supposed to Rajesh Pilot Marg). Further beyond capital. The municipal forest officer
connect Purana Qila (or Old Fort, Connaught Place in the north was P.H. Clutterbuck’s list of Indian trees
associated with the Afghan ruler the Jami Masjid, the grand congreg- became the basis for planting of trees
Sher Shah Suri and the Mughal em- ational mosque of the 17th century along the avenues. W.R. Mustoe,
peror Humayun) to the Viceroy’s Mughal capital, Shahjahanabad. Director of Horticulture and an ex-
The Council Chamber is located Baker was entrusted with its design, chamber as a forum for the rulers of
slightly away from the main imperial and it was to house three chambers: the princely states of India to voice
axis and was planned later. It was the Council of State (now the Rajya their concerns and aspirations. It
originally supposed to be located Sabha), the Legislative Assembly survived until the end of the British
within the Viceroy’s House, but the (now the Lok Sabha) and the Cham- Raj.
Montague-Chelmsford reforms cre- ber of Princes. A proclamation of The Council Chamber is de-
ated the need for a new building. George V in 1919 established the last signed like a coliseum with lobbies
ings located on it were designed by official dinners. Besides shopping replace the transit hostel at the west-
Russell. At one end of the street lay and dining, Connaught Place ern court with a residential guest
the commercial hub called Con- provided entertainment facilities house for Members of Parliament.
naught Place—named after George such as cinema theatres, including Further down Queen’s Way were
V’s uncle, the Duke of Connaught, Regal (designed by Walter Sykes a museum housing a collection of
who visited Delhi in 1921. Said to be George and inaugurated in 1932) paintings by Sir Aurel Stein (now the
modelled on the Royal Crescent in and Plaza (designed by Russell and National Museum) and the Records
Bath in England, it was planned as a inaugurated in 1933, it has a classical Room (now the National Archives),
two-storeyed open colonnaded facade of columns). Other theatres, which was originally established as
structure with shops on the ground including Odeon, Rivoli and the In- the Imperial Record Department in
floor and houses on the first. This dia Talkie House, came into being 1891 in Calcutta. It was shifted to
area forms part of the Delhi ridge around 1938. Delhi and located at the intersection
and was earlier dominated by keekar The Imperial Hotel was designed of King’s Way and Queen’s Way in
trees and overrun with jackals and as a luxury hotel in the 1930s and it 1926. The street ended at South End
wild pigs. When Connaught Place eclipsed the hotels in the earlier Brit- Road, which together with Lodhi
was finally completed around 1935, it ish hotspot, the Civil Lines. It was Gardens formed the southern
looked like two concentric circles of built by F.B. Blomfield, one of Luty- boundary of Lutyens’ Delhi.
buildings interspersed with three en’s associates, and inaugurated by
roads, the Inner, Middle and Outer Lord Willingdon in 1936. Silver tea WILLINGDON CRESCENT &
Circles. service, tableware from London, GOLE DAK KHANA
The complex had an array of Italian marble floors, Burma teak Willingdon Crescent continues to
shops and establishments catering to furniture, original paintings by form the western boundary of the
affluent and powerful British and In- Thomas and William Daniell and presidential estate and runs between
dians. Wengers—named after the James Fraser on the walls, a vision of Teen Murti Bhavan and Ram Mano-
Swiss couple Wenger—for example, undulating green lawns and har Lohia Hospital (previously Will-
designed in 1926, became the first turbaned waiters in red—all helped ingdon Hospital). The Teen Murti
bakery and confectionary shop to in- create the aura of an early 19th cen- complex was designed by Russell and
troduce French bread, Swiss chocol- tury English manor in the heart of was originally called Flagstaff
ates and margarine pastries to the imperial Delhi. Close to the Imperial House. It was the residence of the
imperial city. In its early days, it also Hotel are the eastern and western Commander-in-Chief of the British
served as a popular venue for expatri- courts, designed as hostels for legis- Army, and, later, of the first Prime
ate weddings, ballroom dances and lators. There are currently plans to Minister of independent India,
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 82
Jawaharlal Nehru. Later, after the designed most of the other bunga- and a plinth of red sandstone.
three statues memorial was installed lows and official housing. Lucy Peck Smooth and polished ashlar ma-
at the traffic roundabout in front of says that the houses south of the im- sonry was reserved for the moulded
the complex, the building was re- perial axis looked grand, while those courses and the elegant columned
named Teen Murti Bhavan. The in the north-west near the Gole Dak porches.
British sculptor Leonard Jennings Khana were humble clerks’ houses
built this memorial to commemorate with front verandahs, several rooms THE EMPIRE AND ITS
the Jodhpur, Hyderabad and Mysore and a backyard. SHORT-LIVED CAPITAL
lancers who had fought gallantly in Whatever the size of the house, Metcalfe says that the British also
Syria, Palestine and Sinai during the Lucy Peck points out, the basic pat- chose an imperial style because that
First World War. tern remained the same: the main was the medium through which
At the other end of Willingdon road gave access to the front of the Europeans apprehended empire. Its
Crescent is another busy traffic house and there was a service lane at “eternal principles” and “ordered
roundabout, which houses the Gole the back. Feroz Shah Road had, she beauty” were fit to embody in stone
Dak Khana (literally, round post of- further says, a rare type of housing: a the spirit of the empire more than
fice) in the centre and Sacred Heart modest version of “palace facades” of any other style of architecture. Fur-
Cathedral New Delhi on one of its 18th century urban England. Here, ther, by connecting their monu-
sides. Nearby are located the Gole narrow houses were built to look as if ments to the ideals and empires of a
Market (round market) and Willing- they were part of a “grander seeming” cherished classical antiquity, the
don Hospital. The Gole Dak Khana scheme or a single magnificent edi- British sought to enhance the moral
was designed by Russell and built in fice. There was shared accommoda- worth, at least in their own eyes, of
the 1930s. Originally known as Alex- tion for single men at the P.T. their political handiwork. Metcalfe
andra Place, it was the seat of the Chummery Quarter complex near points out that such an architectural
PWD and reportedly also served as Hailey Lane, and there were modest style was not tied to any specific geo-
the Viceroy’s camp post office in the houses for the posts and telegraph graphical setting, and its elements
1930s. It was upgraded to a general staff near Kasturba Gandhi Marg. could be reproduced in any tropical
post office in the 1960s. The church Travancore House at the Kasturba dependency. He also argues that
near the roundabout was one of the Gandhi roundabout, originally built what had been worked out in Pre-
first Roman Catholic churches in as a princely house, had a butterfly toria and refined in Delhi could be
Delhi and its construction was su- design, that is, a colonnaded struc- carried to such places as Kenya,
pervised by Father Luke, who ture with two wings. where Government House (now
worked closely with Lutyens. The imperial capital also had a State House), Nairobi, built by Baker
The earlier churches in the city, provision for new churches. Arthur in 1925, was but a minor variant of
including St. James near Kashmere, Shoosmith (1888-1974) designed St. the design experimented with be-
or Kashmiri, Gate, St. Stephen’s in Martin’s Garrison Church, and fore.
Shahjahanabad and the Cathedral Henry Medd designed the Cathedral At the laying of the original
Church of the Redemption near the Church of the Redemption and Sac- foundation stone of Delhi, Viceroy
Viceroy’s House, were Anglican. The red Heart Cathedral New Delhi. Hardinge said: “Many capitals have
British architect Henry Medd (Rus- Three and a half million bricks went been inaugurated in the neighbour-
sell’s successor) designed the church into the construction of the Garrison hood of Delhi… and assuredly none
building, which is based on Italian Church (completed in 1930), which, ever held promise of great perman-
architecture. There were other civic soldiers claimed, looked like a fort- ence or of a more prosperous and
facilities near this roundabout. Will- ress—with buttresses, parapets, glorious future.” Ironically though,
ingdon Hospital was started in 1932 straight lines and few windows—and only 16 years after the city was inaug-
for government staff with 54 beds. would have been easy to defend in an urated, Lord Mountbatten handed
The Gole Market was designed emergency. The inside resembles a over the reins of sovereignty to an
by G. Bloomfield as a 12-sided struc- basilica with its high circular dome independent India. As Philip Davies
ture built around an open circular and curved arches reaching up to the says, it is a curious fact of history that
courtyard, punctuated with six semi- vaulted roof. The Cathedral Church empires in decline often undergo a
circular arched gateways leading of the Redemption stands north of resurgence of cultural vigour before
into the market, and had wrought the Jaipur Column and west of Par- their demise, and the British Empire,
iron lamp posts and benches. liament House at North Avenue. On like those of Spain, Rome or Austria-
Lutyens designed the staff quar- February 23, 1927, Viceroy Irwin laid Hungary, was no exception. $
ters on the viceregal estate and the the foundation stone at the spot that
National Archives. Baker designed a would be the central dome, the exact Shashank Shekhar Sinha has taught
few bungalows, and a particularly centre of the church. Opened to pub- history in undergraduate colleges at
warm one on Akbar Road became lic worship on Sunday January 18, the University of Delhi. He does
known as “Baker’s Oven”. However, 1931, it is built in white dholpur independent research on tribes,
the PWD with Russell in the lead stone sandwiched between a roof gender, violence, culture and heritage.
failure on this account as there was the tenacity of the Nobel Prize for Peace not be good. Obviously,
far as the Zionist project is purpose of Zionists; the with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat there was no question of
concerned.” horrendous Holocaust cer- in 1978 after the two Gandhi endorsing the
tainly helped in convincing signed a peace treaty. Be- Zionist project.
THE BIG PICTURE the West of the need and gin is not the only Israeli Gandhi believed that
Let us evaluate the au- justification for a state ex- Prime Minister with a ter- religion and politics could
thor’s thesis. To under- clusively for Jews; and last, rorist past. not be held in watertight
stand Gandhi’s and India’s but not the least, the effect- compartments. His views
approach to the Zionist ive use of violence amount- MEANS AND END on religion did influence
project of evicting ing to terrorism. Gandhi believed that right his politics and he was far
Palestinians from the land Irgun, responsible for means had to be employed from apologetic about it.
where they have been liv- the bombing of the King for right ends. He did not Man has many parts, eco-
ing since the seventh cen- David Hotel (July 22, believe that the end justi- nomic, political, religious,
tury and establishing a 1946), was termed as a ter- fied the means. Zionists aesthetic, and so on. One
state exclusively for Jews, rorist organisation by the believed that the end justi- cannot deny the unity of
we need to look at the big United Nations, the fied the means. For them the person by saying that
picture. The book and its United States and the the establishment of a religion and politics
thesis have to be seen United Kingdom. How- Jewish state in Palestine, should not be mixed. But,
along with this big picture. ever, that did not prevent “promised” to them by Je- Gandhi was firm in the be-
It is a pity that many books Menachem Begin, Irgun’s hovah, is such a supreme lief that a new state could
on Zionism by pro-Zion- chief from 1943 to 1948, good that any means, in- not be founded on the
ists fail to take note of the from becoming Israel’s cluding terrorism, could be basis of religion. If he had
big picture. What were the Prime Minister in 1977. used to realise it. Gandhi supported the Zionist
forces that brought Israel What is even more re- held that any end brought cause, he would have had
into being? Above all, markable is that he shared about by bad means could to support the partition of
A rare harvest
taries of the language who
can only read its literature
in translation.” It is a fair
enough thesis statement,
spelling out the intent of
The two volumes give the non-Malayalee readers the book in a nutshell. At
the very beginning of his
and the diaspora a solid, tangible proof of the scholarly, well-researched
existence of a proud culture and heritage. “General Introduction”,
Raveendran, however,
BY A . J . T H O M A S gives a more specific indic-
ation of the scope and pur-
pose of the work: “This
T HE Oxford University
Press (India), under
the editorial initiative of
anthology constitutes a
comprehensive and rep-
resentative selection of the
Mini Krishnan, the daunt- seminal works of literary
less pioneer of publishing and imaginative writing
Indian literature in Eng- composed in Malayalam
lish translation in an or- over the past hundred and
ganised manner, has come twenty years. The selection
out with two iconic antho- in two volumes is expected
logies of modern Malay- to permit the reader to
alam literature over the gauge the range and depth
last six years—The Oxford of creative expression in
India Anthology of Malay- the genres of poetry,
alam Dalit Writing (2011), drama, fiction, and non-
and The Oxford India An- fictional prose….” Compre-
thology of Modern Malay- hensive is the key word in
alam Literature (2017). both the opening sen-
During the same period, tences. But the elaborate
two other books, The Ox- processes of selection/re-
ford India Anthology of The Oxford India Anthology of Modern jection/revision/canonisa-
Tamil Dalit Writing Malayalam Literature tion of assorted literary
(2012) and The Oxford In- Volume 1: Poetry, Drama and Prose texts in Malayalam created
dia Anthology of Telugu Volume 2: Fiction over more than a century
Dalit Writing (2016), have Edited by P.P. Raveendran (spanning the late 19th and
been published under her and G.S. Jayasree the early 21st centuries) are
watch. In fact, these books Oxford University Press (India), 2017 barely contained even in
effectively place the literat- the loose garb of this ad-
Pages 516+432,
ures concerned in the orbit jective. The strategies ad-
Price: Rs.1,750 (for the set)
of the international lingua opted by the editors in the
franca, and two of them re- selection/rejection of au-
late to Malayalam literat- of comparative literature, In the Preface to The thors/texts/translators
ure. and world literature in Oxford India Anthology of would certainly keep liter-
Mini Krishnan’s vis- translation, the publica- Modern Malayalam Liter- ary enthusiasts interested
ionary contribution in this tion of these two antholo- ature, its editors, P.P. for some time to come.
area has to be lauded at the gies most certainly gives Raveendran and G.S. Jay-
outset. At a time when the modern Malayalam liter- asree, state: “This book is EVOLUTION OF
English language acquires ature a tremendous boost. the result of a deeply felt MALAYALAM
unprecedented import- (Most of us would not have need for a comprehensive The first volume comprises
ance as the prime link in heard of Gabriel Garcia anthology of modern samples of poetry, drama
the cyberworld, and in- Marquez and scores of Malayalam literature and prose, and the second
creasingly as the language other literary giants had which would be useful alike volume is set apart entirely
of humanities, social sci- they not been available to to researchers, literary for fiction (announcing its
ences, and particularly that us in English translation.) treasure hunters, and vo- primacy among other
H. VIBHU
pendent tongue through a with the veteran V.T. Bhat-
healthy interaction with tathirippad (1896-1982) to
N . K U M A R A N A S A N and Balachandran Chullikkad.
other languages, more par- K.V. Sreeja (b. 1966), a wo-
ticularly Sanskrit”, at- man dramatist, a rarity
tempting to avoid, through poets who established speak volumes of a bias, and a welcome addition.
a footnote, the tangle of themselves by the early shared by most of the “es- One wishes that the farces
unresolved arguments 1990s consider their in- tablished” school critics, of a pioneer like C.V. Ra-
over the issue in the schol- spiration, along with Aat- and some commentators man Pillai (represented in
arly world over the last two toor Ravivarma, is not that there has not been a the fiction section, and
centuries, to date. This in- even mentioned in the in- “single, strong poetic voice hence excluded here) and
troduction places Malay- troduction. since Balachandran Chul- the dramas and satires of
alam as the youngest of the Towards the end of the likkad”. The whole point of E.V. Krishna Pillai had
four south Indian lan- General Introduction, discussing the poetry of been included to demon-
guages—the other three Raveendran says: “Some of the past three decades is strate the natural course of
being Tamil, Kannada and the authors omitted would lost when such an argu- growth in this genre.
Telugu—which have been be found discussed or ment is advanced. The so- The prose section has
awarded the status of Clas- mentioned in the intro- cio-political, economic been introduced by Jayas-
sical Languages by the ductions, though obvi- and cultural changes that ree. Beginning with C.
Central government, and ously this will be small have set in since the mid Kesavan (1891-1969) and
affirms its place as one of comfort to admirers of spe- 1980s to the present, the ending with J. Devika (b.
the country’s oldest cific writers, whom we world over and in India, 1968), this section offers
bhashas. The poetry and could not, for practical particularly Kerala, are what is more of a random
drama sections are also reasons, include in the an- phenomenal and hence the selection from among
separately introduced by thology. This is true espe- poetry emanating from hundreds of authors
Raveendran, while the fic- cially of the younger such an age has to be seen worthy of possible inclu-
tion section is introduced writers of the present age separately, and its canon sion. One would expect
by both the editors to- who have been chosen should be determined on that perhaps prose would
gether. Raveendran has in- keeping in view their rep- different reference points, have had a lot more to be
dividually contributed to resentative status rather and not by implying that represented, as it has been
the anthology in a consid- than canonical merit.” The their canonical merit is freed in the instant case
erable manner. last two italicised words suspect. from the traditional re-
striction to naturally be-
AN INSTANCE OF BIAS long to the genre of literary
The works represented in criticism in similar cir-
the poetry section start cumstances and thrown
with those of N. Kumaran open the entire gamut of
Asan (1873-1924) and prose writings for selec-
ends with M.R. Renuku- tion. Although different
mar (born 1969), with de- kinds of prose writings are
letions of notable names represented here, import-
like that of T.P. Rajeevan, ant areas such as
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
C. RATHEESH KUMAR
Malayalam Language”— introductions of the po-
who attained, “under the etry, drama and fiction
power of poetic imagina- (along with Jayasree) sec-
tion”, a synthesis, not only tions are also discursive,
of the two traditions to the interspersed with analyses.
highest possible degree of A T T O OR R A VI V A RM A and O.N.V. Kurup. In his introduction to
perfection, but also of the poetry section,
many others like folk songs blown in the works of Tullal texts meant for dif- Raveendran traces the his-
and ballads orally handed Poonthanam Namboodiri, ferent caste groupings tory of the Malayalam po-
down the centuries and at the tail end of the bhakti among the depressed etry of the 20th century,
narratives of ritual and so- movement launched in classes, marks a great de- beginning with the tension
cial performances. south India in the 6th cen- parture from the hitherto between “tradition” and
Prominent among the tury by Naayanmars (Saiv- canonised versions, in that “modernity” not only in the
Paattus were Vadakkan ite saints) and Alwars they incorporated the literary sphere but in polit-
Paattukal (Northern Bal- (Vaishnavite saints) of speech patterns of these ical, social and cultural
lads) and Thekkan Paat- Tamil and the Veerasaiva subgroups as well as ones as well. The move-
tukal (Southern Ballads) Vachanakaaras of Kan- offered scathing criticism ment led by Mahatma Ayy-
accumulated over several nada. The social reforma- of the social set-up of the ankaali, for the rights of the
centuries but collected into tion ingrained in the times. In the performance depressed classes as indi-
anthologies much later. classless, casteless teach- of Tullal, Nambiar also ad- viduals, Sree Narayana
Thottams were the chorus- ings of the advocates of opted elements of the Guru’s wide-ranging social
narratives and action-de- bhakti could be reached to Chakyar Kuthu, the ple- reforms involving organ-
scriptions of ritual per- the common masses only if beian version of the classic ising and educating the
formances such as the writing was done in Koodiyattam, in providing backward castes, and many
Theyyam, Thira and Mudi- their tongue. The journey prose narrative patches. All other such reformers, had
yettu. Aattaprakaarams of the vernacular, which these proved to be tre- awakened the Kerala soci-
were stage manuals pre- began in the ninth century mendous contributions in ety, which was divided into
pared in the vernacular for thus comes to a fruitful the development of Malay- many strata.
classical Sanskrit drama conclusion, as exemplified alam as a modern During the period from
like Koodiyattam, for the in the works of Ezhut- language. the end of the 19th century
benefit of performers, tachan and Poonthaanam. The last part of the de- to the early 20th, the ad-
while Kramadeepikas velopment of the language vances made through social
were detailed instructions ‘AATTTAKKATHAS’ was its scientific structur- renaissance could not be
for the preparation of the The age of Ezhuthachan ing, for which credit must represented in poetry
stage—both in lucid prose and Poonthaanam were be given to Christian mis- through the prevailing lan-
in the language from as followed by the great com- sionaries who came to Ker- guage ridden with the
early as the ninth century. posers of Aattakkathas, of ala between the 18th and “faded echo of the mediocre
In Manipravaalam, the the play scripts of Kath- 19th centuries. Johan traditions in Sanskrit, or a
literary form Champu, de- akali performances, the Ernst Hanxleden (better copy of the language of ef-
riving from the interspers- most prominent among known as Arnos Padiri, fete romanticism imbibed
ing of verse and prose whom is Unnai Varier, 1681-1732), Clement from the West”, which was
patches, was prevalent. whose Nalacharitam in Pianius (1731-1782), John in use by poets of diverse
Even as Malayalam de- four parts, meant for four Philip Wesdin (Poulinose sensibilities, ranging from
veloped into a full-fledged nights of performance, is Padiri) and Herman Gun- the Venmani poets of lurid
language, the tradition of the most poetic of all, and dert (1814-1893) were erotica to Kerala Varma
Champu survived into remains unparalleled to Malayalam’s first gram- Valiayakoil Thampuran
much later centuries. this day. marians and lexicograph- and Kodungalloor Kun-
Along with The great poet-dram- ers. Their objective vision hikkuttan Thampuran of
Ezhuthachan in the 16th atist of the 18th century, of the language and literat- the grand discourses, and
century, bhakti was full- Kunchan Nambiar, whose ure prompted the writers V.C. Balakrishna Panikkar,
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 90
the pioneering pre-ro- Pillai, the performance tra-
mantic. It was into this ditions of drama, ranging
scenario that Kumaran from the historical, reli-
Asan, the greatest of the gious, mythological, social,
pre-modernists, arrived. realist and experimental to
He who became a Ma- the present are dwelt upon.
hakavi without writing a The 23-page introduc-
Mahakavya was, however, tion to the fiction section
flanked by Ulloor S. Para- by Raveendran and Jayas-
S . R . R A G H U N AT H A N
meswara Iyer, who S . G O P A K UM A R
ree is a rich study, which
brought gravity of expres- will benefit researchers in
sion to the language, and the area. Though they be-
Vallathol Narayana gin by mentioning the 1877
Menon, who was noted for work Ghaatakavadham
the felicity of his expres- K . A Y Y A P P A P A N I K ER and K. Satchidanandan. (The Slayer Slain) written
sion—the trinity brought by an English lady, Mrs.
the Romantic Era in the prose section is an over- above-described story of Collins, and Archdeacon
Malayalam poetry cul- arching study of prose be- the history of the develop- Koshy’s Pullelikkunju
minated in the excess of ginning from the passages ment of the language, Jay- (1882), they acknowledge
Changampuzha Krish- found in the Yajurveda asree ably traces the that Appu Nedungadi’s
napillai and dissipated into (1400-1000 BCE) and ex- history of prose in Kundalata (1887), as liter-
more sober strains in later ploring examples in Malayalam. ary historians admit, is the
poets such as P. Bhaskaran, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pali The introduction to the first Malayalam novel.
O.N.V. Kurup and Vayalar down the centuries, until drama section by Next in line, Chandu Men-
Ramavarma. Even in the the ninth century, and Raveendran is a compre- on’s Indulekha (1889), is
works of the later trinity of again tracing the earliest hensive study, beginning the first Malayalam novel
poets, Edasserry, Vylop- appearance of prose in the from the ritual and folk modelled effectively on the
pilly and P. Kunhiraman language, which developed performance forms. He Western genre. From this
Nair, the sap roots of ro- into Malayalam, as found moves on to describe how point on, the introduction
manticism played a subter- in the Vazhappalli Malayalam theatre, a mod- furnishes a gripping ac-
ranean role, especially in Saashanam of the Chera ern phenomenon, de- count of the development
the case of the latter. King Rajasekhara Varman veloped. of the genre of fiction in
The advent of modern- who ruled from 820-844 to Beginning from the Malayalam, to date.
ists, with K. Ayyappa Pan- the present. This 16-page- translations of Altogether, these two
iker, Madhavan long (pages 315-330) au- Shakespeare’s The Comedy volumes give non-
Ayyappathu, N.N. Kakkad thoritative account of Errors and Kalidasa’s Malayalee readers, and
and others in the late 1950s, provides a non-Malayalee Abhijnaana Shakuntalam most importantly, the dia-
followed by the blossoming reader with a glimpse of by Kerala Varma spora who do not mostly
of Aattoor Ravivarma, how the language has been Valiyakoyil Thampuran, speak, read or write their
Kadammanitta Ra- built on the strong founda- the study covers the next parents’ or forebears’
makrishnan, K. Satchid- tions of solid prose. Pro- 130 years. Moving on from mother tongue, a solid,
anandan, K.G. Sankra ceeding on the the farces of C.V. Raman tangible proof of the exist-
Pillai, D. Vinayachandran ence of their proud culture
and Maythil Radhakrish- and heritage. Universities
nan, among others, fol- outside Kerala and
lowed by the “in-between” abroad, with Malayalam
poets such as K.A. Jay- departments, or Chairs,
asheelan, N.G. Unnikrish- would greatly benefit from
nan and T.P. Rajeevan, this anthology. Let us
who served as a bridge hope more comprehensive
between the poets of the anthologies of this type
present who begin their are brought out in future,
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Different drumbeat
and attempt to locate its
importance in the larger
national narrative, which
was impossible just a few
decades ago, are now part
A well-curated collection of insightful essays of a new strand of literat-
celebrating important new voices in contemporary ure.
The book is divided
Hindi cinema. BY R A M E S H C H A K R A P A N I into three distinct parts,
the first of which examines
the cinema of glamour and
Impeaching Trump
easy an inlet to foreign
corruption.”
Trump has used his of-
fice to enrich himself and
members of his family. His
The book is an invaluable guide to the drama “winter White House”,
Mar-a-Lago, a private club
unfolding on Capitol Hill as a series of exposures he owns, charges a
threaten to derail the Trump presidency. $200,000 initiation fee for
members to get access to
BY A . G . N O O R A N I him, his head-of-state
guests, and his staff. Mem-
bership fees go as high as
ALEX WONG/AFP
$849,000 on clothing in Donald Trump exhibits the
New York and $520,000 at same tendencies that led
a men’s outfitters in Bever- Nixon to violate the most
ley Hills. basic standards of morality
R O B E RT M U EL L E R , the Special Counsel who was
A second set of charges and threaten the founda-
appointed to investigate Russian interference in the
concerns a young cam- tions of our democracy.
presidential election.
paign operative, George Both Nixon and Trump ex-
Papadopoulos, who has hibited a determination to
pleaded guilty to lying to Committee (DNC), and Chief Justice of the Su- never quit, to win at all
federal officials. Trump learned only in October preme Court, himself a costs, to attack and never
tweeted that “few people that e-mails had also been political appointee, back down, and to flout
knew the young, low level hacked from the account of presides over the farce. In conventional rules and re-
volunteer named George, John Podesta, head of the Bill Clinton’s case it was straints. But as ambitious
who has already proven to Clinton campaign. Amer- Justice William Rehnquist, and headstrong as they
be a liar”. Alas for the ican intelligence chiefs an arch Conservative. were, they also shared a
Trump campaign, the plea blamed those hacking at- Andrew Johnson, im- compulsion to deflect
deal relates that after being tacks on Russian military peached in 1868, escaped blame, and they were
flipped and turned into a intelligence” (The Econom- by a whisker in a one-vote riddled with insecurities.
“proactive co-operator” by ist: November 4, 2017). victory. Richard Nixon es- They exploited the resent-
prosecutors, “young Professor Lichtman’s caped in 1974 by resigning ments of white working
George disclosed months book is as lucid in style as it from his office. Bill Clin- class Americans and split
of contacts with a London- is scholarly in substance; a ton’s impeachment failed the world into enemies and
based academic with Rus- guide for the lay reader as in 1998. “One out of every loyalists. In the first month
sian ties, ‘the Professor’, well as the specialist. It fourteen U.S. Presidents of his presidency Trump
and a mysterious ‘Female covers history, law and has faced impeachment. talked more about ‘en-
Russian National’ who politics and is an invalu- Gamblers have become emies’ than any other pres-
were keenly interested in able guide to the drama as rich betting on longer odds ident in history. Neither
his role with Team Trump, it unfolds itself on Capitol than that,” the author man allowed the law, the
and told him in late April Hill in the U.S. as expos- remarks. truth, the free press, or the
2016 that the Russian gov- ures follow on the damages potential for collateral
ernment had ‘dirt’ on Mrs. of Trump’s rogue presid- THE PROCEDURE damage to others to im-
Clinton in the form of ency. When and how will it First, the procedure is pede their personal agen-
‘thousands of e-mails’. reach the critical mass that clearer than the definition das. They cared little about
“Though the proven- triggers the implosion of of the impeachable offence. ideology but very much
ance of those e-mails is not such a presidency? The Judiciary Committee about adulation and
clear, the outside world did Charges are brought by of the House of Represent- power. They had little use
not learn until June 2016 the House of Representat- atives will conduct the in- for checks and balances
that embarrassing emails ives for adjudication by the vestigation based on the and stretched the reach of
had been stolen from the Senate. To lend a veneer of report of the Special Pro- presidential authority to its
Democratic National the judicial process, the secutor and other viola- outer limits. They obsessed
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 94
over secrecy and thirsted in part for transgressions
for control without committed prior to his as-
dissent.… suming the federal judge-
“In 1974, two years ship. The Senate convicted
after winning a landslide Porteous on all four articles
victory, Nixon avoided that included charges of
near certain impeachment misconduct while he
and removal by becoming served as a state court
the only American presid- judge and of having lied to
ent to resign the office. the Senate and the FBI
Nixon’s story is the cau- during his confirmation
tionary tale for Donald process for the federal
Trump.” bench.” The author was a
There has been a con- federal prosecutor and
cise narrative of Nixon’s State Attorney-General.
fall. John Dean, Nixon’s Trump arrogantly as-
former White House coun- serts, “the President can’t
Tipu in Malabar
Tipu Sultan’s largesse to temples as recorded in the 19th century Inam
Registers of Malabar shows that he was sensitive to the religious
sensibilities of Hindus. B Y V I K H A R A H M E D S A Y E E D I N K O Z H I K O D E
THE Congress government in documents, is a set of seven registers have archived for posterity the minu-
Karnataka led by Chief Minister Sid- dating to the 19th century, compiled tiae of the process of renewal of in-
daramaiah has marked the birthday by J.W. Robinson, the Inam Com- ams in the region.
of Tipu Sultan on November 10 as missioner of Malabar. The seven The registers are long and broad
“Tipu Jayanti” for the past three British-era taluks the Inam registers and the calligraphy is stylised to the
years. While Tipu is honoured as a pertain to are Ernad, Choughuat, point that at first glance all that one
freedom fighter for opposing the Old Betatnad, Calicut, Kurum- can discern is a series of neatly
British in the Anglo-Mysore Wars branad, Valluvanad and Wynad. slanted squiggles.
and dying on the battlefield in 1799, (These taluks have been absorbed The register pertaining to
there are intense protests against into various districts in modern Ker- Choughuat taluk (also known as
this event as well. The protests are ala.) An “inam” is a gift, and inam Ponnani) lists nine temples whose
led by a wide array of bodies that land is land given as a tax-free grant inam lands were renewed. Of this,
draw their support from the to an institution or an individual, the largest land grant (of 613.2 acres)
Hindutva ideology spearheaded by usually in perpetuity unless it is res- that was renewed belonged to the
mainstream politicians of the Bhar- cinded, as happened all over India Guruvayur temple in central Kerala.
atiya Janata Party in Karnataka. through various land reform laws A close perusal reveals that the text
They allege that Tipu was a religious after Independence. The registers lists the beneficiary as Uralers, or
bigot whose reign was marked by the
plunder of temples and forceful con-
versions of Hindus to Islam.
There are allegations that Tipu
forcefully converted non-Muslims in
three parts of his domain: first,
among the Kodavas of Kodagu in
modern Karnataka; then among the
Nairs of Malabar in present-day
north Kerala; and the Christians of
Mangalore (now Mangaluru) in
coastal Karnataka. Frontline has dis-
cussed the broad reign of Tipu Sultan
and his legacy (“Contested legacy”,
December 11, 2015) and scrutinised
the allegations of religious excesses
made against him in Kodagu (“Tipu-
V . S R E E N I V A SA M U R T H Y
trustees, of the “Guruvayur Kshet- bundles of these land revenue re- stantial land grants he made to sev-
ram”. cords, each around 100 pages. The eral temples. This is valuable
The extended note reads: “A sum pages are slightly frayed but the evidence to counter reductive
of Rs.1,428-9-2 [rupee-anna-paisa] script is legible. These records in the Hindutva propaganda that alleges
appears to have been allowed for the Modi script are a gold mine for aca- that Tipu was a religious bigot whose
support of the temple by Tippu Sul- demics interested in the land re- ambitious expansionist ventures
tan and continued by the British forms carried out by Hyder Ali and were only a jehad to spread Islam by
Government upto 1841, when the ne- Tipu Sultan in Malabar, which had a destroying temples and forcefully
cessary examination was made and long-term impact on Kerala society. converting Hindus in the region.
the money allowance commuted into What is more germane to our According to an estimate made
a grant of the lands yielding an an- times, when Tipu’s legacy is hotly de- by Muhamad Ismail, details of which
nual assessment equivalent to the bated, is that the Inam Registers are available in his unpublished PhD
money grant. The lands are still held contain detailed records of the sub- thesis, 6,931.03 acres of land were
as inams and are accordingly con-
firmed as such for such time as the
conditions of the inam are fulfilled
under date the 20th Nov. 1841.” This
note was endorsed by G.A. Ballard,
the then Collector of Malabar, and
subsequently confirmed by W.J.
Blair, the then Officiating Inam
Commissioner of Malabar, on June
20, 1866. In other columns relating
to this entry, a mention is made that
the inam was first granted by Tipu
Sultan in 1776-77 and verified by the
British administration of Malabar.
The basis of the British confirmation
was the pioneering “paimash” (sur-
vey) land revenue records prepared
by the Brahmin administrative
clerks of the Mysore rulers, who
M.A. SRIRAM
S . R A J E N DU
principalities of Malabar. The
Zamorin of Calicut, defeated and
forced to pay a tribute, committed
A P L A Q UE from a kalari school near the Guruvayur temple that records Tipu’s suicide. The disunity among the
arrival in the region. rulers of Malabar and the disciplined
approach of the Mysorean Army led
by its cavalry were responsible for
this easy victory for Hyder, who in-
tended to march all the way down
south to Travancore via Cochin), but
the monsoon hindered his plans. He
returned after appointing a governor
called Madanna and fixing tributes
for the local chieftains. Soon after,
his outposts in Malabar were
threatened by a rebellion led by the
Nairs, who formed the fighting corps
of the Kerala kings.
V I K H AR A H M E D S A Y E E D
V I K H AR A H M E D S A Y E E D
Mahe. During the Second Anglo-
Mysore War (1780-84), Tipu was in
Malabar fighting the English. He
was about to score a crucial victory
when he received the news of Hyder’s
death. Tipu swiftly returned to
T H I S L O C K ED passage leads to the fort of Farooqabad which Tipu wanted to
Seringapatam (now Srirangapatna),
establish as his capital in Malabar.
but his territory in Malabar was re-
stored to him as per the Treaty of
Mangalore in 1784. Malabar re-
mained a part of Tipu’s domain until
the end of the Third Anglo-Mysore
War in 1792, but he had lost control
over it by 1790. It eventually became
a part of the Madras Presidency as
Malabar district.
Stuff of dreams
Shashi Kapoor (1938-2017) was Hindi cinema’s most good-looking
actor, but his persona was even more handsome. B Y Z I Y A U S S A L A M
and don the mantle of an actor. If he handsome man of Hindi cinema had dium. Shashi Kapoor was so keen to
did not do it often enough, the fault no compunctions about etching out get theatre to be a self-reliant me-
lay with the film-makers, as exempli- the role of a greying, pot-bellied hus- dium that he used to pay for his ticket
fied by Manoj Kumar’s choice of Ka- band of a young woman. Roles could at Prithvi Theatre. This was his way
poor to play a fair-skinned prince in be pivotal or peripheral; he could of paying back his father for the fam-
Kranti. His transition from main- hold his own without making his co- ily name and the skills as an artiste
stream film-makers such as Prakash stars insecure. Unfortunately, it was that he inherited.
Mehra, Manoj Kumar, Yash Chopra, in the 1980s that his life changed Shashi Kapoor’s contribution to
Ramesh Sippy and Shakti Samanta beyond recognition. With his wife cinema and theatre was acknow-
to art-house bigwigs such as Shyam Jennifer Kendal’s death, Shashi Ka- ledged quite belatedly with the con-
Benegal, Girish Karnad and Aparna poor was left with the care of three ferment of the Padma Bhushan in
Sen was seamless. As was his switch little children. He never fully over- 2011 and the Dadasaheb Phalke
from Hindi films to English ventures came the loss of his wife, and ended Award in 2014. These were an addi-
with Ismail Merchant and James up putting on undesirable kilos. tion to the National Award for the
Ivory. Commando (1988) and Ajooba Best Film (1979) and Filmfare award
Shashi Kapoor had no hang-ups. (1991), which he produced and direc- for Best Film (1980) for Junoon and
If in commercial cinema he did not ted, were all that he was left with. the National Award for Best Actor
mind playing second hero to Amit- Shashi Kapoor was consigned to (1986) for New Delhi Times. The
abh Bachchan in more than a dozen memory sooner than he deserved to awards were a mere reiteration of
films, and to Rajesh Khanna in Prem be and much earlier than his fans Shashi Kapoor’s talent and commit-
Kahani and Alag Alag (1985), he was anticipated. ment to cinema. He was a rare hu-
happy to do a small part in director Despite his love for the cinema, it man being who did not allow his
G.V. Iyer’s Swami Vivekananda was theatre that fascinated Shashi stardom to overpower him. He al-
(1998), which was basically an ode to Kapoor. Inspired by Jennifer most always returned a journalist’s
Mithun Chakraborty’s skills as an Kendal, he took Prithvi Theatre, the call. His fans in Peshawar (Pakistan)
actor. In fact, it is his ability to con- repertory company started by his held a condolence meeting and put
quer his ego and play a smaller role father, Prithviraj Kapoor, in 1944, to up huge posters and billboards
with aplomb that stood out in his great heights. The son gave it a per- across the city—a testimony to his
career. Not many would have agreed manent address, and a place for all popularity on the other side of Pun-
to play a minor character in director lovers of theatre to call their own. jab.
K. Ravi Shankar’s Sindoor (1987), Shashi Kapoor’s daughter, Sanjana, Shashi Kapoor was confined to a
again a heroine-oriented film with took over the management of Prithvi wheelchair in the last years of his life,
Jayaprada in the lead role and Shashi Theatres after the death of Jennifer but he will always be remembered as
Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and Jeetendra Kendal, resisting the charms of a hero who made dreams not just
sharing screen space with her. The cinema to concentrate on the me- possible but plausible. $
From worker
to leader
Sukomal Sen (1934-2017), a stalwart leader of the working class
movement, a scholar and a visionary, spent his whole life in the
social and political struggle against capitalist exploitation and
for social justice. B Y T . K . R A J A L A K S H M I
ON November 22, the trade Left Front came to power in the State
union movement lost one of its lead- with Jyoti Basu as Chief Minister.
ers of international repute. Sukomal Sarkar remembers Sen as “fear-
Sen, a two-term member of the Rajya less like a true communist” and being
Sabha and a vice president of the close to Jyoti Basu. The former West
Centre of Indian Trade Unions Bengal Chief Minister, who organ-
(CITU), breathed his last at 83 in ised railway workers before plunging
Kolkata. Sukomal “da”, as his com- into parliamentary politics, was an
rades fondly called him, was specially ally of the State government employ-
known for organising State govern- ees. Sen reciprocated his loyalty and
ment employees in the country. He friendship with a two-page note on
was one of the founder-leaders of the Jyoti Basu in the book documenting
All India State Government Employ- the history of the AISGEF. In 1979,
ees’ Federation (AISGEF). At the Sen took charge of Employees
K.K. NAJEEB
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
On October 2, Chief Minister T H E M U S E UM has been built as an art and exhibition space designed to house
Nitish Kumar inaugurated the main art and archaeological objects and host contemporary art exhibitions.
galleries of the new Bihar Museum in
Patna. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, and celebrated archaeological, his- tory, folk and contemporary art and
one of the most celebrated architects torical and aesthetic artefacts. A part the gallery titled “Girmitiya”(des-
in the world, and spread across of the museum featuring the chil- cendants of indentured Indian la-
24,000 square metres on a sprawling dren’s section, with recreational and bourers) on the Bihari diaspora, are
campus of 5.3 hectares, Bihar Mu- interactive exhibits on history, wild- now open to the public. Work relat-
seum is the largest and the most con- life and archaeology, had been ing to display mounts and pedestals,
temporary museum in the country, opened in 2015. The other major gal- lighting arrangements, descriptions
showcasing some of its most ancient leries displaying artefacts from his- and signage is still under way and is
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 110
expected to be completed in a few Indus Valley Civilisation, the Vedic events and institutions, several
months. period and Empire building through artists from all over the country have
During the inaugural ceremony, the late medieval and Mughal peri- made a mark on the global art scene.
Nitish Kumar reiterated his commit- ods up to the 18th century, the period This has created a huge demand for
ment to the original vision of the mu- after that will form the content of the art exhibitions, shows, museums and
seum and justified its expenditure as Patna Museum. galleries, which is, at present, catered
a long-term cultural investment that Bihar Museum is a significant to mainly by private players. Without
Bihar owes its long and glorious his- step by a State government because significant public interventions such
tory. Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar there have been very few institu- as Bihar Museum in all States, art
Singh, the Nodal Officer of the mu- tional initiatives on such a scale after and culture may soon be dominated
seum project, and his team com- the initial wave during the post-In- by corporates.
pleted the project on time, without dependence decades when “na-
deviating from its original plan. tional” institutions for art were set MUSEUM ARCHITECTURE
The museum brochure promises up. Paradoxically, the art scene has While most other museums in the
the visitor a “journey to the land seen a resurgence in all regions in the country are “heritage” structures that
where the Great Buddha attained en- past few decades; apart from new art have been converted, Bihar Museum
lightenment, where the mighty King
Asoka renunciated the practice of
conquest through war to embrace
Dhammavijay—conquest through
moral principle (and) established the
world’s first welfare state.... Since
time immemorial, Bihar has been the
epicentre of some of the greatest
thought leaders, the most powerful
empires and the most renowned
shrines of knowledge and peace...
(and) produced a historic legacy that
affected most of the Indian subcon-
tinent, and continues to inspire
present and future generations. A
number of symbols used by the In-
dian state such as the four-headed
lion capital, which is now India’s na-
tional emblem; the Dharmachakra,
used in the national flag and many
other symbols have all come from
Bihar. Apart from the great tangible
artefacts, objects and symbols, Bihar
has produced some of the greatest
universal concepts through
Buddhism and Jainism”.
Patna already houses the illustri-
ous Patna Museum, established in
1917, the third oldest museum in the
country after those in Calcutta and
Madras. It has one of the largest col-
lections of archaeological material
and artefacts, including the world-
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
has been conceived and built as an ent. The lighting and space arrange- their works part of its contemporary
art and exhibition space designed to ments are in tune with the display gallery. According to Nitish Kumar,
house art and archaeological objects and the narrative of the exhibits. the two areas that museums should
and host contemporary art events focus on are history and science,
and shows. MUSEUM OF INTENTIONS which he believes will nurture an un-
Architecturally, Bihar Museum Significantly, the inauguration of Bi- derstanding about history and incul-
fits easily into the urban layout of old har Museum was accompanied by an cate a scientific temper among
Patna city with its wide avenues em- artists’ workshop involving eminent students and youth. The Bihar gov-
anating from the administrative artists from all over the country, to ernment has already introduced a
centre of the capital. The museum commemorate the centenary of the scheme in this direction by giving
jells with the horizontal sweep of the Champaran Satyagraha. One of the financial support to schools to organ-
cityscape, for the emphasis in its aes- earliest struggles led by Mahatma ise study tours in which museums
thetics of space is not on the vertical. Gandhi, the Champaran Satyagraha like Bihar Museum will be on the
Its frontage is flat and inclining in- is a remarkable episode in modern itinerary. “In five years, almost all
wards in a manner that yields to and Indian history that, according to Ir- students in the State would have vis-
jells with the surrounding urban eco- fan Habib, opened “a new phase in ited Bihar Museum at least once. It
logy, offering visitors an inviting am- the national movement by joining it will make a lot of difference in their
bience. The “rustic” charm of the iron to the great struggle of the Indian outlook and attitudes, providing
panels that line its exterior add to its peasantry for bread and land”. The them a comprehensive learning ex-
majesty and unintimidating open- economic and political import of perience.” Such an initiative assures
ness, while the rough, weathered sur- Gandhi’s intervention, which drew the new museum a constant flow of
face vibes with the archaeological upon indigenous political energies visitors. Likewise, artists in the State,
accent of the museum. for an ethical struggle against both too, will look to the museum to syn-
Inside, the galleries are spread colonial rule and global capital, is all ergise the art scene and create dy-
over a large area and connected in an the more relevant today. namic linkages with the outside
organic continuum. The interiors are Artists who participated in the world. That is where the content of
cool and austere; the high ceilings, workshop included Jogen Chow- the museum, its functional dynam-
long corridors and window panels dhury, Jatin Das, K.S. Radhakrish- ism and open approach will be
running parallel to it provide visitors nan, Riyas Komu and Jyoti Bhatt. It decisive.
with a view of the gardens with its was a welcome move, considering its
waterfalls and sculptures. There are political and aesthetic intent, and APPREHENSIONS AND HOPES
also interstitial spaces that can house also in connecting contemporary Himmat Shah, one of the most re-
installations, temporary or perman- artists with the museum and making spected artists in the country, is all
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 112
praise for Bihar Museum but is scep-
tical about its future: “[It] is the
biggest one in the country and has
been executed in an organised man-
ner. But now the challenge lies in
getting trained people to run it. Go to
any good museum in the world, Lon-
don or Tate, you will be greatly im-
pressed by the way they maintain
and develop it constantly, by wel-
coming new ideas and developing in-
novative programmes. That’s why
people keep going there…. So, a good
museum means a good collection of
art, vibrant connect with artists, art
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
students and scholars, and trained
hands to manage it…. In a country
where even the available art re-
sources are not understood or util-
ised properly, the challenges are all
the more huge.”
Jogen Chowdhury, artist and
C HI E F M I N I S TE R N I T I S H K U M A R and Chief Secretary and Nodal Officer of
Member of Parliament, aired similar
the Museum project Anjani Kumar Singh with the 0artists Bose
concerns: “As I am involved in a sim-
Krishnamachari (centre) and Subodh Gupta (right).
ilar museum project in Kolkata, I
know how challenging it is to realise
a project like this in the government and experienced in museum man- outside; but it is also meant to be a
sector. Odisha, too, is working on a agement and curation. They have functional building as it is built for a
museum project. I think Bihar Mu- space for ancient and contemporary particular purpose. So, the question
seum will be a model and inspiration art, space for permanent and tem- is how far it will succeed in doing so.
for all such initiatives in the public porary exhibition: so, the challenge is Most of the decisions in this country
sector. how to use them effectively and cre- are made by politicians, whose prior-
“Art should not be left to private atively. To run a museum of this ities keep changing. So, there is the
collectors and galleries. Govern- scale, you will need a minimum of question of whether it will be consist-
ments usually think of cultural in- 600 people for security, housekeep- ently supported by changing govern-
vestments as ‘expenditure’ and as ing, administration and as technical ments. Another issue is that
uneconomical. Actually it is not so. staff, art handlers, curatorial staff, governments spend money only to
Look at China and how they are in- for education, restoration, research create infrastructure, but do not
vesting in culture in a big way; for and publication, etc. First of all, the provide enough funds for continued
instance, they are building around museum needs good leadership and financial support to run and develop
500 new museums. They know it will an institutional vision statement as the museum.”
help their economy in the long run by to how they conceive of their role and The compliments, pleas and
spurring tourism and increasing tax activities. Unless you build a good notes of caution sounded by the
revenue and so on. Museums should image about your institution, people artists, scholars and museum leaders
not be seen as something for the elite. are not going to come around…. It is all share a great sense of hope and
Art is for humanity, it is for the posit- all about creating a contemporary scepticism. With enough functional
ive growth of humanity as a whole.” and secular image involving differ- autonomy, financial support from
According to Sabyasachi ent communities and collaborating the State and a vibrant and visionary
Mukherjee, Director General, Ch- with other art institutions and edu- leadership, Bihar Museum has the
hatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu cational initiatives. Such a secular potential to become a model for the
Sangrahalaya Museum Art Conser- space presupposes autonomy and country. For this it has to collaborate
vation Centre, Mumbai, “For the first freedom in its management. I and partner creatively with artists,
time after Independence, I see a eagerly look forward to this museum programmers, scholars, historians,
modern museum architecture here… coming up as a major cultural insti- museums and galleries in India and
you feel like you are in a European tution in the country.” abroad, and trigger institutional syn-
museum. Now that the structure is in As Jyoti Bhatt, senior artist and ergies that will live up to its ideals.
place, the challenges are about main- academic, says, “True, this building One hopes it will live up to the
tenance and development. In India, itself is a work of art… it is a sort of majesty of its architecture and the
we don’t have enough people trained sculpture which can be enjoyed from wealth of its content. $
T
HERE is no doubt that human In recent months, we have had news of several more, until we grow
life is cheap in India, perhaps several cases of the deaths of very used to these and even seek to excuse
more so now than ever before. poor people who have not received them as the inevitable collateral
The attacks, atrocities and killings of their food rations because of the damage of the current system of
people from the minority communit- Aadhaar-Based Biometric Authen- “governance” that has unilaterally
ies and marginalised groups, which tication (ABBA) system. The stories decided on the primacy and infallib-
have now become so common, are are horrifying and painful. They ility of this particular system. The
particularly appalling because they range from the tragic death of the mainstream media, meanwhile, is
reflect a culture of impunity. Indeed, 11-year-old-girl in Jharkhand who too busy getting outraged about what
the lack of punishment does more died crying out for rice when she and one politician may or may not have
than embolden the perpetrators and her family had not eaten for days; to said about another leader to focus on
those who would imitate them: it also the rickshaw puller in Dhanbad such a paltry matter as yet another
points to a deadening of sensibilities whose family lost the ration card death of another hungry person.
not just among those in power but in after the death of his elder brother Make no mistake: this is murder.
society as a whole. The murder of in- and so did not get rations for several And all those who are involved in the
nocents is no longer even a cause for months; to the woman in Bareilly, complicated legal and regulatory ac-
much outrage; the horrifying prolif- Uttar Pradesh, whose family says she tions that have denied people their
eration of such actions begins to died of starvation after she was right to food and therefore life are
deaden the collective soul, until we do denied rations by the dealer who re- complicit in such murder.
not even register some of these as the fused to provide grain until she It matters not whether official-
blatant and unforgiveable acts of presented herself to give in her fin- dom seeks to blame the deaths of
slaughter that they are. gerprints despite being ill; to the such people on “illness” or some
This growing apathy, this inabil- Dalit brothers in Karnataka who other such cause. Starvation need
ity to be shocked or horrified, is not were denied rations for six months as not always be the direct killer; med-
only confined to those looking away they did not have a ration card. ically, hunger weakens the body such
from migrant workers being hacked In all these cases, the reactions of that illnesses can take over. The
and then burnt alive, or young boys local and State-level officialdom point is that these were all very poor
being hurled from moving trains, or have been, if possible, even more people and they could not get what
people just transporting cattle being shocking than these terrible incid- they were entitled to under the Na-
lynched. It is even more evident when ents. The attempt is first to attribute tional Food Security Act (NFSA) be-
it comes to recognising deaths of the death to some disease. After a cause the government imposed
people who have been denied their temporary outcry, the news of one restrictions in the form of biometric
rightful basic food entitlements. such incident is quickly taken over by authentication and Aadhaar-seeding
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 114
of all ration cards. In Jharkhand, for cluded are those who are the most in hold—are denied their food rations.
example, the Aadhaar-based authen- need of it, as the surveys found: wid- Apart from these technical
tication system was made compuls- ows living alone, elderly couples, glitches that can prevent people from
ory for the issue of foodgrains in families in remote areas with poor getting their entitlements, other ma-
August 2016, and is now operational transport and communication links. chine or human errors can result in
in around four-fifths of the ration Investigations by journalists have people being deprived. There was a
shops in the State. Later, it went even found many other examples of some reported case, again in Jharkhand, of
further and ordered the cancellation of the poorest and most deprived a 64-year-old woman who died of
of all ration cards that had not been families being hit by this require- hunger and exhaustion after the
“seeded”, or linked with Aadhaar, ment and losing out on their rations, Aadhaar-based payment system
along with some other States like Ra- either because they are unaware of mistakenly mixed her details with
jasthan and Karnataka. This has led the requirement or because they someone else’s. She was not only
to the loss of ration cards for lakhs of have not been able to have the card denied her ration, but her pension
families across these States. made or because the biometric tests payment was redirected to another
Even the Central government’s have failed (a common feature for person’s account.
Department of Food and Consumer manual workers and elderly people, The Central government’s own
Affairs issued a notification on Feb- whose fingerprints do not remain ex- official Economic Survey 2016-17,
ruary 8, requiring individual benefi- actly the same) or because of some Volume I, noted that the exclusion
ciaries having ration cards under the other reason beyond their control. error in the public distribution sys-
NFSA “to furnish proof of possession Just consider the many hoops tem for food was as high as 40 per
of Aadhaar number or undergo that now have to be jumped through cent. In other words, nearly half of
Aadhaar authentication to receive by the poor in India, simply to receive those who deserve to receive food
subsidies under NFSA”, and re- the food rations that are their basic rations under the government’s own
quired all beneficiaries to apply for entitlements under the NFSA. The stringent criteria did not receive it.
Aadhaar numbers by June 30. Note household and all its members Imagine how much worse the situ-
that this order was issued even as the should enrol for Aadhaar and have ation will be now that the process of
court proceedings on the Aadhaar proof of their application. The bio- getting food rations has been made
Act and on the right to privacy were metric data must be recorded cor- so much more difficult.
still ongoing. rectly and the data inserted into the According to the Economic Sur-
The government has claimed de- Aadhaar card should contain no mis- vey, leakages from the system, which
lightedly that this had meant that takes. (This, incidentally is not as are presumably what the Aadhaar-
there has been a massive “savings” or simple as it sounds. In the case of this based system seeks to plug, were re-
reduction in the amount spent on writer’s own mother who is 89 years portedly less, at around 34 per cent.
food subsidy as a result—and this old, the UIDAI [Unique Identifica- Ironically, these leakages are not
false belief is echoed by various oth- tion Authority of India] authorities controlled by the Aadhaar-based de-
ers who believe that any reduction in misspelled her name twice and put livery system since most such leak-
the expenditure on the NFSA is a incorrect details into the Aadhaar ages come from quantity fraud,
cause for celebration, regardless of card through sloppy typing, and it whereby the quantities sold to people
the nature of exclusion and its im- took months of effort to get the mis- are less than their entitlement, and
plications. But, in fact, the costs of takes corrected. If this can happen in the rest is sold elsewhere. Some tech-
this supposed saving are hard to es- the capital city of Delhi to the widow niques such as computerised weigh-
timate or compare, since they are of a former senior government offi- ing systems have been found to be
measured in lives, and in denial of cial, imagine what happens across effective in limiting such fraud, but
access to food of some of the most the country to less privileged people.) these require systems to monitor the
vulnerable people in society, pre- The Aadhaar numbers must then be transport and sale of grain, not sys-
cisely those whom it most behoves seeded into their ration cards. tems that put the onus on the recipi-
the government to protect. Then comes the actual purchase ents and punish them for mistakes.
For example, surveys undertaken of the foodgrain at the ration shop. The fact that the Central govern-
in Ranchi district alone have found For this to occur, the authentication ment and some State governments
that since January 2017, around 20 process requires power supply, a can continue to insist on a system
per cent of those households with functional point of sale machine, that has so many flaws and so many
ration cards had been unable to ac- mobile and Internet connectivity, dire implications for people is bad
cess their food rations because of the the servers of the State and Central enough. What may be even worse is
failure of the biometric authentica- Data Repository to be functioning that the rest of us—the media, the
tion system. State-wide, that would and easy to access, and the finger- judiciary, society in general—by al-
amount to around one million print verification to be successful. lowing this to happen, are complicit
households being deprived of their Any one of these steps failing means in this injustice and in causing these
food rations. Typically, those ex- that the person—and the house- unnecessary tragedies. $
S H I V K U M A R P U S H P AK A R
the first month of pregnancy could
face the increased risk of delivering
babies with birth defects, such as cleft
lip or palate or abnormal hearts.
For the study, the researchers
used birth certificate data from the
Ohio Department of Health and partic-
S C H OO L CH I L D R EN , wearing masks, take part in an awareness march on ulate matter data from the United
the alarming levels of air pollution in Delhi. A study establishes the link States Environmental Protection
between exposure to toxic air and delinquent behaviour. Agency's 57 monitoring stations
throughout Ohio. They linked the geo-
TOXIC air is already linked to respirat- lution could trigger birth defects in graphic coordinates of the mother's
ory troubles and increased cardiovas- newborns and impact adolescent residence for each birth with the
cular risks. But two independent brains too. nearest monitoring station and calcu-
studies released in December point While one study by researchers at lated average exposures.
out that the damage caused by air pol- the University of Cincinnati College of They then estimated the associ-
K.K. MUSTAFAH
thus influences adolescent
behaviours.
The study, which appeared in
the Journal of Abnormal Psycho-
logy, followed 682 children living in O C E A N A C I D I FI C A TI O N is threatening the formation of mussel shells.
a particular locality in Southern
California known for foul air for as
many as nine years starting when Mussels face the heat responds to acidic or alkaline nature
of liquids such as water, and a lower
they were nine.
MUSSELS, a delicacy in many parts of pH value of a liquid indicates its acidic
With the help of their parents,
the world, including south India, are at nature and vice versa) was high, lar-
the researchers noted whether
an increasing risk from climate vae were able to increase calcium
these children had engaged in 13
change. Ocean acidification, caused by carbonate production, leading to
rule-breaking behaviours, includ-
additional uptake of atmospheric car- higher calcification.
ing stealing, arson, vandalism or
bon dioxide by seawaters, makes it dif- With increasing ocean acidifica-
substance abuse.
ficult for mussels to form their hard tion, the pH values below the shell
The findings surprisingly es-
calcareous shells that protect them decrease, which leads to reduced cal-
tablished the link between expos-
from enemies and adverse environ- cification rates and, at very high car-
ure to toxic air and delinquent
mental conditions. bon dioxide concentrations, shell
behaviour.
German scientists led by the eco- dissolution and increased mortality
physiologist Frank Melzner at the occur, according to Melzner.
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean The scientists said the results es-
the movement of the vesicle Research Kiel found that the bivalve tablished that there was a direct rela-
to the correct destination is creatures found in tidal regions of tionship between the calcification
attached, the study found. coastal zones are very sensitive to rate of mussels and the carbonate
Improperly formed synaptic ocean acidification, which leads to re- chemistry of seawater.
vesicles lead to impaired duced calcification and shell As the next step, the scientists
neuron function and inability formation. plan to identify proteins that play a
to release neurotransmitters During their early life stages— role in the transport of calcium and
and thereby trigger defects in between the first and second day of carbonate, and which organic sub-
movement. life—mussel larvae form a calcified stances in the shell increase resist-
The study provides in- shell. But scientists who tracked the ance to shell dissolution. According to
sights into what might go process of calcium carbonate depos- them, there are some mussel popula-
wrong in some forms of ition in living larvae using specialised tions in the Baltic Sea which are more
Parkinson’s, and this un- equipment found that the mussel lar- tolerant to ocean acidification, and
derstanding may help find vae failed to form calcium carbonate studying them will help identify or-
better treatment. Parkin- as previously thought, said Kirti ganic shell constituents that resist
son’s disease currently has Ramesh, doctoral student of Melzner dissolution. Understanding them will
no cure, and the treatment and the first author of the study pub- probably help marine scientists to
currently focusses on lished in the journal Nature breed mussels which can withstand
symptomatic relief, which Communications. ocean acidification.
fails to have an impact as Subsequently, through laboratory
the disease progresses. experiments, the scientists showed
that when the pH value (pH value cor- Stories compiled by T.V. Jayan
Acts of intolerance
Systematic targeting of the poor, irrespective of their caste, community
or religion, shatters several families in Rajasthan and other BJP-ruled
States. B Y T . K . R A J A L A K S H M I I N B H A R A T P U R A N D D E L H I
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
S H A IS T A , D A UG H T E R of Mohammad Akhlaq who was killed on charges of storing beef at Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, in 2015,
speaks at the AIDWA convention in New Delhi on December 8.
“MEWAT mein jo musalmaanon the region. Umar’s body was found no proof to establish that the cows
ke saath ho raha hai, woh Hindustan on the railway track at Ramgarh in are being taken for slaughter,” En-
mein kisi ke saath nahi ho raha” Alwar district on November 10. His gineer Khursheed, a Jaipur-based
(whatever is happening to Muslims family got to know about his death social worker, told Frontline.
in Mewat region is not happening to two days later. The police maintain Pehlu Khan, Junaid Khan and
anyone in the entire country), said that two groups had exchanged fire now Umar Khan, the three cattle
Sarjit Khan, a Meo Muslim at Pahari, and in the ensuing clash, Umar was traders who were murdered in 2017,
a tehsil headquarters in Bharatpur killed. But they do not explain how were all Meo Muslims from the re-
district in Rajasthan. A lone cloth the body was found on the railway gion, which includes the Nuh (previ-
placard emblazoned with the words track. No weapons were found on ously Mewat) district of Haryana,
“Justice for Umar” hangs on a tent Umar. His associates, who have been Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Ra-
pole, seven kilometres from Ghat- booked under the Rajasthan Bovine jasthan and some parts of western
mika village in Pahari tehsil. The tent Act, also did not possess any Uttar Pradesh. Since the region is
was erected for a public meeting or- weapons. home to Meo Muslims, it has come
ganised to condole the death of the “Mewat is being targeted and we under the close surveillance of cow
cattle trader Umar Khan, one of the can see it happening, even sitting in vigilantes.
latest victims of cow vigilantism in faraway Jaipur. The vigilantes need Ghatmika has been labelled as a
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 120
village of cow smugglers and at least
200 people have been charged with
cow smuggling. But not a single case
has ended in conviction. Amra Ram,
a four-time Member of the Legislat-
ive Assembly from the Communist
Party of India (Marxist) and former
president of the All India Kisan
Sabha, said the government suspen-
ded three officials when a foreign
tourist was killed by a bull. In the
case of Umar’s death, the police were
keen to dismiss it as a result of gang
war. Some police posts in Alwar have
been designated cow vigilante or gau
rakshak posts. Umar, father of nine
children, was most likely accosted by
one such group as he was returning
home with the cattle. His wife de-
livered their ninth child four days
after his death.
A pall of gloom hangs over Ghat-
mika. Mubarak, a final year under-
graduate student, said livestock
owners were scared to rear cows. The
police, he said, wanted to be posted
in Mewat as there was “more money”
there. “The police used to harass us
P I C T UR E S : T . K . R A J A L A KS H M I
when the Congress was in power, too.
But there were no cow vigilantes
then,” said Mubarak.
In September, the Supreme
Court took cognisance of cow vigil-
antism and directed the Centre and
the States to take firm action against
such elements and called for some
A T A PU BL I C meeting in Pahari tehsil of Bharatpur district in Rajasthan
“planned and well-coordinated ac-
demanding justice for the cattle trader Umar Khan, a victim of cow vigilantism.
tion” by State governments. But the
court’s ruling seems to have been ig-
nored.
Since 2015, members of the
Muslim community have been tar-
geted in the name of cow vigilantism
and “love-jehad”. On December 6,
Mohammad Afrazul, a migrant la-
bourer from Malda district in West
Bengal, was hacked and burnt alive
in Rajsamand district by Shambulal
Raigar, a Dalit, on the suspicion that
he was involved in a relationship
with a Hindu woman. Raigar got his
14-year-old nephew to videotape the
assault and posed it on social media.
The video, in which Raigar is repor-
ted to have been heard saying, “This
is what will happen to you if you do
‘love-jehad’ in our country”, led to his D A L IT V I CT I M S of caste violence at Shabbirpur in Saharanpur district of
arrest. People wonder whether it is western Uttar Pradesh. Som Pali’s (centre) husband and son are facing
possible for Raigar to be familiar charges under the National Security Act.
121 FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018
A N I T A M I N J , who lost her husband to cow vigilantes in Garhwa district, Jharkhand. (Right) Father and children of Umar
Khan, whose body was found on the railway track in Alwar district of Rajasthan.
with the term “love-jehad” but for stances of assassinations, lynching, A tenant farmer, Ramesh Minj, had
orchestrated efforts of some sections rioting, abusive trolling, and justific- gone to inspect his crops on August
to whip up communal passions. Sev- ation of attacks on the security and 22. He never returned. Anita did not
eral instances of killing of Muslims right to choice of women (particu- think there was any cause for worry
were reported soon after the Bhar- larly young women), along with because he used to travel a lot. But
atiya Janata Party headed by severe economic devastation exposes when he did not return home after a
Vasundhara Raje formed the the unholy nexus of the communal certain time, she got worried. She
government. forces with the corporate sector.” soon learnt that people from a neigh-
In May 2015, Abdul Ghaffar The young woman who spoke at bouring village had assaulted her
Quereshi, a meat-seller in Birloka the convention was Shaista, daugh- husband accusing him of being a
village in Nagaur district, was ter of Mohammad Akhlaq, whose “beef-eater”. He had been picked up
lynched; Pehlu Khan was lynched in lynching in September 2015, on al- by the police.
April 2017 in Alwar; Zafar Islam was legations of storing beef, by a com- “They told me gau rakshaks had
beaten to death in Pratapgarh dis- munally charged mob in Uttar attacked him. When I saw him in jail,
trict in June 2017 by municipal offi- Pradesh’s Dadri district caused a na- he was crying. The police kept my
cials; and the Manganiyar singer tional outrage. In August, 13 of the 17 husband in their custody and he was
Ahmad Khan was murdered in Jais- accused in the murder case were severely injured. The assaulters had
almer in September 2017 (this resul- given bail. Among the 13 was the son slashed him and broken his fingers.
ted in the fleeing of 200 Muslims of a local BJP leader. The public out- The police taunted me when I took
from Dantal village). The more re- rage failed to discourage cow vigil- food for him. They said I should give
cent ones are the murders of Umar antism and minority targeting, In cow meat to my husband and not
and Afrazul. fact, since Akhlaq’s murder, cow vi- potato curry. They let my husband
“The people who killed my father gilantes have become more brazen in die in that state. We are poor people.
have been given jobs in a renowned their attacks. What could I have done? The State
public sector enterprise, while my As Shaista shared her grief, her government has not given any money
brother, who had to discontinue his brother, Danish sobbed quietly. “It by way of compensation. Some offi-
studies, is without a job,” said a was a black night. The people whom cial gave Rs.5,000 to my father-in-
young woman at a convention on wo- I called chaacha and bhaiya attacked law. I lost the only earning member
men’s citizenship rights, organised us.” The family moved out of Bisada of the family. I have four children;
by the All India Democratic Wo- village in Dadri, which was its home the eldest is 14 and the youngest
men’s Association (AIDWA) in New for generations. “The mahaul [at- three years. Their future is uncer-
Delhi on December 8. The conven- mosphere] isn’t good,” Danish told tain,” Anita Minj said. She has not
tion observed that the “past three Frontline. received the death certificate.
and a half years have seen an unpre- “My children ask me why I sent
cedented assault on those citizens A PATTERN their father to the fields that day. I
who are unwilling to accept the Anita Minj, a Christian tribal woman have no answer,” Anita Minj said.
Brahmanical and patriarchal notion from Garhwa district in Jharkhand, Arjun Minj, a representative of the
of the Hindu Rashtra. Increasing in- lost her husband to cow vigilantism. Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Mahasabha,
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 122
S H A KI R A N D S A I RA , Junaid Khan’s brother and mother. Junaid and Shakir were stabbed on the Delhi-Mathura train in
June 2017. Shakir survived the assault by the mob, but is unable to use his hand to do any work.
an organisation that led the struggle rendered him incapable of driving. tion outlet. Since Koeli Devi’s hus-
against the Jharkhand government Four of the six accused in the Junaid band was mentally challenged and
for diluting land tenancy laws, told murder case were let off. did not find work, Koeli Devi and her
Frontline that cow vigilantes had be- older daughters walked 3 kilometres
come active in the district in recent VICTIMS ALL every day to find work. “Saat din se
times. The police did not take action Dalit women of Shabbirpur village chulha nahi jalaa” (the stove was not
against those who held gau rakshak in Saharanpur, whose homes were lit for seven days) she said. The Block
meetings in the district even though razed to the ground and whose men- Development Officer gave us a letter
the identity of these people was com- folk were beaten and thrown into which directed the ration shop
mon knowledge, he said. jail because they dared to oppose owner to give us our quota but he
Saira, the mother of 17-year-old the upper-caste Rajputs of the vil- drove me away. It was on November
Junaid from Ballabhgarh district in lage, are the other silent victims in 28. There was no food at home. My
Haryana who was stabbed on the Rajasthan. Nearly 60 Dalit homes daughter was crying. I gave her some
Delhi-Mathura train on the eve of were vandalised and looted. Som water with sugar and salt. She was
Ramzan in June 2017, is filled with Pali, one of the women, said her looking unwell. Then we took her to a
remorse for sending her son to shop husband and son were booked un- local doctor but there was nothing he
for clothes in Delhi. Saira said money der the National Security Act and could do,” Koeli Devi said, breaking
was offered to the family to withdraw were sent to jail. down. In her thin emaciated arms,
the complaint. Subhashini Ali, a former Mem- she held her infant son, her latest
“Every day meetings are called; ber of Parliament from the CPI (M), born.
my husband is asked to attend the who visited Shabbirpur, told Front- The systematic targeting of the
meetings, and there he is asked to line that the government did not give poor, irrespective of their caste, com-
withdraw the charges. Hum insaaf any compensation to the Dalit famil- munity or religion, has left many
maang rahe hain aur hamare bete ki ies. The Dalits’ temple was desec- families shattered, and women are
boli lag rahi hai,” (I am asking for rated and the administration did forced to fend for themselves and
justice and they are putting a price little to repair the damage done to it their minor children in several cases.
for my son’s life) Saira said. by the Rajputs of the village. “The To say that insecurities had
Shakir, who tried to rescue his idea was to break them [Dalits] eco- heightened among the minorities
brother, was assaulted in such a nomically,” she said. and the poor in recent times would
manner that he was unable to lift his Koeli Devi of Karimati village in be an understatement.
arm. “It was as if the entire train Simdega district was not a victim or Shaista summed it up well with
compartment was against us,” he survivor of communal profiling. It restrained sadness: “Desh ki pe-
told Frontline. was an administration obsessed with hchaan desh ke logon se hoti hai, desh
Shakir, who has studied up to Aadhaar-linked entitlements that mein insaaf hoga jab logon ke saath
Class X, used to work as a driver to caused the death of her 10-year-old insaaf hoga.” (a country is recog-
supplement the family income. He daughter, Santoshi Kumari. For the nised by the character of its people;
was stabbed in the shoulder and the past seven months the family was there will be justice only if people are
upper arm, and the injury has denied ration by the public distribu- given justice) $
Punishing dissent
The disqualification of Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar Ansari as Rajya
Sabha members under the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution ignores
the principles of natural justice. B Y V . V E N K A T E S A N
V. SUDERSHAN
The disqualification of Janata
Dal (United) leaders Sharad Yadav
and Ali Anwar Ansari by Vice Presid-
ent M. Venkaiah Naidu, who is also
S H A R AD Y A D A V and Ali Anwar Ansari.
the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya
Sabha, on December 4 smacks of ar-
bitrariness and non-compliance alliance which included the JD (U) had directed him to attend the RJD
with the principles of natural justice and the Rashtriya Janata Dal rally.
and ignores the Supreme Court’s in- (RJD)), and the coalition govern- Sharad Yadav, in his response to
terpretation of the powers of presid- ment it formed in Bihar in 2015. Be- the petition, claimed that being a
ing officers in such proceedings. sides, he alleged that Sharad Yadav founding member of the JD(U), he
On September 2, Venkaiah and Ansari campaigned with RJD had remained committed to its prin-
Naidu’s office received a petition leaders and workers between August ciples and continued to be a member
from the leader of the JD (U) in the 10 and 12 in various districts of Bihar of the party and had never intended
Rajya Sabha, Ram Chandra Prasad and attended the public rally called to, least of all voluntarily, give up the
Singh, seeking Sharad Yadav’s and by the RJD in Patna on August 27. membership of the party or form a
Ansari’s disqualification under the Sharad Yadav allegedly violated new political party.
Tenth Schedule on the grounds that the directive issued by the party sec- He alleged that Nitish Kumar
by their conduct, they had voluntar- retary general advising him not to and his faction had voluntarily given
ily given up the membership of the attend the rally and also conveying to up the membership of the JD(U) by
party, thus becoming subject to dis- him that his participation in the rally withdrawing from the Mahagath-
qualification under Paragraph 2(1) would be construed as voluntarily bandhan, which was formed as a
(a) of the Tenth Schedule. giving up the membership of the JD common front against the Bharatiya
Ram Chandra Prasad Singh’s (U). Ram Chandra Prasad Singh had Janata Party (BJP), and sub-
contention was that Sharad Yadav attached newspaper clippings, me- sequently aligned themselves with
and Ansari opposed the unanimous dia reports and videos as proof of the the BJP, thus betraying the trust re-
decision of the JD(U) and its presid- allegations. Ansari denied having re- posed by the people of Bihar and
ent, Nitish Kumar, to withdraw from ceived any such directive from any- their mandate.
the Mahagathbandhan (the grand one. He claimed that Sharad Yadav Sharad Yadav’s contention was
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 124
that the criticism of the decision of resentation. Sharad Yadav cited a
party leaders, taken in violation of number of precedents.
the constitution of the party, did not Venkaiah Naidu’s response to
entail voluntarily giving up the party this was bizarre. He questioned the
membership. very rationale of legal representation
The main issue was whether Ven- saying that as it was evident that
kaiah Naidu should have referred Sharad Yadav’s replies were pre-
Ram Chandra Prasad Singh’s peti- pared in consultation with his advoc-
tion to the Committee of Privileges of ates, he should have come prepared
the Rajya Sabha, to conduct a pre- for the oral hearing after consulting
liminary inquiry and submit its re- them. This is tantamount to denial of
port in accordance with previous the legitimate rights of an accused
cases. Venkaiah Naidu dispensed for legal representation before a
with this procedural requirement tribunal.
PTI
merely because it would have caused Venkaiah Naidu held that leav-
delay in deciding the question. V I C E P R E S I D EN T ing or joining any political alliance
Venkaiah Naidu reasoned that it M. Venkaiah Naidu. did not fall within the purview of the
was not mandatory to refer each and anti-defection law. He reasoned that
every case to the Committee of Priv- response. What he left unexplained in a democracy, it was the rule of the
ileges as a matter of routine. “When was why the JD(U) entered into a majority and the voice of the major-
the facts of the case are clear, the Mahagathbandhan before the elec- ity that had to be accepted. Sharad
Chairman in his wisdom, may decide tions, although the charges of be- Yadav, according to Venkaiah
to proceed in the matter on his own,” nami property dealings and Naidu, failed to prove with docu-
he said in his order. He suggested money-laundering against RJD mentary and other evidence that his
that even after the preliminary in- leaders were known at that time. group commanded the majority sup-
quiry by the Committee, as Chair- Accepting Sharad Yadav’s and port within the JD(U) Legislature
man, he could analyse the facts and Ansari’s request for a personal hear- Party in the Rajya Sabha.
come to a final conclusion, which ing, Venkaiah Naidu fixed October He held that if a member got
might be contrary to the report of the 30 for the purpose. Both of them elected as a candidate of a political
Committee. Therefore, he decided to sought eight weeks’ time to appear party on the basis of its policies and
proceed with the determination of for the oral hearing, citing campaign manifestos but criticised it publicly,
the question himself, the order for the Assembly elections in Gujarat he would be deemed to have given up
stated. and Himachal Pradesh as the reason. his membership of the party volun-
But the manner of Venkaiah The Vice President gave them one tarily. Venkaiah Naidu, however, did
Naidu’s determination of the ques- week’s time and rescheduled the not explain whether such a member
tion left a lot to be desired. In his hearing for November 8. Sharad Ya- would be deemed to have done so if
response to Sharad Yadav’s com- dav requested permission to be rep- he felt that the party was working
ments, Ram Chandra Prasad Singh resented by two advocates of his against its policies and manifestos,
argued that the Mahagathbandhan choice at the oral hearing, as the is- on the basis of which he got elected.
was merely a political alliance sues under the Tenth Schedule were The Vice President has ignored
formed on a common minimum pro- too complex for him to argue the case an important ruling of the Supreme
gramme to fight the Bihar Assembly himself. Venkaiah Naidu declined Court in Balchandra L. Jarkiholi vs
elections and there was no compul- the request, citing the absence of B.S. Yeddiyurappa (2011) that de-
sion on the constituents of a coalition rules and precedents. But proceed- mand by a party legislator for a
to remain wedded to the alliance in ings under the Tenth Schedule, change in the leadership did not
spite of fundamental differences. He which are akin to that of a tribunal, amount to voluntarily giving up the
questioned Sharad Yadav’s right to cannot exclude lawyers if a request is membership of the party and instead
question the unanimous views and made. relied on the Supreme Court’s judg-
decisions of the party. Sharad Yadav, who appeared in ment in Ravi Naik vs Union of India
“No political party, especially the person before Venkaiah Naidu on (1994), the facts of which were differ-
JD (U), with strong and deep-rooted November 8, contended that there ent. A legislator in that case was
commitment against corruption in was no bar in Rule 7 (7) of the Mem- deemed to have voluntarily given up
public life shall permit any of its bers of the Rajya Sabha (Disqualific- his party membership if he joined
member to align himself with a polit- ation on Ground of Defection) Rules, another political party or launched a
ical party whose leaders are em- 1985, against a member appearing new one. Neither of these ingredi-
broiled in corruption with serious before the Chairman through an ad- ents was applicable in the case of
charges of benami property dealings vocate, as it is evident that the provi- Sharad Yadav and Ansari. Sharad
and money-laundering,” Ram sion for being heard in person, was in Yadav has decided to challenge his
Chandra Prasad Singh stated in his addition to being allowed legal rep- disqualification legally. $
Blow to casteism
United action by progressive groups forces the hand of the government
to act decisively in the case of the “honour killing” of a Dalit youth for
marrying a girl from a higher caste. Six people, including the girl’s
father, get the death sentence. B Y I L A N G O V A N R A J A S E K A R A N
THE brutal murder at 2:12 p.m. five killers who hacked the young family friend, was given a life sen-
on March 13, 2016, of a 22-year-old man in full public view at Udumalpet tence “without any remission or pre-
Dalit engineering student, town in Tirupur district and inflicted mature release”, and Manikandan,
Veluchamy Shankar, in Tirupur, serious wounds on Kausalya when the last accused, was sentenced to
Tamil Nadu, for marrying a caste she tried to save her husband. rigorous imprisonment for five years.
Hindu girl, Kausalya, numbed the Besides the death penalty to six of Three of the accused, Annalakshmi
collective conscience of Tamil society the accused, Stephen Dhanraj (23), a (Kausalya’s mother), Pandithurai,
and also, perhaps for the first time,
unified progressive groups in their
efforts to get speedy justice for vic-
tims of what was described as an
“honour killing”. It was the united
action of these groups that forced an
apathetic State government to act.
A few such cases in the past have
taught the government a bitter les-
son. The case of the chilling double
murder of S. Murugesan, a Dalit
youth, and D. Kannagi, a Vanniyar
girl, both from Virudhachalam town,
in 2003 for inter-caste marriage has
just reached the trial stage. But the
anger Shankar’s murder generated
in society prompted the state also to
seek the support of activist groups in
order to take the case forward.
On December 12, the sessions
court in Tirupur convicted eight of
the 11 accused and sentenced six of
them, including Kausalya’s father, B.
Chinnasamy, to death. This was
made possible by the coordinated ef-
forts of activists, lawyers, prosec-
utors and investigative agencies to
help make an airtight case against
PTI
the accused.
Accused No. 1, Chinnasamy, a K A U S AL Y A 'S P A R EN T S , B. Chinnasamy and Annalakshmi, and the other
financier and realtor, was the mas- accused in the Shankar murder case coming to the court in Tirupur ahead of
termind of the crime. He engaged the verdict on December 12.
FRONTLINE . JANUARY 5, 2018 126
(her maternal uncle) and a 16-year- clincher for the prosecution, besides punishment for marrying an upper
old relative of hers, were acquitted as the bold deposition of Kausalya caste girl by a lower caste boy would
the charges against them were not against her family members. be only a death sentence by murder,
established. The verdict has Shankar died on the way to the then what should be the punishment
triggered a debate on the ethics of the Coimbatore Government Medical for such persons, is the question
death penalty. College Hospital, while Kausalya raised in the mind of the court,” the
survived a head injury that required judgment said. The judge pointed
THE CASE 18 stitches. out that courts in the country had
Shankar, who belonged to the Pallar strongly condemned “honour
caste, and Kausalya, an THE VERDICT killings”, as was evident in various
Agamudaiyar, a most backward Tirupur Sessions Court Judge judicial pronouncements.
caste (MBC) group, were attacked by Alamelu Natarajan, in her verdict, “Still sane mind has not set on the
a gang near the bus stand in Udu- said that the court “has analysed the parents and many others who still
malpet allegedly at the behest of evidence adduced on the side of the hail the caste system and disapprove
Chinnasamy. Despite opposition prosecution carefully and meticu- inter-caste marriages, sometimes in
from her family, Kausalya had mar- lously”. Taking note of the gravity of a violent manner,” the judge noted in
ried Shankar on July 11, 2015, at a the crime and “balancing and keep- the verdict. She said the five hired
temple in Palani, from where she ing in mind the rights and liberties of killers “deserve no mercy” as it was
hails. They lived in Shankar’s house the persons accused as offenders”, because of the availability of people
at Komaralingam village near Udu- the judge concluded that the facts like them that parents were driven to
malpet despite facing constant and circumstances of the case “are commit such violent crimes.
threats and intimidation from her very clear and are well corroborated The charge sheet filed by the po-
family. by ocular, oral evidence, medical lice, after registering cases against
The horrific killing was caught on evidence, CCTV footage evidence, the 11 accused under various sections
the CCTV camera of a nearby shop and other documents”. of the Indian Penal Code and the
and the footage went viral on social The judge, in fact, based her en- Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
media. The video evidence was the tire verdict on one moot point. “If the Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)
Amendment Act, 2015, ran to more
than 1,000 pages. The government
appointed the veteran lawyer U.
Sankaranarayanan, a retired Deputy
Director of Prosecution, as special
prosecutor in the case. The trial was
completed in November 2017, with
the prosecution arguing the case as
an “honour killing”.
Talking to Frontline after the
murder, Shankar’s father,
Veluchamy, a labourer, said that he
had never thought the girl’s family
would go to such an extreme against
their own daughter. “When Shankar
got a job in Chennai, we thought they
would be safe there and everything
would become normal,” he had said
then.
His village is not new to inter-
caste marriages. “They are all living
happily. But this is the first time that
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
HONOUR KILLINGS IN
TAMIL NADU
Tamil Nadu has witnessed two sim-
ilar cases of caste killings in recent
A T T I N D I V A NA M ON JU N E 1 7 , 2 0 1 7 , Kausalya leads a march from years. V. Gokul Raj, an engineering
Salem to Chennai against “honour killings”, organised by the Tamil Nadu student from Salem who fell in love
Untouchability Eradication Front. with a girl from the Vellala Gounder
Russian Revolution conditions was first envisioned by the the poor have neither the resources nor
iconic visionaries, philosophers and re- the inclination to bring about a revolu-
volutionaries Karl Marx and Frederick tion.
Engels at a time when the tentacles of the One saw the fate of the Arab Spring: it
oppressive systems of feudalism and is now history. The military of a nation
capitalism were firmly entrenched in dif- overthrowing the elected government
ferent parts of the world. The October and the public erupting in joy, as
socialist revolution of 1917 was the glori- happened recently in Zimbabwe, is the
ous culmination of the needs and aspira- modern revolution. People are busy
tions of millions of Russians to break free with issues in their daily life such as
from the oppressive shackles of tsarist earning a livelihood and securing a roof
rule, which had made life miserable for over their heads and do not have the
them. time for an extracurricular activity like a
At a time when the foundations of the revolution.
modern civilised world are threatened by DEENDAYAL M. LULLA
THE Special Issue of Frontline on the terrorism,dictatorship, fascism, neolib- MUMBAI
Russian Revolution (December 22) read eralism, neocolonialism and imperial- Gujarat elections
like a fantastic story. ism in their various forms, the ideals that THE BJP has been ruling Gujarat for a
I was in the Soviet Union in 2013 to shaped the Russian Revolution continue long time and has established a strong
participate in functions commemorating to be relevant. base in the State, but it is facing a stiff
the 20th anniversary of the Indo-Soviet B. SURESH KUMAR challenge in this Assembly election
Friendship Treaty. I could see that the COIMBATORE, TAMIL NADU (Cover story, December 8). Thus, it is a
edifice built by Lenin and Stalin was A CENTURY is a long time for any revolu- golden opportunity for the Congress to
crumbling. When I mentioned my appre- tion to take root, thrive and then decay make a comeback.
hensions to a Communist Party leader, and so it is the case with communism as JAYANT MUKHERJEE
he dismissed them saying the people propounded by Lenin. It was a revolt KOLKATA
who had enjoyed the fruits of socialism against a monarchy with absolute IF the BJP thinks that there are no eth-
for 70 years would not desert it. This powers. Communism was advocated as a ics in electoral battle, that is an affront
overconfidence on the part of the party substitute to monarchy and colonial rule to democracy. It should not foment reli-
was responsible for its turning a blind and was supposed to create a free society gious frenzy just to cover up its failures.
eye to what was unfolding. where every citizen was equal. Destitute farmers, Dalits and Muslims
I was in a small village when enrol- But communism as practised degen- in Gujarat feel suffocated under Chief
ment of students was going on. It was a erated into total control by the state over Minister Vijay Rupani’s rule. The con-
delight to see young children marching individuals. Only the Communist Party troversies around Rupani’s business
from house to house with bugles and was allowed to function officially and op- firms, which earned an indictment from
drums to invite the newly enrolled chil- position to it was not tolerated. Freedom the Securities and Exchange Board of
dren and take them to school in a proces- of speech and dissent were the casual- India, make a mockery of the BJP’s
sion. Likewise when children were ties in the one-party rule. Slowly, the claim that it is against corruption.
returning in buses after their vacation in disintegration of the once-mighty USSR The comments of BJP leaders after
resorts, it was a thrilling experience to led to breakaway states that charted Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Somnath
watch people standing on either side of their own policies for development. temple were in bad taste. Should not the
the roads clapping to welcome them Even in Russia, the birthplace of com- Prime Minister talk about the party’s
back. Children’s education and health munism, consumerism and private en- achievements rather than turning ad-
care were well taken care of. trepreneurship as opposed to versarial?
S.S. RAJAGOPALAN state-sponsored development are fast C. CHANDRASEKARAN
CHENNAI matching the advanced capitalist coun- MADURAI, TAMIL NADU
THE Special Issue was a welcome break tries. Very few countries now proclaim THE Congress fared miserably in the
from routine political stories and is a they are communist. The world has come 2012 elections in Gujarat, and the BJP
treasure trove of information about the a long way from the rigid communism of came to power as the people supported
1917 revolution. earlier times. the political party they felt was respons-
The foundations of communist ideo- D.B.N. MURTHY ible for growth in the State. But now
logy were laid on the building blocks of BENGALURU Dalit agitations, demonetisation and
the lofty ideals of freedom, equality and IS a revolution possible in the present GST, among other issues, pose some
fraternity and genuine concern for the era? It is unlikely because the status quo threat to the BJP coming back to power.
marginalised and exploited working suits the rich and vested interests, the Rahul Gandhi’s sincere effort to correct
class.The way to ameliorate their pitiable middle class does not have the time and the lapses of the past are commend-
able. The use of hate speech and the banking operations and that too in a joint many Indians. The
violation of orders of the Election Com- venture with India’s largest PSB. The RBI damage this po-
mission are a matter for great concern in should undertake a thorough review of larisation causes
general. the entire process of giving licences to will remain in the
A.J. RANGARAJAN private players to start payments banks. minds of those
CHENNAI There is no better way of taking banking people who do not
THE citadel of the BJP, hitherto con- to the unbanked areas of the country apply their minds
sidered almost impregnable, has be- than by giving PSBs licences to open and will pass on to
come wobbly, and the credit goes mainly more branches in such areas. future genera-
to the young triumvirate of Hardik Patel, J. ANANTHA PADMANABHAN tions. Whatever be
Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani. They TIRUCHI, TAMIL NADU a ruler’s religion,
have managed to instil a sense of confid- Saudi Arabia if he has brought
ence in people who were pessimistically prosperity to the
ANTI-CORRUPTION drives by rulers will
reconciled to the invincibility of the BJP. always have people’s support (“Saudi in- nation and res-
But, unfortunately, the issues of the trigues”, December 8). isted foreign invaders, he has to be hon-
minorities are almost cold-shouldered in After 32-year-old Mohammed bin Sal- oured and respected, be it Tipu Sultan or
the hustings as if they are of no con- man was named Crown Prince, he Pazhassi Raja. Many of the BJP leaders
sequence. launched the kingdom’s first anti-cor- who defame the Muslim rulers of the
AYYASSERI RAVEENDRANATH past express their views without knowing
ruption drive in 80 years and has
ARANMULA, KERALA
emerged as the most powerful Saudi a single thing about history. As the article
DURING the campaign no day went by
ruler in a generation. Defying the long- said, the saffron brigade is not rewriting
without Rahul Gandhi and Narendra history but is purposefully misinterpret-
standing tradition in the country, Salman
Modi taking potshots at each other. The ing it in order to create a deep separation
proclaimed a decree to end the ban on
BJP’s creating a furore over Rahul between Hindus and Muslims in India. It
women drivers. He has also initiated eco-
Gandhi’s visit to the Somnath temple was is high time that we all realised this
nomic reforms to diversify the Saudi eco-
just a gimmick to confuse voters. Given cheap trick of the BJP/RSS.
nomy.
the Congress party’s political vulnerabil-
KANGAYAM R. NARASIMHAN Tipu Sultan is my hero compared with
ities, Rahul Gandhi’s temple visit can be
CHENNAI Savarkar, who got out of prison by apolo-
said to be a wasted opportunity for him.
The BJP doing its best to expand its base Free speech gising to the British.
ANEES KURIKKAL
by playing the communal card to the hilt THE article “Stifling dissent” (December KOLAPARAMBA, KERALA
is certain to gain the advantage. 8) eloquently expressed the intolerance,
K.R. SRINIVASAN use of brute force and lawlessness being
Demonetisation
unleashed by the Tamil Nadu govern- THE Cover Story on demonetisation
SECUNDERABAD, TELANGANA
(November 24) clearly described the
SBI ment to stop people from expressing
situations and problems caused by this
THE joint venture their bona fide views on matters of social
relevance or from supporting the victims bad policy. Before people could recover
between Reliance
of economic hardship and political des- from the effects of demonetisation, they
Industries Limited
potism. It is the nadir of the law and order had to deal with Goods and Service Tax.
and SBI to start a I applaud Frontline for speaking out on
payments bank in the name of the former situation in Tamil Nadu when a lawyer is
the situation in the country. Agriculture
has ominous portents for the public sec- not able to save himself from attacks by
is in decline and small businesses have
tor behemoth (“A losing game”, Decem- the police.
been ruined by GST. However, the gov-
ber 8). Democracy relies on freedom of the
ernment and Modi do not care about the
The reason for the move being trotted press and the freedom of individuals to
stimulate healthy debate and objective terrible condition of the people.
out by interested parties that its purpose
critique of society. A year after demonetisation, BJP fol-
is to provide banking facilities to the un-
B. RAJASEKARAN lowers have started going against Modi’s
banked is absolutely ludicrous. Ever
BENGALURU economic initiatives. It also is providing
since the NDA government assumed of-
opportunities for the opposition to join
fice, there have been persistent attacks Tipu Sultan forces.
against public sector banks (PSBs). The THE BJP government is following in the MUHAMMED ADIL EDAYANNUR
aggressive thrust given to the payments footsteps of the British in their use of the KANNUR, KERALA
banks concept is intended to push PSBs “divide and rule” policy (“The past as
into private hands. present”, December 8).
ANNOUNCEMENT
One wonders how the powers that be For political gain, members of the ex-
Letters, whether by surface mail or e-mail,
could allow one of the largest defaulters treme right wing are planting the seeds must carry the full postal address and the full
of loans to PSBs in the country to start of communal polarisation in the minds of name, or the name with initials.