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29 APRIL 2024 / ` 80
 CONTENTS
29 APRIL 2024

5 8 10 14 16 30

OPEN DIARY BYLINE NOTEBOOK INSIDER ISRAEL DIARY OPEN ESSAY

By Swapan Dasgupta Desperately dynasties A shooting in Bollywood The war during Passover Minority report
By MJ Akbar By Madhavankutty Pillai By Anat Bernstein-Reich By Surjit S Bhalla and
Abhinav Motheram

34 THE WOUNDED HAPPINESS

34 OF SALMAN RUSHDIE
What it takes to be a writer in the time of hate.
Rushdie returns to that August morning in 2022
when he almost died under the knife of a man
inspired by the late Ayatollah Khomeini’s death
decree against the author
By S Prasannarajan

40 HOPE AND DELIVERANCE

Local issues and the Modi
government’s record animate
discussions while Congress
fails to impress voters across
north Rajasthan
44 A NEW RECKONING FOR ALWAR
40 46 BJP’s Bhupender Yadav is the outsider with an
inside chance
By Rajeev Deshpande

46 THE POWER OF MY VOTE BANK

In western Uttar Pradesh, voters say they
will reward the Modi dispensation for its
schemes and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
for strict policing
By Ullekh NP
52 56
52 THE FRONTLINE OF DEMOCRACY
In the village of Maoist commander Hidma in
Bastar, ground domination and a humanitarian
outreach are containing Maoist terror
By Siddharth Singh

56 THE SAFFRON DARE

BJP makes an ambitious push in Tamil Nadu,
where previously there were bipolar contests
60 between DMK and AIADMK
By V Shoba

60 BATTLE OF THE EQUALS

Shashi Tharoor seeks a fourth-term from
Thiruvananthapuram while his formidable
challenger Rajeev Chandrasekhar hopes for a
sensational debut
By MG Radhakrishnan
64

64 68 72 74

WHY I DON’T A VOYAGER ACROSS TIME INDIAN ACCENTS STARGAZER

LOOK BACK IN ANGER Travelling with The Devi mystique By Kaveree Bamzai
An author and sports journalist in his Gulammohammed Sheikh By Bibek Debroy
memoir relives how he survived in the ark of memories
a ban on him and the social media By Shaikh Ayaz
trial that followed
By Boria Majumdar

Cover by Saurabh Singh | Cover Photo by AP

Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using products or services advertised in the magazine

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 3

 OPEN MAIL
editor@openmedianetwork.in

EDITOR S Prasannarajan
MANAGING EDITOR PR Ramesh
CONSULTING EDITOR-AT-LARGE
& LETTER OF THE WEEK

Rajeev Deshpande Former IAS officer K Annamalai, BJP’s Lok Sabha

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ullekh NP
EDITOR-AT-LARGE Siddharth Singh
DEPUTY EDITORS Madhavankutty Pillai
(Mumbai Bureau Chief),
Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah,
V Shoba (Bengaluru),
Nandini Nair, Sudeep Paul
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ASSOCIATE EDITOR Vijay K Soni (Web)
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Volume 16 Issue 17
For the week April 23-29, 2024
Total no of pages 76
candidate from Coimbatore, is just four years into his
avatar as a politician. Yet, he already looks like a pro
(‘Tamil Disruptor’, April 22, 2024). At 39, Annamalai is
the youngest-ever president of Tamil Nadu BJP and also
a one-man army who many feel can make a decisive
difference to the party’s electoral fortunes in the state.
With Annamalai at the helm, BJP has decided to take a
big gamble, and lead an alliance of its own with smaller
caste-based parties. The saffron party also has a larger
gameplan at work. AIADMK has been
weakened by the expulsion of former Deputy
Chief Minister O Panneerselvam’s faction and with no
charismatic leader like the late J Jayalalithaa to keep it relevance. It is imperative
together, the party may be on the verge of an for Congress to act
existential crisis. If the ‘meltdown’ does happen, the as a counterweight
AIADMK core voter base will be ripe for the picking by to the ruling party,
BJP. Annamalai has also been raking up a host of issues upholding one of the
targeting DMK—from corruption, dynastic politics, most basic principles
its alleged anti-Hindu approach, and deteriorating law of a democracy. For
and order. The young leader, with his oratorical skills Congress to lose, to slump,
and reputation of being a former police officer, has to not be able to revive
become the sword arm of BJP’s Tamil Nadu plan. is not a good thing for
KT Gopalakrishnan India’s democracy.
Feroz Shaikh
THE OTHER THACKERAY nothing to lose. By joining THE KEJRIWAL QUESTION
The unconditional support NDA, he might revive, Politics in Delhi had come
offered by MNS President at least, his own and his full circle with the arrest
Raj Thackeray to Prime party’s political fortunes in of Delhi Chief Minister
Minister Narendra Modi Maharashtra. Arvind Kejriwal on
for the upcoming election Yukti Joshi corruption charges by ED
has catapulted him from (‘Battleground Delhi’, April
the political fringes onto the DEFECTION WAVE 22, 2024). The issue has
electoral mainstage (‘Raj Congress is facing a crisis united the opposition, with
Thackeray chooses BJP’, of confidence in its leader the I.N.D.I.A. bloc holding
April 22, 2024). BJP hopes Rahul Gandhi in the run- a protest to demand a level
that Raj Thackeray—among up to the General Election. playing field and the release
the biggest crowdpullers The party has been hit by a of arrested opposition
in state politics—will wave of defections (‘Dance leaders. This is now a battle
help the ruling Mahayuti of the Defectors’, by of perception, where AAP is
alliance attract a large Rahul Shivshankar, April trying to create a narrative
chunk of Marathi voters 22, 2024) and the issues go that BJP wants to finish off
from Mumbai. While BJP is beyond the grassroots level. the party. The reasons, AAP
confident about a smooth For most leaders leaving, implies, could be rooted in
run in the Hindi heartland, the draw is the appeal of fear. Is BJP afraid of Kejriwal?
it does not expect as good Prime Minister Modi as a Has Kejriwal’s arrest given
results in Maharashtra. charismatic leader, putting a plank on a platter to the
Therefore, it is keeping all him in stark contrast opposition, and does
options open for Lok Sabha, against the Congress it threaten to derail
Assembly and local body leadership. It might take BJP’s ‘Mission 400’?
polls in Maharashtra. As Congress years to fill Only time will tell.
for Raj Thackeray, he has their ranks and regain Prasanth K Naidu

4 29 APRIL 2024
 OPEN DIARY
A S SOMEONE INVOLVED with
the mainstream media—notably
print but also, to a lesser extent, with
TV—since the mid-1980s, I regret
having to proclaim the industry’s
growing marginalisation. I would
still hesitate to call it irrelevance
because, as I often discover at airports
and a few gatherings of the well-
heeled, there are still people who
read daily newspapers and, more
surprising, read the opinion columns
of English language publications.
But such people constitute a rarefied
minusculity. It is a far cry from the
days Girilal Jain thundered that, as
editor of the Times of India, he held
the second most important job in
the country. I understand that these
days the editors of mainstream
publications are often chosen for
their public anonymity.
There are many reasons why
daily newspapers no longer occupy
the top slot in the media hierarchy.
In a country where a measure of
literacy and education is a pre-entry
barrier to the world of newspapers,
it is only natural that TV will acquire
mass popularity. Even in the TV
news channel space, the eyeballs
are secured by channels that design
programmes with an eye on the
lowest common denominator.
The greater the shrillness and
the acrimony among the studio
participants, the more appealing
the channel will be to the target
audience. And, for a lay person to
know what a particular channel’s
target audience is, just analyse the
type of products advertised. India’s
middle classes and the upper strata
of the working classes are getting
increasingly more prosperous. Yet,
there is huge socio-cultural gap
between the top, middle and bottom.
A growing dissatisfaction with
what we call mainstream media is
driving more and more individuals
29 APRIL 2024
Swapan Dasgupta
to discover alternative ways of
keeping up with the news. My
30-something son, for example, does
not subscribe to any daily newspaper.
The habit, which I inculcated from
my grandfather and parents of
combining the daily newspaper with
the cup of morning tea, is destined
to die out soon. A large chunk of
the next generation, not least in the
West, get their news from scrolling
their phones. I presume there are
newspapers and publications that
offer capsuled news. Otherwise, the
Googles of this world give us bespoke
news that can be irritating in case we
want a taste of something different.
The news provided by the search
engines are tailormade to pander to
both our tastes and our views—all of
which I find scary.
There is another emerging trend.
An increasing number of people
in India seem to get their news and
opinions from YouTube channels,
most of which are run by former
journalists who no longer find a place
in the mainstream media. I presume
that the range of subjects covered by
the online channels is vast, but I have
only been exposed to two varieties.
First, there are the podcasts—mainly
emanating from overseas—which
cover my interests in history and
current affairs. These are not all
that popular in India, although the
occasional series, such as the one
on the history of Empire hosted by
William Dalrymple and
Anita Anand, has been well received
in India. Secondly, there are the
political podcasts which combine
some information with lots of
opinion. The good thing about the
YouTubers is that they don’t have any
pretensions of objectivity. They are
out and out partisan, preferring one
or the other side.
Earlier this week, I was talking
to a journalist who specialises in
the politics of Uttar Pradesh and the
goings-on in the Muslim community.
According to this veteran, it was
highly unlikely that the I.N.D.I.A.
bloc would make any impact in the
country’s largest state. However, she
was intrigued as to why this obvious
reality seemed to escape many of the
anti-Modi YouTube channels.
The question posed was relevant,
but it was also based on a lack of
understanding of what YouTube
media is all about. The YouTubers
identify a public preference or a
prejudice that needs nurturing. This
could be a visceral hatred of Modi
and BJP or even a fanatical preference
for the ruling dispensations. In their
broadcasts, these YouTubers try to
create an illusory but gung-ho world
that presents a portrait of imminent
triumph. As a BJP man, I used to
get very irritated by a clutch of pro-
Hindutva channels in Bangla. They
often presented a needlessly upbeat
picture of the state of the opposition
to Mamata Banerjee. This was until
a young activist told me that these
people needed to create a virtual
world to keep their audience hooked
on to their channels. Going by the
dictum that people believe what they
want to believe. If this corresponds to
reality, well and good. Otherwise, it
doesn’t matter.
I find the premise on which this
New Media is based quite fearful. Q
www.openthemagazine.com 5
 BYLINE MJ Akbar
Desperately Dynasties
The question of Bengal 2024: From the mountain to the sea, who shall it be?
M O
RS INDIRA GANDHI won her most dramatic
election in 1980. She became prime minister
in 1966 but her era began with a spectacular
sweep in 1971, when she rode the promise of
‘Garibi Hatao’ (Eliminate Poverty) to electoral glory.
Birth is magic, but resurrection is a miracle. In 1980,
she resurrected Congress from the annihilation of 1977
by crushing the upstart Janata Party, an alliance of non-
Congress parties of the north. This is dimly remembered;
five decades is a long time in politics. Totally forgotten
is that Mrs Gandhi’s election symbol in 1980 was quite
different from the one in 1977; a hand replaced the cow-and-
calf. For millions of voters, the cow-and-calf had become
a symbol of family rule in a democracy, a grim omen of
dynasty. Five decades later, dynasty has become epidemic:
Congress, SP and BSP in Uttar Pradesh, Trinamool Congress
in Bengal, NCP and Shiv Sena (Thackeray) in Maharashtra,
Akalis in Punjab, and all regional parties in the south. BJP
and the Marxists seem free of this infection, but that too is a
comparative rather than comprehensive fact. We shall see if
this means anything to voters in 2024.
8 Illustrations by SAURABH SINGH
NLY ONE PERSON in Bengal has the chutzpah to
make his face more prominent on hoardings than
that of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; her nephew
Abhishek Banerjee. Just in case you missed any, he has huge
hoardings chasing one another in close proximity over
the principal chokepoints in his constituency, Diamond
Harbour, at the yawning mouth of the Hooghly (or Adi
Ganga, the original Ganga) as it slips serenely into the
Bay of Bengal. The distance from the heart of Kolkata is
not much more than 60 kilometres but the car journey
takes longer than the flight from Kolkata to Delhi. The
persistent bottlenecks could be easily resolved with better
traffic management and a firm cement divider instead of
pathetic and occasional plastic bits, but who cares when
you can win elections through ethnic emotionalism rather
than effective governance? Poor government means,
among other things, the perpetuation of poverty. Poverty
is manifest in many ways. It was heart-rending to see the
rush for Eid shopping in hut-shops full of tawdry clothes at
prices that only the poor can afford.
If you are not inching ahead on this clogged artery, you
are speeding. There is a metaphor in this
somewhere but I shall leave you to locate it.
T HE WINNING MESSAGE at the northern
pole of Bengal, in the Eastern Himalayas
along the winding mountain road from
Kurseong to fabled Darjeeling, is written on a
plaque at the Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary. It is
simple and startling: Please behave like animals.
Enough said; well said. Animals do not strew
litter and birds do not drop plastic.
From Tiger Hill we glimpse the peak of
Sagarmatha, goddess of the sky, misnamed
Everest in English. The rest of the glorious
mountain is draped in mist and clouds. We
recognise the peak not from previously seen
photographs but because it is the only still
form on the skyscape.
The political question of Bengal 2024 is:
29 APRIL 2024
from the mountain to the sea, who shall it be? Predictions
are dangerous but what is the point of a column if it doesn't
flirt with danger? The mountains and its adjacent
are with Narendra Modi; the east of the river is with
Mamata Banerjee. Elsewhere in Bengal, governance will
largely trump ethnic appeal. As for the nature of this battle,
one is reminded of a saying attributed to the Roman sage
Seneca: the law falls silent in times of war.
I F ONE PICTURE is worth a thousand words, then one fact
can be worth a thousand stories. A Kolkata newspaper
reported on April 10 that the Rampurhat Medical College in
Birbhum and Mahakuma Hospital in Bolpur had run out of
blood. Why? The regular donors were occupied elsewhere.
Where? The newspaper did not specify, but here is my guess:
they were making more money from political assignments as
the frenzy began to bubble. They will go back to selling blood
when democracy returns to hibernation.
F RENZY ENDS UP in newsprint, but does it get votes?
Exceptions aside, this election, like its predecessors, will
be determined by the parameters of governance, not the
variables of sentiment. Hard statistics are more persuasive
than an astrologer’s calculations or electoral rhetoric.
Over the last five years, India’s growth rate has touched
7.7 per cent, the highest in G20; China is next with
5.2 per cent. Real wages have grown at around 5 per cent a
year. Capital expenditure as a percentage of government
revenue has doubled compared with figures for 2010. India
has more digital payments than the next four countries
combined. Unemployment among youth remains a
genuine worry, but even that has improved from the
situation in 2019. The most decisive number is easily
available: some 800 million Indians, cutting across every
other divide, have been getting basic food. This is the
principal motivation of the women’s vote, which will be the
most significant influencer in the fortunes of 2024. Indians
want a government that meets the basic, existential needs
of the underprivileged; they don’t need instructions on their
living philosophy.
29 APRIL 2024
India’s heart remains exactly where it has been for
countless centuries. In the right place. A CSDS-Lokniti
poll published on April 12 is a remarkable snapshot of
the Indian mind. 79 per cent of Indians believe that their
country belongs equally to every religion. Eight out of 10
Hindus professed deep faith in pluralism; the percentage
was similar among minorities. The figures for villages
were 77 per cent and for towns 85 per cent; there was little
difference between the “schooled” and the “unschooled”.
This is a portrait of a civilisation. This is the philosophy
shared by rich and poor, by people of every religion. Indians
believe in harmony, and a shared destiny. Those who preach
supremacy will soon discover how far they have moved
from the heartbeat of India.
P RIME MINISTER MODI ended one artificial debate
when he refuted the allegation that his party would
change the Constitution if re-elected. I quote his exact words
in a speech in Barmer on April 13: “As far as the Constitution
is concerned, even if Babasaheb Ambedkar himself comes,
he cannot abolish it. The Constitution is the Gita, Ramayana,
Mahabharata, Bible and Quran for government.”
O N A BRIEF VISIT to a semi-distant Singapore, I found
yet another of those inexplicable things that defeat
common sense. Covid has inflicted some curious casualties.
Singapore Airlines, among the best on the international
skyway, stopped giving excellent playing cards during
Covid using, implicitly, the transition of germs as an excuse.
It now offers “Ultimate Antiseptic Wipes” called Zappy.
Zappy claims its product has been “tested by UK lab” and
guarantees the destruction of “99.99%” of “harmful germs”.
I am now absolutely determined to become acquainted
with the 00.01 per cent germs which are resolutely resistant
to these wipes, as certified by the surprisingly anonymous
“UK lab”. These germs must be the toughest minority on the
planet. They have survived all efforts at extermination by
the mighty “UK lab”. For some reason unknown to formal
English, this entity describes itself as a lab rather than a
laboratory. My other objective is to meet the scientists
working in the “UK lab” if for no other reason than to
recommend them for the Nobel Prize in balderdash. Why,
and indeed how, do some of the best corporations in the
world fall for such bunkum?
www.openthemagazine.com 9
 OPENINGS
NOTEBOOK

A Shooting in Bollywood

A
S WITH EVERYTHING in the social media age, the the brother of Lawrence Bishnoi.
visual makes the story viral, but that was just the There is no clarity on what exactly they want. Media reports
icing on a cake with elements of movie superstars said that they had tried to get in touch with Salman Khan
and underworld dons creating fiefdoms. That, in a through a threatening email earlier and even though a some-
nutshell, has been the resonance from the shooting outside the what clumsy way to go about when it comes to communicat-
building where Salman Khan stays in Mumbai by two men on ing with a superstar, it still leaves the motive a mystery. The
a motorcycle in the early hours of April 14. A CCTV footage that Bishnoi gang have for some time been obsessed with
got it clearly has become fodder for innumerable WhatsApp for- Salman Khan but there seems to be no rationale for it except
wards. It wasn’t immediately certain how seriously this should for a tangential fact that Khan was once involved in a famous
be taken until the police revealed that the gang of an incarcer- poaching case a quarter-of-a-century ago, of a black buck, an
ated gangster from Tihar Jail, Lawrence Bishnoi, was behind it. animal that the Bishnoi community venerates. That is not
The shooting evoked memories of a Mumbai that once used what ordinarily motivates gangsters. Perhaps Khan’s father,
to be. In the 1980s and 1990s, the underworld got intimately Salim Khan, knew best when asked about the attack by a
interested in the film industry. The involvement ranged from television channel and replied that there was nothing to talk
film financing to production to outright extortion. But then about because it was just some criminals out to get publicity.
came a great clean-up by the police through encounter killings. Ironically, the allegation of a publicity stunt was something
There was also the advent of corporate finance which meant levelled against the family too, and they took it seriously
filmmakers got access to legitimate capital. The present shoot- enough for Khan’s brother Arbaaz to release a statement that
ing was a throwback and it wasn’t a surprise that the gangsters said: “Our family has been taken aback by this shocking inci-
who did it weren’t from Mumbai, but dent that took place. Unfortunately,
from North India. Local criminals some people claiming to be close to
know to check their ambitions. our family and pretending to be the
Those behind the shooting put up The Bishnoi gang spokesperson have been making loose
a Facebook post that said, as translated
from Hindi, rather melodramatically:
have for some time statements to the media saying it’s all a
publicity stunt and the family remains
“We seek peace. If the price for going been obsessed with unaffected which is not true and these
against injustice is war, then so be it. Salman Khan but there views should not be taken seriously.”
Salman Khan, we have done this to seems to be no rationale While the Bishnoi gang might be in
show you the trailer. So that you un- this for publicity, that does not mean
derstand our strength and don’t test it. for it except for a the danger is not viscerally real. They
This is the first and last warning. Next tangential fact that have a long track record of killings and
time, the bullets won’t be fired at just Khan was once involved organised crime stretching beyond
the house. As for Dawood Ibrahim and in a famous poaching India. One of the signatories to that
Chhota Shakeel whom you consider Facebook post, Goldy Brar, is the man
gods, we have two dogs named after case of a black buck, behind the murder of the popular
them. Otherwise, I don’t have a habit of an animal that the rap singer from Punjab, Sidhu Moose
talking too much.” The post is prefaced Bishnoi community Wala, two years ago. That made every-
by salutations to gods and country. And
in the end, it says “Lawrence Bishnoi
venerates. That is one sit up and take notice of the gang.
Moose Wala’s murder was professed
Group” with these names under it: not what ordinarily by Brar to be a revenge killing for one
Goldy Brar, Rohit Godara, Kala Jathari. motivates gangsters of their gang members the previous
The post was put up by Anmol Bishnoi, year in which the singer was said to be

10 29 APRIL 2024
Maharashtra Chief Minister
Eknath Shinde meets
Salman Khan at his house
in Mumbai, April 16, 2024
connected. And here, too, Brar had boasted about it on
Facebook, and later, to interviews in the media. He also said
then that the gang would go after Salman Khan for the black
buck poaching.
In the Khan house shooting, the Mumbai police took action
with alacrity. The case was transferred to the crime branch
and, according to some reports, over 10 teams were formed to
investigate and track down the shooters. Even though they had
their faces covered, were from outside Maharashtra, and left
little trace by way of the vehicle or mobile phones used, the po-
lice managed to track the two shooters to Bhuj in Gujarat from
where they were arrested. They turned out to be two criminals
from Bihar who had done the shooting for a few lakhs. Another
person who coordinated it was arrested from Haryana. For
the ones who ordered it sitting in countries like Canada, the
monetary value in terms of publicity is immeasurable. The
next extortion call they make will not be ignored, whoever
they choose to target.
Soon after the shooting, Maharashtra Chief Minister
Eknath Shinde visited the house of Salman Khan and later told
the media that the days of such violence in the state were over
and the Bishnoi gang would be finished. But it is easier said than
done. Lawrence Bishnoi is already in jail and will not be out for
29 APRIL 2024
a long time. The system that allows someone like him to run a
criminal empire even from prison can hardly be dismantled by
the chief minister of one state. Bishnoi’s rise in crime is near-
meteoric. He is only 31 now. From getting into crime through
student politics in Punjab when he was around 18, his footprint
spanned states like Delhi, Rajasthan and Punjab. He has had
Salman Khan in his sights since 2018. Goldy Brar has been his as-
sociate from his student politics days. His gang has been linked
to pro-Khalistan networks and Brar was early this year declared
a terrorist. If at all the story of his gang says anything, then it is
that at some point such criminals take on a scale that makes it
difficult to contain them because they live in countries abroad
and exploit the laws there that make it difficult for India to act.
Dawood Ibrahim showed the way to all of them.
Khan had been granted Y-Plus security and there are media
reports from last year saying that security of his house had
been tightened. Yet, it had not prevented the shooting. The film
industry must now be hoping that this is not a return to the
free-for-all of the past. Because if one gang becomes successful
in creating terror, there will be other criminal competitors
waiting to follow.
By MADHAVANKUTTY PILLAI
www.openthemagazine.com 11
 OPENINGS
PORTRAIT JAGDISH BHAGWATI
PRACTICAL ECONOMIST
A true champion of free trade calls it a day
I N JULY, JAGDISH BHAGWATI, the doyen of trade theorists, will turn
90. Just months before that event, he hung up his boots. After 44 years
as a professor at Columbia University, he has called it a day. In intellec-
tual terms, it is a well-lived life.
Bhagwati came of age in an India that was afflicted with socialism. In
the 1950s, just a decade after Independence, socialism was thought to be the
panacea for India’s economic problems after nearly two centuries of colonial
rule. But that was a mistaken belief. At that time, to talk of free trade and open
markets was heresy. After all, just about the time India gained her freedom,
Raúl Prebisch and Hans Singer showed how countries that exported primary
commodities witnessed deterioration in their terms-of-trade. Nascent India
did not produce anything that Western and other markets would find
worthwhile, except primary commodities. And that was the surest path to
‘neo-colonialism’. That was the intellectual birth of ‘export pessimism’, an
idea that stuck to policymaking with tenacity that beat a blood-sucking leach.
In those dreary decades, Bhagwati wrote two monographs that warned
of the economic miss-steps since 1951, when economic planning was
unleashed on India. In India: Planning for Industrialization: Industrialization
and Trade Policies since 1951 (1970) and Anatomy and Consequences of Exchange
Control Regimes (1978), he detailed the consequences of those fateful choices.
But these ideas fell on deaf years. Much like those enchanted by Circe, India
continued to remain under the thrall of socialism. By that time, Bhagwati had
left India for good. In 1982, he wrote a paper that theorised the economic and
social ill-effects of life under ‘command and control’ economies. In ‘Directly
Unproductive, Profit-seeking (DUP) Activities’ [Journal of Political Economy,
vol 90(5), 1982], he examined rent-seeking, smuggling and other egregious
behaviours as by-products of socialist controls. But even at that stage, when
there was sufficient evidence that socialism had served India badly, there was
12
no effort to undo the damage. Instead of first-order
solutions, India’s rulers decided to opt for ‘solutions’
that were more damaging than the problem. In
1974, The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and
Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act was passed
to check smuggling. A year earlier, The Foreign
Exchange Regulation Act or FERA was passed that
outlawed certain foreign exchange transactions in
a bid to conserve foreign exchange. These problems
were analysed threadbare by Bhagwati, but to no
avail. It took decades to amend FERA and take the
bite out of its draconian provisions.
Here a comparison with Bhagwati’s academic
peer, Amartya Sen, is appropriate. In the decade up
to 2014, Sen’s influence in government remained
high and he was feted as the “economist of the poor”.
Where Bhagwati focused on ideas that could help
India grow, Sen was obsessed with poverty and
inequality and pitched for higher expenditures
towards ameliorating poverty. But it is a triumph
of Bhagwati’s economics that the greatest decline
in India’s poverty took place during those phases
when India grew fast, and not the ones when it
redistributed more. But much like the first round
of socialism (1951-1991), the idea that poverty
can be ended by taxing the rich (and now, per the
political backers of this idea, the middle class as
well), remains alive and kicking. Sen, a pioneer and a
masterful exponent of choice theory, is an academic
champion, while Bhagwati has far greater influence
among practical people. It is worth remembering
that at one time, economics was a worldly—
practical—discipline, and not an intellectual
exercise. Bhagwati will always be remembered for
preserving the original moorings of the discipline.
It is not surprising that Bhagwati’s ideas resonate
most with the politics of another practical man,
Narendra Modi. On the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections Bhagwati told the Financial Times in an
interview, “When people say Modi is authoritarian,
that I don’t believe. It sounds like he’s a fascist of some
kind. But if people don’t exercise authority, nothing
gets done. You need someone who is providing a
vision of somewhere where you can go.” The one
decade since that interview has proved the “vision
thing” right. India’s extraordinary development of
its infrastructure, trade, reduction in poverty and its
race towards becoming the third-largest economy
in the world have proved Bhagwati’s faith in Modi
right. As this great economist enters his ninth decade,
one hopes his insights will continue to shed light on
choices made by his country of birth.
By SIDDHARTH SINGH
29 APRIL 2024
 ANGLE
PRIVATE PUBLIC BENEFITS
On membership
wrangles in exclusive
clubs on government
land in Mumbai
By MADHAVANKUTTY PILLAI
T HE MAHALAXMI RACE Course
is one of the most iconic land-
marks of Mumbai and is run by a club
called the Royal Western India Turf
Club Ltd (RWITC). Some time back,
the land’s lease, which had been taken
from the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC), had come up for
renewal. Usually, it is impossible to
get membership in such clubs with
waiting lists stretching into decades. In
a city like Mumbai, such clubs occupy
land worth hundreds, if not thousands,
of crores of rupees. They charge mini-
mal fees from their members and pay
lease that is negligible because in city
planning, clubs are a public service for
the state to subsidise. It is when the lease
ends that the government can get a foot
in, renegotiate rates, force the clubs to
throw their doors open, or do some-
thing which is beneficial for the larger
population, instead of small privileged
groups. For the race course, the corpora-
tion decided to take back a part of the
land from the RWITC for a public park,
which is a progressive step. However, it
also came out with a government reso-
lution forcing the club to give lifetime
membership to 50 bureaucrats selected
by the chief minister. That seemed
an arbitrary exercise of discretionary
power to distribute largesse.
This week, in a widely publicised
missive, a former corporator wrote to
the chief minister about another such
institution, Willingdon Sports Club,
again in South Mumbai, which had also
been asked to induct 50 bureaucrats. It is
29 APRIL 2024
a club so exclusive and tradition-bound
that it once denied artist MF Husain
entry because he was barefooted, leading
to frontpage headlines. The corporator,
who was voicing the sentiments of exist-
ing club members, asked for the move
to be reconsidered. The logic used was
that it would upset the demographics to
have so many new members and would
change the culture of the club. The real
question is, in fact, the opposite. Why
should government offer to subsidise
clubs in which the entire population
is kept out? If people desire a club, why
shouldn’t they just buy land at market
rate? The idea of such clubs was from the
colonial time when Mumbai was a small
town, land was relatively cheap, and it
was felt that the state had a duty towards
quality of life of the elite who helped
govern it. None of it makes sense in a city
of crores where all that such enclaves do
is signal entitlement and luck. If your
grandfather decided to be a member by
paying a few hundred rupees, you get
to be one. Membership is not based on
merit, contribution to society, random
lottery or any reasonable criteria.
The government could just convert
all such land to gardens and park,
where everyone can enter and it would
be more equitable. Or it can sell these
lands, collect tens of thousands of crores
of rupees, and use it for education and
health. Or, at the very least, it must
explain what it is giving back to
the society by humouring a few
people coming every night to have
a drink together.
IDEAS
FOOD
If the way to an individual’s heart is
through the stomach, perhaps the route
to his voting preference may not be too
different? As the country enters the
election season, is it any bit surprising
that politicians are deploying food to
win over voters? From Narendra Modi
professing his love for upma to
Rahul Gandhi jumping over a road
divider to buy Mysore Pak for
MK Stalin, Modi’s reference to a non-
vegetarian meal being prepared by an
opposition leader during the period of
Navratri, when many Hindus eat only
vegetarian food, to Mamata Banerjee
using the consumption of fish to
solidify her base in Bengal, politicians
across party divides have tried to bring
in food into their politics. This isn’t just
an Indian phenomenon. In the recently
concluded parliamentary elections in
South Korea, which President Yoon
Suk Yeol’s conservative party lost, the
Opposition built a successful campaign
around that everyday fixture of Korean
cooking—spring onions. Yoon Suk
Yeol’s rival candidates would wave
clutches of spring onions to mock the
president’s allegedly unrealistic ideas of
how much it should cost.
WORD’S WORTH
‘In the course of my life
I have often had to eat my
words, and I must confess
that I have always found
it a wholesome diet’
WINSTON CHURCHILL
FORMER BRITISH POLITICIAN
www.openthemagazine.com 13
INSIDER
BJP’S MANIFESTO SURPRISE

T
HE RELEASE OF BJP’s election manifesto poured cold water over media outlets waiting to claim ‘credit’ for
scooping its contents. There was no enhancement of the `6,000 a year PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (paid out to
farmers in three instalments) or anything else that can qualify as a giveaway or “revdis (sweets)”, as
Prime Minister Narendra Modi describes freebies. The contrast from the populist promises in the Congress
manifesto could not be starker. Similarly, the stated commitment to “one nation, one election” and Uniform Civil Code
(UCC) is polar opposite to Congress’ support for different sets of personal laws or I.N.D.I.A. bloc member DMK’s opposition
to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the national entrance examination for medical education. Ahead of the 2019
election, too, BJP did not succumb to the temptation to match Congress’ promise for a `72,000 annual payout to the farmers.
The prime minister is understood to have asked anxious party leaders whether taking recourse to such populism would
not amount to accepting that government programmes have failed. If the government had indeed delivered then there is
no need to make irresponsible promises, he said. The manifesto reveals a plan to grow the economy and provide more job
opportunities (increase the size of the cake so that more resources are generated). It provides for targeted interventions that
will help those who need assistance, and cannot depend on a ‘trickle down’ effect. Modi therefore reiterated his commitment
for providing eligible households with free rations for another five years and announced that the Ayushman Bharat medical
insurance scheme will be extended to all senior citizens above the age of 70. This is a key announcement as many people retire
without adequate insurance cover, or even lack it during their working lives. Many insurance providers do not offer cover
beyond a certain age or demand a high premium, leaving the elderly in a precarious situation at a time when they might most
need medical assistance. This is a move towards a universal health cover. The BJP manifesto clearly demonstrates the party’s
conviction that blandishments offered by its rivals will not strike a chord with voters.

14 29 APRIL 2024

CONGRESS’
DELHI CHOICES
A fter much deliberation,
Congress announced its
candidates for the three Lok
Sabha seats it is contesting
in Delhi, naming former
JNU student leader
Kanhaiya Kumar from North
East Delhi, Dalit activist
Udit Raj from North West
Delhi and veteran JP Agarwal
from Chandni Chowk. The
selection is underwhelming.
Only Agarwal has a certain
standing in a constituency he
has represented in the past
and enjoys a reputation for
being accessible and helpful.
Kumar is up against popular
BJP leader Manoj Tiwari who
has been an effective MP and
has a large fan base that tunes
into his Bhojpuri songs and
movies. While Kumar has
CƔCKTHQTQTCVQT[KVKUOQTG
suited to union meetings and
sloganeering. The former JNU
student president, who came
into the limelight for organising
a meeting in support of
Afzal Guru—convicted for his
role in the 2001 Parliament
attack case—could not be
accommodated in Bihar where
Congress ally RJD did not play
ball. Raj, meanwhile, won on
a BJP ticket in 2014 but soon
became a malcontent when his
requests and demands fell on
deaf ears.
29 APRIL 2024
Illustrations by SAURABH SINGH
No Candles for Soren
W hile the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal in connection with alleged
irregularities in the Delhi liquor policy and his subse-
quent efforts to procure bail have garnered wide-
spread attention, there is hardly any discussion about
former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren who
was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement on January 31 and remains in custody.
It is odd that Soren’s arrest and continued incarceration is hardly being noticed, even by
commentators who have criticised Kejriwal’s arrest as an act of political vendetta. On
his part, Soren did not dally in selecting a successor and stepped down as chief minister.
This was, of course, not exactly a voluntary act but perhaps a wise one given the circum-
stances. As is quite evident, it is simply not possible to run a government from prison. It
is inevitable that official functioning will suffer causing inconvenience to people. Soren
ensured Jharkhand has a functional government, even if one that is run by proxy. This is
the practical aspect of the situation, though political morality demands that a politician
step down from office in case of being arrested.
*KV,QD$CEMƓTGU
A report in a foreign publication claiming the Indian government has car-
ried out targeted hits on terrorists in Pakistan came unstuck due to several
obvious inaccuracies. But even more galling for the publication and a section of
commentators, the report ended up having the opposite effect to the one hoped
for. Rather than placing the Modi government—which denied the report—in the
dock, the report was held up on social media as evidence that India will not take
cross-border terrorism lying down. The story mutated rapidly and soon it hardly
bore any resemblance to the original. The reference to the publication was soon
lost and the story became one of the government’s resolute intent to combat terror.
It is no wonder that no opposition party wasted time in trying to rake up the report.
The question whether any dark operations have been carried out is hard to answer.
The jihadist groups who operate from Pakistan are riven with rivalries and fac-
tions and it is not impossible for one to turn the gun on the other. The shooting of
the killer of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who was murdered in a Pakistan jail as
“revenge” for Guru’s hanging, by “unknown gunmen”, is the latest such instance.
The killers were clearly locals. Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed narrowly escaped
a bomb attack at his residence in 2021. A senior official had at the time informally
noted that if the ball was dribbled into the D but a goal did not result, it could not be
described as a success.
Himanta’s Dance Moves
I n addition to his many talents, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma can sway
gracefully to music. It might be a stretch to describe his moves as dance as media outlets have
done, but he has a feel for rhythm. Sarma’s rallies see him mouthing and shuffling to the BJP
poll song that appeals for another term for Prime Minister Modi. Sarma has proved a remark-
able politician and has come into his own after he left Congress and joined BJP. He knit a well-
functioning alliance of regional parties and in Assam itself he has vigorously altered the terms
of discourse. He has assertively propelled BJP on a Hindutva
path and simultaneously linked this with the state’s identity.
In contrast to the view that Assam comprises various ‘subcul-
tures’ that need to be treated differently, he has re-written the
script by presenting illegal migration from Bangladesh as the
common threat to all native and indigenous groups. This has
enabled BJP to overcome the divide between Bengali speakers
and others. It has also meant there were hardly any protests
when the CAA rules were announced, despite certain contra-
dictions with the Assam Accord of 1985.
www.openthemagazine.com 15
 ISRAEL DIARY

THE WAR DURING PASSOVER

,QWKHFRQÁLFWEHWZHHQ,UDQDQG,VUDHOWKHKRVWDJHVFDQQRWEHIRUJRWWHQ
By Anat Bernstein-Reich
and drones armed with explosives
looming over the Israeli skies.
I rushed back home, hoping that
the sirens would not catch me on the
road. I am accustomed to being on the
road when the sirens blare. I am used
to getting out of the car and lying down
with my hands on my head. This time,
we didn’t know what to expect. We are
accustomed to rockets from Gaza, but
ballistic missiles and drone swarms
from Iran are a different story—scarier,
more unpredictable. Over 60 tonnes of
explosives made their way to Israel. The
to Israel. The IDF spokesperson during
the Gulf War, Nachman Shai, was then
named ‘The National Tranquilizer’ for
his calm demeanour, suggesting people
drink water and relax. Suddenly, 33 years
later, Shai reappeared on the screen,
comparing the current situation to the
Gulf War. Around 4AM, when I realised
that my village was of no interest to the
Iranians, I planned to go to sleep—but it
didn’t happen. The sky above my house
resembled a scene from the movie
Top Gun. I live near an air force base, and
the F-16 fighter jets took off one after

O
N THE EVENING of April 13, Israeli news channel summoned all its the other, loaded with explosives, their
I was preparing to board the ‘cannons’ to the studio. It felt like déjà vu, whistles shaking the walls. Over the past
Air India flight from Tel Aviv reminiscent of the 1991 Gulf War when six months, since October 7, I’ve become
to New Delhi. There was a slight delay, scud missiles were launched from Iraq an expert on airplanes—whether they’re
and the hum of activity in the wait-
ing area near the gate suggested that
something was amiss. Backpackers, Israel intercepts missiles
fired from Iran,
fresh from their Reserve Army service, April 14, 2024
eagerly awaited their Indian getaway.
Indian caregivers and students anx-
iously anticipated their return home.
Around 10PM, news broke that Jordan
had closed its airspace. An hour later,
another bulletin reported an attack of
missiles and drones from Iran to Israel.
Panic began to grip. The boarding still
had not started. Airport authorities
announced the closure of the Israeli
airspace at 12:30PM. It became appar-
ent that the flight needed to depart
immediately. Eventually, the airline
opted to postpone the flight, unwilling
to take the gamble of flying amidst the
impending threat of over 300 missiles

16 29 APRIL 2024
loaded with explosives, heading
north or south, whether those are
UAVs, or choppers carrying wounded
soldiers from the Gaza battlefield. On
the night of April 13, my bedroom felt
like a battlefield.
The morning after was filled
with a feeling of euphoria and vic-
tory. It was a victory not just because
99 per cent of the missiles and
drones were intercepted, but also
because the allies of Israel stood by
our side. After six months, we found
ourselves victims once again. The
world always loves an underdog,
just as it supported Israel briefly after
the massacre on October 7. However,
when Israel retaliated and began fight-
ing Hamas, the tone changed. We were
no longer seen as victims; we became
the aggressors. “Genocide,” South
Africa shouted in the Hague court.
The headlines dubbed the night of
the attack a “Historic Night”, a “night in
which the equations changed”. Finally,
Iran showed its true colours to the world
and didn’t hide behind its proxies in
Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
Since October 7, Israel has blamed Iran
for being the force behind the attacks
from the north and south. They trained
Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, and
provided them with ammunition and
funds, but never directly attacked Israel.
The trigger for this current Iranian
hostility was the Israeli attack (not
confirmed by Israel) at the end of March
on an Iranian building in Syria, in which severe response, while Joe Biden, amid
an Iranian Quds Force officer was killed.
The Quds Force is one of Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the per- US and allied support, faces a dilemma
son killed was engaged in terror attacks
through Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Many people have asked me why
Iran is hostile to Israel. There is no
border between the two countries, and
ostensibly, there should be no conflict.
In fact, before 1979, Israel and Iran
maintained robust diplomatic and
business relations. However, with the
rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and the
establishment of the Islamic Republic,
everything changed. Iran aspires to be a
regional power, and to rally Arab nations the third holiest site in Islam after
29 APRIL 2024
Israeli tanks near the Gaza border, April 9, 2024
around a common cause, they needed a
shared enemy—the state of Israel. Israel,
the lone democratic nation in the region,
challenges extreme Islamist ideologies
with its liberal ideas, technological ad-
vancements, transformation of a desert
into an oasis, and close ties with another
major adversary, the US.
Within the Israeli war cabinet, delib-
erations weigh whether Israel should
retaliate or exercise restraint. While
the attack caused minimal harm,
such a massive assault cannot be left
unanswered as it might signal weak-
ness to Iran. The question arises: should
revenge match the scale of the attack or
its impact, which was minimal? World
leaders advocate for restraint, consider-
ing that any Israeli retaliation could
escalate into a regional confrontation.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies
in the government are pushing for a
an election year, seeks to avoid further
tensions. Netanyahu, reliant on the
between internal stability and external
backing, crucial at those times. The
interception operation was a joint
effort of Israel and its allies, including
the US, the UK, Jordan, and discreet
support from the UAE, Saudi Arabia,
and Bahrain, all forming the Middle
East Air Defense (MEAD) front.
Videos captured during the night of
the attack, particularly one from Jerusa-
lem, reveal missiles passing above the
Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque,
Photos AP
Mecca and Medina. Iran’s disregard for
this sacred place contrasts with Israel’s
interception efforts to prevent any
damage to this holy site.
Jews all over the world will celebrate
the holiday of Passover on April 22. For
Jews, this is the most important family
gathering throughout the year, and is
like Diwali. Passover commemorates
the biblical Exodus, symbolising the
liberation of Jews from slavery in Egypt
and their journey to becoming a free na-
tion in their homeland, Israel. However,
this year, numerous families have cho-
sen not to observe the holiday. Currently,
Israel has 133 hostages held by Hamas,
including two children, and Hamas has
refused the proposed truce and release
of the hostages. The families of the
hostages voice their anguish, declaring,
“How can we celebrate the holiday of
freedom while our loved ones remain
captive?” Although the recent Iran
attack briefly diverted public attention,
the families’ protest against the govern-
ment’s inaction will soon resume.
They contend that the government
has not prioritised efforts to release the
hostages, accusing Netanyahu of pri-
oritising his political survival over their
loved ones’ welfare. Failure to release
the hostages risks the eroding trust be-
tween the government and the people,
violating an unwritten pact essential
to the foundations of Israel. „
Anat Bernstein-Reich, based
in Tel Aviv, is chairperson of the
Israel-Asia Chamber of Commerce
www.openthemagazine.com 17
 NAAC
ACCREDI T ED INST I TUT IONS
04769;(5*,6-
5((*(**9,+0;(;065
-69/,0Z0505+0(
The National Assessment and
Accreditation Council (NAAC)
is an important accreditation
agency that assesses the
reputation of Indian higher
education institutions.
ccreditation provides reliable
A standards for ensuring that all
higher education institutions
oǘer students with high-quality instruction,
facilities, and services. ,t oǘers a forum
for external validation of the institution’s
performance. Furthermore, recognized
universities enMoy greater conÀdence and
reputation among students, parents,
employers, and other stakeholders. It assures
them that the institution follows established
requirements and provides quality education.
Compliance with accreditation criteria
ensures that institutions meet the minimum
standards established by accrediting agencies,
and there is no doubt about the institution’s
standard because it is under the jurisdiction
of the assessment council for a period of
Àve years until the institution undergoes its
next cycle of assessment. The assessment
includes curriculum design, student and
faculty cycles, infrastructure, green initiatives
and best practices, and overall governance
which are essential for ensuring a high-
quality education system. Periodic revisions
of the curriculum by institutions enable them
to assess the alignment of their courses with
both national and global relevance, while
also meeting the needs for employability and
entrepreneurship. This assessment is not
only about ensuring that institutions adhere
to standards but also about encouraging
active participation from stakeholders.
This, in turn, provides opportunities for
continuous improvement through self-
assessment and peer review processes. The
accreditation enables institutions to assess
themselves based on benchmarks, track
progress annually through the Annual Quality
Assurance Report (AQAR), and plan strategies
to review academic, teaching, learning, and
research initiatives. The assessment process
oǘers students a valuable opportunity to
gain insights into various institutions and
their standards. This allows them to evaluate
these institutions based on their accreditation
status, aiding them in selecting the most
suitable ones to join. Accreditation from
NAAC guarantees the quality of education
and the reputation of an institution not only
domestically but also internationally, making
it crucial for attracting students, faculty, and
fostering collaborations. Often, funders and
government schemes provide most of their
support to accredited institutions. Thus, it is
more likely for accredited institutions to get
grants, funding, and resources quickly.
NAAC accreditation is basically a system
of self-evaluation, peer review, and feedback,
which in fact condition the institution for
a pattern of continuous perfection. The
accreditation of NAAC paves the way
for international tie-ups, discourse, and
partnerships as this is a benchmark that is
declared globally. Institutions conduct self-
evaluations on a periodic basis which are used
to Ànd institutions’ strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats to increase
the quality of education. The certiÀcation
process promotes current and innovative
educational approaches, eventually improving
the institution’s reputation and paving the
route to success. HEIs prioritize intra and
inter-institutional communication to ensure
smooth internal operations during NAAC
accreditation, bridging the gap between
faculty and students. Leveraging technology,
such as strong education ERP software,
allows institutions to optimize workÁows
and eǘectively manage institutional data
across administration, campus operations,
academic management, and library
systems. Recognizing and implementing best
practices, which is a signiÀcant NAAC metric,
enables institutions to improve the quality
of their education and academic services,
resulting in better student learning outcomes.
Implementing best practices also simpliÀes
institutional procedures and operations,
increasing eǙciency and productivity
across departments and functions. Overall,
NAAC accreditation acts as a catalyst for
institutional excellence by encouraging
continual improvement and guaranteeing
that institutions maintain high standards of
excellence, which beneÀts students, faculty,
employers, and society at large. „
Byy Dr ASHA RAJIV, DIRECTOR, IQAC & SCHOOL
OF SCIENCES, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University)
 To emerge as a world-class University in creating disseminating
knowledge, and providing students a unique learning experience
T R Paarivendhar, Chancellor, SRM Institute of Science and Technology

To be known globally for value based education,

research, creativity and innovation
Suneel Galgotia, Chancellor, Galgotias University

To foster human development through

excellence in Quality Education, Research,
and Entrepreneurial Development
Dr. Chenraj Roychand, Chancellor,
JAIN (Deemed-to-be University)

To ensure the journey of

education is inspiring,
pleasant and enjoyable to

NAAC
attract best of the Teachers
and Students
Poojya Shri D. Veerendra
Heggade Hon’ble

A++
Chancellor, SDM

A+
We strive to provide
and maintain
academic environment
and systems, enabling
maximum learning to
produce competent
ACCREDITED INSTITUTIONS professionals.
Dr R. K. Agarwal ,
have now becom e MOST TRUSTED Director General, AKGEC
IN STITUTION of India.
This feature highlights those To promote higher learning in
institutions who have now advanced technology and industrial
becom e first choice of m any research to make our country a
global player
aspiring students.
Shri Jaipal Meel, Director, Swami
Keshvanand Institute of Technology

To serve the society and enhance the quality of life

through excellence and leadership in professionally
relevant education
Dr Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Chairman, GNIOT Group of Institutions

To bring global best practices to students through

widespread use of technology.
Prof. P.K. Dashora, VC, Mangalayatan University
7

GALGOTIAS UNIVERSITY
BUILDING NATION, JAIN Online: Shaping
DELIVERING IMPACT the Landscape of
xperience the best of
E academia, research, and
student life at Galgotias
University, a top-ranked institution
with a global reputation.
Galgotias University, located
in Uttar Pradesh and sponsored
by Smt. Shakuntala Educational
and Welfare Society, has been
recognized as a leading academic
institution by achieving the highest
benchmark in academic excellence
with NAAC A+ accreditation in
the Àrst cycle. This remarkable
achievement places Galgotias as
one of the best private university
with a NAAC score of 3.37 out
 
     of 4, awarded by the National
Assessment and Accreditation
Council (NAAC), and the highest graded autonomous institute of the UGC,
Ministry of Education, Govt. of India.
Today, with  schools oǘering over  programs, including 'iploma,
Undergraduate, Postgraduate, and Ph' Programs, we rank among India’s
top universities. We aim to become an internationally recognized institution
that excels in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary education, research,
and innovation, producing graduates who are globally competitive
and poised to become leaders in their Àelds. Graduates will possess
deep knowledge in their chosen Àelds, strong problem-solving skills,
an understanding of the societal context of their profession, eǘective
teamwork abilities, excellent communication skills, and a commitment
to lifelong learning. Our unwavering commitment to prioritize students is
a core reason for consistent top rankings among universities around the
globe. By maintaining a low student-to-faculty ratio, the university ensures
that every student receives ample individual attention and personalized
mentoring opportunities.
QS has rated us for excellence with 5 stars in Teaching, Academic
development, facilities, innovations and employability. We have earned
numerous accolades for outstanding academic programs, including
recognition as 'Excellent' in the ARIIA Ranking, UGC-12B status and
'SIR SIRO. We are ranked amongst the top 11-15 ranking band in
the Engineering category, 52nd ranking for Pharmacy, and 91st ranking
for Management along with the ranking in top 50 in Innovations in the
esteemed NIRF IN'IA RAN.INGS 2023, declared by the Ministry of
Education.
At Galgotias university, students receive a world-class education that
prepares them for success in their chosen careers. With state-of-the-
art facilities, cutting-edge technology, and a wide range of programs
and courses, we are dedicated for fostering graduates who are both
academically strong and well-rounded individuals capable of making
meaningful contributions to the society.
 ACCREDITED
INSTITUTIONS
JAIN (DEEMED-TO-BE UNIVERSITY)
Online Education
O
nline 'egree Programs have gained immense popularity
due to the freedom they allow learners to obtain a higher
education degree from the comfort of their homes, ensuring
Áexibility without sacriÀcing educational quality. Additionally, they provide
opportunities for individuals to balance their studies with work or other
commitments seamlessly.
Taking this into account, the JAIN Group ventured into the online
education space with JAIN Online, the e-learning arm of JAIN ('eemed-
to-be University). JAIN Online allows higher education aspirants and future
professionals to identify and hone their professional skills and learning with
utmost Áexibility and convenience.
Today, JAIN Online is one of India's leading online education providers
oǘering a wide array of UGC-Entitled Online 'egree Programs, namely
MBA, MCA, M.Com, MA, BBA, and B.Com, encompassing over 40 sought-
after electives. These programs have international accreditation from
globally renowned institutions like ACCA, CMA, IoA, and CPA in the US
and U.. With a curriculum designed to meet industry standards, learners
have the Áexibility to learn from distinguished faculty members at their own
pace and convenience, regardless of location.
JAIN Online also oǘers a multi-disciplinary approach to its learners by
granting access to more than 20,000 courses on LinkedIn Learning. This
enriches the learners’ educational journey and secures their professional
advancement. Additionally, the learning community of JAIN Online,
ENGAGE, aspires to oǘer learners the chance to experience a campus-like
environment, seize networking opportunities, and gain industry exposure.
Furthermore, the e-learning platform boasts a state-of-the-art technological
framework, providing learners with a holistic learning experience. With
its best-in-class UX/UI features, it continuously evolves with interactive
features and software upgrades to ensure a seamless and secure
educational experience for all users.
JAIN Online is steadfast in its pursuit of providing diverse learning
opportunities that will help learners advance their careers and lives. With
its unwavering focus on learner success and its dedication to staying
ahead of emerging trends and technologies, JAIN Online looks forward to
shaping the future of online education and positively impacting the lives of
learners worldwide.
 ˇ˥˔ˡ˦˙ˢ˥ˠ˜ˡ˚
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AJAY KUMAR GARG ENGINEERING COLLEGE SWAMI KESHVANAND INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,
MANAGEMENT AND GRAMOTHAN
Driven by its commitment
to provide quality technical Creating Winners For Life
education, AKGEC has wami .eshvanand Institute of
become one of the best
Engineering Institutions in
Technology, Management & Gramothan
(S.IT) inspired from the learnings of
Swami .eshvanand, was established in the
Uttar Pradesh year 2000 by Technocrats and Managers
Society for Advanced Learning, in the Pink
   
     
jay .umar Garg Engineering College (A.GEC), Ghaziabad, Uttar
A Pradesh is approved by AICTE and aǙliated to 'r. APJ Abdul
.alam Technical University, Lucknow. Established in 199, the
college has six engineering departments oǘering B.Tech programs in twelve
disciplines. The college also oǘers postgraduate programs in Computer
Application (MCA) and M.Tech in four engineering disciplines. All Àve major
B.Tech Programs are accredited by NBA. The college has attained another
remarkable achievement by becoming the only Engineering college in UP
(A.TU) to be awarded A++ grading by NAAC.
The college has been consistently maintaining excellent results with
large number of its students appearing in A.TU merit lists every year with
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. The college students have also received
the A.TU Chancellor’s Medal for best performance across all B.Tech
branches for Àve consecutive years. It is a matter of pride that the A.TU
'istinguished Alumni Award has been bagged by A.GEC students for two
consecutive years since its inception in 2020.
The college has the distinction of being the only college to receive the
Academic Excellence Award for Best Engineering College in UPTU (now
A.TU) for two successive years from the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. The
college is also the recipient of the Best Industry Institute Interface award
conferred by the Minister of Science & Technology, U.P. Government, as
well as by the Royal Academy of Engineering, U...
The college also conducts a number of industrially relevant programs to
make its students globally employable.
The college has established a number of Centres of Excellence in
collaboration with eminent multinational industries like .uka Robotics,
Bosch Rexroth, National Instruments, Siemens, Mitsubishi Electric,
Fronius, Janatics India, Automation Industries Association, Pepperl &
Fuchs, B&R and Festo. The primary objective of these centres is to provide
industry relevant training in inter-disciplinary state-of-the-art technologies to
bridge the gap between academic curriculum and industry needs.
 ACCREDITED
INSTITUTIONS
S
City Jaipur, Rajasthan. Today the institute is
recognized as one of the centers of academic
excellence in Northern India. The Institute is
    approved by AICTE, New 'elhi and aǙliated to
   Rajasthan Technical University (RTU), .ota for
   
oǘering Postgraduate and Graduate Courses in
   
Engineering and Management.
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S.IT also bagged the Àrst rank among all the RTU aǙliated institutes. The
rank announced by RTU, .ota has been bestowed to S.IT for maintaining
excellent quality framework. Recently, S.IT bagged AAA+ rating by
Careers360 Survey (2023), Outstanding Engineering College of Excellence
award by Competition Success Review (2023), position among top 100 Pvt.
Engineering Institutions of India by Outlook Survey (2023), ‘Excellence in
Education’ award by First India News (2023), and many more.
A good number of multinational and national companies visit S.IT every
year. More than 50 students of 2023 batch have been placed. The highest
package oǘered for 2023 batch is 47 LPA. Excellent placements at S.IT
are only an endorsement of the hard work and eǘorts the institute puts in,
in shaping and honing skills of students. 'ue to continuous eǘorts, the top
notch industries have given the special status to S.IT.
S.IT is one of the few prestigious institutes of the country which have
been chosen by MoE, Govt. of India for hosting Smart India Hackathon (SIH)
2023. A strong academic program is driven by a dedicated, well trained
faculty and augmented by academic tie-ups with institutions such as ASME,
OSA, ISTE, AIMA, etc. 'eveloping employability skills is a part of structured
training activities on campus. These focus on imparting life skills and
corporate mannerism. The institute has strong tie-ups to implement these
programs. Besides academics and training, S.IT lays emphasis on building
strong cultural acumen and sportsmanship through numerous activities on
and oǘ campus.
Jaipal Meel, Director, SKIT T is a man of few words but believes in great
actions that lead to substantial and concrete results. An epitome of simple
living and high thinNing he Àrml\ believes in giving a perceptible shape to
the infant ideas of students who aspire to achieve a strong hold over their life
and career. Jaipal Meel has created umpteen opportunities for the students
and facult\ members.
He aǙrms that the trust that he wins from the parents and students is the
real asset of the institute's reputation. 'It gives us profound joy', maintains
Meel, 'when we see parents brimming up with pride and satisfaction about
their ward's progress'. Meel has spared no eǘort in making the institute the
Àrst choice for new entrants. The journey that he has traversed has been a
competent journey, moving ahead inch by inch and assimilating all that is
necessary for strengthening the youth.

MANGALAYATAN UNIVERSITY
Learn Today to Lead
Tomorrow
ur university’s motto is “Vishwam
O Gyane Prathisthitam” which
means The Universe is established
in knowledge and I believe that all students
who study at Mangalayatan University Aligarh,
will contribute towards expanding knowledge
in future.
I am delighted to share that Mangalayatan
University Aligarh (MUA) has been accredited
   with an A+ grade by the National Assessment
  and Accreditation Council in the very Àrst

cycle itself. This accreditation with A+ grade
is a testimony to the highest standards of academic integrity and research
activities of the students and faculty of our university. The success of
the University can be attributed to the dedication and brilliance of our
esteemed faculty members and to ensure that we operate with the highest
academic standards of teaching, we are maintaining a 1:15 faculty-student
ratio across all programmes. I am proud to share that out of our dedicated
team of 244 faculty members, 60 have a doctorate degree, and 1 of
them are inspiring women, who contribute signiÀcantly to the growth and
success of our university.
The exceptional calibre and contributions of our faculty members were
duly recognized last year, as they received a total of 22 prestigious awards
and recognitions from government bodies and professional organizations.
These accolades stand as a testament to the outstanding achievements,
expertise, and dedication of our faculty members and students in their
respective Àelds and reinforce Mangalayatan University’s position as a
premier institution for academic and professional excellence.
The dedicated eǘorts of our placement cell, combined with the
comprehensive training and skill development programs oǘered by our
faculty, have played a pivotal role in ensuring the success of our students’
placements. MUA has always endeavoured to deliver quality education
in a globally benchmarked learning environment through modern air-
conditioned ICT Enabled classrooms, hi-tech labs, like advanced computer
lab, Language Lab, libraries, seminar halls, playgrounds, hospital, Bank,
ATM, and Hostel facility etc. Not only has the physical infrastructure been
extensively modernized, the facilities and equipment have improved at
a faster pace. The Central Library at Mangalayatan University boasts an
extensive collection that includes 6,544 books covering a wide range of
subjects. This rich and diverse collection ensures that students, faculty,
and researchers have access to a wealth of academic resources. The
library is fully automated and using .OHA and is digitally equipped with
20 workstations.
Mangalayatan Hospital is dedicated to serve the healthcare needs to our
students, staǘ, and the nearby rural community. We oǘer a wide range of
services, including outpatient department (OP'), consultations, diagnostic
facilities, and emergency care. These recent developments showcase our
continuous eǘorts to enhance the educational landscape at Mangalayatan
University Aligarh, fostering an environment that promotes diversity,
quality, and innovation in education while expanding educational access
and opportunities for all.
 ACCREDITED
INSTITUTIONS
GREATER NOIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NAAC Peer Team Awards
A+ Grade to GNIOT
(Engineering Institute),
Commending Academic
Excellence and Infrastructure
tate-of-the-Art Infrastructure: GNIOT's
S commitment to provide a conducive
learning environment is reÁected in
its state-of-the-art infrastructure. The campus
features modern facilities, including ICT-
enabled classrooms equipped with advanced
teaching aids such as LC' projectors and
multimedia learning tools. These facilities not
only enhance the teaching-learning process
   but also foster interactive and engaging
  academic experiences for students. Moreover,
  GNIOT's well-equipped laboratories meet the
  
stringent standards set by regulatory bodies
like AICTE and A.TU, enabling students to gain hands-on experience and
practical skills essential for their academic and professional growth.
GNIOT's library serves as a treasure trove of knowledge, catering to
the diverse academic needs of students and faculty members. With an
extensive collection of books, journals, periodicals, and e-resources
spanning various disciplines, the library provides invaluable support
for research, study, and reference purposes. The institution's adoption
of digitalization through an Integrated Library Management System
(ILMS) ensures seamless access to e-resources and online databases,
empowering students and faculty members to explore the latest research
publications and scholarly works.
Greater Noida's vibrant industrial landscape provides a conducive
environment for research and innovation, enabling students and faculty
members to explore emerging technologies, trends, and challenges in their
respective Àelds. By leveraging its strategic location, GNIOT fosters synergies
between academia and industry, empowering students to gain practical
insights, industry exposure, and professional networking opportunities
essential for their holistic development and future career prospects.
GNIOT prioritizes the holistic development and well-being of its students
by providing comprehensive welfare facilities. These include a dedicated
focus on communication and soft skills training, ensuring that students are
equipped with the necessary competencies to excel in their academic and
professional endeavours. Additionally, the institution oǘers value-added
courses that complement the academic curriculum, providing students
with opportunities to enhance their skill sets and broaden their knowledge
base. Moreover, GNIOT's emphasis on extracurricular activities fosters
a vibrant campus life, encouraging students to explore their interests,
talents, and passions beyond the conÀnes of the classroom.
GNIOT is committed to environmental sustainability and has
implemented various initiatives to promote a green campus and eǙcient
waste management practices. The institution's eco-friendly initiatives
include solar PV generation systems with net metering, rainwater
harvesting structures, and measures to minimize plastic usage.

JAYPEE INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
A Leading Private ‘Deemed to be University’
in Northern India
aypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT) Noida, is “'eemed
J to be University” under section 3 of UGC Act 1956 by Ministry of
Human Resource 'evelopment (MHR'). JIIT is a NAAC accredited
and AICTE approved institute and has been ranked 94th in the 2022 India
Ranking in the Engineering Category by NIRF. JIIT is a multidisciplinary
University and is a Centre-of-Excellence for education, training, research,
innovations and IPR in the Àeld of IT, CSE, ECE and Biotechnology,
Physics, Mathematics, Humanities & Social Sciences and Management.
The Institute presently oǘers Undergraduate (BTech, BSc, BCA & BBA),
Postgraduate (MTech, MBA, MSc) and Ph' programs. New programs are
being introduced from AY 2024-25, namely; MCA, B Tech in Mathematics
and Computing, and Electronics and Computer Engineering and three
years 'iploma programs >CS & IT, Food Technology and Electronics
Engineering (Microelectronics)].
The Institute has a strong academic environment aimed at research.
546 research papers have been published and JIIT has received 126
research grants from various Govt. agencies worth over 24.77 Crores. The
Institute has a regular student exchange program with global Universities.
JIIT has declared the current decade (2021-2030) as the “Innovation
'ecade”. JIIT has also set up a digital learning platform “'igital Learning
ICFAI FOUNDATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Equip to Achieve: Governor of Telangana Shri C P Radha
Krishnan at National conference of Vice Chancellors
is Excellency Hon’ble Governor of Telangana Shri C P Radha
H .rishnan inaugurated the 9th AIU National Conference of
Vice Chancellors on 15th April, 2024 at Leonia Resorts. In his
keynote address, he advised the students to equip themselves to compete
with the best talents of the world and emerge victorious.
Earlier he congratulated AIU and ICFAI foundation For Higher Education
University for conduct of this conference and said that AIU is creating
knowledge power to the higher education Àeld. He also lauded the long
lasting commitment of AIU for making our higher education system even
more vibrant and inclusive. The introduction of Bharat .nowledge System
(B.S) is one such step towards achieving that target, he added. He appealed
to all the universities to create and groom enthusiastic and talented
youngsters to realize the dream of Viksit Bharat envisioned by the Hon’ble
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Shri Radha .rishnan also hoped that
our nation will emerge as the world leader in economy by 2047.
Prof. G ' Sharma, President AIU, Prof
('r.) Pankaj Mittal, Prof. Vinay .umar
Pathak, Vice President AIU and Prof. TG
Sitaram, Chairman AICTE spoke on the
occasion and gave a brief about the topics
and the conduct of the conference. Prof. L S
Ganesh, Vice Chancellor, ICFAI Foundation
for Higher Education welcomed all the
dignitaries to the conference on behalf of
 ACCREDITED
INSTITUTIONS
Centre”. 'igital Learning Centre comprises of state-of-the-art multimedia
studio, discussion and chroma studios, a 100-seater review cum lecture
room supported by automated control, editing, and simulation and
animation infrastructure.
JIIT has established RI'E to create an eco-system of innovation by
involving bright and innovative faculty and students. RI'E Innovation
Hub comprises of start-up cabins, students make & learn space,
advanced characterisation. Fabrication Laboratory, Computational
Facility & ArtiÀcial Intelligence Laboratory has been established. A high-
performance computing facility (Ramanujan Universe) has been set up to
boost complex high-end computational training.
About 165 companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, Atlassian,
Lowe’s India, Magicpin, Google India, SAP Labs, Morgan Stanley, Infosys,
Wipro, 'arwin Box, 'eloitte, HCL, Cognizant, Accenture, 'assault
Systems, Cadence 'esign Systems, AXA-XL, Ericsson, EXL Technologies,
Reliance Jio, ZYCUS, Chaayos, Optum UHG, Newgen Software, etc
visit the campus every year. For the 2023 batch, there have been over
140 placement oǘers and 9 eligible participating students placed.
maximum domestic package by Atlassian was Rs. 2.9 Lakhs in the
year 2023.
ICFAI. A book on Sustainable Goals written by 7 authors was launched on
this occasion. The three-day conference was conducted from April 15 to 17,
2024 on the topic Higher Education @ 2047. Vice Chancellors from various
central, state and deemed universities attended the conference (online and
oǚine) and shared their views on higher education. The event was hosted
by the ICFAI.
$ERXW ,&)$, )RXQGDWLRQ IRU +LJKHU (GXFDWLRQ ,)+(  The
ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) is 'eemed-to-be University
under section 3 of the UGC Act 1956. ICFAI Business School (IBS) is a
constituent of IFHE. About 5,00 students are pursuing various programs
in the Faculty of Management (ICFAI Business School), Faculty of Science
& Technology (IcfaiTech), Faculty of Law (ICFAI Law School) and ICFAI
School of Architecture, NAAC, an autonomous institute of University Grants
Commission has also accredited The University with ‘A++’ Grade with an
impressive score (institutional CGPA) of 3.59 out of 4.
 OPEN ESSAY

By SURJIT S BHALLA and ABHINAV MOTHERAM

MINORITY REPORT
Muslims in Modi’s India are doing better than Blacks in the US

D
EMOCRACY IS BOTH ABOUT majority rule and minority rights. All minorities, no matter where in the world,
and no matter what religion, at some point feel that they are being discriminated against.
It is important that minorities feel secure and have equal rights. But what happens when a society bends
‘too much’ to accommodate the rights of minorities, be it because of religion, sex, caste or sexual orientation? In
the constitutional debates, there was healthy disagreement on how to tackle ‘forever discrimination’ against
the Dalits. No one disagreed with the goal that some policy must be enacted. India chose the command econo-
my route of quota reservations rather than the more liberal, and secular, route of affirmative action.
The demand for a caste census is just the latest manifestation of a policy gone awry. How awry? As in the
Supreme Court interpretation of quotas: there is a 50 per cent cap on the quota for reservations, but the quota
is very elastic. At times, it can be more than 50 per cent. Our policymakers and/or their advisers, and even our
lawmakers, forever think that people are stupid; if you think that the description is extreme, substitute ‘irrational’ for stupid. Some-
time back, I had stated that the anti-liberal, anti-secular, anti-merit system would end only when everyone demanded reservation.
Yesterday, the Jats wanted reservations; today, it is the Marathas; tomorrow it will be the Brahmins. Just you wait!
Well, wait no longer. The Bihar census yielded the estimates in Figure 1 (never mind that the implied fertility rates of some castes
may be beyond comprehension or reality).
But count you must: SCs and STs 21 per cent; EBCs 36 per cent; OBCs 27 per cent. Since all of them deserve reservations (a total of
85 per cent), we are as close to 100 per cent reservation as we will ever get.
One of the accepted beliefs about Modi’s tenure as prime minister is that he was chief minister of Gujarat at the time the Godhra
riots happened, and therefore he, and his policies, are likely to be discriminatory towards Muslims.
Official consumer survey data conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) showed that the welfare of poor
Muslims in Gujarat had improved at least as fast as of those who were not Muslim. And welfare of Muslims had increased faster in
Gujarat than in other states. The Modi government has increased welfare spending via direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes and
provided free grain to all; it is now conventional wisdom that free food and DBT do not discriminate on the basis of caste or religion.

ECONOMICS OF DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA (MUSLIMS) AND THE US (BLACKS)

Opinions come cheap, and everyone is entitled to an opinion. George Soros has been openly critical of ‘democracy’ in India and pre-
dicted its imminent decline, and former President Obama added his weight to Soros’ opinion by stating that ‘if you do not protect
the rights of ethnic minorities in India, then there is a strong possibility that India at some point starts pulling apart’. That
President Obama said this when the floodlights were on Modi (before his speech to a joint session of the US Congress on June 23,
2023) added fuel to the Soros fire.
Obama joins a long list of scholars and politicians predicting a Balkanisation, if not imminent demise, of the Indian state. Way

30 29 APRIL 2024

HOW MUSLIMS AND ANY OTHER MINORITY ARE TREATED IS OF IMMENSE
IMPORTANCE TO THE STABILITY OF INDIA AND ITS PROGRESS. INDIA’S STRENGTH
IS IN ITS DIVERSITY, AND INDIA, DESPITE ALL GLOOM AND DOOM FORECASTS, HAS
SURVIVED IN LARGE PART AS A DEMOCRATIC NATION BECAUSE OF ELECTORAL
DIVERSITY, WHICH ALLOWS FOR EFFECTIVE CHECKS AND BALANCES
back in the 1960s, Selig Harrison warned that unless a new
democratic leader arose post Nehru, ‘India will face Balkaniza-
tion or authoritarian control based on army force’.
Obama’s comment is a more judicious rephrasing of
Harrison’s ‘forecast’ some sixty years ago. Closer to home, for-
mer RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan recently stated, ‘We must
confront and defeat majoritarian authoritarianism. Any at-
tempt to make 2nd class citizens of our minority (read Muslim)
population will not lead us anywhere.’
These assertions have a logical basis. There are more Muslims
in India than in any other country in the world barring Indo-
nesia. How Muslims and any other minority (lower castes and
tribals and women for that matter) are treated is of immense im-
portance to the stability of India, its progress and its well-being. As
has been correctly asserted by many (including myself), India’s
strength is in its diversity, and some of us have asserted (and em-
pirically shown) that India, despite all gloom and doom forecasts,
29 APRIL 2024
Illustration by SAURABH SINGH
has survived in large part as a democratic nation because of elec-
toral diversity, which allows for effective checks and balances.
Empirical conclusions are difficult on this sensitive, emo-
tive subject because it is tough to establish that a community
has been penalised by discrimination or racism. Prejudice is
multifaceted. Economists, not surprisingly, have taken an
empirical approach with Nobel laureate Gary Becker setting
the standard, and the trend, with his 1957 study The Economics
of Discrimination. Becker’s point was very simple—if measured
properly, discrimination was unlikely to exist without racism
(or casteism or sexism).
By Becker’s definition (now accepted by all), wage incomes
are primarily a function of education, experience and inherent
ability. Ability is difficult to measure, but considerable progress
in measurement has occurred. The simple Becker conclu-
sion: Those who practise discrimination in the marketplace
will make less profits because they will be hiring less productive
www.openthemagazine.com 31
 OPEN ESSAY
(white in the US context) workers at a higher wage. In other
words, to measure the contribution of racism, look at the wage
differential between whites and blacks after accounting for
differences in human capital.
The study of wage differentials constitutes just one ap-
proach to recognising discrimination. There are many meth-
ods or empirical strategies to establish how well a minority is
protected (or unprotected) in different countries. Hence, a di-
rect evaluation of the veracity of the Obama statement (Hindu
prejudice against Muslims) is not straightforward.
The extensive study on black-white wage differentials in the
US provides a useful approach. It has been a prolific industry
in the US since the Becker publication and, for the last 30-odd
years, has also been extended to sex discrimination. American
audiences are very aware of this research, and any study of dis-
crimination in India or elsewhere has to compare and contrast
it with the American findings.
If there were no discrimination, after controlling for human
capital, one would expect blacks and whites to have similar
earnings (wages). Analogously, if Muslims were discriminated
against, then some amount of this bias would occur in their earn-
ings, i.e. Muslims would have lower average earnings than Hin-
dus. This is what we do—compare black and white differences in
earnings, and the differences in Hindu and Muslim earnings.
WAGE DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY
IN INDIA AND THE US
Discrimination can take many forms. Inclusion and non-
inclusion can take many forms. One less studied aspect of wage
inequality is that between communities such as Hindus and
The Bihar Caste Census
Total Population (Bihar) 13.07 crore
<1%
15.40 % 36.01 %
1.68%
19.65 %
27.12 %
Source Bihar Caste Census 2023
EBC OBC SC ST
BUDDHISTS, CHRISTIANS, SKIKHS, JAINS OTHERS
32
Muslims. Data from NSSO/PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey)
studies (1983 to 2022) have been assembled. Wages of all work-
ers, including self- employed, are available since 2017; for years
prior, only data on salaried (formal sector workers) and casual
(informal sector workers) are available.
Figure 2 contains the data for the period 1983 to 2022
on wage gaps for male Hindus and Muslims, whites and
blacks. For the US, the data and results are obtained from the
Valerie Wilson and William Darity, Jr study (2022) for the Eco-
nomic Policy Institute; for India, we use earnings data from the
NSSO/PLFS studies conducted since 1983.
For the US, Wilson-Darity conclude: Another defining feature
of racial inequality in the labor market is the significant pay dispari-
ties between black and white workers. In 2019, the typical (median)
black worker earned 24.4% less per hour than the typical white
worker. This is an even larger wage gap than in 1979, when it was
16.4%. Controlling for racial differences in education, experience,
and the fact that black workers are more likely to live in lower-wage
Southern states leaves an unexplained gap of 14.9% in 2019 (out of a
total average gap of 26.5%).
What is noteworthy about the US data is that despite consis-
tent and persistent attention to the elimination of discrimina-
tion, black males still earned about 25 per cent less than white
males in 2022 (median wages). And that since 1983, there has
not been much improvement; likely, some deterioration.
The data for the raw differences in the median earnings of
Muslim and Hindus are also reported in Figure 2. In addition,
for India, is the earnings gap between Hindus and Muslims
after controlling for differences in human capital. No matter
what index is chosen, there is no evidence of Muslims earn-
ing less than Hindus, ceteris paribus. In the last year reported,
2022–23, PLFS data, the median Muslim earnings were about
18 per cent more than median Hindu earnings.
Thus, in striking contrast to the US, and against the ‘expecta-
tions’ of many, Muslims have not encountered wage discrimi-
nation in the labour market in India. The wage gap has moved
towards equalisation—from a positive 10 per cent in 1983 to a
positive 18 per cent in 2022 (in favour of Muslims).
Also offered is a more refined version of measuring discrimi-
nation. Wages are a function of human capital (endowments),
and one needs to adjust for differences in human capital to
find out the net effect. The net result: Muslims were 10 per cent
ahead in 1983 and 1 per cent ahead in 2021, after controlling for
differences in human capital.
Wage discrimination is not the only form of discrimination.
However, it is reassuring to know that, on one important di-
mension, we are not practising what Soros or Obama thought
we might be doing. Societies practise prejudice and discrimina-
tion in many ways. According to Pew surveys, both Hindus and
Muslims want to live peacefully but separately.
Families do not want inter-caste marriages; they do not
want interfaith marriages. Families prefer not to have large
disparities in husband-wife incomes or of family background.
Progress comes via the dismantling of these prejudices, and
29 APRIL 2024
 7538

6408
6205
6299
Wage gaps for male about the status, rights, etc, of Hindus and Muslims in India. I

5871
am paraphrasing and reproducing Shenoy’s response to Burki’s
Hindus and Muslims,

5871
article (with his permission).
whites and Blacks Fact: Indian Muslims enjoy more constitutional rights than
(1983-2022)
4519
the Hindus, such as conversions to Islam of Hindus, right to
4393 education, owning property, marriages, religious teachings in
Muslim Hindu
schools and colleges, etc.
Also note that in India:
2887
2814
2941

1. The government/s exercise no control on mosques, dargahs,

2694

mazars, etc, while all Hindu temples are under the control of
2446
2327

the respective state governments.

2. In South of India, all temple collections (amounting to
1718
1558

Rs thousands of crores per annum) become part of govern-

ment treasury, while not a paisa is taken from any mosque.
2021 2022 3. The governments fund Islamic studies in madrassas. The
2017
2004 2011 University Grants Commission (UGC) permits colleges and
1993 1999 schools to have departments teaching Islamic theology,
1983
whereas teaching Hindu Theology is illegal!
4. Muslim men can marry 4 times, legally, whereas Hindu
110.3

109.2
105.1

men cannot marry even a second time!

100.0

117.6

5. From 1951 to 2011 (60 years) people following Indian

97.5

101.8

103.4
91.9

100.0
94.3

97.2

101.5

103.1

Religions (defined as religions that originated in India such

91.7

92.3
81.7

80.2

as Sikh, Buddhist and Jain as well as Hindu) increased their

80.4

80.1

numbers by 3.2 times (from 31.5 crore to 101 crore), while

77.8

74.7

76.6

78.5

the Muslim population during the same period multiplied

1983
1993 1999
2004
Muslim / Hindu
Muslim /Hindu, After Controlling for Human Capital
US Black / White Median Wage Ratio
progress does not come easy. Hence, it is always preferable not
to get judgemental.
THE POLEMICS OF JUDGEMENTS
But it is hard to avoid harsh judgements. I want to relate an ex-
change between a respected Indian intellectual, BR Shenoy, and a
respected Muslim intellectual from Pakistan, and former finance
minister, Shahid Javed Burki. I am privileged to ‘know’ both these
individuals; Burki was my senior colleague during my time at the
World Bank in the 1980s, and Shenoy here in India.
Burki published an article in the Express Tribune in 2024
entitled ‘The Story of the Other India’. Much like the narratives
I have talked about in this book, Burki’s narrative was that
‘Muslims are downgraded to a second class status by Modi and
the ruling party, BJP’. Shenoy then provided the following facts
by 5.5 times (from 3.7 crore to 20 crore)! During the same
period, Hindu and Sikh population in Pakistan, unsurprisingly,
has almost disappeared!
6. Next to the GOI and the Indian Railways, WAQF boards are
the biggest land owners! No Hindu is appointed as adminis-
trators or CEOs to these Waqf Boards, whereas Muslims and
Christians are routinely appointed by state governments
to administer Hindu temples including the holiest Hindu
2011
temples in Tirupati, Guruvayur, Vaishno Devi, etc!
2017
2021 2022 7. While the Directive Principles prefacing the Indian Consti-
tution desire Uniform Civil Code to be enacted for govern-
ing the personal laws of the whole of the Indian community,
Nehru enacted Hindu Code Bill in 1955 but left the Muslim
community untouched, much against the express opinion
of Dr Ambedkar!
Much maligned though Modi is, there has been no decrease
in the benefits of his socio-economic reforms going to the Mus-
lim community. Poor Muslims have equally benefited from
government largesse like free toilets, free houses, free monthly
rations, free power, gas, health insurance, scholarships and
many other benefits.
This is an edited excerpt from How We Vote: The Factors
That Influence Voters by Surjit S Bhalla and Abhinav
Motheram (Juggernaut, 256 pages, `599). Bhalla, a former
executive director at IMF, has served on the Economic
Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and is the author of, among
other titles, Citizen Raj. Motheram is a data science consultant at
LEAD, Krea University

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 33

34 29 APRIL 2024
 COVER STORY

The
Wounded
Happiness
of
Salman
Rushdie
WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A WRITER IN THE TIME OF HATE.
RUSHDIE RETURNS TO THAT AUGUST MORNING IN
2022 WHEN HE ALMOST DIED UNDER THE KNIFE OF A
MAN INSPIRED BY THE LATE AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI’S
DEATH DECREE AGAINST THE AUTHOR
By S PRASANNARAJAN

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 35

GETTY IMAGES
COVER STORY

I
T WAS A SUNNY MORNING IN UPSTATE
New York on August 12, 2022, and Salman Rushdie
was on stage at the amphitheatre in the Chautauqua
Institution to give a talk on writers’ safety. Then he saw,
in the corner of his right eye, the man in black leap-
ing out of the audience, rushing at him like a ‘squat
missile’. Rushdie came to his feet, faced him, raised
his left hand in self-defence. They had twenty-seven
seconds together. The author received more than a
dozen knife wounds, though he never saw the knife.
The knife severed all the tendons and most of the
nerves of his left hand, inflicted two deep cuts in
his neck, and more on his face, chest and thigh. The
deepest wound was in the right eye; the knife went
all the way down to the optic nerve, stopping just before touching the brain. His vision
was gone. “He was just stabbing wildly, stabbing and slashing, the knife flailing at me
as if it had a life of its own, and I was falling backward, away from him, as he attacked;
my left shoulder hit the ground hard as I fell.” He survived, and he was lucky, as a doctor
would tell him later, because the attacker didn’t know how to kill someone with a knife.
Live. Live. That was Rushdie’s mantra through the ordeal after the attack. Knife:
Meditations After an Attempted Murder, his second memoir (the first was Joseph Anton, the
title a homage to two of his favourite writers, Conrad and Chekhov, and, with its novelised
style, dealing more with his Fatwa days), is a survivor’s testament to being alive to tell the
story that matters most: the life that he has almost lost. It is a writer’s reclamation, asser-
tion and rejoinder. The knife that failed to kill one of the world’s most celebrated—and
equally misread—storytellers is not what lingers after the last page of this memoir, but the
knife of language that cuts through the false certainties inserted between life and death.
The attacker, whom Rushdie calls “the A”, a more decorous version of the Ass, caught up
with him thirty-three years after Ayatollah Khomeini’s Fatwa against the author of The
Satanic Verses. When he saw that “murderous shape” coming for him, his first thought was:
So it’s you. Here you are. He, as a collective noun of hate, was always there, lurking in the reced-
ing shadow of a revolution desperate for apostates and blasphemers. For ten years after Valen-
tine’s Day in 1989, annus mirabilis elsewhere in the world, Rushdie lived in hiding, as if he was
entrapped in a metaphor taken from his own imagination. It was an unequal clash between
the Word, brought to the world by Imams, like the one in The Satanic Verses, raging against
history, and the words, as written by writers like Rushdie for whom nothing was sacred.
The A dragged him back to that narrative dead zone, to a place and time he had no inten-
tion of revisiting. Knife, even as it tells in evocative prose the painful act of overcoming death,
of the transition from a life held together by metal staples and fentanyl to a second chance,

36 29 APRIL 2024
 of a miraculous recovery by someone who never believed in miracles, is about life and love, about writing aside an
experience that stood in the way of stories Rushdie wanted to tell.
Were there intimations, and visions of foreshadowing? On the night before the lecture at Chautauqua, standing
alone outside the guesthouse and watching the full moon shining down on the lake, he thought of, in his customary
free-associating way, books and films. Georges Méliès’ classic silent film of 1902 about moon landing, Le Voyage dans la
Lune, in which a spaceship wounds the moon’s right eye, came to his mind. Next morning he would lose his own. And
two nights before the event, he had a dream about being attacked by a gladiator-like figure wielding a spear in a Roman
amphitheatre. He almost cancelled the Chautauqua event.
The kindness of strangers and the triumph of medical science would make premonitions and free associations
redundant. What the knife that the A held wounded was not his vital organs alone. It wounded something equally
precious: happiness. Rushdie was deep in it when he was all set for talking about keeping writers safe from harm that
morning, with the cheque for the speaking fee in the pocket of his Ralph Lauren suit. This book, even as it portrays the
writer’s Wolverine-like capacity to suffer and recover, is a love story too.
In the love story, a four-time divorced writer in his seventies meets a much younger African-American poet named
Rachel Eliza Griffiths at a PEN event in New York. The fate-shifting moment came when the smitten writer followed her

“I WAS HAULED INTO A STRETCHER. THE STRETCHER WAS LIFTED ONTO

A GURNEY. THEN I WAS BEING MOVED RAPIDLY OUT OF THE BACKSTAGE
AREA INTO THE OPEN AIR, TOWARD THE WAITING HELICOPTER”
SALMAN RUSHDIE, KNIFE

AFP

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 37

COVER STORY

through a sliding door and hit the glass. He didn’t pass out, but there was blood all over his face. When he took a cab and
went home, Eliza was beside him. At home, she would tell him that they could be good friends now. “I’ve got enough friends.
This is something else,” he told her. He fell in love, literally. “One of the most important ways in which I have understood
what happened to me, and the nature of the story I’m here to tell,” he writes, “is that it’s a story in which hatred—the knife
as a metaphor of hate—is answered. And finally overcome, by love. Perhaps the sliding door is an analogy of the coup de
foudre, the thunderbolt. A metaphor of love.”
The Eliza that appears in this memoir is an invocation of love and happiness, a subject he was keen to write as a
story. It never happened. The five years they have been together, the last one year as husband and wife, for him was the
happiest story of his life, and he could relive it only with awe and adoration. It was a time when happiness was private and
intimate; they even endured Covid together during the first wave of the pandemic. It was this delicately built universe of
two lovers that the knife of hate cut apart.

R
USHDIE REASSEMBLES HIS shattered world with the easy elegance of a memoirist who finds the echoes of
his life in the pages of others—and even in his own. The knife itself has its back story written in one of his novels,
Shalimar the Clown, set in Kashmir. The novel was born from the image of a bloody act: the assassin with a
bloodied knife standing over his victim. And in The Satanic Verses, many passages, including those about the
Imam and the scribe who puts his words against the Word, would leap out of the pages to match their creator’s life. As he
was recovering from the attack, the opening line of the novel returned to him with a reminder: “To be born again,” sang
Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die.”

Rushdie and his wife

Rachel Eliza Griffiths at the
“FOR FIVE YEARS, PEN America Literary Gala,
New York, May 18, 2023
THREE MONTHS,
AND ELEVEN DAYS,
WE FLEW ALMOST
COMPLETELY
UNDER THE RADAR.
WE SHOWED,
I THINK,
THAT EVEN IN
THIS ATTENTION-
ADDICTED TIME,
IT WAS STILL
POSSIBLE FOR TWO
PEOPLE TO LEAD.
PRETTY OPENLY, A
HAPPILY PRIVATE
LIFE. THEN, CUTTING
THAT LIFE APART,
CAME THE KNIFE”
SALMAN RUSHDIE,
KNIFE

AFP

38 29 APRIL 2024
 “LIVING WAS MY VICTORY. BUT THE MEANING THE KNIFE
HAD GIVEN MY LIFE WAS MY DEFEAT”
SALMAN RUSHDIE, KNIFE

On his journey back to his second life, the visions he had were made of
alphabets, as if, even as he experienced near-death, it was the magic of lan-
guage that clarified the new reality. In his visions rose new domes and halls,
the Sheesh Mahals and the Hagia Sophias, the Fatehpur Sikris and Red Forts.
In the loneliness of the writer who just experienced what death looked like,
language played comforting games, the only alternative he could afford then.
Or, it was a time when he could take comfort in the company of writ-
ers like Naguib Mahfouz and Samuel Beckett, both suffered knife attacks.
Mahfouz was a victim of cultural terrorism, for his novels “offended” Islam.
Beckett was on his way home in Paris, in 1938, when he was attacked by a
pimp. The knife narrowly missed his heart and lungs. At the trial, Beckett
asked him why, and the reply was: “I don’t know, sir. I’m sorry.” Still, the new-
est entrant to the club of wounded giants could not have expected such an
enigmatic answer from his attacker.
The A was steeped in his closed world of hate. He didn’t like Rushdie,
though he had read only a couple of pages of his work; but he had seen the
writer lecturing on YouTube. He wanted to murder Rushdie because he found
him “disingenuous”. He of course admired Ayatollah Khomeini, and his
opinion of the writer. He was the Great Islamic Revolution’s faraway child,
biding his time in a cheerless basement. The so-called lone wolf has never been all that lone; he lived with the images of
the enemy, conjured up to terrifying perfection by the Book-keepers. In the evolutionary story of the so-called sword of
Islam, apprentice revolutionaries like the A are the new enforcers of the order.
Rushdie has an imaginary conversation with him. The author tells him, “I’m trying to understand you. You were
only twenty-four years old. Your whole life ahead of you. Why were you so ready to ruin it? Your life. Not mine. Yours.”
“Don’t try to understand me. You aren’t capable of understanding me.”
“But I have to try, because for twenty-seven seconds we were profoundly intimate. You put on the mantle of Death
itself, and I was Life. This is a profound conjoining.”
“I was ready to do it because I was serving God.”
“You’re sure of that. This is something your God wanted to do.”
“Imam Youtubi was very clear. Those who are against God have no right to live. We have the right to end them.”
“But most people on Earth do not follow your God. If they are for other gods, or no god, do you have the right to end
them too? Two billion people following your God. Six billion others. What do you think about them?”
“It depends.”
He is a familiar character in the larger war for scriptural purity, the basement rat as holy warrior, fattened by the
sewage system of social media. The indoctrination of the new radical of Islam came from the weaponised technology of
groupthink. The man with a murderous urge wielding the knife, whether it was somewhere in the sandy Levant that
resembled the Jahilia of The Satanic Verses or on a civilised stage in upstate New York, was inevitable. Rushdie quotes
John Locke to know the interior life of the A: “I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters
of their thoughts.”
The Rushdie oeuvre is eventful, maybe as eventful as it can be in an India-inspired imagination. So is his life after the
Fatwa. His life was written into the larger histories of unfreedom and unreason, as a cautionary tale and as a daring rebuttal.
Was his writer’s life altered by the knife wielded by the A? Will there be a reconciliation between the multiple Rushdies,
constantly invented and modified by all kinds of readers, some holding knives, and Salman? He is optimistic, for such a
reconciliation alone ensures a free passage of fiction, his lifeline.
Salman Rushdie wrote Knife with partial vision. What we read in it is life writing back to a lie with incandescent elan.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (Hamish Hamilton; 209 pages; `699)

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 39

 DISPAT CH

HOPE AND
DELIVERANCE
Local issues and the Modi government’s record animate
discussions while Congress’ populist pledges and allegations of
political vendetta in arrests of opposition leaders fail to impress
voters across north Rajasthan, writes RAJEEV DESHPANDE

40 29 APRIL 2024
 T
HE HOT SEASON has just begun but the arid landscape and bare
hilly outcrops of the Aravallis that skirt Jaipur, running through
Alwar and Dausa on the one side and Sikar and rural parts of the dis-
trict on the other, are already wilting under a midday sun. Patches
of farmland, unevenly spread out along the countryside, are fallow
with the winter crop harvested not too long ago. A forecast of a good
monsoon is eagerly awaited in a region where water for agriculture
is scarce. Accessing groundwater can be prohibitively expensive—
without any certainty of success—at depths over 700 feet. A black-top road that runs
along the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar rises between shallow hilltops and descends
into a rolling flat panorama dotted with farmsteads and shrubbery. It is not surprising
that lack of water, for farming as well as drinking, is integral to animated discussions
about the prospects of parties and candidates in chaupals (village squares), tea shops and
eateries, and dust-blown farms in this slice of rural Rajasthan. Though the problem is
easily identified, claims and promises of rival contenders are keenly scrutinised to settle
the crucial question: Who is more likely to provide a solution?
Pratapgarh lies in Alwar district, a part of the Thanagazi Assembly seat, but falls in the

Union Home Minister Amit Shah

during a roadshow in Jaipur,
April 15, 2024
Photo PTI

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 41

 DISPAT CH

Dausa Lok Sabha constituency and conversa-
tion here soon splits into contending camps.
One set of locals on benches in front of a small
shop offers the view that while development
has lagged, the Congress government voted out RAJASTHAN
of office in the state just a few months ago had
a dismal track record. On the other hand, the
Modi government had delivered on availability
and subsidy on fertilisers, direct payments to
farmers, and better facilities like roads and hous-
ing schemes. Listening to the conversation for a while, Parag who
has been minding a bubbling tea kettle, offers that the Bharati-
ya Janata Party (BJP) supporters outnumber Congress voters.
Sarvar Lal and Hari, who identify themselves as farmers, disagree. spread the party has laid out to woo voters. In contrast, the Modi
Congress cannot be discounted, they aver, adding BJP lacks sup-
port among Dalits and tribal voters. They are from the backward
castes and argue inflation and the region’s development lag are
key factors, and Congress has its adherents. The Thanagazi seat
did go to Congress in the November 2023 state polls, but not by
much. The BJP contender lost by less than 2,000 votes, suggesting
the party could not have depended only on upper-caste votes as
argued by some of the discussants. A little earlier, another set of about their social backgrounds, the gathering is revealed to be a
farmers and workmen were set to vote against BJP but did not
sound hopeful about the opposition’s prospects. Ayub and Abdul
are vehement in arguing that the BJP government has not ben-
efitted them. The odd voice in their midst that claims Congress
has taken voters for a ride on quotas, draws an angry response
from a neighbour listening to the conversation. Abdul mildly
chides the man, while the BJP supporter is revealed to be their
Hindu acquaintance. But will the opposition upset BJP’s efforts
to secure a third consecutive term? “Yeh toh namumkin hai (This
is impossible),” says another onlooker, flipping the BJP slogan,
“Modi hai to mumkin hai (If it’s Modi, it’s possible).”
The mood is clearer at a halt along the road from Jaipur to
Chomu near Sirsa village, on the way to Sikar. The contest is be-
tween BJP’s Swami Sumedhanand Saraswati and I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s
Amra Ram, a former MLA belonging to CPM for the Sikar Lok
Sabha constituency. Amra Ram has been a farm union leader and
the choice is expected to have some resonance with the Jat com-
munity he hails from. Swami Sumedhanand, seeking a third term,
enjoys a mixed reputation, with some complaints that he has not
been effective in dealing with constituency issues. BJP leaders
argue the party has just returned to office in the state and better
results can be anticipated if the Modi government gets a renewed
mandate. The argument has its takers even as some Jat voters seem
swayed by Amra Ram’s candidature. “Modiji has done more than
what has been achieved earlier. The sway of caste-based parties has
declined and decisions like the [scrapping of] Article 370 and the
construction of the Ram Mandir ended big disputes. In his next
term, such quarrels will end altogether,” says Ram Kishan, in his
mid-30s, while his younger companions nod in agreement. As else-
where, water woes are a sore point, but other issues have salience
too. A question about the Congress manifesto and its promise of
generous payouts to youth and women and government jobs fails
to impress. This group is not convinced the poll
pledges are feasible or even desirable. “This is a
path to indebtedness. Even if you pay money
for a year or two, what will happen thereafter?
What is needed is…incomes must grow,” says a
youth astride a motorcycle following the con-
versation keenly.
There is no doubt that local issues are being
debated and discussed with voters expressing
a desire for speedier local and regional devel-
opment along with progress on national goals. But the nub for
Congress is one of credibility. There seem few takers, even among
those who indicate they might vote for Congress, for the populist
government—despite gaps and the burden of enhanced expecta-
tions—is seen to have fulfilled commitments. Some voters point to
the recovery in livelihoods after Covid, saying India has fared much
better than many countries, including those in its neighbourhood.
There is a general air of satisfaction over the farm procurement
process, availability of schools, and medical care. “If Covid had not
beencontrolled,thestorywouldhavebeenover,”saysVinod.Asked
mixed bunch of Sainis [malis by caste and OBCs], Yadavs, and a cou-
ple of Jats. Some distance ahead, short of the town of Palsana, which
lies on a road that branches off to Khandela and Neem ka Thana
(both Assembly constituencies), voters reflect a similar frame of
mind.TheypointtotheAshokGehlotgovernment’sunderwhelm-
ing performance and the desire for visible change among people
that extends to candidates and leaders. “Much of the Congress
LOCAL ISSUES ARE BEING DEBATED AND DIS
FOR SPEEDIER LOCAL AND REGIONAL DE
NATIONAL GOALS. BUT THE NUB FOR CONGR
TAKERS FOR THE POPULIST SPREAD THE
Farmers in Dausa Lok Sabha constituency
discuss key voting issues

42 29 APRIL 2024
 government’s time was consumed by the rivalry between Gehlot
and Sachin Pilot. Maybe, they should have given Pilot a chance,”
says Hansraj. Asked about BJP’s decision to appoint a fresh face as
chief minister instead of Vasundhara Raje, the response is apprecia-
tive. “It was a good decision on the part of BJP,” says Sandeep, adding
the Gehlot-Vasundhara revolving door phenomenon had become
stale even as it was felt there was an unstated agreement not to tread
on one another’s toes. The point, felt this group, was that Congress
didnothaveanythingneworgrippingtooffer.Ifyouknowtheodds
are against you, why not essay a few bold strokes? The Congress
manifesto comes across as another version of the one that prevailed
in the Karnataka election in May last year. Yet, the failure of the “for-
mula” just a few months later in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and
Chhattisgarh does not seem to have triggered a rethink.
T
HERE HAS BEEN an improvement in administrative
services with the introduction of online options and local
officials are displaying greater efficiency, perhaps due to
more effective monitoring. And though options for earning a
living remain limited to local businesses like tile manufacturing
and heritage and resort tourism, the sentiment is largely upbeat.
At Palsana, a bustling town with a busy market, Ram Chandra,
runs a shop in the main bazaar. He says employment is an issue
and people here are in search of opportunities. Despite his disap-
pointment over the region’s halting progress, he is dismissive of
Congress’ promises of `1 lakh a year for youth and women. “Such
offers should not be made in the first place. You will consign fu-
ture generations to debt,” he says. Chandra is a Jat by caste and
CUSSED WITH VOTERS EXPRESSING A DESIRE
VELOPMENT ALONG WITH PROGRESS ON
ESS IS ONE OF CREDIBILITY. THERE SEEM FEW
PARTY HAS LAID OUT TO WOO VOTERS
Photographs by RAJEEV DESHPANDE
A group of local residents in
Sikar during a discussion on
issues for the upcoming polls
29 APRIL 2024
has farmland too. The shop is an addition to the income. It is very
noticeable that arguments of Congress and other constituents of
the I.N.D.I.A. bloc that the Modi government poses a threat to de-
mocracy and has subverted other organs of the state and Constitu-
tion find no mention. The vigorous and even combative debates
and free expression of views among various sections of voters
point to an aware electorate, keenly conscious of its rights and
interests. In what holds lessons for parties, voters are examining
manifesto pledges with greater care. The shopkeeper at Palsana
remembers that the Gehlot government’s scheme of medical
insurance was attractive. “Maybe, it needed to be implemented
better. But a `25 lakh cover is very useful,” he said.
On the route to Neem ka Thana lies the village of Chala, a
hamlet of about 1,000-odd households. Despite its nondescript
appearance, it is at a crossroads and not far from the old Jaipur-
Delhi highway. Its utility as a halt for travellers is evident from
the eateries around the intersection and waiting tourist buses.
Young men at a photocopier and internet services provider are
willing to spend some time discussing the elections. Some of
them are from the Jat community, and indicate a preference for
Amra Ram, saying he has been a “sangharsh sheel neta (a leader who
has struggled for causes),” a likely reference to the candidate’s left
farm union background. Some others are ambivalent about their
choices, but the mention of leaks of exam papers for government
recruitment sparks a sharp reaction. The episode is a serious black
mark against the Gehlot government and continues to evoke an-
ger. The corruption of the exam process is seen to have benefitted
those with resources to bribe their way through the system while
honest students suffered, losing out on time spent on prepara-
tion for the tests and sometimes eligibility as well. The response
to the issue is uniform and is no different here, even though the
sentiment leans towards the opposition candidate. Mukesh and
Mahendra, who are passing by, complain no party bothers to find
out what voters are thinking about when elections are not immi-
nent. “If they did, like the way you are asking about what is happen-
ing here, they would get a better idea of the situation,” says Mukesh.
On the other side of the square, an older bunch of men, more
agrarian in appearance, is engrossed in a game of cards. It is not
easy to attract their attention, but some who have thrown in their
hand, are ready to talk. Their grouse, like in most other places, is
about the irregular water supply. But their dissatisfaction over the
situation has not made their voting choices any easier to resolve.
Their experience of the inefficiency, and in some instances corrup-
tion, in the previous state government’s administration makes
them hesitant about considering the I.N.D.I.A. candidate. “I hear
it’s a tough fight and the comrade has his chances. But what’s the
use? What’s the use of being represented by someone who has no
clout?," asks a voluble member of the card-playing club, giving
vent to his exasperation. Quizzed about Congress’ promises in
terms of jobs and other sops, he remains unconvinced, asking
“Did they not offer `72,000 a year to farmers last election? Do such
promises mean anything at all?” Their final voting preferences
remain unclear, but it is striking that the dissatisfaction with the
main contestants is almost equal. Sensing the unhappiness over
www.openthemagazine.com 43
 DISPAT CH
water supplies, BJP leaders are highlighting the Centre and state
plans for irrigation and canals and also arguing that the saffron
party has only just regained the reins of office in Jaipur.
Not far from Kotputli which sits on the road that meets the
Jaipur highway, the village of Nareda looks like a work in prog-
ress. The roads are muddy and there is a steady traffic of tractors
and road-building equipment. Private transport is crowded by
devotees headed for the Jind Mata temple, some 25km from Si-
kar town. The annual puja held there during Navratri attracts
hundreds of devotees every day, leaving the fields and homes
bordering the roads with a deserted look. Subash Chand runs a
shop selling household items and the people sitting on benches
in front of his small establishment are not customers—they
have dropped in for a chat and tea handed out in tiny paper cups.
Nareda is part of Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha seat and Chand’s as-
sessment that the BJP nominee is ahead does not draw much
opposition. The conversation drifts to a discussion on arrests of
opposition leaders in corruption cases and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s
claim that these are acts of political vendetta. The argument does
not seem to have many takers, with Balbir Singh, who wears a
cap jauntily pointing backward, interjecting to say that those
guilty of corruption must be punished. “How can the Delhi chief
minister claim immunity from investigation? In Rajasthan also,
we want those guilty in the paper leak case to be punished and
THE CONTEST FOR 12 SEATS
STRETCHING FROM BIKANER TO THE
WEST TO BHARATPUR IN THE EAST
HAS BEEN ENGAGING AND INTENSE. A
VIBRANT DEMOCRATIC DISCOURSE IN
CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES IS
EVIDENCE THAT EVERY VIEW HAS
BEEN CONSIDERED AND EVALUATED
sent to jail,” he says. The lack of empathy for opposition figures is
evident not just in this muddy village. Even earlier, at Chala, the
card players were vehement about prosecuting those accused
of corruption. “The courts are not giving them any relief. Are
the courts under the control of anyone? I don’t think so,” one
of them asserted.
The contest for the 12 seats stretching from the sprawling
Bikaner seat to the west to Bharatpur in the east has been engag-
ing and intense. BJP’s larger narrative that a government with a
strong majority is a necessity to achieve economic growth and
safeguard the nation wrestles with pockets of local discontent.
A vibrant democratic discourse in cities, towns, and villages is
evidence that every view has been considered and evaluated.
The distrust of extravagant promises as opposed to the perceived
delivery of the Modi government welfare schemes, as well as
an appreciation of the prime minister’s preparedness to tackle
lingering sticky problems might provide a hint to the outcome.
But that does not make the heat of the battle any less intense.
44
A NEW REC
BJP’s Bhupender Yadav is the outsider
T
HE ROAD LEADING to Bakhatpura is narrow
and dusty but the cool of the morning is yet to
give way to the midday sun. There is an air of an-
ticipation as local notables sit on chairs set out on
a small platform. The arriving cars and fluttering
party flags are telltale signs that a campaign meeting is in the
offing. The conversation is jovial and animated as the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) workers make sure no one feels ignored. At-
tired in a crisply ironed kurta and well-polished open black shoes,
Hari Ram comes across as a man of comfortable means. He
reveals that he began as an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Pari-
shad (ABVP) activist, joined Congress for a while, and re-
cently returned to BJP. After pointing out representatives of
various social groups—“Punjabi samaj,” “Yadav samaj”, “Guj-
jar samaj”—Hari Ram expresses confidence in the Minister for
Environment,ForestsandLabourandtheBJPcandidatefromAlwar
Bhupender Yadav’s prospects. For one, he says, Yadav’s promi-
nence promises benefits for voters should he win. Then there
is a Bahujan Samaj Party nominee, Fazal Hussain, son of the late
Chaudhary Tayab Hussain, a prominent leader from the Meo-
Mewat belt, who is bound to grab a chunk of the votes.
The minister though is not banking on the likely impact of
the BSP man. Alighting from his SUV, he greets some of the as-
sembled company by name, accepts garlands, and awaits his turn
as he is introduced as a leader with a record of getting things done.
Aware that rival Congress candidate Lalit Yadav, who defied a BJP
wave and won the Mundawar Assembly seat last year, is targeting
him as an ‘outsider’, Bhupender Yadav quickly frames his issues.
The main task, he reminds his audience, is to ensure the nation’s
continued progress by giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi a
third term in office. He refers to reports of Congress struggling to
find candidates, saying it looked as if there was just one party in
the fray. “I will work to ensure Modi’s guarantees are translated
on the ground and problems of the region are addressed,” he says.
He promises to be accessible, saying constituents can reach him
at Alwar or his official residence in Delhi. The minister’s chal-
lenger is a young man with dash and vigour, but speakers who
introduce Bhupender Yadav point out that his clout can actually
resolve Alwar’s longstanding problems.
In between pit stops, Yadav is busy on the phone, asking his
campaign team for lists of important villages and tehsils that need
to be covered, perhaps more than once. Is he being complacent
when he says there is only one party in the field? “I am on the
move from 6 AM until 10 PM. I am addressing up to 30 meetings
a day. Does that look like I am being complacent? We are going
all out to ensure a high turnout,” he tells Open. The heat is ris-
ing by the time he halts at Ahlawas and he addresses a key voter
29 APRIL 2024
K ONING FOR ALWAR
with an inside chance By RAJEEV DESHPANDE
issue, that of water scarcity for drinking and agriculture, assuring
quick progress on the memorandum of understanding (MoU)
on the eastern Rajasthan canal project inked by the new chief
ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in January. At Machri
village, Yadav speaks of the Centre’s scheme to provide tap water
to all households and launches a sharp attack on Congress, saying
the initiative suffered due to corruption during the tenure of the
previous Gehlot government. “You must punish Congress for
holding back development. In contrast, we have a prime minister
who says he will not tolerate any corruption,” he says.
YadavwasBJP’spollin-chargeforGujaratin2017whentheparty
fell to its lowest total of 99 in recent years in a House of 182. The re-
sult was seen as a consequence of slackness in the state administra-
Union minister Bhupender Yadav on the campaign trail in rural Alwar
tion following Modi moving to Delhi in 2014 and implementation
of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) just ahead of the state polls. He
knows elections cannot be taken for granted and the need to keep
track of shifts in voter sentiment. “The public opinion is quite clear
that the election is about giving the prime minister a third term. It
is a pro-governance election. You will see support for BJP will swell
intoatsunami.Iaimtovisiteverypanchayatheadquarters,”hesays.
DwellingonthecredibilityoftheBJPslogan‘ModikiGuarantee’,he
says,“PeopleinAlwarknowthatearliertherewasjustonehighway.
Now, with the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, there are two. There are
two medical colleges now. People know that when bhoomipujan
[groundbreaking] for a project is done, it will be completed in the
29 APRIL 2024
current term.” Yadav argues that while local and regional issues
are important, voters do not neglect national issues. “The Modi
government has worked for the safety of all Indians. This includes
getting Indian students back from Ukraine or any other conflict
zone. Decisions like the scrapping of Article 370 have been taken.
Most importantly, people see that money for welfare schemes goes
directly to beneficiaries,” he says and adds that this is evidence that
voters distinguish between allurement and empowerment.
The halt at Akbarpur is longer and Yadav gets off on the road
going past the large village and walks through narrow streets
to the sound of dhols (drums) that are intrinsic to electioneer-
ing. People stand at doorsteps and on terraces and rooftops and
women throw down flower petals. Soon, Yadav reaches the
stage near a temple which is more
crowded than at previous halts. The
long length of cloth that goes into a
traditional pagdi (turban) is taken out
of its plastic wrapper and rolled into
a long coil that Yadav wraps around
his head. Soon, he is ready to address
people who have gathered to hear
him, adding a few local flourishes
to his election pitch that presents
him as an experienced leader aware
of his constituency’s needs and who
can provide solutions. First elected to
Rajya Sabha in 2012, Yadav’s low-pro-
file, non-combative approach saw
him successfully head parliamentary
committees on complex legislation
like the Financial Resolution and De-
posit Insurance Bill, 2017, and GST.
He surprised many by achieving a
consensus on legislation vulnerable
to partisan politics. He also headed
the joint committee on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,
besides parliamentary panels examining important changes to
the Enemy Property and Prevention of Corruption Acts.
It is getting close to noon and Yadav’s campaign caravan moves
further into rural parts of Alwar—its sprawl abuts Nuh in Hary-
ana to the north and is not far from Jaipur in the south. Its harsh
conditions are embodied by the thorny, short bush vegetation and
the hard rock of the Aravallis, formed millions of years ago when
the Indian subcontinent collided with the Eurasian plate. Often
in the news for wrong reasons such as cattle mafia, illegal mining,
and cyber fraud, Alwar offers its residents few opportunities. This
time, voters here feel they might have a better option.
www.openthemagazine.com 45
 DISPAT CH

THE POWER OF
From the sleepy villages to the bustling towns of western
dispensation for its generous schemes and state Chief Mini

H
IS BODY LANGUAGE suggests that
Sanjeev Balyan, Bharatiya Janata Party’s
(BJP) candidate and sitting member of
Parliament (MP) from Muzaffarnagar,
western Uttar Pradesh, is a man in a tear-
ing hurry. But he still listens to my que-
ries carefully while massaging his broad
moustache. “Looks like there is no fight this time round in west-
ern Uttar Pradesh against BJP, but I still have to meet my people,”
the two-time lawmaker declares.
He goes on to emphasise the significance of his party’s tie-up
with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) led by Jayant Singh Chaudhary
whose father, the late Ajit Singh, he had trounced in the last Gen-
eral Election five years ago. RLD was part of the grand alliance of
two hefty regional players in the General Election of 2019, the
Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) and Mayawati-steered
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) whose electoral performance vastly
trailed expectations and forecasts based on simplistic caste
arithmetic, winning a mere 15 seats. “I must go,” Balyan politely
excuses himself as he climbs onto his SUV. The clean-shaven,
51-year-old Union minister dressed in sparkling white desi attire
points me towards his friend Naveen Kohad who he says will brief
me about his campaign. It highlights his achievements in this
seat and the grander feats of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. “We are seeking votes based
on the work done,” says the politician whose energy seems con-
tagious. Then, his convoy is gone into the searing heat of the day.
Seated comfortably in a chair on the covered veranda of Baly-
an’s home in the tony A2Z society of the city teeming with party
workers and hangers-on, Kohad tells me that the BJP candidate
visits some 10-12 localities of his constituency per day, starting off
at 10AM and returning only late in the night. “He is always with
the people,” he says. He dismisses the threat from the Thakur
community, some of whom feel slighted about a person from
the community not being given a BJP ticket this time round from

UTTAR PRADESH ACCOUNTS FOR

80 OF 543 SEATS IN PARLIAMENT
AND THOSE FROM WESTERN UTTAR
PRADESH ARE CRUCIAL TO ENSURING
BJP’S TARGET FOR A MASSIVE
MAJORITY IN LOK SABHA

46
 MY VOTE BANK
Uttar Pradesh, voters say they will reward the Modi
ster Yogi Adityanath for strict policing, writes ULLEKH NP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath campaigning
in Ghaziabad, April 6, 2024

AP

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 47

 DISPAT CH
this Lok Sabha constituency. “A lot of people are talking about it,
but it is a demand by only a small section of the community. The
majority are supportive of Balyan,” Kohad argues. He repeats the
common refrain from the region in this election: people here will
use their vote this election to thank Modi and Yogi for what they
have done for them.
Western Uttar Pradesh, covering the Lok Sabha seats of Muzaf-
farnagar, Saharanpur, Kairana, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, Ram-
pur, Baghpat, Meerut, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura,
Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Pilibhit, goes to the polls
in the first two phases of the seven-phased General Election in
which Modi is seeking a third straight term in office after previ-
ous emphatic wins in 2014 and 2019. Across this region, you often
meet people who provide clarity about why they would vote for
BJP—Modi’s schemes made their lives better and Yogi’s gover-
nance got rid of goondagiri (hooliganism) in the region as well as
the state, the most populous one in the country. Uttar Pradesh
accounts for 80 of 543 seats in Parliament and those from western
Uttar Pradesh are crucial to ensuring BJP’s target for a massive
majority in Lok Sabha. The ruling party, which had lost some
seven seats in the region last time, is looking to improve its coali- group who bring up inflation. The others are not against BJP or the
tion tally of 64 to meet its ambitious target of 400-plus seats in the projection of the Modi-Yogi combo as a winning formula, but they
Lower House of Parliament.
Jayakishan Kasyap, who runs a roadside eatery in a village near
Baghpat town, is busy making traditional
Indian bread for his customers. He says
his business is good although the pomp
and grandeur of usual election campaigns
are missing this year. “Maybe it is the heat,
but then elections often take place round
this time of the year when the weather is UTTAR PRADESH
scorching,” he makes a statement, and then
hastens to correct himself. “Maybe the op-
position is not excited enough.” But none
of it worries him one bit, he asserts, as he
spiritedly places balls of rolled dough on a
tray to make rotis later. He takes a break to serve me tea, which is
sweeter than I had anticipated. “The overall atmosphere is good,”
he avers and then laughs off the question about which party he
would vote for. Without naming BJP, he tells me that his vote is
for the party that helped him build a home and improved the
law-and-order situation in his neighbourhood. He guffaws after
making what was a pithy statement as though it was a stock reply.
Then his facial expression turns grave. Although he is worried
about the high cost of living and fewer employment opportuni-
ties for his 20-year-old son who is now working as a mason, he
expects that “good policies will usher in good times”.
RLD founder, the late Ajit Singh had represented the Bagh-
pat Lok Sabha seat in 1999, 2004 and 2009, winning a hat-trick.
His father, the legendary Chaudhary Charan Singh, the former
prime minister who was recently awarded the highest civilian
honour in India, Bharat Ratna, had represented this constituency
in Parliament in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. In this histori- have done before,” he professes, adding that there is a breath
cally significant seat, Satyapal Singh of BJP trounced Ajit Singh in
48
2014 and his son Jayant Chaudhary in 2019. This time, the seat has
gone to RLD thanks to an alliance sealed in March. The key candi-
dates in the fray in this election are RLD’s Raj Kumar Sagwan, SP’s
Amarpal Sharma and BSP’s Praveen Bansal.
I
RUN INTO a group of people discussing politics right in the
heart of Baghpat town—not far from the office of the munici-
pal corporation—where a farmer, Rohthash Singh, who is in
his 50s, is telling a younger man, Sagar Ruhela, that if he doesn’t
get jobs even after acquiring specialised skills, he should be bold
enough to become an entrepreneur. “I tell him we are getting the
benefits of Central schemes and a peaceful state under Yogi, and
so he should not wait for government jobs, but look for avenues
to avail of loans and start a business on his own,” Singh says. But
Ruhela isn’t convinced yet. Singh goes on to argue forcefully about
why it doesn’t matter who is the candidate from Baghpat so long as
the person’s victory ensures the continuation of the Modi dispen-
sation. “Problems of the poor won’t disappear in one stroke. It will
take time,” he reasons, using mild expletives against those in the
are hit by the rise in prices of essential goods, including vegetables.
Their arguments aren’t unfounded: India’s wholesale price
index-based inflation accelerated to 0.53 per
cent in March on an annual basis, its highest
level in three months, as against 0.20 per cent
in February, says data from the Union Com-
merce Ministry. Similarly, official numbers
show that the unemployment rate in the
country rose to 5.4 per cent in 2022-23 from
4.9 per cent in 2013-14. Reports quoting offi-
cial data suggest that as many as 16 per cent
ofurbanyouthintheagegroupof15-29years
remained unemployed in 2022-23 owing to
multiple reasons, ranging from poor skills
to a lack of quality jobs. Not surprisingly, a Lokniti-CSDS survey
showed that, in this election, unemployment is the primary con-
cern of 27 per cent of the 10,000 voters across 19 of India’s 28 states;
inflation came second at 23 per cent, according to reports.
The mood among BJP leaders in western Uttar Pradesh is up-
beat because they argue that poll momentum is on their side and
that the overall trend is for all to see: that the performance of the
Centre and the state is what finally counts, as evident from the
narrative that has captured people’s imagination in the region.
They are not off the mark, as the responses of voters confirm, and
therefore party leaders aren’t overly concerned about common
people voicing their worries and woes as well. Once BJP is voted
to power again, the party-led government will work towards
addressing all such issues, goes the commonly held belief here.
After all, Rome was not built in a day, a party leader in Delhi
tells me. “We will solve more problems, going ahead, than we
of fresh air in the country. “This is a new beginning,” he says,
29 APRIL 2024
leaving no room for doubt or confusion about the triumphant
mood in the BJP camp at a time when the opposition, especially
Congress, is in disarray and regional parties unable to ally cohe-
sively enough to take on the might of BJP and allies.
BJP is also buoyed by the backing it is getting from the Mus-
lims, and how they are winning from seats in western Uttar
Pradesh that have a huge population of Muslims, on an average,
of close to 30 per cent. In some of them, Muslims account for as
high as 40-50 per cent of the population.
Kairana is one such constituency.
Mehtab Ansari, an entrepreneur based in Shamli, which
falls in the Kairana seat, says it is his personal experience that
for all the cries of Hindutva that the ruling party and its leaders
make, as a government, the Centre doesn’t discriminate against
anyone while disbursing welfare schemes. As a lower-class
Muslim, Ansari feels that bullying by Gujjar Muslims and other
land-owning communities has fallen drastically under Yogi. An-
sari is a landscape artist who has done various projects in Delhi,
including for the G20 summit, various government offices and
at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. “We are a team of people who accept
work across cities in India, including metropolises,” he says, em-
phasising that, back home, discrimination from land-owning
communities among the Muslims was extreme until the Yogi
government began to show them their place—which means
ending their goondagiri, which he says they have a special talent
for. Revati Laul, author and director at Sarfaroshi Foundation in
Shamli, which works among Hindu and Muslim communities,
MANY IN SHAMLI ATTEST THAT AS A GOVERNMENT, THE CENTRE DOESN’T
DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ANYONE WHILE DISBURSING WELFARE SCHEMES AND
THAT REGARDLESS OF ANYONE’S RELIGION, THEIR LIVES HAVE IMPROVED
Photographs by ULLEKH NP
Jayakishan Kasyap, who runs an eatery Mehtab Ansari, an entrepreneur
near Baghpat town in Shamli, Kairana
29 APRIL 2024
agrees that the relationships between the formerly landowning
communities and the formerly have-nots who are now upwardly
mobile are complicated. Which explains why backward-class
Muslims tend to gravitate towards BJP, she says.
ThiswritermetmanysuchgroupsofMuslimsacrosstheregion,
who talk typically like Hindu voters, attesting that their lives have
improvedthankstoCentralschemesandstrictpolicingunderYogi.
“In this election, there is not much of Hindu-Muslim rivalry and
hostilities. Whatever BJP has done in terms of temple building,
etc., does not worry us much so long as we are not subject to bhed
bhav [discrimination] in the allotment of welfare policies,” says
Zeeshan, also from Shamli, who says he belongs to the Pasmanda
community, an umbrella term for OBC and Dalit Muslims. In the
2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP had won in Muslim-dominated seats
oftheregion,includingRampur,Amroha,Muzaffarnagar,Saharan-
pur, Moradabad, Bijnor and Nagina, all of which were once upon
a time strongholds of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress. In
the last election of 2019, the SP-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-RLD al-
liance won 15 seats in Uttar Pradesh, a good chunk of them from
this region. This time round, Muslim votes are likely to get split.
The Kairana constituency is dominated by Muslims who are
saidtomakeup5.5lakhofthetotalcloseto18lakhelectorate.In2014,
Hukum Singh of BJP had wrested this seat from BSP, which had
won in 2009. Although RLD, which was then in the anti-BJP
camp, won the seat in the by-poll held in 2018 after the demise
of Singh, Pradeep Choudhary of BJP won it back in the 2019 elec-
tion. This time, 55-year-old Choudhary, the BJP candidate and
Arvind, a pharmacist from
Habibgarh, Saharanpur
www.openthemagazine.com 49
 DISPAT CH
incumbent, is up against SP’s Iqra Hasan and BSP’s Shripal Rana.
At 27, London-educated Iqra Hasan is one of the youngest candi-
dates in the polls and is the daughter of politicians, the late Mu-
nawwar Hasan and Tabassum Hasan, both former MPs from
Kairana, famous for the Kirana gharana of Hindustani classical
music that has produced the likes of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
“Jo kaam karega unko vote milega (those who work will get
votes),” says Saira from the Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituency,
who says her family is content that the law and order situation
has improved all over the state, not just in this seat. “They are not
worried the way they used to be about us kids before,” says this
medical student. No different is the sentiment from Arvind, who
runs a pharmacy and also checks the blood pressure of people
for a fee and lives in the densely Dalit-populated Habibgarh area
of Saharanpur. The common refrain here is that “goondagiri has
ended”. He thinks that there is hardly any anti-incumbency sen-
timent against the ruling BJP in his hometown. In Saharanpur,
the key candidates are BSP’s Majid Ali, former lawmaker and BJP
leader Raghav Lakhanpal, and Congress’ Imran Masood.
But there are a few others who are worried about the Hindu
nationalist surge that they say may not be good for “us” in the
long run. Fareed Khan, who lives in Jhatav Nagar in the city, says
that development and federal schemes are indications of good
governance, but BJP workers at the grassroots tend to be aggres-
sive. “Theyarenotverynicepeople,”hesayslaughing.BSPhadwon
this seat last time but Haji Fazlur Rehman, the MP, is not contesting
this time round. Roshan Lal, who depends on his children now that
he is in his 70s, repeats what you tend to hear from a large chunk
of voters in the region as if it is the theme of the election: “Welfare
BJP supporters at a rally in Meerut, March 31, 2024
50
schemeshavehelpedusalotinbuildingourhome,toilets.”Laladds
that the Ayushman Bharat card, which people here describe as the
“Modi card”, is the backbone of his life because he can avail of free
treatment for up to `5 lakh for his health problems.
M
EANWHILE, IN MUZAFFARNAGAR, as stated
before, a section of voters from the Thakur commu-
nity aren’t immensely pleased with what they call
“lack of due representation”. Deepak Pundir, a small-time trader
in his forties, is crestfallen and says that “some people in the party
are obsessed with promoting people only from their caste”, refer-
ring to the Jat community. On the other hand, for Atul Verma of
Naugawan Sadat, Amroha Lok Sabha constituency, the candidate
that BJP fields is not as important as the party itself. “I will vote for
whoever the party names, especially because candidates seldom
rise to your expectations. What I am looking for is to strengthen
the hands of Modi at the Centre and Yogi here in the state,” he
tells me. In this seat, one of the crucial ones in the region, Kanwar
Singh Tanwar, who was MP from 2014 to 2019, is the candidate
for BJP against sitting MP Kunwar Danish Ali of Congress, who
had won last time on a BSP ticket. BSP, for its part, has fielded
Mujahid Hussain in this election. Devendra Nagpal of RLD had
won this seat back in 2009.
Rampur was once synonymous with SP founding member and
strongmanAzamKhanwhoisnowlanguishinginSitapurjail.The
former 10-time MLA from Rampur, his wife Tanzeen Fatima and
son Abdullah Azam Khan are behind bars for illegally acquiring a
fake birth certificate (for the son), in a case filed by local BJP leader
GETTY IMAGES
29 APRIL 2024
Akash Saxena. Although the 75-year-old
Khan, a former high-profile minister in Ut-
tar Pradesh, is flexing his political muscles
to get his people to contest polls in at least
some seats, his influence within the party
and the constituency seems to be on the
wane. A section of Khan’s supporters, one
of whom is a restaurateur in the town, is
not happy with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav
for not being “accommodative enough”.
At the same time, he is also upset with Naresh Kumar Saini,
BJP for what they call a “witch hunt” on a shopkeeper from
Awas Vikas, Rampur
their leader. But among the common
folk here, sentiments are vastly different.
Naresh Kumar Saini, a shopkeeper from IN RAMPUR, PEOPLE SAY THAT THE ‘ROWDYISM’ OF
the Awas Vikas area in Rampur, is glad that THE AZAM KHAN ERA IS NOW A THING OF THE PAST
the “rowdyism” of the Azam Khan era is SINCE HE IS IN JAIL, BUT STATE THAT A LOT
nowathingofthepastsinceheisinjail.He, MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE TO BRING NEW
however, states that a lot more needs to be
done to bring more industrial units to the INDUSTRIAL
city to address unemployment woes. In
this seat, in 2019, Azam Khan had defeated
BJP’s Jaya Prada, but in the by-poll held in 2022, Ghanshyam Singh
Lodhi of BJP—who was earlier a protégé of Azam Khan—had won
against SP’s Mohammad Asim Raza.
This time, Khan wanted Akhilesh Yadav to contest the polls
from here, but the latter refused to do so. Then, much to the
anguish of Khan and his men, nomination papers of Khan’s
close aides, Asim Raza and Abdul Salam, were rejected over not
supplying all the details required. On the contrary, SP fielded
Muhibullah Nadwi, an imam of a mosque in Delhi’s Parliament
Street, a candidature that Khan and his team disapprove of. While
they are dismayed by this decision by the SP leadership, what
adds to the woes of non-BJP parties in this seat, which accounts
for close to 50 per cent Muslim voters, is the potential split in mi-
nority votes between SP and BSP’s Zeeshan Khan.
Amidst all this confusion, Khan somehow managed to get his
nominee Ruchi Veera made the SP candidate from Moradabad,
replacing sitting lawmaker ST Hasan. Moradabad is one of the
Lok Sabha seats in the state that has a Muslim majority. Hasan
had won Moradabad in 2019 by defeating BJP’s Kunwar Sarvesh
Kumar Singh. Singh had defeated Hasan in 2014.
A section of voters in the region aren’t thrilled at the prospect
of what looks like a unilateral election, with BJP enjoying a big
lead. Hansa Makhijani Jain, a Meerut-based author, tells me
that she relishes more choices. “I want more opposition. Now,
only positive issues are highlighted. Day-to-day living costs are
high, but very few or none are talking about it,” the 39-year-old
mother of two says, conceding that it is a masterstroke on the
part of BJP to pitch Arun Govil, who had acted as Lord Ram in
Ramanand Sagar’s serial Ramayan. “People tend to see Ram in
him,” she says. Jain also rues the demonisation of the opposi-
tion and that there is a clear polarisation, which she describes
as “us and them”. At the same time, inflation is draining the
29 APRIL 2024
Deepak Pundir,
a trader from
Muzaffarnagar
UNITS TO THE CITY TO ADDRESS
UNEMPLOYMENT WOES
middle class. Indian National Army veteran Shah Nawaz Khan,
Mohsina Kidwai and others have won from this prestigious seat
in the past. In the last three Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won this
seat. This time, BJP’s Arun Govil will be up against candidates
such as BSP’s Devvrat Kumar Tyagi and SP’s Sunita Verma.
Among other key constituencies in the region, BJP’s
Hema Malini is looking for a hat-trick in Mathura. In 2019,
the actress-politician defeated Kumar Narendra Singh, and
Jayant Chaudhary in 2014. In Pilibhit, interestingly, we will see
an election in which neither Maneka Gandhi nor her son Varun
Gandhi is a candidate. Since 1996, between them, the mother and
son had won from this seat. Jitin Prasada replaces Varun Gandhi
as BJP’s nominee. Maneka Gandhi will seek re-election for BJP
from Sultanpur.
Notwithstanding subtle undercurrents of discontent in some
areas, BJP has a clear edge across the region in terms of perception.
Voters feel that Congress is as good as dead, having won only one
seat in the state last time. SP, for its part, was hoping to encash what
it calls PDA—no, not public display of affection or the seat-sharing
arrangement with Congress, but its focus on Pichda (backwards),
Dalit (Scheduled Castes) and Alpsankhyak (minorities). But as
SP politician and academic Sudhir Panwar admits, “BJP has mas-
tered the art of winning elections. In terms of perception, there is
no critical mass of voters on the opposition side to checkmate the
ruling party. There are murmurs and noises but there are hardly
any mobilisations against them.” Indeed, it would be a miracle if
the opposition makes headway.
Another SP leader, who blames the Congress for being overly
selfish over the years and squandering away multiple political op-
portunities since 2014, perhaps sums up the mood in the region:
“The sentiment here is that if you are not voting for Modi, you are
wasting your vote.”
www.openthemagazine.com 51
 DISPAT CH
THE FRONTLINE OF
On a visit to the home village of top Maoist commander Hidma in Ba
finds ground domination and a humanitarian outreach are containing
F
AR FROM POLARISING and enervating
debates about India’s ‘democratic decline’,
residents in a remote and security-challenged
area of Chhattisgarh are giving voice to a vi-
brant democratic process. Chances are it will
be hard to find Puvarti, Silger and Bhima-
puram on a map. But these villages of Konta
Assembly block of the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency are the
frontlines of democracy. It is here that the true measure of India’s
democracy can be seen and assessed as fresh shoots rise in an area
that has been a Maoist stronghold.
Much of this has to do with the effective and increased security
at the tri-junction of Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada districts,
once seen as no-go zones. On February 16 this year, the Central Re-
serve Police Force (CRPF) established a new camp in Puvarti that
52
is the home of top Maoist commander Hidma, who is on the run.
The force has constructed an anganwadi and a Public Distribution
System (PDS) centre. These are likely to become operational soon.
There is no substitute to feet on the ground and it is security forces
like CRPF and its specialised CoBRA battalions that are ensuring
public participation by the people of the area.
These are not easy places to re-plant and nurture participatory
politics. The Konta Assembly block is among the most sensitive
parts of India. Here, Maoists have had a free run for more than
four decades and until recently, the situation looked hopeless.
The people of the area seemed ‘resigned’ to Maoist hegemony.
The north-western edge of the constituency, which includes the
Puvarti, Silger and Bhimapuram (also known as Meshiguda) poll-
ing stations, present unprecedented hurdles for election officials
and security forces personnel. Yet, bit by bit, Maoist terror has
29 APRIL 2024
 DEMOCRACY
star, SIDDHARTH SINGH
Maoist terror
retreated and the voting pattern in this area since the 2018 As-
sembly elections, as gleaned from the Form 20—that details votes
cast at each polling station in the Assembly block—tells the story.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, a mere five votes were cast at
Silger and just two at Puvarti. This figure dipped further in the
2019 Lok Sabha elections. But by 2023, a sea change was notice-
able in the area. The CRPF camp at Silger was established on May
12, 2021. Two years later, when elections were conducted for the
Chhattisgarh Assembly, the number of votes cast at Silger went
up to 54 and even in remote Puvarti, the figure went up to 10. For
those accustomed to witnessing brisk voting in urban areas of
India, these figures may appear uninspiring. But it is important
to understand the background in which people come out to vote
in these areas in the face of boycott calls and threat of violence.
The improvement in security did not end the woes of the
29 APRIL 2024
A CRPF patrol at
Silger in Sukma
people. As a last-ditch measure, the Maoists decided to open an
overground front in Silger. When the CRPF camp was established,
there were protests and it was claimed the presence of paramili-
tary forces would lead to harassment of Adivasis living in the
area. A permanent protest site came up at Silger in 2021. (This
site shifted over time in an area of one-odd kilometre: from Tar-
rem in Bijapur district to its final site near the Silger CRPF camp.)
The protest has been lifted now. Unwilling to accept that the pro-
test ran out of steam, commentators sympathetic to the Maoist
cause continued to hail it as a “democratic protest.” ‘Intellectuals’
claimed the lifting of the protest was because of ‘coercive’ pressure
from the security forces. A simpler explanation for the protest
withering away can be found in the fact that residents of Silger and
adjoining villages sought the benefits of democracy and wanted
their representatives to carry their voice in the state Assembly and
www.openthemagazine.com 53
 DISPAT CH
Parliament. And pressure of the security forces, if
any, ensured Maoists could not intimidate locals.
All this has, however, come at a cost.
In discussing the security situation with
Open at Silger, an officer highlighted the
challenges that accompany any political activity.
“After the polling for Assembly elections last year, CHHAT TISGARH
there were at least 15 cases where fingers of voters
with the mark of the indelible ink were chopped
off by the Maoists,” the officer, who did not wish
to be named, said. These villagers belong to Silger
and its adjoining areas. There are other challenges
as well. Silger lies on the road from Awapalli, some 33km away, in
Bijapur district. Jagargonda, a key administrative centre in Sukma
district, is another 15km away. Around 400 metres ahead of the
camp lies a tree line. The area beyond has been laid with spikes
hidden by leaves and foliage in the ground that can maim and kill
anyone who accidentally falls on them. If this were not enough,
the entire belt, which merges into Dantewada district, has been
rigged with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
The same officer tells Open, “This is not aimed at us [CRPF]
only. The Maoists don’t want people from these villages to vote
in the Lok Sabha elections or even approach us at the camp for
any kind of aid.” The Silger camp has a makeshift hospital and is
manned by a doctor who not only cares for troopers and officers,
but also for people of villages around the camp. By all accounts,
this has gone down well with the people of Silger. “It is a cat-
and-mouse game. We try to secure the area; they [Maoists] keep
on watching us and change their tactics. We respond and they
counter-respond,” says the officer. For all the challenges, the area
under Silger Forward Operating Base (FOB) is now under control.
CRPF is now trying to replicate, lock stock and barrel, the
Silger experience in Puvarti, an experiment that is far more de-
manding, in a security environment that is doubly challenging.
Puvarti is around 11km from Silger in the south-west direction.
There is a single track, a dirt strip that leads from Silger to Puvarti.
It is on this ‘road’ that a daily traffic of earth-moving equipment,
tractors with trolley loads of construction material and trucks
with supplies plies. Almost
at their mid-point lies the
CRPF’s Forward Operating Base in Puvarti
Tekulagudem camp, infa-
mous for the April 3, 2021
ambush in which 22 CRPF
troopers lost their lives. This
year, on January 30, the very
day when an FOB was es-
tablished at Tekulagudem,
Maoists attacked the camp.
Three CRPF men were killed
and 14 were injured. Puvarti
lies another five kilometres
away from Tekulagudem.
For all practical purposes,
Puvarti is the tip of the spear
54
pointed at the Maoists. It is effectively surrounded
on all sides by hostile territory. But it is interesting
to note that the strategy based on a mix of welfare
and security measures being attempted at Puvarti
is delivering results.
The first thing to note about Puvarti is that it
was purportedly a ‘model village’ being developed
by the Maoists. This Marxist-Leninist ‘utopia’ had
BASTAR
collectivised agriculture, based on fields parcelled
into plots, a check dam of sorts, and more were dis-
covered by security forces at a location of around
one kilometre from the camp. The village—
Hidma’s home—is roughly 750 metres from the camp. Until now,
people at Puvarti had no medical help unless they trudged all
the way to Silger. This has changed. The camp now has a make-
shift hospital and a doctor to boot. In time, a permanent hospital
is planned.
“When we began, we had to take our table, medicines and
equipment outside the camp under a tree. We then waited for
the villagers to approach us,” Dr Jeetu Kurian, the doctor at Puvarti
tells Open. Within days, there was a beeline of sorts for medical
help. “The cases we see here involve falciparum malaria, dermal
infections, dehydration and malnutrition,” says the doctor. This
is the mix of maladies that is seen everywhere in Bastar. Most of
the fatalities in the area are due to malaria. In the roughly two
months since the camp was opened, some 510-odd patients have
been treated, on average around 10 patients a day. Not only do
Maoists have no care for such concerns, they have regularly blown
up schools and hospitals and damaged roads to prevent regular
administrative services from reaching areas under their control.
“In one case, a person had a severe infection on his leg. I applied
a dressing and told him that you need to come for at least two to
three more days for a fresh dressing every day. The man came
every day. Some days later, he returned with a handful of edible
seeds. I see that as a mark of his affection,” says Kurian.
The importance of medical facilities at Puvarti and people in
the village availing them has another dimension: the govern-
ment’s outreach in this area is working.
Another officer at the camp,
who did not wish to be named,
said: “Our strategy is not about
hunting Maoists. We are here
to impart confidence among
the people towards the govern-
ment. If the Maoists do come,
we will deal with them. But the
overall goal is to stabilise the
region.”
This is a big change from
the Salwa Judum era when the
strategy to counter the Maoists
was to control people living in
Bastar. That strategy did not
work and, by some accounts,
29 APRIL 2024
 A weekly
market in Silger
RESIDENTS OF SILGER AND ADJOINING VILLAGES SOUGHT THE
BENEFITS OF DEMOCRACY AND WANTED THEIR REPRESENTATIVES
TO CARRY THEIR VOICE IN THE STATE ASSEMBLY AND PARLIAMENT.
AND PRESSURE OF THE SECURITY FORCES, IF ANY, ENSURED
MAOISTS COULD NOT INTIMIDATE LOCALS
even backfired spectacularly. Since then, there has been extensive
thinking and rethinking on how to counter the Maoists. The an-
swer is to adopt an approach based on area domination. But how
does one do that and how does one take into confidence people
in a region who have known no other ‘government’ except gun-
toting Maoists and their own ‘Jantana Sarkar’? A people-centric
approach had to be the cornerstone of any such strategy, and it is
in camps like Silger and Puvarti with their mix of security and
civic action programmes that now seems to be delivering results.
The three camps—Silger, Tekulagudem and Puvarti—lie in a
straight line as the crow flies, in a north-south axis. Each camp has
an operating radius of five to six kilometres in a concentric circle.
While the exact area of operations is not disclosed—for obvious
reasons—together, the three camps now effectively control terri-
tory with a radius of around 18 km. The Awapalli-Jagargonda road,
a distance of 50-odd kilometres, lies in an east-west direction. From
Jagargonda to Dornapal (both in Sukma district) is a distance of
70-odd kms in a north-south direction. These two axes—Dornapal-
Jagargonda and Jagargonda-Awapalli—are now ringed with mul-
tiple CRPF camps that have a significant presence of CoBRA troops.
T
HE RESULT IS that Maoists are being hemmed in to
ever-shrinking areas. If one looks at incidents that have
led to the killing of 85 Maoists since January (including
29 killed in a single encounter in Kanker district on April 16), a
majority have taken place to the north of the Awapalli-Jagargonda
axis. This area falls mostly in Bijapur and Sukma districts. These
encounters happened in Gampur, Purangel, Pidiya, Korcholi
and other areas that are north of this axis. The strategy is clear:
wrest back this area from Maoist control and then focus on Pa-
med in the “deep south” of Bijapur and Sukma district — one of
the remaining strongholds of the Maoists in Bastar. (The other
one being the Abujmarh area that straddles Narayanpur district
29 APRIL 2024
A CRPF-run school for
Adivasi children in Silger
in Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.) Even a
cursory look at the data on locations of encounters since the start
of this year confirms this: few incidents have taken place to the
south of this line.
What this does is to exert an immense amount of security pres-
sure on the Silger-Puvarti axis. And it shows. The speed at which
construction work is being carried out at Puvarti, the extensive
area domination exercises and multiple flows of road-opening
parties show the seriousness with which security is being
manned in this sector. While officers at Puvarti are tight-lipped
about the security situation, these measures are not impacting
the civilian outreach which is the cornerstone of the strategy to
reassert control in the area.
When Open asked if the ‘model farm’ and the check dam made
by the Maoists could be visited, officers at Puvarti demurred that
the area was too dangerous. Even a visit to the village was con-
sidered risky. But in the end, one officer tasked with perimeter
defence said he would help. He accompanied Open to the village.
The reaction of one villager was interesting. Pointing to the pre-
fabricated anganwadi centre, he said while the centre worker
visited two of the eight locales—paras in Hindi—of the village,
she never came to Puvarti proper. The officer said he would ask
the worker to visit there as well. It is evident that villagers here
have no nostalgia about the Maoist raj. The government’s out-
reach is working, and working well.
It is too early to say when Puvarti will become ‘normal’, be-
yond its current status of being an area now under the control
of the government. But one thing is certain: the tide is turning
against the Maoists in areas that were ‘out of bounds’, even as
recently as January. Perhaps it has to do with a growing convic-
tion among people that areas such as Jagargonda are now by and
large peaceful, along with the vigorous outreach to provide basic
services long denied to people for as long as they can remember.
Bastar is witnessing democracy in action.
www.openthemagazine.com 55
 THE
SAFFRON
DA R E

BJP’s candidate for

Tirunelveli Nainar Nagendran
campaigns in Kalakkad,
April 13, 2024 Photographs by V SHOBA

56 29 APRIL 2024

BJP makes an ambitious push in Tamil Nadu, challenging
traditional calculations in a state used to bipolar contests between
I
DMK and AIADMK, writes V SHOBA
T IS A LITTLE past 7PM and the snaking roads of Kal-
akkad are pitch dark. Home to India’s southernmost
tiger sanctuary and a thriving biodiversity, this taluk in the narrow streets as the convoy rushes through areas populated
western Tirunelveli, one of the largest districts in Tamil by Muslims and several churches, making a beeline for the next
Nadu, is watered by the Thamirabarani river. Right now,
it is awash with political activity as Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) and Congress make fervent appeals ahead of
polling on April 19, with the AIADMK candidate, town panchay-
at leader M Jansi Rani, also canvassing for votes. BJP candidate
Nainar Nagendran’s campaign vehicle stops in front of every tem-
ple, including the one dedicated to Krishna in Kalakkad, where
a classical music concert is underway with a handful of elderly
veshti-clad gentlemen in attendance. Offering prayers to the Lord,
Nagendran, a hotelier, three-time MLA and former AIADMK min-
ister,saysheneedseveryblessing.Afterall,heislookingtowinfrom
a parliamentary constituency that has never voted BJP before. He
needs to expand his party’s presence beyond the Tirunelveli As-
sembly segment, which he won with a 47.2 per cent vote share in
the 2021 elections as part of an AIADMK-led alliance.
Brahmins and Thevars—Nagendran’s community—are with
BJP, he says, but the key is winning the confidence
of Christians, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and
Scheduled Castes (SCs). “I am the only man in the
party looking at how to get votes that are neither with
DMK nor with AIADMK, like Devendra Kula Vellalar
votes, for instance, and even Muslim and Christian
votes,”hetellsOpen,amidsthecticelectioneering.“We
have won in [neighbouring] Kanniyakumari before,
and there is no reason we cannot win here, now that
Modiji’s voice and message are finally reaching the
people. I admit there is much we have to do as a party
inTamilNadu,butforthatwehavetowinsomeseats.”
Recent statements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismissing
the so-called north-south divide are bound to strike a chord with
BJP supporters in Tamil Nadu, he says. “Now is not the time to talk
about Central government schemes. It is a time to be with the peo-
ple, and to take the message of the prime minister to them. One
thing I refuse to do is make false promises. We want to establish
more Central schools and Navodaya Vidyalayas in the state and
make the Jal Jeevan Mission a success, but we cannot be sure of
the state government’s cooperation,” he says, climbing back on
the Isuzu that flaunts nearly every caste flag there is.
Nagendran is an interesting choice, and BJP hopes his experi-
ence and the fact that he is not an unknown quantity will help
the party. In recent weeks, the decision of former MLAs and local
leaders to join BJP has been pitched by the party as evidence that
it is no longer an also-ran. In Kalakkad, he does promise a hospital
and train stops in Nanguneri before the campaign announcer,
29 APRIL 2024
DISPAT CH
who seems to deal in superlatives, butts in to seek votes for their
“dear beloved candidate”. People step out of their homes and onto
temple of Kulasekaranathar koil in Keelapathai. This is the land of
a thousand temples, including several divyadesams—Vaishnavite
temples graced by the 12 Alwar poet-saints of Tamil Nadu, such as
the navatirupathi kshetrams associated with Nammalwar, and BJP
is hoping to get a foothold here. Christians, who constitute over
11 per cent of the population, and Muslims, who make up nearly
10 per cent, are a significant demographic that Nagendran needs to
negotiatebyassuringthathewillworkfortheinterestsofeveryone.
“We have given 1.2 lakh drinking water connections to house-
holds in Tamil Nadu under the Jal Jeevan Mission, constructed 12
lakh houses, and built 57 lakh toilets,” Modi said in a public meet-
ing, his last in Tamil Nadu, at Agasthiarpatti near Ambasamudram
in Tirunelveli on April 15. Along with Nagendran, the meeting
featured other NDA candidates from southern districts, including
Pon Radhakrishnan (Kanniyakumari), Tamilaga Makkal Mun-
netra Kazhagam’s John Pandian (Tenkasi), Tamil Maanila Con-
gress’ SDR Vijayaseelan (Thoothukudi), and Radikaa
Sarathkumar (Virudhunagar). BJP, on a mission to
hit a double-digit vote share, has pinned hopes on
this region, though the DMK-Congress alliance is
on a strong footing. Radhakrishnan, Union minister
TAMIL and two-term MP from Kanniyakumari (formerly
NADU Nagercoil), lost the seat to businessman H Vasan-
thakumar of Congress in 2019, and then again to his
rival’s son in a by-election in 2021. The former RSS
man is once again up against Vasanth and hopes to
consolidate Hindu votes in a direct face-off between
the two national parties.
While BJP has hit the ground guns blazing in Tirunelveli, the
Congress campaign is by and large tepid and largely dependent
on its alliance partner DMK, with Rahul Gandhi’s public meeting
in Palayamkottai on April 12 being an exception. Here, Gandhi
touched upon emotional issues like Tamil language and identity,
NEET and unemployment in an effort to drum up support for the
party’scandidateRobertBruce.Afterthemeeting,supportershang-
ing about near the Palayamkottai bus stand admit that Bruce, who
is new to the constituency, is not known to voters. Wrapping up
a YouTube video, P Balamurugan, a social worker who has come
with his wife and friends clad in saffron as they are followers of
Ayyavazhi, a sect founded by Ayya Vaikundar in the 19th century,
says they have spent their own money to canvass for Congress. “No
other candidate or party has entered these villages. Surely, this will
make a difference,” he says.
Political and caste allegiances run deep in these parts,
www.openthemagazine.com 57
 DISPAT CH
however,andittakesalottoconvincevoterstochangetheirmind.On
Kirubakaran Street, Old Military Lane, Palayamkottai, in a cubby
hole of a shop that rents out audio setups for events, 32-year-old
T Balamurugan is in the midst of evening puja, a silent aarti and
dhupaofferedtoLordGanesha,JesusandsomeChristiansaintswho
share a wall. The store owner is a devotee of Saint Anthony, he ex-
plains. “Many of us will vote for whichever party K Krishnaswamy
(president of Puthiya Tamilagam, a party that has aligned with
AIADMK) is with,” says Balamurugan. Krishnaswamy, who is the
AIADMK alliance’s Tenkasi candidate—despite unsuccessfully
contesting the seat for the past six elections—was instrumental in
seeking to de-list Pallars and six other sub-sects from the Scheduled
Castes list. This led to the Modi government introducing a Con-
stitutional amendment to group seven SC communities under
the umbrella of Devendra Kula Vellalars (DKV) in 2021. All three
alliances in the fray this election are targeting DKV votes, which
may well split among them. Interestingly enough, the row over
Katchatheevu island also features the festival of Saint Anthony, an
annual occurrence which Indian fishermen boycotted this year.
Outside the DMK office in Palayamkottai, 45-year-old
T Narayanan, who runs seven juice shops in the town, says
Nagendran’s accessibility and generous spirit will stand him in
good stead in Tirunelveli and Radhapuram Assembly segments.
A beneficiary of the PM Street Vendor AtmaNirbhar Nidhi, he has
availed `4 lakh in loans. Narayanan supports TTV Dhinakaran’s
Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) and says Central
schemes like direct benefit transfer to farmers reach everyone,
whereas the state government often discriminates to favour its
own party workers. “I believe Nainar’s appeal this time can go be-
yond simple arithmetic which seems to favour DMK-Congress,”
he says. In Tenkasi and Thoothukudi, many BJP supporters rue the
party has fielded ‘weak’ candidates. In Tiruchendur, waiting to pick
up passengers outside DMK leader and Thoothukudi candidate
BJP’S GROUND-LEVEL MESSAGING DOES NOT SEEM TO BE DESIGNED
TO CASH IN ON THE IDEAS THAT HAVE DEFINED ITS VISION FOR THE
ECONOMY, POSSIBLY BECAUSE ITS ORGANISATIONAL NETWORK IS STILL
GROWING. YET, THE PARTY HOPES FOR A SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES AMONG
VOTERS DISILLUSIONED WITH TRADITIONAL CHOICES
Isakki Ammal, a 37-year-old resident who runs M Swaminathan, a 72-year-old who runs a
a provision store in Radhapuram, Tirunelveli shop in Kanniyakumari
58
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi’s massive public meeting, K Kannan,
a 43-year-old auto driver from Nadunalamoolakinaru says he is
forced to vote DMK only because the opposition’s candidates are
uninspiring. Others say Kanimozhi is the best thing that has hap-
pened to Thoothukudi. In Kayamozhi, a picturesque village in
Tiruchendur taluk, people say both Kanimozhi and Tamil Nadu
minister for Women’s Welfare and Social Empowerment P Geetha
Jeevan, the latter represents Thoothukudi in the Tamil Nadu As-
sembly, have been with them through thick and thin. When tor-
rential rains led to floods and wreaked havoc last year, they were on
the ground coordinating relief efforts and later ensured the govern-
ment compensated them for the damages. The palm-fringed rural
roads in this part of Thoothukudi are remarkably clean thanks to
three-wheelers driven by women that collect garbage; there are
schoolswithlargeplaygroundsandlotuspondsthatglintinthesun.
In neighbouring Tirunelveli, however, there is discontent
building against DMK, especially arising from partial delivery of
its schemes, including the `1,000 monthly assistance to women.
“There are very few buses, and no special schemes for fisherfolk
who have suffered because of a reduction in the quantity of sub-
sidised kerosene for fishing vessels,” says Arul Sona, a 43-year-old
fish seller from Kuthenkully village in Tirunelveli’s Radhapuram
taluk who is waiting for a bus at Navaladi. After selling fish worth
`1,500, she has waited a whole hour for a bus. Nearby Kudankulam,
home to a nuclear power plant that was delayed due to protests led
by activists and supported by church groups, is fast becoming the
cancercapitalofSouthIndia,sheclaims.“Ourproblemsaresimpler
to solve. We are forced to buy drinking water for `100 a day,” says
Sona, leading the way to her house, where her 21-year-old daughter
Prakasi is cooking fish curry over a wood fire in an annexe, their
frontyardcrowdedwithoveradozenbucketsofwater.Thevillageis
painted with party symbols in every colour. Besides Dravidian par-
ties, there is a diamond, a lock and keys, and the Seeman-led Naam
L Subhashini, a 37-year-old resident of
Radhapuram, Tirunelveli
29 APRIL 2024

Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and DMK candidate
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi campaign in Thoothukudi, April 13, 2024
Tamilar Katchi’s (NTK) microphone. Sona’s family has always
backed Congress and she has a sister named Sonia and a brother
Sanjay Gandhi. Yet this time, she might just vote BJP, she says. “My
19-year-old son says we should give BJP a chance. There has been no
positive change in the coastal belt for years. My old, infirm parents
don’t even get the state pension due to them,” she says.
Fishermen who are stringing nets by the seashore say BJP has
only taken up non-issues like ceding of Katchatheevu island to Sri
Lanka over 50 years ago, ignoring real needs of the people. “Arvind
Kejriwal slept with us at the Kudankulam protest. DMK gives our
women cash transfers. What has BJP ever done for us? We need
better boats, more fuel subsidy, insurance, protection against ar-
rests by the Sri Lankan government, and reliable drinking water
supply,” says 45-year-old Mariachan, father to three daughters.
In Radhapuram town, 37-year-old Isakki Ammal who runs a
small provision store says the state government should provide
scholarships to students from low-income families who cannot
afford to pay tens of thousands towards college tuition. Her son
is completing school next year and she worries she may not be
able to afford to send him to college. “My husband is a painter.
My daughter wants to study nursing. We don’t know how we
will gather the funds,” she says. Congress, DMK, AIADMK, PMK
have all promised to waive off education loans in their respective
manifestos for the upcoming polls.
The DMK government’s morning meal scheme for school chil-
dren is a winner even among people who don’t support the party.
L Subhashini, a 37-year-old whose five-year-old son Manikandan
29 APRIL 2024
goes to the government primary school in Radhapuram, is
a BJP supporter with the party symbol prominently painted
on her walls. “We don’t always make breakfast at home, and
even if we do, Mani prefers to eat with his friends,” she says,
sitting on the threshold. “I will still vote for Modiji because
he talks of empowering women,” she says.
In neighbouring Kanniyakumari, where 48.65 per cent
voters are Hindus, 46.85 per cent are Christians, and 4.2 per
centMuslims,thereligiouspolarisationispalpable,givingan
edge to Pon Radhakrishnan. M Swaminathan, a 72-year-old
BJP supporter who runs a small store selling bottled drinks
and cigarettes near Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam, says the
party should have fielded a younger candidate. “Ponnar’s
only achievement is building the Suchindram bridge. Even
local partymen are working against him,” he says. A former
AIADMK man, Swaminathan has been voting for Modi late-
lyandsaystherearemanylikehimwhocannolongerbelieve
in AIADMK, especially when it comes to the Lok Sabha polls.
Photograph by RG SASTHA
“We want you to vote for change at the Centre, not for me,
not even for your local candidate, but for the sake of democra-
cy,”thundersTiruchiSiva,aDMKRajyaSabhaMPandorator,
campaigning for two-time Congress MP Manickam Tagore
near a statue of community leader Muthuramalinga Thevar
in Sivakasi. The town, in Virudhunagar district, is witnessing
ahigh-profilethree-corneredcontestbetweenTagore,thelate
Vijayakanth’s son Vijay Prabhakaran looking to ride a sym-
pathy wave, and BJP’s Radikaa Sarathkumar, a popular face
on Tamil television. Tagore is confident of a hat-trick. “The Modi
government’s failures, whether it is price rise or jobs, are the main
election issues,” he says, en route to woo another community, the
Naidus. He hands out a fat booklet listing his achievements and
patiently listens to people’s demands that range from drinking
water,education,aboosttothe`6,000-crorefireworksindustrythat
has been hit by raids, and a Supreme Court ban on crackers with
barium nitrate. “I have been the voice of the people of Sivakasi for
the past two terms and they know I will do everything in my power
to support the industry here,” he says.
Thirty-four-year-old Muthukrishna Raja, a businessman from
Sattur who owns 10 fireworks stores on the outskirts of Sivakasi,
says he supports BJP but will vote for Prabhakaran. “Radikaa will
go back to act in TV dramas but this young man has a lot to prove
to the people,” he says. At the same time, he also claims BJP has
a silent vote bank. “No one will talk about how Digital India has
empowered businessmen. I do ` 1-2 crore in sales every year and
the business has grown manifold over the past few years because
of Prime Minister Modi’s digital payments push. While the bar-
ium ban has hit the offseason crackers business, there are more
stores than ever before,” he says. BJP’s ground-level messaging,
however, does not seem to be designed to cash in on the ideas
that have defined its vision for the economy, possibly because its
organisational network is still growing. Yet, the party hopes for
a search for alternatives among voters disillusioned with tradi-
tional choices and BJP’s assertive cultural agenda will help make
inroads into India’s southernmost districts.
www.openthemagazine.com 59
 I N T H E A RE N A

BATTLE OF THE E
Shashi Tharoor seeks a fourth-term from Thiruvananthapuram while
Rajeev Chandrasekhar hopes for a sensational debut, writes

Shashi Tharoor (left) and

Rajeev Chandrasekhar
(right) campaigning
in Thiruvananthapuram

60 29 APRIL 2024
QUALS
P
ADMA CAFÉ, A MODEST vegetarianrestau-
rant, was opened in early April in the heart of
Thiruvananthapuram city. Usually, it would
have made, at best, the city newspapers’ local
pages. Instead, the opening hogged the next
his formidable challenger day’s headlines. The reason was the presence
MG RADHAKRISHNAN of Shashi Tharoor and Rajeev Chandrasekhar,
the two high-profile candidates locked in an intense contest
from the state capital in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. It is
not uncommon for candidates to attend, even uninvited, minor
private functions during election time. But this was not just an-
other restaurant. It was the latest to join the chain run by the Nair
Service Society (NSS), the powerful organisation of the influen-
tial upper-caste Nairs that both Tharoor and Chandrasekhar ar-
dently woo. Both candidates sought and received the blessings of
G Sukumaran Nair, the formidable NSS supremo, who, however,
said he would continue his equidistance policy towards all parties.
When Tharoor had stepped down as the Under-Secretary-General
of the United Nations (UN) to enter Indian politics and contested
for the first time in 2009, Sukumaran Nair dismissed him as not
a true-blooded Kerala Nair but a “Delhi Nair”. Today, he accepted
both Tharoor and Chandrasekhar as genuine Nairs!
Politicians making a beeline for caste
and religious leaders, especially during
election time, is not unusual. But it is en-
grossing to watch the writer-cum-former
diplomatTharoorandtheentrepreneur-cum-
politician Chandrasekhar, who have hit the
rough and mean streets of Indian politics KER AL A
relatively late in their lives. Having climbed
down from their elite and cosmopolitan
worlds, they are now hardened, tamed and THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
‘plebeianised’ by the compulsions of mass
politics and elections. Tharoor has often re-
called how he was dumbfounded when the latter-day Bollywood
star Rishi Kapoor asked him about his caste while they were class-
mates at Mumbai’s elite Campion School. Chandrasekhar had to
check with his mother to know his caste while filing the nomina-
tion for Rajya Sabha in 2006. Caste and religion were too hoi polloi
to merit discussion in their urbane families.
Today, both Tharoor and Chandrasekhar know about their
constituency’s complex configurations of castes and religions like
the back of their hand. Moving around in open jeeps, unmindful
of the sweltering mercury with permanently smiling faces and
folded hands, they follow the politician’s playbook to the T. They
savour tea at dusty roadside shacks, tear fiercely into their rivals,
embrace astonished onlookers, lift babies and kiss them on cheeks.
Tharoor has honed these skills through the past three elections.
Chandrasekhar, though a member of Rajya Sabha since 2006, is fac-
ing the heat of the streets for the first time but doesn’t look wanting.
Thiruvananthapuram is the only one among the 20 Lok Sabha
GETTY IMAGES

seats in Kerala where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came second
in the last two elections and the Left was relegated to third place.
ThoughTharoorhadarousingstartinhisfirstelectionin2009with

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 61

 I N T H E A RE N A
a margin of nearly a lakh votes, he escaped by a whisker with just
about 15,000 votes next time. However, he completed a hat-trick in
style in 2019, with nearly a one-lakh lead again. Chandrasekhar’s
entry has turned the contest in Thiruvananthapuram the hottest
in the state and rendered it utterly unpredictable. Thiruvanantha-
puram has been known for upsetting the electoral ambitions of
many titans, including communist legend MN Govindan Nair
and the eminent poet ONV Kurup. The local joke is that the city’s
presiding deity, Lord Padmanabha, is permanently in his reclining
state to guard against being swept off his feet.
The two candidates pull no punches against each other.
ChandrasekharsnipesthatTharoorhasn’tdoneanythingforThiru-
vananthapuram despite being the MP for 15 years and promises
to elevate the city into a global knowledge hub. Tharoor returns,
reeling out his contributions, and asks why Chandrasekhar makes
promisesonlywhenheseeksvotes.DidhedoanythingforKeralaas
aMalayaliwhilehewasaUnion
minister? Tharoor questions.
He rubs it in further, saying he
knows Chandrasekhar only
as a profit-seeking business-
man. Chandrasekhar retorts,
asking whether he should
reveal everything he knows
about his opponent. Tharoor
complains that poor fisher-
men are being bribed for votes.
Chandrasekhar sends a defa-
mation notice to Tharoor, who
responds that he never men- Communist Party of India’s Pannyan Raveendran and Kerala Chief Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan in Salem, March 30, 2024
tioned any name. Congress has
petitioned about Chandrasekhar’s alleged discrepancies in the
election affidavit, which the Election Commission has directed
the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to verify. He hits back,
saying it is ironic that Congress’ “first family”, which is on trial for
“stealing properties”, and a candidate who resigned as minister for
his “illegal IPL interests”, talks about disclosures.
Besides the mutual sparring, the rivals keep projecting their
respective core competencies. Tharoor attends writers’ conclaves
while his opponent meets techies and entrepreneurs and deploys
AI to power his campaign. Chandrasekhar checkmates the former
diplomat by getting two former diplomats, External Affairs Min-
ister S Jaishankar and TP Sreenivasan, India’s former Permanent
RepresentativetotheUN,topilothiscampaign.Bothcompetewith
each other to project themselves asviswapouran (global citizen) and
claimthelegacyofVKKrishnaMenon,theformerdefenceminister
who won from Thiruvananthapuram in 1971.
Despite their striving to prove how different one is from the
other, what is striking are their common factors. Neither of the
crorepaticandidatesbelongstoThiruvananthapuramastheirroots
areintheneighbouringdistrictsofPalakkadandThrissur.Children
of Malayali migrant families, both Tharoor and Chandrasekhar,
were born and raised outside Kerala and studied abroad. Though
articulate in multiple languages, neither can speak Malayalam
62
well, having lived outside mostly. Both excelled in their academic
andprofessionalcareers.IfTharoorboastsanillustriousdiplomatic
andliterarybackground,Chandrasekharwasamongthearchitects
of Intel’s path-breaking Pentium chip, pioneered India’s foray into
cellular communications and built up a business empire. Both are
latecomerstopolitics;oneisaformerUnionMinisterofState(MoS),
andtheotheriscurrentlyone.Bothstartthedaywiththeirfavourite
idli and chutney and are aficionados of music and sport. Tharoor
sings and worships the American satirical musician Tom Lehrer.
Chandrasekharplaystheguitarandhasaframedgoldalbumbyhis
hero, the Texas blues strummer Stevie Ray Vaughan, hanging on
his office wall. Tharoor is mad about cricket while his opponent’s
passion is F1 racing. If Tharoor describes himself as a “reasonably
discerning single malt Scotch sipper”, Chandrasekhar’s favou-
rite spirit is Grey Goose Vodka. However, while the Secularist is a
committed veggie, the Saffron leader loves his steak best. Having
switched to the traditional Malay-
ali costume of mundu (dhoti) and
juba (kurta) after entering politics,
they even turn up accidentally in
identical sartorial colours.
More than differences, these
similarities make their contest
unpredictable and stiff. Beyond
their respective political camps,
they address the same constituen-
cy—the apolitical, young, urban,
educated class, and upper castes.
Tharoor had a near-monopoly
overthesesectionsinthepastelec-
tions. Chandrasekhar’s chances
depend on how much he poaches them this time. Tharoor has bet-
ter clout among the minorities, but some think he is no different
from Chandrasekhar as he is seen as a “soft Hindu” and the latter a
“stern Hindu”. The Left never misses to remind the Muslim voters
of Tharoor’s “pro-Israel” and “anti-Hamas” statements. In a move
to compensate, Tharoor joins the mass namaz on the occasion of
Eid during his electoral campaign.
Chandrasekhar and Tharoor were at a Church of South In-
dia meeting where BJP leader PC George asked the priests not to
fear the ongoing Directorate of Enforcement (ED) investigation
against them. BJP is upbeat about the Catholic Church screening
the film The Kerala Story, reviled by Congress and the Left as anti-
Muslim and anti-Kerala.
The third candidate, CPI’s Pannyan Raveendran, starkly con-
trasts his two rivals. A winner from here in 2005, the 78-year-old
former CPI state secretary is a Class VI dropout and has reported
assetsworth `12lakh.Knownforhissimplicityandaffability,many
hope Raveendran could be a dark horse or a David against the two
Goliaths. The Kerala capital is all set to witness one of the country’s
most-watched contests in late April.
MG Radhakrishnan is a journalist based
in Thiruvananthapuram
29 APRIL 2024
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 BOOKS EXCERPT

Why I Don’t Look

Back in Anger
Author and sports journalist
BORIA MAJUMDAR in his
memoir relives how he survived
a ban on him and the social
media trial that followed. Here
SALON

is his side of the story

BORIA MAJUMDAR >>

64 29 APRIL 2024
 Y
PU. A TERM THAT starts with one of the lesser-
used letters in the English language, and three let-
ters that are seldom used in this configuration. But
strung together, they had the power to nearly de-
stroy a life, and deeply damage a career built by two
decades of hard work. Why do I write this now? Do I not know
that I will be abused and trolled relentlessly once this book is
published? Have my family and I not had enough? More than
half-a-million abusive tweets in the week between February 20
and February 26, 2022. Weren’t those enough? Why do I want
to put my loved ones, and myself, through that again?
Also, why now? Why did I not speak up earlier? When
scores of journalists asked me to talk about the ban, I stayed
silent. In fact, I didn’t utter a word on the issue in the last two
years. I waited for the ban to be lifted, endured in silence for 730
days. Why? If there was a story to be told, why wait?
I have written many books. Words are my friends. But
never have I felt as apprehensive before writing something
as now. Why would I revisit the nightmare? Why do I want
to confront that time in my life again? The wrongs heaped on
me. Especially now that things are going well for me, and for
RevSportz, a company that is no less to me than a child.
As human beings, we are guided by
certain principles. Each of us have our own
set of values. To be told that you are a bully,
that you have threatened a cricketer and
intimidated him merely for an interview,
when you have not, compels one to set
the record straight. My mother, now 74,
became severely anxious and depressed,
and my wife was harassed and abused on
social media. Even if one person reads it,
it’s important that I put my story out there. I write this for my
family and for myself, knowing that it might well invite another
avalanche of vitriol.
Wait. Is this just for Sharmistha, my wife, and Roopa, my
mother? What about my 10-year-old daughter, who was eight
then, who couldn’t quite comprehend yet possibly knew
something was very wrong at home? She wasn’t old enough
to comprehend the gravity of the situation—and thank God
for that—but could she not sense that her father, a strong and
positive person by nature, was all but broken? Could she sense
her mother putting on her bravest face, and her grandmother
on the verge of a breakdown? Can you imagine the impact on
the mind of an eight-year-old?
Mental health, anyone?
In the past, Indian cricket legends faced uncomfortable
questions from journalists. But the journalists who did those
Graphic by SAURABH SINGH
stories were not labelled bastards or much worse.
What has changed now? Have we become more intolerant
as a society? What does it say when we don’t even wish to listen
to the other side? Millions saw only the victim card, without
having a clue that the same individual had sent me multiple
messages in the past, requesting me to put out his side of the
29 APRIL 2024
story in the media in different situations. Asking me to not
reveal his name as the source of my information, so that he
wouldn’t be in the Apex Body’s bad books. I have quoted from
some of those WhatsApp messages in this book, for the record.
It is time to tell the full story.
In the two days after The Cricketer put out his tweet, social
media vilification reached a peak. The instant justice brigade
wrote and rewrote the abuse. The more extreme posts wanted
me lynched or even jailed. Each such tweet got hundreds of
likes, and seemed to increase the mob’s bloodlust. It was public
shaming of a kind I had not seen before—the equivalent of
burning someone’s effigy for days. Those that wanted the most
attention tended to post their comments on The Cricketer’s
timeline, as a response to his original tweet. There seemed to
be a competition on, to see who could frame the most abusive
message. Having my name dragged through the online sewer
wasn’t enough. I needed to be crushed and broken, and memes
won the day as the weapon of choice.
Two examples illustrated this best. One tweet, posted as a
response to The Cricketer’s original one, had the picture of a dog
on a leash. The dog looked scared and had turned its face away,
as though it had done something seriously wrong and had been
ONCE THE INITIAL DISMAY AND
SADNESS HAD SUBSIDED, I
DECIDED TO MOVE FORWARD.
THE BULLETS HAD BEEN FIRED,
AND I WAS STILL STANDING
reprimanded for it. That was supposed to be me. The leash was in-
structive to say the least. I needed to be tamed and taught a lesson.
First things first. I’m not irked in the slightest by being com-
pared to a dog. They are the most amazing companions, and far
more loyal than many human beings. Also, dogs don’t indulge in
lies and deceit. I have loved dogs since I was a young boy, and was
heartbroken to lose two of them in the same year as this incident.
The gentleman in question—a self-styled social-media influenc-
er—perhaps lacked the sensitivity to understand just how much
a dog can mean to many of us. Maybe the said abuser thought he
would look like a big man when he put out that tweet.
A second tweet had a picture of a different dog. Only in this
case, it was clearly labelled—“He”. In that image, the dog was
looking at the camera with its eyes and ears down. It had its two
front paws in a folded position, as if asking forgiveness for a
crime committed.
I have just described two of over 200,000 tweets. Neither was
an aberration. They were very much the norm. The Cricketer,
the morally upright soul who did not wish to hurt my family or I,
offered not a single response or rebuke. The most vicious tweets
were almost all on his timeline, as responses to his first message.
Through the time during the last two years that I have battled
www.openthemagazine.com 65
 BOOKS EXCERPT
disrepute, my wife and I ensured that our only daughter, while
she must have sensed our helplessness and despondency at
times, was largely allowed to grow carefree and with a sense of
security. We consider it an achievement that we were able to
safeguard her against the hate that we ourselves encountered.
Can The Cricketer even fathom that my own family came close
to the point of a breakdown on account of the hatred that we
encountered? I hope that any parent that reads this account
appreciates how much it took for me to keep up a brave front for
the sake of my child. It is my child that might easily have been trau- years I have seen messages, almost all abusive, which say that I
matised in those circumstances, like my sister, a cancer survivor,
and my mother had effectively become—anxious, perturbed and
traumatised. I am also thankful that my daughter was only eight
then and not thirteen or fourteen, and not on social media herself
to witness her father’s humiliation and utter degradation.
Between February 20 and April 23, 2022, when the Apex Body
met to impose a two-year sanction on me, not a single day passed
without someone calling me to hint at dire consequences.
Some suggested that the Apex Body would take cognisance of
my contribution over the past 20 years and
merely issue a caution. Others thought I could
be banned for life. Another group thought I THE TRUTH IS THAT THE INCIDENT CHANGED
should go back to academia, and leave behind
the rather politicised sports-media domain. WERE. A ND IT WAS BECAUSE OF A N ACT OF
None of this made any sense. MY RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF THE DEEPEST
As a journalist, I had only done my job in fol-
lowing up about an interview that had already
been arranged. Yes, I had sent The Cricketer a message in my
frustration but it had been an emotional outburst. Haven’t each
one of us done that, sometime or other. How did telling some-
body I wouldn’t interview him again because he had held me
up, or that I felt insulted on account of his behaviour, amount to
threatening him? But the steady stream of words and innuendo
T
acted like slow poison. I was desperate to tell my side of the story,
but no one was prepared to give it any credence.
At one level, I prayed that whatever the outcome, it should
happen fast. At least clarity would allow me to recalibrate and
move on. My lawyers, and I had consulted a slew of senior ones
at the time, had all told me that if I moved court, there was a
good chance I would get a stay order. The date on my messages
had been blurred before being posted on social media, and
couldn’t be used as admissible evidence. It was also a breach of
my privacy for somebody to put out personal WhatsApp chats
without my consent, that’s how the law defines it. I had a pretty
strong case. Some advised me to pursue a defamation case
against The Cricketer. I considered that seriously, and even paid
the fees at the Calcutta High Court.
My fight was never against the Apex Body. The Apex Body
was hearing out a centrally contracted cricketer who claimed
to have been mistreated by a journalist. To start off, they had no
mechanisms in place to verify who was speaking the truth. At
the time though, I was more concerned about the fallout from
the ban on RevSportz. There was a team in place, which couldn’t
be impacted by an issue that only I was part of. Protecting them
66
was my priority. There was euphoria on Twitter soon after the
ban was announced. It had taken the kangaroo court just two
months to get the verdict they wanted. I was also well aware that
fellow journalists had lobbied relentlessly to have me pushed
out of the grid. The ban meant that I could not work or generate
stories in the field of cricket, and it was a jubilation for those
that saw me as their worst competition. The Cricketer’s agenda,
whatever that was, had prevailed. But with my family and
friends by my side, I wasn’t about to go quietly. For the past two
haven’t apologised and I feel no remorse for my actions. They’re
right. And this book explains why.
I remember going to bed that night thinking I should consult
my lawyers again regarding the legal option. But once the initial
dismay and sadness had subsided, I decided to move forward.
Unlike John Osborne’s character from the famous play, I couldn’t
afford to look back in anger. After being submitted to every sort
of indignity for two months, I needed closure—for that moment.
The bullets had been fired, and I was still standing.
The next morning, I woke up feeling almost at peace. The
uncertainty was behind me. For the trolls, the ban was a full
stop. For me, it was the first chapter in a new story, one I had to
tell to clear my name.
HE NAYSAYERS STILL won’t care for my side of the
story. But the one thing they can’t say is that I used my
connections to escape the consequences of my alleged
actions. I served my ban and suffered for 730 days. Lived with
the ignominy of being labelled a bully. During these months,
which I treated like a test, I did work that I am now immensely
proud of and learned things that I did not know were possible.
RevSportz has grown exponentially, and our sponsors have
stuck with us to make the platform stronger than ever. To them
my gratitude is immense.
While I had always covered multiple sports, cricket was the
prime focus. Having studied the sport for a doctoral degree, that
was but natural. But now, I had been pushed out of my comfort
zone, and I had to find other avenues. Even RevSportz needed
a new path, and those are always challenging. Would the ban
impact my relationship with other sports federations as well?
With international sporting bodies? With players who were
close friends and had been for years? Could I continue to work
with the same passion, or would this entire bitter and traumat-
ic experience make me cynical?
The cricket league was going on at the time, and whatever I
29 APRIL 2024
 tweeted was met with torrents of abuse. I needed a break to get
my bearings back. So I did what was almost second nature by
then, and what I did every year, anyway—left for Oxford. I had
learned a lot in that city and, in a sense, identified with it. While
no one knew me there, I knew every bit of it. I could wake up
and not have to read the sports pages in the Bengali newspapers.
I needed to put a distance between that episode and myself. In
Oxford, the cricket league had no presence, it wouldn’t be on
every evening on television, and my phone wouldn’t ring every
few minutes. I could sit in the University Parks and think of what
I now needed to do. Having my family with me meant that each
time I felt low and crushed by what had happened, I could just
be myself without the fear of being misunderstood. I could take
my daughter to the bookshops we both loved and just watch her
grow. Somehow, I wanted her to grow up fast at that time, to only
be able to tell her everything I had gone through.
It was a good time to leave too because there was no ambigu-
ity about the ban. The announcement had been carried by the
media, and there were several follow-up articles. Between
ME, MY LIFE AND MY FAMILY. THERE IS NO GOING BACK TO WHAT WE
SENSATIONALISM ON SOCIAL MEDIA. BUT WHAT HAS DEFINED ME IS
CRISIS THAT I HAVE FACED OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS OF MY LIFE
April 23, 2022 and April 22, 2024, I wouldn’t be allowed to go
to grounds in India, or be able to speak to contracted cricketers. In-
terviews were out of the question. The Cricketer’s allegations and
his actions on social media took away my calling card. But sport
was my life. Neither he, nor anyone else, could take that away
from me. His doings had already inflicted untold damage on my
family, and I knew that things could not get any worse. Possibly it
was the lowest low for me, and things could now only look up.
I have been asked my reasons for writing this book by those
in the know, and remember discussing it with my publishers.
In fact, a close friend who is also a very well-known journal-
ist, said to me: “Your company is now recognised across the
country. For a brand that is two years old, that is a very special
achievement. You did some fantastic cricket interviews during
the last World Cup on Indian soil without breaking a single
sanction. Olympic sports is your forte. I can’t count the number
of interviews you have done across Olympic sports in two
years. Most importantly, 2024 is an Olympic year and you will
surely excel at the Olympics and Paralympics. Why do you
want to attract negativity to the platform when things are
going so well for you? The ban is over in April 2024. Why don’t
you just move on? Everyone knows you are good, and you will
get your network back in cricket as well.”
The gentleman in question is a well-wisher, and it was not
a snide comment. What he said made a lot of sense. This book
is a risk, and a big risk that I decided to take. The question was
simple—was it worth taking? Could it harm RevSportz, and
29 APRIL 2024
was I prepared to deal with another period of turmoil?
For me, the answer is very clear. Yes, I am prepared for the
risks. Unlike that night of the first tweets by The Cricketer
which left me flummoxed, this time I have an understanding
of what was done to me and why. I have never had more clarity
about anything in my life. This has nothing to do with business
or RevSportz or material gain. Rather, it is about who I am. My
identity. My family. And our humiliation of the last two years.
So, yes, it is a risk worth taking, to put my word out there.
While growing up, I was taught that the truth eventually
comes out, no matter how long it takes. No matter how entitled
somebody may be, and no matter how loud the noise around
them, life has strange ways of catching up, with everybody.
Time could turn a narrative on its head. Humanity has always
found its voice when confronted with injustice, freedom in the
arms of duress. For that freedom risk is a small price to pay. If
speaking out harms me, so be it.
As I said earlier, a social media trial can break you. It forces
you to draw on every last bit of inner strength, and yet leaves a
permanent scar. I wanted closure in the form of this book. But
no one knows better that there will never be closure. I will not
get back the two years of opportunities that I lost, or the days and
evenings when I was almost a stranger to my daughter. For two
years, Sharmistha and I never had a quiet dinner where we could
just relax. There was not one evening when we didn’t discuss the
issue and the book. Which outsider can quantify the impact on
the mental health of my family? On my wife? I became cynical
about a number of things, and it will be tough to change that.
Writing this book drained and exhausted me. The truth is
that the incident changed me, my life and my family. There is
no going back to what we were. This was our long Covid. And
it was all because of a desperate act of sensationalism on social
media. This act unleashed social media’s vermin on my family
and me. He is an accomplished cricketer. You don’t play over
three dozen Test matches for India if you’re not. I have had a
good career, but will never enjoy the kind of public profile he
did by virtue of playing for India. But what has defined me is
my resilience in the face of the deepest crisis that I have faced
over the last two years of my life. And I can still look my daugh-
ter in the eye and tell her that I am speaking the truth. „
This is an edited excerpt from Banned: A Social
Media Trial (Simon & Schuster; 224 pages; `699)
by Boria Majumdar. Majumdar is a sports journalist
and the author of, among other titles, Eleven Gods and
a Billion Indians. He is a contributor to Open
www.openthemagazine.com 67
 ART
Photograph by SHREYA WANKHEDE

A Voyager Across Time

68 29 APRIL 2024
 Travelling with
Gulammohammed Sheikh
in the ark of memories
By Shaikh Ayaz

E
NGAGING WITH 87-year-old
Gulammohammed Sheikh’s
art is like entering a pluralistic
sanctuary where several interpre-
tations of reality coexist. There’s
seldom any room for concepts
such as linearity and singularity. Binaries such as
past, present and future intertwine to give way to
something timeless. The ongoing Kaarawaan and
Other Works at the Chemould Prescott Road gallery
is Sheikh’s first solo show in Mumbai after a gap of
two decades. Even though it contains a compact
selection of his recent output, the exhibition,
which has been organised in collaboration with the
Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery, both illustrates
GULAMMOHAMMED SHEIKH and celebrates the kaleidoscopic vision of his life,
AT CHEMOULD PRESCOTT personal philosophy and the essence of his art.
ROAD, MUMBAI What is particularly striking about the first
painting you encounter upon entering the gallery
is that it may contain the key to all the other
artworks on display here—and perhaps to Sheikh’s
long and multi-hyphenated career as an artist, poet,
writer, teacher and mentor. Kaarawaan stands
as the show’s centrepiece. Much like the Pahari,
Rajput and Mughal style of paintings that the octo-
genarian has long admired, Kaarawaan draws you
in with its many-splendored symbolism and a fu-
sion of personal journeys with literary and artistic
affinities. In this audacious and enigmatic acrylic
work, painted between 2019 and 2023, the artist
has captured many of his lifelong obsessions at the
same time. For starters, the painting combines two
of Sheikh’s enduring motifs — the ark and trees.
Seeing Kaarawaan feels like you are being given ac-
cess to the artist’s mind and soul. The focal point of
the canvas is an ark carrying within it the personal

“Living in India means living in

several cultures and times. That is
something I believe in. It’s the crux
of my very being”
Gulammohammed Sheikh, artist

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 69

 ART
memories of its creator through the voyage of time. The des-
peration of humans, animals, birds and angels is framed by the
guiding light of two of his favourite role models in the form of
the 15th-century mystic Kabir, and Mahatma Gandhi. The far-
right corner is dominated by references to art history, with the
Italian masters sharing space with Rabindranath Tagore and
Vincent van Gogh flanked by MF Husain and FN Souza.
Modern art is represented by Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso
among others while the branches of a ‘tree of life’ nearby
serve as a paean to literary giants from Premchand to Saadat
Hasan Manto. The artist even duly acknowledges his team of
assistants, as he puts their names on the canvas along with his
signature in Gujarati. The image of the ark in Kaarawaan is an
homage to a similar rendering of a boat by Nainsukh, a promi-
nent 18th-century exponent of Pahari painting.
In the book At Home in the World: The Art and Life of
Gulammohammed Sheikh, Chaitanya Sambrani writes that the
ark first started appearing in Sheikh’s oeuvre following the
Gujarat riots of 2002 and collectively represents “the covenant
of wisdom and the refuge in the world that both seem utterly
unattainable.” In his work, Sheikh keeps returning to Kabir
and Gandhi. Both remain two of our country’s most inspiring
icons whose ideas and principles sometimes feel under threat
in present-day India. It is easy to see why Sheikh has assim-
ilated them into his visual vocabulary—they advocated for
a common human cause transcending religious and ethnic
lines. An accomplished poet himself, Sheikh first read Kabir
in school. “Kabir was not very religious in the traditional
sense of the word, be it as a person or as a poet. He wanted
individuals to discover their own selves.
Despite Sheikh’s decision to give up oil painting in 2001
owing to a skin condition, many of the pieces exhibited in
CONFERENCE OF BIRDS
70
KAARAWAAN BY GULAMMOHAMMED SHEIKH
Kaarawaan bear witness to his command over several medi-
ums and techniques. Although acrylic and watercolour make
up most of his paintings, he has also experimented with casein,
a milk-based medium.
There is something dreamy and theatrical about the artist’s
signature Kaavad series. Visitors are invited to walk around it,
even though these ‘art boxes’ have no fixed frame and seem to
instead revel in their capacity to blur the boundaries between
sculpture, painting, collage and even written expression. For
Sheikh, the Kaavad—inspired by the Rajasthani mobile story-
telling devices, also known as ‘travelling shrines’—are almost
like decorated books. Like elsewhere in his art, in Kaavad, too,
he moves freely between different points of inquiry, themes
and traditions.
B
orn in 1937 in the “mixed ambience of Surendranagar” in
Saurashtra of Gujarat, Sheikh’s childhood was cosmo-
politan where Hindus and Muslims lived and mingled
peacefully. Apart from the Islamic traditions taught at home,
Sheikh was equally drawn to the Hindu scriptures from an early
age. In conversations, he often talks about Indian mythology and
Arabic folklore such as Arabian Nights and Kathasaritsagara in
the same breath— both connected through the umbilical cord of
India’s syncretic culture. While writing about artist
Bhupen Khakhar, in an essay titled ‘Buddy,’ Sheikh mentions an
interesting anecdote. His friend Sunil Kothari’s pious mother
used to think of a young Sheikh as “a Vaishnava soul born in a
Muslim body.”
For Sheikh, childhood is a continent that lives in him. He
left Surendranagar over six decades ago but has found himself
revisiting his roots, in art and life. “Living in India means liv-
ing in several cultures and times,” he once said. Nothing has
changed. When asked if that statement still resonates with
him, he reiterates, “That is something I still believe in. It’s the
crux of my very being.”
As a young artist, Sheikh admits that his style was distinctly
Expressionistic but once again the memories of childhood
intervened, offering him a much-needed breakthrough. One of
29 APRIL 2024

the turning points in his art was the painting Returning Home
After Long Absence, which was conceived while reflecting on
his upbringing. In this seminal work, completed between 1969
and 1973, the artist’s mother takes centre stage, against the
backdrop of some of the images of the Surendranagar town-
scape that hovers above her with dreamlike vividness.
Sheikh still lives and works out of Baroda, the same city
where his journey as an artist started back in 1955. Enrolling at
the prestigious MS University of Baroda meant the opening up
of a “thousand windows” for him but the transition also meant
that he had to emerge quickly from the shadows of his stalwart
teachers (NS Bendre, Sankho Chaudhuri, KG Subramanyan et
al) to find his own unique voice. His wife Nilima Sheikh (née
Dhanda), a highly respected artist herself, says, “Gulam is a
great traveller, a seeker and a perceiver. He has an interesting
way of looking at art history. I prefer the term ‘history’ and not
tradition because the history of art is not just an amorphous
tradition. It has its specificities and its contexts and Gulam,
through his dedication and deep interest in Indian aesthetics,
acquired a vast knowledge of it. So, he was able to explore all
these diverse genres and tried to bring them into a contempo-
rary context and find meaning in them, without necessarily
rejecting any of these histories and certainly, without rejecting
modernism either.”
Sheikh spent three pivotal years (from 1963 to 1966) in
London, studying at the Royal College of Art at a time when
the swinging 1960s was at its peak and pop art was gaining
traction. Yet, he was not enamoured by the prevailing trends
in British art as he continued his quest for a personal idiom
that was free from all sources and at the same time, all of world
art history was at his disposal if it ever needed conjuring. “It is
not that I was using any particular ‘ism’. I am, in fact, against
any kind of -ism. Over the years, I have striven to evolve a truly
personal language,” he says.
He believes that inspiration and hard work go hand in hand.
“The creative process takes you through several stages, often it
is a hard toil but eventually, at some point you realise now you
can’t do anything more. That is when a painting is complete,”
he says, before quickly adding, “But no painting is final. In my
29 APRIL 2024
Photos Courtesy Chemould Prescott Road
case, every painting leaves room for another painting sitting at
the back of my head. So, it’s a train. It’s continuous.” Regarding
his fascination with allusions to art history, he explains, “I have
drawn from the great works that I have admired over the years,
either Western or Indian, whether pre-modern or modern.
And whatever you admire, at some level, it becomes part of
your make-up and your language. So, I quote from the works of
some artists or their ways of working.”
For Sheikh being a teacher and artist go hand in hand,
he argues that many artists practised other professions.
“Gieve Patel was a physician and a full-time painter,
Sudhir Patwardhan a radiologist and a painter,
Krishen Khanna was a banker and a painter. You can give
some part of your time to that while leaving enough time for
painting. Being a teacher doesn’t and shouldn’t come in the way
of your creative act. You have to switch that role off when you
approach the act of painting,” says the Padma Shri and
Padma Bhushan awardee, who taught art history for 18 years
and painting for 11 years at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the
MS University in Baroda.
“Showing someone like Gulammohammed Sheikh is like
a badge of honour. More than anything, it is because he has
contributed not only as an artist to the contemporary art scene
but also to the canon of art history. He has been an incredible
vehicle of knowledge to a vast number of students. Imagine
the privilege of being in a class with Gulam as a teacher,” says
Shireen Gandhy of the Chemould Prescott Road gallery, who
has been a close friend of Sheikh and Nilima’s for decades and
has even exhibited their contemporary and friend
Bhupen Khakhar on many occasions. She adds, “We have the
example of Chaitanya Sambrani who was studying economics
at MS University in Baroda. He chanced upon an art history
class one day and attended a lecture by Gulam. The course of
his entire life changed after that. Today, Chaitanya Sambrani is
one of our leading art historians, who has even written a book
as a tribute to his beloved teacher.”
Kaarawaan and Other Works by Gulammohammed Sheikh is
on view at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, till May 15
www.openthemagazine.com 71
 INDIAN ACCENTS Bibek Debroy
The Devi Mystique
The roots of greatness in Kurma Purana
HAVE BEEN CITING
I bits from Kurma Purana
narrated by Vishnu in
his avatar as Kurma to
the rishis. I also said that
each Purana has its own
value addition and the
Kurma Purana has a lot on
Devi. Hence, this column
is about Devi and Devi’s
greatness from the Kurma
Purana. The rishis asked,
“Who is Bhagavati Devi, who is half of Shankara’s body?
Please tell us about Shivaa Sati Haimavati.”
Kurma answered, “Earlier, on the extremely beautiful
slopes of Meru, Brahma spoke about this. This vijnana is
especially secret and mysterious. This is supreme samkhya
for the followers of samkhya. This is excellent vijnana about
the Brahmana. This alone frees beings who are submerged
in the ocean of samsara. She is Maheshvari Shakti, in the
form of the jnana one hankers for exceedingly. Haimavati is
described as the firmament. She is held to be the supreme
point. Shivaa is infinite and goes everywhere. She is beyond
the gunas. She is nishkala. She is one, but has many divisions.
Her form is that of great hankering for jnana. She is
nishkala and without a parallel. In her own energy, she is
established in the truth. She is the natural foundation
and her sparkling radiance is like that of the sun.
Maheshvari Shakti is one, but she has many appellations.
She does everything. This universe is the result of her
action. The wise say that Ishvara has no task, nor is he the
instrument. Within her, four of Devi’s shaktis exist in
their own forms. They exist because of her. They are said to
be Shanti, Vidyaa, Pratishthaa and Nivritti. (Respectively,
peace, knowledge, stability and renunciation.) Hence
the divinity Parameshvara is described as possessing
four vyuhas. Through this, the divinity enjoys supreme
bliss in his own atman. The four Vedas are Maheshvara’s
four forms. Her great potency is unmatched and her
achievement is without a beginning. Because of her
association with Rudra, the paramatman, she is infinite.
Devi Ishvari is the one who makes all beings function.”
“Bhagavan Hari Maheshvara is spoken of as Kala and
prana. Everything in the entire universe is woven into him,
like warp and woof. Those who speak about the Vedas, sing
of him as the divinity Hara, the fire of destruction. Kala
72
creates beings. Kala destroys prajas. Everything is under
the subjugation of Kala. Kala is not under the subjugation
of anyone. Pradhana, the tattva Purusha, Mahat, the atman
and ahamkara and other tattvas are permeated by Kala,
the yogi. His form is everywhere in the universe and his
shakti is known as maya. Isha Purushottama uses his maya
to whirl everything around. This shakti, in the form of
maya, is eternal and assumes every kind of form. It always
manifests Mahesha’s form as the universe. There are other
foremost shaktis, fashioned by the divinity. These three
are jnana shakti, kriya shakti and prana shakti. Using
his maya, the powerful one, who is without a beginning
and without destruction, has fashioned these shaktis.
Maya is in all the shaktis. It is impossible to counter and
impossible to cross. The possessor of maya is the lord
of all these shaktis. The lord Kala is the one who brings
about destruction. Kala is the one who acts. Kala is the one
who destroys everything. Kala establishes the universe.
This universe is subjugated by Kala. Maya obtained the
presence of Parameshthi, the overlord of the devas. He is
infinite and is the lord of everything. The lord Shambhu
has Kala in his atman. Having done this, maya assumed
the forms of Pradhana and Purusha. She is one, goes
everywhere and is infinite. She is absolute. She is nishkala
Shivaa. Shakti is one. Shiva is one. Shiva is spoken of as
the one who possesses the shaktis. However, from the
shaktis, other shaktis, and those who possess these shaktis,
evolved. Those who know the supreme truth say that there
is a difference between the shaktis and the possessor of
the shaktis. But yogis who have thought about the truth
do not see any difference between them. These shaktis are
Devi, the mountain’s daughter. Shankara is the one who
possesses the shaktis.”
“Vishveshvari Devi, devoted to her husband, Maheshvara,
is described as the one who is enjoyed. Bhagavan Kapardi
Nilalohita is said to be the one who enjoys. The divinity,
Vishveshvara Shankara, the destroyer of Manmatha, is the
one who thinks. Those who reflect, speak of Ishani as intellect
and the object to be thought. Everything in this universe has
originated from the shaktis and the possessor of the shaktis.
Sages with insight about the truth have said this in all the
Vedas. This is the supreme and divine greatness of Devi that
has been manifested. Those who speak about the Brahmana
have determined this in all the discussions of the Vedanta.
She is one and goes everywhere. She is subtle and hidden.
She does not move and is eternal. Yogis have perceived this
29 APRIL 2024
supreme state of Mahadevi. She is imperishable bliss. She is am without decay. I am the absolute one. Those who desire
the absolute Brahmana. She is supreme and nishkala. Yogis moksha, see me. I am the one whose atman is in every kind
have perceived Mahadevi’s supreme state. She is greater than of conception. I am Shivaa, present in all the atmans. I am
the greatest. She is the eternal truth. She is auspicious and the eternal power. Vijnana is my form. I am the one behind
does not decay. She dissolves into infinite Prakriti. Such is every kind of activity. I am infinite and my greatness is
Devi’s supreme state. It is auspicious and without blemish. infinite. I enable the crossing over of the ocean of samsara.
It is pure and devoid of gunas and devoid of duality. Devi’s I will bestow divine sight on you. Behold the form of my
supreme state can be obtained through the realisation of the powers.’ Saying this, she herself bestowed vijnana on
atman. She is Dhatri and she is Himalaya. She showed him her
Illustration by SAURABH SINGH
Vidhatri. For those who desire divine form, associated with
supreme bliss, with the support Parameshvara. It resembled
of Ishvara, she destroys all the one crore suns. There was a
torments of samsara. Therefore, serene orb of energy. There were
if one wishes for liberation, one thousands of garlands of blazing
should seek refuge with Parvati flames, resembling one hundred
Parameshvari. Shivaa’s atman is fires of destruction. There were
in the atmans of all beings.” cruel teeth, impossible to assail.
“The lord of mountains The form was ornamented by
tormented himself through a mass of matted hair. It wore
extremely difficult austerities a crown and held a mace in its
and obtained Sharvani [Parvati] hand. It held a conch-shell and
as his daughter. Along with a chakra. There was an excellent
his wife, he sought refuge with trident in the hand. It was a
Parvati Parameshvari. The terrible and fearful form. But
one with the beautiful face the face was also serene and
was born out of her own will. amiable, possessing infinite
When she was a child, Menaa, powers. One hundred thousand
Himalaya’s wife, spoke to him. moons decorated the body and
Menaa said, ‘O king! Behold the dazzle was like that of one
this child. Her face resembles a crore moons. There was a crown
lotus. Because of our austerities, and a mace in the hand. The
she has been born for the form was adorned with anklets.
welfare of all beings.’ He also There were divine garlands
saw Devi, with a complexion and garments, smeared with
like that of the rising sun. She YOGIS HAVE PERCEIVED MAHADEVI’S divine fragrances and unguents.
possessed matted hair and SUPREME STATE. SHE IS GREATER THAN (You should recognise shades
four faces. She had three eyes THE GREATEST. SHE IS THE ETERNAL of Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad
and was extremely eager. She TRUTH. SHE IS AUSPICIOUS AND DOES Gita.) The hands held a conch-
possessed eight hands and her NOT DECAY. SHE DISSOLVES INTO shell and a chakra. The desirable
eyes were large. The moon was INFINITE PRAKRITI. SUCH IS DEVI’S form was three-eyed and was
her ornament. She was nirguna clad in a hide. It was located
SUPREME STATE
and saguna. She was herself inside the cosmic egg and
existence and non-existence outside it. Everything was
and was devoid of any notion of inside and outside this form. It
manifestation. Greatly agitated because of her energy, he possessed every kind of shakti and was pure. It was eternal
prostrated his head on the ground. Terrified, he joined his and possessed every kind of form. Brahma, Indra, Upendra
hands in salutation and spoke to Parameshvari. Himalaya and Indras among yogis worshipped the lotus-feet. There
asked, ‘O large-eyed Devi! Who are you? Your body is were hands and feet in every direction. There were eyes,
decorated with the moon. O child! I do not know who heads and faces in every direction. He saw Parameshvari
you are.’ Hearing the words spoken by the Indra among established there, enveloping everything. On seeing Devi’s
mountains, Parameshvari, who bestows freedom from supreme Maheshvara form, the king was overwhelmed by
fear to the yogis, replied to the great mountain. Shri Devi fear, but was also delighted in his mind.”
answered, ‘Know me to be the supreme shakti, who finds As I said, there are shades of the Bhagavad Gita in the
a refuge in Maheshvara. I am no different from him and description of Devi’s greatness in Kurma Purana.

29 APRIL 2024 www.openthemagazine.com 73

 STARGAZER
KAVEREE BAMZAI
ZAKIR HUSSAIN
ÀSahir’s Legacy
Sahir Ludhianvi aka Abdul Hayee is
having a bit of a moment with actor
Danish Husain’s play Main Pal Do
Pal Ka Shayar Hoon, which is the title
of the song he famously wrote for
Amitabh Bachchan in Yash Chopra’s
Kabhie Kabhie (1976). The poet, whose
songs defined a generation’s angst
in movies such as Baazi (1951) and
Pyaasa (1957) was as mercurial as
he was brilliant. His work has been
the subject of serious, scholarly
work but it is only now that he is
being rediscovered in the popular
domain. Husain is a former Standard
Chartered banker in Delhi who
quit in 2014 to follow his passion in
acting. He came across the works
of Ludhianvi when he did a session
at an Urdu literary festival with
singer Vidya Shah on progressive
writers and poets such as Majrooh
Sultanpuri, Kaifi Azmi. The play is
the outcome of two manuscripts,
one by Ali Hussain Mir on Anthems of
Resistance: A Celebration of Progressive
Urdu Poetry, and the other, Dastan-e-
Sahir, written by Himanshu Bajpai.
“I asked the two of them to hand
over their scripts to me. I edited,
restructured and gave it its present
shape.” The end result: The play
opened to full houses in Mumbai in
September 2023 and the response
has only risen with each enactment.
“Sahir was a complex, enigmatic
man,” says Husain, who has done
similar work on Begum Akhtar, Bade
Ghulam Ali Khan and Alla Rakha.
The house in which Ludhianvi once
lived, in Juhu, Mumbai, is now the
subject of litigation between his
74
PRATIK GANDHI
surviving relatives, even as his books
and records lie eaten by termites.
He was one of the earliest writers to
demand that Hindi film lyricists be
credited by All India Radio.
His unrequited love for poet
Amrita Pritam is also part of the
legend that surrounds him as is his
feud with singer Lata Mangeshkar.
His poetry, poignant and powerful,
is as relevant now as it was in post-
Independent India. After all, it
took a particular kind of courage to
question Nehru’s India at the height
of Nehruvian India in his Pyaasa
song: ‘Jinhe naaz hai Hind par woh
kahan hai’.
ÀZakir Hussain’s Tabla
With every beat of the tabla,
Dev Patel would aim a punch at the
punching bag. As the beats gathered
pace, so did his punching. And when
he would tire, Zakir Hussain’s tabla
would almost push him to start
again in a most unusual duet. Those
with long memories will remember
Hussain from Merchant Ivory’s Heat
and Dust (1983), as Julie Christie’s
lover in the film based on a Ruth
Prawer Jhabvala novel of the same
name. He was also in Sai Paranjpye’s
Saaz (1997) as a version of RD Burman,
caught between mother and
daughter, played by Shabana Azmi
and Ayesha Dharker, respectively.
But in Patel’s Monkey Man, Hussain
plays a tabla maestro in a transgender
commune led by Alpha, portrayed
by the actor Vipin Sharma. Hussain’s
work in the film is stellar, mixing
mischief with magic. Patel and he
exchange smiles as they keep pace
SAHIR LUDHIANVI
with one another in one of the most
thrilling scenes in the movie. The film
explores the powerful mafia in the
city, Yatana, run by a corrupt godman
(Makarand Deshpande), the local
policeman (played by Sikandar Kher)
and a woman who supplies escorts (an
effective Ashwini Kalsekar). Hussain
is also known for writing a part of the
music for Francis Ford Coppolla’s
1979 classic Apocalypse Now.
ÀScene and Heard
Pratik Gandhi is playing the young
Mahatma in Hansal Mehta’s series
Gandhi based on the books by
Ramachandra Guha. But much
before that, he was the voice and face
of Mohan ka Masala. The play which
he performs in Hindi, Gujarati or
English, as is the demand, is a tour
de force, with the actor holding
audiences captive for over 90
minutes, without intermission, by
virtue of his stage presence. Created
by Manoj Shah, the play attempts to
explore Mohandas who became the
Mahatma by reliving his experiences
from his birth in Porbandar to the
tipping point in South Africa. Shah
is somewhat of a biopic specialist
having done similar plays with
subjects such as German philosopher
Karl Marx and India’s first woman
doctor Anandibai Joshi. Gandhi is
seeing a surge in his career, with
roles in the popular new movies
such as Madgaon Express and Do
Aur Do Pyaar, which give him an
opportunity to do light comedy. His
role as Harshad Mehta in Scam 1992
(2020) made the Gujarati stage and
movie actor a national star.
29 APRIL 2024
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