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The Lotus and the Swan, is a documentary film shot in the Digital format by Nirmal Chander, the acclaimed  film-maker.  It is on Sardar Gurcharan Singh who, after having started in pottery, simply to earn a living, discovered quite early in life, that it could become a medium of serious artistic expression like painting, sculpture and various branches of graphics. Nirmal Chander, also did sixty to seventy per cent of the camerawork- two others, namely the highly talented veteran Ranjan Palit  and K Nanda Kumar also did stints  behind the camera, a digital  Sony F S 5.  The beautiful visually consistent look that lent an emotional unity to the documentary, was achieved through subtle, painstaking colour correction. This 71-minute work on the life of an artist, who rose from becoming an artisan of ever- increasing competence to expressing his personality in clay with as much integrity as others working in other ‘officially’ recognised areas of visual expression gives the viewer an opportunity to enter his deceptively simple world.
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Sardar Gurcharan Singh
The director, who started his project in 2019, was hampered by the wholly unforeseeable appearance of the Covid Pandemic, and the absence of the artist; he had passed on at the age of 99 in 1995. Through sheer grit and intrinsic artistic intelligence, Chander managed to create a wholly satisfying portrait   of Sardar Gurcharan Singh, who, single-handed, raised pottery to a form of artistic expression, and that of a warm hearted, giving person who lived in the everyday world with simplicity and grace, giving freely of himself and his work to hundreds of students, over three generations and also people who came to him for material help.
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Pottery art by Sardar Gurcharan Singh
The making of the documentary involved enormous amounts of work during the research, the preparation period, identifying Gurcharan Singh’s work that was to be found all over India and also abroad, photographing them to satisfaction ,identifying and interviewing people connected with his work as well as his family,  going to Japan, where Gurcharan Singh studied  pottery  at the Higher  Technical School in Tokyo from !919 to 1922,  collecting archival material, mainly photos of the subject, alone and with others, apart from photographs of Delhi and Andretta, Tokyo. Nirmal Chander and Reena Mohan, his wife and co-editor of the film, through sheer persistence and faith in the work and backed by the consistent, generous support of Delhi Blue Pottery Trust, also the Producers of the venture got to make The Lotus and the Swan in an aesthetically satisfying way.
Gurcharan Singh’s life was a curious mixture of the ordinary and the extraordinary. He began by studying Geology, which,according to his son, Mansimran Singh, aka ‘Mini’, also a well- regarded potter/ceramist,’’led to his qualitative understanding of ores and minerals.’’ ( Prarthana Asija, conversation with Mansimran Singh) when studying in Tokyo he met fellow ceramists  Bernard Leach,Kenkichi Tomimoto, Shoji Hamada, Kanjiro Kawai, all of whom destined to make a name for themselves in their chosen metier. Gurcharan, also held his first exhibition, when in Tokyo. It was then, he began to be aware of the conflict between pottery being a source of livelihood and a form of self-expression.  He overcame these hurdles with humility, confidence and hard work, as if they were a given in this art called living.  The Lotus and the Swan expresses these aspects of his life effortlessly.
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He joined Ram Singh Kabuli, his father’s friend, in Delhi Potteries in 1919, learning to make bricks. It was there that pottery captured his imagination. Watching Pathan potters at work, particularly Abdullah, whom he respected and who remained an associate till late in life, well after Gurcharan Singh had started his own set up, Delhi Blue Pottery in 1952. It was this sense of loyalty and fair play towards the people who may have helped at crucial times in his life that earned him the love and respect of all those who worked with him or were his students. These aspects of his life as well as his generosity in sharing his hard-earned knowledge of pottery/ceramics with others for the larger cause of the art itself gave him an exceptional stature; Chander,  and co-editor of the work Reena Mohan, captured them with absolute ease.
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With most of the shooting done, it dawned upon the director and his co-producer that the film would acquire muscle and blood only after shooting some crucial sequences in Japan, covering his apprenticeship at the Higher Technical School in Tokyo and his auspicious beginning as an artisan-artist. Two important interviews with Prof. Yuko, an expert on the Mingai Movement, that gave  precedence to hand-made objects of everyday use, primarily in ceramics, created by ordinary amateurs (of talent) over those by  professionals having access to factories, and, another with Prof. Hashimoto, a professor of Letters,  give credence to Gurcharan Singh’s decision  to choose studio pottery over mass produced works, as the right one.
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On his return to India and work at Delhi Potteries, he was unhappy. It was difficult to just  earn his living, knowing that he could make beautiful objects as a studio potter. In Ambala, after  the Partition in 1947, he worked as  Superintendent of the Pottery Training Centre, thus ensuring a regular income. He retired in 1952, came back to Delhi after years with his mentor Abdullah to start Delhi Blue Pottery.  ‘’He used stoneware clay body and high temperature glazes, fired at 1300 degree centigrade in coal kilns. He supported himself by making glazed tiles and ceramic lattices which were bought by architects in Delhi.’’ (Indian Ceramic Art Foundation). A word about the blue colour that made him famous. Its origins were in Persian Blue, which came in three shades, the most sensual being the one that most resembled the colour of Lapiz- lazuli, a semi-precious stone used in jewellery. The Blue tone, he formulated to use in ceramic creations, became his visual signature, though, he also used other colours with flair in his very many creations. The lotus, an often seen motif in his work, came probably from his appreciation of its curving lines, Its arabesques. The curves of a swan in motion inspired him to add it as a motif to some of his creations.
The Japan shots of Tokyo Technical University, College of Liberal Arts, Osaka, Kanazawa,Nara Temple, and various street scenes are lovely to look at and add a nimbus to the story of Gurcharan Singh’s becoming the realised artist, modest, despite considerable achievement. The images of present- day Japan intercut with archival photographs, and some documents give a clear idea of how he evolved as a ceramic artist, how his sensibility was gradually shaped into understanding that a utilitarian calling like pottery could become an art form to be taken as seriously as painting, sculpture and drawing.
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The are very many people who talk on camera about Gurcharan Singh affectionately called ‘Daddyji’ since his association with Delhi Blue Pottery which began in 1952. This was probably because of his protective, fatherly personality. All his life, since his return to India in 1922, he had shown a distinct ability to bring like-minded people together to serve a common cause, that of Studio Pottery.   Those of whom felt at ease in his protective, nurturing presence, called him ‘Daddyji’ spontaneously.  There is a lot of talk about ‘Daddyji’ and his kindness and generosity as a teacher and many students like the well- regarded ceramic artist Deepali Daroze speak about the necessity he felt of passing hard-earned knowledge of the craft of pottery to aspiring potters.  He talked her into teaching more students at the studio -school than was possible due to a lack of manpower. Nobody could say ‘no’ to him because he led by personal example.
Chander manages quite a feat by marshalling a plethora of facts about Gurcharan Singh’s life, achievements; the honours he received including a Padma Shri from the Government of India, the appreciation of artists here and abroad; his struggles-the government suddenly in 1986, decided to take away a sizeable portion of the land allotted to him for his kiln and studio, on Ring Road, Delhi thus cramping his working space – into a compelling narrative. However, the spoken word does not dominate the film, because there are plenty of examples of the artists’ work judiciously juxtaposed and sensitively photographed to bring out their beauty. What remains in the memory, as a result, is this touching visual experience of a pioneering artist’s work and his life of struggle and fulfilment.
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The Lotus and the Swan, is a documentary film shot in the Digital format by Nirmal Chander, the acclaimed  film-maker. 

The Lotus and the Swan - A Television Documentary on Gurcharan Singh by Nirmal Chander

“Turned out you were just like us.So, it turned out you were just like us!Where were you hiding all this time, buddy?That stupidity, that ignorancewe wallowed in for a century –look, it arrived at your shores too!Many congratulations to you! “(तुम बिल्कुल हम जैसे निकलेअब तक कहाँ छुपे थे भाईवो मूरखता वो घामड़-पनजिस में हम ने सदी गँवाईआख़िर पहुँची द्वार तुहारेअरे बधाई बहुत बधाई )This was written by noted India-born Pakistani poet and human rights activist Fahmida Riaz three decades ago, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6,1992, by the Hindutva oriented Karsevaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) led Sangh Parivar. Thirty years have passed since then and the Hindutva extremists who once occupied the fringes of Indian society have not only moved on to the centre stage of polity and society, but have a stranglehold across these domains. In many ways, contemporary India looks a mirror image of Pakistan, where religious fundamentalism has been the domineering trait of society and politics for decades, right from its inception. However, there is considerable churning happening in the Pakistan civil society in recent times and in the following nuanced observation, Resmi P Bhaskaran, Policy Analyst, points out how the civil society’s response to sexual abuse in the neighbouring countries is significantly different. The analysis specifically takes into consideration the situation that exists in the country in the context of the agitation of the female wrestlers against sexual abuse. Resmi points out that the civil society in Pakistan seems to be moving towards a positive and judicious response, the Indian civil society is getting engulfed more and more by sectarian positions, marked by total absence of compunction and sense of probity.Read on – Editor, The AIDEMScene 1: Pakistan “Tere Bin” is a popular Pakistani drama starring talented actors such as Yumna Zaidi, Wahaj Ali, and Bushra Anzari. It has garnered over 30 million views per episode and has recently sparked a social media debate due to a controversial scene depicting marital rape.“Tere Bin” distinguishes itself through the portrayal of an alpha male character’s evolution into an understanding husband of a forced cousin marriage within a feudal family. Husband signs a contract based on his wife’s terms, agreeing to a marriage that exists only on paper. Their conflicting personalities and growing feelings for each other create a continuous struggle throughout the narrative.In one intense conflict scene where the husband angrily closed the bedroom door, implying his intention to force himself on his wife. The writer’s public justification for including this portrayal of marital rape as a necessary for the story’s progression; sparked a heated debate on marital rape. Viewers strongly rejecting violence and emphasizing that rape remains rape, even when committed by spouse.Viewers criticized the writer, content team and even actors for portraying normalization of marital rape and the problematic nature of story’s portrayal of a happy ending between the victim and the perpetrator. Critics argued that such portrayal reinforces the perception of marital rape as a normal occurrence in a patriarchal society like Pakistan, despite being unacceptable by law or religion.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_06_01_112917484_768x377_1_9600fd6249.png" alt="image_2023-06-01_112917484-768x377 (1).png"> Screengrab from Tere Bin (TV Series, 2022)Furthermore, the popular male lead character, initially seen as a role model, as he respected the wife’s rights and sought her consent; being scrutinized for embodying toxic traits prevalent in society. These discussions shed light on the suffering of women in forced marriages and the importance of consent.People expressed the opinion that the media should reconsider endorsing such crimes as plot devices, especially when it sacrifices the dignity of the female characters. Discussions indicate a positive shift in societal awareness in Pakistan, prompting conversations about marital rape prevalence and the significance of consent in relationships. The discussions also serve as a reminder that rape is a heinous crime that cannot be forgiven under any circumstances.However, it is important to consider whether the public would react similarly if the story involved different social class and power dynamics. Additionally, discussions undermined legal or religious recourse for victims, despite the absence of criminalization of marital rape in Pakistan. Nevertheless, the ongoing debate on marital rape in “Tere Bin” contributes to raising awareness and challenging societal norms, reinforcing the idea that consent should always be prioritized in sexual relationships, and condemning forced behaviour.Scene 2: India Six internationally accomplished women wrestlers, including a minor, have accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP Member of Parliament and President of the Wrestling Federation of India, on seven charges of sexual abuse. Despite reporting the incidents, their pleas were ignored by authorities. Since April 23, 2023, they have been protesting on Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. The allegations against Singh are severe, with the victim facing threats of murder if they spoke out. The wrestlers, celebrated for their international achievements, lived in fear, humiliation, and continuous trauma while the authorities turned a blind eye.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_06_01_113319992_2_5db7ecd5a4.png" alt="image_2023-06-01_113319992 (2).png"> Brij Bhushan Sharan SinghThe wrestlers had no choice but to take to the streets, demanding justice and the arrest of the accused. Unfortunately, their efforts were met with a lack of response and intimidation from the government. The involvement of the Supreme Court compelled the Delhi police to file an FIR on April 27. However, even now no investigation or look-out notice has been issued, disregarding law especially the POCSO law. The complacency of the law-and-order system in this case, despite the victims being national icons, is evident. Meanwhile, the accused has a criminal record, including charges of murder and rape.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2023_06_01_at_11_51_03_1_300x300_2_d36b428bcd.jpeg" alt="WhatsApp-Image-2023-06-01-at-11.51.03-1-300x300 (2).jpeg"> Women protesters being stamped on with police bootsAlthough the protesting wrestlers have received support from opposition parties and other sources, it is insufficient to awaken civil society’s consciousness. Unlike the media’s fervent coverage and public support during the 2012 Nirbhaya case, the media’s role in 2023 has been muted, leaving raising questions about why the accused remains free and why the ruling party ignores grievances of the wrestlers. This further diminishes public’s trust in the media.Furthermore, according to the POCSO Act and sexual harassment Act, it is crucial to remove the accused from their positions to prevent manipulation or influence over the investigation. Why has the government and the BJP not taken steps to strip Singh of his positions? This failure to act indicates that members of the ruling party can evade the legal process and potential punishment. It grants culprits immunity in similar cases, reinforcing the belief that the law-and-order system favours the powerful. In this case, the victims cannot be considered ordinary individuals as they are public figures.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_06_01_112000594_2_c410f5c415.png" alt="image_2023-06-01_112000594 (2).png"> Wrestlers Protest in New Delhi (2023)On May 28, 2023, the wrestlers were forcefully arrested and their protest site was dismantled by the Delhi police. However, the public outcry remains minimal, and only a few people speak out against these abuses. This raises questions about the shift in public perception regarding sexual harassment between 2012 and 2023. Has the severity of the crime become less significant when it involves a habitual offender who represents ruling party in the Lok Sabha, compared to the Nirbhaya case involving slum dwellers?Today, despite legal provisions and complaint processes, the wrestlers have to protest to get justice. Does this indicate social and judicial consciousness is determined by the dynamics of socio-economic and political status of both the victims as well as perpetuators? Can we conclude that the public response to sexual abuse in India is influenced by the hierarchical position of who inflicted the crime on whom, in other words the public outcry for righteous justice depends less on the gravity of the crime, but more on who committed it? The role of media in shaping such public consciousness is visibly evident and which is dangerously leading to a lawlessness condition.Marital rape to sexual assault at work placeIndia, in comparison to Pakistan, is known for its modern legal system that upholds principles of social justice and equity. The enactment of the POCSO Act in 2012 and the Nirbhaya case shed light on the issue of sexual harassment of children and women in India. The legal framework provides clear definitions, particularly addressing sexual abuse of minors and workplace harassment. However, the Supreme Court is still deliberating on defining and criminalizing marital rape, lacking a definitive stance on the matter. India has yet to witness a widespread public debate on marital rape similar to the “Tere Bin” moment in Pakistan. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_06_01_112413657_2_9494ec6526.png" alt="image_2023-06-01_112413657 (2).png">Representative ImageWhile there is clarity within the judicial system regarding sexual assault, actual discharge of justice is often denied and delayed, especially when the perpetrator holds positions of power. At the same time, the victims are further victimized by the system and society at large. The Nirbhaya incident (2012 gangrape of a girl in Delhi, the national capital) served as a wake-up call, raising public awareness on such issues. However, in the past decade, many sexual harassment cases have received mixed responses, particularly when the perpetrator comes from the top echelons of society and the victims belong to lower social classes or marginalized groups. This suggests that a society striving for equality and social justice compromises its values by responding to crimes based on the social status of the involved parties. Erosion of the public’s moral and social values has, eventually, resulted in weakening of the implementation of judicial provisions.The plight of wrestlers seeking justice is all the more disconcerting and agonizing in a polity and society that claims to honor the “daughters of the nation.” Yet, the civil response to this incident, even after nearly 40 days, is a grave concern. It highlights a fractured consciousness and a society divided at various levels, leaving individuals isolated in their own worlds. This creates an ideal environment for authoritarianism and a socio-political climate that helps cement the privileges of the privileged. The unravelling of the social fabric is a perilous sign of a failing State and a lost society.When it comes to harassment of women, response of neighbouring countries may vary on the basis of social development. Factors such as cultural norms, legal frameworks, and societal attitudes can influence the prevalence of and response to harassment. India and Pakistan are at different levels of gender development. Nevertheless, the recent incidents indicate that Indian civil society’s sense of awareness and responses towards gender-based violence and discrimination are muted, while Pakistan civil society is showing signs of waking up.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Read this article in <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/hi-policy-analyst-looks-at-civic-responses-towards-sexual-abuse/">Hindi</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">, <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ml-policy-analyst-looks-at-civic-responses-towards-sexual-abuse/">Malayalam</a>

This was written by noted India-born Pakistani poet and human rights activist Fahmida Riaz three decades ago, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6,1992, by the Hindutva oriented Karsevaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) led Sangh Parivar.

Reel to Real: Civic Responses Towards Sexual Abuse in India and Pakistan

2022 was another year that bore testimony to the fact that when it comes to matters of gender inequality and gender violence in the everyday, Kerala had yet another innings at not daring to dream of change, but of buttressing social inertia with studied reluctance and privileged insolence, in order that nothing would upset its staid and conservative mores or topple the apple carts of its benevolent patriarchy. Of course, feminists or ‘feminichies’, as they are ‘lovingly’ called had another year of vociferous debates, critically and rigorously engaging with many of the events that unfolded in the social milieu, even while issues like the sexual harassment case against Civic Chandran brought to the fore ideological faultlines that divided the camp and created acrimonious and sometimes vitriolic debates. The reluctance to see that feminisms is also about multiplicity, difference, and ‘differance’, that each reaction to an oppression need not run the same course as any other, and the insistence that one’s feminist credo was the one and truly “correct” one led to a fair amount of heartburn and divisiveness that challenged sorely needed feminist solidarities.The human sacrifice of two women, their bodies cut to pieces and buried after gory rituals, which shocked the conscience of Kerala’s public sphere, nevertheless brought to the fore the pernicious conservatism and superstition ridden underbelly that hides in and haunts its literate surface and civil society engagements. Kerala’s endogamous big fat weddings that legitimise dowry, while diligently stabilising caste and class and conservative religious mores belie its much-touted renaissance values. The Supreme Court judgement on women’s entry into Sabarimala and the ensuing menstrual debates and feminist activism that created a huge neo-conservative backlash testify to the half-baked project of Kerala’s modernity and the false bravado of its enlightenment project while busting the myth and mystique around its gender investments. Yet, women are coming out, as never before in Kerala, to question its benevolent patriarchy, to claim spaces in its emergent digital public spheres, muddying male logic and its mansplaining practices with multiple kinds of online and digital women-speak. Young women have begun challenging the overarching burden of carrying mainstream definitions of feminism, bringing their own lived experiences and their individual resistances to chart their journeys of everyday resistance. That said, gender migration from Kerala seems on the rise, many young women and sexual minorities choosing to run away from the unbearable oppression of its mundane conservatism.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/human_sacrifice_9ab5691aeb.jpg" alt="human-sacrifice.jpg">Kerala’s journey on its exemplary trangender policy, along with iconoclastic moves for gender reforms such as transgender reservation, while continuing to be ridden by pitfalls and issues, often revealing the yawning gap between the cup and the lip, nevertheless saw the year offering an ‘Idam’ or space to sexual minorities, making many general hospitals in the state transgender friendly. The novel drive for ‘gender-neutral’ (unisex would have been more appropriate) uniforms in the state, was caught up in the problematics of the nomenclature, with the government backing away hastily after conservative religious outfits expressed their moral outrage at the move. Once again orthodoxy and reactionaryism would triumph over politics and perception, even as forlorn civil society protests would be bulldozed under the sheer mass power of the moral majority vote bank. Kerala’s higher education portals have ambitious syllabi on ‘Gender and Sexuality’ and ‘Queer Studies’, leaving many wondering as to what the sum and substance of student takeaway from these classes in a society would be, where the fact that gender is a spectrum and not a binary seems to have been the least of intellectual or social concerns.Yet, hope bloomed sometimes in mass dream machines. Kerala’s most potent schools of misogyny have been its popular culture industry. After the success of the Great Indian Kitchen which offered a sneak peak into rotting mess of Malayali kitchens, films like Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey, while having many inherent ideological issues at its core, had audiences cheering when the female protagonist, a wife at that, beat the male hero husband to pulp. Long have been the years when Malayalam Cinema had audiences, both men and women, burst into applause as one superstar after another mouthed crassly misogynist dialogues or slapped heroines into coy submission, awakening them to new forms of feminine bliss. That spectatorial pleasures had changed, and the spectacles of colossal male machodom were coming undone at the seams, yielded fresh hopes for the future, both for Malayalam Cinema and the viewing public.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/jaya_jaya_hey_fe06f87da2.jpg" alt="jaya-jaya-hey.jpg"> Movie Poster of Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey2022’s mixed bag of gender equality for women Kerala, its violence and gaps exacerbated by the pandemic, nevertheless holds the promise of a new dawn. A dawn that will hopefully exorcise the new age shadow pandemic induced by the age old and deadly virus of patriarchy, one for which a new generation of ‘she, he and they’ will strive to invent more potent vaccines.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003314653/affective-feminisms-digital-india-meena-pillai?_gl=1*1eax1ey*_ga*MTkxNTgyMjk4OS4xNjY1MjQ1ODM0*_ga_SR2P22QVQQ*MTY3MjIwOTAyOC4xLjEuMTY3MjIwOTg0Ni4wLjAuMA..%20https:%2F%2Fwww.routledge.com%2FAffective-Feminisms-in-Digital-India-Intimate-Rebels%2FPillai%2Fp%2Fbook%2F9781032322834">Link to Prof. Meena T Pillai’s Book</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a>

2022 was another year that bore testimony to the fact that when it comes to matters of gender inequality and gender violence in the everyday, Kerala had yet another innings at not daring to dream of change, but of buttressing social inertia with studied reluctance and privileged insolence, in order that nothing would upset its staid and conservative mores or topple the apple carts of its benevolent patriarchy. 

Gendering 2022 – Dare to Dream?

Prof. Meena T. Pillai’s ”Affective Feminisms in Digital India: Intimate Rebels“ is a ground-breaking and thought-provoking exploration of the intersections between technology and feminism within the unique context of Kerala. 

Coming Together in Digital Dissent: The World of Intimate Rebels and their Technological Assemblages

Zahira Rahman, writer and academic, remembers Hilary Mantel, the legendary novelist who chronicled Tudor history.Hilary Mantel, the much-celebrated author of Wolf Hall, died at the age of 70. She passed away “suddenly and peacefully”, said a report in The Guardian. When I read this piece of news, I was reminded of the lines from her second Booker-winning novel Bring up the Bodies : “Death is your prince, you are not his patron; when you think he is engaged elsewhere, he will batter down your door, walk in and wipe his boots on you.” A brilliant chronicler of Tudor history, Hilar Mantel, who incisively and intimately sketched kings and queens in her famous trilogy _ Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and the more recent The Mirror and the Light _ seems to have chosen, as it were, the hour of her departure to almost coincide with the ascension of another monarch to the throne of England? So that she could avoid another dig at the powers that be. Like the one in these lines written by her: “the way we maltreat royal persons, making them one superhuman, and yet less than human”.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/mantell_768x557_26c20d97b2.jpg" alt="mantell-768x557.jpg">She was wary of drawing parallels between the royals of the present and those of the past. “I think simply because I prize the long view so much. And that’s why I won’t make the parallels. I think that if you do, it turns real people into these kind of fantasy figures and unfortunately, they’re not. They’re real, present and dangerous.” She is not in awe of the monarchy though she twice received recognition from the British Empire for her literary achievements. She is Dame Hilary Mantel. She made light of the recognition in her interviews talking about it as a bit of recognition for making an impact on culture. She said: “There’s no British Empire and it has no practical meaning.” She is fascinated by the machinations of Power and, for her, writing is all about exploring the human puzzle, not to solve it as in a mystery thriller. Her subtle questioning of the process of life and the complexity of its players is deeply political. She considers the act of writing an inherently dramatic activity, and not merely cerebral: “It uses up the whole of you.” She was described by her longtime agent as other-worldly who saw and felt things that we ordinary mortals missed. She talked of her novels as different from orthodox accounts of history and said “not because I know better but because I think differently.” She said her approach was similar to that of the theatre: “I am entering into a dramatic process with the characters rather than sitting in judgement on them.” She could be scrupulously honest and was known to be an intrepid researcher. Someone whose engagement with pain (from endometriosis which was left undiagnosed for years ) had helped in some sort of disappearing act -she studied law and worked as a social work assistant in a geriatric hospital- that saw her emerge triumphant after, with her astounding literary output . She says it was her chronic illness that made her a writer…” Because you have only a little bit of energy left and you have to ration it. ”<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/hilari_768x611_adbb5913fc.jpg" alt="hilari-768x611.jpg">In one of her interviews, she spoke of an unhappy childhood that left her with traumatic memories of a strange household where her mother, father and her mother’s lover were living together and she went into a kind of hibernation to avoid being questioned constantly by the villagers. Her protagonist Thomas Cromwell, of whom she presented a starkly human picture, does not speak much too; it’s mostly the workings of his mind that the readers of the trilogy have access to. Far from a much-maligned historical figure, he emerges as a sensitive genius who lends his perceptive mind to the disturbed Henry VIII . Her beguiling narrative of Cromwell’s life is an engrossing tale of power. She said in an interview that Cromwell interested her because his whole project seemed unlikely. She talked of him as the man she met who wasn’t there: “You are concerned with the inner workings of someone who by definition is turned to the outside world and there is a limit to how much Cromwell knows himself.” Cromwell was a man with a vision, with grand plans that he led to fruition but his journey was so precarious that he was in terrible peril at each step. And “everything is in equipoise and one breath could destroy him.” The consequence of a mistake was calamitous, and you paid with your life. “I am, as I think a lot of authors are, concerned about the speed at which we are consuming history now, the way that the past, the very recent past, is being made into a version and real-life people walking around have to live with their representatives and so on”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The post-colonial nationalist in us has always been taught to hate the British and their monarchs and yet England and its history and landscape is always some returning memory for the postcolonial reader: Uncannily familiar. Mantel’s record of the stories that have been displaced in space and time fascinate us forever because she plays on our need for, the struggle for, our “little meed for Power.”<hr><h1 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:30px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“മരണം നിങ്ങളുടെ രാജകുമാരനാണ്, നിങ്ങൾ അവന്റെ രക്ഷാധികാരി അല്ല”</h1><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">ഈ ലേഖനം മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കുവാൻ <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/remembering-celebrated-author-hilary-mantel-the-legendary-novelist-who-chronicled-tudor-history-ml/">ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക</a>.

Hilary Mantel, the much-celebrated author of Wolf Hall, died at the age of 70. She passed away “suddenly and peacefully”, said a report in The Guardian. 

“Death is your prince, you are not his patron.”

We have read enough stories about how a whizkid named Bill Gates developed a software which was later developed as Microsoft, and how it made him the richest man on earth. The Microsoft family of softwares was copyrighted, but created a paradigm shift that revolutionised the entire software landscape. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_3_d460cd47f9.jpeg" alt="images-3.jpeg">Richard StallmanAt the same time, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a visionary called Richard Stallman who believed in users' freedom to study, modify, and share the source code announced the GNU Project (GNU's Not Unix). The timelines are interesting. While MS-DOS was officially released in 1981, Stallman announced the GNU Project in 1983. Since its inception in 1985, Windows 1.0, the first Operating System (OS) of Microsoft with graphical user interface, almost monopolised the software industry. While Gates focused on a historic software product, hacker-turned-software-evangelist Stallman prioritised the fundamental concept of freedom and aimed at steering clear of monopolies.During the fall of 1991, a Finnish software engineer called Linus Torvalds, attracted by the ideals of Stallman and his free software movement, decided to turn his licence for path-breaking Linux prototype kernel into GNU licence. Earlier that year, he had released the kernel with a licence that prohibited commercial usage (Interestingly Linus also authored the hugely popular open-source versioning system, Git). Its open-source model allowed developers to access, modify and distribute it freely under its licence. It attracted a large community of software developers and enthusiasts around the world and gave birth to popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Redhat, Debian, Fedora, CentOS and many others. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_5_1_14d7c1d1c3.jpeg" alt="images-5-1.jpeg">Linus TorvaldsThe operating systems are only base building blocks of software. The next decade saw a tough rivalry between two technology stacks- free software and proprietary software. With the rise of the Internet, the ecosystem of programming languages, web servers, databases, standards and other related technologies began to grow together in both spectrums (Proprietary as well as Free Software). In the enterprise sector, while Microsoft continued with its technology stack proprietary segment with .NET framework, SQL server and windows server, the free software counterparts included Java/J2EE and Apache technology stack and free databases like MySQL and Postgres. With the advent of the cloud era, where softwares, applications and computing were packaged as a service, the difference between these two technology stacks gradually became irrelevant.It is interesting to see who stands where at the moment. Microsoft continues to command a significant presence in the OS market, maintaining over 75% global market share in the desktop/laptop sector. But the enterprise applications and technology sector is hugely dominated by open source software. A staggering 90% of software businesses leverage open-source solutions to varying degrees, as reported by Digital Information World. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/ca_1024x641_e6cfe5104c.png" alt="ca-1024x641.png">Source: Digital Information WorldOver the last decade, the mobile application industry has witnessed unprecedented growth in its user base. The proprietary software iOS, developed by Apple and open source Android are the key operating systems in the race. Android tends to have a more substantial presence in emerging markets and have 70% global market share.Fast forward to 2023, Generative AIIn the past couple of years, Artificial Intelligence has risen to prominence, becoming a transformative force across almost all domains. This rise in AI's influence can be attributed to advancements in ML research, increased computing power, and the availability of big data. One of the major milestones happened in November 2022, when the OpenAI consortium unveiled ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model that took the world by storm. It was designed as a conversational chatbot model which can understand text inputs and produce human-like responses. The OpenAI consortium initially had non-profit beginnings, with backing from the likes of Elon Musk and Infosys soon changed its stance after gauging its potential. After its remarkable success, Microsoft started heavily investing in OpenAI, planning to use these Large Language Model (LLM) foundations in its software products like Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365 and others. Search giant Google, then came up with its own version of generative AI called Bard, which boasts of responses based on real time data unlike ChatGPT. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Screenshot_20230731_104405_Chrome2_a92727495f.jpg" alt="Screenshot_20230731_104405_Chrome2.jpg">ChatGPT Login screenOne can only say that the competition has just started. While ChatGPT has already reaped the rewards for being first in the market, Google, equipped with its superior data search engines and vast data, is expected to catch up swiftly. But one interesting thing to take note is that both are proprietary.Enter Llama 2, the Game changer!When Microsoft and Google made heavy inroads, the other tech giant Meta (former Facebook) launched its own LLM in February 2023. But unlike other two models Meta has released its model under a non-commercial licence focussed only on research use cases. They pledged themselves with responsible AI practices by focussing on known issues like bias, toxicity and misinformation. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_2_9fa13c75b2.jpeg" alt="images-1-2.jpeg">Llama 2 AnnouncementOn July 18th, 2023 Meta came up with a later version, Llama 2, by making the model free and open even for commercial use. Meta's decision to embrace the open-source philosophy can be likened to Linus Torvalds' pivotal move when he declared his Linux operating system under the GNU license. Just as Torvalds released Linux to the world as a open-source software, inviting collaboration and encouraging widespread adoption of the operating system, Meta made its language model, Llama 2, freely available for free research and commercial use. Currently the latest updated model, Llama 2 can be downloaded from Meta, AWS, Azure and HuggingFace. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230731_WA_0003_5fce273072.jpg" alt="IMG-20230731-WA0003.jpg">Courtesy: Andre Havro/LinkedInLlama-V2 is getting widespread acceptance from technologists, researchers and academia across the world for its open source approach. Following is a statement signed by hundreds of leading personalities in the field.“We support an open innovation approach to AI. Responsible and open innovation gives us all a stake in the AI development process, bringing visibility, scrutiny and trust to these technologies. Opening today’s Llama models will let everyone benefit from this technology.”<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/llama-2-statement-of-support/"><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Read the full statement here.</a>While AI opens up multiple dimensions in business and technology, it also creates a lot of ethical and social challenges. There are a lot of questions that need to be addressed related to inherent bias, fairness, malicious usage, misinformation and privacy. While making the model public, one can argue that Llama’s claim for “Responsible AI” is one step ahead. Its transparency allows one to scrutinise the datasets for bias and fairness. But this can also be a double-edged-sword, as it is unpredictable when technology reaches malicious hands. But the open-source model has been there for quite some time, survived and thrived. (https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1681336284453781505)The business scenarios are swiftly changing. The ChatGPT large language model APIs were the toast of technologists across the world until a few days ago. Let me suggest one example from my own experience. agentrunner.ai, a leading AI startup based in London, which primarily focuses on creating autonomous AI agents was largely focussing on OpenAI LLMs till a few weeks ago. It has adapted quickly to the Llama 2-based model which offers better flexibility. Many companies are now following this trend. Why would small or mid-sized startups invest millions in procuring proprietary APIs?Meta's decision to embrace Responsible AI and open-source philosophy with Llama 2 is undoubtedly commendable and has won widespread praise. It also remains to be seen how Meta's move will benefit their own ecosystem of software platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads, and Instagram, in the long run. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2_4f2112df6a.jpeg" alt="images-2.jpeg">Applications from Meta Inc.It will be intriguing to watch how OpenAI, Microsoft and Google will respond to this challenge. Remember, Microsoft already declared its support for Llama-V2, probably because it has recognised the extreme complexity of ethical and social challenges LLM technology. Collaborating or working in a hybrid mode in this endeavour may prove more effective than facing it alone.References: - <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ai.meta.com/blog/llama-2/">Meta Newsletter</a> -on LLaMa 2 Wikipedia LLaMa 2 Announcemen Hugging Face &amp; LLaMa 2 Integration Desktop OS Market Share Open Source Software Market share <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/KSFE_ad_1024x1024_1_a485d571ee.webp" alt="KSFE_ad-1024x1024 (1).webp">

We have read enough stories about how a whizkid named Bill Gates developed a software which was later developed as Microsoft, and how it made him the richest man on earth.

Llama 2: Unleashing the Open-source Generative AI model

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The sub-prime crisis upended the U.S.&nbsp;economy in 2007. President George W.&nbsp;Bush found it convenient to arraign the&nbsp;credit&nbsp;rating&nbsp;agencies for the fiasco. They&nbsp;had a harrowing time facing the crisis of confidence.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Jharkhand-born Deven Sharma had just moved in to head Standard &amp; Poor (S&amp;P) in the U.S. Four years later, Standard &amp; Poor found it appropriate to downgrade the U.S. Government’s long-term debt rating from AAA to AA-. Barack Obama was at the helm then. He too fumed and fretted against the rating agencies. Senator John Kerry chose to dismiss it as “Tea Party Downgrade”. Damned if you, damned if you do not! Deven Sharma resigned from S&amp;P after 18 days of piloting this rating downgrade, which was the first of its kind in 70 years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) went after Deven Sharma. Has the Enforcement Directorate in India taken a leaf out of this witch-hunting?<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Deven’s&nbsp;team found the debt ceiling stand-off as the reason for this downgrade. This announcement was on a Friday. The markets tanked&nbsp;next Monday. S&amp;P 500 lost 6.5% on first day after the downgrade in 2011.&nbsp;The benchmark U.S.&nbsp;ten-year sovereign bond yield, ideally, must have climbed. But it dropped, possibly at the intervention of the U.S.&nbsp;Federal Reserve.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Twelve years later, Paul Taylor, CEO of Fitch Ratings, decided to bite the bullet. His agency had sent out a downgrade warning in May. It too downgraded the U.S. from AAA to AA+. This announcement was made after the markets closed on Monday. Will he last the next 18 days? The ides of August need to be watched. Deven of S&amp;P could not withstand the 18-day war of Mahabharata! Beyond the debt ceiling standoff, deteriorating governance concerns and fiscal profligacy have combined to press Fitch to effect the downgrade.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">A&nbsp;day&nbsp;after the downgrade in 2023, S&amp;P 500 shed 1.38%, NASDAQ Composite Index lost 2.17% and&nbsp;the&nbsp;benchmark U.S.&nbsp;ten-year sovereign yield rose by 2.4% to 4.08%. On the second day,&nbsp;the yield&nbsp;was&nbsp;further up at 4.11%. A rating downgrade reflects heightened default risk. But&nbsp;the credit&nbsp;default&nbsp;swap&nbsp;levels have remained unmoved.&nbsp;Perhaps, a&nbsp;one-notch dip&nbsp;from the top&nbsp;is too far away from default.&nbsp;If the safe haven theory should hold good, gold&nbsp;price&nbsp;must have gone up. But it dropped by 0.5% to $1934 per ounce, as in 2011. Down the line, will any rating agency downgrade&nbsp;the&nbsp;rating for&nbsp;gold!<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Just like the market, reactions of people who matter have been on predictable lines. Janet Yellen, the Secretary of U.S. Treasury and Jerome Powell, Chairman of Federal Reserve, have rebuffed the rating action, accusing Fitch of relying on inaccurate data. Are they questioning their own data? While Fitch is now aligned with S&amp;P on U.S. debt rating, Moody’s is still maintaining the AAA rating.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Globally, ten economies still retain the AAA rating by Fitch and 11 by S&amp;P. Of the 11, Canada is rated AA+ by Fitch. Australia, Denmark, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Singapore make up the rest of the ten. (<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.tradingeconomics.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1691653641233000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Gpzon2CBq7cUoAL7ccqor">www.tradingeconomics.com</a>) India too can boast of a double A in its rating, albeit with a “B” at the front and 3 at the end, making it “Baa3” with astable outlook, pecking it at the lowest of investment grade rating.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Let us look at the following data across&nbsp;the&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;(AA+), Australia (AAA) and India (Baa3) to&nbsp;understand&nbsp;if such rating divergences really reflect underlying weaknesses or perceived strengths. Data is as of March 2023, sourced from&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ceic.data.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1691653641233000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1GkBAcS29auPQ6qURFN3rU">info.ceicdata.com</a>.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_09_141331714_1_d4d939a500.png" alt="image_2023-08-09_141331714 (1).png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_08_09_141331714_1_d4d939a500.png 245w" sizes="100vw" width="245"></figure><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Investment Grade Ratings/Source: <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:15px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ceicdata.com/en">CEIC</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">With the government debt to GDP remaining at 121%, the U.S. economy is puffing along on borrowed money. The next table will reveal that the holding of this debt by the U.S. is negligible, bracketed with others at 2%. This is also corroborated by the high external debt to GDP ratio of 96%. Yet, the U.S. perceived itself to be safe for more than eight decades! At 7%, the U.S. has the highest fiscal deficit to GDP among the three. Fitch has rightfully expressed heightened concerns on fiscal profligacy. U.S. citizens appear to have been so pampered with social security and health benefits that they forgot to save for themselves. Their gross savings rate is at negative 18%. “Yatha Rajah, thatha Prajah”. Just like the government, the citizens are also enjoying living on borrowed funds. Yet, US claims to be safe haven!<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_09_141447561_2_9ec2a8151b.png" alt="image_2023-08-09_141447561 (2).png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_08_09_141447561_2_9ec2a8151b.png 245w" sizes="100vw" width="245"></figure><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Foreign Holders of U.S. Debt/Source: <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:15px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/">US Federal Reserve</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Asia (led by China) holds 70% of U.S. debt. The U.S. is bracketed with others and still comes to less than 2%. Clear examples of leveraged economies that preach to the corporate world on high gearing!<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">It is high time U.S.&nbsp;citizens made themselves aware of the sixth verse in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">karmendriyāṇi&nbsp;sanyamya&nbsp;ya&nbsp;āste&nbsp;manasā&nbsp;smaran indriyārthān&nbsp;vimūḍhātmā&nbsp;mithyāchāraḥ&nbsp;sa&nbsp;uchyate&nbsp;(Chapter 3:6)<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Those who restrain the external organs of action, while continuing to dwell on sense objects in the mind, certainly delude themselves and are to be called hypocrites.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="auto">The mention of the “mithyachara” by the Lord is about the hypocrites, who find it convenient to huff, puff and rebuff as per their convenience.&nbsp;The ones who extoll the&nbsp;“façade” in Johari Window need to remove their facades fast.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/KSFE_ad_1024x1024_1_efada5f369.webp" alt="KSFE_ad-1024x1024 (1).webp">

The sub-prime crisis upended the U.S. economy in 2007. President George W. Bush found it convenient to arraign the credit rating agencies for the fiasco. They had a harrowing time facing the crisis of confidence.

Huff, Puff and Rebuff at the Rating Downgrade

The Kerala Police has arrested and jailed GROW Vasu, a 93-year-old activist who was protesting against the killing of two Maoist activists in Nilambur close to the State in a police encounter that happened 7 years ago. The incident described as the Nilambur encounter was criticised by a section of the media and social workers as extrajudicial killing. In November 2016, when GROW Vasu along with his co-activists held a demonstration in front of the mortuary of the Kozhikode Medical College where the bodies were kept, an arrest warrant was issued against him by the Kunnamangalam First Class Judicial Magistrate Court. It is by way of executing this long-standing warrant the police arrested GROW Vasu on July 29, 2023 on the charges of obstructing the police in the line of their duty and unlawful assembly. GROW Vasu has refused to apply for bail and was remanded and sent to Kozhikode sub jail for two weeks.
On November 24, 2016, the police shot dead Kuppu Devarajan and Ajitha (Kaveri) inside the Nilambur forest, in a place called Padukka forest which is part of the Karulai forest range. When their bodies were brought to the mortuary of Kozhikode Medical College, GROW Vasu and his co-activists staged a protest and demanded a judicial enquiry into the killings.
<img alt="Photo-size1.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Photo_size1_900fb5e2a6.jpg" />
 GROW Vasu at Court
GROW Vasu is known to the residents of Kozhikode town as a social activist who is always ready to intervene in issues affecting the marginalised and the voiceless. He has been living in the town for as many years as one could remember, in an old and dilapidated ‘peedika’, which in Malayalam means shop. Peedika is a cramped tiny room with a single archaic wooden door, flanked by similar shops _ a familiar site in Kerala. His conspicuous moustache, the Giant Malabar Squirrel that he befriended and lived with him and his bright smiling face remained a source of curious joy and lighter moments for journalists like me whenever we approached him for a comment on a case of human rights violation or social injustice. The photos of Karl Marx, Lenin, Ambedkar, and P. Krishnapillai adore the walls of his ‘residence’ along with the photos of the innumerable protest events that he had been part of. All that he ‘owns’ is an old television set, a table and a cot. His staunch and unwavering commitment to transforming society into a haven of justice is a source of inspiration for us.
He was a Naxalite once, to be precise, in the 1960s. He had participated in the Naxalite attack and killing of a feudal landlord by a group of Naxalites – an incident better known to Keralites as Thirunelli Naxalite Action- and was jailed for 7 years. Maoist literature and Radio Peking were their source of immediate motivation to attempt to bring about a Marxist-Maoist social order through violent means. The government led by C Achutha Menon crushed their attempted uprising and the leaders were sent to jail for many years. A few activists and some innocent people caught in the ideological crosswire lost their lives too. Though Kerala society saw this small group of young men who carried out these sporadic police station attacks as a bunch of unrealistic dreamers, who thought that the villages would rise up to engulf the cities and a just communist society would be established through an armed revolution, many members of that group later changed their course into democratic means of protest and action and made a significant imprint in society. GROW Vasu was one among them.
GROW, a Unique Union
In the 1980s, GROW Vasu became a staunch supporter and leader of the trade union struggle of the Gwalior Rayons Organisation of Workers (GROW), a union which, most probably for the first time in history, demanded the closure of the factory they worked in. The Mavoor Gwalior Rayons factory was manufacturing Rayon, a celluloid fibre that is made from bamboo. In 1958, the Birla Group and the Government of Kerala signed an agreement to establish this factory with a capacity to process 100 tonnes of pulp a day as the government saw this as an opportunity for industrial growth for the State; this was the largest industrial project in the state until then. The government even allowed the company to collect the raw material, bamboo, at a nominal price and with exclusive rights from the State’s forest lands.
<img alt="Ayinoor_Vasu.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Ayinoor_Vasu_e684a956df.jpg" />
 GROW Vasu speaking at an event
The factory was situated on the banks of river Chaliyar, the lifeline of many villages located on its banks. For the people of the village, the river is a source of not only drinking water but also livelihood in that they earned an income by selling the fish they caught and the mussels they collected from the river. No sooner than the factory started functioning, the effluents and clouds of smoke from the factory disrupted their lives and livelihoods. An abnormal rise in cases of cancer and respiratory diseases in the villages in the vicinity of the factory aggravated the situation leading to the villagers, and the civil society as a whole, demanding its closure. In this struggle that eventually led to the closure of this industrial unit, GROW Vasu led the factory workers. The moniker, GROW Vasu, stuck.
History of Encounter Killings
The modern history of encounter killings in Kerala began with the killing of Varghese, a Naxalite leader belonging to the same group of ‘revolutionaries’ as GROW Vasu. Varghese was shot dead by the police on February 18, 1970, in the Thirunelli jungle in Wayanad, another forest district of Kerala. Varghese was hugely popular among the poorest of the poor of that region. The shocking revelation that came from a police constable, Ramachandran Nair, many years later that he was commanded to shoot Varghese at point-blank range evoked a controversy and a series of debates on encounter killings. The case was reopened in the wake of the revelation and a police IG who ordered the killing of Varghese was sentenced by the CBI court.
Fast forward to 2016, and there began another series of police encounters with the Maoists. They did not have a big presence in Kerala and always lived on the fringes of the border forests, their contacts with the society limited to the tribal people living there. In many first-person accounts of tribal and local people recorded by Kerala’s TV channels, it became clear that the Maoists reportedly went to them just to get some rice and groceries.
The anti-extremist commando group of the police, The Kerala Thunderbolts, has been behind the recent encounter killings in Kerala. The simultaneity in the formation of the Thunderbolts and the encounter killings has raised many eyebrows in civil society. The question asked was: ‘Has the availability of huge financial support from the Centre to create and run such a commando group become a motivation in itself for the Kerala Police to continue such operations that were out of proportion to the extremist problem?’ Apart from the arrest of GROW Vasu’s arrest, a few more incidents have come as a shock to the civil society, including the 2019 killing of C. P. Jaleel, a Maoist leader, and the gunning down of 3 Maoists in the Attappady forest of Palakkad district. Though the Government of Kerala ordered probes into these encounters, the reports are yet to see the light of the day.
<img alt="images-1-1.jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_1_be099518b9.jpeg" />
 GROW Vasu
Of late, GROW Vasu has been a micro-entrepreneur, with his hand-made umbrella brand, ‘Marivillu’ getting featured in local news. It was reported that he makes 20 umbrellas a day and this is not a hobby but his source of livelihood. No doubt that the nonagenarian will be at peace in his prison cell; the condition of his self-chosen dwelling is nothing better. The question is, why the Kerala government and police are losing their sleep over a 93-year-old who has long ceased to be a live wire years ago.
<img alt="KSFE_ad-1024x1024 (1).webp" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/KSFE_ad_1024x1024_1_0e3066f65a.webp" />

The Kerala Police has arrested and jailed GROW Vasu, a 93-year-old activist who was protesting against the killing of two Maoist activists in Nilambur close to the State in a police encounter that happened 7 years ago. 

Why is the Left Government Afraid of a 93-Year-Old Man?

This is a French-Tunisian writer’s reflections on France’s Bastille Day.
People often think about Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other religious holidays as their favourite time of the year. Usually, it involves family, food, and a spirit of communion. For me, it has always been Bastille Day, celebrated on 14 July in France to mark the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison in Paris. 
Since I was a child, I remember waiting gingerly for the military parade that would be broadcast live on television. I listened to the presenters sharing their notes, hours of trivia on military schools and units which sounded like gibberish filler to the mesmerising images which drew me most, but I liked it all the same. I often heard fighter jets piercing the sky from our home west of Paris moments before they appeared on TV. Then the ground troops. The horses. The motorcades. The distinctive uniforms of the pioneers of the légion étrangère, with their beards, axes, white gloves, and leather apron.
<img alt="Champs-Elysees-Paris-France.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Champs_Elysees_Paris_France_339fda4859.jpg" />
 Champs-Élysées, Paris, France
On these images, the Champs Elysées looked mighty, powerful, strong. It was the Paris of history books, luxury brands, and tourists, of De Gaulle and Catherine Deneuve, far from the greyness of the banlieue where I lived. After the military parade, the President addressed the nation. That, too, I would watch religiously, because it became a tradition. And then we would eat. 
“Bastille Day,” as it is called in English, was named Fête de la Fédération when French people first celebrated the day in 1790. The name itself underscores a desire and need for unity. It’s always been about concord and cementing common affinities. 
During that first celebration, the festivities centred on the union of the King with the new representative assembly, and his people. Given the upheavals of the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, the return to monarchy, and various regime changes, Bastille Day has been variously commemorated through time. 
Yet it became enshrined, so to speak, when the day was declared a “national day” in 1880. From then on, Bastille Day was to be observed annually in codified festivities that included, for instance, the famed military parade. That year, the Republican motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was also displayed on all public buildings. 
This timing corresponded to an important shift in the way that France would look at itself and negotiate contestations, first as a republican nation, and second, as a colonial empire and postcolonial society. In many ways, official festivities represent a mirror of society, crystallise public image-making, and shape a contemporary mythology that affirms identity.
As such, Bastille Day is not about celebrating a specific political figure or the constitutive differences that make up France. Rather, it is about a homogenous expression of Frenchness in its proud, patriotic display. Two bodies are celebrated: the army and the broader citizenry. 
But when people celebrate an aggrandised version of France; they do so on the back of a very historical event that highlights recent contradictions. The storming of the Bastille was brutal and deadly; witnesses reported instances of cannibalism and vile desecration of bodies. It shocked and marked an acceleration of the revolution, which by now, the king had ruefully underestimated. Because of this violence, the celebration of that day hasn’t always been consensual. The politicisation of the French Revolution meant that the memory of Bastille Day was often pulled between two camps and two diverging historical narratives—the monarchists and the republicans. 
But in the collective psyche today, the storming of the Bastille has melded with France’s political emancipation as these earlier dichotomies no longer take hold. It is a “good riot,” a turning point that upholds noble values of resistance and courage as well as embodies a fight for an honourable cause. The rioters of summer 1789 considered that the revolution was in danger. They wanted to seize gunpowder and weapons to protect it and stormed the Bastille, a medieval fortress that symbolized arbitrary arrests and tyranny. 
The event elevated the notions of sacrifices and personal integrity. On that day, I can’t help but think of other moments of grief when the celebrations turned to horror, such as the Bastille Day of 1953, when a peaceful march for the independence of Algeria was disrupted by the police. Seven people were killed, among whom Algerian nationalists and a labour unionist. Most people have forgotten it but they remember Bastille Day, 2016, when a terrorist drove a cargo truck into the crowd in Nice, killing more than 80 people.
The recognition of the storming of the Bastille as a good riot for more than 140 years contrasts with what French political elites have characterised as bad riots, a negative qualifier often assigned to riots led or involving Arabs and Africans. I watched, helplessly, the footage of 17-year-old Nahel Marzouk, killed at point-blank range by a policeman on June 27. He looked like a brother, a cousin. Like him, I hail from North Africa. Like him, I’ve lived in a differentiated space where my face allows the police to racially profile me. 
<img alt="bastille-day-comp.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/bastille_day_comp_63c5cce31f.jpg" />
 Storming of the Bastille
Young men like Nahel are “killable,” a term used by French sociologist Kaoutar Harchi. Their ardour must be tamed. Unlike the depreciated non-white masculinities, my female body descends from 19th-century odalisque Orientalist paintings—servile, seductive, worth sexually conquering. My face will never be Marianne, the bust that personifies chaste France, the portrait of the goddess of Liberty. 
Following Nahel’s killing, youth from low-income estates protested police brutality. Although statistics on race are not allowed in colour-blind France, the police ID-checks people passing as Arabs and Blacks disproportionally more than the rest of the population. Seventeen people die every year in police custody or during arrest in France, a figure higher than its neighbouring countries. 
Over several days then, youth vandalised property, looted, and confronted the police in tense exchanges that erupted like wildfire throughout France. Quickly, the questions of who (Arabs and Africans) and what (illegitimate violence) supplanted why (decades of racial discrimination, targeted police checks, humiliations, and broken social ladder). The main police union described the rioters, who are overwhelming French citizens despite being extraneously labelled as migrants or descendants of migrants, as “hordes of savages.” 
What these young people denounced in their raw expression is a two-tiered reality. They rejected the growing fracture between French people for whom the words Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity correspond to a daily exigency, and themselves, for whom the same words represent empty and broken promises. The lack of belonging they have encountered also stems from France’s refusal to embrace a multicultural, postcolonial trajectory that would love all its children equally, without questioning the Frenchness of some. 
<img alt="modi-in-france.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/modi_in_france_c47bb49521.jpg" />
Narendra Modi at Bastille Day Parade in Paris, 2023
As this year’s celebration unfolds, I feel a growing sense of dissociation. I watch the armed forces parade with their ready-to-buy military equipment, people being arrested for booing the president, and the theatrical accolades of our president with Narendra Modi. A fundraiser for the family of the policeman involved in Nahel’s killing has reached over EUR 1.6 million. Many people see this as a booty, a reward for killing an Arab boy. 
Sometimes, I wonder if we are returning to two camps when the elites accuse minorities of being “separatists” when they point out to shortcomings in the social contract or when they want to live their faith unimpeded. Issues of systemic racism are still ignored and minimised. Justice and equity ring as urgently in 1789 as they do today, but this Bastille Day tells me that some riots are more legitimate than others because some voices are more valid and valued than others. My favourite holiday is a flawed one I realise. France’s mirror needs to be repaired—urgently.

People often think about Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other religious holidays as their favourite time of the year. Usually, it involves family, food, and a spirit of communion.

Good Riots, Bad Riots

Along with the full text (in English) of the conversation between Dr. MR Rajagopal, the pioneering palliative care specialist in India and Dr. SS Lal, renowned public health care expert.Dr Lal: Palliative care is a topic where a lot of discussions are happening in recent times. Today we are discussing this topic with a veteran in the field of palliative care, Dr MR Rajagopal, whom I personally view as one of my teachers. Dr Rajagopal has made very important interventions in the palliative care field in India.Sir, Palliative care is often highly misunderstood as a care regime. I remember a doctor getting angry when his ailing wife was advised to be given palliative care. Even the medical community is not well-aware. So, my first question is very basic . What is Palliative Care?Dr Rajagopal: We need a patient-centred approach in health care. As a medical student, I have seen many instances of patients suffering acute pain while others looked at it as a normal thing. Doctors and medical students who learn from them often prefer to turn their faces away from this pain. Now I understand that this reaction comes from a sort of helplessness. We did not know how to address this pain.Dr Lal: As a child, I have also seen many patients suffer for days and months. Has the situation changed now? We all used to see pain just as an inevitable part of life. What do you think?Dr Rajagopal: Only 4% of Indians have access to palliative care. 96% do not have access. Even the doctors who study MBBS and MD do not learn about pain relief. Palliative Care became part of our MBBS curriculum only in 2019.Dr Lal: I also have felt that we are lacking something in our approach to pain. The common attitude is that we are destined to suffer pain.Dr Rajagopal: Everybody compares other people’s pain to the pain that they have experienced sometime back in their lives. However, the other person’s pain could be more intense and we cannot know that. One might have experienced the pain of bone fracture or labour pain. Of the total palliative care needs of a society, only 30% is related to cancer. For example, Ischemic pain sometimes is far more unbearable than cancer pain. Sometimes the patient will suffer this pain for months or even years. Sometimes I feel there is this reluctance to address pain just because the solution is so simple. If expensive technology were involved, there would have been more interest for all. There is no glamour in this. This is not elite. Maybe that is the reason.Dr Lal: Even now the public is not fully aware of the scope and importance of palliative care. Who can make them more aware? Do you think domain specialisation is a necessary prerequisite?Medical Council of India has approved palliative medicine as a speciality even 7 years before it became part of MBBS curriculum. There are 10 centres in India and one in Kerala. Yet, there are only 30 palliative specialisation seats in these centres taken altogether. In a country of 1.3 billion population, we have only this many seats.Dr Rajagopal: How effective has the government intervention been in educating the public about palliative care? No such intervention has been there from the government to educate the people. A National Programme for Palliative Care was instituted in 2012. Keshav Deshraj, the then Health Principal Secretary, had taken the initiative for that. That programme has a comprehensive approach in it. However, it was not implemented effectively. The National Health Policy of 2017 focused on instituting palliative care as part of primary health care. Under it, national level and state level trainers were trained during the Covid years. Now the policy has to be implemented by state governments.Dr Lal: As you said, palliative medicine has become affordable for all. Yet, there are so many who do not have access to it. How can we fill in this gap in implementation?Dr Rajagopal: There are huge gaps in implementation. For example, palliative care was included in the primary health sector. We all applaud that. But it is not there in tertiary care. Until someone’s disease is concluded as incurable, there is no provision for pain relief for the pain, for asthma, or depression that the patient suffers from. He or she has to reach the village in their last two weeks of life to get palliative care.Isn’t that an irony? Doesn’t the care need to begin during the tertiary care days itself? Somehow, even the National Healthcare Policy is silent about tertiary sector palliative care. The World Health Organisation documents stress the need for palliative care in the primary sector. This is so because they already have palliative care in the tertiary sector. We mindlessly copied those guidelines.In Kerala, the palliative policy was adopted in 2008. There was this problem in that too. The budget came from the National Rural Health Mission. So there was no specific budget allocated for the tertiary care sector. In 2019, when the policy was revised in Kerala, tertiary care was added. Due to Covid, its implementation is now delayed. Now the steps are being taken to implement in the tertiary sector.The Kerala government has been very responsive to our demand to revamp the policy when we asked for it in 2019. Now budget allocation is required to implement the new policy. A few months before, some money was allocated to all Medical Colleges to start palliative units but the money has not reached the colleges yet as there were technical issues.Dr Lal: In Kerala, the average longevity has increased. However, Kerala’s population has a high occurrence of lifestyle diseases and we do not have sufficient systems in place to support them when they need it. The kids who are abroad or working somewhere else come back for a few weeks for end of life care of their parents and the care is limited to it.Dr Rajagopal: This is a very important issue. Ten percent of all of us including we two and the viewers of this interview will be dying from cancer. Seven percent of our population have dementia. According to India Population study 2015, 1.7 lakh aged persons were living alone. Of them, 1.43 lakh are women.Dr Lal: Our culture is also contributing to that. In any marriage, men will be older than women on an average by 5 years. Added to that, men have less longevity than women here. So, they die at least 5 years younger and the age gap between a husband’s death and wife’s death thus is, on an average, 10 years. 10 years of widowhood thus becomes guaranteed.Dr Rajagopal: As I said, out of the 1.7 lakh people who live alone, 1.43 lakh are women only. These are not the people who can afford a home nurse. In the villages, we, the palliative workers are familiar with the lives they live and the deaths they die. This is a big issue. We imported the idea of nuclear families from western countries. In the West, when they shifted to that family structure, they parallelly made systems to address the consequences; institutions such as nursing homes for the aged. We did not do that.Dr Lal: Kerala has a huge geriatric population. The number of children per family is low and those kids would go to distant places to make a living. And we blame children for not looking after their parents in old age. However, the entire family sometimes would be living off his or her income only. Isn’t this a reality?Dr Rajagopal: There is no meaning in blaming the children. Our generation created this kind of society where children are supposed to leave in search of better jobs. The average number of children per couple in Kerala is only 1.6. What happens is one couple shoulders the responsibility of looking after 4 aged persons. Don’t they have a life? Don’t they need to educate their own children? I will not blame the young generation. I have seen that most of them go that arduous extra mile to balance between their work and taking care of their parents.Dr Lal: Another aspect is that in a family, it is the primary responsibility of women to care for the ailing and the aged. I know educated and employed women who take care of both their parents and in-laws. The burden is often entirely on women.Dr Rajagopal: 90% of caregivers are women. The society here thinks that women are not supposed to live their own lives. Now the rich people have access to care homes but the poor cannot afford them. Care homes should be there and they have to be accessible to all.Dr Lal: In Kerala, 60 to 70 percent of the population depend on the private sector for their health care needs. Care in the private sector incurs a heavy cost too. Do you think this has any impact on palliative care?Dr Rajagopal: Among the audience of this interview, many would not like talking about death. Suppose somebody has the courage to talk about it and suppose we ask them, where they want to die; Is it among a number of machines, in an air conditioned ICU? Would you prefer it or would you want to die in your own bed? A large majority of those who go to private hospitals are now destined to die in intensive care units. Think what a cruel practice this is. When your life is ending, what would you want but a loving touch; I would want to say my last words to my wife, to hold the hands of my children, and to get a kiss on my cheek from my grandchildren. Instead you have tubes in all your orifices and you hear the bleeps of the machines when you die. There are many hurdles before us if we want to change this; there are legal ambiguities too. What is the responsibility of a doctor? There are many doctors who think that their responsibility is solely to prolong life in one way or the other. Medical science actually defines the role of a doctor as reducing suffering. The bio ethics unit of ICMR also says so. There is no understanding about the quality of life and death.Dr Lal: Have you noticed this exploitative practice of falsely promising magical cures to people who have reached their end of life days and extracting their last savings? There are many such instances. I think that is an unavoidable tragedy. When you stand face to face with death, the first impulse is not to accept it.Dr Rajagopal: Kubler-Ross who wrote the world famous book, ‘On Death and Dying’, has listed the different stages of grief. The first stage is denial. Then comes anger and the next is bargaining- you try to bargain with God praying that I will worship you if you let me live. The patient also bargains with his/her doctor- for example, if saved, they say they would never smoke again. Another kind of bargain is to blame it on the doctor treating that person and to approach another one- system hopping and doctor shopping. And there are many who try to exploit this situation.Dr Lal: It has been an honour to do this interview because you are a person who has dedicated his life to palliative care and as a doctor myself, I respect you as a teacher too. Before we conclude, do you want to add anything as a message to our audience?Dr Rajagopal: I would like to say this- palliative care is not just for cancer patients or for end-of-life care. It is the treatment regime to reduce suffering and pain in all kinds of ailments. As much as we understand that, the suffering of ourselves and the people who are around us gets reduced. We should also bring palliative care into the private sector.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Watch the full interview in Malayalam, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/the-aidem-interactions-dr-mr-rajagopal/">here</a>.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">See more from MedTalk Series, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/medtalk/">Here</a>.

Along with the full text (in English) of the conversation between Dr. MR Rajagopal, the pioneering palliative care specialist in India and Dr. SS Lal, renowned public health care expert.

Dr Lal: Palliative care is a topic where a lot of discussions are happening in recent times. Today we are discussing this topic with a veteran in the field of palliative care, Dr MR Rajagopal, whom I personally view as one of my teachers. Dr Rajagopal has made very important interventions in the palliative care field in India.

Only 4 percent of Indian Population has Access to Palliative Care

In 2019, a few weeks after the Indian National Congress suffered yet another resounding defeat at the hands of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), a small group of Delhi-based journalists, including this writer, had an occasion to interact with Rahul Gandhi in the precincts of the Congress Parliamentary Party office within the Parliament Building. During the brief, impromptu interaction, Rahul Gandhi said that he and the Congress had worked hard and to the best of their abilities but were found wanting in making the big change.
<img alt="images-5-300x168 (1).jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_5_300x168_1_4af654c532.jpeg" />
Oommen Chandy with Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra
Hearing this, I came up with a totally unsolicited advice. “Bring Oomen Chandy to Delhi on a special organisational post. Give him authority to prod your line of leaders in the organisational structure across the country. He will make your units across the country spring to a new life. He himself will not sleep. And he will not let other leaders in your party sleep too.” Rahul Gandhi, just smiled and moved on. 
Later, I sent word to Chandy through one of his close associates, about my “message” to Rahul Gandhi. The associate reported back saying that Chandy too responded to my suggestion with a smile, but had later added that he wished he could actually live up to my impression about him, if given a chance. Apparently, he used to talk about this “organisational possibility at the Congress centre” from time to time. “In a sense, he had taken up this as a promise to himself”, said the associate of Chandy. But several factors, including Chandy’s ill-health, prevented him fulfilling this promise in the past four years. 
<img alt="Capture-300x187 (1).webp" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Capture_300x187_1_23cc80f11e.webp" />
Oommen Chandy sloganeering
Political observers who have observed the organisational abilities of the former Kerala Chief Minister would agree with my assessment. There was little doubt about his connect with the people. Also that 24×7 activity characterised Oomen Chandy’s political life throughout his nearly six-decade long career. Fellow politicians, political observers and journalists have often been dumb founded by Chandy’s capacity to put in inhumanly long hours of work.
Senior politicians belonging to different parties, including his arch rivals in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have seen how he could be on his feet for almost as long as 10 hours, meeting and interacting with people.
A fellow journalist recounts often an unbelievable official encounter with Chandy. Chandy was Chief Minister at that time and the journalist, an elected leader of a journalists’ union. The latter had an important issue to discuss with the Chief Minister. The union was building an office in one of the Kerala districts and had to get some official clearances. To an official request for an appointment, the Chief Minister’s office replied that the meeting was fixed for 4 a.m. in a train reaching Shoranur Junction then. Looking at the time and place of appointment, the journalist and his colleagues had surmised that the meeting would not happen. The Chief Minister would most probably be asleep at that time, they thought. However, they decided to take a chance and reached the station. The train reached the railway station and the man who opened the train’s door was a fully awake and bright looking Chief Minister himself. The journalists had a fruitful discussion with Chandy in the train. Later, the union’s project came to a smooth completion.
There were several leaders in the Congress as well as many regional parties in northern India such as the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal (United) who knew about this passionate working style of Chandy. Old timers in the Uttar Pradesh Congress, such as Ram Kripal Singh and Pramod Tiwari, used to term it “Chandy’s personal value addition to a long-standing Kerala stamp in Congress politics”. They remember how, when Indira Gandhi was leading the party, young leaders from Kerala, such as A.K. Antony, Vayalar Ravi and Oomen Chandy had occupied important positions in the central bodies of the party. They viewed it as a period of creativity in the grand old party.
In the view of these leaders, it was Chandy and K.C. Venugopal, organisational secretrary in the current Congress Working Committee (CWC), who essentially represented this Kerala stamp in national politics in contemporary times. Interestingly, Venugopal considers himself a sort of protege of Chandy. Both Singh and Tiwari had pointed out to The AIDEM that Chandy’s political personality had particularly captured, the attention and imagination of the political class as a whole, particularty Congress functionaries, in different parts of India during the two terms when he was Chief Minister of Kerala. 
<img alt="The_Chief_Minister_of_Kerala_Shri_Oommen_Chandy_meeting_the_Prime_Minister_Dr._Manmohan_Singh_in_New_Delhi_on_March_13_2013-300x181 (1).jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/The_Chief_Minister_of_Kerala_Shri_Oommen_Chandy_meeting_the_Prime_Minister_Dr_Manmohan_Singh_in_New_Delhi_on_March_13_2013_300x181_1_a6fde85eb5.jpg" />
Oommen Chandy meeting the then Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi
This began right from his first tenure as Chief Minister in 2004. The very fact that he was chosen to replace somebody like Antony after the rout of the Congress in Kerala in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections had evoked interest across the country. This had grown steadily over his first tenure as Chief Minister until 2006. “It rose to greater heights during the, second tenure, which began in 2011,” Singh said.
Chandy’s tireless physical dynamism and energy were often cited as examples of the new-age political quotients of high value. Even politicians like Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, who stands at a considerable distance from the Congress in political and ideological terms have commented on this aspect to me personally.
At the level of larger politics, however, there have been questions on Chandy’s ideological orientation and commitment. I had myself raised a pointed question on this when he was Chief Minister. Chandy had responded by stating that he did not believe in categorisations such as Left, Right or Centre and his basic ideology was welfare of the people and overall development. Many journalists and observers who had heard this interaction immediately categorised it as mindless generalisation by the leader. 
Even in the midst of this criticism, there was also an acceptance that at the policy level, there were many things that Chandy had done as Chief Minister which had the potential to evolve into more ideologically coherent political plan. Indeed, there were many things that militated against any form of ideological orientation. 
There is a general impression that the present-day Kerala, by and large, does not produce the kind of mature politicians that the larger society of the State deserves. This is a view shared even by those academicians and analysts who have showered praise on the Kerala model of development. Clearly, there is a need for greater application, enhanced creativity, and better innovation to make Kerala adapt itself to the new, emerging world.
Perhaps, Oomen Chandy’s passing away would trigger a broader and more involved debate on this issue in the days to come. Even as one mulls on this possibility, there can be little denying that Chandy had a very high application quotient and that he had brought back some attention to the Kerala stamp in Congress politics at the national level.
In such a context, the unkept promise that he made to himself on bringing more vigour into the Congress at the national level would pain a large number of his followers and friends.

In 2019, a few weeks after the Indian National Congress suffered yet another resounding defeat at the hands of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), a small group of Delhi-based journalists, including this writer, had an occasion to interact with Rahul Gandhi in the precincts of the Congress Parliamentary Party office within the Parliament Building. During the brief, impromptu interaction, Rahul Gandhi said that he and the Congress had worked hard and to the best of their abilities but were found wanting in making the big change.



Oomen Chandy and an Unkept Promise to Himself

“See, this is how a ‘Child of Karkitakam‘ becomes ‘Kismet’s (destiny’s) child’. Or rather, it is a rarest of rare classical instance of such a turnaround.” This was how N. Gopala Krishnan (NGK ) as his friends call him, writer, translator and erstwhile senior administrator in government services, referred to the media coverage of the 80th birthday celebrations of M. T. Vasudevan Nair. This comment was made in a private conversation in 2013 at Kozhikode, the coastal town in north Kerala where NGK and MT resided.

A Renaissance man with a wrong birthday

Milan Kundera was part of my youth and growing up, and I toted his works and held on to them as if my life depended on them. During my post-graduation, I lived through his novels, empathized with his female characters, and slipped into the glum of existential angst throttling me from my imagined reliving of his books. Often, I walked under the shadow of his graphomania, entangled or surrounded “with his own writings as with a wall of mirrors cutting off all voices from without.” Significantly, Kundera often talked about being immersed in ‘alien cultures’ and the theory of two civilizations and the essential conflict between them. While he argued for the cultural significance of then Czechoslovakia in the contemporary age, he believed that his country was “culturally in the West and politically in the East” and resented being bundled off as part of the Western civilization. I, too, weighed under the heaviness of cultural alienation, a small-town Malayali girl, weighed down by the distant gloomy chimes of the death knell of the Prague Spring in a far-away time; and, almost intellectually titillated by it, I was enamoured with a novelist who defied all categorizations thrust on him. In an interesting anecdote, when The Joke (1967), his first novel, was simplistically dubbed as “an epitome of the utter denunciation of the Stalinist regime,” Kundera protested with his razor-edged vehemence. “Spare me your Stalinism, please. The Joke is a love story!” 
Incidentally, I picked up The Joke from a lending library, misled by its title. I searched for the joke throughout the book as I realized it was the story of Ludvik, who was still a grudging fan of the ‘still-young Communist regime.’ During his summer break, a girl in his class wrote to him about “optimistic young people filled through and through with the healthy spirit” of Marxism; he replied, “Optimism is the opium of mankind! A healthy spirit stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky!” It is evident that Kundera pursued laughter and humour rigorously and persistently in many ways than one. In The Joke, The Book Laughter and Forgetting (1979) and Laughable Loves (1974), he explored the gruelling semantics of black humour, piecing together the jarring elements of history, philosophy, broken love affairs, unconsummated sexuality and personal reflections, through the narration of social commentary and existential contemplations. In these novels, as in most of his other works, through individual and collective memories, the complexity of relationships, memory and forgetting, political repression, love, and the nature of laughter flock together as reflections on human conditions. 
<img alt="milan-booka-1.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/milan_booka_1_0fc0a8da0d.jpg" />
<pre><code>Milan Kundera’s Books
</code></pre>
Ironically, in his extended treatise on modern aesthetics, Testaments Betrayed (1993), Kundera observes, “If I were asked the most common cause of misunderstanding between my readers and me, I would not hesitate: humour”. Referencing Octavio Paz, he believed, humour is the great invention of the modern spirit” and by claiming that this humour’s birth, coinciding with that of the novel in Rabelais and Cervantes, is absolutely fundamental to modern European culture. Milan Kundera believed that his stories led to a fresh approach to specific knowledge of life. On the other hand, he also argued that “the novel doesn’t answer questions” but leads the reader to reread and find new surprises every time she reads.
The novel never provided an absolute truth for him. Instead, he defined the genre as “the great form in which the author thoroughly explores some great themes of existence, using experimental selves (characters).” But he often wrote them as “wisdom of uncertainty”, especially like many other writers like Kafka, Broch and Hasek, who were ardent adversaries of totalitarian truths, and peppered their writings with ‘irreverent truths.’ Kundera was also obsessed with the concept of betrayal, both in literature and in real life became manifested in artistically different forms, such as political, artistic, and personal betrayals. Kundera examines various historical events and figures, drawing connections between their actions and the theme of betrayal. 
<img alt="WhatsApp-Image-2023-07-13-at-09.58.54-204x300.jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2023_07_13_at_09_58_54_204x300_4837e07edf.jpeg" />
 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Interestingly, while Kundera loosened the knots of conventionality, he simultaneously rebuilt nihilistic, self-destructive meanings with the same vigour. Sometimes, inter-genre interference of music can be read into many of his works. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and The Unbearable Lightness of Being can be read as polyphonies or musical interfaces where the narrator’s and the characters’ voices fuse into a mixture creating new strains of non-linear meanings. 
Kundera’s treatment of ‘sexuality in his novels’ had elicited strong and unfavourable responses over time. For him, sexuality is a microcosm of power struggles, almost always involving the dominance of one person over another, of strength over weakness. There’s nothing personal or pleasurable in sexuality; in The Joke, Ludvik’s pursuit of Helena is an expression of his desire for revenge against Zemánek, but his sexual tyranny is equated as brutal as that of the Communists, and the reader becomes increasingly uncomfortable about Ludvik’s obsession with violating women. Kundera’s outspoken sexual narratives satirize the taboos and individual prejudices regarding sexuality. He effaces the spaces of sacred and profane with his erotic descriptions and non-apologetic violence in sexual engagements and, sometimes, collision. Out there, the personal and political are closely knit, and the comic sexual faux pas are tied to the extensive struggles of the state, where the state suffers a similar, ridiculous predicament. Interestingly, since the same impulses and ambitions underlie public and private life, Kundera argues that the personal and the political cannot be separated as distinct entities. In his words, “Politics unmasks the metaphysics of private life; private life unmasks the metaphysics of politics.”
Milan Kundera has been criticized for the excess of violence and misogyny in his novels. Critics like John O’Brien exposed the strands of misogyny in his novels in caustic terms. He wrote, “Kundera might see himself as a paradoxical, post-structural, or an eroticist exploiting the taboos proliferated by cultural stereotyping”, and at the same time, he critiques Kundera for ‘types’ of women portrayed ad-nauseum in his novels. His vignettes of women are often fragmentary and often couched in the patriarchal idealism that is unconsciously built into his works. The erogenous bodies of women and the brutal violence perpetrated on them in his novels were also subjected to bitter criticism. 
<img alt="WhatsApp-Image-2023-07-13-at-09.58.53 (1).jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2023_07_13_at_09_58_53_1_254e96a575.jpeg" />
 Church of Our Lady before Týn, Prague, Czechia 
Kundera consistently rallied laughter and satire against the grim realities of the history of persistent repressions and subjugations Czechoslovakia had undergone for ages. Before the World War, the country wilted under the iron boots of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was eventually invaded by Hitler during the Second World War. Once liberated from German occupation by the Red Army in 1945, the country formed alliances and fell apart under the instability of the coalition till the Communist Government completely took over in 1948. After twenty years of an oppressive Communist rule, Czechoslovakia saw the brief dalliance of liberalism and humanity in the euphoria of the “Prague Spring” whipped up under the leader Alexander Dubcek, the General Secretary of the Community party, in 1968. But the uprising ended disappointing, as Dubcek and his followers were under duress and forced to sign a treaty which meant the end of reform. Along with the moment begins “the struggle of man against power”, which is synonymous with “the struggle of memory against forgetting.” (The Book of Laughter). He adds that the Prague streets were haunted by the ghosts of “moments demolished – demolished by the Czech reformation, demolished by the Austrian counter-reformation, demolished by the Communists.” In an autobiographical account, “The Angels”, Kundera confessed his entrapment in the initial days of Communist euphoria. “I, too, danced in a ring. It was the Spring of 1948. I took other students by hand… and we took two steps in place, one step forward… and we did it just about every month., there being always something to celebrate, an anniversary here, a special event there, old wrongs righted, new wrongs perpetrated, factories nationalized, thousands of people jailed… and we smiled the smile of happiness.”
Exiled to France in 1975 for forty years, the writer never hesitated to fathom the deep and existential questions — “the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, most ambiguous” — and wrote with a relentless indictment against totalitarianism, “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Interestingly, his writer’s journey, hemmed into interesting phases, voiced the totalitarianism of the state (The Joke), unleashed a direct attack against the Communist regime (The Book) and slowly metamorphosed to political narratives under the gossamer veils of allegorical subjectivity (Identity, Immortality). However, his last novel, The Festival of Insignificance (2014), talked about four men bumping into each other, recounting anecdotes, their mothers, narrating philosophical and playful conversations, and received mixed reviews. 
Years later, in1990, following the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Kundera was invited back to his home country, though he declined and remained in France. At ninety, in a touching, symbolic gesture, his Czech citizenship was revoked, eliciting the author’s tongue-in-cheek response. “”All I know is that before I left, I was terrified of ‘losing home’ and that after I left, I realized — it was with a certain astonishment — that I did not feel loss, I did not feel deprived.” 
Twenty-five years later, at the news of Kundera’s death, I was again taken back to memories of my small-town world where I was grieving the rise of a totalitarian regime and the fall of liberalism and human rights in a distant country. Back home, though I was deluded by the ideals of democracy, Kundera’s novels evoked the horrors of fallen optimism and the stories of totalitarianism where oblivion aces over memory as the only strategy to survive. The red flags of human suffering swept over the borderlines of the nations and reached out to me and the readers worldwide echoing Kundera’s words, “The Czech anthem begins with a simple question: ‘Where is my homeland?” The homeland is understood as a question. As an eternal uncertainty.” The world’s tribute to the great writer is in remembering the fact that between the effaceable lines of certainties and uncertainties, laughter and tears, memory and forgetting – some great stories were told, pickled in the horror of laughter.

Milan Kundera was part of my youth and growing up, and I toted his works and held on to them as if my life depended on them. During my post-graduation, I lived through his novels, empathized with his female characters, and slipped into the glum of existential angst throttling me from my imagined reliving of his books. Often, I walked under the shadow of his graphomania, entangled or surrounded “with his own writings as with a wall of mirrors cutting off all voices from without.” Significantly, Kundera often talked about being immersed in ‘alien cultures’ and the theory of two civilizations and the essential conflict between them.

Stoking Unbearable Memories against Forgetting: Reading Kundera’s Works from a Different World

Recently, Malayalam social media platforms witnessed a viral media clip themed around a scene from the 1972 classic, The Godfather. However, what made this rendition a hit among Malayalis was the recreation of the roles of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), Moe Greene (Alex Rocco), and Fredo Corleone (John Cazale) by replacing them with Malayalam superstars Mohanlal, Mammootty, and Fahad Fazil respectively through Deepfake, one of the cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology tools. Even though this tool has been there for a while, it is perhaps now for the first time that the common Malayali has taken note of this particular generative AI technology. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/God_father_web_300x212_179e35b1c3.jpg" alt="God-father-web-300x212.jpg"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/God_father_O_Gweb_300x212_ee59566436.jpg" alt="God-father-OGweb-300x212.jpg">As everyone can see, it opens up a myriad of possibilities for the creative and entertainment industry. You can insert the images of popular figures into historical videos or make Hollywood classic actors speak Malayalam. Do you remember the famous scene from the Tamil movie Indian where Senapathi, the protagonist, receives a medal from Subhash Chandra Bose? Creating such computer graphics-related scenes has become a lot easier with the use of artificial intelligence. Unlike other generative AI techniques like ChatGPT and DALL·E 2, which deals with texts and images, deepfake is going to pose a bigger threat of being misused. Such artificially made videos/audios can be used for malicious purposes like blackmailing people, or damaging someone’s reputation by spreading misinformation and pornography involving their images. According to a 2018 report by leading AI research firm Deeptrace, a staggering 96% of the deepfake videos found online were pornographic. Earlier, high computational power, large datasets and exposure to advanced machine learning algorithms were absolutely necessary for creating a deepfake video. But with the latest advancement in generative AI technologies, people with limited machine learning expertise could make use of this technology with very few photos and fake videos. This obviously raises a lot of ethical, legal and social concerns for society.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_07_05_144439577_1_473951cf8a.png" alt="image_2023-07-05_144439577 (1).png"> Demographic breakdown of deepfake videos from top five deepfake pornography websites and top 14 deepfake YouTube channels | Source: DeeptracePolitical RepercussionsMisinformation has become one of the key challenges faced by the online world for quite some time now. In the recent past, we witnessed a flood of photoshopped fake images claiming to be images of development, especially during elections. In a country like India where the Internet landscape and reach are extensive and accountability is minimal, the rapid spread of fake news, half-baked truths, gossip and unfounded rumours find eager recipients.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_07_05_144319835_89288f639f.png" alt="image_2023-07-05_144319835.png"> Techniques behind creation of a deepfake contentFor example, a malicious user can create a deepfake video/audio of a politician saying something that he/she never said. Such misinformation can damage the politician’s reputation in the short and long terms affecting his electoral prospects. In fact, such tactics are already being deployed but we don’t have any specific mechanism in place to counter it.For example, a few days ago, a case was registered in Karnataka against Amit Malviya, the national head of the BJP’s IT wing, for allegedly posting a fake video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. This created a political furore, and a long legal battle is ahead.What is Deepfake and How did it all start?In 2017, a fake sex video of Gal Gadot (the Wonder Woman star) appeared in the online platform Reddit. The porn video, purported to raise an allegation of incest against her, was made from deep-learning algorithms by affixing Gal Gadot’s face onto a porn star’s body. It originated from Reddit handle with the pseudonym ‘deepfakes’. This was believed to be the first public exposure of the effect of a deepfake technology and the technology was named after that Reddit handle.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_07_05_144919775_1_1ea09cfe5e.png" alt="image_2023-07-05_144919775 (1).png"> Screengrab of the fake porn video featuring Gal Gadot | Source: ViceHow can you spot Deepfake? As the machine-learning algorithms get smarter, it becomes increasingly harder to detect deepfake with human eyes. However, these are some tips to identify a deepfake created by a less-trained person.<ul><li>Unusual skin tones, color tones and lighting</li><li>Differences in audio quality</li><li>Unnatural body shape or movements</li><li>Repeated unnatural eye movements</li></ul>During the initial days of deepfake in 2018, researchers found that deepfake eyes don’t blink. That was mainly because the models were trained with images that had the eyes open (which was available in public domain). After this was observed, this issue was ‘fixed’ in the latter versions and deepfake faces started to blink. This only underscores the rat race that we engaged in. A lot of academic research is happening in this direction.How are Governments dealing with Deepfake?One can argue that this technology creates more problems than it solves. Revenge porns and politically insinuating videos will pose a tough challenge to legal systems across the world. Over the last few years, many countries, including the United States, China and the United Kingdom started amending the laws to address this new phenomenon.In the United Kingdom, the Online Safety Bill amendment process started in 2022 to address issues such as revenge porn, voyeurism and deepfakes; and now the U.K. has criminalised exchange of deepfake images showing intimacy. China has also banned creation of deepfakes in January 2023 on the basis of the guidelines of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s Internet regulator. The United States is planning to introduce curbs on sharing non-consensual AI-generated pornography, and making it illegal. A bill moved by Congressman Joe Morelle is currently under discussion. India too might consider moving in a similar direction to address the challenges posed by deepfakes.References:<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-laws-to-better-protect-victims-from-abuse-of-intimate-images">https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-laws-to-better-protect-victims-from-abuse-of-intimate-images</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/10/08/deepfake_report.pdf">https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/10/08/deepfake_report.pdf</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/gydydm/gal-gadot-fake-ai-porn">https://www.vice.com/en/article/gydydm/gal-gadot-fake-ai-porn</a>

Recently, Malayalam social media platforms witnessed a viral media clip themed around a scene from the 1972 classic, The Godfather. However, what made this rendition a hit among Malayalis was the recreation of the roles of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), Moe Greene (Alex Rocco), and Fredo Corleone (John Cazale) by replacing them with Malayalam superstars Mohanlal, Mammootty, and Fahad Fazil respectively through Deepfake, one of the cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology tools. 

Deepfake Dystopia

Television tells you many things even in an era of untruth, if you know what to look for. As a practised viewer and reporter, I’m lucky. I know to look past the text of Modi’s speech at the U.S. Congress and listen to the applause.The first thing that struck me is how the claps kept coming at regular intervals in exactly the same strength, as if exactly the same number of hands were clapping at the same intensity to the ministering of an invisible conductor. The sound came from the upper section of the hall in the Senate, where an occasional camera positioned at a wide angle threw a glance at pliant Indians in raptures as their leader spoke.Modi was rolling out a speech with trademark Indianisms, which is a polite way of saying that it was replete with stock phrases and homilies that brought on one round of applause after another.“Standing here, seven Junes ago…” said Modi with a dramatic flourish, “…the hesitations of history were behind us.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean, you or I may ask, not the professional clappers.Encouraged by the sounds from above to say more, Modi kept the gems flowing.“Through the long and winding road we have travelled, we have met the test of friendship.” You could almost hear the heaving Indians ushered in to the top benches of the Senate shouting ‘sixer, maar diya!’<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_5_2_fab04cdd5b.jpeg" alt="images-5 (2).jpeg"> Narendra Modi is US CongressThen, an extraordinary thing happened. Modi quoted from the Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit, as he is given to doing.“Ekam Satta, Vipra Bahudha Vadannti.”This was followed by the same ecstatic applause before he read the translation in English. It was amazing that an entire section of the U.S. Senate could now understand Sanskrit.The translation was read while the claps were in progress.“The truth is one but the wise express it in different ways,” Modi explained.Could I be imagining this? Was I a hyperactive viewer? But it happened again.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“<a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/video/watch-indian-pm-modi-s-full-address-to-congress-184163909824">Our vision is, sabka saath, sabka vikaas, sabka vishwaas, sabka prayaas</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">” (See 20:36 mins)This time, our multilingual Senate understood Hindi before Modi could follow through with the English version.There were other observations I made, less about the semantics, more about the troubling substance of Modi’s speech. There was the spinning of the usual Hindu nationalist yarn that India has overthrown a thousand years of slavery, implying that India was unfree under Mughal and pre-Mughal medieval rulers.There was the blatant and cruel joke of the Prime Minister talking of cooperative federalism at a time when back at home, Manipur burned because of the lack of precisely the kind of federalism Modi was pontificating about and the Delhi government was protesting against the constant attempt by the Centre to snatch away autonomy from a government by an opposition party.This made me raise bigger questions of the farcical performance at hand. Where is the word democracy in this show, if a Senate in search of money and an Indian market has to kowtow to a visiting dignitary in this way. The upper stalls were reverberating with war-cry like gasping chants of `Modi-Modi’ peppered with whistles.If America calls itself the world’s oldest democracy, where does it hide itself after such a display? On the one hand, America is replete with government-funded think tanks acting as self-appointed arbiters of democracy. It creates storied telling the world where it stand on the democracy index.On the other hand, Americans are well aware of how capital can twist and distort democracy into an ugly mobocracy that can literally rip the insides of their White House to shreds. They are barely back from precisely such a precipice so they know what a megalomaniac who likes to preen in public can do. They’ve seen it. The Senate that clapped and allowed clapping has seen it.But all of us glued to our television screens watching the speech could also see Vice President Kamala Harris keep a steely stoicism as she sat directly behind the Hindu dictator, her Indian roots called into play as part of the programme.We ought to know how to read the signs. The same tropes play out whether it is the pre or post-Trump regime. Biden, Obama, Trump are all conflatable into one big business ball prepared to pay the price, any price, any act to run their local markets and keep local voters happy.While this show runs to full house, let us now call into play the last such choreographed act when Obama was at the helm. Circa 2016, Modi’s rock-star type show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Cameras hovering over the audience rows showed people in skullcaps all sitting together. That must have taken some doing. It was another level of absurdist theatre where you would need to imagine what would have had to play out if indeed all Muslims entered Madison Square at the same time and booked seats next to one another.Google the video. Then let’s imagine what we are supposed to.Says one Muslim to another in this imaginarium: “Hey, do you know Modi is coming to town? Let’s book tickets together and oh don’t forget your skullcap. And listen, let’s get all our friends to come watch how much we love Modi and let’s show him we care by entering the hall together sitting in one place.”“Yes, let’s all do that, what a good idea.”If world politics is about which leaders are shunned and who is feted, if America sits in judgement on who is democratic and who should be in a G 8 group or the United Nations Security Council, then it has a lot to answer for. And we, the enraptured viewers have even more to think about, as we sit eyeballs and ears peeled for this display.Should we stop looking in the official places for holding up the image of liberty equality, fraternity? Where should we turn to instead to understand the true value of freedom and dissent? If the 99 percent matters, if Black Lives and Dalit Lives Matter, can we stop using vacuous references to the democracies like world’s largest and world’s oldest? Also, should we turn our gaze elsewhere for a freedom index?Can we look at how Taiwan is fighting the monolith that is China? Can we look at aboriginal movements in Australia and New Zealand? Can we ask the LGBTQi in Brazil how they bent the votes against Bolsanaro? Can we look at a post-apartheid South Africa? And the next time when someone uses hyperboles such as ‘the world’s biggest’, ‘the world’s oldest’, greatest’, ‘fastest’, and ‘fattest’, can we collectively agree that these are salesman-politicians in Teflon democracies and look away?This article was first published in The Wire. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The article can be read <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://thewire.in/politics/us-senate-modi-applaud-sanskrit">here</a><a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.</a>

Television tells you many things even in an era of untruth, if you know what to look for. As a practised viewer and reporter, I’m lucky. I know to look past the text of Modi’s speech at the U.S. Congress and listen to the applause.

The Amazing Grace of the US Senate That Clapped When Modi Spoke in Sanskrit

A Review of Ardra K. S’ Kamala Cult.
Pennezhuthu, or as feminist writing is often termed in Malayalam, has evolved over the course of decades, from writing about patriarchal oppression, gender inequality, women’s rights, and confessional mode to the broader spaces of belonging. At present, women’s writings engage with a larger range of things; they encompass multitudes and converse in the language and politics of the time. Along with female identity, their discourse includes socio-political concerns, cultural identities, new sexualities, and new approaches to social belonging and relationships.
Women’s writing in Malayalam literature is recognising their millennial voice through K.S. Ardra’s writings. In her debut short story collection, Kamala Cult, the relatability of her stories counts for readers. Rural settings become the macrocosm of the world at large, wherein, besides gendered spaces and women’s positions, identity, shared trauma, political correctness, and belonging come into the discussion. The collection consists of six stories: “Vattu Parampara,” “Oriyidalinte Thathwasasthram,” “Kanneru,” “Bhageerathaprayathnam,” “Kamala Cult,” “Suo Motu,” and “Chamundiyile Valavukaleppatti Pennungal.”
<img alt="image1.png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image1_26b675d324.png" />
Cover of the book ‘Kamala Cult’
Arrack, a distilled alcoholic drink, has been banned in Kerala for some years now. However, its home distillation continues on the sly. In the story “Vattu Parampara,” besides the literal meaning, arrack embodies the metaphor of writing. Ardra alludes to the fact that for some women, writing is a secretive, impermissible act like making arrack. A new women’s magazine, Queen, covers an anonymous series on arrack selling, detailing Mandaram and his team’s arrack business. The story, and the magazine, attract popular attention. The magazine grows exponentially, like the successful yet mysterious and secretive business of Mandaram. Infuriated by the media coverage, Mandaram goes to find the writer of the magazine report. Though his attempt ends in failure, the end of the story hints that Mandaram’s wife, Sunethra, a silent, meek, and submissive woman, is the anonymous writer behind it. Sunethra, like a passionate distiller, breaks the ‘family’ law by writing secretly.
In distinct regions and cultures, women’s tone, expression, and performance designate their space and importance. “Oriyidalinte Thathwasastram” is about two women, Vellachi and Karuvachi, and their partner, Kunchu Nair. Vellachi is subtle, civilised, and quiet, whereas Karuvachi is vocal and expressive. Karuvachi, tracing her Tamil cultural origins, weeps and wails unashamedly when Kunchu Nair dies. Her oppari (the song of lamentation of a bereaved wife at the funeral of her husband, a practice commonly observed in Tamil culture) was a spectacle for the rural community in Palakkad. Her performance is beyond the confinements of a civilisation and expectations of a particular culture. Vellachi, on the other hand, deals with everything in silence. Even before Kunchu Nair brought Karuvachi as his second partner, she did not shed a tear or even complain. She was reticent. She tried to incorporate the same norm while keeping a dog to guard her home. She strictly demanded that the dog should not howl and changed the dog each time if it failed to meet the demand. Thought Vellachi and Karuvachi hail from different social backgrounds, they are strongly conditioned to maintain ‘decorum’ and were rooting for their spaces in their respective ways.
“Kanneru” is the author’s take on voyeurism: the prying behaviour of a person for sexual gratification causes anxiety and fear in the victim. The intrusion into her private spaces damages her more psychologically than physically. Voyeurism affects the victim by leading her to intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and stress. The hypervigilant behaviour of the woman character, which increased in the course of the story, shows the severity of the impact of someone’s depraved behaviour. By recording the character’s thoughts, Ardra reflects on the trauma and fear women carry due to the disturbing and dangerous instances they are confronting on a daily basis.
Bhageeratha, the king of Kosala, is known in legends for bringing the Ganges to the earth through penance. He is born of two woment — an angle of queer romance that is less discussed or written about is the focal point of the story, “Bhageerathaprayathnam.” Atheena, a single woman in her thirties, bored of her mundane routine of teaching, rents a hotel room for two days to rest and relax. This is the first time she spends her time away from home. She leads a life of ordinariness, a life in which she is comfortable. But her identity as a single woman is not viewed as typical by the people. The story discusses the idea of self, the recognition of identity, and the spaces that one could identify or realise at any point in life. 
In the day and age of political correctness, “Kamala Cult” is a highly contemporary story of the time. Kamala, the reputed conciliator in Paruthikkadu, is insightful, composed, and capable. Her services have a notable reputation among the people, and she performs them out of her free will. But, while discussing a boundary dispute pertaining to her land with her neighbour, Kamala’s one politically incorrect word shakes her entire image as a respected and mature arbitrator. The spewed word affects her credibility, character, and standing in society. And she is reduced to a meme that is widely circulated. Ardra, through instances, cleverly builds the character graph of Kamala, tracing her gaining importance over a period of time in the village, illustrating her valuable services, and revealing the severity of an inappropriate word that could invalidate anyone in the present day.
<img alt="ardra-768x512.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/ardra_768x512_f6648a54c8.jpg" />
Ardra KS, Author of Kamala Cult
In “Suo Motu,” two women previously unknown to one another develop a bonding from their shared trauma. The feelings of anxiety, fear, and brokenness create a feeling of sisterhood between them. At first, Asha, a mother of a 25-year-old son, could not comprehend that her son had been taken into custody for committing indecent exposure or flashing. Thereafter, even though the perpetrator is her son, Asha expresses affinity towards the complainant woman because trauma speaks a language both understand, which at the same time is also inexplicable. Besides shared traumas, the tale speaks about belonging and warmth. Similarly, “Chamundiyile Valavukal”, the last story in the collection, continues to evoke the same feeling as “Suo Motu”: women’s shared anxiety about human predators. On their return journey from their night trip to Chamundi temple, three women realise that their male counterparts are more capable of inflicting terror and violence than the unknown, unseen leopard in a forest. Furthermore, in “Suo Motu” and “Chamundi,” the time and the place act as great signifiers. Through the incidents in both the stories, Ardra critically reflects on how patriarchal and abusive masculinity decides that certain space and time are not meant to be owned by women, and if they try to claim them, they are likely to be attacked and terrorised.
The idea of space and place is of greater significance in Ardra’s stories. Amidst all the delimiting boundaries and patriarchal constructions that constrict and threaten their existence, Ardra’s female characters strive to identify their space and ascertain it, even if it is in the smallest sense possible. Above all, along with Ardra’s women, the readers also find a sense of belonging in her stories—a space where all women are able to connect, share, and empathise.

Pennezhuthu, or as feminist writing is often termed in Malayalam, has evolved over the course of decades, from writing about patriarchal oppression, gender inequality, women’s rights, and confessional mode to the broader spaces of belonging. At present, women’s writings engage with a larger range of things; they encompass multitudes and converse in the language and politics of the time. Along with female identity, their discourse includes socio-political concerns, cultural identities, new sexualities, and new approaches to social belonging and relationships.

Millennial Voice in Women’s Writing

Professor Imtiaz Ahmad, renowned social scientist, passed away on June 19, 2023. He taught at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi from 1972 to 2002. As a political sociologist, he was well-known for his work on caste among Muslims in India. Among his notable works is the book Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in India (1973) which he edited.
A lot will be written on Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad and his work by domain experts and his close associates. Here, I’d like to share a fond memory of his magnificent response he gave at an event.
I joined JNU as a student years after Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad retired; nevertheless I had the fortune of listening to a few speeches that he gave in the post-dinner public meetings, an attractive, regular feature of life in JNU, which are organised in hostel mess halls by various student organisations, used to be a regular and attractive feature of life in JNU. There is one particularly unforgettable meeting in which he was the main protagonist. That meeting was organised by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in the mess hall of Kaveri Hostel, at a time when the country was debating the Sachar Committee report on the social, educational, and economic status of Muslims in India. There were three speakers: Prabhat Patnaik, Imtiaz Ahmad, and one more speaker whose name I fail to recollect.
Prabhat Patnaik spoke brilliantly, discussing the political economy of the backward conditions faced by Muslims in India, with the historical background of Partition which led to the migration of a major section of well-to-do Muslims to Pakistan (West and East).
<img alt="74a9aac7-02a6-4747-8135-f5964e1d635f.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/74a9aac7_02a6_4747_8135_f5964e1d635f_f7de066f8f.jpg" />
Imtiaz Ahmad
Imtiaz Ahmad gave an illuminating speech on the condition of Muslims in the country. Among the many things he said, he mentioned the prevalence of caste discrimination among Muslims in India. This caused a furore.
As soon as the three speakers were done with their speeches and the floor was opened for questions, something unusual happened, that is, the speakers themselves raising questions. The third speaker stood up to pose a question to Imtiaz Ahmad challenging his arguments. Similar questions were asked by several students. Their core argument was: there is no caste in Islam and hence it is not possible for caste discrimination to exist among Muslims. It was the most vehement verbal attack on a speaker that I had ever seen in a public meeting.
The speakers began to give their answers, one by one. Imtiaz Ahmad was the last one to respond. He looked almost crestfallen, reluctant to answer, as if he had been shaken by the barrage of questions and comments directed against him. Prabhat Patnaik smiled and prodded Imtiaz Ahmad to get up and speak.
And then Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad rose, to give a majestic response. He took on the questions one by one. There is no caste in Islam, true, but the caste system does exist among Muslims, he said. He then gave the names of some Muslim castes in India which are considered untouchables by the “upper” castes among Muslims. He also talked about some practices prevalent among Muslims in some parts of India – for example, during major festivals, upper class Muslims would throw feasts for the entire community, but “lower” caste Muslims would be given food on the other side of the road, and not be allowed to enter the host’s house. Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad’s response, rich in detail and based on long years of in-depth research and experience, was so powerful that it softened the attitude of those who attacked him ferociously.
<img alt="IMG-3437.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_3437_e5ec0cf7f4.jpg" />
He also said that scriptures should be considered social texts that emerged in certain historical contexts and which can be critiqued. That caused another uproar. Scripture is God-given, some argued. But he insisted that as a social scientist, scriptures were social texts. (Unsurprisingly, Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad was hated by the reactionary sections among Muslims, and also by the peddlers of Hindutva.)
The discussion continued even after the public meeting had formally ended. People surrounded him and accompanied him to his car, with questions and answers flying back and forth.
That was an era when there was no practice of recording the speeches at public meetings, forget live-streaming the even. So many brilliant speeches and Q&amp;A sessions have, therefore, remained unrecorded. I don’t think anybody even has an audio recording of the speeches, questions and answers at this marvelous public meeting at Kaveri mess hall that night. 
Farewell, sir! You would be sorely missed. People will continue to learn and get inspiration from your work and life.

Professor Imtiaz Ahmad, renowned social scientist, passed away on June 19, 2023. He taught at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi from 1972 to 2002. As a political sociologist, he was well-known for his work on caste among Muslims in India. Among his notable works is the book Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in India (1973) which he edited.

Farewell, Professor Imtiaz Ahmad!

We all have different influences on our daily life, but as a rule the impact of politics would be the most predominant. It overrides most other aspects of life. Bernard Crick, in his In Defence of Politics says: “Politics affects everyday life. The decisions made by politicians affect us all, from cradle to grave.” But do people in India or other parts of the world understand the concept of politics clearly and correctly? That moot question was taken up by the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), a renowned social studies Institute in Stockholm. The institution, supported by many democratic countries, conducted a multi-country survey to measure people’s interest in and understanding of politics. The finding across the countries is that a large number of people do not like politics and do not trust politicians as a class.If you are looking for a rented place in Delhi, the national capital of India, the common experience is that the landlords do not like to give it to lawyers and politicians. What could be the reason? There is certainly a trust deficit. However, lawyers could manipulate with legal ‘antics’ their way to a rented accommodation and politicians could use their clout with power centres to achieve the same.Yet, the contradiction is that people are also mad about politics, especially in the developing countries, as obviously they have a stake in it. They talk animatedly about politics. Jonathan Swift, in his ‘Thoughts on Various Subjects” had said: “Democracy (party) is madness of many for the benefit of the few.” To sample a few more interpretations of politics, Otto von Bismarck said: “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable—the art of the next best. “It is Lord Acton, the British historian, who said: “All power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” George Bernard Shaw commented: “Politics is the last resort of scoundrels.” Since such commentaries on politics abound even in our curriculum, it is natural for people to be cynical. Cynicism is detrimental to democracy, if not to all forms of politics. It will be better for people and politics, if the people had a correct understanding of politics and had an informed engagement with it.Many historians argue that the French Revolution would not have occurred without the powerful political ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity propounded by the French Enlightenment philosophers — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and Montesquieu. So, a correct understanding and interpretation of ideas are important. An incorrect understanding or an inappropriate application creates unfavourable and unhealthy attitudes to politics, which are not good for a democracy. What do the three major stakeholders _ state (read politicians), business, and civil society _ in a country think of politics? Our reference point of course is India.Let us look at the meaning and operational definition of politics, as it is commonly understood. Some common definitions of politics are: politics is the exercise of power; politics is the public allocation of values; politics is the resolution of conflict; politics is the competition among individuals, groups, or states pursuing their interests. There are many other definitions, but all of them include power, and authority. In India, politics is commonly understood as ‘Rajniti’ meaning policies of the king (in the past) or the state. Such understanding of politics has made it the game of royals, feudal lords, elites, and so on, whereas the meaning of a Minister is people’s servant. Ministering means serving. We tend to change the meaning of words in India and Indianise their practice.Let me proffer two new meanings to politics—Rajniti can be understood as ‘king of policies’ instead of king’s policy; second, it should be Sevaniti (policy of service) instead of Rajniti. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while assuming office in 2014, said, “I am the chief servant” (pradhan sevak) of the people”. Operational implications of these meanings should make a profound impact on politics and will make it more acceptable. People will treat politics with respect and engage with it when the interests of individual leaders and parties are taken away. Sevaniti will make politicians service-oriented, not power-mongering, influence-peddling, profit- seeking, and so on. If the top civil services occupations are titled Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, and Indian Economic Service, why not we call Parliament and Legislative careers as political service?But what do politicians themselves think of politics? Politics for many is a profession and a career. They are into it full time and do nothing else. So, whether they are in power or out of it, they live off politics. Many get into it as their families have made it and they must inherit that legacy. Others enter politics as they cannot do anything else, and they could make a good living by squatting in the corridors of power. Yet some join politics to represent the people and alleviate their conditions, but this lot, sooner than later, gets caught in the vicious circle triggered by “power- influence-survival-revival”. Whatever be their original motivation in joining, a majority of politicians gets stuck in their struggle for survival. They make compromises in the name of compulsions and lose their way toward their original mission.People in business see politics as a tool for developing their business. Ideology is immaterial for them. They would support any party which helps them build their business. It is true that business houses do philanthropic activities, but by and large, the motivation to do so is not political or social, but religious or spiritual, or based on a quid pro quo made with their benefactors. This is sometimes called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) too. We are not running down ethical business practices which stay clear of political patronage or influences.What is society’s understanding of politics? There are many societal actors having diverse perceptions of politics. Civil society organisations like community-based ones use politics to campaign for their interests; others issue-based ones protest or advocate the causes they believe in, and there are protest movements, pressure groups and lobbies like trade unions and so on.And there are peoples’ movements and social movements (interchangeably used) which influence politics by creating new institutions or causing regime-change. Movements are an essential part of politics as they emerge in response to peoples’ needs; that are not met by powers-that-be or for the sake of justice, fairness and right to self-determination (freedom movements). On the other hand, there are movements that capture power with illegitimate use of force. So, movements can be seen as creative attempts to initiate change – social, political, economic or others and there are other movements which are pathological.Qualifying adjectives to refer to movements could be too varied – ‘radical’, ‘messianic’, ‘nativistic’, ‘nationalistic’, ‘fascist’, ‘non-violent’, ‘religious’, ‘secular’, ‘revolutionary’, ‘reformist’, ‘socialist,’ ‘labour’, ‘caste’ (emancipator) and so on. The first textbook on modern social movement to be published in America (J. Davis, Contemporary Social Movement, New York and London, 1930) had a multitude of topics: Plato’s Republic, Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Marx’s Socialism, Mussolini’s Fascism, Gandhi’s Non-Violence, The Cooperative Movement, The Labour Movement, The Peace Movement and so on. The list includes not only collective actions (movements), but the idea systems too. We refer to those movements which translate theories into praxis and contribute to institutional changes that impact the nature of politics.However, there is also a section of civil society organisations that stay away from politics, as they think politics is corrupt, manipulative, and therefore, and it is not meant for ‘good people’. Such people should remember Abraham Lincoln who had reprimanded his fellow-citizens uninterested in politics, “bad politicians are elected by good citizens who do not vote”.Media is deeply connected with politics. It collects news from politicians and feeds it to the people. Media personnel frequent the political corridors sniffing for news, especially breaking news, snatching sound bites and flashing them in TVs, YouTube channels, websites and papers. But the media does not subscribe to any particular politics, nor has any core political beliefs barring some who may have ideological or political affiliation. The situation seems to have changed as the media is largely in cahoots with ruling parties.To sum up, politics is understood and used according to the people’s own interest. That is a normal trend. Such interest can be selfish or selfless, intellectual, or spiritual, ideological or tribal, communal etc. What one is arguing here is, politics is a collective act. Aristotle said, Man by nature is a social animal, in a democracy, wo(man) is a political being as people are sovereign in a democracy and are supposed to be makers of their political destinies. People have to take a collective view of politics and should have collective responsibilities and accountabilities. That is, politics is also a service, helping each other, looking after the common men and women, not making space for ex-royals, feudals, rich and the elite. To actualise such understanding of politics, it has to be made simpler, easier for common people to play it. The role of power, money and mafia have to diminish, instead, ideas, commitment and sacrifice have to come into play. Politics then will be king of policies, and real lokniti, not rajniti.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">For past releases of Words and Concepts, <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/words-and-concepts/">Click Here</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

This column will deal with words and concepts and their changing and nuanced meanings. Indeed , many more interpretations and value additions are possible on the words and descriptions that figure in this series. The AIDEM invites further discussions on these words and concepts from readers.

Words and Concepts- 4: Politics

How do social media and smartphones affect the mental well being of our kids? A pertinent question that all parents among us ask ourselves. A new study from the US paints a bleak picture and warns about terrible consequences. A report from The AIDEM Desk.
Psychologists like Jean Marie Twinge have been warning the world about this for a while. Now the US Surgeon General has published an advisory corroborating the negative impacts of social media and smartphones on the mental health of children and young people. The advisory is based on the current body of evidence available regarding the use of social media and its impact on the young. It also points to the existing lacunae in serious and comprehensive research in this field. The major worry that this advisory expresses is about the potential threat that social media poses in the brain development of young people in their critical formative years. 
The negative impact depends on the time spent on social media, the disruption that it causes to sleep and physical activity, the type of content each kid is exposed to, and the kind of engagement. The advisory says that brain development in an individual happens between the ages, 10 to 19. The problem is that this is also the age when risk taking behaviour is at its peak, and mental health issues such as depression sets in. When the impact of social media co-evolves with the mental vulnerabilities of this age, it is observed, life satisfaction is greatly reduced. 
The advisory does not completely ignore the benefits of social media and smartphones, community and connection being the best of them. Access to information is also another crucial benefit. 
Yet, the advisory cites many US-based studies to point to concrete evidence suggesting the potential harms of social media use for young people. One study reveals that adolescents who spend more than 3 hours per day on social media have double the possibility of having mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Since social media was introduced in the US, there has been a 9% increase in depression and 12% increase in anxiety among the college-aged population. When social media use was reduced to 30 minutes daily for 3 weeks, the severity of depression also came down.
The US Surgeon General’s advisory concludes that social media perpetuates “body image concerns and eating disorders”. Another major issue of concern is the finding that 6 in 10 adolescent girls reported that they had been contacted by strangers on social media platforms “in ways that make them feel uncomfortable”.
Problematic social media use has been associated with reported and diagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The advisory says that there is a serious evidence gap here which needs to be addressed immediately.
<img alt="image_2023-06-19_140625905-e1687163849372-1024x484.png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_06_19_140625905_e1687163849372_1024x484_3d0a70922a.png" />
Actions Suggested by the US Surgeon General
The advisory does not mince words when calling for interventions from policy makers to strengthen protection for children and young adults on social media platforms and ensure data privacy. Create a family media plan, create tech-free zones, encourage children to develop in-person friendships, be a model social media user for children, teach kids to be responsible online participants, teach kids about proper use of technology, report cyberbullying and online abuse, work with other parents to establish shared norms… these are the advices that the US Surgeon General gives the parents.
More Study Outcomes on Social Media and Young People
Here are a few more reported study outcomes related to social media use among children and young adults.
In the US, between 2011 and 2021, clinical depression among teenagers doubled. Between 2007 and 2019, suicide rates among teenagers nearly doubled. Among the 10-15 year age group, suicide rates tripled. Mental health of Gen Z (18-24 age group) is worse than their previous generations when they were at this age.
The China Interventions
In China, it is reported that the government has enforced rules for social media companies for compulsory blackout hours, and time limits for young people. Douyin is the Chinese version of Tiktok. For children aged under 14, the app will work only for 40 minutes per day. The government also made the companies add “go to bed” and “put down the phone” messages after each video is played for a child or adolescent user.
The Indian Situation
In India, no major comprehensive study has been conducted so far on the impact of social media on young people. A few studies with limited sample size and scope have identified both positive and negative impacts. Dr. A K Jayashree, a medical doctor, renowned community medicine expert and gender activist of Kerala, told The AIDEM that there is still no concrete evidence to pinpoint the roots of the mental health issues faced by the youth on social media. However, she agreed that during the pandemic and after it, mental health issues among children and young people have increased in alarming proportions, the major manifestation being suicides and depression, and some of these could be attributed to excessive social media use as well. She also said that mental health issues caused by lack of physical activity and insecure body image would most probably be directly connected to social media use but stressed the need for in-depth studies before we reach conclusions. 
To assess the impact of social media use, it is clear, India also needs comprehensive studies based on unbiased approaches and methodologies.

How do social media and smartphones affect the mental well being of our kids? A pertinent question that all parents among us ask ourselves. A new study from the US paints a bleak picture and warns about terrible consequences. A report from The AIDEM Desk.

Social Media and Mental Health of Adolescents: New Warnings

In a sense, a return to skill of the past, after an age of conceptual based art, as it happened with art in the Occident and subsequently in the Orient, was inevitable.Back in 1979, Italian art critic and curator Achille Bonito Oliva wrote an introduction for an exhibition he organized in the town of Genazzano, (a town and commune in the Metropolitan City of Rome). Titled Le Stanze (The Rooms), the show gathered a small group of young painters whose practices seemed to have revived the Expressionist painting at a time when Conceptual art ruled art tendencies to its full potential. In order to describe their work, Oliva coined the term Transavanguardia, or trans-avant-garde, announcing the beginning of an international phenomenon which took place in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, and became one of the most influential movements of Post-war Italian art along with Arte Povera.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_011_3d442ba8c6.jpg" alt="image-011.jpg"> Francesco-Clemente at the Rubin Museum, Gallery View“In many ways Transavanguardia became a way of dissolving the linear demarcations of the art movement and resorting to a move freer way of moving back and forth, refereeing to history as well as addressing the hysteria of the ‘new’ –the here and now,” says Oliva who is visiting India and curating the exhibition, The Grand Italian Vision, from the Farnesina Collection. The exhibition that is currently on display at the Bikaner House in New Delhi, features a handpicked selection of 70 pieces of painting, sculpture and photographs and even a few small sized ‘installations’ of handmade objects.“In my belief, art is a massage for the atrophied muscles of collective sensibility,” says Oliva. Put very eruditely by Oliva it is best described as the ‘freedom to move forward but also move back in time and reference the past. It is thematic rather than linear’. This ties in with the Indian approach which looks at time as cyclical rather than linear and hence things recur but in a different way each time. We see this in art, and more so in India and Asia where the reference to the past is a constant where many of the Modern artists talk of the aesthetics of the Rajastjani, Persian and Mughal miniatures, the Warli painting, the Madhubani and the Kalighat Pats in the same breath as they embrace the Modern and what is now called the Contemporary.However before we address the commonality between Indian and Italian art we need to better acquaint ourselves with the Transavanguardia movement. To revisit the movement and its impact on art history, we have to go back to the 1980s. At the Venice Biennale, of that time, five prominent artists were showing under the Transavanguardia movement, that Oliva curated, and they stood out—their artworks drew attention for their diverse styles and common vision. They relied on strong narratives, painters Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Sandro Chia, Mimmo Paladino and Nicola De Maria—the artists re-created a strongly expressive language which oozed in vibrant colour, the depth of space, the passage of time and the freedom of technique.“The conceptual art movement was dominated by artists from the United States and the Transavanguardia movement brought the focus back to art that celebrated the act of creating with one’s hands of painting, and sculpture,” says Oliva.That 1980s exhibition at the Venice Biennale, gave these individuals an opportunity to compete for a place on the international art market, dominated by significant figures and tendencies from. The paintings they produced offered a variety of personal interpretations of these notions: from Sandro Chia and his influence by Futurism and even Mannerism, the many materials of Enzo Cucchi, such as ceramics, wood, neon and steel, the almost childish quality of works by Nicola De Maria, Mimmo Paladino’s ‘totemic canvases’ and, of course, Francesco Clemente’s ‘haunting portraits’. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_000_150x150_01a7ee3c28.jpg" alt="image-000-150x150.jpg">Disco Solare, 1989-90, Bronze Sculpture, Arnaldo Pomodoro<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_002_150x150_98b8540d09.jpg" alt="image-002-150x150.jpg"> Photograph of Achille Bonito Oliva at The Grand Italian Vision, Bikaner House, New Delhi<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_003_150x150_b257393b9e.jpg" alt="image-003-150x150.jpg">Opera Obliqua, 1997, Photography and Silkscreen printed on Panel, Gino De Dominics<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_007_150x150_dbfc005d58.jpg" alt="image-007-150x150.jpg">Gallery View of the exhibition ‘The Grand Italian Vision’: showcasing the Italian Transavanguardia movement<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_008_150x150_9dfeeb655d.jpg" alt="image-008-150x150.jpg">Gallery View of the exhibition ‘The Grand Italian Vision’: showcasing the Italian Transavanguardia movement<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_009_150x150_1bd5521c5d.jpg" alt="image-009-150x150.jpg">Gallery View of the exhibition ‘The Grand Italian Vision’: showcasing the Italian Transavanguardia movement<i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:300;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Image Courtesy: Georgina Maddox&nbsp;Interestingly Clemente, an Italian contemporary artist lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various artistic media including drawing, fresco, graphics, mosaic, oils and sculpture.Born and raised in the farm lands of Morro d’Alba, province of Ancona, the artist Enzo Cucchi was an autodidactic (self-taught) painter. He was lauded in his early years even though he was more interested in poetry. He frequently visited poet Mino De Angelis, who was in charge of the magazine Tau.The impact of Achille Bonito Oliva and his Transavanguardia Movement went beyond the borders of Italy, touching upon the borders of the US, Germany and even India. The Transavanguardia’s ‘quest to revive the potential of painting’ by drawing inspiration from the history of art itself, as well as classical mythology, popular culture and national symbolism, it went beyond Italy’s border along with Francesco Clemente. His works became a seminal part of Neo-Expressionism, further influencing the production of fellow creatives like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jonathan Borofsky, David Salle and Julian Schnabel.’Interestingly the exhibit entitled Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India, at the Ruben Museum in New York, displayed in 2014, was well received and showcased Clemente’s massive drawings with elements of installing the work to emulate a ‘Hindu temple’. The exhibition constituted a public space (like the main courtyard of a temple) marked by deep purple — occupied by the five huge drawings. There were four smaller meditative “niche” (grihas) spaces — filled here by sculptures. And finally, the “inner sanctum,” (the grabagriha) held 16 exquisite watercolor pieces and a portfolio of profoundly erotic watercolors, based on the erotic sculptures in Orissa (Odisha), India. Even more remarkable is the fact that the drawings, were made in collaboration with local artisans in Madras (Chennai) in the 1980’s. They include gouache on sheets of handmade paper, bound together by cotton strips to form billboard-sized drawings. The treatment to the paint is flat and the perspective is not of a western nature rather it emulates local pop and filmic poster art of the times.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_013_9313776342.jpg" alt="image-013.jpg"> Michelangelo Pistoletto, Venus of the Rags, Installation, 1967<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_014_150x150_9d9ed27143.jpg" alt="image-014-150x150.jpg">Michelangelo Pistoletto, Man with Yellow Pants, Paperwork, 1964<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_015_150x150_d699816de7.jpg" alt="image-015-150x150.jpg"> Michelangelo Pistoletto, with Disegnando il Terzo Paradiso, 2011<em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Image Courtesy: Google Arts and CultureWhile each of these works by Clemente is interesting one cannot help but observe the dark humor of one of the image of the paintings. Here two nude male figures—one slightly lighter skin toned (clearly from the Occident) to the other (clearly Asian) examine each other by pointing at their orifices and body parts. It contains both a sense of innocence and a wicked bit of humor in it. We are told that Clemente was occupied with human orifice as receptacles of stimuli. He was also fascinated by aspects of Indians that he deemed as ‘mysterious, erotic, and spiritual’.The themes and titles — Sun, Moon, Hunger, Two Painters, and Four Corners — reflect Clemente’s identification with many aspects of ‘traditional Indian painting’ combined with his own contemporary ‘Western angst’.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_001_e1686816469444_ce5f842fcf.jpg" alt="image-001-e1686816469444.jpg">Mediterraneo, 1990-95, four black and white photographs, Mimmo Jodice Image: Georgina Maddox&nbsp;Returning to Oliva’s current exhibition, at Bikaner House in New Delhi, one sees that works belonging to the earlier period are more in tune with reviving the sensibilities of Neo-Expressionism, paying ‘tribute almost’ to doyens like Heri Matisse, Picasso and even quoting from the classical art of the Italian Renaissance. One however notices that works belonging to a later period, (from the late 1990s to the early 2000s), there is a greater conscious sense of the global and of Asian nature; from the colours to the shape and forms. To summarize what Oliva is getting at through his curated exhibition, Transavanguardia addresses the fact that it is no longer possible to slot art into capsules of time and geography but it acknowledges that art is a product of the past, present and the future and hence it includes a mix of all these elements.“Transavanguardia, invites society to share and to live together. All these movements represent a mosaic and this collection reflects that many things exist together and they are all equally important. It’s an invitation to peace.” says Oliva. Given the times that we live in, this value of art acquires political value. “It is no longer just art and it is a moment in world geo-politics,” he concludes.Bibliographic Reference: &nbsp;<ol style="list-style-type:decimal;"><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/transavanguardia-italian-movement"> &nbsp; &nbsp;Transavanguardia – The Progressive Movement of the Italian Modern Scene | Widewalls</a></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:500;line-height:1.8;margin-bottom:10px;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;padding:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://hyperallergic.com/151612/francesco-clemente-in-india/">Francesco Clemente in India (hyperallergic.com)</a></li></ol>&nbsp;

Looking at the impact of ‘Transavanguardia’, an art Movement in Italy a nomenclature as demarcated by curator-historian Achille Bonito Oliva.

In a sense, a return to skill of the past, after an age of conceptual based art, as it happened with art in the Occident and subsequently in the Orient, was inevitable.

Transvanguardia: Moving Beyond Time And Geographies Through Art

In an article written ten days after Independence, the Dravidian ideologue lays bare the convergence of caste, class, and religious interests in the Golden Sceptre and its dangerous political consequences.[ Hours before Jawaharlal Nehru was to take over as the first Prime Minister of independent India, representatives of Ambalvana Desikar, the head of the Thiruvaduthurai Aaadheenam, a Saivite mutt in Mayiladuthurai district, presented a Sengol (Golden Sceptre) to him at a simple ceremony in New Delhi. A book titled Saiva Aaadheenangal (authored by Ooran Adigal, a follower of Saivite saint-poet Ramalinga Adigal) records this event like this: “Aadheenam Periya Karubaru Kumarasami Thambiran Swamigal, aadheena Odhuvar Manikka Odhuvar, and aadheena nadaswara vidhwan Thirvaduthurai T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai took the Sengol to Delhi and presented it to Nehru. As Rajarathinam Pillai played the nadaswaram and Odhuvramurthigal recited ‘Arasaalvar aanai namadhe’ [Let the king rule, this is our order], a Paasuram written by Thirugnanasambandar, Karubaru Kumarasami Thambiran handed the Sengol to Nehru greeting him with the words, “Thanga Sengol, Thangal Sengol, Thangal Sengol, Engal Aatchi Sinnam” (Golden Sceptre, It is your sceptre, it is your sceptre, a symbol of our rule).”A similar Sengol was presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a ceremony to mark the inauguration of the new Parliament Building in New Delhi recently. The heads of 19 aadheenams, transported from Tamil Nadu by a special flight by the government, were present at the ceremony. Of them, six mutt heads – Dharmapuram, Madurai, Thiruvaduthurai, Kundrakudi, Perur and Velakurichi _ were specifically asked to present the Sengol to the Prime Minister, who placed it near the Lok Sabha Speaker’s chair in the new Parliament Building.Sengol was believed to be the symbol of king’s power in feudal Tamil Nadu. Its incongruity and irrelevance in a republic governed by a modern Constitution are too obvious to be missed. So was the presence of Vaishnavite and Saivite religious heads performing rituals to inaugurate an institution that is firmly founded on the principle of secularism.What is the motive behind religious heads blessing a secular government? It has nothing to do with their love and affection for the government or patriotic sentiments. The motive is rooted in the mutts’ interest in protecting their wealth, accumulated from offerings made by unsuspecting believers and from their vast landholdings made fertile by the sweat and blood of lakhs of farmers and agricultural workers over hundreds of years. C.N. Annadurai, the rationalist protégé of E.V. Ramasamy Periyar, founder-leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its first Chief Minister, exposed the points of convergence of class, caste, religious and political interests in a largely feudal India and cautioned Nehru about the dangers of accepting it. He did this in an article he wrote in the issue of Dravida Nadu (August 24, 1947), a weekly founded and edited by him. The article written in a conversational style drips with the wit, satire and sarcasm typical of the great orator-writer and contains the seeds of the political narrative that has become part of the common sense of Tamils – a narrative that has sustained the Dravidian movement for many decades.Annadurai’s article was reproduced in the May 26, 2023 issue of Viduthalai, a Tamil daily edited by K. Veeramani, president of the Dravidar Kazhagam. Here, we present an English translation of the article by R. Vijaya Sankar, Group Editor, The AIDEM ]The head of the Tiruvaduthurai aadheenam has sent a Sengol to Pandit Nehru who has taken over as the Prime Minister of the new government.It is five feet tall, it seems! Made fully of pure gold, it seems! And that looks beautiful too, it seems! Why was the Sengol given to Nehru? As a gift? As an offering? As a share? As a licence fee? Nothing is clear.It was unexpected! Not only that! It was unnecessary too! Even it was necessary, we slowly realise that it is dangerous if we understand its deeper import.We don’t know what the Pandit thought when he looked at the Sengol. Nor we do know whether the aadheenkakarthar had sent a missive along with the Senglol.But we have something to tell Pandit Nehru. Some words to you who have received the Sengol.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_05_30_163209977_e1685444681131_1_d48ee49747.png" alt="image_2023-05-30_163209977-e1685444681131 (1).png"> Original article published in Dravida Nadu (1947)You know the history of many nations. And you know that a crowned king is surrounded by lords who had fattened themselves by exploiting the people’s labour and by those who use religion as capital and who enjoy the freedom and facility to to walk freely in his golden fort. You know the historical fact that these elements have to be removed for democracy to blossom. Apprehending that you might practise in your administration what you know, the aadheenakarthars would come forward to present you with a Sengol that is not only made of gold but also studded with navaratnas. For their survival and self-protection. The Sengol presented to you is not made of the divine graced obtained by singing the praises of Siva. Nor is it created by sanctifiying a piece of iron with a pinch of holy ash and transforming it into gold – a miracle similar to the one performed by a Siva devotee who transformed a fox into a horse. It is made of the labour of others. But he says it is his. Sengol! Is the name apt? Is it relevant?That Sengol – five feet tall! A piece of exquisite workmanship! Made of pure gold!The one who presented it to you is not a common man. Does he belong to the royalty? No. Something above that. Is he part of an ancient tradition? It is not important whether he belongs to an ancient tradition or is he of recent origin. What is important is, it is a disgusting tradition. It is not the tradition of the people who inhabit this earth. It is the tradition of the holy Kailash, the abode of Siva! <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_05_30_114759745_e1685444117562_1_2609d90391.png" alt="image_2023-05-30_114759745-e1685444117562 (1).png">Jawaharlal Nehru receiving the golden sceptre from Tiruvaduthurai aadheenam’s representativeThambi, are you asking me, “Anna, how come our aadheenakarthar is bursting with patriotism?”‘No, Anna. Isn’t the aadheenakarthar overflowing with emotions an old story? I want to ask you why the aadheenakarthar has set his holy sights on politics suddenly?”“Leave aside the reason Thambi. I am not that interested in finding out the reason. But only when I think of its consequences…”“Why? What will be the consequence?“We do make the Sengol with pure gold. And its workmanship is also going to be of a high standard. We make this, toiling day and night know!”“Alas! Should you get worried thinking of all these things? Isn’t the perspective here different from the perspective there?“It maybe so, Thambi! But isn’t desire the only reason for the different perspectives?”“Yes.”“My question is this – is it good or bad that the aadheenakarthar has set his sights on the new government? That is my fear too. It is an excellent Sengol. And it is designed intricately. But if the government is going to be run holding it…“Thambi, is the gold in it not an offering made by one who laboured without minding his own destitution, who starved day and night, who had not cheated others of their money, who toiled until his heart broke … was it not the offering made by the ones who cut down wages, who deprived farmers of their livelihoods, who earned disproportionate profits, who cheated the loan-lender by drawing a naamam (a Vaishnavite mark) on his forehead, as a means of atonement to deceive even the god and to mask their sins. Is it not that? It must be that also. If the new government assuming office receives a Sengol from those who thrive in exploiting others’ brains, and eventually exploiting their lives, will its rule be proper?”“You are real fun, Anna!”“There is not much fun, Thambi. It is more of a pain. Those who made a lot sengols would not have spoken like this. But this thought would have crossed their minds. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_05_30_124301415_265x300_2_7ab6d7d4f2.png" alt="image_2023-05-30_124301415-265x300 (2).png">C.N. AnnaduraiA conversation like this would have happened at the aadheenam:Iyer [Brahmin]: Ahaa. This is praiseworthy! It is a pioneering effort.Everyone will praise it.Aaadheenakarthar: The height of the Sengol?Iyer: It is five feet… made of gold, they say.. your glory will grow fivefoldAaadheenakarthar: Even the newspapers will…Iyer: Leave them aside… they will carry photos… they write stories praising you. But big, big people will come… even from foreign countries… places like America… Europe… They will be stunned to see the Sengol.Aaadheenakarthar: The bhakts have really designed it beautifully…Iyer: Leave alone the craftsmanship. That will be good too. But the visitors woudn’t notice even that. No big rajas of Baroda, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mysore even thought of it! Won’t everyone keep talking endlessly and praising the aadheenam for having shown this kind of affection, concern and respect? They may talk about the Sengol for two or three minutes. But won’t they talk about you throughout the day or not?Aadheenakarthar: Yes. What do you think of my idea?Iyer: Who else could have thought of this? What the raja has in his hand is a Sengol. And who gave it to him? The aadheenam. Every one will say that the new government started working only after the aadheenam blessed it, permitted it and gave his stamp of approval. Not only now. Even in the future.The Sengol was made of pure gold infused with god’s graceAfter praying to our great god Sivato save this government from any troubleand receiving his grace!Who did this? The aadheenam!A poet would have sung like this. But this song of praise would not have satisfied a Saivite devotee. He woud have got angry, with a reason.Saivite: You are singing the Vaishnavite paasuram, with palm leaf manuscripts in your hand. You are doing this not for one or two years. You’ve been doing this for thousands of years. In all these years only your stomach is swollen like ripe pumpkin but there is no poesy in you!The poet: Is there a problem in the poem?Saivite: If that is the problem, I’d have tolerated it. It is no guesswork! Why do you sing the paasuram?The poet: To explain the distinction of the aadheenamSaivite: The distniction of the aadheenam? Is not the making of the Sengol and sending it to the government the additional distinction of the aadheenam today? Isn’t the poem meant for that?**The poet: ** YesSaivite: If that is so, how have you explained it in your poem? Where are the details of the Sengol, such as its weight, height, and beauty? Are they not important here? Only then the greatness of the event would become clear. Correct your poem first. Then your mind.The poet:It is five feet tallMade of pure goldIts workmanship is splendidThe world will praise this dayForever.“Not bad, go now,” saying so, the Saivite would have sent the poet off and presented his poem to the devotees. This is one way of recording the event’s glory.Among the group that came to present the Sengol, you would have noticed a fair-skinned man with artistic eyes playing nadaswaram in a mesmorising manner. What would those who had seen him be talking?Who is this?Nadaswara vidhwan.Oh! Why has he come here?The aadheenakarthanr has sent him here to present the Sengol. How does the Sengol-presenting aadheenakarthar look like?Like a trueblue Saivite.What is his job?Running the aadheenam.How?Shall I say it loudly or softly?Why?Because there are two things to be said in two different voices.They would have spoken like this, laughing.It looks beautiful to the eye.Look at the Sengol again, more intently.What is seen on it is not only the bull. Even the poor who toil like bulls would be visible on it.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_05_30_152543792_169x300_2_9506edf717.png" alt="image_2023-05-30_152543792-169x300 (2).png"> Sceptre with bull on topWhat is not seen is not only the way the Sengol is burnished. One can also see the shine that has been imparted to the toiler’s body in the process of sucking out his labour power. One can see on it the thousand-acre land and the image of the toiler who leads a life of tears after tilling and toiling. One can see the hut in which he leads a life of suffring. And the poverty that has been thrust on him by the Sengol. One can see the feudal lord. And his motor and bungalow. One can see the gold plate in the bungalow and the white dust on it. One can see the dizzy eyes and fatigued bodies of the farmers. One can see the sweat and the blood that has been shed. One can see the image of a man whose mind is confused like churned curd.One can see the mutt – and the Saivite body there. One can see the jewels on that body – and the disease inside that.One can see the garden and the pond in which the aadheenakarthar bathes. And hear the little little stories that the pond might narrate if it can speak.One can see Saivam, and the ones who came up in life using its divine grace.Sparkling rings, oscilating ear buttons, golden footwear, doting devotees – such sights and more would be visible off and on… if you look at the Sengol again and again.One can see on the Sengol the aadheenam’s visitors saying formally, “Aaha! Excellent! Excellent! It is our good fortune that the aadheenam is happy.” This will brighten the faces of the devotee even if they don’t feel happy inside. Many such things will be seen. But one should look beyond the height, beauty and the craftmanship of the Sengol. Even little kings and nobles might feel jittery wondering whether the people’s anger would turn against them. But the Sengol shows that these aadheenams sit on their thrones as the scared people fall at their feet, governments provide them security and the rich offer them all they want. So, the Sengol is not an offering. It is an appeal. It is not a symbol of love. Nor is it a symbol of patriotism. It is an appeal.This is the time when a group that claims to have learnt sundry things says that these aadheenams, which have accumulated unparalleled fame and wealth by making people prostrate before them, have to be dissolved. On the other hand, the aadheenalarthar says that we are very innocent and we have great love for you. If you have any doubt, look at the Sengol once again – five feet tall, great workmanship! Please ensure that our aadheenam is not subjected to abuse by the ones who seek novelty. Grant me the boon of immortality. My God. My great god Nehru! Give me immortality. Grant me immortality at least for the next 20 years. This is the appeal of the aadheenalarthas, the Saivite disciple of Siva. By presenting this Sengol, he wants to delude common people into believing that there is love between him and the new government. The aadheenakarthar, who is already a fan of Siva, has now become the fan of the Nehru government. So, this will make the common man believe that the aadheenam’s dominance will not diminish.All of this is gold! It is a very very small scrap in the huge wealth controlled by the aadheenakarthar who is the legatee of sages who had given up worldly possessions completely.In the aadheenam, navaratnas are kept in decorated containers.The aadheenam has under its rule fertile fields yielding paddy that is superior to the navaratnas. The toilers, the real jewels of humanity, are being tortured there.As cheats hail these aadheenakarthas as Siddha sages, a small portion of the money offered by the cheated living under illusions has come to you in the form of Sengol. The things that have taken the shape of ear buttons, ear rings and anklets are more in number.You can see there a mountain of gold – the gold that is the stuff of the Sengol presented to you with an appeal to grant the boon of immortality. If the wealth of such aadheenams and religious institutions are confiscated, you can make a Sengol that is not only as ornate as the one presented to you but also capable of enriching and enhancing the lives of the people of this country. We request you to look keenly at such a Sengol off and on and learn the lessons it would offer.Source: Dravida Naadu, 24-08-1947<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Read this article in <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/hi-tamilnadu-cm-annadurai-sengol-and-jawaharlal-nehru/">Hindi</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">, <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ml-tamilnadu-cm-annadurai-sengol-and-jawaharlal-nehru/">Malayalam</a>

In an article written ten days after Independence, the Dravidian ideologue lays bare the convergence of caste, class, and religious interests in the Golden Sceptre and its dangerous political consequences. 

Sengol: Annadurai’s appeal to Nehru

“Any incident in which an employee is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work is unacceptable and not tolerated. This includes the serious or persistent use of verbal abuse, aggressive tone and/or language and swearing/foul language.”This signage covering every other wall in a local NHS hospital in the United Kingdom came as a pleasant surprise for a junior doctor like me who hailed from a country where abuse was the norm.Over the years the poor practice of medicine in India, the constant abuse from patients and family, the poor pay for the inhumane hours, the insane hierarchy rules, and the abuse from corporate management were some of the reasons which prompted us to leave to the UK.The system here is so different from what we practise in India that it definitely gave me some culture shock.Before ensuing employment, each employee is educated in detail regarding safety measures and protocols. There are entry portals for each ward which can be accessed only by ID cards or authorisation by staff.There are guards who actually look like they mean business with proper training and necessary equipment in case of an emergency.But most of all there is a proper protocol (CODE GREY) placed for the safety of healthcare personnel following recurrent government funded audits that take into consideration every incident seriously, and make necessary plans which are later reassessed by reaudits.But most importantly respect starts in the house in the most gentle and respectful way in which junior doctors are treated by even the most senior doctors. Their behaviour sets an example for how the patients regard us.I’m sure we all have the nice little memory of being treated as an imbecile during ward rounds for a bit of an ego play.3 years ago, it was during a busy night shift at the Government General Hospital (Kozhikode Beach Hospital) that I faced my first significant abuse from a patient.A middle aged man who had come with a trivial rash of a month’s duration waved his OP sheet at me at the busy casualty setting.With a sigh of indignation, I calmly reprimanded him saying, “Chetta (brother), can you read the board behind me that advises people that trivial cases should be consulted at the OPD? There might be more significant cases waiting in the line that might reach us late if we spend time treating non-emergency cases.”Before I knew it, he had balled up the paper and thrown it at my face, pushed back his chair loudly while yelling, “If you can’t treat people, why don’t you go sit at home? It’s with our tax money, you people are learning.”Hot with embarrassment and aghast at what had just unfolded I watched in dumb shock.The entire Casualty which was teeming with people quietened and the consultant doctor who sat at the head of the table just mildly shook his head at me asking me to not react.Only my racing heart beat and echoed in my ears seemed to have witnessed the spectacle and reacted appropriately.After all that’s what we are taught from the start of medicine.Empathise, be kind and move on.When I came home with a heavy heart to discuss this with my husband, he told me not to take it to my heart and recalled a similar story at Calicut medical college where he was shoved and yelled at by a bystander of a fracture case because he did not attend to the case fast enough.My husband was dealing with a dying man but who cares?!The ‘letting go’ of passive aggressive comments of how we loot patients, sometimes even from close family, the recurrent verbal abuse and direction of anger at doctors for delayed treatments while it is the failing infrastructure, suboptimal funding and poor hiring that is to blame, the indignation towards doctors for the bills placed by the hospital management and even physical assaults for something as logical as denying access to the ICU has all finally culminated in this, a death.A death so avoidable.Dr Vandana Das, a mere 22 year old girl was killed at Kottarakara Taluk Hospital due to the absence of proper protocol in dealing with a potentially combative person.Combative people are not new to this state yet there weren’t any policies or protocols in place but rather the government chose to give a primary comment of her cause of death as her being ‘inexperienced’.She was a mere green horn house surgeon obviously frozen in the face of brandished surgical scissors because her expertise was limited to caring and healing and not to pull out a gun from apron pockets or swish the stethoscope and catch the assailant in the eye.The more ‘experienced’ government with their ‘should have been there’ policies, the hospital management with their ‘should have been there’ security services and the law enforcement with their ‘should have been there’ instincts and training, failed her.All we can hope for now is proper law enforcement and alteration of policies from the Kerala Health Ministry pertaining to all such cases.Patients under substance influence above a certain degree shouldn’t be brought into the casualty without taking proper measures or should be allotted a different treatment room anticipating an episode. The escorting police personnel should be given proper training regarding identification of signs of mental instability, potential combative behaviour and how to tackle them successfully.It’s only with the team efforts from the law enforcing agencies, health ministry and hospital management that such a protocol can be placed for the safe practice for doctors.And senior doctors, with the utmost respect from our hearts, we know you mean well but please treat us with respect in front of patients for they are watching every move; possibly imbibing on unsaid opinions on how to treat us junior doctors.We want to help people, we do. But not at the cost of giving our own.Or Kerala is just going to lose their brightest minds to safer countries.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Click <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/regarding-health-workers-safety-what-we-could-learn-from-england/">here</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> to read this article in Malayalam.

Any incident in which an employee is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work is unacceptable and not tolerated. This includes the serious or persistent use of verbal abuse, aggressive tone and/or language and swearing/foul language.”a

Safety to Doctors at Workplace; What to Learn from United Kingdom

Karnataka has a history of multi-party politics, with no single party consistently dominating the political landscape. It has never re-elected ruling parties since 1989. While the Congress and the BJP have dominated the State’s electoral contests many elections in the few past years, the Janata Dal (S) has continued to be a significant third factor.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230507_WA_0003_768x447_9e7ed879e9.jpg" alt="IMG-20230507-WA0003-768x447.jpg">The only time a single party has won a clear majority in the last two decades was in 2013, when the Indian National Congress returned to power after a gap of nine years and Siddaramaiah became the Chief Minister.Interestingly, other parties and independents received a little more than 20% of the vote in this election. Other than the big three, two smaller parties played important roles. B. S. Yediyurappa‘s Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), which he formed after he resigned from the BJP in 2012, received 9.8 per cent of the polled votes. B. Sriramulu’s Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress (BSRCP) received 2.7 per cent of the vote.With Yediyurappa and Sriramulu rejoining the BJP in 2014, these two parties ceased to exist. The impact of these homecomings was clearly visible in the 2018 elections. Even though the BJP did not manage to secure a clear majority (its tally was 104 in the 224-seat Assembly), its vote share saw an impressive improvement, from 19.9% in the previous election to 36.2%. The vote share of the other parties makes it clear that the major reason for the BJP’s gain was the dissolution of those smaller parties. In fact, the Congress managed to secure a higher vote share than the BJP (38.06%), even though it managed to win only 80 seats in the 2018 elections.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230507_WA_0004_768x442_462dac989e.jpg" alt="IMG-20230507-WA0004-768x442.jpg">Towards a bipolar political landscapeThe political landscape of Karnataka is clearly tripolar. Three major political parties have received roughly 80% of the total votes cast since 2004. However, a vote share analysis by constituency reveals a more nuanced picture.According to data compiled by Chunaav, an organisation focused on actionable political intelligence, the 2018 Assembly election saw ‘two-party contests’ in 151 of the 224 seats The winner and runner-up together received more than 80% of the votes in these seats, essentially making the contest bipolar. In other words, in roughly 70% of the constituencies, only two prominent parties competed against each other. No third political force has significantly impacted the outcome of these elections.‘Three party (tripolar) contests’ happened in only 64 constituencies. Nine constituencies witnessed a minimum of three significant political formations competing.In 110 bipolar contests, the fight was between Congress and the BJP. While Congress fought with JD(S) in 29 constituencies, the BJP had a bipolar contest with it in only 9 seats.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230507_WA_0005_768x377_f34d2883a3.jpg" alt="IMG-20230507-WA0005-768x377.jpg">The BJP won 65 of the 110 seats in the direct contests between the Congress and the BJP. An interesting aspect to note in the bipolar contests is that in 95% of the cases the winner secured more than 50% of the votes.In most tripolar cases, it is clear that the results would have been different in the absence of the three-way division of the votes.The break-up of bipolar and tripolar contests and voting share patterns are shown in the tables below: <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230507_WA_0006_768x340_594725e826.jpg" alt="IMG-20230507-WA0006-768x340.jpg"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230507_WA_0007_768x500_ce57a0995d.jpg" alt="IMG-20230507-WA0007-768x500.jpg">Disappearing third forcesThough bipolar contests became prominent in 2018, that has not been the case in the period prior to 2018. In that period, there were more tripolar contests than bipolar contests. In 2013, while there were 98 three-way and 25 four-way contests, two-way contests were only 97. In 2008, these numbers were 111, 19, and 91 respectively.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230507_WA_0008_1024x380_6b09730519.jpg" alt="IMG-20230507-WA0008-1024x380.jpg">This seems to indicate that, at the constituency level, alternatives to two main contestants are losing relevance and contests are essentially becoming bipolar. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this consolidation is affecting any particular political formation specifically.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The AIDEM presents the opinion of common people about the impending elections to the Karnataka state assembly:&nbsp;<a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/karnataka-janathayonthike/">Karnataka Janathayonthike</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

Karnataka has a history of multi-party politics, with no single party consistently dominating the political landscape. It has never re-elected ruling parties since 1989. While the Congress and the BJP have dominated the State’s electoral contests many elections in the few past years, the Janata Dal (S) has continued to be a significant third factor.



Karnataka Elections; Bipolar or Tripolar? 

A ruling party with an inept leadership, a government whose main ‘claims to fame’ are a communally divisive agenda and allegations of corruption, a strong anti-incumbency sentiment – the Congress has no reason to lose the May 10 Assembly elections. Clear favourites in the latest round of elections, the Congress looks confident and comfortable amidst a bitter election campaign. It has successfully managed to steer the hotly contested debates away from national and/or communal politics, and focused on the local and the regional – the lack of development, unemployment, poverty and social justice under the BJP government and ‘Kannadiga pride’. But, with hardly a week to go for the polling day, the battle for the 224 Assembly seats appears far from over. Emotional rhetoric, religious polarisation, sectarianism, Hindutva and hate speeches appear to be rapidly gaining prominence in the context of the Congress’ perceptible advantage.Invoking Bajrang BaliThe BJP campaign is being led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has crisscrossed the State several times addressing public meetings and conducting road shows, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, party president J.P. Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, besides the Karnataka strongman B.S. Yediyurappa. It is on the defensive trying to ward off allegations that its government led by Basavaraj S. Bommai has not only done precious little for the State but indulged in corruption.The saffron party has gleefully latched on to what it calls the Congress’ “blunder” in declaring that it will ban the Bajrang Dal (and any other fundamentalist organisations), a fringe outfit of the Sangh Parivar if it comes to power. The Congress’ manifesto equating the Bajrang Dal and the Popular Front of India (PFI) as terror organisations has been conveniently projected by the saffron forces as denigration of Bajrang Bali (the Hindu god Lord Hanuman), an affront to the Hindu faith, and another instance of appeasement politics. The BJP cites the statements of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of the banned PFI, that it had withdrawn its candidates from 84 constituencies in favour of the contestants of the Congress and other secular parties and that it is only contesting 16 seats as evidence of the Congress’ compromise with Muslim communalism. Said Bommai: “The Congress party is under the influence of the SDPI and the PFI.”Modi chose to make the promised ban on the Bajrang Dal a big election issue by not only defending the Bajrang Dal (whose proclivity to violence is well recorded), but also asking crowds at several public meetings to chant “Jai Bajrang Bali”. He said that the Congress initially locked up Lord Ram and is now looking to imprison Bajrang Bali. In the blatantly communal turn of the BJP’s campaign, the Congress, which has until now steered clear of any religious issues, appears to be in a dilemma over what stand to take on the issue. While Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D.K. Shivakumar went out of his way to distinguish between Bajrang Bali and the Bajrang Dal and announced that Hanuman temples will be constructed, repaired and renovated in Karnataka, senior leader M. Veerappa Moily said there was no plan to ban the Bajrang Dal. But Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera stuck to the stand that the Bajrang Dal will be banned by the Congress, if required.Though the BJP has repeatedly stated that development and its government’s achievements will be the focus of its election campaign, the Hindutva message behind this façade is all too evident. The party is banking on a polarised political environment to tackle the anti-incumbency sentiment. BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi, a three-time MLA from Chikmagalur, summed up the party’s position when he said that for the BJP, Hindutva was synonymous with nationalism and that there would be no compromise on its commitment to that concept. For the party, which has never secured a majority in the 224-member Assembly – the last three Assembly elections have also not given a majority to any party – a victory in Karnataka is crucial. For the Congress, a grand win could mean several things ranging from a resurgence of Rahul Gandhi’s political fortunes, to signifying a moral victory in its efforts to bring about opposition unity to defeat Modi. For the Janata Dal (S), the elections are another test of its ability to survive as a political party. A big loss could very well be the beginning of the end for an outfit which hopes to win 30 to 35 seats.‘40 percent Government’ Ever since Basavaraj Somappa Bommai took over as the 17th Chief Minister in July 2021, his government has been facing allegations of corruption, misgovernance, groupism and malfeasance. (Bommai took over from the BJP’s most well-known leader in the South, B.S. Yediyurappa, who had become Chief Ministership in July 2019 by dethroning the Janata Dal (S)-Congress coalition government after a series of defections.) In April 2022, the contractors association alleged that BJP MLAs and the then Panchayat Raj Minister K.S. Eshwarappa demanded 40% commission or bribes from contractors for every project. The Association had even dashed off a letter to the Chief Minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot. The letters went unanswered but both the BJP and Eshwarappa stoutly denied the allegations. Eshwarappa was also forced to resign subsequently. At a press conference on March 27, 2023, D. Kempanna, the contractor association’s president, said: “After writing to the Prime Minister (on July 6, 2021), we had a lot of expectations. During the run-up to (2018) elections, the Prime Minister termed the previous (Congress) regime as 10% government. We wrote to him stating that the bribe amount has increased to 40%.” Though no formal complaint was filed before the authorities, the 40% corruption charge has had a Teflon effect..In March, the son of BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa was arrested after the Lok Ayukta, the anti-corruption watchdog of the Karnataka government – caught him in the act of taking a bribe of Rs 40 lakh. The officials also recovered Rs 7 crore in cash from the MLA’s residence. Madal Virupakshappa, who was then the chairman of the Karnataka Soaps &amp; Detergents Limited, was later arrested.Reservation CardIn the run-up to the elections, the BJP attempted to woo the electorate with some social engineering by offering additional reservation in educational institutions and government jobs to the State’s two most socially, economically, politically dominant and land-owning communities – the Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas – under the 2D category of reservations of the OBC quota. The Bommai government also controversially scrapped the 4% religion-based reservation that the Muslims in the State had enjoyed since 1995, under Category 2B, on grounds of being socially and educationally backward. The government announced that Muslims would be removed from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category and that the 4% reservation taken away from them would be distributed equally among the Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Quick on the heels of this move, the government support base accorded reservation for 101 Scheduled Castes (SC). Both these decisions triggered a political controversy. In a related case, the Supreme Court held that the decision to exclude the Muslims from their 4% quota was “prima facie shaky and flawed. Prima facie, on the basis of the documents that are before us, it appears that the foundation of your decision-making process is highly shaky and flawed…Because it is on the basis of an interim report. Why could you not wait for the final report? What was the great hurry?” the Supreme Court bench asked Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Karnataka government. Further, the bench said: “This is not about religion. It is about socially and educationally backward classes. The 4% reservation is totally knocked out and the percentage of those who already had it has increased. There is a class of persons whose benefits are taken away by a stroke and on the basis of an interim report.”Lingayat BaseThe BJP’s core strength in Karnataka has been its base among the Lingayats. Riding largely on the back of this support, the BJP has managed to increase its vote share and seat tally steadily; its vote share went up from 4.14% in 1989 to 36.22% in 2018, and the seat tally increased from four to 104 during the same period. The official count of the Lingayat population is anywhere between 15% to 17% of the population. But some statistics leaked from the caste survey done during Siddarmaiah’s chief ministerial tenure indicated that they accounted for not more than 12%. Whatever be the exact number, the Lingayats have had a disproportionate share in power ever since Karnataka’s formation in 1956. The Lingayat community has in its sub-sects like the Banajigas, Ganigas and Panchamasalis, who are spread across the State, and wield influence almost throughout the State.In recent months the BJP’s central leadership, sensing its diminishing sway over the Lingayats after the removal of Yediyurappa as Chief Minister, replaced him with Bommai, also a Lingayat. Then it appointed Yediyurappa as a Parliamentary Board member of the party. It also increased the reservation for the community.The BJP has also been forced to defend itself against the criticism that it has humiliated and ignored the interests of the community. But an off-the-cuff remark by the Congress stalwart Siddaramaiah helped the BJP to portray him as anti-Lingayat. In an interview to a Kannada news, Siddaramaiah had quipped: “There’s already a Lingayat CM (Bommai) who is at the root of all corruption in the state”. BJP leaders, including Bommai, were quick to launch a scathing attack on Siddaramaiah. Said Bommai: “It is not right for a former CM to make a statement like this. He has said that the entire Lingayat community is corrupt. The Brahmin community had been ridiculed in the past. Earlier, he had tried to break the Lingayat-Veerashaiva community when he was Chief Minister. The people of the State will teach Siddaramaiah a lesson.” Siddaramaiah clarified that his remarks had been “twisted and misinterpreted” by the BJP, and that his “comments referred only to Bommai being corrupt”.However, the BJP is facing rumblings in its Lingayat support base. As a consequence of the party’s strategy to field new faces – a strategy that was successfully implemented in the Gujarat elections – it denied the ticket to two of its seniormost Lingayat leaders- former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi. The two promptly switched their loyalties to the Congress and are now contesting the Hubli-Dharwad (Central) and Athani seats on the Congress ticket. Both Shettar, a six time MLA and Savadi, a three time MLA, wield considerable influence among the community.Wooing VokkaligasThe BJP has also sought to woo the State’s other dominant community, the Vokkaligas, other smaller OBC groups, and also the Dalits. Incidentally, Eshwarappa has blatantly stated that the BJP does not need the votes of the Muslims. Though the BJP has been in power in Karnataka, it has been able to establish a presence in only around 120 of the 224 Assembly constituencies.The party has tried to woo the Vokkaligas by installing a 108-foot tall statue of Kempe Gowda, the community’s icon and architect of Bengaluru city, at the international airport in Bengalauru. The Vokkaligas constitute 40% of the population in the Old Mysuru region – primarily territories that came under the former Mysore princely state in south Karnataka – which stretches from Bengaluru (Rural) to Chamarajanagar districts and encompasses the districts of Ramanagara, Chamarajanagar, Bengaluru (Rural) Mandya, Mysuru, Kodagu, Kolar, Tumakuru and Hassan districts. The JD(U) has a significant presence in the region. The Muslims in the region have traditionally voted for the JD(S). The Vokkaliga-Muslim combination has earned the JD(S) the reputation of being the kingmaker whenever the State throws up a split verdict. Both the Congress and the BJP find it difficult to come to power on their own because of the Vokkaliga factor. The two parties are now trying their best to wrest the Vokkaliga vote. The BJP has unleashed its star campaigners including Modi and Yogi Adityanath in this region. Modi is scheduled to close his campaign with a visit to the Nanjundeshwara Temple (also called the Srikanteshwara Temple) in the Hindu pilgrimage town of Nanjanagudu in Old Mysuru.Of the 62 seats in the Old Mysuru region the Congress relies on its base among AHINDA (a Kannada acronym for Alpasankhyataru or minorities, Hindulidavaru or backward classes, and Dalitaru or Dalits) along with the support from a section of Vokkaligas. It is in a straight fight with the JD(S) in most seats. But the BJP has, buoyed by the 2019 Lok Sabha election results when the party for the first time ever received 40 per cent of the votes in southern Karnataka, has made inroads in this region. The party is hoping to double its tally. The Prime Minister in rallies in the Old Mysuru area has claimed a vote for the JD(S) is a vote for the Congress. “The JD(S) is the B team of the Congress,” he said. In the current assembly, the JD(S) holds 26 seats from this region, while the Congress has 20, and the BJP 16.Of the 17 CMs Karnataka has had, seven were from the Vokkaliga community. The Vokkaligas are also present in sizable numbers in 27 of Bengaluru urban district’s 28 constituencies (Anekal being the lone exception), Bengaluru rural district’s four constituencies, and Chikkaballapura’s eight constituencies.Both the Congress and the BJP are banking on winning Bengaluru, which accounts for 28 seats, and Belagavi, which has 18. In Bengaluru, the party won 15 seats in 2018, while in Belagavi, it pocketed 13. Modi has already done a road show in Bengaluru and two more covering 34 kms are planned over the weekend.The BJP continues to hold sway in the coastal region, which is known as the ‘laboratory’. Though dissidence has surfaced in a couple of seats, the Congress has not been able to alter the political balance in the region’s 19 seats.No party can hope to come to power in Karnataka without winning a majority of the seats in the Kalyana-Karnataka and Kittur-Karnataka regions. The Kalyana-Karnataka region comprising the seven districts of Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Kalaburagi – which were once part of the Kingdom of Hyderabad ruled by the Nizams – and, Ballari and Vijayanagara of the erstwhile Madras province, has 40 seats. Lingayats are the dominant political force here. The Congress, which takes credit for according special status to this backward region through the introduction of Article 371(J) in the Constitution in 2012 during the UPA-II regime at the Centre, has traditionally done well here. The move has benefited the region in a big way, with reservations in education and employment, apart from special grants for infrastructure development. Incidentally, the BJP, when it led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, rejected the demand for special status.In 2008, the Congress bagged 22 seats, while in 2013 it won 23. In 2018 the party bagged 21 seats. The northeastern corner of the State, which comes under the Kalyana-Karnataka region, has produced several tall Congress leaders including two Chief Ministers – Veerendra Patil and N. Dharam Singh. And Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge hails from this region. Kharge’s elevation in the party has certainly enthused Congress cadre in the region.The BJP which won 15 seats from this region in 2018 riding on its support from the Lingayats, increased its tally to 18 after three Congress legislators defected. The BJP takes credit for renaming the Hyderabad Karnataka region as the Kalyana Karnataka region, claiming that “the B.S. Yediyurappa-led government liberated the region from psychological slavery to Nizam rule.” The mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, a power centre who recently quit the saffron party, has launched the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP) and is contesting in most seats in the region. The JD(S) won four seats in this region in 2018.Much churn has taken place in the Kittur-Karnataka region in the run-up to the elections. Earlier known as the Bombay Karnataka region, it comprises the districts of Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag, Belagavi, Vijayapura and Bagalkot. This region solidly behind the BJP in the 2018 elections, the BJP won 30 of the 48 seats on offer, with the Congress winning 17, and the JD(S) two.The Congress and the BJP are in a close fight in Central Karnataka comprising the districts of Davangere and Chitradurga, where the BJP won 10 of 13 constituencies in 2018. In the Malanad districts of Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru, the BJP won 10 of the 12 seats.A united Congress seeks to highlight the corruption charges against the Bommai regime, its policy of troubling the minorities, and its failure to take forward Brand Karnataka. The BJP, with its central leadership literally managing the campaign, is attempting to hold on to its position as the party with the largest number of seats. The third player, the JD(S), continues to remain a distant third.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The AIDEM presents the opinion of common people about the impending elections to the Karnataka state assembly:&nbsp;<a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/karnataka-janathayonthike/">Karnataka Janathayonthike</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

A ruling party with an inept leadership, a government whose main ‘claims to fame’ are a communally divisive agenda and allegations of corruption, a strong anti-incumbency sentiment – the Congress has no reason to lose the May 10 Assembly elections. Clear favourites in the latest round of elections, the Congress looks confident and comfortable amidst a bitter election campaign.

Karnataka Elections: Congress ahead, BJP on the defensive

The AIDEM ExclusiveWhen falsity walks the streets, even art and literature cannot be free of it. Stories do not just happen; they are often concocted. When the trailer of the movie The Kerala Story was released last November, it was pointed out that the movie belongs to the genre of concoction. The trailer of the movie that conjures up false and spurious allegations about Kerala society was not officially censored at the point of its release. This fact was revealed by none other than the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) itself. The revelation appeared in the official reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query that the Chennai-based television anchor B.R. Aravindakshan filed with the CBFC. On February 23, 2023, he filed his RTI application asking the Censor Board if the trailer had been duly scrutinized and certified. The reply from the Censor Board on March 16, 2023 unequivocally makes it clear that the trailer did not undergo its due diligence. It also suggested that the complainant could approach the Appellate Authority of the CBFC in case he wanted to take any further step on the matter.Now the movie’s posters have appeared carrying May 5 as the date of release. Sudipto Sen is the director of the movie made under the banner of Sunshine Pictures. Yet another trailer of The Kerala Story is also out now depicting Kerala as a haven for Muslim terrorists.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Fui_Vvwfac_A_Axvd_A_768x1024_1_c0c1f5073b.jpg" alt="FuiVvwfacAAxvdA-768x1024 (1).jpg"> Promotional Poster for the filmThe movie, claiming to be a depiction of real events, allegedly propagates misinformation about Kerala and its society_ a fact that was pointed out even as the film was being shot. Its story revolves around the lives of four women protagonists. One of them is Shalini Unnikrishnan, a nurse who has chosen the path of service to the public. She gets trapped in the vicious network of the ISIS, a Muslim terrorist organisation, and is forcibly converted to Islam. Her name is changed to Fathima Baa and she is imprisoned in an Afghan jail after joining the ISIS terrorist group. The actress, Ada Sharma is cast as Shalini. Yogitha Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idani portray the other three girls.The film depicts Kerala as a place where people are regularly recruited by terrorist organisations and raises a grave allegation that 32,000 women of Kerala were recruited by ISIS terrorists into their fold. The director, Sudipto Sen reportedly arrived at this conclusion by seriously misrepresenting a few statements made by two political leaders and ex-Chief Ministers of Kerala, Ommen Chandy (INC) and V.S. Achuthanandan (CPIM). In an interview with City Media in 2021, Sudipto Sen reportedly said that he got the figure of 32,000 from a statement made by Ommen Chandi in 2010 in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/rti_1_b8ad44e90b.jpg" alt="rti (1).jpg">Response received for RTI ApplicationThe truth is not anywhere close to the above. On June 25, 2021, Ommen Chandi informed the Kerala Legislative Assembly that between 2006 and 2021, 2667 individuals had converted to Islam in Kerala. Nowhere in this reply was a mention of ISIS. The teaser of the film manipulatively uses in it a statement by V.S. Achuthanandan about Popular Front, a recently banned Muslim outfit. Also, in the teaser where the words of V.S. Achuthanandan are heard, the subtitles read an entirely different translation, with no connection to the original words. Alt News, a fact-checking website at that time, asked Sudipto Sen to correct this mistake but he did not bother to follow it up.A documentary titled, ‘In the Name of Love’ directed by Sudipto Sen came out in 2018 and dealt with the same theme as the new feature film. This documentary had as its key narrative, stories of Hindu and Christian women getting converted to Islam by foul means and sent to countries having a terrorist presence. The documentary when screened at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) caused quite a commotion, eventually squeezing out an apologetic explanation from the director that the film was not about ‘Love Jihad’.On February 4,2020 Benny Behanan, Lok Sabha member from Kerala had raised a pointed question in parliament regarding the allegations that ‘Love Jihad’ is widespread in his South Indian State. Responding to his question, G.Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Home Affairs in the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) government stated categorically that “no such case of ‘Love Jihad‘ has been reported by central agencies. He went on to add that the term ‘Love Jihad‘ is not defined under extant laws.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/sudipto_300x300_1_224bfea875.jpeg" alt="sudipto-300x300 (1).jpeg"> Sudipto Sen, DirectorMore recently, in November 2022 a three part RTI query seeking to know the facts on this issue was filed to the union Home ministry.The questions were the following –<ul><li>How many cases have been recorded so far of young Hindu girls from India being converted to Islam and sold to ISIS terror organisation? Please provide State wise details</li><li>How many Hindu community girls have converted to Islam and joined ISIS terror organisation? Please provide data from 2014 to 2022.</li><li>Does the Home Ministry keep track of how many Hindu girls from India are living as slaves in the ISIS terror organisation? If yes, then provide complete details about it.</li></ul>The Home Ministry gave a consolidated answer to these three queries stating that the required information is not available with the offices of the union Home Ministry. It went on to add that “Police” and “Public order” are State subjects as per the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India. It also said that the State police is the first responder in case of any criminal terrorist activity, including investigation, registration and prosecution of crimes and protection of life and property.Sudipto Sen has been quite vocal about his hatred of Communism. At the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2022, when Nadav Lapid, the Israel Film Maker and Jury Chairman, criticised the controversial movie Kashmir Files, Sudipto Sen was the only Jury member who opposed him.The JNU incident was seen by many as a manifestation of Sudipto Sen’s malice towards Kerala which stands as an island of secular grit even after the RSS-backed BJP won two consecutive elections at the national level. It was alleged that Sudipto was consciously trying to belittle and deprecate even Kerala’s well-documented achievements and present the sState as a society that appeases Muslim communalism.The Kerala Story has to be seen as a continuation of Sudipto’s false propaganda. The message that the teaser puts across blatantly is majority communalism backed by nothing but falsehoods and distortions. The movie’s posters say that it has versions in four languages which would be released simultaneously – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Though it is mandatory to display the type of Censor Board certification of the movie (A, U, AU etc.) in all publicity materials, the posters do not have any such information displayed on them. This omission raises the serious doubt whether the film was properly scrutinized and certified by the CBFC. A more relevant question would be about the criteria by which this film was allowed to go to the public domain despite its gravely defamatory portrayal of the Kerala society which has the potential to provoke communal tensions.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kerala_768x469_1_da12cc8197.jpg" alt="kerala-768x469 (1).jpg"> Promotional PosterThe Censor Board constituted a Film Publicity Screening Committee in 1990 April to preview and all the publicity materials of all feature films to check whether they contain indecency, overt violence, anti-women propaganda and so on. The committee has its headquarters in Mumbai and regional offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Thiruvananthapuram. The reply given to Aravindakshan for his RTI query suggests that this committee did not preview or approve the trailer of The Kerala Story which was released in November last year.Soon after the first trailer was made public, Aravindakshan filed complaints against it with the CBFC as well as Kerala’s Chief Minister. A police case was reportedly filed on the basis of his complaint. With the date of the movie release being already announced, Aravindakshan is demanding further action on his complaint from the authorities concerned.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">This article was originally published in Malayalam. Read<a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/kerala-story-film-releasing-without-censor-certificate/">here</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

When falsity walks the streets, even art and literature cannot be free of it. Stories do not just happen; they are often concocted. When the trailer of the movie The Kerala Story was released last November, it was pointed out that the movie belongs to the genre of concoction. 

The Kerala Story: A Movie, A Political Agenda, and a Conniving Censor Board

This column will deal with words and concepts and their changing and nuanced meanings. Indeed , many more interpretations and value additions are possible on the words and descriptions that figure in this series. The AIDEM invites further discussions on these words and concepts from readers.A Pakistani Christian once asked me how India could call itself a secular country when its people are deeply religious. “What an unworkable concept you have adopted!”, he said. In the November 29, 2013 edition of The Hindu, historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam, who has a prestigious chair in France, said Indian secularism meant the state mediating between religions. Between a common man’s perception and a scholarly interpretation, where do we locate the meaning and practice of secularism in India? Admittedly, secularism is misunderstood by both citizens and leadership.According to the Encyclopaedia of Sciences and Religions, secularism is an attitude or a political ideology aiming to eradicate religion from public and social life, or at least regulate and control religion, or limit its influence on state politics. Further, it is a condition where religion is absent from specific areas of society, that is, state and public sphere, and/or the minds and practices of people. Thus, secularism means reducing the overarching and, as it often seems, the transcendent religious systems to a subsystem or a marginal dimension of cultural identity.The Origin and MeaningThe concept of secularism was created by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1846. He used the term to describe a social order that is separate from religion, without actively dismissing religious beliefs. In Europe, ‘secular’ meant non-religious, and ‘secular work’ meant anything not related to church activities. Once my English friend who met me at my residence in Hull, United Kingdom; apologetically said, “I did not go to the church today”. I asked him, “why not!” He said he had to do some secular work. In a bit of confusion, I exclaimed, “What were you doing?” He answered, “I did some gardening and cleaned my car”.His reply implied the dominant understanding of secularism in Europe. Anything unrelated to church meant secular work. Unlike in India, secularism did not become an ethical principle or a code of conduct. Thus, a cluttered definition of secularism which is a fundamental principle of the state makes life difficult.In France, secularism is explained by a concept called laicite. This means even a stronger separation between the state and religion; in fact, pushing the latter into the private realm. The strong state in France attempts to privatise religion. The essence of laicism is to create a neutral public space in which religious beliefs, practices and instincts have lost their political significance and have been pushed to the private sphere. Mixing politics and religion is regarded as irrational and dangerous. With such an understanding, the French government prohibits outwardly religious practices like Muslims wearing burkha or Sikhs sporting turbans and even Christian wearing a cross too visibly. Consequently, France gets embroiled continually in religious tensions.In the United States, religion has been separated from the state from the day of founding of the Constitution. The first amendment to the Constitution expressly prohibits Congress from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. In other words, the government is barred from preferring one religion over another, and from preferring religion over non-religion.European countries like England, Finland and Denmark recognise an official church. In Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, the state and church take up common tasks. The government in those countries even fund church organisations. Therefore, secularist division between religion and politics is not fixed, but rather historically and socially constructed.Indian SecularismIndian secularism has been interpreted in various ways. The literal meaning of secularism in the Constitution, looking at the Hindi translation of the word as mentioned in the Amendment, is dhramanirpekhsata. This means the state-neutrality. There are also many religious scholars who would not equate dharma with religion. Dharma means the principle or law that orders the universe, an individual conduct in conformity with this principle and the essential function or nature of a thing. Furthermore, in Hinduism, dharma is an individual obligation with respect to caste, social custom, civil law, and sacred law etc.The other interpretation of secularism (considered a bit Nehruvian) is “sarvadharma sambhava”, meaning all religions should be equal. Commentators have questioned the practicality of this interpretation, how unequal religions, (Hindus are 83 per cent or more, Buddhists are 0.9 per cent, Christians are 2.3 per cent, Jews are too small in number) can be possibly treated equally? Consequent to this interpretation, the small religious groups are allegedly crowded out of public space by big religious groups namely, Hindus and Muslims. One more distinct interpretation is by the Communists, who equate secularism in public life with atheism, or agnosticism. Karl Marx, the Guru of Communists, had famously said, “Religion is the opium of the people”. Marxism has declined, so has the indifference if not the opposition to religion. Besides, in India, the vast majority of people are religious, atheists are few.It is clear that there is no standard definition of secularism in Indian politics.What should Secularism mean in India?Secularism should be seen as an ethical principle by itself in regard to religion, not a negation of the latter. It should be seen as doing at least three things. One, it should maintain harmony in a pluralist society. When people call themselves secular, they respect all other identities in a society, be it religious, linguistic, ethnic, or regional. That is how people should respect and learn from one another. The beauty of life lies in “unity in diversity”.A society is not monolithic. If it is, it will not be viable because many interdependent units would not come together to make it work. Secondly, secularism leads to growth of modern knowledge systems, and concepts such a rationality. Problems like poverty, malnutrition, hunger and disease that cannot be handled by religion. They can be tackled only by science, technology, medicines, and so on. That is why secular institutions like laboratories, hospitals, banks, and universities exist. Thirdly, secularism should balance the twin spheres of life- religion and politics.According to believers, religion, whatever be its interpretation, is needed in life; the essence of any religion is anchored in humanism. Any project of modernity or rationality cannot explain existential questions such as the pain and pleasure and life and death. Therefore, religion and politics will have to work in a multi-religious, pluralist format. They could be separated contextually and be mixed constructively. Different interpretations of religions could be mediated by constitutional principles enshrining human rights, civil liberties, equality etc.That said, even non-believers are covered in an Indian secular format described above. The Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) has been guaranteed as a human right under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) since 1966. So, our discussion goes beyond secularism vs religion to secularism and multiple beliefs outside the domain of religion. What is important in this concept is that it includes freedom to ‘to leave or abandon religions and hold non-religious beliefs. No one should be discriminated against, coerced or persecuted for their beliefs.Also, like all human rights, FoRB belongs to people, whether individual or a collective, and it lends freedom to their beliefs whatever they may be – religious, non-religious, agnostic atheism, animism, paganism and so on. The only rider is that, as said before, those beliefs should not run counter to the constitutional rights and duties of a country.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">For past releases of Words and Concepts, <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/words-and-concepts/">Click Here</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

Words and Concepts- 3: Secularism

By enacting the Right to Health Act, 2022, the Rajasthan Assembly has written a remarkable chapter in the history of health legislation in India. This is undoubtedly the first Act that explicitly brings health (care) into the ambit of citizens’ rights and fixes the responsibility of delivering it on the state. The Rajasthan government has stated that it is planning to improve upon this legislation as well. This gives hope as Rajasthan is also the pioneering north Indian state to roll out the much discussed free medicines scheme almost a decade ago. The scheme aimed at providing prescribed medicines free of cost to all patients in the State, thus considerably reducing out-of-pocket spending by the common people on health care needs.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/gehlot_768x432_36098a1e60.jpg" alt="gehlot-768x432.jpg"> Rajasthan CM Ashok GehlotAs someone who has engaged actively with public health in different capacities _ as a community practitioner, as a social activist, as a public health/health systems/health policy researcher, as an academic, and a former administrator _ I have analysed this legislation. Here, I am sharing my reflections, with a hope that these will help the State of Rajasthan to strengthen its initiative and the other States to enact a comprehensive public health law:<ol><li>While the law is titled the Right to Health Act, it’s on the right to health care services, especially the emergency services. In this area, a lot more features have to be added to make the Act comprehensive. Significant additions in terms of entitlements related to preventive and promotive health, environmental health, social health, health determinants, and so on, have to be made. However, we need to note that often health, public health and health care are considered one and the same by many quarters.</li><li>Even to fulfil the current minimal level of commitments made by the Act, the state has to put in a lot of efforts to make the government-run health service delivery network more reliable, responsive, and accountable. This means filling the human and other infrastructure gaps on a priority basis, addressing behavioral gaps, updating technologies regularly and substantially improving the quality of care. All these measures require not only sufficient financial resources but also institutional abilities and capacities to utilise these resources in the best possible manner. Above all, leadership and political will are absolutely essential because the right to health cannot be achieved in a five-year tenure of any State government. We need to also note that this law has been enacted during the last year of the incumbent government, which makes the leadership and sustainability requirements even more crucial.</li><li>For including private health providers in the health care network in an equitable manner, the state will have to do away with the insurance coverage-based systems, which have been proved to be not useful for the needy populations and wasteful for the exchequer. Instead, a just and justifiable rate-fixation system for services as well as a dignified and time-bound payment system need to be set up under a state- managed risk-pooling mechanism, which will save a lot of financial resources for the state. For managing reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses by the individuals, the state can rely upon a localised system run by reliable community level institutions. Such systems should be supported by well-equipped regulatory systems to ensure the quality of facilities, processes, actual service delivery and payments therein.</li><li>Grievance redress systems should be set up in an inclusive manner avoiding conflicts of interests _ which is a problem with the present Act _ so that these systems could be extended to both government and privately provided services. In addition to this, community level feedback and improvement systems are also a must for realising the right to health in a participatory manner.</li><li>To ensure that the most vulnerable sections of society avail themselves of the various benefits and services provided under the Act, it has to be made more inclusive and equitable in terms of instrumenting systems.</li><li>A strong information system is essential for people and providers to understand the Act’s provisions and to positively improve the health seeking behaviour and quality of service.</li></ol>Taking the critics alongAt times, vehement opposition to something shows its significance. This is the case with the present Act. The State government successfully managed to negotiate with those who opposed the Act and notify it in the gazette. At the same time, I feel that the government should have been a bit more careful in drafting the contents and processes of the Act, which would have averted the protests. Among the critics of the Act were well-meaning medical professionals, who seem to be genuinely concerned about some of its provisions. Of course, nothing can be done about those with conflict of interest who will continue to disseminate misinformation and provoke agitations despite the best intent and contents of the Act.Nevertheless, it is also to be stated that the state did set up a consultative system in the run-up to the enactment of the law, and has accepted a number of demands of the agitating; in fact, such concessions have weakened or compromised many important provisions of the Act. I can only hope that the government will be able to strengthen such weaker provisions on the go, and the agitating professional communities will soon realise this fact, come forward and help the government strengthen and roll out the Act in a better way. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/raja_768x512_30b527d6ea.jpg" alt="raja-768x512.jpg">Doctor’s protest against Rajasthan Health ActWhile it is important to bring clarity to various provisions and ensure justice to the private service providers’ demands, it is also the duty of medical professionals and associations to respect and strengthen the law’s primary intent of delivering people’s health rights. I am also hopeful that the Government of Rajasthan will formulate affirmative rules that will facilitate a meaningful rollout of the Act and introduce changes to make it a comprehensive legal instrument. The government must take the active support of those who have been working for people’s health in strengthening the provisions of the Act and making it comprehensive. Organisations like the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan has already come forward to offer such support.The Assam experienceThere are some important failures to remember too. In 2010, the State governmentof Assam had enacted The Assam Public Health Act, which sought to establish people’s health rights in India for the first time. This Act defined the health and health care rights of the people, duties and rights of the providers, and the health services to be rendered to the people across the State – although the title of the Act did not explicitly express the “rights” paradigm like the Rajasthan did. Unfortunately, the last 13 years have not seen any major progress in the implementation of this Act.Rajasthan has the opportunity and momentum that Assam has lost. The Rajasthan government, medical and health professionals in the State, media personnel and the people of Rajasthan (and also other States) have a lot to learn from the history of the Assam Act. Worryingly, the current Rajasthan government is at the end of its five-year tenure, a situation similar to Assam where the Health Act was enacted by the Congress when the Assembly elections were round the corner. Though the Congress returned to power, the momentum created by the passing of the Public Health Act was not followed up by the succeeding government because the Health Minister of Assam who had tabled this Bill in the Assembly defected to another party and became the Chief Minister of the State. As a result, the Act lies in cold storage. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_4_1_768x432_0dc9df1790.png" alt="image-4-1-768x432.png">Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, who tabled the Assam Public Health Act in Assam assembly when he was a minister in the Congress government in 2010I sincerely believe this will not be the case in Rajasthan. It should not be too because the right to health is definitely a political tool to achieve the goal of ‘health for all’ and empower those committed to people’s health. However, the promise of health care should not be reduced to a tactical election promise to win votes. This is where I expect the Rajasthan government, whichever party leads it, to carry forward the ‘health for all’ agenda taking along all sections of people in a sincere and serious manner.I am also thinking of how the other States can establish the right to health and health care in their respective jurisdictions, learning from the Rajasthan case. A lot of groundwork and system strengthenin needs to be done by States intending to make such initiatives comprehensive and acceptable. While the duties and accountability of the private sector needs to be clearly stated and institutional measures to realise these to be built in an adequate manner, the state should cover the justifiable costs incurred by the private sector. One has to realise the importance of taking the private actors on board and to ensure timely and smooth transfer of financial resources to them.Kerala and Tamil NaduThe States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu demonstrate how health entitlements could be ensured. The Public Health Act enacted by the Kerala Legislative Assembly recently and the preparatory measures being undertaken by the Tamil Nadu government to establishing the right to health show that they are legally sound ground. The way the health systems, private actors and the communities worked together in these States during the Covid-19 pandemic recently, led by the local and State governments indicate there preparedness to move forward on the right to health front. This does not mean that the other States cannot do this. Let us hope that the journey that Rajasthan has embarked on will show the way to the other States in establishing health as a legally enforceable right.<strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">YouTube</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">WhatsApp</a>

By enacting the Right to Health Act, 2022, the Rajasthan Assembly has written a remarkable chapter in the history of health legislation in India.

Rajasthan’s Right to Health Act: The Way Forward and Some Hitches

Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Philippe Humbert, French political analyst and long time India watcher, with Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Editor of The AIDEM.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Hello and welcome to The AIDEM Interactions. The AIDEM Interactions is today with an international guest. A specialist on India and Indian affairs. All the way from Paris. Philippe Humbert of Jean Jaures foundation. Welcome Philippe to The AIDEM Interactions. We know that you have been interacting with India right from the 1980s. Perhaps you know more about India than many Indians know. And you also wrote this interesting book published in 1992: The Rajiv Gandhi Years. You have had a special focus on the Congress Party because that was the ruling party at that point of time. Of course now we have a lot of things happening. The situation in India has changed. You’re coming to India after four years. After the COVID Period. So when you compare the visits made in the past and compare with the situations in the 1980s and 1990s and the New Millenia, what are the main changes you’ve seen in India?Philippe Humbert: From a political internal viewpoint I think that the situation where the Congress was a big party, things were different. Congress used to have a more diversified base.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Diversified base?Philippe Humbert: A more diversified base and it was more like a coalition of parties or segments of the population. Now I think when the BJP took over in 2014, I think, it’s acting as a big machinery. It’s a big block. A very strong machinery. And I think with a strong local organisation and Central organisation, more than when the Congress was in power.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: In your book, you talk about how the Congress built a coalition of various segments of society. We call them Castes and Communities here. But the BJP is pursuing what is called the Hindutva Philosophy. But using this the Hindutva philosophy, it has made some major inroads in terms of unifying large sections of the Hindu society. How do you look at that phenomenon?Philippe Humbert: Well I think this phenomenon is something new in India. Because it is a shift toward a society where there is a kind of monolithic view of Hinduism. It is to be noted that India is not a Hindu country, though a large majority of the population is Hindu. There is Hinduism, of course. But with a big segment of Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Jains. It’s diversified. So shifting policy towards a Hindu block is something which is a bit odd in my view. This phenomenon is related to some experience in some other countries where there is a block according to, I would not say religion or belief, just strongly based on cultural custom and habits.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: OK but, when you say that this is similar to other countries. Can you name some?Philippe Humbert: Of course, in Israel, there is this tendency. The same way, Israel is being considered as a Jewish country, one hundred percent. Which is not true because there are Arab minorities, who are citizens.So it can’t be a Jewish State even if some people would like to call it that way. It’s this kind of movement that is happening in India. Only thing is, it’s much bigger. So that’s something new according to me.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Something new and perhaps something that is taking us towards a sectarian state. A state which is kind of pushing a sectarian agenda.Philippe Humbert: Yes. I think that this view is in a way against secularism. Because secularism means that the State does not have any religious image. Secularism stands as a separation of the State, government and religion. It is what was done in France in 1905.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Of course, we all know that France is the place where the concept of Secularism originated. Interestingly, two judges of the Indian Supreme court said recently that religion and politics should not be mixed. So that is something that echoes with what you are saying. Would you like to comment on point like this ?Philippe Humbert: Secularism in France is an essential ideal. Long ago, for years, for centuries the King was supposed to represent God in France. But that has changed. So much so, that the Catholic Church of France had been struggling to have a strong influence over the state and government in many areas. But the fact is that the 1905 law, (law on separation of religion and the State) what’s called Laicite in France is still there.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: There were also demands to reform the secularism idea of France, especially in the context of the Hijab controversy and related issues that came up in the 90s and early 2000s….Philippe Humbert: Yes there are some views like that and it’s reality now but you know this law, the 1905 law, has not been changed. It has not been changed at all. Only thing is that its implementation in some areas, mainly in schools and in some public domain areas like Administration, can be in ways, a bit pragmatic, according to local circumstances. But the law has not been changed and I don’t think it will be changed.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Do you think it should not be changed?Philippe Humbert: It should not be changed. Because it is a law that provides for some basic freedom of conscience, freedom of religions, freedom of performing your religion, freedom of not to tell some people to do something. So it’s very basic. In a way it’s very simple. In principle it’s very simple. Of course, sometimes the implementation can be a bit complicated but I think it should not be changed and there is no real attempt to change the law, except some people asking for that.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: But even when you say that, one also sees that the far right in France is growing in strength from election to election and they’re getting more and more seats in Parliament, they are having a higher share of votes. So ultimately I think, perhaps, France is also heading towards an India-kind of situation.Philippe Humbert: Okay well, it’s true that the far right is increasing. There are currently about 80 to 90 MPs. Which is a big number, the biggest ever and there is a trend but we will see in the future. It is very difficult to say that in some years things will be as some people would like it to be. just imagine the situation four years ago. It was before COVID, before the Ukrainian war, and see how the world was different now. So, four years ahead, well, see. But we have to fight.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: I think across Europe migration is a major issue. And if you look at France’s history, France was a country which promoted migration especially from African countries like Tunisia. But I think there is a public sentiment against it growing in France as well. How do you account for something like that?Philippe Humbert: Yes it is true that there is migration pressure coming from the South. Mainly coming from African countries and also from countries which are involved in wars you know. Afghanistan, Syria and now Ukrainians, but it’s a very different context. It is true there is a kind of pressure. But we’ll have to build up a regime where we can welcome those people who are willing to settle down and to be integrated in and that to be done. But there is a quantum which is possible to accommodate and sometimes, on some occasion there are some situations which are difficult to tackle.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Anyway, let us come back to India. Because we have been talking about France more than India. I remember in some of your writings, when you said that the India Story, which you have been following since the middle 1980s, is about economic growth. That is something which you have consistently held. What is the kind of economic growth situation that you see in India at this point of time?Philippe Humbert: Well I think the economic growth in India for this current year is supposed to be around six percent, which is a relatively high number compared to the world. In many countries it is much less, even in China. Even so, this is a nominal number of growth. There are strong points in the Indian economy. I would say that all those IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, all the services or those related to renewable energy are doing quite well. Especially Solar energy, which was my field, saw great development in India over the last few years. Other areas that are going very well are, I think, Aeronautics. Civil aviation is also booming. And of course, the telecommunication work has totally changed. The technology is totally new now and you know that. And India is performing well in this field. But also, what is not new is that some basic problems in India are not served right. First, mass education. I think India should have a mass education project, which has been done in China. And if China is at such a high level that’s because they have performed much more in education and social amenities. I think in India you have a very high level of higher institutions, such the famous IITs and many private universities are doing exceptionally well. But still mass education is not growing at a desired rate.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Indeed, there has to be some focus on mass education. But in terms of primary and secondary education, there are States like Kerala which have done very well.Philippe Humbert: Yeah, yes. It demonstrates that it is possible. It is just a matter of will. In India you have a Centre and you have the States. Kerala is doing well. Tamil Nadu is doing pretty well also. Why are other states not doing as well? So it’s a matter of concern. The possibilities are not used by the local authorities of those States which are not dedicated enough in some cases.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Right. You talked about the growth in the aviation industry. France and India have an aviation connection, <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">the <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/exposing-the-corruption-wars-in-the-modi-regime/">Rafaele</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> Deal.&nbsp; How do you look at that connection?Philippe Humbert: But it’s not new. It’s not new at all. You must remember that Dassault aeroplanes have been introduced in India, in the 1950s. And many of the Pilots have been trained on planes coming from Dassault at that time. So it is a very old story. The relationship in aviation. Then it came to a new kind of aeroplane. The last one is Rafael. So I know India has selected Rafael but it is true also for civil aviation. And very recently Air India has ordered, the biggest order, in the world. Five hundred aeroplanes. Coming from about 50% Airbus and 50% Boeing. It shows that Civil aviation is booming in India. A lot of airports are being expanded.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Apart from aviation the other area that you know India and France had a huge collaboration was on solar energy. What is the future of that now?Philippe Humbert: Well I am extremely dedicated to the solar industry because I’ve been in India, like five, six years working in India itself, expanding solar plants with a French company which is a pioneer in industry. It was in 2015 and you remember the COP15 in Paris. It was where the solar alliance, the International Solar Alliance, was created with the French government and your government and now implemented in Delhi. So I am a strong believer of solar energy and generally renewable energy with wind and other sources.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: But is India doing well in the renewable energy section?Philippe Humbert: I think India is going quite well for renewable energy. To see the numbers of gigawatts which are installed at capacity is huge. So for India, it is a good move. I must say that it’s a good example of what has to be done in many countries. Solar energy and wind energy.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: India has now got the chairmanship of the G20 now. How do you think it is going to impact India’s global standing as well as especially its relationship with countries like France?Philippe Humbert: Yes, this is new. I think India is more assertive in world affairs. For a long time India was a bit idle, very shy. Not visible on the planet despite its traditions. Now I think things are different. India is much more assertive because of its weight. Maybe as number five in economic power. So you can’t hide yourself in the planet you have to fare well. G20 too is a good opportunity for that. Although, with the Ukrainian War and the rift between the so-called West and Russia-China block is making things quite difficult for India monitoring the G20. It was seen at the last meeting of the finance ministers here in Delhi. They could not sign an agreement. So the Ukrainian war makes things difficult for India to monitor the G20. I think the September meeting will be difficult also. Maybe the same will happen.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Apart from the differences in terms of the Russia-Ukraine war, the other thing that was flagged was the human rights situation in this country. And I think, you know, the Indian foreign minister kind of asserted that you cannot have a universal standard for engaging in terms of human rights. Each country has got to have its own parameters. Thinking about this point, I remember how you have asserted in the past as to how Rajiv Gandhi’s political perspectives were essentially guided by democratic values.But now you have a situation where his son and the former Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi has been divested of his parliamentary membership. So how do you look at this comparison?Philippe Humbert: Well I think this is happening also in India but also in many places. You can see that in the world now how things are done in a very pragmatic way. Just imagine this new alliance in the Middle East. Between countries like Israel and its neighbours. For example, the famous Abraham’s agreement. More and more nations are doing things in a very pragmatic way. In a way it is good but in another way it goes against the concept of universal human of Rights.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Thank you, Philip Humbert for your perspectives. Despite your long tradition as a secularist, and as long a tradition as a socialist, somebody who believes in social democracy, I can see that, at the end of it all, what you are seeing globally is not a very bright picture. But almost a bleak one but then let’s hope for better times and I wish you have a very good time in India as the kind of times that you used to have earlier. And we will meet in the future as well on The AIDEM Interactions. Thank you.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Watch the full interview, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/democracy-is-being-challenged-across-the-globe/">here</a>. Read full transcript in Hindi, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/hi-philippe-humbert-on-energy-g20-and-challenges-to-democracy/">here</a>.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a>

Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Philippe Humbert, French political analyst and long time India watcher, with Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Editor of The AIDEM. 

The AIDEM Interactions: Philippe Humbert

How many times have you been fixed, I mean put back together again, by a song, a film, a piece of art? As my team and I lurched from crisis to illness to crisis, I took my work-oppressed, battle-weary soul to the Kochi Muziris Biennale in Kerala. 

Au Revoir Biennale – To Be Resurrected By Art

This column will deal with words and concepts and their changing and nuanced meanings. Indeed , many more interpretations and value additions are possible on the words and descriptions that figure in this series. The AIDEM invites further discussions on these words and concepts from readers.Participation has become a buzz word in the domains of development and governance. We come across phrases like participatory development, participatory growth, participatory democracy, participatory governance and so on. In fact, the word ‘participatory’ has become a popular prefix to many political and social concepts. This has happened since development theorists considered people’s participation necessary for sustainable development. In fact, before a development project is undertaken, people should be consulted on it objectives and strategies. This process of consultation was called Participatory Rural Appraisal. This was experimented in India by a British Academic named Robert Chambers in Jharkhand, which was part of the State of Bihar. Conversely, absence of participation leads to undesirable consequences.Some theorists would claim that the concept of participation has been around from ancient times. In Greek city-states, participation was a fundamental aspect of democracy where citizens participated in public affairs through ballot voting, public debates, and jury services. The concept was central even in theological practices where participation in divine grace or communion was key to salvation. In traditional Hinduism, making sacrifices or conducting the ritual of upnayanana (initiation) was considered participation.But the concept in 20th century has emerged in a modern form with growth of social movements and political consciousness. The idea that people should have greater say in decision-making processes that affect their lives became universal; particularly in developing countries the participatory approach to development has become a preferred strategy.Thus participation has become a key concept in various fields: development, education, social work, public policy, and so on. Also, today the concept of participation includes not only people’s involvement in decision making but also access to information, resources and opportunities, which enable people to participate effectively in society.In a semi-official conversation, an official of the West Bengal government shared this understanding of participatory development: Suppose a school is to be built in a village. The decision is taken in the Block Development Office. Villagers are not consulted about the location of the school, the type of building, the number of students expected to enroll, the catchment area, and so on. The school is built. But students do not turn up in required numbers as the parents do not know the quality or demeanor of the teachers. Some villagers without a direct stake in the school start chipping away the tiles from the roof, or mess up the premises by letting the cattle roam on the campus. The school becomes unviable.Why did it happen? The villagers should have been overjoyed with a new school. They were not, as they did not participate in the process of setting up the school; rather they were alienated from it. So, participation leads progressively to ownership of the outcome of the decision taken.What do we mean by participation? Does being present in a meeting constitute participation? For instance, if villagers attend the meetings of local governments like grama sabha does it mean that they are participating? The literal meaning of the word is ‘to have a part or share in something’. But the operative meaning would be, “to have a say on or contribute to the outcome of a particular activity”. To illustrate, if the meeting is discussing the strategic plan of an organisation or development plan of a group/village or resolving a conflict, anyone contributing to any of these would mean participation.If it is a political meeting that is making a policy or taking a decision, participation will mean contributing to the process of policy-making or decision-taking.So, participation is contextual, depending on the nature of activities. For instance, if a student is attending a class and actively listening, they are said to be participating in the lecture. Raising a question or seeking a clarification from the lecturer would also mean participation. Some would say simply listening to a lecture is passive participation whereas reacting to the lecture would be active participation.Let me share an anecdote. A journalist had an appointment with the Prime Minister of a European country. The journalist arrived on time and was escorted into the office of the Prime Minister. To his amazement, the journalist found the Prime Minister relaxing in a chair, looking at the ceiling and smoking a cigar. The journalist began the conversation, “Sir, you seem to be unwinding.” The Prime Minister replied smilingly, “not really, I am in fact working. I am participating in the development of my country.” The journalist’s surprise was deepened by the answer. The Prime Minister, realising the journalist’s discomfiture, explained: “I am thinking; that is what I am elected for, to think for my country. And that is how I am participating with my countrymen and women in the welfare and development of the country”.Let us now see what is not participation? Take a couple of hackneyed phrases, almost trite. Participatory growth, which is often used by politicians, is not a correct expression. A country can grow without everybody participating in the growth process. Growth is defined and measured by the amount of wealth (GDP) the country generates. A few business houses and public enterprises can bring about that growth. Common citizens may make no contribution to the wealth creation. I raised this issue in a conference in Berlin and was endorsed by others. But participatory development is a correct phrase. As explained, development will not be effective or sustainable without the participation of the stakeholders, mainly the beneficiaries.Is democracy participatory? This is another popular phrase. This must be contextually examined. It may be the case in some countries where direct democracy is in practice even on a limited scale Democracy underlines the primacy of the voters or citizens. In fact, they are sovereign in a democracy. Is that the case in the ‘largest democracy’ of the world or in many other democracies? If you look at the democracy index brought out by The Economist, only a few countries appear to be fair democracies and the rest are flawed or hybrid.Another similar phrase is participatory governance. This is even more complicated and confusing. Governance consists of three main functions in a democracy: legislative, executive and judicial. How are these three functions participatory? One could accept the legislative function as participatory as Parliament and legislatures are run by elected representatives, whatever may be the merit and extent of collective deliberations! But what about participation in the executive and the judiciary? The argument could be that the executive function is led by the Cabinet but, it is the bureaucracy which carries out the administration. There have been attempts to make executive participatory by encouraging police-public cooperation. Likewise, the judiciary is being made participatory by introducing institutions like Lok Adalat and mediation centers. But they are only supplementary functions in a limited scale. So, to say that governance is participatory is a misnomer.Therefore, let us understand clearly the concept and use it impactfully.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">For past releases of Words and Concepts, <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/words-and-concepts/">Click Here</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

​This column will deal with words and concepts and their changing and nuanced meanings. Indeed , many more interpretations and value additions are possible on the words and descriptions that figure in this series. The AIDEM invites further discussions on these words and concepts from readers.

Words and Concepts- 2: Participation

Nearly two months after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the Punjab Assembly elections in 2022, party supremo Arvind Kejriwal held a roadshow for a party candidate in the run up to Lok Sabha byelection in Sangrur, a seat that had fallen vacant after Bhagwant Mann resigned and assumed office as Chief Minister. While Kejriwal was seen standing out from the car’s sunroof, the new Mann travelled in the car clutching its window. Earlier, some pictures that went viral showed him touching Kejriwal’s feet after becoming the Chief Minister. Such visuals cemented the public perception that the AAP-led Punjab government was going to be controlled from Delhi.No doubt, the AAP’s massive victory in the Assembly elections was well defined by the party’s election slogan “Ek Mauqa Kejriwal Nu (One chance for Kejriwal)” that appealed to the people who had been completely disillusioned with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress, the parties that had ruled Punjab alternately thus far. Eventually, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader and Khalistan supporter, Simranjit Singh Mann, won Sangrur, an AAP stronghold, which was an indication that popular disillusionment with the AAP government had set in sooner than expected. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/mann_768x432_3c96456d1a.png" alt="mann-768x432.png">Punjab CM Bhagwant MannAfter having completed one year in power, the AAP is yet to fulfil its election promises. There are several instances of the party’s publicity stunts leaving it with an egg on its face. Here, some instances:Mann had to be admitted to a hospital after he drank a glassful of water directly from the Kali Bein, a holy rivulet in Sultanpur Lodhi, in media presence. He was trying to demonstrate that Balbir Singh Seechewal, who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the AAP, had made the river water drinkable through his sustained efforts. In fact, the party had evoked fierce criticism for choosing persons like Raghav Chadha and Ashok Kumar Mittal, Chancellor of Lovely Professional University, as its nominees after sweeping the Assembly elections. Both Mittal and Chaddha are considered political green horns and do not have much popular acceptance in Punjab . Chaddha is also perceived as an outsider . Sidhu Moosewala, famous singer and Congress leader, was murdered soon after his security was downgraded; and details were planted in the media to show that as a progressive step to end VIP culture in the debt-ridden State. In less than two months after the AAP had formed government on the promise of rooting out corruption, its Health Minister Vijay Singhla was dimissed from the Cabinet on corruption charges. Singhla, however, continues to organise public gatherings and attend party meetings.Emergence of AmritpalAgainst this backdrop, Punjab has seen the emergence of the self-styled Khalistan propagator Amritpal Singh, who heads the Waris Punjab De, a political group. In the State’s social, religious and political circles, Amritpal’s rise is believed to have the blessing of the State and Central governments. Before he was declared fugitive by the Punjab police on March 18, Amritpal had been active for over seven months. He was challenging the Indian state through his fiery speeches from public platforms and interviews to the local media. In Punjab’s recent past, Khalistan sympathisers have been given life imprisonments for possessing incriminatory literature. After Sidhu Moosewala’s murder, the State police cracked down on songs and singers for allegedly promoting gun culture.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_4_cadb332e48.png" alt="image-4.png"> Khalistan propagator Amritpal SinghIn the past few years the Narendra Modi government has shown exceptional alacrity to crush the voices of dissent against, among other things, the revocation of Article 370 and the Citizen Amendment Act. Another instance is the arrest and imprisonment of writers and intellectuals who were allegedly responsible for Bhima Koregaon violence. Also, the Central government has quickly acted against Khalistan supporters abroad. But in the case of Amprital, observers say, it allegedly allowed him to propagate secessionism instead of invoking Article 355 of the Constitution (laying down the duty of the government to protect States against external aggression and internal disturbance) , amass weapons and raise a militia. He was allowed to take out a procession to the Ajnala police station after he had openly threatened to do so. The Ajnala incident was preceded by clashes between police and protesters demanding release of Bandhi Sikhs (political prisoners) at the Mohali border a few days ago but the police seemed to have been caught unawared when the police station was stormed and besieged by the radical mob led by Amritpal.Though Governor Banwarilal Purohit has publicly admonished the Mann government on several issues, he chose to maintain silence even as Amritpal held public rallies and delivered inflammatory speeches, advocating creation of Sikh sovereign state after separating Punjab from India. Amritpal never shied away from giving calls to pick up guns against the Indian state. While taking law enforcement agencies for a ride, he had been storming gurudwaras and police stations with his gun-wielding supporters and issuing diktats well before Ajnala incident happened.After the disappearance of Amritpal, the Internet was banned, over 300 persons were detained, and twitter handles BBC Punjabi, media practitioners and activists were withheld. Unsurprisingly, the audio and video messages of Amritpal are being allowed to do the rounds on the social media. The AAP government has banned several songs supporting secessionism in Punjab in the recent past. But a different yardstick is being used for Amritpal.BJP, AAP on the same page?In Punjab, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AAP seem to be normalising the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s Hindutva politics at the national level in an effort to make Punjab Congress-mukt (free). The AAP leadership has been leaving no opportunity to rake up the wounds of 1984 to attack the Congress and its former president Rahul Gandhi. While the BJP has been successful in poaching Congress stalwarts such as Amarinder Singh, Sunil Jhakar and Manpreet Singh Badal and Charanjit Singh Channi, it is yet to recover from the election defeat. Still, the embattled Congress seems to be the only formidable opposition force in Punjab.The return of SidhuThe release of Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu from the Patiala Central Jail, where he served a sentence of 10 months following his conviction in a 1988 road rage case, has given a new lease of life to the party. After coming out of the jail, Sidhu has started training his guns on the BJP-led Central government, while accusing Mann of being subservient to Delhi. He has slammed the State government over the law and order situation in Punjab, alleging that jails have turned into suvidha centres (convenience points) for crimes. His visit to the parents of Sidhu Moosewala, who had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election on the Congress ticket last year, is a counter to the attempts by the Khalistan sympathisers to appropriate the cultural legacy of the popular singer who was murdered on May 29, 2022.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_3_a200f403ab.png" alt="image-3.png"> Congress leader and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu The 59-year-old cricketer turned politician has been reminding people of Arvind Kejriwal’s pre-election statement of generating Rs. 30,000 crore by ending corruption and Rs. 20,000 crore by checking the sand mafia. It is an irony, he says, that the AAP government is now going with a “begging bowl” to the Centre seeking Rs 50,000 crore annually. On March 24, Mann had sought annual aid from the Centre for at least two years citing the poor financial health of the State government. He has also questioned Mann about the Centre’s growing grip on Punjab, citing the increase in the jurisdiction of Border Security Force (BSF), a central paramilitary force, up to 50 km from Pakistan border in Punjab.Incidentally, the police action against Amritpal came after Mann’s meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah earlier in March, which brought additional companies of paramilitary forces to Punjab. “Now friend, you have brought 50 companies (of paramilitary force). Which mega deal have you signed?” Sidhu asked CM Mann.The general perception in Punjab is that the State government has been acting at the behest of the Central government, by allowing Amritpal to become an icon initially and then creating a spectacle of a final crackdown on him. The idea, people believe, is to vilify Punjab and Sikhs, who were at the forefront of a relentless year-long agitation that forced the Centre to roll back three controversial farm laws. Mann’s critics feel that he has been playing the Centre’s game and fear that the ground is being prepared for President’s rule in Punjab where Sikhs, who are a minority at the national but a majority within the State. They cite the example of Jammu and Kashmir, which is under the Centre’s direct rule since 2018 in support of their apprehensions.In fact, Haryana’s Home Minister has said on record that the Punjab police was slow to act on a tipoff about Amritpal’s presence in his State a day after he reportedly gave the slip to the police in Jalandhar on March 18. Days before Amritpal caught national attention following the Ajnala incident, TV interviews of Lawrence Bishnoi, who is considered a high-risk criminal, emerged from the jails. Lawrence has justified the murder of Sidhu Moosewala _ a comment seen as aimed at provoking Punjabis. Lawrence claimed to be a nationalist, saying he was opposed to the idea of Khalistan. Even Kunwar Vijay Pratap, a retired IPS officer and AAP’s MLA from Amritsar North, has admitted in his media that the Punjab police has been facing a leadership crisis.There are signs of Amrpital being a product of State government’s inefficiency and the Central government’s manipulations. In support of this apprehension, observers cite the case of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the religious preacher and militant leader in the 1980s. While the Shiromani Akali Dal led by the Badal family has become almost politically redundant due to corruption charges against the leadership and its departure from its core agenda, the popular disenchantment with the Congress party under the leadership of Amarinder Singh and Charanjit Singh Channi had also pushed Punjab towards the AAP.In this scenario, Sidhu seems to have picked up all the right threads after entering politics again. He has raised the ‘Punjabiyat’ pitch, asserting the State’s sub-national identity. During the marathon Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi referred to Tamil sub-nationalism positively while speaking in the Lok Sabha earlier in February. Turning to the BJP members, he said: “You will never, ever in your entire life, rule over the people of Tamil Nadu. It can’t be done.” For want of an expression in mainstream politics, the unaddressed regional aspirations of Punjab might continue to give traction to the likes of Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale and Amritpals.<strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">YouTube</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">WhatsApp</a>

Nearly two months after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the Punjab Assembly elections in 2022, party supremo Arvind Kejriwal held a roadshow for a party candidate in the run up to Lok Sabha byelection in Sangrur, a seat that had fallen vacant after Bhagwant Mann resigned and assumed office as Chief Minister.

Punjab’s Simmering Sub-nationalism

As the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally takes place in Delhi today, a group of notable citizens and intellectuals have issued a statement urging people to join the massive rally of agricultural labourers and workers as they unite. The Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) have all called for the demonstration. They claim that the current government’s policies are purely intended to favour the corporate sector while ignoring the interests of the working class, drawing attention to the significant fall in the lives and livelihoods of working people in both urban and rural areas.The full statement reads as follows:We the undersigned extend our full support to the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally in Delhi on 5 April 2023 and appeal to the people from all walks of life to spread its message and participate in it. The condition of the working people has deteriorated to an unprecedented level due to the notorious economic onslaught unleashed by the current government. Declining wages, rising prices of essential commodities, raging unemployment, falling returns for farm produce, abysmal agricultural wages, ever deepening agrarian distress resulting in precarious migration of millions, and floundering welfare schemes systematically curtailed by the government, are pushing marginal families into severe poverty. The distress caused by the economic crisis is leading to suicides by thousands of wage workers, farmers and other sections of the toiling masses. Meanwhile, basic entitlements like education and healthcare are being increasingly privatised, pushing them beyond the reach of common people.What is equally shocking is the government’s refusal to address this crisis engulfing almost all sections of the people. In fact the government is blindly pushing ahead with its discredited policy of providing gifts to the corporates by cutting corporate taxes, selling off public sector assets at throwaway prices, dismantling protective labour laws, writing off huge corporate loans, and inviting predatory foreign capital into the country’s key and strategic industries hitherto reserved for the public sector. Corruption has seeped into every sphere of social life.In order to divert attention from these policies, the ruling BJP, and its mentor the RSS and its affiliates, have launched toxic hate campaigns targeting minorities and threatening our basic social fabric. The government has provided shameful protection to these barbaric forces while at the same time selectively exercising the authority of its agencies to arrest, harass, and even bulldoze the properties of those opposing its policies. It has also tried to hide behind pseudo-nationalist rhetoric and militarism even as it goes about dismantling the fundamental pillars of our Constitution – democracy, federalism and secularism.Various sections of the people, especially the working class and the peasantry have been building resistance against this disastrous corporate-communal agenda of the ruling dispensation. On several occasions they have successfully pushed back neoliberal anti people policies, as evident from the historic Kisan struggle or the recent victory of Maharashtra electricity workers.We firmly believe that this historic march to Delhi by the workers, peasants and agricultural workers, raising the basic issues and demands of all sections of the people, on 5 April 2023 will further advance the people’s resistance and give notice to this government that its anti-people policies will no longer be tolerated.We appeal to the people of the country to stand with the basic producing classes and join them in this struggle.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Full Statement and Signatories: <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/wp-contenthttps://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/2023/04/Statement-on-April-05-Kisan-March.pdf">Statement on April 05 Kisan March</a><hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a>

As the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally takes place in Delhi today, a group of notable citizens and intellectuals have issued a statement urging people to join the massive rally of agricultural labourers and workers as they unite. The Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) have all called for the demonstration. They claim that the current government’s policies are purely intended to favour the corporate sector while ignoring the interests of the working class, drawing attention to the significant fall in the lives and livelihoods of working people in both urban and rural areas.

In support of the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally

It’s funny how I <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDjeGHmb3hc">interviewed</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; Vivan Sundaram only once, but I’ve been having conversations with him in my head ever since. It was the year 2011 and Vivan’s latest recycling of trash was on display at the Lalit Kala Academy in Delhi. The previous avatar, titled ‘Trash’, was in 2005 – a continuing theme, of taking used objects and turning them into something spectacular. This time around, it was re-christened ‘Gagawaka – Making Strange’ and on display were blow-up dolls and mannequins wearing recycled film from hospitals, red bras, paper cups and tampons. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/pasted_image_0_1_1_1024x576_371cfc06a4.png" alt="pasted-image-0-1-1-1024x576.png">Installation using tampons (left) I was stupid enough to gaze long and hard at the tampons, blink hard and ask, on camera, “And what is that?”Vivan laughed but said, ever so gently with no hint of condescension whatsoever, “Come on, you’re a woman, figure it out.”“Oh tampons,” I said, feeling like I should allow myself to be eaten by the nearest available mannequin.Ever since, I have been mesmerised by what I saw that day.The recycling, a deeply political act, was about many things as Vivan patiently explained.Garbage is what we put out each day, while looking past those who collect it. And we imagine that we stand on merit and that our being, where we are and those who take out our trash being where they are, has nothing to do with happenstance and the accident of birth and thousands of years of discrimination against garbage collectors or people assigned to one profession and forced to stay there. The recycling was to my mind, as I played back the stunning images and experience that Vivan created, about inverting our gaze about caste, about making discrimination trash and hoping to shock us gallery-goers out of our bigoted stupors.If you can take toxicity and make something beautiful out of it, you invert identity politics as well. You say a loud and proud `up yours’ to a world turned into a giant homogenous hate-filled hole.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/pasted_image_0_2_1_1024x576_bd974b27a4.png" alt="pasted-image-0-2-1-1024x576.png"> Installations in ‘Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem’ All around us is the putrid smell of hate. Now it’s Umar Khalid as target, now Rahul Gandhi. Everyone falls down as our world collapses, to be swallowed whole by one large bigoted monster, the Great Dictator, the Holier than Holy, Epithet eating Hindutva establishment aka our government. Eating into our collective sanity, one day and person and politician at a time. I reacted with body and mind by relocating, away from Delhi, the place where I grew up and the only place I knew – Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, to set up an NGO and work on transformation in my own way.One of the communities we work with – the Dehwas, are a people formerly labelled criminals and then people who work largely in the garbage recycling business. I looked in fascination over the last few years as the Dehwas took apart watch parts and the rubber soles of chappals, scraps of cloth, metal, plastic and, in my mind, saw them magically transform into Vivan’s latest exhibits. A new Gagawaka, only in Shamli. The artistic transformation would cause a real transformation in the image of the Dehwas and become a talking point for the city of Shamli. `Vivan, please allow a few young artists inspired by your ideas and your politics to come and transform us, our minds, our world,’ I kept saying to myself in my loopy hallucinatory way, while not reaching out to him in real life at all. It was my private ongoing fantasy lived out through Vivan.The day I spent with him at the Sahitya Academy, where he had to educate me about tampons as well as jockeys was one where a part of me still lives. And will continue to, as I use it to create a different kind of transformation – that’s the power of one day, spent looking inside the universe of Vivan.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_03_30_143430722_768x432_5217dd96c8.png" alt="image_2023-03-30_143430722-768x432.png"> Reavti Laul with Vivan Sundaram<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">As I watched the <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDjeGHmb3hc">video</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> we made while I was a journalist at Tehelka, the `we’ includes the now famous and absolutely stunning filmmaker Shaunak Sen, who was filming the Vivan exhibition – it may even have been his idea in the first place. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Shaunak went on to make Cities of Sleep,’ one way of looking at trash and transformation. And then the film everyone knows about is `All That Breathes,’ and if you have not seen it you absolutely must. A film where three young men living in the middle of piles of garbage, rescue kites that feed off the innards of the city of Delhi and together – people and kites, like Vivan Sundaram’s art, change our perspective of what is garbage and where beauty lies. I haven’t asked Shaunak this but I wonder now, whether a bit of Gagawaka lives on in him as it does in me.We need to `Make Strange,’ as Vivan puts it, when the normal is obscenely abnormal and when our rights, our voice, our dissent, our air is unbreathable. Vivan, thank you for your shit. I can’t think of a better way of saying it than that.<strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">YouTube</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">WhatsApp</a>

It’s funny how I interviewed Vivan Sundaram only once, but I’ve been having conversations with him in my head ever since. It was the year 2011 and Vivan’s latest recycling of trash was on display at the Lalit Kala Academy in Delhi.

To Vivan And To Better Politics When We Need It Most

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s blunders over the past week have set in motion a political churn that is pregnant with possibilities. First, recent developments have proved to be a boon for Rahul Gandhi in that it has established the scion of the Nehru dynasty as a leader in his own right. Secondly, it has brought together the Opposition forces like never before. And lastly, it has galvanised the Congress party. To sum up, recent developments indicate that change is in the air. Delhi’s political circles are abuzz with an energy seldom seen in recent times.Hemmed into a corner over the Adani issue, the BJP at first tried to tide over it with its trademark arrogance. But when that failed to dam the barrage of negative publicity and speculation around government-corporate nexus, the BJP decided to isolate Rahul Gandhi. The Narendra Modi-led government was already seething with anger over the success of Rahul Gandhi’s vibrant Bharat Jodo Yatra. Despite naysayers and a media blackout of the yatra, it showed Rahul Gandhi in a new and favourable light. His stamina and fitted white T-Shirt only added to his newfound charisma. Even a biased media that used to regale their audience by taking cheap potshots at Rahul Gandhi stopped calling him Pappu. Images of the man with just a T-Shirt under biting cold did not give them a chance to mock him.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/RG_in_parli_768x418_1_e23bedfe40.jpg" alt="RG-in-parli-768x418 (1).jpg"> Rahul Gandhi speaking inside Lok SabhaThreatened by Rahul Gandhi’s growing street cred [acceptance by the general public], the BJP tried to put him down by other means. The Delhi police reached his house to question him about his statement in Kashmir during the yatra about women “still being sexually assaulted” in that region. They apparently wanted to know the names and identities of the affected women so that they could take appropriate steps for their safety. Coming 45 days after the yatra ended, Congress leaders termed the police action as unprecedented, and said it was sheer harassment. Even leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, a direct political rival of the Congress in Delhi, had to concede that misusing probe agencies against Rahul Gandhi was wrong.Next came the conviction of Rahul Gandhi by the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Surat and his subsequent disqualification as a Lok Sabha member from Kerala’s Wayanad. The conviction is largely seen as one obtained under mysterious circumstances and the kind of sentence he has been given is perceived as peculiar. This has had an unintended impact as far as the BJP is concerned — that of uniting Opposition parties. In the direct aftermath of this, 14 political parties approached the Supreme Court with a petition alleging that agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were targeting only opponents of the BJP. Judges led by the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud took note of the submission of senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and listed the case for April 5. In Feburuary, the Chief Justice had described the basic structure of the Constitution, laid down by the Supreme Court in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgment, as the North Star that guided and given direction to the implementers of the Constitution when the way ahead was convoluted. This is being held by the detractors of the current regime as a metaphor for the current times and the kindling of a hope that the Supreme Court will act as a North Star when the time comes.The parties which filed the case in the Supreme Court include the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Janata Dal-United, Aam Aadmi Party, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Party, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction), the National Conference, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Left parties and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Each of these parties has had to face the wrath of the BJP in one way or the other. The fact that Arvind Kejriwal joined the Opposition ranks is significant as his former deputy Manish Sisodia was the latest victim in a growing list of Opposition leaders being intimidated, raided or harassed by central agencies.Stalin backs RahulLast week, in a closed door meeting at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters in Chennai, party president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin declared that he would stand up for Rahul Gandhi and invited the views of senior party leaders on his decision. According to a DMK insider, an overwhelming majority of the leaders vehemently supported his stand. Stalin warned them that if they take this position, they might have to face retaliatory action from the BJP and its government at the Centre _ fund cuts to the State, the ED and CBI raids against party leaders, and so on. But according to the senior DMK representative, the party leaders were firm that they would stand up and fight unmindful of the BJP’s aggressive response. This meeting reflects the determination that is spurring many Opposition parties to join ranks and stand together. There is a recognition that it is no longer a fight for electoral gains but one for saving India’s democracy.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/rg_stalin_768x384_c02d314cc9.jpeg" alt="rg-stalin-768x384.jpeg"> Rahul Gandhi with MK StalinDemocracy and political survival at stakeThere is also an all-round admission that the Surat judgment was biased and unfair. Political leaders have begun to feel that if this could happen to a leaders like Rahul, then anything can happen to anybody. Responses expressing solidarity with Rahul Gandhi have created a newfound camaraderie even amongst rivals at the regional level as there is a serious apprehension about the survival of the non-BJP political class. The disqualification of Rahul Gandhi is seen by the Opposition leadrs as a sign of the crisis of democracy. It is still unclear what will happen to Rahul’s appeal against the Surat judgment and whether he will be able to context election. But these have taken the back seat because of the fact that he has emerged as a big political force around whom various political parties are rallying.A weak caseAs far as the case is concerned, even lawyers who are not strong supporters of the Congress or Rahul Gandhi have raises eyebrows. Whether the petitioner in the Surat case, Gujarat BJP MLA and former Minister Purnesh Modi, satisfies the conditions of being the aggrieved person in the defamation case is not clear. His petition argued that Rahul’s statement on Modis was an act of defamation against the Other Backward Community. Purnesh Modi is neither an OBC nor was he the intended target of the remarks made by Rahul Gandhi during an election rally in Karnataka in 2019 wondering why all thieves have the surname Modi, “Why do all these thieves have Modi in their names? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. And if we search a bit more, perhaps many more such Modis will come out,” he had said.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/rahul_1_24b2cae3ed.jpg" alt="rahul (1).jpg">In a significant move, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD held meetings in Uttar Pradesh denouncing this charge. RJD leaders pointed out that it was preposterous to consider Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi as members of the OBC community.What has baffled the legal community is the fact that the petitioner himself had asked for a stay on the proceedings in March 2022. Some lawyers have pointed out that the case picked up momentuu only after Rahul started talking about a possible nexus between Narendra Modi and Gautam Adani in Parliament. Whatever the case may be, all these twists and turns are working to the advantage of Rahul and the Opposition. Rarely has a court order brought so much joy in the Opposition camp. It has also thrown the Adani issue into a fresh perspective. No matter how much the government wishes to move past the issue, the Adani scam has become a mainstream issue. Once Hindenburg Research broke the story around Adani, different media outlets have published stories that show Adani in a poor light. For instance, the latest story on the exposure of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s exposure to the Adani group shows that the Adani scam goes way beyond the stock market and affects the common man.The Adani scam has also put Indian corporate and political activities on the global scanner. International media is keeping a watchful eye on the goings on in India. Foreign perception may or may not play a role in domestic affairs but there is no denying that foreign media have begun to join the dots. Columnists working in big papers, including the New York Times, have been making connections between Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and his criticism of Narendra Modi. His disqualification from Parliament is being seen as a direct result of his warning abroad about India’s democracy being under threat.The BJP is in a bind. The only way it can wriggle out of it is by giving up the fight against the Congress. But it is too late now for any rethink. Any move to arrest Rahul is likely to lead to a mood of popular resistance reminiscent of the Emergency times. Nationalit arguments equating Adani with India are wearing thin. The narrative around this issue has reached a point of no return. Whether the momentum continues until the 2024 Lok Sabha elections remains to be seen. But there is no denying that the BJP is strengthening its main adversary at this point in time.<strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">YouTube</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">WhatsApp</a>

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s blunders over the past week have set in motion a political churn that is pregnant with possibilities.

Rahul Disqualification : The blowback Puts BJP in a Bind and Galvanises the Opposition

This column deals with words and concepts and their changing and nuanced meanings. Indeed , many more interpretations and value additions are possible on the words and descriptions that figure in this series. The AIDEM invites further discussions on these words and concepts from readers.We use words that embody profound concepts often without comprehending their nuances. So words remain simply words without producing the intended impact. If this is the state of Inter-personal conversation, which becomes empty and ritualistic, what can one say about conversations that have national import and implications? A cluttered understanding of the operative meaning of a word contributes to tension and conflict at interpersonal, institutional and public levels. Hence, for the sake of clear communication that leads to desired action towards fulfilment of our objectives, knowing the word is critically important.In Indian literary traditions, a word has three types of meanings. Among others, Kaviraj Vishwanath Goswami has explained them in Sahitya Darpan. They are: shabdarth (literal meaning), bhavarth (figurative and contextual meaning), guddharth (deeper and philosophical meaning). Usually, the last one is imbibed by an individual who knows the earlier two meanings of the word.Interestingly, I have encountered the confusion and gross misuse of words/concepts in all sectors – government, business, development, and academia, and so on. The development sector is the biggest victim of such confusion as it operates on a greater number of concepts than the other sectors. There is a litany of development jargons – need-based assessment, participatory development, livelihood generation, gender equity, sustainability, social mobilisation, inclusion, ownership, and so on. In politics, we see concepts like democracy, secularism, socialism, pluralism, equality, social justice, federalism, devolution, decentralisation, deprivation, discrimination and displacement, and so on.Let me share one interesting and instructive anecdote that prompted me to come up with this column. A European development agency had invited their partner NGOs in India working on gender projects to a training-workshop run by a noted gender expert of our country. There were about 21 NGOs attending it in a farmhouse in Delhi. I was one of them. The resource person (gender expert) asked all of us to write in a piece of paper in a few words the meaning of gender as we knew it. To everyone’s surprise, only one and half answers were correct. The correct answer was given by a young lady who had attended a previous training programme conducted by the same gender expert. The half-correct answer was mine!Gender is often understood as denoting sex. As I said, the literal meaning or common understanding of the word could be so. But not exactly! In grammar, we have three genders – male, female and neuter (for inanimate objects). Now, the meaning of gender has proliferated depending on the sexual orientation of people. We had male/female and LGBT until 1990s. Now it is LGBTQUIA or an easier-uttered acronym called QUILTBAG – Queer and Questioning, Unsure, Inter-Sex, Lesbian, Transgender and Two-spirit, Bisexual, Asexual and Aromatic, and Gay and Gender Queer. Gender is referred to in other terms in different countries.What does gender mean? It meant the social construction of man and woman; now, it means others with different sexual proclivities. In other words, how society views people with different sexual identities. When you talk of gender equity, we used to refer to equality between men and women; now, it is equality among all sexes. It is a matter of historical coincidence and cultural practice that women have been suppressed and discriminated against vis-à-vis men. Hence gender equity enjoined enhancing the status of women. But the concept of gender is not women-centric any longer. It refers to all sexes in terms of their social conditions.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">For latest releases of Words and Concepts, <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/words-and-concepts/">Click Here</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

This column deals with words and concepts and their changing and nuanced meanings. Indeed , many more interpretations and value additions are possible on the words and descriptions that figure in this series. The AIDEM invites further discussions on these words and concepts from readers.



Know Your Words and Concepts

Denmark, Sweden, and Chile are the three countries that adopt the best climate change mitigation measures in the world, according to the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2023. 

Climate Change Action: Lessons from Denmark

‘The wheels of justice grind slow but grind exceedingly fine’. This oft-quoted proverb is interpreted to mean that even if justice is slow in coming, it will ultimately do justice to the victim.But in real life the slow wheels of justice grind so much that lives are ruined forever. A case in point is what has happened to the a 22-year-old youth named Mohammad Aameen Anjum from Nashik, Maharashtra, who was arrested on August 27, 2020, by the officers of Nizar Police Station, Gujarat on the charge of transporting cows. The driver of the vehicle transporting the cows had escaped under the cover of darkness leaving his companion Anjum to fend for himself. A case was registered against him. According to the prosecution, the cows were being illegally transported from Gujarat to Maharashtra without required certificates issued by competent authorities Based on oral submissions, the court found Aameen Anjum guilty and awarded him life imprisonment.What is more disturbing (and what is highly ridiculous) are the grounds on which Anjum was punished. Samir Vinodchandra Vyas, Principal District and Sessions Judge, had entirely relied on unscientific and highly irrational theories proffered by the self-proclaimed cow protectors of a nation that is sought to be saffronised day in and day by the Sangh Parivar. The verdict, delivered in Gujarati, was roughly translated into English and published in Newclick, an online portal. Holding forth on the importance of protecting the cow, the honourable judge said: “Cow is not only an animal, but a mother. No one is as humble as a cow. A cow is the living planet of 68 crore holy places and three crore gods. The whole universe is indebted with the multiple utilities of the cow which are beyond description…. The day there is no cow slaughter, all problems of the earth will be solved and there will be well being everywhere.”The judge stressed the need to contemplate on the “economic, social and scientific” apart from the religious and spiritual aspects of cow protection as well as slaughter.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/cow_042c9bd3d8.jpg" alt="cow.jpg">Mechanised abattoirs have come up, and holy cow and its progeny are being slaughtered everyday. As a result, the bovines are facing constant threat to their lives. …Seventy-five percent of the livestock has been lost. There will be a time when people will not be able to draw its sketch. The widespread slaughter of the divine animal has caused several problems that exist on earth. It is resulting in the increase in irascibility and loose temper. Therefore, the heinous act cow slaughter must be discouraged,” the court noted.Discussing the religious importance of the animal, the judge noted Tridevis (a trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism) are not separate from cows. The three goddess (Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati/Kali), notes the judgment, have emerged from Adi Gau Surabhi (the cow). The (Hindu) religion, it said, has manifested in the form of Neel Vrushabh — a bull that was born to a cow.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/chandrachud_pti_1154418_1666019834_5bf92d0bfe.jpg" alt="chandrachud-pti-1154418-1666019834.jpg"> SC CJI DY ChandrachudThe cow — according to the court — is the mother of ‘Rudra’ (a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva), daughter of ‘Vasu’ (a group of deities in Hinduism associated with fire and light) sister of ‘Aditi Putras’ (the sons of Aditi — the personification of the sprawling infinite and vast cosmos) and a treasure of ‘Dhruv Roop Amrit’ (an ancient formula of pure ingredients that provide intense nourishment to the skin).“Cow and bull have special importance in the agricultural farming. And the food grains produced from natural farming, wherein cow dung is used a fertiliser, protects the human kind from various diseases,” the judge noted, explaining the material and religious importance of the cattle.The judge’s lecture went on and entered the domain of science. He said: “Cow dung will protect everyone; it is anti-radiation… It’s scientifically proven… This is a radiation chip that can be used in mobile phones to reduce radiation. “It’ll be a safeguard against diseases.” And, in support of his theory, he cited several Several shlokas (verses) of Vedas <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Gau_rakshak_cow_protection_PTI_d83469dcfd.jpg" alt="Gau_rakshak_cow_protection-PTI.jpg">Cow vigilantesEven as observers sunk into shock and silence at the irrationality of a judge and the enormity of his punishment to the victim, B.R. Aravanidakshan, an enterprising television journalist in Chennai, took it upon himself to send a petition to the Chief Justice of India drawing his attention to the theatre of the absurd in Gujarat. Offering a ray of hope, the National Human Rights Commission has taken up the case and registered a case against the judicial officer on 20th March 2023. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Aravindakshan_Satyam_TV_49c43b013b.jpeg" alt="Aravindakshan-Satyam-TV.jpeg">B R AravindakshanHerewith, we reproduce the petition filed by Aravindakshan: The AIDEM DESKFromB.R. AravindakshanJournalistNo. 14/69 Arathoon RoadRoyapuramChennai-600013TamilnaduToDr. Justice D.Y. ChandrachudHonorable Chief Justice of IndiaSupreme Court of India,SUBJECT: Petition to inquire whether life sentence has been awarded on the basis of religious beliefGreetings Hon’ble Chief Justice of India.I am a journalist residing at the above-mentioned address. I submit this petition to you regarding the order passed by Mr Samir Vinochandra Vyas , Honourable Sessions Judge, Vyara Court, Tapi District, Gujarat dated November 04, 2022.An FIR (C.R. No. 11824007200327/2020) has been registered at Nizar Police Station regarding the issue of illegal transportation of cows in a vehicle. 2)In that case, a 22-year-old youth named Mohammad Aameen Anjum from Nashik, Maharashtra, was arrested on August 27, 2020, by the officers of Nizar Police Station,Gujarat3) The case was admitted on January 24, 2022, in the Vyara Court of Tabi District, and the case was registered on the same date. The judgement in this case between the Government of Gujarat and 22-year-old Mohammad Aameen was delivered on November 4, 2022, by Hon’ble Justice Samir Vinochandra Vyas. Free legal aid has been provided to Mohammad Aameen Anjum, who was the accused because he was poor and could not afford to hire a lawyer.4) On November 04, 2022 , the judgement delivered by Hon’ble Justice Samir Vinochandra Vyas sentenced the accused Mohammad Aameen to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5 lakh. It has also been said that failure to pay the fine will result in an additional 5 years’ imprisonment. Apart from this, 2 months’ imprisonment twice, 3 months’ imprisonment twice, one year imprisonment alone, and 15 days’ imprisonment have been imposed as additional punishments.(5) Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, from the day of his arrest on 27-08-2020 till the date of judgment on 04-11-22, the accused Mohammad Aameen Anjum has been in jail for 813 days and almost 30 months.6) Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, I request that you read the judgement S.C.NO.02/2022 passed on November 04, 2022, by Hon’ble Justice Sameer Vinochandra Vyas in sentencing accused Mohammad Aameen Anjum.(7) The judgment, delivered in Gujarati, is 24 pages long. Because I don’t know the Gujarati language I read a 28-page English translation of the judgement that was published on Newsclick [an online portal]8) Various verses were quoted by Justice Samir Vinochandra Vyas in that judgment. On the third page, in 12th line, the judge mentioned that science has proved that houses made of cow dung are not affected by atomic radiation.9) Actually, I was very shocked to read those lines. I don’t know on what scientific evidence the judge made that reference in his judgment.10) Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, to protect cows, the Government of India formed the Rashtriya Kamathenu Aayog under the Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries on February 21, 2019. One of the functions of the organisation is to research materials like cow dung and urine.(11) Rashtriya Kamathenu Aayog Chairman Dr. Vallabhai Kathiria held an official press conference on October 12, 2020, through the Central Government’s Press Information Bureau. In that press conference, Rashtriya Kamadenu Aayog Chairman Dr. Vallabhbhai Kathiria said the following: “Cow dung will protect everyone; it is anti-radiation… It’s scientifically proven… This is a radiation chip that can be used in mobile phones to reduce radiation. “It’ll be a safeguard against diseases.”12) The press conference of Dr. Vallabhbhai Kathiria, Chairman of the Rashtriya Kamadenu Aayog, caused a great stir in India. More than 600 researchers and scientists in India asked for evidence and have called for the public disclosure of data showing that cow dung can prevent radiation. But neither the Government of India nor the Rashtriya Kamdenu Aayog has ever made any data public.13) In this case, on November 24, 2022, I raised some questions through RTI about the activities of Rashtriya Kamadenu Aayog. In the RTI application that I sent, there was also a question about whether the Rashtriya Kamdenu Aayog had conducted any scientific research.14) The Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries has given me a written reply on December 06, 2022 to my question that there is no information regarding the research. Not only that.. Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog has given a clear answer that its two-year period has ended on 20-02-2021.15) The Rashtriya Kamadenu Aayog, an independent high power permanent body set up by the Indian government to protect cows, has been completely shut down after two years. If the situation is like this, Justice Samir Vinodchandra Vyas has mentioned in his judgement that cow dung can prevent atomic radiation16) There is nothing wrong with an individual or any politician saying this. But I would like to humbly state that it is not a healthy practise for a judge to write all his personal beliefs in a judgement.17) Mohammad Aameen , who was arrested in a case registered at Nizar police station, belongs to the Muslim community. A doubt arises as to whether the court, which is supposed to sentence on the basis of witnesses and law, is sentencing the criminal on the basis of beliefs and in the light of scripture.18) I request the Chief Justice of India to look into whether this is legal. According to the testimony of only one head constable, the accused, Mohammad Aameen, was sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.19) Mohammad Aameen, who has been given a life sentence, seems to have no other criminal record. In this context, I would like to mention that the imposition of life imprisonment on non-scientific grounds is completely contrary to natural justice.The punishment meted out to Mohammad Aameen, who was not given a fair chance to plead his case, is even against human rights. I humbly request the Chief Justice of India to kindly pay attention to this matter, considering the future of the poor 22-year-old youth who does not have the opportunity to have his own lawyer.20) Courts are the last hope of the people. So,I would kindly request the Chief Justice of India to intervene in this matter without any delay, as it would set a wrong precedent for those courts to pass judgments on the basis of religious belief. I request the Chief Justice of this country to ensure that no such religious orders are passed in the High Courts or District Courts of any other state in the future.Yours faithfullyB.R. AravindakshanCopy to:<ol><li>The National Human Rights Commission,</li><li>Honorable Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court of Gujarat</li><li>Gujarat human rights Commission</li><li>District sessions Judge, District &amp; Sessions Court, Tapi at Vyara</li><li>Director General of Police (B.R Aravindakshan, who has been working in the media industry for the past 20 years, is currently working as an editor for Sathyam TV. He also moderates political debates on this Tamil channel.)</li></ol><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">YouTube</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">WhatsApp</a>

‘The wheels of justice grind slow but grind exceedingly  fine’. This oft-quoted proverb  is interpreted to mean that even if justice is slow in coming, it will ultimately do justice to the victim.

Where a Human Life is Cheaper than Cow Dung

The film Ntikkakkakkoru Premandaarnnu (My brother had an affair) expresses manifold ideas in explicit and implicit modes of storytelling. On the face of it, it has all the predictable elements of a feel-good film. 

Ntikkakkakkoru Premandaarnnu: The Return of Bhavana, and the Political Imagination

The Indian National Congress has made a significant shift in its ideology by amending its constitution seeking to provide 50 percent reservation for weaker sections. This marks a departure from its past as, historically, it did not support the cause of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and instead relied on its vote base of advanced castes, Dalits, and the minorities. The change in political dynamics over the years, and the consequent erosion of its traditional vote bank, has led to this shift. The Congress adopting the traditional Dravidian principles such as federalism, opposition to imposition of Hindi, and reservation for OBCs, is a strategic move to align with marginalised communities, particularly those in the north. It is an attempt to rebuild its political base, and connect with the aspirations of OBCs who have largely voted for regional parties. However, this shift is not without its challenges, as the Congress’s history of neglecting the demands of OBCs can undermine its credibility. Therefore, the party needs to demonstrate its commitment to these principles through continued emphasis and concrete actions.Social Justice: At its 85th plenary session in Raipur on February 26, the Congress made an important change in its constitution. It has guaranteed 50% reservation for SC-STs, OBCs, minorities, and women in the Congress Working Committee (CWC). It has also promised a dedicated Ministry for the empowerment of OBCs and reservation in the appointments of Judges in the higher judiciary. This is a significant shift from the party’s historical stance on social justice. Back in November 21, 1925, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy protested against the Congress’s refusal to accept his resolution for reserving posts in the party and legislature for non-Brahmins, and ultimately left the party along with 50 supporters. He had been advocating proportionate representation in Congress posts since he joined the party in 1919, but his efforts to convince the leadership were unsuccessful. Subsequently, he launched the Self-Respect Movement, which had a transformative impact on the socio-political history of Tamil Nadu. However, under the leadership of Mallikarjun Kharge, a Dalit leader with the full support of the Gandhis, the Congress has now passed this resolution.Previously, the Congress believed that its vote base was made up of advanced castes, Dalits, and the minorities and, as a consequence, did not support the cause of the OBCs. However, owing to changing political dynamics and the erosion of support from these groups, adopting traditional Dravidian principles – such as providing reservation for OBCs – has become inevitable for the Congress.State Autonomy and Federalism: On February 2, 2022 Rahul Gandhi delivered a 45-minute speech in the Lok Sabha, emphasising the importance of federalism and the States’ rights, a key Dravidian principle. He criticised the BJP government’s policy of centralising powers, stating that the diversity of India cannot be suppressed and that the country cannot be ruled from the Centre. Similarly, in 1962, CN Annadurai, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s founding leader and its first Chief Minister, gave a famous speech in the Lok Sabha advocating State autonomy and federalism. He also criticised the concentration of power in New Delhi and the interference of the Union government in States’ affairs. He argued for according more control to the States over their resources and development, and recognising the linguistic and cultural differences among the States. His speech was well-received by many members of Parliament. M. Karunanidhi, who succeeded Annadurai as Chief Minister, went on to establish the first state-level commission under the chairmanship of P. V. Rajamnnar in 1969 to study Union-State relations. Later, in 1974, he forwarded its recommendation, along with an Assembly resolution (1974) demanding State autonomy, to the Union Government requesting it “to effect immediate changes in the Constitution of India” in order “to establish a truly federal setup with full State autonomy”.Opposition to Hindi: The Congress’ outlook on the language policy has also undergone a shift, particularly in the context of the BJP’s emphasis on Hindi. During a speech at a Bharat Jodo Yatra rally in Rajasthan’s Alwar, Rahul Gandhi said: “If you want to speak to people of the rest of the world, Hindi will not work, English will.” He criticised the BJP for preventing poor children from learning English (by insisting on Hindi). He accused BJP leaders of speaking out against English and and its teaching in schools, despite their own children attending English medium schools. Gandhi acknowledged the importance of mother tongue, including Hindi, but argued that in order to communicate with the rest of the world, English was necessary.This shift proves that Periyar’s legacy lives on, as he was instrumental in launching a series of protests opposing compulsory Hindi in schools. C. Rajagopalachari issued an order on April 1, 1938, making Hindi compulsory in schools, during his tenure as the Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency. Protesting against this policy, Periyar raised the slogan “Tamil Nadu for Tamils” and was eventually jailed for two years. At the height of the anti-Hindi agitation thousands of people were jailed. Tragically, the agitators Thalamuthu and Natarajan were seriously injured in the police lathicharge and later died in jail owing to the harsh conditions inside. Rajaji, following the Congress’ decision to resign from the government as a mark of protest against the British government’s move to enter the Second World War in 1939. Ultimately, the government’s decision was withdrawn by Governor Erskine in February 1940.Periyar opposed the imposition of Hindi for the same reason articulated by Rahul Gandhi in Alwar now. Periyar opposed Hindi as a medium of education and preferred English over that language. He believed that Hindi would not only stifle the progress and progressive ideas of Tamils, but also destroy their culture. Other Dravidian leaders such as Annadurai and Karunanidhi too fought against the Congress for trying to impose Hindi again, post-1947.Today, M. K. Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the president of the DMK, continues to fight for all these causes. The difference is that the fight now is against the BJP. Dravidianism, which emerged from the south, has gained so much relevance at the national level that it has become an ideological tool in the fight against the BJP in the north.Strategic Shift towards Dravidian Ideas: The Congress’ present shift is a strategic move aimed at aligning with marginalised communities, particularly the OBCs in the north. The party’s political base has been diminishing over time, and this is an effort to rebuild it. Sanjay Kumar’s (2013) study shows that, regardless of the BJP’s performance, it remains the preferred choice among Brahmins and other upper castes. In five consecutive Lok Sabha elections (since 1996), these groups heavily favouored the BJP, with the Congress trailing as a close second in winning over the upper caste voters. This trend continued in the 2014 and 2019 elections, resulting in a complete erosion of the Congress’ upper caste base.The Congress’ move comes in the context of the growing discontent among these communities and the BJP’s efforts to appropriate B.R. Ambedkar and thus win Dalit votes. Although the BJP has been successful in gaining the support of the upper castes, in the post-Mandal period OBCs have effected a ‘silent revolution’ by voting largely for regional parties. Therefore, the Congress has nothing to lose by supporting the policy of reservation for OBCs and adopting the social justice theme that would connect with the OBC vote bank, which is the largest social segment in India.Credibility Gap: However, it may not be easy for the Congress to reap the gains of its approach. Historically, the party has neglected the demands of OBCs due to the over-representation of the upper castes among its leaders. During the Constituent Assembly proceedings, the Congress avoided defining the OBCs, and its social policies led to numerous court verdicts against reservation for this segment in independent India. It took three years for the Congress government to establish the First Backward Classes Commission (with Kaka Kalelkar as Chairman) as mandated by Article 340. However, the Congress subsequently rejected the Commission’s recommendations on the grounds that caste-based reservation would disrupt India’s unity. It further argued that economic justice to be ushered in through planning would also take care of social justice. Despite demands for another commission to study the issue, the Congress refused to establish one.The Second Commission led by B.P. Mandal, known as the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission, was eventually established by the Janata Party Government. However, on returning to power, the Congress shelved the Commission’s report for another decade until the entry of V. P. Singh. When the V. P. Singh government, another non-Congress coalition government supported by regional parties such as DMK, the Telugu Desam Party, and the Asom Gana announced the implementation of the Mandal recommendations, the Congress joined forces with the BJP to topple the government. Such past actions have undermined its credibility vis-à-vis the policy of social justice.In a way, the upper caste resistance to OBC reservation with the support of Congress and BJP, facilitated the mobilisation of OBCs in the north during the post-Mandal era. This led to the erosion of the Congress’s vote base and the emergence of more regional parties in the north.It is in this context that the Congress may have to demonstrate its commitment to social justice through concrete actions and policies that benefit OBCs. Only by doing so can the party regain the trust and support of this crucial voting bloc.The Congress’ emphasis on federalism, the State’s rights, and the importance of the English language against the BJP’s insistence on Hindi will go a long way in defending India’s democratic and federal values. By opposing the BJP’s centralising policies and emphasising India’s diversity, the Congress is trying to uphold federalism, one of the basic structures of the Constitution. Moreover, the Congress’ support for English education can be viewed as a progressive stance towards empowering the marginalised communities and recognizing the importance of regional languages as a counter to the BJP’s cry of one nation-one language.The elevation of Dalit leader Mallikarjun Kharge as the party president indicates the party’s shift towards giving due representation to and empowering marginalised communities within the organisation. Nonetheless, Congress needs to demonstrate its commitment to this new direction before the general election of 2024 to regain the trust and support of the marginalised communities and challenge the BJP’s agenda.References:<ol><li>Kumar, Sanjay (2013), “Shift Towards Regionalisation of Indian Politics” in Sudha Pai (ed.)</li><li>Handbook of Politics in Indian States, Oxford University Press, New Delhi</li></ol><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">YouTube</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">WhatsApp</a>

The Indian National Congress has made a significant shift in its ideology by amending its constitution seeking to provide 50 percent reservation for weaker sections. This marks a departure from its past as, historically, it did not support the cause of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and instead relied on its vote base of advanced castes, Dalits, and the minorities.

The Congress’ Dravidian turn: Course correction to take on BJP

It is the financial regulators who get regular beating for jumping ahead of the curve in monetary policy management. They also figure as the convenient punching bag for being behind the curve too, at other times. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, tasked the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) with recommending capital standards that could prevent bank failures. The BCBS’s evolution gained salience as the global standard setter through the three BASEL Accords of 1988, 2004 and 2010. These accords attempted to standardise the definition of ‘bank capital’ and the methodologies to compute the minimum requirement to support a bank’s balance sheet. These recommendations endeavoured to insulate the financial sector from bankruptcies of financial intermediaries. But bank failures continued to surface even after the accords. Were the BIS and the BCBS behind the curve?The learnings from bank failures formed the raft of recommendations from the first to the third accord of BCBS. While the first accord took a one-size-fits-all approach, the BCBS turned more risk sensitive through Basel 2, and suggested incentivising banks to save on regulatory capital on the basis of asset quality. Yet the likes of Lehman Brothers and Northern Rock Bank folded up in 2008. The BCBS realised that Northern Rock failed the rock test because of inadequate robustness in their asset-liability management rather than asset quality concerns. Their over-dependence on wholesale resources and assets and the sudden drying up of liquidity in these instruments threw up liquidity risks, though the bank did not carry significant asset impairment risks. As a fallout of this fiasco, the BCBS introduced Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB) as additional capital to buttress the banks’ balance sheets and address liquidity concerns. They also recommended Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) which banks have been complying with, to insulate them from liquidity risks.The abrupt folding up of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 2023 is another instance of these capital-related prescriptions being found to be inadequate to address liquidity risk. Was the BCBS behind the curve or Gregory Becker, the Chief Executive Officer of SVB Bank, ahead of the curve? What led Becker to jump ahead? He has grown with the bank for more than three decades and has been heading it since 2011. His groundbreaking outreach to start-ups has made the bank’s name synonymous with the innovation sector and Silicon Valley is home to technology and homecare companies. The bank found itself vaulted into the group of top 20 banks in the United States. SVB’s stock joined the S&amp;P 500 index in 2018. It carried customer liabilities close to $ 175 billion. The journey since 1983 has been rosy and juicy and it has an office in Bengaluru, touted as India’s Silicon Valley city.As part of Fed Reserve’s endeavours to stay ahead of the curve amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, there was an unremitting infusion of liquidity into the system. The central banks of other nations too merrily followed suit. When the Fed Reserve had to grapple with roiling inflation, it began pulling the trigger for rate hikes. The benchmark US Ten-Year sovereign curve touched 4.01 % on March 9, 2023 from the low of 0.54% on 21st April 2020. The start-ups and the public in general found it difficult to fund their needs after the 347 basis points rise in the benchmark yield curve.They began demanding funds from banks, SVB included. SVB had to offload its investments in US Treasuries to meet the liquidity needs. The liquidity came at a heavy price. As interest rates had gone up, the price of treasury bonds had dropped. The resultant failure to generate liquidity dented the capital base of SVB. It announced a stock sale to shore up capital. The market is self-fulfilling. The stock lost 60% in a single day. The capital raising plan had to be shelved. Before Gregory Becker could retrace the curve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stepped in on March 10 and placed the bank under receivership. While the deposit liabilities of SVB are at $175 billion, the FDIC offers insurance protection only up to $250,000 to each retail investor. The financial loss to the public in an economy that is staring at recession is humungous.The collateral damage to the financial sector has been contagious. Other banking stocks lost $52 billion in market value on a single day.The tussle between the devas and asuras as to who will hold the head and tail of the serpent Vasuki while churning the milky ocean for Amrut is well known. Similarly, the tussle between regulators and market functionaries will always exist. The BCBS may push for Basel Accord “n”, yet the likes of Gregory Becker would be nudged by avarice to jump the curve.Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-21667" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

It is the financial regulators who get regular beating for jumping ahead of the curve in monetary policy management. They also figure as the convenient punching bag for being behind the curve too, at other times.

SVB collapse: Ahead of the Curve? Or Nudged by Avarice?

We are witnessing a revolution, the revolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking the world by storm. As ChatGPT and other AI tools gain prominence and become a talking point, scientists and theoreticians worldwide are engaged in a debate about the ethical implications, potential biases, and risks of misuse associated with this technology.“I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that improves and replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that outperforms humans,” said Stephen Hawking, in an interview to the magazine <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/stephen-hawking-interview-alien-life-climate-change-donald-trump">Wired</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_1_300x200_5dc27187d1.png" alt="image-1-300x200.png"> Stephen HawkingAs a Master’s student at the University of Reading, England, while researching AI, its ethical usage and biases, I stumbled upon a case study from Latin America during the Cold War times. In this article, I try to explore that study. The internet has become an integral part of our lives as a means to communicate, access information, conduct business, engage in politics, education and health, and so on. But what many of us do not know is that the Internet is the result of a significant contribution from an unlikely place – Chile.Its origins can be traced back to the 1960s, when the United States Department of Defence’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) created what was known as the ARPANET. While working at ARPA, a visionary named J.C.R. Licklider proposed the concept of a “Galactic Network” of computers that could be used to share information and collaborate on research projects. His ideas were ahead of their time, and it would take decades for them to come to fruition. But in Chile, a different kind of revolution was already underway.In the early 1970s, the first democratically elected Chilean government under President Salvador Allende embarked on a bold experiment in socialist democracy. He was a physician by training, and it may be rather a coincidence that elsewhere in Latin America another physician called Che Guevara was also advocating a more just and equitable society, albeit through different means. Allende’s government nationalised several industries, including copper mining, and implemented land reform programmes to redistribute land to the country’s poor farmers (That was a move strikingly similar to the land reforms initiated in Kerala under E.M.S. Namboodiripad government a few years before the Chile experiment). But the most ambitious project of Allende’s government was the creation of a decentralised, computerised economic planning system known as Project Cybersyn.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2_300x223_bd790f566f.png" alt="image-2-300x223.png"> Salvador AllendeProject CybersynThe Internet was in its early stages in the 1970s when a small group of researchers in the U.S. were experimenting with ways to connect computers. The ARPANET research was in the direction of building a more resilient and decentralised communications network, motivated by the goal of strengthening the military use of this technology.Allende’s government launched the Cybersyn project in 1971, with the goal of building a network that would connect all the factories and enterprises in the country, allowing them to share information and coordinate their activities in real-time. They expected this system to help Chile achieve rapid industrialisation and economic growth, besides promoting social justice and democracy. To create this network, the Chilean government turned to Stafford Beer, a British theorist and the founder of management cybernetics, who had a vision of creating a decentralised network of computers that could work together to manage an entire economy. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/stafford_beer_300x238_1521737b81.jpg" alt="stafford-beer-300x238.jpg">Stafford BeerThe heart of the Cybersyn project was a system called the Operations Room, or Opsroom. Housed in a state-of-the-art building in Santiago, the Opsroom was a large, circular room filled with computer terminals and screens. It can be argued that the Ops Room of the Cybersyn project was the first example of a real-time command-and-control centre in the world, similar to the modern decision-making facilities used today for a variety of purposes, including political, military, business, and administrative functions.At the heart of Cybersyn was a system called Project Cyberstride, which used a network of computers to collect and analyse data about the economy in real-time. This data was then used to inform policy decisions for different industries and sectors and thus coordinate their activities.The ambitious groundbreaking project attracted the attention of technologists and activists around the world. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Untitled_768x432_15592bed29.jpg" alt="Untitled-768x432.jpg">Credit: Liverpool John Moores University LibraryIn 1973, just months after the U.S-instigated coup against Allende, the Cybersyn project was shut down and its leaders were forced into exile. The dream of a more democratic and participatory economy was thus crushed, and Chile plunged deeper into darkness. But the legacy of Cybersyn lived on. Its ideas and technologies inspired a generation of technologists and activists, who continued to fight for a more democratic and participatory society. And as the Internet began to take shape in the 1980s and 1990s, many of these technologists and activists saw it as a powerful tool for achieving these goals.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Untitled_1_768x421_b39a0d1785.png" alt="Untitled-1-768x421.png"> Snapshot from movie: Terminator 2: Judgment DayAt the time, a young Tim Berners-Lee, who was working at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) realised the power of hypertext and distributed information systems over the existing emails and FTP (file transfer protocol), and paved the way for a new research direction. He was focused on using computer networks to enable collaboration and communication on a massive scale, something that the Cybersyn project had attempted to do in the context of economic planning. It is this work of Berners-Lee that ultimately led to the creation of the World Wide Web and the Internet as we see today.While it can be argued that technically the WWW evolved from ARPANET, we cannot undermine the influence the Cybersyn project had on the next generation of researchers and scientists who wanted to use the technology for non-military purposes.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Untitled_768x370_1a19608227.png" alt="Untitled-768x370.png"> Snapshot from movie: Terminator 2: Judgment DayThe CoupThose were tumultuous times marked by intense political and ideological tensions of the Cold War. The U.S. government had been concerned about the rise of socialist governments in Cuba and other Latin American countries. The Richard Nixon administration viewed the democratically elected Allende government as a threat to the U.S’ interests in the region, and the Central Intelligence Agency began a covert campaign to destabilise the Allende government. In 1973, a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew it. During the coup, the presidential palace was bombed and Allende was found dead inside. Pinochet proclaimed himself as the new President of Chile and ushered in a period of authoritarian rule that lasted 17 years.After the coup, a majority of the team members working on the Cybersyn project were forced to leave the country. It is believed that sensitive data related to the project was dismantled by the team members themselves out of fear of potential abuse, and whatever remained was subsequently removed by the Pinochet regime. Prof Beer returned to England, where he continued to write and speak about the principles of cybernetics and their application to social and economic systems. Today Beer is remembered as one of the pioneers of cybernetics and systems theory. His work continues to inspire researchers and activists interested in using technology to address social and economic issues.References:<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/stephen-hawking-interview-alien-life-climate-change-donald-trump">https://www.wired.co.uk/article/stephen-hawking-interview-alien-life-climate-change-donald-trump</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/microsites/library/special-collections-and-archives/special-collections/stafford-beer-collection">https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/microsites/library/special-collections-and-archives/special-collections/stafford-beer-collection</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290742382_Cybernetics_of_Governance_The_Cybersyn_Project_1971-1973">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290742382_Cybernetics_of_Governance_The_Cybersyn_Project_1971-1973</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mashable.com/article/project-cybersyn-chile-kernel-panic">https://mashable.com/article/project-cybersyn-chile-kernel-panic</a><hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a 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We are witnessing a revolution, the revolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking the world by storm. As ChatGPT and other AI tools gain prominence and become a talking point, scientists and theoreticians worldwide are engaged in a debate about the ethical implications, potential biases, and risks of misuse associated with this technology.

The Internet, Socialist Chile and The Revolutionary Connection

This is the third and final part of “EAR TO THE GROUND”, from Ayodhya. The “EAR TO THE GROUND” is a unique series from The AIDEM presenting offbeat ground-level reports that go beyond the mainstream media. This three-part ground report has its focus on the ongoing developments in the temple town, including the rampant destruction of buildings, temples as well as other places of worship in the name of building a Ram Corridor in the same pattern as the Varanasi Vishwanath corridor. 

The Missing ‘Ram Rajya’ in New Ayodhya (Part 3)

This is the second part of  “EAR TO THE GROUND“, from Ayodhya . The “EAR TO THE GROUND“ is a  unique series from The AIDEM presenting offbeat ground-level reports that go beyond the mainstream media . This three part ground report has its focus on the ongoing developments in the temple town, including the rampant destruction of buildings, temples as well as other places of worship in the name of building a Ram Corridor in the same pattern as the Varanasi Vishwanath corridor.

The Missing ‘Ram Rajya’ in New Ayodhya (Part 2) 

This episode of <strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/ear-to-the-ground/"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">EAR TO THE GROUND</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“, the unique series from The AIDEM presenting offbeat ground-level reports that go beyond the mainstream media has its focus on the ongoing developments in Ayodhya, including the rampant destruction of buildings, temples as well as other places of worship in the name of building a Ram Corridor in the same pattern as the Varanasi Vishwanath corridor.In this three part report, supported by audio-visual content, Shivam Mishra, writer, and documentary film-maker argues that what Ayodhya is witnessing now is not renovation and rejuvenation of the temple town but blatant destruction of the “sacred geography“ of Ayodhya. An ardent believer in Lord Rama, Shivam Mishra had spent several days in Ayodhya, researching, collecting, and documenting data.Arguably, the Hindu civilization is the oldest continuing civilization that has a kaleidoscopic range of deities, theologies, and philosophies or their interpretations. Even the hierarchical positions of the deities vary in the cultural cosmology of the several sects that have evolved over thousands of years.Unlike the Abrahamic God, Hindu Gods do not like to sit on cloud nine to merely record the sins and good work of human beings; they descend on the earth in person to slay the evil and reward the pious. Since the incarnation of our gods is a recurring process and manifests in a new form every time, Hindus never run out of choices regarding the form of god they want to worship.Since time immemorial, Hindus have been worshipping their ‘Ishtadeva’ (favourite God) choosing Him/Her from a vast range of deities. If there is one deity who can be called an eternal king of Hindu civilization, it is none other than Sri Rama.रामो विग्रहवान् धर्मः साधुः सत्य पराक्रमः |राजा सर्वस्य लोकस्य देवानाम् इव वासवः || ३-३७-१३||“Rama is the embodiment of righteousness, he is an equable person with truthfulness as his valor, and as with Indra to all gods he is the king of the entire world. [3-37-13]. (third khand, 37th sarg, 13th shloka)Ayodhya, the capital of Sri Rama, is one of the seven sacred ‘puris’ or cities mentioned in the Hindu Dharmashastras. Modern-day Ayodhya is a small sleepy town in the erstwhile district of Faizabad, which has been renamed ‘Ayodhya’ by the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh. During my early visits to the sacred space as a boy, I remember the sadhus with flowing beards and Vaishnava tilak thronging the mathas (abodes of sanyasis, and so on) and singing Ram Dhun (songs in praise Lord Ram). Rama Nam echoed in the atmosphere along with Ravindra Jain’s divine bhajans from the popular tele-serial Ramayana. Ayodhya town was dotted with mandirs and mahals dedicated to the other characters of Ramayana. To have the darshan of ‘Ram Lalla virajaman’, one had to pass through a maze of iron cages, only to be nudged by a constable who would keep repeating ‘Yahi hai Ram Janam Bhumi’ (this is the Ramjanma Bhumi) at regular intervals.Thanks to my mother who belongs to a small village in the erstwhile Faizabad district, I grew up with stories of how villagers in the remote hinterland used to supply rations to passing packs of kar sevaks. Among these kar sevaks were believers who were convinced that the struggle of 498 years came to a desired end on the morning of November 9, 2019 when the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Babri Masjid title suit was delivered.Kashi &amp; Kyoto _ the contrastBe it Ayodhya or Kashi, our sacred sites had been badly neglected for too long. Renovation, conservation, and better facilities were much needed. The pool at the Ram ki Paidi of Ayodhya used to rot and open defecation on the ghats of rivers, be it Ganga ji or Sarayu ji, was a problem. In such a context, any move to ‘develop’ Kashi just like Kyoto, a heritage town in Japan, was welcome. Both Kashi and Kyoto have much in common when it comes to the intention and commitment to develop these cities, their administrators and the office-bearers do not have anything in common.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kyoto_768x432_e20e7f0827.jpg" alt="kyoto-768x432.jpg"> Kyoto in JapanThe geography of Kashi has been interpreted as a web of cosmograms. Much is written about it in ‘Puranic’ literature, and book after book has been written by foreign as well as Indian scholars. Pandit Kubernath Sukul sought to meticulously map the Shivlingas and deva-vigrah mentioned in Skanda Purana and relate them to what could be their modern-day addresses. Prof Rana Singh did a geomagnetic survey of the entire sacred space of Kashi.With much pomp and grandeur, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor was inaugurated but it was in contrast to the ways things are carried out in Kyoto. In Kyoto, the administration is committed to conserving the two thousand temples, monasteries, heritage buildings, and centuries-old trees. But the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is a graveyard of more than hundreds of Pauranik (very ancient) temples, innumerable artefacts, heritage bhawans, ( Bhawan in Hindi means a building, normally a big building . A number of heritage bhawans in Varanasi and Ayodhya are buildings that house some temples, the sanyasis associated with them and they are also used by pilgrims during their visit to the towns) and 13 old trees, including the Akshayvat (a scared banyan tree). In Kyoto, the local community actively participates and the state acts as a guardian; in Kashi, local communities were demonized as ‘encroachers’ and the state acted like a ‘real estate agent’. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kashi_varanasi_768x490_2e66abf85a.jpg" alt="kashi-varanasi-768x490.jpg">Kashi Viswanath TempleIn terms of the puranic literature and the cosmograms related to them, dharohar (a rough Hindi translation of the word ‘heritage’) is referred to as a ‘spatial functional symbol that links locality and universality, consisting of four hierarchically interspersed layers. These are sthan (site), parikshetra (a defined territory), simant (border region) and brahmanda (cosmos). Hindu teerth is just not a piece of land but a reflection of cultural astrology. The shastras are very specific about the code of conduct and rituals that need to be followed on the sthan and within the parikshetra.Pilgrimage and its associated routes (yatra path) are the most important parts of religious as well as civilizational heritage. The fire of civilization is preserved when the present generation treads the same route once taken by its ancestors, chants the same mantras, visits the same shrines enroute, and offers the same paraphernalia to the deities.Importance of Ayodhya’s five pilgrimage routesThe Teerth Kshetra of Ayodhya has five pilgrimage routes as per the above perspective. These are the Chaurasi kroshi, Chaudah Kroshi, Panchkroshi, RamKot ki parikrama, and antahgrahi ki parikrama. All these routes are demarcated with shrines and temples that are described in ancient texts.Chaurasikroshi (literally the path of 84) is considered to be the oldest route, and is believed to be associated with 148 sites and the number ‘84’ ingrained in the path’s name symbolises the 84 lakh species that a jeevaatma (soul) is supposed to evolve through before having a human body. A Chaurasikroshi Parikrama (a ritualistic perambulation of the path of 84) is performed for 36 days. The next one, the Chaudahkorshi (the path of 14) is linked to 36 sacred places and is believed to be associated with the life of Sri Ram. The Panchkroshi (the path of 5) refers to the core area that is associated with the 30 most sacred spaces related to the birth of Sri Ram and is completed within six hours.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230301_WA_0002_768x432_1_07af9e61e0.jpg" alt="IMG-20230301-WA0002-768x432 (1).jpg"> A file pic from Ayodhya before the demolitionsThe last two parikramas Ramkot ki parikrama and antargrahi, are not much in vogue. All these pilgrimage routes are concentric circles. The antargrahi is like the inner circle and Chaurasikroshi is the outer circle. There is a prominent stream of opinion among believers that the cultural rejuvenation and physical development of Ayodhya should be centered around these pilgrimage routes with the active participation of archeologists, conservationists, and local citizens.But what is happening in Ayodhya now, including the rampant demolition of buildings over a distance of nearly 14 kilometers, is contrary to this perspective on the cultural rejuvenation and physical development of the town. Though the right wing loves to chant the mantra of ‘decolonizing Hindu minds’, its political leadership and the bureaucracy are not free from a colonial hangover. I shuddered when I heard that a particular ‘bureaucrat’ was sent to Ayodhya to execute the development project because he can be rightfully called the ‘mastermind’ behind the successful execution of a completely characterless and lifeless corridor in Varanasi.Demolition of heritageMy nightmare turned real. Videos of devastation started pouring in, with citizens weeping over the loss of their properties and the meager compensation provided by the state. One of my acquaintances shared a video of the demolition of properties on the road that connects ‘Naya Ghat’ to ‘Hanuman Gadhi’. That route had one of the oldest heritage temples and Bhawan on its sides. Legally, the structures older than a century should be conserved under the expert guidance of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) or the Indian National Trust for Art and Heritage (INTACH but these were being ruthlessly hammered down by contractors.A local daily reported that portions of heritage bhawans such as Lakshman Qila, SiyaRam Kila, and Sadguru Sadan, and a few small temples on the Chaudahkroshi route would be demolished for widening the roads. Having witnessed firsthand the barbarism of extremely arrogant and cultureless officials in Varanasi, these demolitions did not shock me much. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230301_WA_0003_768x434_67688c46e3.jpg" alt="IMG-20230301-WA0003-768x434.jpg">Demolished heritage buildingsOn a chilly noon on December 9, 2022, I took a bus to Ayodhya from Lucknow. On reaching Ayodhya, the first thing that caught my attention was a giant veena installed at the center of a road. My friend who came to receive me told me that the son of the erstwhile Raja was a huge fan of Lata Mangeshkar and even wrote a book on her. The veena was installed in her honor and inaugurated by none other than Narendra Modi.As we started to walk from Naya Ghat to Birla Dharmshala, debris was piled up on the sides of the road and shopkeepers were trying to rearrange their makeshift shops. Dust filled the atmosphere and smog made the weather more depressing. Something did not appear right, something was missing.Near Gandhi Ashram, lakhori bricks peeked out of the partially demolished arches of Ram Janki Shukla Mandir like the broken jaw of a poor man who had been sucker-punched for no reason. It was a double-story temple built in 1872 by a Brahmin family from Barabanki. The portion of the temple used for Satsang (spiritual discourse or gathering), known as Jagmohan, was torn down because it was obstructing ‘development’. The sanctum remained untouched.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20230301_WA_0004_768x426_dd66463ed2.jpg" alt="IMG-20230301-WA0004-768x426.jpg"> Demolished buildingsNext to the Shukla Temple stood the ‘Lal Mohariya Chah Bhaiyya Dharsmshala’, with a temple inside the premises. It was owned by a family of the ‘teerth purohit’ of the erstwhile Royals of Nepal. The owner Devendra Nath Mishra was satisfied with the compensation and felt relieved that his temple remained untouched. But he was confused as to why the state was erasing the heritage structure. He showed me the image of his ornate and intricately carved boundary wall that was demolished and said, ‘foreigners are coming to see the indigenous architecture’ and not the grand doors in modern designs.I was intrigued to see a wide space adjacent to the other side of the Shukla Mandir. Magnificent twin temples that once stood there are now part of history. Anyone who has not seen the old images of these temples cannot even imagine their majesty. These were the first temples to be bulldozed in December 2022. I reached one of the most aesthetic ‘Birla’ Dharamshala whose boundary walls were demolished for widening the road. Since there is a big garden and a temple in the front portion, the dharmshala escaped demolition.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;(To be continued in <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/the-missing-ram-rajya-in-new-ayodhya-part-2/">Part 2</a>)<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">To watch the video story click here <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/hl-evictions-temple-demolitions-and-the-new-ayodhya/">Hindi</a>, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/evictions-temple-demolitions-and-the-new-ayodhya/">English</a> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ml-evictions-temple-demolitions-and-the-new-ayodhya/">Malayalam</a><hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a>

This episode of “EAR TO THE GROUND“, the unique series from The AIDEM presenting offbeat ground-level reports that go beyond the mainstream media has its focus on the ongoing developments in Ayodhya, including the rampant destruction of buildings, temples as well as other places of worship in the name of building a Ram Corridor in the same pattern as the Varanasi Vishwanath corridor. 

The Missing ‘Ram Rajya’ in New Ayodhya (Part 1) 

This is a compilation of developing events regarding the sordid Adani Crash saga. In a Cover Story consisting of many components, The AIDEM explores these developments in detail. The following are stories already published in this Cover Story package.

Adani Crash- The AIDEM Cover Story

Hailed as a matchless orator by his supporters and a master of teleprompter-backed monologues by his critics, Narendra Modi is guilty of degrading public discourse on several occasions.

No, Prime Minister: The Most Un-Prime Ministerial Remarks Made By Narendra Modi So Far

The AIDEM’s Cover Story on the ‘Big Crash’ of the Adani group of companies and its larger economic and political fallout highlights an important statement from the People’s Commission on Public Sector and Public Services, a public interest group consisting of eminent academics, jurists, erstwhile administrators, trade unionists and social activists.



The Adani affair: Collapse of Regulatory Structures

The AIDEM’s Cover Story on the ‘Big Crash’ of the Adani group of companies and its larger economic and political fallout continues through this article. This is a timeline highlighting the growth of the Adani empire before and after 2014, the year in which the Narendra Modi regime began. Compiled by Deepa V.M.

A Friend Indeed: Adani & Modi

The Hindenburg report and its hurtling impact on Adani’s wealth quickly outshadowed the Bombay High Court’s judgement of January 20, 2023, setting aside the write-down of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds of Yes Bank Ltd for ₹ 8415 crores. This must have cheered the institutional and retail investors in this instrument of not only Yes Bank, but also in the erstwhile Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) which was merged with DBS Bank in December 2020, which also suffered similar write- downs. These capital ranking instruments have been introduced not in India alone. Reserve Bank of India has followed globally accepted Basel norms of Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in which it is a representative from India. These norms are to be followed while permitting banks to raise capital through such instruments. Therefore, has the High Court transgressed into the domain of a global standard setter by quashing the basic features of AT1 bonds? To our relief, a closer reading of the judgement gives “No” as the answer. The absence of specific clause in the Scheme of Reconstruction of Yes Bank that Administrator appointed for reconstruction can write down capital ranking loss absorption risk carrying instruments and consequent overreach of authority by the administrator, (Shri Prashant Kumar, who was appointed by RBI as the CEO to oversee the reconstruction) are the problems highlighted by the judgement of the two judges Acting Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice S.M. Modak. Flowing from this, it is a moot question whether the aggrieved investors in LVBs’ capital ranking bonds will get similar relief, as there appear to be similar procedural inconsistencies.A quick look at some of the characteristics of capital ranking instruments of banks. The characteristics of these instruments and permitted modes of issuance are delineated in RBI’s Master Circular RBI/2022-23/12 of 1st April 2022 (updated version of their 2015 Master Circular) on Basel 3 Capital Regulations. The AT1 Bonds in question are issued as Perpetual Debt Instruments (PDI). They have no defined maturity period. However, the issuing bank can call back the bonds after a minimum of five years after obtaining RBI’s permission. These bonds carry “loss absorption” features as a going concern concept. Tier 2 bonds carry loss absorption features under “gone concern” concept. Loss risk crystallizes under “gone concern” only when the entity is wound up, as in LVB’s case. When the entity continues to thrive on a reconstruction plan after triggering non-viability concerns as in the case of Yes Bank, loss risk in AT1 instruments crystallize, but the entity continues to exist as a “going concern”. Annexure 4 Para 1.10 carries these features. The higher risk in such instruments carrying loss absorption features is reflected by the higher return (interest rate) they carry vis-à-vis ordinary bonds or fixed deposits. Perhaps, the investors’ avarice has made them overlook these concerns or lower their guard on diligence and prudence.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/yes_bank_768x500_368ef61aa6.jpeg" alt="yes-bank-768x500.jpeg">Annexure 4 Para 1.14 (i) states that the claims of investors in AT1 instruments shall rank superior to the claims of equity investors. As such, should not the equity shares be written down before the investments of AT1 holders are written down? Annexure 16 of the same circular deals exclusively on the loss absorption triggers. Para 2.3 of this Annexure clearly states that the write-down of any Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) Capital shall not be required before a write-down of any AT1 capital instrument. Therefore, there is no inconsistency in writing down AT1 capital while equity share capital remains on the balance sheet. For clarity, the Basel Committee norms on Bank’s Capital Adequacy, which RBI has prescribed for all banks operating in India, mandates that all banks maintain a minimum capital under three heads, CET1, AT1 and T2 as a percentage of their risk-weighted assets, which together make up 9% as minimum regulatory capital.<figure class="table" style="width:770px;"><table style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-collapse:collapse;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:500;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:28px;margin:0px 0px 2rem;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><tbody style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><tr style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">Description</td><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">Limit</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">Common Equity Tier 1</td><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">Minimum 5.50%</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">AT1 Capital</td><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">Maximum 1.50%</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">Tier 2 Capital</td><td style="border:1px solid rgb(211, 219, 226);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:10px 13px;">Maximum 2.00%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>A plea from the retail investors to the Court was that these instruments with higher inherent risks were only for institutional investors and not the uninformed ones like them. Annexure 4 Para 1.22 of the circular permits banks to issue such bonds to retail investors. The Court also did not find merit in the argument.A case of mis-selling was also attempted by the retail investors. Similar lines of defence were taken by many aggrieved constituents when they lost significantly through derivative trades whose cash flows and risk profiles had not been correctly understood by many of them. All cases emanating from derivative disasters, beginning from Orange County abroad to Wockhardt back home, have not succeeded on the grounds of mis-selling or ignorance of the contract.RBI and Yes Bank have stated that they would go on appeal to the Supreme Court. All parties concerned will watch whether the Supreme Court will revisit the issue of altering the basic characteristics of globally accepted norms on capital ranking instruments or confine its scrutiny to the issue of overreach emanating from a procedural lacuna. If the High Court’s decision is upheld, Yes Bank’s CET1 capital will take a hit by 3% of risk weighted assets while it could be fully offset up to 1.50% under AT1 capital and, if room exists, by another 1.50% under Tier 2 also, as explained in table above. Therefore, there could not be much financial impact on the business model of Yes Bank, which has made a turnaround.

The Hindenburg report and its hurtling impact on Adani’s wealth quickly outshadowed the Bombay High Court’s judgement of January 20, 2023, setting aside the write-down of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds of Yes Bank Ltd for ₹ 8415 crores. 

Yes and No in YES BANK Bonds

The Adani Enterprises’ Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) that closed on Tuesday has been rated as a “sails through“ by market observers, but this is unlikely to settle the shares’ volatility in the days ahead. The most significant facet of the FPO was that non-institutional investors (NII) bid for 3.19 crores of the 5.08 crore shares bid for – that is 63% .But even more strikingly, even within the category of NII, those with bids of above Rs.10 lakhs accounted for 99.75 %. Thus, the biggest of the big ticket biggies, for whom 64 lakh shares were reserved, actually bid for 3.185 crore shares. Oversubscription in this subcategory was thus almost 5 times. The overall subscription of NIIs was 3.32 times their quota.This category may have saved the FPO for now, but this raises even more questions, given that the objective of the FPO was to dilute concentrated holdings of the Adani share among the promoters. More about it later. The only other category that saved the blushes for the Adanis today was the qualified institutional buyers (QIB) category — bids were received for 1.61 crore shares against a reservation of 1.28 crore shares — implying that the oversubscription here was 1.26 times their quota.Listen to the podcast of this article hereAudio Player00:00 00:00Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Bids by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) accounted for 77 % of bids by QIBs — most notably, mutual funds, banks and financial institutions (FIs) were absent in this category. The FPO was a flop show among all other categories of investors. Adani Enterprises’ own employees, for whom 1.61 lakh shares were reserved, opted to bid for just half the reserved quantity of shares.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/about_us_768x325_1_38ed72c4e4.jpg" alt="about-us-768x325 (1).jpg"> Adani Corporate House, Ahmedabad, GujaratNot unexpectedly, given the circumstances, the biggest setback for the Adanis was among retail investors. Of the 2.29 crore shares set aside for this category, bids were received for only 26.98 lakh shares – implying an acceptance rate of just 11.78%. But even more tellingly, 71 % of the bids were received at the cut-off price – the base price of Rs. 3112 (the upper bound was at Rs. 3276/share).Of course these bids are eligible for a discount of Rs 64 a share. Overall, the Adani Ent FPO received bids for 5.08 crore shares against an offer of 4.55 crore shares – an oversubscription of 1.12 times. Great win? Not quite, it would appear. But questions abound, many of them disturbing, especially because the “success” has rested heavily on the big moneybags who have saved the FPO from the disaster that was apparently staring at the Adanis in the face till today afternoon.First, if the purpose was to dilute the promoter stake and make the shareholding more dispersed, the way the FPO has gone does little to further this objective. Secondly, the “innovative” book-now pay-later structure of the FPO in which investors needed to pay just half of the price now for the shares they will be allotted, may actually inhibit investor interest even more because of the extreme volatility that the stock has shown.If the price of the share goes down even further, investors who may have “overpaid” for the stock may well rue their decision to bid. In fact, this factor may well have played a significant role in why retail investors stayed away. Among the core issues raised by the Hindenburg revelations were those about how shareholdings that were not at arm’s length from the Adani Group are perhaps allegedly masquerading as “public” holdings.The most important issue that would be of investor interest would be to know who the Big Guns who have saved the day for the FPO actually are. From a systemic viewpoint Know Your Investor (KYI) ought to be just as important for an institution as knowing its customer’s KYC! And, that is not just about the fate of one of India’s fastest growing (and biggest) conglomerates or about a boss who is among the world’s richest, but about the credibility and integrity of Indian capital markets.Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-20935" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

The Adani Enterprises’ Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) that closed on Tuesday has been rated  as a “sails through“ by market observers, but this is unlikely to settle the shares’ volatility in the days ahead. The most significant facet of the FPO was that non-institutional investors (NII) bid for 3.19 crores of the 5.08 crore shares bid for  – that is 63% .

What is at stake after the Adani FPO?: The Credibility and Integrity of Indian Capital Markets

For a retired 60-plus film addict like me, over-the-top (OTT) releases are a blessing. Even before the pandemic had made theatre screenings impossible, getting to watch regional releases in Bangalore City where I stay, was problematic for me because of the odd timings of the shows even in the nearby theatres.Now, one can watch the latest releases sitting in front of the desktop, while having lunch or dinner or skipping the afternoon siesta. It is just great.And what a feast of really watchable movies that the Malayalam film industry is churning out without any of the “star” elements to attract you. A reason for watching them is: one is past the Mohanlal-Mammootty megastar attraction. The larger-than-life heroes have had their days of glory, I guess. But the bar has been raised. Whether the new trend has come about because of a fresh crop of scriptwriters and directors or because of the growing expectations of the more discerning viewers, the outcome is definitely good for Malayalam cinema.Frankly, when I sat down to watch Saudi Vellakka (2022), written and directed by Tharun Moorthy, the title gave me no clue as to what the film was about. Later, when one of the various Magistrates before whom the case was presented also appeared equally clueless, one was amused.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Saudi_Vellakka_Malayalam_2022_20221215214205_500x500_1_d4d07aa8d3.jpg" alt="Saudi-Vellakka-Malayalam-2022-20221215214205-500x500-1.jpg">The story in a nutshell is literally just about that…a small fruit of the coconut, called ‘vellakka’ in those parts of Kerala, with which a group of lads were playing cricket using a part of the palm from as a bat, hits the forehead of an elderly woman, Ayesha Rawther, in the locality called Saudi. The kids were playing on the terrace of her neighbour Radhakrishnan with whom she has an ongoing feud. Incensed, she climbs up to the terrace and gives the kids a mouthful and a nice whack to the boy Abhilash, who is pointed out to her as the culprit. The kid’s front tooth, which had started to come loose before that whack, falls out, with a little bit of blood.Instigated by the neighbour, the kid’s father files an FIR in the police station, citing the the palm as the weapon with which the child was “assaulted”. Thus begins the case numbered CC 225/2009 and a 10-year-long court battle follows.The peg for the film is the fact that 47 million cases are pending unsolved in the Indian courts.Whoever was responsible for choosing Devi Varma to play the role of Ayesha Rawther deserves applause. Seemingly irritating in the initial scenes, she grows on you with each scene that unfolds. Even when the character she plays finds herself isolated from her family and left to fend for herself, she does not come across as a self-pitying, vulnerable, whiny old woman. Devi Varma plays the role with a perfection that leaves the viewer mightily impressed. Her slow gait, her body language and stoic expressions hiding her quiet determination, the slow smile that lights up her face when she gets a chance to make snacks for another group of children playing outside her new dwelling – all of these make her presence so hauntingly felt throughout the film. Her silence through most of the film adds to the power of her acting.All along, one finds the little nuances that constitute the warp and weft of a society – the wiliness of Radhakrishnan and his urge to offend and put the neighbour in her place; the unpleasantness that the old woman’s daughter-in-law exudes because of the sheer oppressiveness of her circumstances; the helplessness of the good-natured son Sathaar; the glory Britto’s good heart; the mixture of self-interest and compassion in the old woman’s lawyer; and the urge of Abhishek aka Kunjimon, whose fallen milk-tooth had set in motion the prolonged courtroom battle, to redeem himself when he is unwittingly made to bear the brunt of the pettiness of the elders.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/bg_saudi_vellaka_b8b955fb6f.jpg" alt="bg_saudi_vellaka.jpg">No frame seemed to be wasted. Their slickness and sequence makes the viewer feel part of the “everyday” ordinariness of life in the closely packed houses and narrow lanes of Saudi, the police station, the streets or the courtroom ambience. Each one of the actors, however small their character in the scheme of things, has played his/her role with remarkable conviction.Does the way the film ends appear improbable? But why should we harbour mistrust in the goodness of our fellow-beings? For me personally, that is what I took away from this film….the element of goodness in our fellow human beings is what has sustained us and will continue to sustain us.At one point, feeling desperately frustrated at the way things were moving against the old woman, Abhishek asks Britto, “This is all that human beings can be summed up as, isn’t it?The film ends with Britto’s clincher, “This is also what human beings amount to.”Ah! “Hope is that thing with feathers” as Emily Dickinson expressed it.<strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">YouTube</a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">WhatsApp</a>

For a retired 60-plus film addict like me, over-the-top (OTT) releases are a blessing. Even before the pandemic had made theatre screenings impossible, getting to watch regional releases in Bangalore City where I stay, was problematic for me because of the odd timings of the shows even in the nearby theatres. 

Saudi Vellakka: The Best of times & the worst of times

There’s a freeze frame from an old English classic I’d like to bring up before you – it’s that of Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. A bride jilted at the altar is found for the rest of her years to be stuck in time, wearing her wedding dress forever since then, trapped in a freeze-frame when her world came crashing down. The BBC’s two-part documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the same effect on me. I felt as if I was looking at that bride in old lace and white net, out of sync with time. I will explain.The documentary was sold in advance to an expected subversive audience like myself as a pathbreaking investigation that would bring to light new information and show us something we had not seen before. It also had a glittering cast of characters from the liberal left – people I have always and will always admire and hold up as my heroes. Arundhati Roy, the writer who has never minced her words. Aakar Patel, the activist and India chair of Amnesty International, fighting the good fight relentlessly. Siddharth Vardarajan, one of my favourite journalists and the founder of one of the last standing independent press spaces. As also Hartosh Bal of The Caravan. And Christophe Jaffrelot, one of the best-known academics researching and writing profusely on the Hindu right. I could go on. Despite having interviewed the best voices and people who are still unafraid to say what they think, the BBC stitched them together in a way that said nothing new and is therefore guilty of painting a tired, wan picture of the same facts regurgitated in the same way. This allows the regime in power to use the films for one more round of propaganda – painting themselves as victims and using the critique from the left to serve their own saffron end. The BBC in effect took India’s best activists, writers and journalists who are pulsating, alive and dynamic and clipped them together into flat, repetitive tropes that make them look as if they’re standing still. In short, the BBC has Miss Havisham’d the picture and done damage where it may have intended to do good.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/BBC_Modi_Documentary_768x432_1_c13d8d1109.jpg" alt="BBC-Modi-Documentary-768x432 (1).jpg">Take Part One for instance. The film goes back to Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat and the pogrom against Muslims in the year 2002. The build-up of ominous music leads to a dark computer screen and supposedly big reveal – a now de-classified diplomatic cable where a British diplomat made the assessment that Modi was responsible for the violence against Muslims and asked the police to stand back and let the mob do its thing. By producing no fresh evidence to back this claim except for the opinion of a retired diplomat and former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the BBC allows the BJP and its spokespersons in India to have a field day, asking legitimately that why the voices of retired diplomats from 20 years ago should be the voice of God and whether it is not a case of arrogance on the part of the BBC? If, instead, the BBC had used the diplomatic cables to show how Britain and Europe that had blamed Modi for the bloodletting let him off the hook just five years later, they would have put a fresh spin on the story. Calling out Britain’s duplicity would have held up a dark mirror but the BBC didn’t go that far.Godhra – Unanswered QuestionsFurther, while on the subject of the violence in 2002, the BJP has always called out the liberal press from India and abroad to say that not enough play was ever given to the genesis of the violence – the burning down of a train compartment the day before the pogrom, in which 59 Hindu kar sevaks from the VHP were burnt to cinders. The BBC could have actually done some grunt work on this, which could have raised some difficult questions for the BJP. First, the 59 kar sevaks were travelling ticketless in the train that caught fire. There were many that had bought tickets and got out alive. What did they see? Why are their accounts buried? If indeed Muslims had set the bogey on fire, there should be no fear in calling them out. Why the silence?<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/godra_1_dac4ccc8d3.jpeg" alt="godra (1).jpeg"> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Godhra train burningFurther discomfort could have been brought by sharp-focusing on the train bogey that burnt. One investigation into the burning was carried out by the BJP- led government of the day and the other, a few years later, by the opposition leader Lalu Yadav when he was Railway Minister. Both are therefore seen as partisan. Could not the BBC play a non-partisan role here and throw up some basic questions that could really open up a can of worms? Here are some questions that come to mind. Why was the chain pulled and the train stopped before the designated station? <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article2684.html">Was a Muslim girl molested?</a> What happened to these stories and why have they vanished from our midst?There are many accounts, even if the BBC did want to do a quick Google search, that would tell the story of members of the VHP who were on the train returning from Ayodhya (in Uttar Pradesh) to Gujarat. Since that day, VHP members have felt either let down by their own ilk or are disgruntled and confused about their place in the Hindu parivar. Why not bring up their accounts if this is going to be a plain old story of revision of events gone by.Balancing actNow on to Part Two. Even though this too is a re-telling, it does a much better job than the first film. It starts with the lynchings in India – Akhlaq’s in Dadri, U.P. in 2015 and that of Alimuddin Ansari in Jharkhand in 2017. It then draws links between Modi’s silence on these hate crimes against Muslims to the disabling and dismemberment of Muslim majority Kashmir in 2019, to the drawing up of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) favouring Hindus, to the violent putting down of anti-CAA protests. The critique of this film is funnily enough embedded in the film itself, in a sound byte by the writer Arundhati Roy. “Why do I speak to you on this film,” Roy says. “Only so that there’s a record somewhere that all of us didn’t agree with this. But it’s not a call for help because no help will come.” That those who critique Modi are complicit in his rise is a point made by Roy and also by the academic Christophe Jaffrelot. But they appear in the middle of an undifferentiated mass of sound bytes and are not followed up in the film.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_01_24_165518913_768x381_1_14454462a1.png" alt="image_2023-01-24_165518913-768x381 (1).png">The most damning and impossible to watch segments of this film – the calls to violence and rape by Hindu extremists and the video of policemen kicking Muslims in the Delhi riots to death _ are papered over with opposing bytes. Victim’s testimonies and that of the dead boy Faizan’s mother’s account is sought to be counter-balanced with that of the odious and self-satisfied sound of BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta where he actually brushes aside the violence committed in the Delhi riots, which could in different times be read as discriminatory to the point of criminal culpability. Here’s what he says: “In the larger scheme of things, the Delhi riots were not important. But it was important to the media because it means less work and you can get good media footage just at your door-step.” Now if I were making this film, I’d show Dasgupta’s statement for what it is by interlacing it with footage from the violence. With shots of the police kicking Muslim men to death and asking them to sing the national anthem. Then the viewers would be exposed to the full-throated glorious horror of Dasgupta. The BBC’s attempt at ‘balance’ after a testimony like this can only be read as a sign of it being scared and defensive. Which begs the question – would it do a similar balancing act in making a film on the Rwandan genocide or Auschwitz with the point of view of the SS?What is it trying to do then with these films? We know that the job of the press in these times is to hold up a dark mirror. How could the BBC have done that without trying to play it safe? There are many good examples from around the world but the one that springs to mind immediately is the two-part series or rather two films made by Joshua Oppenheimer on the genocides in Indonesia in 1965. He filmed the perpetrators who gloated over what they did and made two films showing them for who they were without trying to ‘balance’ their ideas in any way. The films, Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, shook Indonesian politics and were part of the process of its unravelling. That is what good filmmaking can do.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">In the present, India is desperately in need of such craftsmanship and it has&nbsp; got to be clearsighted in what it is setting out to achieve. If the truth is what the BBC and the rest of us in India are after then it must be unmitigated, unvarnished and laid bare. It must come with the intent to hit where it hurts. It must therefore actually be thorough and fresh and bold, like the heroes in this two-part series – Arundhati Roy, Aakar Patel and Safoora Zargar. The latter protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act on the grounds that it was partisan against Muslims. For this she was sent to jail for 74 days while she was pregnant. And the BBC is focused on balance. I rest my case.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Read this article in <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/hi-revati-laul-bbc-documentary-a-missed-opportunity/">Hindi</a>, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ml-revati-laul-bbc-documentary-a-missed-opportunity/">Malayalam</a><hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;

There’s a freeze frame from an old English classic I’d like to bring up before you – it’s that of Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. A bride jilted at the altar is found for the rest of her years to be stuck in time, wearing her wedding dress forever since then, trapped in a freeze-frame when her world came crashing down. 

BBC’s Missed Opportunity: A New Documentary With Old Facts

The long-awaited collaboration between Malayalam cinema’s icons Lijo Jose Pellissery and Mammooty is finally here and it is everything film lovers could have asked for. Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (A mid-day stupor) is an utterly unique, quirky and whimsical experience. Making films that are unique is nothing new to Lijo Jose Pellissery. But to see him weave his signature wizardry with a legend like Mammootty in front of the camera takes this dreamy and magical film to new heights. 
Beginning with a series of shots of everyday men and women on the streets, marketplaces and places of worship, Nanpakal finds and accentuates the beauty of the mundane side of life. There is a certain simplicity in the tone of the film that comes across as very endearing and sincere. A simple story with ‘ordinary’ human beings as characters, it becomes all the more beautiful, special and unbelievable due to its minimalist presentation and natural performances. This blending of the mundane with the mystical qualifies Nanpakal as a story in the genre of magical realism. The story follows a bus full of people who are forced to take an unexpected detour on their trip back from a pilgrimage when the protagonist James suddenly turns into a completely different person. “What is he doing? Where is he going? Has he gone mad?”, the audience wonders with amused anticipation along with the rest of the fellow travellers of the protagonist. This absurd turn of events progresses beautifully and seamlessly while slowly building suspense. 
<img alt="nan-pakal.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/nan_pakal_53e1eb0e60.jpg" />
Accompanying this anticipation is wonderful situational humour that comes in waves. Seeing megastar Mammooty play such an honest simple commonman is truly refreshing and perhaps nothing adds gravity to the film’s humour and minimalism as Mammooty’s screen presence does. The juxtaposition of the two characters _ John and Sundaram _ he plays is stuff of cinematic brilliance. Mammootty’s performances Sundaram, a Tamil, and James will go down as one of the most memorable by the veteran in recent years. With the switch in characters, the film also explores the relationship between Tamils and Malayalees _ neighbours, fellow Dravidians, countrymen, sometimes friends, sometimes foes. This multilayered relationship is explored with a certain emphasis given to the Malayalee prejudice against Tamils for many reasons. It’s quite fascinating that the film starts off by displaying the textbook definitions of the words Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the screen.
<img alt="lijo-jose-e1674463017772-768x397.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/lijo_jose_e1674463017772_768x397_ab3c7f8b86.jpg" />
Lijo Jose Pellisery
The entire film is presented in static shots. There is perhaps one shot at a critical point in the story that has minimal movement, outside of which, every other shot by the cinematographer Theni Eswar consists of static frames. Considering that Lijo himself grew up around the culture of theatre and the fact that the bus used by the group returning from the pilgrimage is that of a theatre group, one can make a calculated guess that the film is a homage to the art form of theatre and the culture of stage plays. This element of paying homage to traditional stage plays is sprinkled throughout the film in the form of frames, dialogues and certain quirky moments in the performances of the characters, and so on. The film has an overall retro feeling to it. The yellow tinge in the visuals adds to this mood perfectly. And the film’s soundtrack heightens the retro feel more than anything else. Interestingly, it has no original soundtrack. Throughout the film we are greeted by dialogues and songs from old Tamil films. The words we hear add a new layer of philosophical commentary to the events that are happening on the screen. This really enriches the overall experience and elevates Nanpakal’s uniqueness. One can’t help but lap up the beauty of those old songs and enjoy the retro aesthetics Lijo has served up. 
<img alt="hareesh-768x535.jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/hareesh_768x535_809b6b4d88.jpeg" />
Although it is Lijo’s story, the screenplay is by his familiar collaborator S. Hareesh. The duo had previously created the masterpiece that was Jallikettu as well as the mindboggling vision of Churuli. No other aspect of this film borders on genius like the structure of its screenplay. How does one manage to take a simple story that does not in theory have a climax and transform it into a masterfully balanced, slow cooked entertaining film that leaves us satisfied by giving us the impact of a climax? Hareesh’s exhibits an extraordinary craftsmanship. The way he uses the frustration of the people in the bus desperately looking to find a solution to their predicament and keeps building that up to a point of no return and then surprisies the audience with a simple solution is magical storytelling. 
Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam is a film that will be remembered and savoured for many years to come and the filmmakers and artists who created this wonderful film have done us all a favour by boldly attempting something fresh and heartwarming. Lijo Jose Pellissery has done the impossible again, making genuine meritorious art that is also doing well at the cinemas.

The long-awaited collaboration between Malayalam cinema’s icons Lijo Jose Pellissery and Mammooty is finally here and it is everything film lovers could have asked for. Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (A mid-day stupor) is an utterly unique, quirky and whimsical experience. 

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam: Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Sweet and Satisfying Fairytale 

Ear to the Ground is a special feature by The AIDEM that reports on offbeat field reports on people’s lives and livelihood issues.

Homeless in Prime Minister’s Varanasi…

So what are the implications of the January 2, 2023 Supreme Court verdict on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November 8, 2016 enforcement of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes ? Indeed, the five-judge constitutional bench of the Apex Court upheld the controversial decision with a 4:1 verdict.

Demonetisation, Supreme Court order and unanswered Questions

The Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) marks a new beginning in the contemporary history of the Indian National Congress (INC), says KC Venugopal the party’s General Secretary (in charge of Organisational Matters). He said this in an interview with Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, The Managing Editor of The AIDEM as the BJY reached the national capital of New Delhi and was preparing for the onward journey to Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir in the first week of January 2023. The following is the English translation of the&nbsp;<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/kc-venugopal-interview-bharat-jodo-yatra-birth-of-new-age-for-congress/">interview</a> conducted in Malayalam.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:Welcome to The AIDEM Interactions.The Bharat Jodo Yatra is certainly perceived as a remarkable initiative in contemporary Indian politics both by political observers and activists.Today in The AIDEM interactions, we have K C Venugopal who is one of the chief organizers of the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi, former national President of the INC. He has an important role in the Yatra as the General Secretary in charge of organisational affairs in the party.Question: Venugopal, 107 days 2800 km, you have been in this prolonged Yatra with Rahul Gandhi and now it has reached the capital city. How would you sum up this 107 day’s Yatra experience, in terms of its progress and impact?K.C. VENUGOPAL:This Yatra is an unforgettable experience for us. When we were planning it, we never expected this Yatra to have this much impact or popularity and we took it as a challenge. None has carried out a Yatra (on foot) from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, so we knew the challenges, but still we decided and started. But today at this point we can say it has had a great reaction and that people have accepted it and taken it to their heart going beyond divisions of caste, religion, political or region. Indeed, this is a great achievement.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:Of course. we are noticing the responses of the people, even from unexpected quarters. Also, from a demographical point of view the positive response has been from people of all categories and age. But can \you tell me which category was more attracted o this Yatra as compared to other sections?K.C. VENUGOPAL:Youth. To be frank, Congress was lately concerned about the diminishing presence and participation of youths. But the Yatra has taken away these apprehensions. For example, even in places like Madhya Pradesh, 80% of people participating in the Yatra was below 30 years. Women were also participating in huge numbers. Indeed, it is normal for people to come and witness a Yatra in a casual manner, driven by a sense of curiosity, but this time it is not like that. There is tremendous sense of involvement from all sections of the population.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:But there is also the view among many political observers based in Delhi, that despite the BJY being an important programme for the Congress and in a long time, there is also dichotomy, or a contradiction, inherent in the way it has advanced. On the one side, it has helped the Congress develop some sort of a national narrative for the first time after 2013 and in the process the party and Rahul Gandhi have been able to develop some specific binaries like, the huge burden unemployment one side as opposed to economic policies that help multinational corporations and crony capitalists. The Yatra has also brought up a contradiction between the values represented by Mahatma Gandhi and Savarkar, as also the contradictions between religious fanaticism and secularism. But, in spite of all this, there is the big question whether the Yatra will result in a concrete electoral outcome for the Congress ….K.C. VENUGOPAL:The transformation of this response into Electoral outcomes is something thar we should wait and watch for, but the positive factor is that, through this Yatra we were able to consolidate a host of communities, which had left the party in the recent past and bring them back to the Congress. More importantly, the Yatra has had an electrifying impact on our workers, the rank and file, who were disappointed with the election results in recent times.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:Yes, it is a fact that the Congress has consistently garnered a minimum of 20% vote share on an average in all national elections. But looking back to the period from the beginning of the 1990s we can see also that many from your core support base such as the OBC communities have left the party despite your victories in the national elections of 2004 and 2009…K C. VENUGOPAL:This Yatra is turning out be a big step in retrieving some of the eroded categories. Certainly not all, but some important communities….VENKITESH RAMAKRISHANAN:KC, I have observed that even you said in a recent byte that your vote share will be significantly increasing but, you have not mentioned about the seat share….K.C. VENUGOPAL:Talking about seat share, it will not be based only on this Yatra but also on its follow up. We are planning to conduct another campaign soon, ‘Haat Se Haat Jodo’ (join hands across the country). This will be yet another grassroots campaign, approaching every house in India. Many other follow up programmes have been planned but they are in the process of being finalised. So, if we continue with these campaigns, there will definitely be a change in terms of seats.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:Does Congress have what it takes organisationally to carry out such continuous campaigns? To conduct this Yatra, the Congress did amass huge resources and enhanced itself organizationally but the doubt remains whether the Congress can continue campaigns in a regular, systematic manner?K.C. VENUGOPAL:We have a great leader like Rahul Gandhi, who has made a lot of sacrifice, it is not simple to cover so many kilometres waking up at 5 o clock day after day. It has awakened our workers and leaders. It was indeed a challenge to wake up and start the Yatra at 5 o clock in the morning, but still so many people took part in huge numbers. This has not happened in the recent history of the Congress. See, we are not a cadre party but still we made it possible. It has strengthened our level of confidence. In places like Assam, where we never had done a padayatra the party leadership and workers have covered 850 kilometres. Jharkhand and West Bengal have also planned on their own padayatras.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:But in Uttar Pradesh a small geographical territory covered by the Yatra ….K.C. VENUGOPAL:We have specific plans regarding Uttar Pradesh. For covering the entire state like you said even 100 days will not be enough. We are facing criticism for not including Uttar Pradesh in a big way in the Yatra but actually we could not have conceived such an all-encompassing route. So, a route had to be fixed keeping practical considerations in mind. That is what you are witnessing now.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:There is also another dichotomy. Throughout this Yatra Rahul Gandhi has portrayed or projected himself as somebody not interested in power. He even went to the extent of saying that ‘power is poison’. But as leaders and workers of the party you are all aiming at power. But at the same time Rahul Gandhi makes such grandiose views harping on sacrifice. But, should not all politicians target power ….K.C. VENUGOPAL:Now, there is no relevant environment for this question. The simple fact is that he is not a leader who is craving for position or power. In contemporary politics, a majority of people aim for a political power and I am not saying that is a bad thing but Rahul Gandhi himself has a certain perspective, that does not mean he is into asceticism. I know for a fact that he is interested in promoting new faces to come to power. Finally, such matters are decided by party. The new Congress president (Mallikarjuna Kharge) has stated publicly that the next general elections would be fought under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. This was stated in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. So, be rest assured Rahul Gandhi is not going to take political sanyas. There is little doubt that the country needs a regime change. If the current Modi led regime is allowed to continue the whole country will be destroyed. That is the clear vision that the Congress party has.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:In Maharashtra, the former ruling coalition the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi came as joint entity to support the Yatra but in places like Telangana, Rahul Gandhi was seen criticizing the Telangana the Rashtra Samithi and its Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. You have also invited Samajwadi Party Leader Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary leader of Rastriya Lok Dal to join the Yatra in Uttar Pradesh. So there seems to be a kind of partisan and selective choices in your approach in bringing e opposition leaders together….K.C. VENUGOPAL:It is not selective and it is meaningless to call it selective. The other day Rahul Gandhi himself have sent invitation letters to all opposition MPs including those from Trinamool Congress, BSP, SP, TRS and even Aam Aadmi party. So, the motive is to bring together everyone who agrees fight against the BJP on the basis of principles. The message we are trying to give is to take away the hatred in politics and to fight against the ruling government. In Telangana, the context of Rahulji’s speech should be understood, he was opposing Chandra Shekhar Rao of TRS for his support to the BJP, including in the case of the three controversial farm bills. We are dutybound to expose this. But beyond all this our aim to bring together the parties that stand against the current regime.VENKITESH RAMASKRISHNAN:So, basically the Bharat Jodo Yatra is focusing on an ideological thrust ….K.C. VENUGOPAL:Yes. we have to wait and see what effect it will have, as we have said before the Bharat Jodo Yatra is not designed for electoral gains but for raising our country’s major problems like unemployment among youth, economic distress. sectarian politics and so on. During this Yatra Rahul Gandhi is constantly interacting with common people, especially the youth. Rahul Gandhi is not only walking but also calling out to hundreds of people and talking and listening to their problems. It is after these widespread interactions you see the concluding speech at a venue. The other day in Delhi, during the Yatra, one youth came running and said that, I am mentally disturbed, and when he was asked the reason for it, he said “I don’t have any job, I am not able to live and I cannot find stability of mind. “We called and arranged a doctor for him. I am relating just one case, but there are so many other significant interactions with common people that came up during the Yatra. We are getting very important inputs on the problems that this country is facing let it be Unemployment, rising prices, divisive politics or the communal atmosphere.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:But the domestic problems inside Congress are not yet sorted. Even the Bharat Jodo Yatra is of no help here. For example, look at the Rajasthan situation ….K.C. VENUGOPAL:As a democratic movement that imbibes different sections, the Congress will definitely witness difference of opinion but that is nothing new for the party. In fact, it is natural in a democratic party. But the enthusiasm that the Yatra has inspired is unmistakable. I saw during the Yatra that every leader, even an 85-year-old Sushil Kumar Shinde walked for 3 hours even though he was not well. Shivar Patil is close to 90 years old too did the same. Every leader from top to bottom have participated keeping aside the differences they have. In other words, what we saw was a collective of people working together for a common cause following a leader. But at the same time, I also feel a sort of distress that some other people, who were giving us advice and telling us privately that this nation needs to be changed with a movement like the Yatra but were not brave enough to participate in this Yatra. Even in Kerala there were some people who said they would like to participate but did not. You understand what I am telling, right?”.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:But there was also the phenomenon of many well-known figures such as Raghuram Rajan, Kamal Haasan and T.M. Krishna crossing all social, political and cultural factors and joining the Yatra. When Raghuram Rajan came, the BJP’s reaction against him was that he was having dreams of becoming the Manmohan Singh of Rahul Gandhi …K.C. VENUGOPAL:This is the what the BJP is all about. They cannot see the positive side of anything. They believe in the politics of terrorising and blackmailing. Raghuram Rajan is a person who reacts on issues. But instead of going into the merit of his arguments they criticize the man. However, Raghuram Rajan has the capability to handle such criticism. But what I found in Kerala was that there were many who did not know how to withstand criticism as Raghuram Rajan could do. I never expected such people to be there in Kerala, which as a State is strong and resolute in its fight against communalism.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:The Congress witnessed a democratic election for the post of party President even as the Yatra was shaping up, and Shashi Tharoor was a significant personality who made such a democratic exercise meaningful. But after the elections, what we see is a repetition of the age-old coterie culture in Congress. Tharoor has been side-lined to such an extent …K.C. VENUGOPAL:Venkitesh, you are significant journalist who has played bold and brave role in mainstream media in India, and in this era, it is difficult to find such journalists. But while asking this question, you too seem to have been taken in by the present convoluted narration in the media, which is focusing on how to weaken the Congress. When I came into politics as a student what I learned was, the duty of fourth estate was to strengthen the opposition and to expose the weakness of the ruling party and its government. It is for helping the people. But as we all know the contemporary national media takes up no discussions questioning the governments’ weakness or the real concerns of the people. With regard to the question you asked, let me clarify that once the Congress President election takes place, the current national level body is continued without any change, unless the new President formally initiates the process to select a high-level committee. That will happen in February last week at a special plenary session to be held in Raipur (in Chhattisgarh). It is at the plenary that a new working committee will be formed and after that a new team will come. Then only we will be able to decide who all will be incorporated in the top bodies. Let me assure you, nobody is excluded from this exercise at the plenary. Congress is not a party like that, nobody will be punished or politically beheaded for sharing their opinion or participating in the election. As you know, there are many other parties like that.VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN:Thank you very much KC for this interaction. We will continue to have our dialogue in the future too on many issues.K.C. VENUGOPAL: Thank you and all the best.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Excerpts of the Interview Translated and Transcribed by Alida Shahid. <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/kc-venugopal-interview-bharat-jodo-yatra-birth-of-new-age-for-congress/">Watch full interview in Malayalam, here.</a>

The Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) marks a new beginning in the contemporary history of the Indian National Congress (INC), says KC Venugopal the party’s General Secretary (in charge of Organisational Matters). He said this in an interview with Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, The Managing Editor of The AIDEM as the BJY reached the national capital of New Delhi and was preparing for the onward journey to Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir in the first week of January 2023. The following is the English translation of the interview conducted in Malayalam. 

“Bharat Jodo Yatra marks a new era for Congress in Politics”

In 2022, legal and political observers witnessed a spate of bizarre pronouncements from ‘learned judges’ at various levels of the judiciary. Taken together, these statements demonstrated and underscored how these judges were drifting away from not only basic social sense and sensibility but also the primary parameters of the official code of conduct, law and rationality. In their urge to express emotions and personal opinions while interpreting the laws, they ended up creating major controversies. Here are some instances listed by The AIDEM Delhi Bureau:November 23, 2022: A live stream from the Patna High Court exposed the extent of casteism in the judiciary. The video showed a judge mocking reservations while questioning a district Land Acquisition Officer, Arvind Kumar Bharti. After adjourning the case to grant time to the parties to file their affidavits, Justice Sandeep Kumar was heard saying, “Bharti ji, reservation par aaye the naukri me kya? (Bhartiji, Did you get you job through reservation?)”. As Bharti replied in the affirmative, a lawyer in the courtroom commented, “Ab to huzoor samajhiyega baat (now your lordship will understand the matter).” Another lawyer and then the judge could be seen making a few more comments targeting Bharti and his caste amid peals of laughter.August 12, 2022: A Kozhikode District Sessions Judge S Krishna Kumar created a major controversy while hearing a bail application in a case under Section 354 (A) (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code. Granting anticipatory bail to writer and social activist Civic Chandran in the sexual harassment case, the judge said: “In order to attract Section 354 A (sexual harassment), there must be physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures. There must be a demand or request for sexual favours. There must be a sexually coloured remark. The photographs produced with the anticipatory bail application by the accused reveal that the complainant herself is wearing dresses which are sexually provocative. Section 354 A will not prima facie stand against the accused.”August 11, 2022: Speaking at an event on challenges faced by women in the areas of science, technology, mathematics and business, Pratiba M. Singh, a Delhi High Court judge, described Indian women as “blessed” because scriptures like Manusmriti give a “very respectable position” to them. The comments drew fierce criticism from women’s rights groups. In a statement, the National Federation of Indian Women, said: “Justice Singh seems woefully ignorant of the pathetic condition of women at large, particularly of women from historically marginalised communities, not just in the Indian subcontinent but across the globe.”June 17, 2022: A Karnataka High Court judge observed in a bail order that it was “unbecoming of a woman to fall asleep after rape”. Justice Krishna Dixit was hearing a case relating to the rape of a 42-year-old Human Resources manager, who was said to have fallen asleep after the rape. “The explanation offered by the complainant _ that after the perpetration of the act she was tired and fell asleep _ is unbecoming of an Indian woman; that is not the way our women react when they are ravished,” the judge had observed. However, following a furore, the judge expunged his controversial remarks.May 25, 2022: The Karnataka High Court gently urged love-struck young people to take parents into confidence while choosing their life partners, failing which they could face karmic consequences. “It is high time for the children to know that the life consists of reaction, resound and reflection. What they are doing to their parents today, they would get back exactly tomorrow,” the Court said in its order, while hearing a habeas corpus petition moved by a woman’s father after she eloped with her boyfriend and married him. Quoting the Manusmriti, the court order said, “Even according to Manusmriti, no person can repay his parents even in 100 years for all the troubles that they go through to give birth to him/her and raise him/her to adulthood. Therefore, always try to do whatever pleases your parents and your teachers, because only then does any religious worship done by you will bear some fruit.”May 11, 2022: In the Delhi High Court’s split verdict on marital rape, one of the two judges stated that “sex between a wife and a husband is…sacred”. While he said “legitimate expectation of sex” is an “inexorable” aspect of marriage, the other said the “right to withdraw consent at any given point in time forms the core of woman’s right to life and liberty.” The bench, however, held that the case raises a “substantial question of law” which requires a decision from the apex court. Under section 375 of the IPC, sexual acts by a man with his wife who is not a minor, is not considered rape.March 26, 2022: A Delhi High Court bench while hearing a plea to initiate criminal proceedings against Union Minister Anurag Thakur and BJP MP Parvesh Verma for “hate speech” during 2020 Delhi riots, said: “If you’re saying something with a smile, then there is no criminality, if you’re saying something offensive, then definitely [there is criminality]. You have to check and balance. Otherwise, I think 1,000 FIRs may be lodged against all politicians during elections.”The case involved speeches by the two BJP leaders during the anti-CAA movement and the Delhi riots that ensued. Thakur had said, “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko (Kill the traitors)”. In his speech, Parvesh Verma had told a rally that the “lakhs of protestors” who have gathered at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh during the anti-CAA movement would enter their homes to “rape their sisters and daughters and kill them”.February 2022: Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Bombay High Court resigned after a series of controversial judgements regarding the interpretation of what constitutes a ‘sexual assault’ under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. She was denied an extension of tenure as additional judge and also an appointment as a permanent judge of the High Court. In a slew of judgments passed in January and February 2021, the judge had interpreted the law in such a way that there has to be ‘skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent’ in case of sexual assault against a minor and that ‘holding hands of a minor girl and opening of zip of his pants’ do not fall under the definition of ‘sexual assault’ under the Act.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Report: The AIDEM Delhi Bureau<hr><h4 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Read this article in<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ml-seven-bizarre-things-that-judges-told-us-in-2022/">Malayalam</a>,<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ta-seven-bizarre-things-that-judges-told-us-in-2022/">Tamil</a>or<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/hi-seven-bizarre-things-that-judges-told-us-in-2022">Hindi</a></h4>

In 2022, legal and political observers witnessed a spate of bizarre pronouncements from ‘learned judges’ at various levels of the judiciary. 

Manusmirti, Karma, Casteism, Sexism: Seven Bizarre things that Judges told us in 2022

The AIDEM wishes everyone a very joyful Christmas..
ഏവർക്കും ദി ഐഡത്തിൻ്റെ ഹൃദയം നിറഞ്ഞ ക്രിസ്മസ് ആശംസകൾ..
The AIDEM परिवार की ओर से आप सभी को क्रिसमस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं!
அனைவருக்கும் மகிழ்ச்சியான கிறிஸ்துமஸ் வாழ்த்துக்களை AIDEM தெரிவித்துக்கொள்கிறது..

The AIDEM wishes everyone a very joyful Christmas..

Merry Christmas to all..

It has come a long way from glorification of caste to portrayal of its harsh realities.
Kerala is often projected as a progressive State in terms of human development and social welfare. Its culture marked by communal harmony and the effective functioning of the state machinery are repeatedly cited as reasons for its emergence as a shining example for the other States. But this assessment of Kerala is very much a relative phenomenon which might prevent its people from taking an honest look at the other side of the story. A social evil that the collective consciousness of the State has consistently failed to acknowledge fully is casteism. The land redistribution initiated by the first E.M.S. Namboodiripad government in 1957 and the social renaissance at the turn of the previous century are indeed revolutionary moves that changed the course of history but they have also led to a smugness and misconception among the privileged that caste is simply a thing of the past in the State. This reluctance or refusal to acknowledge that caste has been problematically alive and thriving in the collective consciousness of the people of Kerala finds reflection in the way caste is represented or not represented in Malayalam films.
The old normal
In the past, the cinematic representation of caste had mostly been in the form of heroic declarations of upper caste pride. Looking back at how consistent and strong this trend was in the most mainstream of films is quite repulsive. The biggest and most respected film stars in Kerala glorified upper caste identity countless times in the roles they essayed. This tendency calls for a deep and honest soul-searching. What is the need for such prideful portrayal of caste in a ‘progressive’ State? Mainstream commercial hits like Dhruvam, Aryan, Mahatma, and Adiverukal starring the big guns Mammootty, Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi glorify upper caste identity while bemoaning reservation as a tragedy that has befallen the upper castes. Mahatma, a film written by T. Damodaran and directed by Shaji Kailas, is toxic in its prejudice against the ‘lower’ castes and religious minorities. This toxicity is present in varying intensities in many films penned by Damodaran. Looking back, the blatant, heroic display of such pride and prejudice is shocking. A logical question that follows is: why didn’t the audience and society at large find it problematic and raise their voices against it. As a young individual who was born and brought up in Kerala, I have never experienced any kind of discrimination based on caste in my immediate surroundings. My caste and class privilege has always shielded me from such harsh realities. So the idea that Kerala is a progressive haven was a matter of pride for me. From this angle it is completely understandable why some would say caste is a thing of the past or righteously declare that they don’t see caste as a social reality in Kerala. They don’t see it because they don’t belong to a ‘lower caste’ and probably haven’t been exposed to the humiliations and marginalisation experienced by these sections of people.
Checks and balances of social media
Perhaps one reason for Kerala society not finding such cinematic glorification of the ‘upper castes’ in the 1980s and 1990s problematic was the lack of social media. For a majority of the people, there was no access to traditional media to express any resentment instantly. However, in recent years social media has come in handy (literally!) for people to express their opinion and re-evaluate the views of hardcore fans of film stars. Netizens have been relentless in their criticism, sometimes in the form of serious discussions but mostly in the form of memes and trolls, the modern-day tools of satire. Perhaps no other filmmaker has faced their wrath more than Priyadarshan. Malayalam cyber-space is filled with reevaluations of films that my generation grew up watching on television. It’s now well documented that the protagonists in Priyadarshan films consistently belong to the Nair caste. Critics have highlighted many dialogues from his films glorifying Nairs. One highly problematic dialogue is from Chandralekha, where the lead character played by Mohanlal boasts that he is a Nair belonging to a good family, and the character played by Innocent, seemingly impressed, tells himself that the protagonist does not indeed belong to a ‘venomous’ caste. One is left wondering what exactly that reference is to.
Decentralised and diversified
This push-back some of the old films have received on social media might be a product of the times we are living in. Along with this, cinema itself has now become decentralised and diversified. The growth of digital technology and the general fatigue of the audience watching the same old formula of superstar flicks have now opened the doors for fresh perspectives. Cinema is now more accessible to the common man than ever before. The caucuses of upper caste, upper class men who ‘ruled’ Malayalam cinema, so to speak, have now crumbled under the ‘new generation cinema’ that has taken the industry by storm in the last decade and a half. These phenomena have collectively led to the issue of caste returning to the silver screen with a perspective that is sensitive to the contemporary and largely neglected reality of the lives of those in the lower rungs of the social ladder. Although they are not directly about caste, films like Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, Ee. Ma. Yau., Kumbalangi Nights, Pada and Kammatipadam tell stories of people from the lower castes and classes, effectively breaking the longstanding monopoly of storytelling by the upper castes. Of late, there have been films that face the issue of caste upfront. Exploring their themes, success and potential cultural impact will give us an understanding of the evolution of Malayalam cinema’s relationship with caste. 
Puzhu
Puzhu, directed by the debutant Ratheena P.T, is a bold depiction of casteism and bigotry in a contemporary setting. The most impactful aspect of this film is that it casts superstar Mammooty in the role of a villainous, mentally unstable bigot. Mainstream cinema has never before embraced the cause of caste liberation as this film has done. The cultural impact of a great actor and a fan favourite superstar like Mammooty unapologetically portraying such a negative character gives a certain mainstream acceptance and credibility to the problems lower caste people face in urban settings in Kerala. It also hopefully generates awareness and promotes introspection among those privileged classes whose caste and family pride rudely interferes in a family member’s personal choice of a life partner. Mammooty essays the role of Kuttan, a violent authoritarian upper caste police officer who deeply distrusts his sister’s lower caste husband. The most defining element of this film is the paranoia of Kuttan that his sister’s husband would try to kill him. This is symbolic of how the privileged generally feel threatened when someone who has been historically subjected to their will is free from their hold for the first time. Freedom and equality are misperceived as a victory against them. Kerala is still a place where people rarely marry outside their caste and a twisted sense of family/caste pride and ‘us vs them’ mindset is still very much prevalent. The film shines light on these issues while using the star power of Mammootty and Parvathy Thiruvoth to deliver its powerful message. 
<img alt="Puzhu_Poster_18032022_1200-768x512.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Puzhu_Poster_18032022_1200_768x512_84d83f9b13.jpg" />
Mammooty in the film “Puzhu”
Attention Please
Jithin Issac Thomas has made his debut with the explosive Attention Please. The film, thanks to its unique screenplay, made waves at IFFK 2021 and later became the talk of the town when it was released on Netflix a few months ago. It tells the story of Hari, a dark-skinned lower caste man aspiring to be a screenwriter who lives with a group of upper caste flatmates with unrealised cinema dreams. The film is a brilliant portrayal of how a life full of small, seemingly insignificant wounds leads up to a breaking point. We start off feeling sympathy for Hari’s struggles as his friends are derisive and dismissive towards him and his art especially because his stories are often good and he emotionally moves us with his heartfelt narrations. He comes across as a passive, submissive man who feels overlooked and insulted by his friends and the society at large. He reaches a point where he cannot take it any more and to the surprise and sheer shock of the audience, plunges into violent insanity.
<img alt="Vishnu-Govind-in-Attention-Please-Malayalam-Movie-768x397.png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Vishnu_Govind_in_Attention_Please_Malayalam_Movie_768x397_b5804306bb.png" />
A still from the film “Attention please”
From this point on, the film shows us its true direction and subject matter. It was not about a struggling writer but about the countless struggles and sorrows inflicted upon a lower caste man in our society. His reality is dark, lonely and painful. Which is something alien and not relatable to the vast majority of people. If one could step into Hari’s shoes, there would be no surprise about why all of Hari’s stories are violent and disturbing. By the end of the film, it becomes clear that the real antagonist of the film is the reflection we see in the mirror the filmmaker holds against our face. Jithin Issac Thomas cleverly uses the film to shine light on the psychological trauma and desperation of someone who has never been accepted or appreciated in his whole life.
‘Pra.thu.mu’
<img alt="pra-thu-mu-768x384.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/pra_thu_mu_768x384_15356bea95.jpg" />
A still from the film “Pra. Thu. Mu”
The short film Pra.Thu.Mu was the second outing by Jithin Issac Thomas. It was part of the anthology film series aptly named “Freedom Fight” and it tells the story of a group of manual scavengers who have been called to clean the septic tank of a prominent politician. The film tackles the issues of both class and caste. Caste, although sometimes dormant, has a long history that keeps people away from a good livelihood and wellbeing in the present day. The film is notably shot in black and white. According to the director, white represents the politicians and their preferred outfits, while the black on the screen represents the dark dirty realities of the daily lives of the lower castes. Manual scavenging is an issue India as a country still hasn’t solved. The nature of this problem fully reveals itself when we consider how these occupations are “reserved” for a few communities that were kept at the lower end of the caste ladder for thousands of years.
Mainstream Malayalam cinema’s new-found interest in confronting class and caste is a welcome change. And it offers genuine hope to an informed audience about the industry’s future. As more and more grassroot perspectives reach the silver screen, there will certainly be a new wind of cinema that intimately portrays the lives, struggles and dreams of the downtrodden, a cinema created by people from the same section of the society who have long been kept on the fringes of the industry and society at large.

Kerala is often projected as a progressive State in terms of human development and social welfare. Its culture marked by communal harmony and the effective functioning of the state machinery are repeatedly cited as reasons for its emergence as a shining example for the other States. 

Malayalam Cinema’s Tryst with Caste

A group of prominent scientists, academics, and concerned citizens drafted an open letter criticising a project by India’s leading scientific research body, The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The project aims to design an assembly of electronically controlled mirrors to ensure that the sun rays will fall on the idol of Lord Sri Ram on Ramanavami every year. It is carried out by the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), one of CSIR’s constituent laboratories. According to reports, not just scientists from CBRI are involved in it. Experts from other premier research institutions like the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) also are being consulted. The project became the subject of public debate when CSIR, on November 20, tweeted that CBRI demonstrated how the sun’s rays will fall on the Ramlala’s head in Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir on the day of Ram Navami in 2024.
The scientists behind the open letter point out that there is nothing new about devising a way that allows sun rays to enter the inner sanctum of a place of worship on a fixed solar calendar date. But doing so for Ram Navami every year is a tricky proposition as it is based on the lunisolar calendar. Days of the lunisolar calendar do not coincide with a fixed date in the solar calendar. This complication will make the system CBRI design an overengineered resource-heavy complex solution. At a time when scientific research in the country is paralyzed by multiple and severe underfunding issues this is a criminal waste of resources and money, the letter argues.
“Bringing out a cannon to kill an ant” as seen here is not the only issue. The letter says that it is shocking to see the institutions supposed to promote scientific temper as envisioned in the constitution are involved in foolhardy projects like this.
Following is the full text of the letter:
An Open Letter from Scientific Community and Scientifically Oriented Citizens
On Sunday 20th November CSIR tweeted about a new project by one of their constituent institutes (Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee).
<img alt="image_2022-11-24_125402865.png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2022_11_24_125402865_d79308d356.png" />
Tweet by CSIR (Now Deleted)
More detailed reports about the project were published by several news outlets as seen here: 
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/ayodhya-sun-to-shine-on-ram-with-science/cid/1899477
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/sun-rays-on-idol-csir-in-row-over-ram-temple-project-1164561.html
The reports also mention that researchers at CBRI claimed that IIA and IUCAA are involved in this project.
Based on reported description of the project, we have following observations:
<ol>
<li>
Installing a door or window at a strategic location such that sun rays reach the inner sanctum on a chosen date is not a novel feature in Indian places of worship. One finds many temples as well as Buddhist caves with such windows and doors. For such an opening, the sun rays will reach a designated spot every year on a fixed date as per solar calendar. However, Ram Navami date is determined by a luni-solar calendar and hence it doesn’t coincide with a fixed date in the solar calendar. Thus, a static opening will not achieve the desired result.
</li>
<li>
The CBRI researchers seem to have correctly realised this practical difficulty. Their solution is to design a contraption which will keep adjusting itself in an automated way to match with the 19 year Metonic Cycle. This approach, although technologically feasible, is against the spirit of scientific process for two reasons:
</li>
<li>
Firstly, this approach overcomplicates the solution. There are other much simpler ways to achieve the falling of sun rays on the idol exactly on the Ram Navami like some temple staff manually turning the mirror. Instead, the CBRI has chosen to design a set of mirrors mounted on a gear assembly controlled electronically to achieve exactly the same effect. 
</li>
</ol>
This is akin to badly designed school level science fair projects that many of us see each year, where purpose is not solving a problem in an elegant way but it is to devise as complicated and as resource heavy solution as possible in a hope to impress the audience / judges merely by the complexity of the solution. Or as is said in a popular idiom “bringing out a cannon to kill an ant”.
1 . Secondly, the chosen approach doesn’t advance our scientific or technological understanding in any way. Engineering such a device may be a good learning exercise for an undergraduate student, but researchers are expected to focus on quests which advance human knowledge. Researchers in a CSIR laboratory wasting time on such trivial pursuit, which does not lead to any scientific / technological discovery or a new insight, is a criminal waste of skilled human resources and public money. Even more so in a context wherein younger science researchers are facing horrendous and demoralising delays in disbursement of their allocated research grants and fellowships.
2 . Scientific institutions of excellence like IUCAA and IIA perforce work in a framework of scientific temper, and spread scientific thinking which is their core value, thus upholding the constitution. It is shocking to see their names associated with such a foolhardy pursuit. It would be in the best interests for these institutes to clarify the air about their alleged role in this project. Their peers deserve to know where these institutes stand on the issue of scientific temper.
Signed by Prof. Aniket Sule, Mumbai, Prof. Prajval Shastri, Bengaluru, Prof. Soumitro Banerjee, Kolkata, Prof. Naresh Dadhich, Pune, Prof. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Bengaluru, Prof. Nissim Kanekar, Pune, Prof. Ravinder Kumar Banyal, Bengaluru, Prof. S. P. Rajaguru, Bengaluru, Prof. Manoj Puravankara, Mumbai, Dr. Shriharsh Tendulkar, Mumbai, Dr. Ruta Kale, Pune, Prof. Anandmayee Tej, Thiruvananthapuram, Dr. Shadab Alam, Mumbai, Prof. Preeti Kharb, Pune, Prof. Pravabati C., Bengaluru, Prof. P. Ajith, Bengaluru, Prof. Arnab Bhattacharya, Mumbai, Prof. B. Sury, Bengaluru, Prof. Gautam Menon, Sonipat, Prof. Sharadchandra Lele, Bengaluru, Prof. Nandita Narain, Delhi, Prof. Rahul Nigam, Hyderabad, Prof. Ayan Banerjee, Kolkata, Prof. Aurnab Ghose, Pune, Prof. Bittu K R, Sonipat, Prof. S. Krishnaswamy, Madurai, Prof. Suresh Govindarajan, Chennai, Prof. Jyotsna Vijapurkar, Navi Mumbai, Prof. Mujtaba Lokhandwala, Pune, Prof. Medha Rajadhyaksha, Mumbai, Dr. Deepshikha Nagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Prof. Pradeep Kumar Datta, Kolkata, Prof. Anindita Bhadra, Kolkata, Mr. Kollegela Sharma, Mysuru, Prof. Aahana Ganguly, Bengaluru, Prof. Shanta Laishram, Delhi, and 300 others.

A group of prominent scientists, academics, and concerned citizens drafted an open letter criticising a project by India’s leading scientific research body, The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Scientists Question CSIR Project in Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, 

COP27; Hopes and Despair

Right from the first day of Qatar World Cup, the world is witnessing the use of technology and artificial intelligence on an unprecedented scale. Never before in the history of the football World Cup was technology used with such finesse and to such effect. This has simultaneously paved the way for very strict safety measures, accompanied by amazed public response about the manifold facets of new technology. From electronic match tickets that cannot be handed over to others to cutting edge CCTVs that individually capture each spectator it is cutting edge technology all the way.The gate opening feature in the match tickets only become active once the spectators are in a hundred meter radius of the stadium. Entry into the stadium is only granted once the Hayya smart card that is specially made for Qatar World Cup is verified and found to be in sync with the electronic match ticket. This new technology will certainly help in controlling the football hooligans who have created problems in previous world cups and in football matches that have taken place around the world. Even senior media professionals and journalists who have witnessed and reported on several past world cups have called this a welcome move.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FTR_3_768x432_821fb584b7.jpg" alt="FTR-3-768x432.jpg">The English fans who are infamous for their boorish nature have often caused mayhem in the stands through their sledging, jostling and fisticuffs. There is little doubt that this unenviable track record was the reason for Qatar authorities taking extra precaution and strict security facilities wherever English fans could possibly gather. But in the first match where England utterly demolished Iran with a 6-2 win, the English fans also turned a new page in history by being on their best behavior. Normally fans of the rival teams are seated behind the goal posts at two ends of the gallery, segregated with clearly defined boundaries. But during the England-Iran match, the world witnessed a peaceful and pleasantly surprising sight of fans from both teams intermingling while seated all over the stadium.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FTR_1_min_2_768x432_15badf8538.jpg" alt="FTR-1-min-2-768x432.jpg"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Qatar also set the stage by displaying a culture of consideration and care for fans of different teams. There was a gift package from the Qatar government waiting for each and every spectator in the seat that was allotted to them. This special inaugural day gift was an extension of the culture of hospitality and gift-giving often implemented by Middle Eastern rulers, especially the rulers of Qatar in the past. Japanese fans who are famous for their cleanliness led a coordinated cleanup effort after the opening match that raised the reputation of their country even higher. They picked up all the flags, decorations and waste materials that remained in the gallery and field after the inaugural match, and proceeded to carefully dispose of them outside the stadium.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">2022 FIFA ലോകകപ്പുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട സ്‌റ്റോറികൾക്കായി,&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/category/sports/">ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക.</a><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">For FIFA World Cup 2022 related stories,&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/category/sports/">click here.</a><hr><h4 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4>

Right from the first day of Qatar World Cup, the world is witnessing the use of technology and artificial intelligence on an unprecedented scale. 

Technology keeps Football Hooligans at Bay

On November 20,2022 , the Italian referee Daniele Orsato blew the first long whistle of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The first international match to have been played inside a tent came to an end, with Ecuador edging hosts Qatar by two goals in the inaugural World Cup match. Al Bayt, ‘the home’, stadium erupted in thunderous cheers, not just for the winners, but for the country of Qatar. Such was the experience of watching a football match in the 60000-seating capacity, weather-controlled stadium, built in the shape of an Arabian traditional tent.By the time the match ended, the people inside the stadium and those millions who watched the match in their homes, had some sense as to how this tournament will play out in the next 27 days in the small country of Qatar. Those who came in person to the venue were enthralled by the opening ceremony, the way the proceedings were conducted, particularly the convenience with which they could&nbsp; enter the stadium and watch a match without any hiccups in such a large stadium. Not surprisingly, the players and fans of different teams who had already arrived in Doha for the event had nothing but praise for the arrangements made by the host country.Football afficionados of all races, colours, genetic and ethnic streams have claimed for ages that this game is the only culture universally present in every nook and corner of the world. Not a misplaced claim one may say, looking at the popularity of the game around world. Whatever&nbsp; be the cultural and linguistic differences, this game has always been played with the same fervour, following the same rules in countries across the globe. Every kid with a ball these days may be thinking of himself as Messi or Ronaldo, but of course, these legendary icons of football&nbsp; change from time to time and from&nbsp; generation to generation. Any open space, however small it may be, will be considered as a stadium by these kids . And, indeed the number of&nbsp; players on the field may not always be the mandatory eleven, but may increase and decrease based on the situation.Due to several factors, including historical circumstances and track record, economy related constraints and anatomical differences between races, this magical game has been dominated by teams from certain parts of the world. But with the progress made by different countries in sports and science, more and more players from previously less represented areas of the world have come on to the world stage. For example, look at the number of African players in the European leagues these days. Equally interestingly, more and&nbsp; more Asian players are also appearing on the world scene than before. Along with all this,&nbsp; domestic leagues in many other countries have become more competitive in the course of time. It could well be that players from less privileged regions, in terms of football history , are expressing their pent-up historical discontent against the dominant countries in a uniquely creative manner.It is in this larger context that one needs to look at and analyse the trenchant criticism of FIFA and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by some sections of the&nbsp; agenda driven media across the globe, supported by their own football greats of the past. Since the day Sepp Blatter opened the envelope and announced Qatar’s name, in the year 2010, as the host city of FIFA WC 2022, these people have tried to find fault with everything Qatar did. The first accusation was that, Qatar does not have a football history. As of today, we know that Qatar has won AFC cup, GCC and Gulf cup. And their domestic club championship showcases fiercely competitive football skills, so much so that some of their clubs participate in international club championships and their players have been named Asian players of the year.Then they said the country is too small for such a big event and did not have the infrastructure to accommodate the huge influx of fans during the event. But Qatar proved them wrong, literally proving why small is beautiful, by constructing 8 beautiful world class stadia within one hour of travel distance between them. And yes, connected them all with top class road network and metro services. This, the Qatar authorities pointed out, helps the spectators who otherwise had to spent hours travelling between stadia, like how they were constrained to do in Russia. In Russia the stadia were thousands of kilometres apart and many who travelled to Russia ended up watching just one match.They also raised the issue of immigrant bonded labour used to construct these facilities. Qatar challenged them by putting in place strong labour rules in favour of the workers and brought in international labour organisations other than FIFA to inspect the labour facilities and their condition. All these institutions reported in favour of Qatar, but the nay-sayers were still not happy. One must remember, all these people were sitting in countries where organised human trafficking happens on a daily basis. While pointing one finger at Qatar, they forgot that the other fingers were pointing at themselves.Meanwhile, some of the more self-styled liberal groups ended up siding with the far-right in criticising Qatar on the issue of women’s rights. This too, completely overlooked many recent&nbsp; developments that have happened in Arab countries paving the way for the emergence of women as ministers and social leaders . These “new-age women”&nbsp; were practically guiding their people to the world stage.&nbsp;People who look at biassed and&nbsp; half-cooked reports by the western media, find fault with the way the Arabs conduct their day-to-day affairs. Arab world has progressed and moved forward from the days of Lawrence of Arabia, but these arm chair critics refuse to accept that. Just to add an interesting fact, many leading beauty brands sell more in the Arab countries than in many European countries put together. Women in this part of the world are competing in world sports and fly fighter jets and these uninitiated people ask whether they can drive cars! In Qatar, we will see in the coming days, that many of the World Cup departments are run by proud young Qatari women.Just before the World Cup kicked off, controversy also broke over the manner in which Qatar society looked at LGBTQ affairs. In pure practical terms, Qatar holds&nbsp; the very same views as a majority of the countries in the world. Even a country like India acknowledged LGBTQ rights only a few years ago , but complaints still exist amongst the community that the authorities are merely paying lipservice to this concept.Does this mean that these critics would oppose all having views similar to Qatar on this issue ? What would be their stance when such countries hold the World Cup in future, we doubt. Many of these countries have strict anti-abortion laws based on their religion, will those countries be stopped from holding sports events in future? We can name countries where marrying a widow is a crime, will that be held against such countries from participating in world events? There are definitely many cultural differences in countries around the world, and people are changing but will take time. If you look at Qatar or any other country, they are not the same as in 2010.Another accusation has been about the availability of alcohol inside the stadium. Some in Indian media too took this up, forgetting the fact that there are whole States in India where they don’t sell liquor! But there are scores of countries where alcohol will not be allowed inside a stadium. Many such countries exist in Europe too and were these people&nbsp; bothered about that? The fact that alcohol will be provided in designated areas around the country should be the end of the discussion, but the rancour, clearly, was never about the drinks.In the last one week we heard new accusations that Indians are celebrating as Argentinan, Brazilian, Portugal fans. What kind of an argument is that? Everyone knows Qatar population has a large number of Indian citizens working in that country. And majority of them are from Kerala, who are passionate about football. Recently FIFA tweeted highlighting the football frenzy in Kerala as reflected in the popular cut-outs of football heroes raised in the middle of a river in the State. That alone should have shut up these people. But no, they have a different agenda dictated by a different slant and pattern of arguments. As FIFA President Infantino said two days back in Doha, this was nothing but racism and have no place in this beautiful game and elsewhere.Another lie that the western media , including some celebrated ones, sought to propagate was that many foreign teams were not happy with the rules and regulations prevalent in everyday life of Qatar and hence were staying outside the country during the tournament. Some economic pundits say, the media became a part of European cartel trying to get natural gas from Qatar, with the current Ukraine- Russia situation threatening the future of cheap gas from Russia.What stood out the most in all these cases, was the response from Qatar. They kept quiet all these years focusing on their job on hand. Once they were ready, they went all out blazing with forceful words and hype . They minced no words when they asked why this sudden opposition to Qatar. When Arab money was used by European clubs to stand on their legs, when the same currency was used to support the troubled banks in the west, when Qatar’s infrastructure projects were awarded to Western companies, no one complained about the culture, then why now? It all shows signs of lack of respect and unjust judgements . Certainly, Qatar and the Arab world have said these will be vehemently opposed in unison.It was as if these people wanted a free for all kind of event, which would have helped them substantiate their stories about the “boorish, bullying, racist antics in Qatar stadia.” But, sorry that was not to be. Qatar has clearly said their policy was one of tolerance and respect. And if one goes by the early responses of the real football fans from the world around after the first game, they all have clearly said, Well done Qatar, we are with you!<hr>ഈ ലേഖനം മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കാം, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/fifa-world-cup-qatar-battle-of-the-nations-before-kickoff/">ഗോളിന് വെളിയിലേക്കുള്ള പന്തുകൾ</a><hr><h4 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19551" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

On November 20,2022 , the Italian referee Daniele Orsato blew the first long whistle of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. 

The Games Outside the Stadiums in Qatar

Football has always been an arena of superstitions and black magic rituals. Some teams do crystal ball gazing before kicking the football! Most teams, coaches and players believe that superstitions bring success to their teams. Some team officials bury skulls in the ground while some others keep wizards with the team.During the Santhosh Trophy Tournament (Indian domestic football tournament among State teams) in Manjeri in the Northern Kerala district of Malappuram, West Bengal’s coach Ranjan Bhattacharya was seen bringing ‘Kali’s blood’ to the ground on match days. Players and coaches smearing their bodies with the blood of sacrificial animals is common in Africa. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/como_768x458_5c30442104.png" alt="como-768x458.png">Ranjan Bhattacharya applying Kali’s blood onto the ground.In the 1974 World Cup, Zaire (now the Congo) lost to Yugoslavia by nine goals, and the whole country believed that it was because of the failure to bring a female horse with magical powers from Zaire to Berlin, the host city. Coaches and players alike asserted that Kuwait’s defeat in 1982 was due to the lack of opportunity to keep a camel tied in the stadium.When Nigeria plays, magicians bring to the stadium a wild fowl’s feather in a white tampal (a big, round tray with a high rim) and a snake’s sheath anointed with honey. Once the game starts, they start chanting mantras. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/uroiin_768x458_74dc9cbc90.png" alt="uroiin-768x458.png"> An ‘Argentinian Ritual’ of urinating beside the goal post before penalties.Once the current edition of World Cup starts, astrologers will work overtime in Thailand. Once they say who is favored by Jupiter, the betting houses don’t think about any other team.Argentina’s famous goalie Sergio Goycochea used to urinate on the ground before every penalty kick he faced. In the 1990 World Cup semi-final shootout against Italy, the hosts, Goikosia was urinating after every kick.Europe is not far behind Africa, Asia and South America in holding such beliefs. English footballer Gary Lineker would not hit the post during warm-up matches because he believed that that would have been a missed opportunity in the real game. John Terry used to sit in the same seat, listen to the same song, and use the same bathroom during tournaments. &nbsp;<div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;" dir="auto"><hr><h4 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4></div><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19448" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

Football has always been an arena of superstitions and black magic rituals. Some teams do crystal ball gazing before kicking the football! Most teams, coaches and players believe that superstitions bring success to their teams. Some team officials bury skulls in the ground while some others keep wizards with the team.



Crystal Ball Before Football 

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/fifa_1_1728x2048_09eca8b469.jpg" alt="fifa-1-1728x2048.jpg">The AIDEM presents you the complete 2022 World Cup Fixture. This unique fixture contains not only detailed information regarding every match to be played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup but also match timings in 6+ timezones, so that you don’t miss your favourite matches wherever you are in the world.Save it, Share it, Bookmark it so that you don’t have to go on searching for it over and over again. May the best team win.For high quality Image Download, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SAK498LTjiGffjVtzd9ij70O_vJmmhmM/view?usp=drivesdk">click here.&nbsp;</a>For high quality printable PDF, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S8vItrXNhvZsMLK1yHK3RS4n-a6JUdGG/view?usp=drivesdk">click here.</a><hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19507" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

The AIDEM presents you the complete 2022 World Cup Fixture. This unique fixture contains not only detailed information regarding every match to be played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup but also match timings in 6+ timezones, so that you don’t miss your favourite matches wherever you are in the world.

32 Teams, 64 Matches, 1 Schedule

Amit Shah’s New Political Bulldozer Moves for Bihar
Union Home Minister Amit Shah— the pivot of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party’s ( BJP) strategic and electoral juggernaut —has come up with a brand new scheme for Bihar. He has decided to tour Bihar’s Muslim dominated Seemanchal (bordering) region for two days beginning September 23 . The reasons for this seemingly sudden enterprise is not far to seek. The BJP leadership as a whole , and especially Amit Shah , is seething with rage after the Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal ( United) – JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar dumped the saffron party , reforged the Mahagatbandhan ( grand alliance ) with the RJD, Congress and Left parties and once again took control of the top administrative position in the State.
Nithish Kumar with Tejashwi yadav
While this political reverse seems to be the main reason for Shah’s foray ,the reason stated formally is that the union Home Minister has to review the security situation in the Seemanchal region . This region that comprises of Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnia Lok Sabha constituencies has a Muslim population of around 47 percent while the State average is just 17 percent. The region has international borders with Nepal and Bangladesh too. So, all these factors as such provide the raison d’être for the union home minister to review the “security situation” in the region.
But the timing of Shah’s visit, the demography of the region and also his itinerary clearly suggest that the BJP- smarting under the failure of its ‘Operation Lotus’ in Bihar—has embarked on the exercise to somehow try to overcome the enormous political loss it has suffered on account of Nitish Kumar’s shift to Mahagatbandhan.
Nityanand Rai
The union home minister of state and MP from Ujiarpur in north Bihar Nityanand Rai broke the news that Shah would address a public meeting at Purnia on September 23 followed by an “interaction with the officials”. He would visit Kishanganj on September 24 , hold meetings with his party workers and “also with the officials of the security agencies guarding the borders”.
The BJP’s national president J. P Nadda would accompany Amit Shah. Several senior Bihar BJP leaders including former ministers of the National Democratic Alliance ( NDA ) government in the State too would join Shah during the trip.
J. P Nadda
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are nearly one and half years away and one wonders why the union home minister should hold a meeting with the public and party workers in the region sharing international borders. Even more objectionable is the fact that the entire expenditure for this trip, essentially a political campaign trip, would be borne by the Union government. In other words, the home ministry would fund Shah’s “mission” to rescue his party from the political quagmire it has slipped in after Nitish deserting it.
The the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP’s progenitor and the fountainhead of the Sangh Parivar, has worked among the caste Hindus of Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar and Araria at the grassroots level for over four decades. Since the Muslims are numerically preponderant—they constitute over 60 percent of the population in Kishanganj district—they have the tendency to split whereas the Hindus have a sustained polarization against the “dominance” of the Muslims.
Through 1970’s and 1980’s the RSS carried out a steady campaign against the “infiltration” of Bangladeshis and cow slaughter in the region. Though never corroborated by concrete evidence, the RSS-BJP have always described the region as a “safe passage zone” of terrorists from Nepal and Bangladesh to India and vice versa. The RSS’s militant wings Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad were also perceived to have tried time and again to engineer riots here, much like the ones it had triggered in Muzffarnagar-Shamli region of western Uttar Pradesh in 2012-13.
The RSS-BJP never succeeded in fueling the Hindu-Muslim divide in Seemanchal in the same proportion of what it did in many other parts of the country. The old Jan Sangh hands, Nikhi Kumar and Jagbandhu Adhikari used to occasionally win the assembly polls or at times Lok Sabha polls from this region in 1980’s. Seats like Thakurganj, Bahadurganj, Kadwa and Katihar assembly seats—with heavy population of Muslims– invariably elected the BJP MLAs in 1990s because of extreme communal polarization of the Hindus against the Muslims, whose votes were split among many parties and candidates.
The BJP had its Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussein once winning the Kishanjganj Lok Sabha seat in 1996. The party still has Pradeep Kumar, its MP from Araria. As of now Purnia and Katihar have JDU MPs, Sanotosh Kushwaha and Dulalchand Bhuinyan respectively, while Kishanganj is represented by Congress’s Mohammad Javed in the Lok Sabha. The BJP and the JDU contesting in alliance had won the Purnea, Katihar and Araria seats whereas the Congress had won Kishanganj in 2019.
The 2020 assembly elections witnessed the emergence of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM as a reasonably potent force with the party winning five assembly seats. But the RJD and JDU fought against each other in those polls allowing Owaisi to operate in Seemanchal. However, four of the AIMIM’s MLAs switched over to the RJD ahead of the JDU coming back to the Mahagatbandhan .Probably, the AIMIM MLAs have calculated that with Lalu and Nitish coming together they don’t stand much of a chance being with Owaisi’s party in the state.
Asaduddin Owaisi
What effectively prevented the BJP gaining ground in Seemanchal in the manner it did in western Uttar Pradesh was the emergence of Lalu Yadav as the undisputed leader of the Yadavs who are the largest OBC caste in the Kosi (Saharsa-Madhepura-Supaul) and Seemanchal regions. Thus, the manner in which the BJP consolidated itself among the Jats, Gangwars, Patels and Balmikis of western Uttar Pradesh, it failed to do so with the Yadavs and other OBC- EBC castes like Koiris-Kurmis—the Koris-Kurmis. The non-Yadav castes are in sizeable number in Purnea and are loyal to Nitish in the larger Seemanchal-Kosi region.
The question is where in Bihar would the Modi-Shah led BJP begin to gain traction against the Mahagatbandhan ? The presence of the CPI-ML-Liberation with substantial clout among the weaker sections of both the Hindu and Muslim communities in the region is also a stumbling block before the BJP’s plans .
But Shah had experimented with his divisive politics in this region in 2015 assembly polls too when Lalu and Nitish were together. He had badly failed. It was at Supaul that has heavy population of Muslims Shah had infamously said, “Lalu-Nitish jitengein to Pakistan mein patakha chhootega (If Lalu-Nitish won crackers would be burst in Pakistan)”.
Shah’s ‘warning’ had not worked at that time. The BJP drew a blank in the Kosi region in 2020.
Apart from ground reality the most debilitating handicap for Amit Shah in Bihar is he lacks acceptability of the kind that he enjoys in Uttar Pradesh in particular and in other non-Bihar parts of the Hindi heartland in general. Shah has worked closely in U.P as he was general secretary in-charge of the State during the 2014 elections and his party has its government consistently since 2017 in the heartland state. But he woefully lacks personal appeal with Bihar’s people. Moreover, the BJP is far from radicalizing its cadres in Bihar the way it has done in many other parts of India thanks to Nitish who despite running the government in alliance with the saffron party had never allowed the RSS-BJP any leeway to play the card of radical Hindutva in Bihar.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah— the pivot of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party’s ( BJP) strategic and electoral juggernaut —has come up with a brand new scheme for Bihar. 

Amit Shah’s New Political Bulldozer Moves for Bihar

On States’ Income and Devolution
I am seeing a lot of chatter about the collection of taxes and devolution of tax income. Certain statements by Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan have contributed to this.
Tamil Nadu is one of the prosperous states, and so there is a lot of economic activity in TN. This means that a lot of tax is collected in TN.
Palanivel Thiagarajan
But the devolution of tax income is based on the population of each state. UP has a huge population and hence gets the lion’s share of tax income that goes to the states. But economic activity in UP is relatively low, so it doesn’t contribute very much to tax revenues, relatively speaking. That’s because UP is terribly poor and underdeveloped, no matter how many dimensions you measure it on.
How should you feel about this?
Well, I guess that depends on your economic philosophy.
Are you a socialist? Didn’t Marx say, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need?” So, if you are a socialist, then TN is able to make more money, so you take more from TN. You assume that each person has the same basic needs, so you distribute the total revenue equally according to population. UP has a larger population than TN, so they get more. UP doesn’t have the same ability to earn as TN, so we have to take less from UP.
Now, keep in mind, the devolution of taxes is based on the population in 1971 and its split among the states. Since then, the population of UP has grown much more than that of TN. If the devolution of tax revenue was done according to today’s population levels, TN would get significantly less.
If you are not a socialist, then you would say, I am not going to subsidize UP or any other state. I will make my contribution to the national treasury for national needs like defense, etc., but I should get back devolution of tax income based on what I put in.
By that token, of course, you would also not like progressive taxation. After all, why should the needs of the poor be subsidized by taxing you? Let the poor guy and you and Ambani all pay the same flat rate. Just like TN earned its tax income through hard work, so did Ambani earn his income. If TN should not be penalized for doing well, why should Ambani?
And why should there be government schools for poor people? The money for the government schools comes from taxing people like you, people who work hard to earn your salary or profit. They want to use your hard-earned money to give free schooling to poor people who pay no tax. How dare they? Let the “poor” people send their kids to private schools if they can, or remain illiterate if they cannot. Why should their education happen on your dime? Goddamn freeloaders.
And you wouldn’t like any social programs, such as Mid-day means, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Integrated Child Development Services, and many other similar programs. Because the money for all those comes from the taxes you pay to pay for services for people who don’t pay taxes. After all, you don’t send your kids to government schools (see above paragraph.)
It’s a question of economic philosophy. India is still a socialist country, and that’s why these rules are in place.
But if you are not a socialist, the good news for you is that India is gradually becoming a more capitalist country, and perhaps when that happens, these rules will go away. The irony is that the states that are helping the BJP win are states like UP. The BJP is reducing the entitlements that the poor are being given in the socialist model, such as gradually reducing MNREGA. These will adversely affect states like UP, because there are more poor people in UP as a percentage of the population.
The state owning the means of production is another hallmark of a socialist state. Under the BJP, state-owned enterprises are being privatized rapidly. Even the railways are being privatized. Who needs these “government jobs” desperately? Certainly not Tamil Nadu. TN has so many private companies offering high-paying jobs that they will manage without the government jobs. But a state like Bihar or UP will have very few jobs without government jobs. Yet these are the people who vote most enthusiastically for the BJP that is busy axing government jobs by privatizing huge chunks of the economy.
So, in conclusion, if you are a person from Tamil Nadu, who is very upset about how your money is being used to subsidize poor people in UP, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, and the like, take a deep breath and wait a decade. In that time, Modiji will end all this government expenditure. There will not be any government owned businesses – no railways, no steel plants, no factories; no government schools to waste money on midday meals; no army infrastructure to subsidize (because even this is being privatized thanks to Agnipath).
Simply put, government is going to become small, and so government expenditures are going to drastically decrease, so you will not have to part with so much of your income. The government will have no use for your money.
Everyone will finally be happy. The folks in UP and MP who like to see Modiji rule them forever, and the folks in TN who don’t want their money to be spent on welfare schemes in UP and MP.
So, my friends from TN, take a chill pill! Acche Din are coming soon in New India!

I am seeing a lot of chatter about the collection of taxes and devolution of tax income. Certain statements by Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan have contributed to this.

On States’ Income and Devolution

Geethanandan M, a prominent Dalit rights activist in Kerala, explains why the Supreme Court verdict on the Economically Weaker Section quota raises many questions of constitutional validity.The AIDEM explainer on the Supreme Court Verdict on reserving a quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Listen to this article in English (4 minutes)<span class="mejs-offscreen" 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Geethanandan M, a prominent Dalit rights activist in Kerala, explains why the Supreme Court verdict on the Economically Weaker Section quota raises many questions of constitutional validity.

Economically Weaker Sections Quota Imperils Social Justice

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Writing an obituary on someone with whom one had a long, intimate association is not an easy affair. Words go astray even if it is too short. I met Rajeevan in 1977, when he joined for his undergraduate program in Physics at Guruvayurappan College, Calicut. I too was a student at the same college, doing my degree programme in Zoology. It was the post-<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ezhara-azadiyude-kodukkal-vangalukal-venkitesh-ramakrishnan-ep4/">Emergency</a> period, when student politics was re-emerging on campuses after two years of silence. Students still in their teens were in search of student organisations with which they could affiliate. But there were a few in the college like us who were politically left-leaning but never wanted to affiliate themselves with any student organisation. Members of this small group identified themselves as ‘free left’. A sort of “avant-garde” group, they were slightly ahead of their time in the college.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">We were not academically good students. Not bad either. We had love for books that had nothing to do with the courses we studied in the college. Imprint, edited by Nissim Ezekiel, was the literary magazine we were comfortable with. We did attempt reading heavy stuff. But it is doubtful whether we really understood the head or tail of such writings! Looking back, I feel how ridiculous we all were, attempting to read Tin Drum of Günter Grass at eighteen! College life was incredibly adventurous. Though our group did not have any political affiliation, we were sympathetic to one political outfit or the other. Most of the members of this intimate group had some sympathy for the conventional Left or with Maoism or with the Nav Nirman movement of <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ezhara-azadiyude-kodukkal-vangalukal-venkitesh-ramakrishnan-ep4/">Jayaprakash Narayan</a>. Or a combination of all these!! But to our surprise, Rajeevan never had any sympathy for all these organisations; but he was a Congress sympathiser. Despite being “left leaning”, he always had a strong conviction that the <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/?s=congress">Congress</a> represented India. Until his death on November 2, he held on to this view and never hesitated to express it openly. I have been reading many obituary notes on Rajeevan written by friends on Facebook and on other social media platforms. Many have mentioned his “naxalite” past. But Rajeevan never was a sympathiser of any of the innumerable faction of the naxalites in Kerala. Of course, he did have friends who were insanely passionate about dreaming of an armed rebellion in India. He didn’t have any sympathy for the conventional Left either.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Rajeevan had genuine love for letters. His passion was poetry. As a student he used to write brilliant poems and read it out to me particularly. He knew that I do not have any taste for poetry, particularly for contemporary Malayalam writings then. But my comments mattered for him. Most of his poems were sent to the Veekshanam, the weekly magazine of the Congress in Kerala. We used to make fun of him for sending such lovely poems to Veekshanam, instead of Mathrubhumi weekly. Perhaps due to his political sympathy for the Congress. I still remember a lovely poem that he wrote for Veekshanam in 1979. The poem titled “Skylabinodu” was later translated into English by me and sent to Kamala Das who was editing the poetry section of Mirror. I titled it “Ode to Skylab”. Highly impressed by the poem, Kamala Das wrote a letter to me asking me a few more translations of Rajeevan’s poems to fill Mirror’s demy one-eighth sized full page! However, I could not do it then. However I happen to be the first to translate Rajeevan’s work into English.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Soon after graduation, we had to look for options for our higher studies. I had plans to go for Masters in English Literature, though I never had any taste for writing. I loved literature. That’s all. Rajeevan did have love for writing and literature, but he surprised all of us by opting for Chartered Accountancy. He took up an&nbsp; “articleship” in a Chartered Accountants’ firm in Kozhikode. Of course, he did drop out after spending a year there and opted for Masters in English Literature later. Meanwhile, I got fascinated by Anthropology and dropped out of literature and opted for Masters in my newly developed passion. Rajeevan loved Indian writing in English, particularly poetry. He had genuine intertest in Jayanta Mahapatra’s poems and wanted to do a Ph.D. on him. I am not sure whether he began his research on Jayanta Mahapatra. But I have seen the synopsis that he had drafted.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">During the prime of our youth there was hardly any day when we did not meet in Calicut city. But, later, when priorities changed, our meetings turned occasional. But mutual concerns never changed. We used to have long conversations over the phone. His last call to me was in June this year. He was telling me about his health issues and how he ended up undergoing regular dialysis. I promised that I would come and meet him in a day or two with my nephew, a Nephrologist. But I never did it. I never wanted to see Rajeevan sick. But I never kept my promise. Rajeevan never called me too.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Related Story: <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/dont-be-afraid-be-bold-was-t-p-rajeevans-creative-message-anita-nair/">“Don’t be afraid, Be bold” This was T.P Rajeevan’s Creative message, says Anita Nair</a><hr><h4 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4>

Writing an obituary on someone with whom one had a long, intimate association is not an easy affair. Words go astray even if it is too short.

T. P. Rajeevan: A Passion that Lives On

<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The theme of ‘man vs nature’ is at the heart of Kantara. And there could not be a more relevant time in human history for a film to discuss it. The Tulu tribes, who’s history, culture, traditions and livelihood comes under the threat of extinction, garner the complete sympathy of the audience.Let me begin by saying this outright, Kantara is an absolutely primal and electrifying experience that must be enjoyed in a theatre and not on your phones or laptops. Rishab Shetty, who is the writer, director and the lead actor, has crafted a vision that is truly special. Connecting back to his roots in Udupi district of Karnataka and its prominent Tulu culture, he brings alive its magnificent and hypnotic folklore. Along with depicting the beauty and mystery of the long standing ritual “Bhoota Kola”, he also uses the film to make a definitive statement on the bureaucratic disregard of tribal communities and the destruction of their way of life at the hands of the authorities.The film begins with the tale of a 19th century king, who has everything a man can wish for and yet cannot feel peace of mind. His desperate search for peace leads him to a tribal forest land where he comes across a stone worshipped by the tribe. The sense of peace he feels standing before the stone, compels him to ask them to hand it over in return for anything they ask. The stone represents the deity “Panjurli Daiva”, who possesses one of the villagers and agrees to the king’s demand on the condition that he gives this forest land to the tribals for perpetuity. However, Panjurli warns the king that if the king or his successors go back on their word, he will take his destructive form, “Guliga Daiva” and bring down vengeance upon the king’s family. This agreement made by Panjurli and the king sets the stage for all the events that follow. The film drives home the seriousness of this agreement by showing the mysterious death of a successor who tries to take back the tribal land. This event also depicts the magical powers of the one who performs the Bhoota Kola ritual, as he becomes a vessel possessed by the Panjurli Daiva. This magical event in the opening scene of the film, with the protagonist’s father at the centre of it, becomes an important motif in the main plot of the film.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kantara_kola_768x512_0b066bfb05.jpg" alt="kantara-kola-768x512.jpg"> A still from the movie KantaraShiva, our protagonist, roars onto the screen while taking part in ‘Kambala’, the annual buffalo race. He comes across as powerful and authentic in his personality and somehow more intimidating and physically imposing than the beasts at his disposal. This raw wildness of Shiva fills the audience with excitement every bit of the way as the story progresses . The characteristics that Shiva often displays throughout the film are parallel to the mythical story of Guliga Daiva, the spirit worshipped by the Tuluvas. He is rough around the edges, unruly, dismissive of authority figures and has an insatiable hunger for hunting and eating wild animals , very similar to Guliga, the spirit that attacked Lord Shiva’s bull and is known for its eternal hunger. Rishab Shetty deserves all the praise in the world for taking on the challenging task of simultaneously being the director and the lead actor of Kantara, and passing the test with flying colours. It’s strikingly clear that this is a subject matter close to his heart and his upbringing, and the success of the film proves his statement that “local is the new global”. Kantara definitely benefits from this unique, unabashed rural pride; which allows audiences in even the biggest metro cities to reconnect with something primordial in them they’ve lost touch with.The theme of ‘man vs nature’ is at the heart of Kantara. And there could not be a more relevant time in human history for a film to discuss it. The Tulu tribes, who’s history, culture, traditions and livelihood comes under the threat of extinction, garner the complete sympathy of the audience. We find their simplicity and coexistence with mother nature as the side of goodness and the encroaching, disruptive police state as the side of greed and evil. It is worth noting that if we are to be wiped out by a global climate catastrophe, the skyscrapers and glass palaces will not remain standing, but somewhere a hunter gatherer tribe will likely persevere and ensure the continuity of the human species. Kantara treats the plight of the tribal communities with the gravity and empathy they deserve. Actor Kishor Kumar, who portrayed the role of the stoic, fascistic forest officer Murali, needs to be pointed out. His performance as the lethal Murali is effective in making us as an audience align with the tribals for majority of the runtime. Another key character who stands out is Devendra Suttoru, played by Achyuth Kumar. Achyuth kumar’s performance is as nuanced and tricky as the character himself.Part of the reason why Kantara is getting the response it has received is due to its screenplay. Rishab Shetty has crafted a well written script, with a near perfect dramatic structure. How the film efficiently establishes the story of the myth in the opening minutes and how it all ties back to where we began in an epic, goosebumps-inducing climax is a thing of beauty. It is clear that the screenplay and its structure is very well planned as there are many clever references, call backs and motifs sprinkled throughout. The strong sense of closure and wholeness the audience feels by the end of the film is also a testament to this. Kantara manages to do justice to its themes while at the same time being an out and out mass entertainer that delivers comedy, action, heroics, and wishful serving of punishment on the unjust. One flaw in the screenplay worth explicitly mentioning is how quickly the heroine, Leela, played by Sapthami Gowda, falls in love with Shiva. This particular point sticks out unbaked in an otherwise delicious treat. Especially considering how disrespectful Shiva is towards Leela in their first meeting. Helping her secure a job is simply not enough motivation to instantly break into a romantic song. Shiva is an animalistic, toxic man in the context of how this relationship begins, which is something we see in commercial Indian films all the time. But one must remember that even today, things are not any different in rural India and this film is set in a rural tribal village in the 1990s. I am fully aware that the filmmaker’s responsibility is towards making the most authentic film and staying true to his vision; and not towards my utopian vision for humanity. However, the scenes where Shiva disregards the consent and privacy of Leela, would , in all probability, trigger reminders of their own trauma in many female members of the audience . Leela’s character from this point on is well written as she stands by her truths repeatedly in disagreement with Shiva. Sapthami Gowda has done an excellent job as Leela, showing her potential as an actor to look forward to.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kantara5_768x432_be4f1c0e59.webp" alt="kantara5-768x432.webp"> A still from the movie KantaraThe filmmaker’s decision to shoot in real locations was the right one, as it allowed Arvind Kashyap to showcase the majesty and allure of the forest and ritual grounds with his perfectly elegant framing and lighting. Kantara is without doubt a visually rich film. This seems to be Arvind Kashyap’s year, as he was also behind the camera of the critical and commercial success “777 Charlie”. There is something so emotionally poignant about his shot selection that really brings the director’s vision alive. The muddy, raw and dynamic kambala scenes, the mysterious and spiritual yellow mist of the Bhoota Kola rituals, the blood red fiery shots in the final conflict all need to be pointed out for how much richness they add to the film. C.P Ramesh, the colourist of the film, also deserves credit for bringing Arvind’s vision to life. Kantara starts off with a bang and never slows down. The film is a brilliantly paced freight train that culminates in the atomic blast that is its climax. The editors of the film, K.M Prakash and Pratheek Shetty, have not allowed the audience’s attention to drift away even for a second . Even in the middle of such a power packed, energetic film, the slow somber moments are still given the right amount of time to simmer. Perhaps nothing adds to the authenticity of the world of Kantara like its production design and costume design. Dharani Gangeputhra’s choice of sets, props, along with the costumes designed by Pragathi Rishab Shetty are all clearly a result of extensive research and brilliant colour sense. When I left the theatre, nothing stayed in my head more prominently than the primal scream let out by Guliga Kola throughout the film. That central element of sound which remains throughout the film has been used to perfection. Even in Shiva’s entry in the kambala scene, that scream is there as a reminder that we are not looking at any ordinary human being. Raju Albert, Sandeep Kumar, Arun S. Mani and Narayanan Sp who did the sound design for Kantara have done an exquisite job. Along with that powerful scream, the other most important sound element of the film are the songs by B. Ajaneesh Loknath. They elevate the film to new heights, especially ‘Varaha Roopam’, which is the very soul of that masterful climax. It is very rarely that a song becomes this central to the final act of a film. ‘Varaha Roopam’ deserves special mention even though it has now been mired in controversy over seemingly legitimate accusations of plagiarism by the group ‘Thaikkudam Bridge’ of their song “Navarasam”.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Kantara is a special film in terms of what it achieves. It is authentic, heartfelt, mystical and powerful. It champions the underdog by bringing the attention of the masses to their harsh realities. It is also an invitation to reconnect with the primordial spirit of rural south India and our tribal ancestors.<hr><h4 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19246" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

Let me begin by saying this outright, Kantara is an absolutely primal and electrifying experience that must be enjoyed in a theatre and not on your phones or laptops. 

Kantara: A Masterful, Mystical tale of Divine Justice

In this segment of  The AIDEM interactions, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Editor, interacts with Saeed Naqvi, a world renowned journalist and a specialist in international and national affairs, who,  in recent years,  has been focusing on the issue of communal polarisation in India and how it impacts all communities, especially the minorities. 

PFI ban: Government Needs to Produce More Evidence

Following the murder of Kurdish youth, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, by Iran’s infamous morality police, news has come now of the killing of the independent journalist, researcher and Kusdish liberation activist, Nagihan Akarsel. For the past few years, Nagihan, a Turkish national, had been living in Bakhtiyar, in the city of Sulaymaniyah, which comes under the Kurdish autonomous region in the northern part of Iraq. That is where she was shot dead as well. The identity of the murderers, now arrested, is yet to be revealed. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the importance of the Kurdish regional government within Iraq and its autonomy became more relevant. During this period even the President of Iraq has been chosen from the Kurdish community. It is Kurdisthan’s own military named the ‘Peshmerga’ that protects the boundaries of this nation within a nation. The Amna Suraka museum in the city of Sulaymaniyah has a special memorial display area dedicated to Kurd fighters who are at war with the Islamist terrorist organisation ISIS. This section, which has been named the museum of martyrs in the defense against ISIS, is the first of its kind in the world. The Kurds consider themselves a community attacked by everyone in the world. Their history tells a story of them being pawns who are regularly attacked and murdered in the complex game of geopolitical chess.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/96f6e8af_52c3_4cb9_99e7_26ca67579c14_0777c6cfe7.jpg" alt="96f6e8af-52c3-4cb9-99e7-26ca67579c14.jpg"> From Amna Suraka Museum, Saeed Kaban St, IraqThey believe they have nobody except the mountains. There are some who think that the very word ‘Kurd’ means ‘people of the mountains’. Even though they constitute 20% of the population, the changing Turkish governments over the years do not even recognise or accept the Kurdish people. The Turkish government officially labels the Kurds as mountain Turks. There is a ban placed on Kurdish names, attires, rituals and even languages. Teaching in Kurdish language is an impossibility in government schools even today. It is possible to learn in Kurdish only at a few private institutions. In 1978, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was founded under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan with the goal of establishing a self-governing nation within Turkey. In 1999, Abdullah Ocalan was arrested and he is still in prison. The PKK is also involved in armed resistance. Almost half a lakh people have lost their lives in the conflict with the government. Tens of thousands have lost their homes and are roaming round as refugees. The PKK’s ideology is a melting pot of Marxism, Leninism and Kursh nationalism.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/61ddd0b0_52b4_4320_95dd_c05a37954713_768x343_8eddab10f0.jpg" alt="61ddd0b0-52b4-4320-95dd-c05a37954713-768x343.jpg">A Kurdish star risesWorld-renowned filmmaker Yilmaz Guney, who is considered the father of Kurdish cinema, is a Kurdish descendant and a Turkish national. As a leftist intellectual who had also starred in several films, Yilmaz was accused of murdering a judge. But he continued directing films from behind bars. After finishing the shoot of the film Yol (Road), he broke out of jail, clandestinely crossed the national borders and finished the post production work of the film in Paris. He made an appearance alongside his wife at the next year’s (1982) Cannes film festival. Yol shared that year’s Palm d’Or (best picture) award with Costa Gavras’ Missing. Yilmaz was never able to return to his home country after this. And soon after, he fell and died. This brought Kurdish cinema to the attention of film lovers the world over. One of the important slogans of the Kurdish struggle for liberation is: ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’. As part of tribal ways of life and socio-traditional conditioning, patriarchal mindset is dominant in the collective Kurdish consciousness, as it is in other third world countries.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Yilmaz_Guney_Cannes_1982_1024x717_1_768x538_f0c273fbc8.jpg" alt="Yilmaz_Guney_Cannes_1982-1024x717-1-768x538.jpg"> Yilmaz Guney (center) at Cannes in 1982Nagihan Akarsel was a central figure in the full-fledged effort of Kurdish thinkers for the liberation of women and activists in the fields of culture, education, literature and art. This effort has been happening alongside the fight for an independent Kurdish nation or a self-governing region within nations like Turkey (similar to those in Iraq and Syria). Nagihan Akarsel, who was a sympathiser of the PKK, was also a promoter of and an expert researcher in the ideology called Jineology or science of women, which was created by Abdullah Ocalan. On October 4, 2022 she became a martyr at her residence in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish region of Iraq, after being shot multiple times. On that same fateful evening, at Mawat, in Sulaymaniyah, an unknown drone attacked a vehicle in which PKK members were traveling. Among the other fighters who died in similar attacks in the same year were Saki Chalabi and Sasuhail Kurdesh.The light of WomanhoodAkarsel was born in the Turkish city of Konya. Due to the threat to her life in Turkey, she was living in Sulaymaniyah for the last many years. The adherents of Jineology consider Nagihan Akarsel the light, consciousness, hope and beauty of the humane phenomenon of womanhood. To stand in support of her meant to stand in support of beauty, goodness and freedom. They hope that her passion for life and her enthusiasm will guide them in the difficult path ahead as well.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/8f226003_ac23_4470_ab2e_f4c63a6e0594_768x452_2ba347fca9.jpg" alt="8f226003-ac23-4470-ab2e-f4c63a6e0594-768x452.jpg"> Nagihan AkarselNagihan Akarsel was born in 1976, in Golyazi district of Cihanbeyli in the city of Konya. Celikan is the Kurdish name for this town. It is a town where primarily Kurmach, a subgroup of Kurds, reside. The people of Celikan, who consider it a sin to wake up after sunrise, do not pour water over ash. Nahigan, who went in search of the origin of these traditions, found their cultural similarities with the Yazidi Alvi traditions. Right from childhood she was interested in hearing stories about women. She knew the importance of food grains clearly as she had spent her childhood in a town full of wheat fields. To her, wasting even one grain of wheat was as painful as spilling blood. She never forgot the games she played barefoot in the freshly son-drenched soil. Even in her youth she realised that her destiny was to take part in the fight against patriarchy.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/3409257e_1d32_4992_a4a6_359542f6e02a_efec9498a3.jpg" alt="3409257e-1d32-4992-a4a6-359542f6e02a.jpg"> Protests over the killing of Nagihan AkerselAfter finishing her high school in her hometown, she joined Gazi University in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. Everyone who met her fondly recollects her simplicity, her glowing face, and the undying curiosity that she exuded. Following this, she became a supporter of PKK after being attracted to its ideology. After her arrest in 2001, she was in jail until 2007. Between 2008 and 2014, she worked as a reporter and an editor at a news agency named Dicil. In the same period, she completed her Master’s degree in Gender Studies from Hacetteppe University in Ankara. Soon after, Nahigan and her comrades established a women’s news agency called Jinha. But the government banned it on October 29, 2016. Nagihan Akarsel was a teacher, friend, comrade and a prominent internal figure of the Kurdish media. She also tried to create friendly relations with women from other walks of life during the same time.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/e2ee18e2_e3c7_4846_b2b6_aa5c46e177b5_768x432_d8fb8fd7a8.jpg" alt="e2ee18e2-e3c7-4846-b2b6-aa5c46e177b5-768x432.jpg"> Demonstration by Kurdistan Workers’ PartyLater on, Nahigan spent most of her time deeply studying and promoting Jineology. She was a member of the Jineology Academy, which was established for research on the ideology. She was also part of the editorial board of the journal named Jineology and has written several articles in it. Nagihan Akarsel strived to develop Jineology into a platform for women’s liberation, going beyond its political orientation. Nagihan Akarsel conducted field studies and educational activities in the Kurd regions of Bakoor, Basur and Rojavaf. She educated thousands of people from different age groups. She wrote articles in several newspapers, magazines and portals. She was the center of attention for young people wherever she went. She had even conducted several studies in the oral traditions of Kurdish women and was preparing to set up a Kurdish women’s library in Sulaymaniyah. The literature festival in the city of Sulaymaniyah, which is among the UNESCO cities of literature, is famous.Nagihan is a symbol of the loss and the grim reality of Kurds, who are unable to go where their heart longs to go and are forced to live lives that are torn apart by national boundaries and fences. The fight led by Nagihan and the Kurds will certainly not be a futile one.References:<ol><li>Sin (Novel) – Haritha Savitri/Mathrubhumi Books)</li><li>Jinha Women’s News Agency</li><li>RUDAW.net</li><li>Reporters Without Borders (rsf.org)</li><li>Genealogy.org</li><li>Kurdish Institute</li><li>BBC and Wikipedia This article was originally published in&nbsp;</li></ol><hr>This article was originally published in Malayalam on The AIDEM and can be read&nbsp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/kurdish-activist-and-feminist-nagihan-akarsel-shot-dead-in-iraq/">here</a>.Translated by Nirmal Madhukumar.<hr><h4 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Subscribe to our channels on<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a>&amp;<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(247, 168, 16);display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a></h4><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-19040" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

Following the murder of Kurdish youth, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, by Iran’s infamous morality police, news has come now of the killing of the independent journalist, researcher and Kusdish liberation activist, Nagihan Akarsel.

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