பிரதமர் மோடி வருகிற நாடாளுமன்ற தேர்தலில் ராமநாதபுரத்தில் போட்டியிடப்போவதாக தகவல் பரவி வரும் சூழலில், தமிழக பா.ஜ.க மாநில தலைவர் அண்ணாமலை, `என் மண் என் மக்கள்' என்ற முழக்கத்துடன் ராமேஸ்வரத்தில் தொடங்கி தமிழகம் முழுவதும் பாதாயாத்திரை மேற்கொள்ள உள்ளார். இந்த பாதயாத்திரையை மத்திய உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித் ஷா இன்று தொடங்கி வைக்கிறார். இதற்காக ராமேஸ்வரம் புதிய பேருந்து நிலையம் அருகே புதிய நாடாளுமன்ற கட்டட வடிவில் பிரமாண்டமாக விழா மேடை அமைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. வருகிற நாடாளுமன்ற தேர்தலை குறிவைத்து மேடை அலங்கரிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாக பா.ஜ.கவினர் கூறிவருகின்றனர். இதில் அ.தி.மு.க, த.மா.க, ஐ.ஜே.கே உள்ளிட்ட பா.ஜ.க கூட்டணி கட்சிகளை சேர்ந்த நிர்வாகிகளும் கலந்து கொள்கின்றனர்.

அண்ணாமலை: ராமேஸ்வரம் கோயிலில் இரவில் குடும்பத்துடன் பூஜை... விழா மேடையையும் பார்வையிட்டார்!

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<img alt="FTR-1.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FTR_1_9bd495d2c9.jpg" />
Curabitur pulvinar euismod ante, ac sagittis ante posuere ac. Vivamus luctus commodo dolor porta feugiat. Fusce at velit id ligula pharetra laoreet. Ut nec metus a mi ullamcorper hendrerit. Nulla facilisi. Pellentesque sed nibh a quam accumsan dignissim quis quis urna. The most happiest time of the day!. Praesent id dolor dui, dapibus gravida elit. Donec consequat laoreet sagittis. Suspendisse ultricies ultrices viverra. Morbi rhoncus laoreet tincidunt. Mauris interdum convallis metus.M
<blockquote>
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
 by Albert Einstein
</blockquote>
The most happiest time of the day!. Praesent id dolor dui, dapibus gravida elit. Donec consequat laoreet sagittis. Suspendisse ultricies ultrices viverra. Morbi rhoncus laoreet tincidunt. Mauris interdum convallis metus. Suspendisse vel lacus est, sit amet tincidunt erat. Etiam purus sem, euismod eu vulputate eget, porta quis sapien. Donec tellus est, rhoncus vel scelerisque id, iaculis eu nibh.
Donec posuere bibendum metus. Quisque gravida luctus volutpat. Mauris interdum, lectus in dapibus molestie, quam felis sollicitudin mauris, sit amet tempus velit lectus nec lorem. Nullam vel mollis neque. The most happiest time of the day!. Nullam vel enim dui. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Sed tincidunt accumsan massa id viverra. Sed sagittis, nisl sit amet imperdiet convallis, nunc tortor consequat tellus, vel molestie neque nulla non ligula. Proin tincidunt tellus ac porta volutpat. Cras mattis congue lacus id bibendum. Mauris ut sodales libero. Maecenas feugiat sit amet enim in accumsan.
Duis vestibulum quis quam vel accumsan. Nunc a vulputate lectus. Vestibulum eleifend nisl sed massa sagittis vestibulum. Vestibulum pretium blandit tellus, sodales volutpat sapien varius vel. Phasellus tristique cursus erat, a placerat tellus laoreet eget. Fusce vitae dui sit amet lacus rutrum convallis. Vivamus sit amet lectus venenatis est rhoncus interdum a vitae velit.

Curabitur pulvinar euismod ante, ac sagittis ante posuere ac. Vivamus luctus commodo dolor porta feugiat. Fusce at velit id ligula pharetra laoreet. Ut nec metus a mi ullamcorper hendrerit. Nulla facilisi. Pellentesque sed nibh a quam accumsan dignissim quis quis urna. The most happiest time of the day!.

Karnataka’s Congress 2

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Karnataka’s Congress 3

Karnataka’s Congress 4

The monsoon session of Parliament ended on Friday (August 11, 2023) with a predictably unsuccessful no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against the Modi government dominating the debates for 16 days.&nbsp;Given the huge majority that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has in Parliament, the result of the motion was a forgone conclusion. But despite limited numbers and firepower, the opposition succeeded in making the Prime Minister come to Parliament and speak on Manipur, something that he had been avoiding in the wake of the ongoing ethnic conflict that has claimed the lives of over 150 people and rendered thousands of families homeless - the conflict that came to light through a video showing mass sexual violence against women.Opposition leaders like Gaurav Gogoi, Mahua Moitra, Supriya Sule and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary categorically stated the motion was basically a ploy to bring the Prime Minister to the House and hold him accountable in keeping with the constitutional and democratic ethos of the country.&nbsp;<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_12_144434146_1024x576_eb2d0dff64.png" alt="image_2023-08-12_144434146-1024x576.png">Gaurav Gogoi speaking in Lok Sabha/ Credits: Sansad TVAccording to Congress member Gaurav Gogoi, who introduced the motion, it was “aimed at making the Prime Minister stop making speeches in foreign parliaments and come to the Parliament of India and deliver his speech here. And the second objective was justice for the people of Manipur.”&nbsp;But in his much-awaited reply to the motion, Modi sounded more like a politician addressing an election rally rather than a Prime Minister answering three simple questions raised by the Congress MP:1) Why did he not visit Manipur till date?2) Why did it take almost 80 days for him to finally speak on Manipur and, when he did speak, did he speak on the subject just for 30 seconds?3) Why has the Prime Minister not sacked the Manipur Chief Minister so far?”&nbsp;Modi, as expected, spent most of the time accusing the opposition parties of corruption and anti-India activities, while revelling in self-admiration and self-obsession. And historical facts went for a toss. He falsely claimed that the Indian Air Force attacked its own citizens in Mizoram under the Congress rule in 1966. In a complete departure from the positions taken by the past governments and his predecessors, he called Operation Bluestar as an “attack on Akal Takht.”Modi blamed the Congress for the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur but didn’t speak on the violence in Haryana’s Nuh, which is hardly 100 km from New Delhi, and the subsequent selective demolition drives by the administration against the Muslim community. A major part of his speech that concluded the three-day debate on the motion, was sound and fury signifying little. All that he had to offer after a studied silence on Manipur for the last three months was whataboutery, finger-pointing and scapegoating.&nbsp;Modi’s speech, which was largely aimed at lampooning the opposition unity, inadvertently ended up exposing as bogus Amit Shah’s assertions that the ruling party wanted a serious discussion on the Manipur violence. In a speech that lasted 133 minutes he gave barely four minutes for Manipur and that too after the members of the INDIA bloc staged a walk out. Interestingly, the INDIA alliance members were soon joined by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_12_142527305_1024x576_fafe2d7da5.png" alt="image_2023-08-12_142527305-1024x576.png">Rahul Gandhi speaking in Lok Sabha/ Credits: Sansad TVIn contrast to Modi’s empty rhetoric, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had returned to Parliament following a Supreme Court ruling revoking his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, attacked the government with renewed vigour. His speech visibly electrified even those parties that are not part of the NDA or INDIA. Amid the ruling party members’ heckling, and jeering, his flamboyance was remarkable. At the very outset of his explosive speech, he mockingly assured the ruling party MPs not to worry. “Relax! I won’t speak on Adani today,” he said. As anticipated, his speech was expunged at several places. Though he spoke for 15 minutes and 42 seconds, Rahul Gandhi was shown only for only four minutes on the Lok Sabha TV. Speaker Om Birla got 11 minutes and 8 seconds.Speaking to media persons outside Parliament, Rahul said: “The Prime Minister spoke in Parliament for 2 hours and 13 minutes. In the last two minutes, he spoke on Manipur. People are being killed. Rapes are happening. Children are being killed. The Prime Minister was speaking laughingly. He was cracking jokes. It does not suit him.”&nbsp;Interestingly, his Bharat Jodo Yatra, the expulsion and then reinstatement in Lok Sabha have raised Rahul Gandhi’s political profile. While being away from the House, he travelled with truck drivers, met with labourers and motor mechanics. He was seen ploughing farms with farmers in Haryana. And most importantly, he went to relief camps in Manipur and met with people from different sections of the society affected by sectarian violence. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_12_142951378_f90bc47a6b.png" alt="image_2023-08-12_142951378.png">Rahul Gandhi with truck drivers/ Credits: X/INCIndiaThe BJP had egg on its face when C. Lalrosanga, the lone MP of the Mizo National Front (MNF), an ally of the BJP-led NDA, voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. Though many BJP leaders, both publicly and privately, have criticised the Modi government for mishandling the Manipur crisis, Lalrosanga in his media interviews disagreed with what Modi said inside the Lok Sabha. “They (Modi government) are not doing enough. They could not take the tribals into confidence. The Kukis, Zos and Mizos don’t have confidence in the State government,” he was quoted as saying. In a 25-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, C. Lalrosanga expressed his disappointment over Modi’s speech in the Lok Sabha, saying his party was expecting “more and better.” To discuss Manipur, he said he has been trying to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the last 100 days but has not been given an appointment. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_12_142728892_1024x576_c35fa1e3f2.png" alt="image_2023-08-12_142728892-1024x576.png">Amit Shah speaking in Lok Sabha/ Credits: Sansad TVThose who spoke from the government side, including Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, adopted the strategy of highlighting the internal differences in the INDIA alliance. Clearly rattled by the unprecedented unity of the opposition, Amit Shah took a swipe at the Congress over the presence of an old and ailing former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in the House. Amit Shah mocked INDIA for making the Aam Aadmi Party its ally. Shah said the AAP would pull out of the INDIA bloc as soon as the Delhi Services Bill was passed.The opposition members under the banner of INDIA came up with a forceful presentation of the pitfalls of the Modi government.Leaders from the opposition parties <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FTR_3_2_e1691832186515_1024x346_923f1e4d01.jpg" alt="FTR-3-2-e1691832186515-1024x346.jpg">The debate has set the stage for the 2024 general election. INDIA alliance is holding its next meeting on August 31 and September 1 in Mumbai, where it is expected to form a 11-member coordination panel. Ever since the 26-member alliance came into existence, the BJP, which seems to have mastered the art of controlling political narratives so far has been finding it hard to counter INDIA despite Narendra Modi.<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/KSFE_AD_768x768_3_cde581553d.jpg" alt="KSFE-AD-768x768 (3).jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_KSFE_AD_768x768_3_cde581553d.jpg 156w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_KSFE_AD_768x768_3_cde581553d.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_KSFE_AD_768x768_3_cde581553d.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure>

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The monsoon session of Parliament ended on Friday (August 11, 2023) with a predictably unsuccessful no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against the Modi government dominating the debates for 16 days.

Modi’s Missing Confidence

The debate in the Lok Sabha on the no-confidence motion against Narendra Modi led BJP government lasted three days. The debates were marked by incisive speeches by several members from the opposition and the treasury benches. Several blazing topics including the communal violence in Haryana and Manipur are raised by members.&nbsp;<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;">Click <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://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMm1Wz5F3yfLC5ljbkbUKf0fL6N8shWqP">here</a> to watch on YouTube.<ul 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:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;list-style:disc;margin-bottom:20px;margin-right:0px;margin-top:20px;orphans:2;padding:0px 0px 0px 20px;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;"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:17px;font-weight:400;line-height:1.8;list-style:disc;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://youtube.com/live/y1VHXLv_4Pk?feature=share">Day 01</a></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:17px;font-weight:400;line-height:1.8;list-style:disc;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://youtube.com/live/CCclkJFeXpw?feature=share">Day 02</a></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:17px;font-weight:400;line-height:1.8;list-style:disc;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://youtube.com/live/QWFKYZXifjI?feature=share">Day 03</a></li></ul>&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ksfe.com"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/600x600_1024x1024_c712ed611e.jpg" alt="600x600-1024x1024.jpg"></a>

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The debate in the Lok Sabha on the no-confidence motion against Narendra Modi led BJP government lasted three days. The debates were marked by incisive speeches by several members from the opposition and the treasury benches.

Discussion on No-Confidence Motion in Lok Sabha

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.
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 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" />

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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.

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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

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.
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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. 
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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.

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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

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>

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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

Malayalam (ml)

Tamil (ta)

English (en)

Hindi (hi)

Telugu (te)

Kannada (kn)

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Dancing To Her Tune

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An Unwritten National Autobiography

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_6258d15665.jpeg" alt="images-1.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" 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:17px;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;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">People who read literature in India knew him, MT Vasudevan Nair. Language was no hurdle for his works to reach out beyond the state borders of Kerala. While Malayali diaspora took a handful of nostalgia along to the places they went, a little bit of MT was also in that.Today, the big business of literature finds translators to translate anything that moves. All tetrapods of literature are given awards that stink of corporate imperialistic nexus. But MT belonged to a different era when blood recognised blood, genius recognised genius. He got translated not once but several times.Basheer, Takazhi and MT were the triumvirate that could transcend the borders and stand tall among the Indian modernist literature. Yes, MT’s literature also had a fair amount of auto-fiction but he hoodwinked it with the magic of text. He was a persuasive minimalist both in writing and in person.An unsmiling MT could generate generations of readers who could smile through tears. MT wrote about a collapsing social structure that divested the old feudal class with their ill-gotten properties. But their social capital remained intact and could exert a lot of influence among the readers by becoming the surrogate emotional ethos of a transition time of Kerala’s socio-political history.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1196px;" id="attachment_31084" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31084"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg" alt="mt-1024x575.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31084">MT during his Interview with Sabha TV (Watch <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NttnjeaVqn0">Here</a>)</figcaption></figure>When society evolved into a different being altogether, MT turned to the treasure trove of myths and itihasas to eke out allegories that explained the pain of loss, of class, roots and love. His literature spat on the face of bigotry, whether it was religious or familial. He was so stoically poised in his literature that none could have challenged him and expelled him from the world of literature.MT’s literature spoke of love and separation as vehemently as he wrote about the changing social complexions. But he was not sentimental. There was something in his writing that touched some chord in every reader. Before initiating themselves into Ambedkarite politics, the Dalit ideologues also, in their torturous nights of youth, pined for MT’s characters.Those who call the modernists, Dad Vibes, have really lost the sight of the forest while focusing on shrubs and thicket. MT was a forest that moved, as in the great tragedies. He remained a serious writer while the post modernists fell in the trap of publishers and wrote lightning stories and became laughing stokes.MT remains, so is the MT critique. That’s the beauty of a great writer’s life and of course, death.</div></div>

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MT: A Forest that Moved

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An ‘Overture’ Stringing The Pope, Yesudas and the ‘Songster Chaplain’

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/1_cc9df0fe47.png" alt="വലതുപക്ഷവുമായുള്ള-സംവാദത്തിൻ്റെ-വ്യർത്ഥത-1.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_1_cc9df0fe47.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_1_cc9df0fe47.png 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" 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:17px;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;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">When old age shall this generation waste,Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woeThan ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/6_904b2e9f2a.jpg" alt="6.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 147w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 470w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Siddharth Tagore, Founder Director of Delhi’s <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/artkonsultindia/photos">Art Konsult</a> Gallery is no more. He cannot be contained in such a cold statement, so matter of fact like death itself. Besides the gallery, he founded magazines such as Art and Deal, Travel and Deal and many other publications. Even when he knew that he wouldn’t make any profit out of the publications, he invested money in them because he knew art wouldn’t survive without the literature surrounding it.&nbsp;Yet another venture of Tagore’s was an auction house, namely Art Bull. The name was perfect for a bullish art market of the 2000s. But the glitch was this: Siddharth Tagore was not bullish. Nor was he bearish. He was cherubic, complete with a benign smile on his face and a burning cigarette between his fingers. Whenever I came out after having a meeting with him, I would ask myself, was he cut for this business?&nbsp;Tagore could have been a poet and dreamer like his internationally renowned namesake of yesteryears.. After the pandemic period I met Tagore after a gap of four years at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre where Art Konsult had organized a group exhibition. After the inaugural function, I shook hands with him and I realized that his hands had lost the firm grip though the warmth remained. “I have not been keeping well,” he told me.&nbsp;<div class="gallery galleryid-31051 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:30px -8.96875px 0px;padding:0px;" id="gallery-1"><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg" alt="c-768x993.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 387w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 580w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg" alt="b-768x985.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 122w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 390w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 585w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/a_7888f94e4b.jpg" alt="a.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 385w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 577w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure></div>Then on another occasion, at the same gallery, I met him again, this time without the crowd. He preferred to wear a pair of fading blue jeans and white shirt, a reminder of those romantic 1970s when every youth in West Bengal dreamt of poetry, love and revolution. Jeans and Shirt were the uniform of love and revolution. I think, when Tagore came to Delhi as a young man, he carried those qualities along, plus his sense of dressing. Lovers in those days smoked rather constantly and drank Old Monk Rum.&nbsp;On that day when I met him, Tagore told me that he had quit smoking, which was news to me. I couldn’t have imagined the man without a cigarette between his fingers or at least a packet of cigarettes to fuss with. I understood the gravity of the situation.&nbsp;Then again, we met when Praveen Upadhyay of the Progressive Gallery at Laddo Sarai organized a talk session with art professionals that included Tagore, Prayag Shukla, Vinod Bharadwaj and myself. Tagore was supposed to talk about the art market. When the mike was handed over to him, he fussed with it for a while and said that he always wanted to make it big by promoting young artists, but somehow, he never made huge business.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:689px;" id="attachment_31054" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31054"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg" alt="7-768x511.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 235w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31054">Siddharth speaking to the media at Art Konsult</figcaption></figure>Then I remembered Tagore telling the same during the market boom years that lasted in India for around ten years starting from 2005 to 2015. In 2008, the world market had collapsed, but the Indian art market using its cunning and reserve withstood the pressures and dragged the impending failure for a few more years only to revive itself by the beginning of the third decade of the new millennium.&nbsp;Had Tagore acquired a penchant for failure despite his resilience in running a gallery, publications and an auction house for over three and a half decades ? Did he enjoy calling himself a failure in the art market? Was he romantically involved with the idea of failure even when he kept others who were with him in the business, floating? I don’t know for sure. But Tagore remained grounded and rooted; he tried his best to keep himself away from the nefarious market practices.&nbsp;There were a few people who stood with Tagore in his highs and lows (lows that lasted for not some months but for years together), never deserting him, following his orders. Prashant Seal and Rajula Bisht are two people I remember. These two people have been so close to his heart and even after his twin daughters joining him in the business, both Seal and Bisht never lost their position as the confidantes of Tagore. He loved them like family.&nbsp;I met Siddharth Tagore in 1995. He had started Art Konsult in Hauz Khas Village. Meena Tagore (now Meena Varma) was with him then. Late Vijayan Kannanpally was the editor of Art and Deal. With the growth of art scene, Tagore’s gallery also grew in stature. Art Konsult was one of the few A listed galleries in the city. Tagore took it to South Delhi’s art district, Laddo Sarai during the boom years and later relocated it to Hauz Khas again.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:562px;" id="attachment_31055" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31055"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg" alt="0-768x512.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31055">Siddharth Tagore with art critic and curator Jyoti A Kathpalia at the Art Konsult, New Delhi</figcaption></figure>It was in his Laddo Sarai phase that I joined him as the Editor of Art and Deal. It was the same when he decided to start Art Bull and Travel and Deal. I brought out around ten issues of Art and Deal between 2010 and 2013, with a gap in 2012 when I joined the United Art Logistics to establish the United Art Fair. Tagore literally lent me to the other organization with a promise that I could walk into the editor’s office at any time that I wanted. And I did go back.&nbsp;As a part of Tagore’s team, he gave me full freedom to edit the magazine and curate exhibitions. I curated a few shows and introduced a few new artists of which some are very reckonable names in today’s art scene. The exhibition ‘Merging/Submerging’ was a showcasing of contemporary photography art and ‘R.A.P.E’ (Rare Acts of Political Engagement), an all-woman show responding to the brutal murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi. This exhibition was a super hit and was discussed in all the print and television media. Art Bull did do a couple of exhibitions and auctions. I did not take much interest in it though Tagore hoped that his auction house could change the scenario and also break certain monopolies. Tagore also initiated an Art History Lecture series which I conducted on his behalf.&nbsp;Siddharth Tagore remained true to his calling. With a kind of detachment, he sponsored exhibitions that he knew well, would not bring any business. He was an avid collector of folk and tribal art and together with Meena Varma, he initiated an organization called ‘Art of the Earth’ for promoting the folk and tribal art of India, much before the ‘folkploitation’ of today’s art market became rampant. Tagore helped whoever came to him with a request for an exhibition or an immediate financial relief. &nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:640px;" id="attachment_31053" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31053"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg" alt="3-e1734762508660-669x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 102w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 327w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 490w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 653w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31053">Siddharth Tagore signing the <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amzn.in/d/4TijcgO">book</a> “Ganika- In the visual culture of the 19th-20th Century India” at the Art Konsult</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg" alt="4-560x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 85w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 273w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 410w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 547w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">When artists in Calcutta packed their wares and set out for Delhi, they knew Siddharth Tagore was there if nothing else worked (perhaps he was their primary destination), along with cigarettes and Old Monk Rum. He never discouraged the people who came to him with a clear intention to exploit. He was not cautious about relationships that brought him a fair amount of heartburn. As I said elsewhere, Tagore was a poet in his heart, with a heart ready to bleed for love and art.</div></div>

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