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

<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;">On day 3 of the special session of parliament in the newly built building, the discussion on the Women Reservation Bill continued in the Rajya Sabha. Prior to the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated members for the smooth passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha. Watch The AIDEM live coverage here.

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On day 3 of the special session of parliament in the newly built building, the discussion on the Women Reservation Bill continued in the Rajya Sabha. 

Women Reservation Bill Discussion Moves on to Rajya Sabha

<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;">On Day 2 of the Special Session of Parliament in the newly built building, the discussion on the Women Reservation Bill continued with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi making a forceful intervention and parliamentarians from other parties following it up. Watch The AIDEM live coverage.

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On Day 2 of the Special Session of Parliament in the newly built building, the discussion on the Women Reservation Bill continued with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi making a forceful intervention and parliamentarians from other parties following it up. 

Debate on the new Women Reservation Bill continues in Lok Sabha

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Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam or the new Women Reservation Bill proclaims 33% women reservation for women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha. However, the bill says that the act will take effect only after “an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after the commencement” of this act have been published.

Is the New Women Reservation Bill an Eyewash?

<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;">Here is how things unfolded in the Lok Sabha leading to the expulsion of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra from the House on the basis of a controversial Ethics Panel Report. The panel had recommended for her dismissal from the parliament on an alleged cash for questions scam.

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Here is how things unfolded in the Lok Sabha leading to the expulsion of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra from the House on the basis of a controversial Ethics Panel Report. 

How Mahua Moitra was Expelled from Lok Sabha

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_6_770x470_8b8fba9a3a.png" alt="image-6-770x470.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_6_770x470_8b8fba9a3a.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_6_770x470_8b8fba9a3a.png 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_image_6_770x470_8b8fba9a3a.png 750w," 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;">320, 400, 250, 270, 390. As our big electoral jamboree kicks in, everyone who claims to be someone is trotting out numbers, and it feels for me a lot like a Tambola table at a kitty party my aunt had in her home in Patiala in the 1980s. You randomly call up numbers based on who you’ve spoken with last. “Oh now that the Rashtriya Lok Dal in UP is with the BJP, the Jat votes are all going to go one way,” says someone and you do the math – UP – the ruling BJP will win 70 out of the 80 parliamentary seats. “Oh but I just spoke to XXX in Karnataka and you know, in all of the South, the BJP won’t cross 10.” And you subtract some.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_7_114c7b3550.png" alt="image-7.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_7_114c7b3550.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_7_114c7b3550.png 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_image_7_114c7b3550.png 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Thirty-odd years ago, calling an election was a new and fascinating discovery for most of us. We were enthralled by the idea of election forecasting with the academically poised, slow deliberations of the psephologist-economist Prannoy Roy and an animated, funny Vinod Dua to contrast that. Elections seemed to define that moment in time when people exercised their choice. It was post-the-emergency and a time when India was becoming a market economy. The word ‘choice’ started to mean many new things. The middle class discovered that they had a voice and they could use it to buy things that until now, they only saw the elite bringing back from abroad. Even plastic bags with Lufthansa on it were folded neatly and kept at the back of one’s cupboard with foreign things in it – pencils and erasers in the shape of robots and bunny rabbits that PEOPLE WHO WENT ABROAD brought as gifts.In 2024, you look around and the dullness of the election hits you like a dead ringer. There is no noise. There is no colour. There is no conversation around the political rallies. The usual screeching on TV PR shows is also passe. So now what? Now, nothing. And that’s what it looks like to me, sitting in a small town, provincial Uttar Pradesh, in the district Shamli, where I live and work. For the first time ever, I am studying this election as someone who’s a provincial-local and not a big-city reporter air-dropped into a place to make sense in one day and then hop to the next place.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2024_04_11_at_13_23_09_e3ec2e6bfa.jpeg" alt="WhatsApp-Image-2024-04-11-at-13.23.09.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Whats_App_Image_2024_04_11_at_13_23_09_e3ec2e6bfa.jpeg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Whats_App_Image_2024_04_11_at_13_23_09_e3ec2e6bfa.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Whats_App_Image_2024_04_11_at_13_23_09_e3ec2e6bfa.jpeg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_Whats_App_Image_2024_04_11_at_13_23_09_e3ec2e6bfa.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">In 2019, the last general election, the place I am now a resident of, the Lok Sabha seat of Kairana, was the springboard for some fiery polarising speeches from our chief minister Yogi Adityanath. This time, my colleague Ashvani pointed to me that whatever has to be done is happening in WhatsApp forwards online. And in Uttar Pradesh, amongst us provincials, no one is excited at all. It feels like this is a game, set and match. The same government will come back and all of us minions waiting in lines at election booths or cynically studying things from behind our laptops really don’t count for much. I realised how much of a story this actually is, when I talked to other journalists in big cities who live in liberal bubbles and are still shocked by ten years of Modi and think this election isn’t a foregone conclusion.And I therefore have a lot to say. It’s a view that has come to me by having moved from the ever-diminishing bubble of Delhi to Shamli. It’s afforded me a new lens on power – how it gets made and unmade. Sometimes, it changes from one election to the next, as it did, surprisingly and unexpectedly when the Congress-led alliance won in 2004 when everyone expected it to be the BJP. But every election isn’t the same. Power doesn’t always transfer in five-year time spans because an electoral exercise is being carried out. And those of us who write about these things should be able to tell the difference.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2024_03_09_at_17_13_25_f818b8e469.jpeg" alt="WhatsApp-Image-2024-03-09-at-17.13.25.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Whats_App_Image_2024_03_09_at_17_13_25_f818b8e469.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Whats_App_Image_2024_03_09_at_17_13_25_f818b8e469.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Whats_App_Image_2024_03_09_at_17_13_25_f818b8e469.jpeg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Sometimes, when there is a creeping authoritarianism, it comes not from fixing the electronic voting machines but from the long-term vision and work done each day, by the machine seeking to shift power. Once in power, of course, it’s easier to magnify this every day into an avalanche via the paid media and messaging armies, via draconian laws and menacing cops and the retreating of dissent from the ordinary spaces that make people feel like they really don’t have any real power to do anything anymore. They see how the opposition is frozen into inaction by allied agencies working at the behest of the government.So now, power is no longer seen as residing in each person’s vote. This is the most effective way of making a democracy come apart. The disease is on the inside, like COVID. It doesn’t display itself in the official spaces and can’t be taken down there until it is first attacked similarly, at the cellular level.It’s like the independent think tank (based in Washington DC) <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.statecraft.co.in/article/85-indians-support-authoritarianism-pew-survey">Pew research study showed</a> us recently – that 85% of India wants an authoritarian at the helm. At the individual family unit, this has broken down in provincial India, decade upon decade into each family receding into feudal, patriarchal spaces with no room for dissent. Fewer people can look their fathers in the eye on an everyday basis. More and more people marry as their parents and grandparents wish. TV serials and movies have for quite some time, reflected these choices. And the BJP is most effective here. It is an ally of the patriarchs and the families lurching backwards in constant feudal aspiration, to make the bahus of the house polish more silver thalis and everyone paste five million perfect pictures on Holi of thalis with perfectly shaped Gujjiyas and Ganesh idols, tables set like hotels and homes homogenised into market conformity.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_23_3e818395a3.jpeg" alt="images-23.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_23_3e818395a3.jpeg 208w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_23_3e818395a3.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">When dissent goes from here, how can it suddenly make an appearance in our national election, once in five years? What people want is their fathers telling them what to do, how good they are, how to invest, how to marry, what car to buy and at the apex – a father-figure demagogue who can take the pressure off them.No one expects a government to deliver. That’s not why they vote. Voting in 2024 isn’t about the delivery of goods or promises. Unlike 2014 which was about change and drama and a massive transition, and even unlike 2019 which was about a renewed fervour, this election is like a droll, soundless tic. Many may not even turn up. Those that go will be tunelessly pressing a button in support of the great patriarch not hoping for any big change but because, just, or as they say in the south (that is supposedly filled with dissent) – simply. For no reason at all.That is how a dictatorship works in the garb of a democracy. On auto-pilot. No expectations. Like many relationships and marriages of today. People coming home to a couch, a fan, a set of bodies, devices, and routines.There is however, reason to laugh, hope, even dance, despite this. Or that’s how I see it. It just requires us to look in different places and do different things. I take you back to the 1940s. Did you know that the RSS set up one of its first shakhas in states across the North East, from Assam to Meghalaya in that decade? So, what was one man, who positioned himself atop a lonely hill, on the Assam-Bangladesh border doing in 1946? Where did his hope come from? I’ll tell you. It didn’t come from an expectation of an electoral victory for the Jan Sangh (the BJP’s predecessor) any time soon. It came from the everyday. From wanting to build cadres one at a time, causing slow, very slow but deliberate structural shifts in power. It’s taken the RSS and its political face – the BJP almost a hundred years to cause a total shift.In a digital era, reversing this tide may not take that long. But it requires us to see where power lies and where it needs to be worked on. Not in a big fat election which is a foregone conclusion. Power will shift when we work on the everyday. We have to do the work of making people believe in other ideas. Give Ambedkar’s ideas legs to walk on. Show how equity and equality can be built by destabilising our middle-class lives and enclaves of existence where the privileged live amongst other privileged and no one is willing to get up, walk out and live amongst the under-privileged.Where are the brahmins waking up and saying, let’s go live amongst the Dalits and Muslims? That would be a shift towards a redistribution of power, resources, ideas, lived realities and it would make the urban liberal elite do what they say but don’t put into practise.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20240411_WA_0084_3078054ac4.jpg" alt="IMG-20240411-WA0084.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_20240411_WA_0084_3078054ac4.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_20240411_WA_0084_3078054ac4.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">When and if we do decide to make those structural adjustments, I can tell you from first-hand experience, it’s a game changer. You can get people to co-habit. You can get Valmiki-hating Muslims to get past their prejudice and OBC Muslim-hating Hindus to celebrate Eid. Only when there is a masala mix of communities at the everyday level and dissent in our families, can we expect change at the apex.Power does not shift in regular electoral intervals unless the cellular, deep work in the every day is done. And that needs us to get up from where we are and go elsewhere. On that note, Eid Mubarak. Don’t wait for June 4. Get up and get moving. It’s positively liberating.Revati Laul is a journalist and activist and author of the non-fiction narrative, ‘The Anatomy of Hate,’ published by Westland books. She founded the NGO Sarfaroshi Foundation, based in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, where she lives and works.<hr>This article by Revati Laul was originally published 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://thewire.in/">The WIRE</a>. 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://thewire.in/rights/those-who-think-2024-is-a-done-deal-must-know-power-doesnt-change-hands-merely-in-an-election">here</a> to read.</div></div>

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Those Who Think 2024 Is a Done Deal Must Know Power Doesn’t Change Hands Merely in an Election

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FT_Rftr_770x470_1851b4c4c4.jpg" alt="FTRftr-770x470.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_FT_Rftr_770x470_1851b4c4c4.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_FT_Rftr_770x470_1851b4c4c4.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_FT_Rftr_770x470_1851b4c4c4.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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;">Making his first speech in the 18th Lok Sabha, Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav literally tore into the BJP, exposing the tall claims of the ruling party and its leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yadav’s engaging intervention was during the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address to the Lok Sabha.<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 his full speech below:<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QP2QUTYgwB8" title="Akhilesh Yadav's Remarks | Motion of Thanks on the President's Address in #18thloksabha" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>

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BJP-Modi’s "Jumlas" Continue to Harm People: Akhilesh Yadav

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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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