www.openthemagazine.com 50 7 SEPTEMBER / 2020

OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 35 7 SEPTEMBER 2020

contents 7 september 2020

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LOCOMOTIF OPEN DIARY PANDEMIC NOTEBOOK INDIAN ACCENTS WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY Tradition and morbidity Politics without Arun Jaitley Why dare to challenge Who’s a free man? By Jayanta Ghosal The trouble with Kamala By S Prasannarajan By Swapan Dasgupta dynasty and then settle for By Bibek Debroy By Vinay Lal a cup of coffee? By MJ Akbar a p

28 GANDHIS WIN CONGRESS LOSES Sonia and Rahul Gandhi can have the satisfaction of a Pyrrhic victory. The party has formally reaffirmed their leadership, but it is seen as completely out of sync with the times By Harish Khare

36 ENTER THE UNREGISTERED OPPOSITION As the Congress vacates the space of an active opposition with a counter-argument, civil 28 society activists and other professional dissenters rush in to fill the vacuum By PR Ramesh and Siddharth Singh

44 THE COST OF ORTHODOXY The current monetary policy framework will not meet the goal of both inflation targeting and growth By Dhiraj Nayyar

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50 POSITIVE ABOUT COVID Why a certain kind of people want to infect themselves for the greater good 20 By Lhendup G Bhutia

50 WHAT’S BREWING? 56 A fourth wave breaks over Indian coffee as world-class plantations and small roasters bring the joys of specialty coffee home By V Shoba

56 62 64 66 THE HERMIT AND THE HEARTBREAKER HOME SHOOTS STAR GAZING NOT PEOPLE LIKE US Oliver Craske’s biography reveals the Two filmmakers focus the A new scripted reality show reveals Scripting a comeback many lives of Ravi Shankar by balancing camera on the kind and cruel celebrities are uncannily like us By Rajeev Masand personal history with musical mastery aspects of the lockdown By Kaveree Bamzai By Shreevatsa Nevatia By Chintan Girish Modi

Cover by Rohit Chawla 7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3 open mail [email protected]

Editor S Prasannarajan letter of the week managing Editor PR Ramesh C executive Editor Ullekh NP MS Dhoni was Zeus in the team of cricket gods that editor-at-large Siddharth Singh deputy editors Madhavankutty Pillai India became under his captaincy (‘The Passion of the (Mumbai Bureau Chief), Boy from Ranchi’, August 31st, 2020). Like Pegasus, the Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair winged horse of Zeus, Dhoni’s bat carried thunderbolts creative director Rohit Chawla for him to bombard the rival team. The journey of this art director Jyoti K Singh Senior Editors Sudeep Paul, unassuming gentleman from the even more Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), unassuming Jharkhand paralleled the quest of another Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval Associate Editor Vijay K Soni (Web) mythical hero, Ulysses—‘to strive, to seek, to find, and assistant editor Vipul Vivek not to yield’. Good luck to Dhoni, the man, the legend, chief of graphics Saurabh Singh the Captain Cool, who is all set to sail for new SENIOR DESIGNERs Anup Banerjee, Veer Pal Singh adventures. We thank him for the brilliant Photo editor Raul Irani sportsmanship, for making us believe that ‘top of the deputy Photo editor Ashish Sharma world’ is not merely a dream. It is within the reach National Head-Events and Initiatives of even a poor country such as India and within the international cricket even Arpita Sachin Ahuja AVP (ADVERTISING) country of people whose lives rarely make it to the front after batting down the order, Rashmi Lata Swarup page—and seldom as good news. We, the smalltown- usually at No 6 or 7, a record GENERAL MANAGERs (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) walas, also thank him, particularly for teaching and in itself. encouraging us to dream big and achieve big—no CK Subramaniam National Head-Distribution and Sales Ajay Gupta matter whether we come from Ranchi or regional heads-circulation responsible speech question D Charles (South), Melvin George Kayamkulam. His detached persona, (West), Basab Ghosh (East) unshakeable willpower, contagious self-assurance, Just as there are many ways Head-production Maneesh Tyagi poise and strong moral fibre not only made him a role to muzzle free speech, there senior manager (pre-press) Sharad Tailang model for us in sports but in life, in general. The places are many ways to speak MANAGER-MARKETING you are raised in are not merely ‘locations’ your mind without crossing Priya Singh Chief Designer-marketing but shapers of your lives. the line (‘The Free Speech Champak Bhattacharjee Sangeeta Kampani Question’, August 31st, cfo & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht 2020). Prashant Bhushan Chief ExecuTive & Publisher is a serial offender who has Neeraja Chawla made a career and reputation All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner dhoni exits Dhoni’s greatness lies in the out of frivolous PILs and is prohibited. Dhoni played like an artist, fact that he went on to lead controversial statements. Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf carried himself like a hermit with no hurdles stalwarts, The Supreme Court must ask of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, and retired like a deft stage such as Sachin Tendulkar him to prove his statements. 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). actor exits unnoticeably and Sourav Ganguly, under A lawyer such as Bhushan Published at 4, DDA Commercial (‘The Legend and Legacy of whom he grew. Dhoni is expected to be more Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’, managed teammates well measured in his statements. Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 August 31st, 2020). The and could be relied upon for One person’s freedom ends To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to news of his exit left everyone bringing out the best in them. where another’s nose begins, www.openthemagazine.com Bholey Bhardwaj or call our Toll Free Number sombre. Prime Minister so we were taught in school. 1800 102 7510 Narendra Modi was among If the apex court becomes or email at: [email protected] the first to wish him well. A captain has to imbibe an object of scorn, the public For alliances, email [email protected] How many athletes can boast many qualities to become will lose trust in institutions. For advertising, email of a two-page letter by their a great leader. He has to Ashok Goswami [email protected] For any other queries/observations, head of government? have the nerve of a gambler, email [email protected] Dhoni’s helicopter shot the mind of a saint and the science and us shall be remembered as patience of a psychiatrist. Science is more complicated Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing long as cricket is played for MS Dhoni had all these and than Srinivas Reddy’s initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using breaking the rules of style many more. We saw that in portrayal (‘The Tree of Life’, products or services advertised in the magazine and technique; his cool all the three formats of the August 31st). In the late 19th

Volume 12 Issue 35 demeanour on the field game—he was a gift for the century, Darwin and his son For the week 1-7 September 2020 under tense situations shall game in general, and Indian Francis were already writing Total No. of pages 68 be discussed every time a cricket in particular. Dhoni on non-human feelings. captain is under pressure. scored over 10,000 runs in Aardra Surendran

4 7 september 2020 LOCOMOTIF

by S PRASANNARAJAN Tradition and Morbidity

n the end,” a friend tells me, “he was more It could afford a clash of not just ideas but personalities too. Ghulam than Azad.” Granted: the friend has a Who prevailed in the end, as the custodian of the tradition, talent for turning the worst political scenarios was never in doubt. Still, the men who dared stood by their into the best one-liners. The butt of his cruelty, a loss of faith; they dared not to win the day but to challenge the veteran apparatchik and a dutiful loyalist of the absolutism of the High Command. The plurality of Indian politics “IFamily, along with 22 other disgruntled Congressmen, bared is indebted to a series of such daring and deviations within the his conscience, the kind of daring sundry ghulams (slaves) in Congress, and the party could withstand them because it was a the Congress seldom attempt for the cause of azad (the free). great example of ‘one out of many thoughts.’ Its expansion made In the end, they all, the most underrated stoics in politics, it home to every ism, and the inevitability of the supreme leader were made aware of the crime of questions in the court of the did not mean the supremacy of one big ideology. The big tent Empress Dowager of 10, Janpath. Martyrdom has never been a sheltered every type. Departures did not set off degeneration. choice for those who have been conditioned to hold conscience The script has changed when the definition of power itself answerable to absolute power. In the oldest political tradition has changed in the dynasty. Then the power of the office and of India, submission is survival. The fleeting deviance of the 23 the charisma of its occupant made mass sorcery look natural. letter writers shattered the court decorum, but the higher truth Then the iconography of the Family was not the collective art of monarchical discretion prevailed over the isolated cries for of abdications and renunciations. Then the struggle for power a Congress version of perestroika. Rebels for a day, and virtual was matched by the intensity with which it was preserved. renegades in a schmaltzy spectacle of piety and panegyrics in the Then power was something to die for, literally. With Sonia next day’s headlines, they retreated without the humiliation of a Gandhi, everything changed, most notably the nature of power recantation. Some mercy. itself. To begin with, she had to say No to gain absolute power The day could have been different. It could have been one of that overshadowed the constitutional power of the chosen those days when the rebel dared—and survived. The difference prime minister. That was the first family melodrama in which then was political, and even cultural. The Family was fiercer renunciation was a prologue to power without the burden of in its exercise of power, and India was in its thrall. It was a office, and it ensured, on a tear-soaked day in the Central Hall of time when hereditary power reinforced a truth: Dynasties are Parliament, the surrender of the party to a new set of dynastic not built on bloodline alone; the permanence of genealogy is values. Rahul, the eternal heir apparent, would come to embody matched by the politics of trust. For Nehru, the party was an those values as a Gandhi who abandoned the struggle for power instrument of cultural reorientation in a free nation. The party for the sake of meandering meditations on the nature of power. drew its legitimacy from the historical memory of struggle; its In his never-ending self-discoveries, he shuttled between ethos was India’s natural political expression; and its chosen the privileges of the ultimate insider and the freedoms of an implementer had direct access to the popular mind. When the outsider. In an India recast by someone for whom power is a Nation Builder was followed by Mother India, power became permanent campaign, Rahul could not be a counter-argument. passionate, paranoid—and transgressive. He made himself an incomprehensible What remained unchanged in the Indira era statement of an orphaned tradition. was the conversation between the leader and There is no sudden death for traditions. the country, which continued uninterrupted. They atrophy. The inter-cellular The original Mrs G, even as her totalitarian disintegration of a tradition that defined temptations took India to its darkest hours, India’s politics for the better part of its history turned that conversation into a covenant— as a colony and as a free country is being and it would be broken at the cost of her life. accelerated by the man who is supposed to be The idealism of Rajiv added to a political its chosen keeper. Looks like he is destined tradition whose cultural elasticity only partly to grant azadi to all tentative ghulams—and explained its longevity. without further epistolary insurgency. n

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 5 open diary Swapan Dasgupta Politics without Arun Jaitley

or the so-called Narayan movement entered the ‘gentlemen in residence’—as the campus, many of us were intellectually Fhostellers of St Stephen’s College at least at ease with mainstream Indian used to be referred to in those days— politics. He became the bridge to a there were multiple choices available political world we would otherwise three hours before dinner. The more have walked away from. athletic types and the lot that saw the It was a role he performed with college as an island, the destination was style, conviviality and wit throughout invariably the college café—a sanitised his life, whether in opposition or in environment that served the legendary government. A natural raconteur, his scrambled eggs and mince chops. A knowledge of public personalities was few, the bridge aficionados, clustered encyclopaedic, as was his knowledge around the veranda of the Mukarji East of law and cricket. His friendship cut extension, immersed in their cards and There were odd eccentrics who spoke to across every political divide and for quite oblivious to the world outside. no one and one of whom was thought to him, most ticklish political problems And, finally, there were a handful of us be a police informer. There were the odd seemed prone to some negotiated for whom the evening was incomplete women students from Miranda House settlement. His patience and persuasive without the mandatory gossip and Indraprastha College, accompanied skills were most in evidence during the sessions at the University Coffee House, by a lucky few and always the object of interminable rounds of discussions then located at the rear end of the envious glances. There were some from that preceded the passage of the Goods vice chancellor’s office and the the neighbouring Physics and and Services Tax (GST) in Parliament— administrative offices. Chemistry labs who kept to themselves. and that too unanimously. The period 1972 to 1975, the lovely And, finally, there were the English- Arun’s approach was quite novel. years I spent as an undergraduate student speaking Stephanians and a few from He had an uncanny knack of ferreting in Delhi, were exciting if you related to Hindu College who joined us. The Coffee out what an opponent actually believed the outside. The Naxalite movement, House was a ritual and an addiction. and detaching it from his public which had captured the imagination of It was in the Coffee House that I got position. His approach was to convince an earlier generation, had fizzled out in to know Arun Jaitley, then a student the other person that a blend of pragma- bloody disarray. Indira Gandhi was on a activist and a prominent figure in the tism, logic and experience demanded political high but the representatives of ABVP. He used to appear quite regularly they resile from a rigid position and the Congress on the campus were seen in the company of fellow Delhi accept a commonsense solution. The as dodgy and undesirable. The Akhil University Students Union (DUSU) Government, for its part, would be Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists but invariably detached willing to not merely bear the political controlled the Delhi University Student’s himself from that group to come and sit costs of the reforms but also compensate Union but the Jana Sangh appeared too with us. He was unlike the other student the states for any possible loss to the retrograde for those of us who wallowed netas in every respect. He brought to the exchequer. In subsequent days, many in a confusing blend of neo-Marxism, the table real political gossip and endless economists were critical of the initial individualism of Ayn Rand and getting stories of the political world we were GST for incorporating too many tax to a foreign university. completely detached from. He was an slabs and not going far enough. What It was a strange blend of convivia- accomplished debater and that granted they completely ignored was the lity that defined the evening regulars him instant access to our snobby and deft political negotiations that were who sat purposelessly in the narrow intellectually pretentious world. involved in bringing about a broad con- Coffee House extension puffing away at Almost single-handedly he demolished sensus. I often wonder if the GST would unfiltered cigarettes and drinking endless our aesthetic misgivings over the Jana have become a reality had it not been for cups of coffee priced at 27 paise per cup. Sangh and by the time the Jayaprakash Arun’s negotiating skills which were

6 complemented by his complete grasp cluster of local-level alignments, Arun reports by the resident pollster. of an infuriatingly complex subject. believed that the overall mood had to be Another feature of his election Narendra Modi’s complete depen- shaped by a sharply focused approach. management was his success in build- dence on Arun’s negotiated approach He was a sick man during the 2019 Gen- ing a team, papering over cracks and to many complex and seemingly eral Election but despite this concern, motivating people. In the 10 years the intractable political issues created an his interventions were sharp and fo- BJP was in opposition after 2004, Arun erroneous impression of him being cused. In his daily interactions with the was deputed as the election-in-charge essentially a backroom manipulator, spokesmen and other BJP publicists, he of various states. He was quite clear that an impression fostered by those who kept harping on the importance of not his job was not to go on stage and deliver equated politics with grandstanding. letting the opposition set the terms of speeches—that was left to the local Yet, Arun’s approach was a product of the debate. He was sharp in his criticism leaders—but to ensure that the circumstances. Till fairly recently, the of those who stepped out of line and his campaign was on track and that local Modi Government suffered from rivalries didn’t jeopardise the a deficit of numbers in Rajya Photograph by Rohit chawla campaign. He was always the Sabha. This naturally meant invisible face of the election, but taking many of the opposition always the main strategist. parties along and, predictably, it There were always sniggers meant quiet negotiations, reach- from his party colleagues and ing out to chief ministers and others of Arun’s special relation- accommodation on completely ship with the media. He was unrelated fronts. The departure unquestionably a favourite but of the Telugu Desam Party for a simple reason: he explained from the treasury benches, for policy and he put develop- example, was almost averted. It ments in context. These were eventually failed, not because the interspersed with one-liners Centre was unresponsive to the that were both witty and often demands by the Andhra Pradesh quite devastating. These were government, but because the reasons why the moment N Chandrababu Naidu believed he stepped into the Central that Modi was likely to lose the Hall of Parliament for a cup of 2019 election and he wanted to coffee, he was surrounded by be on the winning side. He read journalists of every description. the tea leaves all wrong. He provided a one-stop briefing There was another facet of that was invaluable. Arun that was also in evidence in Arun often found the his political career: his accom- reporting in the media plishment as a strategist. I had tendentious and he was irritated the good fortune of observing by baseless tittle-tattle him at very close quarters during masquerading as information. the Gujarat Assembly elections of 2002 advice to all netas was instructive: “You But he was shrewd enough to recognise and 2007, the Karnataka Assembly elec- don’t have to respond just because some that the media played a big role in shap- tion of 2008 and the General Elections of reporter shoves a microphone before ing perceptions and even disseminating 2009 and 2014. Each election involved your face.” information to the party faithful. He different sets of challenges and different There were two other features of Arun’s used the media and the media in turn approaches. Where Arun excelled was election management skills that stood out. relied on him. It was a complex relation- in creating the narrative that would First, he was among the few politi- ship that was often misunderstood. dominate the election, especially if it cians who knew how to read the reports Arun’s main contribution was his was complemented by the BJP organisa- by pollsters and, more important, how ability to bring a large measure of tion on the ground. He applied himself to use that data to fine-tune the overall nuance into the political arena. He did quite rigorously to the preparation of strategy. He repeatedly warned the poll- it with style, finesse, humour and on the publicity material for the campaign, sters that their job was not to give him the strength of human relationships interacting closely with the creative good news but an accurate feedback. He built over decades. A year after his agencies. Unlike many of the BJP politi- was particularly upset when he discov- death, we feel his absence deeply. cians who either took an organisational ered—after the results were declared— For my part, I miss a dear friend perspective or reduced elections to a that he had been fed very misleading who was also a teacher. n

www.openthemagazine.com 7 Pandemic notebook Why Dare to Challenge Dynasty and Then Settle for a Cup of Coffee?

MJ Akbar

rime Minister Narendra a destination? Why, with so much Modi was feeding a peacock experience and contribution, get Pfrom a plate in his hand in the sidetracked at the first roadblock? quiet of an early Monday morning Why go into battle wearing straw when the decibel levels of political rather than armour? Why dare to Delhi suddenly jumped to screech, challenge dynasty and then settle for raised by an insurrection in the a cup of coffee? Congress. Sometimes, juxtaposition Politics is a strange business. The becomes a metaphor. Photographs rewards of success are never certain. of this coincidence captured the The price of failure, however, is more different states of mind. demanding—unless, of course, you The 23 senior Congress leaders happen to be a monarch who gets who wrote a letter to their interim all the glory for victory and transfers party president Sonia Gandhi had blame for defeat on the incompetence much to be disturbed about; most tions, but there has been no account- of generals. notably, drift, indecision and the ability or change in its functioning. bizarre insistence of the presumptive Sonia Gandhi handed over effective have been waiting during heir, Rahul Gandhi, to keep firing at leadership of these elections to Rahul I this pervasive pandemic for some the Government with dud ammuni- Gandhi. The signatories clearly vociferous cleric to proclaim on his per- tion. Their letter sought clarity rather believe that if they do not act now sonal television channel (they all have than confrontation, revival rather there will be a third debacle in 2024. them, don’t they?) and tubular social than rebellion. It suited the Congress In the tough business of politics, media kaleidoscope that the promised establishment to twist their alarm you cannot alas get change out of a day has arrived. Everyone, man and into heresy in order to divert atten- laundry: a few spins, and all turns woman, is now wearing a veil. tion from the core message, for the clean. It is a long and untidy process. In This is not the horrid shroud, the message sought consequences. the meantime, both the establishment tip-to-toe tent-with-perpendicular- Reform is required only when and the sceptics are left with questions. cloth-helmet that was once common form has melted; and any objective as- Here are a few bystander queries on the Indian subcontinent but is sessment will confirm that the bones for the insurrection: Why start a now fading out. Our pandemic masks have begun to chatter in the Congress journey if you have not agreed upon are a sleek version of the old niqab, skeleton. It is perfectly straightfor- covering the face from just below ward: the 23 signatories asked for clar- the eyes to the neck, held together by ity and decisive leadership because those quirky handles called ears. they were convinced that their party There is a good reason for every had become mired in confusion part of the human body, apart from and staccato verbiage. Sonia Gandhi ears. It is a fallacy to believe that they became President of the Congress are required for hearing, for the audio after her predecessor Sitaram Kesri mechanism begins through the hole managed to win only 140 seats in on the side of the lower head; the ear the 1998 General Election and was is only a kind of mushroom umbrella. shanghaied out by a simple decision The Almighty could have dispensed of the Congress Working Committee. with the umbrella and kept the The Congress has got far less than half earhole, perhaps with a discreet half- that number in two General Elec- inch skin flap.

8 Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Ernest Hemingway is still generally circumscribed by the phrase ‘supposed to have said’. No matter. It is still genius. Fitzgerald: You know, the rich are different from you and me. Hemingway: Yes. They have more money. We need a correction in perspec- tive. The poor are different from you and me; they have less money. Any reading of feudal or colonial history indicates one fact: the poor did not figure in the mathematics of economic policy, except as a source of revenue, which in turn kept them poor. They were born feeble, lived briefly, died quickly. They existed in a penumbra of attention, often burdened by appalling theories that justified their poverty as penance for some deep birth or pre-birth guilt. Socialism advertised itself as the ratio- nal corrective to this elemental injus- tice. Capitalism, in contrast, offered a more freebooter path to upward mobility. And yet, after two centuries of trial, error and experience, the mar- ket economy lifted far more people out of poverty than socialism. This is illogical. Why did it happen? Maybe the market economy The only practical use of an ear is pandemic when Covid-19 is either worked better because it was a non- for jewellery, which is adornment, subdued or subjugated? The problem theory. Theories are rigid. They do not or for schoolchild punishment and in cities such as Delhi is Putrid-P, with have the flexibility that individualism regret depending on whether the second ‘P’ for pollution. It might can bring to the solution of practi- your ears get twisted or pulled. But be a good idea to make masks cal problems. Naturally, it needed a Providence thinks ahead. That is the obligatory, at least through winter. brilliant Communist to recognise this miracle. Without ears we could not Welcome to the Man in the fundamental truth of Capitalism. have worn masks. Ironic Mask. In the 1980s China’s leader Deng Xiaoping overturned four decades of ince isolation is splendid s we have all discovered, Maoist doctrine and delineated his Sbreeding ground for speculation, Athis is the time to dust forgotten country’s path forward with a succinct a collateral thought. We assume that books or read up on subjects a little remark: he did not care about the co- we need to see a face to recognise a askance of the daily needs of practical lour of the cat as long as it caught mice. person. The mask leaves only eyes and existence. You never know which oys- If Deng had been American he forehead visible, and there is no known ter you might pick up when you trawl would have been Warren Buffet’s problem in recognition. On the other through a sea of words in a collection bridge and ice-cream partner. (Deng hand, wear the mask around your eyes, or an anthology. All the oysters will not was, and Buffet is, a gifted bridge as Zorro does in comic books and reveal pearls; but many will. Some of player; and if required, the American chaps on horseback do in cowboy the best anecdotes, interestingly, are billionaire would have taught the movies, and it becomes far more not anchored in certainty of origin, but innovative Chinese thinker-politi- difficult to recognise anyone. The who else could have made them up? A cian the virtues of ice-cream.) conclusion is obvious. brilliant exchange between the Ameri- Marxism and Maoism informed Will the mask go away with the can writers F Scott Fitzgerald and the oppressed that they had nothing

www.openthemagazine.com 9 Pandemic Notebook

to lose but their chains and then fettered man, machine, production and price with the steel bonds of group-instructions. China’s econo- my exploded. The political masters solved the resultant problem of a greed-dividend by diverting the overflow of wealth to a new elite, the princelings of a generation of party leaders who had suffered during the excesses of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. Hannah Arendt noted that every revolution devours its children. In this case, the children devoured the revolu- tion, and then paid off their parents.

he silver lining of this Tpandemic is a viral distribution of beautiful nuggets from the vast storehouse of collective memory. Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman in Teesri Kasam No one quite knows where they originate, but they gather a happy Basu Bhattacharya was one day Shankar-Jaikishan the music. momentum. Many of these stories are deeply engrossed in a book. Shailen- Every part of the project was from our popular cinema, one of the dra, the lyricist, also on the sets, asked perfect, but the whole did not work. marvels of modern India’s social and him what he was reading. The best Perhaps Shailendra was too simple creative genius, a multi-generational story ever written, replied Bhat- for a ruthless industry. Middlemen achievement of minds that integrated, tacharya: ‘Maare Gaye Gulfaam’ by fleeced him. He consoled himself at their best, the ethos of our land into the superb Hindi writer from Bihar, with the thought that all would be narrative, poetry and music. I Phanishwar Nath Renu. Shailendra well with completion and, in his received one such unforgettable borrowed the book. mind, inevitable commercial suc- story on WhatsApp. And became obsessed. He was cess. The film flopped. Shailendra The film Teesri Kasam began life determined to turn the story into was devastated; his destitute family on the sets of Bimal Roy’s superhit a movie. Initially, he felt that the blamed him for the financial fall. Madhumati. His assistant director story should not be overshadowed by His health deteriorated, as did his superstars, so chose Mehmood (then interest in life itself. playing whichever role he could get, Some friends tried to help. Vijay rather than that of a comedian) and Anand, director-brother of the more Nutan as the stars. Nutan dropped out famous Dev Anand, was making when she became pregnant. During Jewel Thief. He wanted to commission pre-production, Raj Kapoor, the great Shailendra for the lyrics, but misery director and actor who was the poet’s had dried up the latter’s creativity. friend, walked into Shailendra’s office Vijay Anand pleaded for at least one and asked him, “Kaviraj [Prince of song, largely so that he could pay Poets, an affectionate reference], how him a handsome amount. That was can you make your first movie with- the last song Shailendra wrote. out me?” Raj Kapoor and Waheeda It went: ‘Rula ke gaya sapna mera…’ Rehman became the lead pair. Basu (My dream left me in tears… ). n Bhattacharya was made director; choreography was by the famous MJ Akbar is an MP and the author of, dancer Lachhu Maharaj; Shailendra most recently, Gandhi’s Hinduism: Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri wrote the songs, The Struggle Against Jinnah’s Islam

10 7 september 2020 Joint Managing Director, openings

NOTEBOOK Cancel Culture’s India Problem

n the US, cancel culture has been having a pretty do with racism but the wake of fury good run, on the back of whatever psychological following George Floyd’s killing had made corporates ultra- syndromes have been unleashed by social media. politically correct. The human cost rarely registers in those Ordinary people, who would turn in the other who take part in these cancellings. As Jan Ronson, wrote in directionI if they saw a rabid political group on the street, her book So You have Been Publicly Shamed: ‘I suppose when now find themselves part of the mob demanding blood to shamings are delivered like remotely administered drone slake a thirst that they have recognised in themselves. It is strikes, nobody needs to think about how ferocious our col- the tyranny of the do-gooder along with the effortlessness lective power might be. The snowflake never needs to feel that Twitter provides. No great energy is expended in being responsible for the avalanche.’ in this mob, just relentless virtue signalling that gains India is a mimic culture of the West. It picks up just about momentum by numbers. every new trend—social, political, technological—from there The cancelling mobs usually come from one direction— and apes it. Cancel culture got its big moment here in MeToo the ‘liberal’ left because the ideology, once identified with free two years ago. Since then, it has persevered in spurts. The speech, now considers it an obstacle to equality and social latest was this week when the publishing house Bloomsbury justice. It gets a lot of free soldiers who find their meaning in withdrew their book Delhi Riots 2020 on the Hindu-Muslim the mob. Students are especially fertile material for creation communal clashes in the capital following protests against of better worlds. In the US, it is from the academia that cancel the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Delhi Riots 2020 culture gets its manpower, spilling over to the real world in took an uninhibited right-wing point of view of the clashes. fields like media and entertainment. There are two legs to Meanwhile, for balance presumably, Bloomsbury also had a cancel culture. One is the public book about the Shaheen Bagh shaming, and the other, the protests which reflected the cancelling. And they are done by opposite view. A tweet by the different groups. The angry India is a mimic culture of the publishing house about the self-righteous on Twitter do book said: ‘Initially starting out the shaming and demand the West. It picks up just about every as a cry of anguish against the cancelling, which is done by the new trend—social, political, allegedly discriminatory laws of agency that controls the person technological—from there and the Citizenship Amendment Act being shamed—the place of & National Register of Citizens, his employment, social and apes it. Cancel culture got its big it soon became a modern-day professional gatherings, etcetera. moment here in MeToo two years Gandhian movement for equal After the MeToo movement, ago. Since then, it has persevered rights for citizens.’ for example, writers accused in spurts. The latest was this As a strategy to cater to all and shamed online found shades of political opinions, there themselves summarily removed week when publishing house is nothing to quibble against from literary festivals. Bloomsbury withdrew their book such a policy by the publishing Cancelling can take absurd Delhi Riots 2020 on the house. But then cancel culture levels and not follow any set stepped in. It was triggered by pattern. Last month, a top Hindu-Muslim communal an event around the Delhi Riots executive in Boeing had to leave clashes in the capital following 2020 book that had as a guest of the company for an article he protests against the honour Kapil Mishra, a BJP leader wrote 29 years earlier that argued who is alleged by the left-liberals women shouldn’t be in the Citizenship Amendment Act to have instigated the riots. A defence forces. It had nothing to series of angry tweets began from

12 7 september 2020 Illustration by Saurabh Singh journalists, writers, activists, etcetera, and picked momen- something out of this mess. But now it has painted itself into tum. Up to this point, it was business as usual in the Indian one corner of the political spectrum and that is not the one public square. But then Bloomsbury felt that it had to wade it had wanted to be in before this episode. Bloomsbury, in into the morass. It first distanced itself from the event, saying fact, had recognised the nature of power in India and had a it had no part in it. And then it abruptly announced that it was number of books by the right, Delhi Riots 2020 itself being an withdrawing Delhi Riots 2020. A statement said: ‘Bloomsbury example. Inexplicably, it is undoing all that work. Also, cancel India had planned to release Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story culture in the West has a commercial aspect. Businesses fear in September, a book purportedly giving a factual report on losing money by not looking politically correct enough. the riots in Delhi in February 2020, based on investigations In India, little is gained by it. In fact, it is the reverse because and interviews conducted by the authors. However, in view of government has an overwhelming say in how businesses very recent events, including a virtual pre-publication launch perform and it is right wing at the moment. organised without our knowledge by the authors, with par- It is the reason why Facebook, as a Wall Street Journal ticipation by parties of whom the publishers would not have investigative story recently showed, did not act against Union approved, we have decided to withdraw publication of the Minister T Raja Singh for hate speech on their platform, even book. Bloomsbury India strongly supports freedom of speech though there were in-house recommendations. Facebook but also has a deep sense of responsibility towards society.’ looked at pragmatic considerations as against driven by politi- Bloomsbury, however, runs into the peculiar problem of cal ideals, which cannot be decided one way or other and, as enforcing the cancel culture in India. Unlike in the US, where cancel culture shows, ultimately bows down to the mob. such a move would have come with no consequences, here And if you had to see how ineffective Bloomsbury’s it is different. Offline and online are two different power cancelling has been, the book was immediately picked by structures in the US. another publisher Garuda Prakashan. And, they told The Print In India, they are the same. The right wing is dominant on that 15,000 pre-orders were placed on the first day itself, a both fronts at the present. Just see the millions of Twitter fol- number that would make for a bestseller in India. I lowers that their personalities have, or the organised manner If the book had not been withdrawn, it probably wouldn’t in which the right has asserted itself on social media. They are have sold so much. Cancelling only made it famous. n all now targeting Bloomsbury. If Bloomsbury had withdrawn the Shaheen Bagh book also, then it might still have salvaged By Madhavankutty Pillai

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 13 openings

portrait Lionel Messi years in the club, but despite his individual brilliance, the club hasn’t quite been living up to its promise, and the cabinet has been bare for the last few years. cry barcelona Messi’s disillusionment can be traced at least to 2017. When he renewed his contract with the club, Football’s biggest star decides to part Messi had an escape clause inserted. The club may ways with the club that he defined have to pay €700 million ($828 million) to buy him out. (Juventus, in comparison, picked up Messi’s rival ionel Messi has dropped a bombshell. After 20 years, six Ballons Cristiano Ronaldo for €100m, or $117 m, from Real L d’Or, six European Golden Shoes, 34 trophies and 634 goals, football’s Madrid a couple of years ago.) But Messi’s get-out greatest superstar wants to part ways with the club where he has spent all clause in the contract, as has been reported, allows his professional life. Unsurprisingly, protests erupted outside Barcelona’s him to terminate the relationship unilaterally as Camp Nou stadium—some even broke in—demanding the sacking long as he invokes it at the end of a season. of the club’s president. One news outlet described it as the equivalent of Much now rests on the technicality of that Mona Lisa becoming available on the art market. clause. Does it state a specific date in June, the Messi and Barcelona may have had a long and fruitful relationship. One period when the season normally comes to an that began at a tennis club, when the club’s then general secretary Charly end? Or does it read something like ‘the end of the Rexach signed him, a 13-year-old prodigy but physically small because season’, which can lead to a dispute—perhaps he suffered from a growth hormone deficiency, the agreement famously even in court—since Europe’s soccer season got reached on a paper napkin. The relationship has deteriorated now. The postponed because of the pandemic. serviette has been replaced by legal letters. And the conversation between Irrespective of whether or not the buyout fee has the player and the club is now taking place between lawyers. to be paid, or how much it is eventually negotiated The immediate reason for his inclination to leave might appear the to, Messi will not come cheap. He is reported to earn humiliating 2-8 drubbing the team received against Bayern Munich recently, more than $70 million a year in salary currently. but Messi’s disillusionment with the club has been visible for some time. He With the economy in a tailspin, there are only a few has spent the last few years watching players come and go. He apparently who can afford that kind of money. wanted the Brazilian star Neymar back in the team and urged the club Will Manchester City, owned by a member of to get him. But the club failed him; and there are reports he doubts if the Abu Dhabi’s royal family, reunite Messi with the management were even sincere in their efforts. The club’s boardroom has legendary manager Pep Guardiola, under whom been reported to be divided by infighting. Messi himself didn’t get along with he spent his best period at Barcelona? According to the club president Josep Maria Bartomeu; and there had been a falling out rumours, Messi has been in contact with Guardiola with the sporting director, Eric Abidal, who had criticised “some players" for the last few days. Or what of Paris Saint-Germain not working hard enough. At 33 years of age, Messi has spent most of his best and its Qatari owners who if they got Messi, along with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, would set up a Illustration by Saurabh Singh mouthwatering three-front attack? There are other suitors too. Milan’s Internazionale, owned by the Chinese billionaire Zhang Jindong; Manchester United and Chelsea, two of the richest clubs who also happen to share Messi’s biggest sponsor, Adidas. None of them can be counted out. If the Mona Lisa of football is really on the market, then this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many. Recession or not, many of these clubs might break their banks to trigger one of the fiercest bidding wars in history. The world got a hint of what Messi had been thinking last December when he picked his sixth Ballon d’Or. He had suggested then that his end wasn’t far, leading to panic and Bartomeu assuaging fans with ‘Messi para rato’. There is still a lot left in Messi. As it turns out, Messi might have a few more years. Not just at Barcelona. n

By Lhendup G Bhutia

7 september 2020 ANGLE ideas

Get Going Again Karnataka ends quarantine for visitors, other states must follow suit By madhavankutty pillai es g e tty imag

arnataka became the most affected state in India with lakhs Perseverance K first state to do away with forced of cases and it has been in the throes In the recently-concluded Test series quarantine for those entering the state, of community transmission, whether between England and Pakistan, signaling free movement of people, anyone wants to use the term or not, for an English bowler achieved a goods and services to get the engine of months now, what possible benefit can remarkable feat. Despite what the economy rolling again. Unfortu- there be in preventing a handful of cases appeared to be the best efforts nately, not enough states have followed from entering the state from outside? by his teammates to deny him up to make it meaningful. If only one It makes not even a dent in the overall that landmark, spilling several state is open, then de facto the country is trajectory of Covid. catches in just two overs, James closed. Karnataka took its cue from the Above all, there is the singular Anderson finally claimed his Centre virtually ordering states to end question of what is the alternative to 600th wicket. He is the only pace restrictions. The letter by the Union fully opening up? At what point does it bowler to reach this landmark. home secretary to chief secretaries of become okay to not keep people under Fast bowling is a punishing job. states didn’t leave any ambiguity: ‘It house arrest for a fortnight every time But Anderson, at 38 years, has done has, however, been reported that local they cross a state border? Every passing the impossible. There are only two level restrictions on inter and intra-state day is coming at a price that will be fully more contemporary fast bowlers movement of persons and goods are extorted later in terms of livelihoods nearby—Dale Steyn and Stuart impacting supply chains resulting in lost and debt traps. Every sector you Broad—and neither are likely to a disruption in economic activity and can think of—from real estate to auto eclipse him. In fact, Anderson says employment…Such restrictions at local to microfinance—is being hollowed he has his sights on 700 wickets next. level imposed by the District Admin- out from the inside the longer states If one considers the fast bowlers of istration or by the State Government continue to exist in a state of siege. the past, Kapil Dev and Courtney amount to violation of the guidelines You could point to the example Walsh, who were leading wicket- issued by MHA under the provisions of of European countries, like Italy and taking charts at their time, both Disaster Management Act, 2005.’ Spain, where there is a second wave were shadows of their former selves The Centre’s panic is underpinned after opening up. But the deaths and by this age. But Anderson has been by the nosediving of the economy. Years severity of infections there are a fraction a revelation, better in his twilight of recession are almost certain and the of what the first wave brought. years than when he was younger. bare minimum conditions to even Opening up has come at a low cost that In his longevity and the top level at attempt to meet it is for the country to must be borne. Recently, German which he is operating, he is perhaps behave as an economic whole. Take, for Chancellor Angela Merkel warned comparable to tennis’ Roger Federer. n example, Maharashtra, where its gov- Europe to keep borders open. She was ernment has said it is too early to fully quoted in Bloomberg: ‘Politically, we Word’s Worth remove restrictions for those to enter. want to avoid closing borders again at Without business travel, Mumbai can’t any cost, but that assumes that we act in resume functioning as a commercial coordination.’ There is no winning this ‘Can I reach 700? capital. What exactly does restriction war by holding out forever against the Why not?’ accomplish now at this stage of the pan- enemy. Your own guns are just being James Anderson demic? Given that Maharashtra is the trained against you. n english cricketer

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 15 indian accents

By Bibek Debroy

Who’s a Free Man? Revelations from the karmic evolution of life

n the last column, I started on the Anu Gita, one on the place meant for the breath of life, it instantly imparts of the several Gitas in the Mahabharata. Among all consciousness. The limbs begin to move and the foetus has the Gitas in the Mahabharata, if one leaves aside the consciousness. When liquid iron is drained and poured into a IBhagavat Gita, the Anu Gita is the most famous. The mould, it assumes the form of an image. Know that this is the Bhagavat Gita has of course been translated the most. The way the jivatman approaches and penetrates a foetus. When Anu Gita has also been translated, though understandably, fire enters a lump of iron, it heats it up. Know that this is the not that many times. The earliest English translation way the jivatman approaches and penetrates a foetus. When I know of is the one by Kashinath Telang, in 1882. As I one resorts to a lamp, the light illuminates everything. In that mentioned in the last column, the Anu Gita is triggered by way, consciousness illuminates different parts of the body. the prospect of Krishna leaving for Dvaraka, just after the Whatever karma has been committed, good or bad, in an horse sacrifice (ashvamdedha yajña). In its 35 chapters (as earlier body, all of it must certainly be enjoyed. These are thus per the Critical Edition), the Anu Gita actually has three extinguished and others are again gathered together. This parts: (a) a conversation between a siddha Brāhmana and continues as long as one does not understand the dharma that Kashyapa; (b) a conversation between a Brāhmana and leads to moksha yoga.’ a Brāhmani (his wife); and (c) a conversation between ‘O excellent one! When one is born and is repeatedly Brahma and the rishis. All these conversations are repeated circling around, I will tell you about the dharma that by Krishna to Arjuna. Sometimes, only (a) is referred to as ensures happiness. Donations, vows, brahmacharya, the Anu Gita. But the Anu Gita consists of all three parts. sustaining the prescribed rites, self-restraint, tranquility, In the last column, I started on (a). Let me complete that. compassion towards all beings, self-control, lack of injury, Anything within brackets is not part of the text, but an not appropriating the possessions of others, uprightness, explanation to make comprehension easier. abstention from futile censure of all creatures on earth, The siddha Brāhmana continued, ‘Good and bad karma serving the mother and the father, worshipping devas and performed in this world are never destroyed. The fruits are guests, honouring seniors, tenderness, purity, constant cooked as one moves from one kshetra to another kshetra. restraint of the senses and ensuring what is auspicious— [Kshetra means field. Here, it stands for a physical body.] A these are said to be virtuous conduct. Dharma flows from high-yielding fruit tree produces large quantities of fruit. In this and protects subjects eternally. This conduct is always that way, deeds performed with an auspicious and pure mind seen among the virtuous and they obtain a state that is yield a great deal. This is also true of wicked deeds perpetrated permanent. Conduct in conformity with dharma is said with an evil mind. In this world, the atman places the mind to be that which is resorted to by those who are virtuous. at the forefront and then undertakes karma. After this, listen They are immersed in dharma and this is the dharma that to how a man enters a womb, when karma is determined, is eternal. If one resorts to this, one never has to confront overwhelmed by desire and anger. Inside a woman’s womb, extreme hardship. When the world is deluded, it is through the kshetra is derived from a mixture of semen and blood and such rules that it is brought back to the path of dharma. from karma, a function of good and bad acts. The brahman Yogis and those who are emancipated are superior to these (standing here for the jivatman) is subtle and unmanifest in virtuous people. If a man follows the appropriate dharma, nature. The brahman resorts to the body, but is not attached he is freed from samsara after a long period of time and to anything. That is the reason, it is the eternal brahman. crosses over. In this way, all creatures have to follow the This is the seed of all beings and it is because of this that all karma they have undertaken earlier. All the wicked deeds creatures are alive. Having entered the womb, the jivatman are the reason why one has arrived in this world.’ penetrates all the different limbs in the body. Basing itself ‘Who first determined the acceptance of a body? [The

16 7 september 2020 adoption of a body is determined by the deeds committed That is the eternal state, without any decay. That is supreme in earlier lives. But what determined the adoption of the jñana. O Brāhmana! I will tell you about it in detail. Hear first body?] There is a doubt in the world about this. I will about everything.’ tell you about this next. The grandfather of all creatures first ‘A person who silently submerges himself in that created his own body. Brahma then created the three worlds receptacle [the brahman], not thinking about anything, not and all the mobile and immobile objects. Having created even thinking about his own identity, progressively casting consciousness in that body, he created Pradhana. [Pradhana off the layers, is freed from all bonds. [The shloka is cryptic has different interpretations in Samkhya. For our purposes, and some liberties have been taken. The progressive casting Pradhana is the cause of the material world.] A learned person away of layers is a reference to the different steps of yoga.] knows this pervades all the worlds and is supreme.’ This He is a friend to everyone. He endures everything. He loves world is said to be Kshara. The other one is immortal and everything equally. He has conquered his senses. He has Akshara. [Kshara is destructible, akshara is indestructible. The overcome fear and anger. He has killed desire. Such a man is body is destructible, but the atman emancipated. He looks towards all is indestructible. The second part of beings as he does towards his own the shloka is difficult to understand. self. He roams around, controlled The ‘three’ possibly mean the and pure. He is without insolence physical body, the jivatman and the and without ego. It is as if such paramatman. These exist together a man is emancipated in every and they also exist separately. One way. He is impartial towards both can form different couples out life and death, happiness and of these three.] There are couples unhappiness, gain and loss and formed of these three. They all the pleasant and the unpleasant. exist together, but they also exist Such a man is emancipated. He separately. In his first creation, does not desire anyone. He does Prajapati created all the creatures not show disrespect towards and the immobile objects. This is anyone. He is beyond the opposite what the sacred texts say about pairs of sentiments and is devoid that first creation. Thereafter, of attachment. Such a man is the grandfather determined the emancipated in every way. He has measurement of time and decreed no enemy. He has no relative. He the going and coming of creatures has no offspring. He has abandoned [death and rebirth respectively, and dharma, artha and kama. He does a lifespan for each species].’ not hope for anything. Such a ‘There may be an intelligent person is emancipated. He has person who has seen his atman in neither dharma nor adharma. his earlier birth. I will accurately He has cast aside everything tell you everything that such a accumulated from earlier [from person experiences here. Such A person who silently earlier births]. When the elements a person always looks upon submerges himself in the waste away [the elements in the happiness and unhappiness as br ahm an, not thinking body], he is tranquil in his soul. transitory. He regards the body as about anything, not even He is without the opposite pairs a vigorous arena for conflicting of sentiments. Such a man is thinking about his own karma, certain to decay. Whenever emancipated. He has no karma. there is the slightest bit of identity, progressively He has no hope and only looks happiness, he remembers all the casting off the layers, is at the eternal universe, always unhappiness. Such a person is able freed from all bonds submerged helplessly in ill health, to cross this terrible ocean that delusion, birth and samsara. His is samsara and which is so very intellect is always focused on non- difficult to traverse. Immersed in attachment. He is indifferent birth, death and disease, he knows about Pradhana. Basing towards any type of torment. In a short while, he is able to free his consciousness on that universal consciousness, he looks his atman from bonds. He sees his own atman, which does not upon all creatures impartially. He is indifferent towards experience smell, taste, touch, sound and ownership and is everything and seeks for the supreme path and destination. without form and difficult to comprehend. Such a person is I will tell you and instruct you about the true nature of that. emancipated.’ I will continue in the next column. n

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 17 Whisperer Jayanta Ghosal

The Unforgiven Dhaka Moves oreign Secretary Harsh Shringla’s mission to FDhaka seems to have done some good. He had a meeting for over an hour with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She was particularly keen on knowing about former President Pranab Mukherjee’s health. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, was reportedly satisfied when briefed about the trip. Now that diplomatic travel has resumed, the foreign secretary making Dhaka his first port of call signifies how important relations with Bangladesh are to India.

Enemy’s Friend ongress President Sonia Gandhi Cmight be getting worried about Haryana leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He had earlier tried to float a new party, but then Sonia managed to rein him in. The rumour now is that Hooda has become close to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Is it possible that he could join the party? The Hooda camp says that the Congress high com- mand sees the BJP’s ghost everywhere.

With the Supreme Court holding Bhushan guilty of contempt, all lawyers who are against the BJP have rallied behind him. It has become a political battle. Nevertheless, lawyers of the Congress are not very vocal about Bhushan. That’s largely because Bhushan had played a big part in exposing the coal and 2G scams that contributed to the party losing power at the Centre.

18 7 september 2020

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Considered Act Letter Explosion here is quite a bit of speculation that fter a long time, the Congress is seeing some TBollywood actress Kangana Ranaut could join Ainternal debate after 23 leaders wrote a letter the BJP. Early August, on the death anniversary suggesting the party needs to address leadership of Sushma Swaraj, a function organised by a issues. Rahul Gandhi is said to be upset about the Sangh Parivar outfit had Ranaut as a star guest. move. His mother Sonia Gandhi, who leads the party, In the case of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, she has health problems and Rahul is spending nights at seems to be in tune with pro-BJP voices claiming her residence to be by her side. When the letter was there is more to the suicide than meets the eye— sent, Sonia had been admitted to hospital for a check- which also targets the Shiv Sena government of up. After the Congress Working Committee meeting, Maharashtra. From the BJP’s point of view, Ranaut a post-mortem has started. Many Congress leaders could be a counter to all those in the film industry told Rahul that the idea of drafting a letter was mooted who oppose the party. But her people say that at a dinner at Shashi Tharoor’s house in early August. she has no plans to enter politics and that such Most of the signatories were there. But the leaders rumours are being spread by her enemies say the objective of the letter was not dissidence but in Bollywood. activating the leadership. Sonia’s interim presidency was supposed to be over on August 12th, so they met a few days before that; Mani Seat of Contention Shankar Aiyar t a recent National Democratic Alliance did not like the A(NDA) rally in Bihar, BJP President JP idea. Abhishek Nadda formally announced that Nitish Kumar Manu Singhvi and would be the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate. Sachin Pilot did not Apprehensions about the BJP trying to unseat sign the letter. him after the election have now been laid to rest, The Congress but the dispute about seat-sharing is still going is now trying on. Especially over 12 seats in Bihar’s Legislative to find out Council. The BJP wants six of these, of which who leaked it wants to give one to Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok the letter to Janshakti Party (LJP). The Janata Dal (United) the media. For the moment, argues that it has 71 seats and the BJP 53 in the everyone seems Assembly. Paswan does not have a single MLA. satisfied that a mini So, the LJP does not have any right to ask for a revolt has been seat in the Legislative Council. averted.

The Daughter Also Rises Sign of Regret mong those who signed the Congress letter was, nar Patel, daughter of former Gujarat Asurprisingly, Mukul Wasnik, a Sonia Gandhi AChief Minister and present Uttar Pradesh loyalist. Later, he apologised to both her and Rahul Governor Anandiben Patel, has become very Gandhi personally. He told them that he had not active in Gujarat, prompting observers to realised it would come out in the media and that the wonder if she is getting ready for a bigger BJP would take advantage of it. Bihar Congress leader political role. She is doing a lot of social service KK Tiwari publicly issued a statement that the BJP in Ghatlodia Assembly constituency. In the last was behind the letter using some Congress leaders. election too, there was gossip that she could get Wasnik’s name was even among those non-Gandhis a ticket. But it didn’t happen. Ghatlodia, under who could be candidates for Congress president. Other Gandhinagar Lok Sabha, was won by Bhupendra loyalists like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal don’t Patel, who is also a very important leader there. think they have made a mistake by signing the letter.

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 19 open essay

By Vinay Lal

The trouble with Kamala Identity and the death of politics

et us first, in speaking of Kamala Devi Harris, dispense with the two sets of commonplace observations being aired since Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s nominee for the president of the US, named her as his running mate. Harris is described as a prolific trailblazer: she was the first black, the first Indian American and the first woman elected as the District Attorney of San Francisco and later as the Attorney General of California. She is only the second black woman to serve in the US Senate, having been preceded by Carol Moseley Braun who served one six-year term in the 1990s, and Harris is the first Indian American to serve in the Senate. She is now the first woman of colour to join the presidential ticket of the country’s two major political parties and, should the Democrats prevail in the November presidential election, she would obviously become the first Indian American and African American to hold the vice presidency of the US and would be well poised to make a bid to become the first person in all these capacities to preside in the White House and perhaps dominate the politics of the Democratic Party over a good part of the next generation. If all of this were not exhausting enough, she is also the first nominee of either party for the posi- Ltion of either vice president or president to have graduated from one of a group of what are known as ‘historically black colleges and universities’ (HBCUs)—more precisely, from Howard University, at one time dubbed the ‘black Harvard’. It is very likely that there are many other such ‘firsts’ in Kamala Harris’ résumé of accomplishments. Donald Trump had many ‘firsts’ too, among them being the oldest incoming president in the US and the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to win the White House without having ever been elected to any office (though Eisenhower had at least been Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War II, rather than being, as is true of Trump, a notorious draft dodger). To enumerate all of Trump’s ‘firsts’ would be to steal the thunder from Harris, or perhaps add lustre to her candidacy. Her résumé should be, other things being equal, sufficient to win her the approbation of all but cynics and perhaps those who would like to think of politics in the rather more elevated language of a po- litical philosopher or an ethical thinker. It is remarkable, indeed, that the second set of commonplace observations on her nomination for the vice presidency of the US bears affinity to the place-markers of identity with which she is described. On this view, Biden selecting her was astute since she is smart, a centrist and a pragmatic moderate, but, above all, because she is the counterpoint to him in the most fundamental respects. As Biden is male and white, Harris is a woman of colour; if he is the past of the party, she is its future; if he is old, she is reasonably young; if looks rather worn-out, wearing the bottom of his trousers rolled, she is brimming with energy; if he is dull, she always seems to sparkle—with something; if he is from the East Coast, she is from the West Coast. In the folksy, somewhat endear- ing and at times annoying language in which Barack Obama delights and which gives California its somewhat starry-eyed reputation, the coming together of Biden and Harris is the coziness of yin and yang. It does not surprise, then, that barring some predictable and often lengthy inquiries into Harris’ record as a prosecutor and ‘top cop’ of the wealthiest state of the union, the opinion pieces have revolved around the question of identity. Does she ‘identify’ herself predominantly as black and only take recourse to her Indian identity when the occasion seems fitting? Is Harris likely to become

20 7 september 2020 Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Wilmington, Delaware, August 19

reuters Kamala Devi Harris belongs to a breed of professional politicians who play to win and whose careers have been shaped by the well-oiled machinery of political manipulation, grandstanding and the like. One cannot, and must not, expect anything substantive to come out of this form of political activity in an electoral democracy. The candidate, as such, is nearly irrelevant—perhaps an odd argument to make at this juncture, some would argue, considering the apparently ‘life-defining’ choice that people are called upon to make this November, though in my memory every four years the same argument has been advanced over the course of the last three decades more black as the campaigning intensifies, if only because she who, in the last analysis, counts herself only as American? is astute enough to recognise that, however much she may That neither her Indian American nor black identity will have feel beholden to her partial Indian ancestry, black people will a bearing on some, indeed most, of her views should be amply indubitably have a far greater role in determining her future in clear from the positions that Harris has adopted on the question American politics? Indians number in the vicinity of around of Palestine. Harris is a keen supporter of Israel and was more ada- 4 million, around 1.25 per cent of the American population; mant than all other Democratic hopefuls in the summer of 2019 blacks, on the other hand, make up close to 14 per cent of the when, in response to a question posed by the New York Times, ‘Do country. Some are asking: will she selectively play up her you think Israel meets international standards of human rights?’, Indianness as she courts voters and donors in the affluent she replied in the affirmative and insisted that American foreign Indian American community? Or might Harris present herself policy in that region had to be rooted in ‘understanding the align- as equally black American and Indian American, as someone ment between the American people and the people of Israel’. In

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 21 open essay

this respect, she is truly the soulmate of Biden, whose position has barely budged from the views he enunciated in 1986 during a debate in the Senate on arms sales to the Middle East, when he declared: ‘It’s about time we stop apologising for our support for Israel, there’s no apology to be made. It is the best $3-billion investment we make. If there weren’t an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.’ The Palestinians have no reason to rejoice in the selection of Harris, merely because she is an Indian American and African American woman; from their standpoint, it is more than likely that she will be speaking only as an American—that is to say as a white person. Those who live and thrive on identity politics have given everything to pronouncing themselves Asian American, African American, Hispanic American, Japanese American or whatever and have themselves recognised as such by others, but they seldom recognise that once one has been nominated an American, one perforce takes on the character- istics of those deemed white. That is one of the entitlements, though a liability for others, of being a ‘white American’—who alone have, and dearly wish to retain, the privilege of not being named. This is what the French philosopher Roland Barthes characterised as the realm of ex-nomination.

hose who do not recognise the manner in which Tidentity politics dominates nearly all conversation in Amer- ica understand little if anything of America. What the nomina- tion of Kamala Devi Harris by the Democratic Party to the vice presidency of the US signifies is not so much the fact that women have finally arrived on the political scene, or are on the verge of breaking the glass ceiling that has held them back, an argument that was advanced when Hillary Clinton became the party’s nominee for the president, but rather the sheer impossibility of escaping the identity question in American public life. Let us consider her, in the first instance, as an African American as Kamala Harris’ ascendancy is far less the sign of any substantive shift in American politics than a Harris has herself weighed in on these matters often, describing form of gestural accommodation that democracies are called upon to make these days. It is now herself as a black on most occasions and adverting to her pride in perfectly well understood that some shifts are irreversible and must therefore be accepted in good being African American. Her 2019 autobiography, The Truths We taste, so long assome fundamentals—class hierarchies, a belief in the spirit of American capitalism and Hold: An American Journey, is explicit on one particular detail that merits some consideration. Her parents separated when she was the supposition that the US is the one ‘indispensable nation’, to name just a few—are left undisputed around five years old, and they divorced a few years later; but her mother, who had come from India as a graduate student, was not therefore bereft of a family. Kamala’s parents had a shared politi- Maya and me as two black girls, and she was determined to make cal life for some years as they partook of political demonstrations sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.’ against racism, discrimination and injustice, discussed decoloni- In characterising her mother’s desire to raise her and Maya so sation in Africa and declared their support for liberation move- that they would become ‘confident, proud black women’, Kama- ments in ‘the developing world’. These dissenters and rebels la Harris would appear to have resolved decisively the question became, Harris writes, ‘my mother’s people. In a country where of whether she leans more heavily on the side of being viewed she had no family, they were her family—and she was theirs. as African American or Indian American. Yet, in her speech at From almost the moment she arrived from India, she chose and the Democratic National Convention where she accepted her was welcomed to and enveloped in the black community. It nomination, she spoke at length about her mother; the father was the foundation of her new American life’. In consequence, was barely present, not even as much as a footnote—perhaps Shyamala Gopalan raised her daughters, Kamala and Maya, as another testament to the absent black fathers who are said to black children: ‘She knew that her adopted homeland would see populate the American landscape. But it cannot be this cut and

22 7 september 2020 with reverberations elsewhere in the world. Oddly, as some re- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flection on ‘Black Lives Matter’ suggests, the movement has little at the Democratic National Convention in Wilmington, to say about lives in Africa; and the continent scarcely figures in Delaware, August 20 her autobiography. Indeed, judging from what transpired from the eight years of Obama’s presidency, there is little if any reason to think that his term in office had any long-lasting implications for Africa. Obama paid four visits to sub-Saharan Africa, twice as many as Bill Clinton and George W Bush, but Bush on his two trips visited 10 countries while Obama visited only six. Obama was committed to weaning Africa from its dependence on aid and, as a person of pronounced neo-liberal views, was hopeful that he could get Africans more interested in engaging with the world with commitments to business models. If one were asked to describe what the eight years of the presidency of an African American meant for Africa, one would be hard-pressed to say anything in the affirmative, beyond the usual cant about ‘pride in origins’, the feeling that one matters in the world and other similar anodyne expressions that constitute the language of our times.

hat of Kamala Harris’ Indian American origins? WSome Hindi-language newspapers erupted with joy at the announcement of her nomination, as though she had been nominated to fight an election in India; others commented, in language that can only be viewed as comical, on the Indian lotus that also blooms overseas. There are the usual specula- tions about what a Biden presidency, one in which the younger, energetic and ‘dynamic’—one of the operative words of our times—Kamala Harris is expected to play a more aggressive role than what is ordinarily reserved for vice presidents, may portend for India-US relations. If some would like to think that reuters Harris’ Indian roots will incline her to push her boss to grant India more favourable terms of trade, encourage closer India-US Kamala Harris’ ascendancy is far less the sign of any substantive shift in American politics than a relations in an effort to thwart China’s advance and overlook form of gestural accommodation that democracies are called upon to make these days. It is now some of the more authoritarian features of the present Indian perfectly well understood that some shifts are irreversible and must therefore be accepted in good administration, others have to the contrary argued that Harris is, taste, so long assome fundamentals—class hierarchies, a belief in the spirit of American capitalism and to use a colloquialism, ‘a tough cookie’ who is likely to question India’s intentions with regards to Kashmir and lodge strong the supposition that the US is the one ‘indispensable nation’, to name just a few—are left undisputed protests whenever it appears that the rights of minorities are being violated. All of this is, frankly, uninteresting—just chatter and nothing that might pass for ‘thought’. dry, since Harris has spoken often of vacations spent with her Among Indian Americans, the principal consideration is father and her paternal grandparents in Jamaica, and she speaks what having Harris at the near helm of politics might mean for of her father, Donald Harris, with warmth if not copiously. One the future of the community in politics. Indian Americans long might say that it is but natural that she should have offered a complained of being invisible in the US, and the feeling persists glowing account of her mother who raised her and her sister. We among many of them that Hinduism is slighted in comparison might also try to interrogate her apparent self-identification as to other religions. Kamala Harris is no Hindu, but for the present an African American from an altogether different angle: where many Indian Americans are prepared to overlook that—more does Africa belong in her political and moral imagination and particularly because she has spoken with immense warmth her discursive world? The question assumes all the more impor- of not only her mother, her maternal grandfather, but (alas, tance at this present juncture, given the force, velocity and ur- somewhat in the vein of Ved Mehta) also the seemingly count- gency with which ‘Black Lives Matter’ has become enshrined as less number of uncles, aunts and cousins on her mother’s side. the preeminent political movement of contemporary America Her rise is obviously a matter of pride to most Indian Americans,

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 23 open essay

especially women, but it is wholly characteristic of the intellectu- she was choosing the trajectory established by her mentor, al parochialism of the community that almost no one has taken Gandhi—though, as was the case with him, this did not even Harris’ ascendancy as an opportunity to revisit the rich, largely remotely signal any severance from social work or participation unknown and sometimes troubled history of Indian-Black in public life. In the immediate aftermath of independence, she relations in the US. Such a narrative would encompassthe un- involved herself with work revolving around the rehabilita- usual history of what the scholar Vivek Bald has called ‘Bengali tion of refugees, and it may be more than just a coincidence that Harlem’, a portrait of Indian peddlers, lascars and other working- Shyamala Gopalan might have been aware of this as well since class men who struck up long-term relationships, sometimes her father, PV Gopalan, was employed as Under-Secretary in leading to marriage, with black, Puerto Rican and Creole women the Ministry of Transportation and placed at the disposal of the in cities stretching from the East Coast across to the Midwest and Ministry of Rehabilitation with effect from December 1955. Ka- the American South. It would also encompass, to take another maladevi went on to have an extraordinary second career as one illustration, the sustained interest in the Indian independence of the country’s preeminent experts in handicrafts, textiles, the- movement over a period of three decades in large segments of the atre arts, puppetry and crafts and as a principal force in mould- African American press, including newspapers such as The Pitts- ing the new nation’s cultural policy. The idea of the ‘Global burgh Courier, The Baltimore Afro-American, The Chicago Defender, South’ is incipient in all her work and she was a radical exponent Atlanta Daily World and New York Amsterdam News. of the idea of South-South exchanges and the decolonisation of knowledge. What is critical is that Kamaladevi’s disavowal of political ambition stemmed from her disenchantment with n an effort to understand what the rise of Harris animal politics—and electoral politics is nothing but that in Imight mean, it may be more productive to enter into the psephological democracies such as the US and India—and, at vortex of her life and the belly of that beast called American the same time, a deep awareness of how to effect social change. politics in a more tangential fashion. I would wager to say, on It is in all these respects that Kamaladevi’s namesake in the no authority except my own hunch as a reasonably educated US, Kamala Devi, is radically different. Most people, particularly and moderately well-read person, that Kamala Devi Harris was of liberal disposition, suppose that the nomination of a woman very likely named after Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (1903-88). who is one part African American and one part Indian American This is, to reiterate, far from being certain, but it is immaterial signals a new kind of maturity in American politics and shows since the invocation of Kamaladevi’s name suggests both the that in such evolution the intrinsic strengths of a democracy are possibilities that are inherent in Kamala Harris’ gradual and most evidently on display. The argument may not be wholly impending ascendancy to the near pinnacle of American without merit except that one must fundamentally digress from politics and, though this will be less evident to most people, such a generous interpretation in at least three respects. First, the profound misgivings that one must necessarily have about Kamala Devi Harris belongs to a breed of professional politicians electoral politics at this juncture of history. It is almost incon- who play to win and whose careers have been shaped by the well- ceivable that Kamala’s mother, Shyamala, was not inspired by oiled machinery of political manipulation, grandstanding and Kamaladevi, a fiery Indian nationalist, socialist and feminist the like. What I have called the ‘animal politics’ of Kamaladevi’s who was a major figure in India’s struggle for freedom and a time is but child’s play by the ruthless rules of the game that are close associate of Mohandas Gandhi. Kamaladevi was not only in place today. It is far from established that Harris is any more a staunch advocate of women’s rights but a leading exponent, principled than the average politician: the man who is now at a time in the 1930s when even feminists in the West were re- presented, with good reason, as an affront to most reasonable luctant to advocate for the complete equality of women, of the people and as a threat to American democracy, Donald J Trump, idea of equal pay for women and men. She was the first woman is on record as having twice, in 2011 and 2013, contributed as a in India to stand for elected office, losing her bid for a seat in private citizen to the election campaign of Kamala Harris when the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1926 by a mere 60 votes! she was running for the state attorney general. One cannot, and Kamaladevi forged extensive contacts with socialist feminists must not, expect anything substantive to come out of this form around the world, led satyagraha campaigns in India and of political activity in an electoral democracy. The candidate, as preceded Shyamala Gopalan in making her way to the US as a such, is nearly irrelevant—perhaps an odd argument to make at single—or, more accurately in this case, divorced—woman for this juncture, some would argue, considering the apparently ‘life- a lengthy visit which took her to prisons, American Indian res- defining’ choice that people are called upon to make this Novem- ervations and reform institutions in an attempt to understand ber, though in my memory every four years the same argument the underbelly of American life and initiate a transnational has been advanced over the course of the last three decades. solidarity of the oppressed. Secondly, Kamala Harris’ ascendancy is far less the sign of any As independence dawned, however, Kamaladevi retreated substantive shift in American politics than a form of gestural from politics. She did so at a time when, much like her yet more accommodation that democracies are called upon to make these famous sister-in-law, Sarojini Naidu, she could have had nearly days. It is now perfectly well understood that some shifts are any political office for the asking. In eschewing political office, irreversible and must therefore be accepted in good taste, so long

24 7 september 2020 Shyamala Gopalan (left), Kamala Harris’ mother, at a civil rights protest in Berkeley, California

and particularly ethical perspec- tive on politics behooves us to liberate ourselves from procrus- tean notions of identity rather than becoming entrenched in them. It cannot be doubted that there will already be rather silly articles by Indian Americans about Harris as the ‘desi alpha female’ and other sentimental pronouncements about how her nomination is a ‘dream come true’. The trouble with identity is that it is a crush- ingly boring subject. ‘Nothing seems less interesting,’ Edward Said wrote with characteristic forthrightness, ‘than the narcis-

ap sistic self-study that today passes in many places for identity politics, Kamala Harris’ parents had a shared political life for some or ethnic studies, or affirmations of roots, cultural pride, drum-beating years as they partook of political demonstrations against nationalism, and so on’—and this racism, discrimination and injustice, discussed decolonisation from the author of Orientalism in Africa and declared their support for liberation movements (1978), a devastating indictment in ‘the developing world’. These dissenters and rebels became, of the intellectual apparatus and regimes of representation that Eu- Harris writes, ‘my mother’s people. In a country where she had ropean colonial powers deployed no family, they were her family—and she was theirs’ in their study of ‘Oriental’ societies. When will we get past the fact that Kamala Harris is a woman, in equal as some fundamentals—class hierarchies, a belief in the spirit of parts African American and Indian American, and begin to pose American capitalism and the supposition that the US is the one some more difficult questions. What does she understand by ‘indispensable nation’, to name just a few—are left undisputed. ethics in politics? Under what circumstances might one permit Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the decision this the conscience to become the highest law of the land? But if we summer of the US Supreme Court in a case where Justice Neil M must insist on her identity, we might still ask some difficult Gorsuch, whose nomination to the court was bitterly contested questions: as an African American and Indian American, will by liberals and who had been roundly condemned by them as she be hospitable to the idea that if a vaccine for the coronavirus ‘extremely conservative’, surprised everyone by writing the should be developed in the US, it would first be made available to court’s landmark decision extending civil rights protections to essential healthcare workers in the US, India, Africa and around LGBTQ employees nationwide. Opposition to gay marriage and the world before it is even made available to all Americans? Or to gays serving in the military went the same way as opposition will it be merely ‘America first’? Are those who are minorities to women serving in the army, and both Gorsuch’s seeming any more endowed with a sense of altruism than those who are capitulation to the moment and Harris’ rise must be viewed in not? It is clear that in the present state of senescence that charac- the same vein—as harbinger of the kind of incremental changes terises democracy in the United States of America, no one will that permit a democracy to call itself a democracy. It bears reitera- be bothered to put these questions to Kamala Devi Harris—or tion that the meaning of being ‘American’ is expansive enough indeed to any other candidate. n and one can expect that under Harris, should she become the vice president and perhaps gain the White House in a subse- Vinay Lal is Professor of History and Asian American quent election cycle, such incremental changes will accelerate. Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He is the Thirdly, it cannot be stressed enough that a more capacious author of several books on politics and culture

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Illustration by Saurabh Singh Gandhis Win Congress Loses Sonia and Rahul Gandhi can have the satisfaction of a Pyrrhic victory. The party has formally reaffirmed their leadership, but it is seen as completely out of sync with the times

B y Harish Khare

he Indian National Congress, probably the world’s oldest political organisation, has been in the throes of an absurd civil war ever since Rahul Gandhi stepped down as its president after he led the Congress to a comprehensive defeat at the hands of Narendra Modi’s BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. There is a certain Kafkaesque quality to this war among the Congressmen. It is a fight without real antagonists and without real enemies. Arrayed on one side are the Rahul Cabalists who want a quick end to the state of suspended animation, instigated in the first place by their own man walking away from the job;

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on the other side are some of the established organisational men, who also are insisting that the leadership issue must be sorted out and that the party cannot wait indefinitely for the vacillating Rahul Gandhi to make up his mind whether he wants to shoulder THE LETTER TO the responsibility of leading the organisation. Both sides were acutely aware that the Rahul Gandhi-centric SONIA GANDHI uncertainty was haemorrhaging the party. Jyotiraditya Scin- dia’s defection to the BJP was a rude shock to the Congress rank and file; after all, here was an important leader, touted as Rahul FROM 23 Gandhi’s most trusted right-hand man, crossing over to the enemy camp and bringing down the Congress government CONGRESS in Madhya Pradesh, that too in these days of acute political adversity; and then came the young Sachin Pilot’s rebellion in Rajasthan. The Congressmen were a deeply dispirited lot as LEADERS most could directly trace the Bhopal disaster and the Jaipur revolt to the leadership conundrum at 24, Akbar Road, the All India Congress Committee headquarters. 1 It was becoming too painfully obvious to one and all that this debilitating drift could not be allowed to go on indefinitely. Yet, the simmering internal war remained a gentle affair. It finally boiled over when the Congress Working Committee (CWC) met (virtually) on August 24th. The Rahul Cabalists had planned a putsch: the idea was to hustle the highest decision-making body into demand- ing that Rahul Gandhi should take over, once again, as the party president. Not so fast, Sir, said the ‘dissenters’. We want to discuss the terms of his return. Hence, the famous ‘leak’ to The Indian Express a day before the CWC was to meet. The country was surprised to learn that as many as 23 Congressmen had developed a spine to put their signatures to a communication to the interim president, Sonia Gandhi, questioning the way in which the party was functioning on her watch. There is a certain delicious ridiculousness to this whole affair. Most Congressmen, from the seniormost member of the CWC to district Congress committee functionaries, sub- scribe to the gravamen of the so-called dissenters’ missive. Many claim to have similarly pointed out to Sonia Gandhi what was wrong—and what needed to be done to correct things—in the party. But they were shocked and unhappy, even as offended as was the Gandhi household—because the dissenters had in effect violated the code of silence. A kind of Omertà, so assiduously put in place over the years, stood defiled.

xcept a handful of the Rahul Cabalists (who also include Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s spear-carriers), all Congressmen are in agreement with the bottomline of the dissenters’ argument: the Congress party has to start functioning as a modern political organisation. EThe dissenters argument is simple: come to terms with the Congress’ reduced status and diminished fortunes; undertake a

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The simmering internal war had remained a gentle affair. It finally boiled over when the CWC met (virtually) on August 24th. The Rahul Cabalists had planned a putsch: the idea was to hustle the highest decision-making body into demanding that Rahul Gandhi should take over, once again, as the party president. Not so fast, Sir, said the ‘dissenters’. We want to discuss the terms of his return course correction as the old ways of doing business are no longer ing Congressman must await patiently for a response from the working; the Congress will have to be more than a family outfit; high command. Individual frustrations, furies and fulminations, and that the comfort and convenience of a coterie must give way if any, must remain a quiet affair between the leader and the led. to the possibilities of a wider consultation in a somewhat insti- The dissenters also sought to question an enduring and con- tutionalised manner. The call is for recognising the ‘imperative venient myth: every Congressman exists, survives and prospers to urgently establish an ‘institutional leadership mechanism’ to because of the indulgence, generosity and patronage of the Family. collectively guide the Party’s revival.’ Over the years, very many leaders—from Tarun Gagoi to Bhu- The dissenters’ make a point of underlining that they are pinder Singh Hooda to Digvijaya Singh to Kamal Nath—have not staging a ‘revolt’ against the Family. They acknowledge ‘the been ‘allowed’ to groom their children for leadership roles. The resolute struggle, visionary leadership and notable contribution dissenters themselves can be deemed to have been beneficiaries of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. His enduring legacy will always of this arrangement. Indeed, the first reaction of the party leaders remain a source of guidance and inspiration for us. The Nehru- was to incredulously ask “Is parivar ne inko kaya nahi diya (why all Gandhi family will always remain integral part of the collective leadership of the Congress Party.’ They acknowledge the role and contribution of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and even of Rahul Gandhi. Yet the call for ‘collective leadership’ is a red rag. Translated into simple language, the dissenters were telling the young Gandhis that you have forfeited your ‘natural’ claim to the family legacy. In other words, without being a Nehru or without the charisma of an Indira Gandhi, without their clout with the voters and the mass- es, without their acceptability and respectability, Rahul Gandhi cannot be given carte blanche to lord over the Congress.

he dissenters’ argument was deeply disturbing because it disrupts the narrative of a natural entitlement for Rahul Gandhi. What the dissenters are saying is that his leadership is not all that natural—and that if you T insist on pressing your leadership claims, it will need to be circumscribed. The long and short of the dissenter’s case: his cultivated whimsicality was no longer beyond contestation. Before the August 23rd ‘leak’, the Congress chroniclers and watchers had indeed picked up the scent of the disquiet over Rahul Gandhi’s waywardness gathering an irreversible momen- tum. Once the letter was out (and it remains a mystery which side leaked it), the Gandhis had every reason to fear its ramifications: a number of individuals had blasphemously coalesced into a group. And the group could become a crowd that, in turn, could The seniormost ‘dissenter’, marshal a sense of purpose and excitement by tapping into the dormant reservations about the young Gandhis. A psychological Ghulam Nabi Azad, can very barrier has been crossed. The coming together of this band of 23 had the potential to well be accused of being strike at the heart of the control and command mechanism that responsible for the decline has been put in place since March 1998: no group or collective voice will be raised or recognised; individual personal concerns, and decimation of the needs, and grievances can be communicated and each petition- Congress in Uttar Pradesh

32 The simmering internal war had remained a gentle affair. It finally boiled over when the CWC met (virtually) on August 24th. The Rahul Cabalists had planned a putsch: the idea was to hustle the highest decision-making body into demanding that Rahul Gandhi should take over, once again, as the party president. Not so fast, Sir, said the ‘dissenters’. We want to discuss the terms of his return

this, after this family has so abundantly pampered them)”. ing a culture of suspicion and disunity among Congressmen The efficacy of the Family’s control is located in the inter- at every level. Each has been encouraged to think of fellow nalisation of this myth of an omnipotent high command by Congressmen as potential rivals for the Family’s attention each and every Congressman: each Congressman has privately and affection. Professional tale-carriers like Ambika Soni were lamented this helplessness but has publicly rationalised it as always lent an ear at 10, Janpath. The only outcome was a distinct essential to the demands of discipline and hierarchy in the absence of a sense of solidarity among colleagues and comrades. party. They have all settled for a kind of domestic violence syn- It was the absence of this esprit de corps that prevented the UPA II drome: abuse, insults, ridicule and rejection must be gulped Government from dealing cogently with challenges posed by its down silently, kept within the family’s four walls. Rarely does political and corporate adversaries, beginning with the Anna Haz- a Himanta Biswa Sarma muster the courage to walk out on the are agitation. And it was this operative infirmity that hobbled the Family and its protection. Congress response to Narendra Modi’s assault in 2014 and 2019. The Gandhis’ current strength lies in their success in foster- The dissenters’ note—a collective voice—threatens and questions this carefully cultivated control mechanism. The dissenters themselves had to overcome a dilemma: none of the signatories can claim to have any ‘moral author- ity’ because they themselves have been part and parcel of this control mechanism. For example, the seniormost ‘dis- senter’, Ghulam Nabi Azad, can very well be accused of be- s Photos getty image ing responsible for the decline and decimation of the Con- gress in Uttar Pradesh. Anand Sharma, another dissenter, has all along been a vigorous and vocal defender of the Gandhis and their magical touch. Another abiding—and also the most useful mecha- nism of control—myth is the notion that only the Gandhis can hold the Congress together; that only the Gandhis have an all-India name recognition; that only they have an ac- ceptability that cuts across ethnic and religious divides; that the Gandhis can be the only custodian of the Nehruvian legacy. This myth has ensured that no other leader is allowed to fancy himself as a mass leader; even those who happen to mobilise a certain following at the state level—say, a Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh or an Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan or a Sidda- ramaiah in Karnataka—are never allowed to grow wings. The best that a Congress leader from outside the Family can aspire to is the role of a subedar, one who must know that he owes his existence and prosperity to the Delhi darbar. In the officially approved Congress catechism, only the Gandhis can have an all-India face; hence the agonising question: Professional tale-carriers Who is there to replace the Gandhis, even when the bankruptcy of the Family’s leadership stares everyone in the face—and de- like Ambika Soni were spite the young prince’s all too evident waywardness? It was this exasperation with Rahul Gandhi’s erratic and eccentric leader- always lent an ear at ship that finally drove the ‘dissenters’ to demand a change. 10, Janpath. The only outcome Before the August 24th CWC meeting, the Family played its cards cleverly and carefully: any questioning of Rahul Gandhi’s was a distinct absence of style of functioning was depicted as an attack on his mother, solidarity among colleagues who remains a figure of respect and esteem. That was not all. The

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When 23 senior Congress leaders wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi urging comprehensive reform in the party, after Rebels in the ranks Jyotiraditya Scindia’s departure in March and Sachin Pilot’s rather anticlimactic revolt, it came close to an across-the-board- minus-Gandhis acknowledgement that the grand old party has to reinvent itself or perish. Having begun life as the Crisis and the Congress By Sudeep Paul all-subsuming umbrella for the freedom movement, the Congress has a long history of revolts even post-Independence

THE CHALLENGE TO NEHRU THE EMERGENCY JB Kripalani won the SPLIT Congress presidency in The 1977 General Election 1947, supported by both decimated the Congress. Jawaharlal Nehru and While Jagjivan Ram, elected Vallabhbhai Patel. Soon president of Indira’s Con- after Independence, gress faction in 1969, broke however, a tussle broke out away before the election, between the right and the post-polls, YB Chavan and THE TURMOIL OF left of the party, close to the party president K Brahman- THE RAO YEARS After Rajiv Gandhi’s assas- 1950 contest for the post. anda Reddy moved against INDIRA GANDHI’S sination in May 1991, a lead- Nehru and his socialists Indira Gandhi who, once REVOLT AGAINST erless Congress returned to opposed the candidacy of again, turned the tables on THE SYNDICATE her rivals and split the party power. PV Narasimha Rao Purusottma Das Tandon, When the next major crisis to outmanoeuvre them. Her then took the reins. Leading seen by Nehru as a Hindu hit the Congress in 1969, new party, the Congress (I), what would remain mostly revivalist. Tandon appeared it was the Prime Minis- would return to power in the a minority Government, to enjoy Patel’s support, ter—and a Gandhi—who 1980 General Election. Rao would undertake the while Nehru championed was leading the rebellion. biggest economic reforms Kripalani. After Tandon’s Tensions between Indira FRIENDS TURNED in independent India’s victory, Nehru threatened to Gandhi and the Congress FOES: RAJIV VS history. But turmoil within resign. The crisis resurfaced old guard, known as the VP SINGH the party would plague him when Rafi Ahmed Kidwai’s ‘Syndicate’, were coming till the end of his tenure in admission to the Congress to a head over economic 1996. In the aftermath of Working Committee (CWC) policy, with Indira’s nation- the Babri demolition and was blocked by Tandon. alisation blueprint opposed Mumbai blasts, as well as A few months later, Nehru by Morarji Desai. The the Harshad Mehta scam, resigned from the CWC. greased cartridge was the veterans like ND Tiwari By this time, Kripalani Indian presidential election and Arjun Singh, with the had left the Congress and when the party announced After he won a historic reported backing of Sonia Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy mandate following Indira Gandhi who wasn’t then a as its candidate. Indira Gandhi’s assassination, party member, would lead responded with backing VV Rajiv Gandhi was soon the rebellion against Rao. Giri. Against the backdrop embroiled in a number of After Singh’s ouster from of rival CWCs and open war controversies—from the the Cabinet, he and Tiwari between the Prime Minister Shah Bano case to the Bo- would form a new party. and the Syndicate, party fors scandal. VP Singh, first president S Nijalingappa finance and then defence THE KESRI expelled Indira Gandhi from minister in Rajiv’s Cabinet, INTERREGNUM Tandon had been weak- the Congress. This was the raised the issue of corrup- ened by Patel’s death in first major post-Indepen- tion and was soon removed December 1950. Even C dence split of the Congress, from his ministry and then Rajagopalachari had been with the Syndicate becom- ejected from the Congress. marginalised. With the first ing Congress (O) while In- Singh formed the Jan General Election (1951-1952) dira’s faction adopted a new Morcha which merged with approaching, Nehru was electoral symbol. The iden- other opposition parties seen as the only leader who tity of the ‘real’ Congress to form the Janata Dal. In could be the party’s face. appeared to be settled in the 1989 General Election, With the Congress losing And after the Congress’ vic- the 1971 General Election the Congress emerged as power in 1996 and Sonia tory, the balance of power when Indira’s Congress won the single-largest party but Gandhi unwilling to join within the party shifted to more than 350 seats and the Rajiv Gandhi lost power. politics still, Sitaram Kesri Nehru for the long term. Syndicate’s party 16. won the party presidency. over-clever among the Rahul Cabalists used the anonymity of When 23 senior Congress leaders wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi urging comprehensive reform in the party, after social media to spread the fake news that Sonia Gandhi had of- Jyotiraditya Scindia’s departure in March and Sachin Pilot’s rather anticlimactic revolt, it came close to an across-the-board- fered to resign immediately from her position as interim presi- minus-Gandhis acknowledgement that the grand old party has to reinvent itself or perish. Having begun life as the dent. This compelled Manmohan Singh to lead the chorus to all-subsuming umbrella for the freedom movement, the Congress has a long history of revolts even post-Independence demand that she should continue as the Congress president. At the same time, the smart alecks among the Rahul Cabalists sought to dub the dissenters as acting at the BJP’s behest; for a few hours, it did look like the party was on the verge of tearing itself Following the Congress’s examples: failure in the 1998 General • In 1996, GK Moopanar apart before sober impulses intervened to calm tempers down. Election, Kesri was re- formed the Tamil Maanila moved from his post and Congress (TMC) that Sonia Gandhi took over in would join the United ven though the dissenters were able to stall, for March 1998. Front Government at the now, the Rahul Cabalists’ unholy push for a constitu- Centre. The TMC’s tional putsch, the Gandhis, at the end of the day, can have SONIA GANDHI’S P Chidambaram was the the satisfaction of having scored a kind of Pyrrhic victory. CONSOLIDATION Union finance minister. In The CWC has formally reaffirmed the leadership of the Sonia Gandhi faced her 2002, the TMC merged Etwo Gandhis, Sonia and Rahul; but the party was seen as terribly first crisis in the run-up to with the Congress. It out of sync with modern times, reduced as it was to beseeching the 1999 General Election broke away again in late when Sharad Pawar, PA 2014. At present, it’s a “a sick old lady”—as a retired bureaucrat put it—to lead it to Sangma and Tariq Anwar member of the National some kind of political and organisational vitality; Sonia Gandhi raised the issue of her Democratic Alliance. did herself no favours by coming across as a mother, partisan to foreign origin. This ended • In 1998, Mamata Ba- her son, rather than as a wise leader who would help the party in the expulsion of the trio deal realistically with the existential threats it faces; and, worst and the birth of the Nation- of all, the Family faction failed to get any commitment from alist Congress Party. Trou- Rahul Gandhi that he would mend his recalcitrant ways. ble for Sonia next came in That remains the rub. Rahul Gandhi’s truculence remains late 2000 when Jitendra the most vexatious, most exasperating, most frustrating cause Prasada challenged her for for the unease among Congress apparatchiks. And though the the party president’s post and lost. That would be Rahul Cabalists seem to be in an unseemly hurry to organise a the last election to the post coronation for their man as full-time Congress president, the young prince himself remains unwilling to take up his royal duties and obligations. Most Congress leaders remain mystified and baffled that the nerjee parted ways with young man does not want to resume his role as party president; the Congress and formed instead, he has unilaterally elevated himself—at least in his the All-India Trinamool own mind—to the status of the party’s patron-saint. He wants Congress which would be to prescribe for himself the role that, say, a Bal Thackeray had part of both the BJP-led in the Shiv Sena, a Mohan Bhagwat plays for the BJP, or even a NDA and the Congress- Mahatma Gandhi did in the pre-1947 Congress. This aspiration led United Progressive Al- liance (UPA) Governments is dismissed by even the closest Family loyalists as unacceptable and Sonia Gandhi’s tenure at the Centre as well as and unworkable ‘backseat driving’. at the helm of the party end the 34-year rule of the Even as a leadership paralysis continues to grip the Con- would remain uninterrupt- Left Front in West Bengal. gress, many inside and outside the party feel animated and ed till December 2017. • Two years after the excited at the Rahul Cabalists’ assertion that he remains the death of YS Rajashekhara only man frontally taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. REBEL SATRAPS Reddy, his son, YS Jagan- Curiously enough, BJP strategists, too, share Sonia Gandhi’s Some prominent regional mohan Reddy, formed the devout wish that her son should take over the Congress reins. leaders and their heirs YSR Congress in Andhra What a convergence! Prompting the sensitive soul to recall have, time and again, Pradesh feeling let down TS Eliot in ‘Ash Wednesday’: raised the banner of rebel- by the Congress’ central Why should I mourn lion. An early example leadership. The YSR n is the Bangla Congress Congress would come to The vanished power of the usual reign? of the 1960s formed as a power in post-bifurcation reaction to the Syndicate Andhra in the 2019 Harish Khare is a senior journalist and leadership in West Bengal. Assembly elections. commentator A few relatively recent

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Enterthe Unregistered Opposition As the Congress vacates the space of an active opposition with a counter-argument, civil society activists and other professional dissenters rush in to fill the vacuum

B y PR Ramesh and Siddharth Singh

ernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor nominal Mughal emperor (1759-1806), bore a strange resem- (1987) is a somewhat mawkish sketch of China’s blance to that of Pu Yi. In his later days, Shah Alam was practically last sovereign, Aisin Gioro Pu Yi, or Henry Pu Yi, imprisoned in his own palace within the walls of which alone but the film does reflect some truth. The Qing Em- his writ ran. Of him, it was said: “Sultanat-e-Shah Alam, Az Dilli te pire had wilted away by the time Pu Yi attained Palam (Shah Alam’s writ runs from Delhi to next door Palam)”. maturity. Yet, the ceremonial trappings of the In striking ways, the stories of Henry (a name he chose from a imperial household remained intact. The lord of list given to him) Pu Yi, the last emperor of China and Ali Gauhar, China could make no mistakes and for the ones he the last Mughal emperor, resonate in today’s India. Their lives Bdid make, his playmates were punished. The pretence was kept are similar to that of the Chief Warlord of the crumbling main up even after the 1911 revolution washed away traces of power opposition party, Rahul Gandhi. The scion of the Nehru-Gan- from the emperor. dhi dynasty, and a former president of the Congress, lives in a Closer home, the story of Shah Alam II, or Ali Gauhar, the sterile echo chamber whose limits extend from the inseam of

36 7 september 2020 Illustration by Saurabh Singh

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 37 Cover Story

10, Janpath, where his mother and current party president—who continues to warm the seat for his re-ascent—lives, to the inseam With a rudderless main opposition party, the opposition space has withered away. Akhilesh Yadav of 24, Akbar Road, the headquarters of the Congress. The usual crop of subservient yes-men are tasked with massaging the po- chooses to tweet occasionally from the confines of his home. The blue pachyderm-driven revolution litical ego of the forever-heir to the Congress throne, ensuring is supine. BSP chief Mayawati held a rare press conference days after the merger of its Rajasthan unit a life lived in a mock imperial state of “wokeness,” even as the rest of the country goes about its business. As the key person of with the Congress. Formal oppo sition to the Central Government has wound up operations the main opposition party that has woefully abdicated its role, responsibility and, as a result, eroded its credibility—something getty images crucial for a democracy—in the last few years, he bears a large share of the responsibility for this state of affairs. Rahul Gandhi, in the recent past, has persisted in the exhausting habit of echoing social media Moghuls of a certain kind on every issue, but only many days later, from the party platform. Whether on Covid-19 management, India’s strained relations with China, the Pulwama attack, the retaliatory Balakot airstrike, trouble with economic growth, the issue of migrant labour, the rural economy, he has echoed the views of this group faithfully, in the bargain showcas- ing the political and electoral bankruptcy within his party and his own leadership.

ith a rudderless main opposition party at the helm, the opposition space, too, has withered away, disappearing into the wallpaper rather than work- ing to regain its weight on the ground. The Left Front W leadership has retreated to the bunkers, their pres- ence being felt only lightly even in a booming social media user space estimated to be 400 million by 2021. In Kerala, the only state it is in power, the Left has been kept occupied by the gold scam and a no-trust vote that has scorched its credibility. In the politi- cally key state of Uttar Pradesh, ‘homeboy’ Akhilesh Yadav, who not long ago went ‘twinning’ to the hustings with Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav arrives at Parliament in New Delhi, February 6 chooses to tweet occasionally from the palatial confines of his home in Lucknow. The blue pachyderm-driven revolution has been supine for a while, even taking its own time to challenge the case, given the total abdication of responsibility by the main- merger of its Rajasthan unit with the Congress in the state. Party stream opposition. Non-political actors have now begun to set chief Mayawati held a rare press conference days after the event. the narrative in the political space and are seen as first claim- Formal opposition to the Central Government and the ruling ants to the opposition space. Some of them have now fashioned party, in effect, has virtually wound up operations. themselves into a permanent voice of dissent against the estab- The more the main opposition party cedes ground under lishment. Earlier, they kept their focus on their objectives and Rahul Gandhi’s charge, the more the Congress’ allies retreat as desisted from engaging openly with opposition parties to raise well, intensifying the political inertia, lethargy and ineffectual the heat against the government. That no longer appears to be attempts at cornering the ruling party. As this vacuum in the the case—and the lines between ‘unregistered opposition’ and public space has grown, the more an ‘unregistered’ opposition formal political opposition have increasingly blurred, starting to the Government has begun to occupy it. This unregistered a new trend. The narrative is set by the former, with the formal opposition comprises a motley crew of civil society activ- opposition being anaemic. Instead of leading from the front, the ists, rent-a-cause rebels against the establishment, self-styled formal opposition is often forced to coordinate with these players. ‘wokes’ among Bollywood reps, lawyers, public intellectuals and In this, they have broken a longstanding pattern of opposition cancel-culture cartels who now occupy the opposition space like being anchored by politicians in India. It is now a case of the cart never before. leading the horse. In the past, political action targeting the government has The work on the ground to mobilise opinion against a govern- mainly involved protests organised, spearheaded and sustained ment in power, as history demonstrates, involves heavy-lifting by politicians and the political opposition. That is no longer the on many fronts and knitting many strands together. When the

38 7 september 2020 With a rudderless main opposition party, the opposition space has withered away. Akhilesh Yadav chooses to tweet occasionally from the confines of his home. The blue pachyderm-driven revolution is supine. BSP chief Mayawati held a rare press conference days after the merger of its Rajasthan unit with the Congress. Formal oppo sition to the Central Government has wound up operations

Photograph by ashish sharma

Akhilesh Yadav arrives at Parliament in New Delhi, February 6 Mayawati at a campaign rally in New Delhi, May 10, 2019

students of the LD College of Engineering in Ahmedabad began ity. Months before the Gujarat protests, India had carried out a their protest on December 20th, 1973, little did they realise that peaceful nuclear explosion, an event that marked the apogee of their actions would lead to the ouster of Chief Minister Chiman- her popularity as a political leader. For Indira Gandhi, 1971 to 1974 bhai Patel. But that is what happened less than two months later, was a clear period of political popularity and ascendancy. Then on February 9th, 1974. A protest that is normal in student life suddenly, within the span of a year, everything had unravelled. across the country—a hike in mess bills—had become a politi- Galloping inflation, especially for food and essential items, gave cal lightning rod. Large sections of the otherwise quiescent Gu- an issueless opposition something to protest against a leader who jarati population—workers and ordinary middle-class people— was otherwise impregnably secure. joined the students in the protest. All this had happened at just Another decade passed before political turbulence rocked a about the time a similar student protest had broken out in Bihar different Congress Government, this time under Rajiv Gandhi against corruption. What is notable is that these protests were as Prime Minister. The Bofors case is well-known in the annals coordinated across the country by a politician of long standing, of Indian corruption scandals. Controversies and disagreements Jayaprakash Narayan. Civil society—students, workers, lawyers around the arms deal led then Defence Minister Vishwanath and others—may have formed the backbone of the protests but Pratap Singh to quit the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet. To be fair, the tip- they were spearheaded by a politician. ping point was the HDW Submarine deal wherein there were The interesting part of the story is that these protests marked allegations of kickbacks to middlemen. Singh first created the the beginning of events that finally led to the Emergency of 1975. Jan Morcha immediately after his exit. This nascent formation But even when the protests began, there was no threat to Prime was then expanded into the umbrella Janata Dal—an amalgam of Minister Indira Gandhi’s Government or her personal popular- other Janata Parivar parties—which contested the 1989 General

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 39 Cover Story

Election that led to the ouster of the Congress from power. But in on August 13th and 14th, 2014 and, a little over a year later, in no time, VP Singh himself ran into political trouble when he tried October 2015, the apex court declared it unconstitutional. This to consolidate his base among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) was a major piece of judicial reform but what was acceptable to by implementing the recommendations of the BP Mandal Com- Parliament was not acceptable to activist lawyers. mission. It was a report that had been ‘filed and forgotten’ much Since then, this list has grown considerably. The Aadhaar (Tar- like other reports. But the ambitious Singh thought he could dust geted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Ser- it off and implement affirmative action without any political vices) Act was passed in March 2016 and, sure enough, it landed consequence. Instead, the issue galvanised the then politically in the Supreme Court fairly quickly. The court upheld its consti- irrelevant middle class of India. The ultimate gainer of Singh’s tutionality in 2018. Again, the Bill passed muster in Parliament misadventure was the BJP. but the ‘opposition’ to it came from elsewhere. One major source In these and other such episodes of political opposition to a of corruption in India was from the leaky services and benefits ruling party, the pattern has been clear. Either by miscalculation delivery pipeline. The law was one of the measures meant to plug or by accumulation of political errors, the opposition builds up it. It was challenged on an unrelated ground: privacy. momentum over the course of a five-year political cycle. But the An entire volume can be written on attempts at this sort of actual work of opposing the government always lies in the hands ‘legal politics’. It is sufficient to note that almost every piece of of some political party, be it national or regional. This pattern legislation and legislative action that has national ramifications began eroding soon after Narendra Modi became Prime Minis- has been challenged in court. The latest law to be challenged is ter in May 2014 but has dramatically accelerated since May 2019 the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. In between, the Muslim when he returned to form the Government in New Delhi for a second time. A protest against the citizenship amendment act in new delhi, february 1

ny political party that forms a new government seeks to fulfil its electoral mandate by various measures available to it. One big area is the passage of new laws in Parliament. It is normal for Parliament to debate and discuss Bills that are introduced. There is always some give-and-takeA between the treasury and opposition benches but ultimately the fate of the Bill—its content and whether it be- comes law—depends on who commands the majority in the two Houses. For the BJP, too, this was—and remains—the chosen path for implementing its promises. The opposition lacks numerical strength in Lok Sabha and very often is unable to coordinate its act in the Upper House. In contrast to its first term, the BJP Govern- ment has been able to pass some of the most momentous pieces of legislation in its second innings. But the story and the script in its case have turned out to be very different and there has been a major twist in the tale. If the opposition has been unable to stall legislation, activist lawyers have donned the mantle of ‘opposition’ and challenged virtu- ally every important law passed by the Modi Government in the Supreme Court. First off the block, the 99th Amendment to the Constitution, which enabled the creation of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), was quickly challenged in the apex court. The Amendment was cleared by both Houses

The problem is not with the laws but with those who seek to oppose the Government by any means. The time for such ‘activism’, however, is running out. The higher judiciary is an institution that is alive to its role being abused by those who petition it and realises the legitimate role of the executive. Much of the current frustration with the apex court stems fromthis changed situation

40 7 september 2020 Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, abrogation drafted. Later, they were introduced in Parliament. The Right to of Article 370, delaying tactics in the Ram Mandir case and a num- Information (RTI) law was first discussed and drafted there. As ber of other cases that had political overtones were subjected to was the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) judicial review. To be fair to the apex court, it dealt with these cases (later the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), the Right to Education Act fair and square. The problem lies with ‘lawyerly activism’ and not and the Food Security Bill. the much-maligned ‘judicial activism’. Then there is a group of retired civil servants that routinely tags its names to virtually any petition that goes against the atters went almost out of hand when, in 2012, the Government. It does not matter what the subject matter is: from NAC suggested something called pre-legislative scru- economic grievances to space policy, this group has ‘expertise’ in tiny of potential Bills to be introduced in Parliament. virtually everything. This also passes off as activism. It said: “The need for such a policy of consultation is Judicial review is a key feature of the Indian Constitution. M necessary to evolve from a representative democracy But should every law be subject to judicial review? At one time, to a participatory, deliberative democracy, particularly for ac- such reviews were undertaken when there was some major flaw countability to the people in the formulation of law and policy.” in the law, or the law on the face of it ran afoul of the Constitu- It was a ham-handed attempt to bypass Parliament even if the tion. But surely not every law is unconstitutional that it requires NAC denied that it was doing that. such scrutiny in a forum outside the one where it was passed? There are close parallels between what the NAC did then and The problem is not with these laws but with those who seek to what ‘lawyerly activism’ does today. In both cases, the attempt is oppose the Government by to bypass democratically established majorities in Parliament. A protest against the citizenship amendment act in new delhi, february 1 any means. The time for such In that era, it was coalitions; now it is a solid legislative phalanx ‘activism’, however, is run- under one party. A certain kind of elite in India—leftist or liberal ning out. The higher judi- in orientation and removed from India’s national interest—has ciary is an institution that is always displayed suspicion towards the ‘masses’. This is not an alive to its role being abused oxymoron: the leftist elite tolerates the masses as long as they by those who petition it and conform to its worldview. This includes ideas such as secular- realises the legitimate role of ism, destructive federalism (as opposed to the rational variant the executive. Much of the based on the provision of local public goods) and other ideas. The current frustration with the moment Indians at large display preference for a different set of apex court among a section ideas, alarm bells begin ringing. ‘Countervailing institutions’ like of lawyers stems from this the NAC and, in recent years, attempts to rope in the Supreme changed situation. Court as such an institution point to this extra-parliamentary This ‘activism’ did not politics that sought to neuter the ‘people’s will’ as embodied in a spring out of the blue. There parliamentary majority. were earlier instances of such It is noteworthy that many of the UPA-era projects, including activism as well but these the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the MGNREGA, have were not geared towards not been abandoned by this Government. If anything, alloca- political ends. This process tions under these laws have gone up and they remain active. For began with the formation of example, during the chaotic migration of workers in the weeks the National Advisory Coun- after the national lockdown was imposed, food security of mi- cil (NAC) in the erstwhile grant workers was a key concern among many policymakers United Progressive Alliance and activists. Notwithstanding the dislocation, the Government (UPA) Government. The NAC quickly swung into action and ensured that foodgrain supplies was an extra-constitutional reached the poor. States were provided ample stock of food as the body where many important Food Corporation of India had abundant supplies. There is plenty pieces of legislation were first at hand with the states to last until December. So far, there has getty images been no report of hunger or any other kind of food emergency among the poor. But there has not been a whimper of apprecia- tion from economist-activists such as Reetika Khera and others The problem is not with the laws but with those who seek to oppose the Government by any means. who criticise the Government for any shortcoming. The time for such ‘activism’, however, is running out. The higher judiciary is an institution that is Matters have now gone far beyond bickering over the enact- ment of laws and getting the Government to follow a policy agen- alive to its role being abused by those who petition it and realises the legitimate role of the executive. da set outside. Now, even simple matters like the publication of books unpalatable to liberal opinion are fair game. Much of the current frustration with the apex court stems fromthis changed situation Recently, Bloomsbury India ‘cancelled’ a forthcoming book.

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 41 Cover Story This ‘activism’ did not spring out of the blue. This process began with the formation of the National Advisory Council. In 2012, the NAC suggested something called pre-legislative scrutiny of potential Bills to be introduced in Parliament. It was a ham-handed attempt to bypass Parliament. There are close parallels between what the NAC did then and what ‘lawyerly activism’ does today getty images have ‘vitiated’ the atmosphere in India and that public discourse has ‘coarsened’ beyond repair. But the Bloomsbury controversy has injected such poison into India’s public space that it is clear that a culture war, which until recently just bubbled away harmlessly, is now part and parcel of political opposition by other means. Perhaps the most damaging role has been played by the media. The one-sidedness of coverage on ‘Hindu’ issues is now too glaring to be ignored. When a lynching happens and the perpetrators are Hindus, blame is heaped on the community generously. But when the victims happen to be Hindu, the blame and the outrage vanish civil society Activists demonstrate at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, June 2017 quickly. A case in point is the lynch- ing of two sadhus at Gadchinchale Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story by Monika Arora, Sonali Chi- village in Palghar district of Maharashtra in April this year. talkar and Prerna Malhotra looked at the Delhi riots of Febru- This is a remote village on the border of Maharashtra and Dadra ary this year. The problem appeared to build up when, during a and Nagar Haveli. On that evening, the two sadhus—Kalpavruk- pre-publication event, Kapil Mishra, a controversial local leader, shagiri and Sushilgiri Maharaj—had stopped at the forest check- made a virtual address. Soon, Bloomsbury India issued a state- point. In no time, a flash mob surrounded and lynched them ment that said: ‘In view of very recent events, including a virtual along with their driver. The issue was played down as one caused pre-publication launch organised without our knowledge by the by WhatsApp rumours about child kidnappers being active in authors, with participation by parties of whom the publishers the area. No amount of pleading by the two saved them. What is would not have approved, we have decided to withdraw publica- instructive is that, in the days that followed, there was no outrage tion of the book.’ in the media as in other similar instances where headlines played The reality was that a section of liberal writers reportedly out for weeks and op-eds and analyses dominated the proceed- worked behind the scenes to exert pressure on Bloomsbury In- ings. Grim warnings about ‘majoritarianism’ and the danger to dia to withdraw the publication of the book. A series of tweets democracy usually accompany the coverage. In this instance, issued by dramatis personae clearly stated that. Since then, a con- because the two persons belonged to the ‘wrong’ religion, the troversy has broken out on the nature of freedom of expression attention was lukewarm. and whether it rests on a superior pedestal for left-liberals and With the ‘woke’ crowd raised through self-indulgence occupy- for people of other ideologies only at the mercy of the former. ing the entire anti-Government space, the ‘registered’ opposition Very often it is asserted that the ruling party and its supporters is certain to find itself on the margins for many months to come. n

42 7 september 2020 “THE NATION IS EVOLVING AND SO ARE YOU" OPEN brings to you, your weekly thought stimulant

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The Cost of Orthodoxy The current monetary policy framework, executed with textbook precision, will not meet the goal of both inflation targeting and growth

By Dhiraj Nayyar

s India’s response to the grave economic fallout managing the demand side of the economy. The lever of inter- caused by an unprecedented global pandemic being held est rates can be used to either boost investment demand and hostage by an outdated policy orthodoxy? It is a question that consumption demand or dampen them. But an economy has has gained urgency after the lagged release of the minutes two sides: a demand side and a supply side. In the advanced of the most recent meeting (August 4th-6th) of the Reserve economies, the supply side is not hobbled by various structural Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), impediments as in emerging economies. It doesn’t usually play a the apex body which sets interest rates for the financial big role in determining inflation. On the other hand, in India and system. It was already known that the RBI did not cut rates other emerging economies, the supply side drives its own infla- Ibecause inflation had breached its upper target of 6 per cent in both June and July. The minutes revealed something worrisome, particularly in the statement of Deputy Governor Michael D Patra, who heads the economic research and monetary policy verticals of the RBI. He cited the ‘technical considerations of the monetary policy framework’ and ‘failure’ to keep inflation in the target range as reasons to hold interest rates. The monetary policy framework (of inflation targeting) is a Western orthodoxy from the 1990s imple- mented in India two decades late(r). Two global economic crises later, it is unfit for purpose, particularly in emerging economies. Of course, there were very good reasons rooted in political economy for the Narendra Modi Government to implement the monetary policy framework of inflation targeting by an independent committee of central bankers and experts. One of the failures of the UPA Government in its second avatar was rampant, double-digit inflation. And politicians know that run- away inflation hurts badly at the hustings. There was an element of an overheated economy between 2009 and 2012 as the large fiscal stimulus provided after the onset of the 2008 crisis was not withdrawn once growth recovered. In such a context, the orthodoxy was appealing. Technocrats not driven by political expediency set interest rates to meet an inflation target set by the political executive. So, if fiscal policy was irresponsible, then monetary policy would act as a counter to curb excess demand. If 2015 was the perfect year to introduce the monetary policy framework, 2020 is the perfect storm. That said, valid questions about the efficacy of the monetary policy framework had begun to be asked even earlier. The fact is that the monetary policy framework is useful in Illustration by Saurabh Singh

44 7 september 2020 tion dynamic no matter what is happening on the demand side. economics textbooks. Even the RBI’s present stance is textbook The Consumer Price Index (CPI), the measure used by the RBI to accurate. But it’s time to change the syllabus. target inflation, is dominated by food and fuel. Given the plethora The challenge is not India’s alone. Globally, the credibility of structural constraints in agriculture and its heavy dependence of economics and economists has been dented since the global on rainfall, it is not surprising that periodic bouts of inflation are financial crisis of 2008. The fallout of the pandemic and its long- led by shortages of key agricultural commodities. For oil, given its term consequences will throw up more questions. The current 85 per cent-plus import dependence, the level of global oil prices orthodoxy, born in the 1980s, may or may not adapt. If not, other also plays a critical role in determining domestic inflation. Neither fields, such as the interdisciplinary areas of public policy and of the two can be directly brought down by raising interest rates. development studies may become more relevant for policymakers. The current spurt in inflation, of over 6 per cent, is not driven For emerging economies, like India, it is imperative to by excess demand. On the contrary, demand has collapsed, and develop a new framework for macroeconomics without wait- the country is forecast to record its lowest ever annual growth ing for a new global consensus. Of course, supply-side reform (degrowth most likely) in four decades. The public health crisis is ongoing. The Modi Government has taken several strides. has, however, led to a severe disruption in supply chains. Once But given the vested interests and political sensitivity of such again, it is the supply side which is driving prices. reform, it is unlikely that India will be able to smoothen out all An argument has been made in recent years that because of the supply-side issues in the near future. The pandemic has ensured vagaries of food and fuel prices, the RBI must not target the CPI. that even what was functioning will face disruption. But there Instead, it should target core inflation which leaves out price rise are reasons beyond the supply side. On the demand side, there caused by food and fuel. Even a cursory examination of the trend are serious problems with the transmission of monetary policy. shows that while the CPI has risen in recent months, core infla- Unlike in advanced economies, rate cuts by the central bank do tion has not. The latter is a more accurate indicator of demand. not automatically translate into rate cuts by banks. Also, in a However, the RBI rejected this proposition by arguing that it is country where a majority still depends on savings which grow the CPI which sets overall inflation expectations for the economy, on government-administered interest rates, there is an obvious not core inflation. That is not an unreasonable point, according to contradiction between reducing rates to boost growth and rais- ing interest rates to encourage saving. The elephant in the room will always be fiscal policy. It is because of the careless and faulty use of fiscal policy for decades in the past—includ- The challenge is not ing inflation-inducing automatic monetisation of government debt—that India has embraced India’s alone. the the orthodoxies, both fiscal and monetary, of the credibility of present. The Modi Government, wary of the bad habits of its predecessors, is sticking to relative economists has been fiscal rectitude amid the greatest economic crisis in generations when governments everywhere dented since the 2008 else are loosening their purse strings. Ultimately, both fiscal and monetary policy global financial are instruments to an end—prosperity. India crisis. The fallout of the cannot be one-sided and concentrate only on inflation. After all, it is rapid growth that will pandemic will throw be a gamechanger for the country. Fiscal and monetary policy need to work in tandem to up more questions. For get the best outcome possible on growth and inflation given all the structural constraints emerging economies, it that exist. The current monetary policy frame- is imperative to develop work, executed with textbook precision, will not meet that goal. In an economy shaped by a new framework for the pandemic, it will be counterproductive. macroeconomics The Government needs a new model, soonest. n Dhiraj Nayyar is Chief Economist, without waiting for a Vedanta and author of Modi new global consensus and Markets: Arguments for Transformation

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 45 Chronicles vaccine

Positive about Covid Why a certain kind of people want to infect themselves for the greater good By Lhendup G Bhutia

Illustration by Saurabh Singh

46 7 september 2020 arlier this year, Ritabrata Mitra unconventional methods are being used to speed up the says his world came crashing upon process such as the clubbing together of Phase 1 and 2 him. An engineering-cum-business clinical trials, or the doing away with excessive regula- analytics student who had been tions around the granting of permissions—the likes of placed in a multinational during Mitra want to further shorten this timeline. his final year in university just In the final Phase 3 trial, once participants are given before the Covid-19 outbreak, the either a shot (or more) of the vaccine candidate or the pla- 25-year-old spent much of the next cebo, they are sent back to their normal lives to encounter few months fearing the inevitable. the virus naturally. Some may get infected; some may not Many of his friends were telling encounter it. At no point are they encouraged to increase Ehim that the companies they had been placed in were their likelihood to encounter the virus. They aren’t told to rescinding their offers. forego their masks or social distancing rules. Doing such Mitra gave up his paying guest accommodation in a thing would be considered unethical. Kolkata and moved back into his home in Diamond But to learn if a vaccine candidate works or not, it is es- Harbour, a small city located at a little over two-hour car sential that participants encounter the virus. The study’s journey from Kolkata. The outbreak has been particularly designers work around this by enrolling a large pool of stressful because both his parents suffer from several co- participants, especially in areas or countries which are in morbidities, ranging from hyper- the midst of high infections; and tension to neurological and cardio- also stretch this final phase over logical conditions; his father even several months. had to postpone a surgery. Mitra What the likes of Mitra are spent the next few months with his While a cloud of campaigning for is that this parents waiting for the letter. When uncertainty has settled whole process can be shortened it arrived, he was still wracked with and fewer participants required grief. “It was heartbreaking. It was over their career if some volunteers (those who going to be my first job,” he says. He prospects, many in India, are young and healthy and, thus, began to apply for other jobs too, but already helping out in in a less risky demography) are none were hiring. simply allowed to get infected It was around this time— relief work and blood with the virus after a shot of the moved by frustration over what donation camps, appear vaccine. “It sounds dangerous, I was going to befall him and others know. But if you really calculate like him—that Mitra began to sign to be driven by a need the risk it poses to us who are up as a volunteer for vaccine trials to do more, to set aside healthy and young—there’s a in India. He began to email vaccine personal security for a higher chance I can get run over manufacturers (Bharat Biotech, by a random car tomorrow than Zydus Cadila and Serum Institute greater good die from the virus,” Mitra says. of India), started contacting cen- Globally, some researchers tres such as AIIMS in Delhi (which have begun advocating this carried out early trials of Bharat method, also referred to as human Biotech’s vaccine), and began ringing WhatsApp num- challenge trials. An advocacy group, 1Day Sooner, has bers set up to enrol volunteers for early trials in Delhi. come up, which has been both campaigning and col- At some point, he even started messaging some of these lecting volunteers for such a method. Last month, they companies on their Facebook accounts. “You can’t just got several prominent researchers and thinkers (some wait for something good like the vaccine to happen. You of them Nobel laureates) from linguist Steven Pinker have to be ready to be a part of its discovery too,” he says. and philosopher Daniel Dennett to Adrian Hill, whose Mitra is now, he says, registered to participate for Bharat lab at the University of Oxford is developing one of the Biotech’s vaccine trials when they take place in Kolkata. leading Covid-19 vaccine candidates, to sign an open let- But Mitra doesn’t just wish to be part of a vaccine trial. ter urging the US government ‘to undertake immediate He wants to be infected with Covid-19 too. preparations for human challenge trials’. Although most Covid-19 vaccine candidates are work- But all this is still in the realm of theoretical debates. ing on exceptionally expedited timelines—and several Human challenge trials have been used to test vaccines

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 47 Chronicles vaccine

In Dhanbad, blood It sounds banks were having dangerous, I difficulty sourcing know. But if you blood. So I used really calculate to go to homes the risk it poses and get people to to us who are come. We had to take precautions in healthy and young—there’s a higher these camps, like maintaining social chance I can get run over by a distancing norms, changing used random car tomorrow than die items like bedsheets constantly from the virus – gopal bhattacharyya volunteer – ritabrata mitra student

for diseases such as malaria and cholera, but in these cases, there “People are very correct to say this is unethical,” says are drugs that can help a participant recover in case the vaccine Shahrukh Ahmed, a 26-year-old working as an accountant for doesn’t work. In the case of Covid-19, no such drug exists. Hence, an NGO in Kolkata. “But we have to remember, this is an un- even if the probability of falling severely ill or dying from Co- precedented situation. We have to rethink what is ethical and vid-19 is statistically slim for the young and healthy, the possibil- unethical during a pandemic such as this. The benefits that will ity still remains. come with such a trial will far outweigh the risk the virus will While it still remains a theoretical discussion, there has been bring to someone like me.” some movement in recent weeks. Government scientists in the US have begun efforts to manufacture a strain of Covid-19 that could be used in such trials. The National Institute of Allergy hmed, like Mitra, wants to volunteer for a human and Infectious Diseases in the US has announced that it has challenge trial. Although he didn’t directly suffer from begun investigating the technical and ethical considerations the pandemic—in fact, Ahmed looked forward to the of conducting such studies, ‘including efforts to manufacture A lockdown to bring about what he calls self-improvement, a suitable Covid-19 strain, draft a clinical protocol and iden- learning to brush up his writing skills and using online tools tify resources that would be required to conduct such studies’. such Microsoft PowerPoint—the pandemic began to weigh him Some vaccine developers like Johnson & Johnson have also an- down. Two relatives in his extended family passed away from nounced that preparations to stock the virus for possible chal- Covid-19. He began to engage in the relief work his NGO carried lenge trials are underway. out in Kolkata and nearby areas and to see firsthand how difficult Many vaccine candidates are entering the business end of the situation had become for some. “We might have gone to our their trials. In India, the Oxford vaccine candidate has just be- village [in Murshidabad] during this period. But we couldn’t do gun its Phase 2 trials; Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila started that too. Even Eid just went and came,” he says. “It just became Phase 1 and 2 trials, respectively, in August. Many more vaccine so intense that I really wanted to do something, something like candidates will be trialled going ahead. Even if the scientific com- this trial.” munity and regulators are unable to rest their ethical concerns The pandemic has affected everyone. But to many youths in over such trials by the time many vaccine manufacturers start India, this has been an especially bitter experience. They have trialling their candidates, there could come a time, its advocates found themselves mostly indoors, watching older relatives suf- say, when this method could be used to triage the best among fer severely or succumb to the disease, while a cloud of uncer- several leading vaccine candidates. tainty has settled over their career prospects. The 1Day Sooner

48 7 september 2020 Although these volunteers might be putting themselves at risk, Mitra reasons, there is also much to be gained. “You are getting access to a possible vaccine much earlier. And whatever happens, even if the vaccine doesn’t work, you will get the best People always healthcare facilities and you will be monitored by top doctors and scientists. If you get Covid-19 outside this—and it’s very pos- ask you on sible given how quickly it is spreading—you will mostly be on WhatsApp, your own.” But for all the assuredness of their convictions, like all good Facebook or Indian youths, the biggest stumbling block often comes at home, even in person, in front of their mothers. Mitra took a while to convince his par- ents. Ahmed has still not told his. A few years ago when he tried even friends I’m to register himself as an organ donor, his parents scuttled it. This not in touch with anymore. It gets time, he says, he will bring them around to the idea slowly. annoying. They won’t really enrol ven Gopal Bhattacharyya from Dhanbad, who at 55 to become volunteers. But they will years of age is an anomaly in this group of volunteers, had want the vaccine difficulty getting the go-ahead at home. “My wife, after some persuasion, agreed. But my mother [84 years old] has – Akash saggam biochemist E been most reluctant,” Bhattacharyya said. They finally agreed on the condition that Bhattacharyya’s son—who also wanted to become a volunteer—didn’t sign up. “They couldn’t allow both male members of the family to be at risk. What if something hap- pened?” he says. Bhattacharyya, a popular figure in the city who organises campaign has so far attracted nearly 36,000 volunteers ready to blood donation camps, scoffs at the notion that only youths infect themselves for trials from 160 countries. Many of these are should volunteer since they fall in a less risky demography. “I young Indians in distant towns and cities whose job prospects have seen in my camps 20-year-old boys shaking at the sight of now appear shaky and who have seen relatives succumb to the a needle. Blood donation camps or vaccine trials, for volunteers virus. Many of them, already helping out in relief work and blood what you need is courage,” he says. donation camps, appear to be driven by a need to do more, to set Bhattacharyya is a peculiar character. All through the lock- aside personal security for a greater good. down, he says, he was out in the streets carrying out relief work, Akash Saggam is a 28-year-old biochemist from Pune who or, when it was possible, organising blood donation camps. “It believes India, with its own vaccine candidates, could shine in got really bad because in Dhanbad, blood banks were having this outbreak. He hopes he can be a participant in a human chal- difficulty sourcing blood. So I used to go to homes and get peo- lenge trial around one of the Indian vaccines. “That is my dream ple to come. We had to take precautions in these camps, like right now,” he says. maintaining social distancing norms, changing used items The son of a salesman in a large store, who spent much of like bedsheets constantly,” he says. During the lockdown, his early life in a house around 100 sq m with three other family Bhattacharyya arranged five such camps, collecting over 200 members, things have been looking up for his family for a few units of blood. Since then, he has been organising such camps years now. He is part of a research team in collaboration with a every other weekend. leading vaccine manufacturer studying the potential benefits Around three weeks back, a close friend of his who had con- of integrative medicine, such as ayurvedic products, as a vaccine tracted the virus passed away. “I was with him all through the adjuvant. His brother works in a large app-based company and time, getting hospitalised, taking care of him in the hospital. I the family now lives in a large three-storey house in Pune. checked myself, but I was negative... The point I’m trying to make Because he now works at the lab set up in the vaccine manu- is that we can catch the virus anytime, either from my friend or facturing company, every day he is assailed by at least five or in one of these camps. But you can’t let it come in the way of your more queries about the Covid-19 vaccine in development. “Peo- life or helping someone,” he says. ple always ask you on WhatsApp, Facebook or even in person, A few weeks ago, Mitra finally heard back from a company he even friends I’m not in touch with anymore. It gets annoying,” had applied for a job. He was being recruited, although at a much he says. “Because none of them really care about the science. diminished pay. “I’m quite happy about it,” he says. “It makes you They won’t really enrol to become volunteers. But they will feel that however gloomy things become, eventually one can find want the vaccine.” a way through.” n

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 49 business

What’s

brewing? A fourth wave breaks over Indian coffee as world-class plantations and small roasters bring the joys of specialty coffee home By V Shoba

ou could be forgiven for mis- parameters like aroma, flavour, acidity, sweetness and unifor- taking the N72, India’s most talked mity. Subjectively, of course, the well-travelled aficionado has an about coffee of the year, for a piece of affinity for a Ratnagiri—also known as Pearl Mountain Es- personal protective equipment. For tate—or a Riverdale because of their global reputation. And home brewers who practise the rit- this is the first season India has sampled a number of coffees ual of the pourover, this coffee from from these estates. “Riverdale grows the best Indian coffee Riverdale Estate in Yercaud, Tamil I know of, and it is a joy to be roasting it for the local market. Y Nadu, fermented for 72 hours before Part of the reason I moved to India was that it was deprived of being sundried for several weeks on its own good coffee and I wanted to ride this new wave that raised beds, has become such a must-have that 1.5 tonne of it, roasted by Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, India’s largest specialty coffee company, flew off the shelves in under two months. The plum and berry notes that cascade across the palate with every sip of the semi-precious liquid are not typical of an Indian coffee, or even a cup from your neighbourhood café. For three-to-four years now, an artisanal coffee movement, ushered in by the likes of Blue Tokai, Koinonia Coffee and Third Wave Coffee, and small but influential roasters includingC orridor Seven in Nagpur and Curious Life in Jaipur, has been dispensing beans with character and advice on how to brew them right. But redeeming the Indian coffee experience from the bitter sludge of dark-roast espressos, nondescript supermarket blends, and the chicory-and-milk-laden concoction from the southern states, is easier said than done. “Ev- ery once in a while, a coffee comes along that can open people’s eyes to a range of flavours. That coffee, for us at Blue Tokai, came from Harley Estate in Sakleshpur, Karnataka, where the Pichia yeast was introduced in the fermentation process to yield a com- plex fruity cup with strawberry, blood orange and green apple,” says Tyler Ritchie, head of roastery for Blue Tokai, which released it very early, in May, to rave reviews. When the roastery followed through with the natural 72, the market was primed and ready. The Riverdale N72 represents a watershed moment for spe- cialty coffee in India. Launched not just by Blue Tokai but also This is just the beginning. by half-a-dozen other Indian roasters this year, each of whom Growers are piloting experiments has carefully light-roasted different lots—some fermented with watermelon and papaya—it is among a handful of coffees in now; my guess is next year they will India remarkable enough to be rated over 90 out of 100 points. all be dropping bombs” The 100-point grading system is an objective and universal sen- baninder singh sory standard used by certified ‘Q graders’ to evaluate coffees on founder, Savorworks Coffee Roasters

7 september 2020 business

was trying to change this,” says Ritchie, who had sourced however, begins with the crop, says the progressive farmer who Riverdale coffee for The Little Marionette, a boutique coffee employs 45 full-time workers on his 60 acres. “I am perhaps the roastery from Sydney, Australia, where she worked before join- only planter in the country who has no labour problem. We pay ing Blue Tokai last year. our workers double for specialty coffees and do cupping sessions An experimental grower specialising in naturally processed with them so they understand the coffee they grow, and how our coffee that is dried in the cherry—as against washed and de- farming techniques and conditions affect its flavour profile.” pulped coffee which is the mainstay of the commercial indus- Since a naturally processed coffee better preserves the fidelity try—Prakashan Balaraman, who runs Riverdale with his brother of the terroir, much of the magic lies in the soil. At Kerehaklu, a Mohan, was naturally apprehensive of launching his coffees in 270-acre plantation in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, that has taken India. Indians who expect nutty, caramelly coffees from dark the specialty coffee scene by storm in its debut season—more than roasts tend to be put off by the fruit and tang of an expressive cof- half of its Corridor Seven roast sold out before Vazalwar could fee that is best roasted light and brewed in a manual filter. In fact, get around to publicising it on social media—Pranoy Thipaiah, it was only three years ago, in Sydney, that Prakashan had told the fifth-generation planter running the show with his father Ritchie that India wasn’t ready for his coffees, which invoke the Ajoy Thipaiah, credits the success partly to the trees intercropped cherry rather than the bean. A lot has changed in the interim. with coffee. “We know that in sections of the plantation where Coffee drinkers trying out traceable, artisanal coffee in India are we have native shade and fruit trees, the coffee is the healthiest. not only more accepting of the light roasts that Blue Tokai had This is one of the reasons I work with 300 kg microlots—they burned its hands with early on, they are also consuming more. improve traceability and tell stories about the microclimates in The specialty coffee market, according to Blue Tokai, has been the plantation,” says Pranoy. All of 26, he is big on transparency, growing in size by at least 50-60 per cent year-on-year since 2015. showcasing every detail of growing—down to the pomelo and While Riverdale exports most of its beans to Australia, one avocado harvests in the off-season—and processing coffee on In- stagram. Kerehaklu harvested 70 tonnes of commercial coffee and 20 tonnes of specialty coffee in 2019-20. “I had 12 tonnes of processed specialty coffee this An increasing year and I was hoping to ship much of number of estates it overseas but the pandemic made me are getting into rethink the decision,” says Pranoy, who specialty coffee— has experimentally processed his coffee and worked with eight Indian roasters. I can count about Also in the works is an experimental Li- 70-80 this year — berica coffee, a rare, overlooked species, marking the that a new artisanal roaster is launching beginning of later this year. “An increasing number of estates something beautiful” are getting into specialty coffee—I can mithilesh VAZALWAR count about 70-80 this year—marking CEO, Corridor Seven the beginning of something beauti- Coffee Roasters ful,” Vazalwar says. Change is brew- ing at every step of the coffee chain, from specialty coffee pioneers adding experimental lots to their repertoire of the largest markets for artisanal coffee in the world where the and planters upgrading their processing infrastructure, to founders originally picked up the nuances of the trade, Mithilesh micro-roasters who are launching hidden plantations, indie Vazalwar of Corridor Seven Coffee Roasters, among the first roast- spots online and offline compiling the wackiest coffees and gear ers in the country to crack the door open into the world of spe- available, aficionados trending delicious cups of joe on Insta- cialty coffee, was able to talk them into saving him some. The gram, and home brewers who have invested chunks of time and collaboration got the bean scene a-jumping and it has encouraged money in setting up a rig, or upgrading one. “There are 120-130 Prakashan to set some of his coffees aside for India year after year. specialty roasters across India today. Three years ago, there were “Indian coffee is at a stage where people are getting familiarised a dozen,” says Nishay Nath, a private equity professional who with estates and processes, and experimenting with coffee that is runs Project22coffee.com, where he reviews coffee and profiles different from what they are used to drinking. Roasters must be growers and roasters. “With many of the estates producing great credited for bringing about this change,” says Prakashan, 38, who coffee now, it is a flywheel effect. All of this did not happen over- has slashed prices for the Indian market. The secret to good coffee, night or because of the lockdown. It is the result of relationship-

52 7 september 2020 Very often, you can improve the score of the coffee by a few points if you enrich the soil with micronutrients like phosphorus and sulphur and ensure at least three rounds of selective picking” asif m salim coffee quality associate, Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters building and investments over the past year,” says the 27-year- for microlots. “Like most planters, we have export commitments old who is an influencer in the specialty coffee industry. The and we cannot suddenly scale up domestic supply,” says Shravan, lockdown did result in a surge in the number of estate-focus 37, who is also a roaster and a consultant. To bridge the gap, Shra- coffees in the Indian market, he says. “With exports suffering van started Beanrove, a Bengaluru-based direct trade company and demand in the international market generally down, coffee that works with estates to help them produce better coffee. “I remained in the curing box for two or three months, and estates have kept some microlots aside to be roasted by Beanrove but I decided to work with Indian roasters.” am just as excited to see what small artisanal roasters like Bloom Coffee, Alchemist in Jaipur, and Handcrafted Café in Bhopal—it has one of the best new espresso machines in the country—do he roasting scene in India, as anywhere else with our coffees.” in the world, is very fragmented, leading to further “The roasters who will stand out are the ones who build rela- differentiation in the coffees entering the market. tionships with farms, visiting season after season, encouraging T “This is just the beginning. Growers are piloting them to do better,” says Komal Sable, who co-founded The South experiments now; my guess is next year they India Coffee Company (SICC), with her husband Akshay Dash- will all be dropping bombs,” says Baninder Singh, 31, of Savor- rath in 2017 to source Indian coffee for the UK market. “My hus- works Coffee Roasters, a startup roastery in Delhi that launched band’s family are fifth-generation planters from Coorg. When we an online store on April 1st. Singh had plans to launch a café in started SICC, though, we didn’t see a lot of potential for specialty September-October but decided to tap the home brewing market coffee in India. I’m happy to be proven wrong,” says Sable, who that was finally blooming. He played it safe, sourcing from some spent the lockdown at Mooleh Manay, the family’s sustainable of the best growers, including Stanmore Estate in Yercaud. Singh’s plantation in northern Coorg where the coffee is intercropped take on Stanmore’s anaerobically fermented coffee, which he with wild jack and other native trees. The tad-too-trendily-named launched under the name ‘Fruits Bomb’, was a raging hit. “I did ‘Mind=Blown’, a medium-roasted take on their sundried coffee by not expect such numbers,” he says. “We have been doing 20-30 Akshay Vaidyanathan, a chitravina player from Chennai and the per cent more volumes every month, starting with just 100 kg in man who runs Kapi Kottai roastery, was one of the most interest- April.” That is a drop in the ocean of Indian coffee, a tasty drop. ing coffees of 2019. “We cannot keep up with the demand,” says Shravan DS, a Known as the ‘toaster guy’ in coffee circles, Vaidyanathan coffee grower whose family owns two of India’s best-known started roasting coffee in a modified convection oven at his estates, Kalladevarapura and Harley. The two estates produce a house in Kilpauk and bought himself a pro roasting machine chunk of specialty coffee consumed in India, much of it roasted only recently, when he couldn’t keep up with the orders. “In by Blue Tokai. Until four-five years ago, they were selling 5 per January, I toured the estates and bought what I thought was cof- cent of their specialty coffee in India. Today, they sell 30-40 per fee for eight months. By the end of June, it was sold out—130 kg cent locally, with an additional 10 per cent wiggle room this year of it,” says the 29-year-old. When word got around that he had

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 53 business

bought a roaster, even more orders started pouring in. Vaidya- investing in home grinders. “Instagram has played a key role in nathan, who believes equipment is secondary to good coffee, is making home brewing cool. Single estate coffees, especially, have a rarity in a world littered with Probat roasters, Baratza grinders, really captured the popular imagination,” says Manvi Gupta, who Acaia scales, and gear that looks like it belongs in a lab. “If this founded the Delhi-based El Bueno Coffee Roasters in late 2018. frenzy continues, I will go through the 300 kg of coffee I am sit- Originally a B2B-focused roastery, El Bueno pivoted to a direct-to- ting on pretty quickly,” he says. He wants to stick his neck out consumer model during the lockdown, focusing on trends like even farther this year—with a double-fermented, slow-sundried nanolots and whisky-barrel-aged coffees. O“ ur coffees have names coffee from Mooleh Manay’s Excelsa, a boundary plant that is like Bloom Bae and Black Jagg and they appeal to a new generation almost never taken seriously. discovering specialty coffee,” says Gupta. “But origin and the story “As coffee appreciation goes, we have skipped a crucial step in behind the coffee are just as important for customers.” India. The third wave of coffee is about telling a story, and educat- There are infinite ways to end up with a bad cup of coffee, ing the customer about provenance. Here we are already at the but just as many to make it better—and it doesn’t always have to cusp of the fourth wave, with new roasters popping up all over the mean upgrading to the latest gadgetry. “Very often, you can im- country trying to source from unknown estates, but at the same prove the score of the coffee by a few points if you enrich the soil with micronutrients like phosphorus and sulphur and ensure at least three rounds of selective picking. If all the cherries picked are ripe, the coffee is bound to be good,” says Asif M Salim, 31, a roaster and Q grader who heads I had 12 tonnes quality control for Blue Tokai. Salim of processed visits each of the 16-18 farms the com- specialty pany sources from, as much to super- vise the harvest as to build trust. coffee this year “Consistency is a big issue in India. and I was hoping Two packets of the same coffee don’t to ship much of it taste the same, month after month. overseas, but the And this does not usually happen in- ternationally,” says Vardhman Jain, pandemic made a 31-year-old from Bengaluru, who me rethink trained as a weekend barista at Third the decision” Wave Coffee Roasters in 2017. With pranoy thipaiah a day job as an operations manager at managing partner, Uber, Jain spent all his free time learn- Kerehaklu Plantation ing about and then educating startups on artisanal coffee. “I am very excited about the home brewing movement time, even discerning customers are not asking questions about and I hope it inspires Indian estates to launch flavourful natural terroir and altitude and why we put that information on every coffees locally,” says Jain. With a monthly Nordic coffee subscrip- bag of specialty coffee they buy,” says Vazalwar. “Indian coffee tion, a V60 tattoo, and a fully-kitted-out home brew bar, Jain is drinkers are not exactly geeky,” says Ritchie. “A lot of times, at every bit the coffee snob, but he is not one to disparage you for not our Bangalore cafés, I come across people who just enjoy a good testing the pH level of your water before brewing. “My journey brew, but are still not that curious about where it came from or started with a Philips drip machine, so I understand that coffee how it was processed. The lockdown, I think, has inspired people education is a lifelong pursuit.” to understand coffee better so they can brew themselves a good Lenond Vaz, the founder of Beandeck, an artisanal coffee cup.” Blue Tokai saw equipment sales soar by over 50 per cent marketplace, couldn’t agree more. He aggregates not just the best since March and at one point they had run out of the Hario V60, experimental beans from roasters, but also artisanal brew-bags a classic manual pourover device, and the Aeropress, a manual and instant coffees that are beginning to scratch the surface of pressurised plunger-based coffee brewer. In the coming months, a convenience-led pursuit of good coffee. “Since the launch of the company plans to organise brewing classes, interactions with the webstore on July 18th, we have had over 200 sales,” says Vaz. planters and community-building events for specialty coffee. “Some of them have taken me by surprise. People are brewing For café chains like Blue Tokai, bean sales are no longer a side barrel-aged coffee in south Indian filters, investing in a good old hustle but an important business vertical—and 40-50 per cent moka pot and using the Aeropress a million ways. It’s a crazy time of it has been wholebean, indicating that consumers are also to be selling or brewing coffee in India.” n

54 7 september 2020 While Inside Look Outside For FREE With access visit www.openthemagazine.com books The Hermit and the Heartbreaker Oliver Craske’s biography reveals the many lives of Ravi Shankar by balancing his personal history with his musical mastery n o sal

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Courtesy Shankar Family

Ravi Shankar playing 7 september 2020 the sitar (c.1940) By Shreevatsa Nevatia at the time, he perhaps didn’t feel history’s weight when in 1932, he saw swastikas brandished in Germany during Hitler’s parliamentary campaign, or when he found himself at New liver Craske was only 23 when he met York’s historic Cotton Club at the height of Prohibition. “But Pandit Ravi Shankar for the first time in 1994. He he could say ‘I was there’ when these historical episodes were was to help the 74-year-old sitarist put together referred to. He crops up in all these extraordinary places,” says his autobiography, Raga Mala, and at that meet- Craske. In India, he sang for Mahatma Gandhi and was blessed ing, Craske was nervous. Speaking on the phone by Rabindranath Tagore. Ofrom London, Craske says, “He did his best to put me to ease. Travelling with his elder brother had left an adolescent You sensed he was very erudite about music but not in an Shankar with an ‘understanding of how Indian performing intimidating way. He welcomed you in.” Sitting down on a sofa arts could be successfully presented abroad’, but more signifi- with Shankar, Craske was struck by the musician’s knowledge cantly, it was during these international tours that he came to and experience, but also by his personality. “He had an aura that know his guru, Ustad Allauddin Khan, or ‘Baba’, as the ascetic made you want to spend time with him.” disciplinarian was affectionately called. In one of Indian Sun’s Their relationship endured, lasting until Shankar’s death in more light-hearted moments, we see Shankar shooing away a 2012. Shankar would regularly update Craske on the develop- nude cabaret dancer from Baba’s lap, saying, “He’s a priest, celi- ments of his life, encouraging him to assume the role of a future bate—please move.” Shankar later took Baba to Notre-Dame biographer. The recently released Indian Sun: The Life and Music and saw the cathedral move his future master to tears. of Ravi Shankar (Faber & Faber; 672 pages; Rs 799) sees Craske Shankar had spent seven-and-a-half years with Uday, and deftly make use of the confidences he had been trusted with. he came to spend approximately the same amount of time But helping the book exceed the biases of Shankar and his in- studying with Baba in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh. Shankar’s life ner circle, Craske relied on a repository of another 130 inter- couldn’t have changed more dramatically. The transition from views when writing Shankar’s first biography. dandy sophisticate to devoted disciple required Even though Craske confesses he “was awestruck a toil that was wholly new. There were days by [Shankar’s] prodigious musicality”, he seldom when Shankar’s riyaz lasted 16 hours. Baba was venerates his subject. He doesn’t use the epithet ‘ji’ known for his quick temper, but in all his years for Shankar. He refers to him as ‘Ravi’. at Maihar, Shankar was rebuked only once. “Go Indian Sun is more than a sum of colourful an- and buy some bangles to wear on your wrists. ecdotes. It balances personal history with evidence You are like a weak little girl,” Baba scolded him. of Shankar’s musical mastery. Craske writes about Shankar left with his bags, but was pacified by Hindustani classical music lucidly, never alienat- Baba’s son, future sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan. ing the uninitiated. He explains the structure of “The relationship had its difficult points, but raga and the cycles of tala with an acuity that is Ravi was devoted to his guru. He spent a lot of his always accessible. “I wasn’t his formal disciple, but career singing his praises,” says Craske. if you were with [Shankar], he would want you to The musicianship Shankar received as an understand the music,” says Craske. “He was a great teacher and inheritance from Baba was marked by an abundance that proselytiser for music. I would say that I’ve learnt from the best.” was immediately conspicuous to those listening to him on The list of Shankar’s Western pupils is long. It boasts the radio or in concert halls. What bothered Shankar were of names such as George Harrison, Philip Glass, Yehudi comments and reviews less effusive. “He was a sensitive Menuhin and John Coltrane. The West, it’s clear, reciprocated person, and he found criticism hard to take,” says Craske. Shankar’s embrace, but his detractors in India only multi- Shankar’s score for Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy enchanted many, plied. The charges against Shankar were severe. Accused of but Craske writes that ‘over the years there were occasional having polluted Indian music, Shankar was caught between public hints of underlying friction between these two giants his devotion to tradition and the pressures of modernity. of Bengali culture’. Speaking to Open, the biographer ascribes Craske writes in his introduction, ‘While his fame remains this tension to both personality and popularity: “Ray had once unrivalled among Indian classical musicians, he is sometimes talked about Ravi Shankar’s drawbacks as a film composer, underestimated as an artist […] Surely, he must have sold out?’ and I think that sort of thing would upset Ravi. This had As a biographer, Craske rarely ever lets adoration iron messy something to do with his sensitive personality, yes, but you creases. He sees Shankar as both insider and outsider. As he also cannot underestimate the pressures of popularity that puts it, ‘We often describe people in terms of opposites. They can sometimes be unhealthy.” can, of course, be complementary qualities.’ The rivalry between Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Having read Indian Sun, you feel compelled to believe Craske Vilayat Khan is now the stuff of Hindustani classical legend. when he says Shankar lived “one of the great lives of the cen- In 1952, when the sitarists took the stage together, Khan tury”. In the 1930s, for instance, Shankar was touring the world played a particularly difficult taan that Shankar couldn’t rep- as part of his brother Uday Shankar’s dance troupe. Only a child licate. The papers claimed Shankar couldn’t keep up. “Even

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 57 books

though there was an unpleasant tinge to the episode, there’s what he did.” Working for All India Radio in the 1950s, Shankar also something quite funny about it,” says Craske. “It was an gave several of his colleagues a platform they might have oth- ambush. They became terribly obsessed with each other at erwise been denied. “At that point, Indian classical music was that point.” When Shankar began taking the West by storm, bursting out from its 19th century courtly scenario and reach- Khan said he had diluted Indian classic music. As news of ing all corners of the country. As both musician and gatekeeper, Shankar’s friendship with George Harrison started to spread, Ravi enabled this.” Khan prefaced his concerts with the jibe, “This is not [a] Beatle Indian Sun, one might argue, earns some of its authority by sitar, this is the real sitar.” As Shankar wrote at the time, ‘It was blurring the hard lines that separate private and public personas. like Salieri with Mozart.’ For Craske, it seems, Shankar’s personal relationships are as vital After hearing Shankar play abroad, Pandit Shivkumar as his musical talents. His book doesn’t just tell us about all that Sharma once clarified that the music he played toW estern Shankar did, but it goes a step further by describing how he felt. audiences was “pure classical”, but Indian Sun goes beyond Speaking about the effects of Shankar’s childhood abuse, for such endorsements when demonstrating its subject’s stead- instance, Craske says, “He spoke of this sense of loneliness he had fast commitment to the Indian tradition. Shankar’s first sitar ever since his childhood, and in the book, I conclude that this had lesson to Harrison, writes Craske, was interrupted by a phone something to do with his early traumas. You see it in his behav- call. As the Beatle went to step over his sitar, Shankar slapped iour but also in his music.” him on the leg and said, “The first thing you must realise is Shankar’s inability to stay put in one place also led to what that you must have respect for the instrument.” Craske points he called a “butterfly lifestyle”. Despite being married, he went out that in the early 1960s, Shankar felt an aversion to “super- on to have many girlfriends, nearly 180 of them. Most of these relationships were ‘all passion, no com- mitment’. Much like his own father, Shankar remained largely absent for his If you notice, Ravi didn’t go jam first child Shubho, who killed himself with the rock and pop musicians in his late 20s. “Ravi once said to me, ‘I’ve he met, nor did he try and play never been a good father, but I didn’t western music. He was a kind of know what it means to be one. I never missionary, I feel. He really had one.’ I think some may find his relationships awkward, especially his wanted to enlighten the rest of role as absentee father,” says Craske. The beauty of the written word; the world with Indian music” Anoushka Shankar was seven a story well told. oliver craske author when Shankar married her mother, The luxury of immersing myself in Sukanya. In Craske’s interviews with Anoushka, she speaks at length about myriad lives; journeying to faraway the strong, loving bond she forged with lands. ficial” Western pop music, but seeing Harrison’s sincere love her father in the years that followed. Shankar’s relationship for Indian classical music, he changed his mind. with his other daughter, singer-songwriter Norah Jones, was I am obsessed. And the Reviews in In 1967, having stolen the show at the Monterey Pop more complicated. She tells Craske, “When I first got reunited Open help me discover the best. Festival and released 12 records in the US, Billboard declared with him I was 18, and I was kind of angry. I was like, ‘Where A quiet corner. An interesting book. Shankar its Artist of the Year. That year, Shankar performed have you been?’” Craske says that Jones’ subsequent stardom at the UN General Assembly with violinist Yehudi Menuhin came with its own pressures, “but they worked that out. Life’s good! and to top things off, “John Coltrane had named his son Ravi, When writers like us are writing about these relationships, the Doors were attending his music school.” Based on the evi- it becomes difficult to work them out in private. Ultimately, Sanjay Malik, Dubai dence that Craske provides, it seems Shankar wasn’t co-opted despite the bumps, it was a happy story”. by the zeitgeist, he instead defined it. “If you notice, he didn’t Those looking at Shankar’s life have sometimes found go jam with the rock and pop musicians he met, nor did he try it hard to reconcile his rigour and proclivities. How could and play western music. He was a kind of missionary, I feel. He a heartbreaker also be a hermit? According to Craske, “He really wanted to enlighten the rest of the world with Indian might sound like someone who is undisciplined, but in truth, music,” says Craske. there was a terrible discipline about his life and his music. In 1997, The Times of India published a profile of Ravi He would always turn up on time. He would always play the Shankar with the headline, ‘The Sun That Rose in the West’. show.” In public and in private, Shankar lived many lives, Craske takes issue with this assertion. “He rose in the East,” he but his first biographer feels that music remained a common insists. “That later global fame has rather come to dominate his core: “When he was playing live, an alap perhaps, he was reputation, but I think it is important for India to remember completely in the moment. His music became his way of what was going on before and why he was in a position to do accessing feeling.” n Tell us why you read Open www.openthemagazine.com openthemagazine 58 7 september 2020 The beauty of the written word; a story well told. The luxury of immersing myself in myriad lives; journeying to faraway lands. I am obsessed. And the Reviews in Open help me discover the best. A quiet corner. An interesting book. Life’s good!

Sanjay Malik, Dubai

Tell us why you read Open www.openthemagazine.com openthemagazine books

Lesser Lives Taslima Nasreen’s new novel, the sequel to Lajja, grapples with the exiled and the persecuted By Vineetha Mokkil

n 2017, when exiled Bangladeshi Shameless. Nasreen (the writer Taslima Nasreen was living in author figure) encoun- Taslima Nasreen Kolkata, she wrote Besharam (Shame- I ters her cast of fictional Illustrations by Saurabh Singh less) in Bangla. The English translation of characters and delves this novel, published by HarperCollins, into their lives. Shameless starts when horrific ways in Kolkata as well. has reached readers in 2020. Nasreen was Suranjan comes knocking on Nasreen’s Nasreen chronicles their lives with- under tremendous pressure in 2017. The door. Suranjan’s knock is a gesture that out flinching in Shameless. The reader police were constantly monitoring her demands access to both Nasreen’s flat is forced to bear witness to the many movements under the guise of keeping and her consciousness. She is the author tragedies that befall the family. Loss her safe, the state government warned who turned Suranjan’s life into art in of livelihood and dignity, poverty, the her about an Islamist conspiracy to kill Lajja. In its sequel, she meets Suranjan oppressive norms of patriarchy—all cast her, suggesting she leave not just West and his family face to face and is com- dark shadows on their lives. Their dream Bengal, but the country, for her own good. pelled to answer their questions, hear of starting afresh in Kolkata is shattered. Nasreen couldn’t contemplate leaving stories about the new life they have tried As the narrative unfolds, it becomes because she had come to love Kolkata. to build in Kolkata and feel the tremors clear that relocating from Bangladesh to The city and West Bengal were her ‘last of violence and religious persecution India, for both the relatively privileged refuge’. Tormented by unrest, she started that rock their lives in India. Nasreen and the hapless Duttas, has thinking about the characters in her 1993 Shameless grapples with the spectres been a journey from ‘one country of novel, Lajja (Shame), at this time. of communalism, religious extrem- religious fanatics to another’. As is well known, after Lajja was ism and the politics of hate that haunt Nasreen’s style is direct. Subtlety is published, Nasreen’s life was completely the Indian subcontinent. Suranjan, not her strong point, but she bravely upended. Islamic fundamentalists his sister Maya and his parents fled to shines the spotlight on a dangerously issued a fatwa against her and she had Hindu-majority India in the hope of polarised society, and the widening to leave Bangladesh under duress. The finding refuge when riots erupted in faultlines of religion, caste, class and novel was banned in Bangladesh. Nas- Dhaka after the Babri Masjid was torn gender. The divide between the author reen spent years in Europe and the US down. But the Duttas soon find out that figure and the characters she creates before moving to Kolkata in 2004, where no place is safe for the refugee. Violence and the dynamic between them which she ran into more trouble for publishing and extremism disrupt their lives in is complicated by the imbalances of her memoirs. class and power are sketched with deft Shameless, Lajja’s sequel, was born strokes. Nasreen is deeply interested in in Kolkata in 2017 as Nasreen began to the lives of the characters and she dives wonder how similar her predicament headlong into their world, but there was to Suranjan’s—the central character are some lines she cannot cross, and a in Lajja who flees his native Bangladesh certain degree of access she cannot gain due to religious persecution. Suranjan despite her privilege and wealth. and his family move to Kolkata in search Shameless does a fine job of letting of shelter in Lajja. He was in the city; the exiled and the persecuted tell their how was he faring, Nasreen wondered stories in their own voices and making in 2017. Did he ‘feel the same way when Shameless their presence felt. Their many dilem- he was driven into exile?’ Were his ‘hurts Taslima Nasreen mas are laid bare. The questions that and heartaches’ similar to hers? Shame- Translated by Arunava Sinha haunt refugees in a society ravaged by less set out in search of the answers. communalism are bound to haunt read- Nasreen casts herself as a character in HarperCollins ers as they turn the pages. n 296 Pages | Rs 399

60 7 september 2020 Why Is the Giraffe’s Neck So Long? The big and small questions of the natural world By Shail Desai Every Creature Has a Story What Science Reveals anaki Lenin’s latest offering, are just some of those captivating tales. about Animal Behaviour Every Creature Has a Story, is a The spotlight even shifts to a few plants, Janaki Lenin Jthoroughly engaging compilation of who form unique alliances to keep the 50 stories, which will provide answers threat of herbivores at bay. HarperCollins 296 Pages | Rs 599 to many questions that have sat unex- A number of parallels have been plored in your mind. For instance, one drawn between humans and animals look at a giraffe’s unusually long neck through the motherly instinct of snakes and it’s worth pondering how blood and the compassion displayed by some of the most entertaining stories. reaches the brain. Or if migratory birds humpback whales. Then, there is the Great tits were put to the test when it are victims of insomnia, given the many question of how old age affects ants, and came to picking between companion- miles they fly without a wink to arrive at if elephants are immune to the risk of ship and food. Adders were found to be newer pastures. cancer, given their abnormal growth akin to stealth bombers, until it came At the same time, it also unravels rate over a lifetime. These are some of down to the matter of lust. And the em- a whole new world of wonder that is the same studies that have provided pathy among prairie voles was apparent tucked away, far from the human eye, possible solutions for issues afflicting when they were seen standing by their where fathers take on the responsibili- the human race such as tackling life- mate during good times and bad. ties of pregnancy in seahorses and a cha- threatening diseases and addressing One of the most fascinating meleon makes the most of its distended mental health. chronicles is the tight bond between yet independently wired eyes to multi- As always, mating patterns bring out the greater honeyguide and tribes from task without losing sight of its prey. Africa, where the diminutive bird is Though her early foray into the known to lead hunters to the booty. This world of wildlife was through the tradition that dates back millions of medium of films, Lenin soon caught years is fast disappearing and makes for up with the habit of reading papers and a riveting account of coopera- journals to make up for her non-scien- tion between man and beast. tific background. Most of these were As with most research written by researchers who had spent studies, some of it is proven endless hours and in certain cases, while there are certain a lifetime, trying to understand the theories which are specula- idiosyncrasies of their subjects—like tive, inconclusive or a work in the singsong of birds and what it meant progress. The analysis in the literal or the behaviour of chimps that links words of scientists can get technical them to humans. These vast and varied at times, but the narrative on the whole accounts collected over the years, is enriching and thoroughly engross- clubbed with her own observations ing. Perhaps, the only drawback of the in the wild, is what unfolds over book is that some of the stories come the pages of the book. to an abrupt end even as it begins to This book steers clear of the capture the curiosity of the reader. star attractions of the jungle When Lenin says ‘every creature has and, instead, sheds light on the a story’, she doesn’t spare anything, div- curious habits of lesser beings ing into the enchanting ways of mam- that inhabit the wilderness. The mals to invertebrates and even plants. slavery imposed by wasps on unassum- In an age when the mere mention of a ing spiders, the phenomenon of sex de- ‘tweet’ sends most scampering towards termination in bearded dragons and the a screen, her effort is worthy in helping hand-in-glove operations for survival us realise just which world is worth between geladas and Ethiopian wolves getting lost in. n

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 61 Gurinder Chadha (centre) in a scene from Unexpected Gift; (right) a scene from Mono Maniacs

cinema Home Shoots

Two filmmakers focus the camera on the kind and cruel aspects of the lockdown

By Chintan Girish Modi

he Covid-19-induced ing the period with them could create a the lockdown started. This gathering, lockdown has been a pe- work of art. Chadha’s husband, screen- held at a local gurdwara, was meant riod of creative fulfilment writer and director Paul MayedaBerges, for 300 relatives and friends but most T for Gurinder Chadha, is also an integral part of the film. Apart did not make it for fear of leaving their director of the award- from being partners for life, they have homes. In the days to come, Chadha lost winning films Bhaji on the Beach (1993) also been creative collaborators on mul- an aunt to Covid-19. She could not pay and Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Instead tiple projects such as Bride and Prejudice a visit but saw her elderly aunt breathe of feeling bogged down by social distanc- (2004), The Mistress of Spices (2005) and her last on Facetime as the nurses held ing, she got together with her family Viceroy’s House (2016). the patient’s hand. and made a heartwarming nine-minute “I conceived Unexpected Giftas a fam- “When people die, they don’t really documentary titled Unexpected Gift. It ily film about what this shared experi- die because they live in our hearts, don’t was released on Netflix recently as part ence has been like for all of us and I got they?” says Chadha in the film, after of Homemade, a collection of 17 short my children involved in the scripting, participating in an online prayer meet- films about the experience of isolation shooting, narration and editing process. ing with relatives scattered all over the in various countries. My kids have grown up on my film sets world. Her daughter looks on and com- In an email interaction, Chadha says, around the world so it was wonderful to forts her. Later in the film, Chadha loses ‘When Netflix first approached me be able to tell this story from our home an uncle in Nairobi to a heart attack, and about making a Homemade film,I wasn’t in London together,” says Chadha, who the family gets to watch the funeral on sure audiences would actually want to was raised in a Punjabi family that was Facebook Live. watch other people in lockdown after part of the Indian diaspora in Kenya and Loss and grief are prominent themes having had to live through it for so many moved to London when she was just two in Unexpected Gift but one comes away months.’ She changed her mind once years old. feeling grateful not upset. This effect is she looked closely at the footage she had The film chronicles several intimate achieved by Chadha’s ability to weave a already shot with her children Ronak moments. It begins with remembrance narrative that can shoulder the weight Chadha Berges and Kumiko Chadha prayers for the death anniversary of of multiple emotions without being Berges at home and realised document- Chadha’s mother in March, just before overwhelmed. Binge-eating, excessive

62 7 september 2020 ing speeches of British Prime Minister Edgar Allen Poe’s short story Boris Johnson dubbed in Punjabi. ‘Berenice’ (1835) which he read during Unexpected Gift also speaks of how the lockdown. The macabre elements the pandemic affects more people in Mono Maniacs can be easily traced to from black and Asian backgrounds but this literary influence. He says, “I was Chadha does not throw a volley of facts like everybody else, incarcerated within and figures at her audience. She makes the four walls of the house and had to the point and moves on. She focuses seek my actors and inspiration, from on celebrating her Sikh heritage. “It within these constraints. I spent some has taught me to be a warrior who has time observing them and got an insight Although fought for everything I believe in. I have into their fantasies and dreams and also lockdown was hard made films over the past 30 years from a started having a conversation with them and we did suffer distinct female point of view. It has given about the film that I was thinking family losses, my me spirituality, strength and a reas- of making.” overall feeling is suring sense that home is where your that this intensive family and community lives.” time of being Filmmaker Kabir Singh Chowdhry, ono Maniacs cannot be together as a family best known for directing the award- M neatly explained away with really was an winning mockumentary Mehsampur a plot description. It is a unexpected gift ” (2018), has also made a lockdown film provocative meditation on the with the people he shares a home with pandemic itself and how it is affecting Gurinder Chadha in Chandigarh. His 42-minute film Mono the inner lives of people—their filmmaker Maniacs, available on YouTube, features aspirations and obsessions, their self- his mother—theatre director and aca- images, their mental health and how demic Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry— they relate to animals and other human as well as his pets, the cook, the gardener, beings. It also unravels how our the house help and her children. It was perception of reality is shaped by shot using a phone camera. TikTok videos, television news and our screen-time, forced homeschooling Chowdhry’s film is completely differ- own wild imaginations. and children getting on parents’ nerves ent from the feel-good fare that Chadha Chowdhry says, “Most of my films are experiences that many viewers has stitched together. He is interested blur the lines between fiction and real- might find relatable. At the same time, in raising questions about class privi- ity, between the visible and the unseen, Chadha shows children as emotionally lege, police brutality, public health and a sort of no-man’s land. My last film, intelligent beings. Giving their mother the migrant crisis. These are explored Mehsampur, had a lot of people asking a pedicure is one of the many ways in through an idiosyncratic style of film- me what the genre of the film was. I which they express their love. making, which blurs the boundaries used the term ‘cinematic nonfiction’ or Chadha tells me, “I genuinely feel between live action and animation, ‘ethno-fiction’. I always wanted to be a blessed each day to have a loving family, feature and documentary, horror and visual anthropologist, and I think my a home and a job as a filmmaker that humour. It is bizarre and disorienting. films really come from that unconscious I truly love. Although lockdown was This is not an accident. The filmmaker desire.” Mono Maniacs, to him, is a crea- hard and we did suffer family losses, my himself describes it as “the lockdown tive ethnographic record of our times. overall feeling is that this intensive time hallucinating about itself”. Chowdhry made this film without of being together as a family really was He says, “One day, my brother any financial investment or professional an unexpected gift. It has been a time of Angad suggested that I make a film equipment. He worked with actors connection and gratitude and shared and that shooting during the curfew who were readily available and did not family and cultural history that I will would be way crazier than the Gonzo hire a crew. He says, “We all struggle to cherish for years to come.” style journalism started by Hunter S be happy, and my way of dealing with This film is political in a way that is Thompson which had an exaggerated, it is through work. This process was light-hearted and contemplative. It does non-objective style—often featuring the most satisfying. It made me realise that not get preachy. When Chadha is not writer as part of the story.” This pushed so much money, time and effort go in poring over photo albums, making aloo Chowdhry to experiment with his own pursuing funders and actors and setting parathas, enjoying the jacuzzi or resolv- craft as a filmmaker. up an infrastructure. This alternative ing fights between her children, she is Chowdhry also drew inspiration method of filmmaking allows me to be cracking up with laughter while watch- from American writer and literary critic creative and untrammelled.” n

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 63 television Star G a z i n g A new scripted reality show reveal scelebrities are uncannily like us

he series opens Masaba Masaba was a way to look at with a ‘blind item’ about Mumbai through the lens of Masaba and T fashion designer Masaba Neena. “They are at the intersection of Gupta’s marriage being on film, fashion and society and their point the rocks. There’s a separation that’s of view is self deprecating.” So there is a announced on Instagram. Karan Johar fading starlet who turns to making bal- has launched yet another star kid. Farah loon art and a venture capitalist whose Khan (playing herself) is casting for a job it is to discipline the designer; an film while being on a diet. And the star, heiress friend who runs a restaurant and played by Kiara Advani, wants match- an unsmiling accountant who is always ing outfits for her two dogs Tim Tim predicting financial doomsday. and Tango as well. It is a really difficult world, as Nair Masaba Masaba is a delicious says, and it’s easier to not be in it. “But we glimpse of the life of Neena Gupta, actor love films and we want to be on set every and celebrated single mother, and her day. No one is forcing us to be here.” And daughter, designer of the eponymous they’re raring to make fun of stereotypes. label, Masaba. For many years, Neena’s Celebrity culture in India has not just considerable talent was overlooked by expanded it has also changed, with many her tabloid life, which was sustained by more filters in place now between the her being a single mother. The paternity star and the media. Now, says Sidharth was always one of those nudge-nudge, Bhatia, who wrote a colourful account of wink-wink open secrets in Mumbai high Baburao Patel’s world in The Patels of Film- society until Pritish Nandy offered proof india: Pioneers of Film Journalism, “Celebri- of it. It is a grouse that Neena Gupta bears tyhood is manufactured and journalists until today against the former editor of are as much part of the corporatised The Illustrated Weekly of India. system as the stars, even though there are As the child of master batsman Vivian several gatekeepers between them.” Richards and Neena Gupta, Masaba’s Debasree Mukherjee, Assistant evolution into a well-known designer Professor at Columbia University, who was very much conducted in the public has studied this culture closely says the neena gupta and masaba in a still from masaba masaba domain, with all its attendant advantages definition of celebrity itself has become and disadvantages. So it’s no surprise quite elastic: from star babies to star pets when Netflix did its first scripted reality to star bodyguards to star stylists. The of queer non-conformity in the pages show in India, it chose the extraordinary journalism around it has changed too. of a magazine like Filmindia. We have mother-daughter. “People think we live “Earlier the film journalists refrained to remember that the film industry is a fancy lives, sleep in golden beds, have from making direct personal attacks at deeply patriarchal place, like the society silver doorknobs, or eat 52 dishes a day. film stars, relying instead on innuendo that it is embedded in. The focus of most The truth is we live just like everyone and sarcasm. Actresses were the main scandal narratives has always been else, eat ghar ka khana, roti, sabzi, dal, and commercial engine driving the early women’s sexuality and sexual morality.” work hard,” says Neena. film magazines because readers craved Then, as now, she notes, film journal- And squabble with each other. As their news and photographs and maga- ists and film stars had a complex and Masaba says at one point to her therapist zines dished out gossip about personal often mutually beneficial relationship. who is forever trying to track her errant lives and professional deals but all in a The journalists want the gossip and husband: “She did everything she want- coded manner. I’ve seen innumerable the stars need to stay visible. Producers ed. It’s me who has to live by the rules.” sly references to a woman’s love life, at that time planted publicity pieces in For writer and director Sonam Nair, insinuations of affairs, even suggestions newspapers and magazines, and today

64 7 september 2020 Star G a z i n g A new scripted reality show reveal scelebrities are uncannily like us By Kaveree Bamzai

says, “Even when I pass on they will call publicity content that is produced by me, ‘The bold and beautiful Neena Gupta them or their paid publicists. Running who had a child out of wedlock.’ Kaam ke a social media account and updating it bare main kuch nahin kahenge [they won’t with tailor-made content such as child- say anything about my work].” She says hood photos, birthday videos, vacation this is by far the most defining aspect pics, is now an integral part of the actor’s of her career, overwhelming her stellar job.” A broader Page 3 culture nurtured work in what was called ‘parallel cinema’ through the 2000s has also trained wan- in the 1970s, and her resurgence as a char- nabe celebrities in the techniques of acter actor who can be more than just a personal brand development. long-suffering mother onscreen. During the lockdown, adds Mukher- She owes her comeback to an jee, such star-generated content became Instagram post in 2017, where she said very valuable, not just to fans but to she was an actor who was available tabloid outlets that could simply link to a star’s official account. This phenomenon of heightened social media access has “People think also impacted the tenor and quantity of tabloid journalism. Because so many film we live fancy lives, actors and directors have also taken to sleep in golden political commentary on Twitter, tabloid beds, have silver outlets are able to use online arguments door knobs. as fodder for spinning a sensational story. the truth is we Nowhere is this illustrated better than in the case of Sushant Singh Rajput’s live just like death where almost every actor has spun everyone else, his or her own narratives around the eat roti, sabzi, dal, tragic death. Stars have clashed, directors and work hard” and producers have been trolled into si- lence; and conspiracy theories have led to Neena Gupta actor calls for the boycott of certain star movies. neena gupta and masaba in a still from masaba masaba Masaba Masaba is a much more genteel world, where these aspects they legally stipulate film promotion for work and lived in Mumbai. It was of celebrity culture are mocked good work in star contracts. Doing interviews reposted by her daughter and got even naturedly rather than demonised. It’s and, in later years, giving juicy ‘bytes’ greater traction. Says Neena now: “I tell a world Neena and Masaba signed up steadily became part of the job descrip- Amit Sharma [director of Badhaai Ho] for and they’re seen as two individuals tion for actors. Of course, film journalists you changed my life. I will do anything trying their best to make the best of it, also used their pen to get back at a star for you.” Both mother-daughter have being as vulnerable as they are fearless. they did not like. Apart from the more transformed their stardom through the It makes us feel good about our vicari- serious trade and film review magazines, use of Instagram. Explains Mukherjee: ous natures. Stars may be like us, they a parallel tabloid tradition has slowly “Fans now have direct access to stars may also eat parathas for breakfast, take grown in India. This arena can be com- on Instagram or Twitter and expect a the advice of the house help on what pared to the prurient and sensationalist different level of intimacy. The nature to wear for an important appointment content in the British Sun, all driven by a of film celebrity itself has changed, as and haggle over the price of vegetables. paparazzi economy. stars now work hard to maintain and But that doesn’t stop us from wanting to Neena Gupta references this when she update their social media handles with consume their lives. n

7 september 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 65 NOT PEOPLE LIKE US

RAJEEV MASAND

Scripting a Comeback Neena was so concerned about Masaba taking a misstep Shah Rukh Khan’s sabbatical has ended up becoming that once on a flight she cornered Shah Rukh Khan andKaran longer than even the star had intended it to be. SRK, Johar and urged them to advise her daughter against a movie who hasn’t made a movie since Zero (2018), is reportedly career. “Can you imagine? I’ve heard of parents recommending committed to starting new projects with Rajkumar Hirani, their child to filmmakers. Here she was, crushing any chance Siddharth Anand and Tamil wunderkind Atlee Kumar. I might have had,” Masaba jokes. It was her mother again who The film with Hirani was originally meant to go on the floor nudged her towards fashion. And now, the designer is fulfilling in May, got pushed to August when the pandemic started and her dream by headlining a Netflix series titled Masaba Masaba now, sources say, could only begin by the end of December. in which she and Neena play themselves. “I’ve apologised War director Anand’s film was meant to be a part of Yash to her for sabotaging her acting career even before it began. I Raj Films’ 50th year line-up and slated to go into production didn’t know she’d turn out to be such a natural,” Neena says in October. Sources say this is a globehopping actioner about discovering that Masaba can act. like a Bond movie. But the start date may be indefinitely postponed; also because there is no clarity when and if the Hot Right Now makers can shoot at international locations. While others are using the lockdown to catch up on R&R, The actor has reportedly been meeting—both in person Malayalam star Fahadh Faasil has made a movie. His ‘missing and over Zoom—his directors throughout the lockdown person’ thriller C U Soon was shot during the lockdown and to finetune the script and to discuss the way ahead. Sources unfolds entirely on computer and mobile phone screens. close to him say he is not panicked about losing nearly an Are you thinking Searching (2018)? Fahadh says he entire year to the pandemic; Shah Rukh has apparently has watched Searching and was bowled away by been reading more scripts and zeroed in on a few. its genius idea. “But I think that device is more organic to our film in a way that it wasn’t always Act Two in the other film,” he tells me. Directed by Designer Masaba Gupta is finally realising an old Mahesh Narayanan, C U Soon begins streaming dream. As a teenager, she hoped to act (“For all the next week. It stars Roshan Matthew and wrong reasons,” she understands now), but it was her Darshana Rajendran as a couple that meets strongest ally who convinced her that a film career was on a dating site, and Fahadh as a hacker and not for her. Mother Neena Gupta advised her Roshan’s cousin. When Darshana’s against acting “because I knew she wouldn’t character goes missing after leaving a be accepted in the way that she hoped suicide note, Roshan is in trouble with to be”. Masaba says she was obsessed the law and Fahadh tries to uncover with the idea of a “quintessential the mystery. Hindi film heroine who dances on the “It’s not like I was getting restless top of mountains in sarees and high or bored during the lockdown and heels”, but Neena explained to her that’s why we made this film,” why those parts would never come Fahadh explains. “Mahesh had her way. “She told me I didn’t look this idea that was fascinating and like the conventional Bollywood it just felt like the time was right. heroine. I was a mixed-race girl and Believe me, if we had to make this at best they might give me vamp film under normal circumstances, roles: the dusky starlet who breaks it would still be exactly the same up someone’s marriage,” thing.” He reveals that they’re Masaba remembers. already thinking of a sequel. n

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