Revisiting PV Narasimha Rao's Foreign Policy In
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
www.openthemagazine.com 50 19 19 OCTOBER /2020 OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 41 19 OCTOBER 2020 CONTENTS 19 OCTOBER 2020 5 6 12 14 16 18 LOCOMOTIF OPEN DIARY THE INSIDER INDIAN ACCENTS WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY Hathras and the By Swapan Dasgupta By PR Ramesh The sovereign condition By Jayanta Ghosal In praise of an internationalist politics of denial By Bibek Debroy By Shashi Tharoor By S Prasannarajan and John Koshy 28 The Day after Hathras 28 FARCE AFTER TRAGEDY The jury is out on what would constitute justice for the victim. But the battle is going to escalate for the Modi Government By PR Ramesh 32 A WHIFF OF KATHUA Investigation without the invention of the enemy please By Rahul Pandita 36 THE NEW DALITS ARE A THOUGHT BANK But look who’s so desperate to keep them a vote bank By Guru Prakash 40 40 THE ENDGAME IN BASTAR Maoists are running out of places to hide By Siddharth Singh 18 44 HOLY SMOKE AND MIRRORS Is the politicisation of recent thefts and vandalism in Andhra Pradesh’s temples the beginning of a communal schism? By V Shoba 44 48 GREEN LIGHT AREA With masks, hand sanitisers and new social-distancing norms, sex workers are resuming business across India By Lhendup G Bhutia 52 52 58 62 65 66 ‘EVERY ONE OF MY DARK SENSE AND SENSUALITY BACK TO THE FUTURE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER NOT PEOPLE LIKE US FEARS HAS COME TRUE’ Alankrita Shrivastava creates The way forward for Indian Hilary Swank Unfinished business The world in Hari Kunzru’s new women characters who express science fiction onscreen on her new series Away By Rajeev Masand novel is both familiar and near-mad their most intimate desires By Aditya Mani Jha By Noel de Souza By Nandini Nair By Kaveree Bamzai Cover photo by Manisha Mondal | ThePrint.in 19 OCTOBER 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 A ‘dirty picture’ is playing all over Bollywood (‘Broken EDITOR-AT-LARGE Siddharth Singh DEPUTY EDITORS Madhavankutty Pillai Bollywood’, October 12th, 2020). Focused on creating (Mumbai Bureau Chief), cinema that only provides ‘entertainment, Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair entertainment, entertainment’, most of the stuff it CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rohit Chawla churns out is either a costume ball or carries the mark ART DIRECTOR Jyoti K Singh SENIOR EDITORS Sudeep Paul, of an assembly-line standard fare: a few songs, a Khan Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), or a Kumar and a bit of a plot thrown in. The song-dance Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval AssOCIATE EDITOR Vijay K Soni (Web) melodrama that unfolds is called a movie, depicting ASSISTANT EDITOR Vipul Vivek a version of reality that people wish to see. After all, CHIEF OF GRAPHICS Saurabh Singh what we see in Bollywood is a microcosm of the society SENIOR DESIGNERS Anup Banerjee, Veer Pal Singh it represents. The trade is controlled by the privileged PHOTO EDITOR Raul Irani and powerful with the exclusion of the ‘wannabe’ rest. DEPUTY PHOTO EDITOR Ashish Sharma And those who control the industry remain in denial, NATIONAL HEAD-EVENTS AND INITIATIVES always looking for others to blame for its woes when pundits notwithstanding (‘Is Arpita Sachin Ahuja It Really Over for Trump?’ by AVP (ADVERTISING) Bollywood has largely itself to blame. The industry Rashmi Lata Swarup has become uninspiring—it is pretty common to hear James Astill, October 12th, GENERAL MANAGERS (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) of youths giving their ‘couple of years’ in a crowded 2020). He is full of last-minute Mumbai flat only to realise the dream was always a tricks; and who knows, NATIONAL HEAD-DISTRIBUTION AND SALES Ajay Gupta delusion; and remains, as pointed out, ‘responsible for Covid-19 vaccine shots could REGIONAL HEADS-CIRCULATION D Charles (South), Melvin George the rise of some inadequately talented star children.’ turn out to be one of those. (West), Basab Ghosh (East) Newcomers naturally have it very tough in an industry Even if Trump didn’t lose in HEAD-PRODUCTION Maneesh Tyagi where nepotism is cheered audaciously, its crass and the first presidential debate, SENIOR MANAGER (PRE-PRESS) Sharad Tailang counterfeit ways eating into the confidence of young Biden didn’t win either. MANAGER-MARKETING aspirants, wrecking not only their hopes but minds The Democrat nominee Priya Singh CHIEF DESIGNER-MARKETING and morale. The result is a splintered Bollywood. lacks what it takes to be a Champak Bhattacharjee Sangeeta Kampani winner; Trump is not in CFO & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht the dumps yet either. His CHIEF EXECUTIVE & PUBLISHER core constituency of white Neeraja Chawla voters—the so-called base— All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner THE SPB TREE in versatility. Even fewer has not shifted much from is prohibited. SP Balasubrahmanyam was were as prolific. He sang its commitment in the last Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf like a giant, old tree under over 40,000 songs in several four years and if he manages of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, whose shade grew many Indian languages across eras to move even some of those 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). new talented singers, music of Indian cinema. He was outside that, like the last Published at 4, DDA Commercial directors and musicians (‘A the backbone of playback time, Biden will sweat. No Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Versatile Voice’, October 12th, singing. He came, he sang, he doubt Trump’s first term Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 2020). It gave nourishment conquered. has been lacklustre in real To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to to many generations of CK Subramaniam terms but his ability to www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number listeners—both in the form rabble-rouse the average 1800 102 7510 of music and teaching. Its SP Balasubrahmanyam American voter should not or email at: [email protected] roots held the soil that gave was versatile: a musician, be underestimated. Politics For alliances, email [email protected] rise to many new trees, singer, music director, actor, is not merely economics at For advertising, email ensuring the garden remains producer, mimic, teacher the hustings. The world may [email protected] For any other queries/observations, lush and green even after (he created ETV’s Paadutha heave a collective sigh of email [email protected] his passing. Theeyaga programme for relief, especially China, if he PV Srinivas students of music). He was a loses next month. But even Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing one-man university. otherwise Biden will be in for initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using SP Balasubrahmanyam PV Padmavathi a difficult term as US growth products or services advertised in the magazine was a legend loved by all. is not going to find any boost Volume 12 Issue 41 He was probably the most TRUMP CARD in a Covid-19-hit world; and For the week 13-19 October 2020 popular playback singer in I agree that US President let’s not forget the rise of the Total No. of pages 68 the country. Few could rival Donald Trump still has radical Democrats. him in popularity, fewer enough going for him, poll Ashok Goswami 4 19 OCTOBER 2020 LOCOMOTIF By S PRASANNARAJAN HATHRAS AND THE POLITICS OF DENIAL HE STORY HATHRAS tells is a familiar one the purpose instead of a profusion of easy judgments. India has learned to live with, and the shame of The leitmotif in these retellings of Hathras is the power of which lasts as long as the headlines do, just that. denial. In their book The Politics of Denial, Michael A Milburn The story carries within it the many strands of and Sheree D Conrad, both political psychologists, provide a brutalisation that makes our modernisation project definition: “Denial, a psychological defence mechanism, is an Tincompatible with civility. The Dalit girl who was killed, and unconscious mental manoeuvre that cancels out or obscures then hurriedly cremated by the police, is a victim without painful reality. We hear no evil, see no evil, and hence feel no pain a name; her anonymity is a shield we think will protect her or confusion. We don’t have to confront or change things that from further humiliations, and give her an illusion of dignity don’t exist; we don’t have to examine our motives, intentions, and she was denied while alive in a village without mercies. Her actions, or those of our government.” Denial is a painkiller and a anonymity also adds to the abstraction of terms that have memory eraser. It makes the inconveniences of reality disappear already lost their urgency. Terms such as ‘crimes against women’ and builds in its place a life-enhancing mythology. It enables the and ‘attacks on Dalits’. Hathras, even as it gains resonance as a political class to shut itself from ‘evil’. As Milburn and Conrad widely shared media invocation, too, is veiled in anonymity, write, “nations operate on the basis of shared reconstructions leaving the horrors inflicted on the girl to our imagination. The of reality.” The politics of denial is about the construction of multiple narratives of Hathras, told by the an alternative reality. Both the Right and the state and the media, do not clarify anything. Left are in it together. The radical Right, in its What still stand out in stark relief are: the loftier sense of nationhood, demands cultural police that behaved as if they had something homogenisation, which makes a category of to hide in the immediate aftermath of undesirables inevitable.