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Volume LIV, No. 15

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Krishna Prasad EXECUTIVE EDITOR Bishwadeep Moitra What they said to us ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR Sunit Arora DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR Sunil Menon RIAZ KHOKAR, Former foreign secy DEPUTY EDITORS Uttam Sengupta, Satish Padmanabhan SENIOR EDITOR Pranay Sharma “If Modi wins, he’ll be prisoner to RSS. He’ll show POLITICAL EDITOR Saba Naqvi SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS no flexibility or pragmatism on substantive issues between us.” S.B. Easwaran, Manisha Saroop, Namrata Joshi, Anuradha Raman, Arindam Mukherjee, Lola Nayar ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sasi Nair PHOTO EDITOR Narendra Bisht POLL WALTZ 2014 ASSISTANT EDITORS Dola Mitra (Kolkata), Madhavi Tata (Hyderabad), Prachi Pinglay-Plumber, Prarthna Gahilote (Mumbai) 10 POST-ITS Events of the Week SENIOR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Pragya Singh 12 THE BOOTH Royalties in the Fray SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Debarshi Dasgupta JUNIOR ASSISTANT EDITOR: Saikat Niyogi 14 YOUTH The Untouched Angst PRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENT: Neha Bhatt SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS: K.S. Shaini (Bhopal), 20 RAJASTHAN Sikar, an Priyadarshini Sen CONTRIBUTORS: Minu Ittyipe (Kerala), Instructive Tale R.K. Misra (Gujarat), Sharat Pradhan (Uttar Pradesh), Showkat A. Motta (Kashmir) 22 MAHASAMUND The Battle of the PHOTOGRAPHERS Chandulal Sahus Jitender Gupta (Deputy Photo Editor) Tribhuvan Tiwari (Chief Photographer), Sanjay Rawat, Sandipan Chatterjee (Kolkata) 24 JHARKHAND Like Father, Like Son, Apoorva Salkade, Amit Haralkar (Mumbai) in Hazaribagh? (Senior Photographers), S. Rakshit (Chief Photo Coordinator), J.S. Adhikari (Senior Photo Researcher) 26 KARNATAKA Battle for Bangalore DESIGN Deepak Sharma (Chief Art Director), 28 ESSAY N. Ram Ashish Bagchi (Deputy Art Director), Leela (Senior Designer), 48 GOA Arun Sinha Rahul Awasthi (Chief Infographist), Sorit Gupto (Chief Illustrator), Devi Prasad, 50 VIDARBHA Battleground Resurrected Padam Gupta (Senior DTP Operators) CHIEF EDITORIAL MANAGER: Sasidharan Kollery 53 JAMMU Lured by Saffron? LIBRARY: Alka Gupta (Chief Librarian), Raj Kumar (Senior Library Assistant) 56 MADHYA PRADESH A Village 32 DIGITAL LIBRARY U. Suresh Kumar, Sajith Kumar Boycotts the Polls WEBSITE TEAM Sundeep Dougal (Editor, Websites), 58 MUMBAI NORTHWEST The Theatre Raman Awasthi (Project Manager), COVER STORY Suraj Wadhwa (Chief Graphic Designer), Shifts for Mahesh Manjrekar Praveen Upreti (Web Designer), Freya Dasgupta (Sr Sub Editor) 60 DARJEELING Bend it Like Baichung EDITORIAL CHAIRMAN: VINOD MEHTA 66 READ FACTOR Books of the President Modi? BUSINESS OFFICE Election Season PRESIDENT: Indranil Roy With his personalised, US presidential VICE PRESIDENTS Johnson D’Silva, Shishir Saxena, Vidya Menon INTERNATIONAL style format electoral campaign, SENIOR GENERAL MANAGER Narendra Modi seems to be calling all Uma Srinivasan (Chennai) GENERAL MANAGERS 44 Apprehensive in Pakistan the shots. In the final run, will he Kabir Khattar (Corp), Mohan Singh Bisht, Rashmi Lata Swarup, B.S. Johar (Subs), No one is quite sure what Narendra Modi as really be able to bend an enitre nation A.G. Subramaniam HEAD BRAND & MARKETING: Shrutika Dewan the prime minister of India would mean for to his will and ambition? Also, who’s ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGERS the country. And the Pak-bashing during the afraid of Narendra Modi...and why. Amit Vaz, Manoj Nair (West), Sushil K Menon (South), campaigning isn’t assuaging any fears. Anindya Banerjee (West), G. Ramesh (South), Rajendra Kurup CHIEF MANAGERS: Anuj Gopal Mathur, Shashank Dixit REGULARS 04 LETTERS 68 BOOKS SENIOR MANAGERS Nikhil Tanawade, Shekhar Kumar Pandey 70 FINE LIVING 72 GLITTERATI 74 DIARY ZONAL SALES MANAGER Vinod Kumar (North) Cover Design: Bishwadeep Moitra MANAGERS: Diwan Singh Bisht, Rupali Biswas, Vinod Joshi

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2014 ELECTION Hazaribagh

POLLWALTZ2014 Under the Fruit Tree Yashwant Sinha’s son Jayant hitches wagon to the Modi wave

RAJESH KUMAR T’S been a role reversal of sorts for former finance minister Heat and dust Jayant Sinha on the campaign trail in Hazaribagh Iand three-term bjp MP from Hazaribagh Yashwant Sinha this Lok Sabha elections. While son Jayant Sinha (51) is out Hazaribagh constituency, covering the electioneering under the scorching sun, Sinha Sr monitors the Ram g arh district and parts of Hazari b- agh district, has over 15 lakh voters. It war room set up at Rishav Batika, his sprawling farmhouse in returned Sinha Sr to the Lok Sabha thr- Demotand, six km away from Hazaribagh network’s India operations, to contest ice—in 1998, ’99 and ’09. The bjp cadre town. “Earlier, my wife, sons and daugh- the election. “I don’t need to guide him. reluctantly admits Jayant’s candidature ter took care of my election management He’s worked hard in earlier elections and was initially a handicap. “But we are while I campaigned in the hinterland. knows the demands of the job,” Sinha overcoming it. Jab bhi koi naya ped lagate Now my son is out in the field and I am says, trying to drive home the point that hain toh woh kitna phal dega, ummeed into managing his campaign,” he says. “Jayant didn’t get this seat due to any- nahi laga sakte hain (You can’t predict the Sinha, now 76, says he is yet to decide body’s mercy, but on his own merit”. fruiting potential of a new tree),” muses about his future role in the party (nor is bjp supporter S.K. Singh. “Hum logon ki there any indication from the bjp lead- lachari hai. Sirf Modiji ke liye BJP ko vote ership). “All that Rajnath Singh (bjp dena hai. Pratyashi nahi dekhna hai chief ) said at a public meeting was that “Jab bhi koi naya ped lagate (We’re helpless, we’ll vote for Modi reg- he wouldn’t allow me to retire,” he says. hain toh woh kitna phal dega ardless of the candidate),” says Shyam Sinha Sr is cautious when talking about ummeed nahin laga sakte,” Gupta, another party worker. Jayant, who quit as MD of Omidyar muses a BJP worker. Going by his campaign so far, the

24 21 April 2014 OUTLOOK Former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, N. Ram is chairman essay N. RAM of Kasturi & Sons Ltd, which publishes the paper POLLWALTZ2014 Nearing Port, There’s No Abandoning Ship

Let us not expect Modi to relinquish his ideological roots. The BJP’s poll manifesto points to the limits of his flexibility.

“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place.... Ye are grown intolerably odious to the nation.” —Oliver Cromwell, on dismissing the Rump Parliament on April 20, 1653

UT of deference to the Election stares every Congressperson in the face. The heir presump- tive is consciously preparing the party for an effective Commission of India, I won’t quote the O fighting role in the Opposition, which presupposes an rest, the choicest parts, of the speech of ability, which he has not so far shown, to join forces with the Englishman whose talent for high- other parties on secular-democratic issues on which there is broad agreement. minded, inventive political invective has But what about the alternative? rarely been bettered. Cromwell’s inspired words capture The prospects of a ‘third option’—a combine of non-bjp, the intentions of Indians in this season of reckoning towards non-Congress players, mostly strong regional parties, sup- the party that has ruled at the Centre for a decade, which is ported from outside by the Congress and perhaps the itself unprecedented in recent times. Left—coming to the fore after the election and staking a That the and the United claim to form the government seem to have receded, even Progressive Alliance government it heads have, through a if some political leaders haven’t abandoned the idea. combination of damaging and feckless socio-economic It’s almost guaranteed that after counting day, the presi- policies, unmatched levels of corruption, and the collapse dent will invite the elected leader of the single largest party of leadership and legitimacy, “grown intolerably odious to in the Lok Sabha, the , to have the first the nation”, and that the political marketplace has down- turn at forming a government. The overwhelming probabil- graded the Congress’s stock to junk status, is beyond argu- ity is that leader will be ‘Vikas Purush’ Narendra Modi, ment. Every opinion poll, every indication from the ground, NaMo to millions of fans (blaspheming consciously or every portent in the polity spells out the ejection of the unconsciously for a higher political cause, but who are we, Congress from the seat of power on May 16. unreconstructed votaries of free speech, to object?)— “an This much about the outcome of the 16th general election ersatz version of the bjp”, in the opinion of sociologist Shiv is settled and, moreover, it makes eminent political sense. Visvanathan (writing in The Hindu on April 5, 2014), an But the Congress is not running on outlier who has propelled himself to empty either. In fact, in my somewhat centrestage against all the odds, causing contrarian reading of the situation, much unease among the party’s old Congress deputy chief Rahul Gandhi is The language, style, treatment guard and exposing “a deep faultline”. far from being played out in the polity. of issues might vary, but core Deep faultlines are structural realities His campaign rhetoric notwithstand- Hindutva issues have always that can’t be easily repaired, if they can ing, he has not merely accepted what made it to BJP manifestos. be repaired at all. In politics, they can

28 21 April 2014 OUTLOOK POLLWALTZ2014 cover story T New Delhilastweek, the86-year-old saidthat wall. At therelease oftheparty’s manifestoin Will he run the country like the country Will he he’s run campaign—around his himself? run METRICS MODI 32 strategy tobombard campaign Indiawithapresidential-style Will, there hasalsobeenthenatural evolution ofaprocess and reducing others tofootnotes. More thanjustbeingHimandHis and carefully crafted, deliberately builtaround justoneman, Descending, Modi Coming...Brand Modi hasbeenenergetically times inIndianhistory. Modi Shining, Modi Smiling, Modi campaign thatfollowed hasbeenunprecedented.” reaction totheannouncementofaPMcandidate...the the pastyear: “Idon’t remember ever suchanadvantageous endorse precisely whathehadbitterlyfoughtagainstover elections hehasseeninhislifetime. He thenwent onto duringthe16 he doesnotremember feelingsuch“joy” It has actually been the biggest blockbuster campaign of all It hasactuallybeenthebiggestblockbustercampaignofall How Narendra Modifashioned anI-me-myself style ofcampaign HE capitulationandsurrender by as theveteran reading thewritingon veteran L.K.Advani canpossiblybeseen By positioninghimselfasa strong, decisive leader, has centralised “solution”that India islookingforin branded himselfasa one-point power-centre,one-point a were, isthemagicwand Modi tells Indiathata Using ‘Gujarat Model’, “single window” asit trying times for goodgovernance primacy to states, conveys that “nationalrevival” can be donebybureaucrats Despite talkofgiving working under and reporting to him SABA NAQVI who want faster, clearer appeals to corporates ‘policy paralysis’ in Highlighting UPA’s coalition era, Modi decision-making bjp 21 April 2014

ditional personality politics. Besidesthetra- in anageofmedia-driven in thepersonality,” hesays. “Others are reacting badly prevail inelections. “Some peopleare inspired andseehope state level orthenational,itisnow strong personalitiesthat spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad, saysthatbeitatthe campaign there was norecall value forthe recognised asModi’s symbol,aswhenwe startedoffthis the Says Chennai-basedLalithaKumaramangalam, amemberof election symbol,thelotus, isnotrecognised, Modi now is. possibilities forthem.InpartsofIndiawhere theparty’s instrument ofhiswill. appear thatModi hasmadeall,partyandparivar, the have taken timeofftowork forthecampaign. directly affiliatedtothe decade), there are independentgroups ofthefaithfulnot ently more thanthatofthepartyruledIndiaforlast OUTLOOK Equally, itmust alsobesaidthatModi hasopenedupgreat Certainly amonthbefore theelectoral verdict, itdoes addresses crores ofyoung slow, centralised politics bjp Hangout, Modi directly Hangout, Modidirectly Indians impatient with Indians impatientwith Facebook andGoogle Through Twitter, ’s nationalexecutive, “Here, thelotusisnow getting bjp apparatus, now flushwithfunds(that are appar- “chhappan inchkichhati” brigade addresses young (56-inch chest) byModi Repeated invocation of namby-pamby leaders bjp/rss India’s fatigue with me. Vote forthemandhelp our candidates isa vote for quote Modi:“Your vote for BJP printandradio ads me build a strong and me buildastrong and him to dominate campaign RSS andBJPhave allowed prosperous India”. ads andhoardings,which paint himaslargerthan both thepartyand butfollowers ofModi who parivar bjp .” Theparty’s cover story UTTAM SENGUPTA

POLLWALTZ2014 The Hawk

MINORITIES and the Concerns and Fears: Growing certainty that intimidation of minorities will increase. Withdrawal of welfare schemes, scholarships expected. Given RSS support to Modi, he will be indebted to them. Huntsman Counter: Given the overhang of 2002 riots, Modi will be on his best behaviour. Gujarat has had the most riot-free 10 years. “Gujarat does not recognise minorities, has Today Modi faces few naysayers. never availed of grants for minority welfare and has not even set up a minority commission What will happen tomorrow? although it is a constitutional position.” Mohammed Salim, Former CPI(M) MP

HINK of any quality required in a leader

and ‘President’ Modi appears to have it. INDIA’S NEIGHBOURS T Concerns and Fears: Peace process with He’s the panacea for all our ills, an answer Pakistan will slow down; a small skirmish could to India’s search for a strong, decisive leader. snowball. Expect aggressive relations with Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka. He is visionary; a hard taskmaster; a strict Counter: A Modi regime will be keen to forge a disciplinarian, and an idealist who hasn’t lost the ability to new, nationalist foreign policy, but war is not dream. He is diligent, decisive and has a sense of purpose. on its mind. Of course, he has rich insight into human psychology and “Modi’s inexperience and lack of exposure to great strength of character. Beyond that mythical chest, he foreign policy is the biggest challenge. A tough is endowed with exceptional organisational abilities. His leader does not mean flexing one’s muscles.” heart bleeds for the country. He is a poet and patriot. Srinath Raghavan, senior research fellow, CPR Who could possibly be afraid of such a man? Yet, one senses the discomfort (and fear) in a growing number of people about Modi the man—his past, his meth- ods, and what he represents. Worryingly for a democracy, many of these people want to remain anonymous. A few TRADE UNIONS continue to speak out, regardless. A renowned sociologist, Concerns and Fears: Loose labour laws will still fighting a case of sedition in Gujarat, recently turned further weaken diminishing trade unions. Privatisation of PSUs could lead to job cuts, job down a request to speak on Modi at the Indian Habitat insecurity among workers. Centre in New Delhi. His lawyers, he informed the organis- Counter: The diminishing role of trade unions is ers, had advised him to keep his views to himself. One not a new trend; it has been taking place since increasingly sees this reluctance to speak out. People cite the the late 1980s. example of Medha Patkar, who was hounded for her stand “I fear that Modi’s labour reforms may lead to a on the Narmada till she compromised. Teesta Setalvad, the discard of welfare legislation, more hire-and-fire human rights activist, could get arrested any day, they point policies.” N.N.K. Kutty, president, Confederation out as justification for exercising abundant caution. of Central Govt Employees Even Modi’s soft-focus assurances don’t cut any ice. Megalomania is defined as an obsession with power and grandeur. The Hindi language has an even better word for it, atmamugdh or someone who is captivated by himself. The word sprang to life as Modi this week took three solemn

38 21 April 2014 OUTLOOK Who’s Afraid of President Modi? There are voices that say the top job comes with its own checks and balances, but every sector is fearful now

CIVIL SOCIETY EDUCATION Concerns and Fears: The clout of NGOs will Concerns and Fears: Rewriting of history diminish, they will face greater scrutiny. Civil textbooks, diminishing space for liberal values. society voices will be shut out and protests will Extra muscle to RSS affiliates. Greater push to be clamped down with an iron hand. commercialise education. Counter: There’s no denying that NGOs will be Counter: Educational bodies will get a marginalised, but Modi will not openly antagonise commercial push, but will surely be closely this lobby. Anyway, the UPA has been no better. observed, regulated in the age of social media. Plus, a natural balancing act is overdue. “Gujarat has not been a good model for social movements or voluntary organisations...their “Gujarat’s rank in education is declining among space is restricted.” P.V. Rajagopal, Ekta Parishad the top 20 states.” Indira Hirway, economist

FARMERS MEDIA Concerns and Fears: Farm sector subsidies Concerns and Fears: Attempts to regulate will be scaled down. Aggressive approach to media will get a boost, expect further pressures land acquisition, compensation, displacement. on media owners. Top-level editorial changes in past show Modi will use media to his benefit. Counter: The farmer will be a crucial construct of any NDA regime, with allies weighing in. Counter: The Modi regime is aware of how to work with media, will not go out of its way to “There is no clarity on how the BJP will tackle attack it. the problems in agriculture.” Prof Sudhir Panwar , Lucknow University “Modi will do nothing, he is fundamentally image-conscious. But he will rob the media of excessive flab.” Sheela Bhat, Rediff

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OUTLOOK 21 April 2014 39