OCTOBEROCTOBER 11, 2020 MAN-MADE THIS VIRUS IS INDEED DR LI-MENGYAN opens uponwhy INTERVIEW EXCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE she believes was created VIROLOGIST coronavirus END OFMANDIR-MASJID POLITICS E the novel N in alab D BABRIB DEMOLITIONCASE
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NE C RIM T Y E VOL. 38 NO. 41 THE WEEK OCTOBER 11 2020
FOR THE WEEK OCTOBER 5 - OCTOBER 11 26 46 63 ARVIND JAIN ARVIND PRASAD P. GETTY IMAGES TRIBUTE BABRI VERDICT @LEISURE Sir Harold Evans, the champion editor The judgment in the mosque With people trying to avoid dining who put his heart into investigative demolition case will have far- outside, the home chef business journalism for public good reaching implications is booming like never before
COVER STORY 20 CURRENT EVENTS 30 Despite high testing, COLUMNS Uttar Pradesh 11 POWER POINT struggles to contain Sachidananda Murthy Covid-19 because of other challenges 14 MANI-FESTO Mani Shankar Aiyar 24 WEST BENGAL 19 PMO BEAT The arrest of nine R. Prasannan suspected Al Qaeda 51 BITTER CHOCOLATE operatives throws up Swara Bhasker possible links between terror outfits in Bengal 57 IVORY TOWER Sanjaya Baru and Kashmir 74 LAST WORD 52 JUDICIARY Bibek Debroy Though there is growing unease over to dispose of cases the use of archaic involving lawmakers titles in courts, the tradition is hard to 58 BUSINESS PLANNED PANDEMIC? break The Shapoorji Pallonji Group can clear its After she alleged that the novel coronavirus was made in a 54 JUDICIARY debts if it sells its The Supreme Court lab in China, virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan had to flee Hong Kong. stake in Tata Sons. But and Parliament In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK from New York, she the sale is no cakewalk reiterates her theory and challenges her detractors to prove need to act swiftly otherwise. She even accuses the World Health Organization and COVER DESIGN BINESH SREEDHARAN the media of suppressing the truth PLUS Printed at Malayala Manorama Press, Kottayam, Print House India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, M P Printers, Noida, and Rajhans Enterprises, Bengaluru, X The allegations are questionable and inconclusive, says and published from Manorama Buildings, Panampilly Nagar, Kochi-682 writer-researcher Milan Sime Martinic 036, by Jacob Mathew, on behalf of the Malayala Manorama Co.Ltd., Kottayam-686 001. Editor Philip Mathew X Claims in Dr Yan’s paper, and counterclaims • Focus/Infocus features are paid marketing/PR initiatives K
OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 3 LETTERS FOCUS
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW KANE WILLIAMSON MODI’S LETTERS TO MOTHER GODDESS KASHMIR drug use as a social evil and multitask in the coming I DON’T ENCOURAGE MANKADING ‘MY EXCHANGES WITH HER CALMED ME’ WOMEN SOLDIERS JOURNALISM WITH A HUMAN TOUCH www.theweek.in TheWeekMag TheWeekLive 50 ON THE BORDER GAY LAWYER never glamourise it. days. So, from now on, it WHY CAN’T I BECOME ALL ABOUT HIGH COURT JUDGE? LT GOV R.K. MATHUR Also, the Narcotic Drugs will be good if students MORE ROUTES TO CONNECT SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 SEPTEMBER 27, LADAKH WITH REST OF INDIA and Psychotropic Substanc- do different courses at a es Act needs to be amended time, and not just focus KIDNEY STONES again. The punishment for on one (‘Work & the virus’, THE WEEK probes film world’s drug links consumption of drugs is far September 20). I agree that >OH[HYLRPKUL`Z[VULZ& WHPUM\S ;OPZ L_WSHPUZ ^O` ZVTL lesser than the punishment humans and technology are A kidney stone, also known as a renal WH[PLU[ZJHUOH]LL_[YLTLS`SHYNL for possession of drugs. more powerful together. We JHSJ\S\ZPZHZVSPKJY`Z[HSI\PSK\W Z[VULZÄSSPUN\W[OLPYLU[PYLRPKUL` Consuming drugs is also also cannot depend entirely MVYTLK PU [OL RPKUL`Z MYVT KPL[HY` with no or minimal pain. an equal crime. To say that on technology. TPULYHSZ PU [OL \YPUL :[VULZ JHU they were forced into it Tapesh Nagpal, VJJ\Y^P[OPU[OLRPKUL`P[ZLSMHZ^LSS >OH[HYL[OLWVZZPISL will not help and is not an On email. HZPU[OL\YL[LY[OL[\ILKYHPUPUN\YPUL JVTWSPJH[PVUZMYVTRPKUL`Z[VULZ& excuse. MYVT[OLRPKUL`VYPU[OLISHKKLY (S[OV\NO [OL WHPU VM RPKUL` Z[VULZ Dr Vivek Birla K.P. Tyagi, I went through your list JHUILZL]LYLJVTWSPJH[PVUZHYL\U-
® should be used more often onslaught’, September 20). Editor Philip Mathew CHILDREN’S EDUCATION SOCIETY during a military escalation Having failed miserably to Chief Associate Editor & Director Riyad Mathew Editor-in-Charge V.S. Jayaschandran THE OXFORD EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS with China. woo people of Tamil Nadu, Senior News Editor Stanley Thomas Rajesh Malik, the saffron party is now News Editor Lukose Mathew C.A. Site No. 40, 1st Phase, J P Nagar, Bangalore-560 078. On email. playing the religious card Deputy News Editors Mathew T. George, Maijo Abraham, Ajish P. Joy Ph: 080-6175 4501/502/ 603/656/626/551, 26654415 Fax: 080 26548658 to divide and rule the state. Resident Editor, Delhi K.S. Sachidananda Murthy Website: www.theoxford.edu Tibet was an independent People of Tamil Nadu are Chief of Bureau, Delhi R. Prasannan www.theoxfordengg.org country since time imme- fed up with the Union gov- Chief of Bureau, Mumbai Dnyanesh V. Jathar www.theoxfordmedical.org morial. It was closed for all ernment. They will not fall Deputy Chief of Bureau, Delhi Neeru Bhatia Chief Subeditors Susamma Kurian, E-mail: [email protected] countries, including China, into the traps of its leaders. Navin J. Antony for certain reasons. But it Tharcius S. Fernando, Senior Subeditors Anirudha Karindalam, he Oxford Educational Institutions to our success. Moreover, Academic In- Anirudh Madhavan always kept its doors open On email. was founded in the year 1974 under frastructure includes 50 acres with 3.20 Subeditors Diya Mathew, Karthik Ravindranath, the aegis of Children’s Education SHROZZXT[ZPUHSSÄ]LJHTW\ZLZH[17 for India. Tibetans, who Reuben Joe Joseph, Nirmal Jovial T Society (Regd.). Having a humble start Nagar, Bommanahalli, HSR Layout, Hon- live in India, say Tibet is The BJP is still nowhere in with 24 students and 2 teachers, The Ox- gasandra and Attibele with distinguished their motherland, but India the picture in Tamil Nadu SENIOR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS PRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENTS Delhi: Rekha Dixit, Mandira Nayar, Hyderabad: Rahul Devulapalli ford group has seen tremendous growth and modern buildings. is their fatherland. In the and its best bet continues to Namrata Biji Ahuja, Soni Mishra, Kochi: Anjuly Mathai K. Sunil Thomas and has proven to be a beacon in catering same manner we can say be Rajinikanth, though the Srinagar: Tariq Ahmad Bhat SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS knowledge to students globally over the INSTITUTIONAL HIGHLIGHTS that Tibet is our brother- matinee idol has been keep- Lucknow: Puja Awasthi Bengaluru: Mini P. Thomas, Kolkata: Rabi Banerjee last four decades. At present, there is a YAll Courses are Recognized by the Govt. land. China should vacate ing them on tenterhooks. Abhinav Singh Delhi: Sneha Bhura remarkable niche with 32 Educational VM 2HYUH[HRH (ɉSPH[LK [V JVUJLYULK SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS S.N.V.L. Narasimha Raju Tibet immediately. M. Karunanidhi held on to Mumbai: Priyanka Bhadani, Institutions right from nursery to post- Universities & Approved / Recognized Delhi: Pratul Sharma, Namita Kohli, Pooja Biraia Jaiswal President: Children’s Education Society ® Sudhansu S. Tunga, the party post even when he Pradip R. Sagar graduate and doctoral courses under by Apex bodies. Bengaluru: Prathima Nandakumar Chairman: The Oxford Educational Institutions Kolkata. was on his deathbed, and CHIEF REPORTER the leadership and tutelage of Late. Sri. Thiruvananthapuram: Cithara Paul YThe Oxford Medical College, Hospital it was only after his demise Mumbai: Nachiket Kelkar UAE: Raju Mathew, Dubai S. Narasa Raju, Founder Chairman and The Tibetan force should that his son Stalin took over Chennai Lakshmi Subramanian have stepped forward from strength to & Research Centre recognized by GOI Bhopal: Sravani Sarkar & MCI, New Delhi, with sprawling 30 be encouraged to be at the the DMK. Stalin, however, Ahmedabad: Nandini Gunavantrai Oza strength under the dynamic leadership acres of land at Attibele provides free YThe Oxford College of Engineering is forefront, at the Chinese has not wasted much time of Sri S.N.V.L Narasimha Raju, President Photo Editor: Sanjoy Ghosh Art Editor: Jayakrishnan M.T. treatment for 1400 outpatients & 550 Accredited by NBA & NAAC, recog- border, along with the Indi- in appointing his son Ud- and Chairman. Deputy Photo Editors Assistant Art Editor: Binesh Sreedharan PUWH[PLU[ZWLYKH`VɈLYPUNTLKPJHS nized as a Research centre by VTU. an Army. The Army should hayanidhi to the post that Bhanu Prakash Chandra, Salil Bera Senior Infographic Gently moving forward, like adding a Chief Photographers Sreemanikandan S. education in MBBS, MD/MS in 18 Spe- YThe Oxford College of Science and Col- provide them the latest he had held. This has not Designer: feather to our cap, we are happy to have Delhi: Arvind Jain, Sanjay Ahlawat Illustrator: B. Bhaskaran cialties, 9 B.Sc & Diploma courses in lege of Business Management are Ac- Mumbai: Amey Suhas Mansabdar reached the pinnacle with 8 Schools, 20 weapons and train them gone down well with some Layout Artist: B. Manojkumar Photographer allied health sciences. credited by NAAC, recognized by UGC Designers: Deni Lal, Job P.K. Colleges with 6 pre-university, 26 diplo- even harder. of the senior leaders in the Delhi: Aayush Goel under section 2(f) & 12(B) and holds Re- We have already won the DMK. Chief Picture Coordinator Graphic Designer: Syam Krishnan mas, 35 graduate and 18 Postgraduate YThe Oxford Dental College is accred- Bimal Nath C. Artists: Rajesh A.S., Sumesh C.N., search centers recognized by Banga- hearts of the Tibetans, and C.V. Aravind, programs. We have highly enriched 56 ited by NAAC and announced as a Re- Research: Jomy M. Joseph Sujesh K., Ajeesh Kumar M., Jairaj T.G. branches of PhD programs also added search centre by RGUHS. lore University. I want PM Narendra Modi On email. Photo Archivist: Deepak Joy T. Senior Researcher: Rani G.S. to visit the Dalai Lama one YThe Oxford College of Pharmacy is ac- credited by NAAC, Recognized by UGC of these days. That will add What if it were you? THEWEEK.IN under Section 2(f). insult to injury as far as the One expects a little better New Media Coordinator Neeraj Krishnan Chinese are concerned. realisation and statement of Deputy New Media Coordinator Sarath Ramesh Kuniyl YThe Oxford College of Nursing is ac- Devender Tokas, facts from Anuja Chauhan Senior Subeditors Hazeeda Vijayakumar, Sumitra Nair, credited by NAAC with The Oxford Vaisakh E. Hari, Ancy K. Sunny, On email. (‘Schizo-nation’, Jose K. George, Justin Paul George Medical College & Hospital for clinical Subeditors Vinod V.K., Anita Babu, Varun Ramesh facilities. September 20). Balan Stay away Kangana Ranaut is facing Senior Researcher Saju C. Daniel YThe Oxford College of Physiotherapy is Rahul J. Mohan, Vipin Das P. BJP It should be under- the declared and demon- Multimedia approved by IAP, accredited by NAAC & stood well that Tamil strated might of the entire Executive Director George Jacob Recognized by UGC under Section 2(f). Nadu—a state nurtured by Maharashtra state, led by Vice President, Marketing, Advertising Sales Varghese Chandy Y Day and Evening programs in Poly- Periyar E.V.R., C.N. Anna- a certain political party. I Vice President, Circulation M. Rajagopalan Nair technic, PUC, Hotel Management and durai and M. Karunanidhi would like to know how Senior General Manager, Sales Hari M. Varrier MUMBAI ,K\JH[PVUHYLM\UJ[PVUPUNH[175HNHY in Dravidian ideologies Anuja would have stood, Resident Chief General Manager Shree Kumar Menon Campus. and culture—can never sane and determined, if she CHENNAI Regional Chief General Manager K.C. Suresh Our goal is to focus on cultivating re- embrace a party like the was at the receiving end of BENGALURU sponsibility, patriotism, moral values and BJP which has ideologies such threats. Regional Chief General Manager Ranjit Kurien creativity among the students and ensure NEW DELHI diagonally opposite to Dra- C. Prakas, Chief Marketing Officer (North) & to groom students to meet the global vidian teachings (‘Saffron Delhi. Head, Special Projects R. Rajmohan challenges.
6 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER11, 2020 • THE WEEK 7 APERITIF THE BIG PICTURE
DEATH, PENALTY Many Indians are still reluctant to wear a mask, confounding even the ‘god of death’. In a desperate attempt to make people wear masks, and in turn control the spread of Covid-19, authorities in Delhi are turning to Hindu mythology. A man in a Yama costume scolds the maskless at the India Gate.
PHOTO BY AAYUSH GOEL
8 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 9 APERITIF POWER POINT SACHIDANANDA MURTHY POINT BLANK MILESTONES
MAGICAL HANDS These boys and girls are Australia’s Alyssa Healy broke unlike the stars of yester- Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s record for Foodstuff for thought year who were not obsessed most dismissals (92 in 99 innings) with their physical fitness. by a wicketkeeper in T20Is. Healy In fact, today’s actors spend achieved this feat in the second T20I here was much amusement in 2012 when the List and the State List, which give specific law-mak- two to three hours in the against New Zealand at the Allan Pakistan supreme court spent considerable ing powers to only the Union government or state gym. Do they look like drug Border Field in Brisbane on Septem- Ttime on whether the government has the right governments, the Concurrent List gives equal riding addicts? They are extremely ber 27. to fix the price of asamosa at 6. After lengthy argu- rights, though there are provisions when a Central professional and responsible ments by bakers’ association and the government, law will prevail over a state law on the same subject. people. the lordships decided that samosa could not be Though agriculture is Entry 14 in the State List, the Javed Akhtar, subject to a fixed price, as the price of its ingredients, founding fathers brought confusion with Entry 33 of
AFP lyricist including meat, fluctuated widely. the Concurrent List, which says both governments If the Pakistan supreme court allowed cases to control “trade and commerce in, and the produc- pile up while examining the stuffing ofsamosas , the The focus now is on six words: save tion, supply and distribution of...., foodstuff, includ- farmers, save workers, save democracy. Indian Supreme Court may now be asked to define ing edible oils and seeds.” The government, with its many pliant AFP the meaning of ‘foodstuff’. This word, which is used Agriculture, broadly, includes food and non-food media houses, will try hard to distract MESSIAH OF MIGRANTS in the Constitution, would be at the heart of the dis- (for example, cotton) crops. States have assumed the you. Young India, stay sharp. Stay Actor Sonu Sood has been conferred pute between the Centre and states on agricultural right over it ever since the Constitution came into vigilant. with the SDG Special Humanitarian marketing reforms. force in 1950. All states have enacted agricultural Derek O’Brien, Action Award by the United Nations These reform bills were declared produce marketing laws. MP, Trinamool Congress leader Development Programme for his passed amidst din in Parliament, Now, the Centre has asserted philanthropy during the Covid-19 without allowing for voting. The its own right to bring changes not In these turbulent times, where we find lockdown. The award was presented resentment has spilled into the only in trade in but also in produc- ourselves confined in our living spaces, I have realised how important it is to to Sood in a virtual ceremony on streets even as the prime minister tion, supply and distribution of fulfil the urge of travelling. In these September 28. has described the reforms as his- ‘foodstuff’. The dictionary defines times when going has got tough, I have toric benefit for the farmers. ‘foodstuff’ as a substance suitable often found myself reflecting on my There was discord in the ruling for consumption as food or to make previous travels. NDA, and one of its founders, Akali food. Thus, ‘foodstuff’ could mean Aaditya Thackeray, Dal, walked out of it, as violence agricultural products, which are Shiv Sena leader PTI erupted in Punjab and other states. The Congress consumed, or are processed to be made into food. We’re living in difficult times and I said the reforms were a prelude to dismantling the Interestingly, neither the food minister (Ram Vilas Shiv Sena should again join hands with honestly think that a lot of people minimum support price for foodgrains, and that the Paswan) nor the food processing minister (Harsim- BJP. If Shiv Sena doesn’t come with us, are frustrated. And somehow that is benefit would now go to bigbusiness groups, push- rat Kaur, who resigned in protest) moved the new I appeal to Sharad Pawar to join NDA coming out on social media and you PTI for the development of the state. He can see how much it has erupted. ing farmers into debt. laws. They were moved by Narendra Singh Tomar, may get a big post in the future. There There’s been a lot more hate in the EYEING SKY Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked her par- the agriculture minister. is no advantage in staying with Shiv last few months on social media Hyderabad based space-technology ty’s chief ministers in Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattis- While the battles would be fought in Parliament Sena. than it was before. startup Skyroot Aerospace unveiled garh and Puducherry to pass their own state-specific and in courts, the real test for the reforms would be Ramdas Athawale, Sania Mirza, India’s first bills to nullify the effect of the new Central law. The in the marketplace. Narendra Modi is sure that the Union minister, on the Nationalist tennis player privately devel- Centre’s lawyers say that even if they pass the bills, freeing of farmers from the control of the agricultural Congress Party president oped cryogenic these cannot become law without the assent of Pres- produce marketing committees would give them the rocket engine, ident Ram Nath Kovind, who has to act on the advice freedom to sell ‘foodstuff’ anywhere in the country Dhawan 1, on of the Central government. But, Sonia’s move is to for advantageous prices. WORD PLAY September 25. gain political mileage by saying that the protection- In the government’s eyes, it is an eternal rainbow The 3D-print- ist proposals of states are blocked by an apathetic for the farmers, while the opponents fear a dark age syndrome is an under-recognised psychological condition affecting Boreout ed engine is Central government. workers across the world. Boreout is a state of extreme boredom and depression without guaranteed prices for farmers. The fickle caused by there being no work or too little of it, over a long period of time. Bored- named after re- At the heart of the dispute is Entry 33 in the Con- economic weather of the country alone will deter- out workers tend to have lower job satisfaction and low self-esteem. And, it is as nowned Indian current List of the Constitution. Unlike the Union mine what the skies hold for the farmers. distressing as a burnout. scientist Satish Dhawan. ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN [email protected]
10 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 11 APERITIF PARTY SNACKS
UNPOPULAR RECRUITS CASTE It is rare for the two prominent factions of the BJP Kerala unit to agree on matters. EQUATION But a single act by the national leadership Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh seems to have elicited identical responses has been taking incessant from both groups. The elevation of two potshots at UP Chief Minister recently recruited minority faces from the Yogi Adityanath. The Aam Congress—A.P. Abdullakutty and Tom Aadmi Party leader’s Vadakkan—to plum posts in the state has overarching allegation is that the upset leaders in both groups. While some state government has promoted have openly sulked over the move, others Thakurs over other castes, are seething in anger in private. particularly Brahmins. He issued a list of top officers in the administration and the police who were Thakurs. But BJP leaders were quick to pounce on the list, which listed many non- Thakurs. There are also calls for Singh to speak out against the many shortcomings of his own MASKMA MADNESS party’s government in Delhi. CoveringCo one’s nose and mouth with a mask seems to be a challengec for many politicians. Recently, Vishweshwar HeHegde Kageri, speaker of the Karnataka assembly, had a toughto time reminding members of the house to not llowerow their masks while speaking. First-time MLA Soumya RReddye protested their irresponsible behaviour and even tthreatenedhr to walk out. On the last day of the session, memembers indulged in a shouting match, and the social ddistancingis protocol went out the window. Since then, at lleastea two MLAs have tested positive for Covid-19.
FRIENDS TURNED FOES? POWER SNAG Poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s recent Madhya Pradesh Home Minister visit to Chandigarh has set off intense Narottam Mishra’s fortunes seem to speculation over him being roped in yet be nosediving. From being a chief again to plan the Congress’s campaign ministerial candidate earlier this year, for the 2022 state elections. If Kishor he is now facing severe backlash for his does accept the Congress brief in refusal to wear a mask in public. Also, DETECTIVED DREZE Punjab, he would be taking on the Aam despite hailing from Gwalior, he is not ThereTh is more trouble in the fields. Economist Jean Aadmi Party, whose campaign he had contributing to the campaign for the DrDreze is plotting murder. Fictional, of course. Dreze, designed in the Delhi elections earlier upcoming bypolls in the district. While it wwhoh was a member of the UPA government’s National this year. After the AAP’s resounding is known that he is not on best terms with AdAdvisory Council, has written a novel that begins as a victory in Delhi, there were speculations Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, mumurder mystery. Set in rural India, Rumble in a Village on whether the association between the current reduction in Mishra’s power iiss based on his observations as a researcher travelling Kishor and the party would carry over is attributed to the relative inactivity of acacross the country. The book, however, is not a solo to Punjab, but that does not seem to be ailing Union Home Minister Amit Shah, jjob.ob It was co-written with mathematician Luc Leruth, the case. considered Mishra’s political guardian. wwhoh has trained in astronomy and has a PhD in ececonomics. Village life is certainly not quiet.
ILLUSTRATIONS JAIRAJ T.G.
12 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 13 INFOCUS
MANI-FESTO MANI SHANKAR AIYAR MAHATMA’S UNFINISHED WORK “ELIMINATING LEPROSY IS THE ONLY WORK I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO COMPLETE IN MY LIFETIME- M. K. GANDHI”
HOH[TH.HUKOP»Z]PZPVU^HZUV[ VUS`[V[YLH[WLVWSLHɈLJ[LKI` Whither parliamentary democracy? 4SLWYVZ` I\[ [V IYPUN [OLT PU[V [OL THPUZ[YLHT ;OL 3LWYVZ` 4PZZPVU ;Y\Z[ 0UKPH ;34;0 OHZ ILLU WP]V[HS PU IYPUNPUNOVSPZ[PJOLHSPUNZVJPHSPUJS\ZPVU fter 13 months of incarceration, Dr Farooq Farooq with cries of “Ab bolo ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’”. HUKHSPMLVMKPNUP[`[V[LUZVM[OV\ZHUKZVM Abdullah, MP and several times chief min- Farooq admitted this was true “because we stood WLVWSLHɈLJ[LKI`SLWYVZ`HUKKPZHIPSP[` ister of Jammu and Kashmir, awaited his with India”, adding, “many of them felt, ‘Well good! A ZPUJL ;34;0»ZOVZWP[HSZH[(`V- 4HOH[TH.HUKOPHS^H`ZZHPK[OH[^L opportunity to speak in Parliament. The speaker They deserve it’”. But now, the Gupkar Declara- KO`H7YH`HNYHQ)HYHIHURP+LSOP2VSR- ULLK[V^VYR[VNL[OLY[VLSPTPUH[L[OPZ Leprosy, PMUV[KPHNUVZLKPU[PTLYL- had promised to give him time. In the event, he tions of August 2019 and 2020 have “bought all the H[H 7\Y\SPH 1HUQNPY*OHTWH 4\UNLSP KPZLHZLMYVTV\YJV\U[ `3L[\ZWSL KNL[V Z\S[ZPUZL]LYLKLMVYTP[PLZHUKKPZHIPS- was allowed a minute at the start of the session and parties together”. They realise, “divided we cannot (TYH]H[P :HUNSP =PSS\W\YHT 4HUHTH- LSPTPUH[LSLWYVZ`PUV\YSPML[PTL P[PLZ*OPSKYLUHZ`V\UNHZ`LHYVSK another minute at the end of it. This is what has win our battle…. Every party is putting their per- K\YHP:HS\YHUK4\aHɈHYW\YHJYVZZ HYLILPUNHKTP[[LK[V;34;0»ZOVZWP[HSZ happened to our parliamentary democracy. sonal differences aside for the greater cause of the Z[H[LZVM0UKPHWYV]PKLMYLLZWLJPHSPZLK We seek CSR support for: ^P[O.YHKL00KPZHIPSP[PLZ]PZPISLKHTHNL Compelled, therefore, to tell Karan Thapar in an dignity of the people.” While no one wants to be a SLWYVZ`JHYLHUKYLOHIPSP[H[PVU :WVUZVYZOPWVMZ[\KLU[ZH[V\YZRPSS ZL]LYLYLHJ[PVUZHUKV[OLYSLWYVZ`HZZV- ;34;0»Z H^HYK^PUUPUN ]VJH[PVU- interview what he had wanted to tell the nation Pakistani, the present thralldom is driving all the JLU[YLZ JPH[LKKHTHNL>OPSL;34;0»ZKVJ[VYZ on the floor of the house, Farooq said the “trust” regions—Jammu, the Kashmir valley and Ladakh— HS [YHPUPUN JLU[YLZ WYV]PKL MVYTHS ZRPSS ^VYROHYK[VJVYYLJ[[OLZLKLMVYTP[PLZ 5L^OVZWP[HSI\PSKPUNZ on which the “unity of the Muslim-majority state into the embrace of the Chinese, notwithstanding [YHPUPUNZPU[YHKLZSPRL+PLZLS4LJOHUPJZ HUK ZH]L [OLZL JOPSKYLU MYVT KL]LSVW- with India” was based has been their treatment of Chinese >LSKPUN4V[VYTLJOHUPJ*VTW\[LYZ 4LKPJHSLX\PWTLU[ PUNWLYTHULU[KPZHIPSP[PLZ^LHSZV^VYR broken, the “emotional bond” Uighur Muslims. :L^PUN[LJOUVSVNPLZ[V`V\UNHK\S[ZHM- :WVUZVYZOPWVMWH[PLU[Z^P[O [V^HYKZKLZ[PNTH[PZH[PVUHUKJYLH[PUN has “completely gone”, and There could have been a MLJ[LKI`SLWYVZ`HUKKPZHIPSP[`HUKWYV- Z\YNPJHSULLKZ H^HYLULZZ>LULLK`V\YZ\WWVY[[VNP]L ]PKL[OLTWSHJLTLU[Z[OYV\NOLTWSV`- [OLZLJOPSKYLUHZLJVUKJOHUJLH[SPMLHUK “they [Kashmiris] do not feel reasoned rebuttal because Par- 3P]LSPOVVKZ\WWVY [MVY[OLWL VWSLPU LYZ»UL[^VYR [VLUZ\YL[OH[UVJOPSKZ\ɈLYZMYVT[OL Indian” anymore because “they liament is all about the cut and JVTT\UP[` KLZ[HIPSPZPUNPTWHJ[VMSLWYVZ` are sick of what they are having thrust of argument. I remem- :\WWVY[MVYJHYLOVTLZ to put up with. Every street has ber my first visit to Parliament :\WWVY[VUHK]VJHJ`JHTWHPNUZ IN THE LAST 5 YEARS TLMTI a soldier with an AK-47, a po- in 1960 as an 18-year old col- :\WWVY[MVYYLZLHYJOSHIVYH[VY` )LULÄ[[LKTVYL[OHUTPSSPVUWH[PLU[Z liceman; every street, every vil- lege student to watch Comrade ,X\PWWLK WLVWSL^P[OSP]LSPOVVK lage”, their “dreams are gone, S.A. Dange light into Prime ZRPSSZ their children do not know their Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for >LUL L KL]L Y `VUL»ZZ\WWVY [PUV\Y ÄNO[HNHPUZ[SLWYVZ`;VKVUH[L )LULÄ[[LK TVYL [OHU SHRO WLVWSL future” and “if I speak of India over an hour for dismissing WSLHZL]PZP[ [OYV\NOJVTT\UP[`KL]LSVWTLU[PU[LY- anywhere, they do not want to one of the first democrati- TLMTI is winner of International Gandhi Award 2019 ^^^SLWYVZ`TPZZPVUPUKVUH[L ]LU[PVUZ listen”. Kashmir had joined “Gandhi’s India, not cally elected communist governments in world Modi’s India”. “What is this? Is this democratic history—the E.M.S. Namboodiripad government 3LWYVZ` PZ Z[PSS OH\U[PUN [OL ^VYSK India? Is it Gandhi’s India?” in Kerala—while an impassive Nehru sat alert (JJVYKPUN[V[OL>VYSK/LHS[O6YNHUP- aH[PVU»ZSH[LZ[KH[H0UKPHOHZ VM[OL Asked why then there have been no protests, throughout the denunciation and there was no NSVIHSJHZLSVHK^P[O UL^JHZLZ Farooq replied, “How can you have protests interruption from the Congress benches. Then, in KL[LJ[LKPU ;OLZHKWHY[PZ[OH[JOPS- when every street is full of soldiers?” And, he then the middle of the Chinese invasion of October-No- KYLUHYLNL[[PUNHɈLJ[LKI`SLWYVZ`>L added ominously, “The minute you remove those vember 1962, Nehru arranged for both houses to H[;34;0HYLJVTTP[[LK[V[OLJH\ZLVM soldiers, lakhs will be on the streets… You can reconvene to debate and denounce the failures of SLWYVZ`HUK^V\SKSPRL[VZLL0UKPHMYLLVM All donations are tax-exempted keep the entire Indian Army there, but one day the his foreign policy. That was democracy then. [OPZKPZLHZLI` volcano will blow.” India, he said, still holds “the Now, we have a prime minister running scared of under section 80G of the Income land, with force, but they have lost the people.” The listening to the truth about what he and his home Tax Act, 1961. fight would not end until the abrogated articles, minister have wreaked in Jammu and Kashmir. www.leprosymission.in decreed “‘permanent’ by the Supreme Court”, are Instead, he ducks Parliament and treats himself reinstituted; the division of the state rescinded; the to unchallenged monologues on our state media. “honour” and “dignity” of the people restored. That might have worked in Zia-ul-Haq’s Pakistan Thapar reminded Farooq that when all this hap- but is incompatible with the norms and practices pened in August last year, Kashmiris had taunted of our 70-year old democracy. For more details Contact E-mail: [email protected] I W h a t s A p p: +91 - 8 8 6 0 071874 ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator. Registration 12 A 80G FCRA NITIAAYOG IICA
14 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 15 16 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 17 PMO BEAT R. PRASANNAN A minister and a gentleman
he president swears in all Union ministers general came, and carpet-bombed the summit with to oaths of office and secrecy. But in 1998, Kashmir talk. Cabinet colleague Yashwant Sinha Tthe PM House witnessed a strange swear- records in his memoirs that Jaswant had trusted the ing-in, where the prime minister administered the Pakistanis again and agreed to a draft joint state- oath of secrecy (not of office) to two men. One was ment that made no mention of the Shimla pact or Pramod Mahajan; the other was Jaswant Singh who cross-border terrorism. The summit crashed as L.K. passed away on Sunday. Advani and Yashwant put their foot down, and the Jaswant had lost the 1998 polls. The RSS, which general took a midnight flight back home. had many grouses against the anglicised aristocrat Vajpayee still trusted him, investing even the (including his temerity to walk into their sancti- defence job with Jaswant when George Fernandes fied premises with his shoes on), insisted that no had to briefly stay out of the cabinet following the poll-losers be taken into the cabinet. So Atal Bihari Coffingate. “I wish I had these two departments,” a Vajpayee, who wanted to confide in Jaswant and jealous US secretary of state Colin Powell quipped. Mahajan matters of governance Jaswant believed that Indians and atom bomb tests, swore and India ought to carry their heads them to secrecy on the PM high. As finance minister later, he House lawns. let every Indian carry up to $25,000 When the world came down on when flying abroad and spend in bomb-maker India like a tonne style, marking the beginning of capi- of yellow cakes, Vajpayee sent tal account convertibility. Jaswant to Washington to ‘in- He held his head high always. terlocute’ with deputy secretary Though he left the Army as a major, Strobe Talbott. Soon, Vajpayee its cavalry culture stayed with him. got Jaswant into the Rajya Sabha He wore shirts with shoulder flaps and made him de jure foreign that looked like epaulettes. He chose minister. Talbott, who met his words carefully—whether in di- Jaswant at 10 locations in seven plomacy, in Parliament or a private countries, was so overwhelmed chat—to achieve what the Victori- by Jaswant’s deft diplomacy as an virtuoso of literature Matthew well as Victorian English, British manners, boom- Arnold would have conceded was a ‘grand style’. ing voice and military demeanour that he showed Rarely would he mention a fellow-MP by name, but this specimen from the pre-World War era to his by the constituency he or she represented. In the wife. She cooked a dinner for Jaswant. house he was particularly fond of “the honourable Jaswant had also sent Vajpayee on a bus to member from Bolpur,” the communist barrister Lahore, apparently to tell Talbott and the world Somnath Chatterjee. that the atom-armed neighbours could also make Once he used the style to put down Congress’s peace. Sadly, the bus mission got hijacked to Kargil South Bombay MP Murli Deora, known for his ties heights by Pakistan’s commando-general Pervez with tycoons. He called Deora “the honourable Musharraf. member from Nariman Point,” much to the mirth That was the problem with Jaswant. He could of Deora himself. not fathom diplomatic deception. He took every- Tailpiece: Jaswant met his match in a backbencher. one to be a gentleman like him who honoured a As he ended a long-winded speech in his clipped word given. So it was at Agra where he organised a English, someone quipped aloud: “Can we have an Vajpayee-Musharraf summit with no agenda. The English translation of the speech, please?”
PHOTO SANJAY AHLAWAT [email protected]
18 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 19 CURRENT EVENTS UTTAR PRADESH Utter chaos Despite a high number of tests, Uttar Pradesh struggles to contain Covid-19 because of other challenges
BY PUJA AWASTHI
ON AUGUST 16—the seventh day “Her symptoms pointed to Covid-19, of running a high fever—Ragini Ast- but we could not get an RT-PCR hana’s breath became wheezy. The test despite a chief medical officer 56-year-old teacher was rushed to (CMO) from another district calling the Pandit Uma Shankar Dixit hospi- the hospital for it,” said Asthana’s tal in her hometown Unnao. She did nephew Ankur Khare. “Losing her is an antigen test for Covid-19, which difficult. Not knowing what we lost came back negative. But her oxygen her to is more difficult.” The family and blood pressure fell rapidly. She then got prescriptions from a doctor was then referred to the Ursula Hors- in Kolkata for tests at private labs. man Memorial Hospital, Kanpur, and One member tested positive and has was admitted to the ICU on the first since died. floor. By then, Asthana could barely Asthana’s case illustrates multiple move. Yet, in the absence of a cathe- strands in Uttar Pradesh’s Covid-19 KUMAR PAWAN ter, she had to drag herself to the only struggle. There is testing, but not TEST POINT People queue up toilet available on the ground floor, necessarily of the right kind. The for a Covid 19 test from where the hospital’s Covid-19 situation magnifies staff shortages outside a hospital wing operated. Her oxygen levels in hospitals and how non-Covid pa- counter in Lucknow improved slightly before plummet- tients bear its brunt. It highlights the ing again. Family members said that helplessness of health care workers, the same nurses and doctors moved many without the basic protection there is an ongoing inquiry into the the pandemic, went on summer College and Hospital, 38 patients between the ICU and the Covid-19 of gloves. With more than three lakh procurement of pulse oximeters and break. Multiple doctors said that requiring Level 3 (L3) care died ward. When they asked an attendant cases, Uttar Pradesh is one of the five thermometers by panchayats above key management positions in as it was only equipped with L2 to wear gloves, they were asked to states that contribute to almost 60 the mandated prices. The state ranks hospitals were filled by political It is easy to facilities. The management re- provide the same. per cent of the country’s caseload. sixth from last on the country’s list of push and there was a crippling judge negatively. fused to comment, but THE WEEK Around 4:30am on August 19, after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has doctors to population ratio. One in communication gap. Right up to the accessed a review report that read, receiving four injections over two been relentless. Every morning at five posts of laboratory technicians is “The crisis was not understood,” “Patients with co-morbidities are days to stabilise her blood pressure, 10, he huddles with Team 11—a bu- vacant. Most government hospitals said a doctor serving in a Covid-19 CM’s office not assessed.... The control room Asthana was declared dead. The reaucratic steering committee for the do not follow the protocol of having ICU. “Its management is unevenly people are is not functional... Most deaths family was given, what they call, a pandemic. He travels constantly to at least 20 per cent beds in the ICU, distributed. The same doctors and working 24x7 occur between 10pm and 8am as temporary death certificate without monitor the districts, and has pushed needed for the increasing number of nurses keep working instead of to manage this doctors do not take rounds.” the hospital’s stamp. It listed cardi- for the highest number of single-day critical patients. having a pool to draw from. The Nuzhat Husain, officiating -di orespiratory arrest as the cause of tests. He is ably helped by a health Also, the lockdown was not wholly way we are forced to work is un- situation. rector of the Ram Manohar Lohia immediate death. Chronic obstruc- minister (see interview) known to utilised. Ambulance drivers in many ethical and inhuman.” At the same Nuzhat Husain, officiating Institute of Medical Sciences tive pulmonary disease was the an- keep his head down and work with- districts struck work over delayed hospital, resident doctors on duty director, Ram Manohar Lohia (RMLIMS)—one of the three tecedent cause. The family said that out making big statements. salaries. Existing manpower was not for seven straight days begged to Institute of Medical Sciences government institutions providing she had never experienced breathing Yet all is not well. readied. In Lucknow, for instance, resign. Covid-19 care in Lucknow—said, distress earlier. Her body came in a The state’s public health care the faculty of many super specialty Private hospitals have faltered. “It is easy to judge negatively. bag with injunctions to not open it. system is crippled by corruption— hospitals, instead of training for At Lucknow’s TSM Medical Right up to the CM’s office people
20 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 21 CURRENT EVENTS UTTAR PRADESH Given our population Q INTERVIEW size, we have fared much better BY PUJA AWASTHI PAWAN KUMAR PAWAN Q/How has Uttar Pradesh respond- A/UP has been short of medical STITCH IN TIME ed to the pandemic so far? and paramedical manpower even A tailor makes Jai Pratap Singh, A/We have more than 1.55 lakh beds otherwise. For [the current] situation masks by the health minister, Uttar Pradesh roadside in at different levels of care. We started we have permitted open tenders Lucknow with just 7,200 tests [per day] but from the market. The response has have now touched 1.5 lakh plus tests been 50-50. The most acute need is A/We had reduced the rate of RT-PCR a day. We started with antigen and of pharmacists and lab technicians, tests from 2,000 to 1,600 as the cost are working 24x7 to manage this fears, are also harassed. On Sep- hours only to be told that he could pool testing. TrueNAT machines but if doctors are willing to come, we of reagents came down. Many states situation. We have done well on the tember 4, the district magistrate of not be tested despite his temperature were installed in one go in all dis- shall welcome them. We have been had introduced similar rate cuts, but testing front in terms of numbers and Raebareli allegedly called the CMO a being high. He went to another gov- tricts. CBNAAT machine—used to asking the private sector and the In- in a meeting with private laboratories reach. We are conducting molecular donkey and threatened to skin him. ernment centre but the designated test for tuberculosis—were also put dian Medical Association to help us. we understood the cost they had to tests in places like Azamgarh and Sachin Vaish, chairperson of the testing time was over. The next day, at to use for Covid-19. Existing AYUSH doctors have been bear. Now the rates have been read- Banda—unimaginable six months Provincial Medical Services Asso- a third centre he was told there were If we compare ourselves to other trained to work in Covid-19 care. justed, and they are testing. ago. The situation is evolving. We are ciation, said that such complaints no test kits. A desperate Sarkar took states, then given our population of keeping pace.” were common. “We do not want rose to social media. “I was distraught,” 23 crore, we have fared much better. Q/Do you think the government Q/Has the government relied too Director General of Health Deven- petals or the beating of thalis. We he said. “For hours, I retweeted every Our strategy is testing, intensive places extra emphasis on test num- much on bureaucracy, instead of dra Singh Negi said that the state was demand respect,” he said. “Every- Covid-related tweet with a comment surveillance, contact tracing and bers at the cost of quality? the medical experts, to manage the doing well. He said paediatricians, one is under pressure, but that is no to draw attention to myself.” There home isolation or hospitalisation if Our teams have been strictly in- pandemic? physicians and chest specialists were excuse for foul words and mistreat- was no response from the state ma- need be…. Multiple levels of surveil- structed to do quality testing and A/The bureaucracy is important being trained to manage BiPAP ma- ment.” The burden on doctors is also chinery. On day five, as he stood for lance are in place such as the chief not just test randomly for the sake as the challenges of the pandemic chines and high-flow nasal cannulas attributed to the undue influence of hours in another line, the kits ran out minister’s helpline, the chief medical of numbers. The kind of test and the have to be met on multiple fronts by (both systems to pump oxygen). Nurs- bureaucrats in the Covid-19 manage- again. “I threatened to call the media. officers and the local health centres. result determine the number of tests. multiple departments such as the es, ward boys and sanitation workers ment. Negi, an anaesthetist, though It was only then that I was tested,” Health workers from my local com- For example, an antigen test can give industry, police, panchayati raj, ani- were trained for infection control and discounted this view. said Sarkar, who tested negative. munity health centre came to check a reliable result when a person is mal husbandry, revenue, agriculture biomedical waste management. Dr Kafeel Khan, the paediatrician The state’s media is walking a on me when I was sick [Singh was Covid-positive. If it yields a negative, and health. The Team-11 approach However, video training or quick at the centre of the 2017 Gorakhpur blurry line, often running blind items tested positive for Covid-19 in July] it is sent for RT-PCR testing [for fur- (at the state capital and the dis- courses do not translate into the tragedy (wherein 70 children at the with racy headlines. One report was without knowing who I was. ther confirmation]. tricts) is very good as it provides for ability to offer critical care. As Pravin Baba Raghav Das Medical College titled, ‘Doctors gobble food worth coordinated Covid-19 management Kumar Das, the anaesthesiologist died owing to stoppage of oxygen lakhs’—this, for news about money Q/How have you tackled the short- Q/Why have private laboratories and also ensures that other essential in-charge for RMLIMS’s Covid-19 supply), said, “The state’s health spent on transporting and quarantin- age of medical manpower? been hesitant to test? activities do not suffer. hospital, said, “A nurse with years system is a white elephant. When ing doctors who came off Covid-19 of ICU experience has instincts that doctors and health workers do good, duty in hotels. cannot be developed overnight.” they are penalised. Who will dare Husain said that while the media Negi said that the state was geared speak about shortcomings?” is eager to criticise, society should to meet the need for increased Deficiencies in Lucknow offer a be asked to be responsible, too. The oxygen supply. “Though we have window into how critical the state’s High Court has stepped in to ensure not faced shortages, we are giving challenges are. On August 2, Sudeep some public accountability by pro- licences to new suppliers in the Sarkar, 44, the owner of a printing nouncing that those without masks shortest possible time,” he said. “We press, tried to get a Covid-19 test be penalised. will reduce production of industrial done at a government health centre. Uttar Pradesh’s Covid-19 trials have gases and divert capacity to oxygen He had high fever, body pain and la- just started. When it shall look back production, if needed. A big oxygen boured breathing. Sarkar lives alone to list what was lost and gained, the plant is coming up in Modinagar.” and drove himself for a test after pop- dead like Asthana will need answers Doctors, besides battling their own ping a pill. He stood in line for two like the living.
22 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 WEST BENGAL AL QAEDA Spreading terror The arrest of nine suspected Al Qaeda operatives throws up possible links between PTI
terror outfits in Bengal and Kashmir PHOTOS IN THE DOCK The nine men the NIA BY RABI BANERJEE arrested on September 19
IN 2014, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the were plotting a “major bloodletting” Pakistan-based groups. NIA sources successor of Osama bin Laden, in Delhi and other parts of India. The said that some of the accused had before the arrests, Dhankhar said, released a video saying he had set agency had recovered country-made visited Srinagar and other areas in “The director general is burying his up an organisation called Al Qaeda firearms and a few conventional Kashmir as labourers. Interesting- head in the sand like an ostrich. The in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). explosives (no IEDs) from the men. ly, after the removal of Article 370 state is a safe haven for terror, crime In India, he said, the modules were An NIA source said that the AQIS last year, Kashmir-based Pakistan and illegal bomb-making competi- active in West Bengal and Assam. planned to attack some BJP leaders, militants had killed five labourers tions, which results in atrocities and Six years later, on September 19 including Dilip Ghosh in Bengal. from Murshidabad. This raises the the module that sent Islamic State violation of human rights.” this year, the National Investigation The NIA apparently got to the nine question—why would labourers from recruits to Syria, which raises several The Partha Chatterjee, state education Agency arrested nine suspected Al men after it arrested Tania Parveen, Murshidabad have been in contact other questions. The NIA is investi- investigation minister and Trinamool Congress Qaeda operatives from Bengal and a college student, from Baduria in with the militants who killed their gating whom the three arrested from has revealed secretary general, said: “The matter Kerala. All nine were from Murshi- the North 24 Parganas district of own people? Could there be a quid- Kerala were in touch with. is under investigation, no one should dabad, which borders Bangladesh Bengal in March. According to the pro-quo arrangement? The agency has found several Al that the play politics.” and is one of the more backward agency, Parveen had links with Lash- If the Bengal-Kashmir link is prov- Qaeda-related documents on the accused During the interrogation, the NIA districts in the country. Intelligence kar-e-Taiba. en, it would mean that Pakistan has nine men, as well as a blueprint are linked also found that some madrassa au- agencies have found AQIS modules After interrogating the nine widened its network of terror beyond for launching attacks throughout thorities were in touch with six of the in Murshidabad, and have traced accused on September 25, the NIA Kashmir and Mumbai. India. The accused are reportedly with Ansar men. This had apparently happened several others to Malda and Uttar made another arrest—Shamim But does that rule out a Bangla- tech-savvy; three of them are college Ghazwat-ul- during the Burdwan blast case, too. Dinajpur. Ansari from Jalangi in Murshidabad. desh connection? “We are investigat- students, including one who is an Hind, which is “I would ask NIA officers to stay a few Sources told THE WEEK that, He reportedly used to make trips to ing it. So far, the NIA has not touched aspirant engineer. They apparently the AQIS cell days in madrassas here,” Md Yahiya, in August, the NIA came to know Kerala as a labourer. the issue,” said a Kolkata Police used the deep web to connect with chairman of Bengal Imams’ Associ- about several meetings between The investigation has revealed that Special Branch officer. Both the spe- people across India. “Interestingly, in Jammu and ation, told THE WEEK. “They would groups operating in Murshidabad the accused are linked with Ansar cial branch and the West Bengal CID all the devices—laptops and smart- Kashmir. see what nationalism is all about. We and Ernakulam, Kerala. Acting on a Ghazwat-ul-Hind, which is the AQIS have interrogated the men. phones—were locked using biome- create good humans in madrassas, tipoff, the agency started snooping; cell in Jammu and Kashmir. Notably, If needed, said NIA sources, they trics, but they could not be opened not rapists or crime lords.” it used its IT cell to trace phone calls the Director General of the Jammu would question the accused on pos- with the men’s fingers,” said an in- The arrests have predictably Bandi Mukti Committee, a human and WhatsApp video calls between and Kashmir Police had said that sible links to the 2014 Burdwan blast, vestigating officer. “So, some foreign become a political issue. “Bengal rights organisation that had given le- suspects. The NIA also used the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, which re- which the agency is still investigat- body (or some other person) might and Kerala have become dens for gal aid to the Burdwan blast accused, Border Security Force’s South Bengal portedly also operates from Pakistan, ing. The NIA would check if the Ja- have been used to open the devices.” terrorists as governments in both said it would send a fact-finding Frontier to collect details about had been wiped out from Kashmir maat-ul-Mujahideen of Bangladesh Through the deep web, they used states have no eagerness to crush the team to the villages from where the the nine. While six of them lived in after its head, Zakir Musa, was killed modules in Bengal—which were to interact with their “partners in menace,” said Dilip Ghosh. men were arrested. “In the past 123 Murshidabad, three were labourers in 2019. uncovered after the Burdwan blast— crime” on video and voice calls. The Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar terror cases in India, the accused in Kerala. The group is headed by It is surprising that Bengal-based had built up AQIS modules, too. NIA has also found some WhatsApp lashed out at the police. After Bengal walked free in 99 cases,” said BMC Murshid Hasan, who was working as outfits, which usually look to Another worrying fact for investi- groups the men had formed. One Director General of Police Virendra state secretary Choton Das. “In many a cook in Ernakulam. Bangladesh for inspiration, have gators is the link to Kerala. The men of them is called ‘Quateel for Islam’; wrote to the NIA, asking why the cases, the Supreme Court threw out According to the NIA, the accused allegedly developed links with from Murshidabad are not part of quateel means killer in Arabic. state police were not kept in the loop the charge-sheet.”
24 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 25 TRIBUTE SIR HAROLD EVANS [1928 - 2020]
common, a passion for newspapers. As narrated in the book, they fought over editorial independence, and Harry resigned the same year. The book dripped with emotion, but 25 years later, Harry wrote: “I am often asked my feelings about Murdoch today. My concerns are professional rather than personal.” As a newspaperman, Harry had fire in his belly like the steam engines that his father drove in Manchester. He was only 16 when he began writing for a weekly newspaper in Lancashire. After customary military service and a college degree, he returned to journal- ism demob-happy at Manchester Evening News, per- fecting the art of writing, editing and design. At The Northern Echo, he demonstrated the pow- er of investigative journalism and became an ardent campaigner for public good. In 1963, he ran a series of articles on the need to make cervical cancer test compulsory for all women. Then he wrote letters to the MPs, forcing the government to introduce com- The Editor pulsory testing. Another series he ran in 1965 led to the posthu- mous pardon of the young Timothy John Evans (no relation) who was hanged in 1950 on a wrong charge of murdering his baby daughter, Geraldine. This of all Times strange judgment stated that Timothy Evans prob- ably had not murdered his baby, for which he was hanged, but he probably had murdered his wife, for which he was not even tried. After the pardon, his BY JACOB MATHEW coffin was dug up from prison and handed over to the family for the last rites in a consecrated cemetery. he book Good Times, Bad Times Within months, the House of Commons voted to stall was becoming a big seller when executions in the UK for a period of five years and, in TI attended a media workshop in 1969, the death penalty was abolished. 1983. The course director at the work- This story became a movie,10 Rillington Place, in shop narrated fascinating anecdotes 1971 with John Hurt as the hanged man and Richard about the author of the book, the leg- Attenborough (of Gandhi fame) as the serial killer endary newspaper editor Harold Ev- John Christie, who had murdered Timothy Evans’s ans. I never thought I would one day wife and baby and six others including his own wife. get to know him well enough to call Narrating the story, Harry told me that Attenborough him Harry. had mentioned to him that it was “the most disturbing Harry had good times most of his life, role” he had played. and the best of times as editor of The Harry’s best-known campaign was in The Sunday Northern Echo and The Sunday Times, Times for compensation for thalidomiders—children two British papers where he excelled in born with severe defects due to the German drug tha- investigative journalism in the sixties lidomide that their mothers had taken for morning and seventies. sickness. The drug harmed 10,000 children world- He became editor of The Times, Lon- wide during 1958-61. Chasing the story for years, don, in 1981. The media baron Rupert Harry and his team obtained documentary evidence A WATCHDOG Murdoch had bought it, as well as The and, in 1972, exposed the drugmaker in the UK—the THAT ROARED Sunday Times and The Scotsman, from biggest advertiser in the paper. The UK drugmaker Harold Evans put his the Thomson family. The owner and eventually paid the victims £28 million [value today: heart into investigative the editor shared only one thing in £341 million]. journalism for public good GETTY IMAGES
26 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 27 TRIBUTE SIR HAROLD EVANS [1928 - 2020]
Powell, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon and the young lawyer Barack Obama. He also served as editor at large of the American magazine The Week (founded in 2001) and Thom- son Reuters. He was associated with Reuters till the very end. He devoted more time to writ- ing books after his book The Amer- ican Century, published in 1998, achieved iconic status. And there followed such fine books as My Pa- ENDURING per Chase: True Stories of Vanished WARMTH Times and Do I Make Myself Clear: Evans with Why Writing Well Matters. chief editor Two decades ago, I met Harry for K.M. Mathew the first time in Edinburgh, Scot- at Malayala Manorama, ‘CHILDREN land, at the annual assembly of the
GETTY IMAGES Kottayam, Kerala ON OUR International Press Institute (IPI). ROCKIE GEORGE CONSCIENCE’ My brother Philip Mathew was IPI The campaign furthered press freedom. A top court Thalidomide vice chairman and Harry was there in the UK stopped The Sunday Times from publish- babies at a care on a panel discussion. Later, while learnt from Harry and benefited a lot per Chase. “But by no means was this renaissance all home in London ing an article on the thalidomide tragedy during the I was visiting the US, he invited me from it. To my surprise, my father gave inspired only by British and American missionaries, drugmaker’s negotiations with the victims. It upheld to his New York home to meet his me his notes from that nearly 50-year- and certainly not carried out by them, but by editors the attorney general’s plea that its publication would wife, the renowned journalist Tina old workshop! I treasure them still. like K.M. Mathew of the Malayala Manorama in Ker- amount to contempt of court as the matter was sub Brown, and their children, George When I shared these notes with Harry, ala, who put everything he learned into practice and judice. The European Court of Human Rights, howev- and Isabel. Tina had edited Tattler, he wrote back, “I wept reading them.” doubled his circulation.” er, ruled that the UK court’s order infringed the news- Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. “It is fair to say that the IPI work- Harry wrote a moving tribute when my father paper’s freedom of expression. Consequently, the UK Her book The Diana Chronicles shops... encouraged a revolution in passed away in 2010. Later that year, addressing government was forced to change its law that prevent- had done exceedingly well in 12 Indian newspapers, broadening their the 60th year celebrations of IPI, he said, “Today we ed civil case reporting. In 2014, a UK documentary, languages. She later became chief appeal, reinforcing their vitality and honour those men and women who created and sus- A GREAT Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi editor of Newsweek, which went their capacity to monitor government tained our institution in the aftermath of the greatest PARTNERSHIP War Crime, chronicled Harry’s relentless pursuit of the only digital in 2013. When the for- and business,” wrote Harry in My Pa- Evans and Tina war the planet has endured.” Amongst the few, my thalidomide story. mer Pakistani prime minister Be- Brown father was mentioned. The Sunday Times famously exposed the duplicity of nazir Bhutto was assassinated, Tina My eldest brother Mammen Mathew worked in Kim Philby, an India-born English diplomat who set- wrote a cover story for THE WEEK. Harry’s editorial team in The Sunday Times in London tled in Moscow in 1963 after the British intelligence They had known each other since in 1968. Harry was, in fact, his editorial mentor. Mam- had declared him a Soviet double agent. Another ex- their Oxford days. men recollects Harry’s obsessive passion for checking pose followed the crash in 1974 of a Turkish DC-10 jet In 2007, Harry accepted my re- facts and designing the final front page. near Paris killing 346 passengers; the door of its cargo quest to deliver the K.C. Mammen THE WEEK magazine has an umbilical link with hold had flown off. Harry’s reporters discovered that Mappillai Memorial Lecture, held in Harry. He wrote a column, titled Slumpflation, in the aircraft manufacturer had lied that it had repaired honour of my grandfather who was its inaugural issue in December 1982. He coined the the faulty door. In 1975, Harry risked prosecution un- editor of Malayala Manorama. Later word slumpflation (slump + inflation) expressly for der the Official Secrets Act by publishing former La- that year in New Delhi, he addressed this article, to describe a state of economic slump and bour party minister Richard Crossman’s diary entries a packed hall on ‘Freedom of the rising inflation. THE WEEK has the honour to call him on prime minister Harold Wilson’s cabinet meetings. press in an age of violence’. During ‘the first columnist’. Harry moved to America in 1984 to join the US News that visit to India, Harry and Tina British journalists honoured him at the turn of the & World Report. Later he became editor in chief of At- spent a week in Kerala. His meeting millennium by voting him ‘All Time Greatest British lantic Monthly Press and the New York Daily News. with my father, K.M. Mathew, was Newspaper Editor’. He was knighted in 2004. To many, He taught at Duke University for a while and in 1986 emotional. They had known each Sir Harold Evans will remain a hero forever. The gold regained glory as the founding editor of Condé Nast other for long, having first met at a standard he set with his crusading style in journalism Traveler. Soon he was the all-powerful publisher and media workshop Harry conducted will always inspire truth seekers in the media world. president of Random House, offering fabulous ad- and my father attended in the early —Jacob Mathew is managing editor, Malayala Manorama. vances for the biographies of Marlon Brando, Colin 1960s. My father practised what he GETTY IMAGES
28 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 29 COVER STORY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Dr Li-Meng Yan
Virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan says the Covid-19 virus was developed in a Chinese lab and blames the WHO for suppressing the truth
BY POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL
Li-Meng Yan’s world turned up- side down the mo- ment she alleged Dr that the Covid-19 virus originated in a lab in China. Fearing for her life, the young virologist had to flee Hong Kong where she had been working since 2012. She is now in New York, but her family back home is being "monitored closely" by the Chinese Communist Party and she has been forced to cut off all contact with them. But Yan is in no mood to give up. In an exclusive video interview with THE WEEK, she reiterated the lab origin the- ory of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and challenged her detrac- tors—including the Chinese government and some of her own peers—to prove that she was wrong. She did not even SEEKING REFUGE spare the World Health Organization, Yan at the Keystone where her husband is currently em- Symposia in Austin, ployed. Yan said she could be killed any Texas, in 2018. moment by the Chinese government, but Fearing for her life,Yan fled from she appeared unperturbed. "The truth is Hong Kong and is important, not me," she said. now in New York Excerpts from the interview:
30 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 31 COVER STORY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Q/Can you describe your present state Covid-19 virus was indeed man- Over 40 cases had happened by then, nowned virologist who was with the way, has strong connections with the of mind? made. But I am a victim of attacks but they announced only 27. A paper University of Hong Kong) keep quiet Chinese government. So the Chinese A/I have been trying to fight the lies and by the Chinese government and its in The New England Journal of Med- about the alleged cover-up? government and the WHO swept bring out the truth since January. But supporters. icine, too, confirmed the presence A/I had known Prof Peiris even before everything under the carpet. the CCP, the WHO, the scientific world of the virus in December. But the I joined the department. I came to the and the media are trying their best to Q/You said you came to know of Chinese government came out with University of Hong Kong in July 2012. Q/Many scientists dispute your suppress me. Many people ignored the human-to-human transmission in a white paper to give its own version I met my husband there. He was an claim that the Covid-19 virus is possibility that the Covid-19 virus came China by December 31. But China and silence people. From local doc- expert working for the WHO on the man-made. from a lab and was not a natural disaster. and the WHO confirmed such tors to experts at the Chinese Center emerging diseases sphere and was a A/Scientists who reject the lab origin People have now started realising the transmission only on January 20. for Disease Control and Prevention, member of Peiris’s team. They both theory of Covid-19 are lying. I take truth. They can find more facts to sup- A/On December 31, I was assigned no one was allowed to know or say were from Sri Lanka. We had known full responsibility for my claims and port their investigation, can discuss it to the WHO H5 reference lab at the anything without the government’s Peiris for more than 10 years. My those who challenge me can sue me. and can share their ideas. This way, the University of Hong Kong’s Centre of permission. Nobody knew what was PhD supervisor, too, had worked with I chose to put my name on my paper. CCP’s suppression can be broken down. Influenza Research by my supervisor, happening. Our government has Peiris. So Peiris knew everything I had My first report was read by many Also, I am working on my second scien- Leo Poon, to track the new, unknown many, many ways to withhold truth. discussed with my supervisor and my well-known people in the US govern- tific report to show the world scientific pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan— It made sure that everyone bought husband. But he did not act. WHO ment before it was published. Our government evidence. But I am shocked that the peo- because of the lack of information the theory that the seafood market in chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye- There are two theories about the ple with whom I have worked in the past through official channels. I got con- Wuhan was the problem, but it was sus and the organisation’s Covid-19 Covid-19 virus: the nature theory and has many, are lying to the public about the origins firmed information that the genomic a big lie. technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, the theory of lab origins. Those who of the Covid-19 virus, ignoring the safety sequence of the suspected virus had have very strong connections with support the natural origin theory rely many ways to of the world. Even after I have put out my already been isolated in Wuhan. Q/Why did Malik Peiris (a re- Peiris, but nobody acted. Peiris, by the heavily on a previously discovered scientific report, top experts continue to lie. And, people believe them because withhold truth. SHUTTERS DOWN they are the experts. A photo taken in It made sure From January 19, Lude's broadcast January shows a channel (a YouTube channel run by man ride past the that everyone an activist called Lude, who is close to closed Huanan controversial Chinese businessman Guo Seafood Wholesale bought the Wengui) has been helping me deliver Market, which has been linked to initial the message that the Covid-19 virus is theory that the Covid 19 cases, in man-made. When authorities watched Wuhan, China the broadcast, they knew that some seafood market insider had revealed the truth and that in Wuhan was was the reason they admitted that there was indeed human-to-human trans- the problem, but mission and that cases had tripled and were reported from all over China. Just a it was a big lie. few hours after the broadcast, President Xi Jinping declared that Covid-19 was a very serious infectious disease on the same level as SARS 1. But the govern- ment still allowed people to travel world- wide. The WHO said there was no need to be afraid and that it was not yet time to announce a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). It also discouraged the use of hydroxychloro- quine, which I felt was an irresponsible move. Right now, I am getting help from the US, from people who are opposed to the CCP and also from leading scientists
all over the world who believe that the GETTY IMAGES
32 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 33 COVER STORY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW bat coronavirus called RaTG13, which to that of a bat coronavirus, SARS- and ZXC21 have been the closest. that the analysis by his team showed consistent with the hypothesis that shares a 96 per cent nucleotide sequence CoV, discovered in 2003 by Chinese These two have been with Chinese that the Covid-19 virus was neither a the Covid-19 genome has an origin identity with the Covid-19 virus. I chal- military laboratories. The receptor authorities since 2015. Although laboratory construct nor a purpose- based on the use of ZC45 or ZXC21 lenge the existence of RaTG13 in nature. binding motif (RBM: a fragment Covid-19 was created using ZC45 fully manipulated virus. But they are as a template. Besides, the article Moreover, viral genomes can be engi- from a virus that binds to a specific or ZXC21, changes must have been misleading people. you referred to is full of problems. neered and manipulated to create novel receptor sequence to gain entry introduced to obscure the genetic To engineer and create a human Basically, it admitted to some of the coronaviruses. There has been a highly into host cells) of the Covid-19 virus connection. targeting novel coronavirus, one unusual characters in the Covid-19 probable pathway for the laboratory which determines its host specificity needs to pick a bat coronavirus as the genome, but intentionally ignored creation of the Covid-19 virus and the is suspiciously similar to that of the Q/The article titled “The proximal template. Research labs have been the possibility of the man-made evidence is present in the viral genome. RBM of the 2003 virus. Genomic origin of SARS-CoV-2” published collecting samples of bat corona- origin of the virus. There may be a chance that the virus evidence suggests that the RBM has in Nature Medicine says the virus is viruses over the past two decades. attacks animals through an intermediate been genetically manipulated. natural. The actual template could be ZC45 Q/Did you try to report your find- host and then jumps into humans, but Also, the Covid-19 virus contains A/My second report, which is cur- or ZXC21 or a close relative. To ings to authorities in Hong Kong Statements that takes a very, very long time and also a unique furin-cleavage site, which rently under progress, deals with this convert this template into a corona- and China? requires big coincidences such as bats is absent in coronaviruses found in issue. The CCP has influenced not virus that can bind with the human A/I did not report on the virus being against me from meeting suitable intermediate hosts and nature. It is likely that this has been just Chinese scientists, but also peo- ACE2 receptor, it needs to perform man-made because I knew I would the bat virus adapting to the new host. inserted artificially. So all that was ple overseas. Dr K.G. Andersen (lead molecular cloning as well as reverse be killed immediately. I reported the University Nature origins can be mimicked in needed to create a new virus was author of the Nature Medicine paper) genetics, resulting in the creation of the cover-up, the human-to-human laboratories. The genomic sequence of a backbone or a template, and, for attacked my report and myself, say- live and infectious viruses with the transmission and the fact that there of Hong Kong the Covid-19 virus is suspiciously similar Covid-19, bat coronaviruses ZC45 ing that my paper was nonsense and desired artificial genome. These are was no intermediate host from came out when mid-December to January 17. I kept reporting this, but there was no I stepped into response. My investigations, intelli- gence and all the scientific evidence the Fox News showed me that it came from the military. But I could not trust the studio in July. CCP and I saw what happened in Hong Kong during the protests. So I The Chinese had to give this out to the world by Communist myself. Q/When did China know about the Party continues human-to-human transmission? A/The human-to-human transmis- to threaten and sion happened first in December. Wuhan, by then, had already isolated monitor my MASKED the live sequence of the virus using a family. My house COMMUNICATION patient's sample. This is against their Chinese President claims of all these happening in the Xi Jinping inspecting was ransacked. the Covid 19 middle of January. By the end of De- prevention and cember, doctors in Wuhan, including control work at Li Wenliang who first told us that Anhuali Community there was a novel coronavirus, were in Beijing in asked to keep quiet. Everyone was February. Yan says scared. Doctors were scared. Nobody that Xi declared was allowed to talk. that Covid 19 was a very serious infectious disease Q/Is China trying to influence only after her studies across the world on the views—that the Covid-19 virus? virus was man- A/Absolutely. They control the made—were aired clinical samples. Even in Hong Kong, anonymously on a
REUTERS you cannot get clinical samples. YouTube channel
34 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 35 COVER STORY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW For example, if I want to do antibody Q/When did you realise that you screening for an area next to Wuhan, were in danger? the government will not allow it. When A/I was in danger right from the mo- we tried to do an asymptomatic study ment I decided to reveal it all. Lude in China, the CCP secretary of Guang- helped me keep everything secret by zhou and the head of the Guangzhou volunteering to give out the message CDC took the samples away. The himself. It takes time for the Chinese government collected 33 environmen- government to actually zero in on a tal samples in Wuhan, but no outside target. Lude had intelligence that I experts were allowed. was in danger and that the govern- ment wanted to make me disappear. The World Health Q/The University of Hong Kong says After that, people from the Rule of NEEDLE OF SUSPICION you never conducted any research on Law Foundation helped me escape Tedros Adhanom, director general of WHO, met with Organization human-to-human transmission. from Hong Kong to the US. A/ China's Foreign Minister After my PhD from mainland China, Wang Yi in Beijing in gave out wrong Peiris wanted me to go to the School of Q/You are associated with contro- January. Yan says that the Public Health at the University of Hong versial businessman Guo Wengui Chinese government and and misplaced Kong and work there with Leo Poon. I and through him with former the WHO swept everything under the carpet thought it was a challenge because it White House strategist Steve Ban- GETTY IMAGES advisories, even was the topmost lab in coronaviruses. non. asking people not I worked in virology, immunology and A/From the time I decided to leave vaccine development. My universal Hong Kong, I was in touch only with Q/Why did you refuse to engage wait to disprove the lies surrounding and we had a lot of happy moments. to wear masks. Its influenza vaccine is patented. I have Lude. He was the one who contacted with critics including prominent the natural origin theory of the novel presented papers in major global con- the Rule of Law Foundation set up virologists? coronavirus. Q/Are you living in fear right now? officials came ferences. Before I left the university, I by Guo. The foundation targets the A/I did engage with them whenever I A/No. I know the CCP and the Chi- had initiated several important projects CCP’s wrongdoings. They helped me got an opportunity. But most media Q/The Trump administration has nese government are targeting me. to China several including one on Covid-19. My work come out with the truth and I will do not want to engage objectively frozen funds to the WHO. They are following me everywhere. on hamsters in Covid-19 was certified never discredit the support they have with me. Also, I am busy with my A/It is the correct move. The WHO They even knew about the apart- times, yet they to be excellent by scientists across the extended. next scientific report. When it comes gave out wrong and misplaced ment in New York where I stayed af- community. My research paper on out, many lies from those prominent advisories, even asking people not ter coming here. I had to change my never visited the infectious diseases published in The Q/You are a postdoctoral research- scientists will be revealed. to wear masks. Its officials came to apartment immediately. But, as of Lancet was cited more than 300 times er, but you chose to publish your China several times, yet they never now, I have protection. Also, I do not right hospitals in just a month. Statements against me controversial paper on an open Q/Virologist David Robertson visited the right hospitals and centres think the CCP will win against me. from the University of Hong Kong came access site before having it peer of the University of Glasgow has which could have helped them get and centres out when I stepped into the Fox News reviewed. shown that the Covid-19 virus and information. Unless we have the Q/Do you feel targeted by the global studio in July. The CCP continues to A/The requirement of peer review its closest known ancestor, the truth, we will not have the solution. scientific community? which could have threaten and monitor my family. My does not mean that something needs RaTG13 virus, have been in circu- A/Yes, they are targeting me. I can be helped them get house was ransacked. The vice chan- fixing. It is also not an indication of lation among bat populations for Q/There are allegations that your killed any moment by my govern- cellor of the University of Hong Kong a good standard. So many peer-re- decades. research is politically motivated. ment. But I still want more and more information. recruited people to dig out information viewed journals including Nature A/In my second paper I will tell you A/This has nothing to do with poli- people to talk about the origins of about me and to contact my friends. and The New England Journal of that the RaTG13 is fabricated. My tics. It is about the truth. If I do not this virus and know the truth. This is They even tried slapping a criminal Medicine have had some controver- mind says this virus never existed. tell the truth now, I will not be able to not about me. It is about the truth. case on me. I have cut off all contact sial history of faking data or giving While suggesting a natural origin tell it ever. It is happening now and I with my family since July. They do not out misinformation. Also, those jour- for the Covid-19 virus, reports on can see it. know anything about what I am doing. nals have a small group of experts for the RaTG13 virus have diverted the Nobody stood up for me. Peiris left peer review. But I knew the urgency. attention of the scientific communi- Q/Have you had any previous run- the job immediately after I escaped The pandemic was upon us and we ty and the public away from ZC45/ ins with the government? from Hong Kong. The university delet- needed to act fast. Moreover, I did ZXC21. A/None at all. I have been a respect- ed my credentials from its website and not need the credibility of a journal. ed and awarded scientist. Before all said my words were without scientific And, the Chinese government was Q/What is the way forward from this, we used to get along well. All evidence. But Leo Poon never respond- breathing down my neck. So I chose here? was well with my supervisor and my To watch the interview A/ ed to me in public because he knew I not to approach any peer-reviewed I am in the US now, working on peers. It is a dictatorship, but we were Visit www.theweek.in had the evidence to back up my claims. journals. my second research paper. I cannot used to that. I used to enjoy my work
36 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 37 COVER STORY CLAIMSCLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMSCOUNTERCLAIMS
SARS-CoV-2 is similar to bat coronaviruses discovered Bat coronaviruses circulate in wild bats and could have been by Chinese military laboratories. One of these or a discovered by anyone. David Robertson, viral genomics closely related bat coronavirus "should be the backbone researcher at University of Glasgow, said the fact that these used for the creation of SARS-CoV-2" strains were identified at Chinese military labs is “just circumstantial”
RENAMING THE VIRUS United States President Donald Trump at a rally The paper mentions restriction in Jacksonville, Florida. The receptor-binding motif (RBM) sitesitess at either end of the RBM Trump has often called of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein anandd asserts that their presence the novel coronavirus is iindicativen of an engineered resembles that of SARS-CoV from 'China virus', claiming that the 2003 epidemic. The vivirus.ru But, scientists reportedly SARS-CoV-2 RBM "cannot be ppointedoin out that these sites he has evidence it was born from nature and should ococcurcu naturally in all types of manufactured in China. Yan's have been created through gegenomes,no from bacteria to report fits well with Trump's huhumansm 'China virus' narrative genetic engineering" AFP True lies, false truths
SARS-CoV-2 contains a uniqueique furinfurin-cleavage-cleavage site iinn ititss TheThe papaper's claim that the furin-cleavage fur site is found on no Li-Meng Yan’s allegation that the Covid-19 virus originated spike protein; this is known to enhance viral infectivity other coronavirus of this class reportedly contradicts and cell tropism. This site is absent in this class of findings about similar cleavage sites on bat coronaviruses in a lab in China is questionable and inconclusive coronaviruses found in nature. Also, rare codons in wild populations suggest that the site is not natural BY MILAN SIME MARTINIC
he China virus.” The virus mantra, which has become though the report only alludes to it as words reach a cre- one of the mainstays of his reelec- a possibility. scendo as they roll out tion campaign. Yan fled Hong Kong saying she of President Donald Is it all too convenient? Does the feared that she would disappear JARGONBREAKER T Trump’s mouth, clearly report stand up to scrutiny? along with her evidence. “I have to Spike protein: Protein on the surface of the virus which binds with host cell receptors, leading to infection showing his irritation. He is rebrand- The report titled “Unusual fea- hide because I know how they treat Receptor-binding motif: A segment of around 70 amino acids in the front half of the spike protein which makes direct contact with ing Covid-19 as the ‘China virus’ tures of the SARS-CoV-2 genome whistleblowers. As a whistleblower host cell receptors and has claimed, without any proof, suggesting sophisticated labo- here I want to tell the truth of Cov- Restriction sites: Specific sequences of DNA to which restriction enzymes—DNA-cutting enzymes—bind that he has seen evidence that it was ratory modification rather than id-19 and the origin of the SARS- Furin-cleavage site: A site which can be recognised and cleaved by furin, an enzyme. Inactive proteins can be activated by such cleaving manufactured in China. natural evolution and delineation CoV-2 virus,” she told Fox News. Out of the darkness about how of its probable synthetic route” is The Yan report is presented in Tropism: The turning of all or part of an organism in a particular direction in response to an external stimulus the virus left the city of Wuhan and authored by Dr Li-Meng Yan, a conjunction with Shu Kang, Jie Guan, Codons: A sequence of three nucleotides which form a unit of genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule spread across the world, a report virologist who claims to be one of and Shanchang Hu, all listed as PhDs from a Chinese virologist who fled the world’s first scientists to have with the Steve Bannon-run Rule of Nucleotides: Compounds which form the basic structural unit of nucleic acids such as DNA to the US has gone viral among the studied the new coronavirus and to Law Society and Rule of Law Foun- conservative media in the United have discovered that it originated dation, a group with no previous SOURCES NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AND PAPER LED BY LI-MENG YAN GRAPHICS SREEMANIKANDAN S.\RESEARCH KARTHIK RAVINDRANATH States. It fits well with Trump’s China in a People’s Liberation Army lab, experience working on infectious
38 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 39 COVER STORY THE OTHER SIDE
diseases. Bannon was Trump’s chief pathogenic viruses emerge and cause strategist and was arrested recently large-scale outbreaks. Summarising a on a fraud indictment. He was picked peer-reviewed study he co-published up from a yacht owned by renegade in the journal Nature Medicine in Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. March, Andersen says, “By comparing Putting aside questionable politi- Putting aside the available genome sequence data cal motivation, and there is certainly for known coronavirus strains, we can plenty to look at there, the report, questionable firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 though not technically inaccurate in originated through natural processes.” SPINNING A TALE? many of its individual statements, Andersen and his co-authors say political Former Trump spins a tale of possibilities about the the new virus likely emerged be- chief strategist origin of the Covid-19 virus based motivation, and cause of natural selection, a process Steve Bannon with on unsupported claims, beliefs and by which organisms adapt to their Chinese billionaire unexplored anecdotes. It projects a there is certainly environment to survive. Yan, howev- Guo Wengui, sensational circumstance favourable er, chose to ignore Andersen’s study. a Communist to Trump’s political line. plenty to look “The receptor-binding motif (RBM) Party critic, at a newsconference Couched in confusing scientific within the spike protein of SARS- at there, the in New York in jargon, the report moves quickly CoV-2, which determines the host November 2018. to set up possibility as evidence. It specificity of the virus, resembles that Guo is close to leaves interpretations in the air and report, though of SARS-CoV from the 2003 epidemic activist Lude, who concludes by innuendo, basically in a suspicious manner. Genomic aired Yan's views on not technically his YouTube channel sowing doubt about the likelihood of evidence suggests that the RBM has REUTERS current explanations and thus infer- inaccurate been genetically manipulated,” says ring that the virus is man-made. But the Yan report. the report fails on several levels to in many of Andersen’s team, however, looked laboratories,” asserting that the sim- admission, the Tucker Carlson show for making false claims, while Face- show that its findings are legitimate. specifically at the spike proteins and ilarity was natural. Meanwhile, Carl is not one where you get the facts, yet book and Instagram flagged retweets “The evidence shows that SARS- its individual their gene sequences and found that T. Bergstrom, professor of biology at that was where it chose to let Yan tell of her Tucker Carlson interview. But CoV-2 should be a laboratory prod- “the spike proteins were the result the University of Washington, says her story. the conservative media in the US has uct created by using bat coronavirus- statements, of natural selection and not genetic the Yan Report is a “bizarre and In the end, Yan’s data does not been repeating the report, despite es,” says the report. Beyond that, the engineering”. Yan’s case for in-vitro unfounded preprint”. support her conclusions. It reaches its the global scientific community authors claim that a “synthetic route” spins a tale of manipulation of the virus ignored There exists a gap between what goal of linking the message through questioning and rejecting her claims. to create the virus makes its labora- such contradictory findings. the report actually says and the claim a series of beliefs and suppositions. “This preprint report cannot be tory creation “convenient,” and that possibilities Andersen says Yan’s report lacks made by Yan in multiple televised It does not demonstrate that it could given any credibility in its current they will demonstrate that it can be scientific merits. “It is non-scientif- interviews that she has proof that the be done, rather shows that it could form,” says Andrew Preston, an done in approximately six months. about the origin ic and false — cherry-picking data Covid-19 virus was manufactured possibly be done. Mere possibility, expert in microbial pathogenesis at The writing shows that the authors of the Covid-19 and ignoring data disproving their by the Chinese Communist Party while sensational, is not probability, the University of Bath in the UK. He derived their hypothesis by question- hypotheses. It is using technical lan- in a Wuhan lab. “I can present solid as it implies resources and motives told the BBC that Yan’s claims were ing the veracity of the theories about virus based on guage that is impossible to decode for scientific evidence to our audience not necessarily available. unsubstantiated. Dr Michael Head the origin of the virus. But it ignores non-experts — poppycock dressed up that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is actually But the motives behind the report of the University of Southampton evidence to the contrary. “Even if unsupported as ‘science’,” he tweeted. not from nature,” she told Fox News are raising eyebrows. The Daily Beast says Yan did not offer any data that we ignore the above evidence that Columbia University virologist An- host Tucker Carlson on September pointed out that “the Rule of Law overrode previous research. no proper host exists for the recom- claims, beliefs, gela Rasmussen thinks the analysis by 15. “It is a man-made virus created in Society and Rule of Law Foundation It is unquestionable that Yan is bination to take place and instead Yan and her team did not adequately the lab…. The very unique bat coro- websites indicate that the organisa- now in the Bannon orbit, in that assume that such a host does exist, and unexplored support their claims. “These claims navirus, which cannot affect people, tions have not previously published interconnected and interdepend- it is still highly unlikely that such a are, to use some virology jargon, total becomes a very harmful virus after scientific or medical research.” ent world of politics and power, of recombination event could occur in anecdotes. horseshit,” tweeted Rasmussen. She the modification.” Machiavellian moves by Bannon no information and allusion, of order nature,” says the report. told The Daily Beast that Yan’s claims A few days after it featured Yan, Fox longer elicit surprise, but his involve- and disorder, good and bad, truth Kristian Andersen, professor of were all circumstantial and that some News defended a defamation lawsuit ment in the production and release and fiction. Unfortunately, Yan and immunology and microbiology at of them were entirely fictional. She in a Manhattan court, arguing that of the Yan report suggests that it is her co-authors have put forth their the Scripps Research Institute in debunked Yan’s sensational claim “no reasonable viewer takes Tucker part of a larger, coordinated political hypothesis as a fact, a conclusion San Diego, California, disagrees. that “the coronavirus’ genes are Carlson seriously”. The judge ac- effort to advance the “China created they reached by straying into confu- His research uses infectious dis- suspiciously similar to that of a bat cepted the argument and threw out the coronavirus” story. sion and assumptions, ignoring more ease genomics to investigate how coronavirus discovered by military the case. So, by the network’s own Twitter suspended Yan’s account likely paths.
40 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 41 COVID-19 VACCINES Safety check As trials of vaccine candidates are expedited, worries abound about the consequences of haste
BY NAMITA KOHLI
ON SEPTEMBER 26, a group of closely evaluated. public health experts wrote an open Union Health Minister Dr Harsh letter to Dr Albert Bourla, CEO of US Vardhan has said that India is con- pharma giant Pfizer, which is devel- sidering EUA, too. An EUA allows the oping a Covid-19 vaccine candidate vaccine to be used before it is fully with German firm BioNTech. The licenced, after conducting a risk-ben- company’s mRNA vaccine is one of efit analysis based on available data. the world’s leading candidates, and Normally, the third trial [phase 3] Bourla’s claims of a “clinical answer” takes about six to nine months. But if to its phase 3 trials by October end the government decides, this period has triggered safety concerns among can be cut short through an EUA, a section of global experts. In the Vardhan said. “Any emergency au- letter, they urge the company to wait thorisation is always done by adopt- until the end of November before ing reinforced safeguards so that seeking emergency authorisation for people do not worry about safety,” the vaccine to ensure that rigorous he said. “A high-level group has been safety standards are followed and formed to monitor the pace of the public trust and confidence in the vaccine development under the direct vaccine is guaranteed. guidance of Prime Minister Naren- According to the WHO, 40 vac- dra Modi. There will be no shortcut cine candidates are being clinically on safety. EUA will be given only if it Covaxin, too, will begin phase 3 trials post-licensure is important,” said Dr significantly in the past decade. “But drugs standard control organisation, evaluated, of which 10 have entered meets the standards.” in Lucknow and Gorakhpur in Octo- Gagandeep Kang, professor, Christian the focus, so far, has been routine a Covid-19 vaccine should have 50 phase 3 trials, which involve testing Multiple candidates are undergo- ber, according to UP Health Secretary Medical College, Vellore. “A vaccine immunisation in children. Building per cent efficacy. “To ensure that a the vaccine on thousands of people. ing phase 3 trials in India. After the Amit Mohan Prasad. should be used widely in the appro- safety monitoring in other age groups widely deployed Covid-19 vaccine In that context, the next couple of Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate— With these candidates being fast- priate population at a point where will be challenging,” said Kang. is effective, the primary efficacy months will be crucial for regulators, currently being tested by Serum tracked, granting EUA to a vaccine regulators are convinced (even under She added that impact monitoring endpoint estimate for a placebo-con- vaccine manufacturers and dis- Institute of India—the Russian and rolling it out initially to the an EUA) that the vaccine has a high would most likely require phase 4 trolled efficacy trial should be at least tributors across the world, and put sovereign wealth fund, RDIF, which vulnerable population, and then to likelihood of being safe and effective. studies, or post-marketing surveil- 50 per cent,” it read. Union Health the world’s best delivery systems to is backing the vaccine Sputnik V, also the general population, will involve The best safeguard is a strong safety lance, since there is no other way to Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the test. With emerging possibilities of announced a tie-up with Hydera- challenges on several fronts including monitoring system and an impact monitor vaccine effectiveness. note was not final and that comments emergency use authorisation (EUA) bad-based Dr Reddy’s for conducting regulation and logistics, experts say. monitoring system.” According to a draft note on regu- and feedback were invited. for multiple candidates, safety and phase 3 trials and distributing the “With any vaccine, monitoring According to her, India’s vaccine latory guidelines for vaccine develop- The overall efficacy endpoint is immunogenicity data is also being vaccine. Bharat Biotech’s candidate, safety and performance pre- and safety monitoring has improved ment, released recently by the central not a matter of concern. “These are
42 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 43 COVID-19 THE WEEK VACCINES DEAR DOCTOR Dr Chandan Chaudhari Nephrologist, Wockhardt hospital, Mumbai
first-generation vaccines, and this health emergency such as the is a mucosal infection,” said Kang. current one, several or all of the is already sup- “First-generation vaccines essen- clinical evaluation, production pressed to a large tially should protect against disease planning, distribution strategy and Renal code extent—such and then we can think of improving safety evaluation steps of the vaccine patients are pre- performance through a range of development continuum could be Monitor blood pressure and creatinine scribed immu- approaches. Mucosal vaccines are conducted in parallel, rather than levels regularly to keep your kidneys nosuppressants unlikely to give perfect protection in a sequential manner,” wrote Dr so that their body in any situation, so a 50 per cent Amit Kumar Dinda, department healthy does not reject a requirement is acceptable at this of pathology, AIIMS, Dr Santanu ny infection oc- CKD patients who are transplanted kid- time.” She added that the draft policy Kumar Tripathi, Calcutta School of curring anywhere on dialysis ney. It is, therefore, is aligned with WHO and FDA guid- Tropical Medicine and public health in the human It is often difficult for easier for them to lines. “But it would be good to know expert Dr Bobby John in the Indian A body can put pressure on doctors to convince catch Covid-19. If what essential data is to be generated IN THE PIPELINE Journal of Medical Research, the the kidneys. The pre- patients on dialysis that found to be Cov- and what is recommended, but not Covishield peer-reviewed journal of the ICMR. cautions to be taken by the shortness of breath id-positive, they essential,” she said. Developer: Oxford-AstraZeneca “This telescoped design will enable a patient suffering from could be because of Cov- can have severe The draft policy note states that Type: Non-replicating viral vector vaccine an earlier submission of safety and kidney disease will be the id-19 and not necessarily manifestations of given the “urgent need” to provide a efficacy data, allowing for potential Serum Institute conducting trials on 1,600 same as in the case of any because of complications the disease—pro- Covid-19 vaccine, clinical develop- healthy adults across 17 sites in India regulatory approval for an EUA for other Covid-19 patient from dialysis. Also, such longed pneu- ment programmes for Covid-19 vac- the candidate vaccine,” they wrote. Covaxin except for two things: pa- patients need to regularly monia and low cines might be “expedited”. Vaccine Developer: Bharat Biotech-ICMR Parallel processes also imply that tients with chronic kidney visit hospitals for dialysis. oxygen saturation trials proceed in stages, where per- manufacturing and distribution Type: Inactivated virus vaccine disease (CKD) must reg- This increases their levels. So, striking mission for each phase is preceded logistics be taken care of, even as Phase 3 trials will begin in October in ularly check their blood chances of catching an The immunity a balance between by evaluation of data. For an emer- several vaccine candidates are being Lucknow and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh pressure at home and infection. Hence, it is im- levels of a reducing their gency situation such as Covid-19, the tested. “In other countries such as Sputnik V monitor their creatinine portant to wear masks at patient who dosage of immu- regulator proposes adaptive and/or the US, the UK, Japan and Australia, Developer: Gamaleya Research Institute, levels at least once every all times and keep oneself nosuppressants seamless clinical trial designs that Moscow the level of preparedness is much has undergone month. A high-protein sanitised. and ensuring that allow for selection between vaccine Type: Non-replicating viral vector higher, from pre-booking vaccines a kidney diet is not recommended Depending on the situ- the body does not candidates and dosing regimens, and to ordering syringes,” said Pavan transplant Phase 3 trials to be conducted in India by for CKD patients who are ation, a Covid-positive or reject the trans- for more rapid progression through Mocherla, managing director (south Dr Reddy's, subject to regulatory approval not on dialysis and for pneumonia patient might is already plant is challeng- the usual phases of clinical develop- Asia), BD India. “The understand- Emergency use authorisation (EUA): transplant patients. have to undergo dialy- suppressed to ing. Also, those ment. ing is that the vaccination would Allows the vaccine to be used before it is sis three to four times a large extent. who have recently But it is unclear as to what this fully licenced based on available data and a proceed in phases, where vulnerable CKD patients who are a week, up from two to It is, therefore, undergone a seamless approach is in terms of risk-benefit analysis. India does not have a sections would be administered in EUA mechanism. A draft regulatory not on dialysis three times a week, to easier for kidney transplant, clinical endpoints at the end of each phase 1. For that, the requirement for framework for vaccines, especially a Get a renal function test remove excess water from say, in the last five trial phase, said a public health ex- Covid-19 vaccine, was released by the syringes would be an estimated 150 them to catch done every month. Also, the lungs. years, must moni- pert who did not wish to be named. drug regulator on September 21 million, and until now, the govern- Covid-19. do not consume too tor their creatinine For vaccine trials, endpoints would ment has not formally reached out many Vitamin C tablets, Kidney transplant levels at least once include side-effects, neutralising to us for any orders. Though the which is otherwise used patients in two months. antibody titres and disease preven- start, though.” government must be working on as prophylaxis for Cov- The immunity levels of a tion. In the case of drug trials, the Vaccines take years to develop. a blueprint, private stakeholders id-19, as it might increase patient who has under- —As told to endpoints—preventing disease pro- With Covid-19, that time frame is have not been involved yet. Timely potassium levels. gone a kidney transplant Pooja Biraia Jaiswal gression and death—are more clearly being crunched to months. In a first- involvement of relevant firms would defined, the expert said. of-its-kind plan on vaccine regulation help expedite vaccine delivery.” “The policy note also does not and shortening trials, top experts With the world’s largest manufac- define what would happen if there propose a plan where each phase in- turing capacity, India is set to make were multiple vaccines with same corporates parallel processes. For in- the Covid-19 vaccine for the world. Chronic kidney A Covid-positive patient Patients who levels of protection for authorisa- stance, phase 1 of human trials would Its own challenges though remain disease patients, not might have to undergo underwent a kidney transplant recently tion,” said the expert. “Aspects such not mean halting animal studies, to be addressed—including making on dialysis, should not dialysis three to four consume too many times a week, up from two must monitor their as the liability of a company or other rather those studies would continue available 80,000 crore for mass Vitamin C tablets to three times a week, to creatinine levels at stakeholders in case of a side-effect even after the vaccine candidate has vaccination in the next year, as esti- as it might increase remove excess water from least once in two after vaccine has been administered moved on to human trials. mated by Serum Institute chief Adar potassium levels. the lungs. months. have not been defined. It is a good “To optimise time in a public Poonawalla.
44 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 45 BABRI VERDICT THE DIVIDE Ripples of the ruling The CBI special court judgment that acquitted all 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case will have far-reaching implications
BY PUJA AWASTHI
STORM GATHERS JUSTICE IS A LONELY BEING, with intent to incite any class or A file photo of the often condemned to trudging long community of persons to commit crowd at Ayodhya, distances in search of an elusive any offence against any other hours before truth which not only seems true but class or community; and criminal the mosque was can also be demonstrated to be so. conspiracy. demolished on
PAWAN KUMAR PAWAN December 6, 1992 On September 30, it completed a Krishna Kumar Mishra, one of the journey of 10,160 days to conclude defence lawyers, said: “The reasons that none of the 32 accused of having given by the court for the judgment domain till date under titles such as For instance, in the case of then UP Court order dated November 9 , But as the scales of justice are a role in the demolition of the Babri are sterling. None of the evidence ‘Shri Ram Janmabhoomi ka Raktran- chief minister Kalyan Singh, the 2019, which clearly stated that the not tipped by morality, it remained Masjid in Ayodhya were guilty. The presented could be conclusively jit Ithihas’ (The blood-soaked history judgment says, “…the giving of a destruction of the mosque and the unconvinced. initial charges were filed against 49 proven to be valid. The videos of of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi). Also, statement to a newspaper cannot be obliteration of the Islamic structure Mahant Raju Das of the Ayodhya’s people. the demolition, for instance, should in evidence were scores of photo- treated as acceptance or admission was an egregious violation of the rule famous Hanuman Garhi Temple To the tunnel vision of justice, have been seized, seizure memos graphs provided by media persons. of a crime till strong evidence proves of law.” said: “Ram Mandir is only the start. the prosecutors had failed to bring prepared and the evidence sent for These were rendered useless by the it”. The accused on many occasions, We will adopt constitutional means such conclusive evidence that forensic testing. Instead the agency non-availability of negatives. This is not a novel observation. and with pride, claimed their role in to free Mathura, Kashi and the Tejo proved beyond a shred of doubt [Central Bureau of Investigation] ran- The judgment throws into ques- In many cases, courts have held bringing the Ram Mandir Movement Mahalaya.” The first is a reference the role of those accused—a list domly picked up evidence available tion the methods involved in the that newspaper reporting, whether to its conclusion. to the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi which included India’s former from the market. It was not a failure investigation. At one point it quotes correct or not, is hearsay secondary In his book Ayodhya 6 December Temple at Mathura, the second to deputy prime minister Lal Krishna of the investigating agency, but the a member of the investigation team evidence and not admissible unless 1992 , P.V. Narasimha Rao, the prime the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Advani and former Union minister circumstances were such that it was as saying that the cassettes with the the reporter is examined or any minister of India when the demo- Varanasi and the third to the Taj for human resources development impossible to collect evidence in the alleged inflammatory speeches were person before whom the incident lition happened, wrote: “The BJP Mahal in Agra (which some consider Murli Manohar Joshi. The judgment midst of lakhs of people.” not sent for forensic examination has occurred is examined, and facts took ‘moral responsibility’ for the to originally be a Shiv temple). did not say that the demolition The videos Mishra referred to were as it was clear that the incident had proven. day’s developments in a statement Sharad Sharma, the Vishva Hindu was not a criminal act, or that the those available in the immediate happened. At another place it quotes Though a detailed reading of the issued by the party’s vice president Parishad spokesperson in Ayodhya, accused were not present when it aftermath of the demolition. They an investigator’s contention that judgment would require some time, S.S. Bhandari. L.K. Advani and M.M. however, said: “There is no dialogue happened. It concluded simply that had contained grainy images of the many papers were seized from the Syed Mohammed Haider Rizvi, a Joshi were among the prominent BJP on Kashi or Mathura. We are only the evidence did not prove guilt on domes being hammered by kar house of Shiv Sena leader Moreshwar Lucknow-based lawyer said: “On the leaders present in Ayodhya at the celebrating. The Lord is truly free any of the multiple charges under the sevaks and brought down amid lusty Save, but a number of these were face of it, the verdict acquitting all time of the demolition of the Babri today.” Indian Penal Code. These charges cries of Ek dhakka aur do, Babri found not related to the case upon the accused and considering Babri Masjid. As the kar sevaks chipped On the same day, however, in included wrongful assembly; causing Masjid tod do (Give one more push examination later. Masjid demolition as a spontaneous away at the structure, BJP-VHP-RSS Mathura—which is supposed voluntarily hurt to a public servant and bring the Babri Masjid down). The judgment dismisses all evi- incident and not a conspiracy leaders had pleaded in vain with to be the birthplace of Lord Shri in the discharge of his duty; action They remain available in public dence provided through the media. comes in the teeth of the Supreme them to stop.” Krishna—a petition made its way
46 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 47 BABRI VERDICT THE DIVIDE
DEC 5, 1992 DEMOLITION Kar sevaks swell to about two At 4:45pm, the central dome falls. lakh. A group of them are seen DIARY The crowd dances. The shrine's looping a rope over a large rock collection box is open and bare, on a mound, trying to pull it down, A look back at how having been looted tugging from different directions. This was later alleged to be a the assault on the rehearsal Babri Masjid unfolded
Vishva Hindu Parishad general Amid concerns about the safety of the secretary Ashok Singhal states: assaulters who had climbed the domes, “There will be no violation of court Advani exhorts them to come down. orders.” Four of them are buried under the second dome which falls at 4:30pm DEC 6 By 11am, the motorcade with L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi By 4pm, a good part of the mob starts THE WAIT ENDS reaches the site, followed by a frenzied leaving the site with the mosque's L.K. Advani mob. A large crowd breaks in with THE WEEK ARCHIVES bricks as souvenirs. Two domes yet with daughter the leaders to fall Pratibha at his house in Delhi on
Hundreds climb the terraces of JAIN ARVIND September 30 buildings adjoining the site. Assault party scales mosque wall By around noon, assaulters Soon, there are people on all three said. “We were unable to fulfil some after overpowering the lone climb the mosque's right domes. Mob advances with pickaxes, of these. The construction of a grand policeman who stood in their way dome and tie a saffron flag knocks down walls; but, it takes temple in Ayodhya was one such to its spire, amid cries of more than two hours to bring down issue.” SOURCE THE WEEK ARCHIVES “Jai Sri Ram” the first dome Patched That was Advani’s call for a return to hindutva as an emotive issue, but it was something that even he did not through the court of the civil judge, and… [provides] for the maintenance is their strong faith and belief that push hard for. In an apparent bid for senior division. It asked the court to of the religious character of any “dharshan puja at Shri Krishna legacy an image makeover, a few months declare that “land measuring 13.37 place of worship as it existed on the Janmabhoomi is [the] way to acquire later, he termed the demolition of acres… vest in the deity Lord Shri 15th day of August, 1947”. The Ram merit of salvation”. The first plaintiff Babri Masjid as the saddest day of his Krishna Virajman” and the removal Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya was the in the suit is “Bhagwan Shri Krishna With veteran leaders having been life. This left the BJP cadre confused of “construction encroaching only exception, expressly granted by Virajman”. Just as was Shri Ram pronounced innocent in the Babri Masjid till Narendra Modi rose to the top in upon the land… and to handover the Act. Lalla Virajman in the Ayodhya title 2014. Modi gave hope to the Hindu vacant possession to Shree Krishna Incidentally, the local court suit—on which the Supreme Court demolition case, the BJP has fulfilled much voters that he could fulfil their wish Janmabhoomi Trust….” Those dismissed the Krishna Janmabhoomi adjudicated in November last year. of all it had set out to do for a temple. As the prime minister are words with a strong similarity petition, and the petitioners are Agnihotri said: “We are only laid the foundation of the Ram tem- to those used in the Shri Ram now planning next steps. Ranjana seeking to correct a long standing ple on August 5, Advani was missing Janmabhoomi- Babri Masjid title Agnihotri, a Lucknow based lawyer wrong. The birthplace of Shri Krishna BY PRATUL SHARMA from the ceremony. suit. The “encroachment” is refering who is among the eight plaintiffs has special significance and we are On September 30, 56 days after to the Idgah Mosque and the parties to the suit describes herself (and within our rights to protect it and A FEW MONTHS after the BJP’s loss Vajpayee government’s India Shining the ceremony, a special CBI court being asked to remove it are Uttar five other co-plaintiffs) in it as demand recovery of lost property”. in the 2004 general elections, L.K. campaign. “Unfortunately, good acquitted all accused in the conspir- Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board “followers of vedic sanatan dharam, The implications of the 2,300- Advani became party president for governance in a country as large and acy to demolish the mosque. The CBI and “Trust ‘alleged’ Shahi Masjid worshippers and devotees of Lord page judgment on the Babri Masjid the third time and explained the diverse as India does not generate a charge sheet of October 1993 named Idgah”. Notice the use of the word Shri Krishna…(who) profess, demolition, delivered by CBI judge, reasons behind the defeat in his uniform effect.” He then came to the 48 persons including Advani, M.M. “alleged” by the plaintiffs. propagate and perform puja and Justice Surendra Kumar Yadav, thus address. “We assumed a direct corre- missing ingredient from the BJP’s Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and This position runs contrary to the other rituals of Lord Shri Krishna lie beyond his court. lation between good governance and messaging. “In BJP’s voyage from the Vinay Katiyar; only 32 of them are Places of Worship (Special Provi- according to custom, traditions and In justice’s lonely journey, this the electoral outcome. We were not fringe to the centre of the political alive today. sions) Act of 1991. The Act prohibits practices of vedic sanatan dharam then could be a temporary halt, not entirely correct,” said the 77-year-old stage, we aroused many expecta- “The judgement vindicates my “conversion of any place of worship from the time of their ancestors”. It its final destination. leader, referring to the Atal Bihari tions, some extremely emotive,” he personal and the BJP’s belief and
48 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 49 BABRI VERDICT THE DIVIDE BITTER CHOCOLATE liberating for the Hindu from the SWARA BHASKER yoke imposed colonially and the Nehruvian definition of secularism.” The Vishva Hindu Parishad, one of the main drivers of the temple agitation, reacted favourably to the Caste deniers, crime deniers judgment. “The Supreme Court judg- ment of November 2019 unanimous- ly settled that the subject land in Ayo- column on Mahatma Gandhi, I thought as lous cruelty. The family of the girl was not allowed dhya does belong to Ram Lalla,” said I opened my laptop to write this column, to have her body; her father and brother were VHP working president Alok Kumar. Acalculating that it would be apt since Octo- detained; and the girl’s body was forcibly burnt “[The latest] judgment has busted ber 2nd is approaching. Just then, while trying to against the family’s wishes and religious beliefs. the conspiracy theory. It is time to google something, my eyes caught a news update. This case reads like a terrible film from the PROMISES KEPT Ayodhya on the day of the eschew politics, shed prejudices and The survivor of the Hathras gang rape had suc- 1980s—the ones that fetishised sexual violence Babri case verdict. Modi has instead of looking into the past, look cumbed to her gruesome injuries in Delhi, 15 days upon women for thoughtless consumption by delivered on the BJP’s core forward to work together for the uni- after the horrific incident. I began reading the on- male audience. It is nauseating that this is the
issues, be it temple construc- PTI ty and progress of our country.” the-ground reportage of the incident and my head reality of India in 2020. But, perhaps, what was tion or removal of Article 370 Within the hindutva ecosystem, began to swim. more nauseating was the initial denial by the state the matter had reached happy A 19-year-old dalit girl who had begun her day administration that the brutal gang-rape had even commitment towards the Ram biggest beneficiary of the hindutva fruition. There have been many as she did every day—cutting grass in the fields. taken place. Janmabhoomi movement,” said movement. And, he has delivered on hardline Hindu groups who demand A mother who noticed her daughter missing and Once that was undeniable, some on social media Advani, 92, after the acquittal. The the BJP’s core issues, be it the temple that focus now shift to “liberation of exasperatedly thought she would give her “two and TV began to actually debate on whether the BJP leaders were accused by many construction or the abrogation of temples in Kashi and Mathura, which slaps”. The daughter’s pair of slippers and a mud girl’s tongue had been chopped by the rapists or eye-witnesses of encouraging kar se- Article 370. were demolished to build mosques”. trail in the adjacent field belonging to upper caste had she bitten it herself in trauma; had her spine vaks to bring down the mosque. But The November 2019 Supreme But even the BJP would not want Thakurs. The mother discovering her daughter’s been broken or was it an injury induced by the the court said the evidence produced Court verdict to hand over the land strife on its hand when the most brutalised body—eyes bulging, tongue cut off, choking? This is the horrifying reality of our mind- by the investigating agency was not in Ayodhya to the Hindu communi- contentious issue has been resolved, spine damaged and vagina bleeding. But this set that is reflected in this debate, that we as the conclusive. ty and the recent CBI court verdict and these temples do not hold same would be only the beginning of the horror. “dominant mentality” do not even acknowledge Advani was the prime mover of will bring into focus the aspirations weight as the Ram temple. The apathy, criminal negligence and then wilful the brutalised dalit female body—its reality, its the Ram temple movement as he of the Hindu majority. All parties, The BJP is sticking to welcoming attempt to deny the gruesome crime by the Hath- existence, its narrative—and the fact that her body brought the issue to the fore with his even those opposed to the BJP, have the court verdict for now. “The as- ras administration and Uttar Pradesh Police are a was tortured and disfigured by men drunk on the Rath Yatra. That was 30 years ago, on become conscious of the sentiments sembly was never declared unlawful sinister example of the privileged closing ranks be- monstrous unaccountability of caste privilege. September 30, 1990, during his first of the community. Even during the by any authority, by any mode as hind the privileged—no matter what the crime is. How does it matter, the technicality of how the term as party president. The original 28 years the court took to decide the prescribed in law,” said BJP general The Hathras gang-rape survivor ought to have girl lost her tongue or spinal function? Should not charioteer of the yatra may have matter, no political party pushed for secretary Bhupender Yadav. “The died—or that is what the rapists and the rape de- the basic fact that a dalit was gang-raped, by her faded from the political scene, but a resolution, given how emotive the organisers wanted to stop them (kar niers in the UP administration had calculated. She privileged Thakur neighbours (who have a history the impact of his initiative has had a issue was. sevaks). But they were not allowed to could not speak, no one would find out. Everyone of caste violence), so brutally that she became lasting impact on the country’s polity “The conspiracy theory was the go there. The court said the demoli- would be safe. But the girl fought and lived for 15 paralysed, lost her tongue and eyesight, shake us and national consciousness. handiwork of the then government tion happened in the spur of the mo- days. And, despite her cut tongue, she spoke! She out of our caste denial? During the BJP rule under Va- on the insistence of left-leaning ment. The truth has finally prevailed.” named the men who brutalised her. (They were her The denial, by the privileged, of the sufferings of jpayee, the cause of hindutva was historians,” said BJP’s Rajya The judgments and the start of the upper caste Thakur neighbours, who had previous- the oppressed is perhaps one of the most invisible, overtaken by the issue of nuclear Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha. “[The temple construction will certainly be ly also attacked the dalit family violently.) but violent actions—in every age, in every geo- tests and the Kargil war. The national demolition] was not premeditated. trumpeted by the BJP during upcom- The girl’s voice reached some persistent jour- graphical context. We would rather not face the security issues injected nationalism The other objective of the episode ing election campaigns. The party nalists. And, when they spoke—in an act almost “inconvenient truth”, and so we deny! in large swathes of the population. was to revitalise and legitimise the hopes that the completion of the metaphoric in its symbolism—Akanksha Kumar, We choose to believe a lie rather than face The 10 years of the UPA government appeasement theory. There was temple before the 2024 Lok Sabha Nidhi Suresh, Tanushree Pandey and Rohini inconvenience. And so, for any real change to take shifted the focus to development an attempt to compare the temple elections will help create a cultural Singh became the voice of that brutalised tongue- place—perhaps before we demand death for the and rights-based policy. With Modi’s movement with violent agitations renaissance. less girl. Their relentless reporting and tweeting rapists and justice for the girl—we would do well to arrival as an unabashed champion of across the world that were anti- This judgment frees BJP veterans of amplified the case on social media; and, mounting start with changing ourselves and stop being caste muscular nationalism, hindutva was minority. Moreover, it was an all charges. Party patriarchs Advani, pressure ensured that the accused rapists were deniers. After all, as Mahatma Gandhi said: “Our back in currency, but with a stronger attempt to put in the dock the main Joshi and others who have been side arrested. However, once the girl died, the UP Police greatest ability as humans is not to change the focus on national security, which icons of the hindutva movement by lined in recent times will hope that and Hathras administration were back to their cal- world, but to change ourselves.” was pushed as necessary to save presenting them as majoritarian. history books will be kinder to them The writer is an award-winning Bollywood actor and sometime writer and social commentator. cultural values. It made Modi the The [Ram temple movement] was from now on.
50 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 51 JUDICIARY TITULAR FIX
My Lord/Lady or Mr President Mister Chairman/ Your Worship TITLES Your Lordship/Ladyship Your Honour of the Court Madam Chairwoman Qazi or Sir/Madam AROUND US THE England France WORLD Italy Spain Germany Saudi Arabia Note: In the US "My Lord/Lady"/"Your Lordship/Ladyship" is used to address judges of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and "Your Honour" for Justices of the Peace. In England "My Lord/Lady"/"Your Lordship/Ladyship" is used for High Court judges; "Your Worship" or "Sir/Madam" for magistrates and "Your Honour" for circuit court judges.
RESEARCH SONI MISHRA
ship”. It asked lawyers and litigants to Nanda. Nanda tried to reason with is shown respect. ‘Your Honour’ is call them “Sir” or “Shrimanji”. A res- her by referring to the history of the fine. Even ‘Sir’ is fine.” Address change olution passed by a full bench of the usage of the term. However, Chaud- Lawyers feel the use of the titles High Court said the move was meant hary was adamant, and Nanda said has a lot to do with habit and train- Despite the growing unease over the use of archaic titles in to honour the mandate of equality that he would avoid the usage. ing. The joke that goes around in enshrined in the Constitution. While the bar council’s resolution legal circles is that if the two titles are Indian courts, breaking away from them will not be easy Judges in their individual capacity is clear on how the judges have to done away with, majority of the law- have also been asking lawyers to be addressed, it largely remains on yers will not be able to argue since BY SONI MISHRA desist from using “My Lord” or “Your paper. Even in Rajasthan, despite they are so used to starting their Lordship” to address them. The most the High Court’s notice, at least 70 argument with “My Lord” or “Your EMINENT JURIST FALI S. Nariman, Bobde objected to a lawyer address- “Your Honour” has been accept- recent instance of this is Chief Justice per cent of the lawyers still address Lordship”. Supreme Court lawyer in his memoirs Before Memory Fades, ing him “Your Honour”, during a ed in Indian legal practice as an of Calcutta High Court Thottathil B. judges “My Lord” or “Your Lordship”, Sneha Kalita said most litigants use recalled his appearance before a hearing on August 13. The CJI said it appropriately modern substitute for Radhakrishnan, who in July, said to said Syed Shahid Hasan, senior “Sir” to address judges. “They are judge who had just been promoted was an American usage. The lawyer “My Lord” and “Your Lordship”. The officers of the district judiciary and advocate and chairman of the Bar not used to referring to judges as ‘My from the city civil court to the High said there was nothing prescribed Bar Council of India on May 6, 2006, the registry that they should address Council of Rajasthan. “Judges also Lord’ or ‘Your Lordship’,” she said. “It Court. Nariman’s opponent kept by law as to how a judge should be had passed a resolution stating that him as “Sir”. like to be called that,” he said. “It is is a habit we lawyers inculcate from calling him “Your Honour”. The judge addressed, but Bobde said it was a the form of address to be adopted in Interestingly, “My Lady” or “Your high time these titles are done away the time we are in law college. A cer- grimaced at what he perceived as an matter of practice of the court. the Supreme Court and High Courts Ladyship” is not used often in Indian with. Judges have to be given respect, tain level of dignity and respect has indignity—the practice in India is to It is, however, ironic that Bobde was “Your Honour” or “Honourable courts. Lawyers are not comfortable but they are not God.” to be maintained in the relationship refer to judges in High Courts and should have objected to being called Court” and, in the subordinate courts using the terms, while female judges Former Supreme Court judge Jus- between the bar and the bench.” the Supreme Court as “My Lord” or “Your Honour”. In 2014, he was on a and tribunals, it was “Sir” or the are also known to have objected to tice K.S. Radhakrishnan rejected the Lawyers also talk about peer “Your Lordship”. “My opponent had two-judge bench with the then chief equivalent in regional languages. the usage. A few years ago, in the idea that judges like to be addressed pressure as a factor determining the a good case. But he lost! Judges are justice H.L. Dattu which observed The resolution came after the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in a certain manner. “I don’t think use of the titles—if they opt for “Your human,” wrote Nariman. that the only expectation the judges Supreme Court, in February 2006, re- Justice Daya Chaudhary strong- any judge would insist on being Honour” when the opposing lawyer Nariman advised aspiring lawyers had was that they be addressed in fused to ban the use of the titles. Dis- ly objected to being called “Your called in a certain manner,” he said. is going for “My Lord” or “Your Lord- to always address a court correctly a dignified manner. The bench had posing the Progressive and Vigilant Ladyship” by Advocate General Atul “All that is expected is that the chair ship”, the judge may think they are and said judges in the upper courts disposed of a PIL filed by veteran Lawyers’ Forum’s petition seeking trying to act smart. must always be addressed as “Your lawyer Shiv Sagar Tiwari seeking a to end the use of the titles, the apex However, Lokenath Chatterjee, Lordship”. He wrote in brackets: “Be- ban on the use of “My Lord” and court said it was up to the bar council advocate, Calcutta High Court, said lieve me, the judges simply love it.” “Your Lordship”. Tiwari had argued to resolve the issue. Judges in their individual a majority of the lawyers do not Despite the growing unease with that the titles denoted slavery. The While the Supreme Court has mind using the archaic titles. “It is the titles, seen as colonial and carry- bench refused to ban the honorif- chosen not to specify the correct way capacity have also been linked to the majesty of the court ing feudal overtones (some even say ics, but said: “When did we say it is to address judges, the Rajasthan High asking lawyers to desist from and reflects respect towards the they are against the constitutional compulsory? You can call ‘Sir’, it is Court, in 2019, issued a notice re- using “My Lord” or “Your institution, and lawyers are a part of principle of equality), Nariman ap- accepted. You call ‘Your Honour’, it questing lawyers and others appear- Lordship” to address them. that,” he said. peared to have been proven correct is accepted. You call ‘Lordship’, it is ing before the judges not to address Breaking away from this practice when Chief Justice of India S.A. accepted.” them as “My Lord” or “Your Lord- will not be easy for Indian courts.
52 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 53 JUDICIARY PROBING THE POLITICIANS
LAWMAKERS. LAWBREAKERS? Cases pending LOW POINTS against Many cases pending at appearance stage MPs and MLAs (sitting and Non-bailable warrants not executed former) Charges not framed in many cases, including for offences punishable with life imprisonment 4,442 Cases in Unsettled, unsettling which sitting legislators are accused Offences Sitting Trials stayed The huge punishable legislators by High Courts 2,556 by life accused and the pendency of imprisonment of offences Supreme Court punishable criminal cases with life imprisonment involving 413 174 352 lawmakers is corrupting GRAPHICS SREEMANIKANDAN S.\RESEARCH SONI MISHRA politics. The Supreme by life imprisonment; 174 of these cas- have been less than two years in es are against sitting MPs and MLAs. In jail. But the case does serve as an Court and a large number of cases, charges have example of criminal proceedings not yet been framed, and many are against lawmakers moving at a snail’s Parliament still at the appearance stage. In many pace. According to the amicus curiae, need to act of the cases, the matter is stuck at the the reasons for prolonged penden- “execution required of arrest warrant” cy include the accused trying to swiftly stage. During the hearing in which the influence witnesses by using money CASE IN POINT Supreme Court bench learnt of Valto- and muscle power. He said the court BY SONI MISHRA Former Akali Dal MLA ha’s case, a case from West Bengal was should direct the authorities to Virsa Singh Valtoha also mentioned. It involved charges far strictly implement witness protection (centre) holds the less serious, but it predated the Punjab measures. dubious distinction of being an accused in the case by two years. The charges against In many cases, non-bailable oldest pending criminal veteran Trinamool Congress leader warrants issued by the trial court for case —a murder case— Sisir Adhikari included rioting, being securing the presence of the accused against a lawmaker armed with a deadly weapon, unlawful were not executed. “There are serious assembly and endangering life or per- issues involved in establishing evi- sonal safety of others, and the FIR was dence in these cases,”said advocate VIRSA SINGH VALTOHA is a po- wanted to know the oldest pending The court has asked the state gov- many people who cannot bear to filed in 1981. The case was disposed of Sneha Kalita, who helped Hansaria larising figure in Punjab politics. A criminal case against a lawmaker. ernment’s counsel to apprise it of the see me in mainstream politics.” a few months ago. prepare the report. “The accused do two-time MLA, Valtoha, 57, is known The amicus curiae in the case, lawyer status of the matter, even as Valtoha Valtoha may or may not be guilty, “Of course, I would have liked the not appear before the court. Witness- as much for his alleged role in Sikh Vijay Hansaria, said it was a 1983 says he had been discharged in the but his case is a prime example case to get over earlier,” said Adhikari, es either do not turn up or turn hos- militancy in the heyday of the sep- murder case in Punjab in which case. “I was falsely implicated,”he of the huge pendency of criminal 79, a former Union minister who has tile. So the case goes into a standstill aratist movement as for the provoc- Valtoha was an accused. The judges said. “I was in jail from 1984 to 1991 cases involving incumbent and been a Lok Sabha member since 2009. at the evidence stage.” ative statements he has made after were shocked; the proceedings in the in connection with other cases, so former legislators. They continue to “I mentioned the case in my election She also pointed out that there entering the political mainstream. A case had been hanging fire for nearly the question of my not participating contest elections and enter legisla- affidavits. We know how overburdened were not enough special courts to leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal, he four decades. in the trial in this case does not arise. tive bodies, even as cases involving our courts are. So I do not want to hear the cases. There are now 12 such now holds the dubious distinction of The case relates to the murder of The co-accused in the case got ac- them are stuck in courts. blame anyone for the time it took for courts, but the Supreme Court wants being an accused in the oldest pend- a doctor in Tarn Taran district. The quitted. Some months later, I got bail According to a report submitted the case to be disposed of. It was only the Centre to consider increasing this ing criminal case against a lawmaker. first information report was filed in and was discharged from the case.” by Hansaria to the Supreme Court, after the court gave an order for the number based on the district-wise Valtoha’s claim to notoriety was September 1983, and trespass and Valtoha was arrested in Operation 4,442 cases are pending against sit- cases to be tried by special courts that breakup of pending cases. “There discovered during the hearing of murder charges were framed this Blue Star in 1984. He alleged that ting and former MPs and MLAs. In the trial gathered pace.” is also the issue of the investigating a public interest petition in the January 17. In the meantime, Valtoha the murder case was being revived 2,556 of these, incumbent legisla- A conviction in the case would not officer and the witnesses having to Supreme Court on September 9. A got bail in 1991 and was twice elected for political reasons. “My opponents tors are accused. In as many as 413 have resulted in Adhikari’s disqualifi- travel long distances to attend trial bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana MLA—in 2007 and 2012. are targeting me,” he said. “There are cases, the offences are punishable cation, since the punishment would in the special courts. If more such
54 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 55 JUDICIARY PROBING THE POLITICIANS IVORY TOWER SANJAYA BARU
News weak, time out
he media love lists, and Indian media and brickbats. In 2008, Newsweek, under Fareed obsess about western lists. How is India Zakaria’s editorship, wrote off Singh and echoed the Tdoing on this index and that, by how many view of Rahul Gandhi cronies who, in the run up to RELIEF, AT LAST places has it moved up or down. Rarely does such 2009 election, wanted an “ageing” Singh to make Trinamool Congress reporting educate the reader or viewer about way for “young” Rahul. Singh surprised everyone leader Sisir Adhikari what goes into the making of a list—the criteria (left) with fellow MP later that year leading his coalition back to power Abhishek Banerjee. used, the data digested, the assumptions made with more MPs in tow. Adhikari was named in and the biases inherent to definitions. So, it was In 2002, Time declared that prime minister Atal a case of rioting and not surprising that when the newsmagazine Time Bihari Vajpayee was “asleep at the wheel” and that unlawful assembly. included Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a many in his party wanted him replaced. Nothing of The FIR was filed in global list of “100 Most Influential People”, Indian the sort happened. Despite getting Indian politics 1981, and the case media was quick to report but without spelling out wrong on many occasions and underestimating was disposed of a few why he had made it. the survival instincts of Indian prime ministers,
SALIL BERA SALIL months ago Remember that the criterion for making it to western media manage to make a splash in India, even Time’s “Person of the Year” often with half-baked stories. courts are set up, this problem can be leave it to Parliament to enact laws to two years in jail would lose his or her is the person should have “most This is more a reflection of Indian resolved,” she said. clean up politics. “They (parliamen- membership of the house immedi- affected the news and our lives, obsession with what the west The amicus curiae has suggested tarians) will be the last people to do ately. Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya for good or ill”. It was left to one of thinks of us than a comment setting up special courts in every something about it, considering the Janata Dal and Rasheed Masood Modi’s irrepressible critics to point on western media’s political district, giving priority to cases de- large number of lawmakers who face of the Congress lost their seats in out that Time picked the prime prescience or ability to tell the pending on the severity of the crime criminal charges, and the prevalence Parliament because of the order. The minister for this list more for “doing truth. and punishment involved, reviewing of money and muscle power in elec- existing law states that convicted ill than good”, so to speak. It is one of the ironies of Indian the stay on a large number of cases, tions,” he said. politicians cannot contest elections Time explained its choice media that it invests so little in providing protection to witness- The oft-stated defence of politi- for six years after completing their stating: “First elected on a populist covering the world and reporting es, and asking the High Courts to cians is that most such cases are sentence. There have been demands promise of empowerment, his from foreign stations but pays so monitor the progress in the cases. politically motivated and that they for barring politicians facing criminal Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata much attention to what world A larger issue arising out of this is should not be deprived of the ‘in- charges from contesting polls, and Party rejected not only elitism media says about India and its the criminalisation of politics. What nocent till proved guilty’ principle. banning convicted politicians from but also pluralism, specifically targeting India’s leaders. Among all the major powers, India has the began as a criminal-politician nexus, “Getting named in cases is an occu- fighting elections. Muslims. The crucible of the pandemic became a fewest number of foreign correspondents. World say experts, has led to the criminal pational hazard,” said Adhikari. “You According to former chief election pretence for stifling dissent. And the world’s most news comes to Indian media from foreign sources, coming to the fore and fighting take part in an agitation, and you risk commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, such vibrant democracy fell deeper into shadow.” rarely their own correspondents. Worse still, Indian elections, with dons-turned-politi- being named in a case.” a ban would be unduly harsh. He Despite the fact that the west is today largely media’s sourcing of news of non-western societies cians like Mukhtar Ansari and Ateeq In February this year, the Supreme said the current minimum ban of on India’s side, and Prime Minister Modi has and many of India’s neighbours also comes from Ahmed completing the mainstream- Court directed political parties to eight years—two years of minimum established good relations and rapport with most western media sources. It is an odd love-hate ing of crime in politics. Nearly half publish the criminal history of their imprisonment, followed by a six-year major western leaders, western media is turning relationship: excessive dependence on western of the winners of the Lok Sabha poll candidates along with the reason ban—is enough to kill a political increasingly critical of him. However, nothing media for news, combined with condescension elections in 2019 had criminal cases for giving tickets to the accused. The career. A way out, according to him, that has appeared in western media is more when the news is not complimentary. against them, according to a study order will be implemented for the has three options. “One, political critical of Modi than what appears in Indian print It has been reported that Foreign Minister conducted by the Association for first time in the assembly elections parties should themselves refuse media. It is only Indian television that has become S. Jaishankar has instructed Indian diplomats Democratic Reforms. Of the 539 MPs in Bihar, due later this month. The tickets to the tainted,” he said. “Two, excessively adulatory. overseas to build better relations with local media. elected in May 2019, 233 or 43 per Supreme Court has, meanwhile, the Representation of the People Act Modi is not the first Indian prime minister to While this is necessary and diplomats can help cent were named in criminal cases. refused to pass an order to debar pol- should be amended to debar persons be criticised by western media. From Jawaharlal improve India’s image overseas, there are limits to As many as 112 MPs (21 per cent) iticians facing criminal charges from against whom cases of heinous Nehru to Manmohan Singh, every Indian prime how much carefully built images can blur a reality were accused of serious crimes. Maj contesting polls. It had ruled in 2013 nature are pending. Three, fast-track minister has been conferred both bouquets staring in one’s face. Gen (retd) Anil Verma, head of ADR, that a legislator convicted of a crime courts should decide the cases of said the Supreme Court should not and given a minimum punishment of tainted legislators quickly.” Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh. ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN 56 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 57 BUSINESS TATAS Tough stake The SP Group’s debts will be cleared if it sells its stake in Tata Sons. But the sale itself is no cakewalk
BY NACHIKET KELKAR
DECEMBER 18, 2019, was a day of come to separate from the Tatas. celebration for Cyrus Mistry, who The Tata Trusts—which are into had been sacked unceremoniously various philanthropic activities— as the chairman of Tata Sons in Oc- hold 66 per cent shares of Tata Sons, tober 2016. The National Company which in turn exerts control over a Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had 100-odd companies manufacturing ruled that day that the sacking was salt to software. The SP Group pegs illegal, and he would have to be rein- its stake in Tata Sons at around 1.8 PTI HAPPIER stated as the chairman of Tata Sons. lakh crore. This is based on the value DAYS The NCLAT verdict sent shockwaves of the operating companies as well File photo of through Bombay House; the Tatas as the brand value of the Tatas. The Ratan Tata and did manage to get a Supreme Court Tatas may not agree to the valua- Cyrus Mistry stay on the order a few days later. tion, and they do have a right of first The Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP refusal, according to the articles of Group) owned by the Mistrys had in- Association of Tata Sons. While the founder and managing director, sell a 16 per cent stake in TCS, which Tata Sons could sell non-core assets vested in Tata Sons in the 1960s. Re- SP Group has reportedly lined up in- InGovern Research Services, a corpo- will bring down its shareholding to and pledge the equity of its listed ports suggest that J.R.D. Tata was not stitutional investors for the stake sale, rate governance advisory firm. 56 per cent from 72 per cent. For the companies to raise funds. But that quite happy with having an outsider the Tatas may not want the shares Nirmalya Kumar, Lee Kong Chian past several years, Tata Sons ability would mean that the group will be in Tata Sons. But the two sides shared falling into the hands of a third professor of marketing at Singapore to infuse equity and provide liquid- The easiest way for deeper in debt. The Tatas may also a cordial bond over the decades. The investor. The Tatas have told the apex Management University and distin- ity support to its businesses has look at roping in institutional inves- relations soured after Cyrus was fired court that they are open to buying guished fellow at INSEAD Emerging been driven by TCS dividends and this separation is to tors to buy out the SP Group stake. overnight. And it got worse when the the SP Group’s stake. However, it is Markets Institute, says Tatas may buyback. According to IiAS, the sale give them (SP Group) Sovereign wealth funds have also Tatas blocked SP Group’s move to easier said than done. have to get an outside investor. But of 16 per cent of TCS will restrict the equivalent value of been reportedly sounded out. raise funds by pledging their shares The Tata Group is also saddled who will invest $20 billion with financial flexibility of Tata Sons and Exiting Tata Sons by offloading in Tata Sons. with huge debt, notably in its power, restraints on liquidity and transfera- somewhat weaken its ability to hold TCS shares, and tell its stake will address the SP Group’s The Mistrys, who have an 18.4 per automobile and steel companies. bility of those shares, he asks. the group together. them they are free to debt woes completely (According cent stake in Tata Sons, needed the The SP Group in its statement alleged If the Tatas want to buy out the “The easiest way for this separa- do what they want to CARE Ratings total reported debt funds to tide over the crisis triggered that debt in major Tata Group com- stakes of the SP Group, there are four tion, if you want to do it, is to give of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company by the Covid-19 pandemic. The panies had increased by 1 lakh crore major options. “One option is to sell them (SP Group) equivalent value with those shares. Private Ltd on standalone basis stood Supreme Court has barred the group in the last three years. So, buying out stakes in some companies like TCS; of TCS shares, and tell them that —Nirmalya Kumar, Lee Kong at 11,745 crore as on March31, from selling or pledging any Tata the Mistrys may not be so easy for the or divest some businesses com- they would be free to do what they Chian professor of marketing at 2019). The decision to separate from Sons shares until October 28, when Tatas. pletely; or raise some private equity want with those shares,” said Kumar. Singapore Management University the Tata Group has lifted the shares it is likely to start hearing the final “It may not be easy for both parties funding; or raise some financing over “This will resolve around two-thirds of the two listed companies of the arguments in the case. This judgment to agree on valuations. It is also not a period of time,” said Subramanian. of the valuation issue, and Tatas will SP Group—Sterling & Wilson, and might have been the final nail in the clear how the Tatas are going to Proxy advisory firm Institutional continue to hold a 51 per cent-plus Forbes & Co—over the past week. coffin, which prompted the Mistrys raise the funding required to buy the Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) stake in TCS.” But are these celebrations prema- to finally decide that the time had shares,” said Shriram Subramanian, estimates that Tata Sons may have to Alternatively, experts suggest that ture? Time will tell.
58 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 59 BUSINESS AGRITECH
costs by 20 per cent by giving right advice, and managing their farms through a technological platform, right from sowing to harvesting,” said Tauseef Khan, co-founder, Gramo- Old trade, phone. “This is something which is in the control of the farmers, unlike prices and output which are dictated by market dynamics. We help them new tools reduce uncertainty in decision mak- ing.” He added that they also educate farmers about scientific agricultural Agritech companies are disrupting the practices and provide better quality agriculture sector and giving hope to seeds, and better crop protection and crop nutrition products than what is farmers in distress available in the market. Gramophone’s Krishi Mitra app BY PRATUL SHARMA allows farmers to engage with experts and even send them pictures of their TWO YEARS AGO, a late evening listing caught the attention of a Lon- crop on WhatsApp. The platform also meeting changed Kishan Rathor’s don-based buyer. After a deal was ne- uses advanced image recognition perspective on agriculture. After the gotiated, the purchaser’s kin checked technology to process farmer queries meeting, with agriculture startup the produce prior to shipping. and return relevant information. Gramophone, he decided to divide There are over 500 such agritech Karthik Jayaraman, CEO and his 10-acre farm in Dewas district of firms and many of them were found- co-founder, WayCool, a Chen- Madhya Pradesh into two. He used ed in the last five years mostly by IIT nai-based company, said that the traditional methods of sowing moong and IIM alumni. They are bringing improvement of road networks in (green gram) in one half and in the innovation into agriculture, primarily the last 20 years has made move- other he followed the advice of Gram- digitising the farm-to-factory and ment of goods easier and is one of ophone’s app. farm-to-fork processes, and focusing the enabling factors for the agritech “The production cost decreased, on minimising wastage across the space. “Second is the transformation while output increased from 22 quin- supply chain and empowering farm- in the cost of communication and tals to 27 quintals,” said Rathor. “It ers to make informed decisions. the digitisation of money, which was the first time I realised agricul- Though the market penetration of enables faster movement.These are ture can be profitable.” He is classified these firms is only around 1 per cent, important components of the sup- as a medium farmer; 13 per cent of the entry of a new wave of entrepre- ply chain and we thought now was the farmers in the country fall into neurs is starting to transform the way the time,” he said. this category, which is under threat of food is produced, marketed and con- He added that with the government being pushed into poverty if the farm- sumed. Covid-19, the bane of millions reforms, the focus had shifted from ers do not use resources well. Luckily worldwide, became a boon for ag- ramping up production to ramping for them, increased penetration of ritech companies. These companies up the supply. Jayaraman said that cheap smartphones in rural areas also stand to benefit from the Centre’s the focus should now be on improv- has opened up access to information agricultural reform laws, which ing the supply chain by building in- like never before. And the younger diluted the Essential Commodities frastructure to improve cold storage, farmers are willing to try new things Act, gave legal framework for contract even in villages. on their farms. farming, and allowed farmers to sell GROWING In another critical area of the agri- Over 1,000km from Dewas, in to anyone, anywhere. As a result, they TOGETHER cultural value chain comes compa- Muzaffarpur, Bihar, litchi farmer Sunil are now poised to scale-up opera- Karthik Jayara- nies like Agribazaar, which replicates Kumar, too, harnessed the power of tions. As per a recent Ernst & Young man, CEO and the mandi using an online aggrega- co-founder, technology. As lockdown disrupt- report, agritech in India has a market WayCool, with a tion model. A farmer lists his produce ed supply chains, he got himself potential of $24 billion by 2025. farmer in Sadali and buyers like merchants, traders listed on Kisan E-mart, powered by “We help farmers increase their village, Madhya and corporates can place orders. Pune-based startup Agri10x.The productivity and reduce production Pradesh Once the transaction is complete,
60 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 61 BUSINESS AGRITECH
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FARMER’S CHOICE Kishan Rathor said an agritech firm’s app helped him decrease production cost and increase yield
Agribazaar picks up the produce and farmers and traders. The two players houses that handled the produce, the the payment is credited to the farm- save a lot of cash, which would truck that carried the item to stores er’s bank account. otherwise be spent on middlemen. and more.” “Our app is helping local farmers The size of the operation itself is Before the government’s recent go [pan India],” said Amith Agarwal, enormous as volumes start from 200 reforms, each state had a different set CEO and co-founder, Agribazaar. tonnes and go up to 1,000 tonnes.” of rules and it was hard for agritech He said that in April 2020, the app AgNext, a Mohali-based company companies to understand. “We could facilitated the transport of over 8,000 set up by Taranjeet Singh, measures not expand our base outside south trucks worth of produce, even from the quality of agricultural produce. India as we did not know the rules,” far-off places like Ladakh, Sikkim Using its in-house Qualix platform, said Jayaraman. “At some places, we and Lakshadweep. “The response it helps food-processing businesses had to pay extra for every kilo bought during this lockdown was encourag- analyse the trading and safety pa- from farmers. Grains could only be ing,” he said. Founded in 2016, the rameters of commodities. It provides sourced through APMCs (agriculture startup has connected around 10,000 test reports over the phone within 30 produce market committees).” A traders and processors, and over 100 seconds. The dilution of the Essential Com- farmer producer organisations with The pandemic has brought about a modities Act is also a boost. Jayaraman its network of over three lakh farmers visible change in consumer behav- explained: “There is demand for onions across 36 states and Union territo- iour. Safety concerns have come to in the Middle East,” he said. “But we homely ries. The app has facilitated sales of the fore and consumers are reading were not reliable suppliers as we could 14,000 crore since its inception, said the labels more closely. Ninjacart, a not store under the Essential Commod- Agarwal. Benguluru-headquartered fresh food ities Act. Now, with reforms, storage Agri10x partnered with the gov- supply chain company, introduced has been made possible.” touch ernment to help farmers access their “end-to-end food footprint traceabili- A report by Maple Capital Advisors
marketplace to sell their produce, ty” for fruits and vegetables. “Foot- pegged that venture capital invest- PRASAD P. like the litchi farmer in Muzaffar- print is Ninjacart’s first but significant ments in agritech startups are expect- LADY AND pur did. “We now have access to step towards ensuring food safety,” ed to exceed $500 million in the next In the pandemic, home THE LADLE the government’s common service said Thirukumaran Nagarajan, two years. Pankaj Karna, managing chefs have become a Roshni Nathan started centres (CSCs), access points that co-founder and CEO, Ninjacart. “It director, Maple Capital Advisors, said: ‘Kitchen Table’ in Hyderabad deliver e-services to rural and remote allows the consumer to trace the “The golden age of Indian agriculture force to reckon with in July. She does not serve regular Telugu food, and areas in the country,” said Pankajj complete footprint of the products may well have just begun, backed by instead takes inspiration Ghode, founder and CEO, Agri10x. purchased from Ninjacart. For every unparalleled digital access to farmers, BY RAHUL DEVULAPALLI, from her trips to “We charge a trading fee of 6 to 10 per product one buys from Ninjacart, it overarching reforms and govern- Mumbai and Goa MANDIRA NAYAR, REKHA DIXIT cent, which is equally divided among will tell you the farmer details, ware- ment support.” AND POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL 62 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 @LEISURE FOOD
be one item that those who chose not to dine out would miss the most. “Today, we deliver customised food as per choice and taste,” she says. This includes sizzlers, cakes and a va- AA riety of starters. All she requests is a 24-hour notice to get the ingredients. t almost 90, Krishna Sekhri, aka She says she makes around 40,000 Krishna aunty, is easily the most a month. popular resident of her leafy, green The home chef business has colony in Delhi. With a shock of become so successful that many white hair, a ready smile and free ancillary enterprises have come up
advice on anything from children to PRASAD P. around it. Like the platforms which food, she is often spotted in the col- connect home chefs with customers.
ony walking her Labrador. “Half my PHOTOS These include Zingg and Assorted in life has been spent sitting on the park Delhi and Trice in Hyderabad. “There bench opposite my house,” she says are a couple of reasons why home with a smile. There, Krishna aunty chefs are much in demand,” says often used to sing to a smitten audi- CHEFS’ Priyanka Raghuraman, co-founder of ence. The lockdown brought her life SPECIALS Trice, which has enlisted home chefs to a halt, until her family realised it (Clockwise from left) from 55 communities. “First, they Namratha Mongam, a home was time for an intervention. It came offer authentic dishes that are rarely chef from Vizag; Monica Kansal in the form of her other passion— Gupta, a Delhi-based home bak- available in restaurants and cloud food. At ‘Aunty K’s Kitchen’, Punjabi er; and Monika Khandelwal, kitchens. Second, they make the recipes are brought alive with a a Rajasthani home chef dishes in their own kitchens with the dollop of warmth. The kitchen opens living in Hyderabad same ingredients they use to cook every weekend and sells out within for their families. In a way, they are minutes of the menu being put up on inviting you into their homes.” the colony’s WhatsApp group. “I do Home chefs who established simple, slow cooking,” she says. “It is GOEL AAYUSH themselves much before the pan- wonderful that people like it.” demic are adjusting their modus Cooking is part of her DNA. Hail- ing burgers through ‘The Accidental lived in Hyderabad for the last 16 or ries-old recipes passed down through Like the gond laddoos of Monika operandi to cater to the new reality. ing from a large family, her mother Burger House’, or the chef behind so years,” she says. “Though people the generations. “There are fantastic Khandelwal, a Rajasthani home Like Monica Kansal Gupta, a Del- would cook for everyone, including ‘Mehfil Delhi’ who is introducing want to try new food, it is difficult cooks on both sides. I asked our fam- chef living in Hyderabad, which hi-based home baker with her own the seven dogs. Her food was the Delhiites to Kashmiri cuisine, or the to get it in the city. The number of ilies to share important recipes,” says are believed to be highly nutritious brand, ‘It’s Sinful’, who lost many big stuff of legend. “Even the tinda (Indi- ‘Curly Sue’ pork being sold by a cou- people going to Goa from Hyderabad Namratha, who started ‘Ma Vantillu’ with healing powers. Although she orders from her corporate clientele an round gourd) tasted like mutton,” ple in Bengaluru, home chefs have has increased. They cannot go there (My Kitchen), specialising in coastal makes only one kilo every day, the after events got cancelled in the lock- Krishna aunty reminisces fondly. mushroomed across the country, all the time so we thought of com- Andhra and Kerala food. She only real- demand for them is much higher. down. However, as the unlock phases “My father’s friends who stayed at quickly filling the gap left by people’s ing up with niche Goan food.” Her ised how popular the venture had got- “I made the laddoos for a person in began, she started getting queries the best hotels in Lahore always ate reluctance to dine out. It is general- cooking has also been influenced by ten during the Kerala festival of Onam, my complex after seeing a request for small parties. “Earlier, I used to dinner at our house.” Krishna aunty ly perceived that food prepared by her Anglo-Indian in-laws in Mumbai. when they prepared sadyas (tradition- in the community group,” she says. make 18kg to 25kg cakes. Now the herself, however, only learnt to cook home chefs in small, curated batches The Anglo-Indian East India Bottle al Onam feasts) with 26 curries. “I was “After that, I started getting a lot parties are in smaller groups, so the after her marriage to an IFS officer. is healthier and safer. Masala, for example, which includes surprised to get 100 orders that day,” of requests.” According to her, the orders are for 1kg to 2kg cakes,” she In the lockdown, she has brushed up Some of these home chefs are 30 to 35 spices, is used in several of she says. There is great demand for laddoos are made in an authentic says. The nature of her catering, too, her old skills. She spends her time infusing novelty and freshness into her dishes. her crab masala, Kerala chicken curry style with jaggery, unlike the ones has changed, with orders for artisan reading cook books and planning their offering. In July, Roshni and The specialty of Namratha Mon- and appam and stew. To complement you get in shops made with sugar. breads and baked savouries like the menu for the weekend. Now her Errol Nathan started ‘Kitchen Table’ gam, a home chef from Vizag, is her recipes, she uses fresh vetted ales, Many of these home chefs pub- tortillas, quiches, burgers, puffs and palak chicken, parathas, chola, butter in Hyderabad. The couple does not heritage recipes and rare techniques. mostly sourced from her farm on the licise their food through Instagram pizzas increasing. These were items chicken and pickles have become as serve the usual Telugu and Hyder- Namratha is inspired by her fami- outskirts of the city. Aside from the or WhatsApp. Mumbai-based Sonal people would earlier source from legendary as her mother’s dishes. abadi fare, though. Roshni takes ly’s grand history, which includes a financial aspect, merely being able to Garga and her son, Vimanyu, for fast food joints, but are now wary. It is not just Krishna aunty. In the inspiration from her travels in Goa letter of appreciation from Queen serve good food is reason enough to example, started out by offering Over the last three months, she has pandemic, the home chef business is and Mumbai, coming up with pop- Elizabeth II. Her husband’s Malayali continue as a home chef, she says. fresh, cheesy pizzas through their catered for around 18 parties. Busi- booming like never before. Whether ular dishes like Goan prawn curry Christian family, too, is equally in- In the pandemic, anything perceived housing society’s WhatsApp group. ness is different now, she says, but it it is the Mumbai-based quartet sell- and green masala chicken. “We have teresting, having preserved centu- to be healthy is an instant best-seller. Sonal says she figured pizza would continues to go strong.
64 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 65 @LEISURE SERIES REVIEW THE PLAYBOOK: DRINKS A COACH’S RULES SAGE AND FOR LIFE THE SPIRITS Available on Netflix Yangdup Lama is regarded as the Yoda Rating of India’s alcohol and beverage industry
International’s annual Bar World 100 list, a definitive list of the world's top MARIGOLD G&T bars. This came four months after his Gin: 60ml south Delhi bar, Sidecar, was featured Homemade marigold cordial: 20ml in Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2020. Classic Indian tonic to top For Lama, born in Gayabari village Method: Pour the gin and the in Kurseong, this validation can only homemade marigold cordial into a be a sign of a brewing renaissance. stem goblet, filled with ice. Top with “It comes at a time when you need tonic, garnish with a dehydrated orange slice and serve. it most,” says Lama. “From here on, more Indian bars will start featuring Method to the madness on the world's best list. The shift is really tilting towards Asia.” He adds BY REUBEN JOE JOSEPH that a whiskey from Goa, Mithuna by Paul John, was ranked the third-best icking the brain of a successful sports coach can be an insightful whiskey in Jim Murray's Whiskey Bi- Pexercise. More than teaching game-specific tactics or skills, it is ble 2021, and one of the world's best the life lessons that a coach imparts that transforms players. And it is bartenders right now is a South Ko- CARROTA CUP these principles that The Playbook seeks to uncover from the lives of rean woman—Bannie Kang, based in Vodka: 60ml five top coaches—Doc Rivers and Dawn Staley (basketball), Jill Ellis Singapore. Carrot juice: 90ml and Jose Mourinho (football) and Patrick Mouratoglou (tennis). Fresh lime juice: 15ml Take, for example, Rivers’ discovery of the African philosophy of
AAYUSH GOEL AAYUSH The history of cocktails and drinks has been shaped by wars and histor- Cherry brine: 20ml ubuntu when he was desperate to inspire his star-studded Boston Method: In a cocktail ical epochs in the last 200 years. A Celtics team. The players accepted the ubuntu maxim of “I am be- shaker filled with ice, churning awaits the Indian drinking cause we are” and began to put the team above self. It resulted in the pour all the ingredients Celtic’s first NBA championship in 22 years. Cheers to world, too. For Lama, Sidecar already and shake well. Strain Each 30-minute episode is divided into each coach’s rules, weaving represents what bars in post-pan- into a chilled coupe and in their stories of overcoming challenges, silencing haters and fighting demic India need to be. “It is pure- serve. issues like racism and sexism in sport. Of these, Ellis and Staley stand better days! ly about service culture,” he says. out as tall pioneers in two male-dominated sports. Ellis coached the “Sidecar has no DJs, no dance floor, US women’s national football team to two World Cup triumphs, but ow would Yangdup Lama de- no Friday or Saturday night mayhem more importantly at a time when she backed her players’ demand for scribe his bartending style? and no rock’n’roll bands. You can read MULBERRY H equal pay. Staley, meanwhile, did the impossible task of filling stadi- “Classic!” he says. He is observant, a book or catch up with a friend. The MANHATTAN Bourbon whiskey: ums for women’s basketball college games in South Carolina. India’s best friendly and loves a great conversa- idea of a bar is not about making a There is a lack of variety though, not only of the sports featured but tion. He is a benevolent barkeep in lot of noise, getting drunk or being 40ml bartender is Campari: 20ml also in the fact that four of the five have excelled in the US. The only Delhi, which sounds almost fictional. squished in crowds. We play a specif- Fig and apple glaze: outsider is Mourinho, whose episode is probably the least informa- ready to serve It is like he wants to revive a culture ic kind of music at a certain volume. 20ml tive. It shows the grit of a man to outthink his counterparts, but it does and sling where bartenders not only mix the Patrons are encouraged to interact Aromatic bitters: 3 not really seem like Mourinho lives by any inspiring rules. post-quarantine perfect drink but are also part-ther- with bartenders and owners.” drops The best of the lot is the episode on Mouratoglou, best known for apists, part-philosophers. As most of his conversations have Method: In a mixing coaching Serena Williams. Methodical, lucid and respectful of his drinks With more than two decades of ex- revolved around life in quarantine glass filled with players, the Frenchman’s tale of using his biggest fears to his advan- perience, the 48-year-old Darjeeling since Delhi bars reopened on Sep- ice, pour all the tage to become one of the best readers of tennis players and the game ingredients and stir BY SNEHA BHURA native is regarded as the Yoda of In- tember 9, Lama would much rather is one that would require a whole series in itself. dia's alcohol and beverage industry. look ahead. So, he shares with THE well. Strain into a cocktail glass, garnish The Playbook is a well-shot and well-documented series that, for The Delhi-based mixologist recently WEEK three invigorating post-quaran- with a dehydrated once, gives a peek into the inspiring lives of coaches, rather than became the first Indian to enter Drinks tine cocktails he devised: apple slice and serve. players. A second season with more diversity would be welcome for us non-Americans.
66 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 67 @LEISURE BOOK REVIEW
screenplay writer Jack Thorne and director Harry Brad- BY MANDIRA NAYAR when her mother disappeared. Now, beer seem to have forgotten this. Over time the surname she wants closure. Anna’s partner Kim— has becomes a peg to hang various hats from; director Bill t nearly 1,000 pages, Troubled Blood this is the first time Rowling is introduc- Condon hung a top hat on it in Mr Holmes (2015). Spring- Ais a wrist-breaker. And the long- ing a lesbian couple, after facing flak er, Bradbeer & Co have hung a bonnet on it this time. est you get to spend with the author’s for her comments on the transgender Just into the movie, Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) hints famous characters—private detective community—is not too keen. Strike, too, that her name spelt backwards reflects her situation— Cormoran Strike and his assistant, Rob- is hesitant, what with the cold trail, dead alone. She has not seen her brothers for years and her in Ellacott. Still, one wonders, is it a tad witnesses and an imprisoned Creed. father is no more. It is just her and her unconventional too long? J.K. Rowling, writing as Robert You do not turn to Rowling for fast- mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), who vanishes Galbraith, loves stories with diverse paced thrillers. Her stories are for those on her 16th birthday. Enola is alone. So, watch the movie characters and side-plots. Her latest is who love wonderfully eccentric char- for her alone and you will not be disappointed. cluttered with them. Each character, acters and rambling plots, but even for ALONE Though set in Victorian England, it is a production even the minor ones, are etched out in the most enthusiastic Rowling fan, this for our times. With rights being taken for granted today, great detail with elaborate back stories, book is tedious. The messy lives of the Enola Holmes highlights the struggle that got us thus even if red herrings. characters and the different threads in BY MATHEW T. GEORGE far. Voting rights for women, for example. Saudi women It all starts with a cold case. At a pub the story are too much to keep up with. got the right to drive only as recent as September 2017, in Cornwall, a woman asks Strike to The thrill of the first two books in the TROUBLED he sprang out of Nancy Springer’s The Case of the still you feel the rising anger when Mycroft rubs it in that BLOOD find out what happened to her moth- series, including the delicious chemistry Missing Marquess in 2006. A Holmes who is missing the fatherless Enola is his ward, under his thumb and er, Margot Bamborough, a doctor and between Strike and Ellacott, fizzles out By from Arthur Conan Doyle’s canon. The 16-year- not even qualified to keep the money left to her by her former Playboy Bunny who disappeared in Troubled Blood. They spend most of S Robert Galbraith old sister of Sherlock and Mycroft. Home-schooled in mother. Published by 40 years ago. Bill Talbot, the first inves- their time bickering or being grumpy. everything from martial arts to cipher games, archery and The movie also adds ‘colour’to Doyle’s whitewashed Hachette India tigator in the case, was attacked by the Consequently, instead of a sinfully-sat- painting. canvas. Detective Lestrade (Adeel Akhtar) is swarthy Price 899 serial killer Dennis Creed, who tortured isfying experience, Strike’s fifth outing is In Enola Holmes, Miss Harrison (Fiona Shaw), the strict with impressive whiskers. Eudoria’s confidante, Edith Pages 929 and murdered several women. Margot’s a let-down—not fun, frothy or eminently headmistress of a finishing school, admonishes Enola (Susan Wokoma), is a woke black woman. And, Watson is daughter, Anna, was only a year old sinkable. and says: “The name Holmes is coming to mean some- nowhere to be found. thing in England....”She is referring to the achievements Enola runs away from home to find her mother and of Mycroft, the well-paid bureaucrat. In the literary world, meets another runaway—Viscount Tewkesbury, the too, the name Holmes has come to mean something; young marquess of Basilwether. And an uncommon mar- INFOCUS quess he is. In a landscape where Enola could not find ...FIGHT LIKE A GIRL anything to eat, the keen botanist cooks up a feast with his year has been a booming careers, or are newly wed, or have children. Even at foraged greens and mushrooms. But then, a short while rollercoaster ride for that moment they are worried about their families and kids more ago, she had saved him from an assassin. As mentioned everyone around theT than themselves. The woman shuttles between her role as a wife, earlier, a movie for our times. Especially the part where globe. The pandemic, as mother, daughter, a career woman and what not, cares very less Enola tells the peer of the realm, “You’re a man when I scary as it is, also taught us .of herself, forget being cared for tell you you’re a man.”Is there romance? Yes, just a hint. that our choices and actions T h i s c o m e s f r o m a n e y e - o p e n ing moment from my professional While Bradbeer has tried to justify her surname by have the power to protect SPML6ULÄULTVYUPUN0YLJLP]LKHJHSSMYVTVULVMT`WH[PLU[Z the vulnerable among us in Mrs X, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing casting her in Sherlock’s (Henry Cavill) mould, her skills a big way. The same holds chemotherapy. Her usually pleasant tone was missing. I was are nowhere close and the holes are too many. For Dr Varun Rajan true when it comes to breast surprised as during her previous visit to the hospital I had example, in a park a dead branch is cut halfway through Consultant Medical Oncologist .cancer informed her family that her illness was completely curable and and left to fall on Tewkesbury when he is gathering Medical Trust Hospital, Kochi, As an oncologist, I her chemotherapy will come to an end in a few weeks time. I mushrooms under it. Too obvious, too much of a coin- India 0484 – 2358001 prescribe screening and did not realise I was dampening my patient’s happiness. She cidence for a murder attempt and so unlike Doyle. [email protected] SPMLZ[`SL TVKPÄJH[PVUZ MVY feared all the love and care she received from her family during In the end, Enola stands on her my patients along with the her treatment would end once the treatment is over and she will medication needed.But here I pen down the most important but go back to the one who takes care of everyone. She told me over own, forces Mycroft (Sam Claflin) ignored need of a cancer patient; emotional and psychological that call how she wished to cling to her illness for that little extra to accept her terms, and makes .support from both family and society .care her family gave her Sherlock and Eudoria proud of her Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer seen in We recognize the month of October as breast cancer choices. women being diagnosed with it. Breast 8 in 1 women with roughly awareness month, which is a worldwide annual campaign In this movie, Holmes has come to cancer is a highly curable disease and the cure rate is more than involving thousands of organisations to educate people about mean something else. Accept her. p e r c e n t i f d e t e c t e d e a r l y. B u t w h a t i s m o r e i m p o r t a n t i s g e t t i n g 9 0 breast awareness, importance of early detection, treatment the patients ready for the battle and helping them triumph over .options and more Rating .cancer In this ‘Pink Month’, let’s promise to stand by any woman in >L ZOV\SK ÄYZ[ \UKLYZ[HUK [OL WZ`JOL VM ^VTLU ;OL .need and support her through the crisis incidence of breast cancer in young women is increasing in India. Respect her, value her opinion, listen to her wishes. Be with Available on Netflix Most of these young women are in the prime of their life, with .her. NO ONE FIGHTS ALONE. Success is ours
OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 69 @LEISURE BOOK REVIEW
The extent of British was his alleged interest in control over the princes’ boys and her propensity to lives included even their drink. During his last year sexuality. When Jai got at the Mayo College for married to 24-year-old Indian Chiefs, however, he Marudhar Kunwar, they was allowed conjugal visits were not permitted to once a fortnight. consummate the marriage Peppered with fascinat- GAME OF until he became more ing stories and characters, mature. In 1927 came the book is a compulsive the disturbing news that read. Jai’s second wife, THRONESE she had intoxicated her Maharani Kishore Kan- 15-year-old husband with war, or Jo, was lively and wine, slept with him and struck a firm friendship was now pregnant. This with Virginia Cherrill, her turned out not to be true husband’s lover. Jo and BY MANDIRA NAYAR impossible-sounding as each of his visits had Virginia wrote to each oth- world—of champagne, been chaperoned. But the er regularly. While Jai was t is not a story of true cocktails, shikars and paternalistic attitude of busy writing love letters to love, but there are lovers parties—that existed at the the British to Jai’s sexuality Virginia, he was also woo- Iaplenty. The House of cusp of Independence. It reached its peak in the ing Ayesha, who later be- Jaipur: The Inside Story of is also an ode to Gayatri summer of 1927, writes came his third wife. Then India’s Most Glamorous Devi. Zubrzycki makes Zubrzicki, when it was there was the powerful Royal Family is a tale of no bones about where his recommended that he not Roop Rai, or “the female romance, opulent palaces, sympathies lie. She is the sleep with his wife until Rasputin”, Madho Sin- infidelity, scandal and heroine of the story, but he turned 17. The reason gh’s favourite concubine, princes who lived large— he also peppers it with the who, according to British all wrapped up in an delightfully eccentric char- intelligence, had “hypnotic irresistible fairy-tale with acters who surround her. power” over the Maharaja no happy endings. While the story of the and had convinced him Author John Zubrzycki royal couple’s whirlwind that she could speak with traces the history of the romance is well known, his dead wife. family that truly put Indian Zubrzycki paints it as an But perhaps the most royalty on the interna- unequal relationship, with fascinating character he tional map. The book is Jai continuing to have writes about is Indira the delicious tale of the affairs with other women. Devi—Ayesha’s mother, most glamorous couple in But more than just the THE HOUSE OF who spurned the Baro- India, who dined with the romance, glamour and JAIPUR: da Maharaja to instead Kennedys and counted the wealth, that might seem THE INSIDE STORY marry Jitendra Narayan, OF INDIA’S MOST Windsors as their friends— straight out of The Arabian GLAMOROUS who later became the Gayatri Devi, or Ayesha Nights, there is also a ROYAL FAMILY Maharaja of Cooch Behar. as she is referred to in the glimpse into the kind of By She brought chiffon into book, and her husband turbulent times in which John Zubrzycki fashion, had several affairs Sawai Man Singh II, or Jai. these characters grew up. Published by and was close to Jai. One of Zubrzycki has written Jai, who was adopted by Juggernaut her paramours was Khusru about opulence before; Sawai Madho Singh II, was Price 599 Jung, the dashing Hyder- The Last Nizam was a fas- just nine years old when Pages 358 abadi nobleman who was cinating glimpse into the he ascended the throne. private secretary to the intrigue around the world’s The fear of him being crown prince of Kash- richest man. Here, too, he murdered was so real that mir, Hari Singh, and with is wonderful at blending his meals (sampled be- whom she had a daughter. fact, gossip and history forehand by food tasters) Thrilling, deeply satisfying into a heady cocktail. He were served in special and engaging, the book is a vividly recreates an almost poison-detecting plates. must-read. 70 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 @LEISURE PEOPLE
In the line Role ESHNA KUTTY, hoop dancer like jazz, contemporary and hip-hop. of fire change Q/ How did the sari In an Instagram post, Karan L. Adimoolam and K. Madhavan (below) come into the picture? Johar termed the allegation have become the new presidents of the Indian Hoop, Every Indian hooper might that drugs were used at one of Newspaper Society and the Indian Broadcast- have hula-hooped in a sari. I his house parties as “baseless ing Federation. Adimoolam has 36 years of hoop, like to keep my practice interesting and and false”. “I would like to experience in newspaper management, both mix different art-forms. And I love wearing JANAK BHAT JANAK unequivocally once again state on the technical and marketing front, and is hurray! saris. It was all spontaneous. I was meant to post that I do not consume narcotics the representative in the INS for the magazine, some #sareeflow videos over a period of time. The and I do not promote or encourage consumption of any Health & The Antiseptic. Madhavan is the Star Delhi-based Eshna Kutty— ‘Genda Phool’ video that went viral was the third such substance,” he stated, adding that such a malicious and Disney India country head and has been the 24-year-old hoop dancer #sareeflow video on my Instagram handle. But it attack subjected him, his family and colleagues to hatred, active in the IBF since 2012. whose ‘Genda Phool’ video was not even something I was supposed to post. It contempt and ridicule. The controversy broke after an old in a sari and sneakers was the was just a practice video, with me warming up to, video of a few Bollywood celebs partying at his home last brightest thing on the internet you know, the actual insane #sareeflow content. My year resurfaced on social media. last week—talks about how she Instagram following has always been more non-In- plans to turn hooping into a dians—mostly international professional hoopers. professional art-form in India. The goal of #sareeflow was to show that a distinctive community of Indian hoopers also Melody Q/ How and when did you exists. President’s discover hooping? of hope A/ I discovered hooping some Q/ What are your 10 years ago and got fully into plans with hoop- choice Sonakshi Sinha came together with dad it around six years ago. What ing? According to a new book by Rick Gates—a Shatrughan Sinha to feature in a new I like about hooping is how I am currently former campaign aide of President Donald song, 'Zaroorat', which conveys a mes- anybody can pick it up. I have branding. It is Trump—the US president had seriously con- sage of hope during the pandemic. “We never danced in my life. I am coincidental that sidered fielding daughter Ivanka Trump as are tackling big problems right now— into sports and hooping looked I was working his vice-presidential candidate in the economic slowdown, internal con- very elegant yet sporty. Initial- on my company, 2016 elections, before ultimate- flicts and tension at our borders,” said ly, it was like a side hobby—a Hoop Flow, when ly settling for Mike Pence. In Sonakshi. “Now, more than ever before, pocket-money profession. It is this video went Wicked Game: An Insider’s Story it has become pertinent to lend a helping only after my studies last year viral. The company on How Trump Won, Mueller hand, say a kind word or even smile.” The that I decided to do it full-time. just got registered. I am Failed and America Lost, Gates music video features people from diverse going to be launching it in writes about Trump suggest- PTI backgrounds, like acid attack survivor Q/ You have also been the coming weeks. Hoop Flow ing Ivanka’s name during a VP Laxmi Agarwal and politician Kiran Bedi. teaching hooping. will be a one-stop destination discussion. Ivanka herself I have taken hooping work- where people can buy hula looked surprised and shops across the country. I hoops and learn how to dance “we all knew Trump would get invited to teach in using them. I would like to well enough to keep studios across cities, in batches host hoop festivals and build our mouths shut and of 20 to 30. It slowly picked up the community. Throughout not laugh”, he writes. in the last year. I saw a shift in my journey with hooping, I the number of students I had. have often shied away from There are hundreds of hoopers telling people I hula hoop now. Hooping comes under because they just don’t under- a broader term called Flow stand. There is a lot of stigma Arts, which includes juggling, attached to it. So I wanted to poi spinners, slacklining and be so popular that you don’t
PTI acro yoga, the same way how have to explain yourself. dancing has different styles —Sneha Bhura COMPILED BY ANJULY MATHAI
OCTOBER 11, 2020 • THE WEEK 73 LAST WORD BIBEK DEBROY Cooling all classes
ahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj was With 75,000 passenger coaches (today’s figure), originally written in Gujarati in 1908. change on all coaches cannot happen overnight. MThis book/monograph was a dialogue Third-class coaches started to have fans and lights between Reader (the general Indian) and Editor only in 1959. So yes, I have travelled (short dis- (Gandhiji). In this, Gandhiji was against railways, tances) on coaches without fans and lights. When one reason being the differentiation between there was a fan, it would often not work and there third-class carriages (for Indians) and coaches was a trick to get it going. You inserted a comb or for Englishmen, reminiscent of his experience in a ball-point pen through the grille and nudged it. South Africa. Prodded, the fan would start to rotate. Bars on win- In 1917, Gandhiji wrote a vivid description (Third dows started in the 1970s. So yes, I have travelled Class in Indian Railways) of travel by third class. He on trains where passengers clambered in through also consciously opted to travel only by third class. the window. I have travelled on third-class coaches With aviation and road transport thriving (pre-Cov- with wooden seats, without cushions. id-19), young people from a certain socioeconomic We had the first AC train in 1956, between class are more familiar with air travel than railways. Howrah and Delhi (with some limited attempts in For railways, they may know 1952/53). At that time, it was of Rajdhani, Shatabdi, AC-1, called Air-conditioned Vesti- AC-2 and AC-3 tier, and CC buled Express. Neither AC nor (chair car). vestibule needs explanation. There will be a figure that (But non-AC third-class coach- the Indian Railways runs es were also attached.) Today, 13,000 passenger trains and we know this as Poorva Express. 9,000 goods trains every day. Before someone corrects me, I Such figures (on passenger should say the first AC train was trains) include suburban and Frontier Mail in 1934, cooled specials. “Regular” passenger with blocks of ice. But that was trains are just over 6,000 and different. There are engineering most (around 4,000) are not mail/express. As much issues for AC, easier to handle in LHB (Linke-Hof- as 95 per cent of passengers travel on those 4,000 mann-Busch) than ICF (Integral Coach Factory) trains. They travel sleeper class or third class. They coaches. As we move towards LHB (or train sets) travel without AC and they travel unreserved. I for all of Indian Railways and 100 per cent electrifi- should be more careful about nomenclature. The cation, why should sleeper also not become AC? It old third class formally became second class in has been tried for Tejas and Humsafar. 1977, without necessarily changing anything. Amid Covid-19, some decisions taken by the In British India, there was fourth class and inter Indian Railways have not been noticed that much. class. Memories of train travel depend on age. I One such is to make all trains fully air-conditioned remember travelling first class, second class (old post-Covid-19, initially on some routes. Old third- inter class) and third class. These were non-AC and class will become AC-3 tier. In the absence of prop- non-corridor trains. I remember trains with steam er commercial accounting, it is difficult to estimate engines, stopping for coal and water every 100km. proper revenue/costs for the Indian Railways and You could get off and stretch your legs on a plat- fares are also administratively decided. Subject to form, and have a cup of tea. You could roll up the that, among various classes, AC-3 is the most prof- window and savour the scenery and soot. I remem- itable. This is a good commercial decision, too. One ber third-class coaches without fans and lights. day, everyone will travel reserved.
ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN Bibek Debroy is the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.
74 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 11, 2020 76 The Week RNI No.36122/1982, Registered No. KL/EKM/756/2018-20, Licence No. KL/CR/EKM/WPP-20/2018-20. Licensed to Post Without Prepayment. Published on Friday October 2nd 2020