www.openthemagazine.com 50 14 14 DECEMBER / 2020

OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 49 14 DECEMBER 2020

contents 14 december 2020

5 6 12 14 16 18 LOCOMOTIF OPEN DIARY THE INSIDER OPINION WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY The politics of empathy By Swapan Dasgupta By PR Ramesh ’s counterfeit elite By Jayanta Ghosal Banking on Biden By S Prasannarajan By Minhaz Merchant By Chellaney

24 RAGE AND REALITY 24 Punjab’s farmers are at Delhi’s doors demanding a rollback of the farm reform laws—reforms meant to help poorer states. Isn’t it coercion by a pampered lot? By PR Ramesh and Siddharth Singh

34 THE PACE OF GROWTH What we need to do to jack up growth from 5.5 per cent to 7 per cent and more. A lot will depend on the states too By Bibek Debroy

18 34

38 MURUGAN’S MOMENT BJP in taps into a popular god By V Shoba

44 SKIN SUTRA Ayurveda makes a splash in 48 the luxury beauty market By Nikita Doval

48 OPEN CONVERSATION Former NYT bureau chief Declan Walsh on his new book about the country By Sudeep Paul 38 54

54 57 60 64 66 RAO’S RANGE WORDS OF FITTEST OF THEM ALL HOLLYWOOD REPORTER NOT PEOPLE LIKE US glimpses A VANISHED WORLD Can evolutionary biology explain Nicole Kidman on her Every producer the next level of stardom in Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on conflict between countries? new web series The Undoing loves Ranveer The White Tiger India’s changing relationship By Siddharth Singh By Noel de Souza By Rajeev Masand By Kaveree Bamzai with English By Nandini Nair

Cover Photograph by Ashish Sharma 14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3 open mail [email protected]

Editor S Prasannarajan letter of the week managing Editor PR Ramesh C executive Editor Ullekh NP The cover story was a reminder that covert networks editor-at-large Siddharth Singh deputy editors Madhavankutty Pillai are still incessantly and insidiously operating to (Mumbai Bureau Chief), subvert our country (‘The Unfinished Agenda Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair of ’ and ‘The Limits of Autonomy creative director Rohit Chawla Politics’, December 7th, 2020). The report presented art director Jyoti K Singh Senior Editors Sudeep Paul, the proof of the perfidy of Pakistan’s deep state and Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), the immense security threat it constitutes. At a time Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval Associate Editor Vijay K Soni (Web) when the pandemic rages unabated, a simmering assistant editor Vipul Vivek , with infiltrators tunnelling their way chief of graphics Saurabh Singh through the border to damage us further, is really bad SENIOR DESIGNERs Anup Banerjee, Veer Pal Singh news. In India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Photo editor Raul Irani Largest Democracy, Ramachandra Guha compares deputy Photo editor Ashish Sharma Kashmir to an apple placed on the rim of a basket, National Head-Events and Initiatives never in it but never out of it either. Last year, the indisciplined life proved to be Arpita Sachin Ahuja AVP (ADVERTISING) Government abrogated Article 370, withdrawing his downfall. Rashmi Lata Swarup J&K’s special status, tipping over the apple into the CKR Nathan GENERAL MANAGERs (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) basket. As the long shadow of terror lurks dangerously in the background, India needs some hard, honest Diego Maradona died National Head-Distribution and Sales Ajay Gupta introspection, a vision and steady focus. We cannot without being able to fulfil regional heads-circulation D Charles (South), Melvin George mainstream Kashmir without mainstreaming the his promise to bring big- (West), Basab Ghosh (East) people of Kashmir. The district council elections ticket football to India. He Head-production Maneesh Tyagi could help fulfil local aspirations. Good governance is was a uniquely gifted player senior manager (pre-press) Sharad Tailang key to restoring peace and fighting terror. as well as a charismatic MANAGER-MARKETING Sangeeta Kampani figure. In Argentina, he was Priya Singh Chief Designer-marketing worshipped as ‘El Dios’, God, Champak Bhattacharjee a play on his Number 10 (‘El cfo & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht Diez’) jersey. Chief ExecuTive & Publisher face of terror cusp of collapse. CK Subramaniam Neeraja Chawla Behind Masood Azhar, the Ashok Goswami All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner face of terrorism in South the man behind the scam is prohibited. Asia, is the body of the pure genius Hansal Mehta’s Scam Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf Pakistani state, especially its What Don Bradman was 1992: The Harshad Mehta of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, military (‘The Unfinished to cricket, Maradona was Story is captivating and 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). Agenda of Masood Azhar’ to football (‘God’s Player’, riveting (‘Stirred by a Published at 4, DDA Commercial and ‘The Limits of Autonomy December 7th, 2020). I had Scam’, December 7th, 2020). Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Politics’, December 7th, the good fortune to witness People got to know Harshad Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 2020). He operates with the his match against England Mehta the person, not To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to full backing of Pakistan’s ISI. in 1986. Stocky in build with merely the broker-turned- www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number Our neighbour’s obsession very powerful legs, he had crook. Pratik Gandhi lived 1800 102 7510 with Kashmir and India are fantastic dribbling skills. Harshad Mehta’s character or email at: [email protected] hollowing it out. Politics of The first goal he scored was like Ben Kingsley lived For alliances, email [email protected] hatred and revenge has made termed as the ‘hand of god’. Gandhi’s. Hansal Mehta’s For advertising, email it bankrupt, with its citizens The second was out of the commitment to tell a story [email protected] For any other queries/observations, left facing acute hardships world and hailed as pure without judgements makes email [email protected] and poverty. Masood Azhar genius by all football lovers. the web series memorable. may have been financed and Thanks to his inspirational Harshad Mehta was neither a Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing used by Pakistan to unleash play, Argentina lifted that victim nor a plunderer in the initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using terror on Indian soil but the year’s World Cup. He was loot but a shrewd exploiter products or services advertised in the magazine bigger loss is suffered by even better than the much of a flawed system. His rise

Volume 12 Issue 49 the average Pakistani. The celebrated Pelé. But genius and fall triggered the much For the week 8-14 December 2020 nation, which has to borrow has its downside. Even needed reforms in India’s Total No. of pages 68 a plane to ferry its prime though he continued to play capital markets. minister abroad, is on the for Barcelona, drugs and an Bholey Bhardwaj

4 14 december 2020 LOCOMOTIF

by S PRASANNARAJAN The Politics of Empathy

he dictionary defines the word as “the years, and he relished every moment of the Conman’s Act. For the action of understanding, being aware of, being American progressive now, tomorrow is as dismal as what today is sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, for the spy novelist without a Soviet Union. In India, anti-Modism thoughts, and experience of another of either the past is yet to acquire the kind of intellectual ballast needed for moving or present without having the feelings, thoughts, from echo chamber to civil society. Still, empathy adds a lot to the Tand experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit noise. Like this one: The much-harried farmers from Punjab and manner.” It’s about knowing the other, about having the ability Haryana are at Delhi’s gate because the right-wing government is to imagine the arc of the other person’s agony. But ‘empathy’ has low on empathy quotient, actually the same deficiency that has already migrated from the psychological to the political. Once already made India polarised and culturally intolerant. Barack Obama, never short of a prophet’s aphorism, had famously The politics of empathy is not the same as the ideology of said the world was suffering from an “empathy deficit”. compassion the conservatives were once fond of; nor is it the old The world, divided by the passions and pathologies of politics, ideology of the working class in a philosophical repackaging. It’s keeps providing us with images that bring a lofty moral position on reconciliation and the politics and polemics of empathy to the healing—it’s very Zen when seen from the public square: A Black man dying under the perspective of the empathiser. Is it so? In a knee of a white policeman; a spontaneous widely discussed paper titled ‘How Empathic eruption of the streets under the banner Concern Fuels Political Polarization’, of Black Lives Matter; yet another girl published in American Political Science Review brutalised and murdered in the Indian last year, Elizabeth N Simas, Scott Clifford countryside—be it…in Kashmir or Hathras and Justin H Kirkland have, with empirical in UP; farmers from Punjab and Haryana marching into Delhi, evidence, proved that the politics of empathy was far from being defying barricades and water cannons, demanding a fair deal... unifying or non-violent. Emphasising how “higher levels of dispositional empathy actually facilitate partisan polarisation”, ostoevsky said, “Beauty shall save the world.” He the scholars say that “there is evidence of schadenfreude, as Dmeant imagination. He was defending poets and novelists individuals report taking greater pleasure in misfortunes in a world that demanded conformity from them. Today, the such as troop casualties and economic downturns when those poet who is saddened by the hardened heart of politics is likely misfortunes are attributed to opposite party.” to replace Dostoevsky’s beauty with Obama’s empathy. If not About empathy and schadenfreude, we have some idea. It’s poets, we have pundits doing it for us. morally bearable, maybe even worthy of a private toast, when Here’s a loose translation of the argument on “how empathy someone from the other side is a collateral casualty of the attack shall save the world”: on our side. The theatre of action could be a BLM rally or farmers’ We live in a world without justice, and it’s the politics of the siege. The empathic position, as the three scholars establish Right that makes it so. The populist Right, built on demagogy and in the study, makes the “us versus them” divide starker. They simulated nationalism, has institutionalised the ideology of hate, argue that empathy is a bias, and it’s bias, political or cultural, and in its monochromatic view of the world, everyone who differs is that contributes to polarisation. This is a total subversion of an enemy of the glorious nation. They don’t feel it, they don’t see it, the received wisdom on empathy in politics: that it is the only and they don’t want to hear it even—the pain and humiliation of the prescription for reconciliation in the time of civil strife. outcast. It’s their lack of empathy that makes this world polarised, a The study, we need to stress the point, is not a repudiation battlefield of the marked minority versus the vengeful majority. of what Obama idealises and what the non-partisan, morally This argument usually comes from the righteous Left and upright, citizen wishes amidst the waves of hate. It just questions the new radical—the progressive, which has become an all- the elevated morality of those who claim complete ownership encompassing term to include the most intolerant and righteous of empathy. The virtuous, whether left or right or liberal or of them all, and disillusioned with Left, Right and Liberal of the progressive, needs to be a bit more empathic in the understanding establishment variety. Donald Trump kept them engaged for four of the other. Empathy is not a mask. It’s a manner. n

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 5 open diary Swapan Dasgupta

s we near the beginning revealed that the state government Aof the end of a pandemic that, hadn’t even begun seeking environ- in a mood of misplaced optimism, mental clearance. Nor was there even everyone had assumed was going to a rudimentary plan for the rehabilita- be a brief, three-month experience, the tion of locals that must accompany desperation to get back to normal is un- such a mammoth venture. Clearly, mistakable. From mid-March to mid- any inauguration by the PM at this October, I saw myself as being under stage would be premature. house arrest in Lutyens’ Delhi. It was I hurriedly dashed off a letter to very safe and agreeable, and the dogs Mohammad Bazar. the PM suggesting he refrain from loved it that I was unendingly home, It was my first visit to Pachami. such a visit. The youth leader did but it also felt suffocating. If it hadn’t In September 2019, during a lazy the accompanying publicity in the been for the webinars, life would have afternoon in Delhi, an over-energetic media—something he loves doing— been absolutely unbearable. youth activist had drawn my and, while it didn’t grab the Last week, after nearly a month in attention to the news that the chief headlines, was certainly noticed, at Kolkata picking up the thread, it was minister of West Bengal had invited least in Bengal. I don’t know how time to resume normal life—albeit Prime Minister to much the letter affected decision- with a bagful of masks, sanitisers, inaugurate work on the creation of making in the PM’s office but the different varieties of sprays and a a huge new coalfield at a place called visit never materialised. pouchful of immunity boosters that Pachami in West Bengal’s Birbhum. Since that intervention, there has I have banked upon for the past The place was going to be at the heart been a standing invitation from Adivasi nine months. of the second biggest coalfield in the leaders in the area to come and visit Hitting the highway after a world. The project, the news reports Pachami and see the problem for myself. prolonged period of pseudo- suggested, would put West Bengal Now, 14 months later, I was finally there. incarceration was a moment of back in the centre of manufacturing. I will keep the description of liberation. Nothing, it seemed, had My young friend wasn’t Pachami for another occasion. changed. The infuriating traffic jams impressed. Always quick to detect However, I will be telling a lot when after crossing the grand second bridge conspiracies and identify acts of I reveal that it took more than 90 across the Hooghly river, the hotel political venality, he assured me it minutes to negotiate the 20 km or so off Bardhaman for a snack and the was all a big hoax. The real reason for distance from Mohammad Bazar to narrower road that wound its way inviting the PM, he assured me, was Pachami. What passes off as the road into the heart of Birbhum district. A to legitimise a project that was yet to on Google Maps is an unending line group of friends had organised a meet- pass the exacting scrutiny that pre- of bomb craters. Yet, Pachami is at the ing on the lawns of a lovely house ceded the creation of a ‘dirty’ project. centre of a stone quarry industry that, owned by a German lady in Santinik- It was, in his view, the beginning of locals say, yields Rs 120 crore revenue etan. There were nearly 150 people a land grab that would see specula- to the state treasury. And yet, the state gathered there, mostly members of tors descend on the place and begin of the roads is pitiful. Is that because the Visva-Bharati faculty and every the process of shortchanging locals. the area is populated by Adivasis social distancing rule was adhered to, Please, he barked at me, do some- whose political voice remains except by the media. thing to stop it. unheard in Kolkata? Yet, Santiniketan—lovely as it A small perusal of earlier media Apart from the quarry, Pachami always is—was just a convenient reports indicated that my overzeal- is lovely, forested and unspoilt. It stopover. My real destination was a ous friend wasn’t entirely wrong. A would be a crime to destroy it and small hamlet called Pachami, a short call to my friend Prakash Javadekar, turf out its inhabitants who just distance from the market town of the Union environment minister, want to preserve a way of life. n

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NOTEBOOK Of Love Jihad and Other Demons

hink of the assumptions that must be fulfilled riage street doesn’t run both ways is felt as injustice but it doesn’t for the phenomenon of love jihad. There must be, first, because it can’t, not by conspiracy. The convenient response an organised body of Islamic fundamentalists who then is to block the street altogether. That, however, runs into the must be well- versed in the art of romance. Fundamen- Constitution India chose which gives every Indian the freedom Ttalism, by its nature, must make a man somewhat deficient to do as they please when marrying, even convert, if wanted. Hin- in this capacity. Second, he must couch his fundamentalism dutva, therefore, must find a solution to this problem. Love jihad from his intended target. Which Hindu girl, if she recognises is that answer. It started off as a conspiracy theory a few years ago that the person before her is a rabid Islamist, would fall for him? in Kerala, a state where it is no surprise that inter-religious mar- It is a slim probability. Then the man who is doing this love riages would be more because the proportion of other religions is jihad must be attractive. That is probably a basic requirement far greater than the rest of the country. Once the idea took hold, it because, after all, there must be incentives to tide over the psy- was toyed around by Hindutva proponents elsewhere as vindica- chological borders of religion for the woman. Throw in ‘suave’ tion for all their anxieties about the danger that faces and ‘charming’ too because these would be useful skills in this from appeased minorities. From fringe, it has now fully entered field. Such characters with this curious mix of qualities must the mainstream politics of India with a slew of Indian states seek- then also be in sufficient numbers to make it an enterprise of ing to implement laws against love jihad. any reckoning. If there is in the whole of India five love jihadis, It has been led by Uttar Pradesh under the chief ministership then the plan kind of breaks down once the fifth one has wooed of Yogi Adityanath, for whom love jihad has been a pet project and converted his target. Love jihad seems like a difficult ask. for some time. The state recently brought an ordinance called Muslim men get married to Hindu women all the time and ‘Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion there is probably conversion too a lot of the times. But, if some- Ordinance 2020’. It assumes that inter-religious marriages are one went around collecting data with objectivity, they might by conversion and leaves the burden to prove otherwise on find that this is no more or less than what is happening with the couple marrying. Simultaneously, holding the sword of a Christians too. The reason is to do with the nature of those reli- criminal charge over their heads unless an array of government gions that have clear entry points. There is a particular definition tick marks gives them the go-ahead. As the legal news website to being a Christian or a Muslim. Flip the idea of love jihad. Say Live Law reported on the ordinance’s demands: ‘One who desires that a group of Hindus decided to to convert his religion voluntary, go on one. How will they convert a he/she shall give a declaration in Muslim girl into a Hindu? You re- the form prescribed in Schedule ally can’t. That is what underpins I at least 60 days in advance, to the idea of caste, which defines All families upset at their the District Magistrate. It has to marriage in Hinduism. Either the daughter marrying without be clearly stated in the form that caste rejects that marriage alto- permission someone from the conversion is being done out gether, refuses to acknowledge it of free will...Failure to do so will and makes the couple an outcaste. another religion will find a invite imprisonment for a term Or, in its modern progressive handy tool to file police cases which shall not be less than six avatars, it doesn’t really care. months, but may extend to 3 This difference in entry and exit using the new law. Girls in years…The DM will have to satisfy between Hinduism and Abraham- orthodox societies will find it himself/herself that the Conver- ic religions is what makes it fertile sion is made voluntarily, if the ground for grievance by Hindutva, even more difficult to permission is granted, then the the political stream of Hinduism take independent decisions concerned Priest, Pujari, Maulvi/ that is dominant in India today. Mulla, Padari shall inform the DM That the conversion-after-mar- about their marriage regarding the place and time of as

8 14 december 2020 Illustration by Saurabh Singh to when he is going to convert a particular person. If he fails to at an event that he would not allow love jihad to take root in inform the DM about the proposed Conversion, he shall also be the soil there. In Karnataka, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has liable to punishment…Once converted, the person is required already stated his intention of bringing in a law. He said in to send a declaration in the form prescribed in the Ordinance to November that he would put a stop to love jihad there. the District Magistrate of the District in which converted person Meanwhile, the nature of these laws makes them suspect under resides ordinarily within 60 days of such conversion and has to legal scrutiny and, almost concomitantly to these governments’ physically present himself before the District Magistrate within actions, there have been judicial pronouncements 21 days. He/She has to state that he belonged to a particular reli- upholding the right of individuals to marry across religions gion and now he/she has converted to another religion. Failure without harassment. to do so shall have the effect of rendering the said conversion In November, the Allahabad High Court division bench illegal and void.’ overturned an earlier order that had said religious This week, Uttar Pradesh registered its first case against a conversions only for purposes of marriage were illegal. The Muslim man under this ordinance. It is illustrative of how such bench said: “Right to live with a person of his/her choice laws pan out. The person who filed the case was the father of irrespective of religion professed by them, is intrinsic to right to the Hindu girl who had eloped with the Muslim man some life and personal liberty. Interference in a personal years ago. Police cases are what fathers do regularly when their relationship would constitute a serious encroachment into the daughter marries someone against their wishes. In this case, right to freedom of choice of the two individuals.” On November subsequently, the couple separated and the girl remarried. The 30th, the Karnataka High Court, in a ruling over a habeas corpus case has been raked up again. These scanty details are what we petition, said: “It is well settled that a right of any major can decipher from available media reports but what they do individual to marry the person of his/her choice is a reveal is that all families upset at their daughter marrying fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution of India and without permission someone from another religion will find a the said liberty relating to the personal relationships of two handy tool to file police cases using the new law. Girls in individuals cannot be encroached by anybody irrespective of orthodox societies will find it even more difficult to take caste or religion.” It will have little impact on the state independent decisions about their marriage. governments that continue to test how much they can push Other states ruled by the (BJP) are jump- love jihad laws. It is popular with their constituency, and what is ing on the train with enthusiasm. In Madhya Pradesh, a Bill will some fiddling with the Constitution where that is concerned? n have punishment that could go up to 10 years for offences under this heading. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan thundered By Madhavankutty Pillai

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 9 openings

portrait Justin Trudeau Japan’s prime minister then, twice as the leader of . Not to mention his big Canada Day speech some years back, where he named every province comment is free in the country with gusto, but in the process left out Alberta, displeasing an entire province. And The Canadian prime minister's remarks on the then that moment last year, when he was caught farmers’ agitation add to his record on gaffes on camera sniggering behind Donald Trump’s back with Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson like fter coming UNDER frequent scrutiny over his scandals and mean schoolchildren. Agaffes, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unsurprisingly These blunders can have big consequences. Like waded into the farmers’ protest debate in Delhi by backing the farmers the time some months ago, when, for a progressive and relaying his concerns to the Modi Government. democracy such as Canada’s, he dangerously The Sikh diaspora is an important constituency in Canadian politics. sought to limit its free speech. He did this while But in allowing Canadian foreign policy to be overwhelmed by a minor offering solidarity with , saying free speech domestic consideration, his adventure exacted a much higher diplomatic comes with limits. “We do not have the right, for cost. In effect, he pushed New Delhi to issue a statement that one would be example, to shout fire in a movie theatre crowded forgiven to think was directed towards a long-time rival. with people, there are always limits,” he said. This Consider for a moment the irony in Trudeau’s statement, even when was a sharp deviation from what other Western his representatives at the World Trade Organization have consistently democracies were saying. criticised India for its minimum support price policy, the very thing the Trudeau also appears to allow himself to be farmers are agitating for. taken advantage of. Earlier this year, when a Last year, Trudeau barely survived politically after being found to have commercial flight was mistakenly brought down appeared in Blackface several times in his youth. It hurt his global image much by an Iranian missile, killing 57 Canadians, he more than it would have hurt some other leader, because he had built himself refused to give in to the urge of blaming Iran. into such a large progressive brand. Then there have been the controversies He took a more broader statesman-like stand, as over his conflict of interests. One of these allegations involve a Quebec-based he partly lay the blame on the US for increasing company SNC-Lavalin, which Trudeau is believed to have tried to help avoid tensions in the region. And yet just months later, a corruption trial in the fear that it would move its head offices, potentially despite Iran not having taken full responsibility jeopardising many jobs in Quebec. Jody Wilson-Raybould, an important symbol for its actions, Tehran managed a diplomatic coup, of Trudeau’s progressive ideals since she is the country’s first Indigenous person when it got Trudeau on camera shaking the hands and only the third woman to hold the post of justice minister, accused Trudeau of of Iran’s smiling foreign minister Javad Zarif on ‘undeniable elements of misogyny’ as he tried to bully her into helping the firm. the sidelines of a conference. A Globe and Mail The farmers’ protest debate is also not the first time that his diplomatic opinion piece read, ‘... allowing Mr. Trudeau to be sagacity has been called into question. Last year, he referred to Shinzo Abe, photographed by Iranian press with a smiling Mr. Zarif—rather than having a private meeting—was Illustration by Saurabh Singh all wrong. The photo is another feather in the cap of the Iranian regime, and it was not in our interest. This was a public-relations blunder for Canada.’ Much of Trudeau’s carefully cultivated liberal image has been built in contrast to Trump’s. In a way, Trump’s blustering term has allowed Trudeau, coupled with his youth and social media nous, to mask his inexperience. But this is now beginning to show. The unravelling of the Trudeau brand probably began around the time when he visited India in 2018. Dubbed the ‘worst Canadian prime ministerial trip abroad ever’, Trudeau got an incredibly frosty welcome and was seen hobnobbing with a Sikh radical, even as he dressed in colourful Indian outfits. It was all show and no substance. Nearly two years on, little has changed. n

By lhendup g bhutia

10 14 december 2020 ANGLE ideas Clinical Trial and Error Why a Rs 100 crore lawsuit against a vaccine volunteer makes for terrible optics

By madhavankutty pillai

here is a reason why vaccines its reputation but, in fact, it might T take such a long period to develop. make it worse. It must be shown not to just be effec- For one, the man is a volunteer tive against the virus but also not have and was doing a public service that side-effects. And long-term side-ef- he didn’t have to. By moving against fects only become apparent in the long him, that status is not being accorded, term. The period has been crunched indicating a lack of sensitivity and a Indecision from years to a few months with way to silence him. The appropriate Strike when the iron is hot, the under trial Covid vaccines. The action for Serum Institute would be is a truism perhaps lost on burden of being overcautious has to to say they are looking into it or just Rajinikanth. For years now, thus rest on the vaccine manufactur- remain silent, find out whether there the Tamil superstar has been ers. They need to leave large windows is any possible connection and when planning to enter active of doubt open to prevent a catastrophe they have clear evidence, present it politics but kept putting it given the billions who will take it. to both the person and the public. In off for one reason or another. All this is why the Serum Institute of similar recent instances in other coun- And now he is once again set India threatening a volunteer of the tries, they even halted the trials for a to launch his political party Covishield vaccine, which India is couple of days to signal it was being to contest the next Assembly largely relying on against Covid-19, taken seriously. As Amar Jesani, Editor, elections. But the traction has with a lawsuit that seeks Rs 100 crore Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, told been lost and he might end up in damages, is terrible in both ethics the trade magazine Express Pharma in as one among the many. There and optics. their report, ‘This is the similar kind of was, however, a time when his The person in question claims to neurology event which was reported popularity and organisation have developed neurological symp- in the UK and due to which the global of fans meant he could have toms after taking the vaccine. He has clinical trial was halted in the UK, the been another MGR. He could been treated and his condition is im- US, Brazil and in India for a few days. even have staked his claim to proving. He however sought damages When a similar major neurological the chief ministership, which of Rs 5 crore for the trauma and losses event was reported in India, then why seems almost impossible by way of business opportunities lost. was the trial not halted? This time, the now. Indecision looks like a Without the causation link estab- DCGI should take immediate action safe harbour to be in, but the lished, you could term such a demand and should instruct to stop the clinical opportunity costs incurred inappropriate. Thousands of others, trial immediately till the time facts and can be substantial. n after all, have taken the vaccine safely evidence related to the participant’s so far. But put yourself in the patient’s claim is evaluated.’ shoes. Why wouldn’t he believe that Also, what is the message other the vaccine was the cause of his condi- volunteers in the trial take from the Word’s Worth tion if one followed another? This Rs 100 crore lawsuit? It is that if you is, however, a story of most disputes. suffer any adverse event, don’t speak ‘To be, or not to be, What is an exception is the Serum out in public. And what then is going that is the question’ Institute’s response. It claims that the to happen when volunteers are needed William Shakespeare counter-lawsuit is necessary to protect for future clinical trials? n in hamlet

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 11 the insider PR Ramesh

governor on September 4th, 2016 RAJAN AGAINST RBI at the end of a three-year term, he was the first one in the post not to t took barely 24 hours for former statement released on the former’s get an extension in two decades. IReserve Bank of India (RBI) LinkedIn page also questioned the Perhaps it’s not surprising then governor Raghuram Rajan and timing of the proposal, contending that Rajan, whom many considered ex-deputy governor Viral Acharya ‘Why now? Have we learnt ‘handsome’, rushed to dissing the to speak out something that proposal before the ink had even against the allows us to dried on it. He has, therefore, been central bank’s override all the the first to slam every policy internal working prior cautions decision by the RBI. But Rajan group (IWG) on allowing did precious little when Yes Bank recommendation industrial houses and Infrastructure Leasing & to allow into banking? Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) industrial We would argue moved into the crisis zone, houses to float no. Indeed, to the barring a cursory “things are not banks. Calling contrary, it is even fine with Yes Bank and ILFS” to it a ‘bombshell’, more important his then interlocutors in the finance the duo said the today to stick ministry. And Rana Kapoor of proposal to allow to the tried and Yes Bank continued to have a free corporate houses tested limits run by appeasing the media with into banking on corporate event sponsorship and cutting was ‘best left on involvement in deals with officials managing the the shelf’. The banking.’ When investigating agencies. Handsome Rajan-Acharya Rajan quit as RBI is as handsome does.

In the 10 years he was put in charge Gentleman’s of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) by Sonia Gandhi, Singh is believed to Eulogy have resented Patel’s role. It all began when his Government took a decision ndians don’t speak ill of the to announce a sop for farmers in 2008 Ideparted. No less was expected of and the prime minister’s minders former Prime Minister Manmohan sent out texts to the media saying Singh after the death of party the decision was a ‘birthday gift’ president Sonia Gandhi’s long-time for Rahul Gandhi. This reportedly political secretary and trusted miffed Sonia Gandhi who wanted lieutenant, Ahmed Patel. “Ahmed the announcement to be projected Patelji was one of the most trusted as an outcome of the pressure on the leaders of the Congress party and a Government exerted by the party great friend of mine. His passing away leadership. What followed was a is an irreparable loss to the Congress series of confrontations. It peaked party. My heartfelt condolences to with Singh’s return from Sharm the members of the bereaved family,” el-Sheikh in 2009 after signing a Singh said in a statement after Patel’s deal with Pakistan. The agreement death. If he was biting his tongue decoupled Delhi’s relations with when he read his own statement, from terrorism. The party Singh could not be faulted though. refused to back the prime minister

12 14 december 2020 the high moral ground on corruption. SUSHIL OUTS Nor did his poor governance record ever get in the way of projecting LALU himself as the messiah of the poor. When Lalu dialled Paswan from the hen Bihar’s former deputy chief Ranchi medical officer’s house— Wminister, Sushil Modi, revealed converted into a makeshift jail for an audio tape in which Rashtriya him with every luxury—he was Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad tried only demonstrating his continuing to lure BJP MLA Lalan Paswan into command of his party. Lalu not only absenting himself from the vote for picked up the phone when Sushil the speaker of the Assembly, it must Modi called the number provided by have come as a shock to the liberals the party MLA—to check if it was ACHARYA’S among Tejashwi Yadav’s backers. indeed the RJD chief at the other end— Especially since they had been making but even invited Modi to switch sides. GAMBLE claims about the birth Lalu cautioned Modi that of an alternative politics he could be “shunting” ahul Gandhi draws his after the Bihar elections. like himself if he chose Rinspiration on all things But it wasn’t a surprise to stay on in BJP. Far from economic from Viral Acharya. to those who know being shunted out, Modi Rahul has almost made it a the RJD supremo well. has been awarded a Rajya ritual to promptly retweet Lalu and braggadocio Sabha nomination and Acharya’s every statement. are inseparable. Cases is now expected to man a Some among those who against him never key economic portfolio at worked with Acharya during stopped Lalu from taking the Centre. his RBI stint say that, except Rahul Gandhi, who fervently believed that Narendra Modi was on his way out after the 2019 General Election, it was Acharya who added this claim to the narrative of Rahul’s echo on the deal. And Singh has not, the prime minister. Indeed, Pulok was chamber. During the run-up story goes, ever forgiven Patel, whom the single most point of regular to the elections, Acharya had he held personally responsible for the contact between the PM and Sonia turned dissident in the RBI, bitterness between the party and the Gandhi. He was also the PMO’s main ostensibly on the question of PMO. That bitterness worsened and point of contact with the NAC, a the central bank’s autonomy, soon, MK Narayanan was unseated high profile body chaired by Sonia resigning in June 2019, six as National Security Advisor. Pulok Gandhi, with social activists as months before his term ended. Chatterji, considered close to Sonia, members. It was sometimes dubbed He had made his position quite was made the principal secretary. the shadow Cabinet.’ Singh’s office untenable. Here’s how that Ahmed Patel had ensured, thus, called the book’s claims fictitious drama had played out: two that not one file moved in the PMO and malicious. But it marked the days after the General Election without the Congress president’s beginning of the isolated Singh’s fall results were out, Acharya met consent. Writing in his book about from grace with Congress’ first family. RBI higher-ups and informed Chatterji, Singh’s former media His withdrawn demeanour seemed them about his “passion” for advisor Sanjaya Baru said: ‘Pulok, clear in his body language in photos returning to the academic who was inducted into the PMO and videos, even as top BJP leaders world. That seems to be the at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, had mocked him for being a “weak PM”. standard assertion of all those regular, almost daily, meetings with Singh, ever the gentleman, remained who make a career gamble in Sonia Gandhi at which he was said to tight-lipped about his discomfiture which they find themselves brief her on the key policy issues of and humiliation. His tribute to on the wrong side of policy the day and seek her instructions on Ahmed Patel was in keeping positions espoused by the important files to be cleared by the with his nature. government.

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 13 opinion

The Unformed Time to liberate secularism and liberalism from the counterfeit elite By Minhaz Merchant

ou’ll find them everywhere. At India comfortably into a socialist, secular worldview. When International Centre in New Delhi arguing Indira Gandhi, a card-carrying member of the counterfeit Yfiercely about India’s sclerotic economy. On legacy elite, inserted those two words in 1976 in the middle of English news television channels bemoaning the death Emergency, the aspiring elite cooed with delight. The idea of of dissent. In newspaper op-eds complaining about the India was being fashioned in exactly their terms. length of Narendra Modi’s beard and the narrowness of his So when did it all start going wrong? In the 1980s. geopolitical vision. Ironically, Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv provided the spark that Who are these colonial leftovers? They rarely spoke out lit the fire. Controversy over the Babri Masjid loomed in during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram. Bowing meanwhile Government’s decade-long corruption-laced tenure. Today to pressure from fundamentalist mullahs, Rajiv in 1986 they echo the unformed views of and overturned the Supreme Court’s verdict granting alimony The Economist. to Shah Bano, a destitute divorcee. When former US President Barack Obama said Rahul To balance matters, Rajiv in 1989 allowed shilanyas to Gandhi was ‘unformed’ and lacked ‘aptitude’, he was be performed at the site of the Babri Masjid. The balancing describing what may broadly be called India’s counterfeit elite. act pleased no one. Rajiv’s 414-seat Lok Sabha majority It began in 1947. India’s first prime minister, collapsed in 1989 to 197. Jawaharlal Nehru, of Harrow and Cambridge, A new India was The counterfeit elite, now in its second preened when British newspapers called him rising. Congress-led generation but still ‘unformed’ and lacking Indian by birth but English by manner. UPA shut its eyes to in ‘aptitude’, as Obama might have described Nehru of course was a patriot, indeed a it, bided its time. nationalist. In Parliament, he encouraged the change. When Within 15 years, in 2004, it would again criticism of his Government. In newspapers, he it opened them, in hold the levers of power bolstered by the wrote anonymous articles criticising himself, 2014, it was too late. Left Front’s 60 MPs. During the ensuing UPA largely because nobody else did. With little Congress hasn’t decade, from 2004 to 2014, India changed political opposition in a newly independent recovered since rapidly. A new India was rising. The Congress- country, Nehru played the part of a liberal led UPA shut its eyes to the change. When it democrat. But he failed the principal test of both opened them, in 2014, it was too late. liberalism and democracy: the absence of nepotism. Congress hasn’t recovered since. But the ecosystem it Nehru appointed his sister Vijaya Pandit left behind, nurtured for over 60 years, had grown into a ambassador to the Soviet Union and then in quick giant tree. Under its shade prospered all manner of human succession envoy to the US, Mexico, Ireland and the UK. The flora and fauna: Naxalites, Islamists, Marxists and nihilists. 1950s belonged to the two Nehru siblings, Jawaharlal and They were quickly adopted by the politicians, journalists, Vijaya Lakshmi, as they strode on the global stage. lawyers, activists and academics who felt betrayed by the Nepotism reigned. In 1959, Nehru appointed his arrival of this rising new Indian: uncomfortable in English daughter Indira Gandhi as Congress president. The slippery and—hold your nose—suffused with Hindutva. road to dynastic politics had been laid. It would be travelled How could this have happened in gloriously corrupt, on, with unrestrained glee, by political parties of every hue nepotistic, dynastic India? Where everyone knew their place? in decades to follow. The answer: a new generation of Indians had risen while the Nehru despised being thought of as nepotistic or dynastic. counterfeit elite was busy being corrupt, nepotistic and dynastic. How could he help it if India possessed so few men and India needs a strong liberal, secular ecosystem that women of merit outside his family, compelling him to turn defines liberalism and secularism correctly, not in the self- time and again to his sister and daughter? The families of the serving terms of the counterfeit elite. stalwarts of India’s freedom movement—from Sardar Patel to Remember Obama’s words: ‘unformed’ and ‘aptitude’. Mahatma Gandhi—were either not interested in political and India must consign the counterfeit elite, ambassadorial positions or not thought worthy of them. unformed and inept, to history. n The rank and file takes cues from its leaders. Historians, academics, journalists and activists of the 1960s slipped Minhaz Merchant is an author, editor and publisher

14 14 december 2020 While Inside Look Outside For FREE With access visit www.openthemagazine.com Whisperer Jayanta Ghosal

Bengali Flavour ecently, in his , Prime RMinister Narendra Modi referred to a famous poem of the 19th century Bengali poet Manmohan Bose. In that poem, he had written about how everything from match- boxes to needles came from other countries. Clay lamps were lit by imported oil and that we eat, sleep and move with outside help, and are thus not free. Modi used the poem to make an appeal for swadeshi. He added that it doesn’t mean antipathy to everything from the West, but only that we should be self-reli- ant. What was interesting was that he chose this poet who has been largely forgotten even among Bengali intellectuals. Manmohan Bose lived from 1831 to 1905. He was not just a poet but also a prominent member of an associa- tion called Hindu Mela. Modi also mentioned Aurobindo Ghose in his talk. In his unique way, Modi made an apolitical speech with the imminent Bengal elections in mind.

Will He, Won’t He? Poll Sop For the upcoming Bengal elections, a big est Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee question is whether Trinamool Congress (TMC) Whas started a new scheme from December, leader Suvendu Adhikari will join the Bharatiya keeping an eye on the elections. According to Janata Party (BJP). The day after he resigned this scheme, the poor who are deprived of as a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, government services will get the same at their he organised a rally which had neither the TMC doorstep. In villages across the state, 20,000 flag nor any hint of saffron. He also attended a camps are being set up, and implementation will religious event, a Krishna Leela celebration. He be in four phases till January-end. BJP is came on a motorcycle and there was a yellow terming it an election stunt and asking why all flag, which has again puzzled everybody. this couldn’t have been done earlier.

16 14 december 2020

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

The Use of Statues Booth JP has come up with an unusual tactic to tap into Management Bthe voters’ Bengali instincts. It has made a list of 140 historical personalities from Bengal, like Bankim Chandra n West Bengal, Amit Chatterjee, Chittaranjan Das, et al. They are campaigning IShah is again going to that these 19th century figures have been forgotten now put into action the micro- and BJP will honour and revive their legacy. The party will focus on the districts where these people were born and management of booth promises to erect statues of them. strategy that led to BJP’s huge victory in the last Uttar Pradesh election. That is, building up Owaisi Factor the organisation n West Bengal, the Muslim vote is nearly 30 per cent in every booth. On Iof the electorate. But there are divisions within the the date of voting, community, like Bengali and Urdu-speaking Muslims. mobilisation of voters is An unknown in this election, which everyone is keenly looking at after the Bihar results, is the role of the All then entrusted to local BJP India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and its leader leaders. And with BJP’s Asaduddin Owaisi. Not just in Bihar but in Maharashtra organisational presence and Uttar Pradesh, too, his slicing of the Muslim vote helped BJP earlier. Owaisi’s party is apparently going to increasing over the last few contest in West Bengal at full steam. How much he can years in the state, it could repeat his earlier successes is an open question. Some play an important role in of the imams of the major mosques don’t support him. the results. Most of them are rallying behind TMC.

CM versus PM Renaming Everest! amata Banerjee is going on strange rumour coming out of the BJP Ma statewide tour from Acamp in West Bengal is that they might December 7th. Her promise to rename Mount Everest after a campaign will start Bengali during the election campaign. from Medinipur, the Radhanath Sikdar first measured the height stronghold of Suvendu of Everest. A section of BJP wants the Adhikari, who has just mountain named after him. left her ministry. TMC leaders are trying to get Adhikari on stage with her. In TMC, she is the main campaigner but in BJP, it’s ED on Call Narendra Modi. So, the West he Enforcement Department’s (ED) head in Bengal elections will pit the West Bengal has suddenly been transferred prime minister against the T chief minister. But she will only to Delhi. A new special director has replaced him. start campaigning in earnest Some say the earlier head had become friendly when Modi begins. She does with the TMC government through his friendship not want to exhaust herself with a high-ranking state IPS officer. They used to prematurely. Thus, the real meet frequently. Does a new man at the helm of the battle will likely commence state ED mean the agency could get more active in in January. targeting TMC leaders?

11 may 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 17 open essay

By Brahma Chellaney

Banking on Biden The new president’s China policy will shape India’s cooperation and Beijing’s behaviour in Asia

t is no exaggeration to say that international policy towards China has for decades been shaped largely by one power: the US. From Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, a succession of US presidents aided China’s rise, including its integration into international institutions—from the UN Security Council to the World Trade Organization (WTO). And other countries followed the American lead in outsourcing manufacturing to China and building closer bonds with that communist giant. It is Donald Trump’s presidency that began a fundamental shift in US policy. The US and India are now close security partners. But it is no exaggeration to say that India’s security over the years has been gravely undermined by US policies, which created a Frankenstein along India’s northern frontiers (China) and an epicentre of international terrorism on its western borders (Pakistan). In a major speech on China in July, US Secretary of State declared: “President Nixon once said he feared he had created a ‘Frankenstein’ by opening the world to the Chinese Communist Party, and here we are. Now, people of good faith can debate why free nations allowed these bad things to happen for all these years. Perhaps we were naive about China’s virulent strainI of communism, or triumphalist after our victory in the Cold War, or cravenly capitalist, or hoodwinked by Beijing’s talk of a ‘peaceful rise’. Whatever the reason—whatever the reason, today China is increasingly authoritarian at home, and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom everywhere else. And President Trump has said: enough.” Trump himself has acknowledged that the US created a “monster” by aiding China’s rise: “[China] took advantage of us for many, many years. And I blame us, I don’t blame them. I don’t blame President Xi. I blame all of our presidents, and not just President Obama. You go back a long way. You look at President Clinton, Bush—everybody; they allowed this to happen, they created a monster.” Aiding China’s rise was the greatest mistake of US foreign policy since the end of World War II. The US actively contributed to the rise of its most formidable competitor in what will be remembered as a historically unprecedented act. The US, however, is separated from China by a vast ocean—the Pacific—and does not have the same immediate and potent security concerns over growing Chinese assertiveness that many Asian states have. The security costs of America’s China blunder are indeed being borne essentially by Asians, from those in Taiwan and Hong Kong to ethnic Tibetans and Uighurs. And as the Chinese encroach- ments on Ladakh’s key border areas this year have highlighted, India is bearing the brunt of China’s terrestrial aggression. Here’s the paradox: As Sino-Indian relations plumb new depths following the Chinese stealth encroachments in Ladakh, India— unable to effectively counter the China threat on its own—is strengthening defence and strategic collaboration with the US, the monster creator. Chinese territorial aggression in the Himalayas has been a huge boon for American efforts to win over India, as highlighted by a recent agreement to share geospatial data from airborne and sensors.

18 14 december 2020 Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at the White House, 2012

consequential partner for us, I think, in the Indo-Pacific for sure in this century”. The US-India strategic ties bear little resemblance to America’s Cold War-era system, which rested on a patron-client framework, with the US as the ‘hub’ and its allies as the ‘spokes’. No such arrangement would work nowadays, for the simple reason that a country as large as India cannot become just another Japan to the US. The US, Japan and are already tied by bilateral and trilateral security alliances among themselves, making India’s co-option pivotal to building a constellation of democra- cies in the Indo-Pacific region. After establishing an Indo-Pacific strategy and resurrecting the Quad, which had been lying dormant for nine years, the Trump administration— in a symbolic nod towards India —renamed the US military’s Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command. The ‘soft alliance’ the US is seek- ing to build with India will be devoid of any treaty obligations. And, given India’s longstanding preference for strategic autonomy, the US has sought to reassure New Delhi that it is not seeking to change its foreign-

getty images policy traditions. In the recent words of US Deputy Will the administration of Joe Biden return to Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, the softer approach towards China of the Obama “Rather we want to explore how to period? Under Obama’s watch, Chinese President empower them and India’s ability to defend its own sovereignty and Xi Jinping’s regime built artificial islands and democracy and to advance Indian militarised the South China Sea—without firing a interests across the Indo-Pacific single shot or incurring any international costs region. As the US assesses our own interests and how they intersect with India’s, we have seen the conditions emerge for an organic and deeper The US today is close to accomplishing what it has long partnership—not an alliance on the post-war model, but a struggled to achieve—co-opt India in a ‘soft alliance’. In October, fundamental alignment along shared security and geopolitical India signed the last of four ‘foundational’ agreements that the goals, shared interests and shared values.” US maintains with all its close defence partners. Then-US De- 2020 will be remembered not just for the China-originated fense Secretary Mark Esper declared that India will be “the most Covid-19 shock and a moment of reckoning for the world’s

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 19 open essay

largest dictatorship in Beijing, but also for the election defeat of Trump administration gave India pride of place in its ‘free and Donald Trump, setting in motion the end of his US presidency. open Indo-Pacific’ strategy. That strategy has relied on the Quad. Will Trump’s exit help relieve the pressure on China? The Trump administration, moreover, lent full support to Will the administration of Joe Biden return to the softer India in countering China’s Himalayan border aggression and approach towards China of the Obama period? Under Obama’s cut off security aid to Pakistan for not severing its ties with terror- watch, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime built artificial ist groups. It implicitly supported India’s 2019 airstrike islands and militarised the South China Sea—without firing a deep inside Pakistan and refrained from criticising India on its single shot or incurring any international costs. The same model domestic actions, from the reorganisation of Jammu and Kash- China has sought to replicate in the Himalayas, by incremen- mir to a refugees-related citizenship law amendment. tally encroaching on the territories of India, Nepal and Bhutan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal rapport with Yet, just months before he left office, Obama contended that Trump served India well.Trump’s standalone trip to India less than 10 months ago underscored how the expanding US-India strategic partnership has become Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal rapport an important diplomatic asset for with president donald Trump served India well. both countries. Trump summed up Trump’s standalone trip to India less than his trip as “unforgettable, extraor- dinary and productive”. The visit 10 months ago underscored how the expanding will be remembered for Trump’s US-India strategic partnership has become an famous words at a mega-rally in important diplomatic asset for both countries Modi’s home city of Ahmedabad: “America loves India, America Narendra Modi and Donald Trump respects India, and America will in Houston, 2019 always be faithful and loyal friends to the Indian people.” Under Biden, the fundamental direction of the US-India relation- ship towards closer cooperation is unlikely to change. But Biden could reset ties with China in order to lower Sino-US tensions and rebuild cooperation in areas where bilateral interests converge. The open support the US has extended to India in countering China’s border aggression may not survive under a Biden administra- tion, especially if it seeks to reset ties with Beijing.With a pusillanimous Modi Government unwilling to call China out on its aggression, let

ap alone wage a diplomatic offensive to spotlight the Chinese encroach- “we have more to fear from a weakened, threatened China than ments, Trump’s national-security team members spoke out on a successful, rising China”. Few of China’s neighbours shared what Xi’s regime had done to India. that assessment. The Obama administration did little more than For example, after the Galwan Valley clashes of mid-June, US watch China’s aggressive expansionism—from redrawing the National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said, “Chinese troops geopolitical map in the South China Sea to rolling out the neo- ambushed the Indians. They beat 20 Indians to death. They beat colonial Belt and Road Initiative with the aim to refashion the them so badly with clubs with nails in them and wrapped with global economic and political order by luring nations desperate concertina wire—barbed wire. They beat the Indians so badly for infrastructure investments into its strategic orbit. that they were disfigured and could not be identified by their What will be the future of the Quad and the ‘free and open comrades. The Chinese have been very aggressive with India.” Indo-Pacific’ strategy after Trump’s departure? This is another Pompeo, for his part, has repeatedly highlighted China’s question with a bearing on India’s security and interests. The aggression against India. On July 8th, he said, “The Chinese took

20 14 december 2020 incredibly aggressive action. The Indians have done their best to + competition) by addressing each other’s concerns.’ respond to that ... I don’t think it’s possible to look at that particu- The concept of ‘cooperative competition’ sounds a lot like the lar instance of Chinese Communist Party [CCP] aggression in iso- ‘managed coexistence’ idea. Both concepts imply a G2-style lation. I think you need to put it in the larger context.” Then on condominium defined by competitive-cum-cooperative ele- July 22nd, he said, “The recent clashes initiated by the [People’s ments. But make no mistake: America’s ‘managed coexistence’ Liberation Army] are just the latest examples of the CCP’s with China will further strengthen the CCP internally and exter- unacceptable behaviour.” nally. China is already the world’s largest, strongest and longest- On July 30th, Pompeo cautioned, “They talk about bringing surviving autocracy. This is a country increasingly oriented to socialism with Chinese characteristics to the world. Claims that the primacy of the Communist Party. they have now made for real estate in Bhutan, the incursions What is remarkable—and a cause for deep concern—is that that took place in India, these are indicative of Chinese inten- Biden has been wrong on China virtually his entire career. tions. And they are testing, they are probing the world to see if For example, as the lead Democrat on the Senate Foreign we are going to stand up to their threats and their bullying.” Relations Committee, Biden in 2000 supported establishing And, in a similar vein, he said on September 2nd: “From the Permanent Normal Trade Relations with Beijing on grounds Taiwan Strait to the Himalayas and beyond, the Chinese that it would yield ‘economic benefits to the U.S.’, ‘political Communist Party is engaged in a clear and intensifying pattern reform in China’ and a positive ‘impact on our national security’. of bullying its neighbours.” More than a decade later, in an op-ed in The New York Times in Such plainspeaking may become a thing of the past. Biden’s 2011, Biden gullibly declared, ‘I remain convinced that a success- pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said at a Hudson ful China can make our country more prosperous, not less.’ Institute event in July that a Biden administration would seek to Just last year, Biden stunned many with his apparent strate- make the US more competitive and values-centred and “reen- gic naïveté by declaring at a campaign rally, “China is going to gage China and work with China” from a position of strength. eat our lunch? Come on, man. I mean, you know, they’re not bad Finding ways to cooperate with Beijing would mark a break folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.” with the Trump administration’s approach, which sees the US The blowback compelled Biden to backtrack and admit China in deeply ideological, even existential, conflict with the CCP. was a threat. Biden’s pick for national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, in a After Biden’s election win over Trump, Japanese Prime 2017 lecture, warned against “containment” as a policy, stat- Minister Yoshihide Suga said he received an assurance from the ing: “We need to strike a middle course—one that encourages president-elect during a congratulatory call that US security guar- China’s rise in a manner consistent with an open, fair, rules- antees apply to Japan’s administration of the disputed Senkaku based, regional order.” An autumn 2019 essay in Foreign Affairs Islands. But, in apparent deference to China, the Biden office co-authored by Sullivan argued for ‘managed coexistence’ with readout left out that assurance. In another worrying sign, Steve China, saying China is a ‘formidable competitor’ but also ‘an es- Ricchetti, who led the effort 21 years ago to get China into the sential U.S. partner’. So, containment is not tenable, it posited. WTO (an entry that has come back to haunt the US), was named The essay pushed for ‘managed coexistence’ in these words: as the White House senior advisor to Biden—or, as one American ‘Advocates of neo-containment tend to see any call for managed newspaper put it, ‘tapped for the West Wing’s wise-man role’. coexistence as an argument for a version of the grand bargain; ad- vocates of a grand bargain tend to see any suggestion of sustained competition as a case for a version of containment. That divide iden’s biggest foreign-policy challenge relates to the obscures a course between these extremes—one that is not Bworld’s economic and geopolitical hub—the Indo-Pacific premised on Chinese capitulation or on U.S.-Chinese condomin- region, which unites the Indian and Pacific oceans. An expan- ium.’ According to the essay, ‘The need for cooperation between sionist China is injecting greater instability and tensions in the Washington and Beijing is far more acute, given the nature of Indo-Pacific through its territorial and maritime revisionism contemporary challenges.’ The key, it argued, is for Washington and heavy-handed use of economic and military power. to get ‘the balance between cooperation and competition right’. When Trump took office, he replaced Obama’s flounder- The essay’s advocacy of ‘managed coexistence’ with China ing ‘pivot’ to Asia with the broader ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ must have been music to Chinese ears. In a recent op-ed in strategy, besides designating China as a strategic competitor The New York Times, Fu Ying, a vice chairwoman of the Foreign and threat. Will America’s Indo-Pacific policy flip again during Affairs Committee of China’s National People’s Congress and Biden’s presidency? an ex-vice foreign minister, called for ‘cooperative competition’ Last month’s ‘Malabar’ Australia-India-Japan-US naval war between the US and China. Fu wrote: ‘Both governments have games in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea showed that the heavy domestic agendas to attend to, and so even if competition Quad is beginning to take concrete shape in response to China’s between China and the United States is unavoidable, it needs muscular policies. But just when a concert of democracies in the to be managed well, cooperatively. It is possible for the two Indo-Pacific seems closer than ever, the impending change of US countries to develop a relationship of ‘coopetition’ (cooperation government has added a new layer of uncertainty, including on

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 21 open essay

the future of America’s Indo-Pacific strategy. of the nations of the free world”. But such a values-based, globalised Biden, even before taking office, has signalled his intent to approach contrasts with the current US strategy of regionally discard the Trump administration’s ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ leveraging cooperation with democracies for geopolitical ends. strategy. The ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ concept was originally Unless a clearer strategic vision emerges under Biden, the authored by then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Rarely likely unravelling of the ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ strategy has the US adopted a foreign-designed concept as the linchpin of could smother any hoped-for regional concert of democracies. its foreign policy. The ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ strategy’s days seem numbered. Even the term ‘Indo-Pacific’, whose use expanded t a time when the strengthening China-Pakistan stra- America’s regional framework to include India as a major Ategic nexus is imposing greater security costs on India, any power, was conspicuously absent in Biden’s campaign state- shifts in America’s China and Pakistan policies—even if subtle— ments and the 2020 Democratic Party Platform. will only embolden the two hand-in-glove neighbours to further In fact, the 2020 Democratic Party Platform reverted to the up the ante against New Delhi. US-India relations thrived during use of the old term ‘Asia-Pacific’ in place of ‘Indo-Pacific’. It carried the Trump presidency, despite Trump’s mini-trade war against a section titled ‘Asia-Pacific’. China strongly prefers the ‘Asia- New Delhi. But India now faces new uncertainties with regard to Pacific’ term. After the US presidential election, the Chinese state US regional policies, including whether Biden’s administration media has been urging the Biden team to replace ‘Indo-Pacific’ will seek greater cooperation with Beijing and Islamabad. with ‘Asia-Pacific’. Few know what Biden stands for. Biden, who turned 78 last After his election, Biden has started referring to ‘Indo-Pacific’ month, will be the oldest American president sworn in for in calls with foreign leaders but not to ‘free and open’. Instead, the first time. An October op-ed in The Wall Street Journal said, Biden has coined a new phrase—“secure and prosperous Indo- ‘Though it is impolitic to say so, Biden has exhibited clear signs Pacific”. He used the new expression in calls with the leaders of of mental decline.’ Australia, India and Japan. Biden, however, has given no indica- Biden won the election despite having no political base or tion how his “secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific” policy will be vision—and no ideas, other than to oust Trump from office. different from the current ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ strategy. In fact, his divided Democratic Party is trying to figure out Today, a rules-based and democracy-led order in the Indo- what it stands for after realising the common goal of ending Pacific has become more important than ever to ensure a stable Trump’s presidency. power balance. If the region’s major democracies, from Canada Some in Indian policy circles still remember how Senator and South Korea to Indonesia and India, leverage their growing Biden spearheaded a congressional move in 1992 that helped strategic bonds to generate progress towards a broader concert block Russian sale of cryogenic-engine technology for India’s of democracies, the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific may civilian space programme, setting it back many years. Today, be realised. the US and India are not only space partners, but also the US Instead, the likely demise of the ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ Strategic Command head defended India’s 2019 demonstra- strategy is set to spur concerns in Asia. It will also lead to ques- tion of a capability to destroy an orbiting satellite. tions about the inherent unpredictability surrounding US If, as president, Biden seeks to mend US ties with the Chinese strategy and the wisdom of investing in closer strategic bonds dictatorship, relieves terrorism-related pressure on Pakistan by with Washington. restoring security aid and criticises India on Kashmir and minor- Nowhere will these questions generate greater concerns than ity rights, New Delhi will have second thoughts on getting too in India, which hosted the recent Malabar war games. India el- close to the US. India, however, is likely to remain important for evated the war games this year from a trilateral to a quadrilateral the US because of its massive market and strategic location. It is event by finally acceding to Australia’s pending request to re-join the only resident power in the western part of the Indo-Pacific an exercise from which it dropped out 12 years ago in a bid to that can countervail China’s military and economic moves. appease Beijing. The Chinese communist mouthpiece Global Biden hasn’t revealed his thinking to any significant degree Times said earlier that Australia’s inclusion would ‘signal that on foreign policy. Most members of the national security team the Quad military alliance is officially formed’. he has selected are considered ‘liberal interventionists’—or The loss of the expression ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ will hawks on the American left. It was liberal interventionists likely be seen in India as a diminution of its future role in who, under Obama, engineered the disastrous interventions American strategy. More broadly, it could be viewed as a possible in Syria and Libya and who, during the Bill Clinton presidency, dilution of the US commitment to establish an Indo-Pacific spearheaded the NATO air war against Yugoslavia. concert of democracies, with India serving as the western Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state pick, favoured invasion of anchor and Japan and Australia the eastern and southern Iraq in 2003 and military intervention in Libya in 2011. Indeed, anchors of a regional balance of power. Blinken publicly celebrated America’s occupation of Iraq as a Biden has promised to host a global Summit for Democracy in ‘success’, claiming it had brought down violence and won grass- his first year in office to help “renew the spirit and shared purpose roots support. Sullivan, another hawk in Biden’s team, support-

22 14 december 2020 ed US supply of anti-tank missiles for Ukraine, which President will ease the mounting US pressure that has set in motion an Obama opposed and President Trump finally delivered. international pushback against Beijing. A number of important Espousing military action as humanitarianism has been economies are now seeking a managed and selective decoupling the common leitmotif uniting liberal interventionists with from China in key areas. If Biden proves a weak president, the neoconservatives, who were behind America’s Iraq invasion pushback will certainly ease—and the decoupling could slow. and occupation. Today, both these powerful groups in Wash- Although Xi may see Biden’s election victory as a silver lin- ington remain fixated on Russia, although Russia’s economy ing, it will be a major surprise if ‘managed coexistence’ (aka ‘co- today is less than one-tenth the size of China’s and its military operative competition’) comes to define Biden’s China policy. spending one-fifth of China. Such an approach will militate against the current bipartisan US policy has already driven two natural competitors, China consensus on China in the US, reflected in the 2020 Democratic and Russia, into a growing strategic alignment. This geopolitical Party Platform’s pledge that the ‘Democrats will be clear, strong, reality, if left unaddressed, could crimp US strategy against China. and consistent in pushing back where we have profound eco- Let’s be clear: 2020 has been particularly bad for Beijing. nomic, security and human rights concerns about the actions of China’s government’. Managed coexistence, in fact, Mike Pompeo Antony Blinken could be a recipe for America’s inexorable decline. There is an additional factor that could con- strain Biden from going soft on China—a lingering scandal involving his controversial son, Hunter. As vice president, Biden took Hunter aboard Air Force Two to Beijing in 2013. Within days, Hunter’s firm became a partner in a new Bank of China-backed investment company that raised more than $1.5 billion. Hunter personally made millions of dollars from the deal. Republicans could resurrect that scandal to embarrass Biden. In fact, after Biden’s election win, the US state department released a 72-page blueprint on how to checkmate China’s imperial ambitions to dominate Photos getty images the world. The blueprint, which includes a section US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on China’s internal vulnerabilities, is in the style of a landmark 1947 essay by George F Kennan (the in September: ‘the Chinese Communist founding director of its Policy Planning Staff) that Party is engaged in a clear and helped institute the containment policy against the intensifying pattern of bullying its Soviet Union—a policy that defined the Cold War neighbours.’ Such plainspeaking may era. Kennan published the essay anonymously in become a thing of the past. Biden’s pick Foreign Affairs, the so-called ‘X-Article’. The new blueprint on how to deal with the for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, China challenge is likely to serve as broad guidance said in July his administration would for Biden’s administration. It specifies a multi- ‘reengage China and work with China’ pronged approach to address the China challenge. from a position of strength For New Delhi, the key concern extends beyond the bilateral relationship with Washington—a relationship that is likely to remain close. There is gnawing uncertainty about the larger strategic China’s initial coverup of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan approach of the Biden presidency and how it will align with that gifted the world a horrendous pandemic followed by India’s own strategic interests. its unchecked expansionism and pursuit of ‘wolf-warrior Without US leadership and resolve, a credible counter to diplomacy’ were signal moments that spurred a tectonic shift Chinese expansionism will never be convincing. Biden’s China in views across the political spectrum in the US and helped and Indo-Pacific policies will help influence Beijing’s behaviour change global opinion on China. Negative views of China have in Asia and the strategic trajectory of the US-India relationship. n now reached historic highs in many countries, according to a survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center. Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author of nine books, Perhaps the only bit of good news for Beijing in 2020 has been including, most recently, Water, Peace, and War: Trump’s ouster. Xi’s regime is hoping that Biden’s administration Confronting the Global Water Crisis

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 23 Cover Story

Rage Reality Punjab’s farmers are at Delhi’s doors demanding a rollback of the farm reform laws—reforms meant to help poorer states that today produce much more than Punjab under more difficult economic conditions. Isn’t it coercion by a pampered lot? By PR Ramesh and Siddharth Singh Protesting farmers at Singhu on the Delhi-Haryana border, December 1

Rageand Reality Photos getty images Punjab’s farmers are at Delhi’s doors demanding a rollback of the farm reform laws—reforms meant to help poorer states that today produce much more than Punjab under more difficult economic conditions. Isn’t it coercion by a pampered lot? Cover Story

hen Union Minister of Agriculture and in the combat tactics of ‘peaceful pro- and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh test’ that neither water cannons nor tear- Tomar emerged from a meeting gas would deter them. The emerging post- with farmers’W representatives furi- er boys of the agitation were modern-day ous with the Modi Government—on youngsters, with expensive smartphones, December 1st , at the borders of a national some of them spouting fluent English and capital besieged for the sixth successive communicating on issues with a prac- day over farm reforms—he declared: tised ease. Yet, it was a desperately needed “The meeting was fruitful.” Irony laced his modernisation and market-driven price words to describe a meeting the Govern- discovery for the less well-heeled that the ment had been coerced into. Something protestors seemed set against. was rotten about the farm protests and it They were a motley crew, several wasn’t fruit. among them unable to distinguish a Thousands of farmers, mostly from plough from a spade or a shovel. One Punjab, several of them well-heeled and spokesman for the group was an actor crammed into SUVs—with dozens of from Punjab seemingly inclined towards tractors thrown in for symbolism—had Khalistani separatist rhetoric. He wasn’t mass of ‘farmer dissent’ clogging approach descended on Delhi to showcase a self- the only incongruity in what was appar- roads to Delhi. indulgence in the politics of grievance. ently a throng of hardworking farmers This rather large group demanded an They were holding the capital to ransom, fighting for their survival and livelihood. inalienable right for farmers to sow what demanding a rollback of reformist legis- Shaheen Bagh’s ‘Dadi’, Bilkis Bano, was re- they chose and an immutable right to lation in a critically ailing primary sector turned from near the venue by the police guaranteed government pricing for their needing urgent modernisation of pricing as she sought to join the agitators. Intellec- crop, insulating it from the vagaries of the and marketing practices, technologies tuals and politicians caught in an adverse market and even a law that would penalise and an expansion of base. Rejecting the ideological drift, professional protestors the private sector for not paying above a le- Government’s request that they move to habitually opposed to the establishment, galised floor price set by the Government. the designated grounds at Burari to stage Modi baiters, sundry political workers Chengal Reddy of the Consortium of Indi- their protests, many had uprooted road getting desperately photographed while an Farmers Associations (CIFA)—a vocal dividers, converted them into makeshift distributing food to the agitators. Then advocate for opening up the farm sector ovens to roast rotis and transformed their there were Swaraj Abhiyan’s Yogendra for years who has been intervening among trucks into cosy little bedrooms in which Yadav—the farmers demanded he should farmers of the south, pushing modern to tuck in for the cold nights. The bigger not be involved in their talks with the Gov- practices and government policies—finds vehicles carried tonnes of fruits and veg- ernment—and Congress and Aam Aadmi this position on preventing the market etables, atta, cooking oil and other essen- Party leaders trying to insert themselves from determining farm produce prices tial food supplies to help them dig in for into the narrative while seeking to purge and opposition to the entry of the private what was clearly a well-planned long haul themselves of the liberalisation of the past sector incomprehensible. He pointed to to mount pressure on the Government. So in the farm sector. Finally, institution- how Coca Cola completely transformed well-armed were they in terms of supplies alised dissenters were another set in this the till-then nondescript town of Chittoor

26 14 december 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi, November 30

in Andhra Pradesh into a key source for Modi has procures from Punjab and Haryana for the mangoes and mango pulp for the popular sought to impress PDS (Public Distribution System). They Maaza mango drink. In 2016, celebrating are most affected and they should address 40 years of Maaza, Coca Cola announced on all farmers it at the state level.” plans to make it a $1 billion brand by 2023. that the mandi Dominated by producers from Pun- That meant jacking up the 1 lakh metric jab, the protests erupted after the Centre tonnes of pulp worth Rs 650 crore from system will passed laws that do not, in any way, de- more than 1,000 farmers to 2 lakh metric continue. But he molish the existing MSP regime or pro- tonnes, worth Rs 1,100 crore, by enrolling is firm that the mote dismantling of the Agricultural around one lakh farmers into its supply Produce Market Committees (APMCs) chain. Apart from Chittoor, it sources reforms will be where produce is bought at the govern- pulp from other towns in Maharashtra implemented. ment-announced floor price. The law, in and Tamil Nadu, besides exploring new fact, gives the farmer an option to either areas and mango varieties. He has spoken sell at APMCs or wherever (outside an Reddy argued, “Why are they against about the need APMC) he finds a remunerative price reforms? Every other sector that opened to expand for his produce. The MSP has never been up in the 1990s has benefitted significant- written into any law till date and remains ly. Farmers in most other states have been opportunities an administrative decision. overcoming adversities on their own with for farmers to The MSP has remained the price at grit and without being change-averse. which the government procures a select MSP (Minimum Support Price) regime is complement their and whittled down batch of 22 crops for mostly for rice and wheat that the Centre labour and efforts the PDS and emergency stocks. It has

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 27 Cover Story

little bearing on private-sector prices for cycle of debt and distress, takes the place farm produce in large parts of the country, of bullocks that she is too poor to own and which have been either above or below Punjab’s tills the land herself. The poster depicting this, based on the demand-supply rules her carrying the heavy plough, sweat that govern the open market. As it hap- farmers and streaming down her face, is iconic and has pens, less than a third of the total produce government consider captured the image of the Indian farmer of MSP-governed crops is procured by the for millions over generations. That is so, government. The rest has always depend- continuous purchases despite innumerable individual and com- ed on the open market for price discovery. as entitlements and munity examples from the recent past and The agitating crowd, though, is bent on not transactions. the present—of easier loans, state-of-the- getting a rollback of the farm laws, display- art technology, market demand-tailored ing a herd mentality as opposed to reason. The moment any cropping patterns, modernisation and A line that the protestors have been aggres- mention is made of innovation, and an open, expanded mar- sively pushing is: “The farmer is hard hit ket for farm produce—that show how the both when there is a bumper harvest and changing the system, lives of many have been transformed for when there is a drought.” That’s a narra- protests break out the better in the sector. A few decades ago, tive that throws up harrowing images and some people it was impossible to imagine the Indian from Mother India in which an impover- farmer participating in the global flower ished Radha (Nargis), caught in a vicious begin raising the trade, wine and cheese markets or even ‘issue’ of ‘Khalistan’

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh at a protest against the farm reforms at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, November 4

28 14 december 2020 growing shiitake mushrooms for fine been touched by anyone: the agricultural potentates and had accumulated wealth dining eateries. As far back as 2014, states income of big farmers that has remained through their produce over the years like Himachal Pradesh and other parts tax-exempt thanks to vote-bank politics and his suffering seemed to stem from a of northern India took up the cultiva- and the risk-averse attitude of the political problem of plenty on counts other than tion of this mushroom and earned Rs 200 class. It is this big benefit culture of freebies just potatoes and their distress sale. Some per kg by growing them on willow saw- that rich farmers are keen on preserving. of the produce was shipped to Assam and dust. Just a few years down the line, the In preserving their interests, they always Karnataka at Rs 1.50 per kg, but with abso- price of a single kilogramme of the crop fire from the shoulders of small and mar- lutely no profit if you factored in the price was about Rs 1,600, and imports from ginal farmers and landless tillers. of jute packing bags, Sangha whined. And Thailand and South Korea went up on after two years of excellent harvest, a third higher demand. Emu (large poultry of a year of glut appeared to be in the offing. high economic value) farming, now very ack in 2012, the chairman Even with ample cold storage, Sangha popular in Andhra, Delhi, Karnataka, of the Commission for wailed that he was finding no takers for Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, is yet anoth- Agricultural Costs and his produce. Jang Bahadur Sangha was er example of out-of-the-box thinking in Prices, Ashok Gulati, had also “worried” about his bank loans since the sector that has been successful in India suggested to a young re- he would only be earning a less than on the back of much easier terms of farm- Bporter that he travel to Qadian Wali in 50 per cent return on his investments. It ing compared to the past. More recently, Jalandhar, Punjab, and meet a farmer there was gloom and doom all around a perime- it is hing cultivation—most of it imported to fully understand the problems facing ter of farm land hemmed by SUVs, foreign till now by giants like Laljee Godhoo from potato growers at the time. It was a season degrees, and palatial mansions—all built Iran and Afghanistan, despite its huge that saw a terrible glut in the output and on potato money. demand in India—that has caught the supply of potatoes and farmers across the But there was another kind of glut as imagination of younger farmers. country were dumping produce in the well: that of corruption scandals on the The political class has, by and large, open after a 23 per cent plunge in prices political horizon. By that time, this had sig- been very mindful of farmers’ concerns compared to the previous year. The price nificantly devalued the Manmohan Singh and has ensured an enabling environ- of onions had dipped even further, about Government at the Centre in the eyes of ment, sometimes to the point of ac- 80 per cent lower than the previous year. Indians. Singh’s Government was in a tively encouraging wasteful freebies In Lasalgaon, Maharashtra, the biggest meltdown following a number of scams for fear of repercussions at the hustings. market for onions in India, the crop was in many sectors. The self-congratulatory NK Singh, chairman of the Finance Com- selling at a rock-bottom rate of Rs 3 per statistics the establishment churned out mission, narrates a story of a recent visit kg compared to Rs 80 per kg the previous desperately on agricultural produce, fol- to Chandigarh to illustrate how much year. But was the problem over potatoes lowing an agitation over plunging potato the Government has subsidised the pri- real or cooked up and unfairly garnished, prices, had few takers. After farmers in mary sector to insulate it from price vola- as the Government seemed to suggest? UP dumped their produce on the streets, tility over the years. Singh stopped his car The meeting with the potato farmer nose-diving prices for the spud grabbed at a farm where he saw water gushing out of Jalandhar, who was the ‘distressed’ headlines. Under pressure from free fall- of a pipe. After a while, he asked a little voice of his class throughout the country, ing potato prices from Punjab to Gujarat, girl about the wasteful flow of water and proved to be a shocking eye-opener. The Rahul Gandhi pitched for foreign direct in- if the pump was ever turned off. “It stops host dispatched a swanky SUV to the rail- vestment (FDI) in retail, arguing that the automatically when the power is cut off,” way station to fetch the scribe to a palatial move would resolve the problem of Rs 2 she replied with a child’s candour. But her bungalow on the outskirts of Jalandhar. per kg at the farm end even while the retail story points to subsidised electricity and India’s ‘potato king’ Jang Bahadur Sangha consumer bought a packet of potato wa- abundant water supply that the farm sec- had reportedly dumped some 90,000 sacks fers, made from just half a potato, at Rs 10. tor has enjoyed for decades under politi- of potatoes and planned to dump more of His father, Rajiv Gandhi, may have cal patronage. the nearly 50,000 tonnes of annual crop set up the food processing ministry with In the 2019 Budget, the Government harvested from 5,000 acres of leased land. fanfare as prime minister and hailed for extended widened security cover un- The ‘distressed’ farmer ran an organic his foresight. But it had, over the decades, der the PM-KISAN scheme to 14.5 crore farm on his property; 175 tractors tilled remained trapped in an empty shell and a farmers, irrespective of the size of their his land, all John Deere, with a dedicated hollow vision. The real issue of arming the land holdings. It was also a Budget that workshop for them on his farm where he farm sector with ample storage, food pro- announced an increase in procurement also ran 11 cold storage units. The young- cessing infrastructure that would supply price for all 22 crops under the MSP est Sangha was Cornell-educated, devel- farm produce to value-adding industrial regime by 1.5 per cent. Then, there is the oped seeds and was into tissue culture. By units, and provide remunerative prices to giant pumpkin in the room that has never any yardstick, the Sanghas were potato produce was side-tracked time and again.

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 29 Cover Story

The opposition mocked Rahul Gandhi’s Varanasi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitch as a ‘put in a potato at one end and Of the three was on a day-long visit to his constituency end up with gold at the other’ pun instead to inaugurate infrastructure projects and of a model for the crisis that the farm sec- farm reform laws, celebrate the occasion of Dev Deepawali. tor was facing. Down the road, this farm the one these farmers In that atmosphere of celebration, he used crisis proved to be a political hot potato want withdrawn is his speeches to reach out to farmers and for the UPA. allay their fears. But he was firm on one the FPTC Act. That thing: these laws will be implemented, is impossible to come what may: “If there is a history of ocial scientist Dipankar deceit, then two things are natural. First, if Gupta identified two kinds concede as it lies at farmers get anxious at what governments of agrarian mobilisations in the heart of the say, then behind that lies a decades’-long north India: one, movements reforms. It is vital if history of deceit. Second, those who broke led by peasants, agricultural promises and who indulge in deceit, it be- Slabourers and marginal farmers, centred agro-processing and comes a habit for them that things will on a menu of demands to improve their international trade continue as before because that is how lot; and two, those led by organisations they did it.” representing the relatively better-off in processed foods are “The same formula is being applied owner-cultivators who produce market- to take off in India again,” Modi said while inaugurating a able surpluses. According to Gupta, while highway extension project. In his hour- movements fuelled by the rural poor tend long speech, the prime minister spoke to be more local in their impact, the ones extensively about the need to expand the led by rich farmers’ target the state and opportunities and markets for farmers as Central governments, take up issues of environment provided by successive a necessary complement to their labour agricultural prices, cheap electricity and governments. and efforts. It was a trademark Modi water and easy terms on loans among The cult-like hold of the self-styled speech in which he reeled off anecdotes, other demands. Because of the diversity of farmer leaders on their followers seen in facts, figures and statistics to buttress his their demands, such unions have shown the past decades would trigger a typhoon point that the time for agriculture reforms tremendous capacity to sustain them- of memes today if one were to recite the had come. selves over longer periods and function as stories of how they harnessed the igno- At the same time, he rebuked those a ‘pressure group outside the established rance of simple folk for political gains. At opposing the reforms for spreading pro- structures’. Gupta’s analysis was based one meeting in rural Haryana, Lal, paganda against the reform effort: “Earlier, on the mobilisation undertaken by Ma- then chief minister of the state, was hold- it would so happen that if some decision hendra Singh Tikait in the late 1980s to ing forth on water supply for irrigation, an of the government was not agreeable demand free power for farmers. His sup- emotive issue. According to reports, Devi then there would be opposition to it. But porters first laid siege to Meerut and, after Lal said, “The government at the Centre for some time, there has been a new trend. a few months, moved to Delhi’s Boat Club. is so corrupt that even the water you get We see that the basis of opposition is not a Barring Charan Singh, whose support in your fields is supplied to you after the decision but the spread of confusion and among the Jat peasantry spanned UP, electricity has been taken out of it. When anxieties.” His target, even when he did Haryana and parts of Rajasthan, no other I come to power at the Centre, I will ensure not name anyone, was clear: the political farmer leader could break the geographi- that you get only electrified water supply. parties instigating farmers. For these farm- cal jinx. Attempts were made by his politi- And then your crop yield will multiply ers, Prime Minister Modi had a simple cal peers to mimic him and straddle states manifold.” Little seems to have changed message: that, in future, they too will use to expand their influence. They failed. The in terms of those leading the protests at these laws to their benefit. kind of grip the Jat leader had over his fol- Delhi’s gates today. The ‘potato at one end What Modi said was as it should be, lowers was legendary. In the late 1980s, and gold at the other’ claim is a refurbished optimistic. But there is another reality in his slogans demanding free power and version of the electrified water story. Punjab and it is that the economic, politi- water supply for farmers could shake po- If the images beamed from Delhi’s bor- cal and environmental circumstances that litical foundations. Such demands have der with Haryana are to be believed, then have come together make business-as- long gone out of currency as there is now the large number of combative farmers usual, as it has prevailed since 1965-1966, a relatively better deal for farmers in terms from Punjab conveys an impression of impossible. There are three reasons why of access to bank loans, power and water their unwillingness to allow the rollout farmers in Punjab will have to change supply. As a community, cultivators are of agriculture reform laws. But on Novem- the way they practise agriculture as it is better informed, helped by an enabling ber 30th, a different reality could be seen in no longer an issue that affects just them

30 14 december 2020 Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar addresses the media in New Delhi, September 24

but the entire country. benefits of increased output without The first set of issues is economic. turning it into a supply glut that crashes When the three reform Bills were passed prices or their cornering by supply cartels. in Parliament in September, there was In both cases, farmers get very little while not a word in them about Punjab even if middlemen walk away with the cream of Data released politicians from the state latched on the profits. One way to get out of this dead end by the National laws as specifically designed to damage is to create a system where value addition their economic interests. In reality, there through agro-processing industries can Horticulture Board is an India-wide context in which these access this output seamlessly by getting shows that, in 2018, laws were framed. India is no longer the in touch directly with farmers without Punjab was not country of pervasive food shortages that it intermediaries. In essence, this is not was in the 1960s when the present system about wheat and rice—which are largely among the top 10 of public procurement of wheat and rice funnelled through public procurement producers of fruits was established with Punjab as its hub. At and PDS and are, hence, under govern- that time of deep food insecurity, the em- ment control—but a whole other space and vegetables. Far phasis was on getting adequate amounts of agricultural produce in which Punjab poorer states, such as of wheat and rice across the country. Fruits is not a participant. Data released by the Bihar, UP and West and vegetables were a luxury that very few National Horticulture Board shows that, Indians could afford. in 2018, Punjab was not among the top 10 Bengal, were ranked By 2004-2005, the situation had producers of fruits and vegetables. Instead, high. They need a changed dramatically and horticultural far poorer states with few marketing op- production had galloped to 167 million portunities, such as Bihar, UP and West modernised system tonnes, including 51 million tonnes Bengal, were high up on the league table. of markets for their of fruits and 101 million tonnes of veg- They needed a modernised system where produce and an etables. A decade later, in 2017-2018, this markets could develop for their produce shot up to 311.7 million tonnes, with and lacked an enabling framework. enabling framework fruit production nearly double that of That this was the reasoning behind 2004-2005 and 181 million tonnes in the the farm reform laws was evident in the output basket. Furthering this farming Statement of Objects and Reasons in the revolution requires modernisation of Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce laws that can enable farmers to reap the (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 or

14 december 2020 Cover Story

FPTC Bill. It was clear from what Naren- was neither charity nor altruism at work. of India have raised output under far more dra Singh Tomar, the Union agriculture Cheap inputs and assured marketing were difficult economic conditions. The cost of minister, said: “Agriculture not only meets the secrets behind Punjab’s prosperity. It what is purchased from Punjab has now the food security requirements of the was a cosy arrangement. acquired a zero-sum environmental and country, but also provides raw material to economic dimension for the country. the agro-industry which culminates in job There is a growing realisation of this creation and earning of foreign exchange ow, however, after among Punjab’s farmers who are certainly through export. Directly linking the agro- more than half-a-centu- aware of trends in other parts of India. But industry with the farmers shortens the ry, there are vastly more instead of shifting to different crops, these supply chain, reduces the marketing cost complex issues of equity, farmers have doubled down and now want and post-harvest losses and most impor- economic sustainability to turn what was a transactional relation tantly enhances farmers’ income.” Nand environmental degradation that can- between the FCI and them into an entitle- What is essentially an enabling law not be ignored any more. In all this, Pun- ment that would last forever. It is true that for the entire country is being seen as jab—its farmers, politicians and govern- the FCI has been making the bulk of wheat an existential threat by Punjab. There is ment—considers continuous purchases and rice purchases from Punjab since 1966, hardly any justification in claims that ‘big as entitlements and not mere transactions but at no time was a promise made that corporates’ are being enabled at the cost between government companies, which this would continue in perpetuity. Nor of the farmer in Punjab. This is not just is what the Food Corporation of India were increases in MSP mandated by law. a ruse but is far removed from reality. If (FCI) is, and farmers. The moment even a Both decisions were purely administrative. ‘big corporates’ were indeed interested in mention is made of changing the system, Now the farmers, and the Punjab govern- Punjab and its output, by now they would protests break out to the point that some ment, wanted these converted into law. have established some kind of presence people begin raising the ‘issue’ of ‘Kha- This is the reason behind their demand there. There is none, except the usual flour listan’. What complicates matters is that that MSP should be a legally binding agree- rolling mills and rice shellers. The fact is all these issues are linked with each other, ment. Of the three farm reform laws, the ‘big corporates’ could not care if Punjab making a neat separation and specific tai- one that these farmers seek to be with- grew wheat or bananas. Its system of pro- loring of policies very difficult. drawn is the FPTC Act. That is impossible duction and purchase is geared towards The first issue is one of equity. In the for the Government to concede as it lies at meeting a very different and regulated last two decades, Madhya Pradesh (MP) the heart of the three reform Acts. This Act market, that of basic, non-value-added and UP have seen their agriculture flour- is vital if agro-processing and international produce: wheat and rice. ish to the point that UP is the largest trade in processed foods are to take off in Nonetheless, the entire Government producer of wheat in India. India is, as a India. Punjab cannot be allowed to derail it. machinery, from the prime minister down result, no longer food insecure. If Punjab The approach towards Punjab’s farm- to agriculture ministry officials, went out was key to ending India’s iniquitous food of their way to assure Punjab’s farmers distribution, it is now the source of a very that this system would not be disturbed. different kind of inequity: its farmers get Paddy cultivation near Mandya in Karnataka If anything, purchases of wheat and rice to sell their output at guaranteed prices for from Punjab have gone up significantly wheat and rice and take home the kind of in the last five to six years. This year, for returns that farmers in India’s emerging the kharif season, of the 316.93 lakh met- bread baskets like UP and Chhattisgarh ric tonnes of paddy purchased across the (for rice) can scarcely imagine or even country until the end of November, Pun- dream of. Data released by the FCI shows jab alone accounted for 202.74 lakh metric that right until the present, Punjab con- tonnes, a whopping 64 per cent of the total. tinued to see the bulk of its wheat and rice Historical statistics show that this figure being purchased for the Central pool. In was as high as 90 per cent for many years, 2019-2020, this figure was 72.6 per cent. In if not decades. For most of the time since contrast, UP and MP, which have a higher public procurement began, Punjab—and output of wheat, saw purchases of just 11 later Haryana when it was carved out of per cent and 39 per cent. The story for rice, Punjab—was the main beneficiary of a crop that is proving to be utterly ruinous these gigantic injections of money into its for north India, is not very different. Here economy. So when Punjab’s Chief Minis- again, Punjab sees a lion’s share of its out- ter Amarinder Singh stands up in the state put being sucked by the Centre. Needless Assembly and says that Punjab’s farmers to say, compared to Punjab’s pampered rose to the occasion and fed the nation, it farmers, their counterparts in other parts alamy

32 14 december 2020 ers, so far, has been conciliatory. Prime that they are a public health hazard now. Minister Modi has repeatedly sought to Few know that the genesis of this environ- impress on all farmers that the mandi sys- mental hazard lies in Punjab’s attempts to tem would continue and it was up to farm- arrest another environmental problem: ers where they wanted to sell their crops. the alarming rapidity with which its wa- There is no evidence that Punjab is about ter-table has gone down over decades due The cost of to see a change of policy that deprives its to its addiction to water-guzzling rice culti- what is purchased farmers of livelihood. If anything, the vation. In 2009, realising the gravity of the from Punjab has Government has released figures that problem, the state government passed the the amount of money being injected into Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act. now acquired a foodgrain procurement has gone up and This law prohibits the plantation of rice zero-sum not down. In the five years before 2014, nurseries before the government autho- Rs 1.5 lakh crore was spent on procure- rises them. This was meant to wean away environmental ment of wheat. In the next five years, this farmers from exploiting groundwater for and economic figure doubled to Rs 3 lakh crore. The story rice cultivation and slowly switch to use of dimension for the with respect to paddy is similar: Rs 2 lakh monsoon rains for the purpose. crore for five years before 2014 and Rs 5 The law had a perverse effect. By the country. There is a lakh crore since then. time the rice crop is harvested, there is growing realisation Even if the Government is certain to little time left to manually clear the fields continue with the old system in some for planting the winter crop. In any case, of this among form or the other, there is no economic ra- labour costs have gone up dramatically Punjab’s farmers tionale for it any more. The system is now since the Mahatma Gandhi National who are aware of a victim of its success, to the point that the Rural Employment Guarantee Act was entire operation has become ruinous. The implemented. Farmers don’t want to pur- trends elsewhere. logic of keeping granaries full was to man- chase expensive mechanical equipment But instead of age emergencies like crop failures or any that can substitute labour for removing other exigency like war and pandemics. stubble. They simply burn it. The result is shifting to different The government maintains a buffer stock that by November, just around Diwali, the crops, they have for that purpose. Depending on the sea- air in Delhi-NCR is thick with air pollut- doubled down son, this stock varies from 210 lakh metric ants. The result of trying to save Punjab’s tonnes to 411 lakh metric tonnes. But this ground water is the fouling of air across year, in June, this touched a high of nearly north India. So much so, that an empow- 833 lakh metric tonnes. Even after giving ered commission has been appointed by away rations to migrant workers for six the Union Government through an ordi- months and other schemes, this figure nance to tackle the problem. In simpler fell just a tad to 700 lakh metric tonnes by words, it is one law against another; one September. These overflowing granaries environmental crisis leading to another. may be a matter of pride—or would have And yet, Punjab’s farmers are at Delhi’s been when India was food insecure. Today, doors that they be allowed to sow what they spell awful financial waste. they want, that the Government purchase There is one final bit of the Punjab story whatever they produce and, of course, that that is increasingly turning public opin- they be allowed to burn stubble without ion against its farmers and their irrational consequences. A more wanton example of ways. In recent years, instances of stubble one class blackmailing an entire nation is burning on a very large scale in the state— hard to find in recent history. to get rid of the stubble residue after the rice With this multi-dimensional disaster, crop has been harvested—has attracted at- the Government has reacted with equa- tention across India. This happens in win- nimity and promised these obdurate farm- ter with slow winds, low temperatures and ers that no injustice will be done to them. particulate matter from other sources cre- But they tempt fate. Prime Minister Modi ating a thick blanket of smog across north was clear in his address that his Govern- India. This is especially noticeable in the ment will not back away from the reform National Capital Region (NCR) where air laws. It is at its own peril that Punjab per- quality levels dip precipitously to the point sists in its old, ruinous ways. n

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 33 Economy The Pace of Growth What we need to do to jack up growth from 5.5 per cent to 7 per cent and more. A lot will depend on the states too By Bibek Debroy

s Covid history? Not yet. The nature and timeline of a vaccine isn’t certain, nor its efficacy. The last comparable instance of such a pandemic was the Spanish Flu (1918- 1920). Subsequent research showed the Spanish Flu left longer-term adverse effects on human development out- comes (education, health, income). By the same token, we don’t yet know Covid’s longer-term legacy. Compared to alarmist numbers projected by some modellers in March 2020, IIndia has handled Covid-19 reasonably well, regardless of the met- ric used to judge. However, active numbers are still high and con- cerns continue about testing and infections in some states (Punjab, Himachal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Haryana). The point is that though there has been a process of un-lock- down since June, it is not as if the economy has been completely opened up. The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) seeks to do the near-impossible and measures a gov- ernment response stringency index (with a value from 0 to 100) across countries: ‘This is a composite measure based on nine re- sponse indicators including school closures, workplace closures, and travel bans.’ On January 22nd, India’s index value was at 0. That is, there were no restrictions. From March 25th to April 19th, the value of the index was 100, reflecting the tough lockdown. The lockdown has the Union Government, state government and local body levels. The pedantic debate about whether the lockdown on March 25th was necessary is futile. Although a counterfactual, downside human costs were too high to risk. At that stage, any government that placed livelihood above lives would have been hauled over the coals. On November 30th, the value of the index stood at 57.87, reflect- ing what we know anecdotally. There continue to be restrictions. If nothing else, all educational institutions would have opened otherwise. The nature of restrictions has moved from Union to local, to specific containment and micro-containment zones. Had we been socially more responsible, collectively as citizens, opening up might have been faster. (Witness Rajasthan impos- ing curfew in several districts, but permitting deviations for wed- dings.) While restrictions remain, an economy cannot return to normalcy. Economic revival cannot co-exist with constraints on economic activity. In the midst of this, Q2 national income figures have surfaced and these are for July to September, when there was

34 14 december 2020 still a lockdown (Un-lockdown 2.0 to 4.0 so to speak), though ob- sense that there is no evidence Keynes ever said anything of the viously less stringent than Q1 (April to June). Year-on-year, these sort. Accused of being inconsistent, he reportedly said, “When Q2 numbers say: one, real GDP declined by 7.5 per cent; and two, the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” The expectedly, agriculture showed positive growth in Q2, but so did proposition is a simple one. Lockdown will understandably and manufacturing (a surprise, though the increase is small) and so inevitably lead to a livelihood and economic toll, as it has in other did electricity, gas, water and other utilities. Lurking in the back- countries. A State Bank of India analysis of 49 countries for the ground was a 23.9 per cent decline in real GDP in Q1 of 2020-2021. July-September quarter shows an average decline of 12.4 per cent, When that 23.9 per cent number surfaced, there were Cassandras compared to India’s 7.5 per cent. As lockdown eases, the economy who suggested gloom and doom. The first fact implies the gloom will recover. This should be self-evident. Some realistic Cassandras wasn’t as severe as was made out to be. The second implies the have accordingly revised projections for Q3 and Q4 and for the recovery is broad-based and isn’t driven by agriculture alone. full year, 2020-2021. A few have harped on India’s first recession There is a quote misattributed to John Maynard Keynes, in the since Independence. There are different definitions of recession.

Since restraints of various types are still in place, expecting positive real growth in Q3 might be expecting too much. We will know at the end of February 2021. But in Q4, both real and nominal growth should be positive. We will know at the end of May 2021. For the entire year, a die-hard Cassandra might expect a real GDP decline of more than 10 per cent. I am inclined to think the actual decline will not be more than 7 per cent

Illustration by Saurabh Singh

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 35 Economy

The most common one is that GDP declines for two successive borne by government and has been borne disproportionately by quarters. So yes, India has gone through a technical recession, as informal urban labour markets and micro, small and medium have other countries. However, pre-1996, quarterly GDP numbers enterprises (MSMEs), not so much by formal labour or corporate didn’t exist for India. Therefore, ‘first recession since Indepen- enterprise. (From that point of view, Q2 numbers of construction, dence’ amounts to being economical with the truth. For instance, trade, transport and communications are extremely significant, India’s GDP had declined by 2.7 per cent in 1965-1966 and by 5.1 since, compared to Q1, the decline is much more muted.) per cent in 1979-1980. Had quarterly GDP numbers existed, India Second, what drives growth from 2022-2023? The state of the couldn’t but have gone through a technical recession then. global economy is uncertain. While uncertainty, protectionism What does this mean for Q3 and Q4 and 2020-2021 as a whole? and trade frictions pre-date Covid, the pandemic has aggravated Nominal growth is real growth plus inflation. For Q3, it is reason- matters. Therefore, net exports cannot be a major driver of growth, able to expect positive nominal growth, unless you are a diehard leaving one with consumption, private investments and govern- Cassandra who believes Q2 numbers reflect pent-up demand ment expenditure. Government expenditure is limited by fiscal and nothing more. Since restraints of various types are still in considerations, though that’s a function of nominal GDP growth, place, expecting positive real growth in Q3 might be expecting too which determines government ability to repay debt. In Q2, the much. We will know at the end of February 2021. But in Q4, both rate of gross fixed capital formation (the investment rate) was 29.0 real and nominal growth should be positive. We will know at the per cent, compared to 22.3 per cent in Q1 and 28.9 per cent in Q2 end of May 2021. For the entire year, a die-hard Cassandra might of 2019-2020. While it is still early days, this suggests investment expect a real GDP decline of more than 10 per cent. I am inclined activity is recovering, facilitated by various supply-side measures to think the actual decline will not be designed to improve the investment more than 7 per cent. Lower the base climate, such as land, labour and capi- in 2020-2021, the higher the growth tal market reforms. However, as with in 2021-2022, since growth rates are What drives growth from government expenditure, there is also a function of whatever happened 2022-2023? The global the question of efficiency of expendi- at that precise point one year ago. If ture and capital, too, can be used far one is only focused on growth rates, economy is uncertain. more productively, underlying the real or nominal, 2021-2022 will thus The pandemic has need for more capital market reforms be a mirror image of 2020-2021. The aggravated matters. and turning non-productive liabilities sharper the decline in 2020-2021, the Thus, net exports cannot into productive assets. more spectacular the recovery in 2021- be a major driver, leaving Third, beyond 2022-2023, what 2022, at least in terms of growth rates kind of growth can one aspire to? In and real growth of 10 per cent or more one with consumption, passing, growth had slowed before in 2021-2022, is a near certainty. How- private investments and Covid. Though rarely mentioned ever, a better way of looking at what government expenditure explicitly, some of that slowing was has happened is not growth rates but undoubtedly due to the cleaning-up levels of economic activity. From the of the system. This isn’t merely about point of view of aspirations and devel- achieving a $5 trillion target by 2024- opment, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 represent two wasted years, 2025. To start with, that was aspirational and is now impossible triggered by unfortunate and external factors. 2021-2022 only to achieve by that deadline. Sooner or later, India will get there, compensates for what 2020-2021 has lost. In April 2022, we will with the timeline having moved further by two or three years. be roughly where we were in March 2020. That is what I meant Depending on assumptions made about inflation and exchange by two wasted years. rates, getting to that target would have required real growth of Three questions become important. First, who has borne (will about 8.5 per cent. Real growth of 7 per cent is required to make a bear) the brunt of the economic consequences of Covid? I don’t dent on poverty and unemployment and ensure government debt mean obvious sectoral angles like hospitality, travel or civil avia- remains within manageable limits. The baseline, from 2022-2023, tion. If India has weathered the storm better, that’s because of the is of about 5.5 per cent. Hence, there is a different way of asking Government’s initiatives in the rural sector since 2014, not merely that question. Have the supply-side reforms introduced imparted because the rural sector was relatively untouched by lockdown. sufficient efficiency into the system to jack up growth rates from There is that clichéd metaphor of a half-empty and half-full glass. 5.5 per cent to 7 per cent and more, not overnight, but over a couple The appearance of the same glass depends on one’s eye-level. That of years? There is enough endogenous slack for that to be possible determines the perspective. When the glass is placed above one’s and a lot depends on the states, not the Union Government. n eye-level, it will appear more full than empty. When the glass is placed below one’s eye-level, it will appear more empty than Bibek Debroy is the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to full. This extended metaphor may explain different reactions to the Prime Minister. He has translated the and the the question of loss, rural versus urban. The entire loss cannot be Valmiki Ramayana into English

36 14 december 2020 The beauty of the written word; a story well told. The luxury of immersing myself in myriad lives; journeying to faraway lands. I am obsessed. And the Reviews in Open help me discover the best. A quiet corner. An interesting book. Life’s good!

Sanjay Malik, Dubai

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

Murugan’s moment BJP in Tamil Nadu taps into a popular god By V Shoba

head of the a palm-leaf manuscript of the Skanda Murugan, or Murugu, is a spirit with annual Kanda Purana in a Kathmandu library and both positive and negative valences that Shashti festival dated it to 800 CE, making it one of the can possess humans, make them break in Tamil Nadu oldest manuscripts found in Nepal. If into frenzied dance, cure illnesses and in November, a Katchiappa Sivachariar’s 12th century predict the future. He is Seyyon, or Sevvel, petitioner asking Tamil recension of the Skanda Purana the Red One, hailed in Sangam age poetry A for the ceremony of never gained popular acceptance—except as a god of beauty, youth and valour. His Soorasamharam—a mythic tradition in —it is because Tamil Nadu’s symbols—the cock that is his insignia, the recreated at the Murugan temple in relationship with Skanda, or Murugan, peacock he sits atop, and the spear or the Tiruchendur, Thoothukudi district, predates it. While did not make that is his weapon—are ancient totems where he is believed to have vanquished a big splash up north, Murugan remains that have been found at megalithic sites, the demon Soorapadman—to be held an unbounded and immortal presence including Adichanallur in southern Tamil on the seashore in the presence of media across Tamil Nadu, capable of inspiring a Nadu. Over time, as the Tamil country crews, made an error of judgement. The filial devotion in non-believers and came to be tenanted by lakhs of gods, only Bench of the Madras High Court of other faiths. the most popular among them retained acceded to the petition on November A primordial folk deity of the hills lordship of the landscapes. The hills, or the 19th, clarifying that the Tiruchendur worshipped even before the Sangam age Murugan temple authorities intended to (BCE 600-300), Murugan’s renown was conduct the ceremony on the shore as per such that Saiva texts written after 600 CE, A primordial deity tradition, albeit without the usual throng such as the Thevaram, began to identify of the hills who was of devotees, but it did take umbrage at the him as Siva’s son, and Vaishnava texts submission that ‘the ancient scripture accorded him pride of place as ’s worshipped even Skandapurana was brought from Nepal nephew. ‘Post-13th century, Murugan before the Sangam and it was translated in [sic] Tamil by gained prominence as the middle ground Katchiappa Sivachariar’. ‘Lord Muruga between Tamil Saivas and Vaishnavas, age, Murugan is considered to be the Tamil God and his who had been at loggerheads. How remains an six abodes are located at Tamil Nadu and far this campaign to unite the Hindu unbounded and except in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka factions against the Muslim invaders and Kerala, other parts of India are not was successful is debatable,’ says immortal presence having [sic] any temple for Lord Muruga. A Subramanian, a veteran folklorist. across Tamil Nadu, When that is the position, this Court Despite attempts to plug Murugan is unable to understand as to how the into the mainstream Brahminical capable of inspiring scripture written in another language pantheon, his cult in Tamil Nadu draws a filial devotion was brought from Nepal and later, it was its life from the soil, like a natural in non-believers translated in Tamil,’ the court order read. growth. Originating in the penumbra of A century and a quarter ago, Hara Prasad prehistory, when people believed in the and Tamils of Shastri and Cecil Bendall discovered mysticism of the world around them, other faiths

38 14 december 2020 lord murugan depicted with the vel (his weapon) and the peacock (His vehicle)

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 39 Religion

kurinchi tracts, belonged to Murugan, also Shashti Kavacham, a popular early Endowments Department official, known as Guhan, the cave-dweller—a 19th century hymn to Lord Murugan. C Subramaniam Pillai, who was found skilled hunter who falls in love with Denied permission by the All India Anna dead under suspicious circumstances in and marries a tribal girl, . Murugan’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) November 1980. The march forced the anthropomorphism was now complete; government in Tamil Nadu, the yatra has then AIADMK government to form a Tamils had thoroughly humanised him. failed to rally support on the ground since commission of inquiry. It is not just the Kuravars who claim it took off on November 6th, but what it Murugan as their own—nearly every has done is grabbed headlines and helped community, from the Nagarathar to the BJP— which has a new president from the hile Karunanidhi Sengunthar, has a story about their own Arunthathiyar community, classified as famously questioned the divine ancestry featuring Murugan. an SC, incidentally named L Murugan— W veracity of the Ramayana, It is understandable, therefore, that drag religion into the poll arena. The he did not speak ill of the Tamil god BJP, which is trying to mop up unaligned symbolism of evoking a god of war and Murugan. A god who fosters multiple Hindu votes and mobilise the non- victory in a Tamil Nadu that is headed for narratives, Murugan is always depicted dominant communities among the the polls is hard to miss. In a state where as a victor but not as a triumphalist. He Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and the the Dravidian tenets of self-respect, has the grace to spare Soorapadman’s Scheduled Castes (SCs), invoked Murugan social justice, caste and party loyalties life by turning him into a peacock, and when it wanted to employ the tried and have determined electoral outcomes, even declines ’s offer to take over tested trope of a yatra. The Vel Yatra to BJP is trying to shift the goalposts. as lord of devaloka to remain senapati. If Murugan’s six abodes in Tamil Nadu, from Consider, for instance, that when former prevailing mores of worship mirror the Tiruttani to Tiruchendur, was announced Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) shifts in discourses of power in society, the in response to Tamil rationalist President M Karunanidhi undertook fact that his preferred offering was that of YouTube channel Karuppar Koottam’s a padayatra to Tiruchendur from goat blood and flesh mixed with rice in the allegedly obscene interpretation, in a Madurai in 1982, the cause was justice Sangam era and that it is plain rice and video posted on July 13th, of the Kanda for a Hindu Religious and Charitable pickle along with savouries and sweets today tells us something. “Murugan would have loved a good biryani,” says Subramanian. “There are two aspects to his worship in : spirit possession and animal sacrifice. It is only after the 3rd century AD that temples were established according to agamas and gods became civilised. While Murugan transitioned from a folk deity to a popular god, he is not an equaliser like Lord Ram of Ayodhya. The Brahmins, who only accept him as Kartikeya, do not participate in the folk traditions and rituals at Murugan temples. The Vaigasi Visakam festival to celebrate his birth attracts a swathe of devotees from OBC and SC communities but the Kanda Shashti is more elitist, finding acceptance among dominant OBC castes,” Subramanian says. “While you will find innumerable Subramaniams and Balasubramaniams, The Vel Yatra to Murugan’s six with a confusing plethora of variant abodes in Tamil Nadu, which began on spellings and endings, among Tamil november 6th, has grabbed headlines Brahmins, not one is named Murugan. and helped BJP, which has a new The major Murugan temples also attract predominantly non-Brahmins and in president incidentally named many of the festivals, self-mortification L Murugan from an SC community, austerities such as alagu kuthuthal drag religion into the poll arena (piercing one’s body with rods or spears, a

40 14 december 2020 Thai Poosam festivities in Palani, home to one of the main Murugan temples in Tamil Nadu (above); Murugan Temple, Coimbatore alamy

While LOrd Murugan transitioned from a folk deity to a popular god, he is not an equaliser like Lord Ram of Ayodhya. The Brahmins, who only accept him as Kartikeya, do not participate in the folk traditions and rituals at Murugan temples

ritual most commonly in evidence during god of the iron age, Murugan as described reinventing Murugan’s origin myths in the Thai Poosam festivities at the Palani in the bardic poetry of the early Sangam Tamil land. Murugan temple) are practised exclusively period evokes fire, blood and the sun. ‘In There are references to Devayani as by them,” says Tamil writer and historian Sangam works like Natrinai, Paripadal and early as in the Thirumurugatrupadai, a late- AR Venkatachalapathy. “Murugan is the Kurunthogai (dated around 300 BC-100 BC), Sangam devotional poem by Nakkiranar original Tamil god—young, comely, virile. Murugan retains his folk character, but we that celebrates Murugan’s temples, his He is propitiated by the shaman. From the find allusions to stories from the northern valour and beauty. And yet, to this day, time of the Bhakti movement, concerted epics,’ he writes. ‘There are echoes of the in the Tamil popular mind, he is always attempts were made to incorporate him Mahabharata and the first mentions of the consort of Valli. The seafarers and into the family of Siva and , without Soora-vadham and the splitting of a hill. fishermen of Tamil Nadu, the Paravars, much success. The earliest icon of the Like all myths centred on the killing of an consider Murugan their machaan or Somaskandamurthy can be seen in the , the story is drawn from northern brother-in-law, says Joe D’Cruz, a Sahitya first freestanding temple in Tamil Nadu, literature.’ The Pallava kings who ruled Akademi Award-winning Tamil writer the Kailasanatha Temple in , the northern parts of Tamil Nadu between who has documented the lives and but the concept did not catch on.” the 3rd and the 9th centuries—and were the past of the community. “There is a While the myths of Kartikeya are instrumental in bridging and forgotten lullaby that laments his second different from those of Murugan, the late Tamil—and the popularity of Kalidasa’s marriage to Valli, when he was already folklorist N Vanamamalai documents Kumarasambhava around 500 CE, further married to our girl Devayani,” he says. attempts at coalescing the two in an article facilitated the mixing of myths. Skanda’s BJP’s pre-poll alliance with AIADMK titled ‘Muruga-Skanda Inaippu’ in his marriage to Devasena or Devayani, the is somewhat like Murugan’s arranged book Tamizhar Panpadum Thathuvamum adopted daughter of Indra, and a puzzling marriage to Devayani: it does not appeal to (The Tamils’ Culture and Philosophy). pronouncement in the Mahabharata by the Tamil imagination. Kasi Viswanathan, The son of Kotravai, the ancient Tamil Brahma, where he calls him the son of who comes from a long line of priests at mother goddess, and the spearwielding Rudra instead of , become crucial to Tiruchendur and has served at the temple

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 41 Religion

Murugan is the original Siva and Uma Tamil god—young, comely, with son Skanda virile. He is propitiated by the shaman. From the time of the Bhakti movement, concerted attempts were made to incorporate him into the family of Siva and Parvati, without much success

for the past two decades, admits it is Valli incorporating Vaishnavite ideas, and deity—he is related to all Tamils,” says who is the prominent consort at the borrowing from the . “To Siva, you Sahitya Akademi-winning writer Cho temple. “In temple processions, the Lord is preached the fundamental mantra that Dharuman. “In the 20th century, Valli’s followed by one consort for a period of six predates the Vedas, while the other two of wedding became a much-loved theatre months and then by the other for another the Trinity along with thirty-three crores performance in rural Tamil Nadu, so six months. But Valli is the one by his side of devas, watched and worshipped your did kuravan kurathi attam, a folk dance. If in the conducted inside the sanctum feet,” goes one verse, evoking a scene from AP Nagarajan’s 1965 film Thiruvilayadal, and the one who weds him the day after Skanda mythology immortalised in the based on the 16th century Thiruvilaiyadal Soorasamharam,” Viswanathan says. This sthala purana of the temple in Swamimalai Puranam, brought Murugan even closer year’s festivities were a tepid affair, he says, near Kumbakonam. “The lord of Palani, to the mortal world, Annamalai Reddiar’s with 2,000 policemen deployed and only who is a young ascetic of disproportionate Kavadi Chindu, a whole new genre of folk officials and priests in attendance. Section wisdom, and the six-faced conqueror songs, inspired a generation of film and 144 was in force in the seaside town. Pujas of Tiruchendur seated on his peacock dance music.” at the temple, the only one among the throne with his two consorts are the “Balamurugan was the Tamils’ arupadai veedu (the six abodes) that is most popular forms of Murugan in Tamil answer to the Baby Krishna cult of north not located on a hill, are based mainly on Nadu. But Swamimalai, where Murugan India,” says S Raghuraman, a Sangam the Kumarasuktam from the Rig Veda, claims the guru’s position and explains Tamil scholar. “In fact, a third of all Pillai although Tamil texts are also recited. the meaning of the pranava mantra to Thamizh compositions, a genre that Known as Tirucheeralaivai in the old Tamil his father, is special to Tamils for scoring evokes gods, heroes and heroines as world and as Jayantipuram in the Puranas, one back on Siva,” says MV Bhaskar, an art children, in medieval Tamilakam were on Tiruchendur is the place that inspired historian and epigraphist. According to Murugan.” The young Murugan’s beauty Subramanya Bhujanga, Adi Sankara’s Bhaskar, the word ‘murugu’, commonly is the standout attribute that Sangam emotional entreaty to the lord composed interpreted as beauty and fragrance, can literature dwells most on, Raghuraman in a time of ill health. be equated with the twist found in Indus says. In his 1927 work, Murugan Alladhu Valley clay tablets. “‘Murugu’ also stands Azhagu (Murugan or Beauty), TV for the pictogram from the Indus Valley Kalyanasundaram, a pre-Independence ith the advent of the Civilisation representing the body buried era Tamil scholar, essayist and activist Bhakti movement, new in a pot in the foetal position, with strokes better known by his Tamil initials Thiru Wliterature on Lord Murugan for the backbone and without—according Vi Ka, notes that ancient Tamils equated thrived, excavating his origins from to Indus script researchers Iravatham murugu with the universally accepted Sanskrit texts and marrying them with Mahadevan and Asko Parpola,” he says. characteristics of fragrance, youth, aspects of the old Tamil faith. The 15th Other scholars have compared Murugan divinity and beauty. ‘Only if one is iron- century sage-poet to the Minoan god Velchanos and even to hearted does murugu not bloom in their alone wrote over 2,000 songs, with his Dionysius. hearts,’ he writes. While worship of Lord anthology still reigning “What sets Murugan apart from other Murugan remains a constant in Tamil popular among devotees and musicians Hindu gods is how accessible and relatable country, channelling his glory to make in Tamil Nadu. Arunagirinathar he is to the subaltern people. He is neither the lotus bloom is a different proposition routinely addresses Murugan as Perumal, a minor god nor a mainstream Brahmin altogether. n

42 14 december 2020 Joy of spreading knowledge

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44 14 DECEMBER 2020 Skin Sutra Ayurveda makes a splash in the luxury beauty market By Nikita Doval

pandemic may not be the best time of stores redolent with the fragrance of rose petals and jasmine. to launch a brand in the international Today, while Estée Lauder has a stake in Forest Essentials, Puig, a market but when you’re Korean luxu- Barcelona-based fashion and fragrance house, is funding Kama. ry skincare brand Sulwhasoo and the Both Forest Essentials and Kama have salience in the Indian market in question is India, which skincare market though the space is dominated by mainstream A boasts an increasingly discerning labels that cater more to the price-sensitive consumer. However, skincare consumer, even Covid-19 can- over the last few years, as the clean beauty movement has gained not serve as a deterrent. Sulwhasoo was ground, there has been a proliferation of homegrown brands, launched on an e-platform in July this year from those in the luxury Ayurveda space to smaller independent and some of its iconic products have already racked up 5-star rat- organic labels, each vying for the attention of an increasingly ings, their prohibitive price tags notwithstanding. picky customer, fussy about what he/she puts on their skin and A key ingredient in the creation of a luxury brand is heritage, the ethical profile of the brand they choose to patronise. which is infused with traditional knowhow and technology. In 2017, the Indian skincare market stood at $1.6 billion with a Think of Swiss watchmaking. In Korea, it is hanbang and skin- projected growth rate of 9 per cent. Rising disposable incomes and care. Hanbang is the science of traditional medicine with a heavy increased demand for specialised skincare, especially among the emphasis on herbal remedies for not just ailments but also skin- younger consumers, are considered to be the key drivers. Skincare care and haircare. Sulwhasoo is a hanbang brand, one that marries regimens have evolved from the very basic to the sophisticated, the power of medicinal herbs with modern science to create end which in turn was made possible with the launch of e-platforms products, such as their First Care Activating Serum, a bottle of like Nykaa, rapid internet penetration and the Korean beauty which, according to parent company Amorepacific Group, is regimen boom. During the pandemic, sales have taken a hit even sold every ten seconds worldwide. In India, a 60 ml bottle of this as the conversation has veered towards more holistic life and con- serum vends at Rs 6,200. sumption patterns. The Indian consumer, already curious about If hanbang sounds similar in principal to Ayurveda, then you what all was going into the bottle in their beauty cabinet, is now are not off the mark. In India, the very basic tenets of Ayurveda asking for more details, ranging from eco-friendly packaging to are common knowledge—think ritha, an amla concoction for the ‘give back story’ of the brand. hair, or ubtans for skincare. But it was only at the turn of the 21st There has been a surfeit of brands, both international and lo- century, with the setting up of, first, Forest Essentials (2000), and cal, in the Indian market for years now but few directly addressed then, Kama Ayurveda (2002), that the skincare and haircare ele- specific skincare issues prevalent in the subcontinent—pigmen- ments of Ayurveda got a facelift. Ayurvedic concoctions till then tation, dark circles, uneven skin tone being some of the biggest were something either cooked in your grandmother’s kitchen or concerns. “When Fenty Beauty was launched, I was impressed sourced from obscure clinics. Although Biotique, an Ayurveda- with the inclusivity of its range. It also went to the heart of the inspired brand set up in the 1990s, in many ways stood tall as the question I had been asking since my return to India in 2015— prime mover in giving traditional skincare and haircare remedies why is no one answering the specific needs of the Indian skincare a makeover, Forest Essentials and Kama came in later and pio- market?” asks Dr Aneesh Sheth, co-founder and CEO, Dr Sheth’s, neered the concept of luxury Ayurveda. Affluent Indians who a skincare range launched in 2017. His mother, Dr Rekha Sheth, patronised international beauty brands were more than willing was among the country’s first cosmetic dermatologists who al- to be convinced of the age-defying properties of a kumkumadi ready had a small line of products, albeit for her dedicated clients, tailem, provided it came in a nifty glass bottle and was sold out when Dr Aneesh Sheth decided to expand. “For years, my mother

14 DECEMBER 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 45 business

would go to international conferences and ask for data on skin colour. Even today, only 10 per cent of all papers published deal with issues faced by skin profiles like ours,” he says. Dr Sheth’s, the skincare line, was launched with five products, including a “Every single ingredient peel, sunscreen and a cleaner, all on the promise that they would treat the specific concerns of the Indian skin. “We had to under- in a product earns its stand where the gaps were. For instance, there were no peels in the place, we reverse market. We needed something that was safe, had FDA approvals and boasted scientific experiments,” he adds. He considered it a engineer in order to cut risk but also thought there was nothing to lose. Since then, the out preservatives. From range of Dr Sheth’s has expanded considerably and the growth, ac- ideation to physical presence on a cording to Dr Aneesh Sheth, has been “100 per cent year on year”. What seemed like a risky proposition was actually an op- shelf in a store, everything is subjected portunity waiting to be grasped and Dr Aneesh Sheth wasn’t the to a rigorous test apart from efficacy only one thinking along those lines. Some, like Coimbatore’s Pritesh and Megha Asher, had already been at work since 2014. studies done by third-party agencies” It was their quest for organic skincare products that led them to Pritesh Asher set up Juicy Chemistry. Like Dr Aneesh Sheth, they started small co-founder, Juicy Chemistry with soap bars and face scrubs, which they would retail at local markets and small trade shows. “The clean beauty movement was going to get big; we knew there was a gap in the market but it could only be bridged if we combined efficacy with clean beauty,” says Pritesh Asher. The product pages on their website list the ingredients used, the benefits of each and the percentage their websites and social media pages. Detailed reviews with a of organic farming. special emphasis on the contents section is par for the course. When Daughter Earth launched a serum with bakuchiol, an extract derived from the babchi plant and considered to be as ny brand that wants to create a space for itself effective as retinol, they were inundated with questions. “’How in the Indian market today needs to be prepared for a does it work? How does it absorb? How will it specifically help A consumer who is well informed, with a strong sense my skin condition,’ were just some of the questions we got. of self-belief. The latter is closely linked to the patron- And we responded to all of them because customer service is age of homegrown brands. “There is a wealth of wisdom key to building brand loyalty,” says Gurugubelli. It helps that in Ayurveda texts but none of it is in a format which is accessible. bakuchiol is currently enjoying its moment in the sun interna- For most of us, our knowledge and understanding of Ayurveda tionally as well with cult favourite brands like Paula’s Choice comes from our grandparents for whom it was a way of life,” says championing its use. Prasanthy Gurugubelli, founder of Daughter Earth, an organic Community engagement has been an important part of every skincare beauty company. Gurugubelli was, however, not con- brand’s narrative, no matter how big or small, especially since tent with just looking up old texts and re-packaging oil formula- the ecological havoc wreaked by multinational cosmetic giants tions. “There was no real evolution (in that). It is when you com- started becoming clear. The urban, socially conscious consumer, bine Ayurveda with empirical science that the fun begins, you now wants to know about the lives a product impacts before it have the power to harness the best of both these worlds,” she says. ends up in their beauty cabinet. Jessica Jayne, founder of Pahadi Both Gurugubelli and Pritesh Asher talk extensively about Local, a skincare and wellness brand which has built an almost the research and development that goes into the creation of every cult following in the four years since its launch, understands single product in their range, be it hair oils or serums, and the tight this very well because she cares about it as a consumer and an quality control exercised in their manufacturing units. “Every individual herself. Her label’s signature product is their gutti ka single ingredient in a product earns its place, we reverse engineer tel, cold pressed apricot oil, though they also boast of walnut and in order to cut out preservatives. From ideation to physical pres- hazelnut oils in their portfolio. “Local wasn’t cool when we started ence on a shelf in a store, everything is subjected to a rigorous the brand but our only intention was to bring pure natural Hima- test apart from efficacy studies done by third-party agencies,” layan oil to the consumer who wants it,” she says. Unlike other says Pritesh Asher. homegrown independent brands that have expanded, Pahadi For any brand to succeed, transparency is key to sourcing Local still works with a handful of products, a very deliberate as well as manufacturing since discerning consumers increas- decision. “For us, sustainability is a way of life. It is not a cool new ingly demand an open culture. The pandemic has made people fad to follow but one that informs every decision taken here at more conscious and brands now receive detailed queries on both Pahadi Local.” From fair pricing to afforestation drives to working

46 14 DECEMBER 2020 “There is a wealth of “We had to understand wisdom in Ayurveda where the gaps were. texts but none of it is in For instance, there were a format which is no peels in the market. accessible. For most of us, We needed something our knowledge and understanding that was safe, had FDA of Ayurveda comes from approvals and our grandparents for whom it boasted scientific was a way of life” experiments” Prasanthy Gurugubelli Dr Aneesh Sheth founder, Daughter Earth co-founder & CEO, Dr Sheth’s

with women self-help groups to installing solar panels in Ladakhi of brands like Juicy Chemistry. The company is currently villages, Pahadi Local wears its well-meaning heart on its sleeve clocking 40,000 orders a month and Pritesh Asher is open about and ensures all customers, old and new, know it too. At the start their ambition to hit the Rs 100 crore turnover mark in a few years. of the lockdown, Jayne noticed an uptick in the kind of probing “We are expanding our manufacturing unit and hope to take up questions new customers were asking, ranging from the differ- our output to 8-9 lakh product pieces in the next quarter from the ence between natural and organic to sourcing and their work current 2.5-3 lakh.” They got a seed round investment of $650,000 with communities. in August this year. Daughter Earth, a relatively younger brand, Most of the new-age skincare brands, including Dr Sheth’s, is completely self-funded and Gurugubelli says they are growing Juicy Chemistry, Daughter Earth and even Pahadi Local have steadily. “Even till last year, things were uncertain but we are on priced their products competitively in order to broaden their a much stronger footing now,” she says. Most brands prefer to appeal. The idea is to offer good skincare but at an affordable retail online with heavy emphasis on social media although the price because the Indian customer, more than anything else, is level of engagement with influencers remains a personal choice. price sensitive, says Dr Aneesh Sheth. “Value for money is key Dr Aneesh Sheth, for instance, works closely with influencers as to the customer but not at the cost of efficacy. There are many he feels they have democratised the skincare space and help him startups in this space but to succeed, you will need to keep strict understand consumers better. quality control as well as keep innovating,” he says. The price Most new homegrown brands, to their credit, have re- range for most of the products under these brands begins in the fused to succumb to perceived market pressure and have low hundreds and is capped off at Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. included skin ‘brightening’ products in their arsenal. The But there is also a small segment of skincare consum- brands have taken the cue from consumers who are not just ers who don’t mind digging deep, provided the brand ethos resistant to the idea but openly contemptuous of it. Mainstream gels with theirs. To cater to them, there are new entrants brands that long enjoyed market supremacy are increasingly in the luxury Ayurveda segment—Paro by Good Earth being called out for their limited range of foundations for the and Purearth. Paro as a brand is a wellness concept which Indian skin palette while there is a demand for make-up that promotes traditional holistic wellness practices in accor- complements the undertones peculiar to Indian skin. “We dance with the seasons, as advised by older texts. The brand sometimes may still get an odd query about skin brightness, but offers a wide range of oils for skincare, with blends that target by and large, the market has evolved. Now it is more about an everything, from enabling a deep sleep to fighting ageing, all the even skin tone and the health of the organ,” says Gurugubelli. while insisting on a deeper understanding from the consumer Until a few years ago, the homegrown skincare space was as to what ingredient is used best in which season. not as vibrant and competitive as it is right now. But today, Even within the skincare market, the growth of the organic holistic natural skincare is only set to grow more, tossing up segment is the fastest, with no better testimony than the growth opportunities for our wellness entrepreneurs. n

14 DECEMBER 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 47 Open conversation DECLAN WALSH Author and Journalist

by Sudeep Paul

It’s Too Easy to Blame Zia for It All

et the story, don’t become the story’ is a dictum for the reporter to live by. Yet, after a decade of covering Pakistan, Irish journalist Declan Walsh, New York Times’ Pakistan bureau chief at the time, was expelled on the eve of the election in 2013 for ‘undesirable activities’. The fact, and the irony of it, is captured in his recently published book The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precari- Gous State (Bloomsbury; 368 pages; Rs 799): ‘After years of tracking Pakistani con- spiracy theories, I had become one.’ Walsh did not choose to become the story but in ‘Insha’ Allah nation’, anything can happen as long the authorities, if not god, will it. In 2017, Walsh had to quickly escape from Egypt because of the threat of an imminent arrest passed on to his employers by a US government official. The reason, ostensibly, was his article in the New York Times Magazine investigating

48 14 december 2020 Saurabh Singh Saurabh by Illustration

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 49 Open conversation

the torture and murder of an Italian student, Giulio Regeni, which had become an international incident. For Walsh, it had come close to déjà vu.

The Nine Lives of Pakistan is me several years—and some unusual twists, including a meeting a tour de force about a nation with a former ISI official—to resolve them. of colour and capriciousness, vitality and violence, Sufi ‘After years of tracking Pakistani conspiracy theories, I had mysticism and Salafist radi- become one’ is the heart of the matter. Your stories are struc- calism, in conflict with itself tured to stay suspended between this beginning which is and its neighbour, alternately also an end. You had a near-similar experience in Egypt. How confident in its identity and do you compare Pakistan and Egypt on risk assessment for besieged by existential doubt, always defying predictions of a journalist? its demise. Walsh, who worked for The Guardian till 2011, has On the surface, Pakistan and Egypt have broad similarities— been all over: from the crime-ridden streets of Karachi to the Muslim-majority nations with strong militaries, a history of au- lawless Waziristan, to rebel citadels in thoritarian rule and a poor record of protecting minorities. But Balochistan, Basant in Lahore to the siege of the Red Mosque scratch the surface and there are instructive differences. In 2011, in Islamabad. The people he encounters build into a portrait Egypt experienced a dramatic revolution led by frustrated youths of Pakistan, whether it’s a Pathan who has declared war on the thirsty for a taste of democracy. But the Arab Spring never reached Taliban, a human rights crusader (Asma Jahangir), a cowboy Pakistan because it already had a tradition of democracy, albeit a cop, the erudite Baloch rebel Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, or even very flawed version, and its upheavals took other forms: militant a former ISI agent who had tailed Walsh. The ghosts who frame uprisings, blasphemy protests and other issues. The difference and inform Nine Lives are, of course, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the stems partly from Pakistan’s size and sheer diversity, which make Quaid-e-Azam, and Zia-ul-Haq, the dictator who destroyed the it much harder for one group to dominate. Even during the dark- Quaid-e-Azam’s project. Here, Walsh talks about the book and est days of General Zia’s rule in the 1980s, Pakistan’s generals had what lay beyond. Excerpts: to make concessions to political leaders. But under General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s rule, since 2013, Egypt’s military and security ser- Is the seven-year wait between your expulsion from Paki- vices have quelled virtually all dissent and completely neutered stan and the publication of Nine Lives Egyptian politics. Egyptian journal- more than just the necessary gesta- ists, human rights workers and oth- tion period? er civil society forces feel the brunt After I was kicked out in 2013, I spent a of that repression most keenly. My couple of years trying hard to return to experience after theNew York Times Pakistan. Editors at the New York Times The jihad would have Magazine article on Giulio Regeni, met Pakistan’s prime minister in New when I had to flee Egypt at a few York, while I met ISI bosses in Lon- occurred no matter hours’ notice, was nothing com- don. We asked each of them the same what. But what might pared to the punishments meted question: What were the ‘undesirable have differed, under out to Egyptian colleagues. Many activities’, cited in the expulsion letter another Pakistani leader are in prison or in exile; one editor that the Pakistani authorities gave me spent two years in prison just for before I left, that justified their actions? instead of Zia-ul-Haq, is translating one of the articles into We hoped to get an answer so that I could the extent to which the Arabic. Press freedom has declined at least return to pack up my house in ideology of jihad was in Pakistan in recent years, certain- Islamabad. Once it became clear that allowed to penetrate the ly, but it’s not as bad as Egypt—yet. wasn’t on the cards, I turned to other questions: What kind of story could I ranks of the military and Pakistan is more ‘concept than usefully tell about this country, Pakistan, intelligence services, country’ pulled apart by ‘centrifu- where I had spent a decade of my life? and to spill into the rest gal forces’. The subcontinent has And what, in fact, were those ‘undesir- of society for centuries been subjected to able activities’? Those questions offered those centrifugal forces. How- a starting point for the book, and it took ever, did the modern, Western-

50 14 december 2020 origin nation-state, as idea and sown that now, decades on, were bear- reality, not sit well with the Quaid- ing malignant fruit. But of late that i-Azam’s vision and the geography I spent a couple of attitude has been changing. Once, of his creation? years trying hard to those same friends quietly dismissed On the contrary, by 1947 Jinnah ab- return to Pakistan. New Jinnah’s ‘Two-Nation Theory’ and its solutely did envision Pakistan as a York Times editors suggestion, rooted in pre-Partition modern nation-state, a rather new- politics, that Muslims and Hindus fangled concept at the time. He said met Pakistan’s prime could never live together. Now, look- as much in his August 11th address to minister while I met ISI ing across their eastern border, they the Constituent Assembly as well as bosses. We asked them wonder if they had been wrong. in numerous press interviews. At the the same question: In Narendra Modi’s India they see same time, one could be forgiven for gross, state-sponsored discrimination feeling a bit confused—as many lead- What were the against Muslims, harsh repression in ers in newborn Pakistan undoubtedly ‘undesirable activities’? Kashmir, and a fervid atmosphere in did back then. As he fought for Paki- We hoped to get an the Indian news media. Their sense of stan, Jinnah was purposefully vague answer so that I could regret about the failings of Pakistan is about the role of religion in his new being replaced by a sense of relief. And state, and those ambiguities and con- at least return to they are revisiting their views on the tradictions, combined with the up- pack up my house in two-nation theory. Back in the 1930s heaval of its crucial early years—not Islamabad and 1940s, one of the great debates be- to mention some sheer bad luck— tween the Congress and the Muslim dogged Pakistan from the get-go. The League was over the supposed threat disputes with India over Kashmir and of Hindu majoritarianism. Nehru other princely states were a hugely insisted such a threat did not exist; destabilising factor and contributed Jinnah and other Muslim leaders felt to a gnawing sense of insecurity that allowed the Pakistani mili- it did. Maybe, Pakistani friends muse, old man Jinnah was right tary, in league with remnants of the colonial-era bureaucracy, to all along. It’s probably, hopefully, too early to say if that dismal become the dominant force in the country. Then you have the assessment is wrong. But the fact that people are making it is strik- simple fact that Jinnah died barely a year after his creation was ing, and worrisome. born, depriving Pakistan of the steady hand it badly needed at a vulnerable moment. Less able men took his place, and the cracks You were an eyewitness to the siege of the Red Mosque between East and West Pakistan started to show from the early in Islamabad (July 2007). It was a turning point. Zia was 1950s, starting a two-decade decline that would culminate in war, a turning point, too. Do you believe that the history of the and an independent Bangladesh, in 1971. world, let alone of Pakistan, would have been rather differ- India faced huge challenges during the same period, too, of ent in his absence? course, but its sheer size and relatively stable politics allowed it That’s an interesting hypothetical. In considering General Zia’s to weather the storms more easily. There was less elite compe- impact, we need to look at two broad factors. One is the jihad in tition involving the military and bureaucrats, and the country Afghanistan, which bolstered and enriched the ISI, entrenched benefited from the continuity of leadership, and vision, of Jawa- the ideology of jihad, and deepened Pakistan’s strategic interests harlal Nehru. The 1962 border war with China was short-lived. in Afghanistan. Would it have been different under another And as Pakistan flailed, Nehru’s long rule embedded democratic Pakistani leader? I think it likely the jihad would have occurred traditions and set the state on a relatively straight path. no matter what, driven by American and Saudi funding and weapons, as well as broader Western-led efforts to counter A country whose ‘own citizens regret it came into being’. Soviet expansionism. The international pressure on Pakistan to Has this ‘regret’, understandably among a minority of liber- cooperate would have been too great—not to mention the coun- als, deepened since Zia-ul-Haq’s legacy became evident? try’s clear national interest in pushing the Soviet bear out of its I heard those whispers of regret –expressed quietly, mostly—dur- backyard. But what might have differed, under another Pakistani ing the dramatic upheavals of the late 2000s, as Pakistan oscillated leader, is the extent to which the ideology of jihad was allowed to wildly between street protests, Taliban bombings, and great trau- penetrate the ranks of the military and intelligence services, and mas like the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the American to spill into the rest of society. Zia’s permissive attitude to jihadi Navy SEAL raid that located and killed Osama bin Laden. Yes, militancy brought short-term benefits. But it boosted dangerous those downcast Pakistanis often traced their disillusionment to forces that continue to plague Pakistan. And the petri dish for General Zia’s rule in the 1980s, when extremist seeds had been that experiment—the northwestern tribal belt—became a major

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 51 Open conversation

focus of Western counter-terrorism efforts after 2001. Alumni of violence in Ireland help you instinctively grasp what had that place, and that era, later fought in Kashmir and in militant happened in the subcontinent and its aftermath? campaigns across Asia and the Middle East. That said, it’s too easy Absolutely. When I arrived in Pakistan, I lacked the historical or to blame Zia for it all. The Americans and the Saudis—not to men- cultural baggage of my British colleagues—put simply, I didn’t tion the Russians—were responsible for the conduct of a war that, know very much about the place—because the subcontinent decades on, continues to reverberate across the world. wasn’t part of our national story growing up. (Some of that is an unfortunate omission of the Irish educational system, which Was the Salafist takeover of religion, the erasure of the more ignores or downplays the role of Irishmen and women in co- syncretic, Sufi-influenced subcontinental Islam, avoid- lonial India.) As I delved into the history, it struck me that, like able? Or was Pakistan always going there, even without the Pakistan and India, Ireland’s enduring pathologies also stemmed Afghan jihad, and thus shifting its history closer to the trajec- from a bloody, colonial-era partition. In Ireland, we just used a tory of the Arab Middle East? different language to talk about it. The partitions of Ireland and Salafism hasn’t taken over Pakistan by a long shot—witness India collided, briefly, in 1979 when the Irish Republican Army the crowded Sufi shrines across the bombed Lord Mountbatten’s boat as it country even now—but it’s certainly pulled out of harbour in County Sligo, true that a harsh version of political about 30 miles from my family home. Islam is ascendant. Look at the great That brutal assassination is depicted power of the cleric Khadim Rizvi, As for deaths in the latest season of the TV series, who recently died (November 19th). foretold—I started out The Crown. Watching it, I felt a twinge He came to prominence on the back with nine lives, and only of the same, complex emotions and of a street movement that celebrated resonances that it evoked when I was the assassination of a secular politi- at the very end realised researching Nine Lives. cian, Salman Taseer, and which li- that the majority of onised Taseer’s murderer. There was them had died violently. Anwar Kamal Marwat Khan (a nothing inevitable about this tra- Subconsciously, I guess Pathan who waged his own war jectory, but the ideological poison I gravitated towards on the Taliban), somewhat like that welled in the Zia era, combined Chaudhry Aslam Khan (‘Karachi’s with the unchallenged dominance of characters with high most famous cop’), was unique but military strategists in key areas—on stakes in their lives. you deliberately made him a type. Afghanistan, India, militancy—cer- Unfortunately, for most The result is an unforgettable char- tainly helped to push Pakistan much of them, those odds acter that is flesh and blood but also closer to that path. larger-than-life. When you moved were tragically short about Pakistan with these men, You use the phrase ‘Jinnah’s ideo- did you see theirs as chronicles of logical tango on Islam’. In your read- deaths foretold? ing, how does Jinnah compare with Anwar Kamal and Chaudhry Aslam the Arab secularists? were typical of the quirky, compli- Many post-colonial Arab leaders cated and fascinating people I kept had little need to make an accommodation with Islam in the encountering during my time in Pakistan. They were people construction of their nations. For Jinnah, in contrast, religious who lived at the centre of the political and militant storms rag- identity—or at least the interests of the Muslims of the subconti- ing across Pakistan. Even better, they were willing to open their nent—was at the very heart of his project. Arab leaders had other doors to a curious foreigner—even when the story didn’t portray concerns. The Egyptian republic built by Gamal Abdel Nasser them in a complimentary light. As a reporter, that was one of the from the 1950s was the latest iteration of a country whose his- wonderful things about Pakistan. Not only did the country pres- tory stretched back thousands of years. The monarchs of Saudi ent a rich gallery of rogues, heroes and everything in between, but Arabia were extending a form of rule that went back centuries. they invited me into their homes, their thoughts, their lives. I do Jinnah was making something new—a hybrid of a nation-state wonder, given how sharply press freedom has declined in recent and a religious project. The nearest Middle Eastern parallel lay years, whether it’s still so easy to do that kind of work. not with the Arabs but with the Jews, and the creation of Israel As for deaths foretold—I started out with nine lives, and a year after Pakistan, in 1948. only at the very end realised that the majority of them had died violently. Subconsciously, I guess I gravitated towards characters I was struck by your quick, no-nonsense approach to the with high stakes in their lives. Unfortunately, for most of them, bloody reality of Partition. Did the history of division and those odds were tragically short. n

52 14 december 2020 Unparalleled Cutting edge

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Available as an e-magazine for tablets, mobiles and desktops via Magzter cinema Rao’s Range Rajkummar Rao glimpses the next level of stardom with a buzzworthy performance as the urbane yet deeply compromised elitist in the movie based on Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger By Kaveree Bamzai

t was a scene any student forthcoming hotly tipped Oscar con- families whose offspring know n of cinema would gladly im- tender The White Tiger. Rao might the diets, exercise regimens, dance merse themselves in. Naseer- soon find himself in the position of teachers, stylists and publicists. uddin Shah was in conversa- being listened to with awe. They come into the industry fully Ition with the late Irrfan Khan, If he’s not already there. At 36, he prepared to be stars. Some manage, o sometime in 2016. The formal has already been in over 45 movies some don’t, but there are always taped conversation between them over a 10-year career which began enough auntyjis and unclejis to had ended a few hours ago but the with his role as the slimy store clerk help. Young actors like Rao who two were unwinding now, in the who makes and sells a sex tape with believe, rightly, that careers are anteroom of a Mumbai hotel. Their his colleague in ’s built in acting workshops and in wives, actress Ratna Pathak Shah shockingly awesome LSD: Love, Sex theatrical rehearsals, and not gyms, and writer Sutapa Sikdar, were Aur Dhoka (2010). He continued his have to work harder to get noticed. present, as were a few young actors grubby ways in Ragini MMS (2011), Equally it is true that some of and directors. The quietest of them, a sleeper horror hit from Ekta Bollywood’s greatest stars have

sal in a sharp suit, with his equally low- Kapoor’s factory, and in Anurag been quirky, unconventional out- key actress girlfriend, Patralekhaa, Kashyap’s Shaitan (2011), but it siders, who’ve managed to get the was also the brightest. And the one was as Shahid in Hansal Mehta’s industry to change to match their listening most intently. eponymous movie in 2012 that he persona rather than transform Remind Rajkummar Rao of it broke away from the ranks of smart themselves to fit the formula. and he smiles shyly, saying what a young sparks, two of whom were From Amitabh Bachchan to great opportunity it was to listen in his batch of 2008 at the Film and , there is little to two greats talking about their Television Institute of India. Jaideep to obviously recommend them craft. “I love these people. And as Ahlawat achieved stardom this year except their prodigious talent the Buddha said, ‘Be a good listener, with an exceptional turn as a loser and enormous intelligence. Ac- especially when you get such an policeman in Paatal Lok, and Vijay tors such as and opportunity.’ I’m a student of acting Varma has been here, there and eve- the late Irrfan were equally men and adore listening to the process of rywhere recently, from A Suitable who came from nowhere, but had great actors,” says the National Film Boy to Mirzapur Season 2. hunger in their bellies and the Award winner for Best Actor (for Negotiating Bollywood isn’t determination to stand out. Shahid). Three very diverse movies easy. Especially if, like Rao, you Sometimes if the stars align, the have shown Rao’s range this year: come from Gurugram, via Atma newcomer gets lucky. In Rao’s case, Shimla Mirchi, the brilliant Ludo and Ram Sanatan Dharma College, he was to play off against the sweet tempered Chhalaang. He is Delhi, and FTII. There are sev- Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Gangs of also one of the three leads in Netflix’s eral dynasties and their extended Wasseypur 2 and spent a month

54 14 december 2020 director of the white tiger Ramin Bahrani has a fantastic process. He gives you all the time in the world and gives you your space. He never calls action, he just says, ‘Whenever you’re ready’ ” Rajkummar Rao, actor

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 55 cinema

readying himself for it, only to be told, industry, he says, and they provide a real- at the last minute, by an apologetic ity check. “If you can’t be real in real life, Kashyap, that the part was now smaller how can you portray it on screen?” in scope. Undeterred Rao chose to He reads for inspiration, whether continue with the movie. Kashyap it is Rumi, Kahlil Gibran, Paramhansa and casting director Mukesh Chhabra Rajkummar Rao in The White Tiger Yogananda or Mahavatar Babaji. “It’s recommended him to Hansal Mehta important to find your centre point who was looking to make Shahid, based and focus on it,” he says. Perhaps that’s on the real life terror accused-turned- why he didn’t find the lockdown to be human rights activist. After putting him the pandemic has too much of a downer. “I was trying to off for a few days, Mehta met Rao, only to told us we need to be productive,” he says. After 10 years, be convinced that only he could play the stay sane to stay he also felt he needed to go back to the complex part. afloat, to have some basics. He attended online workshops Eleven months after a difficult shoot, people out there on screenwriting and direction, as Shahid was ready for release and made who are there for well as acting classes with Kevin both Mehta and Rao lifelong friends. The you. If you can’t be Spacey, Natalie Portman and Helen two have made five movies together: real in real life, how Mirren, among others. Shahid, City Lights (2014), Aligarh (2015), can you portray it Nothing excites him more than hon- Omerta (2017) and this year’s light- on screen?” ing his craft—though he is not averse to hearted Chhalaang. Along the way, Rajkummar Rao playing dress-up for the red carpet, for he also played Netaji Subhas Bose in festivals and events as well. His best role a show Mehta produced: Bose: Dead/ is always something that awaits him. Alive in 2017. Shoma Munshi, television In Ludo, he says, he so enjoyed playing scholar, remembers that performance. and trusts his own instincts, and came up out of the crease. In The White Tiger, it “He pulled off the role with audacious with the idea of having an unruly, curly was great to work with a director like brilliance. He managed the transition mop of hair like Isaac Newton and some Ramin Bahrani who loves his actors. from a quietly rebellious teenager to peculiar characteristics,” he says. “He has a fantastic process, which the the heroic nationalist in his adult years That he is on a permanent diet for best here have as well, like [Anurag] without missing a beat, be it the Bengali some role or the other, which usu- Kashyap, Hansal sir, [Anurag] Basu dada accent, partially tonsuring his head for ally requires some element of physical and [Aditya] Motwane. He gives you the role, his love for his German wife, transformation, is perhaps Mehta’s only all the time in the world, and gives you the flirtatious encounter with the girl in complaint against his friend. “We’ve your space. He never calls action, he just the arranged match, his beating up the travelled together for some festivals says, ‘Whenever you’re ready.’” Thanks British professor, his pointed talks with since the days of Shahid and he’s great to films being shot digitally now, there Gandhi and Nehru, with Hitler, and fun, except when it comes to food. He’s a is no shortage as in the days of stock, he with Darbari Lal,” she says. vegetarian and usually on a specific diet points out, and sometimes magic hap- What stands out is his preparation plan. Plus he’s a teetotaller.” It doesn’t pens because of that ease and latitude. for each character. It could be the curly stop him from dancing all night, crack- For Rao, that is what he loves the hair and constant blinking for Amit ing jokes, and generally having fun most. Coming back home from a film set Masurkar’s Newton (2017) where he plays when he wants to, notes Mehta. where he has been psychologically and a dedicated election officer. It could be the Rao has also managed to overcome physically taxed, as he was in Shahid and way of saying hello in Pritam the affliction of Bollywood newbies, Omerta. “I like getting deeply involved Vidrohi’s Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017). Or it the curse of wanting it all. He seems to in my character. I don’t think about could be the hair and the dance style he be in no particular hurry to accumulate anything,” he adds. picked up from Mithun Chakraborty for material wealth, focusing instead on So, a decade on in the film industry the role of a convict-turned-restaurateur his work. It helps that he has trained and in the year that took a toll on his in Anurag Basu’s Ludo. Often his directors himself to be calm and positive. How? friend and co-star of their breakthrough do not know what he has planned. Says “Because my blood group is B+,” he says movie Kai Po Che (2013), Sushant Singh Masurkar, “I really don’t know how he with a laugh. “We can’t look back at Rajput, does Rao consider himself an prepared for Newton. He was busy with the past. We have to move on. And the outsider or insider? “I’m just an actor, Trapped [2016] and he dived straight into pandemic has told us we need to stay who is blessed,” he says. His advice for Newton. We did do some readings where sane to stay afloat, to have some people those who want to make it? “Come we discussed the character, story and out there who are there for you.” He has here because you love your craft, not its themes in detail. He’s a very sincere actor several friends who are outside the film perks,” he says. n

56 14 december 2020 books words of a va nished wor ld Arvind Krishna Mehrotra tells Nandini Nair about India’s changing relationship with English and the essays that will last and those that will not

getty images nthologies are always hard to collate, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra since they are judged as much for their omissions as their inclusions. Born in a 1947, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is probably more suited to anthologise than most, given his rich experience of editing, including A Con- cise History of Indian Literature in English (2017), An Illustrated History of Indian Lit- erature in English (2003) and The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1997). While he is a respected anthologist, he is best known as one of India’s foremost poets and translators. His book Selected Poems and Translations (NYRB, 2019) was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. In The Book of Indian Essays: Two Hundred Years

The Hinduisation of north Indian cities is more than painful. it is also disorienting. I was born in the year of independence and now I can barely recognise the country in which I was born” arvind krishna mehrotra author

www.openthemagazine.com 57 books

of English Prose (Black Kite; 446 pages; Rs him and Ram Advani standing outside the decline of Allahabad? The big bun- 699) readers will encounter worlds that it. It was a picture taken to remember galows were the first to go. And as far as are familiar and alien. As a collection, an occasion. This is one reason why I know, no one took pictures or made it reads like a tome of nostalgia, for a the book is dedicated to him. The other drawings to tell us what they even Delhi where fires are lit in drawing reason is that booksellers are an unsung looked like. Those bungalows existed rooms on winter evenings; or a Masho- part of the book trade. And now with from the late 19th century to about the bra which is untouched by tourists; or online buying even less so. Ram Advani 1980s, say a hundred years. In my book a Varanasi that is a ‘guru sthana’. The would know your interests in much the The Last Bungalow (2006) there is a fair amount on this, on life in those houses. Things change, but there could still have been some record kept, not for the purposes of nostalgia but as urban The essay may be difficult history. What replaced the bungalows was So-and-So Colony or So-and-So to pin down but pinning down Vihar. Recently I was told that part of is what an essay does. It could the bungalow in which I grew up, 20 Hastings Road, has been turned into a be a person, a house, a thought, mithai shop and a party hall is coming a mood, a sound, a visit to a up on the grounds. The last blow was place, a crow, a memory” when they changed the name of the city to Prayagraj. The Hinduisation of arvind krishna mehrotra north Indian cities is more than pain- ful. It is also disorienting. I was born in the year of independence and now I can barely recognise the country in which I was born. selection provides a useful roadmap same way that Amazon does, but he’d to discover English writing by Indian even know the latest books in your nar- You’ve mentioned that when you started authors. As an anthology, a reader will row academic field and drop you a line writing in the 1960s, English was be partial to some and dismissive of when they arrived. Scholars who lived supposed to be on its way out. How has other essays. I was puzzled, for example, and worked abroad valued this im- our relationship with English changed why an essay that is essentially a book mensely. It is not that I knew him very over the decades? Is it still fraught? review of a Booker-winning novel well, but I visited the bookshop when- I don’t think our relationship with should be considered as landmark ever I went to Lucknow. I look upon the English is fraught any more. It is prose. After all, the vision of the editors dedication as a collective one, from all accepted as another language one uses seems to be to collate essays that will the contributors to the anthology. and writes in. Historically speaking, withstand time, which look beyond the the Constitution of 1950 gave Hindi the news cycle of today and will identify In a 2014 interview you mentioned the ‘official language’ status and said that more permanent markers. “growing ugliness” and “increasingly English ‘shall continue to be used for all Speaking from Dehradun, Mehrotra provincial” nature of Allahabad, where the official purposes of the Union’ for talked about an India of today and the you lived for many years. Can you a period of 15 years, until 1965. But as past, the importance of booksellers and expand on that? How do you see it now 1965 approached, which is also when I his long retired life. Excerpts: that you live in Dehradun? started writing, the language wars had The ugliness happened over many started. The proponents of Hindi were Let’s start with the dedication of the years. At first the change was impercep- for its imposition across the country, book. Why Ram Advani, who had a tible. But the decline of the Indian city and the south understandably resisted. bookshop in Lucknow and was an is not limited to Allahabad. More and In Allahabad, English name plates were institution in the city? more Indian cities are becoming unlive- replaced with Hindi ones, and so were A lot of people who are in the antholo- able. Maybe cities in the south are bet- the licence plates of cars. Shop signs gy—Ruskin Bond, for instance—knew ter. But the south is a different country. I in English were torn down. There was him personally and some of the others still don’t know why the south chooses violence in the air. Writing in English would have visited the bookshop. to be a part of a nation that includes the seemed like a dead end. The language Meena Alexander’s husband David Le- wretchedness of north India. had no future, at least not in this lyveld sent me a picture which showed Where do I begin telling you about country. It was a strange situation,

58 14 december 2020 I and my friends in Allahabad did hasn’t happened. For example, Bankim keep returning to incidents of lynch- not know if there would be any Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894) ings, rapes and encounter killings that writers after us. And we were only writes, ‘We have cast away caste. We get buried under the weight of fresh 17 or 18 years old. This is not a worry have outlived the absurdity of a social incidents—the news cycle that grinds a young writer in English living in classification based upon the accident everything to dust. But if we are to keep India has today. of birth.’ How do you feel reading these our sanity, we need no less the essays in lines today? this anthology. You only have to listen The essay is such a difficult-to-pin- At that time when Bankim wrote the to what Shama Futehally [1952-2004] down form. What according to you essay, ‘The Confessions of a Young writes, ‘The print media and the televi- makes a good essay? Bengal’ [1872], it must have felt that the sion, those two dictators of our lives, The essay may be difficult to pin down bonds of caste have loosened some- scream about Today in a way which but pinning down is what an essay what and that they would eventually drowns out both yesterday and tomor- does. It could be a person, a house, a disappear. It was, let us not forget, row.’ She salutes, in the essay, ‘the thought, a mood, a sound, something a period of great and rapid change. unnamed horticultural official’ who seen through the window, a visit to a There is a description in the essay of planted the roadside jacaranda which is place, a crow, a memory. An essay has the ‘fashionable furniture of the sitting in full bloom, and who was thinking of room for something as unmemorable rooms of Young Bengal’ where the tomorrow and the colours of summer as the whistle of a pressure cooker, language spoken ‘is nine parts broken when he planted it.’ which, paradoxically, is why an essay, English and one part pure Bengali’. But ‘As I sit here I can see... ’ begins one of however old, will always seem as if caste turned out to be far more tena- Futehally’s sentences, and it makes me it were written last week. It seems so cious than Bankim or anyone else, a ask myself if it is any more possible to because it has trapped something as hundred and fifty years ago, could have sit and see? The last six years have been ephemeral as steam in the amber of imagined. The sitting rooms under- unlike any other six years, and that’s prose. It is also why there are in the went a change but not the people who because the part of the mind that could anthology no academic essays or essays inhabited them. cultivate the quiet in which thoughts to do with current politics. However are born has been snatched away. The well written the latter may be, however You write in the introduction, ‘As we in Book of Indian Essays seems to belong to urgent at the time, they lose their ur- India pass through a dark phase in our a vanished world. Would RK Narayan gency rather quickly. A political essay history, similar to Europe of the 1930s, be able to write his gentle prose in 2020, dies with the politics which it is about. we need [political writing] more than or Quarratulain Hyder her wicked one? Not if they, like me, were to wake up thinking of cows, nice-looking though the animal is. Only Indians could have politicised urine and dung or made a The last six years have been unlike fetish of an invented past. any other six years, and that’s because the In an interview you once said, ‘It’s part of the mind that could cultivate almost as if I had retired at 21. the quiet in which thoughts are born It’s been a long retired life.’ What did you mean by it? has been snatched away” If you are a university teacher in India arvind krishna mehrotra you lead a retired life from the day you are appointed. You are given a fat salary and a slender book to teach, a selection of English prose or poetry, or a Shakespeare play. My uncle taught You can write thousands of words on ever before; but so do we, as urgently from one such play, purchased for a Donald Trump, but a decade or two the essays in this anthology.’ Can you few annas in the 1920s. I inherited the down the line they will not mean very elaborate on that? copy in 1969 and taught from it much to anyone, except to those who I call it a dark phase but of course many until 2012. Since then I’ve drawn a study American elections. more think it is a glorious phase that pension. We are still living off that in- we are passing through. We need politi- vestment. It wasn’t a bad one. Stupidly, Reading some of the essays one feels cal writing to better understand what I invested in a Noida flat and lost my that there was a hope for change, which is going on around us. We also need to life’s savings. n

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Fittest of Them All Can evolutionary biology explain conflict between countries? By Siddharth Singh

ometime in August 1965, on rational assessment where military rational choice framework that informs irregular troops of the Pakistani balances, economic output, terrain and most social science. army began infiltrating Jammu a host of other factors are considered by The question remains why would S& Kashmir. The plan was to leaders before launching an attack. humans, long held to be calculating create conditions that would enable In Strategic Instincts: The Adaptive machines par excellence, deviate from the local population to rise in rebellion Advantage of Cognitive Biases in Internation- rational behaviour? Johnson lists four against India. The plan did not work. al Politics, Johnson sketches a bold theory reasons: 1) speed: cognitive biases lead to Six years later, in early December 1971, that seeks to explain the behaviour of more rapid responses than the grinding Pakistan launched a pre-emptive air nation-states and leaders based on human demands of ‘expected utility’ calculations strike on Indian targets. The war lasted a evolutionary instincts that were forged central to rational choice; 2) efficiency: mere 13 days and culminated in Pakistan far earlier in natural history but continue cognitive biases are likely to have been losing its eastern wing. These adventures to be operative, and beneficial, right until biologically cheaper to produce and more did not end and two decades on, Pakistan the present. He combines three traits— effective; 3) evolvability: biases are more launched an operation not very different cognitive biases— likely to be available in intent from the one in 1965. Once that lie at the root of due to pre-existing cog- again, it lost the war after initial success observed behaviour of nitive machinery and; in occupying Indian territory. states: overconfidence; 4) adaptive landscape: Students of war have continued to fundamental attribu- these biases may be a debate reasons for Pakistan accumulating tion error (FAE); and small step up the slope this ledger of losses. India’s military su- in-group versus out- of a local optimum in periority and a far larger economy made group bias. He writes, biological fitness even these attempts foolhardy. The intriguing ‘Overconfidence if they did not bestow question, however, is one about Pakistani simply describes one’s an ultimate solution. calculations in confronting India. Any assessment of the prob- Strategic Instincts The case studies he rational choice theorist of war would ability of an outcome The Adaptive Advantages presents—from the say that Pakistan miscalculated badly. (beliefs about an event), of Cognitive Biases in Peloponnesian War International Politics But that does not explain how the same whatever happens in Dominic DP Johnson to the American War miscalculations were made time and the end (the result of of Independence and again, given that Pakistan never enjoyed an event)… overconfi- Princeton University Press from the disastrous an overwhelming military advantage dence therefore does 375 Pages | $27.95 British appeasement against India. Some would say that folly is not mean being ‘too of Hitler to America’s ingrained in its military misadventures. confident’ for some Pacific War (WWII)— Dominic Johnson, a biologist and task… rather overconfidence means being offer persuasive applications of the three a political scientist, would agree with ‘more confident than one ought to be,’ cognitive biases. Athens under Pericles this assessment. Evolutionary instincts given the circumstances.’ FAE describes may have thought it rational to expand, honed over millennia have made the idea that people attribute the behav- given its unmatched naval strength after overconfidence an advantageous quality. iour of others to their characteristics, the Persian Wars and other material at- On average, it leads to better results from personality or motives (‘dispositions’) tributes. But when one reads Thucydides individuals all the way to nation-states. while one’s own behaviour is attributed carefully, keeping in mind Johnson’s The mechanism by which this happens to ‘situational’ causes like environmental theory, one cannot but rethink the limits has two parts. It allows one to persevere constraints, time, competing commit- of rationality. even against daunting odds and, at the ments or being forced into a corner. In What makes Johnson’s ideas attractive same time, serves to bluff an enemy into versus out group bias is favouring one’s is that they offer a prospect of bridging believing in one’s superior strength. own kind while disfavouring ‘others’. Put human nature and realist theories of This flies in the face of war being based together, the picture is at odds with the international relations. Realism states

60 14 december 2020 that the world is anarchic because it lacks indeed has evolutionary roots, what ex- it confers some benefit or advantage government on a worldscale. Nation- plains it? The issue is especially vexing as, unknown to the person or persons states compete with each other, evaluat- genetically, populations of the subconti- who exhibit it. For example, biologists ing power balances and trying to secure nent should demonstrate close similari- describe the prevalence of large animals advantage through war. Very often, ties and India should be equally warlike. in terms of fitness and survival benefits these evaluations go wrong because of The fact that Pakistan and India became that size confers on them. The animal is not aware how its size is beneficial for A panel depicting the signing of the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender in 1971 , it but the trend exists. In case overcon-

National Museum of India, Delhi getty images fidence and other cognitive biases are evolutionary in nature, that is, they lead to increased survival and fitness values over time, then this behaviour is not rational in its origin. While this may make war explicable, it risks transport- ing a functional explanation into the social realm, a huge methodological no-no. Even if one can share Johnson’s concern that rational choice theorising has run amok in social sciences, then an- other problem is at hand: war becomes largely irrational and its dynamics are then, more or less, unfathomable and unpredictable. Whether this is indeed the case is an open question that has not been settled conclusively. Johnson is aware of some of these problems. In his book he takes pains to state that too much overconfidence ends in disaster, for example, when a leader ignores the material strength of his country. He wants to keep overcon- Overconfidence allows one to persevere for longer even against fidence in an ‘intermediate zone’. But daunting odds and, at the same time, serves to bluff an enemy it is not clear if individuals, leaders and into believing in one’s superior strength. This flies in the face countries can control an evolutionary of war being based on rational assessment where military quality in such a manner. For all its problems, evolutionary balances, economic output, terrain and a host of other factors thinking allows an expansion of the cur- are considered by leaders before launching an attack rent set of rather stalemated theories. The problems in this approach are formidable but so is its potential to expand human understanding. Johnson’s new book as misperceptions or mistakes. Here’s where distinct nation-states only in 1947 adds to well as its forerunner, Overconfidence and Johnson enters with overconfidence as a problems for the cognitive bias theory. In War: The Havoc and Glory of Positive Illu- variable in underestimating the strength attempting to bridge human nature and sions (2004), offer ideas that were scarcely of one’s rivals while overestimating one’s realism, the nature of states, their history, on the horizon even two decades ago. ability. This is a slender bridge: human culture and their internal structure in- One of the founders of realism, Kenneth nature theories for behaviour of nation- fluencing their external behaviour, have Waltz, hinted at human nature in his first states are a testing nightmare and it is been kept aside. Anyone building such a book, Man, the State and War (1959), and unlikely that they will be methodologi- theory cannot ignore this intermediate- left it there to be ignored by international cally acceptable. Their truth or falseness level source of variation. relations scholars. After some intermit- cannot be assessed, for now. An even bigger problem is that evo- tent and uneven theorising, Johnson There are, however, problems with lutionary explanations are functional seems to have picked up the threads. His such theorising. Consider, for example, in nature. In extremely simple terms, a biological and political reasoning are Pakistan’s behaviour with India. If it particular behaviour is functional when impressive and so is his new book. n

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 61 books

Delicious Diversity Turmeric Nation A Passage Through Shylashri Shankar captures the Indian culinary India’s Tastes identity in all its complexity and multiplicity Shylashri Shankar Speaking Tiger By Lathika George 336 Pages | Rs 499

t has been said that a nation’s culi- could actually attempt. I tried the two nary history, the traditional foods and pumpkin recipes, one from north India the country, the author picks turmeric, a Irecipes of its people must be treasured and the other from the south to compare pan-Indian of ancient lineage. The with as much zeal as its monuments the variations in the use of spices, ingre- presence and absence of this ubiquitous and works of art. Food is an important dients and cooking techniques, both Indian spice is highlighted in the story of manifestation of culture, steeped in his- uniquely Indian. India’s Dalits, and these are some of the tory and flavoured with every sensory Shankar begins each chapter with most poignant sections in the book. experience: love, loss, greed, poverty, a question, in her search for a common In the Introduction, Shankar states desperation and even nationalism. But thread. But is there an Indian culinary that the narrative is non-linear and how does one begin to unravel and then identity, other than the ‘curry’ bestowed can be read randomly. Each chapter is present a composite culinary identity? on us by the British, or as a nation of standalone and peppered with personal Academic writer Shylashri Shankar spices mostly imported from distant observations and anecdotes that are uses her researcher’s lens to explore the lands? India’s present food culture is witty and engaging. However, it moves complex evolution of India’s food tradi- heavily influenced by two major histori- at a feverish pace in some parts while it tions in her book of food essays: Turmeric cal events: the arrival of the Portuguese drags in others where the narrative is Nation, A Passage through India’s Tastes. in 1498 which brought a wealth of new stretched with irrelevant trivia, notably Food is a significant conduit for sto- crops and almost half a century later, the the constant references to international rytelling. And Shankar has plenty, from Mughals who introduced sophisticated food trends. first foods and last suppers, and the nu- cooking techniques. But there is another This does not diminish the value ances of the Self-Respect movement to factor—poverty, which determines how of an exhaustively researched book her own experiences with fasting. The most Indians eat. Perhaps, the author but only leaves the reader wondering chapters which come under intriguing says, the links lie in ‘mosaic bundling’, why it wasn’t tightened up at the titles like ‘Ardor’, ‘Poison’, ‘Attitude’ and the unique mix of genes, experiences, his- editor’s desk. Turmeric Nation also falls ‘Revolutionary Transgressions’ explore tory and geography that define who we short as a comprehensive look at the the many facets of India’s culinary are. In an attempt to find this connection nation’s tastes —as there is little on the traditions. The author delves deeper and bind the vast and diverse palates of cuisines of the Northeastern states of and comes up with fascinating India and excessive focus on Illustration by Saurabh Singh tales of Brahmin bread and bur- south Indian foods. khewali chai, the politics of coffee Shylashri Shankar Perhaps Indian food cannot drinking and the disparities in be defined or explained in con- the diets of Dalit peasants and ventional terms, but Shankar Indian royals. provides plenty of food for Though the narrative often thought. It is not the watered digresses from the larger theme down versions of extravagant of discovering Indian tastes, it royal cuisines or even the makes pleasant reading, if each wonderful diversity of street chapter is taken on its own merit. foods that characterise Indian The Pleasures of Eating Alone palates. While grinding poverty may have nothing to do with and limited food choices are Indian palates but it resonates universal in determining the with my own views on solo dietary habits of the poor, it may dining. The recipes were a big be India’s history of caste lines plus, some just for the pleasure and oppression and exclusion of reading (Aphrodisiac recipes that define our own uniquely from Ni’matmana) and others I ‘Indian’ culinary identity. n

62 14 december 2020 Wild at Heart Stephen Alter reimagines Mowgli By Ranjit Lal Stephen Alter

getty images

udyard Kipling’s missionary, and here too there are little legends and enigmas which surface The Jungle Book has fascinated Christian homilies strewn everywhere: now, to add to the mystique. Rreaders and writers ever since they begin to chafe a bit, but hang on! I was at first sceptical about this it was published. In his novel Feral Ms Craston is deported back to the US book, but soon found I was turning Dreams: Mowgli & His Mothers, Stephen because of the help she accorded to a the pages at the rate of knots. Neither Alter (author of the award-winning notorious dacoit. Ms Craston nor Mowgli is very Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan In America, Mowgli grows up into empathetic as a character (Ms Craston Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the the typical rebellious teenager and is forever turning to the Bible, while Sublime) goes a step further: he updates begins living with his partner. With a Mowgli declares himself an atheist) the story to what it might read like had background such as his you can expect but Alter is clever enough to make it been written today. If you think this him to be angst filled. Ms Craston, them both get under your skin, and book is just a rewrite of Jungle Book, be diagnosed with dementia, eventually you want to know the truth about prepared to be surprised. dies (Mowgli has hardly visited her Mowgli’s early childhood—which The book is divided into three parts: during her stay at a care home), but, in remains elusive. There is not much In the first, yes, the story, ‘rewritten’ by the the third part, he brings her ashes dialogue either. For the most part, Ms Elizabeth Craston, the principal back to India—to be buried alongside the prose is clear and simple, and you of a missionary school and one of the the graves of her parents and brother. are never in any doubt about exactly protagonists, follows the original Old ties (with school friends) are what’s happening or happened. template: Mowgli is found in the renewed as Mowgli revisits the jungles Alter knows the areas both in India forests near Corbett Tiger Reserve— of his early childhood (of which he and America well. The American not by wolves, but by a herd of gentle can’t remember much). There are locations—Massachusetts Institute of elephants, led by the ‘matriarch’. Technology—are where he spent 10 With these, he embarks on a series of years as a writer in residence. adventures and mischief, including If you like old stories given a tangling with poachers and wildlife modern makeover, then this book guards. Each scrape he gets into has a is something you would enjoy: new little homily attached to it. wine in old bottles. It is an unusual, Eventually, Mowgli gets caught somewhat strange tale, seriously by the wildlife guards and is sent to be written, mysterious till the end, though raised by Ms Craston. This second part I wish there had been some tongue-in- (also written by her) describes Mowgli’s cheek humour and banter among the life in the mission school: his troubles characters. The animal characters too interacting with other boys, learning Feral Dreams (except for the rhesus but who likes social skills and so on. He is adopted as Mowgli & His Mothers them?) are good at heart. Stephen Alter a son by Ms Craston, though he refuses This is the second book of its type to call her mother. He is still more at Aleph that Alter has written, after In the Jungles home with elephants than with people. 200 Pages | Rs 599 of the Night: A Novel about Jim Corbett. Is a Ms Craston is a true-blue American series in the pipeline? n

14 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 63 Hollywood reporter Noel de Souza

‘My Calling Has Always Been to Act and to Tell Stories’

he Undoing follows have another musical coming Grace Fraser (Nicole out. I play a Broadway dancer TKidman), who is ‘living who sings and that was really the only life she ever wanted fun to do. I had done that just for herself’. She’s a successful before Susanne asked me to therapist on the brink of sing the credits, so vocally I was publishing her first book, but a little bit more confident, but her life is about to unravel it is definitely not my area of when she finds that her confidence (laughs). husband (Hugh Grant) is being deceptive. Singing, writing, producing. What is it that you like the most Let’s talk about trust. What if, about this journey? what happened to you in My calling has always been to the show happened to you act and to tell stories, by digging in real life? deep and giving my heart I’d be devastated. That’d be it. basically, you know. When I’m My life would be over. Trust working with another actor is one of the things now that’s and I see them open up their a huge part of our culture. Do heart and give a deep part of you trust when people tell you themselves, I go up and I hug things and who do you believe them and I say thank you, and what is belief in somebody, Nicole Kidman because I know what that takes. anyway? Should you just offer My calling first and foremost, trust unconditionally or should since I was tiny, has been acting. it be conditional or should someone You sing the title song in the show and I don’t even know why, as I come from have to prove that they’re trustworthy? you’ve sung many duets in the past. Do a family of doctors, academicians and All of those things are really interesting you see yourself recording with your scientists, so where did I come from? questions, particularly where we’re husband, Keith Urban? Who knows? You never know, right, at now as well, because a lot of times I No album with Keith. Susanne the twists and turns of life and what have to trust that you have taken the [Bier, the director] asked me to sing the is around the corner. And I have so precautions, that you’re doing the credits because she thought it would many things I’m passionate about. I social distancing. That’s become now a imbue the series with the soul of have been interested in philanthropy huge part of our culture, right? But this Grace. At first, I was like no. I so don’t and taking care of women’s rights for series is interesting because it’s when want to do it. It was in the middle of decades. I have a friend who works someone wants to believe something, the lockdown. Luckily because Keith in oncology at Stanford and we do an and doesn’t want to see it differently is a musician, he has a small sort of enormous amount of fundraising and we have that as part of our human studio and vocal box in his house. for them. I am also interested in nature. When your life is good and He can operate everything. So he was having young artists, particularly you’re choosing not to see the cracks— able to pull it all together for me. during these times, supported so they so many people do it. Yet when you Then you just send the files off and can find their way and have ways in watch the show, you’re like, ‘Can’t you they can mix it. It was something which they can express their voice see it? It’s right in front of you.’ And we could do when nobody could do so that their future is bright and then as an audience member you start anything. If my husband hadn’t been there will be a place for their work going, ‘Well, maybe I’m wrong.’ That to a musician, I wouldn’t have been and a pathway for them. That’s very me is really interesting writing. able to do that. At the same time, I important to me. n

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RAJEEV MASAND

Every Producer Loves Ranveer over more than three years, and that the fee hike is a step You probably wouldn’t guess this but industry insiders have towards catching up. It is also being said that he has asked for learnt that among , Tiger Shroff, Shahid all his contracts hereon to include a fee bump if the project Kapoor and , it is the Simmba and takes longer to complete than contractually agreed on. After star who is most “producer-friendly” by cost. Turns out that the passing of his father Kapoor earlier this year, the where Varun, Tiger and Shahid charge a sizeable upfront actor is being advised by his trusted CA Bimal Parekh on his salary (believed to be in the range of Rs 20-30 crore) plus a contracts, fees, and overall investments and finances. significant profit share, Ranveer, whose upfront fee is in the same range, takes a marginally smaller share of profits. Akshay Is King That should not be interpreted to suggest he is the easiest Since we’re on the subject of fees and remuneration, to sign up. It only means that Ranveer and his management it’s impossible not to bring up Akshay Kumar, easily appear to have decided not to ‘overburden’ any project he Bollywood’s only star who appears to have not taken a big signs up for with an unreasonable fee. Sources say he billed financial hit due to the pandemic. The 53-year-old star has Kabir Khan and Reliance Entertainment roughly Rs 18 five films in different stages of production, and despite the crore in upfront salary for ’83 and Karan Johar Rs 20 crore scathing response to his last release Laxmii in November, his for an untitled romantic comedy with Alia Bhatt that begins fees does not appear to have been significantly affected. shooting early next year. The actor is believed to have charged Vashu Bhagnani, Showing consideration for producers earns actors the producer of Bell Bottom, a cool—wait for it— goodwill in a business where the former are frequently Rs 117 crore. For his good friend Sajid Nadiadwala, left bearing the bulk of the risk. As previously he has apparently agreed to work at a ‘discounted reported in this column, Ranveer agreed to work for a rate’ of Rs 99 crore. This is for Bachchan Pandey, in substantially slashed fee for Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus so which he stars with and Reliance could offset the mounting costs on ’83 after . its release was scuttled due to the coronavirus. Unlike Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and even Salman Khan who Ranbir’s Appraisal seldom work on more than one or at the Given the time it has taken to complete both of very most two films in a year, Akshay the films he last signed up for, it is easy to see will have no less than four or five why jokes he’s been shooting releases annually, taking his gross epics, not films. Both Brahmastra and earnings up to… well, you do Shamshera have been long in the making and the math! are currently deep in post-production, being There has been no talk on the readied for release in the new year. show he signed up for with Amazon Sources in the film trade say Ranbir Prime Video, but the fees for that has said ‘yes’ to star Kabir Singh director is said to be higher than any actor Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s next project, has so far been paid for a streaming believed to be a romantic film. Sources project. Akshay made a big splash say the actor has bumped up his fees at the announcement of that show, “considerably” from the Rs 30 crore he is said to performing a stunt that involved him have charged maker Luv setting himself on fire briefly, in the Ranjan’s film, slated to go on the floor shortly. presence of Amazon global film chief Insiders say Ranbir realises that he has lost Jennifer Salke. The embers have cooled precious time in his prime shooting two films but the project is still to materialise. n

66 14 december 2020