OPEN 18 JANUARY 2021 / 50 www.openthemagazine.com VOLUME 13 ISSUE 2 13 ISSUE VOLUME 18 JANUARY 2021 18 JANUARY CONTENTS 18 JANUARY 2021 5 INDRAPRASTHA 12 TOUCHSTONE 16 OPINION 20 OPEN ESSAY By Virendra Kapoor Truth as the beginning Whitelash Who is an Indian? By Keerthik Sasidharan By Minhaz Merchant By Mani Shankar Aiyar 6 MUMBAI NOTEBOOK 14 SOFT POWER 18 WHISPERER By Anil Dharker America’s ally By Jayanta Ghosal By Makarand R Paranjape 28 Introduction By S Prasannarajan 30 THE POLITICS OF GRIEVANCE The cycle of agitations against the Modi government is unlikely to end anytime soon By PR Ramesh 40 THE DAY OF 36 THE WOLF WARRIOR WAITING FOR With all eyes on the new US administration, China looks THE STIMULANT Vaccination and restoration set to consolidate its gains while of mobility can enable the India may find itself lonely government to undertake a By Sudeep Paul fiscal stimulus without fear 44 of wasting money By Siddharth Singh OFFICE POLITICS The future is remote and virtual. For better or worse? By Madhavankutty Pillai 48 A TEST FOR NEW INDIA 52 MASTERS AND 56 THE RUSTLE OF IDEAS The challenges of being the best SUBVERSIVES The art of everything personal and political By Lhendup G Bhutia Orhan Pamuk’s plague novel By Nandini Nair to Kazuo Ishiguro’s love story, from Jhumpa Lahiri’s first 62 TRUE TO LIFE 65 NOT PEOPLE LIKE US Italian novel to Jeet Thayil’s Biopics and adaptations Thank you, dear reader feminist testament add to the thrill By Rajeev Masand By Nandini Nair By Divya Unny Cover by Saurabh Singh 18 JANUARY 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 3 OPEN MAIL [email protected] EDITOR S Prasannarajan LETTER OF THE WEEK MANAGING EDITOR PR Ramesh C EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ullekh NP Leaders are marked out by their resolve and EDITOR-AT-LARGE Siddharth Singh DEPUTY EDITORS Madhavankutty Pillai composure in adversity (‘Forged in Fire’, January 11th, (Mumbai Bureau Chief), 2021). Take any great leader from history—Abraham Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair Lincoln, FD Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Margaret CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rohit Chawla Thatcher, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Mikhail Gorbachev, ART DIRECTOR Jyoti K Singh SENIOR EDITORS Sudeep Paul, Mujibur Rahman and Gandhi—who were thrust into Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), difficult situations: finally, they emerged victorious. Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval AssOCIATE EDITOR Vijay K Soni (Web) Narendra Modi’s advent and rise to his unparalleled ASSISTANT EDITOR Vipul Vivek stature that has rarely been achieved in the Indian CHIEF OF GRAPHICS Saurabh Singh context owes mainly to his confident handling of SENIOR DESIGNERS Anup Banerjee, Veer Pal Singh equally tough situations: GST implementation, PHOTO EDITOR Raul Irani Swachh Bharat, the bankruptcy code, the DEPUTY PHOTO EDITOR Ashish Sharma criminalisation of Triple Talaq, the scrapping of NATIONAL HEAD-EVENTS AND INITIATIVES Article 370, Covid management, the citizenship to see terrorists appearing Arpita Sachin Ahuja at the funeral of a slain AVP (ADVERTISING) legislation and now the farm reforms. All of these Rashmi Lata Swarup reflect his firm conviction. Modi’s indifference terrorist. And yet, some GENERAL MANAGERS (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) to loose cannons denigrating him is one reason from the same areas ended why opposition parties seem clueless. While he is up on an Army recruitment NATIONAL HEAD-DISTRIBUTION AND SALES Ajay Gupta initiating changes at the grassroot level, his political drive to be part of the force REGIONAL HEADS-CIRCULATION D Charles (South), Melvin George opponents are left debating in TV studios. His ability they supposedly abhor (West), Basab Ghosh (East) to weather severe storms artificially created by his so much’ (‘The Valley of HEAD-PRODUCTION Maneesh Tyagi detractors is phenomenal. The opposition has lost the Paradoxes’, December 28th, SENIOR MANAGER (PRE-PRESS) Sharad Tailang narrative and has forgotten to how to play this game. 2020). The Valley has seen MANAGER-MARKETING Bholey Bhardwaj so much violence in the last Priya Singh CHIEF DESIGNER-MARKETING three decades that peace Champak Bhattacharjee can only prevail gradually CFO & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht after sustained efforts CHIEF EXECUTIVE & PUBLISHER PROTEST FOR WHAT? torched; Amazon facilities from all participants. Since Neeraja Chawla These are no ordinary times, are attacked. Who are these terrorist organisations do All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner though neither the best protestors and whom are not want that to happen, is prohibited. nor the worst (‘A Portrait of these protests actually such paradoxes will keep Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf Protest’, January 11th, 2021). directed against? Has India appearing. It is a clear sign of a of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, Divisive forces inimical to become a land of mercenary typical Kashmiri’s ‘never say 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). India’s growth are active. streetfighters? The Modi die’ attitude that they enrol for Published at 4, DDA Commercial Social media is the new devil. Government should act Army recruitment and vote Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. One day you see an innocent more stringently against in local elections. For every Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 child in tears sitting in protest such pretenders and for-hire sensible Kashmiri youth To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to and ranting against the protestors. Worst of all, now choosing the right path, there www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number Government, next day you people, including politicians is someone still preferring to 1800 102 7510 see him gorging on pizza and whom you would expect pelt stones at Indian soldiers. or email at: [email protected] saying protesting was fun. to be more responsible, are So governments at all levels For alliances, email [email protected] One moment you see one protesting against Covid will have to keep trying to For advertising, email woman at Delhi’s Shaheen vaccines. When will the bring the Kashmiri youth [email protected] For any other queries/observations, Bagh, another moment she is Government find time to into the mainstream as email [email protected] sitting with farmers to protest concentrate on growth and far as possible. Constructive against the Government. development if it is busy engagement with local Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing What’s the actual picture? firefighting on these fronts? people from the four districts initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using In turns, people are sitting Ashok Goswami of South Kashmir holds products or services advertised in the magazine on hunger strikes; Kejriwal the key to restoring peace Volume 13 Issue 2 is somersaulting on stubble KASHMIR’S FUTURE and faith in the Valley. It’s For the week 12-18 January 2021 burning; extremist activists Kashmir’s history was aptly a changed world without Total No. of pages 68 are sloganeering among summarised in one pithy Article 370. crowds; an iPhone factory is line: ‘It was not unusual Bal Govind 4 18 JANUARY 2021 INDRAPRASTHA Virendra Kapoor ISHAN SINGH BEDI along evening, he still revealed his regret B with EAS Prasanna and that he had peaked as a cricketer Bhagwat Chandrasekhar formed when there was little money in the lethal spin trio of Indian cricket cricket. That Sunil Gavaskar— in the ’60s and ’70s. On a good day, ‘chhotu’ for Bedi—had parlayed it could tear through the defences his excellence as a player into a of the best of batsmen in the world. successful post-retirement career as Once their cricketing careers ended, a commentator, or a Kapil Dev, post- both Prasanna and Chandrasekhar cricket, had made a successful switch faded quietly from the limelight, to business, too seemed to rankle rarely finding a mention even in the with Bedi. I had heard about Bedi not sport pages. However, it is Bedi who a former Maharashtra minister adjusting well after the end of his continues to pop up in the media who, as head of the Mumbai Cricket cricketing career, but that evening at every now and then, but often for Association, had built it to end the Lokesh’s house, I came across a bitter the wrong reasons. Like the other arm-twisting by the controllers of and frustrated man who rued not day when he shot off an angry letter the nearby Brabourne Stadium. so much that life hadn’t given him to the Delhi and District Cricket But then, Bedi wouldn’t be Bedi if enough but that his peers and others, Association, resigning in protest he weren’t to play a contrarian. I some certainly much less talented against the erection of a statue of remember several years ago meeting cricketers than him, had got far more Arun Jaitley, a former head of DDCA, him at a dinner at the house of the in financial terms. It wasn’t enough at the stadium which following sport-linked entrepreneur Lokesh that his record as a left-hand spinner his death two years ago was named Sharma. Referring to the incident still shone bright. Jealousy is a after him. Home Minister Amit a few days previously at a premier disease of the mind and needs a lot of Shah formally unveiled the statue British-era club in Madras, which introspection and mental discipline at a solemn function on December had denied entry to MF Husain for one to overcome it. 28th, what would have been his owing to his unshod feet, Bedi 68th birthday. Bedi, who had once unleashed a volley of choicest OMETIMES A WHATSAPP contested against Jaitley for heading Punjabi invectives against the club S message hits you hard, even if the DDCA and lost badly, reveals his bosses: “Angrez chaley gaye..