www.openthemagazine.com 50 3 AUGUST /2020 OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 30 3 AUGUST 2020 CONTENTS 3 AUGUST 2020 5 6 7 12 16 18 20 LOCOMOTIF INDRAPRASTHA MUMBAI NOTEBOOK IN memoriAM SOFT POWER WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY The politics of masks By Virendra Kapoor By Anil Dharker John Lewis (1940-2020) Gold’s own country By Jayanta Ghosal The Mahatma and By S Prasannarajan By Ramesh Sharma By Makarand R Paranjape Kashmir By MJ Akbar 28 IS SCIENCE ABOUT 28 TO DEFEAT THE CORONAVIRUS? With the recent vaccine results, new drugs and experienced care, the first glimmers of hope arrive By Lhendup G Bhutia 34 A TALE of Three Vaccines The world has responded to Covid-19 by developing and testing vaccines 12 at record speed By Shahid Jameel 38 BEGINNINGS AND ALTERNATIVE ENDS The trajectory of pandemics suggests that humanity will always triumph in the end but without control over the time and toll By Madhavankutty Pillai 42 42 THE DESERT FOX The daring and durability 46 50 of Ashok Gehlot By Amita Shah 46 virtuaL checKMate 58 Chess streaming goes mainstream in India By V Shoba 50 LETTER FROM LAHORE The ideal and the real By Mehr Tarar 54 54 58 62 65 66 THE SECOND ACT PREMCHAND’S PARTNER A MOVEABLE FEAST HOLLYWOOD REPORTER NOT PEOPLE LIKE US Yesteryear actors return to play On the writer’s 140th birth A detective’s diet Colin Farrell on his London calling complex roles as streaming anniversary, why it’s important to By Shylashri Shankar new Artemis Fowl series By Rajeev Masand platforms allow greater variety celebrate his wife Shivrani Devi By Noel de Souza By Kaveree Bamzai By Arnav Das Sharma Cover by Saurabh Singh 3 AUGUST 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3 OPEN MAIL [email protected] EDITOR S Prasannarajan LETTER OF THE WEEK OPEN MANAGING EDITOR PR Ramesh C EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ullekh NP The rise of Donald Trump was a reflection of the fact EDITOR-AT-LARGE Siddharth Singh DEPUTY EDITORS Madhavankutty Pillai that even Americans could no longer ignore the real- 27 JULY 2020 / 50 www.openthemagazine.com (Mumbai Bureau Chief), ity that trade is not always ‘free’ and ‘advantageous’ Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair (‘Self-Reliance in a Brave New World’, July 27th, 2020). CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rohit Chawla Economists, political scientists and sociologists have 29 12 ISSUE VOLUME ART DIRECTOR Jyoti K Singh SENIOR EDITORS Sudeep Paul, known all along that ‘free trade’ has distributional Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), consequences and losers need to be compensated to Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval AssOCIATE EDITOR Vijay K Soni (Web) prevent political backlash. No political leader, least ASSISTANT EDITOR Vipul Vivek of all Prime Minister Narendra Modi, could ignore CHIEF OF GRAPHICS Saurabh Singh the consequences of skewed trade patterns. When SENIOR DESIGNERS Anup Banerjee, 2020 27 JULY Veer Pal Singh Covid-19 hit India, we were found scrambling for vital PHOTO EDITOR Raul Irani medical supplies. While it is unlikely that India will DEPUTY PHOTO EDITOR Ashish Sharma turn protectionist, the concern for policymakers here NATIONAL HEAD-EVENTS AND INITIATIVES after China’s wayward behaviour is to keep vital supply going down and rapidly Arpita Sachin Ahuja AVP (ADVERTISING) chains within India. There is a strategic logic to losing support among all Rashmi Lata Swarup such reasoning, motivated by the fear that the huge communities. The worst GENERAL MANAGERS (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) disparity in trade that feeds China’s war machine can- enemy of the Congress party, not be dismissed in a country that lost territory with it seems, are its stalwarts NATIONAL HEAD-DISTRIBUTION AND SALES Ajay Gupta a catastrophic war with its more powerful neighbour. themselves. REGIONAL HEADS-CIRCULATION CK Subramaniam D Charles (South), Melvin George Getting stuck in a ‘middle-income trap’ (‘where de- (West), Basab Ghosh (East) mand saturates and, in turn, growth stagnates’) is now HEAD-PRODUCTION Maneesh Tyagi a real worry after multiple years of tepid growth. By blaming the BJP for the SENIOR MANAGER (PRE-PRESS) Sharad Tailang India needs to be cautious and pragmatic about coping revolt within its ranks, the MANAGER-MARKETING with the new world economy rather than depend on Congress is behaving like Priya Singh CHIEF DESIGNER-MARKETING ideological and historically damaging formulations. the proverbial ostrich that Champak Bhattacharjee Margaret Chatterjee buries its head in the sand CFO & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht on seeing a danger. The Pilot CHIEF EXECUTIVE & PUBLISHER threat was an open secret. Neeraja Chawla The party leadership chose All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner SWADESHI & SOUND Despite India’s relatively to not address it till it became is prohibited. Every crisis comes with an high position on the World real. Gehlot now says that he Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf opportunity (‘Self-Reliance Bank’s Ease of Doing hasn’t been on talking terms of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, in a Brave New World’, July Business index it has a long with Pilot for the past one 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). 27th, 2020). With Covid-19, way to go to make the life of year. Rahul Gandhi should Published at 4, DDA Commercial India learnt to ramp up entrepreneurs easy. either take up the challenge Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. production of PPE suits, Ashok Goswami or simply quit to make way Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 hand sanitisers and face for a new order. It’s clear that To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to masks. We will soon also CONFUSED CONGRESS the Congress has no future www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number ramp up pharmaceutical The Congress high with the Gandhis. 1800 102 7510 production and become one command is in a fix (‘The Bholey Bhardwaj or email at: [email protected] of the world’s main suppliers. Jaipur Jolt’, July 27th, 2020). For alliances, email [email protected] China’s transgression is now Senior leaders in the party The infighting in the For advertising, email going to greatly transform are publicly criticising its Congress has taken an ugly [email protected] For any other queries/observations, India’s soft power. From methods and the way it has turn with Gehlot’s attacks email [email protected] the IT export market, given up on its long-time on Pilot. For a party that is on India will now meet the cadre. The writing is on the the brink of being wiped out Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing challenge of turning around wall for the party. The ‘credit’ from politics, this does not initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using its performance on the for this state of affairs should send a positive message to products or services advertised in the magazine home turf. Jio’s 5G foray is go to the top leadership. It an electorate that is already Volume 12 Issue 30 noteworthy and so are the may tide over the Rajasthan moving away from it. It does For the week 28 July-3 August 2020 many homegrown apps. crisis, but rebels like not seem like the Congress is Total No. of pages 68 What India needs now is to Sachin Pilot will continue interested in surviving. remove regulatory cobwebs. to threaten the party. It is MR Jayanthi 4 3 AUGUST 2020 LOCOMOTIF By S PRASANNARAJAN THE POLITICS OF MASKS t’s eVERYTHING NOW. It’s what sets you apart. It’s the There was another type: the authoritarian who saw in the mark of responsible living, and a filtered defence against viral adversity a political opportunity. Already the sole arbiter death. It’s a piece of cloth that conveys individual duty and of freedom, he now rearmed himself as the saviour with all civic solidarity, no matter it has denied us the many givens the knowledge—and demanded more from the people. When of social as well as personal intimacies of communication. science was uncertain, politics knew what exactly was IIt’s a talismanic sign of our pandemic times. it seeking. It feasted on fear. There is more to the mask. Then there was the one who realised that leadership did Elsewhere, it’s a political statement. Its absence is a not mean the bravado of denials or an exploitation of fear. This declaration of freedom, and a repudiation of enforcement. one respected science and expertise, and to a greater extent Defying science and common sense, the intentionally maskless succeeded in containing the virus. Between the freedom makes an argument for the autonomy of choice, and intends to that was certain to increase deaths and the control that only trade it for ideological gains. strengthened the strongman further, this was the option based It’s a choice made to subvert consensus, and pandemics, on the decencies and responsibilities of governance. like wars and calamities, create a social order built on fear and Any of these three versions of leadership has not fully contained expertise. To break it is to put your right, even if it makes a bad the virus, but their politics decided the degree of containment. The choice between life and death, before shared knowledge. It is to wisest of them did not get trapped in the rhetorical choice between be self-consciously stupid instead of being robotically obliging. saving lives and saving livelihoods. It was an alliterating falsity that Is it the choice of the false libertarian? came handy to the Left and the Right.