www.openthemagazine.com 50 14 14 SEPTEMBER /2020 OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 36 14 SEPTEMBER 2020 Contents 14 SEPTEMBER 2020 5 6 7 12 14 16 20 LOCOMOTIF INDRAPRASTHA MUMBAI NOTEBOOK TOUCHSTONE SOFT POWER WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY The expert and By Virendra Kapoor By Anil Dharker The revenge of ideology Bad education By Jayanta Ghosal Dhaka Central the populist By Keerthik Sasidharan By Makarand R Paranjape By Syed Badrul Ahsan By S Prasannarajan 24 In Memoriam 24 PRANAB MUKHERJEE (1935-2020) By MJ Akbar & Sunanda K Datta-Ray 34 MUKESH AMBANI THE POWER OF INTUITION The world’s sixth-richest man takes RIL, India’s most valued company that straddles the traditional and the digital with equal competitiveness, to the global centrestage By Ullekh NP and Moinak Mitra 34 42 THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE Using scale and a digital ecosystem, Mukesh Ambani joins a club of corporate icons who are defining the future by Madhavankutty Pillai 46 46 THE IDENTITY ANGLE IN ASSAM Why an alliance between the Congress and the AIUDF may end up helping the BJP By Siddharth Singh 49 THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS’ NEST Rhea Chakraborty is being portrayed as an unlikely villain in the 49 messy aftermath of her ex-lover Sushant Singh Rajput’s death By Kaveree Bamzai 52 55 58 60 64 66 EYES WIDE OPEN THE STAGE LOGS IN LOVE REMAINS THE NUTS AND BOLTS GARDENING NOT PEOPLE LIKE US Fahadh Faasil personifies Creating plays for the screen A husband’s photo diary of his OF HISTORY Hands in the mud Ghost of a chance the New Wave of By Prachi Sibal wife’s final moments makes the The microfoundations of By Shylashri Shankar By Rajeev Masand Malayalam cinema personal universal big political events By Rajeev Masand By Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi By Siddharth Singh Cover photograph by Rohit Chawla 14 SEPTEMBER 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 Congress episode is like rewatching an old serial: EDITOR-AT-LARGE Siddharth Singh DEPUTY EDITORS Madhavankutty Pillai Faced with the a half-hearted revolt from senior leaders, (Mumbai Bureau Chief), Sonia Gandhi was learnt to have asked the party to find Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair a new chief and expressed her desire to step down— CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rohit Chawla only to be back since no one in the party knows how ART DIRECTOR Jyoti K Singh SENIOR EDITORS Sudeep Paul, to fill that vacuum (‘Gandhis Win, Congress Loses’ Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), by Harish Khare, September 7th, 2020). When Rahul Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval AssOCIATE EDITOR Vijay K Soni (Web) Gandhi was elected Presidenta few years ago, the same ASSISTANT EDITOR Vipul Vivek questions were asked about the credentials of the lead- CHIEF OF GRAPHICS Saurabh Singh ership and there was a call for a formal election process SENIOR DESIGNERS Anup Banerjee, Veer Pal Singh to avoid favouritism. It is a moot question whether this PHOTO EDITOR Raul Irani current drama will break the vicious cycle and change DEPUTY PHOTO EDITOR Ashish Sharma the character of the party for the better and re-establish NATIONAL HEAD-EVENTS AND INITIATIVES the credentials of India’s grand old party before the young politician. Arpita Sachin Ahuja Yeshu Mishra AVP (ADVERTISING) General Election in 2024. This is not the noughties Rashmi Lata Swarup when Sonia Gandhi surprised herself as much as GENERAL MANAGERS (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) others by reviving the party in an age which looked CLASSICAL DOYEN resigned to non-national party dominance. The leader- Pandit Jasraj will be NATIONAL HEAD-DISTRIBUTION AND SALES Ajay Gupta ship needs to seriously think about the future not only remembered for taking REGIONAL HEADS-CIRCULATION D Charles (South), Melvin George of the Congress but also of India’s multi-party political Hindustani classical music (West), Basab Ghosh (East) system inherited from the Westminster tradition but beyond the rarefied confines HEAD-PRODUCTION Maneesh Tyagi which we reinvented into a messy but workable sys- by imbuing khayal with an SENIOR MANAGER (PRE-PRESS) Sharad Tailang tem. Otherwise, it should make it clear, like Wajid Ali unmistakable element of MANAGER-MARKETING Shah’s lackeys, that it has lost interest in real political bhakti (‘Everyone’s Musician’, Priya Singh CHIEF DESIGNER-MARKETING games. Voters could at least look elsewhere. August 31st, 2020). The Champak Bhattacharjee MR Jayanthi foremost exponent of the CFO & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht Mewati gharana moved away CHIEF EXECUTIVE & PUBLISHER from dhrupad and employed Neeraja Chawla harkats and murkis associated All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner COLLECTIVE FAILURE JAITLEY’S LEGACY with semi-classical music. is prohibited. The letter from 23 senior Arun Jaitley played a great The purists took time Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf Congress leaders that asked role in changing the politics to compliment him; the of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, for an honest introspection of this country (‘Politics connoisseurs couldn’t resist 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). shouldn’t have been such without Arun Jaitley’ the charm of his stotras, Published at 4, DDA Commercial a surprise for the High by Swapan Dasgupta, his mastery over shuddha Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Command given the party’s September 7th, 2020). madhyam notes and his Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 comprehensive defeat Few politicians has had ability to play with light To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to against the BJP in every the talent for spotting and and heavy and popular and www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number respect since 2014 (‘Gandhis humility for appreciating rare ragas such as Durga, Jog 1800 102 7510 Win, Congress Loses’ by upcoming leaders. I recall and Abeer Todi with equal or email at: [email protected] Harish Khare, September how one evening last year my felicity. Not to forget his sage- For alliances, email [email protected] 7th, 2020). Dissent followed colleague and the Bengaluru like presence on the stage For advertising, email by healthy discussion is a politician, Tejasvi Surya, which got a little dramatic in [email protected] For any other queries/observations, sine qua non for any course called me up excitedly about the latter half of his career. email [email protected] correction. Rather than a call he had got from Jaitley It was his association with collective brainstorming, after his maiden speech in his spiritual guru Maharana Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing the leadership is getting Parliament in which Jaitley Jaywant Singh of the initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using more aloof, more remote and complimented him saying he erstwhile princely state of products or services advertised in the magazine more suspicious of its own saw a reflection of himself in Sanand in Gujarat that made Volume 12 Issue 36 cadre, with a reluctant Rahul Surya. Even through sickness him believe in the miracles For the week 8-14 September 2020 Gandhi failing to bring in Jaitley continued to think of bhakti. He was also a Total No. of pages 68 any breath of fresh air. of his party and country, master of haveli sangeet. Sangeeta Kampani making time to encourage a Jayanthi Subramaniam 4 14 SEPTEMBER 2020 LOCOMOTIF By S PRASANNARAJAN THE EXPERT AND THE POPULIST EFORE THE EXPERT, there was Elias Canetti. He What we have lost—and keep losing—economically have made began his influential Crowds and Power, published the world unliveable for a large number of people even in the 60 years ago, by observing that it was fear that forced so-called affluent societies. Inevitably, questions are being asked. men to keep distances around themselves. “There Was a complete suspension of economic activity necessary? is nothing that man fears more than the truth of the Did the extremism of expertise hurt the common good? Bunknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and Is there a proven correlation between complete lockdown and to be able to recognise or at least clarify it. Man always tends to the containment of the virus? Still, we need to remember: We avoid physical contact with anything strange. In the dark, the would have been paying a higher price had we left it entirely fear of an unexpected touch can mount to panic. Even clothes to those nationalist-populists who moved from denial to give insufficient security. It is easy to tear them and pierce demagogy to dubious panacea with alarming flexibility. And through to the naked, smooth, defenceless flesh of the victim,” the commandments of experts instilled fear and awareness into he wrote. The viral indoctrination of social distancing tapped us in the beginning when the profusion of information was into our natural instinct: the fear of what is lurking out there, not necessarily authentic. Questions are being asked because nameless. And what was lurking out there was multiplying, and a consensus of the virtuous seems to have put the entire blame a pandemic was upon us. Our only shield was our fear, and our for our hardship, which shows no signs of going away, on the only solace the words that gave us hope, no matter how fragile political class. it was in the end. It was a time when even science was in panic. Ideology made this blame channelling easier. All along, the Even common sense, as delivered by people with authority and progressives, the most virtuous of them all, in their visceral credibility, was taken as expertise.