CLRI Contemporary Literary Review India Print ISSN 2250-3366 | Online ISSN 2394-6075 Vol. 7, No. 2: CLRI May 2020 | p. 194-239 Dr Dilip Khetarpal Reviews Phidalia Toi’s The Dusk The Dusk - Enwrapping India with Darkness Though born and raised in Jowai, a very small town of Meghalaya, Phidalia Toi acquired her Master’s degree in Khasi Language Literature from North Eastern Hills University, Shillong. Adept in Cinematography, writing lyrics, novels and scripts for Dramas, she also has a natural flair for creativity and social service. Though she faced innumerable odds and misfortunes in her personal life, she never felt bogged down, but rather played all her roles valiantly and extremely well---- as a mother, a cancer survivor, an educationist, a creative artist and above all, as a great fighter. It is explicitly because of her sheer sense of creativity that she has successfully created various books, novels, musical albums and two regional short films that won her worldwide critical acclaim. She even dabbled into the political world to achieve her noble aims and purposes. It is really hard to study the complex political situation, especially, the one prevailing in India. Harder still, it is to delve into its infinite Contemporary Literary Review India | pISSN 2250-3366 / eISSN 2394- 6075 | Vol. 7, No. 2: CLRI May 2020 | Page 194 Dr Dilip Khetarpal Reviews Phidalia Toi’s The Dusk and weird aspects and bring out the truth from them honestly and fearlessly and put them before the whole nation to ponder, introspect and thereafter bring about drastic changes. All her five volumes ranging from ‘The Dawn’ to ‘The Dusk’ have demonstrated her intelligence, honesty, political foresight, perceptiveness, aesthetic prowess, humane outlook, mellowness of vision and objectivity. In all the five volumes, Toi has portrayed the socio-political scenario and fiscal policies with utmost truth and grit in the most unbiased, unprejudiced and insightful manner. All her five books series have been considered by her, perhaps ironically, as ‘Marathon Race to Acche Din’, but this ‘Acche Din’ seemed to gradually disappear from her third book, ‘The Afternoon’. The first book ‘The Dawn’ reveals the tall promises made by Narinder Modi, the 15th Prime Minister of independent India, during the first year of his rule. The second, ‘The Morning’, unfolds Modi’s policies and ways of governance of his second-year rule under which the masses awaited the ‘Acche Din’ to arrive. The third, ‘The Afternoon’, was more eventful, replete with promises and announcements that could seemingly benefit the nation in many ways through demonetization, the draconian GST bill, the impressive slogans and catchy phrases, like, ‘Sab ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikaas’, and ‘Reform, Perform’ and whatnot. But all these only combined to create and maintain the image of a corruption-free govt., the flawless public facade and to keep the hope of the ignorant citizens of the country alive. However, the gulf between aim and execution, promise and fruition made people feel that all rhetoric by the govt. was only big in promise, but very small in execution. The fourth book, ‘The Evening’ projects the author’s perception, feelings, thoughts and observations of the NDA govt. that took over the reins in May, 2014. The fifth, ‘The Dusk’, is the scathing attack on Modi’s five years misrule. It unfolds many failings and pitfalls at almost all levels, eroding pathetically, the government’s credibility and accountability. All five volumes have a quotation before the start of every chapter. All quotations contextualize the essence of the content of the specific chapter in question. Toi substantiates every minor detail of Contemporary Literary Review India | pISSN 2250-3366 / eISSN 2394- 6075 | Vol. 7, No. 2: CLRI May 2020 | Page 195 Dr Dilip Khetarpal Reviews Phidalia Toi’s The Dusk every happening, incident, event, description, statement, information, reference, opinion, policies and the way the govt. implemented them through clear-cut data that seemed to have been collected from various reliable sources. In fact, that was what I clearly witnessed while writing a review on her third book titled, ‘The Afternoon’. Again, while going through this last volume, titled, ‘The Dusk’ I could easily see how Toi furnished a detailed data to support and strengthen every point she made. ‘The Dusk’, Toi’s last book, most strikingly opens with a pertinent question: ‘Have the good times rolled in?’ Then followed the memorable statement of Abraham Lincoln, ‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power’. It was in retrospect that the author spoke about the historic day ‘when after decade-long interval, India witnessed a change of guard strongly mandated in 2014’. After winning the majority mandate on its own, the BJP became free from the constraints of coalition politics. There was an overall atmosphere of euphoria and excitement as the people thought they would be free from the corrupt regime of the Congress govt. and the whole unbecoming system would be revamped after many years. Towards the end of five years when the Prime Minister himself discovered that he could not give the desired output, he covered up his failings with the pretext that it was unreasonable to expect all his promises fulfilled within just the period of sixty months. However, on a closer observation, the writer becomes disillusioned when she discovered that the gap between intent and performance, promise and fruition became wider and wider day by day though in utter humility she said that sometimes good intents also could sometimes lead to unintended outcomes. Further, the valid question she raised was ‘Are Indian citizens better Contemporary Literary Review India | pISSN 2250-3366 / eISSN 2394- 6075 | Vol. 7, No. 2: CLRI May 2020 | Page 196 Dr Dilip Khetarpal Reviews Phidalia Toi’s The Dusk off today, socially and economically, than they were five years ago’? During the first five years of NDA rule, India passed through some worst phases since independence. The author could spot the govt.’s impetuousness, pomposity, empty rhetoric and tomfoolery from miles away. All these combined to birth hate-crimes, mob violence and collapse of the socio-economic foundations of the nation, pushing ‘Aache Din’ to some very remote corner. Viewing Modi’s schemes, projects and plans, K N Govindacharya, former BJP ideologue and RSS pracharak said, ‘Announcement wise these schemes were attractive; image-building wise these were positives; but achievement wise I feel very disappointed’. The BJP rose to power with a firm promise to fight corruption, but nothing much of the sort happened. Firstly, the inordinate delay in appointing Lokpal and suppression of detrimental and sensitive data put a question mark on the transparency of the govt. The NDA govt. delayed to implement the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act passed by UPA govt. in 2013 for almost four years. However, the Apex Court set a deadline for the Feb. end of 2019 for the search committee to send a panel of names for consideration. Correspondingly, to protect its integrity, the govt. in Sept. 2018, constituted an eight-member committee to recommend names for the posts of Lokpal chairperson and members. As the govt. could not effect the huge disposal of a large number of appeals and complaints, the Supreme Court had to ask the center why so many posts are lying vacant at the Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commission (SIC). All this only proved that there was something lacking in the monitoring mechanisms to investigate various govt. dealings and corrupt activities. Modi’s much-vaunted catchy slogan: Karenge Aur Kar Ke Rahenge reflected Gandhi’s clarion call of 1942: Karenge Ya Marenge, but there was hardly any iota of truth in what the former said. He often said that India needed to be liberated from poverty, violence against women, casteism, corruption, atrocities, gruesome murders, rapes, bribery, mob-lynching, communalism and extremism. Our country has adequate policies, laws, acts and policing to solve all these Contemporary Literary Review India | pISSN 2250-3366 / eISSN 2394- 6075 | Vol. 7, No. 2: CLRI May 2020 | Page 197 Dr Dilip Khetarpal Reviews Phidalia Toi’s The Dusk problems, but since the law enforcing agencies are ineffectual, the problems, till date, remained more or less, the same as they were years ago. Liberal and non-Hindus were deprived even of their basic rights. Hundreds of lives were lost during the demonetization drive that also shattered small businesses and industries and gave rise to unemployment. While the masses were under stress and trying hard to cope with the note-ban and GST, the govt. made no sincere attempts to offer them any reprieve. Lawlessness began to reign supreme for all anti-social and corrupt elements were on a rampage and allowed to go scot-free while innocent lives, erased, proving true the adage: Laws catch flies and let hornets go free. Despite multiple internal problems, the govt. was also beset with problems from neighboring countries, especially Pakistan and sporadic bloodshed in Kashmir, frequent disruptive parliament sessions, shrinking exports, the decrease of foreign investors, increasing NPAs and the willful disappearance of loan defaulters have irked the nation like never before. However, certain issues which were growing during UPA rule, like cow-protection, cow-slaughter, Aadhar, Surveillance, UAPA, AFSPA, CAB and reservation for upper classes, are not only completely fed and nourished by the BJP led govt., but have rather been encouraged to grow beyond proportion. What greatly vexed the nation was the govt.’s neglect of agrarian crisis. It failed to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) as promised before elections. Research by CSDS concluded that 76% of the farmers in the country would prefer to take up some other work today instead of doing farming.