IT training open magazine TruePDF 04 february 2019

HOW UP DEFINES
INDIA 2019

BREXIT IS NOT A
PARTITION STORY

WHO’S AFRAID OF
DANCE BARS?

w w w. o p e n t h e m a g a z i n e .c o m

“Trump has a
boyish crush
on Putin”

OPEN

AN
CONVERSATION
4 february 2019 / rS 50

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CAN SHE SAVE THE DAY FOR RAHUL?


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contents
4 february 2019

5

50

INDraPraSTHa

aLONe IN SHaDOWLaND

By Virendra Kapoor

Tamil author Cho Dharman
talks about his art and politics
34

By By V Shoba

6
54

MuMbaI NOTebOOK
By Anil Dharker

DraWINg THe LINe

44

14

Artist and writer Molly Crabapple
on the joys and heartaches of
journalism in a post-truth world

18

By Rahul Pandita

OPeN eSSay

Absolutely English
By Roderick Matthews

58
aN INSTruMeNT Of geNIuS

18

Celebrating the extraordinary life
and art of Vilayat Khan

THe reTurN Of THe OrIgINaL
gaNDHI MySTIQue

By Devapriya Roy

Rahul Gandhi gets the perfect ally

60

By Ullekh NP

PreSeNT CONTINuOuS

24
uTTar PraDeSH
THe STaTe Of THe NaTION

40

The India Art Fair returns with
the fantastical, familiar, political and
the ecological
By Avantika Bhuyan

Modi faces changing alliances and attitudes
By PR Ramesh

65
50

HOLLyWOOD rePOrTer

30

Amy Adams on her new TV series
Sharp Objects

DaNCe barreD

By Noel de Souza

No matter how often the courts
decide in favour of dance bars,
the Maharashtra government will
not let them operate

66

By Lhendup G Bhutia

NOT PeOPLe LIKe uS

Flight to safety

34
bOrN agaIN IN bOrNeO

By Rajeev Masand

40
LeTTer frOM
SINgaPOre

44
‘TruMP HaS a bOyISH CruSH
ON PuTIN’

An Indian identity crisis in
the eastern Malaysian province
of Sabah

Family feud in paradise

Open Conversation with historian and
novelist Simon Sebag Montefiore

By Moinak Mitra

By Sunanda K Datta-Ray

By Nandini Nair

4 february 2019

Cover photograph by

Ashish Sharma
www.openthemagazine.com 3


open mail

Editor S Prasannarajan
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ullekh nP

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C

letter of the week

If not for the lone survivor, Sayeb Ali, who managed to
escape and tell his story, the Meghalaya mine episode
would have been yet another disaster known only
to the owner with bodies buried inside that hellhole
called a coal mine (‘The Depth of a Tragedy’, January
28th, 2019). The mine would then be temporarily
abandoned to avoid any questions from new recruits
sent down. Local newspapers have been reporting this
inhuman practice for long, but these get no traction in
the state because the entire political process is fuelled
by coal money. Without money from the coal lobby,
many of the present members of the Legislative
Assembly and ministers in the Meghalaya
government would not have won elections. The
Election Commission is a body with good intentions
but unwilling to go the extra mile to check money
power in politics. The cost of mining in the state to the
environment is incalculable, with three rivers—the
Myntdu, Lunar and Lukha—in Jaintia Hills rendered
toxic owing to acid mine drainage. Despite this
rampant destruction of the environment and loss of
human lives, the state allows laissez-faire mining to
continue on the plea that Meghalaya is a Sixth Schedule
state. Will the Supreme Court rise to the occasion and
stop this deplorable practice once and for all?
Patricia Mukhim

Priya Singh

chiEf dESignEr-marKEting

champak Bhattacharjee
cfo anil Bisht

chiEf ExEcutivE & PuBliShEr

neeraja chawla

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volume 11 issue 5
for the week 29 January 4 february 2019
total no. of pages 68

4

fake news alert

Fake news on social media
will have far-reaching effects
on the tone and trends of the
General Election this year
(‘WhatsWrong’, January
28th, 2019). Apart from regulating it, governments also
need to adapt to it. The irony
is that political parties—in
or out of power—are more
likely to exploit the situation
than come together to remedy it before the Lok Sabha

elections. Let’s hope after a
new government is sworn in,
all parties will meet to find
ways to mitigate if not
eliminate the problem.

28th, 2019). As all sorts of
marketing techniques like
over-the-top advertisements
become kosher, more and
more misleading promises
are made to influence voter
sentiment. Everyone and
everything is fair game in
this race to the bottom.

come up with an alternative
Brexit plan quickly as the
March 29th deadline is nearing. No one seems to have
the faintest clue about what
lies ahead and what should
be done. Those who voted for
Brexit two years back are still
unsure about what to do now,
especially if there is a second
referendum. The interests of
around 1.3 million Britons in
the EU’s other 27 countries
as well as of 3.8 million EU
citizens in Britain are at stake.

Bal Govind
cross-border voices

Manisha Gera Baswani’s
essay on her experience of
and motivation for photographing Indian and Pakistani artists is yet another
reminder that though politics
M Kumar might separate us, history
ensures we can never part
what’s next for britain?
ways (‘Home: A Divided
British Prime Minister
Memory’, January 28th, 2019).
Theresa May should ideally
Sadly, Pakistan, by banning
have resigned after her EU
Indian content on its TV and
withdrawal plan was
radio, betrays a lack of politidefeated in the House of
cal maturity. Its globetrotting
Commons by a margin of
Prime Minister Imran Khan
over 2oo votes (‘Brexit Lesmust realise that countries
Jaideep Mittra sons’, January 28th, 2019). But
cannot live in isolation. A free
unlike David Cameron, she
media is essential to a democthe electoral market
chose to stay. Her bet seems to racy. Similarly, India should
Politics is as much marketing have paid off, as she survived also allow Pakistani media
now as electioneering

a subsequent no-confidence
broadcast rights.
Mahesh Kumar
(‘NaMonetisation’, January
motion. But she will have to
4 february 2019


INDRAPRASTHA
virendra kapoor

F

inance Minister
arun Jaitley’s decision to go
to new York for a medical check-up
was only known to his immediate
family and a couple of doctors
at the premier all india institute of
Medical sciences (aiiMs) in Delhi.
no, not even his closest friends had
a clue about it. Of course, Prime
Minister narendra Modi and BJP
President amit shah were in the loop
and knew why he needed to go for a
check-up—to rule out even a remote
chance of suspected cancerous cells
in his body.
everyone else, including senior
cabinet ministers, came to know

when a viscerally anti-BJP internet
portal splashed the news. Who could
have leaked it was the question that
confronted top aiiMs doctors. there
was no question of any of the doctors
having breathed a word, given their
commitment to professional ethics.
the suspicion was now on hospital
technicians, who handle medical
monitors and other equipment used
in the check-up of the Finance
Minister. some half-a-dozen
technicians are now suspects, but no
action is contemplated in the absence
of firm evidence.
Meanwhile, as of now, the
word from the Us is that Jaitley
should be back only in the second
half of February, depending on the
doctors’ advice. His wife Dolly and
son rohan, a lawyer, are with him.
Jaitley remains in touch with the
Finance Ministry and PMO through
a hotline.

i

DOn’t tHink MOst
people notice such things, but
the two sikh ministers in the

4 february 2019

t

Modi Government who even
otherwise cut dashing figures
follow a predetermined colour
schedule for each day of the week
for their turbans. Minister of state
(with independent charge) for
Housing and Urban affairs
Hardeep singh Puri, formerly india’s
permanent representative to the
United nations, and Minister of state
for electronics & information
technology ss ahluwalia have
always sported colourful turbans for
as long as i can recall. if, say, it is blue
for Puri on Mondays, it can be red for
ahluwalia, or vice-versa, but no
colour is repeated on any day of the
week. However, if you are looking
for staid-coloured turbans in
Parliament, you have to look at
what the few sikh members of the
congress party wear—that is, mostly
white. On the other hand,
unsurprisingly, it is always blue for
the akali Dal MPs and other senior
members of this Punjab-centric party.

By the way, when it comes
to turbans worn by former
Prime Minister Manmohan singh,
colour is the least noticeable part
of it. instead, what you notice
is how far back on his cerebral
forehead he manages to tie
his ‘pugdi’.

He MOvers anD shakers
of Lutyens’ Page 3 set may have
spent several evenings bitching
about it, but this modern tale of love
breaking all barriers of age, class and
career must be shared with the hoi
polloi as well. it seems a well-known
businessman is divesting all his
assets to set up a love nest far away
from these shores. Last heard, the
two had zeroed in on south africa
for their new home. they met at
a party sometime ago and, as they
say, love blossomed. she, a Latino
beauty barely out of her teens, and
he, a well-maintained gent from
the minority community who
looks a good decade or so younger
than his mid-sixties, were so
taken up with each other that they
virtually cut themselves off from

the rest of the world.
soon they decided on a life-long
union. coming from a large business
family of Delhi now mired in all
manner of controversies, the
infatuated gent is giving it all up to
spend the rest of his life with his
lady love. Of course, money is no
problem, but what the passage
of time would do to the lovebirds
remains unknown.
Meanwhile, talking of Page 3
denizens, it is time suhel seth came
out of his self-imposed purdah. now
that he has the statuesque fashion
model Lakshmi Menon on his arm
as his lawful spouse—the two do
cut a pretty figure—he should be
seen more often than we have
in recent weeks. suhel should
get back to being his usual
boisterous-but-entertaining self.
Minus him, the party scene
in the big metros is rather dull. n
www.openthemagazine.com 5


MuMbai Notebook
Anil Dharker

J

anuary starts in november
in Mumbai. Let me explain: the
first month of the year has become
synonymous with the Mumbai
Marathon. Early in november, as soon
as the city’s oppressive October is over,
you see early-morning runners on
Marine Drive, Pedder road and Worli
sea Face. a few may fall by the wayside (‘Hey! running is hard work!’),
but most of them will be taking the
first painful steps to the marathon (or
more likely, a half marathon).
this year’s tata Mumbai Marathon attracted a record number. not
all 46,417 who registered were serious
runners: the full marathon (42 km)
had 8,414 entries, the half marathon
(21 km), 15,457. then there were the
senior Citizens’ run, Disabled run
and Open 10K run. Most entries were
for the Dream run (17,661), which
isn’t a run at all, but a 6-km saunter
through Mumbai streets. right from
the start, brothers anil and Vivek
singh of Procam, who founded and
organise the event, have ensured the
Mumbai Marathon isn’t just about
running, but a cause. as a result, a
considerable amount of money is

raised for nGOs every year.
i have always regarded the Dream
run as a bit of a joke, but it’s a vital part
of the event for a number of reasons.
First, as long as one registers quickly
enough, anyone can enter it, helping
spread the word widely—about the
marathon itself, and about keeping
fit. secondly, it’s a great platform
for promoting causes, and there are
many vying for attention. Predictably
this year, the Metoo movement was
prominent, but so was the more quixotic ‘Men’s rights are human rights’,
complemented by the chauvinistic
‘Husband is not an atM’.
Both the Dream run and ‘Champions with Disability’ event, by their
6

very nature, are full of human-interest
stories. Like the participation of 650
epilepsy patients from the Epilepsy
Foundation and their caretakers;
army veterans who lost both legs
but now compete in wheelchairs;
special Children campaigning for
accessibility in public places; children
with Down syndrome taking part
with help from their parents…
that’s the human face of the
Mumbai Marathon. the athletic face

is of elite runners, almost all of them
from africa, who run to win, and run
to win big ($45,000 each to winners of
the men’s and women’s marathons).
that’s the real thing: tall, thin, black
bodies from Kenya, Ethiopia, uganda,
tanzania, striding rhythmically for
two hours or more, bunched together
for most of the distance, till one makes
a break for it chased by others. this
year, the men’s winner, Cosmos Lagat
of Kenya, broke away as early as the
29-km mark, and put so much distance
between himself and the pack that he
was finally running against himself.
He finished in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 15
seconds. that’s like running the whole
distance at nearly 20 kmph. Drive at
that speed in your car and see how
amazingly fast that is.

W

Hat Wasn’t runninG at
20 kmph or even 5 kmph were
BEst buses for nine full days in early
January when BEst’s employees went
on strike. Hopefully, the resulting
chaos drove a point into obdurate
Mantralaya heads that Mumbai’s bus

service is not a nuisance to be tolerated,
but a vital cog in the city’s transport infrastructure that needs to be nurtured,
developed and helped to grow.
nearly 3 million commuters use
BEst’s red buses for their daily office
commute, either directly from home
to workplace, or from train stations to
the office. since Mumbai’s population
keeps growing, you would expect the
figure of bus commuters a decade ago
would be much lower than 3 million.
in fact, it was nearly 4.3 million in
2007-08; and that figure was more or
less constant in the previous 20 years.
Why on earth would the number
decline? the primary reason is that
bus journeys are uncomfortable and
now take too long. Discomfort is due
to overcrowding and poor maintenance of already rickety buses, while
slow journeys are due to the daily
increase of private cars, taxis and autorickshaws. the government sees the
increasing demand for public vehicles
for hire (taxis, auto-rickshaws), and
licenses more and more of them, thus
clogging roads further, slowing down
journeys even more, so that more
people abandon buses and go for taxis,
auto-rickshaws and cars….
now suppose you had fewer of

these, and better buses, wouldn’t you
reverse the trend and make commuting less painful? that’s what London
has done: efficiently run and comfortable buses come by frequently, while
an electronic ticker at each stop helps
track the waiting period. London
has changed its emphasis to public
transport by improving it while
making private transport expensive.
Mumbai is doing the opposite, and as
a result everyone loses. Correction: not
everyone. Big-ticket projects like the
coastal road, flyovers, etcetera, cost
lots of money, which means... i didn’t
say it. you thought it. n
4 february 2019


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sauraBh siNgh

openings

Siddaganga Mutt
(1907-2019)

NOTEBOOK

The Seer wiTh a Social conScience

I

n the late 50s, for students of Siddaganga Mutt school
in Karnataka’s tumkur district, the day began at 5.30 am
with prayers, after which they would be sent to gather
stones from fields to build educational institutions. as a
12-year-old, Chambi Puranik hated that task. Being from the
city, he found it difficult to adjust to the discipline and rigorous
routine at the school, often slipping out with friends to watch
english movies. then one morning, he heard the head pontiff
Shivakumara Swami say in a lecture that one should be honest
to one’s “antaratma” (soul). It was a lesson he kept in mind all
his life, even though after four months Puranik left the school

and returned to the city.
“I could not manage. that was my shortcoming. But that
short stay taught me integrity,” says Puranik, an educationist
and former professor of political science at University of
Mysore, who continued to visit the seer regularly. every morning, the pontiff would engage with children as part of an exer8

cise to impart what some describe as ‘education with ethics’.
In 1958-59, the school had a few thousand students and
Puranik recalls they came from all religions and castes. “he
was a visionary. he realised the importance of education for all,
particularly the poor. It was till then a privilege of the elite. It
is injustice to call him a ‘lingayat pontiff’. he was much more
than that,” he says. When Shivakumara Swami took over as the
head of the math in 1941 it had just four educational institutions
under it. today, it runs around 130 schools with 15,000 students.
Fires in the math kitchen have been burning since 1917
to serve rice and raagi balls with curd, apart from vegetables
grown in its fields. Shivakumara Swami carried on the tradition of anna Dashooha, providing three meals a day, inspecting
the food himself almost daily. In the late 70s, he is believed to
have agreed to a demand for ‘sah-pankti bhojanam’ (all castes eating together). later, then Chief Minister Ramakrishna hegde
gave land to maths to set up institutes. Puranik says at one
4 february 2019


meeting with him, the seer expressed sadness over corruption
and told him officials and politicians were demanding bribes to
release grants to educational institutions.
By the time he passed away on January 21st, at the age of 111,
he was called nadedaduva Devaru (‘walking god’). Condolences
poured in from leaders across parties, including Prime Minister

narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Politicians, from the last Maharaja of Mysore, the Gandhis, Modi to
state leaders, have travelled to tumkur, 70 km from Bengaluru,
for the pontiff’s blessings. he, however, remained equidistant
from all parties. Mubarak ali Chhote Saab, a hostel in-charge at
the math, says Swami treated poor visitors and politician alike.
Mubarak, who did his secondary school from the math in
1998, recalls the day eight years ago when he went back to it.
“Guruji told me there is no religion or caste here. Whoever
comes should work truthfully.” On another occasion while
giving Mubarak fruits when he was about to break his Ramzan
fast, he told him there is one God, but everyone has different
ways of praying. In the early 90s, the seer reportedly
condemned the demolition of the Babri Masjid, saying that
nobody had the right to destroy another’s place of worship.
his apolitical stance did not deter politicians. “he had
enormous influence on the people. If he endorsed somebody,
people would believe him,” says harish Ramaswamy, a political
analyst. the entire economy of tumkur, which became a centre
for learning, changed. “an educated ascetic himself, he taught
the locals how to improve their lives and instilled spirituality
in the hearts and minds of those who revered his math against
a mere ritualistic way of life. he was a model worth emulating
even for the ordinary.”
Initiated into the Viraktha ashrama in 1930 at 22, he
believed in the ‘Kayaka’ (work) and ‘Dashooha’ (contributing
to society) philosophy of Basavanna, a 12th century philosopher, poet and social reformer who revolted against caste and
founded a community of lingayats whose political preferences
are decisive in Karnataka. the math was dragged into a political
controversy in the run-up to the state elections in September
2017, when the Congress government granted the status of a

separate religion to lingayats in a bid to wean away votes from
the BJP, which was then led by BS Yeddyurappa, a lingayat
himself. the math had put out a statement at the time,
clarifying it did not favour any division of the community.
“as head of one of the oldest maths, Shivakumara Swami
was seen as one of the most revered and powerful voices
among religious institutions and had the respect of all political
parties,” says Sandeep Shastri, another political scientist.
Born Shivanna in Veerapura, Ramanagara district, he
embodied what he preached. Beginning his day at 2 am,
he would study for an hour. By 3.30 am, he would be ready
for meditation, puja and bhajans. he spent two hours in the
morning and evening with students. at night, he would spend
three hours studying the works of philosophers. n
By AmitA shAh
4 february 2019

aFTErThOughT

falSe alarM

Puerile politics over eVM hacking
allegations casts india in a bad light

M

UDSlInGInG anD OUtlanDISh
accusations among rivals is normal fare in
Indian politics. It is also not unusual to
hear allegations about abuse of official

positions to further political ends. at one time, in the 80s
and early 90s, it was routine to hear about ballot stuffing
and tampering of electoral processes. this came to an
end after the tn Seshan era at the election Commission
of India (eC), when the first steps toward ensuring
free-and-fair polls by creating processes to that end were
taken. Voter identity cards, once held as quixotic if not
downright ‘anti-democratic’, were introduced. a model
code of conduct was put in place and preparations made
to introduce electronic Voting Machines (eVMs). Indian
democracy became all the more robust as a result of
all this.
Unfortunately, that era seems to be at an end. Recently,
an unknown individual in london sought to demonstrate
how eVMs could be hacked. this was denounced by
the eC and legal action has been initiated against the
person. But not before the Indian media lapped up these
dubious claims, giving them the much-needed oxygen.
this is to the detriment of India’s democracy, as accusations against eVMs have never been substantiated. last
year, the eC held an open house of sorts where all parties
were invited to participate and try their hand at hacking eVMs. It is notable that one political party—known
for making rather strange claims—did not participate.
all such charges of eVM vulnerability to hacking have
remained unfounded.
It is interesting to note that almost all parties have
claimed at some point or the other that eVMs can be
manipulated. this has become a joke. First, usually before
an election, it is claimed that eVMs can be tampered with
and doubts are cast over the outcome of a yet-to-be-held
ballot. Second, once an accusing party wins the polls, these

accusations are quietly buried. Finally, it is the turn of the
losing party to make wild allegations. this has been seen
repeatedly over the last five-odd years in state elections from
Punjab to Bihar and from Madhya Pradesh to telangana.
It is another matter that none of these allegations have been
substantiated.
this trend in Indian politics is dangerous, as it
potentially erodes popular confidence in democracy. It
also casts some doubt on the maturity of political parties.
and both cast India in a bad light. n
www.openthemagazine.com 9


openings

POrTraiT

Kamala Harris

The ConTender

They call her the female Obama but can she
do what Hillary Clinton couldn’t?

W

e don’t know the extent to which sexism played a role in the
2016 US presidential vote. we cannot tell if Hillary Clinton failed to
win the white House primarily because of her gender. But what we can say
with certainty is that trump won despite numerous allegations of sexual

misconduct and a video clip of him bragging about groping women.
And yet, less than a term later, we already have four high-profile women
democrats—tulsi Gabbard, kirsten Gillibrand, elizabeth warren and now
kamala Harris—who have announced plans to run for president in 2020,
with a fifth, Amy klobuchar, also said to be considering it. Already, this
means the largest number of female candidates at a presidential primary,
at least in recent times. there’s good reason to believe America is at an
inflection point when it comes to matters of gender justice. the trump
presidency appears to have galvanised women. they took to the streets in
large numbers on trump’s Inauguration day. And more recently, they ran
and won in record numbers in America’s mid-term polls.
From the current list, there are few who have generated as much interest
as kamala Harris. Her announcement was bathed in symbolism. She chose to
enter the race on January 21st, on Martin Luther king Jr holiday, an overt nod

saurabh singh

to the historic nature of her candidacy. the design
for her campaign logo was reminiscent of the pin-on
buttons used in 1972 by Shirley Chisholm, the first
woman and African-American to seek a major
political party’s nomination for president.
Harris, although a first-time senator with little
sway outside her home state of California, is seen as
a formidable candidate. She is something of a star in
the making in the democratic Party. Born in 1964 to
immigrant parents—her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher, was born in India; her father,
donald Harris, an economics professor, was born
in Jamaica—she was already dubbed the female
obama when she ran for the senate a few years ago.

Much of the excitement is justified. If she were
to win the primary race for the democratic nomination, she’d become the country’s first woman of
colour to be put up by a major political party for the
white House. And it isn’t just about optics. Since
arriving in the Senate, Harris has built a reputation
for tough talk. Her prosecutorial style of questioning
trump administration officials at congressional
hearings has won admirers. In one particularly combative exchange with Jeff Sessions, a former attorney
general, he even said her rushed questions were
making him “nervous”. during the recent mid-term
elections, Harris campaigned on behalf of women
and minority candidates. She has a Bernie Sanderslike liberal agenda, backing ‘Medicare for All’ and
vowing not to accept donations from corporate
political action committees. (She raised $1.5 million
from 38,000 donors in the first 24 hours of her campaign, matching Sanders’ record.) She is said to have
close ties with the African-American community.
of course, even if Harris—or any other female
candidate—goes on to get the nomination, the going
won’t be easy. women candidates face more suspicion and scrutiny. the New York Times reported a
study conducted by political scientist dan Cassino in
2016. when half a sample of male voters in new Jersey were told women now out-earn men in several
households, asked if it was true in theirs, and then
asked to choose between Clinton and trump for
president, they favoured trump. those who didn’t
have the question posed that way chose Clinton.
Asked to pick between Sanders and trump, the two
groups showed no such difference.
Clinton came quite close to shattering the
proverbial glass ceiling. If one is to go by all the
excitement kamala Harris’ announcement

has sparked, there’s no reason another woman
won’t take a stab at it in 2020. n
By Lhendup g Bhutia

10

4 february 2019


idEas

angLE

OverdOing a POinT

Why Black Panther does not deserve a Best Picture
nomination for the Oscars

G

reeN Book IS a movie about
racial discrimination and the
ability of human beings to find their
nobler selves. It has great performances
by the main actors: Viggo Mortensen and
Mahershala Ali, both of whom have been
nominated for Best Actor and Best
Supporting Actor. Its screenplay, which
finds humour within the darkest underbellies of racial relations, has received
a nomination. with six nominations,

Blackkklansman has got one more than
Green Book. It is the extraordinary story of
a Black man who infiltrated the ku klux
klan. Spike Lee, who has spent a career
commenting on race relations through
his movies, has deservedly got a Best
director nomination for the first time.
these are movies that make a social,
political and personal statement, besides
being terrific entertainment. And so you
wonder why Black Panther has a seat at
the table along with them at the oscars.
Superhero movies are all the same.
take Iron Man or Wonder Woman or Black
Panther, scratch off and replace the main
characters, names of places and settings,
add special effects specific to them, and
one is the other. there is nothing close to
a creative skein in these movies and for
good reason. would you tamper with
something that brings in billions using
just spectacle and dramatic tension? You
don’t. Black Panther was just an ordinary
addition.
why would the Academy reward it
then? It has got six nominations. And
even if you concede that five of them—
Best Sound editing, Production

4 february 2019

aLamy

By madhavankutty piLLai
design, Sound Mixing, Costume design,
original Music Score—could make the
cut because these are technical fields,
marking it for Best Picture is questionable. Black Panther was admittedly a
cultural phenomenon in a Black superhero finally carving out a space for
himself and making the box office sing.
It was the highest grossing movie of
2018. It got an 88 per cent rating on rotten
Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews, but
almost every well-done superhero
movie from the Marvel stable gets those
numbers. the movie, however, was also
immediately perceived as a political
project, envisioning an unsubjugated
Black homeland. As The New Yorker in
its review observed, ‘with its vision of
an unplundered homeland, blooming
from liberty rather than from bondage,
“Black Panther” is, in the fullest sense,
an African-American work… My only
qualm concerns not so much the mission
of Coogler’s (director Ryan Coogler)
movie as its form; I wonder what weight
of political responsibility can, or should,
be laid upon anything that is accompanied by buttered popcorn.’
to nominate such a movie is to say

that it can be the ‘Best’ only because it
made a point, which itself is rooted in
commercial success. when Spike Lee
made Blackkklansman, he wasn’t
aspiring to make the most profitable
movie of the year; the producers of Black
Panther were. that they achieved it is not
a reason to place it on an artistic pedestal
that Green Book or Blackkklansman
deserves by virtue of merit. n

sWiTching Tracks

You may be the fastest man in the
world. But can you use the skills of
that sport, the speed primarily, to
make the cut later in your life to a
high level of an entirely different
game? this question was raised a
couple of years ago, when the eighttime olympic champion Usain Bolt
declared he wanted to become a
professional footballer. the buzz
grew frantic last year, when he made
his debut for the Australian side
Central Coast Mariners, scoring
twice in his second trial match.
Bolt’s aspiration was to play for
Manchester United. And he began
his football career last year with brief
training stints with clubs across the

world. But now we have the answer
to the question: nope. You can’t use
your skills in one sport to turn into
an elite athlete in another so late in
your life. Bolt has just announced he
is giving up his dream of becoming
a professional footballer. the club
Mariners failed to find the financial
backing to offer him a deal. n

WOrd’s WOrTh

‘When the going
gets weird, the weird
turn pro’
Hunter S tHompSon
american writer

www.openthemagazine.com 11


AV E N U E S

The rural
population
today constitutes
above 45% of the
national income

VILLAGES

ENTER THE
DIGITAL AGE

I

ndia is on the progressive path
of development and its rural
population is an integral part of
this growth trajectory. As India
gears up for an era of increased
digitalisation, the issue of holistic and
inclusive economic growth remains
a pivotal concern. Hitachi, one of the
leading Japanese conglomerate with
a global footprint and a forerunner in
digital innovation, has been an active

contributor in transforming millions of
Indian lives, its services reaching far
beyond citizens within city limits.
While India is one of the world’s
fastest-developing economy, equitable
growth remains a critical imperative. The
rural population today constitutes above
45% of the national income.
In 2050, despite urbanisation, over
half of India’s population will still be
rural. (Source: Changing Structure of

In 2050,

despite urbanization,
over 50% of India’s
population will
still be rural

Rural Economy of India Implications
for Employment and Growth; Niti
Aayog, 2017)
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
has prioritized radical digitalisation
to induce economic inclusiveness
through a host of initiatives. ‘Digital
India’, ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’
provide for impetus and opportunity to
rural citizens, to ensure they are equal
participants in India’s growth story.

HITACHI - HELMING A SOCIO-ECONOMIC REVOLUTION

H

itachi, with strengths in Information Social Innovation Business, has been
Technology (IT) and Operational uniquely poised to assist in radical
Technology (OT), bolstered by its social transformation from the ground
up. Armed with a century old legacy
in the manufacturing, power and
transportation sectors, and with over 5
decades of IT leadership, Hitachi can
offer an unparalleled ‘single eye view
of macro solutions’. The diversified

group, with proven expertise in
infrastructure,
railways,
energy,
construction machinery, healthcare,
IT, and automotive systems, has been
part of India’s digital journey starting
from the grassroot level.
Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business
is enabling a seamless digital

transformation for the urban and vast
rural citizen base in the country. The big
data heavy projects it has undertaken
include the digitalisation of land
records; the single-window handling of
grievances and maintenance of essential
services; easing tax payments and
government dues; along with internetbased citizen delivery of services. A
lot of these directly impact a vast rural
consumer base.
At the helm of the dramatic change
that’s underway, Bharat Kaushal,
Managing Director of Hitachi India
predicts that ‘society will change
much more than we ever imagined.’


SOCIETY WILL
CHANGE MUCH

MORE THAN WE
EVER IMAGINED.
REACHING VILLAGES REMOTELY

R

ural India has historically been at
the mercy of nature, in terms of
managing agricultural fortunes. What’s
more, limited access to products
and services, government programs
and untimely funding have staggered
development. Things are however
changing. Digitalisation is slowly
reshaping every aspect of life in villages
by introducing accessible e-Governance,
banking and financial services, educational
and healthcare services, mobile/DTH
recharge, e-Ticketing services and yes,
even online shopping. ‘Brick and click’
centres are today evolving basis the new,
emerging needs of rural citizens.
Hitachi’s
engagement
with
rural India, goes back a long way.
Almost eight decades ago, when it
entered India, it supplied turbines
for the Bhakra Nangal project.
The landmark irrigation dam has

delivered enhanced crop yields of
thousands of tonnes, over the years.
Today, Hitachi is taking decisive
strides towards digitalising India’s
agricultural, social and financial
landscape.
With an intent to stabilize agricultural
production, the Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) by Hitachi has helped
improve productivity, and empowered
farmers by using sustainable, economical
and eco friendly technology. GIS
applications are being used to
understand and manage crop yield
estimates. As farming relies heavily
on natural inputs, which cannot be
controlled, GIS applications can be
used to understand and manage crop
yield estimates. In May 2017, Amnex
Infotechnologies Pvt Ltd was awarded
the project of ‘Crop area estimation and
loss assessment using remote sensing
& geospatial technology for the state

of Gujarat’, under the purview of the
Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation Ltd.,
a government of Gujarat undertaking.
Amnex used Hitachi’s GIS platform to
implement government projects.
With climatic uncertainties and

socio-political fluctuations, rural India
faces the daunting challenge of nonavailability of credit at the right time, rate
and quantum. In 2016, Government of
India opened up the banking sector
to rural citizens and offered licenses
to small time financial institutions to
function as full-fledged banks. This
financial push not only supported the
farmers in further augmenting the
agriculture sector but offered them
financial inclusion and stability.
AU Small Finance Bank, one of the
key institutions in bridging the financial
gap was given an RBI license to offer
its services in the capacity of a full
time bank and assigned the uphill
task of setting up 418 branches in 45
days! The bank partnered with Hitachi
Systems Micro Clinic and overcame
hurdles like remote connectivity and
lack of electricity ensuring timely
delivery, installation and integration
with customized branch requirements.
Thanks to seamless execution, all AU
branches were able to supply banking
services to a new world of customers.
India’s digitalisation story is no longer
a remote dream. A fact which led to
it garnering a place among the Top
100 Countries in the United Nations

e-Government Development Index
(EGDI) for the first time in 2018. But,
for Hitachi, and for rural India, the
road to success has just begun. With
its unwavering commitment towards
building a sustainable society, Hitachi is
poised to touch more lives and make
India self-reliant.

Bharat Kaushal,
Managing Director,
Hitachi India

NEXT GEN
GOVERNANCE.
NOW

Hitachi is associated with newlyformed Andhra Pradesh, in the realm
of Real-Time Governance (RTG).
Chief Minister N Chandrababu
Naidu, intends to utilize data from IoT
devices and surveillance cameras,
image and video analytics along with
data from departments, to implement
the plan. This path breaking solution
combines public safety, performance
improvement and disaster relief and
management. It will create a smart
social environment of the future,
covering services across education,

healthcare, agriculture, labour and
insurance. The ambitious plan of
connecting multiple district offices of
the state digitally was showcased at
World Economic Forum at Davos in
2018.

To learn more visit achi/in/


open essay

by RodeRick MAtthews

Absolutely
english
Brexit is not Partition

f

rom Hull, Halifax and hell, good lord deliver us’ goes a traditional song that i first heard in the 1970s. Just
recently i have felt like adding Brexit to the list. The talking goes on and on, but nothing seems to change.
There is no agreement on a way forward. Neither a general election nor a second referendum is guaranteed
to break the impasse; both risk delivering another indecisive verdict. Democracies are not good at dealing with
50-50 splits, and tend to ramp up rather than calm down the rancour they cause. There is as yet no majority for any
option in Britain’s House of Commons, and the party whipping system seems to have broken down. But there are
plans for mPs to take over the negotiations with Brussels. No deal looms. Could things get any worse?
in an article in The New York Times, Pankaj mishra argues that Britain’s Brexit misery is payback for the sins of
empire. The long-standing incompetence of the British governing class has finally come home to roost, he says.
‘Britain’s rupture with the European union is proving to be another act of moral dereliction by the country’s rulers.’

mishra is determined to establish parallels between Brexit and the partition of india in 1947. This is a tenuous piece of special
pleading which, somewhat bizarrely, he supports by quoting British novelists Paul Scott and Em forster. if you’re going to slag off
the British for misusing their historical dominance, doesn’t it rather weaken your position to be seen to rely on British approval?
mishra’s argument is connected by strained and faulty logic. But, looking on the bright side, it gives us a chance to review the
events of 1947 and 2016-19 in a fresh perspective. Different times, different people, very different issues. So, is there any kind of link?
any kind of instructive parallel? i don’t think so.
mishra insists, as do many indians, that lord mountbatten was desperate to carve up india and did so in an unthinking hurry.
Not true. all senior British leaders, civilian or military, were vehemently against the idea of Partition. Every British strategic and
political objective was better served by a united india.
mountbatten therefore came out with three specific instructions, which he executed faithfully. The first was to implement the
Cabinet mission Plan. He tried and failed, after which he attempted to find an agreed solution, which was his second instruction.
No joy. The third was to transfer power piecemeal to whomever he considered responsible enough to wield it. But he was overtaken
by events. in late april 1947, two senior Congress leaders told him in private that they would accept partition, and two others then
publicly confirmed this within days. The eventual settlement was an anglo-indian compromise.
We can of course argue with hindsight about the wisdom of that settlement, and mountbatten can be justly condemned for
failing to foresee some of its consequences. However, at the time no one stood out against the agreement, and speed was considered
essential to preserve the structure of government. No one foresaw the bloodshed, with the honourable exception of mK Gandhi.
But he acquiesced in the process.
14

4 february 2019


Illustration by Saurabh Singh

Brexit is not the comeuppance of the ‘chumocracy’ for the sins of empire. It is the result of
complex domestic management issues of the last 50 years, of Thatcherism, of Blairism, of
patterns of public spending, of the inequities of global capitalism

open essay

None of this bears any resemblance, in generality or detail, to
any conceivable aspect of Brexit. mishra insists Brexit is a project
of the British ruling class—a class he conflates with the Brexiteers,
a careless error.
The misdemeanours and shortcomings of Britain’s gilded,
ignorant rulers occupy much of his article, and he entertains
the opinion that they were incompetent while also managing to run the largest empire the world has ever seen. He also
chooses to ignore the circumstance that most stable countries
in the modern world are ruled using systems of administration
and norms of governance that were pioneered and spread by
these appalling people.
leaving that aside, it is simply not correct to imagine somehow that ‘the British ruling class’ are behind Brexit. The truth
is more bizarre, and requires us to understand the career of
margaret Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter extraordinaire.
What we have been witnessing over the past three years in
Britain is a profound split in the middle and upper classes of the
country. most of the leading Brexiteers in parliament—John
redwood, iain Duncan Smith, David Davis—are first and fore-

some more traditional elements in the British working classes—
a re-assembly of the Thatcherite powerbase of the 1980s.
The rekindling of this alliance had not been made apparent
within the Conservative party, which has always been good at
hiding its own divisions. David Cameron’s Tories looked slick
and in tune with modern Britain. His great Tory cause was careful
management and sound money: austerity. The biggest straw
in the wind was the rising popularity of the uK independence
Party (uKiP), which has been the only consistent, organised voice

within British politics in favour of leaving the Eu.

T

HE uKiP WaS always the Tory party that dared not
speak its name, and in its early days it was full of hangers,
floggers, kooks, oddballs and sexists. The high tide of the party’s
support came when its well-to-do leadership managed to combine with disaffected labour voters in the north of England,
who were worried about unemployment, immigration and
cultural change. This northern vote bank became known as
‘red’ uKiP, and its unlikely alliance with the more southerly

Contemporary Britain can more accurately be compared with India in 1990. Back then,
a minority government in Delhi was trying to deal with a potentially overwhelming set of
interrelated political and economic problems

most Thatcherites, acolytes of a failed project from another era.
Their determination to take Britain out of the European union
is driven by old-fashioned patriotism—why should we be ruled
by foreigners?—and guided by a particular view of the state: that
it should be smaller and less intrusive. These two ideas have bred
a powerful resentment of the limitations that the Eu places on
Britain’s ability to make bilateral trade deals with other countries. The Brexiteer narrative is that Britain is being held back by
Eu interference with our businesses—unnecessary taxation,
obstructive regulations—and Britain would be more prosperous
outside the union, as well as being able to recover much of an
older culture that has been submerged by waves of immigration.
This message has not been well received by the ruling class,
largely in favour of the European project, which protects their
wealth, and whose institutions give them international prestige.

most senior civil servants are remainers, and every prime minister of the country since 1973 has been pro-European. it is precisely
this elite distaste for Brexit that gave the leave bandwagon its
momentum, and it still fuels the fear among leavers that an establishment conspiracy is determined to thwart people’s expressed
desire to be free of Brussels and its unelected busybodies.
The Brexit vote had nothing to do with any kind of perceived
historic incompetence by the country’s elite, and was the result of
a revived alliance between the provincial petty bourgeoisie and
16

‘blue’ uKiP briefly made the party an electoral force, peaking at
over 27 per cent of the vote in the 2014 European elections.
it is still the existence of this ‘red’ block that gives Jeremy
Corbyn his most difficult problem, namely that the parliamentary labour Party has a strong bias to remain, while many traditional labour strongholds in the north voted solidly to leave.
The uKiP, and Brexiteers in general, have been proud to characterise themselves as opponents of the elite. This proved to be a
successful strategy, as the anti-corporate, localist message of Brexit
energised sections of the working class which had real grievances.
Excluded from the coffee-shop prosperity of our metropolitan
centres, they were suffering unemployment and neglect, and felt
they had missed out on all the global bounty created since the
1980s. Here was the genesis of Brexit, among the small businesses
who did not trade with Europe, and among workers who had lost
jobs in traditional industries. it never had any conceivable connection with the drawing of boundaries in other countries, either
in india in august 1947 or in ireland in may 1921.
mishra seems to expect that ‘violence’ will follow the
imposition of customs checks on the Northern ireland border.
Neither outcome will arise.
He is quite correct, however, to condemn the insouciance and
ignorance of prominent Brexiteers, who developed an impervious style of propaganda, in which a leave vote was all win-win4 february 2019

win. unwillingness to acknowledge downsides to their cause was
a defining characteristic of their campaign. They had one simple,
brilliant mantra, ‘Take back control’, and one catch-all counterargument: ‘Project fear’. any wariness of the future was derided.
any questioning of the marvellous promises being made—more
money for everything! a boom in trade!—was savaged as a heretical sign of insufficient faith in the great British people.
Brexit thus had little to do with the malign incompetence of
British administrators, of today or yesterday, though it had a lot
to do with the unequal distribution of wealth within the country. Thatcher’s victory in 1979 marked the end of strategic state
investment, and the boom of the 1980s buried the idea that
governments should concentrate on the little people. Encouraging large corporations, service industries and transnational
links became the pattern of economic development in Britain.
The engorgement of the tertiary sector, combined with the
withdrawal of generous welfare provided the first planks of the
Brexit platform. Post-Brexit Britain is destined to be a low-tax,
low-regulation economy. a free-market Eden, though hardly
the paternalistic Britain of yesteryear.

ment in the regions? That sort of thing stopped long ago, and
was only being kept alive by… the Eu. a post-Brexit, leaverdominated regime will have even less interest in those left
behind than the Tony Blair or Cameron governments.
mishra has tried ever so hard to draw instructive parallels
between 1921, 1947 and 2019, but it is difficult to see where he
has succeeded. if his argument were a building job, it would be
more filler than brick.
There is a much better parallel available. Contemporary
Britain can more accurately be compared with india in 1990.
Back then, a minority government in Delhi was trying to deal
with a potentially overwhelming set of interrelated political
and economic problems—inflation, mounting debt, civil
disorder and secession, struggles with coalition allies—while

no national leader seemed able or willing to bite a particularly
unpalatable bullet. No one was prepared to change the existing
government orthodoxy, which included a certain pattern of
public spending, a dread of approaching the imf and routine
anti-americanism. Prime minister Chandra Shekhar and his
team deserve much credit for stabilising the situation, despite

Excluded from the coffee-shop prosperity of Britain’s metropolitan centres, sections of the
working class were suffering unemployment and neglect, and felt they had missed out on
all the global bounty created since the 1980s

This brings us to a profound irony. Though the suffering of
many who voted leave is real enough, the solution they have
enthusiastically embraced is hardly likely to solve their problems. it is not possible to get a better trading relationship with
our European neighbours than the one we already have, with
no tariffs, non-tariff barriers or quotas. We have essentially open
borders; that is what being in a single market and a customs
union means. But leaving these organisations, as per Theresa
may’s ‘red lines’, ensures that trade with our nearest neighbours
will be more difficult and more expensive. Such favourable
conditions cannot be replicated outside these systems.
This means that Britain will take an economic hit of some
kind, a cast-iron fact that has been consistently denied by leavers. What are we going to sell to the world that we are not already
making? What can we produce more cheaply without reducing
what we pay ourselves? How do we access the alleged 75 per cent
of global growth that is projected to occur outside the Eu? We
can’t suddenly grow rice, or knock out garments more cheaply
than the Vietnamese. Project Denial has been in full swing.
The ‘left behind’ leavers should be asking themselves what
they can expect from a crew of Thatcherite hardliners like

redwood and Duncan-Smith. When did Thatcherites ever
show any concern for the poor and unemployed? are they now,
at this very late hour, to be converted to the use of state invest4 february 2019

taking on board a great deal of political damage.
Prime minister may could learn from the late Baba of Bhondsi,
but she seems less willing to listen, less intellectually flexible and
lacking in the courage to make important decisions. With the
political nation so split, and with an in-out, black-and-white decision to be made, someone is bound to get hurt. She cannot satisfy
all parties no matter how she tries. She can serve the country by
doing the least damage she can to the economy, or she can serve
her party by keeping it together, by cobbling together a new
national status that is both in and out of European institutions.
By now it looks like this latter course is a fool’s errand.
Whatever grudge mishra has against the ‘chumocracy’,
the effete and under-serving ruling class of Britain, Brexit is
not their comeuppance for the sins of empire. it is the result of
complex domestic management issues of the last 50 years, of
Thatcherism, of Blairism, of patterns of public spending, of the
inequities of global capitalism. Saddest of all, Brexit will not
help the poor, or humble the disproportionately wealthy.
looking at contemporary Britain through the lens of india
doesn’t help us understand Brexit at all. n
Roderick Matthews specialises in Indian history. He is the author
of Jinnah vs Gandhi and mountbatten and
the Partition of British india
www.openthemagazine.com 17


BEST FOOT FORWARD

Priyanka Gandhi in Delhi

getty images


C o v e r s t o r y P r i ya n k a G a n d h i

The

Return
of the

Original

Gandhi Mystique
Rahul Gandhi gets the perfect ally
By ULLEKH NP

T

he most striking
thing about Priyanka
Vadra gandhi is a cliché,
but one that is true: that
she resembles her muchrevered, much-feared
grandmother and former Prime minister
indira gandhi, a politician who the late
writer gabriel garcía márquez is said to
have famously exclaimed about: “madam
gandhi—what a combination of delicate

femininity and sheer power.” the Latin
American novelist was on a visit to india
as part of a 1983 Cuban delegation led
by the late Fidel Castro during which he
became friends with the only woman indian premier till date. People close to the
first family of the Congress—also called
the nehru-gandhi dynasty—say that
Priyanka possesses not only her grandmother’s charm, but several other attributes as well: irascible yet compassionate, firm, receptive, warm, shrewd and

4 february 2019

communicative. Jad Adams, the author of
The Dynasty: The Nehru-Gandhi Story who
also worked on an eponymous BBC series,
recalls that Priyanka’s father rajiv gandhi
used to compare her to his mother indira
for her strong will. “that trait which indira’s opponents would call her stubbornness,” he says.
so much has been said about Priyanka
taking after her imperious grandmother—
a politician who wielded enormous power
in her time and was lionised even by her rivals—that expectations can get dizzyingly
steep. this is where diffidence apparently
gets in the way of decision. this perhaps explains why Priyanka decided to stay out of
the constant spotlight of public life and instead wilfully held on to the role of a dutiful
mother, beloved daughter and loyal sister.
But twelve days after she turned 47, a
year older than her father was when he was
assassinated (in 1991) and at an age when
her grandmother lost her father Jawaharlal
nehru, Priyanka took the official plunge

www.openthemagazine.com 19


Priyanka will no longer
confine herself to
campaigns for Rahul and
Sonia Gandhi in Amethi
and Rae Bareli but will cast
her net of activities wider
in an effort to revive the
fortunes of a 134-year-old
party that is languishing at
its lowest ever tally in
the Lok Sabha and is a
lightweight in what was
once its stronghold:
Uttar Pradesh
into politics, much to the euphoria
of her party. the Congress party’s announcement that she would be AiCC
general secretary in charge of eastern
Uttar Pradesh also broke the internet,
reinforcing the perception that she was
its ace saved for a last-ditch battle against
seemingly insurmountable odds.
“she is very intuitive,” says Divya
spandana, who heads the social media division of the Congress and works closely
with Priyanka, who has so far remained
a quintessential behind-the-scenes strategist, tirelessly assisting her mother and
brother in party matters and opting to be

in the public glare only on rare occasions.
her choice to stay away from the
limelight can be attributed to multiple
reasons. All that several people close to
the family who Open spoke to would say
is that Priyanka does things on her own
terms and that she is someone who tends
to steel her resolve in the face of daunting
adversities.
Come to think of it, as a grandchild
and daughter, Priyanka, who often appears rather unflappable, has seen agonising tragedies at close quarters: first in
1984 when indira gandhi was shot dead

20

ap

Cov er s t ory Pr i ya nk a G a ndhi

With Rahul in Rae Bareli, 2017

by two bodyguards on the morning of
october 31st just outside their home,
and later when rajiv was assassinated
near Chennai by suicide bombers of the
Liberation tigers of tamil eelam on the
fateful night of may 21st, 1991. Priyanka
was 19 when the world saw her on television alongside her mother sonia and
brother rahul at her father’s cremation
in Delhi. she admitted years later in an

interview that she had felt inexplicably
angry with the whole world back then
for snatching her father away from her.
it wasn’t anger directed against the perpetrators, she had emphasised.
Years later, in 2008, she did something that endeared her to many: she
met nalini, a conspirator in the rajiv
gandhi assassination case, in Vellore
Central Jail, where the latter was serving a life sentence. A month after that
visit, Priyanka opened up about her
face-to-face meeting with one of her
father’s assassins. she said she met
nalini in an attempt to understand why
her father was killed. she also said that
she had forgiven her father’s killers,
a gesture that won her admirers; it was
seen as a daughter’s determination to

conquer hatred. interestingly, nalini’s
death sentence had been commuted
to life imprisonment after Priyanka’s
mother, the then Congress chief sonia
gandhi, pleaded for her clemency.
But almost a decade before that cathartic moment, the persistence of traumatic memories had pushed Priyanka
to take a spiritual path; this was in her
late twenties, shortly after she got married. she delved into Buddhism, pursuing academic courses and coming under
the spell of the late sn goenka, the man
who introduced vipassana meditation to
india. to start with, she attended a basic
10-day silence meditation retreat, before
being drawn to advanced techniques.

she was perhaps seeking what goenka
repeatedly referred to in his talks as equanimity in the face of the impermanence
of things. in her own words, she was also
“introspecting” on what she wanted and
what she didn’t.
Priyanka had always put her foot
down on politics, clear that she would
not join it, and has held firmly to her
wish of staying out of the electoral fray
since as far back as 1999, claiming it
almost like a fundamental right. Last

4 february 2019


With Sonia in Rae Bareli, 2015

year, too, under tremendous pressure
from partymen and poll strategists to
join active politics, she refused to buckle. it seemed as though she would never
make a full-fledged political foray for a
variety of reasons. those loud ‘will she?
won’t she?’ questions began to slowly
soften. Wild rumours continued to do
the rounds, but expectations began to
fade of her grand entry into the rough
and tumble of indian politics. Party
workers, resigned to their fate, decided
not to hope against hope.
And then Priyanka, it seems, had an

epiphany. or was it a formal role thrust
upon her? Whatever it is, she will no
longer confine herself to campaigns in
her mother’s and brother’s constituencies of rae Bareli and Amethi, but will
cast her net of activities wider in an effort to influence people and revive the
fortunes of a 134-year-old party that is
languishing at its lowest ever tally in
the Lok sabha (in 2014, the Congress
won a mere 44 seats) and is a lightweight
in what was once its stronghold: Uttar
Pradesh. her party’s move, several years
after the ‘Priyanka Lao, Congress Bachao’
slogan was first raised, is being viewed by

4 february 2019

many pundits as a political masterstroke
that could change the rules of political
engagement in india’s most electorally
significant and populous state.

“W

e neeD heroes who
are relatable,” says a
Delhi-based Congress
leader who argues that much more than
anyone else within the party, Priyanka,
with her film-star looks, also has the
“dexterity and skills” to reach out to the

indian masses. this leader hastens to add
that there has been a marked change in
the performance of the Congress under
President rahul gandhi. “But this is the
time for the last push. Priyanka’s entry is
definitely a shot in the arm for the party
and will rejuvenate the organisation,”
the leader adds.
Being in charge of the eastern part
of Uttar Pradesh means Priyanka has
to steer the Congress in constituencies
where Prime minister narendra modi
and Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Yogi
Adityanath hold significant sway.
Besides, UP, with 80 Lok sabha seats,
holds the reins of power at the Centre.

getty images

With the samajwadi Party (sP) and Bahujan samaj Party (BsP) having forged
an opposition alliance against the
ruling BJP without the Congress, the
latter didn’t want to leave anything to
chance. the region comprises 30 seats
and is among the most backward and
epidemic-prone even by UP’s low standards. For a party that did reasonably
well in the state in the 2009 Lok sabha
polls, faced huge reverses in the 2014
general election amid a modi wave
that buffeted the entire northern belt,

and was then battered in the 2017 Assembly polls which it fought in alliance
with the sP, no headway in the national
scheme of things is possible without recapturing lost ground there. Which is
why the party’s need to field Priyanka,
a natural speaker who often comes up
with snappy, impromptu one-liners and
has an ear to the ground, can’t wait.
incidentally, when modi, then Chief
minister of gujarat, called the Congress
an “old” party in 2009, a smiling Priyanka
addressed a rally asking the audience,
“Kyaa main buddhhi dikhti hoon? (Do i
look old to you?)” Quite indicative of
her ability to swing the moods of crowds,

www.openthemagazine.com 21


Cov er s t ory Pr i ya nk a G a ndhi

she chose to throw the question to the
people while allowing them to answer
with a resounding “nahin”. Last April,
an irate crowd at a candlelight march
organised by the Congress got a taste of
her temper when they began to push and
harass women attendees.
Priyanka, it has been said, was also
at the forefront of negotiations with
Akhilesh Yadav of the sP ahead of the

2017 polls, and was instrumental in
hiring the services of political strategist
Prashant kishor, who is now a JD(U)
leader, to help revive the party in UP,
where its good days ended in the late
1980s. “she is adept and flexible in handling challenges and in parleying with
potential partners. she takes quick decisions. And everyone takes her seriously
because she exudes the confidence of a
person baptised by fire,” a family loyalist tells Open, expressing the hope of a
“seismic political impact” across india,
thanks to this measure to take on the BJP.
notwithstanding that sense of exag-

geration, the Congress party is upbeat
about the response of rivals who have
shown reluctance to attack Priyanka
personally. “Party workers are gung-ho
about her formal entry,” says Yasmin
kidwai, Congress municipal councilor
from Daryaganj and a documentary filmmaker.Afewpoliticalpunditsbelievethat
Priyanka’s charisma remains unstained
especially thanks to rivals focusing all
their energy online and offline on tarnishing the image of rahul gandhi, who, lately, has won applause for his party’s recent
poll triumphs in three states held earlier
bytheBJP,madhyaPradesh,Chhattisgarh
and rajasthan. meanwhile, the BJP contends that the Congress launched Priyankaintoactivepoliticsbecauserahulfailed
to meet expectations and that this is a sign
ofdesperation.somepartyleaders,including modi, have said that the Congress continues to be a party of the family, while for
theBJPthepartyisthefamily.meanwhile,
rahul tweeted congratulations to his sister: ‘UP is central to building a new hope

filled&compassionateindia.thenewUP
AiCC team lead by Priyanka & Jyotiraditya, will herald the dawn of a new kind
of politics in the state. We will offer the
youth in UP a dynamic new platform to
transform the state.’ he also added that it
was up to Priyanka to contest a Lok sabha
seat, a move that may trigger a change of
mindsets both among people who go for
tactical voting hoping to keep the BJP at
bay and among upper-caste voters who
have traditionally voted for the Congress.
Without doubt, it has been a long
journey for Priyanka.
As a hands-on mother who made it a
point to attend all functions when her
son raihan and daughter miraya were
at the shri ram school’s junior branch
in Vasant Vihar, Delhi, she had to juggle
home and backroom political work, including at the rajiv gandhi Foundation,
of which she is a trustee. she also took
her children along on election campaigns to the family pocket boroughs
of Amethi and rae Bareli, both in UP.

So much has been said about Priyanka taking after her imperious
grandmother that expectations can get dizzyingly steep. This perhaps
explains why Priyanka decided to stay out of public life and instead held
on to the role of a dutiful mother, beloved daughter and loyal sister
times Content

Priyanka has also been supportive
of her son’s lesser-known initiative,
iParliament, a mock parliament session held twice a year to discuss specific themes and attended by students
of a few schools across the country.
Ananya Jain, an alumnus of Delhi’s
Vasant Valley school who is now an
undergrad student in scotland and
took part in the event twice in 2017,
remembers one discussion on Article
356 of the Constitution. A person close
to the family says that Priyanka has
raised both her kids attentively, instilling in them traditional values. raihan,
who made a surprise visit to the Lok
sabha sometime in 2014 sporting spiked
hair, attended the Doon school, while
miraya, a basketball player who has
made occasional public appearances, is
at shri ram school, gurugram.
herself an alumnus of modern and
Welham girls’ schools and Jesus and
mary College, where she first studied
psychology and later attended a course

Rahul, Priyanka, Rajiv and
Sonia Gandhi at a memorial service
for Indira Gandhi, 1989; (left) Priyanka
with Indira Gandhi in Mumbai, 1976
getty images

in Buddhist studies, Priyanka married
moradabad-based robert Vadra in 1997.
Vadra, three years her elder, faces allegations of corruption over land deals in
haryana and rajasthan. one of the reasons often cited for Priyanka’s earlier
reluctance to take up formal party positions was a fear that the BJP government
would go after Vadra for these dealings,
or that he would become a political liability for her. But for all practical reasons,
such speculation appears to have been
laid to rest. Looks like the instinct to fight
on overshadows such qualms.

A

DAms reCALLs thAt
Priyanka was always tipped
for a political career when she
was a child. he notes, “the
only surprise to me is how long this has
taken.” he feels that pitching her into
organisational politics is a wise move
for the Congress to appeal to an age-old
tradition of family loyalty. he reasons,
“Families tell a more appealing narrative
than political movements. the resentments and jealousies, victories and defeats of a family like the nehru-gandhis
mirror those of the ordinary person in a
way in which discussions of policies and
‘vision’ do not.”
he also argues that one is never too
old to enter politics. motilal nehru was
27 before he attended his first Congress

meeting and, therefore, was hardly an
early starter for that time, he points out.
“his son Jawaharlal was 30 before he committed himself politically; indira was 42
whenshefirstbecameCongresspresident
in 1959; Priyanka’s father rajiv was 36
when he left his career as an aircraft pilot
togointopolitics,”hesaysmatter-of-factly.
Various scholars, even those of
the repute of Atul kohli of Princeton
University, have often wondered why the
Congress couldn’t forge ahead without
the nehru-gandhi family as a glue that
holds party workers and leaders together. in his critique of how the family held
power, University of Virginia professor
and india scholar John echeverri-gent
had argued that it was centralised access

to funds that ensured their supremacy
and control over the party’s regional leaders. Congress rivals have invariably used
this ‘loyalty’ that its leaders displayed towards its ‘high command’ to attack it as a
family-run party filled with sycophants.
Adams, however, offers a contrarian
view. he says he understands that some
people sneer at the dynastic mode in subcontinental politics as being evidence of
an Asian inability to achieve democracy
and points not just at the nehru-gandhis
but the Bhuttos of Pakistan and the Banderanaikes of sri Lanka. “Are the people
hankering after a royal family? i think
differently. i see it as unremarkable that
many members of the same family go

into the same occupation. tradesmen,
farmers and doctors may go for many
generations working in the same field.
there is some level of nepotism, but
mainly it is learned behaviour.”
incidentally, dynastic politics in
india is not restricted to the Congress
party alone. increasingly, regional parties and even national parties such as
the BJP have seen many entrants from
political families.
Adds Adams, “Children from political
families are around political talk all their
lives; they are around diplomacy and policy making and speechifying. they understand as if instinctively what will ‘play’ in
the political arena, in a way which most
people have to learn if they choose to go
into politics.” Adams has also penned a
book titled Tony Benn: A Biography about
Britain’s Benn family that has also been
in politics for five generations.
Priyanka gandhi, stately in the handloom saris she wears, like her grandmother,formostpublicfunctions—thoughshe
appeared in Parliament once in an elegant
shirt-and-trousers more than ten years
ago—has an evidently calm disposition.
it’s as though she has been trained to stay
cool and confident in the face of extreme
pressure. she is a natural and if sonia
doesn’t contest this time around from
rae Bareli, maybe the responsibility will
fall on her. it seems she always knew that
even if she was not interested in politics,

politics was interested in her. n

www.openthemagazine.com 23


Modi faces changing alliances and attitudes

Illustration by
Saurabh Singh


C o v e r S t o r y a n a ly s I s

By PR Ramesh

ON

March 15th last
year, just a day after
the Samajwadi Party
wrested back the Gorakhpur and Phulpur
Lok Sabha seats from
the BJP with the help of its arch-rival Bahujan Samaj
Party, congress President rahul Gandhi hailed the late
Kanshi ram on his 84th birth anniversary with this:
“Kanshi ram was a great social reformer. his untiring
efforts to bring oppressed social groups into the mainstream has left an indelible mark on the Indian polity.”
Seen as an overture to the BSP chief Mayawati, this
gesture came after the congress forfeited its deposit
in both constituencies; its alliance with the SP for the

2017 UP assembly elections had failed and the party
needed the BSP’s help in UP for the 2019 General Election. With 80 seats, this state accounts for around 15 per
cent of the Lok Sabha, and the congress could ill afford
to be an also-ran here again.
For the BSP, which rebuffed congress’ overtures
and announced an alliance instead with the SP in midJanuary this year, this is the third such partnership, the
first in more than two decades. Its first pre-poll deal was
with the SP in 1993, an experiment that spectacularly
fell apart in 1995. the second was with the congress
in 1996.
the state has been in political flux for four decades
and caste politics has played a major role. In 1991, with
chandra Shekhar as the congress-backed Prime Minister, rajiv Gandhi was keen on Dalit support to help
his party regain power in that year’s General Election.
Since its 1989 defeat, the congress had been under the
onslaught of regional parties and needed to address the
steady loss since 1977 of its once-bankable Dalit vote.
the BSP, built by Kanshi ram on the foundation of the
Backward and Minority community Employees’ Federation and the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti,
was now a political force. By the early 90s, the party had
gained the support of Jatavs and some Kurmis, and his
party—led later by Mayawati—soon boasted of over
two-thirds of UP’s Dalit vote. With other groups such
as Muslims added on, this spelt a BSP ascent from 9 per

4 february 2019

cent of the popular vote in 1991 to 30 per cent in the
2007 state elections. Back in 1991, congress MP and
Scheduled caste leader chinta Mohan set up a meeting

for rajiv Gandhi with Kanshi ram, a friend of Mohan’s,
and they agreed that the BSP would field candidates in
UP constituencies where anti-congress parties were
strong to divide such votes and enable congress wins.
Kanshi ram, a pragmatic leader, was willing to help
the congress in that election. harikesh Bahadur, a
congress Working committee member, was enlisted
to coordinate the plan with the BSP chief and identify
seats. rajiv Gandhi detailed the plan at a cWc meeting
that year. however, it fell apart after his mid-election
assassination at Sriperumbudur. PV Narasimha rao,
who took charge of the congress, showed little interest in following up the deal, but kept his channels of
communication open with the BSP chief. his government ran its full term, at the end of which the congress
formed an alliance with the BSP in 1996.
By 1992, the ram Janmabhoomi movement led by
BJP’s LK advani was heading for a peak and the state
was in turbulence. Shaken by the BJP’s popularity, the
regional parties tried to circle their wagons in defence.
their arithmetic logic was that a social coalition of
Dalits, OBcs and Muslims would be a bulwark against
the BJP. But both SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP’s
Kanshi ram were aware that such a grouping would
need to forge a unity based on class interests. this was
what Mayawati was referring to when she recently
described the SP-BSP tie-up as a “natural alliance” that
would “last well beyond the Lok Sabha elections, even
into the next state elections”. the party’s slogan for the
1993 state elections, when the two parties allied for the
first time, was ‘Mile Mulayam, Kanshi ram, hawa ho gayi
Jai Shri ram’ (When Mulayam and Kanshi ram meet,

Jai Shri ram fails), and it proved to be a major moment
in UP politics, with the SP and BSP winning 109 and
67 seats respectively. the BJP got 177 seats, and while it
emerged the largest party—on the strength of the ram
Mandir movement that had resulted in the demolition
of a disputed structure in ayodhya on December 6th,
1992—it fell short of majority and could not form a
government in Lucknow. the SP-BSP alliance took

www.openthemagazine.com 25