IT training open magazine TruePDF 11 march 2019

THE RISE OF
NOTA POWER

THE SHOWDOWN
IN TAMIL NADU

THE ART OF
ZOYA AKHTAR

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

11 march 2019 / rS 50

MODI'S MASCULINE NATIONALISM FACES UP TO PAKISTAN
BRAHMA CHELLANEY ON CHINA-PAK AXIS

MJ AKBAR ON BALAKOT IN HISTORY



contents
11 march 2019

5

42

locomotif

the showdowN
iN tamil NadU

Enough said
By S Prasannarajan

Both BJP and Congress hope to
gain by piggybacking on AIADMK
and DMK, which in turn are stitching up
patchwork alliances with smaller parties

6

By Shahina kk

oPeN diary

46

By Swapan Dasgupta

soUtherN rethiNKiNg

The man behind DMK’s
social media strategy works
towards a Dravidian makeover

16
BUsiNess

Scrappy stuff as strategy

By V Shoba

24

By Aresh Shirali
38

18

54
Prose & Politics

Free spirit

18

By Siddharth Singh

oPeN essay

The new axis of evil
By Brahma Chellaney

42

60

56
fiNe BalaNce

24

Rama Vaidyanathan expertly
treads the line between classicism
and popular appeal

the fog of war

By Malini Nair

Modi’s masculine nationalism
faces up to Pakistan

60

By Ullekh NP & Siddharth Singh

Zeitgeist Zoya

What’s it about the
Gully Boy director?

30

By Rohan Sandhu

aN area of darKNess

Balakot and the backstory of jihad
By MJ Akbar

66
Not PeoPle liKe Us

32
BeyoNd BalaKot

Reopening an old file involving the
Indian Air Force would decisively
help settle matters in Kashmir
By Rahul Pandita

11 march 2019

36
oNe Before all

No screen coupling yet

38

By Rajeev Masand

Nota Power

Placing the individual,
not society, at the heart
of the Constitution

What do the protest

voters want?

By Gautam Bhatia

By Lhendup G Bhutia

Cover by

Saurabh Singh
www.openthemagazine.com 3


open mail

Editor S Prasannarajan
managing Editor Pr ramesh
ExEcutivE EditorS aresh Shirali,

ullekh nP

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SEnior EditorS lhendup gyatso Bhutia
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uma Srinivasan (South)
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chiEf ExEcutivE & PuBliShEr

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volume 11 issue 10
for the week 5-11 march 2019
total no. of pages 68

4

C

letter of the week

MJ Akbar’s article on Pakistan’s reaction to the
Pulwama attack by its agents revealed our neighbour’s

long history of deception and subversion (‘The Last and
Lost War of Pakistan’, March 4th, 2019). We mourn the
tragic deaths of our gallant CRPF jawans even as we are
deeply hurt. Had this deadly ambush of an Indian police convoy been plotted by amateurs, Pakistan Prime
Minister Imran Khan , expecting intense retaliation
from India, would not have reacted so appeasingly. In
the recent past, India has underestimated Pakistani terrorists, preferring to use the euphemism ‘cross-border
terrorism’ for what were ‘acts of war’ by Pakistan. We
have further compounded our mistake by describing
Pakistani agents as ‘non-state actors’, giving Pakistan
an opportunity to declare terrorists in Kashmir ‘freedom fighters’. We have three probable solutions. One,
declare Ladakh a Union Territory, as it is least affected
by Pakistani terrorism. This will let the Jammu &
Kashmir government concentrate on counter-terrorist
operations in the Kashmir Valley. Two, make the J&K
administration more sympathetic to Kashmiris to
change its public perception. Or three, repeal Article
370 of the Constitution giving J&K autonomous status
to put an end to the terror economy there.

Enough with peace. How
long will we continue playing
their hide-and-seek game?
Why do we not force them to
play our game, the way Indira
Gandhi did in 1971?
Vinod C Dixit
needless suspicion

It is unfortunate the opposition tried to politicise the

the visit of the Saudi crown
Jaideep Mittra
prince Mohammad bin
Salman because it came close
on the heels of his visit to
pummel pakistan
well non-economically till it
Pakistan (‘A Partnership for
MJ Akbar is right: enough is
improves its ways and is able
the Future’, March 4th, 2019).
enough (‘The Last and Lost
to take responsibility for the
Relations between India and
War of Pakistan’). It is the
terror outfits operating on
Saudi have been cordial for a
Indian Government’s soft ap- its soil.
long time, therefore there is
M Kumar no need to view the sequence
proach that has encouraged
Pakistan over the past few
of his visits this time with
decades to instigate terror at- MJ Akbar’s historical and
suspicion. In fact, New Delhi
tacks continually in Kashmir. thought-provoking essay on
and Riyadh are inking agreeThe only long-term solution is Pakistan clearly reveals the
ments in tourism, broadfor India to adopt a tit-for-tat threat Pakistan-sponsored
casting and infrastructure.
terrorism poses to peace and

attitude. Imran Khan must
Moreover, the Saudi prince
democracy on the Indian
remember that just like the
has not only affirmed his
captain of a cricket team is re- subcontinent. It is high time
country’s position to not
sponsible for his teammates, we started considering every support terrorism but has
terror attack against India
as the Prime Minister he is
also agreed to share intellias an act of war and needless
responsible for the actions
gence with India.
KR Srinivasan
aggression. The Government
of his citizens—directly or
of India needs to be firmer in
indirectly. All diplomatic
the leader in the east
relations with Pakistan must its stance. Pakistan needs to
be cut off till it owns up to the be shown how a country with Sunanda K Datta-Ray’s essay
resolve responds to terrorism. was a balanced portrayal of
role it plays in aiding terrorMamata Banerjee (‘The Iron
Indian soldiers have been
ism. The global community
losing their lives in wars with Sister’, March 4th, 2019).
as a whole should boycott
A Surendran
Pakistan since Independence.
Pakistan economically as

11 march 2019


LOCOMOTIF

we have been consistently reminded, are the cleanest ones too,
and this is certainly a big deal in a country where the traditional
political hand stands for the entitlements of power. safe hands
also bring out the vulnerabilities of the country they promise to
protect in the face of extra-territorial adversity. the strongman,
the action hero, alone can make the country stronger—and safer.
it is powerful imagery in the politics of stronger-the-leader-saferthe-nation. it overwhelms india today, for better or worse.

by S PRASANNARAJAN

i’ll noT leT The counTry bow down

Enough Said

W

ords are everything.
Words build nations stronger with
raw material drawn from fear.
Words make being great possible
when the wretchedness of the
present is of the enemy’s making.
Weaponised and deployed in a
terrain caught between
excessive patriotism and liberal scepticism, words unify, inspire,

divide and frighten. Words make all the difference, for the kinetic
force of history is preceded, or followed, or powered, by the
politics of language—all those theologies of liberation, all those
ideologies of resistance. Words take us into the minds behind
change. they add poetics to the hopes and anxieties of an age.
so we hear Churchill, the war poet in power, telling them that
“without victory, there is no survival”, that he has “nothing to
offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”. We hear gandhi telling
them that “the weak can never forgive [because] forgiveness is the
attribute of the strong”, that “an eye for an eye only ends up making
the whole world blind.” We hear an Fdr simply shrugging that “i
hate war.” Words are at play at a time when we are nervous; words
that emotionalise the mood, obfuscate the intent, tap into our
anxieties, and nevertheless tell a story of our time. i choose some.

The counTry is in safe hands

they won’t, ever, for the strongmen in power are alpha
nationalists. they, in their self-portraits and the wall paintings
by the awe-struck, are the arbiters of our present, the custodians
of our future, and the most authentic restoration artists of our
past. the so-called populist, the sorcerer of the mass mind in the
post-revolution age, is a hyper-nationalist and a reborn nativist.
narendra Modi is not exactly one of them. he is not your
textbook populist; his sense of the nation verges on the spiritual.
the Prime Minister’s job, as he tells you, is to keep the nation’s
head high. When his opponents attribute the expediency of
realpolitik to what he considers his nationalist mission, he
doesn’t project himself as a nationalist under attack. he stands
there as the dutiful protector of a nation under attack—and he

sees to it that no one misses the point: pitted against him are
those who think patriotism is a milder form of jingoism. this is
a portrait of the nationalist as warrior monk, still the only showstopper in indian democracy.

Guess who’s poliTicisinG iT

silly things are said when the rhetorical urge overcomes political
realism. War is politics, war-speak is politics, and peace, too, is
politics. it gets outrageously political only when don’t-politicise-it
is uttered with sanctimonious detachment. Politics has an
emotional quotient; so does history. When countries are under
attack, or when the defender plays the no-nonsense nationalist,
the political is inevitably emotional. it gets exploitative only when
demagoguery creates a simulated oneness. We are not there yet,
thankfully, but the holy smoke emanating from the grand alliance
of doves is bad politics. nationalists assume they alone can play the
politics of resistance and retribution, though we are not sure.

so speak the strongmen, here and anywhere, and their legion is
growing, in democracies and the grey zones beyond. some of the
leT’s Talk peace
most obvious ones are autocrats, like a Putin or an erdog˘an, busy
From the other side of the border, someone aspires to be
creating their own mythologies as the safest hands in homelands
statesmanlike. the problem is the state, which has made terror
scarred by a bad history. they need the legitimacy of a doctored
a religion. no amount of ‘reasonable posturing’ can hide the
democracy—which their apologists would say is preferable to
fact that almost every other attack in the name of the Book
free-for-all versions—to play the ruler-deliverer, always tapping

since 9/11 has a connection with islamabad. What it has
into grievances of the past. the ‘safe hands’ of india, it must be
internalised as an ‘insufficiently
said, do have democratic legitimacy.
imagined’ state, as salman rushdie
they reach out to the people in a manner
called it, continues to express itself in
set by the Constitution; and their legend
the only language it knows—and it’s
is built on the assumption that we are
not made of words.
still paying for the sins of weaker hands
of the day before. safe hands announce
War is politics,
Words still make all the
the masculinity of hope, the action herowar-speak is politics,
difference.
ism of the ruler. the safe hands of india,

and peace, too,
is politics

11 march 2019

www.openthemagazine.com 5


open diary
Swapan Dasgupta

A

n interesting fAcet
of the Pulwama bombing of
february 14th has been the popular
reaction to the deaths of over 40 crPf
soldiers.
Any terror attack—regardless
of the casualties—generates anger.
At times, this is not merely directed
at terrorists but is often channelled
against the government for either
security lapses or ‘intelligence failure’.
Along with this anger, however, are
the contrived outpourings of human
solidarity—expressed through peace
marches, multi-faith prayer meetings
and candlelight vigils. in Mumbai, a
city that experienced a spate of
devastating terror attacks from the
serial bombings of 1993 to the 26/11
attacks in 2008, a ‘spirit of Mumbai’
industry took shape. its main objective,
or so it seemed, was to dilute popular
anger in sanctimoniousness and divert
attention from the hard questions that
needed to be asked. to me, it was akin
to turning the other cheek.
After Pulwama, i have found a
paucity of candle marches—Mamata

Banerjee staged one in Kolkata, but
it was an exception. More often, and
particularly in the non-metro and
small towns, the tone of the demonstrations have been quite vengeful.
the ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat
Mata ki Jai!’ chants have been accompanied by a desire to lynch the nearest
available Pakistani. Unfortunately, in
some places, Kashmiri students and
traders have been harassed and some
have left town. Hopefully they will
return soon and resume their normal
lives. But these have been isolated
incidents that, at best, have allowed
some liberals an opportunity for
anti-nationalist grandstanding. the
attacks have extended to social media
trolling of those who either urged
6

restraint or used the Pulwama killings
to mock Prime Minister narendra
Modi. Here too some intellectuals and
media celebrities milked the abuse
they got on social media to draw
attention to themselves, as if their
unquestioned right to be contrarian,
rather than terrorism, was at the centre of popular anger. it was a remarkable display of self-indulgence.
Public memory is woefully short
and an impression is often given that
sharp and nasty attacks on the social

media is a feature of right-wing resurgence in india, if not globally. in Britain,
a country in the midst of existential
soul-searching over its future outside
the european Union, both the right
and the left have charged each other
of making the lives of some members
of Parliament intolerable. Pro-eU
conservative MPs have been trolled by
Brexit supporters for being unmindful
of grassroots opinion and moderate
Labour MPs have been pilloried by the
left for different sins, including being
sceptical of the leadership of Jeremy
corbyn. On top of all this, there have
been claims that at least two foreign
powers—russia and china—have
quietly and surreptitiously worked
to mould public opinion and even
influence the course of elections.
i doubt if Pakistan has the
technological competence and the
intellectual astuteness to be able to
mould india’s public discourse, even

remotely. the high point of Pakistan’s
soft-power diplomacy was in the
pre-liberalisation days when it banked
on two things. first, sponsored trips
to Pakistan where, apart from the
generous hospitality the country

is famous for, the guests used to be
showered with expensive carpets and
onyx lamps. second, the local High
commission used to provide generous
supplies of free scotch to the so-called
opinion-makers in the media. As a
young journalist in the 1980s, i was
both horrified and disgusted by the
extent to which some editors were
compromised by supplies of booze
and biryani. Mercifully, after the easy
availability of good scotch in indian
shops, Pakistani diplomacy has run
out of ammunition. even the sponsored trips of the likes of ghulam nabi
fai have come to an end following his
exposure and conviction in the Us as
an isi functionary.
nevertheless, courting and
influencing public opinion, apart
from funding disruptive movements
of Khalistanis, Maoists and islamists,
is a declared objective of Pakistan’s
global outreach. the methods have
probably changed and gone below
the radar, but to discount this influence just because it is no longer that
obvious is wrong. Pakistan hates
india, has relentlessly pursued the
‘war of a thousand cuts’ and its more
islamist functionaries believe in the
ghazwa-e-Hind prophecy—invoked,

incidentally, by the Pulwama bomber
in his boastful video message—that
puts faith in the islamic conquest of
Hindustan. We may not be able to
stop Pakistani subversion altogether
but there is absolutely no reason why,
as a country, we should make its task
easy. this means showing Pakistan’s
‘useful idiots’ their place. n
11 march 2019


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openings

PIB

Narendra Modi inaugurates
the National War Memorial
in Delhi, February 25

NOTEBOOK

remembering with glory

T

he NatioNal War Memorial was inaugurated
on February 25th. the next day, early morning, in retaliation to the suicide-bombing attack at Pulwama, the
indian air Force targeted terrorist camps in Pakistan,
taking hostilities between the two countries to a level not seen in
decades. the Pakistanis launched air attacks a day later across the
border, escalating the issue. the two countries are now perilously
poised with war, even if not necessarily imminent, a greater probability now. Whether one is a peacenik or warmonger, the sequence of events is a testament to the case for the war memorial.
the decades before the World War i were called a time of great
peace among warring european imperial empires. if mankind
was then thought to have outgrown its warring tribal proclivities, then the illusion was shattered in 1914. a quarter century
later World War ii proved even more barbarous. the technological, psychological and philosophical leaps of the 21st century
had not changed anything in the instincts of societies to mobilise
themselves towards an endgame in which tens of millions of
lives would lay strewn across ruins. So long as there is going to
8

be war—and there is nothing to show even now any permanent
diminution in humanity’s appetite for it—those who participate in it on behalf of nations must be feted and remembered.
this is to show gratitude to them and also to keep the emotion
that makes people volunteer to be soldiers going strong. a war
memorial is public architecture with a purpose.
one reason it took india more than 60 years from the time the
idea was first mooted to finally having a national war memorial is its ambivalence towards war. its ideals are pacifist but in

practice violence is intrinsic to its nature. as illustration, consider
the freedom movement, touted to be based on non-violence but
whose real history is another thing. From Chauri Chaura to the
bloodletting of Partition, violence followed step by step with
the beginning of the indian nation-state. after independence,
we have had three formal wars, not counting the Kargil engagement. to remember those who died in wars should have been
the natural priority of governments but there was never a social
or political impetus for it beyond demands from leaders of the
armed forces. this was General VP Malik, chief of army staff
11 march 2019


during the Kargil war, writing in 2010 in The Tribune: ‘historically
and culturally, despite having to go to war so often for external
and internal security, we indians never take pride in our military
achievements or our military heroes. it is a strategic cultural
weakness. the military is sidelined as soon as the conflict is over.
till date, there is no national war memorial. Questions are raised
whenever the military wishes to celebrate an event to maintain
military traditions and to inculcate regimental spirit and esprit
de corps. that is also the reason why our long-term defence planning continues to suffer. Kargil heroes and martyrs like those
of 1971 and other previous wars are facing the same neglect.’
on February 26th, he tweeted his delight thus, ‘28 Jan 14. Was
privileged to attend public function ‘aye Mere Watan Ke logo’
with PM candidate N Modi & lata Ji in Mumbai. asked N. Modi
to make public commitment for construction of War Memorial
in Delhi. Glad promise kept. thank you PM!’
an egregious element in the delay of the war memorial is
that it had long been an agreed project. only inability to execute it made it remain a noting in files. even the land for it had
been earmarked in the vicinity of india Gate, itself a memorial

for indian soldiers who fought in World War i. the location in
lutyens’ zone, at the heart of the indian Government, was as
apt as it could be. Spread over 42 acres, the memorial competes
with india Gate in being gloriously and solemnly imposing.
the design was the result of a global competition that
Chennai-based WeBe Design lab won. about the location, its
website notes, ‘the lutyens plan had another garden planned
to terminate the axis in the rear side of india Gate which never
got built. the proposed memorial is designed as an extension
of the india Gate as a huge public open space with garden as a
closure point of this Central axis.’
For the design, it took inspiration from the chakravyuh battle
formation, a series of concentric circles entrapping an enemy,
alluded to in indian mythology. ‘the Design intends to create an
experience of walking amidst soldiers in a war field in its varied
layers. the concept is interpreted as five concentric circles of
varied elements as layers with its own functionality and conveying different emotions (protection-bravery-sacrifice), at different
levels.’ the circles so imagined are the ‘Circle of Protection or the
rakshak Chakra, followed by Circle of War or the Yudh Path. the
next layer is the Circle of Sacrifice or tyag Chakra, then the Circle
of Bravery or Veer Chakra and finally rebirth or Punarjanam’.
War memorials are not signals of military triumph. the US
has a memorial to the Vietnam war it lost. two years ago the
UK unveiled one to soldiers of the iraq and afghanistan wars,
which no one terms a victory for the allied forces now. among
the 25,942 names of martyred indian soldiers on our memorial
are also of those who died in the lost war against China. a nation is an artificial construct existing purely by an agreement of
its people. it can be both resilient and fragile for this reason. to
those who died to protect this idea, remembering with glory is
the least even a peaceful nation can do. n

By Madhavankutty pillai
11 march 2019

AFTERTHOUGHT

mAn AnD nAtUre
eviction of forest dwellers is
not an answer

E

arlier thiS MoNth the Supreme Court
passed a judgment ordering the eviction of tribals
and other traditional forest dwellers in different
states who could not prove their ownership of
land in forests across india. approximately one million
people were affected by the judgment. this led to a chorus
of protests across india. on February 28th, the court stayed
its judgment.
the court’s earlier judgment came in response to a
challenge to the validity of the 2006 law that granted rights
to forest dwellers who had lived there for a long time but
could not produce formal titles to land and their homesteads. the law was challenged in 2008 and the litigation
has continued for a long time. the number of claims that
have been rejected are huge in states such as odisha, West
Bengal, andhra Pradesh and telangana. Ultimately, the
Union Government woke up when the court passed
eviction orders. had these orders been implemented, a
near chaotic situation would have developed across india.
Now the Centre has asked various state governments to

file appeals against the judgment.
apart from the inherent problems in uprooting
people from their habitat, implementing the order
would have created serious internal security problems
as well. Most tribals dwell in precisely those locations
where left-wing extremism remains entrenched. the
displaced and disaffected population of tribals would
have simply turned into a recruiting pool for Maoists.
a flick of a pen would have created a major headache for
the paramilitary forces.
there is, however, another aspect to the matter that
has been highlighted in the petition: conservation of
india’s vast but imperilled forest resources. there has been
some debate on the matter whether the poor are the key
to conserving forests. on one side are ranged civil society
activists who claim these dwellers of forests have lived
there for hundreds of years and have played an active role
in conserving their habitat. on the other side are forest
conservation activists and state governments who have
implicitly argued that it is cruel to expect poor people to
give priority to conservation over consumption of forest
resources. there is some truth in the latter assertion: at
very low levels of consumption, there are few incentives to
save, be it money, resources or environmental assets. this
is a vexed debate that is unlikely to be resolved by evidence
and pronouncements by courts. n
www.openthemagazine.com 9

openings

PORTRAIT

Sanitary pad

period drama
Playing it out on a global stage

T

he sanitary napkin/pad is an odd object. it, or a version of
it—whether it is the menstrual cup or tampon—is used by every
woman from puberty to menopause. she will menstruate roughly 500
times in her lifetime, yet the pad is dealt with in whispers. the current
attention is vital and fundamental because it could mean that the pad is
finally being normalised. the sooner it is seen as ordinary as an item of
clothing, the better for millions of women.
the two recent events that have brought the pad into the limelight are
the Oscar-winning 26-minute documentary period. end of sentence and
the sabarimala temple verdict. While the pad itself is not the pivot
of these two events, both deal with the miasma of taboo and stigma
around menstruation. and both seek to reinforce a simple truth—
menstruation is a universal truth for women, and bleeding can never
be desecration.
pads are as common as a toothbrush in a bathroom but are treated as
polluting as a baby roach. it exists, we all know, but it must be always kept

out of sight. if it ever comes into one’s line of vision, chhi-chhi is considered

a befitting response. But it would seem that finally,
and deservedly, the pad is having its moment in
the sun. the pad which has always been handed
out over the counter in a black plastic bag, then
kept in the nooks of cupboards, and scrunched
into a ball and ferreted into bathrooms is finally
getting the attention it deserves.
Melissa Berton, a producer on the film Period,
delivered the best line of the Oscar night when
she said, “a period should end a sentence—not
a girl’s education.” an affordable and durable
pad can often be a girl’s visa to school. as the
movie itself illustrates, in the absence of sanitary
products and toilets, girls are often forced to drop
out of school. a grey-haired grandmotherly figure
in the film shabana—who takes it upon herself to
convince other women about the benefits of their
in-house pads called Fly—says, looking into the
camera, “a lot needs to change.” and that really is
the crux.
Period, set in hapur, just 100 km from delhi,
shows us how woefully ignorant men and women are about this natural human function. When
asked, ‘What are periods?’, one boy says that it
is an illness of women; an old woman says that
only god knows the answer to that question; and
a young woman says babies are born because of it.
the movie wonderfully captures the embarrassment, misconceptions and stigma that surround
menstruation. When society is ill-informed about

this biological process, it is little surprise that the
pad itself is seen as shameful.
While many antiquated believers oppose
the supreme Court’s verdict of allowing women
of reproductive age entry into the sabarimala
temple, and while that debate rages on, what
is undeniable is that the case has brought menstruation into the headlines. While menstrual
blood has always been dealt with as a mysterious
blue liquid that needed to be spoken of in
whispers, battle lines were now being drawn
through it in the court, streets and tV studios.
pads which were seen as mystifying things, which
came with wings and in various types like ‘ultras’
and ‘thins’, are now being peddled by Bollywood
superstars.
if the humble sanitary pad can be seen as
something mundane yet essential, quotidian yet
necessary, if the conversation around it progresses
from impure and sacrilegious to natural and
life-giving, then we can, finally, dare say, change
is here. n
By nandini nair

14

11 march 2019


IdEAs

ANGLE

Premium error

Why Spotify’s india pricing heeds the lessons of
Apple’s dismal performance in india
By madhavankutty pillai

S

pOtiFy has OFten been described as a business that seeks to be
the netflix of audio. it is one of the biggest
music streaming servicesthat has lately
through acquisitions also got into the
podcasting arena. this gives it scope to
make exclusive content, like netflix does
with video, which then leads to the ability to set itself apart from other players.
it is in the fitness of the worldconquering ambitions of such digital
ventures that they must be in india. the
Western market is long saturated and
can only be gamed for icing, the cake
has already been consumed there. that
leaves China and india for any new-age
business that needs rapid growth to be
future-ready. spotify this week finally
launched in india and it is interesting
how they chose to diverge from netflix
in its strategy.
spotify is charging a little over
rs 1,000 for a year of its premium service.

that is less than what it charges for two
months in the Us and is the only way to
get a real footing here. Contrast this with
netflix, whose lowest price point is
rs 550 for a month. and lest you think
that is the difference one pays for video,
competitors of netflix like hotstar
charge what spotify does. amazon
prime Video is also in the same range.
While netflix arguably has better content, to assume that a sufficient number
of indians will pay between rs 5,000 and
rs 10,000 for quality is optimistic. such
pricing can signal two things—that it
wants only a small slice of the market
that has the ability to pay, or it thinks a
11 march 2019

business model that led to extraordinary
success in the Us is replicable elsewhere
at the same charge. the end result in a
country like india for both assumptions
is the same: a large number of consumers
turning away with a shake of the head.
it does not bode well to step into india
with a mindset blind to price. this is most
exemplified by apple’s dilemma. With
iphone sales finally flagging in the places
where it has already cornered the market,
it is desperate for new markets but just
can’t seem to crack india. earlier, you

could have ascribed it to disinterest but
that is no longer the case now. Because
it is unwilling to price the iphone more
reasonably, it experiments with palming
off refurbished models or pared-down
dated versions. that has not helped. india
remains a blank spot for apple while a
Chinese company like Xiaomi, which
understood that price is the overriding
consideration here, makes billions as the
top smartphone seller. a recent Forbes report said, ‘the poor sales results have led
to apple being lumped into the dreaded
‘Other’ category in phone sales statistics,
behind obscure (to westerners) companies like trassion. analysts estimate
apple has just 1% of the world’s fastestgrowing smartphone market.’
india is always going to be a volume
market. there might be a huge middle
class but they just don’t have the iphonelevel money and even the rich here look
for deals in snob-value items. to bring a
Western story lock, stock and barrel is just
postponing a price-rationalising strategy
that will eventually be forced on them. n

RIvALRy

either india will forfeit their cricket
match against pakistan at the World
Cup, which many indians were calling for after the pulwama attack (a
much more distinct possibility now),
or the match will take place and its

ratings will go through the roof. how
do we reconcile such contradictory
urges? We have people whose first
demand after a terrorist attack is that
our team ‘boycott’ pakistan, even
if that jeopardises our chances of
qualifying to the next round. (What
if india forfeits the match and meets
pakistan at a knockout juncture?)
yet these very people—who would
have taken a magnifying glass the
moment the World Cup fixture was
available to see if there were a salivating prospect of an india-pakistan
match—would turn to their tV sets
if the match took place. probably this
is because of just how rarely these
two teams play each other. We give
cricket far more symbolic value than
due. Cricket is no bridge between
hostile countries in times of relative
peace. there’s no way you can burn
that bridge in times of conflict. n

WORd’s WORTh

‘Most ball games
are lost, not won’
Casey stengel
american baseball player

www.openthemagazine.com 15


BUSINESS

By ARESH SHIRALI

Scrappy Stuff as Strategy

O

f all the bequests of social media, the utterly
Critics see little in jugaad beyond an exotic name for scrimpy
extraordinary influence of imagery appears
operations. Others accuse the authors of conceptual overstretch
the most obvious; the speed at which images are
for citing examples of CeOs flying by the seat of their pants, so to
transformed, less so. Perceptions of popular
speak, even though that’s what dynamic entrepreneurs say they
politicians are particularly volatile; those of faceless folk slapped
do anyway: reshape their strategy on the basis of live market
with group labels, far less so: a Whatsapp video clip of an
inputs as they go along. What few dispute, however, is that it’s
anonymous ‘Kashmiri girl’ that went viral last fortnight, with
a snappy word for a scrappy way to solve a problem. Why, it has
a young woman clad in nothing but a clingy kurta all asquirm
even found itself in Oxford Dictionaries, an inclusion for which
and agurgle on a random rooftop in the sheer abandon of a
credit was swiftly claimed by a hindi flick that had a song-andwinter drizzle, for instance, seems to have startled rather than
farce sequence in the concept’s honour, a movie best recalled

spurred Whatsappers to think of individuals as individuals (as
only for its quip, Yeh duniya ummeed pe nahin, jugaad pe qaiyyum
liberals would). alas, what people make of ideas tends to change
hai’ (the world survives not on hope, but on a quick fix).
at a pace much too sclerotic for any good; how the rabble
for all its new respectability, it has long been the stuff of
responds to slogans that appeal to hoary old beliefs, no less so.
winks and nudges. attribute this to the broad sweep of its use as
leave aside ideologies of leftist and rightist extremes, perhaps
a term in India, covering everything from chewing gum acting
the most remarkable recast story of the past decade is that of an
as an adhesive to high-level bribery bending a rule or two. While
Indian concept called jugaad. Scorn-worthy till not so long ago,
urgency is usually what calls such an approach into play, it
it has almost acquired the status of a business buzzword now.
often draws upon the sort of ethical ambiguity that goes with an
early familiarity counts, and my first impression of jugaad
‘anything-goes’ attitude. this throws up an ends-and-means peras a wiseguy workaround was formed back in boarding school
plexity that champions of jugaad have left largely unaddressed.
as a reckless teenager. for coffee at midnight, a cricket cup
Indians are famous for working in the grey zone between moral
taken off our hostel’s trophy wall would act as a vessel, and a
relativism—where it’s okay to be economical with the truth, say,
Sandoz eraser pinned at both ends by a divider—taken out of a
or give safety norms the go-by—and categorical imperatives that
geometry box, snapped apart and wired to an electric socket—
specify distinct no-nos in rejection of the notion that noble ends
would be used as a make-do water heater. It was a survival aid,
could justify ignoble means. On this spectrum, recent years have
as we saw it, but the thought of jugaad being offered as advice

seen a spectral shift for the former in this country.
for CEOs, no less, would’ve made us splutter over our brew.
If sticklers for propriety react with dismay, it’s for the same
Yet, it’s not a word thrown
reason that nobody should wire
A makeshift band wagon trundles along a rural road
around just in jest today, it’s
up an eraser for a caffeine shot:
an actual subject for analysis
safety may not make for a heroic
at Cambridge University’s
self-image, but the risk of lives
Judge Business School, among
lost far outweighs the gains of
others. a big role in its ascent to
slapdash action against a ‘crisis’,
academia has been played by the
and it’s hard to believe that
2012 book Jugaad Innovation by
similar trade-offs don’t operate
Jaideep Prabhu, Navi Radjou and
on higher-order forms of jugaad,
Simone ahuja, who portray it as
whatever the aim.
a form of ingenuity that’s both
all in all, while the West’s
flexible and frugal, best deployed
academia has done well to
against adversity. this is somewelcome this desi concept, any
thing that clever companies

such scramble for a fix needs the
don’t merely resort to, they argue,
restraint of calculated clarity on
but also apply as a strategy.
what risk is worth how much. No
Well, well. Could ‘jugaad
one would want a jugaadu job at a
innovation’ set the world of
nuclear facility, for example, even
business abuzz the way that
if the stakes are sky high. at least
Japan’s kaizen perfectionism did
one no-no does exist that ought to
in the 1980s? Don’t bet on it.
find a global consensus. n
alamy

16

11 march 2019



open essay

By Brahma Chellaney

the new
axis of evil

China’s shielding of Pakistani terror is integral
to its India-containment strategy

T

he IndIan aIr strikes on February 26th on targets inside Pakistani-held territory cannot obscure the resurfacing of India-China tensions following the Valentine’s day terrorist attack in Pulwama that killed dozens of
Indian paramilitary troops. China’s culpability in the attack—and in previous lethal cross-border terrorist strikes,
such as on the Pathankot airbase—is apparent from its shielding of Pakistan’s export of terrorism to India.
The message from India’s use of air power for the first time against cross-border terrorist sanctuaries is that
it is not afraid to escalate its response to the aerial domain in order to call Pakistan’s nuclear bluff. This could
potentially mark a defining moment in India’s counter-terrorism efforts against Pakistan’s strategy to inflict
death by a thousand cuts.
The air strikes, however, are likely to reinforce Beijing’s determination to bolster Pakistan as a counterweight to India, especially because China incurs no strategic or trade costs for containing India. Beijing is not only propping up the
Pakistani state financially and militarily, but also has repeatedly blocked United nations action against the chief of the Pakistanbased Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorist group, which was quick to claim responsibility for the Pulwama massacre.
The paradox is that China, the world’s longest-surviving autocracy, has locked up more than a million Muslims from Xinjiang
in the name of cleansing their minds of extremist thoughts, yet is simultaneously protecting Pakistan’s export of deadly Islamist
terrorism to India. While Pakistan employs terrorist groups as proxies to bleed India, China uses Pakistan as a proxy to box in India.
The plain fact is that, for China, Pakistan is not just a client state, but a valued instrument to help contain India. So, is it any surprise that since the april 2018 Wuhan Summit between Prime Minister narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing
has actually stepped up its use of Pakistan as an India-containment tool, including by accelerating the so-called China-Pakistan
economic Corridor (CPeC) and playing the Kashmir card against new delhi? In fact, China is steadily encircling India, as several
developments underscore—from its new military base in Tajikistan that overlooks the Wakhan Corridor and Pakistan-held
Jammu and Kashmir to its increasing encroachments on India’s maritime backyard.
It is extraordinary that China has been able to mount pressure on India from multiple flanks at a time when its own economic
18

11 march 2019


Illustration by Saurabh Singh

and geopolitical fortunes are taking
example, have spawned a growBeijing has pursued
a beating. By China’s own statistics,
ing international image problem
a trouBling
its economy last year registered the
for the country. More signifithree-pronged policy
weakest pace of growth in nearly
cantly, China has come under
three decades. add to the picture
international pressure on several
to Build pressure on
a new phenomenon—the flight
fronts—from its trade, investnew delhi over j&K, where
of capital from a country that,
ment and lending policies to its
the disputed Borders
between 1994 and 2014, amassed a
human-rights abuses. The US-led
mounting pile of foreign-exchange
pressure on trade and geopolitical
of india, paKistan and
reserves by enjoying a surplus in its
fronts has accentuated Beijing’s
china converge
overall balance of payments.
dilemmas and fuelled uncernow faced with an unstoppable
tainty in China. as long as the
trend of net capital outflows, Xi’s
US-China trade war rages, flight

regime has tightened exchange
of capital will remain a problem
controls and other capital restrictions to prop up the country’s
for Beijing. Its foreign-exchange reserves have shrunk by about
fragile financial system and sagging currency. The regime has
$1 trillion from a peak of just over $4 trillion in mid-2014.
used tens of billions of dollars in recent months alone to bolster
at a time when China’s imperial project, the Belt and road
the yuan’s international value. not just capital is fleeing China,
Initiative (BrI), is running into resistance from a growing
but even wealthy Chinese prefer to live overseas in a vote of
number of partner countries, Beijing is also confronting a USno-confidence in the Chinese system.
led pushback against its telecommunications giant, huawei.
China’s internal challenges are being compounded by new
Meanwhile, China is alienating other asian nations by throwexternal factors. Chinese belligerence and propaganda, for
ing its weight around too aggressively.
11 march 2019

www.openthemagazine.com 19


open essay

This trend is likely to accelerate with the restructured
in the arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Such a naval base is
People’s Liberation army becoming less of an army and more
expected to come up quietly next to the Gwadar port, directly
of a power projection force, the majority of whose troops now
challenging India’s maritime interests.
are not from the army but from the other services. Indeed,

China, meanwhile, has actively aided Pakistan’s counterthe PLa’s shift toward power projection foreshadows a more
strategy to the Indian military’s supposed ‘Cold Start’ doctrine.
aggressive Chinese military approach of the kind already witPakistan’s counter is a mobile WMd capability centred on
nessed in the himalayas or the South China Sea, where China
tactical nuclear weapons for use against enemy battle
has fundamentally changed the status quo in its favour.
formations. The ‘Cold Start’ doctrine is reportedly the idea
More fundamentally, it is China’s open disregard of internaof a quick and limited Indian conventional strike in response
tional rules and its penchant for bullying that explains why it
to a Pakistan-scripted terrorist attack, so as to deny Pakistani
remains a largely friendless power. Leadership in today’s world
generals the ability to raise conflict to a nuclear level.
demands more than just brute
That doctrine remains nomight. Beijing lacks any real strational with no indication that
Modi with Xi in Wuhan
tegic allies other than Pakistan.
India has either integrated it into
When China joined hands with
its military strategy or
the US at the United nations to
reconfigured force deployments
impose new international sancin order to execute it in a contintions on north Korea, once its
gency. Yet Pakistan, with Chinese
vassal, it implicitly highlighted
support, has fielded tactical
that it now has just one real
nukes, creating a dangerous
ally—Pakistan.
situation. Let’s be clear: Pakistan’s
China today is increasingly

recklessness has been egged on
oriented to the primacy of the
by China. a full-fledged war
Communist Party, responsible
on the Subcontinent will open
for past pogroms and witchopportunities for China against
hunts and the current excesses.
India that Beijing seeks.
Under Xi, the party has set out
Beijing has repeatedly
to demolish Muslim, Tibetan
declared that China and Pakistan
and Mongol identities, expand
are ‘as close as lips and teeth’.
while encouraging
China’s frontiers far out into inIt has also called Pakistan its
Modi’s overtures to help
ternational waters, and turn the
‘irreplaceable all-weather friend’.
instil greater indian
country into a digital totalitarian
The two countries often boast of
state. Consequently, four decades
their ‘iron brotherhood’. In 2010,
caution and reluctance
after it initiated economic
Pakistan’s then Prime Minister
to openly challenge
reform, China finds itself at a
Yousuf raza Gilani waxed poetic

china, Xi has eMBarKed on
crossroads, with its future trajecabout the relationship, describtory uncertain.
ing it as “taller than the mouna Major Military Build-up
It is against this background
tains, deeper than the oceans,
along the hiMalayan
that the Xi regime’s increasing
stronger than steel, and sweeter
Border with india
use of Pakistan against India
than honey”.
stands out. Beijing not only
In truth, China has little in
continues to bolster Pakistan’s
common with aid-dependent
offensive capabilities, including
Pakistan other than a shared
in weapons of mass destruction (WMd), but is also working in
enmity against India. China and Pakistan are revisionist states
tandem with that country to militarise the northern arabian
not content with their existing frontiers. Both lay claim to vast
Sea. Chinese-supplied warships have already been pressed into
swathes of Indian territory. Their ‘iron brotherhood’ is about a
service to secure Pakistan’s Chinese-controlled Gwadar port,
shared interest in containing India. The prospect of a two-front
the flagship project in the China-Pakistan economic Corridor
war, should India enter into conflict with either Pakistan or
(CPeC), which, in turn, is the centrepiece of BrI.
China, certainly advances that interest.
Through CPeC, China is seeking to turn Pakistan into its

India will never be able to break the China-Pakistan nexus,
land corridor to the arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. and, as a
however hard it might try. Yet successive Indian governments
US defense department report in 2016 forewarned, Pakistan—
have failed to grasp this strategic reality. Virtually every In‘China’s primary customer for conventional weapons’—is
dian prime minister has sought to reinvent the foreign-policy
likely to host a Chinese naval hub intended to project power
wheel rather than learn the essentials of statecraft or heed the
20

11 march 2019


getty imageS

lessons of past national mistakes.
While building projects in Pakistan-occupied J&K, a UnIn fact, an economically rising India seeking to chart an
designated disputed territory, China denied a visa in 2010 to
independent course only gives Beijing a greater incentive to use
the Indian army’s northern Command General BS Jaswal,
Pakistan as a surrogate against it. For China, the appeal of
who was to lead the Indian side in the bilateral defence diapropping up Pakistan is heightened by the latter’s willingness
logue in Beijing, on grounds that he commanded ‘a disputed
to serve as a loyal proxy. Given that Pakistan is an economic
area, Jammu and Kashmir’. at the same time, Beijing has
basket case dependent on Chinese lending, Beijing treats it as
signalled an interest in cleverly inserting itself as a mediator
something of a guinea pig. For example, it has sold Pakistan
in the India-Pakistan tensions over Kashmir. This is part of
outdated or untested nuclear power reactors (two such aCChina’s long-standing efforts to obscure the fact that it is actu1000 reactors are coming up near Karachi). China has also sold

ally the third party to the J&K dispute.
weapon systems not deployed by its own military.
While playing the Kashmir card against India, China offers
Less known is that Pakistan’s
Pakistan security assurances and
descent into a jihadist dungeon
political protection, especially
Imran Khan with Xi in Beijing
has benefited China, as it has prodiplomatic cover at the United
vided an ideal pretext for Beijing
nations. For example, China
to advance its strategic interests
has repeatedly vetoed Un acwithin that country. For examtion against Masood azhar,
ple, China has deployed thouthe Pakistan-based chief of the
sands of troops in Pakistan-held
Jaish-e-Muhammad, which,
Jammu and Kashmir since the
backed by Pakistani intelligence
last decade, ostensibly to secure
services, has carried out several
its strategic projects. The Chinese
major terrorist attacks on Indian
military presence there means
targets, including the Pathankot
that India faces Chinese troops
air base in 2016 and the Parliaon both flanks of its portion of
ment in 2001. and in 2016, Sartaj
Jammu and Kashmir, given that
aziz, the then Pakistani prime
China occupies one-fifth of the

minister’s foreign-policy advioriginal princely state of J&K.
sor, said that China has helped
This presence also explains why
Pakistan block India’s US-suppaKistan’s descent
India faces a two-front theatre
ported bid to gain membership
into a jihadist dungeon
scenario in the event of a war
of the nuclear Suppliers Group,
has Benefited china, as
with either country.
the export-control cartel.
More fundamentally, Beijing
Pakistan has secured other
it has provided an ideal
has pursued a troubling threemajor benefits from China as
preteXt for Beijing
pronged policy to build pressure
well. For example, China proto advance its strategic
on new delhi over J&K, where
vided critical assistance in buildthe disputed borders of India,
ing Pakistan’s arsenal of nuclear
interests within
Pakistan and China converge.
weapons, including by reducing
that country
First, it has enlarged its footthe likelihood of US sanctions
print in Pakistan-occupied J&K
or Indian retaliation. China still
through CPeC projects, despite

offers covert nuclear and missile
Indian protestations that such
assistance, reflected in the more
projects in a territory India claims as its own violate Indian
recent transfer of a launcher for Shaheen-3, Pakistan’s nuclearsovereignty. Second, Beijing has attempted to question India’s
capable ballistic missile, which has a range of 2,750 km.
sovereignty over Indian J&K by issuing visas on a separate leaf
In this light, a grateful Pakistan has given China exclusive
to J&K residents holding Indian passports. and third, it has ofrights to run Gwadar port for the next 40 years—a period in
ficially shortened the length of the himalayan border it shares
which it will receive, tax free, 91 per cent of the port’s revenues.
with India by purging the 1,597-km line separating Indian J&K
The port operator, China Overseas Ports holding Company, will
from Chinese-held J&K.
also be exempt from major taxes for more than 20 years. Pakistan
add to the picture China’s shielding of Pakistan’s export
has also established a new 13,000-troop army division to protect
of terrorism and its indirect encouragement of separatism
CPeC projects. and it has deployed police forces to shield Chinese
in India’s J&K. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
nationals and construction sites from Baloch insurgents and
cautioned in 2010 that “Beijing could be tempted to use India’s
Islamist gunmen. China’s stationing of its own troops in the Paki‘soft underbelly’, Kashmir.”
stani part of J&K for years, however, betrays its lack of confidence
11 march 2019

www.openthemagazine.com 21


open essay

reuterS

in Pakistani security arrangements—and suggests that China
annually. By comparison, India’s new defence budget unveiled
will continue to enlarge its military footprint in Pakistan.
in February totals $42.8 billion, or just 65 per cent of China’s
The Chinese strategic penetration of Pakistan, meanwhile,
bilateral trade surplus. This underscores the extent to which
continues to be aided by the US factor, despite President donald
India is underwriting China’s hostile actions against it.
Trump’s suspension of american security aid to that country
India should be willing to employ trade as a tool to help
last year.
reform China’s behaviour. Yet new delhi continues to ignore
although Trump publicly declared that Pakistan provides
calls from Indian industry and consumer groups for protection
the US with “nothing but lies and deceit”, his desperation to
against the rising tide of Chinese imports that is undermining
get american troops out of afghanistan has led to Washington
Indian manufacturing and competitiveness. Thanks to China’s
cosying up to Pakistan again so as to clinch a final deal with the
large-scale dumping of manufactured goods, Modi’s Make in
Pakistan-backed afghan Taliban. Indeed, the US tentative deal
India initiative has yet to seriously take off.
with the Taliban in Qatar in late
In fact, Modi has little to show
January was struck with Pakifrom his personal diplomacy
stan’s active support. Pakistan,
with Xi. For Xi, the Wuhan sumin effect, is reaping rewards

mit has served as a cover to kill
for sponsoring cross-border
two birds with one stone. While
terrorism, thanks to unflinchencouraging Modi’s overtures to
ing Chinese support and the
help instil greater Indian caution
renewed US dependence on the
and reluctance to openly chalPakistani military in relation to
lenge China, Xi has embarked on
afghanistan.
a major military build-up along
Make no mistake. despite
the himalayan border with India.
slowing economic growth, a
The build-up includes deploying
grinding trade fight with the US
offensive new weapon systems
and an international pushback
and advertising live-fire combat
against BrI, China is able to bring
exercises. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s
India under greater pressure.
status as China’s economic and
If anything, it is a reflection of
security client has been firmly
India’s pusillanimity that China
cemented and Chinese encroachchinese-supplied
continues to contain India withments on India’s maritime
warships have already
out incurring any costs. Far from

backyard have increased.
Been pressed into service
seeking to impose any costs on
as China treats Pakistan more
China, India is doing the opposite.
to secure paKistan’s
and more as a colonial outpost,
For example, external affairs
with a government on Chinese
chinese-controlled
Minister Sushma Swaraj’s prespayroll, the challenge for India
gwadar port, the
ence in Wuzhen, China, in late
from the Sino-Pakistan nexus is
flagship project in the
February for the russia-Indiamounting. Indeed, just as
China (rIC) initiative meeting
Pakistan wages an unconvencpec, which, in turn, is the
sent the message that new
tional war by terror against India,
centrepiece of Bri
delhi, for tactical reasons, was
China is pursuing its own
willing to whitewash Beijing’s
asymmetric warfare against
culpability in the Pulwama
India, both by economic means
massacre. rIC is actually a meaningand by employing Pakistan as a proxy.
less and worthless initiative for India, and the least new delhi
The hype from India’s latest counter-terrorism airstrikes

could have done is to force a postponement of the Wuzhen
on Pakistani targets cannot cloak this reality. Without forwardmeeting at a time when the Indian republic was mourning
looking and proactive diplomacy that seeks to systematically
the Pulwama mass murder.
combat the China-Pakistan nexus, India will continue to be
Given that new delhi is loath to impose any costs, including
weighed down. Only through more vigorous defence and fortrade-related, why would Beijing cease protecting the Pakistani
eign policies can India hope to ameliorate its regional-security
deep state’s terror campaign against India? In fact, India
situation, freeing it to play a larger global role. n
has allowed China to reap ever-increasing rewards while
Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author of nine books,
systematically undermining Indian interests.
including the award-winning Water, Peace, and War : Confronting
Just consider one fact: China’s trade surplus with India,
the Global Water Crisis
on Modi’s watch, has more than doubled to over $66 billion
22

11 march 2019



Cover Story

MODI’S
MASCULINE
NATIONALISM
FACES UP TO
PAKISTAN

By Ullekh NP and Siddharth SiNgh