Across the Aisle: Minimum Government, Maximum Damage
In his Sunday column for the Indian Express, P Chidambaram asks a pointed question: is the cliche that a ‘country that is least governed is the best governed’ being misused in the case of the current government?
He sets up this point by first encapsulating the various governments the world has evolved through: total control by the central government, laissez faire and finally, the era of regulation. According to the author, regulation is not control; “countries with open, liberal democracies” struggled for years to find a balance between control and regulation, and this balance was achieved by appointing qualified regulators in place. However, in India’s case, Chidambaram insists, that “the Executive Government has insidiously acquired control by diminishing or debilitating other organs of the State and other regulators established by law.” The NDA government, he says, “seems to have perfected the craft”.
The purpose of this essay is to ask ‘Is this the minimum government that was promised by the BJP in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in 2014?’ The more important follow-up questions are ‘Who benefits by keeping posts vacant in crucial regulators and authorities?’ and ‘Who benefits from fewer RTI disclosures and fewer tax case judgments?’. The answer is obvious. We must understand the true nature of the RSS and its offspring, the BJP. The RSS is an authoritarian organisation: one purpose, one thought, one credo and one leader. When it captures the government through its political arm, it tries to impose on the people its pet theories of one history, one culture, one language (“Hindi is our national language”), one religion (“all those who live in Hindustan are Hindus”), one civil code, and one election.
Inside Track: No Help From BSP
Coomi Kapoor, in her Sunday column for the Indian Express, charts the electoral path for both the BJP and Congress in the coming years, claiming that the Congress couldn’t be as elated about its wins in the two by-elections in Madhya Pradesh, as it was by the wins in Rajasthan. This is because, although the Congress retained both seats, it did so at a considerably lower margin than the 2013 Assembly polls.
Kapoor also discusses Congress’ worry regarding the BSP, and how Mayawati might turn out to be a problem for the party’s chances with the SC vote bank, as she says:
Contrary to its assumption that the BJP would be at a disadvantage because the BSP didn’t put up candidates, the voting figures suggest the contrary. This is worrying for the Congress whose poll strategy for 2019 is to focus on the SC vote. Rahul Gandhi has gone out of his way to support Independent SC leaders like Jignesh Mevani. The Congress needs Mayawati for 2019, but the BSP has not responded to requests for an anti-BJP front. In fact, Mayawati will probably damage the Congress’s chances in Karnataka by forming an unusual alliance with H D Deve Gowda’s JD(S). Some attribute her negative attitude to apprehensions regarding the CBI cases against her family, but there is more to it. She is a shrewd politician who knows her party grew by capturing the Congress’s SC vote bank. She doesn’t want the Congress to grab it back.
Out of My Mind: A Short Life
“Why is Bollywood so cruel to women?” Meghnad Desai asks the tragic but spot-on question in his column for the Indian Express this Sunday. Why, indeed, can actresses not be allowed to age gracefully and secure the roles they want to as they age, like male actors can? And why must they live under constant pressure even from within the families: first by fathers, and then, often, by husbands?
Desai begins by talking of the shock of Sridevi’s death, an actor par excellence who dies young at 54, but follows this up with with the pointed critique: that women adult stars, who begin as child actors, have an unusually long and hard life. He gives a few examples of the “early exit” they, therefore, must face:
Meena Kumari died young at just 38 years.... She was the sole earner in her family from the age of six onwards. A life of constant work and being ruled by a father and then by her husband Kamal Amrohi took its toll. She became an alcoholic. Her professionalism drove her to go on filming and give her best in every film. She made 92 films during the 33 years of her career. But eventually her liver collapsed.
Another early death took Madhubala, an icon of her generation.... She too had a dominant father who forbade her going out to events in the film world. He blocked her marriage with the man she loved. She made over 70 films as an adult besides her films as a child artist in her 36 years. What we saw was glamour and beauty but not the hard slog of working and supporting a family from childhood onwards.
Yes, Sridevi Coverage was Stupid and Sexist But We’re All Closet Voyeurs
Shobhaa De, in her ‘Politically Incorrect’ column for The Times of India on Sunday, treads a fine line between calling the Sridevi media coverage sexist and by calling everyone who consumes such coverage voyeurs. According to her, the buck stops at people wanting more and more of this ‘made-for-media’ story: the mystery of the death surrounding a female superstar.
But shouldn’t one question the ethics of journalism that this coverage blatantly crossed, whether it was made for public consumption or not? According to De, however, such a “vivid media recreation” was only “a given”.
Sridevi’s death is a made-for-media story. This sounds cruel and cold-blooded, but there it is. A vivid media recreation of high-profile deaths, be they accidental or otherwise, is a given. In Sridevi’s case, thanks to her cult status, there was no such thing called ‘restraint’ during the breathless coverage, leading up to her cremation. More material will emerge over time. What are called ‘juicy details’ will be widely consumed. Who says legends have it easy? Meanwhile, can we stop the lecture-baazi on ‘decency’? Suppressing political news and covering up for the sins of politicians is a far bigger crime than jumping into a bathtub. If at all we have to nail a villain, let’s nail the ‘indecent’ TRP race. At the end of the day, it’s all about money.
Why India Should Lie Low if a US-China Trade War Erupts
“India’s approach should be that of an ant among raging elephants”...is S A Aiyar’s opinion postulated in today’s column for The Times of India. Aiyar makes this conclusion at the end of a discussion on where India stands vis-a-vis the trade stand-off that Trump is launching, with China and India. First, Aiyar breaks down Trump’s trade war with China, from which, Aiyar believes, the latter can meekly surrender or retaliate. He believes China will retaliate, since its leaders would hate to lose face and it is economically strong to hurt the US.
But in India’s case, he sounds a warning:
(Trump) has warned India to slash its trade surplus with the US. In Washington, Indian and US officials have agreed to trim the trade surplus based on comparative advantage. The most competitive US industries are defence, aircraft and energy (oil and gas). India has agreed to step up its imports of all three. But Trump has warned he will demand much more. India is too weak to stand up and retaliate. It should smile, try to pacify Trump, and limit the damage.
This, because, as Aiyar puts it, is not a time for India “to have any illusions about exercising global or regional leadership”:
It certainly must not take the lead in forging an anti-US front with China. Its strategic relationship with the US needs to be nurtured, even if that is painful. If, however, an anti-US trade coalition gathers force, especially in multilateral forums like the WTO, India could unobtrusively join that crowd, making sure it does not stand out.
The Grass is Greener on Holi
Trust Twinkle Khanna, aka ‘Mrs Funnybones’, to whip up the perfect post-Holi literary cocktail in her blog for The Times of India on Sunday!
Two days post Holi, and Miss Khanna, firmly entrenched in a daze of “bhangover” with “Rang Barse” still ringing in her ears, launches the vital conversation around cannabis and its legalisation.
She leads up to this through various stories around the cannabis leaf and why medical use of marijuana is legalised in various countries, including the US. While she surprises herself by finding that she’s on the same page as Baba Ramdev, Miss Khanna does argue the validity of the point:
Cannabis has been called ‘the penicillin’ of Ayurvedic medicine but it also has the support of conventional medical practitioners. Oncologist Dr Vishal Rao told this very paper, “We are encouraging cultivation of tobacco that causes various types of cancer. But, we are ignoring the medicinal properties of a plant that can help cancer patients.”Legalising medicinal marijuana may perhaps be worthwhile. Aside from the fact that it will make Patanjali a few more billions, there are numerous studies on PubMed that show all sorts of benefits, from alleviating nausea to shrinking tumours.
Hum Pill De Chuke Sanam
If you didn’t look too closely at the sub-text and sub-layers in Sankarshan Thakur’s tongue-in-cheek piece for The Telegraph, then chances are high that you’ll completely have missed the point!
‘Lazy-Eye Sankarshan Thakur’ as he labels himself, waxes eloquent about the gau, the rather privileged position of the gau in current times, its gobar, and the large amount of screen time allotted to that gobar and ‘gobar dhan’ (as discussed by Prime Minister Modi recently in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address). Thakur remembers the Chaiwala, who he venerates as a grand entity for having fed all the cows in his pursuit of “national duty”.
We underestimate TheBossOfAllThings, criminally so. We assumed last week that he shall enlighten us on DhanKiBaat. Trust him to spring a surprise. He went further and spoke to us of GobarDhanKiBaat. GobarDhan, the sheer richness of it. It goes down, plop, and turns a many-splendoured thing, from manure to medicine for the most arcane ailment. It flies up, pfffffft, and turns a piece of art beginning with an F. You get the drift. It’s tremendously powerful, the drift of GobarGas. And there’s entire armadas of it scudding about.
Why Local Power May Hold Key to Delhi
Aakar Patel, in his column for the Asian Age on Sunday, begins by applauding the interest national media has shown towards the coverage of the elections in the northeast. An early riser, as he tells the reader, he was pleasantly surprised at waking up to find that most major TV channels already had their panellists ready and discussing the outcome of the Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya elections.
Patel ruminates on what Sachin Pilot said about the Congress needing to win states: “No party can think of conquering New Delhi nationally unless they have a good number of states under their belt.” Patel deconstructs that need:
That was what we should have a look at because the Congress has been squeezed out of power in more states today than it has ever been in history.... Why is it vital for Congress president Rahul Gandhi that his party perform well in the months leading up to 2019? ...Being in power is what politics is about. The party can execute the specifics of its ideology and therefore set the agenda. For example, the BJP could make beef and cattle slaughter a national issue for months by banning it in Haryana and Maharashtra. The second advantage is that power at the level of corporation and state Assembly gives politicians the agency to serve their constituents. Most politicians begin and end their day with people pestering them for all sorts of things from electricity connections to admissions for their children. It is the party in power that can deliver this and not the Opposition.
Dilli Ka Babu: Politics and Policing
Aptly headlining his column ‘politics and policing’, Dilip Cherian in the Asian Age, asks the important questions about people returning to power “mysteriously” and about “controversial careers” under current governments.
In the case of UP, Cherian points to the case of Dawa Sherpa, who stirred a major controversy in the state, following his appointment as ADGP of Gorakhpur, which is CM Yogi Adityanath’s homebase. Sherpa was reportedly “missing” for 4 years and rejoined the UP police in 2012.
It is certainly an odd case, of perhaps being the only officer in the IPS who was absent for four years, engaged in active politics and then returned to the fold. The UP home department, however, says that “nothing amiss” has been found in Mr Sherpa’s service records. But many serving and retired IPS officers claim that the government is being “soft” towards the officer who is liable for dismissal from service for being associated with a political party.
Cherian also points to Jharkhand chief secretary Rajbala Verma who is about to retire and is accused of shielding a colleague who allegedly “indulged in misconduct in coal block allocation”. In Verma’s case, the PMO has written, asking for a probe, to the principal secretary of the Jharkhand chief minister.
Though Ms Verma managed to avoid responding to several notices from the CBI, with the PMO entering the picture, sources say, the chief minister may not have any options left.
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