The CBFC’s Examining Committee asked the film’s producers — the director was not present during the censor screening — to remove the shots where her stomach was visible. However, such editing would have disturbed the smooth choreographic flow of the elegant dance number (Ghoomar). The director preferred to conceal Deepika’s belly through computer graphics.”
A source present at the screening of Padmavat.
Earlier, the routine cabaret in Bombay movies was enacted by a ‘side-actress’, often a vamp, who had to finally die an unnatural death protecting the hero or some sundry good man from a perverse and blood-thirsty villain. It was surely effervescent Helen, a magical dancer, who lifted the original item song in Hindi cinema to scintillating heights without subverting basic moral or family values and never pushing titillation to the limits of perversity or vulgarity.
In contemporary Bollywood, if the above objection is granted, and it would surely border on the theatre of the absurd, let us not even then dare to rewind the raunchy item songs made (in)famous by ‘skin-deep’ top actresses, who have hitherto taken over from the ‘side-actresses’, in full public spectacle of skin and flesh, with ‘enlightened’ lyrics filled with obscene innuendo to match the rising adrenaline of sex-starved, frustrated male audiences in India. ‘Fevicol’ or ‘Sheila ki Jawani’ would give a run for its money in terms of its raunchy content to item songs like ‘Rambha ho’ or Padma Khanna’s famous jig in Jewel Thief, ‘Husn ke Saat Rang’, from the past.
The above revelation of the conscientious and high moral ground examining committee, reported in a portal, further moves to greater heights of absurdity by the following disclosure: “The screening and the discussion post the screening went on from 5 pm till almost 2 am. CBFC chairperson Prasoon Joshi was present. The historians and royal representatives raised many objections. But the board members of the CBFC found nothing objectionable in the content. They recommended a ‘UA’ with minor modifications.”
The dark irony is that despite the Supreme Court allowing the film to be released after its okay from the Censor Board with cuts and changes, including the name of the film, based on a mythical Sufi story of the 16th century, the Rajput Karni Sena refused to change its tactics. The latest is that hundreds of women in Rajasthan and elsewhere are signing in to do ‘jauhar’ (suicide by burning oneself to death – sati) if the film is released in the theatre halls. Even while most BJP state governments are solidly standing with the bullies who want to block the multi-crore, big box office, potential blockbuster, and while the BJP government in the Centre plays tactical footsie, the darkest irony is that no one has even seen the film.
Three TV journalists, all BJP loyalists, had earlier given a go- ahead to the film after a private screening. And, despite Sanjay Leela Bhansali compromising to the extreme, including in huge newspaper ads glorifying Rajput valour, the mobs are out there baying for his blood. Surely, India, at this moment of contemporary history, almost looks like Taliban Afghanistan, where both music and dance was banned, even while women accused of adultery, etc, were stoned to death in a football stadium in front of huge, cheering audiences.
Earlier, it was the Censor Board chief, Pahlaj Nihalani, who put a spanner in the wheels of all kinds of mainstream films, including by celebrated directors, plus big producers. Now, Nihalani himself has made several raunchy films with dance sequences which would make even the most lecherous blush in horror. However, once he took the high pulpit, he became the god of morality, making liberal voices cringe, and the lucrative film industry shrink. Now, despite Nihalani being sacked, the Frankenstein monsters unleashed by the parochial, xenophobic and patriarchal forces in the country, tacitly backed by ruling regimes of the BJP in several states and the Centre, has turned into an epidemic of sorts. And, like the river water disputes between the states, there seems no resolution in sight, despite the apex court and the censor board allowing the director’s freedom of expression – with cuts.
The phenomena are not new in India, where both Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen’s books are banned. Presumably, even the DH Lawrence classic, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ too is banned until this day. And, even if one forgets the pulping of academic Wendy Doniger's book on the Hindus, or the hounding of Perumal Murugan for his incisive writings, among others like AK Ramanujan’s epical ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas’, the Indian power establishment, across all party spectrum, including the Left in Bengal, have routinely encouraged the sectarian forces which have refused to see reason.
Earlier, Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’ and ‘Fire’ were violently attacked in the sets (like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavat in Rajasthan) by Hindutva forces, so much so, the films were stalled, and the government refused to act in support of the acclaimed filmmaker. One wonders, what will happen if tomorrow Rabindranath Tagore or Munshi Premchand’s books (or cinematic adaptations), or even Satyajit Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Shyam Benegal’s films are irrationally attacked because some sections don’t agree with ‘certain sectarian sentiments’!
‘Lipstick under the Burqa’ by Alankrita Srivastava, was hounded by Nihalini’s censor board. She was humiliated and demoralized. Finally, after its release, the audience discovered, how great this movie was, and how it opened up questions which Indian society was refusing to address. Similarly, ‘S Durga’, (earlier called Sexy Durga), in Malayalam, by young, avant-garde filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, despite widely acclaimed by critics and audiences in Kerala and all over international film festivals, was repeatedly hounded, despite the Kerala High Court okaying it. So much so, it was not screened at the Goa International Film Festival hosted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
The film depicts the nocturnal underbelly of a predatory, brutish and macho society. A stranded couple on the streets, suddenly discovers, that the whole world is an enemy, and the young woman ‘Durga’, otherwise named after a goddess who is worshipped in temples and homes, is suddenly turned into an object of lust and violence. It narrates the dark underbelly of the night streets of our towns and cities, where women, even with a companion, can’t venture out, by design or by mistake. She is at once dubbed as an object who should be brutalized.
Even while a few good films from Mumbai did hit the screen, like Konkana Sen’s ‘Death in the Gunj’ among others in 2017, a shadow of depressing doubt hangs over the Mumbai film industry, even as its big guns have refused to come out in solidarity with Bhansali. They are indeed refusing to understand that a mob running amok follows no rules, doctrines or principles of social or legal protocol – they are just out there baying for blood, without evidence, without truth on their side, completely irrational, and riding piggyback on the powers that be, with a tacit alliance hatched with the political class and the ruling regime. So, today it is this midriff or belly, tomorrow it might become some other part of the mind or body. Today, it is Deepika Padukone, tomorrow it can be Kareena Kapoor.
The hoarding is on the wall. It speaks its own perverse story.
It also never occurs that the name Monginis has an Italian tinge to it and that the cake factory has in fact been around for more than a hundred years.
Messrs Mongini opened their restaurant and confectionery on Churchgate Street in Bombay as Mongini Ltd in 1920. In 1919, following a widening of Churchgate Street, they reopened their new and larger building as the Mongini Brothers. “Messrs Mongini’s building will prove a valuable addition to the palatial business establishments of the city… The ground floor will be used as Refreshment room and confectionery. The dining room will be located on the first floor. Whilst the 2nd floor may be reserved and arrangements made for wedding receptions, dinner parties, presentation ceremonies and so on.” This little gem appeared in The Times of India, on March 21, 1919. In fact, very little is heard or written about this vintage confectioner who has given such joy to generations.
According to a report in The Times of India, December 6, 1929, not only was Mongini’s famous for its cakes, it was also a place for Bombay’s European and later Indian elite to have dinner while listening to classical music, hold meetings, book clubs and all manner of cultural and business soirees. In the 1930s, Mongini’s became quite famous for its Hungarian orchestra, directed by Laszlo Szabo and played by Hungarian musicians. There were concerts on Tuesdays, dinner dances on Fridays and Saturdays and, as was quite the “favoured haunt at afternoon and evening of the city’s socialites, intelligentsia and business bosses”. The chocolates and cakes were, of course, special, particularly on the occasion of the annual Easter and Christmas Bazaars.
Several other Times of India articles describe the crackers and chocolates of all sizes and descriptions piled high, alongside sweets both freshly made and imported like marrons, crystallised fruit, sugar-coated almonds, caramels, toffees, wafers, Easter eggs, gauzy butterflies and black cats for table decorations, and the bakery making fresh Christmas cakes to be sent all over India.
What is less known perhaps is that LU Mongini, one of the founding brothers of the company, was a proud fascist who wrote several letters to the Times of India praising “the immense services rendered by Mussolini to Italy” and explaining how “fascism [had] saved Italy” from the disaster that was Communism in his opinion. Mongini was a member of the Bombay Presidency Trades Association, consul for the Italian Touring Club of Bombay (which seems to have promoted tourism in Italy), and director of the Fascism centre in Bombay founded in 1925.
While debating the benefits of fascism with another reader of the newspaper, he wrote quite frankly, “If on the one hand Fascism insists on discipline and places restrictions on so-called liberty, on the other hand, it creates order and economic balance in the State.” He had no qualms admitting that fascism curtailed the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the right to strike because it protected the regime from sedition and defamation by giving it a “firm strong hand”. Besides, fascism for him was more than just a party, it “[identified] itself with the nation… It [was] the Italian nation itself”.
Though none of the letters by LU Mongini to the press on the subject of fascism ever mentioned Mongini Ltd, we know that it is the same Mongini because the address from which he signed his letters was that of the shop (45 Church Gate Street). Thus, the man who supplied sweet delights to elites all over India and Bombay was also the man who thought Mussolini and a “strong regime” were the answer to Italy’s troubles. Following the turns of history and the outcome of the Second World War, fascism and Mussolini may no longer be things to be openly proud of. But there was a time when even moderates thought Mussolini had made great contributions to Italy, as even the man debating with Mongini over fascism conceded. For Mongini, and many others of his time, these were all things to take pride in – the strength and supremacy of the nation, the squashing of all criticism of fascist violence as “defamation” and “seditious propaganda”, and abolishing civil and workers liberties to strengthen “the Kingdom of Fascism and its Duce”.
Monginis, now Mio Amore in Kolkata, no longer has anything to do with Italy or Fascism of course. Ownership has passed on to Indian hands and the brothers left the country at the time of Independence. But, as you buy your next chocolate cake or eat an Easter egg anywhere in the world this season, it’s worth wondering – do you know people who believe in similar things today? And if so, who are the Il Duces of our times?
CES is the world's gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years — the global stage where next- generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers.
2017 saw the arrival in homes of devices that could answer questions like ‘What’s the weather outside?’, play music from the Internet, set reminders for tasks, all done through voice commands. Such devices can even help with home work-for example you can ask Alexa, the ‘digital assistant’ on Amazon’s Echo device - ‘What’s 353 + 1087?’ Or ‘What’s the square root of 2?’ Devices such as the Echo are smart enough to understand your voice and accent and perform the requested tasks pretty much most of the time. This year, the companies that make these ‘smart’ devices are adding screens to them. So, if you ask about traffic on the way to college or office, the device will respond by pulling out a map to display. A request for news could also link you to news videos on the Internet. Some models also support video calls.
The idea behind these devices to make them simple and more like an appliance rather than like a complex PC or smartphone.
Ever dreamt of watching TV on a screen that’s as big as your wall? Electronics company Samsung has heard your prayers for at CES, they exhibited a new kind of television that was 10 feet across and 6 feet tall. Not surprisingly, they are calling it ‘The Wall’.
Not only will it have sharper colours than the kind we are used to seeing on TV, it works like a set of building blocks-so, you can remove a block or add one to make it bigger or smaller! For instance, you can set it up so it looks like a smaller TV in the center of the screen, while the surrounding area is set up to blend in with the wall the TV was mounted on. Else you can have a gigantic screen. It’s a flexible technology that allows you to create unusual sized screens depending on what the buyer wants.
Electronics companies don't just want to keep you entertained during the day-they also want to make sure you sleep at night! Phillips, the company that makes TVs and other electronics, has come up with a headband that you wear at night to get a good night’s rest. How does it do this? The headband gives out a tone (a sound) that the company says improves slow wave sleep, the stage in our sleep cycle when brain waves and breathing slow to their lowest levels.
The longer amount of slow wave sleep we get at night, the more alert and focused we will be the next day, says the company. There are sensors (tiny instruments that sense certain activities) on the headband that work out when a person has fallen asleep and entered deep sleep. The tone is then activated so that slow wave activity in the brain gets a boost. Not surprisingly, the gadget is called SmartSleep!
Losing your bag in a busy station/airport or bus terminus is something every traveler worries about. With the ForwardX CX-1, a suitcase developed by a Chinese company, that’s something you won’t have to worry about as this suitcase will follow you wherever you go. Fitted with a front-facing camera that can keep track of your movements, the suitcase will roll along behind you (no hands needed to drag it!) with a maximum speed of 11 kilometres per hour. If it loses sight of you, the device uses an electronic wristband (that the owner has to wear) to catch up. And if someone tries to steal your bag behind your back, the wristband should also be able to alert the owner of the theft. Now, that’s one smart bag!
The cliché becomes a metaphor: a picture is worth one thousand words. So what about the legendary picture of the Afghan girl with blazing blue eyes on the cover of ‘National Geographic’? Or the haunting picture of young children, and a naked girl child, running away from a ‘Napalmed’ village in Vietnam – by genocidal US air-force attacks during the Vietnam war? Or, that Pulitzer prize-winning photograph of a hungry, emaciated, dying child, slowly crawling to death, being preyed upon by a predatory vulture? Or, even closer home, a dead child in the rubble in Bhopal, her body half-hidden, real or stage-managed?
Irfan Nabi’s photographs transcend the medium, the message, the thousand words, and the fixity of the cinematic photographic frame. In the last village of Muslims in a Buddhist populated zone in Ladakh, he makes eye-contact. The picture is precisely called ‘Eye-Contact’. If you can read the eyes of this beautiful little girl, refusing to challenge the camera, or refusing to become both subject and object of fame, then you are already reading her eyes. They tell stories of one thousand or more years of solitude, as much as the magic realism of the incredible possibilities in her mind, in her real and imagined homeland: Tartuk.
So the camera takes a moment to click what is a final picture of an eternity. Does it?
No, often it is hard, processed through the tough territories of time and space through hard, protracted journeys in inaccessible, difficult terrain, in abject solitude, waiting for that precise moment, with patience and precision, when the moment is frozen into history. The ‘Eye-Contact’ is one such moment of revelation. And frame.
Indeed, what do you say of camel riders, in dark outlines, like an old Hollywood movie shot in the middle-east desert, with the mountains as high and craggy, many times more higher than a Texan landscape? Mixing incredible, moving geographies, with rare animals in a rare topography?
Or, horse polo shot from the distance, high up in the mountains where oxygen is less and life is not as easy as in the plains? Or a little girl in black and white, running in a village, which is a conflict zone in Kashmir? Is she running with joy? Yes, it seems. Or, even, lines drawn on a picture, like an impressionist painting, where the Pangong Lake, meditates among the multiple crossings of unimaginable beauty, like a Paul Klee painting?
If the camera is a mechanical object, the mind and eye behind the camera breaks the machine’s mechanical monotony and turns it into an object of art, of unprecedented beauty and meaning, because this beauty lies in the eye and mind of the photographer, not the camera. Hence, despite the painting becoming the true subjective depiction of realism, or great cinema being fiction which is also documentary, the photograph shot with compassion and sensitivity, and, of course, originality and genius, at once becomes a work of art. A synthesis of painting and cinema, not ‘still pictures’, but motion cinema, and a painting moving out of its frame, like a Van Gogh masterpiece.
Irfan Nabi’s pictures, of ordinary tourist frames, are elevated into classics, like that of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Dal Lake in Kashmir. They tell hidden stories, inaccessible by words, as do his pictures of Buddhist monasteries, so high up that even the eye of the camera refuses to meet the turbulent, scolding sky, in terribly beautiful landscapes, so terrible that the loneliness of the pictures trap you. They are not clichés. They are telling a story of a haunted land where pellets and tear gas have transformed the landscape, as in Kashmir. They are memories, which he has recorded, as aesthetic reminders to human civilization, carrying a simple message.
Look at nature, And look at people who live in this nature in absolute, stunning synthesis. Their life is hard, but their eyes are beautiful. Like that little girl who makes eye-contact with civilization. Learn from it.
Pictures by Irfan Nabi. Curated by Nilosree Biswas
Irfan is a photographer, author, who believes images are all about stories. “Alluring Kashmir The Inner Spirit”, his photo travel book lensed unconventionally is a mint fresh take on the land, the people and it`s culture. “Seeds of Pomegranate”a book of tiny tales titled harps on photo romance as a genre and strings up a collection of 39 tales of love, longing and more, each accompanied by a black and white that is the quintessential metaphor of memories. His photographs have been featured for 27 times as Editor`s Favourite and published half a dozen times in National Geographic`s global photo community platform. They had also been a part of month long exhibition at International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) held at Leiden, The Netherlands titled “Picturing Asia”. His work is also a part of ‘Food: Our Global Kitchen’ a permanent exhibition at National Geographic Museum in Washington DC, 2014. Guardian Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Travellerhave chosen his images to be featured on their on social media handles. Irfan currently is wrapping his upcoming book on Ladakh and also completed first batch of filming for his next untitled book on Banaras.
In “Why I Am a Hindu”, Tharoor gives us a profound book about one of the world's oldest and greatest religions. Starting with a close examination of his own belief in Hinduism, he ranges far and wide in his study of the faith. He looks at the myriad manifestations of political Hinduism in the modern era, including violence committed in the name of the faith by right-wing organisations and their adherents. He is unsparing in his criticism of extremist “bhakts”, and unequivocal in his belief that everything that makes India a great and distinctive culture and the country will be imperilled if religious fundamentalists are allowed to take the upper hand.
In “Pakistan's Nuclear Bomb”, Abbas profiles the politicians and scientists involved in the development of the country's atomic bomb and the role of China and Saudi Arabia in supporting its nuclear infrastructure. Drawing on extensive interviews, the book also unravels the motivation behind the Pakistani nuclear physicist Dr A.Q. Khan's involvement in nuclear proliferation in Iran, Libya and North Korea, and argues that the origins and evolution of the Khan network were tied to the domestic and international political motivations underlying Pakistan's nuclear weapons project and its organisation, oversight and management.
In February 2017, Gurmehar Kaur, a 19- year-old student, joined a peaceful campaign after violent clashes at a Delhi University college. As part of the campaign, Kaur's post made her the target of an onslaught of social media vitriol. Kaur, the daughter of a Kargil war martyr, suddenly became the focal point of a nationalism debate. Facing a trial by social media, Kaur almost retreated into herself. But she was never brought up to be silenced. "Real bullets killed my father. Your hate bullets are deepening my resolve," she wrote at the time. Today, Kaur is doubly determined not to be silent. "Small Acts of Freedom" is her story.
A seemingly random selection of heads of state is struck down like flies by unnamed killers who work with the clinical efficiency of butchers. Except that they leave no trace of their methods. Sanghi returns with another quietly fearsome tale -- this time of men who guard the "Kalachakra" -- The Wheel of Time. Sanghi describes a world of people at war with one another -- a boomeranging conflict of faiths that results in acts of such slow and planned human cruelty that they defy imagination. Zigzagging from Rama's crossing to Lanka to the birth of Buddhism; from the charnel-grounds of naked tantric practitioners to the bespoke suits of the Oval Office; and from the rites of Minerva, shrouded in frankincense, to the smoke-darkened ruins of Nalanda, the mystery novel is a journey that will have you gasping for breath.
The friendship between two teenage boys dissolves in the aftermath of an act of violence typical of the place they live in -- the north Indian town of Muzaffarnagar. A young man comes to the same town to celebrate Diwali with his family and learns that, given his roots, his
cosmopolitanism might not be an option anymore. A young woman, hitherto unburdened by family duties, grapples with the absence of grief upon her father's death. Elsewhere, a recently married couple is pulled apart by a crisis rooted in the woman's traumatic childhood. In Solanki's book of short stories, young men and women travel between the past and the present, the metropolis and the small town, and the always-at-odds needs of life: Solitude and family.
It is not possible to surmise when exactly Tagore started writing "Jibonsmriti" (My Reminiscences). It is generally believed that he was going through its first draft after the publication of the play "Raja" (King, 1910). "Jibonsmriti" was translated into English by Tagore's nephew, Surendranath Tagore, though retouched and slightly changed by the author himself. It was serialised in Ramananda Chattopadhyay's The Modern Review under the title "My Reminiscences" from January to December 1916.
To thwart the attempt by any foreign publisher to publish it, all the issues of The Modern Review carried the declaration, 'All Rights Reserved. Copyrighted in the United States of America'. Interestingly, Tagore himself advised Ramananda Chattopadhyay to mail one copy each of the issues of The Modern Review carrying "My Reminiscences" to W. B. Yeats and Ernest Rhys. In April 1917, it was published as a book by MacMillan, New York, with a colour portrait by Sasi Kumar Hesh as the frontispiece, apart from 12 paintings by Gagnendranath Tagore. The latest translation is by Devabrata Mukherjee and carries an introduction by Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee.
Three flatmates in London begin to see how different their lives are and at the same time how similar their backgrounds. And when life begins to deal its rough cards, how easy things become when they are all together!
Ali is a Pakistani chef with the dream of setting up his own nihari restaurant. Shehzad is a cool tattoo artist from Bangladesh with a broken past and Rishi is an Indian with nondescript skills and trying to hide from the world.
They all make one mistake — that of falling in love with the same girl. They become arch-rivals. But when their worlds turn topsy-turvy, they have no one but each other to turn to, learning that love is as much about letting go as it is about possessing. Equally thoughtful as it is entertaining, sensitive as it is quirky, "Love Curry" is a glimpse of life truly at its fullest!
WE FIND RENOWNED author Vikram Seth doing something he usually doesn’t agree to very easily. After all, it isn’t exactly easy for an author concentrating on a much-awaited work to find time and agree to do a book launch for someone he hasn’t met or read any previous work of. But then some situations demand going out of the way and Zarina Bhatty’s book happens to be just one of them. For, it’s not every day that you have an enthusiastic octogenarian Muslim woman, who happens to be the former President of Indian Association for Women's Studies and also that of Young Women’s Christian Association write about her struggles, fighting many stereotypes along the way. Her memoir, Purdah to Piccadilly hit the stands this month. This work took two years to come together and chronicles the life of over eight decades, penned down beautifully by the author. As for the title, Bhatty says, “Reflects my life journey from a burqa-clad young girl who got two degrees from the University of London; Piccadilly really refers to London.” Over 200 pages narrate, among other things, the political and social conditions of undivided and post-Independence India. “I wanted to be honest and just share my story as it were”, says Bhatty.
And honest she has been. In the Preface she writes, “Even after 50 years, I cherish the memory of the day when I was sitting in the Royal Albert Hall and my name was called out. It was an international gathering of students, most of who belonged to the privileged classes, including those from royal families worldwide. I got up to receive my degree from the British Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, who was then the Chancellor of the University of London. I could not help recalling my humble past as the daughter of a middle-class family who had an illiterate grandmother and a mother who had no schooling and was taught only Urdu at home.”
Purdah to Piccadilly is divided into 14 chapters, begins with the author’s family living in Rudauli, Uttar Pradesh, and is interspersed with personal anecdotes and nostalgia. It gives the reader a glimpse into the mundane life of young Bhatty and her interesting journey that concludes with her moving to Mussoorie, and finding a home in the hills.
No stranger to the written word, Bhatty’s first book, Women’s Role in Beedi Industry was published a decade ago, and was sponsored by Internal Labour Office, Geneva. As for her latest endeavour, she states, “It took me nearly two years to write, as I wrote several drafts,” she tells us while nursing a fractured wrist. “I faced the common dilemma that I suppose most writers of biographies face; that is, how honest must one be in writing about one' family and friends. To respect intellectual honesty, should one risk the displeasure of dear ones?” she asks. Bhatty, the latest entrant to the growing list of authors who have penned their work living in Landour, Mussoorie, gives fascinating accounts of sheer grit, perseverance and determination of a Muslim lady pre- and post-partition India. What would have made the book even more interesting is if there were more photographs and images to compliment the writing, which is a must-read for those who want a flavour of the times gone by.
The end is always a beginning, giving rise to fresh hope and opportunity. It’s hard to believe that the year has come and is almost gone. It seems like only yesterday that we were still in the hot days of summer and were surviving through the balmy days of August. And as we come to December, it’s always a good opportunity to take stock of the past year.
Hurtling into our end-of-the-year edition, I became conscious of the breakneck speed at which 2017 has come to its end. The hospitality industry’s fast pace keeps us all on our toes, no doubt. But, in our execution of the many visions and associated projects we all establish for ourselves and our companies, we rarely get tranquil moments to really reflect on what we’ve achieved, how far we’ve come and what that means to our futures. So we decided to look at MBD’s flagship property, the Radisson Blu MBD Noida hotel, and how over the years, it has kept raising the bar and setting new standards for itself and the industry at large. The leader of the pack, the hotel has once again gone for a complete makeover to once again come on top as the trendsetter in the hospitality business. Come take a look at that sense of pride.
2017 like every other year has had its ups and downs. The economy showed signs of sluggishness midway but as the year closes there is hope for some smart recovery. We take a look at the end-of-2016 demonetisation decision and how it affected our lives in the year gone by. From the politics of DeMon to the 100 years of the October Revolution we, as usual, bring to you the home and world at your fingertips. We take you through the amazing story of the SpiceJet revival in the Business Section with a close look at the man behind it – Ajay Singh. We also walk you through the paces of the glorious year in our sports calendar and look at an Augmented World in our DW trend section.
And then to end the year with some light reading there is a personal diary throwing light on the days gone by. Finally, to wrap up we give you the usual pages of books and foods.
Merry holidays and Happy New Year to you and yours!
ELECTIONS// The Bharatiya Janata Party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has won two important state elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Results of the elections were announced last month. With these wins, 19 of India’s 29 states will be controlled by the BJP and its partners. Results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections will have a huge impact on the run-up to the 2019 national polls for both the BJP and the Congress. Winning the election in Gujarat was very important for Prime Minister Modi. After all, it was the state that he had led as Chief Minister before taking charge in Delhi. Losing in his home state was not an option. However, the election was a close fight, with the BJP’s main competitor-the Congress political party-teaming up with other rivals of the BJP.
The BJP's 99 seats in Gujarat are 16 less than it had won last time, while the Congress has won 80, 19 more than in 2012.
The BJP has won 44 of Himachal Pradesh’s 68 seats and the Congress has won 21. It was also the first election that the Congress fought under its new leader Rahul Gandhi. So the state elections became a test of his leadership. Although the Congress lost in both states, it still managed to get more votes in this election in the important state of Gujarat compared to the last state elections held in 2012. Then, it managed to get 61 of its representatives elected. This time it won 80 seats in the Gujarat assembly. So, it certainly seems that the Congress is doing a few things right. The tough fight for Gujarat could be a sign of what lies ahead in the 2019 general elections to select the next central government at Delhi.
TELECOM//Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani played the perfect Santa this Christmas season bailing out his younger brother Anil Ambani, who is in debt and out of luck. On Thursday, the senior Ambani’s Reliance Jio signed a definitive agreement to acquire the whole shebang of Reliance Communications (RCom): spectrum, mobile towers and optical fibre network, for an unknown sum.
The timing of the deal stands out not only for its economic rationale, but also for striking an emotional chord, with the announcement coming on the 85th birth anniversary of late Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries.
The deal includes a cash payment and transfer of deferred spectrum instalment, but is subject to requisite approvals from the government, regulatory authorities, lenders, release of all encumbrances on assets and other conditions precedent. “The consideration is payable at completion and is subject to adjustments as specified in the agreement,” Reliance Jio said in a statement.
RCom is reeling under a debt pile of Rs 45,000 crore and the proposed deal is expected to trim debt by Rs 25,000 crore. If it comes through, it will spell the exit of Anil Ambani from the telecom sector, which he entered last decade. It has already decided to shut its 2G wireless business and merge its 4G services with its enterprise unit. But RCom will not cease to exist and will continue running other businesses comprising enterprise, GCX, data centre and 4G sharing business and will have an enterprise value of Rs 15,000 crore. “These assets are strategic in nature and are expected to contribute significantly to the large-scale roll-out of wireless and Fiber-to-Home and Enterprise services by RJIL,” Jio said, adding that it acquired all assets without any previous liabilities attached to them. Jio emerged as the successful bidder in the two-stage bidding process and the acquisition process is being supervised by an independent group of distinguished industry experts. “An asset monetisation process for RCOM assets was mandated by the lenders of RCOM, who appointed SBI Capital Markets Limited to run the process,” the statement said.
There was intense market speculation on the Jio-RCom deal, which saw RCom’s scrip soaring 40 per cent in a single day on Tuesday
CRICKET// Australian Donald Bradman is often thought of the greatest cricketer ever. Another Australian, their captain Steve Smith, is now being compared to Bradman for his incredible performances in recent matches.
• In the recent Ashes series against England, Smith scored 426 runs with a batting average of 142.
His career batting average is 62.32 from 59 tests which places him second only to Bradman who had an incredible batting average of 99.94
Smith is only the fifth Australian captain, one of them being Bradman, to have scored two Ashes double hundreds
From the time he started hitting centuries, Smith has struck a 100 every 3.9 innings compared 2.75 innings for Bradman Clearly 28 year old Smith is at the top of the game, and given that he has years of playing left, he may equal or surpass some of Bradman’s records.
BADMINTON// Indian badminton star PV Sindhu lost in the finals of the Dubai World Superseries to Japanese player Akane Yamaguchi last Sunday, thus settling for the silver medal. It was a close and tough contest that the Indian lost 21-15, 12-21 and 19-21.
It has been quite a year for PV Sindhu. She made it to the finals of many badminton tournaments in 2017, but also lost several of them. She was the losing finalist at the World Championships final (lost to Carolina Marin), Indian National Final (lost to Saina Nehwal) and now at the Dubai World Supeseries final. She won three finals-Syed Modi International Badminton Championships, India Open and the Korea Open. She is currently ranked No 3 in the world.
CRICKET// The Indian cricket team won the third One Day International played against Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam, thereby winning the series 2-1. This is the eight straight ODI series win for the Indian team.
The ODI series didn’t begin well with the Indians losing the first match at Dharmshala. However, they won the second match at Mohali, with the Visakhapatnam game becoming the decider. In the last game, the Indians stayed in control throughout with bowlers Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahals restricting the Sri Lankan score to just 215. A century from Shikhar Dhawan and 65 runs from Shreyas Iyer saw the Indians home.
The win against Sri Lanka is the eight straight series win for India. They have now equaled Australia’s record of 8 consecutive series wins. The only team with more wins in a row is the West Indies.
Rohit Sharma scored his third ODI double century (215 runs) at the second ODI in Mohali, making him the only cricketer to have struck so many double tons. In fact while Sharma has three double tons, all other players combined have four. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle and Martin Guptill have hit one double-century each.
Rohit Sharma’s efforts have pushed him up to the No 5 spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI player rankings. The No 1 ODI batsman is also Indian-Virat Kohli. Kohli is also the top T20 batsman and the #2 test cricket batsman.
SPACE// Is there life in space outside planet Earth? This question has challenged scientists for a long time and the United States government thought the question was important enough to spend 22 million US dollars on a secret programme that studied reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
The programme was run between 2007 and 2012. Although no reports have been published on what it found, it appears that people who ran the programme investigated UFO sightings. This included aircraft that seemed to move at very high speed with no visible signs of propulsion (the force that moves an object forward), or that hovered (hung in air) with no apparent means of lift. US newspapers also reported that officials also studied videos of encounters between unknown objects and American military aircraft-including one of a whitish oval object, about the size of a regular plane, that was chased by two fighter jets off US west coast in 2004. While it remains unclear what these objects were, and it is not known if the US government was able to confirm if they were UFOs, the news about the secret programme has revived attention and interest in the search for life (and aliens) in outer space.
TRAGEDY// Fourteen people lost their lives and 21 others were badly injured in a major fire that broke out in a building in Mumbai’s Kamala Mills Compound. The blaze, reported around 12.30 a.m. from a rooftop restaurant on December 29 in The Kamla Trade House, quickly spread to another pub and a restaurant in the vicinity. With over 36 restaurants, many shopping destinations and corporate offices packed in congested space, the compound is a highly vulnerable towards such tragedies. More than 12 fire tenders were rushed to fight the blaze which was brought under control around 6.30 a.m. Police have booked Hratesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Manka of C Grade Hospitality, which manages the pub, along with others, under various charges including cuplable homicide not amounting to murder.
SPACE// India is all set to send up a moon lander in 2018, making it only the fourth country in the world to do so. The craft will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) which has named the project Chandrayaan II.
In 2008, ISRO had sent up India’s first moon mission-Chandrayaan I. Chandrayaan II will be an advanced version of the first mission. But while during the 2008 mission, the space craft only orbited (circled) the moon, this time Chandrayaan II includes a moon lander and a rover. The rover will be able to move on the lunar surface and conduct experiments.
Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space has indicated that the Chandrayaan-2 mission will take place in 2018, mostly in the first quarter of the year. India will be the first country in the last four years to attempt a moon landing. The last nation to successfully land a craft on the moon was China in 2013. Chandrayaan II is expected to be launched in early 2018. Dr Singh said that India has emerged as one of the frontline nations in the field of space technology, and that this was a vindication of the dream of the founders of the Indian space program, including Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan.
According to the plans by ISRO, the Chandrayaan-2 mission will have a lunar orbiter, a soft lander as well as a semi autonomous rover. To support the increased payload, ISRO is planning to use the GSLV MKII as against its "workhorse" rocket, PSLV used for the maiden Moon mission. The lander, rover and orbiter will perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.
CALAMITY// A severe cyclonic storm named Ockhi hit the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala last month, damaging homes, and taking the lives of fishermen who had ventured into the sea. A massive search and rescue was launched by the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and the Indian Air Force to rescue those lost at sea. Over 350 fishermen have been rescued from sea so far but many others continue to remain missing. Those who were saved have come back with frightening tales of powerful winds and waves taller than a building. Many were found hanging on to their capsized boats when they were finally rescued.
Ockhi is not the most powerful cyclone to hit southern India. In fact it was labeled a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’, which is the third strongest category. However unlike a lot of other cyclones in the region that develop in the Bay of Bengal or Arabian Sea, Cyclone Ockhi developed near the south-western coast of Sri Lanka before travelling towards the southern tip of India. As a result it moved very quickly, leaving little time for storm warnings. The Indian Meteorological Department issued a cyclone warning on Wednesday, November 29. But, by the time warnings went out, it was already too late for fishermen who had set sail. In the rescue operations carried out by the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Air Force, 821 fishermen were rescued. Other agencies, including merchant vessels and trawlers, rescued 24 people.
Among the fishermen saved, 453 were from Tamil Nadu, 362 from Kerala and 30 from Lakshadweep and Minicoy islands
A total of 661 fishermen continue to remain missing in the aftermath of cyclone Ockhi, as per the figures available with the Union Government, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed Parliament on Wednesday.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the minister said 400 fishermen were missing from Tamil Nadu and 261 from Kerala in the cyclone that struck the coastal districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu on November 30.
WEIGHTLIFTING// Indian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu won India its first gold in 22 years at the weightlifting World Championships held in California, United States last month. Chanu won a gold medal in the women’s 48 kg category.
Chanu defeated the favourite Thunya Sukcharoen of Thailand to win gold. India’s last World Championships winner was Karnam Malleswari in 1994 and 1995.
Chanu hails from the state of Manipur in north-east India. The victory at the World Championships must have tasted all the sweeter to the girl from Manipur who had a terrible run at the Rio Olypics last year, failing to finish in her event. She previously won a silver medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Her next goal? “My ultimate target is to win gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and I know that I am going to achieve that”, says Chanu.
CALAMITY// Mount Agung on the Indonesian island of Bali looked all set to erupt last month, causing people living around the mountain to flee the area. As the ash cloud grew, airlines cancelled flights to Bali, and thousands of tourists who were visiting Bali were stranded. Last month, the volcano began gushing ash, causing panic on the island. Around 55,000 people living near the mountain were moved to shelters and the airport shut down for three days. All people living within 10 kilometres of the volcano were told to leave the area. Mount Agung last erupted in 1963 and the disaster killed 1100 people. Mount Agung which is 3,000m high, lies in eastern Bali. The volcano lies within the ‘Pacific ring of fire’, an area around the edge of the Pacific Ocean on both Asian and American sides. This area is prone to regular volcanos and earthquakes.
You’ll soon be able to buy a microwave that will chill your beer in minutes. The Frigondas is a fast freezer, a defroster, and a microwave — and it can fit on your countertop. Frigondas, a SpanishKorean company, developed a microwave that can also “blast chill” foods. In other words, it can rapidly freeze fresh foods to preserve their texture, and chill drinks in minutes. It is a new countertop appliance that looks just like a microwave, and even heats food just like a microwave. But if you press a button on the control panel, the Frigondas can cool drinks and flash-freeze fresh food in seconds. The patented kitchen appliance combines a traditional microwave and a blast chiller, a device that’s popular in restaurant kitchens. Professional chefs love blast chillers because they cool food so quickly that water doesn’t evaporate in the process, so food tests fresher when it’s defrosted.
An oven that cooks by ‘listening’ to your food—and it’s amazing. Forget all the other so-called smart ovens—the Miele Dialog may just be how we cook in the future. In addition to traditional baking and convection, the Dialog adds another cooking method: Radio frequency. Much like an ordinary microwave oven, the Dialog uses radio waves to heat up food. But it also monitors how much energy the food absorbs, and responds by adjusting the waves’ frequency, amplitude and phase. Essentially, it both talks and listens to your food— hence the name. As a result, it cooks evenly and quickly.
The technology was first brought into the kitchen by Goji, an Israeli company that partnered with Miele to create the Dialog oven.
It’s been standing tall against the Noida skyline for 14 years now. Elegant and imposing, it has been the standard bearer for the hospitality industry — the Radisson Blu MBD Noida. You can’t miss it positioned as it is stretching lazily into the hip Sector 18 outlay, yet standing apart.
Iconic, stylish and sophisticated, Radisson Blu MBD is an exciting and individualistic hotel for individual minds. The style and elegance of this new-age hotel are aimed to delight the travel savvy, modern guests with a genuine, inviting ambience and create excitement with its stunning, leading-edge design. The hotel strives to engage each and every guest through its innovative and relevant range of holistic facilities and services. MBD has packaged it all neatly together, with an exemplary service ethos and 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
Radisson Blu MBD Noida is a perfect equation that adds up to a highly individual - and unforgettable – 360° hospitality experience, hard to rival in the industry. It is exclusively designed for you.
In the heart of the NCR the Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida has been hailed as the finest and the most respected hospitality benchmark for anyone travelling for business and pleasure. It’s a place where the traditional meets the innovative; the classical and the contemporary.
To further upgrade and reach new heights, the MBD Group has transformed the hotel into an ultra-luxurious destination. The re-designing exercise it has recently undertaken is comprehensive with amazing detailing starting right from the lobby to its adjoining restaurant with the singular aim of providing an unprecedented level of luxury and hospitality experience. Luxury, care and warmth await you at Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida which has created an altogether new definition of super luxury, refurbished with all that you will ever need.
Clearly, the MBD Group’s hotels have set a new benchmark for itself and for the industry at large. Its high standards and eye for the minutest detail has added one more word in the local lexicon for hospitality – MBD.
The MBD Group successfully embedded itself in the hospitality industry with its maiden venture, The Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida (Delhi NCR). Being Noida’s first 5-star luxury property, the Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida, is fully owned and managed by the MBD Group. The hotel distinctly positioned itself as a trendsetter and has been the top performing hotel in Delhi-NCR.
Whether it is a new age or traditional interpretation of cuisines, at its award-winning restaurants “Made In India” (The Indian Restaurant), “RED” (The Oriental Restaurant) or “SXVIII” (The 24 hour brasserie) or setting new standards in designer chocolates and cakes at its pastry shop “The Chocolate Box and Lounge” or its 24 hour spa and fitness club “Espace”.
The MBD Privé Collection, the ostentatious collection of rooms at Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida and Radisson Blu Hotel MBD in Ludhiana offers the highest level of luxury and comfort with a grand celebration and an ultimate uber luxury experience. The synergy of timeless craftsmanship and modern engineering is sure to make the MBD Privé Collection a unique address for discerning travellers.
These multi-award winning outlets and the hotels themselves have won multiple awards including the “Best Business Hotel” award at Lonely Planet Travel & Lifestyle Awards 2017 (Radisson Blu MBD Noida) &“Luxury Business Hotel” by World Luxury Hotel Awards 2017 (Radisson Blu Hotel MBD Ludhiana).
In its 14 years of existence, The Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida has been rated as one of the most revered hospitality benchmarks and is the top performing hotel in Delhi NCR.
In its fourteen years of existence, the multiple award-winning Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida has been rated as one of the most respected hospitality benchmarks in NCR. The revamping of this hotel into an ultra-luxurious property is a milestone in our journey as it not only showcases our efforts to take the MBD brand to newer heights but also reaffirms our commitment to contribute towards the growth of the hospitality segment in India. The repositioning of the hotel is also in sync with the Group’s vision to attract the New Gen luxury travellers with refined tastes and sophistication and to keep the hotel’s flag flying as one of the best in the National Capital Region.
True to MBD Group’s brand philosophy of offering guests an ultraluxury experience, the Group has transformed Radisson Blu MBD Noida into an ultra-luxurious destination by redesigning the hotel and re-launching its award-winning All Day Brasserie S18 to SXVIII All Day Brasserie.The revamp of this hotel into an ultra-luxurious property is a milestone in the Group’s journey as it not only showcases its transformation efforts to take MBD brand to newer heights but is also in sync with the Group’s vision to captivate the new gen luxury travellers with refined sophistication and hotel’s repositioning as one of the best in the National Capital Region. Venturing
You can dine at three different restaurants and experience masterful creations from the expert chefs every time. While Made in India showcases historical recipes bursting with traditional flavours, the R.E.D. serves cuisine from various Asian countries, and Café Delish offers tantalizing buffets of Indian and international options, including the complimentary Super Breakfast Buffet.
Made in India specializes in reviving lost recipes and blending them with modern sensibilities for a truly unique meal
R.E.D. showcases eastern dining with delectable dishes from China and Southeast Asia, each expertly crafted.
Offering the best in upscale, casual dining, Café Delish provides a wide variety of carefully prepared cuisine on its buffets
SPA AND FITNESS
Take a break from your routine with a visit to Espace Spa, where therapists pamper patrons with a range of relaxing treatments. Connected to the spa, the health club features modern equipment for a thorough workout, and the salon lets you refresh your look before an important presentation or night out in town. The outdoor pool provides another option for a refreshing break. When it’s time to get back to work, its well-equipped business centre and Free high-speed, wireless Internet access will help you get on the ball with speed. Travellers can also access its on-site parking as well as transport services to airports and train stations.
Open around the clock, the business centre helps you stay on the job no matter the hour. In addition to secretarial services, the centre includes one boardroom equipped with conference phones and audiovisual technology and seating for up to 12 people.
The hotel’s Amber is the largest pillarless ballroom in Ludhiana. Paisley, is the other wedding venue, with an impressive décor. Amber and Paisley together are beautiful for gala weddings for up to 2,000 guests. Additionally, the poolside boasts an amazing ambience for outdoor functions
Radisson Blu MBD Hotel Ludhiana is a winner of the 2017 World Luxury Hotel Awards. It has also been awarded the Bronze certification from Earth Check; the world’s leading and largest environmental management system in use by the travel and tourism industry. The hotel was awarded the Lonely Planet Travel and Lifestyle award 2017 as the ‘Best Design Hotel’. It has received a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence award for the consistent outstanding traveller reviews on TripAdvisor and has been awarded the “AWARD OF EXCELLENCE’’ by Booking.com
IN AN INTERVIEW TO ‘The Wire’, eminent economist and former professor of economics, Prabhat Patnaik, was, as usual, incisive: “There is a feeling that black money is basically a stock of money, which is put in pillow cases or trunks or underground. That’s not the case. Black money is something which refers to a whole range of activities which are undertaken either illegally or in order to avoid taxes… In other words, there may be, let’s say, arms trade or drug running and so on which are completely illegal activities. Alternatively, there are activities which are legal but nonetheless undeclared because they want to avoid taxes. So we have to really think in terms of black business or undisclosed business as opposed to black money. In any business, you are using money. When you use money for a greater or a less period of time, you will be holding money. That is true in any business and for black business as well… It is not even the case that black business is carried out with cash while normal business is carried out with cheques and so on. Because normal business also requires cash transactions. So normal cash holding and black cash holding are not qualitatively two different things; and as a result to say that if we demonetise a range of currency, we will be able to catch black money is not correct because everybody then needs to change. It is not only those doing black business but even normal businessmen who need to change it. And if so, you can actually have black businessmen coming to normal businessmen to help them change their black money for money which is not accounted for.”
With almost 99 per cent of the cash back in the banks after the ‘revolutionary and earth-shaking’ decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year, the debate has raged across the nation, among the academia, economists and bankers, and among ordinary people: So whatever happened to the black money if all the money in the black market has been turned into white and legitimate cash after demonetisation? Indeed, this anomaly, combined with the irony that the pre-election promise by the Prime Minister that all the black money hidden abroad by Indians will be brought back and every Indian citizen will have Rs 15 lakh in her/his bank account, turned into a dark and bad joke. It became a double whammy of sorts, a bit too much to digest, even by all those who genuinely believed in the Prime Minister’s promises and thought that the sacrifices they are doing, or the daily misery they are undergoing, will be finally good for the nation and its political economy. Indeed, the patriotic dimension of demonetisation was lost in its total failure on the ground.
Amidst the changing goal posts during demonetisation, it was also said that it would stop fake currency, and block the use of cash by Maoists and terrorists. Considering the deaths of Indian soldiers across the Line of Control at the Indo-Pak border and in conflict zones in India, and considering that Maoists still call the shots in the tribal hinterland and forests of central India (as shown in the film, Newton), clearly, this promise too seems to have found its rightful place in the dustbin of history. So what is the actual story of demonetisation, which, actually led to the deaths of 100 plus people who waited in serpentine queues across the Indian landscape, with most ATMs showing closed or no money signs pasted on the machines?
As Professor Patnaik points out in the same interview: “This move betrays a lack of understanding of capitalism in the government. Typically, what happens in capitalism in a situation like this is that there would be a new business opening up about how to change old currency notes into new ones. This is what Schumpeter called innovation – and in capitalism that is forever happening. A whole range of people would come up who will say you give us Rs 1000 and we will give you Rs 800 or 700 or whatever. Consequently, instead of curbing black business it will actually give rise to the proliferation of black business… Likewise, for instance, since there is no distinction between black money held as part of business and white money held as part of business, many of those engaged in black business would like to get others engaged in white business to change money for them. And they would, therefore, backdate bills and apparently purchase from them, etc. Millions of such transactions would be happening and if they do, no tax authority will be able to catch these transactions. This way of unearthing black money is something which inconveniences people enormously, without really being successful in stopping the flow of black money.”
Besides, it really hit the rural and unorganized sector very hard. In a rural economy steeped in severe distress with the growth rate stagnating at less than 2 per cent, and farmers’ suicides and mass debt stalking the landscape, demonetisation hit the farmers — big, middle, small and landless – where it hurt the most. In any case, the government refused to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations in support of the farmers. More so, Modi’s promise of providing 50 per cent more above the minimum support price to the farmers was betrayed. Debt-ridden farmers were face to face with factories and mills which refused to pay them even the market price, forcing them to go for distress sale. Even as inflation hit the urban market, farmers were compelled to dump their onions, tomatoes and potatoes on the streets, rather than sell them for dirt cheap to the sharks who were taking the lack of cash due to demonetisation as yet another method to strengthen the parasitic, exploitative economy.
Hence, even while the country saw bumper crops, the farmers found themselves as losers and on the receiving end, while mass migration of landless labourers further complicated the situation. So much so, Modi’s promise of creating two crore jobs in a year proved to be a total failure, even as tens of thousands of daily wagers and small-scale entrepreneurs lost their livelihood, shutting down their small and ancillary units, unable to pay the workers, and trapped in an economy which spelt nothing but doom for them. It has taken them months to come out of this dead-end, even as 93 per cent of the Indian economy lies in the unorganized sector, with not even 100 days of permanent work, no job surety, and no social security at all– which includes almost 40 per cent women.
Hence, both the urban and rural sector was caught up in a twilight zone, as was witnessed in the industrial hubs of Surat in Gujarat. For those with assets, as in Surat, it was still not so difficult to cope with the crisis. But for those, who lived on a day-today minimalist budget, demonetisation was a disaster.
In an interview with NDTV, Nobel laureate and eminent economist Amartya Sen said, “The demonetisation of currency was a despotic act as the government broke the promise of compensation that comes with a promissory note… Demonetisation goes against trust. It undermines the trust of the entire economy.” Talking to ‘The Indian Express’, he said, “Only an authoritarian government can calmly cause such misery to the people — with millions of innocent people being deprived of their money and being subjected to suffering, inconvenience and indignity in trying to get their own money back.”
Indeed, barring a handful of BJP and Modi-loyalists, top economists in India and abroad have all echoed, more or less, the words of Sen. “Demonetisation was ostensibly implemented to combat corruption, terrorism financing and inflation. But it was poorly designed, with scant attention paid to the laws of the market, and it is likely to fail. So far, its effects have been disastrous for the middle and lower-middle classes, as well as the poor. And the worst may be yet to come,” leading economist Kaushik Basu wrote in ‘The New York Times’.
The Hindutva project would come down like melting ice cream if there were no Muslims, no Kashmir and no Pakistan to hate. This is elementary. Muslims, in other words, are an essential requirement for the BJP to win elections. Results from Gujarat confirm this truth yet again. Why Congress has done better in the rural areas is because the Muslim population is thinly scattered – not enough to be a cluster or a “pole”. And Hindutva needs a pole to polarize.
Hindutva is also handicapped in the rural areas by the continued prevalence of caste identities. These are the identities in which rural folk are secure. Migration to the cities results in dilution and gradual erasure of caste. In normal course, this would result in a cosmopolitan identity with a talent to accommodate many strands.
What disrupts this possible secularization process is the all-enveloping growth of sects – Narayan Swamy, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and so on. Unlike the Brahmo Samaj which reached out like a ballet dancer, the sects popular in Gujarat are inward looking. From this platform, it is not difficult to whip up communal polarization against those faceless Muslims in old cities and ghettoes – Pakistan’s fifth column, love jihadis, slaughterers of cows, terrorists.
Islamophobia riding a crest of terrorism is not Narendra Modi’s invention. Modi just happened to be lucky even as George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld ordered a post 9/11 global order custom made for Modi’s machinations.
US occupation of Afghanistan, accompanied by the world’s biggest fireworks, a televised war, created superb conditions for rampaging Islamophobia anywhere. Modi who became chief minister on October 8, exactly the day when the retribution for 9/11 began to be visited upon the hapless Afghans, took full advantage. The televised global war on terror reached a crescendo in February. On February 27, 2002, occurred the burning train mishap at Godhara. Ahmedabad was ablaze by way of retribution. Never was an anti Muslim pogrom mounted on this scale. The global din of terrorism and Islamophobia gave the pogrom a backdrop with which it merged.
The pogrom exorcised the city of another ghost. For decades, an underworld don Abdul Latif had terrorized the political establishment in Gujarat on both sides of the aisle. Even though he was killed in a staged encounter some years ago, the scale of the pogrom was for Hindutva an equalizer.
From Aurangzeb to Abdul Latif, Dawood, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar is a rapidly expanding rogues’ gallery. In the deepest recesses of their heart, Muslims are sympathetic to this gallery. It is against this growing fifth column, Hindus must consolidate towards a Hindu Rashtra in which the past shall be the future.
Just imagine, where would Hindu Rashtra be if the country’s Muslims by some superior incantation disappeared one day, vamoosed. The Hindu caste structure, exposed to electoral democracy, social justice, upward mobility, would be inverted in no time. Overwhelming numerical superiority would bring the base of the pyramid on top.
Muslims as a foil is therefore indispensable to the Hindu ruling class purpose.
Rahul Gandhi grasped this essential point to good purpose in Gujarat. He realized the BJP would communally polarize a situation if Muslims were visible on the Congress side. Muslims were therefore advised to steer clear of his line of vision. The Muslim Congress worker who navigated me to the Radisson Blu hotel where Rahul was holding his final press conference would himself not come up. “Ahmad bhai (Ahmad Patel) will also not be there”, he explained. Rahul was flanked by Ashok Gehlot and Randip Singh Surjewala. One spotted Rajiv Shukla and Jiten Prasada but no Ahmad Patel, who was in Ahmedabad though.
Even token visits to Muslim enclaves in the walled city or Juhapura were taboo for Rahul. The trick obviously worked. It drove the Hindutva think tank to distraction. They began to invent dark conspiracies with Pakistan. Poor Mani Shankar Aiyar came in handy for no fault of his. His friend former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri turned up for a wedding at the Nawab of Loharu in Jaipur. That evening Ambassador Surendra Kumar organized a high powered seminar on Pakistan at the India International Centre addressed by Gen. Deepak Kapoor, former High Commissioners TCA Raghavan, Sharat Sabharwal, whom Aiyar hurriedly enlisted to ginger up his guest list for Kasuri on his way from the Loharu wedding. Aiyar speaks Hindi but his control on the language can falter. He meant to describe Modi as “mean”, but the way he used the term “neech” or “low” lent itself to the interpretation that he had described the Prime Minister of “low birth”. There is an irony in the BJP targeting Aiyar as their most hostile Congress critic. Sonia Gandhi has not spoken to Aiyar for the past six years.
That Aiyar, out in the cold with his party, had to be resurrected by Modi to provide him with contrived themes for communal polarization shows that Rahul’s tactical aversion of Muslims is unsettling the opposition. Add to this the double whammy of incessant temple hopping and Rahul is well on the way to stealing the BJP’s platform.
So, cheer up Indian Muslims. What will the Congress not do for you?
Saeed Naqvi is a well-known commentator and writer on international and domestic affairs.