CO

CONGRESS
G S BJP IN KARNATAKA
IN A TAILSPIN
S MANY MORE
O BATTLES TOO FIGHT
G T IINDIA-PAK TIESS
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JOURNALISM WITH A HUMAN
U TOUCH
OUCH www.theweek.in
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TheWeekMag TheWeekL e
TheWeekLive
50


T
TRUMP O
SPOILS
T MOOD
THE OO
20 9
G 4, 2019

TTASLIMA
S NASREEN
S
AUGUST

2 YEARS AN EXILEE
25

INHUMAN
INSPECTION
Born in India, branded Bangladeshi.
Trauma of 40 lakh people in Assam
facing deportation
PLUS
HOW ARMY MAN SANAULLAH
BECAME AN ALIEN

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
UN RAPPORTEUR
INDIA IGNORED OUR QUERIES

Rahima Khatun, 60,

of Borchapori village, has been excluded
from National Register of Citizens

Theh Weekk RNI No.36122/1982, Registeredd No. KL/EKM/756/2018-20, Licence No. KL/CR/EKM/WPP-20/2018-20. Licensedd to Post Without
h Prepayment. Published
bl h d on Friday
d 26thh Julyl 2019
 VOL. 37 NO. 31 THE WEEK AUGUST 4 2019

FOR THE WEEK JULY 29 - AUGUST 4

46 58 63
BHANU PRAKASH CHANDRA

PAWAN KUMAR

ARVIND JAIN
KARNATAKA UTTAR PRADESH @LEISURE
The BJP proves its majority but there Closure of tanneries in Kanpur brings In 25 years of exile, Taslima Nasreen’s
are challenges ahead as the party environmental and employment sacrifice of her freedom for her thought
eyes expansion in the south concerns to a head is her biggest acceptance

18 COVER STORY 40 DIPLOMACY

Contrasting messages
for India and Pakistan
COLUMNS
13 POWER POINT
Sachidananda Murthy
as the US tries to pull
out of Afghanistan
43 MANI-FESTO
44 RTI Mani Shankar Aiyar

Protests intensify 56 SCHIZO-NATION

as the Central Anuja Chauhan
government hopes to
get the RTI bill passed 57 IVORY TOWER
in the Rajya Sabha Sanjaya Baru

52 CONGRESS 70 EVERYONE IS A CAMERA

CALL FOR INCLUSION Bose Krishnamachari
The party is struggling
SALIL BERA

Congress workers protest

Assam’s NRC in front of to come out of the 74 LAST WORD
Assam House in Kolkata post-election tailspin Barkha Dutt

62 INTERVIEW
STRANGERS AT HOME Data protection laws
The final list of the National Register of Citizens will be published are no restriction for
by the Assam government on August 31. Many Bengali-speaking advertisers: Prasanth
Muslim families that have called the state home for generations are Kumar, CEO, GroupM
desperately trying to prove their citizenship to avoid deportation South Asia
66 CINEMA
A look at the genius of
Quentin Tarantino, ahead of
the release of Once Upon a
Time in Hollywood

Plus COVER PHOTO SALIL BERA; COVER DESIGN BINESH SREEDHARAN

u Army veteran Mohammad Sanaullah’s failed citizenship test

exposes faults in the system
u Everybody is under the scanner: Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, special
director-general of police (border)
u We have told the Indian government that such an exercise is
discriminatory: Fernand de Varennes, UN special rapporteur
on minority issues
Printed at Malayala Manorama Press, Kottayam, Print House India
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• Focus/Infocus features are paid marketing/PR initiatives

K AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 3

 LETTERS

Your cover story on India’s Mallika Sarabhai’s emo-

KANE & VIRAT KARNATAKA
second lunar mission was tion-choked reminiscences
TALE OF TWO SUPER SKIPPERS REBELS WITHOUT A PAUSE BOOKS
JOURNALISM WITH A HUMAN TOUCH www.theweek.in TheWeekMag TheWeekLive $ 50 NOW AMISH
CAPTURES RAAVAN truly heart-warming and of the last days of her father
CONGRESS
RAHUL GOES
TO AMETHI
refreshing. It is for certain were touching.
JULY 21, 2019

FREE: THE WEEK PLUS that the historic launch
C H A N D R A Y A A N - 2 will put India into the elite
ACE IN SPACE club of countries that have
soft landed on the moon.
The scientists of ISRO
are synonymous with
hard work, perseverance
and team spirit. All of
them deserve our hearti-
PLUS
est congratulations.
INTERVIEW: K. SIVAN, CHAIRMAN, ISRO
THE NEXT TARGET IS VENUS The monumental
The Week RNI No.36122/1982, Registered No. KL/EKM/756/2018-20, Licence No. KL/CR/EKM/WPP-20/2018-20. Licensed to Post Without Prepayment. Published on Friday 12th July 2019 achievement has yet again
conclusively demonstrat-
ed to the whole world that
Swell with pride our scientists are second
I want to thank THE WEEK for the cover story on to none, and that their
Chandrayaan-2. It made for a fascinating and inform- glorious achievements
ative read (‘Reaching for the moon’, July 21). I was can surpass even the
overwhelmed seeing Chandrayaan-2 soaring into the heights of the limitless
sky. With this achievement, the Indian Space Research skies. The pathbreak-
Organisation has made every Indian’s heart swell with ing success of the ISRO
pride. scientists needs to serve
I liked the interview of ISRO chairman K. Sivan and as a morale-booster and
the story on Antrix Corporation Ltd. The graphics in a source of inspiration for
the cover story was awesome. our youth.
ISRO is what it is today because of the rich con- India has truly emerged
tributions made by Vikram Sarabhai, A.P.J. Abdul as a space superpower.
Kalam and other scientists there. B. Suresh Kumar,
I want to thank all the women scientists who led On email.
India’s second moon mission. As a regular reader and
an ardent fan of THE WEEK for many years, let me It is particularly gratifying
congratulate you for bringing out such a wonderful to know that three women
issue. scientists were at the helm
I look forward to reading more such cover stories, of Chandrayaan-2. The
week after week. cover story paid, quite
Kavitha Muchandi, appropriately, rich tribute
On email. to Sarabhai, the father of
Indian space programme.
Raveendranath A.,
On email.
Despite lacking the
wherewithal and technol-
ogy at par with a country
like the US, our scientists
were not deterred from
dreaming and preparing
for Chandrayaan-2. This
is indicative of the resolve
and determination to be
not left behind in the space
programme and research.
Way to go!
K.V. Raghuram,
On email.
Total disaster
It is always better to allow
the single largest party to
form a government in a
state. By not doing so, you
leave the door open for
malcontent leaders to cre-
ate issues in the long run
(‘Relentless rebellion’, July
21). It was unfortunate that
the Congress and the JD(S)
were fighting a desperate
battle on two fronts—trying
to bring back the rebels,
while also protecting the
existing group, members of
which were ready to scoot
off any time.
Most MLAs who
have resigned are of the

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4 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

 LETTERS
unanimous opinion that
H.D. Kumaraswamy was
ineffective. While Kumar-
aswamy in his earlier stint
as chief minister managed
to protect his flock, HDK
2.0 was a total disaster.
K.S. Jayatheertha,
On email.
The BJP should not have
been in a hurry to form the
government in Karnata-
ka. It was a political coup
orchestrated by the BJP,
and was quite evident. It
is easy for the so-called
rebels to blame the crisis
on the manner in which
the coalition was being
run. But there is more to
it than meets the eye. The
BJP will get a befitting
response from the people
in Karnataka.
Tigin Thomas,
On email.
Don’t play that
game
Mani Shankar Aiyar let the
cat out of the bag when he
said, “Whether they hold
formal post in the party
or not their influence will
continue to be immense,
even decisive” (‘Manifes-
to’, July 21). That means
whosoever becomes the
Congress president, the
members of the Gandhi
family will wield power
without responsibility.
This will be like how Sonia
Gandhi wielded power
when Manmohan Singh
was the prime minister,
from 2004 to 2014.
Everyone knows back
then Singh was a puppet
prime minister. If such
hypocrisy continues,
people will see through
6 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
it, and the BJP’s aim of a
‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ will
succeed very soon.
D.R. Srinivasan,
Bengaluru.
Worth the read
Amish Tripathi is a great
writer and I am sure Raa-
van: Enemy of Aryavarta
will be a book worth the
read (‘Spilling dark ink’, July
21). It always makes me
wonder how Amish, who
was a zealous atheist in
college, was reclaimed by
faith just before he wrote his
first book. The gods must
have intervened back then,
I suppose.
T.K. Prasad,
On email.
Smart Gandhi
Despite volumes being writ-
ten on Mahatma Gandhi,
the completely new facets to
his personality, mentioned
in your cover story, were
pleasantly surprising for
the reader (‘The unknown
Gandhi’, June 30). At the
same time, I also agree with
Mark Tully that Gandhi,
despite being deified, was
also a ‘smart’ (a euphe-
mism) politician, who,
perhaps, could not have
given us freedom from the
British yoke had he been
nothing else, but the higher
soul—‘Mahatma’.
Putting Gandhi on a ped-
estal and surrounding him
with a halo has forced us to
always look at him through
tinted glasses, making him
more ‘mythical’ than ‘hu-
man’, and, in the bargain, we
tend to eclipse the contribu-
tions of his contemporaries.
Vijai Pant,
On email.
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10 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
 APERITIF
THE BIG PICTURE

FOR JOE
THE BELL
TOLLS
Joe Maxey, a
68-year-old
banker from
Tennessee, exults
after winning the
Ernest Hemingway
Lookalike Contest
at the annual
Hemingway Days
Festival at Sloppy
Joe’s Bar in Key
West, Florida.
Maxey, who beat
141 contestants,
said he shared the
author’s fondness
for mojitos and
women.

PHOTO BY AFP

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 11

 APERITIF

POINT BLANK MILESTONES

THE REIGN CONTINUES
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal
Democratic Party and its coalition
partner won 71 of 124 seats in
If we wanted to fight a war in elections to the upper house of
Afghanistan and win it, I could Parliament, putting him on track
win that war in a week. I just to become Japan’s longest-serving
don’t want to kill 10 million prime minister. The ruling coalition
people. now has 141 seats in the 245-mem-
Donald Trump, ber upper house.
US president
AP

He is a kid and I have always had a good

feeling about him, but now he is behav-
ing like a political juvenile. I am in poli-
tics for the last 50 years. I never had the
backing from my father and grandfather
or the kind of money that he possesses. AFRICAN CHAMPIONS
Satya Pal Malik, Algeria beat Senegal 1-0 to win its
governor of Jammu and Kashmir, on for- second Africa Cup of Nations title.
mer J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah Forward Baghdad Bounedjah scored
the only goal in the final held in Cairo
I am who I am and I want to stay authen- on July 20.
tic. In a world full of compromises, I have
never compromised, and that continues
to add to my rebellious image.
Abhay Deol,
actor

Everything that achieves height falls one

day. Same thing will happen to the BJP.
AFP

They have attained the height, but now if

they do not deliver on their poll promises He himself has said that he enjoys
then people will soon start neglecting the gossiping, and for that he has a
party. [TV] show also on which he openly
Ashok Gehlot, does gossiping. On that show he
Rajasthan chief minister openly asks people what colour
underwear they are wearing, and
The BJP won the Lok Sabha polls by what you are going to do to the
cheating, using the CRPF and the Elec- wife in a situation when you are
tion Commission. caught in someone’s bed.
Mamata Banerjee, Kangana Ranaut,
West Bengal chief minister actor, on filmmaker Karan Johar
GREATEST BLOCKBUSTER
Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame crossed
$2.7902bn (019,249 crore) at the
box office on July 21 to become the
world’s highest-grossing film ever.
The superhero flick ended the ten-
year-long reign of James Cameron’s
sci-fi thriller Avatar.

WORD PLAY
Google’s London headquarters, which is under construction, is ushering in the age of
landscrapers. A landscraper is a building as long and horizontal as skyscrapers are tall
and vertical. Google’s London landscraper will be 11-storey tall and 312m long, and will run
parallel to the platforms of King’s Cross railway station.

12 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

 POWER POINT
SACHIDANANDA MURTHY
Deputy speaker: stick and carrot
E
ven though the budget session of the new
Parliament is getting extended by at least
a week, the Narendra Modi government
is not in a hurry to elect a deputy speaker of
Lok Sabha. The post has normally gone to an
opposition member, but Modi, in his previous
term, had decided not to offer the post to the
Congress, which was the largest opposition
group. Instead, the prestigious post went to M.
Thambidurai, leader of the AIADMK group,
which was second largest. BJP spokespersons
had argued that convention was to offer the
post to an opposition party,
and that the Congress lacked
the numbers to be officially
recognised as the opposition
party by the Lok Sabha speaker.
Since the BJP was wooing the
AIADMK for support in the
Rajya Sabha, Thambidurai
was considered part of
the “friendly” opposition.
Interestingly, in this year’s
election, the AIADMK
joined the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance, but was reduced from 37
MPs to a single member. Even Thambidurai lost.
As the Congress once again lacks the numbers
to be officially recognised as the opposition
party, the BJP has hinted that it will not offer
the post to a Congress member. The BJP cites
earlier instances where the Congress as the
ruling party failed to offer the post to the
main opposition party: In 1980, Indira Gandhi
chose G. Lakshmanan of the DMK, an ally of
the Congress, and in 1985 Rajiv Gandhi chose
Thambidurai, who was from the ally AIADMK.
The convention of offering the deputy
speakership to the opposition—practised in
European countries—came into vogue first
in 1977, when Janata Party prime minister
Morarji Desai gave it to the Congress, which
chose G. Murahari. In seven new Lok Sabhas
from 1989 to 2009, the practice was followed
ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN
by prime ministers V.P. Singh, P.V. Narasimha
Rao, H.D. Deve Gowda, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
Manmohan Singh.
In 2014, the Congress made a major issue of
its leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge,
being denied the leader of the opposition status
by speaker Sumitra Mahajan, and protested the
deputy speakership being given to the AIADMK.
But now, the Congress does not have high
expectations as Speaker Om Birla has not given
recognition to Congress group leader Adhir
Ranjan Chowdhury as leader of the opposition.
The speculation swirling in
parliamentary circles is that
the BJP is looking at picking the
deputy speaker from regional
parties that have ten or more
members in the new Lok Sabha.
These parties are the YSR
Congress and the Biju Janata Dal,
which have no animus towards
the BJP.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
Jagan Mohan Reddy is hoping
for a better deal for his state from
the Modi government than what his predecessor
Chandrababu Naidu got. Similarly, Odisha Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik, after a bitter fight with
the BJP in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections,
has spoken of constructive cooperation with the
Central government for his state’s development.
The favourite among Lok Sabha members
is BJD veteran Bhartruhari Mahtab, a senior
parliamentarian who has been active in the house
and in parliamentary committees.
Indications are that the government may
keep the deputy speaker’s chair vacant till the
winter session is summoned by the president in
November. In 2014, too, Thambidurai was elected
only in August, during the second session of the
new Lok Sabha. All eyes will now be on Modi
as he would not only decide the candidate, but
also the message that would be sent out by the
selection.
sachi@theweek.in
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 13
 APERITIF
PARTY SNACKS

A LESSON IN
PROGRESS
Its clout in national politics may not
match that of the Communist Party
of India (Marxist), but the CPI has
reached a milestone in inclusiv-
ity that the bigger party is yet to
achieve. It made D. Raja, a dalit, its
general secretary. The CPI(M), no-
tably, is yet to have a dalit in its Polit
Bureau. And though dalit leaders in
the CPI(M) do not foresee any pos-
sibility of them matching Raja’s feat,
the appointment has given them
hope of getting a berth in the Polit
Bureau some day. Will big brother
take a cue from the sibling?

ILLUSTRATIONS JAIRAJ T.G.

FOOD FIGHT
Given the commotion and confusion in Karnataka regarding the trust vote, one
would assume that a politician’s eating habits would get scarce attention. However,
on July 22, a certain dish was a topic of heated debate. BJP MLA C.T. Ravi brought up
a multi-crore Ponzi scam, and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, in an apparent
reference to a photo of himself with the prime accused in the scam, said, “I did not eat
any biryani.” The photo, which apparently showed Kumaraswamy having food with the
accused Mansoor Khan, had gone viral.
“I am accused of having biryani at a particular person’s house,” Kumaraswamy said.
“I was invited during Ramzan. I was there. I did not eat any biryani. After two health
scares, I have given up non-vegetarian [food].”
At a time when the state government was heading towards a collapse, one would
think that the leaders surely had bigger fish to fry.

14 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

HAPPY TO BE THERE
The Meghalaya government—
ruled by the National People’s
Party-led coalition—may be
in the NDA fold, but it is eager
to learn from the education
system in the Aam Aadmi
Party-ruled Delhi. Recently,
Meghalaya Education Minister
Lahkmen Rymbui visited a
“happiness class” in a govern-
ment school in the capital with
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister
Manish Sisodia. Impressed
with what he saw, Rymbui
said he was keen to replicate
the happiness curriculum in
his own state. The class aims
at equipping children with a
holistic approach towards life
and teaches them how to deal
with stress.
GENTLEMAN’S BILL
On July 22, Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh
had the tough task of tabling the RTI amendment
bill, which the opposition said would destroy
the transparency of the law. But before they
launched the attack on the bill, the opposition
MPs had a word of praise for Singh.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor
called him a decent man, the Tri-
namool Congress’s Saugata Roy
called him a nice man and the
Revolutionary Socialist Party’s
N.K. Premachandran called
him a gentleman. The minister
said he was delighted to
learn this about himself, and
hoped that the house would
take him seriously. Tharoor,
however, took a jibe at him
regarding the bill, en-
couraging Singh to also
behave like a decent
man. The opposition
notwithstanding, the
lower house eventually
passed the bill.
TEMPORARY BHAVAN?
Biswabhusan Harichandan, the new governor of Andhra
Pradesh, has got a new home. As the bifurcated state does
not have a Raj Bhavan, a building belonging to the irrigation
department will now be his official address. However, going
by history, the single-storey building in Vijayawada may not
serve the governor for long.
It was first used in 2014, when former irrigation minister
Umamaheswara Rao moved here from Hyderabad to be “close
to the people”. A year later, then chief minister N. Chandraba-
bu Naidu used the building as his camp office, but only for
a month. Earlier this year, the Andhra Pradesh High Court
started using this building, but was moved to another location
within a few weeks.
Can the new governor break the jinx?
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 15
16 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 17
 COVER STORY
ASSAM

18 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

 oulavi Muhammad Amiruddin played a pivotal role in
putting Assam on the map of independent India. In 1946, the
legislative assembly of Assam gathered to discuss whether
Assam should be part of India or merge with East Pakistan.
Most legislators—34 of 108 legislators were Muslim—wanted
to join Pakistan. A few non-Muslim MLAs, too, supported
the demand. Sir Syed Muhammad Saadulla, Muslim League
leader and the first prime minister of Assam in British India,
wanted Assam’s Muslim-dominated regions to be merged
with East Pakistan, if a complete merger was not possible.
As the first deputy speaker of the assembly, Muhammad
Amiruddin played a key role in foiling Saadulla’s project. A
member of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, which opposed the
partition of India, Amiruddin was a fiery critic of Muhammad
Ali Jinnah, the Muslim League leader who led the Pakistan
movement. Amiruddin and Gopinath Bordoloi, Congress
leader and chief minister, reached out to all legislators, Mus-
lim and non-Muslims alike, and convinced them to vote for
staying in India in a referendum in 1947. Assam became part
of the Indian Union after the historic referendum.
Seventy-three years since, Amiruddin’s relatives have been
branded as Bangladeshis. Many members of his brother’s
family did not figure in last year’s draft of the National Reg-
ister of Citizens, from which the names of 40 lakh residents
were missing. As the foreigners’ tribunal considers their cas-
es, Amiruddin’s relatives are having sleepless nights, fearing
that they would be driven out of India after August 31, when
the final draft of the NRC is published.
“It is the result day of our lifetime,” said Fakrul Islam
Khan of Kalikajari village in Assam’s Morigaon district.
“If we pass, we would stay in India. Else, we would
be sent to Bangladesh, bag and baggage. What
On August 31, Assam Muslim leaders like Amiruddin did was a mis-
take. Had they merged us with East Pakistan,
will publish the final draft of its we would have been respected citizens of
National Register of Citizens. The a free, Bengali-speaking nation.”
Fakrul teaches at a school that
NRC will render more than 40 lakh borders Nagaon district, and
residents—mostly Bengali-speaking he was talking to THE WEEK
standing in front of Amirud-
Muslims—officially stateless, din’s house—a tin-roofed
including families that have been in hut whose walls were
beginning to crum-
India for generations. As anger and ble. Living next
apprehensions grow, THE WEEK
reports on the fault lines that are
growing wider UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Rahima Khatun, 60, of
Borchapori village is facing
BY RABI BANERJEE/Guwahati, Morigaon and Kamrup
deportation
PHOTOS SALIL BERA

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 19

 COVER STORY
ASSAM

door to the hut is Samsul Islam, 70,

son of Amiruddin’s elder brother
Muzaffar Hossain. Samsul’s two sons,
Rafikul and Moijul, have been tagged
as Bangladeshis. Moijul’s case is be-
ing heard by the foreigners’ tribunal,
while its Nagaon bench has already
declared Rafikul an illegal immigrant.
Their ordeal has left the family
seething. “What are you going to
do?” shouted Moijul when I asked
him about his case. “You would
further complicate the situation and
the court would banish us for going
to the media. Leave us; we will be
deported to Bangladesh soon.”
Surprisingly, Samsul’s name was in
the draft list published last year. But,
with his two sons in the dock, he fears
that he, too, would lose citizenship.
Recently, more than one lakh names
were dropped from last year’s list,
and the persons were given 15 days to
prove that they were Indians. Samsul
fears that his name figures in the
exclusion list. “I am yet to be notified
that I have been taken out of the list,”
he said.
Samsul remembers the days when
the Congress’s national leaders used
to visit his uncle’s house. Amiruddin
died in 1965 and young Samsul was
part of his funeral procession. At least
once a year, Congress leader and for-
mer Meghalaya chief minister Mukul
Sangma calls on Samsul. Amiruddin
was Sangma’s maternal grandfather.
“Senior Congressmen like
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Rajendra

o one would talk about the

labelling of Bengali-speaking
Muslims in Assam as
Bangladeshis. No investigation
is done; no report established
with facts.
—Samsul Islam
Nephew of Moulavi Muhammad Amiruddin, the
first deputy speaker of the Assam assembly

20 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

Prasad visited our house and held
meetings with Gopinath Bordoloi
and my uncle,” said Samsul. “But to-
day, people do not think twice before
calling my family Bangladeshi.”
Samsul’s elder son, Rafikul, tried to
run when I called on him. As he has
officially been declared a foreigner,
the border police can arrest him any
time. “Just go away,” he shouted. “I
am a Bangladeshi. If my statement
and picture is published, the police
would catch me soon.”
The cases against Samsul’s sons
date back to 2003, but they did not
expect matters to come to such a
head. They had been voting in elec-
tions; but now their voter ID is not
valid.
Samsul said the border police
can tag anyone an illegal immigrant
by preparing reports using false
witnesses. In Morigaon district alone,
around 2,000 people have allegedly
been branded as such. “The law of
the land does not work here,” said
Samsul. “Assam today is not like the
rest of India. We talk about Gujarat
riots; but has anyone involved in
the Nellie massacre been punished?
There were 10,000 Muslims who lost
their lives in that massacre in 1983.
The same way, no one would talk
about the labelling of Bengali-speak-
ing Muslims in Assam as Bangla-
deshis. No investigation is done; no
report established with facts.”
Rafikul said his bail application
was pending in the High Court. The
authorities have warned him that
if he talked to journalists about his
case, he would be put in detention
camp.
Around 20km away from Kali-
kajari is Borchapori village, where
60-year-old Rahima Khatun is facing
deportation. Rahima has not been
on the voters list since 1997. A month
ago, the local bench of the foreigners’
tribunal summoned her. The tribunal
would try to find out whether she
entered India before or after March
24, 1971, which is the cutoff date for
amsul’s two sons,
Rafikul and Moijul,
have been tagged as
Bangladeshis. The
Nagaon bench of the
foreigners’ tribunal
has already declared
Rafikul (in pic) an illegal
immigrant.
citizenship claims as per the 1985
Assam Accord.
In the 1990s, the Election Com-
mission began sifting through the
voters list to remove non-citizens.
The commission appointed election
verification officers—mostly state
government officials—to authen-
ticate voters across the state. The
officers gave a report against Rahima
to the electoral registration officer in
Assam in 1997, and the ERO told the
border police that she could be from
Bangladesh. The superintendent of
the border police inquired into the
matter and submitted a report to
the foreigners’ tribunal, after which
Rahima was summoned. “You have
entered illegally into Assam without
any valid documents,” said the notice
she received.
Rahima’s father, Abdul Gaffur, was
the principal of the first higher sec-
ondary school in Morigaon district.
He had valid documents, including
educational certificates and a ration
card for his family, all of which date
back to the 1950s. Gaffur died in
2000.
Rahima and her son Faruq, who
has also been left out of the NRC list,
met THE WEEK in the drawing room
of their home. Clad in burqa, gloves
and socks, Rahima initially refused
to show her face. When Faruq asked
her to remove the veil, she revealed
her teary eyes. “She was born here,
studied here and married in the
same village,” he said. “My father is
no more and we did not preserve all
his documents. It seems now that
even a dead man’s records have to be
kept safe.”
Rahima said none of her ten
siblings are facing deportation. Her
brother Baharul Islam is a professor
of political science at a famous col-
lege in Assam.
She has land records in her father’s
name and a certificate from her
school showing that she had studied
up to Class 8 in the 1960s. But the
border police said the documents
were “fake” and referred the case to
the foreigners’ tribunal.
Even little children have not been
spared by the faulty process. At
Hatishala village in Kamrup district,
farm labourer Syed Ali and his wife
found that they were part of the NRC
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 21
 COVER STORY
ASSAM
t will be worse than
Kashmir; it will be worse
than Myanmar.... All are
not Mahatma Gandhi; the
hotheaded may strike.
—Mohammad Faysal Haque
A shop owner in Boko, on the NRC
effect
y father is no more and
we did not preserve all his
documents. It seems now
that even a dead man’s
records have to be kept
safe.
—Faruq
Rahima Khatun’s son
draft, but not their
four children. The
children—sons Ramjan
Ali, Aminul Haque and
Abdul Haque, and daughter
Sahara Khatun—have been clas-
sified as “descendants of persons
whose cases are pending in the
tribunal”.
“But there is no case against me
and my wife,” said Syed, who has
travelled to the NRC office in Boko a
dozen times in the past year. He has
spent 024,000 to file objections, and
fears that he would have to spend
several lakhs before the ordeal is
over. “At the NRC office, instead of
helping us, the officials took the
biometrics of my four children. My
fear grew after that. NRC officials
are dropping names of citizens and
22 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
residents of As-
sam. Our lives are in
danger.”
More than 50 people
across Assam have commit-
ted suicide after being tagged
as foreigners. Samiran Nessa, an
18-year-old Arabic student at Hat-
ishala, said she, too, wanted to kill
herself five months ago. “We already
suffer because we are poor,” she said.
“The tag of foreigner is more than
what we can bear.”
It was her mother, Basirun Nessa,
who talked Samiran out of it. Her
father had deserted them to marry
another woman. Samiran had been
studying on a scholarship, but this
time she has not applied for the
grant, as she is unsure whether she
would be able to stay in India. “NRC
officials told me that all my docu-
ments are invalid,” she said. “My
father does not stay with us and he
is not here to defend me. So the offi-
cials told me that I would be declared
as a foreigner.”
Muslims say the situation in Assam
is graver than the one in Rakhine
state of Myanmar, where Rohingya
Muslims are being persecuted by
the government. Mohammad Faysal
Haque, who runs a hardware shop in
Boko, said the situation could result
in an armed rebellion. “It will be
 worse than Kashmir;
it will be worse than
Myanmar,” he said. “Don’t
forget that in Myanmar, the
minority population is just a few
lakhs (eight to ten lakhs). But in
Assam, there are nearly one crore
Bengali-speaking Muslims. All are
not Mahatma Gandhi; the hotheaded
may strike.”
Faysal said the government and
NRC officials are toeing the line
of the All Assam Students’ Union.
“The AASU has already given a
figure—that one crore Bangladeshis
are living in India. And the govern-
ment is acting accordingly,” he said.
“All Muslims in Assam want illegal
settlers to go. But how can the gov-
ernment put families who have been
living here for generations in deten-
tion centres? What is happening here
is the worst human rights violation in
the world.”
All eyes are on the final NRC list
that will be published on August 31.
“If such a big number of people are
asked to leave India or are put in jail,
we have no option but to defend our-
selves,” said Jaihur Islam of Hatish-
ala. “There is talk about [starting an]
armed struggle. Another option is to
approach the United Nations.”
Akram Hussein, state coordina-
tor of the Association for Citizen’s
Rights, an organisation formed to
protect the interests of “NRC victims”
in Assam, said they have sought the
intervention of Amnesty Internation-
al. “We have no option but to attract
the attention of the entire world,”
said Hussein. “Other countries
should put pressure on the Indian
government.”

INHERITANCE OF LOSS
Abdul Haque (left) with elder
brother Ramjan Ali of Hatishala
village. The siblings have been
declared foreigners, even though
their parents are Indians

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 23

 COVER STORY
ASSAM
PTI
There is also a covert campaign
to bring together Bengali-speaking
Hindus and Muslims who oppose the
NRC. The campaign, started by a sec-
tion of Muslims, is named Cholo Pa-
lati (Let’s Change)—a Bengali phrase
that helped the BJP end communist
rule in Tripura.
“Together, [Bengali-speaking]
Hindus and Muslims in Assam out-
number the Assamese,” said Nasiur
Rahaman, a trader in Boko. “So we
are trying to bring both the commu-
nities closer and start a movement.
The only problem is that the Hindu
community, from which around 10
lakh people have been declared as
non-citizens, is busy making a deal
with the Indian government.”
But many say the campaign is un-
realistic. “Bengali Hindus will never
come on board with Muslims,” said
lawyer Azad Siddiqui, who is fighting
the cases of many people who have
been declared foreigners. “Hundreds
of crores of rupees have been spent
by one community in Assam. Lakhs
of poor people are spending money
to establish their citizenship. Hindus
would not have to fight, because they
would get the Citizenship (Amend-
ment) Bill.”
The bill seeks to provide citizenship
to those who had been forced to seek
shelter in India because of religious
persecution in their home countries.
24 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists,
Parsis and Christians who entered
India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and
Afghanistan can apply for citizenship
under the proposed law.
The final NRC was to be published
on July 31. On July 16, the Union
and state governments moved the Su-
preme Court to extend the deadline
set by the court to publish the final
NRC. They asked for more time to
carry out a “sample re-verification”,
which involved verifying the citi-
zenship status of 20 per cent of the
population in districts bordering
Bangladesh, and 10 per cent of the
population in other districts. On July
23, the court extended the deadline
by a month, but denied the re-verifi-
cation request.
The day the Centre approached the
Supreme Court seeking an extension,
Union Home Minister Amit Shah told
the Rajya Sabha that the government
wanted to deport illegal immigrants
outside Assam as well. “Currently,
the NRC is part of the Assam Accord,”
he said. “The Centre is dedicated to
weaning out illegal immigrants from
every inch of this country. We will
make sure that all such immigrants
are deported as per international
law.”
According to an NRC official in
Assam, people who are suspected to
be foreigners have to provide several
THE GATEKEEPERS
NRC officials in Nagaon checking
the documents of people whose
names did not figure in the draft list
documents to prove their citizenship.
These include relevant details from
the 1951 census and from the voters
lists of 1966 and 1971. In the absence
of such information, a person has to
produce ‘legacy data’, proving that his
father, grandfather or great-grandfa-
ther had lived in India. “Then there is
the requirement of a link certificate
from the government to prove that he
is part of that family,” said the official.
“That could be a birth certificate,
school-leaving certificate or a ration
card.”
Problems arise when there are
discrepancies in the documents. “Ei-
ther the name of the father is wrong
or it does not tally with government
documents. Forgery is rampant,
because of which even true citizens
are harassed, as the tribunal has to go
through all the documents,” said the
official.
Legal experts say the inhumane
attitude of the government is appall-
ing. “The departments related to the
NRC process do not have adequate
representation of Muslims,” said law-
yer Nazrul Islam. “No matter which
party is in power—the Congress or
the BJP—they never thought of giving
proper representation to Muslims
in tribunals. Of the 100 foreigners’
tribunal benches in Assam, there is
not a single judge who belongs to the
Muslim community.”
He said the objective of the NRC
process is not to expel Muslims, but
to snatch their voting rights. “The aim
is to snatch the property and voting
rights of Bengali Muslims, who make
up 70 per cent of the one crore Mus-
lims in Assam,” said Islam. “Earlier, it
was done through violence. This time,
the silent atrocity of branding Mus-
lims as foreigners has gone beyond
violence.”
Soldier of
misfortune
How Army veteran Mohammad
Sanaullah failed the citizenship test.
And why it calls for legal remedies to
rectify the grave flaws in the system
BY RABI BANERJEE

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 25

 COVER STORY
ASSAM
M
ohammad Sanaullah
is free, for now. But his
mind is not without
fear, and his head is not
held high.
The 51-year-old had been a fearless
and proud soldier for 30 years. He
had joined the Army’s Corps of
Electronic and Mechanical Engineers
in 1987, and served with distinction
in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal
Pradesh and Manipur. He was at-
tached to the Rashtriya Rifles for six
years, before he retired in 2017 with
the rank of honorary lieutenant.
Sanaullah’s world came crashing
down on May 28 this year, when the
foreigners’ tribunal declared him a
Bangladeshi and sent him to a deten-
tion camp in Goalpara district. The
welcome at the camp was humiliat-
ing. He was lodged in a mosquito-in-
fested room with 55 others, and was
tortured, starved and forced to relieve
himself openly.
News of his detention created a
huge uproar. The police said it was
only following rules and guidelines,
and that a case against Sanaullah
had been registered at the Boko
police station in Kamrup district in
2008. The case was transferred to the
Guwahati bench of the foreigners’
tribunal two years later, and the tribu-
nal’s verdict was based on a report
submitted by the border branch of
the Assam Police.
The public outcry saw Sanaullah
case being taken up by the Gauhati
High Court. Supreme Court lawyer
Indira Jaising flew to Guwahati to
help his team of lawyers. Led by
advocate Syed Burhanur Rahman,
the lawyers worked for free to secure
him bail.
“The situation of most people who
have been accused of being Bang-
ladeshis is pathetic,” said Rahman.
“They are very poor. How could we
charge them?”
Sanaullah was granted bail on
condition that he remain in Guwaha-
ti. The ordeal has so upset him that
26 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
he situation of most
people who have
been accused of
being Bangladeshis is
pathetic. They are very
poor. How could we
charge them?
—Syed Burhanur Rahman
Sanaullah’s lead counsel
he now fears going out and meeting
strangers. “Only 25 per cent of my
objective has been met; 75 per cent
is still pending,” he said when THE
WEEK met him in Guwahati. “I have
no reason to celebrate. In the eyes of
the law, I am a foreigner. The onus is
on me to prove that I am an Indian.
It is a pity that I have to prove this at
this stage.”
The police had earlier told jour-
nalists that Sanaullah’s arrest was a
“mistake”, but his lawyers say it would
not help his cause. “The police did
not say so in court,” said Rahman. “In
fact, they stood by their report. What
the officers say outside is immaterial,
unless they say the same in court.”
Senior police officers told THE
WEEK that the case against Sanaullah
will not be withdrawn. Though he
lives in an apartment in Guwahati,
his documents show he is a resident
of Kalahikash village near Boko, a
town in Assam’s Kamrup district.
“According to his documents, his
sister was born seven years after her
mother’s death. False documents
were produced, and the police had
no choice but to suspect him. The
tribunal upheld [the suspicion],” said
an officer.
Interestingly, when he was de-
clared as a foreigner, Sanaullah was
employed as a sub-inspector in the
Assam Police Border Organisation,
which is tasked with detecting and
detaining suspected foreigners in the
state. He was discharged from his du-
ties a day after the tribunal declared
him a non-citizen.
“He was a very able and efficient
officer,” Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta,
special director-general of police
(border), told THE WEEK. “In fact,
he himself referred many cases to the
foreigners’ tribunal. He did his work
honestly. Now, so far his case is con-
cerned, we cannot interfere because
it is a matter between him and the
tribunal.”
Sanaullah will be back in the de-
tention camp if the tribunal’s verdict
is upheld by the High Court and the
 31%
DARRANG
NATIVE NO MORE 18% 30%
BAKSA NAGAON
How updating the National Register 23%
of Citizens would impact Assam BONGAIGAON

WHY ONLY ASSAM?

It was one of the conditions in
the Assam Accord, 1985

EXCLUDED FROM DISTRICTS

17% 17%
ASSAM NRC WITH MOST DIMA HASAO
EXCLUSIONS KAMRUP
41 CHI N A

MAJORITY RELIGION
LAKH Christianity
Islam Hinduism

ELECTORAL IMPACT 82%

64% 68%
At least 10 seats will have a
55% 50% 58%
BONGAIGAON

huge change of Muslim voters DIMA HASAO

30%
DARRANG

KAMRUP
NAGAON

BAKSA

DISTRICTS WITH CHANGE

IN MUSLIM VOTES
Nagaon, Darrang, Bongai-
gaon, Barpeta, Cachar, Kam- RELIGION IN ASSAM
rup, Sonitpur, Baksa, Tinsukia,
Dima Hasao and Biswanath 62% 34% 4%
HINDUISM ISLAM OTHERS

GRAPHICS DENI LAL / RESEARCH RABI BANERJEE, KARTHIK RAVINDRANATH

Supreme Court. According to the
tribunal, he had entered Assam by
crossing the porous India-Bangla-
desh border some time after March
25, 1971—the cutoff date for citizen-
ship claims as per the 1985 Assam
Accord.
On May 28 this year, an unsuspect-
ing Sanaullah was summoned to the
office of the superintendent of the
border police at Amingaon in Kam-
rup. He was interrogated and taken
into custody late in the evening.
Insiders say officers of the depart-
ment were unhappy with the way his
case was handled. Sanaullah appar-
ently reacted angrily when he was
asked to prove his citizenship, and
said he would contest the charges
against him in court. That resulted in
his immediate transfer to the deten-
tion camp.
When THE WEEK met him at his
relative’s house in Guwahati, Sanaul-
lah appeared shaken and hurt. His
lawyers and well-wishers in the po-
lice had asked him not to talk to jour-
nalists. “I hang my head in shame,”
he said. “Please excuse me; I cannot
talk. I cannot reconcile myself to the
charge that I was a Bangladeshi who
worked in the Indian Army.”
Sanaullah said his wife, Sanima
Begum, also lives in shame. “She goes
out and often stays in our village,” he
said. “No one hurls abuses at us, but
many look at us suspiciously.”
Sanaullah has two daughters and
a son. Sahanaj, the elder daughter,
is married and Helmina is a nursing
student. Son Sahid is a physiother-
apist in Guwahati. According to the
police, the names of Sanaullah’s
children vary across documents, and
none figured in the draft of the Na-

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 27

 COVER STORY
ASSAM
tional Register of Citizens published
last year. Sanima Begum made the list
since her father was a documented
citizen, unlike Sanaullah’s father. But
the children were excluded because
they had used Sanaullah’s legacy
data—a set of documents that proves
that one’s ancestors were residents of
Assam before 1971.
More than 40 lakh residents did
not figure in the draft NRC published
last year. On June 26 this year, more
than one lakh more names were
dropped from the list, taking the total
number of persons declared ineligible
for citizenship to more than 41 lakh.
Around 900 people are now lodged in
detention centres in the state.
“It means the exercise would never
end, and that there could be many
more branded as Bangladeshis and
deported. What is happening in As-
sam is horrific,” said Akram Hussein,
state coordinator of the Association
for Citizen’s Rights, which fights
the cases of people who have been
excluded.
Interestingly, Sanaullah is not the
only Army veteran to be branded
Bangladeshi. In 2017, the border
police declared that his cousin Ajmal
Haque was a foreigner. A retired sub-
edar, Ajmal sought the Army’s help.
“I got their immense support,” he
said. “They gave me all old certificates
and documents, which I produced
before the police. The support of the
Eastern Command was huge and the
border police was forced to drop my
case.”
Sanaullah was staying in Ajmal’s
house when THE WEEK met him.
According to Ajmal, Sanaullah’s
decision to take the legal route was a
mistake. “He should have sought help
from the Army. But he made the mis-
take of taking the help of a lawyer and
prolonging the case, which landed
him in this crisis,” he said.
Sanaullah and Ajmal’s cases date
back to 2008, but they had not kept
track of the progress. It was only after
the cases were handed over to the
28 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
he investigating officers
would not even get out of
their offices to meet the
accused. Their intention
is to drive out Bengali-
speaking Hindus and
Muslims from Assam.
—Ajmal Haque
Army veteran and Sanaullah’s cousin
foreigners’ tribunal, in 2017, that they
were notified. Ajmal was notified just
after he retired from the Army. “What
helped me was that I was posted in
Guwahati just before my retirement,”
he said. “My retirement papers were
cleared from here. So I was able to
take help from the Army.”
Sanaullah had also hung up his
Army boots by the time he came to
know that his case had reached the
foreigners’ tribunal. His decision to
take legal aid, perhaps, harmed his
case because he had failed to inform
senior officers of the border police
of his plan to litigate against the
department. Ajmal said he was also
unaware of Sanaullah’s case initially.
According to documents accessed
by THE WEEK, the case against
Sanaullah was registered on May
23, 2008, when he was posted in
Manipur. Sanaullah allegedly told
the police then that he was born in
Dhaka district in Bangladesh and was
not formally educated. According to
the report, he admitted that the doc-
uments he possessed did not have
the real names of his wife and three
children. He also allegedly told the
police that he was a labourer who did
not own land. The transcript of his
statement to the police bears a thumb
impression, which Sanaullah says is
not his own. “If I could become an
Army officer, why would I use my
thumb impression?” he asked.
The border police had produced
statements of three witnesses—
Amjad Ali, Kurban Ali and Subhan
Ali—to support its finding that
Sanaullah was a Bangladeshi. But all
three witnesses deny giving such a
statement. “The report is completely
bogus,” Amjad Ali, a businessman at
Kalahikash, told THE WEEK. “Neither
was I called by the police and nor did
I willingly go to the police station to
say Sanaullah is a Bangladeshi.”
Amjad said Sanaullah was the pride
of their village. “He is a very upright
man and a brave soldier who fought
for India in Kashmir,” he said. “We are
proud that Kalahikash produced two
Armymen—Sanaullah and his cousin
Ajmal.”
 Amjad and another witness,
Subhan Ali, have lodged a complaint
against the investigating officer in
Sanaullah’s case. “This is how they
are labelling several lakhs of Indians
as Bangladeshis,” said Subhan, 70.
“Our village is proud to have a brave
soldier like Sanaullah, who served in
the Kargil war.”
Sanaullah, however, told THE
WEEK that he had not participated
in the Kargil war. “When Kargil broke
out, I was posted out of Kashmir to
Hyderabad. But it is true that I served
in Kashmir thrice in six years—be-
fore and after the Kargil war,” he said.
He said it would have been better
had he been killed by militants in
Kashmir or Manipur. “I would then
have got the respect that I am not
getting today. Many would have shed
tears seeing my dead body. But see
where I am today; I have lost my hon-
our,” he said.
Will the public support for Sanaul-
lah result in him getting a permanent
reprieve? “It is very difficult, but not
impossible,” said Rahman. “One
can go to a higher court against the
tribunal’s order, but that would be a
writ petition and no appeal would
be granted. Even the Supreme Court
has refused to entertain an appeal.
In the writ petition, the higher court
will not accept new evidence. Only
the evidence that was taken up by
the tribunal will be reexamined. If
mistakes are found, there is a pro-
vision to send the case back to the
tribunal.”
Rahman said it would be a legal
disaster if the Supreme Court did
not step in and make provision for
hearing a large number of appeals.
“Thousands of courts have been cre-
ated in Assam to hear the cases relat-
ed to people who would be declared
foreigners,” he said. “But all such
cases will be writ petitions. Under
Article 226 of the Constitution, [new]
factual evidence in writ petitions is
not investigated by High Courts and
the Supreme Court.”
Sources in the Assam government
told THE WEEK that many serving
and retired Armymen are in the list
SOLIDARITY SANS BORDERS
Congress workers in West Bengal
protesting the NRC outside Assam
House in Kolkata
of suspects being tried by the foreign-
ers’ tribunal. “There are personnel
from the Army, the central armed
police forces and even the Assam
Police. But such cases are not numer-
ous,” said a police officer.
Ajmal Haque said there were
plenty of instances where the
border police had made a mockery
of procedures. “The investigating
officers would not even get out of
their offices to meet the accused,”
he said. “Their intention is to drive
out the Bengali-speaking Hindus
and Muslims from Assam. While
the Central government has given a
lollipop in the form of Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill to silence Hindus,
Muslims find themselves without
any representation in the admin-
istration. We are living in the dark
completely.”
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 29
 COVER STORY
ASSAM

n INTERVIEW
Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta
special director-general of
police (border)

Everybody is
under the
scanner
BY RABI BANERJEE

It is being alleged that the border
police has made a mess of the
process for finalising the National
Register of Citizens?
No, [the process] has been going on
for several decades. Things took a big
turn in 2005, when a five-judge bench
called the influx from Bangladesh
as an invasion and silent aggression
that could not only upset the state’s
population balance, but also change
its sociology. There is no way we
could have sat and relaxed after such
a historic verdict. The Supreme Court
ruled that, based on the Foreigners
Act, 1946, and the Foreigners (Tri-
bunals) Order, 1964, we needed to
[track] suspects and submit reports
to the foreigners’ tribunal.
People say they are being
harassed even if they have all
documents.
The law is clear. The border police
can check the papers of any
suspect. If the documents don’t
match, the matter is referred to the
tribunal. The border police don’t
do anything more. The arrests
of people declared as foreigners
by the tribunal are done by the
regular police, and not by my
department. Now, the interesting
thing is, no one admits that he or
she is a foreigner. So my officers have
to suspect all.
But people say their cases are
referred to the tribunal even if they
submit valid documents.
Do you know that fudged documents
are rampant? There is a father-renting
syndicate in Assam. Many people
‘buy’ fathers, along with birth, educa-
tion and school-leaving certificates.
They fail to do that in a clinical way,
which is why they are caught.
So people forge documents?
I won’t say all. I will help all rights
activists, who are protesting the NRC,

30 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019


to help these poor people come up
with genuine papers rather than fake
ones. In many cases, we have found
that the father is younger than the
son. How would you explain this?
How many fresh cases have you
registered recently?
Not a single case. All cases have been
going on for the past one decade
or more. In the past one year, not a
single case has been referred to the
tribunal.
Is biometric data of suspects taken?
As of now, it is done in cases that
have been referred to the tribunal.
But I have requested the govern-
ment to do so only after a person is
declared a foreigner.
Have all 40 lakh people who were
left out of the draft NRC filed their
citizenship claims?
No, 3.8 lakh people have not filed
their claims or objections. We are
trying to find them, to know why
they did not file claims. I know
there are a few people who might
be dead. But what about the rest?
People across India protested the
arrest of Army veteran Moham-
mad Sanaullah. Was the arrest a
mistake?
It is for the tribunal to decide. They
have declared him a foreigner.
If he is a Bangladeshi, how did he
become part of your department?
See, this is an old case. Unlike in
IPC (Indian Penal Code) cases,
these cases are not criminal in
nature. His case is still in court. Let
us wait for the final result.
The witnesses in the case have
moved court saying they did not
say Sanaullah was a Bangladeshi.
That is for the court to decide. I can
only say that witnesses always make
U-turns.
Do you feel that the border police
committed a mistake by referring
an Army veteran to the foreigners’
tribunal?
First, the case is old. I was not here
then and I would not be able to
tell. Second, the border police can
suspect everyone. Onus would be
on the person to prove his or her
citizenship. No arrest is done before
the person is declared a foreigner.
Cases are going on against people
from all walks of life, not just the
Army alone.
Who are they?
They are from the Army, our state
police, central armed police, teach-
ers and even journalists. Everybody
is under the scanner and we all have
to prove that we are citizens.
How do you decide whether a
person is a suspect?
Based on surveys and intelligence
reports. We also get a lot of infor-
mation from the state’s intelligence
department. We inspect documents
and refer cases. The NRC depart-
ment then does legacy matching,
based on which the tribunal gives
its order.
Rights activists say what is happen-
ing in Assam is the worst human
rights violation in the world.
I would ask the activists to not give
lectures; [they should] help people
come up with correct documents. I
have already created special redress
cells in my office and elsewhere. The
people are poor and they need help.
But, unfortunately, activists don’t
come to help these people. They
take money from people in the name
of help, but don’t help them. My
department is going out of its way to
help people establish their citizen-
ship. We are trying to show a very
humane face.
I travelled across the state and
found that people are angry. Many
fear that there would be an armed
struggle if a large number of people
don’t make it to the final list.
We won’t let the situation go that
way. I can assure you that the Assam
Police is very efficient in tackling
armed struggles. We have proven
that in the past.
How many people have been
pushed back to Bangladesh of late?
[There are] no push-backs. Last year,
more than 100 people were deported
and the Bangladesh government
accepted them. The number in the
previous 10 years was just around 70.
Last year has seen the largest num-
ber of deportations.
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 31
 COVER STORY
ASSAM

India must
n INTERVIEW

adhere to
Fernand de Varennes
(UN special rapporteur on international
standards
minority issues)

BY RABI BANERJEE

FERNAND DE VARENNES IS dean of school facilities and youth deprived of

What are the allegations?
the Faculté de droit at the Université de employability. So, we wanted immediate
The allegations have dimensions related
Moncton in Canada and extraordinary clarification from the government.
to violation of human rights of religious
professor at the Centre for Human Rights
minorities. We are seeking clarifications The NRC is a judiciary-driven exer-
of the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
on the accuracy of those allegations. We cise, based on an internal agree-
He has been special rapporteur on
sought clarification because it raised se- ment between the Indian govern-
minority issues for the UN Human Rights
rious concerns for us and can potentially ment and rebels in Assam, which
Council since August 2017. He is one of
damage the situation in Assam. There started three decades ago.
the three members who presented the
could be denial of services for millions In general, when governments adhere to
report on NRC to the Council, criticising
who may end up stateless and lead to international human rights obligations,
the manner in which the Indian govern-
serious human rights violations. that is also applicable to every layer of
ment has handled the NRC process. In a
telephonic interaction with THE WEEK, You called it one of the worst government. In every sphere, the govern-
he spoke about the international legal possible human rights crises in the ments—Central, state or even municipal—
concerns regarding the NRC and his ex- world. need to adhere to such standards while
pectations from the Indian government. If millions of individuals are considered deciding on policy-making exercises
Excerpts: non-citizens after the deadline, it would such as the NRC.
be like that. An extremely large number What is your expectation from the
What are your concerns regarding of people would be deprived of public Indian government?
NRC? services, like children being denied These are serious allegations and have
The prime concern is that the people will
become non-residents if the NRC pro-
cess is executed as it is being promised.
We have not made any determination or
conclusion, just an observation. We have
raised some issues and sought clari-
fications from the Indian government
through the country’s mission in Geneva.
We have told them that such an exercise
is discriminatory to a particular religious
group.
You said you got no response from
the Indian government.
We repeatedly sought clarifications
from the Indian government. The most
unfortunate thing is that it refused to give
any clarification. As a result, we have not
AP

made any conclusions. If we do not get

any response, we may have to look at the IDENTITY CHECK
allegations and take steps accordingly. People queue up to check their names at an NRC draft centre in Burgaon village

32 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

 Grouse goes global
UN agencies call the NRC process discriminatory and a sharp deviation
from India’s track record on human rights
BY RABI BANERJEE
THE UNITED NATIONS has taken strong exception to the
National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam, calling
it “discriminating between other religious groups and Mus-
lims”. Such criticism by the world body is unprecedented;
India has not faced it ever, even on the Kashmir issue.
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) employed three
special rapporteurs to study the NRC issue and their report
is critical of the Narendra Modi government. The three in-
dependent experts—Ahmed Shaheed (freedom of religion or
belief), Fernand de Varennes (minority issues) and E. Tendayi
Achiume (contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimina-
tion, xenophobia and related intolerance)—concluded that
the NRC process could exacerbate the xenophobic climate
and fuel religious intolerance and discrimination.
The report said more than 40 lakh people in Assam,
in particular Muslims and Hindus of Bengali descent, were
excluded from the draft NRC list prepared in June last year.
More than 30 lakh revision claims have been filed by those
excluded since then, while an additional two lakh objections
have been added against individuals previously included.
In June this year, the NRC authority named another 1.02
lakh people, earlier found to be valid citizens, as possible
infiltrators.
The UN report criticised the deadline for the final
NRC list, which it says has been fixed notwithstanding the
significant number of pending revision claims and objec-
tions and the complex NRC modalities. It also questioned
India's Foreigners' Act, which puts the onus on individuals to
prove their citizenship status. “In nationality determination
processes, the burden of proof should lie with the state and
not with the individual,” said the report. The experts also
highlighted the lack of clarity in the link between the NRC
process, electoral roll information and the separate judicial
processes of citizenship determination before the Assam
Foreigners’ Tribunals.
In a scathing indictment of the Union government, the
UN experts said they did not receive any response from
concerned authorities despite repeated requests. Rupert
Colville, global spokesperson for the UN high commissioner
for human rights, said the high commissioner's office had
issued a warning to the Indian government based on the rap-
porteurs’ observations. UN officials said the UNHRC and the
UN Refugee Agency had utmost respect for India. “But that
reputation is at stake as the Indian government has failed to
give any clarification despite being asked to,” said a senior
UN official based in Geneva.
Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency,
said those who were excluded from the final NRC list faced
the risk of being stateless and would be deprived of all
government facilities and even basic services. “The UN is
against it and our opposition is strong,” she said. She did not
accept the explanation that the NRC process started after
India signed the Assam Accord in the 1980s with the leaders
of the Assam movement, promising to drive out infiltrators
from the state. “We would urge India not to deport and de-
tain people and deprive them of their basic rights. We know
India has sovereign rights and the right to detect foreigners.
But it has to understand concerns like human rights viola-
tions and statelessness,” said Throssell, emphasising that
even foreigners should not be deprived of their basic rights.
Adrian Edwards, global spokesperson for the UNHCR,
said his organisation would seek immediate intervention of
the Indian government to restore human rights in Assam. “It
is certainly a worrying situation. India is a signatory to the in-
ternational conventions on statelessness and human rights.
It should adhere to those conventions.”

extreme consequences for millions of
people. It is extremely important that the
Indian government gives an explana-
tion and provides information to UN
organisations. India will have to adhere
to international standards. Because the
NRC has the potential to cause disinte-
gration, we want collaboration from the
Indian government, like we got in the
past. We have not received any informa-
tion from the Indian government. It is
very unfortunate. India must understand
that the allegations are grave.
It is very disturbing that such
allegations are made against India,
which is a vibrant and mature
democracy.
India has a proud tradition and history of
protecting its vulnerable and marginal-
ised population. That is why we expected
a lot, or, at least, a clarification. Not get-
ting even that is not only disheartening,
but also very unfortunate. We need more
collaboration from the Indian govern-
ment regarding this.
Since independence, India has made
huge contributions regarding human
rights and giving protection to religious
minorities. But today, India is facing
extremely grave allegations and a large
number of people are suffering. The
situation could destabilise the region
and the people. Therefore, India's
non-response is unfortunate. I would say
that although your country was once an
example, there is now a lot of room for
improvement.

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 33

 FOCUS

Karnataka: India’s
preferred destination
for professional education
BY POOJA PRABBHAN sitions in state and national development processes.’ Could there
be a story behind Karnataka’s unprecedented growth? THE WEEK

T
he migration of Indian youngsters to tier I cities in search of lu-
crative career prospects is becoming commonplace today.
Karnataka’s capital, Bengaluru, alone is facing an unprece-
dented influx of workforce and there’s more to it than what meets
the eye. While the IT hub has successfully managed to put itself
on the global map, there’s no refuting that Karnataka in itself has
great potential and is pegged as India’s preferred destination for
professional education owing to myriad reasons. As per Karnataka
State Education Policy, ‘the state is also now globally acclaimed for
its mammoth growth in the higher technology arena and as manu-
facturing hub. Given this status, Karnataka at large aspires to rise
to greater heights so that its future generations can be assured of a
high-quality education that will equip them to take on effective po-
delves deeper into why Karnataka indeed lives up to its repute of
being India’s most preferred destination for professional educa-
tion.
There are no coincidences. Leading science and technology in-
stitutions of the country i.e. Visvesvaraya Technological University
(VTU), Manipal, Indian Institute Of Science and National Institute
Of Technology among several others continue to reign supreme as
some of the most preferred educational institutions in the country.
And, there’s a reason behind hordes of wide-eyed youngsters
making a beeline to universities across the state. Speaking of the
same, Usha Rani Ramanathan, director, HRD, Cambridge Insti-
tute Of Technology, Bengaluru, avers, “Truly understandable that
Karnataka is known for being the base of professional education.

Dr Ambedkar Institute of Technology

Dr M. Mahadeva, Ph.D,
Secretary,
PVP Welfare Trust, Bangalore
Dr Ambedkar Institute of Technology
is one of the prominent institutions un-
der PVP Welfare Trust established al-
most four decades ago. The Campus
has sprawled about 30 acres of land
with all facilities and is a self-contained
one. It has all connectivity of transpor-
tation. The campus is Network ena-
bled and Internet catering to roughly
6,000 students and staff, including
the faculty members. Dr. Ambedkar
Institute of Technology has achieved
163rd rank in the National Institutional
Ranking Framework (NIRF) and has
achieved ‘A’ category accredition by
NAAC and is also an Accredited insti-
tution by NBA. Dr AIT has been con-
sidered as a cost-effective institution
by supervisory authority. Because of
its inclusive character of the campus,
the institution has boys and girls stu-
dents with equal numbers, drawing
from different religions, and social
background across rural and urban
India. The campus has hostel facility
for boys and girls of the college sepa-
rately. The college has been enjoying
a good record of training and place-
ment activities and over 70 per cent
of the eligible students are recruited
regularly from the campus by mostly
the core companies of all the engi-
neering disciplines. Special coaching
for placements are being conducted
parallelly to all the students on a cost
sharing basis, especially on the com-
munication skill.
Dr AIT’ians, always enjoy serene
environment throughout their stay in
the campus, highly skilled and pro-
fessional faculty members with over
20 years of retention, on an average
have made the dreams of the students
a reality.

34 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

 FOCUS
Education is one field which will never be a disadvantage to any-
body and that being the main reason we have industrialists, social
reformers starting their universities in this state.” She further eluci-
dates, “Being in the education field and being the liaison between
industry and students due to my strong base in placements, I would
only like to say that as long as a university is sculpting out students
to stand on their feet making India a better place, everything goes
for it and not against the new set ups.”
The state, which is home to the 4th largest technology cluster in
the world is now being viewed as a treasure trove of opportunities:
for those with flair and are willing to go the extra mile. As per a report,
Karnataka is the seventh high-income Indian state / union territory
by GSDP per capita (₹207,062 (US$3,000).
The progress graph, if monitored carefully, can be traced to
continuous growth. Visveswaraiah laid the foundation for the tech-
nology revolution with the help of Mysore Raja. They joined hands
to give to one of Karnataka’s most potent undertakings, teamed
with propelled streamlined efforts to give impetus to lay founda-
tions for large-scale industries like lamps, soaps, steel and the like.
Commenting on the same, Jugnu Uberoi, Alumni President, Christ
University, opines,“Yes it’s true as students and parents find vari-
ous institutions offering professional education, which are on part
with world standards beside many a course has the subjects which
students prefer. Christ University is an example. In 50 years from
just 350 students and 3 streams, today we have 3 campus in the city
with a fourth underway with over 60 streams from pre University to
PHD too and over 22,000 students. We also have students from 60
different countries. Recently Harvard sent a team of its professors
36 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
to study how CU was so successful in 50 years. Its being present at
the Asian meet of various head at Harvard where our VC, Dr Rev Fr
Abraham, is a speaker and an invitee, too. Bangalore, categorically
is one of Karnataka’s biggest pluses. And academicians, industri-
alists and students alike are sitting up and taking note of the same.”
Karnataka has a history of frontrunning at myriad avenues— it
was the first state to get electricity from Shivanasamudra (GE tur-
bines). Thus the environment of a progressive state led to rising
need for professionals gave way to institutes like IISc in 19 01, KMC
in Medical field started one year before AIIMS, private colleges like
MIT in Manipal have set benchmarks for professional education.
NIT K talents are at par with IITs, IIM is the top in management. Den-
tal is one more area, which harbours professional colleges. new
universities are started keeping in view a great environment for
learning and imparting professional education.
As per a 2016 report on Business Insider, Karnataka had re-
corded 2.16 lakh job openings in the first quarter first quarter of the
last fiscal followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu (93,000), Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana region followed by Uttar Pradesh. It is safe
to say that the stats can be multiplied in the current context.
Technology aside, places like Mysuru and Mangalore are also
branching out to other streams, hence offering opportunities to
creative professionals, educationists, social media influencers
and fledgling entrepreneurs. And, more than anything else, a volley
of factors have helped Karnataka get the spotlight on itself, thus
earning the status of being one of the most preferred destinations
in India to study. Rakesh Katarey, Dean, College Of Journalism
And Mass Communication, Dayananda Sagar University states,
 FOCUS

“This is a very well-known fact. Bengaluru has been in the top 5
places to study/pursue professional education all along. But, in
all honesty, we are also banking on attracting students who hail
from areas in India where education and technical institutions are
lacking or sub-par in terms of quality. It’s mostly those from the
backward states coming to Karnataka. An impressive percent of
students are from Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and northeast
along with some parts of Rajasthan. Simply put, Karnataka has
an edge over other states owing to the fact that education in the
south is considered to be much more disciplined. There are proper
examinations in place. There’s accountability in the systems. Kar-
nataka is a great educational centre. Bengaluru, as a silicon valley,
is technologically ahead. Demographically speaking, Karnataka is
at a close proximity from most southern states. Kerala for instance
does not have some of the specialized institutions that Karnataka
has – VTU, Manipal, Jain for instance. Bangalore is a safer place for
women. Weather conditions are favourable, and people in general
are affable. It’s easier to settle here. There’s an inclination for Indian
students to settle in south. These are intrinsic to a high quality of life.
In terms of excellence, it’s a peaceful state, one can feel a lot secure
here. So I would say, it’s an amalgamation of things that make Kar-
nataka tick as an educational hub.”
Charitable trusts, social reformers and industrialists have
gauged the long term feasibilities of setting up institutes across Kar-
nataka and are attracting talents from across India and globe. But,
academician Usha Rani still believes that Karnataka has a long way
to go. “The gap between industry and academic still persists. With
the emergence of new universities and more importance given to
vocational courses, we can see so many start-ups establishing
their base and growing up to be some of the most enterprising set
ups. My only say, for the above question is the value of education
only increases if we are able to provide finished products to the in-
dustries or organisations.”
Thrust on IT industry and BT and rise of India's silicon valley and
recently the start-up scenario. Vast scope of employment and
entrepreneurship after studying in such colleges: Stating true to
its title of being the state with the 2nd lowest unemployment rate,
Karnataka’s per capita income ranks fourth among the 10 states
considered for the analysis; Karnataka had the lowest unemploy-
ment rate at 1.2 percent according to Centre for Monitoring Indian
Economy (CMIE). Karnataka has been successful in providing em-
ployment through efficient job melas. Early this year, NIT-Karnata-
ka saw an impressive 25 per cent jump in placement offers, accord-
ing to a TOI report. It is also slated that north Karnataka, especially
Hubballi, possesses gigantic potential to attract young engineers
from different states across the country as it promises meaningful
growth. This was evidenced in a start-up festival of sorts, as report-
ed by Forbes India, ‘The turnout at the Deshpande Foundation’s
Sandbox Startups in Hubballi, with 200 attendees coming from
nearby districts in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana, was
double the usual number of attendees at Alexathons held in other
cities. It even outnumbered the turnout in the metros.’

Alliance University
Dr Anubha Singh
Acting Vice-Chancellor and
Pro Vice-Chancellor,
Alliance University
Alliance University has been a symbol
of quality education and a platform for
both students and professionals to
forge ahead in their chosen areas and
contribute to the academia, industry
and society. With greater focus now on
higher education in India by the MHRD,
the University has positioned itself as
one of the pioneers in providing the right
mix of theory and practice and making
them career ready. Alliance education,
defined by excellence in the areas of
. Business Administration; Engineering;
.
.38 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
Legal Studies and guided by the core
values of the University, has shaped
the lives of over twenty thousand very
successful alumni across the globe in
50 countries.
The University attracts students from
different parts of the country and from
several countries abroad, to pursue
their courses of interest across under-
graduate, postgraduate and doctoral
programs. Our international partner-
ships with 50 renowned universities
build global capacities in teaching,
learning, and research providing host
of opportunities such as semester
exchanges, credit transfers, dual de-
grees, international summer school,
faculty exchanges, curriculum devel-
opment, collaborative research and
international internships to our stake-
holders.
Our outstanding faculty constantly
engaged in contemporary research
and publications blend great teaching
with profound research and foster a rich
learning environment with advanced
pedagogical methods. The University
is also home to several subject matter
experts from various industry sectors
who are associated in capacities such
as guest faculty members, adjunct fac-
ulty or trainers who interact with stu-
dents and help them gain knowledge
in different streams. Robust industry
interactions help students obtain re-
al-time opportunities with several lead-
ing organizations in the form of intern-
ships, industry visits and exemplary
placements.
The University has been ranked
amongst the top 10 Private Universities
in India. While QS I-Gauge rated Alliance
an overall ‘Gold’ rating in 2019, the Times
B-School Rankings, 2019 ranked Alliance
School of Business as 3rd Best Business
School under a Private University.
I welcome students to explore study
options at Alliance and be a part of pos-
itive transformation, both personally
and professionally.
 DIPLOMACY
INDIA-PAK TIES

Terms of
AP

engagement
As Donald Trump tries to extricate his troops from Afghanistan,
Pakistan is back in favour and India seems to be left out in the cold
BY MANDIRA NAYAR

40 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019


TWO TO TANGO
Imran Khan meets Donald Trump at
the White House on July 22
IT IS THE new bromance. And, it
has already made headlines. The
first meeting between US President
Donald Trump and Pakistan Prime
Minister Imran Khan was a success.
Imran was forced to take the airport
bus on arrival and had his army chief
General Qamar Bajwa for a chaper-
on, but he managed to hit an unex-
pected six. With Trump offering to
mediate on Kashmir, suggesting that
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had
asked him to, Imran “took advantage
of Trump’s bottomless vanity”, and
dragged the US president further
into the mess, proving that he is as
wily a leader as he was a cricketer.
India has categorically refuted
Trump’s statement, with External
Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar issuing
a statement in Parliament. The une-
quivocal rebuttal came after the for-
eign ministry went through records
of the conversations Modi had with
the Americans, making it clear that
it was a classic Trump remark—high
on emotion, but not really based
on facts. The US administration,
meanwhile, went on a damage-con-
trol exercise by endorsing the Indian
line on Kashmir. “While Kashmir is
a bilateral issue for both parties to
discuss, the Trump administration
welcomes Pakistan and India sitting
down and the US stands ready to
assist,’’ read a tweet signed by Alice
Wells, the acting assistant secretary
of state for south and central Asian
affairs. Also, Kashmir was not men-
tioned in the White House readout
on the Trump-Imran meeting.
Kashmir, however, is likely to
loom large when Modi meets
Trump in September. For now, India
has chosen to handle the situation
quietly, choosing diplomacy over
hype. And, it seems to be working.
Eliot Engel, chairman of the US
House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee, told Indian Am-
bassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla
that he supported dialogue between
India and Pakistan. “Pakistan must
first take concrete and irreversible
steps to dismantle the terrorist infra-
structure on Pakistan’s soil,’’ said a
statement put out by his office.
Harsh Pant, who heads the
strategic studies programme at the
Delhi-based Observer Research
Foundation, said Trump’s com-
ments on Kashmir would not cause
any lasting damage. “Every Amer-
ican president has felt inspired to
do something for Kashmir. Obama’s
first term was riddled with it. If India
could hold out when it was not as
powerful, it will not matter now,’’
said Pant.
Yet, it is important for India to
take note of the changing realities in
south Asia. For Trump, who is keen
to get out of Afghanistan before the
election season, Pakistani help is
critical. Trump might have called
Modi “beautiful man”, but while
dealing with Afghanistan, Imran is
his best bet. “Pakistan is going to
help us extricate ourselves [from
Afghanistan],’’ said Trump. Follow-
ing Imran’s visit to the White House,
Pakistan seems to be back in favour,
leaving India out in the cold. The
talks with the Taliban seem to be
working and the Americans hope
that by September, they will have a
plan to leave.
Ahead of Imran’s visit to the US,
the state department designated
the Balochistan Liberation Army as
a global terrorist group, signalling
that Pakistan was finally out of the
doghouse. Pakistan, too, took steps
aimed at improving its image, like
arresting Lashkar-e-Taiba chief
Hafiz Saeed and opening up its
airspace for flights from India. While
he was in the US, Imran spoke about
the possible release of Shakil Afridi,
the doctor who is in jail for allegedly
helping the CIA to establish Osama
bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad.
Imran said Afridi could be swapped
for Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neu-
rosurgeon who is in a US prison.
“India will have to live with this
pressure on the relationship in the
future,’’ said Rana Banerji, former
special secretary in the cabinet
secretariat. “We can deal with it in
two ways. One, by reaching out po-
litically to Kashmir in a better way.
We should also think of engaging
Pakistan.” This will be the biggest
challenge for India.
The biggest casualty of the Trump
remark on Kashmir could be the In-
dia-Pakistan relationship, which has
been limping back to a semblance
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 41
 DIPLOMACY
INDIA-PAK TIES
AP
of normalcy, with plenty of external
help. The US itself has been having
conversations with both sides, and
there was a hint that the pressure
was working. For instance, the In-
dian Davis Cup team is expected to
play in Pakistan after a gap of nearly
55 years.
Negotiations on the Kartarpur
corridor have been productive.
From just a symbolic commitment,
both countries have been look-
ing at tangible deliverables in the
second round. The Indian demand
for allowing 5,000 pilgrims with-
out visas has been accepted along
with the demand for permitting
non-Sikh pilgrims as well. India
submitted details of flood patterns
in the area, urging Pakistan to build
a bridge instead of an embankment,
which again, was agreed upon. “The
Kartarpur corridor will bring pros-
perity,’’ said Ramesh Arora, a Sikh
Pakistani politician with the Pakistan
Muslim League (Nawaz). He said the
work on the corridor had continued
even when the two countries were
on the brink of war. “If we have any
42 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
imagination, religious tourism should
be encouraged,’’ said G. Parthasar-
athy, former Indian high commis-
sioner to Islamabad. “It should not
be one-way. We should also open
up sufi shrines and encourage group
tourism. Why not group tourism for
the Taj Mahal?’’ The progress on Kar-
tarpur, the verdict of the International
The biggest
casualty of the
Trump remark on
Kashmir could be
the India-Pakistan
relationship, which
has been limping
back to a semblance
of normalcy.
HOPE FLOATS
Friends of Kulb-
hushan Jadhav
celebrate the ICJ’s
order to review
his case. Peaceful
resolution of the
issue will go a long
way in normalising
India-Pak ties
Court of Justice in the Kulbhushan
Jadhav case and the opening up of
the airspace were incremental steps
towards normalising ties between
the two countries.
But, with Trump’s inopportune
remarks, India-Pakistan relations
could hit yet another rough patch.
In an attempt to keep up pressure
on Kashmir, Pakistan on July 24
summoned India’s deputy high
commissioner, Gaurav Ahluwalia,
to condemn “the unprovoked
ceasefire violations’’ on the Line of
Control on July 22 and 23, which, it
said, resulted in two civilian deaths.
No amount of pressure, however,
is going to force India to change its
traditional position on Kashmir.
Speaking in Parliament on July 23,
Jaishankar stressed upon the bilat-
eral nature of the conflict. “It has
been India’s consistent position that
all outstanding issues with Pakistan
are discussed only bilaterally,” he
said. “I would further underline
that any engagement with Pakistan
would require an end to cross-bor-
der terrorism.”
 MANI-FESTO
MANI SHANKAR AIYAR
A curate’s egg
T
he verdict of the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case
is a Judgement of Solomon. It awards all the
procedural points to India, and all the substantive
points to Pakistan.
This has enabled both India and Pakistan to
claim that victory has been theirs. Hence, the
Indian foreign ministry spokesman has asserted
that India scored “a major victory” at The Hague
while the same verdict has given Pakistan Foreign
Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, scope to claim
it as “a victory for Pakistan”.
So, what are the facts? India’s external affairs
minister, in his statement to Parliament, summed
up the Indian achievement in
the following words: “Pakistan
was found to have deprived India
of the right to communicate
with Shri Jadhav, have access to
him, visit him in detention and
arrange his legal representation.”
Pakistan has promptly agreed to
comply with these findings.
But was that all we had asked
for? India had asked for the ICJ
to declare that the sentence of
the military court is violative of
international law and the provi-
sions of the Vienna Convention
(paragraph 17, ICJ judgement). To this, the ICJ has
responded at paragraph 137: “... the Court reiter-
ates that it is not the conviction and sentence of
Mr Jadhav which are to be regarded as a viola-
tion of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention.” The
international legal adviser for South Asia at the ICJ
has clarified that “the Court has, however, rejected
most of the remedies sought by India, including
annulment of the military court’s decision convict-
ing Jadhav, his release and safe passage to India”.
What were these “remedies” that India sought
beyond those related to consular access and con-
sular assistance to its national? Besides seeking
from the ICJ a “declaration” that the Pakistan
military court’s verdict be held “violative of inter-
ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN Aiyar is a former Union minister and social commentator.
national law”, which the ICJ declined to accept,
the International Court also declined to declare
that “India is entitled to restitutio in integrum” or
to direct Pakistan “to release Jadhav forthwith and
facilitate his safe passage to India”. It also refused
to endorse India’s plea to “exclude” Jadhav’s
“confession” from further judicial proceedings in
Pakistan.
No wonder Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
promptly tweeted his “appreciation” of “ICJ’s
decision to not acquit, release and return Com-
mander Kulbhushan Jadhav to India”. His foreign
minister crowed that “Commander Jadhav shall
remain in Pakistan. He shall be treated in accord-
ance with the laws of Pakistan.”
And we, alas, cannot seek further
reconsideration or relief because,
as our spokesman remarked, the
ICJ judgement is “final, binding,
[and] without the provision of ap-
peal”. He, of course, was referring
to Pakistan. The irony is that this
equally applies to India.
For the Indian external affairs
minister to describe this curate’s
egg of a judgement as a “land-
mark judgement”, which is “a
vindication for India”, is surely
hyperbolic, while Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s tweet proclaiming that “truth
and justice have prevailed” is surely delusional, as
is his reading that “I am sure, Kulbhushan Jadhav
will get justice”.
Kulbhushan Jadhav will not get “justice” from
any Pakistani court, military or civil. Justice can
come to him only thorough a process of “unin-
terrupted and uninterruptible” dialogue with
Pakistan (which India refuses to undertake) or
through a reciprocal exchange of alleged spies, as
was the standard practice between the US and the
Soviet Union even in the worst days of the Cold
War. Has our R&AW got no Pakistani in its custody
to swap for Jadhav? If not, then what the devil is
R&AW doing?
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 43
 CONTROVERSY
RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT
Diminishing
transparency
An amended RTI Act will allow government
to appoint and remove information
commissioners at will, allege activists
BY PRATUL SHARMA
ON JULY 19, 2018, Union Minister
of State Jitendra Singh was set to
introduce the bill to amend the Right
to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, in
the Rajya Sabha. The amendment
would have allowed the Centre to
fix the tenure and salaries of Central
and state information commission-
ers, thereby changing their status
that was at par with that of Supreme
Court judges and election com-
missioners. But RTI activists took
to the streets, saying the proposed
amendments were an assault on
the transparency law. Opposition
parties, too, voiced their protest. And,
the government blinked, not wanting
to make it a poll plank in the last year
of its term.
This July 19, Singh introduced the
same bill in the Lok Sabha, despite
protests from the opposition. This
was no coincidence, but the Modi
government’s way of showing that
with the massive mandate it got in
the recent polls, it could bring in
legislations it deemed fit. “The earlier
act, brought in haste, was clumsy,”
said Singh. “We are making changes
and strengthening transparency.”
On July 22, the bill was passed in
the Lok Sabha. If the Rajya Sabha,
too, gives a go-ahead, the RTI Act will
be amended for the first time. But it
will not be easy as the opposition will
push it to be referred to the standing
44 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
committee, which is, ironically, yet to
be constituted.
The 14-year-old RTI movement,
which gave people power to question
the authorities, had begun to show
signs of slowdown as the authorities
were stonewalling information. Even
the mandatory proactive disclosure
of information on government web-
sites, which could reduce RTI appli-
cations by over 60 per cent, was not
being done. More than 80 activists
had been killed in the past few years.
Even the United Progressive Alliance
government, which first brought in
the act, tried to amend it, but backed
off owing to protests.
“There are several problem areas,”
said activist Nikhil Dey, “but the
government’s move to bring these
amendments show that even this
RTI Act was enough to scare them.”
Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convener of the
National Campaign for People’s Right
to Information, said the government
wants to create caged parrots in the
Central Information Commission
(CIC). “The government does not
want to give information as people
are asking questions on demone-
tisation and jobs,” said Bhardwaj,
founding member of Satark Nagrik
Sangathan, adding it had stone-
walled information in the Rafale deal
and about the prime minister’s for-
eign tours and educational degrees.
NO TO A DILUTED ACT
A protest against the RTI Act
amendment at the Constitution
Club in New Delhi
The opposition sought to know
why the bill was not put up for public
discussion before its introduction in
the Lok Sabha. UPA chairperson So-
nia Gandhi, whose National Advisory
Council was instrumental in steering
the 2005 bill, said that the Central
government saw the RTI Act as a
“nuisance” and wanted to destroy the
status and independence of the CIC.
As per the amended act, the ten-
ure, salary and conditions of service
of all information commissioners
will be “prescribed by the Cen-
tral government”. Activists alleged
that this allows the government to
appoint and remove commissioners
at will. The amendments pertain to
section 13, which fixed the tenure of
the chief information commissioner
and information commissioners at
five years or till they attained the age
 is made under the writ jurisdiction
of the courts,” he clarified. “The
minister has argued that since the
orders can be challenged before the
High Courts, the chief information
commissioner cannot be equal to the
Supreme Court judges. The orders of
the president, prime minister, gover-
nors and Central election commis-
sioners are also challenged in writ
jurisdiction before the High Courts.
So, will it be argued that all these
positions must be downgraded?”
Also, of the 11 sanctioned posts in
CIC, only seven were filled. “Even
these appointments were made by
the government on the intervention
of the apex court,” said RTI activist
Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra,
who along with Bhardwaj filed the
plea in the Supreme Court. Moreo-
ver, there are more than 33,855 pend-
ing appeals. According to a recent
government data, 9,075 appeals have
been pending for over a year.
Activist Venkatesh Nayak said
GETTY IMAGES

government departments were using

of 65. Also, their salaries and other
conditions of service were to be the
same as that of the chief election
commissioner and election commis-
sioners, respectively. Section 16 pro-
vided for the tenure and conditions
of service of the state chief informa-
tion commissioner and information
commissioners, and put them on par
with the election commissioner and
the state chief secretary.
Singh, however, said that the man-
date of the Election Commission, a
constitutional body, and the infor-
mation commissions, which are stat-
utory bodies, were different. “Hence,
their status and service conditions
need to be rationalised according-
ly,” he said. Also, the appeals to the
CIC orders are done before the High
Court, he added, which would be
akin to challenging a Supreme Court
The government
does not want to give
information as people
are asking questions
on demonetisation
and jobs.
Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convener,
National Campaign for People’s
Right to Information
verdict in a High Court.
Former Central information com-
missioner Shailesh Gandhi, however,
said that Singh’s statement was “fac-
tually wrong” as section 23 of the RTI
Act specifically bars appeals against
the information commissioners’
orders. “The challenge to CIC orders
provisions to deny information, cit-
ing reasons like national security and
invasion of privacy. Activist Subhash
Agrawal, however, said that the RTI
Act was being misused by many to
harass officials. He called for uniform
fees—050, up from 010, including
photocopy charges for first 20 pages
of the documents—across all states,
which would deter people from filing
frivolous petitions. He also suggest-
ed that ID proofs be compulsorily
enclosed with applications.
Though the number of RTI ap-
plications is rising, the institutional
mechanism to propagate its use is
slowing down. In the 2018 budget,
the government cut down the allo-
cation for RTI by 63 per cent, from
023.61 crore to 08.66 crore. This year,
the allocation was further slashed to
05.5 crore.
RTI activists are now threatening to
launch a nationwide protest against
the amendments. The question is:
who will blink first?

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 45

 POLITICS
KARNATAKA

Yeddy
steady,
for now
The BJP and B.S. Yeddyurappa might
have emerged victorious from the
chaos in the Karnataka assembly,
but they still have many battles left

BY PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

T
he BJP’s expansion plans for south India got a major
boost on July 23, and the party is now expected to
form government in Karnataka for the second time in
a decade. On that day, the 14-month old Janata Dal
(Secular)–Congress coalition in Karnataka collapsed after the
BHANU PRAKASH CHANDRA

confidence motion moved by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaras-

wamy was defeated. The coalition lost 99 to 105; 20 legislators
skipped the trust vote. A spate of resignations by rebel MLAs
in the past month had weakened the coalition government,
and had brought down the strength of the assembly.
In the lead-up to the crucial trust vote, Karnataka witnessed
10 days of high drama, including allegations of horse trading,
Governor Vajubhai Vala’s reminders to conclude the trust
vote proceedings, and a spree of petitions before the Supreme
Court. All through the house proceedings, the BJP kept a stud- dent B.S. Yeddyurappa will be sworn in for the
ied silence given the precarious numbers that could upset its fourth time.
calculations. The strategy worked. The prime suspect in destabilising the gov-
While 15 rebel legislators, whose resignations are pend- ernment was ‘Operation Kamala’—the BJP’s
ing before speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar, were absent, two notorious ploy of wooing rebel legislators
independents chose to keep away, and two Congress legis- from rival camps to “resign and reduce” the
lators—Shrimant Patil and B. Nagendra—skipped the vote strength of the house. However, one cannot
citing health reasons. N. Mahesh, the lone Bahujan Samaj overlook the fact that the acrimonious relation
Party MLA, was expelled from the party after he disobeyed between the coalition partners could have
president Mayawati’s order to vote for the coalition. The house triggered the mass resignations. While coali-
strength was 204 (excluding the speaker), and the magic num- tion leaders said the resignations were “polit-
ber was 103. The coalition fell short by four. ical defections”, the rebels insisted that they
This means that, once again, Kumaraswamy’s tenure resigned because they were sidelined. They
as chief minister has been curtailed (he had quit after a also alleged nepotism in allocation of funds
20-month tenure in 2007). On the other hand, BJP state presi- and in accommodating transfer requests.

46 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019


CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
It was in 1985, during prime minister Rajiv
Gandhi’s tenure, that the Tenth Schedule of the
Constitution (anti-defection law) came into force,
acknowledging that political defections were a
threat to democracy.
This time in Karnataka, some Congress and
JD(S) leaders debated on the “Aaya Ram, gaya
Ram” syndrome of party hoppers and expressed
concern about the latest trend of parties sub-
verting even the anti-defection law to suit their
political ambitions.
Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar recalled an an-
ecdote about Acharya Kripalani taunting Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru after the former’s wife,
Sucheta Kripalani, joined the Congress. “Kri-
palani remarked that he knew that Congress
[leaders] were loafers, but did not know they
were elopers. Pandit [Nehru] had countered it
by saying elopement was a matter of poten-
cy,” said Kumar. “If we do not curb defections
and inducements, we cannot hope for stable
governments in future.”
The rebels—who had approached the Su-
preme Court saying they were being forced to
vote in favour of the coalition—managed to get
an exemption from attending the house. Many
of the rebels had been holed up in a Mumbai
hotel, and even sought police protection when
Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar and three
others flew down to pacify them on July 14.
Mumbai Police detained Shivakumar, which
led him to allege that the Devendra Fadnavis
government in Maharashtra was interfering in
the affairs of the Karnataka Congress.
JD(S) leader A.H. Vishwanath, who is under
attack from his party for his “betrayal”, said,
“We are dissenters and not defectors. Legisla-
tors have the right to dissent and resign if they
do not want to be part of the coalition.”
Congress leader S.T. Somashekhar slammed
his party, saying, “No one offered us any mon-
ey. We all are well-off people. Some people are
trying to tarnish our image. The party did not
heed our grievances for the past 14 months
and has woken up only now.”
WHO HAS THE PEOPLE’S MANDATE?
In May 2018, after a fractured verdict in the
assembly polls, the BJP emerged as the sin-
gle-largest party with 104 seats. The Congress,
with 80, and the JD(S), with 37, joined hands
BACK ON TOP to keep the “communal” BJP at bay. “The
Yeddyurappa arch-rivals entered a post-poll alliance only
celebrates to keep the BJP out of power,” said former BJP
after the
law minister S. Suresh Kumar. “With their bad
Congress-JD(S)
government lost governance, they lost the faith of the people.
the trust vote in They have lost the trust of their own MLAs,
the Karnataka and today, they have lost the confidence of the
assembly house, too.”
Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, how-
ever, said that no party had the people’s man-
date as it was a fractured verdict. “This is not
the first coalition in the country,” he said. “But
the BJP is resorting to wholesale horse trading,
which is undemocratic.” He added that none
of the rebels would be allowed back into the
party at any point ot time.
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 47
 POLITICS
KARNATAKA

THE BJP AND STABILITY

The BJP, which takes pride in being a “party with a
difference”, now runs the risk of becoming a party with
differences. As insiders pointed out, the BJP opening its
doors to party hoppers, especially rebels, will change
the party’s DNA as the outsiders might not subscribe to
the party ideology. “The influx of ambitious leaders from
the Congress and JD(S) is sure to upset party loyalists,”
warned a senior BJP leader. “Electoral and political
compulsions should not disturb the cohesion within
the party. The rebels would demand cabinet berths and
other positions, which, if not fulfilled, might trigger a
political crisis once again. It is a never-ending cycle of
rebellion and political instability.”
Earlier, in an emotional speech during the trust vote,
Shivakumar, too, had warned the BJP. “I am hurt by the
developments as our own people have backstabbed us,”
he told Yeddyurappa. “Your happiness will be short-
lived as the rebels who are jumping ship to the BJP today
are not known to remain loyal to the party. You will meet
BHANU PRAKASH CHANDRA

with the same fate.”

Yeddyurappa, on his part, said, “It is the victory of
democracy. People were fed up of the Kumaraswamy
government. I promise the people a new era of develop-
ment. We also assure our farmers of a better life.”

THREE PARTIES, THREE DESTINIES

The Congress camp seems relieved more than aggrieved,
as many felt that the Lok Sabha debacle, where BJP
swept 25 of 28 seats, including in Old Mysore, was a
warning sign for both allies. “The Congress was not en-
joying power in the coalition as it was the junior partner,”
said a Congress leader. “The party is accruing anti-in-
cumbency and staking its own survival in this alliance as
both parties thrive on the same (Ahinda) vote bank.”
The JD(S), which was hoping that the coalition would
energise the party at the grassroots level for a longer
haul, has suffered a heartbreak. The longer it stays in the
opposition, the tougher it will get for the regional party
to hold itself together.
The BJP, meanwhile, has many hurdles to overcome.
First, the stability of the BJP government depends on
the speaker’s decision to either accept the resignations
of rebels or disqualify them or do either based on the
merits of each case. If the speaker chooses to accept
all resignations, the house strength will reduce to 209
and the BJP, which has the support of two independ-
ents, will have a clear majority, on its own. On the other
hand, if the speaker delays his ruling on resignations,
the house strength will remain 224 and the BJP will
need 113 to form the government. However, if the rebels
skip the house during the floor test once again, the BJP
can win the trust vote and form the government. If the
speaker rejects the resignations, he would have
to give reasons for the decision, which can be
challenged in court. The BJP might even move
a no-confidence vote against the speaker, and
elect one of its own to the post. The rebels will be
free to join the BJP government as ministers even
before facing byelections if their resignations are
accepted. But, if disqualified, they will first have
to contest byelections. The disqualification can
also be challenged in court.
For now, the BJP needs to tread with caution.
Among its many problems is the mass influx of
“outsiders” that threatens to upset the “insiders”,
a smooth transfer of leadership (Yeddyurappa
is 76), the worsening agrarian crisis in the state
and, of course, growing factionalism. Moreover,
there is the burden of a tumultuous past, when
the BJP’s first government in south India saw its
chief minister and several ministers ending up in
jail on charges of corruption. Much has hap-
pened since then, and a strong central leader-
ship could be the saviour this time.
However, the state unit has battles left to fight,
within and outside.

48 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019


n INTERVIEW
D.K. Shivakumar
Congress leader, Karnataka
BJP feels
threatened
by me
BY PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR
HAVING THWARTED earlier attempts
of the BJP to topple the Congress-JD(S)
coalition, the Congress’s go-to man
suddenly seems helpless. In an inter-
view with THE WEEK, D.K. Shivakumar,
former water resources minister, hints
at what possibly went wrong. Excerpts:
For the first time, you are seen as
not being in control.
We never expected our own friends
to backstab us. We did anticipate that
four or five rebels would resign. But we
never expected such huge numbers.
Did the rebels air their grievances in
a party forum before quitting?
No. They did not raise any issue. In
fact, many did not even ask for a
cabinet berth.
Was a Congress hand involved in
breaking the coalition?
I do not want to comment. Read Rahul-
ji’s tweet (where he says the alliance
was a target for vested interests, both
from within and outside.)
What was on your mind when you
went to Mumbai to bring back the
rebels?
Not many within my own party were in
favour of my going. But I considered it
my duty to go there as I had got a call
from my Bombay friends (rebels).
Did lack of coordination between
the parties lead to the collapse?
Whatever be the outcome, my party de-
cided to join hands with the JD(S) and
we stand by that decision. I feel [H.D.]
Kumaraswamy has also done his best.
There is a feeling that the coalition
was not good for the Congress’s
growth and would threaten its sur-
vival in the long run.
It is not true. Many leaders might have
such opinions. We must not forget it
was the decision taken by the party
high command, keeping in mind the
future of the country. Some of our lead-
ers could not digest this (coalition).
During the trust vote, you men-
tioned the raids on you by the IT
department and the Enforcement
Directorate. You alleged it was a
political witch-hunt.
From the day I tried to help Ahmed bhai
(Patel) in the Rajya Sabha elections, the
ED, IT and economic offences court are
after me. A small issue was blown out
of proportion. It is nothing but political
vindictiveness.
Are you saying that the BJP feels
threatened by you?
I have reasons to believe that. They
have declared all the properties owned
by my 85-year-old mother as her
son’s benami. This includes ancestral
properties for which [we] have all
the documents. Yet, I am forced to
fight legal battles. This is a political
conspiracy.
How many cases have been slapped
on you?
My God! Only God can save me.
Has your party stood by you in
these troubled times?
No one has stood by me. Once [UPA
chairperson] Sonia Gandhi called me
to say she was feeling sorry for what I
was going through.
Do you suspect that your own party
members are against you?
I have quoted Voltaire many times.
I repeat, “Lord, protect me from my
friends. I will take care of my enemies.”
Assuming the BJP will form the gov-
ernment in Karnataka, what is your
party’s revival plan?
I do not know the plans of my party’s
high command. I am sure they will
decide on it. The Karnataka in-charge
has to take stock of the situation.
Do you foresee a greater role for
you in the party? Leader of opposi-
tion or the party president’s post?
I will not go around with a begging
bowl. I have no expectations.
Despite all the difficulties, you
remain a party loyalist.
The late Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi
have given me support and strength. I
am only a Gandhi family loyalist.
Do you believe the BJP can have a
stable government?
Let us see. Wait and watch.
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 49
 POLITICS
KARNATAKA
Mission mode
Balancing electoral compulsions with ideology
and expansion in the south are the priorities
for B.L. Santhosh, the new organisational
general secretary of the BJP
BY PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR
O
n May 23, when the BJP was cruising to a
commanding victory in the Lok Sabha elec-
tions, B.L. Santhosh, who was then national
joint general secretary (organisation) of the
party, shared a word of caution. “Our journey is not
complete without victory in Kerala & Tamil Nadu,”
he tweeted, rightly capturing the BJP’s southern
dilemma. Santhosh, an RSS pracharak deputed to
the BJP since 2006, has now been appointed national
general secretary (organisation), the second most
powerful post in the BJP. He replaces Ram Lal, the
longest-serving organisational general secretary, who
has returned to the RSS.
Santhosh began his career as a design engineer in
a telecommunications firm before joining the RSS in
1993 as a full-timer. Hailing from Hiriadka in Karnata-
ka’s Udupi district, he worked extensively in Mysuru
and Shivamogga before being appointed as the BJP’s
state organisational secretary in 2006. In 2014, he was
inducted into Ram Lal’s team as one of the five joint
general secretaries. Santhosh’s colleagues describe
him as “sharp, studious and social media savvy”, with
strong views on issues ranging from internal security
to environment. Fluent in English, Hindi, Kannada,
Tamil and Tulu, he has played a key role behind the
BJP’s forays into south India. “Santhoshji is a key or-
ganisational man who has worked in Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana and Goa. The move will pay rich
dividends for the party in the southern region,” said
senior BJP leader S. Suresh Kumar.
It was Santhosh who held the BJP together in Kar-
nataka after splinter parties like the Karnataka Janata
Paksha of B.S. Yeddyurappa and the BSR Congress
of B. Sriramulu threatened to destroy the BJP ahead
50 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
of the 2013 assembly elections. The
“missed-call” membership drive in
Karnataka registered nearly one crore
new members in 2014-15, a feat that
helped the party dramatically expand
its base.
The cold war between Karnataka BJP
president Yeddyurappa and Santhosh
is no longer a secret. It started in 2011,
when Yeddyurappa was forced to step
down as chief minister after his name
figured in the Lokayukta report on
illegal mining. In 2017, when senior
BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa launched
the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade to con-
solidate the backward classes, Yed-
dyurappa suspected that the move was
orchestrated by Santhosh to undercut
his influence. The rumours about
Santhosh being considered for the
chief minister’s post during last year’s
assembly elections had added to the
problem.
Santhosh’s new appointment comes
at a crucial juncture as the BJP is not
only eyeing its expansion in the south,
but also trying to balance electoral
compulsions with ideological com-
mitment. “The senior leadership in the
BJP came from the JP movement and
Emergency. Today, there is an urgent
need to groom young leaders,” said a
senior RSS functionary. “Santhosh’s
organisational skills have immensely
helped the BJP expand its member-
ship. His focus on strengthening
the different morchas and engaging
diverse civil society groups and profes-
sional cells is worth emulating.”
With Santhosh’s appointment, the
RSS is taking forward a tradition estab-
lished by the second sarsanghchalak,
M.S. Golwalkar. “Syama Prasad Muk-
herjee (founder of the Bharatiya Jana
Sangh) and his team once approached
Guruji (Golwalkar) to form a political
party. Guruji declined, but offered to
assist in building the party. Five peo-
ple—Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani,
Deendayal Upadhyaya, Sunder Singh
Bhandari and Balraj Madhok were
deputed to work for the Jana Sangh,”
said an RSS ideologue.
 and policy issues,” said a source.
The RSS and the BJP may differ on
many issues. So, the organisational
general secretary needs to build
consensus among sangh affiliates
over various policy issues. Less than
10 per cent of the members in the
affiliates have a strong ideological
background and they will worry
about their interests rather than
ideology. To fight the frictions, the BJP
has increased training programmes
for cadres ranging from block-level
leaders to MPs.
The priorities are going to be dif-
ferent for the BJP this time. As Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has put it,
the second term will focus on fulfill-
ing the aspirations of the people and,
of course, the sangh parivar on issues
such as the Ram Mandir, Uniform
Civil Code, Article 370, internal secu-
rity and the education sector. It makes
the role of the organisational general
secretary even more crucial.
PTI

The BJP also needs to adapt to the

MAN ON THE MOVE
B.L. Santhosh Earlier, only the organisational general
secretary was drawn from the RSS and the
rest of the leaders were chosen by the BJP.
When Ram Lal became organisational
secretary, the BJP inducted many joint
general secretaries and Santhosh was
one of them. The BJP’s constitution now
mandates nine national general secretaries,
and for the first time, the RSS has deputed a
representative (Ram Madhav) as one of the
general secretaries as well.
The According to sources, the
RSS and BJP now plans to appoint
the BJP may differ organisational secretaries
at district levels to ensure
on many issues. So, the
further coordination. “Local
organisational general issues need to be conveyed
secretary needs to build to policymakers and policies
consensus among sangh should be communicated at
affiliates over the local level. The post of the
organisational general secretary
various policy
becomes crucial and he represents
issues. the BJP during coordination
meetings and gathers opinions from
other affiliate organisations on national
mass influx of leaders and cadres
from other parties. Insiders said the
phenomenon was not new. Just be-
fore the 1967 elections, a large num-
ber of Congress leaders had joined
the BJP. “When Deendayalji was
asked what was the guarantee that the
Jana Sangh would not become anoth-
er Congress, he said if the Jana Sangh
became another Congress, the sangh
would create another Jana Sangh,”
said a sangh parivar old timer.
Suresh Kumar said the BJP used
to be “a class party” till K.N. Govin-
dacharya took charge as organisa-
tional general secretary. It became a
mass-based party after that. “Through
social engineering, many people
joined the party. The so-called outsid-
ers joining the BJP is being seen as an
opportunity for the party to expand
its base,” he said. “West Bengal and
Kerala are classic examples of how
people with different ideologies have
come into the BJP. It is now up to us
to effectively integrate them like in
Assam and the northeastern states.”

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 51

 POLITICS
CONGRESS

Lost in transition
A
s Priyanka Gandhi dug in her heels
at Mirzapur, insisting on meeting the
families of the ten adivasis killed over
a land dispute in Sonbhadra district in
Uttar Pradesh and declaring that she
was ready to go to jail for their cause, the Congress,
desperate for a turnaround in its fortunes, was
stirred into activity.
Comparisons were immediately drawn between
Priyanka’s detention and Indira Gandhi’s Belchi
moment of July 1977. Indira had arrived in Belchi
village of Bihar’s Patna district to meet the families
of 11 dalits who had been killed by an upper caste
gang. The powerful image of Indira arriving in the
flooded village atop an elephant marked her polit-
ical comeback after her post-Emergency electoral
decimation.
Priyanka was kept in detention at the Chunar
Fort in Mirzapur, and party leaders shared visuals
of the place not being provided with electricity or
water, eager to convey the hardship being endured
by their leader. When the local administration urged
Priyanka to furnish a bond of 050,000 for bail, she
refused. “Ek paisa nahin bharungi (I will not pay a
single paisa),” she said, amidst loud applause from
party workers.
Enthused by Priyanka’s combative stance, the
Congress got ready with plans to hold agitations
across the country to protest the Sonbhadra killings
and also the high-handedness of the Yogi Adit-
yanath regime in dealing with Priyanka’s visit. Pri-
yanka’s Sonbhadra sojourn contrasted sharply with
her brother Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to Amethi,
which evoked a completely different mood. Rahul
did not heed the calls from Congress workers to take
back his resignation as Congress president, although
he promised them that he would carry on the fight
against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minis-
ter Yogi Adityanath and local MP Smriti Irani.
Nearly two months after Rahul made it clear that
he was quitting, there is little clarity on how and
when the Congress will zero in on his successor.
And, the leadership vacuum is not helping matters

52 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

The leadership vacuum is hurting the Congress
as it struggles to control infighting and the
exodus of leaders in several states
BY SONI MISHRA

THE PAIN OF LOSS

Priyanka Gandhi consoling family
members of the Sonbhadra
massacre victims

PTI

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 53

 POLITICS
CONGRESS

as the Congress struggles to control infighting and

the exodus of leaders in several states, especially
those that will see assembly elections later this
year.
Some voices have emerged of late, calling upon
Priyanka to take on the mantle despite Rahul
having made it clear that the new party chief has to
be a non-Gandhi. Priyanka’s detention in Mirzapur
has only added to the buzz, reinforcing the sen-
timent that only a Gandhi can keep the Congress
together.
“No one will be more acceptable to all Con-
gress members than Priyanka Gandhi to lead the
Congress, since Rahul Gandhi has offered his
resignation. She has the capability of taking all
the Congress leaders and workers together,” said
Congress leader Anil Shastri.
A party leader close to Priyanka, however, rub-
bished the speculation. “Jaise Arjun ki nazar sirf
machli ki aankh par thi, Priyankaji ko sirf Uttar
Pradesh nazar aa raha hai (Just as Arjun focused
on the eye of the fish, Priyanka can see only Uttar
Pradesh),” said the leader. He clarified that Priyan-
ka’s mission was to prepare the Congress for the
assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2022, and
her agitation over the Sonbhadra killings was just a
teaser of what she was planning to do.
“The issue is not of leadership. It is of wiping the
tears of the oppressed. We are all ready to stand
behind Priyankaji in her fight to provide justice
to the victims of Sonbhadra,” said Randeep Singh
Surjewala, head of the Congress communications
department.
The calls for Priyanka to take charge have come
amidst growing restlessness within the party over
the leadership issue. In the letter announcing his
resignation, Rahul had suggested that the party
should constitute a group of leaders to decide on
his successor. Also, he said that he would not be
associated with the process. Subsequently, a group
of senior Congress leaders including Ghulam Nabi
Azad, Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma, P. Chidam-
baram, Motilal Vora, K.C. Venugopal, Jyotiraditya
Scindia and Surjewala have held meetings. A party
leader associated with the process said suggestions
were sought from other senior leaders, includ-
ing Congress chief ministers. A shortlist will be
prepared, which will be forwarded to the Congress
Working Committee (CWC). The final selection is
likely to be made only with the nod of the Gandhis.
A meeting of the CWC to accept Rahul’s resigna-
tion and to decide on his successor can take place
only after a consensus is evolved on the issue.
FFEELING THE HEAT
Rahul Gandhi with Mallikarjun Kharge,
who is among the leaders said to be
considered for the top post
Several names have done the rounds as probables
for the post, which include veteran dalit leaders
Mallikarjun Kharge and Sushilkumar Shinde, the
ever-dependable Mukul Wasnik and Rahul’s con-
temporaries Sachin Pilot and Scindia.
The choice of the new Congress chief is not prov-
ing to be easy as it has to be someone who can take
everyone along and can command the authority to
bring about a definitive revival of the party. Polit-
ical expert Ram Bahadur Verma said the task was
made difficult as Rahul remained the most popular
Congress leader. “Rahul Gandhi is making a big
mistake by stepping down as Congress president,”
he said. “He will only end up weakening the party
with this decision. He should not decide on the basis
of emotions.”
Also, it is being debated whether the reins of the
party should be given to a young leader rather than a
veteran. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has
called for a young party chief, and his comment is
being interpreted as a preference for someone who
can bring about a difference in the party instead of
just keeping the chair warm for a Gandhi.
“Rahulji has always spoken about the need to
encourage young talent at all levels in the party. It
will be good if the younger generation gets a greater
say in the decision-making process,” said Rajesh
Lilothia, who is one of the three working presidents
of the Delhi Congress. A formula being talked about

54 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019


AMEY MANSABDAR
The choice of the new Congress chief
is not proving to be easy as it has to be
someone who can take everyone along
and can command the authority to bring
about a definitive revival of the party.
in the midst of the old versus young debate is wheth-
er a veteran leader can be the president, assisted by
a team of vice presidents or working presidents, who
can be from the younger generation.
The delay in finalising the new president has
led to aggrieved voices protesting the “chaos” and
“disorientation” in the party. One such voice is that
of veteran leader Karan Singh, who wrote, “Instead
of honouring his [Rahul’s] bold decision, a month
was wasted in pleading with him to take back his
resignation which, as a man of honour and integrity,
he should not have been pressured to do.” He said
the CWC should meet under the chairmanship of
former prime minister Manmohan Singh to decide
on the issue, and that the party should appoint an
interim president and four working presidents or
vice presidents.
Senior leader Janardan Dwivedi has questioned
the ‘business as usual’ attitude of Congress leaders
following Rahul’s resignation, the indication being
that the rush of resignations by other function-
aries that was expected has not happened. “The
party president submits his resignation and the
party carries on with work as usual. If you look at
the contents of [Rahul’s] letter, it is clearly stated,
‘I take responsibility as party president, and I am
doing so since otherwise I cannot hold others ac-
countable.’ I feel, the indication was clear.... But
the people who are in responsible positions, they
should have followed it. That did not happen,” he
said.
Dwivedi is also against the process being
adopted for the selection of the new president.
Asked Dwivedi, “How will the new Congress
president be selected? Has this been discussed
in the CWC? No. What kind of a committee is this
where A.K. Antony has not participated? If there
was a formal composition, it would be more
credible.”
As discussions drag on, accentuating the lead-
ership crisis, the Congress is in serious trouble
in several states, the problems ranging from
bitter infighting to legislators leaving for greener
pastures. The Congress-JD(S) government lost
the trust vote in Karnataka, while party MLAs
quit en masse in Telangana and Goa to join the
ruling parties. In Maharashtra, the Congress had
to endure the ignominy of its legislative party
leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil jumping ship
and joining the BJP-led government. The Con-
gress government in Madhya Pradesh, which has
a wafer-thin majority, is on high alert.
The state units in Punjab and Rajasthan are
witnessing personality clashes. If Navjot Sin-
gh Sidhu is on the warpath against Amarinder
in Punjab, in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot
have an extremely uneasy working relationship.
In Haryana, the state unit is literally torn apart
by intense factionalism even as the knives are
out for state president Ashok Tanwar. And, Delhi
stares at a leadership crisis following the death of
state president Sheila Dikshit.
The central leaders are finding themselves torn
between dealing with the leadership crisis at the
Centre and the problems in the states. Also, there
is lack of clarity about who is in charge. “The au-
thority of the Congress general secretaries is also
under question. This does not help matters when
the state units are in turmoil,” said a Congress
leader.
As the leadership issue drags on, the Congress
is clearly struggling to come out of the tailspin.
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 55
 SCHIZO-NATION
ANUJA CHAUHAN
Delhi’s Sheila Sultana
M
y children grew up in Sheila Dikshit’s Del-
hi. Much before Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki
Baat became a thing, it was her calm, grave
voice they heard on the radio, every year during the
exam season, exhorting them to stay calm and write
their papers well. “Apne parche achhi tarah likhna,
bina kisi tension ke likhna.” It was a small, but very
fresh and thoughtful initiative for those times, and it
made them fond of her.
She is rightly credited for giving Delhi the only
thing it can be proud of in recent times—the Delhi
Metro. And, as Bombay and Bengaluru bumble
about trying to get theirs up and running, an un-
grateful populace realises what a mammoth task it
actually was, and how deceptively easy she made
it look. She also privatised the
distribution of electricity, got buses
and autos to use cleaner fuel, and
fittingly, chose to be cremated at a
CNG crematorium.
In the good old days, she could
be spotted enjoying the city-state
she ruled—at the movies, at the
melas, always paying for whatever
she bought, a small stately figure,
hazel eyes shining in appreciation
of all things tasteful and aesthetic.
Once she zoomed in on a pair of
bright red, three-inch-high wood-
en block heels I was wearing, exclaiming, “I used
to have heels like that! Are they back in fashion?”
When I told her they most certainly were, the slightly
gap-toothed grin flashed. “Maybe I should dig out
mine....”
The name plate outside her official residence had
her name engraved in English, Hindi, Urdu and Gur-
mukhi and every time my ‘secular libtard’ children
passed it, they would comment on how inclusive
that was, and how cool she was.
She was definitely ‘cool’. Her name cropped up re-
peatedly, (along with president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s,
another ‘cool dude’) in surveys funded by Pepsi, a
brand on which I worked on those days, in the cate-
gory ‘Youth Icons of India’. They both proved that you
ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN
56 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
did not have to be young in order to appeal to the
young, that what we call a Perennial today can have
vastly more youth connect than many Millennials.
Another urban legend about her was that as a
young mother she was absolutely ruthless about
keeping a spick-and-span home. If her kids did
not pick up their stuff and put it away by the end
of the day, she would apparently just throw it out,
donating it as she saw fit. This quickly taught them
to be neat. I was much inspired by this parenting
technique and decided to employ it. “She’s doing a
Sheila!” the kids would scream as I swept ruthlessly
through the house, picking up their favorite toys
and clothes and tossing them remorselessly into a
church box. “Stop her! Stop her!”
Maybe I am being appalling-
ly sexist here, but I do feel really
safe when there is a lady leader in
charge. The older, the better. If I
board a flight and hear a woman’s
voice go, “Good morning, this is
your captain speaking,” I slide back
into my seat, all my tension eased
away, and eat the most fattening
thing on the menu. As CEOs, pres-
idents, prime ministers and chief
ministers, the best of women bring
so much competence and calm to
the workplace. But even among this
small elite brigade, Mrs Dikshit’s name stands out.
After 15 rock-steady years in power, she was final-
ly undone by public anger at the unbridled corrup-
tion of the UPA in general and the Commonwealth
Games committees in particular, as well as people’s
anger over the Nirbhaya rape case (even though the
Delhi Police did not report to her, something Arvind
Kejriwal has used in his defence so many times
since then.) But she was as much an Empress of
Delhi as Sultana Razia.
It goes without saying that she will live on in her
city-state’s heart. But, Delhi, you need to name a
road after her ASAP. A good one. A long one. With
lots of trees and flowers lining it. And a big fat Metro
station.
editor@theweek.in
 IVORY TOWER
SANJAYA BARU
Grace and grit of Sheila Dikshit
I
n recent times, only Atal Bihari Vajpayee has
been a recipient of such unalloyed praise and
affection. Everyone loved Sheila Dikshit. It
was not just because she reminded most people
of their warm and cuddly grandmother, nor was
it only because she always sported a gentle smile.
Sheilaji, as most people referred to her, was a re-
markable combination of grace, grit and charm.
She was not just a popular political leader, but
also a good administrator. By the end of her first
term as chief minister of Delhi she had made her
mark.
Sheilaji’s victory in the Delhi assembly elec-
tions of 1998 was a shot in the arm for a belea-
guered Congress that was grappling with the
challenge of losing power in
1996 and of the rise of the
Bharatiya Janata Party across
north India. Her reelection
to office in 2003 made her
a star. Commenting edito-
rially on her political and
administrative performance
and promise in the Finan-
cial Express, I expressed the
opinion at that time that
Sheilaji had prime ministe-
rial potential. She could one
day lead the Congress back
to power in New Delhi.
Dikshit was horrified by my editorial endorse-
ment. “Do you want to finish me off?” she called
to ask. “I am happy being chief minister of Delhi.
Mr Baru, let me be. Please don’t get me into
trouble with praise.” That attitude of so many pro-
vincial performers of the Congress has, over the
years, left it bereft of national leaders. In 2004, the
Congress did form a government at the Centre.
Its prime minister and four top ministers—Man-
mohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, P.
Chidambaram and Natwar Singh—were all polit-
ical lightweights in their respective provinces.
Reflecting on this fact I had once said to
Sheilaji that she should join the Manmohan
Baru is an economist and a writer. He was adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
IMAGING BHASKARAN
Singh ministry. “Tell that to Dr Singh!” she told
me, and laughed the suggestion away. When I
then added, as an afterthought, that she should
become home minister, replacing Patil who had
become the target of much criticism even before
the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks, she retorted,
rather uncharacteristically, “Why home? I think I
will make a good finance minister!”
I conveyed a gist of that conversation back to
the prime minister. He felt Sheilaji was needed
in Delhi to stage the Commonwealth Games.
Despite all the criticism that came her way, she
held her own and, when the Games opened, the
crowd at the opening ceremony heartily cheered
Sheilaji even as it booed many of the other organ-
isers. Sheilaji had firmly em-
bedded herself in the hearts
of every Delhiwala.
Every single obituary has
made this point. Sheilaji was
not just a charming, graceful,
genial lady whom everyone
loved, but she was a good ad-
ministrator who had speeded
up the capital city’s moderni-
sation and infrastructure de-
velopment. Few today make
any reference at all to the
charges of corruption levelled
against her government. Most
Indians are willing to live with a bit of corruption
if they get a government that delivers. Of what
use are honest governments that are uncaring
and do not deliver development?
In retrospect, I still think my Financial Express
editorial was right. Sheilaji was made of prime
ministerial timbre. She ought to have moved up
from being merely the ‘mayor’ of Delhi, which is
what a Delhi chief minister is, to becoming In-
dia’s prime minister. The Congress would not be
gasping for breath if it had allowed such locally
popular leaders to make their mark nationally.
But, that process ended in Indira Gandhi’s time.
Why blame lesser mortals?
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 57
 UTTAR PRADESH
LEATHER INDUSTRY

Leather
bind
Closure of tanneries in
Kanpur brings environmental
and employment concerns
to a head
BY PUJA AWASTHI

A
n overpowering smell of chemical and
contamination, made worse by the still
summer air, hangs over the riverside slum of
Budhiaghat in Kanpur.
“I will kill myself if anyone shows me one drop
of black water falling into the Ganga because of my
work. The river belongs to everyone,” says Kishwari,
a resident. The work she refers to falls under leather
trade—the district’s most famous industry that is
PAWAN KUMAR

over a century old. More than seven months after

the government initiated a major clampdown,
prompted by the high levels of river pollution the
industry was creating, loss of livelihood has brought
misery of the kind never reported before.
While the industry involves a trade of many parts, UNCERTAINTY
the government’s anti-pollution measure is focused LOOMS Rivers’, a 2018 report of the water
on tanning, which is the treatment and preparation A closed tannery resources ministry that cited the above
of raw hide for manufacturing. Tanning requires in Kanpur limit, notes: “It [chromium] can cause
large amounts of water and several chemicals, allergic reactions, such as skin rash...
the most significant of which is chromium. When respiratory problems... lung cancer and
pumped back into rivers, it makes the water and soil death.”
toxic and aquatic life unsustainable. In Kanpur’s These concerns are not new. Yet,
Jajmau area and its neighbouring district of Unnao, the initial orders for the closure of
where most of the state’s tanneries are sited, the tanneries between December 15 and
level of chromium in water has been persistently March 15 were made to ensure clean
found to be much higher than the acceptable limit water in the river during the Kumbh
of 0.05mg/litre. Mela at Prayagraj. This decision was
The ‘Status of Trace and Toxic Metals in Indian not peculiar to the Yogi Adityanath

58 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019


government. Earlier, too, units had
been shut down three days before
every significant date of bathing to
ensure that visibly clean water came
down the Ganga and subsequently
the Sangam, where the pilgrims
bathed. This time though, the closure
window has been used by the state to
find long-term solutions.
“The key change is our refusal to
allow a reopening till all pollution
control norms are met,” state’s
principal secretary of urban
development Manoj Kumar Singh
tells THE WEEK. “The government
is firm that not a single drop of
untreated water will flow into
the Ganga. Tanneries were shut
earlier, too. The matter is before the
regulatory bodies and we cannot set
a time frame for the opening.”
The prime among the bodies
cited by Singh is the National Green
Tribunal (NGT), which, in July 2018,
notes that water from Haridwar to
Kanpur was unfit for drinking and,
with a few exceptions, even unfit
for bathing. “There was dumping of
chromium at and around Jajmau and
Kanpur,” it says. “There was violation
of provisions of the Water Act, 1974,
requiring closing of industries
and prosecution. There has to be
meaningful further action to restore
the minimum prescribed standard
for all the rivers of the country.
The polluter has to pay the cost of
restoring the damage.”
Taj Alam, vice president of
the Unnao chapter of the state’s
Leather Industries Association,
says that though the industry
was in agreement with the NGT’s
determination, the government had
selectively targeted tanneries.
“There is only despair for us,”
he says. “The government started
a staggered shutdown of units in
November. We hoped that they
would open after the Kumbh. Then
we thought it would happen after
the elections. But there is nothing
forthcoming from the government.
We are totally hopeless. There are
other grossly polluting industries,
Only 26 of the such as paper and textile, but these
estimated 300 have been left untouched.”
Only 26 of the estimated 300
tanneries in Kanpur tanneries in Kanpur and six of the
and six of the 84 84 in Unnao have been permitted
in Unnao have operation. These are bigger units that
employ between 200 and 800 people
been permitted and have primary and secondary
operation. treatment measures for effluents
in place. The ones that are shut
are smaller units, some with just
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 59
 UTTAR PRADESH
LEATHER INDUSTRY

eight employees, which depend on the Common

Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) run by the Jal
Nigam. Tanneries pay a monthly user charge of
05.33 per hide for treatment of the water they
send to the plant. Most of the estimated five lakh
employed by the industry—many among them
migrants like Kishwari—have depended on the
smaller units for generations.
Many of these units come under the Small
Tanners Association. Its president Hafizur
Rehman says that the government had falsely
held the industry responsible for discharging
effluents in the Ganga. According to him, the
discharge from the tanneries goes to a network of
underground channels—think of it as a conveyor
system—and onwards to the CETP, from where
it is treated and carried to fields to be used in
irrigation. “If we were to release our water, it
would spill on to the roads as there is no way for it
to bypass the channels,” he says. “The government
does not care. We are surviving on just one meal a
day. We have had a grim Eid (in June). There was
no money to even buy clothes for the children. The
situation cannot continue.”
The first leather factory was set up in 1858,
and since then the industry has steadily grown.
A chronicle of the district’s history penned in
1858 by Durghaee Lal, who was employed in
Kanpur’s High Court, reads: ‘The industry, which
first made Cawnpore famous, was that connected
with the tanning and currying of leather and
PAWAN KUMAR

the production of articles made therefrom.”

The British promoted the industry to meet the
demands of its troops. Kanpur accounts for more
than 20 per cent of the leather and leather goods
exported from the country. Experts say that the
leather produced here is of a compact and moist MOUNTING TROUBLES
quality, lending it a kind of durability that makes A worker sorts hides at government’s One District One
it ideal for use in military boots, safety shoes and a tannery in Kanpur. The Product (ODOP) scheme, initiated
closure of tanneries has
saddlery that are put to rough use. The industry is in 2018 to support and develop
led to immense loss of
an inclusive employer, taking in men and women livelihood, especially to
indigenous products and crafts that
from different religions and of different skill sets. those working in smaller are unique to the state’s 75 districts.
Last year, it earned 010,000 crore, of which 06,500 units In Lucknow, for instance, it is the
crore came from exports. craft of chikan embroidery. In
Sarveshwar Shukla, joint commissioner of Kanpur, it is leather. In 2018-2019,
industries (Kanpur Division), says that the loans totalling over 03.38 crore were
government’s commitment to promoting the provided to 16 beneficiaries for
industry could not be questioned. “Our coffers are expansion of the leather business
open for its promotion,” he says. “We are providing under ODOP. These beneficiaries,
loans, skill training, marketing support, tool kits as per documents procured by THE
and fiscal incentives to it. But there must be a WEEK, include those who have
switchover to clean and sustainable technologies.” criticised the government for the
The help that Shukla refers to is part of the current crisis. There are murmurs

60 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019


that people are committing suicide
and even selling their babies because
of loss of employment. But multiple
attempts to verify these claims drew
a blank.
Taj Alam says that hearsay and
exaggeration had muddied the core
issues of pollution and livelihood
loss. “The industry itself must bear its
share of blame. Zero discharge and
waterless discharge technologies are
used in Tamil Nadu, where tanneries
must buy water. It is not like here
with the Ganga flowing at your
doorstep,” he says.
Vinod Tare, professor of civil
The government
is firm that not
a single drop of
untreated water will
flow into the Ganga.
Manoj Kumar Singh, principal
secretary of urban development,
Uttar Pradesh
engineering at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Kanpur, says there
is not just one decisive factor for
river health. “Tanneries, like other
industries, discharge effluents,
but are in no way responsible for
the volume of upstream flow into
the river,” says Tare, also founding
head of the Center for Ganga River
Basin Management and Studies.
“The sustainability of the closure is
under question, but polluters must
pay while government departments
cannot pass the buck. Our studies
show that moving to cleaner
technologies is commercially
viable and does not lead to loss of
employment.”
Farrukh Rehman Khan, regional
manager, WaterAid India, says there
are other issues of employee well-
being that require urgent address.
“The workers are mostly poor, live
in shanties and have poor access to
basic services such as clean drinking
water and toilets. More investments
in these will lead to higher
productivity,” he says.
Ghanshyam, regional officer of
Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control
Board, says, “We are looking at
any and all possible gaps that have
existed, including the working of
the treatment plant. No operations
are being allowed in good faith
anymore.” According to the UPPCB
data, the twin steps of releasing
more water into the Ganga and
the closure of polluting units have
led to improved measures of river
health. Take, for instance, the level
of dissolved oxygen—necessary for
aquatic life—at downstream Kanpur.
It was 5.50mg/litre in August 2018,
but rose to 9.3mg/litre in December.
Back in Budhiaghat, these
numbers make little sense to
Kishwari. “I do not want the river to
look or smell dirty. I do not want my
children to go hungry, either,” she
says.
It is a dilemma that cannot be left
unaddressed anymore.
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 61
 INTERVIEW
Data protection laws are no
restriction for advertisers
P
rasanth Kumar, who recently
took charge as South Asia CEO of
GroupM, the world’s largest adver-
tising media company, is quite excited
about the Indian market. The challenges
the economy faces, he says, are an op-
portunity to do better. Excerpts from an
interview:
How have the popularity of data-ena-
bled smartphones and the availability
of cheap data changed advertising?
We are a country which moved on to mo-
biles faster than any other country. That
is giving multiple opportunities and op-
tions for advertising, either in the content
angle or in the opportunities to interact
with people. It also gives an opportunity
to analyse consumer reactions in a better
manner. That has helped the advertising
fraternity in deciding what to and how to
VIPIN DAS P.
62 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
Prasanth Kumar
CEO, GroupM South Asia
BY MAIJO ABRAHAM
communicate with the consumer. The
insights on consumer behaviour go into
the creation of the content itself. Earlier
we used to do researches to get some
kind of an understanding. Now it is a lot
easier.
The over-the-top platforms that
have been getting popular among an
important section of consumers have
so far been immune to advertising.
What opportunity do advertisers have
in this market?
These platforms help us understand
and target the consumer better. Then
there are various opportunities in the
content itself. Advertisers can use
these platforms to learn and do better.
Whether it is YouTube, Facebook or
Hotstar, each one of these platforms
has its own characteristics. And adver-
tisers can plan accordingly.
Availability of user data has changed
the way advertisers target consum-
ers. Now with data protection laws
getting stronger, will not that be a
little difficult?
Data protection, in principle, is a good
thing. But it is only defining the rules
of the game. There are mechanisms to
play. It is not a restriction; it allows you to
play within the rules. This is happening
around the world and there will be a new
normal. And it will lead to inventing the
right model.
There is a slowdown in the Indian
economy and many of the big adver-
tisers are affected by it.
Globally when you look at the overall
market, India is one of the top 10. The
growth India is having even in challenging
times is still one of the highest. We
have a population of 1.3 billion people,
which is a great bank of consumers. Our
economy has got multiple variables.
There are new categories coming into it.
Multiple tech-based categories. They are
all adding to the ecosystem. There is a
new normal getting set up. There are, of
course, challenges. But these challenges
are an opportunity for this large country
to do better. Conventional mechanism
of marketing is getting redesigned by
the channels within the chain of the
overall operating system. Those bring in
a lot of challenges and a lot of options.
We are at a stage where our progress
is consistently progressive. We are
confident that this potential will get
utilised. There might be a slowdown, but
the fundamentals continue to be strong.
That is what you need to bank on.
 FASHION • ART • LIFE • THEATRE • LUXURY • FOOD • MUSIC • PEOPLE • SOCIETY • REVIEW

Home
is
here
Twenty-five years in
exile have slightly
changed Taslima
Nasreen, but she has
not mellowed one bit
BY MANDIRA NAYAR

CAT COMPANY
Taslima Nasreen
with Minu, whom
she found in a fish
market in Kolkata
ARVIND JAIN

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 63

 @LEISURE
SOCIETY

giving the minorities enough secu- come here to live with pollution and
rity. I was threatened. Cases were worries. You don’t know whether you
filed against me. I was thrown out will get permission. It is love for the

I
of Bangladesh. Is it my fault or is it language, or the land.’’
society’s? A writer should be free Nasreen, who has an enviable
to write. A writer should feel safe. European Union passport and an
If I can’t express myself freely, then American green card, still struggles
there is something wrong in the so- to live in India. During the interview,
ciety.” she gets a call about her residence
In India, Nasreen was asked to permit. It was granted for a year, after
leave Bengal by the CPI(M). Under she took to Twitter to question only
the United Progressive Alliance a three-month extension. “After 25
government, she was under house years in exile, I am still worried about
t is an overcast Saturday in the capi- arrest. She has more fatwas in Ben- getting permission to stay,’’ she says.
tal. Taslima Nasreen potters around gal than in Bangladesh, yet India “Even though I am an European cit-
her home. A true Delhiwala, she is where she has chosen to live izen, I settled in India—physically,
has moved home more than once. since 2004. “Love for the country psychologically and in every way.
Getting a flat was not easy. She had is sacrifice,’’ she says. “You forsake I have a cat. I got her from Kolkata;
the money, but very few landlords all other offers and luxury life and she is like my child.’’
want to make a point about literary
freedom. For three years, she has
been in this house, where, through
the window, she gazes into the
green—from the pale green gulmo-
har leaves to the darker neem. Nas-
reen is chattering with the gardener
in Bangla to plant seeds. Language
is her home, she says. Her tiny ter-
race is an explosion of plants—cur-
ry leaves, lilies, periwinkles and a
potted palm—a sort of recreation
of the garden of her childhood. “I
only have plants that existed in my
garden when I was growing up,’’ she
says. “I collect them.’’
Twenty-five years an exile, Nas-
reen has not mellowed. She blazed
on to the literary scene as a rebel.
Her book was banned. Hers was,
and is, a voice that refuses to be si-
lenced. She has switched publishers
though and is now with HarperCol-
lins India. (Her new book—Shame-
less—will be out soon). Provocative,
and often controversial, she has
chosen to speak her mind, despite
death threats. Perhaps, because of
it. “I feel scared. But because of that,
will I shut my mouth?’’ she asks. “It
is not my fault. My opinions made
fundamentalists furious. Lajja
made the government furious. I
blamed the government for not

64 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

 Minu, the cat, has been her long-
est companion, from the tumultu-
ous years of leaving Bengal to finally
finding a home in a safe house in
Delhi. In her new home, Minu has
I WILL FIGHT FOR her own room, next to Nasreen’s.
MY RIGHT TO GO There are pictures of cats on her
BACK TO LIVE IN walls. Like her books that she has
BANGLADESH. BUT acquired during her stay in India,
I WON’T WANT TO tucked in two cupboards, her pos-
LIVE THERE. IT IS sessions, including the quirky metal
RISKY AND MY cat on her table, have the newness
LOVED ONES ARE of the last decade. They lack history,
ALL DEAD. they lack permanence, everything
except Nasreen’s pictures from
Taslima Nasreen
when she was younger and Minu.
Author
“I found her in a fish market; she
was this small,” she says, gesturing
with her forefinger and thumb. “She
was helpless and I didn’t think that I
would take care of her. I just wanted
GREEN CORNER to feed her. She is now 16.’’
Nasreen in her Minu, too, has a connection to
balcony, where
she has recreated
Nasreen’s childhood. Any cat she
a garden of her acquires—only cats, never dogs—
childhood is named Minu. “I had a cat when
I was a teenager. I called her Minu,’’
she says, smiling. “In Sweden, I had
a cat. I also named him Minu. He
died. I cried so much and I decided
to leave Sweden, because he died.
I couldn’t tolerate it. I couldn’t live
in the house where Minu was so
happy running around. In Kolkata,
I acquired another cat.’’
The lack of certainty, what with
the extensions of visas in India, is
compounded by the fear of losing
Minu. The cat never travels. When
Nasreen goes abroad, like she will
soon, Minu is left at home with
friends to be fed. With age now
catching up to Minu, Nasreen
knows it is only a matter of time.
“Sometimes, she doesn’t eat. Cats
cannot express their feelings. But
I have to understand,” she says.
“If she is happy and healthy, I am
happy. She is still playful. Today,
she will eat. Then she won’t eat to-
ARVIND JAIN
morrow.”
This inevitability of loss hangs
heavy. Over the years, members of
her family have slipped away. “Only
my sister is left,’’ says Nasreen. Her
brother died recently. He was still
young. “My aunt died; my grand-
mother died. I will fight for my right
to go back to live in Bangladesh. But I
won’t want to live there. It is risky and
my loved ones are all dead,’’ she says.
Nasreen lives her life on the inter-
net. If Twitter helped her get her visa
extended, she also turns to it for sim-
ple joys. Instant and immediate are
concepts she embraces. Her sari—a
rich blue with peacock motifs—was
delivered during the interview. Nas-
reen grabbed the packet, opened
it and chose to wear the sari she
bought online only yesterday. “It is
wonderful,’’ she says, with evident
awe.
Has exile changed her? For years,
she longed to be home, but now she
does not. She has become slightly
more forgiving of her parents. “I was
very anti my parents. But I realise
now that maybe they both wanted
me to be independent,’’ she says.
Is loneliness the price for exile?
Or, for being outspoken? “I think
[so] if you are different, if you have
different opinions from the majori-
ty,’’ she says. “I demand equal rights.
I demand a true secular society. I
demand human rights for every-
one. That kind of beautiful society, I
dream of. So, of course, I should be
alone. Anywhere, I would be alone.
Because there are very few people
who think like me.”
In the 25 years of exile, the sacri-
fice of her personal freedom for her
thought, perhaps, is her biggest ac-
ceptance. “There are lots of things I
cannot do,’’ she says. “If I go outside
Delhi, I have to ask permission from
the Delhi Police. But it is part of my
life. I don’t think, ‘why can’t I get this
much freedom?’ I can write. I can eat.
I do not complain. I was supposed
to be dead long ago. I am alive. As
long as my health is fine and I con-
tinue writing and get published, I am
happy.’’
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 65
 @LEISURE
CINEMA

penultimate movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He

Master
had announced that he may retire after his 10th movie.
He may not be considered one among the cinematic
pantheon, but Tarantino is certainly one of the most in-

crafter
fluential filmmakers of today. His name is evoked every
time a movie luxuriates in gratuitous bloodshed, foot
fetishism or profanity. Or when a director experiments
with the three-act structure. Things that have become
signature Tarantino tropes.
Ahead of the release of what Unlike the methodical Kubrick, the character-driven
may be his penultimate Scorsese, or the masterful Godard, Tarantino did not
reach the top of the cinematic summit with films that had
movie, here is a look at the great stories or layered characterisation. He achieved
genius of Quentin Tarantino stardom by making films inspired by movies of every
and the alternate universe shade, paying homage even to odd genres (grind house,
he created through his films blackploitation), and consequently fashioned his own
cinematic universe.
BY JOSE K. GEORGE
The universe that he designed is rarely inhabited by
real people or incidents, but one that offers him plenty
of creative liberties. Red Apple cigarettes and Big Kahu-
na Burger, fictional brands mentioned in Pulp Fiction,
are seen in his later movies. Mia of Pulp Fiction played
a deadly assassin in a pilot show and Beatrix of Kill Bill
is the deadliest assassin at Bill’s disposal. Vincent Vega
(Pulp Fiction) and Vic Vega (Reservoir Dogs) are siblings.
It is indeed an alternate universe.
Tarantino broke rules and played around with the
three-act structure—the setup may be established only
in the second half and confrontation might come when
you least expect it. Anime characters are used for sto-
rytelling, and dialogues would often veer into absolute
banality. Filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar, a self-professed
Tarantino fan, says, “Tarantino has a very unique voice.
It was like a breath of fresh air when he started putting
out his works.... Hollywood was resorting to certain kinds
of stereotypes. He brought about a certain change, a very
radical one. He has inspired many filmmakers.”
He made tribute and intertextuality an art from. A self-
ANDREA RAFFIN

taught filmmaker, Tarantino makes movies not merely

Kill Bill 1
2003

T
wenty-seven years ago, a caper film
by a debut director was screened
at the Sundance Film Festival. Res-
ervoir Dogs, the story of a failed
heist by curiously named charac-
ters who mouth dialogues full of profanity and
pop culture references, announced the arrival
of a quirky filmmaker. Eight films and an array
of awards later, Quentin Tarantino received an
extraordinary, seven-minute standing ovation
at the Cannes Film Festival for what may be his

66 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

 tion) quotes the Bible before killing a college kid.
Reservoir Even the moral compass of Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Or-
Dogs ange, is not averse to violence. Yet you tend to buy
1992 them, because in the Tarantino universe, they are
the regular folk who smoke Red Apple cigarettes and
eat at Big Kahuna Burger. Yet, unreal as they may be,
their conversations are full of details. The anecdotes
they recount are vivid and colourful, like the German
myth that Dr. Schultz narrates in Django Unchained.
Tarantino does not seem particular about where
his plot and characters go. The stick-up artists of
Reservoir Dogs are clueless about their next move,
accidents dominate the plot of Pulp Fiction and the
hateful eight are trigger-happy at the slightest prov-
ocation. But there is a certain allure to this mayhem,
this absence of plan, this sheer recklessness in de-
fining the intentions of characters. The director had
come up with an explanation. “Quentin is not doing
the writing. Quentin starts it off. Then the characters
take over and Quentin has no control over what they
might or might not do,” he had said.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is touted to be a
tribute to the golden age of Hollywood. The movie is
garnering great reviews and is likely to be the biggest
Once Upon
a Time In hit among Tarantino fanboys.
Hollywood If he is hanging up his boots soon, it is certainly
2019 on a high note!

because he has a compelling story

or an original idea, but because he
loves cinema, unconditionally and
unabashedly. He is enamoured by
the magic of it and his works reflect
the movies he loves. “If you just truly
love cinema with enough passion, and
you really love it, then you cannot help
but make a good movie,” he had said.
A nudge here, a wink there, an una-
bashed replication elsewhere—the
opening scene of Jackie Brown bears
uncanny resemblance to the opening
scene of The Graduate. Death Proof is
his homage to the car chase flicks of
the 1970s. He did not make a movie
that was set in the 1970s, but one that
looked like it was made in the 70s, with
missing frames and mismatched cuts.
His characters are often detestable
and bereft of saving grace. Jackie Brown
does a whole lot of double-crossing,
Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)
sells his soul and the Fuhrer for the
deal of a lifetime, and Jules (Pulp Fic-
TRENDSPOTTER
Moon-gazing
hile Jeff Bezos and Elon
W
Musk are frantically plotting
ways to colonise the moon,
it looks like the moon is busy colo-
nising our pop culture. The internet
exploded with moon memes and trivia
on the 50th anniversary of the first
moon landing on July 20, 1969. NASA
streamed footage of the launch on-
line. Images of Buzz Aldrin’s handwrit-
ten note quoting the scriptures which
was taken to the moon was doing the
rounds on social media. So was Neil
Armstrong’s EKG from the moon.
Scientists at a recent conference
speculated on what kind of giant
leap mankind is going to take in the
moon in future. “In 50 years, there
will be more tourists on the moon,
which would be just like a resort, with
a backyard for grilling meat or
whatever else,” said Anatoli Petru-
kovich, director, Space Research
Institute, Russian Academy of
Sciences.
India, too, had its moment under
the moon when we launched
Chandrayaan-2 on July 22. Once it
lands on the moon on September
7, it will be looking for anything
that seems interesting, like water,
caves and minerals. And if we
can’t find them on the moon, we
are going to transfer our billion
dreams to the capable shoulders
of Akshay Kumar, who will be
taking us to Mars in his upcoming
science fiction thriller Mission
Mangal, about the ISRO scientists
behind the Mars Orbiter Mission.

AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 67

 @LEISURE
CINEMA

The F
or the first time in his filmmaking career, Su-
joy Ghosh, who had a breakout hit with Ka-

fear
haani (2012), was involved in two projects
at the same time—Badla, a revenge drama/
crime-thriller that came out in March, and Typewriter, a

factor
Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh on the making
of his first horror series, Typewriter
BY PRIYANKA BHADANI
mystery-horror series set in Goa that just released on Net-
flix. “It is damn scary,” he says with a laugh, about working
in two projects simultaneously. Typewriter was commis-
sioned in 2017, but he was never supposed to direct Badla.
He did so because Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu,
who star in it, insisted he helm the project.
Ghosh, who made his directorial debut with Jhankar
Beats (2003), has taken his time with films, having made
only six in 16 years, besides the two wonderful shorts,
Ahalya and Anukul. He says he enjoys the gaps, and will
never again work on two projects at the same time.
This is also the first time he is writing and directing a full-
fledged show. That, too, in the horror genre. It is unfamiliar
territory. “The closest I got to making something [like that]
was with Ahalya,” he says. The short film was inspired by
the Ramayana and had won plaudits, both for the story
and execution. But, unlike the 12-minute-long Ahalya,
Typewriter is a five-episode series. “During Ahalya, I was
cursing about getting so little time....,” he says. “Now, sud-
denly, I am given many hours and I don’t know [how to
utilise them well]. It is a whole change of structure.”
You can enhance a film through the big names asso-
ciated with it, but everyone is equal in a series, he says.
Hence, when you are writ-
ing it, every character and
location has to be given
equal importance. “You
have to be loyal to every
ALL MY WORK single feature; one can’t
HAS BEEN A take precedence over the
other,” he says, contrasting
RESULT OF it with films like Kahaani in
WHAT I HAVE which the focus was always
READ AND on the protagonist Vidya
WATCHED. Bagchi (Vidya Balan). “I
never got into the details
Sujoy Ghosh of Rana Sinha (Parambrata
Chatterjee) after he left the
tram [in the film],” he says.
“But in a series, I have to go
to Rana’s house.”
However unsure Ghosh
seems, his show is a fresh
change from the crime sa-
gas populating the stream-
ing platforms. He does not
seem too keen on intellec-
tualising it, though. It is a

68 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

simple one inspired by the Enid Bly-
ton and The Hardy Boys books of his
childhood, the works of Stephen King
and Alfred Hitchcock, old Hindi films,
and more recently, the Netflix thriller
series Stranger Things. “All my work
has been a result of what I have read
and watched,” he says.
Typewriter is about a book of spells,
The Ghost of Sultanpore, written by
the late Madhav Mathews. The book
is devoured by schoolchildren, three
of whom try to unravel the mystery
behind the Bardez Villa, where they
believe the ghost still lives. But then,
Mathews’s granddaughter Jenny re-
turns to live in the house with her
husband and two children. While
Jenny tries to come to terms with her
mother’s suicide, her doppelganger
continues to haunt the house.
Horror films have not really tak-
en off in India and is not considered
appropriate for children. This has led
to many commercial restrictions and
a fund crunch for the genre. “Also, in
horror films, it is the horror that is the
star,” says Ghosh. “It will be difficult to
get a star to do a project like this. The
backing is poor.”
He also rues how India can boast of
so few types of ghosts. “Bhoot chorkar
aur kuch hai hi nahi (other than bhoot,
we have nothing else), unlike the west-
ern culture which has vampires and
Pepper’s ghosts,” he says. But when
he took up Typewriter, he always be-
lieved that there was a lot that could
be explored within the genre. “It can
be funny as well,” he says. “You can
have a Ghostbusters versus E.T., or The
Goonies versus Stranger Things. I have
tried to keep it very light—something
that can entertain kids and adults
alike.”
He also believes that with so much
content production, the digital world
is getting very cluttered. “You have
to create things that break out of the
clutter,” he says. “Netflix alone has so
much content and it is updated on a
daily basis. That pressure is even more
daunting than achieving a certain
box-office number.”
A diminished roar
The original Lion King was a game-changer for
Disney. The latest one is a pale replica
BY ANJULY MATHAI
he Lion King, originally made in 1994, was meant to play
T second fiddle to Pocahontas (1995). Disney had banked all
its hopes on the latter. So, instead of the heavyweights roped
in for Pocahontas, The Lion King was moulded by the inex-
perienced hands of first-time directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff.
As it turned out, Pocahontas got a lukewarm response while The Lion
King went on to smash all records. Within a few months, The Lion King
would become Disney’s highest-grossing film. It is the best-selling
home video of all time, with more than 55 million copies sold to date.
So how did it achieve the cult status that it did? One could perhaps
attribute it to the visual effects—the majesty of the Serengeti captured
through beautiful sunrises and breath-taking vistas. Or to the lilting
melodies of Hans Zimmers. Who can resist Elton John’s love ballad,
‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’, with Simba and Nala frolicking under
the star-spangled dome of a sapphire sky? But, ultimately, the core
appeal of the film lies in the universality of its story.
Different versions of the same story exist in most cultures—whether
it is the Egyptian myth of King Osiris, the beloved African story of King
Sundiata or the Shakespearean one of Hamlet. In India, we have the
Sanskrit epic of Lord Ram banished into the forest and his eventual
return to Ayodhya to assume the throne. Even at the centre of Christi-
anity is the story of a Son coming to reclaim his kingdom. It is difficult
to demystify the magnetic pull of this story of betrayal, love, redemp-
tion…. Perhaps the different myths are multi-coloured garments cut
from the same truth.
Jon Faverau, who directed the live-action remake of the film which
released in India last week, had a tough act to follow. He knew it, too.
“It feels like we are restoring a classic historic architectural landmark,
how do you update it without changing its personality?” he had said in
an earlier interview. Yes, technology has added a dimension of reality
to the story. Yes, the animals in the animated version are stick figures
compared to their live-action counterparts. But the truth is that, the
best mythologies lose their appeal when you try to imbue them with
realism. You do not need to know what Ram looked like for him to
come alive. Neither does a lion need actual fur to tell his story.
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 69
 EVERYONE IS A CAMERA
BOSE KRISHNAMACHARI
An award of opportunities
R
ecently, I was part of the jury for the Punjab
Lalit Kala Akademi’s annual awards along
with the brilliant artists Sudarshan Shetty
and G.R. Iranna. Our task was to identify 10 artists
from the 28 shortlisted youngsters from Punjab,
Haryana and Chandigarh. The task was unenvi-
able. They were all of a high calibre, and it was
difficult, even saddening, to choose only 10.
Every artist had personal stories of struggle.
Many came from far away, travelling hours by
train and bus, carrying large and delicate sculp-
tures, paintings, etchings, drawings and sketch
books. Along with celebrating the 10 who won, I
also wish to applaud the ones who did not. The
recipients get 01.2 lakh each. This may not seem
like a large amount for art production, but, for art-
ists from humble backgrounds, it would be a huge
relief. For young artists, such
an award goes a long way in
encouraging their practice.
In 1999, I was a student
at Goldsmiths college in
London, doing my master’s
in visual art theory and
practice. Sudarshan and
Iranna, used to visit me
and stay at my little room
on New Cross Road. Iranna
was attending a six-month painting workshop at
Wimbledon College. Sudarshan was in Bristol at
Spike Island artists’ residency, a beautiful place. I
remember his kinetic sound installation of a boat
created like a violin. All of us had received the
Charles Wallace India Trust Award. We used to
spend a good amount of our time at exhibitions
and artists’ studios. It was a very important time
in our life and career. Those days Inlaks scholar-
ships, Fulbright scholarships, the Charles Wallace
India Trust Award and Mid-America Arts Alliance
Awards were very prestigious.
Diwan Manna, chairman of the Punjab Lalit
Kala Akademi, is working hard to activate the
academy and its programmes. He is almost a
one-man army. He was happy to hear about our
PHOTO TATA TRUST AWARD-WINNERS AT THE PEPPER HOUSE RESIDENCY PROGRAMME, KOCHI
70 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
residency and educational days in UK. He keeps
organising talks of eminent artists and curators at
the academy.
There should be more of such awards and res-
idency opportunities for our young artists. There
are a few in India, like the Khoj Artists Residency in
Delhi, TIFA Studios in Pune, the recently opened
Space Studio & Distillery in Baroda, 1 Shanti Road
in Bengaluru and Space 118 in Mumbai, among
others. The Pepper House residency programme
developed by the Kochi Biennale Foundation
(KBF) is another important opportunity.
We have to create opportunities for youngsters
to travel. They have to be able to see exhibitions,
participate in residencies, and have curatorial and
educational mentorship. I am happy that as part
of the Students’ Biennale, the KBF instituted the
Tata Trusts Awards for the
best works at each edition.
It has been given at the last
two editions. This edition,
the jury comprised of the
eminent artists K. Madhusu-
danan, Deepika Sorabjee
from Tata Trusts, and myself.
Students’ Biennale sees the
work of very good young art-
ists from art colleges across
India, and to choose three or four recipients from
around 100 projects, curated by six experts, was
again difficult.
The awards allow the winners to travel to major
exhibitions like the Venice Biennale and docu-
menta, and also also receive residency opportu-
nities at the Pepper House programme in Kochi.
These are occasions where they can be exposed to
contemporary artistic practice, meet artists and
curators, and also see masterpieces at museums
and important collections. The residency awardees
also get time to explore their practice in differ-
ent ways. Like it was for Sudarshan, Iranna and
me, I hope this will turn out to be great learning
experiences for these young artists. An award is a
recognition, a patronage and an encouragement.
editor@theweek.in
 @LEISURE
PEOPLE

HAPPINESS photographer, filmmaker and poet
MANIFESTO
Mandira Bedi is
coming out with
a book, Happy for
No Reason, to be
published next year
by Penguin Random
House. It will be a
“memoir written
in the style of a
modern-day fitness
lifestyle manual”. She
writes about keeping
fit, parenting and
maintaining work-
life balance. “With
utmost gratitude, I
look at my life having
taken the most bless-
ed and divine turns
these last 25 years in
entertainment,” she
said. “Happy for No
Reason is an attitude
and an intent I put
out, to wake up with
every day of my life.”
AAMIR WANI
BY SNEHA BHURA
Award-winning photographer and
Instagram sensation Aamir Wani
draws inspiration from the Kash-
miri-American poet Agha Sha-
hid Ali. At the Mountain Echoes
Festival in Bhutan next month, he
will be talking about his favourite
muse, Kashmir.
Kashmir is both beautiful and com-
plex. How do you try to capture it
in your frame?
For me, the focus is not the politics
or the conflict, but rather the every-
day... the culture, the heritage, the
literature. I am not denying that
our every day is unaffected by the
conflict, but I do not need to show
that through the frame of a person
throwing a stone. Sometimes an
ordinary person who has lived
through conflict has the story in his
eyes, or in a scar.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

Ever since she was diagnosed with cancer last year,
Sonali Bendre has been fighting the battle with courage
and grace. But she has her off-days. So the last time she
woke up feeling low and exhausted, she decided to go
on the offensive with a motivating Instagram video. “I
decided I need a mindset change,” she says in the video.
“Use the colour. Switch on the sunshine quite literally.
Wear the sunshine. Be proactive. Get into the gym, and
move it. Come on Sonali, here I am....” Attagirl!
PTI

72 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

What are some of the disturbing
trends when it comes to conflict
photography in Kashmir?
I feel that constant images of bleed-
ing protesters and youth in balacla-
vas with stones in their hands are
really dangerous in this day and age.
Yes, I understand that these images
are needed for a certain level of re-
porting, but if that is almost all that is
shown, it has two effects—it numbs
us and it creates an unconscious
bias. Conflict photography is intense,
and it should be used with more care
than simply splashing [photographs]
across front pages over and over
again.
Which has been your most challeng-
ing project so far in Kashmir?
The one that I did with a child rights
organisation left a big impact on me.
I documented lives of ten children
who were growing up in very remote
areas, often near the LoC
in Kashmir. Most of them
were orphans, some with
families divided by the
line, and very often, just FINE-TUNING
cut off from the rest of the In the last 100 years, every
world. It is experiences child in the village of Sri Bhaini
like these that really over- Sahib in Punjab has learnt
whelm you. You almost Hindustani classical music,
feel helpless about how and continues to do so, largely
you can make the world a due to the influence of Satguru
little better for them. Jagjit Singh. Many music maes-
tros like Ustads Zakir Hussain,
When it comes to travel Vilayat Khan and Amjad Ali
and tourism photogra- Khan have visited the village
phy, what are some of to teach the children. Now,
the cliches about the filmmaker Taranjiet Singh
Kashmiri landscape you Namdhari is making a docu-
are careful to avoid? mentary, Sangeet-Saroop-Sat-
The beauty of Kashmir gur, on this tradition. “I wanted
is not just in its post- to know more, I wanted to go
card vista. It is in our back to my roots and extract all
traditional architecture, I could about this astounding
market places, arts.... tradition that is almost un-
heard of,” says Namdhari.
CHECKMATE
On July 18, 15-year-old Prithu Gupta got his third grandmaster
norm to become the 64th chess grandmaster from India. India’s
chess journey started in 1987, when Viswanathan Anand became
its first grandmaster. Gupta got his first and second grandmaster
norms last year at the Gibraltar Masters and the Biel Masters. He
got the final one at the Porticcio Open this year. Considering that
he has been playing only a few chess tournaments to concentrate
on his studies, his achievement is indeed admirable.
CONTRIBUTOR: NEERU BHATIA & HEERA PARESH
COMPILED BY ANJULY MATHAI
AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 73
 LAST WORD
BARKHA DUTT
The Kargil masterclass
I
t is exactly 20 years since the Indian military
took back our territory in Kargil, pushing back
the Pakistan army’s soldiers, in one of the most
extraordinary, valiant demonstrations of moun-
tain warfare that the country has ever seen. As a
journalist who had the privilege of reporting the
Kargil conflict from the frontline, I can testify to
the raw courage of young men still in their twen-
ties, putting aside fear, vulnerability and a sense
of impending death, as they marched up jagged
rocks, in sub-zero temperatures, often without
snow boots or night-vision devices. “We will fight
with what we have,” said then Army chief General
V.P. Malik, and indeed they did.
Kargil is often called India’s first televised war,
even though not many know that we reported it
without the technology we take for
granted today. We neither had live
broadcast vans or satellite links,
nor did we have mobile phones.
Footage travelled back to our
newsrooms in the same helicop-
ters that ferried the body bags of
our soldiers. Several days could
pass between information from
the frontline actually making it
your television screen. Yet, despite
the archaic media infrastructure, it
was an inflection point in estab-
lishing an emotional connect
between the soldier and the civilian.
Two decades on, in this age of political nation-
alism, while we all say we revere our military, we
must ask ourselves: Did we really learn some of
the finer life lessons that the Kargil War taught us?
Apart from the breathtaking bravery of our
jawans and officers, and the swashbuckling charis-
ma of men like Captain Vikram Batra—who told
me “yeh dil maange more”, when I asked him if he
was scared—Kargil gave us an insight into a sol-
dier’s code. It taught us that a genuine nationalist
plays by the rules; he does not deny dignity even
to his adversary.
One of the finest illustrations of this higher code
ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN
74 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
was the decision by General Malik that the last
rites of Pakistani soldiers killed in action would be
performed by Indian soldiers. This was necessi-
tated by the fact that Pakistan initially refused to
take back the bodies of its men, because it was
unwilling to concede that they were regulars of its
military.
Recently, General Malik told me how, a few
months after the war was over, at the request
of the grandfather of one of the Pakistani sol-
diers killed, he even had the young man’s body
exhumed and handed over to his family with full
military honours. What made you do this, I asked
him, especially in that environment when Indians
were furious at how the Pakistanis had tortured
Captain Saurabh Kalia in custody. “This is our
tradition,” he said. “We know no
other way.”
We also know the extraordi-
nary story of Brigadier M.P.S.
Bajwa who spearheaded the
recapture of Tiger Hill, without
which the Kargil conflict could
not have been won by India.
As a brigade commander, he
was able to secure a Param Vir
Chakra, a Mahavir Chakra and
multiple other gallantry awards
for his troops. But he also made
sure that Captain Karnal Sher
Khan of Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry was
able to posthumously win his country’s highest
honour, the Nishan-e-Haider. Once the captain
was killed in action and Tiger Hill was taken back,
Brigadier Bajwa made sure he wrote a letter com-
mending the Pakistani captain for how bravely he
fought and placed the letter in his pocket, before
the body went across the border.
In an age when television anchors think they
are soldiers simply by shouting about nation-
alism and at a time when patriotism has been
reduced to a hashtag, this is what being brave is
truly about. To honour the code. And, to do it with
generosity and compassion.
editor@theweek.in