The Beat Edition 1 by IIJNM Bangalore

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THE BEAT

An IIJNM PUBLICATION

FEBRUARY 2019

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Coming for You

Letter from the Editor Welcome to the first edition of The Beat 2019.

Ever since Edward Snowden’s disclosures about the scale of US government surveillance of its citizens and even friendly governments, it’s been clear that these intrusive practices, previously thought the preserve of authoritarian regimes, are equally a concern for avowedly democratic societies that uphold the rule of law.

But it was the revelations about data misuse by Facebook and other social media companies that gave us a true measure of the risks to privacy that big data has come to represent. Combine the two and you have China, the exemplar of the modern surveillance state and, possibly, the future of our own. The general election scheduled for mid-year is turning into a closer contest than many imagined just a few months ago, with state-level alliances of strong opposition parties combining to deny the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance a simple majority.

The Sabarimala Temple authorities have promised to abide by the Supreme Court’s verdict permitting women to worship there but the controversy won’t subside given its potential to polarize the electorate. Women workers in Bangalore’s garment-export factories suffer shocking sexual abuse and intimidation every single day but seem to have no remedy in law.

Indian cricket is enjoying international success thanks to an unsuspectedly strong pacebowling attack, while the women’s team has also become one of the top-ranked teams. We hope you enjoy reading all these stories and more.

Akanksha Kashyap Editor

THE BEAT

CONTENTS FEBRUARY2019

20 4

Cover Story The Know-it-all State Keeping Tabs on Traitors

Business Losing Altitude Indian carriers struggle

22 Sports Speed and Stamina Indian bowling comes of age

Special Report Fight to the Finish BJP’s season of sops

Pexels

The Hindu

Sports Women in White Glorious certainties

25-26 newsnation

Indian express

Law Sabarimala Simmers Trying traditions

Travel Home Away Greening tourism Pexels

Hollywood Reporter

Focus A Living Hell Women workers at risk

18 Environment Neyveli’s Scars Regenerating open-cast mines

Culture Living Tales Stories in the flesh

28-30 Reviews BirdBox Vice Petta

THE BEAT

Cove r s t o ry

Confronting the K

Even in democracies, technology increasingly allows governmen

n December 20th last year, the Union home ministry authorised 10 law enforcement agencies to “monitor, intercept, and decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received, or stored in any computer resource” in the country under section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. No specific reason was given for the grant of such a blanket power but the government clarified that failure to assist the agencies in the exercise of such powers could lead to imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and render one liable to fine. Critics say the right to privacy, which was declared a fundamental right by a nine-judge Constitution Bench in 2017, is being unofficially undermined. The court’s pronouncement had held privacy intrinsic to the right to life and personal liberty. Soumya Bakshi, a Trinamool Congress leader, condemned the order saying, “Privacy, a fundamental right, will be

violated. They want to monitor every individual so that any resistance to their autocratic rule could be crushed. They were the ones to argue that the Justice Puttaswamy judgment was wrong. They never wanted privacy to be a fundamental right. In fact, they were already tracking people. The order only makes surveillance legal. Their fear is evident.’’ The order came barely a week after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a stunning defeat in elections to five state assemblies and is widely seen as politically motivated. Moreover, this untrammelled power to snoop is all of a piece with the government’s efforts to discredit dissent by calling it ‘anti-national’ and equating criticism of its policies with sedition. Why a democratically elected government with a massive majority in Parliament should feel so insecure is troubling, but India is by no means unusual. Governments across the world, democratic, autocratic and every shade in between,

are going to extraordinary lengths to monitor the private lives of their citizens. And technology has proved to be the chief enabler. The dystopian world George Orwell imagined 70 years ago has become a reality with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). No corner of your home is secure. Every movement can be monitored as you carry your mobile phone 24x7. Your very heartbeats can be counted by the innocuous smartwatch on your wrist and the reading sent to someone who could conceivably want them stopped. Edward Snowden, the former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who blew the whistle on the reach of US global surveillance, first unplugged the phone in his Hong Kong hotel room before being interviewed by journalist Glenn Greenwald. Snowden knew that any connected gadget could be turned into a listening device. The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 gave government from colonial times the

Facial recognition and artifical intelligence work together to track suspects, spot suspicious behaviours and even predict crime

Credit- Chicago Tribune

THE BEAT

Know-It-All State

nts to monitor and manipulate their citizens, writes Sounak Das power to surveil its citizens but, in recent years, the Supreme Court has sought to regulate it and frame guidelines, for example,by stopping arbitrary acts of phone tapping. But, enforcement has been tardy in the absence of independent oversight. The new directive and the technology available to government will only make matters worse for privacy. Says Raveesh Rana, a cyber-security expert, ‘’At the national level, the government relies on something called dragnet surveillance. Government agencies have tie-ups with major telecom providers. These companies install fibre optic splitters at key data gathering sites in the country. These devices duplicate all the data that flows through them and stores such data in data centres whose storage capacity runs to petabytes. Once the data is stored, security analysts can browse through the data and find the IP address. They can also ascertain what kind of data has been transmitted over the network. It can be an email, plain web browsing, or even Skype calls. It then becomes very easy to track someone. Intelligence agencies will compromise the individual’s machine using a Trojan, key logger, or a malware that provides backdoor access and, in turn, allow them to monitor the individual’s online activity round the clock.’’ Unlike the United States, where the government has had to assure its citizens about the limits of its powers to surveil them, the Indian establishment acts with utter impunity. When the Aadhaar project was floated, concerns were raised that it would enable the stateto gain absolute power over its citizens by controlling the use of their biometric data. What began as a method to streamline the welfare system, viz., transfer of direct benefits, became a tool to force every citizen to enrol in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) database. Soon enough came reports of abuse, when deserving people were denied subsidised food grains because they hadn’t enrolled or the scanners couldn’t

Facial recognition at China’s Hi-Tech Fair was capable of estimating people’s age and gender

read their fingerprints. In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the world’s largest biometric-identity project, even as it struck down the need to link Aadhaar to bank accounts, mobile phone numbers and its requirement for pension benefits and school admissions. One of the petitioners had pointed to Aadhaar’s potential for surveillance. But the majority, were not persuaded, remarking, “The architecture of Aadhaar as well as the provisions of the Aadhaar Act do not tend to create a surveillance state. This is ensured by the manner in which the Aadhaar project operates.” In support of it contention, the court highlighted section 33(1) of the Aadhaar Act which prohibits disclosure of information, including identity information for authentication of records, save when such disclosure is supported by an order of a judge not inferior to a district judge. The bench also said thatan individual whose personal information is sought to be shared, shall be afforded an opportunity to be heard before it is released.

Credit- AlJazeera

Yet, the court could not address the issue of surveillance adequately for it failed to see how the data-gathering network has become multi-layered through the State Resident Data Hubs (SRDH),which individual states have created with guidance from the UIDAI. These hubs were intended to provide a 360-degree view of a person. An SRDH is an Aadhaar-seeded data bank brought together from multiple government databases. The SRDH uses an individual’s Aadhaar number as a unique identifier to inter-link these scattered databases. The SRDH is also linked to the UIDAI servers to allow for Aadhaar-enabled biometric authentication. This allows state institutions to monitor people without their consent. The court only saw the authentication problems and not the convergence and profiling of such data. Says a judge from Kolkata, speaking on condition of anonymity, ‘’I think surveillance is needed to some extent. In order to safeguard citizens from external harm like foreign-sponsored terrorism, it becomes rather necessary for the state to indulge in some form of surveillance.

THE BEAT

Read My Mind

hina’s universal credit score is unique in that it measures every citizen on a scale between 350 and 950. The score is a reflection of a citizen’s social standing, based on an assessment of his behaviour and beliefs and those of his friends. The object is to ascertain whether he is benign or constitutes a threat to the social order. Unlike almost anywhere else, China’s approach to surveillance is overt and in your face, intended to intimidate as much to snoop. The credit score concept was introduced by Alibaba and Tencent, China’s IT behemoths, which operate the Chinese equivalents of all social networks. They have vast amounts of data about citizens. An application called ‘Sesame Credit’, also known as Zhima Credit, and developed by Ant Financial Services,a part of the Alibaba group. Unlike with a normal credit card, just spending more

is not rewarded, what you spend on is. If someone were to purchase a dishwasher or baby supplies, it would contribute greatly to the person’s credit score. On the contrary, if a person bought videogames, it would negatively impact the person’s score. On the basis of this core, even local governments are empowered to rate citizens. People with a better score flaunt it to show their ‘good citizen status’. The plan for a social credit system was unveiled in 2014 by the Chinese government. They had announced in 2015 thatsesame credit

Sometimes the threat to life becomes more important than the question of privacy.’’ Adds Kaushal Ghosh, a financial expert, empowering agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and Central Board of Direct Taxes will help the government track down potential defaulters and economic offenders. “Almost all financial crimes such as embezzlement and money laundering are done digitally,” he points out. “If the concerned agencies can keep track of nefarious activities, it would surely benefit the country and its common citizens.” Technology companies play a big role in surveillance. Without their support and technical wherewithal, it would almost impossible to achieve constant monitoring. Companies like Verizon and Sprint wiretapped for the US government after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre in violation of US privacy law. Inevitably, when the truth came out, the Bush administration changed the law to protect the companies from litigation. According to an article in Front-

linemagazine, the Indian government is in talks with representatives of Google, Facebook, Amazon, WhatsApp, etc. to discuss information sharing. The article also says that biometric and demographic data are being given to companies such as L-1 Identity Solutions, which has close ties with the CIA. If this is true, it would not be difficult to manipulate voters and shape electoral outcomes. Cambridge Analytica, the British data-mining firm, which helped Russia meddle in the 2016 US presidential elections, is a case in point. Every surveillance state has its own way of doing things. Turkey, under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stifles dissent with an online-surveillance mechanism. It is necessary foran authoritarian regime such as Erdogan’s to keep a check on potential dissenters and stop online dissemination of information. His Justice and Development Partyhas exerted immense pressure on the media. When a Turkish citizen purchases a mobile phone, he is required to submit his national ID number, which makes it possible for gov-

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would become mandatory from 2020. There would be benefits for the obedient and a slew of sanctions for the recalcitrant,such as limited Internet connectivity, loss of certain rights such as booking a flight or train ticket, and curtailment of educational and employment opportunities.The system is also intended to curb corruption and ‘bad’ behaviour on the part of those who serve in influential positions.

hings which can reduce your score include posting political opinions without prior permission and publishing accurate up-to-date news from the Shanghai stock market collapse. China is simply telling its citizens, you’re entitled to your opinions but keep them to yourself. Also, a distinctive feature of the system is that your friends’ conduct can hurt your score. As they say, a man is known by the company he keeps.

ernment agencies to establish extensive databases of user informationand create comprehensive profiles of individual citizens. This curbs the freedom and anonymity of communications. “Over the years the Turkish authorities have accumulated significant legislative, judicial and technical capacity to block and monitor user activity online,” writes Doruk Ergun, one of the authors of a research paper from the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) on surveillance conducted by the Turkish government. Binali Yildrim, who was the minister of transportation and communication, had told the Turkish parliament in 2009 that if someone did nothing wrong, if he/she had no illegal business, there was no need to be afraid of wiretapping. Since then, the government has kept on passing laws that grant unlimited power to intelligence agencies with very little accountability. The Turkish coup d’état attempt in 2016 had shown that there can never be any secret in this era of surveillance.

Bothcivilians and military personnel were tried for attempting to overthrow the government. And, to assist the investigations, some of their highly private conversations were revealed to stateowned media.

he Russian surveillance mechanism has roots that go back decades to its Stalinist past. They employ the System of Operative-Investigative Measures (SORM), the country’s national system of lawful interception of all electronic communications. The Kremlin, similar to Turkey, has given free reins to seven of its security agencies to intercept emails and phone calls. Moscow, therefore, is becoming stricter on ISPs which don’t adhere to its stringent SORM obligations. China is in a class of its own when it comes to surveillance and the misuse of personal-information databases to shape public behaviour. It has introduced a surveillance software which is capable of recognising people simply by their gait. China is the first, and probably the only country, to use artificial intelligence (AI) for the purpose of surveillance. The software, developed by AI firm Watrix, can recognise people from up to 50 metres away. The technology is being used by law-enforcing authorities and around 2 million CCTV cameras have been installed to keep an eye on anybody and everybody. It takes hardly 10 minutes to locate someone, let’s say a jaywalker, by the use of this large network, even if his face is hidden. An Inkstone News report estimates that the Chinese state has spent over $ 30 billion for this. Also, the Chinese

Britain’s crime rate hasn’t decreased despite a strong surveillance system.

government has free access to the world’s largest customer database. As China does not have any privacy laws, the government can mine database s maintained by China’s top IT companies, Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba, who are the country’s Google, Facebook, and Amazon. These conglomerates specialising in search, e-commerce, Internet-related services, and entertainment, possess data on almost every citizen which the government can use to police its citizens. Maya Wang, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, defined this omniscient machinery as “chilling”.

Street cameras surveying pedestrian in Urumqi, Xinjiang

Credit- IBT

Francie Lynch’s poem The Killer’s Already Inside sumsup our brave new world: I needn’t wait until dark For the killer to stalk, But I’ll unplug my fridge, Turn off the TV, I won’t use FaceTime Or socialize on FB. My cell screen is dark, No Snapchat or Podcast, Or Instagram and Vimeo The Cloud has been compromised; In short, disconnect, For the killer’s inside, And knows what to expect. Credit- WSJ

THE BEAT

POLITICS S PEC I AL REPO RT

Fighting to

The BJP has seen its support erode in the agrarian unrest, but it’s determined to w

here are few certainties in politics but one can be certain that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is not going to be a rerun of the 2014 landslide that brought Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party to power. The fight will be far fiercer this time and a more direct one between BJP and Congress in at least five major states, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana. In others, particularly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, it will face formidable regional parties seeking to make the most of the widespread public disillusionment over Modi’s five years in office. The Congress party’s recovery over the past year and the effective coalitions of other opposition parties, in the states where they are collectively stronger than the BJP and its allies, indicate a reversal in fortunes for the BJP. According to

calculations based on trends in the recent assembly polls and surveys by pollsters, politicians and journalists, the BJP could well lose 40 to 50 of the 282 seats it won in 2014. That win had given it 10 more seats than the 272 needed for a simple majority on its own in the 543-seat Lok Sabha. The writing has been on the wall. In the 9 Lok Sabha seats to which by-polls have been held since 2014, the BJP was defeated in 7. Of the 9 states that went to polls last year, the BJP lost three in its core base, the Hindi heartland and its beachhead in the south, Karnataka. Of the 16 by-polls held for state assemblies in 2018, it could win just 2. In 2014, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won 336 seats. However, as both the Shiv Sena and TDP have since left the alliance (or are in the process of doing so), the NDA is already down to 302. (Shiv Sena won 18 seats and

the TDP won 16). What makes the 2019 elections unusual is the key role the smaller parties will pay in government formation. A study conducted by the global brokerage CLSA projects a loss of more than 50 seats for BJP in the 8 key states of Madhya Pradesh, UP, Gujarat and Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh. These eight states together accounted for 71% of BJP’s tally in the 2014 general election. However, the study didn’t factor in the impact of opposition alliances in these states, which could lead to a further loss of 10-15 seats. This was driven home by the January 9 opposition rally in Kolkata hosted by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, which gave some indication of their determination to oust Modi. After sweeping the UP-state election in 2017, the BJP lost two parliamentary by-

the Finish

e face of growing unemployment and win at all cost, says Yajush Gupta elections, that too in the seats vacated by its chief minister and deputy chief minister. The difference this time was the powerful alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had fought separately in the state election but together in the by-election. In 2017, the party bagged 312 assembly seats of the 384 contested, winning with a popular vote share of 39.7 %. The SP and BSP had won 22.2% and 22% of popular vote respectively. Thus, BJP now faces an uphill battle in India’s biggest state.

imilarly, in Bihar, the BJP’s decision to contest just 16 seats of the 40 in play, leaving an equal number for Nitish Kumar’s JDU despite its poor performance (in 2014, BJP won 22 and JDU 2) besides 8 for other allies shows a degree of realism if not desperation. In Maharashtra with

the second largest kitty of 48 seats, the BJP and Shiv Sena together bagged 41 seats in 2014. Now with the BJP and Shiv Sena planning to fight separately, a three-way contest between the BJP, Shiv Sena, and Congress-NCP alliance could cost both the Shiv Sena and BJP. According to an internal survey by the BJP, Shiv Sena could lose as many as 16 of its 18 seats to the CongressNCP combine. But the opposition is also divided among itself. The decision of the Aam Aadmi party to contest all the seats in four states of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Goa and the lone seat in the union territory of Chandigarh without forming an alliance may again cut into the votes won by the Congress. South India has 130 seats in total. In the year 2014, the BJP bagged 22 seats while the Congress got 19, the rest were

won by regional and the Left parties. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, BJP has lost the TDP as its ally. But as E Venkatesh, professor in political science in University of Hyderabad points out, “The lack of unity between the Congress and the TDP will only benefit the Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress party.” Similarly, the BJP has no ally in Kerala while the AIADMK in the state of Tamil Nadu is still undecided. The only state in the south that it can realistically count on to win some seats is the state of Karnataka even if it won just eight seats in 2014. An ABC News-C Poll survey projects that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance win 69 seats, the NDA with just 14 seats, while the rest will go to regional parties not aligned with either. Photograph: India Today

The chances of the BJP offsetting it’s anticipated losses in the Hindi heartland and Maharashtra by performing better in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the northeast appear limited as the BJP’s expansion remains a work in progress. It has only been made more difficult by recent missteps like the amended Citizenship Act that has undermined its hard-won gains in the northeast. Most commentators would agree that the results of state assembly elections are not indicative of the national mood as they are contested on different issues from those that animate a Lok Sabha poll. As BJP president Amit Shah asserts, “We are fighting elections on the strength of Narendra Modi,” not the reputations of relatively unknown BJP chief ministers who cost their party three states recently. However, this time, the sharp line that distinguish local issues that drive assembly elections from supposed ‘national’ issues has blurred. The nationwide agrarian crisis and entrenched joblessness have affected almost every state and can cost the BJP as much in the Lok Sabha elections as they did during the assembly polls. Creating 10 million jobs was Narendra Modi’s mots resonant promise in the 2014 cam-

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paign. That and his promise of ‘less government and more governance’. But jobs data from the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), leaked to the media after it was suppressed by the government, suggests that rather than create jobs, the BJP presided over a massive contraction of employment in both urban and rural India. The news is particularly bad for the young, long Modi’s staunchest supporters. Between 201112 and 2017-18, unemployment among youths (15-29) years old shot up from 8.1% to 18.7% for males and from 13.1% to 27.2% for females. The rise in the numbers of the unemployed, which began in December 2017 and continued a year later, is attributable to the two “major shocks” the Indian economy suffered during the present regime, viz., demonetization and introduction of the Goods and Services Tax. “The effect of both these resulted into a steady fall in investments. This reduced the rate at which new jobs were being created,” says Mahesh Vyas, managing director of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a Mumbai-based research institute. Agrarian distress has been the other spectre that has come to haunt the BJP. Early signs of the alienation of the farming community were evident in the 2017 assembly elections in Gujarat, where BJP lost a sizeable share of the rural

vote. Similarly, despite desperate measures like increasing agricultural support prices and promises of loan waivers, the BJP lost three states due to farmer discontent. In the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the rural vote is likely to prove pivotal. This bloc alone could mean a loss of more than 40-45 seats for the BJP. In order to win in 2019, NDA cannot afford to lose more than 30 seats. If it loses more than that, it can still cobble together a majority coalition with minor parties. The problem begins if it loses more than 60 seats.

hekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Print, believes that Modi’s popularity will likely compensate for BJP’s botched governance. “I believe that while there is significant disillusionment among his original voters, it is compensated by the unquestioning devotion of the close to 13 crore first-time Lok Sabha voters, born generally 1996 onwards,” he writes.But most of these first-time voters are from

the very social classes who have been devasted by the collapse of the agrarian economy and jobless economic growth.That explains the knee-jerk reactions from the government, whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the unfunded agricultural loan waivers, the Rs.6,000 a year direct-income support to small landowners or sops to the urban middle class in the last weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Union budget. With the Ram Temple issue on the boil, the Citizenship Act amendment roiling the northeast and the abandonment of all fiscal restraint, the 2019 election is becoming a battle that the BJP has decided to win at all cost.

Illustrations: Ajay Biradar & Anurag Maan Photograph: The Wire

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POLITICS SPE CI AL R E PO RT

The Turning Point The BJP’s shock defeat on home ground shows the limits of its brand of politics, says Raveena Bhati

owhere was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s claim to be the ‘natural’ party of government more thoroughly testedthan in its own backyard, the so-called Hindi heartland. Results of the assembly elections announced in December 2018 came as a shock to the ruling party in the three northern states it controlled. The party was routed in Chhattisgarh and failed to win a majority in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the contests were closer. The scale of the defeat can be measured by the fact that from a totalof 377 seats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, the BJP’s tally nearly halved to just 199 seats. The Congress’s vote share increased by 6% in Rajasthan, 5% in Madhya Pradesh and 3% in Chhattisgarh. Since 1998, no government in Rajasthan has been able to last more than a single term. But besides incumbency, the BJP was saddled with an unpopular chief minister. A popular slogan among BJP supporters was “Modi se bare nahi, Vasundhra teri kher nahi” (“We don’t have a problem with Modi but with chief minister Vasundhra Raje). Says Suresh Kumar Pathak, a chartered account in Kota, “Raje’s style of work was resented by her own party. It was a one-woman show.” The Gujjar community punished Raje for failing to keep her promise to give them 5% reservation under the ‘special backward’ category. The BJP also lost the support of a significant section of the Rajputs when Raje denied former union minister Jaswant Singh a ticket to

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badly in itscore constituencies like Gwalior, Rajgarh and Dhar winning just 2 seats from each. Morena and Bhind, previously dominated by BJP, deserted the party thanks to anti-incumbency and agitations against the government by scheduled castes and tribes. Khargone, a tribaldominated belt in MP, gave the Congress 6 of its 8 seats and the BJP one. Says Pathak, “Shivraj Singh Chauhan had been the chief minister for almost 15 years, and there was development in the state, especially in the agriculture sector. But people wanted a new government.” Agrarian distress played a huge role in the BJP’s defeat. News portal IndiaSpend estimates agricultural growth during From top left, Vasundra Raje, Chauhan’s tenure averaged Shivraj Chauhan & Raman Singh an annual 10.9% but that was neutralized by a record Photographs: News18 number of farmer suicides (132 in 2017). The Congress’s promise to waive farm loans was a direct response to this distress and an important BJP drew a blank; in former strongholds like Churu, Jhunjhunu and Jodhpur it suf- factor in boosting its appeal. Chhattishgarh slipped from BJP’s fered major setbacks as it did in Ajmer, grip after 13 years. Congress won 68 where it had won alleight seats in 2013. of the 90 seats while the BJP held on The vote share of BJP in Rajasthan to just 15, with its vote share falling fell from 46.79% in 2013 to 39.39% in from 41.41% to 33%. News portal The 2018 yet it still managed towin 99 out Wireascribes the defeat to multiple of 199 seats.Says a senior BJP leader, causes including the destruction of “We were overconfident about assemforest land and poor market support bly elections and Congress made false prices for agricultural produce. This was electoral promises. The margin between despite the substantive investments the us and Congress was small, so it’s not a government made in rural roads and great loss and we still have a chance in electricity.“Raman Singh’s government is Lok Sabha election.” reputed to have served the people well adhya Pradesh saw a close in the first two terms but failed to live up fight and the BJP and Congress to expectations in the third,” says Amrish won 41% and 40.8% of the Pandey, a Youth Congress leader. It was votes cast respectively. But the Congress however the votes of scheduled tribes secured 114 seats(gaining 56 seats over and castes that helped the Congress to its 2013 tally) while the BJP won 106 sweep the election. In the Bastar region, seats (losing 59 seats). The partyfared for instance, it won all 12 seats. contest elections from Barmer. The ticket was instead given to Sonaram Chaudhary, which unwittingly revived theold Jat-Rajput rivalry. Of the 8 seats in the Barmer region, Chaudhary won his while the Congress won the rest. In Bharatpur,

O PI NI O N

Living on the Edge

Sounak Das

he Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which was passed recently in the Lok Sabha could prove costly to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the coming general elections. The Bill proposes to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians from the Muslim-majority countries of Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. They are eligible for citizenship provided they have lived for six years in these neighbouring countries and only need to prove that they have suffered religious persecution in there. Those people who came to India before 31 December, 2014 are covered by the amendment. In the name of protecting our own, the amendment introduces a religious dimension in the definition of Indian citizenship and thus subverts the very idea of anegalitarian and secular nation that treats all religions as equal and deserving of protection under the Constitution. But popular opposition to the Bill is more visceral. People of the Northeast are afraid that the grant of citizenship would induce large numbers of Bengali Hindus from Bangladesh to settle in their states and socially and politically marginalise the indigenous communities of the region. As a result,there have been widespread agitations against the Bill. Assam, in particular, is witnessing largescale demonstrations as it is the most affected by illegal immigration, especially from Bangladesh. The 1985 Assam Accord had promised the people of Assam that all illegal immigrants who entered the state after 24 March 1971 would be deported. The Bill undermines that consensus. The peace that prevailed in the Northeast was always fragile and tenuous. The sectarian instincts of the BJP in excluding Muslims from the protection of the state is becoming more conspicuous by the day. The party has never refrained from dividing people on religious grounds to enhance its electoral prospects. The BJP-led government at the Centre had denied refuge to Rohingya Muslims who were fleeing religious persecution in Burma. They made the so-called ‘threat to internal security’ an excuse for refusing shelter to these stateless Muslims. It is the proposed amendment, in fact, that could potentially jeopardise internal security and deepen social schisms.

It is also of cardinal importance to note here that West Bengal, more than any other state, is in the crosshairs of the BJP. Several commentators have pointed out that the BJP’s intention behind introducing the Bill was to reap electoral dividends as the champion of Bengali Hindus, a community now enlarged with new citizens. The party’s coming to power in Assam and Tripura gave a fillip to its confidence and it began to consider itself unstoppable.

f the government had any doubts how incendiary it actions have proven in one of the most sensitive border regions of the country, they only need look at what’s inscribed on the banners the agitators are waving:Hello China, Bye Bye India. The Asom Gana Parishad, a key ally of the saffron party in Assam, has withdrawn from the NDA coalition in protest. Reports suggest thatseveral other small parties are likely to follow suit. The BJP should realise that playing with a match near a barrel of gun s powder can only mean one of two things –they’re incredibly brave or extremely foolish. The Bill, which must rank as one of the most contentious pieces of legislation in India’s post-independence history, was tabled with the sole aim of securing political mileage. It’s perfectly understandable that the BJP is worried. The loss of BJP bastions Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh months before the Lok Sabha elections, has taken a toll on the party’s confidence. But what price will India have to pay for Mr Modi’s insecurities?

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LAW

Ayodhya o

Politics, not tradition, is keeping the Sab

On 1st January women have formed 620 km long human in support of gender equality.

n an effort to put an end to the raging controversy over women worshipping at the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala, theTravancore Devaswom Board (TDB) that governs the temple told the Supreme Court that it will comply with its order and permit women of all ages to enter the temple. On September 28 last year, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra, along with justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra ruled 4:1 that the ban on women’s entry violates the their right to equality under Article 14 and all women regardless of age have a right to pray in the 800-year-old Sabarimala temple. The order caused a furore in Kerala and Hindu groups launched mass protests to ’protect their traditions’ from supposed secular attack. Women who attempted to enter the temple were

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beaten back by groups of vigilantes. After two women managed to enter the Temple premises under heavy police protection, the priests immediately closed down the temple to conduct ‘purification ceremonies’. With this, a twelve-year long battle, that began in 2007 when Left Democratic Front (LDF) filed an affidavit supporting a PIL filed by women lawyers against the ban of women in the menstrual age 10-50, comes to a pause. Because even if die hard traditionalists grudgingly accept the primacy of the equality statute over the right to practice their religion, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not easily let go of an emotive issue that could help consolidate its sectarian base. The Sabarimala Temple is inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Pathanamthitta district of central Kerala. It is dedicated to the deity Ayyapan. As Vedamoorthy, head priest of Ganesha temple explains,

“Lord Ayyapan is celibate, we respect that and because of that we do not allow women to enter the temple, he must not receive any prayers from women, therefore against our old tradition and customs and we will not let anyone destroy it.” On 2nd January at around 3.45am with the help of officials, two women named Kanakdurga(39) and Bindu Ammini (40) who was of menstrual age made history by entering the shrine. At 10.30 am the temple’s door was closed by the head priest Kandaru Rajeevaru for one hour for purification rituals. Such a decision should have been sanctioned by the TDB, but the head priest bypassed the Board and acted on his own. The Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan asked him to quit his position as his action amounted to disrespecting the sentiment of the judgement and amounted to contempt of court.

of the South

barimala issue on the boil, says Renuka Thakare Says PS Sreedharan Pillai, the BJP Kerala state president, “Every temple has its own unique customs. Nobody can change it. Justice Indu Malhotra, one of the judges in the constitutional bench also noted that notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion. The feelings of the believers should be respected. The BJP called a bandh in Kerala to protest against the women entering the temple. Over 700 people were arrested during the Bandhon January 2nd and 3rd, 80 buses were damaged and sixty police office were injured.

“I

am not going to say sorry to anyone, I have not committed any wrong by word or deed. I would like to reiterate that no one, including my brother and husband, has any right to stop me from entering my home,”Kanakdurga told Scroll.in in the face of her family’s opposition to what she had done. Even traditional women came out in support of the court’s order. “I cannot go against my family and customs but according to me Supreme Court has taken the right decision of ruling over the ban on women entry “, says Anupama, another resident of Kerala. The SC’s verdict has forced everyone, not just the people living in Kerala,

to examine the wisdom of using the courts to effect social reform and secure justice. Even those of a liberal persuasion are divided as to the best way to reform age-old traditions to reconcile the with the values of the modern world. Ananya Vajpeyi, a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi argues that, “Freedom of religion means the freedom to practice and pursue one’s own religion, not the freedom to undermine the fundamental rights of others. Nor does freedom of religion warrant contravening the writ of the Supreme Court, which explicitly grants women the right to worship at Sabarimala.” In other words, Article 14 which guarantees the fundamental right to equality takes precedence over any other right in the Constitution including the right to worship. Under the Constitution, freedom of worship allows people to practice their religion without any interference from the state. But where such practice violates fundamental rights the state is forced to intervene. Amulya Gopalakrishnan, a journalist with the Times of India, however, while not disagreeing with the primacy of the equality principle, believes that the law is a blunt instrument to compel change

in traditional values. “Both sides need to feel acknowledged, rather than invalidated by the other,” she writes. “The good-faith defenders of the Sabarimala tradition must accept that while Hinduism is spiritually heterodox, it is also socially rigid and hierarchical.” She says that there is no doubt that there’s an equality issue here but there are other ways to change customs and traditions. If you want to change tradition, you have to do it through persuasion.

recedents are on the side of the former. After all it was the legal ban on Sati, child marriage and the devadasi system that ended some of the worst abuses that women and girl children suffered at the hands of Hindu patriarchy. Yet many question the political cost of forcing courts to intervene in matters of tradition, especially in the light of the Shah Bano case and the Babri Masjid dispute. The BJP cares as much about Sabarimala as it does about Ayodhya, meaning not a bit. What it does care about is what troubles its core constituency, the aggrieved Hindu. Any issue that helps mobilise its base is an opportunity not be wasted. The party has never had a presence in Kerala despite its parent, the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh’s best efforts over 50 years to build a Hindu constituency there to counter the Left Front. Sabarimala could prove to be the thin end of the wedge.

Opposing the women entry in temple , male devotees of lord Ayyappa protested; 11 women were stopped from entering the temple.

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FO CUS

The Devil Wears Prada Bangalore’s garment-export industry is a living hell for the women who work there, writes Subhana Shaikh

ayamma, 51, stiches garments for a living in a factory in Bangalore and is the sole bread winner of her family. Her days are long as she often has to do overtime before heading back home to tend to her grandchildren, who have been left in her care. Her life is hard but her workplace is hell. “There’s a lot of production pressure on us to meet the targets by the senior managers and supervisors,” she says. “If we don’t meet the required targets, we are sexually harassed, abused and physically violated.” With tears rolling down her cheeks, her kajal smeared, she says, “I have to come here to work every day, I cannot do anything but suffer in silence. We don’t complain to the police but speak about it amongst ourselves.” Jayamma’s plight is similar to that of tens of thousands of women who work in the city’s garment industry. Many leading multinational companies like GAP, H&M, and Zara source from Bangalore. The industry employs some 500,000 workers and 80% of them are women. Most of them are migrants from rural Karnataka and other states who have come to Bangalore in search of work. A report by Sisters for Change (SFC), a non-government organisation (NGO), reveals that one in seven women

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garment workers has been raped or forced to commit a sexual act while one in 14 has experienced physical violence. The report says that over 60% of them have been intimidated or threatened with violence, while between 40-50% have experienced humiliation and verbal abuse. These numbers barely convey the horror of a workplace where managers and supervisors don’t just use abusive and sexualised language with their subordinates. Here sexual intimidation is an accepted managerial practice to ensure compliance. “It is continuous,” Jayamma says. “Managers and supervisors are very offensive, they say things like, “Bitch, why do you come here to work? Go and die somewhere else! If you are not capable of doing this work then be a prostitute and stand outside on the road. You will earn better.” Mayamma, 47, another garment worker, working in H&Z company explains the torture she faces daily. With tears welling up in her eyes, she describes how she is abused verbally, how comments of a sexualised nature are made about her and her colleagues, how they suffer inappropriate physical contact or even demands for sexual favours. She describes how the smallest mistakes invite physical assaults saying,

“They throw the garment at our faces, hit us on our backs, drag us out of our workstations, and compel us to stand

“

Here sexual intimidation is a managerial strategy to ensure worker compliance.

” away from it. They often taunt us and punish us in a number of ways, mainly aiming at humiliating and degrading us. These also include hinting us for engaging in sex work, casting aspersions on our character and humiliation, ranging from private scolding in the manager’s cabin to public shaming.” But these women cannot afford to complain. According to the report, just 18% of those who suffer abuse speak about it to their union representatives and barely 12% are willing to make a formal complaint to management or the police. Says Mayamma, “Even if we are five minutes late, they will ask, ‘You bitch, why did you walk in so late?’ And the rest of the day passes by like this.” She believes that no one has the courage to question or even stand up for what is right. “We know it is wrong, but we have to come to work tomorrow. Even if I skip one day, and my salary is cut by

1 or 2 days, it will be difficult for me to run my house. We get attendance bonus on 26 days of work. If I skip one day, my attendance bonus gets cancelled. When I work for 26 days without skipping one, I will get Rs 500. Keeping that in mind I go to work every day.” According to the Garment Labour Union, only 13 official complaints have been lodged in past two years in the 1,200 factories that comprise the industry in Bangalore. Women are hesitant to speak up because they are afraid of the repercussions. Madhina Taj, treasurer of the Garment Karmika Mahila Mandal says, “They will give me excess work on purpose which I will not be able to complete on time. I will be harassed even further. Because of this fear, we stay quiet. All of this has become so common for us now.”

hose like Maheshwari (name changed) who file a complaint are made to go through mental and physical torment, and are made to suffer. They did not give her work for 6 months, but was made to stand fat her workplace or 6 to 8 hours every day as a form of humiliation. Because she was a member

of the union and had their support she could fight. “If they can’t they resign and join another garment factory and same cycle will repeat.” She added that one woman made a complaint in January 2018 and it’s been a year now since she’s been given work. Police Inspector Ajay Kumar at the Police Commissioner’s office at Infantry Road says, “Lack of an internal complaint committee (ICC) at the factories is one of the reasons for the increasing number of sexual harassment cases. Usually women don’t complain at police stations.” According to the SFC report, 61% of women workers were prevented from reporting cases of harassment & abuse and in 95% of cases, the factory management took no action in cases of abuse and violence. As the Union Minister for Women & Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, states in the preface to her department’s Handbook on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, “It is the responsibility of every employer to ensure safety of women in a work environment and improve their participation. This will contribute to the economic realisation of their right to gender equality and result

in economic empowerment and inclusive growth and benefit the nation as a whole.” Of all sexual harassment cases reported in Bangalore, action was taken against only on 3.6% of incidents but no criminal charges have been brought to light. Garment and Textile Workers Union president, Pratibha R, says, “This is because of the victims of the sexual harassment and violence are threatened by the perpetrators to stay silent. Being the sole bread winner they are in no position to risk their jobs.” As U. Ramdas Rao, a member of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, explains, “Because of the scarcity of unionization in the workplace, they are not able to get the two basic rights which are freedom of association and collective bargaining. The right to unite and protest is denied by the state and by the employers as well. The absence of unionisation has made them vulnerable to production torture that takes place in the factories. However, the law does not enforce a sanction on a factory which does not recognize a union. There are limitations in the law. The law is rather weak.” THE BEAT

EN VI RO NM EN T

Turning Back the Clock Neyveli could become a model for regenerating land laid waste by open-cast mining if the government followed global norms, says M Sindhuja

ndia’s quest for energy security is taking an increasing toll on its greatest agricultural resource, land. NLC India (formerly Neyveli Lignite Corporation) a government-owned company, wants to expand its mining footprint by almost 4,850 hectares to produce an additional 11.5 million tons of coal a year (over and above the 30 million tonnes it extracts) to fuel the expansion of a new 1,320 MW thermal power station at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu. The proposed project area for Mine-III includes the mine itself, an external dump area and infrastructure. The Mine-III block in the Neyveli Lignite Field is bound by the VirdhachalamChidambaram road to the north and seasonal riversManimukthaand Vellar to the west and south respectively. The life of the mine is estimated at 35 years. Neyveli’s lignite, a bituminous coal, has 55% carbon content, lies under a heavy ‘overburden’ of sandstone, requiring almost 11 tonnes of rock to be excavated to mine 1 tonne of fuel. The environmental impact of mining it has been devastating. NLChas sought to acquiremore land belonging Erumpur, Akaraalampati, Viramutaiyanattam, Kolappakkam, Vilakkappati, Kammapuram and 26 other villages nearby with a combined land value of Rs. 2,130 cores. This represents almost 12,000 acres of fertile farmlandcurrently under paddy, sugarcane and black gram. Local villagers claim that about 10,000 acres of land previously acquired by

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the company have not been mined and till that begins, no further acquisition should be allowed. “The displacement of settled communities is a significant cause of resentment and conflict associated with large scale mineral development,” warns the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, a global non-profit. “Entire communities are uprooted and forced to shift elsewhere. Thus, they lose their homes; communities may also lose their land and their livelihoods in case of farming. These displaced communities are often settled in areas without adequate resources or left near mines, where they have to bear the pollution and contamination.” That, in a nutshell, is the story of Neyveli. “I had 8 cents of land behind Mahalakshmi Theatre in Periyakurichi,” says Naveen Uthandi, a resident ofNeyveli. “I was asked to vacate the land. I had built a house on that land and I received Rs.87,000 from NCL as compensation. But this is less than the actual value of the land alone. After filing a case against them, a few of us received three-cent plots nearby in Indiranagar. Middle-class people like us find it hard to build our own houses so surrendering my own house to NLC was a nightmare. Now we live in a rented house in Panruti.” “I had seven acres of land near Velaiamma Devi,” says Abraham J, a retired NLC employee.“The company gave us a formal notice saying the landowner can’t sell or build a home on that land.

They assured us of compensation and that they would employ one member of the family. When we insisted on the promise of employment, they gave the land back. Instead they bought land nearby against a Rs.15 lakh advance but here too the full amount was not paid.” “I own one acre of land just behind Mine II, it is farmland and grow paddy there,” says Tamil Arasan, a farmer from Kombadikuppam.“The problem we face is from the mountain of sand and clay dumped on our boundary. During the rainy season the clay washes onto our farmland and makes the harvest difficult. We asked for compensation of Rs.30 lakh an acre but NLC offered Rs.15 lakh.Many farmers came forward to give the land, as the lands here are at risk of becoming infertile due to the mixing of topsoil with the clay from mines deposit.” “Most of the farmers here are not landowners, they are just the labourers. They don’t receive any sort of compensation as they work under a landlord. Though they officially say 23 villages lands are being acquired for Mine III projects, nearly 40 villages that are affected,”says Jima Rani a resident of Neyveli.

eyveli was once a small village surrounded by cashew forests. The lignite bed was first identified by a local landlord, Jambulingam Mudaliar who owned 600 acres in the area. NLC was set up in 1956 to exca-

mines to prevent collapse and subsidence. It’s also required in surface mines to ensure the safety of the mined land and to recreate a smooth landscape. The mine site must also have some defined shape to it and this will require the design of terrain to recreate an appropriate landscape and provide a basis for the returning ecosystem. As topsoil must be removed in order to gain access to the coal below, this topsoil must be maintained so that it can be returned to the site following mine closure. Most reclamation plans will include some form of requirement for re-vegetation of the land. In India, the reckless and unplanned expansion of coal mining activities has resulted in a situation wheremost mines do not comply with global best practice or basic environmental standards. In most cases, back-filling costs are seen as prohibitive and the easy option is simply to abandon the mine. “The first issue that must be dealt with following mine closure is to ensure that the land is safe and not likely to sink, subside or collapse. Once the site

is safe, then more aesthetic issues such as contouring and landscaping can be considered,” recommends Lesley Sloss, an environmental consultant. “Although most mining plans require the return of the site to approximate original contouring, this may not be possible at all sites and some may actually benefit for a modification of the landscape to suit a new purpose.” Open-cast mining is the most wasteful form of resource use and is more so for poor, land-starved communities. Returning the land to its original users in a state fit for use should therefore be the goal of every such project. “If a mine is operated correctly, then it is possible for topsoil and overburden materials to be moved to the side and stored during mining. Much of this material may then be reused as back-fill and re-landscaping materials. Ultimately, mine site rehabilitation should return sites to conditions where landforms, soils, hydrology, and flora and fauna are self-sustaining and compatible with surrounding land uses,” she concludes.

Credit: The Hindu

vate a mine over 14 sq km, which would become the largest open-cast mine in India. The lignite seam in Neyveli is 15 meters thick and, for lignite, rich in carbon. The biggest challenge with opencast mines is to return the mined area to productive use and that requires strategies to contour and regenerate the land. “In Neyveli mining operations, there is a generation of mass mine waste, altering existing landscapes and drainage patterns,” says SAF Khalid, executive director, NLC. “As the result, a significant amount of land is degraded and existing ecosystems are replaced.” To mitigate the impact on the environment, he says an environment management plan has been developed with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to reclaim ‘back-filled’ areas. “Over 19 million trees have been planted in and around Neyveli Mines and Township which helps in maintaining ecological balance. The backfilled area is transformed into productive uses such as for agricultural and horticultural crops,” he says. ‘Back-filling’ is required in deep

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B USI NE S S

On a Wing and a Prayer Government short-sightedness won’t let the Indian airline industry take off, Shashank Dipankar reports

y 2024, India is set to surpass the UK to become world’s third largest aviation market, says Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the union commerce ministry’s promotional agency. Air passenger traffic has been growing at 16% annually over the past decade thanks to increasing business travel and an increasingly affluent middle class. The IBEF suggests the aviation industry is thriving but the truth is that Indian carriers aren’t just not generating profits; several of them are on the brink of bankruptcy. According to the Financial Express newspaper, the combined losses of Indian carriers totalled Rs.9, 300 crore in 2018, surpassing the decade’s worst industry loss of 2014, which was Rs.7,348 crore. Even big players like Indigo and Spice Jet incurred losses. According to a report by rating-agency ICRA, three listed airlines have suffered the loss of Rs. 20 crore per day during the first half of the financial year 2019.So what explains this paradox? The Indian aviation industry is in a bad shape despite healthy domestic passenger traffic growth because of a combination of the rising price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, their inability to raise fares and a heavy tax burden. As Kinjal Shah, vice president and co-head, corporate sector ratings at ICRA explains, “During the first seven months of FY2019, the industry capacity, as denoted by available seat kilometres, has increased by 15.3%. But they were severely mauled by the twin blows of a significant increase ATF prices and the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar. On top of cost pressures, the low pricing power of the industry and inability to raise fares due to increased competitive pressures has resulted in mounting losses for the airlines.” The steady depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar also added

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to their losses. In 2018, the rupee fell as low as Rs. 74 per dollar. According to an article in online newspaper Livemint, about 25-30% of the carriers’ costs are dollar denominated. According to global aviation industry tracker, CAPA Fleet Database, 81% of all aircraft in India are leased compared to 53% globally. As the leading global aircraft lessors barely have a presence in the country, leases are denominated in dollars. So, lease rents have soared and that’s taking a toll on carriers. Engine rentals and maintenance costs are also denominated in dollars, hence are similarly affected.Moreover, Indian airlines have large foreign currency debts while their revenue are

almost entirely in rupees. For one of the fastest growing markets for aircraft in the world, India appears to have little leverage with manufacturers. As Devesh Agrawal, editor, Bangalore Aviation, says,“There is inadequate aircraft demand to justify setting up a final assembly line (FAL) here.” But China, which is the second largest market after U.S.A, has secured an Airbus FAL because most of its airlines are connected to the government, which has pressured Airbus to seta FAL in as a condition to selling them aircraft. ATF prices play a crucial role in the balance sheet of airline carriers as fuel accounts for almost 40% of total

petitive pressures as carriers try to grab as much as they can of the growing market. As a result, airlines find it difficult to raise prices. Another factor keeping airfare low is the increasing number of aircraft. Accordnother factor which dictates the ing to Business Line price of ATF are taxes. It doesn’t newspaper, capaccome under the common Good ity addition is over and Services Tax. The centre charges ATF prices in Delhi peaked to Rs.76,378 in the month of November, for 2018 20% in 2018 and such a 14% excise duty on it and states add increases in capacsales taxwhich can be as much as 29%. ity will only heighten As Agrawal says,“State governments are responsible for India’s inability to sustain addicted to the easy revenue of high fuel competitive presindustry growth. According to an analysures. The civil aviation policy (NCAP) taxes. This is not limited to ATF alone, sis on the Bangalore Aviation website, of 2016 that introduced a regional but can be seen for petrol as well, which Indian airports have a net addition of connectivity scheme was another blow is clubbed along with ATF as a luxury exactly one runway in the last 30 years! to the carriers. It was a good move for item.” Between April and December Airports are under pressure to accomsmall town passengers, but the price cap 2018, ATF prices increased 33% over modate more flights and are saturated which it imposed was of no help to the the same period in the previous year. during peak hours. Major airports like carriers. However, the government has subsidised that of New Delhi and Goa are nearing Lack of proper infrastructure is also fuel for 80-seat aircraft at 4% and which saturation, also applies to aircraft on flying UDAN Hard Times: Indigo has reverted to the sale and lease model after it incurred significant as a result routes to enable them to lower fares. quarterly losses of which The rapid expansion of Indian aviaairports are tion is creating unsustainable comnot able to allocate slots to airlines. The analysis further states that India’s current airport capacity is grossly inadequate to cater to the growing passenger demand. A supply-demand imbalance is certain in the medium term. The Government’s pet UDAN regional connectivity scheme is already faltering at metro airports which are not allocating slots. Agrawal sums up the situation saying, “It is ironic that the only entities that are not making money in the Indian aviation ecospace are the airlines. It is because of the competition.” He says that the government handed over its monopoly of airports to private entities and created private monopolies. “The government has to frame policies that allow competition within all aspects of the aviation sector. Allow multiple airports to be built in close proximity to encourage an improvement in service coupled with the reduction of costs. The privatisation of air traffic control should also be considered. Airports Authority of India should be divided into airport operations and ATC operations and corporatized,” he recommends.

expenditure. The rise in ATF prices takes a toll on the pockets of carriers as more and more money needs to be allocated for the fuel. ATF is affected by currency movement and by Indian rupee to US dollar depreciation, as rupee falls down ATF prices goes up. The rise in global oil price also affects the price of ATF taking operational cost higher.

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SPO RT S

Speed, Strength

India’s world-class pace bowling attack owes entirely to medicine, says Sa

nlikely as that might sound, it took a superlative fast-bowling performance from India to win a historic, first-ever test series against Australia. Indian cricket was never known for its athleticism on the field, let alone the stamina and pace of today’s top fast bowlers. Rather it was the wile and dexterity of its wrist spinners combined with an extraordinarily talented batting line up that kept the team in contention. But the Indian pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ishant Sharma took 136 wickets in 2018 to break the world record of most wickets in a calendar year held by Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall of the West Indies, who had taken 130 wickets in 1984. Clearly, the recent emphasis on a hardcore training regime backed by expert advice on sports medicine and nutrition is showing results. Fitness and stamina play a key role in fast bowling. Indian bowlers such as Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are able to sustain bowling speeds of 140 kmph and more. These bowlers are great athletes. “Training and practice are mainly undertaken to develop motor competence skills, strengthen the body and then develop the sport specific technical and motor skills,” says Mohammed Nasseruddin, bowling coach at Karnataka Institute of Cricket. “Training that focuses on strength and endurance improves the ability of the muscles to engage in physical activity over long periods by delaying the onset of fatigue. It can also improve flexibility and coordination of the various muscle groups and this improves sports performance. It is important that the right techniques and routines are used to maximise the ability of the body.” India has never produced a fast bowler capable of bowling at 145 kmph throughout his spell. Javagal Srinath was quick when he first burst onto the scene but injuries and irregular fitness hampered his career. Ashish Nehra was really quick, but could not sustain the pace due to injuries throughout his career. The most successful fast bowler since Kapil Dev was Zaheer Khan. Although very successful, Khan would regularly break

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down in the middle of an important test series or a tournament. Bowling continuously at a speed of over 145 kmph requires incredible stamina. A fast bowler bowls almost 15-16 overs in a single

“

All in all, awareness and availability are critical to the effectiveness of sports medicine for any kind of an athlete.

”

day of a test match on average. Considering a poor health and physique, a bowler would find it difficult to sustain that kind of energy and stamina throughout the entire day. To prevent injuries and stay physically fit, Indian athletes across disciplines are increasingly turning to sports medicine. “In the

h and Stamina

o a new regimen of fitness training, nutrition and sports ayantan Sarkar Indian scenario, it is advised to always seek a doctor who is a sports medicine expert. All in all, awareness and availability are critical to the effectiveness of sports medicine for any athlete,” says sports scientist Karishma Boolani. The great Pakistani quick, Wasim Akram once said that fast bowling requires a lot of running and bowling tirelessly in the nets. Running develops leg muscles and also builds up stamina in a fast bowler. Bowlers these days are concerned about their health more than ever before and are constantly hitting the gym to keep in prime physical shape. It is important to understand that a bowler generates pace from his shoulders and a strong back. A strong back ensures sustainability in the bowling action and gives the bowler strength to go through with his action. Along with a strong back, a quick arm action is also necessary to accelerate at the last moment of delivery. Sanjay Manjrekar in his autobiography says Indians were obsessed with skills rather than focusing on physical strength. Past Indian captains preferred medium fast swing bowlers over natural fast bowlers who could bowl at 145 kmph. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a classic example of a bowler who increased his pace and became a lethal swing bowler from an average swing bowler thanks to strength training. Shankar Basu has done a brilliant job of strength training and conditioning for the Indian team.

aving a separate coaching staff dedicated to enhancing their physical capabilities is keys. One other common myth in the past was that working out in the gym would harm the fast bowlers. Weight training was looked at as something that would affect their bowling and make their limbs stiff. Indian bowlers of today are fitness freaks and they constantly work out in the gym to enhance their strength and physical fitness. The modern regime is also approved by the team’s current bowling coach Bharath Arun. He played a vital role in the development of both fast and spin bowlers and helped Jasprit Bumrah transition from

limited overs cricket to test cricket. Bumrah, who was never tipped to succeed in test cricket, currently has 49 wickets in 10 matches at an average of less than 22. Bumrah recently said in an interview that Arun believed in his unorthodox bowling action and did not want to change it. He also mentioned that Arun wanted him to get stronger so that he could sustain the raw pace to suit the demands of test cricket. The improvement in the quality of the Indian bowling attack is a result of shifting away from the norms of picking medium fast bowlers and asking them to stick to line and length while bowling. “The grounds are better and infrastructure is advanced,” says bowling coach Nasseruddin. “Earlier bowlers had to toil in unfavourable conditions, which strained their bowling muscles. There have also been issues with diets, as people would maintain a diet that lacked meat and rich protein. That has changed, with bowlers giving more importance to their diet and fitness these days.” Fast bowlers are constantly challenging themselves to reach the highest levels of physical fitness. Endurance levels can also be compared, which is a major factor according to Jock Campbell, a sports scientist from Australia. He believes that maintaining the heart rate is essential in excelling at fast bowling for longer periods. Nurturing such a talented pace attack is difficult. BCCI could set up more foundations such as the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. It could also make domestic pitches that are spin friendly tracks more helpful to fast bowlers. These would also encourage youngsters. “Each country has its selection process. While countries like Australia and America have their identification embedded into their schooling system, India follows a more regional and zonal-level identification process with talent being scouted in various tournaments,” says NP Rameshan, regional head of infrastructure, Sports Authority of India. “With initiatives like Khel India, we are well on our way to becoming more inclusive at the school level.” Photographs: Getty Images THE BEAT

Spo r ts

Wrong Signals

Indian women’s cricket needs recognition and support not politics, write Anurag Maan

o say cricket is our national religion isn’t far off the mark. ment. Butdespite the popularity of the sport,women cricketBut, her omission from the all-importantsemi-final match ers are yet to get their due. Players like Anjum Chopra, against England surprised everyone. As reported byThe Indian Jhulan Goswami, Mithali Raj have putin some exceptional Express, in the post-match presentation ceremony, when asked performances and have now started getting noticed by Indian about Raj’s omission from the team, India Skipper Harmanfans. The team, which hardly existed in the 90s, is currently in preet Kaur defended her decision and saying, “Whatever the top 5 in International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings. we decided, we decided for the team. Sometimes it works, But the team recently received some unwanted headlines sometimes it doesn’t, no regrets. I’m proud of the way my girls with the controversy surrounding Indian One-day Internaplayed through the tournament. We did well against Australia, tional (ODI)captain Raj and head coach Ramesh Powar. The and that is the reason we just wanted to go with the same issue came it into the mediaafterMithali’s letter to the Board combination. We need someone after Smriti and me who can for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) CEO Rahul Johri and GM bat for us. Sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn’t.” (cricket operations) Saba Karim was leaked. Raj slammed ComNext day, Raj’s manager Annisha Gupta targeted Harmittee of Administrators member Diana Edulji and Powar for manpreet on Twitter,calling her a manipulative, lying, immaher omission from World T20 semi-final against England, which ture and undeserving captain.Raj, who had kept quiet on the India lost, ending their first matter since the loss finally broke T-20 World Cup title hope. her silenceandthe letter. She blamed The sixth edition of Powar for her omission from the 2018 ICC Women’s World teamand for criticising her skills and Twenty 20 took place in commitment for the game. She also West Indies last November. slammed Eduljifor being biased and India went into this tournanot supporting her on the issue. ment as title favourites. Edulji earlier refused to intervene in As expected, India the matter saying that it was a selecbegan their campaign on a tion matter. She had alsosaid that if positive note, topped the India had won, no one would have group stage that included a questioned the team’s decision. win over last edition’s finalPowar countered Mithali with a ist Australia and reached letter to BCCI sharing his side of the the semi-finals very easily. story. He said that she was struggling Their batters and bowlers to score quickly at the top order that were delivering for the team is a requirement of T-20 matches and and were among the highest Mithali is the sole female cricketer to cross the 6,000 -run was putting pressure on the other mark in WODIs and holds the record for most half-centu- batters. He accused her of blackrun-getters and wicketries scored in the 50-over format. She is often hailed as takers of the tournament. mailing and threatening him and of But in the semifinal against one of the greatest batswomen to have played the game. putting her milestones and personal England, they were bowled Credit: Press Trust of India interests over the team. out for a paltry 112 which owever, this spat did not go in favour of Powar as BCCI England easily chased down. The first question that came to did not extend his contract which ended after India’s everyone’s mind was Raj’s omission from the playing eleven. T-20 World Cup campaign.BCCI later formed a commitThroughout the tournament, Raj’s batting position was tee comprising Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and ShanthaRthe point of contention. She has been strengthening the top order for quite some time in T-20 matches and was giving good angaswamy, which selected former Indian cricketer WV Raman as the head coach. starts with another opener, Smriti Mandana. But surprisingly, In the last four-five years, Indian women cricketers have her batting position was frequently shuffled in this tournacomplimented the success of their fellow male cricketers and ment. have shown some promising performances. Women’s cricket, She was asked to bat in the middle order in the first which was previously dominated mostly by teams like Australia match against New-Zealand. Then, in the next two matches and England, now has a new competitor. against Pakistan and Ireland, she was again promoted to the Raj and Mithali and Goswami are still the top players of toporder. She scored half-centuries in both the matches and the Indian team and both have given up the captaincy to prowas adjudged Women of the Match award on both occasions. mote youngsters like Harmanpreet to take up the reins. They She could not participate in the last group stage match against toughAustralian side as she was unwell, saidthe team manage- deserve more respect.

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Credit: Zostel.com

T RAVE L

At Home in the World

Homestays are the mainstay of sustainable tourism the world over, says Anuradha Sriram

co-tourism is becoming popular with the young Indian traveler and homestays have gained pride of place among options for ‘greengetaways’. Homestays literally open the doors toIndia’s remotest villages, its hinterlands and wilderness and give domestic and global tourists a first-hand experience of the lives of rural communities. That can extend from working in the fields along with their hosts, sowing and harvesting the crop, to participating in the daily puja or in community festivals. Says Aloke Bajpai, founder of booking-portal Ixigo, “About two years ago the demand for experiential stays and eco-lodges was mostly from expats and foreign tourists, but now the scenario is changing.” His research shows that 38% of tourists prefer travelling alone and they increasingly demand homestays in less-visited places instates like Himachal Pradesh, thenortheast, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Bajpai says eco-tourism is an unbeatable ‘back-to-nature’ twist to the traditional holiday and homestays allow travelers to socialize with locals and

experience the cultural specificity of a place. The concept has taken the idea of hospitality to another level, where a person can truly experience a home away from home. Moreover, they are a budget-friendly option for the tourist while creating a valuable economic opportunity for the local community. Homestays benefit tourists as they offer quality at low prices and give the guest a raresense of belonging. They also enable local people to become micro-entrepreneurs with very little investment.All it requires is a spare room and some basic furniture and linen. Hosting visitors provides an alternative source of income for local homeownerswhile being socially beneficial in that it makes women financially independent. The government of India knows the country has immense untappedtourism potential but has limited means to build the world-class tourist infrastructure needed to exploit it. Homestays offer a simpler and less expensive alternative way to build capacity. It has relaxed

licensing rules for people seeking to convert their homes into certified homestays and is developing a centralized database. India’s travel market, which includes homestays, is projected to grow at an annual rate of 11-11.5% and will be worth $48 billion by 2020, reports CNBC. There are several travel websites and apps through which one can book a stay at offbeat locations across India. One such application is Explore. Unlike rival travel sites MakeMyTrip and Goibibo, Exploreonly promotes destinations that are undiscovered and off the beaten track. Once you choose a homestay using the app, the host confirms it’s availableand the booking can be confirmed within 2 hours. The bloggers on the team ensure the quality and credibility of the listed properties. Explore takes a 10% commission from the homestay owners. Vandana Vijay, a former Facebook employee, runs a travel company called Offbeat Tracks. It’s an experiential-travel company that aims to promote sustainable eco-tourism in different destinations in India and has worked with local THE BEAT

communities in Nagaland, Ladakh, Meghalaya and Assam. Says Vijay, “All our projects are set up to promote sustainable and responsible travel in alignment with the Sustainable Developmental Goals set out by the UN”. ‘Think global and act local’ is her business mantra. Offbeat Tracks serve as a platform to network travelers with local homestays in several destinations in the Himalayas and she carefully crafts her trips to ensure that the vacations are as immersive as possible. “The state governments of Sikkim, Himachal and other states are also actively investing in promoting homestays in rural and urban areas of their states,” says Vishnu Naik, manager of Offbeat Tracks. “A lot of private players are getting into the market now and providing homestays as the accommodation of choice for their guests.” The Lalhousis one of the homestays in KisamaKohima that Offbeat Tracks collaborates with. The village is surrounded by rolling hills and draws a huge crowd especially during the Hornbill Festival every December. The room tariffs are around Rs. 2,250 a night for a double occupancy. There are also dormitories with tariffs from 1,500-1,700 a night. A major attraction is the local Naga cuisine. The Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) is a government agency that works with villagers to promote homestay projects in Uttarakhand. Says an official of the organisation, “What makes homestays different to other types of

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accommodation are the hosts. No matter where you’re staying, be it a remote village in Darma valley or in magnificent closeness to Mt. Adi Kailash, you’ll never be on your own.” KMVN encourages residents of remote villages of the Kumaon to enter the tourism industry and learn to operate homestays professionally. They aim to integrate all aspects of tourism,whether it’s outdoor sports and trekking, cultural tourism, agro-tourism, health tourism or eco-tourism, and their efforts are already generating a steady source of income and jobs and helping to reduce rural poverty. Vyans, Drama and Chaundas in Pittoragarhdistrict of Uttarakhand are remote villages that have joined the programme. The Vyans Valley is one of the most important homes of Rangs and Shaukas, ethnic communitieswho live in the highest habitable reaches of the Kumaon range. The KMVN organizes the Adi Kailash pilgrimage-cum-trek every year and tourists encounter some of the remotest villages in Pithoragarh. One of these villages is Kuti, the last habitation before the Chinese border. KMVN has renovated several houses here and handed them over to the villagers to run as homestays. Managed by the locals, these homestays have proved to be very popular with tourists, pilgrims and trekkers, who are amazed at the hospitality and the local cuisines on offer. The KMVN

has built bathrooms and provides bedding, utensils, cutlery and other household items to those who participate in the scheme. There are facilities for the travelers to cook for themselves if they wish to for no extra charge. The KMVN has been organizing the Mansarovar trek in Tibet and are planning to incorporate homestays in that itinerary as well. Says a spokesperson for KMVN, “We have a dual objective. The homestay scheme open doors to new tribal-circuit tourism in the remote areas and trekking and mountaineering encourages tourists to visit the Drama Valley that hosts the base camp of the Panchchuli Glacier”.

he valleys covered in the tribalcircuit itinerary are Chaundas, Drama, Vyans where homestay facilities are provided in Rongkong village. The duration of the trek varies from 8-10 days. The main attraction of these homestays is that they allow their guests to flavour a destination at an affordable cost; whether it’s home-cooked foodor the lifestyle, it’s authentic. And they provide a personal touch a hotel can never replicate. If sustainable tourism is defined as the maximum number of people that can visit a tourist destination in a given period without harming the physical, economic and socio-cultural environment (not to mentionreducing visitor satisfaction), homestays ensure the lightest tourist footprint possible.

CULTURE

Books That Come Alive The human library gives readers a chance to discover stories that only living, breathing humans can tell, writes Akanksha Kashyap

hen you read a book that completely absorbs you, don’t you sometimes feel a personal connection with the author? What if you didn’t have to read a book at all to experience the writer’s life first hand, if you could hear her life story in person? Welcome to the human library, a collection of incredibly interesting people who are willing to share their stories with complete strangers who want to understand issues, situations, lives they have only imagined. Started in August 2017 by Ria Andrews, Bangalore’s first human library brings together people who have stories that break stereotypes and help people deal with their prejudices and fears.“I expected Bangalore to already have one, considering it’s such a diverse city in terms of culture,” say Ria. Having earlier worked with the LGBTQ community, Ria had also started a youth support group called Queer Campus Bangalore. The human library was first conceived by Ronni Abergal in Denmark. Ronnie who is also a co founder of a NGO called Stop the Violence movement started his non-violence activism after his friend was stabbed in Copenhagen. Since then he has been spreading the concept of human library across the globe, with South Africa, Tunisia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ecuador, United Arab Emirates, Peru, Mongolia and Israel being the countries he has already reached out to. The first one in India was established in Indore, from where the movement has grown and seeded similar experiments across the country. “I have interacted extensively with the LGBT community,” says Ria. “There’s so much speculation and stereotyping, I have seen how people react to them. I have always wanted to break that barrier so when I came across the human library it perked my interest. Reaching out to Ronni, I figured how to start one here.” She adds that when she was thrashing out the idea with Ronni, she discovered that a lot of other people had applied to start one so she reached to them and

tried to get as many people as possible onboard. Basit Manham is one such ‘book’ who talks about his life as a polyamorist, or a person who has multiple intimate relationships with the consent of all his partners. “I identified myself as polyamory about three years ago when I met someone who felt the same way and then came to know about the concept of polyamory,” he says. He says a lot of people reached out to him after the session, identifying themselves as polyamorous. They felt exactly like him but didn’t even know there was a term for it! “I had come across the human library a year ago in Hyderabad,” says Basit. “I had a personal interest in communicating with people so I found the concept quite interesting. When I heard it was coming to Bangalore, I signed up to be a volunteer. After a session, I got picked up as a book,” he recalls. The human library has books with quite relatable narratives, stories that are engaging as well as beneficial to the readers. The social media page of indicates that the library has books with varied stories,books that have overcome mental illness like

anxiety or depression, books from the LGBTQ, survival of molestation as well as books with comparatively smaller problems like being an alcoholic.

uman library, a non-profit organization uses only Facebook as a means of communication. There are forms put out calling for ‘readers’ as well as ‘books’. “The team meets every applicant who wants to be a book and figures out what their narrative would be,” said Anura, Nair, another ‘librarian’ on the team. “We then contact the venue organizers and fix the date and then finally release it on social media. There are about 10 books in every session who came in based on their availability. The books may repeat but there is always a new entry in every session,” says Ria. Around each ‘book’are placed five chairs an each session lasts 30 minutes during which readers can interact with the books and ask questions. “There are times when the sessions last longer but we generally try to keep it under 30 minutes. All our books are people who are breaking some stereotype or the other,” she says. THE BEAT

R E VI E W

What Lies Beneath

Bird Box is a terrifying look not at the demons ‘out there’ but our inner ones, writes Renuka Thakare

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A neighbour, Lydia, invites Malorie into her house for safety but her husband, Douglas, objects. Butbefore Malorie can respond, Lydia goes into a trance, begins talking to her dead motherand casually climbs into a burning car, which explodes. Malorie is rescued and taken into a house by Tom, who’s also fleeing the mayhem. Malorie finds herself stuck in a house with seven strangers but, in a series of random events, five of them die. The survivors stay in that house for five years bringing up Malorie’s two children, who never get to see the outside world.

he film keeps shifting back and forth across in time and, while people keep dying, we never get to see what’s causing the torment but just left to imagine them. A character named Gary, a psychotic, had drawn some sketches of the creatures which resemble the dementors from the Harry Potter series. But they could have been the figments of his mind and we’re none the wiser. The soul of the film is neither thehorror of the individual’s suffering nor the dark foreboding of how our world might end. Instead it’s an examinationthe meaning of family, a contemplation of the nature of love between a parent and her children and how fragile we all are. In a word, it’s an intelligent, apocalyptic, psychological thriller about ourselves, our deepest fears and frailties and how close to collective insanity we teeter in our everyday lives.

Credit: Netflix

“L

isten to me, we’re going on a trip now, it’s going to be rough. If you hear something in the woods, you tell me. if you hear something in the water, you tell me. But under no circumstances are you allowed to take off your blindfold.” The film opens with these instructions from Malorie (the protagonist played by Sandra Bullock) to her two children, who she simply calls boy and girl. Unlike the usual horror movie where a monster hunts the victims and kills them, in Bird Box, a Netflix production, the monsters are never seen, just suggested as the cause of extreme stress and fear that compels people to kill themselves. So powerful is the film’s power of suggestion, Bird Box became a sensation and created a popular meme trending on social media. Bird Box, directed by Susanne Bier based on Josh Malerman’s thriller of the same name, is set in an apocalyptic world invaded by mysterious creatures who manifest as an individual’s worst nightmareand drives her to suicide. A news broadcast reports that these inexplicable incidents first came to light in Romania and started spreading around the world. “This the end game, humanity has been judged and they have been found wanting,” says Charlie, a character in the film referring to the end of days when the human race is devoured by demons, a theme common to many religions and mythology.Here the demons or spirit creatures take the form of your worst fear, your deepest sadness or greatest loss. The film goesback five years to a pregnant Malorie who her older sister Jessica (played by Sarah Paulson) comes to see. They visit a hospital for Malorie’s regular check-up where, Malorie witnesses a woman committing suicide by repeatedly hitting her head on a sheet of glass. She soon realises that whatever is causing people to behave like this has begun to surface in her town as well. What follows are scenesof collective madness, chaosand people committingsuicide on the street. Jessica smashes her car and kills herself by stepping in front of a truck. Malorie attempts to flee the hysteria on foot.

RE VI E W

A Singular Vice

Credit: IMDb

Dick Cheney craved absolute power and that’s the story of his rise and fall in Adam McKay’s biopic, writes Sayantan Sarkar

ice is a dark, comic thriller about former US vice president Dick Cheney, one of the most controversial political figures in recent times. The movie has been nominated for the best picture award at this year’s Oscars. Christian Bale, who is also in the running for winning his second academy award, this time in the best actor category, once again physically transforms himself (as he did in American Hustle) to recreate the tubby, balding Dick Cheney in the flesh. Based on his real life, the film shows how Cheney used every opportunity that came his way to great personal advantage, to transform an otherwise ceremonial position into one of great power within the George W Bush administration. Director Adam McKay tells the tale shrewdly as he did in The Big Short (2015). There are several similarities in the way the two films are directed, from casting powerful and influential stars to the narration by Jesse Plemons (who plays the role of Cheney’s heart donor in the film). The film traces Cheney’s life, from when he’s kicked out of Yale to becoming CEO of Halliburton, a multinational corporation that provides oilfield services. On the way Cheney learns at the feet of masters of the universe like President

Nixon and later defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. His meteoric rise owed as much to his shrewdness as to his ability to take tough decisions. One of the consistent themes the film explores is the manner in which Cheney uses his position, whatever it might be at the time, to get everything he wants, quite unmindful of the consequences. It shows Cheney as an opportunist, which really describes the cast of characters who people the typical Republican White House (think of Trump’s cabinet). The film meanders along and struggles to engage the viewer through the first half, that is until Cheney becomes VP. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with US politics of that time knows that’s when the real action is about to begin.

hristian Bale who has made a habit of transforming his physique for the sake of the role delivers the kind of performance to convince the last sceptic that he’s the method actor of his generation. His demeanor and voice, everything changes with the role and what comes out is close to Dick Cheney himself. Amy Adams, who plays the role of Lynne Cheney, could have been used a lot more by McKay. She was reduced to a moral support for Cheney. The char-

acters of Rumsfeld and George Bush, played by Steve Carrel and Sam Rockwell respectively, add value on screen. Whenever they are on screen, the movie runs along at a fine pace. Rockwell presents an interesting yet a smart take on Bush’s character and Steve Carell plays Rumsfeld with precision. The movie shows how Cheney’s craving for power leads him to misuse his position to fabricate information and manipulate perfectly well-meaning people to support an unconscionable and strategically disastrous invasion of Iraq. During Bush’s presidential tenure, it was the vice president who held all the strings and he was central to the most momentous foreign policy decisions. A criticism that could be made about Vice is that the story doesn’t really add anything substantial to what is already known about the run up to the Iraq war and the false case the Bush administration made to prosecute it. Fascinating to watch, Vice is mainly a character post-mortem. It tries to analyse Cheney’s character to offer an understanding of his drives and motivations. Driven by powerful acting and a dark setting, Vice is a tale of Cheney’s desire for absolute power no matter what the consequences.

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REVI E W

Thalaiva Again

Credit: IMDb

Petta is more Rajni than anything else, says Sindhuja Michael and Sounak Das

t is an ineluctable fact that Rajinikanth is an actor par excellence. However, he can only fit into some specific kinds of roles. Karthik Subbaraj, the director, who, by his own admission, is a die-hard fan of Rajnikanth, understands this. And here lies the success of the movie. The film is very similar to the southern Megastar’s biggest box-office hit, Baashha and yet not a rehash of the same. Subtle variations arrest the attention of the audience and keep the film from turning predictable. Kaali, an elderly man, esayed by Rajnikanth, assumes the office of a hotel warden in a college and tries to set things right in his own jolly way. He helps make two hostelites Anu and Anwar, played by Megha Akash and Sanath, get romantically involved and courts the girl's mother, played by Simran. He also schools a group of rowdy boys in the college headed by Michael (Bobby Simha). But there is more to his character than is apparent. Before long, we find Kaali in Uttar Pradesh where he takes on Singhar Singh, the film’s antagonist, who is a right-wing politician, and his vicious son Jithu. Nawazuddin Siddique,

THE BEAT

as usual, is phenomenal in the role of Singhar Singh. However, sad as it may sound to his fans in the Hindi heartland, Rajni and Vijay Sethupathi (Jithu) garner all the attention of the audience. Siddique remains in the background. The success of Petta revolves around Rajni; and Karthik only has a small role to play, in spite of his being the director. But it would be rather unfair to disregard Karthik’s technical know-how and Tirru’s cinematography. They contribute immensely to Petta and make it the most visually-attractive Rajini film since Thalapathy. Also, people are elated when Rajnikanth is Rajni, the Thalaivar. People crowd cinemas to see him deliver his inimitable dialogues and monologues and indulge in Rajnisims. This sometimes gives the impression that the director is pandering to the tastes of fans and imploring the Superstar to showcase his style. In terms of romance, the scenes between Rajini and Simran are delightful. Petta has many references to the Thalaivar’s previous films, which are easy for an ardent admirer of his movies to

comprehend. Unnecessary to state here then, it makes the cinema halls go mad with frenetic cheering and deafening whistling. everal problems abound the film. For one, it is rather long with a running time of 172 minutes. Secondary characters and moments have been lavished with excessive treatment as can be seen in the college scenes. The story takes some time to unfold and reach a point of interest. A few of the songs, it should be admitted, inspire Rajni nostalgia in the audience. The antagonists lack the menacing touch as well. There is no social or philosophical message, as some critics complain. The film is driven by a desire to secure financial gain and nothing else, they allege. It has pocketed Rs 250 crore already as box-office revenue. Entertainment is the sole motto. Rajni’s punch lines, right from his first uttering to his final, all cater to populist sentiments. But, some interpret these dialogues as his disguised announcement to enter electoral politics and a way to establish an unbreakable connection with his fans.

G AL L E RY

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