IT training outlook TruePDF 25 march 2019

10 OUTLOOK 25 March 2019 Three young activists— Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani—had grabbed a fair bit of spot-light before, during and after the Gujarat assembly polls ov

Trang 1

RNI NO 7044/1961

DELHI SCHOOL REFORMS

PASS OR FAIL? A REPORT CARD

Afghan Cricketers

AT HOME, IN INDIA

March 25, 2019 Rs 60

HOT SPOTS

2019

Ground reports

on how India will vote

Trang 3

POINT AND SHARE

Now, open Outlook magazine on

your smartphone instantly.

Point your phone’s scanner on the

code and align it in the frame.

You will be guided instantly to our

website, www.outlookindia.com

This is useful to share our stories

on social media or email them.

Volume LIX, No 11

EDITOR Ruben Banerjee

MANAGING EDITOR Sunil Menon

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Satish Padmanabhan

FOREIGN EDITOR Pranay Sharma

POLITICAL EDITOR Bhavna Vij-Aurora

BUSINESS EDITOR Arindam Mukherjee

SENIOR EDITOR Giridhar Jha

CHIEF ART DIRECTOR Deepak Sharma

WRITERS Lola Nayar, Qaiser Mohammad Ali

(Senior Associate Editors), G.C Shekhar

(Associate Editor), Jeevan Prakash Sharma

(Senior Assistant Editor), Prachi

Pinglay-Plumber, Ajay Sukumaran, Probir Pramanik

(Assistant Editors), Naseer Ganai (Senior

Special Correspondent), Preetha Nair, Neel

Shah (Special Correspondents), Salik Ahmad,

Siddhartha Mishra (Senior Correspondents),

Arshia Dhar (Correspondent)

COPY DESK Rituparna Kakoty (Senior Associate

Editor), Anupam Bordoloi, Saikat Niyogi,

Satyadeep (Associate Editors), Martand Badoni

(Assistant Editor)

PHOTOGRAPHERS S Rakshit (Chief Photo

Coordinator), Jitender Gupta (Photo Editor),

Tribhuvan Tiwari (Deputy Photo Editor),

Sandipan Chatterjee, Apoorva Salkade

(Sr Photographers), Suresh Kumar Pandey

(Staff Photographer) J.S Adhikari (Sr Photo

Researcher), U Suresh Kumar (Digital Library)

DESIGN Saji C.S (Chief Designer), Ashish Rozario

(Design-consultant), Leela (Senior Designer),

Devi Prasad, Padam Gupta (Sr DTP Operators)

DIGITAL Neha Mahajan (Assistant Editor),

Soumitra Mishra (Digital Consultant),

Ranjana Narayan (Editorial Consultant),

Jayanta Oinam, Lachmi Deb Roy (Special

Correspondents), Ipsita Pati (Senior

Correspondent), Satata Karmakar (Correspondent),

Adil Rashid, Mahima Monga, Ritika Dubey

(Trainee Journalists),

Suraj Wadhwa (Chief Graphic Designer),

Rupesh Malviya (Video Editor)

EDITORIAL MANAGER & CHIEF LIBRARIAN

Alka Gupta

BUSINESS OFFICE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Indranil Roy

PUBLISHER Sandip Kumar Ghosh

SR VICE PRESIDENT Meenakshi Akash

VICE PRESIDENTS Bindu Dhawan,

Shrutika Dewan

SR GENERAL MANAGER Kabir Khattar (Corp)

GENERAL MANAGERS Debabani Tagore,

Sasidharan Kollery, Shashank Dixit,

Shailender Vohra

ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER

Diwan Singh Bisht

CHIEF MANAGER Shekhar Kumar Pandey

MANAGERS Shekhar Suvarana, Sudha Sharma

CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION Raj Kumar

Mitra, Anindya Banerjee, G Ramesh (South),

Vinod Kumar (North), Arun Kumar Jha (East)

DIGITAL Amit Mishra

For editorial queries: edit@outlookindia.com

For subscription helpline:

yourhelpline@outlookindia.com

OTHER OFFICES

MUMBAI Tel: 022-33545000; Fax: 33545100

CALCUTTA Tel: 033 46004506; Fax: 033 46004506

CHENNAI Tel: 42615224, 42615225; Fax: 42615095

BANGALORE Tel: 080-43715021

Printed and published by Indranil Roy on

behalf of Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt Ltd

Editor: Ruben Banerjee Printed at International

Print-O-Pac Ltd, C 4-C 11, Phase-II, Noida

and published from AB-10, S.J Enclave,

the break up of Gujarat’s young triumvirate, among other things

16 Calamities Whizz Past

News of an airborne tragedy can make us think about how safe the planes we fly in are Relax, they’re quite safe It’s just that the ‘near-collision’ data makes us feel uneasy

36 Inside Vote-Vault

For this exclusive package, Outlook starts from Gujarat and moves to other electoral hotspots across the country, measuring the mood of the individual voter, and the issues

52 Grading The Schools

How much transformation has really taken place in Delhi’s education system post AAP?

62 Doon HostsKabul Eleven

Kabul is still a precarious place for international cricket, so the growing talent

of the Afghanistan cricket team finds a home ground, and new fans, in Dehradun

OPPOVISION The Tricolour at a Congress rally in Gandhinagar, Gujarat

4 LETTERS 80 GLITTERATI 82 DIARY

Cover Design: Deepak Sharma and Ashish Rozario; Photographs: Suresh K Pandey

Vighnesh shahane

Managing Director & CEO,

Trang 4

MYSORE J Akshobhya: The

Pulwama attack by a youth brainwashed

by Pakistan-based terrorist group

Jaish-e-Mohammed proves beyond

reasona-ble doubt that Pakistan is run by a deep

State that uses terror in the way a rogue

dentist might use a drill: to deliberately

and precisely hit a nerve and cause

agony (From All Out War To Controlled

War, March 11) Terror for Pakistan’s

military-jihadi complex is a technology

fashioned over the decades Only now

does the ‘front’—the faux State

leader-ship under former-cricketer Imran

Khan talk of a dialogue This is because

Pakistan’s terror groups have now gone

out of hand, bringing the country to the

brink of war with India

In the meantime, Kashmir, caught

between two nuclear-armed nations, is

in a ruinous state A policy overhaul

reg-arding Kashmir is necessary, even if that

proves an embarrassment to Raisina

Hill Call them ‘martyrs’ or traitors, they

are all victims of New Delhi’s sustained,

callous, ineptitude

ON E-MAIL Vikram Dogra: We have

to remember that Pakistan has been

abetting and promoting terrorism in

India for the past 20 years before we

launch into any discussion about India’s

IAF strikes conducted by violating

inter-national airspace Pakistan has tried to

fan the fire of secessionism in India in

the cases of both Kashmir and Punjab

Therefore, we can’t be lax about any

bor-der-related issue We must completely

secure our borders with Pakistan in

Kashmir to stop mercenaries of a

Jaish-e-Mohammed or a Lashkar-e-Taiba

from crossing the border to abet local

militants Also, we need to have special

courts and laws to deal with terrorists

PERTH, AUSTRALIA Sanjiv

Gupta: The news of the successful

des-truction of terror camps in Balakot was

noteworthy But, winning a war against terrorism is going to be extremely diffi-cult, particularly when there are many militant organisations operative in Pakistan under military and government support Military and air supremacy over Pakistan is essential while keeping

it under fear by other measures like the recent air strikes Lastly, the safe return

of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman is India’s diplomatic victory

MUMBAI Ram Avadheesh: The weeks after Pulwama have been ext-remely tough for the armed forces, Kashmiris and the people living along the border But for the rest of us—living room Indians (I don’t mean it conde-scendingly), it has been an entertaining time The news on TV is full of gunpow-der: war masala The newsrooms are setup as battlegrounds—the CGI dep-artment of the news channels are work-ing overtime to get the whole fire and brimstone feel The news anchors have been shouting at the top of their voices

and also encouraging panellists to scream out loud It’s as if the war is hap-pening on TV It’s also a great time to go all-out ‘anti-national’ hunting, where anyone is licensed to ask any other citi-zens questions apparently related to their nationalistic credentials And if they don’t give you a satisfactory answer, then you can try your hand at a little bul-lying It’s like a festival of sorts On the streets, any group of men can get tog-ether and shout “Pakistan murdabad” among other things What’s wrong with that, one would ask Well, patriotism gives you a whole lot of entitlement to make anyone within sight anti-national Also, thanks to TV, Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed have become household names Hell, war and terror is the new saas-bahu for the time being

BANGALORE J Akshay: There are two ways to look at India’s airstrike across the LoC—as a vote-winning move by the BJP-led government, or as

a signal that India is no ‘soft state’ After days of anxious speculation during which, true to his style, PM Narendra Modi kept everyone guessing how India would respond to the Pulwama attack

on the CRPF, the country finally did what so many of us had advocated When Donald Trump said India was planning “something very strong”, most of us had a hunch Obviously, India could not mount a major offen-sive without taking the major interna-tional powers into confidence

SECUNDERABAD K.R Srinivasan: The suicide bombing of the CRPF con-voy on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Pulwama by Jaish-e-Moh-ammed, the true face of Pakistan PM Imran Khan has been exposed Indians are seething with anger and none of the patriots among them can forget the tragic deaths of our heroes, nor the mis-

Trang 5

ery inflicted by Pakistan and Kashmiri

separatists India had no option but to

strike back and teach our neighbour a

befitting lesson It is abundantly clear

that Pakistan lacks vision and cannot be

trusted Their state mechanisms have

been compromised long ago

Grievous Trial

VARANASI Jaideep Mittra: This is

about the story of a former IPS officer

driven to his death by the alleged

cussed-ness of the West Bengal government

(Heads Change, Cops Roll, Mar 11)

Police officers in general and IPS officers

in particular are supposed to

compulso-rily toe the line of the ruling

dispensa-tion Professional qualities of honesty,

sincerity and uprightness matter so long

as it suits the interests of the ruling party

and local politicians It’s relevant here to

recall the tragic case in which a SHO

posted in Bulandshahr district in UP was

shot dead It’s an example how servility

has grown in the force and emasculated

it thoroughly It’s no secret that top

of-ficers are favourites of some politician or

the other, so that a chief minister to a

state, after assuming office, chooses his

nominees for the offices of chief

secre-tary and DGP, men in whom he has full

confidence The IPS leadership has also

become ineffectual through its being

orga nised along party lines The bitter

truth is that only officers with a pliable

spine can survive in service beyond a

point, with upright officers consigned to

a life of shameless victimisation

Ulti-mately, these men, like Gaurav Dutt,

have to opt out by taking VRS

Unfor-tunately, Dutt had to face harassment

even after he had retired, forcing him to

take his own life The grave

conse-quences of the police being a

hand-maiden of the government of the day is being ignored by all political parties, pos-sibly because they all have a lot to gain from this noxious system

Dastan-e-Decade

ON E-MAIL Sandeep Krishna: Refer

to A Telegram From 009 (March 11) Ten

year challenges are fun Ten years back,

we wouldn’t even be doing a challenge like this Facebook was limited to college kids and middle-aged nostalgics, WhatsApp wasn’t known of and chirps were still sounds of birds and not rabble rousing 140 sorry, 280 characters

Listener’s Delight

BANGALORE Nandini Paul: This

refers to All You Need Is Radio Ga Ga,

your story on podcasts (March 11) The podcast is a thoughtful cozy thing, hold-ing its own in the age of crazy visual excess It’s comforting to just listen to long conversations and one can end up learning a lot as listening is a very focussed activity I also feel that several people are more relaxed while having their voices recorded rather than having

a video taken, which makes many super conscious Once upon a time, I found similar comfort in listening to the radio, but these days, the stations are so full of ads and frenzied RJs that it all ends up sounding very intrusive, unless all hope

is lost in a traffic jam Only the ment radio channels, the original pod-casts, seem to be holding their own

govern-Surgical Doves Needed

GOA M.N Bhartiya: Refer to the

inter-view of P Chidambaram ‘Confident That

NSA For MP Cow Slaughter Will Be Lifted’ (March 4) In it, his views on the

issues relating to Kashmir, the tion alliances, the Rafale deal and cow-vigilantes are commendable Indian and Pakistani leaders have never been sincere in finding a peaceful solution for Kashmir because politicians on either side have found enough fodder in the Kashmir issue to manipulate their res-pective publics The definitions of nat-ionalism and patriotism have been blurred to produce an emotional, deadly mix of jingoism from the common popu-lace I expect the Congress manifesto being prepared by Chidambaram to focus on saving the constitutional values

of India and the autonomous tions, which are under threat

institu-Waging Peace

AHMEDABAD Vinod C Dixit: This

refers to your cover story Kashmir

Periscope (March 4) The Valley has over

the years witnessed huge tions led by students and other young Kashmiris, including women, against the Indian government—proof enough that where there is a political will, there is always a way Both India and Pakistan must initiate a meaningful dialogue on Kashmir and with Kashmiri people, especially the young Their aspirations must be listened to and addressed

demonstra-letters

NO MORE Retired IPS Gaurav Dutt

The Tea Protocol

NEW DELHI Aalok Giri: This refers to

Cheating The Reaper, your story on ejection—

the last resort of fighter pilots (March 4) It can be said that Wing commander

Abhinandan Varthaman managed to cheat death twice in a span of minutes First, he ejected successfully from his aircraft that was shot down by the Pakistani air force Second,

he got out alive after landing in the khajoor—

a mob of villagers The Pakistan army graciously aided the wing der in his second escape, a commendable action, even though it seems it is int ernational protocol They served him a goodwill cup of tea too That’s surely not international protocol, although in several homes in India as well

Comman-as Pakistan it probably is Now, the tea-sipping Abhinandan with the robust moustache has become a symbol—he has featured in a tea adverstisement

I couldn’t help thinking how a Pakistani pilot would have fared had he fell

in Indian territory Given our reluctance to stop lynchings happening in broad daylight since the past few years, I wouldn’t have had high hopes for

a Pakistani flyer But how very much like a mirror is the LoC between India and Pakistan Lynchings in broad daylight happen there too I think the Indian army would have given a Pak pilot equal respect

INBOXED

25 March 2019 OUTLOOK 5

Trang 8

THREE days before the poll dates

were announced, the Chhattisgarh

unit of BJP got a new chief—

Vikram Usendi, a tribal face from

Bastar Will that help reverse the

for-tunes of a party whose washout in the

recent assembly polls was also marked

by a complete rejection in the two

major tribal-dominated reg ions of

Surguja and Bastar? (Of the 20

assem-bly seats they together constitute, it

managed to win only one seat.)

Lok Sabha poll dynamics can of course

be different—it’s a blend of local and

nat ional trends Chhattisgarh is a state

where both streams collide often There

is the Maoist problem, at one end, and

vital livelihood issues relating to forest

produce at the other Not to speak of the

Forest Rights Act and the recent

Supr-eme Court order on tribal evictions—

merely stayed as of now Chhattisgarh

has seen a massive amount of claims to

forest lands being denied—over half of

individual claims and a third of

commu-nity rights claims, according to a Scroll

report So that will inevitably play out

In the November assembly polls, the BJP had suffered a massive defeat against the Congress, which won 67 of

90 seats Usendi, though, is optimistic

“It’s true, we lost, but that was mainly due to anti-incumbency and a few other

factors,” he tells Outlook “And our last

government had worked edly for the people and I strongly feel the public has not forgotten our work.”

wholeheart-Usendi says people are not happy with the initial three months of Congress rule because it has failed to deliver on its promises—for example, no action on a liquor ban As for tribal disaffection, he says, “When we were in power, there were three ministers from Bastar, this government has appointed only one.”

Also, this is a vote for the Modi ment which, he says, is perceived as cor-ruption-free He echoed BJP chief Amit Shah, who on a recent visit said Maoists had thrived during Cong ress rule “If the Congress had taken dec isive action in the early days of Maoism here, things would have been different,” he adds

govern-And the BJP is seeking votes not only

“on the basis of the Centre's ment works,” but its security policies

develop-Currently the MP for Kanker, he was first elected to the undivided Madhya Pradesh assembly in 1993 from Naraya-npur In Chhattisgarh, he was MLA thrice from Antagarh between 2003-14 and also served as a cabinet minister O

Dravidian Druids

Our Man

in Bastar

Murasoli, the DMK’s off cial organ, shocked its readers when it carried an article

on March 8 titled ‘Amma vin Aavi Ungalai Vidaadhu’ (Amma’s spirit will not spare you) EPS and OPS, it says, won’t be spared the wrath of Jaya’s spirit for joining hands with the BJP to escape the many corrup- tion charges and I-T cases against them The piece adds how OPS— who had meditated at Jaya’s sama- dhi—had “complained to her spirit” about the injustice meted to him by the Sasikala family and initially rev- olted against EPS, but then hastily made peace just to be deputy CM The DMK proclaims to be rational- ist, and Stalin has faced flak from right-wing groups for being critical

of things Hindu No wonder, the Murasoli article, premised as it was

on spirits and their wrath, stun ned DMK supp orters Insiders say it was aimed at earning the sympathy of genuine Jaya admirers who feel let down by the AIADMK’s alliance with the BJP, which Amma did not accept

in 2014 The counter: the DMK is nervous about that burgeoning alliance, with the PMK et al “Maybe it’s time Stalin got reassured by Karunanidhi’s spirit,” said a wag.O

Trang 10

10 OUTLOOK 25 March 2019

Three young activists—

Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani—had grabbed a fair bit of spot-light before, during and after the Gujarat assembly polls over a year ago, with their oppositional politics creating ripples even beyond the boundaries of their state Thakor’s appeal may have been restricted to the large OBC seg-ment in Gujarat But Hardik, as the young spearhead of the Patel agita-tion, was seen as an iconic face for restive middle castes all over And

Mevani, as an articulate Dalit voice, was cre-ating a kind of natio nal impr-int for himself

But a lot of those swept up by their rhetoric are a disillusioned lot now—

with perhaps the exception of Mevani

Both Hardik and Thakor, 43, are seen as deserters to the cause they once espou-sed Owing to their mass appeal, they were all wooed by parties Thakor, who had founded the OBC-SC- ST Ekta Manch, joined the Congress bef ore the

2017 Gujarat polls and won from anpur But recently, the maverick leader kept the Congress on tente rhooks and openly negotiated with the BJP, admit-ting he wants to be a minister

Radh-The bigger eclipse in popularity may belong to Hardik, who is 25 now Too young to contest in 2017, he had kept up

a thin veneer of being independent, only consorting discreetly with the Congress

But he has now fallen to the lure of a GOP ticket, and has signed on, trotting out the usual lines about abiding by the party’s decision if “it decides to field me

in electoral politics.” Hardik had taken

up cudgels on behalf of the Patidar munity in 2015, demanding its inclusion

com-in the OBC list, drawcom-ing huge crowds with his forceful oratory The Patidars now say he has aba-ndoned them in favour

of a luxurious style, and moves around in a big car while their lot stays unchanged

life-Mevani, 36, rose into prominence as he led the post-Una agitation in 2016 He successfully conte-sted the assembly polls from Vadgam as

an independent supported by Congress and AAP The young Ambedkarite has desisted from joining a political party but the CPI’s national headquarters Ajoy Bhavan is his preferred address when he visits the Capital O

IT'S not just greying cricketers

who slip back into spanking

shape to draw the attention of

selectors before the World Cup

Come election time, even those

who had wandered off into a

semi-retired state suddenly

look to recharge their batteries

Take senior Congress leader S

Jaipal Reddy’s decision to join

the ‘Rafale scam’ chorus After

keeping himself aloof from

party activities, is it the

pros-pect of a ticket from his native Mahabubnagar that has revivi- fed him? Ahead of the recent assembly polls too, the 77-year- old Jaipal had claimed to have proof of a multi-crore irrigation scam against KCR and family

After a one-off press ence, nothing more was heard

confer-of that Why? Perhaps because all the talk of him being pro- jected as a possible CM candidate against KCR died a quiet

death (despite him sharing the dais with Rahul Gandhi once)?

Well, his latest sally has left younger party leaders, nursing their own ambitions, tetchy

“Where was he all the time when Rahul was spearheading the Rafale campaign? Who is

he trying to impress? He’s a dead horse and his return will only deny place to a youngster,”

says a ticket aspirant, who ferred anonymity.O

pre-Jaipal ‘Roars’ Again

Three (Ex-) Musketeers?

our Prime Minister

has great love and

pride in the Indian

from the region

can join the army.”

QUOTE

Trang 11

BY THE TWEEPLE

MIC CHECK

On December 11,

2018, the entire country was await- ing the big assembly polls results with bated breath But the EC website curiously shut shop for two full hours The reason was out

in the morning: the website sort of crashed as a Mizo- ram party's name had over

60 letters, the res erved number PRISM was registered on October 15, 2018, and someone clearly forgot

to add up the 62-letter name PRISM is in the fray again, with radical views (see p 27) Hope EC’s systems don’t go kaput again with a name that ticks more boxes than there are.

SundayTweeter

@SundayTweeter • Mar 11

Proudly Introducing Specially Designed

#NamoSaree for the Democracy's Biggest Festival, This

#Elections2019 Wear Your Pride and Shout Out

#AbkiBaarFirModiSarkar uniformsarees.in/products/ saffron-and-green-bharatiya-janata-party-uni- form-sarees …

The Congress will win all seven Lok

Sabha seats of Delhi on its own, says

state Congress chief Sheila Dikshit In

an interview with Preetha Nair, the

former (three-time) CM dismisses talk

of any truck with the AAP Excerpts:

There’s suspense over the

Congre-ss's proposed alliance with Aam

Admi Party (AAP) You met Sonia

and Rahul Gandhi this week Can

we expect a last-minute patch-up?

There will be no alliance and that’s

final There were some talks, but we

never accepted it AAP never

approa-ched us, at least certainly not me I

don’t know how the talk of an alliance

came about My meeting with Sonia

Gandhi wasn’t about that

Are you implying an alliance was

possible if AAP approached you?

I wouldn’t have kicked them out

any-way I don’t know how it would have

turned out…depends on the terms

But fact is, no one spoke to me

AAP was certainly eager… What’s stopping the Congress? Is it because AAP rose to power at your cost?

Not at all That happens in a democracy… Mr Kejriwal is misleading all of you He hasn’t said a word to me We are not looking for an alliance His is a small party, confined to Delhi Right now, his demand is to change the Constitution That’s Parliament’s job Who is

Congress will win all seven seats in Delhi

The BJP is ahead in terms of alliances

People are not going to vote for them just bec ause they have tied up with some parties

What has the BJP done in these years?

Inflation is up and there are no jobs This is what concerns people Has education become better? They’ve only done what’s already been done by Congress governments

A section in the Congress was said to be

pro-alliance Don’t you think the spat is a setback to Opposition unity?

I am not aware of any (pro-alliance) leaders

All parties in an alliance should respect each other Alliances are not easy

How do you see the Delhi-Centre tussle?

The government of the day has to go by the Constitution If the rule says police is not under Delhi, then it’s not We also wanted full statehood for Delhi, but never succeeded Till that happens, you have to go by the rules

You were CM for 15 years How was your lationship with the Centre?

re-We brought in the Metro during Vajpayee’s rule State and Centre have to work in tandem for the sake of the country O

T

N F O R I D E N T I T Y A N D S T A T U S O F M I Z O R A M ( P R I S M ) P A R

Y

JITENDER GUPTA

Trang 12

Range-Rovin' Lovin' Guv

Mrs Mandya?

by Ajay Sukumaran

by Naseer Ganai

THE late actor M.H

Ambareesh, who died

last November, was the

Rebel Star of Kannada

cin-ema—famous for his

ciga-rette-flip like his close

friend from across the

bor-der, Rajinikanth Now, it’s

his actress-widow

Suma-latha who’s creating a

splash Local Congressmen

in Mandya—the Gowda

heartland that lies

betw-een Bangalore and Mysore,

and a seat Ambareesh

once held—want her as

their Lok Sabha candidate

She’s never contested an

election before but her

husband was extre mely

popular in his home

dis-trict—one of his flm tit les,

Mandyada Gandu

(Mandya's Hero), had

bec-ome his defning epithet.

But as Sumalatha’s name

began circulating, it was

politics as usual “She’s

not even a Gowdathi,”

went one JD(S) leader,

pointing to her Telugu

roots The CM too

ques-tioned her contribution to

Mandya The JD(S) was

priming the seat for the political debut of Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil,

an upcoming actor His ent flm is a launch vehicle

rec-of sorts, with its dialogues about farmer distress The CM’s brother Revanna too stoked a controversy, asking why Sumalatha, who’s

in mourning, was so keen

on contesting elections.

The Congress has a ferce rivalry with the JD(S) in this Vokkaliga bastion, but

it can’t afford to antagonise

its ally, with whom it has a seat-sharing pact So ex-CM Siddaramaiah weighed in, saying the JD(S) has a natural claim on Mandya because it won here last time

There's talk that Sumalatha was sounded out on an alte- rnate seat (Mysore) that she wasn’t keen on "The people of Mandya came to me," she told Outlook "It's

an emotional appeal they made They see Ambareesh

in me, I didn't have the heart to say no." O

TOONOCRACY

Governor’s rule will continue in Jammu and Kashmir—the EC has found the state fit only for parliamentary polls The Nati-onal Conference, PDP and Con-gress—which had been rooting for simultaneous assembly polls—are naturally disappoin-ted, and call it “an abject surren-der to anti-India forces” But the governor’s administration seems happy enough with the status quo Governor Satya Pal Malik, it seems, is more interes-ted in getting himself a new Range Rover Officials say his office has moved a proposal on that to the finance department The file will have to vroom soon!

•A message for austerity is times still seen in these days of big, fat Indian weddings, requesting that

some-no gifts be showered on the ly-weds But Ashok Singh of Siwan Kala village, in Bihar’s Siwan district, has added a political twist to that As a wedding gift for his daughter, he merely wants guests

new-to vote BJP “To bless my daughter and in the interest of the country, please cast your votes in favour of

PM Modi,” reads the invitation card.

The Country’s Dulha

IRFAN

Trang 13

Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat

RUPEES SPENT FOR 1,168 ADS

Ran without disclaimer

1,01,60,240

Nation with NaMo

RUPEES SPENT FOR 631 ADS

52,24,296

MyGov India

RUPEES SPENT FOR 114 ADS

25,27,349

Dailyhunt App

` 22,19,395 Spent for 14 Ads

Bharat Ke Mann

Ki Baat

Ran with disclaimer

` 18,47,555 Spent for 388 Ads

Nation with NaMo

Ran with disclaimer

` 11,86,079 Spent for 443 Ads

Dailyhunt

` 10,94,011 Spent for 2 Ads

Great Learning

` 10,87,656 Spent for 16 Ads

MyGov India

Ran with disclaimer (pvt sponsor)

Bharatiya Janata Party

Ran with disclaimer

THE fact that the BJP has been

out-scoring its rivals on social media is

well-documented, but the latest

fig-ures released by Facebook show the

party is also out-spending them

signifi-cantly Recently, FB published an ‘Ad

Library report’, a database that “includes

ads related to politics and issues of

natio-nal importance”, as an effort to increase

“transparency” So how and

where does it stack up?

Well, some 900 million

Indians will vote in the polls

of 2019 And data portal

Statista estimates 294 million

Indians have FB accounts—

even if not all are of voting

age, this approaches

one-third, a huge subset, all of

2014’s winning voteshare in fact

The numbers boggle the mind Out of

the 2,500 pages FB listed data for, 35

pages had spent over Rs 1 lakh between

February 7 and March 2, barely a month

Of these 35 pages, 19 are affiliated with

the BJP and the central government and

have spent Rs 2.48 crore out of the total

Rs 3.30 crore In comparison, the only

pro-Congress page in the top 35,

Karnataka Towards Development (rank

11), spent Rs 6.2 lakh

How does all this pan out? “A post can

be boosted into an ad, though ads

with-out a disclaimer are stopped by Facebook

after some time,” Mayur Khatwani, a

digital marketer, tells Outlook He

expla-ins that a post reaches about 2.5 per cent followers “organically”, but “when you put in money, the post starts reaching both followers and non-followers on FB

You can define an audience and reach out to them, even if they don't follow you For Rs 90 you get 1,000 impressions, not unique ones though,” he adds Impr-essions are counted when a post is seen

by a user scrolling on his/her timeline

The top spender in the list, the pro-BJP

‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ (BKMKB), spent over Rs 1.2 crore in the period

(The top directly Congress-affiliated page in the list, ‘Amethi Rae Bareli ki Kahani’, ranks 48 and spent only Rs 78,306.) Now, BKMKB did not even exist before January 27, but already has 3.05 lakh followers at the time of writing, rak-ing in an average of 7,094 a day With an average spend of Rs 7,700 per ad, every post on the page would reach 85,000-plus accounts, according to the metric

‘Nation with NaMo’, the second- biggest spender at over Rs 64 lakh, which has been around since June 2013, has close to 1.3 million followers

A digital marketer who wishes

to remain anonymous says he spent Rs 13 lakh over 10 days for

a campaign, and managed to reach over one crore FB users

“By that metric, these guys are playing in crores I don’t think these are verified pages because legit ones are not allowed

to run their sort of campaigns,” he says

The crucial role of social media this time was evident in the barrage of ques-tions lobbed at the CEC on a Sunday aft-ernoon, and his response on social media platforms deploying fact-checkers to scan fake news “A lot of spending is done

by non-affiliate pages and it’s difficult for the EC to track them…most fake news and divisive content comes from them,"

says Shivam Shankar Singh, a political consultant who has worked with the BJP and written an account of that in his new

book, How to Win an Indian Election O

Trang 14

n Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

One of the largest mosques in the world, the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi came about due to the vision

of nation’s Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed This beautifully constructed monument is an oasis of calm and beauty, with 82 marble-clad domes whose inner circumferences are inscribed with verses from the

Quran, the largest hand-stitched

carpet in the world, cooling reflective water pools, and other architectural delights What really stuns, however,

is how the colours reflected on the dome shift from ivory to lilac as the moon waxes and wanes

n Yas Island

Prepare to be entertained at Yas Island, Abu Dhabi’s premier leisure destination At one end there is Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, an entertainment park boasting the fastest rollercoaster

in the world, and on the other, the real deal—the Yas Marina race circuit

Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi and Yas Waterworld are perfect for a day out with the whole family, and for retail therapy, the biggest attraction

is Yas Mall, which offers amazing shopping and dining experiences

n Louvre Abu Dhabi

A unique collaboration between France and Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017

The theme behind this architectural marvel is universality, celebrating the similarities in all human cultures The museum’s 12 galleries, or ‘chapters’, take visitors on a journey from the

world’s first civilisations to the modern day through a collection of over 600 artworks and artefacts In addition to the permanent galleries, the museum hosts four special exhibitions per year, and also offers a gift shop, a children’s museum and a café

n Qasr Al Hosn

Abu Dhabi’s latest attraction is coincidentally also the city’s oldest heritage site, the location of a watchtower built to protect the Bani Yas tribe settlement that appeared

on Abu Dhabi Island in the early 1760s With time, as the community expanded, a fort built out of coral and sea stones was constructed around the watchtower, and later, served as a home for the ruling family and a seat

of government This palace, known as Qasr Al Hosn, was once the heart of the city, and today has been restored and reopened as a museum narrating the history of the emirate Look out for the fascinating artefacts and beautiful audio-visual installations

n Abu Dhabi Corniche

Unlike Louvre Abu Dhabi or the Grand Mosque, the Corniche is neither a building nor a monument But when in Abu Dhabi, visiting it

is an important rite of passage The Corniche is an 8km waterfront road that stretches across Abu Dhabi’s most popular beach With expansive views

of turquoise waters, you can cycle along the promenade, go for a jog, enjoy a bite, or just relax on the beach and enjoy an authentic Abu Dhabi experience

Attractions In Abu Dhabi You Just Can’t Miss

5 Abu Dhabi—roughly translated to

‘land of the gazelles’—is a fascinating

and exciting destination The capital

of the United Arab Emirates is made

up of over 200 islands, and simply

narrowing down what to see here can

be a trying task Here are five

must-have Abu Dhabi experiences, according

to Outlook

14 OUTLOOK 25 MARCH 2019

Trang 15

visitabudhabi.ae

Trang 16

FLIGHT SAFETY

by Jeevan Prakash Sharma

YOU are sipping your coffee,

munching your nuts and

enjoy-ing the view of the world’s

high-est hump from your snug

win-dow seat when another jumbo

jet cuts right in front of your

flight The close call evidently angers

the pilot He gives the other plane the

finger, and ding: “Ladies and

gentle-men, this is your captain speaking If

you look out the right you will notice

flight 195 challenging us to a race I

have turned the fasten seat belt sign

back…enjoy the ride.”

Well, we made that up Your flights are

mostly uneventful, you arrive home safe

and sound, and nearly never get to know/

feel/see any near hit that your plane

might have been involved in Such events

simply go into the aviation records as

‘near misses’ and come out collectively as

an RTI reply from the Directorate

General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) One

such RTI response to Outlook says there

were as many as 47 near misses in 2018,

the highest ever in Indian skies That’s a

68 per cent increase in near misses

com-pared to the previous year

The second highest number was in 2016

when 32 near misses involving 64 planes

were reported The spike in 2018 has

alarmed senior officials in the civil

avia-tion ministry, aviaavia-tion regulator DGCA,

and the Airports Authority of India (AAI),

which controls air traffic and airports “If

we take an average figure of 150 fliers in

each aircraft, passenger capacity of which

varies between 125 to 400, the number of

lives at risk would be anywhere between

15,000 and 20,000,” says a DGCA source

The figures sound alarming, more so

About 20,000 fliers on 94 flights

A near miss is when two aircraft come so close that their safety is compromised

The safe distance between two planes flying in opposite directions is 40 seconds depending on their speed Similarly, the vertical distance of 1,000 feet is consid-ered safe But there is no safe zone as such

When two flights get too close, they are separated by a traffic collision avoidance

system (TCAS), a machine that every craft has these days The TCAS alerts pilots of the presence of close proximity traffic, meaning another plane How it works? Visualise this—a loud mechanical voice in the cockpit tells the pilot to “de-scend, descend ” A similar voice in an-other plane jetting from the opposite direction instructs the captain to “ascend, ascend ” Within seconds, the two aircraft change flight paths and avoid a collision That’s what the TCAS does

air-But this built-in safety system for airprox (short for air proximity) is an emergency approach The primary res-ponsibility of regulating planes in the sky is with air traffic controllers (ATC) Initial observations suggest they are at fault in the majority of close shaves In some cases, pilots either ignored the ATC command or misunderstood it For instance, in one case a pilot was instructed

to turn left but he did the opposite and came directly on another aircraft’s path.Aviation experts say lack of adequate controllers and system upgrade has been the biggest bane For instance, the new ATC tower, tallest in the country, being built at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi has missed several dead-lines since 2016 “We are going to start a parallel operation of the new ATC tower from April 1,” says Gulati, who admits that

THE SAFE DISTANCEBetween two planes is to be

Trang 17

another case, two planes in Bangalore airspace were just 250 meters apart and had the TCAS not acted on time and diverted them to a safe distance, they would have collided in 15 seconds Air safety expert S.S Panesar says most near misses would have led to collisions if the TCAS wasn’t invented.

There are also reports of a controller in Calcutta asking a Saudi Arabian airline’s pilot not to report a near miss on December 15 last year The pilot refused

to entertain the request The AAI says erring controllers are taken off the roster and sent to simulator training

It is learnt that aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola had instructed officials to take immediate and neces-sary steps to ensure air safety, but ex-perts doubt how much the bumbling bureaucracy can deliver The scepticism stems from attempts to hush-up details about near misses To put it in perspec-tive, Panesar wonders why data and details of probes by the Aircraft Acci-dent Investi gation Bureau are not available in the public domain Because, for fliers, what goes up, must come down and damn well better be able to go back up again O

3,173 controllers are available while the sanctioned strength is 3,449 It is hoped that 200 more will be recruited

Experts associated with aviation are not so optimistic They believe growing airspace congestion is the reason behind rising near misses Besides, controllers often work under pressure, handling 20

to 30 aircraft in a country with an annual traffic growth of 14 per cent “How much pressure the ATCs and ground inf-

rastructure can take?”

an official asks

“An overworked controller could misjudge a plane’s position and issue conflicting commands to pilots.” And then there are instances such as a con-troller in Nagpur was absent from her seat for five minutes in January 2018 without handing charge A colleague—also a controller, but unauthorised to handle area control—volunteered to step in It resulted in a close shave between two planes—one going from Samshabad to Raipur, the other from Dubai to Singapore

Thankfully the TCAS saved the day In Illustration by MANJUL

Trang 18

Type II diabetes is among the most widespread health

problems across the world’s population Though

individuals of all nationalities are reported to be

affected in large numbers by this growing ailment every

year, diabetes seems to have taken a special affection

towards Asian Indians Landscape of Indian lifestyle has

changed rapidly over the course of the past few decades,

and industrialization has been a major factor in remodelling

people’s way of life Swift shifts from a rural setting to an

urbane lifestyle tends to bring about changes in consumption

habits and bodily activity, which inadvertently offers more

scope for type 2 diabetes to grow

Like many other diseases, diabetes has a strong correlation

with your environment, prevalent lifestyle and genetic

composition Unfortunately, none of these factors favour the

Indian populace when it comes to acquiring the tendency of

contracting diabetes Our cultural dietary patterns do nothing

to ease the situation either Frequent consumption of a high

calorie, high fat and high sugar diet contributes in its own

unforgiving way towards acquiring diabetes, a condition we

already have a pretty strong genetic disposition towards Add

to this our enhanced insulin resistance, and it makes a “bitter-

sweet” recipe for disaster All of these factors combine to

result in an increased tendency for accumulation of visceral

fat which is further compounded by a lack of physical activity

urban lifestyle promotes, the end result being a sharp rise

in the number of cases of diabetes physicians witness every

year in the Indian population

Onset of diabetes forces the pancreas to produce little to

no insulin, and with a functional resistance towards whatever

little insulin the body does produce, it gets all the more

difficult to control levels of glucose present in the blood

stream Insulin primarily helps the body burn the excess blood

glucose to power cellular functions, bringing the increased

levels down to normal In diabetic individuals, however,

this insulin is either present in insufficient quantities or is

resisted by the body to allow its normal efficient functioning,

thus leading to a perennially increased blood glucose level,

causing extra stress on the liver to dispose of excess glucose

Diabetes, among other reasons, stems from the lifestyle we

have acquired these days There is strong evidence suggesting

a sedentary lifestyle and obesity to be major contributing

factors for type 2 diabetes Hence, the most logical way to

counter it is making necessary adjustments to lifestyle in order to make it healthier and more active Sustained obesity and diabetes actually have a co-dependent relationship, one almost invariably promoting the other, making it a vicious circle to break Diabetes also results in frequent metabolic imbalances, further increasing one’s chances of contracting several related conditions like tissue damage, hypertension, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome and heart disease etc

Lifestyle changes can help with keeping diabetes at bay

to a large extent Your efforts to thwart diabetes can also

be complimented very effectively employing Ayurveda, a time tested Indian medicinal system that proves immensely helpful in combating diabetes Natural herbs like Amra, Jamun, Gudmar and Karela etc., in addition to potent medicinal blends with the power of Ayurveda, prove adequately helpful in lowering body’s insulin resistance and regulating the level of blood glucose

While Ayurveda suggests which herbs can prove useful

to treat diabetes, it takes a master practitioner of Ayurvedic ways to perfect the right proportions, and derive just the right blend to arm the body with sufficient aid in the battle against diabetes Dabur has been practicing the age-old goodness of Ayurveda to success for decades now, having mastered both technique and administration over time Years of unrelenting pursuit Dabur has dedicated

to Ayurveda makes for an unmatched knowledge and unparalleled expertise in the field, which is abundantly evident in scores of Ayurvedic blends of unquestionable value produced by Dabur Glycodab is a prime example of such supplements developed over the years Available in the form of a tablet, Glycodab is infused with the power

of Ayush 82 powder, which has been certified by Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India

Diabetes is a condition with serious long-term implications for one’s health Though keeping it at bay may seem to take an immense effort, your journey to break the “bitter-sweet” fetters may well be complimented effectively by Ayurveda Preventive changes in lifestyle, aided by Ayurvedic goodness, can prove immensely potent to curb the growing instances of type 2 diabetes among Indians

Diabetes anD

inDians-A bitter- “sweet” relationship

18 OutlOOk 25 March 2019

Trang 20

FALSE CEILING

by Lola Nayar

BARRING a few states, the

mini-mum floor level of wages in India

continues to lag behind those in

most other countries including

neighbouring Nepal and China

One of the tasks before the next

gov-ernment would be to take a decision

on the recommendations of a new

committee that has suggested almost

doubling the minimum wage from Rs

176 per day to 375 per day (or Rs 9,750

per month) as of July 2018

This is to be irrespective of skills, sectors,

occupations and rural/urban locations

for a family comprising a 3.6 consump

tion unit It has also recommended an

additional Rs 55 per day, i.e Rs 1,430

monthly rent allowance (city compensa

tory allowance), for urban workers There

are currently many states which do not

even ensure Rs 176 per day as minimum

wages for casual and unskilled labour

The recommendations of the commit

tee appointed in 2017, which submitted

its report in February this year, are exp

ected to be taken up by the new govern

ment after the general elections in April/

May, along with the new wage code legis

lation that, among other things, seeks to

establish a single universal minimum

wage across the country Currently, apart

from the national minimum wage fixed

by the central government, several states

have announced higher floor levels but, in

most cases, failed to ensure compliance

“In recent years, Karnataka has looked

at ways of fixing minimum wages while

other developed states like Maharashtra

and Tamil Nadu have very low minimum

wages, not in keeping with the progress

in those states,” says G Xavier Estupinan,

ILO (International Labour Organization)

wage expert and a member of the govern

mentappointed expert committee

ILO’s contribution to

the report has been to give

exa mples of how other

countries have revised

their minimum wages It’s

common for minimum

wages to be revised every

year in most countries

“At the floor level, India

has the lowest minimum

wages, even in South Asia,”

says Estupinan, citing the

example of Nepal, which

has just revised its mini

mum wages, putting its national floor level higher than that in India

“Even the minimum floor level in China

is far higher now As the Chinese econ

omy grew, it was very conscious with regards policies on minimum wages, pushing each region to raise the floor level 1013 per cent.,” says Estupinan

Experts say that prescribing mini

mum wages gives workers bargaining rights But it’s difficult to say whether the current proposal will come into implementation, particularly in the private sector Himanshu, an associate professor of economics in JNU (Jaw a

harlal Nehru University) feels that the new report meets the criteria of sus

tainable minimum wages “The way they have calculated the levels may seem to be on the higher side, but if you study it closely, it keeps to the original formulation that we have had on calcu

lating minimum wages”

Himanshu shares the concerns

of other experts that

‘mandated minimum wages’, whether fixed by the Centre or by state governments, are not implemented in most states, or are limited only to people engaged

in government run programmes But even there, in most schemes, including NREGA, pre

scribed minimum wages norms have been violated

by many states for the last 78 years.Development expert N.C Saxena, feels the new report fails to address the issue

of gap between minimum wages and the actual wages being paid “Unless that gap

is bridged, a bare increase in minimum wages is not enough In fact, the proposal would be counterproductive as the budget for government run labour intensive programmes like PMGSY, NREGA, etc would not be doubled, so the total of work would get reduced,” says Saxena.Raghav Gaiha, a research fellow at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester, states that the methodology used for determining the minimum wage is conceptually and empirically flawed, and, if followed, could res ult in large distortions in the labour market Worse, instead of helping poor labourers, “these could hurt them badly”

“It’s not selfevident that the ‘fair’ minimum wage makes much sense in a labour surplus economy In the labour market, the actual wage is the outcome of the int erplay of supply and demand for labour If there are high and low wage states because of restrictions on migration of labour, these are remediable,” says Gaiha Virjesh Upadhyay of the RSSaffiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh says the proposed minimum wage is too low “It should be the same as what is fixed by the Centre, which is supposed to be a model employer The central government’s periodic wage revisions should be the norm across the country, with no difference urban/rural or industry,” he says O

Between The Slabs

The distance from ground reality to optimistic wage proposals

Apart from the Centre’s proposal, several states have announced higher floor levels but failed to ensure compliance.

It’s difficult to say if the current proposal will be implemented, particularly in the private sector.

PTI

Trang 22

NEARLY two centuries ago, the famed

mili-tary strategist Carl von Clausewitz wrote,

“War is the continuation of politics by

other means.” The aphorism continues to

guide strategic thinking the world over

Political will, above all else, contributes to

the decision of going to war And it is axiomatic

that responsibility for the outcome rests primarily

with the political leadership What is the fuss,

then, about politicising war for election gains?

The killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in

2011 was hailed in India and across the world

Then US president Barack Obama took credit for

the operation and won his re-election campaign in

2012 Similarly, George W Bush campaigned for

re-election in 2004 on the record of having

dep-osed Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003

Victory in war, however, does not automatically

guarantee a win in an election In July 1945, when

Nazi Germany was defeated and Japan was nearing

collapse, Winston Churchill’s Conservative Party

lost the general elections despite the allied victory,

yielding a landslide win to the Labour party

In India, war has not been a major influencing

factor for elections in the past The 1947-48 war

with Pakistan commenced immediately after

ind-ependence and had little impact on the first

gen-eral elections, as the political landscape was

hardly competitive The war against China

com-menced in October 1962, eight months after the

general elections in February And the 1965 war

with Pakistan happened two years before the 1967

general elections Even though the government’s

popularity increased after India prevailed in the

1965 war with Pakistan, but two wars in quick

succession—1962 and 1965—had stressed the

economy The government’s economic

perfor-mance and rift within the Congress led to the

party failing to secure two-thirds majority

Similarly, despite the dramatic win against

Pakistan in the 1971 war under the leadership of

Indira Gandhi, other events overtook the next

general elections in 1977 and a non-Congress

government came to power for the first time

Even in the context of limited war such as Kargil

(1999) and terrorist attacks like 26/11 in Mumbai

(2008), the impact on elections does not seem to

be particularly significant The Kargil war took place under a caretaker BJP-led government The run-up to the war witnessed some vicious political one-upmanship, before the parties chose to get their act together The eventual success was not among the critical factors that determined the outcome of the 1999 general elections, held within

a few months of the war And, even though the then UPA government decided to not respond militarily to Pakistan after 26/11, the Congress-led alliance came back to power in the polls held five months later in 2009

Even though war has not been a key determinant

of victory in elections earlier, other matters of national security like defence procurements have

in the past had a decisive effect—the charge of kickbacks in the Bofors gun procurement led to the defeat of the Congress in 1989 Attempts by the Opposition to make the Rafale fighter aircraft procurement the game-changer for 2019 contin-ues, though no scam has been established so far

The situation is changing fast for the 2019 parliamentary elections, and indications so far are that national security would be a central issue The narrative has expanded from ‘econom-ics of military procurement’ to the ‘theatre of military operations’ The Pulwama attack wit-nessed 130 crore Indians rallying together in what could be best described as a modern mani-festation of the classic Clausewitzian connection, between the primary trinity of passion, chance and reason, with the secondary trinity of people, military and government

Having demonstrated political will, decisive military action and effective diplomatic measures, two times in quick succession, after Uri and Pulwama, the BJP-led government considers it important to publicise its actions Post-Uri, they reaped the benefit in the 2017 UP assembly elec-tions and hope to do so again in the general elections The political unity seen in Pulwama’s immediate aftermath perhaps could not survive the pressure of impending elections, with the Opposition accusing the government of “blatant politicisation of the sacrifices of the armed forces”

and “creating an atmosphere for war”

The political slugfest over the impact of the air

WAR AND POLLS MAKE A VOLATILE MIX

We need regulations that safeguard national security during po litical campaigns by preventing military operations from being drawn into the arena

LT GEN (RETD)

SUBRATA SAHA

War has not been a big factor influencing election outcomes

in the past

But that is changing fast for the

2019 polls.

WAR RHETORIC OPINION

Trang 23

strikes and the aerial combat with Pakistan tinues In the process, military operations are getting drawn into the political arena, endanger-ing security and exposing the nation to adversar-ies Even family members of slain soldiers are not being spared from the bitter political vortex The media hype is also not helping This must change.

con-NATIONAL security and war stand distinct

from other election issues because of their immense potential to unify people and pro-ject strong leadership The challenge for the Opposition is to contest the incumbent without getting decried for being anti-national There are two dangers—acrimony in political discourse, and the risk of stoking excessive enthusiasm for war

Elected leaders, whether from the ruling party or from the Opposition, may have an electoral incen-tive to rabble rouse, but they also have a responsi-bility to keep the nation secure

In order to balance rights and responsibilities, three issues should be uppermost First, more than the concern for politicising war, it is impera-tive that the armed forces are kept apolitical The Election Commission has taken an immediate measure by reiterating its 2013 instructions, of

not associating photographs of defence personnel and activities with election campaigns This embargo must be app-licable for any political event, irrespec-tive of whether it is election time or not Similarly, armed forces personnel should be directed against participat-ing in any event organised or spon-sored by political parties

Second, reckless discourse on tary capability and operational details needs to be curbed This would, on the one hand, need regulations and, on the other, education for the legislators and the media While heroes and wins are glamourised, there is an obvious dis-tinction between a sports field and the battlefield Raising awareness on nat-ional security, military operations and diplomatic affairs among the political leadership is of paramount importance and needs to be institutionalised

mili-Third, we need policy safeguards to keep the cess of modernisation and capability development

pro-of the armed forces free from political controversy and procrastination It is imperative to achieve a larger buy-in for strategic decisions and, at the same time, preclude the necessity for retrospective scru-tiny The Parliamentary Committee on Defence, which cuts across party lines, could be empowered

to scrutinise major procurement decisions and be the voice in Parliament, to communicate the right message, keeping in mind security sensitivities.National security and war lie within the spec-trum of human interests and activities in which electoral politics operate It would be nạve to expect decisions and outcomes to be kept out of the human quest for inquiry, glory, credit or discredit, particularly so during election time However, just as there are international laws to govern armed conflict, there is also a need for regulations to safeguard national security during political campaigns O

(The writer is former deputy chief of army staff and Kashmir corps commander, and currently member, National Security Advisory Board

Views expressed are personal.)

WAR AND POLLS MAKE A VOLATILE MIX

We need regulations that safeguard national security during po litical campaigns by preventing military operations from being drawn into the arena

NO-GO ZONE

A pro-BJP gathering with the downed and returned IAF pilot’s image

on a banner

The ECI has reiterated that photos

of defence personnel and military activities cannot be associated with poll campaigns.

PTI

Trang 24

A new year marks the beginning of new missions and accomplishments Last year, we had some of our biggest and the most challenging projects come alive We were recognised as one of the leading private companies of 2018 This year, our vision for BRS Ventures has only gotten bigger We are humbled by our

partners’ belief in us This only adds additional responsibility to our shoulders

In 2018, some of our noteworthy achievements included the following: we established Finablr - theholding company for our financial services business; NMC continued to scale greater heights; launched BRLife's new state-of-the-art hospital - BR Life SSNMC in Bengaluru, India; started a new school - BrightRiders School in Dubai Investment Park, UAE; Neopharma acquired pharmaceutical factories in USA andIndia; Royal Catering began operations in Dubai and Saudi Arabia; and we acquired Assam Tea Company

in India

While last year turned out to be a first of many kinds, new businesses, new sectors, new geographies; this year will be a year to focus on growing these businesses Our commitment will be to ensure that we nurture each of our entities with the required care resulting in their optimum growth and development

2019 will be celebrated as the 'Year of Tolerance' in UAE We welcome this with open arms, as our company is home to multinational talent working across the globe There could not be a better time to be

promoting the rich values of intercultural harmony with our organisation

This year, we commit to enhancing the value of our work across our Healthcare, Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals, Education, Hospitality, and Environment verticals All of this will be possible only with the active engagement and able support of our valued employees We would like to re-emphasize our company's culture based on values of honesty, ambition, teamwork, alliance, humility and social responsibility We strongly believe in a culture where we work with passion, are dedicated to our

consumer's requirements, and deliver results in an ethical manner

The Dr BR and CR Shetty Foundation was officially launched in 2018 With this, we pledged to better the

lives of people around us

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Trang 25

Dr B R Shetty : A name etched in the sands of time

This is an account of an amazing journey of a man who decided to carve his footprints in the sands of time literally and figuratively This is the incredible story of a man who had the strength to believe that he would succeed in an unknown land and also bring that success back to his homeland

Dr Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty was a clinical pharmacy graduate who served as the Vice Chairman of the

Municipal Council in the small town of Udupi in Karnataka, India He moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in

1973 to clear loans back home In the UAE, he became the country’s first medical representative Dr Shetty noticed the huge opportunity for quality healthcare at an affordable cost in the UAE

In 1975, he set up the now famous New Medical Centre (NMC), a pharmacy cum diagnostic clinic chain It also helped that Dr Shetty married a doctor, Mrs Chandrakumari Shetty In partnership with her, he set up a full-fledged hospital in the region Today, NMC is the UAE’s largest private healthcare provider and is the first healthcare

company from the region to be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)

The Journey to Middle East

Varied Businesses in his Armour

Dr Shetty is not the kind of man to rest on his laurels Dr Shetty is the kind of man who loves to integrate his business with related ones: organically or inorganically This drove him to launch Neopharma to manufacture quality drugs for patients in the UAE There were two challenges in this business; one, he had to set up the

manufacturing unit on barren land and secondly, he had to borrow money from Bank of Baroda, an Indian bank,

as he had no lenders Today, Neopharma is a leading contract manufacturer for renowned companies like GSK, Pfizer, Merck and Biocon

Serving the Homeland

BR Life, a healthcare services brand launched by Dr BR Shetty, owns superspecialty healthcare facilities in India, Nepal, Egypt and Afghanistan The company stands on his strong principle of giving back to the home country

BR Life is headquartered in Bengaluru and plans to have a presence across India and the Indian subcontinent soon,

by operating either the completely owned Greenfield initiative or Brownfield initiative under the O&M model

At present, BR Life operates four hospitals in India—BR Life SSNMC Superspecialty Hospital in Bengaluru, BR Life Kalinga Superspecialty Hospital in Bhubaneswar, BR Life SUT Pattom Superspecialty Hospital in Trivandrum, and

BR Life Mother and Child Hospital in Udupi Recently, BR Life has also acquired two hospitals in Afghanistan

Dr Shetty’s strong sense of philanthropy and community service have prompted him to take over an existing government hospital for mother and child in Udupi He has constructed a new 200-bed hospital in the same premises, which offers completely free top-class medical care to the underprivileged people of the region

Carrying forward the legacy

Guided by his father’s experience and expertise in business and powered by the spirit of the current generation,

Mr Binay Shetty is taking forward his father’s legacy He has worked with different entities of BRS Ventures for more than a decade and is now the Vice Chairman and CEO of BRS Ventures Like his father, Binay is also a keen

participant in various social, philanthropic and community activities Binay is determined to tread the path thathis father has taken for success—a relentless pursuit of commitment through a disciplined and ethical approach

to business

Trang 26

by Naseer Ganai in Srinagar

PEOPLE associated with the Jam

aateIslami Jammu Kashmir, a

registered political party with

over eight lakh members, have

been on the run since the Febru

ary 28 Union home ministry notifica

tion declaring it an “unlawful” ass o

ciat ion under Section 3 of the Unl awful

Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 Cit

ing act ivities “prejudicial to internal

security and public order”, with the

“potential of disrupting unity and int e

grity”, the ban followed a crackdown

on Jamaat members coinciding with

growing IndiaPakistan tensions

A police officer says there has

been no FIR with such char ges—

“not even an intelligence diary

entry”—since the Jamaat dec la

red it was not in favour of armed

insurgency in 1998

This is the third ban in the history

of the organisation founded in 1942

Besides the Jamaat head office and

all its sub-offices, a number of

houses of Jamaat workers have

been sealed “A revenue officer

came with the police to our house

last week and sealed it,” says a

worker’s son in uptown Srinagar

“Then they called my father to the

police station, from where he was

sent to Srinagar central jail.”

“The ban has become a poll issue

for every party and the first thing

any elected government would do

is lift the ban,” says a police officer

Indeed, from former CM Omar Abdullah

of the National Conference to former bureaucrat Shah Faesal, the entire Kashmiri mainstream has made this demand Omar condemned the sealing

of the Jamaat-run mosques and schools, all registered with the government and following the prescribed syllabus “I was called by the police and they took my home address,” says the principal of one such school in Srinagar

“Why is the Centre so uncomfortable with the Jamaat?” asks former CM Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP “Rad-icalised Hindu groups are given carte blanche to spread misinformation and

The Jamaat ban in J&K has drawn flak in the

Valley as an assault on Kashmiri civil society

‘Unlawfully’ Jamaat

vitiate the atmosphere But an tion that has worked tirelessly for Kashmiris is banned Is being anti-BJP anti-national now?” Following the reac-tion of the regional parties, governor Satya Pal Malik accused them of sup-porting violence and separatism

organisa-Founded by a Kashmiri, Maulana ud-Din, the organisation separated from the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in 1953 as the J&K Jammat considers Kashmir a ‘dis-puted territory’ and seeks resolution through the right to self- determination The first ban came in 1975 during the Emergency because of its opposition to the accord between then PM Indira Gandhi and J&K CM Sheikh Abdullah And in April 1979, mobs allegedly associ-ated with the National Conference launched violent attacks on the Jamaat

Saad-to protest the hanging of former Pakistan

PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

In 1990, when armed actions backed by mass uprising started in the Valley, the largest indigenous militant organisation, the Hizbul Mujahideen, called itself the Jamaat’s ‘military wing’ Elders in the Jamaat such as Qari Saif-ud-Din opposed the armed movement, but many others supported it actively The Jamaat was banned a second time, followed by the killing of hundreds of its activists in the mid-1990s by the Ikhwan, the illegal counterinsurgent force comprising surrendered militants

In 1997, the Jamaat openly tanced itself from the armed org-anisations, leading to accusations from the pro-freedom camp of being sympathetic towards Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s People’s Democratic Party In fact, police officers agree that the Jamaat has stayed away not just from the armed movement, but also from all agitational politics It sus-pended Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Ashraf Sehrai from its basic membership In its latest statement, the Jamaat has reiterated that it is not part of any

dis-of the factions dis-of the Hurriyat Conference, challenging the state administration or the intelligence agencies to cite a single example showing its involvement even in peaceful agitation O

CRACKDOWN

STOP IT! Kashmiri civil society has come out vociferously against the ban

“An organisation working tirelessly for Kashmiris was banned, while radical Hindu outfits are not.”

Mehbooba Mufti

Former J&K CM, PDP

“In a democracy, ideas ought to be fought, not banned

The Jamaat is a socio-religious and political outfit.”

Sajad Lone

Peoples Conference

PTI

Trang 27

NOTE OF DISSENT

by Abdul Gani in Guwahati

MIZORAM presents a curious

picture of a state at peace with

itself and yet finding ways to

disturb the narrative in the

most radical manner Ever

since the Mizo Peace Accord was

signed in 1986—that ended a violent

uprising for secession from India—the

tiny state in India’s Northeast has been

an enduring image of peace in a region

rife with militancy A new Mizo

politi-cal party is now seeking to contest the

forthcoming general elections on the

issue of secession And it intends to

take their cause right to Parliament,

provided it can win the lone Lok Sabha

seat in the state

But leaders of the People’s Repre

sentation for Identity and Status of Mizo

ram (PRISM) would know that the “idea”

is not too controversial for the Mizos

This January, when the state was roiled by

the nowlapsed Citizenship Amendment

Bill, protesters carried banners and plac

ards that proclaimed the people’s anger

against the controversial bill “Hello

China, ByeBye India”, one of the banners

had said in Aizawl

PRISM president Vanlalruata says that

the move will be a democratic process

“For our party, the citizenship bill is the

main issue So, we will try and bring a

right to secession bill in Parliament to

oppose the CAB,” Vanlalruata tells

Outlook The bill, passed by the Lok Sabha,

lapsed after the Centre did not table it in the Rajya Sabha following widespread protests across the Northeast The bill aims to facilitate Indian citizenship to nonMuslims from three neighbouring countries However, a majority of the people and even regional parties, includ

ing Mizoram’s ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), had opposed the bill, saying

it would threaten the demography of the region which is already burdened with

“lakhs of migrants” from East Pakistan and now Bangladesh

BJP leaders, including party president

Amit Shah, have said that the bill will be reintroduced if the party is voted back

to power in the Centre A leader of the Young Mizo Association, an influential group, says the central government was taking the people of the state for granted “We have submitted multiple representations to the home minister, the prime minster and the joint parliamentary committee on the bill, but they don’t want to listen to our feelings It means the people of Mizoram are not taken into consideration by the Union government If that’s the case, we are also not interested in being Indian citizens We better be with China, where the people belong to Mongoloid tribes like us,” an YMA leader says

The Northeast, including Sikkim, sends

25 members to the Lok Sabha Assam has the most number of seats—fourteen Political commentators believe that the people as a whole are opposed to the bill and the PRISM’s move was just an extension of the anger “Political parties and civil society are collectively against the bill So, that is the status Actually, it indicates that the deep angst against the bill has brought out all these stuff,” Prof Jangkhongam Doungel of Mizoram

University tells Outlook

Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika says PRISM’s agenda is illegal “The Constitution says sovereignty is not negotiable They can’t, in any manner, deviate from that,” Hazarika says O

Through the Mizo PRISM

A political party will contest the Lok Sabha polls on the agenda

of secession from India

“We will bring a right

to secession bill in Parliament to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Bill.”

Trang 29

Presenting sponsor Associate sponsors Supported by

Trang 30

by Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar

IT was touted as a scheme that would

sweep away all the accumulated

resentment and anger among

farm-ers, who comprise nearly 70 per cent

of Odisha’s population, and ensure a

resounding victory for the ruling BJD

Two and a half months down the line,

the curiously named KALIA (Krushak

Assistance for Livelihood and Income

Augmentation) scheme has run into

rough weather with charges of

irregu-larities and malpractices in the

selec-tion of beneficiaries

Sample this Kabiraj Pachalasingh of

Garlagudi village in Rayagada district

figures seven times in the first list of

ben-eficiaries for transfer of the first tranche

of assistance worth Rs 5,000 Pravat

Samal of Kendrapara district’s Bhuinpur

village appears in the list 11 times, with

his father’s name mentioned as Nakul

Samal eight times and NA (not

availa-ble) thrice In one entry, the father’s

sex too is NA! Perusal of voter lists

confirms these are not cases of different

persons with the same name, and one

estimate puts the number of such

dupli-cation at 10,942

The first list also includes spouses or

relatives of several ministers, former

ministers and ruling party MLAs—for

example, the brother, sister-in-law and

two sons of Pradeep Maharathy, former

agriculture minister and BJD MLA for

Pipli All hell broke loose with the

gen-uine beneficiaries gheraoing panchayat

offices and a spate of reports in the

local media “In an exercise involving

lakhs of people, there may have been a

few discrepancies here and there, but this is only a draft list,” agriculture secre-tary Sourav Garg had said at the time

“We will correct these anomalies in the final list after scrutiny.”

Unfortunately for the government, while the revised list did away with most duplicate names, many dead people still figured in it, casting doubt over the credi-bility of the exercise The government’s constantly varying claims about the total number of beneficiaries have also raised eyebrows When the scheme was launched on December 31, 2018, the gov-ernment had said it would benefit over 60 lakh farmers The figure was 50 lakh in the hoardings put up to publicise the scheme, and at the last cabinet meeting, which approved the inclusion of 10 lakh

landless farmers in the list, the total was pegged at 45 lakh But the first instalment has already been given out to about 37 lakh farmers!

Questions are also being asked about how the government computed the number of share-croppers and landless agricultural workers “The proposed share-croppers’ Act has been put in the cold storage because the government has not been able to draw up a list What then

is the basis of the list of such farmers for inclusion in KALIA?” asks senior journal-ist Akshaya Sahoo After these discrepan-cies became public, the list of beneficiaries vanished from the government website for a while, only to reappear later

After weeks of dilly-dallying, the state government sent a list of 12.40 lakh pro-spective beneficiaries to the Centre for inclusion in the PM-KISAN scheme some time ago But with the Centre find-ing over three lakh names ineligible after verifying their Aadhaar details, the state

is procrastinating in submitting the revised list “The Centre has not informed

us why the names have been removed,” says agriculture minister Sashi Bhusan Behera “We will be in a position to coop-erate only after the Centre clarifies the grounds for exclusion.”

BJP vice president Samir Mohanty, however, says the state government is sitting over the list as it fears the BJP-led Centre may “get credit” for it Amid the pre-election charges and coun-ter-charges between parties, the real problems of farmers—lack of irrigation, access to cheap credit and avenues for marketing, and inability to sell paddy at the Rs 1,750 per quintal MSP announced by the Centre—have taken

a backseat No farmer wants to miss out on the dole, but whether KALIA would ensure a BJD win, as was exp-ected when it was launched, is now a moot question O

Bloated KALIA List

Odisha ‘game-changer’ scheme is beset with irregularities

DOLE PINCH

CM Naveen Patnaik flags off the KALIA campaign vans

SANJIB MUKHERJEE

Trang 32

Normally, a discipline is either a science or an art But

architecture has the rare distinction of being both an

art and science While architecture was a skill retained

by certain communities during ancient times, it was the

British who introduced formal education in architecture

in India, as we know today Their primary objective was to

produce assistants for British projects in India It is said that

the aim of education is to inculcate and preserve culture

It has to be said that the British-started education of

architecture schools and curriculum, fell short when it came

to tackling designs and structures, once they were gone

Later, the entire architecture study was governed by Council

of Architecture or COA It was this body that set forth all the

requisite norms and conditions pertaining to the study of

architecture in our country Though the colleges have the

freedom of choosing 25% study periods, very few schools

respond to region-specific requirements

Landscape architect: On a normal level, an outdoor

architect is involved in developing infrastructure, public

spaces, urban forestry and agriculture They work both in

tandem to improve and restore both urban and rural spaces

This branch of architecture is about working with nature,

environment restoration and recreational areas So if one

enjoys such jobs, then it is ideal for such young budding architects

Entrepreneur: In India, there are quite a few top architects who run their own firms and very successfully The common areas between an architect and an entrepreneur include problem solving, creative thinking and the art of persuasion.Political architecture: Some feel that architecture is political by nature Many feel that it is more than creating beautiful objects, the discipline has value in organizing society In certain cases, architecture firms create a set of criteria for the evolution of the city In which case, it is about architecture influencing politics, instead of the other way round

Other jobs that an architect’s repertoire can include: urban planner, restoration architect, research architect, lighting architect, political architect, extreme architect, artist, industrial designer, furniture designer, textile designer, graphic designer, video game designer, photographer, production designer, teacher/ professor, philanthropist, politician, conservationist, writer among others In all, being a multi-dimensional discipline, the students of architecture can take up a variety of subjects to put their skills to practical use

Arch of Success

Trang 33

Campus: Dontanapalli, Shankerpally Road, Hyderabad

Autonomous Institution Accredited by NAAC with ‘A+’ Grade

S Ÿ Pass in 10+2 scheme of examination with 50% marks in MPC Eligibility

and also 50% marks in aggregate OR

Ÿ Pass in 10+3 Diploma Examination with Mathematics as compulsory subject, with at least 50% marks in aggregate.

Ÿ In addition to the above, Pass in National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) conducted by Council of Architecture (COA) OR

Ÿ Pass in Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main – Paper II (B.Arch) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

4 Excellent interface of international

and national teaching / practising

architects of repute

4 State-of-the-art Infrastructure

4 Avant-garde Curriculum

4 Industry, faculty, student interface

by way of workshops and seminars

4 Well equipped modern Library &

Computer labs

4 Summer Internship Programs

4 Study Travel Documentation

www.ifheindia.org/isa/

Trang 34

The ICFAI School of Architecture (ISArch)

is a constituent of the ICFAI Foundation for

Higher Education ISArch was established

in 2018 with the approval from Council of

Architecture (COA), New Delhi

ISArch, offers five year full-time

Bach-elor of Architecture (BArch) Program which

trains the students to emerge as

profes-sional architects

The uniqueness of the BArch Program

at ICFAI School of Architecture lies in its

ap-proach towards bridging the gap between

academia and industry The

workshop-based hands-on education will help make

students market-ready, so that they can

handle real-time projects Each workshop

exercise has an expert in theory and various

practicing architects guiding the students

to realize their ideas for practically

imple-menting them

ISArch strongly believes in all round development of the students, along with providing self-development learning op-portunity and projects to make them pro-fessionally competent ISArch facilitates extracurricular and co-curricular activities through outdoor and indoor sports and various student clubs into well-rounded personalities

In fact, two areas that give the program extra points are:

• Internship programmes:

One would wonder how internship programmes will be ISArch included summer internships in all semesters help students to develop skills in architecture and its associated areas

• Global exposure to students:

Faculty members from internationally acclaimed universities are invited to conduct workshops and interact with students The students are guided to

be placed in renowned architectural firms both in India and abroad

ISArch also assists the students to enhance the skill sets of students by conducting workshops in soft skills, mock interviews,

Architecture is no longer an isolated

pro-fession limited to buildings and build

environment The pressure on the finite

resources is creating conflict between man

and nature Today’s architects have huge

responsibility on them to address the

multi-faceted problems

The 5-year B Arch flagship program is

approved by the Council of Architecture

The teaching and learning pedagogy of the

School is an integrated process of directed,

experiential, hands-on, reflective and

in-dependent learning The program forms a

progressive sequence of 10 semesters with

‘connected experiential learning’

Vision

To be a recognized maker-centric school of

architecture where creative and competent

professionals are honed to be socially and

ecologically relevant, and become humane

global citizens

Mission

l Attract and retain well-qualified

full-time faculty with skilled architectural

l Develop and operate mutually

beneficial programs with architectural professionals and organizations

l Create necessary framework for the faculty and students to engage

in professional competitions, assignments and research

l Engage with building industry, civic bodies and general public to work towards addressing the civic issues of Bengaluru city and its environs

l Create mechanisms to understand and address societal problems to make a positive impact in social, economic and ecological terms

l Create necessary online and offline information infrastructure

Maker-centered learning is the core approach and emphasis is on the following:

o Maker-centered learning tries to encompass the identity and practice of being a ‘Maker’, universal and core to human identity

o The salient strengths of maker-centered learning include and not limited to Character Building, Failure positive attitude, empowerment and enabling, developing sensitivity, risk taking and a problem-solving approach

o The maker-centered learning intends

to make the workshop, studio and

CMR University , School of Architecture

The ICFAI School of Architecture

Eligibility:

(I) Pass in 10+2 with 50% marks in Physics,

Chemistry and Mathematics and also 50% marks in aggregate

(OR)

Pass in 10+3 Diploma Examination with Maths as compulsory subject, with a tleast 50% marks in aggregate

(II) Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA)

conducted by Council of Architecture (COA)

a In the qualifying examination

b Personal Interaction with the program faculty and/ or written test

c Pass in 10+2 with 50% marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics and 50% aggregate

d NATA/ JEE Mains paper II for B.Arch.Candidates who are shortlisted will be called for admission counselling

classroom to become an integral part

of the design process

o The end user becomes an integral part

of the design process in the centered approach

maker-o The maker-centric approach involves

an inter-disciplinary approach of bringing together various stakeholders resulting in the entire design process that is inclusive, simplified and efficient

o The Maker-centered approach of learning to see closely’ engages and empowers to connect systems from nature to address problems of the built environment

o Identifying, seeing the potential, learning from other systems to be able

to apply in a new context is one of the hallmarks of maker-centric learning.For Maker-centered the School has incorporated ‘Unique Learning Propositions’ The school conducts the weeklong workshop called ‘‘Full-Scale’’ for vertical and peer-learning along with maker-oriented studios in the first, third and fifth semesters

MakerSpace integrates technology in the design process The collaborative workspace provides platform to interact, brainstorm, and ideate This enables students with tools like 3D printers, Laser cutters and CNC router Regular training sessions, workshops and demonstrations keeps the students updated with the latest tools and technology

Trang 35

GITAM ADMISSION TEST (GAT) 2019

Online Test Dates

Last date to apply

B.TECH + M.Tech | M.Tech

B.Arch & M.Arch |B.Pharm & M.Pharm

B.Tech Aerospace | Biotech | Civil | CSE

EEE | ECE | EIE | IE | IT | Mech.

ECE | Mech.

Lacs per annum

` 21 record placements with 2200+

dream offers for the year 2018-19

Crore

scholarships

Highest Package

worth Fee waivers of ranks obtained in 100%, 75% & 50% GAT 2019, based on

JEE Main and AP EAMCET & TS EAMCET

Bengaluru Campus +91-080- 28098000, 28098008

GITAM(DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)

(Estd u/s 3 of the UGC Act, 1956)

VISAKHAPATNAM HYDERABAD BENGALURU

Enter GITAM

for Endless

Opportunities

Trang 36

Nationalism reigns over much

of Modi’s home state, giving

BJP a post-Pulwama glow

But there are sullen sections

of society that stand aloof.

by Bhavna Vij-Aurora in

Ahmedabad and Kevadia

There are two ends to this

journey of images One is the

frontline, where the troops are

deployed—a tough, bleak place

in reality, and a place of high,

almost mythic aura in the

public consciousness As PM,

Naren-dra Modi has often found himself

there, donning military fatigues,

seeking to blend himself with that air

suffused with taut, vigilant power The

other end is Indian society, where

those ima ges circulate In Modi’s case,

to natio nal consciousness Those NaMo pictures, with him wearing aviator glasses and personalised fatigues, standing amidst soldiers, often with a rifle photoshopped onto them, fill the lanes and bylanes of Gujarat his words are emblazoned across these banners, proclaiming him the vanquisher of the enemy and saviour of the country

There is a ready audience for these motifs in what was once, and still is to good measure, Modi’s Gujarat Hiten

Doshi, 21, will soon become one of India’s 130 million first-time voters (of whom 15 million are just 18-19) Doshi,

a student at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, says desperate times call for desperate measures “The world is endangered by jehadi terrorism and so is India We need a strong leader who can pay back

in the same coin India cannot be a doormat to terrorism If someone slaps you, it’s foolish to turn the other cheek,”

he says, walking down the Sabarmati riverfront, now a popular walkway and garden in the heart of the city

And then, barely a stone’s throw away

Trang 37

banners proclaim modi

as a ‘vanquisher of the enemy’ these motifs have a ready audience here, but Gujarat also has a pragmatic streak.

from Sabarmati Ashram, where

Mahatma Gandhi had spent a major

part of his life fashioning his

philoso-phy of peace into a mass politics, he

reprises a maxim Gandhi had once

extended and deployed against violence

“It’s time for an eye for an eye,” Doshi

says His blunt lack of irony testifies a

truth: the Mahatma does not figure

prominently in Gujarat’s consciousness

anymore; his teachings are considered

redundant The country has moved on,

says the NID student

The centre of gravity has now, in a

sense, shifted to the Sabarmati

river-front: the place where Modi famously

sat on a swing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, months after taking over as PM, holding out a promise of transformed diplomatic ties with the powerful neigh-bour Doshi is confident that this time China will concede India’s demand at the UN Security Council to declare Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist So has Doshi been influenced by the BJP campaign for first-time voters—‘Pehla vote Modi ko’? He just smiles in response The question was redundant

This prototype does not fill Gujarat, of course The state has also seen a fair bit

of public turmoil and impatience among the youth after over two straight decades of BJP rule—in late 2017, the party survived a scare in the face of a Patel agitation and a resurgent Congress Suruchi Shah, who too stud-ies at NID, typifies that old Gujarati trait of pragmatism: she would rather have a steady job and peace at the bor-ders “Of course, the country needs to

be protected, but I don’t think a war is going to help It is going to take the country back by years My grandfa-ther’s textile business had nearly col-lapsed during the 1971 war,” she says.According to her, a government that works steadily, even if slowly, is better than a government that takes impulsive, ill-thought-through actions like demon-etisation and the hasty GST implemen-tation Her family’s business in Surat suffered greatly on account of both, she lets on Suruchi believes India’s women—who account for 43 crore voters—are more likely to vote on relatively down-to-earth and realistic issues In Gujarat too, the ratio is catching up—2.1 crore women out of a total 4.3 crore—even if voting preferences cannot be always easily split in gender terms

Besides being Modi’s original hoomi, and the first Hindutva laboratory, Gujarat is a microcosm of the entire country in terms of the themes that will dominate the Lok Sabha elections No wonder, even the Congress chose the state to hold its CWC meeting, with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressing her first public rally after taking over as party general secretary Hardik Patel—who spearheaded the Patidar agitation from 2015 on—also joined the Congress

karmab-in the presence of Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka on March 12 The Patidars had been suffering the same att-

25 March 2019 OutlOOk 37

Photographs: NaNdaN dave

Trang 38

“the Congress did well in saurashtra, traditionally a bJP stronghold, in the assembly polls, but has failed to build on the advantage since.”

(life-as if surveying the dry patches of the river: from his vantage point at Sadhu Bet, he can surely see the 72 villages that make up the underbelly of discon-tent The adivasis here are up in arms against the Modi government “If Sardar Patel could see the mass des-truction of natural resources and inj-ustice done to us, he would cry When

we raise our issues, we are persecuted

by the police Why are you not ready to listen to our plight?” the headmen of affected villages asked Modi in an open letter last October, just before the Statue of Unity inauguration

Four months down, the anger hasn’t dissipated “Our constitutional rights, enlisted in the Fifth Schedule, are being destroyed without any qualms,” says Dr Praful Vasava, a local tribal leader “As per the law, the gram sabhas have to agree to give away land, but they were not asked either before the Narmada weir or the statue were built In 72 vil-lages, 75,000 tribals were affected: they neither received compensation nor land elsewhere The promised jobs have also not come It’s a fight for our jal-jameen-jangal (water, land and for-ests) The government probably feels

we don’t matter But our protest is going to impact the results.”

Medha Patkar, founder of Narmada

Bachao Andolan, tells Outlook that the

government has been lying about the Statue of Unity project “They said there would be no tourism related to it, but now they are talking about building

33 state bhavans there Nobody from the government comes and talks to the villagers The new government in Madhya Pradesh is at least having dia-logues with us They have a Narmada Valley minister too,” she says

The anger against the BJP spills over

to the contiguous adivasi belts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh too

Vasava says the negative undercurrents also affect the OBCs, SCs and farmers

in general “Despite reservations, 90 per cent tribals are still below the pov-erty line The facts are reversed in the case of savarnas,” he says, visibly agi-tated “Industrialists are being allowed

to destroy our jungles with impunity

Narmada water is being given to the

rition in terms of life-chances as some

dominant castes elsewhere, making the

former anti-reservationists demand

quotas in jobs and education Hardik,

25, who had caught and forcibly

vocal-ised that spirit then, is now not hiding

his ambition to go beyond social

activ-ism “It is difficult for caste-based

movements to survive Hardik

proba-bly realised it,” social scientist

Ghanshyam Shah tells Outlook

But what of the Patidars? Shah says

the anger has cooled After first being

stunned into immobility by the public

rage, the State responded: the then

Anandiben Patel regime extended

ben-efits to the community, including a 10

per cent quota for non-reserved

catego-ries on the basis of their annual income

“This was rejected by the Gujarat High

Court, but the Centre has now

appro-ved it,” points out Shah The richer

seg-ments in the community responded

too The Patidars, who accounts for 12.3

per cent of Gujarat’s population, are

not a homogeneous lot, and range from

farmers to businessmen and upper-

strata industrialists At the Global

Pati-dar Business Summit in Gandhinagar

last year, Shah recalls, businessmen

from the community pledged to

pro-vide jobs to 10 lakh Patidar youths by

2026 in the presence of CM Vijay

Rupani and Congress leaders

The government also divided the

community cannily along its inner

faultlines, says Shah Earlier this

month, the PM laid the foundation

stone for a Rs 1,000 crore Umiya

Dham temple complex, to be

dedi-cated to Maa Umiya, the deity of the

Kadva Patel sub-group among the

community Former CM Suresh

Mehta too accepts the BJP managed to

disintegrate the Patidar movement by

creating divisions among the Kadva

and Leuva sub-communities And

leaving aside Hardik, the Congress has

also failed to hold on to its leaders

from the backward Ahir and Koli

com-munities “The Congress did well in

Saurashtra, traditionally a BJP

strong-hold, in the assembly elections, but

has subsequently failed to build on the

advantage,” Mehta says (The BJP had

lost 13 assembly seats in the region,

and the Congress gained 15.)

If the BJP may find one segment

dif-ficult to placate, it’s the adivasis—8.6

per cent of Gujarat’s population They

Trang 39

ind ustrialists, but not the farmers.”

Bharatmala, a flagship highway

pro-ject Modi launched in October 2017, is

also witnessing angry protests by

adiva-sis and other farmers from Dang to

Ambaji—a belt swathing from south to

north-eastern Gujarat Land was to be

acquired from 63 (mostly adivasi)

vil-lages, spanning four Lok Sabha seats,

for a 93-km road connecting Surat with

Ahmednagar in Maharashtra With

elections around the corner, the project

has been suspended as of now

The adivasis are no longer the isolated

lot of popular imagination Each village

has a WhatsApp group on which they

share news and videos “We know what

is happening and we are waiting for

elections to show our anger,” says

Vasava Nareshbhai Tadvi of Kevadiya

village, near the statue, also cautions

the Congress: anger against the BJP

won’t automatically benefit them, he

says “We won’t vote BJP for sure We

may consider Congress only if it

supports us Otherwise, we will boycott

the elections,” he says

The BJP may still pull in adivasi votes,

drawing on its deep networks But one

community stands in utter and sullen aloofness: the Muslims of Gujarat

They say the ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’

slogan rings hollow when seen against what they perceive as wilful neglect of their habitations Juhapura in Ahmedabad is perhaps Asia’s largest Muslim ghetto and home to half of the city’s Muslims Lying along NH-8A, the Metro has given it a miss too Haji Asrar Beg Mirza, corporator of Makhdampur ward, claims there wasn’t even a single public toilet or garden in the area

“There are 20-25 gardens in ing Vasna and a number of public toi-lets One public toilet came up in Juhapura last year after much effort

neighbour-But yes, Juhapura is home to several police stations, and offices of the special operations group and a deputy com-missioner of police too,” he says

Juhapura also got its first government high school only last year “The place is home to 3.5 lakh people, but it took a long time to get the school Its first pub-lic library opened on March 7,” Mirza says Shakeel Adi of the Minority Coor-dination Committee (MCC) says it’s a struggle to get things done “There is no department in Gujarat that looks after minority affairs Some 150 madrassas cater to 50,000 students, but once they

pass out, they are not eligible for sion anywhere for higher studies: the Gujarat Board does not recognise the madrassa degree We need public schools and health centres We just want full implementation of the PM’s new 15-point programme,” says Adi

admis-At the other end of the spectrum, the surge of nationalism reigns; the BJP is exploiting Pulwama-Balakot to the hilt

“This is nothing new for Modi Just that the platform has shifted from Gujarat

to Delhi,” says former CM Mehta, who served as a state minister under Modi

“The Akshardham attack happened in September 2002, just before assembly elections, and Modi used it to win Str-ong nationalist sentiments do help in winning elections, and he knows it well.”Mehta doesn’t fail to mention that the Supreme Court acquitted all the six Akshardham accused in 2014 But elec-tioneering is mostly gamesmanship The Election Commission may have now asked parties to desist from dis-playing pictures of defence personnel

in their campaign, but the strike theme keeps getting played out

terror/air-in the speeches of Modi and other BJP leaders “We are not going to let it die down,” admits a party spokesperson This is Gujarat, after all O

25 March 2019 OutlOOk 39othered Juhapura, home to half of

Ahmedabad’s Muslims, is neglected

Định dạng
Số trang	84
Dung lượng	21,33 MB