Indholdsfortegnelse for September 17, 2018 i India Today

Last week, the annual RBI report came as a verdict on one of the defining acts of the Narendra Modi government—demonetisation—and the great Indian money count that followed. The results of extinguishing 86 per cent of India’s currency, belatedly announced after 22 months, we now know, are underwhelming. Over 99 per cent of the Rs 15.3 lakh crore worth of cancelled bank notes are back in the banking system. Till the government establishes otherwise, there is no black money, since all the money came back. We know that this is not true. At that time, there was talk of Rs 3 lakh crore not coming back, which would have been a windfall for the central government. Now the government has set itself up for the humongous task of discovering how…

“If Gauri Lankesh had been alive, the government would have branded her an ‘urban Naxal’. On her first death anniversary, we are united against hate and Narendra Modi’s tactics to suppress dissenting voices, and to say that ‘We are all Gauri Lankesh!’” Independent Gujarat MLA JIGNESH MEVANI,an influential Dalit voice, travelled to Bengaluru to mark the passing of a year, on September 5, since the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh. After the recent arrests of five Dalit rights advocates and a controversy over a recommendation by the I&B ministry for news channels to “refrain” from using the word Dalit, there is a sense that the BJP is losing momentum with Dalit voters. Mevani could represent a threat to the party’s aspirations.…

@ShougatDasgupta “What, me, fascist?” Lois Sofia, a student from Tamil Nadu working on a physics PhD at a Canadian university, was held for hours by the police because she had the temerity to shout about the BJP being fascists in the direction of her state’s BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan as they were both disembarking at the Thoothukudi airport. Soundararajan officiously complained to the police. “Anyone else in my place,” she said, “would have behaved in a worse manner.” Soundararajan was also filmed berating the police. Since the incident, Soundararajan has been telling journalists about her “rights” and claiming that being shouted at on a plane is a violation of free speech. She is a public figure. People often shout all manner of things at all manner of public figures—movie stars…

DEMO BABY Demonetisation was one of the factors that worked in the BJP’s favour when it swept the Uttar Pradesh elections in March 2017. Something former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, a vocal critic of the note ban, hasn’t forgotten. Which is why his choice of the chief guest to flag off his party’s campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is interesting: a 22-month-old boy born to a lady waiting in queue to exchange currency notes. Akhilesh had paid his mother Rs 1 lakh soon after the delivery. The boy, named Khajanchi (treasurer), will do the honours on September 19 in Kannauj. One investment Akhilesh hopes will yield a political windfall. Beyond His Briefing The Bombay High Court came down heavily on the Maharashtra police for Additional DGP (Law &…

SACHIN PILOT took charge of the Rajasthan state Congress two months after the party was reduced to 21 seats in the 200-seat assembly in the 2013 polls. Two months later, the party failed to win even one of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the general elections. Four years down the line, though, among the three heartland states going to polls, experts say the Congress has the best chance of winning in Rajasthan. Excerpts from an interview with Kaushik Deka Q. What are the primary issues in this election? Vasundhara Raje got a massive mandate in 2013. With that, she could have changed the face of Rajasthan, but she has only let down the people. We are fighting the polls with a three-point agenda. Relief to our farmers from the…

JEAN DRÈZE Development economist My assessment is the same as before—demonetisation was a blunder and did grave injustice to the poor. PRONAB SEN Economist Whatever its political merits, as an economic measure, demonetisation was a bad idea. The return of practically all the cash into the banking system was expected since the basic premise of demonetisation that black money is held as idle cash was wrong ab initio. Hopefully, policymakers will now have a better idea of how the black economy functions. SURJIT BHALLA Member, PM’s Advisory Council It is a wrong metric to evaluate demonetisation by only the criterion of money returned. In fact, it is the weakest criterion. Nevertheless, the government and certain individuals had said Rs 2-3 lakh crore will not return to the system as people…

JEAN DRÈZE Development economist It is just possible that demonetisation gave a little nudge to formalisation, by driving some informal enterprises to the wall. But this is like saying that you can enhance the average height of a basketball team by getting rid of some of the shorter players. What matters is the strength of the whole team, not its average height. As for digitisation, this ex post defence of demonetisation added another layer of irrationality to it. Cashlessness was suddenly endowed with magical virtues. Anganwadi workers were made to attend cashless transaction workshops instead of teaching young children. Street vendors were forced to display Paytm stickers even if they had no use for them. In Jharkhand, Nagri block was declared cashless almost in the same breath as it was…

Since Samuel Adepoju aka Samuel Singh’s first YouTube clip went viral a few years ago, the 27-year-old Nigerian has been posting Bhojpuri, Haryanvi and Odiya songs. His Bhojpuri song, ‘Lollipop Lagelu’, has got 688,000 views, 20,000-plus shares and more than 4,000 comments. His Odiya folk song—‘Rangabati’—is romping with 1.45 million views. Last month, he announced on his FB page, “Getting to a 100K subscribers on YouTube is not really a day’s job... the next milestone (million mark) is tougher, but let’s do it again.’’ Q. How did you get interested in Bhojpuri, Haryanvi and Odiya songs? It all started when I visited India for cancer treatment in 2010. I fell in love with Indian culture. I got more into it when I needed to talk to a girl I liked…

FOLLOW THIS Scachi Koul and the rest of Buzzfeed’s multicultural correspondents delve into the obscure subcultures of the internet in this short-form newsmagazine series reminiscent of—but no match for—National Public Radio’s This American Life. Netflix GHOUL Set in a dystopian future Hindu Rashtra, this curious mix of empowerment fantasy and (literal) demonisation of Muslims comes out of the gate promising trenchant political criticism. But it soon devolves into schlocky torture-porn loosely analogous to the Saw franchise. Netflix TIN STAR Tim Roth chews the scenery a bit in this B-grade pastiche of Quentin Tarantino, the director who first brought him to notice. Still, it’s a serviceable crime story, somewhere in the gulf between True Detective’sSeason One (brilliant) and Season Two (unwatchable). Hooq…

When Anjali Venkat was 10, she saw how bangles were made and she was instantly enthralled. As she watched the way the glass was heated and bent to make perfectly round shaped bangles, she knew then she found her passion. Since then, this once Chennai-based artist has spent over 25 years working with glass as a medium of self-expression. Known for her work with post consumer-glass, Anjali Venkat has transformed discarded glass bottles into works of art and utility products for over 25 years. She returns to Chennai, for an art exhibition. Her latest collection—aptly named Altereal(Dreaming in Glass) features her take on nature. “Nature, like glass, has always been my inspiration. Over the last few years, I have found myself drawn to the circular shape and this is my…

Even as the home ministry released figures on Monday, September 3, about the toll taken by violent monsoon storms on people and property across India, reports continued to emerge about deaths and displacement from floods in Nagaland. Despite the heavy rain and floods, the figures show that the monsoon, nationwide, has actually been drier. Experts argue that the intensity and erratic nature of the rainfall is the effect of climate change. This has been in major part a man-made disaster. Governments, in states and at the Centre, must shoulder the blame for shortsighted policymaking. Reports submitted by scientists have been ignored and the effect of certain kinds of development in ecologically sensitive areas has, critics say, been routinely underplayed. The costs, in human terms, never mind economic, have been catastrophic.…

The Supreme Court, in August, expressed dismay that government statistics presented in court in March about the numbers of children currently living in care institutions were completely at odds with the numbers reflected in a 2016-17 survey. Hundreds of thousands of children, the court noted, appeared to be unaccounted for. An alarming number of children in India go missing every day, often abducted and trafficked. And, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), about half remain untraced. Other recently released numbers show that a third of the calls to the child helpline number (1098) are silent, perhaps, experts suggest, from children in situations of danger or unable to articulate the abuse they are suffering. After an audit in Bihar, the state government has said it will take over all…

Unlike other payments banks, IPPB raises peculiar questions because of its ownership and potential size. Is this an involuntary move towards greater centralisation of resources? On September 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi freshly launched the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), which was already functioning on a pilot basis in a few districts. It has been packaged as a path-breaking initiative, but chances are its incremental impact will be limited. If the objective was to make a big push towards greater financial inclusion of Indian citizens, it would have been better to plan for a universal bank. India Post did apply for a universal bank licence—and this was also contained in the T.S.R. Subramanian committee report—but neither the government nor the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was favourably inclined. One wonders…

It’s only been a month since he took charge, but H.S. Shylla, chief executive member of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), is already ready with a controversial bill to “protect the Khasi community from going extinct”. “Look at Tripura, once a tribal state. Where are the tribals now? The Assamese have perished. The Mizo, the Naga, the Garo, the Khasi, we’ll have to protect ourselves, otherwise we’ll perish,” says the 64-year-leader of Meghalaya’s ruling National People’s Party (NPP). The KHADC recently adopted the Khasi Social Custom of Lineage (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which states that Khasi women who marry outsiders will no longer enjoy Scheduled Tribe status and the constitutional protections that come with it. Children from such unions will not be Khasi. The Khasi, like the other two…

JEAN DRÈZE Development economist Certainly not. The official objectives were clearly stated by the prime minister on November 8, 2016. They were summarised the same day by his right-hand man, Hasmukh Adhia, then revenue secretary, as a “surgical strike on black money”. As many economists have pointed out, black money is not a stock of tainted cash on which a surgical strike can be launched. But even if it is, that cash is now in bank accounts. The government claims that the tainted bank balances are now going to be separated from legitimate earnings, but that is like trying to separate milk from water after they have been mixed. The entire operation was based on voodoo economics. PRONAB SEN Economist It depends upon which stated objective. The first was extinguishing…

With 7 gold, 10 silver and 2 bronze medals in Athletics, the 2018 Asian Games have been, by far, India’s best performance at an Asiad. But this, as they say, is just the beginning. Take a look at the junior talent pool: Neeraj Chopra, Hima Das, Saritaben Gayakwad, Vismaya, P.U. Chitra, Swapna Burman are all under 24; Hima, at 18, is the youngest. These youngsters are yet to peak and yet two of them have already struck gold at the international level. In 2016, Neeraj became the first Indian to win a gold at the World Junior Championships, in Poland; in winning the javelin throw event, he set a new world record. In July 2018, Hima brought India its first gold in a track event at the World Under 20…

Indu Harikumar’s apartment on the outskirts of Mumbai was the 19th house in the city to get an internet connection in 1995. She has used the web to engage with people ever since. So it was natural that she took to the internet to create and display her art—which explores love, sexuality, desire, and vulnerability. Currently, her illustrations of stories of Indians on Tinder, titled ‘100 Indian Tinder Tales (100ITT)’ is on display in Germany’s Kunsthalle Bremen art museum. However, she once had her doubts. “I thought this project was doomed from the very beginning,” she says. “Why would anyone want to share intimate stories with me, a stranger, on the internet?” Instead, 100ITT went viral, with people sharing stories that ranged from rom-com to risqué, and Harikumar found herself…

Centred on three roommates sharing a flat in Mumbai, PA-Gals, on The Viral Fever’s Girliyappa channel, added a Friends-esque sitcom to the thicket of web series about young, urban Indian women (Girl in the City, The Trip, Adulting, et al). But the recent second season lacks the punch of the first three episode run, largely because the wry Disha (Prajakta Koli) has been replaced by a new character, Wiki (Akanksha Thakur), who lacks the same wit. Focused on the kind of petty household conflicts and misunderstandings that have long been the bill of fare for sitcoms, PA-Gals is still watchable in short bursts (each episode is 15 minutes), thanks to the returning roommates Sonali (Ronjini Chakraborty) and Mamta (Srishti Shrivastava). Billed as the ‘desi Monica Geller’, Sonalithe-Bong is still the…

Q. Tell us about your experience of playing in the semi-finals of the Asian Games. When I won a match, I kept thinking that I had to win another. I thought my job isn’t done. Zhang Shuai (world No. 34) is a top player, but I fought hard. Winning a medal is like a dream. Q. How big is the achievement, personally as well as from the point of view of Indian women’s tennis? It’s a huge achievement. I am the second player after Sania Mirza to win a singles medal in women’s tennis. It’ll be great if I can inspire girls to take up tennis. Q. The fourth Indian woman to enter the top 200 in singles tennis—does it also tell you that there’s a long way to go?…

Kaushik Basu has been professor of economics in Cornell for over two decades. He took time off to serve as chief economic advisor to finance minister P. Chidambaram from 2009 till 2012 and chief economist at the World Bank from 2012 till 2014. He has long been interested in the making of economic policy, not just in the nitty-gritty, but in how to make policy and economics more consistent and effective, how to connect positive and normative economics. His first book in 1980 was about revealed preference of government. While he was at the World Bank, he gave three lectures on the subject; they have grown into this book. In the finance ministry, Basu found that the government gave subsidised grains to retailers and expected them to sell them to…

For many years now, in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal, it’s been a crime to be a communist. Even a slight leftward tilt can have an unthinkable backlash—Jagannath Mahato in West Midnapore wasn’t allowed to till his farm; Santan Basuli, a marginal cultivator here, was warned against harvesting his sesame crop; another farmer had to pay Rs 35,000 to get back the keys to his own house. Their only fault was that they professed to being Leftists, says CPI(M) area committee member Mahasish Mahato, who recently supported the BJP candidate in wresting the Manickpara panchayat in West Midnapore from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). It’s not the official CPI(M) line, he admits, but a welling hatred of the TMC among the Left cadre overrules all else. For five long years since…

Chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s massive show of strength in Hyderabad on September 2, the pragathi nivedana sabha, featured expectedly large crowds and grand oratory. KCR held forth on the achievements of his government and spoke of continuing the journey, post-2019, towards a bangaru (golden) Telangana. It was obviously an early start to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s campaign for assembly elections, and it looks like it could be earlier than their slated date in summer 2019. “You have to decide—should decisions relating to Telangana be taken by us here, or should we become the slaves of Delhi parties,” he told a visibly interested crowd, trying to keep a distance from both the BJP and the Congress. Analysts say the September 2 rally was to test the TRS’s popularity after…

It was the evening of November 8, 2016. Sudden news of a televised address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi threw the nation into intense speculation. A few minutes into his speech, Modi announced his government’s historic decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes at midnight, eliminating at a stroke 86 per cent of India’s currency in circulation. “The five hundred and thousand rupee notes hoarded by anti-national and anti-social elements will become just worthless pieces of paper,” Modi said. “The rights and interests of honest, hard-working people will be fully protected.” The next morning, all hell broke loose. A mad scramble ensued at banks as people queued up to exchange demonetised notes for new currency. The enormity of the exercise swamped the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and…

JEAN DRÈZE Development economist The basic principle of cost-benefit analysis is that a project should be evaluated against the next-best alternative. In this case, the next-best alternative would have been to fight corruption through constructive steps, such as transparent governance, financial accountability of political parties, non-coercive promotion of digital transactions, firm prosecution of scamsters, and so on. All this was ignored in favour of demonetisation, a reckless gamble with the economy that inflicted much misery on the poor and powerless. Perhaps it did have some positive side-effects, but then most calamities have some too. Applauding demonetisation because it helped, say, with income-tax compliance shows a dismal lack of concern for its human consequences. You might as well approve of tax defaulters being hanged. PRONAB SEN Economist Since none of the…

BJP STAND NRC is to detect illegal infiltrators who are a threat to national security STRATEGY With most Bangladeshi immigrants being Muslim, projecting them as a security threat helps consolidate Hindu votes TMC STAND NRC is a BJP conspiracy against Bangla-speaking people STRATEGY Mamata Banerjee wants to reassure Muslim voters, especially as most of those left out of NRC are Muslim CONGRESS STAND We started NRC, BJP did a flawed one STRATEGY The party claims credit but at the same time is scared to lose Muslim votes; keeping a low profile on the issue…

Whether history repeats itself remains to be seen. But sometimes it does whisper warnings. And the clear message from the apex court now is: heed the warnings of history. Taking a cue from the August 29 Supreme Court order, we set out on a pictorial walk through the Taj Mahal complex, keeping the larger picture in mind: that is, we approach the Taj not as the present-day visitor does—descending on the monument one fine day—but as a visitor would have done in the 17th century: experiencing the larger Taj complex. Our purpose is to look, with photographic evidence, at visual pollution, years of deterioration, vandalism, shoddy oversight and neglect of a magnificent heritage. So let’s start the journey to the Taj: Night has fallen over the Taj Mahal. In its…

Bangladeshi-American rapper Anik Khan is the newest in a short line of South Asian hip-hop acts whose rhymes are informed by their experiences as first-generation immigrants. The list includes Indian-American MC Himanshu Suri and British-Pakistani rapper and actor Riz Ahmed, aka the duo Swet Shop Boys. “Damn, it feels good to be an immigrant,” Khan raps on his new single ‘Big Fax’, which was released last month under audio streaming service Saavn’s Artist Originals platform. A celebration of his Bengali identity, the video features clips of Khan eating with his hands, shots of singer and actress Monica Dogra wearing bangles and cutting mangoes and scenes of women in hijabs carrying rifles to represent his sisters and mother, whom he describes as women “who protected” him. “To me, it’s important to…

Rocky Marciano got the most ink he’d received in decades last year, as Floyd Mayweather Jr rode a laughable match-up against a novice boxer to a 50-0 record, ending the Italian legend’s long reign at the top of the table. In boxing, everything was better in the past, of course, so there were plenty of naysayers ready to point out that “Money” Mayweather had feathered his sheet with soft touches and ducked Manny Pacquiao until his buzzsaw style had been tempered with age. In Rocky’s day, championship fights went 15 rounds. Fighters fought every month, not once a year. There’s an element of truth in that myth of boxing’s glorious past, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Mike Stanton shows in his nuanced new biography of the Italian-American champion. But Marciano, too, had…