Indholdsfortegnelse for July 30, 2018 i India Today

The poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore once described the Taj Mahal as a ‘teardrop’, glistening ‘spotlessly bright on the cheek of time, forever and ever’. The only tears being shed these days are about the state of the Taj. To quote from what M.C. Mehta, a long-time crusader for what is arguably the world’s most beautiful building, recently told the Supreme Court: the upkeep of Taj is in a shambles. Cracks are appearing in the structure. The minarets are tilting. Stones and materials are falling off. Acute water and air pollution are changing the colour of the marble, from light yellow to brown. Illegal encroachments, industries and activities are mushrooming in the vicinity, the CCTVs do not work, all the drains around the site are clogged. And the Yamuna,…

Since 2015, Amnesty International has been tracking hate crimes in India. Its ‘Halt the Hate’ website was started after Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by a mob in his home in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, on September 28 that year. As if to show how little has changed, last month two Muslim men were filmed being beaten by a mob in Hapur, UP. Qasim, a 45-year-old cattle trader, died of his injuries in hospital. While it seems clear that the men were set upon by cow vigilantes, the police claim it was ‘road rage’ over a motorcycle accident, though they offer no evidence to support such a theory. The second man, 64-year-old Samiuddin, who survived the beating, says the police did not record his statement and, given possible police complicity in hushing…

The All India Muslim Personal Board (AIMPLB) caused widespread indignation last week when it announced its intention to open several so-called sharia courts across the country. While much of the discussion around the opening of more ‘Darul Qaza’ was uninformed and prejudiced, it is pertinent to ask, as the idea of a uniform civil code gains increased traction, whether there is a place for personal law based on religion and tradition and whether that conflicts with the law of the land. In 2014, the Supreme Court said that “Fatwas are advisory in nature and no Muslim is bound to follow those.” It added that the Darul Qaza “can be perceived as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism” with “no power or authority to enforce its orders”. 5 Darul Qaza approved by…

On July 5, when Tej Pratap Yadav got up to address partymen at the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s 22nd foundation day in Patna, younger brother Tejashwi quietly told him to keep it short. Evidently unconvinced, the older Yadav promptly told the gathering what had transpired. “Tejashwi must be thinking I should give him a chance to speak. I will. He is going to Delhi by the evening flight. And then, I will take care of everything here,” Tej Pratap said. Comparing himself to “Lord Krishna” before a “trembling Arjun”, he used the lilt and mannerisms characteristic of their father Lalu Prasad Yadav as he claimed seniority. All through, Tejashwi looked uneasy. This wasn’t the first time the elder sibling had spoken out publicly. In June, Tej Pratap had tweeted his disapproval…

Devendra Fadnavis is in a bind. In the final year of his term, the chief minister is in serious danger of tripping up over the poor implementation of key government decisions and delivery of schemes. Evidently, complacency is plaguing the BJP government in Maharashtra. It’s already caused the CM considerable embarrassment with regard to his flagship jalyukta shivar abhiyan (JSA). The scheme supports local micro-irrigation projects and has helped increase farm productivity, even in deficient monsoon years. But even though the statistics point to success, the state hasn’t claimed credit fearing trouble, after a petition in the Bombay High Court claimed the JSA was “unscientific and damaging to the ecology”. A court-appointed panel, headed by ex-chief secretary Johny Joseph, has also picked holes in the scheme. Fadnavis’s ‘historic’ Rs 32,500…

Taj dies if the Yamuna dies Hydel plants, mining, domestic and industrial waste, deforestation, groundwater exhaustion, floodplain encroachment, the Yamuna is an ‘ecologically dead’ river at Agra. The Taj’s foundations are buried deep below the riverbed. Research now shows the water level is receding. Will the Mughal tomb cave in if the Yamuna dies? Green stains are fly specks With the rising algae and detritus, the population of midges in the Yamuna has exploded. Their green faeces can be washed off, but the alarm has been sounded on the severe environmental degradation 90 The number of drains that discharge sewage into the Yamuna through its 122 kilometre journey in Agra district A maddening rush of tourists The Taj is reeling under footfalls. Fragile areas like the main mausoleum, the platform…

Q: With the Supreme Court taking a stern stand on the state of the Taj, what is your reaction? After all, your ministry is responsible for its upkeep. A: The Taj Mahal is India’s pride, the second most visited monument in South Asia and the sixth in the world. Hence, we are contemplating long-term measures for protecting and conserving the Taj. In June, senior officers, including the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, those from the environment ministry, the Uttar Pradesh government, the TTZ [Taj Trapezium Zone], along with other stakeholders, met at a day-long meeting, where long-term and short-term measures for the protection of the Taj and Agra were discussed, especially making 500 metres around the Taj free of plastic pollution. We propose to hold further meetings…

“ We had not really thought of coming here. We were training in Prague for the Asian Games. There were some games happening in other parts of the world and I had told my colleagues we shouldn’t take part as it takes a lot of time off our training. Since this event was in Europe and we were in the region, I thought we would come here ” “ Hima is still very naive. She wants to play everything. I have to be very strict with her. Even with her vacations. We were in Assam recently and I told Hima she could go home for one night. It’s all about maintaining a strict regimen. We cannot take any risks now. I have told her, it’s just for one more month.…

1 A hospital coordinator counsels relatives of a patient once first breath apnea—when breathing is suspended and movement of muscles of inhalation stops while volume of the lungs remains unchanged—is positive 2 If they agree to donate organs, a potential donor alert is sounded to the state transplant authority 3 In turn, it alerts probable recipient hospitals. Authorised hospitals must send a decline message to the state transplant authority if they don’t want to take the organ 4 Some six hours after the first breath apnea, a second test is done to reconfirm brain stem death 5 Once a patient is certified as brain-dead, the state transplant authority gets an alert. It alerts all the authorised hospitals on priority as the process of receiving and transplanting an organ is to…

LUMINESCENT THREADS Edited by Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal Twelfth Planet Press 389.54 (Kindle edition) 434 pages For Mimi Mondal, being nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in science fiction/ fantasy (SFF) has had an unexpected downside: instead of her work, it has drawn attention to her identity. That’s because Mondal, who was nominated for the Hugo Award along with senior editor Alexandra Pierce in the ‘Best Related Work’ category for an anthology of essays and letters to the eminent sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, happens to be both Dalit and queer. The combination is pure headline gold, of course. And it’s even relevant, since Butler was a pioneer African-American in the writing of speculative fiction. But Mondal isn’t keen to play the part. “Being turned into a Dalit…

Following 71-year-old Astad Deboo’s performance at the Serendipity Festival in Goa last year, another major Indian classical dancer excoriated his more hidebound contemporaries for not acknowledging his genius. “The classicists are digging their own grave,” the dancer said. “[Deboo] is the man with a new idiom.” In honouring Deboo with its Yagnaraman Living Legend Award recently, the Krishna Gana Sabha echoed that sentiment. Foundations devoted to the arts must support reinterpretation in order to keep tradition alive. Awards are nothing new for Deboo, who received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1996 and the Padma Shri in 2007. And neither is breaking new territory. Considered the pioneer of modern dance in India, he created his own peculiar form by employing his training in Kathak and Kathakali and has performed around…

During last year’s monsoons in Mumbai, the BJP had trained its guns on the Shiv Sena-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the flooded streets and potholed roads. City BJP president Ashish Shelar fired salvos at the Sena while Mumbai Northeast MP Kirit Somaiya held the ‘Bandra mafia’ responsible, a clear hint at the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence in the western suburb. This year, the city saw its worst spell of flooding in recent years. The BJP, however, was strangely silent. Somaiya requested better coordination among all agencies working in the city. What seems to have changed is the saffron party’s newfound love for its allies. Party president Amit Shah had a two-hour-long one-on-one meeting with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray last month. The word is out. Allies are in.…

US President Donald Trump’s protectionist ‘America First’ agenda continues, and this time again on the visa front. New powers have been accorded to US officials to reject outright the visa applications of foreigners under certain circumstances, starting September 11. Officials can take this step if the required ‘initial evidence’ is not submitted or eligibility for the visa sought isn’t established. The July 13 directive from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) could spell trouble for visa applicants from India, who used to get a second chance to submit more documentary evidence or satisfactory explanations for their eligibility. What is worrying for companies sending their employees abroad on H-1B visas is that they face the threat of immediate deportation if their visa applications are rejected. An earlier notification had…

RAJE SAYS THE RIVERFRONT PROJECT WILL BE “AN OASIS IN THE DESERT” FOR JAIPUR Jaipur has two brand new landmarks rapidly nearing completion—a 47-km riverfront development along the length of the seasonal Dravyavati rivulet, and a 90 metre wide road fringing the city in the south. Touted as Vasundhara Raje’s dream projects, the two will cost an estimated Rs 3,000 crore. Personally monitored by the chief minister since work commenced two years ago, the riverfront project is being partly paid for through a loan from the National Capital Region Planning Board while the road construction is being done by the National Highway Authority of India. Raje hopes to showcase both projects in time for the state assembly elections, due in December. Originating in the Nahargarh hills, the Dravyavati carries rain…

• Form a stakeholders’ committee for the Taj, engage members and citizens so that they can influence decision-making • Allocate more manpower and money for the upkeep of the Taj. In the past three years, Taj got only 8 per cent of what it earned in revenues just from the sale of tickets • Shift the the nearby crematoriums and diesel generators • Punish states and UTs for dumping untreated wastewater into the river and not building sewage treatment plants • Remove clusters of illegal settlements on the Yamuna floodplain • Stop illegal sand mining rampant on the banks of the river • Get the Agra municipality to stop burning garbage in the open • Invest in night activities for tourists, to ensure a longer stay in the city •…

“Saavn’s listener base is 75 per cent male and 25 per cent female. I’m the only one for whom that ratio is flipped around” On the title track of his new English EP cold/ mess, Delhi-based singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad, who also performs in Hindi, seems to be doing a bit of method singing. Kuhad did indeed have a cold when he laid down his vocals for ‘cold/mess’. However, the rhinitis was not self-induced but a result of frosty temperatures in the US, where he recorded the EP this year. “The day I landed in New York, the city was hit with a snowstorm,” says Kuhad. “[This] was a few days before we were starting to track in Nashville. I was just freezing the whole time.” On the other hand, he…

Thirst for power, rather than Hindu-Muslim strife, was the prime motivator for the Deccan’s many conflicts REBEL SULTANS The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji Manu S. Pillai Juggernaut 599, 308 pages Most histories of the Deccan region have highlighted the ruthlessness of Aurangzeb or the valour ofShivaji.In Rebel Sultans,Manu Pillai instead explores the rise and fall of the empires of six earlier centuries. Dakshina in Sanskrit—hence Deccan—was known for its monetary and cultural richness. As early as the first century, travellers wrote of the abundance of cotton and onyx in the region. Its welcoming rulers and bazaars heaped with silver, gold and diamonds attracted artists, poets and fortune-seekers from everywhere. It also drew invaders, especially from the north. But the Deccan was unyielding and, therefore, tantalising. To know India, Pillai…

KYA BOLTA BANTAI Vice debuts its first India documentary with this exploration of the Mumbai rap scene—beating Ranveer Singh’s upcoming Gully Boy tothepunch. Voot UNMARRIED A focus on the social changes dividing India’s generations isn’t enough to make this somewhat plotless Friends typeshow about the pressure to get married compelling. PoPxo MEMORIES In Vikram Bhatt’s latest web series, a newsman returns from the dead with the power to read the memories of the deceased. Naturally, he starts solving crimes. Viu…

The Indian Army’s cadre review, the first in over three decades, has recommended drastic changes in the rank structure. For starters, the review, being carried out by the Military Secretary, a Lt General-ranked officer, has proposed doing away with a few rungs of the army’s steep promotion pyramid. It plans to convert the starting rank of lieutenant into the final year of an officer cadet’s course at the Indian Military Academy which means all officers will be commissioned as captains. The review has proposed doing away with the rank of brigadier (of which the army now has around 800 officers). If implemented, this would represent a radical restructuring for the Indian army which has seen little change in its rank structure since independence. If the new suggestions are implemented, a…

“I stand with the last person in the line. The exploited, marginalised and the persecuted. Their religion, caste or beliefs matter little to me. I seek out those in pain and embrace them. I erase hatred and fear. I love all living beings. I am Congress.” RAHUL GANDHI took to Twitter to respond (indirectly) to the controversy generated by his remark, as reported by an Urdu newspaper, at a meeting of Muslim intellectuals that the Congress was a Muslim party. The paper’s headline was denied and described as inaccurate and misleading. Not that it stopped defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi making accusations. Rahul’s sentiments in his tweet seem noble. But given the conflation of his family with the party, such first-person grandiosity was perhaps misjudged. Albeit…

ASG Tushar Mehta’s ‘concerns’ with bestiality were bizarre and no more than a diversionary tactic; at no point did the petitioners make this argument Last week, the central government was primed to unveil its position on LGBTQ rights before the Supreme Court of India. Their statement was anticipated with bated breath: in recent years, there has been a strong movement asking political parties to extend their support to the LGBTQ community. A few parties have responded positively. The Congress, the JD(S), the National Conference, AAP and the CPI(M) have made unequivocal public statements in favour of the community, with the last two placing a demand for decriminalisation in their manifestos. The NDA government, however, has been silent. On July 11, it broke its silence—which at first glance seems like more…

On July 14, BJP chief Amit Shah flagged off Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Jan ashirwad yatra from Ujjain to seek the voters’ ‘blessings’ ahead of the upcoming assembly polls. It was the second such, Union minister Rajnath Singh having launched a similar roadshow in neighbouring Chhattisgarh in May, with another one planned for Rajasthan, the third BJP-ruled state headed for elections. As in 2008 and 2013, Chouhan hopes to use the statewide exercise to re-engage with voters, get feedback on incumbent BJP legislators and weed out the weaker ones. But this time, the opposition aims to throw a spanner in the works. The Congress, now collectively headed by three party heavyweights—Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia—is on a jan jagran (awakening) yatra or pol khol yatra that will trail Chouhan…

THEN 1. Was ‘pearly white’ or ‘snow white’ even till the 1970s 2. The translucent marble changed colour with the light: pinkish in the morning, dazzling white at noon, golden orange in the evenings and milky white at night 3. Optical tricks are central to the design of the Taj. From its southern gate, the entire Taj fitted into the frame, growing larger as one moved closer 4. Had gold railing around the inner sanctum and silver gates 5. The red sandstone was vibrant, shiny and smooth 6. Inlay work had 28 kinds of semi-precious and precious stones, including pearls and diamonds 7. Surrounded by tall green trees, the ‘snow-white emanation’ rose from ‘a bed of cypresses, backed by a turquoise sky’ 8. Caravanseraisopen-air squares with shopping arcades all around—were…

PAPER JEWELS Postcards from the Raj by Omar Khan Mapin 3,500 364 pages, 519 colour illustrations Before Instagram, there was the picture postcard: a messaging system created to share images and conversations across continents and cultures. Postcards were the viral memes of their time, the craze of the early 20th century when billions of postcards were mailed each year. Often the first and most influential images people saw of distant lands, for Westerners, they crystallised a vision of India as a sun-baked land of grand edifices and bustling bazaars, peopled with nautch girls, naked fakirs and snake charmers. Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj takes the reader on a tour of this imagined India, with author-collector Omar Khan serving as an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide. Featuring visions of flaming skies…

DELHI IN TRANSITION: 1821 and Beyond by Shama Mitra Chenoy The first complete English translation of flaneur Mirza Beg’s fascinating observations of 19th century Delhi, as commissioned by the East India Company THE FORGOTTEN CITIES OF DELHI by Rana Safvi Chronicling the nine cities that preceded Delhi over 1,500 years, in this illustrated sequel to Where Stones Speak, Safvi explores the monuments and tombs that survive among our slums and mansions JINNEALOGY by Anand Vivek Taneja A Vanderbilt University scholar of religious studies and anthropology, Taneja examines the entreaties made to the jinns at Delhi’s Firoz Shah Kotla to discover a popular Islam resistant to state repression…

Billed as a millennial romcom, Netflix Original Set It Up takes on the now familiar premise of the overworked, under-appreciated twenty-somethings, stuck in a routine and waiting for the big dream to pop up and say hello. Both assistants to unpleasant bosses, Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) conclude the solution is to get their bosses to fall in love with each other so they are out of the office more often. Predictably, things go well, then not, and end up with Harper and Charlie falling in love and pursuing their dreams. Set It Up works despite its formulaic adherence to the romantic comedy blueprint—or, perhaps, because of it. In fact, it goes right back to the Victorian romance: boy meets girl and they don’t know they are in…

Q. You were paralysed by a bullet, but came back to captain the Indian hockey team. How did you react when co-producer Deepak Singh approached you for a film on your life? I was overwhelmed. I knew if a true biopic was made on my life, it would encourage every youngster, whether or not interested in sports. Q. What do you remember of the hospital stay? I was unconscious for four weeks and lost more than 50 kg. When doctors told me I would never be able to walk or play hockey, I asked them to leave. Every night, I would practise getting up with my hockey stick. I knew my place was in the hockey field, not on the wheelchair. Q. You always wanted Diljit Dosanjh to play the…