Indholdsfortegnelse for March 8, 2021 i India Today

If all you have is a hammer, the saying goes, everything begins to look like a nail. Nowhere is this analogy more apt than in the draconian laws the government is using to quell dissent. Chief among these laws is Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, designed to clamp down on sedition. Under the law, ‘signs, visible representations, or words, spoken or written, that can cause hatred or contempt, or excite or attempt to excite disaffection towards the government’, amount to sedition. Section 124A is amongst the harshest laws in the government’s toolkit. It is part of a troika of so-called ‘offences against the state’, drafted to protect it from treason, sedition and rebellion. It was forged by India’s erstwhile colonial masters as a weapon of last resort and…

APR. 2003 Congress, Rajasthan VHP leader Pravin Togadia charged with sedition for defying a government ban on carrying sharp-edged weapons (a trident) JUN. 2005 Congress, Punjab Simranjit Singh Mann, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), arrested in connection with four different cases of sedition. Mann allegedly raised pro-Khalistan slogans in the Golden Temple complex on the 21st anniversary of Operation Blue Star MAY 2007 BJP, Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh police arrest Binayak Sen, an activist and doctor, on charges of sedition, alleging links with Maoist insurgents. In 2010, a trial court convicts Sen of the charge, a decision upheld by the Chhattisgarh High Court. In April 2011, the Supreme Court grants him bail and drops the charge of sedition NOV. 2010 Congress, Delhi Police Noted author Arundhati Roy charged with sedition…

At a NITI Aayog meeting on February 20, Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Union government implement the amendment to MMDRA or the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 to pave the way for resumption of iron ore and sand mining in his state. The act was amended in 2015, giving every mine company the right to have a 50-year lease period from the date of award of lease. Goa wants the amendment to come into effect from May 23, 1987, to allow mining in the state till 2037. “We request for relief on resumption of mining activity. Goa was liberated in 1961 and did not get a second renewal of mining. This has impacted the state’s economy and employment,” Sawant said…

INFRASTRUCTURE As of March 2019, Assam had 3,908.5 km of national highways, accounting for nearly three per cent of India’s total highway network. Between 2016-17 and January 2020, 14,006 km of roads were constructed In December 2018, the 4.94 km Bogibeel bridge, India’s longest rail-cum-road bridge, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Assam has a rail route length of 2,435.13 km, accounting for nearly four per cent of India’s total rail network Assam’s major river routes are along the Brahmaputra and Barak rivers, with navigable lengths of 891 km and 121 km, respectively. The Brahmaputra river is known as the National Waterway No. 2. The state has seven operational port locations for import and export to the Kolkata and Haldia ports Assam has 8 airports, including an international airport…

Last April, Ajesh Joseph, head mixologist at Jet-lag, Bengaluru, posted a video of himself zooming, literally, up and down a hallway, draped over a wheelie bin. It was captioned ‘Quarantine day 10’. He subsequently shared a slapstick routine, set to the Pink Panther theme, on quarantine cocktail-making, peering Clouseau-like into empty bottles, scraping at a desiccated lime. The video racked up thousands of views and Joseph continues to make skits about bar life, touching on flairing fails, workplace romance and pandemic protocol. Besides an alchemist’s steady hand and magician’s showmanship, an integral part of bartending is audience engagement, whether it’s storytelling to upsell a cocktail or lending a sympathetic ear to that bottomless boozer at the counter. “It’s not just about cocktails,” says Yangdup Lama, a pioneering bartender who has…

Genius The widely used lyrics website, on which fans annotate lines, publishes a series of ‘Verified’ video interviews in which an act “breaks down the meaning” behind their tracks Switched On Pop On this long-running podcast, musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding analyse how and why certain songs, like Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber’s ‘Despacito’ and The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’, became huge hits The Soundtrack Show This podcast, which dissects the OSTs of films and TV shows, often features interviews with composers; past guests have included those behind the scores andsongsfor Frozen and Cobra Kai…

THE MAURITANIAN Jodie Foster plays a lawyer determined to defend Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim), a suspected 9/ 11 terrorist, tortured at Guantanamo Bay. This Kevin Macdonald film also stars Benedict Cumberbatch. BEST SELLERS Michael Caine stars in this Lina Roessler comedy, playing a has-been author persuaded into a wild book tour. FRENCH EXIT Michelle Pfeiffer puts in a memorable performance in Azazel Jacobs’ satire, in which she and her son quit New York for Paris. TINA Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin’s documentary on Tina Turner’s life, featuring Turner, Oprah Winfrey and others, promises to be a treat.…

Q. We have seen multiple war dramas, but the 1962 Indo-China war had remained largely untouched... We don’t delve into the China war because we lost. We tend to highlight battles we won. I don’t think there are any winners in war, but in the name of territory, there are. With 1962: The War in the Hills, we focus on the one battle we won and celebrate that. Q. War narratives also tend to be laden with jingoism. Does this Disney+ Hotstar series veer into that territory? Mahesh [Manjrekar, director] is pretty sensitive to jingoism. I am anti-war. I wouldn’t do something that’s pro-war. What sets this apart is that it focuses on the soldiers’ families and the impact that war has on the social fabric. It is empathetic, not…

Temple- and ashram-hopping are, of course, de rigueur for BJP leaders anywhere, but the fervour and commitment are hitting new levels in the Bengal poll campaign. And it’s not just Ram and Hanuman (or Bajrangbali, the preferred appellation for the monkey god among the party’s more hawkish supporters), temples of Kali and Durga are also now must-stops on the itinerary, especially for visiting BJP and Sangh VVIPs. This trend of propitiating the mother goddess caught on with BJP leaders after Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee raised slogans of ‘Jai Maa Kali’ and ‘Jai Maa Durga’ as a counter to the “north Indian” ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Durga and Kali are household deities in Bengal and far more a feature of the everyday worship and vocabulary of the devout Bengali Hindu.…

On February 9, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Andolanjeevi” comment in the Lok Sabha, saying leaders who are going house to house asking for donations are members of the “Chandajeevi” organisation. Of course, Akhilesh was talking about the BJP and Sangh Parivar’s drive to collect funds for the Ram temple in Ayodhya, so the latter was quick to take umbrage, criticising the ex-Uttar Pradesh CM and SP members for not ‘donating’. But now we hear that Aparna Yadav, wife of Akhilesh’s brother Prateek Yadav, gave Rs 11,11,000 to the cause on February 20. Aparna has told journalists she was donating for the Ram temple in her personal capacity.…

Assam is the largest state in India’s northeast, spread over 78,438 square kilometres and with a population of about 32 million. It’s often described as the land of the red river and blue hills, referring to the mighty Brahmaputra—which is called ‘Lohit’ (blood red) in Assam—and the surrounding hills that merge with the blue sky. With the added greenery of the state’s forests, tea gardens and paddy fields, Assam boasts an unparalleled natural beauty. Situated south of the eastern Himalayas, the state has two fertile valleys across two rivers—the Brahmaputra and the Barak—making it rich in water resources. Known across the globe as the home of the one-horned rhinoceros, Assam is also home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites—Kaziranga National Park and Manas Wildlife Sanctuary. However, in contrast to the…

The India Today State of the State—Assam study was conducted by Nielsen, a globally-reputed measurement and data analytics company, to find the best-performing and most-improved districts of the state. The following steps were taken to conduct the study: Collection of data: The data was collected from various secondary sources that are available in the public domain, such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Health Mission Determination of categories and parameters: It was decided to rank the districts across 12 categories. Multiple parameters were considered in consultation with domain experts to evaluate the performance of the districts in each category Normalisation of data: Once the categories were finalised, the data was normalised to arrive at a meaningful comparison across the districts. Depending on the…

Sidecar, DELHI The only Indian bar on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2020, Sidecar is run by Yangdup Lama and Minakshi Singh, also behind Gurgaon’s OG bartenders’ bar—Cocktail and Dreams Speakeasy Hoots, DELHI Previously a secret bar, Hoots is within Perch Wine & Coffee Bar and features the talent of Sahil Negi and Cindy Lalramngaihzuali Bombay Canteen, MUMBAI A pioneer in employing Indian ingredients in novel ways, Bombay Canteen (along with sister restaurant O Pedro) keeps its cocktail list fresh Masque, MUMBAI The flavourful cocktails are on par with the high gastronomy of the food menu. Their drinks are inspired by Ayurvedic philosophies Copitas at Four Seasons, BENGALURU Bengaluru’s beer-drinkers have a soft spot for this bar on the 21st floor of the Four Seasons. The cocktails are gorgeous and the…

There are two avant-garde Indian films that are helping the country save face at the 71st Berlin Film Festival this year. They are Delhi photographer-filmmaker Sohrab Hura’s The Coast, a 17-minute short, and Naeem Mohaiemen’s feature Jole Dobe Na (Those Who Do Not Drown, a Japan-Sweden-India co-production, 64 minutes). Both films have been included in Forum Expanded, the festival’s experimental section that explores cinema’s relations with other arts. Keeping Covid in mind, the Berlinale has been divided in two parts. From March 1-5, the film selection is being shown to the online European Film Market, while the physical festival takes place in Berlin cinemas from June 9-20. BOTH FILMS ARE PART OF BERLINALE’S EXPERIMENTAL FORUM EXPANDED SECTION Hura is an accomplished photographer, filmmaker and a full member of Magum Photos.…

Q. US-based Poisoned Pen Press calls you “one of India’s best-known comic-book writers”. You’ve published science fiction-horror comics such as The Kalki Project and The Reincarnation Man, as well as your Raj-era murder mysteries, A Very Pukka Murder and Death at the Durbar. What led you to semi-autobiographical fiction? I wrote the original version of this book when I was 26. I thought I had an insight into homesick Indians living abroad. I called it “Beginnings and Endings”. I showed it around and had any number of doors slammed in my face. Then it was accepted by Penguin (India), where it languished for many years. Writing comic books and the Arjun Raj Gaind’s The Anatomy of Scars is written in the first person. It starts just as the tumultuous events…

The600gmTirumala laddu distributed by the Tirupati temple tops the list of freebies handed out by poll candidates in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district. Voters can’t get enoughofthistemple prasadam.Panchayat polls are fought on a non-party basis but is it just coincidence that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s maternal uncle is chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, the board of the richest Hindu shrine? —Sandeep Unnithan with Kiran D. Tare, Ashish Misra, Amarnath K. Menon and Romita Datta…

10,938 PEOPLE WERE BOOKED IN 816 CASES OF SEDITION BETWEEN 2010 AND 2020 Cases include six filed during the ongoing FARMERS’ PROTEST in Delhi, 25 during the ANTI-CAA protests from December 2019 to February 2020, and 22 after the HATHRAS GANGRAPE in September 2020. In Tamil Nadu, FIRs alleging sedition were filed against around 3,500 people in 2010-11 for protesting the KUDANKULAM nuclear power plant…

“On OTT, you don’t need to have big names. If you make something that has merit, with a talented bunch of actors, people will like it” “It took time to understand that leading roles aren’t cast through auditions. I needed to be a part of a writer’s and director’s brain” P RATIK GANDHI HAS DONE GUJARATI THEATRE, blink-and-miss parts in Hindi TV shows, starred in hit Gujarati films including Bey Yaar and Wrong Side Raju and played the “hero ka friend” in Hindi films Loveyatri and Mitron. But the career-making role the Surat-born actor had sought since he moved to Mumbai in 2004 finally came with the streaming show Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, in which Gandhi plays the infamous stockbroker. Since its release, Gandhi has been ubiquitous in…

Earlier this month, Vinothraj P.S.’s sensational debut film Koozhangal (Pebbles) won the prestigious Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Though the Tamil film is hard-hitting, Pebbles is also distilled cinema; its precisely composed frames and minimalist approach mark it as the work of a true auteur. The film is about the relationship between the violent alcoholic Ganapathy (Karuththadaiyaan) and his son Velu (Chellapandi), 12, who walk 13 km in the parched landscape of drought-prone Madurai. The Tiger Award also brings the filmmakers €40,000 (around Rs 35 lakh) as a cash prize for this ‘love budget’ film. Pebbles, in a sense, exacts sweet revenge: Vinothraj’s married sister was once beaten up by her alcoholic husband and thrown out of the house at night with their two-year-old. She walked 13…