In Kohli Move, The India Story

FIRST a disclaimer. I know just enough about cricket to perhaps manage to impress my house help. Or maybe not. But you can’t be a journalist with an Indian passport and feign ignorance about a news event as important as Virat Kohli fading out. Honestly, it would be some time before we know the truth about his resignation. There was no phenomenal talent snapping at his heals for natural succession unlike with Ganguly (Dhoni, Dravid being nightwatchman) or Dhoni (Kohli). Not unnatural if Kohli allowed his recent form to get to his mind, and not the first time if the BCCI bosses wanted a captain eased out for whatever reasons. At various points in time, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Azharuddin, Dravid - all have been eased out. One would say almost every captain! Stats show Kohli as India’s best captain in all forms of the game. But that’s for the cricket experts to dissect. Remember, I am not. So here’s a bit of pop sociology and the works, if you will. It’s a cricketing legend that when Kapil’s Devils brought the world cup home in 1983, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had to organize a Lata Mangeshkar concert to raise funds to decently felicitate the star cricketers. The then BCCI chief (and a union minister to boot!) NKP Salve was not deemed important enough to be sent a pass for the final at Lord’s. Last year, the BCCI had a turnover of about Rs 15,000 crores, or a little over USD 2 billion. Every international match India plays, pays the cricket board about Rs 40 crores. An IPL fixture even more at about Rs 55 crores. What a journey from 1983! Google richest cricketers in the world. Top three in all lists are Indian names, Kohli being in all of them at about Rs 1,000 crores of net worth. This presumably excludes his wife Anushka Sharma’s assets who is a successful individual in her own right. Why is this important? Indian cricket’s journey from penury to riches can be seen as coterminous with that of India on the move. The wealth – both personal and public – getting reflected in individual and national attitude. Commenting on the visiting Indian team under Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy sometime in 1998-99, former Australian captain Steve Waugh could not help but notice in his autobiography, the meek surrender the Indians would do every time they faced adversity on the ground. Same Waugh records, howsoever grudgingly, the transition that took place under Sourav Ganguly, mind games and all. “India was no more the soft underbelly squad under its feisty leader Sourav”, Waugh said after losing his farewell match to the ruthlessness of Ganguly in Sydney in 2003. Remember Ganguly’s famous late arrivals for the toss? Or the half Monty at Lord’s? Something was changing. If coming of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the mid-2000s was a sensation, in good measure it was due to the way the small-town upstart would conduct himself with no quarters given elan. Kohli only took it to the next level, with his tattoos and devil may care attitude. These years also saw the deepest bench strength perhaps for the Indian cricket team – and consistency of performance. This was also the time India was liberalizing with the economic reforms push. Foreign exchange reserves were steadily increasing. Growth was bringing in corporate profits, and hence sponsorships. Governments, both at the centre and in the states, started having more revenues at their command to invest in infrastructure and public services. From the meekly stewardship of a Sachin Tendulkar to the in-your-face nouveau riche of Sourav Ganguly to the internalized aggression of a Dhoni to the institutionalized aggro of Kohli, it has been a progressive transition that reflects how India has changed last three decades. That Indian cricket and India have moved together was most tellingly underscored by another former Australian captain Michael Clarke last year. In a radio podcast, he said that he notices many of his compatriot cricketers desist from sledging Kohli or his team for the fear of losing out on IPL contracts! One could paraphrase the same for Prime Minister Modi in the world of global politics! So how does Kohli’s leaving captaincy square up? Irrespective of whether he quit on the issue of form, or deeper disagreements with cricket bosses – BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal is on record saying Kohli still had 2-3 years of test captaincy ahead of him – at 33 years he has lived a full sporting life. Despite statistically the most successful captain, its likely the legacies of Ganguly and Dhoni would weigh more heavily on the shaping of Indian cricket in this century. The jury is still out.

Modi Sees in China An Opportunity, With Challenges, Not An Enemy

SCEPTICISM has been expressed in some quarters about the Narendra Modi government's China policy in the backdrop of the “informal” Wuhan summit with President Xi Jinping. Congress party has charged that the Wuhan summit happened in the shadow of reports that Chinese construction activities continue unabated on their side of Doklam. Doubts have ranged from lack of specifics to outright capitulation in Prime Minister flying down to China at a short notice. The reported MEA circular asking top government functionaries to stay away from Tibet Day celebrations had also played some role in fuelling the speculation.

Can one attempt to read Modi's mind? Apart from his four visits as PM, Modi has been to China four more times as Chief Minister of Gujarat, memories of one of which – to the Three Gorges Dam – he shared with Xi in Wuhan. The number of visits by themselves should be proof that Modi sees in China an opportunity, not an enemy. It could be safely said that as a leader, Modi is fascinated with some aspects of Chinese achievements which he thinks can provide solutions to many developmental issues facing India. One of the many acronyms he coined in those days – SSS for Speed, Scale, and Skill – has a clear Chinese ring to it. I remember every time he would return to Gandhinagar from his China visit, he would ask his bureaucrats to hold a press conference about the takeaways and what all could get replicated in Gujarat.

Should it mean, as sceptics believe, that Modi might be overlooking the threat from China in focussing on the opportunity part of the relationship? Far from it. As India's actions in Doklam proved, when push comes to shove, the Modi administration is not found wanting. Or for that matter, the surgical strikes against Pakistan post the Uri terror attack underscored the need based muscularity that his government could show. On trade for example, after the United States, India has lodged highest number of complaints with the WTO against China.

But conflicts, both of trade and military kinds, have opportunity costs that tap into national resources. There comes a time in the history of nations, as indeed in lives of individuals, when one digression can swing the destiny between success and defeat. Imagine if Abraham Lincoln had not moderated the radical Republicans to get the South into the Union kickstarting the Reconstruction. The four decades between Reconstruction and Progressive eras were of intense churn in the United States aimed at reforming and transforming the society on a solid bedrock of industrialization and development without getting involved with the outside world. It was due to this national consolidation that by the time of WW-I, a single private American financial institution – the House of Morgans – was bankrolling the war effort of British and French governments combined. Reconciliation was one of the three pillars of the Progressive thought.

Roughly the same time as that of Reconstruction Era in the United States, Japan hit the road to Meiji Restoration opening up to the world for learning, shutting out all conflict, and fully focus on uplift of the national mass under the Emperor. The trigger might have been Japanese awe of the advanced American warships under Commodore Matthew Perry in 1865, but the Meiji period over next four decades underscored a nation's collective will to dream of a progressive future, which Japan continues to live in some ways even a century later.

China took a similar route under Deng Xiaoping, his pragmatism encapsulated in his dictum “hide your ambitions and disguise your claws.” Chinese detente with the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and its subsequent rise over last four decades is recent history. Behind the self-assured brazenness of today's China is that period of focussing all energies on developing economically and not concern itself much with the world. The rise of China is a reality with which the whole world from America to Africa to Europe is struggling to grapple in its own ways. In case of India there's the added burden of a shared and disputed border.

At the development stage India is in, we need to keep our heads low and focus on the job of nation building brick by brick. Much like Japan, America, or China did in their restoration and reconstruction. Seen against this backdrop, contrary to a motivated perception about a perpetual 56-inch bravado, Modi has shown a streak of realism that should put him in line with a Deng. In readily agreeing to fly down to Wuhan, Modi might have only borrowed a leaf out of the Chinese book. It only helps that in an election year avoiding a stand-off with China might have electoral premium attached too.

IS IT TIME TO GET THE UNIFORM CIVIL CODE DEBATE GOING?

IT would be denied. It would be contested. No one in government would admit it on record. But make no mistake. The debate engendered by the triple talaq law leads us only in one direction - a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The contradictions in the positions taken by the opponents of the bill cutting across the political divide explain the thesis. Let me show how.

The Congress that confidently weakened the Supreme Court verdict to deny maintenance to Shah Bano in 1986 is now agitated that the triple talaq bill denies maintenance to Muslim women! While the official position of Congress party as stated by Ranjit Surjewala supported the law, with some caveats, leaders like Salman Khurshid dumped it outright. Khurshid had incidentally drafted the 1986 law for Rajiv Gandhi.

What explains the Congress ambivalence? For one, BJP ruling at the centre underscores that Hindu consolidation too can bring you to power. Congress’ Antony doctrine that was in full display recently in Gujarat made sure that the grand old party could not be seen to be taking a position against the majority narrative. At the same time, by remaining noncommittal to the minority sentiment it risks further alienating a traditional vote bank. The giveaway came at the time of voting on the bill when Congress refused to support amendments moved by Asaduddin Owaisi.

The AIMIM chief, who fancies himself as the sole Muslim spokesperson in present day politics, strongly championed the cause of Muslim ulema. But imagine what he did: In his intervention to oppose introduction of the bill, Owaisi strongly batted for Section 125 of CrPC, exactly the provision that was opposed by Muslim orthodoxy in Shah Bano case! Clearly shows the distance the nation has travelled between Shah Bano and Shayra Bano.

If you read between the lines, Congress showing nerves over minority appeasement, and Owaisi’s taking refuge under secular provisions of law like the IPC, and seeking protection under articles 14 and 25 of the Constitution, and not the Shariat Act 1937, shows how fertile the ground has become to bring debate on UCC out of the cold storage. Such is the force of public perception this time that even the most conservative elements within the Muslim community have not dared take a pro-triple talaq stand, only objected to State meddling in the domain of religion.

The day of the SC verdict outlawing triple talaq we had broken a story from the studios that the government would bring in a law to give statutory protection to the ruling. The minority view in the SC had actually wanted it to be left to the parliament to decide on the issue. While, the two minority judges might have reflected uncomfortable memories of the summer of 1986 in their caution, a politician as sharp as Narendra Modi grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Going by the discomfiture of Congress party, Modi might have achieved more than a couple of targets. While keeping the agenda setting initiative in his hands, he would have added an incremental vote of Muslim women for 2019, and most significantly, fired up his core constituency with dangling a possibility of that RSS utopia – the UCC.

PS: After our triple talaq law newsbreak, some editors called to question my understanding of law with the argument that SC verdicts become law of the land and do not need an enabling legislation. I responded by saying that while they could question my understanding of law (despite a law degree!), but not my grasp of the BJP led by Narendra Modi. What say?

Of Triple Talaq Politics...

LETS get provocative. BJP is the upholder of secularism. And judiciary follows politics closely. Or what else would you make of the facts connected with Tuesday's instant triple talaq verdict? Its yet another instance of BJP reading the mood of the nation, as Congress whirls in the vortex of its appeasement politics.

Its chronicled history of how Rajiv Gandhi government gave in to the ulema in overturning the Shah Bano verdict through a legislation. Arif Mohamed Khan is still alive to tell the tale. While on the one hand it left the judiciary confused on personal laws and the larger secularism question, on the other it fueled a counter right wing narrative of majority victimhood, scripting BJP's rise through the decade of 90s. Post Shah Bano, the Supreme Court touched questions of triple talaq and personal laws in case after case with a barge pole under Congress, giving most progressive interpretations of constitution on personal laws only during intervening periods of BJP rule.

Thus it is no coincidence that in 1995 Sarla Mudgal case Supreme Court rued lack of climate to even debate the uniform civil code. Two years later in the Ahmedabad Women's Action Group petition, the apex court still thought issues like talaq and polygamy remained the domain of the legislature. Both verdicts quoted by AIMPLB lawyers were under Congress and United Front governments.

Though the laissez faire on personal laws continued, SC demurred a bit in the 2001 Daniel Latifi case, acknowledging some connect between dignity of muslim women and fundamental right to life under Article 21. Lordships showed a little more courage in Javed vs. State of Haryana in 2003, terming polygamy as bad as Sati. Guess what both during BJP led NDA government!

So it comes as no surprise that instant triple talaq stands abolished in the country under a regime headed by Narendra Modi. Since October last, the Prime Minister has spoken with conviction on at least six occasions, taking cudgels on behalf of embattled muslim women. The BJP succeeded in tying the issue with the secularism debate. PM tweeted, and party chief Amit Shah addressed a press conference. The party would have no qualms admitting they see a constituency in half of the muslim population of the country. Congress on the other hand looked adrift, wooden, and even dishonest. Having so easily scripted arguably the most progressive Hindu reform after the Code Bills by giving Hindu women succession rights in parental property in 2005, Congress was again found playing footsie with ulema what with two of its leaders, Kapil Sibal and Salman Khursheed, representing the most regressive AIMPLB against Shaira Bano. No wonder which party comes out as more in command, and in tune with the mood of the nation.

Why Hafiz Saed Joining Politics Is A Good Bet...

SOUTH block mandarins have expressed concern at Mumbai terror attack mastermind, and UN designated terrorist Hafiz Saed joining politics. A Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson termed it an attempt by Saed to cover his blood stained hands with ballot ink. “After killing with bullets, he is trying to hide behind ballot” is how MEA saw it. But is it that detrimental or disturbing a development? How has recent Pakistani experience been?

A decade and a half ago, another rabid maulana – Fazl-ur-Rahman – burst onto Pakistani political scene. Leading the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a conglomeration of Islamic parties, Rahman gave a real scare to mainstream parties and became the principal opposition in the 2002 general elections. And then democracy took over. In the last election in 2013, Rahman's party commanded a mere 3.2 per cent of popular vote, and has only 15 members in Pakistan's National Assembly. In between he has aligned with a spectrum as broad in its ideological sweep as left of centre PPP, and right of centre PML(N). Similarly, General Musharraf of Kargil fame became amenable to dialogue with India only after relinquishing uniform. Compulsions of even a stagemanaged election impacted Chief Executive Musharraf to a level that it was under him that we came close to resolving Siachen.

Global experience too suggests that exercise of democracy does wonders to the creed of violence. The first time Hamas openly condemned Holocaust was in 2008, a year after it came to power in Gaza strip. Its ideological parent Muslim Brotherhood distanced itself from Al Qaeda and ISIS only after coming to power through a democratic election post Arab spring. Ulster Unionist David Trimble led Orange marches through Catholic neighoburhoods in 1995. One election changed him so much that he went in for talks with rival Sinn Fein, picked up a Peace Nobel for the Good Friday Accord, and by 2005 was annoying the orange order by participating in the funeral of a Catholic youth killed in an IRA bombing.

Latest ouster of Nawaz Sharif means that the Hydra-headed Pakistani state, with its non-state actors thrown in, is not going to become a place worth talking to anytime soon. Between the strenthened military and the nutheads of Saed kinds, India has little leverage left with the recalcitrant neighbour. So here is the deal. Welcome Saed into politics and let democracy, howsoever shallow in Pakistan, assimilate the terrorist. The elixir of democracy has its ways of making strange bedfellows. The aphrodisiac of power softens, not harden, the ideological edges.

A child of Zia ul Haq like Sharif, Saed has openly batted for Punjabi as Pakistan's national language and not Urdu. His party – Milli Muslim League - has pledged to implement the ideology of Pakistan in accordance with the 1973 Constitution, and the vision of the Quaid-i-Azam and Allama Iqbal. The Consitution was the product of an avowed socialist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Jinnah in his August 11, 1947, speech wanted a Pakistan where Hindus won't be Hindus, Muslims won't be Muslims. Iqbal wrote “Hai Ram Ke Naam Pe Hindostan Ko Naaz,' and more famously “Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindostan Hamara.” And you thought a terrorist can't be confused. Well, strains of falling between two democratic stools are already showing up. If the Indian state is sharp, we should only wish him Allah-speed!

Kashmir Diary-I

Writing On the Wall In Pampore...Ghazwa-e-Hind.

PAMPORE is where south Kashmir begins - the nerve centre of Jamaat’s might that has seen majority of encounters between security forces and terrorists in the last two months. The Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building is targeted for being a symbol of Kashmiri youth’s escape from the clutches of trans-border Jihad. As Army engages the militants, and local police provides back up support, a third ring is thrown around the operation by the paramilitary forces. Over an arch of two kilometers, the commandoes stand guard with their backs towards the encounter site. I ask the commandant about the queer placement. The boys from the villages pelt stones at forces to distract them from the operation. The third ring is to merely prevent that, he explains. A bunch of students with public school appearance in blazers and ties stops a few meters away, shouts Nara-e-taqbir Allah-hu-Akbar, and leaves as if nothing else needs done.

ASHRAF owns and drives a cab through the tourist circuit of Kashmir. He has a 9-yr old daughter with an ailment that needs a complex procedure in her head every year or so if she has to keep living. Two summers ago as she lay dying, a doctor couple came honeymooning from Delhi. A bond emerged as Ashraf took them around the snow clad meadows of Gulmarg and Pahalgam made famous by score and more of Bollywood flicks from Bobby to Haider. The doctors realized they could help. Since then, Ashraf has driven twice to Delhi, and got her treated for free. How does this affect his thinking? My unit engineer is headed for a guest live in the evening on the outskirts of Srinagar. As the car passes Batmaloo, he asks Ashraf wasn’t this the spot of an encounter a week ago where two terrorists were gunned down? An agitated Ashraf corrects him that they were not terrorists but Mujahids. Over next four days he betrays emotions for Azadi, and speaks the language of victimhood nevertheless.

MILLENIA before the British were born, Pandavas left no mountain range from Himalayas in the north to Vindhyas in the south, where they did not spend some time of their exile, thus marking out lose boundaries of India that is Bharat. So while following a trail of signages for a Pandava hideout in Tangmarg, I bump into Ahmed Bhat, a small time contractor with the state forest department. He invites home for tea. Perched atop a cliff overlooking the scenic Drung valley famous among anglers for its trout, the wooden Bhat home is straight out of a picture postcard. Making us comfortable in the carpeted warmth of his guest room, he vanishes for a while. Just as I start wondering if something is amiss, apprehension melts as Ahmed reappears with tea and biscuits in a tray. His teenage son is studying computers in Ludhiana, and daughter goes to village school. “Have you seen a terrorist?” I ask a cub reporter question on first assignment to Kashmir. "So many of course. They come and stay in any home in the village they want. Who can stop them?" It's a melange of emotions ranging from fear of the gun to camaraderie of a cause, from motivation of Islam to memories of those dead that connects the terrorist and the Kashmiri. Often its the sheer triteness of a situation that hangs as a cloud over the valley most times of the year, year after year. “Who in right mind would want this uncertainty around life? But its beyond commoners like us now. Only thing I could do was to send my son out of this ecosystem and hope for the best,” Ahmed says, pouring more tea.

MUDASIR is a quintessential Kashmiri: passionate, emotional, hewn of the Kashmiri literary tradition. Once, in his youth, he might have been a stone-pelter, shouting Azadi. Now he is a cop. As a sub-inspector heading the Janglatmandi chowki in Anantnag – at the centre of the post-Burhan Wani unrest – Mudasir stands at the other end of the stones, proof of which he carries all over his bruised body.

I meet him the day a blog-post by a young Kashmiri IAS officer has gone viral. The harangue is how alienated the officer feels in the valley because of jingoistic national media in Delhi. While the articulate babu only has to choose on which channels his profile should get aired, Mudasir is more of a nuts-and-bolts man on the ground. “What the terrorist indulges in is visual spectacle,” he borrows from Aristotle. And then adds: “We need a tough body controlled by a calm mind to handle the situation.” Between Newton and Gandhi, the latter is the obvious choice for him. “India won its freedom through Gandhi. We can’t fall in the trap of equal and opposite reaction.” Would this end? He says it won’t. Aristotle concluded in Rhetoric that spectacle was the least artistic form of tragedy. Kashmir’s present is a tragedy wrapped in a spectacle indeed.

HIS name needs to be protected. So let’s call him K. As the Kashmir crisis broke in 1989, K crossed over to Pakistan and spent a year training as a terrorist across the region from Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistani Punjab to Khosht and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. From 1991 to mid-1990s, he remained a militant in the valley carrying jihad against India. That was the time when the foreign elements free from Afghan theatre started gaining upper hand, leaving the local boys disillusioned. They could not connect with the Kashmir that was being introduced to them from across the border. Assisted by the establishment, some of them turned against Pakistan and came to be identified as Ikhwans. K lives a quiet life somewhere in south Kashmir now, and admitted to feeling both suffocated and threatened. His suffocation has led him to social media activism against the Hurriyat narrative, which in turn has brought him under the radar of separatist forces that would want him “sorted-out” as he says, by which he means he might be eliminated. With their hands full post Burhan Wani, security apparatus too can’t offer him anything beyond neglect, thus making him wonder if he chose the right path. His facebook posts however show he still has hopes from Delhi, which in turn should give Delhi some hope.

MY guide for the Makhdoom Sahib dargah perched atop Hari Parbat in downtown Srinagar is in his early-20s. He is clean shaven and wears denim. As I get in, he stops at the entrance. Says he does not believe in dargah worship. Inside, the shrine has equal number of men and women partaking spirituality without segregation. Haji Ali, take note. Makhdoom Sahib in many ways represents the original instrument of accession of Kashmir with India. A contemporary of Akbar, and a seventh generation convert from a Chandravanshi Rajput family of landlords, the saint had invited the great Mughal to take control of the valley and contain the spread of Shia influence of the waning Safavids to the west. By the mere act of refusing to enter the shrine, the young boy disowns the very Kashmiriyat for which the stone pelters are ostensibly fighting. Till about a decade ago, Asiya Andrabi would orchestrate acid attacks to intimidate young Kashmiri women into wearing hijab. Now, sisters Atiya and Nafsia Rizwi have opened an Abaya shop in Hawal area, selling designs they call a fusion of Arabic and Iranian cultures. Arabic? Iranian? Kashmiriyat?

(Should there be part-II to this Paradise Lost?)

Whom Does Balochistan Hurt?

CONCERNS have been raised in some quarters that Prime Minister’s Balochistan outreach (as also sharp focus on Gilgit-Baltistan) with emphasis on Pakistan’s human rights record in these territories might backfire.

The specific fear is that mirroring Pakistan’s stance is a false equivalence which might bring unnecessary global attention to Kashmir. Also, it can potentially rile the extended neighbourhood, and bring down India’s moral standing in the comity of nations.

Let’s take these arguments one by one. In the fluttering-twittering times that we live, should we fear internationalization or losing the plot to the enemy? To be provocative, has Kashmir not had international resonance earlier? If yes, to what consequences?

From the UNCIP/UNMOGIP days in the immediate aftermath of partition, to JK Galbraith’s soft borders solution, to the Robin Raphel nadir in mid-1990, Kashmir has shown atavistically on global radar through much of its troubled history. While those might have been engaging, even tense periods for diplomats, subsequent history proves that it did not waiver India’s resolve to hold on to Kashmir in any manner. In fact as the post-Kargil United States’ pressure on Pakistan proves, it was in India’s favor as well.

There are a couple of reasons why international focus in changed circumstances might even be to India’s advantage. First is connected with the growth dynamics of India. When Kennedy sought to push his plans with Nehru, India was also begging for PL480 wheat. Cut to George ‘Dubya’ Bush, when his Af-Pak emissary Richard Armitage, bluntly told the Pakistanis that he was no interlocutor on Kashmir. This was when India was close to becoming a trillion dollar economy. Now we are close to 2.5 trillion with clear markers of it touching 10 trillion in a decade or so.

The second factor is connected with global currents. Ignoring Islamist radicalization much through 1990’s, demarches would be issued to Indian diplomats in Washington, Geneva, and Oslo on our human rights record in Kashmir. Statements would ritually add that the problem should be solved “taking into account the wishes of Kashmiri people.” But 9/11 made western capitals realize that the Frankenstein could turn towards them too. The sermons got muted. And post-ISIS world is going to be even more receptive to India’s viewpoint on Kashmir. This year has seen nights spent by foreign tourists in France down by 8.5% due to terror risks. It has started hurting.

Now let’s come to the other two issues raised. That Modi’s picking up Balochistan could alarm neighbours has partly come undone with Afghanistan making noises of approval. Does it rile China? May be yes, but why should it be a cause for worry? That the 40-billion US dollars China-Pakistan Economic (CPEC) corridor creates security challenges for India is an accepted fact. Iran opting to give Chabahar to India is indication enough that Gwadar is a concern for them as well.

Lastly, the argument that India’s moral stature could stand diminished sounds a little antediluvian. Is it not a redundant Nehruvian argument, a relic which most of the times failed Nehru himself? Are China and Russia members of the Security Council because of their moral standing? Has our moral posturing all these years since 1947 restrained Pakistan in any manner?

There is no gainsaying that the Modi government’s handling of its Pakistan policy has ranged from clueless to confused despite Prime Minister’s restlessness to engage with the truculent neighbour. But that should not stop from a calculated innovation to be brought in. It is up to the MEA mandarins now to fine tune the initiative.

The Jantar Mantar Of Democrazy

COVERING protests is elementary journalism. But when the protests are made for the camera the reporter can take a back seat and observe instead. This one is about the barricaded stretch between Ashoka Road and Parliament Street that acts as the pulse of nation’s ailments. And fanciful solutions too.

On any good day Jantar Mantar provides a patchwork quilt of subaltern sub-nationalisms. From tribals of Narmada valley to a rape victim from Punjab; from veterans unhappy with pensions to left-liberals questioning Army’s copyright on patriotism. Anger and accommodation go together.

In a corner a man sits spinning Charkha in just the padmasana pose Bapu would have, selling books on Gandhi thought, lamenting how the Mahatma has gone from our lives. Bang opposite him a group of white robed men carry out a Havan for a contemporary Bapu – Asaram – praying for his acquittal in a rape case.

Then there is the curious case of Professor Bhim Singh, self styled supremo of J&K based Panthers Party. He wants complete integration of the State with India, but protests here for a more mundane stuff. He wants his MP’s flat at VP House – taken away by the Modi government as he is no more an MP – back, so that he can continue his struggle against the infiltrators in Kashmir from Rafi Marg!

But then things get more curious. There is a protest by the All India Guard’s Council against injustice to them in the seventh pay commission award. Yogi Adityanath is the chief guest. Pray, what on earth is the connection of the firebrand BJP MP from Gorakhpur with those guarding rear of trains in India? That too against his own government? To paraphrase Deng Xiaoping, it does not matter what color the cat is so long as it catches votes.

A group of students affiliated to Congress want Parliament to enact a law in memory of Rohith Vemula. An association for paramilitary forces wants a law removed that disfavors their pensions. A famished woman in tatters comes to me and wants to know which channel I am from. In good English with a southern accent. Am told she is a former nurse who lost the narrative of her life under the crush of circumstances and can now be seen giving stump speeches to whoever cares to listen on all ailments India has, and their solutions.

And just in case one thought that the protests confirm to prevailing ideological cleavage, there comes a group of Hindu Sena complete with saffron scarves shouting “Rajnath Singh Hosh Mein Aayo.” If for a day the wishes of all those sloganeering Halla-Bol and Goli-Maro were granted, half the cabinet of the country would have to be shot dead, as also scores of bureaucrats, cops, judges, politicians, industrialists, and businessmen. Revolution would have arrived.

In the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament there is the story of Tower of Babel. In it, a united humanity, speaking the same language, decides to build a tower that would touch the heaven. The act of defiance and enterprise is clearly not liked by a concerned God, who confounds their speech, confuses them, and scatters them around the world.

Perhaps an ingenuous Raisina God took reverse inspiration from the story and created a Tower of Babel at the Jantar Mantar, to act as a safety valve for all angst that the nation generates daily. In the bargain keeping the heat from reaching the Hill, where mandarins can keep their cool while fixing India’s tryst with destiny. For better or worse can be dealt separately.

Meanwhile, in the mêlée I spot a young capitalist boy hawking tea. He has improvised by bringing in green tea in the bucket, spotting business opportunity in the English-speaking health-conscious segment of the protesters. I would wager that ten years down the line he would have more freedom in his life than the Bolshie boy shouting Le Ke Rahenge Azadi.