The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Industrial growth dips
Portents look grim for Indian economy

It is a matter of concern that industrial growth has plummeted to a paltry 3.3 per cent in July 2011 in contrast to the robust growth of 9.9 per cent in the same month last year and 8.8 per cent in June this year. The current setback is reminiscent of October 2009 when industrial growth had dipped to a paltry 2.3 per cent in the wake of a global meltdown. Whether the fall in July this year is an index of another slowdown in the economy is a matter of conjecture but the next few months will be crucial to determine the direction the country’s economy is taking. While manufacturing and mining sectors continue to be sluggish, it is capital goods in which the performance has been particularly shocking with a negative growth of 15.2 per cent. Partly this can be accounted for by the fact that the growth in this sector was an impressive 38 per cent in June.

Already, agricultural production has been tardy for quite a long time now. The services sector has been a saving grace but it cannot prop up growth beyond a point. The international business environment continues to be bad and in fact deteriorating and with the Reserve Bank raising lending rates and tightening liquidity so as to check rampant inflation, the negative impact on economic activity and growth was not inconceivable. If this had contributed to reining in inflation, it would have been worth its while, but what should cause some disquiet is that inflation continues to be high. The rising consumer demand still needs to be curbed.

India’s gross domestic product rose 7.8 per cent in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, the weakest pace in five quarters, government data show. Still, the expansion is the quickest after China among major economies, bolstered by higher incomes in the nation of 1.2 billion people. All in all, the portents for the Indian economy are far from encouraging. A prudent combination of sound fiscal and monetary policies can still prevent the situation from worsening.

Heritage conservation
Bureaucratic approach drains funds

That several sites of significant heritage relevance are lying in a shambles at Naushera Dhala, at the Indo-Pak border area in Punjab, fails to evoke a sense of shock. Reports of dismal neglect of valuable locations that are landmarks of our history and cultural evolution have been appearing in this newspaper from time to time. Quila Mubaraq in Patiala almost caved in this year under heavy rain, despite the fact that crores have been spent on its restoration. The government apathy to all things related to culture has now percolated to public apathy.

The cultural heritage of the nation or the state is the custodial responsibility of our governments. Their mandate is to safeguard the heritage for future generations. As such, it has been in the last few years that the government has woken up to the realisation that heritage — both tangible and intangible — needs to be conserved. After 2002, the budgetary allocation to the Archaeological Survey of India has been substantially increased. Last year, the 13th Finance Commission made historic budget allocations to states so that paucity of funds may not hamper restoration work of heritage sites. Punjab was allocated about Rs 100 crore for the same. These allocations, though, were made against ill-conceived estimates prepared by the bureaucracy, which allocates even conservation work to the lowest bidder, showing absolute disregard to professionalism and sensitivity required for handling the specialised job of conservation.

Though the government has shown concern for heritage by allocating substantial funds, it has shown absolutely no interest in developing human resources for conservation of this vital link to our cultural inheritance. Tales of priceless frescos being whitewashed by the PWD staff abound. Recruitment policies are fossilised, vitally relevant technical decisions are taken by bureaucrats who have no training in conservation work. Voices of concerned citizenry and professionals are drowned in bureaucratic attempts to earn more brownie points from politicians. All of this has resulted in funds lying unutilised or in a rush to use money before it ‘lapses’, fragility of these sites is ‘cemented’ literally to create eyesores. The state cultural department is still unwilling to grasp the gravity of the situation. As a result, priceless heritage sites, which could have supported tourism are either lying in neglect or are ‘modernised’ in a most grotesque manner.

Thought for the Day

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. — Robert Frost

ARTICLE

Advani’s yatra for power
Resentment building up in BJP
by S. Nihal Singh

There are many ways of looking at the surprise announcement of the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Mr L.K. Advani, that he would undertake yet another rath yatra, this time against corruption. At 84, he is not a spring chicken and to repeat the act of 21 years ago, setting aside minor yatras, that has surprised his party men as much as others, has catapulted him and the BJP into a new maelstrom that could change its political configuration.

First, it is clear that the original yatra in a Toyota van dressed as a chariot for the building of a Ram temple where the Babri Masjid stood at Ayodhya created a great wave of enthusiasm among Hindu masses in the Hindi-speaking belt contributing to the later catapulting of the BJP to its first – and thus far only – taste of power at the Centre. It also led to the polarisation of society and bloodshed.

Thus, it is easy to see the fascination yatras have for Mr Advani. They are figuratively his magic key to power. Yet the circumstances of September 1990 and today are vastly different. There is no consensual leader of the stature of Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the BJP; his party has failed twice to come to power in New Delhi under Mr Advani’s leadership. Second, the party is running under the thumb of its mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as never before, with Mr Nitin Gadkari having been foisted on the party, despite his apparent limitations.

And at the obvious behest of the RSS, Mr Gadkari had let it be known far and wide that the BJP would be contesting the next general election, due in 2014, on the basis of a collective leadership. His objective was to finesse the simmering leadership contest for the ultimate prize between Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Arun Jaitley, leaders of the opposition in the two Houses of Parliament, with Mr Narendra Modi, the Gujarat Chief Minister, waiting in the wings, despite being tainted with the 2002 pogrom and his capacity to polarise polity.

By a single announcement, Mr Advani has stolen his party’s thunder because he has rubbished the presidential firman on collective leadership. He is the party leader and has decided to devote his energies, despite his octogenarian status, to taking on the issue of corruption that has fired popular imagination, particularly on the newly prosperous middle class, for the good of the party and the country. But the veteran leader will discover that he has taken on more than he can chew.

Mr Anna Hazare has recently demonstrated that his single focus on corruption, aided by a brains trust and professional-level public relations, has enthused the middle class in particular as nothing has in recent times. Both the BJP and the RSS sought to bask in Mr Hazare’s shadow for partisan profit, and Mr Gadkari with his propensity for speaking in hyperboles even promised that the BJP would march under the Gandhian’s banner, a faux pas Mr Jaitley later sought to correct by saying that the party president was speaking figuratively. Now Mr Advani, in his apparent desire to have one last try for the prime minister’s post, has compounded Mr Gadkari’s error by setting himself in competition with Mr Hazare in the belief that the aura of the anti-corruption campaign was transferable.

If Mr Advani does indeed go ahead with his rath yatra routine, the future will show how it will fare, given the stark fact that the BJP itself has not covered itself with glory, despite the field day it has had in raking the government over the coals on the litany of scams that has kept the nation entertained and mortified at the same time. The record of the BJP government in Karnataka has set a new benchmark in corruption even by the standards of state politics. The BJP chose to retain the Chief Minister, Mr Y.S. Yeddyurappa, for a time as a measure of “political prudence”, as Mr Jaitley explained. Finally, with the Lok Ayukta’s stark findings on the Chief Minister and his crew, the party leadership had no option but to replace him.

A second whammy was administered by the arrest of the Reddys of Bellary fame on the strength of a petition in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh landing them in jail because in Karnataka, the major scene of their mining operations, the BJP state government was not interested in proceeding against them for obvious reasons. Learning from its bind in Karnataka, the BJP leadership quickly changed its Chief Minister in Uttarakhand because allegations of corruption were hanging over his head.

By announcing his new rath yatra, Mr Advani has roiled his party because on the face of it he cannot win this competing game with Mr Hazare and has upset his party’s three second rung leaders when the interests of the party would have been better served by attempting to prevent the leadership stake from being a blood sport with no holds barred. He is in the process of building up new resentments in the party when his role should have been of a father figure seeking to reconcile ambitious leaders.

For the present, the BJP has decided to grin and bear Mr Advani’s surprise gift. But the veteran leader seems to think that the travails of the governing Congress party would lead to an early general election and that he will be younger than he would be in 2014. The rub is that neither is the Manmohan Singh government as fragile as he seems to think nor is his party ready for an early election. The BJP’s strategy seems to be that the longer it can pick holes in the government’s performance, the better it will ultimately be for its own fortunes at the polls. It is worth recalling that the disappointment of the BJP leadership in losing the last but one general election was so great that it took the party more than a year to get over it. Mr Advani’s gamble is, therefore, not one worth taking.

MIDDLE

Much ado about nothing
by Rama Kashyap

A decade ago when seminar mania had not gripped the city colleges, my exposure to the seminars was limited. I had heard about seminars but never attended one. That was the time I had an exalted notion about seminars. But I was in for a (c)rude shock when I attended the first seminar of my life.

I remember it was a high-sounding seminar on feminism. Though supposed to be an international seminar, majority of the speakers were local. There was one from a little known university in Australia , the lone speaker from another country to justify the prefix international to the seminar. Nevertheless, I was quite enthusiastic. But soon my excitement gave way to disillusionment. Speaker after speaker held forth on the subject but many were wide off the mark. While some were brilliant, most were disappointing as they dished out ‘recycled’ matter in an insipid manner.

In less than a decade, from a rare occurrence, seminars have become a regular feature. In fact, there is a mad race among the colleges to organise seminars. A lot of investment in time, energy and resources is made. But perhaps the most daunting task for the organisers is to arrange the audience. The freebies in the form of attractive folders, writing pads and pens are necessary to attract the delegates but not sufficient to retain them in the seminar hall. The high tea and the sumptuous lunch are no guarantee for good attendance either.

Recently I attended a prestigious conference — a congregation of economists which shattered any illusion, whatsoever, that I had about seminars. During the course of deliberations, there were times when the seminar hall wore a deserted look. Many delegates disappeared after the inaugural session to appear at the lunch time.

There might have been a glaring lack of interest in the deliberations and proceedings by the participants but the scramble for free briefcases at the registration counter was remarkable. Many of the delegates were on family vacation, away for sightseeing for most part of the day. A few dozed off. Of course, the determined handful doggedly sat through all the sessions to listen to speaker after speaker trying to figure out sense from intellectual onslaught.

After attending dozens of seminars I have come to realise that a seminar is ‘Much ado about nothing’. If a meeting is where hours are wasted and minutes are recorded, a seminar is where day/days are spent but nothing worthwhile is registered.

My apologies to seminar enthusiasts for the outrageous comments, but to them I suggest let there be a mega seminar to judge the utility/futility of seminars.

OPED — FILMS

Hello, Female Bonding!
Whereas scores of films are made on male bonding in India, there is hardly any on female bonding. The success of Bridesmaids in the US might change the way women are treated in popular cinema.
Kishwar Desai

Even before the chick flick has had time to grow up, it is getting formidable opposition from an older rival, who is kicking it into the long grass with a well-aimed stiletto. Hollywood managers are looking with amazement at the zooming box office figures of Bridesmaids, a film about six middle aged women who get together for a wedding and almost wreck the occasion with their squabbles and misunderstandings. This is not a film about men, or even about a search for love (as in the Bridget Jones series)—but rather a tale of female bonding and friendship. It is a comedy which sometimes teeters on being rather unbearably vulgar—but it has been largely well received even by critics because it shatters the glass ceiling.

Hindi cinema: Testosterone bonding

Women films: Its not all about pretty, pastel, girly material

Bridesmaids, made without any well known stars, is a $ 30 million budget film which has already earned that many times over. It has outpaced the success of Sex and the City (SATC), or even Mama Mia! which first brought the idea of female friendship amongst an older age group onto the screen. But there are key differences between the films—which is why Bridesmaids is now being discussed as a breakthrough of sorts. Unlike the actresses one sees in films like SATC, the women in Bridesmaids are refreshingly normal looking ( even overweight!) and not plastered with make-up to hide all the blemishes. SATC has always been a fashionista parade, but Bridesmaids is charmingly bereft of Jimmy Choos and Gucci handbags. Another key difference is that while in SATC the women spent a lot of time moaning about their relationships with men, in Bridesmaids, the focus remains on the relationship between the women. Bridesmaids is by no means (despite the rave reviews it has been getting) a great film —but it is a bright and often very funny film about a subject that gets very little attention on screen: how do older women relate to each other —and what makes them good friends?

Why no all-women ensemble in India?

This is such an obvious subject to explore, one would imagine the profit oriented Hollywood production houses would have discovered the magic formula earlier. After all tapping into the large movie-going female population would set the cash registers ringing, wouldn’t it ? And if you can make films with an all-male cast—why not an all- women ensemble? But perhaps female dominant films with marginalised men are still anathema for most production and distribution houses. It took a brave producer to stick his neck out—-and the gamble has paid off.

Even in India the subject of friendship between women is very rarely explored on screen. Older women, if at all they are depicted, are shown as lonely, isolated figures, objects of suffering and despair , unless some man comes along and rescues them . Or they are matriarchal figures venerated by their husbands and sons. Rarely do these women have female friends, on an equal, meaningful footing.. If they do have a relationship with other women –it is usually antagonistic ( the saas bahu syndrome). There have been a few films where younger women are occasionally shown as being friendly towards each other , but this is usually connected to a romantic entanglement. The fact that women have deep, strong and lasting friendships which do not involve men is a concept that still needs to be explored in detail. A film like Dil Chahta Hai or even Rock On is basically about male bonding——and a gender makeover of these films is still not being contemplated. The surprising thing is that even a young female director like Zoya Akhtar has made a sequel to Dil Chahta Hai and not a female equivalent of it. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara seems to push the same theme forward but perhaps wouldn’t it have been more exciting to make a film about a group of girls or women in a similar situation?

Yet, Bridesmaids is doing well supported by a strong audience—- 70 per cent female. Even when I saw it at Harvard Square, in Boston, the small theatre was full mostly with women –who shrieked with happy laughter watching the feel-good film with no violence and the proverbial happy ending. Indeed, male reviewers have been writing about how even they rolled in the aisles while watching Bridesmaids. Can it be that its robust, Hangover-type gross humour has managed to bridge the gender divide ?

Women films make better business sense

Of course, Bridesmaids is not completely original. Those of us who have seen Hangover will spot similarities in the plot—in which much of the action takes place just before the wedding. However, whereas Hangover was all about men behaving badly during the stag party —Bridesmaids uses the pre-wedding bridal shower and bachelorette party to create the tension. Naturally, as things spiral out of control and go crazier and crazier , anxiety is built up whether the growing stress between the friends will destroy the entire wedding plans—and it is into this slightly predictable plot that the producer Judd Apatow who had earlier taken a humorous look at other rites of passage in Knocked Up and Forty Year Old Virgin, has decided to set Bridesmaids.

It tells the story of Annie ( played by Kristen Wiig, a stand up comedian who is known for her imitation of Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives) who has recently shut down her bakery and is working, unhappily, in a jewellery shop. Apart from her financial woes, she is also in a rather hopeless relationship with a very good looking man who is happy to sleep with her so long as she does not want any commitments from him. In the middle of this gloomy scenario which is handled with humour and excellent acting, her best friend Lillian, decides to get married. Lillian, played by Maya Rudolph, asks Annie to be her maid of honour, organise the rest of the bridesmaids as well her bridal shower and bachelorette party. (I have now been authoritatively told that these wonderfully all- American customs are also invading the Indian wedding scene, and are becoming important pre-wedding rituals!) The problem for Annie occurs when Lillian includes a new best friend, Helen ( brilliantly acted by Rose Byrne). Helen is everything that Annie is not . She is beautiful , rich and an organizer par excellence. It is the rivalry between Annie and Helen which leads to some really hilarious and a few completely crass encounters.

Time for aggressive comedies

This is , thus, not a film for delicate stomachs. It is a new kind of aggressive comedy which pushes everything—even the remains of a meal –onto the audience to get a laugh. What makes this more unusual is that the film is co-written by Kirsten Wiig, who has been honed on the Saturday Night Live show. It has a raw energy which makes it realistic —-and every effort is made to push everything to the limit. This is not a pretty, pastel, girly film as we know it . Neither is it chick flick when the bulky Melissa McCarthy decides to chase a man around an aircraft because she has fallen in love with him. Nor is it easy to watch as Annie and a young customer in her shop get into an increasingly abusive argument , and it is distinctly uncomfortable when Annie and Helen compete over a speech congratulating Lillian —-and both fight over the microphone to have the last word. But in each case –you do end up laughing. Perhaps the film has a kernel of truth within it.The film director Paul Feig later admitted that the film was often shot quite spontaneously —and the actors were encouraged to improvise –saying and doing things which they thought “rang true”.

Bridesmaids has certainly created a sensation —and even though it is not the best film, or even an easy film, it has got a good reception. Another reason could also be the ordinariness of the women on screen —perhaps we want to see films featuring not gorgeous creatures Angelina Jolie –but normal women like ourselves. I must admit I found it slightly over-the-top –but it has established the arrival of the female friendship flick. And that’s why it’s important.

London based Kishwar Desai is the author of Witness The Night, winner of Costa First Novel