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Divided Parivar |
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This above all
fifty fifty On record
PROFILE: Onir
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Divided Parivar Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been at the centre of this raging internal war. He monopolised the Mumbai show when he pushed the RSS and BJP president Nitin Gadkari to jettison his bête noire Sanjay Joshi as a condition for his participation in the conclave. This was seen as the first step by the Sangh in projecting him as the BJP’s prime-ministerial candidate for the next general election. The reaction was swift and fast. Events over the past month indicate Modi’s ascension has met with strong resentment from his rivals in the party. The power struggle has now intensified, as old equations are giving way to new alignments. Even as the BJP was struggling to put a cap on its divisions, Janata Dal (U) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar set the proverbial cat among the pigeons last week when he declared the NDA prime-ministerial candidate should have a “secular image”, and indicated his party would walk out of the NDA if Modi was projected for the job. He further embarrassed the BJP by breaking ranks over its decision to contest the Presidential election, and instead opted to support UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee. Nitish Kumar chose to strike now as it is becoming clear Modi will play a larger national role after the Gujarat elections this year-end. While the Modi-Nitish spat is not new, the JD (U) leader’s decision to go with the Congress in the Presidential election has the BJP worried, as it could set the stage for fresh political alignment before the 2014 elections. For now, however, the BJP and the JD (U) look set to continue in the stormy relationship.
Modi-Gadkari axis Within the BJP, an immediate fall-out of the Mumbai developments has been the patch-up between Modi and Gadkari. The two had a bitter falling out when Gadkari rehabilitated the Gujarat strongman’s long-time foe Sanjay Joshi in the party and gave him charge of the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. A furious Modi stayed away from the party’s last national executive meeting and refused to campaign for the party in the recent UP Assembly elections. He followed it up with the ultimatum before the Mumbai meeting that he would resign from the national executive along with all members from Gujarat if Sanjay Joshi was not axed. The RSS got into the act, and brokered a peace pact. Joshi was eased out, and Modi endorsed a second term for Gadkari. It is hard to say if the truce would hold, but Gadkari appears to have reconciled to Modi’s leadership, especially prodded by the RSS into doing so.
Advani in cold The Modi-Gadkari patch-up has further isolated party patriarch L.K. Advani. The veteran leader has been nursing a grouse against the RSS ever since it pressed him to take on the role of a mentor by stepping down as party president as well as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Advani also did not take kindly to the Sangh’s gentle reminder that he abandon his personal prime-ministerial ambitions when he decided to undertake a country-wide yatra against corruption last year. He was also miffed with the Sangh for having chosen Gadkari as party president. Worse, Advani’s relations with Modi also came under strain when the Gujarat strongman disapproved of the senior leader’s plan to commence his yatra from Somnath, as Modi himself had decided to go on a “sadbhavna yatra” about the same time. Advani felt betrayed when Modi joined hands with Gadkari in Mumbai. Advani was not present when the BJP constitution was amended to allow a second term to the party president. He also stayed away from the public meeting after the conclave. Advani later wrote a stinging blog in which he questioned Gadkari’s leadership.
Sulking Sushma While it is fairly evident Advani’s innings is over, his protégé Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, also faces the possibility of losing out, as she has aligned herself with the senior leader. She too did not participate in the Mumbai meeting where Modi stole the show with his rabble-rousing speech. Sushma, who sees herself as a mass leader in the same mould as Atal Behari Vajpayee, is obviously not pleased with Modi’s rising graph as it would snuff out her chances for the top post. At the same time, she shares an uneasy relationship with Gadkari because she believes he has marginalised her and depends more on her archrival, Arun Jaitley, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Jaitley, also an Advani protégé, has played his cards well, keeping all options open. He has not forsaken Advani, but at the same time developed a rapport with both Modi and Gadkari. In fact, there is talk about the emergence of a Modi-Gadkari-Jaitley nexus which, BJP insiders maintain, will dominate the party in the coming months. While the next act in this drama is yet to unfold, other players like Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie have decided to wait and see how the dice rolls before they align themselves with any particular faction or leader.
RSS, holding on
Having evolved from a bit player to an important political force, the BJP has been trying to shake off the stranglehold of its parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for years now. But the dynamics is such that despite its loosening grip over the BJP, the Sangh still calls the shots. The first glaring example of the Sangh’s direct intervention in the BJP’s affairs in recent years was when the RSS leadership took umbrage to Advani’s controversial remarks on Jinnah, and forced the veteran to step down as party president. Next, the RSS persuaded Advani to facilitate a generational change by giving up his position as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha in favour of a younger Sushma Swaraj. Simultaneously, Arun Jaitley was picked as party leader in the Rajya Sabha. On the organisational front, the RSS ensured its nominee Nitin Gadkari was installed BJP president, although Advani was rooting for his loyalist Ananth Kumar. More recently, the RSS stepped in to broker peace between Gadkari and Modi in the fracas over Sanjay Joshi, who was ultimately forced to resign from the national executive and later from the party itself. Although a section in the RSS has been unhappy with Modi’s dictatorial style of functioning, it conceded to the Gujarat strongman as it did not want the party’s internal battles to cast a shadow over the Mumbai conclave, which was to amend the party constitution to grant Gadkari a second term as president. The RSS also did not want any adverse impact on the party’s prospects in Gujarat, Himachal, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where elections are due over the next 18 months. The RSS, however, made it clear it should not be assumed Modi was the prime-ministerial candidate. A recent article in RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya underlined that the BJP had a number of competent leaders who qualified for the top post. However, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s response to Nitish Kumar’s statement last week that the NDA’s PM candidate should have secular credentials is being seen as the Sangh’s support for Modi. The Sangh has also suggested seniors like Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi should publicly rule themselves out of the leadership race.
With or without Modi
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is the fastest rising star in the BJP. Unlike other party chief ministers, who also have a good command over their states, Modi has acquired a far greater stature after ruling Gujarat for 10 years, successfully marketing himself through a combination of Hindutva credentials and a development agenda. His supporters also tout his growing international acceptability, especially by global investors, to underline that he has shed the “communal taint” that dogged him after the Gujarat riots. His rousing speech at the party’s Mumbai conclave demonstrated his strength at galvanising the party rank and file. Modi is not happy at being confined to Gujarat. Having forced out his bête noire Sanjay Joshi, Modi has demonstrated the BJP leadership and the Sangh cannot afford to ignore him. The next step is to push for candidacy for the Prime Minister’s post. His immediate priority is to secure a comfortable third term in Gujarat. “Thereafter nobody can stop him from moving to Delhi,” remarked a senior party leader. And to get that mandate, Modi’s plan is to deflect attention from state-related issues and instead focus on the UPA’s poor track record in governance. He will also invoke Gujarati pride to seek the centre stage in national politics. However, all this may not be smooth. For all his following, Modi has his fair share of detractors within his own party. Moreover, the NDA could end up losing its steadfast and popular ally, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (U), who has made it plain he will not embrace Modi, as he can ill-afford to alienate his minority support base.
Help for UPA In case the BJP does project Modi as the top candidate, it could prove a godsend for the UPA government, whose popularity graph is plummeting. The political discourse will change dramatically, as the non-performance of the ruling combine, price rise, and all scandals besetting it will vanish into the background. The communal versus secular agenda will then be upfront, turning the election into a referendum on Modi rather than the UPA. This would only consolidate the anti-BJP and anti-Modi forces. “We might get the committed BJP vote, but in the process the minorities and liberal sections of the majority community will come together and end up helping the Congress,” said a senior BJP functionary. Therein lies the dilemma for the BJP and the
Sangh.
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This above all
Iqbal seems to be in agreement with his denunciation of idol worship prevalent amongst Muslims. One verse in Jawab-i-Shikwa (Answer to the Complaint) translated by me reads: "You have no strength in your hands; in your hearts God has no place; On the name of My messenger, you people have brought disgrace. Destroyers of false gods are gone; only the idol-maker thrives; The sons of Abraham have departed. Azar's idolatious breed survives. Strange the company you keep; from new vats a new vintage wine you brew; You have built yourselves a new Kaaba with new idols because you yourselves are new". ...
Preetam is a champion of gay rights. He has sent me his version of Shakespeare's famous sonnets. I reproduce both the Bard's original and the Pakistani poet's rendering of it. First Shakespeare: A woman's face, with Nature's own hand painted,/ Hast thou, the Master Mistress of my passion;/ A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted/ With shifting change, as is false woman's fashion;/ An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,/ Gliding the object whereupon it gazeth;/ A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,/ Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth./ And for a woman wert thou first created;/ Till nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,/ And by addition me of thee defeated,/ By adding one thing to my purpose nothing./ But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure/ Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure. Preetam Giani: You, my boyfriend-girlfriend, have a woman's face,/ Fashioned by Nature's own hands, you also have/ A woman's tender heart, but not one prone/ To shifting change like women's fickle natures;/ Your eyes are brighter than theirs, less deceitful,/ Turning to gold whatever they look upon;/ You have a man's complexion, but can adopt all others,/ Which attracts men's attention and amazes women./ And you were created to be a woman,/ But nature, while she was forming you, got infatuated,/ And by over-endowment deprived me of you -/ By endowing an organ extraneous to my interests./ So, since she's made you a tool for women's pleasure,/ May your love be mine, and your love's function their treasure. Chicken is peacock
Santa went for dinner at a restaurant abroad. He liked the chicken so much that he asked the waitress 'Hor Hai!' She gave him a dirty look and disappeared. His foreign friend advised him to say 'more' in place of 'hor'. Santa: "Achha mainu nahin pata si ke ethe murge nu more kainde han" (I did not know they called chicken a peacock here). Paper caper
Santa fell in love with his boss's daughter and gathered enough courage to ask for her hand in marriage. Outraged, the boss exclaimed "How could you even dare to think of such a thing. Your salary won't even buy her month's quota of toilet paper!"Santa thought for a moment and said: "Enne pottia kardi hai, ta rahen do" ("If she does so much potty, let it be"). Don't berate friends
Santa caught his friend in the act with his wife Preeto. Enraged, he began berating his friend. Preeto tried to stop him saying: "Estra te tussi apne saare dost gava baithoge" (This way, you'll lose all your friends). (Contributed by Amrinder Bajaj, Delhi)
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fifty fifty Kishwar desai
My argument was that living in a multi-cultural society it was important to understand that communities need to contribute in a positive fashion to the country they live in, and sometimes racial profiling might be required to catch the ‘bad apples’. Not surprisingly, the BBC producer was thrilled to get someone from an ‘ethnic community’ who was willing to speak her mind, as very few people from a minority community are ever willing to admit that perhaps they too make mistakes. Usually, we prefer the mantle of victimhood. Everything is the fault of the majority, which cannot understand us or our culture, and all are inherently racist is the common argument. I disagreed, and since that always makes good television (I suppose!), BBC flew me to Belfast to participate in what was a heated debate. Of course, the danger lies in creating stereotypes, but racial profiling has become a dirty word in the UK because communities have protested that they have been unnecessarily targeted by the police. In fact, in some areas it has emerged that young black men are far more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than white. The question is whether this is related to crime figures or is this merely because the police is racist? I would like to believe that when the police is conducting searches, it is doing it based on evidence. It would be foolish to assume it is because the police simply does not like someone’s face or skin colour. While I also agree there will be, as happens all over the world, some racist elements in the police, one would be hard pressed to tarnish the whole force! I have to say that while my on-air comments have got a lot of support, there are a few who have been rather furious with me: as someone of colour, and a particular ethnicity, I should be crying myself hoarse rejecting any ‘racial profiling’ rather than supporting these ‘stop and search’ operations. But my argument was simple. I believe that if a community is known to have miscreants, wouldn’t it be simpler to be stopped and searched to weed out those elements, rather than to protest, and find the culprits have got away because the police is trying to be ‘politically correct’. Living in the UK, and looking at the amount of transparency and constant scrutiny of the police (and indeed, even of the press and politicians, as we have recently seen in the Leveson inquiry) — I find it difficult to believe that the entire force could be inherently racist and get away with it. The outcry over the death of one man, Ian Tomlinson, during the G-20 protests in 2009, when he was allegedly hit by a policeman wielding a baton, still rumbles on. The resulting well-publicised inquiry has been thorough and it is obvious that if the policeman is found to be guilty, he will be punished. And Tomlinson was a white man. The excuse given for the start of the London riots last year was that the cops shot a black man, by accident — and when word got out the riots began. No doubt the great sense of anger bubbling within the black community meant that these riots were just waiting to happen. But shouldn’t the community also take care to ensure that the automatic response to what was allegedly a criminal act is not escalating crime in turn? The ease with which street gangs, of mostly black disenchanted youth, took over the cities and looted from shops showed a complete loss of any moral fibre. Should then the community complain if there is increased scrutiny from the police over them? After all, it was youths like them who had contributed to the breakdown of law and order last year, and the police was accused of reacting slow. The reason is precisely that in the UK cops feel vulnerable when the minority communities indulge in crime. They are cautious because they know they face the likelihood of being accused of bias and prejudice. A similar thing happened when some members of the Pakistani Muslim community were found recently to be involved in raping white British girls. The investigation showed that even though a complaint had been registered sometime ago, it was ignored possibly because of the ethnicity of the community involved. In trying to be ‘politically correct’, the police made a major mistake and decided not to investigate. And many more girls were subjected to horrendous degrees of rape and abuse before the truth emerged. It did so only when an official who belonged to the community itself decided to conduct a more thorough probe. Ultimately, in both cases ‘racial profiling’ seemed to be a necessary evil but it was not pursued because the cops were scared of being branded as ‘prejudiced’. The same sort of furore has been taking place after the appearance of Islamist terrorism in the UK. While the community has protested against ‘profiling’, it is difficult to imagine who the police would look for if not young Muslim men who had been radicalised. I still reiterate that the police should thoroughly check each case —but sometimes random checks are required. While my comments might have caused a stir, at the same time I think we need to be furious with those members in our community who give us a bad name — because they have the same skin colour and ethnicity as us — rather than with the police force which is usually (at least in the UK) only doing its job. (Twitter:
@kishwardesai)
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On record
This
is a one-of-its-kind programme of providing a unique identity to citizens of India. In fact, the enrolment drive under the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India has helped create the largest online biometric data base in the world. Till date, fingerprints and iris (eye) scans of over 20 crore have been collected. Around 17.5 crore “Aadhars” (unique numbers) have been generated and 14 crore dispatched. After some initial glitches, the programme is back on track in the North. Kesni Anand Arora, Deputy Director-General of the UIDAI for Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, spoke to The Tribune about how the delivery of the 12-digit numbers would pick up soon with recent improvements in infrastructure. What have been the major achievements of the UIDAI in the North so far? Across India, the authority has completed its mandate of 20 crore enrolments, and almost 18 crore unique identity numbers have been issued. In this region, we have seen the maximum enrolments in Punjab, where 1.05 crore people have been enrolled. However, the highest percentage covered is in Himachal Pradesh, where 57 per cent of the population (39 lakh persons) has been enrolled. We were lagging in Haryana because the Public Distribution System smart card has been linked there with Aadhar. But now it is picking up there too. Besides enrolling such huge numbers, we have also started authentication services. The programme started with a big bang. What caused the sudden disruption in both enrolment and delivery of Aadhar cards? In the very first year, we made stupendous progress in enrolling people. We later faced problems getting the agencies to upload the data (including biometrics) fast enough. We imposed fines on some of the contracted agencies, but now we have also enrolled new agencies for collecting the data. There were delays in delivery because we had a tie-up with just India Post for printing and delivery. Now we have also enrolled Manipal Technologies Limited, Bombay Security Press and Kolkata Security Press, who have a combined printing capacity of 15 lakh UID cards a day. Our delivery now is 92 per cent in Himachal, 88 per cent in Chandigarh, 83 per cent in Haryana and 80 per cent in Punjab. When do you expect the enrolments to be over in the three states and Chandigarh? I expect 90 per cent of the enrolment to be over by March-April 2013. It’s a huge 6-crore mandate for us in the region. With new software being used from this month for uploading data, we are hopeful of finishing all data collection by mid-2013. Now on, the eLok Mitra Kendras in Himachal, eSampark centres in Chandigarh, and the Suvidha Kendras in Punjab will be our designated data collection and authentication centres. Once we are done, the National Population Registry will sweep the states and collect any data we may have missed. What is your biggest challenge? It is to make Aadhar socially inclusive, which means we are trying to enrol all underprivileged sections — be it the specially abled or the vast floating populations. While special enrolment camps are being organised with the help of NGOs, we have also come up with a system of “introducers”, who can introduce people who do not have any proof of identity for getting the card. There is also a mechanism for introducer verification. How are you encouraging people to come for enrolment? We are now launching a massive awareness campaign. Radio jingles, stalls at local melas, streets plays and other popular forms of media are being used to ensure 100 per cent enrolment. What are the benefits of getting a UID? Besides financial inclusion, the Aadhar-enabled payment systems will include giving away scholarships, payments under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), social security pensions, and PDS deliveries. The biggest achievement is eliminating duplication and fakes. About Rs 40,000 crore is being spent on the NREGS and more than Rs 3 lakh crore on subsidies and other social benefits. If we can check pilferage in this with Aadhar’s help, it will be a tremendous saving. An Aadhar-linked pilot project on direct transfer of subsidy for kerosene in Rajasthan has been a great success. In this region, 10 districts will undertake similar pilot projects following the Union Finance Minister’s announcement. In Himachal, the UID will soon be used for registration of property.
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PROFILE: Onir Onir never expected “I am” to bag the awards, which came as recognition of his “dexterous weaving of four different stories across India, which negotiate the complexities of people undergoing the trauma of being dispossessed and thereby disempowered”. What made the awards special is they acknowledge the space for a small film among the biggies of Bollywood. He had a tough time convincing studios to finance his venture, and used social networking platforms to raise the money. He asked people to give Rs 1,000 or more and be part of the film if they believed in the stories. Around 400 people from 46 cities across the world contributed nearly Rs 10 million. Today, Onir is “overwhelmed... The award is for all those people who helped me with the film.” “I am” comprises four short issue-based stories — “Omar” talks about gay rights; “Afia” sperm donation; “Abhimanyu” child abuse; and “Megha” relates the story of Kashmiri Pandits. This was Onir’s fourth film. His debut “My Brother—Nikhil” dealt with AIDS and gay issues. That was followed by “Bas Ek Pal” and “Sorry Bhai”. Though his childhood in Thimphu — where his father Aparesh Dhar was a school principal and his film-loving mother Manjushree a history teacher — was idyllic, films were always there in the background. With an elder sister and a younger brother, Onir was the ‘loser’ of the family. He had no interest in studies, and pulled pranks on his brother. A rebel from the start, he shortened his name to Onir while in Mumbai. The family shifted to Calcutta in the late 1980s following political unrest in Bhutan. He joined Jadavpur University to study comparative literature. The first few months were a cultural shock. Coming from the quaint Thimphu, where no one knew what “eve-teasing” was, he was disturbed by what he saw in the streets. While his mother may have fanned his interest in cinema, it was Shyam Benegal who inspired him to take it up as a profession. At the age of 12, Benegal’s “Junoon” was the first strong impression. Onir arrived in Mumbai in 1994 after studying filmmaking in Berlin. His sister Irene Dhar Malik was by then working as a film and television editor. For 10 years, he worked as art director, editor and music video producer.
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