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Finish it fast
Modi’s claim shattered
Bollywood returns |
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Holding Parliament to ransom
Married forever!
of Dead & dying art journals
A legacy of visual illiteracy
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Finish it fast
Though
public opinion increasingly favours the abolition of the death sentence, not many may find fault with the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the conviction of Ajmal Kasab. The question that agitates public mind is not why he has been given the death penalty, but when it will be carried out. The enormity of the act – waging war against the state and the killings of 166 persons – puts it in the “rarest-of-the-rare” category. His guilt has been established under the “due process of the law”. His participation in the 26/11 attacks was filmed and he was caught in the act. His Pakistani origin and links with the Lashkar gang of terrorists have been established and the court has concluded that “this is a case of terrorist attack from across the border”. His young age was a mitigating factor but the court found him remorseless. The Kasab verdict has revived the debate about judicial delays. Given the outrage that the Mumbai attacks provoked, the dominant public mood is for instant hanging. However, the legal system provides every convict a fair chance for defence, and the punishment is carried out after all legal options are exhausted. In recent years extraneous considerations have come to influence decisions. The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution last year seeking clemency for the killers of Rajiv Gandhi. Jammu and Kashmir wants Afzal Guru to be pardoned. Punjab favours mercy for Balwant Singh Rajoana. Will Kasab join the queue or will his case be expedited? Some feel the case should be disposed of fast since Rs 26 crore of public money has already been spent on his security, stay and food. However, the law provides him an opportunity to file a review petition, which can be followed by a mercy petition. Once the legal process is completed, the President and the Home Ministry should not delay hangings or sleep over mercy petitions. There are 402 convicts on death row. The Supreme Court rightly observed in 2009 that “human beings…shouldn’t be used as pawns in furthering some larger political (goal) or government policy”.
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Modi’s claim shattered
Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been describing
the large-scale killings of members of the principal minority community in 2002 under the very nose of his government as a “spontaneous reaction” of a people whose pride was hurt by the burning of train compartments in Godhra, resulting in the death of many “karsevaks”. Wednesday’s verdict of the Supreme Court-appointed special court convicting 32 persons, including a former minister in the Modi government, Dr Maya Kodnani, in the Naroda Patiya massacre case has proved the Chief Minister’s claim as false. The gynaecologist, a BJP MLA since 1998, has been found involved in a “conspiracy” hatched by powerful persons that led to the Naroda Patiya riots, resulting in the death of 97 persons. Dr Kodnani was the Minister for Women and Child Development in March 2009 when she was arrested following a probe by the Special Investigation Team set up under the direction of the apex court. Another senior leader of the Sangh Pariwar convicted in the 2002 riots case is Babu Bajrangi of the Bajrang Dal. The special court’s verdict has come at a time when Mr Modi is busy projecting his image as a secular leader of the BJP with an eye on the post of Prime Minister after the 2014 parliamentary elections. His supporters have been claiming that Gujarat’s development record shows that Mr Modi can be the “ideal” candidate for the top executive post if the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) emerges in a position to form its government. The conviction of the former minister may also affect the outcome of the December assembly elections in Gujarat, spoiling the chances of the BJP to recapture power under the leadership of Mr Modi. The verdict is bound to bring into sharp focus once again the failure of the Narendra Modi government to prevent the massacre of innocent people in Gujarat in 2002. The court has also convicted three persons of being involved in gang rapes in Naroda Patiya, the second case in which this heinous crime has been proved after the Bilkis Bano case. The verdict has a larger message: India remains wedded to secularism, and those who attempt to disparage its image in the comity of nations will get their just deserts irrespective of how powerful they are.
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Bollywood returns THE paradise on earth, the Kashmir Valley, is creating a buzz as a Yash Chopra film, starring Shah Rukh Khan, being shot here. Ever since Shammi Kapoor swayed to the tunes of the evergreen lilting number, “Taarif karoon kya us ki” from “Kashmir Ki Kali”, Dal Lake found a permanent place on the mindscape of millions of Indians. In fact, once upon a time the Valley was the destination of filmmakers only too eager to shoot in its picturesque locales. After insurgency struck Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s, the number of film shootings declined considerably. Even films like “Roza” and “Fanaa”, which hovered around the theme of Kashmir, were shot elsewhere. However, the winds of change are blowing in the Valley. Not only has the tourist inflow been steady, but the state has also seen an increase in the number of film crews. In recent times, several films, including the blockbuster “Rockstar”, have capitalised on the beauty of Kashmir. How significant is the return of Bollywood film shootings in the Valley can be ascertained from the interest being shown by the government. To attract filmmakers, a tulip garden with an increased number of plants was inaugurated. The Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Minister prevailed upon the Karnataka film producers to resume shooting in J &K. A few months ago the government formed a nine-member committee to facilitate film shootings in the state. The impact of film tourism cannot be underestimated. The setting of film locations, especially in a country like India where cinema influences many of our habits, often lures potential tourists. Film shootings in J&K will not only boost the image of the state but also send out right signals to the world at large. The world over, movies have been found to fuel tourism boom. Hindi cinema’s affair with the Valley is not a new-found love. Let’s hope that the Yash Chopra film will push it into prime time consciousness. Like Chopra films right now it might seem like a gossamer dream, but with public support and government initiatives it’s not one that can’t be
realised.
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I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. — John Burroughs
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Holding Parliament to ransom OVER the past several decades the prestige and authority of Parliament, the nation’s apex legislature, has been callously undermined and eroded consistently and persistently. Not by outsiders but its members themselves. One group or the other of them thinks nothing of disrupting the proceedings almost on a daily basis on one pretext or the other, no matter how flimsy. A lemming-like rush to the well of the House and shouting of slogans is the standard device to get the House adjourned for the day. For a full five years, during which he was Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Somnath Chatterjee tried hard to stem the rot but to no avail. Even so, while having lost all hope of an improvement in parliamentary standards, I had never thought that these could deteriorate further. Alas, they have. Never before has Parliament faced a challenge so grim as it does today. In the past, no matter how bitter a dispute or how prolonged the consequent stoppage of parliamentary proceedings, the two sides found some way to compromise and resume work. This time around such a denouement would not be possible if the BJP doesn’t give up its intransigent stand that it would not allow a discussion in Parliament on “Coalgate” — the allegedly stupendous scam in the allocation of coal blocks during the years when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was his own coal minister — until he resigns. Since the PM has no intention to do so, it seems the old story of an irresistible force and an immovable object would repeat itself. However, the principal Opposition party has left no one in any doubt that it is sticking to its resolve. No wonder therefore that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has hit back at the BJP in kind, accused it of not believing in democracy and told her followers not to be “defensive” but to go on the offensive. She has even said that, “if necessary”, she would not hesitate to hold early elections. Since then the war of words between the two sides has escalated fast and both mainstream parties are threatening to “take to the streets”. Nothing would be more untimely than the chaos and confusion that is bound to follow. More than 80 vital Bills, on most of which there is consensus in Parliament, have been pending for years. They will continue to languish. Farewell, therefore, to all hopes of efforts to stem the dismal decline of the economy. No less worrisome is that ethno-religious violence in Assam has not only recurred but also spread to new places. Only the other day people have witnessed that happenings in that remote region have started having ugly repercussions across the country. With governance at a virtual standstill, who would cope with such crises? Long before these developments, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, who is also an eminent lawyer, had propounded the strange doctrine that “obstructionism” is a “legitimate” parliamentary weapon that his party would use until Dr Singh’s exit. The BJP’s rationale is that it has got a “golden opportunity” to go for “Congress’ jugular” inasmuch as, within the “scam-smothered” United Progressive Alliance, the “stain of corruption” has reached the “very top”, to the door of the PM himself. Hence the party’s determination to keep the spotlight on the corruption issue right up to the 2014 general election. Asked whether people wouldn’t be alienated by unending paralysis of Parliament, BJP stalwarts retort: “It is persons like you who worry about this matter. The masses are disgusted with rampant and gargantuan corruption and they are with us.” A discussion in Parliament before the PM’s resignation, party leaders say, would only mean that the critically important issue would be “talked out”, and in the Public Accounts Committee that examines the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General, the Congress majority would “trash” the coalgate report, as it had done in the case of an earlier report on 2G. In all fairness, this apprehension cannot be dismissed out of hand, judging by the Congress party’s tactics in the past and the vigorous offensive on the saffron party it has launched now. Sadly, it is the astonishing level of animosity between the two mainstream parties that has so distorted the Indian polity. There is a further problem. Among a billion plus Indians there is not a single elder statesman around who could have persuaded the two sides across the political divide to respect basic parliamentary norms. It is in this context that the sequence of events in recent days should be viewed. After the BJP had succeeded in paralysing Parliament for a whole week, the Prime Minister decided to have his say on Monday even while the raucous slogan-shouting by BJP members rendered him inaudible. He read out parts of his elaborate 32-point statement and then placed it on the table of the House. It is thus a part of parliamentary proceedings, and its text is available to whoever wants it. Dr Singh took “full responsibility” for the allocation of coal blocks. At the same time he denied any “impropriety”, described the CAG’s report on coal as “disputable”, and said that it would be “challenged” in the PAC. Many, not necessarily partisans of the BJP, have regretted this. Heads of government are expected not to run down constitutional authorities. The CAG has promised to give his reaction “at an appropriate time and at an appropriate forum”. If the BJP wanted to “tear into” the Prime Minister’s defence of “coalgate” the place to do so was the floor of Parliament. But it chose to fire its salvos from the party’s head office. Mr Jaitley and the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, held a joint Press conference, flanked by the entire BJP presidium. The Congress would do well to note that many others, not all sympathetic to the saffron party, share some of the BJP leaders’ criticism of the Prime Minister’s statement. The CPM, the CPI and the Telugu Desam Party, for instance, strongly support the BJP’s demand that the 142 coal block allocations be cancelled and put on auction. Sonia Gandhi’s reference to an “early election” would add to the intense speculation on the subject that is already rife. One view is that “three M’s — Mulayam, Mayawati and Mamata — would matter most in this respect”. Perhaps a fourth M, “mota mal”, can be added to the
list.
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Married forever! What
does it take to let a marriage work? Tolerating each other in all ups and downs of life, cooperation, eating and drinking in moderation and just getting along because in a long and happy marriage there has to be give and take. The piece of advice came from none else but the longest married couple in the world, Karam Chand (106) and his wife Kartari (99) who tied the knot in a Punjab village way back in 1925 and moved to Britain in the first big wave of Indian migration in 1965. The couple is now looking forward to another milestone on Kartari’s 100th birthday next year when she will receive a letter from the Queen of England who customarily sends greetings to all her loyal
centenarian subjects. As I discussed the subject with my parents, who are in the 64th year of their marriage, my mother commented that the reason many marriages did not work these days was that today’s generation wanted everything instant. Surely, I have never heard our parents quarrel as they understood each other without even speaking. My mother in a jovial mood blamed men for the increasing number of divorce cases as she recalled how a 99-year-old man had sought to end an almost eight-decade-long relationship following the revelation of an affair 70 years earlier. This will make them the world’s oldest divorcees ousting the 98-year-old British native of the title! What led to the demise of the long-lasting relationship? It seems the husband, Antonio, found love letters in an old chest of drawers that his now 96-year-old wife, Rosa, had written to a lover way back in the 1940s. He showed his wife of 77 years the letters and immediately demanded a divorce. When confronted with the evidence of her affair, Rosa confessed her infidelity. The couple has a dozen grandchildren and one great-grandchild. My father insisted that reasons for divorce were from frivolous to ridiculous and simply bizarre in some cases. If a husband wants to step out of his marriage because his wife cooks meat in a cooker while his mother used to do it on slow fire, a woman wants to walk away from her husband as she does not want to go to the same doctor her husband engages. He said absurd instances and idiosyncrasies had become major reasons for seeking divorce. The fast-paced lifestyle is also making couples suffer from low impulse control. You have to trust each other. Today’s couples have no patience. The way they fight is as if one person has to die in the battle. The married-forever-mantra has perhaps best been summed up by a well-known woman author, Mignon McLaughlin, who opined that “a successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same
person.”
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of Dead & dying art journals In 1980s, a group of artists including Ghulammohammed Sheikh, Bhupen Khakhar et al started a magazine called ‘Vrishchik.’ It was completely devoted to spreading the ideas about the then contemporary art that was more figurative narrative in fashion. ‘Nandan,’ published from the Vishwa Bharati University (Shantiniketan) was another journal that made its presence. ‘Nandan’ is still published but it does not count among prominent or popular magazines, as far as Indian contemporary art is concerned. ‘Contra’66’ was another magazine that was published by J. Swaminathan from Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal. It too did not survive beyond a year. After the death of the illustrious artist, no one took it up. Efforts continued to keep up the theoretical as well as the practical momentum of the Indian modern art and ‘Arts and Ideas’ edited by Geeta Kapur was one major journal that came out of this enthusiasm.
By the mid 1990s ‘Arts and Ideas’ was closed down, thanks to funding problems. 1990s saw the birth of ‘Art India’ magazine followed by ‘Art and Deal.’ Then there had been a flurry of activities in the field of art magazine publication for a decade since the mid 1990s. ‘Art Etc,’ ‘Art Views and News’ (both published by emami chisel group in Kolkata), ‘Take on Art’ (published by Lalitude 28 by
Bhavna Kakar), ‘Art Affair’(a Bhuvaneswar-Delhi publication), ‘Creative Mind,’ ‘Gallerie,’ ‘India Art Journal’ and so on. In the meanwhile ‘Lalit Kala Contemporary’ stopped publishing regularly.
Boom failed to feed art Today, we have only ‘Art India’ magazine and ‘Take on Art’ as worth reckoning art journals. Though they claim to be quarterlies, thanks to various reasons not more than three issues appear in a year. There are multiple reasons for the closure of art magazines. Several of the magazines that came out during the boom time did not have an editorial policy, per se. The owners of the magazines were trying to use these as ‘power dealing’ and ‘presence making’ vehicles. When you had a magazine your other activities related to art, including dealing and wheeling became easier. But most of the magazines that went in this line lacked proper content. In their effort to please so many at once, they lost in their quality and content.
Support vehicles for galleries The second reason is all about sponsorship and support. Very often art magazines are published as supporting vehicles by galleries or art owning companies. They support the publication with an agenda. ‘Art India’ magazine comes out from the Jindal Group which is an art owning and dealing house. With over a decade in publication, it has gained a brand value and has made its sustenance possible through advertisement revenue. ‘Take on Art,’ when it came out as a strategic counter point to both ‘Art India’ magazine and ‘Art and Deal’ soon fell into the trends as the owner of the magazine is a gallerist. ‘Take on Art’ survives not through advertisements but through the gallery activities. Rest of the magazines that perished in due course of their journey did not have any patrons. They did not generate any advertisement revenue and were bound to fail in the long run. The other magazines that got advertisements also stuck to niche gallery support and limited advertisers. Any magazine becomes interesting when there is an editorial policy and the content is rich enough. In our art magazine publication scenario we lack serious and popular writers. We do not have too many star writers who could generate opinion about art or express frank opinion. If you look at the major art magazines in India, you see a sort of ironed out content thanks to heavy copy editing. What happens in the long run is that no writer would be discerned through the style of his or her writing. When everything reads like a mechanically written prose, none cares to read further. As an independent writer and a very diligent reader, I can say, it is ages since I have read any Indian art magazine, other than the ones that I edit or used to edit. I cursorily flip through the pages and in a single glance understand what kind of writing will be offered to me. To be frank, I would say we have failed to produce an interesting readership. We have scared most of the readers away from the art magazines.
Lack of variety in
writing styles It is not just about readers running away from magazines due to monotonous presentation and writing style, it is also because we do not have a variety of writers. If you search for the reasons, you may find that a handful of writers are doing most of the writings for these magazines. There are no fresh people coming in to express their opinion on art. Reason is simple; they are not paid enough. If new writers are to be attracted to regular writing, we need to pay them. No art magazine in India pays the writers well. It has turned away many from taking up art writing as a full time occupation. Even if the magazines, in an ideal scenario, decide to pay the writers well, we have a serious dearth of writers today. Most of the art history and criticism post graduates are not trained well to become writers. They are trained to be academics or gallery personnel. Many of the young professionals are happy to become gallery professionals because they are paid well and some sort of acceptance and visibility make them happy.
The writer is director and chief curator, United Art Fair, 2012
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A legacy of visual illiteracy Anil Kashyap, editor, ‘Art Etc.’ a monthly magazine on art, that discontinued publication since July this year, says, “ When galleries are not selling well, they think hundred times before giving an ad for an art journal. Yes, all of them want to be written about, but, getting ad from galleries is very difficult. Most art journals close down for lack of revenue. We had tied up with all the major art fairs and galleries in India and abroad, yet, we failed to generate revenue. We were very well received even in the smaller towns we reached out to, but sustaining that kind of publication became impossible. People suggested that we become a quarterly, but then we would become a journal, our entire make- up was that of a magazine, so we have closed down for the time being.”
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The economic boom which resulted in the boom in the art market opened a new market for these magazines. But, by the end of the boom, the magazines started disappearing from the general art milieu. First, ‘Art News and Views’ was merged into one and came out as ‘Art Etc.’ This year, after a series of thematic issues, the publishers declared its closing down. ‘Art Affair’ left without a trace. ‘Creative Mind’ comes out when the publishers want to publish it. ‘India Art Journal’ lost its regularity. ‘Art and Deal’ also became a victim of the lack of consistency.
‘Indian Contemporary Art journal,’ an art magazine published jointly by Mumbai-based NGOs Kalaviskar and Bombay Art Society, a quarterly, tried every trick under the hat to make it work. It tied up with ‘Outlook’ magazine for circulation, but the cost factor involved forced them to cut down number of copies from 8000 to 4000 for survival. Yet, things do not look rosy. “ There are three major reasons for the failure of art journals in India, we don’t have enough number of big art galleries to provide revenue in terms of ad. There are about 200 major art colleges and close to a lakh practising artists, who could be the subscribers to these journals, but, they do not subscribe. Then, hardly five percent of our artists and art graduates like to read in English, unless they are being written about, and most art journals are produced in English. Then, there are about 25 writers on art whose writings overlap in all these journals, that makes them predictable,” says Rajendra, editor of ‘Indian contemporary Art Journal.’