Focus on India-China ties, wildlife conservation, ‘one nation, one election’
Day 2: Khushwant Singh Litfest
The second day of Khushwant Singh Litfest commenced with a melodious performance by Pandit Navin Gandharv titled “The Singing Strings of the Belabaharr”, followed by first session on “Wild World” with MK Ranjitsinh and Gargi Rawat.
While Ranjitsinh, a former IAS officer, helped bring back cheetahs to India after 70 years, Rawat made a significant contribution to environment reporting. Their talk with Sarah Jacob focussed on the need to conserve some of the most spectacular mountain mammals.
In the post-lunch sessions, experts dwelt on the inner and outer conflicts of India. Political scientist Kanti Bajpai, journalist Ananth Krishnan and an expert on India and South Asia business and economic developments, Alex Travelli, were in conversation with Suhasini Haider. They also gave their inputs on India’s relationship with China. Bajpai said both nations made mistakes that led to the phase their diplomatic relations were today. Both countries need to mend their relationship. It’s only by losing some both countries will gain something and arrive at a common ground.
In another session, “Democracy in Times of Conflict”, Indian author Radha Kumar, whose work focuses on “ethnic conflict”, shared her opinion on the ongoing debate of “one nation, one election”, which, she says, looks good in theory but is impossible practically. She said, “The panchayat elections and state Assembly poll can’t go hand in hand.” With women at the centre stage, second day also saw two sessions titled “Women who Wield the World” and “Bad Girls Go Everywhere”. The former highlighted the sacred poetry of, by and for women wherein guest speakers and authors Arundhati Subramaniam and Rakshanda Jalil talked to senior journalist and poet Nirupama Dutt. For “Bad Girls Go Everywhere”, three women, Dr Meeran Borwankar, Nusrat Jafri and Dr Kalpana Sankar, who have proved their mettle in their respective fields of Indian Police Service, cinematography and nuclear physics, talked about their books. Borwankar was bombarded with questions on delayed justice. The conversation between Sankar and Borwankar kept to their personal experiences and how it helped them empower marginalised women. All three urged youngsters to come forward and be the change that India needs by taking further the dialogue on the topics discussed in the session.
The organisers also organised a waste management campaign near the venue.
Best kept for the evening
In the evening, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, along with authors Nirupama Kotru and Sathya Saran, spoke at length about “Bollywood Starry Seventies”. They shared anecdotes, experiences and observations on the 70s – the decade that transformed Indian cinema.
The Tribune Editor-in-Chief Jyoti Malhotra moderated a session with author Sarbpreet Singh. His book, “The Rise of the Sikhs”, is about the times of trouble in North India between 1706 and 1780. The session was in line with the festival theme — “Resilience and Renewal” — and also talked about faith and power. Sarbpreet shared his opinion on “Braj bhasha” used in Sikh texts and Gurmat Sangeet standing the test of time, violence and conflicted history of India during the Mughal empire. He ended the evening with a short music performance, reciting from the poetry of Sufi poet, Shah Husain.
