[Link].

com November 21, 2024 Rs 100

SUBSCRIBER COPY
NOT FOR RESALE

Read • Think • Understand

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w

Cry Freedom
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

Othering trumps justice and liberty in US Elections 2024

R N I N O . 70 4 4 / 1 9 6 1

8 904150 800010 33
ht
tp
s:
//c
ha
t.w
ha
ts
ap
p.
co
m
/J
X1
LC
hp
JJ
v3
9a
Ev
K
o8
3i
C
r
 ‹ NAVIGATOR›
Volume LXIV, No. 33

EDITOR Chinki Sinha

MANAGING EDITOR Satish Padmanabhan
FOREIGN EDITOR Seema Guha
OUTLOOK HINDI EDITOR Giridhar Jha
CREATIVE HEAD Manpreet Romana
DEPUTY PHOTO EDITOR Tribhuvan Tiwari
NEWS COORDINATORS Tarique Anwar,
Mahima Choudhary

WRITERS Shahina K.K., Naseer Ganai,

Shweta Desai, Ashwani Sharma, Rakhi Bose,
Abhik Bhattacharya, Md Asghar Khan,
Apeksha Priyadarshini

r
COPY DESK S.S. Jeevan, Swati Subhedar,

C
Vineetha Mokkil, Avantika Mehta

3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
Outlook issue

LC
November 11, 2024 5 | TRUMP’S WHITE 16 | WINNER TAKES
BUSINESS OFFICE
HOUSE ‘WAAPSI’ X1 IT ALL
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Indranil Roy *)'
-0(+ñ.
#-.#/-ñ.

/J
CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER Suchetana Ray
victory in the US 8 | DIVINE KINGSHIP election will have a
m

PUBLISHER Sandip Kumar Ghosh

presidential election Written off four years  +
$(+/
*)
/#
37 | SARNA DHARMA
co

HEAD OF CONVERGENCE Sayantan Dasgupta

DIRECTOR BRAND & MARKETING Shrutika Dewan (4
1 -4
2 ''
ago after his loss to secular-nationalist The Jharkhand Mukti
p.

VICE PRESIDENT Diwan Singh Bisht

( )
)
)
/*
*
$ )Õ
*)'
narrative in Indian Morcha is keeping
ap

SR GENERAL MANAGERS Debabani Tagore,

Shailender Vohra  (*-4
$)
/#
-0(+
#.
*(
politics the Sarna Code issue
&
2$/#

/#0(+$)"
alive in its election
ts

GENERAL MANAGER Shashank Dixit near future

(%*-$/4
ha

CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION Gagan Kohli

(+$")
CREDIT CONTROL Manisha Mishra
t.w

HEAD OFFICE
54 | THE VOICE OF BIHAR
ha

AB-10, S.J. Enclave, New Delhi - 110 029

Customer Care: 9717086972 / 9818974410
A tribute to folk and classical
//c

!Ĝ
*0-Ô
ÇÆ
(
/*
Ì
+(
e-mail: yourhelpline@[Link] singer Sharda Sinha who
s:

passed away recently

tp

Printed and published by Indranil Roy on The Voice

behalf of Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt. Ltd. of Bihar
ht

Editor: Chinki Sinha. Printed at MP Printers

(A Unit of DB Corp Ltd) B-220, Phase-II,
Noida 201305, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP) 56 | ETERNAL FLAME COVER
and published from AB-10, S.J. Enclave,
New Delhi-110 029 Rohit Bal: A genius that burned ILLUSTRATION:
Published for the period of Ĝ - '4Õ
-$ ĝ4Õ
( (*-'4 Vikas Thakur
November 12-21, 2024
Released on November 11, 2024
Total number of pages 68 including covers

POINT AND SHARE

Now, open Outlook magazine on your
smartphone instantly.
Point your phone’s scanner on the
Subscribe Now
code and align it in the frame.
You will be guided instantly to our
website, [Link]
This is useful to share our stories on
social media or email them.

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 3
INTRODUCTION

Be Afraid, Be Very, Very Afraid

“W
tell you, it’s bye-bye; the reporter goes to jail. And when
E pledge to you that we will root out the the reporter learns that he’s going to be married in two
Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the days to a certain prisoner that’s extremely strong, tough
radical-left thugs that live like vermin and mean, he will say, ‘You know’…I think I’m going to give
within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and you the information.’”
cheat on elections…The threat from outside forces is far And beware that the world is still stuck with the old systems
less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from where men can’t think of women as equal citizens. Trump

r
within. Our threat is from within,” said Donald Trump on called Democrat Kamala Harris a “sleaze bag” in one of his

C
November 11, 2023, during a Veterans Day speech. election rallies and while we respect the voters, we can’t not be

3i
He has said many things and they all sound too violent. appalled by the language full of violence that came from him.

o8
There are all kinds of threats to all kinds of freedoms, “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing

K
including the freedom of the press. there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how

Ev
“You take the writer and/or the publisher of the paper … she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on

9a
and you say, ‘Who is the leaker? National security.’ And they her face,” Trump said about Liz Cheney recently.

v3
say, ‘We’re not gonna tell you.’ They say, ‘That’s okay, you’re He said many more things. Women, immigrants and
going to jail.’ And when this person realizes that he is going everyone else must understand that this is not only about

JJ
to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly, he will say, economics and geopolitics but about the rights of people

hp
‘I’d very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker is,” he to live with dignity and freedom. That’s why we have Lady

LC
said on October 22, 2022, during a Texas rally. And then on Liberty and Lady Justice face each other in solidarity on
November 7, in Ohio, he said, if reporters don’t tell you the the cover.
X1
source, they must go to jail. The wall in Mexico will be built, he says.
/J
“You tell the reporter, ‘Who is it?’ And the reporter will But no wall is high enough. And no fear is too much to keep
m

either tell you or not. And if the reporter doesn’t want to people from writing the stories that need to be written. O
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

New Term,
Old Agenda
US President-elect
Donald Trump at
a campaign rally
at the Santander
Arena on November
4, 2024, in Reading,
Pennsylvania

4 O U T LOO K | N OVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 024 PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES

COVER STORY/WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

Trump’s AP

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

White House
‘Waapsi’
Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election may very well
mean an end to democracy in the near future

Red Wave Rising US President-elect Donald Trump at

a campaign rally at the Salem Civic Centre, Virginia

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 5
COVER STORY/WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

Amir Ali
T E A C H E S AT T H E C E N T R E
FOR POLITICAL STUDIES,
JNU, NEW DELHI

r
C
3i
o8
LIGHTNING never strikes twice. Donald Trump novel’s central character, the editor of a small-town Vermont

K
has certainly struck the White newspaper, Doremus Jessup, reflects on perverse assumptions

Ev
House a second time, underlining that Americans are prone to making: “Depressions had been

9a
that his first victory against Hillary only cyclic storms, certain to end in sunshine; Capitalism and
Clinton in 2016 was not just a one-off. After being defeated by parliamentary government were eternal, and eternally being

v3
Joe Biden in his 2020 bid for re-election, Trump has made a improved by the honest votes of Good Citizens.”

JJ
spectacular comeback by becoming the first Republican Democrats have only themselves to blame for their

hp
president in two decades to win the popular vote. The fact hopelessly unimaginative election campaign that banked on

LC
that a misogynistic, foul-mouthed and convicted felon has Trump’s despicability to deter voters. There was the Gaza
won the popular vote and the presidency reveals the rot at genocide of an elephant in the electoral room, parked there
X1
the core of, not just American democracy, but the theory and courtesy the formidable American Israel Public Affairs
/J
practice of liberal-democracy across the world. Apologists of Committee (AIPAC), which neither the Democrats nor the
m

a thinly attenuated democracy will proclaim, with declarative Republicans had spine enough to call out for what it was. The
co

finality, that the people have spoken. They may well have, but “Israel has the right to defend itself” nostrum became the
in tones pushed and prodded by the algorithms of Trump’s American equivalent of the “Four legs good, two legs bad”
p.

exuberant backer, Elon Musk, and in a way that they may not slogan in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Democrats did not
ap

speak again for some time to come. Trump’s victory reveals heed early-warning indicators from the crucial swing state of
ts

that democracy is incorrigible. Once it has gone down the Michigan where understandably upset Arab voters
ha

path of demagogic doom, as it has in the US and many other contemplated a vote to punish the Democrats, either by
t.w

parts of the world, there is no possibility within it of effecting voting for the Green Party’s Jill Stein, or unbelievably, Trump
a course correction of redemption. himself. An incredible 42% of voters in the Arab-dominated
ha

The great mistake many made, especially political scientists, city of Dearborn in Michigan voted for Trump.
//c

was to unwisely think that democracy would be an enduring

s:

feature of the international global order. It was felt that wave What the Future Holds
tp

upon relentless democratic wave would make democracy Trump’s victory may very well mean an end to democracy in
ht

spread to every corner of the world, even China and Russia. In the near future. There is no reason why the pieces of the
American writer Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen democratic kaleidoscope, so rudely shaken by the Trump
Here, a demagogic candidate called Buzz Windrip wins the race victory, cannot fall back in place in a more resplendent
to the White House in 1936, edging out Franklin Delano pattern in the future. That would require some thinking on
Roosevelt for the nomination by promising hope to the the part of American citizens. Unfortunately, “thinking”
hopelessly poor. This is a book that should be read widely as it becomes a rare commodity in the capitalist cornucopia of
feels like it was written for our time. It challenges most America. It is not available to the unemployed, socially
peoples’ complacency about the certitudes of democracy. The dislocated workers of the de-industrialised rust belt of

THERE IS NO REASON WHY THE PIECES OF THE DEMOCRATIC

KALEIDOSCOPE, SO RUDELY SHAKEN BY THE TRUMP VICTORY, CANNOT FALL
BACK IN PLACE IN A MORE RESPLENDENT PATTERN IN THE FUTURE. THAT
WOULD REQUIRE SOME THINKING ON THE PART OF AMERICAN CITIZENS.

6 O U TLO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. If out of despair,
the rust-belt voted for Trump, should you really blame
them from the condescending heights of liberal elitism as A PROMISING SIGN WAS THE CAMPUS
Hillary Clinton did?
Then there are the privileged who can ‘buy’ their way to PROTESTS AGAINST ISRAELI ACTIONS
think, the bright youngsters who get to go to America’s fabled
universities, the Ivy-League on the East coast and the likes of
IN GAZA. THE EXISTING CAPITALIST
Stanford and Berkeley on the West coast, peppered with the STRUCTURE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COOPT
TODAY’S YOUNG STUDENT PROTESTERS.
bright academic recruits America attracts in large numbers
from across the world, and most certainly from India. The
majority of them are too burdened by student loans, turning

r
C
them into slouched academic workers, forever lost in the

3i
forested footnotes of their abstruse theses on the arcaneness

o8
of neoclassical economics or post-colonial theory, so October 7, Democrats could not commit themselves to the

K
tragically missing the wood for the trees. America requires sovereign integrity of Palestine. Here was hypocrisy that

Ev
blue sky thinking, but not the one packaged in corporate could not be hidden, as is hegemony’s wont. The Biden

9a
power point presentations, but the one that can match the presidency went completely downhill after that and with it
unending openness of the blue skies over the expansive have gone all hopes of redeeming liberal-democracy

v3
prairies of the country. electorally. Kamala Harris in her short-lived presidential

JJ
And yet, a promising sign was the campus protests against campaign, dully copy-pasted the Biden line.

hp
Israeli actions in Gaza. These protests have outstripped the There was hope in the Biden presidency and it was best

LC
1960s anti-Vietnam war protests. That “flower power embodied on Biden’s inauguration day when the young,
generation” as it was called, could be coopted into the Black, Harvard- educated Amanda Gorman read out her
X1
capitalist structure as it transformed itself in the 1970s. The poem The Hill We Climb. In a bright yellow coat against a
/J
radical young voices of the 1960s could be domesticated by brilliant blue Washington sky in late January 2021, she
m

the relentless logic of a transformed post-Fordist capitalism. proclaimed that the “norms and notions of what just is, is
co

The existing capitalist structure may not be able to coopt not justice”. Gorman seemed to capture the prosaic political
today’s young student protesters, which means that the philosophy of John Rawls in poetry. Here was another Black
p.

future may critically hinge on them. person’s ringing rhetoric, rising for a brief moment, only to
ap

Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi, who recently retired come crashing down against the rocks of racial injustice
ts

from Columbia University, addressed some of those students that is modern America. Twelve years earlier the first Black
ha

outside the university and told them that they were on the man to enter the White House, Barack Obama, had with the
t.w

right side of history. In an interview published in the British deft defiance of his eloquence, roused a crowd by saying,
newspaper, The Guardian (October 8, 2024), Khalidi ‘‘Yes, we can!’’ After Trump’s defeat in 2020 and shortly
ha

expressed happiness that he would no longer be a “cog in that afterwards in 2022 when demagogues like Jair Bolsonaro in
//c

machine”. He also shared his horror at the way universities Brazil were beaten and the young Gabriel Boric was elected
s:

and higher education have become a ‘‘hedge fund-cum-real President of Chile, it seemed that the far-right could be
tp

estate operation”. That also explains why big blue sky beaten electorally. Alas, fascism is proving that it is not so
ht

thinking no longer happens in American universities. To easily electorally flushed away.

redeem its democracy, courtesy its universities, the ideas of As the drum beat of war does not seem to end in the Middle
one of America’s most brilliant academics, the late 19th- and East, the concerned cosmopolitan citizen may have to adapt
early 20th-century economist Thorstein Veblen should be that famous slogan of the runaway globalisation that has got us
heeded. In a 1918 book, The Higher Learning in America: A into this mess in the first place, by countering fascism both
Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business Men, locally and globally. One way of doing that is to boldly envision
Veblen argued that matters of higher education should never a new world order that is more decent, more democratic, more
be reduced to “business principles and pecuniary gain”. equitable and more hospitable (Arranged in the lexical
ordering preferred by American political philosopher John
Democracy’s Last Chance Saloon Rawls). It is one that must guarantee housing, healthcare and
The unseating of Trump in the Biden Presidential victory of education (not arranged lexically) as public goods. Public
2020 was a kind of last chance saloon for democracy. The first goods that spread what economists call a positive externality,
year of the Biden presidency was actually not bad, as the that is not confined to rational individuals, but whose benefits
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act pumped massive redound to society as a whole. It must tackle the two most
amounts of money to lift the American economy out of the crucially existential issues that could spell calamity for
Coronavirus-induced slump. Then in early 2022, the Russian humanity: climate change and artificial intelligence (AI). It is
invasion of Ukraine happened and Biden committed the US contained in one word that most Americans have unthinkingly
to the defense of Ukraine’s sovereign integrity. The following recoiled against—Socialism. O
year in 2023, as Israeli aggression on Gaza began after (Views expressed are personal)

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 7
 COVER STORY/2024 US ELECTION

AP

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.

The Second Innings US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the Palm Beach County Convention Centre during an election night
ap

watch party on November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida

ts
ha

Divine Kingship
t.w
ha
//c

Written off four years ago after his loss to Joe Biden, Donald Trump
s:

has come back with a thumping majority

tp
ht

DONALD J. Trump is going to be the

47th president of the United
The Democrats probably expected a defeat in the
final hours leading to the election, as several polls
States. A historic win for predicted a narrow margin between Trump and
several reasons—this is first incumbent Vice President Kamala Devi Harris.
time since 1892 that a US president has served two But they didn’t (and couldn’t) visualise a landslide
non-consecutive terms, Trump is the oldest person Ankita M. Kumar victory and the overturning of several swing
to be elected president, the first president to be IS A JOURNALIST AND A states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona in
convicted of felony and the only president to have D O C U M E N TA RY F I L M M A K E R Trump’s favour. Several counties that were typically
BASED IN SAN FRANCISCO,
faced impeachment proceedings twice. Above all, CALIFORNIA blue were overturned, too—marking the demolition
this win is historic because of the scale and impact of the Democratic Party in every way possible. This
of his political comeback. Written off four years ago leads me to ask—how did we get here?
after his loss to Joe Biden, Trump bided his time and came back
with a staggering majority, clinching the House, Senate and the An Election Fought by–and Won by—Men
presidency for the Republicans. He also won the popular vote— The mood among women in my yoga studio in San Francisco on
cementing himself as a populist who united Americans. “They Thursday was somber. All I could hear was chatter about how
(voters) came from all quarters. Union, non-union, African men hated women in America and how this election clearly
American, Hispanic American,” Trump announced to a roaring proves that patriarchy will prevail. The data is sobering as well—
crowd after his win. “We had everybody, and it was beautiful.” men across races overwhelmingly voted for Trump, signalling a
Clearly, Trump has painted the town red! deeper frustration among men that clearly wasn’t addressed by

8 O U TLO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
the Democratic Party. Harris’ push for abortion rights for women tropes and expectations, and those who harboured different
towards the tail end of her campaign probably alienated more views either stayed quiet or in their own spaces. People were
men, especially the conservative ones, who believe a woman’s getting cancelled left, right and centre and celebrities were
right to her body is a state issue, not a personal one. But this being scrutinised for every word they sent out on social media.
election reflects a larger rift in America between men and women. Journalists were targeted for tweets they posted decades ago
Several research organisations have repeatedly raised the alarm and companies slowly started monitoring social media activity
on rising illiteracy among men in the US, as more diversity and to prevent anything acrimonious that would hurt their public
inclusion (D&I) initiatives benefit women in universities and the image. I was being controlled. So, I was clearly not surprised
workforce. Women have outpaced men everywhere. According to when billionaires like Musk bought Twitter (now X) to ‘bring
data from the ‘Chronicle of Higher Education’, women comprised back free speech’. Musk wasn’t bringing back free speech, but
58% of all college students in 2020, up from 56.6% in 2014. In his views on free speech were not completely wrong. We were
2021, men received 42% of Bachelor’s degrees awarded in the US, stifling those who didn’t agree with the views of a few.

r
C
the lowest male share on record. The natural course of action for a America’s biggest media houses played a major role in

3i
woman who is independent and earning her own money is to seek propelling the cancel culture and excluding journalists who

o8
autonomy over her body. And many women are now choosing held differing views. Many of them also predicted Harris’ lead

K
to not have children. Rising rates of education in women has in the elections incorrectly—prompting many to believe this

Ev
lowered the birth rate in the US. The general fertility rate in the was an attempt to fool people into voting for the Democrats.

9a
US reached a historic low in 2022. A major controversy erupted ahead of the election when
America is also grappling with another issue that has caused a Trump sued CBS News for distorting an interview of Harris’

v3
deep rift in society—one’s ability to choose one’s gender. More to confuse the public ahead of the election. When CBS had

JJ
men are being relegated to the sidelines as there are calls to get aired a preview of the interview, Harris was seen giving a

hp
rid of the supremacy of “White, straight men” and spaces where wordy answer when asked about Israeli Premier Benjamin

LC
economic mobility is possible, such as colleges and white-collar Netanyahu and the war in Gaza. When the full interview was
jobs, are heavily geared towards boosting diversity in enrolment. aired, Harris’ answer was shortened. News organisations
X1
Those who identify as a cis, straight white man are unfavourable are already struggling with public trust after being called
/J
in elite spaces. These spaces are now heavily geared towards out for biased reporting on the Gaza war. They have further
m

women and members of the LGBTQ+ community —a major vote alienated people by not staying true to their core values of
co

base for the Democratic Party. unbiased reporting.

Men like Elon Musk have capitalised on this increasing When you push people away, they will get frustrated with
p.

frustration among men and started a dangerous trend of bringing you and vote you out. And unfortunately, Harris was held
ap

back ‘‘alpha males’’. Musk has gone as far as amplifying a theory accountable for the Biden administration’s misgivings.
ts

that only “alpha males” should make decisions, as women

ha

and “low testosterone men” are malleable. The Republican Harris Was Not the Best Candidate for America
t.w

Party slowly refashioned itself as a party that would bring back A significant reason for Trump’s staggering win was the Biden-
economic parity for men and give them control over women. Harris administration’s poor management of the US economy.
ha

Republicans also used growing frustration against transgender Biden was handed a bad deal when he took over from Trump in
//c

persons to further alienate men and get their votes. Issues such as 2021, but he couldn’t control soaring prices, rising housing costs
s:

participation of transgender women in women’s sports became or evade a growing crisis on the US border. His administration
tp

a major issue, as more people started questioning what it really also backed a war in Gaza that has led to the death of
ht

means to be a “woman”. Young men ultimately geared towards millions—mostly women and children. For most Americans,
Trump in this election, along with Latino men, who are religiously Harris was simply a representative of the last government and
conservative and do not want women to have a say over abortion. her consistent support for Biden clearly showcases a lack of
Social media also became a closed space in this election, as those understanding of emotions on the ground.
with differing political opinions moved to the platforms where Harris did get a raw deal when Biden dropped out of the race
their voices would be amplified. This led to a dangerous situation in July, not giving her enough time to prepare for a presidential
where trends like “trad wife”—of women bringing back the trope election, but since July, she has done little to make people feel
of the traditional, dependent wife—grabbed people’s attention. confident that she would be a good president. She didn’t budge
Women were openly vilified for becoming ‘manly’ and harbouring on Gaza till the very end, didn’t offer solid solutions to improve
aspirations for careers and autonomy. Added to this was also a the economy and didn’t appeal to voters distressed about illegal
silent majority of women who were supporting Trump—because immigration. Harris clearly forgot that the Democrats were the
Harris’ race and the economy were issues for them. first to coin the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
It’s true that misogyny and racism still reign big in America
The Free Speech Problem and the two were big reasons why she wasn’t elected. But Harris
When I first moved to the US three years ago, I was enamoured clearly wasn’t the right candidate. Her massive loss points to
by the possibility of being my real self. I was excited about a wider issue within the Democratic Party. The party needs
the First Amendment, and wanted to uphold it like every to figure out what and who it stands stand for and finding its
other journalist in the US. The only issue was that free speech footing back will be extremely hard after this carnage. For
wasn’t really free. I slowly understood that free speech meant Indians, this is a well-known scenario. O
saying the ‘right’ things that geared towards certain social (Views expressed are personal)

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 9
COVER STORY/US ELECTIONS

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J

Will Trump Fuel or Finish Wars?

m
co
p.

No one is sure what to expect from an unpredictable Donald Trump

ap
ts
ha

Seema Guha Trump. It is, however, a well-known fact that the business
t.w

tycoon-turned politician is not a warmonger. During campaign

T
speeches, he advised Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin
ha

HE political map of the United States is awash in red, Netanyahu to do what he had to do quickly and wrap up the
//c

with just a tinge of blue near the two coasts. In the end, war. Netanyahu was delighted by Trump’s victory calling it
s:

it was not a close race. Donald Trump has stormed “history’s greatest comeback”. He also described it as a “fresh
tp

through stronger than in 2016, with more support from start for America” and a “powerful recommitment to the great
ht

women, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and even Arabs alliance between Israel and America”. During his first term in
and Muslims. He has won the Electoral College votes, the office, Trump had pleased Israel by shifting the US embassy
popular mandate, and ensured a majority in the Senate. This from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, lending credibility to Israel’s claim
will make him unstoppable to appoint or sack whom he wants to the ancient city. The Abraham Accords, signed between
and run the country as he likes for the next four years. Axios, Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and later by Morocco and Sudan,
the prominent American website, has dubbed Trump as the added legitimacy to the Jewish State and its acceptance by its
most powerful Republican of the modern era “vanquishing the Muslim neighbours. Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish American
Bushes, the Clintons, the Bidens, the Obamas… and backed by a son-in-law, did the heavy lifting for the agreements. It was
party that is wholly remade in his image”. only a matter of time before Saudi Arabia, the most important
While America comes to grips with Trump’s stunning victory, Sunni power in the region, would follow suit. However, the
the world is bracing for a second Trump presidency. What Hamas attack of October 7 put a stop to the process. Without
happens to the ongoing wars—Israel’s in Gaza and Lebanon, a resolution of the Palestine issue and a stop to the relentless
and Russia’s war in Ukraine? Trump will again walk out of the killings in Gaza, and now in Lebanon, the Saudis would find
Paris Climate Agreement and unfreeze bans on drilling for it difficult to normalise formal ties with Israel. Trump, who
oil, including in the Arctic, to help companies make money by is close to the Saudis and other Gulf rulers, would push for a
allowing fracking. In short, it will be a body blow in the fight quick end to the war as he regards the oil-rich countries as an
against global warming. America under Trump will be more opportunity for American business. The Saudis have already
protectionist and inward-looking with trade wars with China invested $2 billion in Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners.
and other countries. During the election campaign, Trump had often boasted
But no one is sure what to expect from an unpredictable that during his first term in office, there were no wars. While

10 O U TLO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 PHOTOGRAPHS: AP

Get Ready (Extreme left) Supporters of Donald Trump celebrate in

Las Vegas on November 5, 2024; (left) Supporters of Kamala Harris
in Washington on November 6, 2024

Russia’s Vladimir Putin had been rooting for Trump, knowing

he is unhappy with US taxpayers’ money going into funding
the Ukraine war. Trump had often boasted that he would stop
the Ukraine war in 24-hours if he became president. Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) allies are wary of Trump. Europe has
long gotten used to the US being its main security provider.
Trump was difficult to handle in his first term, what he does in

r
C
his second, is of growing concern. Though Trump has ensured

3i
that NATO nations spend more on Europe’s security, his

o8
unpredictability puts Europe on the edge.

K
Trump’s admiration for strong leaders, especially Putin, is

Ev
well known. Journalist Bob Woodward writes in his latest book

9a
that the US president-elect and Putin spoke seven times since
Trump left office. In his first public remarks following Trump’s

v3
victory, Putin flattered him by praising his bravery in facing

JJ
an assassination attempt “like a real man” and adding that he

hp
was ready to discuss Ukraine with Trump. Whether he can get

LC
Ukraine and Russia to agree to end the war is another matter.
Though the US media has constantly attacked Trump for his
X1
“soft” approach to Putin, it is also a fact that during his first term
/J
under Joe Biden’s weak presidency, where he could not assert in office (2017-2021), Trump was tough on Russia.
m

American power effectively, there were wars in both West Asia Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump have a good
co

and in Europe. personal rapport, and New Delhi is looking forward to

“In the Middle East, Trump’s policy is expected to centre welcoming Trump for a Quad Summit early next year.
p.

on Iran and Israel. Israel’s security will remain a priority, but Trump was bedazzled by the reception he got when he visited
ap

if he pursues an end to regional conflicts, Trump may have to Ahmedabad in February 2020, where a mammoth crowd
ts

wait for Israel to achieve certain objectives before exploring welcomed him and his family. The ‘Namaste India’ event was
ha

negotiations, possibly involving key regional allies like Saudi a response to the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Texas, organised
t.w

Arabia,” says Ali Mammadov, analyst and researcher in political by Indian-Americans in 2019 when the PM was in the US.
science at the George Mason University. It was during Trump’s first term that the US government
ha

Trump is bitterly opposed to Iran. He walked out of the authorised the sale of dual-use technology to India, something
//c

nuclear deal with Iran, and had encouraged Netanyahu to New Delhi had been previously denied. India-US ties are now
s:

“hit” that country’s nuclear facility during the recent stand-off all-encompassing, having been nurtured by both the Bharatiya
tp

between the two countries. Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress as well as the Democrats
ht

Netanyahu, knowing Trump’s antipathy to Iran, would, and the Republicans.

perhaps, take a much more aggressive stand on Tehran. Trump’s election promise of levying a 10 to 20 per cent tax on
However, a strike on Iranian nuclear facility is certain to result all imports will hit India’s exports. He will insist on New Delhi
in an all-out war between Iran and Israel that could engulf giving the US more market access in the name of “fair trade”
the entire region. Whether Trump would want to escalate the that could hit India’s domestic industry. Immigration will
already volatile situation in West Asia is not clear. become a major issue. While Trump maintains that he is against
“While Israel may be inclined to push that conflict further in illegal migrants and not those who enter the country lawfully,
an expectation that the US will come to their defense, Trump visa restrictions could come into play, making it tougher for
doesn’t like war. Trump will be in his last presidency and looking India’s IT professionals. But the overall relations will not be
to his legacy. In his campaign, he made much of the fact that the affected, as Trump takes on China with his 60 per cent tariff
US was not in any conflicts while he was in charge, and he will on Chinese imports. So long as the US sees China as a future
likely want to keep that legacy,” says Joanna Spear, research threat to its number one position in the world, India-US ties will
professor at the George Washington University. remain stable. “India-US relations did well under the Trump
Iran knows the score, and believes it is immaterial who presidency. A few issues were sorted out to the satisfaction
is in the White House. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, of the two sides. This is bound to happen in any relationship,
Esmail Baghaei, shrugged off the results saying it is for especially in one that extends from the sea to outer space! We
the American people to elect whoever they choose. “Our will continue to build on our Comprehensive Global Strategic
people have very bitter experiences from past consecutive Partnership with the United States under President Trump,”
American administrations,” he said, adding, “What matters says Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the Ministry of External
for us is the US’ deeds.” Affairs, who served in Washington before coming to Delhi. O

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 11
ht
tp
s:
//c
ha
t.w
ha
ts
ap
p.
co
m
/J
X1
LC
hp
JJ
v3
9a
Ev
K
o8
3i
C
r
ht
tp
s:
//c
ha
t.w
ha
ts
ap
p.
co
m
/J
X1
LC
hp
JJ
v3
9a
Ev
K
o8
3i
C
r
 Read Think Understand

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha

I
//c

NCREASED cash allowances and free bus travel

s:

for women, loan waivers for farmers and health

tp

insurance for all. As the countdown begins for

ht

the high-stakes Maharashtra Legislative Assembly

elections, to be held on November 20, the two main
rival alliances—the ruling Mahayuti, comprising the

Maha BJP, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the NCP
(Ajit Pawar), and the Maha Vikas Aghadi, led by the
Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad
Pawar)—are wooing voters with populist promises.

Muddle
This is the first election since the 2022 political crisis,
which witnessed the rebellion and splitting of the
Shiv Sena and the NCP and the formation of a triple-
engine government led by two deputy chief ministers.
The political alliances have thrown in some complex
equations, leading to rebellion and independent
contests. It has also added colour in many
constituencies, which will see high-octane turf battles
among the original parties and their split factions. By
all accounts, this is the most fragmented and chaotic
election scene in the state, and all six political parties
have put in all their might to secure power. O

I L LU S T R AT I O N : V I K A S T H A K U R A N D S A A H I L
The Right Time
for a Great
Wedding
Dr Sohini Sastri elucidating the celestial

r
C
influence of planetary bodies and the crucial

3i
role it plays in guiding marriage decisions

o8
K
Ev
D
r. Sohini Sastri, a trusted Shukla Paksha, ensuring positive in shaping marital relationships.

9a
name in the field of energies for the couple. In 2024, Jupiter will be in

v3
astrology, elucidating Ƴ
>¼áŽ¶„ŽÉ
ŏŎƪ
ŐŎŐŒ
ǃT×·ŠyèDŽƫ
favorable positions for many

JJ
the celestial influence of Another excellent choice, aligning zodiac signs, enhancing

hp
planetary bodies in Hindu culture with auspicious planetary positions. prosperity, harmony, and love in

LC
and the crucial role it plays in guiding Ƴ
>¼áŽ¶„ŽÉ
ŏŐƪ
ŐŎŐŒ
ǃZ׎͊yèDŽƫ
*ŠŽy±
marriages. Couples born under
marriage decisions for starting new journeys, this day is
X1 signs such as Taurus, Cancer,
As 2024 approaches, many couples favored for tying the knot. and Capricorn can particularly
/J

and families are preparing for benefit from these auspicious

m

auspicious Hindu marriages, often Similarly, December offers planetary influences, making
co

guided by astrological insights. In auspicious dates such as: their marriages more successful
p.

Hindu culture, astrology plays a Ƴ
Ž Ž¶„ŽÉ
Őƪ
ŐŎŐŒ
ǃ=¼·ŠyèDŽƫ
ZŸ¡Í
and fulfilling.

ap

crucial role in determining the right day brings favorable planetary On the other hand, couples from
ts

time and date for weddings, known as alignments, ideal for celebrations. signs like Gemini and Sagittarius
ha

“muhurat.” Let’s delve into the key Ƴ
Ž Ž¶„ŽÉ
œƪ
ŐŎŐŒ
ǃZŸ×É͊yèDŽƫ

may need to be cautious.
t.w

astrological aspects influencing perfect choice for couples seeking As 2024 unfolds, the timing of
ha

marriages in the upcoming months. blessings for a harmonious married marriages will be influenced
//c

life. significantly by astrological

s:

Significant Months for Weddings: considerations. The months of

tp

The months of November and Astrological Considerations: November and December

ht

December 2024 are particularly When selecting a wedding date, present several auspicious days,
significant for Hindu weddings, as several astrological factors are supported by positive planetary
several auspicious dates fall during considered: movements. Couples and
this period. Traditionally, the Hindu Ƴ
>y¯ÍŸyÓÉy
ǃ8×·yÉ
=y·Í¡¼·DŽƫ
ZŸŽ
families should consult
calendar dictates that certain constellation through which the astrologers to find the most
months, like Magha and Phalguna, are moon passes can influence the favorable dates, ensuring their
considered highly favorable for auspiciousness of the day. journey into marriage is blessed
marriages. The waning phase of the Ƴ
Z¡ÓŸ¡
ǃ8×·yÉ
MŸy͎DŽƫ
ZŸŽ
Ɵy͎
¼™
ӟŽ
with love and harmony. With the
moon, or “Krishna Paksha,” is often moon, from new to full, plays a role right astrological guidance, the
avoided, while the waxing phase, or in determining favorable timings. bonds formed during this time
“Shukla Paksha,” is favored. Ƴ
o¼šy
y·Š
6yÉy·yƫ
ZŸŽÍŽ
yɎ
ÍƎ ¡þ
can lead to fulfilling and
combinations and divisions of time prosperous lives together.
Key Auspicious Days: that can impact the quality of the
In November 2024, there are several ¶×Ÿ×ÉyÓ
ǃy×ÍÆ¡ ¡¼×Í
Ó¡¶ŽDŽƩ
highly auspicious days for weddings. 2-times President Award
Notable dates include: Planetary Influences: winner and worldrenowned
Ƴ
>¼áŽ¶„ŽÉ
Œƪ
ŐŎŐŒ
ǃ=¼·ŠyèDŽƫ

Astrology emphasizes the KP astrologer, Dr. Sohini
highly favorable day as it falls on significance of planetary positions Sastri

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 15
MAHARASHTRA/ASSEMBLY ELECTION

r
MarginSpeak

C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
Anand Teltumbde

JJ
IS AN INDIAN SCHOLAR,

hp
WRITER AND HUMAN
RIGHTS ACTIVIST

LC
X1
Winner Takes it All
/J
m
co

This election will have a deep impact on the secular-nationalist narrative in Indian politics
p.
ap

THE Maharashtra Assembly election, set for November Thackeray becoming chief minister on November 28. In
ts

20, 2024, with results expected on November June 2022, Shiv Sena faction leader Shinde defected with
ha

23, has become a high-stakes contest. The ruling BJP support, citing ideological differences with the NCP
t.w

Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance, and the Congress, leading to Shinde’s appointment as CM
which includes Ajit Pawar’s breakaway faction of the and Fadnavis as his deputy. The Election Commission
ha

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv expectedly awarded the break-away faction of Shinde the
//c

Sena, faces the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, Shiv Sena name as well as the bow-and-arrow symbol.
s:

composed of the Shiv Sena (UBT), the NCP faction led by Thackeray’s challenge is pending in the Supreme Court.
tp

Sharad Pawar, and the Congress. Following the BJP’s recent Later, in July 2023, in the wake of accusations of
ht

win in Haryana—a comeback after setbacks in the Lok Sabha misappropriation of Rs 70,000 crore and imminent action
election—the outcome in Maharashtra, a state central to India’s by the Enforcement Directorate, Ajit Pawar walked away
economy and politics, will signal whether the BJP can reignite with a faction of the NCP and took oath as deputy chief
its political momentum and advance its ideological vision, or minister, the third time in four years. He also secured
whether the Opposition forces can thwart its juggernaut. eight ministerial berths for his close aides so as to have the
The political landscape in Maharashtra after the 2019 backing of substantial numbers from his party.
state elections has been marked by a series of unseemly This drama was actively supported by the governor, the
power games, resulting in multiple shifts in governance. The speaker and the Election Commission, and passively by the
mandate giving the BJP and Shiv Sena alliance a majority Supreme Court. However, it has not gone unnoticed by the
fell out over power-sharing, with the Shiv Sena demanding a electorate, which expressed its dissatisfaction in the 2024
rotational chief ministerial position. This disagreement led Lok Sabha polls, hinting at potential punishment to the BJP-
to President’s Rule on November 12, 2019. In an unexpected led Mahayuti in the upcoming assembly election.
turn, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in as Maharashtra’s economy has faced significant challenges
chief minister and deputy chief minister in a secretive early due to the BJP’s power games. Once a low-debt state,
morning ceremony on November 23. As the 162 legislators maintaining its debt-to-GSDP ratio under 15% until
moved the Supreme Court the day after, both Pawar and 2001, Maharashtra has one of the highest debt-to-GSDP
Fadnavis resigned on November 26 apprehending a no- levels among Indian states today. Its public debt of
confidence motion. around Rs 3 lakh crore by 2014 under the Congress-
This paved the way for the formation of the MVA alliance NCP regime has surged close to Rs 8 lakh crore under
of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress, and Uddhav the Mahayuti government, representing an over a

16 O U TLO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 20 24
 In Campaign
Mode
(Opposite page)
Maharashtra Chief
Minister Eknath
Shinde addressing
a Dussehra rally
at Azad Maidan
in Mumbai;
(left) Uddhav
Thackeray at a
campaign rally for
Shiv Sena’s UBT
Thane Lok Sabha

r
candidate Rajan

C
Vichare

3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES
X1
/J
2.5-fold rise in just over a decade. This debt escalation, reallocated to other states. Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region
m

compounded by rising interest payments (now also missed out on a Rs 1,234 crore Maintenance, Repair, and
co

consuming 25-30% of revenue), has constrained funding Overhaul (MRO) facility for international airlines, which
for essential services and slowed investments in sectors went to Telangana. Even small industries in Pune’s Chakan
p.

such as healthcare, education and infrastructure. Industrial Area and sectors like Mumbai’s diamond industry
ap

In such a fiscal condition, the Mahayuti government are moving out of the state due to better infrastructure
ts

introduced several voter-appeasing schemes costing an elsewhere, while the service sector is losing out to Gujarat’s
ha

additional Rs 96,000 crore with an eye on the election. A GIFT City, impacting Maharashtra’s economic stature.
t.w

July 2024 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General Rising unemployment, inflation and crime have intensified
(CAG) highlighted the unsustainable rise in spending, with public dissatisfaction with Maharashtra’s governance. The
ha

expenditure growing faster than revenue—from Rs 2.79 state’s youth unemployment rate hit 22.2% in 2023, well
//c

lakh crore in 2018-19 to Rs 4.06 lakh crore in 2022-23. The above the national average of 7.45%.
s:

resulting fiscal deficit reached Rs 67,602 crore, straining

tp

resources further.
)ĝ/$*)
3 -/ .
/#
-$.$.Õ
2$/#
!**
*./.
.0-"$)"

ht

Despite generating 68.7% of its revenue from taxes,

 /2 )
/* -
ÈÆÈÉ
)
/* -
ÈÆÈÊÔ
/*(/* .
4

Maharashtra’s investments in health and education lag behind ÈÊÍþÕ
+*//* .
4
ÇÎÆþÕ
"-'$
4
ÇÈÎþÕ
$'
*$'
4

most states. It ranks 16th in health and 7th in education among ÇÎêÈËþÕ
.'/
4
ÇÎþÕ
ĝ*0-
4
ÇÎþ
)

)0/-$/$*0.
( '
4

major states. Alarming social indicators, including high child ËÈþÕ
2#$'
.'-$ .
-*.
%0./
4
ÏêÇÆþÚ

malnutrition rates and declining women’s empowerment
metrics underscore the impact of these financial strains.
Maharashtra has slipped to 19th in girls’ school attendance, with There has been a recent surge in violent incidents across
only 80% of school-age girls attending, reflecting a broader Maharashtra. In August, the sexual assault of two girl
regression in development metrics. children at a Badlapur kindergarten surfaced, culminating
In the past five years, Maharashtra has witnessed a in a police encounter killing of the accused—a controversial
worrying exodus of major industrial projects, impacting act that has stirred debate on due process and the use of
job creation significantly. In 2022, four high-profile encounters as a form of swift justice. Other high-profile
projects worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore and projected to generate incidents have heightened public concern. The assassination
1,00,000 jobs went to other states. These include the of NCP leader Baba Siddique in a busy public area in
Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant and the Tata-Airbus Mumbai’s Bandra neighbourhood shocked the public. Soon
C-295 aircraft project, both of which relocated to Gujarat. after, another NCP leader, Sachin Kurmi, was violently
Maharashtra’s proposed bulk drug park in Raigad district, attacked, underscoring the increasing threats to political
for which 5,000 acres of land were earmarked, also went figures in the state. Additionally, a 21-year-old woman in
to other states, costing Maharashtra around 50,000 jobs. A Pune was gang-raped, and a brutal sexual assault occurred
medical devices park slated to be set up in Aurangabad was near a railway track in Badlapur, where the police conducted

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 17
MAHARASHTRA/ASSEMBLY ELECTION

another encounter, killing two of three suspects. expected to oppose the Mahayuti, given its dissatisfaction
These incidents have spurred concerns about the mis- with the Mahayuti’s failure to secure Maratha reservations.
governance by the Mahayuti government. While the MVA currently holds a structural advantage
The BJP-aligned Mahayuti has accumulated huge negativity over the Mahayuti, it faces a formidable, election-ready
during its short spell of two years, creating a potential opponent in the BJP. The MVA’s lack of sustained election
advantage for the Opposition. In terms of poll performance, preparedness could be a vulnerability in its battle against the
too, the MVA appears to have an edge over the Mahayuti. BJP’s well-organised machinery.
The Mahayuti alliance launched a series of populist
The 2019 Maharashtra elections presented the following vote schemes aimed at voter appeal in the lead-up to
and seat shares (in brackets) among major parties: the BJP Maharashtra’s 2024 elections. Starting in June 2024, these
25.75% (36.46%), the Shiv Sena 16.41% (19.44%), the NCP include the Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana, which offers
16.71% (18.75%) and the Congress 15.87% (15.28%). Rs 1,500 per month to around 2.5 crore eligible women, who

r
C
reportedly have already received Rs 7,500 over the past five

3i
months. Additionally, the Mukhyamantri Annapurna Yojana

o8
Since then, the BJP is widely perceived as the driving force promises three free cooking gas cylinders to families of five.

K
behind the splintering of the Shiv Sena and the NCP, with In July, Chief Minister Shinde introduced the Ladka Bhau

Ev
significant consequences in vote share, especially as shown Yojana, a stipend scheme offering Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 to

9a
in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While the BJP and the young men who have passed the 12th standard exam. The
Congress have slightly increased their shares to 26.18% and Mukhyamantri Teerth Darshan Yojana provides pilgrimage

v3
16.92%, respectively, the split factions of the Shiv Sena and opportunities for senior citizens across religions.

JJ
the NCP led by Shinde and Ajit Pawar have seen declines, While the Mahayuti hopes these schemes will counter

hp
with Shinde’s faction dropping to 12.95% and Ajit Pawar’s negative perceptions, its track record has not been satisfactory.

LC
NCP plummeting to 3.60%. For instance, the BJP-led Maharashtra government had made
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the combined vote shares promises in the 2019 election manifesto related to energy,
X1
for the MVA and the Mahayuti are nearly equal, at 43.71% and labour, transport and water. In an analysis by the Informed
/J
43.55%, respectively. While vote share alone does not directly Voters Project, 100% of the promises for energy have a “low”
m

correlate with seat wins in the FPTP (First-Past-The-Post) or “very low” performance, 86% of labour and employment,
co

system, these numbers give the MVA a slight edge, bolstered 75% of transport and 87.5% of the promises for water have a
by the potential negative impact of incumbency on the ruling “medium” or “worse than medium” performance. Despite this,
p.

Mahayuti. However, the MVA must heed the recent example the Mahayuti’s current cash-focused incentives may prove
ap

of the BJP’s comeback in the Haryana state election, where challenging for the Opposition if the MVA fails to effectively
ts

complacency may have cost the Opposition crucial wins. communicate the government’s shortcomings.
ha

As in Haryana, Maharashtra has several parties outside After finalising seat-sharing arrangements, both alliances
t.w

the main alliances of the MVA and the Mahayuti that have filed nominations: the Mahayuti with 291 seats and
could influence the outcome. The BJP has often effectively the MVA with 295. Within the Mahayuti, the BJP leads by
ha

leveraged these parties to its advantage. The Vanchit contesting 149 seats, the Shiv Sena is contesting 82 and the
//c

Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar secured NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) 55, with smaller allocations to
s:

4.58% of the vote share in 2019, but did not win any seats. allies such as the RPI (Athawale) and Rajarshi Shahu Vikas
tp

The VBA is often seen as a “spoiler” party benefitting the Aghadi. The MVA features the Congress contesting 102
ht

BJP by siphoning anti-BJP votes, and helping the BJP seats, the Shiv Sena (UBT) 93 and the NCP (Sharad Pawar
secure narrow wins in certain areas. However, over the faction) 87. It has also given five seats each to the Peasants
decade, its influence has been declining and hence it many and Workers Party (PWP) and the Communist Party of India
not have much impact in this election. The Bahujan Samaj (Marxist); two seats to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and one to
Party (BSP), which is known for drawing away non-BJP the Communist Party of India (CPI).
votes, is a smaller factor because its overall effect has
historically been minimal compared to the VBA’s. As for
the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Raj Thackeray’s *(
*!
/#
*/# -
+-/$ .
/#/
#1
Ĝ' 
/# $-
)*($)/$*).

are the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
independent candidacy in this election is notable. Some (138 seats), Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi
speculate it may be a tactic to secure the BJP’s backing for (206 seats), the Imtiyaz Jaleel-led All India Majlis-e-
key MNS candidates such as Thackeray’s son, after which Raj Ittehadul Muslimeen (16 seats), the Mahadev Jankar-led
Thackeray might withdraw his candidates and support the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (151 seats) and the Sunil Dongre-
Mahayuti. Should he maintain independence, however, the led Bahujan Samaj Party (288 seats).
MNS may dent the Mahayuti’s base.
Although accused of splitting anti-BJP votes, the All India
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) actual impact Whatever the final configuration, this election will have a
has been limited in Maharashtra. The Maratha Kranti far-reaching impact on the future of the country, especially
Morcha (MKM) led by maverick Manoj Jarange Patil is in terms of the BJP’s continued trajectory and the broader
not contesting, but it supports specific candidates. With secular-nationalist narrative in Indian politics. O
its significant Maratha following, the MKM’s backing is (Views expressed are personal)

18 O U TLO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 20 24
Revolutionizing
Customer Experience:
BPCL’s Digital
Transformation
Journey!

r
C
“In an uncertain and competitive business

3i
o8
environment, we had to emerge differentiated
and take a bold step. Our digital transformation

K
Ev
journey has built operational scale,

9a
strengthened our market share and added to

v3
our continued growth trajectory.”

JJ
Mr. Sukhmal Jain, Director Marketing, BPCL

hp
LC
X1

B
harat Petroleum terminals, LPG bottling plants, and
/J
“Going forward, we aim
Corporation Limited (BPCL) fleet, establishing a tamper-proof
m

embarked on an ambitious
to create a unified loyalty distribution network. This
co

digital transformation project, ecosystem that rewards innovative system monitors over 3
p.

‘Project Anubhav’, five years ago, customers for their million digital signals received
ap

aimed to deliver a unified and engagement with BPCL. through IoT sensors in the supply
ts

coherent customer experience, This holistic approach not chain, updating concerned
ha

bringing trust, convenience, and only simplifies customer stakeholders with early warnings
t.w

personalisation in the delivery of journeys but also positions for emergencies.

ha

products & services across us to adapt to market BPCL’s digital transformation

//c

business units to customers. This dynamics swiftly, ensuring focuses on delivering personalized
s:

strategic initiative has been well- a cohesive and satisfying experiences through data analytics,
tp

received by customers and enhancing operational efficiency

experience at every
ht

stakeholders, providing a unified and trust, and providing real-time

interaction,”
and consistent experience. conversations and support. By
According to Sukhmal Jain, leveraging technology and
Director Marketing, BPCL, “In an have initiated interactions with innovation, BPCL is poised to
uncertain and competitive business BPCL’s B2B businesses through the strengthen its market position,
environment, we had to emerge chatbot. The UFILL smart fuelling drive growth, and deliver
differentiated and take a bold step. solution has also seen significant exceptional customer experiences.
Our digital transformation journey traction, generating over INR 10 “Going forward, we aim to create
has built operational scale, Crores daily across 2,700 fuel a unified loyalty ecosystem that
strengthened our market share and stations. rewards customers for their
added to our continued growth The HelloBPCL app provides a engagement with BPCL. This
trajectory.” one-stop shop for BPCL’s products holistic approach not only simplifies
Project Anubhav has yielded and services, enabling customers customer journeys but also
impressive results, with BPCL’s Urja to seamlessly enrol in SmartDrive, positions us to adapt to market
Chatbot facilitating over 1.2 crore book UFILL vouchers, and order dynamics swiftly, ensuring a
conversations annually with LPG Bharatgas cylinders. cohesive and satisfying experience
customers, across 13 languages. BPCL’s digital nerve centre, IRIS, at every interaction,” concludes
Additionally, over 7,000 businesses has integrated fuel stations, POL Sukhmal Jain.

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 19
 DALIT POLITICS/MAHARASHTRA

Tattered Blue
Where is Maharashtra’s Dalit politics headed?
Shweta Desai the pains and aspirations of the Dalit people,” recalls Jawale.
Times have changed and so has Jawale’s opinion of Athavale.

M
Today, Jawale resents Athavale for abandoning the interests of
EMORIES of atrocities against Dalits in the Maharashtra’s 13 per cent-strong Dalit population and joining
Marathwada region still besiege Balasaheb Jawale’s hands with the ideological opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party

r
C
recollection of his childhood spent in Beed district. (BJP). “He has surrendered the entire RPI (A) for the sake of a

3i
The 35-year-old, who now has a PhD and teaches at a local single ministerial post. Politically, he has no identity and despite

o8
college, is haunted by the caste-violence inflicted on the region’s being aware of this. he is still holding on to power,” says Jawale.

K
Dalit community, spilling the boiling caste cauldron over “This is the defeat of Athavale’s politics.”

Ev
onto the streets of Marathwada with brutal killings, rape and Meanwhile, Athavale is more-or-less the rara avis among

9a
destruction of properties being the order of the day. The murder Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet flock. The three-time
of a Buddhist Dalit, Dadarao Dongare in Sonna Khota village in Union Minister of State for Social Justice has been donning the

v3
Beed in 2003 in particular, is etched in his memory. mantle of the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) star Dalit

JJ
As local authorities looked the other way and the police leader without contesting elections in the recent past. Since

hp
refused to file a case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) joining the BJP-led ruling alliance in 2012, he was nominated

LC
Act against the upper-caste perpetrators, it was the Republican to the Rajya Sabha and given a ministerial post despite his
Party of India (Athavale) that aided the victims’ quest for party not winning a single seat in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha
X1
justice. The Amberkarite party’s network was well-entrenched or Vidhan Sabha elections. In Maharashtra, the RPI (A) has
/J
at the village, taluka and district levels and more importantly, opted not to contest the assembly elections for the second time
m

Dalits looked at the party’s founder, Ramdas Athavale, as a in a row. Additionally, the absence of the People’s Republican
co

credible community leader. “Within the Ambedkarite political Party of India, led by prominent Dalit leader Jogendra Kawade,
movement, Ramdas Athavale commanded a tall position. We highlights the lack of representation for Dalit aspirations in the
p.

looked up to him as a grassroots leader who was connected to state’s electoral arena. This time, Kawade has shifted his party’s
ap
ts

GETTY IMAGES
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

In Memory Followers of Babasaheb Ambedkar gather at Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai to pay homage on his death anniversary

20 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
support to the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.
Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, often accused
of being the BJP’s B team, will contest 208 seats. However, due IN THE SEA OF POLITICAL COLOURS IN
MAHARASHTRA, THE BLUE OF THE
to ill health, Ambedkar has decided not to campaign on the
ground. In the sea of political colours in Maharashtra, the blue
associated with the Ambedkarite movement has faded, tattered
and largely merged with the saffron of Hindutva.
AMBEDKARITE MOVEMENT HAS FADED.
The absence of these two Ambedkarite parties from the
electoral race, along with key leaders from the community
not actively campaigning, highlights the lacklustre state of
Dalit politics in Maharashtra—the birthplace of the anti-caste Ambedkar Research and Training Institute. While sidelining
political movement led by Babasaheb Ambedkar. SC issues, the government introduced new scholarships for

r
C
“Over the last ten years, major Ambedkarite parties have Maratha and OBC students to appease these groups amidst

3i
not entered the election arena. They are absent from the ongoing quota politics.

o8
electoral competition, having been co-opted by the ruling Ahead of the assembly polls, the BJP targeted

K
BJP,” says activist and commentator Bandhuraj Lone. “These Maharashtra’s SC Buddhist population with symbolic

Ev
leaders have betrayed Ambedkar’s ideology and the SC gestures, such as granting classical language status to Pali

9a
community at large in pursuit of power.” The Congress had earlier absorbed RPI factions to disrupt
Ambedkarite parties, especially the RPI founded by Ambedkar Dalit vote consolidation, but the BJP deepened the divide by

v3
in 1956, traditionally led the SC population. However, after splitting SC voters along religious lines. It enlisted dominant

JJ
the 1970s, divisions over Ambedkar’s ideology led to the party SC castes like Matang and Charmakar as Hindu loyalists,

hp
splintering into over 70 factions, with many leaders co-opted by while nominating Amit Gorkhe, the first MLC from the

LC
the Congress, the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Matang community, in recent legislative council elections.
Dr Sukhdeo Thorat, former chairman of the University Grants “Matangs and Charmakars take pride in their Hindu identity
X1
Commission, attributes the factionalism within the RPI to and have found a support base in the BJP, while the Buddhist
/J
the lack of clarity in implementing Ambedkar’s democratic population has stayed with the Congress or Ambedkarite
m

socialism and advancing interventionist policies. “Ideologically, parties,” says Lone. Due to the fragmentation and co-opting of
co

RPI leaders were unable to implement his vision of socialism main factions, Ambedkarite parties are left with a diminished
combined with parliamentary democracy. There was no clarity mass support base. The Dalit political movement may be on a
p.

on economic policy,” says Thorat. As Dalit parties and political downward slide, but its influence has not entirely waned.
ap

groups drifted from Ambedkar’s political philosophy, symbolism During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the narrative that
ts

replaced ideology. The focus shifted to issues such as the the BJP intended to amend the Constitution and end SC
ha

unveiling of Ambedkar’s statue or the construction of Ambedkar reservations caused a major shift of SC votes to the MVA
t.w

Bhawans and museums, Thorat adds. comprising the Congress, the NCP (Sharad Pawar) and the Shiv
For instance, the Namantar Andolan—the campaign to rename Sena (Uddhav Thackeray). Poll analysts estimate that SC and
ha

Marathwada University after Ambedkar—became a rallying Muslim votes helped the MVA secure 31 seats. “Ambedkarite
//c

point for Ambedkarite parties and groups for 16 years. The forces overwhelmingly backed the INDIA bloc and will continue
s:

failure to rename the university led to riots and violence against to do so in the upcoming legislative elections,” says Shyam
tp

SC communities, resulting in communal and political turmoil. Gaikwad, convenor of the new Progressive Republican Front
ht

Experts say the extreme fragmentation of the RPI and other (PRF), an umbrella organisation of over 100 RPI factions
Ambedkarite parties has diminished their bargaining power for and political and social groups. The BJP’s rise since 2014 has
political representation and the welfare of their constituents. strengthened “communalist forces” and driven Ambedkarite
Between the 1999 and 2014 assembly elections, the RPI and elements to align with parties committed to upholding the
Prakash Ambedkar’s erstwhile Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh Constitution, he adds.
managed to win just one seat in the state legislature. In the 2019 The PRF will not contest elections independently due to
assembly election, none of the candidates from Ambedkarite limited resources, but it has declared its support for the
parties secured a victory. MVA. “Without our backing, the MVA parties cannot make
According to Lone, the gradual decline of the Ambedkarite significant gains,” Gaikwad says. “The leaders who have
movement, once at the forefront of progressive socialist politics been lured by the BJP are not true heirs of Ambedkar’s
in Maharashtra, is the result of the deliberate isolation of the ideology. The real Ambedkarite forces are still active on the
Scheduled Caste vote bank by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak ground and remain secular.” Jawale disputes the notion that
Sangh and the BJP. Traditionally, the SC vote bank supported supporting the Congress will benefit the SC community. “Both
RPI factions or secular parties like the Congress and the CPI(M), the Congress and the BJP are enemies of the Ambedkarite
influencing outcomes in SC-majority districts like Nanded and political movement. Congress leaders are equally responsible for
Solapur. However, the BJP has weakened this vote bank’s power, breaking up the RPI,” he says, accusing all parties of using Dalits
says Lone, pointing to its success in diminishing SC influence. only as a lucrative vote bank, without paying any heed to their
Over the last decade, the BJP-led Mahayuti government has upliftment. “After Babasaheb, no political leader has done any
cut funding for SC welfare programs, including scholarships constructive work for us. The benefits we are reaping in social
and support for institutions like the Pune-based Dr Babasaheb and educational fields are his legacy,” Jawale adds. O

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 21
 SHRI SANJEEV SINGHAL
Chairman & Managing Director

avenue for India’s defence exports,

boost foreign exchange earnings
and enhance India’s global maritime
reputation.
• Infrastructure Development: MDL’s
expansion in modern shipbuilding
infrastructure can help India
become competitive on a global

r
C
scale. Enhanced Dry docks, repair

3i
facilities and modular construction

o8
techniques can position MDL as a

K
Ev
leader in efficient and large-scale
ship manufacturing catering to both

9a
Mazagon Dock civilian and defence needs.

v3
• Skilled work force and R&D:

JJ
MDL’s investment in training
Shipbuilders Limited
hp
skilled workforce and focussing

LC
on R&D can boost innovation in
X1 Shipbuilding. Through partnerships
India is focusing on its shipbuilding industry, with the goal with educational institutions and
/J

of becoming a global maritime powerhouse. R&D initiatives, MDL can develop

m

cutting edge designs and techniques

co

that place India at the forefront of

p.

maritime technology.
ap

What role do you see Mazagon Dock MDL is instrumental in building

ts

Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) playing in advancedWarships and Submarines, By focussing on the above areas, MDL
ha

achieving this goal? crucial for enhancing the Indian today is a driving force in helping India
t.w

MDL commenced its journey 250 Navy’s capabilities. As India aims for realise its maritime ambitions, not just
ha

years back as ship repair yard with a stronger maritime presence, MDL’s regionally but globally. Through the
//c

a small Dry Dock in 1774. The Dry ongoing projects and expertise strategic development of Indigenous
s:

dock is still operational within the in building indigenous Naval and technologies, partnerships and
tp

company premises. Over the years Coast guard vessels can reduce efficient manufacturing, MDL can help
ht

the ownership changed hands and the dependency on foreign suppliers and India secure its place as a major player
shipyard mainly focussed on ship repair bolster India’s defence self-reliance. in the global maritime industry.
activities. However, the Shipbuilding • Indigenisation & Innovation: MDL
activity gained momentum in early can further India’s “Atmanirbhar Since 1960, when the government
1800 and a number of vessels were Bharat” initiative by boosting took over the company, its listing in
built at Mazagon Dock. Over the indigenisation in Shipbuilding and 2020 to now becoming a Navratna
period, as the shipbuilding activities Submarine Building. By developing company, what has been the journey
gained momentum, MDL matured into advanced technologies, promoting like?
a lead shipyard. MDL’s contribution local suppliers and building expertise, The journey of MDL since 1960
to the nation’s Naval strength and MDL can enhance India’s capability has been a remarkable one. After
economic prosperity by building Naval to manufacture high-tech maritime the Government of India took over,
platforms and commercial vessels assets domestically. MDL evolved into a key player in
is significant. MDL can play a pivotal • Shipbuilding Exports: With its India’s shipbuilding and submarine
role in positioning India as a global experience, MDL has the potential to construction sectors, specializing in
maritime powerhouse. Some of the key become a major exporter ofWarships, complex projects essential for national
ways which MDL can contribute are as Submarines and other ships, serving defence. Over the decades, MDL
follows: the maritime needs of friendly has undertaken ambitious ventures,
• Strengthening Naval Capabilities: foreign nations. This can create a new including the construction ofWarships

22 O UT LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
and Submarines, showcasing its companies, there’s often an added Shipbuilding for the defence sector
capabilities and commitment to self- layer of expectations, as public sector is a very specialised area where
reliance in defence production and organizations are tasked not only competition is ramping up. Where
proudly being called “Shipbuilders to with commercial success but also does MDL see in this tough scenario
the Nation” with fulfilling strategic objectives for where specialised requirements are
Its listing in 2020 marked a national interests. ever changing? Any collaborations in
significant milestone, enhancing its However, being in the public sector the pipeline?
public visibility and access to capital. can also work to our advantage. Our MDL recognizes that shipbuilding for
This transition brought MDL into the close alignment with national policies, the defence sector is indeed a highly
spotlight and allowed stakeholders established trust, and a commitment specialized field where the stakes are
across the nation to be part of its to long-term, sustainable goals often increasing with evolving demands
growth story. resonate well with stakeholders, and rising competition. MDL’s focus

r
C
Achieving Navratna status recently especially within government and remains on leveraging its rich legacy,

3i
is a testament of its consistent defence-related sectors. advanced capabilities, and cutting-

o8
performance, robust financials, and As a listed company, there’s an added edge infrastructure to stay ahead in

K
Ev
strategic importance to India’s defence layer of responsibility and transparency this challenging environment.
[Link] Navratna status, we uphold, which strengthens our Our approach to handling the rapidly

9a
MDL now has greater operational credibility in the market. Operating changing specialized requirements

v3
autonomy, empowering it to pursue in a specialized field, listing elevates of the defence sector involves a

JJ
ambitious projects and expand its our visibility and enables us to attract strong emphasis on R&D, enhancing

hp
technological capabilities. MDL’s interest from investors who appreciate indigenous production, integrating

LC
journey reflects resilience, dedication, the unique value and stability that sustainable practices alongside
and a vision aligned with India’s come with a public sector organization
X1 Industry 4.0 technologies and
strategic defence needs, symbolizing in this domain. This positioning helps adapting new technologies. MDL is
/J

a proud chapter in India’s public sector us compete more effectively while committed to fostering partnerships
m

evolution. remaining accountable to public and with global leaders and domestic
co

shareholder expectations. players to augment our capabilities.

p.

Being a public sector company, do you Collaborative efforts are in the pipeline,
ap

feel there are more pressures when focused on technology sharing, joint
ts

competing for orders against private Kalvari Class Submarine design, and development of next-
ha

sector majors or does it work to your gen warships, submarines, and other
t.w

advantage? Similarly, what does it critical assets.

ha

mean to be a listed company in such a By maintaining dual emphasis on

//c

specialised sector? innovation and strategic collaboration,

Being a public sector entity in a
s:

MDL is well-positioned to meet current

tp

specialized sector certainly brings both and future requirements of the defence
ht

unique challenges and advantages. sector, contributing to India’s vision of

When competing with private sector self-reliance in defence production.

Visakhapatnam Class Destroyer What does your order book look

like both on the domestic front and
exports?
On the domestic front, MDL boasts an
impressive order book of Rs. 39,800 Cr.
Approx. providing strong foundation
for sustained growth and profitability.
MDL also has an export order of Rs.
700 Cr. Approx. for a European client
for delivery of 06 in Nos. Multipurpose
Vessels. In addition, there are a number
of projects in the pipeline, where MDL
sees itself as a strong contender
considering the rich experience that
MDL has gained over long years.

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 23
MAHARASHTRA ELECTION/FARMERS’ SUICIDE

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
2

hp
State of Sorrow 5

LC
1. The widow of
Madhukarrao Patil; X1
2. The widow of
/J

Krushnarao Langde
m

who died in April 2022;

co

3. Vinayak Shinde, a
p.

second-generation
ap

farmer, near his onion

ts

farm; 4. Shivaji Namdev

ha

Nikam shows his rotten

onion produce;
t.w

5. Seshraj Tayade
ha

stands on his dry farm

//c
s:
tp
ht

A Bitter Harvest
in Vidarbha
Where farmers’ suicides are no more than a blip on the election radar despite
being discussed for decades, what do people in the suicide-struck region expect
from the government that will take power post the results?

24 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 P H O T O G R A P H S : S U R E S H K . PA N D E Y
3

ACCORDING TO NCRB DATA, THE STATE

RECORDED 169,868 SUICIDES BETWEEN
2014 AND 2022, OF WHICH NEARLY 30
PER CENT (57,160) WERE OF FARMERS.

state recorded 169,868 suicides from 2014 to 2022, of which

r
C
nearly 30 per cent (57,160) were of farmers. The causes

3i
ranged from erratic weather patterns, generational debt

o8
among new-age farmers, changes in climate patterns and

K
lack of alternative employment for the farmers’ children.

Ev
And, while the annual suicide rate in India was 9.7 per
4

9a
100,000 population in 1995, according to a 2012 research
paper published by Amol Dongre and Pradeep Deshmukh

v3
with the US government’s National Library of Medicine,

JJ
which implies 116 suicides per year in Vidrabha with its

hp
population of 1.2 million (2011 Census), the actual figure

LC
stood at 572 in 2005, 1,065 in 2006 and 600 in 2007. The
latest numbers show a more drastic picture. Till June 2024,
X1
557 farmers—170 in Amravati district, 150 in Yavatmal, 111
/J
in Buldhana, 92 in Akola and 34 in Washim—ended their
m

lives in Vidharbha, a report by the Amravati divisional

co

commissioner showed.
Salora has seen 10 suicides in the past three years—each
p.

one a breadwinner of the family. The eldest among the

ap

few willing to share the story of their “darkest day” is

ts

Seshraj Tayade, an octogenarian who lost the youngest of

ha

three sons, Giridhar, in April 2022. “My wife was sick at

t.w

that time,” says Tayade, 81, in a small room in the house

he shares with his wife—the very room where Giridhar
ha

Jinit Parmar ended his life. “Giridhar did not have money to buy her
//c

medicines, and she was also scheduled for an operation

s:

S
later. He went somewhere and returned with Rs 5,000,
tp

TANDING in the scorching heat beside the gate of his telling his mother to buy the medicine. He was already in
ht

old-style three-room mud house, Pravin Madhukarrao debt of around Rs 20,000.”

Patil wonders what is next for him. “My father killed Tayade says Giridhar hated to be in debt. “After that, I and
himself two years ago due to a Rs 5 lakh debt that caused my wife sat outside the house. When Giridhar, even after a
him more stress than he could handle,” says Patil, a 39-year- long time, did not come out, we went to check and found the
old resident of Salora village, 25 km from Maharashtra’s door locked from inside. We peeped from the window and
Amravati city. “He told us he was going outside for some saw him hanging from the ceiling fan. My wife collapsed on
work. When he did not return a few hours later, I and my the spot,” recalls Tayade.
wife went looking for him. We found him hanging on a With farmer suicides rising year after year, Tayade
jamun tree near our farm.” says that the numbers mean nothing to politicians. After
Looking through his moist eyes, Patil says his father had spending most of his life in Salora and Nashik, he says he
borrowed the money to grow chana (gram). The three has seen numerous politicians promising the moon when
left behind—Patil, his wife and his mother—still await they come for votes but ending up doing nothing. “I have
Rs 70,000 they say they were promised as compensation voted for nearly 12 Lok Sabha and assembly elections to
from the state government. “We were told it will take date. Nothing has worked for me, I still live with disparity
seven more years, and we have no clue why it should take and pain,” he says.
so long,” Patil adds. The Maharashtra government has a During rallies in the Vidarbha region for the Lok Sabha
scheme under which it gives Rs 1 lakh to the kin of farmers election, politicians refrained from talking about farmer
who died by suicide. suicides. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who promised
According to National Crime Records Bureau data, the to accelerate development and usher in a new era of progress

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 25
MAHARASHTRA ELECTION/FARMERS’ SUICIDE

while outlining his vision for Vidarbha, Maharashtra and

the nation at his first rally, in Ramtek on April 14, did not
mention the suicides. Although the issue is almost entirely
missing from discussions about the assembly election due on
THE CAUSES RANGED FROM ERRATIC
November 20 (results will be announced on November 23), WEATHER PATTERNS, GENERATIONAL DEBT
the Opposition has been pointing fingers at the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre and the AMONG NEW-AGE FARMERS, CHANGES IN
Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra on agrarian
policies leading to suicides.
CLIMATE PATTERNS AMONG OTHERS.
At a presser on October 7, Jairam Ramesh, All India
Congress Committee general secretary in charge of

r
C
Maharashtra and member of the Rajya Sabha, questioned

3i
the BJP government on its response to the high number of Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, India’s

o8
farmer suicides. Then, on October 21, Congress President total onion production for 2023-24 is expected to be

K
Mallikarjun Kharge called the BJP “the biggest enemy of around 24.21 million tonnes after falling from 31.68 million

Ev
Maharashtra’s farmers” and said farmers will only benefit tonnes in 2021-23 and 30.20 million tonnes in 2022-23.

9a
from removing the “double-engine government” from Maharashtra is a major onion-producing state, leading
power. In a post in Hindi on social media platform X, the pack with around 30-35 per cent of total production,

v3
Kharge said the promise of making the state drought-free is followed by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar,

JJ
a jumla (rhetoric)—a 20,000 farmers had already committed Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Telangana.

hp
suicide. The promise of Rs 20,000 crore water grid turned The Nashik belt in north-west Maharashtra is one of

LC
out to be false,” he added. India’s richest regions producing quality red and brown
Though manifestos replete with promises offer no onions. Shivaji Namdev Nikam, 71, from Teesgaon near
X1
solution to farmer suicides, the ruling Mahayuti alliance Nashik, rues that most of his onion produce rotted due to
/J
announced a farm loan waiver, raised the annual aid to excessive rains in August and September 2023. “The crop on
m

farmers under the Shetkari Samman Yojana from Rs 12,000 nearly half the land was damaged from the roots, making it
co

to Rs 15,000, and offered a 20 per cent subsidy on the unsaleable. My initial calculations showed a loss of
minimum support price (MSP) in its manifesto. The Maha Rs 10,000, which later spiked to Rs 80,000,” Nikam says.
p.

Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Opposition alliance, said it would On May 4, ahead of general elections, the Centre lifted
ap

waive farm loans of up to Rs 3 lakh and provide Rs 50,000 as what was the longest of numerous export bans farmers
ts

aid to farmers regular in the repayment of loans. have experienced in the past decade. Between 2014 and
ha

According to Manisha Madhava, head and professor, 2019 alone, the government halted exports 17 times to
t.w

department of political science, S.N.D.T Women’s University prevent prices from escalating, invoking the Foreign Trade
in Mumbai, however, issues concerning the people and the (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992. Between 2020
ha

state have been on the back burner, while those that gather and 2023, export was allowed with a 40 per cent duty, which
//c

more social response faster are on the front. “Elections are farmers found tolerable.
s:

becoming more hyperlocal, where each party or leader is With the parties betting their way on the top step, farmers
tp

looking at saving their bastion instead of the people’s issues in Nashik and Amravati today are hoping someone would
ht

coming to the fore,” Madhava says. give their grievances and suggestions an ear. Vinayak
Farmer suicides in Vidharbha have been discussed by Shinde, 37, a second-generation farmer, wishes to discuss
politicians, academics, non-governmental organisations a plan that could help ease farmers’ distress. “I have met
(NGO) and sector experts for more than 20 years, while leaders like (former CM) Devendra Fadnavis in the past
the central and state governments have provided relief six-seven years and mentioned a plan for a solution. They
packages that have been unable to solve the larger issues. An promised to listen but nothing happened,” says Shinde, who
April 2007 report published by an NGO, Green Earth Social has just started to till the land for the rabi season’s onion
Development Consulting, after an audit of state and central farming. Doubling as a social activist, he has communicated
relief packages for Vidarbha showed that farmers’ demands with hundreds of farmers in and around Nashik on getting
and consultations with civil society organisations and local the right price for their produce. “This is our main demand,”
bodies had not been taken into account. Besides a farmer he says. “Many actions are happening on the climate
helpline and direct financial aid, scarcely anything new was front that have damaged our crops. Giving us the right
being offered. price could help solve many of the issues.” Virendra and
Farmers in Maharashtra were badly hit by the ban on Ravindra Langde, who lost their father in 2022, have the
exports of onions from December 2023 to March 2024. same demand. “He died due to stress after getting unfair
The Centre had enforced the ban to address shortage in compensation for his land,” says Shinde. “We demand the
domestic supply and secure a steady and affordable supply best price for the produce. This year, we lost more than Rs
for consumers. India is the second largest onion-producing 50,000 on our soybean produce as we couldn’t afford it with
country, just behind China. According to data from the already a debt to repay.” O

26 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 IMT Ghaziabad hosted its Annual
Convocation Ceremony for the Class of 2024
Shri Suresh Narayanan, Chairman & Managing Director of Nestlé India Limited,
congratulated and motivated graduates at IMT Ghaziabad’s Convocation 2024

I
MT Ghaziabad, India’s prestigious
management institute, hosted its
Annual Convocation Ceremony on

r
C
October 19, 2024, at the Ghaziabad

3i
campus to honour and celebrate the

o8
achievements of the graduating Class of

K
Ev
[Link] a rich legacy of over 44 years
in management education, the institute

9a
organized a grand event to recognize the

v3
academic excellence of its students.

JJ
The ceremony was graced by the

hp
esteemed presence of Shri Suresh

LC
Narayanan, the Chairman & Managing
Director of Nestlé India Limited, as the X1
distinguished guest. This gathering
/J

brought together students, faculty time, as captured in the wisdom of IMT Ghaziabad honoured its
m

members, and esteemed guests in a Kabir. Leadership requires courage, distinguished alumni during the
co

spirit of achievement, reflection, and especially in times of crisis. Lead with ceremony for their exceptional
p.

inspiration to acknowledge the hard compassion and strive to balance accomplishments. The Distinguished
ap

work and dedication of the graduates. empathy with your organizational Alumnus Award was presented to
ts

Mr. Suresh Narayanan, with his goals. The future is yours to shape; Mr. Neelendra Singh (Batch of 1999),
ha

extensive experience in the corporate approach it with the values you have Managing Director/GM at Adidas
t.w

world, shared valuable insights, cultivated here.” India, who encouraged graduates to
ha

enriching the occasion with his wisdom Shri Kamal Nath, President and embrace an entrepreneurial mindset
//c

and knowledge. Chief Mentor of IMT Ghaziabad, also and take risks in their careers. The
Young Alumnus Achievers Award
s:

The convocation ceremony addressed the graduates, emphasising

tp

celebrating the Class of 2024 at IMT the importance of continuous learning was awarded to Mr. Vaibhav Vijay
ht

Ghaziabad marked the culmination of and community engagement. He Tambe (Batch of 2010), CEO of
their years of diligent effort, unwavering stated, “Graduates, today marks a Transbank, and Mr. Ashutosh
commitment, and outstanding pivotal milestone in your journey. As Burnwal (Batch of 2012), CEO of
academic achievements. The event you prepare to enter the world, Buddy4Study, for their innovation
included the conferral of diplomas upon remember that your role as a leader and resilience. Mr. Tambe highlighted
more than 670 graduates from the Post should be rooted in collaboration and the importance of nurturing inner
Graduate Diploma in Management teamwork, always striving for the passion through risk-taking and
(PGDM) programs, PGDM ExP, and greater good. Your decisions and innovation, while Mr. Burnwal urged
PGDM Part-Time programs. actions carry lasting consequences. graduates to embody resilience and
In his inspiring address, Mr. Suresh As you bid farewell to IMT Ghaziabad, social responsibility.
Narayanan stated, “As you embark on know that your relationship with this Dr. Vishal Talwar, Director of IMT
this new chapter of your lives, I want to institution evolves into a lifelong Ghaziabad, formally welcomed the
share the ‘Cs of Leadership’: Clarity, connection. Stay engaged—not just as gathering and acknowledged the
Competence, Credibility, Courage, alumni but also as mentors and occasion’s significance. His
Concentration, Creativity, and ambassadors of our values. Together, inspiring words instilled confidence
Compassion. In a world filled with let us cultivate a legacy of ethical in the graduates, motivating them
complexity, I urge you to embrace leadership and social responsibility to confront future challenges with
simplicity. Remember, good things take that resonates far beyond these walls.” resilience and determination.

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 27
MAHARASHTRA ELECTION/REPORT

Fighting the Family Fiefdom

In Aheri, the remotest taluka of Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha, a daughter is taking on her father,
the sitting MLA and minister in the present government

GETTY IMAGES R A J E N D R A H A R S H WA R D H A N

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha

Father Vs Daughter Dharamrao Baba Atram and Bhagyashree Atram

//c
s:
tp

A
ht

cavalcade of SUVs packed with party workers and supporters

makes whistle stops across the small villages in Aheri taluka
of Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha. It’s election time and
Bhagyashree Atram has thrown her hat in the ring with her Jan
Aakrosh Yatra. Her vehicle leads the motorcade and she is seated in
front, reaching out to people who wish to come up to her to chat. Clad in
Barkha Mathur a light blue synthetic sari, pallu drawn across her shoulders, vermillion
IS A NAGPUR-BASED smeared on her forehead and sunglasses pushed up so that nothing
JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR
comes in the way as she looks at her electorate, she is the picture of an
earnest candidate who is taking nervous steps into the electoral battle.
There are reasons for her to be jittery. She has pitted herself
against a four-time MLA from the Aheri Vidhan Sabha constituency,
Dharamrao Baba Atram, minister of Food and Drugs Administration
in the ruling Mahayuti alliance. He also happens to be her father. “I
am sure of what I am doing, and I have no regrets,” she says, brushing
off the accusation that she is at the root of an unsavoury family feud.
“In 2019, my father had said that this was his last election, and I had
been preparing to take up the mantle from him,” says Bhagyashree,
who was the president of the Zilla Parishad, Gadchiroli, in 2011 and the
Bandhkaam Sabhapati Zilla Parishad from 2016 to 2019. “It is not that

28 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
I have taken him by surprise. It was understood that I would
contest the elections in 2024,” she says justifying her move.
In September, Bhagyashree joined the Nationalist Congress
Party-Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP) and declared her intentions
THE ATRAM FAMILY IS A PROMINENT
to contest on a ticket which, she says, she had been promised TRIBAL DYNASTY OF AHERI. THE ATRAMS
by the Maratha strongman himself. Livid at his daughter’s
defiance and what he termed as treachery, Dharamrao Baba WERE GIVEN THE REGION MORE THAN
Atram said, “I call upon the people of Aheri to throw her in the
Pranhita River. “Ji bapachi zali nahi, ti tumchi kaye honar” (She
150 YEARS AGO BY THE BRITISH.
couldn’t be loyal to her father, how would she be loyal to you),”
he said at the Jan Sanman rally held last month in Gadchiroli.
Also present on the stage was Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief

r
C
minister of the state, who too made a plea to Bhagyashree to fighting for the rights of the local people in Aheri and

3i
not break the family. “I was very hurt with his comment, but wants them to be employed by mining companies that

o8
I take it as his blessing,” she says and adds, “It doesn’t go well began operations here three years ago. Surjagad Ispat Pvt.

K
with their much-hyped Ladki Bahin Yojna of honouring sisters Ltd and Lloyd Metals and Energy Ltd. are both located

Ev
and daughters.” in Aheri and have begun mining of iron ore. “It’s fine

9a
The Atram family is a prominent tribal dynasty of Aheri. that these big companies have come to Gadchiroli. All I
The Atrams were given the region more than 150 years ago by want is that they should make our local youth part of this

v3
the British. Since then, the family has been the royal symbol development process. Even the educated local boys are

JJ
of the taluka and has represented it in the state legislature. employed for petty jobs such as guards and watchmen

hp
Raje Dharamrao Atram had two sons, elder Vishveshvar on a salary of Rs 12,000 per month with duty timings

LC
Rao and Bhagwant Rao. Vishveshvar Rao won the Lok Sabha that extend up to 12 hours, while the well-paying jobs
elections as an independent candidate in 1957, and again in are going to people they have hired from other states,
X1
1985. In 1990, Dharamrao Baba Atram contested the seat on especially from Odisha,” says Bhagyashree, who wants the
/J
a Congress ticket and won. In 1995, Vishveshvar Rao’s son, local people to get good education and training too. “The
m

Satyavan Rao, won the seat for his party, the Nag Vidarbha middlemen and the henchmen around these industries
co

Andolan Samiti. In 1999, Dharamrao Baba Atram fought have been poisoning Baba’s mind as they are scared
the elections on an NCP ticket and won. He remained out that if Bhagyashree wins, she will make demands on the
p.

of power from 2004 to 2009 and again contested against industries and will end this exploitation,” feels Halgekar.
ap

his nephew and Raje Satyavanrao’s son, Ambrish, in 2014. “They have managed to convince him that if he contests he
ts

Ambrish, a London-educated lawyer, contested on a will again be a minister,” he says.

ha

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket. In 2019, Dharamrao Bhagyashree is upset that her father has reneged on a
t.w

Baba Atram defeated his nephew and reclaimed the seat. He promise he made. “He is getting old and the youth and
has since been a member of the NCP (Ajit Pawar). women do not connect with him. This is the age of social
ha

“It has been my job to keep my father relevant to the media and even in a district as backward as ours, women
//c

constituency when he has not been in power. He knows that and youth have smart phones and are exposed to the world
s:

too,” says Bhagyashree. In 2019, Dharamrao Baba Atram was beyond their homes,” she says. “Gadchiroli has this tag of a
tp

trying for a BJP ticket, but did not succeed. “Bhagyashree Naxal-infested backward region. I want to change that. More
ht

and myself approached Ajit Pawar and asked him to give a than infrastructure, I want facilities and opportunities for
ticket to Baba. He was reluctant as he didn’t want to lose to tribal women and their children,” she says.
his nephew for a second time, but later relented. He wanted Halting at villages, where crowds have gathered to hear
to withdraw and let Bhagyashree contest. I convinced him her, Bhagyashree takes up these issues. As she takes the
to stand for elections and told him that we will put our heart microphone, she is cautious not to speak about her father.
and soul to ensure that he wins, and Bhagyashree would Her speech veers around women empowerment, and she asks
contest in 2024,” says Rituraj Halgekar, Bhagyashree’s the ladies in the crowd if she is wrong to contest. “Being a
husband, who ensured a handsome win for his father-in-law woman, I understand your problems more than anyone else. I
in the 2019 assembly elections and is currently managing know what sacrifices are to be made to bring up children and
his wife’s campaign. “Even after he had won, he would to adhere to guidelines that society has laid down for us,” she
keep saying that in the next elections, Bhagyashree should says very subtly, sidestepping the family issue while gently
contest,” he adds. reminding the crowd what she is up against. “I know I can
The fact that Bhagyashree will now be pitted against her depend on my sisters here. I can reach out to you any time;
father is a smart strategy. The seat will remain within the visit your homes for haldi kumkum. Will you not welcome
family, whosoever wins. “This may appear to be a strategy, but me?” she says attempting to break the ice. The women listen
whatever the results are, my father and myself have parted wide-eyed and then nod in agreement.
ways. There is no going back now, considering how he has Her brother Harshwardhan and sister Tanushree, along with
spoken about me and my in-laws,” she says. many of the party workers she had been working with, are
The couple believes that outsiders are responsible for supporting her father. Bhagyashree stands alone on her home
Dharamrao Baba’s change of heart. Bhagyashree has been turf, which has now turned into a battleground for her. O

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 29
MAHARASHTRA ELECTION/COLUMN

r
C
3i
o8
Ganesh Kanate

K
IS A MUMBAI-BASED

Ev
SENIOR JOURNALIST

9a
v3
One
JJ
hp
LC
X1

Dimensional
/J
m
co
p.
ap

Politics
ts
ha
t.w
ha

Forget development, ideology and corruption,

//c

Maharashtra’s election is all about dynastic

s:

politics, money power and a record number

tp

of rebel and independent contestants

ht

HERBERT Marcuse, one of the greatest German-

born American political philosopher of
the 20th century, in his most important
ideologised politics at play. There are six main parties in the
fray in two coalitions—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the
Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit
book One-Dimensional Man argues that Pawar) as Mahayuti, and the Indian National Congress, the
the aspiration of the poor to become rich and the aspiration Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) and the Shiv Sena
of the rich to become richer, eventually blurs the line of the (Uddhav Thackeray) as Maha Vikas Aghadi—and there are six
class divide between the rich and the poor and also between smaller parties allied with these two coalitions. There are a few
the oppressor and the oppressed. In more than one way, this more non-aligned parties like the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul
analogy can be applied to the political class of India in general, Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and
and Maharashtra in particular. others. There are also rebels or ‘vote cutters’ from all parties;
Those who are not in power want to be there and those who there are ‘proxy candidates’ and finally, independents, whose
are already there want to be there forever! number has skyrocketed in this election like never before.
To achieve this, they are ready to give up their ideologies; They all have become mirror images of each other. There are
rather, most of them have already given up. In the 2024 no major differentiators.
Maharashtra Assembly elections, it’s completely de- Till 2019, the elections were fought between secular

30 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

S U R E S H K . PA N D E Y
Cut-out for Shinde Women from Shilapur near Nashik with a cut-out of Eknath Shinde on November 4, 2024

parties—the Congress, the NCP, the Peasants and Workers to the NCP and then to the BJP with his father, was denied
Party of India (PWP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and various candidature by the BJP, so he has joined Sharad Pawar’s
factions of the Republican Party of India (RPI) and communal NCP and is contesting on their ticket. Take the example of
parties—the erstwhile Jana Sangh that was rechristened as Narayan Rane, former chief minister. He and his two sons
the BJP in 1984 and the Shiv Sena. Now, we have two factions started their political careers in the Shiv Sena. They all later
of the Shiv Sena and two factions of the NCP, one each in both joined the Congress, left the Congress and floated their own
the major coalitions. So, Mahayuti has two communal parties party and miserably failed. Now, Rane and his younger son,
and one secular party and Maha Vikas Aghadi has two secular Nitesh, are with the BJP. Nitesh is contesting on the BJP’s
parties and one communal party. This is just the beginning of ticket and his elder brother, Nilesh, is contesting for the Shiv
the confusing de-ideologised politics at its best. Sena-Shinde! Chhagan Bhujbal, who started his political
Let’s look at the prominent leaders of all the major parties. career as a Shiv Sainik, later defected to the Congress and
For example, Ganesh Naik, who started his political career then joined Sharad Pawar’s NCP, is now with the Ajit Pawar
in the Shiv Sena and later joined Sharad Pawar’s NCP, is faction and his nephew, Sameer, who is considered as his
now contesting as the BJP’s candidate. More interestingly, shadow, is contesting as an independent.
his son, Sandeep, who too started with the Shiv Sena, went Due to paucity of space, we are unable to share the names

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 31
MAHARASHTRA ELECTION/COLUMN

and details of all those who have switched sides and joined
political parties they have been fighting against all their lives.
But there is no end to it. Political leaders of Maharashtra are
reminding us of the catchline of an advertisement—“Free
THERE IS A FEAR THAT THE MIDDLE-CLASS,
flowing iodised namak”! THE LOWER MIDDLE-CLASS AND THE POOR
Corruption: No Longer a Taboo WILL NO LONGER BE INVOLVED IN THE
Till 10 years ago, leaders against whom charges of corruption
were levied were kept at bay. Now, corruption is no longer
POLITICAL PROCESS.
a taboo. All parties have fielded candidates who have either
gone to jail or against whom cases of corruption and money

r
C
laundering were filed and are still pending. There are also

3i
people like Nawab Malik, who were linked to none other than It is Only Moneybags

o8
Dawood Ibrahim. The biggest example is that of Ajit Pawar. In a state like Maharashtra, where the average monthly

K
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had publicly accused him of income of a farmer is slightly above Rs 10,000, the declared

Ev
swindling money to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore in a public assets of more than 95 per cent of the candidates are above

9a
meeting, and in less than a fortnight, Ajit joined the BJP-led Rs 10 crore! Parag Shah, the wealthiest candidate, is a builder
coalition and was made deputy chief minister. from Mumbai who is contesting on a BJP ticket and his

v3
declared net worth is over Rs 3,300 crore. Young candidates

JJ
It’s Raining Rebels and Independents who have hardly worked in their lives have declared assets

hp
There are a record number of 4,140 candidates in the fray. In ranging from Rs 10 crore to Rs 100 crore. They include two

LC
2019, it was 3,239—a whopping jump of 28 per cent. There are Thackerays, two Pawars, two Ranes and so on.
more than 150 known rebels who haven’t withdrawn from the X1
contest. This is a reminder of the 1995 elections when more It’s All in the Family
/J
than 40 independent candidates were elected. Almost all of Traditionally, there are 50-60 families of Maratha leaders
m

them had joined the Shiv-Sena-BJP government led by then who run the political show in Maharashtra and for them
co

Chief Minister Manohar Joshi. Interestingly, most of them ideology does not matter; families do. Before 1995, they
were Congress rebels who chose power and money over ideol- were all ‘Congressmen’. After 1995, the BJP and the Shiv
p.

ogy. Chances are that history might repeat itself this time too. Sena too have added the names of their families to the
ap

list. In this election, 26 debutants from the dynasties will

ts

City-centric Ideas of Development and Freebies be trying their luck. This will mark the entry of fourth-
ha

In the last 30 years, Maharashtra’s politics have witnessed a generation representatives into politics. For example,
t.w

major change. The idea of development and public welfare Yugendra Pawar and Rohit Pawar, grandnephews of
has completely changed. Earlier, farmers, issues and projects Maratha strongman, Sharad Pawar, represent the third
ha

related to farmers and rural parts of the state were given generation of the family, while Aditya and Amit Thackeray,
//c

prominence while shaping up the annual budget or the Sujay Vikhe-Patil and Shreejaya Ashok Chavan represent
s:

election manifestos. However, since 1995, after the Shiv Sena the third generation, and the tallest leader of the BJP in the
tp

and the BJP came to power, the focus has shifted to city-centric state, Devendra Fadnavis, represents the second generation.
ht

infrastructure projects for the urban parts and freebies for the A majority of the Pawars, Patils and Deshmukhs are related
rural areas. The cooperative sector, sugar mills, cotton mills, to each other through matrimonial ties, and this is another
and milk collection societies are no longer the concerns of the aspect of dynasty politics without any ideological basis.
state government and state politics. They have taken a back
seat. The same is the case with issues like farmers’ suicides, What’s at Stake?
malnutrition deaths of newborns and infants in the tribal Since only moneyed people from some specific castes, com-
areas, implementation of the employment guarantee schemes munities and families with scant regard to ideology, political
(EGS), which are no longer at the centre stage of political thought and social concern are occupying major political space
debate. What these issues get is just lip service, nothing more. in this election, there is a fear of complete marginalisation
And, when it comes to subjects like fiscal discipline, of issues related to the rural parts of the state. There is a fear
financial priorities, things have been turned on their heads. that the middle-class, the lower middle-class and the poor
There is a norm about the proportion of debt to the total will no longer be involved in the political process, except for
size of the budget, which has been thrown to the wind by shouting slogans and pressing voting buttons. Representation
successive governments in general, and the Eknath Shinde- of Muslims in the legislature was already low—just nine MLAs
led government in particular. More than 70 per cent of the in a house of 288 in 2014 and 10 in 2019, as against 12 per cent
budget is spent on revenue expenditure and slightly more population in the state. In all likelihood, it will further go down
than 20 per cent on servicing debt. Whatever is left—which is and Dalits will lose their voice in state politics with a complete
miserably less than 10 per cent of the budget—is available for rout of Republican politics, earlier commanded by leaders
developmental projects from the state budget. At present, all like R. S. Gavai, Prakash Ambedkar, Ramdas Athawale and
projects are debt-funded projects. Jogendra Kawade. O (Views expressed are personal)

32 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 Read Think Understand

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

Identity and ‘Infiltrators’

T
HE Jharkhand Assembly election has emerged other hand, are fighting for tribal rights, Sarna Code, land
as a high-stakes political contest, with the battle acquisition and the state’s distinct identity.
for power intensifying between key players in The state’s 81-seat Legislative Assembly is divided into
the state. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), five zones, with 28 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes,
led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), faces a strong while five seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes. The
challenge from the INDIA bloc, which includes Chief state will vote in two phases—November 13 and 20—and
Minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha the votes will be counted on November 23.
(JMM), the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) The state’s complex demographic, with a significant
and the Left parties. tribal population, makes the elections even more
The election is marked by intense political polarisation, crucial, as both alliances strive to secure the support of
with the BJP focusing on the narrative of Bangladeshi indigenous voters. The outcome of the election could have
“ghuspaithiyas” (infiltrators), a reference to Muslims a major impact on the future of regional politics in India,
and Rohingyas, “bulldozer justice” and the controversial especially in tribal-majority states where local identity
Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The incumbents, on the and issues are central to electoral politics. O

I L LU S T R AT I O N : V I K A S T H A K U R A N D S A A H I L
 BANGLADESHI INFILTRATION/
JHARKHAND POLLS

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
1
/J
P H O T O G R A P H S : A N U PA M P R A S H A N T M I N Z
m

2 3
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

Troubled Times 1 The plot of land in Pakur, Jharkhand, which Muslims

were accused of encroaching on 2 Samajuddin Ansari holding up his
land records; 3 Monika Kisku, who married a Muslim man, was labelled
a Bangladeshi; 4 Celina Hansda and her husband Md Azad

34 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 Who Stole
the Horses’ Land?
The Bharatiya Janata Party plays the “illegal Bangladeshi” card in poll-bound Jharkhand

r
C
3i
Md Asghar Khan In 1855, this region had seen “8,000 Santhals armed with

o8
bows and arrows and hand axes”, as the district website

K
A
puts it, take over the mofussil centre of Pakur during

Ev
small patch of land around 30 km southwest of the Santhal Hul (uprising) and burn down bungalows of

9a
Martello Tower and Sidhu Kanu Park in Jharkhand’s British administrators and the queen’s palace that was
Pakur district town became a battleground this symbolic of domination by landlords and moneylenders.

v3
July between adivasis and Muslims over ownership, four The Martello Tower built in 1856 offers a “panoramic

JJ
months ahead of assembly polls, with Assam Chief Minister view of the adjoining hills towards the west and the hills

hp
Himanta Biswa Sarma raising the allegation of “illegal of Rajmahal towards the northeast”, enabling the British

LC
Bangladeshi immigrants” grabbing land from indigenous counterinsurgency to ruthlessly snuff out the indigenous
people, carrying clear undertones of the familiar Bharatiya rebels using their superior firepower and putting thousands
X1
Janata Party (BJP) narrative in the Northeastern state. The of Santhals to death.
/J
Muslims were accused of encroaching on tribal land and Gaibthan was calm on the evening of November 3, just as it
m

retaliating violently when opposed. The clashes stopped had been on previous evenings. People were sitting on their
co

only after Section 144 was imposed in Gaibthan village of verandas and the chowk (open market area), discussing
Maheshpur block in the Santhal Pargana region. When elections. About 300 metres from the chowk is the disputed
p.

Sarma and BJP State President Babulal Marandi visited the plot of land over whose ownership the scuffle took place
ap

area a few days after the clashes, both linked the Muslim between the families of Hembram and Safaruddin Ansari.
ts

residents of Gaibthan village to Bangladeshi infiltration. Though the BJP has raised the issue of alleged Bangladeshi
ha

“I don’t know where they came from, but they have been infiltration in Santhal Pargana for years, it was only ahead
t.w

here since my grandfather’s time,” says 48-year-old Hopni of the November election that it was turned into a full-
Marandi, sitting on a cot outside the mud house of her son, fledged electoral campaign. BJP Jharkhand chief Marandi,
ha

Parmeshwar Hembram, on the edge of the disputed plot. who claimed the Muslims of Gaibthan are Bangladeshi
//c

“My grandfather gave them this land so they could keep their infiltrators, provided no evidence. Nearly 120 of the 300
s:

horses here. We did not object when they built a house here houses in the village belong to Muslim families. Among
tp

after my father-in-law died. But when we started building them is 52-year-old Samajuddin Ansari, who points to
ht

a house on our land adjacent to it, they began protesting. a 1932 land record that mentions his great-grandfather,
Hence the conflict.” Asked whether the Muslim families Budhu Momin, and says, “All the Muslims have been living
residing here are from Bangladesh, Marandi’s statements here for decades. We have land deeds, voter IDs, PAN cards
are clear—they took the land from her grandfather, and the and ration cards from long before Jharkhand was carved out
family has lived here for at least generations. of Bihar. We did not come from Bangladesh.” Ansari claims
everyone in the village has such records.
“The villagers (both tribals and Muslims) here are all
locals with land records from the last settlement (1932),”
says village head Ganesh Murmu, 52. “Tribals and Muslims
“MUSLIMS HAVE BEEN LIVING HERE FOR always lived here in harmony. Before this incident, there

DECADES. WE HAVE LAND DEEDS AND

had never been any conflict. Muslims too, attend all village
meetings.” Murmu believes harmony has been restored
VOTER IDS FROM LONG BEFORE since the incident.
Pakur is one of the five districts of Santhal Pargana—the
JHARKHAND WAS CARVED OUT OF others are Sahibganj, Dumka, Godda and Jamtara. Though
Pakur and Sahibganj seem to have found a special place in
BIHAR,” SAYS SAMAJUDDIN ANSARI. the BJP’s plans due to the alleged Bangladeshi infiltration,
Pakur Superintendent of Police Prabhat Kumar says “there
is no evidence” of such infiltration. “Those who claim there

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 35
BANGLADESHI INFILTRATION/JHARKHAND POLLS

are infiltrators should provide evidence. Investigation

following the Gaibthan incident showed no evidence of any
Bangladeshi in Pakur.”
That didn’t stop the BJP’s Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, SIRAJ DUTTA OF THE JHARKHAND
however, from claiming in Parliament on July 25 that
Bangladeshi infiltrators had married around 100 tribal
JANADHIKAR MAHASABHA BELIEVES
women leaders in Santhal Pargana and taken their land. THE ISSUE IS BEING USED TO CREATE
Again, no evidence. On July 28, BJP leader and member
of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, Asha A DIVIDE BETWEEN ADIVASIS AND
Lakra, alleged that the spouses of 10 tribal women leaders
in nine panchayats in Sahibganj district were Bangladeshi
MUSLIMS TO GAIN SOME TRIBAL SEATS

r
IN SANTHAL PARGANA.

C
infiltrators or Rohingya Muslims. Lakra and Dubey claimed

3i
Bangladeshi infiltrators were marrying tribal women to gain

o8
influence in panchayats.

K
In Sahibganj’s Barhet block, where many Muslim

Ev
men had indeed married tribal women and even helped

9a
them run for panchayat posts, there was no evidence urging Hindus to unite with slogans like “Hindus will be
suggesting connection to Bangladesh or land grabs. “It safe if they stay united, if divided, Irfan Ansari, Alamgir

v3
is my constitutional right to choose whom I marry,” says Alam and their people will rule”, have sparked criticism.

JJ
Celina Hansda, head of the Barhet Santhali Utri panchayat, Alam is a former minister in Jharkhand, and Ansari an

hp
whose husband Mohammad Azad was accused of being a incumbent minister in the Hemant Soren government.

LC
Bangladeshi infiltrator. “He was asked for papers. He has Having long claimed that Bangladeshi infiltration has
not just 1932 documents but even 1832 papers. Why did reduced the tribal population in Santhal Pargana, the
X1
they not investigate when the BJP was in power (2014-19)? BJP has promised to implement a National Register
/J
They are raising the issue only for the election.” of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Jharkhand to deport
m

Kadma panchayat head Ilijens Hansda, 36, who found her Bangladeshi infiltrators. However, they have yet to make
co

husband’s name on the “infiltrator list”, says, “Those who any such promise in writing or through advertisements.
say Muslim men are marrying tribal women and grabbing Meanwhile, the Centre’s affidavit in the Jharkhand High
p.

land are lying. I married Zainul Ansari from my village 18 Court in response to a public interest litigation did not cite
ap

years ago when we did not even know about panchayat any evidence of infiltration, though it claimed infiltration
ts

posts.” Hansda’s sister, Sheila, who married a Hindu man, since 1947 had changed the demographic profile of Santhal
ha

was never targeted, she adds. Pargana. Between 1991 and 2011, it states, when the Muslim
t.w

The list also includes Renuka Murmu, from Barhet Bazar, population increased by 13 per cent, it grew by 35 per cent in
whose husband Anjit Bhagat is a Hindu member of the Sahibganj and Pakur districts, even as the tribal population
ha

BJP. Murmu headed the Sahibganj district council from in Santhal Pargana declined from 44 per cent to 28 per cent
//c

2015 to 2020. “A list circulating in Barhet block mentioned between 1951 and 2011.
s:

the names of tribal women heads whose husbands were Siraj Dutta of the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha
tp

Muslims,” she says. “I know none of them are Bangladeshi. believes the issue is being used to create a divide between
ht

There are no Bangladeshis in Barhet. Both Hindus and adivasis and Muslims with the aim of gaining some tribal
Muslims have married tribal girls here, but never by force.” seats in Santhal Pargana. He claims the BJP is using the
Bhagat says that instead of creating a divide on religious issue to target Muslims in the Kolhan region, too. Through
lines, parties should focus on stopping mass migration Sarma, the party has again revived Hindutva in Jharkhand.
caused by economic misery and provide employment. A journalist from Assam, who didn’t wish to be identified,
Benifred Murmu, 62, a panchayat head from Barhet says Sarma changed the narrative around Bangladeshi
Bazar, also refuted the claim that her husband, Jagarnath infiltration in Assam. The issue had been raised during
Das, a Hindu, is a Bangladeshi infiltrator. “All the people decades of Congress rule, with people from all castes and
here are locals,” she says. Yet, the issue of Bangladeshi religions demanding the expulsion of illegal immigrants.
infiltration has polarised adivasis and Muslims in Santhal However, the BJP narrowed this focus to Muslims, making
Pargana, and Hindus and Muslims in other regions, with infiltration synonymous with the Muslim community.
other issues taking a back seat. What started as the BJP’s Sarma played a key role in setting this narrative, which
election campaign on Bangladeshi infiltration has now proved successful for the BJP. According to the journalist,
evolved into slogans such as “Batenge to Katenge (If we Sarma is now trying to bring the same narrative to Santhal
split, we will be dead)”. Pargana in order to gain political power. With its significant
At every election rally in Jharkhand, Assam CM Sarma Muslim and Adivasi population, Santhal Pargana is
has spoken about Bangladeshi infiltration. At one rally, he considered a stronghold of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
promised the BJP would rename towns like Hussainabad (JMM), the largest party in Soren’s ruling coalition. O
and Haider Nagar in the Palamu region. His recent remarks, (Translated by Tarique Anwar)

36 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
IDENTITY POLITICS/JHARKHAND ASSEMBLY ELECTION

VIKRAM SHARMA

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co

Religion and Politics Sarna flag atop a house in Arakeram village, Ormanjhi block, Ranchi
p.
ap
ts

Sarna Dharma
ha
t.w
ha

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is keeping the Sarna Code issue alive in its
//c

election campaign, especially in tribal areas

s:
tp
ht

Md Asghar Khan rights, which have been infringed upon. The advocates of
Sarna consider this religion to be different from others. Sarna

T
followers are nature worshippers whose culture and
HIRTY-one-year-old Guddu Pahan’s house is located traditions are unique. They worship trees, plants, mountains
in the Chadri locality of Ranchi’s Albert Ekka Chowk. and nature in its various manifestations. Apart from
Pahan, who belongs to the Munda tribe, is struggling to Jharkhand, most of the Sarna population is found in Bengal,
earn his livelihood. He is one of many tribals whose lives have Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
been upended by the expansion of the settlement. In front of On November 11, 2020, a special session was convened by
the 10 by 10 room made of asbestos, which Pahan calls home, the Jharkhand Assembly and Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s
is the Chadri’s Sarna place of worship. This is where tribal government passed a resolution for a separate religion for the
communities gather to celebrate the Sarhul and Karma tribals. This was sent to the Central government, demanding a
festivals. Pahan has been performing the duties of a priest for separate religion code for the tribals in the upcoming census.
the tribal community for the last 13 years. Pointing to the It was named the ‘Sarna tribal religion’ in the proposal.
newly constructed buildings nearby, he says, “All these spots According to the Constitution, the Centre holds the rights
where you see new buildings used to be our Chadri land. over religion-related laws and the President has the right of
Someday, we are going to lose our house too.” approval. The bill has been stuck for the last four years in a
However, when you mention the Sarna religion, Pahan’s complicated process, but Soren and his party, the Jharkhand
sadness vanishes. He thinks that if the Sarna Code comes into Mukti Morcha (JMM), have kept the issue alive in their
effect, they will be able to reclaim their lost land and their election rallies, laying special emphasis on it especially while

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 37
IDENTITY POLITICS/JHARKHAND ASSEMBLY ELECTION

SARNA FOLLOWERS ARE NATURE WORSHIPPERS WHOSE CULTURE AND

TRADITIONS ARE UNIQUE. THEY WORSHIP TREES, PLANTS, MOUNTAINS
AND NATURE IN ITS VARIOUS MANIFESTATIONS.

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha

A N U PA M P R A S H A N T M I N Z
t.w

campaigning in the tribal belt, as the assembly election A Recent Addition that practises idol worship. Sarhul
ha

approaches. The election will be a test of the party’s Picture of Sarna Ma at and Karma Puja are organised by
//c

popularity among tribal voters. Sarna Sthal surrounded the Sarna Chadri Committee of
s:

Activist and writer Dr Sanjay Basu Mallick says that the by Hindu gods Ranchi along with Durga, Kali and
tp

Sarna Code has been politicised. He points out that there are Saraswati Puja. The tribals
ht

two sides to identity: one cultural, the other, political. When associated with the Committee hold a prayer ceremony.
identity is brought to the political stage, it is referred to as Bablu Munda is the chairman of the Central Sarna
identity politics. According to Mallick, Soren is actively Committee. Though he follows Hindu rituals, he does not
engaging in identity politics. subscribe to the RSS’s thought process.
“Sarna has emerged as a strong force and since then tribals “Sarna and Sanatan are separate,” he says. “Our ancestors
are being appeased in its name,” says Mallick. “The Sarna tribe were not adept in reading or writing. That is the reason we
has come together and political parties are busy praising do not have a religious book describing the process of
them. They are also aware of the fact that the Central worship. We have been following the traditional system
government is led by a different party that is not in favour of since time immemorial. When these people came from
the Sarna Code.” outside (Hindu society), they stole our culture and
Jharkhand has been the most vocal in demanding the Sarna principles and made a book. Actually, tribals are not their
Code. There were columns for six religions in the last census followers, it is the other way round.”
and the seventh was for “other religion”. The six religions are It is interesting to note that Munda is also a BJP leader, who
Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and has been demanding a separate religious identity for Sarna.
Jainism. Those demanding a separate Sarna code say that in the
2011 census, 79 lakh people had listed their religion in the ***
“other religion” column. Of these, 49.57 lakh mentioned their The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates have never
religion as Sarna. Forty-two lakh tribals belonged to Jharkhand. been in favour of Sarna. They consider tribals to be Hindus.
Though Sarna tribals worship nature, there is a section The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) opposition to the

38 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
Sarna Code is also seen as one of the reasons behind the
Central government’s silence on the bill. Hirendra Sinha of
the Jharkhand Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra, an affiliate of the “SARNA HAS EMERGED AS A STRONG
RSS, which works among the tribal community, says, “Sarna
has always been a part of Sanatan religion. One can look at FORCE AND SINCE THEN TRIBALS ARE
history; we were all one. People who say that Sarna members
are being converted to Hinduism are wrong. We have never
BEING APPEASED IN ITS NAME. THE SARNA
ever considered them to be separate. There is no question of TRIBE HAS COME TOGETHER AND POLITICAL
their coercion; we too worship nature like them.” He sees the
demand for a separate Sarna Code as an attempt to divide the PARTIES ARE BUSY PRAISING THEM.”
tribal community.
In recent decades, idols and pictures of the Sarna mother

r
C
have started to make an appearance at Sarna tribal worship

3i
sites. This change within the Sarna tribal community is taken by Soren are moves meant to reap political and

o8
being seen by some as a sign of their growing proximity electoral benefits. The analysis of the results in 14 seats in

K
towards Hinduism. On the other hand, Sarna religious Jharkhand in the Lok Sabha elections shows that Soren’s

Ev
leaders oppose these idols and pictures. In Sarna, mother- proposal for a separate religion has affected the 42 lakh

9a
woman is a work of imagination, and not traditionally Sarna followers of Jharkhand. While the BJP had won 12
depicted in picture form or as statues. Since nature feeds seats in 2014 and 2019, in 2024, it lost three of its seats.

v3
the Sarna tribals, they consider her the mother. These three were tribal-reserved seats and the results of

JJ
There is a difference of opinion among the followers of Khunti and Lohardaga were especially shocking. Before

hp
the Sarna religion with regard to the process of worship. 2024, in the nine general elections held from 1989 to 2019,

LC
In this context, there are questions to be asked about the BJP had won the two seats—eight times in Khunti and
Soren’s demand to bring all the tribals of the country into six times in Lohardaga.
X1
the fold of one religion, under the umbrella of the As per official figures, Sarna followers, Oran and Munda
/J
proposed Sarna Code. tribes are larger in number and their population is greater
m

However, tribals have had immense faith in nature for at Khunti and Gumla Lok Sabha constituencies of Chhota
co

decades and the demand for a separate religious code for Nagpur. The firm hold of the BJP over those two seats is
Sarna is over 50 years old. There is a place of worship in attributed to decades of hard work done by the RSS. The
p.

tribal villages, which is called the Sarna site. The Sal tree or change reflected in the 2024 general election in these seats
ap

other trees are worshiped there. This place of worship is have had an impact on a section of Sarna followers, who
ts

called Sarna in Oraon, Jaher in Munda and Chaher Than in voted for the INDIA bloc. Presently, all the five reserved Lok
ha

Santhal. Other communities give it different names. Sabha seats are with the JMM and the Congress.
t.w

Sarna religious leader Bandhan Tigga wants a separate

code for his religion. He argues, “If Sarna religion gets a ***
ha

code, the tribals will also agree and accept it. We are making In independent India, tribals were identified with their
//c

the tribals of other states aware about Sarna and they are all separate religion code as per the censuses conducted between
s:

in consensus with having a separate Sarna Code.” 1871 and 1941. However, the process was discontinued after
tp

The big question remains whether the tribals of the country the census of 1951.
ht

will remain united on the issue. The population of tribals can The demand for a separate Sarna Code for Sarna followers
be divided into 2 crore Bheel, 1.60 crore Gaund, 80 lakh can also be attributed to conversions. They feel that once they
Santhal, 50 lakh Meena, 42 lakh Oraon, 27 lakh Munda and 19 get their own religious code, conversions will stop. In some
lakh Bodo tribals. Although the heads of tribal organisations states of the North East, a major chunk of the tribal population
in different states believe that tribals should be identified on has converted to Christianity. In Jharkhand, tribals follow
the basis of a single religion, there is no consensus on the Hinduism more than Christianity. According to information
naming of a separate religious code for aboriginals. Most of obtained from an RTI in 2018, if Sarna followers are set aside
them suggest that Sarna should be identified as a religion. in a tribal population of about 87-88 lakhs, 32,45,856 tribals
Padma Shri awardee Ramdayal Munda was the first person to believe in Hinduism, 13,38,175 follow Christianity, 18,107
analyse the situation and suggest the name of a religion for the Islam, 2,946 Buddhism, 984 Sikhism and 381 Jainism. There
aborigines in his book titled Adi Dharam. are 25,971 tribals who do not believe in any religion.
The Sarna Code and Khatiyan of 1932, which deals with As per the 2011 Census, there are 705 tribes with a total
rights and land records of local inhabitants, have not been population of 10.45 crore in the country. In comparison, the
seriously taken into consideration by previous governments. percentage of Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists is 2.3,
However, Soren took cognisance of these as soon as he came 2.16, 0.47 and 0.84 per cent of the total population of the
to power. On November 11, 2020, the Sarna Religion Code Bill country, which is much less than that of the tribals. Tribal
was passed by the assembly and exactly two years later, on organisations in Jharkhand consider it a major reason for
November 11, 2022, the 1932-based Khatiyan Bill was passed. demanding their own religious identity. O
According to political commentators, both the decisions (Translated by Kaveri Mishra)

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 39
JHARKHAND ELECTION/
THE ADIVASI-MUSLIM FACTOR

The

r
C
Historic

3i
o8
K
Ev
Bonhomie

9a
v3
JJ
While the BJP is trying to invoke

hp
the trope of “Bangladeshi

LC
$)Ĝ'/-/*-.ïÕ
/#
"-*0)
- '$/4
X1
+$)/.

$!! - )/
+$/0-
+ -/$)$)"

/*
/#
#$./*-$'
.$")$Ĝ)
*!

/J
m

0.'$(ê$1.$
(- -$
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp

Election Fever
ht

A view of Jhanda
Chowk at Hazaribagh
in Jharkhand
S U R E S H K . PA N D E Y

Abhik Bhattacharya for invoking the narratives of ‘love jihad’ and ‘land jihad’ on his
home turf. But the way it worked in his favour in Assam, will

T
it serve the same purpose in Jharkhand? The historic cultural
HE Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while launching transactions and bonhomie between Adivasis and Muslims in
the electoral manifesto of the BJP in Jharkhand, said the Chhota Nagpur region vouch for a different reality where
that the party would bring a law to restrict the transfer the sense of assimilation prevails over imaginative separation.
of land from Adivasis to ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’. He also A meeting with Padma Shri lokgeet singer Madhu
reiterated the promise of implementing the Uniform Civil Mansoori—who gained prominence with his song ‘Gao Chorab
Code (UCC) in the state, but this time with a twist— “Adivasis Nahi’—around 20 km from Ranchi, behind a roadside dhaba
will be exempted from its ambit,” he said. named ‘Jharkhand Muslim Hotel’, brings forth a new form of
This is, however, not the first time that the trope of identity assertion. Showing reverence to his Muslim identity,
Bangladeshi infiltrators has been invoked by BJP leaders in the if you greet him with Assalamu Alaykum, he responds with
run-up to the Jharkhand Assembly elections. It started with folded hands and a broad smile and says, ‘Johar’. Explaining
the BJP’s plan to bring in Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa his identity in a lucid manner, he says: “I consider myself to
Sarma as the election-in-charge of the state. Sarma is known be an ‘Oraon Muslim’. The privileging of Adivasi identity over

40 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
religious identity stems from the long cultural relations we
share with the Adivasis.” Although his family embraced Islam
several generations ago, being Adivasis, their cultural practices
remain the same. He says that while he celebrates Eid and THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME THAT THE
Baqarid, he never desists from celebrating Karma or Sarhul.
Such cultural bonhomie between these two communities
TROPE OF BANGLADESHI INFILTRATORS
also became the backbone of the Jharkhand statehood move-
ment. In 1962, Jaipal Singh Munda, the founder of the Adivasi
HAS BEEN INVOKED BY BJP LEADERS.
Mahasabha, flanked by Zauhar Ali, a Muslim leader associated
with the movement, gave the slogan Julaha-Kohla Bhai Bhai—
referring to the relationship between Jharkhandi Muslims,
known as Julaha, and the Adivasis, mentioning the Kol tribe. In the 1937 legislative assembly elections, the Muslim

r
C
The Julaha identity gave a sense of resistance to the League lost the Ranchi seat to R Ali, a Momin Conference

3i
Muslims of this region who were being looked down upon leader. In the 1946 elections, under the leadership of Abdur

o8
by their coreligionists in north India. “The Muslim leaders Razzaque Ansari, the Congress bagged all five seats in the

K
from Bihar used to call us Julaha in a condescending manner. Chhota Nagpur division. When the Muslim League gave a

Ev
But we perceived it differently. Except for a few religious call for an Adivasisthan—a separate corridor to connect the

9a
practices, we are like Adivasis,” says Zubair Ahmad, a proposed East and West Pakistan—the Ansaris were with the
former central committee member of the Jharkhand Mukti Congress. They were even called the ‘dogs of the Congress’ by

v3
Morcha. He invested his youth for the cause of the Jharkhand the League leaders, writes Ansari.

JJ
statehood movement and always upheld the rights of Jharkhand-based scholar Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff also

hp
Adivasis and Muslims together. referred to the statement of Momin Conference leader

LC
R.R. Diwakar, who served as the Governor of undivided Bihar Amanat Ali to establish this point. During an interview, Ali
in the 1950s, noted in his book Bihar Through the Ages that said: “When Nehru paid a visit, I competed with my school
X1
the Muslims had become one with the Adivasis in the past 800 friends over who would touch his feet. We were punished for
/J
years. Johannes Baptist Hoffman, a German Jesuit linguist and this in school. The teachers (some of whom were English) did
m

missionary to the Mundas in India, has also mentioned that not appreciate us welcoming Jawaharlal Nehru. The history
co

over the years, Mundari dialects have borrowed several words of our involvement in the freedom struggle is very old. In 1857,
from Arabian and Persian languages. more than 70 per cent of the sepoys, who were killed in the
p.

Other historical sources like Ranchi Gazetteers note that it movement against the British, were Ansaris. We were called
ap

was during the time of Sher Shah that a large population of the “bloody Julahas”.
ts

Muslims settled in the Chhota Nagpur region. One gets to However, the term ‘Julaha’ gradually became the word
ha

know from different archival sources about a white elephant of resistance for Muslims during the Jharkhand statehood
t.w

that drew Sher Shah’s army to Chhota Nagpur. The elephant movement. Though the movement, initiated by the Adivasi
named ‘Shyam Chandra’ was in the possession of the king of Mahasabha, primarily wanted to address Adivasi concerns,
ha

Chhota Nagpur. But Sher Shah believed that he needed the gradually the leadership understood the importance of
//c

elephant to become Delhi’s ‘emperor’. Though it is not clear Moolvasis—those non-Adivasis who have been staying in
s:

from the accounts whether he could take possession of the Jharkhand for centuries. The formation of the Jharkhand
tp

elephant before taking over Delhi’s throne, Muslim soldiers Party is mostly attributed to this realisation that the state
ht

and their families started settling down in this region. On the of Jharkhand would only be a possibility when a separate
other side were thousands of Adivasis who embraced Islam ‘Jharkhandi’ identity is formed. And that would have never
in Santhal Pargana—the Muslim-dominated region that has been possible without the assimilation of Muslims within the
become the central point of the BJP’s electoral campaign. broader Jharkhandi identity.
The relationship of Adivasis and Muslims in the Santhal Ansari thinks that it is the ‘Ashrafization’ (stringent
Pargana region has also been invoked by Pasmanda activist observance of pure Islamic practices by the mostly ‘upper
and scholar Razaul Haq Ansari. “Adivasi kings had provided caste’ Muslims who consider themselves as the descendants
support to the Momins (Muslim weaver caste). They even had of Prophet Mohammad) of Muslims that affected the relations
a department that was involved in business, and the Adivasis between the two communities. But still, on the ground,
would carry out agricultural activities. It was the Adivasis, they share the same cultural space. Though in the 1990s
particularly, who worked to prepare Momins for business Muslims in the Jharkhand statehood movement asked for
activities. After conversion, the Adivasis retained their land, their community rights as the ‘minority’ by forming different
but the Momins lost theirs,” he writes. organisations, the relationship with Adivasis remained intact.
The relationship definitely had some political implications Against this backdrop, when Assam CM Sarma or Union
as well. It was during their fight against British colonialism Home Minister Shah give calls to mark Bangladeshi infiltrators
that Muslims in Jharkhand stood strongly with the Adivasis. in the Santhal Pargana region—obliquely referring to Muslims
While Muslims in most of the north Indian states like Bihar in this region through the tropes of land jihad and love
and Uttar Pradesh supported Jinnah’s two-nation theory, jihad—the history of long bonhomie goes for a toss. Will the
the Muslims of Chhota Nagpur—dominated by Momins or constructed narrative of today overshadow the historical
Ansaris—sided with the Congress. narratives to create a conflicted future? O

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 41
JHARKHAND ELECTION/PROFILE

Search for
a Narrative
By demanding a separate Sarna Code for the

r
C
tribals, Hemant Soren has offered the larger

3i
issue of tribal identity before the voters

o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
PHOTOGRAPHS: PTI
Tribal Trademarks

hp
(Clockwise from top)

LC
Hemant Soren with
his father Shibu Soren; X1
Hemant arrives to
/J

address an election
m

meeting in Gumla
co

district, Jharkhand, on
p.

November 3, 2024
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

Md Asghar Khan hatched against tribals and alleged the collusion of the BJP
government at the Centre and the governor of the state.

T
Arrested on January 31, 2024, in an alleged land scam case,
HE 24-minute speech by Hemant Soren on the floor the growth of his political stature triggered a debate once
of the Jharkhand Assembly on February 5, 2024, did Hemant came out of prison on bail after five months. It seemed
not reveal, even for a moment, the political pressure that his image had changed from being a tribal leader to a
he faced while he was in prison. For the confidence vote, he national leader. Though he inherited the political legacy of his
reached the assembly under the custody of the Directorate father, Shibu Soren, he had to fight a long battle to create his
of Enforcement (ED); and through his aggressive speech, political identity.
he continued his attack on the opposition. He said the Hemant began his political journey without any political
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was anti-tribal. This allegiance—either to the Left or the Right-wing parties. For
discussion reached outside the assembly as well as the it was more for the pleasure of power. He joined hands with
villages. Hemant linked his arrest to a purported conspiracy the BJP to share power in 2010. Obviously, for him, ideology

42 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
was never a barrier in politics. Ironically, the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha (JMM) was founded by Shibu Soren in 1973
with the support of the Left parties. THE POLITICAL IDEOLOGY OF HEMANT IS
But today, there is a discussion about the new Hemant
in political circles. His administration’s response to the BASED ON THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY OF
COVID-19 pandemic and his five months in prison have
brought out a stronger and a more mature image of Hemant
THE TRIBALS. HE HAS ALSO PROVED HIS
who did not buckle under political pressure. ABILITY TO WORK WITH EVERYONE IN
Senior journalist Faisal Anurag, who has a keen eye on the
politics of Jharkhand, is of the view that a lot of maturity can COALITION POLITICS.
now be seen in the new Hemant. “Of the three sons of Shibu
Soren, Hemant is the most politically mature, when compared

r
C
to the eldest son, late Durga Soren and the youngest son,

3i
Basant Soren. During the time Durga Soren was alive, his the 28 assembly seats reserved for tribals, 24 lie in these five

o8
father Shibu Soren was politically very active and strong. That Lok Sabha constituencies. It is obvious that if this narrative

K
is why he did not have to face the challenges that Hemant had works in the assembly polls too, the BJP will be facing more

Ev
to face in the last five years. That was when Shibu Soren was trouble than it did in 2019. Interestingly, it is being said

9a
not keeping well. Looking at Hemant’s tenure as chief minister that the way Kalpana Soren, Hemant’s wife, has established
and five months in jail, he never bowed down in front of his herself in Jharkhand politics in the last six months has

v3
opponents. The way he has handled the party and the alliance strengthened the party.

JJ
is commendable,” says Anurag. Hailing from the Santhal tribe, which is the most populous

hp
When the JMM and the Congress got a full majority in the in the state, Hemant stepped into politics in 2003. He lost

LC
assembly elections in 2019, Hemant became chief minister. the Dumka seat in the 2005 assembly elections. He became
However, the COVID-19 pandemic hit within a year and a Rajya Sabha member in 2009. After a few months, he
X1
it took two years to deal with the grim situation. During resigned and contested the Dumka seat in the assembly
/J
this period, whether it was the issue of bringing migrant elections and won. Since no party could secure a majority,
m

labourers through flights or special trains, Hemant was the JMM formed the government in alliance with the BJP in
co

widely appreciated for his efforts. 2010 and Hemant became the deputy chief minister. After
Though Hemant could not deliver on the JMM’s manifesto the BJP withdrew support, the JMM forged an alliance with
p.

promises on the ground, he was able to divert the attention of the Congress and Hemant became the ninth chief minister of
ap

the people to other issues. Like the Sarna Code for religious the state in 2013 at the age of 38 years.
ts

identification, the Khatiyan Bill of 1932, mentioning the Political experts say there are a number of differences
ha

‘indigeneity’ of a local and the Other Backward Classes (OBC) between Hemant and his father. Shibu Soren started his
t.w

bill to increase reservations from 14 to 27 per cent. Though political career as a revolt against oppression by middlemen,
these decisions have not taken the shape of laws, Hemant landowners and the rulers and merged his revolt into the
ha

was able to gain political mileage from these issues. On the politics of regionalism and demanded a separate state for
//c

other hand, he has consistently promised five lakh jobs or Jharkhand. Shibu Soren had considered this to be a fight for
s:

distribution of forest land to tribals. In response to questions a separate tribal identity. However, he never fought a direct
tp

on his failure to fulfil these promises, the Hemant government battle for the tribals. The political ideology of Hemant, on the
ht

continues to blame the COVID-19 period and accuses the BJP other hand, is based on the religious identity of the tribals.
of destabilising the government. In five years, Hemant also proved his ability to work with
But the way Hemant and his party capitalised on his everyone in coalition politics.
arrest with the issue of tribal identity has created a Sometimes the image of Hemant comes out as a strong yet
narrative among the tribals of Jharkhand. Ranjit Mahli, clever and cunning leader, which contradicts his identity.
assistant professor at the Nilamber-Pitamber University While he plays with the identity card of the tribals, he can also
in Medininagar, Jharkhand, believes that Hemant has been be seen visiting temples and spending crores of rupees on
successful in linking the Sarna identity with indigeneity the renovation of temples. Hemant reiterates that tribals are
and the message has reached the tribal population. “Since neither Hindus nor will they ever be Hindus. But his visits to
the time Hemant knew about the possibility of his arrest, he temples prove that he wants to seek the confidence of non-
sought the refuge of the Sarna tribe. He has been saying how tribals and non-minorities too.
the BJP government is not willing to give a religious identity However, the fact remains that the empathy tribals have
to the Sarnas,” says Mahli. developed for Hemant since his release has become a matter of
This narrative was visible during the 2024 Lok Sabha grave concern for the BJP. To counter his campaign, the saffron
elections in the state. While the BJP had won 14 and 12 seats party had to send an army of 40 people, including the prime
during the 2014 and 2019 elections, respectively, it lost three minister, home minister and five former chief ministers, to
seats in 2024. It is interesting to note that the three seats that campaign in Jharkhand. Whatever be the electoral outcome, by
the BJP lost were seats reserved for tribals. At present, all demanding a separate Sarna Code for the tribals, Hemant has
the five seats reserved for tribals in the state are held by the offered the larger issue of tribal identity before the voters. O
INDIA bloc—the JMM, the Congress and the Left parties. Of (Translated by Kaveri Mishra)

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 43
 ENJOY A DAY OF FUN, FOOD,
FESTIVITY, AND ALL THINGS TRAVEL
WITH OUTLOOK TRAVELLER!

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

Join us at the Outlook Traveller Awards and Carnival

2024 for an exciting day of interactive workshops,
insightful discussions, regional food, and fun
activities. Spend a delightful winter Saturday with
friends and family, and immerse yourself in a festive
atmosphere with Outlook Traveller!
 r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
Exploring The Unknown:

LC
A Spotlight On Emerging Destinations
/J
X1
m

Powered by
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha

State Partners
//c
s:
tp
ht

30th 10 AM
NOVEMBER ONWARDS

S U N D E R N U R S E R Y, N E W D E L H I
W W W . O U T L O O K T R AV E L L E R . C O M

Follow us on:
JHARKHAND ELECTION/PHOTO ESSAY
1

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

46 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 2

Dust and Fire

1. Villagers scavenge the
mountainous dumps
in the hope of finding
scrap metal for selling in
exchange for quick cash
2. People sitting inside The
Black Diamond Express
that runs between Kolkata
and Dhanbad
3. A family of four allegedly

r
involved in the business

C
of illegal coal collection

3i
carry off huge loads to

o8
the nearby markets for a

K
meagre sum

Ev
4. Low levels of water in

9a
the rivers flowing in the

v3
region bring precious

JJ
stones and minuscule
gold granules that are

hp
hand-collected by

LC
local women
X1
3
/J

A Smouldering
m
co
p.

Wasteland
ap
ts
ha

As Jharkhand goes to the polls, people living

t.w

$)
)
-*0)
#-$
*'Ĝ '
#1
%0./
*)

ha

request for the administration—a life free from

//c

smoke, fear and danger for their children

s:
tp
ht

Text and photos: Abhishek Basu

V
4 ISIBLE plumes of fumes escape through cracks in
the earth. The air feels heavy with coal dust and the
acrid smell of burning coal. The ground itself appears
scorched, blackened in places where underground fires have
been burning for decades. Villages in and around Jharia—one
of India’s largest coal reserves, but also known for its dangerous
coal seam fires—resemble a smouldering wasteland.
On a typical day, one can see miners with soot-covered faces
and worn-out clothes, carrying tools and navigating the smoky
terrain. Trucks filled with coal drive by, kicking up clouds of
dust. Nearby, clusters of makeshift settlements house families
who depend on coal mining for their livelihood. The fires
make the ground unstable, leading to frequent cave-ins and
occasional toxic gas releases. Many homes are cracked by the
heat and subsidence caused by the fires beneath.
Children play nearby, despite the dangers. Life goes on for the

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 47
JHARKHAND ELECTION/PHOTO ESSAY 5

These Lives Matter

5. The aftermath of
a non-functional
open cast coal mine
which has left huge
craters in the ground,
changing the ecology

r
C
and landscape of

3i
the region

o8
6. A miner standing in

K
an open coal mine

Ev
7. A rat hole miner

9a
in Jharia
8. A young boy

v3
working as a coal

JJ
miner in Jharia

hp
6 7

LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

older people who have grown up around the mines.

Jharia as a township is a mix of migrants and locals who have no
choice but to work under hazardous conditions.
Typically, the miners work 8 to 12 hours a day and often
six days a week, though some may work longer to meet daily
production demands. Most are not satisfied with their wages.
Many do not have access to stable employment contracts or
benefits. Prolonged exposure to coal dust and smoke leads to
chronic respiratory problems such as bronchitis, asthma and
even pneumoconiosis (black lung). Some miners might receive
sporadic health check-ups or medical aid through government or
company programmes, but these are often insufficient.
As Jharkhand goes to the polls, people living in villages in and
around Jharia expect the administration to act. They say they
have been breathing fire for too long. O

48 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 Outlook
Planet

IIT Goa Rallies Key

Stakeholders To Catalyse
ESG Adoption
A two-day workshop brings together experts on how
to hand hold companies and their value chain partners to
enable them to become ESG-compliant

r
C
3i
o8
our framework of assessment.” Nimit Aggarwal, Managing Director
Vivek Bhardwaj, IAS, Secretary, and founder, EcoEx deliberated on

K
Ev
Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Mission LiFE and the principles of
Government of India, said at the circular economy, reflecting on how

9a
Naina Gautam inaugural, “While our weather is circular economy can be propelled

v3
changing, our geography too will through learnings from the past and

JJ
T
he Indian Institute Of change in the next few decades due shape young minds.

hp
Technology Goa-Mission to the conflict between The event witnessed eminent

LC
LiFE Cell is fast emerging as decarbonisation and development.” green leaders Dattaraj Salgoacar,
a platform for eminent Dr Satyendra Kumar, Director, X1 Chairman, V M Salgaocar Corp Ltd,
sustainability leaders to engage in Ministry of Environment, Forest Goa; Satya Prakash Choubey,
/J

conversations to catalyse climate and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Director, Global Energy Alliance for
m
co

action. The representatives at the said, “ESG is an investment People and Planet (GEAPP); Dr Amit
workshop ranged from central public imperative. If a company is actually Ranjan Chakraborty, Chief,
p.

sector undertakings, private sector, following ESG principles, then Environment Management, Tata
ap

energy sector regulators, central investors would come in and invest Steel Ltd; Dr Yu Jen Huang, Head,
ts

and state governments, academics in the businesses or not invest in Taiwan Green Productivity India; Anil
ha

and experts from across the country. your businesses depending on how Kumar Yendluri, Managing Director,
t.w

While setting the context, you are performing.” Vishwa Samudra; Professor Manell
ha

Sundeep Nayak, Professor of In her special address, Surabhi Zakaria, International Tech Expert,
//c

Practice, IIT Goa, and workshop chair Gupta, Chief General Manager, Expertise France Groupe, AFD;
s:

elaborated on the Environmental, Securities and Exchange Board of Mahesh Patil, Chairman, Goa State
tp

Social and Governance (ESG) India, said, “We have taken a climate Pollution Control Board; D N Thakur,
ht

landscape in India, various actions plus approach in our sustainability National President, Sahakar Bharati;
taken by the government, how ESG is reporting framework. Globally Ashish Kuvelkar, CDAC Pune; Sanjeev
impacting businesses worldwide and countries are focussing on climate Singhal, Executive Director, ONGC;
the need for capacity building. The first approach, but they are not Auduth M Timblo, Chairman,
former IAS officer said, “If we need considering the entire ‘E’; they are FOMENTO Resources; Ratnesh,
to handle non-tariff barriers, we considering greenhouse gas Executive Director, UN Global
need to build our own taxonomy and emissions only.” Compact India, Nimit Aggarwal,
Founder and Director, EcoEx; and
Akshaya Rath, Co-founder and CEO,
EcoEx, Prof B K Mishra, Founder
Director, IIT Goa, Dr Sharad Sinha,
Dean Faculty IIT Goa, and Dr Thaseem
Tahjuddin, Dean R&D IIT Goa.
The workshop was held in
collaboration with the MoEFCC,
EcoEx was the industry partner
Sundeep Nayak Dr Satyendra Kumar Vivek Bhardwaj
Professor of Practice Director, Ministry of Environment, Secretary, Ministry of and the Outlook Group was the
IIT Goa Forest and Climate Change, GOI Panchayati Raj, GOI media partner.

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 49
JHARKHAND ELECTION/PROFILE

GETTY IMAGES

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
A New Turf
X1 Assam Chief
Minister Himanta
/J
Biswa Sarma
m

addressing a rally
co
p.

Hemant Versus Himanta

ap
ts
ha

Himanta Biswa Sarma brings his hate bandwagon to

t.w

Jharkhand to rattle Hemant Soren’s tribal identity politics

ha
//c
s:

Md Asghar Khan and Snigdhendu Bhattacharya perhaps ever expected or imagined an Assamese politician
tp

would turn into Jharkhand’s biggest polariser until the

ht

A
BJP, in June, made Sarma a co-in-charge of the party for
SSAM Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while the Jharkhand Assembly election.
addressing the media on November 4 in Ranchi, Since then, he has eclipsed all Jharkhand BJP leaders,
the capital of Jharkhand, alleged: “Hemant Soren including former Chief Ministers Babulal Marandi and Arjun
is a spokesperson of infiltrators.” By infiltrator, he meant Munda, and even the BJP in-charge for the Jharkhand election,
Jharkhand’s Bengali-speaking Muslims, most of whom, if not former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and current Union
all, he evidently holds as infiltrators from Bangladesh. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. As in every other
This remark came three days after Sarma alleged that place he goes, Sarma hogs the headlines. He has been entrusted
under Chief Minister Soren’s rule, Hindus were becoming with popularising a new brand of politics in Jharkhand—
‘outsiders’ in Jharkhand. A couple of days before that, on vilification of Bengali-speaking Muslims as ‘Bangladeshi
October 29, Sarma alleged that Jharkhand’s Santhal Pargana infiltrators’, a task in which he has excelled since joining the BJP
region “is in line to become mini-Bangladesh”. He even in 2015—to challenge Soren’s tribal-oriented party.
compared himself with the Ramayan epic’s Lord Hanuman— Assam has long had a history of anti-Bengali politics,
well, almost—when he likened his ‘setting fire on infiltrators’ targeting, often violently, both Hindu and Muslim Bengalis
to Hanuman’s setting Lanka ablaze. for their alleged roots in Bangladesh. Under Sarma, the BJP
Sarma is an unusual challenger to Chief Minister and excelled in Assam in isolating and partly dehumanising the
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Soren. Jharkhand Bengali-speaking Muslims as ‘infiltrators’—with his tirade of
and Assam are about 500 km apart, share no border and speeches targeting their lifestyle, belief and culture—while
have few socio-cultural and political similarities. Sarma describing Bengali-speaking Hindus as ‘refugees’. He accused
was never involved in politics in Jharkhand, and no one Bengali Muslims of engaging in “fertiliser-jihad” and called

50 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
their women “child-producing machines”. He described
them as “very, very communal and fundamentalist people”
who were “distorting Assamese culture”. JHARKHAND ELECTION RESULTS WILL TELL
US IF WE ARE TO SEE THE RISE OF A NEW
Seeing the polarising potential in him, the BJP elevated
Sarma to the helm of the North East Democratic Alliance
(NEDA), the BJP-led alliance for northeast India. The year
2024 gave Sarma an even bigger platform to perform, as a
HINDUTVA STAR—HIMANTA BISWA SARMA.
star speaker in different parts of the country during the Lok
Sabha election campaign. It was during that time, in May
2024, that Sarma started telling the people of Jharkhand—a
state that shares no border with Bangladesh—that he, a man based outfits, conducted a fact-finding exercise about the
of experience concerning infiltration from Bangladesh, had claim of infiltration from Bangladesh. They visited the Santhal

r
C
come to warn Jharkhand’s residents of their impending Pargana districts to see the ground reality and studied census

3i
danger from infiltration and demographic change. This documents, starting with its 1901 edition. They later told the

o8
marked a tectonic shift in Jharkhand’s politics. media that they found the Bengali-speaking Muslims living in

K
Pakur and Sahibganj are indigenous to Jharkhand.

Ev
New Narrative

9a
Until a few months ago, the major ideological conflict between Lead Actor
the JMM and the BJP was in the former’s assertion of tribal Political observers point out that the BJP started looking for

v3
identity outside of the fold of Hinduism; whereas, the latter new issues after it won only two out of the 28 ST-reserved seats

JJ
claims tribal people as part of Hindu society. But in the BJP’s in the 2019 Assembly election. In 2022, Danyaal Danish, a BJP

hp
current plan, Soren has been depicted as one who is harming worker, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), alleging that in-

LC
tribals by allowing Muslims to settle in their land. filtration from Bangladesh was changing the states demography
Soren hit back at Sarma multiple times. Apart from accusing and infiltrators were luring tribal women into marriage to get
X1
the Assam chief minister of playing divisive politics and spread- land titles. They raked up the infiltration issue ahead of the 2024
/J
ing hatred, Soren accused Sarma’s Assam government of deny- parliamentary election, but the electoral misfortune continued.
m

ing ST status for tribals of Jharkhand origin living in Assam and They lost all three ST-reserved seats that they had won in 2019.
co

the atrocities committed on tribal women in riot-torn Manipur. They upped the ante on infiltration thereafter.
Soren highlighted how the tribals’ land, forests and other natu- According to a Ranchi-based NGO worker, who is unwilling
p.

ral resources had come under threat during the BJP’s rule. to be identified, Sarma is merely the ‘hero’ of a play written
ap

According to the 2021 census, 67.8 per cent of Jharkhand’s and directed by the top echelons of the BJP. Indeed, every BJP
ts

population identify as Hindu, 14.5 per cent as Muslim, 12.8 per politician—including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and
ha

cent as followers of the Sarna (tribal) religion and 4.3 per cent Prime Minister Narendra Modi—has highlighted the issue.
t.w

as Christian. Of the state’s 26.2 per cent Scheduled Tribe (ST) Danish’s PIL came up for hearing before the Jharkhand
population share, some identify as followers of Sarna, some High Court in August 2024. The court expressed concern and
ha

of Hinduism and some of Christianity. The Christians, most sought responses from the Union and the state governments.
//c

of whom are tribals, live in Chhota Nagpur region in southern In September, Shah’s ministry echoed the BJP’s charges in
s:

Jharkhand. Muslims live predominantly in the Santhal Pargana its report before the court. Simultaneously, the National
tp

region of eastern Jharkhand, made of the districts of Pakur, Commission for Scheduled Tribes, headed by Madhya Pradesh
ht

Sahibganj, Godda, Jamtara, Deoghar and Giridih. BJP leader Antar Singh Arya, submitted a report echoing what
The Santhal Pargana region at the trijunction of West Danish had alleged in his PIL. Asha Lakra, the NCST member
Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand is part of a larger region where and a senior BJP leader from Jharkhand, wrote the report.
Muslims have lived in high concentration for many decades, But it has been up to Sarma to lead and sustain the attack. At
in fact, centuries. It is contiguous with Bihar’s Seemanchal one election meeting in the Palamu, he said if the BJP comes
or northeastern part, where Katihar, Purnea and Kishanganj to power, towns like Hussainabad and Haider Nagar will be
have a high Muslim demographic concentration, and West renamed. At another meeting, he warned that if Hindus did not
Bengal’s northern-central districts of Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, remain electorally united (in favour of the BJP), the likes of
Murshidabad and Birbhum, of which the first three are Irfan Ansari and Alamgir Alam would reign. Ansari and Alam
Muslim-majority districts. are the only two Muslim politicians from Jharkhand to ever get
It is the Bengali-speaking Muslims of the Santal Pargana any ministerial berth. Researchers have previously shown that
region who have been Sarma’s principal target since June, after Muslims have remained underrepresented in state’s politics.
being formally appointed for Jharkhand election management. Polarisation, however, is not the only thing Sarma is valued
He claims infiltration is “not a political issue” for him but “a for. He is also known as a ‘master strategist’ for his role in
matter of life and death”. He even demands a law to prohibit the leading the BJP’s alliance in northeast India. In Jharkhand,
marriage of tribal women with ‘infiltrators’. too, Sarma played a crucial role in getting some JMM leaders
His claim of widespread illegal infiltration from Bangladesh to defect to the BJP and stitching together an alliance with the
has been challenged by the JMM, the Congress and other All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU), the Janata Dal (United)
opponents of the BJP. In September, the Jharkhand Janadhikar and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Results will tell us if we are
Mahasabha and the Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan, two rights- to see the rise of a new Hindutva star. O

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 51
JHARKHAND ELECTION/ADIVASI IDENTITY

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha

Jacinta Kerketta
I S A J O U R N A L I S T, P O E T A N D
t.w

A C T I V I S T. H E R W O R K D E A L S
WITH IDENTITY CRISIS OF
ha

T H E A D I VA S I C O M M U N I T Y
//c

Of Rivers,
s:
tp
ht

Jungles
and
Mountains
In Adivasi poetry,
everything breathes,
everything is alive
and nothing is
inferior to humans

52 O U T LO O K | N OV E M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 24 A R T W O R K B Y A N U P R I YA
WHEN I first started writing Hindi poems, I heard
people from the Hindi literary world say:
“The voice in your poems is masculine and
dividual. In some places, they are considered special and
such people also lead others by gaining special knowledge.
An Adivasi writer, by virtue of having grown up with this
feminine at once. This makes it hard to expansive language (and its attendant community), is liable
guess the poet’s gender.” Sometimes, they also claimed that to assimilate its fundamental characteristics into their
the author of those poems must be a man since they have a thinking and writing, even if they were exposed to the
greater presence of the masculine voice in them. worldview of a different language such as Hindi during their
I found it to be true that my poems contained voices in time in school. This is the reason that though I am a woman,
both the masculine and the feminine genders. This the voice in my poems has never been singularly and exclu-
prompted me to look within myself to understand why I sively that of a woman, but those of men as well as women.
wrote in that manner. I realised that every individual, An Adivasi writer writes about all the things existing on
woman or man, grows up carrying a society within them and earth as if they were alive and animated. This too engenders

r
C
is constituted by its languages. The way they think, act and curiosity among the people from the Hindi literary world.

3i
write draws upon this outer world carried within. The Adivasi society considers itself a part—a very small

o8
The Adivasi community that I belong to did not have Hindi part—of the universe and not as something different. It be-

K
as its language, therefore I was not brought up in a Hindi- lieves that everything in the universe is infused with life and

Ev
speaking society. I learnt the language later when I started that the earth has its own wisdom.

9a
school, by reading books, and it then became a part of my Human beings, too, carry wisdom, the purpose of which is
writing and speaking. But I lived and grew up among different to help them understand the vastness of the universe and to

v3
Adivasi communities, such as the Oraons, Santhals, Hos and live in harmony with it. That is why, in my poems, everything

JJ
Mundas, and their way of thinking lives on in me, travels breathes, everything is alive and nothing is inferior to hu-

hp
along with me and informs my writing style. mans or lifeless. All the various forms of life are intercon-

LC
The language of the Oraon tribe is Kurukh. As far as we know, nected. Without water, trees, land and air, there is no human
it belongs to the Dravidian language family, but according to existence. An ever-present theme in my poems is that we are
X1
some Adivasis, it could possibly belong to a different language in a world of living things, throbbing and pulsating, and con-
/J
group, because many Kurukh words carry nuqtas (a nuqta is a nected to one another by many visible and invisible threads.
m

diacritic mark in the form of a dot placed below a character), Hindi speakers also quiz me about a perceived lack of
co

which alter their meanings. The assignation of the feminine people in my writings. “Forests, mountains and rivers
and the masculine genders in Kurukh is vastly different from abound in your poetry, but there is no mention of people,”
p.

that in Hindi. In this language, most earthbound things—for- they say. I think that they pose such questions because as
ap

ests, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, cows, bulls and so on—are part of “civilised” society, they understand the concept of
ts

feminine. It also especially allows for more privileges for people not as human beings in their ecosystem but as
ha

women, enabling them to speak in both male and female markets. But if people are removed from the markets, the
t.w

voices. Women speaking Kurukh talk to men in a male voice entire structure of this society will collapse.
and to women in a female voice. So, an Oraon Adivasi woman This is a society that uses those whom it calls “people” to op-
ha

can speak like both a man and a woman. erate and expand its businesses, to survive and to get material
//c

Perhaps, this society and its worldview come to me natu- comforts, but still finds itself unable to respect many of those
s:

rally while writing poetry. Perhaps, even after my transition same people as humans. In its narrow framework, community
tp

to Hindi, this ancient language lives on in my writing, along and society are constituted by a select number and type of peo-
ht

with its distinctive characteristics. ple. One’s communication and socialisation are limited to being
The grammar of the Kurukh language also accords a great with those chosen few, and dining, drinking and partying with
deal of respect to the existence of people outside the frame- them. But unlike the denizens of this “civilised” world, Adivasis
work of male and female identities. For example, if a person is do not view things in isolation. They see them in their mutual
approaching from afar and their gender identity is unclear connectedness. When they speak about a forest, they envisage
yet, then until it becomes clear, one refers to that person sim- the creatures, people and community associated with it.
ply as a human being and not as a woman or a man. Even after When they speak about a river, they speak about the civilisa-
they have drawn near, one does not associate them with any tions that live around it. When they speak about the wind, they
particular gender until they make a self-declaration of it. are referring to all the creatures connected with it. Therefore,
The Adivasis are deemed uncivilised and undeveloped by in our writing, we are not talking only about humans, but about
the so-called civilised society, but we find in an Adivasi lan- the entire natural world associated with us. Adivasi languages
guage this inbuilt acknowledgment of people and identities evoke everything, visible and invisible, simultaneously. Behind
outside the compartments of male and female. It is remark- the overt meanings conveyed by many of their words, there lies
able that an ancient language should evince such sensitivity an invisible sense of things that are not named but simply have
towards a subject that has given rise to debates all over the to be felt. One hears the same thing from the people of Africa as
world today and led to the coining of new words and usages well. Recently, I met a man from an indigenous African com-
in many languages. This could probably be the reason why munity, and he gifted me a book of poetry. His name is
within Adivasi societies, people belonging to a third or other Nnimmo Bassey and his book is called I see the Invisible. O
gender identities have never been a subject of debate or (Translated by Kaushika Draavid)
contempt. Instead, they have existed just like any other in- (For full version of this article, go to [Link])

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 53
WE would always talk about how Sharda
Sinha, the singer whose voice means
home to us, used to chew paan while
She was born in the erstwhile Saharsa district of
Mithilanchal region, which is home for me.
Having left home as a kid, the marker of home, for
she sang so that her voice had that me, was not the physical space anymore. Home was
earthy touch to it. You could even smell home now an idea in the head. The markers of that idea
through her voice. Ashutosh Salil now were the language, the songs and the food of
She passed away last week, on November 5, the IS AN IAS OFFICER my childhood. Sinha’s songs were one such marker.
first day of Chhath Puja, a festival that’s worshipped Every time I have longed for home, I have found
across Bihar and is a homage to nature. She had been in the refuge in her songs. They anchored me, and somehow I felt that
hospital. She had just released a new song for Chhath. all wasn’t lost, and that was so comforting.
My mother is in mourning. So are my aunts in Bihar. They I was first introduced to her music through her audio cassettes
cried when they heard of her death and now tear up talking at home in the 1980s. She stood out even on the cover of those
about her. My family is not the only one in mourning. Many cassettes. With her black hair, which back then she wore loose

r
C
families are feeling that loss personally. They feel that she and a big round bindi, she imbibed both feminine and feminist

3i
passed away on an auspicious day and during the festival personas. I remember listening to two of her audio cassettes in

o8
that her voice had become synonymous with. That’s not a Maithili and Bhojpuri. My mother played them very often in my

K
coincidence. She had become one with the Chhath festival. childhood. Hers was the only voice I had heard then and for the

Ev
Like my mother, most of them would have never known her longest time in my mother tongue.

9a
personally or would have met her. They only heard her songs Once I left home to go to a boarding school in the 1990s,
on radio or tape recorder. Sinha was the woman who sang their I left the songs of my home and the childhood behind. In

v3
songs and also the songs of their ancestors, and took them afar. my teens, I was growing up on Hindi film songs. Folk songs

JJ
Songs of love, marriage, festivals and childbirth. were not cool enough. So, one would only stumble upon a

hp
fragment of a song playing somewhere, sung by that voice
from my home, in the cities that I lived in, but never in the

LC
intimate settings of home anymore.

The Voice
X1
Sometimes when one visited home, we would hear her
/J
voice from the loudspeakers from afar during Chhath or
m

marriage ceremonies.
co

of Bihar
It was many years later, as an adult, that I would re-
discover Sinha and fall in love with
p.

her all over again. This love was

ap

different. This now, that longing.

ts

In the last decade, I have possibly

ha

heard everything she had sung. I have

t.w

watched all her interviews and seen all her

videos many times over.
ha

I wanted to know everything about her and her songs. I would

//c

play her songs on my phone and ask my mother to explain the

s:

words I could not understand.

tp

There was never a gathering of friends in the last decade when

ht

I did not play at least one song of hers. I wanted everyone I

loved to hear her at least once. I guess I was probably looking
for myself in her songs. Her songs were the anchor that kept me
connected to the roots and my land.
However, the urge to meet her never waned. Many times, I
felt like flying to Patna just to chat with her in Maithili, even
without knowing her. With her, it felt as if I had always known
her. Later, I got in touch with her son Anshuman and spoke with
him a few times. It was during one of these conversations, in
2017 or 2018, that I happened to speak with Sinha on the phone.
I was then posted in Chandrapur, Maharashtra. We spoke for 10
minutes or so in Maithili and ended the conversation hoping to
meet in person soon.
I am aware I won’t ever be able to meet Sinha in person.
But can a voice like hers ever die? I wish to celebrate her life
by continuing to listen to her songs and taking her songs to
those who have never heard her. May her songs be the anchor
for many who feel lost, and may we all find our way back home
led by that voice. O

Sharda Sinha
(1952-2024) I L LU S T R AT I O N : V I K A S T H A K U R A N D S A A H I L
 group
[Link]
Subscribe
& Get      

Shopping
Offer
Voucher

r
C
MRP: ` 3600 Get

3i
1
NEW PRICE

o8
YEAR
`2799 Voucher worth

K
INDIA’S BEST B-SCHOOLS 2025

Ev
`500

9a
Bittersweet Symphony

v3
Get Gen Z:

JJ
That
MRP: `7200 Sinking
Feeling
2

hp
YEARS NEW PRICE
Voucher worth

LC
`1,000
/J
X1 `5399
m

Get
co

MRP: `10800
3
p.

YEARS NEW PRICE Voucher worth

ap

`7599
`1,500 žǢȸ ¥
ts

˜ǢgÃ¥
ha

RETURN TO READING
t.w
ha
//c

YES, I WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE(S) AS INDICATED BELOW:

s:
MY MAGAZINE CHOICE(s)

OUTLOOK OUTLOOK OUTLOOK OUTLOOK

tp

TERM OUTLOOK TRAVELLER MONEY BUSINESS HINDI

ht

1 YEAR 36 Issues 6 Issues 12 Issues 12 Issues 26 Issues

`3,600 | `2,799 `900 | `600 `840 `749 `1,200 `999 `1,040 `899

2 YEARS 72 Issues 12 Issues 24 Issues 24 Issues 52 Issues

`7,200 | `5,399 `1,800 | `1,100 `1,680 `1,399 `2,400 `1,749 `2,080 `1,499

3 YEARS 108 Issues 18 Issues 36 Issues 36 Issues 78 Issues

`10,800 | `7,599 `2,700 | `1,625 `2,520 `1,899 `3,600 `2,099 `3,120 `2,199

Name: Mr/Ms
Designation Organization
Address:
PIN: Email: Mobile: Ph (Res):

Please Ѓnd en˖losed ʶheˤue/DD Noʡ Date: favouring OUTLOOK PUBLISHING (INDIA) PVT. LTD. For `

Please Ѓll in this Order Form and mail it ˪ith ˬour remittan˖e to : Subs˖riˣtion Deˣttʡ OUTLOOK PUʵLISʻING INDIA (PˉTʡ) LTDʡ, Aʵʠ10 Safdar˝ung En˖lave, Ne˪ Delhiʠ110 029

Date: Signature:

YOU MAY ALSO SUBSCRIBE

Terms & Conditions CONTACT US

LOG ON TO SCAN QR CODE
apply,for more detail yourhelpline@[Link]
[Link] FOR SUBSCRPTIONS
visit our website 9266855636 / 9266855837
 IN MEMORIAM

ht
tp
s:
//c
ha
t.w
ha
ts
ap
p.
co
m

Rohit Bal
(1961-2024)
/J
X1
LC
hp
JJ
v3
9a
Ev
K
o8
3i
C
r
 Sunil Mehra
IS A DELHI-BASED
J O U R N A L I S T, T V P R O D U C E R
AND ANCHOR

Eternal

r
C
3i
o8
K
Flame

Ev
9a
v3

" )$0.
/#/
0-) 
Ĝ - '4Õ
-$ ĝ4Õ

JJ
( (*-'4

hp
LC
X1
WHEN
/J
the yadayadayada of the “how-nice-how-
m

sweet-what-a-genius” chorus is all the

co

surround sound it’s time to press the pause

button; step back a bit…
p.

It helps. Clears addled perspectives. Get a true measure of

ap

the man.
ts

The twinkle-eyed Peter Pan, ambisexual, gender fluid in the

ha

most endearing ways, brought his quintessential fey quality to

t.w

his design. “I make gorgeous lehengas because I want to wear

one,” he said! The whimsy gave it flight, the genius rendered
ha

it incandescent, exceptional, memorable. In his swirling

//c

50-metre Meghdoot muslins , his jewel-toned signature roses,

s:

lotuses, peacocks embroidered, printed, embossed, highlighted

tp

in gold, silver, emerald, midnight blues on silk and velvet; what

ht

you saw was a love letter, a paean to his beloved Kashmir: his
playground, his muse, the land of his birth.
The Issey Miyakes of the world romanced distilled
minimalism, the Gallianos embraced surprise, drama, shock,
spectacle. Rohit aka Gudda did that and more. He romanced
paradox—his minimalist/maximalist design erred on the right
side of excess in its impeccable cut, design, silhouette. He was
unique in his embrace of tradition, which in his rendition
became a cosmopolitan, timeless classic. Worn with pride by
the Naomi Campbells, Kate Winslets, Sonam Kapoors, assorted
grand dames of the smart set.
Through it all he retained his human touch, his generous
Kashmiriyat that informed his life, his humanity, his design.
Sure, he was flawed. Like most of us. Only human. But what
One of a Kind a glorious Icarus he was: soaring dazzlingly towards the sun
Fashion designer even as he disintegrated. Supreme exemplar as well as victim of
Rohit Bal poses his own undeniable genius! Ah, a genius that burst into flame,
during an interview burned fiercely, briefly, memorably. As a comet always does.
on September 1, 2017 RIP my friend...Gudda is dead. Long live Gudda! O

PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 57

SUBSTRATA/ART EXHIBITION

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J

2
m
co

Portraying
p.
ap
ts

Absence
ha
t.w
ha

Exhibits at a group art show in Kolkata

//c

examine existence in the absence

s:
tp
ht

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

N
EI Tai Khachchho, Thakle Kotahay Petey is an age-
old Bengali riddle. It roughly translates to: You’re
enjoying your meal because of an absence/where
would you get it from if it were present? 3
How does absence impact presence? Dialectics in the
Upanishads tell us that existence and void are inseparable.
Karl Marx would say that you own more property because
some people don’t. Does void create existence, just as
existence vanishes into void?
In the case of painter-installation artist Shambhavi, the
lost time and space of her childhood in a Bihar village grew
deep roots in her mindscape as she moved to live and work in
cities. The lost moments of standing beneath a tall palm tree
and watching its leaves fall took the shape of an installation,
recently displayed at a Kolkata exhibition.
Spread over one and a half walls in a dimly lit room, the

58 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24
 1

art connoisseur, says some of the artworks on display have

already been acquired by reputed museums.
The theme draws inspiration from a line by Mirza
Ghalib, the legendary Urdu poet of the nineteenth century:
“The miracle of your absence is that I found myself while
searching for you.” Similarly, while searching for one’s true
self, one may end up finding her or his significant other. Or,
shall we call them the necessary other?
In Baaraan Ijlal’s ‘Always The Moon: Diary Entry 2024 I
and II’, the lady painter in the moonlit room is not present;
her presence is only physical, while her mind wanders away.
Moon-bathed, the painter in her solitary night has gifted

r
C
herself wings of fancy to search for the absent—whose

3i
absence, perhaps, turned her room into a dull prison cell.

o8
Mithu Sen’s works tend to withdraw from existence.

K
The colourless dots created on bright white papers

Ev
Art and Life by painstakingly pricking on the other sides make the

9a
1. Abir Karmakar’s stretched-out leg and the caressing hands appear like they

v3
‘Displacement’ are fading into absence. What are they withdrawing from?
2. Shambhavi’s ‘Seven Attachments? The tiredness of existence? The burden of

JJ
Palm Leaves’ reality? Can we really live a full life without experiencing

hp
3. Baaraan Ijlal’s ‘Always absence? Without knowing and feeling them?

LC
The Moon: Diary Entry In Sen’s words, “It is a withdrawal of presence and
2024 I and II’ the opening of absence, validating and accepting the
X1
C O U R T E S Y : S N I G D H E N D U B H AT TA C H A R YA Invisibles—the mnemonic world of traces, leftovers, wounds,
/J
erasures, violence, remainders and intentionally ignored
m

reminders.” She describes her set of four works as “Happy

co

seven falling leaves of different shapes, angles and shadows Prick Drawings” with “Zarina, metallic paper, watercolour
p.

are frozen in motion. You stand there, you close your eyes, ink, acrylic and intentionally ignored emotions and muted
ap

breathe and smell the silence, and you may rediscover your violence on acid-free khadi handmade paper”.
personal displacement from your native space, your own lost Anandajit Ray’s ‘Fantasies of Flight’, a watercolour and
ts

time buried in busyness. The very old, small Kali temple with gouache work on paper, depicts a man driving a car on which a
ha

a tiny door, nestled beneath the tall palm tree that remained hand has grown like a tall, plump and bare tree. A paper plane
t.w

etched in her memory does not appear in the work. It’s the hangs in balance on one of the fingertips of the hand casually
slow-falling palm leaves that represent her whole experience. leaning against the air like the Tower of Pisa. A bird flies in the
ha

Leaves fall and float, while the child witness remains lost background. The paper plane may want to join the bird in its
//c

in timelessness. Then, one day, the child is lost. The child flight. But can the man drive the car fast enough, while being
s:

loses her idyllic time and space because she must make good weighed down by the heavily imposing hand?
tp

use of her time and find her own space. She loses herself and In the next room, there is a room-size piece of art made of
ht

rediscovers herself in the absence. Whose absence? It’s about two wall-full of floor-to-ceiling canvases supplemented by a
the return to the roots, the roots living in absence. smaller one on the third wall. The viewer is suddenly in the
Absence is the theme of the exhibition—the ‘Miracle of middle of a middle-class drawing-cum-dining, complete with
Absence: The Embrace of Time’. Curated by Gayatri Sinha, wash basins, wall cabinets with mirrors, garlanded black-
it includes the works of Abir Karmakar, Amitava, Anandajit and-white photos of the past generation, the tube-light, the
Ray, Baaraan Ijlal, Buddhadev Mukherjee, Chittrovanu landline phone, the half-open doors to the kitchen, glimpses
Mazumdar, Gigi Scaria, Mithu Sen, Ratheesh T, Ricky of the bedroom through the half-drawn curtains, clothes
Vasan and T Venkanna. This show marked the launch of dumped on hangers behind the door.
the city-based gallery Art Exposure’s new space in south This is Abir Karmakar’s gigantic piece, titled ‘Displacement’.
Kolkata. The pieces brought together the search for the Two of the doors are actually door-shaped empty spaces
meaning of absence. curved out on the canvas and can be used to add further
According to Sinha, the exhibition “marks the quickening dimensions, depending on the backdrop. What’s absent?
of the spirit of the contemporary in the city of Kolkata,” plays What, or who, has been displaced? The artist? The people who
upon “the binary of presence and absence, of the self and the lived, or still live here, absent in the frame but present in their
other” and “draws on the sentiments, images and energies clothes hanging from the door?
that course through the vast metropolis, its galis (lanes) and Absence creates space for us to fill. Absence drives desire.
paras (neighbourhoods) and beyond”. Absence suffocates. Absence kills. The question is how
However, works of artists from outside Kolkata have also you deal with them—YOUR absence, the absence/s that
been included. Somak Mitra, the gallery’s founder and a young matter/s to you. O

[Link] NOVEMB ER 2 1 , 2 0 24 | O UT LO O K 59
 r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts

INDIAN RESPONSIBLE
ha
t.w
ha

TOURISM STATE
//c
s:
tp

SUMMIT & AWARDS

ht

2024
On the occasion of World Tourism Day, the Outlook OUR PARTNERS
Group hosted the 2nd edition of the Indian Responsible
Tourism State Summit & Awards by joining forces with the
Department of Tourism, Meghalaya.
The ‘Abode of Clouds’ is more accessible today than ever
before, and yet, it has so many stories [Link] awards Affiliate Member
are a step towards bringing these stories to you.
1
1. Bah Paul Lyngdoh
Honourable Tourism Minister
of Meghalaya

“Meghalaya is scaling its

own summit… And I am
proud to say, at this pace,
tourism should be the
biggest industry in the

r
C
state within the next

3i
o8
10 years.”

K
Ev
9a
2 3

v3
2. Cyril D Diengdoh IAS

JJ
Director Tourism & Managing

hp
Director, MTDC

LC
“We need to ensure all our efforts are
united towards taking tourism forward
X1
in Meghalaya… In the future and even
/J

now, we can create jobs and livelihoods

m

for many more people in tourism.”

co
p.
ap

3. Indranil Roy
ts
ha

CEO, Outlook Group

“Change doesn’t happen overnight. But
t.w

I think we are on the right path. We have

ha

to enable Responsible Tourism. Not by

//c

choice, but by design.”

s:
tp
ht

4 5

4. The Sound of Music 5. Bah Paul Lyngdoh

Former winners, band Ahowee mesmerised The Honourable Tourism Minister showcased
us with traditional folk music of the Garo Hills. his skills on the Ksing drums.
THE SUMMIT
Sharing Ideas. Sharing Knowledge

1 2 3

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
4 5

LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp
ht

6 7
1. Dr. Rajendra Singh
Magsaysay Awardee, Stockholm Water Award Winner, Jal Purush & Waterman of India
Keynote Address Water & the Power of Collective Action

“Water is life. Water is God. Water is a creator of the planet. Water is climate and
climate is water.”

2. Sanjay Sondhi
Founder & Trustee, Titli Trust

r
C
Immersive Wildlife Experiences Wild About All Things Small & Beautiful

3i
o8
“We work with local communities to incentivise conservation… We train them, and

K
Ev
together, they reap the benefits of nature-linked tourism.”

9a
3. Simar Preet Kaur

v3
JJ
Lead, Astrostays
Astro Tourism The Stargazing Experience

hp
LC
“Astrotourism is the most natural and raw form of tourism that can be readily made
X1
available to travellers. Stargazing can not only positively impact local communities,
/J

but also the environment.”

m
co

4. Nilza Wangmo
p.
ap

Founder, Alchi Kitchen

ts

Food Tourism Reimagining Local Food

ha
t.w

“People have started consuming imported grains and lentils, causing many health
hazards… But traditional Ladakhi cuisine is very healthy, and we have taken the
ha

initiative to revive it.”

//c
s:

5. Maria Victor & Murali Shankaran

tp
ht

Co–Founders, Make it Happen

Experiential Tourism & Storytelling What’s Unique in Your Backyard

“It is impossible to breathe life into heritage without stories, so the future of tourism is
slowly shifting towards storytelling, which is also being called story-living now.”

6. Philip F Tariang
Assistant Director Tourism, Government of Meghalaya

“Tourism should be a force to reckon with in Meghalaya.”

7. Sonali Chatterjee
Project Consultant, Outlook Responsible Tourism Initiative

“Keep on dreaming, keep on doing what you do, and keep inspiring us.”
 r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:
tp

THE TROPHY
ht

Celebrating the Traditional Crafts & Textiles of Meghalaya

In a true fusion of Meghalayan heritage and The conical bamboo lattice highlighting
sustainable artistry, the IRTSA Meghalaya the “knup,” a traditional bamboo rainshield,
Trophy celebrates local craftsmanship and adorns the trophies in a miniature version to
cultural richness. These trophies conceived bring out traditional art from rural areas of
exclusively for the Awards honours the Meghalaya. The wooden body, a testament
trailblazers and champions of sustainability in to the woodworking skills of the region,
the state. provides a striking contrast. Adding a layer
of softness is the Eri Silk band at the base,
Designed by Samanda Nora Pyngrope of featuring a traditional pattern, meticulously
Karaki Design Lab, Shillong and Kriya Rynjah, woven and crafted in Ri Bhoi. The final touch
it artfully amalgamates the stories of natural of modernity and precision comes from the
materials like wood, bamboo and eri silk laser engraving, giving the trophies a unique
crafts, found in the region. and seamless finish.
 THE AWARDS
Overall Winner
Nomads

SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP:
Homestays
Gold Na i Mei Homestay
Silver Heritage Nook Homestay

r
One to Watch April Springs Homestay

C
3i
One to Watch Kiva Homestay

o8
BNBs & Guesthouses

K
Ev
Gold Lamin Guest House

9a
Silver Rock Cliff Homestay

v3
Silver Elasah Guest House

JJ
One to Watch Cliffside Homestay

hp
Travel Enterprises

LC
Gold Nomads
X1
Silver Letztravels
/J

One to Watch Shabong Travels

m
co

One to Watch Merak Tours

p.

Architecture
ap

Gold Shillong Bamboo Private Limited

ts
ha

One to Watch Sangkni Resort

t.w

One to Watch Umden Traveller’s Nest

ha
//c

SUSTAINABLE EXPERIENCES:
s:

Food
tp

Gold A’Origins
ht

Silver The Shillong Address

One to Watch Phillip Turok N Sangma
One to Watch Jordan Farm and Smoke House

SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPIONS:
Grassroots Heroes
Gold Selfdenial Lyngdoh
Silver Vianney Basiewdor Nongrum
One to Watch Plindar R Marak

Cultural Ambassadors
Gold Sieng Riti Institute
Silver Markynsai Diengdoh
Silver Keenan K Marak
One to Watch Summersalt
One to Watch Nicholas Kharnami
IN REMEMBRANCE

Beyond
Deadlines

r
C
3i
o8
K
Bibek Debroy could engage with

Ev
even those who were not aligned

9a
with his politics or economics

v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
Bibek Debroy
m

(1955-2024)
co
p.
ap

Satish Padmanabhan
stance we had taken. He would patiently explain why he
ts

“S
didn’t agree with a certain cover story we had done, but would
ha

URE. What’s the word count and when is the readily agree to write a few issues later.
t.w

deadline?” These are the only things Bibek Debroy In any given year, the most number of books sent
ever wanted to know about my briefs requesting by publishers on my desk would be by Debroy, on a
ha

him to write for Outlook. He must be the only columnist I have mindboggling range of topics. His interpretation of the
//c

asked to write on topics ranging from politics, economics, Bhagavad Gita is one of the most lucid I have read. But it was
s:

environment, history, mythology, sacred texts, music and difficult to keep up with his oeuvre as he would be writing
tp

theatre. I went through our mail exchanges over the years and books quicker than his readers could finish them. The sheer
ht

only once or twice there has been this kind of a reply to my energy and the rigour of research he brought to any project
request: “Struggling with two committees—infrastructure and he led, in such varied fields, are stunning.
NCERT. Hence, deluged and ducked. Sorry.” In January this year, I had requested him to write a column
I have met him only a few times in his office. He may be on the historical, religious and political importance of
busy with a hundred things, but the half-an-hour he gave you Ayodhya for a cover story we were planning. His WhatsApp
was entirely yours. There would not be any interruptions, reply read: “I am down with ill health. Will have to pass.
no minions sliding in files or secretaries passing on calls. On Sorry.” I had enquired a few weeks later if he was feeling
any cover theme I had gone to discuss with him—uniform better and he replied: “My health problems will be a long
civil code, portrayal of Sita in Ramayana, rising Islamophobia haul. Tests, hospitals still going on. Thank you for asking.”
in India—I have always come back thinking how quickly he I had no idea his health problems were so serious and I will
grasped the issue we were planning with his sharp intellect, always regret not finding out more and visit him when he was
just asking a few pointed questions about his article, and what admitted to the hospital.
the others were writing. His reply of yes or no—which was The last column he sent to The Indian Express four
luckily for us mostly yes—would have come into my inbox even days before his death is simply the most moving, most
before I returned to my office. heartbreaking musings one can read on mortality. It sets all of
Debroy’s politics and economics were many times at us thinking about the pomposity and seriousness we attach to
variance with what Outlook stood for or I believed in. But he whatever we are doing. “Who remembers? Nothing seminal
was one of the few left in the government of the old-school about such work. Had a role in the rat race, was temporarily
with whom I could have an invigorating conversation. There read and passed into oblivion, buried in journal archives,” he
was never any vitriol or aggression on the many editorial wrote. But none whom Debroy touched will forget him. O

66 O U T LO O K | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 24 I L LU S T R AT I O N BY S A A H I L
ht
tp
s:
//c
ha
t.w
ha
ts
ap
p.
co
m
/J
X1
LC
hp
JJ
v3
9a
Ev
K
o8
3i
C
r
MOBILE BANKING APP

r
C
3i
o8
K
Ev
9a
v3
JJ
hp
LC
X1
/J
m
co
p.
ap
ts
ha
t.w
ha
//c
s:

Enjoy India’s #1
tp
ht

Mobile Banking App

Fast, Simple and Secure

#
Bank App
1 4.9
in India

Scan the QR code to

download the App now

Rated #1 Bank App in India as per FORRESTER Digital Experience : Indian Mobile Banking Applications, Q3, 2024.
India's highest-rated Mobile Banking App on Google Play Store with over 1 Crore downloads and over 5 Lakh reviews as on 1st June 2024.