OC

TARUN TEJPAL CASE SUSHIL KUMAR COVID’S RURAL SURGE

THE TRIAL ISN’T OVER THE DANGAL JUNGLE THE HIDDEN CRISIS
www.indiatoday.in JUNE 14, 2021 `75

THE
ECONOMY
IS A BIG
CHALLENGE
BUT WE
ARE UP
TO IT
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
NIRMALA SITHARAMAN
Union Finance Minister

PLUS TOP ECONOMISTS’

BLUEPRINT FOR REVIVAL
We tell the story
Not the moral of the story
FROM THE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I
ndia is currently caught in a deadly pincer. On one side tunately, we seem to have crossed the peak of the second wave.
is the burgeoning health crisis and on the other is the Hence, it is a good time to look at what needs to be done to
precipitous decline of the Indian economy. Both are hum­ kickstart the Indian economy. The government’s bold budget
anitarian crises. One is a matter of life and death, and the this February boosted spending on infrastructure and health­
other of livelihood. They are closely connected. There is care and also announced welcome proposals for privatisation,
nothing worse for an economy than uncertainty. The trajectory disinvestment and asset monetisation.
of the virus is really an unknown, and the economy remains

F
in the shadow of uncertainty of when it will be shut down par­ or our cover story this week, Group Editorial Director
tially or totally. Unfortunately, the Indian economy had been in (Publishing) Raj Chengappa and Business Today Editor
a secular decline since the third quarter of the 2016­17 financial Rajeev Dubey interviewed the Union Finance Minister
year—when it began its slide from 8.6 per cent to 4 per cent in Nirmala Sitharaman. Entrusted with the unenviable task of
the final quarter of the financial year 2019­20. That was about reviving the economy, Sitharaman exuded confidence. A lot
the time the pandemic struck, pushing India into a 68­day of the measures to deal with a post­Covid economy, she says,
lockdown at just four hours’ notice on March 24. Many experts are already in place. Executive Editor M.G. Arun and Deputy
attribute the four­year pre­pandemic decline to the demoneti­ Editor Shwweta Punj look at the ways in which we can get the
sation of 86 per cent of India’s currency on November 8, 2016. economy going. The consensus from business and industry is
It was followed by a complicated and hastily implemented that the government further increase its spending, if necessary
GST (Goods & Services Tax). The banking system was already by printing more money and putting more cash in people’s
riddled with massive loan defaults. The government maintains hands to stimulate demand. Private consumption expenditure
that this decline was cyclical. The problem was that when the constitutes 55 per cent of the GDP, and unless it is boosted
pandemic hit, the Indian economy had no cushion and the gov­ urgently, the chances of the economy coming back on track
ernment found itself facing a double whammy. will remain poor. The budget this February stated
New government numbers present an even that it will spend Rs 34.8 lakh crore as against Rs
grimmer picture of an economy in the ICU. The 34.5 lakh crore in 2020­21. This is an increase of
economy contracted by 7.3 per cent in the previous a minuscule .95 per cent, which doesn’t inspire
financial year. This is the first full­year contraction the confidence necessary to spur private demand.
of the Indian economy since 1979­80, when the Perhaps some revision to the last budget is needed.
GDP shrank by 5.2 per cent. The faint glimmer of Next month marks three decades since the
hope in the fourth quarter of FY21, when the econ­ historic 1991 budget, which signalled the start of
omy grew at 1.6 per cent, was crushed by a deadly India’s economic reforms. Our Board of India To­
resurgence of the pandemic in April this year. day Economists (BITE) urges that the government
The second wave, which the government com­ initiate more direct transfers to individuals. While
pletely failed to anticipate, battered businesses, addressing the pain, they call for the government
left millions jobless and dragged many more into April 20, 2020 to use the opportunity to launch long­overdue
poverty. Shutdowns and layoffs in factories have fundamental reform. Our experts recommend
pushed unemployment levels to a new high. According to CMIE handing out stimulus packages and immediate relief to retail,
(Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy), the labour force hospitality and MSMEs, sectors which are the biggest employ­
shrank by 1.1 million while those looking for work and unable to ers. They advocate measures to support the severely affected
find any expanded by 6.2 million—from 27.7 million in March urban poor, upgrading rural health infrastructure, scaling up
to 33.9 million by April. Lockdown restrictions led to the loss of MNREGA allocations to bolster employment generation, pro­
nine million salaried jobs between February and April this year. tect livelihoods and stave off hunger among the rural poor. They
Investment firm Barclays estimates India lost over Rs 58,000 endorse bold agricultural reforms of replacing MSP schemes
crore every week through May as 98 per cent of the country with an income support programme.
remained under lockdowns. All three major sectors that provide The government has a tremendously arduous job ahead
job opportunities in rural India—agriculture, construction and of overcoming the pandemic and reviving the economy. It
small­scale manufacturing—have collapsed. In agriculture, is a race against time. The only way to avoid another health
commodity prices are falling while input costs keep rising. Pri­ crisis, which is usually followed by an economic one, is to fix its
vate construction, a big employer, is at a standstill. floundering vaccination policy. It needs to vaccinate as many
Continued financial distress is pushing more people down to people as it can to control the spread of the virus and lift the
the bottom of India’s economic pyramid. A research report by pall of uncertainty hanging over the economy. Given the right
the US­based Pew Research Center in March revealed that the stimulus, the economy can start humming again without fear
pandemic pushed nearly 32 million Indians out of the middle of being brought to a halt. The Indian economy, like Indians
class despite the parameters defining the middle class being themselves, is resilient, and we can emerge from this economic
quite low—those earning between $10 (Rs 724) and $20 (Rs abyss provided the government acts with audacity and clarity.
1,449) a day. Before the pandemic, India’s middle class num­
bered 99 million people. A year later, it is just 66 million.
Never in the recent past has the need for economic growth
been as urgent as it is now. Especially as people are being hit by
(Aroon Purie)
the double blow of unemployment and growing inflation. For­
J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 3
 INSIDE
UPFRONT LEISURE
MAMATA VS MODI, SALMAN RUSHDIE’S LAN-
PART 2 PG 7 GUAGES OF TRUTH PG 63

www.indiatoday.in UTTAR PRADESH: Q&A WITH

CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie
THE RURAL BATTLE T.M. KRISHNA
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Volume XLVI Number 24; For the week

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 INSIDE Presenting India Today Insight
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RU R A L S U R G E

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT For sharp analysis on topical issues by the editors of india today,
Official estimates of Covid numbers in log on to www.indiatoday.in/india-today-magazine-insight
rural India understate the crisis, making
the fight against the virus harder
Why the cancellation of class 12 CBSE
exams is not good news for all by Aditi Pai
The initial euphoria has given way to uncertainty.
Educationists see it as an opportunity to overhaul
the education system
https://bit.ly/3ppZGfv

48TA RU N T E J PA L

THE STATE
VS TEJPAL
The Goa government
has challenged Tarun Kerala’s vote of confidence for
Tejpal’s acquittal. Why Lakshadweep by Jeemon Jacob
this landmark case is The Kerala government backs the citizens of
set for another trial India’s smallest Union territory, demanding the
recall of its administrator
https://bit.ly/3fHyzcs

EV SPECI A L
Cyclone Tauktae: ‘Mariners are trained to

51
avoid cyclones, our mission took us right
EVs ARE into it’ by Sandeep Unnithan
COMING Captain Sachin Sequeira, commanding officer of INS
We mark World Kochi, recounts the mission to rescue people from
Environment Day with a Barge P-305 off the Mumbai coast on May 17
short tour of all the latest https://bit.ly/3vKkUXF
on electric vehicles
Why Siddharth Pithani’s arrest has revived
interest in the Sushant Singh Rajput case

60
by Kiran D. Tare
The deceased actor’s flatmate is the last from among
his close friends to be arrested in a drugs case
SUSHIL KUM AR https://bit.ly/3vMyjhZ

THE DANGAL Foods to avoid if diagnosed with Covid

JUNGLE by Ridhi Kale
The fall of an icon exposes Deep fried and sugary treats and even added spices
the seedy underbelly of in your home food can hamper recovery, say experts
Indian wrestling https://bit.ly/3g7FcDI
 UPFRONT
UTTAR PRADESH: PUNJAB: CAPTAIN
THE RURAL BATTLE IN A STORM
PG 10 PG 14

ROUGH WAVES
Mamata Banerjee and chief secretary
Alapan Bandyopadhyay (to her right) in
Digha on May 28, to survey the damage
caused by Cyclone Yaas

W EST BENGA L

MAMATA VS MODI, PART 2 By Romita Datta

I
t has been a stormy first month in course, that didn’t happen and the chief affairs (MHA) arrived at the state sec-
office for Mamata Banerjee in her secretary has now officially resigned, and retariat, Nabanna, and held meetings
third term as West Bengal chief min- has been reappointed as Mamata’s chief with senior officials before fanning out
ister. The BJP top leadership seems advisor for the next three years (he’s also to the trouble-torn districts. Meanwhile,
to have taken the election defeat to facing disciplinary action by the Centre). another front opened up with the gover-
heart and has kept up the pressure on her Mamata’s troubles, though, started nor sanctioning the CBI prosecution of
government. Multiple central teams have the very day, or to quote her, “the very four TMC heavyweights including two
descended on the state to “review the law minute” she took oath on May 5. Even current ministers (Firhad Hakim and
and order situation” and investigating as governor Jagdeep Dhankar, in his Subrata Mukherjee) in the four-year-old
agencies seem to have suddenly woken up thanksgiving speech, was curtly remind- Narada financial scam case.
to scams that have dragged on for years. ing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) There was worse in store—the four
The latest in the ongoing fracas was chief of her raj dharma, outside the Raj TMC leaders were taken into custody
the Centre’s recall of West Bengal chief Bhawan, the opposition BJP was staging in an early morning swoop on May 17.
secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, and a dharna against the post-poll violence Mamata was not prepared for this. The
Mamata’s ‘appeal’ in a public letter to and the “debilitating law and order situa- arrest of Hakim, who is also in charge
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ask- tion” in the state. of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation,
ing that the order be withdrawn as the A day later, on May 6, a four-member especially at a time when there was a
bureaucrat was needed in Bengal. Of team from the Union ministry of home lockdown and the state capital was still

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 7

 UPFRONT

In a widely reported comment, she dra-

matically said she’d even touch the prime
minister’s feet if it led to the greater good
of Bengal and its people.

PLAYING POLITICS
“Jo darte hai, woh marte hai (The ones
ANI
who are fearful are the ones who die),”
reporting upward of 12,000 new Covid GALE FORCE Mamata said on May 31, riffing on a well-
cases every day, led to much outrage. PM Modi’s Cyclone Yaas review remembered line from the blockbuster
Mamata stormed into the CBI office meeting in Kolkata on May 28 that hit film Sholay, while exhorting opposi-
in Kolkata and stayed there for six hours CM Mamata Banerjee skipped tion chief ministers to unite and raise
till the leaders were produced and a bail their voice against “a Centre that was
petition was heard in the CBI court. As was recalled to Delhi. Incidentally, he behaving like autocrats Hitler and Stalin”.
news of Mamata’s ‘dharna’ spread, TMC would have officially retired from service If the BJP’s gameplan is to keep her on
supporters arrived to gherao the CBI on May 31, had the Centre not approved her toes so that she has little time to think
office. Even the Raj Bhawan central gates the extension of three months on the beyond her state, it is by now clear that
were not spared. Governor Dhankar lost state’s request to cope with the chal- Mamata is not the one to take it lying
no time in flagging the tense situation lenges of Covid and then Cyclone Yaas. down. “Mamata is Modi’s No. 1 chal-
through a series of tweets (‘Concerned Bandyopadhyay may have put in his lenger now. Given the fact that she is one
at alarming situation. Call upon@ papers since, but the Centre issued a of the few leaders not pulling her punches
MamataOfficial to follow constitutional show cause notice to him on May 31 for, on Modi’s mismanagement of things—be
norms and rule of law’, ‘Total lawlessness among other things, abstaining from it Covid, collapse of the economy or even
and anarchy. Police and administration in the review meeting on Cyclone Yaas disinvestment—the BJP has realised that
silence mode’…) while BJP national lead- called by the PM (who is also chairman corralling her could ease a lot of their
ers like Kailash Vijayvargiya again raised of the National Disaster Management problems. The continuous attacks are a
the bogey of President’s rule. Authority). The notice has demanded ploy to keep her occupied and agitated,”
Even as all this was happening, Cycl- a reply within three days and says says Professor emeritus of Presidency
one Yaas hit the state, leaving a trail of Bandyopadhyay violated Section 51(b) of University, Prasanta Ray.
destruction in its wake. As Mamata got the Disaster Management Act 2005. Mamata’s five-page letter to Modi,
involved in relief work, Prime Minister Mamata, of course, was livid about where she appeals for the withdrawal of
Narendra Modi informed the Bengal the recall move. By then, the saffron eco- the order recalling Bandyopadhyay, is
government that he wanted to conduct system was in overdrive on social media, a perfect example of her counter-offen-
an aerial survey and hold a review meet- tweeting about Mamata’s inflated ego, sive. It is peppered with lines where she
ing with the chief minister on May 28. her scant regard for public welfare and debates how the ‘unilateral order’ would
Mamata initially agreed to this, but much else. The Bengal CM responded affect the ‘larger interests of the people of
baulked when she saw the list of par- in kind, calling a press conference and the state’. “Mamata is projecting herself
ticipants—it included the governor, two laying into the Centre in no uncertain as the saviour of Bengal. It helped her in
central ministers and leader of the oppo- terms. She also seized the opportunity the past and might do so in the future,
sition Suvendu Adhikary. She stayed to stoke the same regional identity fires but I see both the confrontation and the
away—and a photo (see above) of her con- that seem to have worked to her advan- fallout as shallow politics,” says profes-
spicuous absence went viral. At a press tage in the elections—a capable officer, sor of international relations at Jadavpur
conference later, she gave her reasons: “It Bandyopadhyay was being harassed University, Iman Kalyan Lahiri. “While
was not a meeting of the PM and CM. It because he was a Bengali, she charged. the Centre is trying to keep her down
was a big BJP party…and I was alone [on “What was his fault? Why is Bengal being through pressure tactics, Mamata too is
the other side].” targeted, is it because you cannot digest bowling too many loose bouncers to be
After being refused a one-on-one defeat?” she asked over and over again. hooked away for boundaries. What was
with the prime minister, Mamata, in the need to boycott the review meeting?
typical fashion, gate-crashed the review In this one-upmanship, the ultimate los-
meeting on May 28 with Bandyopadhyay, “JO DARTE HAI, ers will be the people of Bengal.”
handed over a report to the PM on the WOH MARTE HAI,” And it isn’t just the people who are
extent of the damage in West Bengal, and
then sought permission to leave citing a
MAMATA SAID WHILE worried. The bureaucrat fraternity is
also disturbed over the Bandyopadhyay
pre-scheduled administrative session in EXHORTING OPPOSI­ incident, fearing they will be the next tar-
cyclone-affected Digha. TION CMs TO UNITE, gets, caught in the crossfire between the
That very evening, Bandyopadhyay RAISE THEIR VOICE Centre and the state. n

8 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 GL ASSHOUSE

THE PEN DRIVE

IS MIGHTIER

C
ongress leader politicians and claimed he
Kamal Nath had had a pen drive containing
initially rushed to vital evidence of the case
the defence of party MLA that he had been discreet
Umang Singhar, who has enough to not use. The
been booked for ‘abetment SIT probing the honey
to suicide’ by a woman in trap case has sent a
a love affair gone wrong. notice to Nath asking him
While defending Singhar to hand over the “crucial
and alleging “vendetta evidence”. But Nath now
politics” by the BJP, the says many journalists too
former Madhya Pradesh have the pen drive, so why
chief minister invoked hound him? Will the SIT
the 2019 honey trap book him for withholding
case involving several evidence?
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

Cooking up a storm INDEX

MISSION POSSIBLE?
F ormer Rajasthan chief minister
Vasundhara Raje does not lack
detractors in her own party, some big
To fully vaccinate the entire adult
population by Dec. 31, 2021, India must
names in the central leadership among
move at 4 times the current rate
them. But despite attempts to sideline
her, she keeps bouncing back. Her loy-
alists have now set up a free food dis- 136
tribution network for Covid-affected DAYS
people in 15 cities of the state. The Since
‘Vasundhara Jan Rasoi’ is now making vaccination
its way to every municipality. Raje is 1,730 began
also keeping on the right side of the BJP top leadership includ- million (on Jan. 16)
ing tweeting her felicitations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Total doses nee-
ded for 18 years
on completing seven years in government. The Rani is clearly
ensuring she is in the running for the 2023 assembly poll. and above 1.6
MN/ DAY
Current
BOMBAY RETURNS rate of
vaccination

M aharashtra tourism minister Aaditya

Thackeray is a Mumbai heritage 214
buff. In 2018, he had got the historic Flora 1,514 DAYS
Fountain repaired. This year, on May 30, million doses Required to
he inaugurated the restored Fitzgerald required to
fountain, a 153-year-old cast iron 216 vaccinate entire
achieve the
target
structure. But social media users have million doses population
pointed out that the structure was administered above 18
named after a colonial figure, Seymour 7.08
Fitzgerald, the first governor of then Data as on Jun. 1, 2021; MN/ DAY
Bombay district. In the interests of politi- Source: MoH&FW Required
cal correctness, will the restored fountain Graphic by Data Intelligence rate of
get a new name in what is now Mumbai? Unit, India Today vaccination

—Sandeep Unnithan with Rahul Noronha, Kiran D. Tare and Rohit Parihar
J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 9
 MANEESH AGNIHOTRI

U T TA R P R A D E S H

Covid-hit Villages Are

Poll Battleground
By Ashish Misra

O
n May 22, for the first a considered move. Saifai village is part Samajwadi Party (Lohia) contested the
time ever a chief minis­ of Mainpuri, Mulayam’s parliamen­ local election together and won 20 of
ter who was not from the tary constituency, and also a part of the the 24 seats in Etawah.
Samajwadi Party (SP) vis­ Jaswant Nagar assembly constituency The panchayat election results,
ited Saifai, the native vill­ which is represented by his brother and naturally, set off alarm bells in the BJP.
age of party patriarch Mulayam Singh SP rebel leader Shivpal Singh Yadav. Yogi had come to Etawah twice in the
Yadav. Yogi Adityanath, the chief min­ So, in a way, Saifai is a focal point of SP last four years, but he had consciously
ister of the BJP government in Uttar politics in Etawah and many adjoin­ avoided visiting Saifai. This visit, then,
Pradesh, is the chancellor of the Uttar ing districts. The BJP, which won the was an attempt to retrieve lost ground
Pradesh University of Medical Sciences Etawah parliamentary constituency after the loss in the panchayat elections.
in Saifai in Etawah district. in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elec­ Yogi ordered the completion of work
Visiting the village on the pretext tions, did quite poorly in the panchayat on the oxygen plant at Saifai University
of inspecting the government’s Covid elections held in April. The ruling party in two weeks, and told officials to trace
preparations at Saifai University’s 200­ could win only one of the 24 district Covid victims in the region and provide
bed L­3 Covid Hospital and the neigh­ panchayat member seats in Etawah. them immediate treatment through
bouring Giza village in Saifai block was The SP and Shivpal Yadav’s Progressive the monitoring committees in the

10 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

UPFRONT

CHECKING THE SPREAD BJP won 312 seats in the 2017 assembly Pandey, associate professor, depart­
CM Adityanath talks to health workers election, but its poor performance in the ment of history, at the Dr Bhimrao
in Etawah district while reviewing
panchayat elections suggests a weaken­ Ambedkar University, Lucknow, who
Covid preparations, May 22
ing of the party’s hold in the villages. has done considerable research on the
This is also the reason why opposition caste politics of UP, says, “In the 2017
villages. Some 89,512 villages in UP parties have seen an increase in their assembly poll, the BJP had got the sup­
now have active monitoring commit­ base in the villages,” says Mishra. port of many backward castes like the
tees. Due to their efforts, Covid patients Panchayat elections are usually Kurmi, Nishad, Bind, Vishwakarma,
have been detected in 28,742 villages. not fought on the party symbol, so the Kashyap, Kushwaha and Bhurji in
Government statistics suggest that a parties are making all sorts of claims the villages. Collectively, these castes
third of UP’s villages have been affected regarding the election results. But for constitute more than 10 per cent of
by the Covid virus. the total population of UP. These poor
Prof. Jasim Mohammed, who backward castes are angry with the BJP
teaches at the Centre for Comparative due to the chaos in the villages during
Literature, Aligarh Muslim University
(AMU), says, “The 2022 assembly
THE VILLAGE VOTE the second wave of Covid infections. To
garner the support of these castes, the
election is less than eight months away. opposition parties are camping in the
The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh
has proved utterly unsuccessful in pre­
77%
UP’s rural population
villages to help Covid victims.”

S
venting the spread of Covid in the vill­ amajwadi Party national
(Census 2011)
ages, which was reflected in the very president Akhilesh Yadav
poor performance in the panchayat has entrusted this task to the
elections. Adityanath is now in damage Samajwadi backward classes cell
control mode, which is why he is going
from village to village.”
250 along with the party’s youth lead­
ers. In August 2020, Akhilesh had
seats (of 403 overall in UP
Swatantra Dev Singh, state presi­ made youth leader and MLC Rajpal
assembly) where the rural
dent of the BJP, counters this saying, vote is critical Kashyap (who belongs to the back­
“The news that the BJP performed ward Nishad caste) the state president
poorly in the panchayat polls is com­ of the Samajwadi backward cell. This
pletely baseless. In 2015, we won only was during the transition period of
200 zila panchayat member seats;
this time we won 954 seats. The BJP
59,000 the Covid first wave. Kashyap set up
executive committees of the SP back­
Pradhans elected to
support base in the villages has only gram panchayats, whose ward class cell from the state to the
become stronger.” support will matter in 2022 block level for the first time, which has
After the panchayat elections got assembly polls now worked to the party’s advantage.
over, the number of Covid cases in the Kashyap says, “We have been able to
villages started rising rapidly. The first identify Covid victims in the villages

312
week of May saw more than 25,000 and provide treatment immediately at
fresh Covid cases in UP every day. the block level through the 21­mem­
Adityanath started his tours in the dis­ Seats the BJP had won in the ber executive committee. Each leader
tricts from May 8 in Moradabad. By 2017 assembly polls in the executive has been given the
May 31, the chief minister had visited responsibility of 20­25 villages. They
50 districts in all 18 divisions of UP. He have been regularly visiting their des­
visits at least one village in every district ignated villages to check and identify
he tours, and also takes feedback from the first time this year, political par­ Covid victims.”
patients on the healthcare facilities. ties contested 3,051 district panchayat SP leaders are also operating a
Brijesh Mishra, associate profes­ member seats in UP. Both the BJP and ‘Samajwadi kitchen’, which provides
sor, department of political science at SP are now claiming that they won food to Covid patients and their fami­
Jai Narayan PG College, Lucknow, puts more than 900 zila panchayat member lies living in isolation. Apart from this,
Yogi’s visits in context while explain­ seats. The BSP says they took 500 seats the backward cell leaders have distrib­
ing the numbers. “Over 70 per cent of while the Congress lays claim to more uted isolation kits containing essen­
UP’s population lives in its villages. If than 200 positions. If party claims are tial medicines to Covid patients. The
seen in proportion, out of the total 403 to be believed, the BJP has not been party has also arranged ambulances to
assembly seats in the state, rural voters able to win even a third of the total transport Covid patients who are seri­
are decisive in more than 250 seats. The seats of zila panchayat members. Sushil ous in the remote villages to district

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 11

MANEESH AGNIHOTRI
UPFRONT

Covid hospitals. SP district president and issuing an appeal that they join
MEAL TICKETS
in Meerut, Rajpal Singh, has himself the Congress in the war against Covid. SP backward cell chief Rajpal Kashyap
admitted more than 100 Covid patients The party has also started a ‘Seva distributing Samajwadi ration and food
from the villages to the L-2 Covid hos- Satyagraha’ programme to extend packets in Hardoi, May 26
pital (for more critical cases) in the city Covid-care help in the villages. Under
in the month of May. Kashyap says the the campaign, Priyanka has arranged
“SP is trying to reach the needy in every 1 million home isolation kits, mainly tanks are also being sent to the villages.
village. Apart from providing food and to be distributed in UP’s villages. On Congress office-bearers are also arrang-
medicines to the Covid affected, we are May 26, Congress state president Ajay ing medicines for Covid victims living
also providing books to children”. Kumar Lallu sent vehicles carrying in home isolation in the villages. This is
isolation kits from the Congress head- being done through the party commit-

T
he support of the newly elected quarters in Lucknow to the districts. tees at the panchayat level.”
village heads (pradhans) in the Party spokesperson Priyanka Gupta The Congress is blaming the BJP
59,000-odd gram panchayats says, “As soon as Covid infections start- government for not revealing the data
of UP could prove to be crucial in the ed rising in April, we started Covid help related to Covid deaths in UP’s villages.
2022 assembly election. Manoj Siwach, desks in all the districts [in addition The party has constituted a seven-
associate professor, department of eco- to] the Lucknow state headquarters. member fact-finding committee on
nomics, Meerut College, and an author- Through this, every possible help is this, under the chairmanship of former
ity on UP’s rural economy, says, “In being provided to Covid victims.” The Union minister Salman Khurshid; the
every village, the newly elected village Congress has also started a ‘Mera Gaon, committee will submit its report within
head will have a large number of sup- Mera Abhiyan’ programme under the a month. The BJP, though, pooh-poohs
porters. In such a situation, the support Seva Satyagraha in UP. “Under this, such moves. Swatantra Dev says, “In
of these pradhans could prove to be sanitation work has been started in the first week of May, the Covid infec-
very helpful for parties in strengthening all the villages of the state,” says Lallu. tion rate in UP was more than 10 per
their position in the villages.” Keeping “The party has arranged 1.5 million cent, it is now less than one per cent.
this in mind, Adityanath held a virtual litres of sanitiser for this. Sanitiser This is because the Yogi government
meeting with the newly elected prad- reacted immediately; we sent 400,000
hans on May 28 where he discussed, members from our 72,000 monitoring
among other things, the distribution of Adityanath held a committees to do door-to-door screen-
free rations in the villages. virtual meeting with ing in the villages and towns.”
On May 26, two days before Yogi’s the newly elected gram Every party realises that in the com-
virtual meeting, Congress national pradhans, knowing ing days the villages of UP will be the
general secretary and UP in-charge focal point of political activism. The
Priyanka Gandhi wrote a letter to all
that their support will support of the villages will make it a lot
the new village heads in UP, congratu- be critical in the 2022 easier for parties to win the assembly
lating them for winning the election assembly elections election in 2022. n

12 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 GUEST COLUMN

SYEDA
HAMEED
Trouble in Paradise

T
he misguided and undemocratic impulse of the con- adopted after being vetted by local stakeholders.
troversial Draft Lakshadweep Development Authority The indigenous people of Lakshadweep are 100 per cent
Regulation, 2021 (LDAR 21) has shaken the con- Muslim. The only non-Muslims are government officials.
science of people in Kerala, all of India and, of course, Ethnically, the islanders are Malayalis; their reference point
the islands themselves. The LDAR 21 faithfully follows the is Kochi and Kozhikode. The islands are overabundant with
script that has been insidiously spread throughout India over coconut. The sea is filled with tuna, a staple in their diet. They
the past seven years. There is to be a beef ban in a place where have huge amounts of yellowfin tuna, which is considered a
there are no cows; a preventive detention law where there is no great delicacy in Japan and can fetch a tremendous price.
crime; road widening where the maximum length of a road is Sayeed, who had represented Lakshadweep in Parliament
11 km. for 37 years, told me about the 10 Dweep Panchayats, one in
My own perspective on these proposed ‘reforms’ emerges each island. People are very conscious of the ecological fragil-
from my experience as a former Planning Commission (PC) ity of the islands. They realise that if they open up to tourism,
member in charge of Lakshadweep and the Andaman and there will be a stampede of tourists seeking peace and tran-
Nicobar Islands for 10 years. That included working with the quility, the USP of the islands.
Island Development Authority (IDA) It has been six years since the end of the
chaired by the prime minister and interac- PC and 12 years since my last personal expe-
tions with two MPs—Manoranjan Bhakta rience of the islands. Six months ago, Praful
of the Andaman and Nicobar and P.M. Khoda Patel, a former BJP minister, took
Sayeed of Lakshadweep. charge as administrator of Lakshadweep.
The IDA was set up at the behest of “The people of Lakshadweep are in such a
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 to pitiable state even after 70 years,” he said.
devise an integrated and environmentally- Today in the midst of a raging pandemic, he
sound development strategy for the two has made headlines by proposing a slew of
archipelagos. A committee was formed regulations that could sound the death knell
under India’s foremost physicist and poli- for this fragile archipelago. The real mas-
cymaker, M.G.K. Menon. In 1988, an IDA terstroke in the LDAR 21 is the provision
meeting in Kavaratti approved a frame- The slew of regulations to allow mining and exploration of mineral
work for the development of India’s island resources to turn the islands into a cement
proposed for
territories. The report, written by Cecil J. factory. Efforts to restrict population growth
Saldanha, was published in 1989.
Lakshadweep under the in a territory where the fertility rate is below
I brought the gender, human rights LDAR 21 could sound the national average and to relax prohibition,
and civil society perspective to the PC. I the death knell for the which exists because of public demand, both
was the only woman member and had no fragile archipelago smell of communal politics.
background in economics or administra- This is a region that adopted rainwater
tion. To bring people into apex-level plan- harvesting 20 years ago, a place with total lit-
ning, I created a Civil Society Window where citizens could eracy and no poverty. Bangaram, the only tourist spot, has no air
interface with planners. One such ‘Window’, held on July 22, conditioning, no electricity and has hosted the elite of the world.
2010, was on the ‘Issues of Tourism and Environment in the Meanwhile, the CEO of NITI Aayog has spoken of “pre-
Islands of Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar’. The mier tourism” and “holistic” development of identified islands.
meeting was attended by groups from the islands, academ- He means water villa projects along the Maldivian model.
ics, environmentalists and officials of concerned ministries. Minicoy, Suheli and Kadmat are the “identified islands”. There
Consensus on three issues was submitted by the PC to the are also plans for expansion of the Agatti airstrip to accommo-
IDA: 1) Lakshadweep has a very small land area, so devel- date large airliners. When will we learn to stop this rapacious-
opment of industrial activity is not feasible; 2) tourism has ness disguised as development? n
emerged a source of revenue, but it is crucial that the pan-
chayats are involved in the process and that the local popula- Syeda Hameed is a social and women’s rights activist,
tion benefits; 3) any ‘master plan’ for the islands could only be educationist and writer

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 13

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
UPFRONT

PU N JA B CONGR E SS is also likely to take in the views of other

ministers, including those considered

Can Amarinder ride

close to Amarinder, and former Punjab
Congress chiefs Partap Singh Bajwa,
Shamsher Singh Dullo, Mohinder Singh
Kaypee and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.

out the storm?

Many of them are Amarinder baiters.
Factionalism has been raging in
the Punjab Congress for the past two
years, but some recent developments
brought matters to a head. The politi-
By Anilesh S. Mahajan cally ambitious Sidhu has been attack-
ing the Amarinder Singh government

T
his is not the first time similar crisis has engulfed him in his on a host of issues and, encouraged by
Punjab chief minister Capt. second chief ministerial term, with this, the rebels have regrouped, hold-
Amarinder Singh has faced cabinet members and party legislators ing a series of meetings through May.
dissension in the party ranks. openly defying his writ. Sidhu claims his supporters were being
In 2005, during his first term as chief In late-May, the Congress set up a hounded by the state vigilance depart-
minister (2002-07), the rebellion was three-member committee—of Rajya ment while hockey player-turned-MLA
spearheaded by his deputy, Rajinder Sabha MP Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC Pargat Singh has accused an official in
Kaur Bhattal, who camped in New general secretary and Punjab in-charge the chief minister’s office of threatening
Delhi with 25 Congress MLAs to seek Harish Rawat and former MP J.P. him. Finally, in the last week of May,
his ouster. The group had accused Aggarwal—to look into the complaints Congress general secretary (organisa-
Amarinder of running the govern- against Amarinder. The committee has tion) K.C. Venugopal informed Channi
ment with a coterie of officials, ignoring met the dissidents, among them cabi- that a committee had been formed to
the views of party MLAs while taking net ministers Charanjit Singh Channi hear out the disgruntled leaders.
decisions and not acting against cor- and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, state
rupt ministers. With the support of assembly speaker Rana K.P. Singh,
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot TURF WAR Punjab chief minister
Captain survived the rebellion, but a Singh Sidhu and 23 MLAs. The panel Capt. Amarinder Singh

ANI

14 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 Amarinder is considered close to who was the first Congress leader to against Amarinder has catalysed
Sonia while his baiters like Sidhu and corner Amarinder on the emotive issue, the dissidents. Amarinder has hit
Channi are known to draw their influ- has relented only after pictures emerged back at the Amritsar East MLA, saying
ence from Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka of him with Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the that he was merely building a case to
Gandhi-Vadra. The Gandhi scions, it jailed chief of Dera Sacha Sauda. leave the Congress, though he had few
is believed, see Sidhu as a leader with Several Sikh groups in Punjab allege real alternatives outside the party. He
appeal among Punjab’s youth. But given that top functionaries of the Dera were has refused to placate Sidhu with offers
their failure to deliver in the recent behind the desecration incidents. The of any lucrative position, such as depu-
assembly elections, it is uncertain if allegations against Dera Sacha Sauda ty chief minister or PCC chief.
Rahul and Priyanka will have an over- are an embarrassment for Amarinder,
riding say in party matters in Punjab, who has openly taken the support of RECONCILIATORY MOVES
where polls are due early next year. Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the past. But efforts are on to placate other dis-
The Congress has eight Lok Sabha The Dera enjoys clout among the sidents. State government jobs, ‘on com-
MPs (of the total 13) in the state and 80 Sikh Dalits of Punjab’s Malwa region. passionate grounds’, have reportedly
MLAs in the 117-member assembly. A Sikh Dalits have a tense equation been offered to the relatives of Bajwa
misstep by party strategists can hand with upper caste Sikhs, especially the and Rakesh Panday, the veteran party
electoral advantage to the BJP, which land-owning Jat Sikh community that MLA from Ludhiana North. Bajwa and
is on the backfoot in Punjab due to the has been at the forefront of the agi- Panday’s fathers were killed by militants
protracted farmers’ agitation and the tation against the contentious farm during the Punjab insurgency. Legal
exit of ally SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) experts say the move cannot stand judi-
from the National Democratic Alliance. cial scrutiny, but the Amarinder camp
BJP leaders have been warming up to believes it may help deflect some of the
the Congress rebels and Sidhu is being Among the solutions heat on the chief minister.
wooed by AAP (Aam Aadmi Party). being considered are a

T
o the Captain’s advantage, the
cabinet reshuffle, getting
WHAT THE REBELS WANT rebels may have joined forces
Top Congress leaders in Delhi told rid of some bureaucrats against him, but they do not
india today there was no question Amarinder relies on, and a agree on a leader. However, with the
of putting a new chief minister in the new poll panel that denies political confrontation showing no
saddle in Punjab and all efforts were the CM absolute authority sign of abating, he may find it difficult
directed at getting the pro- and anti- to run the government unchallenged.
Amarinder camps to work together
to pick candidates Among the solutions being considered
for the forthcoming assembly contest. by Congress firefighters are a cabi-
But that’s easier said than done, for net reshuffle, with some controversial
the dissidents nurse grouses against laws brought in by the Centre last ministers getting the axe and some
Amarinder. They are peeved that they September. The state Congress is wary more Dalit faces brought in; getting
were passed over for political appoint- of losing its traditional vote banks in rid of some bureaucrats Amarinder
ments to various boards and state bod- Malwa to opposition parties, such as relies on; and forming a new poll
ies, about ‘deliberate delays’ in release of the SAD and the BJP. campaign committee that denies
development funds for their constituen- Amarinder loyalists believe the the chief minister absolute authority
cies, Amarinder’s apparent inaccessibil- decision to form a committee and give to pick candidates.
ity to legislators and his over-reliance on a platform to the dissidents will dam- Amarinder was bailed out of
bureaucrats to run the government, and age the Congress’s prospects in the trouble in 2005 by Sonia, her politi-
alleged corruption among ministers and assembly poll. The chief minister, they cal advisor Ahmed Patel, and then
officials close to the chief minister. say, remains a widely acceptable leader prime minister Manmohan Singh.
To top it all, the incidents of des- among both Hindus and Sikhs and he But he is well aware that he cannot be
ecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in alone can keep the party together in the sure of such unqualified support now.
Punjab in 2015 have snowballed into run-up to the polls. Pradesh Congress His complaints against rebels, such as
a fresh controversy for Amarinder. In Committee (PCC) president Sunil Bajwa, have often gone unaddressed
April this year, the Punjab and Haryana Jakhar, an Amarinder confidant, says by the central leadership. With the dis-
High Court made adverse remarks the committee’s larger objective is to fix sidents looking to strike a hard bargain
against the SIT (special investigation organisational issues in the party. and the high command reluctant to
team) probe into police firing at an anti- Sidhu may not command much rein them in, it’s an election year full of
desecration protest in Faridkot district influence over Congress MLAs or worries for the Captain. Can he steer
in 2015, and junked its report. Sidhu, the grassroots cadre, but his tirade his ship out of the storm? n

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 15

 COVER STORY I N T E R V I E W

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN

“ THE
ECONOMY
IS A BIG
CHALLENGE
BUT WE ARE
UP TO IT”
The Indian economy could again be in the ICU after
the second wave of Covid, but Union Finance Minister
NIRMALA SITHARAMAN sounds confident that
the government has it under control. In an exclusive
interview to Group Editorial Director RAJ CHENGAPPA
and Business Today Editor RAJEEV DUBEY, she outlines
the revival plan. Excerpts:
Photographs by BANDEEP SINGH

J U N E 14 , 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 19
COVER STORY I N T E R V I E W

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN

How does it feel being the

Q
finance minister when all the
major economic indices,
including the GDP, are down?
Don’t you feel depressed
looking at the numbers?
A. I take it as a big challenge that
calls for a lot of focus and attention
to make sure that we are able to, every now and then, come up
with steps that will help people. I don’t want to say numbers
do not worry me, but I also have to think of the sufferings
of people on the ground and the tragedy that has struck so
many families. So, that is something lying heavy in my heart.
I have to respond in such a way that it is addressed even if not
completely resolved.

Q. The Modi government has got plenty of flak for

its handling of the second Covid wave.
A. I won’t blame anybody. The immensity of the problem, the
speed with which the second wave attacked us, people have ob-
viously gone through a very deep, tragic experience. It is natural
for the government to be questioned. We have to quickly extend
help to the people and ensure that the system is improved.

Q. Despite the relatively encouraging Q4 results,

India’s GDP contracted 7.3 per cent overall in FY21.
What is your assessment of the macro-economic Budget 2021, if
impact of the lockdown in various states during
the second Covid wave? How sure are you of ush- seen through
ering in the economic growth India needs to get
out of the rut we are in?
the year in true
A. First, it is too early to assess the impact of the second wave. letter and spirit,
It’s different from last time; it is now being managed by the
states with lockdowns of varying intensity. The scale and in-
will be up to
tensity of the second wave are sharply different from the first addressing many
one. Secondly, the Aatmanirbhar packages we announced—
some of them just before the Union budget—have shown re- of the problems
sults. The budget was prepared at a time when we were faced
with an economy affected by Covid but were not aware of the
relating to, and
impending second wave. So, it’s a budget tailored to meet the arising from,
outcome of a pandemic. The budget itself addresses it: the im-
mense increase in infrastructure spending, similarly capital
Covid. We’ll also
expenditure on health infrastructure. keep interacting
Q. What makes you confident that despite the with states and
impact of the second Covid wave on the economy, industry to see
Budget 2021 will be up to the task?
A. It’s an intensely prepared budget with a lot of inputs from if anything more
stakeholders, and the priorities placed right. The budget,
if seen through the year in true letter and spirit, will be up
needs to be done
to addressing many of the problems relating to, and arising

18 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 We have
made big Q. The Covid waves have caused mas-
provisions for sive job losses—some experts estimate
it to be over 20 million. The other major
infrastructure, setback is that after decades of decline,

which has numbers related to poverty have gone up

and there’s talk of new poor being cre-
had a bearing ated. Are you proposing any stimulus or
cash bailouts for them?
on jobs, and A. As I said, the budget was prepared in the con-
for public text of recovering post Covid without being aware
of the second wave. We have made big provisions
expenditure in for infrastructure, which has had a bearing on
health, which jobs, and for public expenditure in health, which
will make a big impact on the health indices. For
will make a farmers, apart from benefits from the PM Kisan
big impact on Samman Nidhi scheme, we have made wheat and
paddy procurements like never before at MSP
health indices (minimum support price) this year, through DBT
(direct benefit transfer). That means money go-
ing into the hands of farmers, which will have an
immediate impact on the rural economy. Also, we
are again extending the scheme for people to able
to draw from their EPFO (Employees’ Provident
Fund Organisation) accounts and ensuring that
children orphaned during the pandemic are given
a substantial amount as corpus for their future.

from, Covid. Alongside, we will keep interacting with Q. Experts say it’s time to give cash in hand to
the states and industry to see if there’s need for me to both the urban and rural poor. What is the gov-
do anything more in the course of the budget itself. It is ernment’s approach on this?
important to recognise that the GDP suffered a big con- A. You are insisting on knowing if this government
traction in the first quarter [of FY21]. No other country’s wants to do what the Opposition has suggested—some
GDP, I am told, contracted 23 per cent. But I am im- sort of cash transfer to the people.
mensely thankful to the prime minister because he kept
holding consultations with stakeholders and sitting with Q. Not just the Opposition, even experts have
us and working things out. We came up with five differ- recommended this.
ent [stimulus] packages. By the fourth quarter itself, we A. We do intensive studies to see what can be worked out
made up for the negative growth. Moving to a positive and then take a call on how to provide further stimulus.
number couldn’t have been possible without the people If you are pointedly telling me that people have told you
accessing these packages. Above all, the people trusted cash transfers should be done, my answer is that I am
the prime minister and his way of leading from the front. hearing a lot of people give a lot of different suggestions.

Q. GDP growth was on the decline even before Q. Some experts have also advocated printing
Covid struck. So, is there a systemic or struc- money to generate resources.
tural issue, beyond Covid, that needs to be A. If you are offering that idea to me, I will take it.
addressed?
A. Let’s take a long-term view while talking of issues Q. What about the disinvestment programme?
like GDP. Look at how the GDP has gone up and down, A. The disinvestment programme is on track. We are
especially since 1991 after the opening up of the Indian committed to everything we said in the budget.
economy. If you want to pitch it just to 2018 and 2019,
consider the fact that we belonged to the ‘fragile five’ Q. So, there is no pullback on the bold new deal
club of economies, which we inherited in 2014. To some you presented in the budget, including privati-
extent, GDP growth is cyclical. It has never been up and sation and asset monetisation?
up. I wish it was. A. Absolutely, you can ask me about Air India, BPCL—

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 19

COVER STORY I N T E R V I E W

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN

you can read out the entire list approved by the cabinet
and I will tell you it’s on track.

Q. And there is no reneging on privatisation

despite pressure from organisations like the
Swadeshi Jagran Manch?
A. It is absolutely on track. It was all laid down in the
budget and approved in Parliament, and I stand by it. It
is our budget.

Q. A recent FICCI survey indicates business

confidence has nosedived. Among their sug-
gestions is income-tax relief for the middle
class and reduction in indirect taxes for busi-
nesses. Your views?
A. I find this concern for the ‘middle class’ repeatedly
brought up. Don’t the middle class among farmers ben-
efit through government procurement? Haven’t middle
class homebuyers got relief through the SWAMIH
(Special Window for Completion of Construction
of Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Projects)
programme? Likewise, there’s the Emergency Credit
Guarantee Liquidity Scheme (ECGLS) for the MSME
sector, through which 20 per cent of their outstanding
People have seen
credit is given as loan, without any security, for which what the prime
the government stands guarantee. Now, that 20 per
cent has been increased to 40 per cent. Aren’t there
minister said about
middle-class people running them? doing away with tax
Q. Government capital expenditure, espe-
terrorism. There is a
cially on infrastructure, seems to be the only sense that we mean
engine working right now because exports,
private investment and consumption have business and are not
their constraints. How does one get the other here to harass people
engines to fire too?
A. I would like everyone to get out of this ‘four engines’
blazing concept. Yes, the four engines of growth have
to work. Attributing all to one engine at the cost of the
other three is no longer valid. You may say they need to
work faster, be more energised, but to think that three the mergers and acquisitions that are happening, look
have collapsed and only one is running may not be at the number of middle-class Indians wanting to enter
correct. Post September 2019, nobody knew what was the stock market because they find transparent, well-
going to come. Corporate tax had been reduced and I managed companies to invest their money in, rather
was accused by many of favouring the big corporates. than the low-risk bank savings.
There was talk that they saved a lot, were offloading In terms of consumption, look at the rural Indian
their debts but not spreading their benefits. I have no consumption figures before the budget and now. It must
problem with them offloading their debts or earning have slowed down a bit in early April, but tractor and
profits to use it the way their shareholders have ap- agriculture equipment sales and FMCG (fast moving
proved. But it is also true that post that move, you find consumer goods) sales are there. I am not saying that
many more of them going into detailed planning for everything is hunky-dory, but we cannot think that it is
expansion, looking for FDI for joint ventures. Look at completely off.

20 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 The disinvestment pro-
gramme is on track and we
are committed to everything
we said in the budget. Ask me
about Air India, BPCL—read
the entire list approved by
the cabinet… it’s on track

frontline workers and those above 60 years. The Centre

bought these vaccines and distributed them free. In
April, we opened up vaccination for the 45-plus seg-
ment, again for free in government hospitals. Even
these doses were procured and sent by the Centre.
Since January, there were calls as to why the Centre
should do it, and that it should be left to the states. I
Q. Are you concerned that there could a am not holding them responsible, but it was a credible,
serious impact of Covid-19 spreading to rural repeated, loud voice. So, the policy was made in such
areas in the second wave? a way that we take 50 per cent of the vaccines avail-
A. Even this year, rural India is working, which is why able and keep them going free, and the states take the
you have production of various crops and preparations remaining 50 per cent and do what they want with it.
for sowing the next crop. The mandis are very active. The And in this, if a small quantum has to be left for the big
prime minister had earlier told [chief ministers] to take hospitals, which can afford to buy and administer it to
care Covid does not reach rural areas. The concern that it their patients, that should be opened up—that’s exactly
would spread to rural areas was already there and, there- what was done. This was a change brought about after
fore, precautions were voiced and we are following them. loud and clear voices from the state governments.

Q. Will you be revisiting the budget numbers Q. What about placing orders early enough as
owing to the second wave? countries like the US did?
A. Not at all. We are only in the second month of A. As regards not placing orders early, how could we
the budget. have given vaccines by January 16 unless the entire
backlog or stocks with the vaccine producers came in?
Q. Most experts say that the majority of the What they are producing is what is being obtained,
population needs to be vaccinated quickly and that too is simultaneously being ramped up. We
in order to avoid another pandemic shock. are finding newer, idle capacities which can be used to
But the central government has come in for enhance production capacity, and because of which we
flak, even from the Supreme Court, over the get more vaccines in June and even more in July. We
vaccine policy, including the delay in placing are also importing vaccines, such as Sputnik V, for
orders for sufficient doses and the confusion domestic production.
caused by states also being asked to pur-
chase vaccines to meet their needs. Q. Even for the universal immunisation pro-
A. Since October last year, negotiations were on with gramme, it was the Centre that purchased
the vaccine manufacturers. The prime minister himself vaccines and distributed to the states. So,
went to the factories of vaccine-makers in Gandhi- why the change? The charge now is that with
nagar, Pune and Hyderabad and encouraged them. states competing to procure vaccines,
The inventory they held helped in a big way to launch manufacturers can jack up prices.
the vaccination drive on January 16 and inoculate all A. Good logic, but should you be asking that to me or to

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 21

COVER STORY I N T E R V I E W

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN

the people who said, why should the Centre buy?

Q. Why did you listen to them?

A. Had I not, you would have asked me questions on
federalism. It is not for me to judge, especially when the
states asked for it and we heard them out and yielded.

Q. Why doesn’t the Centre take it over again

and end the confusion?
A. You have told me and I take it as a suggestion.

Q. The government is also facing criticism for

rising inflation, particularly the fuel prices. Is
there an option of cutting fuel prices?
A. On inflation in the prices of pulses, edible oils and
other essential commodities, a group of ministers have
been regularly going into the reasons and discussing
allowing imports while ensuring that our farmers don’t
suffer because of a crash in prices. They also make sure
there are no supply chain constraints or hoarding. On
fuel, the Indian prices are fixed almost on par with
global ones. As regards taxes, the central government
does not do it at ad valorem; it is a fixed rate irrespective
of the price of oil. What states get is ad valorem; with were complaints about ‘tax terrorism’, apart
every increase in the price of oil, they get more revenue. from the ED (Enforcement Directorate), CBI
So, the issue of fuel price is layered between the Centre (Central Bureau of Investigation) and CVC
and the states. Above all, we have to remember that (Central Vigilance Commission) creating an
the central government does not determine the prices; atmosphere of fear among entrepreneurs.
these are determined by market forces. How have you changed that perception?
A. We have repeatedly held meetings with the CVC,
Q. You infused enormous liquidity into the
economy, but that has also caused inflation.
What are your options in a ‘devil and the deep
blue sea’ situation where the economy needs
liquidity but inflation is raging?
A. Liquidity is necessary at a time when businesses
are trying to come out of difficulty. The RBI (Reserve
There were calls
Bank of India) manages liquidity. I keep exchanging since January to leave
views with them. DEA (Department of Economic Af-
fairs) works closely with me. We are in close coordi-
[vaccine procurement
nation with the RBI so that sudden sucking out of and distribution] to
liquidity does not affect fledgling businesses. Banks
have been given enough leeway so that they can lend
the states; there were
as and when businesses approach them. The bank questions on why the
situation and bank books have all definitely improved
so they are in a position to make provisions for these. Centre should do it… I’m
Lending is also happening with sovereign guarantee. not holding [the states]
Banks know they are not worse off and have to extend
loans as per ECGLS, which we have now opened up for responsible, but it was a
more segments.
repeated, loud voice
Q. In terms of ease of doing business, there

22 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 evasion or gamed the system. From there on, the leads
On inflation in the are automatically generated through technology and
you are able to trace seemingly unconnected people.
prices of pulses, This has made people realise that they cannot remain

edible oils and oth- untraced and it has helped raise more revenue.

er essential com- Q. Do you think Covid has caused a dent in

the spirit of federalism, especially the tussle
modities, a GoM over GST?
has been going into A. What tussle? I would like the media to be better
informed about a federal body like the GST Council.
the reasons and When finance ministers of states—some of them chief
discussing imports ministers holding the portfolio—meet, there will be
discussions, rebuttals and arguments, but that is the
while ensuring forum for that. Is that a tussle or a dent in federalism?

farmers don’t suf- The GST Council is the body for discussion under a
federal template. When we said a Group of Ministers
fer because of a will decide on the tax exemptions for Covid treatment
items, is that an amicable way of arriving at a solution
crash in prices or adversarial? To the credit of every member of the
GST Council, they are being absolutely statesmanlike in
their behaviour.

Q. Has there been a swarm of NPAs after

CBI, ED and banks and conveyed that we have to be ECGLS and the incentives and deferments
a lot more professional about dealing with taxpayers. that have been allowed? Are banks and the
Banks have also realised that genuine commercial deci- finance ministry concerned?
sions will have to be appreciated and if something has A. No, if you look at the steps we have taken. We
gone wrong, it is for the customer and the bank to sort formulated the ARC (Asset Reconstruction Company)
it out. So, this has not only helped in revenue generation model in such a way that NPAs (non-performing assets)
but also in building a clear picture of what this govern- will be shifted to a holding company, which, after due
ment intends to do. diligence, will invite asset investment funds to bid for it
Also, as committed by the prime minister, we have and take it. So the way we have planned it is that banks
brought in faceless assessment and faceless appeal for are sure that those NPAs which have been around for
taxpayers, and all because we have adopted technol- quite some time—not Covid related—will find their way
ogy fully. Even when you go for an appeal, you do out and they will get their due share at first go, in some
not know who your assessing officer will be. In this part, and at the final stage when it is getting sold out.
budget, we have made a significant change by ruling The rest of it will come to the bank.
that no income-tax assessment record can be opened Now, during 2020, we suspended those sections in
beyond six years. People have seen that what the prime the IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code), so no one
minster said in terms of doing away with tax terrorism can take people for insolvency because of Covid-relat-
has actually happened in so many ways. I think there ed failures. It has helped and now, we are clear that
is a general sense that we mean business and are not with IBC, ECGLS and the additional support being
here to harass people. given, many of them will be able to survive and move
towards better days. There is a continuous monitoring
Q. Is the spike in GST (Goods and Services of the stress levels of commercial operations by banks.
Tax) collections because people are scared I am also asking the ministry of corporate affairs to
of raids and are voluntarily paying up? deal with companies and understand the stress level
A. It is true that our officers are using artificial intel- that they are finding in the markets. So, through the
ligence to look at data and seeing where the evasions corporate affairs ministry and banks, ministries are
are happening. We are now able to not only spot where doing real-time monitoring. With that, we are able to
the problem lies but also trail the connections. At one address that problem and prevent people from falling
go, you can point to a shell company that has done some off the cliff. n

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 23

 COVER STORY ECONOMY

HOW TO KICK
ECONOMY
MANDAR DEODHAR
START THE
THE DEADLY SECOND WAVE OF COVID BATTERED AN
ALREADY BRUISED ECONOMY. INDIA NOW NEEDS POLICY
VISION OUT OF THE ORDINARY TO RESTORE CONSUMER
CONFIDENCE, BUSINESSES AND LIVELIHOODS
BY M.G. ARUN & SHWWETA PUNJ

A
S GRIM VISUALS OF PEOPLE struggling
to find hospital beds, oxygen and medici­
nes for their loved ones and long queues at
crematoriums made all the news in May,
Covid 2.0 was silently wreaking havoc else­
where too: on the economy. The unexpec­
ted ferocity with which the second wave
struck threatens to derail whatever little
recovery India made in the second half of
the previous financial year (according to
the latest growth numbers, India’s econ­
omy grew in both consecutive quarters of
the second half of the previous fiscal, com­
pared to negative growth in the first half).
Though India avoided declaring a national
lockdown, states perforce had to impose their own lockdowns
that cost the country around $8 billion, or over Rs 58,000 crore,
every week in May, according to investment firm Barclays.
Shutdowns and layoffs in factories pushed unemployment to double dig­
its: 14.73 per cent for the week ending May 23. Job losses and pay cuts, coupled
with lockdown restrictions, have choked sales of several FMCG (fast­moving
consumer goods) categories, as well as consumer durables such as televisions
and refrigerators, apparel and footwear. Car sales have declined by over 25
per cent in April compared to March, while two­wheeler sales have dropped
over 27 per cent, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Associa­
tion (FADA). The travel and hospitality sector, already bruised by the severe
lockdown in 2020, continues to suffer.
Several firms have revised the country’s earlier growth estimates of 11­
12 per cent to 8 per cent or even lower (see graphic: A Darkening Outlook).
LOCKED DOWN “Even a 3 per cent reduction in growth means a loss of Rs 6­6.5 lakh crore
for the economy,” says former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.
Mangaldas Market in “Last year, we lost Rs 20 lakh crore.” Barclays warns of a ‘bear phase’ for
Mumbai, hub of the India in the event of a third wave. It could end up with 7.7 per cent growth
wholesale garments for the current fiscal, far below the RBI’s (Reserve Bank of India) projec­
business, on June 1 tion of 10.5 per cent. This, when India saw 7.3 per cent degrowth in the

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 25

INTO THE ABYSS
THE SCOURGE OF
JOBLESSNESS
The unemployment rate is back
Already sluggish before the pandemic, growth in double digits, thanks to the
took a deep plunge for two whole quarters lockdowns
30
3.3 Unemployment rate (%)

1.6
3

0.5
5.4

25
4.6

Q1 Q2
20
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q3 Q4
15
2019-20
10

-7.4
QUARTERLY 5
GDP GROWTH All-India Male Female
0
(Y-O-Y%)

Apr. ’20
May ’20
Jun. ’20
Jul. ’20
Aug. ’20
Sep. ’20
Oct. ’20
Nov. ’20
Dec. ’20
Jan. ’21
Feb. ’21
Mar. ’21
Apr. ’21
May ’21
-23.9

2020-21

SEEING RED PRICES GO THROUGH

In 2020-21, GDP fell into negative territory, the country’s
THE ROOF
first full-year GDP contraction in four decades High cost of fuel and higher power
tariffs have led to a steep rise in
GDP GROWTH (Y-O-Y%) WPI inflation
12
8.5

10
8.26
8
7.41

7.04

2020-21

Wholesale Price
6.39

6.15

8
5.46
5.24

Index (Y-o-Y%)
4.2

6
4
2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2
-7.3

0
-2
-4
Apr. ’20
May ’20
Jun. ’20
Jul. ’20
Aug. ’20
Sep. ’20
Oct. ’20
Nov. ’20
Dec. ’20
Jan. ’21
Feb. ’21
Mar. ’21
Apr. ’21
May ’21
A DARKENING OUTLOOK
GDP estimates for India have been downgraded by
nearly all agencies tracking it
MANUFACTURING
INDIA’S REAL GDP GROWTH PROJECTIONS PICKS UP, SLOWLY
Industrial production recovered
AGENCY/ INSTITUTION RELEASE 2021-22 EARLIER
from the steep fall last year, but
Credit Suisse May 8.5-9 11 Covid 2.0 has cast a fresh shadow
OECD May 9.9 12.6 30
20
State Bank of India April 10.4 11
10
S&P Global Ratings May 9.8 11
0
Fitch Ratings May 9.5 12.8 -10
-20
Moody’s May 9.3 13.7 Index of Industrial
-30
ICRA April 10-10.5 10-11 Production (Y-o-Y%)
-40
Crisil May 8.2 11 -50
-60
Care Ratings May 9.2 10.2
Apr. ’20
May ’20
Jun. ’20
Jul. ’20
Aug. ’20
Sep. ’20
Oct. ’20
Nov. ’20
Dec. ’20
Jan. ’21
Feb. ’21
Mar. ’21
Apr. ’21
May ’21

India Ratings April 10.1 10.4

International Monetary Fund April 12.5* 11.5

*IMF has scaled up its projections, contrary to others Source: BT Research, CMIE, MoSPI

Graphics by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

 COVER STORY ECONOMY

previous fiscal. Officials had estimated Nine million salaried jobs were lost
the economy to contract by 8 per cent. between February and April, according
“The second wave has had a brutal ef- to the research firm CMIE (Centre for
fect on people’s psyche,” Naushad Forbes, Monitoring Indian Economy). Ninety- Pent-up
chairman of Forbes Marshall, India’s
leading steam engineering and control
seven per cent of Indian households saw
a fall in their incomes. The middle class,
demand fuelled
instrumentation firm, told india today. the core constituency driving demand in recovery after
“It will be a while before someone will go
out and start spending.” Google mobil-
an economy, is among the worst-affect-
ed. A research report by the US-based
the first wave,
ity and other data tracking goods and Pew Research Center in March revealed but sentiment
people’s movement show a fall in activity
around retail, grocery, transit stations
that, last year, Covid pushed nearly 32
million Indians out of the middle class, this time
and toll collections until the third week defined as those who earn $10 (Rs 724) will remain
of May, compared to March and April. to $20 (Rs 1,449) a day. India’s middle
“There is a long shadow (of Covid-19) on class shrunk by a third—from a pre- subdued
the economy compared to the first wave,” pandemic estimate of 99 million to 66 N I L E S H S H A H , MD, Kotak
says Nilesh Shah, managing director of million—according to the report. Mahindra Asset Management
Kotak Mahindra Asset Management. The situation is worse in rural ar-
“Pent-up demand fuelled recovery after eas. Unlike in the first wave, when rural
the first wave but sentiment this time is growth and jobs cushioned the econo-
likely to remain subdued for a while.” my’s fall, rising rural infections and the All India Manufacturers’ Organisation
Hopes of the economy reaching the ensuing restrictions this time have led in June 2020 found that 35 per cent of
$5 trillion target any time soon stand to 13.5 per cent unemployment in ru- India’s MSMEs and 37 per cent of self-
firmly dashed, especially as it was ral India, compared to 17.4 per cent in employed individuals had to close down
already tottering at a lower-than-ex- urban areas. The pandemic has dealt a businesses due to the pandemic. And the
pected 5 per cent growth rate before the blow to an already alarming situation. losses are not just economic this time;
pandemic. The Narendra Modi govern- “The labour participation rate has been several entrepreneurs have lost their lives
ment pumped in over Rs 20 lakh crore falling systematically since 2016—from to Covid. “The damage this time is long-
in guaranteed loans and social schemes 46.1 per cent in 2016-17 to 39.9 per cent term,” says Anil Bhardwaj, secretary
for the poor and vulnerable in the previ- in 2021,” says Mahesh Vyas, CEO and general of FISME (Federation of Indian
ous year, but many of the reforms, under MD of CMIE. “India does not offer good Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises).
the much-vaunted umbrella of the Aat- jobs, and women find it increasingly dif-
manirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, including ficult to participate in the labour mar- THE RURAL COLLAPSE
a bold move to privatise several state- ket.” This is a reversal of the gains India In the first wave, the rural economy had
owned enterprises and sale of their idle made in the 1990s when many migrated emerged as a saviour, on the back of a
assets, lie in abeyance. from agriculture to work in factories. healthy agricultural output as well as
“However, now people are moving back some measure of consumption. Workers
JOBS IN LIMBO to farms, contributing to disguised un- had gone back from cities to their native
On May 26, 40-year-old Manish Verma, employment in the economy,” says Vyas. villages with savings, and the govern-
an engineer by training, shared a fervent At the same time, millions of infor- ment was pumping in money to help the
appeal on the professional networking mal economy workers who would earlier vulnerable. Many returned to farming;
site LinkedIn. After losing his job with leave villages and small towns to come to others took up employment under MN-
a Lebanon-headquartered engineering the cities and get absorbed in the thriv- REGA, the government’s flagship rural
group catering to telecom clients in No- ing low-skill, service-oriented business- employment guarantee scheme.
vember last year, he has not been able to es, such as barber shops, dhabas or ki- However, the spread of Covid-19 in
find alternative employment and is now rana shops are now in peril. The MSME the country’s hinterland in its second
willing to do just about anything. “I tried sector, often described as the backbone wave hit the rural economy hard, says
to approach my former bosses, but the of Indian manufacturing, has been the Himanshu, an agricultural economist
telecom industry is in very bad shape,” most vulnerable. India has 63.4 million and associate professor at JNU (Jawa-
he says, from his hometown in Lucknow. MSMEs, which account for 45 per cent harlal Nehru University) in Delhi. It
“Many are being forced to work at re- of manufacturing output, 40 per cent is now subject to the lockdowns it was
duced remuneration or on lower designa- of exports and employ about 120 mil- spared in the previous wave. State gov-
tions or struggling to retain their jobs.” lion people. A survey conducted by the ernments are cash-strapped and people

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 27

COVER STORY ECONOMY
AT A STANDSTILL
With 98 per cent of the country under some sort of lockdown,
several business activities have come to a halt

GOOGLE MOBILITY
have exhausted their savings. MNRE-
GA activity is lower. All three major RETAIL & GROCERY & TRANSIT WORKPLACES
sectors that provide job opportunities RECREATION PHARMACY STATIONS
in rural India—agriculture, construc-

19.1
16.9

7.9
tion and small-scale manufacturing—
have collapsed. In agriculture, com-
modity prices are falling while input
costs keep rising. Private construction,

-5.1
-6.9
a big employer, has come to a standstill.

-10.3
-27.6
Brick kilns—a fair indicator of demand

-15.4
in the construction sector—are closing

-21.7
-21.9

-22.7
down in rural areas, adds Himanshu.

-28.7
Job losses in the MSME sector are more

-36.7
painful, as even “skilled” workers lack

-51.1
-52
academic qualifications and do not have
degrees or certificates, making it more -65.3
difficult for them to find new jobs.
Feb. 15 Mar. 22 Apr. 19 May 17
The Modi government did announce
a bouquet of schemes targeted at spe-
cific groups—migrant workers, street OTHER HIGH-FREQUENCY INDICATORS
vendors, small industries—in 2020.
The Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, ELECTRONIC POWER RAILWAY GST E-WAY
TOLL SUPPLY: FREIGHT BILLS
for instance, was targeted at migrant
COLLECTIONS ENERGY MET
returnees, providing employment for
125 days in 25 different types of work,
including infrastructure creation.
13.2

The scheme covered 116 districts with

more than 25,000 migrant workers re-
turning to states such as Bihar, Uttar
3.6

3.6
4.1

2.9

3.1
1.8

Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, 1.7

0.1

Jharkhand and Odisha. The Pradhan

-1.2

Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar

-3.3
-4.5

-6.2
Nidhi (PM-Svanidhi) scheme was
-6.6

-14
-18.7

aimed at street vendors, facilitating

working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 Feb. 15 Mar. 22 Apr. 19 May 17
at a subsidised rate of interest, while Note: Mobility indicators data is % change from baseline
the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) (Jan.-Feb. 2020); For other high-frequency indicators, the data is
scheme was aimed at providing incen- % change over previous week. Source: CRISIL Ratings, Google,
NETC, POSOCO, railways ministry, GSTN
tives to encourage Indian manufactur-
ing firms. According to government
data, around 420 million people re-
ceived financial assistance of Rs 68,820 Cumulatively, the schemes helped growth while addressing the present
crore until September 2020 under the stave off hunger, say experts. But for pain. In the short term, succour has to
Garib Kalyan Yojana. As for the PM- a country of India’s size, the solutions be provided to labour that has been ren-
Svanidhi scheme, 2.73 million street need to be more far-reaching and more dered idle. The Delhi government, for
vendors received loans, with the State effectively implemented. instance, has announced a grant of Rs
Bank of India disbursing nearly 90 per 5,000 to every registered auto and taxi
cent of them. According to the Union REVIVAL PRESCRIPTION driver. Maharashtra announced a relief
ministry for commerce, companies un- For one, say experts, India needs to package of Rs 5,476 crore in mid-April
der the PLI scheme invested Rs 1,300 have a graded economic response: for for the economically weaker sections.
crore, produced goods worth Rs 35,000 the short, medium and long terms. Ac- The Centre, too, launched initiatives
crore and created around 22,000 jobs cording to Garg, the challenge for the to provide relief to Covid-hit families at
in the first five months of its operation. government is to rebuild India for higher the end of May. It announced measures

28 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 It is important to revive
infrastructure projects. They can pay
the bills, put money in people’s hands
N A U S H A D F O R B E S , Chairman, Forbes Marshall

economy stymied its progress. Some say

paying off states the Rs 63,000 crore

A BUMPY ROAD (as on March 31, 2021) the Centre owes

in pending dues in GST compensation
Auto sales have been hit hard as consumers put off could ease their financial burden.
high-value purchases
NEEDED: A 1991 MINDSET
Year-on-year change in domestic sales in FY2021 (figures in %) Kotak’s Shah says the country needs a
“1991 mindset”, matching the resolve
with which the Narasimha Rao govern-
TWO THREE PASSENGER TRACTORS COMMERCIAL ment’s economic liberalisation agenda
WHEELERS WHEELERS VEHICLES VEHICLES
transformed India’s trade and industrial
policies. These, in turn, fostered private
enterprise and subsequent growth. “The
23.9 RBI has done an excellent job of mana-
ging liquidity. Now, it is up to the govern-
NA ment to support the entrepreneur,” he
says. Companies in the IT, pharmaceu-
-2.3 ticals and commodities space are expan-
-13.2 -12 ding while those in the auto, MSME,
-20.8 tourism and retail sector are flounder-
ing. Another economist suggests that the
-34 government go for a targeted stimulus
approach in these stressed sectors.
-51
Wholesale Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at
-66.1 -65.7 Retail Care Ratings, says the government has to
walk the talk on policy announcements.
The Jan Dhan scheme gives it access to

25% 27 % Year-on-year
comparison for tractor
sales not possible for
everyone’s background, which it can use
to transfer benefits directly into the ac-
Drop in car sales Drop in two-wheelers lack of data. counts of the needy. However, there have
in April compared sales in April compared Sources: SIAM, CME, been cases where some senior citizens
to March 2021 to March 2021 FADA, Care Ratings have not been able to avail of the Rs 1,000
per month pension scheme announced
last year. He thinks the PLI scheme will
help only large companies. “Look at the
to ensure a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each sectors such as hospitality and retail to kind of targets given. In electronics, it is
child orphaned by Covid once they turn help them keep their heads above water. only the huge mobile companies that will
18. Pension coverage under the Employ- In the long term, he thinks India should be able to do something, not an SME.”
ees’ State Insurance Corporation scheme work to restore robustness in employ- He recommends that the government
was extended to the dependants of those ment growth. “It is important to have give tax benefits to stressed firms. Such
who died of Covid. Benefits under the our infrastructure programmes back on firms can easily be identified through
Employees’ Deposit-Linked Insurance track. It can pay the bills, put money into their tax returns. Not everyone, though,
scheme were also extended to members the hands of companies and people,” says is in favour of moratoriums, as they only
registered under EPFO (Employees’ Forbes. In 2019, the Centre had unvei- defer payments, often at the cost of the
Provident Fund Organisation). led an ambitious Rs 110 lakh crore Na- banks’ financial health.
In the medium term, says Forbes, the tional Infrastructure Pipeline project To revive MSMEs, FISME has re-
government needs to address stressed spread across five years, but the sluggish quested finance minister Nirmala Sith-

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 29

COVER STORY ECONOMY

araman to review the current practice ROOM FOR SPENDING

of Special Mention Accounts (SMAs) India The government, however, will be
the RBI introduced in 2014 to identify
those accounts that have the potential
should vacci­ constrained by the resources at its dis-
posal. Experts say it should not be too
to become NPAs or non-performing nate as many concerned with the high fiscal deficit
assets. If a loan is not repaid within 90 (difference between its revenues and
days, it becomes an NPA. According people as expenditure), since even one per cent
to media reports, the Centre is in talks
with the RBI to consider the possibil-
quickly as additional spending can alleviate a lot
of pain. Following the sharp 9.4 per cent
ity of easing the norms for NPAs by ex- possible. It increase in its fiscal deficit for FY21, the
tending the classification period to at
least 120 days from the present 90 days.
will speed up Centre, with the aim to gradually ease
the fiscal deficit to less than 4.5 per cent
Alongside, credit access at tangibly recovery by FY26, budgeted a 6.8 per cent target
concessional rates should continue for for the current fiscal. Given the prevail-
MSMEs. FISME also wants the Centre R . C . B H A R G AVA ing and evolving situation, it is likely to
to monitor the price movement of top 10 Chairman, Maruti Suzuki breach this target, as per a research note
raw materials and refer suspect cases of by Care Ratings. Due to the lockdown, it
inflated prices to the Competition Com- expects a tax shortfall of 15-20 per cent,
mission of India, and also reduce im- or Rs 46,000-62,000 crore, from its
port duties on key raw materials to zero. ing to the Board of India Today Experts budget estimates this fiscal. Similarly,
(see The Best Shot at Recovery), depends India could fall short of its Rs 1.75 lakh
‘PRINT MORE MONEY’ on how India addresses three principal crore disinvestment target by 25-33 per
Uday Kotak, executive vice-chairman factors—neutralising Covid-19, pursu- cent, or Rs 44,000-58,000 crore.
and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, in ing the agenda for the future and busi- The RBI has recently transferred
a recent television interview, said that nesses regaining their animal spirits. Rs 99,122 crore of its surplus to the
the country needed to print cash to sup- Experts believe it is the right time to Centre, Rs 45,612 crore more than the
port the Covid-battered economy. “In take up agricultural reforms such as budget estimate. However, the govern-
my view, this is the time to expand the dismantling the minimum support ment needs an additional Rs 49,000-
balance sheet of the government, duly price regime and input subsidy schemes. 66,000 crore to fight Covid. Factoring
supported by the RBI...for monetary Garg feels only businesses that reinvent in the likely revenues and additional
expansion or printing of money. [The] or adapt themselves for the fast-unfold- expenditure, the Centre could face a
time has come for us to be doing some ing digital age will survive. “The digital funds crunch of Rs 1.34-1.8 lakh crore,
of that... If not now, when?” he asked. age is likely to offer small businesses a taking the fiscal deficit to 7.5-7.7 per
Economist and Nobel laureate Abhijit new lease of life by being the fittest en- cent this fiscal, estimates Care Ratings.
Banerjee endorsed this, saying the extra tities to provide customised goods and However, before anything else,
resources could support the poor. services,” he says. the government needs to have a clear
However, Ila Patnaik, professor at These businesses need help from and comprehensive vaccine policy.
NIPFP (National Institute of Public government and financial systems to A changing vaccination strategy has
Finance and Policy) in Delhi, argues raise capital to re-engineer themselves marred the confidence to spend or in-
that such moves should be taken only as well as transitional working capital. vest. “My fundamental belief is that
after calculating the risks, quantify- Direct budgetary financial support India should vaccinate as many people
ing how much more currency needs should also be extended to small, un- as quickly as possible,” says R.C. Bhar-
to be printed, and when this liquid- incorporated businesses. Garg recom- gava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki.
ity should be deployed, along with a mends privatising each and every public The government thus needs to set its
clearly-defined exit policy. sector undertaking producing private priorities, provide immediate relief to
Others point out that printing notes goods and services, both at the central the most affected while building more
only means that the RBI provides the and state level. Others advocate direct resilience into the economy to absorb
government more funds as it does not fiscal stimulus to the battered sectors. any future shock. Sure, Covid has shak-
spend money on any programmes itself. Also, direct cash transfers to families en confidence in the economy, but In-
“Hence, the crux is that the government that have suffered a loss of lives or live- dia has bounced back from crises in the
has to expand its deficit and then look to lihoods due to Covid to stimulate con- past. So long as the government keeps
the RBI for funding so as to not distort sumption. Supporting rural and urban its focus on growth and recovery, there
the market,” says an economist. incomes through MNREGA and an is no reason it cannot do so again. n
The medium-term outlook, accord- urban equivalent is also being mooted. —with Anilesh S. Mahajan

30 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

COVER STORY BITE

RAJNISH KUMAR D.K. JOSHI A D I T I N AYA R

Former Chairman, Chief Economist, Chief Economist,
State Bank of India CRISIL ICRA

THE BEST
SHOT AT
ECONOMIC
RECOVERY
A SECOND WAVE OF COVID HAS SET BACK INDIA’S
FRAGILE ECONOMIC RECOVERY. THE BOARD OF
INDIA TODAY ECONOMISTS WEIGHS IN ON WHAT IT
WILL TAKE TO GET THINGS BACK ON TRACK
S.C. GARG PINAKI CHAKRABORTY D . K . S R I VA S TAVA
Former Finance Director, National Institute of Public Chief Policy Advisor,
Secretary Finance and Policy EY India

Q
Over the medium run, we expect
growth to range between 6 and 6.5
HOW BADLY IS THE per cent annually, supported by pri-
ECONOMY HIT? AND WHAT vate investment and the government’s
Production-Linked Incentive scheme.
IS THE MEDIUM-TERM But we will learn about the long-term
OUTLOOK, ESPECIALLY IF effects on the economy only over
UNLOCK 2.0 IS GRADUAL? time. Rising inequality and stretched
household balance-sheets can con-
strain recovery. For now, it seems
certain that the government will have
to do the heavy lifting—not just in the
› RAJNISH KUMAR: The second › D.K. JOSHI: Till over 40 per cent health sector but also in mitigating
wave of Covid has slowed down the of the population is vaccinated (the collateral damage all across.
pace of economic recovery that had threshold at which the US and the
picked up. However, since the second UK started opening up), the fear fac- › S.C. GARG: It is painful. From
lockdown was not as rigid as the first, tor will be at play and states will have growing at only 4 per cent in 2019-
the economy has not suffered as it to exercise caution while considering 20 to contracting by 7-8 per cent in
did the last time. Also, the number a full unlock. Remember, we are also 2020-21 to staring at another low
of cases has started coming down, bracing for a possible third wave. recovery growth year in 2021-22,
indicating that the peak has been Mobility indicators reflect the India has been virtually stopped in
achieved. Under this outcome, the impact of all this on economic activ- its tracks.
macro-economic costs of this wave ity. Output and employment in That the economy has been
can be limited to Q1 2021-22 with contact-based services, like tourism, stalled at 2018-19 real GDP levels
possible spillover into July. This is the hospitality and airlines, hit hard by is unprecedented and disastrous. It
most optimistic scenario that can be the first wave, continue to be bat- has meant loss of jobs and income
envisaged at this juncture—it pro- tered this year. That explains the for millions. It has hurt government
vides a limited window to establish downward revisions of growth esti- taxes too, except petroleum taxes,
strict pandemic protocols and figure mates to single digit from double which the government has stubbornly
out logistics vis-à-vis vaccine produc- digits projected a few months ago. kept at unconscionably high levels.
tion, medical supplies and health If vaccine supplies are ramped up In normal times, India’s GDP
infrastructure in preparation for the after August, as planned, and the rate would have grown by about 25 per
next wave. In all other outcomes, loss- of vaccination keeps pace, prospects cent in the three-year period of
es in terms of lives, employment and for this fiscal’s second half and the 2019-20 to 2021-22. Instead, we are
output are likely to be adverse. next fiscal would brighten. staring at three lost years.

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 33

COVER STORY BITE

The medium-term outlook

depends on how India takes care
of three principal factors: a) Covid
disposable incomes in rural and
urban areas. Moreover, the subdued
domestic demand will constrain
Q
being completely neutralised; b)
government pursuing the agenda
pricing power at a time when vac-
cine-optimism has fuelled a global
HOW DO WE
of the future; and c) businesses rally in commodity prices. This is SUPPORT
regaining their animal spirits. If all expected to compress margins for INCOMES,
these growth stimulants converge, domestic producers. As a result,
India should be back on the path hopes of a double-digit expansion GIVEN ALL
of high real growth of 7-8 per cent in Indian GDP in real terms in THE JOB
from 2022-23. If either the gov-
ernment does not get its act togeth-
FY2022 have been doused.
The extent to which localised
LOSSES AND
er or businesses do not regain their lockdowns and restrictions are UPENDED
spirits, India would slip into a low continued in the coming weeks will SMALL
growth of 4-5 per cent. impact recovery timelines. Other
key monitorables are whether an BUSINESSES?
› ADITI NAYAR: The sharply accelerated pace of vaccine rollout
higher daily infections in the second can prevent a third Covid surge.
wave, including in rural areas, will In which case, we may see a back-
have a prolonged negative impact ended pick-up in economic activity › RAJNISH KUMAR: There
on consumer sentiment. Plus, towards the end of FY2022. have been reports, based purely on
substantial healthcare expenses employment surveys, of permanent
related to Covid treatment and › PINAKI CHAKRABORTY: job losses and a significant spike
high fuel prices are likely to squeeze We did not have a nationwide in unemployment. According to
lockdown during the second wave. the latest World Bank data, India’s
Vaccines have arrived and, hopeful- labour force has gone from 495
ly, we will take adequate precaution million in 2019 to 472 million in
to prevent/ minimise the impact of 2020. As per an estimate, total pay-
the third wave. Large-scale vaccina- roll generation of EPFO and NPS
tion is the key to return to a normal was around Rs 19 lakh less than
level of economic activity. the previous fiscal. An analysis of
employee expenses data for 284 list-
› D.K. SRIVASTAVA: The econ- ed companies found that, barring
omy will suffer largely in the first in big companies (with a turnover
quarter of 2021-22. The main sec- of over Rs 1,000 crore), employee
If vaccine tors likely to be adversely affected expenses have declined in all in
are construction, trade, transport, FY21. The largest decline was seen
supplies are hotels and manufacturing. Some of in the smallest firms, indicating that
ramped up the ground lost in Q1 may be made
up in the remaining part of the fis-
employees of smaller firms were
impacted the most.
and the rate cal year if the government mounts a To support incomes, we need
of vaccination strong fiscal stimulus in the second
and subsequent quarters. We also
to support businesses. A stimulus
package and direct, immediate
keeps pace, need an accelerated vaccination relief for sectors such as retail, hos-

prospects will programme. For 2021-22, a real

GDP growth rate of 9-9.5 per cent
pitality and MSMES, India’s biggest
employers, are needed.
brighten for may be feasible. With the release of

the second NSO’s provisional GDP growth esti- › D.K. JOSHI: The Reserve Bank
mate of (-)7.3 per cent, as against of India (RBI) has rightly adopted
half and the the earlier estimate of (-)8 per cent, a targeted approach to help the
for 2020-21, we need to recognise most impacted segments and boost
next fiscal that there could be an unfavourable liquidity of those at the forefront of
base effect. In the medium term, the fight against Covid—the health-
D.K. JOSHI India would do well to achieve and care segment—and support to
sustain a growth rate of 7 per cent. n microfinance institutions and small

34 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

and medium enterprises. world. There is considerable import sectors—which have been perma-
But a fiscal policy, which can pro- demand which led Indian agricul- nently damaged and are unlikely to
vide a more effective intervention in ture exports to rise quite well last survive in the old format. Many small
these difficult times, hasn’t been as year. It is a pity that the government businesses in the distribution chain
forthcoming. had to procure over 40 per cent of are also unlikely to compete with new
Specific and urgent measures wheat crop and continue with the PM direct digital distribution models.
are needed to support the severely- KISAN scheme in this phase of com-
affected urban poor and contact- modity price boom. This is the right › ADITI NAYAR: Given the pro-
based services (again, with urban time to consider agricultural reforms, longed impact of the second surge
areas accounting for three-fourths like unwinding the MSP regime and on sentiment, demand in rural and
of these services). Given the surge input subsidy schemes. These must urban areas may need to be sup-
in infections across rural India, be replaced with an income support ported. This could be done by provid-
long overdue spend for upgrad- ing free foodgrains, announced for
ing rural health infrastructure is April-May 2021 so far. Additionally,
also needed. Allocations under targeted cash transfers may be con-
the Mahatma Gandhi National sidered. Given the migration of work-
Rural Employment Guarantee Act ers back to rural areas, an enhanced
(MGNREGA) must be scaled up MNREGA allocation may help
to bolster employment and protect provide income support and protect
livelihoods in rural India. demand at the bottom of the pyra-
mid. Plus, with fuel prices at record
highs, cuts in excise duty on fuels
may offer a palliative to disposable
An enhanced MNREGA incomes, especially in urban areas.
allocation may help › PINAKI CHAKRABORTY: Dur-
provide income support ing the first wave, the benefits of

and protect demand at the pent-up demand helped in covering

some of the losses. That is not the case
bottom of the pyramid with the second wave. Demand may
remain subdued in the medium term.
A D I T I N AYA R Both fiscal and monetary support in a
graded manner may be necessary.

› D.K. SRIVASTAVA: Both the

› S.C. GARG: We need to look at programme, which will do India’s urban and rural unemployed require
which businesses are suffering and farmers and agriculture a lot of good. urgent support. This would be most
which can be put back on the rails India does not have databases of valuable in the first and second quar-
to figure out the right kind of sup- its small unincorporated businesses ters of the fiscal. The MSME sector
port programme. Jobs are lost when and its labour force. The government can also play an active role by reopen-
businesses, including single-account must reach out to these businesses ing fast, provided it can access credit
businesses, are not able to produce and workers and extend them direct at concessional rates. For this, the
goods and services on account of budgetary financial support. A large government should frontload its bud-
a lockdown, lack of demand or proportion of these businesses do geted expenditures in the first few
unavailability of workers. not receive any formal credit or bank months. This would be facilitated by
Agriculture, by its very nature of credit. The extension of the emer- a sharp upsurge in the Centre’s net tax
operation—largely inflexible demand gency loan credit guarantee scheme, revenues in April 21, which amount-
conditions and favourable mon- which has not been able to commit ed to Rs 1.31 lakh crore as compared
soon—remained unscathed during even Rs 3 lakh crore in the past 12 to around Rs 21,000 crore in April
lockdown 1.0. It will likely remain months (less than 3 per cent of out- 2020, as per the CGA data. It should
unaffected in lockdown 2.0 as well. standing bank credit) despite four also ensure that the total budgeted
The world is in the midst of a expansions, does not work for 90 per expenditure for 2021-22 is protected
commodity supercycle right now. cent of India’s small businesses. even if revenue receipts underper-
Most food and other agriculture com- There are many businesses—in form. Any revenue shortfall should be
modity prices have risen all over the travel, transport, entertainment made up by additional borrowing. n
COVER STORY BITE

Q WHAT KIND OF INTERVENTIONS SHOULD THE GOVERN-

MENT PRIORITISE? IS THIS THE MODI GOVERNMENT’S
1991 MOMENT, i.e., SHOULD IT TRY SOMETHING RADICAL?

› RAJNISH KUMAR: Direct fis- digitised. The start-up ecosystem in

cal stimulus in the battered sectors India needs a big boost.
should be the first priority. Also needed In addition, India requires massive
is direct cash transfers to the families government investment in handling
of Covid-affected citizens to support environmental goods and pollution. It
consumption, which can see a collapse. also needs to construct and encourage
Unlike during other recessions, private digital economy-appropriate infra-
consumption demand, services output structure. The government has the
and labour market (especially for low- opportunity to herald these reforms
skilled workers) went into a marked Since tech- as a 2021 moment for India. Some
retrenchment. Direct fiscal support to nology has pronouncements in Budget 2021-22
the most financially-vulnerable com- seemed to be indicating the resolve
munities is the need of the hour. The played a key of the government to seize the 2021
government should prioritise vaccina-
tion, especially in centres of trade and
role in keep- moment, but the agenda needs to be
expanded and the momentum needs
commerce, so that businesses can open ing businesses to be maintained.
up quickly. Also, since technology has
played a key role in keeping businesses
afloat, the The 2021 moment can provide the
final push to free India from the traps
afloat, the government should invest in govt. should of a lower middle-income economy
technological infrastructure.
invest in tech- and launch it on the path to a $10 tril-
lion economy by 2035.
› D.K. JOSHI: This is a far bigger nological infra-
challenge than the 1991 crisis—it is a › ADITI NAYAR: We have seen the
humanitarian as well as an economic structure government using a variety of fiscal
crisis. Besides, the Indian economy measures over the past year in addi-
still logged a positive GDP growth in RAJNISH KUMAR tion to various monetary measures. In
1991, whereas it contracted 8 per cent FY2022, we expect the government
in fiscal 2021. will draw from the existing toolkit.
That said, the first priority must proved very damaging and costly to In addition to the forms of income
be health. That means vaccinating the India. In 1991, India used the foreign and demand support outlined above,
population at the earliest and building exchange crisis to undertake big struc- other areas of focus include any fur-
capabilities for repeat vaccine doses. tural reforms, putting the economy ther necessary modifications to the
What we see from advanced countries back on the rails. India is essentially Emergency Credit Line Guarantee
like the US and the UK is that such a operating its economy under 1991 Scheme (ECLGS) and enhanced fund-
focus can bring faster revival of contact- reforms even today. ing of the vaccination drive.
based services. Till we achieve that, fis- India has, for quite some time, At this stage, there is a modest risk
cal policy must lend a generous helping been stuck in low growth, having used that the government’s fiscal deficit in
hand to lead vulnerable businesses and up most of the momentum of the 1991 FY2022 will be higher than budgeted
households towards recovery. reforms. The next boost can come from (Rs 15.1 trillion), especially on account
the next set of structural reforms—pri- of shortfalls in disinvestment receipts.
› S.C. GARG: The 1991 moment vatisation of public sector, refocusing Accordingly, the space for a fiscal
was a structural reset of economic, the government only on delivery of stimulus is limited, making effective-
financial and fiscal policies. India has, public and merit goods and unleashing targeting crucial.
in fact, seen two resets—in 1951 and the momentum of the digital economy.
in 1991. In 1951, India went socialist, Most businesses—goods as well as › PINAKI CHAKRABORTY:
which, though emotionally appealing, services—are getting more and more There should be a combination of

36 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

growth-promoting capital expenditure expenditure on health. This includes capital expenditure. A clear positive sig-
and critical support for livelihood and accelerated purchase of vaccines, under- nal is already visible. In particular, the
social protection both by the Centre taking construction activities to boost Centre’s capital expenditure has shown
and the states. A push for capital health infrastructure and induction a sharp increase of 66.5 per cent in April
expenditure has already been seen in of health professionals into the exist- 2021 over April 2020, as per CGA data.
Budget 2021-22. ing and new hospitals. Beyond this, A stronger support to demand is also
the government should spend on the urgently required by supporting rural
› D.K. SRIVASTAVA: Both the sector called ‘public administration, and urban incomes via MNREGA and
Centre and the states should prioritise defence and other services’, focusing on an urban equivalent. n

Q HOW CAN BUSINESSES PREPARE

work modes, like IT companies,
e-commerce companies, banks,
financial businesses, etc., have done
FOR FUTURE PANDEMIC SHOCKS? well despite the pandemic. Work
from home/ anywhere has ensured
workers’ safety and also enhanced
their productivity. The separation of
› RAJNISH KUMAR: The impact employees. That implies increasingly work from the office is the reality of
of the pandemic has not been sym- focusing on sustainability and resil- the future.
metrical across society or businesses. ience, rather than on merely enhanc-
For industries like retail, travel, hos- ing profits. › ADITI NAYAR: The learnings
pitality and live entertainment, the from last year are likely to soften the
pandemic has been a threat to their › S.C. GARG: For businesses, the blow on India Inc. in 2021. Enhanced
survival. While other industries, like best vaccine for Covid-like viruses liquidity buffers and diversification in
healthcare, life sciences or technol- is digitisation. Every process that supply chains will help protect busi-
ogy, have seen their growth turbo- can be digitally adapted, should be. nesses against the kinds of disrup-
charged during the pandemic. The Businesses that have used digital tions that we have witnessed since the
need for all businesses is to prioritise onset of the pandemic.
digital investments, even when there
is a physical aspect to its last-mile › PINAKI CHAKRABORTY: Post
delivery, so that even if there are limi- the pandemic, the nature of business
tations to physical movement, pro- and processes is changing. However,
duction and supply chains are not hit. some sectors such as the hotel indus-
Businesses should also be more try and tourism will take time to
conscious about where their supply recover. In the post-pandemic era, we
chains are, especially if they provide must try to move towards a climate-
what are now deemed to be “essen- resilient, sustainable growth model.
tial” or “strategic” services by gov- Businesses
ernments. A drive for more local or
regional sourcing seems inevitable.
would do well › D.K. SRIVASTAVA: Businesses
would do well to set up an earmarked
to set up a fund fund to cover the risks associated with
› D.K. JOSHI: We are still learn- to cover the future pandemics or health-related
ing about the implications of this crises. This fund may be used for sup-
pandemic. With more pandem- risks associat- porting jobs and incomes by avoiding
ics projected in future, we need to
account for shorter response times in
ed with future layoffs. They should develop adequate
facilities for online work wherever
planning and designing for business pandemics or feasible. For activities where physical
exigencies. Manufacturing companies presence is required, adequate safety
will need to focus on diversification of health-related and precautionary protocols should
supply chains to minimise the disrup- crises be developed and practised. They
tive impact of future pandemics. may also invest in raising sanitation
Businesses will need to lay more D . K . S R I VA S TAVA levels in workshops, offices and busi-
stress on health strategy for their ness premises. n
COVER STORY BITE

Q to meet the country’s needs and to

also seize enormous export opportu-
nities in this area.
measure would be for the govern-
ment to invest heavily in public
health infrastructure. The expansion
In addition to running PLI type of AIIMS is most welcome. More
GIVEN THE of schemes for production of medical important would be a makeover of
CONCERNS equipment, India should run a pro- district hospitals and public health
ABOUT A THIRD gramme to encourage establishing
private clinics in every census town in
centres into vibrant and functional
centres of medical services in districts
WAVE, WHAT the country. and towns. There is a need to scale up
KIND OF HEALTH The government made a good investment in these facilities tenfold.
start by providing Rs 35,000 crore
MEASURES for vaccination in the Budget 2021- › ADITI NAYAR: A faster rollout
WOULD YOU 22, which should have been suf- of vaccines for younger adults, who
ADVISE TO ficient to provide two doses to 100 make up a crucial engine of economic
crore people. However, for reasons I activity, will be a key confidence-
CUSHION don’t understand, the central vaccine building measure at the current
BUSINESSES programme has been substantially juncture.
diluted. The Centre would do well to Additionally, a focus on accelerat-
AND BUILD roll up its sleeves and implement a ing paediatric vaccines and enhanc-
CONSUMER centrally coordinated, single-point ing healthcare facilities geared
CONFIDENCE? procured and monitored vaccine pro- towards children could assuage wor-
gramme in the country. ries that have emerged regarding a
The most important health possible third wave.

› PINAKI CHAKRABORTY: This

› RAJNISH KUMAR: Given our has more to do with a behavioural
sizeable population and the nature change—to have people follow Covid-
of the virus, a third wave is quite appropriate behaviour and vacci-
possible unless vaccinations are nation process. We should remain
done rapidly. Countries that are vigilant and vaccinate our people as
vaccinating rapidly and widely are fast as possible so that we don’t have
flattening the infection curve. Also, to go through a lockdown again.
pushing health infrastructure devel-
opment to the forefront will inspire › D.K. SRIVASTAVA: The first
confidence. India priority should be to avoid or mini-

› D.K. JOSHI: Vaccinate faster, needs a mise the impact of the third Covid
wave by accelerating the vaccination
upgrade health infrastructure, par- Centrally programme. Within the vaccination
ticularly in rural areas, and enhance programme, the urban agglomera-
fiscal support for businesses and coordinated, tions, particularly those with a high
households. single-point density of population, should be
fully vaccinated, including the young
› S.C. GARG: India has to expand procured and (above 12 years of age). Government
both the public and private sector
health infrastructure and facilities.
monitored spending on creating additional
health infrastructure by substantially
The most important gap in India’s vaccine pro- increasing budgeted capital spend-
health services is the acute paucity
of doctors and paramedics. For petty
gramme in the ing on health could support demand
through high multiplier effects.
reasons, Indian authorities, includ- country There is scope for a sustained fiscal
ing the medical associations, have stimulus throughout the year and, to
not allowed the expansion of medical S.C. GARG some extent, monetary stimulus by
education. India should be producing making credit available to businesses
many more doctors and paramedics at relatively low interest rates. n

38 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

Hidden stories surface
Only on ground zero

Get all sides of the elections

THE BIG STORY | RURAL SURGE

HIDDEN IN
PLAIN SIGHT
Rural India’s desperately
inadequate health
infrastructure is common
knowledge. But official
estimates understate the
crisis, which makes the
battle against the
pandemic even harder
BY KAUSHIK DEKA
Photograph by CHANDRADEEP KUMAR

42 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

LEFT TO THEIR OWN
DEVICES A Covid patient
on oxygen support in home
isolation in Kheda Gadai
village, Shamli, UP

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 43

 THE BIG STORY | RURAL SURGE THE GROWING
RURAL THREAT

O
jhauli is a nondescript village in Even after under-reporting of cases/ deaths
Uttar Pradesh’s Gola tehsil, 50 km from rural India, official data records a
from Gorakhpur, the home district near 12 percentage point surge in cases
of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. over the past three months
In the past month, this village,
with a population of about 4,500,

181
reportedly saw 30 deaths preceded districts, out of the 254
by Covid-like symptoms. However, districts with over 10 per cent
there was no response from the positivity rate (May 24-30),
nearest community health centre have a high rural population
(CHC), located in Gola. On May
20, Neelranjan Ojha, a native of
ONLY

136
Ojhauli, reported the deaths to Himanshu Thakur, the district
of these 254
panchayati raj officer of Gorakhpur. Immediately after, a team
districts have done
of health officials arrived at the village and eight people were at least 50 per cent
admitted to a Covid hospital in Gorakhpur. RT-PCR tests
State officials in Maharashtra have been similarly lax or
late in responding to Covid cases in rural areas. Around 20
per cent of the state’s daily Covid tests are being conducted

19 %
1.6 %
TEST CASE
in Mumbai alone, which accounts for just 1.5 per cent of the
POSITIVITY FATALITY
population of Maharashtra. In rural districts such as Ahmed-
RATE RATE
nagar, Buldana, Satara and Beed, among others, where the
positivity rate is 23-30 per cent, the number of daily tests is In four Northeastern states—Manipur,
below 5,000. In the second week of May, a controversy also Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim—which have
erupted in Beed after the district administration failed to add an average 65 per cent rural population
240 Covid-related deaths to the state’s tally.
Such under-reporting is not restricted to Maharashtra
alone. And as India grapples with the second wave, what makes
the situation more dangerous is missing data. Government
statistics do not give an accurate account of the devastation,
which has led to an inadequate response. “In the absence of
reliable Covid surveillance and data from rural India, we can-
not be sure about the extent and severity of the pandemic,” says
Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, a Delhi-based epidemiologist and
public policy and health systems expert. “National aggregates
may indicate a declining spread in urban settings, but it is pos-
sible the virus is still spreading in rural India.”
A May 7 report by SBI Research estimated that rural dis-
tricts now account for about 48.5 per cent of new cases, up from
45.5 per cent in April and 37 per cent in March. But more than
new cases, it is the death toll that is wreaking havoc in India’s
villages. The 243 districts that receive funding under the Cen-
tre’s Backward Region Grant Fund accounted for 11 per cent of
all Covid deaths in India in September 2020. That figure is now
16 per cent. And these numbers miss many cases from places
like Ojhauli and Beed, which have fallen off the radar because
of factors like inadequate medical infrastructure, a hesitancy
REBECCA CONWAY/ GETTY IMAGES

to get tested and administrative apathy. For instance, between

May 1 and 23, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray
conducted four meetings to review Covid cases in the state, but
only one of these, on May 16, focused primarily on rural areas. STRETCHED
Thackeray took cognisance of the situation only after it became A patient at a CHC in
clear that around 70 per cent of the state’s new cases were being Jajod, in Rajasthan’s
recorded in talukas with populations below 100,000. Sikar district

42 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

5 HIGHLY 5 BIG STATES
INFECTED BIG WITH HIGHEST
STATES DEATH RATE
Though among Rural Punjab has the
the worst hit, the most worrying death The same day, the Union government directed states to
southern states are rate even though its improve rural medical infrastructure by strengthening access
better equipped with positivity rate is not to resources such as beds, oxygen, testing kits and ambulances
rural beds the worst in primary health centres (PHCs), community health centres
(CHCs) and sub-district hospitals, and by creating makeshift

HIMACHAL PRADESH
Covid care centres (CCCs). The guidelines also recommend-
ANDHRA PRADESH

ed that Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits be made available at

MAHARASHTRA
UTTARAKHAND
WEST BENGAL

all PHCs, sub-centres (SCs) and health and wellness centres,

JHARKHAND
TAMIL NADU

KARNATAKA

that community health officers and auxiliary nurse midwives

KERALA

PUNJAB

(ANMs) be trained to perform rapid antigen tests and that ac-

credited social health activist (ASHA) workers be tasked with
active surveillance in villages.
POSITIVITY RATE DEATH RATE
STATE PREPAREDNESS
2.55%
22.2%

1.95%
18.8%

1.65%
18.7%
18.2%
18%

1.65%

While most states have started taking measures on these lines—

1.48%

some were doing so even before the directive went out—the task
is immense. Even before the pandemic could place extraordi-
nary demands upon it, healthcare in rural India was already
crippled by poor infrastructure, a lack of manpower and policy
DEATH RATE POSITIVITY RATE neglect. There is a massive shortage of SCs, PHCs and CHCs,
which form the creaky backbone of healthcare in the hinterland.
8.2%

According to the Union ministry of health and family welfare,

1.15%
1.13%

1.11%

5.4%
0.64%

0.34%

India faces a 23 per cent shortage of SCs, a 28 per cent shortage

12.9%
6%

of PHCs and a 37 per cent shortage of CHCs. As a Rural Health

2%

Statistics report released last year reveals, on average, each SC

serves four villages; each PHC, 27 villages; and each CHC, 128
villages. To put it another way, one CHC is responsible for an
RURAL POPULATION RURAL POPULATION area of about 596 sq. km, almost the size of Mumbai.
90%

Even when it comes to new Covid-capable infrastructure,

65%
64%

74%
65%
57%

there has been a sharp skew in favour of urban areas. For

59%
48%

52%

instance, in Madhya Pradesh, there are 819 medical installa-

31%

tions that offer Covid treatment. Of these, only 69 are in rural

areas. Only 14 per cent of isolation beds, one per cent of oxygen
beds and 0.54 per cent of ICUs are in rural areas.
The situation is similar when it comes to personnel. Al-
HOSPITAL BEDS HOSPITAL BEDS though there has been a 40 per cent increase in the number of
PER MILLION PER MILLION allopathic doctors in PHCs across India in the past 15 years,
there is still a seven per cent shortage. More importantly, there
660

is a 76.1 per cent shortfall of specialists at CHCs. “India has

1,230

1,260
610
560

1,180

480

perhaps the largest network of PHCs and SCs. But there is an

1,000

920

220

urgent need to provide personnel, especially grassroot work-

ers, since they are the points of first contact,” says professor
Sanghamitra Sheel Acharya of the Centre of Social Medicine
and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s
% HOSPITAL BEDS % HOSPITAL BEDS School of Social Sciences.
IN RURAL AREAS IN RURAL AREAS This cripples even upgraded infrastructure. For instance,
as per a directive issued by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi
22.2% 54%
52%

46%
44%

39%

Adityanath, four CHCs in each district are to be converted into

30%

32%
28%

24%
25%

dedicated Covid hospitals, with 50 beds, an oxygen concen-

trator and a team of doctors. One such is the Shambhunath
CHC in Bah, 70 km from Agra. The CHC has 10 oxygen beds
but no trained personnel to handle the supply of oxygen. It
has a mandated strength of 21 doctors but only three are
Positivity rate and death rate are a seven-day average between
May 24 and May 30; Sources: Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare; Rural Health Statistics, 2019-20; How India Lives

Graphics by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 43

 THE BIG STORY | RURAL SURGE RAJASTHAN HARYANA

17,532

14,840
1,609
2,298
1,350

1,452
HOW THE

166
119
177
161 89

STATES ARE
66 9
0 4 2
Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30 Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30

FIGHTING
î 70 CCCs, with 30 beds, î 8,000 teams of ASHA and
two oxygen cylinders and an anganwadi workers, along
ambulance, set up after May 16; with healthcare givers and

BACK
257 Covid consultation centres panchayat officials, were
have also been set up; 355 CHCs deployed to screen 5,000-odd
are being converted into CCCs households each in the rural
î Targeting 20,000 oxygen areas of the state
While Covid infections are showing a beds in rural areas in next two
dip across India, states are focusing months; ordered 30,000 oxygen
on controlling the spread in the rural concentrators
areas. But poor infrastructure in the î 7,353 new community health
villages makes this a big challenge officers will be deputed in
rural areas

Daily case load

Daily deaths
DISTRICTS
REPORTING
MAHARASHTRA HIGH CASES
Between May 24 and
62,194

May 30, 2021, 295

districts reported more
43,183

than 100 daily cases

18,600
6,397

853 814

249

30
Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30

î 400 Covid Care Centres (CCCs) with at least 30 beds,

two oxygen cylinders and an ambulance each
î Provision for one MBBS doctor, one BDS/ BAMS
(dentists and ayurvedic practitioners) and two nurses
in each CCC
î The state has relied on existing infrastructure and not Illustration by
followed the May 16 directive of the Union government NILANJAN DAS
46 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1
 UTTAR PRADESH PUNJAB ANDHRA PRADESH

26,662

8,841

21,954
2,584
3,161

13,400
633
2,589

1,864

1,271
58
154
81

127
18 58
350 Mar 1 Apr 1 May 6 May 30 72 94
0 3
138 Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30
9 î Put in place Mission Fateh 2.0
3 to augment testing capacity in
Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30
î 64 CCCs with 15,870 beds
rural areas along with building
for the rural population, which
rural health infrastructure and
accounts for 66 per of the
î 300 CHCs in all 75 districts workforce
population
are being converted into CCCs î Engaged panchayat officials,
î Five oxygen concentrators/
î Four CHCs in rural districts ASHA, anganwadi workers
cylinders for each of these
are being converted into L-1 and 13,000 ex-servicemen to
centres
CCCs. Beds increased from monitor implementation of the
provisions in rural areas î Government-NGO
30 to 50, of which 10 to be
coordination centres to be set
reserved for paediatrics
up for the entire state and at
î By the end of May, there were the district level with nodal
8,000 oxygen beds in rural L-1 BIHAR
officers
CCCs; by June, it’s expected to
15,126

reach 15,000
î 17,000 oxygen concentrators
1,475

are being bought for the L-1 WEST BENGAL

488

CCCs. Will be installed by June

22

î Oxygen generation plant will

18,431
be installed in more than 100 L-1

11,284
CCCs in rural areas 90 52
2 1,733
î Every rural CCC will have at 0
198

least seven doctors, six nurses Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30

and four pharmacists
î 165 CCCs with 11,382 beds,
3,359 oxygen beds 117 142
î 110 Dedicated Covid 0 2
MADHYA PRADESH Health Centres (DCHCs) at Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30
subdivisions with 7,871 beds, of
12,421

which 5,158 are oxygen beds,

î 1,356 rural health centres
2,546

90 ICU, 81 ventilator and 600

1,476

and PHCs have 5-10 beds but

336

BiPAP machine beds

no oxygen or ventilator
î Each CCC and DCHC has
at least 30 beds, two oxygen î There are 345 block CHCs,
cylinders and two ambulances each servicing a population of
86 100,000—300,000
12 60 î One MBBS doctor, one BDS/
1 BAMS, two nurses and two î CHCs have upgraded bed
Mar. 1 Apr. 1 May 6 May 30 paramedics provisioned for strength from 30 to 60
each CCC
î 353 CCCs but all in urban
areas
î 69 of the 819 medical CCC: Covid Care DCHC: Dedicated Covid Health PHC: Primary
installations where Covid Centre (minimum Centre (minimum requirements: Health Centre
treatment is being offered requirements: 30 30 beds, one oxygen source per CHC: Community
are in rural areas beds, two five-litre bed, five self-inflating resuscitation Health Centre
oxygen cylinders, bags, one X-ray unit, a facility for
SC: Sub-centre
one basic life support blood and biochemistry tests, one
ambulance) basic life support ambulance)
J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 47
 HOW PREPARED
THE BIG STORY | RURAL SURGE
ARE OUR VILLAGES?
There is an acute shortage of sub-centres
actually posted there. It has digital X-ray machines, but (SCs), public health centres (PHCs) and
no radiologist, and the lack of a pathologist has shut down community health centres (CHCs), which form
its pathology unit. As a result, no Covid patients are being the backbone of rural medical infrastructure
admitted there. To address this shortage, the state govern-
ment is looking to employ retired medical staff. The CM SC PHC CHC
has announced a 25 per cent additional incentive on basic
salary to doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and grade four
Ideal capacity
employees on Covid duty. Medical interns, MSc nursing stu- (people per 80,000-
dents, BSc nursing students, final year MBBS and Pharma centre) 300- 20,000- 120,000
students will also be posted on a daily honorarium, based
on requirements. Neighbouring Haryana has also roped in
5,000 30,000
registered medical practitioners (RMPs) and second year
onward medical students to beef up manpower.
However, adding manpower has not been easy, as seen Currently
serving (no. 35,730 171,779
in West Bengal. Though the state government has given
district magistrates and chief medical and health officers
of people) 5,729
full authority to recruit medical staff, the drive has faltered
because of low remuneration. “When private hospitals pay Approx. no.
doctors Rs 500 per hour, the government pays a monthly of villages 4 27 128
salary of Rs 40,000. If we want to recruit 50 doctors, we get covered
only 25 applications,” says Dr Manas Gumta, secretary of
the Association of Health Service Doctors. The situation is Shortage 23% 28% 37%
similar in Bihar. In September 2020, the state government
appointed 3,186 doctors as general duty medical officers and
added 929 specialists in August 2020. Yet, 4,149 specialist A CHC covers an area of approx. 596 sq. km,
posts and 3,206 general posts remain vacant. The state also which is almost the size of Mumbai
faces an acute shortage of lab technicians (though the health Source: Rural Health Statistics 2019-20
department took the unconventional step of training ANMs
to conduct Covid-19 tests last year).
State governments have also been taking steps to en-
hance surveillance in rural areas to prevent a repeat of the of India. As a model to follow, he cites the Haryana govern-
situation in urban areas, where medical infrastructure ment’s Sanjeevini Yojana in Karnal district, which provides
crumbled under surging Covid caseloads. “Our fragile rural a comprehensive multi-component programme of assisted
infrastructure does not have the capacity to cope with the and monitored home care and assured emergency transport
kind of Covid wave we saw in urban areas,” says Dr Bhavani to advanced care facilities when needed.
R.V., a poverty and social protection specialist. To beef up When it comes to monitoring cases in home isolation,
surveillance and testing, almost all states have roped in several states, including Gujarat and Maharashtra, have done
ANMs, ASHA workers and anganwadi workers, with many poorly. Aside from checking in via phone calls, there is no
introducing mobile testing units in rural areas. system to monitor infections, or even to ensure that patients
are being isolated. To bridge this gap, the Bihar government
MISSING DATA has launched an application to be used by ANMs and ASHA
workers for online monitoring of infected patients in home
Nonetheless, cases are being missed, particularly because isolation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Bihar
rural screening is heavily dependent on rapid antigen tests. government to share the details of the app with the Union
Adding to the trouble is the fact that test results are not easily health ministry so that it can be adopted across the country.
accessible. “If someone has been tested, they should be able Government efforts have also been facing resistance
to access the test reports,” says Sandhya Gautam, director of from rural populations, primarily because of a lack of aware-
Seher, a unit of the Centre for Health and Social Justice. Ex- ness and misinformation about Covid. There is a fear of
perts also caution against overdependence on test results to social stigma and forced isolation if one tests positive, with
identify those who need treatment. “Since tests are not widely many refusing to report symptoms to avoid forced hospitali-
available and can give false negatives, a person’s exposure his- sation. Horror stories from hospitals—of shortages of beds
tory and clinical symptoms also need to be factored in when and oxygen and disturbing images of poorly maintained fa-
making decisions on isolation and treatment,” says professor cilities and news of deaths—have only worsened these fears.
K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation “People are reluctant to be tested or to visit hospitals,” says

46 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 GEOGRAPHY OF THE THREAT
Among the 10 states with the highest rural populations (see map), Bihar has the highest density
per sq. km, which partly explains why it seems the worst provisioned in terms of SCs and
CHCs (see table). On the other hand, if Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand appear
better placed, it’s also because their density of population in rural areas is much lower

Himachal Uttarakhand Uttar Pradesh

% beds
Pradesh 65% 76% Shortage Shortage Shortage
State in rural
90% 212 749 of SCs of PHCs of CHCs
hopitals
119 26% 9%
34% Himachal
Surplus Surplus Surplus 46%
Pradesh
Bihar Assam
Rajasthan Bihar 58% 51% 94% 47%
88% 85%
74% 1,167 382 Assam 28% 10% 27% 64%
173 11% 12%
25% Odisha 23% 8% Surplus 34%
Uttar
41% 51% 51% 51%
Pradesh
Jharkhand 44% 73% 37% 54%
Jharkhand
Rajasthan Surplus Surplus Surplus 27%
74%
365 Chhattisgarh 3% 7% 20% 54%
13% Madhya
Madhya 28% 47% 45% 32%
Pradesh
Pradesh Chhattisgarh Odisha
Uttarakhand Surplus Surplus Surplus 39%
71% 74% 82%
199 164 244 % rural population Density of rural population (per sq. km)
15% 26% 18% % of eligible population (18+) to receive one vaccine dose

Sources: Rural Health Statistics, 2019-20; Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Dr P.K. Kundu, former director of the Calcutta School of pected cases. Amid allegations of under-reporting, Rajasthan
Tropical Medicine. “They are scared of being quarantined. chief minister Ashok Gehlot has ordered an audit of deaths
There’s a trust issue with health centres and medical in- in the state. He has told district administrations to pay for
stitutions, particularly in rural areas.” ASHA workers like the transportation and cremation of bodies of Covid patients.
Hiramani Mandi of Keshiary block in West Bengal’s West Experts emphasise the need to create more awareness and
Midnapore district say this trust deficit has left them un- trust to make rural citizens active participants in government
able to convince people to get themselves tested. initiatives to fight Covid-19. Gautam says panchayats will
The reluctance to seek institutional help has also result- have to play an active role in disseminating information and
ed in high death rates in villages. For instance, in Punjab, encouraging people to take institutional help, as seen in states
the mortality rate is 2.3 per cent in rural areas as against like Himachal Pradesh. “Combating the pandemic effectively
0.7 per cent in urban areas. State government officials say in under-resourced areas calls for an all-of-society approach,”
around 83 per cent of patients in rural areas report to hos- says Prof. Reddy. “Community engagement is vital. Local
pitals only when the disease has progressed to advanced bodies, women’s self-help groups and youth volunteers are
stages, leading to increased fatalities. key resources. That will also help to build capacity for an ef-
fective and equitable multi-sectoral response to a third wave.”
RURAL MISTRUST Such a model, however, requires government machinery
that responds quickly to the spread of the virus. Going by how
Fear and mistrust are also fuelling the under-reporting of long it took the Centre to issue guidelines to the states to check
cases and deaths in rural areas. And while there are ways the rural spread—coming six weeks after the second wave
of corroborating deaths in urban areas—say, by comparing began ravaging the country—the situation on the ground is
figures against records from cremation grounds and grave- not encouraging. As Dr Lahariya points out, this is a measure
yards—there is no such option in rural areas. The fear that of India’s pandemic response—insufficient and slow. n
the families of those who might have died of Covid might be —with Ashish Misra, Romita Datta, Amitabh Srivas-
forcibly quarantined also leads villagers not to report sus- tava, Rahul Noronha, Kiran D. Tare and Rohit Parihar

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 47

SPECIAL REPORT TARUN TEJPAL CASE

THE TRIAL
ISN’T OVER
The Goa government challenges the acquittal of journalist-author
Tarun Tejpal in the sensational case of an alleged sexual assault.
Why the landmark case is going into a fresh loop
By Sandeep Unnithan with Kiran D. Tare

I
India’s most sensational case of alleged
rape and sexual assault at the workplace
saw an equally dramatic verdict on May
21. An astounding 527-page judgment by a
sessions court in Mapusa, Goa, acquitted
the prime accused, flamboyant journalist
and author Tarun Tejpal, of all charges.
The lanky, pony-tailed Tejpal had
ushered in an era of sting journalism with
exposés of defence deals and political cor-
ruption in 2001. Then, on November 18,
2013, a journalist working in Tehelka mag-
azine accused Tejpal, her editor-in-chief,
of sexually assaulting her twice at a literary
event hosted by the magazine at a five-star
hotel in Goa. Both assaults, she alleged in

48 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

ANI
a series of e-mails to her managing edi- itional sessions court judge Kshama M. in a position of authority committing
tor Shoma Chaudhury, took place in a Joshi gave Tejpal the benefit of doubt rape. A potentially crucial piece of
hotel elevator, on the consecutive nights “as there is no corroborative evidence evidence—CCTV footage of Tejpal and
of November 7 and 8, 2013. supporting the allegations made by the victim mistakenly emerging from
Tejpal responded to the victim’s the prosecutrix (victim)”. One central the elevator on the first floor, which
letter of complaint with two letters of pillar of the case was the allegation might have contradicted the allegation
apology, the first on November 19. In a that Tejpal kept the elevator of the of assault—was destroyed by the police,
formal e-mail to the accused on Novem- two-storeyed building in motion while the judge said. Tejpal’s letter of apology
ber 20, Tejpal apologised “uncondition- molesting the victim. Judge Joshi to the prosecutrix could not be held to
ally for the shameful lapse of judgement asserts that this was not the case. Her incriminate him, the judgment says, as
that led me to attempt a sexual liaison judgment points out: “The CCTV foot- it was not an admission or confession
with you on two occasions on 7 Novem- age of the guest lifts of the ground floor of any crime but a letter to Tehelka that
ber and 8 November 2013, despite your clearly shows that the left guest lift (the he is recusing himself as editor-in-chief
clear reluctance that you did not want relevant one) was in motion during the due to the allegations.
such attention from me”. two minutes of the alleged incident on Women’s rights activists and law yers
The Goa police, taking suo motu November 7, 2013, and that the doors of say the sessions court has tried the vic-
cognisance of social media reports of the left lift opened at least twice on the tim instead of the accused. “It is shock-
the case, arrested Tejpal three days ground floor.” This could either mean ing to see her dignity and behaviour post
later on multiple charges of wrongful that both the accused and prosecutrix the incident being questioned,” says Ha-
confinement, rape and assault. He was were inside the elevator when the doors sina Khan, head of Bebaak Collective, a
released on bail six months later. opened or were not inside at all. women’s rights group in Mumbai.
In her May 21, 2021 judgment, add- The deposition of the prosecutrix On May 25, four days after the
“also shows improvement and mate- verdict, the Goa government filed an
JUDGMENT DAY
rial contradictions and omissions and appeal in the state bench of the Bombay
Tarun Tejpal and wife arrive at change of versions which does not High Court. On June 2, Justice S.C.
the sessions court on May 21 inspire confidence”, the judge said before Gupte of the high court issued a notice
acquitting Tejpal. In her initial state- to Tejpal to respond on or before June
ment in 2013, the prosecutrix said that 24. The judge has asked for all records
Tejpal had pressed multiple buttons in from the trial court. A report by news
the lift to keep it in circuit. But in her agency PTI says the justice called the
cross-examination in 2020, she said she judgment a ‘manual for rape victims’
didn’t know whether the lift was station- as it described how a victim should re-
ary or moving and that the accused had spond in such cases. Speaking to india
pressed only one button. The judgment today, Goa government officials said
notes that the investigating officer (IO) they plan to challenge the “factual and
did not question the prosecutrix on the logical flaws” in the sessions court judg-
glaring contradictions in the CCTV ment. They believe the court overlooked
footage and the statements she made. crucial corroborative evidence, like the
The court said that the prosecution e-mail apologies written by Tejpal, and
had only established that Tejpal, as relied primarily on the CCTV footage of
then editor-in-chief of Tehelka, was in a the elevators from the hotel lobby.
position of trust or authority and could
have had control or dominance over the THE IMPORT OF THE CASE
victim. It had failed to prove five other The Tarun Tejpal case is a watershed,
crucial charges under various sections wedged between two significant mile-
of the IPC (Indian Penal Code), includ- stones in cases of sexual violence against
ing wrongful restraint, assault with women—the December 2012 gangrape
intent to outrage modesty and person and murder of 23-year-old ‘Nirb-
haya’ in New Delhi and the 2017 global
#MeToo movement. The case was in
fact among the first major indictments
THE JUDGMENT GAVE TEJPAL to be examined under a March 2013
THE BENEFIT OF DOUBT, BUT overhaul of rape laws in India following
GENDER RIGHTS ACTIVISTS the Nirbhaya case. The Criminal Law
ARE AGHAST THAT THE (Amendment) Act of 2013 substituted
sexual intercourse with a wider array of
COURT ‘TRIED THE VICTIM, acts that constitute rape, some of which
NOT THE ACCUSED’ came into play in this case. The trial,

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 49

 Twist in SPECIAL REPORT TARUN TEJPAL CASE

the Tale which lasted seven years, two months

and 25 days, saw several twists (see
court ignoring Tejpal’s e-mails of
apology. The case, the government
The nearly eight-year-long Twist in the Tale), the latest being appeal believes, is fit for a retrial.
case that culminated in Tejpal’s acquittal. ‘The trial court considered the
the acquittal of journalist In a press statement issued after evidence given by defence witnesses
Tarun Tejpal the verdict, Tejpal said the past as gospel truth, but at the same time
seven-and-a-half years had been discredited without any findings the
traumatic for his family as they ‘dealt evidence given by the victim and the
Nov. 7 & 8, 2013 with the catastrophic fallout of these prosecution witnesses,’ the govern-
Jun. 2 Bombay HC
Tarun Tejpal, editor-in- to hear Goa govern- false allegations on every aspect ment appeal states.
chief of Tehelka alleg- ment appeal against of our personal, professional and

H
edly sexually assaults trial court verdict public lives. We have felt the boot of ours after the sessions court
a young colleague in a the state, but through it all we have acquitted Tejpal on May 21,
hotel elevator in Goa May 27 Goa
government files cooperated fully with the Goa police Goa chief minister Pramod
appeal against ver- and the legal system...’. Sawant announced the state’s intent
Nov. 19 Tejpal
writes an informal dict in Panaji bench Lawyers and activists are appa- to challenge the verdict. Sawant con-
apology letter to of Bombay HC lled at the judgment’s deep dive into vened a meeting of top legal officers
the victim the prosecutrix’s sexual history. Su- the same day and directed them to
May 21, 2021 Ses-
preme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy file an appeal in the HC. Eyebrows
Nov. 20 Formal sions court acquits
Tejpal of all charges says the judgment suffers multiple were raised in the legal community
apology letter from
transgressions of the apex court’s when the Goa government roped in
Tejpal to victim and
Aug. 19, 2019 precedent and statutory law. “First, solicitor general Tushar Mehta from
Shoma Chaudhury,
SC rejects there are many explicit directions to the Centre—the country’s second
managing editor,
Tejpal’s plea to
Tehelka trial court judges not to take absence seniormost legal officer—to argue
quash 2013 case,
asks trial court to of medical evidence to be ‘presence their appeal in the high court.
finish case within of consent’ and to not require the A political source says there are
six months prosecutrix to be the ‘ideal victim’. two thought processes in the Goa
Second, you cannot put on trial the government over the Tejpal acquit-
Sept. 17 prosecutrix’s sexual history—it’s a tal. The first is the broader message
Tejpal formally
violation of her privacy. And finally, Sawant wants to send—crimes
charged with
rape, wrongful the kind of free pass given to assess- against women won’t be taken lightly.
confinement ment of the defence’s evidence is Politically, the BJP also sees its
startling. You had a letter where the appeal against Tejpal as a moment
Mar. 2018 Trial accused says he deeply apologises for to even the score with its critics. In
Nov. 23 Goa police formally begins. a non-consensual sexual advance.” 2018, allegations of sexual harass-
takes suo motu Victim testifies A retrial is unlikely. Legal ment by several former women co-
cognisance of media in the case experts say one of the HC’s tasks will workers had forced the BJP’s Union
reports, files FIR book-
ing Tejpal for rape un- Dec. 6 Supreme be to examine the evidence on re- minister of state for external affairs
der IPC sections 376, Court asks trial cord, on the basis of which they will M.J. Akbar to step down. The BJP
376(2)(k) and 354. court in Mapusa, assess the shift in the statements of believes Tejpal, a vociferous critic of
Tejpal’s apology is Goa to begin case the prosecutrix, whether these could Prime Minister Narendra Modi, per-
used as evidence be attributed to the years that have sonifies the ‘Lutyens media’ (Modi
in the case Sept. 2017 Trial
begins in Goa but passed after the incident or whether critics). In its first sting operation in
Nov. 30 Goa delayed after Tej- there were significant material 2001, Tehelka famously exposed then
police arrest Tejpal. pal moves Bombay changes in the testimony. BJP president Bangaru Laxman
He is lodged in HC asking for accepting a bribe. In 2007, they ran
Sada sub-jail charges against POLITICS OF THE APPEAL an exposé on the Gujarat riots where
him to be quashed On June 1, a day before the Panaji Sangh Parivar activists described the
Feb. 17, 2014 Goa
police files a 2,846- bench of the Bombay High Court riots from their perspective.
page chargesheet, was set to hear the Goa governm- “The Goa assembly election is
charging Tejpal with ent’s appeal against the sessions nine months away (February 2022).
offences under a court judgment, the state amended The CM cannot upset Modiji or the
host of IPC sections
it. Earlier, the appeal was focused women of Goa in an election year.
which now also
include 354A (sexual Jul. 1 Supreme on deleting references to the victim’s We will fight the case in the high
harassment), 354B Court grants identity and the questions about her court with full force,” vows a BJP
(assault with intent Tejpal bail post-incident behaviour. The revised leader. The case, after all, is Tarunjit
to disrobe) appeal now talks about the sessions Tejpal versus the State of Goa. n

50 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 EV SPECIAL

EVs ARE
COMING
What once seemed like a distant sci-fi fantasy
is already a reality on Indian roads, with a range
of four-wheelers and two-wheelers to suit any
budget. We mark World Environment Day with a
short tour of all the latest on electric vehicles

M AY 2 4, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 53
POWERED BY
 EV SPECIAL

THE AGE
OF EVs
Electric vehicles are no longer just a concept. They
are becoming affordable and increasingly making sense.
Here’s what to keep in mind while purchasing one
BY RAHUL GHOSH

A
EV
ZS r
MG e-seate net’
introduced new generation EVs in the coun- fi v te r
The ctric in ed in
try. While sales are picking up, are EVs ready e e le n c h
to challenge their ICE (internal combustion ‘pur was lau 020
SUV ndia in 2
engine)-powered counterparts? I

THE ELECTRIC ADVANTAGE

Futuristic design and features: Most EVs
have a sharp design, thanks to fewer running
parts and the fact that the battery packs are
mostly under the vehicle’s floor, allowing for
Around two decades ago, Bengaluru saw the more space in the cabin and the boot. All
launch of a small two-door electric vehicle modern EVs offer a range of connectivity
(EV), Reva. In 2010, Mahindra acquired a features. Mobile applications help
controlling stake in the company and, three owners keep tabs on most perfor-
years on, reintroduced the car as the ‘e2o’. mance parameters.
The e20 remained a two-door product and, Electric motor: The motor
priced rather high, didn’t quite make a bang. in an EV is silent and full of
In the past few years, several electric torque, ensuring instant accel-
two- and three-wheelers have been launched eration. The Tata Nexon EV, for
in India. They mostly had flimsy bodies and instance, can do 0-100 kmph in
the ride and handling too were not up to 9.9 seconds (the petrol version
the mark. The electric motors were mainly takes 11.7 seconds and the diesel
powered by heavy lead-acid batteries that 13.7 seconds). Among scooters,
required long hours of charging. But things the Ather 450X can do 0-40
have steadily improved. We not only have kmph in 3.3 seconds and the
some promising electric scooters, such as the TVS iQube in 4.2 seconds.
TVS iQube, Bajaj Chetak and Ather 450X, Multiple driving modes: Most
but even major car brands, such as Hyundai, EVs come with drive modes,
Tata Motors, MG and Mercedes-Benz, have which filter power outputs to

52 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 BACK TO
THE FUTURE
Electric cars have
been around longer
either offer performance or mile- Operating range: EV owners than you think
age. Electric two-wheelers have face what has come to be known
another feature: at the flick of a as ‘driving range anxiety’. While
button, the polarity of the motor technology is rapidly evolving and ELECTRIC FIRST
is reversed and they can reverse fast-charging stations are coming Cars with recharge-
able batteries were
into a parking slot. A speed limiter up in the metros, it may be a while
widely used for urban
makes this happen safely. before there are enough of them
transport from the late-1800s
Low running cost: The biggest to instil buyer confidence. On the
till the 1920s. Here, a 1921
draw of EVs is their low opera- upside, most modern EVs have a
Slaby-Beringer
tional cost. The cost of running a good driving range. The Hyundai
Hyundai Kona EV for a year can Kona, for instance, has a claimed
be as low as Rs 21,500—premised range of 452 km and the MG ZS
on the car doing about 15,000 km EV 419 km. Electric scooters too SPACE RACER
in a year, at Rs 1.10 per km; add have raised their game. The TVS While cheap oil
another Rs 5,000 for the annual iQube offers a range of 75 km and defeated elec-
trics for terres-
servicing. For a similar-sized pet- the Ather 450X a decent 116 km.
trial transport,
rol SUV, the same would cost over Recharging time: Recharging an
the battery-powered Lunar Rover
Rs 1 lakh a year. EV takes time. But most products
arrived on the moon on Apollo 15 in
offer a quick-charge option too.
1971—a giant leap for automobiles
THE DAMPENERS The Ather 450X gives you a range
Expensive: True EVs don’t come of 15 km on a 10-minute quick
cheap as yet. Among scooters, the charge. The Bajaj Chetak can SMALL IS
Ather 450X costs about Rs 1.46 replenish the battery by up to 25 BEAUTIFUL The pet-
lakh and the Bajaj Chetak will set per cent on an hour’s fast charge. rol crisis of the 1970s
you back by Rs 1.44 lakh. The TVS The MG ZS EV can attain 80 per led to a mini-revival in
iQube is the cheapest of the lot at cent charge within 40 minutes small electric run-
Rs 1.08 lakh (all prices ex-show- if hooked to a fast charger. A full abouts like the Citi-
room, Delhi). Road tax, registra- charge, though, will take consider- car—4,444 were produced by 1979
tion and insurance cost extra. ably more time. n

CLEAN MACHINE
Environmental
legislation en-
couraging zero-
emission vehicles led
General Motors to introduce the
pioneering EV1 in 1996

BATTERIES INCLUDED
Bangalore-based start-up
REVA launched their iconic
electric mini in 2001.
Later acquired and
rebranded by Mahindra

GLOBAL DOMINATION
Founded in 2003, Tesla produced
their first roadster in 2009, the iconic
Model S (pic) in 2012. It is now a
multi-billion dollar EV giant
 EV SPECIAL

ON THE JAGUAR
I-PACE

GRID A
nother luxury option is the
recently launched I-Pace.
Thanks to its unique design
tailored for electric architecture,
the vehicle has an unconventional
styling, unlike anything else on the
A round-up of some of the battery electric road. The I-Pace also features a
four-wheelers currently on sale in India dual-motor setup with all-wheel
drive capability; the total power
BY DHRUV SAXENA output is around 394 bhp and peak
torque 696 Nm. It can sprint from
0 to 100 kmph in under 5 seconds.
The 90 kWh battery pack gives
it a WLTP rated range of 470 km,
though realistically the figure is in
the 300-350 km range. Charging
options include a cable stowed in
the ‘frunk’ (front trunk) that can
be plugged into a standard wall
socket—a full charge takes near 27
hours. Jaguar offers an AC charger
free of cost that reduces charging
time to 13 hours; using a DC fast
charger, the battery can go from
0 to 80 per cent in under an hour.
There are three trims on offer;
prices range from Rs 1.05 crore to
Rs 1.12 crore.

 Setup Dual motor,

MERCEDES  Setup Dual motor, all-wheel drive

BENZ EQC
all-wheel drive  Battery 90 kWh
 Battery
 Range (WLTP) 470 km
80 kWh

F
or well-heeled buyers  Price (ex-showroom)
 Range (WLTP)
looking to flaunt their green Rs 1.05-1.12 crore
370-414 km
credentials. The EQC’s 80 kWh
 Price
lithium ion battery runs two motors, (ex-showroom)
one on each axle, with a combined Rs 1.04 crore
power output of 408 bhp and peak
torque of 760 Nm. Both motors oper-
ate simultaneously, giving the EQC
all-wheel drive capability. Though the vehicle has a WLTP
rated range upward of 400 km, that figure is realistically
closer to 350 km on a single charge. The company says
a standard wall outlet will take about 20 hours to charge
the battery from 10 per cent to full; the company-provided
wall box reduces that to 10 hours, while a 50kwh DC fast
charger brings it down to a mere 90 minutes.

54 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

HYUNDAI KONA
A
n option in the Rs 20-25 lakh range is the Kona
Electric. Driving the front wheels is a single-
speed transmission motor with a 39.2 kWh
battery. It has an on-paper range of 425 km (about 350
km in real world conditions) on a single charge. Premium
features include ventilated

 Setup Single
and heated seats and an
electrically adjustable
MG ZS EV

S
motor, front- driver’s seat. It also comes tarting at just under Rs 21 lakh, MG’s ZS
wheel drive with paddle shifters that packs a 44.5 kWh battery that gives it an
 Battery allow drivers to toggle ARAI rated range of 419 km on a single
32.9 kWh between three regenera- charge (300-350 km in real-world conditions). With
 Range tive braking modes. Priced close to 143 bhp and 353
(ARAI) 452 km at just under Rs 24 lakh Nm on tap, it has a 0-100
 Price (ex-show- (ex-showroom), it is easily  Setup Single
room) Rs 23.78- kmph time of 8.5 seconds.
one of the most sensible motor, front-
23.97 lakh Its SUV-style body offers wheel drive
EVs on sale in India. ample ground clearance  Battery
and decent cabin space, 44.5 kWh
seating five. It comes with  Range
a healthy list of features— (ARAI) 419 km
premium ones include  Price (ex-show-
a panoramic sunroof, room) Rs 21-24.18
electrically adjustable lakh
seats, six airbags and four
disc brakes, among others.
An AC fast charger comes complimentary with the
vehicle, with charging times in the 6-8 hour range
(0-80 per cent). A 50kW CCS2-type fast charger
cuts that down to around 50 minutes.

TATA NEXON EV  Setup Single motor,

I
front-wheel drive
ndia’s largest selling electric car, the Nexon EV cur-
rently offers the best mix of affordable pricing, pre-  Battery 30.2 kWh
mium features and range. It features a single motor  Range (ARAI) 312 km
driving the front wheels and a 30.2 kWh lithium ion battery  Price (ex-showroom)
Rs 13.99-16.56
with an ARAI rated range of 312 km on a single charge.
lakh
Tata says a 15A socket will charge the Nexon EV from 10
to 90 per cent in 8.5 hours, while a 0 to 80 per cent charge
using a fast charger takes around an hour. Nexon EV’s top-
end options include an Android Auto and Apple CarPlay
compatible touchscreen infotainment system, automatic
climate control and a sunroof, among others. Priced at
Rs 13.99-16.56 lakh, the Nexon EV commands a hefty pre-
mium over its petrol and diesel counterparts, but the lower
running costs help recover that amount in the long run.
 EV SPECIAL

COMING SOON...
A sneak peek at some of the EVs that will be
hitting the Indian market in the next 12 months

BY DHRUV SAXENA

PORSCHE TAYCAN

T he Taycan is available in several

variants, with single motor (rear
axle) and dual motor layouts, depending
Set-up: Single motor/
dual motor, RWD/ AWD
Battery: 79.2-93.4 kWh
TATA ALTROZ EV
Set-up: Single motor, FWD
on the variant. With a maximum charg- Range (WLTP): 335-484 km Battery: NA
ing capacity of 225 kW or 270 kW, it can Price (estimated): Rs 2 crore Range (estimated): 250-300 km
go from 0 to 80 per cent charge in 22.5 Launch (expected): H2, 2021 Price (estimated): Rs 12 lakh
minutes with a fast-charging station. Launch (expected): 2021-end

MAHINDRA EKUV100
Set-up: Single motor, FWD
Battery: 15.9 kWh
TESLA MODEL 3 Range (estimated): 147 km
Price (estimated): Rs 10 lakh
T esla has finally taken concrete
steps to commence operations in
India. With initial offerings likely to be
447 km. The Long Range and Perfor-
mance variants (with all-wheel-drive
set-ups) have a claimed range of 579
Launch (expected): Early 2022

imported, the entry-level Model 3 will km and 507 km, respectively. Tesla
likely retail at Rs 55-60 lakh. The most could even bring its entire range to In-
basic Tesla Model 3, with a rear-wheel dia, including the Model Y, Model S and
drive set-up, has a claimed range of Model X, in addition to the Model 3.

Set-up: Single motor/ dual

motor, RWD/ AWD
Battery: 62-82 kWh
Range (WLTP): 447-579 km
Price (estimated):
Rs 55-60 lakh AUDI E-TRON
Launch (expected):
Setup: Dual motor, AWD
2022
Battery: 95 kWh
Range (WLTP): 369-441 km
Price (estimated): Rs 1-1.2 crore
Launch (expected): H2, 2021
TWO’S
COMPANY
A host of electric two-wheelers
have entered the Indian market.
Here are the best of the lot

BY RAHUL GHOSH

 Setup: 6 kW motor,
26 Nm torque
 Battery:
2.9 kWh lithium ion
 Range: (claimed)
116 km
 Price: (ex-showroom
Delhi) Rs 1.46 lakh

ATHER TVS iQube

450X
T
VS’s first entry into the offering 118 functions using a

A
ther is one company which since electric world, the iQube mobile application. It can tra-
inception has been creating rather fu- is a full-size electric verse 75 km on a single charge
turistic electric scooters. Its latest, the scooter with ample space for in ‘Eco’ mode while a top speed
450X, features a sharp and sporty design, LED two. It comes with of 78 kmph can be
lights all around and a touch screen information modern features like achieved in ‘Sport’
LED lights, digital  Setup 4.4 kW mode. The iQube
system which is OTA (over the air) update ready. motor, 140 Nm
The Ather 450X is powered by a 6 kW electric instrument screen also gets a park
peak wheel torque
motor which churns out 26 Nm of torque. The and TVS’s XConnect assist mode where
 Battery
2.9 kWh lithium ion battery pack can propel the connectivity suite the scooter can go
Triple lithium ion
scooter to 40 kmph in just 3.3 seconds. The into reverse as well.
 Range (claimed)
battery has multiple charging options. It takes For an additional
75 km in Eco mode
5:45 hours to gain full charge while 80 per cent Rs 10,000, the
 Price (ex-show-
can be replenished in 3:35 hours. company will instal
room, Delhi)
There is a fast charge option as well. Rs 1.08 lakh the Smart XHome
Ather will also instal a charging dock box which allows
at home if the owner wants one. The fast charging.
Ather 450X is priced at Rs 1.46 lakh
(ex-showroom, Delhi) with connectiv-
BE
ity features coming at additional cost. iQU nect
THE ’s XCon te
TVS i
y su
gets nectivit s 118
con e r
h off ng a
whic ions usi
t p
func obile ap
m
BAJAJ EV SPECIAL
CHETAK

B
ajaj revived the
iconic ‘Chetak’ tag
for its new generation
full electric scooter. The scoot-
PEDAL & POWER
New-gen electric bicyles that are worth the money
er features an all-steel frame
and body and comes with LED
lights, a digital instrument pan-
el and under-seat storage. The
Chetak is powered by a 4.1 kW
electric motor which offers 16
Nm of peak torque. The IP-67
rated lithium ion battery pack
can power it to a top speed of
70 kmph. Bajaj claims a range
of up to 95 km in Eco mode.
The battery packs can be fully
replenished in five hours; it
also offers a feature where 80
per cent of the batteries can
be recharged in an hour. The
Chetak launch price was Rs 1 HERO LECTRO C8
lakh for the Urbane edition and

T
he Lectro is a premium lifestyle offering and is built
Rs 1.15 lakh for the Premium
on an alloy frame which makes it light. The C8 comes
edition (both ex-showroom).
with a host of features including a 7-speed Shimano
The scooter is available in Pune
gear system, front suspension with 80 mm travel and lock out
and Bengaluru
function and dual mechanical disc brakes. The C8 can be op-
erated in Pedelec and full electric modes and comes with just
 Setup 4.1 kw one battery which is built into the frame. Hence, to recharge
motor, 16 Nm the battery one has to be close to a household power socket.
torque The battery takes three hours to charge and Lectro claim
 Battery a range of 30 km in Pedelec and 25 km in full electric mode.
Lithium ion Power comes from a 250 W hub motor which offers enough
 Range (claimed) power to allow the bike to get to a top speed of 25 kmph. The
95 km in Eco mode Lectro C8 comes at a price of Rs 32,499.
 Price (ex-show-
room) Rs 1-1.15 lakh

Nexzu
Roadlark
T
he Roadlark is a heavy duty E-cycle which uses
a steel frame. It comes with a dual battery system
which allows it to cover up to 100 km on a single
charge in Pedelec mode. In full electric mode, the E-cycle
can traverse 75 km. While the external battery is remov-
able for ease of charge, the primary battery is built into the
frame. The batteries take four hours to get fully charged.
Top speed of the Roadlark is limited to 25 kmph. The
Roadlark offers features like a front suspension system
and a flippable seat which allows the owner to remove the
secondary battery. The bike also features full fenders, dual
disc brakes and runs on chunky 26 inch tyres. The Roadlark
is priced at Rs 42,000 and there’s also a cargo variant.
CRIME SUSHIL KUMAR

THE
DANGAL
JUNGLE
The fall of an icon exposes the seedy
underbelly of Indian wrestling
By Anilesh S. Mahajan and Suhani Singh

B
ollywood made people love wrestling with involves a sporting icon but because it exposes the nex-
Dangal, the 2016 drama based on the lives of the us between wrestlers and Delhi’s criminal gangs. Somu
Phogat sisters and their domineering father-coach Mahal, one of Dhankar’s associates who claims to have
Mahavir. But if there was an inspiring, rags-to- been beaten up by Kumar and his cohort, is the nephew
riches tale ripe for big-screen treatment, one just of notorious gangster Kala Jathedi, who in turn has
had to look at Sushil Kumar. Son of a bus driver, criminal cases in Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
Kumar is the only Indian athlete to win two in-
dividual medals at the Olympics—a bronze in 2008 fol- DUBIOUS LINKS
lowed by a silver in 2012—and the only Indian wrestler On the run, Kumar was arrested on May 23 in Delhi.
to win a World Championship title. He also has a bronze His associates on the fateful night of May 4 are said to be
at the Asian Games, four Asian Championship medals members of the Kala Asauda and Neeraj Bawana gangs
and three Commonwealth Games gold medals. of Delhi and surrounding areas. The Delhi police have
After a competitive lull, Kumar was hoping to make arrested nine people and suspect the feud began over a
a comeback by qualifying for the Tokyo Games, which property dispute following which Kumar asked his asso-
were postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. ciates to pick up Dhankar from a house in Delhi’s Model
Those plans have turned to dust as the nation’s most Town and bring him to the stadium. Kumar, police say,
feted wrestler is in jail after being accused of the murder asked his members to make a video of the beating so as
of 23-year-old wrestler and former junior national to teach Dhankar and his associates a lesson. The police
champion Sagar Dhankar. The Delhi police have alleged ran the video through forensic examination.
that Kumar was the leader of the pack which beat up Chhatrasal Stadium has been Kumar’s de facto
Dhankar and two others in the parking lot of the Chha- home since he moved to the academy at the age of 14 to
trasal Stadium in Delhi on May 4. One of the foremost train. After the retirement of Satpal Singh, erstwhile
wrestling academies in India is now the site infamous wrestler-turned-coach who ran the stadium until 2015,
for a brawl that has ended two sporting careers. the Northern Railways deputed Kumar as an officer
The case is shocking not only because it allegedly on special duty to fill in for Satpal as coach for budding

60 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 KAUSHIK ROY

ON THE MAT
(Left) Sushil Kumar
after his arrest by
the Delhi police;
the wrestler
trains at a Sports
Authority of India
facility in Sonepat,
Haryana, in 2012

ANI

THE MURDER CASE HAS tion is in tatters. Shooter Abhinav Bindra made history
at the 2008 Olympics bagging India’s first gold medal
NOT ONLY LEFT SUSHIL in an individual discipline, but Kumar’s feat was no less
KUMAR’S REPUTATION significant, having won India’s first wrestling medal after
IN TATTERS BUT ALSO 56 years. Born in Baprola village in Delhi’s suburb Najaf-
garh, he took to wrestling after watching his father Diwan
EXPOSED THE NEXUS Singh practise the sport. Singh invested all his resources
BETWEEN WRESTLERS AND in his son and sent him to Chhatrasal to train.

CRIMINAL GANGS HARD-EARNED SUCCESS

A shy and dedicated disciple, Kumar’s world revolved
grapplers. Kumar is said to have run Chhatrasal like his around wrestling. Fellow wrestlers at the stadium re-
fiefdom. Here he was revered by his protégés, including called that Kumar trained nonstop, even on holidays and
Dhankar, who moved to the stadium hoping to follow in festivals. His dedication caught the eye of coach Satpal
his idol’s footsteps and succeed internationally. and his number two, Ramphal Mann. In 2011, Kumar
Police officers, who chose to be anonymous, said they married Satpal’s daughter, Savi, at the Ashoka Road
learned that Kumar first got involved with Jathedi’s gang. bungalow in Delhi of the late Arun Jaitley, then leader of
When Jathedi was on the run after a shootout with the the opposition in the Rajya Sabha. “This is an ultimate
Haryana police, Kumar befriended Jathedi’s rivals Asau- reward from a guru to his disciple,” says Mann.
da and Bawana. The officers suspect that Dhankar, son Kumar’s heroics on the mat fetched him both recogni-
of a Delhi police head constable, himself had links with tion and riches. He received cash rewards of over Rs 6
the Jathedi gang. Delhi police spokesperson, DCP (HQ) crore from state governments and the Centre. He also
Chinmoy Biswal, said it would be too early to confirm any earned from featuring in commercials of Mountain Dew,
leads. “We are investigating all angles,” he said. Eicher Tractors, Patanjali and the National Egg Coordina-
As the Delhi police probe the case, Kumar’s reputa- tion Committee (NECC), which is said to have given him

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 61

CRIME SUSHIL KUMAR Meteoric rise and fall
December 2017 Post Kumar’s victory
over Parveen Rana in the Commonwealth
an annual retainer of Rs 1 crore. Games trial, their supporters clash. Rana
As Kumar’s weight category rose from alleges that Kumar threatened him
66 to 74 kg post the London Olympics, so did
his clout. “During my stint, I noticed some
suspicious elements visiting the stadium,”

AP
says Mann, who is now coaching at Olympic 2008 Sushil Kumar
medallist Yogeshwar Dutt’s academy in Go- wins a bronze at the
hana, Haryana. “I called them out but Sushil 2008 Beijing Olympics

K ASIF/MAIL TODAY
intervened. I decided to overlook it. Now
I am hearing that they were the ones who
pushed Sushil to these [criminal] activities.”
Earlier, Kumar had also been involved in
a bitter controversy with a rival wrestler. Ku-
mar’s determination to compete in his third January 2020 Recovering from
straight Olympics (at Rio) in 2016 saw him a shoulder injury, Kumar appeals to
WFI to postpone the national trials
GETTY IMAGES

demand a trial against Narsingh Yadav, who

for the 2020 Tokyo Games. His
had won the spot for India after winning a
request is denied
World Championship medal. Denied by the
Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Kumar
appealed to the Delhi High Court but lost. 2010 First, and still the
Yadav would later accuse Kumar’s associates only, Indian to win a World
Championship gold
of spiking his food with drugs, which ended
his Olympic dream and led to a four-year
2012 A silver at the 2012
ban from the sport. A CBI inquiry was initi- London Olympics;
ated; the agency’s closure report filed last the only Indian to
year cleared Kumar of any wrongdoing. win a medal in an
individual sport

A
t the 2017 National Championships in in consecutive May 4, 2021 Accused of beating
Indore, Kumar had three walkovers Games up fellow wrestler Sagar Dhankar
AP outside Chhatrasal Stadium in
from quarter-finals onwards, with
2016 Both the Wrestling Delhi. Dhankar succumbs to his
one wrestler touching his feet as he con-
Federation of India and the injuries. Kumar goes on the run
ceded. After Kumar beat Parveen Rana in Delhi High Court deny Kumar’s
the final of the 2018 Commonwealth Games request for a selection trial May 23 On what’s celebrated
trials held in Delhi in December 2017, a against Narsingh Yadav, who as World Wrestling Day, Kumar is
fight ensued between the supporters of the had won India the quota spot arrested in Delhi
two wrestlers. Rana alleged that Kumar for the 2016 Rio Games
threatened him and that officials in charge of
the contest were biased. Many in the wrestling
fraternity sensed foul play. But Kumar’s strong showing in in-
ternational competition never allowed these allegations to fly. he received an annual remuneration of Rs 20 lakh. By 2018,
For some members of the tight-knit wrestling fraternity, though, Kumar’s career was fading. He failed to win a medal
Kumar remains an idol. “What has happened is an ‘accident’,” at the Asian Games in Jakarta that year and was eliminated
says fellow wrestler Amit Dahiya, who represented India at in the first round of the 2019 World Championship. In Janu-
the London Olympics. “People used to think of wrestlers as ary 2020, nursing a shoulder injury, he requested the WFI
goondas. Sushil changed the impression.” Ironically, the man to postpone the 74 kg trial for the Asian Championships and
who altered the sport’s image is now reinforcing the stereo- Olympic qualifiers, but the federation refused.
type. Many wrestlers in Delhi and Haryana claimed to india For now, Kumar, a Padma Shri recipient and Arjuna and
today that Kumar supplied bouncers to real estate magnates Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee, will hope to get out of jail
and controlled toll plazas, restaurants and pubs from his rink. and have his name cleared. But the past is catching up with
Even as he took on the role of an administrator—he was him. On May 30, the Delhi police reopened their investigation
re-elected president of the School Games Federation of India into an FIR filed last September by a Model Town shopkeeper,
in March 2021—Kumar didn’t hang up his boots. That would who accused Kumar and associates of beating him up—again
have meant parting with lucrative deals. In December 2017, at the Chhatrasal Stadium—for demanding groceries dues
he was the most expensive player in the Pro Wrestling League, worth Rs 4 lakh to be cleared. Facing two cases and multiple
with Delhi Sultans bidding Rs 55 lakh for his service. Up until charges, including of murder, culpable homicide and kidnap-
2019, the WFI awarded him a ‘Grade A’ contract for which ping, the ace wrestler grapples with an uncertain future. n

62 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

BEGUM AKHTAR: LONG SUNJEEV SAHOTA:
LIVES THE QUEEN WRITING IN PAST
PG 66 CONTINUOUS PG 68

CONAN DOYLE Q&A WITH

DOES A SHERLOCK T.M. KRISHNA
PG 70 PG 72

BOOKS

TRUTH
AND DARE
Salman Rushdie’s
latest volume of
non-fiction bristles
with candour and
courage

says
T h e e s AN
S A L M
in
DIE’S
RUSH of Truth
a ge s
Langu u buoyant.
o
leave y more joy
r e is
T h e pair
r e t h an d e s
he

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 65

GETTY IMAGES
 LEISURE

S
Books Special

alman Rushdie was 72 when he contracted Co- as fake news. “The lunatics are running the asylum.” Making
vid in March 2020. His age and asthma gave the case that “all citizens must feel free” in a truly free society,
his family cause to worry. The virus, thankfully, Rushdie routinely stops to mention the impact demagogu-
never reached his lungs. Having recovered 17 ery has had on books: Penguin India pulping Wendy Doni-
days later, he, like so many others, missed his ger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History, A.K. Ramanujan’s
children. After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is- Three Hundred Ramayanas and Rohinton Mistry’s Such a
sued a fatwa against The Satanic Verses in 1989, Long Journey being removed from our university syllabi.
calling for Rushdie’s death, the author was forced For there to be art, Rushdie tells us, one needs not only
to move from one safe house to another. When freedom but also the assumption of freedom. “If creative
New York went into lockdown, he was told, “This artists worry if they will still be free tomorrow, then they will
must be familiar to you.” Rushdie’s comeback, not be free today.” He exhorts us to sign petitions and join
one he thought but never articulated, is as funny protests. He wants writers to restore their readers’ faith in
as it is unnerving: “A stone thrown at a man’s head in a vil- truth. “Art is not entertainment,” he says. “At its very best, it’s
lage square is not the same as a lethal avalanche of boulders a revolution.” In our bickering about whether we prefer early
descending upon that village and destroying it.” There are, or later Rushdie, if his sometimes-long sentences now leave
however, other reasons to enjoy his essay, ‘Pandemic’. us breathless instead of delighted, we forget that very few
Rushdie, of course, didn’t buy Hulk Hogan’s theory—the living writers have been as vilified, hounded or threatened as
coronavirus is divine retribution—but neither did he endorse he was. Rushdie wasn’t just dismissed as subversive and re-
Arundhati Roy’s view that it is “a portal, a gateway between bellious. He was once thought of as heretical and dangerous.
one world and the next”. Rushdie’s takeaway is more ruthless Satanic Verses, Rushdie reminds us, was always more
in its objectivity: “Crisis shines a very bright light on human about migration than it was about religion. He thinks of
behaviour, leaves no shadows in which we can hide, and re- migration as an “existential act”, one that strips “us of our
veals, simultaneously, the worst of which we are capable and defences, mercilessly exposing us to a world that under-
our better natures as well.” For those who have read Rush- stands us badly, if at all”. Rushdie deftly describes this
die’s fiction and, more specifically, his two earlier collected inscrutability—years he spent in a British boarding school,
volumes of non-fiction—Imaginary Homelands (1981-1991) for instance—but he is also, equally, mindful of migration’s
and Step Across this Line (1992-2002)—this faith in “our benefits. He can look East and West. He can claim both
better natures” may be recognisable. the Mahabharata and Ulysses as his own.
Apart from ‘Pandemic’, Languages of Truth collects several Rushdie likes to call texts like the Mahabharata and
other essays, speeches and criticism the author wrote between One Thousand and One Nights “wonder tales”. He finds
2003 and 2020. Though they are disparate in tone—Rushdie capacious their “so and not so” quality. Fiction, he says,
likes moving from the avuncular to the jugular—they have one descended from these tales and through that process, in-
fact in common. They leave you buoyant. There is more joy here herited the ability to arrive at truth through a set of made-
than despair. Like a song that winds back to its chorus, Rush- up lies. For one who has taken such delight in invention
die often returns to three of his fondest themes: how stories and “irrealism”, the current fashion of autobiographical
illuminate, how fiction enlightens, and how truth redeems. novels—championed by the likes of Karl Ove Knausgaard
Over time, Rushdie has called three countries home—In- and Elena Ferrante—proves dispiriting. “Self-regard has
dia, the UK and the US. In all three, he now sees falsehoods never been so well regarded. Self-exposure has never been so
being presented as facts, credible information being dismissed popular, and the more self that is exposed the better. Amid
such promiscuity of revelation, how can art compete?” he
asks. For Rushdie, life can at times be stranger than fiction,
yes, but fiction will always be stronger than “memoir-abilia”.
Languages of Truth helps us see that Rushdie wasn’t
just making a point about authorship by writing Joseph
Anton, his 2012 memoir, in the third person; he was also
cracking a joke. Rushdie, we know, cracks a mean joke.
LANGUAGES The paradox of rapper Eminem, he writes, “is that he both
OF TRUTH
Essays 2003-2020 is and is not the real Slim Shady”. Reading Huckleberry
by Salman Rushdie Finn as a boy, Rushdie asked, “Why, if the runaway slave
HAMISH HAMILTON Jim was trying to escape the world of slavery and get to the
`799; 416 pages
non-slave-owning North, did he get onto a raft on the Mis-
sissippi, which flows south?” The answer, Rushdie makes
you feel, must be either truth or dare. n
—Shreevatsa Nevatia

64 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

 BASSO CANNARSA
BOOKS

Call Her
By Her Name
The gospels often relegate women to the periphery.
Jeet Thayil’s new novel brings them to the centre

J
many perhaps unfamiliar
even to Biblical scholars.
That parenthetical aside
about Mary Magdalene, a
glib popular reference, is
upended by Thayil, who Testament. In his half-sister
presents her in Names of Assia’s view, he “was the
the Women, as Mary of spoilt one carried like a
Jeet Thayil’s intriguing, Magdala, misunderstood and precious gemstone by his
atmospheric fourth novel, misrepresented despite her mother”, a “born story-
Names of the Women, urges prominence in the story told teller, but only if he was in
the reader to reflect on per- by the New Testament—“In the mood” who “watched
spectives that are ignored, time, when these men come silently and made notes in
neglected, forgotten, or to write their accounts of his head for fables he would
simply go unrecorded what happened that day.... deliver in the future”.
NAMES OF THE
because they are thought to They will write that the WOMEN Despite the many com-
be worthless. The women demons that left her were by Jeet Thayil pelling stories, the vivid,
here are on the fringes of the demons of lust and sin. JONATHAN CAPE often horrifying images,
the Bible, their presence Hundreds of years later, men `699; 192 pages Thayil’s prose, the senten-
noted, if at all, in the apoc- who have never met her will tious voice he has settled on
rypha, the non-canonical call her a fallen woman.... for this novel, can be weary-
marginalia to which the likes She will be called a sinner, first stone.” ing. Nonetheless, Names of
of Jesus’s sisters, Lydia and when her only sin is that she As Thayil musters all the Women offers salutary
Assia, are relegated, while is from a prosperous home his skill to bring these often insights into the nature of
his brothers play sometimes and she is sad.” obscure women to life on the power, its corruptions and
starring roles in the gospels. Another woman, forced page, Jesus himself—whose perversions. “Things fall
The events of the novel into prostitution by poverty words from Golgotha, from apart,” Yeats wrote, “the
are well known, focused on and an ailing husband, is the cross to which he has centre cannot hold.” Christ
episodes towards the end of dragged out of the bed with been nailed, are interspersed brought the margins to
Jesus’s life, leading up to the her elderly client by a mob, with the narratives of the the centre, was crucified
crucifiction, but seen from her adultery to be punished women—is made strange. because he showed those
the point of view of women, by stoning (while her ‘john’ Dark, slender, unpredict- who held power, whether
some of them familiar even is allowed to froth and rant able and mirthless in pub- the temple elders or the
to the lay reader (Mary alongside the crowd) until lic, Thayil’s Jesus is not the Romans, that their grip could
Magdalene, for instance, Jesus intervenes with the uncomplicated beacon of be loosened by those they
the prostitute who was with famous words: “Let him forgiveness and suffering thought weak and freakish. n
Jesus to the very end) and who is without sin cast the that we know from the New —Shougat Dasgupta

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 65

 Books Special LEISURE

LONG
LIVES THE
QUEEN

ADITYA AITHMIA
AKHTARI
The Life and Music
of Begum Akhtar
by Yatindra Mishra (editor)
HARPERCOLLINS
`699; 253 pages

THE
SOUNDS
up of smaller ones.
The book’s paperback first four-fifths of the book,

A
mit Chaudhuri is an (right image) and hardback which relates the path of the
acclaimed writer and (left) covers usefully bring
a gentleman singer, out another duality. The
hardback, with the been, and
writer’s life to his learning the
raga’s music. With khayal-like
cadence, short chapters
OF
MUSIC
a regrettably quaint
way of describing a serious staff notation on faux-antique muse on his discoveries in
singer who hasn’t made it his parchment, might suggest a music, while returning to
profession. Perhaps it’s a droning history that begins in places, times and personal
600 AD. Fear not, in Finding...,
blessed perch that affords a
sweeping yet personal view raga music is not an antique
circumstances. He is tutored
by a pedigreed musician who
Amit Chaudhuri’s
of a complex subject. to be preserved but a lived
experience, a part of listen-
negotiates a living in Mumbai;
Chaudhuri moves to England
book on Hindustani
Hindustani classical mu-
sic is itself a living traditional ing, not just to ‘music’ but to
sounds—the cries of a hawker,
and finds that his Gujri Todi classical music’s
art whose great antiquity is ‘sounds’ different in Oxford.
both treasured and subject to or clangs from a kitchen And all this is a very best hits the high
might intrude into a practice modern telling, an eager
modern influences. Perhaps
the best way to confront one session or a performance. A acquisition of one’s ‘own’ notes when it is
duality is with another, and in car horn audible in a concert culture along with what is
personal
Finding the Raga, there are recording makes it oddly equally ours: western pop,
many—an account of a musi- special, underscoring its live, among other musics, cinema
cal journey that is sensory public and social nature. and books. Many of his refer-
and intellectual, everyday and These aspects of listening ences are located in these. Is
epiphanic, a long essay made emerge brightly through the this a syncretic merging or a
 These reminiscences of Begum Akhtar show that her
personality sparkled as much as her voice
egum Akhtar never lacked patrons, and Her marriage, which transformed Akhtaribai into
her fan following was legendary—it Begum Akhtar, it was rumoured, had put brakes on her

B included aspiring poets, teachers, impre-

sarios, clerks, corporate types, ex-cricket-
music. The record shows that she reinvented herself,
threw herself into teaching and lovingly groomed Shanti
ers. Only a few were musically inclined; Hiranand and Anjali Banerjee. When Vilayat Khan invit-
some had a nodding acquaintance with ed her to sing for Satyajit Ray’s Jalshaghar (1958), she
Urdu verse. Connecting with her was a vicarious way to obliged. In a few years, she was busy cutting LPs of Ghalib
partake in the shadowy world of pleasure and abandon and emerging contemporary poets, connecting to the high
courtesans represented. Musicians, too, were drawn, literary tradition, using her prodigious composing skills.
envious of her magic, the attractive patti (break) in her The legacy of Gauharjan, Jaddanbai, Benazirbai receded
voice, the dignity and charm in her perfor- and became less critical in her repertoire.
mance style. Siddheshwari Devi, a contempo- This collection by the indefatigable
rary, complained about the competition but Yatindra Yatindra Mishra has scoured all the available
remained in awe of her musical values. Mishra tells written sources on Begum Akhtar, translated
In Hai Akhtari!, the marvellous documen- Begum Akhtar’s essays, transcribed interviews and commis-
tary by music critic S. Kalidas, Sheila Dhar life’s saga by sioned new ones with her disciples. Originally
comments insightfully on Begum Akhtar’s abil- compiling published in Hindi, it has been skilfully ren-
ity to generate complex musical meaning from stories about dered into English by Maneesha Taneja. As a
the relatively narrow ground of the thumri and her—old source, this book is invaluable. Some gems are
the ghazal and how her music was inseparable and new Hindi novelist Shivani’s excavation of Begum
from her sparkling personality. Kumar Gan- Akhtar’s career in theatre, Pramod Dwivedi
dharva was a keen admirer and never failed to on her music teachers, Mrityunjay on her
visit her when he was in Lucknow. Senior vocal- ghazals, the venerable Acharya Brihaspati’s
ist Anjanibai Malpekar of the Bhendi Bazar gharana called long appreciative interview, disciple Rita Ganguly’s account
her home and lovingly taught her a dadra (a fragment of Gulzar and Rakhee’s wedding where Begum Akhtar sang
of this session is available on YouTube). Film composer ‘Mubarkbadiyan Aisi ho Shaadiyan’. And touching essays
Madan Mohan, who drew inspiration from her, was teased of devotion by fans Narhari Patel, Mamta Kalia, Narendra
by her endlessly about lifting her tunes. Bengalis persuaded Saini, Sunita Buddhiraja and others. n
her to re-record her famous tracks with Bengali lyrics. —Partho Datta

bimodal embrace? Simplest

to say that the paperback
cover—a K.G. Subramanyan recognisability”. The essay
painting—fits the book’s gaze “Ah-nanda” investigates the
(ear? swar?) perfectly. singer’s self at the centre of
This facility with shift- the music (or art), linking it to FINDING THE RAGA FINDING THE RAGA
ing registers—between musical utterance—an ah or An Improvisation on An Improvisation on
filmi sangeet, pop, rock or oh sound. Dizzying theses; Indian Music Indian Music
khayal—allows Chaudhuri to I felt it unnecessary to be by Amit Chaudhuri by Amit Chaudhuri
attempt to universalise raga HAMISH HAMILTON NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS
convinced by either. `499 (hardback); `1,355 (paperback);
music by grappling with its Despite these, Finding... 256 pages 272 pages
fundamental tonal, textual is a wonderfully transla-
and philosophical properties. tional book, juggling disparate
Warning: here be dragons. spheres with outrageous
Questionable assertions lurk, ease. At its best, its per-
I read ‘around’ them, prefer- sonal nature invites us to
ring flow to fight. contemplate more deeply
The last fifth of the not only the content of a
book sees Chaudhuri as a musical world, but also our
critic. One essay frames the own inwardness. In that way
khayal (Hindustani music’s it describes life in art and,
primary form) as modernism, inevitably, the converse. n
relying on its “destruction of —Itu Chaudhuri
GETTY IMAGES

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 69

WRITING IN PAST
CONTINUOUS
your previous books? others, with different agendas, to
It wasn’t that different. I see all lay claim on and shape disaffec-
my characters, regardless of tion. Artists, writers, filmmakers,
gender or time period, as capable we should be at the vanguard
of feeling any and all emotions. of such questions and put them
Obviously, some of the women forward as honestly as we can.
in the historical strand of China
Room aren’t able to voice or act Q. What are you working
upon their feelings the way male on now?
characters might. But they can When I started China Room,
certainly feel as calculating, as the idea of the doppelganger as a
wronged, as aroused, ambitious. symbol of danger or a dark por-
It’s a cliché to say that India tent was quite important. It kind
CHINA ROOM exists in many different centu- of transmuted to the narrator be-
by Sunjeev Sahota
HAMISH HAMILTON ries, but in some rural places, ing a version of me. The idea still
`599; 256 pages attitudes and practices haven’t fascinates me. Maybe my next

B
changed much in the past novel is going to take that more
y his own admission, hundred years. Because I know surreal tone. n
British writer Sunjeev rural Punjab quite well and go —with Sonal Shah
Sahota’s novels “tend there often, it wasn’t difficult
to come down to a few to draw upon that, or to ask my
brown people living in north grandmother in India what the
England or India”. But within practicalities of life were like.
this framework, Sahota wove
richly detailed lives and unique Q. Were there certain things
voices in his first two novels: that felt taboo to ask about
Ours are the Streets (2011) and or even imagine?
The Year of the Runaways The seed of the story is that one
(2015), which was shortlisted for of my great-grandmothers was
the Man Booker Prize. China apparently one of four women
Room, his third, also weaves to- married to one of four brothers.
gether past and present, moving None of them knew which hus-
between the late ’20s and ’90s. band was theirs until a year later
Geography and ancestry bind when they saw who was holding
the stories of a young British whose baby. It was always spo-
man spending his summer in ken about with a degree of levity,
the family village in Punjab, and but, to me, it seemed like quite a
his great-grandmother, one of painful, dark story. But I didn’t
three women married to three feel any kind of pushback.
brothers in a country that is, as
a character says, “waiting for us Q. In China Room, the histori-
to raise her on to our shoulders cal couple almost re-enacts
and up to the light”. Sahota a romantic Punjabi folktale.
spoke with india today about We often talk about the
the novel and more over Zoom. beauty of stories like Heer

Q.
Ranjha without maybe ac-
Did you approach knowledging the coercion.
the historical It seems to me coercion has
setting of China always been part of it. Leaving
Room differently anything unexamined is
from the more dangerous because it
contemporary worlds of festers and allows

68 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1 ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

 Books Special LEISURE There Is No Offline
Patricia Lockwood’s delightful and disconcerting
novel gives the web a whole new spin

AT THE
PRINTER’S
Novels to hold your breath for

BEAUTIFUL WORLD,
WHERE ARE YOU
by Sally Rooney
FABER & FABER NO ONE IS TALKING
ABOUT THIS
`577 (Kindle); 368 pages
by Patricia Lockwood
Hailed by critics as “the first BLOOMSBURY
great millennial novelist”, Sally `599; 224 pages
Rooney is set to build on the
success of Normal People with
a new novel in September.

M
Her characters, we hear, will y father, who is well capture the aggregated, col-
again be young and Irish. They into his 70s has a lective voice of the whole of
will again worry about sex and quaint, endearing habit the internet. The book is writ-
friendships and we, perhaps, will of sending texts that ten with almost uncomfortable
again feel just as smitten. follow the linguistic precision in that irreverent,
rules of handwritten letters. sad-funny, absurd voice we
They begin, “Dear Tanu”, line all recognise from memes
break, the message and end and text messages. Open this
HARLEM SHUFFLE “Love, Pa”. Even when we are novel to any page and read any
by Colson Whitehead texting back and forth, talking sentence and you will come
FLEET in real time. I smile and never away with both a hilarious
`812 (Kindle); 336 pages say “Love, Tanu” in return, tweetable line and a profound
because texting to me is not commentary on the world we
Colson Whitehead has won English but an altogether new now inhabit.
the Pulitzer Prize not once language with no punctuation The internet is an expres-
but twice. In September, or salutations or sign-offs. sion of our personalities and it
he returns with a cracker When did I learn this language now is our personality: “They
of a heist novel set in 1959 and why did my father not? kept raising their hands excit-
Harlem. An otherwise Patricia Lockwood’s No edly to high-five, for they had
upstanding salesman, Ray One Is Talking about This discovered something even
Carney is “only slightly bent reminded me of my father’s better than being soulmates;
when it comes to being texts and that feeling of they were exactly, and hap-
crooked”. All this changes gentle bemusement I get pily, and hopelessly, the same
when his cousin robs the in the moment in which the amount of online.”
Hotel Theresa. lines blur between online But what happens when
and offline. Written more as there is real tragedy in our
an endless long scroll than real lives? What if your sister
a novel, Lockwood’s bite- has a baby that may not live?
CROSSROADS sized paragraphs and tweet- Does the grammar of the por-
by Jonathan Franzen able sentences are pithy and tal still feel relevant? Do we
FOURTH ESTATE meme-worthy. post about it in the hope for
`1358 (Kindle); 512 pages “Why were we all writing likes? Or do we retreat offline
Jonathan Franzen had like this now?” the unnamed and leave these human, offline
warned us that his sixth narrator asks—apparently an experiences outside of our
novel would be his last. online celebrity, famous for her online personas?
Releasing in October, irreverent tweets—because, “it If you have ever wondered
Crossroads is Franzen’s was the way the portal wrote”. who you are when you’re not
sixth, but seeing that it’s the Or because it was the way we online, considered deleting
first part of a family trilogy, wrote the portal? your social media account, or
he certainly isn’t signing off The “portal” in this novel never considered it at all, this
yet. He’s laying the founda- is Lockwood’s coy reference is a book you must read and
tion for another “sweeping to a collectivised internet. Her re-read. n
investigation of human novel manages to perfectly —Tanushri Shukla
mythologies”.

J U N E 14, 2 02 1 INDIA TODAY 69

ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

INDUBITABLY truth—this episode remains

THE BEST comparatively forgotten. It
Author Arthur
has now been solidly resur-
Conan Doyle
rected in journalist and writer
Shrabani Basu’s The Mystery
of the Parsee Lawyer, an
engrossing tale of intrigue,
prejudice, investigation and
disclosure. It is also a clever
portrait of the artist as a cru-
sader, the detective creator as
detective himself.
Doyle is meticulous in his
probe, even carrying on cor-
respondence during his hon-
eymoon, and unrelenting in
his badgering of the authori-
THE MYSTERY OF THE ties. His interventions and
PARSEE LAWYER articles prove crucial. This
by Shrabani Basu
BLOOMSBURY
is true crime, in a twisted,
`699; 320 pages perverse sense; beyond the
maiming that sets the story
in motion, it’s a crime by
the state against a hapless
mixed-race British citizen.

T
Some of the ground is
familiar from Julian Barnes’
Arthur and George, a fic-
tional reimagining of the
friendship between the two
Towards the late 19th century,
the family of an Indian vicar
CONAN DOYLE men, and Margalit Fox’s
Conan Doyle for the Defence,
in rural England became the
target of malicious anony-
DOES A a true story focused on a
similar wrongful convic-
mous letters, pranks and
other assorted mischief. In
SHERLOCK tion case that Conan Doyle
championed. But Basu’s
1903, things took a more Shrabani Basu’s book tells the story material contains new cor-
sinister turn, when village of how Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective respondence between some
cattle started to turn up muti- knowhow once came to the rescue of a of the principals and a more
lated or dead—the work of a beleaguered Parsi lawyer granular telling of the entire
night-time assailant in Great sordid saga. Though it runs
Wyrley, near Birmingham. a bit long with a tendency to
George Edalji, a lawyer and over-detail, it remains satis-
the eldest son of Shapoorji, a a seven-year prison term, now a respected public fig- fying throughout, building
Parsi convert to Anglicanism, Edalji lost his legal licence ure, set out to investigate. through careful research and
and a white British woman, and any hope of a reprieve— The British justice system propelled by the innately
quickly came to be accused of there was not yet a system in had met its match. dramatic trajectory of events.
the crimes. Despite dubious place for appeals. Still, Edalji Though it contained Basu, who previously
and contradictory evidence, was steadfast in protest- many of the same flavours wrote Victoria and Abdul,
the short-sighted “oriental” ing his innocence, and with of France’s Dreyfus affair— about the queen’s friend-
was decried as a blood-thirsty little to lose, wrote to Arthur a wrongful conviction and ship with her Indian servant,
maniac with mysterious Conan Doyle, the wildly sham trial, the involvement brings us another story of an
proclivities. popular writer of Sherlock of a prominent writer, the unexpected friendship from
Tried and convicted in Holmes’ adventures. imprints of xenophobia the days of empire. It is just
an inflamed atmosphere Outraged by the apparent and racism, and the even- as rewarding. n
of racism and sentenced to injustice, Conan Doyle, by tual unravelling of the —Bhavya Dore

70 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

Books Special LEISURE

THE WORLD
WITHIN THE WANDERERS, KINGS,
MERCHANTS
WORD The Story of India
through Its Languages
WITH A NEW BOOK, PEGGY MOHAN HAS by Peggy Mohan
HELPED CREATE A BRIDGE BETWEEN HOW PENGUIN VIKING
`599; 352 pages
WE SPEAK AND WHO WE ARE

I
have always been struck by the contrast between likely to be resisted.
the seductive mystery of language and the kind of ster- The conservative engagement with “ancient India” has
ile stuff that emerges from traditional linguistics depart- long been haunted by a dream of purity, of a virginal, origi-
ments. Language is endlessly exciting. Philosophers nary moment before the promiscuities of history begin. And
wrestle with its elusive and irreducible ambiguity, poets Sanskrit—born of Brahma himself, falling fully formed from his
make love with it, and linguists, they itemise the body parts! divine lips—is the prime symbol of that longing. And Mohan,
Happily, Peggy Mohan’s Wanderers, Kings, Merchants is an heedless linguistic-archaeologist, tells the story of the mak-
outlier in this dreary academic universe. A formidably- ing of Sanskrit in terms of (horror of horrors!)—creolisation,
trained linguist, Mohan recognises that the stories hybridisation, varna-sankara, the complex interplay
that language can tell go well beyond the tedious N of “two distinct parental streams...the vocabulary
A
categories of formal linguistics. EG G Y M OH t th e layer...which is the superficial legacy of the more
P a
ises th s
India’s linguistic diversity is well-known. It is recogn at language powerful group in the fray, and the more intrinsic
th
of a piece with the other kinds of diversity—sarto- stories well beyond sound system and grammar, which tell the mater-
rial, gastronomic, godly—and is similarly infuriat- tell go ious cate- nal side of the story...”. I smell sex, and the celibate
the ted of formal
ing to tidy-minded puritans. The task that Mohan g o r ie s Brahmin is unlikely to be pleased.
tics
sets herself here is to ask “how did these languages linguis The matter of Sanskrit plays in and out of the story
come to mix and what does it tell us about the people of the making of many of India’s modern languages and I
who speak them?” Innocent enough, one would have can hardly imagine anyone who will not find fresh insights
thought. But this falls afoul of the “Aryans are us” hypothesis here: Sadhu Bangla, Manipravalam Malayalam, DMK-Tamil. In a
that, for mysterious reasons, commands great loyalty from a civilised world, the cultural processes at play would be a com-
certain kind of Indian. This hypothesis affirms, basically, that paratists’ dream. Of course, there is much more in this gen-
the Aryans, bless them, originated in this blessed land and erous book—the wonderful compound verbs of Hindi—aa jaao
spread the light of their divine language and culture over the (come go)—the retroflex sounds, aspirated and unaspirated,
whole ungrateful, unknowing world. And, of course, it is our that are the despair of non-native speakers. We are assured
sacred duty to resume the role of vishwaguru and make this that “in the very forms of the mixed languages we speak...are
universal message better known. Anything that threatens this encoded unwritten parts of our long, long history”. n
with talk—worse, evidence—of mixture, hybridisation, etc. is —Alok Rai

UNDERSTANDING INDIA
NON-FICTION TITLES RELEASING LATER THIS YEAR

The Many A Rani and a Begum Desperately

Lives Of Agyeya by Rudrangshu Mukherjee Seeking
by Akshaya Mukul PENGUIN Shah Rukh
CONTEXT Historian Rudrangshu Mukher- by Shrayana Bhattacharya
After his award-winning Gita jee details the unusual cir- HARPERCOLLINS
Press and the Making of Hindu cumstances that led to Begum This book does two things—it
India, Akshaya Mukul returns Hazrat Mahal of Awadh and Rani celebrates Shah Rukh Khan’s
with a biography of the poet Sa- Lakshmibai of Jhansi joining 30-year career while document-
chidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan the rebellion of 1857. Even ing the struggles endured by the
Agyeya. By analysing his uncon- though the two women women who love him. Trained
ventional views and unorthodox never met, there were in development economics at
life, Mukul tells us the story of a several ways in which their Harvard, Shrayana Bhattacharya
literary giant, yes, but also one lives intersected. This book uses the actor’s fan following to
of independent India. explores those parallels. analyse gender relations in India.
 LEISURE
Q A
Q. Your book, The Spirit of Enquiry:
Notes on Dissent, is a compilation
of your best writings. What went
into the process of curation and
revisiting your past writings?
The collection intends to engage with
ideas. Pieces were chosen such that, even
if they were a response to an occurrence,
they dwell on the larger issues emanating
from that event. I do not believe in holding
on to anything I have said/ written just
for the sake of public form. Hence, I
have responded critically to an article I
wrote some years ago. I have also add-
ed more complexity to my discussions
through the newer pieces included in
this collection.

Q. You are also writing a book

on the national anthem, look-
ing at the idea of symbols and
what they mean. What trig-
gered the idea of this book?
Symbols are beautiful and danger-
ous. They give us strength and
commonality but often trap us
within their acquired and accrued
relevance. In this upcoming book, I
hope to re-imagine them critically.

Q. Every writer has a routine and

rhythm of their own. Can you share
with us your process of writing?
Whether it is music or writing, I am
utterly disorganised. I have no schedule
or system. I take a long time to begin,
but once I do, it happens in a flow.

AT THE Q. Over the years of also con-

sistently engaging with words,

CRITICAL
as a musician, would you think
of words as notes?
Though words and notes are sonic
in nature, we could say words cre-

POINT
ate memories through the seman-
tic, and notes do the same with
tonality. But both have the ability to
inspire us to pause and reflect.
T.M. Krishna’s prose is often as piercing as his
music. With a new collection of his writings releasing
this week, the vocalist says that, for him, nothing, not —with Akhila Krishnamurthy
even his own work, is set in stone
Photograph by AMAR RAMESH

72 INDIA TODAY J U N E 14, 2 02 1

72 Volume XLVI Number 24; For the week June 8-14, 2021, published on every Friday Total number of pages 74 (including cover pages)
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EDITORIAL IMAGES
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